The local
AOS group hosted its first organized play day this last Saturday, and after some back and forth I decided to throwdown in the name of throwing down. $10 buy in with solid prize support sweetened the deal. Guidelines were as follows:
1 Faction
1-6 Warscrolls
1-2 Heroes
0-1 Monsters
0 Named Characters
Along with a gentleman’s agreement to only drop around 60 wounds total and disregard Sudden Death. We also measured from the bases and did not partake of the Magical Terrain table. Plan was to play 4x 1 hour rounds … but that’s kinda crazy ambitious, so we ended up doing 3x 1.5 hours instead. The field was: Stormcast, Stormcast + Sylvaneth, Dwarfs, Vampire Counts, Daemons of Khorne, and my Ogres. For all of my games I matched the wound count of my opponent (except for the last one, where I was apparently 1W over
).
GAME ONE: VAMPIRE COUNTS (60W) Vampire Lord (
Flying Horror) - General
Cairn Wraith
13 Hexwraiths
5 Spirit Hosts
Mortis Engine
OGRES Tyrant (
Mawseeker) - General
Butcher
5 Ironguts
3 Ogres
3 Ogres
1 Nasty Skulker
First round was a standard game, so fighting was to be had. And since we were playing on 4x4 tables, there wasn’t a ton of room for subtlety …
Turn One Ghosts finish deploying first and take the initiative, scooting up across the board warily.
Ogres are likewise cagey, trying to make the undead work for their charges, but failing badly as new move + charge distances are hard to plan for. The Skulker sprints up the right flank, hoping to draw some spirits out so his Ogre pals can jelly them. In the hero phase, the Tyrant uses
Bully of the First Degree to make the Ironguts immune to battleshock for the game (at the cost of 3 wounds
) and the Butcher hits them with
Mystic Shield, as the Vampire was 19” away and un-
Maw-able.
Turn Two The Vampire begins by juicing the Hexwraiths up with
Blood Feast (+1A), then has his
Spirit Blight unbound by the Butcher. The undead move up into position for easy charges: the Cairn Wraith pounces on the Skulker bait; the Vamp charges into the Ironguts to ensure he has space once the ghost cav come in, easily making it; followed by the Hexwraiths failing to make 3” on 1-1! Perhaps thinking of 8E combat rounds, the Wraith swings first, whiffing against the Skulker. The Ironguts elect to pulverize the Vamp next, reducing him to a fine mist. Nobody crumbles now, but that still sucks! The Skulker then misses the Wraith completely.
The Tyrant opens the turn by
Inspiring the left Ogres, while the Butcher’s
Maw reaches out and chomps the Mortis Engine for 2-3 wounds. Everyogre but the Butcher waddles up for the charge … and nobody rolls snake eyes this time around. The Hexwraiths lose 2-3 of their number (with the bellowers lowering his bravery to 9, the magic number to get any to ‘crumble’ to battleshock is 4+ lost) for a couple wounds on all three ogre units fighting them. In the Wraith/Skulker combat, the Ogres charge in and pound two wounds on the ghosty, while the two little ‘uns struggle to hit each other.
Turn Three The Mortis Engine is still out of range for its
Wail of the Damned, but blows its
Reliquary (+D3W for DEATH and -D3W for everybody else with 12”) to bring back a Hexwraith and heal the Wraith and itself up, while also dropping wounded ogres from the left Ogres and the Ironguts plus sticking two more wounds on the Tyrant. The Spirit Hosts charge in to assist the Wraith, and
Frightful Touch (6+ to hit is an auto-mortal) combined with 30 attaks (6 each!) rips the Ogres to a Crusher with a single wound. His attaks are absorbed by 4+ saves and he flees the field. In the main combat, the Hexwraths suffer heavily and bring the Ironguts down to three remaining.
The Tyrant keeps
Inspiring the Ogres near him, as the Butcher successfully
Maws a Hexwraith or two. In combat, the Hexwraiths drop another Irongut but are brutalized in return, leaving just 2-3 ghost ponies. And with his big buddies gone, the Skulker finds himself in a tight spot:
The spirit hosts riddle the little guy with mortal wounds
Turn Four So focused on getting to grips with the ogres, the Mortis Engine forgets to
Wail and instead floats up and charges the Ogres, as the Spirit Host mob begins to make for the center battle. The Engine flubs completely with its 12 ghost attaks + Necromancer bonking stick, though so do the Ogres in return. The Hexwraiths, however, are finally dispatched by the Tyrant and the surviving Irongut Gutlord.
The Tyrant continues to
Inspire the two Ogres, and the Butcher hits the Spirit Hosts with the
Maw – over and over and over. Four chops deliver 8 mortal wounds and remove three bases of ghosts! Tyrant and Gutlord charge into the Mortis Engine, where the Tyrant swings hard and breaks it in half himself. Boss-like.
Turn Five The ogres
finally wrest the initiative away from the undead (I lost every other roll off for initiative). The Butcher
Maws off the second to last Spirit Host, followed by the Tyrant charging in and liquefying the final base of ghosts.
OGRE MAJOR VICTORY Hexwraithstar had scary potential combined with
Blood Feast, but an unlucky flubbed charge getting the Vampire pulped set the stage for the grind to follow. All the same, Spirit Host swarms are serious business – the guy had 9-12 of them all told – between
Frightful Touch and
Ethereal (ignore enemy rend, with a 4+ save)! Vamp player swapped out the Mortis Engine for his Terrorgeist in the next two games, to the horror of his opponents, who all blamed me for the escalation
GAME TWO: STORMCAST ETERNALS + SYLVANETH (52W) Branchwraith - General
3 Tree Kin
Lord-Relictor
5 Liberators
5 Liberators
5 Liberators
OGRES Tyrant (
Mawseeker) - General
Bruiser
BSB 5 Ironguts
3 Ogres
1 Maneater (
Crack Shot)
1 Nasty Skulker
Round two was the Watchtower scenario, which is deservedly hailed as more fun than the 8E scenario of the same name. In the
AOS version, one side is the attaker (Ogres) and the other is the defender (Trees). The defender can (must?) deploy one hero + one unit on a central terrain piece, and those two get bonuses while defending the piece (+1 to hit and +3 bravery). Attaker deploys as usual, the defender goes first, and the rest of the defending army appears within 3” of their edge after the movement phase of that turn. Objective of the game is to have the most
models on the center piece when the game ends – and the game ends on a 4+ starting at the end of Turn 3.
Another wrinkle: like many battlescrolls, the two generals get new command abilities. In this case, the defender can have friendlies within X” (12” I think) run and charge in the same turn, while the attaker can pull an enemy unit 6” off the center piece if their general can roll over the enemy bravery – he bellows a challenge and they sally out to throwdown.
Turn 1 As her Tree Kin hunker down and dig their roots into the stone of the shrine, the Branchwraith spots the marauding ogres approaching, the icon of their bloodmouth carnist god held aloft. She narrows her eyes and lets out a low hiss before whipping an
Arcane Bolt into the Bruiser holding the icon, wounding the brute twice. Taking the pyrotechnics as their signal, the Sylvaneth’s Stormcast allies silently appear at the edge of the woods behind the shrine …
The Tyrant glowers and gestures to his boys to advance all sneaky like, trying to make the Tree Kin work for any aggro charge they may want to make. He points at his Bruiser
BSB, now freely bleeding from the mouth, then makes a fist. The Bruiser nods and slams his banner pole into the ground, activating the
Banner of the Great Maw (on a 6+ to wound, Ogres within 18” do an auto-mortal on top of normal damage). The solo Maneater ends the turn by hurling a boulder into the head-branch of a Tree Kin, clocking it for two wounds.
Turn 2 The hissing from the Branchwraith continues as she
Regrows the wounds done to her Kin, then sends them out of the shrine to deal with the Maneater. They make the charge and flail away at the veteran ogre, but only manage to take a couple wounds in return. Meanwhile the line of Stormcast clank their way towards the shrine (several 1” runs ftl).
The ogre Tyrant unleashes the Ironguts as he heads over to deal with the Tree Kin himself – but not before giving the Bruiser a stern look. The Standard Bearer grumbles but keeps his murder field (™) powered up. The Maneater drops a Tree Kin with a point-blank boulder to the knee, shortly before the Tyrant hurtles in and splinters the other two tree spirits. The Branchwraith scratches desperately at the Ironguts thundering into her shrine, but can’t find purchase before they splash her sap across the stones. The Gutlord barks an order and his Guts prepare to receive the Stormcast.
Turn 3 Two units of Liberators charge ahead of their brethren, both assaulting the Ironguts holding the disputed shrine. One unit manages to drop an ogre, before the Ironguts swing and reduce the other unit to just the Prime. Unfortunately for the Liberators, the Tyrant is pulled into the battle as well, wading in and cracking the helms of two further Stormcast. The solo Prime passes his battleshock like a doomed hero.
The Bruiser keeps the Maw burning as the Ogre pack gets psyched up to tackle the third Liberator unit, and the Skulker slinks onto the shrine to lend his meagre weight to the model count. The Maneater whiffs with his 3” boulder shot, shrugs and strolls in to club some Liberators. The Stormcast all die to Maw-boosted Ironguts. The ogres stretch and await the next wave … but the Lord-Relictor receives a communique from Sigmar and all the gold-plated warriors, including the fallen, teleport out.
OGRE MAJOR VICTORY So the game ended as soon as it could, however I feel like Guts are so boss they could have taken the next Stormy wave with ease. My opponent decided Liberators are likely best at 10+ where they can just tarpit and let the heavy hitters roll in – while all those dudes get bonuses against things with 5+ wounds, it was pretty clear he could really use whatever Stormies have that kill big things (Dracoth, double-handed weapon guy variant, etc). He was also really excited to use the run + charge ability, except the Branchwraith as general meant he never had range to kick it off, and then she was dead. I noted the Relictor could have been general, but he felt like the Branchy felt better as general. Not going to argue with that.
For me, Bruiser
BSB was the big question mark, and I really only took him because I like the model and had no idea how he’d do in game. As it turned out, the 18” bubble of devouring everything was cool, though not moving a fighty hero was weird. With so many comps restricting heroes to two max, I’m finding it really tough to choose my #2. Big T is obviously in, and Butcher is the obvious second, with his awesome spell, his healing and ability to unbind … but I still want to try my Hunter, and I really liked the
BSB.
GAME THREE: DAEMONS OF KHORNE (62W) Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury - General
16 Bloodletters
8 Flesh Hounds
8 Flesh Hounds
OGRES Tyrant (
Deathcheater) - General
Bruiser
BSB 5 Ironguts
3 Ogres
3 Ogres
1 Maneater (
Crack Shot)
For the final round, we were back to a standard bashfest, this time between the two bashiest armies, which happened to also be the two undefeated ones
Turn 1 The Bloodthirster cracks his burning whip, calling his minions to attention. With a second crack the red daemons race towards the ogres, eager to get to those huge, glistening skulls they had hidden inside their big, dumb heads. The Thirster leaps after them, letting his Hounds lead the way.
The Tyrant grunts. “Mediocre …” he growls before
Inspiring the Ironguts and releasing them at the central pack of Hounds. Both Ogre units thunder towards the Bloodletter mob, as the Bruiser plants the
Banner of the Great Maw and the Maneater selects a nice sized boulder and jogs towards the towering Bloodletter. The stone flies true (with the help of
Crack Shot rerolling the 1 to hit) and gouges two wounds off the beast, and then a roar goes up along the ogre line as charges are declared. The Ogres both crash into the Bloodletters, the Tyrant and Maneater assault the flanking Hounds, and the Ironguts stumble at the last minute and fail to reach the central Hounds!
Combat resolution is important (and possibly botched): one pack of Ogres goes first, splattering a handful of Bloodletters. This lets the Flesh Hounds go next, erasing the Maneater and wounding the Tyrant four times (holy fakk 4 attaks each O_O). The second group of Ogres wreck the Bloodletters with the help of the
BSB’s murder aura, leaving 1-2 that pop from battleshock after whiffing. The Tyrant drops a dog and a half in response, and instantly regrets not taking two clubs this game (I tried out Massive Ogre Club, and sorely missed the extra attaks PLUS rerolls from the double clubs
).
Turn 2 If the Bloodthirster is displeased he doesn’t show it, as he soars over and lands in front of the farthest Ogre unit, freshly covered in daemonic ichor. He powers into the bulls and delivers 13+ wounds, hacking the big guys apart with contemptable ease. In response, the Ironguts intercept the Flesh Hounds as they charge in, slaughtering the pack in its entirety. Tyrant loses another 2 wounds to his own dog problem, then culls them down to four pups. Finally, the other pack of Ogres piles in to the greater daemon and punches two wounds on the Thirster.
The Bruiser keeps the Maw open, the Tyrant
Inspires the Ironguts and bellows for them to get over here! The Guts charge in to their boss’ Hounds and end them. Unfortunately, the other unit of Ogres are evaporated by the Bloodthirster.
Turn 3 The ogres rest the initiative from the Bloodthirster! The Tyrant slams into the giant daemon to prove who’s the hardest … and whiffs horribly, unused to wielding such a massive club
The Thirster decapitates the Tyrant in return, causing a look of concern to pass amongst the Ironguts and the Bruiser
BSB.
The Bloodthirster leaps for the Ironguts, wounding one with his lash on the way in. His hacking arm must have finally started to get tired though, as only a second Irongut falls. The remaining three Guts cut the legs out from under the greater daemon and lay into him once he hits the ground, sending great gouts of hot ichor across the field.
OGRE MAJOR VICTORY Definitely
AOS at its smashiest! And good practice for resolving combats in most advantageous order – in the first turn, I certainly lost the Maneater because of over prioritizing the Bloodletters, who it turns out aren’t particularly good, at least when not charging and in their formation (which I know from experience
). I also didn’t run the Ogres out of combat with the
BT in my second turn, when I should have seen that they wouldn’t even get to swing, due to wanting to use the
IG before the FH could kill the Tyrant. Not sure I even registered that leaving combat was a thing …
So in the end the Ogres went 3-0, almost entirely upon the backs of the Ironguts. I strongly urged the dudes to adopt a wounds cap for units, precisely due to how nasty big units of monstrous infantry can be, though that likely wouldn’t have affected how many Guts I was allowed to take (20 wounds is a pretty light cap, all told).
There were no rewards for win/loss scores, though my fatties took Best Theme, which was just fine by me. The Stormcast players tied for Best Sports, and somebody won Best Painted – hopefully the Dwarf player, who had some nice looking round-based stunties. The Sylaneth/Stormcast guy also won an
AOS boxed game. Next month brings a more tournament-esque
AOS event, to which I’ll likely bring my increasingly infamous Ogres again
- Salvage
Nurgle is love. Nurgle is life. 
