Warhammer

Lord Shrilleck

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Hi all a brief note before I get stuck into it. This is the post game thematic view of the skaventide vs Fyreslayer game I had tonight with a mate of mine.

Army lists will be down below.

Lord Shrilleck mighty grey seer, second to only Thanquol (for now-now) swung atop his glorious clamouring-screaming bell.

Looking over the great hall of carved stone he screeched threats of a painful death at the clan rats that pushed and pulled his altar over the stone.

“Lord Shrilleck, we have found-found dwarf things. Not many but they have a monster of fire with them. They sound the horn-horns or war and march-march towards our forces.” Lord Verseks chittered from below the screaming bell.

Breathing in deep the warpstone from the brazer below he drew in power from the chaos stone before shrieking out “to war! Kill-kill, stab-stab. Leave none alive!!” He called as he beat the bound rat ogor that was chained to his altar driving him to ring the bell faster and harder.

The three clawpacks pushed forward whilst twitching manic plague monks pulled the plague furnace as the three plague priests chanted their prayers in the name of the great horned rat.

Giant rata darted around the screaming bell, nipping at clan rats and the tormented rat ogor excited to just be there as three plague claw catapults were moved to take up position overlooking the battlefield to gift these fyreslayers the gift the great horn rat felt them deserving; a bubbling, writhing miasma of filth.

The horns reverberates through the halls as lord Veseks skittered leapt around the battlefield throwing down a seed of power, a crystalline seed of dark power that could creat rifts in the warp, tunnels in reality which the clever skaven could use to move and shift around the battlefield.

The front lines could be seen now and the skaven forces moved into position before the clamoring of bells and screeching of bloodlust rippled forth and the battle began.

Grasping at the winds of magic Lord Shrilleck tried to pull arcane energy to form a wall of protection around him but the winds slipped from his grasp this far below the surface and the spell failed with an audible crack that splintered lengths of wood from the altars frame chasing him to fumble and lose his place in the spell.

The plague priests weren’t much better, their prayers of worship and evoking the horned rats power were met with disapproval as their dark lord tested their resolve by causing great sloughs of flesh to bubble and peal off them. Lord Veseks was the only one to snare power and drifted through the realm again with a skitterleap, appearing on top of an dias of some kind, a place of tactical advantage but as he tried to drain the life force from the massing fyreslayers the magic was whipped away from him. His loyal, well loyal enough, clawpack ran to form a protective ring around him trying to curry favour with the grey seer. As piles of filth rained down on the dwarves causing several to drop to the ground, recoiling as disease and bubbling toxic waste was launched at them from the plague claws.

The dwarves marched on, their priests calling out their own prayers and bright flashes lit up the dim light as runes of ur-gold burst aflame as their power was released. Then the dwarves charged forward, a wave of battle crying dwarves crossed the distance between the rats and them in a blink of an eye. As fire rained down towards Lord Shrilleck and the clawpack surrounding him he snarled ay the globes of magma as they missed and bubbled menacingly on the ground around him. Then they charged. Lord Veseks out as much distance between him and the charging dwarves as possible while a fyreslayer priest appeared from a tunnel.he carved from solid rock with.a detachment of warriors who charged at an exposed plague claw. Lord Shrilleck snarled in frustration at the poorly spent resources as he turned his back on the warmachine that surely wouldn’t survive the onslaught.

As the magmadroth, a beast of fire and lava charged over the dias and crashed into the clanrats ranks the onslaught that awaited those rats was swift and deadly, none survived. At the bottom of the dias plague monks screeched out challenges as prayers were read from scrolls and books. Turning towards the right flank lord Shrilleck was surprised to find the plague claw being defended bravely by its crew who appeared to be doing well against the veteran warriors.

The fyrelayers pressed their advantage, pushing further forwards crashing into the monks with a shattering downhill charge as magmadroth and fyreslayer dwarf cut their way through skaven. Seeing an opportunity Lord Shrilleck ordered his rat ogor to pull his altar away but the rats he left behind to defend him were quickly cut down to half their size. The plague monks threw themselves with reckless abandon as axes bit into their chest, leaving large wounds in magmadroth and dwarf alike. Still onwards did the plague claws crew fight and somehow their warmachine, and them, were stil alive.

Now the magic whipped through the air Lord Shrilleck turned just in time to see Lord Veseks skitterleap just as an axe cut down through the space he occupied a moment ago. Coward! Lord Shrilleck pulled ay the winds of magic, trying to use the chaotic energies to rip the earth under the dwarves apart and send them into the fire they worship so dearly, this time it was more successful and he managed to catch the runeson and cause a grievous wound. He then pushes forth a pestilent wave at a host of hearthguard beserkers causing diseases to infect their ranks but nome fell to the spell.

The plague priests chanted prayers to the great horned rat and a crippling curse was placed upon the Priest on Magmadroth, the clanrats, monks and plague priests themselves fighting with more fervour as eventually their cuts brought it down.

However a invocation made from living magma erupted from the battlefield and stated to splash molten rock at the skaven nearby. As the lines began to fold lord Shrilleck jumped from his altar and slipped through one of the nearby gnawholes watching just long enough to see his altar, the plague furnace and the remaining skaven rout – a solitary figure, one of thr plague priests darted towards another gnawhole but as lava was shot through the Sky towards Lord Shrilleck he dove into the chaotic energies and moved through the tunnels in reality swearing vengeance on the fyreslayers. Despite slaying the magmadroth more skaven was needed. Perhaps clan skrye or moulder would be able to spare him some of their creations so he can kill the dwarf things and rid them out of the tunnels the skaven have use for.

Armies.

Skaventide

– Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence
LEADERS
Plague Priest On Plague Furnace (235)**
– Artefacts of Power: The Fumigatous
– Prayers: Curse
Grey Seer (140)**
– Artefacts of Power: Suspicious Stone
– Spells: Skitterleap
Plague Priest (85)**
– Prayers: Heal
Grey Seer On Screaming Bell (265)***
– General
– Command Traits: Cunning
– Spells: Plague
Plague Priest (85)****
– Prayers: Heal
BATTLELINE
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
ARTILLERY
Plagueclaw (135)***
Plagueclaw (135)****
Plagueclaw (135)****
OTHER
Plague Monks (170)***
– Pair of Foetid Blades
Plague Monks (170)***
– Pair of Foetid Blades
Giant Rats (40)***
TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhole (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
– *Hunters of the Heartlands
– **Command Entourage
– ***Battle Regiment
– ****Grand Battery
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Fyreslayers

Army Faction: Fyreslayers
– Army Subfaction: Greyfyrd
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER

Auric Runefather (125)*
– General
– Command Traits: Fury of the Fyreslayers
– Artefacts: The Daemon Slayer

Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (340)*
– Forge Key
– Artefacts: Volatile Brazier
– Mount Traits: Flame-scale Youngblood
– Prayers: Ember Storm

Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefacts: Nulsidian Icon

Auric Runesmiter (135)**
– Forge Key
– Prayers: Prayer Of Ash

Auric Runeson (80)**
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefacts: Axe of Grimnir

BATTLELINE

1 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Berzerker Broadaxe

1 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Flamestrike Poleaxe

Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)*

Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)*

INVOCATION

Molten Infernoth (70)

TERRAIN

Magmic Battleforge (0)

OTHER

Auric Hearthguard (125)*

CORE BATTALIONS:

*Battle Regiment

**Command Entourage

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Thanks for dropping by, if you liked this style of report, Albeit not as detailed as others done in the past let me know!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of month writeup and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Skaven sighted in Soulbound

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Hi all and welcome to fight night where tonight I am getting ready for a warhammer game against an old friend and rival who has requested that I bring my Skaven once again to the front lines and do battle with his noble Fyreslayers.

But, tonight being fight night and I did say that I would bring some more Soulbound this week I wanted to explore combat and the “Creature Stat Blocks” for Soulbound.

