Trench Crusade Faction Focus: The Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent

For this Faction Focus, things are going to get a little demonic, as we explore the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent. Hell may entice and enslave humanity, but the true power that resides in its fiery confines is where true horrors are born and from where these horrors are unleashed. 

Overview

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Behind any invading force lies a council that commands from the rear. In this instance, it is the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent, a group of Archdevils representing the seven deadly sins. The Covenant of Heaven and Hell ensures that no true demon may walk the Earth, but the heads of the Serpent are nothing if not ingenious. Mixing demons with the creatures that walk the earth, both human and animals, they have found ways to invade the material plane without incurring His retribution.

On the Table

Court, more than any other faction, plays a very elite style of game, pouring a vast majority of its resources and power into a select few models. These models are usually equipped up to the gills with Goetic Powers and Battlekit, pushing their already stacked profiles to game-changing levels, despite working with fewer models than other factions. 

Seven Defining Traits of Court

Goetic Spells & Powers: The Sorcerer has harmed me once more. 

What gives the Court its unique flavour, aside from running demons of hell, are the Goetic Powers that these demonic abominations possess. Goetic powers are usually passive buffs, whilst Spells are an Action and require the caster to use a number of Blood Markers from non-demonic units on the board to power said spells, with a range of Blood Markers. These spells have a cast range, from offensive, defensive, movement shenanigans and utility. Goetic spells are going to be an important pillar of your playstyle, which becomes ever more important depending on your chosen Sin. There are a couple of Spells that can be taken by any warband however: 

Burning Inferno

For the cost of 1-3 Blood Markers, a Sorcerer can make a Ranged Attack with a range of 36” with the keywords Blast, Fire and Scatter. The blast radius equals the number of Blood Markers spent to cast the spell. If the initial target is hit by the spell, or the scatter ends up on the model's base, the Attack also has the Ignore Armour Keyword. 

Slavemaster

An Elite model can cast this spell for one Blood Marker and force a Yoke Fiend in 18” to perform one of the following commands: 

• Sacrifice: The Yoke Fiend kills itself (A bit extreme, but okay). 
• Fight: Force the Yoke Fiend to make a Melee Attack.
• Move: The Yoke Fiend moves, but no Charge or Retreat.
• Shoot: Force a Yoke Fiend to make a Ranged Attack. 

Do note that the Yoke Fiend can still be activated as normal, if not done so already. It’s a nice ability that can mess with your opponent if used well.

Hey There, Demons, It’s Me, Ya Boi

All but one of your possible units will come with the Demonic Keyword, designating them as denizens of Hell. Seeing as Hell is what may be considered "toasty" in the most optimistic way, its inhabitants are well-suited to the whole "Fire and Brimstone" thing and have adapted, and even thrived in Hell's scorching environment. As a result, those with the Demonic Keyword do not suffer the effects of the Fire keyword. Fire is a pretty popular means of dealing out extra Blood Markers, so being immune to that is going to help you stay alive and in the game. You'll still have difficulties with the Ignore Armour properties of Flamethrowers, but being able to negate secondary Blood Markers is very big. The downside to the Keyword is that you're not going to be able to use Blood Markers from Demonic units to Power your Goetic Spells.

Blood Batteries: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

So, Goetic Spells require Blood Markers to be cast, but you’re going to need a way to spend those Blood Markers without taking them from your opponents, and thus not “healing” them. This is where your Blood Batteries will come in. A Blood Battery is a pairing of 1 or more Wretched and a unit that will purposefully attack those Wretched (typically a Yoke Fiend). Wretched are used as they are the only unit without the Demonic Keyword, and seeing as Goetic Powers can only be paid for with my Blood Markers from non-Demon units, we have a Supply and Demand situation at hand, meaning they are going to be essential. The usual situation as of 1.01 is a Yoke Fiend equipped with Gas Grenades, allowing you to hit multiple Wretched at the same time. As these grenades come with a -1 Injury Dice, the likelihood is relatively low to take out your own Wretched, but it’s worth the risk to be able to deal two Blood Markers to multiple Wretched in just one ranged attack.

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I Might Be Out of Spells, But I'm Not Out of Shells

Whilst Goetic Spells and Powers will play a significant role in how your gameplan on the table, they aren’t the only tool in the box. Like every faction, The Court get their own unique Battlekit items, with arguably, some of the best Ranged and Melee Weapons in the game.  The Serpent Assault Gun, Ophidian Rifle and Malabranche are some perfect examples of powerful yet unique weapons that push The Court to be formidable on the battlefield.

