Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Sylvaneth and Nighthaunt in Dolorum

For the first game of the year, Amanda and I played a game of Age of Sigmar in the Spearhead format. I am less keen on Spearhead these days, but I had recently finished painting the Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehorde, so Amanda gathered her Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse and gave battle. We played in Shyish using the Sand & Bone gaming pack and fought in Dolorum. 

Amanda found it a little confusing to switch back to Spearhead, because so many things are just slightly different than regular Age of Sigmar, which she was just starting to get her head around... 

I've liked trying to type up narrative reports for these games, rather than simply a play by play of what was going on in the game... but it's so hard to make up any sort of narrative that makes sense of the wild back and forth movements to snatch objective areas from opponents from turn to turn in games of Spearhead. So... 

Amanda was the attacker and chose to go second, which was probably a mistake. The Nighthaunts are CRAZY fast and on my first turn I was across the table and fighting all her forces in her territory vying for control of the objectives in her territory... and scoring a lot of points in the process. 

The Twist for there first round was players scored a bonus victory point for each friendly unit in combat at the end of their turn. 

Harald, the Spirit Torment, General of the Cursed Shacklehorde failed his charge roll and was kind of left behind...  (calling this Spirit Torment Harald because that's the name of Amanda's Spirit Torment character in our What We Do in the Realm of Shadows role-playing campaign) 

The Chainghasts charged the Tree-Revenants on one of the objectives I was holding a victory point card for... they REALLY needed the Spirit Torment to have joined them to a) hopefully destroy a few Tree-Revenants and b) provide a few more control points...  

The Dreadblade Harrows charged the Treelord, hoping to distract the Treelord from the Chaingasts and/or score the "be within 3" of the enemy long edge" scoring card which I also held. 

The rest charged the Kurnothi Hunters and Branchwych... 

So my whole army (less the Spirit Torment General) Was deep in enemy territory on round one engaging them on their objective markers... 

I ended up scoring 7 points at the end of my turn... three for units engaged two or three for objectives...? and one or two for cards. 

By the end of her turn which followed Amanda had killed both the Dreadblade Harrows and the Chainghasts... 

and I'd killed the Branchwych... 

And the Kurnothi had used Strike and Fade to teleport out of combat... so she gained NO points for units in combat (the twist bonus), two for holding objectives and one for cards... 

which put me in a four point lead at the end of the first round... 

At the beginning of the second turn, Amanda won the Priority Roll and decided to take a double turn (going first in Round Two after going second in the first). The penalty for this was not being able to draw new cards.. but she was still holding two from the previous turn, so.. 

All her army on the move... 

and then suddenly converging on Harald! 

Seriously, I though naming my General Harald - after her character in the role-playing game, saying this was back before the campaign when Harald lead an entire army, would mean my General would be safe and Amanda would leave him be! Not so!!

LUCKILY, I was holding the card with the command ability "translucent flesh" which makes any attacks that target a selected unit not cound any rolls of 1-2-3 to hit or wound!? This TOTALLY saved Harald!!

And then he retreated out of there as quick as he could on my next turn! Running for the protection of a reserve unit of Dreadscythe Harridans that had just entered the field of battle, seizing one of the Sylvaneth's objectives! 

The Sylvaneth split up and went off to seize other objective and destroy other units of mine... 

The Treelord went after the remains of the Dreadscythe Harridan unit that had started on the table at the beginning of the game. 

Both the Dreadscythe Harridans and Bladegheist Revenants - which are normally fielded in units of 10, in regular Age of Sigmar - are broken up into two units of five and one of each of those units remains in reserve at the beginning of the game and starting on Round Two I can bring ONE of them on as reserves in my movement phase... 

Kurnoth Hunters and Tree-Revenants went after the Bladegheist Revenants... but both failed charge rolls. 

The Treelord did not and the last of those Dreadscythe Harridans were destroyed! 

The following turn the Tree-Revenants charged the Bladegheist Revenants and did them in over two turns of fighting.

The Kurnoth Hunters moved on an obejective I was holding with two reinforcement Dreadscythe Harridans.. They didn't charge. They didn't need to... they each had a toe on the Objective and had a higher control score, so they flipped the control on that objective at the end of their turn... 

Having secured the objective in the corner, the Treelord returned to the middle of the battlefield to secure the objective there... Some newly arrived Bladegheist Revenant reserves charged the massive creature thinking they might take it down... 

ha... 

Dreadscythe Harridans weren't going to take that objective back just standing there and charged... and one got destroyed, further consolodating the Sylvaneth hold on the objective (kind of forgot the Kurnoth had FIVE WOUNDS and 4+ saves... ) 

The Dreadscythe Harridans joined in... but they couldn't even carve their initials on that giant tree, let along fell it! 

that last Bladegheist Revenant went down fighting... and took exactly ZERO Tree-Revenants with them... it kept dealing ONE damage... which the Tree-revenants would immediately heal at the end of the turn after the Combat Phase because they were within 3" of Terrain!?

I did manage to squeak out a victory - in terms of victory points (20-16) - largely because I'd take that lead in the first round and then we both scored about the same every turn for the rest of the game - Amanda slowly scoring more each round, me slowly scoring less... but she just couldn't score enough to catch up! There was very little left of my force at the end of the game... while most of Amanda's army was still on the field of battle... If more rounds were played I'd have certainly lost! 

I'd really like to try these out in regular Age of Sigmar - as a Path to Glory force... I'm not sure they'd be all that effective, but I think they'd be fun and interesting!!

