AoS Shorts: Your Essential Guide to Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar Team Tournaments

Hey all, we’re back with a show on Age of Sigmar team tournaments. Jack Armstrong and Tom Loyn join the show to advise on how to select a team for an Age of Sigmar team tournaments, how to write army lists tailored for the event and how to master the pairings process.  Also we end the show with an update on the London Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament, there are still the last few places if you are keen.

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How to choose a team for an Age of Sigmar team tournament

  • Reliability
    • make sure that you have players who will turn up and not leave the rest of the team in the lurch.
  • Performance
    • In a 4 person team you can control 1 match-up but have less control over the other match-ups, therefore you need to have confidence that your players will be able to achieve wins.
    • You may be able to carry one list that has one unfavourable match-up (for example, a Kroak list is poor against Fyreslayers and KO one-drop armies) but generally you want strong all-round lists.
    • In team events with more players you have greater freedom to control match-ups
  • List balance
    • Choose the lists comfortable with play style and practice.
    • Something unexpected or misunderstood. Element of surprise.
    • Bully list – A list so feared and powerful that it can help control match-ups – KO
      Nico team going all 1 drops to give match up issues
      Skewing can work – tom’s monster mash – playing vs the meta.

Age of Sigmar team tournament packs

  • One of each grand alliance?
  • No duplicate warscroll between lists?
  • Scoring system
    • Major vs minor wins
    • Proportional system could come back in some form via secondary objectives in order to allow more granularity in scoring.
    • Secondary objectives
      • Max 2 and score capped at 30 – so if major, then any secondary gives nothing.
      • Allocate to losing match-ups to get 3 majors and get 1 card – to cap out 100. Even if drawing – could get 90.

Check out my previous Blood Tithe coverage for all the pack details.

How to prepare for a team tournament

  • First match up and then scan over top lists
  • Less prep needed at 4 as fewer permutations at table

How to master the pairing process

  • Each team controls 2 match-ups in a four player tournament
  • You put 1 up, and 1 in hand will face the 2 given to you. Therefore you have 100% control over what you face.
  • However, you lose control over the pair you put up.
  • Who has the single worse match-up but with no other problems> i.e. They can put up two and I’d always want to play one of them. This is army up first.
  • Which 2 armies are most competitive against all of them? They are the counter.
  • Other list, some good or bad, held back in hand.

Adepticon Age of Sigmar Lists & Results

Well it looks like it was a great four days of gaming at Adepticon again this year.  In this post you will find the top Adepticon Age of Sigmar lists, results and all the awards.

For all the rest of the Adepticon coverage, including the Studio Preview and pictures check out my preview Adepticon post and the Idoneth Deepkin page.

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Championships

The pinnacle of the weekend, 5 games, 2,000 pts, General’s Handbook 2017 with custom scenarios.  You can read the pack here or my summary here (including the custom scenarios played).

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Sean Troy – Changehost
    • 2nd – Jeff Campbell-Crawley – Fyreslayers
    • 3rd – Adam Trunzo – Seraphon
  • Best in Grand Alliances
    • Chaos – Joe Krier
    • Death – Brendan Melnick
    • Destruction – Scooter Walters
    • Order – Chai Tzola
  • Best Appearance
    • 1st – Terry Pike
    • 2nd – Mike Scalletti
    • 3rd – Chris Slye
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – Mark Mitzman
    • 2nd – Jacob Berry
    • 3rd – Patrick Gannon

You can now see the top 21 lists (organised by battle points, so no sports or paint) here.

Sean Troy – 1st

Jeff Crawley – 2nd

Chai Tzola – 3rd

 

Full results available here on Warscore or here as a Google Sheet for editing.   The results are now broken down by Grand Alliance, and also show the primary, secondary and tertiary battle point scores.

Thanks to Sam Valdez and PlasticCraic I can share some charts with you analyzing the results.

Adepticon

Average rank for battle point (i.e. lower is better performing)

Adepticon

Average rank for painting score (i.e. lower is better performing)

Adepticon

Lists to come when available.

 

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Team Tournament

The doubles tournament – 2×1000 point armies, GHB2017, custom scenarios.  Check out the pack  here or my summary.

