Age of Sigmar - Hold or Die Batrep

Evening all, managed to sneak in a non GW store game tonight as phillion and my buddy Charlie popped round to grab a game of Age of Sigmar.

He's been working on some Sylvaneth so thought it would be great to get them on the table to show him how they perform and as I'd just finished up my starterset of Khorne with a few extras we were set for a reasonable sized game.

I'd selected Hold or Die from the first big book as I've seen a couple of batreps with it and it looked like a fun game, with a quick dice roll we decided that the Khorne would be the attackers and combined Sylvaneth and Stormcast force would be the defender.

Background:

The mighty Khorne Lord Ghorak the Slayer has been tracking a small force of Stormcast deep in the of Ghyran, his scouts have learned of a secret meeting between them and some kind of ancient forest spirit, the warband is summoned to break this alliance before it starts. Unknown to him a larger force of Stormcast and Sylvaneth is on route to secure the area.

Force Selection:

We used a simple selection system based on Ash Barkers of Guerilla Wargames Miniatures:
6-8 Warscrolls, max 70 wounds, 3 heroes or monsters, no more than 30 wounds per scroll.

The Stormcast:
Initial force:
Lord Relector
Branchwraith
6 Retributors

Reserve Force:
Lord Celestant on Dracoth
10 Liberators with Hammers and Shields
16 Dryads

Khorne Bloodbound:
Mighty Lord of Khorne
Bloodstoker
Bloodsecrator
Khorgorath
Scyla Anfingrimm
20 Bloodreavers
10 Bloodwarriors

Setup:

The forces of order pick a 9" circle centered on a small wooded grove and set up their Retributors, Lord Relector and Branchwraith in the wood.

The Bloodbound set up 12" away split into 2 roughly even groups.

All woods were nominated as Sylvaneth Woods and no other special terrain rules were used.

Turn 1:

After a short tactical discussion Charlie opts for first turn, dropping a mystic shield on the Retributors and then moving them back 4" away from the Khorne to maximise to distance between the forces whilst keeping their cover bonus. 

The Bloodbound warband surges forwards in response, the Bloodreavers driven forwards by the lash of the Bloodsecrator and Barking orders of the Khorne Lord forget their place and charge ahead of the main line into the Retributors, the Sylvaneth woods rattles to life killing several Bloodreavers as they enter.

The Bloodreavers literally bounced off the Retributors, a combination of a very poor dice roll and 2+ armour saves left the unscathed. The Retributors struck back with support from the Lord Relector killing 13 Bloodreavers and the rest fled the field. First Blood to the Stormcast. 

Turn 2:

The forces of Order won the initiative for the round,  Lord Relector called down Sigmar's fury onto the Bloodwrriors with a bolt of lightning killing one. On the left flank the reserve force turned up threatening the Khorne flank, luck for once was on Lord Ghoraks side and they failed to charge into combat.

Keenly aware of this new threat Lord Ghorak beseeched Khorne to aid him in battle and in a blinding flash a demonic legion arrived to bolster his forces (well it would have been a legion had I more models available, in reality I gained a unit of bloodletters and a demon prince with a mark of Khorne.

The forces of Chaos surged forwards to meet their foe. 

In the center Scyla and the Khorgorath managed to charge the retributors, The Khorne Lord and Bloodletters took on the Dryads and the Bloodwarriors veered off to tackle the retributors and Lord Celestant. The deamon prince clearly addled by his summoning failed his charge roll. 

The Bloodwarriors stuck first killing several Liberators and wounding the Lord Celestant, The Retributors in the center replied taking out the Khorgorath and wounding Scyla. The Ghorak the Mightly Lord of Khorne failed to live up to his name and managed to take out just 2 Dryads. The Dryads fought back and wounded the Chaos Lord several times and took out a Bloodletter. Scyla struck against the Retributors but failed to do enough damage to kill a single Retributor with some incredible poor dice rolls which started with just 5 attacks from 2D6+2...

The Lord Celestant struck back at the Blood Warriors killing several though they went down fighting wounding the Lord Celestant and killing another Liberator. The Bloodletters took out another couple of Dryads and we were into the battleshock phase. 

The last remaining Bloodwarrior fled the field, rolling a double 6 the Liberator unit supporting the Lord Celestant also fled the field. 

Unfortunately due to time constraints and hampered by tea being late and a powercut in battleround 2 losing us some time we had to end the game here. 

Postmatch thoughts:

I'd have loved to run a third turn as it would have been really bloody, with a number of Khorne heroes and the Deamon prince closing in on the Retributors and the Khorne Lord and Bloodletters engaged with the Dryads it could have been a close game. 

