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  1. someone2040

    FEC fully finished

    By someone2040,

    A curious thing happened last weekend. For the first time (ever?) I finally finished painting every single model in a Warhammer army. Usually as hobbyists, we end up buying a little too much, so even if we're happy with the state of our 2000 point army, we inevitably have a few extra models (or maybe a lot extra) that end up sitting in a box somewhere and never finished.
    So this is a real sense of accomplishment to have finally painted every single model I own for my Flesh-Eater Courts army. And of course, nothing else is more appropriate than taking some family photos of the army in their completed glory.




    The army in all it's glory. I tallied up all the units, and it clocks in at just under 4000 points before battalions. I am very satisfied with the contents of the army, I won't be able to run any list that spams a singular unit, but it's very balanced in the models in the army and looks exactly how I think an army should do on the tabletop. Lots of little guys, fewer of the big guys, and even fewer of the real big guys!

    The royal family. Other than Duke Crakmarrow, every single character in the army is converted in some way. Certainly one of my objectives for the army was to make more interesting versions of the Courtiers than the slightly different build (or specific build) you get in the box. 

    This is the model that started the entire army. I had seen a conversion in White Dwarf where someone had converted the free Slaughterpriest from White Dwarf into a Vampire Lord. I thought it looked amazing, but could go a step further in the 'Vampire-ness' by adding things like the cloak. At one point, he was indeed going to become a regular Vampire Lord, but back when I was starting this army late 2017, I was cautious about starting another 'non-battletome' army (I had already collected Slaves to Darkness and Free Peoples at this point as my main Age of Sigmar armies - little did I know Legions of Nagash was around the corner), and for Vampires I also wasn't going to be happy spending a small fortune on Blood Knights. Converting Dragon Princes for Blood Knights was also a bit more than I wanted to chew in terms of conversions of the army. So Flesh-Eater Courts it was, and I ended up being happy with the enlarged look of the Crypt Horror hand on the model.

    This guy right here is my favourite model in the entire army. As mentioned, I really wanted the Courtiers to stand out and I think this guy aces it. From the modified pose where he's running along with weapon in one hand and a slab of masonry in the other, to the bulky spiked shoulder pad, to finally the spikes from the Zombie Dragon kit jutting out of his back, it all just works really well together.

    This guy is my least favourite model in the army. He has the opposite problem, he doesn't stand out. The cape he has just kinda blends in due to the wings, and his spikes aren't even as impressive as the ones on the regular Crypt Infernal models in my army. It just didn't really work out with this guy, and in the end I whacked a regular Vargheist head on just to make him stand out a little. If I had an extra model, this is the one guy in the entire army I'd redo.

    For the Crypt Ghast Courtiers, I have had some Daemonette bits lying around for ages now. Obviously I didn't want to break up a box of Ghouls to make a Courtier and be left with 9 models, so I figured I could convert the Ghast Courtiers out of Daemonettes. In hindsight, I wouldn't have used the heads with the spectral hair as what has happened in the past is that people have confused a Ghast Courtier as a Tomb Banshee. Overall I'm pretty happy with the conversions. The 2nd one (the one on the right) which was completed much more recently, I did consider having a more hunched over look more akin to Valreek from the Grymwatch, but didn't feel like I was going to pull it off.
    Funnily enough, the second one (which I'm a bit happier with the dress on) did get me thinking about perhaps a small unit of Daemonettes (maybe Warcry) in dresses could be cool unit to make.
    The Ghoul Kings are the old Strigoi Vampire models. I had picked some up a while ago in a buy of a bunch of metal models and didn't really remember about them until I was perusing through my boxes more recently and thought I may as well use them. Better to have some dedicated foot models in case I wanted to use both the Kings on Foot and mounted. I only had a head for one of the models (and it's fairly enormous), so I ended up just putting on Ghoul Heads with some minor green stuff work.

    Lastly the Throne + Endless spells. I think these were probably some of the most enjoyable things in the army to paint. The throne in particular is a lot of stone, a lot of bone, a lot of drybrushing and a lot of blood.
     
    And that's a wrap. The entire army is painted, and most of it is based. I just need to track down some more tufts of a certain kind to finish off about 30 models in the army, and then it's complete, for now?
    I think I probably have enough appetite with the army to paint one more start collecting box if it came down to it. When I built the Zombie Dragon, I definitely tossed up whether or not just to build a second Terrorgheist as I felt it'd be more useful, but wanted the Zombie Dragon to 'complete' the army. So we'll see, but it's definitely time to be starting a new painting adventure. 
  2. someone2040
    Been a while since I posted a blog entry, but nows a good time with the conclusion of AoS 1.0 rapidly approaching.
    For last 9 or so months, I have been rocking my Free Peoples army. AoS so far for me, has been about doing armies that I didn't get around to doing in older editions of Warhammer. First was my Chaos Undivided army, and after being a little frustrated about lack of shooting with that, next on the bucket list was the Free Peoples.
    I've dabbled with Humans before, back in 7th edition I started a small Empire army as well as a decent sized Dogs of War army, some of the models have even made it into my army today. So I definitely like the idea of your regular old humans standing together to fight against the horrors of the world (Whether for Sigmar or for gold and glory!).
     
    In total, to date I've painted up 2060 points of Free Peoples as well as 980 points of allies. So I've got a somewhat rounded collection, which has meant in the 3 tournaments I've played my Free Peoples I've played a different list each time. Each one slightly stronger than the last in my opinion.
    With my last AoS 1.0 tournament now behind me, and likely those games being the last under AoS 1.0, I thought now would be a good time to talk about the state of Free Peoples under AoS 1.0, as well as perhaps some initial thoughts about the future.
     
    In general I think Free Peoples lists tend to boil down into 2 types. The first is the mega company, a list that centres around a singular great company that tends to be maxxed out. This usually runs the Luminark to further protect the investment into those units. This in my opinion, is likely the stronger list as it tends to focus on the 3 best units in the Freeguild and once in the right place, you tend to have 3 units close by that you can use Hold the Line on.
    However, I have run instead a Double Company list. This list tends to have 2 smaller great companies, although my latest iteration had 1 larger one and 1 smaller one. This IMO allows me to spread out a bit more as I have more drops in my army. I've also bolstered my list with a smattering of allies, including a Hellstorm Rocket Battery, a Battlemage and a Knight Azyros.

    My Badgacon army, the last AoS 1.0 games played
    So for the most part, I'll talk to my experiences with the lists I've been running but also extrapolating that to Free Peoples as a whole.
    In a sort of TLDR, I'll say upfront that I think Free Peoples are at current, a purely Tier 2 list that while having some strong components, just has too many weaknesses and not enough options in particular areas to edge their way into Tier 1 (Not even talking about the S Tier armies that sit at the top of the meta). So let's just talk through some components of the army and why they're strong or not strong, and how it impacts the army as a whole.
    Freeguild General on Griffon - These guys are super good. I think the best armies have 2 of these in. It's super hard to squeeze in a 3rd one, but if you could, I think you would. They basically fulfil the role of both mobile tank and mobile damage due to being able to take a great weapon as well as a shield. This gives the only rend -2 in the army, and due to lack of mortal wounds available it makes these guys super important.

    MVP of the Free Peoples?
    Freeguild Guard  - Swordsmen rock. Combined with the current Indomitable, big units of Swordsmen are just super hard to lodge. I haven't had any experience with the others, but at a guess I'd say Halberdiers are probably alright as well. In general the Swordsmen see the most use because the damage in the army is more efficient coming from the other places, so it kinda edges out stuff like Halberdiers and Spearmen.
    Freeguild General, Handgunners, Crossbowmen - These guys are basically 'the thing' that makes Free Peoples semi competitive. Handgunners and Crossbowmen (assuming they're out of combat) basically double dip with the Freeguild Generals Hold the Line. Not only do you get the +1/+1, but the disadvantage of not moving is actually and advantage as these guys get to add +1 to hit or double tap. Combined with the Great Company rules of an additional shooting phase, the whole army really promotes using these guys to the most effectiveness.
    But I would also argue, it's one of the armies largest weaknesses as well. The best part of our army is basically the only part of the army that works at a top tier level, and it promotes such a static style of play (Commonly known as the "Free Peoples Gunline"). The issue is that being static is a huge disadvantage in AoS. Especially since we have almost no battalions, we can't dictate the pace of the game by deciding who goes first or second.
    A common occurence I've had when playing is I outdrop my opponents, but I'm given the first turn. This puts me in a super awkward position, do I move all my shooters up (losing my Crossbowmen double tap bonus) so I can get into a better position? or do I sit back and buff up, but then I'm not able to get myself onto objectives. The 2nd turn priority ends up being one of the biggest priority rolls in the game no matter what you do.
    In some ways, it's why recently I've been thinking that Crossbows may not actually be the way forwards. Because Crossbows basically have to be immobile to get their 2x shots, while Handgunners are able to move and still take advantage of their large unit size bonus (even if they're in combat as well!).
    Demigryphs, Outriders and Pistoliers - These guys just don't do their roles efficiently enough at the moment.  This doubles up with the fact our best synergy basically says "Stay still and get better!" and these guys are like "I want to run around a lot and make use of my high movement!". It's super sad to see Outriders and Pistoliers not get a price drop for AoS 2.0. Demigryphs I think just have the stigma attached that they used to be super good cavalry in prior editions, and now they rubber lance more often than not. I think at their new price point, if people can get over them and ignore their hitting, they might make useful mobile tanks.
    The Allegiance Abilities - The allegiance abilities in my opinion, are the biggest Free Peoples blessing and curse. It's a blessing because it's quite a strong ability for our shooting units. Ultimately, a free shooting phase where you know your stuff is going to be in range.
    However, I think it's the ultimate curse of the army as well. I would much rather that the Great Company rule was a warscroll battalion and we had another battle trait instead. The main reason is, it basically forces you to build your army in a static gunline way.
    The ability to charge as if it was the charge phase, just doesn't tend to be a very powerful ability in a game where players alternate activation of units in the combat phase. In prior editions, it was super useful to get a flank charge or have a chaff unit take the charge with your heavy hitter coming in swinging. It's just not as useful as an ability in Age of Sigmar in the same way that flank charging isn't necessarily as strong anymore either.
    So ultimately, the free shooting phase you can get, coupled with the efficiency of our shooting units and the hold the line ability promotes building a great company with a swordsmen frontline backed up by 2 shooting units. This basically promotes building the core of the army around at least a single great company. Which ultimately means a core portion of your army is encouraged to be immobile and a static gunline.
    And if you're not using the battle trait, there's not really much of a reason to be playing a Free Peoples allegiance over generic Order.

    Midway through the game... and the army has barely moved
    Just to finish up the summary of the army. One thing I will specifically say about the double company, and in particular my version is that I tend to have a weaker flank and a stronger flank. Double company encourages you to split your deployment into 2 because you want to keep your great company units nearby each other. What this means is if one flank crumbles, it tends to be hard to reclaim it because the army doesn't have enough mobility in it.
     
    The Future
    Now that AoS 2.0 is coming up, and some things have been leaked, here's some early thoughts on the army.
    I think sadly the army has only gotten weaker in AoS 2.0. None of the rule changes in particular benefit Free Peoples that much (or no more than any other army in the game). The army received some fairly minor points decreases on Demigryphs and Greatswords. To top it all off, the allegiance abilities are definitely nerfed in trying to prevent tailing back units to gain benefits (Something I certainly agree with, but makes them harder to use for sure).
     
