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We have decided that a bit of fun is in order so myself, @ianob and @Paul Buckler are running an online, interactive game of Age of Sigmar. Team Bad Dice vs Team Just Play. Ian and I will be team captains and taking opinions, tactics and strategy’s from everyone watching at home to play against each other from afar. @Paul Buckler Is the games master who will be playing out the game at our instructions. Play by Mail for you young uns - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play-by-mail_game Over the next few days we will take suggestions on how best to play this out, the battle plan to play and the lists that are to be used. There will be multiple daily updates but I expect a game will take at least a week. Social media posts for discussing should use #AoSbyMail let us know below if you are #TeamJustPlay or #TeamBadDice

Hey Everyone, Weird times we live in. I'm even unsure how to begin this post. I hope you all are safe and keeping up the spirit. I've had a hit to my studio as the facility I work out of has closed down for at least a week. I currently work from home which is hard to manage moving from a very optimal setup to a small kitchen table digging paints out of a bucket. My apprentice was hired on two weeks ago and hes also working from home without getting much aid. I wanted to share my Archaon update. Despite my desire to have him done by Adepticon week, this will not happen as my studio closed down. So here's a WIP shot of how far I've gotten thus far. I will finish him. I have put in an estimated minimum of 100 hours on him so far. Thanks so much for checking him out and I hope you all are OK financially and medically, but also Mentally. If you need any aid in tutorials, find them FREE here: www.youtube.com/oscarlars Here is Archaon with the 10 chaos warriors that made up my Team list. Unfortunately I could not start my display board. This was gonna be built This week and next.

https://www.goonhammer.com/the-goonhammer-interview-with-james-hewitt-part-1-age-of-sigmar-and-40k/ There's a good interview on Goonhammer with James M Hewitt of Needy Cat Games, possibly best known in the GW games community as the designer of the excellent Adeptus Titanicus rules. Here he talks about his experience working on the early releases for AoS. There's some fascinating stuff there, he's got a good bit of criticism as someone who has seen how the sausage gets made, even though you'd never characterise him as an AoS-hater or anything. On the 'funny rules' that accompanied the first warscrolls: On how the core rules were designed: On the assumptions behind the core rules only being four pages long: It's well worth reading the whole thing, dude's got some good thoughts on game design and interesting experiences.

I've heard him on two podcasts since leaving being nothing but effusive about GW and his time there. On leaving, basically said he felt it was time for a change and essentially had been mission accomplished In respect to his initial aims, and wanted to spread his wings and promote other aspects of the hobby he also enjoys. He said in both he still believes GW make the best toy soldiers in the world and loves them. I take his own words as being more reliable indications of what happened than total hearsay.

BBC News - 12:16, 19th of March 2020: “Games Workshop, the World leading producer of miniatures and games, and creator of the popular „Space Marine“ franchise has been performing well despite of the Covid-19 epidemic. All of their retail shops within Europe had to shut down during the development of the crisis, yet their losses were dampened by a rise of online sales, as our sources claim. The company seems to be a rare exception in these demanding times and overall Games Workshop seemed to be fine, until this morning, when dramatic events unfolded: Due to a lack of workers and the pressure to keep the production going one employee accidentally overheated one of their machines, used for the production of plastic miniatures and caused a fire. Too late the fire was discovered, so it spread throughout the entire factory complex engulfing everything in flames. Yet the situation somehow got worse as a so called „Warpgate“ manifested right above the second production facility, demanding „Blood for the Blood God and Skulls for the Skullthrone“ - the perplexed firefighters and employees did not meet the Warpgate‘s demands in time it seems. A few more seconds passed then the Gate vomited forth a torrent of burning blood, incinerating the second factory building. In the meantime winged creatures charged out of the gate towards the GW headquarters. The mostly winged creatures fly out of the Gate in such numbers, that even the ground started shacking, just to be ripped asunder and burned alive by massive beams of lightning raining down from the skies until the Headquarter was surrounded by hulking gilded figures shouting out a Greek letter. „Sigma!“ was echoed a thousandfold by each golden hone - as a shocked worker told us. We had a chance to talk to the Lead Game Designer Jarvis Johnsson who only hastily answered with one cryptic Sentence: „I hope these Sigmarites don‘t roll as many ones as I do when I play them“! - He then continued, with renewed vigour, to hastily write down notes into an archaic leather-bound book“. Keep up to date with our live ticker. - All of this is Fake News, I just had to make at least a few people smile in these times 😃