It was a really good game, a hard scenario for the attacker as you need to hit combat fast, I was hampered by some appalling dice rolling with didn't help my fight against the Retributors, in hindsight I shouldn't have charged into them as without the Meatripper Axes I was unlikely to do any damage. 

I also suffered from fairly poor deployment with all my heroes hanging about at the back and failing to make a meaningful impact on the battle. I didn't have the change to plant the banner as I realised that the Bloodreavers and Bloodwarriors would have both been out of range in the combat phase so I lost out on vital additional attack. 

I really love all the rules about calling on additional forces and in this case I could have placed an additional 6 deamon units if I'd have had the models available, though Charlie could have called on more stormcast to aid him in the following turn and would likely to have gained at least 1 unit to bolster his forces.

Lesson for the day: Retributors in terrain with Mystic Shield are dammed hard to kill if you don't have ranged attacks.

Been busier than my blog suggests... honest.

Thought I'd give a bit of an update as it's been rather quiet around here recently.

I had a few months off painting between the end of Jan and the end of May or build props for and run my annual love craft larp game.

After a little break from the stress that came along with it I've picked up the brushes again and headed off in a rather unusual direction.

Phillion if you're reading this its probably best you stop now...

I fancied a change and with the rumours of a new GW fantasy game back in June-ish I dug out a few old miniatures and started to play around with some ideas for realm of chaos type gaming.

Well Age of Sigmar finally landed and after a couple of weeks mulling it over I was finally convinced to part with some cash by the excellent youtube bat reps from Ash Barker, check out the guerilla miniature games youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbO4Vs1vlAA9hz7Ad7IMgug

Well I was still staunchly in the "I'll paint up the chaos for some small games" mentality but those stormcast are truly lovely models. I picked up the big book and had a read and some of the artwork and the new mythical based fluff really interested me.

With the summer holidays upon us and my wife and kids away for a week I managed to batter through the whole of the stormcast starter figures and a few extras. With these in hand I also headed to GW during the week and snuck a few games in.

Surprisingly it was really enjoyable, the structure and pace of the game is really good and the way troops work together means you do have to do some work on planning your move and stratagem. I've managed 5 games so far and the stormcast have only managed 2 victories, part of this is the widely publicised issues around the lack of points or a build structure, as I'm playing pick up games in GW stores (something I thought I'd never do again) there is still an element of powergaming going on with a win at all costs attitude.  I've only found a couple of players who really embrace the concept of AoS and scenario play so far.

It is not a strategic battle game, but then I didn't see WHFB as being one of those either, but it is a pretty good skirmish game and the background gets me interested in a way that Warmachine and Malefaux don't.

So I best show off my progress so far:

Lord-Celestant Vandus Hammerhand on his Dracoth

Lord Celestant on Foot

Lord Relictor

Lord Castalliant and Gryph-Hound

9 Liberators with Hammers and Shields including Prime with Grand-Hammer

5 Liberators with 2 Hammers including Prime with Grand-Blade

3 Units of Retributors with Primes

Unit of 6 Judicators including Prime with Shockbolt Bow

And onto the Chaos forces:

Bloodsecrator

Converted Bloodstoker

Unit of 10 Bloodwarriors including Chaos Champion with Gore-Glaive and Icon Bearer

Half the unit of Bloodreavers including Hornblower

A mighty Khorgorath

14 Ungor with spears including Halfhorn, Bannerbearer and Brayhorn

 That's probably more actual miniatures painted in 6 weeks than I've painted in several years, they're mainly up to gaming standard rather than my usual displace cabinet figures I use for skirmish so highlights are limited to 2 and there is minimal detailing where possible.

There is still plenty on the painting table:

3 Prosecutors (need their wings magnetising)
Mighty Khorne Lord
Second Bloodstoker
Khorne Deamon Prince
10 more Bloodreavers
10 Gors
Stonehorn
5 Liberators with Swords and Shields
5 Judicators with Crossbows
2 more Khorgorath
20 Marauders (to be converted from Bloodreavers)
2 Realmgates.

So I've loads to keep me busy and a number of upcoming releases I'm interested in.

So there'll be another update when I've finished this lot.

Wednesday night painting - 15mm hundred years war archers

 Well almost, I finished these archers on Wednesday night but didn't find the time to base them. Rather than just show them half finished I thought I'd base them and finish off a loads of basing detail as a job lot.

I spent a couple of weeks earlier in the month looking for archers that I liked, many of the 15mm ones didn't have anything that looked like a proper 6' longbow. I eventually came across these figures from minifigs. They're sold in packs of 8 of the same figure and I was after a more mixed up look so I ended up buying packs from both the Crecy and Agincourt ranges and picked up 5 packs, enough for 3 decent sized bases of archers.

