The 16th Primarch novel (novella) takes us to the Imperial Fists and their Primarch – Rogal Dorn.
From the book:
As the Great Crusade enters its sixth decade, the fleets and armies of the Emperor spear out into the galaxy to bring the Imperial Truth to thousands of worlds. Expansion has been swift, but must now be tempered with consolidation. Even so, the Emperor demands that the boundaries of the Imperium be pushed further into the unknown.
The Master of Mankind tasks four primarchs with the dangerous mission of securing the worlds of the Occluda Noctis – hundreds of star systems on the far side of the Northern Major Warp Storm, whose warp-churning presence casts a shadow on the guiding light of the Astronomican and blinds even the Emperor’s psychic sight. Rogal Dorn leads his Imperial Fists directly into the heart of this cosmic twilight. Isolated, battling a foe the likes of which nobody has encountered before, Dorn must use all of his strategic genius and irresistible will to conquer the darkness in the name of the Emperor.
Not many of the books in the Horus Heresy have four Primarchs, and even fewer of the Novellas so it strange that the author has chosen to do this for a book pertaining to be about one Primarch.
Dorn clashes with Lion El’Jonson about how to fulfil the Emperor’s commands and how to bring The Night Crusade to a successful conclusion. The Lion does not come out well in these discussions, and Dorn definitely comes across as the ‘better’ Primarch (by which I mean more competent and able to lead his men).
Dorn leads his fleet and Chapter into the darkness of The Night Crusade and is able to outflank, and out plan his enemy, despite them having a seemingly impossible ability to navigate between star systems without going through the Mandeville Points.
Dorn uses all the resources at his disposal, augmenting his Navigators with his Librarians to break through the long night.
I very much enjoyed how everything tied together, although the battle sequences are much shorter than other books and the novella format was perhaps too short for the story that Gav Thorpe wanted to tell. But all that said, it is a very good addition to the Primarchs series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
So I’m completely biased here because I’m the TO (now part of a 4 man organisation team). Massive thanks to Dirk, Luca, and Janis for their support to run these events and I’m really proud to say that they’re just getting better and better! Special shout-out to Luca who really stepped up and by the time we all arrived the tables were already set up completely and he ran the day amazingly. On with the show…
The tournament in general
I’ll just try and go through the facts here because otherwise I’ll just be patting my own back. Ah no, I’ll point out some things we need to change here. We’ve been really open with our attendees about building up the tournaments and taking into account their feedback.
Venue: Kutami in Bremen which is a FLGS with 12 tables available. The tables are nice and high which is great for all us old fellas. There are some chairs but not enough for everyone, seemed like we’re getting there with having enough now. I’d love to have some bar stools but we don’t have anywhere to put them between tournaments. Big pro is that everyone can stock up on their war dollies whilst at the tournament and they even kept the cash register open until after the end of the tournament which was really nice of the dudes from there.
Food and drinks: Water, coke, sprite, and of course a couple of cheeky beers. The only thing missing was COFFEE. We now have a solution for the next time but recognise this was a bit of a pain for people. For food, we have lots of places within a short walk which is great for people to be able to get what they want for lunch… the downside to this means that everyone splits up over lunch and you get less time to chat together
Organisation: Only major criticism here is the lack of a clock, reminders were loud and clear though thanks to Luca.
Prizes: Wow! Our sponsors really came out for people this time… on top of Kutami themselves sponsoring, there were also PlayMats, Battle Systems,Gamer’s Grass and Micro Art Studios. I mention Micro Art Studios in particular because they’ve been awesome and have been supporting us since before we rebranded and they’re just so nice and happy to support us for so long. They do some great basing stuff which I use myself and they can really up your bases with some great details. In the end, we had prizes for 1st-3rd and also for Best Painted 1st-3rd plus a little prize for everyone and others raffled out to everyone who was there at the end of the day… which was everyone. Our community is so awesome!
My List
Same one as before… but now with my Cairn Wraith as my general instead of the Lord Ex
I got asked why it says Ah Fittsy at the start… well, it’s mostly just to have it at the top of the app 🙂
Onto the games
The Vice – Bjorn Fyreslayers
Bjorn again! He’s still an awesome dude and it meant we both had a pretty good idea of each other’s armies going into the game. We both made a couple of mistakes which could have made it closer or wider in the end. I knew in this one, I needed to do enough damage and/or keep him pinned further back on the battlefield to keep the potential to take the centre objective.