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Sean Troy and Stephen Thompson
    • 2nd – Kaleb Walters and Scooter Walters
    • 3rd – Andrew Standiferd and Miles Hamrick
  • Best in Grand Alliances
    • Chaos – David Fields and Paul
    • Death – Brendan Melnick and Mark Tobin
    • Destruction – Frank Lattyak and Nick Simone
    • Order – Andrew Standiferd and Miles Hamrick
    • Unaligned – Zachary Caschetta and Brian Zlotorzycki
  • Best Appearance
    • 1st – Chris Slye and Jason Zajac
    • 2nd – Michael Butcher and Andrew Simons
    • 3rd – Kelly Freiberg and Wayne Kemp
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – David Griffin and Jacob Burleson
    • 2nd – Carson Burns and Adam Pyle
    • 3rd – Ryan Kopina and Ben Boyd

The top 14 team lists are here.

Sean Troy & Stephen Thompson – 1st

Scooter & Kaleb Walters – 2nd

Andrew Standiferd & Miles Hamrick – 3rd

Full updated results and as Google Sheet.

The Adepticon Vanguard Tournaments

On Thursday, there were two Vanguard Tournaments (one in the morning, one in the evening) 1,000 point, 3 round event.  A great loosener for the events ahead.

You can find a full copy of the pack here but the key points are the same as those covered above for the other events.

AM Vanguard Awards

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Chris Slye
    • 2nd – Kaleb Walters
    • 3rd – Thomas Lyons
  • Best General
    • Chaos: Kaleb Walters
    • Death: Brendan Melnick
    • Destruction: Scooter Walters
    • Order: Patrick Brynildson
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – Ben Boyd
    • 2nd – Dan Heelan
    • 3rd – Thomas Lyons
  • Appearance: Steve Herner

Full Warscore results or as a Google Sheet.

PM Vanguard Awards

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Bryan Carmichael
    • 2nd – Kaleb Walters
    • 3rd – Donnie Goerlitz
  • Best General
    • Chaos: Kaleb Walters
    • Death: Shaun Clarke
    • Destruction: Scooter Walters
    • Order: Marvin Sims
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – Andrea Schwandt
    • 2nd – Stuart Gateley
    • 3rd – Eric Rehm
  • Appearance: Kit Reisch

Full Warscore results or as a Google Sheet.

The Adepticon Youngbloods

Results coming.

Adepticon 2018 – Age of Sigmar!!!!

If you are looking for the awards, results and lists from the Adepticon Age of Sigmar events go to my Adepticon results page.


Hey everyone, today is a quick preview post on all the great Age of Sigmar events at Adepticon 2018.  Held over March 22nd – 25th, at the Renaissance Schaumburg (Chicago, USA),  Adepticon is nirvana for tabletop wargamers.  Into its 16th year, it hosts over 4,000 attendees playing, hanging out, exploring all the stores and stalls as well as learning from the world’s masters at numerous hobby seminars.   Adepticon also hosts the Crystal Brush, the world’s pre-eminent miniature painting competition.  This really is the world’s greatest tabletop wargaming convention:

  • over 340 tournament and event games (board games, miniature games, role-playing games and more)
  • over 140 hobby seminars
  • over 100 exhibitors

Expect lots of updates all over social media as there is a strong travelling UK contingent for Age of Sigmar this year.  Follow @AdeptiCon_AOS for photos, results and coverage.

Adepticon 2018 Age of Sigmar tournaments

There are four Age of Sigmar events at Adepticon this year:

  • the Championships;
  • the Team Tournament;
  • the Vanguard Tournament; and
  • the Youngbloods Tournament.

Alex is the Age of Sigmar tournament organiser and does a stellar job, ably assisted by Domus and others.

You can find all the details of the Warhammer Live coverage here.

Adepticon Adepticon

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Championship

The premier Age of Sigmar event of the weekend – the Championships.  As you’d expect, it is being covered live all weekend on Warhammer TV.

