Spearhead - Doubles

Late last year, Games Workshop released some Doubles rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spearhead. So back in December we decided to try it out. Orion  and Nick were coming over to play Soulbound on a Sunday afternoon and brought over her two Soulblight Gravelord armies to play with in the evening after we had some pizza! Orion  and Nick played the Soulblight Gravelord armies, and Amanda and I played with our Sylvaneth and Stormcast Eternal forces, respectively. 

(Originally I'd through of playing the two Khorne Spearhead armies so it could be an Soulblight versus Khorne battle... but Amanda has a hard enough time remembering the rules for the rules for the Sylvaneth that she's played at least half a dozen times, so I thought it would be best to stick with that, and the Stormcast do team up with the Sylvaneth quite regularly in the greater narrative of the Age of Sigmar, so....) 

Orion played the Soulblight Gravelord Deathrattle Tomb Host army and Nick played the Soulblight Gravelord Bloodcrave Hunt. Amanda played the Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse, and I played the Stormcast Eternal Vigilant Brotherhood.

We had the first go, I advised caution, but Amanda wanted to play aggressively and just go for it... 

So her Treelord advanced and seized an objective... 

The Stormcast also surged forward... 

So both sort of advancing evenly... 

And then the Charge Phase happened 

And the Stormcast swept forward into the Undead lines... 

The Prosecutors took the fight right to the Enemy General! 

It got... messy... 

and drew most of the two spearhead forces into a savage melee! 

and... Amanda and Orions armies just sort of stared at each other across the grassy green fields of Ghyran... 

We took an initial lead in the Victory Points... which really just meant Nick and Orion were the underdogs for the entire game and got all the advantages of being so... 

On the bottom of the first round, Some skeletons charged the Tree-Revenants...

Meanwhile, my Stormcast Eternals were almost entirely destroyed! 

The Lord Veritant took charge of the remaining Liberators and tried to hold on to ALL THE OBJECTIVES... 

Amanda sent the treelord over my way to help out... 

Since most of the fighting was going on over on my side of the table!? 

Kurnothi and Tree-Revenants trying to deal with one unit of skeletal warriors that just kept standing up again as fast as the treeples could knock them down... 

More savage combat over on my side of the table... now involving a Tree-Lord! 

Tree-Revenants were finally killed off and a replacement unit brought back mid-field for... reasons...? 

MORE brutal combat over this ONE Objective location!? 

Kurnoth Hunters holding the left flank! 

All the stormcast destroyed, only the Treelord remained to fight off the Vampire and Wight cavalry... 

Kurnoth Hunters used Strike and Fade to slip out of combat and deep behind enemy lines and seize one of their objectives. 

Tree-Revenants did similar with their other teleport ability... 

Reinforcement Prosecutors arrive to harass skeletons and keep them contained and from running all over the left flank seising all the objectives... 

Vargheists drop in and seize objectives... 

Vampire General does the same... 

Treelord still fighting the Undead that just won't go away... 

Liberator reinforcements arrive and attack the Vampire General 

End of the game... not a lot left on the table... 

On their final turn of the final round, Nick and Orion scored enough points to tie up the game... 

It was a fun game. I liked it better than regular Spearhead. It was a long day of gaming and a long game and ended up being a bit of a let down to fight so hard to hang onto that early lead only to have it tied up at the very end. I swear if we (okay, if **I**) could only make AVERAGE rolls, it would have been a pretty solid victory... 

Would play this again, though! 

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Storm the Pass

After collecting enough skulls from the Skeletal Legions of the Soublights and slaughtering their leader... twice... the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile marched on...  They travelled along a valley heading for another pass through the Ademaitine Chain of mountains, hoping to make it to the coastline. 

As they neared the pass, however, they noticed a force of their hated enemy, the Stormcast Eternals, were also marching on the same pass from an adjoining valley! 

Suddenly it was a race to seize the entrance to the pass! 

"Go! GO!! SEIZE THE PASS!! Let not the hated Lightning Bloods get there first!"

Goretim the Reddish called out for his Bloodreavers on the flank to veer off and try and slow the Stormcast's advance! 

Before they could get far, the Stormcast surged forward with alarming speed and were well on their way to making it to the pass... 

Then MORE of them arrived, riding the lightning from Azyr! (While arrows from the Stormcast archers thinned the ranks of the Bloodreavers. 

Then the Stomcast came crashing into the Bloodbound lines.. 

The Bloodreavers and Khorgorath were overrun, but Goretim the Reddish stood firm and smashed down many of the foe, sending the BACK to Azyr to be reforged... 

The Blood Warriors and the strange cos-playing Cultists of Karanak, neared the entrance to the pass, having flanked around a large rock outcropping. 

But soon the tide of Stormcast turned their attention to them. 

Bob Bloodblob shouted to the remaining bloodbound "Let the blood Flow! Even if it is your blood! I will carry off this treasure to make better weapons with which to destroy our future enemies and attempted to flee with the Emberstone Shards he had gathered in the valley. 

But the GREED of Sigmar's puppets is insatiable... and they chased him down, beat him to a pulp, and stole all his ember shards... and his lunch money... and gave him a wedgie...

And THEY call themselves the "good" guys... 

The Blood Warriors sold themselves dearly, taking down three of the hulking Annihilators, before the soulless Reclusians stormed in to remorselessly beat them down into the dirt of Aqshy, like the unthinking automatons that they are... 

The survivors dragged themselves, and others that could not drag themselves, back down the valley from whence they came... The Slaughterpriests enacted blood rituals to seal the wounds of some... but others were so damaged from the ordeal that they would never recover, bearing the scars for the rest of their days... (Bob Bloodblob ended up with Unyielding Blisters battle scars and The Red Marauders also ended up bearing Smouldering Scars!)

They felt little shame in their defeat, however... Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows... and the blood did flow on this day! 

Despite the grievous loss, the horde gathered three more Emberstone Shards along the path of their retreat - and Goretim the Reddish further enhanced his anti-wizard abilities (advanced on the Path of the Slaughterer to the MIGHTY rank and took the Breaker of the Arcane ability - he can now unbind spells as though he was a Wizard (Level 1!) AND each time he successfully does unbind a spell, the wizard attempting to cast it is reduced one level in their wizarding ability (to a minimum of ZERO!) for THE REST OF THE GAME!!! 

Another fun game with Matt! 

The scenario background suggests the two forces are trying to seize a land bridge, but I though the entrance to a pass would work just as well! I thought it was one of the two scenarios I hadn't played from the Scorched Outskirts battleplans - the ones that you start with until you have accumulated 20 Emberstone - but then realized after the game it was one of the scenarios from the Gnaw's Edge, the scenarios can move onto once you have accumulated 20 shards... ah well... 

Wow... just getting pummelled in these games. I mean, in terms of fluff.. the blood is flowing, so Khorne is pleased... sooooo... yay...? AND I am still collecting SOME Emberstone Shards and the army is sort of getting better... but being tabled EVERY GAME means the units are starting to gain battle scars... 

Mind you, so far, it has not hindered them TOO much. The Blood Warriors that have Scorched Limbs (-1 to Run and Charge rolls!) rolled a SIX for EVERY run roll they made this game (three of them!) so the scorched limbs don't seem to be slowing them down... 

Path to Glory: Ravaged Coast - Light the Fires

Because playing ONE Path to Glory campaign with Amanda (Path to Glory - Methervale Campaign) apparently wasn't enough, I've embarked on a SECOND campaign with some of the people in the AoS-YXE Discord. 

For this campaign we are using the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Path to Glory - Ravaged Coast campaign book. I've been wanting to try it out and get a campaign going since I picked up the book in January... and now... in December... after Ravaged Coast has been removed from shelves as a NEW Path to Glory campaign book is likely to be released in the next month or so... we are FINALLY getting around to it! 

I've created a page to track my warband. You can find it here:

Path to Glory - Ravaged Coast Campaign

For the first game I played against Matt and his Stormcast Eternals of the Ruination Chamber. The scenario we played was "Light the Fires", wherein our respective forces were to secure two large ancient braziers to light and cleanse the air that is choked by a dense, corrupted boiling smog... 

(The photos aren't great... I was using my cheap phone and the Back room at Dragon's Den Games is not the brightest, most well lit place I've played games it...)

Matt kicking things off... 

Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile, led by my warlord Goretim the Reddish - Lord of Khorne. 

Prosecutors and Knight-Azyros move to secure one of the ancient braziers. 

Lord-Terminos and Reclusians secure the other brazier.

The warriors of Sigmar stand steady as they face down a HORDE of Bloodbound warriors! 

A small unit of Vigilors secure a trove of Emberstone Shards, then go hunting for the followers of the Blood God... 

The Korgorath surged ahead of all the others, making it to the great brazier... The great beast was cut down by the warriors of the Ruination Chamber... but it held them up for a moment... 

...until the Blood Warriors and Bloodreavers could come crashing onto the scene. 

The Lord Terminos was one of the first to fall, cut down by the Blood Warriors that had been filled with Uncontrolable Rage by the Slaughterpriest! The Reclusions sold themselves dearly, for each that was sent back to Azyr on a bolt of lightning, a dozen of the Bloodbound were slaughtered. 

Not that the Bloodbound seemed to care... for their lord Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows! 

On the other flank, Goretim the Reddish approached the other brazier held by the Prosecutors and Knight-Azyros.

In a flurry of celestial wings and brazen hooves, Mighty Skullcrushers were felled and the Knight-Azyros was knocked out of the sky! 

Eventually, all that was left was Goretim the Reddish... who eyed up the distant Vigilors... 

Meanwhile, Prosecutors rallied behind one of the nearby ruins. 

Goretim charged the Vigilors and rode them down... He then chased down and destroyed the last of the Prosecutors... only to have more appear as reinforcements. 

In the distance, the last remaining Reclusians watch the Khornate Lord and hold he brazier they were meant to secure...

The game ended as a draw. After the first two turns, I was pretty sure it was going to end in a defeat for the Bloodbound, as I was down 3-0... but in the next few rounds I managed to claw away control of the objective areas and score enough points to tie up the game at 4 victory points each. 

Post game we each determined how many Emberstone Shards we'd secured. I ended up with four and the Stormcast ended up with five. These can then be spent on a number of different things; progressing heroes or units along a path, gaining enhancements or spells or prayers, recruiting new warriors, and more.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with mine... Not sure if I should spend them on making the units I have better, either through progress along a Path or Heroic Enhancements or Artefacts of Power or Spells... OR do I just add more units to my army? And if so, WHICH units!? 

I took the Bloodbound Warhorde Battle Formation, so I should probably stick to Bloodbound... but I the only other bloodbound units I have painted are the Skullreapers and a second Slaughter Priest... I guess I could start with those. I'm not sure I really want to spend time painting Bloodbound right now, when I have so many Maggotkin and Sylvaneth I want to be working on!? (I do have another ten Blood Warriors and THIRTY Bloodreavers!) 

I am tempted to paint up the Bloodreavers... just to have a cheap speedbumps and Blood Tithe Generators!? 

Also after the battle Battle Wounds are rolled for - to see how damaged units or heroes that were taken out during the game are... if enough Battle Wounds are accumulated, units gain Battle Scars... but some units can be tended to and their Battle Wounds reduced each game. Every Single Unit I rolled for gained two Battle Wounds. Both the Lord of Khorne and Slaughterpriest were able to cook up some healing blood ritual and the Slaughterpriest healed himself and Goretim healed his Mightly Skullcrushers. I imagine some do die, and the Battle Wounds and Scars represent weaker, less experienced warriors replacing the more experienced ones that died, as much as it represents warriors being hindered by their wounds. 

Anyway, it was good fun and I'm glad I got this started! looking forward to what the Blood Siblinghood of the Slaughter-Gut-Pile might get up to next...