Age of Sigmar - Path to Glory - The Ruined Settlement

A sweltering hot breeze whislted through the ancient ruins strewn across the blasted landscape of Aqshy. The only other sounds to be heard were the muffled sounds of armour clattering as the Bloodbound crossed through the rubble of long-forgotten town. The Daemonic Hounds that sniffed out their quarry padded across the debris in utter silence. The Dead that waited for them were utterly silent... 

Slaughterpriest Bob Bloodblob had bound the Daemon Karanak, Hound of Vengeance, and it's horde of Flesh Hounds and commanded them to seek out the Vampire that has brought ruin to his brother Slaughterpriest... 

The hounds had led them to the Isle of Morn, where Duchess Mircalla, Vampire Lord, laid in wait to teach another brash band of Khorne worshippers it is dangerous to trespass in the lands of the Soulblights... 

This past Thursday, Orion and I got together to play some Age of Sigmar. We played a 1000-Point Paths to Glory battle. 

FORCES

Bob Bloodblob's Bloodbound Brotherhood of Blood

Slaughterpriest General's Regiment 

• Hero- Bob Bloodblob - Slaughterpriest - 5 Renown - Level One
• Unit - The Bloody Crushers of Skulls - Mighty Skullcrushers
• Unit -  The Bloody Reavers of Blood - Bloodreavers
• Unit - Garrek's Reavers

Karanak's Regiment

• Hero- Karanak, Hound of Vengeance! 
• Unit -  The Best Boys - Flesh Hounds
• Unit -  The Goodest Boys - Flesh Hounds
• Unit -  The Stink Paws - Flesh Hounds

(Okay... the name is a bit wrong... it's NOT all Bloodbound... but afterwards I got to thinking I should probably ditch Karanak and the Flesh Hounds and focus on just mortal Bloodbound forces...) 

Duchess Mircalla's Soulblight Force 

Vampire Lord General's Regiment

• Hero- Duchess Mircalla - Vampire Lord
• Unit - Isolbella's Riders of the Red Dragon - Blood Knights
• Unit -  The Nulahmian Guard - Grave Guard
• Unit -  The Curse Born - Vargheists

Necromancer's Regiment

• Hero -  Zondara the Tragic - Necromancer
• Unit -  The Dessicated Legion - Deathrattle Skellies

THE BATTLE

Blades of Khorne forces arrayed against the Soulblight Gravelords. 

We played the Ruined Settlement scenario. Points were gained for controlling each of the five objectives at the end of each players turns. 

I went first. 

Orion spent a command point and summoned the Purple Sun of Shyish endless spell... 

Teh Hordes of Flesh Hounds and the Mighty Skullcrushers charged forward and clashed into the line of the Gravelords. 

Karanak and one of the units of Flesh Hounds didn't quite make it into contact with anyone... but they held an objective for a round. 

The Mighty Skullcrushers and one unit Flesh Hounds had utterly destroyed the Deathrattle Skeletons they'd charged. 

The Purple Sun of Shyish was banished (though a little out of sequence as we forgot a LOT of rules... In my defence, I have not played since the beginning of October, and I've never played these Khorne forces... other than that one game of Spearhead... and those rules are a bit different! 

On Orion's turn, one of her wizards summoned a Suffocating Gravetide and the other one cast a spell on my Bloodreavers and dealt some damage! This angered Bob Bloodblob as those Bloodreavers were there for HIM to sacrifice! 

The Vargheists flew up and dropped down on one of the objective locations to hold steal that away from me... 

The Suffocating Gravetide chased after Some of those Flesh Hounds... and wiped them out! The Grave Guard would charge the remaining Mighty Skullcrushers. 

At the beginning of Round Two, Orion won the roll-off and decided to go first, effectively having two turns in a row! This is a whole thing in Age of Sigmar - each round you roll to decide who goes first... if you went second in the previous round, you can potentially go first in the second round and have two turns in a row. In Spearhead and Matched Play (like, at tournaments and other competitive events) CHOOSING to take a double turn had CONSEQUENCES (like you don't get to draw new cards and other things..). In Narrative Play...? Like Paths of Glory...? Not-so-much... 