I'm quite behind on game reports... I have several drafts for games played in December (and one from October?!) that I'd like to finish up!? There is the Finale for the Ravaged Coast campaign, two episodes of the What We Do in the Realm of Shadows role-playing game, two Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Journeys - hunting down Kritza the Rat Prince, the aforementioned Bolt Action game played in October, and a test game of Warhammer Quest: Darkwater?!

I hope I get a chance to get a few of them done this week. I'd REALLY like to, at least, get the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City reports done BEFORE the next Cursed City game on Tuesday! We shall see... 

Scriptor Mortis and Craventhrone Guard

As there wasn't anything I NEEDED for a game coming up within the next week... I thought I'd knock out these few things that I thought were the last of the Nighthaunt that I owned that still needed painting (I was wrong on this account, I forgot that I still have four Myrmourn Banshees - and the The Headsmen’s Curse Warhammer Underworlds warband... not that they're all that useful in Age of Sigmar... but they're Nighthaunts and I still have them!) 

Scriptor Mortis and Craventhrone Guard

Scriptor Mortis - this gives me a second Hero that can lead a regiment. (The other Nighthaunt hero I have is the Spirit Torment). Unfortunately, neither of them are wizards... 

 Craventhrone Guard

ALL THE NIGHTHAUNTS (so far...)

Heroes

• Scriptor Mortis (1)  120 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry - This Hero can join an eligible regiment as a Cursed Soul.
• Spirit Torment (1) 120 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry - This Hero can join an eligible regiment as a Cursed Soul.

Total: 240

Units

• Bladegheist Revenants (10) 210 - Infantry
• Chainghasts (2) 90 - Infantry - This unit cannot be reinforced.
• Chainrasps (10) 110 - Infantry
• Craventhrone Guard (5)  110 -  Infantry
• Dreadblade Harrows (2) 150 - Cavalry
• Dreadscythe Harridans (10) 210 - Infantry
• Glaivewraith Stalkers (4) 100 - Infantry - This unit will move to Warhammer Legends on 1 June 2026.
• Myrmourn Banshees (4) 100 -  Infantry

Total: 1080

ARMY TOTAL: 1320

As mentioned I DO still have a second unit of Myrmourn Banshees to finish up! But I also just realized that the Glaivewraith Stalkers are being phased out and moved to "Legends"... 

I also have two old metal Wraiths that I'd been considering nominally part of this army (as Tomb Wraiths!), but have also noticed they they are being discontinued and phased out and not included in the Battletome... 

Still, I have PLENTY for a starter Path to Glory army... not that I'm PLANNING to use them in Path to Glory any time SOON...

I technically can't field the Dreadblade Harrows (unless I field it as an auxiliary unit... but that's just generally a bad idea...), because the two Heroes I have can only include Infantry units in their regiments. to properly field them I'd need something that can lead Cavalry or ANY Nighthaunt... I'd love to get a Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed... but they're only available in a box with two other Heroes that I just do NOT need for $100!? Maybe I'll find a used one for a not-totally-unreasonable price... 

Game Plan 2026 - Q1

New Year, New Plans... 

(that look startlingly similar to the Previous Plans!?) 

With these Quarterly Plans I usually take a look back at the previous three months and how that matched (or didn't match) what was outlined in the previous quarterly plans, and then make some plans (albiet vague and/or half-baked) about what I might get up to over the next three. 

As I just took a look back at the ENTIRE YEAR with the PREVIOUS POST, the look back at past quarter shall be brief. 

2025 - Q4 In Review

GAMES

 I planed to play some games...

According to Board Game Geek, I played: 

• Warhammer Age Of Sigmar (Fourth Edition): Core Rules x19
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions Trading Card Game x12
• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x9
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound x4
• Pergola x2
• Bolt Action: Third Edition x1
• Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition) x1
• Warhammer Quest: Darkwater x1

Forty-Nine Games!

Warhammer Quest

The plan was to keep playing Warhammer Quest: Cursed City and finish up the Night Wars campaign. We played nine more games of the Night Wars and will probably be done in 3 more sessions.

Beyond that, there was some guessing as to whether we'd continue with playing Warhammer Quest... Would I go back and finish up the miniatures for Silver Tower and play that...? Would we endeavour to finish up all the Blackstone Fortress expansions...? Would there be a NEW Warhammer Quest...!?

A new Warhammer Quest WAS announced only one week into the Fourth Quarter... but there was no date attached to it. I DESPERATELY hoped it would be released in the following month or so, so I would have a chance to paint up all the miniatures BEFORE we even finished the Cursed City Night Wars campaign! 

In the end, Warhammer Quest: Darkwater was released in early December and I have gotten a fair few of the miniatures painted (and even played a test game) and will be fully ready to play through a full campaign by the time we're done Cursed City

Age of Sigmar

Generally the plan was to continue playing Age of Sigmar: Spearhead, as I'd started doing again through Q3. I wanted to keep with playing Spearhead (even though it isn't my favourite format of play) mostly to get all the basic rules for Age of Sigmar solid in my head, and to keep motivation up to PAINT all of the Spearhead forces I'd acquired, AND to try out as many of the different armies as I could enough times to get a sense of what I really wanted to focus on building up to a larger army to play Path to Glory with... 

I ended up playing only five more games of Spearhead, then just started playing regular Age of Sigmar 

I started a small campaign with Amanda (Methervale Campaign) initially using the Ascension Path to Glory rules from the Core Rulebook, but then later adopting most of the rules from Path to Glory: Blighted Wilds after it was released. We've played three games of that, so far... and I've been thoroughly enjoying it and hope we continue on into the new year. 

