Raw Dogger and Reecius duke it out in the first Age of Sigmar learning league bat rep! Wood Elves vs. Chaos. Who will prevail?
We agreed to 25 wounds a piece for the first round of games. I, (Reecius) brought the following:
- Wayfinder Lord
- 11 Glade Guard
- 1 War Hawk Rider
- 5 War Dancers
Raw Dogger brought the following:
- Mighty Lord of Khorne
- 5 Blood Warriors
- Khorgorath
We played a modified ITC Scenario, which you can read about, here.
We played on a 4×4′ table due to the small army sizes and we agreed to roll for initiative once at the beginning of the game and keep the initiative order for the rest of the game. I lost the roll to deploy and go first, Raw Dogger opted to take first turn.
Deployment
We had an objective in the middle of the table, one in the ruin in my deployment zone and one next to a hill in the Chaos deployment zone. The primary mission was Kill Points, and secondary was Mealstrom so I was looking to try and keep my squishy units alive while taking out Raw Doggers much beefier units. I’d need to win the ranged battle to pull that off! Luckily though, my units are pretty quick so I had at least a few turns to pull this off. Also, my War Hawk Rider was going to be very good for taking objectives so I wanted to keep him alive.
Turn 1
Chaos ran towards objective 1, trying to snag it as it was one of their maelstrom missions, however, they fell short by 2″
The Wood Elves fell back to the edge of their range, the War Dancers protecting their Lord. The Lord unleashed his Hail of Doom Arrow and killed 3 Blood Warriors! Brutal. As a result, he did so much damage that the Glade Guard were mostly out of range as Raw Dogger pulled casualties from closest to them. Had I put them closer, I could have used their once per game -3 Rend attack to finish off the unit! Oh well, lesson learned. I did manage to pick up a maelstrom point this turn, though, giving the Wood Elves an early lead.
- Kill Points: 0 to 0
- Maelstrom: WE: 1, C: 0
Turn 2
Raw Dogger continued his charge (really need to add some shooting to a list in this game if you are on foot) and moved to within striking distance. His Lord allows a mortal Chaos unit to roll 3d6 taking the two highest when charging so those Blood Warriors had good odds of making it into melee…if they lived!
The Wood Elves strike first! The War Dancers charge the Blood Warriors and use their Whirling Death dance and minced the Blood Warriors, huzzah! Then, my Glade Guard unleashed their special attack on the Khorgorath for -3 rend, but biffed their rolls and only did 2 wounds, doh! My Lord fired his bow and pet Hawk into the monster as well, dealing another 2 wounds. Great turn for the Wood Elves!
- Kill Points: WE: 1, C: 0
- Maelstrom: WE: 1, C: 0
Turn 3
The Mighty Lord of Khorne charges into the War Dancers to avenge his Blood Warriors, but whiffs completely! He takes two wounds from the War Dancers in return. The Khorgorath failed its charge against the Glade Guard, giving them another chance to save themselves…
The Glade Guard line up their shot on the Khorgorath…and whiff again, doh! My Lord manages to deal a single wound of damage to the beast, but it is not enough to take it down. In melee, the Chaos Lord’s dice go hot and he kills 4 of the 5 War Dancers and the 5th fails his Battle Shock test–even with the Wood Elf Lord nearby buffing his Bravery–and runs away. Uh-oh, now I have two melee threats bearing down on me and Chaos has tied the Kill Point count AND earned a Maelstrom objective! I did manage though, to snag one of my own Maelstrom Objectives with my War Hawk Rider in Raw Dogger’s backfield.
- Kill Points: WE: 1, C:1
- Maelstrom: WE: 2, C:1
Turn 4
Chaos has only 1 option at this point: CHARGE! And so they do. Raw Dogger gets lucky with a 10″ charge on the Khorgorath who makes it into my Glade Guard. Yikes! He gobbles up 4 of them, regaining a lost wound but due to my lord’s Bravery buff aura, only 1 of them runs away due to Battle Shock. The Mighty Lord of Khorne runs towards my Lord to try and set up a charge next turn.
My options at this stage are equally limited! Like a true Elf, I run away, muahaha! My Lord falls back, peppering the Chaos Lord with Arrows and his pet Hawk, dealing another wound. In Melee, the poor Glade Guard continue to get eaten up, but hold firm while the Khorgorath regains another wound! So good. Meanwhile, my War Hawk swooped up another Maelstrom point in the backfield, huzzah!
- Kill Points: WE:1, C:1
- Maelstrom: WE: 3, C:1
Turn 5
The Khorgorath eats a handful of Glade Guard, once again gaining a wound. But, they pass their Battle Shock and keep the big beastie stuck in place. To make matters worse, the Khorne Lord failed his long charge into my Lord who was had kept falling back from him. Subsequently, my Lord then filled him with arrows and killed him, snagging me a kill point!
Once again, my War Hawk swooped onto a maelstrom objective, this time in the mid field. Raw Dogger was also able to grab one as well as his Khorgorath was in my deployment zone.
