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.

More Age of Sigmar Painting

Lo all, another month has gone by and it's high time I showed off what has passed over the panting table this month. I was actually quite surprised how much I managed to get done since my last post, I hadn't realised so much was finished. 

First up is a converted Chaos Lord with Mark of Nurgle, converted from a spare Maggoth Lord, some axes and head from the Blightkings box and a spare set of legs from my second mighty lord of Khorne along with a little bit of greenstuff to give him a bloated belly with weeping wound. Also dug out an old resin cast base from when I used to cast in my spare time which neatly fits into the AoS fluff of Nurgle rampaging through the realm of life. 

Another single figure here, my Khorne Champion for a Realms of Chaos Campaign, converted from the Aspiring Deathbringer with a head and arm swap plus some greenstuff cloven hooves. 

A unit of converted Chaos Furies also for my Realm of Chaos warband, these were made from Deamonette of Slaanesh bodies and Tyranid Gargoyle wings.

Another converted unit, this time some Dwarf Irondrakes, mainly just the addition of some horns to their helmets and a suitably grimy paintjob gives my main Chaos force for AoS some much needed ranged attacks. 

More conversions for my Realm of Chaos warband, Some Bloodgor of Khorne, converted from some spare Gor bodies I already had and Axe arms from the Bloodwarrior box, these will use the bestigor rules in game but I felt that paired axes fits Khorne more. 

A basic unit of Bloodletters, picked up mainly for summoning, a quick and dirty battlefield ready colour scheme for them.

Finally, Nurgleings, thousands of them.... well 9 bases so far, I've kept each base to a limited palette of 3 main colours plus yellow boils, red wounds, pinkish tongues and innards along with bone horns, this should help tie then bases together without driving me mad painting the same colours again and again. I've another 7 bases to build yet and I'm likely to get more. 

Sorry, that was't quite it, I thought I'd slip in a quick picture of my completed Realms of Chaos warband in full, Not sure when Phil and I will get to start this off as lest time I spoke to him his order still hadn't arrived and he paints at a much slower pace than I do. Hopefully these guys will see the table sometime in the new year.

May do a Tzeentch warband while I'm waiting for him to catch up...

Anyhow I'm likely to slow down somewhat over the next month, I basecoated Morbidex Twiceborn with my airbrush yesterday and I'm planning on spending a reasonable amount of time on him to at least match my Blightkings if not painted a little better. 

Guess I'll see you in a months time. 

More painted Age of Sigmar Miniatures

Seems my painting speed has slowed right down in recent weeks, though I have spent quite a bit of time assembling more miniatures and also upped my painting quality as i get onto miniatures I really like rather than things I just want to get onto the gaming table. 

I've also taken the opportunity to rephotograph some of my khorne miniatures as I had my proper camera out rather than my phone. 

This weeks big win was finishing my Putrid Blightkings, fantastic figures and I was keen to give them a really great paint job. It eventually took almost 3 weeks from basecoat to basing them last night. I'm really chuffed with them learning a whole lot of new techniques while I painted them and testing out several of the GW Technical Paint range in the process. 

I think I really managed to catch the disease ridden nature of these miniatures with plenty of sores, brusing, puss ridden boils etc.

Next up we have a Ogur Stonehorn, I actually finished this over a month ago and it just missed the last cut of figures. It was the first time I've ever painted a model this size and I found it fairly difficult with the brushes I have, it took a lot of work to get a smooth colour whilst picking out all the detail. This guy still needs basing but I'm struggling to find a base bigh enough for him that's not round, I'm hoping to find a 120mm oval DS style base at some point. 

I ended up leaving the rider off the model, so I can choose weapon options depending on my opponent. I had planned to magnetise him but it actually doesn't really need it as he sits quite comfortably on top.

Next up I have a Daemon Prince I picked up on Ebay for a tenner, unfortunately he was already assembled for 40k and appeared to have been stuck together badly with superglue so he took quite a bit of tidying up to make him suitable. 

I ended up painted him in the same colours as my Khorne force though he's more likely to be an unaligned DP and I'll build a more Khorne like one in the future. 

Finally the remainder of my bloodbound, a second Bloodsecrator, Vekh the Flayer from the starter box.

And the Mighty Lord of Khorne, in my case this is Ghorak the Despoiler, scourge of the realm of Gyhran.

Ghoraks current hoard stands as the following, though I have loads more in the queue including 2 more khorgoraths.

Finally I've finished converting up some miniatures for my Age of Chaos warband to game with my brother. My Champion of Khorne, a slaughterpriest with a Bestial Face, HAnd of Khorne and Cloven Hooves. 

And a flock of Chaos Furies, these came out very nicely in my opinion and I've another 5 to build though only these 5 will be in the warband to begin with.

Next on the painting table is a unit of Bloodletters, they should be finished this week and I'm going to book in a session with one of the guys at my local GW to learn the basics of airbrushing before tackling my Maggoth Lord. 

Age of Chaos - A Realm of Chaos adventure with AoS

When it was first rumoured that WFB may be getting a face lift as a skirmish game I got genuinely excited about it, I'm a child of the 80s and got into gaming pretty early so I have fond memories of rogue trader and Realms of Chaos. So for the first time in 10 years I kept an eye on GW rumours.

Leaping forwards several months and AoS is released, massive lore change, new miniatures and a new system. I was initially disappointed GW didn't push out a really groundbreaking skirmish system, there are plenty of good systems about already and I really hoped that GW could do something amazing and move away from their to hit, to wound, save formula.

After a couple of weeks, an intro game and watching several youtube batreps with the new rules I decided to throw myself into it and pick up the starter, then several more miniatures, then I cleared out some old OOP stuff and bought even more.

I've played more AoS in the past few months than I've played wargames probably over the past year if not 2, it's pretty good. There are a few ambiguous rules, plenty of scope for taking the piss but as a small battle/large skirmish system it really floats my boat. The new Hero phase adds a lot to the game and the combat phase makes for some difficult decisions.

Sometime later I've circled back round to where I started and fancied running a bit of good old Realm of Chaos warband games. Luckily for my my ever patient Brother fancied a bit of that too and so we set off on our path to glory. I spent the last week putting together warband creation rules and converting a lot of the flavour of Realms of Chaos into AoS rules, with over 25 pages of tables and the need for plenty of dice I have a fairly reasonable system ready. I've just got to flesh out some of the post match stuff.

With phones in hand, and a pile of dice, Phyllion and I rolled up our starting warbands last night. The system is fairly easy going, you roll up your champion race and profile, add on weapon options, then a Chaos Attribute, Physical Attribute and Chaos Gift plus any spells etc you may get. Then take 5 rolls on the warband table discarding 2 rolls. With that you're left with a champion and 3 units with a maximum of 30 wounds to spread over them, champions, standards and musicians cost 1 additional wound to take. This seemed a fairly sensible way of limiting the warband mismatches and allowing some tailoring to miniatures you wanted to buy or convert.

I selected a follower of Khorne for my champion as I already have the starter set and a few additional miniatures. So here's what I have:

Ghalen the Merciless
A Human Slaughterpriest of Khorne

Move	Wounds	Save	Bravery
5"	4	5+	7

Armed with a BloodAxe

Melee Weapons
Weapon		Range	Attacks	To Hit	To Wound	Rend	Damage
Bloodaxe		2"	3	2+	3+	0	1

and the following abilities:

Mark of Khorne

Khorne Champions are bloodcrazed, you can add 1 to all hit rolls made by this model.

Included in profile above

Bestial Face: 

Enemies suffer -1 bravery when in combat with you

Cloven Hooves: 

Cosmetic attribute only

Hand of Khorne: 

The blessing of Khorne turns one of the champion’s limbs red with might. One attack made by the champion each combat phase gains D3 damage to its profile.

