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... 

Age of Sigmar - Ambush at The Blood-Pines

After finally making a stand at the Whispering Willow Wood, the Sylvaneth Guardians of Adharcach Hollow have checked the tireless advance of the forces of Nurgle and have them on the run! To capitalize on this, an ambush was laid for the Maggotkin at The Blood Pines! 

This is the second battle in the Methervale Campaign - a simple Path to Glory campaign I have set up for Amanda and myself to play out. You can read more about the campaign on the campaign page:

Path to Glory - Methervale Campaign

I'll try to keep that up-to-date with the current status of the forces and links to all the battles in the campaign. 

Scenario

There are many iterations of the Ambush scenario in various Warahmmer books. I have adapted it here to fit the small forces we are playing with. The Maggotkin were being ambushed by the Sylvaneth. 

The Maggotkin gained victory points by exiting units off the opposited end of the battlefield (1 point per unit, +1 point for the General)

The Sylvaneth gained victory points for taking out Maggotkin units (1 point per unit, +1 point for the General)

The game ends when there are no more Maggotkin units on the battlefield. The side with the most Victory Points at the end of the battle wins. If one side has four or five victory points they have scored a Major Victory. 

If a Sylvaneth unit takes out the Maggotkin Warlord they gain an extra point of Renown. If the Maggotkin win and their Warlord escapes, their Warlord gains an extra point or Renown! 

We also said any unit within combat range of the Shardrack Spines (the red terrain bits) at the end of any turn would roll a d6 and on a 6 was dealt a Mortal Wound - so they weren't super dangerous... but something to be aware of! 

As with the previous game, we did not use Commands, Artifacts of Power, or Heroic Traits. We did use a few of the Path Abilities for Heroes that had gained the Aspiring rank. 

The Forces

Sylvaneth - The Guardians of Adharcach Hollow

Branchwych General’s Regiment 

• Hero - Ceitllwyn - Branchwych (1) 110 
• Unit - Spite-Revenants (5)  80 

Total: 190

Heglog the Treelord’s Regiment 

• Hero - Heglog - Treelord (1) 210 
• Unit - Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (3) 200

Total: 410

Faction Terrain: Awakened Wyldwood

ARMY TOTAL: 600

Maggotkin of Nurgle - the Blechbelch Legion

Lord of Aflictions' General's Regiment

• Hero - Lord Blobbottom - Lord of Afflictions (1) 170 
• Unit - Anthony the Pusgoyle Blightlord (1) 130 

Total: 300 points

Rotbringer Regiment

• Hero - Fecula Flyblown -  Rotbringer Sorcerer (1) 110 
• Unit - Putrid Blightkings (5) 190 

Total: 300 points

Army Total: 600 points

The Game

Amanda reminding herself of how everything works!

All set up! The Ambush is sprung! 

Ceitllwyn the Branchwych successfully summoned an Awakened Wyldwood right by the Maggotkin's Rotbringer Sorceress, Fecula Flyblown (yes, THAT Fecula... this was in her younger years before being sent to The Beastgrave...) and her Putrid Blightking bodyguard... 

Fecula was unable to unbind it! 

Heglog the Treelord charged forth and trampled Fecula Flyblown into the ground... 

(luckily her loyal Blightkings Sepsimus and Gulgoch were able to retrieve and revive her after the battle...) 

Enranged Putrid Blightkings swarmed Heglog, vowing revenge! They chopped away at the Treelord with mad abandon... but it seemed the bark simply grew back - before their very eyes - faster than they could chop it away!!

Lord Blobbottom, the Lord of Afflictions, and Anthony the Pusgoyle Blightlord, left the Putrid Blightkings behind and just fled as fast as they could... 

The Blightkings were taking a pounding and called out for aid from their leader... but Lord Blobbottom just kept going... 

Anthony the Pusgoyle Blightlord, spotted the Branchwych and cut her down on the way by... 

The Treelord wasn't exactly having a lot of success at taking down the Putrid Blightkings either, though... they are a whole other level of TOUGH compared to their Rotbringer Sorceress... 

The Kurnoth Hunters maneuvered to block Anthony's escape. They shot him full of arrows... 

Then charged in and dealt further blows with their melee weapons! 

The Spite-Revenants maneuvered to engage the Lord of Afflictions... Were the Spite-Revenants capable of feeling regret... they probably would have felt it then... 

Heglog slowly started whittling down the Putrid Blightkings... 

Anthony and Lord Blobbotton both fled their assailants... 

(this was a bit of a gamble... as any unit using the Retreat ability takes D3 mortal wounds... a 3 would have killed Anthony - I rolled 2! I rolled 3 for the Lord of Afflictions, which put him at 5 damage...  he only had 8 health, if he took much more damage in the coming turn, he would not be able to retreat again and would definitely have to fight his way out...) 

Anthony the Pusgoyle Blightlord escaped! 

The Kurnoth Hunters and Spite-Revenants moved to chase down Lord Blobbottom... they were determined to not let THIS ONE escape! 

Arrows rained down on the Lord of Afflictions injuring him severely! 

Then the Kurnothi and Spite-Revenants charged... 

Lord Blobbotton fought savagely... he was determined to escape this mob... but if he could not, he would sell himself dearly. He finished off the Spite-Revenants and cut down two of the Kurnothi... 

Meanwhile Heglog finished off all but one of the Putrid Blightkings... Gulgoch... 

Gulgoch made a run for it! 

(again a risk, as he only has 3 Health... a roll of a 3 while trying to escape would have finished him, and the unit, off! I rolled a 2!) 

The Treelord let the little manling-thing run for a moment and turned his attention to the Lord of Afflictions and with its massive vines grasped the giant bloat-fly and squished it to a pulp... 

the Lord of Afflictions toppled off into the trees somewhere... 

The Last Kurnoth Hunter shot Gulgoch... 

Oof! ANOTHER Major Victory for the Sylvaneth!!!

This was a typical dice roll for me... this one was a to-hit roll for the Putrid Blightkings who hit on 3+ with 9 attacks, I SHOULD have hit six time... instead I rolled SIX ONES... just... don't ask what I rolled to wound... (there were MORE ones involved!!) 

Renown and Glory were gained and tracked on the Campaign Page - Amanda now has enough Glory she COULD add another unit to her force! She'll have to wait a few weeks, though, as the new Outcast Spitegrove Battleforce box won't be released until the 29th! (I do have some Gossamid Archers to assemble and paint for her... but those are technically already part of her force!? we haven't even played with the full 1000 points each force has!) 

In the next battle, the Maggotkin will have a chance to counter-attack and retake the Blood Pines... if they lose, however, they will have to retreat to the Owl-Stretching Glade with the Sylvaneth hot on their heels again... if they can't defend that location, the Sylvaneth will be directly attacking their base of operations at Camp Suppurate! If the camp is lost, they will have to abandon futher operations for the time-being and retreat back into the Festermire Marsh where they came from...