Path to Glory: let's rave a bit about AoS

I thought there'd be nothing like the catharsis you get after a nice rant. I was wrong. Path to Glory, the narrative campaign system in Age of Sigmar, turns out to serve just as well. I had my first opening games in this weekend and it was fun. Good company, pretty (painted) miniatures and fun rules. Let's start with an opening shot of the table(s) and then I'll give my take on Age of Sigmar Path to Glory.

The small size of the conflict allows for a smaller table. As we had five players we divided a larger table into two playing areas using battle mats. 

Let rant a bit about AoS

It's been seven years since the release of AoS. I was in my local GW store on a Friday evening on the 17th of July to play a test game at launch (going by my mail for the date). I blasted one of those new fangled Stormcast lords of his lizard with a thirty year old Warp Fire thrower. It was good fun. I still remember the disconnect I felt back then. I rather enjoyed the streamlined (free) rules and had a good chuckle over the silly jokes in some of them. It gave me the feeling GW had openend the gates to people (like me) looking to (re-)enter a fantasy setting. These days AoS can still be a lot of fun, but not if you try to stick with the rules. Why? Here's 7 problems I think make AoS less fun than it should be (and my solutions to them (because I'm very humble and all that)).

The guys on the bottom left killed a Stormcast lord on release day. Good job boys!

Deathodendron - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 4

After all the action and violence, the group decided it was time for a long rest. At a crossroads of corridors they sat back and deliberated what to do next. Through this discussion, they forgot to inform the newly arrived Stormcast what was going on in the first place. Ah the stresses of adventure and all that…

I'll take any excuse to use pictures of this big guy :)

Greater Daemon you say? Just throw it some cash! - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 3

At the end of the previous session, all players had been forced to flee. Boris the Kharadron ran through a different tunnel than his companions. Given the loud bleeping of the gas sensor in his helmet, the rest of the party lucked out on that point. On the downside, he was quite lost. Boris walked through the moldy and deserted corridors of Hollowreef's deepest (Nurgle infested) district in search of the group. As he failed at finding his bearings he decided to walk towards the sound of drums in the distance.

Yeah, there's a greater daemon coming up in this game session...

Skaven Plague Claw Catapult, Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters join the horde

Two clans need expanding in my slightly overgrown Skaven collection: Eshin and Pestilens. On the Eshin side I have more assassins primed (but not ready). On the Pestilens side I mostly need a few more warmachines. With this Skaven Plague Claw Catapult I have started solving that last problem. And as I was splashing more paint on rats anyway, I also added another Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters to the horde.

You have to wonder how disgusting something needs to be before a Skaven puts on a gas mask.

Take the kiswa maker hook and ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen!

Yeah the 'conversion' that had to happen, has happened. Egged on by regular readers Toby and Lasgunpacker I looked around for a kiswa hook, settled for superglue (I'm short on Arrakis Fremen gear) and made one spare Skaven ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen. Frightened squeels and regular spraying of the musk of fear have not been included with this picture. 

Polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert and Hell Pit Abominations come from the Hell Pit.

Another Great Unclean One joins my pantheon

When it comes to painting my weekend was - very - productive. I added a rider to one of my Hell Pit Abominations (Squeek-Hulud has been created), I painted a Skaven Plague Claw Catapult and assembled and painted this Great Unclean One (in a day). I even got an evening of gamemastering Soulbound in. When it comes to blogging, I guess I'll have to smear the results out over the course of this week. Yeah I'm bragging a bit, but you have to enjoy excessive hobby-productivity in some way :).  Let's startof with a shot of my Great Unclean One hunting some hapless peasants. 

And the rock cried out, no hiding place...

Buddy gets company: Master Moulder and two 3D-printed Hell Pit Abominations finished

Almost six years ago I finished my Skaven Hell Pit abomination Buddy Since that day he's seen quite a few battlefields. As he survived no battle so far, I thought it was past time to get him some friends and a proper handler. Without further ado: here's a group shot of Buddy (a GW original), two 3D-printed friend (yet to be named) and their handler, a Master Moulder (by GW).

