Reforging Age Of Sigmar Armies

For this second encounter of the day, the points were shrunk down to 1000 points and the Stormcast Eternals found themselves facing off against the Soulblight Gravelords.

The Realm of Life still had its tendrils clutching from objectives on the tabletop but this time, they wouldn’t slow but instead stop those claiming them.

Despite a wary standoff to begin with and the reliance on their shields keeping hope at the heart of the Stormcast Eternals, the initial foray from the Soulblight was devastating.

On the left-hand flank, the Blood Knights smashed into the Vindictors and all but killed them, leaving just three alive.

Sticking with the left flank, the Reclusians did seek (alongside the Lord Terminos) to level the playing field and whilst they killed Sekhar, the Soulblight general, they could not save the Vindictors and their supporting archers from being brutally cut down.

On the right flank, bereft of support, the Stormcast were almost entirely crushed and the Knight-Judicator, who had done so well before in the previous game, was sent packing.

Some vengenace was to be had in the centre of the battlefield where the Vanquishers could rush up and try and lay into the Deathrattle Skeletons. They were able to cleave through most of their number but not finish them entirely.

Whilst not shown here, the Vanquishers were eventually dragged down by Blood Knights who wheeled round and charged back into the fray.

The last bit of the fighting happened in the Stormcast Eternals deployment zone, which they had barely been able to escape. Sekhar had been killed alongside the rest of the Blood Knights but the rest of the army was utterly decimated and sent back to Azyr on crackling lightning.

This went to show that 1000-point games should probably be more balanced by the players. Both sides had decent troops but the weight behind the special character (Sekhar) and the Blood Knights (with their cavalry movement) meant the Stormcast were inevitably outplayed.

There should certainly be more done between the players to level that playing field a little but I had fun regardless and it did what games always do, spurring me on to think about my next purchases and what I’d like to do with the army.

It did also make me think that, unless you’re eager to play at 1000 points, 1.5k and above feels good for Warhammer Age of Sigmar and anything below that could be Spearhead – which I really need to play more of.

There are rules online for balancing 1000 point games…

• No Unique Heroes
• No one unit can be more than 300+ points
• Limit of 2 of each unit
• No Reinforcing units

…I believe that’s it, based on The Honest Wargamer but that might still be tied to last edition. I will have to do some research!

The rest of the battle was a case of mopping up the enemy. With two of the Ghyranite Relics secured and most of the main objectives secured in the name of the God-king, the Gloomspite Gitz had been stopped.

Still, the Dankhold Troggboss was able to escape, even pursued by most of the Stormcast army. Perhaps he will find some hole to crawl into and the Stormcast Eternals will have to burn him out?

It was great to dive back into Warhammer Age of Sigmar and play using the new 2025/26 set of rules. The way they have tweaked the Battle Tactics makes it a lot easier to work out what you’re seeking to achieve each turn.

Whilst it was a rather brutal game for the Gloomspite Gitz with many of their number killed in Turns 3 and 4, the end result was quite close. It has certainly sown the seeds for a comeback from the Gitz next time they meet.

In this 1500-point battle between Stormcast Eternals and the Gloomspite Gitz, the stage was set for a bit of reclaimation. On the one side, the Gloomspite Gitz were poised to rush through Ghyran (the Realm of Life) and escape with their pilfered Ghyranite Relics.

On the other side, the Stormcast Eternals of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer were seeking to secure ties with their Sylvaneth allies by reclaiming those artefacts, clutched tightly in the mitts of the Troggoths, Dankhold Trogboss and a nefarious Gobbapalozza.

As well as having to deal with the opposing forces arrayed against them, both sides also had to deal with the twisting Realm of Life. During each turn, pairs of objectives would be infused with roiling tendrils that would spring from the ground and capture those within their reach, making it harder for them to strike at their opponents.

In the early turn of the game, both armies cautiously moved forward and claimed their nearby objectives, hoping to gode the other side into surging forward into the fray.

In the early portion of the battle, the Stormcast Eternals were able to unleash a volley of arrows from the middle and right flank of the battlefield. The arrows claimed many of the Squigs-riding Grots that were seeking to stealth past, whilst in the centre, a great many of the fiends were filled with arrows and popped like balloons.

In retaliation, the Grots fired back and managed to pick a few of the heavily armoured sentinels of Order, sending them surging back to the heavens.

In retaliation, the Relusians were able to make their charge and push further towards the Grots objective, clashing with the archers within their ranks and sending many of them packing at the same time.

On the left hand flank, held by the Troggoths, they did surge forward towards the Realmgate only to be countered by a thicket of spears. After an ill-fated charge forward, they crashed into the spears of the Vindictors and, alongside the Lord-Celestant, the Stormcast Eternals were able to break through their regeneration ability and end them, claiming one of the Ghyranite Relics.

The Troggboss did survive his encounter with the other unit of Vindictors however, proceeding to club them to death before healing all of the damage that they had sustained through the fighting.

The fierce fighting of turns two and three spilt over into turn four and many of the Gloomspite Gits were felled, spearing themselves on the weapons of the Stormcast Eternals who had secured a firm grip on the centre of the battlefield…

Took a break from Stormcast to do more Fyreslayers with another character and some of the Hearthguard.

Some images of more of the miniatures painted over the last few months for Stormcast Eternals and more…

I have worked on two additional characters for my Anvils of the Heldenhammer, reworking the “grimdark” schemes to be more in line with the new faction I want to bring to the tabletop.

Above you have the old and new Knight-Arcanum, reworked for the Anvils of the Heldenhammer scheme. I quite liked the old one, especially with the object source lighting, but I also really like the black, red and gold.

We also have the Lord-Imperatant with his loyal gryph-hound also in their new and old schemes below.

I quite enjoyed working on the features of the Lord-Imperatant’s cloak and doing a bit more work on elements like the cloaks. I think the gryph-hound also looks more fun in that new scheme although the blue fur/feathers is something I want to return to.

So the first unit of Vindictors has been redone and revamped to match the new Anvils Of The Heldenhammer scheme. I have really enjoyed seeing this scheme come to life and whilst it’s a bit more involved compared to the grimdark one, it looks really nice when all of the miniatures are arrayed together.

The drybrush of dark blue over the black armour seems to work well and I am quite proud of the work done on the gold and the red. I have been making use of more than just Nuln Oil with these folks which is unheard of! I also liked painting up the various bare heads as well as the white helmets.

I also painted up a couple of character miniatures as you’ll have seen in the post before this. I finished off the basing for the Knight-Relictor and painted up the Knight-Arcanum which was one of the special releases from last month.

Again, I am really liking this scheme and it’s good to see the faction coming together. I have one more unit of Vindictors to revamp + another Knight-Arcanum and a Lord Imperatant. From there, we’d then move on to new miniatures which means another small win for the Spring Clean Hobby Challenge 2024.