About a month ago, the legend that is Dave invited me to play a few games of Warhammer Fantasy with him in the coming year. I jumped at the opportunity, and what better army to play with than my old Dwarfs!
I’ve always had a soft spot for these boys ever since I started in Warhammer way back in 93′.
This would also be the perfect opportunity for me to start rebasing them back on to their proper SQUARE bases as is only right! It also means that by the time Old World gets released I may have a fully painted and functional army from the off!
We’re starting out in Fantasy with the Grudge of Drong as Dave has previously mentioned, and for the first battle in the series I need to muster a small force of 1,500 points.
The first battle takes place in Grudge Pass as an Elven force blocks the road to advancing Dwarfs looking to topple Queen Helga from her throne whom the Elves have allied themselves with.
In this case, Dave is replacing the Elves and using his old Empire army. However, I will be using the Dwarfs. The suggested order of battle is below, but this is a 5th edition campaign box and we’re going be playing with 8th edition rules so I will need to adjust this slightly.
We’re going to be using 8th Edition rules, so my force will look something like this:
Dwarf Lord
Master Engineer
Runesmith
Battle Standard Bearer
15 Warriors
10 Warriors
10 Longbeards
10 Thunderers
10 Ironbreakers
10 Miners
10 Miners
This is by no means a competitive army , but then its not meant to be as this is a narrative campaign and we’re playing to act a story out rather than attempting to table our opponent.
Some of these models are already painted, they just need rebasing!
I’ve still a fair whack to get through as well as rebasing the above models!
So @hamsfan @rightangle79 and myself are all going to take part in the White Dwarf Hobby Bingo for the coming year. Hopefully it will help clear some of our backlog!
For those not aware, the hobby bingo card was published in the most recent White Dwarf:
You score points based on each box you complete (10 points) as well as for lines – Horzontal, vertial or diagonal (50 points) and completing the entire grid (150 points).
I’ll be happy if I make it to 50 points! We’ll keep you updated throughout the year on how we’re doing!
The AOS points changes are in, and the Dankhold Troggoth went down in points – again. So why not include them in another Warscroll Wednesday!
This points reduction would be more impactful if they hadn’t gone up in the first place… but the question today is: Are Dankholds not taken because of the scroll or because of the points – lets find out!
The first thing to note is that there are two similar scrolls – Dankhold Troggboss, and Dankhold Troggoth. The first is a Leader who makes most Troggoth’s battleline and let’s you run a Trogg only army (what’s not to like!!), the second is a unit in that army – unfortunately not battleline but they are big monstrous fiends… so surely they’ll work.
I was also gifted one through #hohohobbyvices secret santa and wanted to remind myself what he could do:
What a model.. isn’t he pretty?!
The Scroll
For the scroll you can either check out the book or the Age of Sigmar app… as a Warhammer+ subscriber I have this so on with the review:
170 points for 10 wounds on a 4+ save isn’t bad especially when we look at the regeneration below. He can go in units of 2 because of reinforcement points, but you’re probably going to want to run them in units of 1… just so you can use the Rockgut Troggoths in units of 9. At 170 points they are slight more expensive than 3 Rockguts (12 wounds, save 5+, 145 points), but are not battleline so are more disposable – as they won’t give up Broken Ranks. However, don’t be confused by their size being significantly above a Mindstealer Sphiranx… these are not monsters!
His move of 6″ is definitely a problem though. In a world of Dragons moving 12″, with a 12″ shooting attack this is a problem… but it’s a problem shared by Nurgle now… and they say a problem shared is a problem halved…
The Boulderclub is potentially great. It has a 2″ reach so can reach over some screens, and can occasionally hit a Windspirit, and 3+/3+/-2/D6 is a good damage profile. Games Workshop seem to be suggesting that 3+/3+ is the statline for elite combat troops and it’s good to see it on the Troggoths. The rend 2 can help as well, although you’ll want to be attacking multiple units with the army to reduce the impact of all out defense. My problem is with the D6 and only 3 attacks. Potentially of course he can do 18 wounds in combat but with my rolling that is never happening and I know I’ll roll a one. In Warhammer 40k they use D3+? a lot and would be great to see these guys at D3+2. If you’re unlucky enough to be hit by a boulderclub wielded by a Troggoth of this size it should hurt!