Didn't see it posted before. I guess that we are getting the pre-orders right after "Non-Adepticon" reveals ^^

+++ MOD HAT +++ Don't think that playing the blame game is the right approach to take here. It's irrelevant which country this came out of or why, just that we try and tackle it in the best way we can whilst protecting the vulnerable, and develop a working vaccine as quickly and safely as possible.

Hey guys, it’s that time of the week again! Today you can see why disciples of tzeentch have learned to be extremely specific when asking their patron for something...

Honestly unless he wants to say it I'd leave it alone. Heck considering how well things ilke patreon are earning money for some content creators and the fact that he kept the twitter account (two think coats) and all that I suspect it might just be he saw a means to earn more money on his own than GW could afford to pay a painter and presenter member of their staff. Plus chances are they weren't going to keep him on staff and let him side-earn at the same time with his own channel. So he likely argued his case for either higher pay; letting him run a sidebusiness and GW said no - so he left. Or perhaps he's got some medical condition we don't know of or someone to care for and he needs to be at home more and working for himself was more time flexible. We don't know and I don't think we need to go speculating. Clearly he doesn't hate GW and clearly GW don't hate him. So we can leave it at that. Heck GW hires loads of short term staff who turn over who we never worry about.

March 2020 Update: https://imgur.com/a/tCyMsVJ My two main goals with this update are: 1. Inject more flavour into each of the Stormhosts. I'm trying to think of answers to questions like "How does each Stormhost approach a battle? What are their favoured units? Who are their leaders?" Please look over the Stormhosts with fresh eyes and let me know what you think! Hammers of Sigmar They take a general approach to war since they don't favour any one aspect, instead focused on defense and rapid reinforcement. They are the only Stormhost to add more units to the table. The God-forged Blade is a very powerful offensive artefact, and it creates a story where a chosen champion gets the killing blow while his army holds back the tide of enemies. The Hallowed Knights Their faith gives them purity against foul sorceries. This is reflected in their battle trait that allows them to ignore spells. The Hallowed Knights are the holy crusade of Sigmar, boisterous and inspiring, heralding the end of Chaos and a return to Order. This stormhost should utilize many Priests and prayers. Sacrifice empowers their allies, and this is reflected in the Command Ability. Martyr's Strength creates a story where a unit is slain, but before they are sent back to Azyr a portion of their power is captured by a nearby PRIEST and transferred to another unit. Celestial Vindicators Controlled rage unleashed at the right moment. Celestial Vindicators are the de-facto melee stormhost, and their current rules reflect it well. This stormhost wants to use units with multiple weapon profiles, powerful weapons with low attack values, fast units that can get the charge off, and strong melee heroes I have only made minor improvements to this Stormhost, since I think they already have a good niche carved out for themselves. Anvils of the Heldenhammer Anvils are ancient, ordered, and grim stormhost. They focus on morale effects and improve the power of larger units. This is the only stormhost that can shoot twice, and although they can fight in the hero phase it's not as useful as being able to fight twice in the combat phase after moving and charging into the position you want The previous version of Deathly Aura forcing enemies to take battleshock tests was an unintuitive mechanic, so instead it reduces enemy bravery by 2 Knights Excelsior Relentless, merciless, uncompromising This stormhost favours overwhelming force that leaves nothing to chance. This is reflected in their Storm of Annihilation battle trait and their No Mercy command ability. Their leaders are are jailers and executioners, reflected in Divine Executioner command trait and Chains of Celestial