Having picked up the starter set for Epic Waterloo by Warlord Games. I have spent this weekend starting the painting for the British.
I went straight to Peter’s article on painting the British and went to Miniature Realms excellent video. He mostly uses citadel contrast which is perfect for me, as I already had most of them, so the outlay for paint wasn’t that high.
Chaos Black & Grey Seer Zenithal
Spraying in the winter in the UK is never straight forward, but I clipped off some of the sprue and undercoated some of the chaps in Chaos Black. I then applied a Grey Seer zenithal highlight to help the Contrast paint hold.
I then applied a light highlight of Corax White from the pot to bring out a little more of the details.
Basilicum Grey Trousers
I am reliably informed (by the internet) that the British wore grey trousers as Waterloo, and so used Basilicum Grey as suggested by Miniature Realms.
I’m not the tidiest of painters, but I tried to steer clear of the torso so as to keep the white as clear as possible. I did deviate a little from the guide at this stage and have changed the order of the painting. Partly because I’m not sure the method of painting red (be careful) will fit with my painting style (splash it on!), so I may need to do more white highlighting later.
Shoes
The shoes need to be black so I’ve used Black Templar on these. I didn’t take much time on these but more care is required for the Riflemen as some of them are wearing boots for variety.
I have painted the rifles here, but changed the order of painting later to speed things up
Faces and Hands
Gulliman Flesh is magic… and I’ve used it extensively on my Gargant army… they work just as well here and I’ve picked out the faces and hands.
Because the trousers are darker you can even go over the lines a little! But I try to be as careful as possible to reduce time going over the paint again.
Hair & Backpacks
Again, stealing all my colour schemes I used a mix of Nazdreg Yellow, Gore Grunta Fur (Brown), and Black Templar for the hair at the bottom of the Shako. This is such a small area, I’ll definitely need to go over the top of the backpacks in the future!
And I’ve done the backpacks and one of the containers in Black Templar as well. It’s definitely getting a lot of use and looking good so far. It’s also a large area to get completed so gives me a good bit of progress on all the models.
Batch Painting
In order to speed things up I am batch painting these… in a huge batch! So I’ve done the first steps on 60 strips for all but the backpacks – that’s this evening’s job! That means I’m doing 600 soldiers in a single batch paint!
I’ll split them up once I start to work on more detail areas, but I imagine the guns and shakos (hats) are next.
I’ll let you know how I get on! Hopefully I don’t go crazy.
Peter wrote a great article earlier in the week on the Top 3 at Las Vegas Open 2022 which can be found here. Las Vegas was a huge tournament (the largest ever in AoS I think) but that meant that there were 6 5-0 winners at the end of the five rounds… so to find a winner they did a third day on the 30th January in knockout format with the top 4-1 players included.
As Peter has done the top 3, I’ll do the next 5! There’s also a bonus choice included at the end of my favourite 4-1 from the event.
4th – Mrigank Jha – Stormcast Eternals
Credit: Games Workshop
Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals – Stormhost: Knights Excelsior – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Lord-Imperatant (175)** Lord-Relictor (145)** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Spell: Thundershock – Prayer: Translocation Knight-Judicator with Gryph-Hounds (205)** – Artefact: Mirrorshield Knight-Incantor (125)*** – Spell: Lightning Blast
Battleline 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)* 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)* 3 x Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (240)*
Units 3 x Aetherwings (65)*** 3 x Aetherwings (65)*** 6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (480)** – Reinforced x 1
Core Battalions *Hunters of the Heartlands **Warlord ***Vanguard
Similar lists are fast becoming the most popular Stormcast Eternal List and shows that you can do well without Dragons… although this combination is just a horrible. The key here is the 6 Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows. They have 30″ range so Mrigank’s opponents are going to struggle to hide. The Lord Relictor (General) has the Translocation prayer (2+ with a re-roll) to teleport them so that they really can’t be avoided, and Aetherwings to block the counter charge and allow unleash hells. They can also shoot once in the hero phase, are normally 2+/2+/-2/2 with All Out Attack and 2 mortal wounds on 6+ to hit. Ouch! They can easily delete a unit of Brutes with 30 wounds in a turn!
If you manage to survive that the Annihilators will take an age to kill whilst holding objectives. It’s no suprise this came 4th.
5th – James O’Brien – Stormcast Eternals
2022 wouldn’t be the same without a dragon flying around the top tables… and James has obliged by bringing 9 of them.
