A lot of us started wargaming with Games Workshop and have stuck with them ever since.
Therefore I’m hoping that this article may introduce you to other wargames you may not have heard of, while giving you a brief synopsis of the game itself.
All of the following games are from companies which both produce the rules, and sell the miniatures for that game.
Kings of War (Mantic Games)
Kings of War is thought by many to be the successor to Warhammer Fantasy, and features many of the same armies (with slightly different names. E.g. Ratkin instead of Skaven).
“Kings of War is a table-top war game that allows you to play epic fantasy battles in the world of Pannithor. You and your opponent will pit your wits and armies against each other in a battle of tactics, a contest of skill and an explosion of magic and steel.“
Manticgames.com
Kings of War Dwarf Army
However, be aware the price point for these models are pretty much the same as Games Workshop with a pack of twenty models costing £32.50 in the UK.
Northern Alliance Pack Hunters (pack of 20 for £32.50)
The models are well crafted and look stunning. Some of the range is still in metal.
Skyrim – Call to Arms (Mordiphius)
For fans of Skyrim there’s Call to Arms by Mophidius.
Skyrim: Call to Arms
“The Elder Scrolls: A Call to Arms is an adventure wargame set in the world of Tamriel. Gather your heroes and venture into Draugr haunted tombs and ruins, searching for treasure and glory. Or, fight the Civil War as the Stormcloaks and Imperials battle for the future of Skyrim.“
Mophidius
The advantage of Skyrim: Call to Arms is that it also has a solo play method for gaming.
While not a massive battle game like Warhammer AoS or Kings of War, the game focuses more on small skirmish games and dungeon delving.
The models will set you back roughly £40 for a pack of 12. But the quality is on par with both Mantic and GW.
Imperial Vanguard for Call to Arms
A Song of Fire & Ice (Cmon)
This is the official Game of Thrones miniatures game which has been licensed to Cmon.
Stark v Lannister Starter Set
“A Song of Ice & Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game is a competitive miniatures game for two or more players. Each player controls one of the Great Houses of Westeros, commanding battlefield units, recruiting legendary Heroes, and manipulating the political stage, in the attempt to claim the greatest prize of all: The Iron Throne.“
Cmon
The miniatures are excellently detailed, however they are mono-pose. The starter set which includes 50 Lannister miniatures and 43 Stark Miniatures can be found on various websites including Amazon for about £100.
Starter set contents
The game also incorporates deck building and list building into its five different game modes.
A Unit of Stark Outriders
Warmachine/Hordes (Privateer Press)
“WARMACHINE is a fast-paced and aggressive 30 mm tabletop miniatures battle game set in the steam-powered fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. Take control of an elite soldier-sorcerer called a warcaster and his mighty warjacks–massive steam-powered combat automatons–as you battle to destroy the enemy warcaster.“
Privateer Press
30 models inside the two player starter set
Warmachine and Hordes are relatively similar and involve smaller armies. It’s a great system for those looking for lower model counts. The models are really nice and would make great painting projects on their own. Just look at the below Warjack model….
Galleon Mercenary for Warmachine
However a model like the above will set you back around £70 with the rest of the range costing between £30-£70 for a box.
Frostgrave (Warlord Games)
Warlord Games are quintessentially Games Workshop ex-employees. With Rick Preistley being among their number. They have a large (and excellent) historical range of figures, but also some fantasy with offers in both Warlords of Erehwon and Frostgrave.
“Warlords of Erehwon is a fantasy based game designed for 28mm tabletop warfare. The gameplay is built around the D10 system developed for the science-fiction game Beyond the Gates of Antares and also using the praised order dice mechanic first used in the Bolt Action WW2 rules.“
Warlord Games
Rulebook for Warlords of Erehwon
Warlord Games miniatures are not as finely detailed as other manufacturers out there, but what they lack in detail they make up for in value. A box of 20 plastic models from Warlord will set you back around £20 (half of what GW charge nowadays).
A Starter Army for Warlords of Erehwon
Next week, I’ll go through five non-GW science fiction games as an alternative to Warhammer 40,000.
I’ve been writing my own set of Napoleonic war game rules for a while now, the idea for which has been formulating inside my head for roughly three years.
There are many, many different sets of rules for Napoleonic wargaming, but none of them quite got to the itch I was feeling for the period. I wanted a wargame, which was accurate to the time in terms of weapon ranges, unit movement and formations. As well as having a command and control structure that could fairly accurately represent the command structures of the time.
Some of my 6mm British Line Infantry
The biggest issue, is that I want all of these thing, but I also want the game to be fairly simple and quick to play. I therefore set about writing my own set of rules, which I’d also wanted to do for some time.
Below I’ve set out a brief overview of the rules and how the game mechanics work. If people are interested further in the game development, then I may post further articles on the subject in the future.
The Battle of Elchingen using Clausewitz Playtest Rules
The game is designed to be played on a 6′ x 4′ table, with 30cm equating to roughly a mile of battlefield.
Base sizes are set to 40mm wide, with a base representing a Battalion of Infantry, a Squadron of Cavalry or a Battery of Artillery. These bases are banded together into larger units known as Brigades. Brigades are ordered around the battlefield by Divisional Generals and the Commander-in-Chief of your army.
The game is not a traditional igo-ugo system and instead relies on coloured chips which represent your generals actions for that turn, of which there are thirty in the game. For example, at the start of the game there may be five red chips representing General Wellington’s actions that turn, and five blue chips representing Napoleon. Depending which chip is drawn allows the relevant player to act.
Players then activate units and other Generals inside their army by sending orders to them on the tabletop, these orders represent the objective that the unit has been assigned. Once assigned to an objective, the unit can only score victory points for being near that objective. They cannot score victory points for being near an objective they have not been assigned to.
Generals and Brigades have command ratings, with a combination of the two determining the roll a player will need to use that unit that turn. For example, a Brigade of British Infantry may have a command value of 4 and a British General may have a value of 5, meaning that the player would need to roll 9 or below on two D6 to use that unit, that turn.
All units and Generals have five actions as standard, however these can be modified by how far away the unit is from the General and also by how much the command roll was failed.
Once units are activated, they may move and fire using their actions that turn.