So I will take you through some of my beloved Skaven models and do my best to explain the concept of these stat blocks (as I am still learning how the system works).

So without begging forgiveness for any mistakes I made, let’s roll on!

Skaven in Soulbound

213FrSS

The Clanrat

Second only to labourers and slaves, Clanrats are the most numerous and low ranking of the Skaven. Despite this, like
all Skaven, every Clanrat is convinced of its superiority and the inevitability of its ascension to greatness. They clutch rusted arms stolen from dead rivals and seek any
opportunity to advance their station.
Individually, a Clanrat is no match for a prepared hero, in fact, a lone Clanrat is just as likely to squirt the musk of fear and flee than stand and fight. Yet Clanrats rarely fight alone, instead swarming together in hordes of frenzied fighters that throw themselves at their foes in a smothering wall of stinking flesh and chittering savagery.

So first things first, it looks a bit different to a Dungeons and Dragons stat block but there are a few things to go through so we will go from top to bottom.

The Clanrat is classified as a minion, they are lowest fodder on the battlefield and really only strong in numbers, as true to Skaven on the tabletop as possible.

They have Poor Melee, Accuracy and Defence (but rated as average with a shield). This relates to the ladder I mentioned in my first glance of the system. If you have poor defence then the Clanrat will need to have a Difficulty Number (DN) of 4 Body (Weapon skill) where from the dice pool they create from both their Body attribute (down the bottom of the block) and the levels in training they have in their Weapon Skill skill they need to roll 4 or better to beat your defence of poor. But, if you have Average defence then they will have a DN of 5 which means from your dice pool you need to roll a 5 or better to hit. If the Clanrats target has good or better defence then only a 6 on the dice roll will hit.

Having an armour of – means that any damage that is dealt (the number of successful hits + any damage modifiers from the weapon) isn’t stopped by armour. Armor reduces the damage dealt to the creature by 1 for each point in armour.

Toughness is the stamina before the creature takes damage through to their wound. Having a toughness of 1 means that they can have 1 point of damage allocated to them before they stat suffering wounds. The neat thing about toughness is that it will recover outside of battle if you spend a few minutes (I think 10) having a short break before charging into the next throng of enemies.

A wounds of – means that they are truly weak creatures and that by reducing their toughness to 0 that they will suffer a mortal wound and die.

Mettle is a resource which Characters and strong enemies have that enables them to push past the normal barriers in ones physical or mental training and or one moment gain and advantage. Having no Mettle is common for creatures.

Now Speed. To understand speed we need to understand how the game field is laid out in what we call Zones. A zone is an area of space, generally seen as 15ft but its broken up by natural barriers like a wall, fence, trees, door, a incline or decline (trench or parapet). The area where your Character stands is called “Short Range“, the zone adjacent to your zone is “Medium Range” and the zone adjacent to that (2 zones from you) is called “Long Range”

So if your character is in a room and you hear skittering outside the zone you are in now (the room) is short range, the space outside the door, a small field where a fence divides the wheat field and mill from the yard around the building you are in is Medium range, the field is Long range and the mill within the Field is “Extreme Range“. This helps to imaging distance as something relative rather than having a grid to move your character along 6 squares at at time which represents “30ft”.

Now back to Speed. If you have a Slow speed you can move anywhere in your move action to move within their current zone (short range) and must use the run action to move into the zone adjacent (medium range). A Normal speed, such as our Clanrat, means it can use a free action to move within the current zone “Short range”, use a move action to move to the zone adjacent (Medium range) and the run action to move into the next adjacent zone (Long range). Most creatures have a Normal speed but you can encounter creatures with a Fast speed which can move as a free action within their current zone and use the move action to move up to the two zones adjacent (Long range). See simple right?

Ok maybe not simple, its a big change to D&D but I think it does make sense.

Initiative is your Mind attribute and your the levels in training in the Reflexes and Awareness skills. I love this. No longer is it just who is quickest of body strikes first but those who are aware and keen of mind also can think and react quickly to danger. So our little Clanrat has an initiative of two.

Natural Awareness is really Soulbound’s version of Passive Perception.

Skills are shown here in their training level. Training level is represented by xd6 where x is the level the creature is trained in. This little rat has awareness (+1d6), Stealth (+1d6,+1) and Weapon Skill (+1d6).
You may notice that out little Clanrat has a Stealth skill of (1d6, +1) which represents that he is trained in Stealth 1 level and that he has 1 point in Focus. Focus is really a floating 1 value that you can apply to any one dice roll made. An example is needed I feel.

This Clanrat is sneaking up through the wheat field and wants to make sure he is not found, mainly so one of the other Clanrat’s around him takes the first arrows and not him. he rolls DN4:1 Body (Stealth) he has 1 point in Body and 1 level of training in Stealth so he rolls 2 dice. He gets a 5 and a 3 but has 1 point in focus so he turns that 3 into a 4. This grants him 2 successes (nice!).

The next is traits. These are little things that the creature can do that make it.. it really. In this case this poor little Skaven Clanrat feels stronger and braver with friends and begins to fight as one horde of seething, chittering rat-men when he has friends! When he is joined by buddies they become a swarm of Clan rats where you attack as one when they are in the same Zone. This is reflected by gaining +1d6 to their attack pool and having +1 toughness (where each damage dealt kills 1 Clanrat per toughness decreased). However, area of affects (spells, weapons with a spread property, cleaving strikes and the like) deal double damage to a swarm.

Now attacks. This creature has two attacks and can pick one or the other. In this instance the rust blade or the rusty spear *(note it’s not trusty.. its definitely rusty) these attacks are both poor, have 2d6 in their dice pool (1 from body and 1 from weapon skill) and deal x+S damage.

The Rusty blade deals 1+S Damage which is 1 damage base + the number of successes. The Rusty blade is one handed so the Clanrat can wield a shield with the stabby-blade an bring his defence up to average from poor). The Spear deals more damage (2+S) but is just as bad as the rusty blade but is two handed – so no shield (watch out little rat!)

Finally we are down to attributes.

Attributes are simple in Soulbound – Body, Mind and Soul

Body represents your physical strength, your reflexes and coordination, and your overall body awareness. Characters with a high Body tend to be able to hold their own in a fight and rarely balk at manual labour.

Mind represents your intelligence, your awareness and perception, your deductive reasoning, and your ability to think on your feet. Characters with a high Mind are often inquisitive, quick witted, and studious, and are adept at thinking their way around a problem. Mind is also important for wizards and practitioners of the arcane arts.

Soul represents your inner being. It is your sense of self, your spirit and determination, and your ability to resist the influence of Chaos. Characters with high Soul are frequently spiritual leaders or champions, and are absolutely assured in their beliefs.

All attributes feed into Defence, Accuracy and Melee effectiveness as well as toughness, mettle, initiative, natural awareness and skill tests. Each test will be based off one of the three attributes and then a skill. The attribute may change from time to time (so Awareness may sometimes be related to a Soul (awareness) check instead of a Mind (awareness) check if something is trying to overcome your resistance to chaos.

These also form your basic pools in combat. Body for Melee dice pools, Mind for ranged pools and spell checks (Mind (Channelling) test).

Now, I wont go through it all again but lets look at the brutal muscle of the Skaven forces – the Rat Ogor

The Rat Ogor

Stitched, grown, and mutated under the claws of Clan Moulder’s most demented fleshcrafters, then sold to the highest bidder, Rat Ogors are the horrific fusion of Skaven and Ogor. Hulking masses of muscle and claw capable of ripping entire battalions to shreds, the Rat Ogors are singularly violent monsters, who’s only drive is to kill.
While effective in the right circumstances, Rat Ogors are brutally stupid beasts, incapable of comprehending even the simplest of orders or using any weapons aside from their own teeth and claws. Yet with the symbiotic grafting of a secondary, and always unwilling, brain into the proceedings, a Rat Ogor is somewhat elevated. While the creature will never gain true intelligence, the parasitic brain can enforce its will upon the Rat Ogor, allowing it to follow commands, and more Importantly, wield weapons.

