Wellington Warhost 2016 - List Overview

New Zealand's first 2,500 point tournament is coming up on November 12th and 13th. With 14 players, it is also going to be the best attended so far in our small but growing community of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar players.

The army lists were released today, so I wanted to have a look at each and give my thoughts, as well as my pick for the top five.

The player's pack can be found here, and you can follow all our event chatter on the Age of Sigmar New Zealand community or tournament groups.

Additionally, we are hoping to provide a live stream of the top tables on Twitch, so follow my Twitter or Facebook feed if you are interested.

Without further ado, let's look at the first list.

Ron's Ironjawz

Ron won the GuardCon 2016 tournament for the 2,000 point event this year, and can play his list very well. Free to bulk up to 2.5k, Ron has added more Brutes and more Pigs, essentially scaling up his army based on his existing formula. He will be using the extra speed afforded to Destruction armies to neutralise key threats early, and will likely look to the 'Ardboyz as fodder against the Beastclaw pain train.

James P's Tomb Kings

James is so far unbeaten in the Age of Sigmar, and that includes tournament wins at the NICON, Call to Arms and Skull Keep events this year. His list has remained consistent over those events in taking six Necropolis Knights, buffed by Settra Himself, and a Liche Priest for extra attacks. In this bigger game format, he has added a Tomb King, Necrotect and Necromancer to buff the unit beyond insanity. And it gets worse. The Tomb Guard are just as good as the Necro Knights. He is also running Arkhan, who can benefit from any buffs that effect Skeletons. The rest are 'just' chaff, but they perform better than throwaway units from most other armies. I think you'd have to play your guts out and get a bit of luck to beat it, and we can only hope that Jim becomes bored with TK eventually...

David's Stormcast Eternals and Extremis Chamber

I like this list. Not least because I am also building one around the Warrior Brotherhood battallion and the Knight-Azyros' ability to drop them closer to the enemy. Interestingly, David is taking the new Lord Veritant, obviously anticipating a bit of magic to nullify. Concussors and Fulminators provide a very good hammer blow to this force. One thing I thought that could improve it would be to have the Azyros as part of the battallion, as there is a risk David could lose the model before he gets to use its synergy for the inevitable alpha strike. He is entitled for a few more Starsoul Maces too, but these are hard to obtain for those who picked up the starter set. Love the list concept, looking forward to seeing how it goes for when my own Storm Chamber takes the field!

Bo's Aelven Host

Bo's bringing back the shooting! Certainly there's a lot of it here. As we discovered at Call to Arms, it is not infallible, despite the core rules allowing shooting into and out of combat. With Destruction rampaging through the metagame with their Turn One charges, Bo has several unfavourable matchups to plan around. It's great to see Tyrion on the table, and I think opponents may get caught short with the Ellyrian Reavers and their movement rules. Overall, solid MSU pew-pew that will provide a counterpoint to the 'deathstars' and low model count armies.

Shaun B's Stormcast Eternals and Free Guild

Shaun has the (dubious) honour of fielding the first Retributor Bomb ever witnessed on NZ soil. This is going to catch opponents off-guard. The combo involves the Knight-Vexillor using the Pennant of the Stormbringer to teleport a unit of 15(!) Retributors into a unit of his choice, possibly also buffed up by the mages. The small mercy is that he is taking two-less Starsoul Maces than he is entitled to, although how much of a difference that will make is debatable. He has some chaff to help compete against Alpha Strike lists, and some back-line damage from the Hurricanum. A very good list being wielded by a wily player.

Hayden's Beastclaw Raiders

Hayden is famous in the AOS community for his incredibly quick painting. He painted two full armies in the time it takes me to do a single warscroll. The worst part? The army looks great. The Jorlbad Battalion allows those units to run and charge, which is amazing when combo'd with the Destruction ability that allows units to move a bit in the Hero phase. Only having two heroes will mean he has to play mindfully on certain scenarios, but the Mournfang Cavalry will be able to cover any gaps in his battleline. Beastclaw Raiders are known for one thing - Turn One charging with big monsters. There will be those who are ready for it, and those who are not.

