Sigmar Arrives

I finally managed to get a game of Age of Sigmar played when home in Ireland recently.
My hometown gaming group hosted a few games and I gladly took part. We played a scenario from the Quest for Ghal Maraz pack, I believe it was an ambush style scenario but the name escapes me. I played Ogres and because I had a much lower model count that the two other players I was the defender both times I played. First up I faced off against Dwarves. The army was fairly standard with a little bit of everything included. My opponent didnt really grasp the scenario that well and deployed in a line standing off from my army allowing me plenty of time to get into an advantageous position. He definitely approached the game as if it were just a new edition of Warhammer rather than a completely new game. I enjoyed the game though there is a lot of behaviours to unlearn that are tied into previous editions of Warhammer. I think having played Warmachine and Malifaux have helped a lot with that.

I am currently painting a test Stormcast model and based on that I might start an army for Age of Sigmar. I won't post my actual thoughts on the game here. I will reserve that for another post later. I am open to playing it a few more times with enthusiatic players to see what I really think of it. I will say though, so far so good. AS to rebasing my existing collection I am unsure. I don't know how often I will get to play as there seems a paucity of local players. It wouldn't make much sense therefore to rebase anything. Especially as I would have to buy a lot of bases in that event. The first force I would consider for this treatment would be my chaos army, the one I never finished.

Age of Sigmar Bases

I wanted to do something a bit more involved than my standard basing scheme for my Age of Sigmar bases. I still wanted it to fit with my older stuff so some thought was involved. What I finally came up with was a ruined temple. It fits fairly well within the setting. To make it convincing I got together some simple moulds for details.I am painting the stone in a marble effect. I have tried this out before with mixed success.

I want the bases to contrast well with the models that are on them and so a light colour works well enough and remains fairly neutral still.

I can get a lot more elaborate with the bigger bases but for now a stump is as exciting as it is going to get. I have to consider the best way to do fallen pillars and maybe even a tumbled statue or two. I will definitely need some better mould making materials if I am going to do that though.

A Prologue to the Saga

It is pretty good to be back living in Germany. Regular thursday night gaming is a big improvement over almost no gaming in Finland. Saga has really picked up in popularity here since I left. There were four games underway at the store when I was there. I think the relatively recent publication of the rules in German has helped with that. We played the Challenge scenario from the first rulebook. I dont really like the scenario as once again my Warlord ended up far closer to the enemies starting position that Steve's did to mine. add in the fact that his troops are mainly mounted and that leaves me with a lot of distance to cover quickly. I believe I once saw an amendment where both models are set up on the centreline six inches apart. I would definitely prefer that arrangement. I believe I was down six wonds by the end of the second turn and my troops were not in a position to do anything about that until the third.

I used my Anglo-Danes for this battle. the action got fairly intense as by the third turn and the halfway point of the game I hadn't managed to inflict a single wound on the enemy Warlord and he had inflicted half of mine. Troops were now engaged between the two warlords and it was going to be very tough for me to do anything to win. I tend to not spend my opponents fatigue especially on large relatively intact units and in this battle it was definitely a winning tactic. Initially I was losing large numbers of troops but I was emerging from combat with a single fatigue while the Normans were having theirs slowly mount.

In the last two turns I was able to spend this fatigue to actually wipe out units thereby inflicting more fatigue unto surrounding allies and even the Warlord. This rapidly depleted his bodyguard and allowed me to apply my axe to his head liberally in the final turn. I luckily managed to inflict seven wounds gaining me a narrow victory.

We only got a single game in but the pub was calling to us so I won't complain. The nuances of the battleboard are completely lost on me but we had fun. It actually inspired me to quickly get some more Warriors done for my Anglo-Saxons. Iwant to be able to diversify the construction of my warband and as such I definitely need more models painted.

The Saga Continues

I am back living in Germany now. My sojourn in Finland was completed a month ago and my SAGA in Germany continues. I am in the process of writing a campaign based on the Harrying of the North and as a preliminary to playing it I decided to get myself back in the gaming saddle so to speak. So last week I pulled out my Anglo-Saxons and faced off against me regular opponent Steve and his Normans.

The game was great but we both quickly realised that we have a lot of catching up to do with the rules and factions before we embark on a campaign. I narrowly won thanks to succesive volleys of fire unto the Norman Hearthguard. This whittled them down to an ineffectual level and allowed my hastily advancing warriors to engage decisely in the centre despite having to weather a storm of arrows and bolts. We will play again this week, tonight to be exact. I will be bringing out my Anglo-Danes to play just for some variety as once the campaign begins we will be locked into our respective forces for a good few battles.