He pushed up the centre but committed less there and hung back as far as he could. It wasn’t enough though and I pushed up hard into the centre with most of my army whilst sending the Hexwraiths up on each board edge to threaten the flanks. In this case, for the first turn where I wasn’t tagging so much of his army, he took the 5+ ward which meant I’d have to play around the strike first one later. He’d learnt a lesson from the last time and used all out defense to keep Gotrek alive when I went in… and he survived on 1 health because of it! Also… because I forgot to burn my once per battle extra attack to clear out the centre and only realised halfway through the combat phase… This was the start of a recurring theme for the day. On the flipside I did remember that Reikenor gets to ping his 1 “allocate wound” against an opponent without letting them have a ward which was perfect to take Gotrek out.
I’m gonna get you Gotrek!
2nd turn I took the double to try and start controlling the board and take the chance to do more damage. This was the turn where I needed to deal with the strike first and I took a little damage going into that but importantly, I started to pin some more of the Fyreslayers.
Both sides were pretty sparse on bodies going into turn 3
From there on… it was a bit of a war of attrition and for me to start scoring big whilst Bjorn played solidly and kept the score close with some clever battle tactics. We did get interrupted quite a bit during this game and we ended up running out of time. This was for sure a bit disruptive, especially for Bjorn, and it’s something to think about for future tournaments.
28-22 to me at end of the 4th turn
Shifting Objectives – Ole with his KO
I was quite happy to go into a KO list to see how I could play against them with my Nighthaunt. Wow… was it an intense game in the end. One of the most exciting and close matches I’ve ever played. If I’d done a couple of things differently, I think it would have been a win for me…
I gave Ole the first turn, looking for the double into 2nd or 3rd as my win condition for this matchup. In the first turn, Ole played it pretty safe and stayed well back but dropped Callis and Toll onto the centre objective for a seize the centre and to get up on points. I knew it was going to be tough to keep him off the points with 2 Frigates on the board and potential for a lot of damage from the Riggers and Brokk on one side. With this in mind, I wanted to take my chance to wipe Callis and Toll and take control of the centre. On the other hand, this meant that they already did their job holding me up for 2 turns of combat and scoring a tactic and points. When I went in, I forgot to burn my artefact again to wipe them out (not sure that would have been enough but it would have been closer). Perhaps more importantly is I pivoted 1 unit of Hexwraiths to move over to the Riggers side and aggressively pushed the others up to charge the Frigate after a redeploy. I then foolishly threw my attacks into the Frigate instead of starting to whittle down the Riggers. The Hexwraiths whiffed on their attacks after an all out defense and it didn’t matter that much in the end. Got the double into 2 and this should have really started to swing the game my way. I did use it to get rid of most of the riggers with my Hexwraiths and cleared the centre out whilst starting to position to push towards the Thunderers and their Frigate.
From then on… it became a game of cat and mouse with Ole using his Frigates to get onto objectives and the Codewright buffing control scores. Along the way, I did get into combat with the Thunderers, Codewright and the 2nd Frigate. What I did wrong there is that I should have taken the chance to kill the Codewright just for the effective change to control scores but I was focussed on taking my chance to kill Thunderers. It all came down to the last turn where Ole had to win the prio to take the double and score 6 points on the objectives… Then I had the chance to tie and I forgot to use discorporate to protect my Hexwraiths, proceeded to lose 1 and couldn’t take control of the last secondary objective.
Giving away the double into 2nd was a huge help but really hurt watching the primary objective constantly go over to his stronger side and making it easier for him to score. In the end, my overall gameplan was good but a few choices along the way made it a tougher game for myself and Ole was just playing some fucking top grade AoS. He was also a nice fella and I look forward to more battles together in the future!
41-42 for Ole for a well earned win!
Feral Fourway – Janis bringing DoK this time
Ah, the curse of our team, I paired into Janis my teammate and one of my most common opponents. For context, in the German League, the teams are only 3 players… so zeah, a bit of bum luck there. He is a great player who loves to switch armies and play with interesting lists… like this one he’s taken with Daughter’s. For context… there was a bit on the line here as with Nighthaunt I’m still undefeated against him despite him being arguably the better player of the two of us. This was somehow my first time ever playing into DoK even going back to 3rd, 2nd, and even 1st ed. I didn’t really know how the army worked so I figured I’d just go into it and have fun. I wanted to bait Morathi up to the middle and then keep her busy… which I did but at the cost of a lot of my army. I swung around Morathi and sent my Reapers up to start clearing out the center while my Hexwraiths tried to clear the side.
