Hey everyone, now for one of the highlights of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar scene in Scotland, Northern Invasion 2019. Northern Invasion is the eponymous event of the Northern Invastion podcast, TO’d and organised by Stu West (the man with one of the longest commutes in the world for AoS events, all the way from the Orkneys). Every year Stu runs a great event combining hobby, narrative & strong competitive gaming.

For more from Northern Invasion, check out their podcast, Facebook page and Patreon. The guys do a massive amount for the Scottish AoS scene.

Talking of Scots, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive. Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

Northern Invasion 2019 Players’ Pack

The Northern Invasion events are tied together with a narrative thread from event to event. For this year’s incarnation, Tzeentch’s success means that the battle has shifted from Ghyran to the Realm of Chaos.

The key points of the event pack were:

• 2,000 points – General’s Handbook 2019 (FAQ, but not FAQ points in play – the FAQ came out on the day lists were due)
• Each player must select 6 Hidden Agendas and include them in their army list. One must be chosen each game and each may only be used once.
• Hills will be counted as scenery and, as such, will be subject to a mysterious terrain roll at the onset of each game.
• Battleplans and Realmscape rules determined after list submission.
• The pre-drawn Realmscape rules must be used in each game to score victory points – these will be drawn after list submission. Only armies from a given realm may use the special Command Ability listed in the Core Rules when playing in the Realm.
• Where a battleplan states that a minor victory will be achieved by the force that takes the most kill points, this will only apply if the difference in kill points exceeds 200pts. Where the margin is less than 200pts, the game is drawn.
• Games of AOS should consist 5 Battle Rounds. If it is clear that you will not complete your full game in the allotted time, a measured and pragmatic discussion should take place and any key rolls should be made to determine who would most likely have been the winner if the full term had been played.

Scoring

• Fully painted and coherently based army – 10 TPs
• Voting in best-painted competitions and for naming favourite game – 10 TPs
• Favourite Game Votes Received – 0-10 TPs (1 vote = 2 TPs, 2 votes = 5 TPs, 3+ votes = 10 TPs)
• *Victory Points – 0-100 TPs (Major Victory = 18, Minor Victory = 12, Draw = 8, Minor Loss = 4, Major Loss = 0). Plus, each round, 1pt will be scored for achieving your chosen Hidden Agenda and 1pt will be scored for denying your opponent’s Hidden Agenda.
• Each Warlord’s Narrative Award – 5TPs
• Note: a 10 TP penalty will be applied for late list submissions or changes to lists.

In the event of a tie, the strength of schedule will be used as a first decider followed by Favourite Game votes. A final tie breaker will be net kill points.

The Battleplans and Realms

So after lists were submitted, the following Battleplans and Realms were selected.

• Round 1 Aqshy Scorched Landscape Total Commitment 19
• Round 2 Shyish Life Leaching Focal Points 19
• Round 3 Chamon Metallic Hinterlands Better Part of Valour 19
• Round 4 Ulgu Shadowed Mansions Relocation Orb 19
• Round 5 Hysh Gleaming Vistas Places of Arcane Power 19

The Greatest Backstory

As part of the narrative flavour of the event, players submitted 50-500 word backstories for their forces.

These backstories were judged by none-other than Black Library author, Josh Reynolds.

The Warlord’s Narrative

Northern Invasion encourages a narrative style of play and seeks to recognise those Warlords that are the best at what they do. This year there were four ‘Warlord’s Narrative’ awards, each of which were worth 5TPs.

Only generals that are non-unique and are not behemoths were eligible for the ‘Warlord’s Narrative’.

• The Beastkiller – Awarded to the Warlord that personally slays the most Behemoths during the course of the event by any means.
• The Master Assassin – Awarded to the Warlord that personally inflicts the most wounds during the combat/shooting phases throughout the event.
• Master of Magic – Awarded to the Warlord who successfully casts the most spells throughout the event.
• Blessed by Ranald – Awarded to the Warlord who suffers the least wounds throughout the event (wounds healed back are still considered to be wounds taken).

The Badge of Shame

Each year, the event awards a badge of shame to the “filthiest” list submitted. The aim is not to identify the most competitive or finely honed list, but that list which encapsulates “filth”, the idea of pushing a concept or taking an advantage to its competitive extreme.

Now, I’ve had the pleasure of awarding this in the last two years. Last year was a four Ballista and Comet list, and this year was Nathan Watson’s 4 Verminlord Skaven Endless Spells list.

Not only did Nathan follow the Tom Mawdsley template, but he also took a large number of movement blocking Endless Spells, sure to cramp opponent’s play.

The Best Man

The counterpoint for the Badge of Shame is the Best Man. Judged by all-round nice bloke, Clint Mallet of Heralds of War and CanCon TO.

My pick is Iain Hunter because it’s clearly a load of bull.

I have to love an army of ambushing Bullgors and Doombulls. Nothing says surprise like a proper herd suddenly in your back lines.

I feel like he’s missing the battalion to give him some drop flexibility and an additional artefact. But he may have just opted for more bulls and that’s fine.

You can read the full pack for more information.