In a similar way to the knights I wanted something to help identify them as English archers so I went with the majority of the miniatures having some kind of red clothing, certainly not uniform but as least distinguishing.

I'd tested some basing ideas last weekend and went for a less ranked up look, it fills the base out, gives a little room for dioramas and shows off the fronts of the miniatures a little more.

As I mentioned I'd based them as a job lot and so the knights and command stand are also finished:

I've recently moved to using graveyard earth (or what ever the new name for it is) as a base for dirt. This is mainly as its quite neutral and I can use it for pretty much anywhere in the world. European bases get more green verdant grass whilst middle eastern or African miniatures get sparcer dried grasses.

I used a spring static grass and mixed in a load of mininatur tufts to break up the ground a little. Not quite as nice as my brothers bases but will do for me.

Next up, either more archers or I may paint up a couple more pulp miniatures. Not sure yet.

Anyhow I'm off to Vapnartak show in York tomorrow, not really after anything in particular just for a wander.

Wednesday painting - 15mm Hundred Years war English Knights and Command

A bit of a cheat this week, I didn't paint these in 1 evening, more like 3. I was so keen to see how they came out i found some time over the weened and got the majority of the work done and  just finished them off and based them tonight.

My brother and I had a conversation over Christmas on possible scales and were debating the relative merits of 10mm vs 15mm, well me being an impetus bugger went ahead and ordered up some 15mm figures to see how they painted up.

First up we have 8 English knights, with the colour schemes I wanted the myriad of colours that heraldic knights come in but I also wanted something to identify the forces on the table so with the English  I went with at least half the unit in a red colour scheme with a couple of others thrown in. The French will be the same but in blue so you should be able to easily identify the two sides when the forces once a game breaks down into melee.

I tried something new this time and based the miniatures on large lolly sticks for painting and rebased them afterwards. This did allow me more freedom and access to the miniatures and made painting the heraldry much easier. I'll admit there the fine detail is all decals from Veni Vedi Vici, A coat of matt varnish should hide them well once I've finished basing them.

The knights are based on 8cm x 6cm bases mainly for impetus or sword and spear rules, possibly homebrew ones.

The command stand here represents Robert Ufford 1st Earl of Suffolk, unfortunately I mis-ordered and added a musician instead of another knight to wave his banner, so I have left a little room at the rear of his base to add a 3rd infantryman to this base so I can get a pretty banner on it. 

All in all I was pleasantly surprised at the speed and ease these painted up, about 7-8 hours work in total and the scale means that the heraldry is fairly easy to paint up without it having to be massively accurate. The miniatures are from Donnington's New Era range and are fairly good, I just grabbed a mix of knights and horses with little attention to their actual armour or armament. 

I've ordered some archers for the next unit as you can't field an English force without lots and lots of longbowmen, it just wouldn't be right.  

Wednesday Painting - More Pulp Adventurers

Another successful evening of painting, this time just the two miniatures but still in just under 3 hours I managed to knock these out to a pretty reasonable standard. 

Last time we kicked around some miniatures with pulp alley I notices a lack of random adventurer types, I've plenty of bad guys and groups of specific heroes and sidekicks but many of them were more suited to urban environments rather than stomping through the darkest jungles of South America. 

These two figures are from the Defenders of Lucknow set from Mutineer Miniatures, meant for 19th century rather than 20th I don't think they'd look too out of place even though the guy on the right has a rather antique rifle.

See you all next week.

Wednesday painting - Pulp Indians

Welcome to 2015 everyone, hope you all managed a restful and enjoyable festive period.

I've managed to start the year the way I mean to go on, slipping in a 3 hour painting session last night and managing to just about complete these 4 miniatures.

They're painted to match the rest of my pulp Kali Cult and bring some much needed ranged weaponry to the cult.

Figures are Bundalee Native infantry from Mutineers 28th Indian Mutiny range.

I noticed when packing themy away that I've not highlighted the red quite as much as the rest of the miniatures I've done to so I may pull them out 90 the cabinet tonight and add another highlight just to keep them consistent. 

Well that's it for this week, see you next Wednesday. Happy painting.

Festive Painting

Merry Christmas readers, hope you are all having a great time, enjoying your holiday, family, presents or whatever else you get up to when the world closed down for a couple of days.

Now I realise it's a couple of weeks since I last posted and I did say I would paint every Wednesday but with the festive period, shopping, wrapping and visiting family I've not painted just once a week. I have however managed to get some painting in this week whilst I'm off work and at home.

