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Age Of Sigmar Path To Glory Report 3: Maggotkin Vs. More Stormcast

Hello again, players and fans of Games Workshop's big fantasy wargame, Age of Sigmar! For the past few weeks, I've been participating in a casual Path to Glory narrative campaign and testing the mettle of the Maggotkin of Nurgle faction. Last week we reported a game against the Soulblight Gravelords in which the Maggotkin delivered a big win through a thoroughly-tabled Vampire Lord. The previous week we reported on the beginning of the campaign, where the Maggotkin planted a few trees and took down a warband of Stormcast Eternals. This week, we are pleased to report another game against a different Stormcast player. Let's dive into the filth, and see what we can dredge up!

A shot of the Lone King staring up a Stormstrike Chariot's fearsome gryphon mount. What happens next? Read on! Photo credit: Josh Nelson, in a campaign game within the Path to Glory campaign format for Age of Sigmar, a fantasy wargame by Games Workshop.
A shot of the Lone King staring up a Stormstrike Chariot's fearsome gryphon mount. What happens next? Read on! Photo credit: Josh Nelson, in a campaign game within the Path to Glory campaign format for Age of Sigmar, a fantasy wargame by Games Workshop.

My opponent for this game, Scott, took the following army loadout for his Stormcast Eternals (any names, for fluff purposes, are in quotation marks):

Army Faction: Stormcast Eternals
    – Army Type: Scions of the Storm
LEADER
"Ignorius Pyrebound"
Knight-Judicator with Gryph-hounds (205)
    – General
    – Command Traits: Skilled Leader
    – Artefacts: Mirrorshield
OTHER
"Tyrantsbane"
Stormstrike Chariot (165)
    – Stormstrike Axe and Tempestuous Spear
Evocators (230)
• 5x Tempest Blade & Stormstave
(Evocator Prime: "Qualmar Stormblade")
TOTAL POINTS: (600/600)
Meanwhile, I took the same loadout I've been taking: "Felch" (my Lord of Blights warlord, fitted with the Overpowering Stench command trait and the Splithorn Helm artefact), a unit of Plague Drones, and a unit of Putrid Blightkings (now Fleet of Foot thanks to being a veteran of the format). You can read up on how they have been doing so far by clicking on the links to the previous games above.
Our battleplan for this Age of Sigmar campaign game was Hold or Die, in which I won the roll-off and decided to play as the custodian, meaning my territory surrounded Scott's. What's more, Scott's army had to be mostly evenly split into two contingents: one of Vanguard units (which he put his Evocators in due to no better option), and one of Reinforcements (his Knight-Judicator warlord and Chariot). My goal was to kill the Evocators; his was to save them, and, failing even part of that he would need to save his warlord as well. If the Evocators all died, I'd score a Major Victory. If part of that contingent survived this would not be the case, and if I failed to kill the Evocators at all and failed to kill the warlord, Scott would come out of it with a Major Victory.
Deployment showed four terrain features each in the center of a quadrant. From my perspective I planted a Feculent Gnarlmaw terrain feature on the south end of my surrounding territory, between the two southern terrain pieces. Scott deployed his Evocators in the very middle of his territory, and couldn't deploy anything else due to the battleplan. I then deployed Felch to the left of the Gnarlmaw, the Blightkings to the right of it, and the Plague Drones at the right end of my territory, between the eastern terrain pieces.
During Battle Round 1, Scott had the ability to choose who got priority and every round after that, Scott won priority. No double-turns were had, much to my displeasure. This also meant that Scott went first each turn. Yikes! That's statistically improbable for Age of Sigmar, or really any Games Workshop game! I rolled for the Cycle of Corruption (a 5), and we began the game.
He started his first turn by bringing in the reinforcement units that comprised the rest of his army and moved his units in to completely demolish my Plague Drone unit, which was off to the side to ensure a bit of pressure diverted from my Blightkings. This was a fast end for the rather squishy bug riders, and clearly not ideal. However, before they died completely the Drones managed to peg some disease unto the Evocators, the beginning of a very relevant end for that unit.
My Lord of Blights, Felch, did practically nothing during this game, but he did manage to use command abilities to keep my command points up for use on the Blightkings when relevant. He moved up a little bit, into Scott's territory, to aim to gain more contagion points for summoning. Meanwhile, the Blightkings, Fleet of Foot, ran into the fray with At the Double and then proceeded to roll to charge. I needed ten inches of movement on that charge to engage the Evocators and while my roll failed initially, I was able to re-roll the charge off a command ability and actually got exactly the ten inches I needed. Evocators were eviscerated through Battle Round 3 via a mix of wounds in combat and mortal wounds through disease.
That said, they were aided by the Knight-Judicator, who shot at anything he could with his missile attack, and personally accompanied by the Stormstrike Chariot, which managed to do a great deal of damage to my Blightkings, who rolled very weak Disgustingly Resilient ward rolls. However, by the end of Scott's fourth turn my final Blightking champion, who had finished off the Evocators (gaining me the Major Victory!), was left with 1 wound remaining. At the start of my fourth turn, I declared a tactical withdrawal, having earned my keep.
Felch, the Lord of Blights looks on, stunned at how efficiently the situation has been handled. Photo credit: Josh Nelson, for a campaign game within the Path to Glory narrative campaign format for Age of Sigmar, a fantasy wargame by Games Workshop.
Felch, the Lord of Blights, looks on, stunned at how efficiently the situation has been handled. Photo credit: Josh Nelson, for a campaign game within the Path to Glory narrative campaign format for Age of Sigmar, a fantasy wargame by Games Workshop.

In the aftermath phase, I spent 3 glory points to finish Defend Your Realm for a second time, earning a total of 15 glory points this game, bringing my total to 23 glory points to spend. Casualty rolls were kind to my Blightkings today, as nothing needed to be re-rolled. Exploration yielded a 64 (my third Nurgle-y territory!), so I annexed the Borderlands, the Nurgle version being the Fortress of Corroded Iron and Blubber. With 13 glory points remaining, I turned my attention to the next bracket of play (to occur in just two weeks), the 1000-point limit bracket, and hired in a Great Unclean One equipped with a Doomsday Bell and Flail. I named her "Daisy Hycasinth Sh!tmonger III", as is my right and obligation to do. Daisy seems pretty ready for the next bracket. I am too.

How are you enjoying these battle reports, dear readers? Is Age of Sigmar appealing to you? If not or even if so, have you been playing any other Games Workshop games? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!


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Joshua NelsonAbout Joshua Nelson

Josh Nelson is a Magic: The Gathering deckbuilding savant, a self-proclaimed scholar of all things Sweeney Todd, and, of course, a writer for Bleeding Cool. In their downtime, Josh can be found painting models, playing Magic, or possibly preaching about the horrors and merits of anthropophagy. You can find them on Twitter at @Burning_Inquiry for all your burning inquiries.
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