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! 

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! 

Battle Report: Slaves of Darkness vs Stormcast Eternals (1000 pts)

Last weekend, I have played my first game of Age of Sigmar 3rd edition. I decided to play Slaves of Darkness and my friend Ivan brought his Stormcast Eternals (because he was excited to try the rules from their new battletome). We played a 1000-point matched-play game, using Veins of Ghur scenario from GHB 2021. However, I forgot to bring my Marauder Horsemen models, so our host Aleksa  borrowed his Kavalos Deathriders models to serve as "proxies" for Marauders (just keep that in mind when you look at the pictures below). Here are the lists we played: 

SLAVES TO DARKNESS (Ravagers):

- Chaos Lord on Karkadark (General, Enternal Vendetta, Mark of Tzeentch)
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Bolstered by Hate, Blasphemous Curiass and Binding Damnation as a lore spell, Mark of Tzeentch)
- Chaos Warriors (10, Mark of Tzeentch)
- Chaos Knights (5, Mark of Tzeentch)
- Varanguard (fellspears, Mark of Tzeentch)
Grand strategy: Hold the Line 

 STORMCAST ETERNALS (Anvils of Heldenhammer):

- Lord-Arcanum (General, Master of Magic, Arcane Tome, Chain Lightning)
- Lord-Relictor (Translocate)
- Lord-Castellant
- Judicators (10, Skybolt bows)
- Liberators (5)
- Liberators (5)
- Prosecutors (3, javelins)
Grand strategy: Hold the Line

The first round is very quick - most of my troops either move forward of run (scoring a Ferocious Advance battle tactic in the same time).  I summon a unit of Marauder Horsemen near the objective as  well. SCE move a bit forward and activate some of their defensive abilities. 

End of round 1

Chaos wall of steel, getting ready to charge

 

I win the priority for the second round. Since I am in an ideal position, my Lord on Karkadark, Varanguard and Knights declare charges. Varanguard and the Lord destroy one unit of Liberators and later in the same turn Varanguard use their ability to attack again, killing Prosecutors as well (this allows me to complete my chosen battle tactic - Broken Ranks). Knights are not so lucky: they manage to almost completely destroy the second unit of Liberators, but suffer a lot of damage in melee and are wiped out by Judicators (Ivan also uses his Thunderbolt volley as his holy command, which allows him to shoot twice in the same turn).

End of round 2

I win the priority for the third round. I use Ravagers ability "Glory for the taking" to make Sorcerer Lord my general for the turn and summon another unit of Chaos Marauder Horsemen. I manage to complete my chosen battle tactic (Aggressive Expansion) and score a lot of VPs, but I do not manage to kill anything in combat, apart from a single Liberator. However, Ivan manages to destroy both Lord on Karkadark and the Varanguard, leaving me without any heavy-hitters.

End of round 3

Ivan wins the priority for the fourth round. He destroys both units of Marauders, using his heroes and Judicators. His Lord-Arcanum turns into a Monster (using Metamorphosis) and moves to contest one of my objectives. He is then charged by a unit of Chaos Warriors with a lot of defensive abilities (Oracular Visions and Mystic Shield). He does not deal any damage to Warriors, but they also fail to deal any significant damage in return (despite absolutely fantastic hit and wound rolls). My Sorcerer Lord also joins the fight. I manage to score another battle tactic - Conquer (by taking over the objective that the Lord-Arcanum was controlling).

End of round 4

I win the priority for the fifth battle round. I choose Bring it Down as my battle tactic, trying to kill "monstrous" Lord-Arcanum. Cahos Sorcerer Lord hits Lord-Arcanum with Arcane Bolt and deals some mortal wounds, but I still fail to complete the battle tactic. However, I score VPs for controlling two objectives. We stop playing at this point, because we realize that even if Ivan manages to score maximum number of VPs, I will still be in the lead. 

SLAVES TO DARKNESS VICTORY! 

Some observations from the game:   

• I expected my units to be more durable, but then I left Chaos Sorcerer Lord far behind, so he was not able to use Mystic Shield and Oracular Visions on any of my heavy-hitters. Combined with Total Defense command ability and ability to reroll 1s on armour saves due to Mark of Tzeentch, this should help my units stay longer on the battlefield (and I have rolled a lot of 2s, unfortunately). 
• Varanguard are really good on the charge, and they easily return their points. I know that they are probably best in Archaon lists (or Knights of the Empty throne), but I think they definitely have their place in other setups as well. 
• My opponent forgot to use some very important abilities (Deathly Aura and Cycle of the Storm) that could have changed the outcome of several fights. 
• I like the new ways of scoring and new command abilities a lot. However, this abilities do make a game a bit slower (but I expect that the speed of play will increase as we play more games). However, I definitely still think that there are aspects of the game that could be improved further (as I already described here). 
• For one of my next games, I will probably choose to run the same list as Knights of the Empty Throne, because in that case I can have another Hero (Varanguard unit) which would allow me to take another enhancement (by using the corresponding batallion, as some kind people from TGA forum pointed out).
  