As you can see the Rat Ogor is a champion with exponentially better in melee a whopping body of 6 with weapons training (+2d6), a bunch more toughness (with Armor!) and a few other traits and attacks that make it a lethal killing machine.

I could go on and on giving more examples but, frankly, I don’t have that much time left in me for tonight and this would turn into a book rather than a blog post.

I am excited to bring some adventures through to you for Soulbound and hope to have a few games to build up interest for my local gaming group (and maybe beyond).

Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including the end of March writeup (yes its April already.. but I will wrap up March first!). And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Soulbound – Warhammer Age of Sigmar TTRPG

thebrazenwolfe1 Comment

Hi all and welcome to a Saturday writeup where it was triggered by a message coming through this morning. Like most Saturday mornings I was greeted by the bombardment of notifications informing me that thee was another post in the Warhammer group that I am a member of and I was greeted by a welcome surprise.

Soulbound – the TTRPG that was released by Cubical7 in conjunction with games workshop had a humblebundle where you could get 24 books, yup, 24 books for the TTRPG for the the low price of around $25au. Now my love for TTRPGs as well as my love for Warhammer merged into one low priced bundle that supports charity – how can I say no?

To be truthful I had been looking at soulbound for some time now, not that I have grown out of love with Dungeons & Dragons or OpenLegendRPG but as a way that I can explore another format, another set of rules and broaden my understanding of what’s out there while I try and work out the best system for me when I try to create a RPG system of my own – but more on that another time when I hopefully have it more fleshed out.

So the long and short of Soulbound is really you take command of a hero from one of the forces of order, death or destruction and you take your character and fight your way through Goblins, Orruks (Orcs), zombies, ghouls, Skaven (my favourite little critters) and a whole bunch of other chaos warped things to sink and axe, hammer or arrow into.

Your hero will have a set of Skills, Attributes and talents that generate more dice for the pools which you can use to achieve actions by meeting a difficulty number (DN) and generating the required number of successes based on the requirement the GM put on the check.

In Dungeons & Dragons and many other d20 systems you have a few dice, modifiers or items that enable you to meet and beet a Difficulty Class (DC) which determines the success or fail of the action. With Soulbound you have a pool of dice that you would roll to try and beat the difficulty number with each dice. So each dice you roll has the potential to cause you to succeed and what’s more – its only a d6 (not a d20) so if you needed to roll a 4 (DN4:1) and the check, to jump a fence or barricade for example, required you roll succeed only once. Then if you roll a 3 dice on average you should be fine. This style of mechanics means the more dice you roll the more likely you are to succeed and I do have a fondness for rolling lots of dice.

Now I have only spent a hour or so skimming over the character creation guide (from the core rulebook) but the concept is looking at adding your base ability (Body- Physical prowess, Mind-mental aptitude, and Soul-Spiritual presence.. I guess) to the skills you are trained in to establish what your Melee, Accuracy (Ranged) and Defence rating is from Poor to Exceptional. The higher number your skills and attributes the higher quality your rating is and the higher rung in “The ladder” you are in.

This Ladder is used primarily to determine the difference in quality between the attackers skill and the defenders defence. This determines the Difficulty number on the attack roll to deal damage to try and defeat your opponent. This is a bit complex but once the maths is over then the system is quite.. simple from what it looks like.

I will look at this a bit more over the coming week and hopefully I may try and have a Soulbound Saturday where I post some Soulbound content where I play the game with my fellow warhammer players – well that’s the idea.

While the bundle is cheap on Humble-bundle I would suggest going to have a look at it and see if its something for you. Saving (I think) a bit over 90% of the total cost of the books that are in the bundle for this amount of content is pretty incredible.

Don’t forget tomorrow is the final writeup for the week where we take the party into the temple and confront a bunch of snakes, and their abyssal lord.

Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Saturday night – Skaven vs Sons of Behemat battle report!

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Hi all and welcome to a Warhammer age of Sigmar 3.0 battle report write-up. No fancy pictures though but it was a tough matchup from the get go.

Without too much of a ramp-up I wanted to touch in with my other tabletop passion and have a writeup of an Age of Sigmar Warhammer game I had Friday night. It was a reasonably long game (a lot of rats to move..) but we managed to play it through to a point that it felt ok leaving it there.

The armies

Skaventide (mixed)

Allegiance: Skaventide

– Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery

– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders

Arch-Warlock (175)***

– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: Warp Lightning Shield

Clawlord (105)***

– Mighty Warlord Command Trait: Verminous Valour

Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (265)*

– Lore of Ruin: Death Frenzy

Grey Seer (140)*

– Artefact: Suspicious Stone

– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap

Verminlord Warbringer (305)***

– General

– Command Trait: Devious Adversary

– Artefact: Shield of Distraction

– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Battleline

20 x Clanrats (130)**

– Rusty Spear

– 1x Standard Bearers

– 1x Standard Bell Ringers

20 x Clanrats (130)**

– Rusty Spear

– 1x Standard Bearers

– 1x Standard Bell Ringers

20 x Clanrats (130)*

– Rusty Spear

– 1x Standard Bearers

– 1x Standard Bell Ringers

20 x Stormvermin (220)**

– Halberd

– Reinforced x 1

Units

10 x Night Runners (75)*

10 x Night Runners (75)*

Behemoths

Hell Pit Abomination (240)*

– Mutation: Toughened Sinews

Core Battalions

*Battle Regiment

**Hunters of the Heartlands

***Command Entourage – Magnificent

Additional Enhancements

Artefact

Total: 1990 / 2000

Reinforced Units: 1 / 4

Allies: 0 / 400

Wounds: 153

Drops: 7

Sons of Behemat (stomper tribe)

Allegiance: Sons of Behemat

– Tribe: Stomper Tribe

– Grand Strategy: Beast Master

– Triumphs:

Leaders

Warstomper Mega-Gargant (470)*

– General

– Command Trait: Eager for the fight

– Artefact: Ironweld Cestus

Battleline

3 x Mancrusher Gargant Mob (475)*

3 x Mancrusher Gargant Mob (475)*

3 x Mancrusher Gargant Mob (475)*

Core Battalions

*Footsloggas – Unified

Total: 1895 / 2000

Reinforced Units: 0 / 4

Allies: 0 / 400

Wounds: 143

Drops: 4

The Battle plan

Battle plan – Apex predators.

This is a tricky one as only leaders can capture an objective and they do so by two means.

Being within 3″ of that objective or killing the leader that already held it. Great for Skaven with many heroes and the means to move between them (gnawholes), great for sons of behemat if you have more than one leader unit – but a tough matchup for both of us. My List doesn’t have the damage threshold to push through the gargants and he didn’t have the volume of leaders to contest more than one objective.

The match

Deployment.

One gnawhole in my territory towards the right of the table. Another Gnollhole near each of the objectives but on the other side of the gnawholes.

Warstomper and his buddies toed the line with the middle objective.

Nightrunners out front to screen the center, clanrats to be a secondary screen, stormvermin just behind them, with a blob of heroes (all within 6″ of the gnawhole). Another unit of clan rats screened the top of my forces and my last screened the left of my little square of land.

The HPA backed up the left flank.

Pregame

Warpstone – 3+d3(1) – 4

Left-center unit of Nightrunners moved 4″ forward, right-center unit moved 11″ to screen my entire force..

Round 1 – Turn 1 Sons of Behemat

Battle tactic  – monstrous takeover

Sons of Behemat Heroic action – Heroic Leadership (fail) 

Skaven Heroic action – 

Hero phase..  Yup that was it.. 

Movement phase he moved everything forward – that was terrifying… 

Shooting phase he threw a bunch of boulders using the stomper tribe command ability… All out defense saved my stormvermin from Total destruction as those rocks hurt! But a 4+ save helped. The nightrunner screens didn’t fare too well and my Bell managed to spike a few saves and ward shrugs. 