Just after getting the campaign started with Amanda, a few of the members of the AoS-YXE Discord I ran got excited about running a Ravaged Cost Path to Glory campaign, so I joined in that as well! I've played eleven games of that and wrapped up the campaign with a four-player mega battle! 

Role-Playing Games 

I had hoped to continue with What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign and possibly wrap that up... Though we were now only able to play once every three weeks, as Orions job took her out of town the other two weeks... We did play four "episodes" this quarter, and seems like it's going to keep on going into the new year! 

I'd also wondered at starting a campaign using Soulbound: Champions of Chaos if we DID happen to finish up What We Do in the Realm of Shadows! But... - also the physical copy of the  Soulbound: Champions of Chaos book apparently won't be released until Q2 of 2026, so... probably won't happen until then... 

Other Warhammer Games ? 

I did acknowledge the possibility of returning to some OTHER Warhammer games; Warhammer Underworlds and/or Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer Underworlds - There was a new core box announced at the Big Summer Preview in July, which looked really fun... but I hadn't played at all this year and was feeling very out-of-the-loop and behind on card decks... so... it was going to be hard to justify that to myself... 

Warhammer 40,000 - If we'd finished up Night Wars and there WASN'T a new Warhammer Quest game set in the Mortal Realms, it was entirely possible that we could have ended up returning to Blackstone Fortress... and if that had been the case, it probably would have precipitated a return to playing Warhammer 40,000 (and/or Necromunda and/or Kill Team)... I did play ONE game of Warhammer 40,000 - the Tanksgiving Mega-Battle. 

Kill Team - This wasn't really part of the plan, but a new box was announced with some very cool-looking Space Wolves in them and Orion declared that we'd have to start playing Kill Team again... we did not get to doing that... 

CHAMPIONS TCG!? - This was NOT part of the Fourth Quarter Game Plan... but... Ages ago I'd picked up a booster box of the Warahmmer Age of Sigmar Champions Trading Card Game, but never really did anything with it, as I wasn't sure I could even put together two decks to try it out with the cards I had... Recently, however, I found a place selling a Starter Display - containing EIGHT Starter/Campaign decks (two of each of Order, Death, Destruction, and Chaos decks) and decided to pick that up... and a few more boxes of booster packs... and started playing that with Amanda - it's a fun little game that, once you know how to play can be set up and played through in about 30 minutes. So, handy to have for when you want to play something, but don't have a LOT of time... 

Other Miniature Wargames?

Also I noted there was always the possibility of returning to OTHER Miniatures Wargames... Bolt Action, any of the Ganesha Games, games by Dan Mercy (new edition of Dragon Rampant this Quarter!), One Hour Wargames, etc... 

Bolt Action - I did get in ONE MORE game of Bolt Action this quarter, bringing the total for the year to TEN!!

Solo Miniature Games 

This always seems to get slid into the plan as a just-in-case... I would like to, at some point continue any or all of the solo game campaigns I've started... (Paras in Normandy, Pulp Adventure. Five Parsecs from Home. Devilry Afoote Campaign), but that didn't happen this Quarter. 

Board Games/Card Games 

I like the idea of playing board games again (other than Warhammer Quest - or the other Warhammer board games).... I'd played ONE game in the first three quarters of the year, so I acknowledged that it might not happen... though, at the Dragon's Den Games anniversary sale at the beginning of October, I took a really hard long look at Finspan and discussed it with Amanda and we seriously considered getting it... so... we hadn't totally given up on board games... (in the end we didn't get it, as we still like playing the games we HAVE and didn't imagine it would be really different enough from wingspan to justify it at that point) - oh, and we'd also looked at a few board games at Imperial Hobbies at the end of September when we were there on vacation and seriously considered getting the travel edition of one of the Azul games, just to play THAT NIGHT... but in the end, didn't... 

In the end, we did play two games with Barb and Brent just after Xmas... but that was about it. (Amanda actually played a few more with other friends on her own!) 

MINIATURES

What were the predictions, hopes, dreams, and aspirations for painting in the fourth quarter of 2025...? what did I actually get done?

Age of Sigmar - (Including Warhammer Quest, Warhammer Underworlds, etc)

I was fairly certain that Age of Sigmar would be the primary focus of the quarter. The main focus of those efforts were to be the Spearhead Armies. I had suggested that if I could get FOUR (or maybe FIVE!?) of them finished up by the end of the year, I'd be pretty happy. The Nighthaunt were very close to being done (just needed to get my hands on some Dreadscythe Harridans!) and I was already halfway done the Soulblight Gravelords... The Helsmiths of Hashut and Maggotkin of Nurgle were new and shiny and I figures the most likely other ones I'd finish up... 

I finished TWO Spearhead Armies this Quarter... 

Maggotkin of Nurgle - Bleak Host

Nighthaunt - Cursed Shacklehorde

In some ways,  that was a bit of a disappointment.. but I was not idle! I didn't get more Spearhead armies done, because I stopped playing Spearhead and played MOSTLY Path to Glory games - and, consequently,  ended up painting a lot of stuff for THOSE armies! 