    Overall, does the future look bleak? I don't think it really looks any different than before, a middle table army that dreams of glory days of a united Empire.
    I would love to see (Although, that ship has sailed in GHB2018 at least) a way to combine Collegiate Arcane and Ironweld Arsenal beyond the 400 points of allies while still keeping the Free Peoples allegiance abilities. I think a bit part of the reason why the army 'builds itself' currently is that the army basically boils down to a few different ways to do the same thing (output a bunch of low rend attacks). So of course, you choose the best tool for the job. 
    If there were more options available (Builds a more magic centric human army, build a more artillery focussed army, build a classic board and sword army, build a mobile army with stormcast allies) I think the army would certainly feel a lot fresher and interesting to collect.
  3. someone2040
    Hi all,
    Something I felt was really lacking in the Generals Handbook allegiances is a lack of spell lores or prayer lores. I think this is a really important part of making spellcasters interesting in the current state of Age of Sigmar. Some casters just don't have interesting spells on their profiles, or ones that are so niche that they basically only count as having Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt. I think that's an issue, because for some factions (Such as the Darkling Covens), casting is a core part of their identity. Yet in the entire Darkling Covens range, they only have 2 spells because they only have 2 unique casters. To make matters worse, those are your only Heroes in the Darkling Covens itself and even amongst their allies.
    I guess what I'm trying to illustrate is, the Darkling Covens allegiance would be much more interesting if they had a spell lore as well, making it more enjoyable to create your own coven of Sorceress' when building an army of that allegiance.
     
    Darkling Covens are certainly on their way, but today I delve into their Highborn cousins, the Eldritch Council. The Eldritch Council did not get any allegiance abilities under the Generals Handbook 2017, but I decided not to restrict my scope of work to just those with allegiances. They are an interesting faction, because just like the Covens, all their heroes are spellcasters and it's a core part of the factions identity in the Age of Sigmar. 

    When designing this spell lore, I went back to the root of High Elf magic - the Lore of High Magic. In this lore historically, because the High Elves are the more noble and defensive of the Elves it has been a more defensive and utility based lore. Sure there have been iconic spells like Flames of the Phoenix, now part of the Dragon Mage warscroll, but iconic spells like Walk Between Worlds and Drain Magic were defense and utlity orientated.
    So that's what I mainly stuck to when building this spell lore, there are a lot of defensive and utility orientated spells in the lore, and not much on the aggressive side. In fact, the only aggressive spell in the list I took from an old Warmaster spell, Storm of Stone.
     
    Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the Lore of Elemental magic, and if you use it in your games, let me know how it feels! 
    Download Link: LoreOfElementalMagicV1.pdf
  4. someone2040
    Hi guys,
    3 months into the year, and kinda failing at my attempts to make more blog posts. So I've decided to perhaps, focus my efforts on a new blog.
    I'm kinda passionate about a lot of the older races, and what can be done to make them more playable in the Age of Sigmar. Games Workshop gives plenty of love of course for those armies that have battletomes and the like, but there's a lot of armies out there that don't get that attention.
    So that's where I come in! I dabble a bit in creating my own rules, especially when bored at work or something (Shhhhh). I've posted some stuff in the past around the place, but I feel a blog is a good spot to write down my I guess 'designer thoughts' behind the custom rules I've made.
     
    To get started, I thought I'd do a nice an easy one, extra terrain rules!
    MysteriousLandscapes.pdf
    I made these rules a while back (and by made, I basically just borrowed terrain rules common across existing types). I feel that in Age of Sigmar, there's something missing with terrain. 
    Lots of people complain about the shooting phase and how oppressive it can be (Thanks Skyfires!), and I think part of that is that the core rules only really work of Area terrain. If you've got a building, or some kind of defensible obstacles on the field, well... if they can see you, they can shoot you and without any penalties either!
    And that's kinda lame! If I'm behind a wall, I should be able to use that wall for defense.
    Now this is where you go "Well, there are rules for Walls, go pull out that warscroll and use them" and my answer to that is "I shouldn't have to". The warscroll approach is great for units, but I feel it's not so great for Terrain. It's a struggle remembering your own warscrolls, what your enemies does, all the fancy allegiance abilities, and all that stuff, without having to remember 10~ additional warscrolls for the terrain on the battlefield at the time.
    Additionally, Games Workshop do not produce terrain warscrolls for terrain they haven't produce(d). A lot of clubs have their own custom selection of scenery they've built up over the years, ranging from forests, to swamps, to various building and more. What do I do if I have a swamp? Well, luckily the default rules are probably good enough, but then it feels like you're not interacting with the board in a more meaningful manner.
     
    So that's where the Mysterious Landscapes document I've tried to create comes in. You can basically boil down terrain to 4 types, area terrain, buildings, defensible terrain and rough terrain. Some pieces like Realmgates and the like I categorize as other, and you just use the regular terrain rules as best as you can. It's a 1 page document that details all the rules of the above as well as the Mysterious Terrain rules from the Age of Sigmar core rules. 
    The intent was, that it can be difficult to remember all the custom rules for the 10 or so different terrain pieces on the board, but if you just need to remember 1 page of details, then it's not quite so daunting. Being a 1 pager, it's easy to print off and have available for you in game.
     
    So that's the hope, let me know what you guys think, and hopefully more blog posts to follow on more rules I'm developing.
  5. someone2040
    Hey guys,
    Attended our last tournament at Southern Wargamers for the year. This was the first tournament since the Generals Handbook 2017 has dropped, and I was looking to try out my Free Peoples. Since I am 99% sure I'm going to be attending Cancon next year (Australia's largest tournament), I made some last minute changes to my list so that it was more similar to what I think my final form will be. This meant assembling, undercoating and getting a base coat on 13 more miniatures one day before the tournament!
    Ultimately, my list for the tournament looked like this:
    Freeguild General - Sigmarite Weapon, Shield, Stately War Banner - General - Indomitable
    Freeguild General on Griffon - Greathammer and Shield, Armour of Meteoric Iron
    Gunmaster
    20x Freeguild Guard
    30x Freeguild Crossbowmen
    10x Freeguild Handgunners
    20x Freeguild Guard
    10x Freeguild Handgunners
    10x Freeguild Greatswords
    5x Freeguild Pistoliers
    3x Demigryph Knights
    Hellblaster Volley Gun
    Cannon
    So the changeup from my previous lists are the addition of 20 Freeguild Guard, a Gunmaster and Hellblaster, changing the 20 Handgunners into 2 lots of 10, and dropping a Freeguild General and a Cannon. This allows for another tanky unit, which also gets the benefits of a great company. It means I can afford to be more aggressive with one if need be.
    We did not know the scenarios before the tournament, they were rolled for each round.
    Game 1 - Sylvaneth - Scorched Earth
    I started the tournament up against a Sylvaneth list. He had the extremely tanky Treelord Ancient, Branchwych, 30x Dryads, 2x5 Tree Revenants, 2x3 Kurnoth Hunters with bow and 6x Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes and a Household battalion. The game started fairly well, he managed to teleport his Ancient and Treelord forwards but the Ancient failed the charge. The Treelord went in and was quickly felled by my shooting.

    The big trees teleport close to the Free Peoples lines
    Sadly, this was followed up with a lot of whiffing on my left flank. The cannon failed to dent the Treelord, the Freeguild General on Griffon went into him and whiffed completely. Something he would continue to do in the next few combat phases. Ultimately, the game was decided when I failed to keep someone on my centre objective. My opponent managed to summon more Wyldwoods near the board edge, which allowed his Scythe Hunters to teleport in as well as the Tree-Revenants. Because of this, I started migrating some of my units towards that section to hopefully give some relief and stall them out one turn before burning my objective. I moved my unit off, then moved my Freeguild General off as well. 
    So it basically came down to losing by 1 point later on. He left his right objective really weak as the Tree-Revenants disappeared to provide additional support (and ultimately burn my left objective). My army eventually made it across the board, and stole his objective for 1 turn, and then burnt it in the 4th turn. We were only going to get 4 turns in the game, and sadly I didn't manage to roll high enough to draw on the objective points.
    Ultimately my Griffon also fell, after whiffing for like 3 combat phases straight, he got a miracle phase where he dealy like 10 wounds all at once, but the rest of the army failed to finish off the Ancient over 2 turns.
    So a bit disappointing start to the tournament. Definitely a learning experience, and I still haven't quite worked out how I'm going to play Scorched Earth. I think one poor thing I did was put all my fast stuff on one flank. It meant when that flank fell into trouble, I didn't have anything mobile to quickly scoot over and help.
    Major Loss
     
    Game 2 - Death with Nagash - Duality Of Death
    This game was against a majority Deathrattle army led by Nagash. He had a 40 Skeleton unit, 2x20 Skeletons, 20 Grave Guard, Nagash, a Necromancer and 2x Wight King (1 with banner).
    I felt I had the advantage in this matchup as my Griffon can take the objective turn 1. Especially if I kept him away from Nagash who could potentially one-shot him. Since I had more drops, this didn't end up being too much trouble.

    The Free Peoples line prepare for battle
    As it so happened, the game was a bit of a non event. He got the first turn and moved up as fast as he could. Sadly for him, his Wight King was not close enough to the objective so would not be scoring turn 1. In my follow up turn, my Griffon General took the objective closest to him. The rest of the line moved up, and I scored the first point of the game.
    Immediately after, I got the double turn which basically secured the game. The line moved further up, and started shooting the enemy units. The Demigryphs managed to get a charge into his Wight King and Skeletons near his objective. This ultimately decided the game, as the Demigryph's for the first time managed to do 2 things! The first was actually kill the Wight King in a single go, that was pretty amazing and not expected (Only just I might add), and that was only with 2 of them too boot! The third one attacked the Skeleton unit (Which had Danse Macabre on them) and killed 3 Skeletons which prevented them getting the +1 attack.
    In his turn, there was not enough room for Nagash to get close enough to the objective. The army slowly moved around, but basically, the Death just couldn't get to objectives fast enough.

    Nagash wipes out the Demigryphs and moves onto the Swordsmen
    The rest of the game the Death basically marched towards their deaths. I had moved up far enough that my Crossbows and Handguns were in range, and I could just hold the line with them now. So the Skeletons just marched and marched, but got shot and shot. Nagash did wade through a chunk of the army after he knew he couldn't catch up, but that was game as he couldn't catch me after 3 turns of scoring to his zero.
    Major Victory
     
    Game 3 - Order - Knife to the Heart
    The last game was against a mixed Order army. Mainly Free Peoples with a few random extras. His list was composed of a Freeguild General with Stately War Banner, Freeguild General on Griffon, Bretonnian Lord, 30x Freeguild Guard with Halberds, 2x10 Freeguild Handgunners, 20x Freeguild Greatswords, 5x Freeguild Outriders, 5x Grail Knights, Steam Tank, Hellstorm Rocket Battery.
    The game started off a bit concerningly. His Hellstorm took out my cannon crew, his Griffon took out the Pistoliers and his Brettonian Lord took down the Demigryph Knights. In retaliation
    my shooting managed to make a huge dent in his Freeguild General on Griffon and mine took out his Outriders. I then won the initiative roll, and my Freeguild General went after his backline which was extremely fragile. I took out his Griffon, and did a few wounds to the Steam Tank. I initially thought I might be able to auto-win by taking on the Handgunners, but reading that it only came into effect from turn 1, I went after the Hellstorm instead and finished it off.
    At this point, my opponent knew he was in trouble with a rampaging Griffon in his backline and his own Griffon downed. He kinda threw caution to the wind, and charged everything into the line which ultimately did not go well for him.

