My final 25 wound game with my Wanderers vs Seraphon! Check the Tactics Corner for more Age of Sigmar action.
Going in to my last game of the 25 wound round of our Age of Sigmar league, I was sitting pretty at 3-1, have defeated Fyreslayers, Khorne Bloodbound and Stormcast Eternals, all in close games. My loss came at the hands of a Death army with a Vampire Lord on a Zombie Dragon. Sheesh, that guy was tough! For my final game, I was playing our resident video guru, Mariana and her nasty Seraphon list. She was also at 3-1, only having lost to Brandon’s Death army, and just stomping everyone else! I knew this would be a very difficult game.
My Wanderers:
- Wawatcher Lord
- Waywatchers x 5
- Waywatchers x 6
- Warhawk Rider
- Wardancers x 5
Mariana’s Seraphon:
- Skink Starseer
- Bastilidon
- Salamander +3 Skink
- Chameleon Skinks x 5
Mission:
We decided to play a simple mission: Kill Points + Objectives, worth 2 Kill Points each if held at game’s end. We agreed to play 6 turns.
I deployed my Wanderers along a front with my Warhawk on a flank, hoping to assassinate that blasted Starseer Skink!
Mariana deployed spread out behind cover to try and avoid some of my army’s powerful shooting.
Mariana went first and popped the Chameleon Skinks out near my poor Wardancers, who got waxed! Man, that is my favorite unit in my army and it so far has gotten smoked on turn 1 nearly every game, lol.
I advanced my Warhawk up the Flank along with a unit of Waywatchers and the two of them put 4 wounds on the Starseer Skink, leaving him with just one left! If I could take that little bugger out, I’d be in a good position to win the game. Meanwhile, my Waywatcher Lord and other unit of Waywatchers dropped the Chameleon Skinks like a sack of potatoes with some deadly bow fire.
I won the initiative and got to go again! I charged into melee, and my brave Warhawk went after the Starseer but was unable to put that last wound on him….doh!
In Mariana’s turn, the Starseer summoned in another unit of Chameleon Skinks who blasted my Waywatchers on the flank! Edit: we found out that the Starseer Skink cannot actually summon, sorry for the confusion! -Ed The Bastilidon moved up to get into range to unleash his crazy laser. The Salamander set my poor Warhawk on fire, freeing up the Starseer =(
In my turn, I advanced my Waywatchers into cover as they get some great defensive buffs and fired to little effect on the Bastilidon. That thing is really good! It ignores rend and has a 3+ save, not bad.
Mariana advanced her forces up to cover the objectives and continue to blast me! However, I survived a round as -1 to hit and +1 save in cover means my Waywatchers are pretty tough.
I returned fire and was able to blast that dang Salamander!
The Bastilidon plodded onto an objective and blasted me with laser fire, and with some hot dice killed my Waywatchers.
All I had left was my Waywatcher Lord. I had the bottom of the turn, and as it was turn 6, this would be the final action of the game. We were tied on Kill Points, and Mariana had 1 objective secured with her Bastilidon. I needed my Lord to be a boss and take the Objective to tie the game! If he managed to Kill the Chameleon Skinks in the process, I’d actually win!
He ran out of cover and unleashed some bow fire on the Chameleon Skinks, but as Mariana had wisely put them in cover behind the rock, they had a 3+ save due to their special rule. I was unable to kill any of them! I then went for a 4″ charge to hopefully take them off of the objective and tie the game but alas, I rolled a 3 for my charge. Have I mentioned how much I hate random charges?! Lol, just like 40k, I cannot seem to get my boys into the fight when I need them!
So in the end, I lost 5 points to 3.
- My Wood Elves finished 3-2
- Mariana’s Seraphon went 4-1
- Brandon’s Death force went 5-0
- Frankie’s Fyreslayers went 0-5
- Pablo’s Stormcast Eternals went 2-3
- Jason’s Khorne Bloodbound went 1-4
We all had a lot of fun, Age of Sigmar with a few reasonable restrictions is such a fun game, everyone is having a blast with it. Wounds simple do not work for game balance as we’ve seen. We’re all eagerly awaiting the General’s Handbook as we think adding some structure and points will make the game so much more fun.
My Durthu is coming along and WOW, he is an absolute beast! If you play him right he is a one tree army! He plus the Sisters of the Thorn have been just an incredible combo. I am very excited for the gorgeous new Sylvaneth models we’ve been seeing teasers of and can’t wait to add some to my Warband. I hope to be able to play the giant Stag beetle Alerielle rides as that would be good fun!
We’ve been play-testing a few games at 50 Pool Points using the Southcoast GT format and been enjoying that format quite a bit. It seems to have had quite the influence on the upcoming General’s Handbook, which is a good thing, in my opinion. It helps to balance and structure the game and make it infinitely more enjoyable for organized play. All of us are already thinking about how we’ll build our 2,000pt armies.
- I am adding my main man Durthu, Sisters of the Thorn and swapping in a Shadowdancer who’s spell is AWESOME. It’s really helped my army deal with some of the harder hitting units in the game.
- Frankie’s added some Duardin with Cannons and shooting units and is really feeling his army come together.
- Jason is adding some Marauder Calvary to add speed and ranged attacks, along with a buffing character or two to get more out of his poorly performing Blood Warriors.
- Pablo is adding in some melee units to protect his bowmen. Most likely Paladins as they are brutally good!
- Mariana went for some Terradons to drop bombs on us (yikes!) and some Saurus Warriors for melee.
