Genuinely Excited about Age of Sigmar

The title says it all. I've been reading the leaks online (I won't link to them here, you're just as capable as I am to find them). I really like what I'm seeing.

This is a complete and utter reboot. It feels gloriously new and exciting. The doors are swinging wide open on this new play style, new rules set, and new armies.

I'm particularly intrigued by the war scrolls. I wonder how plaguebearers, bloodletters and the like are going to play?

Other tid bits that I liked (in no particular order):
* bases and base shapes don't matter (hexagonal anyone?!)
* battles take place in one of seven realms (have we been told about all of them yet? I can see fire, but nothing else?). So many modelling opportunities there!
* Mysterious terrain rules are core rules.
* Magic system seems much more simplified!

Overall, it feels just like when I originally got the old Warhammer rule book all those years ago. Something incredibly new, exciting, and probably worth pursuing!

Equally: the lower complexity level and lack of army books could lead to accusations to it being too simple a game compared to its predecessor.

POLL RESULT: Where your battles are taking place

Over the past two weeks, Warpstone Flux has been asking readers where their battles have been taking place recently. This has been the first poll on the blog in quite a while, and received a sum total of 59 votes which was nice to see (maybe we'll have to have another poll soon?).

The poll was inspired by a question that we last asked in 2010. In that poll, both urban and rural battlefields seemed to be equally common. Following this, ruins were very common as well, with over one third of all battles taking place in their midst. This was closely followed up with deserts of one type or another.

In our 2015 poll, we can see that almost one half of all battles seem to be taking place in ruins. And of them, the vast majority are in urban ruins.

Seriously: why are we always fighting over ruins? What is it about a ruined cityscape that attracts space marines to viciously fight Tau (etc.) over the corpse of a Hive? Perhaps there's some ancient artefact that needs recovered? Or they're just scouting and their enemy tracked them down? I just don't know! Narratively, it bothers me a little bit to be honest! But I'll live with it.

Grassy boards and desert boards are almost equally common and account for the next main bracket of themed boards. These can, of course, be combined with ruins and other categories in our poll to make for some more unique settings. And it is these combinations of themes that seems the run a common thread through the poll.

For instance, I was watching many of them roll in. We saw a simultaneous increase in both daemon/chaos worlds with magma/lava theme. Presumably, someone inscribed a big chaos star in a board (example here). 

I was also pleased to see ice worlds and craters feature at a good level in the poll. Presumably the ice worlds are somewhat inspired by the Space Wolves? Equally, seeing that some people put ice worlds simultaneous with trenches and ruins made it much more interesting. 

Forge worlds (an intact type of ruin perhaps?), Trenches, Zone Mortalis / Space Hulks, and Hills, Valleys and Mountains rounded off the major themes for boards.

At a much lower level, dedicated boards to necrons, Tau, Eldar (pictured) and the like seem to be visible at a very low level. Its great that individual factions are still getting a bit of love and attention out there. I haven't actually seen a Tyranid game board yet, but if anyone has a link, or would like to provide an image, we can certainly feature it on the blog as I would (personally speaking) love to see one!

Overall, there is still strong variety out there, but we are perhaps seeing an increase of ruined cityscapes compared to five years ago. Perhaps this just demonstrates the popularity of Games Workshops ruined administratum (etc). Equally, there's perhaps not as many cratered boards (one of my own imaged above) as I might have thoughts. (Then again, the old craters can no longer be found for sale on direct order).

Let's hope that the variety continues, and we don't all converge on ruined cities. Long may you have both line of sight blocking terrain as well as area terrain covering your favourite gaming table.

Sniper Scout Death Mark Concept

Q: What do you get when you mix together a Death Mark sniper rifle with some 40k space marine parts?

A: A model the is playable as both a 30k and 40k space marine sniper scout model that looks pretty unique!

The model is constructed from necron parts (the sniper rifle), Dark Angels (the hooded head), space marines (accessories, back pack), chaos space marines (arms), Grey Knights (torso), and Anvil Industry (legs, cape).

I'll be using him as part of a recon squad for my growing 30k Alpha Legion forces. I think he really fits the bill rather well. In particular, one of my goals for this army was to convert absolutely everything. In line with this, I also wanted them to have a feel of using xenos weapons and reverse-engineering others. Here, I've taken the lead from Alpharius himself who is described as wielding a spear of alien construction. Like others, I've interpreted this as Necron in origin and therefore decided that some of his sons could be similarly equipped!

Age of Sigmar and Warhammer

A mini-editorial from me today. As someone who started out by purchasing a single gobbo back in the 1980's, my connection to the Warhammer World has been many decades long - although only just longer than 40k and Dungeons and Dragons.

Like others, I've been pouring over the images doing the rounds on the internet this weekend. I know some folks are sceptical and others hostile. I'm in the camp of liking what I'm seeing. This looks like a true overhaul and complete re-boot. I think this is exactly what the setting needs. The miniatures are good to see - I like the poses (even though they're snap-fit allegedly) and they seem to be very interchangeable for 40k conversions! Plus: there's war hammers everywhere! Nice!

And it does make me wonder if Warhammer 40k needs a new direction as well -- 40k seems like its getting crowded toward the end of the millennia. Whilst 30k is doing extremely well. Perhaps we could eventually explore 41k or beyond please?

I digress.

We've been seeing the withdrawal of the old Warhammer army books and miniatures (including the dryad pictured on this article). I will miss some of the army books and certainly some of the miniatures as the parts have been extremely useful for conversions. I'm sad about that. On the other hand, I'm very optimistic for the future of this line. It could be enough for me to get involved in fantasy again.