Charge. Terrifying.. 3d6 for big boy means he goes where he pleases. 

Well my screens didn’t last, in fact they crumbled and with some cheeky pile-ins he managed to get within 3″ of not stormvermin and smash over half of them to a pulp. Oof.

All night runners died but that was their job.

My eight stormvermin in range dealt 4 damage to his mancrusher gargant unit.. 32 wounds to go for that unit.

Most importantly his decision to pile in to try and finish my stormvermin removed him from the objective zone and so he didn’t score his battle tactic OR the objective. An oversight or smarter-than-Skaven big brain play I don’t know but regardless it wasn’t looking good and it all depended on what the Bell and spell casting could do for me.

Battleshock didn’t happen (nothing eligible. Thanks Bell!)

Round 1 – Turn 2 – Skaven

Tactic – ferocious advance.

Skaven Heroic action – healing on my bell – healed 2 so back down to 1 wound!. 

Sons of Behemat – Willpower (and got it!)

Bell tolled, a 2… Well that hurts.. Mortal wounds splashed about across my heroes with a few of them getting 3 wounds on them (2 wounds remaining for my little foot heroes).

Death frenzy was successful and went on my hell pit abom (since my other units that remained were not worth putting Death Frenzy on).

Be got mystic shield off on verminlord warbringer.

Verminlord warbringer failed both casts.

Grey seer on foot managed to get skitterleap and teleported my arch warlock to take the top objective (so I could camp both top and bottom objective and double his points easily).

Arch warlock lined up his overcharged warp storm and.. failed.. even with reroll (a first for me). Then self immolated for 12 mortals.. so he died.

My top units of clan rats went to form a line near the objective and the gnawhole I put to pressure the top-right objective.

My left unit of clanrats went to do the same on the bottom left objective and provide a rat-meat shield for my verminlord warbringer who I would take through the gnawhole.

HPA moved to support left clanrats, everything in the middle moved up to pressure the middle objective. My stormvermin retreated to “safety”.

Due to my top unit of clan rats suffering 2 mortals from my bell failure they were due a battleshock test but rolled a 3 (-1 because of 10+models) and vs a bravery of 5 (inspiring terrain) – they were fine.

Ended my turn scoring 4vp.

SoB won the roll off, something that would happen often and took the turn.

Round 2 – Turn 1 – Sons of Behemat.

Battle Tactic was “Slay the wardlord” to try and kill my General. 

Gargant Heroic action Warstomper finest hour. 

Skaven heroic action – Finest hour on my verminlord warbringer.

This saw the topmost unit of gargant move to engage my clanrats that were defending the Screaming bell, another unit moving to engage and threaten the clanrats and hellpit abomination guarding my verminlord warbringer and the third doing the same to flank the warstomper who was coming over to say hello to my verminlord warbringer. A 2” redeploy of my clanrats saw them move to make the Warstompers charge to be a 13” to my verminlord warbringer. 

The left unit of mancrusher gargants ran into my clan rats and killed a few poor little rats on the charge.The other Gargants charged the edge of my clanrats and brought in my Hellpit. 

The warstomper didn’t make the charge to my verminlord warbringer but hit the clan-rats hard. 

Combat saw my clanrats near my Screaming bell fair well enough against the mancrusher mob. 

My clanrat screen died, but kept the mancrusher mobs away from my verminlord warbringer, but the warstomper was free to engage my poor verminlord warbringer. 

But not before the Hellpit had killed one mancrusher gargant and dealt 9 wounds to the next. 

The Warstomper piled into my verminlord warbringer, I activated all out defense. 

The verminlord warbringer managed to gain 4 extra attacks due to devious adversary and with a 3+ save and ignoring 2 points of rend (and the verminlord 5+ ward) the verminlord warbringer survived. 

The punchback on the verminlord warbringer into the mega (finest hour and rerolling saves) meant I received 1 mortal wound back and dealt 1 wound to bring me up to 9 wounds taken but not dead. 

The Mancrusher mob then killed the hellpit abomination, triggering death frenzy which dealt about 12 wounds and brought the final Mancrusher gargant in that unit to 4 wounds. 

Battleshock phase saw that last gargant run.

End of turn, Sons of Behemat scored 1 for killing a monster, Skaven scored 1 for killing a monster but the battle tactic failed and the mega-gargant was .5” from contesting the objective.  

Round 2- turn 2- Skaven

Tactic was “conquer” which I wasn’t able to do, but there was no other way to score another tactic. 

Heroic action – Skaven – Heroic Leadership on screaming bell, failed. 

Gargant was heroic leadership which was failed. 

This turn saw the bell roll a 10, not quite the 12 I was wanting but it was far from the worst outcome. It dealt a few mortal wounds here and there but not enough to write home about. 

Spells saw Verminlord warbringer gain flaming weapon and mystic shield, cracks call went off and no damage was dealt, skitterleap was successful which enabled me to score the middle objective and a arcane bolt dealt 1 mortal wound to a mancrusher gargant. 

My 3 man unit of stormvermin rallied and I rolled 6 6’s from 17 dice. Big play. 

Movement saw my clan rats shuffle to screen the verminlord warbringer and his teleport (through gnawhole) to the top objective. 

The Screaming bell ran up to help contest the middle objective and support the Grey seer. 

Stormvermin moved to charge and the clawlord moved up to support them. 

Vermin lord abandoned the bottom left objective and teleported just outside of 3” of the top right objective, that hurt.

Charge. Stormvermin made it and dealt 4 more wounds leaving the Mancrusher gargants on 2 remaining. They piled in and managed to get on the line of 3” for my Clawlord which saw him fall to 2 more damage than he had wounds remaining. 

The clan rats dealt 1 more damage to them leaving them on 1 wound remaining. 

The stormvermin were removed. 

Battleshock once again wasn’t a thing but the end of the turn brought another 2 points to the Skaven. 

Score was Skaven 7, Sons of Behemat 1.

Roll off – the Sons of Behemat won and took initiative. I burnt the middle objective so they had the choice of keeping their Warstomper on the other side of the table or abandoning that objective to come and get my models – they went for the models. 

Round 3, turn 1 – Sons of Behemat

Battle tactic – Broken Ranks (my 4 clan rats..) 

Heroic action for Sons of Behemat- Heroic Leadership (success)

Heroic action for Skaven was heroic recovery on Warbringer. (1 wound healed) 

Everything moved, threw rocks and killed my Clan rats (Sad times).

Big charges saw my Grey seer on foot get pulverized by the Warstomper and two units of Mancrusher mobs (6 models) into my Screaming bell. The less wounded unit attacked and brought him to 9 wounds out of 13. Attacking back the bell managed to kill one more Gargant scoring me 1 point for killing a monster this round. 

That was really the round.

Sons of Behemat scored their tactic, with a monster but had no objectives scoring 3 points, Skaven scored another point for killing a monster going up to 8 points. 

Round 3 – turn 2 – Skaven

Battle tactic – savage spearhead (wasn’t going to get it sadly..) 

Heroic Action – Heroic Recovery (healing 2 more wounds!) 

Simple really with 18 clan rats and my verminlord warbringer left – I cast mystic shield and flaming weapon on the doom glaive. 

Moved my Rats to brace for a gargant charge and moved my warbringer onto the objective scoring 2 points.

End of the battle round saw Skaven 10 (1+more), Sons of Behemat 4 

Round 4 roll off – Sons of Behemat won and took it again. I burned to the top right objective making him choose between fighting me with his warstomper or running back towards the only remaining objective (as none of them are Prime objectives?) 

Round 4 – turn 1 – Sons of Behemat

Tactic – Bring it down 

Heroic action gargants – Heroic leadership (Got)

Heroic action Skaven – Heroic recovery (Failed)

Hero phase was a non – event. 

Movement phase saw the gargants advance and I redeployed my Skaven to once again make it really hard for the Warstomper to get to my warbringer (this time forcing a 15” charge). The 

Command ability was used (like every turn) for all gargants to throw rocks, this hurt the clan a little bit but failed to hurt the warbringer. 

