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Strength_Hammer

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  1. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  Today I will wrap up my personal Adepticon coverage as I take you through my games from the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles and the Grand Tournament.  I say my personal coverage because next week I am having Paul return to talk about the Narrative event he ran now that The Gibbering Dome's halls have quieted down.  All in all, I had eight great games with wonderful opponents and while days of gaming can become draining near the end I came out of it all energized for me.  The body might of wanted rest, but my mind wanted more Warhammer.



    Team Doubles
    Originally when tickets went on sale for Adepticon I was going to skip out on the Team event and look at taking a few hobby seminars.  However, Mike who I knew through Twitter reached out and asked if I would like to be his partner for some fun in the event.  He wasn't looking for someone to smash opponents off the board with, but someone to enjoy a day of gaming with and I couldn't pass up the offer.  I am glad he reached out to me as the event, while long, was a lot of fun.  My Khrone teamed up with his Skaven mastermind and we set off for some fun and chaotic games.


    The first game saw Mike and myself facing Adam G., who runs Imperium Games, and his friend Tony C..  They gifted us with some really nice custom Combat Gauges from Adam's store which is always a nice surprise.  Mike and I were given the first turn and while we reached as far as we could Adam and Tony deployed far enough back to prevent any of my units getting stuck in immediately.  While I feel proud that Mike's Skaven and my Khorne did well to keep the spells from the Lord of Change at bay Adam and Tony did not need to rely on magic to win the battle.  Some great movement plays from Tony's Sylvaneth kept my Bloodletters out of the battle for too long.  At the end of Turn, four Mike and I knew the battle was lost.  Adam and Tony gave a great game and were very fun to play and chat with during our time at the table.  Mike and I took away a few lessons for our next opponents as well.


    Game two put us on some lower tables were we met some players who, much like Mike and myself, were there for fun and rolling dice above all else.  Those players were Cody B. and Travis L. with their Kharadon Overlord and Fyreslayer army.  This scenario had each team bid a number of minutes in which to deploy to determine who would go first.  Mike and I practiced between rounds and we bid one minute to our opponents five.  They were wide-eyed as they saw our very low bid, but with the timer going Mike and I managed to deploy with two seconds and patted ourselves on the back.  Sadly this was the only victory we can claim from the game itself.  While it only took four three and a half turns for Mike and I to admit defeat, with almost no models left on the field, we got to hang out with these cool guys as they offered beer and friendship.  One thing I will remember from our game with Cody and Travis is their dice with mugs of ale on the six's.  When a six was rolled we all took a drink and I was never happier to see an opponent roll so many six's!  Gentlemen, DRINK!


    The final game of the day allowed Mike and I one final attempt at redemption. We were lucky enough to play some great fellas who traveled from the UK to play.  Al M.(a fellow Moore!) and Darren J..  They had brought a wonderfully painted Stormcast army and much like our other opponents were ready to have a fun game.  The scenario had a bit of randomness to it as the objective would move around each turn so it was anyone's game.  Early on Mike and I put ourselves into a nice advantage, but Al and Darren would not be denied and they fought to the bitter end to bring our game to a draw.  It was bloody, exciting, and a lot of fun.  We were all very excited to see that in case of a draw each team received a minor win so all of us walked away with one "win" under our belt to boot!


    I had a great time playing with Mike and am happy to say he offered me the "right of first refusal" to be his partner next year as well.  It was a long and fun filled day and I was happy to have a partner such as Mike to hang out with as we battled our way through it all.  Be sure to find mike on Twitter at @exorre to check out his wonderfully painted Skaven as well!

    Grand Tournament


    Saturday rolled around and it was time for the big show.  The Age of Sigmar Gran Tournament.  Before I dive into my games I want to give a big thanks to Alex, his Wife Kari Ann, and all those who supported running and preparing for the event.  It was an amazing turnout and one of the best run events I have ever been to and the team that did deserve high praise for all their work so we can play some great games together.

    The day started off on a high note as I arrived early and was randomly placed on Table two!  I joked that it is the highest table I will be at for the entire event and went to prepare myself for my first opponent.  I was running my Daughters of Khaine list and while it is not the exact list I wrote for my Warhammer Community Tactica articles it was very close, but due to time constraints I wasn't able to finish my Khinerai in time so had to shuffle things around a bit.  The core of ninety Witch Aelves remained as did Morathi as my General.