    Now you see a Steam Tank... soon you won't...
    He quickly doubled back his Freeguild Guard (Slowed down by the deadly terrain), while his Greatswords engaged my Freeguild Guard. They both slowly whittled each other down, while my other Freeguild Guard and Crossbows gave chase across the board to the enemy objective. At the end of the day, the Freeguild General on Griffon managed to kill all 30 Freeguild Guard, before being joined by the infantry to claim the objective on turn 5. The long slog had paid off, and I had tabled my opponent apart from his Freeguild General. 
    I do feel sad for my opponent. I outranged his army, so ultimately he had to engage me. And engaging a line of Freeguild Guard which has extra shooting phases is just nasty. Even if he had won the initiative for turn 2, I think the only difference would've been a Minor rather than a major.
    Major Victory
    So that was it for the day, I managed to come in fourth place out of 12 players. I'm happy with the result, but feel that I probably got off a bit easy on my matchups after losing the first game. The 2nd game was almost an automatic win. I think if I had played against Stormcast or Tzeentch I would've been in a bit of trouble.
    Overall I like how the army played, but definitely need to get a bit more prepared for moving and having my army out and ready to go. I was comfortable with the amount of models I was moving around (even if I was sloppy sometimes), but the army setup in round 1 took a lot of time (and is the only game we didn't finish).
    That being said, I am considering changes. Two things I'm currently considering are getting more heroes. The current thought is to swap out the Gunmaster + Hellblaster Volley gun for a Warrior Priest and a Battlemage. The cannon could be a stronger piece also, but it's easy to transport (Which will be important going interstate).
    Hopefully I get more games done in the next 2 months, as I'm going to need a lot of practice for Cancon.
  6. someone2040
    So it's been a month since the Generals Handbook 2017 came out. I gave an initial battle report in my last blog entry, and now on the eve of my 3 week holiday, I figure now is as good a time as any to write down some further thoughts.
    Since my initial battle, I've managed to get in another 3 games. 2 of them were using the Matched Play scenarios, while the other one used the Open War cards. 
    I've been using the following Free Peoples list during these outings:
     
    Game 1 - Sylvaneth - Battle for the Pass
    The first of the 3 games was Battle for the Pass vs Sylvaneth. The Sylvaneth player dumped a Wyldwood on what would ultimately be my objective , and being an army with battalions outdropped my army easily (Either way he would've out dropped me).

    Deployment finished
    Overall this game went pretty smoothly for me, as my opponent deployed pretty far back (Given we needed to reach objectives in the mid-field). His Tree-Revenants went after my cannon, but bounced off the crew and were shot down by the cannon in return (Due to being locked in combat, couldn't move into range of something better). By the end of my turn 1, I already had control of both side objectives and was ahead on points.

    The Freeguild Guard race up to get control of the objective, while on the far side the Pistoliers do the same
    Ultimately it took too long for my opponent to get up to the side objectives. I had left a Gryph Hound and Greatswords back to prevent my opponent teleporting onto the Wyldwoods on my side of the board, so the Sylvaneth had no easy way to catch up on points. Eventually Durthu did get into the fight, smashed aside the Freeguild Guard, Demigryphs and Handgunners before being bought down.

    Durthu about to smash the Demigryphs, but on the far side the Griffon has dispatched of the Scythe Hunters
    The counter-attack was ultimately far too late. Durthu was felled by combined firepower, while the Ancient did finally control the objective the Freeguild General on Griffon had managed to demolish the rest of the army and even stole control of the enemy objective on the last turn. While the Freeguilds took heavy losses towards the end of the game, it was a resounding victory overall.

    The Ancient takes the side objective, but in the background the Griffon is busy gobbling down a Branchwych
    Game 2 - Wanderers - Open War
    The second game (played the same day) was against a Wanderers army. The Open War cards I remember was that we had diagonal deployment, the objective was to kill as many enemy models as possible (doubling that number if you slew the enemy general). I believe the twist may have been one army has to finish deployment first, and gets first turn unless a 1 is rolled. My opponent got choice of board edge, and got a lot of mystical terrain. Coupled with the Wanderers ability to teleport around at will, this made the game quite difficult.

    Deployment finished, the Wanderers appear to be on one side...
    My opponent got the first turn, rolled a bunch on his mystical terrain, and then both units of Glade Guard and the Nomad Prince teleported towards my main army, and took off a bunch of my Freeguild Crossbowmen. Wild Riders appeared in the backline to go after the Cannons, but thankfully failed their charge. I think both spells failed on the Eternal Guard.
    In my turn, all I could do is move forwards to get into range. I think the Handgunners went after one of the Waywatchers (may not have bee in range of the Glade Guard), while the Crossbowmen took some shots at some of the Glade Guard. Both Cannons I believe fired at the Eternal Guard and took some off. In combat, the Griffon ate one of the Waywatchers, while the Demigryph Knights killed 2 of the Wild Riders.

    Crossbowmen heavily depleted, but initiative could swing the game
    The rest of the game is pretty hazy. The Wild Riders basically spent most of the game going after the Cannons, failing charges, and all that. The Greatswords ultimately finished them off, but got lost in the sea of dead models. The Eternal Guard were so heavily depleted by the initial attack by the Griffon and Cannons they were basically out of the game for the rest of the battle. I believe the Nomad Prince and at least one unit of the Glade Guard (the one that hadn't taken casualties) teleported back over to take some shots at the Griffon. The Griffon had a chance to get into the Glade Guard and Prince, but ultimately failed to kill the Spellweaver in one turn so didn't have the opportunity to charge them.

    The Freeguild General on Griffon failed to take out the Spellweaver, so was locked in combat for another turn
    Ultimately, a lot of mistakes cost me the game, but getting reckless with my General was the worst one. The game was pretty even, but I decided to use him and  my Demigryph Knights to go after the enemy when they teleported back over to my side of the battle. This ultimately cost me the battle as the General was slain my a Glade Guard model, and even with the combined might of all my shooting, I couldn't take out the enemy General in return (The -1 to hit was pretty tough). My General on Griffon was eventually laid low by reflected mortal wounds off the Eternal Guard also (If it seriously mattered, I would not have done this but I knew it didn't matter by that time).
    Game 3 - Sylvaneth - Knife to the Heart
    Last game I've played (and the last for a while :() was once again against a Sylvaneth army. We originally rolled up Scorched Earth, but decided to re-roll it since we had both already played that scenario. I won the roll off for deciding territory, and decided that I would take the side with the Arcane and Damned terrain, letting my opponent having the Mystical and Deadly. He had placed a Wyldwood base somewhat close to my deployment area pre-game, and I knew that he would be looking to alpha strike due to his Ancient having the Moonstone of Hidden Ways.

    Deployment finished, Durthu, 2x3 Kurnoth Hunters, 10x Spite Revenants all waiting to come out from the Wyldwoods
    Right from this turn 1, he summoned a new wyldwood with the Branchwych, buffer up the Treelord Ancient, and then teleported everything. The Ancient and Tree Revenants appeared behind my lines (With the Revenants only just being outside 10" from the Gryph Hound). The stuff coming out of the Wyldwoods  appeared from the front. Unfortunately for the Sylvaneth though, the Ancient missed with his ranged attack, Durthu wasn't in range of the Handgunners. The Treelord and one unit of the Hunters managed to get in a charge, with the Hunters taking a lot of firepower from the Great Company to lose a Hunter before even fighting. A fairly lacklustre round of combat saw the Ancient only being able to kill a single Pistolier, while the Hunters killed some of the Freeguild Guard (including a few running due to battleshock), another Hunter was bought low.

    The Freeguild Forces get off quite easily given the army of Trees bearing down on them
    In return, the Free Peoples line held and blew the Ancient out of the game. The Handgunners even got to split their fire between the Ancient and the Tree Revenants with more fleeing due to battleshock. A devestating turn of events, even Durthu took a wound from the cannons.

    A good portion of the army gone already
    Ultimately there's not a huge amount more to talk about in this game. The Greatswords were killed by Durthu and the Tree Revenants, but the combined firepower of the Free Peoples was too much. One of the cannons even managed to roll 2 sixes for damage against Durthu when he had a single wound remaining! (If only it was the first turn!). The Freeguild General on Griffon got into the backline and deleted all the Dryads in a single turn, and that was about it.
    Thoughts
    So those are summaries of the games I've played so far. I think it's important to note, that it has only been a month, and we don't exactly play every week, so people are still trying things out. My opponent in the last game wanted to see how the Moonstone worked, and I think alpha striking his Treelord turn 1 was not exactly the best game plan. But here are some thoughts I have
    Freeguild General on Griffon
    This guy has done work for me every game. Sometimes he whiffs a round though, but it's going to happen from time to time of course. He is amazingly tough as well, but I haven't come up against many armies with mortal wounds yet.
    20x Handgunners
    At some point I think I'm going to have to either make another 10 of these guys, or build up command for another unit. I've only gotten away with them being in 20's due to either my opponents not understanding their strength, or getting extremely lucky in my last game.
    Gryph Hound
    I'm still not sure I actually like this guy or not. His warning cry abilitiy has never gone off, even though I've played 3 armies which actually have 'teleporters'. My opponents will just make sure to put them further than 10" away. I guess in a way, this is fine, as it gives me a pretty critical turn to retaliate. Think I'm going to have to play around a bit more with him, my army is 1960 points so if I did drop the hound, that's another 10 Freeguild Guard I could fit in.
    Demigryph Knights
    They just... never seem to do damage. They're alright with tankiness, but without any buffs (The only one I can give being Hold the Line), they just can't deal any damage. Dunno, my gut feeling is that ultimately they'll be cut from the list unless I'm making a Freeguild Regiment. I feel I'd rather the utility of something like Pistoliers or Outriders, but for now, being painted they'll be sticking around. Maybe the Cavalry Halberds will be better? Perhaps I just have this thought of how Lances should work (Go in and blitz away half a unit) and they're just never going to be able to do that.
    That's about it for now. Obviously not a huge amount of experience yet, but when I'm back from my holiday, there'll be our first GHB 2017 tournament two weeks later. Should be a good work out for the Free Peoples (But getting everything painted in time is going to be trouble!).
  7. someone2040
    So originally the group had organised this day to play Skirmish or Path to Glory, that went straight out the window as soon as people heard that the GHB 2017 was dropping on the Saturday. Instead, the day was filled with much fun getting in a game of the new edition. For me, I'd be bringing out my Free Peoples, a force I've been building up on the side the past year or so. I also bought some Beastmen along from my 8th days, that with a few extra models translated basically into a 2000 point force also, but they stayed in the case today.
    For my first outing, this was the list I was bringing
    Freeguild General - General - Indomitable (Add 1 to save rolls within 6" if didn't charge)
    Freeguild General with Stately War Banner
    Freeguild General on Griffon - Armour of Meteoric Iron
    20x Freeguild Guard
    30x Freeguild  Crossbowmen
    20x Freeguild Handgunners
    10x Freeguild Greatwords
    3x Demigryph Knights
    5x Freeguild Pistoliers
    2x Cannon
    1x Gryph Hound
    Which rounded the force out to 1960 points. Some of the models were 'on loan' from my older warhammer armies, potentially to be re-based in future. Note that I forgot to pack another 10 Freeguild Guard, so in this game the Freeguild Archer models are subbing in for Guardsmen.
    My opponent was packing a mixed Destruction list based on his GHB1 list. His list looked something like
    Ogor Tyrant
    Moonclan Warboss with Great Cave Squig
    Moonclan Grot Shaman
    Frostlord on Stonehorn
    6x Ogors
    20x Moonclan Grots with Spears
    20x Moonclan Grots with Bows
    3x Fanatics
    6x Ironguts
    Gargant
    Everyone else at the club was playing Scorched Earth, and what would you know it, we rolled it up also. Definitely happy enough with that, since it's the only scenario in the new book that's completely new. After setup was complete, the board looked a little bit like this:

    The armies prepped and ready for war
    My opponent got the first turn due to finishing deployment first, and got ready to roll with his new allegiance abilities. The stone horn revved up, and sauntered forwards 6" in the hero phase while the Ogor Tyrant was bolstered by the Moonclan Shaman with a Mystic Shield. The army for the most part ran forwards, eager to engage the enemy.
    Of course, I knew I had made a mistake as soon as the Frostlord surged forwards. The Frostlord managed to successfully charge the Greatswords, wiping them out before they could retaliate, and razed my side objective for an early lead. He rolled a 2, so was up to 5 points at the end of his first turn! A large hill to climb.
    In my turn, the Freeguild great company swerved off to the side. The Freeguild Guard were bolstered with Inspiring Presence and quickly marched to block a potential charge against the gunline from the Stonehorn. On the right flank (unseen in most pictures!), the Pistoliers stayed on the objective but moved into shooting range of the Gargant whom had surged up the field. The Freeguild General on Griffon kicked his mount forwards, eager to engage the Gargant.
    In the shooting phase, the cannons took a toll on the Tyrant, dealing 5 wounds but failing to take him out. The Handgunners had some of their unit still in range, but only managed to take 1 wound from the Stonehorn .
    In the combat phase, the General on Griffon flew over the Gargant to attack it from behind, felling the towering gargant which fell to empty ground.

    The Freeguild units re-organise their battleline to take on the oncoming threat
    My opponent then won the initiative, and chose to go first. The Tyrant bellowed at the Ogors nearby, urging them forwards. The Grot Shaman was a bit too cautious though, and wasn't particularly feeling in the mushroomy mood, and failed to cast mystic shield. In the backline, the Frostlord decided that the Cannons were tastier treats, heading around the back to take out the Free Peoples artillery. The Ogors smashed into the Freeguild line, but not before being peppered with shots from both the Handgunners and Crossbowmen, downing two Ogors before they even made it into the battle. The Stonehorn smashed into the cannons, dealing 3 wounds with it's charge to one of the cannons.

    The Ogors make it into the Freeguild, but without the backup of their Tyrant
    As it so happened, the Frostlord beat both the Crews to death but the cannons were left around. The Ogors were unable to punch through the Freeguild Guard, whom took down another Ogor in retaliation. Still, the points were counting up, the Destruction were now up to 8 points and taking a convincing lead.
    The Freeguild General sent the command, it was time to show these beasts what disciplines and training was worth. He swiftly sent the order to the Guard, Crossbowmen and Handgunners to hold the line. The Griffon after finishing off it's meal, swooped on after the Grot Archers on the far flank while the Demigryphs swept up the hill, looking to take on the Grot Shaman if the Tyrant was felled.
    In the shooting phase, huge volleys of shot and bolt were shot around. The handgunners hammered the Stonehorn, taking out 6 wounds, while the Crossbowmen split fire between the Tyrant and the Stonehorn. The Tyrant was felled, but the Stonehorn was left on 3 wounds remaining. Fearing for his life, the Grot Shaman ordered the Grots to let loose the Fanatics, which crazily swung into the Demigryphs.
    In the combat phase, the Stonehorn finished off the cannon that was in range. The Griffon swept into the Grot Archers, but his aim this time wasn't convincing, only managing to kill a few while sending more running due to the Griffons bloodroar. The Fanatics managed to kill a noble Demigryph Knight before being savagely pecked to death. The Ogors still couldn't get through the Freeguild guardsmen, their blows being parried and blocked while the Guard  dealt a few more wounds to the Ogors. Still, the Free Peoples were still far behind, with only 4 points to Destructions 8.
    What happened next, was that the Free Peoples won the initiative roll. However, it looked like it might be better off to let the enemy take the turn, their backup was still far off in the Ironguts, and the Stonehorn and Ogors both on their last legs. So the Destruction got to go, with the Ironguts deciding to stay in the backline. Unforeseen was the cunning Grots having the foresight to retreat from combat with the Griffon, keeping the objective in their favour. The Stonehorn tried to smash it's way through the lines again, but was shot down by the Freeguild Handgunners stand and shoot. Additionally, the Crossbowmen of the Great Company provided supporting fire to the Freeguild Guard, shooting it's way through the Ogors who were bought down in a hail of Crossbow bolts before they could even land a blow against the Freeguild Guard.
    The Ogors in the Freeguild backline were finally cleared up at the loss of the Greatswords and Ironweld Arsenal, but the points were racking up, they had now accumulated 11 points to the Freeguilds 4.
    Now was the time for the Freeguild to take the offensive to the enemy. We would have to make sure we claimed the enemy objectives in this turn, to stall their own resources while catching up in our own. The entire Freeguild company surged up the board, with the noble Gryph Hound been relegated to supply duty keeping the middle objective. The Demigryph's swung around to the side, they would need to keep the objective on the far flank safe in future turns.
    In the combat phase, the Griffon managed to wipe out the far objective, finally the Freeguild had taken superior control of the battle. The points now were 7 to 11 in favour of Destruction, could they keep their lead?

    The army marches forwards while the Demigryph's make their detour towards the far objective
    Destruction won the roll off this time, and were more than happy to play on the defensive. Cautious of the blasting the Ogors had received earlier, and unsure where the Freeguild army was heading, the Ironguts backed off. If the Handgunners wanted to shoot them, they would have to work for it and the points were still racking up. the Destruction force now had accumulated 13 points, while the Free Peoples were only on 7.
    Still, the Free Peoples marched on. Marching the forces up and over the hill. The Crossbowmen at the doubled, their firepower would be needed in the final turn. The Handgunners moved up, blasting away at the Ironguts but not managing to get much damage through. The Demigryphs in the meantime had taken the far objective, while the Freeguild General on Griffon had swooped around to harass the Grots from the rear.
    The Freeguild Guard and Griffon both made their way onto the Grots holding onto the objective. The Guard managed to kill a few, while the Griffon added to the count, but at the end of the day, many Grots fled but 3 remained, crucially keeping the objective for the Destruction forces. The Free Peoples were catching up, now 10 points to 13, but were they catching up fast enough?

    The Grots died well, and still held the objective at the end of the fourth battle round
    The initiative roll would be crucial, if the Free Peoples held the initiative they would surely take the game, razing the objectives, but if the Destruction won they could still accumulate points. As it so happened, Destruction won the roll off and the Ironguts surged forwards. In a show of pure bestial fury, they smashed into the Freeguild Guard and smashed them into the ground, the Grots still held the objective and the Destruction ended with 15 points. 
    In the final turn of the game, all focus was on the 3 Grots. If the Free Peoples could kill those Grots, they would hold 2 of the enemy objectives and be able to raze them for bonus points, if not, the Destruction would run away with the victory. The General ordered the Handgunners to stand fast, while the Crossbowmen mounted the hill. The Grots however, were short and sneaky, hiding behind the much larger Ironguts. The Crossbowmen could only slay a single Grot, while the Generals pistol failed to wound. Would the Grots win the day? The Handgunners plonked away at the Ironguts, dealing massive damage laying 3 of them out.
    As it so happened though, both the Freeguild General and General on Griffon managed to slam into the Grots. The Freeguild General, leading his forces, got the job done, slaying the 2 Grots.
    Finally it would come down to how much bonus supply could be gathered from the Destruction objectives. The dice were rolled, and in total the D3's came up as 3 and 1, meaning the Free Peoples would get a total of 6 points, bringing them up to 16 points to Destruction's 15.
    Victory to the Free Peoples

    The end of the game, the Free Peoples had snatched the victory at the final hour
    Wow, what an amazing first game. It was excitingly close. Losing one of my side objectives first turn was devestating, as it put me on the back foot from the start in terms of victory points. Still, I managed to claw it back right at the end of the game. 
    Definitely some things I bought away from this game is that with my Great Company, and even having only 2 home objectives, I felt it would've been difficult to manage both keeping my own objectives while engaging the enemy. I badly misplaced my Gryph-Hound (Which was essentially useless in this matchup), and should've kept him on my far objective, freeing up the Pistoliers to go do some work.
    I also think it was a mistake to have all my fast stuff on one flank (Especially given the point I just mentioned). My opponent held one of his objectives with just his single Grot Warboss, a faster unit on that flank could've given my opponent more grief, potentially muddling up his battleplan even more.
    Putting both my cannons close by as well was also a huge mistake. I knew there was definitely the possibility of him going around the back rather than smashing into my lines with the Frostlord, and should've separated the cannons to stop them both going down in one shot from the Frostlord.
    I also didn't split my fire with the Crossbowmen efficiently enough at one stage during the game. I probably could've killed both the Frostlord and Tyrant with the Crossbowmen, but instead focussed more fire on the Tyrant which overkilled him, while the Stonehorn was left on 3 wounds. It didn't make a difference in the end, but something to keep in mind in future.
     
    Overall though, great game to kick off GHB 2017 with. Looking forward to getting more games done in future!
  8. someone2040
    So today I'm going to write about aesthetics and why the sub-faction break down was both a good and a bad thing for Age of Sigmar.
     
    Games Workshop at the beginning (and still is) in a tough spot when they decided to reboot the Warhammer Fantasy game. They wanted to create a world, where you could focus on a particular faction, or branch out and collect whatever you want. They wanted to create worlds where they could introduce new factions into the game, and wouldn't have to launch a huge product range at the same time just to put them up to par with the factions that had been out for 20 years. 
    So what did Games Workshop do? They took each significant idea, each aesethetic they had created for the old world Warhammer races, and created a faction out of it. No longer was there a combined Empire, but there were the Freeguilds, the militaristic might of the humans. There was the Devoted of Sigmar, those with unflinching faith in Sigmar. The Ironweld Arsenal, a combination of both Human and Duardin engineering. And there was the Collegiate Arcane, those Humans who spent their life dedicated to learning the ways of magic. No longer one combined human force, but a diverse range of Humans following their own ideals and goals. And in future, if Games Workshop wants to introduce a new faction of Humans, lets say some techno-wizards from Chamon, or Barbarians from Ghur, they can do so. Because they're not trying to fit in those factions with the existing Empire, they're just trying to fit another smaller faction into a part of the larger world.

    The Free Guilds aren't the core of the Humans now, they are now their own faction amongst many Humans
    A lot of people complain about how the Aelf factions turned out. Instead of the cohesive and larger factions from yesteryear, they've been split into a dozen tiny factions. For many, a hero and a few units if they're lucky. But I would actually argue, the bigger sin isn't that they were split up, but how they were split up. There's a big difference between creating a world, and transitioning an existing world. Unfortunately Games Workshop don't have a blank slate to work from, they have an existing model range that they still want to make money off of, but they need to transition those ranges into the new realms.
    And this is where the Aelves come in. I'll tackle the High and Dark Elves separately. For the most part, the Wood Elves transitioned over pretty easily, the Aelf side stayed as Wanderers, while the Tree folks went into the Sylvaneth. A good and easy divide between the two different aesthetics the old army shared.
    Let's tackle the High Elves first. They were actually split fine for the most part. Yep, you're gonna yell at me. You're going to say stuff like "But they've got these tiny little micro-factions, how am I supposed to build an army out of one of those!?". And the answer is, you shouldn't, not yet. You see, the High Elves actually had some pretty distinct but shared aesthetics within their armies. This largely came from Games Workshop promoting differences in how the different units looked due to coming from different regions of Ulthuan. Dragon Princes, don't look that similar to Swordmasters who again don't look that similar to White Lions. Sure, they're all Aelves, they all have tall helms, and they all wear scale mail. But there are notable differences also. Dragon Princes wear Dragon helms and their armour is embossed with dragons all over the place, White Lions wear lion cloaks draped over their bodies, and have shorter scale to allow them to move around more easily. Swordmasters are largely the more boring of the lot, as they just have plumes and large swords. But you see what I mean, differences in aesthetics.

    Similar though they may be, they are very clearly different
    So now we get back to, not yet. Games Workshop have sadly been lacking on the follow through. They can't magically bring out new models for everyone, but other than the initial 'promise' of expanding these factions, they haven't acted on it yet. So we have these sub-factions like the Order Draconis, Eldritch Council and Lion Rangers that have the glimmer of that gem in the rough. Will they turn into diamonds? I certainly hope so.
    So where have the High Elves gone wrong if the split was actually good for them? There are two things I would like to point out, one minor and one a bigger disaster.
    The first minor one, is the Dragon Noble (and slightly the Dragonlord). The Dragon Noble kit has the issue in that it was supposed to represent a High Elf Prince originally, one that could've been from one of Ulthuans many realms. So while there's some Dragon Iconography in the kit, there's plenty that's not. I mean, there's a Phoenix Banner in there, what do Phoenixe's have to do with Dragons? Much better in the apt named Phoenix Temple faction huh? And that's a problem when transferring these kits across, they don't mesh seamlessly. You've got Dragonlords riding around shooting bows, just because they're an option in the kit. 
    The second one is more of a tragedy, as there are lots of good models in the faction individually. I'm talking about the Swifthawk Agents. This faction is essentially a mish mash of everything else that they wanted to support in the game. You've got the Skycutter, cool model, makes sense they want to keep it around. Spireguard should've been recut already so they're not relying on the Spire of Dawn set, but sure, makes aesethetic sense with the Skycutter and Skywarden. But the rest of the faction? How do Shadow Warriors fit in with flying Sky Chariots? They're running around in the shadows. Why weren't they put into the Shadowblades instead? A faction that far better fits their aesthetic. The Reavers don't fit in with either the Spireguard nor the Shadow Warriors, only back in action due to the Spire of Dawn set again. And then you've got the worst offender of the lot, the simply named 'Chariots'. The only reason this kit is still around is because they want to use it for the Lion Chariot set. So hey, Swifthawk Agents are swift... lets just cram it in there.

    There's no place here for you my friend, but marketing says we need to keep you around
    It's a shamble of a faction, that has a super cool premise but at the end of the day it's this complete mish mash of Aesthetics. The only reason I can surmise they created this faction was they wanted to keep the Skycutter Chariot kit around, so built a hodge podge faction around it instead. Better to have retired some of these models and left them in the legacy Highborn faction.
     
    So that's the High Elf side of things done, so now, the Dark Elf side. The Dark Elves I think are fine, but they were split just one too many ways. There are some good splits, and some bad, so let's tackle the factions.
    The Daughters of Khaine, an examplar of a faction. They have a hugely distinct aesthetic due in part to basically being bare women. The only criticism I have is why put the Warlocks in this faction? The Daughters aren't exactly known for using magic. I guess because they're part naked? No, I think they would've been better off in the Darkling Covens.
    Next up, Scourge Privateers! Another great example of taking the Aesthetic and going with it. A faction that only has models in it that make sense. If I were to add anything, is that the War Hydra should belong to this faction, and not the Order Draconis. The handlers have the sea dragon cloaks that the Scourge Privateers are known for, the War Hydra looks pretty aquatic also due to sharing the kit with the Kharibdyss, a better match in my opinion.

    Examples of good splits, two factions that have a core identity
    Those two factions are the diamonds in the rough. A few more characters, a new unit or two, and they'd be great factions to collect and have strong aesthetics and thematic appeals to the players.
    So then where did the Dark Elf split go wrong? I'd argue by separating out the Darkling Covens, Order Serpentis and Shadowblades. A big part of this is aesthetic similarity between the troops of these factions. You've already got in game links between the Serpentis and Darkling Covens as the Sorceress' get Black Dragons from them (A thing so rare that they needed to create Drakespawn, but Sorceress' can just waltz in and ask for one huh?), but the problem is that the Drakespawn Knights armour, and the Darkling Covens infantry just don't look all that different. Then you've got the Charioteers on the Drakespawn Chariot also. Not only that, but again, you've got Charioteers using ranged weapons in a faction that shouldn't really have any. 

    Not so different, these two
    So personally, I feel that the Order Serpentis should just be a part of the Darkling Covens. Perhaps they could've changed the fluff, so each Coven is led by a Sorceress and a Coven Master. The faction then, would be much more cohesive due to the factions shared Aesthetics, and a much more diverse faction also. You wouldn't have the problem where they have no leaders with command abilities, or the faction is made up purely of infantry. These two, bridge the gap and make the faction that much more interesting and balanced.
    Lastly I briefly mentioned the Shadowblades. I don't really see them ever becoming a fully fledged faction. I think they could've just been merged into the Darkling Covens also, especially since the Dark Riders are similar to the Darkshards also. I also mentioned the Warlocks, it's a lot easier to keep the aesthetics tightened up if boxed sets only belong to a single faction. It also means you can market that boxed set for that particular faction. I mean, Shadow Warriors/Sisters of the Watch have this issue where they're in two different factions, so do you market the box for Wanderers or Swifthawk Agents? A lot easier if they just belong to a single faction.
     
    So then, why didn't they keep Darkling Covens, Order Serpentis and Shadowblades as part of one larger faction? The only two reasons I can think of is they thought that there was enough identity for them to forge their own path, but also they didn't necessarily want to make it 'too' easy for a player to transition their older armies. Yep, money huh. If we look at all the other 8th edition forces, they all got split into multiple factions also. Especially the core parts of each army were split across multiple factions. Ogre Kingtoms were split between Gutbuster and Beastclaw Raiders. Orcs and Goblins by each different aspect of Grots of Orruk. If you had an 8th edition army, you could run your existing collection as a Grand Alliance army with less synergy. But it made you think, do I take one aspect of my army, and expand that instead to make a more synergistic army?
     
    Overall, I appreciate what Games Workshop are trying to do. I just think they need to follow through on some of their ideas. Show us it's not just a hindrance to us (Where before, we could run a synergistic Highborn or Exiles army). I want to play an army full of Dragon Armoured Aelf Warriors, but I don't want to play with just Dragon Blades and Dragonlords. I want to create a Phoenix Temple force, but I could use some mini-Phoenixes! I love the Scourge Privateers, so where's their flying skyship? Tons of great ideas that are just waiting for some awesome models and a battletome to go with.
     
    As a parting thought, I'll leave you with this. Did Deathrattle kill off the Tomb Kings? In some respects, you could definitely make the Tomb Kings work in Age of Sigmar (Likely as 2 separate factions). You can even get rid of a bunch of old kits like the older Skeletons. But was the fact that there'd then be two factions largely composed of Skeletons a problem for Games Workshop?
     
    Let me know what you think in the comments below.
  9. someone2040
    So last Sunday was Southern Impact, the last schedule tournament for the year in South Australia. After a good turn out at Gobbocon (13 players), I was pretty confident in getting more players to Southern Impact. That being said, I was a little worried when I found out that Warhammer 40k was dropping in June. Would the new edition mean people weren't interested in playing Age of Sigmar?
    Luckily enough, my doubts were unfounded, as we got our largest turn out in years! We had 15 players paid up before the event, with another 5 guys saying they were paying on the day. In the end, we got 18 players, as 2 of the guys who paid up earlier didn't show. Still, a massive turn out, and the biggest a Fantasy tournament has gotten in South Australia since 2014.
    Sadly, there was a little less variety this time. Majority of the field was Order(7) and Chaos(7), with 3 Death and only a single Destruction list to round out the players.

    The only Destruction army at the event lines up against the Stormcast in Game 2
    I also think that this time around the painting wasn't quite as good as Gobbocon. 8 out of 18 players didn't get the full painting score, while at Gobbocon, only 5 out of 14 players didn't get full. Definitely not terrible by any means, but certainly something that can be improved upon in future. A lot of people were definitely last minute painting their armies this time.

    Last minute painted Nighthaunts, but still pleasing on the table
    Finally, to close out the issues at the event. Sadly, one player was late and missed round 1. It was a bit of a nuisance, in the end I stepped in and gave the other player a game. At the time though, I ruled that because we played a game, the opponent could get a draw at minimum, or a better result if he earned it in game. It probably wasn't that fair on him, as in terms of 'results' he would've been better off not playing, rather than having a more rushed game.

    The Dark Master gets to come out for 1 game
    Also, it ended up that the player who was late was eligible for the Best Death General prize (As he won his final 2 games). I had to think for a while whether or not he should get the prize. On one hand, he didn't have a very good reason for being late. On the other hand, there was nothing in my pack that made him ineligible. In the end, I decided that since he had paid, did turn up and play in the end, that he was eligible for the prize. But I think in future event packs I may write some part in to make it so that you're ineligible for certain prizes if you don't play all your games. In a 2 day event, missing 1 game may be less of an issue, but in a 1 dayer where we're only playing 3 games, it's not really very good form.
     
    But now that we're past that ugliness, lets get back to the good stuff!
    It was awesome to see that we got a bunch of new players rock up to the event. Was good to see the Store Manager from GW Warradale show up again, and bring along some of his regulars. Also good to see some players bringing in their friends to the tournament. Just great to see that the scene is still growing, and hope that our next event gets even more players than this time.

    New player Jasper's Skaven faces off against the combined forces of Ogors and Moonclan
    It was also good to see, that while we moved up to 2000 points, there wasn't anything 'too filthy' running around. There were definitely some strong lists at the event, but nothing like what you hear about on the internet. I was a bit concerned what the power level was going to be like heading into the event, I know one guy was painting up a bunch of Vanguard Raptors for the Aetherstrike force. So it was good to see that there wasn't anything too over the top, as I think our scene definitely has a mixture of people who play more casually and those who take it more competitively.

    Ruining the opponents day? Not quite
    I also think that it was good to see that in round 3, there were 2 close games going on for the winner of the tournament. We had Tzeentch playing against Death, and Khorne playing against Nurgle for the position of number 1. 2 Awesome games going on, that were quite tactically tight. Even the Khorne vs Nurgle game ebbed and flowed, as it looked like early on Nurgle was just going to be steamrolled, then they came back, and then finally the Khorne army won the game.

    Khorne vs Nurgle, a battle between the Chaos Gods for the top of the tournament
    I think the only unfortunate thing was that the game between Tzeentch and Death had to be cut short at 3 turns. For a game that was deciding the fate of the tournament, it's always a shame to have to call things early. 
     
    Overall, the tournament ended up with the following:
    First Place : Blades of Khorne
    Second Place : Daemons of Tzeentch
    Third Place : Skaven
    Overall, very pleased with how the tournament went, and looking forward to getting to play more of my own games in future.
  10. someone2040
    So I was reading the July White Dwarf, and came across the section about the artwork of the Orruks. What struck me immediately, was how awesome the artwork was for the 6th edition Orcs and Goblins army book. You've got this big slab of Orc  standing there, not armoured to the bone, but with a decent amount of metal and furs and the like.
    And in some ways, it got me a little inspired about the Greenskinz. At some point during 8th edition I aquired a whole bunch of Orcs, intending to run big blocks of Big 'Uns, Arrow Boyz and Black Orcs with a few regular Goblins stuff on the side, you know, a true Orc and Goblin army (Rather than the Savage Orcs or Night Goblin stuff running around). While I did end up with 2000 points assembled, it never really took off and has remained in their boxes/case ever since (and certainly high on my chopping list).
    But I do love thinking about what could be done for the Greenskinz. How to turn them into the shame of the Orruks they are now, and into a Green force to be reckoned with.

    How best to represent these guys in Age of Sigmar
    So here are my thoughts on the subject:
    Up the wounds: Greenskinz currently don't feel like proper Orruks (and are overpointed), because compared to all the other Orruks in the game, they're lacking a wound. Simple fix, give every warscroll an extra wound in the Greenskinz list.
    Bring back Rugluds Armoured Orcs: Traditionally, Orruks aren't very shooty, with the best weapon they've bought to the shooting game being an inaccurate bow. Putting aside the Savage Orruk Arrow Boys, and their poor rules (They should probably just have 1 attack base with their bows), I think it's a direction they shouldn't be afraid to take Greenskinz. You certainly don't want them to be too shooty (no doubling attacks or mortal wounds plz), but you want it as a supplementary force.
    I actually think they've already got that in Orruk Arrow Boyz (Which should be again, separated from the Orruk Boyz scroll for battalion purposes), and in fact, Rugluds Armoured Orcs. A perfectly serviceable unit made up of Crossbow wielding Orruks, let down by being overcosted. I think if they took the scroll and just renamed it Orruk Crossbow Boyz you've got a fine new unit in the list.
    Return of the Big 'Uns: Since the Black Orcs have departed for better pastures, Greenskinz don't have a more 'elite' unit now. Bonesplitterz have their Morboyz, Ironjawz have Brutes, but Greenskinz just have plain old Orruks. These fellas will be the biggest Orruks of the lot, should all have heavy armour and essentially come down to being your regular elite infantry. What I would like to see is some kind've synergistic rule on these guys, maybe similar to the Chaos Chosen's Slaughterleaders rule, where if the Big 'Uns do damage, they inspire the others around them. This would pretty much require a new kit, as I don't think you can make easily identifiable Big Un's from the Orruk Boyz kit. 
    More Heroes: Obviously factions need more heroes, if only to give more options about how you design your list and who leads it. 
    I think to start, should split out the more interesting options from the Orruk Warboss scroll. The Standard Bearer should be split into it's own scroll. I think it's actually a shame GW hasn't already done this all over the place, it leads to weird designs where units get to do multiple roles (Standard Bonus + Command Ability + Just as good at fighting).
    The next thing, is I think you want some mid-tier Orruk hero. Some kind've bully or big boss that sits below a Warboss, but gives you some synergy in the army. I think a great idea, is actually to steal some of the Black Orc Big Boss rules. Instead of his command ability, just make a similar regular ability where if a unit of Greenskinz fails a battleshock, you can deal a mortal wound to the unit to re-roll it. Great and thematic for the Orruks as you've got a bigger Orruk restoring order by punching some guys.
    New Boar Chariot: It's a bit of a shame, as I think for the most part it's still serviceable apart from the Boars. Maybe all you need to do is print a new Boar sprue to replace the old one, but it needs a bit of a refresher. Perhaps you can print an additional sprue for it that includes a Warboss or Great Shaman to ride around on the Chariot, but I feel that it may encroach on Brayherd territory too much to have the bosses riding Chariots.
    Bring back Animosity: I recently made a post about changing the GA: Destruction allegiance ability to be more animosity like. And perhaps, it wouldn't be great for Destruction as a whole, but I think for Greenskinz it'd add a load of character. I think if you made the rewards good enough, it'd still be alright. But then again, I never really played with Animosity, so I don't know how bad it really is.
    But I think if you had something like : At the start of your hero phase, roll a D6 for each GREENSKINZ unit not in combat. On a roll of 1, they may do nothing further this turn. On a roll of 2-5, it may move as if it were the movement phase. On a roll of 6, it may move as if it were the movement phase, shoot as if it were the shooting phase, or charge as if it were the charge phase. If a unit completes a charge, they may immediately pile in and attack as if it were the combat phase.
    You could have a another rule as part of the allegiance that any unit within X" of a HERO can re-roll animosity checks to reduce the impact slightly. I think it could be an interesting ability.
    Battalion Warscrolls: Obviously, any good faction is going to have about a dozen of these. I think the introduction of an Elite unit and an extra Boss though would add some interesting concepts that are available. Some examples off the top of my head:
    Big Boss + Big Un's - Restoring order style battalion. The Big 'Uns become immune to battleshock, and can pass on the Big Boss's Restoring Order rule as well.
    Boars + Chariots - Boar stampede battalion, benefits on the charge.
    Orruk Shaman + Arrow Boyz + Crossbow Boyz - Wyrd energy, where the Orruk Shaman infuses the Arrows/Bolts with Waagh magic. Some bonus as long as the Shaman is alive.
    Plenty of other options as well I reckon. Maybe something that boosts Wyverns if you take 3 of them. Or a more regiments Orruk Boyz + Other units style. Lots that can be done.
     
    So at the end of all this, what would the Greenskinz faction have
    Heroes(5): Orruk Warboss on Wyvern, Orruk Warboss (on Boar), Orruk Battle Standard (on Boar), Orruk Great Shaman (on Boar), Orruk Big Boss
    Units(6): Orruk Boyz, Orruk Arrow Boyz, Orruk Crossbow Boyz, Big 'Uns, Orruk Boar Boyz, Orruk Boar Chariots
    Not a bad sized faction. And something that could be solved with a few extra sprues and units. 
  11. someone2040
    Well, we're 4 more sleeps until Southern Impact now. My army is all finished, so figured I'd run through it and what I think of the units I plan to use. Note, I certainly don't strive for the list to be 'top tier', I work within my theme and do the best I can with it. I also will only be playing if we have odd numbers, so it's fine to have an army on the weaker side (Since I won't be able to win any prizes anyway).
    So without further adieu, here's the army:

    The Army in it's entirety
    I feel I've got a nice rounded list here. The two confirmed battle plans for the day are Border War and 3 Places of Power (The two scenarios that didn't end up being played at Gobbocon earlier in the year), with a 3rd scenario to be randomly decided on the day. I feel I've got a good balanced list, with plenty of models to contest objectives, including some fast units in the Chaos Knights and Be'Lakor to contest further objectives. For 3 Places of Power, I have 5 characters in total, although 2 are mages that don't really want to be up close.
    So let's run through the individual units now.

    First up, the big Daemon Prince himself, Be'Lakor. I really love this model, and prior to starting the army I had had the model for a while, waiting for the right opportunity to get him out and paint him. So of course, he's pretty core to my list. That being said, I'm going to have to be careful with him this tournament. Think there's going to be plenty of mortal wounds flying around. I'm also going to have to pick good units to make use of his special rule to cause disorder in the enemy units. I think a lot of the time I'm going to have to pick some critical shooting or combat unit to ensure they *hopefully* have issues dealing damage for a turn.

    My General is my Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount, currently named Naz'Ur'Ak, the Gloom Lord. I like his Command Ability as it gives the Chaos Knights that extra punch on the charge. Usually he is waiting patiently for the opportune turn to buff the Knights to go in and kill stuff. Otherwise, the plan is to be giving Lord of War to the Jezzails. This may prove tricky in 3 places of power, as I'm likely going to need him to contest objectives.

    Za'gul Darkblood, Leader of the Shadowborn is my Chaos Lord. Whether or not he's the true general is not really known, but certainly in these upcoming battles he's happy to let Naz'Ur'Ak take the lead. This guy was my flex pick in my army. I had the choice of him, a unit of Marauder Horsemen, or dropping the Godsworn Champions of Ruin and including a Daemon Prince. In the end, I think that having an additional hero may be useful, and I didn't have time to paint a Daemon Prince for the list, so he makes the cut. Let's hope his Reaperblade goes off!
     
    My Chaos Sorcerer Lord; Svaraz the Dark Seer, is a crucial piece in my force. Daemonic Power is an absolute beast of a spell, ensuring one of my units can do their job reliably. This usually goes on either Be'Lakor, the Chosen or the Chaos Knights, depending on whom I need to do most damage in the upcoming turn. Of course, he also provides the gift of foresight, if Be'Lakor doesn't get Daemonic Power, he's usually getting that to ensure his save is even more reliable.

    The Skaven are recent and new reinforcements for the Shadowborn. This contingent is led by Engineer Sniker-stab. This guy is mainly here to tie in the Skaven with the rest of the force. In a similar vein, he could be considered trading out, but hopefully he gets off a big Warp Lightning at some point. In the practice game however, all he managed to do was singe his own whiskers.

    The Twilight Kinband are the Marauders of the army. Their job is to hold the objectives, or be a buffer to stop the enemy units engaging my important pieces in the army. Usually they die in the battle, but that's their job. The most likely unit in my army to pass an Unpredictable Destruction roll

    The Shadowshields are the oldest unit in my army, the models that started it all way back when. Even if they are a bit pricey, a unit of 10 Chaos Warriors is tanky and can be tough to deal with. The hope is that these guys can tackle the enemy with mortal wounds rather than more fragile units in the army (Such as the Chosen). 

    The Blades of Darkness are a more recent addition. Personally, I prefer the Shields as I don't feel that the hit re-rolls of the additional hand weapons are that useful on the unit, they still wound on 4's and have no rend. Still, as long as there aren't mortal wounds around, these guys can go in and deal some damage. I've only used them once or twice, so will have to see how they perform in battle.

    My personal favourite, the Darksoul Chosen. I really love buffing these guys up with Daemonic Power and rolling into something. Most of the time, that means almost every single attack is going to wound. The problem is, my opponents seem to be pretty good at rolling armour saves when they need to. I also don't get to use the buff as often as I want to (A lot of the time I forget also >.<). Sadly, a lot of people recognize the amount of damage these guys can output, and occasionally the Chosen are wiped out before they can really do much damage. Will have to see what kind've performance they put on.

    The Shadowbound are the shock cavalry of the force. Mixed feelings about these guys. I feel a lot of the time, they just sadly bounce as the rend -1 doesn't put a huge dent into armour. Still, when they are buffed up, they can pack quite the wallop on the charge. Afterwards, it tends to turn into pillowfights, with their saddest defeat being ripped down by Skeleton Archers which they just couldn't quite get through before they started regenerating.

    Lastly, the Shadowshots, expert Snipers to strike from the Shadows. I've always had issues with the lack of ranged attacks my army has had, and finally have some long ranged firepower of my own. They performed pretty well in my one game I've run them, where they shot down a Great Unclean One and a Maggoth Lord. But I do have some reservations, as I think there's going to be a lot of counter-shooting going around at the tournament. It's going to be a tough match up I feel, and it could end up with 280 points of Jezzails running away in the first turn due to being shot at before I can shoot.
     
    The final part of the army is the Godsworn Champions of Ruin battalion. This gives me the small perk of being able to attack in the hero phase if near a hero or monster. I honestly haven't gotten to use this yet (Not sure if it's come up, but I've probably forgotten to use it). It also gives me a second artefact. What I've been running recently is Chaos Talisman on my General to make him more survivable, as well as Crown of Conquest on my Chaos Lord. This means that when I want to buff the Chaos Knights, I can still put Inspiring Presence on a unit. Could be important in keeping those cowardly Skaven in line.
     
    And that's it for my list. In some ways, I hope I get the opportunity to play as I haven't gotten to play much since Gobbocon. On the other hand, it'd be nice to relax as the TO and take some good pictures of the battles going on during the event. Either way, it's sure to be a lot of fun.
  12. someone2040
    Inspired a bit by @HobbyHammers 'This is how I brayherd' blog, I started thinking about my old Beastmen army, as by the looks of things, I could probably make a pretty convincing AoS army with them. This inevitably led me to start thinking, what would I do to expand the Brayherd faction into a fully fleshed out and meaty faction.

