Age of Sigmar: Champions TCG

It has been a LOOOOOOOOONG time since I have played a Collectable Card Game or Trading Card Game... I have to admit, I have never actually played Magic the Gathering! I played a lot of IlluminatiL New World Order and a bunch of other weird, smaller CCGs after the bit CCG bubble burst and you could get starter decks for $3-5 or packs for 50¢ or $1... Like Rage (the werewolf game) or Dune or Kult or Mythos..

I had a lot of stuff for the Star Trek: The Next Generation CCG and one edition of Legends of the Five Rings... just because I could pick up stuff cheap... but never actually played either!?

A few years back, I discovered there had been a licensed Age of Sigmar collectable card game called Champions. At the time I was able to pick up a booster display for less than $20 (CANADIAN!?). I did some snooping around though and it was hard to find the rules (though I did eventually find some... but they'd been downloaded as screen shots from an app and lacked diagrams...) another thing I found suggested that you NEEDED the starter decks to play (I'm not 100% sure this is true... but it would be tricky to pick up enough blessings just from one booster box to play any of the factions. 

The Starter Decks just seemed too expensive... the cheapest I could find was $22 + $12 shipping and that was for Destruction (the faction deck of least interest to me... and they just went up from there... and I'd probably need at least two...) 

At some point I found someone selling a set of all four for $85... which was a bit more reasonable in terms of per unit cost... but it was STILL paying $85 for a game that may or may not suck and may or may not ever get played more than once... or... EVER!? (not that that has stopped me from buying games "on spec" before... but I'm TRYING to be more reasonable...) 

Last week I found that same seller was now selling starter displays (8 starter decks, two of each) for $85... so... 

I bought the starter display... 

Now.. it it NOT lost on me that I've STILL payed $85 for a game that I could conceivably never play... 

But I've got twice as many started boxes now!!

I could give half of them away to potential opponents!

The starter comes with a pre-constructed deck that is supposed to be playable, a booster pack (the first taste is free!), a much more readable set of rules, and a fold out paper playing matt... which isn't the highest quality... but will probably be handy for a game or two then entirely discarded once we all figure out where stuff goes. 

I wondered if this maybe came out BEFORE Warhammer Underworlds...? To maybe test the waters to see if Warhammer fans might be interested in deck-building games...? But checking the dates on Board Game Geek, this game was released the year AFTER Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire was released. It still seems crazy to me that there are new CCGs being released in this day and age... Okay it was seven years ago... but still, I thought everything that wasn't Magic the Gathering (or maybe Pokemon?) died off in the 90s or went the "Living Card Game" route that did away with random booster packs! 

Because Amanda has been busy this week, I haven't been able to get her to sit down and try it out with me (and Orion is out of town for work), so I decided this evening maybe I should just sit down and try a solo play-through to see how it works... So I busted out the Chaos and Death pre-constructed decks and set up a game. 

The only thing about solo gaming, I can't stand my opponent... 

Ugggghhh... this fucking guy... I swear he's cheating... 

I can't honestly tell if this guy is genuinely dumb as fuck or if he's just "weaponizing incompetence"... Moron. 

Anyway... seems like a fun little game that will play quick enough when I'm not trying to play BOTH sides... Solo gaming kind of works for me, I have such garbage working memory that by the time I walk around to the other side of the table to play the other side, I've completely forgotten what cards I had or what plans I'd been making moments before. Unfortunately, it takes forever, because I walk around to the other side of the table and have to re-read all the cards on THAT side and try to figure out what the hell I'd been planning... or if I'd had a plan at all!? Ultimately I end up having to come up with a whole new plan!?

Isn't that just my luck... playing Khorne and all I got is a hand full of SPELLS!? 

(there is a Tzeentch Champion in the Chaos deck - that is otherwise MOSTLY Khorne stuff - and they can cast the spells... but spells take time and you can't just fire them all off in one turn!?) 

The basic rules seem simple enough to follow... but getting the right card combinations at the right time, so you can get the timing of them right for it all to GO OFF... that's the tricky part! 

I swear, Amanda will lose the first two games, complaining viciously about the rules and how she just doesn't get it... and then I will never win a game again in my life... 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 05 - Sabotage Journey

 We played this game almost a month ago on 4 November 2025. We'd taken a break for a few weeks while Finnegan was busy with school projects... and now were back with the first of the Sabotage Journeys to disrupt the power base of Carmilla DuSang.

In these Journey's the Heroes have to hung down and kill TEN Diregoyles and Gnawbone Strays - small creatures that are the heart of DuSang's spy network. They are very fast, very small, and VERY hard to kill  - they only have one health, but each time one is damaged a d12 is rolled and on a 5+, they simply ignore the wound!! that's nearly 60% of the time!!

If that weren't bad enough... ALL the characters START each journey both Cursed and Diseased - conditions that, unless they have a treasure card that does, cannot be removed (If Cleona Zeitengale were still alive, SHE could remove them during the game... alas...). The Diseased means one of the activation dice rolled each turn is automatically reduced to a one. Cursed means any time an enemy hits one of the characters, they deal extra damage (+1/+2 - an extra damage on a regular hit, TWO extra damage on a crit). ALSO, if taken out of action during the game, each condition still on the character at the end of the game when they make their survival roll creates a -1 modifier to the roll... so, if you were still cursed and had ONE diseased marker... -2 to the roll means 25% chance of dying... 

AND, if ALL THAT weren't enough... once the timer hits "night time" (it's always night... but when the timer hits the position that would have indicated nightfall in the previous campaign) a strange mist rolls in that makes it hard to see things and regular hits no longer count, only crits and they only count as regular hits!?

So... with all of that... we began the first Sabotage Journey! 

For this first Sabotage Journey, Finnegan took DAgnai Holdenstock and Octren Glimscry. Amanda played Glaurio VenAlten III and Qulathis the Exile. 

Their first sabotage journey took them to The Tombwrack Laurels. 

Before they even left the Landing Zone, they were attacked by a pair of Vyrnkos Blood-Born vampires! 

Qulathis filled one full of arrows and Dagnai stepped out and chopped the second down with his axe. 

Then pushed through, past Qulathis, and found himself staring into a square FULL of Deadwalker Zombies and members of the Ulfenwatch! 

Octren wandered off in a different direction, only to be attacked by ANOTHER Vykros Blood-Born AND a handful of zombies and ulfenwatch!? 

The Ulfenwatch were the first to move on Dagnai! 

Glaurio, in all the confusion, couldn't decide what to do or where to go, so he just started firing his pistols at a few of the Ulfenwatch that stumbled into view... 

While he was distracted by the battles that Octren and Dagnai had found themselves in, he failed to notice ANOTHER patrol of the Ulfenwatch marching up BEHIND him! 

The fell upon him and he was injured severely! 

Glaruion VenAlten III - out of action... 

Octren tries to escape his pursuers, only to find his path blocked by MORE zombies!?

He is very quickly overwhelmed... 

and out of action... 

The Horde then turns on Dagnai... 

and he to is quickly overwhelmed and taken out... 

Glaurio digs deep and recovers well enough to shamble out of the alleyway he's secreted himself in and stand by Qulathis' side... 

Things... do NOT look great for them on the initiative track, though... 

Bats swarm Glaurio and Qulathis dances her way out of there, cutting a path and dodging past hostiles... 

She makes it into the clear and tries to go for the Extraction Zone... 

But is caught by a Vyrkos Blood-Born and blocked by Zombies... 

Down went Qulathis... 

and Glaurio... well... 

yeah... 

So that was the first failed mission in the Night Wars... 

Which isn't that big of a deal on it's own... I think the DOOM can grow to seven before you lose the campaign. 

You also lose the campaign if less than four characters remain (i.e. if five die, and three have died already!). Remember that bit about 25% chance of dying when rolling for survival after one of these Sabotage Journeys...? So the post-game survival rolls were particularly TENSE!!!

Luckily, everyone survived!! WHEW!!!

This went SO BADLY, like, right from the start.. I wondered if it was just bad luck or are these scenarios just so insanely hard that they are next to impossible to accomplish... I'm not sure they killed a SINGLE one of those little Diregoyles... every time one was revealed it just scampered off into a lynchgate and disappeared! 

Did I mention that you can't even attack them if there are ANY other hostiles that are even VISIBLE to the attacking character...!? 

I have TWO other game reports for Cursed City to catch up on, so, they don't all die in the next Journey... stay tuned for that!

I was pretty excited, later in the week, when the new Warhammer Quest: Darkwater was revealed at the BIG PREVIEW SHOW at the World Championships of Warhammer. After this scenario, I was feeling like we might need that sooner than I had expected!!

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Rift in the Peaks

After fighting the Soulblights to a standstill in a nearby valley (...okay, it was a DEFEAT!), Goretim the Reddish retired to a rift in the nearby peaks, caused by recent volcanic activity to rest and regroup. The following morning, they woke to find the Soulblight army arrayed before them. Battle lines were quickly drawn up to face the hated foe once again!  

The Bloodbound quickly moved to the attack! 

Slaughterpriest Bob Bloodblob, despite being drained from a failed healing ceremony, successfully summoned a pair of Hexgorger Skulls which drifted hauntingly towards the enemy, while the Blood Warriors of the Red Wave scrambled to keep up. 

Wary of the Blood Knights opposite, Goretim the Reddish held back with his Mighty Skullcrushers. Korgachz the Beast surged forward to collect some glowing emberstone. 

The Duchess Mircalla summoned a Purple Sun of Shyish - but it was quickly banished by Bob Bloodblob (Dealing the Duchess DAMAGE!) 

The Skeleton Legions of the Soulblights surged forward and attacked the Judgements of Khorne, banishing them in their own violent way... 

The Blood Knights cantered forward, slowly building speed. 

The Vingorian Lord Consort crashed into the Blood Warriors, with Legions of Skeletons in tow! 

More skeletons attacked the Blood Reavers. 

The Blood Knights charged Goretim the Reddish, the Mighty Skullcrushers, AND the Korgorath. They would pay for their hubris... 

The Korgorath was cut down in their charge... but the Blood Knights were utterly annihilated by their foes... 

The Mighty Skullcrushers charged off after some Fell Bats that were seeking out Emberstone. 

Goretim the Reddish staked a claim at one of the sites of Emberstone.

Bloodreavers and Skeletons kept fighting. For every undead warrior smashed down, another clawed itself from the earth... 

The Mighty Skullcrushers rode down the Duchess and then charged the Vengorian Lord... and there, met their doom... 

Goretim the Reddish rejoined the battle to aid the Blood Reavers in finishing off the Skeletons, only to be assaulted by MORE Fellbats! 

With the Fellbats dealt with, Goretim the Reddish and Bob Bloodblob attacked the Vengorian Lord and fought a savage battle with them... until both sides tired and were forced to break off and retreat. 

Mr. Squiggly-Wiggly, the last of the Bloodreavers held on to the store of Emberstone. 

Another group of skeletons clawed their way up from the ground to reclaim the Emberstone Goretim had claimed... 

This is the second game I played with Orion on Thursday, immediately after playing the Blood in the Valley scenario!

This scenario was called Rift in the Peaks and was more of a "standard" scenario with forces arrayed across from each other along the long edges of the table, and a series of Objective Markers in the middle that had to be held through out the game (1 Victory Point was awarded for each of the three objectives held at the end of each of your turns!)

It was ANOTHER loss... but in the end, I claimed FIVE Emberstone Shards! It think two of those will be used to raise Goretim the Reddish to the Elite rank on the Path of the Slaughterer, gaining the Brutal Onslaught ability (ass 1 to charge rolls!) - it's not amazing... but the next rank has a CRAZY good ability! I will save the rest - to raise either Bob Bloodbloob or Goretim the Reddish to the Mighty Rank of their Paths after the next game... 

Gob Bloodblob healed the Mighty Skullcrushers, Bob Bloodblob healed the Khorgorath

I've gotten a bit behind on Game Reports - I have THREE Warhammer Quest game reports to finish up and one for a game of Bolt Action played back in OCTOBER!? Hopefully I'll get those sorted this week.

Also still working on Gossamid Archers for Amanda's Sylvaneth, but I'm not sure exactly when we'll get to play next...

Finally, this weekend is the TANKSGIVING event at the Warhammer Store - that I've been working on the Great Unclean One for... I'm not sure I'm going to survive the first turn to even HIT anything... but I'll be there and try to get some pictures of all the bit TANKS! 

What We Do in the Realm of Shadows - Episode Six

 While Orion was still in town we got in another episode of our What We Do in the Realm of Shadows campaign...

The characters conti -  ued to wander through the foetid swamps despoiled by Nurgle in an attempt to locate the Maggotkin forces and... somehow... "deal with them" so as not to be a distraction for the Stormcast Eternals that Neferata was trying to convince should aid her in the destruction of the forces of Khorne that have squatter in Angaria for far too long...

They did note the trio of Fell Bats still following them from the distance - sometime "friends", sometimes rivals from the court in Nulhamia - Simone the Deceitful, Count Blandula, and Jarred the Silent. They ignored them and carried on. 

Eventually they started to wonder if they were going in circles, as they were eventually so far into the tainted lands that EVERYTHING looked tainted and they were no longer sure they were heading towards more tainted stuff.. because it was ALL bad... so Lady Esmerelda took on her bat form and with Harald the Spirit torment tried flying ahead to scout things out. 

It was Harald that finally spotted a large concentration of the Maggotkin... and there were a LOT of them... and it looks like they were building something... perhaps a ritual site...?

This could not mean anything good and when Harald reported back what he'd seen... everyone was quite concerned that they'd been sent on a suicide mission. Harald pointed out that there were THREE VAMPIRE LORDS that were also vassals of Neferata following them and perhaps they could be convinced to join them. Lady Esmerelda and Sir Raven said they would rather DIE than owe any of those three any favours or to have seemed so weak as to need their help... especially since the three had boasted that Lady Esmerelda and Sir Raven were no longer in Neferata's favour, having failed to raise the army they'd promised, and that when the Legion of Blood took back Angaria from the Khorne horde, that their keeps would be awarded to those that were in favour Simone and Count Blandula! 

Harald went and tried to convince them anyway... unfortunately Harald, being a Spirit Torment, the only method he really had for trying to convince anyone of anything was INTIMIDATION... and that did not work... 

After returning to the others, Harald pointed out that if they DID NOT secure the vampires aid, they would surely die and then Simone the Decietful and Count Blandula would FOR CERTAIN steal their ancestral keeps! 

And so Lady Esmerelda made a pitiful attempt to ask the trio for their help... and hey declined... 

So it was up to them to stop this ritual on their own.. 

As they approached, most were involved in the ritual or watching the ritual... 

A few Nurglings were capering about, acting as sentries, of a sort. Harald flew up and pulverized a pair of them with his lock and chains. They burst like giant balloons filled with puss and gore.. but not before they squealed (it was unclear if it was terror or delight...?) and alerted the followers of Nurgle of their presence. 

Before they could act, Sir Raven rode down an entire unit of Plaguebearers! Slaughtering the lot of them smashing them to bits and being sprayed with more gore and puss and rancid fluids... 

This got the attention of the Pusgoyle Blightlord who charged Sir Raven, dealing the vampire some serious damage! 

 A Lord of Plagues, the Putrid Blightkings and another horde of Plaguebearers turned and shambled towards the interlopers,

Harald quickly found himself surrounded by Putrid Blightkings! 

He slipped away and attacked a Daemon of to the side that seemed to be directing the Plaguebearers. 

Sir Renmould stood guard, ready to defend Lady Esmerelda. Lady Esmerelda began throwing spells at the Sorcerer leading the ritual...

The Lord of Plagues charged in first bashing Sir Renmould HARD... 

Sir Raven charged down the other group of Plaguebearers, destroying them utterly! 

Then all fell back to try and deal with the Lord of Plagues and Putrid Blightkings first, before trying to assault the Sorcerer and the Lord of Afflictions protecting her... 

The battle was long and savage. At one point Sir Renmould seemed like he might be mortally wounded... and would have surely perished, were it not for the magiks of the Necromancer, Waldron! 

The Lord of Plagues absolutely obliterated the necromancers private guard of Deadwalker Skeletons... then proceeded to smash through all of his zombies... 

At that point the Necromancer cast one more spell healing the damage he could, and then fled! 

Around this time, Sir Raven was cut down by the three Putrid Blightkings he was fighting!

Things looked dire, indeed! 

Luckily, just then, when things were looking super bad... a large Fell Bat swooped in at attacked the Lord of Plagues! 

The bat turned into Count Blandula! He was soon joined by another Fell Bat. 

The second Fell Bat, they had earlier claimed to be Jarred the Silent who had been "stuck" in bat form for some time, was slain by the Lord of Plagues... and turned out to be just a Fell Bat!? WHERE WAS JARRED THE SILENT!? 

After that they were finally joined by Lady Simone the Deceitful, who killed the Pustule Blightlord and helped finish off the Lord of Plagues.

Alas... it was too late... 

The sorcerer successfully summoned the Great Unclean One into Shyish! 

Simone the Deceitful and Count Blandula looked at each other, then looked over an the other vampires... the simultaneously yelled "BAT!" turned back into their bat forms and flew off... 

Lady Esmerelda did the same... but tried to carry off her sometimes lover and possible sibling, Sir Raven... as awful as her unlife was with him... she could not imagine unlike WITHOUT hime... 

Sir Renmould had to just flee on foot, hoping to keep the vampires in sight as they flew off... 

How would they keep the Stormcast from finding out about the Great Unclean One and pivoting their forces to come and deal with it! How would they explain this all to Neferata!? Could Sir Raven be reanimated!?

find out next month, in the next episode of What We Do in the Realm of Shadows!!