Elected to Lead, Not to Read

Despite being the literal embodiment of Hell, your Elites will, more so than any other faction, be leading from the front. That may be mostly out of necessity, as your Wretched will be busy getting whipped into shape to generate Blood Markers. Despite that, your Elites are packing not only Goetic abilities and game-changing weapons, but some seriously stacked Profiles. Your Praetor and Desecrated Saint have multiple +3s on their profiles, for example, including the Tough keyword. The natural price of this is that you’re low on effective models. There’s going to be a few Wretched and Yoke Fiend or two tucked away for safety, either far away or on a back objective if required. That leaves the rest of your models, and mostly your Elites, getting into the thick of it. They can certainly do the job, but each loss will hurt, and each mistake will be punished. Despite this, you can use your Wretched activations to push back needing to activate your important units, so you’re not at a huge disadvantage compared to a truly low model warband. 

Sins: What's the Problem? Look at Him, He's Happy!  

The Court don’t have variants per se, but instead, when creating a warband, you choose one of the seven deadly sins to follow. Sins are the spice to your demonic mélange, allowing you to adopt different Goetic Powers and Spells, without needing to switch up your list because of list restrictions. You’ll naturally switch some things up, but your core Elite-heavy line-up isn't going to change drastically, for better or for worse. 

Battlekit Highlights

Serpent Assault Gun: 50 Ducats

This large “hand-cannon” (that actually needs two hands to wield it) shoots bullets enveloped in a stinky, but deadly gas at a range of 36”. The Serpent Assault Gun is, by almost all accounts, the perfect gun. The long range, coupled with the Gas, Automatic 2 and Assault keyword give it some versatility for the wielder. The biggest drawback is certainly the fact that it is 2-handed, meaning you won’t be able to take a Trench Shield along with this. The Heavy keyword is also not great, but since you’ll most likely be putting this on something like a Praetor, the keyword is rather moot. It costs a whopping 50 Ducats, but you are certainly getting your money's worth. As said, this is great on a Praetor, whose +3 Range stat makes fantastic use of this gun, even when not shooting at short-range and/or into cover. 

Malabranche Sword: 50 Ducats

The Malabranche Sword is in Melee what the Serpent Assault Gun is at Range. Namely, pure carnage. It’s less flashy than the SPG, but its simplicity ensures there are no distractions to its sole objective: Killing. The defining characteristic of the Malabranche Sword is the Abyssal Blade ability. This ability lets the user roll 3d6 dice when making an injury roll, but adds the results together, rather than taking the top two. So you’re essentially getting a Blood Bath with every injury roll! The downside to this sword is that you can only take one, and the single one you can buy costs 50 Ducats. 

Ophidian Rifle: 25 Ducats

Coming back to the range options available, we have the Ophidian Rifle. Another long-range weapon at 30” of range, as well as being 2-handed, this rifle’s main ability is Unnatural Inversion. Instead of a -1 Dice if shooting at long-range or at an enemy in cover, you instead gain +1 Dice. The Ignore Cover and Ignore Long Range keywords ensure you’re actually gaining this bonus. This Rifle is particularly strong on a Hell Knight, who can provide some early Blood Markers in the early rounds, through combining the Unnatural Inversion ability with their built-in Blood Magic spell, which grants a +1 Injury Dice.  

Headtaker

The assassin’s best friend. A simple one-handed melee weapon with no special keywords, but it provides a +2 Injury modifier if you target a model that has not yet activated. Be aware that it’s a flat modifier, with its pros and cons. Regardless, this is a great weapon to put on a Hunter of the Left-Hand Path, who’s able to quickly get into melee thanks to their Left-Hand Path ability, even following up after shooting with their Bow of Lethe.

Mercenaries

We've covered all the Mercenaries in a previous article here.

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Units

Praetor: 115 Ducats

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A demonic commander bound in service to a demon lord or archdevil. They command warbands in their master’s service, fulfilling whatever task is bestowed upon them, whether that be fighting on the Frontlines of the Great War or participating in the many battles within the very realms of Hell itself, for the power dynamics of Hell are ever-shifting. Despite their prowess and status in the Great War, within damnation, they are seen as barely above even the mongrel Yoke Fiends; their mortal blood, however small, taints the demonic purity. The disgust they inspire in their patron is only just outweighed by their usefulness, as their mortal aspect allows them to walk upon His land. 