Results

So the results for Northern Invasion 2019 were:

• Overall Tournament Champion (most TPs)
• Best General in each Grand Alliance (VPs only)
• Consumate Commander (highest net KPs)
  • Andy Currie (with KO)
• Lord of the Realm (most VPs of armies from each Realm)
• Last Placed
  • Iain Hunter (best man and last)
• Best Army
  • Adam Rawson
• Best Painted Warlord
• Finest Backstory
• Beastkiller Award (Warlord’s Narrative – most behemoths slain)
  • John Craig
• Master Assassin (Warlord’s Narrative – most wounds inflicted during the shooting/combat phase)
  • Sean McKechnie
• Master of Magic (Warlord’s Narrative – most spells successfully cast)
  • David Jack (Alexander)
• Blessed by Ranald (Warlord’s Narrative – least wounds suffered)
  • Shane Kingston
• A God Amongst Men (receives 5 favourite game votes)

You can find the full Warscore standings here.

Northern Invasion Top Lists

Northern Invasion had 46 players, with 21 different allegiances and 0 Daughters of Khaine Players.

The most common Endless Spells were – Geminids (6), Maelstrom (6) and Palisade (5).

The 5 most selected Hidden Agendas were Invade, Slay, Ancient Heirlooms, Retake and Onslaught.

The 5 least taken were Sorcerer Supreme, Obliterate, Linebreaker, Overrun and Terrify.

You can check out the full Northern Invasion 2019 lists, or just the top lists below.

Leigh Martin – 1st – Slaanesh

John Craig – 2nd – Devoted of Sigmar!

John Bayliss – 3rd – Khorne

Northern Invasion Coverage

With thanks to the people of Twitter, here are some pictures from the event weekend.

Hey all, this last weekend saw the American Team Championships 2019 hosted at Camp Jordan, East Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Primarily a Warhammer 40k event (with over 400 players), the ATC is trying to grow the Warhammer Age of Sigmar event, with official support from Games Workshop. This year the event had six teams of four players, I’ll cover the pack, the results, and the top lists in this post.

Games Workshop also hosted a small preview event at the ATC. Ben Johnson, Product Developer for the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Studio, previewed the sixth Chaos warband for Warcry, the Cypher Lords, and gave further details about the new Warcry game. You can find all the details over on Warhammer Community.

As always, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive. Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

ATC 2019 Players’ Pack

The American Team Championships are a four player team event. You can read the full pack, and check out the highlights below:

• 2,000 point armies and General’s Handbook 2018
• Four rounds, each 3.5 hours long (including pairings).
• Each player brings an army from a different Grand Alliance
• No Realmscape Features or Realm Spells
• One Realm Artefact per team.
• Hidden Agendas in play (two per team player each round, no duplicates, revealed to your opponent)
• Pre-set terrain
• Model Conversion Policy
• Paint Competition Guidelines
• Sportsmanship / Code of Conduct

Battleplans

The battleplans for the event were all selected from the Core Book and General’s Handbook 2018.

• Round 1
  • (A) Three Places of Power (CB p315)
  • (A) Total Conquest (GHB 51)
  • (B) Gifts from the Heavens (CB p316)
  • (B) The Relocation Orb (GHB p61)
• Round 2
  • (A) Duality of Death (GHB p52)
  • (A) Battle for the Pass (GHB p53)
  • (B) Starstrike (GHB P54)
  • (B) Focal Points (GHB p57)
• Round 3
  • (A) Places of Arcane Power (GHB p 60)
  • (A) Total Commitment (GHB p56)
  • (B) Shifting Objectives (GHB p59)
  • (B) Escalation (CB p313)
• Round 4
  • (A) Knife to the Heart (GHB p50)
  • (A) Scorched Earth (GHB p55)
  • (B) Border War (CB p314)
  • (B) The Better Part of Valour (GHB p58)

Scoring

The scoring was as follows:

• Major win: 16 TP
• Minor win: 12 TP
• Draw: 8 TP
• Minor loss: 4 TP
• Major loss: 0 TP
• Complete Hidden Agenda: 1 TP
• Prevent Opponent’s Hidden Agenda: 1 TP

Each team adds up the points for their players and the team with most points will be declared the winner. Kill points are used as the first tiebreaker.

Team scores are capped between 20 and 60 tournament points a round. This prevents skewed results from the initial draw.

Pairing system

• Captains have 20 minutes before each game to discuss with their team what the best strategy is for the round and to work out the pairings for the round.
• Distribution of Hidden Agendas among team members will also have to be completed within this 20 minutes.
• Step 1
  • For the first set of pairings, both teams select an army and place it face down on the table.
  • When both teams have selected their armies, they are then revealed simultaneously.
  • The teams then select two armies each to counter the revealed army of the opposing team, and place them face down on the table.
  • When all four armies have been placed, they are then revealed simultaneously.
  • Out of the two armies placed by their opponents, each team selects one to play against the army that they placed initially.
  • For the second set of pairings, the unselected army remaining at the end of the Step 1 process remains on the table and will automatically play against the opposing armies left at hand.
• Step 2
  • Team Captains roll off (using an official ATC die).
  • The winner distributes the first two scenarios (A) on the scenario list for the current round to any two of the player matches that were determined in Step 1.
  • The opposing Team Captain then determines the tables that these matches will be played on.
  • Then the Captain that lost the roll off will distribute the last 2 scenarios (B) on the scenario list for the current round to the two remaining player matches that were determined in Step 1 and the opposing Team Captain then determines the tables that these matches will be played on.
• Step 3
  • Proceed with the distribution of Hidden Agendas among team members.

ATC 2019 Results

The event was run via the Best Coast Pairings app – a great app for iOS and Android that I have previously covered on the site. You can check out all the results and pairings on the app.

The clear winners were Grain Alliance Alcohol, who got maximum 60 point scores in each of their rounds, and won 15 out of 16 individual match-ups. Comprehensively taking out the overall title and the top position in each of the Grand Alliances.

• 1st: Grain Alliance Alcohol
  • Zach Caschetta (Stormcast)
  • Brendan Melnick (Flesh-Eater Courts)
  • Jacob Berry (Skaventide)
  • Carson Burns (Gloomspite)
• 2nd: Back 2 Back ATC Champions
  • Brian Sayman (Disciples of Tzeentch)
  • Scooter Walters (Flesh-Eater Courts)
  • William Bankard (Ironjawz)
  • Lincoln Tidwell (GA Order)
• 3rd: Sigmar and Chill
  • Rob Fortin (Gloomspite)
  • Philip Fortin (Nighthaunt)
  • Al Hasting (Khorne)
  • Daniel Sacdalan (Stormcast)

ATC 2019 Winning Lists

You can find all the lists on Best Coast Pairings, but the lists for Grain Alliance Alcohol were:

Zach Caschetta – Stormcast

Brendan Melnick – Flesh-Eater Courts

Jacob Berry – Skaventide

Carson Burns – Gloomspite

ATC 2019 Gallery

With thanks to on site reporter, Ben Johnson, here is a selection of photos from the event.

Hey there, back into the swing of things with a tournament report from Rage of Sigmar 2019, the first two-day Age of Sigmar event run by the Bad Moon Cafe in London, UK. The Bad Moon Cafe is a great venue (check out my profile for it), and has an awesome local scene developing with some strong lists. It is really interesting seeing the early General’s Handbook 2019 meta developing. Here you’ll find the pack, lists and results.

As always, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive. Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

Rage of Sigmar Players’ Pack

The event was played using General’s Handbook 2019 pitched battle rules and scenarios.

Results

Congratulations to all the players that took home awards:

• First – Daniil Osudin – Changehost
• Second – Benjamin Savva – Legion of Grief
• Third – Sam Loving – Stormcast Eternals
• Wax Wings (Max Points Day 1, Low Points Day 2) – Leo Rautonen (Ironjawz)
• Puppy Smasher (Low Points Day 1, Max Points Day 2) – Ralph Hughes (Greywater Fastness)
• Best Painted – Thomas Lemoine

The Wax Wings and Puppy Smasher awards were sponsored by the “non-litigious” Rage of Sigmar podcast from the US.

You can find the full results over on Tabletop.TO.

Rage of Sigmar Top Lists

You can find all the Rage of Sigmar lists here, and see the top lists below. There was quite a mix of factions, with a strong showing for Death.

Check out the full lists over at Tabletop.TO.

Daniil Osudin – 1st – Changehost

Benjamin Savva – 2nd – Legion of Grief

Sam L – 3rd – Stormcast Eternals

List not published.

Matthew G – 4th – Seraphon

Martijn Zuidema – 5th – SCE

Bad Moon Cafe Coverage

Hugh and everyone at the Bad Moon Cafe put together some great coverage over on their YouTube channel. You can find highlights, table-walks and short interviews with some of the players.

Gallery

With thanks to those at the event, here is a selection of photos from Rage of Sigmar 2019.

Upcoming events

The Bad Moon Cafe runs monthly one-day Age of Sigmar events called War in the Mortal Realms. So if you are in the area, pop down and check them out. Tickets are available here.

This weekend, Generals Handbook 2018 goes out with a bang with Lord of War 2019, a 65 player matched play Warhammer Age of Sigmar event in Melbourne Australia hosted by The Dwellers Below. Lord of War and the AoS GT Heat 3 in the UK will see the GHB2018 tournament season draw to a close. One last hurrah before the turn of the wheel and (potentially) a new tournament meta.

In this post, you’ll find the pack, the lists and links to all the coverage planned for the weekend.

As always, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive. Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

Lord of War 2019 Players’ Pack

Here is the Players’ Pack. Breakdown to come later today.

Lists

All the lists for Lord of War 2019 are here (in PDF) and on the Down Under Pairings site. Check out the Doom and Darkness list review show for a breakdown of all the lists with Sam Morgan of the Dwellers and Hey Woah Twitch.

Event Coverage

Live-streaming and interviews will be on the Dwellers Below Twitch Channel.

Pairings and results are on Down Under Pairings.

On Twitter, check out #LordofWar and the Twitter list of attendees.