Matthew's Destruction Warhost

The main goal of Matt's army is similar to the other Beastclaw list. Get the monsters into the face of his opponent. I played against Matt at Call to Arms, and he came the closest out of everyone of being able to kill Nagash. Matt has brought along a bit more diversity into his list this time. Grots, for objectives and chaff-related tasks, is a good move, allowing him to add a few more options to his strategy. I am interested to see the Magma Dragon in action! The shooting attack in particular almost guarantees that a Hero will die each turn. What a beast! It turns out Matt has grudged me for round one...

Aiden's Clan Pestilens

I have no idea what we are up against here. I haven't read or have access to the Warscroll Battalions, which scares me - something I will get on to between now and the event. The Virulent Procession is made of of two Congregations of Filth. And a Foulrain Convocation to lay down some damage from a distance. I'll bet there are a heap of synergies there, so I'm going to guess that killing heroes is the way to go about taking it down. There are a decent amount of bodies on the table, so if he's careful he can insulate his catapults against the Alpha strike lists while taking out key targets. I'm a fan of lists that take loads of synergies, so looking forward to this one.

James M's Clan Pestilens

Another Pestilens army! It's rare enough to see one, so cool to have two. James played at the now famous Warlords event at Warhammer World, and has thrown himself into the NZ AOS scene. He also very generously brought us back a few exclusive goodies from WHW to use as prizes, so I hope everyone buys him a drink next weekend!

His army looks amazing, and while he has seen somewhat tempered competitive success, the swarm army is always wielded skillfully. The army is similar to Aiden's, but he is making use of different Warscroll battalions. Again, I don't have access to these to know what the key differences are, but Skrolk is present to provide hit roll debuffs, which are key to some enemy strategies.

Shaun T's Khornate Warhost

Of all the lists, this one is my favourite. A core of Khorne daemons, supported by Wrathmongers and Be'lakor! The Flamers of Tzeentch are obviously lost and have fallen in with the wrong crowd. The big trick with this list is the Warscroll Battalion granting up to three units an extra attack in the Hero Phase. And so many models... This will make it hard to compete against when playing for scenarios. Because do you really want to get close to Khorne models? Wrathmongers will be Shaun's hard counter to the crazy monsters out there that his Bloodthirsters cannot deal with by themselves. Be'lakor's Dark Master ability will win games. I'm calling it now.

Nicholas's Darkling Coven

One imagines that the poor Free Guild and Duardin present in this list are in fact enslaved to the will of the Sorceress, so spare a thought for them as they rain fiery death upon you. Quite an infantry-heavy list, Nick has supplemented the choppiness with some Demigyph Cavalry and some Ironweld artillery. It's solid, and it looks like a ton of fun. The Thrall Warhost battalion will give a huge movement and combat bonus, allowing a free charge and round of attack in the Hero phase. My guess is this will focus around the Executioners. A scary proposition for any unit he will come against.

Tim's Deathlords

So this is my list. It seems to be generating a disproportionate level of anxiety, but I think it's far from unbeatable. Since the General's Handbook came out I have wanted to field Morghast as Battleline, and I am almost there with the painting side. This means I get to summon up to 300 points of reinforcements. Had I left Arkhan out, I would be looking at Mourngul and more Grave Guard, but Curse of Years is such a fun spell that I have a hard time leaving him behind. Noone will believe I took this army for fluff reasons (that is my story though, and I am sticking to it), so let's talk about what it does. I have to rely on these few models to do the damage up front, which means Nagash and Arkhan need to make their points back on the front lines. They can do this admirably, and some lists may not have an answer to them. But some lists are making me quite anxious indeed. Morghast effectiveness is improved a lot by Nagash's command ability, so this will need to be enough to compete with those top lists. The flexibility afforded to me by summoning should allow me to compete for objectives or utilise chaff as required.

