Strength_Hammer

It was a pleasure indeed. Sad you will not be there this year

Hey! It is Chuck. to answer your questions... 1) I plan to get working on them directly after Adepticon so estimated time is another month or two (don't hold me to it too much as life can always surprise us). 2) I am unsure of their plans as of yet, but once myself and the NOVA team finds out I will be passing it along as I am able to do so. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Hey Everyone! In just over a weeks time the second Coalasence Global Narrative Event Day will take place. On March 17th Warhammer Age of Sigmar players are planning to gather for some fun narrative gaming for glory and fun. Following up on last summers successful event I will be running this event once again in my local club. The Neon group have outdone themselves once again and Games Workshop even gave the player pack a nice facelift to make it look stunning. There is still time to jump on board and host this free event so head over to Neon Blog to sign up and get the pack! I really enjoyed running this event back in June and while the story of the Godbeast Eristrat this event is purely focused on the current story revolving around Shyish and the Malign Portents. If you haven't picked up the Malign Portents book yet I highly suggest you do so. The level of detail it dives into about Shyish is worth it alone. Be sure to check out the companion website as well for even more stories and details about this strange time in The Age of Sigmar. The event also coincides with the Global campaign, Dread Solstice, as well where players across the world are helping shape the future and story of The Age of Sigmar. Every game will count toward reporting so be sure to track the wins and losses at your table and report them to your participating location. One of the coolest additions from Malign Portents is our four Hero models, one for each Grand Alliance. While their power and use in Matched Play is debatable they are perfect for a narrative game and with an event themed around their release I thought it necessary to make them part of my local event. Each of my players can bring their respective Malign Portents Hero for free in addition to their armies and my local club has been very excited about this as there is no reason not to play with these great models now. I am allowing proxies for these models, but if players want to win the infamous "Coolest Award" from my event they should find time to buy and paint one of these up. The pack is laid exceptionally well and is built for each scenario to grow from 100 to 1250 to 1500 points from game to game. I love the idea of growing your army each ga,e, but sadly this will be the one item I change. Since the event is the weekend before Adepticon time has been a bit of an issue for my local club as we all scramble to prepare. For my local event will be playing each game at 1000 points only. This is twofold as it will allow us a fun and quick day of gaming and as a lot of my club will be playing in the team event at Adepticon we can practice the use of our armies in a relaxed fashion. It is a small change, but one I felt worked well for myself and the players at my event. One of the great ideas from last summers event was to add your local story to the overall narrative. As I am a big fan of Aelves I used Tyrion and Teclis as the driving force in my local lore and made fun little teasers involving them and the event centered in my local area. I even brought Tyrion and Teclis as leaders of my Aelven army last year to play as my ringer army and have some fun on the tables. I couldn't resist doing this once again and with the well-timed Daughters of Khaine release who better to involve this time other than Morathi. I plan to theme my ringer force once again around her and Teclis will be my be Harbinger, although with slimmed down rules. As I did last year I will also create a small wrap up teaser after the event to help tie in my local result with the overall narrative and, hopefully, set up some plot devices for the third event in June. If you want to see how the first Coalescence went to my local club be sure to check out the article I posted about it. The post also lays out my local story from beginning to end in case you wish to read that as well. Much like last year, I couldn't see running this event without some fun prizes. While a smaller event I did not go as overboard as I did in June, but I got some nice prizes and certificates for my players to battle over. I made the certificates using a PDF created by the Neon Team which I printed at a local shopping center as 4x6 pictures and picked up some simple frames to put them in. I love doing these nice little awards and they are well received by my local club when I create them for my events. All in all, each award costs less than two dollars so it is worth doing even if you do not have any prize support. Narrative gaming is a lot of fun and a great way to play Age of Sigmar. While Matched Play may get the spotlight it doesn't mean you should shy away from doing both or even doing Open Play. Each of these pillars is great ways to keep your gaming in the Mortal Realms varied and fresh. I encourage you to participate in the Global Coalescence event day on March 17th, even if it is just you and a friend playing the scenarios. Be sure to report your overall winner as laid out in the pack to help be a part of this great event! Let me know if you are running a Coalescence event in the comments below and be sure to keep an eye out for coverage of my event in a future post. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Fourteen days is all that stands between us and Adepticon 2018. The Adepticon Crunch is in full effect across Twitter and I find myself in the midst of it all as I push to paint up Morathi, build my Display Board, and possibly add in some of the new Daughters of Khaine units coming out this weekend. Thankfully I did get a bit of practice over this weekend and got to hang out with some good friends. Neil and Dave from the Rend 4 Club over in Ohio came out to play and Neil brought the Rend 4 trophy for me to snag a few pictures as I was last season winner for the Hobby Hero portion of the clubs events. It was great to hang out with them and play some games and I look forward to more time with them in a few weeks at Adepticon. Speaking of wins I managed to also snag second overall at a league being held at one of my local shops, SCG Hobby, as well. The league ran for six weeks and included points for playing games, winning games, as well as painting. Thanks to my Witch Aelf painting marathon my painting score boosted me up to snag a bit of store credit which I plan to use on more Daughters of Khaine. With the Daughters of Khaine release this past weekend and games to be had on Saturday, I spend my Friday night building Morathi and her two forms.The kits were great to build and some while some bits are typical Aelven Fiddly the overall design is fantastic and it took around an hour and a half to build them both. I was surprised how stable the models were when complete due to their molded bases. I have very little concern about them falling over and the weight of the models feel great in the hand. I also had a package arrive from my friend Brian to help me with my display board. He graciously 3D printed a few pillars for my board on his own machine. They were wonderfully big and will help frame the army on the board and it has made me really excited to begin the board this week alongside the painting of Morathi. As I said above Neil and Dave from The Rend 4 Club came out to get some Adepticon prep with my local club, Ligonier Legion Wargaming. Neil and I have never managed to play so he promptly took the opportunity to grudge me and my newly built Morathi. Blades of Khorne and Daughters of Khaine caused the blood to flow and despite my early lead Neil managed to pull the victory back to his side. It was great to play Neil and he let me take my time to wrap my head around the new rules for the first time and while I lost I can take solace in the fact that Morathai faced off against Skarbrand and won. After a day of gaming, hobbying, and chatting we ended with a much-needed dinner and round of drinks. It was clear to see the excitement was very high for Adepticon and the fun to be had at the event. If you are interested there is a good chance Neil and I will be hitting the gym while we are there so if you are interested reach out and let me know! While hanging out and gaming is a lot of fun there is still hobby to do in order to prepare before Adepticon. Over the past few days, I managed to finish my third and final Cauldron as well as sort out exactly how I want to base my army. It should only take a day or so to base my list for Adepticon and I plan to do that sometime this week. I also started getting some color blocked out on Morathi and I do not feel she will take all that long to complete. I have seen a lot of nicely done models of her being painted very quickly so with a bit of work and time a great result can be had fairly quickly. How are your Adepticon preparations coming along? Are you in crunch mode or did you manage to plan ahead well enough that you can relax a bit before the big event? Let me know in the comments below. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey everyone! Today I wanted to talk about the upcoming Warhammer Age of Sigmar events at this year's NOVA Open Tabletop Wargaming Convention. I have the honor of being selected as the T.O. Lead for the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament and Team Doubles Event, but there is a variety of Age of Sigmar events for all players and age groups and the Age of Sigmar Lead Team are working together to make it a great year. I have invited the Kidshammer and Narrative Leads of these events to come on and talk a bit about their events as well. Registration opened yesterday so be sure to get your tickets and join us later this year! Kidshammer: Event Organizer Stephen Duall The NOVA team is excited to have our youth gaming event – “Kidshammer” - return to the NOVA Open for the second year. It’s a two-day Warhammer camp for kids aged 10-15. Last year’s event was a blast. Kids played Age of Sigmar all weekend, with open gaming and hobby tutorials on the Saturday, and a friendly three-round tournament on Sunday. For 2018, Kidshammer will have the same general format, but will offer the option to play Warhammer 40,000 too! The organizers of Kidshammer are excited to see the next generation of Generals and Warlords develop, and the event fits in well with the family atmosphere of the NOVA Open. More than one parent said they attended the NOVA Open last year just because Kidshammer made it more attractive to attend the convention with their whole family. We love that, and want more family gaming! Participants can bring their own models to play or can borrow a “loaner” army provided by the organizers if they don’t have their own army or want to try something new. Saturday morning will feature pairing off participants and playing matched play missions to get a feel for the game. Adult leads will be close by to provide tips and tricks and answer any rule questions. Saturday afternoon will start off with a painting seminar lead by Sean McAfee (BrushforHire), an extremely talented and approachable artist and teacher. The rest of the afternoon will give an opportunity for the kids to experience multiplayer and narrative gaming. The Age of Sigmar narrative team has cooked up some exciting ideas that will really emerge the kids into story-based gaming (if they want to if that’s not their thing kids can do other things). Sunday is the “Youngblood” friendly tournament day, designed to be a competitive event without being a cutthroat event. The tournament will use the matched play missions from the General’s Handbook or the Eternal War missions from the 40k 8th edition rulebook. Two separate tournaments will be run simultaneously: an AoS tournament and a 40k tournament. Kids will sign up at the event on Saturday for the tournament in which they wish to compete. The Age of Sigmar tournament will be played at the 1500 point level with a custom Pitched Battle army composition chart. The 40k tournament will be at the 75 power level using the army construction rules contained in the Matched Play section of the 8th edition rulebook. Kidshammer encourages models to be painted, but it’s not required (although we will offer the opportunity for painting to be judged during lunch during the tournament on Sunday, and painting will be used as a tie-breaker for determining a tournament winner). There are more details, of course, in the Kidshammer Primer for the event. We look forward to making Kidshammer a success again this year, and hopefully for years to come. There are only 16 spaces available, so act fast if you or someone you know is interested! Grand Narrative: The NOVA Open Age of Sigmar Team The Age of Sigmar Grand Narrative at the NOVA Open is going to run continuously from Thursday, August 30th until Sunday, September 2nd, and our event team is excited about delivering a world-class narrative event. Our event has grown out of the work that Aaron Bostian has done to run the Narrative at NOVA since 2016, and this year is set to transcend everything we’ve offered in the past. We are hobbyists and storytellers that are hosting a game for like-minded individuals: we’re looking for players that will combine excellence in painting and modeling with storytelling and wargaming in the world of the Mortal Realms. We invite players to join us as equal partners in bringing our story to life, and we’ve designed a weekend of activities that will bring the Realms to life on the NOVA tables! As a player in the Grand Narrative, you have the opportunity to craft unique warscrolls for your faction, along with one-of-a-kind models to play this on the tabletop. First and foremost, every player will create a unique Airship model, in the general style of the Kharadron Overlords. This model will fly, transport models, and have some kind of offensive capability dependent on the choices you make before the games and the upgrades you choose throughout the weekend. The modeling choices are up to you because every faction is going to implement a flying transport in a different way. Would the Stormcast Eternals build some crackling dynamo out of sigmarite, or enlist the aid of some celestial beast? Would the forces of Chaos take to the skies through Skaven engineering, a daemon-infused ship hull, or a howdah on a giant monster? We’re giving every player a chance to answer these questions and build a model that’s unique to their forces while opening up modes of play that wouldn’t be available on any other AoS table. This year’s narrative continues the Ships of Renown theme we started in 2016 but expands this game element in exciting ways! We’ve always set games around moving the concept of battling with foot-long sailing ships, but in 2018 we are creating new epic ships that take the scale of naval warfare to a new degree, and most excitingly are drawn from the lore of Warhammer! Our first ship to be unveiled is the Heldenhammer, seen in GW’s 2011 board game Dreadfleet. This ship, originally a dreadnought for the Empire in the Warhammer Old World, is re-cast as an Order Grand Alliance sailing vessel in our story. Other ships will follow, each drawn from the lore of Dreadfleet, Man’o’War, and the Mortal Realms. The ships will all interact together to allow players to create naval battles, garrison their structures for new and interesting powers, and launch their airships and other pieces for unique gameplay on the high seas! We’re also trying to formalize the space that narratives need to develop with our Planning and Team Meeting sessions. This is time scheduled in the NOVA GT calendar in which we won’t be doing structured gameplay. Instead, the organizers will be facilitating sessions with the teams of players, organized around the alliances of our story. In these sessions, teams will talk with each other about what they’ve experienced in the preceding games, what theories they have about the world that’s being unveiled around them, and what strategies they can use to block the progress of other alliances. This is the time when alliances come together to plan against foes or when new motivations can be formed beyond the somewhat mundane “rule all the lands.” If players want to accomplish some side objective, they can work with the organizers to quickly define a skirmish-level game. A wager or challenge can bring in another alliance as an opponent, or the organizers can run a quick Renown or Ruin game as a test of skill. These sessions will be the space that lets our stories breathe and percolate, but more intense players can find themselves embroiled in AoS Summer Camp with gaming around the clock! Finally, we are using this year’s Grand Narrative to establish a covenant with our current and future players. We are committed to making this event the equal of any Age of Sigmar narrative event running around the world. We display that commitment in the tables and terrain we build, the medium we use to tell our story, and the planning we put into quality game design. We know that the NOVA GT has been blessed with an amazing Age of Sigmar community that is going to respond to our work with a compensating effort and that our tables are going to be graced with beautifully painted armies featuring fascinating and distinctive creations. We invite both committed and prospective players to connect with us on the NOVA NEON Facebook group to see our progress and start building their armies, in both plastic and prose, as we march towards Labor Day. The AoS Grand Narrative for 2018 is going to be something really special, and we invite every player within striking distance of Washington D.C. to be a part of it! Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire Grand Clash T.O. Garrett Mulroney The NOVA Open Warhammer Underworlds Grand Clash is a 7 round Warhammer Underworlds tournament spread over the whole weekend. The first 4 rounds are in the evenings of Thursday-Saturday so you can enjoy the rest of the convention, either by competing in other events, attending hobby seminars, or exploring the vendor hall. On Sunday, players will be broken up into 8 player brackets, by current standings, where they will compete to be the top of their brackets. This is the first Grand Clash at NOVA Open and we hope to see you join us to battle it out in this competitive fast-paced game! Grand Tournament and Team Doubles Event: T.O. Chuck Moore It wouldn't be a convention without a Grand Tournament or a Team Doubles Event and NOVA Open will be bringing back both of these events for this year's convention. The goal is to provide two distinct and different competitive events for its participants who will compete for glory while enjoying the social aspect that Warhammer provides. The Team Doubles is being built to focus more on the social aspect of the game with balanced and fun scenarios in a one day, three-game event. One of the great joys of conventions such as NOVA Open is getting to play different people and make new friends. It is made even easier by the fact we all share a common hobby and can easily talk for hours about it. The Team Doubles is a great time to play Age of Sigmar while playing with a friend against other players and growing your social circle. While the focus is on the social aspect you can be sure that each of the three scenarios and twists will still allow for balanced gaming whether you are building a team with a friend or looking to fight it out with a random team member assigned on the day if you arrive solo. Tickets will sell fast and only one ticket is needed per team. The Grand Tournament this year will be a two day, six game event with the focus on finding the best general at the event. The scenarios will seem familiar and are being built with a competitive mindset in order to allow players wanting to battle it out to their fullest with the finely honed armies. Gaming is only one part of being the best general in Age of Sigmar however so you can expect to see scoring on painting and sportsmanship being in play as well victory points earned during your games. We want players to bring their best on the table, in their hobby, and with their interaction with one another at the event. The scenarios are still being finalized for both events, but will be posted ahead of time to allow everyone to practice until they feel ready to storm the fields for glory! Unlike last year we will be using the latest General's Handbook as well as having a cut-off date for useable released much closer to the event date to ensure we are playing with the most current releases. I hope to see you all at the event and if you haven't yet, be sure to pick up your ticket's now. As you can see there is a way to play Age of Sigmar at NOVA Open this year no matter your age or preferred play style. It is worth noting as well that the Age of Sigmar Leads decided to implement changes to last year's hobby standards. Primarily, with exception to the Kidshammer event, we will be requiring round/oval bases as well as full tabletop standard painting. These will be detailed in the Primers soon if they are not already. NOVA Open is one of the three Major National Events in the U.S.A. and we wanted to ensure the standards for what you see on the tabletop will match those of other similar events at the National level. Feel free to check out my impressions of NOVA Open from last year (Part 1 and Part 2). All info will be posted on the primers for each event online, but if you have any questions about the event be sure to reach out to customerservice@novaopen.com. NOVA Open is a very unique event as it centralized around raising money for various charities and enjoying the social aspect as much as the gaming. We look forward to seeing you later in the year! Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! As you might have noticed the Daughters of Khaine has taken over the blog. I want to give a nod to Dan over at AoS Shorts for the inspiration. Dan's logo and site are a thing of beauty and I love how he quickly adapts to keep pace with Games Workshops frantic release schedule. The design is here for a while so I hope you enjoy it! There is still plenty of more Daughters of Khaine goodness coming with the releases as well as some fun articles coming out soon and not to mention that we are now fully in Adepticon Crunch time. A lot of the updated warscrolls for Daughters of Khaine have been released on the Age of Sigmar App and I took time over the week to adapt to these new changes. I dug into my bits bin and painted up ten crossbows to add to my Doomfire Warlocks as well as an extra thirty bladed bucklers to add to a unit of Witch Aelves. The Warlocks were a very quick update, but the Witch Aelves took a bit longer than I expected. Since I am using the older Metal Witch Aelf models I had to cut the arms and hands off the plastic bucklers from the plastic kit and file them down before painting. I am a bit worried about the shields breaking off the models, but I will have to worry about that when and if it happens. There is far too much left to do as I prepare for Adepticon. Thankfully it has been much more than updating models I thought were finished a few weeks ago as I also converted one of my three Cauldrons of Blood back to a Shrine for one of my Bloodwrack Medusa. It was a simple change and it I managed to begin blocking out some of the colors to keep the paint flowing. While waiting for the Battletome to release this weekend I am unsure on exactly how my army list will change for Adepticon, but I know it is changing as I have already set the weekend aside to build, prime, and begin practicing with Morathi in my list. She will be at Adepticon despite the short window of time to get her completed. Once I have my list set I will paint up the remaining models needed and finish the basing which will hopefully give me a few weeks to complete my display board. I have the idea to create a Blood Aqueduct board with some classic Dark Elf Spires in the back of the board. Admittedly the spires are a bit overzealous so they might be the one change I make depending on time. The overall goal is to capture the Khaine meets Greek theme that feels ingrained in the army. This weekend will properly begin the flurry of activity. If you are working overtime to get ready for Adepticon let me know in the comments below as we all push through the crunch time before the event. Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Today I have a very special guest post for everyone to enjoy. I invited Paul (@Pjschard) from The Mortal Realms Podcast and Youtube Channel to discuss his upcoming Narrative Age of Sigmar Event at this year's Adepticon. Paul is a passionate Narrative Event Organizer (NEO) with a love of spiders, goblins, and all things Warhammer. It has been a treat to assist him with some of the preparations for the event titled "The Gibbering Dome" and I look forward to seeing the idea come to life on the tabletop in less than a month's time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve always been a bit obsessed with the idea of playing Warhammer games set in an indoor setting, I generally tend to blame that on playing Dungeons & Dragons endlessly from age 9 to 12. Until Age of Sigmar, playing a full battle of Warhammer within the confines of a twisting hallway, immense cavern, or massive landmark was simply impossible. Ranks and flanks movement forced a large broad empty area in the center of every battlefield and did not allow for small chokepoints where only a single figure can pass through. This was a bit of a frustration for me as I had bought well over a thousand dollars of Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles to play Warhammer with and they had been relegated to a pretty background for pictures. When Age of Sigmar dropped, one of my first thoughts was elation that I could finally play a full game of Warhammer within this setting. It is easily my favorite way to play AoS. Following ACON last year I was motivated to extend that experience to other players and Coalescence provided the perfect backdrop. I definitely doubted my ability to complete the project within the time frame required, so I broke the project into landmarks. @bishmeister on Twitter was an incredible resource for material use and inspiration. Originally I was hoping to make all the terrain flat pack but had to concede on that point due to construction issues. I had to make concessions to my original vision but was ultimately incredibly excited about the product I was able to produce in such a short time. Mike Butcher contemplating the final Coalescence Scenario. I based the construction loosely on the interior of the Wisconsin State Capitol and decided to name its AoS counterpart the Gibbering Dome with help from the Mortal Realms Crew. Because I have limited storage space all my tables are modular, allowing for each game to be a unique board including elevation changes. The height variance has actually provided an interesting side benefit, allowing players to see the battle at eye level from a chair, but also to see the other players as well. The games played on these tables have been some of the most enjoyable games I have watched and really inspired me to hold more events. One of my goals going forward is to establish The Gibbering Dome as a setting that anyone will be able to pick and play using a few custom rules and their own terrain. One of the ways I have started to establish that setting is through writing my own background, but the most important tool is by running more events using the terrain itself. I’ll not forget to say thanks to Chuck not only for offering me the post today, but also the immense help he has been with planning the Gibbering Dome Event. I’ll finish the post with a teaser piece of fiction sent out to all the players of the Gibbering Dome Event at Adepticon that encapsulates the journey a hero such as theirs may tell following the event. Petral the Thornborn, first son of the first son, a prince who will never be crowned, forester of the Nevergreen Mountains, and freeman of Ghyran stalked silently across the slopes. Every footstep was a determined thing, intentional and planned. He was careful if for no other reason than the respect of his prey. Golden eyes ranged the mountainside, seeking a sign, and as he knelt to inspect another glimmering azure pool his long auburn braids rippled in the wind. The blossom-jaguar must be near for its blood was still shining. Sinew bow carefully trained on the path marked by blue twinkles amid shifted talus, he rounded yet another ridge. Petral recognized the location and braced himself: it was an impassable gorge which drove back into the mountainside. He knew his prey was now trapped. The defile was deep in shadow despite the full noon sun blazing in the green sky above. He could see the jewels of light dotting the darkness before him, but it was fading. The blossom-jaguar must be close to death. Warily pacing back and forth, he stepped into the darkness only when his eyes could pierce it. After a few minutes of tracking, the path receded into the cliff wall, but the blossom-jaguar was nowhere in sight. Ahead, waterfalls tumbled down sheer cliffs and coated the rocks in a fine mist. Luminescent moss carpets floated level with the path, slowly rising and falling in the buffeting wind. Scanning beyond the path, he could see no trace of his prey. The blossom-jaguar must have fallen. Petral made to leave, foot twisting upon the talus, but he stopped and peered once more into the depths. Upon the closest carpet was a spill of twinkling liquid within the vegetation. It looked like blood. If the giant cat could walk across the floating carpets, then so must he. A tentative foot stepped forward, and the moss did not give. Step by step, he walked deeper into the gorge. In these untouched depths, Ghyran found a way to grow and thrive. Arches of plate-like fungus soon showed upon the falls and softly glowing toadstools dotted the air, roots glistening with moisture. Ultraviolet rainbows shimmered within the mists, dazzling his eyes. Still, he followed the fading drops of light until their light had gone and the spots of blood stood out as wounds of death in the thriving, pearlescent landscape. The waterfalls grew more numerous until they filled the cliffs before him, yet the blood led ever forward. Shivering despite himself, Petral shouldered his way through the largest one, stepping through into a vaulted grotto behind the falls. A still life lay on the floor to the right, soaked, tired and strained. Dark glistening blood told the tracker that the blossom-jaguar was near death. He cautiously moved closer, then carefully removed his axe from its side. The hunted quivered one last time, and liquid emptiness pooled across the shimmering life of the grotto as motes of purest light ascended into the air from the lifeless mass. Mouthing an ancient blessing, Petral stroked its ears, the texture of the lily petals smooth against his hand. He traced the