Early playtesting using Battle Chronicler
If you want to know more about Clausewitz, then please let me know in the comments below and I may summarise different aspects of the game in future articles.
With Warhammer+ launched earlier this week we provided a quick review on launch day here. Now I’ve had some time to view the offerings from Warhammer TV and provide a brief overview below.
Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers – or results from the battle reports – but because of the short story nature of the animations the reviews will be necessarily short!
Angels of Death– Blood and Duty
I’ve got a bias to declare here… I love Blood Angels – they were my first (and pretty much only) Space Marine Chapter and their background, history and characters still appeals to me.
This is the first episode in a series, which will (I assume) be released once a week to keep interest in WarhammerTV / Warhammer+. It’s also worth mentioning that along with everything in this article, you need a Warhammer+ subscription. (Confusingly go to mywarhammer.com!)
The Blood Angels are trapped in orbit around a planet (presumably by Warp Storms), and they must decide whether to accept their fate and become engaged in the planetary system or find a way back to Baal.
It’s a really fun art style which will be familiar to those who watched the trailer on YouTube, in that it is in monochrome, with red being the only colour used. This makes the Blood Angels very striking, but still shows a lot of character in the supporting cast. I particularly liked the Ship Mistress. I think it’s great that GW Animation have put a female lead into their episodic show and I’m already looking forward to the new episode.
Hammer & Bolter – Death’s Hand
Inquisitors battling for the Imperium have a disagreement about how best to stop it falling into the hands of the heretics. It seems to be that these are going to be in different art styles and (I assume) different animators. This does bring up an issue with the credits in all four shows from Warhammer Animation… there are none! I know GW are used to this with their rules (where it is wrong as well…!) but they really should credit the people involved. I would imagine that many of the people are freelancers who need to have this work available for future employers to review.
Hammer & Bolter – Bound for Greatness
Adept Neath must count the at the library on Antioth. Can he keep to this one task and obey the rules set for him by the Prefect? And what would happen if he were to break a rule? This is the sort of story I enjoy from Black Library. No Space Marines or super-humans in sight, just the drudgery of a life in the Imperium of Man. This is not a good place to live and Adept Neath is a perfect example of why… although he is safe in his ignorance.
Hammer & Bolter – Old Bale Eye
For those who know their 40k Lore, they will already know that this is about Yarrick & Ghazghkull Thraka. The story style is similar to the launch videos for the recent Beast Snagga box set, with a Runtherd telling younger Orks (yoofs) of the story of these two enemies.
Of course, it’s a story most viewers will know, but it’s interesting to see how this is done with a ‘moving comic book’ type style which is very different to the other 3 videos.
Warhammer Animations – Overall Verdict
Overall, this is a promising start to the service, although at about 20 minutes each, there is not a lot of content. I did expect more (this is probably part of the reason for the £10 voucher for signing up before end August!) but it is fun for fans of the Warhammer 40k universe.
But that does bring me onto the elephant missing from the service… there is no AOS content from the animation studio on release day. Given the new release of AOS3 and the fact we know there are AOS animations planned this is astonishing. If you’re an AOS fan with no interest in 40k, there is nothing here for you.
Citadel Colour Masterclass
Louise Sugden shows how to paint faces, and what wet blending is. These are great videos and Louise is a superb painter who is able to easier explain what is happening and why she is doing things in certain ways. The colour theory elements of both videos was also welcome and I’m very interested to see what is next. With painting season approaching (ie winter in the UK), I’ll be trying out some of these techniques.
Battle Report
Also included on launch are two battle reports. This time one for Age of Sigmar. In the 40k battle report Nick & Patrick take the Ultramarines & Necrons onto the battlefield and for the AOS one, they take the Dominion box set contents (mostly… no Yndrasta!)
The battle reports last 1 hour, which had me concerned at first, but it was presented in a good way, with top down views of the action, some important dice rolls interspersed with comments from the players (presumably filmed after the end of the game). They featured some new rules from the Orruk Warclans book for the Kruleboyz, and some new artifacts which was an interesting teaser, but I assume they thought the book would be available by now.
My only niggle with it is that the graphic they’ve used for showing which combat and unit is involved is the same for 40k and AOS (and it feels very 40k). Would be great to get a more fantasy one in the future.
Conclusion
A good start, but this is not going to interest people not already invested in the Hobby. It’s also difficult to recommend the service if you don’t follow Warhammer 40k at all, and only want Age of Sigmar content. There’s just not enough there.
As mentioned in my previous article, I’ve signed up for a year so I’ll continue to bring updates as and when thoughts occur to me!
Warhammer+ launches today (25th August), which is the new subscription service for Games Workshop. It’s been a rocky road getting here, but the subscription is now available, and I’m going to pick on up and let you know what I think. my
Signing Up
You’ll need to go to mywarhammer.com to sign-up for the service, which includes the usual entering credit cards (or paypal if you prefer) and agreeing to lengthy terms and conditions. The one that may affect some of our readers is that Warhammer TV element of the service is only available in a limited number of countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, UK & US – so if you’re not resident in one of these, I guess some of the service will be restricted.
Confirmation Email
You’ll receive a confirmation email with more information about what is available which seems to be as per the Warhammer Community articles
Exclusive Shows & Animations (on warhammertv.com)
An Orruk Warboss or Vindicare Assassin
Warhammer Vault – for old publications (on https://warhammer-vault.com/) although I had a problem with the link in my confirmation email
Warhammer 40k App
Warhammer Age of Sigmar App (not available on release)
Warhammer TV
Warhammer TV provides you with access to the viewing – I’m doing mine through Chrome, but I’m sure I can get it on my Smart TV later!
Blood and Duty is one of the new releases available
The two releases from the Animation studio are Angels of Death and Hammer & Bolter, and there are three shows – Citadel Colour, Masterclass; and two Battle reports (one AOS and one 40K). There are also learn to play videos and some painting basics, which I think are free, whether you subscribe or not.
Warhammer Vault
This is where some of the lore from 40k and AOS is available along with some of the 2020 White Dwarfs and Warhammer Visions (the magazine that showed pictures of painted toys). I don’t know how much use I’ll get out of this, because I have so much reading to do; but I think I might dip into the Waaagh! Ghazghkull one.