You can find a full copy of the pack here but the key points are:

  • 2,000 points, General’s Handbook 2017.
  • Custom scenarios with secondary objectives (see gallery below)
  • Firestorm allegiance abilities not in play.
  • If at any time you or your opponent has no models left on the table with no additional units to set up after the game begins, the game is over immediately.
  • Balewind Vortex: A Balewind Vortex cannot be placed anywhere within 7” of an Objective. If an objective lands within that distance (such as from Starstrike or Gifts of the Heavens), then you will move the Vortex and accompanying Hero by shortest route away from the Objective until it is no longer within 7”.
  • Legions of Nagash Gravesites: With regards to sizes of the Gravesites, all distances involving Gravesites will be measured from the center of the marker. We certainly encourage creativity, however, please bring flat markers on the same base sizes if you choose to create your own. Remember these are not terrain features, and as such can be moved upon, do not block line of sight, or targeted by abilities that affect terrain.
  • Nurgle: Feculent Gnarlmaws:- No more than 1 Feculent Gnarlmaw can be set up within 6″ of an objective marker, and no Feculent Gnarlmaw can be set up within 3″ of an objective marker. This is done to prevent players from zoning off objective markers.
  • Scoring:
    • 60% for Battle and Objectives
    • 20% for Sportsmanship
    • 20% for Appearance

Adepticon

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Team Tournament

The doubles tournament at Adepticon always seems lots of fun and is again being run on the Friday.

You can find a full copy of the pack here but the key points are:

  • 2 x 1,000 point armies, GHB2017
  • Scenarios announced on the day.
  • One general per side is selected to be the team’s Warlord.
  • Rules for Coalition of Death will be used (pages 14-16 of GHB 2017), with the following that will NOT be in effect: Their Finest Hour, Fog of War, & Divine Intervention.
  • If at any time your team or your opponents’ team has no models left on the table with no additional units to set up after the game begins, the game is over immediately.
  • The additional Allegiance Abilities from the Firestorm supplement will not be in use.
  • Balewind Vortex: A Balewind Vortex cannot be placed anywhere within 7” of an Objective. If an objective lands within that distance (such as from Starstrike or Gifts of the Heavens), then you will move the Vortex and accompanying Hero by shortest route away from the Objective until it is no longer within 7”.
  • The Garden of Nurgle: If both players on a team are using the Nurgle Allegiance Ability, then each team places one Feculant Gnarlmaw at the start of the game, not each player.
  • Khorne Blood Tithe: If both players on a team are using the Khorne Allegiance Ability, then the team keeps track of units destroyed to use as Blood Tithe instead of each player keeps individual track of Blood Tithe.
  • Legions of Nagash Gravesites: With regards to sizes of the Gravesites, all distances involving Gravesites will be measured from the center of the marker. We certainly encourage creativity, however, please bring flat markers on the same base sizes if you choose to create your own. Remember these are not terrain features, and as such can be moved upon, do not block line of sight, or targeted by abilities that affect terrain.
  • Legions of Nagash Gravesites: If both players on a team are using allegiance abilities with The Unquiet Dead battle trait, then a total of 4 Gravesites will be set up for both players on that team to use.
  • Nurgle Cycle of Corruption: If there are multiple players in a game using the Nurgle Allegiance Ability, then all players use one Cycle of Corruption as per normal rules.
  • Nurgle: Feculent Gnarlmaws:– No more than 1 Feculent Gnarlmaw can be set up within 6″ of an objective marker, and no Feculent Gnarlmaw can be set up within 3″ of an objective marker. This is done to prevent players from zoning off objective markers.
  • Tzeentch Destiny Dice: If both players on a team are using the Tzeentch Allegiance Ability, then each team only generates one (1) pool of 9 Destiny Dice that can be used by either player, instead of each player generating their own pool of 9 Destiny Dice.
  • Summon Daemons of Nurgle: If both players on a team are using the Nurgle Allegiance Ability, then the team will share a single pool of Contagion Points, not two separate pools.
  • Sylvaneth Wyldwoods: If both players on a team are using the Sylvaneth Allegiance Ability, then each team only deploys one (1) Sylvaneth Wyldwood as described in the Allegiance Ability, instead of each player deploying a Wyldwood each.
  • Ur-gold Runes: If both players on a team are using the Fyreslayer Allegiance Ability, then each team will only use one Rune at a time and it will affect both armies when used. Your team can only use each Rune once as per normal rules.
  • Scoring:
    • 60% for Battle and Objectives
    • 20% for Sportsmanship
    • 20% for Appearance

Adepticon

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Vanguard Tournament

On Thursday, there are two Vanguard Tournaments (one in the morning, one in the evening) 1,000 point, 3 round event.  A great loosener for the events ahead.

You can find a full copy of the pack here but the key points are the same as those covered above for the other events.

