Pittsburgh Age of Sigmar campaign- Second AAR posted

[Pictors Studio]

We did our campaign last night.  I'll post some battle reports later once I get the pictures uploaded.  For now here are the rules, back grounds and starting forces.  

I'll post them as three different posts so you can skip through some if you aren't interested in that aspect.

The rules first:

Casualty recovery tables:

Destroyed units

1. Unit is considered destroyed, morale is affected by this and another unit that suffered casualties but was not destroyed cannot rally back more than half of its strength. Player gets to pick unit.
2. Unit is considered destroyed, no additional effects
3. Unit is rallied back to half strength
4. Unit is rallied back to half strength
5. Unit is rallied back to full strength
6. Veteran: Unit is rallied back to full strength and gets to re-roll either to-hit, to-wound or save rolls once in the next game

Casualties suffered
1. Unit loses more casualties for desertion, remove half of remaining models. If this takes them below unit minimum and there is another unit of this type they may be amalgamated into a single larger unit if the player wishes.
2. Unit does not rally any troops back.
3. Unit rallies half of loses back
4. Unit rallies half of loses back
5. Unit rallies to full strength
6. Unit rallies to full strength and gets to re-roll one each of to-hit, to-wound and save rolls next game.

Character recovery table:
1. Dead: Character is killed and cannot be brought back.
2. Crippled: Character returns for the next game but grievous injuries makes everything worse by one.
3. Hurt: Character returns at half-wounds, round up.
4. Full recovery: Character returns with normal stats
5. Full recovery: Character returns with normal stats
6. New tricks: Character may boost one stat, to hit or to wound roll by one. Alternately if a Chaos character may roll for a mutation.





Khorne Tree
Game 1

The The Cursed City (pg.39 of QfGM)

Game 2

If Stormcast victorious play Relentless Assault (pg 81 KB) with Bloodbound as defenders

If Bloodbound victorious play Breakthrough (pg 191 W:AoS) with the Bloodbound as the invaders



Interrupt games. If any game ends with either Ason-Har or Sredni Vashtar as casualties then play the Reclaim the Fallen scenario (pg 97 KB) with the fallen character as the objective. If both have fallen in a game then play the Clash of Heroes scenario (pg 89 KB) with the players decided which of their remaining characters will be their generals.

Ason-Har requirements for Daemonhood:
Personally kill 30 models including at least 10 Stormcast Eternals
Win 1 game
Summon 15 Daemons

If this happens during a game then you play the Ritual scenario next.

Khorne Victory Table

1-2. Useful mutation: Any one unit may upgrade its armour save or rend stat for one weapon.

3. Favour of the Gods: Any one unit may upgrade its to-hit or to-wound roll.

4. Recruits: Seeing the horrific damage inflicted by the Bloodbound warband tribesmen flock to the banner of Khorne. Gain one unit of 10 Bloodreavers.

5. Daemonic presence: The stench of gore follows the Chaos force around d3 units of d6+2 bloodletters may join the army at the start of each game. Roll before each game.

6. Power struggle: Encouraged by the slaughter a character in the army challenges the Lords right to lead the army. Pick one character in the army to fight a duel against the Chaos Lord after character recovery rolls have been made. If the Lord wins the combat the entire army redoubles their efforts to avoid chastisement by the boss. Everyone gains a +1 to hit in the next game only. If the Lord loses he is removed and the winning character replaces the lord. He retains his normal stats but gets a +1 increase to his wounds, armour save, to-hit, to-wound and bravery scores.

Khorne mutation table:

1. Disfigurement, skin colour is changed, small horns grow, spikes grow from arms or some other cosmetic change occurs, no benefit.
2. The bone starts to grow through the skin as a second armour. Re-roll armour save rolls of 1. -1 to the characters movment.
3-4. A thrashing tail or clawed hand develops. The character gains attacks as the skullreaper vicious mutation.
5. The muscles harden under the skin bursting through in some places. The character gains a 1 benefit to their to wound characteristic and the rend of their primary weapon.
6. Spawn. The character has so impressed his deity that Khorne has seen fit to grant him the gift of Spawndom. From now on the character uses the Spawn warscroll.