- Brandon is adding in some Morghast and a Corpse Cart plus a new character which I am sure will be savage! He’s the man to beat at this point in the League.
For anyone curious to give the game a go, I can fully endorse it. Some of the rules out of the book (like 40k) are simply not playable in an organized setting. But with some sensible changes the game is a blast. It’s quick to learn, plays quickly but has a lot of depth in combos that become evident the more you play.
Stay tuned for our Age of Sigmar podcast which we will be launching in the near future!
As always, Frontline Gaming sells Age of Sigmar product at up to 25% off retail, every day!
Not sure if this was covered earlier, but the skink starseer cannot summon. The only Seraphon units that are able to summon are Slann Starmaster, Lord Kroak, and a good roll with an Engine of the Gods.
Ahhhh, we goofed, then. Thanks for pointing that out.
That little guy is still so amazingly good, though!
Kevin says Frankie should have gone with 13 Hearthguard Berserkers with Flamestrike Pole Axes for the auto +1 Mortal Wound every time you hit on a 3+ roll, plus you then roll for your wounds…
…but yeah he’s been using cannons for range or is looking at the new Sylvaneth archers coming soon.
Yeah, the Hearthguard Zerkers look great. That mortal wound ability helps chew through things like Durthu who when buffed up is so hard to hurt.
The Cannons are SAVAGE. I now target those things first, every time. Durthu took two to the face in my first game against them and got wiped out. Now, I have units just to hunt the stupid cannons, lol.
Just some interesting updates from the Generals Handbook that’s been confirmed now in case you haven’t seen them 🙂 (and this isn’t even everything)
Summoning works by withholding points from your main force which you then spend on units (note this isn’t the same as placing units in reserve, you spend the points on the summons, so in a 2000 point game if a Death player starts with 1700 points they can spend the 300 summoning points on say 300 points of skeletons or a 300 point monster for example) so summoning gives you the ability to place the units where you want and bring in units you need mid battle, but at the risk you may not get them at all.
Battalions (AoS formations) cost points on top of the models and don’t allow you to break the force chart so only 2 monsters per army regardless where they’re from.
There’s warlord trait type things and artefacts (that you choose, not roll for)
Factions (like fyreslayer sand Sylvaneth) are getting their own artefacts, command traits, faction bonuses and spell lores.
There’s commonly used house rules in the book, including base to base measurement.
There’s a ladder tournament system in there and a section specifically on tournament play (!)
Points are similar to SCGT pools but monsters, ranged units and artillery are a bit more expensive.
6 standard pitched battle missions
The previous Warhammer fantasy battle armies have lists as well as (so there’s a Dark Elf list as well as the mini factions they are in AoS)
All in all I honestly think this is sounding like the one of the most exciting things GW have released for some time.
If 40K gets this kind of treatment, oh my 😛
Really looking forward to this – having the points NOT in the Battletome/Codex books is certainly the best way to adjust the game on the fly… hope they stick with that format for the long haul!
Yeah, that may have inadvertently been a blessing as they can adjust points after a unit has been out there in the wild for a while to reflect its actual worth.
Yeah, we are pumped for this! It’s what we were hoping for with the game. Can’t wait to get my grubby paws on that thing!
Need it now.
I really like the faction bonuses. Destruction and death have the best ones in my opinion.
I am going ironjaws if I can get enough people into it.
Yeah, can’t wait to get the book! Been reading nothing but positive reviews.
I feel like death is quite OP in their selection. The weapon that returns a wound per model slain wtf (Tomb blade)? The trait that boosts your Deathless Minions battle trait to 5+ ignore any wound/mortal wound WTF.
Nagash is a lot of points (for good reason) but he can still summon double zombies, wield a tomb blade, and give those zombies a 5+ reanimation protocol. Quite strong I should probably buy him and run Nagash + morghasts archoi + corpse cart + lots of zombies, then reserve some points for summons.
Losing the ability to summon beyond the limits of the game is a bit of a nerf for Death though, their units are generally a bit worse point for point so while summoning brings flexibility in unit choice and placement they’re still mostly outclassed, I think those artefacts and traits are balancing it out quite a bit.
Still not sure how Nagash and Arkhan’s ability to double what they summon works with the new system.
If you only have to pay for the base version of the unit and then double it I’d say that a Nagash or Arkhan army should just take them , some battle line, and reserve the rest for summoning.
Yeah, still a lot of unanswered questions.
Well Natasha isn’t allowed an artifact since he’s a named hero. So no tomb blade for him. Really nice on a vampire or tomb king though.
(Meant for your summoning question above)
It’s not that you hold units in reserve, you hold points in reserve. Whatever spell you cast is what you summon and spend those points on mid game as opposed to as part of your starting list, so if you’ve got 300 points to spend when you cast summon skeletons you spend those points to buy the number of skeletons you summoned at that point.
Nagash and Arkhan doubles the number you summon so you spend double the points on double the unit size.
I’m guessing the number of models summoned will be a maximum in this system, so Nagash and Arkhan give you the option to spend more on individual summons.
Yeah, still a lot to learn but the new summoning scheme sounds a lot more equitable.
Age of Sigmar is so gaining on me, I’ve been buying and painting more AoS stuff than I ever did with Fantasy. I really like the fact that you’re in it from the beginning and that you heading into uncharted territory. And the models are brilliant.
Oh, and no wonder Death has gone 5-0. That vampire dude is a bit maxed out for small games. I think it’ll be something like 440 pts.