So the awards results are out now:

AM Vanguard Awards

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Chris Slye
    • 2nd – Kaleb Walters
    • 3rd – Thomas Lyons
  • Best General
    • Chaos: Kaleb Walters
    • Death: Brendan Melnick
    • Destruction: Scooter Walters
    • Order: Patrick Brynildson
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – Ben Boyd
    • 2nd – Dan Heelan
    • 3rd – Thomas Lyons
  • Appearance: Steve Herner

PM Vanguard Awards

  • Best Overall
    • 1st – Bryan Carmichael
    • 2nd – Kaleb Walters
    • 3rd – Donnie Goerlitz
  • Best General
    • Chaos: Kaleb Walters
    • Death: Shaun Clarke
    • Destruction: Scooter Walters
    • Order: Marvin Sims
  • Best Sports
    • 1st – Andrea Schwandt
    • 2nd – Stuart Gateley
    • 3rd – Eric Rehm
  • Appearance: Kit Reisch

Hammer

The Adepticon Age of Sigmar Youngbloods

A Saturday, 1,500 point, GHB2017 event for young players.  A copy of the pack is here.

Adepticon 2018 Age of Sigmar lists

Lists are due on the day but the kind tournament organisers at Adepticon have agreed to send me copies of the top lists as soon as the weekend is over.  So I’ll have them up here as soon as possible.

Games Workshop Adepticon Studio Reveals

As well as all the great Age of Sigmar events, Games Workshop will also be in attendance this year hosting studio reveals, Black Library events and hobby tutorials.   Check out the long list here.

Games Workshop Studio Preview

Day: Wednesday | Start Time: 8:00 PM | End Time: 10:00 PM | Category: Special Events | Event Type: Special Event | Materials Provided: Yes | Age Requirements: Everyone (6+) | Capacity Full | Total Capacity: 400 | Experience Required: None

View Description

The Studio reveals will be highly anticipated – last year Kharadron Overlords were announced and shown, and this year we all expect to see more about Idoneth Deepkin.  I’ll update this section with the details as we get them.

Idoneth Deepkin

For all the details check out the Idoneth Deepkin page. and the Warhammer Community. There are potted highlights below.

Idoneth Deepkin

 

 

Idoneth Deepkin Idoneth Deepkin Idoneth Deepkin Idoneth Deepkin

 

Storm of Magic: Malign Portents

So, I’ve been thinking about this since the reveal, and watching the Facebook Live video.  I think we will be getting a return to the Storm of Magic as a consequence of Malign Portents.  Magic is previewed to have a concrete and more substantive influence on the games, including what I can only guess is a Purple Sun (an old Warhammer Fantasy spell) in this video.

Black Coach and Nighthaunt Battletome?

 

So for me this looks like a new Black Coach model, and presumably an accompanying Nighthaunt battletome.  Let’s hope we saw more Death fleshed out around the Legions 🙂

Warhammer Legends: A Home for Heroes

Rules for old Warhammer units in Age of Sigmar

Warhammer Legends will be the new home of rules for classic and fan-favourite miniatures. While not intended for matched play, they’ll still be great for anyone looking to forge epic narratives or who wants to see how the heroes of yesteryear fare against the newer champions from the Age of Sigmar.

As part of Warhammer Legends, we’ll be running Made to Order waves designed to let you finish classic collections or pick up some seminal kits from days gone by. The first of these will be focusing on the Dark Elves.

An Age of Sigmar collectable card game? Yup, that’s totally happening.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions is being developed by PlayFusion.  The game is intended to have physical and virtual elements with AR (think activation animation etc).

Shadespire

  • two new factions (looks like Nighthaunt is one)
  • cards through to 557 this year
  • new boards coming, but not yet.

 

Crystal Brush – the world’s pre-eminent miniature painting competition

The Crystal Brush at Adepticon is always mindblowing.  Just check out last year’s top three!

Further reading

As all of the hobby world is descending on Adepticon, there is lots of great coverage out there.  I’ll think as much as I can here:

 

Daughters of Khaine

Just a short post to say that I’ve updated the Daughters of Khaine page on the site to gather all the information on the new release in one place.

You’ll find all the breaking rules information, lore, pictures, videos, & articles (including Chuck Moore’s great piece on Morathi’s background and motivations).  I’ll be adding my own commentary as we go through the week.

I’ll keep updating the site throughout the week with community content (podcasts, previews, videos) etc and have an initial impressions show up for release day.   

If you find any great content out there on Daughters of Khaine, please let me know and I’ll add it to the main page.