Battle report: Sylvaneth vs. Cities of Sigmar (1000 pts)

Last week, I played my first game of AoS after a long pause (I became a dad recently), against my friend Vuk. We both had new battletomes for our armies, so we were really excited to try our new stuff. Both armies went a bit over 1000 points and we decided to use one of the Meeting Engagement scenarios and ME rules for deployment and terrain/objective placement, since we played on a smaller board (in all other aspects, it was a standard game). I was playing Gnarlroot list. My main plan was to try to use support spells (like Regrowth and Verdurous Harmony) to keep my main hitting units (Kurnoth Hunters) or my Treelord Acient alive and win by attrition. Summoning Dryads and then returning models to the summoned unit with Verdurous Harmony is also one neat thing that you can do - so they an tie up important units or contest objectives.  Here are the lists:

SYLVANETH - Gnarlroot glade

Branchwych (Deepwod lore: Regrowth)
Branchwraith - general (Deepwood lore: Verdurous Harmony)
Treelord Ancient (Deepwood lore: Regrowth)
2 x Tree-Revenants
Kurnoth Hunters (bows)
Kurnoth Hunters (scythes)

Endless spells: 
Gladewyrm
Spiteswarm Hive

CITIES OF SIGMAR - HALLOWHEART

Battlemage x 3 (Whitefire Retinue battalion)
Freeguild General on Griffon
Demigryph knights
Freeguild guard
Freeguild Handgunners

I deployed Hunters with bows and Branchwych on left flank, one unit of Tree-Revenants on the right flank and everything else in the middle.

Hallowheart army goes first: wizards put up some defensive spells on General and then both he and Demigryph knights run forward, while the rest of the army cautiously advances. I use Treelord Ancient to place another Wyldwood on the table and then summon 10 Dryads and Spiteswarm hive. My army moves forward just a bit, trying to stay mostly outside of enemy charge ranges. Kurnoth Hunters with bows shoot at the General and put 6 wounds on him.

Hallowheart wins the priority for the second turn. General is healed for 3hp, then Wizards place spell that gives enemy units -1 to attack rolls against that unit (Pha's protection). Demigryph knights fail their charge on Dryads, but the General rolls 12 for charge distance and after charging and piling in, he is able to engage my Branchwraith (ouch!). However, this also brings him in combat with my Kurnoth Hunters with scythes and one unit of Tree-Revenants. General on Griffon divides his attacks between the Branchwraith and Kurnoth Hunters: he kills the Branchwraith, but scores only one wound on Hunters. In return, Kurnoth hunters and Tree-Revenants manage to put just enough wounds on General to kill him, despite having -1 to hit.  In my turn, I heal Kurnoth Hunters and fail to summon Gladewyrm. Treelord Ancient shoots at the Demygryph Knights, but fails to wound. Hunters with bows also shoot at Demigryph knights and score just a single wound. Dryds run forward and Hunters with scythes charge at the Demigryph Knights (with a huge boost from the Hive). I roll poorly and manage to kill only a single knight and put two wounds on another. However, I start leading in victory points.

Hallowheart wins the priority for the third time. Wizards fumble some spells, but they heal the Demigryph Knights and take out one of the Hunters with scythes. Handgunners shoot at Dryads and manage to kill two. Knights attack, kill the second Hunter and leave the last one with only one wound. In return, that Hunter kills one of the Knights. In my turn, I shoot with Treelord Ancient at the Demigryph knights and kill the last remaining Knight, and Hunters with bows start thinning out ranks of Handgunners.

I win the priority roll for the last turn (yay, double turn!). Gladewyrm is finally summoned and it heals the last surviving Hunter with scythe. Hunters with bows kill some more Handgunners. Both units of Tree-Revenants "jump" on the other side of the board, but despite their ability to reroll dice, I fail all their charges. Dryads charge Handgunners and wipe them out, while the Hunter with scythe charges one of the Battlemages and kills him. I control my opponent's objective as well at this point. During his turn, my opponent does not manage to clear the Dryads with his Battlemages and Freeguild guard manages to score a single wound on a lonely Hunter with scythe. In return, the Hunter wipes out half of the unit. 

SYLVANETH VICTORY!

Some observations from this game:

• Branchwraith as Gnarlroot general is a very powerful combination. Nurtured by Magic ability works great with Regrowth spell and Chalice of Nectar artifact will help you greatly with summoning Dryads and casting Verdurous Harmony. However, my Branchwraith was the first casualty of the game, so I was not able to test this theory :D
• Kurnoth Hunters with scythes were probably my best unit. They had a key role in taking out General on a Griffon, they killed two of the Demigyph Knights, one Battlemage and half unit of Freeguild guard. Regrowth or any healing ability helps a lot, because it keeps them on the table much longer. 
• Hunters with bows were also very good - they were basically artillery, always dealing some damage from far away. 
• Hallowheart can be very powerful, especially if they have access to lots of Endless spells. However, my opponent could do some things very differently and he made several bad choices during the game. For example, he could put much more defensive spells or buffs on his General, making him very hard to deal with.
• Battalions should be used carefully in 1000 point games or smaller - they eat a huge chunk of available points and may not be worth the price.