    My first opponent was a very polite and friendly gentleman by the name of Josh A..  Josh had brought a Stormcast force which included a Prime!  I was excited, and a bit scared, to see a great and underused model on the table.  Josh Null deployed his force giving me not much to do at the top of my turn as the objectives hadn't dropped yet so I simply moved up a bit to get closer to the middle of the table and hoped to survive his alpha strike.  Josh brought the hammer and while he killed off a fair amount of my Witch Aelves as well as removing Morathi at the top of Turn two it simply wasn't enough and being able to roll handfuls of dice was too much to bear.  My Kraith ability triggered a fair number of times this game as well and by the top of turn four I had secured all the objectives and removed his last Liberator giving me a Major Win.  Josh and I chatted through the first break and drank some coffee and I was glad to have so much time to chat with him.  He is a solid person that I hope to play again one day.


    After a nice break, the pairings were posted and I jumped for joy as I saw I was headed for the great Table one!  It has always been on my Hobby Bucket list to grace the top table for a single round and due to my previous victory, I managed to do just that!  My Opponent was Cody B. who was there with his lovely wife and their child.  He had brought a Sylvaneth army and he was as excited as I was to be playing on the top table.  As I deployed I felt confident in Morathi's ability to hold down an objective and I turned her into her Snake form right away, but it was really Cody's scenario to lose and while I pushed him to make mistakes he played it perfectly and was able to take the victory.  While I did very well keeping him from summoning more Woods the one mistake I made was attacking his unit of Dryads with Mystic Shield and Throne of Vines on it.  I managed a large number of saves which he promptly made in order to have me nearly kill off an entire unit of Witches.  We had a good laugh at the sight of it all and despite the early set back the game remained close until turn four when he was able to kill off my remaining Heros and leave me with nothing left that could hope to take down his Treelord, but we both carried on and claimed some Secondary and Tertiary objectives with what we had left.  I suffered a Major loss but it was thrilling to play such a great person on the top table and make a new friend such as Cody.


    While I expected to be knocked down in tables after my Major loss my third game saw me kicked very far down and with a long road ahead of me to fight back up I encountered Kyle K. and his Undead force lead by nonother than Nagash himself.  Morathi was Scared and I was Scared for her in the coming battle.  I was given the first turn and once again I turned Morathi immediately and threw her at forward and as many Witches as I could in hopes to remove Nagash as quickly as possible.  While I gave it everything I had it simply wasn't enough and while I wreaked havoc on his Gravegaurd Nagash surviving kept Kyle going strong.  The magic phase was a tense, but thrilling time for both of us as we waited to see if he would successfully cast Hand of Dust on Morathi or not.  Do to some bad dice rolls and some great dispell dice from me I staved off the inevitable until turn four.  Neither one of us had enough left to claim a Major Victory and with him winning the roll for turn four it came down to his he could remove Morathi or if she would kill him in combat to decide who would take a Minor Victory as we would draw on the objective and look at total killed.  Nagash did it with style and Morathi was removed giving me a Minor Loss.  It was a tense and fun game and the story told on the table was one I will remember, but next time Morathi will not be denied!


    Sunday arrived and we all shuffled into the hall for our last two games after a night of rabble-rousing.  After the usual few minutes extra wait for those who might have had too much fun the night before the drops sorted our pairings posted.  I looked for my place and was very excited to play a very good friend Neil L. who you might know from my blog as he runs the Rend 4 club in Ohio.  This was a great way to begin the day and I hoped to exact revenge against his Khorne from the stomping they gave my Morathi and my army in a practice game a few weeks prior.  However, he had Skarrbrand and while I feared I might lose Morathi quickly I was determined to put her to good use.  I had the first turn and Morathi transformed, Mindrazored herself, and took off toward his Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster.  Mortahi got to work and while I took his General down to almost nothing she failed to kill it.  Neil ran his General away, a fact that I will never let him live down, and quickly brought in Skarrbrand to do the dirty business of killing Morathi.  Morathi was removed, but the battle was far from over.  Neil made one error and moved off his objective in the first round and after realizing he wouldn't score pulled a few back in hopes to kill me off and claim some of my objectives to make up for his deficit. Unfortunately for Neil, my Witch Aelves were inspired by Mroathi's sacrifice to Khaine and proved that they can outfight Khorne any day and I began deleting his units over the next few rounds giving me a Major Win.  Playing Neil was great fun as he has become a very close friend since I met him last year at Adepticon and neither one of us pulled any punches in our brawl.  Next time we meet we have a rubber match to see whose army reigns supreme!


