Season of war

[El Syf]

So it all kicks off on Saturday and I plan on going to my local store and getting a game or two in.
Thought I'd start a thread for discussion about the campaign, the one thing that stuck out to me immediately is that death aren't going to do well.
My reasons for thinking this is that compared to the other grand alliances death is tiny, unless it makes up for a quarter of all aos sales. But anyway I'm looking forward to it and hopefully they do actually pay attention to the results unlike storm of chaos.

 

[Demian]

I am proposing we design or agree upon a Banner for the members of this forum, haha. I'd like to represent the Carpe Noctem community in my games.

As for Death not doing well, I would not give up hope just yet, since the faction is smaller than others, true, but our units have many strengths and I'm confident we can overcome any list that threatens the will of Nagash.

Plus, we have Nagash.

 

[Eyeless]

I managed to get a game in today against destruction. He managed to get a minor victory by a run roll in the last turn, tipping the result to 3-4 for him :c

 

[Oppenheimer]

Death is doing dreadfully at my shop and for The Living City which is my area. Most death players aren't actually even playing for death. Despicable!

 

[Demian]

They must learn the price of their treason!!

Send in the Flesh-Eaters!!

 

[Sception]

Death was pretty much the smallest faction to start, and where every other faction has seen new releases expanding their forces to compensate for discontinued products, we've seen half our product line discontinued with nothing to show for it but awkward ghoul conversions in a battletome that doesn't so much expand our alliance's options as it does break off anything tangentially ghoul related and segregate it into a list that doesn't play well with others.

EDIT: Also, death has literally no place in the story of this campaign. How am I supposed to get invested in this, narratively? Death has been in the background of AoS so far, but what plot threads we've had have all been about re-establishing the alliance between Order and Death against chaos and now we're assaulting the first bastions of Order that Sigmar & co. have managed to throw up against the dark gods? Why?! The story literally gives us no reason for this. We aren't even told whether the undead fighting in this campaign are working for Nagash or not. Destruction doesn't have a reason to be here, either, but at least random attacks with no cause or justification is more in their wheelhouse.


That said, we've done better than might be expected, and ended the day a lot better than we started.

For my part, I swung by the store, but there was nobody there playing age of sigmar for the first several hours. Later in the afternoon, two people came in to play one game against each other then left. The clerk said to try sunday, but I confess to being rather discouraged. I might try driving to the GW store, but that's a half hour away....

 

[Demian]

I'll see if I can join the fray tomorrow, or on sunday, now that I have time to paint and get my armies ready for war.

As for the banner, I'll try to print something in a sticker and mount it on my Blood Knight's standard. That should be fun hehe.

Will show you how it went!

EDIT: So, here it is!

I hope it looks fine, and also, not be breaking any forum rules! D:

 

[Count michael]

How long does it go for? I've just really got back into age of Sigmar with the points coming out having a fresh start with a deathrattle army and would be cool if I could somehow contribute if I can quickly assemble a few stuff

 

[Sception]

It's a four week event, started this past thursday.

 

[Oppenheimer]

@Malisteen I posted pretty much the same sentiment on my store page. Order will probably win. They just had a beautiful new release for Alarielle and GW has been pushing their precious stormcasts as hard as they can and they gave the largest range. We have no hope. But, as you said as much as I like undead except for the audio drama and the one small part with Neferata in Balance of Power we have very little reason to care about Nagash.

 

[Sception]

I care about nagash plenty, but I have no reason to care about this campaign because the narrative has given nagash no reason to care about it. Maybe if they had pushed specific rivalries, like sigmar brings in his new undead allies to fight nurgle, but the sylvaneth view them as anathema and turn on them. Or nagash uses the fight against chaos as an excuse to send his armies into the caverns and deep places of Ghyran, hoping to create new dimensional gates to the underworld of Shysh, allowing his necromantic power to spell out and corrupt the realm of life entirely, and in the process comes into conflict with skaven attmepting to gnaw their way into Ghyran's roots from the realm of chaos?

Something. Just, some reason for him to be there, for him to be fighting against as well as for his allies, and if he is betraying them then make it in a hidden, subtle way so he's not just immediately turning around to attack his allies openly three seconds after agreeing to work with them. Because writing Nagash like that makes him an idiot, it makes it impossible to believe that the old alliance lasted as long as it did, and it makes sigmar an idiot for wanting to deal with him again.

 

[Infernal Skull]

I suspect the reason that Order and Chaos are so heavily stilted in the campaign is because a majority of AoS players bought into the game & setting as one of the two factions in the starter set.

