The stars are finally aligning so that we can play the Season of War Campaign for Age of Sigmar. The General's Handbook is but a few fleeting moments away from all of us. The Sylvaneth ride at the forefront of this new and glorious revolution for the Age of Sigmar and the Realm Gate Wars come to a close with a not a whimper, but a cacophony of sound.
Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war...
If you can't tell, I am more than a little excited for the direction that AoS is headed here in the near future. Nothing is more exciting than the new Battletome Sylvaneth, General's Handbook, and the Summer Campaign.
I finally got to experience two of the new items coming to us in the General's Handbook the other night, in the form of two excellent games against quality opponents.
Sinscaptain's Skaven vs Quintessential Hipster's DEATHstar
It had to be decided how nuts we could go with the points system to see if there was balance in some of the named characters now.
Short answer: Nagash and the Mortarchs are still absolutely ridiculous.
In a 2000 point game we had the following armies.
DEATHstar
Nagash (900)
Arkhan (340)
Morghast Archai - 2 models (240)
Morghast Archai - 2 models (240)
Morghast Archai - 2 models (240)
This list is simple, small, fluffy, and absolutely brutal. Because Morghast become battleline if you play all Deathlords, it was absolutely disgusting. The matched play rules allow you to resummon dead models and units, as long as you don't go over the original starting points value of your army. So, having (3) units of super bodyguards and Nagash pumping out 4-5 spells a turn plus Arkhan giving Nagash Mystic Shield (his one job the whole game as it turned out), this is a mean list that takes a lot of umphf to get through.
Sinful Skaven
Verminlord Corrupter (240)
Plague Priest - Staff (80)
Warlord (100)
Plague Furnace (220)
Arch-Warlock (140)
Clanrats - 20 (120)
Clanrats - 20 (120)
Clanrats - 20 (120)
Plague Monks - 20 (140)
Plague Monks - 20 (140)
Plague Censer Bearers - 10 (120)
Plague Censer Bearers - 10 (120)
Plagueclaw Catapult (180)
Doomflayer Weapon Team (80)
Plaguesmog Congregation (80)
This hodgepodge army comes from having to pull from other subfactions of the Skaven in order to make it to 2000 points. My original intention was to try and make it all Clan Pestilent, but having to pull from other things meant that I had to take a Clanrat tax. I could have taken only (30) clanrats total, but I figured that it would be a pain to only have a few small units on the table that were going to get eaten by Nagash in one turn. We were playing the 3rd scenario from the GHB I think.
As it turns out, everything that you hear about Nagash is true. After 2 turns, I was down to 40 Clanrats spread throughout the table and a Warlord. Against his entire army still as he'd managed to bring back the (2) Archai that I had killed in one turn with a massive Plague Monk charge.
Word to the wise - if you are playing against Nagash, bring something that can kill Nagash.
He managed to cast hand of dust(?) and roll all 12 wounds off of my verminlord.
This game may not be the best example of a balanced point system, but it did let us put a bunch of models on the table that we though *maybe* might be balanced through the points? Great game, awesome table, good times and good rolls. But man alive Nagash hits like a freight train!
GAME 2
Quintessential Hipster's Silly String Skeletons vs Sinscaptain's Putrescent Hordes vs The Knights Who Say Nee
So this was a much, much better game, that lasted the full length (5 turns) of the game that we were playing. We decided to have a three player game, using the king of the hill type scenario from the General's Handbook (# players - 1 points for holding the center, 2 points for the most wounds dealt, 1 point for the second most wounds dealt, and finally 1 point a HERO killed). We used the matched play points again, and the allegiance special rules. Army lists were as follows:
Quintessential Hipster's Silly String Skeletons
Vampire Lord
Necromancer - mounted
Grave Guard - 20
Zombies - 10
Zombies - 10
Zombies - 10
Hexwraiths - 5
Sinscaptain's Putrescent Hordes
Verminlord Corrupter
Plague Furnace
Plague Monks - 20
Plague Monks - 20
Plague Censer Bearers - 10
Plague Censer Bearers - 10
The Knights Who Say Nee!
King Louen Leoncoeur
Paladin Standard Bearer
Knights of the Realm - 8
Men-at-Arms - 16
Field Trebuchet
As I mentioned above, this was a much, much, much more balanced game than fighting against the DEATHstar. The game did seem to get a little long in the tooth towards the end - I'd recommend having a full day to play anything more than about 4 players (supports up to 6!!!), but it was great.
Some of the 10,000 foot flyby of the game include King Louen killing the Vampire Lord, and then the Vampire Lord being reborn thanks to his magic item that he had from the artifacts section, and then the High King running him down a second time. The successful murder charge of one of the Plague Monk units to have four(!!!) attacks on the charge, rerolling to hits and to wounds, lead to the successful destruction of the Grave Guard. And then the successful destruction of the Men-at-Arms when they tried to take the hill at the center from them.
The Verminlord Corrupter is as bad as ever, but I adore that model so it will continue to see the light of day in my Plague Army. He did manage to hold up the entire unit of Knights of the Realm AND the Paladin Standard Bearer for almost 3 turns before finally succumbing to its wounds that were well earned. King Louen managed to slay his way through all (30) Zombies over the course of 3 turns - with the help of the Zombies tearing down the Plague Furnace and the other unit of Plague Monks. The Plague Censer Bearers did what they always do and shotgunned up the board to try and nuke the Vampire Lord and Necromancer. Managed to get the VL down to a single wound before he drank from his blood chalice and healed up - only to be chased around by King Louen.
Game ended after 5 turns, resulting in the following breakdown in points:
Skaven - 15 Points
Bretonnia - 9 Points
Death - 7/8 Points
Knocking Death off of the center of the table fairly early made it easy for the Plague Monks to just grind whatever came close to them and have their way. Zombies provided the Bretonnian player with plenty of fuel for his VP generation, and the Grave Guard and Knights of the Realm gave the Rats the edge they needed, plus plenty of hero kills!
Great games held all around! I really recommend the General's Handbook to everyone when it comes out. It is basically Age of Sigmar 1.5, and it should be the standby book that every fantasy gamer has for the rest of their gaming days. Can't wait to get my grubby mitts on the Global Campaign, as I've already ordered a Virulent Horde to bolster the ranks of my Skaven Pestilence Army... Soon enough it will be time to go toe to toe with Nagash again...
Looking forward to the rest of the Summer of Sigmar. Until then, happy gaming!
