Storm of Celestus Enter the Nightvault

Some time ago, I bought and painted up a set of Castigators, thinking I'd be able to pair them up with some of my other Stormcast Eternals to make a Warcry Warband. Through they never saw any action in Warcry, they did form part of a small Stormcast Eternal force that Finnegan used in Age of Sigmar. 

Earlier this year, Games Workshop released a new Two-Player Starter Set for Warhammer Underworlds. It included two warbands that made use of previously released Easy-to-Build sets that hadn't been used in Warhammer Underworlds - the Castigators and the Glaivewraith Stalkers. The set reprinted a few of the boards from Shadespire and Nightvault and the decks included with the warband were designed to be playable, as is, and the box included NO EXTRA CARDS!? 

I picked the box up a few months back and STLILL haven't painted either warband (the Glaivewraith Stalkers are almost done - just have to finish the bases). But since the Stormcast Castigator warband uses miniatures I've already painted... I can just use THOSE!? 

On Sunday evening, Amanda and I decided to play one of the four games of Nightvault we need to play to get in ten plays this year. I thought I'd try out the Storm of Celestus - I had a look at their deck, briefly, in the afternoon, and it didn't look too bad at all. Seemed like it could totally be played as is... 

THE GAME

Starting things off, I actually won the roll for board placement - as Amanda has figured out how to place boards to her advantage if she goes second! 

Objectives and warbands were then set up and we were ready to roll! 

This past week we did, finally, get a radiator reinstalled in the Game Room. Unfortunately as it is the only one in the basement and the thermostat is at the bottom of the stairs, it would make the room VERY warm before the thermostat ever registered that it had warmed up to stop the heat running... so we will just have to turn on the heat a bit before any games are to happen down there. As we are not in the habit of this, as yet, we forgot to do so and it was still a bit cool while we were playing... Amanda's wearing a toque I found at a hallowe'en costume store recently that I thought was funny. (If you can't read it, it says: "BASIC WITCH").

Kind of works... since she is playing Witch Aelves! 

ROUND ONE

All set up and ready to roll. All three of the objective cards i started with were onces involving control of Objectives. 

The first, Crucial Objective, was a surge I could score after an Enemy Activation if I was on either  Objective Number Two or Four. This would be easy peasy - Objective Number Four was in my territory!

The second, Bold Claim, was a similar surge one that required that I held two of Objectives One, Three, or Five. Number Five was the other one in my territory, and Number Three was the closest one to my territory that was in Enemy Territory... but they would be wanting to grab those objectives too!  

The third, Great Purification, required that I hold THREE Objectives at the end of the Round. If I managed to do the second one, and holdit to the end of the round, though... 

I won the roll off and went first. 

Mellisan moved onto Objective Number Four.

Lethyr jumped onto Objective Number One.

At the end of their activation, I scored Crucial Objective for holding Objective Number Four. +1 Glory for me! I then upgraded Mellisan with Cool Head (Allowing her to re-roll one die in any of her attacks!). I drew a new objective to replace the one I just scored and drew Point Blank - a Surge objective, scored after an activation in which a friendly fighter made a successful Range 3+ Attack action which targeted an adjacent enemy fighter.

Amanda played Catechism of Murder and inspired Khamyss. 

Aphus The Brave moved up on to Objective Number Five - half way to scoring that next Objective Card! It also brought him next to Sleek, which has this interesting ability - Warning Cry - a reaction when an enemy attacks within two hexes, they can put a Guard Token on any Friendly Fighter within 1 hex - so if anyone tried to charge any of these warriors while in this position, sleek would put a Guard Token on them! 

No one charged, though. Kyrssa moved onto Objective Number Two and Amanda scored Hidden Purpose (+1 Glory for holding two objectives). She then upgraded Morgwaeth with Duelists Speed (gets to push one after attacking an enemy - allowing her to disengage or follow up!) 

Since no one was standing on it, Celestus charged on to Objective Number Three... all I had to do was hold it for ONE activation. Also, as part of the charge he shot Morgwaeth - If I'd just hit her, I'd score an immediate Glory Point for the Objective Card I'd just drawn... AND Celestus would be inspired, as his inspire condition is simply that his crossbow attack action succeeds! AND when he's inspired he CANNOT BE DRIVEN BACK! 