Is it worth it?
There’s split opinion on Social Media and honestly I don’t know. It will depend for me on what the ‘Event Exclusives’ turn out to be and how good the AOS app is (neither available at launch). However I collect Orruks so I’m just treating it as an expensive ‘Make to Order’ model for the year and can then review in 2022! As I delve into it more; I’ll likely come back and let you all know!
After reading @rightangle79’s excellent article on his games of Warmaster a week ago it made me think of the Warmaster armies I used to own when it was first released in 2000.
Unfortunately these were sold in my early twenties to raise money for beer tokens at university.
But I have the urge to return to the game, more so after recalling what a great ruleset it was.
But where to start? Which faction? And where shall I get the models from?
Those who know me, know that I’ve always loved the Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy, and this is both because of their lore and their units. Who doesn’t love half naked dwarfs screaming in rage and trying to take down the biggest beast on the battlefield?
But where to get the models? Looking at the original metal sculpts on eBay had me terrified. I’d have to sell a kidney to get hold of an army worth now. That left me with third parties. Here I was spoilt for choice, just typing in 10mm Dwarfs had thousands of hits. But one particularly caught my eye, excellentminiatures.com.
They have army bundles for every faction all at the 1,000 point mark, and the sculpts on these are stunning. In fact, they’re so good I would argue they’re better than the GW originals.
So I found the Dwarf bundle and made a purchase. At £85 for an entire army I think they’re also fantastic value for money.
In the bundle I receive!
Gunner Regiment (Thunderers)
Crossbow Regiment
Bezerker Regiment (Troll Slayers)
3x Warrior Regiments
Cannon
King and Bodyguard
Runesmith
Dwarven Lords Bundle
They’ll probably arrive next week, and I’ve not been this excited about receiving new models in a long time.
Woehammer is organising a few of us into a Path to Glory campaign. I am playing Troggoths (Gloomspite) led by my General – Phileas Fogg the Trogg. You can find out more about the starting warband on the first blog entry for the campaign.
My first games were against Ben’s Slaves to Darkness (StD) army which is mostly based on the starter set. He added 10 Chaos Warriors to it in order to bring it close to 800 points, and I dropped the Ravening Jaws and 3 Fellwater Troggoths in order to bring mine down to this level too. This would allow Ben to learn the rules and for me to have some practice with the Troggoths whilst still having at least one of each Warscroll.
Pre-game
Before starting off, I needed to pick the Quest for my Troggoths, and I decided that Verne (Fungoid Cave-Shaman) would influence Fogg to Hunt the Endless Spell – Scuttletide. To do this Verne would need to be near Arcane terrain at the end of the game – in order to assist with this I can automatically generate an Arcane terrain feature for 1 Glory Point if I don’t roll it. I then had to keep him alive against the StD.
Game 1 – Sudden Assault
The Slaves to Darkness brought a Lord on Karkadrak, 2 x 10 Chaos Warriors, and 5 Chaos Knights… all with the Mark of Khorne. This meant they were re-rolling 1s to hit!
The StD were trying to take over my Gloomspite Shrine, and Phileas sent out himself (Dankhold Troggboss), Fungoid Cave Shaman, 6 Rockguts and 3 Fellwaters. As this was a Sudden Assault where we would get points for holding table quarters.
The armies assemble.
Ben’s Slaves to Darkness advanced quickly on my right (bottom of the picture), whilst the Chaos Warriors started the slow walk towards my shrine. In response the Rockgut’s charged the Chaos Knights… and in rolling that embarrassed me, wiped out the Chaos Knights – wow!!
The StD counterattacked with the Lord and 10 Chaos Warriors who put a few wounds on the Troggoths, but they swung back and killed half the Warriors and put some wounds on the Lord. In my second turn the Dankhold charged in to help them and the Fellwaters charged the second unit of Chaos Warriors.
Turn 3 – The aftermath!
In Turn 3, I cleared up the Lord & Chaos Warriors and the Fellwaters continued to chip away at the last unit of Chaos Warriors without any casualties – the healing being very useful in a small point game.
The last two turns the Dankhold rescued the Fellwaters and then the units fell back to the four quarters – I had defended my Shrine!
Post-Game 1
The great benefit of Path to Glory is the ability to improve your army. So we returned to the core book and post-battle sequence.
Glory Points – I was now on 21 Glory Points for winning the game and having my Warlord still alive.
Injuries – With no models killed, I didn’t need to roll any. Fortunately for Ben his Slaves to Darkness resisted most of the damage and only failed 3 casualty rolls.
Renown Points – Each of my units gained a renown point for surviving the battle, and a bonus one for holding the objectives. Fogg’s Ladz were my chosen and rolled sufficiently to become Veteran Warriors. This allowed me to give them a bonus. I chose Disciplined Battle-Drill as they were rapidly becoming Fogg’s bodyguard. This would allow them to add 1 to wound once.
New Units – I added a unit of Fellwaters to the army. I now had all my painted Troggoths in the list… time to paint some more.
Quest – My Fungoid finished the game next to the Arcane terrain next to my Shrine, and found lots of Spiders to command.. Scuttletide was mine!
New Quest – I chose to Scout Fertile Lands to enable me to re-roll my new territory roll next game.
Territory – I found Wild Lands this time, but didn’t really need an extra Monster, so decided not to settle it.
Game 2 – The Trap
We had some time to play a second game, so Phileas Fogg decided to counterattack and invade the StD’s terroritory… unfortunately he was walking into a trap and was ambushed…
After the first game, Ben decided to bring some additional back bone; he had managed to convince Be’lakor to join him; as he is expensive it did reduce the size of the force – Chaos Lord on Karkadrak, Be’lakor & 10 Chaos Warriors… they would have to do some work!
Setup
The set-up left the Slaves looking more like the ambushers than the invaders, but how would Ben unpack to start killing my units?
The first few turns were cagy, with me running around board edges whilst the Chaos Warriors struggled forward. This allowed me to rack up a lot of Victory Points and solidify my control of the area.
In Turn 3 Be’lakor was unleashed and charged my Rockgut Troggoths. He did 10 wounds, killing two of them and the swingback only did 4 wounds as Be’lakor ignored Rend.
