The Call of Gold - Age of Sigmar at Warhammer World

Well over the weekend I partook in an event I never thought I would, heading down to Warhammer World in Nottingham for one of their free one day AoS events. I stepped away from GW games for some 10 years and prior to the release of AoS and never thought I'd play their games again let alone travel down to their HQ for a session.

Couldn't be bothered to find the shiny Stormcast statue so here is a Space Marine in the entrance. 

I generally avoid any kind of organised play/tournament, many years ago when I played confrontation and infinity the usual format was tourney and I got rather sick of being pounded into the ground by players that gamed the system whilst I went for a more fluffy force.

AoS has shown promise to this effect, I've seen a few reports from their events that seem pretty favourable and as it was a freebie I thought it would be good fun to head down and spread the plague a little.

The night before the event I skimmed over the event page and spotted a few forces had been shown, there was some real filthy stuff there, if didn't look good for my forces of Nurgle so I packed everything I could that hit hard and had lots of wounds and hoped for the best.

Game 1

My first game was against a young lad with Dwarves fielding:

Belgar Ironhammer

Grim Burlokson

Joseph Bugman

Rune lord

10 Hammerers

10 Hammerers

Flame cannon

We totted up wounds he had 58 vs my 124... I did a bit of adjustment and managed to drop down to nearer 100, still it was a big difference and though I offered to try and shed some more he was keen to have a crack at it. 

I fielded:

Morbidex Twiceborn

Lord of Plagues

Nurgle Sorcerer Lord

10 Blightkings

10 Plaguebearers

5 Chaos Knights

3 Blightdrones

Chimera

It was a fairly predictable slaughter, the Chimera taking out a Deamonslayer with his fire breath before piling into a unit of Hammerers and munching on half of them. My knights hit the other Daemonslayer and after a drawn out combat killed him only for the last knight to go down with him.

I felt rather sorry for the carnage caused as although the flame cannon was causing damage he only had a handful of heroes left so I suggested he may want to bring on some reinforcements and he opted to return a full unit of Hammerers to the foe. The result was painful, throwing a few buffs onto the fresh unit and the Hammerers charged into Morbidex, after a furious round of combat the mighty lord of neglected was left with just a couple of wounds, he lasted out the turn and took a chunk of Hammerers with him the following round but was eventually slain.

The battle ended with a lone Runesmith facing off against half my force, he elected to make good his get away and retreated from combat securing additional laurels of victory for surviving the game.

Game 2

For game 2 was up against a chaos force, a blend of old and new units:

Archaon on foot

A Gaunt Summoner

Sorcerer Lord

Sathys and Night maw

3 Varanguard

Chaos Chariot

5 Chaos Knights

12 Warriors of Chaos

I went back in with the same list as the first game as there was only a handful of wounds in it so it looked like a pretty balanced game. He had quite a few special characters but I had Nurglings, when all else fails throw Nurglings at things and replanted your attack.

The Varangard terrified me, you're essentially facing 3 chaos lords, if they hit at the same time as the Chariot I'd be losing full units at the time. Luckily for me my opponent had the worst luck with the dice, failing to get off spells, failed charges which led to his force getting out of position and leaving me time to plan and play a blocking game tying up units such as the Varangard and Archaon with my Nurglings and Plaguedrones  whilst my Chimera and Blightkings cleaned up the rest of the force. I managed to keep control of the center for most of the game and taking out unit leaders scored me extra points due to the scenario, the Varangard, Archaon and the gaunt summoner all survived but I'd controlled the game well after the first turn and ensured I managed to out score my opponent.

Game 3

My final game was against another young lad with his Sylvaneth,with:

Treelord Ancient

Treelord

Branchwraith

13 Dryads

13 Dryads

I totally feel played by this guy, he'd muttered something about this was everything he had and I took him to be a bit of a newbie at all this, taking pity I dropped a load of my big hitters and brought a bunch of Chaos Warriors in instead.

So my starting force this round was:

Lord of Plagues

Nurgle Sorcerer Lord

Great Brayshaman

10 Blightkings

10 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle

3 Blightdrones

Chimera

2 Chaos Spawn

In my haste to adjust my force, as I was running late into this game, I'd managed to drop a lot of the fast stuff and pretty much everything with rend. 

Killing Sylvaneth hiding in woods with mystic shield cast on them when you have very few attacks with rend and minimal ability to do mortal wounds is more than a little difficult. The Treelords spent much of the game with 1+ saves, the Dryads died in droves but were summoned back as fast as I could kill them.

Chatting to him after the match it turns out he has several forces, this happened to be the only one fully painted.