Stormcast Victory Table

1-2. Divine empowerment: Any one unit may upgrade its armour save or red stat for one weapon

3. Divine inspiration: Any one unit may increase to-hit roll by 1.

4. Divine might: One unit increase armour save and to-wound roll by 1.
5. Divine presence: The power of Sigmar flows through the army. All units increase their to-wound roll by one.

6. Power surge: Because of the success of the army the general stats increase by one level. So Celestant goes to stats of Celestant prime, Castellant to cellestant and so on. Relictors may not improve.


Nurgle Tree


1. Kill the Beast ( pg 141 of QfGM) Grugni is the beast.

Major victory for Nurgle play Spellbreakers (pg 79 QfGM)The chain is the artifact.

Minor Victory for Nurgle play Cast Adrift (pg 177 QfGM) for control of the island. If they win they can then rend the chain.

Victory for Stormcast play Out of the Mist (pg 97 QfGM) with Grugni as the messenger.

2.If Spellbreaker or Cast Adrift is a victory for the Nurgle forces they have freed the Daemon Bladderspew and play the War of Storms battleplan (pg 157 of QfGM) with the daemon staying 3" behind the rearmost Nurgle unit. Any non-Nurgle units within 9" of the daemon can be attacked with a pestilential torrent as per the Glotkin warscroll.
Range 12" attacks 1to hit 3+ to wound 4+ Rend -2 Damage 2d6


If the Nurgle forces win the Messenger then play the Spellbreaker scenario.



Nurgle Major Victory Table

1-2. Useful mutation: Any one unit may upgrade its armour save or rend stat for one weapon.

3. Favour of the Gods: Any one unit may upgrade its to-hit or to-wound roll.

4. Daemonic presence: The stench of gore follows the Chaos force around d3 units of d6+1 Plaguebearers may join the army at the start of each game. Roll before each game.
5. Daemon swarm: A unit of Plague drones accompanies Torglug at the start of the next battle.

6. Nurgles's personal attention. Torglug has drawn the eye of his God to his endeavors. From now on his Nurgle's Rot affects all non-Nurgle units within 15" of Torglug. This also applies to his Grandfather's Gift Command ability.

Nurgle Minor Victory Table

1.Spawn – one character has been granted the boon of Spawndom. The Nurgle player may decide which one.
2-3. Useful mutation: Any one unit may upgrade its armour save or rend stat for one weapon.

4. Favour of the Gods: Any one unit may upgrade its to-hit or to-wound roll.

5. Daemonic presence: The stench of gore follows the Chaos force around d3 units of d6+1 Plaguebearers may join the army at the start of each game. Roll before each game.
6. Nurgle recognized the need to aid his followers. They have done well but might do better with some assistance. In the next game all summoning rolls are easier to accomplish. Reduce by one the summoning number needed to summon Nurgle daemons.


Nurgle mutation table:

1. Disfigurement, pox appear, boils form, skin distends, no benefit.
2. The skin starts to slough off as the body rots from the inside out, wounds are ignored as weapons can't find purchase to do real damage. Re-roll armour save rolls of 1. -1 to the characters movment.
3-4. Tentacles sprout from unlikely places. The character gets an additional attack from his primary weapon.
5. The virulent pus streams forth from the skin of this horrid freak. As it runs down the arms and over the hands it coats the weapon making it more deadly with plague toxins. The character gains a 1 benefit to their to wound characteristic and the rend of their primary weapon.
6. Spawn. The character has so impressed his deity that Nurgle has seen fit to grant him the gift of Spawndom. From now on the character uses the Spawn warscroll.