As my mission was to survive to end of Turn 3, I took no risks and the Rockgut’s retreated, whilst the Dankhold & Fellwaters advanced on the left towards the Chaos Knights.
In Turn 4 I charged the Chaos Warriors, killing most of them, and then Ben caught me again between Be’lakor and his Chaos Lord. The Lord killed 2 Rockgut’s whilst Be’lakor failed his rolls and the Fellwaters did a few wounds.
Turn 5 saw me retreat again, and Be’lakor chase my Fellwaters whilst the Chaos Lord chased the 2 remaining Rockguts. The Lord (Jeff) went first and killed the Rockguts (gaining a reknown). This did allow the Fellwaters to swing first against Be’lakor and they did 6 wounds. As Be’lakor had only 4 wounds left he needed to roll 5 out of 6 successful armour saves… Ben rolled! and Be’lakor lived; He took out 2 Fellwaters in revenge.
The Warlords face off; Whilst Be’lakor attacks Troggoths
I had won the mission although this was more bloody than the first game and I would need to roll some casualty rolls. This was a great fun game and Be’lakor definitely gave the StD the speed and damage potential to take out the Troggoths.
Post Game 2
Glory Points – I gained the maximum 13 Glory Points for winning the game and having my Warlord still alive.
Injuries – I needed to roll for 6 Rockgut’s and 2 Fellwaters. 2 Rockgut’s rolled the 1 and 1 Fellwater. I would need to roll for recuperating.
Renown Points – Each of my units gained a renown point for being alive in the third turn, and most of them survived and picked up points for this. Da Watery Boyz (Fellwaters) were my chosen and rolled sufficiently to become Veteran Warriors. This allowed me to give them a bonus as well. I wanted to be different to my Rockguts so they chose Deadly Volley for their spitting attack.
New Units – no new units for me, but I rolled to recuperate the Rockguts, and rolled 2 4+ meaning I got both of them back – good news for Fogg, who relies on this unit.
Quest – My Fungoid finished the game close to the board edge (after a turn 5 Hand of Gork), and so I could roll twice on the territories table
New Quest – I would need to consider this before my next game
Territory – After my reroll I found a Large Settlement (underground cave network), which would reduce the Glory Cost of my new units by 1. This would be useful when I had more painted Troggoths.
The Force
Warscroll
Name
Reknown
Points
Dankhold Troggboss
Phileas Fogg
19
250
Fungoid Cave-Shaman
Verne
4
95
6 Rockgut Troggoths
Fogg’s Ladz
7
290
3 Fellwater Troggoths
Da Watery Boyz
8
155
3 Fellwater Troggoths
Da Swampy Boyz
155
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws
Da Wet Boyz
55
Scuttletide (Endless Spell)
85
End of Session!
Summary
What a great evening – Thanks to Ben for the games; it was great to play small games and see what everything did without being shot off the table – Khorne really wanted to get stuck in. I also learned a lot about the Troggoths, who I have never used in large numbers – these were mostly painted during lockdown. I needed more practice, but they may make an outing at Facehammer.
Following Dave and I reviewing the Sisters of Battle Codex on our YouTube channel earlier this year, I decided that with the release of the Sisters Combat Patrol box, I thought it may be an idea to go through whats in the box and then select some units to expand the force to 1,000 points.
The combat patrol box is packed with goodies and like the other factions they’re a fantastic way to start a new army as they often give you a wide range of units.
The Sisters of Battle Combat Patrol Contents
In the Sisters Combat Patrol box you’re given;
Canoness
10x Battle Sisters
5x Seraphim
4x Sisters Repentia
Repentia Superior
Penitent Engine
3x Arco-flagellents
Rhino
All of that for £85, which is bought separately would cost roughly £170.
On top of this we’ll add the following units;
Palatine £21
Preacher £10
Castigator £52.50
Dominion Squad £35 (this will also buy you a unit of Celestians)
Retributor Squad £32.50
This will cost you an additional £151, alongside the cost of the Codex for £30 the entire army will set you back £266!
However! If you sign up for SCN Hobbies mailing list you’ll receive 25% off Games Workshops recommended retail price and 15% off web only miniatures. Meaning including postage the army and codex would cost £200.50! That’s a saving of £66!
To sign up to the SCN Hobbies mailing list, email Sarah on scnhobbyworld@outlook.com.
The list above brings us with upgrades to 1,000 points and the list will be as follows;
Vanguard Detachment (3CP) Order Convictions: Order of the Bloody Rose
For your Canoness I would make her the Warlord and make the whole detachment part of the Order of the Bloody Rose. This allows you add 1 to the attack characteristics of models with this conviction when they Charge, are charged or make a heroic intervention. Extra attacks are always nice! So let’s lean in to this slightly and give the canoness the Blessed Blade and the Wrath of the Emperor Relic.
The Blessed Blade gives the Canoness a +2 strength, -3 AP Damage 2 close combat weapon, while the Wrath of the Emperor replaces her Bolt Pistol with an 18” range pistol able to fire 4 shots per round with strength 5, -1 AP and 2 damage. That packs quite the punch, especially considering the Canoness can now make 5 attacks instead of 4 when they’ve charged or have been charged.
Don’t forget that CORE units within 6” of the Canoness will be allowed to re-roll 1’s on their to hit rolls when making attacks as well. This means she’ll be handy next to your Arco-Flagellants when they make it into combat.
I would also give the Canoness the Warlord Trait Righteous Rage, which will allow her to re-roll hit rolls and wound rolls when in melee.
We’ll also give her Blessing as her Divine Deliverance, this negates one enemy units aura ability that is within 6” of the Canoness, however this is only done if after rolling 3D6 and the resulting roll being equal to or higher than the enemies Leadership characteristic.
PALATINE
Palatine
This lovely woman is the ying to your Canoness’s yang, allowing CORE units within 6” to re-roll wound rolls of 1. Having her with the Canoness next to a unit dishing out a lot of attacks is always a good move. Having a bubble of our Canoness, palatine and Arco-Flagellants will make an opponent think twice. Once you look to expand beyond 1,000 points my next thought would be adding more models to your Arco-Flagellants.
