Age of Sigmar

The End Times are over and a new Age has arisen... the blog is back!

To celebrate this momentous resurrection, we decided to do a battle report featuring the shops brand new, shiny Age of Sigmar starter set and terrain! So without further ado, welcome to the Realm of Aqshy...

Khorgos Khul stared out across the desolate plains. A storm lit the sky above the Brimstone Peninsula, the sound of it like the screams of a terrible, vengeful god.

Behind him came is Bloodhost; once-men who now served only the Blood God. They too stared at the skies, though certainly out of fear rather than curiosity. These men were apex-predators unused to not being in control of the world around them. Khul loathed them for their weakness, his hatred barely concealed beneath his snorted commands.

"Forward!" he bellowed

Bloodreavers boiled out of the Ophidian Archway, their bloodshot eyes ever scanning for prey.

Khul advanced, the storm above roared back with savage ferocity. Bolts of azure lightning struck the plains before the Bloodhost, dazzling in their intensity. Where the bolts struck, warriors in brilliant blue armour appeared, sending the Bloodhost into a maddened frenzy.

The Lord Celestant stared out at Aqshy, his warriors forming up around him with precision. They had manifested atop a fell temple to the dark gods, their impact shattering it into ruins. Ahead of them, a tide of tainted men screamed their fury and barged towards them.

Khul bellowed to his Blood Warriors as a nearby portal burst into flames,

"Seize it! Let none pry it from you!"

The warriors launched themselves at the portal, its arcane power lashing out around them. Then, with a blinding flash, the warriors vanished, their desire to engage the enemy champion dragging them across the battlefield on a tidal wave of magical force.

Even as the Stormhost headed down onto the plains, the Blood Warriors manifested behind them and immediately launched their attack

"Go my Lord" hissed the Lord Relictor, as he and his warriors fought back the frenzied warriors. The Lord Celestant kicked the flanks of his mighty Dracoth and the beast leapt forward towards the foe.

At his side, more warriors appeared from the skies, Liberators and Retributors marching as one to their lords side.

A Khorgorath slammed into the Lord Celestant, its flailing arms tearing great gouges in the Dracoths flanks, but with a single mighty blow from his hammer, the Lord Celestant sent it reeling back, its face caved in from the meteoric impact.

Behind him, the Lord Relictor smashed down the last Blood Warrior, though his death throes dragged down a Liberator with him. The Lord Relictor turned before even their corpses hit the ground, his gaze turning upon his Lord's plight

Seeing the tides of battle turning, the Bloodsecrator howled his raged, and invoked the runic power of his standard. The skulls warped and chattered maniacally as a portal to the realm of chaos itself burst open. The Bloodreavers about him went mad, the eyes of their god upon them. Nearby a Bloodsecrator lashed them with his blood whip, stoking their frenzy into a killing rage, driving them across the plains towards the foe.

Their impact was terrible, the sheer number of bodies throwing the Retributors back and exposing the flank of the Dracoth. Their blades rose and fell, and the Lord Celestant was dragged from his steed. The portal of skulls screamed with delight, its roar drowning out the sound of another lightning strike.

Leaping from the bolt-strike, a unit of Prosecutors hurled bolts of arcane force at the portal, shattering many skulls, before leaping forth to strike the bloodsecrator down.

 Shocked and enraged by their lords fall, the liberators struck back, hacking into the blood reavers with vengeful strikes of their hammers.

The remaining stormcasts surged forwards, determined to finish off the forces Khorne, even as the Bloodstoker struck down the prosecutors, his bloodwhip dragging them from the sky.

Recovering from the shock attack, the Bloodsecrator once again called upon his portal of skulls, oblivious to the deaths of his allies. On the hillside, Khorgos Khul sneered at his warriors weakness, and turned from the battlefield to seek greater foes.

With a final, terrible strike, the Retributors felled the Bloodsecrator, and shattered the portal of skulls with their astral-forged hammers. The battlefield fell silent as reserves arrived through the Realmgate...

And here ends our battle report! We are huge fans of the Age of Sigmar here, and we look forward to more of these narrative battles in future! A huge thanks to Ben of Vermilion Painting and Chris from  Voodoo Conversions for painting the sets and scenery, and for fighting it out to the last!

Shenanigans

Greetings dear reader!

