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Posted in: Games, Games Workshop, Miniatures, Tabletop | Tagged: Age of Sigmar, AOS, GW, Maggotkin, Nurgle, Path To Glory, Soulblight Gravelords, wargame, warhammer
Age Of Sigmar Path To Glory Report 5: Maggotkin Vs More Gravelords
Welcome, players and fans of Games Workshop's various tabletop games! I have been immersed in an ongoing Path To Glory narrative campaign for Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop's big fantasy wargame. For the past few weeks, I have been playing the narratively-driven campaign system at the 600-point limit, which, as expected for those in the know, severely limited my options for hiring my disgusting, yet disgustingly costed Maggotkin of Nurgle units. Nevertheless, at Just Games Rochester I have managed to defeat a warband of Stormcast Eternals, a retinue of Soulblight Gravelords, a second distinct warband of Stormcast, and a squadron of Seraphon lizardfolk.
As I entered the 1,000-point bracket, where I will be for the next three weeks after this one, I had a bit of trepidation. Our previous warlord, the Lord of Blights named Felch, has retired to make room for Daisy Hyacinth Sh!tmonger III, a Great Unclean One with a Doomsday Bell and a Plague Flail, but I rehired Felch to start him from scratch. I also hired a second unit of Putrid Blightkings for later weeks' growth. But that's not what you want to read about – I am certain you want the action. And action you shall have!
My opponent, Brian, is a cautious yet strategically-minded player who led a sizable and rather formidable legion of Soulblight Gravelords. The army composition was as such:
Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords– Army Type: Legion of Night– Triumph: IndomitableLEADERNecromancer (125)– Spells: Invigorating Aura, Prison of GriefVampire Lord (140)– Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amaranthine OrbVampire Lord (140)*– General– Command Traits: Unholy Impetus– Artefacts: Arcane Tome– Spells: Invigorating Aura, SoulpikeBATTLELINEDeadwalker Zombies (115)Dire Wolves (135)*OTHERBlood Knights (195)*Grave Guard (140)*CORE BATTALIONS:*VanguardTOTAL POINTS: (990/1000)
Meanwhile, my new army configuration for Path To Glory looked like this:
Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle– Army Subfaction: Befouling Host– Grand Strategy: Spread Rampant Disease– Triumphs: BloodthirstyLEADERGreat Unclean One (495)*– General– Command Traits: Pestilent Breath– Doomsday Bell and Plague Flail– Artefacts: The Witherstave– Spells: Fleshy AbundanceBATTLELINEPutrid Blightkings (250)*-Veteran Ability: Fleet of Foot-Veteran Ability: Unnatural RegenerationPlaguebearers (150)*OTHERNurglings (105)*CORE BATTALIONS:*Battle RegimentTOTAL POINTS: (1000/1000)
Our battle plan within the impending Age of Sigmar game was Sudden Assault, which divided the board into quadrants and provided victory points for each quadrant controlled by a player at the end of each round. I played as the Custodian, which alongside my Befouling Host subfaction allowed me to start the game with two Feculent Gnarlmaw terrain features. Brian started the game with many summonable units in reserve. They all were in reserve until Battle Round 2, when the last of them, the pack of Dire Wolves, were sprung from the gravesites that were scattered across the board.
While for the first three turns of this Path To Glory game I was behind by all of 1 victory point, I had also been holding myself back from engaging with the Soulblight forces out of worries of retaliation with greater might that I was actually facing. As a result, I played my Plaguebearer Host in the absolute weakest way, which is as a speedbump. The distinction between using Plaguebearers as a blockade versus Nurglings (which were behind the northmost building on the upper-left quadrant in the above picture, and were quite good at that job) is absolutely palpable and a grave error, if you'll pardon the expression. They died to a unit of five Blood Knights in no time due to their lack of a valid defense against even a Rend characteristic of -1. However, with everything out of reserve on Brian's board, I was free to give purpose to the Putrid Blightkings in my list, who were held back to try to keep things from entering my territory via deep strike-type means. The Maggotkin of Nurgle is a very reactive Age of Sigmar faction, and this was truly a place where they could showcase this well.
Meanwhile, Daisy had other ideas:
See, Daisy was on the quadrant lines for about two turns, waiting for an opening to charge in and decimate the large swath of Deadwalker Zombies surrounding Brian's Necromancer and non-General Vampire Lord. When a lone Beast of Nurgle could replace her in the quadrant she was in, she came lumbering in and beat some face. It was about this point at the bottom of Battle Round 3 where Brian decided he needed to achieve a tactical retreat, a valid tactic if you wish to preserve your units in a Path To Glory campaign. The issue was, however, that not enough of his units were destroyed yet (as one needs half or more to be removed first before considering a Tactical Withdrawal, and out of the seven units Brian brought, only one was completely gone). The big dilemma was, however, that even with all his summonable units hypothetically gone Brian would still have to lose either a Hero unit or his unit of Blood Knights, which are not summonable and would pose a bigger issue for him to lose.
After taking the image above, Brian decided to go all-in on a tactical retreat and let his Necromancer be killed by Daisy while retreating his summonable units off of the table edge into oblivion. He also only had one Blood Knight by the end of the game, so had to take four casualty rolls for them and an injury roll for the Necromancer (all were entirely fine in the end). Meanwhile, I'd ended up with 12 victory points against his 7, granting me the fifth Major Victory out of five games in the campaign so far!
In the Aftermath of this Path To Glory game, I gained 13 glory points, 2 of which went into my quest, Search for the Artefact, and granted me access to a Splithorn Helm to re-equip Felch with when he comes up in my lists. At present, I have 21 GP and will be saving them for a bigger Stronghold, once that becomes wise to claim. My next quest hasn't been determined, but I'm thinking it'll be a third instance of Defend Your Realm as that's a great one for the Maggtkin of Nurgle and one I can attain with ease.
How have you been enjoying these Age of Sigmar campaign games as they're covered? Have you ever played in a Path To Glory campaign before? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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