The denizens of Hell may deem the Praetor meagre and weak; on the table, however, that is anything but the case. The Praetor simply slaps in pretty much every respect. Stat-wise, it comes with 8” Flying movement, a +3 in both Melee and Ranged and 0 native armour. Right off the bat, this is simply just an amazing stat profile. Whilst most leaders gain a poultry +2 in these stats, the Praetor cements its place as the king of leaders. They can, of course, take any Battlekit from the Court Armoury, as you might expect. Keyword-wise, they come with Elite, Fear, Strong and Tough. They do come of course with the Demonic keyword (which almost all your warband has, bar the Wretched), which grants them immunity to the effects of the Fire keyword. Whilst having no innate abilities of their own, the Praetor may take up to two Goetic Powers, unless your chosen Sin is Wrath, in which case you may only take one. The loss of unique or innate abilities may seem significant at first, but as we will get into, being able to “Build-a-Demon” your own creation allows for a lot of variety and possibilities.

Sorcerer: 75 Ducats

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Sorcerers have no pre-determined appearance, as each one is as unique as the next, but all share the same levitating ability, where their feet never touch the ground. They make excellent warband commanders in their own right, thanks to their cunning and Goetic traits, but they are mostly advisors to their Praetor overlords. 

Stat-wise, the Sorcerer comes with a 6” flying movement and a +1 in Ranged and Melee. They may take any Battlekit from the Court Armoury, except for Ranged Weapons and Grenades. This may seem like an odd restriction, but they will be able to make up for the lack of weapon-wielding in the form of powerful Goetic Spells, as they are able to take up to 3. The auto-pick spell for the sorcerer is going to be Burning Inferno, which, as we saw above, is going to be a powerful long-range Ranged Attack, able to potentially ignore Armour. Besides the 3 spells they may choose, the Sorcerer comes with their own built-in spell free of charge. The Blessing of the Serpent Moon is a defensive tech spell that, for the cost of 2, 4 or 6 Blood Markers, lets you add -1 to an incoming Injury roll. As this is separate from your Armour value, you can essentially stay immune to being taken Out of Action, as long as you have the Blood Markers for it.

Hunter of the Left-Hand Path: 110 Ducats

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Experts in hunting the vile creatures that lurk within Hell, these hunters follow the Left-Hand path and use the still living organs of their prey for their Goetic Magiks. 

If the Praetor is your front-liner, tearing into the enemy with demonic ferocity, and your Sorcerer is your backliner, hurling fiery carnage, then the Hunter of the Left-Hand Path is your assassin, waiting for the right time to take out key enemy targets. They come with the standard 6” movement, but pack an amazing +2 in Ranged and +1 in melee. Battlekit-wise, they come with the Bow of Lethe, which they must always have on them (as it's, kinda, you know, part of their arm and all that), and they may only take one-handed weapons (again, the whole bow arm thing explains that), but apart from that, they can take anything else they would like. 

The Bow of Lethe is a 24” one-handed Ranged Weapon that comes with the Assault keyword. The Special Ammunition keyword allows you to choose one of two bonuses before making an injury with this weapon: Either a +2 Injury Dice or Ignore Armour. This offers great versatility, allowing you to pick the right bonus based on the enemy in sight. 

But that is not all, the Hunter comes with some truly amazing Goetic Spells. First off is Left-Hand Path, which costs 2 Blood Markers. You use this Spell when the Hunter touches a terrain piece as part of a movement (including a charge). You can remove them from the battlefield, and place them touching another piece of terrain on the battlefield, and more than 1” away from enemy models. When used as part of a Charge move, you still need to be within 12” to declare the charge. This is going to be your key assassin ability, ensuring you can get to any model on the battlefield and truly play mind games with your opponent. To take this Spell up a notch, the Hunter comes with the Infiltrator keyword, meaning they can already start out of your Deployment zone. The second Spell, Oracle Beast Cloak, is your defensive Spell, in case the enemy manages to catch you. After paying a very hefty 3 Blood Markers, and after an incoming Injury Roll has been made, you can change the result of that Injury Roll to “No Effect”. So even though you’re about to be sent back down to the pit, you can shrug it off and survive. Watch out, though, as not only is this Blood Marker hungry, but it can only be used once a Turn. To ensure that getting caught out never comes to pass, you have Shadow-Walker, which, for 2 Blood Markers, allows you to retreat without the enemy being able to make a Melee Attack against you.

Hell Knight: 100 Ducats

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Hell Knights make up the bannerlets of a high lord of the Court. They are warriors of silent servitude and are called upon to fight when the followers of the Tyrant God foolishly believe they can thwart the inevitable. 

Hell Knights have the usual 6” movement, with a +2 Dice only in Melee and a built-in -2 Armour thanks to their Infernal Iron Armour. This armour functions like Reinforced Armour, but has the added bonus of having the Impervious keyword, meaning its Armour bonus works even against weapons that have the Ignore Armour keyword. As Elites, they can take any Battlekit from the Armoury. To top it off, they do come with the Demonic and Strong keywords. There is a lack of Tough, but the Infernal Iron Armour provides ample protection, unless your opponent gets lucky. 

For Spells, the Hell Knight may take two Spells, but one of those choices must be their own Blood Magic Spell. For a cost of 1 Blood Marker, before making an Injury Roll, you may add +1 Injury Dice. Very simple, but very good, as it is not limited to Melee attacks. Despite the lack of a positive Ranged Characteristic, the Ophidian Rifle pairs great with the Hell Knight, simply because of this Blood Magic Spell. As we’ll see later with the Lust Sin, you can get some deadly Ranged Damage with a Hell Knight and Ophidian Rifle.

Wretched: 20 Ducats 

Wretched are the souls whose humanity is not blessed by the demonic blood. The lowest rung of the infernal ladder, their purpose is nothing more than fodder on the front lines, or as batteries to power the Goetic magic of their demonic overlords. However, should a Wretched strike down a worthy adversary, they may gain their freedom in memory and honour of the First Rebellion. 

Let’s not beat around the bush here, on the table, Wretched reflect their namesake. They get the usual 6” movement, but have a negative Ranged and Melee characteristic, at -1 specifically. They may take any Battlekit from the Court Armoury, as long as it costs no more than 10 Ducats. 

Their only ability is Law of Hell, which removes a Wretched from your Warband Roster should they take down an Elite. 

The Wretched will be little more than batteries for your spells, but you can use them as fodder on the front lines after you have kitted out the main pieces in your warband. Be warned, though, you cannot have more Wretched than you do units with the Demonic keyword. So you can’t just swarm the board with Wretched and laugh like a maniac. 

Yoke Fiend: 30 Ducats

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Yoke Fiends are Demonic and Bestial Hybrids, grafted by the Priests of Hell. Coated in muscle and a mish-mash of animal features and traits, depending on how they were constructed. Despite their means of creation, they are formidable on the field, standing well above the meagre humans the faithful sacrifice to the Great War. 

Stat-wise, you’ve got a typical 6” movement and a single +1 Dice in Melee. They may take a single Ranged Weapon for less than 30 Ducats in cost, but may take anything else they want to. 

The first ability of the Yoke Fiend is Hateful, which forces the Yoke Fiend to charge a non-Black Grail or Demonic unit if it is outside of 1” of, but within 12” and in Line of Sight of a possible target. For your Yoke Fiend that is focused on attacking your Wretched, then it’s not much of an issue. If you do decide to take a few Yoke Fiends to the front lines, it may provide annoyance. However, you can offset this ability with a Restraining Muzzle, which you can purchase from the Armoury. Not only does this turn off the Hateful ability, but it also grants a +1 Dice to the Ranged Attack Characteristic of the Yoke Fiend. There is a Limit of 3 on it, so not every Yoke Fiend you field can have it. But it’s doubtful that you’ll be taking more than three potential front-line Yoke Fiends anyway. The second ability, Torturer, essentially lets you attack your own Wretched, as without it you wouldn’t be able to do so. As stated before, the Gas Grenade combo is your most efficient way to generate Blood markers, but there is also the option of using a Torture Instrument in melee. This “Weapon” only rolls a 1d6 on the injury roll, but generates 2 Blood Markers, making it a safe way to whip your Wretched and get the blood flowing.

Pit Locust: 90 Ducats

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Ferocious beasts the size of horses, Pit Locusts are armoured behemoths, whose face is a disfigured mockery of a human. Feared even within Hell, they attack with blade forelimbs and a stinger on their tail. Despite all that, maybe they are the goodest of boys. If not friend, then why friend-shaped, right? 

The Pit Locust is a fast-moving flanker that, despite their quick movement and flying, is quite tanky. The 8” Flying movement helps them get up the board, and the +1 Melee Characteristic helps them take down some weaker opponents. Lastly, the -2 Armour helps them survive longer than most. They unfortunately cann’t take any Battlekit, apart from the Crown of Hellfire, so you will need to rely on their melee attacks solely. Luckily, with their Poison Stingers ability, they can make two Melee Attacks. The first with the Shrapnel keyword, and the second ignoring the offhand penalty. Whilst they may not be able to take down more difficult targets, they can be good at stacking Blood Markers on an enemy, ready for another model of yours to bank them and secure a kill. Throw in a Crown of Hellfire, which gives all models within 1” a Blood Marker at the end of the activation, and you have a decent way to generate Blood Markers quickly.

Desecrated Saint: 140 Ducats

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When Hell’s minions or champions are captured, they are taken to be locked away to be interrogated and experimented upon, where few mortals will set eyes on them. When a future Saint, Prophet or other holy figure of the faithful are taken, however, they are put proudly on display, albeit in a new, more grotesque form. 

This behemoth boasts the usual 6” Movement and a +3 in Melee and a native -3 Armour! It comes with Fear, Tough, and Strong, which will prove useful, as it has three hands, allowing you to take a single two-handed weapon and two one-handed weapons, or three one-handed weapons. 

Ability-wise, Annihilator allows you to ignore the penalty for off-hand fighting, as well as allowing you to make a number of Melee Attack actions equal to the number of melee weapons you have with you. The Demonic Aura ability grants an aura ability that is dependent on which Sin you have dedicated your warband to. We’ll cover the specifics once we get to the Sins below.

The Saint is a great unit, but sufferers a problem that the Praetor sometimes suffers, and that is its size. Whilst the Praetor can get up the board quicker, despite its 50mm base, the Saint not only sits on a 60mm base, but it also is the largest model in the game and only has a 6” movement. This will be drawing all the firepower your enemy can throw at it. Some of the sins can mitigate this weakness; however, for the most part, your Saint will find it hard to get into the thick of things. 

Sins

Don’t have Variants, but choose a Deadly Sin when creating a warband, which acts similarly to:

Wrath

Do you like bee-lining straight for the enemy and boinking them to death? Care naught for patience or precision? Unsurprisingly, this is what Wrath is all about. 

Rather than having Goetic Spells, you have Powers instead. It seems that the Archdevil of Wrath is not one for Spells (where have I seen that before?), but prefers to bestow his followers with a means to keep the wrath going. Blood and Skulls are optional, but encouraged. Starting off with Blind Rage, up to three Elites can get a +1 Dice to Risky Success Rolls for their Dash actions. Very simple, very sweet. Charge of Hatred again, let’s 3 Elites gain the maximum d6 when making a charge. A maximum charge distance is a nice-to-have for your slower units. Lastly, the Lesser Mark of Cain gives a single Elite a permanent -1 Injury Dice for incoming Injury Rolls. Perfect for keeping your Praetor safe from incoming fire. 

Your Desecrated Saint aura grants a +1 Dice to Dash Risky Success rolls and the Melee Characteristic for friendly units within 8” of the Saint(including the Saint itself). Wrath is one of the two more useful Sins that can make use of your Desecrated Saint. Getting a +1 on your Saint dash is big and helps ensure it can push up the board quickly. That’s not even including the benefits of promoting it early.

Envy

Are you jealous of all the fancy toys the faithful get? Just steal them and use their own weapons against them! Let them see what an anti-tank hammer to the face feels like. 

Starting with Coveted Position, for a cost of 2 Blood Markers, a Praetor or Sorcerer can swap position with any model it can see within 12” and not in combat with another model. You need to ensure there is enough room for the models to fit into when swapping, as it is measured from base centre to base centre. Regardless, this is such a fantastic ability that can really mess with your opponent's head, really screwing up their game plan. Even if they play a great positional game, you still have a lot of potential to use only your own models to make some great plays. Indeed, because of this ability alone, Envy is a great Sin to run a Saint in, as, for example, your Preator can move up, swap with the Saint, and then when it’s the Saint’s turn to activate, they’re already halfway up the board! 

Envious Eyes is a Goetic Power for your Praetor and Sorcerer, which allows you to purchase a single piece of Battlekit from New Antioch, Trench Pilgrims and Iron Sultanate Armouries. You still need to follow all stipulations, i.e. you can’t take something that only a specific model can take. So, yeah, this is just an amazing Power to have, and adds a lot of versatility to how you play your units, even allowing a Sorcerer to wield a Ranged Weapon. A particularly powerful choice is grabbing Machine Armour for your Praetor, allowing them to hit the important -3 armour value, whilst still having two hands free for a Serpent Assault Gun. 

For the last general Sin Ability, we have What Is Yours Is Mine. For one Blood Marker, you can remove a Blood Marker or Blessing Marker from any model in Line of Sight and place it on the spellcaster instead. A rather niche ability, but could be quite handy in yoinking Blessing Markers from unsuspecting models. 

For your Desecrated Saint, we have the Aura of Envy, which means allies of the Saint cannot be charged whilst they are within 1” of the Saint. Quite decent, if not situational. If you can keep a unit close by as it teleports up the board, it may have some use thanks to the Coveted position.

Lust

All are laid bare in front of Hell. This sin is all about your Blood Marker economy, being able to produce them more easily on your own units, then transferring them to your enemies.

Getting to the point, we get right to Call of the Flesh, where for two Blood Markers the caster (Praetor or Sorcerer)  immediately ends their turn and the next activated model by your opponent must first Move, Charge or Retreat, and that movement must end as close as possible towards the spell caster, even if the model must go through dangerous terrain, climb, jump or jump down. After this is done, they may carry on as normal, but they may not target the spell caster with a Ranged Attack or Melee Attack action for the rest of the turn. 

Exquisite Pain allows you to transfer Blood Markers from one model to another. Costing one or two Blood Markers, you pick a model in Line of Sight, and place the number of Blood Markers on them that you spent. Any number of Elites can take this spell, which is great, because you’re going to want to grab this on your Hell Knights. A Hell Knight with an Ophidian Rifle can hit an enemy at Long-Range and in cover for a +2 to the Attack Roll, then spend 3 Blood Markers (2 from Exquisite Pain, 1 from their own Spell) for a +3 Injury Dice.

Can a Hell Knight gunline be Blood Marker intensive? Yes. Is there a way to stack up on early Blood Markers? Also yes! Forbidden Pleasures is a Goetic Power that lets you place 3 Blood Markers on a non-demonic Unit before deployment. Only Praetors and Sorcerers may take this, but getting 6 Blood Markers split across a couple of models is absolutely amazing in getting your Blood Marker rolling. You may find that with other Sins, you may be a little starved for Blood Markers, having to think about your Praetor, Sorcerer Hunter and maybe a Hell Knight or two. The Hunter, in particular, is very Blood Marker hungry, given the nature of their kit, and if you choose not to fork out the Blood Markers, you’re losing a good portion of their kit, or you may even just end up getting them killed. In Lust, however, this early boost can really help you ensure all of your demonic pistons are firing. 

The Desecrated Saint aura for Lust removes the effects of Armour for every enemy within 4”, unless the Armour has the Impervious keyword. It’s a strong ability for sure, but the 4” aura and the lack of movement options for your Saint make it hard to make full use of it.

Pride

The sin of all sins, Pride is all about refusal. Refusal to accept any form of defeat. A unit just took a downed injury? Refuse because your pride prevents you from. Morale bringing you down? Refuse by completely ignoring it. 

Light of Samael gives you a simple, but powerful ranged attack for your Praetor or Sorcerer. For two Blood Markers, pick an enemy in Line of Sight and within 24” and then simply make an Injury Roll! No Attack Roll needed. This is simply a great ability to poke an enemy down and try to go for a sneaky Down or even Out of Action result. If the target model is on a 32mm base or less, there is the added bonus of the enemy being pushed back d6”, where you can get another Injury Roll on the model if you managed to push them off a ledge. 

Next up is Proud Defiance, a simple Power that means you do not need to take Morale Checks as long as at least a single model with this ability is on the table. It may sound simple, but not having to worry about Morale can be a big boon. 

Lastly is Too Proud to Fall, where for two Blood Markers, a Praetor or Sorcerer can turn any Down action to a Minor Hit instead. 

The Aura of Pride from your Desecrated Saint places a Blood Marker for every enemy within 8” after it ends its activation. Pretty simple and can help you set up your other units.