Here's what I got done: 

28mm Foot

• 10x Plaguebearers
• 1x Spoilpox Scrivener
• 5x Putrid Blightkings
• 1x War Despot
• 5x Tree-Revenants
• 5x Spite-Revenants
• 5x Gossamid Archers
• 20x Dryads
• 1x Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch
• 6x Mire Kelpies
• 1x Gelgus Pust
• 1x Mulgoth the Cleaver
• 4x Darkwater Heroes (Edmark Valoran, Bren Tylis, Inara Sion, and Drolf Ironhead)
• 3x Blight-Templars
• 1x Shaman Foulhoof
• 10x Dreadscythe Harridans

28mm Mounted and Smaller Beasties

• 1x Lord of Afflictions 
• 1x Pusgoyle Blightlord 

28mm Vehicles and Larger Beasties

• 1x Great Unclean One 

28mm Terrain and Endless Spells

• 3x Awakened Wyldwoods
• 2x Sylvaneth Endless Spells (Vengeful Skullroot and Gladewyrm - Q4) 
• 1x Abhorrent Swarm

I wasn't really PLANNING to buy anything... but in Q4 there was both BLACK FRIDAY and Boxing Day sales... AND Dragon's Den Games Anniversary sale before those.... AND the Battleforce boxes were announced and the Sylvaneth one looked really good... AND I realized Dragon's Den Games still had the Nurgle Battleforce box from last year.... AND the new Warhammer Quest was released... so....

So I did end up acquiring a few new things... 

foot

• 1x War Despot (Helsmiths of Hashut Army Set) 
• 11x Infernal Cohort (Helsmiths of Hashut Army Set) 
• 1x Ratling Sniper (Free Miniature-of-the-Month October 2025) 
• 1x Estenna of Brighthall
• 1x Sloppity Bilepiper
• 3x Farstriders
• 1x Scinari Cathallar
• 5x Putrid Blightkings (Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce Box) 
• 10x Rotmire Creed (Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce Box) 
• 5x Gossamid Archers
• 1x Infernal Cohort  (Free Miniature-of-the-Month November 2025) 
• 20x Dryads (Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce Box) 
• 15x Spite/Tree-Revenants (Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce Box) 
• 49x Warhammer Quest Darkwater miniatures
• 10x Dreadscythe Harridans
• 3x Flamers of Tzeentch

cav monster

• 1x Dominator Engine with Immolation Cannons (Helsmiths of Hashut Army Set) 
• 4x Pussgoyle Blightlords (Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce Box) 
• 1x Harbinger of Decay (Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce Box) 

tank big'uns..

• 1x Tormentor Bombard (Helsmiths of Hashut Army Set) 
• 1x Great Unclean One 
• 1x Drycha Hamadreth (Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce Box) 
• 1x Spirit of Durthu (Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce Box) 
• 1x Treelord Ancient

Terrain and Endless Spells

• 3x Sylvaneth Endless Spells 
• 1x Feculent Gnarlmaw 

Other Miniatures

GAME PLAN 2026 - Q1

And here is the plan (or rather "guidelines"... or maybe "intentions" based on best guesses... or... hopes...?) 

GAMES

Assuming I'm still alive... I plan to play some games...

Warhammer Quest

We have thoroughly enjoyed playing through Shadows Over Hammerhal and two campaigns set in the Cursed City of Ulfenkarn... (and we still have a bit to do to finish up the Cursed City: Night Wars campaign....?)

After that... 

(Image ©2025 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)

There is the new Warhammer Quest out now, so I imagine we'll be playing a LOT of that this Quarter! 

It looks like it will not take NEARLY so much time to play through the campaign as Cursed City. In the initial preview back at the beginning of Novemeber, they stated scenarios will take 30 minutes to play and the entire campaign about 10-14 hours... I guess if we only played one or two scenarios a week at about an hour each, that could take most of the first quarter to play through...? 

Not sure what we'll do after that...? If the initial campaign is so brief, will they be cranking out loads of expansions for this one, like they did with Blackstone Fortress...? I guess we'll have to wait and see! 

Age of Sigmar

I'm fairly certain there will be a lot of Warhammer Age of Sigmar played this Quarter. 

With the NEW Path to Glory campaign book being released a few weeks back, I have a feeling we'll be campaigning a lot in Ghyran!  This looks SUPER fun and it's like it was written just for US (Amanda and myself, that is!) - Sylvaneth versus Maggotkin in Ghyran!? Yes, Please! 

Role-Playing Games 

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound 

We will likely carry on with some more Age of Sigmar: Soulbound

First with our Champions of Death campaign featuring exactly zero Soulbound characters... 

And... MAYBE we'll get started on Champions of Chaos with even LESS Soulbound Characters... 

(or... maybe that will be later in the year... after Champions of Death has wrapped up and/or the physical release of Champions of Chaos happens...) 

Warhammer 40,000 Wrath & Glory!?

Orion was very excited about the new Space Wolves Kill Team and had been talking about playing Kill Team... I'd kind of rather just run a Wrath and Glory role-playing campaign - with the new Sons of Russ book from Cubicle 7 - for playing SPACE WOLVES!? 

Will this happen in the first quarter of 2026... unclear.. I'm not going to hold my breath. Probably this year, though...

Other Warhammer Games ? 

Warhammer 40,000 - I will get back to playing this at some point... will it happen this Quarter...? Who can say. The Aeldari, Emperor's Children and Astra Military all have lots of stuff to finish painting up. I think there might be a NEW edition later this year... so... maybe I'll wait for that. 

Kill Team - As previously mentioned, Orion was talking about playing this again... but... I don't know... The Ratling Scout/Sniper detachment looks SUPER FUN... but it's less exciting if my main opponent is going to be running Space Wolves! 

Other Miniature Wargames?

Bolt Action - Had a lot of plans and ideas earlier in 2025... Could it happen again? I don't know... Maybe if Orion suddenly finished painting all her Hungarians! 

Other Games - I occasionally wonder about other games - any of the Ganesha Games, games by Den Mercy (new edition of Dragon Rampant this Quarter!), One Hour Wargames, etc... 