Lightning, an artefact that prevents all nearby enemies from retreating. This is the only stormhost that can fight twice in the combat phase Celestial Warbringers Celestial Warbringers should really want to use a lot of Wizards and Priests, as they are more attuned to the spiritual visions they receive, and the visions should define their gameplay. Fearless Foresight now works in every phase rather than every turn, but it can only be used by a WIZARD or PRIEST unit Portents and Omens has been made more powerful, but also has a higher casting value "Portents and Omens has a casting value of 8. If successfully cast, subtract 1 from attacks that target friendly CELESTIAL WARBRINGERS units wholly within 18" of the caster." Tome of Augury also teaches the bearer every spell from both Lores Tempest Lords The Tempest Lords are masters of combined combat, never dedicated to any single engagement, always able to slip away and reinforce another part of the battlefield. This is reflected in their immensely powerful Grand Strategists battle trait that allows them to shoot and charge even if they ran or retreated. The Tempest Lords should favour units that can both shoot and fight, like Dracoths and Prosecutors. They want to shoot from the edge of combat and then dive in for the kill. This is reflected in Rousing Oratory, providing a boost to shooting hit rolls and combat wound rolls. Their leaders are heavenly nobles and master tacticians. The Patricians Helm allows the use of a command ability for free every phase, while the command trait provides a significant accuracy boost for a mounted hero but only while they stay near their allies. Astral Templars Battle Trait now better reflects the survival and tracking skills of the Astral Templars as a Stormhost from Ghur, and pushes the idea that they will utilize many mounted units (Dracoths, Palladors, Dracolines, etc.) Their leaders are experienced hunters, slayers of the most dangerous beasts in the realm (or a just regular beast in Ghur) +1 hit against MONSTER was either too powerful or completely useless. I have changed it to activate against any unit with 8 or more wounds. To limit its power I have changed from a passive ability into a Command Trait aura 2. Make Lord of the Host (+1 save to army) accessible to all Stormcast generals rather than just Lord-Celestant generals. Is it overpowered to give Stormcast +1 to save? I don't know. For the number of wounds and their point costs, it seems like Stormcast units need to be more durable than a 4+ save. Other changes since the last update: All Lords with 5 wounds now have 6 wounds All mounted Lords with 7 wounds now have 8 wounds (Vandus has 9) Lord-Celestant on Dracoth - Shield Wall command ability now allows you to re-roll all saves but those units cannot retreat, run, or charge. Stardrake Great Claws now deal 3 damage instead of D3. 6 attacks at 3 damage... yup! Lord-Relictor's Relic Hammer does D3 damage instead of 1 Lord-Veritant's Judgement Blade does 3 damage instead of 2 Knight-Azyros' Starblade does D3 damage instead of 1 Strife-Ender now adds 2 attacks, or 3 vs CHAOS Obsidian Blade improved Rend by 2 instead of 1 Spellshield reworded: "Once per turn the bearer can attempt to unbind and dispel one spell in the same manner as a WIZARD. Add 2 to an unbinding roll or dispel roll made in this way."

Here are some examples. Definetely nothing to win a painting contest with but i think and most people agree makes the game 10 times more immersiv as playing with grey plastic or even with just base coloring them with normal colors. Even if you look closer (above from the battlefield player perpective) I am still proud and dont think i need to hide my guys or feel ashamed. And btw:it still takes many hours to complete them even with contrast

Hey guys, some of you have already seen my webcomic Neverchosen that was commissioned by Warhammer Community. since people seemed to like it, I have decided to do my own series that I can publish while waiting for the next order from GW. It’s called Mortel Realms (my art name is Pierre Mortel) and will be released every Wednesday. I’ll post them here in this thread when they go up, to avoid spamming the forum. I hope you’ll like them!

