Sylvaneth

 A few weeks ago I finished these Tree Revenants.  Back when Age of Sigmar was first released (after I got over the initial shock and annoyance), I thought the Stormcasts design was pretty cool, but it was the Tree Revenants that were the first new AoS miniature design that made me go "wow - those are awesome."  

Many years later, I bought and painted a box.   The end result is pretty nice, but boy these were a pain in the neck to paint.  So many little thin, spindly parts, and it was very hard to get to all the areas of the model.  And since these newer GW designs are weird multi-part kits that only fit together "one way", I struggled to figure out how to break them down and paint in sub-assemblies so I fit them together and paint them all at once.  

Anyway, here's a quick picture.  Not a great photo but good enough to document that I completed the unit. 

Probably the only unit of Tree Revenants that I will ever paint which is a shame because I really like the models.

click for bigger image

Save the Farm

My good buddy, Rookie Wargamer, had recently painted up some nice scenery and a small sheep, so the gears immediately started turning about a possible scenario...

We really like to use Age of Sigmar rules with the Old World setting: "AoS in the Old World".  That's the setting I used for this game.

Background:

A peasant farmer in the Empire province of Lietzburg has accidentally discovered what appears to be some ancient elven ruins on the edge of his property.  However, the nearby elf lord has also learned of the discovery and has dispatched a force to go reclaim the long missing family heirlooms, as well as conduct an honor killing of the farmer for desecrating the sacred ground.  The elves will also make use of some Lizardmen allied detachments. The farmer is obviously concerned for his safety but, ever the pragmatist, is equally concerned about his livestock.  So he has demanded that his lord Baron Edmund come repel the elven force and ensure the safety of his livestock.  

Objective: 

Both forces must control the elven ruins, as well as the farm. 

Major victory: have the most models within 6 inches of the ruins AND the farm.

Minor victory: control only one of the objectives as described above.

Starting on turn 3, at the end of any Battle Round, if a player holds all objectives as described in "major victory", the game ends immediately.  Otherwise, game ends after turn 5.

Special conditions for Empire player:  since the peasant farmer has requested aid of his lord, and also his livestock, the Empire player must ensure the safety of the herd, too.  Starting in turn 2, roll a die. On a 6, the sheep has escaped and moves randomly.  Roll 2D6 and select highest for distance.  In order to win Major Victory, the Empire player must control both objectives, AND have at least 3 models within 3 inches of the sheep, and have more models than opponent within 3 inches of the sheep.

The sheep can't be killed.  Only one sheep moves, the other animals are just for scenery.

With that, deployment!

We used the collection of barrels in the corner of the livestock pen to represent the "control the farm" objective.

We used this nice new piece of scenery, the statue obelisk thing, to represent the discovered elven ruins in the (also new) rocky outcrops.

The sheep mounted on the bases is the one able to get loose...

Lord Edmund, deployed at edge of farm.   Halberds in the crop field.   Behind the farmhouse, the small unit of Lord Edmund's personal guard (greatswords) have deployed as a reserve.

Swords and Pistoliers.

High Elf spears and archers have already breached the outer crop field.

Kroxigors in the center, looking menacing and generally irritable.

Small unit of saurus deployed on the Allied left flank to threaten the elf ruins.

The Elf Lord, sporting a nice new paint job.

The battle has begun.  Pistoliers advance and decimate the saurus after the crossbows do their work.

The allied line surges foreward

Despite some taunts and jeering from the Allied commanders, Lord Edmund takes up position behind the wall, prepared to bring his considerable skill to bear at the critical point...

The Elves unleash their arrow storm fury, ripping the halberds to shreds.  The farmer hears the commotion and quickly retrieves his old and battered halberd off the mantle above the fireplace and runs outside to lend a hand.  It's been years since he retired from the state troops unit but he still remembers how to get in formation.

The Allied line crashes into the Empire line.

The sheep has gotten loose!  The farmer will be asking for steep reparations...

Swordsmen hold firm, securing the elven ruins.

Not many crossbows left, they try in vain to fend off the Reavers.

The kroixgors make short work of the pistoliers

Seeing the left flank and farm about to collapse, Lord Edmund charges into the advancing spearmen, scattering the sheep.

The lizards surround the swordsmen

After finishing off the crossbows, the Reaver Knights leap through a collapsed section of the ancient wall, attempting to surround the swordsmen

Not looking good for the swordsmen with the swift Reavers dashing to the rear

Upon seeing their lord engaged in combat, the personal guard charge into the spearmen cutting a number of them down.

At this point, we forgot to take more pictures.  But basically, it was turn 3 and the battle hung in the balance.  The allied flank had totally decimated the Empire right flank around the elven ruins and had total control of that objective.  The Sheep was loose and the Empire did not have enough units left to go chase him down, so there was no way for them to win.  However, they could still force a tie and the greatswords unit almost pulled it off.  They had nearly tipped the scales in the melee in front of the farm, but it wasn't quite enough.   The Empire side conceded victory to the Allied forces.

It was a really fun game, and I think the very brief background story and simple scenario brought the game to life.  Fully painted armies and decent scenery made a huge difference as well.

Lord Edmund The Absent

My Empire army has been sorely lacking in a basic mounted general.  The background of my army has the main general, Lord Edmund, normally riding a Pegasus.  But there are times I'd like to field him on a regular horse.
So, I managed to pick up an old Warhammer Fantasy Mercenary general.  I never really liked the way the model was usually painted (jet black hair, black mustache).  So, I tried something different.

Not my best work, but I'm just happy to have the model completed.

Defend the Bridge!

We played a modified version of an old scenario from White Dwarf.
I can't remember which issue, but back in the late 90s/early 2000s, GW ran a linked campaign of scenarios that included a game where a rear-guard was left behind to hold a bridge long enough to allow the main body of a retreating army to get away.  It's totally unbalanced, but with the new flavor and narrative style of Age of Sigmar, this version of the game really lends itself to replaying the scenario than the previous versions of Warhammer.

So...we set it up.   It was a 3-player battle - myself, Rookie Wargamer, and our buddy that normally plays the Lizardmen.  There was a small Empire force (including a random Kroxigor) deployed on and around the bridge, and needed to hold off against an orc and goblin army, under the...sway...of a Chaos Lord.  The armies were divided into 3 commands: 1 person would take the Empire, and the greenskin army was split into two.

We didn't bother defining a real objective or worry about who was gonna win.  We basically decided at the end of each turn we'd take a look and make a call on whether the Empire had held long enough or if the greenskins had crossed the bridge or held enough strategic ground to say that they had overrun the defenders.  We didn't even calculate points with the Generals Handbook: we just tried to make sure the greenskins outnumbered and outmatched the Empire.  Basically, the Empire knew they were going to die, they just needed to hold up the enemy as long as possible.

Waiting for the green wave to crash on the bridge

Here they come...

The Chaos Lord mustering his force...

Overlooking the advance

Halberdiers in view.

First turn...the doom diver aim wasn't quite calibrated yet...

Mortal Realms Podcast tokens come in handy.

The Orc Shaman continued to zap the front line bridge defenders with Gaze of Mork, and the Doom Diver eventually hit the Kroxigor and the halberdiers.  The goblin spears charged the weakened halberdiers and eventually destroyed them leaving a gap on the bridge.  In keeping with spirit of the scenario, the Empire general continually used his "Hold the line!" command ability which gave a unit a bump in to-hit and to-wound rolls.

This was where the strategic error of the game was made: the gap on the bridge was too enticing, and the goblin unit was used to charge the swordsman who were also on the bridge - but the goblins didn't have enough punch break through.  Combat bogged down and there was no room for additional units (like the Black Orcs or regular Orc Boys).   It quickly became apparent that goblin spearman would need to retreat from combat to make room for more powerful units, or the game would be over...

The Chaos Lord realizes his mistake and takes matters into his own hands.

 After some back and forth we decided the game should end with the final showdown on the bridge - Empire General vs Chaos Lord (technically just a single Chaos Knight).  If the Empire General wins, they've held off the greenskins long enough.  If the Chaos Lord wins, then his force has broken through and seriously threatens the retreating main army.

Combat went back and forth a few rounds with a lot of misses and no wounds...

Eventually - the Empire General took down the chaos lord, impaling him with his sword!

It was a really fun game.  AoS continues to shine in smaller sized games (the largest unit on the board was 8 models).  Most of the units were small, consisting of only 5 figures.

Lizards vs Empire

We played a spur-of-the-moment game of Age of Sigmar this past Saturday.  We didn't do any planning or preparation - just "hey, wanna play?" "sure!"

We finally decided to try out the points values from the new General's Handbook and went with Empire vs Lizardmen which would prove to be interesting because we hadn't really given the Lizardmen a true run through.

We used the points as a "framework" to guide us for the army sizes. The armies weren't perfectly matched - we played about 1100 points, give or take a few. More thoughts on that later.
We played the Blood and Glory scenario with 4 objectives in each quarter of the table.
One thing to note - when we set up the army lists, I accidentally paid the points for the Empire general on griffon (not the general on pegasus...which doesn't have points in the GHB).   We realized this after deployment, so we talked about either the Empire removing the griffon and adding more units, or just bumping a few of the lizardmen units up to balance it out.  I recommended this approach because I had a sense that the griffon was a little too powerful for such a small battle, given recent experience with with an Orc Shaman on a Wyvern...(to the recent detriment of the Rookie Wargamer).  In the end, we decided to reinforce some of the lizardmen units instead of adding units after deployment.

deployment overhead shots

Empire deployed with a heavy left flank

chameleon skinks used hidden deployment...

saurus and kroxigors

The skink priest general hanging out in the trees

The kroxigors swarmed the Empire general on the Griffon/Pegasus.
Updated: I almost forgot to mention that we had back-to-back double turns!  The Lizardmen finished deployment first so had the option and made the Empire go first.  After the first turn completed, the Lizardmen won the initiative roll and got the double turn.  This is what allowed them to swarm the empire general on the griffon.  Then after the second turn, the Empire got the double turn.  Bam!

 The empire general barely survived this encounter, taking 7 wounds in the initial combat and then deciding to fly away and retreat from combat.  Of course, we had Monty Python's Holy Grail playing in the background, and Sir Robin had also decided to "bravely run away" at the exact same time...


Few turns later, the Pistoliers and rest of the left flank shot the swarm of snakes off the far objective, but then the Saurus block made a right turn and swarmed them.  They were annihilated.

The crossbowmen helplessly watch the slaughter from a distance

the left flank after the pistoliers were removed to the dead pile on the left

 Back on the right flank, the chameleon skinks (no longer pictured) had popped up and basically shot the greatswords off the table, with only 2 left. The greatswords turn around and charged the chameleons, with support from the general. These were wiped out.  The kroxigors surged forward and captured the abandoned objective, securing a minor victory for the Lizardmen.

the final look at the battlefield

Final result after 3 turns (or four; i forget): minor victory for the Lizardmen!  They controlled 3 of the 4 objectives. We took a look at the state of the battlefield to see if there was any chance for a draw or a minor victory if we had played another turn or two. In all likelihood the results wouldn't change so we called the match.

It was a super-fun game - probably one of the funnest games of AoS I've ever played.  I think it might have been a combination of factors: the framework from the GHB (reasonably balanced armies, not perfect, but reasonable); Lizardmen were a fun army to play against, they have some interesting rules, and they're really, really tough so the present a different tactical challenge; and the smaller sized armies that we used.  Something tells me that AoS really shines when using smaller sized armies.  They were just big enough that we had plenty of tactical challenges, but not too big that they were cumbersome to use.

Anyway, it was a great game and I can't wait to play again.  I also need to add a few things to this army...