Our first season of the revamped Woehammer Leagues have ended, and the results are now in.
On top of this, we’re announcing the sign ups to Season two of the leagues. This will take place on TTS and via our Discord server. There are four separate leagues; America (East), America (West), Europe and Pacific. Some of these leagues will be split into at least two divisions. Players will be given five random opponents from their division to play against over the course of two months. Players can play these games in whichever order they wish. The full rules to the league are below.
KEY INFORMATION
Sign ups close on 24th April 23:59GMT
List submission is to be made directly to me via DM on Discord and must be submitted no later than 26th April 23:59GMT
You will have until 28th June 23:59GMT to arrange and complete all five of your games.
When signing up, you’ll need to be a member of the Woehammer Discord and then choose a league to take part in on the sign up sheet.
ARMY REQUIREMENTS 2,000 Points. Any rules publications released on or before the list submission date are valid for use in the tournament. Changes to the list will be allowed after the list submission deadline if there is a valid reason such as not specifying a tactic or manifestation lore.
TOURNAMENT RULES
Five opponents will be chosen at random for each player.
This is a five game league, however, there are no ‘Rounds’ and you can play your games in whatever order you wish. Opponents will be listed as Opponent 1 through to 5 for the purposes of assigning battleplans
The Battleplans will be chosen at random on 27th April once all lists have been submitted. Battleplans will be assigned to Opponents 1 through to 5. E.g. All opponent 1 games may be assigned to Noxious Nexus. We will not be playing Paths of the Fey.
Leagues will be split into division of 10 players. Those in upper divisions are placed based on previous performance and placing within past leagues. However, anyone who has previously taken part in the leagues and then missed a season for whatever reason, will need to start in the lowest division of the league they have chosen.
A division may have a minimum of 6 players. Where odd numbers occur divisions will also have a BYE opponent.
Players are ranked by first by the number of wins followed by the number of victory points scored during their games.
Players who do not respond to another player attempting to organise a game will be awarded a loss with 0 victory points if they fail to respond.
Players who are unable to organise a game between them before the end of the season will be awarded a draw. The victory points for this draw will be decided by the average scores in that division for all other players on that battleplan.
Players who concede a game will be assigned a loss andt their opponent the victory. Both of these players will have their victory points determined by the average losing score and winning scores for players who have played that battleplan in their division.
KEEPING UP WITH THE LEAGUE
We have a specialised bot on our Discord which allows players to keep up to date with results and opponents lists without the need for BCP.
With the bot, you’ll be able to see your and your opponents lists and fixtures:
If you’re interested in signing up, then please join our discord and sign up to the event here.
Fittsy with more than one article in a week? Well… the weather is shit outside and it’s a good time of year to stay inside playing Age of Sigmar. In case you’re unfamiliar with Tabletop Simulator (TTS), it’s a software that let’s you play board games and tabletop games on your computer.
Click the image for a link to the Steam page
Of course, this ends up feeling very different to playing in real life. Different doesn’t mean bad though and although I don’t think this should replace playing games face to face, TTS gives a new opportunity to get games in. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, check out my guide over here.
I’ve played a few pick-up games but was finding it hard to find opponents at a time when I could play. So naturally I signed up for the Woehammer Fate of Denatre campaign, I won’t be covering each of the games individually here but am reflecting on how it was to play a tournament in this sort of format. For details check out the article about how the tournament was run.
I will throw in some pictures and try and capture the turning points in each of the matches. If you want more details on lists etc. You can just check it out on Ecksen!
Game 1 against Popliteal’s Sylvaneth, I started to feel like I was getting to grips with my list and good use of commands to covering fire and all out attack shoot helped to stack damage over the turns to wipe Sylvaneth off the board
What’s it feel like Playing AoS on TTS?
It does feel different for me… one of the big reasons for me getting into AoS was the social aspect and that’s just not here in the same way. I miss the handshake before the game starts and the feeling of ending a game in person. Maybe with time it will feel more familiar, for now, I miss the natural feeling and knowing the etiquette around the game online.
There is of course a community around it and that part is sort of fun. Watching how the other games go and chatting on Discord about it has been an unexpected side benefit.
Wow do I sound fucking old! I just want to say it feels different but it’s not all bad. Onto some of the more concrete differences!
Game 2 against Archivesband with so many Liberators. Went in for the big turn 1… did some good damage but it was the wrong plan and it just let this list grind me down. Also, I let a little gap in my back line and I got Stormcast all up on my back objective.
What’s different to a regular tournament?
No chatter and meeting up with people I mentioned the social aspect around games above, of course, this is missing. Itäs a large part of what I mean by TTS not replacing real life games. It is in the end a completely different way to play this game.
A lot of prep time instead of having a few minutes to assess and adapt after seeing who you’re paired into, you’ll have a week to look at the list you’ll be up against and with the battleplan. I sort of liked this… it did mean I spent a bit of time looking at the list and how I would want to deploy and play against each of them which is a good habit to work on.
The games are spread out. This makes it feel a bit more like a league playing a game every couple of weeks rather than the 1 dayers and GTs that I’m more used to. This was good for reflecting on how each of my games had gone and thinking about how I change and learn from my mistakes.
Game 3 against JuraBenHur with Skaven. Ironclad spiked to kill the Deceiver. He couldn’t get the bell out. Brokk went wild and shot and chainsawed skaven all over the place. Autoendrins blocking potential teleprots were fantastic.
What’s good?
Get in games against armies you don’t see as much in the local community. This isn’t just good from a “getting better” perspective but it was also cool to play against armies I rarely play against! Bit like heading to a tournament in real life too though I guess.
Get games in against really good players. The tournament had a great mix of some really top players, middle-fielders, and some newer players. I definitely saw that playing against some strong players pushed me harder than the luck of the draw at a 1 dayer event.
You play from home when it suits you / no transporting your army around. This cuts down on a lot of the logistics around getting games in. Especially for those living a bit further away from opportunities to play in tournaments this could greatly open up opportunities to play competitively.
Practice and prep. This one links up with the spread out games and the longer prep time and it really reminded me of Roma’s approach to league games (check out Dudes of Sigmar, it’s one of the best Podcasts out there!). This means you might go as simple as reading the list, you might try a deployment, you might work out turn 1-2 ideas… or you might even play a practice game against that army on that battleplan by yourself (Roma style) or with a mate.
Game 4 against TheEnvoy with Nighthaunt. I played this one tight and well… but could not find ways to block Quicksilver from tagging my Ironclad. If this was post the points increases for Nighthaunt, I think the match would have been enough in my favour to pull a win.
What’s bad?
Stuck with one list for however long it runs. Of course, because it’s spread out you’ll pick your list and be stuck with it. Similar to problems with Path to Glory or Leagues that means if you’re unhappy with it you won’t be motivated to keep going.
Some of the stakes are reduced… Motivation is clearly different to physically being there in front of the tables when things aren’t going well and of course life is always there competing with your time to play Warhammer. I could see that for others with drops especially at the end of the tournaments. But I also felt it personally, I’m happy with my result but for sure it didn’t feel as important as turning up in person and winning those games standing on the other side of the tabletop to your opponent.
Trying to schedule games. For me, this was the worst and hardest part about it all. I had the good or bad luck of pairing into players all across the world but this meant it was really hard for me to find times to fit my games in. Between work, family, and other commitments, my calendar is a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. Finding those times to play was as real headache and a surprising amount of work. Thanks to all my opponents for their patience!
Game 5 against Slangster with Aggradons and a Soggy Carnosaur. I lost my notes and screenshots but after forcing the army to come to me, I could really pile the damage on and got a double 1 into 2 to decide this one really early on.
Will I keep doing it?
When I think I can’t get real life games in… this is a nice replacement. I have found that it’s started to impact whether I play in real life… I’d have a chance this weekend and instead I will end up stuck in my office playing games on TTS. So that’s something I want to balance better.
Before writing this article… I did register for a team tournament, Release The Beast, but more on that later 😉
I think I like the middle ground of the new Woehammer ladder league which will be starting soon is about right for me. It cuts out some of the problems of scheduling the games one after the other. That one is just about to start but if you’re interested in general, come and join us there I’m sure we’ll have another one coming up as soon as that one’s finished.
