Ben is one of the founding members of the Woehammer crew and also plays the character Grymar on the Curse of Strahd D&D playthrough.
I talked to him about how he got into the hobby and why he loves the Raptors so much.
Ben, top right as Grymar in Dunces & Dragons
Ok first question, when did you first get into wargaming?
I first got into wargaming when I was 12/13, so around 1998. It was after visiting the GW store on Oxford Street (London) for a friends birthday.
Did you get your parents to buy your first army while you were there then?
No, my first model was a Leman Russ tank for my birthday that year. After that it was Imperial Guard all the way.
Leman Russ tank! That’s an awesome first model! Do you still have the Guard army?
Unfortunately my older brother like Abaddon decided that Cadia must fall. He burnt all my minis and gaming board.
Wow! You never went back to them after that. Is that when you moved on to Marines? Also I hope your brother made up for that!
I had started to move away from warhammer at that point and wouldn’t return until 2019. He has since made up for destroying my minis by buying me copious amounts of paint so I’d call it even.
Good man! We all have that gap away from the hobby at some point. What brought you back?
My wife started to sell GW products in her shop around 2018. I was helping her with learning about the 40K side of things. After really getting into all the new lore I had missed I decided to start painting up a Deathwatch army so I could play again.
Ben’s Beautiful Bel’akor
And what made you interested in the raptors?
My Deathwatch army was made entirely of non primaris units. I wanted to keep the feel of the Deathwatch being an elite veteran chapter. While I was building and painting my Deathwatch army I would watch lore videos. That’s where I came across the Raptors, or as they’re also known, the Reasonable Marines.
I began to read more into the Raptors. They’re a successor chapter of the Raven Guard. The Raptors are know for being stealthy, using geurilla warfare and hit and run tactics. They are also prized marksmen. I felt this fit well into Phobos primaris units like infiltrators and Eliminators.
Some of Ben’s Raptors
What was the last game you played and against who?
The last game I played was a path to glory game of AoS against fellow Woehammerer Declan Waters. You can read his excellent write up on here.
Declan the baby faced assassin
What’s your most memorable gaming moment?
Haha, that has to be when my Chaos Lord on Karkadrak was down to his last wound and ended up killing my opponents Lord Kroak in one turn.
Was this against Orange Ben?
Yes it was. I should probably stop bringing it up…
No! You need to make the most of these memories.
Makes up for the battering I took from Declan.
The baby faced assassin!
Will be interesting to see what happens if him and orange Ben have a game.
What do you find the hobby gives you?
It’s surprised me how much I get out of the hobby. I really enjoy building and kit bashing models. I’ve found the painting to be massively therapeutic and has kept me reasonably sane through long stints of lockdown. It’s also an amazingly social hobby too. Not just the gaming element, but also chats over zoom while hobbying and meeting up for days out.
So apart from 40k what other games do you play?
During the first lockdown I started to build and paint a Slaves to Darkness army for AoS. Coming out of lockdown AoS has been the predominant game I’ve been playing. Ive also got into playing Dungeons and Dragons recently.
Ben’s Slaves to Darkness army
And hopefully we’ll be adventuring together again in the future! Ok time for a bit of a quiz. Name five GW games that aren’t AoS or 40k.
Necromunda, killteam, warcry, blood bowl, and trolling customers.
Magnus did nothing wrong. Yes or no?
It’s all his fault…
If you were to fall to chaos which power would you devote yourself to?
Blood for the blood god!!! Khorne all the way.
And the last one…. Ultramarines are…..?
Blue
Thanks to Ben for agreeing to be my first ‘subject’ in this series.
You can find Ben on Instagram here. Next week I’ll be talking to our very own Chaos Dave…
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But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Jervis Johnson officially retired from Games Workshop in July. As such I thought it was a great time to cover his career as a games designer, from his first game to his last and the impact he’s had on the hobby.
If you don’t know who Jervis Johnson is then this will introduce you to a man who has created many of the great games you know and love today.