The crushing grip is a good ability and can split up units out of coherency if you strike after them (and survive!) It can even take out Fulminators with a little luck – great!
Magical resistance is a great ability to stop damage – I used Weird Un a lot in AoS2 on my Maw Krushas which was a similar ability and it either stops an opponent casting at the model, or means they risk a lot. Also remember it’s optional so if an Emerald Lifeswarm gets near the Troggoth he can choose to use it!
Regeneration is a small bonus, but only triggering in your hero phase and only on a 4+ is weak. In the world of AoS3 its difficult to justify this not happening automatically – It would also be great to have it triggered each battleshock phase (or similar) to make it happen more often.
A fun little bonus that can get the odd mortal wound through on single characters, but it’s a little disappointing it doesn’t trigger for each Troggoth, rather than once unit.
What’s not on the scroll
Unfortunately, that’s about it. You can make the regeneration work on a 3+ with Glogg’s Megamob, but that’s just making a weak ability very slightly less weak. He can also perform a similar task as the Mirebrute Troggoth from the Orruk Warclans / Kruleboyz books… but the Mirebrute can increase his attacks.
So I’m not sure I’d take him, although at a one-dayer he’d be fun to try again… and I have lots of them now so really do need to get painting them. Let me know if you’ve spotted any secret tech here to encourage me to catch up with them in 2022!
With the imminent release of Chaos Gate: Deamonhunters by IGN, I thought I’d revisit my childhood and re-play a bit of the original Chaos Gate.
The new Chaos Gate – things have moved on since the 90s
Fortunately GOG (Good Old Games) has us covered and we can pick up the original Chaos Gate for a mere £7.59
So with a sense of risk (never meet your childhood heroes) I picked up the game, installed it and started running it (again). As with most GoG’s releases it has been updated slightly to allow it to run on modern computers and mine got up and running easily on my laptop. There’s not much strain on the PC here!
The game is a turn-based strategy where you take control of the Ultramarines against a Chaos incursion. The first mission starts with a mission briefing and then a selection of one of the tactical squads- you can choose which one. Each marine has some statistics which give action points, ballistic skill and health (amongst others). Once chosen you can chose the armaments – only one special weapon or heavy weapon per squad though, so I took a Heavy Bolter and gave each of my marines two more krak grenades.
There’s lot more actions once you go beyond the tactical marines
The game then takes you back to the main screen, and you can start the mission – the first one is an attack on a small building with Chaos Cultists and Chaos Space Marines (inside only), and your squad of 5 is severely outnumbered.
The aim in every mission… Victory will be mine!
Fortunately, the Cultists approach quite slowly in the open and give you practice with the bolters and heavy bolter and then I used the krak grenades on the Chaos Space Marines once I got in the building.
Mission 1 done, and nostalgia flooding back – hurrah!
At the end of the mission my Space Marines got experience based on what they hit, what they killed and whether they were the one that picked up the artifact. If they reach 500 experience points they are promoted and their stats increase… hurrah – progression!
Experience – and simple progression
I still loved it, and had great fun running around the marines, and hugging cover whilst hoping that the Chaos Marines with Missile Launchers miss! This is effectively the old versions of X-Com without the research et al and a much more linear narrative. Later on you can do random missions to pick up more ammunition and equipment and get some experience – but there is a risk of death… why the Ultramarines didn’t bring enough krak grenades is open to debate, but it’s fun to open the crates and find lots of new toys!
I’m not sure it’ll stand up to the standards of today, and it is a little slow because each model moves or fires based on action points (rather than the reboot of X-Com method of 2 action points per turn). It’s a long game, with a significant investment in time (36-48 hours) so be prepared to impact your painting and games. It also doesn’t do multi-player – you’re on your own here marine!
But I liked it, and it’s definitely one I’ll return to again (and again)!