You want to get started in Tabletop Simulator (TTS). Fittsy is here to save the day! Or at least help out enough for you to get started and learn enough to jump into it and get going.
In my adventure to try and get better, I’ve gotten into using TTS. I’ve been using it for a couple of different things. Mostly for checking out deployment and movement options but I’ve also been getting into playing full games on there now too. So after a few months of using it and some 10 odd games, I figured I’d share what I’ve learnt and maybe help you to get started with it too.
I’ll try and keep this updated but I’m also interested to know if there’s things I’ve missed or if there are better ways to do things. Let me know in the comments or over on the Woehammer Discord!
Step 1: Get TTS
Step 2: Install the mods you need and prep an army
Step 3: …
Step 4: Learn how to use it / Play games / Profit
OK, that was a serious stretch for the meme… and I didn’t even bother to do a picture of it. Well, onto the actual article after that poor attempt at humour. This one is going to be pretty light on pictures sorry. It may even be a bit of a “boring” Fittsy’s Foughts but… it could be an actually useful one 😛
Getting yourself setup
First up, you’ll need to download and install Tabletop Simulator. I don’t know if there is an alternative to doing it via Steam but I’m old / couldn’t be bothered checking / literally don’t knwo what journalistic integrity is. I’m so honest, I don’t even know if the last point there is relevant. Anyway… getting on with things…
Do yourself a favour and do the tutorial!
This’ll really help you get to grips with the controls. To start it up click on the little light globe icon in the middle when you start TTS up. If you can’t find that… you’re probably doomed. But really, if you can’t find it, come and chat and we’ll help you via Discord!
Ok, you’ve done the tutorial now? Good! On with the show!
Next step will be to head onto Steam Workshop, click on “Community” in the top bar then “Workshop”. Then you need to get to the Tabletop Simulator section of the Workshop by using the “Search for a Workshop” field.
You can find other good options around like Mitch’s Maps and Ulthuan. You may find that for your army or for other reasons that other options work better for you!
Get an army ready to play with
Click Create in TTS and then select your Model Mod of choice.
If you’re in Malavitch’s, right click on the bag for the army you want and then you can use the search function to find the models you want, so long as you know how to spell the names of your units 😉. Just click on the models you need and drag them onto the table.
Here, you can use right click and then clone to make more of something or press ctrl+c ctrl+v.
You can also save warscroll cards if that’s how you want to see your rules while you play… of course, you can always use your standard tools like warscroll cards or an excel file with your rules listed per phase. Or why not all 3 as I do sometimes 😀
Once you’ve got all the pieces you want to have ready for when you play, you have two options (that I know of). You can just select it all with shift click or drag to select, then right click and choose “Save Object”. Or you can empty a bag out and put everything you want back in there. Right click that one and save it. Up to you! I started with the bag but then found just spawning an army into the game was easier.
On that note, when you want to bring that army out to play, just click the Objects Icon in the top row and then on “Saved Objects” to go and pick the army you want.
If you have to ask, yes, I have no shame and I just used the first tool Microsoft put in my face to markup the image. Oh how my artistic integrity has fallen.
Setting up your Table
Head on over to the Main Menu and go back to “Create” to get started on a table.
Click your mod, click ok when it asks for confirmation then wait patiently while it loads.
Then I normally follow these three steps (assuming you already know which map you’re going to play).
Find the green bag with the terrain for the map you want and click the “place” button underneath it.
Right click on the “deployment zones” button just next to the green bags, go to state, then hover over the numbers until you find the map you need and click that.
Next to the “deployment zones” button should also be a “deployment buffers”9″ Zones” button, set this one up for the battleplans where some of the deployment zone is blocked off by being too close to the opponent’s.
Right click on the GHB and do the same for the objectives.
Then you can head down to your Battle Tactics cards and use the states again to change these into the ones you are using with your list.
Then bam, you should have something that looks like what you have here below and you are ready to bring your army in and start deploying!
An almost interesting picture!