Ken's Bonesplitterz

This one is all about the synergies. The various buffs and special rules will allow the Arrowboys to make up to 120 shots per turn, which is too much for most things to withstand. Those armies unable to take down his heroes early are going to suffer big time. The other stunning stat from this army is the sheer number of wounds - 251! With objective play this will be very forgiving for Kenny, and is going to be a tall order for his opponents, where one or two smashy units might just not be enough to get through it all.

Top Five Picks

1. James - Tomb Kings - No brainer (ba dum PISH).
   
2. Shaun  - Stormcast - Retributor bomb will be key to victory.
   
3. Ron - Ironjawz - Placing a good deal of value on Ron's generalship.
   
4. Hayden - Beastclaw Raiders - Too fast, too strong. Should do well.
   
5. Tim - Deathlords - Going to back myself, as I've seen Nagash turn games around. 

The last few are very match-up dependent. I could see Kenny's Bonesplitters and  Matt's Beastclaw list doing really well. As always with AOS, you cannot fully discount any army, so I am sure I will be proved wrong!

So, do you agree/disagree? Who are your picks?

Massive thanks to our event sponsor Mighty Ape - do check out their excellent hobby section!

Call to Arms 2016 Warhammer: AOS Tournament Review

A review of the results and general awesomeness of the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar event at the Wellington Warlord's Call To Arms convention.

We had 11 entrants and one ringer player, making it one of the biggest events at Call To Arms.

Unfortunately my tournament software failed me on the day, after using it successfully at several previous events. Luckily I had a backup spreadsheet handy, which worked very well. I tend to play at events as well as organise, so luckily this method wasn't too time-intensive.

I'm going to look at the results first, then at how some of the lists performed. I will then go over my thoughts on the battleplans we played. Once I have a bit more time this week I will post a full battle report of my final game against Tomb Kings, which decided the tournament.

Results

Congratulations everyone! Campbell's army was particularly impressive:

Army Performance

Player army lists can be viewed in a previous post.

Tomb Kings

This was the winning list. The Necropolis Knights buffed by Settra and the Necrotect was the undoing of most armies, as they flew around the table doing crazy damage. Highly mobile, and highly durable with the unit banner. The Terrorgheists cry combined with the Bravery debuff from the catapults had more modest success, but were responsible for taking down a Treelord Ancient. Jim played the Freeguild, Sylvaneth, and Nagash lists, and had the most problem against the Undead. All up, the mobility served the army well with the objectives, and the 'deathstar' Necro Knights did the damage. Tomb Kings are very much a power army in Age of Sigmar.

Freeguild

Multiple Celestial Hurricana are a great combination, and Shaun's list had a lot of success. Only by missing out on a major objective did he come second - his kill points were not matched at Call To Arms. It's great to see the human troops do well, and suspect great things are in store for the faction going forward. Shaun says the mortal wound output was a key part of his success, and that the General on Griffon performed well with the extra attack and damage. His opponents tended to focus on his chaff units, allowing him to move on to table his opponent in most games. The game where he didn't push for the tabling cost him the event!

Beastclaw Raiders

This faction was only released on the day of the event, but thanks to the current release policies, the rules were available over a week beforehand. With only nine models, I was a little bit sceptical that the army could perform in battleplans that require quantity of models to capture objectives. In practice however, they did really well. Allegiance abilities allow the army to get across the table very quickly and hit hard, and so were able to neutralise opponents pretty well. I played this list in game two, and only Nagash was able to pull the game back. He would have won it easy had I not had the big guy.

Moonclan Grots

There were two armies that took Moonclan, and both had a mix of infantry and large creatures. The gribblies can be scary; I came up against the Troll Hag and Colossal Squig, which had some great abilities. The problem arose with Bravery and Battleshock. Once the infantry take a few models off, they crumble very quickly. The fanatics had some great rules, and it was great to see Skarsnik hit the table!

Aelf Bows and Arrows 

I was curious to see how this list performed, because it was almost 100% ranged attacks. With units that can shoot while in combat, it had the potential to be very powerful. It did do quite well, winning two of the three games with Major Victories. Bo never got the chance to play against the top three, so to some extent never got to fully test it. However, he went down against the Sylvaneth army, who were able to get across the table quickly. Once in combat their effectiveness was neutralised. I would like to see this matched against Tomb Kings. I think it would have done well against my army.

Sylvaneth

This faction is going to be one to watch. Being able to teleport across the board thanks to the Wyldwoods makes them a great alpha strike army, which is going to define the meta-game somewhat. Jim says if it wasn't for the fact that he spread his army a bit too thinly, and failed to focus on the priority targets in his army, Brendan would have won that game.

The Nagash List

It was great to be able to get my army down in two deployment drops, meaning I always got the choice of first turn. I probably made the wrong choice once or twice however. It was crucial on one of the games. The Legion of Death troops make excellent objective holders, with a ward save from the allegiance abilities and regenerating models. They are slow, but the battalion rule does help with that. The Wight Lord was very tanky. I found the Ring of Immortality useful - if he died I was able to resurrect him on an objective. But the true hero was Nagash. Simply put, he swings the game. He only came close to death once against the Beastclaw Raiders, but otherwise he serenely drifted around turning things into dust. He worked very well with a solid infantry core. The Grave Guard all got taken out before they could do anything.

Battleplan Review

Border War

I played against Alistair's Moonclan. Taking the first turn allowed me to take the central objectives and score 5 VPs in turn one, which put Alistair on the back foot. He was able to retake them for a while in the middle of the game, but in the final two turns I was able to table him and take the back objective. I think getting that first turn and being able to capture the middle objectives early is a huge advantage, but you have to be able to weather the counter attack.

Gifts From The Heavens

Such a good scenario, one that I almost messed up. On each player's second turn an objective will drop in a random part of the battlefield. My opponent for this was the Beastclaw Raiders, who just focused on smashing me. My troops were quite slow, and I deployed them too far forward, so I got charged in turn one. However, without quick troops it's difficult to react to the objective drops. Requires a diverse list to cope with. Even tabling the opponent is no guarantee of victory if you can't get near the objective. Remember that you score more later in the game too.

Blood and Glory

This was my favourite. You can move off the objective and still control it, until your enemy comes and claims it. We slightly misinterpreted exactly when you can 'flip' it. We played it that you can only claim it at the end of your own turn, but the rules do say you can also do so at the end of your opponent's turn. We were consistent so it didn't effect the outcome. The most significant thing about this battleplan is that you can only score a major victory if you control all four objectives, which can be quite tough. My army for example is not very mobile, so I could only ever hope for a minor victory against an agile army like Jim's.

Feedback

I've had some fantastic feedback following the event, with gamers really pumped for more. Jim and I will have a rankings page up soon, so hopefully we can form a solid tournament scene out of the success of events like this. I can only see the game going from strength to strength.

The General's Handbook rules get a big thumbs up from us!

There are players who really want to play at 2,500 point level, while some are happy with the smaller point events. I hope to be able to test all sizes and formats this year to see how we go, so it's great to be able to test the waters.

A massive thanks to Matthew, Luke and especially Nathan for supplying some of the most amazing GW store terrain they've put together over the years. Nathan brought his Legion of Azgorh as the ringer player, won two of his games, and most importantly gave people really fun games.

Photos

Here are some of my favourite photos. You can view a full album on my Facebook blog here.

Our Epic Three-Player Age of Sigmar Battle

As mentioned a few weeks back, I had been preparing for a three-player battle with my good buddies. It turned out to be an absolutely epic day, and a brutal, close-fought, tactical game that came down to almost the final dice roll to decide. In fact, it was among the best games of Warhammer I've ever played.


We used 'open play' - no points (agreeing to literally bring whatever we liked), and no extra rules restrictions or modifications other than those presented in the latest draft FAQ.

