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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.
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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:
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An Army for the Ages…!
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My First AOS3 tournament
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!
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The residents of Fairharbour were alarmed when the dark shadow appeared in the bay. Moreso when the fish began to float to the surface, their mangled forms twisted by growths and lesions. The smart villagers began to run then, but the backwater town was not known for producing geniuses. When the towering bulk of Lord Orificeus finally waded out of the bay, a cruel smile playing on his lips, it was already too late.
Who are the Sons of Slimeharbour?
Randall Gubbins was a simple farmer, who toiled daily in the fields surrounding Fairharbour growing turnips and potatoes. When Randall fell sick with a virulent wasting disease his fields fell fallow, and his crop went unharvested to rot in the ground. Surrounded within and without by decay Randall had delirious visions of his fields transformed into bountiful wilds where bulbous trees sprouted juicy, exotic fruits and filled the air with sweet, enticing scents. Brought to the brink of madness by fever Randall uttered prayers to himself for days that his visions would come true. Unfortunately for his neighbours his prayers were answered.
Randall’s vision, manifested in horrifying flesh
Lord Orificeus, one of Nurgle’s favoured grandchildren, was dispatched to Fairharbour immediately to ensure Randall’s conversion and make his dream a reality. The Great Unclean One sowed his fields with blessed seed, and fertilized it with the bodies of Randall’s neighbours. As the Feculent Gnarlmaws bloomed, Randall was carried from his sickbed by a frolicking crowd of Nurglings who bore him to the feet of Orificeus’ bulbous mass. He was christened there and then in a pool of vomit and bile and given a new name: Rancel Ganglion, Shepard of Nurgle.
Rancel, his mind now permanently changed by the virulent, magical fever that Nurgle bestowed upon him, took charge of efforts to transform the remnants of his village into a more pleasing state. Fairharbour became Slimeharbour, named for the choking, thick mucus of the giant, mutated Hagfish that spawned in the wake of Orificeus’ coming. Those of his neighbours who accepted Nurgle’s gifts became the first 15 members of Rancel’s flock. The rest were given to the nurglings.
Rancel Ganglion, Shepard of Nurgle and first on the painting table
Path to Glory
Nurgle was my first army in AoS back when I started playing in 2018. However, I still have a lot of work to do to finish them off so I’ll be using Path to Glory as an excuse to paint up the rest of my Rotbringers. I’m starting with a neat little 1k list, made up of what I already had painted and adding onto that as we go.
Name
Warscroll
Points
Lord Orificeus
Great Unclean One
350
Rancel Ganglion
Harbinger of Decay
145
Buboetis’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
Tubercules’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
Sputicus’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
TOTAL
990
My stronghold, obviously, is Slimeharbour: the ruined fishing village turned nightmare pus factory. It is located in the territory of Saltmarsh, which has been transformed by Orificeus’ arrival into Wild Lands. This allows me to include 1 more monster in my army, but that doesn’t matter right now because I only have 1 monster in my list. I can definitely see myself taking another monster later on though, and its thematically appropriate. I considered making Saltmarsh a Small Settlement, which would have allowed me to reinforce a unit 1 more time. However the changes to coherency in AoS3 make me hesitant to do that with Putrid Blightkings, and in low point games I think I will benefit from the flexibility of 3 small units rather than 1 giant ball of death. As for my first quest, The Sons of Slimeharbour are on the hunt for a sacred relic of Nurgle. Lord Orificeus has given many gifts in his short time in Slimeharbour – now it’s time that Rancel repaid his debt by finding him a worthy tribute. The infamous Witherstave should do…
Have you heard the good word?
What’s next?
The first thing I’ll be painting up for this army (after Rancel) is another 5 Putrid Blightkings, bringing me to a nice even 20 in Rancel’s growing flock of converts. Afterwards I think it will be time to add another type of unit to the roster, perhaps a Lord of Afflictions to buff the Blightking’s attacks or a pair of Pusgoyle Blightlords to zip about the battlefield capturing objectives. Otherwise, the transformation of Slimeharbour bay into a green, thick ooze will certainly have attracted the attention of the Admiral of the Slime Fleet: Gutrot Spume.
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So Peter asked a group of us to join him for a Path to Glory campaign which has been improved in AOS3 to be more like the Crusade system which is now in use by 40k.
Despite being a Gloomspite fan, I am struggling with using them in tournaments at the moment having gone 0-3 at a local tournament with Squigs – and being lucky to have got zero! There’s a few too many Gods (and Gotrek’s) in the tournament scene for me to enjoy the Gloomspite.
So, Path to Glory provided a perfect opportunity – and a bonus excuse to finish off my Troggoth army which Trogg (Stuart Hodges) has been bugging me to do for a while. I have a Dankhold Troggboss, 9 Fellwaters and 6 Rockguts already painted so a Warband size (1,000 points) would be a perfect starting point.
Going through the Core Book for Age of Sigmar 3 (pp 304), I found what I needed to do and that a Warband size allowed me one Starting Territory. As Troggoths have very expensive heroes, I decided to take ‘Small Settlement’ which would allow me to Reinforce an additional unit. I wouldn’t use it immediately but 6 or 9 Troggoths in small point games could be quite powerful.
My other choice was what to include in the armies within certain limitations (3 Heroes, 1 Wizard etc…). Fortunately the models I have made the decisions relatively easy. I couldn’t afford to have all my Troggoths so I went with 6 of each, led by a Dankhold Troggboss. To allow some playing with the magic phase (or Hand of Gork), I added a Fungoid Cave-Shaman.