Doing your game stuff
Measuring
The tutorial should have introduced you to the basics but there are a couple of bonus parts here.
Use the rulers if you need to! If the other tools are bugging out, just use a ruler or 2! You can also copy these if you need more.
AURAs! These are a game changer for playing AoS in TTS. If you’re using “Makalvitchs” or a similar mod, then when you right click, you’ll be able to change the state which will show you measurements based on the models base. You can also change this by simply hovering and pressing numbers too! Just go and give this a try for yourself, measuring those 3” ranges becomes amazingly easier and quicker.
If you’ve got “auto” on, then when you move your models, it will tell you how far you’re moving them. The other option is to stick to “free” where you’ll then need to press tab from where you start until where you want to end to measure.
Moving models
Sounds so easy but is also sort of easy to fuck up from time to time. My two main tips here beyond the tutorial is that:
Pressing “ESC” whilst holding the models means you return them to where you picked them up from.
If you right click while you’re holding them it will place them back on the surface of the table so that you can see they’re going to sit fine. This is key if you want to use the auto measurement tools in TTS for them to calculate your distance correctly. Note: at least for me, this only seems to work if you have measurement on “auto”
A cool trick is picking up your unit and then pressing the numbers 1,2,3 etc to rank them up automatically! Give it a try!
Rolling Dice
Have a play around in tts, I find getting used to the dice rolling came very quickly!
Right clicking on the “Clear Mat” thing is very helpful to get rid of the dice but you can also pick them up and press delete or similar. I also really like using the “Roll all dice” after adding the dice in to the correct amount with the red buttons. Otherwise, you pick up all your dice, shake your mouse around and then drop them on the thing that looks like a galaxy.
Then you’ll want to practice right clicking or clicking on the buttons next to your dice to delete certain rolls or all numbers below a certain value. You’ll want to practice this because every so often you’ll click on the wrong thing and then you’ll need another trick…
The “Last 5 Rolls” button is a life saver if you mess something up… or if you and your opponent simply forget what you were up to.
Communication
You’ll want to be on voice chat… the best place for that is naturally the Woehammer Discord 😉
Otherwise, you’ve got a couple of things that can help such as pressing tab when you’ve got the ruler (“line”) tool selected to ping on the table or if you want to get fancy you can use the draw function to help communicate between you both.
Handy tips (stuff that didn’t fit somewhere else)
I mean… I could’ve gone for a way dirtier pun here instead of putting in this “hand”
Don’t press rewind! Don’t press ctrl+z. Look, we all do it sometimes… but it causes all sorts of headaches. Just try your best not to press it.
Use “Color Tint” (it hurts me to misspell colour) to change how the bases look! It’ll make it easier to tell units apart. Just right click, then select the colour you want to use. You can do it to mark up certain states too in case Nurgle is getting you diseased or something gross like that.
Markers and stuff. You’ll find them all in front of your dice area. Use them! Especially those little red blood drop wound markers!
Copy your units, is it too hard to show on the table the wounds or prayer points? Copy your units place them to one side and put your markers there!
The ALT key! If you want to see a zoomed preview of something it’ll show it right up big on your screen so that you can read it without jiggling your view around!
Hover your mouse over a unit and often you’ll be able to see the unit stats (doesn’t seem to always work 100% and different mods may or may not have it).
You can switch between grabbing and measuring with F1 and F4
Just play roughly ignoring coherency or you’ll have a bad time! Talk over it with your opponent first of course and remove models in the same way you would on the table and you’ll be fine. I played a game doing everything correctly, it was a pain in the arse and it took ages too!
Get out there and give TTS a go!
Now go get yourself setup and start practicing how things work. Then go get yourself a game with someone else and have fun. This is definitely a learn by doing thing and other players will help you out with how to do things and playing the game. If you do run into trouble, ask around. Like I said earlier, there’s heaps of people in the Woehammer Discord who will help out!
It’s a really helpful tool for when you can’t just have a table setup to play around with your deployment or just to see how battleplans are for different lists. I’ll make callbacks to using TTS in other articles and it’s one of the changes that has helped me already feel better prepared and ready when I walk up to a table in real life and want to throw dice competitively!
