Strength_Hammer

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to take a moment to update on the Tale of Four Warlords Tri-Club Challenge happening between the Ligonier Legion, Steel City Sigmar, and Rend 4 club. month one is in the books and there was a lot of painting happening across all the clubs. We are halfway through the month two commitment of painting a Battleline and it is fun to see so many armies grow across the local area. The Nurgle Group took the first month, but there is still plenty of chances for the other groups to claim overall victory! View the full article

Hey Everyone! It has been very exciting with the upcoming release of Contrast Paint as well as the recent news of The General’s Handbook 2019 going on preorder. With summer more or less here the days are long, but there are never enough hours to get everything done, but it is not for lack of trying. I have been working to wrap up all of my small side projects that have been accumulating over the past few months. My aim is to get these projects wrapped up before NOVA Open 2019 so I can focus entirely on Slaanesh for the remainder of the year. Between these projects and the terrain building for NOVA that is about to start, I am hoping I won't end up with any new projects over the next few months. View the full article

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to head back to my continuing article series, “Life Lessons and Wargaming”. The purpose of the article series is to take those lessons we learn over time and how we can apply them to our Wargaming Hobby. In today's article, I want to talk about how surrounding yourself with the type of hobbyist and person you wish to become is key to accomplishing your goals. View the full article

Today I want to try something I don’t normally do, but it is something many of you have been asking to see for some time now. Having just picked up a copy of Forbidden Power I plan to review the rules, lore, and the box contents in today's post. I dive deep into the lore section of the book and it does contain a fair number of spoilers so if you are planning to pick up the supplement and give it a read yourself you might want to skip that section. I am curious to hear any feedback on what you like and didn’t like regarding my review so I can continue to improve this type of post going forward as they will likely become much more regular. View the full article

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to do another Hobby Table update as I have been pretty busy over the past few weeks and that trend is likely to continue for the next few months. From random hobby to new releases I have been building and painting almost daily. Admittedly, my hobby has been a bit all over the place, but with the Rend 4 event in July and NOVA fast approaching my hobby needs to get much more focused. Also, I plan to do a review of the recently released Forbidden Power later this week so be sure to check back for that on Thursday. View the full article

Malerion, formerly known as Malekith, once Phoenix King, once The Eternity King, forever known as The Witch King, God of Shadow. Malerion was a driving force in the events of The World That Was having shaped it through either direct manipulation or unintended happenstance. He was the son of Aenarion, The First Pheonix King, and Morathi which saw him destined for greatness while being surrounded by a shadow they would never truly leave. As the events of Age of Sigmar and its history have unfolded Malerion has had to will himself back to physical form while finally accepting who he was always meant to be in the cosmos. He has played his part in The Mortal Realms as a member of Sigmar’s Pantheon, gifting Sigmar the Gladitorium for his Stormcast Eternals to battle without fear of death. More importantly, he was pivotal in the capture of Slaanesh in order to recreate the Aelven race. Malerion is an intriguing character full of duality that will always keep you guessing and invested in his story. View the full article

Hey Everyone! As you are all aware I am a big fan of the Daughters of Khaine and how they play on the tabletop. Primarily I have played the Kraith Temple with lots of prayers and Witch Aelves and feel I have really mastered that style of play. However, I am aiming to truly master the entire book so over the past few months I have been playing the other Temples and Battalions in the book. Today I want to run through my thoughts and experiences in playing each temple and hopefully encourage you to try the other styles of play within your preferred Battletome. View the full article

Going to see if I can swing it to come back!

I fear your shooting good sir!

Hey Everyone! I wanted to give a heads up that the Realm Gate has moved here on TGA. The bad news is you will no longer see my blogs posted here in this public blog, but the good news is The Realm Gate now has its own section within the forum! Find the forum section here! As always you can see my posts on their regular schedule posted on my blog page by clicking this link. Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore

Hey Everyone! As promised I have Paul returning today to give his follow up about the Narrative event he ran at this year's Adepticon entitled The Gibbering Dome. The event was a lot of fun and well planned out by Paul and I was very happy to have been able to assist him with the event. The passion and dedication he put into the lore, build up, and resolution of the event is evident and I look forward to what he has in store for the next narrative, which could be Coalescence: The Desolation of Eristrat this June. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------I was privileged enough to be able to run the Narrative Event at ACON this year. I say privileged because the players that attended the Gibbering Dome embraced the narrative in a full and amazing way with their armies. It is incredible what can happen when you have 16 players who all enter into a social agreement to simply spend the afternoon enjoying some Age of Sigmar. Throwing out the requirements of matched play except for the purposes of army selection, the only direction players were given before the event was some basic rules answers and the piece of fiction presented here in the first article. The event started with all sixteen players gathered around a 4x4 board representing the center of the dome. Each player placed their hero atop the central dais and was defeated. This allowed all the players to do an introduction of themselves and their heroes to the whole group before they were assigned to one of 4 tables. Narratively this allowed for each character to arrive at the Gibbering Dome as a young fighter, and as they were defeated, they lost an item precious to them. This was the narrative hook for the rest of the event. The characters spent untold years raising an army and then searching for the entrance to the Gibbering Dome once more. At this point, all players deployed their armies on an “entrance” table in a mixed deployment with all players at the table sharing the same deployment. Unique rules represented the indoor environment as well as the controlling army (Daughters of Khaine) having corrupted the building itself. Using Triumph and Treachery rules, players found their units attacking friend and foe due to bloodlust. Players were also given the opportunity to ally with other heroes for the duration of the event. One player chose to ally with the defending daughters instead! Players really engaged the unique rules to help tell their narrative, discussing army background with players at their tables and others. The only objective of the event was for their hero to once more arrive and then ascend to the dais in the center of the Gibbering Dome to retrieve their artefact. Their army became tools to their narrative, and even though heroes were able to die, due to the Khainite blood magic saturating the monument, they were raised again, but overcome with bloodlust and allowed to take revenge upon their chosen target. If the hero had allied, they were required to attack the ally that failed to protect them! This bloodbath formed a royal rumble that allowed only strongest units to survive, for unlike the heroes, they were not resurrected upon their death. However, units that were wounded and escaped of the far edge of the board gave a bonus to the heroes on the final table. Once the players arrived on the final table, they were faced with a full army of the Daughters of Khaine (with a special thanks to Chuck for providing the defending army.) the heroes banded together to attack all but one of the massive staircases to the dais. All that is except for the Nurgle player allied to the Daughters. His general was allowed to pass unmolested up to the dais and recover his artefact! However, upon arriving at the central dais, he betrayed the Hag Queen and summoned a Greater Demon of Nurgle in her place! His general then beat a hasty retreat while the rest of the players were forced to fight not one but two armies to ascend to the center of the Gibbering Dome. In the end, every player was able to recover their artefact and win the Scenario. If it all sounds a bit chaotic, you’d be right! While the narrative thrust was very clear and concise, the actual execution of the scenario really encouraged the players to tell their own narrative, engage in a bit of revenge and really add to their story! Chuck and I were making a few decisions on the fly to ensure that nothing got too bogged down, and everyone enjoyed the event. It was fantastic to see every player smiling and enjoying Age of Sigmar from beginning to end! I already have thoughts on how next year will improve. But to finish off, I wrote a bit of narrative to conclude this moment in the Gibbering Dome’s history. Daaniyah Duskblade, Worshipper of a Dead God, Sister to a lost Brother, Right Hand of the Cult and Queen Lost to Time peeled the congealed blood from her eyelids and peered upon her work. Marble stairs bore lakes of crimson which dripped onto the tiled floor below. Crumbled forms that were once loyal followers lay scattered within the interior of the dome. Turning to the summit, she examined the remnants of the battle. The Slaughter Queen was dead and her blood magic had been broken. The sacrifice was justified. Overcome with the enormity of the moment, Daaniyah closed her eyes and let herself be consumed with her memories. Shivergrass filled her senses, the smell, the susurrus of the motion, the feel of the sharp leaves upon her palms filled her with an ache for home. Lithely vaulting herself from a sitting position she settled into a loping saunter. Quickening steps burst through the edge of the prairie and raced onto the paved surface of her city. Salt tang and the smell of damp earth pleasantly stung her nostrils, spurring her faster still. Feet following a familiar path, the aelf darted beneath crumbling brick arches built by ancient hands intertwined with thick bloodthorn vines to form a stable reconstruction of the glories of the empire lost to time. Mandatory daily rites graced her family with agility and grace, but Alarielle held her heart here deep within the realm of life. Even the Taylothian Cult of Khaine could not drown that in blood. Footsteps echoed haphazardly through the town square as Daaniyah swerved to collect an offering to her Goddess; the viridescent blossoms growing within the bloodthorn. With each thorn kiss upon her skin, the vines writhed tighter, strengthening temples and homes. Rounding the corner, a sharp stop sent seeds spraying into the wind, their husks rattling with a musical quality as they were borne into the sky by the steady sea breeze. With a reverent bow and silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess, she entered her home. Right hand dripping blood, the aelf ritually cleansed the wounds in an exquisite brass Khainite basin. Within her left hand the blossoms still quivered with life. Liquid stilled as she sensed something was wrong and halted. Cocking her ear she could hear… nothing. There should be noise. Daaniyah prowled into the next room, Khainite blade naked in her hand. Overstepping the ruins of the family altar to Allarielle, she saw vines within the wall with fresh knife wounds that were weeping golden sap. Screaming, fighting, even gibbering would have been more comforting than this, but as she reached her destination the silence only deepened. Entering her brothers’ room, the usual meticulousness had been replaced by a haphazard jumble. Her brother had been taken. Forgotten blossoms fell from her hand to their death; consumed by crimson pools dotting the floor. The blood rippled out and soaked the thorns of the wall. As the vines tightened more, she desperately removed a worn journal from a crevice. Bloodthorn groaned and crumbled brick began to fall from the ceiling. The plants had been fed too much too quickly and Daaniyah was forced to flee, the only clue to Odiamh’s presence grasped in her bloodied palm. Steps faltering after a headlong run back to the shivergrass, Daaniyah stopped and opened the journal. Riffling paper revealed coded entries, labeled only by dates in the upper right corner of each page. Spine bent, the last entry lay unfinished, with a single jagged line to denote its interruption. Closing the book, the aelf noticed a white path leading into a courtyard, bare within the prairie; Daaniyah felt compelled to enter. Stepping upon the cold lifeless stone, emptiness filled her as she felt the warmth of the Ghyran sunset recede. Colossal stone steps the color of aged bone stretched upwards before her, flanked by massive, banded walls. Lithely ascending step after step she came upon a wedge-shaped landing, outlined by carved pillars and shaded by an immense cupola. Where two angled walls met, there was a solitary entrance. Alone, she passed through the walls. Rousing from her reverie, Daaniyah Duskblade’s voice echoed to what remained of her army. “Prepare yourselves to leave this place, never to return!” Twisting her mouth she turned and spat upon the crumbled remnants of the Slaughter Queen. “It was not Khaine’s will but yours that trapped me here. I tracked you who had taken my brother this far, but even with the years of searching lost, I will still find him.” She ranted on as her voice rose in intensity. “You cannot separate two sides of the same coin!” She began to carve a ragged sigil upon the last remnant of the hag’s flesh. “It was Khaine’s will that I betrayed you to the Devotee of Nurgle. Through this sigil may your soul writhe forever within Slaanesh’s grasp.” Her hands finished their gory work and, turning her back upon her enslaver, she straightened and approached the center of the dais. With a reverent gesture, she reached into the chest and finally laid her hand upon Odiamh’s journal once more. “I will find you my brother.” she whispered to the dusty treasure. Spinning upon her heel, she took the steps back to her sisters, grasping the book in her bloodied palm. Daaniyah Duskblade, the last hero, whispered a prayer to Khaine; a prayer for help in the quest for Odiamh, and passed the threshold of the Gibbering Dome. The Slaughter Queen entered the shivergrass, and wiped her face clean of the dried blood. She flung the crimson detritus into the air. Pulling a coin from within her clothing, the desiccated flakes collected above the metal and pointed to the southeast. When she replaced the coin within her belongings, the blood fell upon the earth and left a scorched hole within the prairie. She had not lost only time in her search for her brother. Left within the marbled halls was nothing but death and filth, the detritus of battle, or so it seemed. Even as Daaniyah Duskblade once again began her quest, a single soul began to plot within the malign monument. Its’ battlelust was not sated, the doors would open again... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Paul and I had our first hobby call so he could bounce his ideas off me as he fleshed out his event it was clear to me the event would be a great time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the game and played to the spirit of a narrative event to really take it to the next level. Despite the busy room, everyone was focused on crafting their and the overall story. When Paul took the seed of my idea to use my Daughters of Khaine as the "main" protagonist this year I was excited to see how he crafted my Aelves into his story. When he asked later on to use my named characters (Daaniyah and Odiamh) in the recap and flesh out their story in the mortal realms I couldn't imagine the great piece of narrative he would write. Paul certainly knows how to bring a story to life! I hope you all enjoyed Paul's recap and will join me in encouraging him to continue the story and bring the event back next year at Adepticon 2019! Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore Visit my Blogs main Page!

Hey Everyone! The Realm Gate Blog is an Age of Sigmar focused biweekly blog looking at events, news, lore, and in-depth editorials. On Wednesday I look at my hobby over the past week be it painting, building, or community projects and on Friday I explore a range of topics, spotlight community players, and have guest posts from time to time. News regarding updates to the U.S. Age of Sigmar Community Group Modular Pack and future projects can be found posted here as well. If you have any thoughts or ideas you would like to see covered please feel free to reach out to me. Facebook Page Twitter Happy Hobbying! http://therealmgate.blogspot.com/

Hey Everyone! I have some great news as the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles Event at this year's NOVA Open has officially doubled due to the quick sell out. We are going from 20 teams to 40 with the potential to add a few more if we sell out once again. The Grand Tournament still has plenty of room left, but tickets are beginning to move once again so be sure to jump on it soon. This year promises to be bigger then the last and my biggest Hobby focus is creating fun and competitive Event packs that I hope to get out in the coming months. While my hobby desk hasn't seen much paint or model building lately it has seen hobby of a different sort. The last few oval cavalry bases I needed showed up in the mail allowing me to finish rebasing my remaining Aelven Heros. As I mentioned before I plan to finish the texture, flock, etc... on these bases as I use the models for games in the coming year. The quick release schedule for Games Workshop means that any of these, now smaller, Aelf factions could see an update by way of Battletome in the future. Unless I decide to commit to a universal basing scheme, which at the moment is unlikely, I won't be rushing to flock all of these models at the moment. That said I can safely say phase one of "The Great Aelven Rebasing Project" complete. While I recently chose to take all my 40k models and put them in storage below my hobby desk I just couldn't bring myself to do the same for all of my Aelves. While this is a temporary solution as I am planning a major renovation of my basement and Hobby space in the next few months I picked up a simple storage shelf for the interim. Have no worry as it is secured to the other two tables so the risk of falling over is very low, but dust might be an issue until I install proper quality storage sections. The shelf was very inexpensive and I might purchase a second this week so my 40k can also be out for easy access as opposed to stored, forgotten, in a storage bin. The little bit of paint I did accomplish this past week was getting the black and gold done on my last unit of Sisters of Slaughter. They still have a lot to go, but with a nice long hobby chat the time moved very quickly and I plan to have these finished up in the next day or so in order to give my full attention to my Melusai and Khinerai in the coming weeks. While the below might just look like an empty hobby desk, which is it, there is one small addition to the far right. At the recent Adepticon, my friend Sean (BrushForHire) snagged me a great deal on a Badger Air Compressor. Now that my Aelf rebasing is at a natural stopping point and is stored the idea of having my airbrushing table back, and complete is very exciting and I cannot wait to get back to learning this tool. While I still have a few more kits for my Daughters of Khaine to work through I have committed the remainder of this year to improve my hobby skills. I have become adept at painting vast hordes of models to a nice tabletop quality, but I am still very much a novice in creating true artistic quality and rarely put in more than a handful of hours on a single model. The recent exception was Morathi and her model was the catalyst to pursue this goal. I plan to work on some one-off projects in the way of minis and some busts before "diving" in on the Idoneth Deepkin to really put my skills to the test. I am very excited that the Aelves are back in force and with having painted up a Daughters of Khaine Horde army rather quickly I want to step out of my comfort zone with the Idoneth and paint them to the highest quality I can. My goal for the Idoneth is to have it painted to a high enough quality that it earns a painting nomination at a large event such as Adepticon or LVO. Resisting the urge to buy it all and paint it up right away will be tough, but I have set my goal and I plan to put my effort toward achieving it. The last bit of Hobby I have been working on, as I mentioned above, is the Event Packs for this year's NOVA Open Grand Tournament and Team Doubles. While I cannot show you any pictures here I can say that the pack is nearing completion and I have some amazing people who will be helping me tighten it up before it is released to the wild. Hopefully, your hobby progress has been fruitful whether is have been painting, building, or less flashy, but just as important, Hobby like I have had this past week. Be sure to check back this Friday as Paul returns to give us a recap of his Age of Sigmar Narrative event from the recent Adepticon. Until then, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore Visit my Blogs main Page!

