Chaos Snakemen – A Forgotten Warhammer Race

Recently, Gideon over at the excellent Awesome Lies blog posted a very interesting and thoughtful piece on some of the more unique creatures in the Warhammer world. As well as the oft-discussed Zoats and Fimir, Gideon takes a look at a more obscure race, Chaz Elliott’s Chaos Snakemen.

Ad from the third Citadel Compendium.

Chaz tells their story himself, and gives some details about the background he had devised for them, in this interview on Captain Crook’s Funky Wenis Rodeo. Only five miniatures were ever made, and they were never formally written up for the Warhammer rules.

In 2015, Tim Prow sculpted a small range of Snakemen for the Antiquis Malleum project by Diehard Miniatures, and a few more have appeared on the Diehard Miniatures web page.

As far as I have been able to discover, though, no rules have ever been published for them – so here is my interpretation of them for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition. Needless to say, what follows is in no way official and should be considered a fan work. No challenge is intended to copyrights or trademarks held by Games Workshop, Cubicle 7, or anyone else.

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S’Nethen (Chaos Snakemen)

Image stolen from the Diehard Miniatures web site.

A failed experiment by the Old Slann, the S’Nethen escaped from Lustria and fled north. Initially they planned to gather their strength and return to defeat the Old Slann and free Lustria, but the catastrophe of the warpgates and the creation of the northern Chaos Wastes made mere survival a struggle, and as centuries and millennia passed the proud S’Nethen degenerated into a barbaric and mutation-prone remnant of what they once were.

They should not be underestimated, though, for they have guarded their territory for millennia against the forces of Chaos, where other peoples have been assimilated or destroyed.

M	WS	BS	S	T	I	Ag	Dex	Int	WP	Fel	W
4	40	30	35	45	30	40	30	30	45	25	15

Traits: Armour 1, Cold-blooded, Fast, Night Vision, Weapon +7

Optional: Armour 3 – 4), Bite +5, Constrictor, Corruption Minor), Dark Vision, Mutation, Ranged +7 (100), Size (Large), Spellcaster (Any), Tail +5, Venom (Easy – Very Hard)

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Atlatl – A New Weapon for Lustrian Slann

The Slann are long gone from Warhammer: I think the last time they were seen was in 3rd edition, back in the 80s. Still, this may be of interest to any Oldhammer fans who have a Slann army.

I’ve known about the Central American atlatl, or spear-thrower, for some time. Basically it’s a stick that slots into the base of a spear-sized, feathered dart and gives the throwing action more force. Just recently, though, I found out a little more thanks to an SCA demonstration, and I was impressed by what this very simple weapon can do. As far as I’ve been able to find out, Citadel never released any Slann atlatl troops, and that’s a shame: from what I’ve learned, they could be quite effective on the battlefield, as well as adding to the Mesoamerican look and feel of a Slann force.

Here are the notes I took at the time, slightly tidied up. I haven’t attempted to derive game stats for Warhammer or WFRP, preferring to leave that to those who are better at such things. Still, I hope you Oldhammer gamers and modelers find this information inspiring, or at least interesting.

Picture borrowed from Richard Keatinge under the WikiMedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In Aztec society, the atlatl was considered a “weapon of the gods.” The troops who used it, called Cuachicque or “shorn ones” (presumably from a distinctive haircut?) were elite warriors who had already captured at least six enemies on the battlefield.

Atlatl darts look like oversized arrows, 4-7 feet long and fletched. The atlatl gives these darts surprising range and hitting power. According to the World Atlatl Association forums, effective range is 10-15 yards/meters but a missile thrown in a high arc can reach as far as 50 yards. This may not sound like much considering that the current Olympic javelin record is almost 100 meters, but the atlatl only needs a one-step run-up and the Olympic javelin is thrown for distance without much regard for accuracy. Experiments have shown that an atlatl dart has significant range and hitting power. Though it cannot pierce a steel breastplate, it could wreak havoc on lightly-armored troops. Here’s a link to an actual test.

Has anyone converted or used Slann atlatl troops in a game? How did they work out? If you have rules for them, please add a link in the comments section. Or maybe we can crowdsource some workable rules right here.