It was a surprisingly tough game. The Treelord ancient using the woods to step back and forth out of harms way whilst my army chased him back and forth.

I managed a draw here, I ended up having to re-summoning the chimera for its mortal wound firebreath to take out one of the Treelords but ran out of time to take out the second. 

We called the game a draw at this point with only a couple of minutes to spare on the clock.

The awards ceremony

With a short break we gathered back in the hall for the awards ceremony.

I ended up ranking mid table at around the average score for the event. Not awful I'd lost put on a lot of points by never being the underdog. 

Best game catagory I gained one vote out of three, not suprisingly as my army was a little filthy and does not die easily so it can't have been much of a fun game at times.

Finally catagory was best army and I'd been nominated before lunch. I was up against 2 Stormcast armies which were nice and a really nicely painted death force. I'd had a lot of really positive comments throughout the day about my force and was hoping that the considerable conversion work would boost the forces appeal.

Well...

Yup, I won the best army award, it's really nice to be voted a winner by fellow hobbiests, I've set the bar high so next time I'll have to do something equally special.

The Event

I really enjoyed myself, the event was well organised, the staff friendly and really enthusiastic, always on hand for queries etc.

The venue is great and as they insist on all models being painted it's a thrill to play on a nice table with fully painted forces.

I was totally expecting the "win at all costs" attitude and unfortunately I'd packed my army with that in mind. I had some wiggle room but with half the force being very high wounds and selected for particular tasks it was hard to move the force around to suit the game whilst maintaining a broad spread of abilities, as could be seen in the last game.

The battle plan for the event worked well, it really penalised you of you brought a large force, mine could range between a martial strength of 90 and 140. Most of the other forces were in the 60-100 range with a couple of exceptions so I did feel I was being a bit filthy here, not a lot I couldn't do on the day as the only unit I had with 1 wound models was my Plaguebearers, everything else was multi wound with a lot of my models being 5 wounds each.

The only thing not accounted for in the pack was the effects of summoning, theoretically you could summon 15 more monsters during the game if you wanted too so go in with a small force and swing it back during the first turn. There also isn't a lot of accounting for synergies, Lord Kroak and astrology bearers plus eternity warden pretty much guarantees you a lot of kills.

I'll certainly go again and try and convince Charlie or my bro to come down as it was a worthwhile event for the price of lunch. I'd even consider paying for one of the 2 day events though that becomes more difficult with the young kids. 

Age of Sigmar Battle Report - The Watchtower - Nurgle Rotbringers vs Seraphon and Sylvaneth Alliance

With Charlie brancing out from his Sylvaneth force and adding a chunk of Seraphon from the newly released getting started box this was going to be a very different game.

Background

Once again we return to the realm of life, to an ancient watchtower, now all but ruined which has been taken over by the Daemonic allies of the Plague Lord Febris the Vile ahead of his main force.

A small force of Sylvaneth have gathered to evict the plague daemons from this ancient tower, however with a larger force approaching the stars did not bode well for the woodland spirits, from high in Azyr came thought, an ancient memory of a proud warrior and his fierce mount, yes, that will do, as the mind of the Slaan Starmaster stretched back deep into his memories a great roar echoed through the forest and the Starmasters thoughts coalesced into physical form, time was of the essence the tower must be retaken before Lord Febris's hoard returns in full force.

The Game
We had a couple of options for games and we decided on playing the Watchtower, we also decided to use some time of war rules, adapting the Brimstone Peninsular rules for the realm of life.

Around the tower are six areas of spontaneous growth and horrific corruption, these can explode outwards in a tangled mess of roots and bile as the war of life if fought by the very land itself. Over the terrain hangs a heavy cloud of fog limiting sight over the terrain.

Victory conditions were simple, the player with the most models in the tower when the game ends wins, from the end of the 3rd turn a dice is rolled each battleround and the game ends on a D6 roll of a 4+.

As usual we used Clash comp, this time with a 12.5 pool cap (largely defined by how much stuff Charlie had with him)

The Forces

Seraphon and Sylvaneth
Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur
12 Saurus Warriors
8 Saurus Knights
Treelord Ancient
16 Dryads
Branchwraith


Nurgle Rotbringers
Lord of Plagues
Chaos Sorcerer Lord with mark of Nurgle
Epidemius
5 Chaos Knights with mark of Nurgle
10 Chaos Warriors with mark of Nurgle
5 Putrid Blightkings
10 Plaguebearers
3 Biletrolls


Initial Setup

With just 12" between the Attackers force and the watch tower this was going to get messy real quick.

Battleround 1
Nurgle take the initiative

Nurgle Turn 1

The Nurgle Sorcerer draws together the power of chaos and summons unit of Nurglings providing a screen to prevent the Saurus Warriors and knights getting to the tower without a fight.

An area of corruption explodes showering the Treelord and the Plaguebearers in the tower and both took mortal wounds.

The Nurgle reinforcements arrive and start to take up positions to aid in the defence of the tower.

There's an awful lot of battlefield to cover, perhaps Febris should have brought along more knights and left the lumbering Blightkings at work elsewhere.


Seraphon Alliance Turn 1

Another blast from an infected area, this time throwing stricken roots against the Chaos Sorcerer.

The Branchwraith sang a song of war to rouse the tree spirits to action, the wind whistled through the trews but nobody answered the call.

The Treelord Ancient traced arcane symbols in the air and a Mystic Shield enveloped the Saurus Warriors.

The Seraphon Oldblood attempted to call the Plaguebearers out from the Watchtower into the open field, however the daemons stood firm.

The Oldblood on Carnosaur maneuvered around the Watchtower and the rest of the force moved up as quickly as they could.

The Oldblood on Carnosaur lets out a roar and charges the watchtower and the great beast proceeds to munch on the Plaguebearers.... all of them!

With the Carnosaur now blooded it becomes an even more dangerous beast, capable of rampaging across most of the board. 

Elsewhere both the Saurus Warriors and the Saurus Knights failed their charges.

Battleround 2
Nurgle win initiative

Nurgle Turn 2
The area of corruption near the Treelord exploded covering both the ancient creature and and Oldblood on Carnosaur with filth and corrosion, both took mortal wounds, the Treelord is beginning to suffer here.

The Chaos Sorcerer summons forth more daemons from the abyss, 10 Plaguebearers appear to bolster the left flank against the Saurus.

Across the board the Chaos Knights let out their sickly warcries and barrel into the side of the Carnosaur, hoping their momentum and surprise attack will weaken it before it can strike back. 

Unfortunately it really didn't go well, the Knights literally bounced off the Carnosaur inflicting a grand total of 1 wound. The Carnosaur promptly ate two of the Knights, shaken but still hopeful the Knights shrug off their bravery test.

Sylvaneth turn 2

Yet another corrupted area explodes again near the Treelord, he escapes with only minor damage but the Dryads nearby lose a couple of their number.

In return the branchwraith once again tried to call forth the spirit of the woods for aid in the battle, this time the woods answer and 11 Dryads appear in the nearby forest.

The Carnosaur turns on the last Chaos Knight and unsurprisingly devours him.

Meanwhile on the other flank the Saurus Cavalry crash into the recently summoned Plaguebearers, though the Plaguebearers took the initiative they were ineffective against the charging Seraphon who's star lances cut through half the unit with ease. 

The Saurus warriors became bogged down with the Nurglings, never quite managing to finish enough off to free them up.


Battle round 3
Seraphon alliance wins initiative

Seraphon Turn 3

Mystical sheilds were summoned around a unit of Dryads and the Saurus Warriors.

One of the Dryad units takes up position within the Watchtower, claiming this important strategic objective whilst the other unit of Dryads and the Oldblood on Carnosaur sweep round the Watchtower to get to the Nurgle forces behind.

The Carnosaur charges the Lord of Plagues and taking the initiative quickly devours him to ensure his plague ridden axe wouldn't come to bear on the wounded Carnosaur.

In return the Plaguebearers took the opportunity to strike at the Saurus Cavalry who had become bogged down in combat following their charge, the pox-ridden daemons managed to drag several of the Saurus down.

The recently summoned dryads charge Epidemus, but only cause light wounds, his rancid flesh sloughing away to protect him.

In return he strikes back at the unit slaying several of them as the Blightkings pile in to support and hack through the Dryads leaving only a single dryad alive who layer fled from the battle shock.


Nurgle Turn 3

The Nurgle Sorcerer attempts to call upon demonic reinforcements but the Treelord gestures and the mystical energy dissapates. It was at that point the nearest area of corruption belched, covering the Sorcerer with acidic filth and he dies a horrible death. Grandfather Nurgle clearly was unimpressed with his performance on this day.

The rest of the chaos force moved around to try and gain the most advantageous position for what was to be the penultimate round of combat.

Free from the combat with the Dryads the Blightkings turned and charged into the Carnosaur.

Jumping to attack quickly before the mighty beast could recover, they hammered it hard, just striking enough damage to kill the beast outright.

Meanwhile the Biletrolls vomitted over the Dryads and followed the sickly missiles with a full on charge. unfortunately their performance left much to be desired and they failed to shift enough of the Dryads from the objective.

