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Old World: Conquest – The Dwarfs of Bhurali-Dwar (Part 2: Game 1)

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Last time, I went into detail about the lore behind my list and how I decided upon my unit choices. The result felt solid and lore accurate with enough punch to hopefully put some halt in the step of an opponent.

With the list made, I challenged Dave to a game at 500 points. We rolled for the battle plan when we met and got Breakthrough.

If you want to find out more about Old World: Conquest, our narrative system for Old World, based on the Age of Sigmar Path to Glory system, then click here.

We’ve also a friendly Discord server, where you can share your own suggestions for Conquest.

The Story So Far

(Epic American Voiceover Guy) Previously, on the Dwarfs of Bhurali-Dwar

Fimbur Grimsson had spent his entire adolescence behind his father’s beard-tails.   His father, Grim Fimbursson, had amassed a large fortune and was among the wealthier Dwarfs of Karak-Norn.

Fimbur had heard tale of a lost haunted hold called Bhurali-Dwar while in the ‘Grobi’s Head’, a rather run down Tavern in the lower levels of Karak-Norn. Wanting nothing more than to make a name for himself, Fimbur  began planning an expedition to find the hold and reclaim it.

Fimbur, having a good relationship with his father, ran the expedition plans past him one evening. His father, who wanted nothing more than for Fimbur to succeed in life, decided to fund the expedition.

After months of preparation, the expedition was ready to leave the gates of Karak-Norn. Bidding his father goodbye, Fimbur took his force southwards, heading towards the mine of Grung Gandaz.

After 3 days, the scouts began reporting killing the odd Night Goblin here and there who seemed to be fleeing away from the mine. As the day progressed and the army marched closer, the number of reports increased, each one the same. Night Goblins fleeing southwards in terror away from the mine.

It wasn’t long before his rangers reported a large army of Night Goblins fleeing southwards from the mine. Seeing an opportunity to cross out some Grudges from the Dammaz Kron, Fimbur deployed his force across the road, aiming to wipe these Grobi out as they fled.

The Battleplan

With only a couple of hours to spare, Dave and I rolled our battleplan at random from those in the Old World: Conquest battlepack, rolling Breakthrough.

We rolled off, and Dave was allocated the role of Invader (very suitable being the filthy Grobi).

My aim was simple, stop as much as I could of Dave’s army from leaving my table edge. If I could stop more than half of Dave’s army from leaving my table edge and kill his general, then I’d get a minor victory. If none of his units left my table edge, I would get a major victory. Anything less than that would result in defeat for the Dwarfs.

The beauty of a game like this is that my head cannon for the game can be completely different from Dave’s. So, while my Dwarfs are attempting to destroy a load of fleeing Gobbos, Dave’s may well be something different that fits within his narrative story plot.

The Pregame Lists

The Dwarfs of Bhurali-Dwar

===
The Dwarfs of Bhurali-Dwar [497 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds
===

Gold: 5
Stronghold: Bazaar
Quest: Search for the Artefact
Quest Points: 0
Vault: Empty

Limits
Units: 6
Characters: 2
Wizard Level: 1
Special: 1
Rare: 1
Monster: 0
War Machine and/or Chariot: 1
Allies: 1
Magic Items: 1

===

++ Characters [79 pts] ++

Thane [79 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Great weapon
– Full plate armour
– General
– Oathstone

++ Core Units [358 pts] ++

10 Longbeards [148 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Heavy armour
– Shields
– Elder (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

10 Rangers [110 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Crossbows
– Heavy armour

10 Thunderers [100 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Handguns
– Heavy armour

++ Special Units [60 pts] ++

1 Gyrocopters [60 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Steam guns
– Full plate armour (armoured fuselage)

===

Dave’s Night Goblins

===
Path to Sporey [497 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Orc & Goblin Tribes
===

++ Characters [90 pts] ++

Night Goblin Oddgit [55 pts]
– Hand weapon
– General
– On foot

Night Goblin Bigboss [35 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Light armour
– Shield
– On foot

++ Core Units [254 pts] ++

30 Night Goblin Mob [182 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Thrusting spears
– Shields
– Netters
– 1 Fanatics
– Boss (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

15 Night Goblin Mob [72 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Shortbows
– Boss (champion)
– Standard bearer

++ Special Units [58 pts] ++

1 Goblin Wolf Chariot [58 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Cavalry spears
– Shortbows
– Standard bearer

++ Rare Units [95 pts] ++

Mangler Squigs [95 pts]
– Colossal fang-filled gob
– Heavy armour

===

The Battle of Grung Gandaz

Deployment

Following the battleplan deployed our forces, luckily for me, I had the unit of Rangers, which I could place right in the centre of that tunnel out of my territory. With them in the middle, the thunderers on my right flank, and the gyrocopter and Longbeards on my left, my aim was to create a killing zone in the centre as the Goblins charged forward.

The view of the Grobi line from the Dwarf left flank

Turn 1

The Grobi charged forward towards the stalwart Dwarfs. The Wolf Chariot, having sipped on some particular potent fungus brew before the battle, managed to crash straight into the Thunderers on the Dwarf left, killing two in the process. The Thunderers fled (Break test roll of 10, against a 9 needed!), and the Chariot continued to cut them down. While the Mangler smashed through the trees on the right peering down at Fimbur and his Longbeards as they ignored it and charged into the Grobi Spears in the centre of the battlefield, the Gyrocopter taking up position nearby intending to at least put some hurt on the Mangler.

Goblin Wolf Chariot makes a long bomb charge

The Grobi leader issued a guttural challenge to the Dwarfs which the leader of the Fimbur’s Guard quickly accepted by cutting the Grobi’s head off. It wasn’t enough for the Dwarfs to win the combat, however, and they promptly broke and fled (another break test roll of 10!).

Meanwhile, in the centre, the Rangers ploughed bolt after bolt into the Grobi archers, felling them at a distance with the Goblins unable to mount and serious challenge to these sharpshooters.

The Longbeards Flee from the spearmen

Turn 2

The Goblin spearmen pursue Fimbur and his Longbeard Guards southwards (off the table).

The massive Mangler Squig swings around and with massive leap managers to jump on top of the Gyrocopter, crushing the machine and pilot to the ground in a shower of metal.

In the centre, the Rangers continue their toll on the Grobi archers, felling five more. However, these Grobi are more scared of whatever they’re running from than the Dwarfs blocking their path and refuse to flee.

The Mangler makes short work of the Gyro

Turn 3

With little to stop them on the Dwarf right the Mangler and the Grobi warboss Flee past the Dwarf lines.

The Rangers kill the remaining Grobi archers. With nothing remaining on the battlefield, the Dwarfs are dumbstruck at what just took place. Helping the wounded to their feet, the Ranger set off to find Fimbur and his guard.

Post Battle Review

Wow. I mean, that, was, brutal. The Wolf Chariots’ long bomb charge in the first turn at max range meant it managed to kill a thunderer through impact hits and then somehow beat them in combat after they whiffed. I needed an 8 or less to stay put and fight again or a 9 to fall back in good order. I rolled a 10.

The loss of the thunderers was huge, as I felt they could have beaten the chariot normally and then taken care of the Archers with shooting. This would have allowed my rangers to keep a steady rate of fire at the Mangler and Spearmen, but alas.

Then this was further compounded by the Longbeards, somehow losing combat in my turn against the spearmen, rolling a 10 for their break test as well. They fled, but we’re then charged and fled off the table next turn.

Still, it was immense fun, and I’m looking forward to getting my revenge against @hamsfan and his Grobi in the future.

Aftermath Sequence

With the game over, it was time to sort out my army for the campaign in the aftermath sequence as defined in Old World: Conquest.

Step 1 – Earn Gold

Nice and simple, we played a 500-point game, and so got I got 5 gold. I did not win, and my General ended off the table, so there was no additional gold. This, with the 5 gold you get at the start of a campaign, gave me 10 in total.

Step 2 – Resolve Injuries and Casualties

I had a fair bit to do here, as I had lost a lot of Dwarfs.

First up, my general, Fimbur. Rolling 2D6, I got a 4. A critical injury! I chose to reroll at a cost of 1 gold, this as otherwise, my character would start with D3 less wounds in the next battle. 11, much better! This was a minor injury and had no effect on him.

Next, it was time for casualties. First the Lonbeards. As they had all fled the table, I’d need to do rolls for each of them, with any 1s being a casualty. 3 casualties! The dice were not with me. Deciding to spend another gold piece, I rerolled the result. Not a single 1 the second time around, thank goodness!

Next, the Thunderers, 2 casualties here. I decided I would keep this result as I would need to spend the 8 gold elsewhere in the aftermath sequence.

The Rangers suffered 1 loss in the battle, but this was healed up.

The Gyrocopter having a wounds characteristic of less than 8 got to roll as a casualty and luckily rolled a 4. We decided the pilot would have jumped out at the last moments and survived to rebuild his machine.

Step 3 – Gain Renown Points

The bonus renown didn’t apply to anything in my army, so all I had was Favoured Warriors, which I gave to the Rangers. Mainly due to them being the only effective unit in the game! Rolling a 3, I marked this down next to the unit on my roster.

Step 4 – Complete Quests.

I didn’t get any Quest Points from the game as my units had to be in Dave’s half of the table.

Step 5 – Manage Stronghold

With a unit cap of 6 and 5 units in my roster, I would need to buy barracks soon to increase my unit cap to 9. Hiwever for now, we’ll leave this.

Step 6 – Manage Your Territories

So rolling a D66, I got 42 for an Ancient Road, which would increase my Allies cap to 2. I decided not to take this as with only two more slots for territory available to me at this point, I wanted to reserve them for something I really needed.

Step 7 – Manage Your Order of Battle

Here I spent 4 gold. Deciding that being a Dwarf, Fimbur would really love having some artillery to support his little expedition. So I recruited an organ gun to mow down those pesky Grobi.

Updated List

===
The Dwarfs of Bhurali-Dwar [617 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds
===

Gold: 4
Stronghold: Bazaar
Quest: Search for the Artefact
Quest Points: 0
Vault: Empty

Limits
Units: 6
Characters: 2
Wizard Level: 1
Special: 1
Rare: 1
Monster: 0
War Machine and/or Chariot: 1
Allies: 1
Magic Items: 1

===

++ Characters [79 pts] ++

Thane [79 pts]
Fimbur Grimsson
– Hand weapon
– Great weapon
– Full plate armour
– General
– Oathstone
– 5 Renown

++ Core Units [358 pts] ++

10 Longbeards [148 pts]
Fimbur’s Guard
– Hand weapons
– Heavy armour
– Shields
– Elder (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

10 Rangers [110 pts]
Karak-Norn Sharpshooters
– Hand weapons
– Crossbows
– Heavy armour
– 3 Renown

10 Thunderers [100 pts]
Grindir’s Raiders
– Hand weapons
– Handguns
– Heavy armour
– 2x Casualties

++ Special Units [60 pts] ++

1 Gyrocopters [60 pts]
Hambir’s Flyer
– Hand weapons
– Steam guns
– Full plate armour (armoured fuselage)

++ Rare Units [120 pts] ++

1 Organ Gun [120pts]
Helga
– Organ gun
– Hand weapons
– Light armour

===

Post Battle Lore

Fimbur and his Guard trudged back towards the site of the battle. The amount of Grobi bodies fleeing through the Dwarf lines had simply been too much. It was like holding back a flood.

Whatever had scared the Grobi had been more terrifying than the Dwarfs that stood in their path. That being said, Fimbur still felt some shame for not being able to cut the filth down.

—

Meeting up with the rest of the force, the Dwarfs took stock of their losses, two dead from the Thunderers and the Gyrocopter badly damaged. There were a few walking wounded, but considering what they had just experienced, it wasn’t too bad.

The Dwarfs marched up the approach road to the mine entrance, dead Grobi lay everywhere, all looking as if they had been running from the mine itself. At the entrance to the mine, they found the wooden doors cracked and buckled. But the damage had been from the inside rather than outside.

Walking in through the entrance, a cavern opened up around them. Sunk into the expertly carved walls of the cavern were many dwellings and workings that you would associate with a small mine of this size. The buildings mostly seemed undamaged, though the main thoroughfare through the settlement looked as if a Stampede of thundertusks had been there. The familiar sight of Grobi bodies lay everywhere. On a ledge further up the cavern wall from the entrance they had just arrived through, Fimbur could see an organ gun and its crew resting and enjoying some ale.

—

After a few rounds of Ale the Dwarfs of Grung Gandaz, who had mostly survived the attack unharmed, told Fimbur about how the Grobi had fled from the lower depths of the mine and out of the entrance.  The crew of the Organ Gun, who had been stationed on the ledge to provide it with line of fire not only over the entrance but also to the mouth of the actual mine, had been enjoying themselves exterminating the filth as they ran, but barely made a dent in their numbers.

They had no idea what had terrified the Night Goblins so much that they had not only been willing to charge through a Dwarf settlement but also run out into the full glare of the sun.

Wanting to “kill the Grobi filth,” Bindor, the engineer of the Organ Gun ‘Helga‘, offered to lead Fimbur and his expedition through the mines and into the underway. to tag along with Fimbur’s expedition.

Bindor had heard the rumours about Bhurali-Dwar but had no idea whereabouts it could be located. Eing at the southern part of the Grey Mountains, they decided the best policy would be to move northwards from Grung Gandaz.

Aaron Newbom, Age of Sigmar, Battle Report, Beasts of chaos, Big Waaagh!, Blades of Khorne, Chaos, Darkwalkerz, Death, Destruction, Dhom-Hain, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Gloomspite Gitz, Idoneth Deepkin, Jaws of Mork, Mortis Praetorians, Order, Orruk Warclans, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Reapers of Vengeance, Reviews, Tournaments

Winning Socal open with Dhom-hain

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The Story:
Socal open is the Culmination of a year long Journey for me. Competing for me is not so much about rank and wins as it is the Path to growth and constantly chasing a higher level of skill. For all of 2022, I played the arguably worst army in the game, Kruleboyz, and resolved to master them. I chose them in no small part because it would be a huge challenge. I knew that if I played the strongest armies it wouldn’t force me to learn and grow nearly as much; And grow I did but after a year on the struggle bus even I needed a bit of a break from the frustration of randomness in a competitive game.

I picked up Idoneth because while they’re not a power army, they’re close to 50%, and in my thinking, that means the better player should win. The fish elves would be a great metric to judge my progress and see how I measured up to the best in a fair fight, but I also still hold growth as my main goal, so I set a new mission for myself. I wanted to win an RTT, or 4-1+ a GT, with every subfaction in IDK.

My first result was with Nautilar in Arizona, playing to a strong 4-1 finish with Frostheart phoenix and turtle to create a tanky death ball. Next, at Old Town Throwdown summer smash, I played to another 4-1 with Fuethan just before the buffs. That was a hard, fought grind, but I squeezed it out. After that, I. picked up Dhom-Hain and got a top 8 with 3-1-1 in Arizona smite club open, but I couldn’t quite get it, so I had to try again. Which brings us to the Socal open with my new and improved list

The List:

Army Faction: Idoneth Deepkin
– Subfaction: Dhom-Hain
– Grand Strategy: Dominion of the Deep Ones
– Triumph: Bloodthirsty

LEADERS
Isharann Tidecaster (130)*
– General
– Command Traits: Teachings of the Túrscoll
– Spells: Hoarfrost
Battlemage (100)*
– Magic of the Realms: Wildform (Ghur)
Akhelian Thrallmaster (100)**
Eidolon of Mathlann Aspect of the Storm (300)**
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
Akhelian Thrallmaster (100)**

BATTLELINE
Namarti Thralls (220)**
– Icon Bearer
Namarti Thralls (220)**
– Icon Bearer
Namarti Thralls (110)**
– Icon Bearer

BEHEMOTH
Akhelian Leviadon (400)**
– Mount Traits: Reverberating Carapace

OTHER
Akhelian Allopexes (150)**
– Retarius Net Launcher, Barbed Hooks and Blades
Akhelian Allopexes (150)**
– Retarius Net Launcher, Barbed Hooks and Blades

TERRAIN
1 x Gloomtide Shipwreck (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000


When building the Dhom Hain list, I knew I’d have to lean into its strategy as hard as I possibly could if I wanted it to work. Dhom-hain is not an army of reasonable choices. It is an army of explosive, risky power. With this in mind I looked to maximize the namarti savages rule, which allows me to charge if I kill everything within 3’ (and I’m going first in the round) and then fight again (not immediately).

Step 1: Killing everything within 3”.
Thralls can hit pretty hard, but on their own they’re just not getting there most of the time. They need a ton of support to do their job. 2 Thrallmasters granting exploding 6’s and reroll 1’s to hit up their consistency a ton, as well as the Leviadon giving them +1 to hit targets Wholly within 15”. These abilities combine to make the Thralls hit more times than they even have attacks. On average, dive 41 attacks from 20 thralls will hit 47-48 times. On top of that, the storm grants +1 to the wound, and Hoarfrost can increase their rend by 1-2 if you get a little lucky.

All of these auras combine to make an absolute blender of a unit, but it is 1030 points of buff pieces to set up a 220 point thrall unit.

Step 2: Charging out of phase.
If I manage to kill everything around me, I can immediately attempt a charge. This is super powerful, but anyone who has played it knows it’s not as amazing as it sounds. The thing about charging out of phase is that you can not use the command to reroll that charge, so you’re extremely reliant on the dice. I found a solution to that problem, by running 1980, I often had a triumph to reroll, which immediately adds some consistency. Additionally, the Isharann ritual for +1 to run and charge on flood tide helps things line up in your favor. But the real bit to seal the deal is the ghurish battlemage, who’s spell grants +2 to run and charge. Having run and charge, +3 to run and charge, with both a command and a triumph to reroll, and being able to charge a second time can give the thralls a max threat range of 53” in a single turn if everything lined up perfectly, and allows you to pop off much more consistently.

With this game plan laid out, and everything tuned to my goals, it was time to really put it to the test at the Socal open


THE GAMES:

Round 1 vs Frank Deloachs Big Waaagh on Geomantic Pulse

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Big Waaagh!
– Grand Strategy: Waaagh!
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER
1 x Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)*
– General
– Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
– Spells: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork, Foot of Gork
1 x Wardokk (80)*
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Gorkamorka’s War Cry
1 x Wurrgog Prophet (170)*
– Artefacts: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Spells: Hoarfrost, Levitate
1 x Gobsprakk (240)***
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)***
– Warbeats: Fixin’ Beat
1 x Orruk Warchanter (120)***
– Warbeats: Get ’Em Beat

BATTLELINE
5 x Orruk Brutes (140)**
– Brute Boss
– Gore-choppa
– Boss Choppa
– Jagged Gore-hacka
5 x Orruk Brutes (140)**
– Brute Boss
– Gore-choppa
– Jagged Gore-hacka
– Boss Choppa
10 x Orruk Ardboys (220)***
– Gorkamorka Glyph Bearer
– Ardboy Boss
– Ardboy Choppas

OTHER
6 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (340)**
– Gore-grunta Boss
– Jagged Gore-hacka
6 x Weirdbrute Wrekkaz (250)**
3 x Morgok’s Krushas (80)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Ironjawz Fist
***Warlord

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

The game began with me taking away the top of turn and flipping the tides so that when push came to shove in this beatdown matchup, I’d have control of turn 2. I had deployed as a dense castle in the center with flanking sharks and one wizard in a corner. 

Frank came in with pigs but was surprised by how hard my crack back was as my pile ins removed 5/6 pigs.

On my turn, I moved up and scored magical dominance from standing in the corner. Frank couldn’t afford to expose his Gobbsprakk just to shut off my tactic. for the rest of the game, I neglected to attempt any spell casts so as to deny him Gobbsprakk mortals.

Turn 2 came and I had always strikes first vs his entirely melee army. He had top of turn but couldnt accomplish much without taking huge damage first. On my turn I  proceeded to take out multiple other units and then doubled him to secure the win. Franks list was very nasty but Dhom hain was a solid counter to it.

Round 2 vs the Noog’s BOC on Fountains of Frost

Army Faction: Beasts of Chaos
– Army Subfaction: Darkwalkers
– Grand Strategy: Desecrating Brayherd
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Doombull (180)*
– General
– Command Traits: Bestial Cunning
– Artefacts: Brayblast Trumpet
1 x Great Bray-Shaman (100)**
– Spells: Merciless Blizzard

BATTLELINE
10 x Ungors (80)**
– Brayhorn Blower
– Banner Bearer
– Halfhorn
– Pitted Blade
9 x Bullgors (630)**
– Bloodkine
– Warheard Drummer
– Warheard Banner Bearer
– Paired Cleaving Axes
10 x Ungor Raiders (130)**

OTHER
10 x Ungor Raiders (130)*
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened (180)*
6 x Beasts of Chaos Tzaangor Enlightened (180)*
3 x Beasts of Chaos Slaangor Fiendbloods (130)*
10 x Ungor Raiders (130)**
1 x Cockatrice (120)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

Flipping the tides for Always Strikes first turn 2 meant that when he had to come in off the board edges, he couldn’t afford to be aggressive. He played far back instead, but I used chain charging to wipe ~1300 points of models in a single turn and lock him into a corner. The extra mobility i got from multi charges meant his backline castle ended up getting shredded despite his careful placement.

He tried to sneak back into the game, but idoneth mobility and me winning all 4 priority rolls helped me counter his clever mobility tactics. Despite the heavy kill ratio, the overall points scored were fairly close as it was a 6 objective map, and BOC is incredible on maps like that

Round 3 vs Brian’s Khorne on Nexus Collapse

Army Faction: Blades of Khorne
– Army Subfaction: Reapers of Vengeance
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs

LEADER
1 x Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (310)
1 x Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (310)*
1 x Bloodsecrator (120)*
– Nullstone Adornments: Pouch of Nulldust
1 x Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (300)**
– General
– Command Traits: Firebrand
– Artefacts: Halo of Blood
– Prayers: Bronzed Flesh
1 x Slaughterpriest (110)**
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Prayers: Blood Sacrifice
1 x Realmgore Ritualist (110)**
– Prayers: Killer Instinct
– Aspects of the Champion (Archived): Tunnel Master (Archived)

BATTLELINE
10 x Blood Warriors (190)*
– Blood Champion
– Icon Bearer
– Goreaxe and Gorefist
– Goreglaive
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*
10 x Blood Warriors (190)*
– Icon Bearer
– Blood Champion
– Goreaxe and Gorefist
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)*

INVOCATION
1 x Hexgorger Skulls (50)

TERRAIN
1 x Skull Altar (0)

OTHER
1 x Khorgorath (90)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

This matchup was decided more than anything by it being the first time he had ever played the mission. It’s a weird one that you have to get a few reps to understand. The score was extremely lopsided, but the game itself was really techy and fun. It was a much closer game than it looked on paper overall. 

His double boom-thirsters (mortal wound AOE demons) were terrifying, and I spent the whole game very carefully measuring to make sure they couldn’t blow my army up. Turn 4, I messed that up, and he threatened to bomb me but failed to roll any 6s even with an extra attack. After that, all in play, I was able to clean up his forces bottom of 4.

Round 4 vs Kyle Calips OBR on spring the trap

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Army Subfaction: Mortis Praetorians
– Grand Strategy: Barren Icescape
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

LEADER
1 x Katakros (500)*
1 x Arkhan the Black (380)**
1 x Liege-Kavalos (180)**
– General
– Command Traits: Mighty Archaeossian
– Artefacts: Lode of Saturation
1 x Mortisan Boneshaper (140)**
– Artefacts: Artisan’s Key
– Spells: Hoarfrost

BATTLELINE
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
30 x Mortek Guard (130)*
– Mortek Hekatos
– 3 x Necrophoros
– Nadirite Blade
– 3 x Soulcleaver Greatblade
2 x Morghast Archai (220)*
– Spirit Halberd

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Command Entourage – Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

This game was by far the hardest one of the whole event. Kyle played an extremely tight game, including denying me a tactic by countercharging the opposite direction I expected and barely tagging a unit that wasn’t even the charge target. On the same note, I repeatedly forced him into difficult positions with movement tricks and pile ins. I ended up grabbing it basically off of a critical 6″ redeploy to take the game by just a point. 

The game was neck and neck from start to finish and until the very last moment I had no idea who would take it. Great game and a great opponent 

Round 5 vs Tads Gitz on power flux

Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz
– Gittish Horde: Jaws of Mork
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Overshadow
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADERS
Skragrott, The Loonking (230)**
Squigboss with Gnasha-squig (110)***
– General
– Command Trait: The Clammy Hand
Madcap Shaman (70)*
– Artefact: Moonface Mommet
– Lore of Primal Frost: Hoarfrost
Webspinner Shaman (65)*
– Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard

BATTLELINE
24 x Squig Herd (280)***
– Reinforced x 1
24 x Squig Herd (280)***
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Boingrot Bounderz (300)**
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150)**
5 x Boingrot Bounderz (150)**

OTHER
5 x Gobbapalooza (170)**
– Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
1 x Marshcrawla Sloggoth (170)**

CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

Total: 1975 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 170 / 400
Wounds: 171
Drops: 4

I deployed my army as a melee castle with a wizard off to each side being terrain but up forward, making it nearly impossible for him to score magical dominance turn 1. My castle was just far enough back that he could realistically come into me, but it’d have to be full send. 

Tad decided to go for it but didn’t manage to connect the way he’d hoped, and my entire army piled in and mopped up his squigs. On my turn, I rushed up the board, tagged corners of units, and liked in to kill them after taking very little damage. 

Then I doubled him and tabled his entire army top of turn 2

It was honestly brutal, but we had a good laugh about it. He was left with a risky play, and it didn’t pan out. BY THE POWER OF MATHLANN, I HAVE THE POWER!!! (And a Golden ticket to the World Championship in the lost city of Atlanta)

SUMMARY:

All in All Dhom hain is a super fun faction to play, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for exciting games, but I will also caution that it’s MUCH harder to play than it looks like. Most of the army is single wound infantry with 5+ saves, and all of your games are balanced on a knifes edge. If you want a heart-pounding, technically demanding, explosive army, then it is amazingly fun to play. Unfortunately, the Battlemage of Ghur is rotating out essentially immediately, so changes to the list will have to be made. Creativity and list tweaking is a huge part of the game, and i’m excited to find what new direction to take with it.

Battle Report, Bolt Action, Getting Started with..., Historics, Peter Holland, Warlord Games

Bolt Action – Part Two (First Blood)

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It is August 1941, and only a few weeks after Finland declares war on the Soviet Union. with the assistance of its ally Germany, Finnish and German troops have invaded the Soviet Union in what would become known as the Continuation War.

At the edge of a farm in northern Russia, two enemy patrols meet while scouting enemy defences.

The Finns (Dave)
– NCO* with SMG** – Mika Hakkinen
– LMG*** team (2 men)
– 1 SMG armed infantryman
– 5 rifle armed infantrymen

The Soviets (Peter)
– NCO with SMG – Marias Sharipova
– LMG team (2 men)
– 3 SMG armed infantrymen
– 4 rifle armed infantrymen

*NCO – Non-commissioned Officer
**SMG – Submachine Gun
***LMG – Light Machine Gun

Game 1

We had a simple setup, starting the units 24″ apart with some scenery for cover.

Sergeant Sharipova ordered their men to advance and fire upon the Finns, hoping to Finn their numbers out before they returned fire. As it was, the LMG hefted by private Rasputin had its line of sight blocked by an inconvenient hedgerow, while only three of the Soviets with rifles could see the Finns clearly enough to fire upon them. “Fire!” Yelled Sharipova. The gunfire rattled out across the wheat field, but with the distance and the Soviets having to fire on the move, all the gunfire did was scare a flock of birds from the hedgerow. The score was tied at love-all.

Sergeant Hakkinen cursed as his men briefly ducked in reaction to the Soviet gunfire. “Return fire!” he shouted, the rifles and the LMG of Mika Salo unleashed in response. A cheer went up from the Finns as they saw one of the distant Soviets fall to the ground.

Sharipova and their squad rushed to the hedgerow and opened up once more on the Finnish troops. Two of the Finns fell to the ground, and Hakkinen urged his troops into the trees on their right flank, trying to find cover where they could. The Soviets sensed an advantage pushed forward over the hedgerow hoping to flush the Finns from the trees with gunfire. However, no sooner had Sharipova and their unit crossed the hedgerow than the Finns rushed from the trees and met them in combat. Hakkinen and his Finns were Finn-ished however, and despite having the charge failed to inflict any casualties on the Soviet unit, and it wasn’t long before Sharipova, Rasputin and others were lying injured on the ground with the others in full retreat

Victory to the Soviets.

The Finns charge into the Russian Airborne.

Game 2

Changing the table setup slightly, we decided the objective would be to hold a farmhouse in the centre of the table.

Dave managed to get first and ran his riflemen up to the walls of the farmhouse. Dave really wanted to try out the Molotov cocktails, and so I decided to mirror his manoeuvre.

Dave got to go next in turn 2 and so flanked around my men so that more than 50% of his unit could see the airborne squad. As a result, his 9 molotov cocktails from his men only suffered a -1 to hit. With each man placing a 1″ template over the Russians, Dave’s Finns were able to automatically hit 25 times! His damage roll resulted in a lot of fried troops!

Victory to the Finns!

What Next?

Dave and I decided that we’d play Bolt Action via escalation. So we’ll both start with two infantry units and a command. Then, after each time we meet, we’ll roll on a table to see what we collect next.

To get that 2nd unit of troops and command, I decided to buy a £28 box of Siberian veterans. This comes with 34 miniatures, enough to make 3 squads and some HQ units.

Till next time.

Age of Sigmar, Barak Zilfin, Battle Report, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Grinnin' Blades, Kharadron Overlords, Kruleboyz, Order, Orruk Warclans

Path To Glory Battle Report (Kharadron v Kruleboyz)

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You may have seen both Ian’s post and my own in the last couple of weeks showing our Path to Glory armies for the campaign we’re running at Woe Towers.

With our armies set, I challenged Ian to a quick game at our local gaming club (shout out to Battlefield Hobbies).

Gollok’s Plan (Kruleboyz)

Da plan is ded simple, right! All we’z gotta do iz shoot dat big boat ov derz outta da sky. Den we goes and stikk da rest of da stunties before dey noes wot ‘it ’em, right! – Gollok Spleenchewa

I’m not going to lie. Seeing where Kharadron sits in the stats, I was dreading going up against the list Ian had in mind. With an Aether-Khemist, Arknonaut Company, Endrinriggers, and a frigging Frigate, my hopes are pinned on removing the Frigate early game and hoping that my army isn’t too badly damaged to then mop the rest of the Dwarfs up. Luckily, I do have a killbow, which could be ideal for taking on a multi wound model such as the Frigate.

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades

LEADERS
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (Gollok Spleenchewa) (130)*
– General
– Command Traits: Slippery Skumbag
– Artefacts of Power: Eye-biter Ash
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un

BATTLELINE
Gutrippaz (Gollok’s Rippaz) (150)*
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikka
Hobgrot Slittaz (Gollok’s Grots) (80)*
– Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss

ARTILLERY
Beast-skewer Killbow (Gollok’s Killbow) (100)*

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (Gollok’s Skewers) (120)*
– Boltboy Boss

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 580/1000

Glory Points: 5
Quest: Tornado of Destruction
Territory
– Settlement

Khreld’s Strategy

Buck up, lads! My bones are tingling which means only one thing, a prize to be won! And all there is between us and the loot to be recovered is a rabble of greenskins. Lets pump them full of metal and grab our prize. Though we may need to wash the smell off it before we trade it in… – Khreld Thundergust

Going in to my first proper game of Sigmar I will admit I did not have high hopes. Peter is an experienced player who knows his army and has an idea of mine, whereas I am completely new and barely know my own. I know the Killbow needs to be avoided by my Frigate, and taken out quick, but otherwise I will just be seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (Khreld Thundergust) (80)*
– General
– Command Traits: Cunning Fleetmaster
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-Grenade

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (Stoutstock’s Company) (100)*
– Company Captain
– Aethermatic Volleygun
– Light Skyhook
– Skypike
Arkanaut Frigate (The Crafty Dispute) (300)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon
– Magnificent Omniscope

OTHER
Endrineers (Keelborne’s Riggers) (120)*
– Mizzenmaster
– Grapnel Launcher

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 600/1000

Glory Points: 5
Quest: Negotiate Endrin-Contract
Territory
– Forgotten Mine

Battleplan and Deployment

The Table with Deployment areas (Blue Kharadron, Red Kruleboyz)

We decided to play a standard battle plan, rolled on the tables in Season 2 to get Battle lines Drawn. So we would need to claim each table quarter. Ian had only four units to do so, but things weren’t much better for me with five!

Being a sneaky Orruk, I used all the tools in my arsenal and broke out the Dirty Tricks. With the recent Battlescroll update, I’m able to choose two of these. The first I chose Noisy Racket, which meant that the Kharadron would be -1 to wound against my units in the first battle round (which we promptly forgot!). I then chose Disappearin’ Act and rolled well to delay both the Endringriggers and the Arkonaut Company. This left just the Frigate and the Endrinmaster on the table. Ian, having the choice of priority elected to give me the first turn.

Kruleboyz Turn 1

Battle Tactic: Desecrate their Lands (Woods in centre)

Having the first turn, I moved and ran the hobgrots to secure the tactical woods in the centre of the table and also put them inside the lower left table quarter. The Rippaz followed them and took up position on the hill behind them while Gollok ran off up the right flank to secure that table quarter. Everything else I left still as a statue as they got ready to unleash all they had at the frigate. I got so excited about shooting my killbow at the frigate and carrying out Gollok’s genius plan, only for Ian to use Cunning Fleetmaster to move his Frigate to the other side of the hill, and out of reach! With his Aether-Khemist hiding out of sight of my Skewers, there wasn’t much else I could do this turn as Ian’s cleverness of giving the first turn to me became apparent.

Points
Kruleboyz: 5
Kharadron: 0

Kharadron Turn 1

Battle Tactic: Opening Salvo

Ian, confident in his shooting (and why wouldn’t he be?), chose Opening Salvo as his battle tactic, meaning all he had to do was destroy one of my units in the shooting phase. He moved his frigate back across the hill near to the Hobgrots in the centre, along with his Aether-Khemist, once this had moved he bought on the other units I’d delayed through Disappearin’ Act and set them up around his Aether-Khemist.

Starting with the Khemist, he generated eight shots against the poor defenceless Grots in the centre. Luckily for me these all whiffed spectacularly (You’ll notice a trend emerge soon-Ian). He chose to shoot everything he had on the frigate at the grots as well, but unlucky rolls saw only four of the Hobgrots lifted from the table. The Arkanauts and Endrinriggers kill a further 2, meaning unfortunately for Ian, he was unable to achieve his battle tactic that turn.

With revenge against both his dice and the plucky Hobgrots in mind, the frigate charged into them killing three of them. This left just one alive, which thanks to Inspiring Presence decided to stick around.

Points
Kruleboys: 5
Kharadron: 2

Kharadron Turn 2

Battle Tactic: Desecrate their Lands (Centre Woods)

Winning the priority and electing to go first this turn meant that Ian had the double, and the Kruleboyz were in serious trouble. Only needing to remove a single hobgrot, Ian wisely decided to try desecrate their lands and take the centre terrain feature away from my plucky hobgrot.

The Endrinriggers moved across the right to try and get into range of the Kruleboyz missile units while the Arkonauts moved to the south side of the northern hill and within range of the woods for the tactic.

Thinking it through, Ian designated three units for the target of his frigates attacks. The carbines at the hobgrot, the cannon at the Killbow and the skyhook at the Skewers. It didn’t take much to remove the Hobgrot and Ian knew his carbines on the frigate should be enough to do so, which they were. The poor hobgrot was transformed into a red mist giving Ian the objective. The cannon also did its job and left the Killbow as a mound of broken orruk and wood where it had previously sat. All eyes turned to the skewers, Ian rolled for the skyhook and…. missed! (Again…-Ian) However, it wasn’t over yet, the Endrinriggers and a few Arkonauts were still in range! Unfortunately Ian’s bad luck with his rolls returned and was only able to remove a single skewer and cause a wound on another.

With his forces having decimated mine with its shooting, Ian confidently charged his frigate into the Gutrippaz on the hill. Killing two of the Orruks and wounding another. The Gutrippaz replied in kind and with no less than 4 sixes on the to hit rolls, along with the other attacks the frigate suffered a mighty 10 wounds from the Rippaz. More was yet to come as we went into Kruleboyz turn 2.

Points
Kruleboyz: 5
Kharadron: 7

Kruleboyz Turn 2

Battle Tactic: An Eye for an Eye

Seeing my opportunity, I chose the tactic, an eye for an eye, with the hope that the Gutrippaz would finish off the frigate in combat that turn.

Before that though, I gave Gollok ‘His Finest Hour’ and used his mount trait Fast ‘Un to move him in the hero phase towards the juicy looking Endrinriggers, Arkonauts and Khemist. The movement phase saw him almost on top of the Endrinriggers, while the remainder of my skewers shuffled around to take a bead on the Endrinriggers and fish for those mortal wounds.

The shooting phase did not disappoint as the Skewers did enough damage to completely destroy the Endrinrigger unit. I chose to ignore the frigate, figuring that the Gutrippaz should have enough in their pocket to down it.

With the path to the Khemist and Arkonauts opened up Gollok let out a whoop of excitement as he and his doggo charged into Khemist and the surrounding Arkonauts. Using Unleash Hell, the Arkonauts managed to score 3 wounds on Gollok. Having the choice of first unit to fight, I didn’t want to risk the frigate killing enough Gutrippaz that meant I wouldn’t do enough damage back so I chose to go with these first. It was a formality as the 5 wounds were easy enough for the Gutrippaz to get through. The Khemist attacked Gollok but was unable to land a hit before his savage hound tore into the Khemist and left him for dead. The Arkonauts did what they could but were unable to get through the Gnashtoof’s tough hide.

Points
Kruleboyz: 10
Kharadron: 7

At this point Ian conceded the game, with little options left to him and only the Arkanaut company on the table any threat to the Kruleboyz had been removed.

Kruleboyz – Post Battle Thoughts and Sequence

Part of me feels very bad for Ian, this was his first proper game of Age of Sigmar and with the Kharadron Overlords only for it to end at the bottom of turn 2.

Going into turn 2 after Ian’s clever ruse in the the first turn I thought the writing was on the wall for the Orruks. I envisioned Ian shooting me from distance I tried to close with him, this was compounded when he removed the killbow and a skewer, I was lucky to have two left. He then chose to charge the frigate, and this was what turned the tide. With the venom-encrusted weapons, Kruleboyz don’t care too much about your armour saves and this showed why. With 10 wounds in thee first round of combat and then finishing it off in the second it was easy meat for the boyz. If Ian had put his Arkonaut Company inside it however, it would have been entirely different!

I gained a total of 9 glory points from the game and 3 quest points. Meaning next time I can attempt to try and do the Tornado of Destruction battleplan. After their performance against the frigate it only seemed right to give the Gutrippaz the favoured warriors and the additional D6 renown, and this tipped them up into Veterans. I decided to give them the veteran ability Backstabbaz which will allow them to immediately fight after another unit in my army does so inthe fight phase. They did however have 1 casualty point, which would mean I’m starting the next game with only nine of them on the table potentially. All my other casualty rolls went well, apart from the Hobgrots wo suffered two. Deciding to keep the Well Spring I rolled for on the territory table and with 3 glory points remaining, I used these to purchase a Swampcalla Shaman for my small force.

GOLLOK’S SWAMPCRAWLERZ
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (Gollok Spleenchewa) (130)*
– General
– 16 Renown
– Command Traits: Slippery Skumbag
– Artefacts of Power: Eye-biter Ash
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
Swampcalla Shaman (Grulb Da Mad) (100)*
– Spell: Choking Mist

BATTLELINE
Gutrippaz (Gollok’s Rippaz) (150)*
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Stikk
– 6 Renown
– Veteran Ability: Backstabbers
– 1 Causalty Point
Hobgrot Slittaz (Gollok’s Grots) (80)*
– Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss
– 2 Casualty Points

ARTILLERY
Beast-skewer Killbow (Gollok’s Killbow) (100)*

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (Gollok’s Skewers) (120)*
– Boltboy Boss
– 1 Renown

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 680/1000

Glory Points: 0

Quest: Tornado of Destruction
Quest Points: 3

Stronghold Territory (Gollok’s Pad)
– Settlement (Quagmire)
– Wellspring (Grulb’s Digz)

Kharadron – Post Battle Thoughts and Sequence

Well, that could have gone better. Yes, my rolls were against me in that first (and some of the second) shooting phase but that is all part of the game! I can pinpoint exactly where I went wrong, charging that Frigate in! I played with too much agression when, having the mobility, I could have out maneuvered Peter’s Orruks and pulled him out of position. Even used the Fly High command and repositioned my Frigate behind Peter’s weaker units. So, to sum up my learnings – use more commands, try putting my Company into the Frigate for a bigger impact (and better positioning), and don’t charge the unit that deals a lot of mortal wounds!

I gained 5 Glory Points from the game. I had to make casualty rolls for my Endrinriggers and my Aether-Khemist. The Aether-khemist I rolled a 1, which is death! Now that is a little harsh so I spent a Glory Point on a re-roll and ended up with no-effect. The Endrinriggers initially took a casualty point but I spent another Glory Point to reroll this (there are only three of them!) and got no effect. The Frigate rolled against the damage table from the Kharadron Battletome and also got no effect. Where were these good rolls during the game!

As for reknown, the Company gained 1 for surviving and the Frigate gained 2 as my nominated MVP which was a no-brainer. After all this I decided to add some Thunderers to my roster for 4 glory points, just to give me some more options and more boots on the ground.

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
– Subfaction: Barak-Zilfin

LEADERS
Aether-Khemist (Khreld Thundergust) (80)*
– General
– Command Traits: Cunning Fleetmaster
– Artefacts of Power: Celestium Burst-Grenade

BATTLELINE
Arkanaut Company (Stoutstock’s Company) (100)*
– Company Captain
– Aethermatic Volleygun
– Light Skyhook
– Skypike
Arkanaut Frigate (The Crafty Dispute) (300)*
– Heavy Sky Cannon
– Magnificent Omniscope

OTHER
Endrineers (Keelborne’s Riggers) (120)*
– Mizzenmaster
– Grapnel Launcher
Grundstock Thunderers (Steelbeard’s Gunners) (135)*
– Gunnery Sergeant
– Honour Bearer
– Aethercannon
– Grundstock Mortar

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 735/1000

Glory Points: 4
Quest: Negotiate Endrin-Contract
Territory
– Forgotten Mine

Next

Dave and Ed have a game planned within the next couple of weeks. Then, the four of us will be meeting up for our second round of battles at the end of the month.

Battle Report, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hamsfans, Warhammer Fantasy

Gunpowder and Greed – A Warhammer Fantasy Narrative Battle Report

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As Snorri Whitebeard led his company through the winding mountain paths towards the rendezvous, he couldn’t help but feel frustrated. Despite the snow-covered terrain, their spirits remained high as they sang dwarven songs of old, fuelled by the hope and promise that Belegar had given them. He had promised change, a chance to reclaim their lands from Urk, Grobi and Thaggoraki filth, and Snorri had left his father’s side to join him in this quest with many of the younger Dwarfs following his lead.

Snorri’s thoughts drifted to his father, the Lord of the Whitebeard clan, as he marched alongside Belegar. He had heard Belegar’s speech promising change and hope for the future of the dwarves, and for the first time in a long while, he felt a sense of optimism. However, his father would not listen to Belegar’s words. He was a stubborn dwarf who only listened to words that pleased him and was content to watch their lands, and people slowly eroded.

Snorri had argued with his father about the slow decline of the dwarves many times before, but this time was different. Snorri couldn’t help but wonder whether he would ever see eye to eye with him on the matter

As they neared the foothills. Snorri noticed a gyrocopter overhead and couldn’t help but mutter a curse under his breath at the unpredictable engineers who piloted them. Despite this, he recognized the potential usefulness of the contraption for scouting ahead on their journey.

Their arrival at the rendezvous where they were to meet other like minded Dwarfs was met with suspicion from a half-dead looking Manling known as Von Ehrenreich, who claimed they were trespassing on ancestral lands and owed a tithe to his lord. Belegar, however, refused to back down, asserting that these were ancestral dwarf lands and that they owed nothing to the Manling lord. As they made their plans to move forward, Snorri couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease at the unfamiliar cream and purple colours of the messenger and his bodyguards, likely mercenaries.

Their unwelcome guest departed, and Belegar and his captains planned their movements. Belegar and Snorri would head south in the morning towards the Black Mountains, gathering more volunteers from Dwarf settlements en route. The rest of the force would move east to Zhufbar and collect more supporters.

Snorri and Belegar set forth only for their journey to be interrupted by the mercenary company of Captain Dienst, who blocked the road out of the foothills. Snorri noted the poor quality of their equipment and the presence of a hedge wizard, dabbling in Elgi business and likely to come to a bad end. Despite the odds, Belegar refused to back down, demanding that they step aside. Snorri steeled himself for battle, ready to fight their way out and continue their quest to reclaim their lands and restore the glory of the dwarven people.

The Dwarf Plan – Peter

For those who have been following our Tale of Wargamers, you’ll recognise that this force is the one that I’ve put together over the last six months. Belegar, the Gyrocopter and the Ironbreakers along with a Rune of Spellbreaking for Snorri, while also giving the Gyrocopter Vanguard, it all rounded it out nicely to 1,000 points.

With that, Dave challenged me to a game of 8th edition Fantasy, and I gladly accepted! I knew my list wasn’t that competitive with Belegar included and taking up just over 300 points that could be spent on additional troops, but that didn’t matter for the narrative we had in mind. Seeing Dave’s list, I knew the Pistoliers would be a problem, as would his missile troops. My best bet would be to try and remove the Pistoliers early and have the Gyrocopter harrass his missile troops while my footsloggers marched up and beat the crap out of everyone else. Deploying, I decided to try a refused flank on the left, hoping that I could challenge his smaller units before I talked that massive block.

The Empire Plan – Dave

When Pete and I set this game up I mulled over what I fancied playing for a while but as the shape of the campaign started to form in our minds it became clear that Pete’s intrepid dwarfs would be the ‘good’ guys and so I elected to take the ‘baddies’. We were re-learning the game at the same time, and so I wanted to play something that covered all phases of the game but which was not too complex. This led me to my old favourite, the Empire, which can really do pretty much everything(ish).

As my army was travelling into the foothills to confront the dwarfs and given their objective, I thought I would dispense with war machines as they didn’t fit what I had in mind for the narrative and would be another thing to re-learn/remember. For my leadership core, I wanted to take a Captain to leave myself with plenty of points for troops, I definitely wanted a wizard as I know from experience that a well-timed cast can turn a game. I chose a Level 2 as I didn’t want magic to dominate the game as it sometimes can in 8th Edition Warhammer. I decided on Fire for my lore, as I recall it isn’t necessarily the strongest, but it has some great direct damage, some buffs, and one of my favourite spells – Flame Cage. Flame Cage makes units take a Strength 4 hit on every model when they move and then disappears, this can absolutely change games and really mess with the opposing General’s plans (and head). 

Possibly controversially, I didn’t choose a Battle Standard Bearer….! A Battle Standard Bearer would give me extra combat resolution for the unit they are in but more importantly, I could reroll any failed leadership checks within 12″. I chose not to take one as I thought a battle this small might not merit it, it would take some of the risk out of the game but I quite liked the idea of just rolling with it and again I wanted to have more points for troops.

Now I was on to what I usually consider the fun stuff! I needed some good bread and butter first, and this would be my main combat block, a big unit of spearman – a horde no less! The spearmen can fight with an extra rank, so this would potentially mean all of them fighting. My general would be in this unit, and I hoped that they would be able to give a unit of dwarf warriors a fairly stiff fight. Basic dwarf warriors would be a tough proposition for my State Troops, but if I could get a buff off from my wizard and get another unit in the flank, I might do OK. I chose another smaller block of State Troops as my second unit, this time halberdiers. Halberdier’s extra pip of strength would really help against the tough dwarfs and their high armour. I hoped to use these in a tag team with the spearmen against any of the hardier dwarf units and grind them down. I decided to pop my wizard in here. This was risky as he is worthless in combat, but I wanted to make sure he had plenty of use out of his spells and would be in range.

I needed a bit of firepower so that if the dwarfs had leaned into shooting I would have some response, to this end I added a unit of handgunners and a unit of crossbowmen, these would chip away at the dwarfs at range and might not threaten large combat blocks but could really work lighter and smaller units.

In my opinion, every Empire Army should have a unit of knights. They are so cool! I took a minimum sized unit of five, which could potentially be a terror to any smaller dwarf units and would threaten the flanks of the more unwieldy dwarf combat blocks. In a pinch, they could also be sacrificed to redirect any angry dwarf lords!

Finally, I added a unit of pistoliers. I really like pistoliers blasting away with their pistols, and as Fast Cavalry, they should be able to run rings around dwarf warrior blocks (if they don’t get shot off first).

I had some points left and I thought I would add a magic item to my wizard to make him a bit more effective so he got the Channeling Staff, with a lucky roll I might get an extra power dice to punch through the dwarf anti-magic.

Looking at Pete’s army when we were setting up, I knew I could be in trouble, I could potentially kill everything else in his army, but Belegar would be an unholy terror. I had to make sure that I had the freedom to move and that my cavalry could delay Pete’s big warrior block with his characters. If I could deal with the dwarfs a piece at a time I might be OK and that meant one thing – the Gyrocopter had to go as it had the movement and firepower to remove my options to do just that.

The Armies
Deployment

Turn 1

The battlefield erupted with the sounds of clanging metal and thunderous hooves as the humans made their first move, sending their cavalry charging forward to threaten the dwarf left flank. Both sides exchanged volleys of fire, causing chaos and confusion. In the midst of this chaos, Snorri’s heart sank as he watched the gyrocopter he had spotted earlier fall from the sky in a fiery wreckage.

Calling for an advance, Snorri marched his troops forward alongside the Ironbreakers of Karak-Durn. As they moved forward, Snorri felt the tingling of magic in the air, sensing the wizards’ presence too late to stop the first attempt. However, he was ready for the second attempt, quickly responding and expertly stopping the fireball the hedge wizard had summoned with ease.

1st Turn

Turn 2

With the Gyrcopter destroyed, the humans turned their firepower upon the Thunderers, almost wiping the Dwarfs out. “We’ve got to stop the Manlings from turning our left!” Belegar shouted across to him from the other side of the Dwarf Warriors. Snorri nodded, and his warriors, the Greenbite Guard, formed up facing the human Horsemen. What he had first thought to be human knights turned our to be Pistoliers with Knights supporting them. Seeing the Dwarfs turn to face them, the Pistoliers withdrew behind some ruins, leaving the Knights facing off against the angry Dwarves. They had to act quickly, though, as it wouldn’t be long before the human troops would be in a position to flank the Dwarfs.

Feeling the distinctive tingling of Magic once more, Snorri could feel immense power flash through the air. Being unable to counter, Snorri watched helplessly as a fireball consumed more of the Thunderers, despite their losses they held firm.

2nd Turn

Turn 3

The remaining Thunderers having little option, stealed themselves and charged into the Hedge Wizard and his troops hoping to down the Manling before he could inflict any further damage on the Dwarf troops. Thorim Brokkson ordered his Ironbreakers into the Crossbowmen ahead of them, but fighting over the fences and bushes proved troublesome for the stouter Dwarfs and their charge was unexpectedly held in place.

Kaboom! Every being on the battlefield was laid low by a mighty explosion that almost deafened all those in the valley. Snorri, seeing double as he staggered to his feet. The humans were retreating now, and leaving the Dwarfs were they lay as they recovered from the explosion. “My King, they retreat!” Snorri called to Belegar, but there was no response…

3rd Turn

Ruger Dienst blinked the dust from his eyes, the afterimages from the blast still seared there in purples and pinks. They had succeeded in spite of everything, the Dwarf Lord was trussed up and being hauled on a wagon as quick as they dared on these mountain paths. However, things could not have been said to have gone to plan. Jensch, the Fire Wizard, was gone and while he expected losses, this was a surprise. The Wizard had been with him since Altdorf and though he had always been unstable that damn staff he had received from Von Ehrenreich’s representative, Thanamann, had done something to him, tipped him over the edge it seemed as he had been heard chattering to it in the night. The explosion, or whatever it was, had killed most of the heavy cavalry and most of the halberdiers but it had flattened everyone around it long enough for the pistoliers to dash in and net the dwarf.

The Dwarf flying machine had been put down, a malfunction or a lucky shot, thank Ranald if that thing had been aloft they would have had no chance. As it was, he knew the situation, he needed to get the dwarf to Von Ehrenreich and his part in this was over, he could use the gold from this job to provision for the journey to the Border Princes and rejoin the Boss there. Ruger trudged down into the valley towards the camp and the rest of his men filtering in to the rendezvous, he could see it had grown somewhat, more men disaffected or disgruntled tempted to the life of adventure the Boss offered. Better to take a chance of glory in the Princes, in his view, than a nothing life on the farm – that was the deal he had taken. Dienst mused on his chances, he couldn’t abandon the artillery and baggage and run for the Noble’s Manor, turning up with no artillery and a starved band would likely get him killed if he ever even reached the Princes. He would need to hope the Dwarfs couldn’t reinforce and catch him with the numbers to stop him in time, he had campaigned with them before – over a day a man might outpace them but they would never tire and the odds slowly tuned their way. No, he would move swiftly but cautiously with a fighting rearguard behind. Then, Von Ehrenreich could deal with the horde of angry dwarfs on his doorstep and he would be away with a full purse.

Dwaft After Game Thoughts

Wow! What a game. I don’t think Dave or myself had quite remembered what an affect Dimensional Cascade could have. In a way it worked out well for me in that respect as Dave had to throw quite a few dice at each spell to make sure that I couldn’t dispel them. This resulted in two irresistible force rolls during the three turns of the game, the first knocking a single wound of his wizard and the next one essentially knocking out a good portion of his army.

My plan didn’t quite work out, as Dave took out the Gyrocopter very early doors after I stupidly gave the first turn away – hoping that by bringing him closer it would make it easier for me. After that he could pick off the Thunderers without reply and then focus eventually on the foot troops.

During the entire game I killed precisely 5 models which were three Handgunners and two crossbowmen after my Ironbreakers completely whiffed in that final turn! That meant with Dimensional Cascade, Dave actually killed more Empire Mercenary troops than I did, with his count at 16 models!

Great fun either way, now to plan Belegar’s rescue..

Empire After Game Thoughts

Wow! That was great fun and such a blast (tee-hee). Despite almost annihilating two of my own units and my wizard becoming best friends with Tzeentch, things actually kind of worked somehow. The crossbowmen were heroes for finishing off the Gyrocopter, picking off a few of the Ironbreakers, and actually holding them up. They were certainly going to lose, but they had bought time. The handgunners worked out too, though I wonder if I shouldn’t have switched them out for some skirmishing archers and put the wizard in there…… ahem.

Speaking of the wizard, he got off a good fireball and some buffs before invalidating local maps. Maybe it is the Skaven player in me, but I was still happy with him! The pistoliers also did well for me. With the gyrocopter gone, they could really get to work chipping at Pete’s Thunderers and jamming things up. I have never actually tried Outriders, so another time I might go for those, but I was pleased with pistoliers (maybe a unit of each?). The spearmen and General didn’t end up in a scrap, but could they have won…… well, maybe. I think it might have ended with the last dwarf warrior falling to the spearmen and then Belegar just killing away until his Mom called him home for tea.

Next time, we are planning a slightly bigger game, so what do you think I should I add or switch out?

Age of Sigmar, Battle Report, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Order, Reviews, Tournaments, Vostarg

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at LVO 2023!

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By: Kevin Lathers

The Setting

The 2023 Las Vegas Open for Age of Sigmar had the most participants ever! It was a new experience for me, as it was my first Grand Tournament with over 50 participants and this one had over 300 competitors. This tournament used the 2022-2023 Season 1 GHB, with a standard 5 rounds, followed by a knockout tournament for the top 8 competitors.

The event was held at the convention hall connected to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. If Vegas is a “sinful theme park,” then the Rio can be described as a dumpster of depression therein. However, the convention hall was nice; silver linings or something. 

I’d be attending with a fantastic group of beautiful people: The Georgia Warband. A big shout out to my friend Josh Bennet for finishing 10th! My team all did great, and it was a lot of fun. I’m personally very happy with my 12th place finish and 4-0-1 record for my first LVO. 

As a preface, the exact details of matches are sometimes fuzzy or forgotten, so the reports are to the best that I can do with my awful memory.

The List

I had a few lists in mind for the event. I seldom take cookie-cutter lists and so indecision struck me hard; I like being a special snowflake. This was further compounded by being unable to practice while in COVID isolation. In the end I simply asked my wife, “what should I bring to LVO?” to which she responded, “lots of naked men.” Thus, Vostarg was selected with a list I had used variations of on a few occasions. 

Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Vostarg
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Auric Runemaster (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master Priest
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)*
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runesmiter (120)*
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Ember Storm
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**

Battleline
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)
Molten Infernoth (40)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Expert Conquerors
****Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 162
Drops: 12

This list would hinge on how many Bounty Hunters I would face, but I was confident there would be few. This proved to be a correct assumption, as the tournament had very few Bounty Hunters overall. Part of me feared the mirror match against a 3-BH Runeson Lofnir list. 

This Vostarg list operates by forcing opponents to make tough decisions where they often believe both are the bad choice. Killing the Vulkites – which must be done to capture points and slow damage – only counts up flamekeepers to make the remaining Vulkites more powerful. But focusing heroes, such as flamekeepers, means the Vulkites continue to hold objectives while still outputting high damage. Combine this with a Runic Fyrewall to block undesirable movement and a molten infernoth to pressure foot heroes/low wound units, and you have a list which forces opponents to be aggressive. 

But aggression only leads to death between fight on death, first-strike, and flamekeepers. This is a high damage list and these Vulkites can table an army that is not playing carefully. For any higher save units, the Runefather can be juiced up to -4/-3 rend swings. When the Runefather goes full bane mode there’s few things he won’t kill.

In play the most important pieces seemed to be the Expert Conquerors which often held objectives against swarms or monsters while forcing opponents to fight them. The Molten Infernoth is the true MVP though: for 40 points it did more than it should in nearly every game. 

Games Summary:

Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists – Major Victory 
Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords: Vyrkos – Draw
Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts: Blisterskin – Major Victory 
Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory 
Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory

 Day 1: I Feel Chill, My Heart Says Otherwise

(Yes, that’s my heart rate on day 1)

Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists on The Presence of Idols

Opponents List: 

Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Cabalists
– Triumph: Inspired
– Grand Strat: Take What’s Theirs

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)*
– General
– Mark of Nurgle
– Master of Magic
– Binding Damnation
– Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Chaotic Conduit
– Binding Damnation
Chaos Lord on Manticore (270)
– Mark of Nurgle
– Flame Weapon
– Sword and Spear
Chaos Lord (115)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Spite-tongue Curse
– Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel

Battleline
Chaos Warriors (440)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield
– Eroding Icon
– Reinforced Once
Chaos Marauders (85)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield
Chaos Marauders (85)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield

Units
Chaos Chosen (480)*
– Mark of Khorne
– Reinforced Once

Endless Spells
Gnashing Jaws 70
Cogs 70

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total 2000/2000

Karl is a great guy and was running an awesomely kitbashed army. It was probably one of the coolest armies I’d seen at LVO. I sadly took no pictures during LVO, I don’t know why, but I assure you his army was dope. 

Karl’s list is interesting: two manticores! Reinforced Nurgle Warriors are also going to be no easy task to chew through. Luckily I am playing Fyreslayers so few things can’t be murderzoned.

I get the chance to put terrain on the board. I put it such that two large impassable pieces lock both players from the long-ways objective from their deployment. This allows me to make use of invocations to block lanes.

Karl outdrops me (as does everyone in the tourney) and takes the top of 1. This is what I meant by “tough decisions.” He, correctly, sees that I’m going to drop a Fyrewall to completely lock off the center of the map from him. He has no priest and no way to stop it if I take top of 1. So he has to do it. I proving grounds (PG) the bottom-right objective, as the left is blocked to him by impassable terrain. 

The only unit he can take the PG with is Chaos Warriors, forcing them onto it, while his Chosen and Manticores move up the middle. But I’ve deployed back far enough they cannot reach me. He plays it cautious and toes the objective. 

In my turn I auto-run EC vulkites to the upper-left objective and put two units of Vulkites on the center with a 5+ ward up from the battlesmith. My molten infernoth goes off and slaps some wounds on various things. 

Round 2 proves decisive for me. I push hard forward, wiping out his chosen down to one guy and holding the center, denying him the central objective. He counter punches and wipes out some vulkites, but that only powers up my army. He’s already behind and needs some big moves in round 3 to stage a comeback.

Instead, I take priority and my molten infernoth rolls doubles: this immediately kills both his manticores, one from full health, which was a very nice roll for me. Further, I finish off the remaining Chaos Warriors with some flamekeeper buffed vulkites. The game is basically over here, though he can still steal a couple tactics, there’s no way he can come back with no Chaos Warriors, Manticores, and one living Chosen. 

Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 28 – 14. 

Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords on The Prize of Gallet

Opponent’s List

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Vyrkos Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Vampire Lord (140)***
– General
– Command Trait: Pack Alpha
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Radukar the Beast (310)***
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (400)***
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
– Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify
Cado Ezechiar, The Hollow King (140)***
– Spirit Gale
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions

Battleline
10 x Dire Wolves (130)**
10 x Dire Wolves (130)**
20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (160)**
– Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)***
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Vargskyr (110)*
1 x Vargskyr (110)*

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Spell

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 11

Alex is energetic and fun. He’s a good dude who offers me a Corsairs die at the start of the match. That dice proceeds to roll 6’s like no other! I’ve decided to stop using it, fearing it’s actually weighted. He is the first of two Corsair team members I play against.

Alex’s SBGL is exactly the type of list I fear: BH heavy and has a big, fast, disruptive control piece in Manny. Further, I have no way to shoot him off the board, the infernoth and axes will have to do the work.

I once again set up terrain, doing it in a way to block off lanes. He gives me the top of 1. I place the Fyrewall to block off his units, but don’t really pay attention and leave some spots open for wolves which come back to haunt me later. It pays to be precise with this thing! I spread out to lock out grave summoning from my lines and objectives while he activates the center objective. 

He pushes forward in the bottom of two and we just trade the center objective doing little damage to each other. Mannfred does hit my left side and kills 5 or 6 Vulkites, but takes a couple wounds from their fight-on-death. His flying skeletons (via levitate) are the real MVPs here. 

I’ll take the bottom of round two and activate my home objective. He moves to contain me fully within my starting zone with wolves on my right and basically everything that isn’t graveguard on my left and center. The vulkites, with fight on death, fight first, and a little tank manages to hold the lines.. Further, my nulsidian icon completely nullifies his offensive spellcasting and the center. This is a huge deal as it will enable my runefather to maintain high damage. I proceed to push onto the center objective and wipe out nearly everything on it, including Cado. The molten infernoth comes down and, in one of the best rolls of my life – rolled doubles into a lot of 6’s for d3 mortal wounds per 6, DUMPSTERS Mannfred. With him gone the game is now back in my favor, I’d say.

As round three kicks in, he takes the bottom and activates his own objective. The wolves are still flanking right and I clear them with the magmadroth as well as some Vulkites. His army has mostly begun being tabled except for some wolves and the grave guard still in the graves. 

However, in round 3 he gets a very long charge on his graveguard to not only get into a unit of Vulkites, but spread out across three units of Vulkites. This proves to be disastrous positioning for myself and he proceeds to kill them all with BH Graveguard. Still, I hold both side objectives going into four. But we are basically out of time. Both of us are playing slooooow armies and we don’t have time for another fourth round.

It’s a close game, we talk it out. We both will get our GS for certain. It’s hard to say who would win with the grave guard coming in like they did. I’m confident I can kill them, but its possible I don’t. As we can’t really agree – and indeed, it’s hard to even say what would happen! – and don’t have time to play it out, we just score what we know we can do (tactics and certain objectives). The result is a true draw! What a fantastic game. 

Alex is a super great guy, when my molten infernoth rolled that bonkers roll he kept whatever salt he may have had inside, which is better than I would have done! Great dude and lady luck paid off his sportsmanship with a dope charge later. He was also a fantastic general and I think he outplayed me for the most part. It was only by luck and vulkite power that I kept that game so tight.

Fyreslayers draw with SBGL. 

Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts on Silk-Steel Nests

Opponent’s List

Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts
– Army Subfaction: Blisterskin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Abhorrant Archregent (240)**
– Spells: Spectral Host
1 x Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)**
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)**
– General
– Command Traits: Hellish Orator
– Artefacts: Eye of Hysh
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Deranged Transformation

BATTLELINE
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**

TERRAIN
1 x Charnel Throne (0)

OTHER
5 x Blood Knights (200)*
– Kastellan
5 x Blood Knights (200)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Cam’s list is an interesting one. Cam seems like a fun guy so I know this will be a fun match, which proves to be true! His list has three BH which will prove to be trouble for me as even the horses do 2 wounds. It’s also a list type I’ve never seen out of FEC and I’m not quite certain how it works to my own detriment. 

The Molten Infernoth did so much in the last game but would do nearly nothing in this one, often rolling no mortal wounds at all. I guess luck comes and goes.

Cam lets me set up the terrain and I do what I always do: block lanes that a large base wants to be in. I set up defensively knowing he has speed and hoping if he does take first to bait him into bad positions. 

Instead, he takes the bottom and I set up the usual castle with the battlesmith ward. He moves forward in the bottom and we both just get two points plus tactic. He gives me the top of two, sadly, and I push further up on the right to begin threatening those objectives. I accomplish little. Meanwhile on his turn he hits my left side HARD and wipes out my shield vulkites which take a few Flayers with them. He’s now a point ahead on VP. 

I take the top of three and punish him for his aggressiveness. My magmadroth kills his general terrorgheist. I also kill a few Flayers and push the center and right to threaten his home objectives. Sadly, his Flayers double activate (didn’t know they could) and kill my magmadroth as well as most of my vulkites on that side, though on death they do kill his courtier. 

On his turn the blood knights wipe out the vulkites threatening his objectives, taking some wounds in return. The decisive moment comes here though. He charges my line of foot heroes on the lower left. This allows me to combat-charge my vulkites that are behind the heroes into the flayers and pump their damage as well as activate their fight first. They kill the flayers down to one remaining. 

He takes the top of four and retreats the flayers as well as brings up blood knights to wipe out more vulkites. On my turn I’m pushing back on the left and center while the right side has stalemated. But by auto-running a flamekeeper with the movement rune I take a center objective though. Movement rune once again being clutch late game. Funny, I used it and almost forgot to add the movement (2” is important!). 

I win the priority roll into five which allows me to take more objectives and gain more tactics. At this point there’s no way for him to outcap me on anything and he has to choose between objectives or tactics. My final vulkite unit which has been sitting holding the bottom right the entire game is Expert Conquerors ensuring his blood knights can’t auto-run to cap any objectives. 

Another nail-biter against a death army. Cam played a great game. I feel like my ignorance of his army definitely hurt me here and I should have deployed more heavily to counter the flayers.

Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 27-26, a one point win. 

Day 2: My Brain Has Finally Stopped Functioning

I head into day 2 after a night of drinking, eating, not-sleeping, and spending too much money.

Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Nurgle on Realmstone Cache

Opponent’s List

Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Grand Strategy: Spread Rampant Disease
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Gutrot Spume (170)*
Lord of Blights (150)*
Lord of Blights (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Overpowering Stench
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Plague Squall

BATTLELINE
Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

I’m confident going into this game against Seth. Fyreslayers generally don’t have issues with damage and there’s only one center objective to kill things on for two rounds. Seth’s cordial and we both seem burnt out from the previous day. Math becomes arduous for us both.

This game proves to be a quick one. Seth takes the top of one in order to prevent me locking him off the objective with a Fyrewall. A wise move considering which army he is playing. He pushes onto the center objective with two units of 10 blightkings, the other two units of five being off board at the moment. I push forward and simply take the center objective and knock a few wounds off some Blight Kings. I keep my walls up so he can’t deep strike into anything important. 

Both Nurgle players I had as opponents made the same mistake: counting their blight kings as two on objectives even when they are four wounds each (the bonus wound spell not being on them at that time or on a different unit). I didn’t know they only should count as one until after the tournament. This forced me to commit too many models in both games against them, but it’s not a huge deal.

I gave him the top of two and he pushed into my lines. Between a 5+ ward, fight on death, and a gigantic molten infernoth blocking a huge lane, he doesn’t get much done. He hangs some wounds on the magmadroth and kills some vulkites which fight on death to kill a couple blightkings and push wounds onto a hero. 

On the bottom of two I pop my flamekeeper buff, my Runefather +1 attack buff, the rend rune, and basically anything and everything else I have ready. This juices my army so massively that I kill all the remaining blightkings, I believe there were 18 or so on the board, and his general. Four damage swing Vulkites (BH + flamekeeper buffs) with four swings each is potent.

The game is basically over here. I’ve lost a unit of vulkites and he’s lost his general and both of his main blight king units. We talk it out and go grab a drink! 

Fyreslayers win a major victory, 26-16.

Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Nurgle on Nidus Paths

Opponents List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Tend the Garden
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
The Glottkin (650)*
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Lord of Afflictions (230)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm

Battleline
10 x Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (130)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (130)*

Units
3 x Nurglings (100)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 1

Matt’s probably my most enjoyable opponent of the tournament. He’s a great dude and the second member of Corsairs that I play against. We both are clearly running on very tired hamsters at this point and will make frequent mistakes throughout the game. A couple of funny ones are me forgetting to even put my forge down and him choosing a tactic that can’t be accomplished (I let him pick a different one in like the charge phase and he lets me put the forge down when I notice something like round 3).  Mostly the game is just a fun one at this point. 

That said, Matt is probably the most skilled of any of my opponents (no disrespect to any of the others). While I usually find Nurgle an easy match for Fyreslayers, this one will prove difficult. It turns into a real chess match and Matt knows his army well. He also does not commit any of the mistakes the previous Nurgle opponent makes. He is crafty and knowledgeable, and this makes the game truly fun.

I place terrain and set the middle up with two large pieces exactly 6” apart to help block movement in the entire center of the board.

He gives me the top of round 1. I drop a Fyrewall to block the entire center of these terrain pieces ensuring his Glottkin and blightkings have to go around. I push hard to the top left, leaving one vulkite in the rear to block the nurglings. I also bring over some shield vulkites on the right to hold the objective. 

In the bottom of 1 he brings his flying units left along with his rotmire and Glottkin. His blightkings go right but won’t be able to affect too much yet. On the left the attack kills some vulkites but doesnt take objective due to the 5+ ward basically. Positioning here is weird for us both as the table has a gigantic dip in it making our models fall over.

At this point my brain is fried and I don’t recall the exact order of how things go down. But I can summarize by location.

On the upper-left: his Glottkin is a true thorn in my side and I can’t retreat and rally Vulkites because he’ll movement-phase charge. This means I have to sacrifice any units already in combat. Still, my magmadroth and the vulkites in the area, combined with flamekeeper kill everything but the Glottkin at first, and eventually do take down the Glottkin. His Rottmire hangs onto the objective a bit longer than I’d like but will fold. 

On the bottom-right: His blightkings fail a charge and can’t take the objective from my EC shield vulkites. They then make a charge and wipe out the vulkites. But by this point a bounty hunter group of vulkites makes its way there and nearly wipes out the blightkings. The remaining shield vulkites give enough wounds to hold the objective. 

On the bottom-left: He never gets a chance to threaten this objective and I teleport in round four a unit of vulkites from here across the board.

On the top-right: The vulkites I’ve teleported here will take this objective in round four or round 5. There’s not a lot he can do to stop this as the rotmire he ran back to stop this can’t hold out if they do get charged and can’t out-cap the vulkites. 

We talk it out and just due to objective holding power I take the win. A fantastic match! Not my closest, but probably the most fun.

Fyreslayers win a major victory, 25-19.

Conclusion

Some great games, some great players, and overall a fantastic experience for my first LVO. While I missed the 5-0, I went into this event with no expectations and would be happy with a positive finish. So ending 12th place with a 4-0-1 record had me thrilled. I nearly brought Lofnir, feeling it may have performed better, but it’s hard to argue with results.

The list itself ran great and while it was difficult to pilot, showed the true power of Vulkite Berserkers. If there’s one major downside, it’s how it makes you and opponents feel. I explained the flamekeeper before every single game. But when you use a combat round charge or fight on death with them, the opponents always feel like you have gotcha’d them. In fact, a lot of once per game abilities in FS feel that way and it’s difficult to talk about them all as there are so many.

The molten infernoth proves once again to be worth its weight in ur-gold. Killing Mannfred on its own was probably one of my favorite Fyreslayer moments.

The shield Vulkites proved to be a perfect inclusion. They were able to tank and hold objectives where axes could not. While axes can throw damage out on death, sometimes you just need to hold an objective with models, not with damage. 

Expert Conquerors was critical to the list’s success and is/was probably the most underrated part of this entire GHB. Its loss going into the new season means this list loses a ton of power, even without BH still around. 

Will I go to LVO again? Probably, but I hope it’s not in the Rio.

Battle Report, Dark Angels, Games Workshop, Harlequinns, Lehann, Sci-Fi, Warhammer 40k

Written 40k Battle Report: Harlequins vs Deathwing (Warzone Nachmund: Mission 33)

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It’s been a long while since I have managed to pen down one of these, life and laziness are insurmountable stumbling blocks on occasion it seems. Today I am running my Harlequins against the might of the Dark Angels 1st Company. Harlequins is an army I am still very much learning but having a ton of fun doing so. Turns out speed is quite fun to play with, who knew? Beware of horrendous decision making inside, not advised for sensitive viewers or children.

  • Harlequin List (Light Saedath Battalion):
  • 2x Troupe Masters (1 with Cegorach’s Rose, Favoured of Cegorach, Player of the Light, 1 with Foot in the Future, Veiled King and the Storied Sword)
  • Death Jester with Rift Ghoul and Eye of the Laughing God
  • Solitaire, Prince of Sins
  • 6×5 Troupes with 1 kiss, 2 fusions, 2 neuros
  • 6x Starweavers
  • 1×3 Voidweavers
  • 1×2 bikes with Glaive and Shuriken Cannon
  • Dark Angel list (Deathwing Vanguard):
  • Interrogator Chaplain
  • Ravenwing Apothecary
  • 3×10 Terminators (mixed stormshield/thunderhammer, stormbolter/powerfist, 2 missile racks apiece, sergeant double Lightning Claws)
  • 1×6 Bladeguard Veterans
  • 1×5 Bladeguard Veterans

Mission 33 Secure Missing Artifacts

  • Harlequins Secondaries:
  • Stranglehold
  • A Deadly Performance
  • Retrieve Nachmund Data
  • Deathwing Secondaries:
  • Stubborn Defiance
  • Grind them Down
  • Raise the Banners High

Deployment and Pre-Game:

My opponent is the Defender. I start by moving his bottom right objective down and away from his home. Above all I need him to not sit in his deployment and score hundreds of points on Stubborn Defiance, Banners and the Primary by not interacting. (note we played it here as selecting secondaries before moving objectives, since the timing seems to coincide in the book.) He then moves his home objective back and behind obscuring, and my home objective to be more exposed. I finish off by moving top left back to make it harder for his durable but slow obsec bricks to get there. My priority objective is my bottom left objective, his is the bottom right.

My opponent, showing exactly 0 respect for my army, deploys it all on the line, determined to push those blocks of brutal bodies forward as quickly as 5″ movement and advance rolls allow. He combat squads the maximum Bladeguard Veterans squad and one 10 man Terminator squad. On my side, each boat has a troupe squad inside, with my 3 characters starting embarked. (Sad Solitaire noises. No one ever wants to allow him in a boat). I deploy everything that cannot be obscured 5″ back from the line, to ensure that I am not taking any unnecessary stormbolter fire.

We roll off and my opponent goes first. I elect not to phantasm, as I am hidden from 90% of his shooting not worried about whole 5 missiles he’ll fire off this turn.

Battle Round 1:

My opponent moves out aggressively, raising a sole banner on his home objective, and settling in with a 5 man terminator squad to score stubborn defiance. Anything with a missile launcher does not advance. Between light saedath (cannot be hit on an unmodified 1-3 outside of 12″) and some lackluster rolling he only manages a single wound on my bottom starweaver from his whole army. Turns out I was right about not worrying about some desultory missile fire. Narrator: He was not right. That single wounds goes unsaved and rolls a 6 for damage to blow up my boat. Oof. Classic Aeldari arrogance gets some beautifully poetic comeuppance

On my turn I move the dismounted troupe squad to my home objective. They perform RND (they pass the roll, but this was unnecessarily risky). I *move the two northern transports up to the top-left objective, my Veiled King and Death Jester transports to within fusion range of the terminator squad, and I line up my voidweaver on the same. One boat with just troupes touches into the center objective, and I stage my bikes behind the ruin to get into his deployment next turn.

After the 14x shuriken cannons, 5 fusion pistols, 4 neuro disruptors, 2 shuriken pistols, 3x prismatic cannon and one Death Jester shrieker cannon opens up on the 5 man terminator squad in the open, the thrice damned sergeant still stands. I fire and fade my voidweavers back behind obscuring. My opponent scores 3 points on grind, while I get my 3 on stranglehold. We both score the mission 3 points.

End of Battle Round 1:

Harlequins 6 : 6 Deathwing

Battle Round 2:

He scores 1 point on banners, 2 on stubborn defiance and 8 on primary. His bottom right Bladeguard raise a banner. The Deathwing move aggressively into the middle. He lines up charges into my starweaver on the middle objective with his jump chaplain and the terminators. His bottom 10 man terminator squad move towards my home objective as fast as their stumpy legs allow. In the north, his hero-sergeant and the 3 man Bladeguard goes into the starweavers. His rapid advance leaves a very convenient 25mm hole next to his Ravenwing Apothecary… My Solitaire starts salivating from his hidden position on my home ruin.

Between shooting and charges he fails to blows up any more of my boats in the north. His jumppack chaplain charges my central starweaver. I use the light saedath strat to move it just far enough to still edge onto the far border the objective, but far enough to make the charge for his terminators unfeasible. After some consideration between my bikes and boat, the chaplain ends up going after the boat. I elect to take armor saves to kill the boat, disembarking the troupes inside onto the point to give me a 12 on primary in my coming turn. He gets his 3 on the mission.

My turn 2 I move aggressively in the North. One squad of troupes disembark and performs RND. The downside of my 12 on primary is I cannot flip the middle objective for Deadly Performance, so reckon I need to make a play for his home objective. (In hindsight, I made a massive mistake here. I had 2 easy kills in shooting, and I could have fire and faded the bikes into his deployment to get my deadly performance. I did not need to FnF the voids, just get a narrow angle on the terminator sergeant and the bladeguard. I already had stranglehold locked down, and I did not have enough to take down the terminator squad far enough to out obsec him on his home if all the charges did not hit).

I kill the chaplain with shooting from the troupe squad, the bladeguard and terminator sergeant (finally the damnable nerd eats it) evaporate from the weight of most of my armies shooting. 1 terminator dies on his home objective to the troupes and the Death Jester in the boat. I disembarked the rose queen to guarantee the bladeguard dies, but she ends up not being needed. I fail the 5″ charge into his home objective with my troupes in the centre even with a reroll, but I left 2 toed into the middle to keep my stranglehold intact in case of this exact situation. My horrifically misplayed skyweavers get brutalised by the terminators. RIP skyweavers. You deserved better. My blitzing solitaire thoroughly and effortlessly rips through the exposed apothecary, but gets killed straight through his -1 to hit, no rerolls, 3++ invuln with a luck reroll due to his singular inability to pass even a single save whenever he happens to fight bladeguard.

End of the round I score my 3 on stranglehold and 4 on RND. I miss deadly performance due to incredible stupidity (its definitely not real stupidity, just part of the carefully crafted clown performance. Definitely. Maybe.) but thankfully he also misses grind. We both got our 3 on the mission

End of Battle Round 2:

Harlequins 28 : 20 Deathwing

Battle Round 3:

My opponent still has so much BEEF on the board its honestly scary. He scores 3 on stubborn defiance, 2 on banners and 8 on primary. He finally takes the centre with the one 10 man brick, while his 5 man bladeguard saunter back over to his home to help stem the tide coming next turn. His southern 10 man brick continue their trudge to my home objective.

They knock out a voidweaver, while the centre squad kill the boat next to them and utterly annihilates the 4 troupes on the centre objective. The 4 man on his home kills 2 disembarking troupes (I’ve been very lucky on my disembarking models not dying). He scores his 3 on the mission.

My turn 3 I get 8 on primary. I embark the troupes on my top left and the rose queen back into boats. In the top middle I have a boat very precisely placed to get the 5 man troupes just over 6 inches from the centerline after a disembark and move to get my 3rd quarter for RND. I collapse everything else in range on his home objective. Between the fusion and neuro pistols, the DJ lending his cannon and rift ghoul mortals, and finally the veiled king and the 2 troupe squads swinging into them, the terminators are knocked out. I take down his bannner and cap his stubborn defiance scoring. The Veiled King gets back into the starweaver with the Curtain Falls. Fighting someone just to hop back into a boat is totally fair and balanced and I love every minute of it. With his apothecary dead I can start working on whittling down his bricks too, with the voids taking down 2 marines.

End of the round he scores his grind, I get my 3 on the mission, 4 on RND and 3 apiece on stranglehold and deadly performance.

End of Battle Round 3:

Harlequins 49 : 39 Deathwing

Battle Round 4:

I’ve got a decent lead here, but I am fast running out of material and ways to deal with the terminator bricks that don’t involve a tape measure. He scores 1 banner and 8 on primary, but 0 on stubborn defiance. He spreads the center brick between the middle and his home objective, while the southern brick finally gets close to my home objective (a mere 1″short, but he decides he wants the shooting and will just charge me to get on the point. If I run away with the light strat at least he costs me primary).

He kills 2 troupes with bolter fire in the north. In the south he bounces off the voidweavers, and the troupes on the point runs away so his terminators are stuck outside my objective. The bladeguard mince my Death Jester, boat and the troupes on his home objective. The Veiled King does not roll a one to die on disembark and I cry from happiness.

My turn 4 I score only 4 on primary. I run the troupes back onto my home objective to flip it for Deadly Performance. In the North I commit the remaining 3 man, the rose queen onto the terminators. I advance the Veiled King to try and knock his bottom right Bladeguard off their points factory as a bit of a hail Mary.

On my home objective I get a bit lucky with the void weavers and the troupes, and bring the terminators down to 4 models. The Veiled King manages to kill only one Bladeguard (he feels real bad into transhuman), while the remaining 2 knock him down to a single wound. In the North I kill 4 out of 5 bladeguard after fusions and melee, and the rose queen gets back into the boat. We both get our 3 on the mission. He gets 3 on grind, while I get my 3 apiece on stranglehold and deadly performance.

End of Battle Round 4:

Harlequins 62 : 54 Deathwing

Battle Round 5:

He scores a 1 on banners and an 8 on primary. He does not get his Stubborn Defiance thanks to the “consecutive command phases”requirement. Keeping it to a 5 has been massive for me.

His southern terminators obliterate my troupes on my home objective, and park themselves in light cover. In the north he gets as many terminators as possible onto his home objective. The lone bladeguard kills 2 troupes. My Veiled King on the bottom right kills another bladeguard before dying. He scores 3 on the mission

My final turn I yet again display my staggering stupidity by going for an entirely unnecessary play. I score my primary on the bottom of the turn, so the smart thing to do have been to disembark the troupes on my top left, advance the transport onto the centre and just take my 8. Instead I try to go for the 12 AND try to deny my opponents grind. In order to accomplish either of these I need to get very lucky, accomplishing both is a pipe dream.

My voidweavers jet forward onto the objective. My lone transport gives himself options into the sole surviving bladeguard on my opponents home objective and the terminators on mine. The boat on the top left toes into the centre objective while giving the troupes inside range to the terminators on my home. The rose queen disembarks and advances to try for a 7″ charge into the bladeguard on the bottom right. I’m trying to do way too many things here with low odds of success instead of consolidating my efforts. Going for a 12 on primary but dropping to a 4 if I fail, trying to deny grind but guaranteeing it if I bounce, trying for my 3 points priority objective AND trying knock down my opponents last banner.

In the north the lone fusion troupe kills the BGV, while in the south two transports, 2 voidweavers and the 5 man troupe squad inside the centre objective boat kills 3 terminators. The rose queen predictably fails her charge with a reroll. The voidweavers charge, fails to do any damage and gets a boat blown up for their effort.

I score 4 on primary, 3 on deadly performance, but I miss my stranglehold. My opponent scores grind them down and 1 more on his banner.

End of Battle Round 5:

Harlequins 69: 68 Deathwing

Post game

Whoooof that was close. I played my Deadly performance very badly, and similary there was no reason for me not to put a de-meched troupe squad back into deepstrike to get my 12 on RND, especially once it was clear that squad is about to get punked (looking at you home objective boys). I am happy with the secondaries I picked, but there is definitely some improvements to be made in my execution of them. This was my first game fielding a 2 man bike squad as utility. I really liked having them as an option, but I threw them away for no gain, and I missed getting a free 3 points with them early game with a Fire and Fade play. Having them survive later to help the Veiled King clear the bladeguard would have cemented a very comfortable victory.

I also really like the 3 man void weavers still, even after the substantial nerf, but they suck a lot of CP. In this match I think I could’ve afforded to be a lot more cavalier with them. My opponent never really did a whole lot of damage even when he could line up the missile launchers. Especially in the early rounds I think I could have just played angles with them and forgoed the FnF to keep the CP to keep my troupes dealing mortals at full clip.

All in all this game was a lot of fun and a good learning experience. This Deathwing list is a bit of a gatekeeper in my opinion, but if you just let it be it can and will score high just for existing. Disrupting my opponents scoring is a playstyle I very much enjoy, but I think it highlights my own “playing the mission” with this list needs some more reps.

Thank you kindly for reading, I would love to hear your thoughts on the clash!

Battle Report, Games Workshop, Lehann, Sci-Fi, Warhammer 40k

Written Battle Report: Shadowkeepers vs Thousand Sons

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Preface:

At time of playing/writing, Custodes are yet to recieve their well deserved nerfs. This game was an exercise in trying to build a game that would be enjoyable for my opponent, by building weaknesses that he can attack and interact with into the army, without building a completely useless force that neither of us would enjoy. Sadly finding this middle ground is an exercise that I have had to repeat with some regularity lately. This author at least, is waiting for the promised balance dataslate with great hope and anticipation.

That said, going into this battle I set myself some army building ground rules to make sure my opponent has a fun game facing the horrendousness that is the current Custodes book. No Trajann, no bikes outside the single bike captain, and since I have no desire to see my mortal dependent Thousand Son’s opponent cry, no Emperor’s Chosen 4+++ vs mortals.

With that in mind, I built a joint Shadowkeepers and Sisters of Silence force. The further I got into building this list, the more the idea of a Witchseeker force thrown together for an expedition into Thousand Sons controlled space to recover a relic to serve the shadowy agenda of the Shadowkeeper Shield Captain started to appeal to me. So the narrative was born.

Shadowkeepers

  • Leader of the Host: Eorl the Young, Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike, titled the Lockwarden, of Superior Creation, carrying the Stasis Oubliette. Tip of the spear of the offensive against the witches.
  • Unstoppable Destroyer Fëanor, Shield Captain in the Praetorian Plate Terminator Armour, famed for his ironclad Impregnable Mind.
  • Knight Centura Elbereth, Mistress of Persecution, carrying the Excruciatus Flamer.
  • The Centura leads 5 prosecutors, 9 Witchseekers and an Anathema Psykana Rhino to the expeditionary force.
  • 2 squads of Sagittarum Custodes, a lone Allarus Custodian, one squad of Venatari, one squad of Wardens of the Vaults make up the body of the host.
  • When word of the possible presence of Magnus reaches Eorl, he requests the honoured entombed to walk. 4 ancient names answers his call. Elendil and Isildur, Galatus pattern, and Gil-Galad and Elrohir, Achillus pattern will stride the witching world.

Thousand Sons

  • Responding to the hated presence of the null-maidens and the unwelcome tread of auric boots on the witching world, Magnus himself descends to the field.
  • From the mists rise 2 squads of 5 rubric marines and a squad of 10
  • 2 squads of 5 Scarab Occult Terminators grind to their primarch’s side.
  • 10 Tzaangors make their braying appearance
  • Ahriman and 2 sorcerers marshal the Rubricae.

Mission:

We are playing mission 22 Conversion from the Nachmund 2022 mission pack.

Secondaries:

  • Custodes: Assassinate, Stranglehold, Abhor the witch
  • Thousand Sons: Raise Banners, Stranglehold, Psychic Interrogation

Turn 1

We both deployed relatively conservatively, his Terminators and Rubrics in the North outside of the charge range of my dreadnoughts and the pistols of the Venatari. My Witchseekers and Knight Centura start in the rhino. My katah’s are Calistus, Dacatarai, Kaptaris. I won the roll off to go first.

