Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Spider's Gonna Get Ya! (Age of Sigmar)



And welcome back!
We are on it like Sonic now! 3 blog posts – 3 different games systems.

Today, Age of Sigmar.
I know this has divided a lot of opinion between people but at the FLGS and local games club (WS10 Gaming) they have embraced it and run with it. It has paid dividends because, actually, it is a good game but I think what people cannot move away from is that it came from Warhammer 8th Edition. I’d prefer to see it as a separate game and start again. Consquently, I started with a new army. I originally played Chaos using a gun-line of Jezzails, Warp Lightning Cannons and Hellcannons (with the occasional 9 Dragon Ogres thrown in) but my dream for years has been to have a Spider/Savage Orc army. Well, the Spider part could become a reality now!
You may or may not know that I am absolute crap at painting. Subsequently, if I paint anything it normally becomes a drybrush effort which looks great from far away, behind a wall, out of the shop but not good otherwise! So, just like every major company in the UK – I outsourced! Steve (@furryjamhats) took on the task of painting: 1 Boss on Giant Spider, 3 Arachnaroks with Shamans and 77 Spider Riders. I mean, when you put it like that, it doesn’t seem a lot but when you see it all laid out – it’s a big deal. My Spiders were gone for a while in order to have them painted to a decent standard which made me fall into the arms of another game system because I couldn’t play any AoS during that time.
Now they’re back, I’ve managed to have my first game of AoS against Keith and his Khorne Bloodbound army. We decided to use the General’s Handbook to pick a 2000 point force.
My force consisted of:
*1 Boss on Giant Spider
*2 Araknaroks
*70 Spider Riders (in squads of 20, 20, 10, 10, 10).

Keith had (don’t quote me on ALL the details):
*Khorne Lord with the dog
*Bloodstoker
*Blood Secrator
*Demon Prince of Khorne
*40 Blood Warriors (You know the ones I mean – the ones who look like Cultists of Khorne – yeah, those ones)
*2 x 10 Blood Reavers
*3 Juggernaut Riders (with the juggernauts as well)
*30 Chaos Warriors with the Mark of Khorne

We were playing the Take and Hold scenario. For this, I didn’t take any photos so I apologise in advance!
It needed to be a clear strategy that if a spider unit went across to Keith’s objective and got within 6”, he doesn’t score. Likewise, a unit of 20 spiders can be used as a buffer to stop him slinging his huge unit of 40 Blood thingys forward and getting within 6” of my objective. This meant that the front of my ‘holding’ unit deployed right in front of the objective and the front ‘rank’ got out of 6”, while the back rank (of 8/9 models) were within the 6” to claim the objective while holding off the red tide!
I set another unit of 20 spiders on my right flank with the idea of ploughing forward into his juggernauts and demon prince while the left flank with 2 units of 10 spiders and an Araknarok were left to deal with the 40 ‘cultists’ coming forward. I made sure that every unit started within 8” of the boss to benefit from the Warlord trait.
The first turn we incredibly well, so well that things died… hard! After a round of shooting taking out one juggernaut, it was the turn of the spiders (with the warlord’s command ability and the Araknarok Shaman’s spell up). 28 mortal wounds later… The demon prince and juggernauts were no more… sorry Keith.
Highlights:
*29 wounds to the 40 Blood Cultists unit which forced battleshock to not be about rolling dice but taking models off the board!
*Taking both the demon prince and juggernauts off the board in the first turn.
*Spider riders get within 6” of the enemy objective in the final turn to deny 1 VP and eke out a 1-9 victory.

I managed to pop down to Nick’s (@slaaneshfiend) house of gaming (his shed) the Friday before and watch two games of AoS being played. Remembering how much I enjoyed it made me want to play more. Now that my Spider army is done, I’m moving on to my next project – Stormcast Eternals.
I’ve got hold of a few models so far and I’m looking to expand. I’ve written a list which I want to try out at 2000 points which I’ll blog about later when I have all of the models. I’m getting close to it now to be fair but I’m still a few away. Apparently though, it’s all about the dragons!
As much as a hobby butterfly as I am, the ghosts from the Death book do take my fancy too – the Spirit Hosts, Hexwraiths and Banshees screaming up the board would make for interesting play but that is something further down the line and needs a bit more careful planning and thought!
Due to the enforced ‘Christmas Hobby Break’ I won’t manage to play any games between now and the New Year but hopefully in January I can start cranking it up a bit and start playing some more games of AoS and who knows, I might even get to run a tournament ;)! Stay tuned!

Well, that’s it from me for today.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy

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