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.

Age of Sigmar Battlereport - Sylvaneth and Stormcast vs Khorne Bloodbound

Once again myself and Charlie managed to sneak a game in during the week. The venue for this small clash is GW leeds which appears now to have no other AoS gamers. A pity.

Background
Deep in the woods of Ghyran the Lord Celestant and his Sylvaneth allies have stumbled across a blasted glade. A powerful icon of chaos spreads death and destruction before it and as it's worshippers gather strange discordant blasts roll across the glade felling yet more trees.

Although short on numbers the Lord Celestant is guaranteed further reinforcements by the Ancient Treelord so they prepare to clear this area of the invaders.

On seeing the approaching foe the Mighty Khorne Lord gathers his motley forces together around the artifact.  They know they must crush these attackers and prevent them from destroying the icon.

The Game
After our last game we opted for a simpler scenario this time to allow us to get well into the game in the time we had.

The scenario was Spllbreakers from the Quest for Ghal Maraz book, as I'd been the attacker in all 3 in our previous games I chose to be defender for this one forcing those treeman to leave the safety of their wildwoods and come to me.

The Victory conditions were simple, the Sylvaneth/Stormcsst force had to destroy the icon before I managed to take out 75% of his force (23 models)

We used clash comp to balance the forces going for a 12 point cap for our starting force but using no other comp rules other than base to base measurement.

The Forces

Sylvaneth and Stormcast

Branchwraith

Treelord Ancient

Lord Celestant on Dracoth

20 Dryads

5 Retributors

5 Judicators

Khorne Bloodbound

Mighty Lord of Khorne

Bloodsecrator

Brayshaman

10 Bloodwarriors

15 Bloodreavers

10 Corrupted Duerdin Irondrakes

Stonehorn

As the sylvaneth could essentially replace casualties each turn I also kept a summoning sideboard of 10 bloodletters and 5 Furies in case I took a real mullering.

Battle round 1

I won the roll for first turn and opted to go second hoping to get a double turn and break the back of the attack.

Sylvaneth Turn 1

The Lord Celestant held his hammer high and issued commands to his host not to flee the field. The treelord summoned a mighty magical shield to protect the Dryads.

So with that the Stormcast and Sylvaneth made a steady advance across the board.

The Judicators loosed arrows towards the Bloodreavers but only managed to slay 2.

Khorne Turn 1

With a mighty roar the Bloodsecrator planted the Portal of Skulls and the Khorne warband surged forwards taking the attack to their foe.

The Corrupted Duerdin fired a volley at the Lord Celestant at the head of the enemy army and wounded him. Then with a stamping of feet the hoard surged again, and stumbled. The Stonehorn and Bloodwarriors failed to judge the distance to their foes and didn't make their charge. The Bloodreavers however did make it to the Lord Celestant and battle was met.

The fury of the Bloodreavers driven by the Portal of Skulls seemed to almost overwhelm the Lord Celestant driving him back, his Sigmarite armour only just saving him from certain death.

In response he swung his mighty hammer and in one blow slew six of these unarmoured barbarians, his dracoth tearing apart two more. He was a mights foe indeed.

Battle round 2
Khorne wins initiative and takes the first turn.

Khorne turn 2

With the portal of Skulls plant firmly in the ground the mighty lord of Khorne urges his warriors forward determined to close the distance to meet their foe with steel.

The Brayshaman realising his magic was compromised by the banner swiftly moved away.

With roll of gunfire the Corrupted Irondrakes fire upon the Lord Celestant again further wounding him.

The Stonehorn bellows and charges forward into the Dryads followed swiftly by the Bloodwarriors.

The Bloodreavers tore at the Lord Celestant dragging him from his mount and beating him to the ground.

Back with the Stonehorn it crushes the unit of Dryads almost single-handedly with the Bloodwarriors finishing off the final ones.

Sylvaneth Turn 2

Calling out to the spirits the Branchwraith summons forth ten more Dryads.