Masterclass: Julien, the NZ Master

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Today’s Masterclass episode is with the inaugural New Zealand AoS Master, Julien Lestat.   Julien is an ex-40k European Team Championship player and is #4 in the NZ AoS Rankings.

Julien covered how he prepared, planned and played his winning Clan Skryre list.

Clan Skryre – Julien’s list

Julien’s list was:

  • Arch Warlock (General) with Cunning Creature and Esoteric Warp Resonator
  • Warlock Engineer with Vigordust Injector
  • Warlock Engineer
  • 5 Skryre Acolytes
  • 3 Stormfiends with Warpfire Projectors
  • 3 Stormfiends with Warpfire Projectors
  • Warpgrinder team
  • Warpfire Thrower team
  • Warp Lightning Cannon
  • 10 Plague Monks with Foetid Blades, Bringer of the Word with Plague Scroll, Icon of Pestilenece, Contagion Banner
  • 10 Gutter Runners
  • Clan Skryre
  • Arkhspark Voltik
  • Gautfyre Skorch

The other lists are here, and you can find Jim’s commentary on each of the lists over at the Tronhammer blog. Also check out my list design show and the other Masterclasses.

Masters Recap

For a full recap of the NZ Masters, listen to my recap show with Jim Page, Tim Lind and Shaun Bates (to be released tomorrow).  Please excuse the choppy nature of the show, we had a number of technical difficulties.

Thankfully Tim also covered the Masters over at Tronhammer (Day One, Day Two).

Get in touch with any comments, suggestions and questions – either through this site, on Facebook or Twitter.

GHB2017 – Factions / Allegiances and new FAQs

This morning, Games Workshop released on the Community site an updated Chaos FAQ, some new Monstrous Arcanum warscrolls and commented on the issue many gamers have had with understanding how factions, allegiances and allies work in Chaos armies.

The key bit on factions and allies is:

Since the release of the General’s Handbook 2017, we’ve been listening to your feedback, and we’ve received a number of questions on how Chaos allegiance abilities work. We’d like to clarify that all references to ‘Blades of Khorne’, ‘Disciples of Tzeentch’, ‘Hosts of Slaanesh’ and ‘Nurgle Rotbringers’, are synonymous with ‘Khorne’, ‘Tzeentch’, ‘Slaanesh’ and ‘Nurgle’ respectively. For example, a Blades of Khorne army can also, and interchangeably, be referred to as a Khorne army.

For instance, a “Hosts of Slaanesh” army with Hosts of Slaanesh allegiance abilities could include Mortal units with the Slaanesh keyword from Slaves to Darkness, and a Khorne army could mix units from the Khorne Bloodbound list with the Daemons of Khorne list and the Slaves to Darkness. Similarly, a Nurgle army could combine Nurgle Rotbringers, Daemons of Nurgle and even Clans Pestilens units under the Nurgle allegiance abilities.

All (hopefully) straight-forward.  I’ll have a show out early next week on how factions, allegiances, allies, Chaos marks and the new Firestorm rules work together so you’ll have everything wrapped up in one place.

In the mean time, check out over on the Resources page:

  • the updated “all-in-one” FAQ – all the FAQs and Forgeworld scrolls in a text-searchable and indexed PDF; and
  • the Allies matrix showing you who can ally with whom at a glance.

 

 

XL: Stormcast Eternals in General’s Handbook 2017

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Hello and welcome to the first AoS Shorts XL – a slightly longer show allowing a more in-depth coverage of a particular topic.  Today, I’m joined by Shaun Bates, currently New Zealand’s #1 Age of Sigmar tournament gamer, to talk about Stormcast Eternals in General’s Handbook 2017.

Shaun has had great success running different Stormcast lists on our local scene.  In particular, he has gotten the most out of underutilised units to build synergistic mixed arms lists and win tournaments.

In this show, we cover Stormcast as an army in Age of Sigmar, their strengths and weaknesses, some ideas for builds around Palladors, and some general tips for improving your tournament success with Stormcast.

Later in the week, I’ll expand this blog post with a summary of this interview – so you have all the key points in one place.  You can find more information on the AoS Shorts General’s Handbook 2017 page.

You can find Shaun on Twitter at @AoSShaun89 and me at @antipodean7. Also check out the Mortally Wounded podcast and it’s great minisode on the Vanguard Wing

Let us know what you think of the new format, audio quality etc. as we experimented with some new equipment.