[Pictors Studio]

Here is the fluff:

Bloodbound story

Born into the basest slavery Ason-Har greeted the bloodbound warband as liberators rather than conquerors. He readily assented to their demand of joining or being destroyed. His years as a slave had made his muscles hard and bred into him a hatred of all men. This would do him well as he joined in the slaughter that was the mission of his allies. All across the realm of Ghur the Thronemakers raged, a red wake trailed behind them. Ason-Har hacked his way through the realm and up through the ranks of the Thronemakers.

Eventually Tysimachus, Lord of Khorne, fell in battle against an almost endless horde of Ogres. The massive creatures flowed out in front of the Thronemakers like an avalanche crushing everything in their way. Their momentum destroyed the Thronemakers broke before them. Ason-Har gathered a few warriors and cut his way through the tide on a narrow frontage and once through moved through the mountains coming out into a vast plain on the other side.

After a day of travel they came upon a village. Ason-Har, now the head of his own warband, offered them the same choice he had been offered. The village resisted and they were all but killed. After the butchery a small group of four warriors stood against the bloodbound, surrounded on all sides. Ason-Har offered them a different choice. They could die where they stood or they could run in the four directions and warn the other villages. To a man they chose to live and serve as messengers, or heralds, of the apocalypse that walks.

Some individuals came over to Ason-Har, some villages joined his warband whole. Others resisted and were slaughtered. The great plain was covered in blood and smoke as villages were either slaughtered or turned into smithies churning out the weapons and armour of war.

Soon there was only one tribe left, the Uluz. Their chief, Akahs refused to submit. His will was so strong and the discipline among his men so fierce that the villages of the Uluz stood together. In the red mist of the first attack on an Uluz village Ason-Har saw a vision of himself ascended to daemonhood. A gravelly growl echoed around him that if he destroyed the Uluz he would achieve his apotheosis. Ason-Har redoubled his efforts.













Nurgle Rotbringer background

Some said that the daemon Feceious Bladderspew was so disgusting that he floated due to the ground being repulsed by him, others that he was so full of the bloated, foul-smelling gases that he was born aloft by them. Still others said that it was his punishment for the amount of ground that he defiled that he was condemned never to touch it again.
Bladderspew took the form of an island and had floated around Ghyran vomiting forth pools of corruption over the vegetation and corrupting the surface.

With great difficulty he was tracked down. While destruction of the massive bulk was nearly impossible Sredni Vashtar, Lord Celestant of the Silver Shields, convinced the Dwarf Forge God to make a chain that would enable the Stormcast to at least tether the beast to one location so that his destruction could be limited.

With this chain hosts of Prosecutors descended on Feceious Bladderspew and pinned him in place. Many were lost to the great gouts of corrosive and pestilential emesis that the daemon vomited forth.

During the maelstrom of combat, Rimmon, Knight Venator of the Silver Shields attached the chain to an arrow and with the other end firmly staked in the ground, flew up and fired the arrow into the daemon. With the chain in place the Prosecutors broke off their attack and when Bladderspew moved after them the chain grew taut and pinned him in place.

Knowing that the chain that bound Bladderspew could only be broken by he who forged it the Silver shields left a small guard behind and moved off to continue their war against the forces laying waste the Realms of Life and Beasts.

With such a powerful ally imprisoned the forces of Nurgle had suffered a major set back. After several abortive attempts to break the chain that held Bladderspew, Torglug the Despised set his sorcerer Mortanis to find the secret of it. Scrying out not only the maker of the chain and the secret to breaking it Mortanis found where the Dwarf God was. So Torglug gathered a force around him and set off to Chamon to track down the Dwarf God. Even if the deity could not be compelled to break the chain, Torglug thought he knew a way to use him for that purpose anyway.










Waging war on two fronts has always been a challenge. Sredni Vashtar, Lord Celestant of the Silver Shields had supported his bother warrior chambers across both Ghyran and Ghur. Achieving less glory than the others his warriors had fought mostly in supporting roles, garrisoning conquered fortresses, delivering important messages

The warriors knew their work was essential and were happy to carry it out. As the Reconquista spread the forces of Sigmar started to thin. The narrow strikes with vast numbers of Eternals on a small frontage had been hard fought, now that they had to cover an ever growing region of the realms even the supporting chambers were brought more and more into the fighting.