Shots from the Judicators streak into the Stonehorn scorching it's skin but with little real effect.

The Dryads advance towards the icon of chaos avoiding the Mighty Lord of Khorne.

Stepping into the forest the Treelord ancient becomes one with the forest and reappears near the Bloodsecrator.

The Retributors charge into combat their hammers crackling with lightning. Striking the Stonehorn hard they begin to chip away at it.

Exhausted by his journey through the Sylvaneth paths the Treelord fails to charge into the Bloodsecrator.

At this point I had killed 23 models and the game was officially mine, but with 20 mins to go before we had to pack up we played on to see where the game took us.

Battle round 3
Sylvaneth win initiative

Sylvaneth Turn 1
Once again the Branchwraith calls to the spirits of the forest and summons a further 5 Dryads.

With more shots from the Judicators finding their mark on the Stonehorn it was really beginning to feel the damage.

Ten Dryads manage to make it to the Icon and begin tearing at it.

The Treelord thunders across to the Bloodsecrator, but he holds his balance and deftly avoids much of the incoming damage striking back and wounding it.

The Stonehorn and Bloodwarriors trade blows with the Retributors and wipe out the unit with only minimal losses.

The Khorne Lord was charged by the smaller unit of Dryads but managed to get his strikes in first and wiped them out.

With only a single wound caused on the Icon and Chaos to fight next the Khorne victory was assured so we ended the game to give us a little time to check out some options for model purchases.


Post match
Finally Charlie and I managed to play a game to conclusion, we've been scuppered by late starts due to traffic, power cuts and all sorts.

It was a good game, we didn't bother using the terrain or time of war rules other than the Wildwoods this time to allow us to focus on learning our stats. This kept the game time to a minimum as we do only have abut an hour and a half before the store starts to close up. We may have to investigate other venues for gaming if we want to play for longer but the Leeds store is fairly convenient. It's a pity the staff don't really support the game as well as they could especially since its supposed to be the thing that helps turn around GWs fortunes.

My tactic of targeting his 1 wound models first really gained me the game. Charles game was solid and I suspect the next battle round would have swung it his way especially if his Treelord had finished off my Bloodsecrator in my half of battle round 3 as he would have been free to charge the icon as well.

My major tactical error was placing my Brayshaman so close to the Bloodsecrator, he failed to get a single spell off all game and so was a wasted selection really.

I'm still not impressed with the Bloodreavers even boosted with the totem the lack of rend means they suffer when up against a well armoured foe (both the Lord Celestant and the Dryads had 3+ saves so I cost to tie the Lord Celestant up for a couple of turns). As I hated painting them I really doubt I'll go for the double handed option so will likely drop then for more elite troops.

Age of Sigmar does seem to suit lower model count more elite armies so I picked up some Skullreapers while I was in store to add to my force.

The Duerdin didn't do fantastically but I do appreciate having some firepower in the force. It would have helped if I had been able to keep them stood still for a turn but I had to get then out of the wood to stop them taking mortal wounds.

The Stonehorn was the undisputed champion here. Very tough and he really does hit hard. Supported by the Bloodwarriors and close to the tower ment that Charlie couldn't lap around to gain the numerical advantage so limited the number of incoming attacks quite substantially. I suspect that had the Retributors been able to get their full number into combat they'd have done a solid job of taking him down.

I'm tempted by a Slaughterpriest as well, I've previously dismissed him but one of his abilities allows you to drag an enemy unit forward making charging into combat much more likely with the added benefit of disrupting battle lines as well.

Chatting to Charlie post game he's quite taken by the Seraphon and was looking at the nee getting started box and a Slaan to get him off the ground, it'll be an interesting change to the line up and could give me trouble as the Slaan are fairly powerful, I'm only blessed by Charles slow painting speed and starting model count which means that I won't be swarmed with summoned units for some time yet.

I've another post to make later on with some newly painted units for my Nurgle forces.