Of course I didn't... Things WERE looking up when I rolled a crit AND a success on my two attack dice! (14% chance of that happening...). Of course Amanda can't NOT roll at least one crit... so she did the same with her two defence dice (8% chance of that happening). A tie is not a success... but I did push her back one hex. She could still hit me from there, but at least couldn't count as support if someone else attacked Celestus. 

I played a gambit called Great Bow Block - which meant that any damage to any of my warriors other than Sleek done in the next activation was automatically reduced to one... I'd hoped this might be an enticement to go after sleek and leave Celestus alone... 

So Amanda shot at Celsestus with Kyrae... because her bow only does one damage anyway... 

And hit him... knocking him off of Objective Number Three. 

I SHOULD have also played Lightning Flare, which I was also holding, which meant no attacks could be made from 2+ hexes away... no one would have CHARGED and attacked if they could only do one damage... alas... 

For my final activation I moved Sleek onto Objective Humber Three. THEN I played Lightning Flare, for all the good it would do... 

And Amanda played Distraction... allowing her to push and Enemy Fighter one hex... and knocked Sleek off of the Objective!? GAH!? 

Morgwaeth Charged onto the Objective! 

Then she stabbed Celestus causing two damage and scoring Bold Conquest, scoring +1 Glory when your leader mase a Charge action and is holding an objective....

I played Healing Tempest which removed the two wounds from Celestus... But pushing Sleek off the Objective denyed me being able to score two Objective Cards worth FIVE Glory... 

End of Round one... Morgwaeth's Blade Coven holding three Objectives. Celestus has taken one damage. 

ROUND TWO

Amanda actually WON the initiative roll... but actually let me go first - because she had cards she wanted to play before taking her first activation. As cards are, generally, only played in the Power Step following an activation, that meant I'd need to go first. 

I totally wanted her to go first, for the same reason! I was holding a card that gave +1 dice to a range 3+ attack... Alas... 

Aphus the Brave shot Morgwaeth. He had TWO Support! 

He actually hit, did two damage, and pushed her back, off of the Objective! 

Amanda then played Forward Planning and upgraded Lethyr with the Formless Key and played Headlong Fury, allowing Khamyss to make a free move action without putting a move token on her. 

On her first activation, Khamyss killed Sleek...  +1 Glory 

Damn... 

So I played that Aetheric Channelling, giving my next attack an extra die... But, despite that extra die.. I STILL only tied her... pushing her back one hex. 

On Amanda's turn, she moved Morgwaeth back onto Objective Number Three... played Regal Vision - inspiring Morgwaeth - and then played Jealous Defence - allowing a fighter, without a charge token, standing on an objective, to make a free attack. She attacked Celestus and killed him.... +1 Glory 

Yikes... 

Holding Objectives was no longer useful, so Aphus moved off and charged Khamyss... I'm not sure why...? She is a bit of a glass cannon and, I guess, if I DID get lucky, he could still kill her with one attack... and if it were point blank, he'd get that bonus Glory Point for that stupid Objective Card I was STILL holding... 

He missed.... of course... because crits... 

Then Khamyss attacked Aphus and Killed him... +1 glory

Mellisan moved off of the objective she was on, hoping to get a shot in and be in a slightly better position for the final Round... as she would be the ONLY fighter I would have to use... for, potentially, four activations... She shot at Kyrssa... the only one in range with only ONE Defence die.... and missed because crit defence... one ONE DIE?!

Khamyss charged Mellisan and actually only wounded her with ONE of her attacks... 

And then pusher her back... Yay...? 

AT the end of the Round Amanda scored more Objectives... Dug In (+4 glory) and Dominant Position (+2 glory)... bringing her total to... TEN!? 

ROUND THREE

Amanda went first and Kyrae shot Mellisan and hit her and did one damage and then played snare which did a second point of damage and finished her off... 

Yeah... 

Fun times... 

Amanda scored some MORE Objectives and ended with a total of FIFTEEN GLORY POINTS... to my ONE!? 

Also, she tabled my ENTIRE warband of Stormcast Eternals, while only taking two damage points in the whole damned game...