Take her as is.
PREACHER
Son of a Preacher Man!
Having one of these guys in your list allows nearby units to benefit from his War Hymns, which grants them another attack. Which when combined with the conviction of the Order of the Bloody Rose will allow some of your units with the CORE keyword to make two additional attacks on top of what they would normally make (looking at you Arco-Flagellants). As well as this, he also has access to the Battle Hymns. Very squishy though so make sure you keep him towards the back of you Flagellant bubble.
BATTLE SISTERS
Battle Sisters
Battle Sisters I’m inclined to leave as Bolter only and split into two units of five sisters each. These can then be used as objective cappers, they’ll have the ability to deal with the small unimportant elements of your opponent’s army but their primary use should be holding objectives or vital points of the battlefield. If the enemy shoots and focuses on these units then that frees up your heavy hitters and close combat specialists for the counter punch.
ARCO-FLAGELLANTS
Arco-Flagellants
I would leave these as standard with their Arco-Flails, and try and make sure that they’re within 6” of the Canoness when they make it into combat so that they can re-roll 1’s for there to hit rolls.
There’s only three of these so the enemies fire will need to be drawn elsewhere for them to be effective, perhaps having some mean looking Castigator on the field may do the trick?
REPENTIA SUPERIOR AND SISTERS REPENTIA
Sisters Repentia
I would also leave these as the basic set up. Again, like with the Arco-Flagellants you do not have many of these so try and entice your opponent into shooting some other more sturdy unit that can take the punishment until these lovely women make it into combat. Both these and the Arco-Flagellants are a great counter punch to enemy CC and also make great objective clearers which can be followed up by the Battle Sisters, who can lend some light fire support to these units.
SERAPHIM
Seraphim
These are your true fast attack and are great even equipped with the hand flamers. These are perfect for dealing hit and run attacks on larger horde units such as Ork Boyz, Imperial Guard Infantry and the like. Keep them in cover and make sure they get to their intended target to deal their damage. I would equip two Seraphim carrying two hand flamers each kicking out D6 shots which automatically hit their targets. That gives you on average 12 hits from flamers with on average 6 of those causing wounds on toughness 4 targets.
PENITENT ENGINE
Penitent Engines
Although classed as heavy support this unit is ideal for taking on units in close support with its twin buzz blades and double Heavy flamers. With five wounds and toughness five it’ll also take some punishment before it falls down. Plus, with the Penitent Engine, Sisters Repentia and Arco-Flagellants you have redundancy in your close combat and your opponent won’t be certain what to choose first, meaning at least one of them will reach enemy lines.
CASTIGATOR
Castigator Battle Tank
It’s a predator tank, its got good armour and packs a punch from long range for an army which severely lacks in this area. Don’t expect it to last long though, your opponent is likely to target it from the get go, and that’s okay. Because if they’re focusing on the predator they’re not focusing on your combat heavy units closing in on them.
Make sure while it is on the table that it focuses on trying to remove the high armour targets that your other units will sill struggle with.
DOMINION SQUAD
Dominions
These, alongside your Retributors can almost be considered a secret weapon for the sisters. With their Holy Vanguard rule you can pop these in your rhino and they can make a free normal move before the first turn taking them closer towards the enemy. Why do you want to do this? Because you only have five Dominions in the Rhino, means you can fill out the rest of the transport capacity with Retributors with Heavy Flamers or Multi-Meltas to take out those pesky heavy armour targets or large horde mobs.
Equipping the Dominions with Storm Bolters will mean that they’re kicking out 10 shots a turn as well and can lay down some nice fire on the enemy’s units. Hopefully your opponent will ignore the rhino long enough for them to get close and pop that particularly nasty looking tank or flame that large group of Ork boyz….. Please shoot at my Castigator.
RETRIBUTOR SQUAD
Retributor Squad
As mentioned, pop these in the Rhino and arm them with Multi-Meltas and they’ll pretty much turn anything they shoot into liquid metal once they open up. They may be a one use only unit once your opponent sees what they can do so try and hit them where it hurts on the first time of use.
RHINO
Rhino
You want this to remain alive as long as you have your Dominions and Retributors inside, otherwise it could be used to transport your battle sisters up to objectives further up the field. Use it as the workhorse of the army. Many players will use these as a transport for a single unit, but don’t forget to double back pick up others units and rush them over to other parts of the battlefield.
WHERE NEXT?
As I mentioned earlier, my next steps would be to look at expanding the Arco-Flagellants into possibly a ten strong unit. Beefing up the close combat element of the army is always a good shout, and you know a second Castigator would always be a nice distraction for your opponent.
I would also seriously consider taking some Celestian Sacresants, as with these you’ll find that they make perfect bodyguards for your characters as enemy units are unable to target them. They also come with a 4+ invulnerable save.
I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know in the comments below how you would build a 1,000 point list from the Combat Patrol Box and why not also let me know what you think to my list. There may well be aspects of the codex or units that I have not included that you think should be, so why not let us know in the comments below.
All my games of AOS3 so far have been tournament games, so it was great to have the opportunity to play a one off game against Reece from the NWA and his lovely Seraphon. Thanks to NWA for hosting us – a great venue and a great group.
Gargants army (Taker Tribe)
Kraken Eater (General)
Amulet of Destiny
Kraken-Skin Sandals (Very Acquisitive)
Warstomper
Gargant Mob
3 x Gargants
Seraphon army (Thunder Lizards)
Kroak
Skink on Palaquin
Skink Priest
Astrolith Banner Bearer
Skink Priest
Old Blood on Carnosaur
5 Saurus Guard
3 x 5 Cold One Riders
Tectonic Interference
Mission was randomly rolled and we got Tectonic Interference. This is three objectives in the middle of the board with a random one being worth 2, and the others 1. As they are all primary objectives, we couldn’t destroy one in turn 3 either.
The Battle
Having deployed first, and making sure I was out of range of Kroak’s spells where possible, I gave the first turn to Reece. In my recent tournament I mostly took first turn, but this is one of the benefits of friendly games… you can try new things.
