Age of Sigmar/Warhammer Fantasy discussion

[MiaKage]

Seer's Heart, a Town in Shyish, (we can be trade partners!) Home to Stormcast Eternals, Duradin, and Aelves. Within it's walls it houses a Legendary Library, a Renown Gunnery school, a Notorious Thieves guild was the Sight of Great Battle, and home to Legendary Monster Hunters! n.n

I also noticed Sisters of Avelorn had their names changed to Sisters of the Watch, I now have something to use my Waywatchers for n.n

[wander]

Lol, awesome! 

Perhaps the Duardin there are Fyreslayers, who are known for taking down monsters... Your free city seems really interesting!

And yes, the Sisters of the Watch would be them and that's a great proxy unit to field them. The Sisters are an aside very expensive points-wise, though they may get a point drop in 2nd edition and are actually really good at what they do, so they're worth the points if you can afford to put them in your force. 

[MiaKage]

I wish they would bring back Wardancers, such a fun unit n.n

I need to look into the new dwarf stuff for my dad, he has a decently sized dorf army. I saw some rules for the displaced and they seem kinda scary x.x

[wander]

The Dispossessed? That's the old dwarf units that aren't the artillery stuff. Hammerers, Warriors, Longbeards etc. So yeah, the classic dwarf units. 

I quite like me the Fyreslayers, they're a very cool army. Their only real flaw is a real lack on the magic/unbinding stuff (same as the Kharadron Overlords, who are also Duardin), however you can ally in them shiny new Stormcast Wizards when 2nd edition drops with them to cover for the magic lack. The Fyreslayers are also decent points-wise and if your dad has Slayers in his old army, they make cool proxies to give them a shot. :)

[MiaKage]

That's what I told him, he's a bit grumbly about having to learn the game over again, lol. He even has a special dwarf slayer that would be perfect for a Grimwrath Berzerker! Saw a battle report featuring them, they are really cool. Slayers were my favorite dorf unit n.n

[wander]

I feel the game is super easy to learn and pick up and play now though. With the removal of S and T being admittedly a bit of skub, a basic roll to hit and roll to wound with your defensive capability kept on armour save is very quick to do without referring to tables or having any janky Herohammer happening. 

'Course it's easy to learn the basic rules, though mastery comes from synergising your list and knowing which Heroes and Allies can benefit your force.

I'd recommend going for a 500pt game first to learn some basic unit special moves together, don't worry so much on winning/losing than getting the odd rule change down.

There's some things you may miss, like not being allowed to normal move within 3" of enemy units (you have to specifically wait for the charge phase and roll your charge on 2d6 to close the gap), the ability to shoot without penalty into a melee (though now in 2nd edition if your archers are in melee they can only fire at those they're in melee with) and also a charge doesn't mean that unit goes first in combat, in the combat phase of your turn the first unit to go is always yours and you go back and forth with the opposing player until you're both done.

Battleshock is super simple, merely roll a d6 for each unit that lost models, adding that number as a modifier. For each digit over that unit's Bravery, one model gets removed as slain, so there's no routing and running away and regrouping, those models are assumed to be killed whilst they fled from their unit.
Also remember for every 10 models currently in a unit when you battleshock test, you'll get a +1 buff to your Bravery. 

That's pretty much everything that may be easy to miss for a returning player. ^^

[wander]

Had a game of 2nd edition with my Pestilens force...

First thing was Command Points become a very important, if rare, commodity. I decided to go without using the Verminlord's 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes!' Command Ability to cover the cost to use 'Inspiring Presence' in the battleshock phase to skip needing to roll for it... However that was a mistake, as I was pumping out less attacks and facing Khorne, I had a bit of a back-lash to face up.

As such, going up to 1,500pts I may need to consider what extra Command Points I'm bringing, to cover a heavy attack and battleshock. Second mistake wasn't putting my Heroes more central to buff both units of Plague Monks, however due to the scenario in play I needed to veer the Heroes away to Objectives.