Hey everyone, what better occasion to jump back into the hobby than a couple of weeks working from home? This time around, I decided to go for an old love of mine – the lizard people of old Lustria– and the first stop is the Carnosaur. Oh boy. Back when this sculpt was released, I wanted to love him so bad, but for me it just missed the mark with it its teeny tiny head and piggy nose. The Troglodon looked fairly cool, however I wanted to have the big T-Rex chomping and stomping around, so I decided to roll my sleeves up and "fix" it myself. This is my WIP (Scar Vet for scale): There is still a lot to be done, but I think it's clear enough where I'm going with this. My main issue with the original sculpt is the head. It's way too small and stubby for my taste and, being a dinosaur enthusiast since my early childhood, I wanted something more meaty. To achieve that effect, I increased the distance between each half of the upper and lower jaw by a good bit, pinning the parts with wire and stuffing the gap with modelling putty. The crest piece (the one without ornaments) does have some convenient grooves which you can cut to bend the lateral parts outward and extend it. The teeth have been cut from the saddle parts, which come in two sizes. I will have to find some more bits to get a few smaller teeth in there as well. A bigger head needs a bigger neck as well, so I filled up the space between chin and chest with some Milliput. Later, I added a layer of procreate to sculpt the scales on top. Another thing that irked me were the raptor claws on both the hands and the feet, so off came the thumbs. The rest is just layers of modelling putty on top of each other to get the head and scales right. The face in particular will still need quite a bit of work, but I'm positive that I can show some progress throughout the weekend. I hope you like it so far. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated. Stay safe everyone!

Yeah, back when Hewitt did an AMA on reddit he said the goal of the Core Rules was to be a self-contained set that had to be on 4 pages for the rest of the game's future to be built around as a living ruleset and for easy player entry. Core rules are a definite cornerstone of Age of Sigmar that's lead to so much inventive scenarios and campaigns despite that easy entry learning. You can really see they put care into the rules as just reading them dispelled all the "instant win " scenarios people said AoS 1 had by falsely twisting the rules, like saying the Tomb kings units can just burrow and win the Sudden Death: Endure scenario by having no units to get attacked but the Core Rules clearly negated that cheat by stating you need at least one model on the table or you lose. Ditto! I loved AoS 1 even before the Grand Alliance tomes and how it let narrative players go wild with crazy army customization along with making games a friendly affair of agreement rather than points to encourage selling the big models back then. I still use AoS 1 core rules for fast games from time to time. So my hat off to Hewitt and the designers of Project Stanley for their hard work on making such a great game that just keeps getting better!

So an interesting factoid for everyone. Historically, two weeks after an article in the Hammerhal Herald, the army is released!

Great not only did he get me too (until the Warpgate) but I'm also now wondering when that post will reappear on Spikybits as they hound the web for news

Marauders. Also, DPs do have great damage potential, but you have to use them together with other units (otherwise they'll get surrounded and destroyed) or use their great movement to go for something far in the back. You could give Chosen a chance, too. While they need some support (they are paper-thin), they can dish some good damage, on top of some mortal wounds.

Chaos is in a relatively good spot. Everyone has a home. Skaven needs new models pretty badly and so do a few other armies, But there aren't really any factions out there in the lore that aren't represented in the game and there are no models really homeless, and there are no big soupy tomes like LoN or Freecities. Death on the other hand, you can really easily see what they are doing. They threw everything (besides FEC) into LoN. Then they did Nighthaunt, pulling out anything relevant. Then they did Bonereapers, again pulling out anything relevant. Now there's only a few good plastic kits not in one of those 3 specialized armies (ghouls, ghosts, bone constructs/fancy skeletons), and they are pretty much all Vampires/Necromancers. Besides miniatures, this is also what is really missing from the game if you look at the lore. So, this is why most people suspect a vampire army coming. Not necessarily imminently, but maybe in 2-3 years. Legions of Nagash was a stop gap, but will eventually go away (too hard to balance the game with this giant book, especially since many units are also in other books) I would say likelyhood of release of speculated armies: Sons of Behemat > Malerion Aelves > Vampires > Grotbag Skuttlers. I don't think that is necessarily the order we would see them in, but the likelyhood that we will see them at all over the next 2-3 years.

I am actually pleased with the core rules.

Need to source a dot matrix printer so I can have that authentic play by mail experience 😁 This will be good, thanks guys

You had me until warpgate.

It will all appear in time on the GW community news pages. Basically GW will just do what they've done before and announce stuff there - likely making a video or something since they can do all of that in-house.

Coach wip

Nope. Comes with the pointy ears.

