Battle report: Stormcast Eternals vs. Orruk Warclans (1000 points)

Few weeks ago, I played my first game of Age of Sigmar after a while. My friend Nemanja, with whom I have played Warmachine for years, finally decided to give AoS a try, so he assembled a 1000-point Ironjawz army. I played my Stormcast Eternals army - actually, this is the first time I am playing them! Also, my army was almost fully painted, so that was additional motivation for choosing Stormcast over some of my other armies. 

Since this was Nemanja's first game of AoS and my first game after a long break, we decided to use only battleplans, battle tactics and grand strategies from the Core Book (in order to reduce the complexity as much as possible).

Here are the lists:

ORRUK WARCLANS (IRONJAWZ)

LEADER

Orruk Megaboss (140) - General, Mega Bossy
Orruk Warchanter (115)
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90) - Arcane tome 

BATTLELINE

Orruk Ardboys (170)
Orruk Brutes (160)

OTHER

Ironskull’s Boyz (80)
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)

STORMCAST ETERNALS (KNIGHTS EXCELSIOR)

LEADER

Lord-Imperatant (175) - General, Shock ad Awe
Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis (160) - Arcane Tome

BATTLELINE

3 x Annihilators (180)
3 x Annihilators (180)
5 x Vindictors (130)
5 x Vindictors (130)

ROUND 1

I have the priority and I decide to let Nemanja go first. He moves up the board and scores his chosen battle tactic - "Seize the Center". On my turn, I choose battle tactic "Break their spirit" and I put Arcane Shield on one unit of Vindictors. Annihilators arrive at the end of movement phase, dealing enough damage with Blazing Impact to kill one Gore-Grunta. Lord-Imperatant shoots and deals single point of damage to another Gore-Grunta. Both units of Annihilators charge: one fails the charge, but the other one deals just enough mortal wounds to kill the wounded Gore-Grunta and the last member of the unit is killed during combat. 

End of round 1

ROUND 2

Nemanja wins the priority and decides to go first and chooses battle tactic "Broken ranks". He then casts Arcane Bolt on Annihilators (dealing 1 mortal wound), puts Mystic Shield on his Boyz, but fails to roll good range for Green Puke. Warchanter gives 'Ard Boyz "Get 'em beat!". Boyz charge Vindictors and use All-out Attack, while I use All-out Defense. However, despite many successful attacks, Boyz score only a single wound on Vindictors. Meanwhile, Annihilators kill two Brutes, but loose one of their own as well. On my turn, I choose "Repel" as my battle tactic. Both units of Vindictors and Lord-Vexillor attack the Boyz, but manage to kill just a couple of them. Annihilators kill one more Brute, while the second unit of Annihilators runs, trying to get to somewhere relevant. 

Lord-Imperatant and his trusty gryph-hound observe the battle

ROUND 3

Nemanja wins the priority again. His battle tactic is "Repel". Ironskull's Boyz charge the Vindictors and join the melee in near the center of  the table. Shaman decides to charge the Annihilators. Ironskull's boys actually roll very good and kill 3 Vindictors, while Shaman does nothing (no surprise there) and is then beaten to death. On my turn, I return all 3 of the slain Vindictors using Knight-Vexillor's banner. I manage to kill most of the 'Ard Boys, while Annihilators take over one of the objectives on the other side of the table (which was my battle tactic as well - "Conquer"). 

End of round 3

However, at this point we had to finish the game. We counted the victory points, and Stormcast won with the score 11 - 6. Despite Orruks ending up in a tough spot by the end of turn 3, both Nemanja and I were really satisfied with the game. I like that the Stormcast are versatile army and can provide multiple playstyles, but most of all I like the fact that I can play a lot of heavy infantry in a single list (it's obvious that Trollblood bricks were my main choice back when I played Warmachine :D). Annihilators are great and with a bit of luck, the turn where they arrive from Azyr can be devastating (and having  Lord-Imperatant helps them quite a bit).
 
UPDATE: Soon after this game, we played a rematch with the same lists and it was a very different game - Nemanja had a much better understanding of his army now. Stormcast managed to win again, but the game went back and forth and we both suffered heavy casualties. Megaboss is a real beast and as soon as he kills a unit or two things get very nasty! We will probably add a bit more variety in one of our next games with some of the scenarios from latest General's Hadbook. Stay tuned! 

Painting Stormcast Eternals Annihilators - alternate scheme

Few months ago, I have decided to build a small Stormcast Eternals army. As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, I really like the look of Thunderstrike Stormcast, so I based the army primarily on those models - or, to be even more precise, on Annihilators. When I realized that you could play Annihilators as Battleline troops in Knights Excelsior army, it was easy to choose which Stormhost to play. So I ended up with Stormcast models from Dominon set and several units of Annihilators on top of that :D 

I opted for gold armour on most of the miniatures because since I painted Custodes, I was very confident that I could paint similar colour scheme fairly quickly. However, for my general (Lord-Imperatant) and one unit of Annihilators I wanted to do something else - I wanted them to be different from the rest of the army. I wanted the general to stand out anyway, but then I got the idea of him having some kind of "honor guard" or his most trusted warriors. Since I did not like the original Knights Excelsior colour scheme (the one with bright white armour), I experimented a bit until I found alternative scheme that I liked a lot. You can see the result on the pictures below.

If you are interested in painting the armour on your Stormcast (or some other miniatures) in a similar way, here's how to do it:

• the miniature was primed with white primer
• an all-over wash of GW Nighthaunt Gloom was applied (for bit lighter colour, you can also apply a mix of Nighthaunt Gloom and Lhamian Medium)
• apply a light drybrush of Vallejo Wolf Gray all over the armour
• add edge highlights to armour plates using GW White Scar

Lord-Imperatant will share the same colour scheme, but he is not finished yet - as soon as that happens, I will post the pictures. 

Be'lakor, the Dark Master

Last month, I started painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master and I also posted an update about it. Well, it is finished now and I can proudly say that this is one of the best paintjobs that I've done recently. During the past few months, I have managed to paint a lot more models than I thought possible and I am very happy because of that. In the span of 5 weeks, I've painted Be'lakor, Yndrasta and almost finished my Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis. I still work in smaller batches (from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on time available) and I try to keep it consistent as much as possible. The results are definitely showing - and I think I will be able to finish quite a few miniatures by the end of the year.

As for Be'lakor, I really like the model and paintjob itself was fun and very enjoyable - especially because I was able to paint most of the model using drybrushing (my favorite technique). The colour scheme I chose is a bit different from the original one - as I mentioned in the previous update, I think that the original scheme is too dark and you have a hard time trying to visually separate the different parts of the model. In the same time, I tried not to go to another extreme and make model too bright, because Be'lakor is, after all, the Dark Master (so I tried to keep it "dark", but not too dark). Below are the pictures of the fully painted model.

And besides looking great, Be'lakor can be included in several of my Warhammer 40K armies, so I look forward to fielding it (I really want to try Disciples of Be'lakor list). Unfortunately, seems like the most interesting list that I wanted to try in Age of Sigmar - Legion of the First Prince - will be completely changed in the new battletome, so I won't be able to run demonic legion in AoS once the new book is released. Ah well, Be'lakor will now have to hang out with my Chaos Warriors, Knights and Varanguard (and that should be a pretty good company after all :D )

Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned taking a break when working on a particularly complex paintjob and painting something completely different during that break. This was an advice on miniature painting that have read somewhere long time ago - but started using it only recently. Now I wish I've done that earlier!

In the past, I've struggled a lot with some of the models that I've painted, because certain phases of the process were either very complex and demanding or easy but time-consuming (and usually, utterly boring). Also, there were situations when I had time to paint, but I simply did not feel like it. In all of these situations, I usually pushed myself to continue working on the model - but, on multiple occasions, that led to the results that I was not happy with. And it's really bad f you take a look at the model later, knowing that you half-assed it. It's normal to burn out a bit when you work on something demanding for a longer periods of time, but forcing yourself is really not the solution. What I should have done was taking a break. And during that break, you either do something else and leave painting aside, or (if you still want to paint) you work on a different model. There is a good chance that you will feel refreshed and motivated when you return to the model that you were originally working on.   

And that is exactly what I did when I decided to make a break from painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master.

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I really enjoyed working on Be'lakor. I have also painted most of the model very quickly (which motivated me a lot), but when I needed to paint his wings, I had to stop and think on what exactly I wanted to do with them. And because I liked the model a lot, I did not want to hurry. And so - I made a break.

During this break, I did a bit of research on how to paint demonic wings (by looking at a lot of pictures of not only Be'lakor, but other similar models as well) and I kept momentum when it comes to painting by working on Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear. I knew from the start how I wanted to paint Yndrasta and I also knew that I could finish the model fairly quickly. The whole paintjob took 6 - 8 hours (done as multiple smaller sessions over the course of the week) and I was very satisfied with the result. In the same time, working on something entirely different kept the painting (as an activity) fresh and fun. It is important to note that, if you want to do something similar, this "plan B" should be a less complex/smaller model - it may not be a good idea to switch from working on one complex model to another. I would aim for something smaller in scope, that would shake the things up and give you an opportunity to actually finish something. The worst possible scenario is to start working on two difficult models - and give up on both of them out of frustration.

 

So, here's how my Yndrasta looks like:

And since I have figured out how I want Be'lakor's wings to look like - I can't wait to finish the model now!

Painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master - WIP update

Two weeks ago, I started painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master. I really like this model - not only because it looks great, but also because it can fit in multiple armies I play for both Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K. However, I think that the paint scheme on the box cover is not the best one, so I decided to paint it in a bit different way. My main complaints regarding the box cover paint scheme are lack of contrast and the model being too dark. In my opinion, certain parts of the model could be much more emphasized (base, sword and parts of the armour, for example) but instead, they are not easily distinguishable from everything else. Wings are particularly problematic, because they are a large surface with not much going on (except for the chains). So, with that in mind, I started working on the model. It's still far from finished, but I am really satisfied with the progress so far. Here are some pictures:

I tried to address all of the mentioned issues. I opted to use gold for the armour and the anklets/bracelets - because I think it works much better and it was also used on the old Be'lakor model. From the very beginning, I knew that I wanted to paint the sword in very bright colours (and match it with the eyes) so I opted for this "green warpflame" effect that I used on my Lord of Change. When it comes to wings, my plan is to paint the membrane in some lighter colour and then add shading and maybe spots (similar to ones that the reptiles have on their skin). 

So far, I have really enjoyed working on this model and I can't wait to have it fully painted and put on the table. Of course, I'll post some pictures here as soon as it's finished :)

Painting Stormcast Eternals Annihlators

Recently I painted two units of Annihilators for my small Stormcast Eternals army. I wanted to take a break from working on Kairos Fateweaver and I was also pretty confident that after painting Adeptus Custodes, I was able to quickly paint gold armour. 

I really like the Annihilators - actually, I like a lot of the new Stormcast models that were released when the Age of Sigmar 3rd edition came out. However, the Annihilators with shields and Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis really stand out. Initially, I bought a unit of annihilators because I wanted to use them as allies for my Sylvaneth or Idoneth, but I ended up building a 1000-points Knights Excelsior force (because I like the idea of all-paladin army). Below you can see the picture of one of the units I painted.

I wanted to keep the paint scheme simple and effective, and use the shields as the main contrasting part of the miniature. The general process is described below: 

• Miniatures were primed with GW Retributor Gold
• Armour was washed with GW Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur
• Armour was drybrushed with GW Retributor Gold
  
• Armour was drybrushed with Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold
• Armour was highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
  
• Chainmail was painted with Vallejo Game Color Silver and washed with GW Nuln Oil
• Hammers were painted with Vallejo Game Color Gunmetal, washed with GW Nuln Oil and then highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
• Shields were painted with Stormvermin Fur and washed with several layers of Nuln Oil
• Central part of each shield was painted with GW Moot Green, washed with GW Contrast Warp Lightning and highlighted again with Moot Green. 
• Belts and leather straps were painted with Vallejo Game Color Leather Brown and highlighted with GW Cadian Fleshtone

With this colour scheme, I was able to work very quickly: in total, I spent about 2 hours on each model, including basing. 

Painting Warsong Revenant

During the past two months, I had a lot more time for painting than usual. However, since there was a lot of models/units that I wanted to paint, I decided to try a different approach - so I started working on multiple things at once. In the past, I usually focused on one thing at the time, but in some cases it wasn't a good approach, because sometimes you need an alternate project (or two) to break down the monotony a bit if you get "stuck" (or burned out) working on a particularly challenging model. Turns out that this was the right choice - and all of the models I'm currently working on are either finished or progressing nicely! 

Here are some pictures of my Warsong Revenant - it was one of the models that was painted using this approach. I really enjoyed working on this model and it was done fairly quickly because I use my standard Sylvaneth coulour scheme. It's a great looking model and I can't wait to try it out once the new Sylvaneth battletome comes out. 

And here's the picture of a fully finished model: 

Painting Lord of Change - update #3

 Two weeks ago, I have finished painting my Lord of Change. If you read my previous updates, this one took a really long time: I spent around six months working on this model. I really struggled to find some time to paint. First, the problems at work escalated in a way that I did not expect, so I left the company and applied for the new position (because the work started to affecting my physical and mental health, as well as family life in a very negative way). If that wasn't enough, I started the year suffering from one health issue after another (and my family members were affected by some health issues as well) - so all this left me physically exhausted. In the same time, I avoided painting anything else in order to stay focused on Lord of Change, because I really wanted to make this model one of the centrepieces of my army (as you can imagine, this created a bit of a frustration as well :D ).

However, this model is now finished and I am very satisfied with the final results - this is exactly the "look" that I was aiming for. There are some things that (in retrospect) I could probably do a bit different - but I don't see the value in spending even more time only to focus on few details. All in all - I've finally painted it and I since I have more time for painting lately, there are several things I am working on (and finishing!) at the moment, so expect multiple painting-related posts very soon! 

Crusade: game #1 (Space Wolves vs. Necrons, Combat Patrol, 25PL)

Last Sunday, my friend Vuk and I played our first Crusade game. We thought about starting a  Warhammer campaign for some time, but never actually gave it a go (mostly because I was not able to play on a regular basis). But, few weeks ago, we actually sat down and discussed several ideas. We wanted to make story-driven campaign, not just a series of loosely-linked games using the Crusade rules. I came up with the overall campaign story and we agreed to keep the whole affair relatively short - below 10 games (probably 5 - 7). We also decided that for our first game we use only Core Stratagems and do not use Relics and Warlord traits, because we wanted to simplify things as much as possible (I haven't played for more than 6 months and Vuk had no experience with 9th edition at all). 

And so, we met to play our first game. Here are our Crusade forces:

Space Wolves (24 PL total):

- Librarian with Force Sword (Warlord)

- Techmarine

- Tactical Squad (Sargeant with Power Sword)

- Redemptor Dreadnought 

Necrons, Mpephrit dynasty (25 PL total):

- Technomancer with Canoptek Control Node (Warlord)

- Warriors (10)

- Immortals (5)

- Canoptek Wraiths

- Canoptek Reanimator

- Canoptek Scarab Swarm

The mission we played was Sweep and Clear (Combat Patrol Crusade mission, from the Core Book). The White Wolves (name of Vuk's Crusade force) were deployed to the Nephilim sector, to patrol several planets near the Pariah Nexus. After radar relays deployed on small planet LV215 failed for unknown reason, combat patrol was sent to investigate. What they found, was that a small group of Necrons has landed on the planet and deactivated the radar relays.   

After setting up the objectives, choosing sides and deploying, it was time to start the game. 

Space Wolves go first. Librarian and Tactical marines simply run, while Dreadnought shoots at Necron Warriors. He kills 5, but 3 of them pass their Reanimation Protocol rolls and stand up. In my turn, Technomancer resurrects two more Warriors (bringing the unit back to 10) and Reanimator starts healing the Warriros. Warriors and Immortals move forward and shoot at Dreadnought, dealing 3 damage in total. Wraiths move forward and manage to charge the Tactical Squad. Librarian performs Heroic Intervention and joins the fight as well. However - Space Wolves suffer no casualties, while one Wraith is slain. Ouch! 

End of Turn 1

During the second turn, Dreadnought and Techmarine move forward. Techmarine repairs Dreadnought a bit and then invokes the Machine Spirit. Dreadnought opens fire at the Warriors, killing 5 again - but 4 of them stand up after rolling for Reanimation Protocol. One more Wraith is destroyed by psychic power, but one member of Tactical squad also dies. During the Necron turn, Technomancer resurrects one more Warrior and Reanimator continues using his healing beam. Warriors, Immortals, Reanimator and Technomancer all open fire on Dreadnought dealing moderate damage. Scarabs charge the Dreadnought and actually manage to score a lot of wounds, but deal no damage. Dreadnought kills two Scarabs in melee, but one is returned due to Reanimation Protocols. Wraith manages to kill one more member of the Tactical team, but neither Librarian nor the rest of the Tactical squad manage to actually hit back (due to rolling crazy number of misses). 

 

End of Turn 2

During the third turn, Dreadnought kills one Scarab with shooting and then kills another one in hand-to-hand-combat. Techmarine charges the Immortals and kills two, but they rise again. Wraith eats one more Tactical Marine, but is then finally destroyed by the Librarian. Librarian also puts some damage on the Reanimator using psychic powers. On Necron turn, Warriors roll really good and score a lot of wounds with AP -2 (due to Mephrit dynasty ability), finally killing the Dreadnought. Reanimator charges the Techmarine, but does nothing, as well as the Immortals.  

End of Turn 3

During the fourth turn, the Librarian puts some more damage on the Reanimator using the psychic powers, then charges it and brings it down. Last remaining members of the Tactical squad join the Techmarine against the Immortals, but they still pass their Reanimation protocol rolls (at this point, Vuk has destroyed both the Warriors and Immortals units once). Warriors hoot the Librarian to death (since he is now in the open and has nowhere to hide) and Technomancer charges the Techmarine, forgetting that he has only one measly attack. He misses (of course) and is then cut in half by an angry Techmarine. Immortals finally do not pass their Reanimation protocols. 

End of Turn 4

The last turn is very short - it's glorious melee where everybody keeps missing and some more Immortals die. The final result is 50 - 50, so the game ends as a draw! 

End of Turn 5

So, our first Crusade game ended as a draw! We'll see what would be the story consequences of this game. Anyway, the White Wolves are now aware that there is a Necron fleet in the sector and they want to pursue it, because they want to find out what are their intentions. The game was great and we had a lot of fun, especially at how bad the fight between the Wraiths, Tactical squad and the Librarian went (basically everyone kept missing). Necrons kept reanimating and that was really one of the main themes of the whole game. Vuk selected the Techmarine to be Marked for Greatness, while I selected the Warriors, since they were definitely the best performing unit on my side (they destroyed the Dreadnought and the Librarian and kept reanimating all the time!). 

Our next mission will lead the White Wolves to the edge of Pariah Nexus, so we will be using the rules from "Beyond the Veil" Crusade mission pack. Stay tuned for the next battle report! 

Painting Lord of Change - WIP update #2

I have painted most of my Lord of Change during December and January, but I did not make any progress during the past month or so (mostly due to family obligations and focusing on a new job). However, recently I was able to set aside some time for painting, so I immediately continued working on Lord of Change. I really enjoy working on this model and I am very satisfied with the results so far. 

The picture above shows the last thing I worked on - the Staff of Tzeentch. I wanted to achieve the effect of the staff being materialized from the raw magical power and in the same time, tie the central part of the staff visually to the "flame" that was already painted on top of the staff. Originally, I wanted the staff to be just simple gold with green gems, but soon I realized that it does not look exciting enough if I leave it like that (and it would be a shame, especially on a model like this one). I am glad that I decided to do something different, because this looks way better. 

Here's how the model looks at the moment. It is mostly done, but as you can see, there are still some details I need to work on: claws, hands, gems and ornaments on the wings. I will probably change the Tzeentch sigil on top of the staff a bit. However, these are all fairly small things, so I should be able to finish everything very soon. I am also thinking about adding a few more details to the base - ruins with Brimstone horrors dancing around.

Hopefully, next update will have the pictures of a fully painted model!  

The Zodiac War minatures

Last summer, I discovered a company called Yedharo models. They make fantasy miniatures, but what got me interested was the miniature series called "The Zodiac War", where every miniature was inspired by a different Zodiac sign. Since my son is a Leo, I decided to buy the Leo model, so I could paint it in a truly special way. Here's how this badass lion looks like:

As you can see, it's pretty big compared to some larger Age of Sigmar models. I really like the pose, the anatomy and the general concept (I am also a huge fan of Ajani Goldmane from Magic: the Gathering, so this should not come as a surprise). Unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the first paintjob - I was too impatient and I was rushing too much. I realized that the final outcome will be far from what I wanted and I decided to strip the paint and start over. The model sat on my shelf for months, because I really hate stripping paint. Finally, I found some time last month and started stripping paint; so far, I have removed almost 80 - 85% and now I'm excited because I will be able to start over and give this model a paintjob it deserves. 

Fury of the Deep

This morning, the long-awaited package from my local hobby shop finally arrived. If you read the title of this post - you already know what was inside this package: "Fury of the Deep", the latest 2-army box for Age of Sigmar. However, there were also two other items: datacards for Adeptus Custodes and the White Dwarf 472.

I ordered "Fury of the Deep" together with my good friend Dejan, who, after years of playing Warmachine, finally decided to try Age of Sigmar. He loved the look of the Fyreslayers (but he also loves melee-based armies) and I already have small Idoneth Deepkin army I wanted to expand (with more Thralls and Reavers!) - so ordering this box was just what we needed. 

There are a few more things I ordered in January and I'm waiting for them to arrive. Last year, I decided to drastically reduce spending on miniatures and focus more on painting and playing (when I manage to find time to play). It was a great decision - not only that I am spending way less money on miniatures, but I also avoided buying things on an impulse (and I did that a lot in the past). Now, if I think that it would be cool to have something - I usually just sit on this idea for a while and eventually it turns out that I don't really need that. This happens most of the time - the amount of models that I am really interested in is actually fairly small; everything else are just things that are "nice to have". In the same time, it helped a lot that during the past few years I really focused on smaller number of armies that I really wanted to play and paint. Now I have decent collection for each of them and deciding what to buy next actually becomes a lot easier. I really do not expect that I will order any more minis for the rest of the year. The only exception to this could be some new Sylvaneth models - but I don't think that anything like that will happen.  

Painting Lord of Change - WIP update

For the past few months, I have been slowly working on my Lord of Change. The progress was very slow: I struggled to find free time, because my job became particularly demanding in the second half of the year (and this severely affected my work-life balance as well). And when I had some free time, I usually had to choose between painting and some other activities (because sometimes you were just too tired for painting, or wanted to spend that time on something else). Anyway, now I am very close to finishing the model and I want to share some pictures: 

 

As you an see, there is still some work left to do - but it mostly comes down to details (dagger and scabbard, claws, gems, etc.). I was a bit worried about some colour combinations, but I am very satisfied with the final result. This guy will be one of the centerpiece models for my Disciples of Tzeentch army, so spending a bit more time working on those models is definitely worth it. I think I'll probably play Guild of Summoners just to see him hit the table more ofetn :D As soon as the model is completely finished, I'll post another update with better pictures.