Okay I've named the center one 'Buddy', perhaps I should name the one on the left 'Fluffy' and the one on the right 'Spot' (<- deft McDeath reference right there (also misplaced, but let's ignore that)).

Kruleboyz Corpse-rippa Vulcha with riders (to be honest I wanted to go with Squak! as a title, but thought It'd be a bit too short...)

As mentioned in the previous post I've finished a Kruleboyz Corpse-rippa Vulcha (or big bird, as I call him) as well as both its riders. Let's start off with the bird carrying Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork. Or 'mage on big bird'. This is a rather powerful, named character, shaman-type that sort of binds all the different Kruleboyz groups together (in the grand narrative of things). He also looks like particularly cantankerous for an Orc. 

"Could you stand still please? I promised my pet canary a treat..." 

Kruleboyz Gutrippaz and Man-Skewer Boltboyz, I finished the Kruleboyz from the Dominion set

What a month. No updates on the blog, The longform excuses for that'll follow in the next paragraph. Let's just blast off with this group shot. I've finished all the Kruleboyz models from the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Dominion boxed set. The ones already blogged about are now joined by 10 Gutrippaz (Orcs with Spears) and 3 Man-Skewer Boltboyz (Orcs with shoulder fired ballista's). 

Kruleboyz (Kruleboyz) never lose it, Kruleboyz (Kruleboyz) never chose this way, Kruleboyz (Kruleboyz) never close your eyes, Kruleboyz always shine. (sorry, the damn song got stuck in my head while painting this bunch).

Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof growls its way into my collection

Riding a humongous canine mount, the Kruleboyz Killaboss terrorizes both enemies as well as his own troops. Looking at the Great Gnashtoof miniature and its rider I can understand why. I've just completed this rather intimidating looking model, further expanding my Kruleboyz army and marking the last of the Kruleboy command models from the Age of Sigmar Dominion box set painted. Next step will involve slopping green on infantry and archers, followed by breaking my resolution not to buy anything new until everything I have is painted (but I knew that was never going to happen when I made it).

The Kruleboyz Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof has the proper bearing to scare his followers into action.

I added a Kruleboy Killaboss (with Stab-grot) and a Murknob Belcha-banna to my Greenskins (with Orc skin tutorial)

The new Age of Sigmar Orcs Orruks Kruleboyz really hit the spot for me, except for one detail: the names. I guess I should count my blessings that the crossbow wielding orcs are called Boltboyz and the ones that are supposed to do the stabbing are called Gutrippaz. I can work with that. But names for command cadre Orcs are about as confusing as the average Stormcast Eternal name (what exactly is difference between a Liberator, Annihilator and a Vigilor? Get off my lawn!). No matter. I'll privately just stick to calling them for what they seem to be (luckily the new app has pictures so I can find the proper warscroll without knowing the name ;). Using the Age of Sigmar app as an identifaction too: here's my  new Murknob with Belcha-banna (Battle Banner wielding Orc), Killaboss (Orc Champion) with Stab-Grot (extra wound).

If you ever find yourself meeting these three while strolling through the swamp, smile, wave and run away. This helpful lifehack was brought to you by the color green (for greenskin).

More greenskins: Kruleboyz Swampcalla Shaman and Pot Grot join the horde

To be quite honest, I was planning to save my Kruleboyz until I'd finished a lot of other 'open projects'. This ambition turned out te be on par with 'not buying anything new until I've painted what I've got'. Utterly impossible. As I'd finished a lot of longer term open projects recently (and promptly failed to blog about those) I decided I was allowed to reward myself by cutting apart some shiny new sprues and assembling the new line of Orcs GW introduced with the release of the Age of Sigmar 3.0 Dominion Boxed set. Without further ado: here's my take on a Kruleboyz Swampcala Shaman and Pot Grot.