I blob up and don't daisy-chain usually and my friend had an elitey Khorne list, so the Split Unit rule never came to pass. I won the battle after, though I really felt I should have had more Command Points to cover my list. However I also liked 'Inspiring Presence' being moved to use in the battleshock phase, so I didn't need to guess and put a gamble on placing it on a blob in the hero phase and potentially it getting wasted.

[MiaKage]

What are your thoughts on the Kharadron Overlords? I've been looking more into some of the new armies AoS introduced, and they seem really neat n.n

[wander]

They are really awesome to look at, though I feel you need to be an experienced player with them. They synergise a lot with their airship models and you kinda need to know how to use transports the best to really gel with them.

Also, whilst they make a great gunline army, which is fairly rare in AoS, they don't have their own wizard, which is a weakness all Duardin armies have, as they favour technology. Essentially though, the Overlords are the 'ranged dwarves' and the Fyreslayers are the 'melee dwarves' and you can have either be an ally of the other, which can cover some gaps you may have in a list.

Their Code rules are fun, where you make a contract they follow which essentially are Warlord Traits going in and they have specific City-Ports where you say they hail from one and you get a unique rule for doing so.

What I would say is they're not a cheap force to buy, their airships can be a bit of a bastard to build, so I highly recommend playing them with proxy models at first to get a handle of them and then if you get a feel for them and know how you're gonna go, then look into buying and building the models for the force.

[wander]

2+ Tough on Youtube has been doing a series of videos this week on the opening Realmgate Wars narrative that opened AoS. I'll put them all here in a spoiler tag for those to catch up tomorrow night, before the big launch of 2nd edition. 

I've tweaked around a 1.5k and a 2k list for my Clan Pestilens (I'll be going Hysh for their home-realm as I want the Aetherstone Brooch as an artifact. It's power is you roll 1d6 when you spend a command point, on a 5+ you get it back. I'll give that to my Verminlord Corruptor as tbh, I keep forgetting about his Bilious Bell artifact to use it and the Hysh artifact is more useful for what I want from my army)...

2000pts, I end up with 160 Plague Monks!

I'll be posting my adapted 1,500pts list some time after the official release. I'm feeling the Verminlord will be casting the Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell and I'll be allying in Ratling Gun Weapon Teams from Clan Skryre rather than gambling on the Plagueclaw.

[MiaKage]

That's a lot of rats o.o

This weekend I'll be playing my first game in a couple years! n.n

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Allegiance: Wanderers
LEADERS
Nomad Prince (80)
- Artefact : Starcaster Longbow
Spellweaver (80)
- Heartwood Staff
Waywatcher (100)
Waywatcher (100)
UNITS
20 x Eternal Guard (160)
20 x Glade Guard (240)
20 x Glade Guard (240)
TOTAL: 1000/1000 WOUNDS: 80
LEADERS: 4/4 BATTLELINES: 3 (2+)

[wander]

Ja, Clans Pestilens is a horde army, it's four blobs of forty rats each. However they get +2 Bravery for every ten rats in a squad when doing Battleshock, so they're tarpits and now in 2nd edition you can wrap around as long as you're still the same distance away from the closest enemy model. 

8 boxes of plague monks though... Well 7 boxes after grabbing a Start Collecting box for the Plague Furnace and 20 monks.



Which Command Trait will you be using? (p.134 of General's Handbook) I think either Masterful Hunter or Eagle-Eyed are pretty good.

Is your Nomad Prince your Commander? It's less important in 2nd edition, tbh though you still need to know who's your Commander to put the Command Trait on them. 

Also if you don't message back before your game, good luck and I really hope you enjoy it and get a good feel with where you'll take things going forward! 