Table got messy quick in this game… 3rd game of the day and we were both looking a bit tired
An interesting point here is that Janis loves to include fast units and even better teleporting units so I knew that cleaning them off would help me to control the scoring better.
A couple of times here he threw in buffed up Witch Aelves who then did a little damage with their 1st attack but ethereal helping keep enough of mine alive to then smack them back off the table.
Back to Morathi… I wanted to whittle her down and even set up my Lord Ex and Cairn Wraith to block her from getting to Reikenor, but I left too big a gap, she jumped into the middle and wiped all 3 in a turn *sadface*. But at that point, there were only a few wounds left on her and I’d been clearing enough of the rest of the army with my Hexwraiths hardly injured running around scoring and causing mayhem. A bit of a turning point was when he picked Slay the Entourage on my single remaining Reaper who then rolled all of their ethereal saves even with Morathi going into it and survived.
In the last couple of turns, it was getting awkward for both of us which led to some inventive Hexwraith congalines to take objectives and score tactics at the same time like in this photo 😊. They really can stretch a long way across the board when they need to!
Why not stand on two objectives and seize the centre at the same time?
50-36 for me, Don’t worry Janis, you’ll get me one day.
This is what I imagine Janis does when he gets home after each match… except with a beer and patting a new army
Lessons learned
I tried out a new trick where I would put a bottlecap in my hand or on the table to remind me of battle tactics or using an ability… Unfortunately this didn’t help for the Lightshard as I did not use it once in 3 games… unfortunately Nighthaunt doesn’t really have a better artefact so I’m probably stuck with it.
There should probably be some sort of reflection on the mistakes I’m making or how I should change how I play. I’m happy I’m recognising them and if I get back to playing more regularly, I think I’ll nip them in the bud over time. Oh, I didn’t mention it in this article but I did game 2 and 3 on the clock… I wasn’t slow but it did distract me and I need to get back to practising with the clock again. Sounds like I need to get in more games!
Rounding this one up…
All in all it was a great day, I was a bit tired heading into it but I was lucky to have 3 really great people as opponents. The day in general and the tournament ran pretty well too thanks to Luca looking after everyone and doing a great job with the orga side of things. I’m pretty happy with this list, I’d like to start playing around with using Awlrach for that deepstriking goodness but not against Janis in case he beats me while I’m practising :P. This event took me just under 70% winrate with my Nighthaunt so that’s going better than with my KO and I’m having a lot more fun with them. Still in that weird spot waiting for the new book but I’ll take them to at least one more tournament until then.
I’ll be back next week with a new article and I’ll probably focus on how running these tournaments has been going. Who knows… I still have a huge backlog of article ideas so I may just pick something that I’m feeling like writing about. In the meantime, I hope you all get in some good games and have fun out there!
The 13th Primarch novel (novella) takes us to the Dark Angels and their Primarch – Lion El’Jonson.
From the book:
Each primarch is an exemplary being, derived from the Emperor’s own genetic stock to embody a facet of His personality. Their powers are unfathomable, but only one of them is the First. Lion El’Jonson is the paragon of what it is to be a primarch. His Legion, pre-eminent for most of their long history, typify the virtues of temperance, pride, and martial excellency that the Lion embodies. They are the Emperor’s last line and final sanction. They are His Dark Angels.
Now, while the Emperor gathers His mightiest sons for an assault on Ullanor Prime, the Lord of the First instead draws his Legion to the farthest reaches of the known galaxy, seeking to subdue a single rebellious world. Is this but another example of the Lion’s infamous pride, or is there more afoot amidst that graveyard of empires that is the Ghoul Stars, more than the Lion will share even with his own sons?
One of my favourite things in the novella’s and books of the Horus Heresy is hearing about the different alien species the Emperor’s sons meet alien species that will never appear in a rulebook and will never have miniatures. This freedom allows the authors to explore alien species without limitation.
The enemies facing Lion El’Jonson and his Dark Angels are facing the Khrave who are able to take over the minds of weaker species… but in the Dark Angels – and The Lion – they may have finally met their match.