Hey Everyone! Today I will wrap up my personal Adepticon coverage as I take you through my games from the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles and the Grand Tournament. I say my personal coverage because next week I am having Paul return to talk about the Narrative event he ran now that The Gibbering Dome's halls have quieted down. All in all, I had eight great games with wonderful opponents and while days of gaming can become draining near the end I came out of it all energized for me. The body might of wanted rest, but my mind wanted more Warhammer. Team Doubles Originally when tickets went on sale for Adepticon I was going to skip out on the Team event and look at taking a few hobby seminars. However, Mike who I knew through Twitter reached out and asked if I would like to be his partner for some fun in the event. He wasn't looking for someone to smash opponents off the board with, but someone to enjoy a day of gaming with and I couldn't pass up the offer. I am glad he reached out to me as the event, while long, was a lot of fun. My Khrone teamed up with his Skaven mastermind and we set off for some fun and chaotic games. The first game saw Mike and myself facing Adam G., who runs Imperium Games, and his friend Tony C.. They gifted us with some really nice custom Combat Gauges from Adam's store which is always a nice surprise. Mike and I were given the first turn and while we reached as far as we could Adam and Tony deployed far enough back to prevent any of my units getting stuck in immediately. While I feel proud that Mike's Skaven and my Khorne did well to keep the spells from the Lord of Change at bay Adam and Tony did not need to rely on magic to win the battle. Some great movement plays from Tony's Sylvaneth kept my Bloodletters out of the battle for too long. At the end of Turn, four Mike and I knew the battle was lost. Adam and Tony gave a great game and were very fun to play and chat with during our time at the table. Mike and I took away a few lessons for our next opponents as well. Game two put us on some lower tables were we met some players who, much like Mike and myself, were there for fun and rolling dice above all else. Those players were Cody B. and Travis L. with their Kharadon Overlord and Fyreslayer army. This scenario had each team bid a number of minutes in which to deploy to determine who would go first. Mike and I practiced between rounds and we bid one minute to our opponents five. They were wide-eyed as they saw our very low bid, but with the timer going Mike and I managed to deploy with two seconds and patted ourselves on the back. Sadly this was the only victory we can claim from the game itself. While it only took four three and a half turns for Mike and I to admit defeat, with almost no models left on the field, we got to hang out with these cool guys as they offered beer and friendship. One thing I will remember from our game with Cody and Travis is their dice with mugs of ale on the six's. When a six was rolled we all took a drink and I was never happier to see an opponent roll so many six's! Gentlemen, DRINK! The final game of the day allowed Mike and I one final attempt at redemption. We were lucky enough to play some great fellas who traveled from the UK to play. Al M.(a fellow Moore!) and Darren J.. They had brought a wonderfully painted Stormcast army and much like our other opponents were ready to have a fun game. The scenario had a bit of randomness to it as the objective would move around each turn so it was anyone's game. Early on Mike and I put ourselves into a nice advantage, but Al and Darren would not be denied and they fought to the bitter end to bring our game to a draw. It was bloody, exciting, and a lot of fun. We were all very excited to see that in case of a draw each team received a minor win so all of us walked away with one "win" under our belt to boot! I had a great time playing with Mike and am happy to say he offered me the "right of first refusal" to be his partner next year as well. It was a long and fun filled day and I was happy to have a partner such as Mike to hang out with as we battled our way through it all. Be sure to find mike on Twitter at @exorre to check out his wonderfully painted Skaven as well! Grand Tournament Saturday rolled around and it was time for the big show. The Age of Sigmar Gran Tournament. Before I dive into my games I want to give a big thanks to Alex, his Wife Kari Ann, and all those who supported running and preparing for the event. It was an amazing turnout and one of the best run events I have ever been to and the team that did deserve high praise for all their work so we can play some great games together. The day started off on a high note as I arrived early and was randomly placed on Table two! I joked that it is the highest table I will be at for the entire event and went to prepare myself for my first opponent. I was running my Daughters of Khaine list and while it is not the exact list I wrote for my Warhammer Community Tactica articles it was very close, but due to time constraints I wasn't able to finish my Khinerai in time so had to shuffle things around a bit. The core of ninety Witch Aelves remained as did Morathi as my General. My first opponent was a very polite and friendly gentleman by the name of Josh A.. Josh had brought a Stormcast force which included a Prime! I was excited, and a bit scared, to see a great and underused model on the table. Josh Null deployed his force giving me not much to do at the top of my turn as the objectives hadn't dropped yet so I simply moved up a bit to get closer to the middle of the table and hoped to survive his alpha strike. Josh brought the hammer and while he killed off a fair amount of my Witch Aelves as well as removing Morathi at the top of Turn two it simply wasn't enough and being able to roll handfuls of dice was too much to bear. My Kraith ability triggered a fair number of times this game as well and by the top of turn four I had secured all the objectives and removed his last Liberator giving me a Major Win. Josh and I chatted through the first break and drank some coffee and I was glad to have so much time to chat with him. He is a solid person that I hope to play again one day. After a nice break, the pairings were posted and I jumped for joy as I saw I was headed for the great Table one! It has always been on my Hobby Bucket list to grace the top table for a single round and due to my previous victory, I managed to do just that! My Opponent was Cody B. who was there with his lovely wife and their child. He had brought a Sylvaneth army and he was as excited as I was to be playing on the top table. As I deployed I felt confident in Morathi's ability to hold down an objective and I turned her into her Snake form right away, but it was really Cody's scenario to lose and while I pushed him to make mistakes he played it perfectly and was able to take the victory. While I did very well keeping him from summoning more Woods the one mistake I made was attacking his unit of Dryads with Mystic Shield and Throne of Vines on it. I managed a large number of saves which he promptly made in order to have me nearly kill off an entire unit of Witches. We had a good laugh at the sight of it all and despite the early set back the game remained close until turn four when he was able to kill off my remaining Heros and leave me with nothing left that could hope to take down his Treelord, but we both carried on and claimed some Secondary and Tertiary objectives with what we had left. I suffered a Major loss but it was thrilling to play such a great person on the top table and make a new friend such as Cody. While I expected to be knocked down in tables after my Major loss my third game saw me kicked very far down and with a long road ahead of me to fight back up I encountered Kyle K. and his Undead force lead by nonother than Nagash himself. Morathi was Scared and I was Scared for her in the coming battle. I was given the first turn and once again I turned Morathi immediately and threw her at forward and as many Witches as I could in hopes to remove Nagash as quickly as possible. While I gave it everything I had it simply wasn't enough and while I wreaked havoc on his Gravegaurd Nagash surviving kept Kyle going strong. The magic phase was a tense, but thrilling time for both of us as we waited to see if he would successfully cast Hand of Dust on Morathi or not. Do to some bad dice rolls and some great dispell dice from me I staved off the inevitable until turn four. Neither one of us had enough left to claim a Major Victory and with him winning the roll for turn four it came down to his he could remove Morathi or if she would kill him in combat to decide who would take a Minor Victory as we would draw on the objective and look at total killed. Nagash did it with style and Morathi was removed giving me a Minor Loss. It was a tense and fun game and the story told on the table was one I will remember, but next time Morathi will not be denied! Sunday arrived and we all shuffled into the hall for our last two games after a night of rabble-rousing. After the usual few minutes extra wait for those who might have had too much fun the night before the drops sorted our pairings posted. I looked for my place and was very excited to play a very good friend Neil L. who you might know from my blog as he runs the Rend 4 club in Ohio. This was a great way to begin the day and I hoped to exact revenge against his Khorne from the stomping they gave my Morathi and my army in a practice game a few weeks prior. However, he had Skarrbrand and while I feared I might lose Morathi quickly I was determined to put her to good use. I had the first turn and Morathi transformed, Mindrazored herself, and took off toward his Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster. Mortahi got to work and while I took his General down to almost nothing she failed to kill it. Neil ran his General away, a fact that I will never let him live down, and quickly brought in Skarrbrand to do the dirty business of killing Morathi. Morathi was removed, but the battle was far from over. Neil made one error and moved off his objective in the first round and after realizing he wouldn't score pulled a few back in hopes to kill me off and claim some of my objectives to make up for his deficit. Unfortunately for Neil, my Witch Aelves were inspired by Mroathi's sacrifice to Khaine and proved that they can outfight Khorne any day and I began deleting his units over the next few rounds giving me a Major Win. Playing Neil was great fun as he has become a very close friend since I met him last year at Adepticon and neither one of us pulled any punches in our brawl. Next time we meet we have a rubber match to see whose army reigns supreme! The final game of the event paired me against Jake L. and his Kharadon Overlords. I had come to fear this matchup as it could quickly end a game with a few good rounds of shooting. While Jake position, deployed and had fantastic target priority his dice let him down and while he killed a few key pieces he didn't do enough to blunt my army and the battle got Bloody and quick. It was back and forth with great saves and tight play from both of our armies, but the game ultimately came down to turn five priority roll. If I won I would have claimed a Major Victory by capturing all four objectives, but if he won he would be able to draw on the objective and since he had killed more of my force by this time he would claim a Minor Win. We rolled and Jake won the roll. It was a Minor loss for me, but it capped off the event with a final and exceptional game with a truly great player and person. At the end of it all I placed 67th of out 164 (total players after drops) and while it keeps me at the mid-table hero level I am happy to say I placed higher percentage-wise this year than last year. I am also very happy with how my army performed. The Witch Aelves are brutal in combat and Kraith really worked well for them and caused a good bit of fear for my opponents. I plan to continue running a Witch Aelf Horde for quite some time with the only change is give command of my army to a Slaughter Queen as opposed to Morathi. She is targeted to quickly and while I wanted her command ability to be a great force multiplier she was either dead or transformed before it became effective in combat. The army is an absolute blast to play and I was happy to see other Daughters of Khaine out in force at the event. I can imagine everyone will be seeing much more of them in the coming months! Top Painted Armies I wanted to leave you all today with pictures of the top painted armies from the event. The hobby was high for the majority of the armies, but these were the cream of the crop and truly inspiring to continue to improve my own hobby in the future. I am looking at you Idoneth Deepkin! Another great Adepticon full of gaming, friends, and fantastic opponents is wrapped up and I cannot wait until next year for even more fun. I hope you enjoyed my coverage and be sure to check back next week as Paul recaps his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore Visit my Blogs main Page!