Sloth

It’s time to slow it down and smell the corpses. This sin is all about dampening your opponent’s momentum and ensuring slow, but inevitable, victory for yourself.

Just like the Tortoise, we’re going ot start off slow with Charm of Acedia. For one Blood Marker, the next Action the spell caster makes that requires a Risky or regular Success Roll, that roll is an automatic success. Pretty nice if you want to ensure a roll goes exactly as you planned. 

Daemonium Meridianum is an ability you can give an Elite, where enemy models treat Open or Dangerous Terrain as Difficult Terrain whilst within 6” of you. 

Rounding out the abilities we have, Morphean Mind, which is an ability that your Elites can take, where an enemy can’t spend more than 1 Blood Marker to add -1 Dice when you make a success Roll. As with the other abilities in Sloth, it’s a simple ability, but it reinforces the slow but inevitable feel that goes with the Sin. 

For your Saint’s Aura, all Minor Hit results become Down results whilst an enemy is within 8” of your Saint.

Gluttony

Forever hangry, this sin aims to weaken your opponents through starvation and self-destruction, while gorging on them (and sometimes your allies), to keep yourself well-fed and topped off.

Starting with the appetiser, we have Belly of the Beast, where any Elite model with this ability gives an attacking enemy one Blood Marker if it suffers at least one itself as a result of an attack. This is only for Melee Attacks; however, for 5 Ducats, it’s still a nice ability. 

For the main course, we have Eater of the Flesh, which acts as a means to heal your units after causing damage to your opponent. A Praetor or Sorcerer with this ability may remove a number of Blood Markers from themselves, equal to the number of Blood Markers caused to an enemy as a result of a Melee Attack. A very nice ability to put on your Praetor who has something like a Hellblade (that has the Fire keyword), allowing you to cause a couple of Blood Markers' worth of damage, and remove those from yourself. Do note that this ability won't work on fellow Demonic units or Black Grail units. 

And for dessert, we have Uncaring Gluttony, which is a Spell that costs two Blood Markers. At the cost of two Blood Markers, a single Elite can pick a non-activated enemy model and pick an equipment piece (not Weapon or Armour) and essentially make it unusable for the enemy for the rest of the game. It’s pretty specific, but if you can catch an enemy with an important equipment piece, it can prove very useful. 

Lastly, for the aperitif, the Aura of Gluttony from your Saint gives a -1 Dice to all enemy rolls, whilst they are within 8” of the Saint. This does not work with models that use the Black Grail or Artificial Keywords, however.

Greed

Greed is their covenant, and the Mammon knows that greed wins wars. Turning Avarice into defence, offence and utility, this sin wants it all.

Starting with Black Heart, this allows any Elite to use this spell (for one Blood Marker), before making any kind of success roll to add +1 Dice to that roll. For 5 Ducats, this is fantastic, even if it is limited to two models. 

Body of Gold gives an Elite the Golem keyword, but any model that has the Tough keyword loses it. So this will, 90% of the time, go on a Hell Knight, to really take their tankiness up a notch. 

Lastly, Greedy Hearts is a great mid- to late-game campaign ability that gives the model with this ability one Blessing Marker for each enemy model worth 150 Ducats or more after deployment. 

Force enemies to charge your deadly Saint! If an enemy model wants to charge, but is within 12” of the Saint, is in Line of Sight, and can be reached without having to climb, jump in any way or go through Dangerous Terrain, then it must charge the Saint. This is a little complicated, but it’s still a nice way to ensure other models are free to do as they please. 

Example List

Envy Starter

## Gimme your Stuff! ##

Faction: Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent Rating: 700 Ducats | 0 Glory

## Elites ##

Praetor - 244D Upgrades & Choices: Coveted Position, Envious Eyes Battlekit: Serpent Assault Gun, Sword / Axe, Combat Helmet, Gas Mask, Machine Armour

Sorcerer - 178D Upgrades & Choices: Burning Inferno, Slavemaster, What Is Yours Is Mine Battlekit: Trench Club, Combat Helmet, Gas Mask, Musical Instrument, Reinforced Armour

Hunter of the Left-Hand Path - 165D Battlekit: Bow of Lethe, Head Taker, Reinforced Armour

## Troops ##

Yoke Fiend - 50D Battlekit: Restraining Muzzle, Gas Grenades

Wretched - 21D Battlekit: Trench Knife

Wretched - 21D Battlekit: Trench Knife

Wretched - 21D Battlekit: Trench Knife