The scenario was Convergence of Fate, which we only adjusted to make deployment zones more suitable for three players, and removed the extra re-rolls for Vow of Enmity. The goal is to have the most models within 3" at the end of the game. The game ends at the conclusion of Turn 6, or at the end of a turn in which one of the armies is completely wiped out.

The armies deploy for WAR

The battle took place in one of the Underworlds within the Realm of Death, where the memories of the souls who linger there have formed facsimile landscapes of the World-That-Was. This is why you will notice some familiar names.

The Forces consisted of:

The Host of Light

The Host of Light gathers

Eltharion the Grim (General)
Tyrion - Avatar of Light
(thank you +Mengel Miniatures !)
Teclis
Korhil
2 x High Aelf Mages
1 x High Aelf Prince
25 x Swordmasters
15 x Lion Rangers
2 x Chariots
5 x Dragon Knights
3 x Bolt Throwers
20 x Archers
1 x Great Eagle

The Tomb Legions of Settra the Imperishable

Settra marches to battle

Settra the Imperishable (General)

Royal Warsphinx

2 x Tomb Kings

4 x Liche Priests

1 x Casket of Souls

6 x Necropolis Knights

20 x Tomb Guard

40 x Skeleton Archers

1 x Necrosphinx

The Deathlords of Shyish

The Deathlords emerge

Arkhan the Black (General)

Nagash

Wight King with Black Axe

Wight King with Infernal Banner

Necromancer

2 x Morghast Archai

3 x Spirit Hosts

40 x Skeleton Warriors 

10 x Grave Guard

5 x Black Knights

Death Army List and Strategy for NICON 2016

With our North Island Gaming Convention just around the corner, it is time to make the hard choices about what to bring in order to sow death and reap souls in the name of the Great Necromancer.

Here are my thoughts about what I'm bringing, what my overall strategies will be, and how I arrived to those decisions.

NICON Army Composition

At NICON we will be using the SCGT players pack, with the exceptions that we are allowing all legacy warscrolls, and that the pool choice restrictions are 120 for the army and 80 for the deployed warband.

Starting Point

My collection started with the Deathrattle faction. I love the models, and the Dark Lord of Despair has been leading my forces through our local escalation campaign. I had the following models:

• Wight King (Black Axe) - 3
• Wight King (Infernal Standard) - 3
• Necromancer - 4
• 20 Skeletons (Spears) - 8
• 20 Skeletons (Swords) - 8
• 10 Grave Guard (Great Blades) - 8
• 5 Black Knights - 5

I really love the synergies with these warscrolls. the Lord of Bones command ability (+1 to all attacks) and Vanhel's Danse Macabre (an extra pile-in) has proven very effective on my Grave Guard, and on occasion, Black Knights. My original plan was to add the Legion of Death warscroll battalion, and so started painting up another 20 Skeletons and 5 Grave Guard.

I have the Nagash model, but felt he would be a bit too over-the-top for this tournament. I didn't want to put off anyone new to the game or the hobby, but I also didn't want to turn up and lose 6 games. So I selected his lieutenant, Arkhan the Black - one of my all time favourite characters, to lead in his stead. I also added other models from my collection in order to help fill out the points:

• Arkhan the Black - 18
• 2 Morghast Archai - 10
• 3 Spirit Hosts - 5

I'd love to get more Spirit Hosts. Those things are great value. So the plan at this point was to deploy the Legion of Death battalion, and then summon the Archai, Spirit hosts and some more Grave Guard. But then something happened.

The Monstrous Arcanum warscrolls came out.

Enter, the Mourngul.

The Lure of Power

The SCGT guys brought out a pool cost for this bad boy a week before the pool choice lock for NICON, so I was able to include the Mounrgul in my list. This would give my army some much needed punch, and also help with taking and holding objectives. But how best to fit him in? He is 18 points (exactly what my group predicted it would be), but by including him in my summoning pool I could halve this. The downside is that the Mourngul requires a casting roll of 10 to cast.

Arkhan gets +2 to cast by default. When summoning, he gets an extra +1. With the Morghast Archai nearby, he gets another +1. I happened to have a Mortis Engine still on the sprue from one of the starter boxes. With it, I can give Arkhan a sweet + 5 to cast (before any terrain bonuses), making the Mourngul summon much more reliable. So I put the Mortis Engine together in an evening, and with 3 weeks left to go, set about painting it and the Mourngul. These new acquisitions meant I have to forgo the extra skeletons and Grave Guard, and not take the Legion of Death battalion. But I feel much better having including them.

• Mourngul - 18
• Mortis Engine - 7

This left me with 2 pool choices left over. Luckily there is a 2 point option in the Death Grand alliance - the Cairn Wraith. Time to pick one up. The plan is to have it hang back behind the Grave Guard or Skeletons, smacking up big units with it's 2" range.

The Summoning Pool

I plan to keep the Morghast Archai and the Mourngul in the summoning pool. In scenarios and against opponents where I have to be attacking, I will use Arkhan as the general, his First of the Mortarchs command ability extending the range of his spells. I would summing both the Archai and Mourngul in the same turn if possible. This will place my hardest-hitting hammer where I need them in order to assault objectives. Arkhan can then sit back and try to get as many Curse of Years spells off as he can, adding Vanhel's or Mystic Shield along with the Necromancer as needed.

The Leadership Conundrum

Using First of the Mortarchs means passing up Lord of Bones, which has until now been a very successful ability. I guess it will come down to the situation need for it. I know for example there will be a Khorne Daemon army and a Khorne Bloodbound army at NICON, and they will be moving towards me as fast as possible, meaning Arkhan's extra range will be less important. In this case Lord of Bones could be the better option. Will have to take that on a game-by-game basis.

Final List

So that's the plan. I will be taking the Black Knights with me, but in all likelihood I will not be deploying them unless the extra mobility is absolutely crucial in the right circumstances - perhaps to help achieve the Breakthrough Hidden Agenda.

Deployed Warband

• Arkhan the Black - 18
• Wight King (Black Axe) - 3
• Wight King (Infernal Standard) - 3
• Necromancer - 4
• Cairn Wraith - 2
• Mortis Engine - 7
• 3 Spirit Hosts - 5
• 20 Skeletons (Spears) - 8
• 20 Skeletons (Swords) - 8
• 10 Grave Guard (Great Blades) - 8

TOTAL = 66

Summoning Pool

• 2 Morghast Archai - 10
• Moungul - 18

TOTAL = 28

A Convergence of Fate

I've been gathering my army of Death since before the End Times.

Out of context, reading that sentence back makes me sound quite epic. But within the hobby, I am sure I'm not the only one.

For me it started with Nagash, my all time favourite special character, and has now grown to encompass the Dark Lord of Despair and his Deathrattle Horde - the Doomed Legion.

It has been an absolute pleasure getting back to the nitty-gritty (mostly gritty) of an Undead army. I enjoyed my army from 4th edition, but the new models are just spectacular.

My hope is to get 110 SCGT points done in time for NICON in June, and I am well on track.

Even more exciting is this weekend, where my old-school Warhammer buddies and I are getting back to what we did best in the old days - MULTIPLAYER BATTLES. We are going to try out the Convergence of Fate Battlescroll, no holds barred. And it will be the first time I will field the Supreme Lord of the Undead, and his top Lieutenant.

There will be an entire contingent of scribes present for the battle, so there should be plenty to report, once the Deathlords have had the chance to survey their work. My opponents include the hated Settra and his legion of statue-fetishists from the Endless Desert, and Tyrion, Lord of Light, along with his brother and an army of foppish sycophants. I anticipate being on the receiving end of their alliance, at least to start with. Even now my spies are at work, spreading lies, and creating division.

In future posts I will regale you with tales from the battlefield, progress of The Great Summoning, and propaganda true histories of the background of the mighty villains heroes of my corner of the Realm of Shyish.

