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.

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.

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Age of Sigmar Army Comp Documents

Clash Comp v1.2
Independent AoS Pool Choice Document v1.2

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.