So the Vargheists charged Garrek's Reavers AND the remaining Mighty Skullcrusher.

Half of the unit of Deathrattle Skeletons had been brought back at the end of the first round and seized an objective and charged a unit of Flesh Hounds - with the aid of the Suffocating Gravetide... which also went after Karanak... 

Garrek's Revers were wiped out and the last of the Mighty Skullcrushers was laid low... the Bloodknights finished off the Flesh Hounds that had been stalling them... 

Things were looking BLEAK... 

At the beginning of my second turn... HALF of my units were destroyed. Of the remaining ones, half were seriously damaged - the Bloodreavers had lost four (of ten) and the remaining unit of Flesh Hounds were down to two (of five)... 

The Soulblight Gravelords...? ALL of their units were still on the table. The Vargheists had lost one of their number, as did the Bloodknights... The Deathrattle skeletons, which had been wiped out in the first turn... were back at 50%... and there was one active endless spell and a second would likely be summoned on Orion's next turn... 

Yeah... 

So at the beginning of their second turn, the rest of the Bloodbound scampered away... 

I guess I could have played it out (which might have been more in-character for the Blades of Khorne...), but the writing was on the wall, and I was tired (not having slept nearly enough the night before and then rode out to the Warhammer Store) and I know I'd made a lot of mistakes - both tactically, and just playing the game wrong, forgetting rules of how things worked... 

It was good to play the game and get some practice (and afterwards I went home and re-read the rules, looking for specific things I wasn't clear about and have a much better idea of how things work... will I REMEMBER any of them the next time I play...? Who knows... 

We did go through the post game sequence and units gained Renown and the armies gained Glory and I think Orion finished her current Quest (gain more spells?). Orion had also, finally, gained enough Glory to add a new unit to her force - a Vengorian Lord!!

I think I'll just abandon this force, for now, and try something different next time... 

This is the Suffocating Gravetide - it is the same Endless Spell the Heroes are fleeing from in games of Warhammer Quest! It's a pretty rad model and looks much more ominous that the small cardboard counter that represents it in Warhammer Quest!! 

(I might need to get one!) 

Hoe did I end up bringing out the Blades of Khorne?!  

(After spending all that time fussing over which army to play... deciding on Hedonites of Slaanesh... then changing my mind and deciding on focusing on Slave to Darkness to finish up enough to play... then reconsidering Soulblight Gravelords...?)

Slaanesh still would have made the most sense to play - because I actually HAVE Endless Spells for that faction... and they make a BIG DIFFERENCE - it's basically a free unit that you can just keep summoning back every turn if you need to! But the Hedonites are just so hard to transport without breaking stuff... 

I do have endless spells for the Slaves to Darkness... but did not thing I had nearly enough stuff painted (though I realized later I was somehow completely forgetting that I had a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount and was much closer to having 1000 points than I'd initially thought!).

I had also SERIOUSLY considered taking Soulblight Gravelords for funsies - have a little undead on undead violence... but again, breaky skeletons and it would have mostly been Vampires heroes and monsters and ONE unit of skeleton infantry... 

After the game I was thinking of reorganizing the Blades of Khorne and dropping Karanak and the Flesh Hounds and trying to finish up the Mighty Lord of Khorne and maybe a Bloodsecrator and bringing in a unit of Blood Warriors...? But after I realized I was close to having enough for a Slaves to Darkness, I think I'll focus on getting that ready for the next time I play! (even though it's going to be a force with a lot of big monsters... which seems a bit silly to me...)  

Warhammer Underworlds - Garrek's Reavers (and Other Khorne Stuff)

This is the FOURTH set of Garrek's Reaver's I've painted... One for John, when Shadespire first came out. Two I bought cheap and painted one for me (that I later traded away) and one for Finnegan. Finally, this one, which I got with a LOT of things including the original Shadespire box and a bunch of Shadespire era warbands...

Garrek's Reavers

These one's I rebased to make them fit in more with the other Bloodreavers and the rest of the Blades of Khorne Army

Garrek Gorebeard

Blooded Saek

Carsus the Chained

Targor

Arnulf

I'd started painting these along with the other Bloodreavers. At the same time, I also started on the Gorechosed of Dromm, but haven't quite finished them, yet! 

I also rebased Magore's Fiends... 

So now ALL of the Khorne stuff is on similar bases... 

Except Karanak, which I decided to put on a Shattered Domains base, for some reason... 

Warhammer Underworlds Sunday

This past Sunday Nic and Orion stopped by to play some Warhammer Underworlds for the first time in a month?! 

It's been almost a week... I didn't take a lot of notes... so it will be mostly pictures with limited commentary... 

Both games were played in Shadespire. Orion played Zondara's Gravebreakers with their Faction Rivals Deck. Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid with their Faction Rivals Deck. Nick played the Skinnerkin with a Hungering Parasite Nemesis deck. I played a freshly painted Garreck's Reavers with a Tooth and Claw Nemesis deck I quickly threw together that morning. 

I don't have a post with pictures of the newly painted Garrek's Reavers because the battery on the camera I use for taking good (well... okay...) pictures of miniatures died and I cannot for the life of me find the recharger!?

The undersea Aelves and Ghouls went at it right away. 

ABC - Always Be Charging - was my policy for the game! 

There got to be a bit of a brawl in the center of the battlefield! 

Sneaky ghoul stabbing Tammael in the back! 

Targor and Armulf were killed off pretty quickly... but that kind of worked out for me as I had an objective card that required all fighters have a charge token and if Arnulf hadn't been killed in the first turn without ever activating, I never would have pulled that off... 

Ferlain attacked Garrek... and missed. I charged Blooded Saek in and took out Ferlain... so Zondara went a bit savage!

it was noted how similar Zondara and Gristla look and it was decided that they must be sisters... Sisters that HATE each other... but sisters, none-the-less! 

Someone killed Saek, so it was only Garrek and Karsus (who had only one wound left!) 

Karsus was killed with a ping and Garrek made a last ditch effort to deal some damage! I had a card that dealt one damage to everyone adjacent to me, and there was this nice group of three... If Garrek hit ONE of them they would have died... but he missed and was taken out before he got another swing. 

It was pretty brutal, both mine and Amanda's warbands were utterly wiped out... Still I won - which is a very rare thing when Orion is at the table!!

For our second game we played the Chaos Gargant Scenario from the December 2018 White Dwarf... 

In this one I played Magore's Fiends (sticking with the Khorne theme!) but this time with their Faction Rivals Deck... Amanda played the Dread Pageant with their Faction Rivals Deck. Orion played Hexbane's Hunters with Break Neck Slaughter. Nick played Cyreni's Razors with...? some kind of Nemesis Deck...? 

I just could not hit that Gargant to save my life... 

Aemos killed Ghartok... and I'm not sure why... it gained her one Glory Point, which could have been four if Aemos had hit the Gargant...? (which would have made it a MUCH closer game..!) Not sure if she thought I was some kind of threat...? (I for sure was NOT!?)

I'm not sure the Gargant Scneario holds up with a lot of the more recent rules and things that can be done... I think it COULD still be a fun scenario with some updates... like.. the Gargant cannot be staggered! Cyreni just stood and pinged the Gargant with Hammertide for an entire round, meaning it did NOTHING but go on guard for it's action... 

While everyone else kept beating on it.. well.. Amanda and Orion's warbands kept beating on it... 

Eventually I just said fuck it and went after Hexbane's Hunters... 

Had tried to kill the second dog.. but missed and Slakeslash finished it off... 

Missed a swing at Aemos... 

But dammit they took down Hexbane.. it only took ALL THREE of them?! 

Amanda won this by lots because of the totally broken Sadistic Goad upgrade - an attack upgrade that deals 1 + the target's current wound counters... so she hit it when it was at 12 damage and dealt 13 damage!? 

I'd noticed this sometime back and realized how OP it would be in the scenario. Me mentioning it was the reason Amanda took the Dread Pageant - just to see if it would work out... and it DID!! 

Warhammer Underworlds - Tradsies!

 In the last month I started a facebook group for Warhammer Underworlds in Saskatoon - so when people go looking there's a place to find out what's going on, instead of finding my blog and then trying to figure out some circuitous method of sending me a message... And then later in the month, I started a Discord Server... 

On that discord server I happened to mention I had a "Stand-in Gargant" that I've been painting up to hopefully try out the Gargant Scenario for Warhammer Underwrolds from the December 2018 issue of White Dwarf... Then one of the members (Sean) said he had one he could give me!? 

Later I'd mentioned the only three older warbands I'd still like to track down were the Chosen Axes, Starblood Stalkers, and maybe Rippas Snarlfangs... and again Sean said he had one he could give me and could bring them along when he came to play at the Warhammer Store on Friday!

And bring them he did! 

Gargant!

I've already got it onto a different base and started painting! I still want to finish up the Stand-in Gargant! But I have to admit, motivation to do so has plummetted since I got THIS!!!

Chosen Axes! (with complete card deck!?) 

I couldn't just take them, though, so I brought along the Old Karanak mini I had - as I knew he'd acquired a copy of Magore's Fiends, but it was missing Riptooth, the Flesh Hound... and I thought the old Karanak model would work as a stand in. I also took along one of my Garrek's Reavers warbands to see if he'd take off my hands as a trade. He didn't really need them, but I knew he was putting together some warbands for some other friends and suggested he could past them along to them. I had THREE copies of Garrek's Reavers at one point! the first two I speed-painted with "Contrast Paints" and gave one of them to Finnegan. The third is about half done and I like them much better than the speed painted ones... but I probably would never have gotten around to finishing them up if I hadn't given away the finished ones! 

Dang it! I was SO CLOSE to being "in the black" for this year... Ah well.. probably won't be too long before I've knocked these out and catching back up again... Now if GW could just hold off on releasing new warbands until maybe July... (I HAVE gotten rid of FORTY miniatures so far this year, though, so that's got to count for something!?) 

How much do you think I'll have done on these by next Work-in-Progress Wednesday!?

Warhammer Underworlds - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store AGAIN!

 I made it out to a second Skirmish Friday at the Warhammer Store this month - two weeks in a row!? This Friday was also Game Night at our place... but most of the Alternating Friday Game Nights didn't get going until almost 8pm, so I figured there would be time to ride out to the Warhammer Store, play a game or two, and get back around the time others were showing up... If I happened to be a little late, Amanda would be there and they could get something set up! 

I'd just finished painting Zondara's Gravebreakers a few days earlier, and just started reading through their cards the night before and I was REALLY EXCITED to try them out, so I only brought them along with their Rivals Decks. 

Sean was the first to arrive so I set up a game with him. 

Sean was playing Garrek's Reavers with Void-Cursed Thralls.

It was clearly a well-thought-out deck by a really good player... I don't think he was expecting how nasty the Zondara and Ferlain combo could get... 

At the end of the game he only had one or two of his guys left. It was a VERY CLOSE game, with Sean winning by one point! (I could have probably squeaked out a victory if I'd only properly read one of my 2-point objective cards which I tried to score at the end of the third round and realized I hadn't quite done it right - I was supposed to place three DIFFERENT objective tokens during the round... but I'd only done the same one three times... there HAD been two others that i coud EASILY have gotten to and moved... but I hadn't read and understood the card and... so... didn't... DOH!!) 

While we were playing Orion showed up and started a game with John, the store manager.

For out second game Sean dug out Mollog's Mob and a Nemesis deck built around Hungering Parasite - which was really funny, because just the day before I'd been reading through the cards of the Hungering Parasite deck and thinking; "This would be NASTY with Mollog's Mob!!

The Zondara and Ferlain combo took down Mollog in the end - but not before Felain took a good walloping from Mollog's Giant club. 

Again, really close and really fun to play against! 

The Warhammer Store was a lot quieter than when we played earlier in the week at The Den. So much easier to concentrate on what I was doing and hear what people were saying to me! Looking forward to playing there regularly (but not this coming Friday, as Amanda and I have tickets to go see a show!) 

Maybe it will just be Fridays and Sundays for now... 

I'm really having fun with Zondara's Gravebreakers... I think I need to sort out some sort of Nemesis deck(s) for them, along with Skabbik's Plaguepack... and maybe Grinkrak's Looncourt and Mollog's Mob...? or Wurmspat...? Those seem the most fun right now. 

These were the 48th and 49th game I've played of Warhammer Underworlds this year! I'd suggested in the last Quarterly Game Plan I'd suggested maybe I try playing TEN different warbands, TEN times each through the year! I'm not sure that's going to happen... I think one thing I'd like to try and do is (assuming I finish painting them all...) play ALL of the warbands I have at least once this year... AND maybe pick four (or five) that I'm going to try and play 15-30 times each - to actually get GOOD and playing them, and maybe even start forging a little NARRATIVE with them! 

Age of Sigmar - First Game

Aqshy - the Realm of Fire

Deep in the sun-scorched deserts of The Parch, lies an oasis that al informed travellers steer clear of. From if flows the alluring smell of beautiful flowers and enticing melodies sung by sultry maidens, promising all that the unwary traveller could desire. The oasis is overseen by a Daemon of Slaanesh who ensnares the heedless that wander that way, providing them with an excess of all they desire before utterly consuming their very souls to create new daemonettes to build their retinue. 

The Slaaneshi presence on the desert has been a source of constant irritation to the Daemons of Khorne that proclaim dominion over the all of the nearby lands. Indeed, it was the whole purpose of the Slaaneshi Invaders, setting up in that particular location, to vex their rivals. The Bloodmaster will have no more of it. 

SCENARIO

We played the "The Watchtower" scenario, straight out of the Age of Sigmar Core Book (3rd Edition) - except the watchtower was actually an oasis - still a piece of defendable terrain that could be garrisoned. It was in the centre of the table. 

Half of the Hedonite forces started Garrisoned in the terrain at the beginning of the game and the other half remained in reserve. 

Khorne forces had to take the oasis and ransack it (if held two subsequent turns, the oasis is ransacked).

FORCES

Khorne

K'vän, Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne (90)

Karanak, Hound of Vengeance (150) 

10 x Bloodletters (115)

5 x Flesh Hounds (105)

5 x Flesh Hounds (105)

5 x Flesh Hounds (105)

5 x Garrek's Reavers (65)

Total: 735 Points

Slaanesh

Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh (140)

Bladebringer, Herald on Hellflayer (215)

10 x Daemonettes (140) 

10 x Daemonettes (140) 

5 x Seekers (140)

Total: 775

GAME

As our very first game of Age of Sigmar, we figured this was a one-off, learning game and would start our campaign later... 

I started my setting my Hedonites up in the Oasis in the centre of the table. 

According to the scenario, I was supposed to spilt my force into (as close as possible) two equal forces. having five units that meant forces of 3 and 2. I COULD have set up three in the oasis.. but I was a little worried, considering all my reinforcements showed up on turn one, that it might be a little difficult with two units AND my General in there, to have any hope of winkling them out before the cavalry arrived. 

I made the Viceleader my general, instead of the Bladebringer, as it was the hero starting on the table and figured it was the Daemon mentioned in the fluff above that stayed at home luring unsuspecting victims into the oasis...

As it seemed pretty dense terrain, we ruled that the Bladebringer could not go in there. 

Finnegan setting up his Khorne forces. I convinced him, briefly, to wear the KHORNE MAGA cap (Make Aqshy Great Again!).

Legions of Slaanesh feeling a bit surrounded! Calling for help now! 

There they are boys, let's go get em! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! 

ROUND ONE

As specified in the scenario, the invaders got to choose who went first in the first round. As Finnegan knew my reserve forces could just come rolling on in the first turn, he decided there was no good reason to go second and went first! 

In the Hero Phase, both of us chose "Their Finest Hour" for our Heroic Action. This gave the chosen Hero +1 to wound rolls and +1 to save rolls.

KHORNE

Everybody moved up.

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

Everyone that could, attempted to charge.. the Bloodletters failed. Stragenly, Garrek's Reavers, who were further away, made it!? Jokes were made about the Bloodmaster, looking over it's shoulder expecting to see it's Blooletters there supporting the attack and seeing only these mortal fanboys trying to show their worth... 

GRRRRAAARRRR! 

Flesh hounds took out a couple Daemonettes. The Daemonettes then did three wounds to the Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne. Karanak tried to chomp on the Viceleader, but not a single one of it's TEN attacks got through. Viceleader killed a couple of Flesh Hounds. One of them bit the Viceleader's leg for one wound. Finally, K'vän, Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne took a swing at the Viceleader and did two more wounds. 

In the Battleshock Phase nothing really happened (daemons don't tend to run away) and I gained four depravity points (for units on the table that suffered wounds in the last turn). 

SLAANESH

In the Hero Phase, my Viceleader chose the Heroic Recovery action and then cast Born of Damnation, and between the two was back up to full health. 

At the end of the Movement Phase, my reinforcements showed up... and ,y'know, kind of just... stood there...? 

Sure, I guess they spent the turn getting there... 

In the Combat Phase Karanak ate the Viceleader and between two of the two units of Flesh Hounds and Garrek's Reavers, the Daemonettes were taken out...

In the Battleshock Phase  I gained one more depravity points and Finnegan gained two Blood Tithe n

ROUND TWO

KHORNE

Having wiped out the defenders, Garrek's Reavers and the Bloodmaster occupied the Oasis and the Bloodleeters moved up, but couldn't make it in. 

All the Flesh Hounds ran around the side to meet the Slaanesh reinforcements. 

RAAARRRRR! 

Bloodmaster and fanboys occupy the oasis and start defiling it. 

SLAANESH

Daemonettes advance to retake the Oasis. 

The Bladebringer charged Karanak and one of the units of Flesh Hounds, the Unit of seekers decided to get in on that too. 

A unit of Flesh Hounds was wiped out along with Karanak! Two more Blood Tithe Points for Finnegan and I got one more Depravity Point. 

So weird, I got Depravity Points for units that were injured during the turn, Finnegan getting points for units that died... 

ROUND THREE

SLAANESH

I got to go first this round!

Seekers veered off to attack the defenders in the Oasis. 

Bladebringer crashed into the remaining units of Flesh Hounds. 

Oh, and I got to summon ANOTHER unit of Daemonettes. 

I tried to split the attacks between the two units hoping NOT to kill them (which Finnegan got points for) and just injure them bother enough to make them less a threat and gain ME points.. 

I still ended up wiping out one of the units... 

At this point I think i forgot to take pictures for a few turns...  

At some point more Flesh Hounds were summoned back onto the table. 

Another unit of Daemonettes was wiped out... another got summoned... I think the seekers were wiped out. I seem to recall the Bladebringer was taken out by Deamonettes? In the end we called it at the end of Round four, it was clear there was NO WAY the daemonettes were going to winkle the Bloodletters out of there in a turn.

It was a super fun game. I like how it plays. Daemons are weird and kind of fun, just popping back into reality, turn after turn... I'm pretty stoked to get a campaign going on. We'd hoped to get started tomorrow  (Thursday), but stuff came up and it looks like maybe it will be Friday instead... 

You can see our (possible) start forces on a few of the other posts I put up earlier today - Slaanesh (mine) and Stormcast Eternals (Finnegan). 

Eariler today I got in a game of Necromunda.... which... I haven't played since the last ToonCon!? My friend Orion came over and brought his Enforcers. Hopefully I'll get a report of that action tomorrow!