So the results of last weeks votes are as follows:
So this gives us some extra direction when it comes to writing the rules, as we know that each element will represent a Battalion strength unit and that the game will be played on a four foot square area. Excellent! If we factor in that we also want the game to last no more than two hours and that all the measurements will be carried out in inches, we only have perhaps two more votes to go before we get into the nitty gritty of the rules themselves.
Base Shape
This may not seem important to some people, but the base shape can define a lot of things in regards to measuring distances as well as movement. For example a rectangular base would mean that you have to take into account that the base is wider than it is deep and so wheeling and turning become a factor in movement. A round base negates that factor as everything can be measured from the base edge without too much concern, though if you want flanking inside the game having round bases makes this difficult. Alternatively, there’s the option to have a square base, which makes turning and wheeling less of an issue, and can include flanks for the various edges IF we want that as a factor in our game.
Base Size
Our playing area is going to be 4 foot square and so this will have a slight impact on base sizing. We can’t have large bases because of fitting enough of them inside the game. But we can’t have too small either as we want enough models on the base to make it look the part.
There we have it! Next week we will start looking at factions and whether we should include the ability to construct our own or write rules for pre-made factions (or both).
BlackoVt (Blackout V) was held in Cardiff on the weekend of the 12th & 13th December. This was the return of a much moved event due to COVID and the restrictions in place by the Welsh government – and the organiser’s wish to keep everyone safe.
Unfortunately I couldn’t attend as it would have been my 4th week playing toy soldiers in a row… and may have got me in trouble!
The event is run by Chris Tomlin who has been in the community since at least 8th edition as part of a group from the South Coast of England called The Black Sun. Chris also runs the very successful team tournament – Brotherhood – which will return in 2022 for it’s second time.
The event was 5 rounds of Age of Sigmar and was attended by the great & the good of the Warhammer community, and was held at the new Firestorm Games location in Cardiff, Wales. Hopefully I’ll get there soon for some games!
Before I come to the lists I also wanted to shout out to a returning player who attended – Mo. For those who don’t know who Mo is he is the person who saved Age of Sigmar for the competitive community by bringing in ClashComp for his event Clash of Swords. He (and a team of supporting superstars) pointed every warscroll produced by Games Workshop and gave them a points value – whilst GW were running event where number of wounds mattered (so 2 goblins were the same as 1 chaos knight!). Mo saved us from having to play in this manner and his comp system was affectionately renamed MoComp.
So a cheer from me for Mo – it’s great to have you back and hope to see you at tournaments in 2022.
Now, without further ado – the winning lists.
1st Place – Cities of Sigmar – Mark Wildman(5-0)
Mark’s list appears to rely on the anvil of the Pheonix Guard – 4+ Ward – and the damage of the Fulminators… what a punch! As 4 drop it probably gave Mark the option of going first or second in some of his games – except against dedicated shooting lists. I’m told the Flaggelants made the army, so get painting them!
Look – still on Square bases on games-workshop.com
2nd Place – Soulblight Gravelords – Christian Moore(5-0)
Nagash before the recent changes was good (I would say very good), and the Knights must have provided the punch Christian needed. I wonder how many Hand of Dusts were attempted through the portal?
3rd Place – Stormcast Eternals – Adam Mumford (4-1)
Adam’s been playing a lot of Age of Sigmar since we were allowed to meet up again, and here he is again proving that the Dragons are definitely not good!! Wow – no idea how my Gitz would survive this; or my footslogging Brutes. Vicious.
Dragons… Coming to every tournament near you soon.
Thanks for Chris Tomlin for making the results available – including fighting through piles of paper army lists – and to AoS Shorts for collating them.
As this Friday is Christmas Eve my book review is just a simple look back at the ones already on the blog, if you’ll forgive the review format.
I’ve had a varied reading selection this year, some of which I managed to put some thoughts onto paper for the blog. Here they all are in case you missed any.
What releases are you looking forward to in 2022? For me it’s the new Sharpe book as it’s sort of Warhammer… and reading through some of the short story collections I’ve picked up.
