“Spasms of pain reverberated up and down his spine and jolted his consciousness back into being. Memories flooded into view drowning him in images. There had been an explosion, a bright white ball of light and pressure that had blown him off his feet and into the sprawling wreckage of the promethium factory.

His vision swam in and out of focus, fighting the tide he pieced fragments together. He was surrounded by wires, tubes, machines beeping and the steady click of something nearby, counting the seconds of agony out like a metronome. As quickly as his memories and vision washed into focus they were swept away, replaced by impulsive and instinctive urges that left a metallic tang in his mouth.

He could sense the weight pulling at his spine, bolts fusing limbs to metal and a new power surging inside him. His role to serve was clear and time lost all meaning as he toiled as a servitor of he mechanicum.

Years passed until one day another explosion jolted his senses. The grinding noise of strained metal broke the monotony, more flashing lights and then the darkness of the underhive opened up to swallow him.

As the embalming preservatives started to leach out of his system into the ether of his surroundings, disease started to creep in. Swelling his limbs and corroding his flesh. Pustules bubbled across his bloated flesh and the reek of death started to linger around him. But no longer was he alone for in the darkness of his consciousness was a voice. As old as time, words that soothed with paternal comfort. In a heartbeat the mechanical servitor pledged his service to the Chaos God Nurgle and life flooded back into his decayed soul, slowly rising on his augmented limbs the spider began his hunt”

The toxic pits and tunnels of the underhive are home to myriad of beasts that could with a bit of cunning be added to your games. So last week I showed you my spider cultist and I have now finished painting him. I went for a very dirty and corroded look and in future will cover a quick and easy way of painting metals in this fashion.

OK.. Give me “Blue Steel” The camera loves you baby!

For now I thought I’d provide some taster rules for how you could use him but this could work as a template for any wandering monster in the underhive.

And if you could just turn to your right please sir..

Arachnid Construct (SPIDER CULTIST!!! – Ed)

Special rules

Spider Senses:- the construct has an agility that belies its cumbersome appearance. It counts as having a clip harness.

Big game hunters:- The side that kills the creature receive an additional promethium cache.

Arghhh its got me!:- Casualties from combat with the beast will count as out of action on a 5 or a 6. Also if the spider is removed from play in the subsequent turn as a result of the “where did he go” rule (see below) then any downed fighters in contact with the spider are removed too.

The arachnid construct may appear from anywhere on the board at any time. At the end of either players turn roll a dice. On a 5 or a 6 the rolling player can place the spider anywhere on the table at least 6″ away from another miniature. It takes its turn after both players have been been and its actions are as below.

Actions

• 1. Short circuit, dirt1 and water has corroded the spider riders circuitry and pistons, he grinds to halt and performs no further actions this turn. If charged he counts as a downed fighter.
• 2-4. Need to Feed, the mechanical arachnid will attempt to charge the closest fighter he is aware of, if this is not possible he moves towards the nearest fighter at a run.
• 5. The lights are too bright, dazzled by the explosions and lights the spider will run towards the closest piece of cover in an attempt to shield himself from as many fighters as possible.
• 6. Where did he go! The spider darts into a tunnel and is removed from play. It can return as described above.

So please have a go with these rules either using any large based model or your own conversions in any mission, or perhaps setting a new mission around hunting the beast that took your comrades. Let us know how you get on by leaving a comment below the line, or contacting us on Facebook

If you want to see how I made the cables for the Arachnid Construct, you should check out my post here!

John

Sneaky Preview

Oh, by the way as well as painting tutorials I’ll be showing you some of my Age of Sigmar models for the new skirmish game that has been released. Look out for that!

Raaaaaghh