Hey Everyone! The Aelf fever has fully gripped me after Adepticon and I pushed to finally get appreciable progress on my Great Aelven Rebasing Project. It didn't take long to get pretty much everything on to a round or oval base and while the project has spanned a few months the bulk of the work has only been a few hours at most. The last push was one of the longest as it was moving the cavalry to their new bases. I am far from finished as being glued to the new bases was only phase one. There is plenty of Aleves to come in my future and getting this project wrapped up has been high on my priority. In regards to rebasing my Calvary and a few of my Griffins I simply sheared away some of the current bases and glued what was left to the new oval bases. It was simpler than trying to cut the models at the hooves and legs as I can only imagine the difficulty that could cause. While this was a simple solution it does require I take a bit of cork and build up around the old square bases to make them look a bit more natural before I add any flock, sand, or crackle paint. While I am calling this phase complete I am still waiting for one more order of oval bases to arrive for my mounted heroes I neglected to include in my original order. They are due in early next week and I can get them changed over quickly. My intent for this project now is to finish the basing as I intend to use the models as opposed to a mass flocking party which could allow me to knock these out in a weekend. My reasoning is due to not knowing what Games Workshop has planned for future Aelf releases. These past few months they have proven that they can revamp an older and smaller Aelf faction or create an entirely brand new Aelf faction. I am excited by the prospect for both and as such, I feel finishing the bases as needed is the best course of action. With my old fantasy Aelves sorted I can go back to my new and shiny Aelves. I plan to build my recently acquired Khinerai and Melusai kits soon and get them painted up. While I lean heavily on wanting to make these kits their more shooty versions I plan to make one of each variant per kit so I can officially have one of each unit in the army and I can grow from there. Since I run the Witch Aelf horde I don't have a pressing need to go all in on one version of these kits or another just yet. Before I can dive into these kits I need to finish painting up my last unit of Sisters of Slaughter. Thankfully, they only require a few more hours to finish up giving me a solid unit of twenty or more likely two units of ten. While I still have a bit more to go on the Daughters of Khaine, I did manage to finish up my last Bloodwrack Medusa giving me two on foot (tail?) and one riding the cauldron. While I took a prayer heavy list to Adepticon I am looking forward to running a magic heavy list in the future to mix things up a bit and see which style I prefer for any future events I will be attending. I am still loving this army and don't see myself stopping any time soon. While I will pick up Idoneth as they are released I am planning a very big push toward a better quality paint job on them so don't expect me to push out an army of them as quickly as I often do, but you can expect to see slow progress over the coming months regarding that force. Outside of painting armies and moving older ones to rounds I have a few small painting projects planned for the near future that I am excited to begin. While I feel very much as home painting vast quantities of models in a single sitting I have never taken to producing a true piece of art in the form of a bust, diorama, or even just a highly painted model. These future one off projects will hopefully begin to correct this and help me grow more as a hobbyist. Be sure to come back Friday as I run through both the Team Doubles and Grand Tournament from Adepticon this year discussing how the games went and what my Daughters faced and how the games both wins and losses has only reaffirmed how great the Witch Aelf horde can be in battle. Until then, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore Visit my Blogs main Page!