Kroak chipped a few wounds of most of my units, the Cold One’s took all the objectives and the Carnosaur advanced on my right clipping that objective for Monstrous Takeover. The Bastiladons then opened fire, killing a Mancrusher and putting wounds on the Warstomper. A good start for Seraphon with 7 points.
The Gargants then advanced, the mob taking the left, the Kraken the centre and Warstomper headed to the right. The Warstomper failed his charge into the Cold Ones meaning I couldn’t get the objective, but the Kraken charged the Cold Ones in the centre, and the Mob failed a long charge after their Cold Ones had redeployed. The Kraken only killed 3 Cold Ones, and took a few wounds in return, but I had completed my battle tactic.
Fortunately I won the priority and was able to chase the Seraphon into turn 2. The Kraken killed the Cold Ones with shooting, and charged the Skink on Palanquin, killing him. The Warstomper charged the Cold Ones and killed them, and the Mob charged a Bastiladon and did some wounds.
The Seraphon then chose to kill the Warstomper, so I used ‘Finest Hour’ to increase his survivability. Kroak chipped more wounds, and crucially destroyed the Amulet of Destiny on my Kraken (oh dear!), and the Bastiladon and Carnosaur charged the Warstomper. The Carnosaur roared at the Warstomper so I couldn’t use all out defense – as it turned out this was critical and the Warstomper fell after the Carnosaur didn’t get any of the six bites through!
I won priority again, and charged the Kraken at the Bastiladon on the right… although I did a few mortal wounds on the charge, the Thunder Lizards reduced the damage by 1 and I didn’t bracket the monster… when he attacked the Kraken Eater did 1 damage! Oh dear. On the left the Mob finished off their Bastiladon.
Reece then counterattacked with the Carnosaur into the Kraken Eater killing him. Meanwhile the Saurus Guard killed the last of the Mob, and I was left with 2 Gargants.
Reece then won priority turn 4, killed my fifth Mancrusher and moved towards the last one. I failed a charge on the Saurus Guard, and so fell behind.
Reece won priority turn 5, and with only one Mancrusher left, in range of the Carnosaur I conceeded.
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
Reece (BT)
Points
1
D/R
Conquer (Y)
M.Takeover (Y)
5-7
2
D/D
Broken Ranks (Y)
Bring it Down (Y)
12-12
3
D/D
M.Takeover (Y)
Conquer (Y)
19-18
4
R/R
Spearhead (N)
Spearhead (Y)
21-23
5
R/R
Concede —
21-30
END
Hold the Line (N)
Beast Master (Y)
21-33
Results!
A great game, and thanks to Reece for the fun evening! Thanks also to NWA for hosting and Paul Hayley for organising us. It’s a great location.
Conclusion
Although giving away the first turn made the double turn possible, it did mean I didn’t do Ferocious Advance (run three models) which has been my normal start in other games… this meant I was struggling for Battle Tactics later in the game. I also should have charged the Carnosaur (first with the Warstomper turn 2 when the charge had the distance, and then with the Kraken). Although it did a lot of damage it is easier to kill than the Bastiladon and does more damage than the Cold One’s.
Other than that, it was great to play against Kroak. Unlike some of the other ‘God’ characters I wasn’t too concerned about him. Sure, he gives out a lot of damage but it was the Bastiladon’s and the Carnosaur that won the game.
You may think that the subheading suggests I’m attending the London GT at the end of September, but it is a cunning ruse to get more clicks… in fact I am playing Warmaster – a 10mm scale game of fantasy battles set in the Warhammer ‘World that Was’.
Written by Rick Priestley & … it was a game from the ‘Specialist Game’ arm of Games Workshop which unfortunately was squatted when they stopped supporting these games. Subsequently some have come back, but Warmaster is still a rulebook available to the community.
The tournament is played using the Warmaster Revolution ruleset, and there are some great resources available including the rules & armies and an army builder.
I have been playing Empire since the game was released so when COVID restricted all movement I decided it was time for a new army and there was only possibility for me – Goblins. They are a fan made army list, but are accepted at tournaments… but they are not considered one of the best armies – so it would be a challenge as well.
I’ll showcase some of the army in a future article, but before talking about it I needed some practice and a fellow Warmaster kindly offered my two games this weekend.
Game 1 v Skaven
Jim’s Skaven army using Indus inspired models
Skaven are also considered to be a weaker army so it was to be the battle at the bottom! I used my horde version of the Goblin list with no artillery, and no Giant
Goblin Warboss
4 x Goblin Heroes (one on Wyvern)
4 x Goblin Wizards
18 x Goblin Units
6 x Squig Units
8 x Wolf Rider Units
3 x Troll Units
Units in Warmaster normally consist of 3 bases of models with a suitable number of miniatures on them. This is a very broad definition to allow people to chose their own options. The important this is each base is 40mm x 20mm.
The Skaven started very well, and passed most of their first turn command (movement) checks and were getting across the board quickly. In response the Goblins also advanced, but in a less organised fashion leaving some units behind – this created a sort of maniple or checkerboard set-up, but that did leave me with units to counter charge. Goblins are fortunate in their magic and I managed to cause the Screaming Bell to move away from the rest of the army – this was especially good because a Screaming Bell can’t move on it’s own and a unit had to go back and ‘collect’ it!
Skaven swarmed over a hill to my left, whilst they worked around some terrain on my right, and my army approached – again a bit piecemeal. The Goblin army does have some very short range shooting, but this didn’t do much.
After a few turns, we were ready to charge, and I moved to within 20cm (the movement of intantry), but couldn’t move further… in response the Skaven charged!
The Goblin’s short range shooting causes confusion across most of the Skaven army
They had some success against my units killing 4 Goblin units, and doing significant damage to some Wolf Riders (including killing a whole unit (3 stands) with Rat Swarms), but they didn’t break through. Skaven Clanrats are slightly better than Goblins, but not by much.
I counterattacked across much of my lines using initiative where possible – units close to enemies can charge or move away without their generals needing to roll dice. My wolf riders on the right killed some rat swarms and then fell back, whilst in the centre Squigs and trolls killed the Stormvermin, although failed to kill a Doomwheel.
The left was the big impact though with Goblins charging into combat to rescue some Wolf Riders who had been outclassed in the previous turn… with some great rolling (or skill as the Goblins insisted on calling it!) They drove off the Skaven and they retreated from the battlefield.
