Handful of Points Escalation League FINALE!

And here we come at last; after much toil, sweat, scheduling and procrastination (Editors Note: this includes a lot of procrastination from me about publishing this post, apologies Kristian), we here at the HoD offices have completed our escalation league and played our 2000 point games. It’s been a while since we played our last game, and we all had to relearn some rules and remember where we’d put our tape measures but then we were ready for the showdowns.

We had three games for our 2k finale:

Slaves to Darkness vs Nighthaunt
Hedonites of Slaanesh vs Stormcast Eternals
Soulblight Gravelords vs Ogor Mawtribes

This will also likely be the last game of Age of Sigmar we play before 4th edition comes out later this year, so it’s good we went out on a bang. On the topic of edition changes I do want to tangent here to tell our loyal readers that just because a new edition comes out, doesn’t mean you have to play it; James Workshop is not going to break into your house and steal your books, you do you.

Now, on with the games!

Slaves to Darkness Vs Nighthaunt: Towers in the Tundra

Your eyes do not deceive you: there are only two objectives on the map. What it doesn’t show you is that each player also chooses a piece of terrain in their territory to be a “wizard’s tower”; holding this tower, and denying your opponent’s is key to scoring more points at the end of the game.

Continuing with the Cabalist subfaction to make the most of the Andtoran Loci rules, the plan is simple: the cavalry and mounted lords alpha strike the enemy while the footslogging lords and infantry move up behind to sit on objectives, the monstrous portion of the army anchors one of the flanks and slowly sweeps across the board.

Niall: After a slew of defeats throughout the league I was determined to do something different and learn from previous skirmishes. I lost earlier matches due to not playing the objectives and lost others due to not having a cohesive army so I thought carefully about the army composition and I was adamant I would not forget to claim those victory points! With a backbone of 40 bladegheists, an array of support heroes and the wizarding duo of Lady O and Reikenor I was ready to see what I had learnt.

Niall: Having faced Kristians Slaves to Darkness before, I knew I could do some damage but I would be at the mercy of the chaos gods if I remained in prolonged combat. I nearly lost my first unit of bladegheists with a single model surviving to limp away for restoration so on my first turn, I targeted the heroes first to free up my casters to work their magic unopposed.

When I saw the opportunity to pile in some bladegheists onto his garrisoned tower, I jumped at the chance. My army was slightly weighted to one side of the board so I was able to break his lines (claim an objective) and press round into the remainder of his troops all while contesting the other objective.

Kristian remained a threat throughout the battle, always had troops threatening my position and really made me think tactically but I was blessed with an early double turn which helped press an advantage at an opportune time.

Overall it was a very fun match, Kristian made me work for it and kudos to him for dealing with a player constantly shuffling reference sheets, army book and rules while trying to desperately not forget the ream of Nighthaunt rules and tactics!

KVB: My reputation proceeds me, because I absolutely did not feel like a threat after turn one. My knights slaying all but one ghost was the most devastating combat I inflicted all game, but one bedsheet getting away would come back to haunt me (pun intended). And while I was able to claim both objectives immediately, I couldn’t get off any spells to help me and I had left myself wide open for Niall’s own charges on his turn.

I put up as valiant a fight as I could, but the rolls were not with me and my heavily armoured troops were no match for the sheer weight of dice Niall was throwing around. I was able to drag out the fight right to the very last round, but the writing was on the wall well before then. Still, it’s glad to hear I could make Niall sweat a bit while he was winning.

Soulblight Gravelords Vs Ogor Mawtribes: Limited Resources

A deceptively large number of objectives, but there’s a catch: if you hold the same objective two turns in a row then it depletes and you can’t score it anymore, though you can still prevent your opponent from laying claim to it.

Arron has replaced his skeletons with shiny new Grave Guard, taking a Wight King as his general to make them battleline whilst still getting the benefits of the Vyrkos Dynasty.

That’s a lot of big things! For most armies the amount of mortal wounds the Ogors can put out would be a big problem, but the Soulblight Gravelords have an insane amount of recursion that should allow them to weather the assault.

Arron: The Ogors started the game relatively agressively, locking down a lot of the Soulblight units (including the Zombie Dragon) before they had a chance to reposition.