The game is just the excuse to get together @MrCharisma lol. I cannot recommend you joining next year enough.

Hey Everyone! Last week at this time Adepticon was in full swing and what a great adventure it was this year! I got to hang out and catch up with friends from last year and meet plenty of new folks as well. All I can say is four days is just not enough and I am planning on hitting up more events so I can see all these great people more than once a year. The biggest challenge will be getting myself across the water to visit that fantastic gentleman who invaded from the U.K. this year. This post will be a lot of pictures and a lot of names of great people in a general overview of my time this year. If you are looking for in-depth coverage of how my games went you will have to wait until next week. If I missed mentioning anyone I apologize as it is the people and this community that really make these events so great. My Adepticon 2018 started off with a nine-hour drive with my good friend Sean with other members of my local club, Cole, and Jacob, driving a bit behind us. We had left early in the morning and made it to our hotel a bit after midday. After a quick refresh, we got out badges, visited the dealer's room before I headed over to help Paul run his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome. As we waited for the players to show up I started seeing some of the great people I befriended last year Alex, David G., and Austin who introduced me to the talented Em. It was a fantastic event that Paul ran well and I even got to see some friends I made at NOVA Open this past year as well! The event ran all four hours and the players looked eager to do more so I am hoping Paul will continue the event next year! Friday rolled around and I met up with Mike, who I knew through Twitter as we teamed up with my Khorne and his beautifully painted Skaven army in the Team Doubles event. This is really where the fun began to ramp up. I was able to catch up a bit with Brad, Andrea, David W., Domus, Tom, Vince, Neil, Garrett, Mike B., Miles, Joe K., Dan B., Kelly, Martin O., and Tyler while also getting to meet great people such as Adam T., Mitzy, Jimbo, Russ, Eric, James, Scott R., Ministomp, Scott F., Andrew, Elric, Martin M., and the great Kari Ann. As I said this post is a lot of pictures and a list of all the great people who made my event so great so hang on! After three amazing games in the team event, the day wrapped up with a throwdown between Mitzy and Eric in a 2000pt matched play game. It sounds odd to think about, but watching a game of Age of Sigmar was one of the best ways to relax after playing Age of Sigmar all day. It was indeed a long day as the team even lasted thirteen hours, while it is a grind quite a few teams needed the longer rounds to coordinate their battle plans. After Friday wrapped up it was on to the GT Saturday morning. I was lucky enough to meet a few more great people in Steve, Byron, as well as others. I had three great games with day and even managed to make my way on to Table 1 for round 2 and meet Cody and his family while having a great game with him! I had my Daughters of Khaine out in force and I was very happy with how they played. My wins were swift and my losses always down to the last round or two as they made my opponents fight tooth and nail to claim a victory over Morathi and my Witch Aelves. Saturday night I was invited by Pete F. to attend the second meeting between Games Workshop and some of the U.S. AoS Community leaders. The meeting was very constructive and I was very happy to be included. It is so great to have Games Workshop reaching out through continued efforts to the community so we can grow this great game together. Post meeting a large group of us ended up in the lounge as we chatted and shared a few drinks well into the night with everyone having high hopes for the next day's games. Sunday began as any other day expect a lot of people were a bit more sleep deprived due to the previous night's fun. Two more great games were played and I was able to say hello to Les, Terry, Wayne, and Dan H. during breaks between games. After the awards were given to the winners and a round of applause were given to Alex, Kari Ann, and their team for running yet another great event everyone ventured out for dinner. A large group of us made it to a great Burger Joint called Kuma's Corner and after rounds of drink and meeting a few more people like Paul M., we ate our food and headed back to the hotel's lounge for some more fun. After a few more hours of hanging out, and making fun of the fact that ESPN was treating Corn Hole as a professional sport, I said my goodbyes and headed to bed as I had another nine-hour drive the following day. With my second Adepticon wrapped up, I can safely say that I am happy I have made this a must-attend event for myself each year. The games are great, the atmosphere is second to none, and best of all are the people. As mentioned above I met so many wonderful people and was able to see some good friends I met last year. Only seeing these folks once or twice a year isn't enough and while I got to hang out with a lot of them a few I only saw briefly so I am working to attend even more events next year as well as travel over to the U.K. to play in an event and visit Warhammer World. I am happy to say my wife has agreed to an adventure to the U.K. in 2019 for some Warhammer and catching up with friends. I cannot say enough that if you play Warhammer Age of Sigmar you need to attend this event. It is one of the best events in the U.S. and if you join the Twitter community you are going to feel like everyone you meet is family long before you even meet face to face. There was so much Age of Sigmar, incredible Hobby, delicious food, and exceptional people that it is hard to come back to reality. While this post was more about all the fun and great people from the event next week you can expect detailed coverage of all the events I played in and how my Witch Aelf horde performed. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck M. Visit my Blogs main Page!

Steve it would be amazing to have you out to Adepticon. Hope it can happen soon.

Lots more to come!