On the left flank the Chaos Warriors of Nurgle finally made it into the fight and charged the already diminished Saurus Cavalry and proceeded to butcher most of the unit.

The game looked to be hanging in the balance, as it stood the Seraphon/Sylvaneth Alliance held the objective but with the Carnosaur dead, the Blightkings and a fresh unit Chaos Warriors rampaging around it could easily swing the other way.

The die was cast to see if we would continue.... and as it settled on the table it was clear, the forces or Order were victorious.

Postmatch

Wow, an excellent game, I really, really underestimated that Carnosaur and overestimated the abilities of the Plaguebearers to withstand it's damage output.

The less said about the Chaos Knights the better, their performance was abysmal, I honestly expected them to put a massive dint in the offensive abilities of the Carnosaur, with 15 Attacks plus a further 10 from their steeds to result in a single wound was pitiful.

Overall the scenario worked really well, it felt like a pretty fair game and had it run for another round it still could have swing either way. The adapted time of war rules worked well and were oh so annoying, the Seraphon really took the brunt of the damage from them but taking the sorcerer out in the last turn could really have scuppered the Nurgle game should we have hit turn 4.

My major mistake was using the Plaguebearers as the initial force. I should really have dropped 10 blightkings there, with a sorcerer to drop mystic shield and oracular visions on them, I'd have had 2+ saves, rerolling 1s and even with the carnosaurs rend the unit should have brushed off the initial attack holding up the big guys until the rest of the force arrived.

I also really suffer from not having much shooting, it's the main issue with pretty much the entire chaos faction, you're essentially missing out a phase every round which could really have been used to weaken some of the monsters or to hunt out the branchwraith hiding at the back.

Charlie and I will be back for more soon I hope, we're just arranging dates and we did discuss a longer session so we could run a couple of games back to back mini-campaign style.

AoS - Nurgle Rotbringer Hoard and Khorne Bloodbound Reenforcements

So with a spare evening following a mix up with the car meaning I couldn't get over to a friends house for a game I decided to take the opportunity to catch up with some photos of my recent painting. I also decided to rephotograph some of my other Nurgle miniatures now I have a better photo setup and on a clean white background as I wasn't a fan of the blue I used last time.

First up some clearer pictures of Morbidex Twiceborn.

Morbidex wouldn't be complete without a hoard of Nurglings.

Then we have my Blightkings, the first models I painted for this force and they still set the bar pretty high for painting.

The mandatory group of Plaguebearers, no Nurgle force is without these, very difficult to kill and great in some of the formations.

Some new miniatures, Chaos Knights with Mark of Nurgle, I went with Ensorcelled Weapons for the additional attacks and lower to hit, may have to make another group with chaos Glaives for hitting power on the charge. Pretty simple conversions from the basic knight kit with additional weapons and helms left over from my Blightkings. 

More Slaves to Darkness, this time some converted Warriors of Chaos. I really cannot stand the static Chaos warrior models, so I picked up some Bloodwarriors out of the AoS starter on Ebay, stripped them of the Khorne symbols, gave them chaos warrior shields, weapons and helms. Then quite a bit of greenstuffing later to hide my bad chopping and any remaining Khorne symbols we have these boys born. 

Then we have some converted beasties, these can be used as either Chaos Spawn or Beasts of Nurgle when the need arises though I've another of the one on the right on the go so these may be my beasts in stead whilst the green gribbly can be a spawn. Built out of Plague Drone bodies and a few arms plus bits from my bitz box and a lot of greenstuff again. These were a blast to make and great fun to paint. 

Finally we have the other characters in my hoard, a Plague Lord, slight conversion from the base model, new helmet from the Blighking box and I removed the big spikes on one shoulderpad and added a second pad on the other side. 

Rotbringer Sorcerer built from a spare body from the Maggothlord kit, legs from a spare Bloodstoker and more greenstuff. 

And my chaos lord, unfortunately they've dropped this combo from the Chaos Grand Alliance book but still it looks cool and I can always use the legacy warscroll. He's built from the other body from the Maggoth Lord box, legs from a Mighty Lord of Khorne and some spare axes from the Blightking box. 

Lastly I managed to grab a group shot, though this was a pain to light it does give a good feel for the force as a whole, it's very green and brown. 

Something extra

Due to the aformentioned green and brown I felt I needed a break the other week so I knocked out some Skullreapers for my Bloodbound force, love these models, I used the Wrathmonger heads as I prefer them and dropped the trophy racks as they didn't look right with the helmets.

What's next?

I've 3 Plaguedrones almost completed, just got the riders and bases to finish off, so they should be done early next week. I'm also working on painting my converted Epidemius which also should be finished next week.