The Khrave are well written, spooky and scary and use psyker powers in some extreme ways – they definitely add peril to the book as the human elements of the Dark Angels fleet and Imperium army cannot be trusted to stand alongside the Space Marines – and so they must fight the enemy – and those members of the fleet/army taken over by the Khrave – on their own.
Guymer also throws in scenes between the Lion and the Emperor – it is always interested to read above the Emperor in these books – and this definitely adds flavour to the Dark Angel’s Primarch…
However the way they kill the Khrave – using weapons only they have access to – is characterful but always leaves the question ‘why not against Horus then…?’ and this is a question I found difficult to overlook.
Overall it’s a good book, with a well written and described enemy which is let down a bit by a disappointing ending.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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A sarcastically funny, dark fantasy romance reimagining of Hercules from Amazon bestselling author Jasmine Mas.
From the book:
I’m struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens.
My blood test reveals I’m part of the powerful elite. I’m one of them. A Spartan.
Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There’s just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I’m pretty sure either someone’s stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity’s slipping––I have a bad feeling both are true.
I get given books at Christmas, but sometimes they sit on the shelf and get to my read pile, so last year I decided that I would read the ones bought for me. This is the first of those, and it would not be my normal go-to style – but it has Hercules, Spartans and a panolpy of demi-humans and Gods… so that’ll just fit straight into my interests – I hope!
I will admit to a minor level of trepidation with the title as greek heroes are more typically referred to by their Greek names, (and not Roman / Latin names)… so maybe Blood of Heracles, would be better… but a minor quibble so on to the book – and this is my first one with a content warning, but that’s the modern thing I assume.
Unfortunately, my initial (possible) optimism started to take a downward turn – the premise is solid – in a world where the Spartans conquered Greece and then settled in Rome (weird, but okay), the Titans have just returned and want to destroy all humanity.
Fortunately the Spartans have revealed themselves and they can teleport and fight Titans – but the Spartans are a dwindling race and their blood is running low. But they have a very greek solution, there are children around the world that have Spartan blood for ‘reasons’… they may be Zeus like reasons and sleeping with mortals. all children are tested, and those with Spartan Blood are sent to the Colliseum (… err…) to fight to the death so only 10 are left — not a great way to replace your dwindling population.
Our author (Alexis, written in the first person) is one of the ten and so joins her fellow survivors in a school/classroom where they learn about Spartan society and knowledge – although not really – and go on runs if they fail a test. Except they all have to do the run and some are killed on it.
If you’re confused, then so was I and I had the author’s words in front of me. There’s no logic to the process the new Spartans have to go through, there’s no Greek mythology other than the character’s names, and there’s no logic to how 2,000 years of Spartan society have resulted in the same society we have now – except for the destruction caused by Titans.
And then there’s the straw… the main character refers to one of her tutors as being ‘like Satan’… really??? Where did Christianity come from?
So a well deserved 1 star review – but not a ‘so bad it’s good’ type book. Save yourself then 400 pages, and leave this one on the shop’s bookshelf.
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
The 15th Primarch novel (novella) takes us to the Death Guard and their Primarch – Mortarion.
From the book:
Once, the Galaspar System suffered under the cruel regime of the Order. Billions of people toiled endlessly to enrich their masters, enduring short lives of poverty, squalor and fear. But Galaspar’s sins did not go unnoticed by the Imperium, and so Death itself sentenced the Order to annihilation.
Mortarion, newly uplifted to commander of the Death Guard, descended upon the world, and with him came a slaughter of untold proportions. The sheer brutality of Mortarion’s campaign left the Imperium appalled. Seeking to understand its horrors, two noble primarchs have come to Galaspar, summoning their brother to account for his actions. But the Pale King brooks no challenge to his methods, for when the scythe falls, it reaps a gruesome toll.
Part of the Primarchs (Horus Heresy) series sees Mortarion justify his methods in the compliance of Galaspar. Starting with Horus & Sanguinius who have come to underestand why Mortarion took such brutal measures and why so much of the population lies dead… being counted by those left.
Mortarion doesn’t justify his actions, but he does explain them; how a precision strike through the planets defences and assaulting a hive with a spaceship was the only way to cut the head off the Order.
Unlike some of the Primarch books this was primarily about Mortarion, and his role in the fighting for compliance – and it is better for it. The reader gets a real sense of how Mortarion think, plans, and acts in the face of a world run by the few, at the cost of the many.