The first two rounds were quite high scoring on both sides, with a lot of objectives being held, as well as battle tactics being scored on both sides.

The Ogors obviously had an edge in combat. A number of Soulblight units were taken out early, including a unit of Blood Knights, Ivya Volga and the Askurgan Trueblades. But between the units starting in the grave, summoned units and resurrection mechanics, a lot of the army was returning just as fast as the ogors could slay them.

Scoring started to slow a little, with Battle tactics becoming a little harder to score while the Ogors tried to balance their units between being hungry and eating.

As we reached the climax of the game, points were looking close, but the ever-returning Grave Guard were just enough to keep up with the Ogors’ objective scoring, letting the Soulblight cinch the win with it’s Battle Tactics and the Empire of Corpses Grand Strategy.

Matt T: The Orgors were characteristically bloodthirsty and brutally effective, but ultimately the crude effectiveness of the undead and their focus on objectives won them the day, despite it being a very close match.

From the off the beastriders did their job perfectly, with a well placed chaintrap keeping the dragon in place for the first portion of the game, allowing the Ogors to pull off some truely devastating charges – wiping out the blood knights in a single turn. The orgors dominated in combat, but were blinded by the thrill of battle. By the time I focused on objective scoring, the undead had a sizeable lead. I completely underestimated the mortal wound abilities of the graveguard and lost a valuable unit of Mournfang Riders. Looking back, this may well have lost me the game, as despite some clever late-game scoring, I simply didn’t have enough units to hold the objectives I needed for the win.

Highlights include my Bloodpelt hunter clinging to the shadows and remaining unseen for three rounds, before emerging with the dragon firmly in his sights – only to immediately miss and get annihilated by a unit of Graveguard. A failed charge on a reroll from the dragon allowed for a devastating counter charge from the Frostlord, and a showdown between these two was exactly what I had wanted!

Overall, no matter how many time I put the skeletons in the grave, they kept coming back! But it was my opponent who was my downfall – despite luck always playing a part, he certainly outplayed me and deserved the win!

Hedonites of Slaanesh Vs Stormcast Eternals

You always love to see a Keeper take the field, I know I never get tired of it. As with nearly all Slaanesh lists this is a speedy number meant to be where the enemy don’t want them to be.

That’s…a LOT of dragons. And Gotrek! Oh dear…

The game plan for Slaanesh here can best be described as “survive long enough to outscore the Stormcast”.

Ben: Age of Sigmar is a hard game, so I had a plan going into the Hedonites Vs Stormcast match. I wanted to pay close attention to the double turn, engage tactically and at the right times, and get value out of my units speed despite their lacking strength. Unfortunately, I don’t know the rules. Not mine or my opponents, such is the curse of the two games a year player, and I would make a small number of completely damning mistakes.

I started well. I knew the dragons would be hard to move around but I set up as far back as I could to give me the most control in when I engaged. I carefully spaced my units around Syll’Eske to benefit from their bonus. The plan was ready. Turn 1, get on objectives. Turn 2 screen or, if going first, engage with my Hellstriders for their defensive buff (a rule they don’t even have, from an earlier battletome). Roll like fire. Kill everything. Win. Revel in ecstasy…

It is hard to articulate how catastrophically this misguided, and uninformed, plan failed.

The game was over in two turns. The first I charged my Hellstriders up the flanks into some Dragonriders. Lesson number one: Dragon riders can breathe fire on charging units. It is not an attack with hit or wound rolls so depravity dice cannot be offered. I should have avoided them, contested an objective, let them charge me later but got some points for the loss of my models. Instead I had my weakest units in losing combats already by CHOICE!

In the second turn my ball of units around Syll’Eske were engaged by Gotrek, and the stromcast dragon lord. Lesson number two: No matter how you set up buffs or later auras, Gotrek will kill everything he touches. The core of my army fell apart entirely because of one suicidal duardin. My Keeper of Secrets, and Sigvald (my strongest combat units) watched from just out of combat range, until they were left alone amongst the corpses of their shielding and supporting allies. I gave up at this point, we may have made it into turn 3.

As always I learnt what not to do, and I have ideas for what I’ll do if I play another game this year. Of course we’ll be in a new edition with new warscrolls by then, so I’ll probably still be getting my rules wrong.

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