Solo Miniature Games 

It would be fun to continue any or all of the solo game campaigns I've started... (Paras in Normandy, Pulp Adventure. Five Parsecs from Home. Devilry Afoote Campaign). But that doesn't seem to be a thing I'm doing at the moment, so I'll just continue to keep those in my back pocket for now, in case any of the current active in-person campaigns Im actually playing with others fizzle... 

Board Games 

I mean... I like the idea of playing board games again (other than Warhammer Quest - or the other Warhammer board games). Given the last few quarters, though... I don't know... During a couple of the sales at our FLGS, I seriously considered picking up Finspan... so... obviously, I haven't ENTIRELY given up on the ideas of games! 

GAME WEEKEND!?

It has been a while since I hosted a proper Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Weekend in February... As it has been suggested that the campaign in the new Warhammer Quest: Darkwater can be played though entirely in about 10-15 hours, I am considering the possibility of hosting a game weekend this February.

MINIATURES

What will I get up to PAINTING the next few months...? It will be likely dictated by the games I end up playing. As outlined above That'll probably be Warhammer Quest, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound... (and maybe a bit of Bolt Action, from time to time...?) 

Age of Sigmar 

(Including Warhammer Quest, Soulbound, etc)

If I could wave a magic wand and magically make myself stay focused on ONE THING and get it DONE, I would like to spend the entire year finishing painting ALL of the Age of Sigmar stuff I have. I could probably get it all done in a year... If I stayed focused and productive... 

Warhammer Quest

I still have a lot of stuff to paint for the new Warhammer Quest: Darkwater game... That will likely be the FIRST PRIORITY, so I have them done for when we're finished Cursed City and want to start Warhammer Quest: Darkwater!

Age of Sigmar

After that the next focus will be finishing up the Sylvaneth and Nurgle forces for the Blighted Wilds campaign. I still have a fair bit from the Maggot kin of Nurgle Shudderblight Cyst and Sylvaneth Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce Boxes to finish up!! 

If I managed to finish all that up, I still have things I could finish up for a few other forces (for one-off battles? Loaner armies? for future Path to Glory campaigns?) - the first three have only a few units each to finish up, some are very nearly done... the others have significantly MORE to paint... 

Nighthaunt (a Scriptor Mortis, five Craventhrone Guard, and three Banshees... all so close to being finished) 

Blades of Khorne (ten Blood Warriors and thirty Bloodreavers, maybe a few others) 

Soulblight Gravelords (five Blood Knights, Three Varghiests, a few Vampires, and ten Dire Wovlves...?)

Stormcast Eternals (there are a LOT to do...) 

Hedonites of Slaanesh (SO... MANY... DAEMONS...) 

Disciples of Tzeentch (So many Acolytes and Tzangors...) 

Slaves to Darkness (So many Chaos Knights and Darkoath Fellriders!) 

Daughters of Khaine? Helsmiths of Hashut? Lumineth Realmlords!? 

Spearhead

Though I am less enthralled with Spearhead these days, I DO still have a bunch of those to finish up... I'm not going to get to them all in the First Quarter... but maybe if I finished one... or two... (finishing the above stuff will finish up a bunch of Spearhead armies...) 

Spearhead Armies Still to Do:

Soulblight Gravelords - Bloodcrave Hunt 5x (Blood Knights, 3x Vargheists)

Daughters of Khaine - Heartflayer Troupe (10x Witch Aelves, 5x Blood Stalkers, 5x Doomfire Warlocks)

Slaves to Darkness - Darkoath Raiders (1x Darkoath Warqueen, 5x Darkoath Fellriders, 10x Darkoath Savagers, 10x Darkoath Marauders)

Lumineth Realmlords - Glittering Phalanx (1x Scinari Cathallar, 5x Vanari Bladelords, 10x Vanari Auralan Wardens, 10x Vanari Auralan Sentinels)

Disciples of Tzeentch - Fluxblade Coven  (1x Magister on Disc of Tzeentch, 3x Flamers of Tzeentch, 10x Tzaangors, 10x Kairic Acolytes)

Helsmith's of Hashut - Hellforge Host (10x Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears - and a hobgrot gong carrier, 1x Dominator Engine, 1x Tormentor Bombard and crew) 

Skaven - Gnawfeast Pack (1x Clawlord on Gnaw-beast, 1x Grey Seer, 1x Warlock Engineer, 20x Clanrats, and 3x Rat Ogors)

Other Miniatures...?

There's a chance I might get to painting some World War Two stuff for Bolt Action. Though most of the games planned involved the Easter Front and I think ALL of my Russians are painted... maybe there are some partisans, though... 

Could get to some 40K stuff if we did get around to playing Wrath & Glory...?

IN OTHER NEWS... 

Not games or hobby related, per se... but definitely will affect the time I have to do hobby and game things... 

I am going back to school starting in January... 

Maybe... 

probably... 

What do YOU have planned for 2026!? 

What games would you like to play? 

Are there new ones you want to try out?

Or old ones you just want to play more of?

What are your big hobby projects for the year?
Or the first quarter!?

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!!

Looking Back at 2025

2025 was not a great year for me, personally... But in the grand scheme of things, my troubles seemed pretty small and inconsequential compared to [gestures vaguely about] EVERYTHING ELSE GOING ON IN THE WORLD?! 

I tried to maintain a positive tone on this blog and keep it a safe place, free of most of the bullshit...so... maybe I'll just leave it at that... and talk about some of the positive things that happened this year...like playing some games and painting some toys...

