Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Blood in the Valley

Rumours of their Hordes hated foe, the Duchess Mircalla, having entered the Adamantine Chain with a retinue of her own minions had reached the ears of Goretim the Reddish. Goretim gathered the horde and prepared to march. The soulblights were despised because they shed not blood to honour Khorne, but rather greedily gorged on it for themselves themselves.  

Slaughterpriest Bob Bloodblob, who had faced her before, advised caution, as the vampires were wily and could be leading them into a trap! Goretim cared not for caution and lead the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile through a pass in the Adamatine Chain to an adjacent valley filled with ash. 

A great storm whipped down the valley filling the air with ash. Visibility was reduced to zero, but he warlord insisted the horde press one, hoping that their advance would be covered by the storm and it would be them that caught the Soulblights unawares. When the storm lifted, they found the Soulblights arrayed before them... 

But the Horde was split into three separate groups. 

Goretim the Reddish and the Mighty Skullcrushers of the Red Path were in the centre, but further back from the Soulblights. 

On the Hordes left were the Bloodwarriors of the Red Wave. 

On the Hordes right, were the Slaughterpriests and their Bloodreavers and the Khorgorath. 

The Vampires of the Blood Knights mounted their steeds and charged the Blood Warriors. 

The Huscarl Consort Nossos, the Vengorian Lord, flapped and shambled their way, with their fell bat pets in tow, towards Goretim and his Mighty Skullcrushers. 

Duchess Mircalla and her Nulhamian Guard her their ground, but cautiously tried to recover a trover of emberstone that had been revealed by the shifting of the ash in the storm.

Other Deadwalkers advanced between the Vengorian Lord and the Bloodknights. 

the Bloodknights crashed into the Blood Warriors lines! The slaughter was triumphant and the blood flowed... 

though... most of it was the Blood Warriors blood... 

Goretim the Reddish and he Mighty Skullcrushers charged down the Vegorian Lord and laid them low! 

The Slaughterpriests on the right flank advanced cautiously with the Khorgorath and Bloodreavers before them! 

The Blood Warriors fought to the last, and took a few of the Bloodknights down with them! 

Bob Bloodblob summoned a pair of Hexgorger Skulls that surged towards the Soulblights, pouring boiling blood out of their giant eye-sockets and disrupting the stuff of magiks. 

The warriors of Khorne crashed into the Soulblights main line, smashing apart the undead warriors before them and driving away the swarm of Fellbats. 

In the distance, the Bloodknights wheeled about to charge back towards their mistress who was in a bit of distress.. 

The Khorgorath smashed through the lines of the undead warriors ripping and shredding with abandon... though it was eventually brought down by weight of numbers.. 

Duchess Mircalla eventually decided she needed to intervene herself, as the skeletal guard was collapsing and replacements could not be raised quick enough.

She slaughtered the last of the Bloodreavers.  

But was left open to be charged by the Mighty Skullcrushers. 

With the Hexgorger skulls hemming her in and distrupting her magiks, Duchess Mircalla had nowhere to run when the Mighty Skullcrushers charged in to ride her down! 

The Bloodknights return.. but too late... 

The Bloodknights arrive to find the Mighty Skullcrushers lined up and ready for them. 

The Bloodknights retreated and the Mighty Skullcrushers rode down the last of the skeletal guard. 

The Bloodknights charged PAST the Mighty Skull crushers to ride down the Slaughterpriests.

And in turn, the Mighty Skullcrushers rode crashed into the Bloodknights and trampled them into the dirt... 

This was an odd scenario. Once again, there were no objective locations to hold throughout the game, the winner was decided by whoever had the most units left in the Neutral areas of the battlefield (neither sides deployment areas)... I knew there was little chance that was going to happen, as the undead can just keep coming back... in the end the game ended at round four, with two units of undead (skeletons and Fellbats) in neutral territories. All I had left on the table were the Mighty Skullcrushers... Perhaps if I'd had a few more rounds, I could have chased them down...? Probably not... The bats could just keep flying away. 