Command ability was dropped to give all gargants re-roll to charges.

All gargants made the charge into the rats and the Warstomper made a 11” charge from 3d6, twice.

Combat and impact hits saw all my clan rats dead and the warstomper ended up piling into 3” of my verminlord warbringer – just. Because I never started combat phases with him within 3” I never was able to activate “shield of distraction” for the -1 to hit, but was able to still reroll 1s to save which had saved him quite a few times. 

He survived and manage to gain 4 stacks of “devious adversary” without finest hour on the Warstomper I managed to punch through 17 damage from his fist attack and the boosted doom glaive and piled 3” further away from the mancrusher mob, within 3” and closer to the Warstomper (and within 6” of the gnawhole).

This ended the turn with no VP scored either side.

Round 4 – turn 2 – Skaven.

Battle tactic – err.. Slay the warlord (wasn’t going to get it again..)

Hero action, it didn’t matter so I didn’t bother and neither did Sons’ player. 

Spell casting – both went off in case of a miracle. 

Teleported out using the gnawhole and onto the last objective. 

We called it there when my score ended up being 12 – 4 in favour of Skaven. 

Conclusion

Despite losing ~1680 points worth of models and killing.. 475 points of models the battle plan favoured me heavily – it was pretty rough going.

A first for playing against SoB for me, and not the first for playing against Skaven for my opponent – but a first for this list. They are hard to chew through without rend and range and especially the stomper tribe who do increased damage vs horde (or 10+ model units). This made all hits or failed armour saves feel really impactful and probably why I had only a single model left (on 7 wounds remaining out of 12…)

The multiple ways for Skaven to have a leader with a ward is incredible. Only my poor arch-warlock (who was incredibly unlucky this game) didn’t have a ward of a 4+ or 5+ (as Verminous Valour is counted as a ward) and it was felt.

Devious adversary felt good but was a high-risk high-reward playstyle and when coupled with the bonuses to save, the ward save post fact and the shield of distraction (that never got to distract anyone) it made him survive two combat rounds against a unbracketed mega-gargant and live to screech about.

Well that’s all we have for tonight, I hope you dropped by. If you have any questions about the lists or any take-aways from the game please reach out. I didn’t manage to capture any images of the match (was on Table-top simulator.. having two young kids makes it hard to get out during the night time to play in person…) but it was a good game and a hard lesson to learn.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for our end of week writeup and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage*
The Brazen Wolfe

*or in this case re-roll your saves

The seekers of the lost god. P1

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Xer’lyss looked over their host as they sped forward across the ashen ground, rotting wood and shattered stone. Chariots, steeds of slaanesh carrying daemonettes and mortals alike, heralds and mortals who ran in foot wanting to curry favour with the warhost as they sped ever closer to their forgotten prince.

Breathing in deeply they detected the waft of the sleeping prince and eyes flickering with ecstacy as they detected the faintest trail of whome they sought. But there was a darker, danker smell on the breeze. One of death, of bones and of rot.

Sending one of their fastest riders off they began to prepare for the hunt, mustering the host for battle and driving them ever forwards towards their god. A few hours later their rider returned carrying a shield of solid bone, expertly crafted from shoulder blades, skulls and the like to be a work of art. Violence and even the harvesting of bones from the living in excess was still a calling to Slaanesh. A wicked smile spread across Xer’lyss’s face as a shiver of anticipation wracked her body.

Letting out a trill that resonated through the host. All steeds, mortals and daemons stopped and watched as her alabaster steeds tore off, her returning rider leading the way to the bone reapers and their tithe of excess.

Yup it’s finally Warhammer night!

As I prepare for a battle against my opponent, a friend I am teaching AOS 3 to, I wanted to make my army as thematic as possible. For me Slaanesh is fast, lithe and deadly and for me that’s chariots, mounted troops and super fast daemons. It may not be the most competitive army but to help my friend learn the hobby and new edition (not so new for many of us) I believe it will do just fine.

My list

Allegiance: Slaanesh
– Host: Godseekers Host
– Grand Strategy: Sever the Head
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Synessa, The Voice of Slaanesh (260)*
Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh (140)*
– Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation
Xer’lyss – Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Speed-chaser
– Artefact: Girdle of the Realm-racer
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Battleline
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)**
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)**
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)*
1 x Seeker Chariots (130)*
1 x Seeker Chariots (130)*

Units
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
3 x Fiends (200)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Hunters of the Heartlands

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 4

The opposition

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Mortis Praetorians
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (450)
Liege-Kavalos (185)
– General
– Command Trait: Katakros’ Chosen
– Artefact: Artificer’s Blade

Battleline
20 x Mortek Guard (280)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2x Soulcleaver Greatblades
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Mortek Guard (280)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2x Soulcleaver Greatblades
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (190)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

Behemoths
Gothizzar Harvester (215)
– Weapon: Soulcrusher Bludgeons

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 103
Drops: 1

Teaching my friend is a true joy. Keen as a knife, smart as a whip he learns quickly and we got into the swing of things by the end of round 1. Despite our best efforts we left it at the end of round 2, turn 1 and the beginning of OBT turn 2 at 2am on Sunday morning.. unfortunately this means that we will have to wait to see if Xer’lyss can defeat Katakros and Arkhan’s combined might.

The seekers of the lost god. P1

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Xer’lyss looked over their host as they sped forward across the ashen ground, rotting wood and shattered stone. Chariots, steeds of slaanesh carrying daemonettes and mortals alike, heralds and mortals who ran in foot wanting to curry favour with the warhost as they sped ever closer to their forgotten prince.

Breathing in deeply they detected the waft of the sleeping prince and eyes flickering with ecstacy as they detected the faintest trail of whome they sought. But there was a darker, danker smell on the breeze. One of death, of bones and of rot.

Sending one of their fastest riders off they began to prepare for the hunt, mustering the host for battle and driving them ever forwards towards their god. A few hours later their rider returned carrying a shield of solid bone, expertly crafted from shoulder blades, skulls and the like to be a work of art. Violence and even the harvesting of bones from the living in excess was still a calling to Slaanesh. A wicked smile spread across Xer’lyss’s face as a shiver of anticipation wracked her body.

Letting out a trill that resonated through the host. All steeds, mortals and daemons stopped and watched as her alabaster steeds tore off, her returning rider leading the way to the bone reapers and their tithe of excess.

Yup it’s finally Warhammer night!

As I prepare for a battle against my opponent, a friend I am teaching AOS 3 to, I wanted to make my army as thematic as possible. For me Slaanesh is fast, lithe and deadly and for me that’s chariots, mounted troops and super fast daemons. It may not be the most competitive army but to help my friend learn the hobby and new edition (not so new for many of us) I believe it will do just fine.

My list

Allegiance: Slaanesh
– Host: Godseekers Host
– Grand Strategy: Sever the Head
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Synessa, The Voice of Slaanesh (260)*
Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh (140)*
– Lore of Slaanesh: Born of Damnation
Xer’lyss – Bladebringer, Herald on Exalted Chariot (265)*
– General
– Command Trait: Speed-chaser
– Artefact: Girdle of the Realm-racer
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon

Battleline
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)**
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)**
5 x Hellstriders with Claw-spears (135)*
1 x Seeker Chariots (130)*
1 x Seeker Chariots (130)*

Units
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)*
3 x Fiends (200)**

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Hunters of the Heartlands

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 4

The opposition

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
– Legion: Mortis Praetorians
– Mortal Realm: Shyish
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (450)
Liege-Kavalos (185)
– General
– Command Trait: Katakros’ Chosen
– Artefact: Artificer’s Blade

Battleline
20 x Mortek Guard (280)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2x Soulcleaver Greatblades
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Mortek Guard (280)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield
– 2x Soulcleaver Greatblades
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (190)
– Nadirite Blade and Shield

Behemoths
Gothizzar Harvester (215)
– Weapon: Soulcrusher Bludgeons

Total: 1960 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 103
Drops: 1

Teaching my friend is a true joy. Keen as a knife, smart as a whip he learns quickly and we got into the swing of things by the end of round 1. Despite our best efforts we left it at the end of round 2, turn 1 and the beginning of OBT turn 2 at 2am on Sunday morning.. unfortunately this means that we will have to wait to see if Xer’lyss can defeat Katakros and Arkhan’s combined might.