Credit: Games Workshop
Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals – Army Type: Scions of the Storm – Army Subfaction: Hallowed Knights – Grand Strategy: Beast Master – Triumps: Inspired
LEADER
Gardus Steel Soul (150)*
Lord-Castellant (155)*
Knight-Draconis (300)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome (Flaming Weapon) – Mount Traits: Scintillating Trail
BATTLELINE
1 x Stormdrake Guard (680)* – Drakerider’s Warblade
Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Warblade
Stormdrake Guard (340)* – Drakerider’s Warblade
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1965/2000)
This isn’t subtle, but it’s good. The reinforced Stormdrake are excellent with mortal wound shooting (no negative to hit on unleash hell), incredible speed (12″ and a hero phase move), and good combat damage these are no slouches. Sure, if you kill them there’s nothing left but they punch back hard if you fail. Definitely an army we’ll be seeing in the future (and have already seen doing well).
6th – Nate Trentanelli – Nighthaunt
Credit: Games Workshop
I know what you’re thinking… Nighthaunt WTF? – how are they 6th! Well Nate obviously knows what he’s doing but 50% of the army is Nagash who is never a bad model despite the recent changes. Being able to cast 8 arcane bolts if required and go and smash stuff is great… and then heal back any damage taken.
Leaders Spirit Torment (115)* – General – Command Trait: Lord of the Host – Artefact: Pendant of the Fell Wind Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (955)*
Battleline 10 x Chainrasp Horde (95)* 10 x Chainrasp Horde (95)* 10 x Chainrasp Horde (95)* 5 x Hexwraiths (150)* 9 x Spirit Hosts (375)* – Reinforced x 2
The Umbral Spellportal also allows Hand of Dust at excessive range so be careful of your Maw-Krushas. He’s also got Spirit Hosts as a tarpit and Chainrasps to hold objectives whilst the Big Lad does the heavy lifting. Take nothing away from Nate… I have no idea how he managed to get this into the top 8 – well done!
7th – Jiwan Noah Singh – Ironjawz
Credit: Games Workshop
Eventually, we hit the Destruction vein. And it’s the poster boys in the Ironjawz. They smash & bash and take on all comers.
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480) – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Destroyer Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)** – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Armour of Gork – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115)** – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Warchanter (115) – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Lore of the Weird: Bash ‘Em Ladz
Battleline 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)* – Jagged Gore-hackas
Core Battalions *Hunters of the Heartlands **Warlord
Jiwan has gone Bloodtoofs to make the Gore-Gruntas battleline and the two Maw Krushas are going to smash up the world. If you want to beat this you’ll need screens… lots of them … and acknowledge that they are going to die – quickly. And even then there’s a lot of beef in your face turn 1. At 9 drops Jiwan won’t often get to chose first or second, but the army is scary to let go first and worse to let go second – chose your poison neither option is great!
8th – Russ Tanner – Ogor Mawtribes
And another Destruction force rounds off the top 8… with Ogors. The US AoS scene has some great different versions of Ogors who aren’t seen much in the UK.
This is more what I would call a traditional Ogor list with 3 big monsters and cheap battleline. The monsters charge, do mortal wounds, and shed loads of damage. The addition of magic is an interesting call, but I imagine very useful to try those key dispels and both spell caster rocking the same build-out for spells. Molten Entrails’ gives +1 Damage to mount attacks, and Ribcracker subtracts 1 from enemy saves. Nice!
Well done to all in the top 8, and to everyone who got to Vegas to play some Warhammer. Looks like the event was amazing.
Bonus Pick – Matt Nguyen – Beasts of Chaos
Chaos was missing from the top 8 following the changes to Archaeon, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to shout out Matt. Not only did he go 4-1 with Beast of Chaos but he was also dressed as a cow all weekend! What a legend.
Credit: Games Workshop
Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Dragon Ogor Shaggoth (155)*** – Artefact: Tanglehorn Familiars – Lore of Dark Storms: Hailstorm Grashrak Fellhoof (150)** – Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy Doombull (115)*** – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)*** – Axe – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Allies
Battleline 6 x Bullgors (260)* – Great Axes – Reinforced x 1 6 x Bullgors (260)* – Great Axes – Reinforced x 1 6 x Bullgors (260)* – Great Axes – Reinforced x 1 3 x Bullgors (130)*** – Great Axes 3 x Bullgors (130)** – Great Axes
Units 5 x Grashrak’s Despoilers (0)** 9 x Untamed Beasts (70)** – Mark of Chaos: Khorne – Allies 1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (95)** – Allies
I honestly struggle to know how this works as I’ve not been paired against BoC in AoS3, but with all those Bullgors I’ll be amazed if there isn’t close combat involved. Rooooar!!!! The Endless spells give reach and board control and Matt has maxed out the Allies with a cheap monster (Sphiranx), a cheap screen (Untamed Beasts) and the essential Deamon Prince of Khorne. For those who haven’t met this chap yet, he halves charge distances within 18″ for a command point. It’s so difficult to avoid and even makes short charges not automatic.
