Age of Sigmar Battle Overview- Death vs Destruction

This week, I will be sharing a battle overview of a game of Age of Sigmar at Newcastle Warlords. 

I recently decided to give Age of Sigmar another go. I've been hearing good things about the game since the release of the General's Handbook. Newcastle Warlords are running an Age of Sigmar escalation league, so it is becoming very popular at the club. 

This will not be a full battle report. I was too busy trying to remember the rules and looking up my unit rules to take such detailed notes. This will be more of an overview of the game. 

My 1500 pts Death army consisted of:

Necromancer

10 Black Knights

40 Zombies

30 Skeletons- Hand weapons and Crypt Shields

20 Skeletons- Spears and Shields

Corpse Cart

Mortis Engine

3 Crypt Horrors

A fairly generic army based on my Vampire Counts army. I really don't know what is good in Age of Sigmar in a Death army. Hordes of Skeletons and Zombies get some really nice buffs in large numbers (bonus to hit and wound or extra attacks), so I took a few units of them. The Necromancer is a good character, able to pass wounds onto nearby units on a 4+. This makes it easier to keep him alive for longer. 

Hobby Sunday 14/05/17- Vampire Counts Bases

This week, I have been finishing off the bases for some of the units in my Vampire Counts. 

First up, we have the Terrorgheist. I had planned to get this finished in March as part of Monster March, but my boarding injury put paid to that! However, it is now complete. I hope to get some games of Age of Sigmar in with this, to see how impressive he is on the table. 

Monster March- Week 2 Update

Welcome to my week 2 update on the progress of my Terrorgheist for Monster March. 

Monster March is a month-long hobby challenge being run by Swordmaster at "Path of an Outcast". You are challenged to get a monster model painted up over the course of March. You can find his first post detailing those participating using this link. 

Hobby Sunday 05/03/17- Ghouls, Genestealers and Ruins

This week, I have been working on a number of projects. First up, I started on my work towards my Terrorgheist as part of Monster March (posted earlier today).

While I was waiting on the Terrorgheist to dry, I decided to crack on with painting my Crypt Horrors and Ghouls. I had previously started these by giving them a couple of basecoats of Screamer Pink. I had decided to paint them up in flesh-like colours, using a nice guide that I found online. 

After the basecoat, I gave them a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. 

Monster March- Week 1

Welcome to my first week update for Monster March. 

Monster March is an event being run by Swordmaster from the Path of an Outcast blog. I decided that after the success of Squaduary, I would sign up for another painting event. 

I pledged my Terrorgheist for the challenge. I bought this model around 2 years ago, but had yet to paint it. Monster March would be a great opportunity to do so. 

Week 1 was supposed to be for assembling the model. As I already had it assembled, I decided to make a start on painting it. This helps me, as I am away on holiday for a week during Monster March, so can make up for lost time. You can check out the first update post for Monster March over on Swordmaster's blog. 

Hobby Sunday 29/05/16- Spirit Hosts and Zombies

Back in August last year, I made a series of hobby goals for the upcoming year (based on Dave's series over on Confessions of a 40k addict). Recently, Rob posted his updated hobby goals and how he was getting on with them as the season comes to a close.

 

Thinking of my own hobby goals, I have achieved quite a few of the ones on the list, but none of my goals related to painting have even been touched this year. One of my goals was to get my Vampire Counts army finished. With the release of Age of Sigmar, I am unlikely to purchase much more for my Vampire Counts army, so thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get the rest of my army finished and actually have a completed army!

 

I had a look to see what still needed to be done and managed to get my remaining models undercoated in black last weekend. In order to complete my Vampire Counts army, I will need to paint up:

• 40 Zombies
• 20 Crypt Ghouls
• 3 Crypt Horrors
• 3 Spirit Hosts
• 10 Dire Wolves
• 20 Grave Guard
• Terrorgheist
• Necromancer
• Mounted Wight King

This is obviously a lot to do and I doubt I will get it finished before August (I have quite a few White Scars Scouts and transports to get painted before a tournament in July). While waiting for my White Scars units to arrive, I thought I would get started on some of the units in my undead pile.

Battle Report 38- 2000 pts Vampire Counts vs Empire

This week's report features the first Warhammer Fantasy battle report that I have featured on the blog. My Vampire Counts army were awoken from their slumber of over 18 months to face their ancient enemy, the Empire, commanded by David.
 

I was looking forward to this game, as I had not played fantasy in a long time and was keen to get back into the universe. We were playing a standard 2000pts game of 8th edition at the Dundee Wargames Club.


Since the blog and my battle reports are primarily focussed on 40k, I'm not too sure how much of an overlap there is between 40k and fantasy players these days. Throughout the report, I will try and explain some of the aspects of fantasy for those unfamiliar with it. Apologies to anyone who is well aware of the rules of fantasy (probably much more so than I am), you can skip the explanations and get on with the action.

 

My army consisted of:

Vampire Lord- Armour of Destiny, Ogre Blade, Quickblood, Red Fury, Shield, Level 3 wizard. (with Z)

Necromancer- Master of the Dead, Level 2 wizard, Dispel Scroll (with SW1)

Necromancer- Level 2 wizard, Book of Arkhan (with SW2)

 

25 Skeleton warriors- Spears, Shields, Full Command (SW1)

25 Skeleton warriors- Hand Weapons, Shields, Full Command (SW2)

40 Zombies- Standard Bearer (Z)

5 Dire Wolves (DW1)

5 Dire Wolves (DW2)

10 Black Knights- Heavy Armour, Shield, Barding, Lances, Full Command (BK)

3 Crypt Horrors (CH)

3 Spirit Host (SH)

Corpse Cart- Unholy Lodestone (CC)

Terrorgheist (T)

First up, my army is led by a Vampire Lord. This is a very tough combat character, as well as being a magic user, not very common in fantasy armies. He is armed with a shield and the Armour of Destiny, giving him a 4+ armour save and 4+ ward save. What is different in fantasy is that a ward save is an invulnerable save that can be taken in addition to an armour save, adding to his durability. He is also armed with an Ogre Blade, giving him +2S. He also has the vampiric upgrades of Quickblood and Red Fury, allowing him to always strike first in combat and get additional attacks for every wound he makes in combat. I also upgraded him to a level 3 wizard. He is a very tough character who provides valuable buffs to a Vampire Counts army.

I like a lot of magic in my army, it is pretty much essential in an Undead army as it provides serious bonuses to them. I took two level 2 Necromancers. One has the master of the dead upgrade, allowing you to raise skeleton units above their starting level and a dispel scroll, allowing you to counter your opponent's magic phase. The second Necromancer took the Book of Arkhan, a magic item that allows me to cast Vanhel's Danse Macabre (I will come to this below).

Vampire Counts Army Showcase

This week's battle report on the blog will be a first, in that it will be a fantasy game featuring my Vampire Counts. Before that, I thought I would get to something I have been meaning to do for a while and showcase my vampire counts army.

I first got into the Undead back in 5th edition, with White Dwarf 211 that showcased the new Undead studio army and gave an in-depth tutorial on how to paint skeletons using the Eavy Metal method. The new studio army looked so good that it tempted me to the black arts and my budding undead army began. My love of the models was further cemented when they released the Red Baron vampire lord model, which I thought was (and still is) an amazing model.

With the release of End Times, I decided to get back in to fantasy as I always loved the Undead and Nagash. I chose the Vampire Counts over the Tomb Kings as I preferred the aesthetic of the Vampire Counts over the Tomb Kings (but do miss my Screaming Skull catapults and Chariots). Fortunately, the rules for End Times allow a combined Undead army, so if I really wanted, I could have them in my army.

When I re-started my collection, the first model I had to purchase was the Vampire Lord. This is still a great model to me, and I was glad I picked it up again. I decided to have a green colour scheme to my army to contrast the bone of the skeletons (plus, almost all my armies have some form of green colour scheme).

Second Thoughts on Age of Sigmar- Vampire Counts vs Chaos Warriors

Last week, I managed to get my second game of Age of Sigmar to try out the new system. My first game did not go so well and I highlighted many of the problems that I had with the game. Hopefully my second match would go better and I would start to see the appeal of GW's newest game.

 

This week I took on Yans' Warriors of Chaos. Before the game started, we did have a little chat about what kind of game we wanted to play. I wanted a balanced game with a reasonably sized army. I was planning to take mostly infantry with a unit of cavalry and I also wanted to try out a monster this game. I suggested capping the model count at 100, but Yans pointed out that this would not work with Warriors of Chaos as he was mostly fielding dragon ogres, who have 5 wounds a piece. So model count was out. We then settled on roughly equal numbers of warscrolls and just what "felt right" on the battlefield and see how the game turned out. Once again, I really missed points values at this point. Games are so much easier to arrange when you can say to your opponent "2000 pts, I'm taking Vampires". So, we had a go at balancing our armies, but the only way to tell would be after the game had ended.

 

For this battle, I took:

Vampire Lord (V)

Two Necromancers (N1 and N2)

Terrorgheist (T)

30 Skeletons- Spears and Crypt Shields (S1)

30 Skeletons- Ancient Blades and Crypt Shields (S2)

40 Zombies (Z)

3 Crypt Horrors (CH)

Corpse Cart (CC0

9 Black Knights (BK)

 

A decent sized force for the vampire counts. I wanted to take bigger units of skeletons and zombies this time in order to access their special rules (skeletons get additional attacks in bigger units, while zombies get bonuses to their hit and wound rolls). I also wanted to try the Terrorgheist as monsters are absolute beasts in Age of Sigmar. I also took a few magic users in order to bolster my undead forces.

 

Yans force consisted of:

Chaos Lord of Nurgle (CL)

Nurgle Sorceror (S1)

24 Chosen of Nurgle (C)

Giant (G)

6 Dragon Ogres (DO1)

3 Dragon Ogres (DO2)

Shaggoth (S2)

Gorebeast Chariot (GC)

Hellcannon (H)

Age of Sigmar- Battle Report and First Impressions

I know, I know, I'm a little late to the party with the Age of Sigmar, I've just been enjoying the new Space Marine and Dark Angels codex too much to get in to it. I finally got round to playing my first game of Age of Sigmar at the club last week against Matt's Orcs and Goblins.

 

My army consisted of:

Vampire Lord

Necromancer

9 Black Knights

3 Crypt Horrors

30 Zombies- standard bearer

20 Skeletons- Champion, Standard bearer, Musician

Corpse Cart

 

I took a nice mix of troops and heros from the war scrolls to try and have a bit of variety for my first game.

 

Matt's army consisted of:

Orc Warboss

Orc Shaman

18 Boarboyz

27 Wolf Riders

2 Stonethrowers

Doom Diver

Spear Chukka

Giant

 

Some fast moving units and a lot of shooting to go up against.



Battlefield