The Order of the Fiery Gate - Battle Report: Treasure Hunt

'There's ur-gold here... I can smell it,' said the Zangrom, peering over the blades of his axe as he stared over at the crumbling ruins just outside of the Hrukvorn encampment.

'Ruadhar wants the area mapped,' replied the Grungondi karl as he polished his magmapike. 'Nothing more, nothing less.'

'Isn't it out duty to reclaim the fragments of Grimnir wherever we know they are? You should know that better than any of us, temple guard.'

'My duty, grimwrath, is to obey the Runemaster of the Hrukvorn lodge,' replied the karl curtly. 'But if you will insist upon charging into unknown territory to sate you gold-lust, what choice will I have but to follow you? Grimnir help us, you are in charge of this mission.'

'Looks like we won't have a choice in the matter,' said Ulli, smiling darkly. 'Looks like my skeletal friend has come to make good on his threat.'

At the fire side of the ruins, the wight king could be seen pointing and shouting orders at his minions, a pitiful zombie shambling along at his side.

'He's got more of those... creatures with him...' said one of the vulkites who had come over to look.

'Creatures or nay, brothers, do you not feel the power of our god coursing through yours veins?' growled Ulli as he turned to address the fyreslayers under his command. 'I do. It cries out for gold! For glory! For the corpses of our foes cast down at our feet, cleaved in twain by the axes of our ancestors!'

The fyreslayers roared and cheered as Ulli paced back and forth before them, thick cords of muscle around his neck tightening as adrenaline and ur-gold intermingled in his blood.

'Who can stand before the cleansing power of fire? We are the anger of earth made manifest! We are Grimnir!

'KHAZUK!'

For the second part of our Skirmish series, Josh and myself would be playing Treasure Hunt from the newly published Age of Sigmar supplement. Playing again on a 4' x 4' table, we each deployed our entire force in a 12" x 12" corner of the board diagonally opposite one another. Five tokens were set up in the centre of the board as shown on page 23. Having finished deploying first, Josh decided to go first.

Note - As mentioned in my previous post, I realised upon writing that my own band was overpointed and will endeavour in future to ensure this doesn't happen again. I hope you still enjoy this post as a demonstration of the battleplan and Skirmish as a game mode.

Death: Turn 1

Wasting no time at all, Josh's dire wolves immediately rush towards the centre and top-centre artefacts, whilst the rest of his army slowly advanced behind them.

Josh now had the opportunity to search through two of the hoard piles for an artefact, but was unable to recover anything.

Order: Turn 1

I opted to rush forward with all of my fyreslayers towards the bottom-centre hoard pile, pushing my grimwrath and hearthguard to the fore to allow me to advance on the centre if needed.

I managed to get one hearthguard within 3" of this hoard, allowing me to search for an artefact. I also was unable to find anything this turn!

Priority

Josh (Death) won the priority roll for this turn and naturally chose to take the first turn in the next battle round.

Death: Turn 2

Josh continued his push to the centre ground, this time having some of his wolves circle around to the centre-right hoard. Unfortunately, one of his wolves started the turn a bit too close to a realmgate and was zapped for 1 wound.

Josh was able to search 3 hoards this turn, and managed to find 1 artefact in the dead centre of the board!

The rotting canids raked frantically at the ground, scrambling over one another in their desperation to get at whatever it was lay beneath the rancid ground. Running at the head of the fyrd, Ulli gritted his teeth and his knuckles turned white as he envisioned his axe bisecting the creatures before him. His grip slackened and his eyes widened as one of the beasts hauled from below the ground a circlet of gold, the morning sun flashing brilliantly off of its shining surface.

The Zangrom cackled wildly, his eyes ablaze with the power of the duardin warrior god.

'They bring us treasure from Grimnir, warriors of the Hrukvorn!' roared Ulli. 'Let us thank them!'

Order: Turn 2

My fyreslayers continued rushing towards the centre. With the newly revealed artefact, and the choke point between the two ruins either side, I decided to commit my warriors to a full-blown clash in the centre of the battlefield.

I was unable again to find an artefact in the bottom-centre horde, and meanwhile had my auric hearthguard (who I had decided would remain near the bottom-centre horde) pepper the dire wolves with molten rock bolts.

Priority

I managed to win the roll-off this time, and took priority.

Order: Turn 3

The grimwrath charged into the dire wolves at the centre, alongside his trusty hearthguard and a few of the vulkites. The grimwrath himself was wholly underwhelming here, failing to kill a single wolf. It is worth noting, however, that the dire wolves were doing phenomenally well with their saves, too.

However, the combined charge of the vulkites and the hearthguard proves too much for the dire wolves to withstand, and they slay the dogs to claim the centre artefact.

Still no artefact found at the bottom-centre hoard.

Death: Turn 3

Josh runs one of his dire wolves over to the centre-left hoard in this turn in a bid to maximise his chances of finding another artefact, taking care to make sure the wolf remains outwith the 3" of the Cursed ruin (which has a chance to inflict mortal wounds on him). Despite having models within range of 3 of the remaining 4 hoards, nothing turns up.

Elsewhere, the wight king and his entourage finally arrive in the centre of the fray. More dire wolves circle around behind the fyreslayers.

Just as Ulli bent down to retrieve the circlet laying in the earth, the hearthguard readied their poleaxes, whirling the braziers and shifting their stances in anticipation. Up ahead, the wight king strode forward, dark energy coalescing about him wherever he went. His hounds ran before him, howling and barking with all the savagery of living hunting hounds. The undead king drew his dark blade with a his and struck it against his shield in challenge.

The wight broke into a charge, rushing straight for Ulli and his fyrd, and Ulli answered in turn.

With a bestial roar, the Zangrom leaped into the air, his axe whirling about him and leaving fiery contrails in the air wherever it went. The wight drew close, and the axe came down. He brought up his shield to block, but underestimated the force of the blow, which knocked the shield down and crashed into the king's shoulder and brought him to his knees. Ulli landed ungracefully on his knees and the wight king stood back to his full height, his armour rent, his shield battered, and his bones broken. With a bass growl, Ulli leapt at the wight king once more with renewed fury, swinging his axe wildly at his foe. With dexterity that belied his appearance, the dead monarch, deftly blocked and parried the Zangrom's blows.

Ulli's breath came in heavy rasps as he sought to recover from the flurry of blows he had delivered. As he heaved his axe up into an attacking stance once more, the wight king brought his black blade down upon the fyreslayer, he quickly blocked the blow with the haft of his weapon. The wight swung his shield around and clattered it off of the Zangrom's body, leaving little more than a bruise where the blow had landed.

The two combatants staggered back to their feet and began circling one another again - the wight king cold and expressionless, the grimwrath grinning maniacally.

The wight king grossly under-performed here and whiffed all of his attacks, much to Josh's dismay (understandable considering how much of a powerhouse he was in the last game). My general managed to inflict a mighty 4 damage upon him, even with his 4+ save after rend and his 6+ death save. Despite managing to do so much damage, and weather so much myself, Josh was firmly in control of the centre ground at this stage with his superior numbers.

Priority

Once again, I won the priority roll and seized upon the opportunity to take the first turn of the round.

Order: Turn 4

Here I had the remaining hearthguard and vulkites charge into the centre. The combined shooting of the fyresteel throwing axes and the magmapikes did little damage, but I did manage to pick off at least 1 or 2 wolves. The slingshields managed to pick up a wound here and there too. But it was the combined killing power of the grimwrath and the hearthguard that slew the wight king and the remainder of his minions in the centre.

Having lost their general, the remaining members of the undead warband were reduced to Bravery 5 and were at the mercy of battleshock. 4 models in total were lost to battleshock, leaving 2 models in total in Josh's warband.

Death: Turn 4

In a last ditch effort, Josh had each of his remaining models search a hoard, but to no avail.

Result: Order Major Victory

Ulli spat upon the smoking ruins of the wight king's skull, having sent his soul howling back to Shyish. He returned his attention to the circlet the hounds had dug up, which the hearthguard were admiring amongst themselves, and greedily snatched it from the hands of the karl.

He held it up to the light, giddly watching the rays of the dim sun playing along its contours.

The Zangrom smirked.

'Ur-gold,' he said.

Summary

I felt that I was truly able to take advantage of my warband's synergies in this game where I hadn't in Clash at Dawn due to the random deployment. This is one of the single most enjoyable battleplans I've played in Age of Sigmar let alone Skirmish. I really liked the risk-reward dichotomy - not knowing where and when an artefact could appear makes for an interesting game. I was quite fortunate that nothing appeared in Josh's half of the board, and this again underpins to me that I could perhaps use a few cavalry or flying units to extend my reach as and when needed. Treasure Hunt is an excellent battleplan to play if you like having to alter your strategy on the fly. Josh and I have even discussed the possibility of altering it for use in the mega battles we like to organise every so often.

On another note, it was nice to finally see the grimwrath come into his own. I've used him in a few games of varying sizes now and I was always a bit underwhelmed by him. He definitely seems very well suited to skirmish.

The Order of the Fiery Gate - Battle Report: Clash at Dawn

Though darkness concealed much of the horrors of Mount Dextrous from sight, the stink of the Questing Reek still assailed the senses. Ulli Zangrom - grimwrath of the Hrukvorn lodge - grimaced as he peered into the darkness and could only make out but a handful of the scouting party he had been given command of.

'We're spread too thin...' whispered one of the hearthguard at the Zangrom's side. 'If we were to be ambushed here...'

'Words are wind, flameling,' said Ulli in response. 'Keep those sorts of helpful observation to yourself.'

The Zangrom cursed as he peered into the distance and could vaguely make out the glowing brazier from the vulkite karl's warpick disappear amongst a copse of dead trees. Just as he turned to speak to the fyreslayers following at his heels, a baleful, rasping howl filled the dead, pre-dawn air and was quickly followed by a chorus of hoarse barking. From within the ruins up ahead, a dim and unnatural light began to glow.

'The dead are waking,' said the grimwrath, tightening his grip around the haft of his fyrestorm axe. 'Make for the woods. Those idiots are as good as dead if we don't get there in time.'

Having recently procured a copy of the new Skirmish book for Age of Sigmar, my friend Josh agreed to play a couple of games both to help me out as part of the campaign, and also out of personal interest as a long time fan of Mordheim and other similar systems. As the objective states that two linked games of Skirmish are required, it seemed fairly sensible to give the Shadespire campaign a whirl. With Josh playing Death and myself playing the Fyreslayers, we set about playing Clash of Dawn.

Note - At the time of writing I realised that I had miscalculated my points and had a few more models on the field than I should have. This is something I will address for future games, of course! In the mean time, I hope you all still find these reports beneficial in some capacity - even if it is just as a demonstration of how Skirmish works!

For those who have not yet played, this scenario requires that the table (a 4' x 4' is recommended) be split into four quarters, numbered 1-4. During deployment, a dice is rolled for each individual model. The result determines which quarter they must be deployed in, with results of a 5 or 6 allowing the player to choose placement. The usual restriction of remaining 9" away from the enemy applies.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to keep my Vulkites together, and the ended up in the forest deployed thusly:

I was not so fortunate with the majority of my hearthguard and my general, who ended up scattered throughout the various corners of the board.

Josh's grave guard and wight king ended up staring them down on the other side like this (you can just about make out the woods in the bottom left of the picture):

Josh's warband included a number of dire wolves which ended up scattered throughout the board, in addition to a few more grave guard he deployed inside buildings. It became immediately apparent where the bulk of the action would take place, however!

Josh finished deploying first, and so took priority for the first turn.

Death: Turn 1

The wight king activated his Merciless Killer trait, adding +1 to wound to himself and friendly units within 6". Elsewhere on the board, the dire wolves and remaining grave guard began converging upon the berzerkers within the forest.

As expected, the Wight King and his band of undead miscreants immediately began slaying the defiant duardin:

As I recall, 2 fyreslayers were downed in this confrontation, meaning Josh only needed to kill 8 more to win. The vulkites performed rather underwhelmingly here, but did manage to remove a dire wolf and a grave guard or two:

Nevertheless, the held their ground in the battleshock phase.

Order: Turn 1

Having pinned the wight king and his bodyguard in combat, I sought to bring Josh's army down the my auric hearthguard's respectable shooting. The other nearby pike-wielding fyreslayers advanced as far as they could to ensure they were well within the required 12" as shooting was curtailed in this turn by the pre-dawn darkness. Elsewhere, my stranded hearthguard and general began the slow trudge to the fray:

The auric hearthguard loosed their molten rockbolts into the undead, only slaying the grave guard standard bearer after he soaked up 4 of the 6 shots hurled at him.

Another vicious round of combat sees the forest once again grow emptier:

The wight king - who already has a phenomenal 3+ save - was utterly immovable in the forest which granted him a 2+ save. Though most of his warriors - excluding one surprisingly agile zombie! - were vanquished, he fought defiantly on, cleaving into the fyreslayers with ease.

Priority

I won the priority roll and so took the first turn in the next round.

Order: Turn 2

Here I attempted to charge my general and accompanying hearthguard at the dire wolves making their way into the vulkite flank. The grimwrath failed his charge, but his two hearthguard rushed headlong at the undead hounds:

I managed to kill the last of Josh's grave guard in this turn, and I did shave off a wound here and there on his dire wolves, but they were proving a menace to deal with in this game being 2 wounds a piece and surprisingly numerous for something so tough and agile. My vulkites failed to wound the wight king once again.

Death: Turn 2

The remainder of Josh's dire wolves charged into the fight to set about my vulkites. My hearthguard karl killed the wounded dire wolf in the centre of the field meaning that I had vanquished a sufficient number of Josh's warband to claim victory!

But another dire wolf killed him back!

Result: Draw

'Fall back, you idiots!' barked Ulli at his warriors as the dragged their wounded brethren from the field.

The wight king - protected by his rotting pack of dogs - also appeared to be quitting the field. The creature glared across the ruins at the Zangrom and pointed his dark blade directly at him before defiantly drawing it across where his throat would once have been. He even seemed to throw back his head and cackle silently at the gesture.

Ulli glowered back at the undead warrior, cracking his knuckles one by one as he did so.

Summary

Having played The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game a few times, I felt that this was very similar - especially as Age of Sigmar also uses the similar Priority system. Skirmish also has me excited at the prospect of using some units and characters that ordinarily I perhaps would not have an application or use for in larger games and I will most certainly be looking into perhaps adding some faster units like Skywardens or Wild Riders for grabbing objectives and such.

This particular battleplan makes for a very short game. I also felt at quite a disadvantage as a Fyreslayer player here - I am quite reliant on synergies to make my army work, and the mediocre movement stats of my pure infantry warband meant that recovering from the random deployment was quite difficult.

On the other hand, Josh's very mobile army was able to recover very easily in this scenario and has me considering adding some sort of equivalent unit to my own warband. He very easily circumvented the random deployment issue and was able to quickly converge on the area where the bulk of the combat took place. At 2 renown per model, dire wolves are an absolute steal for what they can do in Skirmish games.

Clash at Dawn definitely underpins the need for versatility in a Skirmish warband, and it is definitely something I will have to consider going forward - particularly as I am in the habit of wanting to field as many fyreslayers as possible!

April Challenge Complete: Gut Rippa's Maniaks

Always to be found in the thickest of the fighting, the mob known as "Gut Rippa's Maniaks" are the embodiment of GorkaMorka's "Brutal, but Kunnin'" nature. Long ago having dispensed with such things as "taktiks", the Maniaks charge headlong into the foe, hacking and slashing with wild abandon. 

The Order of the Fiery Gate - The Grongundi

Ruadhar slammed his staff impatiently into the ground as the gate of the newly captured fortress was reduced to so much kindling. A trio of gargants shambled into the keep, swinging improvised weapons consisting of pillars of stone and tree trunks about them with wild abandon. The fyreslayers' seraphon allies plunged in to meet this new threat head-on, whilst the lodge's fighters fought the assailing greenskins at the breach on the western wall.

'What are you doing back here?' growled Ruadhar to the battered and bloodied Ironwarden staggering up the ramp towards the Runemaster.

The Order of the Fiery Gate - Battle Report: The Hidden Artefact

Folkvar-Grimnir sneered as he turned the baleful amulet in his hand. Shadows coalesced and writhed within a huge, blood-red ruby clasped within an ur-gold setting.

'Sacrilegious bastards...' spat Runesmiter Alsvir.

'I have seen its ilk before, my lord,' chimed in Aurelius Oathkeeper, Errant-Questor of the Black Wardens. 'Heathen warlords often use such gems to lend them great power in battle. They trap unclean souls within them and use the essence therein to empower themselves.'

'We shall have Runemaster Ruadhar destroy it safely,' the Runefather decided. 'Who knows what other trickery is concealed within-'

Folkvar-Grimnir was cut off by the peal of a barbarous horn reverberating throughout the surrounding woods.

'Orruks!' roared Runemaster Ruadhar, brandishing his staff in the direction of the forest. 'A whole bloody tribe of them!'

Immediately the duardin encampment burst into life. Berzerkers leaped to their feet and began forming up into individual units, weapons at the ready, whilst Fokvar-Grimnir and Alsvir both took to their mounts.

The Order of the Fiery Gate - The Battlesmith

Skjor drained the last of the contents of his tankard and peered down into the container with a grimace. He shook his head in disgust and set the drinking vessel down at his feet. He wiped the beads of bitter ale from his flame-hued beard with a sweep of his meaty, tattooed arm, smoothing his impressive braids when he was done. For several moments he gazed blankly at the fire before he noticed that several of the flamelings had gathered around about him.

'Another telling, is it?' rumbled Skjor as he rubbed the ur-gold runes that ran the length of his other arm.

'Karl Brynn says you were there the day that Folkvar-Griminir first came to us!' blurted a particularly enthusiastic young Vulkite.

'Does he now?' replied the older duardin with feigned surprise. 'Fancies himself the Battlesmith of the Hrukvorn, does he?'

The loose-tongued Vulkite's eyes widened as his elder fixed him with a gaze that could melt stone.

'Calm yourself, flameling!' roared the burly duardin, his beard bristling as a great smile spread across his face. 'You look like Nurgle himself had appeared before you and asked you to help him wipe his arse!'

The duardin all around broke into raucous laughter, and the junior Vulkite joined in - nervous, but relieved.

'Now there is a tale worth the telling,' said Skjor quietly as he stood to his feet. 'A tale for the ages...'

Queek Headtaker, TRUE Everchosen of Chaos, PROPER Lord of the End Times and the ONE AND ONLY Marshall of the Apocalypse!!!

All Lie-Speak!

Of course Queek is true lord of all and greatest of all fighters (and leaders)!

Since Queek is mightiest of all then who but Queek could have destroyed Old World and conquered mortal realms?!?

Archaon is child-thing compared to the glory of Queek!

All hail Queek!!!

-Speech given by Queek Headtaker (to himself, inside his head)

Join me as I rebuild my, mostly verminous, Skaven army after its destruction in the world-that-was and bring it into a new era of death and destruction.  This blog will include new models, some intense rebasing, and attempts to bring Skaven back to the top in this new era.

Queek will also feature prominently because he really is the best.

The story of the honourable Lord Black Raven.

I post as Praecautus on TGA and I am looking forward to taking part in this. I hope my story, army and battle reports are enjoyable.

The story of the honourable Lord Black Raven, protector of the Faithful and the Guardian Lord of the lands of Tagge.

Prologue
"More water, Master?" The acolyte raised the cup to the old man's lips who gratefully drank some of the cool fluid and whispered a quiet thankyou. The acolyte looked at the old man lying on his death bed, the Master of the Order of Watchers had been a constant in his life in the church for these twenty past years, and now he was passing, change was coming.

The Master turned his head and 'looked' at the acolyte with sightless eyes. As he did so he coughed up some blood, which the acolyte reverently wiped from his chin.
"My son" he started and coughed again. "My son, while I have strength you shall have your final lesson."

"Save your strength Master, surely the other Masters can teach me?"

"No my son," replied the Master, "there are some things only a few can teach. Tell me, why is the Church here?"

"To help the poor and guard the souls of the faithful." replied the acolyte, "We all know this Master."

"Of course," and here the old Master paused. "but who are we guarding them from?"

The acolyte was silent and before he could respond the Master continued. "The Raven Lords guarded this land, but the last of their family died just over nine hundred..." he coughed more blood onto his chin, "...nine hundred and eighty years ago." finished the Master.

"Do you know of the last Raven Lord my son?" Here the acolyte was silent. "Of course you are too young, not yet finished in your lessons. I shall tell you and it shall be the last thing I teach you."

The old Master was silent a moment, then he began... 

Welcome to The Border Wars! - The Rules

Rise of Empires: Border Wars 

The Rules of the Campaign

Welcome to Border Wars, the third chapter in the Rise of Empires Age of Sigmar supplements. What a year it has been for the narrative side of Age of Sigmar. Since the last map campaign, we have had a few sell out narrative events in UK and US. Also the Wednesday Warhammer TV narrative game has shown people how awesome it is is play in this more open way.

So What is Border Wars?

I have developed the campaign maps (examples below) to show each armies current territory. Each time your army progresses by posting battle reports or introducing a new unit to the army, this territory will expand. There is 4 maps to fight your battles over, The Nomad Chasm, The Great Green Torc, The Castle of Scorned Hope and Mount Dextros, these maps track your individual progress. If your Alliance controls the majority of the map, the main overview map will show your alliance in control of that region.

There is a flip side to this, if someone doesn't post anything for a month, then their territory will decrease. Similarly, your territory could decrease if you go up against someone else in the Rise of Empires campaign and lose, if this happens it will depend on the outcome as to how much territory is lost and won.

Overview Map