spots of orchids upon its flank before moving down to the tough sinewy fiber of its tail. His fingers reached to the legs and removed the needle-sharp thorns from its paws before rolling the thorns back and forth in his palm. These would be a nice addition to the thorn-claw necklace about his throat. The prince stood a moment, reflecting that this was the second sacred life he had needed to kill. Scrabbling harvester beetles erupted from the rock, intent upon the dead mass. Petral took a step back and watched the cycle of Ghyran come to completion. Soon the glowing moss beneath his feet began to undulate with verdant sapphire ripples, drawing him deeper into the mountain. He had heard tales of such signs and knew better than to ignore them. Grasping his fur tightly, he moved deeper within the mountain. The damp air became warm as the walls of the grotto drew closer. Eyes closed, he squeezed through a narrow opening thick with floating toadstools. When he finally burst through the last of the fungi, he was stunned. Elm trees of ancient age had been woven into a living archway, roofed with summer leaves and broad enough for five men abreast. The ground itself was rich with loam and smooth stone, intricately carved into what looked to be whorl leaf shapes, similar to those which decorated his face. Bow slung across his back and axe hanging from his belt, he ran his fingers along the ancient trees. Alarielle’s song echoed in his ears as he stepped out from under the last sheltering bough. Before him lay a vale far too large to have been contained within the mountain itself. Clear Ghyran sunlight shone upon immense cataracts cascading from a height unseen around an oasis of ancient oaks encompassing colossal sky islands. More thundering waterfalls sprayed out buffeting clouds of vapor, which nurtured floating carpets of innumerable flowers, bell blossoms chiming in delicate tones. A rainbow of birds flew above like brilliant jewels, as sedge-deer and other life approached him, unused to the presence of any man. Every surface was covered with pure water and abundant life. Every surface that is, but one. The patterns continued down the path and ended at a courtyard; Petral felt compelled to follow. Stepping onto the polished stone space, he felt a jolt as the presence of Ghyran left him. Colossal stone steps the color of aged bone stretched upwards before him, flanked by massive, banded walls. Scrambling from ledge to ledge he finally 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. The prince could hear the sounds of the vale, but he could no longer feel the song of Alarielle. He strung his bow, then gripped his axe tightly and walked forward into the doorway. The sound ceased abruptly, and Petral’s eyes swept left and right. The entrance appeared to be connected to somewhere -- in fact, to many somewheres. Silhouettes framed by uniquely colored light stood outlined in each other entrance ringing the space. A susurrus of movement rose to fill the air, and the door behind him slammed shut. All was darkness. A sibilant voice whispered in his ear. “Welcome.” Petral’s axe whipped through the air but found no target. A raspy feminine voice boomed from in front of him “Welcome to the Gibbering Dome.” The sun, set and rose, set and rose once more before Petral stumbled forth from the entrance. Bleeding and holding his thigh for support he stopped to peer at the vale. From the landing, his view of what he had climbed had changed. The stones of the courtyard were now obviously stretching into the vale, and where the two made contact, there was a line of fine grey ash. The path he had followed was not carved of leaves but of rib bones, and the ground was weeping emerald blood were they were half buried. Scrambling down the steps, he sprinted over the courtyard back to the embrace of Ghyran. Collapsing upon the loam, he rested for a time before he rose and inspected himself. First, he removed his fur from his back, the verdant amethyst color had left, replaced by a lifeless brown, and the prince discarded it in the courtyard. Checking his axe and bow, he was satisfied they had not been tainted. Hands traced his throat, but the thorn-claw necklace was gone. Foot twisting upon the loam, he turned to stare at that place. As he watched, the building faded out of sight to be replaced by lifeless dried dirt and bare rock. The path on which he stood buckled and cast the rib bones from itself as harvester beetles burst from the vale and set to work repairing the scars. Crushing a rib with his foot Petral started the long limp home. He must return to the Gibbering Dome he knew, but this time with an army at his back. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, Paul, for taking the time to share some lore and details about The Gibbering Dome! While the event is currently full you can always jump on the waitlist or swing by Thursday to see some great Narrative gaming in action. I plan to invite Paul back after Adepticon to do a follow-up post about the event so look forward to that in the future. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! The Aelves are truly coming back in force as this coming Saturday the preorders go up for some of the new Daughters of Khaine and I cannot wait to get my hands on the new Battletome and Morathi's new model. While part of me was hoping the release would be a few more weeks out in order to give me a chance to relax before Adepticon this seems to not be the case. However, my excitement has only grown as the Adepticon cutoff date for new releases is March 3rd and it appears that Morathi and the new Battletome will be released in order to allow me to bring both to the event. It means a change to my army list and some late nights of painting, but Morathi will be at Adepticon. I took a bit of this past week to frame up some new art to hang in my hobby room and around the house. I have been gifted old duplicate copies of Elf Army books and these make excellent pieces to hang around the house and these are the latest two editions to my growing collage on one of my walls. Recently, at the Malign Portents Painting competition my local Warhammer store was giving away warscroll cards of the new Harbingers featuring their excellent artwork on the back. I knew these would be framed as opposed to being used on the table and they frame up nicely in a simple 4x6 frame. I also took time to create my awards for the upcoming Malign Portents Coalescence event I will be running for my local club on March 17th. I love making these simple awards and they cost less than two dollars each and gives my players a nice reward for their hard-earned victories. If you wish to create these yourself the Neon Blog has offered up an easy way to do so. While the future looks less likely that I will be fielding all 120 of my Witch Aelves at Adepticon with the new book mixing things up I am happy to say I have completed them all this past week. It was a labor of love and I feel that I am now an expert on painting Aelf Thongs which is a skill I never thought I would need. I was honestly worried about the final stage of adding the warpaint and painting the eyes, but it was easily the quickest part of the whole process with only a few touch-ups being required after some small mishaps with the brush. Now that the Witch Aelves are complete I can focus on other aspects of the army. My first order of business is to finish my three Cauldrons of Blood. My first cauldron was more of a touchup of my previously painted model, but with the news that the Statue can now be fielded as its own model, I choose to replace the current one on the model. My old Statue will be based on his own and I can paint up my three cauldron statues with a similar style to keep the army more unified. With the first one under my belt, I dived directly into the second one and I hope to have them both done by next week if time is on my side. Keep an eye out on the Warhammer Community site this week as they are teasing a lot of great information about the upcoming Daughters of Khaine release as well as showcasing them on Warhammer TV this week! Let me know what you have been working on in the comments below. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

I've never really been interested in those types of cases although I know of a few out there that look promising such as Tablewar. I have never had an issue with foam so perhaps it's an old habit that won't die, but at the event, the army is typically moved from table to table on their display boards. That and I have only found Taylor Swift Patches I like and haven't found any good stickers to put on one of those tower cases

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about my continued effort as I work to finish my Daughters of Khaine for Adepticon 2018. As of today, we have 34 days until the big event and there is still quite a bit to do in that short amount of time in order for me to be ready. If you asked me a few months ago I felt really good about being done by now and relaxing with practice games until the event. Sadly that is not the case and the Adepticon crunch is really beginning to ramp up and I am throwing more and more time at the army to get everything done in time. Since my last Road to Adepticon Post, we have seen a lot of exciting teasers and previews of the new Daughters of Khaine Battletome. I find myself in a very lucky position having already committed to the army well ahead of these announcements and I feel a bit ahead of the curve. That said there has been a lot of people quickly painting preparation for the book so Aelves will be hitting the table in force after the Battledome's release. I don't believe that the new Battletome will be out before Adepticon and the rumors on its general release timeframe seem to support that line of thought as well. I actually prefer it to be released after Adepticon as I am certain that I will not have a need to run 120 Witch Aelves after its release due to the new units and models being released and a more balanced force will be the better option. However, if there is a large Witch Aelf Formation I will not be upset at all. Thankfully I am moving along nicely with all my Witch Aelves and am down to the final step in their painting. I tackled the task of painting them all by separating them into units of thirty to give myself small manageable chunks when looking at the army as a whole. I took a single color and would do that color on each unit of thirty before moving on to the next. It made a nice assembly line style of painting that really meshes well with how I approach armies. The last step for these units is the eyes and the longer I thought about the idea of painting 240 eyes the more I didn't want to do it, but it would also no sit well with me to leave the models unfinished in that way. In order to give them a proper level of completion while simplifying the task, I am planning on giving them all warpaint on their face with white yes across the army. It should make the process smooth and quick and give a nice effect and allow me to go back to add more to the eyes later if I feel the need and have the energy. I am hoping to wrap up the Witch Aelves in the next few days allowing me to dive into three Cauldrons of Blood, Bloodwrack Medusa, and Death Hag on Foot. I painted one previously, but I plan to touch it up and keep it uniform with my two new Cauldrons. I am also very pleased with my nod to The End Times with my Cauldron representing my General. I managed to find bits online to create a Tyrion, Avatar of Khaine statue instead of the standard Khaine Statue that comes with the kit. I am really excited to get paint on this model to see how it looks as an end result. My last bit of major work in preparing for Adepticon was getting my foam sorted to transport my army. Since they are all metal models I wanted to ensure they were well protected and not rubbing against each other in any way. Last year at Adepticon I fell in love with the Battlefoam product, but after my first order, I was unimpressed with their shipping times and worried the foam would arrive late. Thankfully my local shop had some Battlefoam Large trays which are double the size of the Battlefoam Small trays that fit in my bag. After some knife work and hot glue, I managed to have enough trays for the entire army. I plan to pick up more Battlefoam while at Adepticon directly from as they typically have a booth at the event. I wish to be clear that in no way do I dislike the product, but I choose to not risk having my foam arrive after the convention as it did for me at Nova last year so a little bit of handy work and I am good to go. My last big part of the project is to create my display board and I have a few ideas drawn out but haven't committed to one as of yet. In the coming weeks though I will have to pick one and start the project. I can typically knock out a nice display board in about a week, but I would like to go a bit bigger then I have previously so my plan is to finish the army by the end of February and dedicate all my energy toward the display board leading up to Adepticon. After all the prep work is done all that is left is a nice 8.5 hr drive with my friend Sean to the event. Last year I almost went insane driving through Indiana, but I am mentally preparing myself for the lack of mountains and interesting things to look well ahead of time as well as loading up on Podcasts and music to get through the trip. Let me know if you are coming to Adepticon and how your preparation is going. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This past week we saw the first Painting Competition for Malign Portents as well as the release of the book, new Heroes, and the new Legions of Nagash Battletome to name a few. I am looking forward to seeing how Death plays on the table with the new Battletome in some upcoming games and playing some games using Portents in the realm of Shyish. It should be a fun way to keep games fresh and challenging going forward. My local club, Ligonier Legion, went out in force to our local Warhammer store as we all took part in the Malign Portents Painting competition this past Saturday. Four out of the five entries were from our club and my club mates managed to sweep the awards easily. They even kicked me down to fourth place which is motivating me to step up my game even more in the next phase of the event. I wish to congratulate the winners and their great entries! 