One of the most devastating artillery fielded by the Dawi Zharr is the dreaded Dreadquake Mortar, a fiendish blackpowder weapon capable of lobbing devastating shells into the depths of the enemy formations, disrupting their march not only by explosive force, but also by disturbing the ground beneath their feet. But there are other, more powerful, shells in their arsenal such as the Groundbreaker shells, an upscaled version of the Dreadquake shell, which does not merely induce seismic tremors, but rather rends the battlefield asunder, reshaping the battlefield to the Dawi Zharr’s whims.
Groundbreaker Shells
These are an upgrade for the Dreadquake Mortar. If a Dreadquake Mortar has been upgraded to include a Slave Ogre, then it may take up to three Groundbreaker Shells for 25pts per shell.
When firing the Dreadquake Mortar, declare if you are firing a regular Dreadquake Shell, or a Groundbreaker Shell. Groundbreaker Shells fire as per the standard Dreadquake Mortar rules with the following profile and rules.
Range: 12"-60"
Strength: 6(10)
Special Rules: Multiple Wounds (D6), Armour Piercing, Quake, Groundbreaker, Heavy Artillery.
Multiple Wounds, Armour Piercing - See the main Warhammer Rulebook
Quake - See the Dreadquake Mortar entry in Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos
GroundBreaker - after resolving the hit, place a piece of broken ground centred under the template and the same size as it. All models except fliers count this new piece of terrain as Dangerous Terrain.
Heavy Artillery - Groundbreaker Shells may only be fired if a Slave Ogre is present in the Mortar’s crew. If it is slain before all Groundbreaker shells are fired, then no more can be fired
If anyone else has ideas for other alternate ammo for the DQM, feel free to post them here.
It seems fair. Creating Dangerous terrain in the middle of the battlefield could be handy when the enemy is charging towards your battleline. Other than that I don’t know. I’m lousy with rules and points.
Contrary to it’s name, the Dreadquake Mortar is capable of firing more than just the earth-shaking Dreadquake Shells; the ingenuity of daemonsmiths throughout the centuries has yielded a wide range of ammunition options to the crew of the Mortars. Among these are the affectionately named ‘Mother’s Tears’, glass and iron orbs containing the most virulent acids known to the Dawi Zharr.
Mother’s Tears Shells
These are an upgrade for the Dreadquake Mortar. If a Dreadquake Mortar has been upgraded to include a Slave Ogre, then it may take up to three Mother’s Tears Shells for 60pts per shell.
When firing the Dreadquake Mortar, declare if you are firing a regular Dreadquake Shell, or a Mother’s Tears Shell. To fire a Mother’s Tear Shell, nominate a point on the battlefield within range of the Mortar, and place a marker at that point, no bigger than about 1/2" and roll a Scatter die move the marker in the direction shown a number of inches equal to the result on an artillery die. Place the tear drop template with the narrow end touching the marker and then roll a scatter die and place the wider end facing in that direction; if a ‘hit’ is rolled, then instead centre the small round template over the marker. Regardless of which template is used, any model under the template takes a Strength 3 hit with a -1 penalty to armour saves and any unit hit suffers a -1 penalty to all armour saves for the rest of the game. All hits from The Mother’s Tears Shell are Poisoned.
Range: 12"-72"
Misfire If a misfire is rolled, roll on the following chart
1-2 Acidic explosion: Remove the Mortar from play 3-4 Acid spray: Each crewman must pass an Initiative Test or take an automatic would with a -1 penalty to armour saves 5-6 Damp powder: The Mortar may not fire this turn or the next (n.b. this includes firing regular Dradquake shells or any other special ammunition shells purchased)
To the Dawi Zharr it is better not to slay your enemy and crush his people into the ground, but rather enslave him and grind his kin into the dirt under the burden of hard labour. As such, long ago the engineers and slave masters of the Dawi Zharr Empire put their minds to developing a weapon to subdue enemy troops with as little physical harm as possible. Inspired by some of the weapons used by the vile skaven in close quarter tunnel skirmishes and the gasses found not uncommonly in their own mines, they developed the Breath of Hashut; many delivery systems were tested before they settled on using the great power of the Dreadquake Mortar to be able to lob shells containing the gas from a safe distance.
Breath of Hashut Shells
These are an upgrade for the Dreadquake Mortar. If a Dreadquake Mortar has been upgraded to include a Slave Ogre, then it may take a single Breath of Hashut Shell for 100pts per.
When firing the Dreadquake Mortar, declare if you are firing a regular Dreadquake Shell, or a Hashut’s Breath Shell. Hashut’s Breath Shells fire as per the standard Dreadquake Mortar rules with the following profile and rules.
Range: 12"-72" Strength: N/A Special Rules: Gas Attack!, Multiple Wounds (D3)
Multiple Wounds: See main Warhammer Rulebook Gas Attack: All models touched by the template must pass a Toughness test or take D3 wounds with no armour saves allowed. Creatures that don’t breath such as undead and daemons are immune. After resolving the hits do not remove the template. At the start of every subsequent player turn the gas cloud moves in a random direction a number of inches equal to the roll of an artillery die; if a misfire is rolled for this, then the cloud collapses. If a misfire is rolled when firing the shell, do not roll on the misfire chart; instead centre the template over the Mortar and resolve it as if it were a hit. Warmachines must take the Toughness test on the toughness of the crew, not the warmachine’s toughness. For ridden monsters, chariots, and other models with multiple independent components, test for each component separately.
Great! You’d expect these to pop up in the equivalent of Imperial Armour, if Forgeworld had such a thing for WHFB. I like them both. The Mother’s Tear had that randomness of Chaos, whilst the Breath of Hashut instantly made me think of WWI gas warfare. Also, change “Groundbreaker shall” in Breath of Hashut firing description.
You'd expect these to pop up in the equivalent of Imperial Armour, if Forgeworld had such a thing for WHFB.
I think that's what Tamurkhan is ;)
I like them both. The Mother's Tear had that randomness of Chaos, whilst the Breath of Hashut instantly made me think of WWI gas warfare.
The idea behind the Mother's Tear was more in mind of the acid being released in mid air and being blown in the wind, but now you mention it, it is very Chaotic lol. And I should hope that the Breath of Hashut puts you in mind of WWI gas attacks as that was the inspiration.
I've also got an idea for a 'cluster bomb' shell, something like place the small template, scatter, then roll the scatter X more times and place X templates touching the first one at those points and resolve the hits under all templates, but I think that may be a tad overpowered. :o
Also, change "Groundbreaker shall" in Breath of Hashut firing description. :)
Ammo for dreadquake. Use all the dreadquake rules as per normal but with the following expectations.
1 Siege Breaker round is a 30pt upgrade for a dreadquake.
2 Fire as normal but when placing the template resolve all hits under it the template as st6 ap. Hits under the hole are st10 and require a toughness test -2 if the model under the hole fails this toughness test it is killed out right. If the test is passed resolve it as st10 ap d6 wounds.
3 If a missfire is taken from a dreadquake firing a siege breaker round then it is -3 to the missfire chart.