So this post is all about Shenanigans, you know the sort, dodgy things that happen in games, rules that just seem too good to be true, or just plain scary dice!

In the last few week we have had several of these events so I thought you'd like to hear them...

1) Bolt Action

Recently we have been gearing up for our 500pt Bolt Action tournament, and its thrown up a few very scary sceanrios! In particular, Air and Artillery observers are absolute beasts when they get it right, and more so when it goes wrong!

Take today for example, my poor Italian Bersaglieri had happily wandered into sight of a US air observer. He then proceeded to call down a pair of fighters, one who essentially ripped the heart out of my force, and the other who lightly peppered his own men! Cue cries of cheese (from me), and jokes about the Italian army and their flag waving abilities...

Or how about a few weeks back when my plucky British Bren Carriers parked up on a bridge only to find their own artillery observer had decided he would rather see the bridge destroyed, and promptly flattened my entire force! At least, I tell myself, he was free...

2) Dreadball

In Dreadball, sixes explode, so quite often you'll see someone suddenly have an intense burst of everyone's favourite dice side. Not long back I managed to roll 12 6's in a row, one after the other. Now, you might say this was a particularly impressive roll, and surely must have impacted upon the game, but no. Sadly all I needed a pair of successes to pick up the ball. And when I want to dodge? Nothing but 1's!

Many players are now beginning to realise just how useful drawing cards can be, and naturally, just when you think the opponent is out of actions, they flip that card they've been gripping all game. Often times it leads to a score, or (a thing feared by all Judwan players) the dreaded "Ball Shatters" card!

3) Dropzone Commander

Recently we have picked up this fun fast game, and as they were the last ones on the shelf, I picked Shaltari. Turns out they are full of shenanigans! I haven't quite mastered it yet, but the moment one of my guys nabs the objective, hops in his eden transport which beams up into the the nearest gate only to poop back out of one thats several inches from the table edge, but its a pretty fun tactic, even if it leads to all the normal players screaming blue murder at me!

4) 40k

Perhaps the biggest offender for shenanigans, 40k has more units in it that seem to ignore the standard rules or just replace them is unreal. Currently unpopular is the Stompa with half a dozen meks and grot riggers (essentially, unkillable), the Imperial Knight (affectionately known as Lord Stampy) and of course the dreaded Transcendent C'tan.

Its not often I complain about rules in 40k, I honestly believe every build has its weakness out there, but the transcendent C'tan is just wrong. That beast has butchered pretty much every unit in the store and still stood! I am trying to get him and the stompa to face off, and I'll report back here when they do!

What about you though? When do you call shenanigans? What do you think is the worst thing to face in any game?

Until next time....

A Tale of The End Times

Greetings and Salutations!

Here at Asgard Wargames, we have been swept up in wave of Warhammer Fantasy! With the rise of Nagash, the great upheaval in the Warhammer World and of course the amazing new miniatures, we felt it was high time that Fantasy had its moment to shine!

Our 40k Campaign is going great guns but will be winding down this month (updates soon!), so the time was right to look ahead. Now not many gamers here have a fantasy army ready to play with, so we decided to resurrect (no pun intended) an old GW White Dwarf format, based on the Tale of Four Gamers series.

The premise of TO4G was simple. Each month, four hobbyists would buy, build and paint a set of miniatures, with the aim of building an army. Back then they started with £50, and had a further £25 each month. The article is fondly remembered by many older GW fans and there are plenty of blogs and threads out there following a similar theme.

Our plan is a little different. Each month, from September to December, players in the Tale must build and paint 500 points (roughly) of their chosen army. At the end of each month, phots will be posted here, and WiP's can be seen on the Tale of the End Times group here: https://www.facebook.com/events/270184083171050/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

So, we gathered unto us a group of gamers who have yet to build a Fantasy Army...

STEVEN: THE BOSS

Ste (thats me), has decided (after much much deliberation), to collect a Dark Elf Army, simply because it ticks all of his Fantasy boxes- Strong magic, evil, and access to Dragons!

So far Steven has finished a box of Corsairs and has Dark Riders ready to go:

BEN: PAINT MONKEY

Asgard Wargames hosts Ben, of Vermilion painting as our in house commission painting service. Having seen Nagash, Ben's soul was forfeit and he immediately pledged his loyalty to the master of Undeath!

Using a mix of Games Workshop and Mantic Products, Ben has already raised a sizeable horde!

These 5 hexwraiths are work in progress, alongside them this month march 40 Skeletons and a Necromancer, with Krell, Black knights and Nagash himself all to come! 

ALEX: MANTIC-MAN

Alex is our resident Mantic Pathfinder and naturally, wants to show us all how to build an awesome Fantasy army, at half the price! Again, another of our gamers has been bitten by the Undead bug, and has this to show so far:

In his own words:
"I have 20 skeletons and 3 cairn wraiths built. I had 13 skeletons already started from an army I began last year but never got round to finishing. I also have 10 ghouls painted from the same army but it would be cheating to include those right now so I'll be starting afresh with those and the zombies when they arrive (along with the other 10 skeletons)."

ROB: MASTERMIND

Rob is our history buff and all round brain-box. Naturally, this lead him to the men of the Empire, an army famed for its careful use of its highly trained soldiers.

Rob is awaiting some items from eBay before he gets to work, but given his track record with Bolt Action, it won't be long before he has them painted!

CHRIS: BIG MEK

Chris has settled on an Ogre army known as the Red Horde. Chris has several armies, all of which are incredibly unique and highly customised. He will be building his Ogres from Mantic's Ogre range with a World of Warcraft theme...


Tune in soon for more Tales from the End Times....

The Storming of Bastille Round 3

Silence dominated the great hall as the censer bearing servitors took their place at the altar. The fumes curled and twisted around the mighty being knelt before them, its head bowed in prayer. 

"I shall purge the unclean. I am the bringer of fire and light. Where my hand falls, none shall stand." intoned the warrior in gold.

"We stand with you." The voices of the Space Marines behind said as one.

The golden figure arose, and grasped the hammer laid before him. He turned to the assembled warriors of the Imperial Fists and raised the mighty weapon above his head.

"Brothers. The arch enemy hammers at our gates. As Lord Dorn once defended the Imperium form Chaos, so now must we protect the citizens of Hive Primus. Arm yourselves, steel your souls, this will be a fight like no other." Lysander, First Captain of the Imperial Fists marched down the aisle, his stern face fixed on the horizon. Before him, the balcony overlooking the square flickered with eery light. Outside, the skies had turned dark and unnatural shadows cast themselves about. The screams of those whose own nightmares were besieging their minds filled the air. Chaplain Lo Chang appeared at Lysanders shoulder.

"Our scouts have reported the location of the enemy. The Black Legion have established a portal at Bastion XIV" he said.

"Then we have our target. Notify Inquisitor Vindomus we are moving out of the Hive. Order all remaining militia forces to hold the north gate. Vindomus has put Knight Paladin Tywin at our disposal, inform House Lannister of our plan."

"It will be done, Captain."

With that, Lysander turned and began preparations for war.


So, this round has been interesting!

Several alliances were temporarily brokered, notably between the Black Legion and the Chaos Daemons, the Tau and Dark Eldar and the Imperial Stars and Charcarodons. In the manner of the outbreak of WWI, each attack triggered an aggressive response from the allies, leading to two huge battles!

 As you can see, lots of attacks on the Imperial held worlds! As it happens, when designing the campaign rules, I had stipulated that base hexes could only be attacked from and adjacent hex, and not from a space port, but we were so taken aback at how quickly the map moves escalated, that we just went with it!

Here are some pics from Sundays big battle day:

Game 1: Tactical Escalation, Imperial Stars and Charcarodons (4,200pts)  vs Tau and Dark Eldar (4,000pts).

Deployment: Short table edges meant limited maneuverability in such a big game! With the Tau and Dark Eldar needing to stay mobile, things were looking grim from the start for the Xenos!

Turn 1: The Xenos alliance attacks swiftly, but face a vast number of space marines, and their Stormlord!

The Imperial Stars take a defensive posture, daring the aliens to come to them!

Result: A win for the Imperial forces!

Game 2: The Scouring, Imperial Fists, Inquisition, Imperial Guard and Space Marines (4,000pts) vs Chaos Daemons and Chaos Space Marines (4,000pts).

Deployment: Ser Tywin of House Lannister holds the right flank alongside the forces of the Inquisition and Imperial Fists.

Captain Lysander drops onto the left flank right in the face of Be'lakor and his Balck Legion cronies. He proceeds to weather the storm of firepower and ultimately kill Be'lakor in hand to hand. The Black legion never got out of their corner thanks to his heroic efforts.

Meanwhile over on the right flank, Greater Daemons drop from the skies. Luckily, Ser Tywin is able to finish off the Bloodthirster, the traitor Knight and the Lord of Change in close combat thanks to a lucky roll for prescience! Though it turned out to be not so lucky for the caster, as the enemy knight toppled over and landed on top of his squad, killing them and the nearby scouts!

Attention turns to the Black Legion in the second half as a trio of Storm Talons scream in to finish off the traitor armour

Result: Victory to the Imperium!

All four attacking armies were driven off the worlds they had attacked ready for Phase 4 this Saturday!

Phase 4 will be a turning point in the campaign...


Lysander surveyed the battlefield. Few corpses littered the ground, the Daemons having vanished back into the warp and the Black Legion having fled his wrath. He had struggled with the shadow-creature, his blows simply vanishing through its incorporeal form, but as it had taken solid form, the Hammer of Dorn had struck true. Things could have gone very differently, Lysander knew now what manner of foe Vindomus had tracked.

Even now the Inquisitors men were sealing the warp-breach. Curiously, he had not been able to contact the Inquisitor herself, though he trusted his men to protect her should the arch enemy strike back. 

"My Lord, communciations are worsening, the warp clouds even the most minor of attempts" a disheveled looking Astropath said as he shambled up to Lysander.

"It is the warp portal, its essence clouds your mind" Lysander spoke, his eyes never leaving the burning husk of the traitor Knight.

"No my lord, with all due respect, it is not."

"Explain"

"The warp is resurgent across the system, this portal is powerful no doubt, but its influence is not that great."

"Then what is causing it" Lysanders eyes finally met the blind ones of the Astropath.

"I cannot explain my Lord. It as if something approaches through the Sea of Dreams. What I sense, is merely the bow wave of its presence."

"Return to Hive Primus. Consult your brethren. I would have answers immediately"

Lysander turned and headed towards the waiting Thunderhawk, his mind more troubled than ever...

The Storming of Bastille

Greetings!

In this last fortnight, we at Asgard Wargames launched a 40k campaign! I think it's every hobbyists dream to play in campaign games, its a great driver of narrative for your forces and really brings your collection to life. With a slew of 40k players now using the store, it seemed right to break down those barriers and get them playing other people outside of their usual opponents!

So begins the Storming of Bastille...

Here is our map, showing the Bastille system. We used the Planetary Empires Rules but only allow movement between worlds via spaceports. Each player has 3 armies, a 2k, 1.5k and a 1k force. Each HQ must be unique but the armies can share miniatures!

In the above image, you can see how everyone deployed. Players nominate a supreme commander from their 2k army. Then roll a D6 and add the commanders Initiative. Players take turns in order of highest roll to lowest. In this case, Anth, our Daemon player rolled highest (Bloodthirsters have a very high initiative it seems!)

Anths Daemons (Red): Seized control of Kazhkut, a Death World and made their initial attacks on Bastille Prime, whilst repulsing an aggressive Tau invasion!

Dan's Dark Eldar (Purple) deploy next and seized the Hive World of Pasha, inflicting hideous tortures on the unsuspecting populace. Dan's forces also leapt onto the Tau Garrison force on the Agri World of Dremarr, but the survivors of the failed attack on Kazhkut arrived in time to force the Dark Eldar to flee (but not before spiriting away an unknown Relic!)

Black: Ste's Inquisition. I deployed my forces onto the primary world of Bastille Prime, and set about quickly reeducating the wayward populace. Word of multiple Chaos incursions in the outskirts has reached Inquisitor Aemilia Vindomus, who has ordered an all out attack as soon as possible!

Ben's Carcharodons (Grey), took control of the desert world of Ghado and made their presence known by issuing threats to the Orks of Waaagh! Mekamungus and the Chaos forces of Be'lakor! A blistering cross system strike failed to cripple the Orks though, whose mechanical walkers crushed their valiant attempt to repatriate the fortress world of Gendarme.

The Orks of Waaagh! Mekamungus immediately seized the fortress world of Gendarme, and its pristine bastions are soon covered in orkish "improovments"! Mekamungus sent his loyal(ish) forces to defend against the beakies and much blood was spilt, first campaign blood to the Orks!

The Tau (Sean, in light blue), seized the verdant agri-world of Dremarr, intent upon establishing a foothold on a world rich in resources. Initial forays in system met with disappointment, as an angry Daemon army refused their diplomatic overtures in favour of bloodshed! However, their successful defence of their home base led to a sudden ceasefire between the Dark Eldar and Tau, as the two xenos races promised to avoid each other in future!

Sam and his Chaos Space Marines (Brown), seized the world known as X-62-Tertius, a quarantined world. Quite what Abaddon and Be'lakor sought on this world is as yet unknown, but the Warmaster wasted no time in advancing upon the soil of Bastille prime itself.!

Finally, the penitent crusade of Imperial Stars (Rob, in green), seized the world of Launay, intending to use it as a base to support the imperial cause. Requesting to be observed by Inquisitor Vindomus herself, the Stars hope to expunge their earlier sins in glorious battle. Vinndomus welcomed the aid, and has issued her orders...

So that's it, Phase 1 and 2 complete! Join us soon for more tales from the Bastille Sector....

Vanity, I name thee google!

Everyone does it.

You don't like people to know you have, but we are all curious.

Just a quick one, where's the harm?


I am of course, talking about "googling" yourself (what else?). Its something we have all done and usually just for a laugh. I remember my first time, I googled my name and the first results were about a convicted murder on death row. Still it helps on the old CV.

Now being a small business owner, I can tell you we are insanely curious about how the outside world perceives us. Now I have the advantage of having lots of regular customers, who are fast becoming friends, so I can gather some feedback from them. But what of everyone else? Good feedback is easy to find, but what about those who have had a bad experience (gods forbid!).

So I did what any person in the 21st century would do. I googled "Asgard Wargames"

imagine my surprise when I found this glowing review:

http://beardbunker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-quality-advertainment.html

Whoever this person is, has my sincerest thanks. I mean really. It made my day. It's nice to know that out there are people who appreciate what I'm trying to do!

So, to you, Assistant Kogz, I say thank you.

The (Multi) World Cup Final!

Well the halfway point in the year has been and gone, like a speeding ball of titanium its has firmly slammed us into the next half of an already crazy year. Why all the Dreadball references? Well here at Asgard Wargames we have finally wrapped up our Dreadball-fest with the final game of our World Cup homage!

Playing for the final were the "Slaggy Island 39'ers", a corporation team managed by the youngest Dreadball coach ever at a mere 7 years old, Ben Hinchley. Facing them were the ever placid "3rd Way" a Judwan team ably coached to victory by my good self!

Heres how the game went:

Rush 1-5

The 3rd Way gain the home advantage and begin their final by getting knocked on their backsides! Luckily they land themselves a cheeky 3 pointer before the unfortunate chap above was taken out (permanently)

The Judwan once again set themselves up for a glorious passing game, netting themselves another 3 points!

The Corporation strikes back! More Judwan get knocked out, leaving a mere 3 left to play! Worse still, they score themselves 3 points, bringing the score back to 3-0 to the Judwan!

Rush 6-10

A plucky Judwan player leaps into the fray to distract the opposing striker and succeeds- the ball scatters!

The plucky Judwan then leaps after the ball, only to scatter it himself- right into the path of the nearest Corporation Striker who goes on to net himself a single pointer!

Rush 11-14

Now the mad scrabble for the ball begins! Using a tried and tested tactic, the Judwan set themselves up for a passing game, whicht he Corporation now try to shut down! Luckily for the pacifists they net themselves a further 3 points leaving the score into the final rushes at 4-0 to the Juddies!

After fumbling the ball all game, the Judwan put the "Pass" into Pacifist and score 3 points netting them an 7-0 victory!

I'll be honest, that game had me on edge all the way until the second half! My Judwan seemed to have greased themselves before the match as they either fluffed their pick ups or found themselves slammed into the ground by over-enthusiastic Corporation Guards!

As the store owner, I couldn't very well claim the prize (other than the glory!) so our 2nd place team won themselves a brand new team!

He chose Judwan. I approve.