Posted in: Games, Games Workshop, Miniatures, Tabletop | Tagged: Age of Sigmar, AOS, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Nagash, Nurgle, Path To Glory, Soulblight Gravelords, wargame, warhammer

Age Of Sigmar Path To Glory Report 2: Maggotkin Vs. Gravelords

Hello again, players and fans of Games Workshop's current main fantasy wargame, Age of Sigmar! We have been freshly embroiled in a new campaign for the Path to Glory format, a style of narrative play that focuses on a more casual approach to the game than Matched Play. You may remember our last matchup using our best bubonic buddies, the Maggotkin of Nurgle, as they fought against a band of Stormcast Eternals. This past Sunday, January 23rd, we once again took to the battlefield at Just Games Rochester, this time against a horde of Deathwalker Zombies and two units of Grave Guard, headed by a lone Vampire Lord of the Soulblight Gravelords allegiance. Let's dive into the report!

Our opponent for this battle was the mononymous Kain, who admitted they were not fully versed on the Path to Glory rules, which, as I'd pointed out was not an issue. The issue ended up being his list, which was going to include Radukar, The Beast, a 320-point beast of a model (if you'll pardon the expression) in a 600-point game (the problem was the inability to a) used a unique model as your Warlord and b) field a unit with a cost over half the size of the player's army). So, in Radukar's place, a Vampire Lord was throned and while his list was a bit under-costed overall, it looked like this:

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
    – Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty

LEADER
Vampire Lord (140)
    – General
    – Spells: Invigorating Aura, Spirit Gale

BATTLELINE
Deadwalker Zombies (115)

OTHER
1×10 Grave Guard (140)
    – Great Wight Blade
1×10 Grave Guard (140)
    – Great Wight Blade

TOTAL POINTS: (535/600)

Meanwhile, my list looked identical to the matchup from last week. For those who care to read on and not fetter yourself with the articles of a week past, this is what it looked like:

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
Subfaction: Befouling Host
Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
"Felch" (150)
Lord of Blights
Command Trait: Overwhelming Stench
Artefact: Splithorn Helm

Battleline
5 x Putrid Blightkings (250)*

Units
3 x Plague Drones (200)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 600/600
Wounds: 43
Drops: 1

Halfway into the battle, Kain realized that there had been a mistake in that a Command Trait and an Artefact were not added to the Vampire Lord's profile. For whatever it mattered, Felch's Command Trait and Artefact didn't apply to this match much at all either, so we decided this was not of a huge impact in the end of it all (besides, this is a highly casual format!). Beyond this, because only 2 summonable units are hireable per Hero for the Soulblight Gravelords, Kain's army was technically not legal (this could have been remedied by reinforcing the Grave Guard units into one, but, as you'll see in the photos, this did not occur). Nevertheless, we brushed this off and played the game through.

The battle plan was the Path to Glory objective-based plan called The Ritual. Rolling off, I played this game as the ritualist, putting me into a defender role, which is relevant to Maggotkin rules in Path to Glory. What it gave me was the means to either disease foes more or give myself more points with which to summon units and Feculent Gnarlmaws.

At first, I decided keep-away was a good plan, but I recognized I needed to get closer in order to stop the undead menace from stealing control of the objectives I needed to win with. As the Soulblight Gravelord army drew closer, I needed a way to get into the fray, and as Kain plopped Grave Guard units from their Gravesite reserves onto the Arcane Repository objectives, I ended the first turn with a lone victory point (needing 16 for a major victory and at least 14 for a minor victory).

The round after, I struck. The first round yielded priority to Kain first, but the second round's priority was mine, giving me what is usually termed a "double turn". My warlord, a Lord of Blights unit named Felch, scurried to the left flank to summon a Feculent Gnarlmaw. My Putrid Blightkings, now Fleet of Foot by way of the results of the previous match, inched ever closer to the opposition, and my Plague Drones flew over to the right to shoot at the Grave Guard that manifested there.

The undead are fairly easy to put down when they're in such small numbers as 10 or even 20 models per unit. With one wound apiece for these ones, it was fairly simple procedurally to mow them down. However, Kain's Vampire Lord swooped in and took the primary objective, the Ritual Site, while the Grave Guard and Vampire Lord took down a majority of my Putrid Blightkings, much to my dismay.

A round later, I summoned a Beast of Nurgle to sit on the Ritual Site objective once the Vampire Lord decided it was tango-time for Felch and his Blightking retinue (comprised of all of one model). Meanwhile, the Maggotkin did away with all of the death in play save for that pesky, pesky Vampire Lord. With 1 wound remaining and staring down Felch and a lone Putrid Blightking, at the bottom of Round 3, Kain decided to leave the longevity of the Vampire to chance and lost out on it. Having tabled Kain, I proceeded to score my victory points, putting me at 15, which meant a minor victory for the Maggotkin!

In the Aftermath phase, Kain's Vampire Lord suffered a Major Injury, meaning next match, Kain will have to give that Vampire Lord an unhealable mortal wound. I suffered no casualties but had to re-roll a casualty die to ensure this outcome. In exploration I rolled a 63 on the d66, meaning I could annex a Befouled City (a Small Settlement for others). I took that opportunity with pleasure. I also finished my quest, Search for the Artefact, without having to spend glory points on it, and began my next quest, another round of Defend Your Realm. I now have a Muttergrub for my mortal Maggotkin to wield, and 8 glory points to spend on… something. These might be stockpiled as I enter Week 3.

Unfortunately, there is no letter from the Vampire Lord who suffered at the hands of the Maggotkin this week. Age of Sigmar's Path to Glory campaign is played by a number of different kinds of players, and some are more narrative-inclined than others, which isn't to say good or bad about either kind. As for the Maggotkin, so far they deem no news good news, and as such Felch has nothing to report to his superior officers.

Well, that's another really fun campaign game in the books! A big thank you to Kain for being a great sport. Age of Sigmar is shaping up to be really fun! Do you have experience with this or any other games by Games Workshop? Let us know in the comments below!

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