The last couple of weeks have flown past in a flurry of painting, gaming and real-life commitments. I’ve completed all of the models I was working on, had a weekend full of Age of Sigmar games, sorted out a large portion of my garden, visited one of the Amazon fulfilment centres, listened to a talk on happiness with Professor Robert Winston one evening and had new patio doors measured and quoted for… This has meant that some things have had to be put on the back burner and last week’s blog post has sadly been one of the casualties 🙁
Age of Sigmar Gaming Weekend
Last weekend myself and a few friends managed to get together and crammed in four games of Age of Sigmar round my house (plus a game of Silver Tower). We used a 4ft x 4ft board which fits comfortably on my dining table and I have to admit that I’m really impressed with how well the game plays. The rules are simple enough to grasp in a single game and pretty fast. Unlike 40k, you don’t develop that “brain ache” from playing for more than an hour either. With a bit more planning, next time I can see us easily getting three games in within a single day.
I am also really impressed with what a nice game Silver Tower is. Although I was a bit dubious about Warhammer Quest being moved into the Age of Sigmar realm, it actually played out really well and I can see it becoming a regularly played game.
Growing the Goretide
My Goretide performed pretty well overall and has certainly helped me decide on the next step of the army, which is to slowly replace the Blood Reavers with more durable units. I’ve decided that a unit of ten Blood Warriors is going to be my next step, so have just ordered them from Element Games. I expect I’ll paint the Blood Reavers up at some point when we increase the number of models in use and I fit in a Chaos Warshrine (which can give them a much needed 6 save).
After discussion following the weekend, we’ve all decided that adding a Monstrous Creature to our 30 model armies won’t be too overpowered. We’ve clarified Monstrous Creatures as any model that has a wound table on that changes their performance. After much deliberation I think my only option is a Bloodthirster. Longer term, I want to add a Mutalith Vortex Beast and Chaos Warshrine but I believe that these work better in larger armies. What I do need to think about is how to handle this as the Battalion Warscroll I’ve been using requires a fairly large fixed component (minimum of 19 models), so it’s quite limiting.
I also need to start building up a bit more scenery, although it doesn’t cause as much of an impact as it does in 40k, having a selection of scenery does make the game more interesting and means when you’re playing a lot of games, each one can be visually different to the rest.
Things to Make
Before my next game, one thing I want to do is to get all of my Warscrolls onto crib cards, so I’ve a quick and easy reference system. Flicking between books and A4 printed sheets is a complete pain and it’s quite easy to miss or forget something (which we all did). I also think doing the same for specific scenery pieces would make sense – for example the Chapel, Walls and Fences or Temple of Skulls. Making them around 15cm x 10cm in size means you should be able to fit a whole unit on one card without the text becoming illegible.
In a similar vein, I also want to create a load of tokens so I can easily mark units that have received buffs or suffered wounds and any game wide effects such as from Battalion rules. The Khorne Bloodbound has a massive number of abilities that kick off and do various things which can be a nightmare to track, so I’ll make a token for when the Bloodsecretor plants his banner ( 1 Attack to friendly Khorne within 18″ and immune to Battleshock to all Khorne within 18″), three tokens for the Gorelord Command Ability (roll 3 dice for charge and pick the two highest) and so on. A stack of Empowered tokens which can be placed within any Mystical scenery so it’s nice and easy to remember to roll for units with 3″ and so on.
Coming up from Games Workshop
Overall things have been fairly quiet on the Games Workshop front and only a couple of things of interest. The first has been the announcement of a “Muster for War” summer campaign for both Age of Sigmar and 40k (although I’ve only seen one advert for 40k so may be a hoax). From what we’ve been told this campaign is the end of the “Age of Chaos” era, the results from games submitted will determine the shape of the next era, what armies receive new models and generally affect the storyline. Currently it appears that you need to go into a GW store to register game results although you won’t have to game in a store. This has angered some people who don’t live very close to a store, but I can see the logic as it will ensure that people don’t submit fictitious results en-masse.
I have read a rumour that the Age of Sigmar Generals Handbook is due for release on the 21st July but stores will have a copy around the 8th (or possibly the 1st). Not entirely sure if I believe this although stores having the points system in time for the campaign does make a huge amount of sense and would encourage people to go into stores.
Secondly Games Workshop announced yesterday that White Dwarf is once again going back to a monthly publication, which has universally been approved of. They’re also offering a special price for quarterly, six-monthly and annual subscriptions. This is really good and even with a cover price of £5.99 it works out cheaper than the weekly publication. The only frustrating thing is that it means I won’t have nice binders to put them in!
Weekly Challenge
Sadly this weekend isn’t entirely free for me to crack on with hobby things; I’ve got a load of rubbish to sort out in the garden in preparation for collection plus family over on Saturday evening. My hope though is to continue work with my Khorgorath, which I potentially could finish if I get enough time on him. I do want to get the gaps on my Mighty Lord of Khorne filled and then undercoated as I think the weather is meant to be dry again and who knows how long it will last! My new box of Blood Warriors should also arrive tomorrow or Saturday so that’s another modelling project if I want a bit of variety.
- Continue work on the Khorgoroth
- Fill gaps and undercoat Mighty Lord of Khorne
- Assemble Blood Warriors
I expect that I’ll start painting the Blood Warriors once I finish the Khorgoroth and save the Lord of Khorne until the end, sorting out all of the bases in one hit. Once they’re done I’ll think about picking up the Bloodthirster and looking at getting some scenery and my Realm of Battle boards painted up.