I only gained TWO Emberstone Shards this game - one for losing (rolled 1 on d3) and on that the Mighty Skullcrushers carried at the end of the game. Orion's Soulblights scored FIVE - three for winning and one for each unit remaining that also carried one that had been recovered from the field. 

We had time, so we set up a SECOND game. I'll do that as a separate game report. 

I spent my two Emberstone Shards on raising Bob Bloodblob to the Elite Rank on the Path of the Invoker. 

Orion spent her Emberstone on gaining an Endless spell in her arcane tome and her faction terrain. 

Half of the scenarios I've played in this campaign, so far, have not had Objective markers... which kind of makes my Battle Formation kind of not-so-useful - as it gives all the bloodbound +1 to hit any enemy contesting an objective that the Bloodbound do not control... Guess I should have read through the scenarios and thought that through! Also, it doesn't help Daemons at all, if I started adding any of those... and I'll probably have to start adding those if I progress much further in the campaign, as I don't have much more Bloodbound (at least not PAINTED ones - I do have another ten Blood Warriors and THIRTY Bloodreavers... but I'm far more interested in painting Maggotkin and Sylvaneth at the moment...). 

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Standing on Skulls

After fighting the lightning-bloods that cheated their lord of skulls and spilt blood to a bloody standstill, the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile needed rest. Time to recuperate and tend to their wounds so that they may batter bleed and spill blood again... Scouts returned with news that the Stormcast had turned their attentions to a lord of the Plaguefather on their other flank, but after vanquishing a greater daemon, were heading back this way. 

Goretim the Reddish, Gore Chieftain, Lord of Khorne, arrayed his forces on the plain of skulls. What had once been a thriving community, was now naught but a wasteland of bone and corpses of the victims of the Vermindoom - those that did not immediately killed in the great upheaval, or succumbed to the cloying poisonous fog that followed, had their innards cooked from the inside due to the proximity of so much concentrated Emberstone that was disgorged from the realm in the great sundering... 

A small force of the Shoreward Vigil Ruination Chamber advanced cautiously towards the Khorne horde. Goretim knew the Lightning-Bloods tricks. There would be more of them in the sky waiting to ride the lightening into battle. There was no need for rashness... the Stormcast were here to purge, they would come to them. There was no need to tire his warriors charging across the stifling hot ruin to meet them...  

The Blood Warriors on the left flank spotted a cluster of Emberstone and moved out to secure it... 

A trio of hulking Annihilators crashed down from the heavens and upon the Blood Warriors caught in the open. The mammoth beasts pulverized the Blood Warriors with their absurdly huge Meteoric Grandhammers. But the Blood Warriors would not go down without a fight... they sent one back to Azyr on a bolt of lightning and staggered another, leaving the champion alone and exposed

The Blood Warriors alone held back the tide of sigmarite and their Slaughter was glorious. 

The Dawnbreakers, a swarm of prosecutors, swooped in to aid the last of the Annihilators just as he was brought to his knees, and brought low the remaining Blood Warriors. 

Then the Stormchamber fell upon the rest of the Khornate Horde... 

The Prosecutors swooped down on the Mighty Skullcrushers, so severely damaging their juggernauts they could not charge forth and retired to make repairs.. 

The Blood Reavers were chopped to bits, holding back the tide long enough for the Slaughterpriests to escape with their Emberstone troves. 

Goretim the Reddish could not let the day go without a little bloodshed, so he, along with Korgachz the Beast, his trusty Korgorath, charged past the melee and attacked Varyon Gloombreaker, the Knight-Azyros. 

The duo struck down the Knight-Azyros, sending him back to the Sigmarabulum... pulverizing the knight's sigmarite beneath their blades and hooves and claws.. but the lack of blood being spilt was unsatisfactory and the two turned and sulked off to join the others that had abandoned the field.... 

This was another game I played against Matt (who I'd just played on Monday!) and his Stormcast Eternals. 

The scenario we rolled up was "Standing on Skulls". The victory conditions were scoring a two victory points for each beast slain and one for each other unit slain. Considering I was the only one that had a beast (the Khorgorath) who ISN'T very tough (8 wounds, 5+ save - when his army all delivers multiple damage and has minimum 1 Rend).... and I had a larger number of considerably squishier units... there was ZERO chance I was going to win this, so I decided to just try and survive and carry off as much Emberstone as I could! 

My two Slaughterpriests survived and carried off an Emberstone Token each... and I gained two more as a participation trophy, bringing my total to eight. Matt has acquired EIGHTEEN in the three games he's played!? 

I had spent four before the game to gain the extra Slaughterpriest and put Bob Bloodblob on the Path of the Invoker at the Aspiring rank, and gained the Heard by the Divine ability (which didn't do much, as it gives the Priest +1 to Prayer rolls when using a Summon Prayer (to summon a manifestation... of which I have NONE!?) I figured it would be better to get the second Slaughterpriest first and at least be able to chant the two prayers I have at once, rather than give a single priest a third prayer to try and chant, when he can only attempt one per turn!? 

After THIS game I expended the four Emberstone Shards gained to add the Summon Hexgorger Skulls to my Prayer Scrolls - and brought on some new recruits - a group of Claws of Karanak tribespeople... The Bloody Claws of Karanak! 

Unfortunately, the Blood Warriors gained three more Battle Wounds - bringing them to a total of five, which meant they gained a Battle Scar - Scorched Limbs, they are now -1 to run and charge rolls... which is a bummer.. but they don't have any charge abilities, like the Mighty Skullcrushers, so it isn't always imperative that THEY be the one to charge... 

I have ANOTHER game planned for TOMORROW!! This time against Orion and her Soulblight Gravelords! Stay tuned! 

Mostly Sylvaneth... but a little bit of Nurgle...

 It's been a minute since I did any sort of hobby update... 

There was some disruption with the bee Room-Swaperoo, but I've slowly been sorting out the new workspace and trying to get some work done. 

In the meantime.. I bought some more stuff...

Sylvaneth Endless Spells... picked up after my game on Monday at the Dragon's Den.

I have been assembling and painting said spells along with the Goassamid Archers and Feculent Gnarlmaw and GREAT UNCLEAN ONE that are STILL on the workbench. 

The Great Unclean One is SOOOOOO close to being finished... I just need to finish up details on the cloth covering it's bottom and then a pile of little Nurglings that will be added to the base. I wasn't initially going to do so many of those... but then realized one of it's attacks is "Swarm of Nurglings" and I thought it would be silly to make such an attack if there weren't any Nurglings at all on the base!?

Ideally, I'd like to get at least ONE of the Sylvaneth Endless Spells and the Gossamid Archers done by the weekend in case I can convince Amanda to play Age of Sigmar. Ideally I'd like to get the Feculent Gnarlmaw done as well.. but as I'll be on the attack in our campaign, I might not get to really use it...

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Light the Fires

Because playing ONE Path to Glory campaign with Amanda (Path to Glory - Methervale Campaign) apparently wasn't enough, I've embarked on a SECOND campaign with some of the people in the AoS-YXE Discord. 

For this campaign we are using the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Path to Glory - Ravaged Coast campaign book. I've been wanting to try it out and get a campaign going since I picked up the book in January... and now... in December... after Ravaged Coast has been removed from shelves as a NEW Path to Glory campaign book is likely to be released in the next month or so... we are FINALLY getting around to it! 

I've created a page to track my warband. You can find it here:

Path to Glory - Ravaged Coast Campaign

For the first game I played against Matt and his Stormcast Eternals of the Ruination Chamber. The scenario we played was "Light the Fires", wherein our respective forces were to secure two large ancient braziers to light and cleanse the air that is choked by a dense, corrupted boiling smog... 

(The photos aren't great... I was using my cheap phone and the Back room at Dragon's Den Games is not the brightest, most well lit place I've played games it...)

Matt kicking things off... 

Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile, led by my warlord Goretim the Reddish - Lord of Khorne. 

Prosecutors and Knight-Azyros move to secure one of the ancient braziers. 

Lord-Terminos and Reclusians secure the other brazier.

The warriors of Sigmar stand steady as they face down a HORDE of Bloodbound warriors! 

A small unit of Vigilors secure a trove of Emberstone Shards, then go hunting for the followers of the Blood God... 

The Korgorath surged ahead of all the others, making it to the great brazier... The great beast was cut down by the warriors of the Ruination Chamber... but it held them up for a moment... 

...until the Blood Warriors and Bloodreavers could come crashing onto the scene. 

The Lord Terminos was one of the first to fall, cut down by the Blood Warriors that had been filled with Uncontrolable Rage by the Slaughterpriest! The Reclusions sold themselves dearly, for each that was sent back to Azyr on a bolt of lightning, a dozen of the Bloodbound were slaughtered. 

Not that the Bloodbound seemed to care... for their lord Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows! 

On the other flank, Goretim the Reddish approached the other brazier held by the Prosecutors and Knight-Azyros.

In a flurry of celestial wings and brazen hooves, Mighty Skullcrushers were felled and the Knight-Azyros was knocked out of the sky! 

Eventually, all that was left was Goretim the Reddish... who eyed up the distant Vigilors... 

Meanwhile, Prosecutors rallied behind one of the nearby ruins. 

Goretim charged the Vigilors and rode them down... He then chased down and destroyed the last of the Prosecutors... only to have more appear as reinforcements. 

In the distance, the last remaining Reclusians watch the Khornate Lord and hold he brazier they were meant to secure...

The game ended as a draw. After the first two turns, I was pretty sure it was going to end in a defeat for the Bloodbound, as I was down 3-0... but in the next few rounds I managed to claw away control of the objective areas and score enough points to tie up the game at 4 victory points each. 

Post game we each determined how many Emberstone Shards we'd secured. I ended up with four and the Stormcast ended up with five. These can then be spent on a number of different things; progressing heroes or units along a path, gaining enhancements or spells or prayers, recruiting new warriors, and more.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with mine... Not sure if I should spend them on making the units I have better, either through progress along a Path or Heroic Enhancements or Artefacts of Power or Spells... OR do I just add more units to my army? And if so, WHICH units!? 

I took the Bloodbound Warhorde Battle Formation, so I should probably stick to Bloodbound... but I the only other bloodbound units I have painted are the Skullreapers and a second Slaughter Priest... I guess I could start with those. I'm not sure I really want to spend time painting Bloodbound right now, when I have so many Maggotkin and Sylvaneth I want to be working on!? (I do have another ten Blood Warriors and THIRTY Bloodreavers!) 

I am tempted to paint up the Bloodreavers... just to have a cheap speedbumps and Blood Tithe Generators!? 

Also after the battle Battle Wounds are rolled for - to see how damaged units or heroes that were taken out during the game are... if enough Battle Wounds are accumulated, units gain Battle Scars... but some units can be tended to and their Battle Wounds reduced each game. Every Single Unit I rolled for gained two Battle Wounds. Both the Lord of Khorne and Slaughterpriest were able to cook up some healing blood ritual and the Slaughterpriest healed himself and Goretim healed his Mightly Skullcrushers. I imagine some do die, and the Battle Wounds and Scars represent weaker, less experienced warriors replacing the more experienced ones that died, as much as it represents warriors being hindered by their wounds. 

Anyway, it was good fun and I'm glad I got this started! looking forward to what the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile might get up to next...