So I've not managed to paint one, or even two figures but a group of eight, pretty impressive for my rates of painting, I've probably managed around 10 hours of painting in total across 3 nights.

The figures of choice have been sat in my painting box for at least a couple of years, pretty much since they were released. I spotted them at a con and instantly saw their potential as pulp miniatures. The figures are from Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil war range (not a period I know much about), from the Republican forces sold as Assault Troops and Command, to me they leapt out as some kind of border guards.

I've kept the colours fairly muted as usual, some semblance of a uniform but with some miniatures in jackets and trousers and others in overalls I thing they've got a lovely militia like feel to them. They're not meant for any country in particular and have a couple of different skin tones in there to add to their usefulness. 

Not going to be any Wednesday figures this week either, so I should next be painting on the 7th Jan, when it's likely going to be some Indian riflemen to add to my Kali Cult for some ranged firepower so I'll see you then.

Weekly Miniature - Part 2

Well it's a day late but I managed to fit in another couple of minis this week, only managed two as my wife and kids are away overnight and so I got a decent amount of painting time in tonight.

It's yet another set of Pulp miniatures for Pulp Alley.

A Flight captain, I used Cpt Jack Harkness ish colours for this one, in keeping with my other pulp miniatures I've kept the tones quite muted and used a limited pallet.

I also managed to finish another hound miniature I found laying around, this time painted up as a rottweiler, a fearsome opponent to be sure. 

It's been a while

Welcome back,

With a hiatus of nearly 18 months of no real miniature related hobby time I'm back, with the birth of my second daughter and much of the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 being taken up organising an annual LARP event I run my time has been seriously limited, I've managed a few games in this period but that's about it.

Last weekend my Brother was up and we dusted off Pulp Alley one night and managed to get a good couple of games in (see his blog for the write up shortly) They were really enjoyable and have given me back a bit of my hobby mojo.

Whilst chatting to my Bro after the games I set myself the challenge of putting aside one night a week for painting, Wednesday for me is a pretty good one and so Wednesday has been declared painting night, once the kids are in bed I've about 2 hours of painting time so I'm going to aim to paint at least 1 miniature in this time from start to finish.

This may not seem like much but since we mainly play pulp adventures with half a dozen miniatures a side this is more than enough to keep filling out the collection and start clearing through the unpainted miniature pile.

Saying that this week is a bit of a bumper start, I had a number of models part painted or started and so in little over 2 hours I managed to get 3 figures painted.

The first is an Indian fella in some kind of colonial-esque uniform, a miniature from Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny range from a pack I picked up mainly for one miniature but this one seemed useful too. He'll be great for a pulp sidekick.

Next up are a pair of baggage camels, mounted up to be plot points for Pulp Alley. I think these are from Irregular miniatures, picked up at a show for about a pound each.

The bases are not quite finished but I'll likely do a larger batch of them together one night.

So until next week, have a good un.

Fantasy Alley

Morning all, its been a quiet period for me in gaming land, a combination of summer hobbies, hot weather and the desperate need just to sit and chill out a little means I've done little painting and modelling over the past couple of months.

I did however manage to introduce a friend of mine to wargaming, he's a D&D role player normally but has been increasingly interested in picking up miniatures and making terrain so I though it was about times to show him a proper game.

Pulp alley is my current favourite set, rules are simple enough to play, the card driven system if random events adds flavour and its perfect for small games.

As a big fantasy fan, I worked up a quick bit of fluff and background and after a half hours force selection and board set up we were ready in the garden beer in hand for an epic clash.

Our story starts with Akhmed the mad, a sorcerer of great power. He has been raiding Orcish villages for months, his black clad warriors carrying off anything of value. It would appear now he has all he needs to start some great sorcerous plan. It is now the Orcs decide to strike back, while he is distracted with greater plans the Orcs gather a handful of veteran warriors led by the half ogre Boris.

Akhmed's warriors must retrieve at least 3 of the items required for his sorcerous plan and return them to the circle of power in the middle of the board.

I only took a few photos unfortunately but they do illustrate some of the key points of the game:

Akhmed's warriors scatter to collect there items required for the ritual.

Akhmed summons a beast from the depths and turns the bridge into a perilous area.

The donkey sacrifice is more than a match for the orcs and several more join in to help get it under control.

Kazim bravely squares up to "big" Boris the half ogre.

The game seems to work really well in a fantasy setting, most of the pulpy cards still seemed to make sense and Neil and I had a great afternoon and I seem to have another fan of pulp alley.

Next up there will be some steampunk Alley as another friend of mine got some  miniatures from north star recently and wants to put them ton good use.