Great work Matt – a brilliant army and a great result.
The Warpfire New Year Knockout is a one day event that took place in Florida, US. It involved 12 players duking it our over three glorious rounds of AoS.
Most Selected Faction/Subfaction
Win Rate
The Top Three Lists
These were the top three lists from the Warpfire New Year Knockout.
Karl Rohr – Legion of the First Prince
Karl won all three games beating Ossiarch Bonereapers/Petrifex Elite in Round 1, 3rd placed CJ Cole and his Daughters of Khaine/Hagg Narr in Round 2 and 2nd placed Shawn Todd with his Sons of Behemat/Taker Tribe in the last round.
Allegiance: Legion of the First Prince – Subfaction: None – Grand Strategy: – Triumph:
Leaders ———- Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (General) (280)* – Command Trait: Ruinous Aura – Artefact: Armour of the Pact Kairos Fateweaver (435) – Spell: The Master’s Command The Contorted Epitome (255)** – Artefact: fourfold Blade – Spell: Flaming Weapon Be’lakor (360)** – Spell: The Master’s Command Synessa (260)** – Spell: The Master’s Command – Spell: Entire Slaanesh Lore
Shawn won two of his three games and only lost to first place Karl and his Legion of the First Prince. He beat Sylvaneth/Harvestboon in Round 1 and Ossiarch Bonereapers/Petrifex Elite in Round 2.
Allegiance: Sons of Behemat – Subfaction: Taker Tribe – Grand Strategy: Beast Master – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders ———- Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant (General)(490)* – Command Trait: Old and Gnarly – Artefact: Glowy Lantern – Spell: Flaming Weapon
Core Battalions ———- *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
Total Points: 1955 pts
CJ Cole – Daughters of Khaine
CJ also won two games and like Shawn, he only lost to Karl and his Legion of the First Prince. Along the way he beat the poor Kruleboyz/Big Yellers in Round 2 and Lumineth Realm-Lords/Helon in Round 3.
Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine – Subfaction: Hagg Nar – Grand Strategy: Beast Master – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders ———- Melusai Ironscale (General)(115)** – Command Trait: Devoted Disciple – Artefact: The Ulfuri The Shadow Queen(660)* Morathi-Khaine(660)** Hag Queen (105)** – Artefact: Khainite Pendant – Prayer: Catechism of Murder
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I painted these in January, but I’m counting them as February for our Hobby Roundups.
2 x 2 Big Stabbas
I needed something to replace the Marshcrawler Sloggoth in my Big Waaagh! army as I didn’t need the +1 to hit. Having decided on the Big Stabbas, I grabbed some bits from my Gargant bits box to make the chaps on the right.. and the actual models on the left.
As Savage Orruks they have a slightly lighter skin tone than my Ironjawz, but still have the significant 90s style line edge highlighting throughout the model.
They were great to paint and very quick, so I may get a few more done.
They have also already had their first outing at Nameless King event in Derby were they definitely caused more damage than the Marshcrawler and served as a useful second defense against the double turn!
Hobby Bingo
I’ll be counting these are the Unit of 2+ models for Age of Sigmar (B2) and A4
So that’s another two boxes completed, and one at expert level. I may catch Peter at this rate!
The Las Vegas Open is different to most other events that you would probably attend. 177 players took part in five games over two days on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th January. The top eight of from the first two days then played in a knockout tournament on Sunday 30th January to decide the overall winner.
Most Selected Faction/Subfaction
Ironjawz/Bloodtoofs are the most common faction at the LVO this year, closely followed by the usual Soulblight Gravelords/Vyrkos Dynasty and Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar.
Win Rate
The Top Three Lists
These were the top three lists from the Las Vegas Open 2022.
Gavin Grigar – Cities of Sigmar
Gavin Grigar went though the whole tournament unbeaten, winning eight games and winning the crown.