Jervis joined Games Workshop as a trade sales assistant in 1982. During this time he started writing rules for Games Workshops’ own games in his spare time (them being the seller for dungeons and dragons in Europe.and not producing their own game of Warhammer Fantasy until 1983). What would become the first edition of Blood Bowl was produced in 1986, followed closely by Rogue Trader (the 1st edition of Warhammer 40k) in 1988.
During his time Jervis has designed or has been involved in the design of over 93 games and add-ons. Both for Games Workshop and other companies.
Many other companies have taken inspiration from some of Jervis Johnson’s games. Whether you know it or not, your favourite game has probably been worked on or has used inspiration from one of Johnson’s game.
Some of the games Mr Johnson has worked on
His retirement is well deserved, but the wargaming community is losing a true giant of the industry. Goodbye Jervis, and enjoy your retirement.
Why don’t you let us know in the comments below which of Jervis’ games was your favourite?
Why not join our Facebook group to get the notifications on new posts and share your work with us for Tale of Painters.
Following on from last week’s article, A Budding Warmaster, I received today my order from excellentminiatures.com. These are Forest Dragon dwarfs printed by excellent miniatures.com, you can get these from other printers in the UK and around Europe.
The minis came very well packaged with plenty of padding around them.
The parcelA close up of the troop bag.
Before even opening the bad you can tell that these miniatures are very detailed for their scale. Excellent miniatures has printed these off at an extremely high standard, you’re unable to see any of the usual print lines you can get from 3D prints.
The prints
The models come with the supports from printing still attached, but it’s simple work to remove these before washing and undercoating.
I’m very pleased with the order and I will be going back again once these are painted.
Warhammer TV released a new episode of Angels of Death this week, along with a new 40k battle report between the Blood Angels and Orks.
Still nothing for our Age of Sigmar fans I’m afraid, and this is, in my opinion a massive ball drop by Games Workshop. Hopefully we’ll see new animations for Aos next week.
This weeks Warhammer+ releases
Angels of Death – The Silent City
Title card for the Silent City
The opening scene from this weeks animation was very, very good. The three years of work that has gone into this by Richard Boylan and the rest of the team is really starting to show, even at this early stage of the series.
Without spoiling, the episode is excellent, however, my only issue (I wouldn’t call it a complaint at this point) is that the sound effects and background noise seem too quiet in some parts of the programme.
The female ship captain is by far the standout character in this series so far and I’m enjoying her strong personality against the backdrop of the Blood Angels.
The art has remained the same as the previous week’s episode, so I’m unsure whether the monochrome and red is now the state of play for the rest of the series, or if the series will follow the path of Richard Boylan’s Helsreach animation and introduce more colour as it progresses. Either way it has excellent camera angles and the story really does draw you in.
Battle Report (Blood Angels v Orks)
Blood Angels v Orks
As a Blood Angel fan with a soft spot for the Orks, I’m a big fan of this week’s battle report. This week it sees Patrick in charge of the Blood Angels and Louise at the head of the Orks in a 1,000 point grand tournament scenario game.
The format is the same as the two previous battle reports shown last week, with mostly a top down view cutting to the players occasionally. The style of the battle report reminds me a lot of PlayOn tabletops YouTube battle reports and I believe they may have taken some of those ideas and applied them here.
Although I was pleased to be watching the 40k battle report, I’m surprised that Games Workshop didn’t post an Age of Sigmar one alongside this.
Masterclass: Black Armour
Black Armour
Louise Sugden introduces us to painting black armour to a masterclass standard this week. The video is informative and the instructions that Louise gives are clear, and after all who doesn’t enjoy a good painting video.
After watching this weeks video, it has made me realise another reason why Games Workshop shut down Daniel Latham’s YouTube site (one of their miniature designers and former ‘eavy metal painter) who was doing similar tutorial videos. You can still find some of his videos on his instagram account.
Conclusion
Another week for 40k fans with Age of Sigmar having nothing released in terms of viewing.
There was also no Hammer & Bolter episode this week, so perhaps this series will release an episode every two weeks?