GAMES

Well I did play games this year... According to Board Game Geek, I played:

• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x35
• Warhammer Age Of Sigmar (Fourth Edition): Core Rules x32
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound x15
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions Trading Card Game x12
• Bolt Action: Third Edition x10
• Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes x5
• Five Men at Kursk WW2 Skirmish Warfare x3
• Five Men in Normandy .30 Cal edition x2
• FiveCore Pulp Adventure x2
• Patchwork x2
• Pergola x2
• Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition) x2
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Crypt Hunters x2
• Lost Patrol x1
• Warhammer Quest: Darkwater x1

I played 126 games this year. There were fifteen different games I played. 

Warahmmer Quest

Cursed City

By far the most played game this year was Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. For most of the year, Amanda, Finnnegan and myself were playing almost every week. The first campaign took nearly thirty missions to complete. We took a short break while Amanada and Morgan went on a trip to England in the summer (and I got the last things painted up for the next campaign). At the end of the summer, we started in on a second campaign; Night Wars. We have a few more missions to finish up - three if we're lucky and don't fail in any of the missions

Darkwater

the new Warhammer Quest was released at the beginning of December and I started working on painting the miniatures right away hoping to be done them all by the time we were done playing Cursed City. In the end we didn't finish up Cursed City, but we did play kind of a trial game of Darkwater just before the end of the year. 

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

The next most played game was Warhammer Age of Sigmar. I'd played a fair bit in 2024, first with Spearhead and then a couple of larger games trying to start up a Path to Glory campaign... but then that kind of fizzled for a bit...? I can't really say why...? (because I can't remember! not because it's a secret and I'd have to kill you if I told you...)  

Over the summer I had a renewed interest in trying to get all the Spearhead Armies I'd acquired painted and got playing with them again.

In the end I played SEVENTEEN games of Age of Sigmar Spearhead (and finished painting FOUR more Spearhead armies)!

I even got Amanda playing Age of Sigmar! First Spearhead and then regular Age of Sigmar - with the Sylvaneth army! We even started a small Path to Glory campaign (Methervale Campaign) initially using the Ascension Path to Glory rules from the Core Rulebook, but then incorporating most of the rules from Blighted Wilds - as kind of a trial run. We are gearing up to start a full Blighted Wilds campaign in the new year... 

Nearer to the end of the year, around the same time I was starting the campaign with Amanda, a few of the members of the AoS-YXE Discord I ran got excited about running a Ravaged Cost Path to Glory campaign, so I joined in that as well! I also thought of those as a practice run for a longer Blighted Wilds. campaign in the new year! We sped through the campaign, finishing it up just a little over a week before the end of the year. I ended up playing eleven games in that campaign. 

Between Spearhead and Path to Glory, I got in THIRTY-FIVE games!? 

Soulbound

I did get in more than a few games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound this year. 

I started the year carrying on with TWO campaigns I'd started in 2024 - one online, the other in person. Both kind of fizzled out in March after too many sessions were cancelled and I lost interest. 

Over the summer I got a new campaign (What We Do in the Realm of Shadows) going. By the fall it had slowed to once every three weeks as one of the principal players (Orion) got a new job that took her out of town for two of every three weeks. 

I played fifteen games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound this year! 

Campaign for Ravensflight

In between the two Soulbound campaigns, I ran another role-playing lite, tabletop miniature adventure campaign I called the Campaign for Ravensflight. It was kind of inspired by Five Leagues from the Borderlands, but I used Song of Blades and Heroes to play out the encounters and tried to work in a little role-playing. It was a LOT of fun and I'd hoped it would have run a lot longer... but in the fourth session things went sideways and it was pretty much a TPK situation... 

We'd talked about continuing the narrative with a different group (of dwarves!)... but that never got off the ground. I'd love to do something like this again. 

Bolt Action

I think the most surprising and unexpected twist was a renewed interest in World War Two - which let to picking up the new edition of Bolt Action and playing ten games of that! 

Five Core

I played a few games based on the Five Core game engine. I ran a solo game and a few game-mastered games of Five Men in Normandy/Five Men at Kursk and also a couple of games of the Five Core Pulp Adventure. 

Other Games 

I played seven other board and card games? 

I'd expected there'd be more in this last week of the year between Xmas and New Years when we usually get together with friends we haven't seen for a while and play some board games we haven't played for a while... but that kind of didn't happen this year... At least, not so much as it has in previous years where we often had couples or groups coming every day to play games?! 

There were two non-warhammer related boardgames I did play; Patchwork and Pergola... 

I did get in a couple games of Crypt Hunters and Lost Patrol (both, technically, MORE Warhammer games... but Board Games!!). 

Also we started playing Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions (a Trading Card Game that was produced under license by Play Fusion back in... 2018...? It is no longer published or supported... so, if you do some snooping, packs and starters can be found for reasonable prices (people just getting rid of dead stock)... though some can be found for completely UNREASONABLE prices!? I'm guessing because people think it's an out-of-print sought-after "collectable" and... while they are indeed out of print, I'm not so sure about any of those other descriptors!) 

This is definitely a LOT FEWER board games than I've played any year over the last decade or so... and overall a lot more miniature games have been played - which is okay. Honestly, this is starting to feel like a miniature wargaming blog again!? I do miss playing board games, though... and some of the people I used to play board games with!

MINIATURES

In addition to an increase in playing miniature games (and likely BECAUSE of the increase in playing miniature war games) a lot more miniature PAINTING happened than the last few years... 