Sounds like a fun campaign! You may or may not be interested, but I've created AoS warscrolls for most 40k units along with battle traits, artefacts, etc. https://hivefleetcharybdis.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/40k-age-of-sigmar-warscrolls

While people dying or getting sick is by far the biggest tragedy of this situation, it's also a sad thing that we are probably going to see a whole lot more bankruptcies and small businesses (ie - hobby shops) failing than deaths. This pandemic will hit poor people the hardest, and let's face it - nobody runs a hobby shop to get rich.

New comic guys, forgot to post it here yesterday!

Second part of our campaign! We played a scenario from the WH core book the other day with 1600 pts. "The Empire vs Warriors of Chaos". The scenario saw us battle for control of the Ancient Ruins on top of the most central hill. The Ruins granted various magical benefits for the Wizards in control of the ruins. It was truly magnificent game! P.S. I appeal to all connoisseurs of Warhammer Fantasy. If we made mistakes during our game, please let me know, so that in the future these mistakes will not be repeated! Thanks! P.P.S. I added to my battle report some stop motion animations for fun! ]

Options to consider: Allies. Run Khorne and add in a Bloodsecrator for the +1 attack aura, and then maybe also a unit of wrathmongers for another +1 attack aura. I will say, a block of warriors actually feel slightly worth their points when they get +1 attack (also, re-roll wounds from a bloodstoker is nice). Alternatively, just grab a big beatstick from one of your available allies even if they don't synergize with what the rest of your army is doing. Archaon. The beatstick to end all beatsticks, Archaon is a solid hammer to the mostly anvil of the rest of the slaves to darkness lineup. Is he worth 800 points? That is a bit more questionable. But at least he can hit stuff hard. Varanguard. However, lets be more specific. Varanguard of the 6th circle, rocking some buffs. Outside of the 6th circle a unit of varanguard does kind of mediocre damage. But if you give them the 6th circle buffs, they become actual decent beatsticks. And by decent, I mean that if you can give them re-roll hits and wounds, with the nurgle buff and the 6th circle buff you can triple their damage output vs not having those buffs. Something to think about. Marauders. Quite simply, even if they are a bit glass cannony, marauders are the highest damage output option of any of the available options in the book. Even better if you can get some buffs on them. Basically every other option that you can go with is... kinda lacking on the damage front. To be frank, too much of the models value is priced into "what can this do when fully buffed up", without taking into account that being fully buffed up is kinda unreliable. Full re-rolls is great, but it either comes from a 3+ roll from a 170 point model (aka, it always fails on the turns you need it the most), or it comes from a 6+ cast on a wizard who doesn't get any casting buffs outside of one specific subfaction (aka, it always fails/is unbound on the turns you need it the most). Additionally, that full re-roll buff is going to affect 1, maybe 2 units per turn, but your units are priced as if they are expecting those buffs to be on all of them every turn, which just isn't the case.

Agreed!!

You have also access to lots of Endless Spells/damaging spells and our allies options have loads of variety. I also like the manticore (especially with the sorcerer lord) - a very deadly mobile artillery with great movement, decent damage, good survivability and a great antihorde spell.

In fairness though people don't buy them to hoard them - they buy them with full intent of enjoying them in building, painting and playing. It's just motivation and time that they lack in. Also don't forget the "whale" customers who splurge on vast numbers of unbuilt boxes are typically in a great minority. Sure they spend a lot individually and globally likely do account for a significant number of sales; but at the same time they are far smaller than those who generally keep on top of things for hte most part. Or who only end up with a huge backlog after long periods of slow buying and slow game progress.

Four Units can do it: Mammoth, Archaon, 40 Marauders and a Karkadrak with a -2 rend artefact on his axe. most of our damage comes from the Nurgle and his battallion. Sadly all of the rest is lacking. 😕

Darn, I thought that my ritual had finally worked.

accounts from people that went to the GW painting Seminars in the states the constant Traveling got to him and he wanted to do something else

I wasn't super opposed to using a 30 block of acolytes as a screen because what they charge with will at least be in range for a lot of shooting afterwards. Of course it will never fail that I'll get double turned but you can't really plan a list that beats the hypothetical worst case scenario every time right?