1st place: Sean (BrushforHire) - Ice Slayers 2nd place: Luis - Daemons of Tzeentch 3rd Place: Luke - Hammers of Sigmar While my club knocked me down a few levels this past weekend I did go home with some fun goodies. I picked up my Malign Portents Book and received a pin set for each of the new Heroes as well as some nifty warscroll cards with the great artwork on the back which I am planning to frame for display. They are durable, but the paper is a bit thinner than the standard warscroll cards so instead of potentially damaging them I plan to hand them up around my hobby area. Of course, I couldn't pass up picking up my own Darkoath War Queen to go with my Slaanesh themed Slaves to Darkness. I am planning to keep her tone neutral so she can fit in with my Khorne army as well. I was also given a fantastic gift from a great friend in the form of forty Daemonettes. My friend Matt picked them up a while ago when they went made to order, but his hobby heart is now committed to Nurgle. I plan to paint them up in the third phase of the Malign Portents painting event. Speaking of my Daughters of Khaine I have begun stretching out my nights in order to ensure I am ready for the quickly approaching Adepticon. Last night I managed to finish the washes on all 120 of my Witch Aelves and plan to dive into the Eyes next to finish them all up. I may go mad as I attempt this last step, but I begin this last trial to truly show devotion to The Shadow Queen. I am pushing very hard to have them done by the end of this weekend so feel free to keep an eye on Twitter to watch my descent into madness or even perhaps join me on a hobby hangout call for some fun. May your week be full of Hobby and Gaming and if you have forgotten to pick up a suitable Valentine's Day Card feel free to check out and use any of the ones below (or the one at the very top) as I am sure they will be received well for this holiday if your partner is also a wargamer. If they are not, give them one anyway! Until Friday, Happy Hobbying Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! This week saw the release of the initial project of the U.S. Age of Sigmar Community Group. The group is made up of Community Leaders, Content Creators, Play Testers, Hobbyists, and Gamers from across the U.S. who are all dedicated to improving the Age of Sigmar community and its growth. The group began after a Community meeting with Games Workshop at Adepticon last year and we all began dedicating our efforts to supporting their new connection to the community and wished to help with the unique issues within the U.S. scene. Everyone in the group works in their own way to better the community and a selection of us decided to put effort into creating the "Player and Event Organizer Modular Pack" who are credited for their work on the document within the pack itself. The primary home for the pack is on the U.S. AoS Community Group Page where you can find the latest version of the document to view and download as well as any other notes or future projects associated with the group itself. The site also includes a simple event calendar to help spread the awareness of upcoming Age of Sigmar Events across the U.S. and its various regions. We encourage anyone to reach out to the group's contact email usaoscommunity@gmail.com to submit their event to be added to the calendar. That same email can be used for general comments and suggestions as well. The site may expand in the future to include other projects supporting the growth and health of the Age of Sigmar community. As for now, the plan is to keep it simple and keep the focus on the pack as well as the calendar, but if you have a project or item you feel would be good to link from the page in the future please feel free to reach out. It may not happen for some time, but we are always looking ahead in order to grow and connect our community. The group held regular monthly calls as we worked through the pack to cement its philosophy and design elements. It was a great way to peer review and offer suggestions and critiques to individual models from perspectives of other members through general support or by ensuring a more consistent message where some modules overlapped. It was great fun working through this process and having so many great minds work and support each other and you can be sure it wasn't all business. With so many enthusiastic Age of Sigmar Hobbyists, we would divert into Hobby talk as would be expected. The pack was created in a modular format with the added layer of breaking down different modules into three different levels of play with the U.S. in the form of Local, Regional, and National. Each module is built to tackle specific parts of our hobby whether it is painting, gameplay, finding a venue, narrative play as well as others. The pack encourages clubs, events, and individuals to use the parts they need in order to create the pack that best suits their needs. It is all aimed at being a guideline and not meant to mandate how to play Age of Sigmar and participate in this hobby. We hope the pack can be a foundation to get events, clubs, and players started and see where they can grow and how the three different levels of play (Local, Regional, and National) support one-another. The approach of presenting each module in the three levels of play is to help present the issue with distance in the U.S. and facilitate the understanding of how they interwork and support one another despite the distance. It also helps a local club openly see what the next level might be for their club or event by focusing on becoming more regional. We hope that it might also help individuals who might play locally understand the difference between playing at a local store and playing at NOVA Open Grand Tournament so they can be more prepared for events at the different levels of play. The plan is to update the pack on regular time frame 3 months after Games Workshop releases the Major FAQ's for the game in order to fill any gaps that might be formed with rule issues in the form of potential house rules that can be used to limit any unforeseen "broken" lists, combination, etc... We also plan to make adjustments to the pack overall as needed to keep up with the changes in the community that naturally happen over time. It is possible that additional Modules could be created to examine other parts of the game and hobby as they are needed. While there is a set time period to introduce updated versions of the pack it is likely we make small tweaks and adjustments as needed in between major updates. Word clarification, spelling, sudden army Errata and FAQ's could create a need to update the pack sooner than expected. We are leaving the option open in order to ensure the pack stays as relevant as possible. We suggest you check back regularly to ensure you have the latest version. You can also follow my Twitter where I will post anytime there is an update big or small. I would like to take a moment to personally thank those who were able to put forth their time and energy to work on the pack over the past months and work together to create this tool for the community it wouldn't have happened without these hobbyists putting in their time and effort. I would also like to take a moment to thank the group as a whole for their support and continued effort in making this community great as well as Games Workshop for being so willing to connect to the community whether it is groups like The U.S. AoS Community Group or individual hobbyists openly and honestly. It was exciting being part of this group as a whole to work with such people and it is an honor to be able to call them all friends. This is only the first project by the group and we are examining other future projects, but a lot of the group are already diving into their own projects to help the community and game as a whole. Our community is healthy and growing and everyone's goal across the country is to grow their club and host and attend more and more events. We hope this pack can help the community across the country at all levels to help "Unify without Homogenizing" our national scene. Feel free to check it out, offer us feedback, and make it your own. Until next week, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Happy Wednesday! It is an exciting week as the U.S. AoS Community Group finally released the project it has been working on over the past year. The "Player and Event Organizer Modular Pack" is now officially live. Feel free to check it out and offer feedback, suggestions, etc... I plan to go into more detail on the pack and project in a coming article so be sure to come back and check it out in the future. This past weekend my club met for an open games day as a lot of us are preparing for Adepticon coming up in March. I forgo playing myself in order to keep progress moving forward on my Witch Aelves. I managed to get the gold trim done on 60 of my 120 Witch Aelves but should have the gold done this week and if all goes well complete them all before next Wednesday. Time is running short as Adepticon is fast approaching, but I am confident I can get the army done in time as well as my planned display board. I am going to continue acting as if I am out of time in order to keep the fire lit to finish ahead of schedule. One of the reasons my Daughters of Khaine are not complete yet is I chose to participate in the Malign Portents Start Collecting Painting competition coming up this Saturday. It has a been a fun little distraction, but it did eat away precious hobby time for my Aelves. Regardless I am happy with the result and excited to see how I fare at the event. I cannot wait to pick up the book and a hero this Saturday to add to this force. The 1000pt league at one of my FLGS is still going strong and I am managing to stay int he game with earning every painting point possible week to week. The league is built to help new players learn the game and it has been fun seeing what armies are being brought to the tables. The field is full of a lot of combat and magic armies which suits my Daughters of Khaine just fine. My game this week saw me go up against a Stormcast Eternals list and I managed to take a Major Win away from my opponent. Fully buffed Witch Aelves are scary and rolling lots of dice is always satisfying. This week also had some other hobby as the rest of my 25mm bases arrived so I can begin finishing the rebasing of all my aelves. I also received a mighty gift from my friend Paul's bottomless bits box in the form of more Witch Aelves to add to my collection. I immediately put a few into my army as extra's on my Cauldrons. I also took the time to add a fun patch to my Battlefoam bag for some fun. Now no one will steal my army! It has been another exciting week of Hobby and I hope your week is going just as strong. Let me know what you are working on in the comments and how your Adepticon Prep is coming along if you are attending this year. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! Chuck Moore View the full article

Morathi, The Hag Sorceress of Ghrond, Mother of Malekith (Malerion), first of The Hag Queens, Second Wife of Aenarion The Defender and The First Pheonix King, and now The Shadow Queen. In The World That Was she was a driving force in most events dealing connected to the Elf Races and believed to be second in power only to her Son Malekith (Malerion) within the Dark Elf Society, but this could be argued as she was more adept at manipulating behind the scenes, including manipulating her son. Let's dive in and find out more about who Morathi was and hopefully get some insight about who Morathi is now in The Mortal Realms. I aim to hit the highlights and offer my personal views on who she was as a character, but opinions vary and I am sure there will be some history for the character I miss or gloss over. Morathi is an exciting character and I encourage everyone to look into her story for yourself and hopefully, this article can act as a primer to get you started. Morathi has always been an integral part of the Warhammer Fantasy universe from The World That Was and now she promises to remain a major player in The Mortal Realms. Her origin remains a mystery as her first mention and appearance was her rescue by Aenarion after he defeated a roaming Slaaneshi Chaos Warband who had captured her and other elves. Aenarion was captivated by her beauty and the rescue of Morathi can be viewed as accidental but is more likely fate, but was it the will of Slaanesh or something else creating this fate will remain unknown. At this time Khaine already had a grip on Aenarion's heart as he had already drawn Widowmaker, The Sword of Khaine. This made it all too easy for Morathi to push him further down a dark path. For all her manipulation of Aenarion, I believe she truly loved him just as much as she loved power. Perhaps if Khaine did not have a hold of Aenarion we would have seen a drastically different history. Ultimately, the duo would not last as Caledor Dragontamer, an adamant opponent to Morathi, enacted his plan to save The World That Was during the Second Chaos Invasion despite Aenerions belief that nothing could be done to stop Chaos from winning the war. Perhaps this belief was from the influence of Khaine, but could also have been under the influence of Morathi as well. Either way, Aenarion left his second wife despite her pleas and seductions to defend his old friend as he created The Great Vortex. Morathi felt spurned and betrayed. She might have believed she could keep her and Aenarion safe by working with Slaanesh, but Aenarions righteous side won out in his moral dilemma between saving the world or to stay with Morathi. Aenarion and Caledor would succeed and Aenarion would perish after returning Widowmaker to its hidden altar. Morathi's focused shifted to ensuring her and Aenarions son Malekith (Malerion) would succeed him as the next Pheonix King and secretly harbor hatred an even deeper hatred toward Caledor as she began her long plan tear apart his great work that took Aenarion from her. Causing insult to injury Malektih (Malerion) was not selected as the next Pheonix King, but he did not protest as Morathi had done. Bel Shannar who was chosen would also take Aenarion's Daughter from his first marriage as his wife causing Morathi to lose her title as Queen. As her son ventured away from their homeland to the colonies she set to work corrupting Ulthuan with her hidden Cults of Pleasure. It acted as her network and her power base as higher ranking elf nobles joined arguing that it gave her more power than The Pheonix King himself. Morathi and her schemes would be found out either by luck or by her own design. Malektih (Malerion) who had grown significantly as a person, diplomat, and leader while being away from her returned to bring her to justice. She was captured by her son with the threat of death hanging over her head. Morthai used her supernatural ability to appeal to her son that she was truly repentant and to be spared her inevitable death sentence. Malektih (Malerion) pleaded on her behalf to The Pheonix Throne and was she was spared, but placed under permanent house arrest in Malekith's (Malerion) care due to his prestige and recognition earned while away. This only allowed her to be closer to her son and allowed her to begin manipulating him as she had Aenarion. She convinced him that he was destined to be the true Pheonix King and it was his by birthright. She recreated her Cults of Pleasure to help her son rise to the throne all the while she would be the real power behind him. One dreadful and bloody day they enacted their plan killing Bel Shannar and framing him as a member of the Pleasure Cults. Malekith (Malerion) and he followers would kill off the remaining Nobles against his bid to become Pheonix King at the Shrine of Asuryan before he stepped into the Flame of Asuryan as his father did in order to follow his path. Malekith (Malerion) despite being the chosen of Asuryan to replace his father would throw himself out of the fire a heartbeat too soon leaving him a charred husk. Morathi rushed to his side and poured her Shadow Magic into him to keep him, and her last true connection to Aenarion, alive. She had his Armour of Midnight created with The Anvil of Vaul by one of Vaul's priests she had turned to their cause to keep her son alive. Morathi's plan to rule the elves was no longer secret and the Schism of the Elves began that ended with The Great Sundering causing Morathi and those faithful to her and her son to flee north taking with them large pieces of their province of Nagarythe with them using her dark magic to create the original Black Arks. They would settle in the frozen land of Naggaroth and be known as The Dark Elves or Druchii in their own tongue. It was from here she would continue her plots and manipulation to make her son The Phoenix King and destroy Caledors vortex. For 5000 years she taught her son and subtly lea Druchii society, subtly, while continuing to affect the course of elven history through her schemes. Her son's power only remained due to her continued support when he faltered. It was Morathi who taught Ariel the Dark Arts, bringing it to the Wood Elves, in exchange for her life after her schemes killed Ariels Sister and once wife to Malekith. Through this, she planted a small enchantment on Ariel's soul to be used when needed proving her superiority in the subtlest of ways. It was Morathi who gave The Cult of Khaine the first Cauldron of Blood, gifted by Khaine himself supposedly, that she uses to bath in blood to remain eternally beautiful. A spell she has only ever kept to herself. Her constant struggles seemed to make her an evil witch with nothing but a lust for power and revenge. However, her pursuit was always toward Aenarion and his namesake. In a battle where the legendary Tyrion battled her forces, she saw him as Aenarion reborn. To her credit, Tyrion is described as looking almost entirely like Aenarion and even wears his armor and enchanted blade Sunfury. In the battle, she was defeated, but not after appearing before Tyrion and surprising him with a kiss to her lover reborn. Perhaps this was a ploy to escape, but I feel it is her defining character. She still loved and sacrificed all for Aenarion at this time. The End Times or Rhana Dandra saw lines between the three separate races of elves begin to blur. The cycle repeated and the elf heroes each became avatars reliving the great drama that played out before with their gods. Tyrion was revealed as Khaines Avatar and Morathi was revealed to be the living avatar of Hekarti, elven goddess of conjuration and Dark Magic. Households would split and it was revealed her son was indeed the True Pheonix King. However, over the course of The End Times, she would see Tyrion draw Widowmaker and she would become his lover and fall back into her manipulative ways dragging him further down the path of darkness all the while feeling Aenarion had returned to her. Her son was Pheonix King, but that wasn't what she had wanted all along. She wanted Aenarion back and revenge on Caledor who she felt caused his death and spurning. In a final climactic battle on The Isle of the Dead, location of The Great Vortex that would end The Final elven civil war. Caledor was still alive, in a fashion, within The Great Vortex casting his spell for eternity to keep Chaos at bay. Aenarion had returned to her so all that was left was for her to take her vengeance and destroy the great work. Fatefully, Caledor was working with Teclis, Tyrion's Twin Brother, to pull out the winds of Magic from the vortex to place them within elven heroes and create the Incarnates in hopes to defeat Archaon and his plans. Nagash had already done this upon his rebirth with the Wind of Death cementing it within the land where he began to absorb its power. As the two mages worked to complete their task as the epic battle between Tyrion and Malektih's (Malerion) and their forces raged Morathi appeared to take her vengeance. Teclis and Caledor strived to complete their work, but some of the Winds of Magic escaped as they broke apart the spell as she attacked Teclis. They were was able to maintain a grasp on a few and direct The Wind of Life into Alarielle, the Wind of Shadow into Malekith (Malerion), and Teclis held The Wind of Light within his staff. The vortex crumbles and Slaanesh sensing a banquet of elven souls appeared overhead to feast. Caledor clung to Morathi has she clawed at his face to escape while Slaanesh consumed them both before vanishing. Ulthuan would sink, Tyrion would die, for a time, and Morathi would vanish. Later, the Slaaneshi Daemon Dechala The Denied One appears in front of Malektih (Malerion) throwing Morathi's staff, Heartrender, at his feet claiming she was Slaanesh's now. She was then immediately slain by Tyrion reborn as The Avatar of Light. Morathi was gone and The World That Was was destroyed, save its core. We enter into The Mortal Realms where our first mention oh Morathi is in the very first book released where she is surrounded by Shadow Daemons in a glade located within The Realm of Shadow. She was flesh and blood but changed and it was her who helped Malerion find physical form once more. They joined Sigmars Pantheon and established order within the realms. We now know, due to the recent teaser videos that she helped set up civilization in The Mortal Realms after "slithering" her way out of Slannesh's belly and before the god of pleasure and excess was captured by the aelves. She leads The Daughters of Khaine despite her knowing Khaine is dead, but is the religion a front or hopes to rebirth the god? Time will tell. Morathi stated that she has taken on the form of her tormentor and if we look toward Dechala we know this to be a half snake, half aelf woman. It is also possible that if he was the avatar of Hekarti she might have multiple arms in this true form, much like the god she represented in The End Times. She will remain a major player in The Age of Sigmar and as a character with such a rich and deep history, it is a great joy to see them giving her character credit and the care it deserves. There is a lot about Morathi's past not in this article, but I tried to hit the major points I felt important to her character. I scoured all the resource material I had available be it Battletome, novel, White Dwarf, or short stories, but if elves are involved then Morathi will have a tie or mention in the story. She was a defining character for all of Aelven history and will prove to be one going forward. I hope this article has given you more insight into who she was and what she might be currently. If there was a favorite part of her history I missed or glossed over please let us know in the comments. "For too long have I been shunned. No longer will I be denied!" ~Morathi The Shadow Queen Until next time, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! It has been a very busy weekend for Age of Sigmar with four large events going on and a plethora of news being dropped. I wanted to take a moment at the very start to congratulate the 2018 North American nominees for Warhammer Heroes. This award is a fantastic idea and those chosen from the multitude of submitted nominees should be very proud of their efforts, but those who were nominated and not on this list should also be just as proud that their effort is being and is having a positive effect on your community. This award seems as if it will happen somewhat regularly per the article so if your nominee isn't on the list then be sure to submit them again during the next Warhammer Heroes Award. I always love receiving packages in the mail and this Hobby really helps satisfy that feeling. This week I received the rest of my Calvary and Monster bases for my "Great Aelven Rebasing Project" and some custom objective markers also arrived ready to be used in some games this week. They are also a great way for some shameless self-plugs of my blog if I play someone new. I have my Malign Portents Start Collecting box almost completed as well. I was hoping to get it done this weekend, but it didn't happen so my effort is entirely put toward finishing it as soon as possible. I am really wanting to dive back in and finish my Daughters of Khaine well in advance of Adepticon and it is really making me try to finish my Slaves to Darkness quickly to a nice tabletop standard. It is a very begrudging type of motivation, but it is motivation nonetheless. Although I cannot stay away from my Aelves for long as I dove into my bits bin to make another unit of Sisters of Slaughter to add to my force later one. I managed a few 1000pt games for a learning league at one of my local games shops as well. I am playing around with various lists of Daughters of Khaine and while the Witch Aelves with their Cauldron continues to perform exceptionally well the rest of the army melted quickly, but they were fun games and this league is helping me learn more about my army in preparation for Adepticon. One of the exciting pieces of news was the official FAQ schedule we now have for Age of Sigmar. I am sure it is a relief for T.O.'s knowing when big changes are likely to drop and to Games Workshop's credit, they wasted no time in updating the FAQ's on Monday directly after a lot of major events wrapped up. Be sure to go check out the updates so you are up with the changes. As you might have expected, my favorite announcement was all the great model reveals for the upcoming Daughters of Khaine Battletome. I cannot find a single model doesn't scream "Paint me!" and I plan to do just that. It is unknown when the book and models will drop, but if it comes out before Adepticon, and is valid for use at the event, I will be having some hard decisions to make, but it is not decisions I would be to upset over having to make. Check out the reveal video as well as some screen captures of the models below. On top of all this excitement, we will be able to preorder the new Malign Portents book, new faction Heroes, as well as some fun accessories as we begin our battles in Shyish and the return of some nice scenery. It will be a week of hard budgeting and hard decisions, but I know the Book will be a must for me and perhaps that new combat gauge would go well with it! Age of Sigmar is beginning to move quickly again and I am excited for what is to come. A final item I wish to announce today is I am happy to announce that I have been selected as the T.O. for the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament as well as the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Doubles Event at the upcoming 2018 NOVA Open Convention. It is an honor to be given this opportunity and the work has already begun with the passionate people at NOVA Open. Expect more information int he coming weeks, but keep an eye out for Registration happening on March 1st to guarantee yourself a spot at the events. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone. To wrap up The Realm Gate's birthday week I wanted to propose a question to all of you as well as offer my answer to this simple question. Before I do, however, I want to give a shout out to Vince over at Warhammer Weekly who proposed a similar question in his Topic of The Week series recently, albeit a bit more focused. Go check out his channel if you haven't already as it is my favorite Youtube channel around this Hobby and well worth your time. The question I wish to put forth is "Why do we Hobby?" or "Why do you Hobby?". It is a strange thing we all do and for a community to form around, but yet we all hold a very close attachment to it all and cannot imagine our lives without it. Before I begin to answer the question myself I want to define what I mean by Hobby. My definition of Hobby is "Anything you do in relation or because of Wargaming". This can be games, painting, list building, Blogging, YouTube videos, Podcasts, large community projects, or anything else that fits the definition. For some people, the Hobby defines us, while with others we define out Hobby and it is fascinating how we can be so vastly different regarding why we Hobby, but be more unified as a community because of it. There are many reasons why someone would choose to Hobby. Some want to compete at the top tables at large events, some wish to paint thematic armies and tell stories. There are those who are about winning trophies whether it is through games or painting. I imagine there are some who are just trying to be well-known in the community, although I believe this as a driving goal is a poor reason. Those who are well-known painters or competitors on the table are well-known because their goal was to be the best painter or become the best player they could. If you are unsure of what your goal is I suggest checking out my old article series "Life Lessons and Wargaming". It may also be good to touch on the concept that motivation does not mean amount of time put into the Hobby. While those who are highly motivated might indeed take on multiple projects at once, but that doesn't mean the person painting a single model for a painting competition is any less motivated. Humans are very different creatures and while there are those like myself who enjoy multitasking and feel highly motivated to work on multiple projects. There are those who are just as motivated, if not more so that focus on a single task or project. It is a grey area, but when you can see how motivated someone is through their passion in this Hobby. So why do I Hobby? When I proposed the idea to myself it initially felt intangible and to broad and open to properly put into words, but the more I thought about it the more I was able to cement the idea and bring it to the ground. The answer for me is that I hobby for myself and my wellbeing. It is the same reason I lift weights and go to the gym daily. It sounds a bit odd comparing two vastly different hobbies and cultures, but the comparison works for me. Talking in the various chats I am a part of as well as Twitter interaction brings me great joy throughout my day and a welcome distraction to the stresses or work and life. When I build lists and theory craft with others really fulfills my need to problem solve and the enjoyment that process brings. Painting is a therapeutic escape where the world disappears as I move paint around a model. The various community projects energize me as I work with fantastic people and great friends knowing we are looking to offer positive impact to the community as a whole and help Age of Sigmar grow. I cannot forget gaming in all of this as it is the culmination of our efforts where we get to enjoy meeting and playing people. Doing this Hobby for myself and my wellbeing has really allowed me to identify with the game and the positive impact it can have. While the improvement of my wellbeing is what I feel the major part of why I do this Hobby I know there are other reasons as well mixed in such as wanting to help the community grow, make new friends, etc... That is okay as I know over time my reason may adapt and change as is natural. So why do you Hobby? I would be excited to hear in the comments below and see what discussions form from the question. Perhaps, by doing that you will help others discover why they hobby. Until Next Week, Happy Hobbying. Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! I hope your week has full of Hobby and if you are traveling to L.V.O., Waaaghpaca, The Sheffield Slaughter or any other of the great events going on this weekend may your travels be swift and your games be glorious! Today my Blog turns two years old today. It is very satisfying to see how far I have come over these years and I am very excited for how far I could go in the future. Last year at this time I truly began providing consistent posts twice a week and I focused on expanding my posts to a minimum of one thousand words and I hope to do even more in the year to come. As you could predict I am continuing my Daughters of Khaine army for Adepticon this year. I have been making great progress on them, but I still have work ahead of me with the Gold, Eyes, Washing, and Highlights to finish up all the infantry. However, there is still time before the big show and I am committed to finishing them all to the nicest standard I am able to do. I am giving some thought to my Display board as well and the idea of a large Cauldron of Blood is a simple and effective one, but due to a recent teaser video, I might be changing that idea up a bit. An Age of Sigmar League has begun at one of my local gaming stores and in order to prepare for Adepticon, I am playing my Daughters of Khaine. The League is for 1000pt games using scenarios from the Generals Handbook 2017. I have only managed one game in the league, but I took the win over a mixed Skaven Chaos list. I have yet to face a Tzeentch or a Shooting list with my Daughters, but I feel very confident against other combat armies. Win or lose this is still a really fun army to field and play. While I do have a lot more to do for Adepticon I am also still working on my Malign Portents Start Collecting Box for the painting competition on February 10th. My army of choice is Slaves to Darkness that I originally planned to add to my Khorne army. However, While I held my Mephiston Red a sudden bit of inspiration hit me and I devoted this army to Slaanesh and have worked out a paint scheme I wish to try out. I am working to have these all done by the end of this week if possible so I can devote all my time to my Daughters of Khaine. Speaking of the Daughters of Khaine we had an amazing teaser dropped yesterday and if you haven't yet go check it out. I have managed to get lucky by being very far ahead with my Adepticon Army so when these finally drop I plan to get playing with it immediately. I am hoping that we see a few new models to go along with the current range and the pictures below seem to indicate that this could be the case. I am also eagerly awaiting to see if we get a new Morathi model as she is the focus and narrator of the latest teaser. If it is along the line of the Alarielle model we are in for a treat! I hope your excitement is high for all these great teasers and it inspires your hobby to keep moving forward! After the teaser I am more motivated to finish my Daughters of Khaine then I was when I began the project and I can't wait to field it when it is completed. Be sure to keep an eye out for some big news from Games Workshop this weekend as well as there will be another Reveal seminar happening at L.V.O. in just a few days. Not to mention all the great live streaming of Warhammer going on this weekend as well. I also wish tot hank you all for joining me on my journey for these past two years. Our hobby has the best community out there and that fact you take the time to read my weekly posts is very humbling. Thank you all. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about that still, somewhat, controversial topic of rebasing your models to round and oval bases in Age of Sigmar. If you have been following my blog for the past year or so you would have seen me accepting the move to round bases, but refusing to rebase any old armies. You would have also seen my reversal of opinion as I began my Aelf rebasing project that is still ongoing currently. Today I wanted to dive into this topic about why I feel the community needs to begin working toward having round bases as a requirement for Age of Sigmar. Warhammer Age of Sigmar has been out for a few years now and the community has never been better for hobbyists and gamers alike. The community is growing with new and returning players and we are seeing a wide variety of armies out on the scene from these groups. While it is still not officially mandated that Age of Sigmar is a game played with round bases it has become the general standard as more and more kits are being repackaged with round bases. It is also standard to see events at the Local, Regional, and National levels stating that players measure from base to base during the game. These are pointing toward a move to fully round based armies in the near future. While newer players are coming into the game and putting their model son round bases a lot of the returning players still have old armies on squares. I am not suggesting we turn players away at our local clubs because they wish to try out Age of Sigmar, but only have an old Army on Square bases. I would encourage those players, as they find themselves enjoying the game, to look into rebasing their old army or begin a new army using the appropriate round bases. National level events are, or most likely will be, requiring the appropriate round bases at their events and it is likely that the Regional level events will be soon to follow. This puts the burden on the Local level to help prepare players and their armies for the higher levels of play. This isn't anything new for the Local level as it has always been a place to learn your army, improve your skills, and prepare for the larger events as far as gameplay and list building. This level must now also help encourage players to base their armies on rounds. In my Local scene, I have been working to support the players in rebasing older armies to round bases. It was not a quick process and it wasn't until I decided to rebase all of my old models that it truly became a priority to my hobby and allowed me to honestly help other players to join me in rebasing. A lot of my local scene saw how much fun Adepticon was last year and are planning to go for the first time or return there after a gaming break and this has been a great final push to embolden everyone to go to round bases. As our community grows we are always looking to invite new players into our game systems and supporting the use of round bases as the standard will only help us grow even more. Seeing a game played between two armies with one of Square bases and the other on rounds appears disjointed as opposed to two armies on the same type of base. It also takes away the odd feeling of measuring between two different shapes of bases and allows a better uniformity to knowing how far you need to charge, shoot, pile in, etc... While it is possible to play with the two shapes of bases it is much simpler if you know your opponents will be bringing the model footprints you are expecting based on what we see from the more prevalent Regional and National levels of play. To be fair there are a few hurdles and arguments about rebasing, but they are often not what you might be expecting, but they do have workarounds. The first argument I hear is that it is a pain to rebase and it isn't as hard as one expects. Rebasing goes quite quickly as models which were glued to bases with the use of plastic glue easily come off with a pair of snips and a bit of patience. If someone used plastic glue then you just need to snip around the feet leaving a bit of the old base and gluing that directly onto the new round base. Another concern is the cost of buying new round bases. If you are looking to buy resin bases or official Citadel Bases then I would agree with the high cost of buying new bases. If you have a small elite army then it isn't much to swallow. However, if you are like me and looking to rebase hundreds of models then you need the cheapest option possible. If you look online at hobby supply sellers or on eBay you can find bases made very cheaply in either a thinner plastic or MDF that often come in very large quantities. The downside is they often have a lengthy shipping time as they cross international lines and customs checks, but if you need to pinch pennies it is the best way to do it. The biggest hurdle that doesn't have an easy answer to point toward is what base sizes should be used? While some of the older kits have been repackaged with round bases we still have kits on shelves that are supplied with square bases. There is a great community tool over on TGA that lists out the old models and their appropriate base size, but it is far from complete. What is the solution? While it would be great to see an official document that lists the base sizes for models from Games Workshop it is unlikely we will see it, at least in the near future. Perhaps we could see it in a future Generals Handbook, but for now, it falls to us as a community help the new and returning players find the appropriate base size. Thankfully a lot of this can be done with common sense as a lot of square bases have associated round or oval bases close to their size. You can also look at other units which are similar that may have an updated base. For example, the repackaged Slaves to Darkness Start Collecting Box has a 120x92mm base for the chariot. I would say it is safe to assume that all chariots would be based on the same size. There are tools out there to help with moving from square to round bases as well. Very soon The U.S. AoS Community group will be releasing their Modular Pack and within it is items such as a base conversion guide to help as part of one of the many modules. Keep an eye out here as we are nearly done with the final stages of the pack and more info will be coming shortly. For now here is a preview of this specific part of the module. With positive support and encouragement, we can begin to see the use of round bases as the community standard at all levels of play int he near future. While we do this we should also encourage Games Workshop to repackage as many of the old kits as they are able to help the newer players come in on the proper footing as well. While I know not everyone will agree with a push such as this it is a big part of the health and growth of our game and community and it is already in process of happening, it just requires a bit more pushing from the community to make it a reality. If you do disagree I hope that perhaps one day you will change your mind on rebasing as I have over this past year. Let me know your thoughts in the comments and until next week. Happy Hobbying! ~Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! The snow and the cold are still very prevalent in my part of the world creating a very cold hobby area for me, but there are projects to complete. Thankfully I was able to gain respite outside of my basement to watch The Grand Tournament Heat 1 for Age of Sigmar this past weekend. A nice cup of coffee and a day of streamed games while my hobby area warmed up is the best kind of weekend to have when there are ice and snow covering the outside like a Beastclaw Raider invasion. When my Hobby space finally warmed up and I was able to move to my basement I finally got to begin using a wonderful gift I received a few months ago. Many people will cringe, but I never used a wet palette before as I I would just thin the paints on some Citadel Palette Pad if not just pulling from the paint pots themselves. I am always working to improve my hobby and go outside my comfort zone and forcing myself to finally begin using this tool fit both those categories for me and I have come to discover how much I enjoy this tool and cannot understand why I took so long to begin using one. I highly suggest picking one up to make your hobby life easier. My Adepticon Army is coming along nicely as well as I managed to complete a lot of the color blocking on my four units of Witch Aelves. They currently have Hair Color, some of the armor, and squad markings all done and I plan to finish up the leather and metal armor by the end of this week. I am very happy to be so far along with this project as I am. I expected to be struggling to paint so many models, but I have been able to get back into the groove of "assembly line army painting". It feels like a form of meditation when I am knocking out model after model doing the same part over and over again. It is not just Daughters of Khaine filling my Hobby time as I have rebased a few more Aelves to round bases as well as managing to prime and base my Slaves to Darkness for the Malign Portents Painting Competition coming up on February 10th as well as working toward my #Hobby500. They have announced the awards for the event at official local Warhammer and Games Workshop locations and while they are not anything much I am enjoying how my local community has gathered around participating as an excuse to jump fully into whats to come and start new armies. The community gathering should be great at my local Warhammer store and to me, that is the best part of events such as these. Having fun talking about Warhammer is what I look forward to the most, but that doesn't mean I won't put forth my effort to win out against my community. In an unexpected turn of events, one of my local game stores has seen more and more players take interest in Age of Sigmar and willing to lay down their bolters for a while and battle it out in The Mortal Realms. The best part is that a local player has organized it which means I can play and fight it out to try and win as opposed to when I run events and I do not count myself for any placing despite games I play. The league is a bit of a learning league and as such we are playing at 1000pts which is a great way for me to test my half of my Age of Sigmar Adepticon Team Event list that I will be bringing to battle alongside Michael and his mighty Skavenm Horde! I hope you are having a Hobby filled week and are staying warm if you are in the area of the Everwinter. If you are participating in the Malign Portantins Painting Competiiton let me know in the comments so I can check out how your Start Collecting Box is coming along! Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! - Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Today I am happy to bring you another interview with Dan Moyes who is a member of The Rend 4 Age of Sigmar Club. You might recognize Dan from my Weekly Hobby Update posts as he was the gentleman who was pushing me to Hobby as much as I did over the past few months. Dan is local to Colorado but met Neil at Adepticon last year which is how he joined the club. It was fun getting to know Dan better through some friendly competition and soon we will be sharing a drink at Adepticon together as we recount the tales of our recent Hobby rivalry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck: "Dan, how did you get into the Hobby?" Dan: "I was a long time Warhammer 40k player (going back to Rogue Trader days in fact). My small gaming group of a few friends would play 40k on a regular basis. Age of Sigmar came out and we picked up the starter set and gave it a go. We immediately liked the faster play, having rules in one place and the thematics of medieval style soldiers and monsters fighting over strange lands. I was always a fan of fantasy, but the requirement for large blocks of infantry was always a turn off in terms of financial costs and the time sink of getting all those models ready for the tabletop. Sigmar seemed to offer the medieval/fantasy flavor on a smaller skirmish level which was a big attraction to many 40k players like myself." Chuck: "What do you currently have on your Hobby table and what are you planning for the future?" Dan: "Currently more Seraphon and some Stormcast that have needed paint for forever. I do have various miniatures from other game systems that I would like to get painted as well. During the Rend 4 Hobby Hero competition, I did complete all the basic heroes (and Tzeentch heroes) that came with Silver Tower and would like to get the rest of the miniatures painted up as well as include some exotic adversaries for a future season. My son, who is 10, will be attending Adepticon with me this year and playing Sigmar teams with me and is entered into the Sigmar youngbloods competition. I have some last bits of a Seraphon army to get tabletop ready for those events." Chuck: "What is one of your favorite memories of this hobby?" Dan: "For me, the allure of AoS is those games that come down to the wire and hinge on one last dice roll (or several last dice rolls) that decide the fate of the game. One that I remember fondly in our group was the remaining Seraphon had