    What would it take to get these guys status to be 'back'
    And I think, there's not actually a huge amount of work that needs to be done! So let's get the ball rolling.
    Bring back some units back under the Brayherd banner
    The Grand Alliance books split some units odd ways. But I think the oddest choice was to send the Centigors to the Monsters of Chaos section. They've got Gor in their name! Why aren't they with the rest of the Gor? I also think that Warhounds and Razorgors should be bought back into the fold as well, these can be the 'hunting pets' of the Brayherds (As much as you can tame and call a big huge slab of mutated pig a 'pet' anyway). I think all 3 of these units make thematic sense in the Brayherds, and don't really double up on anything else the faction has to offer.
    Bring back some Compendium Scrolls
    Malagor has a great little scroll in my opinion, that could easily be rebranded into something more generic. Call him a 'Crowfather' or something, maybe have him synergise with the more 'beasty' things like the Warhounds in the list. In a way, he becomes the Icebrow Hunter of the Brayherds.
    I also think that the Wargor Standard Bearer adds a good little synergy into the Brayherd army, which would be a shame to lose. Which not having a model, leads me onto point 3...
    A (few) new models
    Brayherd as a model range, is actually pretty good at the moment. Most of their stuff (barring one which I'll talk about in a moment) is pretty new and still looks good today. But just like any army, they could do with a few new model kits to fill the gaps around the edges. Obviously the aforementioned Wargor Standard Bearer would need a model, but there are a few other kits I think would have potential...
    First off, a Chariot kit. The tuskgor chariot is a pretty old model these days, and I think it has great potential to be revamped. There was always a bit of wishlisting about a combined Tuskgor/Razorgor Chariot kit, and I think it makes perfect sense! In a similar vein to the Stonehorn/Thundertusk kit, I think you could actually squeeze a lot of warscrolls from the one kit.  You've got a Tuskgor Chariot, Razorgor Chariot, and then Character(s) on either variant. I'd definitely want to see a Beastlord screaming around on one. Maybe you can even squeeze in another new character and a Bray Shaman on one would be pretty cool also. The other thing I hope is that, if you build say a 'vanilla' variant, you might get a free Razorgor and character on foot. Talk about good value!
    You could probably stop there, but I think the other thing to consider would be to replace the aging Centigor kit. I don't actually mind the kit actually, having 5 painted and another 5 in a box. But they are old metal nowdays, and a good opportunity to replace them and give them another weapon option or two. At least a Great Weapon variant, but perhaps a bow variant also (Although, Drunken Centaurs firing bows and arrows might not work out so well).
    The last thing to consider, is whether or not there should be a special character to 'lead the faction'. I don't think it's totally necessary to do this for all factions. Perhaps Brayherds being a bit 'faceless' and 'goaless' gives good reason either way. A good strong character could give them direction as to what they want to do in the mortal realms, but it may feel a bit too much like the 'Gordrakk' of Beastmen.
    And of course, a Battletome
    With new models, you'd want a new battletome. I think if they got the extra models, they have enough depth to have their own battletome without needing their Warherd pals on the side. I think Brayherds will get Allegiance Abilities with GHB2, but of course a Battletome would add in much needed Warscroll Battalions. With the extra units added in, I think you could create some pretty interesting battalions. I think a Beast pack type one with a Crowfather, Warhounds and Razorgors would be cool. With all the chariots flying around, a Chariot based one (perhaps with Centigors as well) would be pretty sweet. Tons of stuff.
     
    Thinking about the above... gets me really excited sometimes (and perhaps sets myself up for disappointment). But, it's really interesting to see how close some factions are to being fleshed out. Sometimes all you need to do is shift a few things into the right place and then come back with 1-2 character kits and 1-2 unit kits.
     
    For the record, if I did rebase my Brayherds, I reckon I'd end up with something like this:
    Doombull w Great Axe General
    Beastlord w Great Axe
    Wargor BSB
    Great Bray Shaman
    Great Bray Shaman
    30 Gors with Beastshields
    10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons
    10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons
    10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons
    10 Ungor Raiders
    10 Ungor Raiders
    10 Ungors with Mauls and Halfshields
    10 Ungors with Mauls and Halfshields
    10 Bestigors
    Tuskgor Chariot
    Tuskgor Chariot
    3 Bullgors with Greataxes
    3 Bullgors with Greataxes
    Wildstalker Brayherd
    The only models I don't actually own from the above is a Doomnull and I only have 5 Bullgors (Since I was converted one into Taurax, the Brass Bull which I suppose I could run as a Doombull). I'd also probably need to build up a few Gor for command models for the Additional Hand Weapons, as they're currently one unit.
    Pretty cool how an 8th edition army translate pretty cleanly to Age of Sigmar in this case.
  13. someone2040
    After an adventure in Hinterlands Skirmish last week, I was pretty keen for some Age of Sigmar : Skirmish. Although, there are definitely some decisions I don't agree upon, I wanted to get into the book first hand and on the day.
    So this morning I rocked up at my Games Workshop basically first thing in the morning, to purchase my copy of Skirmish. I got the book, flipped past the fluff and got right down into the nitty gritties of the renown. The night before I had tossed up whether I wanted to bring my Freeguild with me, but in the end I decided to take my Slaves to Darkness. My store is going to start a campaign next week, starting off at 25 renown, but for today we could play what we want.
    So I built a quick and dirty 50 renown list, and ended up with the following:
    Chaos Lord - Inspiriational Fighter - Helm of Authority (Note, he's represented by the Chaos Chosen Champion in my games as my actual Lord's head fell off just before we started)
    2 Chaos Knights (Leader with Ensorcelled Weapon, other guy with Glaive)
    1 Marauder Horsemen with Javelin
    3 Chaos Warriors with Hand Weapon and Shields
    2 Marauders with Hand Weapons and Shield
    Since I can't take Chosen under these rules, I wanted 2 Chaos Knights for a bit of punch. Even though I usually run all mine with Glaives, I used the Ensorcelled Weapon on the champion as that's what the model has.
    Ended up playing 2 scenarios. The first one was Fragile Cargo against Stormcast Eternals. He had a list of Lord Celestant, 2 Retributors and 2 Prosecutors. My enemy would have the cargo, and after a change of mind, decided to put it on his faster Prosecutor as opposed to his slower Lord Celestant. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but he flew his Prosecutors up one flank while his melee went through the centre. In the end, I slew both Prosecutors, but they got far enough that when his Prosecutor carrying the cargo died, it ended up within my territory. This would mean unless I wiped him out, the best I could achieve was a draw. Luckily for me, I managed to whittle through one of his Retributors while my Chaos Lord finally made a charge and slew his Lord Celestant. In a more serious game, my opponent would've ran away his final Retributor but instead decided to see how much damage he could cause, which in the end was none before being taken out.
    I quite enjoyed the scenario, and it makes sure that you want to keep a flexible warband. 
     
    The second game I played against Seraphon. Her list included a Saurus Oldblood, 3 Saurus Warriors, 3 Saurus Guard and 2 Saurus Cavalry. We were playing the scenario Clash at Dawn, which involves random deployment. With a very minor amount of ranged shooting, and our deployments largely grouping up our members, it basically became a clash between our warbands with a few duking it out elsewhere on the board.
    My Chaos Lord had found himself close to enemy lines, so the first turn for me was largely getting him back to the warband.

    Back to safety, the warband converges on my Chaos Lord
    My opponent made some poor tactical choices, and charged her Cavalry in alone. Between my Lord and lucky rolling on my Chaos Knight, I finished off the two Knights easily which gave me a very strong footing in the game. The scenario objective was to essentially reduce the enemy warband to half models, where the game would end at the end of the battle round where this occurred as the warband would 'rout'. If both routed in the same turn, it was a draw, otherwise the player whose warband didn't rout got the victory. So being 2 kills up already for none in return was extraordinarily good.
    I also luckily won the role off for initiative, and mobbed her warband with my own. Given I had the momentum, I used both my Inspirational Fighter and my Helm of Authority to use Merciless Killer (The first re-rolls 1's to hit, the 2nd adds 1 to wound rolls). My Horseman picked off a Saurus Warrior, before my warband moved in for the kill.

    Thing's don't look pretty for the Seraphon
    And that was about all she wrote really. I killed the Saurus and Saurus Guard in this picture on my turn, and another Saurus Warrior which while taking a few wounds myself, routed her warband. In her turn, with so few models left, she couldn't manage to kill anything and the game ended.
     
    I honestly didn't find this scenario as interesting, as it basically ended up with our warbands grouping up and clashing, turning into a scrum which my Chaos were better suited to the task. The deployments rolls probably impacted this the most, as my opponent rolled 1's (A common theme) for a lot of her army, leading to a deployment which wasn't very spread out.
     
    Overall enjoyed the games. While I still dislike the choice not to point the finecast and metal models, it doesn't really impact the armies I have, but it definitely impacts what I would consider making for future warbands. While there are definitely places for 'Grand Alliance' style warbands, I think most people just want to run a warband of their faction. The restriction makes this extremely tough, but it seems to impact Destruction and Death the most. Those factions already have less models, but the fact that you can't run a Vampire or Ogor warband just doesn't make sense.
     
    I also think 25 renown is too low to start a campaign at. 30 would've been a better choice. Any 100 point hero in the game translates to 20 renown, which it's extremely tough to make an interesting warband with only 5 renown to spend on 2+ models. For example, if I wanted to stick to my Slaves to Darkness, I can take my Chaos Lord, a Warrior/Marauder Horsemen and a Marauder. That's my only choice unless I downgrade to the Darkoath Chieftain. Many suffer from this issue
     
    Other than that, the ruleset looks like it's pretty sweet for matched play. It doesn't have much in the way of progression other than your warband getting bigger, but in a matched play environment in some ways that's exactly what you want. You don't want to run a tournament and have someones warband crippled by death and injuries because they lost the first game.
    But I think the way the rules are structured, it's pretty perfect for a gaming afternoon amongst buddies, or a proper 1-day tournament which includes some variety of progression throughout.
  14. someone2040
    So the next tournament is coming up swiftly for my local scene. This time, it's one called Southern Impact, and tradionally it is the larger warhammer fantasy tournament the club runs. This year will be no exception, while Gobbocon was a smaller 1200 points, this time we'll be going full sized matched play armies at 2000 points.
    This does bring some interesting challenges though. It's a one day tournament, so at 2000 points we can only fit 3 games into the schedule for the day, this may make finding an overall winner on the day a bit of a challenge. Different to Gobbocon, to hopefully split the pack up a bit more I've introduced a difference between a loss and minor loss, as well as adding in secondary objectives. The hope is, that some of this stuff will create more of a spread even if we only get 3 games in.
     
    Looking towards the armies. If I need to play to fill in the odd man, I will once again be taking my Chaos Undivided, the Shadowborn. At some point I'd definitely like to take my Free Peoples out for a spin, but I just haven't had the time to work on them recently. It's also been a bit of a slog trying finishing off the command for the Freeguild Guard unit.
    The most probable list I'm going to take is as follows:
    Be'Lakor
    Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount
    Chaos Sorcerer Lord
    Chaos Lord
    Warlock Engineer
    10 Marauders with Hand Weapon and Shield
    10 Chaos Warriors with Hand Weapon and Shield
    10 Chaos Warriors with Additional Hand Weapons
    10 Chaos Chosen
    5 Chaos Knights
    6 Jezzails
    Godsworn Champions of Ruin
    The only thing I'm considering at this stage is I could swap the Chaos Lord or Warlock Engineer for 5 Marauder Horsemen. I think a stronger choice would be to swap one and the Battalion for a Daemon Prince, but I don't think I'll have the time to paint up the Prince.

    I recently got the opportunity to try out the above list. We played this game at my local GW, as I was hoping to get a few more people interested (But alas, the store was not busy at the time we were playing). I played against another competitors Nurgle force. Was really cool to see two pretty much fully painted armies (Unfortunately, my Warlock Engineer was letting the party down!) on a table full of GW terrain.
    The game went pretty well for me, was pretty much in my favour. He took the first turn, but I got the double which was pretty important. My Jezzails almost finished the Great Unclean one off in one turn, but the double turn secured it. Also because I got the double turn, I was able to move my forces to get full control over one of the side objectives, while snatching the 2nd one away for a turn giving me the edge in objective points.
    From that point on for him, unfortunately the game was a bit lost. His forces were slowly being whittled down, and never was in a position to really contest my home objective to try and snatch back some points. We called it at the end of the third or fourth battle round.
     
    As a result of the game, I think it's kind've proven a feeling I've had for a while about the game. Strong shooting can be a really oppressive part of the game. This game really showed how I got to dictate the pace and having a strong shooting element in my Jezzails gave me control. That was only 280 points invested into it as well. I find it's really important to have ranged units in your toolkit, as I know I've felt frustrated being on the receiving end of shooting when my Slaves to Darkness didn't have any. And that was before all the hardcore shooting came out.
    It'll also be interesting to see how the scene takes some of the more 'filthy' lists. Gobbocon was a bit of fun at 1200 points, with a surprise Death list winning it. But at 2000 points, I know at least one Aetherstrike list is going to be showing up. That's a whole other level of shooting. It'll be interesting to see what other people are taking, and whether or not the scene as a whole are going a bit more competitive, or if perhaps we'll see only a few people taking 'top tier' style lists.
  15. someone2040
    Hey guys,
    So I've been a little vocal about things I think GW are doing a bit poorly. I personally think how they've handled the compendium is one of them. 
    The problem I have with the compendium, is that not all things came out equal when they bought out the Grand Alliance books. Some units, slot into new factions absolutely fine because that faction was largely unchanged when it was migrated (Wanderers, Free Peoples, Dispossessed, Slaves to Darkness, etc). Some units are fine anyway, Tomb Kings/Brettonia, because as a complete and coherent faction, they were not migrated. Even if those factions didn't have Deathrattle/Free Peoples keywords, they'd be fine.
    There are two big issues I have though, some compendium warscrolls have abilities that no longer work, at all. This is my biggest issue. You've got Grimgor Ironhide and Markus Wulfheart, who both have abilities that reference units that no longer exist in the game. That to me, in the digital are is just a travesty. It would probably take someone 10 minutes to pull out that warscroll on the app, update the wording, and re-upload it. The fact they are compendium shouldn't matter, in effect, these abilities are 'bugged' because they no longer work.
    Some people will say let Old World be Old World, but I don't really get that. These are warscrolls that can be used today, just as valid as a Hellcannon, or Settra, or Sayll the Faithless, or an Orruk Megaboss, or the Celestant Prime. Yet sadly, if someone really liked those models, they're using warscrolls that unless you make a gentleman's agreement with your opponent, cannot be used to their full extent all because GW refuse to update warscrolls (Note: The only time they've updated a warscroll is where they've dun goofed - Lord Celestant on Dracoth missing his shield - or where they've updated a battletome).
     
    The other thing I would've done, is either re-branded or re-keyworded as many of the compendium warscrolls as possible to put them into logical factions. Now, I get that what remained compendium, was largely based on what they didn't want to sell anymore, so it's a bit of wishful thinking and not altogether necessary. BUT, there are a lot of interesting characters, that could easily be transitioned into the mortal realms, to add some life into some of the migrated factions.
    Just as an example. Why didn't GW keep Korhil around? Lion Rangers aren't even a faction. They exist because GW wants to sell those models still, and in theory, will give them some love in the future. But at the moment, you can't run a Lion Rangers army, they have no heroes. So why didn't they just migrate Korhil, call him a Lion Sentinel or something, can even keep the same rules, just re-brand and re-keyword the scroll.
    This for the most part, effects the Aelven factions. That's because instead of making a more natural transition, the keyword they were given in the compendium was a 'get you by' keyword, and was not migrated when they made the Grand Alliance factions.
    Every warscroll should be able to fit into a cohesive faction. Whether that's a legacy faction (Brettonia, Tomb Kings, even Highborn) or a current faction in the game. I mention Highborn, because they actually have a good basis as a faction (Archers, Spearmen, Bolt Throwers and Silver Helms), but are missing the generic heroes that got migrated. I would probably for Highborn bring back the High Elf Prince warscrolls, High Elf Prince on Griffon, and also keep Tyrion/Teclis in there.
     
    So the one last thing I'll leave behind, is a remade Markus Wulfheart warscroll that I did for my imagined version of the Free Peoples. The fluff behind the 'new' Freeguild Huntsmarshal is that they all make a pilgrimage to the Realm of Ghur to craft beast-slaying Amber Bow's from the trees of that realm. They are hunters who survive in the wilderness around the Free Cities, preventing beasts lurking nearby from running amok.
     Just goes to show how easy it could've been to fit some existing special characters back into the game.
     
    freeguild-huntsmarshal.pdf
  16. someone2040
    Hi all,
    So a little introduction to myself. I've been playing Warhammer since the late 90's. I've collected a variety of Fantasy armies over the years, Lizardmen, brief stint with Ogre Kingdoms, brief stint with Empire, Dogs of War, Beastmen, kind've Orcs and Goblins, High Elves and now in Age of Sigmar, Slaves to Darkness and Free Peoples. Up until Age of Sigmar though, I was predominantly just a casual player who played mostly with friends earlier on (High school), and later in my local Games Workshop, but did attend tournaments.
    I'm from a place of the world called South Australia. Australia is a large place, with most of our major cities along the east coast and then a few others scattered around. This unfortunately means, that most of the activity happens along the east coast. I remember the biggest tournament I've been to was a whopping 28 player shindig back in 2009! We certainly haven't seen a Fantasy tournament get that big since.
    Anyway, with the advent of Age of Sigmar, it was an interesting time in our little community. Doom and Darkness at the time was running most of the events, and building a bit of a community near the end of 8th. When Age of Sigmar landed, it was of course, like everywhere met with mixed reception. We lost some regular players, and for a while it looked like, it wasn't going to take off.
    I was a bit mixed, because I really enjoyed the fact that I could build little armies and enjoy the game. At the time, I had build High Elves up to 1200~ish points for a tournament, and was pretty satisfied with that. I like building to around that level, and then my interest starts to wane a bit and I need to do something else.
    I'd always liked the Chaos Undivided look, where you had an army of black armoured Chaos Warriors marching into battle. I'd had Be'Lakor and Crom the Conquerer for a while since I liked those models, and it was the perfect opportunity to build an army based around Be'Lakor. But I was a bit afraid, what happened if this thing didn't take off? Everything was a bit lost.
    However, in the end, I bit the bullet. I decided I wanted to make this army, and the local club was looking for people interested in running events and leagues towards the end of the year (To be started in the new year). So I took the bull by the horns, I wasn't sure if there'd be enough interest for a tournament, but I was interested in building my army up from almost nothing, so an Escalation League fit the bill perfectly. At the time, Clash Comp was getting a good rap, and it was an easy and lightweight way to build your army.
    So in the end, I put it out there, made some Blogposts on my old blog, to chronicle what happened., and luckily enough it turned out that other people were also interested in playing with their old miniatures or making new armies. Over the past year and a bit, we've gathered a strong core group of players, and I've even run our first Age of Sigmar tournament back in March which managed to gather 13 players + myself. We've got another tournament coming up in July, which I'm again running and hoping we can hit 20 players.
     
    So yeah, sometimes all it takes to get a community going is for someone to stick their hand up and run it. It's a lot of effort (Coming up with a loose narrative, battleplans and interesting rules each month was a bit of work), but in the end, if you want something to happen, you need to put the work in.
    With that, I'll leave you with a picture of my army from about a year back, it's gotten larger since of course, but I can't find any good pictures of my force at the moment  Hopefully a more complete picture to follow in a blog post later on.

  17. someone2040
    Hi all,
    New blog here. In my second entry I'll probably talk more about myself, but here's the main thing.
    I love the Free Peoples. Always enjoy the idea of us regular joes, teaming up together to fight against the alien, the monster, the enemy within! I've collected Witch Hunters in Mordheim, and both Dogs of War and Empire in previous editions of Warhammer (Amongst many other armies!). But my thoughts at the moment belong with the Free Guilds.
    I've also always been a bit of a grouch about how slow GW is at doing some stuff, and supporting older armies. There are some armies (like Freeguild!) that basically have almost all the components to be a real army in the game, but they're held back by lack of battalions and heroes - basically, lack of a Battletome that brings all the goodies out. 
    Maybe GW don't do it because there was initially some very negative perceptions of Beastclaw Raiders and Bonesplitterz, releases without new units. Even I didn't really enjoy it that much, but it did breath a lot of life into those armies.
    So what I've set out to do in my free time (and perhaps, even my not so free time), is set about creating some rules about what I would do for the Free Peoples within the Age of Sigmar. I certainly won't promise something as awesome and outstanding as Tyler Mengels custom Tomb Kings rules, but I do want to create what I kind've call a mini-tome. A battletome that lacks fluff, but has all the cool rules, allegiance abilities, command traits, magic items, and battalions. I'm no writer, so fluff isn't my forte, but I reckon I can give a shot at the rest of the stuff.
     
    Today, I'm putting out there my rules for Allegiance Abilities, and to a lesser extent Command Traits. My thoughts behind the Free Peoples, or more specifically the Freeguilds, are that they should be the Imperial Guard of the Age of Sigmar world. Humans, are nothing special individually. Not as tough as a Duardin, not as graceful as an Aelf, not as strong as a Stormcast Eternal. But what they lack individually, they make up by fighting united, in regiments of soldiers side by side. Strict training and regimental discipline means that the sum is greater than the whole! And that's where the Allegiance Ability comes in.
    My version of the Allegiance Ability for Free Peoples is called Orders. Any Freeguild General (whether on foot, horse, griffon or demigryph to come!) can give an order to a friendly unit nearby. This gives them limited perks that help them out just that little bit. If you need your Handgunners to be that little bit more effective this turn, order them to Bring it Down! Giving them re-rolls of 1 to hit. How about those Pistoliers need to get into the fight, order them to move At the Double! to help them run further. Your soldiers may be facing mighty beasts that cut swathes through their ranks, but the order for the men to Stand Fast! will help them keep their courage and stick around. Last but not least, sometimes men just need a reminder to Aim for the Weak Point! Ensuring their blows land true.
    Whatever you need your soldiers to do, there's an order to give them! As long as your soldiers understand of course...
    One thing that's possibly quite debatable about my allegiance ability, is the fact that you can potentially cause more harm than good. Under the pressure of battle, Generals can give bad orders, or maybe the unit misunderstands the Generals intention. Either way, sometimes a unit will be confused and won't be able to perform their action this turn. I really like this idea, and I borrowed it from Warmaster where you could Blunder your order. It's a really interesting dynamic, in that the further away you are there is a chance that things could go wrong. Luckily, we are talking about trainer soldiery, and they will be back into order within the turn.
    I do think it's something that could be debated though. Allegiance Abilities to date, only give benefits, never downsides. You don't want to feel that something that should be benefiting you for taking a Free Peoples army ends up being a downside. So we'll see what the feedback is, perhaps it will just revert to Order Lost, but I want to keep it around for now.
     
    In regards to Command Traits. Not super happy about 4 and 5 and 6 at the moment, as they're basically just too similar to Grand Alliance Order. I do like number 1 and 2, they're personally my favourites because they tie into the Allegiance Ability and allow you to eek out an edge.
     
    Anyway, let me know what you all think! Hope you enjoy, and hope that GW sees the Glory of the Free Peoples and brings out a battletome. But in the mean time, I'll feed my thoughts your way!
     
    FreePeoplesAllegiance.pdf
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