So those who have seen my previous articles on Solo Wargaming in the Age of Sigmar will know that I’m developing a card draw system to determine an armies movements and actions on the tabletop. This will allow people to play against an automated army, which is especially good if you can’t find regular opponents or you want to test our your army lists.

The Army Lists

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
———-
Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (General) (190 pts)
– Command Trait: Grandmaster
– Artefact: Staff of Ocular Optimisation

Battleline
———-
Arkanaut Frigate (250 pts)
Arkanaut Frigate (250 pts)

Units
———-
Grundstok Gunhauler (155 pts)
Grundstok Gunhauler (155 pts)

Total Points: 1000 pts

Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
– Subfaction: Winterbite
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
———-
Huskard on Stonehorn (General) (340 pts)
– Command Trait: Wintertouched
– Artefact: Frostfang
– Mount Trait: Metalcruncher
Icebrow Hunter (125 pts)

Battleline
———-
Mournfang Pack (160 pts)
Mournfang Pack (160 pts)
Mournfang Pack (160 pts)

Units
———-
Frost Sabres (55 pts)

Total Points: 1000 pts

Pre-Game

The battleplan played was Savage Gains, deployment for the AI units was based on the card shown above. This resulted in a strong right and left flank for the ogors with only the Icebrow Hunter holding the centre objective. To counter this I placed my Gunhaulers and one of the Frigates with the Endrinmaster in the centre (hoping to be able to counter any opening moves from the Ogors).

Kharadron Turn 1

Choosing the Battle Tactic Aggressive Expansion, I started strong with a Frigate moving up my left to claim the left hand objective and a Gunhauler and my other Frigate moving t the right objective. The Frigate on the left managed to get lucky with its sky cannon and completely removed the Frost Sabres turning them into red mist.

Ogors Turn 1

The Ogors drew a tactic card at random and received Ferocious Advance. Following the instructions on the card, the Icebrow Hunter was chosen as unit one while the nearby mournfangs and the Huskard were units two and three respectively.

I then drew cards for each of the AI units and followed their instructions. Unfortunately the three units didn’t quite make it to within three inches of each other and so the Ogors failed the Battle Tactic for that round. The other Mournfang units circled the trees on the right heading for their right hand objective. Luckily for the Ogors they were able to get one of these units within 6″ and so contested the right with my Frigate and Gunhauler. No battle tactic for me after all!

Kharadron Turn 2

Feeling buoyed after the early lead and removing the Sabre Tooth’s I chose the Conquer Battle Tactic, thinking that I could wrestle objective from the hands of the Mournfang.

The Frigate on my right turned to try and take some shots at the Huskard but didn’t hit a single time. The Frigate and the Gunhauler didn’t fair too much better and only removed a single Mournfang meaning that the Ogors still contested the Kharadron left.

Ogors Turn 2

This time the Ogors drew Aggressive Expansion. Both of the objective markers would be the left and right side objectives. I felt fairly confident that the Ogors couldn’t shift my forces this turn.

The Ogors advance and charged and unleashed a world of paint on my poor sky ships! They utterly destroyed the Gunhauler on the right and scored multiple wounds on both Frigates. The only saving grace for me was that as the Ogors are an aggessive army, the Mournfang failed its check to remain near the objective in the centre and instead chose to charge after the Gunhauler on the right.

Ogor Turn 3

With the Ogors winning the initiative, they drew Slay the Warlord as their Battle Tactic.

This turned out very well for them, all the Mournfang Cavalry charged the Frigate on their right and utterly destroyed it and the poor Endrinmaster sat inside! While the Huskard then decide to reduce the other Frigate to a pile of metal. Tactic Achieved, and this only left me a single Gunhauler to mount any defence with. I had little option but to concede the game to the A.I.

Conclusion

The cards worked really well, so well that the A.I. beat me to a pulp and if I had carried on I have no doubt that I would have been tabled eventually. I’m happy with the cards, there are some minor changes I would like to make to some of the wording here and there, but overall a very successful first test.

I’d like to take the opportunity to all those who are helping me playtest this system and feeing their comments back to me:

• Ed
• Tony
• Tom
• Andy
• Sarah
• Matthew
• William
• Paul

I’m getting to the stage where I will be able to sell the cards on the website. If you’re interested in purchasing a set of the cards why not fill out the poll below: