A Realmgate Too Far

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I'd subscribed to the Mortal Realms magazine. Not that I needed to, to be honest - I know how to play Age of Sigmar, I've got tons of Stormcasts sitting around unpainted, and my partner has a bunch of spooky ghosts (Nighthaunt). But apparently I've got poor impulse control (who knew?), and I like the idea of models turning up every now and then through the door, in a possibly manageable fashion (painting wise). It also gave me an opportunity to do YET ANOTHER Stormhost. To add to the two I have on the go already. Because that's not insane in any way, shape or form! So, the first three models for the Anvils of the Heldenhammer are completed. I went for these for two reasons: Firstly, it fits the narrative of the Soul Wars setting of AoS II (fighting against the Nighthaunt in Shyish). Not that I expect we'll play any games in the Soul Wars for a while, mind! Secondly - skulls on Stormcasts look cool....

Battleplan: Raze to the Ground This Battleplan, from Battletome: Chaos Dreadhold, follows the attack of a group of Sylvaneth upon a fortification known as the Fangs of Decay, built by the Nurgle Rotbringers to corrupt the power of Alarielle’s sacred Lifewells. The Sylvaneth seek to destroy the fortifications and cleanse the Lifewells of Nurgle's filth. We used forces from Battletomes: Sylvaneth and Maggotkin of Nurgle for this battle, along with each side's allegiance abilities (so the Sylvaneth could use the Navigate Realmroots ability to move between forests, for instance). Forces: Sylvaneth: Treelord Ancient Spirit of Durthu Branchwraith 20 Dryads 3 x 5 Tree Revenants Nurgle: Lord of Plagues Nurgle Sorcerer 3 x 5 Blight Kings Both forces have approximately the same number of wounds (ish) – which is roughly how I’ve been balancing them. I’m aware that it’s not the most balanced system, but I’m deliberately trying to avoid points for t...

We didn't get round to playing our next game in the Realmgate Wars series this weekend. Entirely my fault, as I had quite a bad headache on Sunday, and felt generally "off". Hopefully we'll stand a better chance this coming weekend. In the meantime, I'm happy to say that I've managed to finish off some reinforcements for the Stormcast Eternals (including basing!), meaning they have a more rounded force to pull from. This time, the reinforcements are from two different Stormhosts - the Celestial Vindicators (blue) and the Celestial Warbringers (purple/pink with white pauldrons). Yes, I did manage to pick two Stormhosts with the word Celestial in them! Up first, we have a unit of Protectors for the Celestial Vindicators, who make up the majority of the painted Stormcasts at present. All three Paladin units can be made from the same kit (I think I got these soon after the box came out, so a while back now!). Combined with the previously done Retribu...

As I previously mentioned, we've actually played a few games already, and we didn't take any pictures and so on, mainly because I hadn't thought about blogging any of this before recently. So, prior to any further games, I thought a summary of the action so far was worth putting together, to set the scene. The battles so far have taken place in the Brimstone Peninsula, within the Realm of Aqshy. Here, Khorne's forces have overrun much of the land, destroying previous civilizations, and generally killing, maiming and possibly even burning their way across the realm. Enter the Stormcast Eternals. The original starter box and the book  The Gates of Azyr , by Chris Wraight, cover these events. In short, the Hammers of Sigmar end up with a beachhead in the Brimstone Peninsula, having successfully opened a Realmgate to Azyr, allowing both reinforcements to arrive, and possibly crucially, allowing Stormcasts to return to Azyr without dying, and being reforged. During thi...

Since I haven't finished basing any Stormcasts since the last post, lets have a chat about how our campaign is going to work. Get yourself a brew, and lets have a look at the rules. AoS has changed a bit since the Realmgate Wars campaign books have come out. Mostly just tweaks, here and there, incorporation of things that came in via matched play into the main rules, that kind of thing. But it is worth having a think about this, and how it might affect the scenarios we're going to be playing. Now, we could play the books with AoS v1, as it was when these books first came out. There's a copy of the rules in pretty much every early AoS book, nice and conveniently. But we're not going to do that. We're going to play using the newer core rules, as found in the new main rulebook, supplied online or in starter sets and so on. There's a couple of reasons for this. The first is that it's easier for us to play using the newer rules - it's w...

So, what's the actual plan with this blog then? A little about me first, I guess: I've been into wargaming since I was a young 'un, originally with Heroquest & Space Crusade , before getting into Warhammer 40,000 in '94. Since then, I've played & painted many GW systems, as well as a variety of other games, including various historical, fantasy & sci-fi games. This blog may end up containing things from a variety of systems, but initially it will probably be Warhammer: Age of Sigmar (AoS), or possibly the odd Warhammer 40,000 (40k) thing. Lets see how that goes. I have tried blogging before - there were a couple of attempts with a different google account, which didn't get very far (horse & musket stuff and oldhammer models I think... though it was a while ago). There's also a second blog, tied to this account, which I set up to support the A Gathering of Might tournaments that I used to help support. Mainly pictures from the events...

From the maelstrom of a sundered world, a new game emerged. Formless, or so it seemed, according to the wails of the damned, as if incomplete. Nevertheless, it exploded into life, gradually coalescing as new ideas and thoughts appeared in the firmament. For years beyond reckoning (like, 5ish, now, maybe, since AoS was released?) , the realms echoed to the cries of war, the clatter of dice upon board, the snap of tape measures, the grunts of frustration, and other more repugnant noises. Armies were raised, resplendent in their heraldry, wreathed in light and majesty as they carved out their reign (well - not that I had much success in reign carving....) . Great empires rose and, for a while, tournaments were supported. But cruelty is tenacious. As had been foreseen, games night went unattended, the great piles of sprues piled high, scenarios were unplayed, painted models went un-tweeted about, and the realms echoed no more to the sounds of dice and measure (repugnant or otherwise)...