TOTAL NUMBERS

2025 Totals

PAINTED

28mm Foot: 438

28mm Mounted/Beasties: 17

28mm Vehicles/Monsters: 11

28mm Endless Spells: 7

28mm Terrain Bits: 16

>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<

PURCHASED/ACQUIRED

28mm Foot: 479

28mm Mounted/Beasties: 17

28mm Vehicles: 27

28mm Terrain Bits and Endless Spells: 37

>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

DISPOSALS (Traded/Sold)

28mm Foot (unpainted): 94

28mm Vehicles (unpainted): 2

The main metric I use for considering how well I'm doing at things is the 28mm foot - as they are BY FAR the most numerous of all the things I collect and paint. I felt like I was doing pretty good in the 28mm foot category this year - for a good chunk of the year I was "in the black" - having painted more than I'd purchased... but that all came apart in the final Quarter when I bought the Shudderblight Cyst Battleforce box for the growing Maggotkin of Nurgle force... then the Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce box for the Sylvaneth army... THEN Warhammer Underworlds: Darkwater!? Those three, alone, added over 100 28mm foot to the tally! 

Other categories... varied... 

I painted up more mounted (and smaller beasties) than I purchased, chipping away at the pile of opportunity. 

I purchased more vehicles (and larger beasties) than I finished up - largely due to a large ebay order of a PILE of WW2 tanks that were insanely inexpensive and the three large tree peoples bought in the last month for Amanda's Sylvaneth army 

I bought more endless spells and terrain bits than I managed to finish off... probably largely due to buying the Malign Sorcery box - with 17 Endless Spell miniatures - which, if I'm being honest, I bought for ONE of those miniatures... sure, I can use some of those other endless spells with some of my other armies, but they're armies I've not been actively using, so I haven' really had much motivation to assemble and paint many! 

It has been nearly a DECADE since I've been "in the black" (i.e. painted MORE miniatures than I purchased! I really thought I was going to pull it off again this year... then the new Warhammer Quest kind of happened... and the Sylvaneth Battleforce Box... 

Anyway, at least I painted more than I have for the last few years. In fact the last time I painted over 400 miniatures in a year was 2019! In fact, I painted more this year than the last three years COMBINED!! 

Most of this breaks down into two categories; World War Two and Age of Sigmar (plus a few random odd extra things...) 

World War Two

As mentioned above, this was the most unexpected thing to happen this year... It was precipitated by my trading away a PILE of American WW2 miniatures to my friend Orion... and then ended up playing a lot of games with her in the first quarter... and that lead to some reorganizing of forces and finishing off a bunch that were partly done... I ended up buying WAY MORE than I got painted, though... and then the game kind of fizzled after just a few months... 

What I painted.... 

28mm WW2 Foot

• 12x WW2 US Paratroopers
• 4x WW2 US Regular Army Infantrymen
• 5x WW2 US Casualties
• 4x Rat Patrol
• 9x WW2 British
• 2x South Pacific Coast Watchers
• 4x Pulp Adventure Ex-Military Types
• 24x Italians
  
• 10x Italian X Arditi 
• 16x Deutsches Afrikakorps Panzer-Grenadiers
• 21x Italian Infantry
• 10x Italian Colonial Infantry Squad
• 8x Soviet Scouts
• 10x USMC Raiders
• 4x Corpsmens and Casualties
• 5x Italian 100/17 Modello 14 medium howitzer and crew
• 1x German Staff Officer
• 23x USMC Raiders
• 4x 2 Pounder AT Gun and crew
• 3x USMC Forward Observers
• 2x Chindit Anti-Tank Rifle Crew
• 2x Japanese Anti-Tank Rifle Crew
• 4x USMC War Dogs and Handlers
• 19x Fallshirmjäger

28mm WW2 Vehicles

• 2x Rat Patrol Jeeps 
• 1x Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank
• 1x Italian Autoblinda AB41
• 1x Italian Carro Armato M13/40
• 2x Italian CV33
• 1x Italian Semovente da 75/18
• 1x Panzer I
• 1x Matilda II tank

I addition to painting new things to finish up forces, I also started re-basing large numbers of WW2 forces - removing them from old heavy washers I'd based everything on in the past (the weight of which are starting to distort my plastic storage drawers!) and basing them on plastic bases (other collections I've also started basing on wooden discs... but I kind of prefer the plastic ones now... 

I did create a number of new pages on this blog to have a place to show off all the completed armies as I finished them off. 

WW2 - USMC Raiders (PTO)

WW2 - Italy

WW2 - 8th Army in North Africa

WW2 - Afrika Korps

WW2 Chindits and Gurkhas

Though none of these are ENTIRELY completed... I still have a few things for ALL of these forces to finish up... and I have a bunch more forces I need to make galleries for! 

Age of Sigmar

After the First Quarter, I (almost) exclusively painted stuff for games set in the Age of Sigmar - whether it was the Warhammer Age of Sigmar tabletop miniatures war game or Warhammer Quest or Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (the role-playing game) 

SPEARHEADS

In 2024, I'd managed to acquire EIGHT full Spearhead armies (Skaven Gnawfeast Pack, Stormcast Eternal Vigilant Brotherhood, Hedonites of Slaanesh Blades of the Lurid Dream, Blades of Khorne Bloodbound Gore Pilgrims, Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse, Soulblight Gravelords Bloodcrave Hunt, Daughters of Khaine Heartflayer Troupe, and Slaves to Darkness Darkoath Raiders)!? In addition to this, I had elements of a few others (but I'd need to pick up a unit or two for each... Lumineth Realmlords Glittering Phalanx and Disciples of Tzeentch Fluxblade Coven). Only three of those were painted in 2024 (Hedonites of Slaanesh, Blades of Khorne, and Sylvaneth). 

So I started 2025 with eight full Spearhead forces (plus elements of two more), three of which were painted... 

