Age of Sigmar

Death or Riches day 2

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Another big day of Age of Sigmar which saw me achieve another win and my second loss for the tournament weekend. Going 2-1-2 with a convincing win in the start, where a misplay caused me to drop in 2 points overall (stupid glossamid Archers). But over all the weekend saw Glutos die once, but more on that in a moment.

So lets go back to yesterday and expand on Death or Riches day 1.

Game 1 – Geomantic Pulse:

Some defining moments for day 1, of which there were a few, that lead to the draw. Deployment was tight and the desire to impress was high. This is the normal, in my experience, for all 1st days for the tournament where depending on how you go it sets the mood for the next four games. Deploying in my castle build with hellstriders taking a far flank I wanted to pin the orruks into a corner and have control over the board. I set up my The Masque within 4 of his Ardboy frontline and got ready to generate some depravity. With the terrain and setup this left very little room for setup which caused my first blunder. The deadly terrain.

Normally not a huge issue but in this case I lost 3 blissbarb archers due to the deadly terrain. No biggy I can bring them back. Now the first casting roll of the game to get mystic shield out. I got a 5, a 4 and a 1. I really wanted to ensure Glutos would remain safe so I was reminded that I had primal dice. Excellent, except the primal miscast, my second momentous blunder. Glutos took 6 damage and ignored none, I killed another 3 blissbarb archers from my already injured list (down 6), 3 from the next and 2 daemonettes. Ouch.

The rest of it was pretty straight forward. Charge in the masque, generate (10) depravity, move the heroes up more, shoot some Gore Grunters and Orruks and castle up on objectives. This led to the next turning point. Focusing of Glutos. Now its not wise to focus Glutos at any time and with his Wurrog prophet he is just such a tempting target to receive the mask to the face. But in this case it killed his character and only did 4 wounds to Glutos. I did leave my back open and I ended up losing my blissbarb archers to an ardboy charge, but the unleash hell generated depravity and reduced their models – but it wasn’t worth it in the end.

Gore grunters tore through hellstrider screens and more ardboys slogged my daemonettes. Glutos killed the megaboss on foot and anything around him maxing out my depravity and with it I manged to summon a keeper of secrets in the last round. Failing a 9″ charge I failed to take back another objective that would see me score more points than my opponent and having difficult battle tactics this season, and scenario, it was a draw.

Game 2: Every Step Forward

Second round I was against The Ossiarch Bonereapers. Now I have played them a few times but a few mistakes cost me the outright hard win instead of a winning by just a point. My deployment in this scenario meant that I spread out too castle-like and didn’t have my archers within range of the targets I wanted to remove. This lead to a poor economics when it came to generating depravity turn 1 and leaving myself open to a Morghast charge. I misplayed the Masque which failed to kill his generate and I generated only half the depravity I wanted to, only generating 6 instead of an average 10. This lead to a late snowball for Slaanesh.

The second mistake was letting the Morghast get into my castle and shutting down commands. They died quickly but I had two units of 3 stalkers mow down my screens and get into my core too easily. But they all under estimated my Lord of Pain and Glutos which helped bring back the goods. The shardspeaker of slaanesh got a few key Twisted mirrors off which saw a spike in depravity as well as her charge into melee that killed a stalker.

With the summoning of a vice Leader I managed to score all but one battle tactic, but failed my grand strategy. Which nearly cost me the game but I won based on number of battle tactics won.

Game 3: Spring the Trap!

Twice in a row I fought OBR and this list was a beefier version of the one I fought in round 2. Now this one saw neither of us remove models from the battle field and, as my opponent said, the game was theirs to win. A few small mistakes and A LOT of offered depravity made this harder than it should have been. Glutos and the lord of pain were the real heroes here while my hellstriders screened, helped achieve battle tactics. A unit of Daemonettes backed up with the shardspeaker and Contorted epitome secured my left flank and secured objectives whilst removing threats to the at side while my core shifted and collapsed around targets to my right. I believe I forgot to add some bonus’s here by my rolls were below average for an army that is hitting at a 2+ average and wounding on a 3+. It came down to Bracing for a 8″ charge from Immortis guard which won my opponent the game by 2 points.

Day 2

Game 4: No Risk without Reward

Against a Sylvaneth and witnessing a unit of 9 spiterider lances. This list also featured Gotrek who I wanted to keep out of my front lines at all cost. This one here was a relatively easy matchup for me as my theme of overwhelming overlapping buffs and debuffs really hurts the woodland beings. Forcing Gotrek to have 1 attack whilst around my Lord of Pain and stacking buffs on my core I was able to out manoeuvre and dominate the battlefield with my fast moving daemonettes and hellstriders. My blissbarb archers picked off a few units which saw his army retreat to a corner. However this meant I had to move my army up and close to Gotrek to score. Not a huge issue as my depravity exceeded 40 in this game but when Gotrek charged Glutos I was prepared for the worst.