Upward comparison

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Welcome to a Brazen Wolfe Tabletop random thought post tonight.

It’s not news to me that I procrastinate on my hobby, I recognise this and can tell when I do so. One of the many factors, which is most apparent to me tonight is upwards comparing myself to others in my hobby circle, particularly warhammer where a few members in my group have won local painting competitions, been features in the Games Workshop article’s for their painting as well as winning actual tournaments in Australia.

Now I consider myself a decent tactician and general. I generally have a positive win rate and make my opponents really fight to take the win from me but when it comes to painting I find myself incomparable with my gaming peers.

To be completely overt, I started painting miniatures in 2017 (poorly, base colours only, no layers or shades or highlights..) and have worked up to paint some miniatures I am actually Proud and happy to call my own work, but looking at the sea of unpainted miniatures, knowing what I want them to look like and also seeing what my friends can accomplish with the same size model, same tools and same amount of time I get dissuaded very quickly even if I can stand on equal (well equal enough) grounds with them on the battlefield.

Well this year I want that to change, I hope to kick-start my painting journey with the help of some absolutely fantastic painters this year where I hope they will be able to teach an old Wolfe new tricks. For me being able to look at a piece of art work, because thats the level of painting I consider my friends at, and be inspired instead of being dissuaded will be my biggest hurdle this year.. that and 200 skaven rats (or a certain lord of gluttony from Slaanesh I want to paint and paint well this year).

So my goal is to ramp up my painting and when I finish a model use the weekend posts to upload what I have accomplished, with the help and guidance of some very talented hobbyists locally.

This is currently what I could consider the best model(s) I have painted to have as a benchmark. Each I probably sunk half a day on to get to this state.

Stay tuned for updates in the future.

Don’t forget, as always, to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Battle report, Cities of Sigmar vs Skaventide

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Ok so as promised I am writing up the Warhammer game I ran off to last night.. i will alo endeavour to remember what happened as I forgot to save little Audio reminders in my game.

Army lists (from yesterday). The Brazen Wolfe vs Basti.

A pre write up disclaimer, Basti is awesome. One of the best armies I have seen, period, and such a great opponent. Happy for your victories, humble in his wins. Just wants to play a fun game and interact with the army, scenerio and players

The Garden Rats
Allegiance: Skaventide
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Arch-Warlock (175)***
– General
– Command Trait: Overseer of Destruction
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: Warp Lightning Shield
Warlock Bombardier (125)*
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Plague Priest (85)***
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Plague Priest (85)***
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (265)****
– Lore of Ruin: Warpgale
Grey Seer (140)***
– Artefact: Suspicious Stone
– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap

Battleline
RatPack1 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
RatPack 2 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
RatPack3 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers

Units
6 x Giant Rats (40)****
6 x Giant Rats (40)****
1 x Ratling Gun (65)***
1 x Ratling Gun (65)***
1 x Warpfire Thrower (70)****

Artillery
Warp Lightning Cannon (185)*
Warp Lightning Cannon (185)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulsnare Shackles (65)

Core Battalions
*Grand Battery
**Hunters of the Heartlands
***Warlord
****Vanguard

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 136
Drops: 16

Cities of Sigmar: Tempest Eye
Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Tempest’s Eye
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Pillars of Belief
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Runelord (100)*
– Artefact: Patrician’s Helm
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
Runelord (100)*
– General
– Command Trait: Hawk-eyed
Drakesworn Templar (455)*
– Tempest Axe
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Gotrek Gurnisson (435)*
– Allies

Battleline
20 x Irondrakes (320)**
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Longbeards (210)**
– Ancestral Weapons & Shields
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)**
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns


Units
10 x Shadow Warriors (120)*
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155)*
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 435 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 9

The battle plan was marking territory where at the start of the third battle round of any player controls all 4 objectives (set up on the quarter points) they immediately win. If there is a tour then the most successful battle tactics scored determines winner.

Being severely out dropped with my list I knew I had to play defensively in order to have a chance if I was given first or second turn. So I set up two gnawholes in my territory within 6″of the objective and my third near his left hand objective incase I could try and snipe it from him late game.

I set up two ratling cannons in my centre unit of clanrats and a warpfire thrower in my third clanrat unit on the right of the table (determined pre game as much as it mattered with 3 identical units of rats) My gnawhole near this objective was also next to mystic terrain so my two plague priests started there for +2 to cast. I put my screaming bell here in so it has bodies to push it and +1 to it’s casts. This way it also had the most bodies around it yo try and push forward to contest the opposing right side objective where my opponent had set up Gotrek, the 20 long beards, 20 irondrakes and both rune lords. Ouch.. So it was going to be a blender of hurt.

The left side of the table had the Arkanaut company, gunhauler and the stardrake.. i still feel it was less of a threat than Gotrek. I matched this dragon with two warp Lightning cannons, my warlocks and 20 clanrats

Battle round 1.

Basti was extremely generous and gave me the first round. Went with ferocious advance and picked my bell and two clanrats with weapons teams to be my runners. Tried to get a command point for my screaming bell (heroic leadership) and failed.

Bell rang 9, but nothing in range to zap. Spells went off well. Arch warlock cast his warp Lightning shield but didn’t cast anything else, yet…

My priests prayed, giving bless to my 3rd unit of clan rats on the far right. The other one smote.. smite-ed? His general dealing 2 mortals, nice..

My grey seer cast skitter leap and teleported my arch warlock just inside of 13 of my opponents front line. My screaming bell failed to cast warpgale but cast arcane bolt (newsflash.. I forgot to use it) my arch warlock finally cast war lightning storm but was unbound by those pesky runelords.

Moving. Moved my cannons up. One to be just within 24″ of his stardrake the other within 24″ of his longbeards. Moved my left clanrat unit to screen the objective.. the giant rats (oh yeah, forgot about them. I deployed them to ward off deep strikes within 2′ of my right and left backfield.. where the objectives are.) Moved slightly to adjust the bubble. the warlock bombardier moved to within 3″ of both cannons. For precautions..

My two units of clan rats ran to form a body line infront of my arch warlock, within 10″ish of their front line. My priests moved a little bit around and I got my bell to protect my rats from battleshock.

End of movement my two ratling cannons popped out within 12″ of his irondrakes. I wanted them gone. My warpfire jumped out as a charge

Shooting. Let’s start with the bad.. the ratlings. Yup, sad time my fellow rat enthusiast’s. Both of them got force fed a warpstone and let off the limiter. Neither exploded!! But we managed to get a through 10 or 11 shots from 26 or so attacks. But the irondrakes spiked 8 saves in total and only lost 4 models.. not the unit I was hoping for.

Now the good. Warp lightning’s.T

The one shooting into the longbeards wasn’t overcharged and I managed to roll a power level of 2 and dealt 5 mortals. I think 2 were shrugged due to mystical terrain but 3 still died. Nice.

Now.. shooting into the stardrake. Overcharged and rolled a power level of 1.. it happened! 12 mortals!!!

It shrugged 3 so was left on taking 9 wounds. However I dealt 5 back to myself. Oof.

That was the end of my turn.

Bastis turn 1

Here we go. Selected aggressive expansion and healed 2 wounds on his star drake. I tried to heal my bell and failed (sad rat)

Moving forward he got his prayers off. A 6+ ward on longbeards, extra rend on his irondrakes. He then moved everything up. His dragon, terrifyingly, moved to take my left objectives. He wall of dwarf flesh moved up to get range on my screaming bell, i redeployed one ratling toward gotrek, as a sacrificial rat to prevent him moving closer to my front line.

Shooting removed both ratlings by his irondrakes but left my warpfire thrower alive with 2 wounds left and dealt 3 wounds to my screaming bell.

The stardrake killed my wounded cannon but the other one lived.

Charge phase. Gotrek got into my clanrats and got within 3″ of both units of my clan rats and a plague priest. 1 like = one prayer to the horned rat.

The stardrake charged and almost didn’t get in with a 3″ charge. But it was just enough for an unleash hell for my lightning cannon. I overcharged (praying for another 1) but rolled a 4 for power level. I ended up dealing.. 7 mortals but another 2 were shrugged (I believe).

The end of charge phase my clan rats bravely ignored the dragon and its monster tantrum (hunters) but Gotrek swung first and only killed 17 rats.. yup. He wiffed.

My clan rat blob fighting the dragon moved in and landed 4 wounds, dealt no damage. They then died down to 6 models. Not bad, well done rats.

The remaining clan rats against the dwarf blender moved to the opposite side of Gotrek so he couldn’t pile in to get within 1 inch of my other units. As predicted they did.. actually 1 wound. It was easily saved but their job was done.

End of the round I spent my last command point to keep my 6 rats on the dragon.

Winning the rol-loff we started with a bang.

Battle Round 2.

A 12 on the bell. Oh yes, lord Skreech joined us! – he was setup just outside of 9 of the dragon. My heroic action was to heal the bell, and I did, healing 3 with heroic recovery. Basti mirrored this and healed his dragon.. I think the same amount. My battle tactic was the easy one – aggressive expansion – to hold the two objectives on my side of the table.

Spell wise. Dreaded 13 spell went off.. just as he was within 1″ off the gnawhole (haven’t regretted setting two up in my side of the field yet..) and selecting his master of magic hero phase empowerment. Rolling 13 dice I scored 7 mortals on the dragon, he shrugged 5. Amulet of destiny on a 4+ or 3+ hero-monster is just.. hard to crack.

Skitterleap failed, Wither went off and hit the long beards dealing 3 mortals, 2 were shrugged (I think), but they were penalised with a -1 to hit debuff.

Cracks call was unbound, but, I summoned the shackles around Gotrek to try and hold him down for a turn. One of my monks got Pestilens-pestilens off and dealt a few mortals to the irondrakes and longbeards. the other dealt a few mortals to his runelord with smite.

My Warlock bombardier overcharged his warp lightning spell and it went through onto he dragon.. dealing… 1 mortal, which was shrugged.

My arch warlock had his warp lightning storm unbound (not game to overcharge it) but got his warp lightning shield off.

The grey seer on bell failed to get warpgale off (double 1) and dealt 1 mortal to himself.

Start of movement.. the shackles splashed mortals across all my models, basically. And ignored all of Basti’s.

Movement I ran from Gotrek, not afraid to admit it that dwarf is a menace, my warpfire thrower moved up to get the long beards in range and the longbeards redeployed to get.. closer to him. Nice.

Skreech moved to get ready to charge the dragon ready for a monster-off.

My giant rats moved up to try and screen a bit whilst my arch warlock ran to get within 8 of the stardrake.

Shooting.

Left hand side whiffed. no mortals dealt by the arch warlocks warp fire gauntlet, the stabby tails I think did 1 wound that wasn’t shrugged and the bombardier failed to wound. My warpfire however reduced the ~16 long beards to just 6 models. That warpfire is so good.

Charging.

Skreech got in, that was my only charge. Titanic Duel went off and I used my triump. Surely 14 attacks on 2’s and 2’s would do it. I even used is command ability to re-roll wound rolls of 1s.

Almost all the attacks weant through but I dealt, at the end of all that, I actually don’t think I dealt any wounds with the 3+ shrug and the 5+ ward.

My Clanrats died and Skreech was taken down to 8 wounds

Basti turn 2

Prayer 1 failed, but he then unbound the shackles.

Shooting saw my verminlord taken down to 2 models and Basti selected aggressive expansion to run 3 units.

He brought in his shadow stalkers and peppered the verminlord.

His Irondrakes killed 3 giant rats and dealt 4 wounds to my plague priest and 1 wound to my warpfire thrower.

Charge.. he got in Gotrek, even with my giant rats moving (Re-deploy in the move phase) to intercept it wasnt enough.

My verminlord died, his stardrake was brought down to 4 wounds, Gotrek killed the remaining 3 giant rats and outright smote my 20 clan rats.

End of round there was nothing in combat.

Battle round 3

I won the rolloff again and tried to just consolidate my forces, I selected to destroy his battleline (Longbeards) as it was looking to either be an outright loss for me or a draw. I got skitterleap off moving my grey seer on foot to contest one of his back objectives. Dealt no other damage with the grey seer with my other spell failing.

I charged a arcane bolt on my arch warlock and then tried to cast chain warp lightning, it didn’t go off (from memory)

The bell tried to cast cracks call and was unbound, the warplock bombardier tried to get warp lightning off and I think he dealt a mortal or two to the drake. Smote the wrong runelord (not his general), tried to heal the bell and my priest rolled a 1, then failed to roll a ward save due to mystical terrain. So he died.

Movement. Everything moved away from Gotrek. teleport or through the portal, having one plague priest on the edge of 6″ the objective to just cower.

Shooting. The warpfire thrower removed.. 11 models from the Irondrakes (wow..) and left it with 1 model.

The Aarch warlock charged the dragon, the bell charged the dragon.

Start of Phase he stomped my bell (I think I saved the mortals with it’s ward) and then I shot off the arcance bolt, dealing 2 mortals – he saved one. The dragon was left on 2 at this stage.

Attacking with the Bell I rolled my 2d6 attacks with the spikes, I think I had 11 hit, 2+/3+/-1/1. 7 went through and.. he failed 2 saves.. He then failed both wards and the Screaming bell killed a stardrake.. in combat..

That was the end of the round.

Basti Round 3.

He healed his general, I tried to get an extra command point and didn’t.

He then buffed his drakes and rally returned 1 of them. He selected conquer to try and push my priest off my right objective with Gotrek..

Shooting saw a few wounds go into my Bell, saw my grey seer die.

Move and charge

The shadow stalkers moved up and charged my clan rats behind my bell, killing them but not bringing in the bell (not that he could pile in with no models around him..) Gotrek moved, My priest re-deployed and made it just inside 6″ of the objective by 7″ from Gotrek.. He failed the charge, rerolled with a command point.. and failed again.

That concluded the turn and game (ran out of time).

At his point I was a complete draw and I had all my wizards alive on the opposite side of the map of his killing machine with a very difficult journey ahead of Gotrek to try and get to me to kill me.

Hope you enjoyed that write-up. I will endeavour to get better at these as times goes on and hopefully start to record games eventually.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, (or re-roll fails in this case)
The Brazen Wolfe

Weekend update

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It’s Saturday and here in Australia (particularly Victoria) a lot of places are closed to you until you’ve had two doses of the Covid Vaccine and now that I am… It’s time to hit the wargaming hall and have a warhammer game against a friend!

But I wanted to take this opportunity to have an update on the next few weeks..

I’ll attempt to do a post a day!

…Well that’s nothing unusual tonight marks 90 days straight of posts to Brazen Wolfe Tabletop (feel like I should celebrate somehow hmm…) But I will change the format a bit. I am not w Christmas person but the holiday season does bring certain joy to my household with my two kids so I will be doing 25 days of Christmas, an advent calendar if you will where I will create NPCs, Maps, plot hooks, story-style writeups, homebrew monsters and, hopefully, something new.

So make sure to drop in for December and enjoy the lead up to a Truly Brazen Christmas.

So for those here since I mentioned warhammer I will publish my list tonight, update the post with my opponents list – know it’s Duardin (Dwarves) and will do a written battle report tomorrow!