Game 2 v Dogs of War
Jim’s amazing Dogs of War Army
My opponent very kindly fought me with another low tier army. Dogs of War have access to cannon, which are very good, but they have shorter range than normal (40cm), and they have to take Pike. This is a unit that is very difficult to make work in Warmaster as it is good whilst on the defensive, but not against the large heavy cavalry in the game … fortunately for the Dogs of War my Goblins had none of this. However, I did take the opportunity to change my list into one containing a bit of everything (mostly)
Goblin Warboss
4 x Goblin Heroes (one on Wyvern)
4 x Goblin Wizards
10 x Goblin Units
6 x Squig Units
6 x Wolf Rider Units
3 x Troll Units
1 x Pump Wagon
1 x Giant
2 x Spear Chukka Units
My plan for this game was to learn how to use some of these additional units, and see if they were good enough to include in the tournament army for London.
The Goblins started this game, and the first turn went well, with Goblins appearing out of the forests at the edge of my board, and some Wolf Riders being sent on a flanking march on my right. They didn’t get very far, but cavalry move further than infantry (30cm), so they were my most advanced unit. My Giant did fail his command (order), meaning you roll on a random table (Giants only!) and he turned around and charged a unit of Goblins, killing one stand. This was my concern with Giants, that due to the low command of Goblins this would happen more often.
The Dogs of War advanced slowly, hampered by a hill just outside their deployment, still their units were safe from my Spear Chukkas – if my general could ever pass the command check to move them!
After a few turns of slowly advancing on each other and cannon shot from the Dogs of War hitting some of my brigades (collection of units), I managed to get 2 orders onto a unit of Wolf Riders (rare for Goblins), putting them deep into my opponent’s deployment zone. Despite shooting at them with a single cannon, these two units would cause a lot of trouble in the game, and require him to move a Phalanx unit and 1 cannon to deal with them – very good value for 60 points for the Wolf Rider unit.
Whilst the Galloper Guns fire at the centre, the Goblins continue to attempt their encircling tactic
Whilst both armies looked at each other through the smoke of cannon fire, the Giant failed another order … but this time rolled a 6 and charged into a unit of swordsmen hiding in a village… a 6 means that the Giant’s attacks are doubled (to 16!) making him a monster in combat. The unit died, but the Giant couldn’t go further.
On the left meanwhile my other Wolf Riders had made an equally daring move and flanked a unit of crossbows and pikes. The crossbows turned, but the pike had to face forward or be charged by the Goblin units. I charged… killed a unit of pike and sent another running before me – but I pursued (keeping the units in combat).
It was my opponent’s Giant’s turn to roll the 6 and he barrelled into the Wolf Riders, killing them… however the damage had been done and another failure by Ogres to kill my Trolls on my right meant the Dogs of War were in a perilous position… the paymaster called the retreat and it was another win for the Goblins!
Learning
Goblin magic is very good – there is a spell called ‘Geroff’ which forces an opponent’s unit to move backwards if I roll a 5+ on 1D6. However with 4 wizards this happened more often than not. Learning point – definitely need the 4 wizards.
Wyvern is very good because he causes terror – but expensive. Definitely need 1, but not sure about a second
Goblins are able to take a surprising amount of damage, because there are so many of them… care is needed and it will be more difficult against the better armies, but not to be written off
Wolf Riders are great – we were using some trial rules which will be used in London GT – Fast Cavalry – which gives them a little more autonomy … plus they shoot.
Spear Chukkas made my opponent think – I don’t think I need more than 2 (the army can have 4 at 2,000 points), but I like the additional troops.
I’m not sold on Giants – they can scare opponents, but with a very low command even on my general, they will fail a lot of orders and may attack my own army
More Warmaster?
Definitely… I love this game – the sweeping advances, the look of the battlefield and the simplicity of the rules make it my favourite regiment game.
Want to know more?
There are some great resources available, but two of my favourites are:
Woehammer has asked me to write a few Blog posts for tournaments I go to to give their readers an idea of what tournaments are like in the UK.
TL:DR; They are great fun; take the plunge and buy a ticket for one wherever you are based
Who am I?
That’s all very well, but why should Woehammer ask me – I wasn’t sure either, but I have been attending tournaments for Warhammer Fantasy and AOS since my first Bristol Brawl in 2002. I find the gaming fun, and the preparation of army lists interesting, but the main draw for me is meeting new gamers, and having fun over the table. The tournament scene has given me friends all over the UK; and there are friendly faces at each event.
This isn’t to say its insular and unwelcoming – new players are welcomed into the tournament scene and given help and advice by those of us a little longer in the tooth. Just let the organiser and your opponents know that it’s your first event and they’ll look after you.
THWG – Barbarians Brawl 2 (One Day; Three Games)
For my first event of any new edition I always take my Glooomspite Gitz. I’ve been playing Goblins forever since the Elves invaded the Goblin mountains in 4th Edition; and they are always my go to army.
I did have something a little different though, because the new Kragnos book had given Gloomspite new allegiance abilities and I had been painting a lot of Squigs … so Jaws of Mork (Gloomspite) it was.
I will admit to being concerned about the army as it was ranked in the lower tiers by most players since AOS3, and I knew it would be an uphill struggle, but I wanted to give the new toys an outing.
Army
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (310) in Warlord – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110) in Vanguard – Moon-cutta – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95) in Warlord – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95) in Warlord – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Battleline 36 x Squig Herd (480) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 2 20 x Squig Hoppers (360) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 1 10 x Squig Hoppers (180) in Vanguard
Units 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 1 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) in Warlord 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) in Warlord
Core Battalions Warlord Vanguard Hunters of the Heartlands
There wasn’t a big plan for this; just to see how the new game worked, and whether I could bring the Gitz to a longer format tournament. I really like one dayer tournaments for this as it gives an opportunity to try out new things without waking up on Sunday morning 0-3 down and seeing 2 more games looming ahead.
My biggest concern was with the Squig Hoppers as their mortal wound damage (for moving over units), now only worked on normal moves. So, so run or retreat over units.
