This battle is one of the major reasons that I love wargames (or
hobby games for those elitists that argue semantics out there). A week ago, my wife and son kicked off Spring Break with a Age of Sigmar battle and I was wholly surprised by the outcome. Proof that, even with toys, appearances aren't everything and judgement needs to be withheld until the end.
They played the Take & Hold mission from the General's Handbook (2016), which is little more than capture the flag. I insisted that they play an objectives-based scenario because I thought that the typical 'kill 'em all' format wouldn't be a challenge and we haven't played any of the scenarios (aka 'battleplans') yet. Very simply, each player has a 12" deployment zone from their table edge, with an objective marker centered in each. The game continued until at least turn 3, where any player that claimed both objectives by having five models within 3" would immediately win. If nobody had achieved such by turn 5, it came down to victory points (for those younger players, that means counting up the number of points each destroyed enemy unit costs). Simple, just the way we like it.
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| The battlefield, with painted terrain- yay! |
My wife brought her undead, using the new Legions of Nagash book and following the basic allegiance (named Grand Host of Nagash). She was really geeked about using her newly-built Bloodseeker Palanquin, so that was an auto-include for her. She also brought a 20-group of skeleton warriors with spears, two units of Grave Guard (one had all the command in it), a Vampire Lord, a Banshee, and the obligatory Wight King. Not too bad for only 1,000 points!
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| She's actually painting her force, even as I type this... |
My son decided to pull out my old Slaves to Darkness and mix in a tad of Nurgle and it ended up being a huge force. Led by an Exalted Champion, a Sorcerer, and a Poxbringer, the force consisted of 20 Marauders with sword-and-board, two Warrior units armed the same, some Chosen, and 10 Plaguebearers. Now I'm honestly concerned for the undead as this was a massive force for only 1,000 points. At this point, I'm happy that we went for objectives as I'm thinking that Chaos can't possibly lose a kill 'em all-style scenario...
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| These are the, um, Black Legion? Yeah, that's it... |
With forces and objectives determined, they set up gravesites, objectives, and the armies themselves. My son wanted to put his 'hammer' to his right flank and 'swing the door' as a tactic, which the tarpit-ish units in the middle. His idea was to simply punch his way through so one of the mob units would be able to break through and get to the undead objective. My wife, in response, placed her big nasties to her left to counter that hammer and simply spred the rest out to force him to choose where to go. I was impressed that they both had a plan. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy...
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| Deployment. Chaos just looks intimidating over there! |
Forgetting about the priority system in AoS, my wife chose to take the first turn and simply rushed up. There was little else for her to do as her magic was out of range and undead don't believe in using shooting weapons (except the forgotten Tomb Kings, but these aren't those). Oh yeah, she left a unit of Grave Guard in the ground during deployment, and that's where they stayed. Taking the opportunity to put some damage down, the Chosen charged the Palanquin and put five wounds on her. Ouch! The rest of the Chaos forces advanced and set the stage for the waved attack...
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| End turn 1 |
To start the second turn, my wife won the priority roll, charging her Vampire and Wight King into the Chosen and continuing to advance skeletons into the woods on the right. I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but I wasn't disappointed. After knocking out a Chosen from her Palanquin, the Vampire Lord dispatched the rest of the Chosen with ease. The Wight King didn't even get to swing! How sad...
The Chaos, not to be discouraged, charged all over the place, eager for blood. Unfortunately, they forgot that undead don't have any. A unit of Warriors charged the quagmire that was the vampires and suffered for it, putting little damage on either the Palanquin or Lord that wasn't healed right back up. The Marauders charged the Grave Guard but showed why they're not favoured and watched in horror as any slain Guard were simply raised again. And the Plaguebearers tried with all their diseased might to knock down some Skeletons, only to find themselves in an equally frustrating tarpit.
Two things to note in this round- my wife can't seem to roll anything but 6's for her 'deathless minions' rule (making around 12 out of 15 or something like that), and the order of fights makes a huge difference as the Grave Guard attacking before the Marauders probably helped a bit. At this point, I'm starting to wonder if Chaos has
enough to get it going against the horde of undead...
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| End turn 2 |
The third turn started with my wife, once again, winning the priority roll and taking advantage. The Wight King got in on the action and helped the vampires kill a bunch of Warriors, the Grave Guard were blessed with 'blood feast' that saw them slaughter all but one of the Marauders. Those Grave Guard are not to be trifled with and the surviving Marauder was wise enough to flee. The skeletons, having their casualties resurrected, demolished the Plaguebearers they were fighting until there was less than a handful left. Daemons are best in packs, and the Skeletons made sure there was no pack left. And just to add insult to injury, she raised the other unit of Grave Guard near her objective to make sure that Chaos wouldn't claim it without a fight.
Chaos, now very depleted, continued the assault and tried all they could to at least gain a moral victory by killing some of the leaders. The Warriors continued to attack the wounded Vampire Lord only to suffer in return, and the other Warriors charged into the fray to take out the Wight King only to realize that their target wasn't as soft as they thought. And all while the Palanquin slowly and gleefully helped kill more of them. The Poxbringer charged the Banshee that had been busting eardrums but completely failed to damage the ethereal being, and the Plaguebearers swung and disappeared under the weight of so many spears.
It was more than a little obvious at this point of the game that the tough Slaves to Darkness had nothing on the undead and the game was conceded. Wow.
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| End turn 3 and game |
This was a learning battle for both my wife and son as we haven't played Age of Sigmar in a very long time (even I had to look up a few rules) and neither had used their armies before. Even then, it was a terribly surprising outcome. I honestly thought that the Chaos force would steamroll the weaker undead. In the days of Warhammer, those two forces would not have been evenly matched. But in the new AoS days, it appeared that the Legions of Nagash give no care to numbers. While neither side actually captured both objectives, this battle was a tabling in the making and there was no point to playing it out (plus it was past dinner time when we ended). My estimation to how this battle would go was wrong. So, so wrong.
Have you experienced a battle like this? Tell me about it below. Otherwise, Happy Gaming!