I also loved the descriptions of the organisation of the hive, and fighting within it… this book would not be out of place in the Necromunda hives… albeit without the Noble Houses being defeated by Mortarion and the Death Guard. Who knew that 10,000 years after these events and Imperium would be replicating the very worlds that Mortarion fought to destroy.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
The 9th Primarch novel (novella) takes us to the XVIIIth legion and the uniting of their warriors of Terra with those of Nocturne… with Vulkan they will become the Salamanders.
From the book:
As the Emperor marshals his armies to reclaim the galaxy for the glory of mankind, one by one his Space Marine Legions are reunited with their missing primarchs. The XVIII Legion are still waiting to find their true identity, unaware their own lord has been found. In the Taras Division, legionaries face annihilation as they take a last, desperate stand against a monstrous ork invasion. Meanwhile, on Nocturne, Vulkan has raised and trained a new force of warriors. Now it is the time for him to lead his sons into battle. Now it is the time for him to truly don the mantle of primarch, not only to save one half of his Legion, but forge a new, indivisible whole.
Part of the Primarchs (Horus Heresy) series sees the Primarch of the XVIII legion – the Salamanders – set forth from Nocturne to save his Terran warriors from the Orks. They have positioned themselves in the way of an attack moon, and there is no where to retreat to and so they stand to defend the last of the population of the Taras Division.
Annandale gives the Lord of Drakes some air-time in this quick paced novella, but most of it centres around the activity of the Terran soldiers of the Salamanders as they wait for the arrival of reinforcements that they know won’t come. The Orks are seemingly unstoppable and the Space Marines get ever more desperate – including re-routing a volcano — multiple times! (It wouldn’t be a birth of Salamander without diverting a volcano).
Vulkan does get a few scenes, but mostly fighting inside a Ork Moon, killing Warbosses and normal Orks with abandon – but unfortunately no peril – and so despite being purportedly about Vulkan this book – as with a few of the Primarchs series – is more about his legion than him. It’s disappointing, but not surprising – the series is becoming a bit pot-luck as to whether it is a story about the Primarch, or his legion.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
I’m back baby… in more ways than one. 2 articles without months between them? Yes! A couple of wins? Yes! Nighthaunt? Oooooh yes! And most important of all, I had fun and I think I was a good opponent in all 5 of my games.
And… I’m already taking into account your feedback! This time, battles with original scores instead of post matrix. And with that out of the way, into another rambling article highlighting whatever stuck in my mind.
The Tournament Itself
Where: Hamburg… a short drive from home that felt like a long one after 5 games in two days (well… I even snuck in an extra practice game on Friday because I’m a doofus)
The tournament was meant to be 50 players but didn’t fill up. I’d heard the first one was a bit of a mess and that turned people away from travelling there. Conversely… I wanted to see this mess for myself and was instead pleasantly surprised by what appeared to be a pretty well organised tournament.
Terrain:
Enough for the battleplans. Nice enough, some 3d printed, some self made. Nothing to complain about here.
Food:
Pizza and pasta, vegan pizza was a bit of a bummer and they struggled a bit with the system (because lots of people forgot their orders). You can’t really go wrong with Pizza and Pasta though.
Venue:
In a school, which was an interesting vibe. Meant there was sparkling water on tap which was good. Coffee flat which is great for lots of people (I enjoyed my 1.5 cups a day)
Shared with a big 40k tournament
Price: A+, I like to keep my money for throwing it away frivolously on models… so I was really happy about that aspect
Community:
A+++, AoS is the best! Almost everyone stayed for the awards and compared to the few remaining for 40k, showed some great spirit. Nice to catch a bunch of the north western players. Some top players turned out for it too. More on that below 😛 We definitely felt like a side project with the much bigger 40k tournament going on in parallel… but honestly, that made it feel more personal and friendly.
