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Made in gb
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran





Path to Glory has just plopped onto my desk, a revision of the quickfire-and-easy-to-organise campaign system for Age of Sigmar. For all the piccies, head on over to: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/review-path-to-glory/

So, is it any good?



If you have read through or played the Path to Glory campaign in the General’s Handbook, you pretty know what to expect. Things have been kept much the same, with the odd tweak here and there, but what has been added is scope and context.

The first section of the book begins with the Rise of Gulgaz, a Bonesplitterz Bigboss who leads his warband on a rampage, getting stronger as they encounter various enemies – the inference here being that his warband was built using the Path to Glory system, and then various battles were played.

There are no great revelations of Age of Sigmar lore in this story, but it is fun enough to read, and you begin to see how a Path to Glory campaign can fit together on a narrative level. In a nutshell, because no points are involved in building forces, you might as well construct background behind your force – and a bunch of Orruks rampaging through the realms works as well as anything else!

There are six pages of photographs covering various warbands, with the caption text tying them into the story of Gulgaz in some way. Not too much to say here; the photography is excellent and you may get some good ideas for putting your own warband together.

Then we get to the meat of the book – the Path to Glory campaign rules.

If you are not familiar with them, the idea is dead simple. First, pick a Grand Alliance allegiance, then a champion (leader) for your warband based on that allegiance.

The champion you pick will determine how many units of followers your warband begins the campaign with. So, for example, if you had chosen Grand Alliance Chaos and wanted a Khorne theme to your warband, you might pick something humble, such as an Exalted Deathbringer to lead your warband, who will let you have four units of followers – or you could go right to the other end of the scale and pick a Bloodthirster, who will only let you start with two followers.

This is the first ‘balancing’ mechanism used to put warbands within spitting distance of each other (don’t expect hard and fast points with these rules – they are not used, and not necessary for Path to Glory).

Once you have worked out how many follower units you have, you simply pick a Follower table for your Grand Alliance (no need to stick with the theme your opted for your champion) and roll. So, your Exalted Deathbringer could roll on the Khorne Retinue Followers table, select the Bloodbound Followers column (as opposed to daemons), and then roll up 20 Bloodreavers, 5 Blood Warriors, 3 Mighty Skullcrushers, or a Khorgorath.

Alternatively, you could roll on the Khorne Elite Followers table, which takes up 2 of your followers rolls and, selecting Bloodbound again, and get either 10 Blood Warriors, 5 Wrathmongers, or 5 Skullreapers.

However, you can also ‘branch out’ and roll on the followers tables for other Chaos factions, such as Beasts of Chaos, Skaven, Pestilens, or Slaves to Darkness – the elite follower table for the latter would give you the chance of, for example, 10 Chaos Warriors, a Warshrine, 5 Chaos Chosen, or 5 Chaos Knights, all of which you can (of course) give the Khorne keyword to bind them tightly into your existing force.

Basically, whatever Grand Alliance you choose, you are going to get plenty of options to create a wide and varied force that by no means needs to look like the force of someone else in the same Grand Alliance.

You can also use one roll to give your champion (or a unit of followers) a reward before the campaign starts – for our Exalted Deathbringer, this could be Daemonic Armour (re-roll failed saves), Molten Blood (dish out mortal wounds when hit), an Enscorcelled weapon (better Rend), or any one of nearly a dozen options in total.

Playing the campaign is even simpler – pick an opponent (‘oi, you, stitch this!’), play a game with an agreed Battleplan, and see who wins. The winner gets D3 Glory points, the loser 1. The first warband to total 10 Glory points (or gains 5 additional units of followers) fights one more battle and, if they triumph, wins the campaign!

After each battle, your warband gets rewards, which can be upgrades to your champion or followers, or could be more followers. If you get the latter, you have the choice to burn a Glory point to roll on the aforementioned elite followers table, so you have to make the choice between a better warband or a quicker win.

There are seven Battleplans provided in Path to Glory though, frankly, you can use any of the hundred or so Battleplans already published for Age of Sigmar. Some of those in this book you may have seen before, while others are brand new, and they tend to tie into the Path to Glory campaign – perhaps granting bonus Glory points for achieving certain goals,, or adding a ‘free’ monster to a warband. There is even provision made for battles involving more than two warbands at once.

The photograph above shows the basic layout of warbands, this one showcasing Tzeentch. As you can see, you have a wide variety of champions to kick off your force, from the ever so humble Magisters and Heralds, right up to Ogroid Thamaturges and Lords of Change (!). The followers tables are broken down into retinues (units), heroes, and elites, with each of those tables split between mortals and daemons. The reward tables for champions and followers come after.

The champion rewards table for chaos warbands allows for Dark Patronage, gifts directly given by the warband’s god, which can be anything from the odd re-roll to increased damage or extra spells.

While there are warband tables for every ‘current’ faction in Age of Sigmar, happily there are also ‘general’ Grand Alliance tables which allow the use of older miniatures and further increase the scope of what is possible when building a warband. The Destruction tables, for example, allow you to use an Orruk Warboss or Shaman as a champion, or an Ogor Tyrant, Moonclan/Gitmob/Spiderfang Warbosses, or (very funny) an Arachnarok Spider.

So, just because your Ogors (for example) do not have their very own warband table, you can still field an all Ogor force in Path to Glory, and the same applies to Aelfs, Duardin, Freeguilds, and undead.

The very last chapter introduces Start Collecting Warbands – instead of going through the warband creation system, simply grab a Start Collecting box and use the forces from that! This is, of course, ideal for someone just beginning Age of Sigmar or just starting a new army, particularly if there is a group ‘Tale of Four Gamers’ thing going on, where players add a new unit every couple of weeks or so.

Not all Start Collecting sets are created equally, of course, so some must achieve tougher goals in the campaign, while others get a free reward.

Very nicely done, and in just four pages too.



Conclusion
The Path to Glory campaign was always something I had meant to get running, but never quite got round to. The additions and tweaks made to it with this book has just bumped the campaign up in priority (expect to see a report soon!).

For just £20, you get a ‘new’ way to play Age of Sigmar (get yourself out of the matched play rut!) and a campaign system that you can probably play through and determine a winner in a single day – certainly through a weekend.

This is a nice little addition to the Age of Sigmar line, and I think I will be recommending it!

40k and Age of Sigmar Blog - A Tabletop Gamer's Diary: https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/

Mongoose Publishing: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/ 
   
Made in us
Ollanius Pius - Savior of the Emperor






Gathering the Informations.

Do Wanderers and Scourge Privateers have their own tables?

I'm hesitant still regarding this after Skirmish failed to materialize the things I was most excited to use in a usable manner(Lord-Aquilor and Gryph-Hounds) for the Renown value they suggest as the minimum.
   
Made in us
Enigmatic Chaos Sorcerer




Tampa, FL

It sounds interesting. I really want to grab it and try to pitch it to some people for a campaign, but I can already hear the gnashing of teeth because it doesn't use points or someone could, even if they only get 2 followers, have a hero on a big monster, making it ripe for abuse.

- Wayne
Formerly WayneTheGame 
   
Made in us
Clousseau




We have some interest here now that the stupidity like the celestant on stardrake can't also come with 5 units (I mean.... jesus GW....)

but there are a couple guys that don't like that its not even points and are against it.

However they just won't be a part of my private campaigns lol.
   
Made in gb
Steady Space Marine Vet Sergeant




England

Just the review I was looking for. Thanks Matt!

If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me! Believe in the Dakka who believes in you!  
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle






 auticus wrote:
We have some interest here now that the stupidity like the celestant on stardrake can't also come with 5 units (I mean.... jesus GW....)

but there are a couple guys that don't like that its not even points and are against it.

However they just won't be a part of my private campaigns lol.
It comes with two now (thank goodness).

Road to Renown! It's like classic Path to Glory, but repaired, remastered, expanded! https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/778170.page

I chose an avatar I feel best represents the quality of my post history.

I try to view Warhammer as more of a toolbox with examples than fully complete games. 
   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut



Canada

Can you choose to not roll on a followers table and just pick what followers you want? People may not have models for each of the follower options.
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle






PUFNSTUF wrote:
Can you choose to not roll on a followers table and just pick what followers you want? People may not have models for each of the follower options.
By the rules no, but when we ran a Path league at my flgs we did it so that the initial followers were picked (additional ones were rolled for) for that exact reason and it worked quite well.

Road to Renown! It's like classic Path to Glory, but repaired, remastered, expanded! https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/778170.page

I chose an avatar I feel best represents the quality of my post history.

I try to view Warhammer as more of a toolbox with examples than fully complete games. 
   
Made in ru
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

PUFNSTUF wrote:
Can you choose to not roll on a followers table and just pick what followers you want? People may not have models for each of the follower options.


Seconding NinthMusketeer, we've done it that way and it generally went fine. there's a lot of imbalance inherent in the old path to glory but this looks like it may have fixed some of that.

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in au
Steadfast Grey Hunter




Thanks for the review Matt
   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut



Canada

Thanks for the help and review!
   
Made in gb
Arch Magos w/ 4 Meg of RAM





Thanks for the review Matt. Can't wait to see some reports from your own games! I am also going to be starting up a Path to Glory although we plan to slow burn it over 6 months.

I think this is an amazing addition to the game. Now all we need is an AoS version of the 40k Open Play cards (which is my favourite thing about the new 40k) and we are all set!

Bye bye Dakkadakka, happy hobbying! I really enjoyed my time on here. Opinions were always my own :-) 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





 Bottle wrote:
Thanks for the review Matt. Can't wait to see some reports from your own games! I am also going to be starting up a Path to Glory although we plan to slow burn it over 6 months.

I think this is an amazing addition to the game. Now all we need is an AoS version of the 40k Open Play cards (which is my favourite thing about the new 40k) and we are all set!


I want an expanded skirmish, this is a great addition to path of glory, now lets spread the love a bit.
   
Made in gb
Arch Magos w/ 4 Meg of RAM





 thekingofkings wrote:
 Bottle wrote:
Thanks for the review Matt. Can't wait to see some reports from your own games! I am also going to be starting up a Path to Glory although we plan to slow burn it over 6 months.

I think this is an amazing addition to the game. Now all we need is an AoS version of the 40k Open Play cards (which is my favourite thing about the new 40k) and we are all set!


I want an expanded skirmish, this is a great addition to path of glory, now lets spread the love a bit.


You could try Hinterlands! :-) It's very similar to Skirmish but is designed for a longer campaign with more grit and detail. Injuries/death/levelling up/experience. It's all in there: http://www.tga.community/files/file/19-hinterlands-skirmish-campaigns-in-the-mortal-realms-by-sam-james/

I am actually working on a new version to Hinterlands (or a seperate supplement) that is exactly an expanded set of rules for AoS Skirmish

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/20 04:15:29


Bye bye Dakkadakka, happy hobbying! I really enjoyed my time on here. Opinions were always my own :-) 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Myrtle Creek, OR

Since it's just me and one other buddy playing AoS locally, I think we'll be going with Hinterlands. He likes skirmish level the best and he already has an army so a free file should be an easier sell.

Thread Slayer 
   
Made in au
Steadfast Grey Hunter




 Bottle wrote:

I am actually working on a new version to Hinterlands (or a seperate supplement) that is exactly an expanded set of rules for AoS Skirmish


Any guess as to when you'll have this out? Looking forward to it
   
Made in gb
Arch Magos w/ 4 Meg of RAM





motski wrote:
 Bottle wrote:

I am actually working on a new version to Hinterlands (or a seperate supplement) that is exactly an expanded set of rules for AoS Skirmish


Any guess as to when you'll have this out? Looking forward to it


Amazing to hear people are interested. I did a lot of work already on it, but got a little side tracked by 40k. I also have a tournament in September (including a Skirmish tournament) that's going to take up my time till then, so maybe in the Autumn. It won't be imminent so you should definitely not hold back on starting a Skirmish or Path to Glory campaign in the meantime!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
 privateer4hire wrote:
Since it's just me and one other buddy playing AoS locally, I think we'll be going with Hinterlands. He likes skirmish level the best and he already has an army so a free file should be an easier sell.


That's great to hear! If it's just the two of you, you could try running a hybrid between Hinterlands and the Realm Master Campaign. One player runs a Hinterlands warband as usual, the other takes on the GM role and builds encounters. Or you could have a warband each and take it in turn to GM battles and then have a final showdown between the two warbands - lots of exciting tweaks you can make!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/07/20 21:25:29


Bye bye Dakkadakka, happy hobbying! I really enjoyed my time on here. Opinions were always my own :-) 
   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle






Honestly if Hinterlands didn't have such popularity GW may very well not have put out skirmish. It doesn't look like a ruleset they had planned far in advance.

Road to Renown! It's like classic Path to Glory, but repaired, remastered, expanded! https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/778170.page

I chose an avatar I feel best represents the quality of my post history.

I try to view Warhammer as more of a toolbox with examples than fully complete games. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Myrtle Creek, OR

We're currently playing Frostgrave as a campaign and having a lot of fun. The campaign part of most of the games we play is usually the piece that someone spends a good 20-30 minutes writing and proof-reading before they shove it to the end of their new, innovative rule set

Frostgrave doesn't suffer from that as much or at least we've not run into too much trouble. And since my gaming buddy already has a full army of Khorne guys from the starter box, Hinterlands will hopefully be in the queue fairly soon.

Thread Slayer 
   
Made in es
Brutal Black Orc




Barcelona, Spain

 Bottle wrote:
Thanks for the review Matt. Can't wait to see some reports from your own games! I am also going to be starting up a Path to Glory although we plan to slow burn it over 6 months.

I think this is an amazing addition to the game. Now all we need is an AoS version of the 40k Open Play cards (which is my favourite thing about the new 40k) and we are all set!


Isn't GHB17 going to introduce triumph and treachery rules? Me thinks it may be a bit of that.
   
Made in gb
Arch Magos w/ 4 Meg of RAM





The Open Play cards are quite different. T&T is for multiplayer rules, where as the Open Play cards are for setting up a fun game between 2 players and are really really good (especially the 'Ruses' and 'Twists').

Bye bye Dakkadakka, happy hobbying! I really enjoyed my time on here. Opinions were always my own :-) 
   
Made in au
Steadfast Grey Hunter




Lord Kragan wrote:

Isn't GHB17 going to introduce triumph and treachery rules? Me thinks it may be a bit of that.


Was this confirmed? Just curious
   
Made in us
Clousseau




The current GHB has triumph and treachery rules.
   
Made in us
Lieutenant General





Florence, KY

motski wrote:
Lord Kragan wrote:

Isn't GHB17 going to introduce triumph and treachery rules? Me thinks it may be a bit of that.


Was this confirmed? Just curious

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/06/26/generals-handbook-2017-june26gw-homepage-post-3/

'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents
cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable
defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'

- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty
Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
 
   
Made in au
Steadfast Grey Hunter




Thanks for the clarification chaps
   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut




 amazingturtles wrote:
PUFNSTUF wrote:
Can you choose to not roll on a followers table and just pick what followers you want? People may not have models for each of the follower options.


Seconding NinthMusketeer, we've done it that way and it generally went fine. there's a lot of imbalance inherent in the old path to glory but this looks like it may have fixed some of that.



Ummmmm....the option to choose instead of roll is right there in the rules....I think it was page 16 that had warband rules.....so yeah, picking from the options on the table instead of rolling is totally okay.
   
 
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