the last Khorne model, a Bloodsecrator surrounded, in cover, on the objective, and unwounded bottom of turn 5. The Secrator was rocking a crazy save and was eventually whittled down to his last wound with nothing left to strike except for the Kroxigor jaw attacks (that are usually uneventful). Jaws like a Steel Trap was triggered (6 on wound) that causes a dice off between them and their victim. Final dice off for the game (Khorne would be tabled and lose the objective to boot), Khorne rolls….a 2…Seraphon roll…..a 3! And cause one mortal wound, the last wound, thus winning the game. It doesn’t really get much closer than that. I also have great memories of my first Adepticon trip. My friend and I basically on a whim decided to go last year and booked at the last moment. The events that still had slots at the time were mostly Sigmar (and we both decided against any 40k events). The AoS crowd was pretty laid back and fun and I learned a lot about the game since I was pretty much the FNG at that point. We played AoS until we puked doing Vanguard, Teams, and Championship all that weekend. I actually got matched up against my buddy in round 3 of the Championship which was unexpected. We also got paired up with Ben Johnson and Robin Cruddace in round 3 of teams which was a complete surprise (and we were thoroughly crushed)." Chuck: "How do you balance Hobby, Work, and Family?" Dan: "It was tough up until recently. I had been on 12-hour shifts at work with an irregular schedule, so I was always tired and worn out. Hobbying was my balance to Work and Family since I tended to de-stress whilst painting and planning my next build, color scheme etc… My kids always like to see what I am up to at my paint station." Chuck: "What is your favorite part of this hobby?" Dan: "For me it is the painting and converting and coming up with new techniques for miniatures. I enjoy spotting items at stores that I can quickly identify for a terrain project or basing material. You never know what may crop up." Chuck: "What is your least favorite part of this hobby?" Dan: "Probably assembly. Many times I am rushed to get models on the table and things get put together quickly. Later on, when I go back to paint I have to spend the time to get things fixed before I paint." Chuck: "We recently battled it out over the Hobby Hero award as part of The Rend 4 club's winter event season. What can you share about your experience?" Dan: "It was exhausting I had retaken the lead after doing my hobby board and was determined to keep you beat down in points till the end. By the end of the season, I had perfected knocking out models to a tabletop standard in as little time as possible. That did give me new confidence in being able to compete large projects quickly. During the season I managed to complete a Flesh Eater Courts and Seraphon army and have a good chunk of a Slaanesh army complete. I also put a dent in the Silver Tower set which the family loves to play. We both cracked 300 points which is basically a 2k army worth of stuff a month for the last 6 months!" Chuck: "The competition really pushed us both to squeeze out as much Hobby time as possible. What tips can you share about painting plenty of models within a short time frame?" Dan: "Plan ahead both your time and models that you want to tackle. Plan ahead a color scheme and keep it simple, 3 colors (primary, secondary, tertiary). After all the planning, execute until it is done! If you can make hobbying a part of your routine then that is even better. I started to set aside some time almost every night to get at least a few things done. An airbrush which is a big expense in many people's hobby budget will save you loads of time. I use mine mostly for base coating and for some effects." Chuck: "You recently began a small Facebook page dedicated to producing armies quickly and to nice tabletop quality. What can you tell me about the page?" Dan: "There are a gajillion painting pages out there that you can get techniques and tips from. For me, it seems that many people get bogged down in the psychology and motivation of getting their armies on the table and cannot see the forest for the trees. That is what I want to focus on, the psychology of hobbying. The recent competition helped me overcome some of those hurdles and I would like to return some of the knowledge to the community. We can also talk about the challenges of getting younger kids into the hobby since I have started down that path with my son so far and my daughter has shown interest as well. Come over to GOML (Get Off My Lawn) Painting and join in." Chuck: "While the Rend 4 Club is located in Northeast Ohio you are based in Colorado. What type of Age of Sigmar and 40k scenes do you have out that way?" Dan: "I am wholly unqualified to answer that since I typically just game with a few friends and we like to game in what I call a “friendly competitive” environment. We try to not cheese it up too much with lists and be “that guy” during games. We game at each other’s houses and we are fortunate to be able to have all the additional items that come with the hobby when you home game (game tables, terrain, game mats). We have played at our LFGS before but it is overrun with Magic." Chuck: "If there is any way someone might be able to reach out to you for a game in your local area?" Dan: "My group is looking for additional players that share a similar game mindset and people that are looking to learn the game or get better in a low-stress setting. We are very laid back and will be joking and messing around the whole time having fun. We cannot game every day as work/life balance is decidedly more towards work but we try to fit in a game night once or twice a month. If you are looking for a game just send me a message on Facebook and introduce yourself." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you enjoyed today's Player Spotlight with Dan. If you live in Colorado be sure to reach out to him about meeting up to play some games! Until next week, Happy Hobbying! ~Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! Malign Portents is finally getting underway as we see bits and teasers being put out here and there. I am very excited for what it is bringing to Age of Sigmar and if you haven't taken the time to dive into every part of the website I highly suggest you do so as soon as you can. There is a lot of great bits of information for the Malign Portents and for the Age of Sigmar setting as a whole. To kick off this new chapter Games Workshop is running events to help players get an army prepared for the coming Age of Darkness. On February 10th local Games Workshop and Warhammer Stores will have an event with prizes around buying, building, and painting up a Start Collecting! box. While I really enjoy the new Lord-Ordinator and plan to pick him up the Darkoath Warqueen has really captured my attention so I plan to paint up some SLaves to Darkness to go alongside my Blades of Khorne for the event. While myself and others at my local club, Ligonier Legion, are preparing new projects we also just wrapped up a three-month Firestorm league with a 2000pt three-game tournament. The weather kept a few of the regulars away sadly, but those who were able to make the journey out had a great day of fun and competitive Age of Sigmar. I created three awards for the event using some Age of Sigmar art and my basic photo editing skills to award "Best Painted", "Tournament Champion", and "Hero of Firestorm". The "Hero of Firestorm" was for the top players of the league as a whole while "Tournament Champion" was for the player who won the one-day event. I wanted to give players that were unable to make previous league days something they could try to win to join in on the fun. Due to an odd number of players during round 1 I was able to play as the ringer to get some practice in with my Daughters of Khaine. While I was playing the ringer I didn't hold back entirely and I was very impressed with how the Army did on the table and I look forward to playing many more games as I prepare for Adepticon. Round 2 saw a late participant braving the cold arrive so I stepped out the event as the ringer and back into the T.O. Role. The games went very smoothly with very little questions which allowed me to prime my army during the course of the day as well. It was great to see the club having such a good time while getting some needed Hobby in. At the end of the day, we saw great games that were very close and a very tight finish for the top awards. Luis (left) walked away with "Hero of Firestorm" as well as "Best Painted" while Cole (right) took the "Tournament Champion" in a very close finish. Congratulations to the both of them and to everyone who played in the event. The club saw some great games and a lot of new models getting painted and as such everyone should be proud! I have had some good progress on my two current Hobby Projects in the past few days. The bits and bases arrived allowing me to begin priming my Daughters of Khaine and my Slaves to Darkness Start Collecting! set I am painting for Malign Portents is fully built and it should be warm enough for me to prime in the next day or so. A total of 144 models to paint in the coming month alongside many other community-driven projects I am pushing to wrap up as well. It promises to be a very busy month for Hobby, but the prospect of it all is not unwelcome. With painting finally beginning on my Daughters of Khaine I wanted to share my Cauldron of Blood that will represent my General on the board. I wanted the final piece to be all Games Workshop models but wanted to be different from the standard statue of Khaine that is on my other two Cauldrons of Blood. Calling back to The End Times I decided to put a statue of Tyrion as "The Avatar of Khaine" and I am quite pleased with the result. You might recall the last few weeks I Hobbying as much as possible to win the "Hobby Hero" award as part of The Rend 4 Club's Winter event season. As I previously announced I did manage to take the win in a very tough Hobby battle with a gentleman Dan M, who I have interviewed for this Friday's post, and Neil L. has updated the Trophy with the season winners and I am very happy to say that Roger, Mike, and myself are all from the Pittsburgh area and members of Steel City Sigmar. Pittsburgh swept the cup this year and we always enjoy taking toys away from those living in Ohio. All in good fun however as the next season has already begun and I sit woefully behind once again. I am very excited to be running the Spring Coalescence event for my local club once again and have begun working on the awards for the event to build up the hype in the coming months. Everyone is very excited to see what the event will entail as more is released. If you wish to run the event and join the many groups running this Global One Day Narrative event be sure to sign up to be emailed all the latest information. Until Friday, Happy Hobbying! ~Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! It is hard to believe, but a new Event year is finally upon us. Great events such as L.V.O. and Waaagh! Paca will be taking place this month, but sadly I am unable to attend either of these excellent wargaming events. My focus is turned toward March where we will see a Coalescence event followed directly by Adepticon 2018. I plan to post monthly updates about my hobby, games, and other preparations for Adepticon this year. I did a similar article series last year for both Adepticon and Nova Open that I very much enjoyed writing and sharing. These events are great ways for the community to connect for a long weekend of shared comradery and I hope my excitement comes through as you follow my Road to Adepticon 2018. Today I want to talk a bit about my choice in my army and how its progress is coming along. A little while ago I began to think about the army I wanted to use for the 2018 event year. I had decided to take a break from my Stormcast Eternals, which I had been playing since the release of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do next. I managed to fill my Hobby time well with my recent Khorne Army inspired by a small slow grow league with a few friends. Sadly that mini-campaign fell away, but the new Nurgle release has reignited the flame to do it again. I had given a lot of consideration to adding units to my Khorne army in order to play them a bit more competitively this year. While I will add to my Khorne this year I never envisioned the army as a competitive force. I originally built it to be more thematic and casual in play. Some recent events have shown me that it won't stand much of a chance in its current form so while I am not done with Khorne I decidedly easily that I won't be using them at any major events this year. The upcoming Malign Portents for Age of Sigmar is promising a lot of love for Death and Nurgle, but neither of these has ever really grabbed me as armies I wish to play. I am excited to see them on the table, but I knew that neither was going to be an army I could put my heart into for the coming year. It's no secret that I have been one of the few eagerly anticipating the release of Aelves, in any form, over the past few years. While it seems we will have to wait a bit longer for a release, which only promises the reveal to be even greater, I decided I did not have to wait to play Aelves again. I have plenty of Aelves I am currently rebasing that I could have easily pulled from to make my army, but some of the fun in leading up to an event is seeing everyone create their armies and I wanted to make sure I was doing the same. I originally looked at Darkling Covens or Wanderers as their recent Command Traits and Items in The Generals Handbook 2017 feel very powerful and could create a competitive force. I built a few lists, but nothing really stuck with me as I made list after list. Then I had the sliver of a thought in running Daughters of Khaine. It started as a simple idea, but after talking to some community members on Twitter the concept really began to sink it's daggers in me and refused to let go. To be honest, the only thing that held me back was the cost of the army, but the more I looked at it the more I gave up that excuse and decided Khaine's Daughters would be storming the Mortal Realms this year! Oddly enough, once I decided on Daughters of Khaine and list building began I began moving away from using a list that is highly tuned toward competition play. With some help on Twitter I had built a few very tuned lists, but the more I looked the more I wanted to take something a bit more fun and perhaps crazy. I decided to forgo a few options so I could fit in 120 Witch Aelves as the idea was too great to not do. I know there has been some Daughters of Khaine armies out on the scene, but I don't think anyone has been crazy enough to bring 120 of them so hopefully that counts for something. Also before I get too far ahead of myself I have reached out to the T.O. of Adepticon to verify how he is going to rule on the potentially stacking 5+ saves and if the Cauldrons receive the save as well. There is some odd wording that could allow it to be ruled either way. Whatever their decision I am fine with as this army is much more out of doing it for fun and for the love of doing an army like this and not about pushing to win the event. Overall I just want to make sure I practice and play the army at the event how the T.O. decides to prevent and "gotcha" or "bad feelings" at the table. EDIT: The T.O. has let me know that the Cauldrons will not be allowed to stack their 5+ save for Adepticon 2018 so my defensive capabilities go down, but my ability to spread out a bit goes up. While I don't expect this to change my list much if at all, I will consider putting the Medusa on one of the cauldrons as I playtest. Either way, it is good to have a quick ruling on the issue so I can prepare accordingly. One last little detail I am planning to add in is the statue for the Cauldron who will be my General. I wanted to add a small throwback to The End Times without theming the entire army around The World That Was. I purchased a Tyrion model on eBay and it should be arriving soon and I cannot wait to see how it turns out. It should be a subtle nod to the great story of Tyrion's Fall while allowing my opponent to clearly see which Cauldron is my General on the field of battle. I cannot wait to get the army on the battlefield to begin playing here very soon and I will be sure to post up progress pictures and game recaps in my "Weekly Hobby Update" posts as well as on Twitter so feel free to keep an eye out for all of that fun very soon. If you are attending Adepticon this year be sure to let me know in the comments below and what you are doing to prepare for the events. Also, if you will be there feel free to come up and say "Hello" as meeting new people is one of the best parts of National events such as this and I will take any excuse to talk some Hobby. Until next week, Happy Hobbying! ~Chuck Moore View the full article