Until next time, mortal servants.

End Times: ARENA OF DEATH

Following on from our painting competition last weekend we decided it would be fun to have our newly-painted special characters scrap each other. This also served as painting motivation for some of us... because when you get together with your Warhammer buddies, when do you NOT debate who's the most powerful?

We drew inspiration from a classic article from White Dwarf #221. The rules we decided on are here. For better or worse, End Times: Khaine was released on the day of the event, so we had access to the new End Times magic and the new Eternity King. Brian was delighted.

The vast ability gap between the characters reflected our choices for painting entries, rather than power level, so we all knew this was not a fair fight and were just keen to roll some dice.

Seeding was random. We generated the first bracket and kicked off!

Round 1

Valkia vs Tetto'Eko
I believe this was a short fight. The Sword-Maiden of Khorne laid down the expected level of carnage on the poor lizard-dude. However, Tetto'eko has a very small skull, and not a lot of blood really, so just how pleased her patron god was by this remains a matter for theologians.

Winner: Valkia

Bragg vs The Glottkin
Only Ghurk Glott had his model represented, but we agreed to let him use the full Glottkin rules. With the impact hits and breath weapon, Bragg was buried in a mountain of diseased flesh and puke. Luckily he was able to eat his way out in time for the second round.

Winner: The Glottkin


Nagash vs Gorbad
The Lord of the Undead took a few early wounds from the ferocious Gorbad in the first turn, and then completely fluffed his own attacks. Annoyed (and slightly nervous, truth be told), he cast Malediction of Nagash on the legendary warboss, halving his Strength, and making sure the choppy-thing wasn't nearly so painful. Gorbad was unable to harm Nagash in the next turn, and was summarily chopped to pieces (Nagash is a bit of a dick when it comes to revenge; just ask Settra).

Winner: Nagash

Archaon vs Malekith
Big matchup early on. Archaon has so many rules that a few important ones were overlooked in this round. Things might have gone down to the wire had Archaon remembered his Mark of Nurgle, or that he is only wounded on 3+, or his horse attacks (never forget horse attacks). But this fight was all about Malekith. The Lord of the End Times was finished off, having inflicted 6 wounds on the Eternity King.

Winner: Malekith



Losers Round 1

Bragg vs Tetto'Eko
So this was much closer than you would think. The dinky-skinky from the south unleashed the only two spells he could use in this situation - Harmonic Convergence, and Comet of Cassandora. To the amazement of all, Tetto'eko managed to survive several turns, chipping wounds off Bragg and waiting for that comet to fall. Bragg had a hard time getting through the skink's minor defences, probably put off by how little meat the creature had on it, but eventually managed the killing blow before the Comet hit.

Winner: Bragg


Gorbad vs Archaon
Archaon has a 'history' with fighting orcs (*cough*GRIMGOR*cough*) and so was determined to put a swift end to the Greenskin. His daemon sword, Slayer of Kings, was happy to oblige.

Winner: Archaon

Round 2

Valkia vs The Glottkin
With the world in ruin as a result of the Four Brothers working in concert, it was nice to see some Chaos infighting. The legends do not tell whether it was the vomit, the tentacle, or the thunderous stomp that finished off the Sword-Maiden, but the result was much the same - a bloody-smear on the landscape.

Winner: The Glottkin

Nagash vs Malektih
Another clash of the titans. Nagash had to dig deep into his repertoire of 40 spells for any kind of advantage. But being unable to deal Heroic Killing Blow or multiple wounds put him on the back foot, losing six wounds himself in the first round from Asuryath Reforged.  A relatively low weapon skill stopped many of Nagash's attacks getting through, and so Speed of Light was used. With a few millennia-worth of cobwebs to blow out, the undead fiend cast the End Times spell Malediction of Nagash... however he realised his mistake shortly after. Halving Malekith's Strength did nothing with Okkam's Mindrazor in effect. A few more spells were tried but the onslaught of the Eternity King was too much.

