Saturday was the Spring At Ease Carnage, a one day Age of Sigmar tournament in San Diego California. It was hosted by one of our local FLGS’s At Ease Games and run by our superstar TO Scott Reed.

Not only was this a super fun time but it also served as prep for a two day GT in San Diego called The Broadside Bash at the end of April. Scott has been working on tuning The Generals Handbook’s matched play scenarios to include secondary and tertiary objectives. This approach is very similar to what I experienced at Adepticon.

For the tournament I decided to go back to my Stormcasts. I had one game of prep with the new Battletome and wasn’t too sure what to expect. My list is as follows:

Leaders
Lord-Celestant (100)
– General
– Command Trait : Staunch Defender – Stormcast Eternals
– Artefact : Obsidian Blade
Lord-Castellant (100)
– Mystic Light : Lantern of the Tempest
Lord-Relictor (80)
– Artefact : Spellshield
– Prayer : Bless Weapons
Units
5 x Liberators (100)*
-Warhammers
– 1 x Grandblades
5 x Liberators (100)*
-Warhammers
– 1 x Grandhammers
5 x Liberators (100)*
-Warhammers
5 x Judicators (160)*
-Skybolt Bows
– 1 x Shockbolt Bow
5 x Judicators (160)*
-Boltstorm Crossbows
– 1 x Thunderbolt Crossbow
10 x Paladin Decimators (400)+
– 4 x Starsoul Mace
5 x Paladin Protectors (200)+
– 1 x Starsoul Mace
5 x Paladin Retributors (220)
3 x Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins (80)+
Battalions
Thunderhead Brotherhood (80)*
Hammerstrike Force (120)+
Total: 2000/2000

I put the The Lord Castellant and Lord Celestant with Staunch Defender with the Retributors every deployment. This creates a mini death star and the Retributors gain synergy from the Celestant’s +1 to hit and get their armor save pumped up to a 2+.

The Hammerstrike Force has a unit of 5 Protectors and 10 Decimators. I put the Prosecutors in the Celestial Realm and pray to Sigmar the come out by turn 2. This is obviously my main damage dealing/objective grabbing portion of the army.

The Thunderhead Brotherhood is my anchor. It contains what would probably be my compulsory battleline as it stands. Spending an extra 80 points to give them the ability to re-roll wound rolls of 1 seems worth it to me.

For the tournament I had 3 great games. It included a rematch against a well tuned Clan Skryre list.

Game 1 was probably my worst case draw. The scenario was Three Places of Power and I had 3 footslogging Hero’s with 6 wounds or less apiece. I was matched against Ryan and his forces of Destruction. Within the list was a Kunnin Ruck with 30 Arrow Boyz. He also had 2 Frostlord on Thundertusks and a Frostlord on Stonehorn. I can tell Ryan was worried about the Hammerstrike Force as he bubble wrapped his Thundertusks and Stonehorns. This deployment hamstrung his movement for a turn  but he was still able to cap two objectives by the end of turn 2. By my turn 3 I was finally able to get an objective but the game was already well within Ryans favor. My Stormcasts were able to deal a TON of damage but I was not able to clear the objectives fast enough. Ryan won a well deserved victory.

Game 2 I was matched against Nick and has nasty Clan Skryre list, the scenario was Blood and Glory. I bubble wrapped my Thunderhead Brotherhood around my Retributors and Hero’s. Again I put the Prosecutors in the Celestial Realm. Unfortunately by bubble wrapping the majority of my army in one spot I created a kill box I could not swing my way out of. The Hammerstike Force did some work and went around trying to hold on to objectives but in the end it was not enough for all the mortal wounds of Nick’s rats.

My final game was against Jason and his forces of Khorne in a game of Escalation. My deployment was pretty straight forward. I focused my forces on two objectives and held the Prosecutors in the Celestial Realm. I was done deploying first and chose to take the first turn. In my movement phase I was able to get the Prosecutors out and my paladins down within 3″ of Jason’s front line. This was crucial because he had not yet planted the Bloodsecrator’s banner and his army was not immune to battleshock. My Protectors charged a unit of 10 Marauder Horsemen and my Decimators rolled box cars and I was able to snake my way all the way to the Bloodsecrator, large unit of Bloodreavers, Skull Cannon, and Bloodletters. I popped the Bloodsecrator, Skull Cannon, and ten Bloodletters. The Bloodreavers and Marauders lost some models in combat and a few in the battleshock phase. This turn one deployment of the Hammerstrike Force not only killed a bunch, but held Jason up in his deployment for 2 turns allowing me to secure 2 objectives for the entire game.

The top three finsisher of the event were:

1st Place: Sam Valdez – Destruction
2nd Place:  James Sutton – Death
3rd Place: David Rogers – Death

Great job guys!

I would like to once again thank Scott and At Ease Games for such a great event. And as always this would not have happened if we did not have such a great community of players!

Greg Rex
@xGrexx

View the full article