July 1, 2016 | Runebrush's Blog

Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook and Swindon Store Birthday Bash

Hot on the heals of the Forge World Open Day, the next bit of excitement has been the release of the Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook! I headed over to my closest Games Workshop store (Swindon) and managed to pick up one of only 12 copies the store received. I’ve said it before, but I really don’t understand why the stores aren’t sent quantities based on their average footfall, Swindon is a very popular store – by the time I left (spent an hour looking round and talking to staff) they’d sold all of the copies they had…

Swindon Store Birthday

Saturday was coincidently a birthday weekend for the store, who had laid on cake, balloons and various events during the weekend. Really impressed – there was a queue waiting outside for the store to open too, proving what a popular store it is. In addition to the Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook, I also picked up a box of Wrathmongers (as at that point I had almost finished my Mighty Lord of Khorne) and a compulsory pot of paint, because of the amount I spent I got a birthday grab bag consisting of a GW bag, black Aquila pin badge, wristband and a 4Gb memory stick – really nice little surprise.

Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook

Well what can I say – it was worth the wait! The internet has been awash with points values and battleline units for weeks now but I’m happy to say that this is only a portion of the content of the book. The rest of the pages are full of how to play in different styles, running campaigns and how to get more out of your games of Age of Sigmar. You also get allegiance abilities for each Grand Alliance, equipment for your heroes in the form of Artifacts and a few extra rules for tournaments. There are also a load of new Battleplans for playing scenarios that fit particular play styles.

I’m still reading through everything but I can see this being really moving the game system forwards. Adding points is likely the biggest change and I see old school “Open Play” going by the wayside a little, however I think points are simply going to level the playingfield when it comes to casual games rather than being a massive straight jacket. I just think we’re no longer going to see somebody placing a load of monstrous creatures against two units of Night Goblins.

All in all I would recommend anybody serious about playing to pick up the Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook

Goretide

As I alluded to earlier my Mighty Lord of Khorne is now finished and his hound successfully glued into place. I took a punt and used a different colour scheme for the hound than Duncan did on WarhammerTV. It’s actually come out really nicely but I’ve had to order the orange Edge paint for the final highlight as the ones I have are too bold in my opinion.

This has put me at 720 points in total – so 280 points off what I need for the game in August. After a bit of questioning on The Grand Alliance forum I’ve gone for Wrathmongers as my next unit in the hope these will give me a bit of anti-monster punch.

Forge World Open Day 2016 – Event Round Up

21-Jul-16 by RuneBrush

General
Reviews

With each event I attend of Games Workshops’ the quality and organisation continues to improve. It would appear that the events team have managed to shackle the unruly organisation beast and now making it sing to their tune. Myself and Penddraig arrived at Warhammer World for the Forge World Open Day around 9am and the queue had already reached the farthest corner of the car-park and then continued to stretch past the Sigmar logo on the side of the main office building. The queue started at 7am… It is staggering to see how popular this event has become over the past ten years.

As with most Games Workshop events, you need to speak to the staff and ask questions. If you don’t then your event will be pretty lack-lustre. It’s also important to remember that these people are as enthusiastic about the hobby as we are, but are also professionals – asking them sensible questions will get you a better answer than asking something stupid or childish, or criticising them for a decision. Continue reading “Forge World Open Day 2016 – Event Round Up” →

Five Weekends until the Age of Sigmar Open Day and Seeds of Hope Campaign

6-Jul-16 by RuneBrush

Age of Sigmar
General

Get ready for a bit of procrastination – I’ve got a new hobby deadline!

Age of Sigmar Open Day

The 13^th August is the Age of Sigmar Open Day and I’ve decided (possibly stupidly) to put my name down for the free gaming day on the Sunday. Currently the only information we have is that it’s related to the Seeds of Hope summer campaign event and that we’ll find out a bit more at a later date.

Goretide Progress

With that date in place, it’s time have a muse and see where I am with my Goretide and how best to structure the remaining days until the Age of Sigmar Open Day. Through a very imprecise calculation, I’ve got about three full weekends free between now and the Open Day once I take out things like the Forge World Open Day. I generally have 3 evenings each week over the next six(ish) weeks and an odd spare weekend day too.

On the surface I’ve barely done anything on my Bloodbound, my painted model count is currently at 8 of which all need their bases done, one needs a some bits finished and another needs varnishing. Oh and I was thinking of applying a verdigris effect too. Not particularly impressive. But that’s enough negativity 🙂

The ten Blood Warriors I’m currently working on should be finished by the end of this coming weekend (though it is a busy weekend). I’ve finished the flesh highlight so just got onto the edge highlighting which I’m hoping won’t be too arduous. This will more than double what I’ve got painted and give me a very solid core for the army. After that I think I need to crack out the Mighty Lord of Khorne, who I hope I can do in a couple of weeks, possibly less (the base might be huge but it is after all only two models). If I can get him done in time for the 23^rd (Generals Handbook release day) I’ll be really chuffed.

Once he’s done I’ll have painted roughly half of the Bloodbound I’ve currently got and reckon I should be half way into my timetable. By then I should know what I’m going to need to play on the Sunday (with luck) and have an idea if playing is feasible and if so what I’m going to need to get done. One benefit is that at that point I’ll have two completely free weekends before the Age of Sigmar Open Day. Given how long I’ve taken to paint the Blood Warriors, this should be enough time to crack out another unit and base all of them in one hit. Looking at the Bloodreavers, they look simpler to paint than the Blood Warriors – a lot less edge highlighting (though more flesh) which could mean that I may be able to paint up all 20. My back up plan is to pick up a couple of boxes of Bloodletters, who are much simpler to paint (plus the base colours can be airbrushed on in a couple of hours) and can go with another unit of ten my brother has offered to loan me.