Back to the good ol’ ghosts
Fittsy why aren’t you playing Nighthaunt v0-1 2000/2000 pts
Nighthaunt | Death Stalkers Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy
General’s Regiment Lord Executioner (170) • General • Ruler of the Spectral Hosts Bladegheist Revenants (360) • Reinforced Grimghast Reapers (300) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Reikenor the Grimhailer (240) Cairn Wraith (130) • Lightshard of the Harvest Moon Hexwraiths (400) • Reinforced Hexwraiths (400) • Reinforced
There’s nothing game-changing here… I was umming and ahhing about switching the two little heroes around so that they swap General, artefact, and trait. I said before the tournament that it would probably only come up at most in 1 of 10 games… and then it did game 2. The jist is that the Lord Ex shouldn’t be the general with the bodyguard because there are cases where you want to split the Lord Ex and the Reapers up (something I did almost every game) and really really importantly, sometimes you want to counter-charge him to put the -1 attack on something else. I do feel like I miss the teleports of Vanishing Phantasms or Awlrach, but the Hexwraiths in 2 units of 10 give that movement. Maybe a teleport option would have changed game 3… but now we’re in the realm of “we know a new battletome is coming” and I’m less inspired to play around with list-building with Nighthaunt for now. At least I had a better army name this time 😊
Game 1: Border War against Lukas and his beautiful IDK
Revenge match! I beat him last game at my first GT (and his first GT) when we were both on 3:1.
Classic Fittsy throw all my stuff at a problem and see if that fixes it
He deployed towards one side and moved back into a corner (I assume to castle up and teleport out) so I took “the bait” (that’s a fish elf pun). Sending in the troops to clear out as many units as I could to make scoring harder for him and knowing I could get my Hexwraiths and Reik back out to score better turn 3 onwards or hunt the teleported units. The tactic worked pretty well enough and could knock the turtle off then clear more units to get my score ahead.
Fixed it
Great opponent, nice guy, solid player, most beautiful army with amazing converted endless spells with light effects. He rightfully won Best Painted and I hope to keep seeing the army on the tables in the future.
Game went to me with 33-26 at end of turn 4 where we timed out
Game 2: Scorched Earth against Dario with Belakor, Chosen and Varanguard (and just happens to be the number 1 player in Germany)
I’ve seen Dario round at tournaments before but never really had a chat before and definitely never played a game against him. He was a nice guy and he stuck to his word of giving me a fast game!
I was a bit nervous when I realised and I went into the game assuming I wouldn’t win. That was my first mistake. It ended up meaning that I played more cautiously than I normally would have. I hadn’t played against a Slaves list like this yet even if I’ve seen what Chosen can do.
I headed out for a Take the Flanks and otherwise stayed back as well as I could. I had a plan which was to draw the Chosen out into a charge where I could take an attack or two off them, theoretically sacrificing a unit of Bladegheists for it and hoping to slap them off in the next turn. As he should do, he charged in but didn’t tag the lord ex to avoid a -1 to hit but instead used my Hexwraiths which I’d left next to them to avoid him wrapping around me. That meant I had to counter charge my Lord Ex in to drop them by 1 attack. So I’d had some good ideas but his were better. This is where I need to change my list as at least on their second attack they would have lost 2 attacks instead of 1.
Me losing the game in my first turn…
On the other side. I left my Hexwraiths out of combat but could have tagged the Varanguard and controlled that side. This is what I normally would have done but I was trying to play smart. Note to self, go with my gut and don’t try to think too much. I didn’t even see the opportunity because I wasn’t looking for it.
The chosen are hiding in the forest from what’s left of my army
I learnt a lot from all that and it helped me a lot in my next games it focused me on my win conditions (or at least what I thought they were). Dario and I had a nice chat afterwards which just confirmed most of what I’d thought about the game.
I did have a little win late in the game with my last 2 Hexwraiths where I found a battle tactic Dario hadn’t seen and I charged over the top of the remaining 3 Chosen blocking them from using a pile in and scoring a last minute Take Their Lands… I always say I play for wins not points but this helped me to start thinking differently.
Game to Dario 26-50
Game 3: Battle For The please let me get Pass Karazai against Jean-Bryce
3rd game of first day (4th game in 2 days :P)… and I was getting a bit tired for this one. After deployment, my opponent asked to use a clock which I had to accept under the tournament rules. I need more clock practice again as I haven’t been using it in 4th because I’ve been a bit lazy about it to be honest. The lack of clock practice did make a difference here in this game. I just plain forgot it halfway through our biggest combat phase and lost quite a bit of time then and a couple of other times.
Pushing up
I got stuck into combat with Karazai pretty early which was roughly my plan… whilst then clearing my backline from his teleporters with my endless spells and a unit of Hexwraiths and simultaneously clearing out his backline. The only problem was that my tactic didn’t work quickly enough and led to a lot of time fighting and not much happening. Karazai was able to bully me off one of the flank objectives and his back objective whilst we whittled each other down. He slowly took the lead and I ran out of time right near the end but that was enough to make it a clear win for him.