Hey Everyone! As all of you know this past weekend was Adepticon 2018 out in Schaumburg, IL. It was an amazing experience once again where I got to hang out with friends and get to know them all even better. While there wasn't much actually hobby other than food, drinks, and games my Hobby mojo is very high after such a great event so expect a lot in the future. I plan to do more in-depth coverage of Adepticon on my Friday posts, but for today here is some of the fun that took place! I took the trip out this year with my very good friend Sean (BrushforHire) and while it was a nine-hour drive it did go very quickly as we shared out passion for this hobby as well as filmed our travel out in some short videos via my Twitter (One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six). I also want to give a quick shout out to a few members of my local gaming club who made it out as well for the event. Cole, Jamie, Jacob, and Noah all joined the fun, probably due to my constant talking about how fun last year was and joined in all the fun. Cole and Jacob played both 40k and Age of Sigmar team events, but after a great time in the Mortal Realms have committed to going all in for the Age of Sigmar GT next year! I was overjoyed to be helping Paul with his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome, and my first night in town was watching him help players craft a story. The event went very well with the players enjoying the narrative and fun rules he created as well as his ability to adapt on the fly to help make the story much grander than the initial intent. The following day was Age of Sigmar Team event and I had the pleasure of playing with Mike who I know from the Twitter community using my Khorne alongside his mighty Skaven! We went to the event for fun and to play new people and were not worried about winning every game and I am happy to say we met our goal and had three great games! The last big event of the weekend was the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament. 164 players began the event and it was crazy to see so many players together to play this great game! On top of that, the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles had 120 total teams for their event and a small, but sold out Narrative as well! My Daughters of Khaine were out in force and I was happy to see other Daughters at the event as well and doing well. In the coming weeks, I will cover my over impressions, and event breakdowns to give you all the juicy details. Come back this Friday to see my overall impressions of the event and the fun had with all the wonderful people I have become friends with thanks to our Hobby. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore Visit my Blogs main Page!

Hey Everyone! While I am busy at Adepticon I wanted to briefly cover the recent Malign Portents Coalescence Global Event that took place this past weekend. I was able to run the event for my local club, Ligonier Legion, once again and we had a great turnout for a fun day of gaming! If you haven't seen the global results Death won the event overall. If you are thinking about running narrative gaming in any way or wish to try your hand at running the upcoming June Coalescence event be sure to keep an eye on the We are The Neon Blog. One of my favorite parts of the Coalescence events is how I can take the global narrative and add my own local lore for my event. At the first event, I had Tyrion and Teclis as the driving forces behind my local lore and with the recent release of Daughters of Khaine, I couldn't resist adding Morathi into my local story. In order to loosely tie it to the first local Coalescence, I had Teclis as part of the story. He formed an alliance with Morathi in order to find out what was going on in Shyish. The awards prepped, and tables full of terrain we began the event. I was blown away to have so many players for the event considering Adepticon was right around the corner, but I was happy to see a gaming hall full of Age of Sigmar. The day went by smoothly with two-hour rounds and breaks in between. All in all the pack was solid and clearly laid out and everyone at my club showed up with a great attitude to play and craft their narrative as the day progressed. I was excited to see an odd number turn up which allowed me to play all three games and get some more practice with my Daughters of Khaine and enjoy some narrative games before a major GT. I really enjoy running a narrative event as it is more laid back as the point of the day is about the story and not just about who wins or looses. With players across all skill levels of painting and gaming, it is also a great time to talk about our passion and help each other improve with strategy, painting tips, and perhaps get one another excited for our next army. We had some great hobby on display and while some players are much newer to painting everyone was happy to put in a model to be judged for best painted. Seeing the club share their enthusiasm for the hobby despite their level is great o behold. After a well fought three rounds my local club saw Death win out overall in a surprise defeat. My local area is often Order and Chaos heavy, but the Death players showed up to play and seized the win. Awards passed out and our event logged for the global narrative we all headed over for the standard post-game beer and chats. It was a fantastic day and I am more excited ever to dive into the June event and make it even better and try to max out our venue. I want to give thanks to the NEON team and Games Workshop for the effort they put into creating this pack and event. It was a top-level event that my local club will always be running as long as the packs keep on coming. Knowing that we are connecting to the large global community really drives us to make it bigger and better. The global event wrapped up all that I had left was to tidy up my little narrative which you can read above. I cannot wait for the June event and I plan to bring much more detailed coverage on it as the month draws closer. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Adepticon officially kicks off today and everyone is eagerly anticipating the famous Games Workshop Reveal Show happening later tonight. I am bummed to be missing it once again, but sadly there are only so many vacation days in the work year, but I will be taking a look at all the great reveals early in the morning before I begin my drive out to Chicago with my friend Sean. Before all that fun I need to catch up on all the hobby I have had happening over the past week. With my army and display board painted and ready for Adepticon, I was able to finish my final prep for the Malign Portents Coalescence Global event that took place this past Saturday. The last bit I really had to finish was the one item I kept putting off, but with the help of my lovely wife, I was able to finish all the Pylons as part of the event pack for my tables. They were built to be temporary, but if you printed these out on cardstock and in color they could prove to be some great entry level terrain so be sure to check it out. I also celebrated a birthday this past week and I was gifted with some Daughters of Khaine (also money to spend on Daughters of Khaine) by way of models and dice. I plan to eventually get a second set of Melusai and Khinerai so I can build both options for some post-Adepticon Hobby. I was also gifted some of the excellent Daughters of Khaine themed dice and I love the design and look of them and I took them to try them out at Coalescence over the weekend. I must say the dice roll exceptionally well and much to the dismay of one of my opponents they managed to roll a six for every single priority roll. The downside to the dice with my Witch Aelf army is I was unable to roll all my attacks from a single unit at once due to the large size. I tried throughout the day and while I managed to finish my games easily under two hours the flow of rolling was odd and I want to make sure to be as clean and quick on my rolls as possible so I will be using my old Dark Elf Dice for the bulk of my rolls. Thankfully, my friends, Andrea and Dan gave me some great ideas on Twitter to use the bigger dice for Heros, priority rolls, spells, and prayers and I plan to do just that! Even though I am all set for Adepticon I just cannot put my paintbrush down and my excitement for Daughters of Khaine is not going away anytime soon. I took time over the weekend to paint up my third Avatar of Khaine. It was a quick model t paint and washes really work well to bring out the details. The unit is a combat beast and I look forward to running two of these in a list one day in the future. If you are at Adepticon or driving out int eh next day or so I hope you have safe travels and be sure to come say hello if you see me wandering around the halls. I cannot wait for the event and be sure to follow me on Twitter to see all the coverage from my perspective as the days go on. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Adepticon is almost here and I am happy to say I have accomplished my tasks in preparation for the big event! The release of the new Daughters of Khaine really put me into a state of Hobby frenzy I was not expecting as I got my head around the new Battletome, worked up a new list, and painted Morathi to take to the table. I am very excited to field the new book and see how they do at a higher level. More importantly, I cannot wait to see the friends I made last year and through online interaction and have a great time enjoying the game we all love so much. After a lot of debating in my own mind as well as looking around online while building my list, I decided to take a slightly changed variant of the list I wrote for a recent Tactica Article on the Warhammer Community Site. While I won't be putting up the whole list you can be sure it will have lots of Witch Aelves as well as Morathi to lead it all. With the number of attacks my Witch Aelves put out in combat she is a big force multiplier for every list I have written. While a lot of people are building Melusai lists using the Temple Nest Battalion I am taking the road of lots and lots of Witch Aelves. While all the effort toward this army has been toward getting ready for Adepticon I still have the newer units to build and paint to add to the army. You can be sure to see them hitting my hobby table shortly after Adepticon and I cannot wait to have all the options available to really begin playing this army to its fullest and varying play styles. Although I suspect the upcoming Idoneth Deepkin could cause a bit of a distraction if I don't get all of my Daughters done before their release, but even if I do resist I will be looking to add them to my collection. While I am a bit saddened that my original list of one hundred and twenty Witch Aelves is no longer viable, if I wish to include Morathi I need to slim the total number down a bit. I knew Morathi was going to Adepticon the moment I saw and knew it was released before the cut-off date. I managed to pick her and I set to work right away. Her two forms took much longer to paint than originally expected, but the whole process was a joy and she is my favorite model I have put a brush to date. I really put in my best effort and constantly sought advice from my friend Sean (BrushforHire) to make sure the final product was what I had envisioned. After she was complete I set to work on my Display Board and while it is not exactly what I had envisioned I am happy enough with the result. I feel like I could add a lot more to the board, but I know it will look a lot fuller once the army is on it and taking up the negative space. I might go back to it in the future and try to remake in a better fashion with brickwork, resin blood flows, but for its purpose at Adepticon, I am going to leave it where it is. With some time left before Adepticon I really need to get more practice games in with my army so the plan is to play as many games as possible between now and next Thursday. Thankfully I have some great opponents around here who are ready and willing to play. I am thankful that I had plenty of games before the Battletome, but I wish to ensure I get all the new rules in my head so I don't miss any steps at the tables come next week. There is a lot more I wish to add to this army and I plan to do so after Adepticon, but with a lack of time I am calling my Adepticon preparations complete. Adepticon promises to be a great time with a big Games Workshop reveal Wednesday night, which I'll sadly miss as I drive in on Thursday and plenty of Age of Sigmar and time with friends. I look forward to seeing you all there next week if you are attending and be sure to say hi if you see me! Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore Previous Articles in this Series: Road to Adepticon 2018 : Part 1 Road to Adepticon 2018 : Part 2 View the full article