There were still a few pockets of human resistance that held out against the tides of Chaos. All these years the tough men who had made their ways in the plains, forests and mountains of Ghur survived the beasts that lived there and the beasts that came from the realms of chaos but a new Lord of Khorne had arisen. Hardened by the tough life of Ghur this warrior started out as one of the strongest of his race. Enhanced by the blessings and rage of Khorne he was almost unstoppable. Soon the forces of Chaos would wipe out some of the last vestiges of humanity in Ghur. Sigmar would not countenance this and told Sredni Vashtar to stop Ason-Har.

As he pulled his warriors from their various duties Vashtar received a desperate message from the Dwarf God Grugni himself. The forces of Nurgle were seeking him. Vashtar surmised that Torglug the Despised had learned that the deity was responsible for the chains that bound the daemon Feceious Bladderspew and knew that the Dwarf God was the only one that could break them. He had personally begged Grugni to make the chain so it was he who had put the deity in danger. He immediately dispatched some Prosecutors to the site to help the Dwarf God defend himself but how many warriors should be sent to aid them and how many should he take with him to save the Uluz?


Dramatis personae:

Khorne Bloodbound:

Ason-Har: The Apocalypse that walks, Mighty Lord of Khorne.
Khamtes: Blood Secretor of Khorne
Khuru: Master of the Whip, Bloodstoker of Khorne
Skyrus: Skullgrinder of Khorne
Sarius: Exalted Deathbringer of Khorne
Skirulus the Tall: Slaughterpriest of Khorne

Humans

Akahs: Tribal leader of the Uluz.
Enagnid: Tribal ally of Akahs, hero of the destroyed Ewdnawd tribe
Izabmot: Ewdnawd Shaman

Stormcast Eternals

Sredni Vashtar: Lord Celestant of the Silver Shields Warrior Chamber of the Stormcast Eternals.
Conradin Houdan: Lord Relictor of the Silver Shields
Clovis Sangrael: Lord Castelant of the Silver Shields
Rimmon: Knight Venator of the Silver Shields

Dwarfs
Grugni: Forge God of the Dwarfs
Hrolf Tendelson: Dragon Slayer

Nurgle Rotbringers

Torglug The Despised: The Lord of Plagues
Mortanis: Sorcerer of Nurgle
Rahlad Wormwood: Lord of Nurgle

[Pictors Studio]

And the starting forces. The Dwarves were facing off against Nurgle while the Uluz were facing the Khorne forces. The storcast players had to decide how to divide up their forces to face the threat.

Starting forces:

Stormcast Eternals
Sredni Vashtar: Lord Celestant of the Silver Shields Warrior Chamber of the Stormcast Eternals.
Conradin Houdan: Lord Relictor of the Silver Shields
Clovis Sangrael: Lord Castelant of the Silver Shields
Rimmon: Knight Venator of the Silver Shields
10 Judicators in two units
6 Prosecutors in two units
5 Retributors
20 Liberators in four units

Bloodbound
Ason-Har: The Apocalypse that walks, Mighty Lord of Khorne.
Khamtes: Blood Secretor of Khorne
Khuru: Master of the Whip, Bloodstoker of Khorne
Skyrus: Skullgrinder of Khorne
Sarius: Exalted Deathbringer of Khorne
Skirulus the Tall: Slaughterpriest of Khorne
3 Dragon Ogres
6 Skullcrushers
5 Skullreapers
20 Blood reavers
10 Blood warriors
1 Khorgorath

Rotbringers
Torglug The Despised: The Lord of Plagues
Mortanis: Sorcerer of Nurgle
Rahlad Wormwood: Lord of Nurgle
6 Putrid Blightkings
14 Nurgle Warriors
9 Nurgle Knights

Uluz
Akahs: Tribal leader of the Uluz.
Enagnid: Tribal ally of Akahs, hero of the destroyed Ewdnawd tribe
Izabmot: Ewdnawd Shaman
120 tribal warriors in 6 Ipmis

Dwarfs
Grugni
6 Warrior automata (count as Protectors)
1 Minotaur automata
1 Gorgon automata (counts as Juggernaut)
20 Slayers
1 Dragon slayer

[Pictors Studio]

Here is the first battle report from the campaign: 



Muffled behind the metal and garbled by a throat and mouth distended with disease and running with pus, it was difficult to understand Torglug's words.  Their intention was clear enough to his warriors however.  They fanned out around the plaza moving towards the ruins of the temple district on the other side.



Prosecutors fluttered above the ruins and Torglug guessed that was where he would find the dwarf God.

He could see some of the red-haired dwarves moving in from his right and his arm went up in a quick signal to the knights and they set off in pursuit.  He didn't know much about dwarf culture but from what he did understand these types were looking for death.  They had come to the right place.


The Sigmarties moved up behind the dwarfs, their long legged march carrying them more quickly towards the Chaos lines than even the dwarfs could move running.



The Chaos knights realized this was the real threat and charged towards the mass of iron clad warriors.   

Arrows whizzed past the giant armoured infantry men and into the ranks of the knights as they moved across the plaza, mostly clattering harmlessly off of the armoured, pus-dripping mounted men. 

Torglug moved forward listening to the vile intonation of Mortanis behind him.  His bodyguard of Blightkings behind him and the skittering steps and babbling of nurglings beside him as they skittered along carrying the chair bearing Rahald Wormwood.



The Lord of Plagues had lost many men getting this far.  Now that his quarry was run to ground, he would make sure that he was secured.

As Mortanis finished his chant the air swelled with a putrid stench as a sound not unlike someone sticking a knife into a canvas sail and riding it from the topmast to the deck ripped through the air.  With this gust of warm stinking air came a buzz also.  Three plague drones came into being and bobbed in the air behind Torglug summoned into existence by the sorcerers virulent words.



With the knights engaged in combat with the Liberators Torglug sent the newly summoned daemons ahead to meet the red-haired dwarfs that were yelling their battlecry as they came running along the plaza. 



Soon battle was engaged and while the dwarfs were fierce their hacking and slashing availed them little against the massive forms of Torglug's bodyguard and the giant daemons, both of whom were soon upon them, surrounding them with their stench and bodies alike. 



As the small bodies piled up, discarded into the puddles of filth in the plaza Torglug turned to where his quarry was hiding.  The winged Stormcast warriors took flight and bore down on him. 



Torglug recognized that he would be delayed here and motioned to the warriors on his right to advance more quickly and get into the ruins to capture the dwarf god.



Soon the melee was a mess of stabbing, pounding and slashing in the center of the plaza.



The Warriors moved forward to run into a wall of the dwarf gods Automatons.  Their clockwork mechanisms moved a barrier of whirling blades and each step forward landed another Nurgle warrior face down in the muck. 



The wall of Iron was too much and too many of his warriors were falling.  Though it galled him to do so Torglug ordered a retreat.  The Nurgle warriors easily extracted themselves from the combat, their enemies only happy to see them go.

[Dilettante Gamer]

Looks like yinz is having a cracking good campaing, n'at!

[Pictors Studio]

We even had pączkis and everything. 

[Vinlander]

I love those Hoplites! Who manufactures them?

[Dilettante Gamer]

We even had pączkis and everything. 

 

[Pictors Studio]

The Hoplites are from Crocodile Games.  They are Automatons from the Wargods of Olympus range. 

[Pictors Studio]

Humidity hung in the air like the memory of a distant task unaccomplished.  It weighed down the warriors hiding amidst the swamp and there was nothing they could do about it. 




They waited.  After a campaign that had seen the Uluz driven from their villages they had retreated to this swamp and here their king had met Sredni Vashtar of the Silver Shields.  Akahs had not known what to make the giant, metal clad warriors at first and assumed they were here to wipe him and his people out. 




Quickly it became apparent that they were not and King Akahs swore his loyalty to Vashtar for the salvation this man may bring to the Uluz.




Ason-Har's forces had pursued them into the bog and were coming along.  Now the Uluz, backed by the Silver Shields, would be ready for them.







The Uluz forces were spread out in a rough semi circle waiting for the Khorne army to come stomping through.  There was no subtlety to the movements of the Bloodbound forces.  The jingling sound of metal on metal was audible above the splashing footsteps as the warriors moved through the swamp.




The lead elements of the Chaos forces passed by where the Uluz had hidden themselves and the tribes men waited for the signal to attack.  Akahs looked at Vashtar and waited too.








Once the rear elements of the Chaos forces were past the forward parts of the Uluz positions Vashtar brought his hammer down heavily on a rock.  The sound echoed through the murky darkness and as one the tribesmen leapt to their feet and charged towards the startled Khornate forces.








Only momentarily taken off-guard the Chaos forces charged right back at them.













The savagery of their counter charge was blunted by moving through water in some places waist deep. 








Akahs appreciated the plan Vashtar had come up with.  The forward elements would cut off the retreat of the Chaos forces while the central parts of his semi-circle would pry the vanguard of the enemy apart to create a gap for the Stormcast Eternals to exploit.







It was not easier for the tribesmen to move towards their foes in that deep water.  Still spurred on by the chance to avenge the loss of homes and loved ones they welcomed the coming struggle.













The tribesmen quickly isolated a champion of the enemy and set upon him.  Alone he may have been but Sarius was not defenseless.  His axes swung around him with savage speed, few of the spears of the enemy could dart past them and of those few that did even fewer were capable of piercing the steel plates of armour that had grown to become a part of the man.





The skullcrushers were having more of a problem than most of the troops in navigating the marshy ground.  They moved up to help Sarius and stampeded into the ipmi attacking him causing great carnage in the ranks. 





Sredni Vashtar urged his Liberators forward and the warriors moved into a grove of trees ahead of them.  With this motion they became visible to the bloodbound forces and the Skullreapers surged forward to get to grips with an opponent worthy of them. 



The dead piled up around the Skullreapers and Khamtes followed up behind them smashing his axe into the chest of a Liberator.


The chanting of Skirulus could be heard and as men died and sank beneath the murky water a dark energy could be seen radiating around him. His chant was low though, not many had fallen, the waist high water slowed not only movement but prevented warriors from using their full force in the attack.

The charge of the skullreapers had left Ason-Har exposed and alone as he struggled through the muck.  It was the opportunity that Sredni Vashtar was waiting for.  The attack of the Uluz had pried an opening in the Stormcast forces and the appearance of the Liberators had caused those closest to the Chaos lord to leave him.

"Hammerfall, move forward, your target is there," said the Lord Celestant to his Retributors and they surged forward fueled by their hatred of Chaos. After giving the command Vashtar urged his dracoth forward into the ranks of the Skullreapers to help his faltering Liberators. 

Ason-Har would have been a match for a single Retributor or possibly a pair or three of them, but beset by five he quickly fell beneath the heavy blows of the two-handed hammers. 

As he fell the troops closest to him became confused and the word of his defeat spread rapidly through the army.

The dragon ogres surged forward to try to recover the body  of their lord.



Skirulus the Tall intoned one might last note and a tortured scream rent the air as the blood from dozens of dead warriors snaked up through the muddy water and coalesced into the form of naked anger, of rage personified.



The Bloodthirster slammed into the Liberator's ranks allowing the skull reapers to extricate themselves and fall back. 

The rest of the army followed suit and withdrew from the combat.  The bloodthirster inadvertently covering their retreat by distracting the Sigmarites and scaring off the Uluz.

The Dragon Ogres had failed to recover the body of Ason-Har and had lost one of their number in the attempt.  The Retributors let them go and rushed over to help Vashtar and the Liberators vanquish the great daemon of Chaos.