Age of Sigmar Bat rep - The Ritual

With a weekend down at my brothers I thought I'd introduce him to Age of Sigmar, we played a lot of Warhammer when we were kids and over time both wandered away from it mainly to play historicals and other fantasy and scifi games.

With 3 options of forces Phil opted for Stormcast eternals.

Background

The Rotbringer host of Morbidex Twiceborn has discovered an ancient circle of power within an open glade in Ghyran, the realm of life. The skies darken as his Brayshaman, Morak begins a ritual to summon forth daemonic forces to aid their conquest.

Clouds boils and thunder strikes, trees at the edge of the glade burst into flames, the smoke clears a little and from the destruction stride giant silver armoured warriors. Morbidex readies the small force he has andd moves to intercept, trying to grant Morak as much time as is needed to complete the ritual.

Our game was to be played with the Rotwater blight Time of War rules and the Battleplan was of course The Ritual.

The Forces:
Rotbringers
Morbidex Twiceborn
1 Unit of 3 Nurglings
1 Unit of 7 Blightkings
1 Brayshaman

Stormcast
Lord Celestant on Dracoth
Lord Relictor
5 Retributors
10 Liberators
5 Judicators


Battleround 1
Stormcast Turn
Under the command of Lord Celestant Jargus Thunderborn, the Stormcast forces surge forwards, with most of their abilities and weapons out of range there is little else they can do just yet.

Chaos Turn
The forces of chaos hold back awaiting the Stormcast warriors. Out of the guts of Morbidex three additional swarms of Nurglings are spawned, t hey gibber and yell heading off to meet their kin and moving up the battlefield, keen to cause mischief.

Battleround 2
Stormcast win initiative

Stormcast Turn
The Stormcast force once again moves up, with the Judicators in range a hail of arrows shoot forth and wounds a Putrid Blightking. The Retributors gain pace and slam into the gibbering Nurglings their mighty hammers crashing down to little effect, the mischievous imps darting left and right out of their way.

Chaos Turn
With a mighty belch Morbidex's maggoth vomits up more swarms of nuglings who scurry off to bolster the center of the force. Heaving forwards the mighty maggoth crashes into the Stormcast Retributors, it's monstrous claws and Morbidex's Fleshreaper Scythe cleaving through 2 of their armoured foe.

Battleround 3
Stormcast win initiative

Stormcast Turn
The main stormcast line continues it's march towards the Blightkings, lightning flashes from the Lord-Celestants Dracoth scorching down Morbidex's side and blasting several Nurglings apart just as a hail of arrows flies overhead burying themselves deep into the Maggoth Lord.

The Lord Celestant Jargus urges his Cracoth forward, it's clawed feet pound across the field of battle and they crash into the Putrid Blightkings, between them several of the plague-ridden warriors are cut down.

Chaos Turn
Crawling out from unspeakable places more Nurglings join their brethren, the fight between the Maggothlord, Retributors and Nurglings decends into a stalemate, covered in slick mud and slime blows appear to bounce off one another

The Blightkings continue to hammer at the the Lord Celestant, wounding him in return his great hammer dispatches another one. 

Battleround 4
Chaos win initiative


Chaos Turn
Seizing the opportunity Morak redoubles his efforts, calling forth a mighty daemon from the other realm, the clouds roll and groan with power, but clearly the time is not right and the summoning fails.

Across the rest of the field of battle little ground is gained by either side, a couple of Retributors fall to the might of the Maggoth Lord and tiny clawed hands of the Nurglings.


Stormcast Turn
Drawing their mighty skybolt bows back the Judicators launch a devastating hail of arrows across the battlefield, the mighty Maggoth topples over, it's rotten flesh pierced by arrows and scorched by chained lightning.

With the armoured support of the Liberators joining the fight, they and the Lord Celestant slays the last remaining Blightkings.

This set of events does not bode well for the forces of Chaos.

Battleround 5
Chaos win initiative

Chaos Turn
Morak the mighty Bray shaman calls upon the power of chaos and summons a Deamon Prince to aid them. The greyskinned daemon roared and charged into Lord-Celestant Jargus, with a mighty swing of his Hellforged Blade he slew the celestial warrior.