But it didn’t come. Gotrek did a total of 4 wounds (after wards) to Glutos who dealt 5 back, then my Contorted Epitome dealt 2 wounds leaving the angry dwarf on 1 left. The Contorted epitome died in return but it ended up being worth it when Glutos only barely managed to deal 1 wound, after wards and saves, into Gotrek the next turn which saw the dwarf fall.

The only reason I didn’t max out my points this turn was the never ending spiterider riders preventing my battle tactic and me forgetting that Glossamid archers can unleash hell then retreat which caused me to fail a battle tactic. Oops!

Game 5: Nexus Collapse.

Now this one is a hard one to talk about. 4 mega gargants. King Brodd, a warstomper, gate breaker and kraken eater. I haven’t had much interaction with Mega-gargants before and my few experiences were that they hurt. But in this case it was like my army wasn’t even there.

Turn 1 I managed to deal 12 damage to the gate breaker and 8 damage to Brodd. Then the gate breaker and war stomper got into my front lines which crumbled instantly. I went from 2000 points to around 1000points in one turn. After that it was more or less game over. Playing for what I could get and overlapping buffs I manged to get the gate breaker down to 10 wounds remaining before I had Brodd, the Warstomper and Gate breaker charge Glutos and the big guy didn’t last long.

Now despite being demolished the last game was incredibly enjoyable. The guy I played against was in it for chill times and to roll dice and he has done an AMAZING job on these mega gargants. Just look at the conversion work on them!

After a big weekend the brain drain and metal fatigue is nuts. So I will have to leave it here and apologise for not having more photos. Just some things are hard to remember to do when you have a complicated technical army to run with.

Thanks for stopping by!
The Brazen Wolfe

Hobby progress – Seekers and Contorted Epitome

thebrazenwolfe3 Comments

Good evening all and welcome to a different type of update. This weekend has me painting the last of my army for next weekends Age of Sigmar tournament. I will be taking Hedonites of Slaanesh and because I like pain I don’t use the latest net lists or even, typically, the best units.

So let’ me walk through the list and the latest updates from the painting table – but I had some help with the painting.

The list

Heroes

Glutos being the absolute tank that he is with 18 wounds, a 3+ save and a 5+ ward make sense to be my precious pretenders general. The command trait is kind of discarded but in this list I don’t believe I need it. Keeping Glutos alive to issue 3 command abilities for the cost of one and granting an additional 2 command points at the start of each round makes sense.
The -1 to hit aura that he puts out also makes him a defensible lynchpin that holds the army together.

The second part of my core is the Lord of Pain. A small foot hero that doesn’t really put out much hurt by himself is not much. But in this list with Crown of Dark secrets, a 4+ save and a 4+ ward makes him an obvious choice to hold my artefact. He also bounces wounds back when targeted in melee which has seen him kill things when they were the one attacking him. The only weakness with him is that against mortal wounds the contorted epitome shines brighter – but I have a response for that. He also gives a +1 to hit/wound aura for Hedonite mortals when contesting an objective.. This makes Glutos nearly 2+/2+ across the board…

The Contorted Epitome went up in points. It was going to happen and now its on the fence if she is worth the points. I probably need a few more games before I can say yes or not to that but we will have to wait for that. She is already a target for missile attacks and for being obliterated in melee but her 2+ ward against mortal wounds makes her a big threat to some armies. Her ability to shut off command abilities and the ability to retreat finds me charging the gunline with her first before Glutos goes in for the kill. With her already being such a big target I didn’t want to stack another reason to kill her on top of the other valid reasons and so the crown of dark secrets lives on the lord of pain now.

This leads me to the Shard Speaker. Her spell is useful in one or two choice circumstances but otherwise its nothing special. But giving her born of damnation can mean she can generate depravity whilst moving closer to use her mirror. Her mirror is useful but temperamental. A 50% chance to reduce the save rolls for a unit within 9. Can make Glutos rend 3 damage 3 on his claws or the 20 blissbarb archers rend 2!

The Masque, don’t leave home without her. She is constantly generating me 8~10 depravity turn 1 if you position her to charge into your opponents chaff. She is also able to reliably get me battle tactics in this season with my fast moving battleline.