As Declan said last week it’s difficult to recommend the service at the moment if you’re only interested in Age of Sigmar.
Warhammer+ launches today (25th August), which is the new subscription service for Games Workshop. It’s been a rocky road getting here, but the subscription is now available, and I’m going to pick on up and let you know what I think.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Signing Up
You’ll need to go to mywarhammer.com to sign-up for the service, which includes the usual entering credit cards (or paypal if you prefer) and agreeing to lengthy terms and conditions. The one that may affect some of our readers is that Warhammer TV element of the service is only available in a limited number of countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, UK & US – so if you’re not resident in one of these, I guess some of the service will be restricted.
Confirmation Email
You’ll receive a confirmation email with more information about what is available which seems to be as per the Warhammer Community articles
Exclusive Shows & Animations (on warhammertv.com)
An Orruk Warboss or Vindicare Assassin
Warhammer Vault – for old publications (on https://warhammer-vault.com/) although I had a problem with the link in my confirmation email
Warhammer 40k App
Warhammer Age of Sigmar App (not available on release)
Warhammer TV
Warhammer TV provides you with access to the viewing – I’m doing mine through Chrome, but I’m sure I can get it on my Smart TV later!
Blood and Duty is one of the new releases available
The two releases from the Animation studio are Angels of Death and Hammer & Bolter, and there are three shows – Citadel Colour, Masterclass; and two Battle reports (one AOS and one 40K). There are also learn to play videos and some painting basics, which I think are free, whether you subscribe or not.
Warhammer Vault
This is where some of the lore from 40k and AOS is available along with some of the 2020 White Dwarfs and Warhammer Visions (the magazine that showed pictures of painted toys). I don’t know how much use I’ll get out of this, because I have so much reading to do; but I think I might dip into the Waaagh! Ghazghkull one.
Is it worth it?
There’s split opinion on Social Media and honestly I don’t know. It will depend for me on what the ‘Event Exclusives’ turn out to be and how good the AOS app is (neither available at launch). However I collect Orruks so I’m just treating it as an expensive ‘Make to Order’ model for the year and can then review in 2022! As I delve into it more; I’ll likely come back and let you all know!
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
After reading @rightangle79’s excellent article on his games of Warmaster a week ago it made me think of the Warmaster armies I used to own when it was first released in 2000.
Unfortunately these were sold in my early twenties to raise money for beer tokens at university.
But I have the urge to return to the game, more so after recalling what a great ruleset it was.
But where to start? Which faction? And where shall I get the models from?
Those who know me, know that I’ve always loved the Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy, and this is both because of their lore and their units. Who doesn’t love half naked dwarfs screaming in rage and trying to take down the biggest beast on the battlefield?
But where to get the models? Looking at the original metal sculpts on eBay had me terrified. I’d have to sell a kidney to get hold of an army worth now. That left me with third parties. Here I was spoilt for choice, just typing in 10mm Dwarfs had thousands of hits. But one particularly caught my eye, excellentminiatures.com.
They have army bundles for every faction all at the 1,000 point mark, and the sculpts on these are stunning. In fact, they’re so good I would argue they’re better than the GW originals.
So I found the Dwarf bundle and made a purchase. At £85 for an entire army I think they’re also fantastic value for money.
In the bundle I receive!
Gunner Regiment (Thunderers)
Crossbow Regiment
Bezerker Regiment (Troll Slayers)
3x Warrior Regiments
Cannon
King and Bodyguard
Runesmith
Dwarven Lords Bundle
They’ll probably arrive next week, and I’ve not been this excited about receiving new models in a long time.
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But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Woehammer is organising a few of us into a Path to Glory campaign. I am playing Troggoths (Gloomspite) led by my General – Phileas Fogg the Trogg. You can find out more about the starting warband on the first blog entry for the campaign.
My first games were against Ben’s Slaves to Darkness (StD) army which is mostly based on the starter set. He added 10 Chaos Warriors to it in order to bring it close to 800 points, and I dropped the Ravening Jaws and 3 Fellwater Troggoths in order to bring mine down to this level too. This would allow Ben to learn the rules and for me to have some practice with the Troggoths whilst still having at least one of each Warscroll.
Pre-game
Before starting off, I needed to pick the Quest for my Troggoths, and I decided that Verne (Fungoid Cave-Shaman) would influence Fogg to Hunt the Endless Spell – Scuttletide. To do this Verne would need to be near Arcane terrain at the end of the game – in order to assist with this I can automatically generate an Arcane terrain feature for 1 Glory Point if I don’t roll it. I then had to keep him alive against the StD.
Game 1 – Sudden Assault
The Slaves to Darkness brought a Lord on Karkadrak, 2 x 10 Chaos Warriors, and 5 Chaos Knights… all with the Mark of Khorne. This meant they were re-rolling 1s to hit!
The StD were trying to take over my Gloomspite Shrine, and Phileas sent out himself (Dankhold Troggboss), Fungoid Cave Shaman, 6 Rockguts and 3 Fellwaters. As this was a Sudden Assault where we would get points for holding table quarters.
The armies assemble.
Ben’s Slaves to Darkness advanced quickly on my right (bottom of the picture), whilst the Chaos Warriors started the slow walk towards my shrine. In response the Rockgut’s charged the Chaos Knights… and in rolling that embarrassed me, wiped out the Chaos Knights – wow!!
The StD counterattacked with the Lord and 10 Chaos Warriors who put a few wounds on the Troggoths, but they swung back and killed half the Warriors and put some wounds on the Lord. In my second turn the Dankhold charged in to help them and the Fellwaters charged the second unit of Chaos Warriors.
Turn 3 – The aftermath!
In Turn 3, I cleared up the Lord & Chaos Warriors and the Fellwaters continued to chip away at the last unit of Chaos Warriors without any casualties – the healing being very useful in a small point game.
The last two turns the Dankhold rescued the Fellwaters and then the units fell back to the four quarters – I had defended my Shrine!
Post-Game 1
The great benefit of Path to Glory is the ability to improve your army. So we returned to the core book and post-battle sequence.
Glory Points – I was now on 21 Glory Points for winning the game and having my Warlord still alive.
Injuries – With no models killed, I didn’t need to roll any. Fortunately for Ben his Slaves to Darkness resisted most of the damage and only failed 3 casualty rolls.
Renown Points – Each of my units gained a renown point for surviving the battle, and a bonus one for holding the objectives. Fogg’s Ladz were my chosen and rolled sufficiently to become Veteran Warriors. This allowed me to give them a bonus. I chose Disciplined Battle-Drill as they were rapidly becoming Fogg’s bodyguard. This would allow them to add 1 to wound once.
New Units – I added a unit of Fellwaters to the army. I now had all my painted Troggoths in the list… time to paint some more.
Quest – My Fungoid finished the game next to the Arcane terrain next to my Shrine, and found lots of Spiders to command.. Scuttletide was mine!
New Quest – I chose to Scout Fertile Lands to enable me to re-roll my new territory roll next game.
Territory – I found Wild Lands this time, but didn’t really need an extra Monster, so decided not to settle it.
Game 2 – The Trap
We had some time to play a second game, so Phileas Fogg decided to counterattack and invade the StD’s terroritory… unfortunately he was walking into a trap and was ambushed…
After the first game, Ben decided to bring some additional back bone; he had managed to convince Be’lakor to join him; as he is expensive it did reduce the size of the force – Chaos Lord on Karkadrak, Be’lakor & 10 Chaos Warriors… they would have to do some work!
Setup
The set-up left the Slaves looking more like the ambushers than the invaders, but how would Ben unpack to start killing my units?
The first few turns were cagy, with me running around board edges whilst the Chaos Warriors struggled forward. This allowed me to rack up a lot of Victory Points and solidify my control of the area.
In Turn 3 Be’lakor was unleashed and charged my Rockgut Troggoths. He did 10 wounds, killing two of them and the swingback only did 4 wounds as Be’lakor ignored Rend.
As my mission was to survive to end of Turn 3, I took no risks and the Rockgut’s retreated, whilst the Dankhold & Fellwaters advanced on the left towards the Chaos Knights.
In Turn 4 I charged the Chaos Warriors, killing most of them, and then Ben caught me again between Be’lakor and his Chaos Lord. The Lord killed 2 Rockgut’s whilst Be’lakor failed his rolls and the Fellwaters did a few wounds.
Turn 5 saw me retreat again, and Be’lakor chase my Fellwaters whilst the Chaos Lord chased the 2 remaining Rockguts. The Lord (Jeff) went first and killed the Rockguts (gaining a reknown). This did allow the Fellwaters to swing first against Be’lakor and they did 6 wounds. As Be’lakor had only 4 wounds left he needed to roll 5 out of 6 successful armour saves… Ben rolled! and Be’lakor lived; He took out 2 Fellwaters in revenge.
The Warlords face off; Whilst Be’lakor attacks Troggoths
I had won the mission although this was more bloody than the first game and I would need to roll some casualty rolls. This was a great fun game and Be’lakor definitely gave the StD the speed and damage potential to take out the Troggoths.
Post Game 2
Glory Points – I gained the maximum 13 Glory Points for winning the game and having my Warlord still alive.
Injuries – I needed to roll for 6 Rockgut’s and 2 Fellwaters. 2 Rockgut’s rolled the 1 and 1 Fellwater. I would need to roll for recuperating.
Renown Points – Each of my units gained a renown point for being alive in the third turn, and most of them survived and picked up points for this. Da Watery Boyz (Fellwaters) were my chosen and rolled sufficiently to become Veteran Warriors. This allowed me to give them a bonus as well. I wanted to be different to my Rockguts so they chose Deadly Volley for their spitting attack.
New Units – no new units for me, but I rolled to recuperate the Rockguts, and rolled 2 4+ meaning I got both of them back – good news for Fogg, who relies on this unit.
Quest – My Fungoid finished the game close to the board edge (after a turn 5 Hand of Gork), and so I could roll twice on the territories table
New Quest – I would need to consider this before my next game
Territory – After my reroll I found a Large Settlement (underground cave network), which would reduce the Glory Cost of my new units by 1. This would be useful when I had more painted Troggoths.
The Force
Warscroll
Name
Reknown
Points
Dankhold Troggboss
Phileas Fogg
19
250
Fungoid Cave-Shaman
Verne
4
95
6 Rockgut Troggoths
Fogg’s Ladz
7
290
3 Fellwater Troggoths
Da Watery Boyz
8
155
3 Fellwater Troggoths
Da Swampy Boyz
155
Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws
Da Wet Boyz
55
Scuttletide (Endless Spell)
85
End of Session!
Summary
What a great evening – Thanks to Ben for the games; it was great to play small games and see what everything did without being shot off the table – Khorne really wanted to get stuck in. I also learned a lot about the Troggoths, who I have never used in large numbers – these were mostly painted during lockdown. I needed more practice, but they may make an outing at Facehammer.
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But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
An Army for the Ages…!
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
My First AOS3 tournament
Woehammer has asked me to write a few Blog posts for tournaments I go to to give their readers an idea of what tournaments are like in the UK.
TL:DR; They are great fun; take the plunge and buy a ticket for one wherever you are based
Who am I?
That’s all very well, but why should Woehammer ask me – I wasn’t sure either, but I have been attending tournaments for Warhammer Fantasy and AOS since my first Bristol Brawl in 2002. I find the gaming fun, and the preparation of army lists interesting, but the main draw for me is meeting new gamers, and having fun over the table. The tournament scene has given me friends all over the UK; and there are friendly faces at each event.
This isn’t to say its insular and unwelcoming – new players are welcomed into the tournament scene and given help and advice by those of us a little longer in the tooth. Just let the organiser and your opponents know that it’s your first event and they’ll look after you.
THWG – Barbarians Brawl 2 (One Day; Three Games)
For my first event of any new edition I always take my Glooomspite Gitz. I’ve been playing Goblins forever since the Elves invaded the Goblin mountains in 4th Edition; and they are always my go to army.
I did have something a little different though, because the new Kragnos book had given Gloomspite new allegiance abilities and I had been painting a lot of Squigs … so Jaws of Mork (Gloomspite) it was.
I will admit to being concerned about the army as it was ranked in the lower tiers by most players since AOS3, and I knew it would be an uphill struggle, but I wanted to give the new toys an outing.
Army
Allegiance: Gloomspite Gitz – Option: Jaws of Mork – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (310) in Warlord – General – Command Trait: Envoy of the Overbounder – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig (110) in Vanguard – Moon-cutta – Artefact: Syari Screamersquig Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95) in Warlord – Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of Gork Fungoid Cave-Shaman (95) in Warlord – Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy Nuisance
Battleline 36 x Squig Herd (480) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 2 20 x Squig Hoppers (360) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 1 10 x Squig Hoppers (180) in Vanguard
Units 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (210) in Hunters of the Heartlands – Reinforced x 1 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) in Warlord 6 x Sneaky Snufflers (75) in Warlord
Core Battalions Warlord Vanguard Hunters of the Heartlands
There wasn’t a big plan for this; just to see how the new game worked, and whether I could bring the Gitz to a longer format tournament. I really like one dayer tournaments for this as it gives an opportunity to try out new things without waking up on Sunday morning 0-3 down and seeing 2 more games looming ahead.
My biggest concern was with the Squig Hoppers as their mortal wound damage (for moving over units), now only worked on normal moves. So, so run or retreat over units.
Game 1 v Nighthaunt
Nighthaunt are in a similar position to Gloomspite so this was going to be close. My opponent (Chris) had a nice list led by Olynder with Chainrasps and lots of other ghosts. Very thematic.
We both advanced on the objectives, and in the second turn I gave Chris the turn as he was far enough away to do limited damage – he charged the large squig herd and we both did damage to each other. I then set my Mangler Squig Boss on His Finest Hour and went to clear an objective setting him 3″ away. I rolled double 1; command point; rolled double 1 again!
This meant I had to take the third turn, allowed Chris to remove the objective my Mangler was (supposed) to be fighting on. My Hoppers moved onto the middle objective, and bounced onto a support character killing him, but I should have charged Olynder and I was too worried about losing the squigs.
This meant I was the first to drop points as I only held one objective, and the Chris came smashing back making a 10 inch charge roll with his ghosts (allowing an immediate round of combat), and taking back the central objective.
Once behind it was difficult to get back and I couldn’t achieve a fifth battle tactic, leading to the loss. Chris played really well, and I learnt a lot about the new game – lots of time at the beginning of each turn choosing battle tactic and making sure to leave one for the end!
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
Chris (BT)
Points
1
C/D
Expansion (Y)
Advance (Y)
5-5
2
D/C
Conquer (Y)
Expansion (Y)
10-10
3
D/D
Broken Ranks (Y)
Conquer (Y)
13-15
4
D/D
Advance (Y)
Bring it Down (Y)
16-21
5
C/C
None possible
Spearhead (Y)
16-26
END
Hold the Line (Y)
Hold the Line (Y)
19-29
Scores on the Doors
Game 2 v Soulblight Gravelords
Greg’s army is unashamedly top tier – Nagash, Vengorian Lord, Manfred, 3 x 10 Zombies… ouch! I was in some trouble here but I started with an advance and send off my Boingrots towards some Zombies. I was in a defensive formation around the Shrine with the hope of weathering the storm and then striking with the Hopper’s mortal wound output.
Greg took the objective I had a toe on, won priority turn 2 and charged with everything. My screen was hit badly but with 72 wounds in the unit it weathered it well, and the Shrine ensured no battleshock. I now needed to get out.
I decided that I needed to kill one of the big things, and with Manfred’s ability to disappear and the Vengorian Lord to my right I went for Nagash. Despite retreating the Squig Herd couldn’t leave enough space for my hoppers who only did 2 mortal wounds to Nagash due to space constraints. The Mangler again did Finest Hour, charged Nagash and Manfred (with Sneaky Snufflers on as well), and did no wounds to Nagash…! The 2+ save rerolling 1s was very good.
My gamble over, Greg proceeded to take the Gloomspite apart. We chatted afterwards… perhaps after a little cursing at the different strengths of the books, and struggled to see how I could win!
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
Greg (BT)
Points
1
G/D
Advance (Y)
Conquer (Y)
5-5
2
G/G
Bring it Down (N)
M. Takeover (Y)
6-10
3
G/G
Conquer (N)
Slay Warlord (Y)
6-17
4
None Possible
6-25
5
None possible
6-29
END
Hold the Line (N)
Beast Master (Y)
6-32
Breaking down the Doors
Game 3 v Skaventide
Skaventide have been making headlines for the Stormfield build, but George had brought a superb moulder army with 2 Hellpits, 2 Rat Ogre units of 6 and lots (and lots) of battle line Giant Rats… Hold the Line was going to be difficult to stop.
Due to the number of rats, I got to ask George to go first and he moved onto the central objective. I moved my Squig Herd forward, killed a few Giant Rats, and took the objective back. In the second turn George tried to kill the large Squig Herd with his Hell Pit Abominations for Broken Ranks. I don’t think he realised how many wounds they have and the unit survived, and smashed one of the Hell Pits down to a few wounds allowed me to pick up Bring it Down in my turn and go slightly ahead.
I then got the priority roll and a double turn allows my Mangler to kill some more rats (Broken Ranks was easy!), whilst my Boingrots killed most of one of the Rat Ogre units on my right. The smash back killed the Mangler (mostly through shooting), and started to reduce the Hoppers. The Squig Herd also died at this stage.
With little left my Boingrots went after a Master Moulder and got into the Grey Seer killing him and gaining savage spearhead with the Loonboss in turn 5, but on my left the Squig Hoppers (my last battleline) were trying to run away from the undamaged Rat Ogres… unfortunately, they were caught in George’s turn 5 and he stopped my Grand Strategy; giving him the game
Round
Priority
Declan (BT)
George (BT)
Points
1
D/G
Conquer (Y)
Advance (Y)
3-5
2
G/G
Bring it Down (Y)
Broken Ranks (N)
9-8
3
D/D
Broken Ranks (Y)
Slay Warlord (Y)
12-13
4
D/D
Advance (Y)
Conquer (Y)
17-16
5
D/D
Spearhead (Y)
Spearhead (Y)
20-20
END
Hold the Line (N)
Hold the Line (Y)
20-23
Door Left Ajar
What did I Learn?
Not a very destruction concept, but what did I learn?
Battle Tactics are very important and you need a plan about which ones you’ll do when.
Monster heroes are very good… when the Mangler charged he wiped out what he was fighting (except Nagash) and the finest hour made him great fun. Unfortunately the other armies have better ones – Manfred, Nagash & Arkhan who I played. The ability to do damage at range with these characters is very powerful
There’s book keeping – I used the AOS score sheet from thehonestwargamer.com which was essential for keeping track for both me and my opponent
Try to kill a monster a turn. I killed both Hell-Pits in the same turn; normally really good, but I could have grabbed an extra point if I’d managed to engineer them dying in different rounds. Difficult to do, but worth watching out for.
Conclusion
After the enforced COVID break, it was great to be back rolling dice, but the Gloomspite just didn’t cut it. I had very close games against Nighthaunt & Skaven but they weren’t top tier armies, and the only game against top tier was a demolition. In 5 game tournaments I like to aim for 3-2 and I couldn’t see how this was possible with the Squigs! Unfortunately the Gloomspite WhatsApp group didn’t provide much solace and so I made the decision to play Sons of Behemat… as luck would have it there was a team tournament the next day at the same venue, so I would be back!
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The residents of Fairharbour were alarmed when the dark shadow appeared in the bay. Moreso when the fish began to float to the surface, their mangled forms twisted by growths and lesions. The smart villagers began to run then, but the backwater town was not known for producing geniuses. When the towering bulk of Lord Orificeus finally waded out of the bay, a cruel smile playing on his lips, it was already too late.
Who are the Sons of Slimeharbour?
Randall Gubbins was a simple farmer, who toiled daily in the fields surrounding Fairharbour growing turnips and potatoes. When Randall fell sick with a virulent wasting disease his fields fell fallow, and his crop went unharvested to rot in the ground. Surrounded within and without by decay Randall had delirious visions of his fields transformed into bountiful wilds where bulbous trees sprouted juicy, exotic fruits and filled the air with sweet, enticing scents. Brought to the brink of madness by fever Randall uttered prayers to himself for days that his visions would come true. Unfortunately for his neighbours his prayers were answered.
Randall’s vision, manifested in horrifying flesh
Lord Orificeus, one of Nurgle’s favoured grandchildren, was dispatched to Fairharbour immediately to ensure Randall’s conversion and make his dream a reality. The Great Unclean One sowed his fields with blessed seed, and fertilized it with the bodies of Randall’s neighbours. As the Feculent Gnarlmaws bloomed, Randall was carried from his sickbed by a frolicking crowd of Nurglings who bore him to the feet of Orificeus’ bulbous mass. He was christened there and then in a pool of vomit and bile and given a new name: Rancel Ganglion, Shepard of Nurgle.
Rancel, his mind now permanently changed by the virulent, magical fever that Nurgle bestowed upon him, took charge of efforts to transform the remnants of his village into a more pleasing state. Fairharbour became Slimeharbour, named for the choking, thick mucus of the giant, mutated Hagfish that spawned in the wake of Orificeus’ coming. Those of his neighbours who accepted Nurgle’s gifts became the first 15 members of Rancel’s flock. The rest were given to the nurglings.
Rancel Ganglion, Shepard of Nurgle and first on the painting table
Path to Glory
Nurgle was my first army in AoS back when I started playing in 2018. However, I still have a lot of work to do to finish them off so I’ll be using Path to Glory as an excuse to paint up the rest of my Rotbringers. I’m starting with a neat little 1k list, made up of what I already had painted and adding onto that as we go.
Name
Warscroll
Points
Lord Orificeus
Great Unclean One
350
Rancel Ganglion
Harbinger of Decay
145
Buboetis’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
Tubercules’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
Sputicus’ Warband
5 x Putrid Blightkings
165
TOTAL
990
My stronghold, obviously, is Slimeharbour: the ruined fishing village turned nightmare pus factory. It is located in the territory of Saltmarsh, which has been transformed by Orificeus’ arrival into Wild Lands. This allows me to include 1 more monster in my army, but that doesn’t matter right now because I only have 1 monster in my list. I can definitely see myself taking another monster later on though, and its thematically appropriate. I considered making Saltmarsh a Small Settlement, which would have allowed me to reinforce a unit 1 more time. However the changes to coherency in AoS3 make me hesitant to do that with Putrid Blightkings, and in low point games I think I will benefit from the flexibility of 3 small units rather than 1 giant ball of death. As for my first quest, The Sons of Slimeharbour are on the hunt for a sacred relic of Nurgle. Lord Orificeus has given many gifts in his short time in Slimeharbour – now it’s time that Rancel repaid his debt by finding him a worthy tribute. The infamous Witherstave should do…
Have you heard the good word?
What’s next?
The first thing I’ll be painting up for this army (after Rancel) is another 5 Putrid Blightkings, bringing me to a nice even 20 in Rancel’s growing flock of converts. Afterwards I think it will be time to add another type of unit to the roster, perhaps a Lord of Afflictions to buff the Blightking’s attacks or a pair of Pusgoyle Blightlords to zip about the battlefield capturing objectives. Otherwise, the transformation of Slimeharbour bay into a green, thick ooze will certainly have attracted the attention of the Admiral of the Slime Fleet: Gutrot Spume.