In the summer when I started painting and playing Age of Sigmar again. As new Spearhead forces were released with Battletomes,  I realized I had elements of a few MORE Spearhead armies - lacking only a unit or hero or unit and hero to make up a few of the new Spearhead forces (Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehorde and Blades of Khorne Fangs of the Blood God). 

Over the summer I got two armies finished up...

Fangs of the Blood God - Blades of Khorne Spearhead force. 

Anvils of the Heldenhammer Vigilant Brotherhood - Stormcast Eternals Spearhead force (this came with the Skaventide box)

In the fall I bought two more full Spearhead Armies (Maggotkin of Nurgle Bleak Host and Helsmiths of Hashut... one of which I painted...

Maggotkin of Nurgle Bleak Host

Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehorde 

So as the year draws to a close I find myself in the possession of FOURTEEN Spearhead armies, SEVEN of which are fully painted! 

I also started a separate page on this blog to post pictures of the completed spearheads, keep track of the status of each the others, and post links to all the games that were played with each force:

Age of Sigmar - Spearhead Armies

In addition to Spearhead armies, I've been working to bring some of those forces up to full 1000-2000 point armies to play larger games! 

Blades of Khorne!

The Fourth Edition Blades of Khorne Battletome was released over the summer and that (and the thought of playing Warhammer 40,000 with Khorne Daemons) prompted me to start working on my Blades of Khorne again. This was the first force I worked up to a full playable force for both Paths to Glory and as potentially a 2000 point matched play force! I have no interest in Matched Play... but I COULD play it... 

All the Blades of Khorne, so far! 

This adds up to about 2500 points worth of stuff! 

You can see all the pics of individual units and characters and a number o  breakdowns of some different forces that could be fielded with this on the gallery page:

Age of Sigmar - Blades of Khorne

I still have a number of Blood Warriors (10) and Bloodreavers (30) I could paint up at some point (and two of the endless spells MANIFESTATIONS I could finish off). But otherwise everything I need for this is DONE! 

Sylvaneth

The Sylvaneth I have been working on because Amanda expressed an interest in playing them - which I am extremely pleased with (largely because these are FAR easier to paint than the Daughters of Khaine I originally thought she might like to play!!). This year I finished painting the stuff I had - the Awakened Wyldwoods and some Tree-Revenants and Spite-Revenants. Then I picked up their endless spells, a unit of Gossamid Archers, a used Treelord Ancient, and this years Battleforce box - the Outcast Spitegrove! 

Painted so far 

Amanda has been using them in the small campaign the two of use have been playing  (Methervale Campaign) and will hopefully continue to play them in the Blighted Wylds campaign! 

Maggotkin of Nurgle

Whereas the Khorne and Sylvaneth forces above were building on things I already had started in 2024, this was a completely NEW THIS YEAR kind of thing... 

Painted so far (less the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater miniatures that can be used in this force!) 

Nighthaunt

I have a small but growing force of Nighthaunts. I have only a few left to finish all the stuff I have. I did manage to finish up enough for a starter Path to Glory army and the Cursed Shacklehorde spearhead,

Stormcast Eternals

I finished painting the Vigilant Brotherhood Spearhead force... and that went easily enough that it, for a brief moment, inspired me to buy a few more units (used ones, at half price) and build up a bit of a force. I only managed to paint two additional Knight-Questors, though... so it isn't much more of a force just yet. 

(I do have a lot of other Stormcast Eternals - enough for a starter Path to Glory force in the previous edition, but it is made up entirely of Warhammer Underworlds warbands that, for the most part, are no longer playable in the game, having passed into "legends"...)

Other Forces

I have a few other forces for Age of Sigmar... but didn't get much done on them this year... Hedonites of Slaanesh probably have over 2000 points worth of stuff painted... I have well over 2000 points worth of Slaves to Darkness... but most of it needs to be assembled and/or painted, but I didn't feel much motivation to work on much of that this year... (other than the Chaos Sorceress on Daemonic Steed). I have the beginnings of Lumineth and Disciples of Tzeentch and a smattering of stuff that could be used in a Cities of Sigmar army... 

Warhammer Quest

There were still a few things I needed to finish for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars campaign that I finished up in the summer... 

Togilius the Chamberlain was the last figure I needed for the initial campaign in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City. I didn't finish him off until the heroes were at a level that they might actually encounter him. 

As the first campaign drew to a close, I finished painting the few things I still needed for the sequel campaign Night Wars, including Carmilla du Sang, Vampire Lord, the Fell Bats, and Radukar the Beast! 

Then there was Warhammer Quest: Darkwater! I rushed to try and get enough of them painted to try and play a shortened version of Act I with some friends on 30 December... in the end all I got done were the Mire Kelpies, four Heroes (Edmark Valoran, Bren Tylis, Inara Sion, and Drolf Ironhead), Shaman Foulhoof, Gelgus Pust and  Mulgoth the Cleaver, and three Blight-Templars... I'd really hoped I'd at least get the Pestigors done... alas... 

Role-Playing Games

There were a few Age of Sigmar miniatures that were specifically painted up for the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Role-Playing Game. The Arkanaut Company and Minstrel and Pilgrim were all painted as crew and passengers on the Kharadrom Airship; Grungni’s Face! 

Later, I acquired, converted, and painted up a Wight King to use as Sir Renmould of Sylum Field - Finnegan's character for the What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign 

I painted a handful of things for the Campaign for Ravensflight - mostly Finnegan's miniatures, including a few Dwarves that we'd planned to use in a sequel campaign... that we planned but never got to playing. 

What did YOU get up to over the last year? 

What was your gaming highlight of the year? 

What was your favourite miniature that you painted?

What was the biggest surprise? 

Let me know in the comments!!