[MiaKage]

I'm actually thinking of dropping the Nomad Prince and replace him with another Spell Weaver, then swapping a Waywatcher with a Waystrider as my general with the Masterful Hunter trait for Hail of Doom Arrow hitting on 2+ n.n

[wander]

Sounds a plan! You'll want to keep your Waystrider near your Eternal Guard. If you're playing 2nd edition rules you can partake in all Command Abilities even for Heros that aren't your General and so you'll want them to buff the correct units.

The Waystrider however has lost some utility now that Inspiring Presence is used for a Command Point in the battleshock phase to auto-pass a battleshock on a unit, so no more gambling and their Command Ability loses some utility as you'd use it for rolling a battleshock and hoping you get a 1 to pile-in again with the Eternal Guard. You're gonna be lucky if that happens once a game though.

Btw the Wayfinder has the Hail of Doom arrow, not the Waystrider. However good call if you add the Wayfinder in as a general.  Give him the Falcon of Holthaven rather than the Starcaster Longbow if you do. The Wayfinder is a ranged beast and your Command Trait and basic ranged attacks will serve him well. The Falcon can dish out the odd Mortal Wound against anyone who tries to get near the Wayfinder and is a neat way of keeping him from harm. Have him near your Glade Guard to buff them, though like the Waystrider realise his buff isn't the most useful though may do in a pinch.

[MiaKage]

Wayfinder! that's what I meant, not sure why I said strider, even have finder in the modified list, hehe

I'm going to be going up against dorfs (dispossessed) and was thinking of taking the Shawl to add a bit of range defense, since I know he will bring at least one organ gun, and most likely some thunderers.

[wander]

That makes sense. I feel you have good numbers there, remember also your buffs.

The Eternal Guard's 'Fortress of Boughs' will allow them a 4+ save, which is pretty much the best save in the game, plus if they have Glade Shields (and they should always have them), they can reroll saves of 1, or 1 and 2 if in cover. Their standard bearer also gives them +2 Bravery in Cover, so if you have 20 and say you lose 2 and have 18, you're rolling Battleshock with Bravery 7 +1 for 10+ models +2 for Standard in Cover = Bravery 10. 

Remember whilst your Glade Guard have all 20 members they have 3+ to hit on archery rolls. That's gonna make them a target however, they have a 6+ save so get them in cover to make it a 5+ save and then get the Bravery buff from their Penant Bearer too (Remember your Spellweavers can use 'Blessing of Life' to bring dead Wanderers back to life too, arm them with Mystic Blows not the Heartwood Staff as the Mystic Blows will make contact more often. You lose rend, though saves are often low enough not to worry about.)

Also with your Glade Guard, save your Arcane Bodkins to break the Dwarve's support units. Dispossessed have 4+ across the board, so the Arcane Bodkin will negate the armour save of your target, meaning you just need to score enough wounds to delete the target or wreck it enough to reduce the threat.

If you're playing to objectives, get to claiming them, camp there and take cover and don't move out. Wanderers are a Gun-line army and are actually all about getting to where they need to be early as they get buffs from staying still behind cover, so initial placement is key.

[MiaKage]

I plan on using the Eternal Guard as a buffer, hopefully holding off the dorfy throng. I believe they get a 3+ save if they are in cover, don't they? Needing 20 to get that 3+ to hit with glade guard is one of the reasons why in a larger game, I plan on taking them in groups of 30. They may be quick, but they is super squish! hehe

[wander]

Yeah, they would get a 3+, with the +1 buff the Fortress gives and the +1 for cover.

That's exceptionally nasty... 

As a Pestilens player I don't get much Rend to reduce that back down, though the Plague Furnace's Great Censor deals mortal wounds. Plague Priests have -1 Rend and my planned allied Ratling Guns also have -1 Rend. The thing with Pestilens though is they're made to throw out buckets of dice. In 2nd edition there is better ability to wrap around smaller units in the Combat Phase now, so whilst having a 3+ save is great against the usual 3-5 saves a unit may get, Pestilens pump a lot more made 'to wound' rolls into the enemy... 