Units

2×11 – Blissbarb archers. Shouldn’t be uncommon to see them now. Fast with run and shoot and with a threat range of 30 inches these lads and ladies bring some pain. But when paired with the hero who shares their love with pain, the lord of pain himself, they become 2+/3++. This makes them reliable for both removing units and also triggering the generation of depravity when your opponent has the choice to lose a key unit or save it by giving into temptation.

2×10 – Daemonettes. They are fast and can be a blender. With the Contorted Epitome able to make them a 3+ to wound with Overwhelming Acquescence for a few units and Glutos able to buff them to be 2+ to hit they can also be a contender for Eurphoric Killers in generating some sweet depravity.

2×5 Hellstriders (with claw spears) – an interesting one here. Durable and they get better when they are stuck in combat for a while. They have treated me both well and also let me down in the dozen or so games I have had with them. a 4+ save is easily buffed by Glutos and with the pairing of lord of Pain, Overwhelming Acquiescence, Shardspeaker mirror and Glutos’s -1 to hit Aura they are surprisingly punchy being effectively 16 attacks at 2+ to hit 3+ to wound rend -2 and 2 damage. They can chew through what is ever is foolish enough to leave them alive.

The last thing on my list is the Shards. Now there are a few endless spells floating around at 40 points or lower, and the argument to try and get a free re-roll charge triumph is there. But, being able to stop flanks, summons and teleports with shards as well as potentially being able to achieve battle tactics in the right situation by having a low casting value endless spell is valuable. Maybe more so than ensuring Glutos gets into combat.

The Hobby

Now finally some updates.

Joining me at the painting table today, and in the past frequently, is mum. A great eye for detail and someone who enjoys painting – which is a huge contrast from me – she helps keep the painting going and today she worked on the seekers of Slaanesh.

Now the Seekers. Boy oh boy. They are looking great! Have a look at two quick snaps below.

Now I also made some progress on the Masque and the contorted epitome. But the epitome I am surprised in a good way with. A dark purple (leviathan purple) with drybrushing Ironhands steel and Retributor gold over the top before adding in some Vallejo hetched lichen and Fluro purple to the mix. The concoction of paint on the drybrush gave the mirror a sooth transition between the metals but added a purple tinge to the mirror. Its a still a work in progress but I think its looking great!

Thanks for joining me for a glimpse at my hobby progress update today. Stay in touch for tomorrow I will wrap up lasts weeks adventure and hopefully the last of my painting. So don’t forget to come back for that and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Hobby update for May 13

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

After a long time putting it off I am finally making some progress on my Hedonites of Slaanesh. So for this hobby update for May 13 I have some updates!

Hobby update for May 13

Shardspeaker of Slaanesh

After owning the model since it came out I’ve finally managed to build and get some paint on it. Primed in Citadel wraithbone the theme is really to blend in with the Blissbarb Archers and other mortal units I have.

With many of the Slaanesh models being androgynous the high leather boots makes a statement. The smoke on the mirror, Dreadful visage contrast paint made short work of the smoke. With some armypainter matte white shaded with thinned aethermatic blue contrast gave the orb staff and potion a nice finish.

The metals gold was Retributor armour with a thin leviathan purple washed over. The Silver’s was Armypainter shining silver shaded with a 50-50 magos purple-leviathan purple wash. The metal on the knee-cap and mirror was instead washed with Reikland fleshshade.

The same Armypainter shining silver was used for the mirror with thinned Aethermatic Blue contrast paint as the wash.

Flesh was easy, thinned Guillimans flesh contrast. The black leather for boots and some straps was corvus black that helped add some darker tones to the model.

Striking scorpion green contrast for the green gems added a burst of colour. But the blue gems were Asurmen Blue contrast. The two red gems was actually the armypainter glistening blood technical paint. Adding a glossy red was a nice touch and drew the eye.

Lastly the clothing. Magos purple contrast for most of the robes with Leviathan purple contrast to darken some areas. The hair was also dreadful visage contrast paint. The helmets horns were also Corvus black and the miscellaneous leather bobs painted to match. And finally armypainter mummy robes was used for the scroll before it and the tactical stone she stands on was washed with agrax earthshade.

Blissbarb Archer

The same paints and general theme was used for the Blissbarb. The only additional paint used was Eladari Emerald contrast paint for the arrow feathers. The bow being Leviathan purple contrast and the shades Retributor armour gold really gave the model a sense of prestige

Thanks for joining me tonight for this Hobby update for May 13. With tomorrow being Mothers day I wish you a great weekend and ask you to not forget to spend with with your family as well as your hobby. And, lastly, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe