A Murder of Crows - part II

Alexander is back with the second saga-style battle report. For this game we wanted an actual objective so we decided whoever could get a sorceror to the central monolith and have him/she/it stay there undisturbed for one turn would be the winner.  The idea was that he then had managed to complete a dark ritual and attract the attention of his warbands corresponding patron God. Over to you Alexander:

The land was one with the Great Black Wolf. All was darkness as the sun scorched the Wolfs belly, screaming in eternal anguish, his howl drove men mad. And on the darkened field of Vigrid corpses stirred in response to the atavistic call. Time bent, twisted and broke. Blood flowed into wounds and souls returned to the mortal realm. Aetheric fish swam through the air, centaurs bounded across the field and great hulking warriors readied their arms again.

The land spasmed under the disturbing influence of gods and mortals. With a primordial convulsion the earth broke, heaving the Gate upwards, climaxing in a jet of mud and lava. 
All those who’s souls were bound to the mystic planes felt the Gate call them. They were the key. The key was their blood, freely spilt it would open an entrance into the Great City. The true home, birthplace, paradise and hell made one. The city whose name is Dis, where stands an empty throne and a leaderless host. The call was clear, claim me. Claim me who dare. Claim me and rule.

Bright burned ambition. The calling was irresistible and men and beast answered. The ascended knights floated forward, toward the Gate they steered the steeds. Great trolls lumbered onwards and many formed warriors marched with them.

With incredible speed the pain slaves stormed towards the Aetheric raiders of Kithelon. Blood would flow, death would have his harvest.

As magic blood was spilt the dedicated children of disease slowly made their way toward the Gate. Nothing else mattered. Let the insane follower of other gods act on their whims and needs. The Gate is everything. He who holds it, holds the realms.

The first shaman to stand before the Gate was Utgarthilocus. He cut himself again and again, let the blood flow freely. Let the Gate open.

He held glory for but a fleeting moment, a heartbeat of godhood, a blink of an eternity. Like sharks the Ascended plunged into him. Beneath a maelstrom of steel and fangs the magician disappeared. Leaving but blood and bones behind.

Mawgut roared with laughter as the Order of the Gash fell upon him. Fate broken open and before his eyes he saw it play itself out again.

And again the cult warriors fell to his blade. Even as they shuddered into rotten corpses they felt such excruciating pleasure from the kiss of his steel and fangs. Shadows fell upon the last few. Enormous tick-trolls towered over the slaves of Slaanesh, their saga ended in an avalanche of flesh.

Ill fortune, dark omens, sorrow and death. These were the gifts Slaanesh heaped upon his children. The Great Beast was driven mad with jealousy and threw himself upon the parasitic trolls. But alas, to no avail.

Like wasps the warriors of change buried their steel in mighty Surtr. Again and again his bright blade ended their lives, more warriors stood ready to die. 

The Gate unguarded, but not for long. The Princes of Pestilence stood ready to die for their wizard as he began the ritual of opening. Not fish nor man could pass them by. 

Kithelon screamed in anger as yet again his trolls were brought low by the foulest of warriors. The strands of possibilities were twisting out of his grasp. His warriors died but it mattered not, he would not be denied again!

Heat blossomed outward from the opened Gate. Nergal the plague sorcerer shriveled and died as the key he had provided broke the last seal. Mawgut Gloop strode through the Gate, his to claim as his enemies fell. 
His birth cry thundered over the field as he ascended into daemonhood. On the field of Vigrid the last of the unworthy had fallen. Blessed be the name, blessed be the Lord of Plagues, blessed be the Great Maggot.

And in the high heavens the Powers laughed. A new toy, an old toy, a broken toy. The three champions would meet again. Death was always followed by birth. In damnation there is no beginning and there is no end. There are only the whims of mad gods.

A Murder of Crows - part I

Finally we can present the first part of the battle report from last Saturday´s epic clash.

Our bard-in-residence Alexander, opted to write up the report in his signature "norse saga"- esque style. Over to you Alexander:

As an age of darkness fell across the world, the Crimson Crow cawed.

In answer, from the south sea, the Sea of Claws, the Great Beast emerged. And on his head was the Third Crown and he bore the Mark of Pain. And the Host of Colours cried out a name to the uncaring gods. That name was Chargul Doldrekk.

Then the Golden Crow cawed.

And from the North Sea rose the Raven Lord, answering the call. The Aetheric Raider, the Knight Scholar, the true child of chaos. In his left hand he held the Tome of Fate and in his wake followed a glittering multitude of neophytes. From their souls a tortured whisper echoed across the Chaos Wastes. Kithelon.

Finally the Black Crow cawed, at long last awakening the Great Wolf.

As the wolf howled, the third host shambled forth across the Isles of the Dead. The jovial killers - the diseased followers of Nurgle. Sardonic laughter filled the air as they approached, for only they truly saw the world for what is was. And the champion chosen to deliver the final pun of that great cosmic joke was Mawgut Gloop, favoured child of Grandfather Nurgle. 

And as the three lords met on the field of Vigrid, the Great Wolf rose up and devoured the sun. It was the red sign. The blood eclipse. The final call to war. Blades were bared in joy and shields were rattled. The withered grass would soon drink its fill of blood. And the gods roared with delight. 