You shouldn't have that with vanilla Dorfs so much though. Just remember Mortal Wounds skip over armour and are automatic. Not sure what kind of output the Dorfs can do in that regard, though always be prepared for them nevertheless. 

[wander]

As promised for the release going on right now for 2nd edition Age of Sigmar, here's the rundown of the opening saga that opened the Age of Sigmar. Not long after the end of this series, the Tzeentch Arcanites were released soon after this series came to a close.

The Realmgate Wars Saga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0VxOoUpdxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at299Ov426U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3ToZBvcWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChnFYUYu1Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8dhoYzNluA

You can read what's been happening since then leading up to Soul Wars here;

https://malignportents.com/stories/

Which details the run-up and eventual fallout of the Malign Portents campaign that went by most recently. There's stories for pretty much each of the main factions and they're lil mini-stories, so can be read a few at a time.

And that should give you all the lore you need to get stuck in! ^^

[MiaKage]

I won! So it was 2 x 20 glade guard, 20 eternal guard, 2 x spellweavers (which did nothing >3< ), Waywatcher, and Wayfinder vs 20 longbeards, 20 warriors, 20 thunderers, a gyrocoptor, 2 x runelords, and a warden (i think, the dorf lord)

I got first turn, put my eternal guard into defense mode inside terrain, moved my glade guard up a little to get in range and killed nearly his entire thunderer unit with 42 shots, the ones that didn't die, ran. He moves up and shoots my eternal guard with the gyrocoptor, killing one. He gets a charge off with the longbeards but not the warriors, but only killing two. Eternal guard in response ends up killing 5-8 I think after battleshock. I only got one spell off the entire game due to his runelords getting +2 to dispel >3<

My Wayfinder did get to use his hail of doom arrow ability, getting a wopping 6 attacks! and killed one dorf with it, hehe. Waywatcher completely failed as well, don't think he ever got kill anything. Eternal guard did hold out like I hoped they would, really like them n.n

[wander]

Gonna jet for the night currently, though I'll be back tomorrow to talk more on the Corebook and new General's Handbook! I have both! ^^

In the meantime, hope you had a fun time Mia, what Battleplan if any did you play and what would you change if anything in your army now you've played with them?

[MiaKage]

We just did a simple pitched battle, just till we get the rules down. I'm not sure I'd change anything, I'd need to play a few more games. I got super lucky with my rolls, so I cut down most of his army before he got to me.

I did get the 2018 handbook on the app, happy to see drops in points for my Infantry, super sad to see point increases for heroes >3<

[wander]

Gotcha. I recommend for a second game to try a Battleplan as it'll involve Objectives, usually you net victory points for having a unit control them. Limit the game to five turns and you'll be able to see more on which units act well in specific scenarios and may survive until the end of the game. :)

It's super helpful especially to have something to act as a tracker for whose turn it is and what game turn it is also. As AoS does a roll-off each turn to see who goes first, rather than a traditional 'you go, I go, you go, etc' way of play. I have a piece of paper that I drew a line of 10 boxes, five for my round in the turns, five for my mate's. Then we move a coin through the boxes at the start of our turns.

Pestilens got buffed in the 2018 Handbook, the Plague Furnace and Plagueclaw both dropped by 20pts. The Congregation of Filth went up by 30pts though (mildly annoying as the other Pestilens battallions went down in cost, though they're all rubbish ones tbh). However the 'Master of Rot and Ruin' Command Trait I put on my Verminlord Corruptor now gives him the Priest keyword, so when I roll for Pestilent Prayers with him, he can now activate the Echoes of Great Plagues! 