Prayers:

Imbue Strength: 

Calling upon the dark magics imbued into the weapons of his kin the priest calls forth the very power chaos into every strike. Roll a dice, on a roll of a 3 or more the chaos runes on the warriors weapons glow with unearthly power. Until your next hero phase, increase the rend characteristic of the units weapons by 1.

Boil Blood: 

Roll a dice, if the result is a 4 or higher, the prayer is answered, on a Roll of a 1 the priest is seen as unworthy and suffers a mortal wound. Pick an enemy unit within 12”. That unit suffers D6 mortal wounds, its warriors screeching in agony as superheated blood jets from their bodies.

And the Warband:

5 Bloodwarriors inc Champion and Icon Bearer

10 Bestigor (Bloodgore of Khorne) inc Gouge-Horn, Bannerbearer, Brayhorn

5 Chaos Furies

After a brief bit of head scratching Ghalen gained the following background:

Ghalen, was once a holyman from a small hill tribes from the great northern hills in Ghur and worshipper of the great beast that slumbered. Under the constant threat of attacks by Orruk and Ogur warbands the nomadic tribe travelled endlessly on the backs of great beasts of burden. Following a vicious attack Ghalen fled from the village and into the Darkthorne Woods, after several days stumbling through the dangerous undergrowth he stumbled upon a clearing which contained a great stone monolith. As he approached the icon he was beset by a band of Goatheaded beasts, in a blind rage he managed to kill several of them and as he stood blood dripping down his face, waiting for the next attack the grove rumbled to life, a red glow eminated form the stone monolith embracing Ghalen filling him with vigur and hatred. Hefting one of the creatures axes he lay into them taking head after head until only a handful remained. Embracing his as their champion, Ghalen had found a new god and his first followers, thus began his path to glory.

During a skirmish in Shadyhollow Ghalen slew the Orruk chieftain Uzgub, whilst chanting battlecrys in the dark tongue he found his enemies fall to the ground as boiling blood erupted from their bodies, and thus Khorne was pleased and gifted Ghalen with a great rune of Khorne, new followers flocked to join him, powerful armoured warriors loyal to his lord. Durring a grulling pitched battle through the Ironshard hills he encountered a flock of carrion deamons, bending them to his will his warband again swelled in number. Khorne gifted him with a bestial face and cloven hooves in recognition of his triumphs. On the shores of the rust river the warband slaughtered an entire village leaving the river awash with corpses and red with blood, Ghalen, injured in the battle found his left arm knit back together, his skin turning red and thrummed with power.  

And that's where he is today, travelling the realms gathering skulls for his master. 

Modelling time

I've decided to use the Aspiring Deathbringer for Ghalen himself rather than the new slaughterpriest miniature, mainly as he's not holding onto his weapon with both hand which will make future conversions easier. 

 To represent his bestial face I'm going with a stormvermin champion head as it looked appropriately vicious.

And for the Hand of Khorne a swap out of his punchdagger/shield for a Bloodletter forearm and hand

The cloven hooves I'll just model on with some greenstuff and that's probably it to begin with, I don't want to over model him at the moment as there will be plenty of time for more attributes or gifts. 

The Bloodwarriors will come from my existing collection:

And the bestigor will be converted from some beastmen I already have, adding double handed weapons from the Bloodreaver box, bit's of additional armour, some daemonic tails and a few horn modifications. 

The furies will be conversions from Daemonettes with Tyranid Gargoyle wings, and will look something like this:

From here: 

http://simonfisherrofl.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/furious-fallen-angels-wip-furies.html

I really like the fact the wings replace the arms on these guys rather than in addition to, makes them appear more animal like to me. 

So that's it, I'm sure my brother will blog his warband as it's gets built, we're aiming for a first game around Christmas to test it out properly, no doubt I'll try and rope some local gamers into it too. 

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.