ELG Age of Sigmar 2k League: Game 1

Filed Under: Gaming

Tagged: Warhammer, Age of Sigmar, Nighthaunt, Kharadron Overlords, ELG, Red Dice Games

I bit the bullet and entered this year’s Edinburgh and Lothian Gamers Age of Sigmar league – twice, in fact, because there are two leagues, one for full-fat 2000-point armies and one for 1000-point armies.

I entered the 2k league with my Nighthaunt and the 1k league with my Cities of Sigmar¹. Both leagues are intended as fairly casual affairs, aimed more at getting some games in than determining who is the best Sigmar in Edinburgh.

The leagues are divided up into groups, and each person in a group has to play every other person in that group by the end (of April, I think?). There are 4 other people in both my groups, so I have to play 8 games total. Which is quite a lot, given how I normally only play about one game of AoS a month!

With a sense of urgency I got my first game arranged as soon as I could.

2k, Contest of Generals (the Matched Play battlepack found in the Core Book), at Red Dice Games against Salvatore. The battleplan we rolled was Rising Power, in which the three centre-line objectives take turns being worth two.

Kharadron Overlords

Salvatore’s Kharadron Overlords army consisted of two Ironclads, a unit of 10 Grundstok Thunderers, an Admiral and three Aether-Khemists (all riding in the Ironclads), and 3 units of 10 Arkanauts (all walking on the ground). It has a lot of scary tech, a lot of scary shooting, and One Weird Trick (Spell in a Bottle – Purple Sun).

He had his whole list in two Battle Regiment battalions, so was able to deploy in two drops.

Nighthaunt

My army contained two units of twenty Chainrasps, ten scythe-wielding Grimghast Reapers, a unit of 3 Spirit Hosts, and a shitload of heroes. Seriously, nearly all the remaining points were spent on heroes. These heroes:

• Lady Olynder
• Kurdoss Valentian
• Dreadblade Harrow (with Lightshard of the Harvest Moon, an artifact granting once-per-game +1 attacks wholly within 12”)
• Spirit Torment (general)
• Guardian of Souls
• Another Guardian of Souls

I rounded off the list with a unit of 2 Chainghasts (who grant +1 to hit while the Spirit Torment is alive) and the Shyish Reaper, a cool-looking Endless Spell.

Like Salvatore, I had my army in two Battle Regiments.

Luckily, I won the roll-off to start deploying first, so I was able to finish deploying first and win priority in the first battle round.

Round 1

I had priority from finishing deployment first. Fearing being double-turned by a shooting army, and feeling reasonably confident about my deployment, I gave the first turn to the duardin.

I still think it was the right decision, but boy did I pay for it. Using a once-per-game hero phase Fly High, he was able to sneak the Purple Sun right into my heroes, instantly killing my general, the Spirit Torment. Then, even though I’d done my best to keep him from getting close enough to shoot Olynder with all his nastiest weapons, he still managed to blast her to smithereens. She took the whole unit of Spirit Hosts with her. Finally, he took out most of the Grimghast Reapers on my right flank.

While he was blasting, his Arkanauts ran up onto the objectives, making use of their subfaction bonus to always run 6”. Quite speedy, for duardin!

He scored 5 points - 3 for objectives and 2 for his battle tactic.

Although I’d lost three key pieces in the first turn, my army was still in functional shape – and it was thirsty for revenge. I pushed everything forward towards his line and charged, taking care not to engage both Ironclads at once.

My Chainrasps obliterated the unit of Arkanauts on the left, rolling 61 attacks thanks to Lightshard of the Harvest Moon. Unfortunately he managed to kill the Dreadblade Harrow, so the buff didn’t apply to anything else. The other units that I managed to get into the Ironclad took a good chunk out of it. The Grimghast Reapers scythed through the central unit of Arkanauts.

Kurdoss failed his (admittedly quite difficult) charge, which was a shame as I’d probably have destroyed the Ironclad this turn if he’d made it.

I scored 5 points, 3 for objectives and 2 for my battle tactic (the one where you take an objective).

Round 2

I got lucky on priority and took the double turn, pressing my advantage. He’d have been able to Fly High with the Ironclad and escape otherwise.

I completely swarmed the Ironclad. (I love retreat and charge.) (I also love Wave of Terror.) (I just love Nighthaunt, okay?) Kurdoss made it in and smashed it to smithereens. The Aether-Khemists riding in it had nowhere to land 3” away from all enemies, being completely surrounded, and were eliminated.

I scored 5 points, 3 for objectives and 2 for my battle tactic (have the most models near the centre).

On his turn, Salvatore pulled back to the right hand side of the board. He fired a lot of guns at Kurdoss, dealing exactly enough damage to hill him. Revenge!

Rounds 3, 4 and 5

I won priority again and took the turn, sweeping across the field towards Salvatore’s Ironclad, the 10 Thunderers and Admiral inside it, and the final unit of Arkanauts. My Grimghast Reapers, fully replenished after a successful Guardian of Souls spellcast, charged the Arkanauts and wiped them out. One of my Chainrasp units attempted to engage the Ironclad, doing a bit of chip damage and getting shot a lot.

I scored another 5 points.

With no Arkanauts left, the duardin weren’t really able to take objectives any more. I think his Ironclad escaped and the rest of the game was me chasing it, it Redeploying or Flying High.

The only thing that really happened was the Kharadron Admiral finally dying from being Cursed at the beginning of the game.

I was able to consistently score 3 points on my remaining turns, but not kill anything. So I finished on 21 points. Adding in my grand strategy (have battleline alive at the end) put me on 24 – squarely ahead.

Conclusions

This was a fun game. I hadn’t played against Kharadron Overlords before and despite a bit of confusion and rules uncertainty they weren’t quite as destructive or unpleasant as I’d been led to believe. I hope they get a good new book though, it’s clear a lot of things could be done better.

Perhaps I should have put Olynder in reserve after deployment? Maybe? It’s possible I could have screened against all the shooting a bit better as well. And I definitely could have screened better against the Purple Sun! Fortunately the painful first turn wasn’t enough to lose the game for me, even if it was a shame to see my general and Olynder go down instantly.

I am bringing a battle round counter to the next game because we had a little bit of uncertainty at the end as to whether we were, in fact, at the end. Luckily we were able to figure it out – there was no way I could have scored 21 points in only 4 battle rounds (the maximum I could have scored was 20). I think I shall look for one of those very big D6s…

Salvatore was a great opponent and his army looked fantastic. I wish him all the best in his future aether-endeavours.

I’m feeling much better than I did after my first game in last year’s league. It’s nice to play an army that isn’t horribly feeble.

One game down, seven to go!