Getting Started With Age Of Sigmar – Storm Strike

Age of Sigmar was something that never appealed to me. GW decided to defy every gamer's belief and bin Warhammer, and AoS was the replacement – a pseudo 40k set in a multi-realm universe where pseudo Space Marines (or rather their fantasy equivalent) once again took centre stage. I wasn't interested. I had a fleeting interest in Warhammer as a game, loved the world it was set in and really like the model range that was developing. That had all gone now and I was cross, so lord only knows how the avid Warhammer gamers felt!

However, time heals many things and, as I don't play much of anything now, I find myself taking a greater interest in many things I would never have considered before. I have a handful of the new AoS miniatures as part of my Shadespire collection and really liked those, so found myself browsing the AoS range. Long story short, I am now in possession of the £25 Storm Strike Starter Box and the £5 "Getting Started with AoS" book and model.

STORM STRIKE

This box set have everything you need to get started at the most basic level. It comes with a handful of sprues that provide half a dozen or so models each for two players, as well as dice, rulers, a gaming 'mat' (poster!) plus basic rules and background fluff.

I have to say I'm mighty impressed.

First of all it was £25 (…actually I bought it from an online supplier and it only cost me £20)!! That's everything for the same price as a box of marines. The models are stunning – they may be 'easy-to-build' variants, but they're great and come with ridiculously lavish bases.

I have only built the Stormcast Eternals at the moment but it took less than 20 minutes to build the lot. The 'army' is the size of a Malifaux crew, which is my preferred model count, and they are chunky things – very solid. The gold coloured plastic is a little garish but that should only spur me on to paint them (or at least undercoat them!).

The rulebook is a printer version of the basic PDF that can be downloaded for free online – it's a light version of the rules so you will probably need to invest in the big book if you're sticking with it. There is also a build/paint guide and the main Storm Strike book. This main book is like an old-style 40k codex, so reasonably thick and well printed/finished. It contains lots of intro stuff, plus an extensive section on how to build, paint and game with your miniatures.

The thing that really impressed me with the main book though was how the scenarios (sorry, battleplans) are laid out and develop. It's basically a step by step intro to the game and in some instances may only have a single miniature on a side. Each battleplan focuses on or introduces you to a new rule and by mission 4 you're using everything in the box. The book rounds off with where to go next, as well as going into some depth about the background to all the units/factions involved in the box set and the universe they inhabit.

This is one of the best miniature wargame starter box sets I've seen. It was priced perfectly and had enough info and intrigue to provide great value for money as well as draw in a new player (even someone as cynical as me!). They do have two other starter sets that are closer to £50 and £100, which give you more models and even the full hardback rulebook, but this felt like a true starter set aimed at complete starters. It doesn't involve great investment and would make a superb Christmas or birthday present (shame my wife won't venture into a GW store!).

HOW TO GET STARTED

I'll be honest, the only reason I bought this was because there was a 'free' model included for the £5 pricetag. A stunning, single sprue Stormcast caster dude, the likes of which would normally retail for £15-£20. It was a no-brainer, even if you're not that interested – he'll be awesome to paint (£5!?!).

Immediately I jumped in and started to build him. Very straightforward to put together even though he's not an 'easy-to-build' model. He did come with a tiny pile of stones that were starting to float, to add to his base. I could see straight away that they would have snapped off very quickly, so clipped them and just stuck down the base stone to plug the gap in his base instead. His base is not nearly so elaborate as the models in the Storm Strike box set.

The Get Started book is very similar in size and finish to the Storm Strike book (even has the same image on the cover to confuse me even more) but has even more info packed into it. There are sample armies, a battle report, lots of background info as well as in depth explanation of the different painting techniques employed. It goes through the basic rules in principle, laying out the different phases without giving any actual rules away.

This was another win for me. It is the perfect precursor to the Storm Strike box set, and a great introduction to not only AoS but fantasy/skirmish miniature wargaming in general. It allows you to dip you toe in without spending more than your lunch money. I would have loved something like this way back in 1990, and I know it's the kind of thing my son will pour over for hours (when he's a little older).


Alas that's not the end to the GW fan-boy. Next time I'm going to go through the GW Battle of Pelennor Fields box set for the new Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game rules. Yes, I jumped in with both feet!!

Donnybrook Witchfinder

I've had almost 3 months away from the blog doing 'stuff' but felt compelled to add a random post after yet another top drawer day of gaming at Awdry Towers.

You may remember our last major outing to the Congo – Michael goes all out to construct a gaming table that sucks you into the narrative and builds the tension via email before we even leave home (and yes, we get homework!). It really is a pleasure to take part in one of Michael's adventures.

So he's been going on about doing a Witchfinder game for well over a year now, but things had stalled somewhat. When we managed to get a day booked into the diary back in June for the first Saturday in August, I suggested that Witchfinder might be a welcome change of pace. And so it came to pass.

The gaming table in all its glory

I love the fact that Michael decided to abandon his original plan to use the Witchfinder rules he's purchased and decided to mould his game around the Donnybrook ruleset. That's the sign of a true creative mind!

Now, I'm not a fan of the old blackpowder and flouncy hats era, but Solomon Kane I can buy into, so I took a leap of faith (so to speak). The rules themselves are…odd. They use the now very common practice of using different sided dice to represent different ability levels – D6 being your recruits and D12 being your heroes.

The Witchfinder leads the Poachers

Anyway, Michael had gone full tilt and created a raft of characters and units, very colourful and rather cleverly named, for us to use with their own rules and abilities lifted from the rulebook. Very excellent stuff.

Now, I'm not a fan of the random. I'm a bit of a control freak you see. That comes from being a tournament player for so many years where you tried to eradicate or circumnavigate random events as part of your strategy and tactics. It also comes from writing my own rules – too much random can leave the player with a feeling that they're on a passive ride with no influence on the outcome. Donnybrook flies in the face of wisdom and creates a game that is so random and chaotic you have no choice but to embrace it. You certainly can't have a serious game with these rules because you cannot have any real form of control over the outcome. Balance?…pah!

Activation is determined by drawing cards from a deck containing all of the characters and units taking part – the activation deck if you will. That's all fine, a very good mechanic. However, there is a Turn Over card in there too, and when drawn the deck is reshuffled and you start again. The outcome of this is that a single unit or character can go several times in a row, or in my case, not have a go at all for several turns. This creates an immense amount of imbalance and randomness – and that's before you throw the random event card in there too (which on one occasion sent an entire unit of Bull's troops home because they missed their families)!!

So as you can see the hilarity was never far away. Even when you were on the wrong end of the random you kind of had to smile. The big finale was a great example of this. I had finally beaten Michael's Villagers by the skin of my teeth, his last unit the Angry Mob in full flight towards the table edge. Up pops the Random Event card and attempts to drop a new unit of elite troops emerging on a flank as a relief force for the Villagers – luckily for me Michael didn't have enough models to fulfil the criteria, so it turned out to be travelling performers instead, else I would have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory no doubt.

Evil is coming!!

Needless to say, we had a fab time. We played three games during the day – same scenario – which meant we each got a couple of goes playing as well as a go being the dealer and overall games master.

In the first game my Villagers managed to hold off the advance of Bull's Cultists, despite some early losses. After lunch Michael's Villagers were swept aside by Bull's Cultists, only to be beaten again (only just) by my Cultists. So the Cultists have definitely broken through the outer defences and the village of Muchwhinging could soon become the focal point of the next skirmish.

The Witchfinder and Doxy face off against the evil Gareth of Oldham

We learned a lot about the rules and had them down by the end pretty much. We definitely missed a couple of things out, and we felt the characters were generally underpowered (aside from the doxy's stiletto heel through the chest of my vampire hero!!) but a great time was had by all.

It was such a good day that I've been inspired to create a fully immersive experience of my own for another time – stay tuned for more on that!

Bull has written up a fantastic piece about the day – read it here!

A Zombicide Start To The Weekend

So it turned out there was an Exit guardian!

I haven't played ZOmbicide Black Plague in some time. We reckon it's probably been at least six months which, considering it's our go-to game, is strange. I haven't played Green Horde since it arrived at Christmas, I only opened the box to get a look at the models up close.

That all changed this weekend.

Friday at work, being the last Friday of the month, was Free Project Friday and Team Social Afternoon. We ended up playing Zombicide Black Plague in the meeting room – an 8-player mash-up with many first timers and all the big monsters. It was fun, took a while and realised I'd forgotten a lot of the details in my absence from the game. There was lots of cheating in the end to ensure we won, but it won over a couple more admirers so no doubt more gaming in the future.

An opening win with Green Horde, by the skin of our teeth

To be honest that was the warm up, because the morning after myself and Bull travelled to the now very shiny Awdry Towers to get our first taste of Zombicide Green Horde. I'd heard lots of tales about how the new version plays but you never know for sure till you try it yourself.

We managed to get through the first game with a win, but it was touch and go at the end. The game felt claustrophobic and the swaggering confidence often seen when playing Black Plague was gone. The hedge and water mechanics were good additions – don't end the game in the water end of a map, it's a nightmare. The trebuchet was awesome, though it didn't see any action in our opening game.

Game 2 was a challenge indeed. So much so we had to press the restart button after a few turns in as we had made some fatal mistakes in our early strategies. Take 2 was going swimmingly. We had got to the trebuchet and were pretty much owning the board. However, as we confidently headed towards a second victory, fate stepped in to slap us in the face. We ran out of runner models, meaning all runners on the board get a second go – combined with a 'runners get an extra go' card flip we were wiped out in a single turn within reach of the finish line.

Our problem was two-fold. We were using just the contents of the Green Horde starter box, so no fancy weapons and limited zombie models. It meant we didn't have the volume of dice when attacking to clear out the masses of zombie models coming at us. The majority of weapons were only hitting on a 4+ at best, so even a handful of dice was only going to get you so far.

Needless to say we all had fun and thoroughly enjoyed a re-introduction to Zombicide.
There will be more to come!