Tuesday, November 03, 2015

AoS Hobby Challenge - Deathrattle Horde for OTT 2016

Despite my overlong periods of non-bloggery, I have been far from idle on the hobby front. Long overdue catch-up posts will be forthcoming, so if you like Mordheim, X-Wing, and board gaming in general, I suppose there are worst places in the internet to go. Not many, but still. Stay tuned.

Unlike many of my compatriots, I have been bitten pretty hard by the Age of Sigmar bug. I'm really enjoying the work coming out of the Black Library, and am excited about exploring the Realm of Shyish with my own Undead Hordes. To that end I hope to start running some small events down this neck of the woods for those who are interested (yes, we exist), starting with Over The Top 2016 - the Hamilton Immortals' annual GW gaming event - in February next year.

We will be running AoS alongside WFB 8th edition. So far there has been just a few players interested in the new version of the game, so I do not anticipate huge interest - if it happens, it happens. But there are still a good number of folk from here, Auckland and Tauranga who enjoy 8th ed, so it's nice to have the option of continuing.

At the very least, my buddy Troy and I will spend the weekend playing demo games of AoS if there are no other takers. I will be helping to run the WFB event at the same time, so keeping it casual would work in my favour, so that I can attend to umpiring duties as required.

So that leaves me with just a few months left to get my army together.

We will be using the Clash Comp, or UKIP Tournament Pack, which provides a good structure around army composition for more formal events (see below for links). The only change is that we will be scaling down the game sizes - 15 total army pool choices, with 10 deployment pool choices in each game. This allows those people who have the AoS Starter set to use those armies pretty much straight out of the box.

Here is the force that I have decided on:
  • Krell, Lord of Undeath - 1
  • Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster - 1.5
  • Wight King w/ Infernal Standard - 1
  • 10 Grave Guard - 1.5
  • 20 Skeleton Warriors w/ Spears & Shields - 2
  • 20 Skeleton Warriors w/ Swords & Shields - 2
  • 5 Black Knights - 1
TOTAL = 10 Pool Choices


Krell's Deathrattle Horde - in progress! With the boss looming in the background.


It is not a very strong list, as far as the Age of Sigmar goes, but I have been (un)dying to field Krell and Heinrich for ages now. Theme-y as hell.

With only two units of Skeleton Warriors, I miss out on being able to use the Deathrattle Horde Warscroll Batallion, which requires three units. If I find I am missing the bonus rules too much, I will deploy them in three units in a subsequent game. The problem is that I only have two command groups at hand.

The only thing missing is the round bases, and I have a whole heap of those ordered from my pal Jeff at Dragon Forge Design. I've already trialled some for my Mordheim Warband, and have been very pleased with the results. 

The Grand Undead Legion of Konrad von Carstein

Troy will be bringing his Stormcast Eternals. I hope to cajole him into being a guest-poster on this blog so that the rest of the Mortal Realms can benefit from his excellent paintsmanship.

Plenty more updates to follow. These are exciting hobby times for me personally - hopefully I will keep motivated enough to share my activities on the blog! If you are interested in attending any gaming events in the Hamilton or Waikato area, do get in touch.