The Liberators continue their struggle with the hoard of Nurglings, the impish creatures proving difficult to slay as flesh knitted itself back together and their numbers seem to ever grow. 

Stormcast Turn
Taking command Lord Relictor Kuldor calls upon Sigmar to aid them against the monstrosity that appeared before them, in a blinding flash of light a unit of Retributors appears, armour crackling with with Sigmar's Wrath.

Once again the Judicators take aim and rain arrows down upon the Daemon Prince, arrows tearing at his flesh it appears to be seriously wounded.

Hefting up their mighty hammers the Retributors charge in, with a deafening crash their hammers hit home and finish the daemon prince off, it's physical form exploding outwards in a shower of filth as it is dragged back to the Warp.

Turn 6
Stormcast win iniative

Stormcast Turn
Their hammers lashing out once again the Retributors mop up one of the swarms of Nurglings.

Having broken free of combat, Lord Relictor Kuldor surveys the battlefield with only a handful of Nurglings and a Bray shaman left it appear to be all over for the forces of chaos. The ritual had failed and the Stormcast were victorious.


Post Game Thoughts

I really enjoyed this game, the forces seemed dwell balanced (I sense checked the points on both Clash Comp and SDK but without balancing 100%) I'd added the Brayshaman in to help with the ritual knowing he could summon but resisted it until quite late in the day when the tide seemed to be turning against me.

We forgot a whole host of rules, several of the Time of War ones, especially Help me Grandfather Nurgle, which may have saved Morbidex from death.

Not sure my brother was as impressed with the game, whether it was the ruleset or just the end of a long day his heart didn't seem quite in it. Clearly I'm going to have to draw out more childish enthusiasm from him and get him pumping his chest and yelling "For Sigmar"....

We did on the other hand have a number of interesting conversations over the weekend, I've always said that I like the flow of Age of Sigmar but the rules themselves were a little weak and should really have been delivered as a modern exciting set of rules. Our main dislikes:

• Rules upon Rules - Each Warscroll, Time of War and Scenario has a host of additional rules which have to be applied on top of the 4 pages of core rules, this makes it difficult to remember everything that needs to happen. 
• Lack of Standardisation - A lot of effort could have been saved by standardising certain rules such as unit leaders, banners and musicians to have the same effect no matter the unit. This would simplify the rules further and remove the need to check warscrolls each time. 
• Randomness - At times the game is just too random, effects such as the retributors hammer ability should be something you can rely on, this would make clear tactical decisions to be taken about how and when to commit rather than chucking them in and hoping for the best. The difference in capability from the first and second unit of Retributors was really visible here, one unit got bogged down and eventually killed by a unit of nurglings, the other unit jumped in killed a Daemon Prince and several bases of Nurglings in a single turn. 
• Dice, so many Dice - It is possible to have to roll upto 6 sets of dice for a single combat resolution, Random Attacks, To Hit, To Wound, Save, Damage Roll, Wound/Mortal Wound Save. This really adds to the randomness mentioned above. One of the worst offenders in the game is a Bloodthirster, with 4 attacks and D6 damage it's really unreliable, even if all 4 attacks hit, wound and saves are failed you can do between 4 and 24 wounds in a turn, that's a pretty wide range. 

On the flip side, whilst we were discussing the rules and playing other games on Sunday I realised I was tackling the game a little wrongly, it's a framework of rules with additional modules that can be used, rather than a complete set of rules with addons. A subtle difference but it gave me an idea on how to tackle it; Some kind of battleboard for each player, with reminders for the additional abilities you gain at various phases dependent on Scenario, Time of War rules etc.

I also need to make a set of tokens for the game fairly urgently also to act as reminders for effects.

Anyhow, I'm sure you'll see something from my Brother on this, either on his blog (http://infrequentwargamer.blogspot.co.uk/) or in the comments below.