The new Corebook is huge, it's a brick of a tome... Nearly 220 pages of pure fluff and lore at the front, which has some pretty awesome things. First 75 pages is the history of the setting, from the Realms forming and Sigmar being taken to them by Dracothian, to the recent Necroquake that has given birth to the Endless Spells.
The Realms follow next, with a fair amount of fluff on each. The main ones already seen a lot in lore get maps and what a sample denizen of that Realm looks like. They're Fire, Life, Metal and Death. Sadly the Realms of Shadow, Light, Beasts, Heaven and Chaos get around two pages each. Makes sense as those realms aren't as prominent in the current narrative, outside the Realm of Beasts, which is where the Greenskins mostly dwell. I was surprised to not get more on that.

Factions are next. Wanderers get a little bit more on them than we had before. We learn more about the ley-lines they're trying to restore by planting waystones through the Realms and that they have a symbiotic relationship with free cities as they act as scouts and guerillas in exchange for food and shelter. They're still hoping one day to be forgiven by Alarielle for retreating when Nurgle invaded the Realm of Life.

Skaven got a two page spread, though lumped together as a whole. This was a little bit disappointing to me, as the Major Clans get merely a sentence each in flicking through. I'll read up and see what new fluff they get soon though. It'd be nice to get a Skaven Battletome, though I worry it'll leave the Pestilens force I have underpowered if they do consolidate like that.

Past the Main Rules (which can be downloaded in the free pdf) there's the Grand Alliance allegiance abilities.
Then the Realms of Battle rules, for having a battle in a Realm of choice, which was last in the 2017 General's Handbook, though now they're in the Corebook and seven Realms are there (all except Heavens and Chaos) and expanded to have a Spell that any Wizard can use for the battle, a Command Ability to use and then you roll a d6 to see what Realmscape Feature happens. ^^
This has actually simplified using the Realm rules down that I'd really love to give them a go as soon as I can, as whilst the General's Handbook listed a whole bunch of things, now you roll for just one randomly (My Pestilens boys still don't like the Realm of Metal's Steel Rain, though now they get a 6+ save against it so it won't instadelete the plague monks and it may not even appear as it needs to be rolled for now ^^). Way less unique special rules to try and remember, making a game using them smoother. Still optional, though now they seem way more fun to try.

The Open War Battle Generator for random rolling a Battleplan seems fun. May try it for my next friendly game in a Match Play battle. The Siege and Darkest Depth rules (with sample Battleplans for both) appear in the Narrative Play section and also seem like a fun addition. Me and my friend are trying to forge more of a narrative now, so these could be fun to add down the road. The Coalition of Death, Triumph and Treachery and the Pitched Battle rules are all in the rules section here now. These have Battleplans too, with the Pitched Battle as the main default of play having the 1d6 table to choose randomly which of the six Pitched Battle Battleplans to play. Essentially consolidating what was optional from the former General's Handbook into the Core Rulebook now after some minor balancing tweaks.

Final bit of the Corebook has rules for 'Battle Strategies', which is essentially playing the AoS version of 'Maelstrom of War' from 40k. A d66 table of random player objectives for a turn is presented for a more dynamic way of battle and claiming victory points. I had no idea this was going to be in the book, so it was a really nice surprise. I expect a 'Battle Strategies' card deck will be released soon to coincide with this.

[MiaKage]

I did find a video on youtube that told one of the stories about the wanderers that I thought was super neat. The group were checking around (can't remember which realm) and some scouts found a cave full of bugs and moss and other cave dwelling plants/creatures. They go back and let the lord know and he brings everyone to the cave to place a Waystone, but find out some ogre thing moved into the cave and it's presence killed all the life there or froze it or something. They had a big fight with it and thought the location was a lost cause for the waystone, but then the corpse pooted, which then gave the Leader an idea. When they left, they describe the waystone being planted into the belly of the ogre, because it needs life to feed off of in order to work I think, and since the ogre was a decaying body, it had the nutrients needed to invigorate the stone n.n

[wander]

That's Arvandus, I saw that vid too! ^^

Arvandus does small fan-fictions and explanations of each faction on youtube. They have a whole channel of videos that do that and they're really awesome at what they do.

Here's their video for muh ratboi faction. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5466gFq8Ug