But I wonder if something else is happening here? Are we seeing the "freeing up" of the word "warhammer" in favour of "Age of Sigmar"? Does this correlate with the re-branding of the Games Workshop high street stores as being "Warhammer" stores? I'm starting to think so. Equally, I could be very off the mark here too.

Horus Heresy Review: Tech-Priest Auxillia

Background
From the different orders, the Taghmata Omnissiah can field several different flavours of tech-priests. Although many are Enginseers (basically battlesmiths), there are also the Reductors (wreckers of siege and tanks) as well as the stranger Lacyraemarta (flesh craft).

The Auxillia can be configured in a number of ways to suit whichever Mechanicum preference your play style deserves.

Strengths
The multitude of build is part of the strength of this unit. Perhaps it is better to consider the three different types of techno-arcana that they can choose between for evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.

Enginseers are clearly going to be useful for keeping vehicles moving. Since their servo-automata grant a bonus to this roll, their builds need to maximise on this.

Reductors are to be played as part of a more aggressive play style. Their role is one of the wrecker and tank hunter (in a very literal sense as per the rules of the same name). The ability to take a conversion beamer to help out with this is incredible!

Lacyraematra are ones to field with large units of adsecularis as they can confer a bonus to their feel no pain rolls. Indeed, I think if one is going to go down the route of adsecularis builds, these kinds of tech-priests are 100% necessary to help them out.

Weaknesses
The tech priests themselves are relatively weak, with only a "standard" human stat line profile coupled with unremarkable upgrades beyond the power axe of the adept. They are cheap enough to compensate though.

On top of this, the servo-automata have to take pinning tests if the tech-adepts are slaughtered - they just don't know what to do with themselves otherwise! Therefore the adepts are going to be prime targets for any opposition able to pick out unique targets from an enemy unit making their stay on the battlefield precarious. It is therefore well worth upgrading one of the adepts to a Magos Auxillia just for the toughness bonus (and indeed, the Ld bonus point). Add in a second adept for backup purposes (perhaps a second unit of tech priests as well) and it should be good for a few turns at least.

Builds
I supply one build for each of the three techno-arcana below. One of the arcana must be chosen by the controlling player; they cannot remain "blanks". Although the adepts could be chosen to have different arcana, I cannot see much point in this.

Magos Auxillia (Enginseer), Adept (Enginseer), 8 servo-automata (125 points)
Purely to keep the tanks rolling. Nothing else. Don't think about combat at all. They're just here to make sure the critical Land Raider keeps rolling.  Upgrade the automata with weapons if you're thinking otherwise.

Magos Auxillia (Reductor) with conversion beamer, Adept (Reductor) with conversion beamer, 8 servo-automata (4 with flamers) (195 points)
Sit back and blast away. The servo-automata here are both flesh shields and assault deterrents with their flamers.

Magos Auxillia (Lacyraematra) with graviton gun and melta bombs, Adept (Lacyraematra) with graviton gun and melta bombs, 8 servo-automata with 4 flamers and 4 multi-meltas (245 points)
In principle, this setup could work just as well for Reductors as it can for Lacyraematra. The idea here is that this mob will be near other adsecularis mobs and be using them for cover as well as granting them better feel no pain rolls. The weapons are aggressive and should be played in that manner as well.

Horus Heresy Review: Archmagos Inar Satarael

Background
This is one of only a few named Mechanicum independent characters. His background is certainly odd -- not only was he power hungry and very skilled in the ways of war and war machines, but in a brutal combat with some really strange xenos, most of his organic self was liquified. What remained trapped in the logic circuits rebuilt his body (using stolen parts no less) and as a result his peers contend he is well on the way to being completely mad. Naturally, his home Forge World sided with Horus as he was their patron.

Strengths
This guy brings the kitchen sink to the battle field. Not only has he a somewhat standard power axe, but he has a whole heap of interesting upgrades including (but no limited to) graviton imploder, repulsion shield and haemonculite cyber-corpus! What are they I hear you ask?

Well, the repulsion shield provides what is basically a 4+ invulnerable save to S=6 or better incoming fire. But this comes in to play when he is hit - not wounded. It gets better though. On a roll of a 6, the shot is fired directly back at the shooter!

The cyber-corpus is basically his life support vessel. He is a hulking monster of metal and robotica on the battlefield and everything in his stats and equipment is related to this. In addition, he gains a 5+ feel no pain roll.

His emergency teleport protocol can transport his organic remains away from his cyber-corpus when he loses his last wound on a 3+. The corpus then explodes like a vehicle and the enemy gains no victory points for slaying this warlord. Crafty indeed!

Weaknesses
This guy has a huge points cost. I think we'd only want to use him in games above 1850 points if there wasn't a good reason to not use him at a lower points. The only other real weakness is his 3+ regular armour save. Why oh why is it not listed as 2+? Even with 4 wounds and T=6, the 3+ save is not quite what it should be. At least he would be instantly killed though.  But he is vulnerable to fury of the legion style attacks that will have a heap of small arms fire coming at him.

Tactics
I see Satarael as a swiss army knife commander -- and a monstrous one (literally) at that. He's pretty good at everything but not obviously excelling at a single thing. He has the power to troll enemies with his emergency teleportation tactics and he has the implacable advance warlord trait.

I personally see him as a multi-pronged threat. Place him in an army featuring robot automata and other strong threats and you have the basis for a sound force.

For me though, I think I'd sooner construct a Magos Prime in his stead so that I can specialise my forces a bit more.