Hey Everyone! We are officially less than ten days away from Adepticon 2018. Some people have finished their projects and others, like me, are still wrapping it all up. Thankfully I am just about done and if all goes well I should have a relaxing few days with my Wife prior to all the Adepticon fun to be had in the coming week. Hopefully, you are just about done or already enjoying a job well done and resting for the event yourself. I pushed hard to get my display board for my Daughters of Khaine moving along and after an evening's worth of work I was able to get the entire thing built and the next day it was primed and dried. It wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be and a big part of that is thanks to Brian O. for 3D printing me some nice Pillars for the board. A bit of painting and detailing in the next few days should see it ready to go and then I can figure out how to display my army to its fullest effect. I am unsure of the best way to show off both versions of Morathi on the board. Should they be together or separated? Let me know what you think in the comments as I could use some advice on this subject. With a tight deadline looming and a few bits of my army to finish, I decided that cleaning would be a good use of my time for some reason. I had been meaning to do this for quite some time, but with having to wait for bases and boards to dry I opted to put my 40k into storage and rearrange my displayed forces. It was a nice break as cleaning really helps clear my mind and it is great to have my much more recently painted armies displayed. Currently, I am surrounded by Aelves in my basement hobby space as I am rebasing them all to rounds. I am about halfway complete with the task and after Adepticon I will be diving back into the project as I ride the post-convention Hobby high. The biggest relief I had this past weekend was taking the time to finish my Morathi models. I loved these models and I took my time and tried to paint above my usual level to do the sculpt the justice it deserved. I owe a big thanks to my friend Sean M. for helping me with advice and tips as I worked on the models. I am very pleased with how they came out and if I get the chance I might go back and add a bit of eyeshadow to the models before the event to really finish the models off. Before I work on the final touch-ups, however, I wanted to make sure I had my models based and ready to go well in advance. I took every model I currently have painted and began the process of getting them ready. It is not a challenging part of the army, but it is tedious, but the hardest bit is over with the first layer of crackle paint. Next up is a quick wash, adding some static grass, and repainting the rims to call it complete. I have full confidence I can get this all wrapped up by this weekend so expect a lot of fun pictures on Twitter throughout the week. Friday I will be going into much more detail as I wrap up this year "Road to Adepticon" article series so be sure to check back then. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

For in-depth rules questions like this, you need to email customerservice@novaopen.com . While it ultimately makes its way to me and the AoS Leads to answer it keeps it all official and in one place, but definitely send the question in!