Hello there, can we tell you all about our lord and saviour Mork (or was that Gork)?

More loyal heroes added to my Sigmar's Children Stormhost

My Sigmar's Childern Stormhost is expanding at a slow but sure pace. I keep a small number of  Stormcast assembled and primed, ready for when I just feel like splattering a lot of (pink) paint around. Recently this allowed me to finish painting (and I have to look the names up): a Lord-Castellant, a  Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis and a squad of Annihilators. Or as I know them: knight with lantern and doggy, knight with banner and three knights in very heavy armor (there are reasons I'm not employed as a Battle Tome writer ;).

Stop! Hammertime! /obligatory opening.

Into the deep - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 2

The second gaming session Age of Sigmar's Soulbound RPG has been concluded. I know its not a really popular part of my blog, but hell it is MY blog so here goes ;). This happened after the group beat a warband of Khorne in the forest near Hollowreef. 

As I do not have proper illustrations for this blog, I'll just go for random images of Nurgle models in my collection :).

Welcome to Hollowreef - Soulbound AoS roleplay campaign session 1

Life quite firmly got in the way of blogging (and painting) lately. Luckily I did find time to host some roleplaying sessions. On the downside: I didn't get around to actually giving them a write-up. Lets go for it now. I started a new campaign using the Soulbound Age of Sigmar rolplaying game ruleset by Cubicle7. You can read my review/first impressions of the game system in this previous post. In this first session we formed a merry band of heroic misfits who got the job of helping colonists reclaim the lost city of Hollowreef. 

Age of Sigmar: Souldbound shows its Warhammer roots by being completely D6 based (although I think they should Easter Egg in a scatter die at some point).

Luciana the Unwavering aka Yndrasta the Celestial Spear joins Sigmar's Children

This weekend I used a lot of hobby time to start 'halfway through' projects. More on that as (if) they are finished. One project I actually build, painted and finished over the course of two days was Luciana the Unwavering. Through sheer perfection reckoned the greatest swordmaster in the Realms as well as a stalwart companion that would never, ever, betray her friends (as opposed to old Lucius the Betrayer of course)...Others may know her as Yndrasta the Celestial Spear, but not in my stormhost!

I could've glued the stairs to one of those new chariots and made jokes about the Bluth family, but I didn't. I could have though...

Honi soit qui mal y pense! My noble Bretonnian army is finally finished ;)

February last year I made serious headway painting my noble force of Bretonnians. Then Adeptus Titanicus popped up on my paint station and other distractions followed. This army almost ended (as a lot of Warhammer projects end) with twenty ghouls peasant bowmen and a noble lady half painted on the table, windowsill and finally in a cupboard somewhere. As I recently finished two proud beasts for the menagerie that accompanies this army I decided to sit down and force myself to finish my Bretonnian army once and for all. Starting with the true inspiration for all chivalric acts: the lady astride her unicorn.

For honor! For Chivalry! For the lady!

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way redux

During the lockdown I turned Bloodbath at Orc's Drift into an Age of Sigmar campaign aptly named Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift. On Saturday the ninth I will be hosting the full campaign with a small group of friends, before that time I wanted to retest the third skirmish in the campaign: Linden Way. Here's the battlefield for the scenario's redux. A synopsis of the original tryout is here. 

The re-imagined Linden Way table. I forgot to bring a lake and a few copses of trees. We solved it by improvising.

The running of the peasants

In my humble opinion one of the most awesome models by GW in recent years was a running peasant addon to the plastic giant sprue (the giant on the other hand, more of an acquired taste). As I'm inching closer to hosting Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift I am in need of nine fleeing civilians. I have a tied up dwarf slayer on my shelf (it's a model, don't call the police). I also have the plastic giant on sprue which gavae me access to one running peasant. Using the power of 3D-printing I recently added two running peasants from a freebie STL. Now I can present you with: the running of the peasants. 

"Sire, the peasants are revolting."
"You said it. They stink on ice!"