Yeah Tau I think had a big design focus shift after launching. Originally I think they were going to be a creative motley army featuring the mech suits and fire warriors as a core; but then have lots of random xenos armies like Kroot, Vespid and others. Representing smaller races who can't standon their own, but can stand and survive when part of the Tau Empire. However the mech suits just took off in a really big way popularity wise (even FW has a lot of them on offer). So Kroot got sort of forgotten whilst Crisis battlesuits and such got updates and new sculpts and versions. Eldar core troops are some of the oldest plastics along with some of their core vehicles like the Falcon. Meanwhile their asepct warriors which are sort of a half way between elite and core troops are all (barring the Aspect warriors and Banshee) finecast. So there's still a fair way to go for eldar.

Isn't it 8 attacks? 4 maul 1 bite base, 1 bite from coalesced, 1 maul and 1 bite from thunderquake? Or am I missing something?

I do still update it from time to time. The last thing I did was add the Imperium side of the Rogue Trader and Blackstone Fortress stuff, but I'm currently working on the Chaos side of those releases (very slowly). Sadly, I haven't done anything for LotR. I didn't even know a Super Heavy Astra Militarum squad existed 0.0 Is that a Forge World thing? I haven't really covered Forge World either.

So you're telling me the 4 pages of rules were just quickstart rules meant to be followed up by a larger core rulebook? And they just scrapped the core rulebook and we'll probably never see it since 2ed is just those quickstart rules again?

Yeah it’s just sad how many people abandon their eyes after holiday season

I'm working on flesheaters as a break from Bonereapers. Here's where I'm at.

My mad blood lad!

A Bloodsecrator and 2 slaughterpriests are all but essential for pretty much any Khorne list. Wrathmongers and Skullreapers are both blendy and useful and awesome looking models. When I bought my first box of whippy bois and skullreapers, me, being young and new to wargaming and modeling and therefore an idiot, I decided to try and build 2 Wrathmongers and 3 skullreapers, to see which one was better/cooler (alas I had not yet discovered Mathhammer or played any games with my army). I ended up only being able to build 2 of each, which annoyed me. A LOT. I then immediately went out and purchased a second box and was able to build 5 of each using the rest of the sprue from my first box . *SIGH* Anyway, Wrathmongers and Skullreapers are a lot of fun, but for a beginner, a battalion like Gore Pilgrims is a great start, it's not as good as it used to be, but +8'' to Loathsome Sorcery and Rage of Khorne is still pretty useful. It also includes pretty much all the essential units for a mortal list that you can get in the Gorebound Warband start collecting, which also includes a bloodstoker (super useful for the painfully slow mortals) a Khorgorath and a Mighty Lord/Khorgus Khul. As for weapon options, whatever you want to take for Blood Warriors is honestly up to you, Gorefists might be good if you're planning to run your blood warriors straight into your opponents deadliest unit where you'll have to make a lot of saves, but the re rolling ones to hit makes them the *tiniest* bit more killy. Whatever looks cooler, in my opinion. For Bloodreavers Meatripper axes are DEFINITELY the way to go, they both A. Look approximately 100 times cooler and B. are way better in combat, that -1 rend will help a lot. I'm sure it's possible to convert blood warriors into skullreapers and vice versa, but considering how GW has designed the sprue and what parts are left over after you finish a unit, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. (It's almost like GW doesn't want you doing that. Strange.) Final advice for a newbie, play this army as much as you can. Khorne is a complex and sometimes annoying army, but if you line up all your auras and prayers and whatnot right, the rivers of gore and mountains of skulls you create will be worth it.

Here's my entry!

I really love how the armored witch aelf could be proxied as a hag, so this warband could give you 2 heroes! the new SC box looks like a good deal too, though I'm miffed neither of these were out when my partner decided to pick out something for herself to try! This warband might be the first thing I preorder from GW honestly, it really hits the spot for UW and AOS.

It is wednesday my dudes, which means it's time for another Mortel Realms comic! Some of you may have already seen this one a while ago on the forum, but don't worry as I am working on some new ones for as soon as I am done posting my backlog.