In my command phase I activate the Calistus stance to roll 2D6 drop one for advances. I advance my single allarus terminator onto the middle objective, fly my venatari up to touch the north west objective and advance the other sagittarum squad into the ruins behind them. My south west saggitarum walk up to my home objective to draw a bead on the rubrics opposite. The dreadnoughts, wardens and prosecutors shuffle around so I can keep hiding some infantry pieces to throw out one per turn onto the centre. The achillus dreadnoughts draw lines of sight on the top Scarab squad. I position the north galatus slightly forward of the rest, so I have a closest dreadnought to eat the smites and hopefully absorb a bunch of hate with the 5++ vs mortals strat.

The witchseekers get out of the rhino, get a big six on their advance to flood his south eastern objective. I fully expect them to get slaughtered next turn, but they have 2 very important objectives. Kill the tzaangors to prevent my opponent from gumming up the centre, and shut down his banner. They set up at maximum distance from the Tzaangors, with the Centura right behind to provide her auras. After disembark I throw the rhino forward to hopefully touch the 10 man rubrics and force my opponent to divert some of his central units to deal with the sisters.

The witchseekers immolate the tzaangors utterly, and the Centura picks up 2 rubrics with her Excruciatus flamer. My southern Sagittarum account for one more. On the North Side my sagittarum, Galatus and 2 Achillus dreads manage to pick up 4 rubric marines and 2 scarab terminators. In the charge phase my rhino manages to touch his southern rubrics, and is slapped for 2 wounds as a reward.

In his turn my opponent brings Magnus and his sorcerers forward to deal with the dreadnoughts. I explain the Praetorian Plate counts-as-4-obsec-models-teleporting captain’s shenanigans, which leads to some deliberation on where he wants to commit. He ends up playing fairly cagey, not moving into the middle yet until he’s dealt with my dreadnoughts. Rubrics raise a banner on his home objective. He lines up his middle scarab squad to deal with the witchseekers, and positions Magnus and the 2 sorcerers with lines of sight to my dreadnoughts. I help him measure out to make sure no model is in range of more than 1 sister’s squad debuff, and he keeps his psychic interrogation sorcerer just outside of the terminator captain’s deny.

Now all set to smite the unworthy from his sight, he gets to work. The centre scarab terminators get +1 to hit, the north terminators get -1 to hit and a 4++ invulnerable save. The bottom rubrics smite a couple of wounds off of the rhino. The allarus terminator takes 2 wounds, and after spending a CP to give my Galatus a 5+++ against mortals, a deny on a low smite, and some (un)lucky rolls he takes 4 wounds, down to 5. He tears secrets from the mind of my bike captain for 3 points.

I was expecting to lose at least the Galatus dreadnought here, so I feel quite lucky thus far. He spends CP to power up his central terminators and take aim at the witchseekers. He hands me 9 5+ saves on my 9 sisters. I figure if I make even one or two and force him to commit a bit more here, that would be quite nice.

Welp.

The rest of his shooting removes the allarus terminator on the central objective and knock another wound off my galatus, 4 remaining.

We both scored 2 on the mission, End of Turn 1, he got 3 on psychic interrogation, I got 3 on stranglehold.

Custodes 5: 5 Thousand Sons.

Turn 2

Time to roll the dice. I get my 8 on primary. I move out most of my forces into the open. If this turn flubs I’m going to be very exposed, smack bang in mortal range of a whole lot of hurt. He does not have whole lot of things standing between me and his characters, and if I get to them I can hopefully cripple his output. The three dreadnoughts in the middle charge forward, one of them getting reroll wounds of 1 from Wisdom of the Moritoi. My prosecutors move into the middle objective to get my stranglehold and to cover his whole northern force in the -1 psychic bubble. My shield captain moves as far forward as he can to give himself options into the characters if I manage to kill the scarabs. Northern sagittarum and Venatari moves into range of the scarabs. The southern Galatus moves forward to have something that can punch his final scarab squad next turn.

The scarabs evaporate in a storm of adrathic and kinetic destroyer fire straight through their layered defenses. The bike captain has free reign now, and puts 6 wounds onto his demon prince thanks to Lockwarden. In the south the knight centura picks up another 2 rubrics. I’m starting to suspect this flamer may actually be good.

The bike captain and the Galatus charges Ahriman, and he gets spitted immediately on the Interceptor lance. The Galatus consolidates into the foot sorcerer. I breathe an immense sigh of relief. Downing Ahriman is huge! I still have nightmares from a game with the 8th ed. Custodes dex, where Ahriman solo took down a full health Telemon straight through his 5++ vs mortals. Not this time Ahriman. This time you can sit down nerd.

I get my 3 stranglehold, 7 on abhor and 3 on assassinate. I’ve done a lot of damage, and taking down Ahriman (one of his main damage dealers) feels big. Now we just need to weather the storm.

He scores 8 on primary. He positions Magnus, the sorcerers and the demon prince to deal with the Galatus and bike captain. His centre scarabs walk up to kill the prosecutors and take the middle. He needs a big psychic phase here, and possibly a big melee phase. I fully expect to lose the captain and the galatus, and hopefully no more than one of the achillus to still be in good shape.

What follows is one of the worst psychic phases I have ever had the (mis)fortune to witness. Through cabal points and copious rerolls the man still managed to perils three times. Fortunately one was on Magnus, who cannot suffer perils of the warp. Between the prosecutors debuff, a very lucky 4+ deny and the impregnable mind captain flexing his rock hard brain, he only managed to reduce the bike captain to a single wound and the galatus to 2. The scarab terminators handily cleared the middle of prosecutors in a hail of inferno fire. (We later determined that he only managed to shoot a single soulreaper volley all game between the 4 guns in the list . He either killed his target with the bolters or lost the wielder before it got to shoot)

My knight centura finally succumbs to the rubrics in the south east.

Fight phase, make or break time.

Magnus charges the Galatus and the captain. The demon prince flies over the swirling melee to land behind the bike captain. The disc sorcerer lends his staff to finally killing the bike captain. Very unhappy with the shifting balance of power in the centre, the praetorian plate captain activates his teleporter to appear between the disc sorcerer and the demon prince.

The bike captain makes Magnus fight last. I’m hopeful of tanking the demon prince in the face, but I have no intention of losing the Galatus and the bike captain to a single model activating before either get to swing.

The demon prince roars and swings and falls flat on his ugly face against the combination of – 1 attack and only wounding on 4’s from arcane generic alchemy. Only 2 saves to make, and the bike captain has no intention of dying to some jumped up blue johnny. He swings back with half of his attacks (Conniving Plate says hi) and eviscerates the demon prince (turns out no invulnerable saves are very good against a 3++ for a turn. Who knew?). Magnus splits his attention between the Galatus and the captain. The captain finally goes down, but – 1 to hit from the Galatus shield, no rerolls from emperors auspice and a very lucky 4++ sees him shrug off the blade of Magnus. He only rolls a 1 on the extra mortals, and the Galatus lives on 1 wound. The sorcerer on disk swings and bounces of the Plate terminator captain. The Galatus puts all his attacks into the sorcerer he piled into the previous turn, reducing him to mist with 12 unsaved damage. The allarus captain decapitates the sorcerer on disk

End of the turn and all is dust. Unfortunately for my opponent, just not the kind that resides in gold and blue armour.

Somehow I ended up doing more damage to him on his own turn. Shadowkeepers are real good guys, especially if your opponent suddenly forgets how to do mortals with his psychic army.

I max out my abhor the witch in a single turn, go up to 12 on assassinate. My opponent got his 3 on psychic interrogation and 3 on stranglehold. We both got 2 on the mission. After the dust has settled (hehe) I scored 40 points this turn. Abhor the witch is totally a fair and balanced secondary, nothing to see here.

Custodes 45 : 22 Thousand sons

Turn 3

We roll out the fight vs Magnus and the terminators in the middle to see if any magic happen, but at this point the writing is on the wall. We both put our armies out there to go for the back breaking turn, but my back is only very lightly bruised.

Final score Custodes 100 : 62 Thousand Sons

Elrohir the Achillus puts his spear through the heart of the demon primarch, earning a name on his first outing as part of my army. The last scarabs are overwhelmed. The Shadowkeepers walk tactically victorious from the field, but with Eorl the Young severely wounded, and his entire sisters contingent dead, dying or otherwise incapacitated the Shield host’s strategic goals have been stymied. For now…

Battle Report, Historics, Kreigsspiel, Peter Holland

Kreigsspiel Battle Report – Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres

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Historically the Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres also known as the Battle of Snake Gully, was a major battle of the Haitian Revolution on 23 February 1802.

A French division under General Donatien de Rochambeau was advancing down a ravine (the Ravine-à-Couleuvres), towards Lacroix, Artibonite, where they attacked the army of Toussaint Louverture. Louverture’s forces consisted of 1,500 elite grenadiers, 1,000 grenadiers in different Demi-brigades, 400 dragoons. Louverture’s forces resisted the attack strongly, but had to retreat across the Petite-Rivière after suffering 800 deaths.

Prior to the battle on 22 February 1802, the French occupied the heights of Morne Barade and were attacked by rebel troops; the battle raged throughout the night and the French forces successfully resisted the attack. The following morning, the Haitian forces advanced out of the Ravine-à-Couleuvres as the French were travelling down it towards Lacroix, while Louverture rallied his cavalry. According to Bell, the losses of Louverture’s army were minor.

The Gameplan

This would be my first game in Kreigsspiel and as such I was learning the ropes from the other players when I was able to communicate with them during the battle. That said it was an awful lot of fun and made me think of Kreigsspiel as more of an RPG wargame rather than the table top precisely measured game you imagine it to be.

This game took place with six players on each side, an overall General and then five Generals of Brigades. I was placed on the French side and in command of the third Brigade.

Unfortunately there were no accurate maps of the area available and so the game was to be played on a similar landscape using the Fredericksburg map from the Amercian Civil War.

The Battlefield

Our mission was simple, we were to enter from the north and take and hold the river side city as quickly as possible, while the rebels were out to stop us.

Our General issued his orders to us, which involved the Cavalry Brigade scouting the main route down to the city and assessing where the rebel locations were while avoiding combat if possible. My brigade was to follow the route taken by the cavalry as quickly as possible to try and take and hold the southern most part of the city ensuring that we held those bridges. The remaining brigades were to move to the northern part of the city to secure the crossing points there.

My initial orders showing the target positions of where I wanted my battalions to be placed once they reached the city.
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07:45 On our route down our wagons get stuck in mud and I’m forced to lose time ordering our lead battalion to assist in freeing the wagons. At this point I wasn’t quite aware that orders had already not been understood, as my wagons were leading the column towards the enemy!
At 08:00 I assumed that the lead four battalions were well ahead of us this point after our delay freeing the wagons from the mud. So I sent orders to them via ADC advising them where to position themselves in the city until our arrival.
At 08:15 it became clear that all of my battalions were in fact towards the rear of the column.
At 8:30 contact is made with the enemy by the Cavalry screen in front of us.
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08:30 Some frantic ordering in response to the firefight ahead sees me attempting to move my battalions in front of my wagons finally and deploying skirmishers while our General rides on ahead bravely to see whats going on
Brigade makes contact with the enemy and moves to support our cavalry.
08:45 As we were no co-located with the Cavalry commander we were able to get his report on the situation straight from the horses mouth (pun intended). I order my remaining battalions that have not yet arrived to push into the fields on the right as the nearest bridge to he city was just a couple of fields away to our right. We had the intention to punch through the enemy and try and make it to those bridges.
09:00 The initial combats appear to be going in our favour although the cavalry on the right are already starting to suffer casualties and the arrival of enemy cannon does not help our situation. I order my remaining three battalions to move up on the right flank to try and relieve the wounded cavalry elements.
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09:15 My infantry start to gain the upper hand in the combat but the artillery is a worry.
I give orders for my troop movements with the intention to try and push my very slight advantage, I also send a message to the other Brigades to inform them of our plight.
09:30 The fighting intensifies, but my men start to run out of ammunition and are taking casualties at an alarming rate. I order my troops to retreat back along the road until we’re beyond the range of the enemy artillery.
10:00 My men begin to pull back
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10:15 and my men begin to recuperate and rearm, while are Cavalry push back into the fields on the right.
10:30 and our Cavalry route the rebel cavalry and pursue their Generals. Only to be halted by the dreaded artillery. Prompted by this I order my battalions to take the enemy guns as quickly as possible, hoping to remove them from play or possibly even capture them for our own use.

And with that the game was over. While myself and my fellow gamer who was in charge of the Cavalry had managed to smash aside the Haitians, capture their guns and even wounded their commanders (I think)in our little corner of the battlefield. It just wasn’t enough with the 1st and 2nd French Brigades getting badly mauled to the north there was no hope of our little force crossing the river and securing the town.

A victory for the Haitians but a costly victory.

Summary

This was a fantastic introduction to Krieggspiel and I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout.

It wasn’t anything like I expected, and in the end felt more like a Role-playing game where you’re in charge of a specific General. I highly recommend anyone to take a look at this game and perhaps join the International Krieggspiel Society and dip your own toes in!