Zelgul Scalecackle led his knights in a headlong charge upon Spleech and his blightkings. Schemes and plans set aside, now was the time for steel. Ancient scores would be settled and one of the champions sent to the narrow house. 

A chilling wind rose, turning into a screaming vortex from which a coven of chaos trolls shambled out into the material realm. Hate burned within them as they laid eyes upon their bloated cousins. Twisted abominations stared at each other with malice.

While the children of decay and progress fought in blind frenzy a shadow fell over the sorcerer Feldrek Flameborn. Surtr, giant lord of Muspell, was upon him. Twice sang Laevatein, the blade of flames, and in a burst of colours Feldrek disappeared.  

Having held back at first Chargul Doldrekk - Gods Hand - stormed across the field. The Chaos Lords claws were soon stained vermilion as he laid waste to the Fatekin that served Kithelon. 

The Great Beast Chargul Doldrekk howled in triumph over his broken foes.

Spleech and his followers cut the Ascendants ascendance short and turned their attention upon the fish trolls. In a daring and deceitful move the Order of the Gash attacked the two chaos lords as they dueled.

Snarling Doldrekk threw himself upon the festering Blightkings. Claws rending and tearing, fangs bared in a frenzied scream. Following closely Surtr followed his lord into the mêlée. Where even the magical trolls had failed the combined might of these two primordial beings would triumph. Bones broke and decaying flesh was torn apart.

The slaaneshii centaurs - the Order of the Seed hunted well. Nergal the Plague Sorcerer, was soon added to the trophy rack.

Neither man nor beast could best Mawgut Gloop. Even as his flesh was torn asunder it reknitted itself and formed new disgusting shapes. His spear struck again and again, every strike a killing blow.

But in the end the day belonged to The prince of Pleasure. For while the children of Nurgle and Tzeentch fought well they could not defeat the sly cunning of Chargul Doldrekk and his childen dominated the battlefield.

So to recap - in our first battle Alexander cleverly held back while the forces of Nurgle and Tzeentch clashed. Then he swept in and decimated our already weakened forces. After six rounds he was the only one with any models left (other than champions) so we decided the victory belonged to him.
It was also time for lunch...

This game was a real brawl without much strategy as we simply wanted to get a feel for the rules. All in all we were all pretty pleased with the game mechanics - though the fact that we had three players and we initially didn´t know the rules slowed the game down. We´ll be back soon with round two where some actual tactics came into play.

The vile warband of Lord Mawgut Gloop

Yesterday finally saw mine, Alexanders and Eriks extensively converted chaos warbands clash in glorious battle in the warped landscape of the chaoswastes (also known as the kitchen table in my offices basement). 

We'll get back to the two battles we fought once Alexander is finished writing up the battlereport and we have sorted all of the pictures. 

What I can say straight away is that this was the first time any of us played a game using the Age of Sigmar rules and that we - all being casual gamers - found it to be quite fun. There's some certainly some issues with the game if you're a "proper gamer" - I can imagine the battles getting repetitive quite fast if you play several times a week. 

But for someone like me, who only play a few times a year, it was refreshingly straightforward while still retaining some strategic challenges. Also any game would get repetitive played every week as far as I'm concerned... 

Anyway, today I'd like to properly present  my warband - the nurgly followers of Lord Mawgut Gloop. 

Mawguts warband

The head honchos: Blightking champion Spleech, Lord Mawgut Gloop, Plague Sorceror Nergal

Six Blightkings led by Spleech

Ten Chaos Warriors with mark of Nurgle led by Aspiring Champion Morbus Gravis

Two Biletrolls

All in all I'm quite happy with how the warband turned out and how they performed in battle. The blightkings are BRUTAL - they may not be fast but they can both take and dish out absurd amounts of punishment if the dicegods are with you. 

In the future I'd like to add a unit of chaos goblins, some plaguebearers and a big monster of some sort. 

That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a tutorial for how I painted the Blightking champ and a closer look at the  biletrolls. 

Morning Glory

Today's the day for our glorious Path to Glory game!

The plan is to run a small three-game campaign, but as none of has has ever tried out the Age of Sigmar rules there's really no saying how long the battles will take. We'll come back with some sort of battle report after the dust settles. 

I spent last night in a frenzy painting the final model for the warband - a sixth blightking, converted from the classic plague lord. For once I managed to document the process:

I'll be back soon with better pics of the trolls and coverage of the forthcoming  battle. 

Tick-tock

Rushing to get the warband completed. Here's the "ticktrolls" halfway finished. The proverbial clock is fittingly ticking...

Race to the finish!!

With less than a week before the Path to Glory game I'm struggling to get the warband finished. 

The chaos warriors are all about done. This weeks been spent batchpainting the last five of them. The paintjobs are a bit rougher than the first three but they'll suffice. 

I'm missing two - it's supposed to be a ten man unit - but to save time I've decided to make up the numbers with two old converted plaguebearers. Obviously the bases aren't quite done yet. 

This because the last unit - the chaos trolls - has proven to be a whole lot of work. In the end I decided to convert them from plaguedrones, creating some sort of chaos spawny arthropodic tick-trolls. Here's the first one:

And the second one: 

Five days to go! The race is on!