Happy New Year Everyone! As we head back to work, and away from our Hobby tables, I hope the post-holiday blues don't keep you down for too long. I am doing everything I can to keep my Hobby moving forward and not fall into a slump. Thankfully I had a great year-end push with painting and gaming that has kept me really excited about my current projects going into the new year. Currently rebasing all my Aelves The year ended with two great games with some of my regular opponents. Aleks continued to prove that my Khorne is no match for his Freepeople in another crushing defeat despite the initial momentum oh my army. Later in the week, I played Jason at my local shop with his Flesh Eater Courts going up against my Khorne. True to form the Flesh Eater Courts blunted my attack and it felt as if they would run over the rest of my army, but my Bloodthristers decided to step up to the task at hand and turned the tide. Jason and I went into the bottom of Round 5 being tied on victory points. I choose to run off the objectives, in fair play, to end a great game in a draw. I couldn't ask for a better game to finish on for the year. My brush continued to be busy this past week as well. I finished up a few individual models as well as some units. Aleves continue to be the theme on my hobby table, and that won't be changing anytime soon. I did get to paint up the old Sigvald The Magnificent model as a gift for a friend that was a joy to paint. I am happy to have finished up the last few models I planned to complete before diving into my army for Adepticon 2018. It has been a lot of fun having Aelves back on my Hobby table. As I have said before I feel very comfortable painting them since I have done so many throughout the years. While I sometimes get tired of painting the same thing over and over in other armies I never feel that way with my Aelves. I feel very connected to the armies since I used them so often in Warhammer Fantasy Battles and the idea of fielding them regularly again is exciting and I plan to continue adding more Aelves throughout the year. I am happy to say that all of this Hobby and gaming was enough to take the Rend 4 club "Hobby Hero" award I have been striving for the past few weeks. It was very tight all the way to the end and Dan, the gentlemen who came in second has pushed me to hobby more in these past few weeks then I felt I had all year. He is a true warrior fighting against the grey and he has already put up some numbers for the clubs next "Hobby Hero" season. I plan to have Dan on for a player spotlight in the near future as well so be sure to keep an eye out for the interview. In some unexpected news, Coalescence is coming early this year! Games Workshop has worked with some of the NEON team to create a fun one-day Global event in support of the upcoming Malign Portents for Age of Sigmar. If you are curious there will still be the yearly summer Coalescence event on June 23rd to continue the story we began last year with the Godbeast Eristrat. So we will have two great Global Narrative events this year and I cannot wait to run these for my local club. It has been a great finish to the year I do not plan to rest on my laurels as I have plenty of Hobby still unfinished as I prepare for Adepticon, work to complete The U.S. AoS Modular Pack, and continue to improve this very blog. I plan on participating in the #hobby500 on Twitter and finish a total of 500 models this year. It is a daunting task, but one I am excited to make an attempt. Let me know how your Hobby year ended and what you have planned going into 2018. Happy Hobbying! -Chuck Moore View the full article

Hey Everyone! The year is coming to a close and a new year is about to arrive with abundant blessings from Papa Nurgle. If you haven't seen the Nurgle reveals head over to the community site to check them out, especially the video from the Warhammer Community Team. As typical at the end of another great Hobby year, I want to take a look back and make share my hopes for the year to come, but instead of focusing on releases I wanted to look at it all from a Community standpoint! We came into the year in stride as a community. We were growing and connecting more than I have ever seen and more and more people began putting out content for us all to enjoy. We were secure in the knowledge we would receive a new Generals Handbook and we have some great releases like Blades of Khorne, Disciples of Tzeentch, and Kharadron Overlords to keep the meta constantly evolving on our tabletop. While the release of The New Warhammer 40,000 did pull some players it hasn't done much to slow down the pace of our community and honestly the break-in Age of Sigmar releases was a good chance for us all to catch our breath as we readied ourselves for the coming year. Locally, my club went through some changes as well over the past year. We had lost the gentlemen who organized our events and we began to band together once again due to an illness. A few people began to try and get some momentum again, but they tended to focus on only Warhammer 40,000. Other games such as Age of Sigmar were stagnant despite the overall positivity and a large number of releases. It motivated me to take the reins and organize the club. While there were some who didn't like the changes I was trying to make or the direction I was trying to steer the club in I had supporters. Those supporters were more often than not the younger players who are our future and their enthusiasm really kept me going. My local club now has a great new venue, multiple club days each month that let us play all of our favorite game systems, and now new club shirts for us to wear when we all venture forth to events like Adepticon this March. I am happy to say our club is working together better then we have before. There is still plenty of room for improvement and the road ahead isn't any less difficult, but seeing this turnaround has been one of the most satisfying hobby accomplishments I have achieved to date. New Banner for my local club While I am excited about my local group it is hard not to be just as excited about all the positive changes going on elsewhere in the country as well. We have seen multiple new(er) Regional level events in Midwest Meltdown, Nashcon, Renegade Open, SoCal Open, and Battleshock Bash to name a few. I am sure there are some I missed but as Age of Sigmar grows more and more events keep popping up and the National events such as L.V.O., Adepticon, and Nova Open are seeing more and more players for Age of Sigmar each year. We can't neglect that Narrative play is firmly part of the scene now as well. Coalescence was a great success, we have seen the release of Battletome: End Times, other great narrative events such as R.A.W., Nova Open Narrative, and the upcoming R.O.E. and Adepticon Narrative are really solidifying Narrative play as one of the three pillars of Age of Sigmar just as much as Matched play has been for a while now. They have begun stepping up their blog as well with more regular posting so be sure to check it out! The greatest thing we have received this year is the chance for us, as a community, to recognize our Warhammer Heros. We all have them in our lives and Games Workshop is giving us the tools to acknowledge them and their hard work all so we can enjoy this game to its fullest. To be nominated by anyone is an honor as it lets your hero know their effort is having a positive effect on you, and your community. There is still a few days left as of this post going up so if you haven't done so be sure to nominate your Warhammer Hero. New Nurgle on the way! So such a great year behind us, what do we have to look forward to as a community? We have already seen that Nurgle will be getting his own Battletome to put him on the same footing with Tzeentch and Khorne. The Malign Portents clock is continuing to count down with a few reveals of the mighty champions we will be adding to our armies. I suspect that Slaanesh and Aelves will see some sort of a return this year as well either in a new army or at the very least a bit more lore about what is going on with that plot line. We also have even larger events to look forward to as well! Adepticon and L.V.O. are reporting the biggest Warhammer Age of Sigmar turnout seen to date. It is promising that more and more players will join our community over the next year as the popularity of the game continues to grow. The Regional events will most likely be larger and even your local scene might see more fresh recruits or returning veterans to the roster. Knowing that we will be receiving another Generals Handbook in 2018 as it is officially a yearly release will reinforce to newer and returning players how supported this game is and that Games Workshop wants to continually improve the game with the support of the community. While we know that Games Workshop will continue to reach out to us and us reaching back to them to help grow and improve Age of Sigmar I want to talk about a project you can look forward to coming out shortly after the new year. The U.S. AoS Community Modular Pack. I and many other U.S. Age of Sigmar players, community supporters, community leaders, and content creators have been working together since an initial meeting with Games Workshop at Adepticon last year. I am happy to say that the project is coming into the final stages and soon will be released. Just some of the U.S. AoS Community Group The pack is created by U.S. Age of Sigmar players for U.S. Age of Sigmar players. That's not to say it doesn't have merit elsewhere in the world, but there are unique challenges that the U.S. faces with growing our community and where this game could grow that we hope to answer. There will be more details to come soon, but the pack will break down into multiple modules such as sports, scenario selections, painting, and much more while focusing on the three levels of play we see here within the use due to our countries size being Local, Regional, and National so please look forward to it very soon. Last, but not least we should take a moment to congratulate the Warhammer Community Team over at Games Workshop. They have really stepped it up this year with their involvement directly with the community. Creating great content int he form of Daily Painting Videos, fun release trailers, and openly talking to us through all forms of social media. They keep setting the bar higher and higher and they keep reaching for me and I cannot wait to see what the year to come has to offer. I hope everyone has had a similar great 2017 with Warhammer Age of Sigmar and that your hopes are even higher for an even better 2018. I do want to take a moment to thank you,, my readers, readers for continuing to be my motivation to improve this blog and keep to the twice a week schedule. I am very happy with how far along my blog has come over the past year and, but there is still parts I am looking to improve in the coming year. I am happy with where the blog is, but I am not satisfied as my goal is to continue to improve for you and myself. Let me know what you loved best about 2017 and what you might be hoping for in 2018. Happy New Year and as always, Happy Hobbying! View the full article

Hey Everyone! I hope your Holiday season is going well so far and that you have had a lot of hobby over the past week. The year is quickly coming to an end and if you have been following my Hobby Update posts you know that I am in the running for the "Hobby Hero" award as part of the Rend 4's club event season. It has been a very tight battle between me and gentlemen by the name of Dan who has pushed me to keep up with him as the deadline of Dec 31st. looms. I am also very pleased that the new shirt for my local club, Ligonier Legion, arrived this past week and I cannot wait to wear it to the next club day! As the Holidays decided I was able to get a game in with Jason and his Nighthaunt army in Scorched Earth using my Khorne. We both bet big on opposite flanks as the game began. It seemed as if we would circle each other wiping out each other back lines, but thanks to my Blood Tithe abilities I was able to circle one of my Bloodthirsters to help stall his advance and securing the win. It was fun to get a game in before the Holiday and it was a fun atmosphere as you can see by Evan, pictured sitting below, had a smile just watching the carnage. Evan plans to start an Age of Sigmar league soon at the local store and I cannot wait to participate. Games are only one of the ways to earn points for the "Hobby Hero" award. The other and quickest way to earn points is by painting and while my brush has always been fast to get models to a tabletop standard it is not nearly as fast as an airbrush. Dan, who I mentioned above, has been ahead of me for quite a while now by using his airbrush to knock out models fast and furious. It has been great to complete all of these Aelf Heros, but despite this effort, I remained firmly in second after even these. This leads me to my biggest push to take control of first in the competition. After my game with Jason, I asked him if he would mind if I helped him out with painting his army. Jason is well aware that I am trying to win Rend 4's Hobby Hero award and he had no complaints about an offer to paint the bulk of his army for free. My competitive drive was in its highest gear at this point and directly after our game I drove home, grabbed a bit of food and drink and set to work. Five Hours later, Jason, had his models painted and finally jumped to first place, but with a few days left I need to keep my foot on the gas to ensure I keep the lead. I can't complete today's post without showing off a bit of the Christmas haul. Thanks to my loving wife and great friends I received some great gifts and while some are still being shipped I am very humbled by how generous everyone was to me this past holiday. I hope your Holiday is going well and, unlike myself, have many days off to hobby until your heart is content. If you received some great Warhammer gifts let us know in the comments. Be sure to come back Friday as I look back at this past year and offer a few Warhammer and Hobby Wishes for the coming year. Until then, Happy Hobbying! View the full article