I've signed up to the Analogue Hobbies annual painting competition (http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/), not that I need much spurring on this year. The next couple of weeks will be filled with me prepping more miniatures for this so I can thunder through them over the next 3 months, so far I have planned:

3 Bile Troll Conversions
5 Chaos Knights of Nurgle
5 Furies
10 PlagueBearers
3 Blight Drones
2 Beasts of Nurgle/Spawn Conversions
Khorne Lord on Juggernaught
2 Khorgorath
Unit of Pestigor
Several Bases of 15mm 100 years war
Probably some pulp bits
Some 28mm Napoleonics
Anything I get for Christmas.

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.

The Tomb of Ahmet Raa - A Pulp Alley AAR

Our first game on of the weekend takes our two groups of adventurers to Egypt, to locate the lost treasure of Ahmet Raa. Both groups have had a tip off from an anonymous caller as to the whereabouts of the tomb entrance and the fortune in treasure that lays within.

The Major Plot Point for this scenario is the Colossal Tomb of Ahmet Raa, and the minor plot points are; Ceremonial Hieroglyphs, Disassembled Survey Equipment, The Jeweled Orb and Smuggled Explosives

Our adventuring parties include:

Butch Sullivan's League of Adventurers, featuring the brave, talented and ever ready Butch Sullivan, his partner in crime Lauren Stone and regular adventuring buddies, Kazim of the Umbaku tribe, Marcus, Akhmed the eagle-eyed and finally Indiana the dog.

Société des Antiquaires de France led by Captain Jerome Lefranc, ex French foreign legion and now leader of the society's expeditions, Andriy Shukhevych the eastern European muscle of the party, Veronique Dujardin our dangerous same and mooks Gerard and Joseph.

Andriy and Joseph move up towards one of the the Orb, Akhmed lives up to his name and takes a potshot at Joseph, wounding the Frenchman, looks like he may be down for a while.

Lauren moves up through a perilous area of old crumbling pillars, she deftly dodges out of the way of some falling masonry and makes it through safely.

Andriy reaches out to grab there sacred Orb, a snake slithers out from among the trinkets and attacks him. In a show of strength Andriy strangles the beast with his bare hands. Collecting the orb he stashes it safely and takes up position behind the plinth.

Butch make his move forward and stumbles on something buried beneath the sands, kicking the dirt aside he uncovered a discarded crate, the marking on the sides suggest the contents are explosive. With a swift boot Butch smashes through the lid and he retrieves several sticks of dynamite.

Captain Lefranc steps out from a stack of crates and with a single shot downs Kazim as he makes his way around the sphinx.

Veronique makes her way over to the crates and with deductive cunning she reassembles the surveying equipment and she soon moves away back to cover.

Gustav makes a brave attack on Indiana but the larger dog clearly has the advantage and savages poor gustav.

Lauren bravely moves up weaving along the side of the Sphinx and taking aim she squeezes off a shot against Veronique, with an uncomfortable click Lauren realises too late that her pistols are out of ammo and the chance is wasted. Nearby the taste of blood enrages Indiana who rushes Gerard and the two engage in a deadly melee.

Lauren moves up to provide some cover but Andriy quickly closed the gap and swings and the adventuress, Lauren has some moves of her own and deftly breaks away from his attack.

Butch seizes his chance and makes a dash for the tomb entrance, lighting the dynamite he steps out of the way and a mighty explosion destroys the seal and grants entry to the treasure inside.

Butch and his team recover the lost treasure of Ibis hidden within Ah met Raa's tomb.

End of Game roundup:
This was my Brother and I's first real game of Pulp Alley, generally it all seemed to work really well, I love the added fun the cards grant and the mechanism of the perils seems to work well.

We did find that sometimes the challenges seemed a little easy due to the random draw and so for more major plot points we may draw 2 cards or some such.

The only other thing we struggled with was remembering who had the initiative and when you took it from each other, I suppose we'll just get used to it over time.