Game 1 v Nighthaunt
Nighthaunt are in a similar position to Gloomspite so this was going to be close. My opponent (Chris) had a nice list led by Olynder with Chainrasps and lots of other ghosts. Very thematic.
We both advanced on the objectives, and in the second turn I gave Chris the turn as he was far enough away to do limited damage – he charged the large squig herd and we both did damage to each other. I then set my Mangler Squig Boss on His Finest Hour and went to clear an objective setting him 3″ away. I rolled double 1; command point; rolled double 1 again!
This meant I had to take the third turn, allowed Chris to remove the objective my Mangler was (supposed) to be fighting on. My Hoppers moved onto the middle objective, and bounced onto a support character killing him, but I should have charged Olynder and I was too worried about losing the squigs.
This meant I was the first to drop points as I only held one objective, and the Chris came smashing back making a 10 inch charge roll with his ghosts (allowing an immediate round of combat), and taking back the central objective.
Once behind it was difficult to get back and I couldn’t achieve a fifth battle tactic, leading to the loss. Chris played really well, and I learnt a lot about the new game – lots of time at the beginning of each turn choosing battle tactic and making sure to leave one for the end!
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
Chris (BT)
Points
1
C/D
Expansion (Y)
Advance (Y)
5-5
2
D/C
Conquer (Y)
Expansion (Y)
10-10
3
D/D
Broken Ranks (Y)
Conquer (Y)
13-15
4
D/D
Advance (Y)
Bring it Down (Y)
16-21
5
C/C
None possible
Spearhead (Y)
16-26
END
Hold the Line (Y)
Hold the Line (Y)
19-29
Scores on the Doors
Game 2 v Soulblight Gravelords
Greg’s army is unashamedly top tier – Nagash, Vengorian Lord, Manfred, 3 x 10 Zombies… ouch! I was in some trouble here but I started with an advance and send off my Boingrots towards some Zombies. I was in a defensive formation around the Shrine with the hope of weathering the storm and then striking with the Hopper’s mortal wound output.
Greg took the objective I had a toe on, won priority turn 2 and charged with everything. My screen was hit badly but with 72 wounds in the unit it weathered it well, and the Shrine ensured no battleshock. I now needed to get out.
I decided that I needed to kill one of the big things, and with Manfred’s ability to disappear and the Vengorian Lord to my right I went for Nagash. Despite retreating the Squig Herd couldn’t leave enough space for my hoppers who only did 2 mortal wounds to Nagash due to space constraints. The Mangler again did Finest Hour, charged Nagash and Manfred (with Sneaky Snufflers on as well), and did no wounds to Nagash…! The 2+ save rerolling 1s was very good.
My gamble over, Greg proceeded to take the Gloomspite apart. We chatted afterwards… perhaps after a little cursing at the different strengths of the books, and struggled to see how I could win!
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
Greg (BT)
Points
1
G/D
Advance (Y)
Conquer (Y)
5-5
2
G/G
Bring it Down (N)
M. Takeover (Y)
6-10
3
G/G
Conquer (N)
Slay Warlord (Y)
6-17
4
None Possible
6-25
5
None possible
6-29
END
Hold the Line (N)
Beast Master (Y)
6-32
Breaking down the Doors
Game 3 v Skaventide
Skaventide have been making headlines for the Stormfield build, but George had brought a superb moulder army with 2 Hellpits, 2 Rat Ogre units of 6 and lots (and lots) of battle line Giant Rats… Hold the Line was going to be difficult to stop.
Due to the number of rats, I got to ask George to go first and he moved onto the central objective. I moved my Squig Herd forward, killed a few Giant Rats, and took the objective back. In the second turn George tried to kill the large Squig Herd with his Hell Pit Abominations for Broken Ranks. I don’t think he realised how many wounds they have and the unit survived, and smashed one of the Hell Pits down to a few wounds allowed me to pick up Bring it Down in my turn and go slightly ahead.
I then got the priority roll and a double turn allows my Mangler to kill some more rats (Broken Ranks was easy!), whilst my Boingrots killed most of one of the Rat Ogre units on my right. The smash back killed the Mangler (mostly through shooting), and started to reduce the Hoppers. The Squig Herd also died at this stage.
With little left my Boingrots went after a Master Moulder and got into the Grey Seer killing him and gaining savage spearhead with the Loonboss in turn 5, but on my left the Squig Hoppers (my last battleline) were trying to run away from the undamaged Rat Ogres… unfortunately, they were caught in George’s turn 5 and he stopped my Grand Strategy; giving him the game
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
George (BT)
Points
1
D/G
Conquer (Y)
Advance (Y)
3-5
2
G/G
Bring it Down (Y)
Broken Ranks (N)
9-8
3
D/D
Broken Ranks (Y)
Slay Warlord (Y)
12-13
4
D/D
Advance (Y)
Conquer (Y)
17-16
5
D/D
Spearhead (Y)
Spearhead (Y)
20-20
END
Hold the Line (N)
Hold the Line (Y)
20-23
Door Left Ajar
What did I Learn?
Not a very destruction concept, but what did I learn?
Battle Tactics are very important and you need a plan about which ones you’ll do when.
Monster heroes are very good… when the Mangler charged he wiped out what he was fighting (except Nagash) and the finest hour made him great fun. Unfortunately the other armies have better ones – Manfred, Nagash & Arkhan who I played. The ability to do damage at range with these characters is very powerful
There’s book keeping – I used the AOS score sheet from thehonestwargamer.com which was essential for keeping track for both me and my opponent
Try to kill a monster a turn. I killed both Hell-Pits in the same turn; normally really good, but I could have grabbed an extra point if I’d managed to engineer them dying in different rounds. Difficult to do, but worth watching out for.
Conclusion
After the enforced COVID break, it was great to be back rolling dice, but the Gloomspite just didn’t cut it. I had very close games against Nighthaunt & Skaven but they weren’t top tier armies, and the only game against top tier was a demolition. In 5 game tournaments I like to aim for 3-2 and I couldn’t see how this was possible with the Squigs! Unfortunately the Gloomspite WhatsApp group didn’t provide much solace and so I made the decision to play Sons of Behemat… as luck would have it there was a team tournament the next day at the same venue, so I would be back!