With that decided my force looks like this:
Dankhold Troggboss – 250 pointsFungoid Cave Shaman – 95 points (Dankhold for scale!!)6 Rockgut Troggoths – 290 points2 x 3 Fellwater Troggoths (155 points per unit)
Turning to page 308 of the Core Book I found I needed a Warlord – that was easy, it had to be the Dankhold Troggboss.
1st Page of Dankhold Troggboss Warscroll from Games Workshop website
He would be my general in any games I play with him in the force. I also at this point took the opportunity to try out the Sub-Allegiance – Glogg’s Meganob from the Kragnos book which provides a little boost to healing the Troggoths. This gave me the default command ability and artefact of power from this allegiance.
Finally, I was allowed an Endless Spell and because I had a Fungoid I could even cast it. I wanted something unsubtle and Troggoth like, but with only 55 points left, Iwas limited in my choices. Looking through the options I couldn’t take any Gloomspite specific Endless spells, but Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws were pointed at exactly 55 points. Clearly Mork had a plan so I roll with this and add them in. Is this Endless spell good – no – will it be fun – hopefully.
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws
With that all done, I was ready to get a game organised… but I’m primarily a tournament player so that would have to wait a while, as I’m off to Mancunian Carnage this weekend with my Sons of Behemat.
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So I decided I would bite the bullet and dive into Age of Sigmar fully, having previously prodded around at the edges of the game since its release back in 2012.
Having been an Order player through and through in fantasy, the Dwarves and Humans have always appealed to me, but with the recent release of AoS 3 and the Kruleboyz I found my eye wandering to pastures new.
The new look Orruks with their Lord of the Rings-esque vibe appealed to me along with the awesome new Orruk leader included in the Dominion box set.
The Kruleboyz included in the new Dominion Age of Sigmar boxed set
I swiftly managed to pick up two halves of the Kruleboyz from the Dominion boxed set from various members of our local gaming community and have been poring over the moulds ever since.
Then at at a suggestion from Dave a Path to Glory campaign idea started to form for the guys at Woehammer, I jumped on the bandwagon along with the rest of the guys.
Admittedly I may not be able to play as regularly as the others, but its an opportunity to paint and hopefully get some games in anyway,
I had looked at various points sizes and decided that 1,000 points would be the best place to start for my force. I found that at 600 points I would be able to include very little in the way of units and the games wouldn’t feel as cinematic to me.
So where to start? Well every army needs a leader and who better to lead the army than Gollok Spleenchewa (Krusha of sumfin’ or ‘uvva). Gollok is a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, which means I get to paint up the centre piece of the Orruks from the Dominion box.
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof
Next I needed some troops, and choices are thin on the ground here with either the Gutrippas, Hobrots or Man-Skewer Bolt Boyz. In the end, I decided that I would run two units of 10 Gutrippas, and perhaps in the future reinforce one or both of these units with additional Orruks. These units I named “Raggrogg ‘an iz Stikkaz” and “Gorlogz Sneaky Boyz”.
But I wanted some shooting to back these lads up in combat and provide my army with some long range threat. So I stuck in a unit of Man-Skewer Bolt Boyz . I named these the “Gnashwater Man-Skewerz” after the settlement the army hails from.
What to include next? I decided that the Swampcalla Shaman with Pot Grot (this point onwards known as “Zolhag Grotthrottler”) would be a great shout, as he can give a unit of Orruks poisoned weapons on 5+ instead of 6+ as well as also being able to cast Boggy Mist giving nearby Orruks +1 on their charge and run rolls and enemy units -1.
Swampcalla Shaman
This brought me to a grand total of 805 points. To finish of the force I opted to take two units of 10 Hobgrot Slittas which cost 190 points. These units will be used as chaff and distraction as they don’t benefit from any of the abilities that the rest of the Orruks in the army have. Going with my rule of naming all these units, these would be called “Grolbokz Slittaz” and “Da Gnashwater Runtz”.
On the admin side of things I chose to take a settlement as the single territory I was allowed which I named Gnashwater, and this was purely for narrative reasons to give the army somewhere to call home. I named the fort Gnashwater Fort, because I was starting to struggle with the names…..
As a core enhancement I chose to give my Warlord (Gollok Spleenchewa) the Battle-Lust trait, this allows him to re-roll run and charge rolls, hopefully meaning that he will get into combat when he needs to, especially if performing a charge inside the Boggy Mist that Zolhag Grotthrottler can call upon.
As a quest I chose Scout fertile lands, which gives me the option of adding another territory pretty much after the first battle.
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Starting in August the guys at Woehammer are taking part in their own Path to Glory campaign. However is one with a twist, as we’re going to incorporate an actual 3D map!
The island of Losille
Right now, the guys are all deciding what armies they should play, as well as what starting size they’d like to be (as well as getting ready for Carnage next weekend). It’s been agreed that it doesn’t matter what starting size you pick, but if you fight a smaller army, then you must pick units from your roster to suit that size battle.
The game will also be using fog of war rules, so each player will be given a number of options as there starting location, which they then list in order of preference. Once it’s been revealed which starting location they’ve been given, each player will be shown the territories bordering their own and battle can commence.
Battles will take place in the same manner as a normal Path to Glory game, and players can claim territory from spending glory points after a game. However, once players have decided what they want that territory to be (i.e. Old Fort etc), then it remains as such even when taken over by another player.
As the game progresses we’re hoping the map will reflect the players choices in the campaign, with players being responsible for building on and naming territory.
I’ll write an article each month summarising what’s happened as well as posting regular YouTube videos of the battles themselves.