The Garden Rats

Allegiance: Skaventide
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Arch-Warlock (175)***
– General
– Command Trait: Overseer of Destruction
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism: Warp Lightning Shield
Warlock Bombardier (125)*
– Universal Spell Lore: Ghost-mist
Plague Priest (85)***
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Plague Priest (85)***
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Curse
Grey Seer on Screaming Bell (265)****
– Lore of Ruin: Warpgale
Grey Seer (140)***
– Artefact: Suspicious Stone
– Lore of Ruin: Skitterleap

Battleline
RatPack1 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
RatPack 2 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers
RatPack3 (130)**
20 x Clanrats
– Rusty Spear
– 1x Standard Bearers
– 1x Standard Bell Ringers

Units
6 x Giant Rats (40)****
6 x Giant Rats (40)****
1 x Ratling Gun (65)***
1 x Ratling Gun (65)***
1 x Warpfire Thrower (70)****

Artillery
Warp Lightning Cannon (185)*
Warp Lightning Cannon (185)*

Endless Spells & Invocations
Soulsnare Shackles (65)

Core Battalions
*Grand Battery
**Hunters of the Heartlands
***Warlord
****Vanguard

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 136
Drops: 16

Come back later for the Duardin list and tomorrow for the outcome!

Update! The Cities of Sigmar (not quite all dwarves…) list

Cities of Sigmar: Tempest Eye

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Tempest’s Eye
– Mortal Realm: Ghur
– Grand Strategy: Pillars of Belief
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Runelord (100)*
– Artefact: Patrician’s Helm
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
Runelord (100)*
– General
– Command Trait: Hawk-eyed
Drakesworn Templar (455)*
– Tempest Axe
– Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact)
Gotrek Gurnisson (435)*
– Allies

Battleline
20 x Irondrakes (320)**
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
– Reinforced x 1
20 x Longbeards (210)**
– Ancestral Weapons & Shields
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Arkanaut Company (100)**
– 1x Skypikes
– 1x Light Skyhooks
– 1x Aethermatic Volley Guns


Units
10 x Shadow Warriors (120)*

1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (155)*
– Main Gun: Sky Cannon

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 1995 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 435 / 400
Wounds: 106
Drops: 9

Don’t forget to roll those 6’s.. err.. nope.. let’s stick with not forgetting to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Lay of the land

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Happy Saturday everyone! Instead of having a full day of writing or working on a side project I decided that I had procrastinated long enough, got out my cheap hot wire cutter board and decided to get started on making a table of terrain for an upcoming small warhammer competition that I am looking forward to participate in around mid December. The issue being that there isn’t nearly enough terrain for the tables and most of it isn’t that impactful in a game. I hope that the new set I am making will change that.

So what do I mean by impactful? What is terrain and why is it important for tabletop war games like Warhammer? I thought that this blog was mainly about Dungeon and Dragons or other TTRPGs?

Well let’s explore that.

Warhammer

So firstly, Warhammer, particularly the later variants is shifting the mentality from large open fields where the knights of Bretonia charge headlong a wall of chaos warriors who brace for a charge with their halberds. Instead today we are seeing a unit consisting of small handful of models holding a key objective that will ultimately win that player the game. Why can just a handful of models win a game, well the easy answer is that the main fight is happening elsewhere but it could be because of the terrain and not just any terrain, impactful terrain.

Many fantastical spells, invocations to dark gods or benign deities or the mundane lead shot of a volley of hand-gunners generally require two things.

  1. To be within range
  2. To be able to see what you are targeting.

Now range is something that you can’t really change, except for a cheeky redeploy if your opponent makes a whoopsie, but that issue about line of sight can make a big difference.

Now, pardon the incomplete nature of the terrain (only just cut and glued them down today…) but the following two pieces of terrain could easily block line of sight.

Defensible terrain
Impassable terrain
Potentially Impassable or Line of sight blocking terrain

Now as you can see by my little witch aelf here these pieces of terrain are quire tall and wide. It would not be a hard feat to get a unit of these ladies into, behind or around one of these pieces of terrain and what’s more important is, these would block line of sight from most things as long as the opponents units/models are on the other side of of the terrain which effectively means that your opponent can’t target the unit.

The other thing that terrain can grant you is Cover. This is provided to your unit if all the models are wholly on or in the terrain piece. As you can see the pillars of (yellow XPS for now) stone could house a unit of infantry comfortably to provide them with a bonus to their defensive capabilities by the means of Cover.

The jagged eruption of spikes is not something that could could have models in or on it, I would rule it as “Impassable”. Having something that is impassable can greatly change the outcome of a game. Playing cat and mouse around an impassable terrain piece could prevent your opponent from charging and killing your wizard or other support foot hero that is crucial for your game strategy.

You cannon move models over this terrain feature unless the model can fly, and you cannot set up or move a model onto this terrain feature (even if it can fly).

-Age of Sigmar scenery rules

Defensible terrain. When we talk about defensible terrain it is something that is new (ish) to Age of Sigmar 3.0. This is where units, or several units that add up to a total limit on model count, can effectively take up defensive positions in or on a piece of terrain. This grants a penalty to your opponents to hit your models whilst they cower bravely in the ruined building, the hut or the pillars of stone and also the benefit of cover (+1 to your armour save rolls).

Defensible terrain

Coupled with the scenery rules that can be given to to terrain pieces scenery can have a big impact to the game especially if they form choke points, block line of sight from your artillery to your opponents key units, or block a charge from your cavalry to your opponents archer because of impassable terrain.

Now to tie it back in with the question, impactful terrain is more than a few grave stones, a lone tree, a fence or a hill. It is terrain that changes your strategy, changes your deployment or changes where you position your troops. It is terrain that changes how you play.

Now D&D.

Table Top Role Playing Games

TTRPGs traditionally take place in the theatre of the mind, most of the games from my childhood of Dungeons & Dragons, OpenLegendRPG, Gamma World and so on all took place in my imagination.

Nowadays we have things like roll20, Tabletop Simulator, Foundryvtt, GMForge and the list goes on. Now I am quite familiar with Roll20 (its free 😉 ) and Tabletop Simulator (used for online warhammer games) and have used terrain available on these platforms to enrich my gaming sessions, however since I am a wargamer as well as a DM/GM I have access to the tools and a growing catalogue of experiences and techniques that I can use to hopefully create some really useful terrain for not only Wargaming but also RPGs for the table top.

Once off for my “Banshee woods” adventure
1st iteration of 1″ grid terrain board
Terrain board with modular cavern walls
Some of the terrain I have created for DnD and used in Age of Sigmar too.

Its not the fanciest, there is a bunch of terrain crafters out there who are, simply put, masters of sorcery when it comes to how they can turn popsicle sticks, foam, modelling clay and bits of fake grass/sponge/leaves/bricks etc., into amazing buildings, awesome cliff faces or full on terrain boards for wargaming or RPGs.

There is something very special and empowering when you (in my case) turn on the camera pointed at the table covered in terrain and miniatures and your party just go silent with awe. The excitement in their voices, the requests to zoom in, pan, spin, rotate not only led me to invest in a turntable/rotating tray for my gaming sessions where I plan to have terrain and minis on the table but also led me to want to craft more for my players so that I can keep their wonderment and excitement cranked up as often as possible.

The birth and update of the 3D printer has made terrain much more accessible to nearly everyone. You don’t need to have 6 meters of xps foam stashed under your table any more… I’m fine with it, really… a hot wire cutter, sharp knives, multiple types of glue and several other niche tools available to make terrain but can simply print it with a few searches on thingiverse and a message sent to your printer.

Whether you are a Wargamer, a role player or someone who just loves to craft miniature things I would encourage adding some terrain to your digital or tabletop games that impact how your players (or opponents…) interact with the game.

That’s all we have for tonight. I hope that you consider terrain as more than just something that is eye candy but look at the impacts it can have for your players and yourself in your future games.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of week writeup where we look at what happens at the docks and potentially get a glimpse of things yet to come, and things that have come to pass.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe