Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Ransack the Encampment

Goretim the Reddish decided it would be best for the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile Bloodbound Horde hole up for a bit and engage in some rest and relaxation. They all desperately needed a chance to recuperate and sharpen their axes... Unfortunately a pair of wandering Gargants caught the scent of their fresh snake-meats and attacked the Bloodbound in their own camp! 

A pair of MEGA GARGANTS (and their two pet Frost Sabres) approach the Bloodbound camp!? 

Were they siblings...?

Were they lovers...?

Were they an an anarcho-syndicalist commune that take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week (but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting!)...?

Perhaps all three...who can tell with the Sons (and DAUGHTERS!) of Behemet!? 

The Bloodbound hurriedly mustered and stood ready to defend their encampment!

The male-presenting Warstomper Mega-Gargant approached from the Bloodbound's right... 

The female-presenting-kraken-eating-mega-Gargant approached from the Bloodbound's left. 

The Bloodreavers charged forward to distract the Warstomper, only for the ENTIRE UNIT to be swept away with one swing of his mighty club!? 

While he was distracted, the Blood Warriors, Mighty Skullcrushers and Goretim the Reddish, himself, all charged in to try and fell this gargantuan beast! 

The Claws of Karanak, like the Bloodreavers, were little more than the briefest of distractions... 

The Warstomper hammered down hard on the Blood Warriors... but the remaining Blood Warriors and Mighty Skullcrushers kept on poking the beast in his feet and shin until the blood flowed freely - as Khorne expected... 

The Kraken-Eater moved on and pummelled Bob Bloodblob into the ground... 

The Warstomper hammered down hard on the Blood Warriors and knocked Goretim from his Juggernaut... but the remaining Blood Warriors and Mighty Skullcrushers so damaged his toes and shins that they made him run off, crying... Khorne cares not for the flowing of tears though... only blood... and he blood did flow... 

The Kraken-Eater beat down the Khorgorath next and knocked the last Mighty Skullcrusher from his Juggernaut... 

Then she seized some of the Bloodbound's supplies and started eating them... while smashing down Gob Bloodblob! 

The two pet Frost Sabres also seized a cache of the Bloodbound's supplies. snarling viciously at any who approached... even the Mega-Gargants! 

The two remaining Blood Warriors fled and seized a small pile of Emberstone shards! 

Welp my run of victory for the Bloodbound was brief and short-lived and we were immediately back to losing... badly... 

Bob Bloodblob healed Goretim the Reddish with his blood ceremony and Gob Bloodblob healed himself some. The Claws of Karanak joined the ranks of the Battlescarred, gaining Unyielding Blisters from being trampled into the scorching sands by a gargant.

I am starting to realize this campaign system is highly skewed to favour small elite armies - meaning armies with a small number of high-point-cost units. With the number of units I have, and only two heroes being allowed to heal units each game, I just CANNOT keep up with the managing of battlewounds - especially when being tabled nearly every game! 

SIX of my eight units have at least one battle scar, and the Bloodreavers now have TWO!? Even the Mighty Skullcrushers, who I had been trying very hard to keep the battlewounds down on, now have smouldering scars, which means every game there is a chance they gain EXTRA battlewounds!? I don't think ANY of the other players have units with battlescars at this point... 

Not sure what to do with the Five Emberstone Shards I've accumulated... 

I have collected twenty-five in total, so I can start playing Gnaw's Edge Battleplans - if an opponent agrees - and slowly claw my way toward the campaign's final scenario! One of the players has to have accumulated 20 or more Emberstone shards to play a Gnaw's Edge Battleplan. 

If at least one of the players in a game has WON a battle using a Gnaw's Edge Battleplan, the players may chose to play a Hateful Shores Battleplan... once there are two players in a game that have BOTH WON a Hateful Shores Battleplan, they may elect to play the Hel's Claw Battleplan - the FINAL BATTLE of the campaign. The first two win a Hel's Claw Battleplan is the winner of the campaign! 

I think Matt (Stormcast Eternals) also has collected twenty or more Emberstone Shards. 

We may get this wrapped up by the end of the year! Then maybe start Blighted Wilds in the new year! 

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Rise Through the Ashes

In their attempt to escape the blasphemous lightning-bloods, the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile struggled through clouds of steam and ash from the surrounding volcanic activity, that filled the valleys between the mountains of the Adamantine....

Suddenly out of a steam and ash loomed another force - Daughters of Khaine - the snake-ladies of Morathi, fellow worshippers of blood who revel in its flow. Goretim the Reddish decided it was imperative that they engage these similarly sanguinary aficionados in a vigorous debate about the relative strengths and weaknesses of their respective blood deities and sacred rites. 

Bob Bloodblob summoned some Hexgorger Skulls right away - to help block the advance of the Melusai...

All advance along the rocky valley. 

The Korgorath was sent ahead to secure a site that likely contained more Emberstone...

While Gob Bloodblob tried to extract some Emberstone that was just laying in the open... 

Unfortunately the lot, exposed to air, combusted and burned Gob severely! 

the Blood Warriors awaited the charge of the snek-ladies. 

The initial charge fell upon the Korgorath, however... and the mighty beast was cut down... 

A second group of Melusai charged the Blood Warriors. 

Still more surged towards the Bloodreavers. 

The Hexgorger skulls poured boiling blood on the Melusai, but rather than being scorched and horrified by the experience as others were, they revelled in the experience...

The Mighty Skullcrushers moved in to ride down the few that survived the melee with the Blood Warriors.

Bless their rotten blood-pumping hearts, those Bloodreavers tried... But in actuality, the best they could do was spill their OWN blood... and distract the Blood Sisters while Goretim the Reddish charged in for the slaughter... 

Having ridden down one group of Melusai stragglers, the Mighty Skullcrushers awaited a vicious counter-attack by the Melusai Ironscale and MORE Blood Sisters... While Gob Bloodblod fled the Blood Sisters he was CERTAIN were going to chase HIM down.. 

The Bloodwrack Medusa leading the force, hearing the cries of her sisters, came to investigate and provide what support she could... 

She charged Goretim the Reddish! 

The Mighty Skullcrushers crushed the skull of the Melusai Ironscale... but were unseated from their juggernauts by the Blood Sisters... at least the few who survived... 

Goretim then rode in to finish off the Blood Sisters... only to be unseated from his own Juggernaut, by showers of arrows from the Blood Stalkers... 

Bob Bloodbloob Summoned MORE Hex-Gorger Skulls and sent then forth to distract the Blood Stalkers, giving him a chance to recover the wounded and staunch their wounds - only that they may cause the enemies blood to flow at some future battle! 

The Hex-Gorger Skulls were only the briefest of distractions... The Blood Stalkers held on and covered the retreat of their wounded Blood Sisters as they slinked away, having ceded the field of battle to the followers of Khorne! 

I'm getting WAY behind on posting game reports! I only have one other Age of Sigmar report to finish and I'm caught up with those... but I'm a MONTH behind on Cursed City, and have a half-written Bolt Action report from... OCTOBER!?

Last Wednesday Sean came by with his Daughters of Khaine force to try them out in the Ravaged Coast campaign... He'd initially started with a Nurgle force, but having been tabled on the first turn by Matt's terrifying Stormcast Eternals, he decided to switch things up... of course, after this game, he was thinking of switching things up AGAIN! 

My first "victory" in this campaign! 

The Victory was Pyrrhic at best... yes... I gained a four more Emberstone Shards... but SO MANY units accumulating SO MANY Battle Wounds which just cannot be healed fast enough means almost all of my units have at least one Battle Scar... Some now have two - and they just get worse and worse... 

I initially had another game with Matt scheduled for Thursday, but he was sick and had to cancel... I did play against Sean again on Friday... but he brought a different force!

I've also had games scheduled to play with Amanda in our own little campaign... but those just keep getting cancelled... We were supposed to play TONIGHT... but that one's now been cancelled... we've rescheduled for Sunday, hopefully; we will FINALLY get to play again at that time - and try out the Gossamid Archers!! 

I might have two more Ravaged Coast games this week! I initially wanted to just play ONE game... and had one scheduled with Sean again for Friday... but now Orion's going to be in town for the day, so I'm trying to reschedule game with Sean of Thursday so I can play Orion on Friday...? We shall see... 

Hopefully I'll get the other Age of Sigmar - Ravaged Coast game report done later today and at least be all caught up on those before playing any more!!

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Standing on Skulls

After fighting the lightning-bloods that cheated their lord of skulls and spilt blood to a bloody standstill, the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile needed rest. Time to recuperate and tend to their wounds so that they may batter bleed and spill blood again... Scouts returned with news that the Stormcast had turned their attentions to a lord of the Plaguefather on their other flank, but after vanquishing a greater daemon, were heading back this way. 

Goretim the Reddish, Gore Chieftain, Lord of Khorne, arrayed his forces on the plain of skulls. What had once been a thriving community, was now naught but a wasteland of bone and corpses of the victims of the Vermindoom - those that did not immediately killed in the great upheaval, or succumbed to the cloying poisonous fog that followed, had their innards cooked from the inside due to the proximity of so much concentrated Emberstone that was disgorged from the realm in the great sundering... 

A small force of the Shoreward Vigil Ruination Chamber advanced cautiously towards the Khorne horde. Goretim knew the Lightning-Bloods tricks. There would be more of them in the sky waiting to ride the lightening into battle. There was no need for rashness... the Stormcast were here to purge, they would come to them. There was no need to tire his warriors charging across the stifling hot ruin to meet them...  

The Blood Warriors on the left flank spotted a cluster of Emberstone and moved out to secure it... 

A trio of hulking Annihilators crashed down from the heavens and upon the Blood Warriors caught in the open. The mammoth beasts pulverized the Blood Warriors with their absurdly huge Meteoric Grandhammers. But the Blood Warriors would not go down without a fight... they sent one back to Azyr on a bolt of lightning and staggered another, leaving the champion alone and exposed

The Blood Warriors alone held back the tide of sigmarite and their Slaughter was glorious. 

The Dawnbreakers, a swarm of prosecutors, swooped in to aid the last of the Annihilators just as he was brought to his knees, and brought low the remaining Blood Warriors. 

Then the Stormchamber fell upon the rest of the Khornate Horde... 

The Prosecutors swooped down on the Mighty Skullcrushers, so severely damaging their juggernauts they could not charge forth and retired to make repairs.. 

The Blood Reavers were chopped to bits, holding back the tide long enough for the Slaughterpriests to escape with their Emberstone troves. 

Goretim the Reddish could not let the day go without a little bloodshed, so he, along with Korgachz the Beast, his trusty Korgorath, charged past the melee and attacked Varyon Gloombreaker, the Knight-Azyros. 

The duo struck down the Knight-Azyros, sending him back to the Sigmarabulum... pulverizing the knight's sigmarite beneath their blades and hooves and claws.. but the lack of blood being spilt was unsatisfactory and the two turned and sulked off to join the others that had abandoned the field.... 

This was another game I played against Matt (who I'd just played on Monday!) and his Stormcast Eternals. 

The scenario we rolled up was "Standing on Skulls". The victory conditions were scoring a two victory points for each beast slain and one for each other unit slain. Considering I was the only one that had a beast (the Khorgorath) who ISN'T very tough (8 wounds, 5+ save - when his army all delivers multiple damage and has minimum 1 Rend).... and I had a larger number of considerably squishier units... there was ZERO chance I was going to win this, so I decided to just try and survive and carry off as much Emberstone as I could! 

My two Slaughterpriests survived and carried off an Emberstone Token each... and I gained two more as a participation trophy, bringing my total to eight. Matt has acquired EIGHTEEN in the three games he's played!? 

I had spent four before the game to gain the extra Slaughterpriest and put Bob Bloodblob on the Path of the Invoker at the Aspiring rank, and gained the Heard by the Divine ability (which didn't do much, as it gives the Priest +1 to Prayer rolls when using a Summon Prayer (to summon a manifestation... of which I have NONE!?) I figured it would be better to get the second Slaughterpriest first and at least be able to chant the two prayers I have at once, rather than give a single priest a third prayer to try and chant, when he can only attempt one per turn!? 

After THIS game I expended the four Emberstone Shards gained to add the Summon Hexgorger Skulls to my Prayer Scrolls - and brought on some new recruits - a group of Claws of Karanak tribespeople... The Bloody Claws of Karanak! 

Unfortunately, the Blood Warriors gained three more Battle Wounds - bringing them to a total of five, which meant they gained a Battle Scar - Scorched Limbs, they are now -1 to run and charge rolls... which is a bummer.. but they don't have any charge abilities, like the Mighty Skullcrushers, so it isn't always imperative that THEY be the one to charge... 

I have ANOTHER game planned for TOMORROW!! This time against Orion and her Soulblight Gravelords! Stay tuned! 

Spearhead - Fangs of the Blood God Mark Trees in Ghyran

 TWO GAMES of SPEARHEAD in ONE DAY!? 

(Well... not quite...) 

After playing John at the Warhammer store in the morning... I finally got Amanda to sit down and try a game in the evening. 

She decided to try out the Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse. I played with the Fangs of the Blood God again, as they were fresh in my head and I figured I'd be having to keep track of ALL THE THINGS for the Sylvaneth as well... 

There is a LOT of things to keep track of... and, and the end of a long day...  at the end of a long work week... Amanda was finding it a bit much. 

We did play through her first turn... 

Her Treelord and Kurnothi both made ranged attacks against one of my units of Flesh Hounds, destroying all but one of them... The Treelord had planned on charging the Flesh Hounds... but the last surviving one was now too far away... 

At the end of the round Amanda scored 5VP (3 for holding objective locations, one for the twist, and one from a card requiring her to hold the Dracotion objective - the other one she'd hoped to score was one requiring the use of a fight ability... which she wasn't able to do... because she killed too many Flesh Hounds with SHOOTING!?) 

At that point, we kind of had to call it though. Amanda was just too tired. Also, Morgan's room is right next door to the game room, and Amanda was worried they might not get to sleep if we were playing a game in there (They've started a job at a donut store, but they START at 5AM!?)

On my first turn, everything surged forward to the isolated unit of Tree-Revenants holding the objective in the center of the field of battle... 

and CHARGED!!!

One of my first rolls... Yeah... that's EIGHT ones... out of twenty-four dice... 

Despite abysmal dice rolling... they were utterly annihilated.. because... NUMBERS! 

So I scored three for objectives, one from the twist and one from a card, tying up the game. 

Starting off the next round, Amanda brought those Tree-Revenants right back onto the table as reinforcements... 

...and then used Walkers of the Hidden Paths to teleport them into my rear to potentially hold one of two objective areas... 

The Treelord maneuvered to charge into the mass of khorne daemons and cultists.

The Treelord charged Karanak

Just so you don't think I was the only one making crazy bad rolls... This was the Treelords first attack... needed 4+ to hit. Any that hit wounded on 2+ and then had one or two rend, dealing two or three damage each... I SHOULD have easily dealt 7+ damage, utterly destroying Karanak in one attack... but instead only did two damage!!?

Then Karanak tried to bite back... 

Apparently he was SO BUSY dodging the Treelords blows, he wasn't able to get one good chomp in!? (needed 4+ to hit...) 

Then the Treelord used the Sylvaneth Strike and Fade ability to just teleport out of there... 

With the Treelord there, it flipped one of the objectives and the Tree-Revenants scored the other. 

Amanda scored another six victory points (three for objectives and three for scoring all three cards!), bringing her total to eleven! 

On my turn, Karanak charged and managed to get all the way around the Kurnothi Hunters and get at the Branchwych! 

On the other side of the battlefield, some Flesh Hounds ran over and stood by the wall... okay, they probably peed on the wall... They did not engage the Treelord as it would have killed them and they needed to stay alive to score some points... 

This is what drives me a little crazy about this game... it is ALL about positioning and scoring points through objectives and you could conceivably play an entire game without fighting at all... and score lots of points... 

Karanak ate the Branchwych. 

The Kurnothi savaged the Claws of Karanak. 

I only got four victory points this round - two for holding objectives and two for cards... so now Amanda was ahead eleven to nine... 

The next round fighting continued in the one corner and the Kurnoth Hunters finished off the Claws of Karanak. 

The Treelord lumbered back into the middle of the Battlefield to seize the objective there. 

At the end of her turn, Amanda scored SEVEN Victory Points!? Three for holding three or more objective locations, one for the twist, and all three Tactic cards!? This pu her at Eighteen (double my nine points!?) 

The Claws of Karanak returned as reinforcements on my turn and they, along with one of the units of Flesh Hounds charged the isolated unit of Tree-Revenants... again... 

and... didn't QUITE wipe them out... but killed enough of them that I was able to take back an objective location.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, Karanak had whittled the Kurnothi down to ONE... 

At the end of the turn I only scored three points... two for objectives and one for the twist... 

Starting off the final round. The Treelord decided it was time for the Sylvaneth to get some vengeance... and utterly destroyed Karanak with some totally average rolls... The Kurnoth Hunter also finally killed the last Flesh Hound in the unit that had been reduced to one in her first turn... and then she just refused to kill it off, knowing that if she did, a full unit of five would return as reinforcements?! 

The last Tree-Revenant went down swinging! 

At the end of the turn Amanda scored three for objective locations and one for a card (Take the Head - for destroying Karanak and sending them back to the Brass Citadel) which brought her final tally to TWENTY-TWO Victory Points... 

Considering I was starting my final turn TEN points behind... things were not looking good. 

The Reinforcement unit of Flesh Hounds did, in fact, appear... and they went to hunt down that last Kurnothi.

Having despatched the last of the Tree-Revenants on Amanda's turn, the Claws of Karanak were free to spread out and seize another Objective loaction (all while keeping folks close enough to one of the Short Table Edges to score a card!) 

The other unit of Flesh Hounds likewise charged into the center of the battlefield to snatch back one of the other objective location! 

The reinforcement Flesh Hounds tore the Kurnothi apart into severalgood sized sticks, which they carried off and had a good chew on... 

In the end I scored a staggering SEVEN victory points! Three for objective locations, all three tactic cards, AND the Twist... it didn't help much though... 

it brought my total to Nineteen victory points, which meant Amanda won with her Twenty-Two!!

We'd originally planned to play a different game on Saturday afternoon, but this game took almost five hours...? There were a LOT of distractions and I had to explain a LOT to Amanda... and then reexplain it... F

Fun was had, though, and she says she'd be willing to play again and really like the Sylvaneth!