- Kill Points: WE: 2, C:1
- Maelstrom: WE: 4, C:2
Turn 6
The final turn and Wood Elves are looking good!
In the Chaos turn, the Khorgorath gets ready to finish off the last Glade Guard but flubs his attacks and only eats 1 of them, while the lone survivor passes his Battle Shock test! My last surviving Glade Guard subsequently leaves combat in my turn, ensuring that he does not become a kill point.
Seeing that they are not going to slay the Khorgorath and that victory was already theirs, my lord and his one surviving Glade Guard fade away into the forest!
Wood Elf Victory!
Final score:
- Kill Points: WE: 2, C:1
- Maelstrom: WE: 4, C: 2
- Bonus Points: WE: 1, C: 0
- Total Scores: WE: 9, C: 0
Closing Thoughts:
What a fun game! Unlike other games of Age of Sigmar we’ve played, the inclusion of scenarios makes the game SO MUCH more interesting. Where previously our games ended up as relatively dull scrums in the middle of the table, using ITC style scenarios made the game dynamic and very enjoyable. You had to think about mission objectives and how you’d move your units into position where they would both fight the enemy and score points to win the game.
The game is just fun! Raw Dogger and I were both laughing and enjoying ourselves quite a bit. After the game, we both immediately sat down and started brainstorming how we’d make our lists better with the next 25 wounds. Raw Dogger wants more speed to make up for his weakness to shooting. He’s adding some Marauder Horsemen and possibly some Chaos Knights to really add some punch!
I am going to add in a Treeman because the model is bad ass and because I need something that can take a punch. My War Dancers hit like a freight train, but cannot take a punch at all. My Lord was a baller, and that Hail of Doom Arrow is just awesome! It took out 25% of Raw Dogger’s wounds on the first volley…brutal! I think I will also add some Sisters of the Thorn as their speed and awesome buffing spell will really help my forces out. I may add another War Hawk Rider, too, as he was certainly the man of the match, scoring almost all of my points by himself!
In all I must say, I had a great time. Age of Sigmar has such fantastic models, but the rules out of the box are too simple. With a little structure and some fun scenarios to play, the game is very fun, a completely different experience than when we first tried it. I am excited to continue to play. Thanks for reading!
As always, remember that Frontline Gaming sells Age of Sigmar product at up to 25% off, every day!
Good stuff guys. Love the AOS content
The game is growing on me, big time.
The game is brilliant once you’re using scenarios and some kind of comp system. It was clearly never meant to be played as just killing each other, but we were put off at first because that’s all the initial release was.
There has been so much content released since then and so many great comp and mission packs made by the community, it’s great.
Yeah, we’re having a lot of fun with it, actually.
Good stuff, nice to see people giving AoS a proper go.
AoS needs battleplans to work, hence the hundreds GW has produced so far 😉
While with armies this small I can understand maintaining initiative order from the start once you have bigger armies I’d highly recommend rolling at the start of each turn. It can be difficult to get coming from 40K and I won’t get into a rant here but it’s actually quite important for the game. The competitive AoS scene here in the UK quite quickly realised the uncertainty and the fact that getting a “double turn” puts you on the back foot after it until your opponent gets one is actually an important balancing factor.
Hey Ytook. We’ll have to try the AoS missions, that certainly made the game a million times better, IMO.
Interesting that you like the random initiative. I seriously hate that mechanic in every game I have ever played that has it. It’s just too random. For example, had I had two shooting phase sin a row in the beginning of the game, the game would have been over on turn 2. And vice versa, had Raw Dogger had two turns in a row in the late game, I would have lost right then and there. As it was it was a tense game that came right down to the last turn. That would have been severely disrupted if one player had been able to go twice in a row, particularly a shooting heavy army. It just takes too much strategy out of the game, IMO.
But it isn’t a “balancing factor.” I’ve seen too many games straight up lost because a player had to basically sit out two turns in a row. One player getting consecutive hero and shooting phases is mind-numbingly powerful; especially if that player has summoning, or heals (like Nurgle), or raise dead options, or lots of shooting (like Aelfs).
Yeah, I have to agree with that. I have NEVER seen this rule mechanic enhance a game. Even DzC, an ultra balanced game IMO, is less tactical in my mind due to it. It is mitigated there by the fact that you don’t activate your entire army at once, but still, games are often won and lost by who wins the initiative roll. It can be frustrating. In that game I build my army to lose the Initiative roll so I can make plans that don’t include that hugely random element.
Same in AoS. Like you said, if you have an army that shoots very well, and you get two unanswered shooting phases, the game can be decided on that one roll. It really reduces the skill of planning several turns ahead that comes with mastery of a game.
At such a small scale fixed initiative is fine. Once games get a bit bigger you run into the problem that being able to near perfectly predict where your opponent will be makes certain army builds largely unbeatable, fast or tough shooting armies in particular are far better as you can always outplay a close combat army with relative ease, AoS is a much more adaptive game than 40K, hence why the predominant meta here is waves rather than a battle line.