    The final game of the event paired me against Jake L. and his Kharadon Overlords.  I had come to fear this matchup as it could quickly end a game with a few good rounds of shooting.  While Jake position, deployed and had fantastic target priority his dice let him down and while he killed a few key pieces he didn't do enough to blunt my army and the battle got Bloody and quick.  It was back and forth with great saves and tight play from both of our armies, but the game ultimately came down to turn five priority roll.  If I won I would have claimed a Major Victory by capturing all four objectives, but if he won he would be able to draw on the objective and since he had killed more of my force by this time he would claim a Minor Win.  We rolled and Jake won the roll.  It was a Minor loss for me, but it capped off the event with a final and exceptional game with a truly great player and person.

    At the end of it all I placed 67th of out 164 (total players after drops) and while it keeps me at the mid-table hero level I am happy to say I placed higher percentage-wise this year than last year.  I am also very happy with how my army performed.  The Witch Aelves are brutal in combat and Kraith really worked well for them and caused a good bit of fear for my opponents.  I plan to continue running a Witch Aelf Horde for quite some time with the only change is give command of my army to a Slaughter Queen as opposed to Morathi.  She is targeted to quickly and while I wanted her command ability to be a great force multiplier she was either dead or transformed before it became effective in combat.  The army is an absolute blast to play and I was happy to see other Daughters of Khaine out in force at the event.  I can imagine everyone will be seeing much more of them in the coming months!


    Top Painted Armies


    I wanted to leave you all today with pictures of the top painted armies from the event.  The hobby was high for the majority of the armies, but these were the cream of the crop and truly inspiring to continue to improve my own hobby in the future.  I am looking at you Idoneth Deepkin!

    Another great Adepticon full of gaming, friends, and fantastic opponents is wrapped up and I cannot wait until next year for even more fun.  I hope you enjoyed my coverage and be sure to check back next week as Paul recaps his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome.  Until next week, Happy Hobbying!
    Chuck Moore


    Visit my Blogs main Page!
  2. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  I wanted to give a heads up that the Realm Gate has moved here on TGA.  The bad news is you will no longer see my blogs posted here in this public blog, but the good news is The Realm Gate now has its own section within the forum!
    Find the forum section here!
    As always you can see my posts on their regular schedule posted on my blog page by clicking this link.
    Happy Hobbying!
     
    Chuck Moore
  3. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  I have some great news as the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles Event at this year's NOVA Open has officially doubled due to the quick sell out.  We are going from 20 teams to 40 with the potential to add a few more if we sell out once again.  The Grand Tournament still has plenty of room left, but tickets are beginning to move once again so be sure to jump on it soon.  This year promises to be bigger then the last and my biggest Hobby focus is creating fun and competitive Event packs that I hope to get out in the coming months.



    While my hobby desk hasn't seen much paint or model building lately it has seen hobby of a different sort.  The last few oval cavalry bases I needed showed up in the mail allowing me to finish rebasing my remaining Aelven Heros.  As I mentioned before I plan to finish the texture, flock, etc... on these bases as I use the models for games in the coming year.  The quick release schedule for Games Workshop means that any of these, now smaller, Aelf factions could see an update by way of Battletome in the future.  Unless I decide to commit to a universal basing scheme, which at the moment is unlikely, I won't be rushing to flock all of these models at the moment.  That said I can safely say phase one of "The Great Aelven Rebasing Project" complete.

    While I recently chose to take all my 40k models and put them in storage below my hobby desk I just couldn't bring myself to do the same for all of my Aelves.  While this is a temporary solution as I am planning a major renovation of my basement and Hobby space in the next few months I picked up a simple storage shelf for the interim. Have no worry as it is secured to the other two tables so the risk of falling over is very low, but dust might be an issue until I install proper quality storage sections.  The shelf was very inexpensive and I might purchase a second this week so my 40k can also be out for easy access as opposed to stored, forgotten, in a storage bin.


    The little bit of paint I did accomplish this past week was getting the black and gold done on my last unit of Sisters of Slaughter.  They still have a lot to go, but with a nice long hobby chat the time moved very quickly and I plan to have these finished up in the next day or so in order to give my full attention to my Melusai and Khinerai in the coming weeks.  

    While the below might just look like an empty hobby desk, which is it, there is one small addition to the far right.  At the recent Adepticon, my friend Sean (BrushForHire) snagged me a great deal on a Badger Air Compressor.  Now that my Aelf rebasing is at a natural stopping point and is stored the idea of having my airbrushing table back, and complete is very exciting and I cannot wait to get back to learning this tool.  While I still have a few more kits for my Daughters of Khaine to work through I have committed the remainder of this year to improve my hobby skills.  I have become adept at painting vast hordes of models to a nice tabletop quality, but I am still very much a novice in creating true artistic quality and rarely put in more than a handful of hours on a single model.  The recent exception was Morathi and her model was the catalyst to pursue this goal.

    I plan to work on some one-off projects in the way of minis and some busts before "diving" in on the Idoneth Deepkin to really put my skills to the test.  I am very excited that the Aelves are back in force and with having painted up a Daughters of Khaine Horde army rather quickly I want to step out of my comfort zone with the Idoneth and paint them to the highest quality I can.  My goal for the Idoneth is to have it painted to a high enough quality that it earns a painting nomination at a large event such as Adepticon or LVO.  Resisting the urge to buy it all and paint it up right away will be tough, but I have set my goal and I plan to put my effort toward achieving it.


    The last bit of Hobby I have been working on, as I mentioned above, is the Event Packs for this year's NOVA Open Grand Tournament and Team Doubles.  While I cannot show you any pictures here I can say that the pack is nearing completion and I have some amazing people who will be helping me tighten it up before it is released to the wild.  Hopefully, your hobby progress has been fruitful whether is have been painting, building, or less flashy, but just as important, Hobby like I have had this past week.  Be sure to check back this Friday as Paul returns to give us a recap of his Age of Sigmar Narrative event from the recent Adepticon.  Until then, Happy Hobbying.
    Chuck Moore
    Visit my Blogs main Page!
  4. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone! The Aelf fever has fully gripped me after Adepticon and I pushed to finally get appreciable progress on my Great Aelven Rebasing Project.  It didn't take long to get pretty much everything on to a round or oval base and while the project has spanned a few months the bulk of the work has only been a few hours at most.  The last push was one of the longest as it was moving the cavalry to their new bases.  I am far from finished as being glued to the new bases was only phase one.  There is plenty of Aleves to come in my future and getting this project wrapped up has been high on my priority.


    In regards to rebasing my Calvary and a few of my Griffins I simply sheared away some of the current bases and glued what was left to the new oval bases.  It was simpler than trying to cut the models at the hooves and legs as I can only imagine the difficulty that could cause.  While this was a simple solution it does require I take a bit of cork and build up around the old square bases to make them look a bit more natural before I add any flock, sand, or crackle paint.  While I am calling this phase complete I am still waiting for one more order of oval bases to arrive for my mounted heroes I neglected to include in my original order.  They are due in early next week and I can get them changed over quickly.

    My intent for this project now is to finish the basing as I intend to use the models as opposed to a mass flocking party which could allow me to knock these out in a weekend.  My reasoning is due to not knowing what Games Workshop has planned for future Aelf releases.  These past few months they have proven that they can revamp an older and smaller Aelf faction or create an entirely brand new Aelf faction.  I am excited by the prospect for both and as such, I feel finishing the bases as needed is the best course of action.


    With my old fantasy Aelves sorted I can go back to my new and shiny Aelves.  I plan to build my recently acquired Khinerai and Melusai kits soon and get them painted up.  While I lean heavily on wanting to make these kits their more shooty versions I plan to make one of each variant per kit so I can officially have one of each unit in the army and I can grow from there.  Since I run the Witch Aelf horde I don't have a pressing need to go all in on one version of these kits or another just yet.  Before I can dive into these kits I need to finish painting up my last unit of Sisters of Slaughter.  Thankfully, they only require a few more hours to finish up giving me a solid unit of twenty or more likely two units of ten.


    While I still have a bit more to go on the Daughters of Khaine, I did manage to finish up my last Bloodwrack Medusa giving me two on foot (tail?) and one riding the cauldron.  While I took a prayer heavy list to Adepticon I am looking forward to running a magic heavy list in the future to mix things up a bit and see which style I prefer for any future events I will be attending.  I am still loving this army and don't see myself stopping any time soon.  While I will pick up Idoneth as they are released I am planning a very big push toward a better quality paint job on them so don't expect me to push out an army of them as quickly as I often do, but you can expect to see slow progress over the coming months regarding that force.


    Outside of painting armies and moving older ones to rounds I have a few small painting projects planned for the near future that I am excited to begin.  While I feel very much as home painting vast quantities of models in a single sitting I have never taken to producing a true piece of art in the form of a bust, diorama, or even just a highly painted model.  These future one off projects will hopefully begin to correct this and help me grow more as a hobbyist.  Be sure to come back Friday as I run through both the Team Doubles and Grand Tournament from Adepticon this year discussing how the games went and what my Daughters faced and how the games both wins and losses has only reaffirmed how great the Witch Aelf horde can be in battle.  Until then, Happy Hobbying.
    Chuck Moore
    Visit my Blogs main Page!
  5. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone! Last week at this time Adepticon was in full swing and what a great adventure it was this year!  I got to hang out and catch up with friends from last year and meet plenty of new folks as well.  All I can say is four days is just not enough and I am planning on hitting up more events so I can see all these great people more than once a year.  The biggest challenge will be getting myself across the water to visit that fantastic gentleman who invaded from the U.K. this year.  This post will be a lot of pictures and a lot of names of great people in a general overview of my time this year.  If you are looking for in-depth coverage of how my games went you will have to wait until next week.  If I missed mentioning anyone I apologize as it is the people and this community that really make these events so great.
     
      My Adepticon 2018 started off with a nine-hour drive with my good friend Sean with other members of my local club, Cole, and Jacob, driving a bit behind us.  We had left early in the morning and made it to our hotel a bit after midday.  After a quick refresh, we got out badges, visited the dealer's room before I headed over to help Paul run his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome.  As we waited for the players to show up I started seeing some of the great people I befriended last year Alex, David G., and Austin who introduced me to the talented Em.  It was a fantastic event that Paul ran well and I even got to see some friends I made at NOVA Open this past year as well!  The event ran all four hours and the players looked eager to do more so I am hoping Paul will continue the event next year!
     
      Friday rolled around and I met up with Mike, who I knew through Twitter as we teamed up with my Khorne and his beautifully painted Skaven army in the Team Doubles event.  This is really where the fun began to ramp up.  I was able to catch up a bit with Brad, Andrea, David W., Domus, Tom, Vince, Neil, Garrett, Mike B., Miles, Joe K., Dan B., Kelly, Martin O., and Tyler while also getting to meet great people such as Adam T., Mitzy, Jimbo, Russ, Eric, James, Scott R., Ministomp, Scott F., Andrew, Elric, Martin M., and the great Kari Ann.  As I said this post is a lot of pictures and a list of all the great people who made my event so great so hang on!   After three amazing games in the team event, the day wrapped up with a throwdown between Mitzy and Eric in a 2000pt matched play game.  It sounds odd to think about, but watching a game of Age of Sigmar was one of the best ways to relax after playing Age of Sigmar all day.  It was indeed a long day as the team even lasted thirteen hours, while it is a grind quite a few teams needed the longer rounds to coordinate their battle plans.   After Friday wrapped up it was on to the GT Saturday morning.  I was lucky enough to meet a few more great people in Steve, Byron, as well as others.  I had three great games with day and even managed to make my way on to Table 1 for round 2 and meet Cody and his family while having a great game with him!  I had my Daughters of Khaine out in force and I was very happy with how they played.  My wins were swift and my losses always down to the last round or two as they made my opponents fight tooth and nail to claim a victory over Morathi and my Witch Aelves.   Saturday night I was invited by Pete F. to attend the second meeting between Games Workshop and some of the U.S. AoS Community leaders.  The meeting was very constructive and I was very happy to be included.  It is so great to have Games Workshop reaching out through continued efforts to the community so we can grow this great game together.  Post meeting a large group of us ended up in the lounge as we chatted and shared a few drinks well into the night with everyone having high hopes for the next day's games.   Sunday began as any other day expect a lot of people were a bit more sleep deprived due to the previous night's fun.  Two more great games were played and I was able to say hello to Les, Terry, Wayne, and Dan H. during breaks between games.  After the awards were given to the winners and a round of applause were given to Alex, Kari Ann, and their team for running yet another great event everyone ventured out for dinner.  A large group of us made it to a great Burger Joint called Kuma's Corner and after rounds of drink and meeting a few more people like Paul M., we ate our food and headed back to the hotel's lounge for some more fun.  After a few more hours of hanging out, and making fun of the fact that ESPN was treating Corn Hole as a professional sport, I said my goodbyes and headed to bed as I had another nine-hour drive the following day.   With my second Adepticon wrapped up, I can safely say that I am happy I have made this a must-attend event for myself each year.  The games are great, the atmosphere is second to none, and best of all are the people.  As mentioned above I met so many wonderful people and was able to see some good friends I met last year.  Only seeing these folks once or twice a year isn't enough and while I got to hang out with a lot of them a few I only saw briefly so I am working to attend even more events next year as well as travel over to the U.K. to play in an event and visit Warhammer World.  I am happy to say my wife has agreed to an adventure to the U.K. in 2019 for some Warhammer and catching up with friends.   I cannot say enough that if you play Warhammer Age of Sigmar you need to attend this event.  It is one of the best events in the U.S. and if you join the Twitter community you are going to feel like everyone you meet is family long before you even meet face to face.  There was so much Age of Sigmar, incredible Hobby, delicious food, and exceptional people that it is hard to come back to reality.  While this post was more about all the fun and great people from the event next week you can expect detailed coverage of all the events I played in and how my Witch Aelf horde performed.  Until next week, Happy Hobbying!   Chuck M.      
    Visit my Blogs main Page!
     
  6. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  As all of you know this past weekend was Adepticon 2018 out in Schaumburg, IL.  It was an amazing experience once again where I got to hang out with friends and get to know them all even better.  While there wasn't much actually hobby other than food, drinks, and games my Hobby mojo is very high after such a great event so expect a lot in the future.  I plan to do more in-depth coverage of Adepticon on my Friday posts, but for today here is some of the fun that took place!



    I took the trip out this year with my very good friend Sean (BrushforHire) and while it was a nine-hour drive it did go very quickly as we shared out passion for this hobby as well as filmed our travel out in some short videos via my Twitter (One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six).



    I also want to give a quick shout out to a few members of my local gaming club who made it out as well for the event.  Cole, Jamie, Jacob, and Noah all joined the fun, probably due to my constant talking about how fun last year was and joined in all the fun.  Cole and Jacob played both 40k and Age of Sigmar team events, but after a great time in the Mortal Realms have committed to going all in for the Age of Sigmar GT next year!

    I was overjoyed to be helping Paul with his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome, and my first night in town was watching him help players craft a story.  The event went very well with the players enjoying the narrative and fun rules he created as well as his ability to adapt on the fly to help make the story much grander than the initial intent.  

    The following day was Age of Sigmar Team event and I had the pleasure of playing with Mike who I know from the Twitter community using my Khorne alongside his mighty Skaven!  We went to the event for fun and to play new people and were not worried about winning every game and I am happy to say we met our goal and had three great games!





    The last big event of the weekend was the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament.  164 players began the event and it was crazy to see so many players together to play this great game!  On top of that, the Age of Sigmar Team Doubles had 120 total teams for their event and a small, but sold out Narrative as well!  My Daughters of Khaine were out in force and I was happy to see other Daughters at the event as well and doing well.  In the coming weeks, I will cover my over impressions, and event breakdowns to give you all the juicy details.  Come back this Friday to see my overall impressions of the event and the fun had with all the wonderful people I have become friends with thanks to our Hobby.
    Until Friday, Happy Hobbying!

    Chuck Moore
    Visit my Blogs main Page!
  7. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  While I am busy at Adepticon I wanted to briefly cover the recent Malign Portents Coalescence Global Event that took place this past weekend.  I was able to run the event for my local club, Ligonier Legion, once again and we had a great turnout for a fun day of gaming!  If you haven't seen the global results Death won the event overall.  If you are thinking about running narrative gaming in any way or wish to try your hand at running the upcoming June Coalescence event be sure to keep an eye on the We are The Neon Blog.



    One of my favorite parts of the Coalescence events is how I can take the global narrative and add my own local lore for my event.  At the first event, I had Tyrion and Teclis as the driving forces behind my local lore and with the recent release of Daughters of Khaine, I couldn't resist adding Morathi into my local story.  In order to loosely tie it to the first local Coalescence, I had Teclis as part of the story.  He formed an alliance with Morathi in order to find out what was going on in Shyish.  


    The awards prepped, and tables full of terrain we began the event.  I was blown away to have so many players for the event considering Adepticon was right around the corner, but I was happy to see a gaming hall full of Age of Sigmar.  The day went by smoothly with two-hour rounds and breaks in between.  All in all the pack was solid and clearly laid out and everyone at my club showed up with a great attitude to play and craft their narrative as the day progressed.  I was excited to see an odd number turn up which allowed me to play all three games and get some more practice with my Daughters of Khaine and enjoy some narrative games before a major GT.

    I really enjoy running a narrative event as it is more laid back as the point of the day is about the story and not just about who wins or looses.  With players across all skill levels of painting and gaming, it is also a great time to talk about our passion and help each other improve with strategy, painting tips, and perhaps get one another excited for our next army.  We had some great hobby on display and while some players are much newer to painting everyone was happy to put in a model to be judged for best painted.  Seeing the club share their enthusiasm for the hobby despite their level is great o behold.

    After a well fought three rounds my local club saw Death win out overall in a surprise defeat.  My local area is often Order and Chaos heavy, but the Death players showed up to play and seized the win.  Awards passed out and our event logged for the global narrative we all headed over for the standard post-game beer and chats.  It was a fantastic day and I am more excited ever to dive into the June event and make it even better and try to max out our venue.

    I want to give thanks to the NEON team and Games Workshop for the effort they put into creating this pack and event.  It was a top-level event that my local club will always be running as long as the packs keep on coming.  Knowing that we are connecting to the large global community really drives us to make it bigger and better.

    The global event wrapped up all that I had left was to tidy up my little narrative which you can read above.  I cannot wait for the June event and I plan to bring much more detailed coverage on it as the month draws closer.  Until next week, Happy Hobbying!
    Chuck Moore
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  8. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  Adepticon officially kicks off today and everyone is eagerly anticipating the famous Games Workshop Reveal Show happening later tonight.  I am bummed to be missing it once again, but sadly there are only so many vacation days in the work year, but I will be taking a look at all the great reveals early in the morning before I begin my drive out to Chicago with my friend Sean.  Before all that fun I need to catch up on all the hobby I have had happening over the past week.


    With my army and display board painted and ready for Adepticon, I was able to finish my final prep for the Malign Portents Coalescence Global event that took place this past Saturday.  The last bit I really had to finish was the one item I kept putting off, but with the help of my lovely wife, I was able to finish all the Pylons as part of the event pack for my tables.  They were built to be temporary, but if you printed these out on cardstock and in color they could prove to be some great entry level terrain so be sure to check it out.


    I also celebrated a birthday this past week and I was gifted with some Daughters of Khaine (also money to spend on Daughters of Khaine) by way of models and dice.  I plan to eventually get a second set of Melusai and Khinerai so I can build both options for some post-Adepticon Hobby.  I was also gifted some of the excellent Daughters of Khaine themed dice and I love the design and look of them and I took them to try them out at Coalescence over the weekend.

    I must say the dice roll exceptionally well and much to the dismay of one of my opponents they managed to roll a six for every single priority roll.  The downside to the dice with my Witch Aelf army is I was unable to roll all my attacks from a single unit at once due to the large size.  I tried throughout the day and while I managed to finish my games easily under two hours the flow of rolling was odd and I want to make sure to be as clean and quick on my rolls as possible so I will be using my old Dark Elf Dice for the bulk of my rolls.  Thankfully, my friends, Andrea and Dan gave me some great ideas on Twitter to use the bigger dice for Heros, priority rolls, spells, and prayers and I plan to do just that!

    Even though I am all set for Adepticon I just cannot put my paintbrush down and my excitement for Daughters of Khaine is not going away anytime soon.  I took time over the weekend to paint up my third Avatar of Khaine.  It was a quick model t paint and washes really work well to bring out the details.  The unit is a combat beast and I look forward to running two of these in a list one day in the future.

    If you are at Adepticon or driving out int eh next day or so I hope you have safe travels and be sure to come say hello if you see me wandering around the halls.  I cannot wait for the event and be sure to follow me on Twitter to see all the coverage from my perspective as the days go on.  Until Friday, Happy Hobbying!
    Chuck Moore
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  9. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  Adepticon is almost here and I am happy to say I have accomplished my tasks in preparation for the big event!  The release of the new Daughters of Khaine really put me into a state of Hobby frenzy I was not expecting as I got my head around the new Battletome, worked up a new list, and painted Morathi to take to the table.  I am very excited to field the new book and see how they do at a higher level.  More importantly, I cannot wait to see the friends I made last year and through online interaction and have a great time enjoying the game we all love so much.



    After a lot of debating in my own mind as well as looking around online while building my list, I decided to take a slightly changed variant of the list I wrote for a recent Tactica Article on the Warhammer Community Site.  While I won't be putting up the whole list you can be sure it will have lots of Witch Aelves as well as Morathi to lead it all.  With the number of attacks my Witch Aelves put out in combat she is a big force multiplier for every list I have written.  While a lot of people are building Melusai lists using the Temple Nest Battalion I am taking the road of lots and lots of Witch Aelves.

    While all the effort toward this army has been toward getting ready for Adepticon I still have the newer units to build and paint to add to the army.  You can be sure to see them hitting my hobby table shortly after Adepticon and I cannot wait to have all the options available to really begin playing this army to its fullest and varying play styles.  Although I suspect the upcoming Idoneth Deepkin could cause a bit of a distraction if I don't get all of my Daughters done before their release, but even if I do resist I will be looking to add them to my collection.


    While I am a bit saddened that my original list of one hundred and twenty Witch Aelves is no longer viable, if I wish to include Morathi I need to slim the total number down a bit.  I knew Morathi was going to Adepticon the moment I saw and knew it was released before the cut-off date.  I managed to pick her and I set to work right away.  Her two forms took much longer to paint than originally expected, but the whole process was a joy and she is my favorite model I have put a brush to date.  I really put in my best effort and constantly sought advice from my friend Sean (BrushforHire) to make sure the final product was what I had envisioned.


    After she was complete I set to work on my Display Board and while it is not exactly what I had envisioned I am happy enough with the result.  I feel like I could add a lot more to the board, but I know it will look a lot fuller once the army is on it and taking up the negative space.  I might go back to it in the future and try to remake in a better fashion with brickwork, resin blood flows, but for its purpose at Adepticon, I am going to leave it where it is.

    With some time left before Adepticon I really need to get more practice games in with my army so the plan is to play as many games as possible between now and next Thursday.  Thankfully I have some great opponents around here who are ready and willing to play.  I am thankful that I had plenty of games before the Battletome, but I wish to ensure I get all the new rules in my head so I don't miss any steps at the tables come next week.


    There is a lot more I wish to add to this army and I plan to do so after Adepticon, but with a lack of time I am calling my Adepticon preparations complete.  Adepticon promises to be a great time with a  big Games Workshop reveal Wednesday night, which I'll sadly miss as I drive in on Thursday and plenty of Age of Sigmar and time with friends.   I look forward to seeing you all there next week if you are attending and be sure to say hi if you see me!  Until next week, Happy Hobbying!

    Chuck Moore

    Previous Articles in this Series:
    Road to Adepticon 2018 : Part 1
    Road to Adepticon 2018 : Part 2


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  10. Strength_Hammer
    Hey Everyone!  We are officially less than ten days away from Adepticon 2018.  Some people have finished their projects and others, like me, are still wrapping it all up.  Thankfully I am just about done and if all goes well I should have a relaxing few days with my Wife prior to all the Adepticon fun to be had in the coming week.  Hopefully, you are just about done or already enjoying a job well done and resting for the event yourself.



    I pushed hard to get my display board for my Daughters of Khaine moving along and after an evening's worth of work I was able to get the entire thing built and the next day it was primed and dried.  It wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be and a big part of that is thanks to Brian O. for 3D printing me some nice Pillars for the board.  A bit of painting and detailing in the next few days should see it ready to go and then I can figure out how to display my army to its fullest effect.  I am unsure of the best way to show off both versions of Morathi on the board.  Should they be together or separated?  Let me know what you think in the comments as I could use some advice on this subject.


    With a tight deadline looming and a few bits of my army to finish, I decided that cleaning would be a good use of my time for some reason.  I had been meaning to do this for quite some time, but with having to wait for bases and boards to dry I opted to put my 40k into storage and rearrange my displayed forces.  It was a nice break as cleaning really helps clear my mind and it is great to have my much more recently painted armies displayed.  Currently, I am surrounded by Aelves in my basement hobby space as I am rebasing them all to rounds.  I am about halfway complete with the task and after Adepticon I will be diving back into the project as I ride the post-convention Hobby high.

    The biggest relief I had this past weekend was taking the time to finish my Morathi models.  I loved these models and I took my time and tried to paint above my usual level to do the sculpt the justice it deserved.  I owe a big thanks to my friend Sean M. for helping me with advice and tips as I worked on the models.  I am very pleased with how they came out and if I get the chance I might go back and add a bit of eyeshadow to the models before the event to really finish the models off.
    Before I work on the final touch-ups, however, I wanted to make sure I had my models based and ready to go well in advance.  I took every model I currently have painted and began the process of getting them ready.  It is not a challenging part of the army, but it is tedious, but the hardest bit is over with the first layer of crackle paint.  Next up is a quick wash, adding some static grass, and repainting the rims to call it complete.

    I have full confidence I can get this all wrapped up by this weekend so expect a lot of fun pictures on Twitter throughout the week.  Friday I will be going into much more detail as I wrap up this year "Road to Adepticon" article series so be sure to check back then.  Until Friday, Happy Hobbying!
    Chuck Moore

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  11. Strength_Hammer
    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
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  12. Strength_Hammer
    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

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  13. Strength_Hammer
    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

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  14. Strength_Hammer
    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
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  15. Strength_Hammer
    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



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  16. Strength_Hammer
    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
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  17. Strength_Hammer
    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
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  18. Strength_Hammer
    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

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  19. Strength_Hammer
    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  
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  20. Strength_Hammer
    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 


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  21. Strength_Hammer
    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
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  22. Strength_Hammer
    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  
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  23. Strength_Hammer

    Why Do We Hobby?

    By Strength_Hammer,

    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
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  24. Strength_Hammer
    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  
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  25. Strength_Hammer
    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





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