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – Subfaction: Living City – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumph: Inspired
Leaders ———- Doralia ven Denst (115)* Sorceress (General)(95)* – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Ironoak Skin Freeguild General (100)* – City Role: General’s Adjutant
Units ———- Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)**
Core Battalions ———- *Warlord **Battle Regiment
Total Points: 2000 pts
Jeremy LeFebvre – Cities of Sigmar
Jeremy also went the whole three days with a remarkable win rate of 6 wins to one loss. The loss was to eventual winner Gavin.
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar – Subfaction: Phoenicium – Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence – Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders ———- Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix (General)(315)* – Command Trait: One with Fire and Ice – Golden Mist – Artefact: Phoenix Pyre Ashes Assassin(80)* Assassin(80)* Assassin(80)** Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (280) – Spell: Golden Mist Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix (315)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Flaming Weapon
The first month of the year is out of the way already, so it’s time to look at how we’ve all got on at Woehammer with our respective goals and painting pledges this month.
It’s because of Dave that both Declan and I are doing the hobby bingo this year. Dave has started out with a large model in the form of a Basilisk for his Renegades & Heretics army.
Peter: I love the webbing on this miniature and the weathering overall. It really looks like its been based near the front for some time now.
Declan: There’s some great work here – first it’s a lovely cleanly painted tank, and with the addition of the netting and the weathering on the barrels this is a great addition to any Astra Militarum army!
Dave:Thanks guys, unfortunately being painted didn’t make it shoot any better in my last game! I’m umming and aahing on my next bingo square so I guess we will see!
Cell
Expert Level Goal:
Miniature Painted
C2
Vehicle or Monster (Warhammer 40k)
Basilisk
So that’s 10 points for Dave right off the bat, and one of the larger models/boxes ticked off already!
Declan also has managed to get one of the harder boxes out of the way, ticking off his scenery for Warhammer 40k. Declan had a number of other goals he was also hoping to complete this year. How is he doing?
Peter:Declan is one of those hobbyists I’ll always be jealous off! He can crank out painted miniatures at a fantastic rate and they look great when they’re finished! Something like this would have taken me a couple of months to do!
Declan: Cheers to Peter for his kind words… I love this kit and have written a full article on it already!As Peter has aluded to aboveI have some other Hobby Goals as well. The good news (for me) is that I’ve managed to tick off 50% of one of the aims already – I’ve finished 4-1 in my first tournament of the year. One of my aims was to get two 4-1s so thats a great start. I’ve also got 3 games of Warmaster played… so a great start to the year and the Hobby. I’ll need to get going to get more of the Bingo sheet completed though.
Dave:I’m not sure if this 40k or part of Declan’s homebrew kit but I like it. I’ve just started playing ninth edition so it’s all a bit confusing for me but this looks cool.
Cell
Expert Level Goal:
Miniature Painted
B1
Fortification or Scenery (Warhammer 40K)
Sector Mechanicus
Also 10 points and an Expert Level goal ticked off for Declan.
I’ve been hard at work this month trying to get my Kruleboyz force painted up in time for Burning Skies on March 26th. So I’ve managed to produce Rippa’s Snarlfangs and the Swampcalla Shaman for that. I also managed to finish off my first Rogue Trader model in the form of Marneus Calgar.
As an added goal this year, I wanted to try and reduce the number of unpainted models in my collection. So my months summary is:
Plus Dave has mentioned that he has some old Dwarfs he’s looking to sell……
Peter:I’m quite proud that I was able to get this lot finished this month, it meant reducing the quality of the Snarlfangs slightly, but I can always revisit them in the future if I need to.
Declan: Peter’s leaving us all in his shadow here with 3 boxes ticked off and the lovely Rogue Trader diamora finished. I’ll take credit for Rippa’s being in his Kruleboyz list and wish Peter luck in finishing off an army. It’ll be great to see it all finished. I think the yellow on the Kruleboyz is a great call and the Shaman and Pot Grot are looking like real killers!
Dave:Pete’s diorama looks excellent and I’m pleased to see him painting the best marines there are, especially as it’s Marneus Calgar – the spiritual liege of all marines everywhere. Rippa and the snarlfangs may sound like an awful college punk band but they look great. I actually disliked the Kruleboyz when they came out but I like what Pete has done with them.
Cell
Expert Level Goal:
Miniature Painted
C1
Hero or Character (AoS)
Swampcalla Shaman
D2
Unit of 2+ Models (Underworlds)
Rippa’s Snarlfangs
E4
Hero or Character (Warhammer 40K)
Marneus Calgar
That brings me to 30 points and 3 Expert Level goals completed.
Hopefully we’ll continue this each month to let you know how we do with our goals.
We’ve covered a lot of Top 3 lists over the last month, so I thought it would be good to look at some of the stats surrounding them.
Be wary those, these are for all the one day and two day events that we’ve covered plus two or three more. All armies are at 2,000 points and using the current rules and FAQ’s.
The below list are the tournaments that have been used to populate this data.
Golden Sprue AoS GT 2022 Clash of Swords Tempest Coliseum of Sigmar PSU: March to War Norwegian Masters Kirwans Game Store Monthly AoS Tournament January 8th Metagames 2k Tournament Grudge Hammer LVO Prep Event Atomic Dallas Defenders New Year New Player TTWG Sigmar Bash MOX Age of Sigmar Tournament Forge & Fire 2k Age of Sigmar Viking Games RTT: Realm of Viking Part I Gitmob Charity Brawl 2022
Most Selected Grand Alliance
Order tops the table with almost half of all armies being from an Order Battletome.
Grand Alliance Win Rates
The win rate for each Grand Alliance tells a difference story though with Destruction being the most successful and Chaos the least.
Most Selected Faction
Out of those 280 armies that we’ve focused on it’ll be no surprise that the Stormcast Eternals are the most played faction with nearly 20% of the field playing Stormcast. This would mean on average at a five day event you’re likely to play at least one Stormcast army.
Faction Win Rates
Idoneth Deepkin lead the table here with a massive 72.7% win rate over 22 games. However, let’s narrow this down to the more popular factions who have played at least 50 games:
This leaves the five most popular factions, with Ironjawz heading this mini-league with a 57.7% win rate.
Top 10 Most Selected Sub-Faction
It’ll probably come as no surprise that the Hammers of Sigmar lead the table in the most played sub-faction. The appeal of Dragons and Dracothian units is just too great possibly.
Surprisingly for me, Skaventide is in fourth despite having possibly once of the most outdated books?
Top 10 Win rates for Sub-Factions with 20+ Games
Idoneth Deepkin/Fuethan top the charts showing that perhaps they’re the easiest faction to pick up and play? My own beloved Kruleboyz/Big Yellers prop up the rest of the table with a measly 30.3% win rate.
Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar Analysis
So who’s their bogey enemy? Who do they lose to most often?
The data set is too small to have a any reliability at the moment, but Legion of the First Prince and Sons of Behemat/Breaker Tribe have had the most success against them.
If we reduce the opposition to Sub-Factions who have played them at least ten times then only the Ironjaws/Bloodtoofs have a favourable win ratio against them.
Ironjaws/Bloodtoofs Analysis
Again, the data set is to small to have any significance.
This event saw a total of 24 players take part over three games.
Gitmob Gaming are proud to announce their 1st one day event, which is also in support of the brilliant charity CALM, the campaign for living miserably. The charity seeks to break taboos around mental health, offer support for mental health issues and prevent cases of Suicide. This Age of Sigmar matched play event is open to 30 players and will consist of 3 games, held at the Bowlers Arms, Newbury.
Tournament Description
Most Selected Faction/Subfaction
For the first time since we’ve covered the top three lists in 2022 the Soulblight Gravelords/Vyrkos Dynasty are the most played faction in a tournament. The lack of an Ironjawz list is also quite surprising.
Win Rate
The Top Three Lists
These were the top three lists from Gitmob Charity Brawl 2022.
James won all of his games and beat Disciples of Tzeentch/Hosts Arcanum in Round 1, Ogor Mawtribes/Bloodgullet in Round 2 and Soulblight Gravelords/Vrykos Dynasty in Round 3.
Allegiance: Sons of Behemat – Subfaction: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: Beast Master – Triumph:
Leaders ———- Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (525)* – Artefact: Vial of Manticore Venom Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (General)(525)* – Command Trait: Louder than Words – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Flaming Weapon
Core Battalions ———- *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Hunters of the Heartland
Additional Enhancement ———- Artefact
Total Points: 2000 pts
Mark Paddon – Soulblight Gravelords
Mark won all three games beating Beasts of Chaos in Round 1, Seraphon/Thunder Lizard in Round 2 and losing to Stormcast Eternals/Hammers of Sigmar in Round 3.
Leaders ———- Coven Throne (290)* – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Spell: Vile Transference Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (200)* – Spell: Soulpike Radukar the Wolf (150)* – Spell: Amethystine Pinions Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (General)(435)* – Command Trait: The Hunter’s Snare – Artefact: Sangsyron – Spell: Flaming Weapon – Mount Trait: Foetid Miasma
Battleline ———- 10x Dire Wolves (135)** 10x Dire Wolves (135)** 10x Dire Wolves (135)**
Units ———- 5x Blood Knights (195)** 5x Blood Knights (195)**
Steve won two of their three games and beat Soulblight Gravelords/Vyrkos Dynasty in Round 1, Soulblight Gravelords/Vyrkos Dynasty in Round 2 and lost against Sons of Behemat/Breaker Tribe in Round 3.
Leaders ———- Gravestride Corpse Eater (Drogg) (525) – Allies Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos(200)* – Spell: Spirit Gale Necromancer (125)* – Spell: Fading Vigour Wight King on Skeletal Steed (General)(130)* – Command Trait: Kin of the Wolf
Warlord Games have released their Epic Waterloo miniatures and game system this weekend after just over a month on pre-order. I was lucky enough to pick mine up from SCN Hobby World yesterday and having returned from a one-day AoS tournament I was desperate to look inside my British Starter Set and see what treasures await!
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It’s a big box… of Warlord goodness!
it is competitively priced at £90 and I’m sure your FLGS will look after you, or you can give Sarah at SCN Hobby World a call if you’re in the UK.
First Impressions
There’s a lot in here…!
Lots of red plastic, so you can play without painting the toys, but there’s definitely more in there, so let’s dig deeper.
Sprue 1– Light Cavalry
3 Sprues
There enough here for 11 bases of Lighter Cavalry, as well as 3 artillery – both key elements to the Allies’ success at Waterloo. They are very detailed models, with a number of different poses to add variety to the bases of cavalry as they sweep towards the French cannon!
Sprue 2– Heavy Cavalry
3 Sprues
These are the other 11 bases of Cavalry, but these make heavier versions of the Cavalry regiments at Waterloo on the British side. Again, great detail and strong plastic and the swords seem to be reasonably strong.. although no doubt I’ll break a few from being clumsy!
Sprue 3– Foot
11 Sprues for Infantry!
There’s loads of infantry… at 10 men a strip and 2 strips a base there’s a lot of paint here… and they look great. At the bottom of the picture you can also see some of the soldiers without they’re bayonets – these are the Riflemen, and each sprue comes with a command strip, a Cavalry commander, and an artillery piece to add to the ones from the cavalry bases. Again great detail at this scale and I’ll certainly enjoy trying to paint them!
Bases
Bases… lots of them!
Of course, none of these would play well without the basic addition of bases… just look at that pile! It’s huge.
Dice
And some dice… as if wargamers don’t have enough to build their own fort! Still a good inclusion for a starter set.
Yes… I took a picture of the dice for completeness… don’t judge me!
La Belle Alliance – Building
Warlord games have teamed up with Sarissa Precision to bring some scenery with the boxset. And it’s a great large piece of scenery to play around. Having played Warmaster large terrain that effects movement is critical in this scale of game.
Flags & Painting Guide
Flags and advice
A great addition is a full colour sheet of British flags for the regiments at Waterloo. This will really add to the colour and make the regiments individual on the tabletop. Well done to Warlord games for this inclusion.
There is also a guide to painting the little chaps… and I’ll definitely need to follow this and see how I get on – inside the pamphlet there’s also a guide to the various regiments and their colours. I have some Osprey books to help, but this is a another great addition.
Rulesbook
The full rules book for the Waterloo Campaign in Epic Battles. This appears to be a full rulebook at 260 pages. It’s in glorious full colour as well and means you don’t need a separate copy of any of the existing Black Powder rule books.
Colour… and pictures!
Warlord Games have raided their catalogue of pictures to provide visual inspiration for the game.
Summary
This is a great box, and I’ve no doubt that the equivalent French box is just as jam packed with goodness. Now all I need to do is paint it all and get it on the table… this may take a while!
The Nameless King was a 1 day, 3 game AoS tournament run by Speccles of Twitter fame! I wrote about the Big Waaagh army I took to the event here.
Here’s the list for those who missed the original article.
Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh! – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Mount Trait: Weird ‘Un – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Wurrgog Prophet (150)* – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Power of the Were-boar
Battleline 10 x Orruk Brutes (320)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 2x Gore Choppas – Reinforced x 1 10 x Orruk Brutes (320)** – Jagged Gore-hackas – 2x Gore Choppas – Reinforced x 1 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers 5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)*** – 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
Units 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)** – Pig-iron Choppas 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)* 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)*
Core Battalions *Warlord **Hunters of the Heartlands ***Ironjawz Fist
Game one was against Stormcast with 6 Longstrikes, teleporting on a 2+… but this had a twist. A Stardrake! You don’t often see these around because they are not a top tier warscroll for their points so it was great to see it on the table.
I was given the first turn, slightly advanced, and didn’t take any of the objectives as I didn’t want my heroes shot off the board. In response he shot at some Ardboyz and moved his Stardrake onto the centre objective.
Second turn, and I took Monstrous Takeover to take the right most objective, whilst my Brutes charged off his Aetherwing screen and a unit of Liberators. They were joined by a unit of Big Stabbas to increase the Waaagh points, whilst my Wurrgog moved up to bring the Stardrake into 12″ for next turn… hidden behind a screen of Ardboyz.
My Brutes were then shot to shreds, whilst the Stardrake charged into the Ardboyz – and so stayed within 12″ of the Wurrgog.
I got the third priority, he destroyed the objective with my MawKrusha on it… so I triggered the Mask on the StarDrake and did 14 wounds before the Wurrgogg died, this was enough for the MawKrusha to come barelling in, killing the Stardrake and getting the objective!
Wurrgog after the staring!
This gave the Longstrikes too much to shoot at and I ended up with a small 12-8 victory.
Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat – Feral Foray
A 3 Mega-Gargant, 3 mini-gargant list which ran at me… quickly! He smashed into the screens and the Gatebreaker hit the Orruk Brutes. I swung back, stared at the Gatebreaker doing 16 wounds before dying, but it was enough for the Brutes to finish him off.
They are big…!
The MawKrusha charged the mini-Gargants and killed them all with the significant help of the second unit of Brutes… they nearly killed the Maw-Krusha in return… but he survivied… just!
This meant I could then fight the Kraken & Stomper killing them all by the top of turn 4… a win and a big one (19-1) in a game that is very difficult for the Gargants because of the number of objectives.
Game 3 v Stormcast – Techtonic Inteference
This was another shooting list, with 3 Longstrikes, 6 Crossbows and 5 of the bow chaps… so I needed to Alpha Strike. I do however tend to follow a rule that the Maw Krusha doesn’t charge turn 1 – this is because he fluffs … a lot! But I had my Triumph and command points and needed to do damage so I broke my rule, and the Gore Gruntas and Maw Krusha went in. I killed 2 Judicators on the stomp, and then swung with the MawKrusha with All Out Attack and Inspired Triumph (+1 to wound)… and did nothing! Only 7 wounds which were all saved on 4+ and 5+… oh very dear!
An embarassing attack!!
I had moved up the entire army though and gained 6 points in turn 1.
My opponent then shot off the Maw Krusha… just – but because it was in combat with most of the shooting there was limited moves towards the objectives.
In Turn 2 I racked up the max 6 point again, and cleared the judicators off the central objective, gaining Waagh points as the Bodyguard stayed alive. In response he failed to shift my army, but did kill 10 Brutes… this was now about survival!
Turn 3 saw the Wurrgog stare off the Bodyguard and rack up 4 points… but I forgot my Furious Advance and cost myself 2 points! I haven’t do that in a while …! His turn 3 killed most of the Ardboyz, and captured one of the objectives.
Turn 4 and I took 2 objectives and tried for Slay the Warlord with my Wurrgog… but this time he failed; rolled a 1; 6 wounds and only save 1 of them. I couldn’t keep going because he was holding an objective. So I couldn’t do much damage so over to him… to kill most of my army.
Priority 5 was still important as it would get me a vital few points if I got it… I rolled a 4; but he finally got the 6 he needed, took it and tabled my army – winning by 1 point!!! Such a close game and I still think the Maw Krusha move was right – no damage was so unlikely! Still it will make me think twice as the last time he charged turn 1 I lost as well (into Paul Scott’s Nurgle at March to War!)
So I finished 2-1 and 4th, only 1 point behind 3rd, and only 2 points behind 2nd (who got a 20-0 in his last game)… so close!