The thing about getting a double turn in AoS is it’s very easy to misplay, allot of people at SCGT lost because they went full aggression in a double turn and were then stretched out and taken apart, particularly as once you’ve had a double turn you can’t get another until your opponent has had one, it’s often far more advantageous to not take a double turn so you can’t then get jumped on afterwards and ‘save’ it for later.
The problem is people are playing and making armies without considering that it can happen, it’d be like playing 40K and assuming that a charge over 7″ will never happen or that your opponent’s army will all be entirely comprised of tactical marines, you’ve misunderstood the game and playing around something it isn’t.
Not trying to get into a big argument, I’m not the best person to explain it, many better (and more eloquent 😛 ) AoS players than me who could do it.
Interesting points. And not arguing at all, I like hearing a more experienced AoS player’s perspective. I will certainly need to play more to be able to say anything about the game with certainty.
Sorry, wasn’t trying to say you were arguing, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being an ass 😛
No, no, didn’t come across that way at all. Thanks for sharing your insights.
I don’t know, I’ve been seriously pounded out by the other player going last, then going first the next turn… it wasn’t fun – but what really made it no fun was just sitting there while the opponent essentially got two turns in a row – thats a lot of control and power…
Yeah, I can totally see that. We’re trying both methods and the random initiative determines a lot! However, it helps as much as it hurts, we find, and you can plan for it a bit. More play-testing will tell for sure.
AoS sounds like fun. I saw a few guys playing in my LGS this week. Could I get a little info on the status of the High Elves? Will they be getting the same kind of treatment as the dwarves and orcs model wise? I haven’t even looked closely at the rules, I’ve only been casually following the game and GW but I almost kind of sort of want back in a little bit lol!
It is very fun, we have been enjoying it a great deal. Some of the rules are very silly, but in general terms it is an enjoyable game and quite easy to pick up, too.
I assume Aelves will get some awesome new models. I know there are some new Wood Elves on the way and they look amazing in the concept art!
Nice! I swear, multiple objectives add so much to a game!
Fingers crossed that the new Generals book will have point values actually tied to a “real” metric of a models abilities. I don’t mind rules that make a model a serious-ass kicker, just have the points reflect that.
Are you out there GW? A solid metric for assigning point values and stick with it… pleaseeee.
Yeah, we’re hoping the same thing. We really want to see the game thrive as the models are so bad ass. The game’s fun with a little tweaking, too, honestly. With objectives it’s been a lot of fun.
I like the refreshing addition of some quality AoS battles. I also agree objective based gameplay is a must. My friends and I just use 40k tactical objective cards (psykers are wizards, vehicles warmachines, etc.) and that keeps it pretty fun!
That sounds fun with the cards, may have to try something like that.
This was great! As the Bloodbound representative in my household, however, I was a little alarmed to see that the Blood Warriors’ ‘No Respite’ ability had no effect on the Wardancers. Without it they’re a bit pants.
Ah, we totally forgot to use that rule! That would have meant a few of my War Dancers would have certainly died. Oh well, in the end it didn’t matter much as the Lord of Khorne whiffed in the next round, anyway. Would have been the same result most likely.
Gogo Wood Elves!
I actually think AoS is at it’s best in these smaller battles with good scenarios (preferably linked!). I think the big battles has a tendency to end up being those scrums in the middle unfortunately. But then again, that makes the order of battles a lot more important so…
Yeah, this was quite fun and very dynamic! Definitely enjoyed it a great deal.
As the games scale up, we’ll see how it goes. The “stand in a pile and roll dice till someone dies” games we’ve played previously have been really lame. I hope that that does not occur as we add wounds.
I have been playing quite a few games using modified versions of the ITC pack before you posted the sigmar mission and it gets better as you scale up. Much more strategic much more maneuvering and much more thought goes into deployment. I do use pools to calculate army sizes and balance though so wounds may change things slightly but it may not make a difference since you guys seem to be making the most economical decisions possible with your wounds.
That’s rad to hear the missions are working for you! We enjoyed the game a great deal with the more complex mission structure.
Loving the AoS content! I have been having a ton of fun with the game and since a lot of players in my area freaked out and sold their fantasy armies for cheap before figuring the game out I own a ridiculous amount of models at the moment.
I do play with random turns though and use pools to calculate army sizes.
I am curious if you are gonna use whatever rules come in the generals handbook when it comes out in the next few months?
Awesome, yeah it’s super fun. We’ll try the random initiative next time.
You use pools to calculate army sizes? I’m not familiar with that, what does that mean?
It’s one of the ‘points’ based systems on scrollbuilder.com
Ah, got yah, thanks.
I love the Random initiative in games, but only in games that go unit by unit, not force by force. Not that anyone plays it, but I do like the robotech tactics method where you roll randomly, can steal, can block, and can never activate more than 2 units consecutively in a turn.