End of the game…
Not sure how I should have / could have played it differently… but I think I used the wrong units for the wrong jobs. It was fun taking two attacks away from Karazai and seeing him do very little to my units (except for one ridiculous rampage killing more than half my unit of Bladegheists. It was a tough battleplan as Karazai could be really effective whilst the teleporters kept up the threat of scoring and stole my home objective once. I went 7 rounds of combat with Karazai so I’ll just chalk that bit up as a moral victory. Jean-Bryce played well and dealt with a pretty unexpected board state for him as I’m sure he thought he was just going to churn through my army with Karazai.
25-36 for Jean-Bryce end of turn 5 after my clock timed out in turn 4 (when we were already over time since we’d started the clock after deployment)
Game 4: Feral Fourway with Björn and a couple of Fyreslayers
Björn is just a straight up awesome dude and it was the perfect start to the Sunday. It was my first time playing against him and he was a fun opponent and a fair opponent.
Our armies all lined up ready for an honest fight in the middle
He was playing Fyreslayers which gave me a bit of worry with their mortals and many attacks. I gave him first and he went straight up for the centre with the core of his army whilst leaving a blob of Vulkites up on one corner. I pinned those little dudes on the back corner objective with Hexwraiths, using my other unit to move up the opposite flank to threaten his backline for turn 2
Then I did what I do best and I went all in for the centre blob, then I realised he could trigger the rune to give first strike… but I figured what the hell, I can still turn it so I charged in with my Reapers and Bladeghists and even set off the extra 1 attack artefact. I avoided his -1 attack by some delicate tagging (thanks to having it used against me, it was easier to see how to do it in this game). This baited a Gotrek counter charge out who summarily wiped my Bladegheists which was what I was trying to get him to do (as it was his last 2 command pts) but that still hurt a little.
I won the prio into 2nd, took the double and cleaned Gotrek off with a couple of extra wounds with my first activation – after that it was really just cleaning up and scoring on the board
A good day for the ghosts
Big win to me for 42-16
Game 5: Focal Points Ogor Mawtribes Monster Trucks piloted by Manu on Focal Points
Win condition: stop them from charging and control the board
Surprised him by taking 1st and throwing as much as I could up at his army and tagging a lot. That simply worked. I could do enough damage and had him pinned in his deployment zone to cripple his point scoring early and set up a comfortable early lead. I could see that the game was a bit frustrating for him since my chance to win was effectively don’t let him play the game he wants to.
Pinning is winning… at least when it comes to Monster Trucks
Made one mistake when I got greedy for points and wanted a big turn with Reapers and Cairn Wraith. Rerolled the Cairn Wraiths charge and failed the 4+ for the Reapers. Missed to tag 2 more units then and did considerably less damage. Game was still mine at that point. “I got excited”… Shout-out here to Miscast, get back on the mics and make more episodes for me! It wasn’t entirely wrong to do it the way I did… it would have let me score bigger and I wasn’t going to lose from where I’d gotten the board state too. Actually, I should just do it again next chance I get, sometimes you gotta roll those dice and see where they take you!
I’ll just stand on these circles, you can have those other ones
4th and 5th games scores were both decided by the prio roll into 2nd turn but were still mine to potentially win without getting it.
Found out afterwards he is an ex-Worlds player, I’d thought I recognised his name…. but after game 2, I wanted to focus on what I could do instead of getting nervous playing against a top player.
Comfortable win for 47-22
Round up this article before it gets too long!
Dario took out 1st… not too surprising there. Lukas – “The Giants Player” took 2nd with a standard Stormcast list but he’s just one of the nicest friendliest guys around and I’m always happy when I see him at tournaments. Since Dario already has a golden ticket, it went to him which is really awesome because he’s just a nice dude. He’s only been playing at tournaments since a year and a half and he’s grown so much as a player! I had the pleasure of being one of his first tournament opponents.
Compared to my last GT with KO… Nighthaunt was a lot easier to play and the environment actually felt less oppressive being in a smaller venue with a smaller community. That’s something which I think is where my focus will be in the next year. My head felt good for 4 of the 5 games (game 3 on day 1 I was feeling the fatigue). Also, I really shouldn’t play a bonus match on the night before a GT. So I feel like I learnt a fair bit from this experience. I did sort of miss my shiny new nicely painted army but there was also something nice about using the first AoS model (and the first model I painted in 15 years or something) on the table and it being key to my gameplan!
I heart you Cairn Wraith
I had a great time and I’m now 100% looking forward to my next tournaments and playing more AoS! I’ll be in a funny spot with new battletomes coming for both my main armies now… and with me working a new one, I’m not sure what I’ll want to be playing in the next months. Just happy to feel like I’ve got my mojo back. Seeing the current win rate at 50%, I’m pretty happy with my result too!
Little Wars TV is by far and away one of the best historical wargaming channels on YouTube. I’ve been a proud Patreon for some time.
If you’re into historical wargaming or even thinking about historical wargaming, then these guys should be on your list to watch.
They have many battle reports in their channel where they attempt to replicate historical battles and see if they can change the course of history. My personal favourite was their Napoleonic Marengo campaign:
They also review the rules they use after they’ve played the battle, so you get honest feedback from people who played the game.
The guys are great fun to listen to, and they play off each other well.
Just recently, they interviewed Rick Priestley on Warmaster as they’re going to be playing a Helms Deep game using the Warmaster Rules that Rick Priestley originally created for Games Workshop in the late 90s.
Here’s the trailer for the upcoming wargame.
As long-time readers will know, Declan and I are massive fans of Warmaster, with both of us believing it is possibly the best wargame that came out of Games Workshop. Here’s a few of our past articles:
Dan Abnett is back with book 8 (again) in the Siege of Terra. There were so many threads and stories that it needed 3 volume to finish the 8th book… so this is the 2nd part of book 8… or book 9!! Either way the Siege of Terra is definitely coming to an end – but who will be victorious?
From the book:
Terra is besieged. The outcome of the war lies on a knife edge. The Warmaster Horus’ bloody seven-year crusade has led to this – the cradle of humanity, where he is to kill his father, the Emperor.
With the war at this critical juncture, Sanguinius, primarch of the loyalist Blood Angels, braves the horrors of the Warmaster’s flagship, The Vengeful Spirit, with a single purpose in mind – to slay his brother Horus, decapitate the Heresy once and for all, and stop the forces of Chaos from taking Terra.
But at the whim of a Warmaster fallen so far from grace, the Dark Gods will not make Sanguinius’ task easy. As the war edges towards its explosive, bloody conclusion, events are about to unfold that could either save humanity or plunge it headlong into an eternity of darkness.
Malcador has ascended the Golden Throne; Dorn, Sanguinius and the Emperor are assaulting the Vengeful Spirit and Vulkan is guarding the Throne Room and Malcador. Meanwhile there are many, many threads to finish up and Dan Abnett is making a full attempt at dealing with all of them.
Written in short chapters, each one a vignette to close off a thread. All these are well written and interesting views into the final days of the Siege although if the reader hasn’t read all of the Horus Heresy some of the tales may not make full sense.
The key stories are those of Oll Persson, John Grammaticus and their group trying to save the Emperor, and Sanguinius’ battle with his brother – Horus. Abnett brings his years of experience of writing to these stories and they rattle along with time and space combining near the end and the future becoming the past.
He also writes of the epic battle between Sanguinius and Horus with alternating chapters; with each brother fighting for their side of the Heresy and the future of mankind. It is a great piece of writing, neither too long nor too short; and with a solid ending – if suitably gruesome.
It’s a great penultimate book in the Siege of Terra and well worth picking up. Just one to go now!
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
We leave Warhammer and Black Library behind this week and review ‘A Novel of the Near Future’ by John Scalzi. Book 2 in the Lock In series.
From the book:
John Scalzi returns with Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi’s trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.
Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.
Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth―and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.
Published in 2018 this book is the second in a series following a global pandemic which has caused people to suffer a locked-in syndrome called ‘Haden’; and FBI agents who suffer from the illness. It really is a detective story set in the near future with a science-fiction basis.
I don’t read many detective novels and can never work out the culprit early… and I failed here again! But the main reason for reading this was the background and the set-up from the Locked-In syndrome.
It is a fun book and good read, but it definitely has problems with the science and also the set-up of the game being played – Hilketa. Scalzi doesn’t seem to have done any research on the numbers of players, fans, and value of any sport in the world as Hilketa is said to be successful whilst having none of the numbers of existing sports… This won’t be an issue for many readers, but I like my ‘near future’ science fiction to be closer to reality.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