 

[Sception]

I think it's mainly that, partially that way more existing fantasy factions were filtered into those allianced (two armies each for destruction and death, 4 or 5 for chaos, 7 or 8 for order), plus order and chaos have gotten the most new stuff since AoS was released, plus order and chaos are really the only alliances who the narrative actually gave a reason to care about this campaign. Destruction and Death don't have a reason to be there, and don't have much to gain or lose.

 

[Count michael]

It's kinda depressing to go onto to the season of war website and see how the Order are winning by a land slide.

 

[Eyeless]

So just came back from another game of scenario 1 and it was a mayor win for me =] was up against chaos, mostly slaneesh, we used a 2k list from the new points system. In total i only suffered 11 casualties (7 spearmen and 4 swordsmen) must say death are really resilient now =D

20 crypt ghouls - battleline
20 skeleton w/ spears & crypt shields - battleline
10 skeleton w/ swords & tomb shields - battleline
15 grave guards w/ great weapons

3 sepulchral stalkers
wight king w/ banner & steed - leader
screaming skull catapult - artillery
varghulf courtier - leader
necrotect - leader
ghoul king on terrorgheist w/ ring of immortality & ruler of the night - leader, behemoth
6 crypt horrors

To summarize, had rerolls on all hit rolls of horrors and ghouls due to the ghoul king's presence, getting ghoul king, horrors and varghulf self heal every turn, horrors and ghouls returning due to the varghulf reinforcements rule and banners for the skeletons and grave guards. I could also summon back the catapult's crew for free and add models to the stalkers if I lost any. And the best thing? normal armor save, followed by deathless minions 5+ ward save on each wound or mortal, unholy vigor for a unit of flesh eaters which gives a 5+ ward save on each wound of mortal, and should all those fail and the model would be slain by the wound or mortal, a 6+ ward save granted by the banner.

 

[Oppenheimer]

That army wide 5+ ward save seems like an oversight. I can't believe they gave us something that potent. People used to be mad at us for summoning now they're going to be mad because of that save. . .

 

[Eyeless]

haha oh yea they will, i wouldn't want to play against a list similar to what i posted. i think it's really frustrating to play against and i almost felt bad for the guy against me :c

 

[Sception]

I've got two victories under my own belt since the general's handbook came out, and the 5++ save was a major factor in both. Remember you have to keep units within 10" of your heroes to benefit, and if your general dies the save drops back to a 6++. Targeting and assassinating death faction heroes is definitely a key to playing against them. Of course, our heroes include some of the toughest characters in the game, between wound passing (necromancer, herald), wound halving (black axe king, royal warsphinx), healing (vampires, ghoul kings), good base defenses (tomb king), and the fact that our heroes also benefit from the 5++ save.

Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked to see a neft to the rule in the future. Possibly errata to make deathless minions only apply to non-hero units, making assassination more viable? Or maybe changing ruler of the night to only apply to units within range of the general, not just any hero? I don't know.

But as it is, yeah, speaking as a player whose played both with and against them, a high wound count, high recursion death army under ruler of the knight is just a nightmare to play against.

 

[Eyeless]

@Malisteen don't jinx it hopefully they didn't hear you already the book's not even out yet! but yea i can confirm that losing your general sucks, in my lost battle against destruction lost my vampire in general in an unlucky combat vs a grot warboss -.-' and my army started crumbling apart :c

 

[Menkeroth]

So the campaign is over and the forces of Order prevailed everywhere. Sad day for Chaos and Death

 

[Oppenheimer]

It's too bad it wasn't even close.

 

[El Syf]

Hopefully this is the result GW wanted as they said it will have an effect on upcoming fluff.
We don't want a storm of chaos situation again...

 

[Borgnine]

Well, seeing how much they forced Sigmarines and how many old armies were put into the order faction, it's no surprise.

 

[Menkeroth]

Hopefully this is the result GW wanted as they said it will have an effect on upcoming fluff.
We don't want a storm of chaos situation again...

Definitely. It's a universe of reclaiming worlds from Chaos, so yes, I think too they wanted such a result.

Well, seeing how much they forced Sigmarines and how many old armies were put into the order faction, it's no surprise.

aye. It's only a small part of the world history anyway but still...

 

[Irisado]

The result seems appropriate to me, from a narrative perspective. It usually makes for a more interesting story if the Forces of Order triumph, while the Forces of Disorder/Darkness/Death retreat to the shadows to plan their next move. The Forces of Order do tend to become complacent over time after all .