Winner: Malekith

Losers Round 2

Nagash vs Bragg
So this battle had some awkward undertones. Nagash was being played by myself, and Bragg by my partner. I didn't want to crush her soul, but losing to Bragg would have meant Nagash would not be able to show his face among the serious villains of the End Times any more.

As it was, Nagash again missed most of his attacks in the first round, leaving Bragg on one wound and allowing him to attack back. One hit even got through. And so it was that Bragg had a one in six chance of taking out the Supreme Lord of the Undead.

Alas, it was not to be, and Bragg's soul will now suffer for eternity as a result. On the plus side, our fold-out couch also got some use.

Winner: Nagash

Valkia vs Archaon
Sometimes taking on the boss just isn't worth it. Valkia discovered this to her eternal damnation.

Winner: Archaon

Losers Round 3

Nagash vs Archaon
Archaon had hit is stride by this point. Ably utilizing Lore of Shadow hex's and augment's enhanced his power greatly. Archaon took three wounds off Nagash (from his horse - never forget horse attacks), but the magical storm that followed allowed the Arch-Liche to get off Vanhel's Danse Macarbe and Hellish Vigour for a few turns in a row. The Lore Attribute of these spells also allowed Nagash to heal himself, and so after a few turns of trading blows, Nagash was able to finish off Archaon.

Winner: Nagash

Semifinal Round 1

Nagash vs The Glottkin
Nagash stored four power dice into his staff as soon as he could, and then bolstered himself with Speed of Light with irressistable force. He saved the incoming magical backlash, but lost the rest of his power dice. Drawing on the power of the staff he attacked, and made the Heroic Killing Blow to strike the Glottkin where it mattered before he could return the favour.

Winner: Nagash


Final Round 

Nagash vs Malekith
The rematch! Nagash actually needed to beat Malekith twice to emerge victorious from the Arena of Death, and it really was not to be. Malekith got through four wounds right away, and though he rolled one's and two's, his sword did D3+1 wounds, and so dealt 8 wounds total - enough to topple Nagash in one round. Standing atop a pile of corpses, the ancient Eternity King grasped the air in triumph.

Winner: Malekith



Here is the final bracket:

Champion: Malekith
Runner up: Nagash
Second Runner up: The Glottkin

We all agreed that we will be doing this again once all the End Times books are out. Our next painting competition will involve completing an entire regiment, and having a free-for-all battle at the end. Can't wait!

End Times: Painting Competition

Whether you love or hate the new rules and back story, the End Times are exciting times. Speaking personally, the return to the very stories, events and personalities that originally got me into the hobby over 20 years ago has got me in a buzz. Special Characters were what our hobby was back then.

It was while we were around at Dan's place a few months back that we started hassling him about his unpainted Archaon. The End Times need a Lord, after all. Peer pressure may-or-may-not have occurred, so to be fair, Brian and I also pledged to paint an End Times special character. From there we opened it up to other friends and family, and so, at the beginning of October, our Tronhammer Special Character Painting Competition began.

We upped-the-ante shortly after starting; why not test the mettle of our newly painted heroes/villains? Thus, we organised an Arena of Death to follow the painting competition (which I will cover in a separate post). You can view our guidelines here:

Painting Competition Rules
Arena of Death Rules

We were extremely fortunate to have Mel along to take some fantastic shots of our toys. Below are some select photos (click to enlarge). You can view the full album here.

Nagash - Supreme Lord of the Undead

Archaon the Everchosen - Lord of the End Times

Gorbad Ironclaw

Nagash Awakens!

From beyond the grave riseth this blog... and so too Nagash, Lord of Undeath!

I have been captivated by recent rumours by reputable sources for a new campaign book, along with new miniatures, for this iconic Warhammer figure. In fact, it was Nagash from the Undead 4th Edition Army Book that hooked me on the hobby. I must have re-read the army background in that book 50 times at least.