Beginnings of the Rot Glade

Like many, AoS has reignited my love of terrain, and so tonight in a moment of inspiration, I've begun recommisioning a wood into a Nurgle-dedicated wood. I've removed one of the trees and begun sculpting a fetid pool in it's place. Complete with tentacle.



The remaining tree will hopefully be used as a base for the Rot Tree from my background, doubling up as a realmgate complete with some kind of door...

First Battle Highlights

I recently had my first real taste of AoS in a game with my friends Orcs. We played the breakthrough scenario, where I had to get off the other side of the board, being blocked by his army.

I had;
1 Rotbringer Sorceror,
2x10 Plaguebearers,
5 Blightkings,
3 Nurglings,
3 Plague Ogres.

He had;
1 Black Orc Hero,
10 Black Orcs,
10 Orc Boys,
7 Boar Boys
1 Giant.

We had a very close game, with myself achieving a minor victory by getting the minimum number of models to achieve the victory off the table by the end of turn 6. So I guess due to how close it was you could say it was balanced, and we made some concessions to ensure we had balanced forces before the game. Below I'll list my first impressions of the game;

• We played it for quite a long time considering how small the forces were, about 4 hours. However this will definitely reduce the more we play, I think we'd be able to get two games in the same time next time!
• Access to re-rollable saves for the boys and Boar Boys is insane.
• Giants can do alot of damage but this is somewhat mitigated by how easy they are to wound, which with them being a monster, reduces their output as they get damaged.
• Nurgle demons are very resilient, getting a 5+ normal save then 5+ Disgustingly Resilient save. Add in Mystic Shield and you're laughing.
• The Icon Bearer ability for Plaguebearers/Drones is very powerful. If you roll a 1 for battleshock, d6/d3 wounds are regained. I did this three times in the game with my Plaguebearers.
• Blight Kings are great at dealing damage, hitting and wounding on 3s is great, then add in their Blighted Weapons and Virulent Discharge rules on top and they are amazing.
• Plague Ogres with Damage 2 are good too.
• Nurglings rule of if you don't kill a full base in one turn they regenerate to their starting wounds is ace, a great tarpit unit.
• The two basic spells for wizards are very versatile, although in this game I used Mystic Shield far more than Arcane Bolt, but I did use Arcane Bolt to kill the Orc General.
• My army was very slow, to combat this I'll be purchasing some Marauder Horsemen which I can give the Nurgle keyword to to keep synergies. I also intend to get a unit of Plague Drones as soon as funds allow!
• I think the scenario was key in making the game so fun, so we will continue to play with scenarios going forward.

Below are a couple of photos from the game, not particularly information, but you can at least see the kind of formations we were putting are units in. I really feel every person who is anti AoS really hasn't given it a chance and I'm genuinely gutted for them! Great game.

Army Background 2

After having my first battle, I've come up with a little more background development for the army.

Cholothrax was first aware of the Orcs' presence on their first night's camp within the forest. He sensed a new species of Rot moulding into the earth as the Orcs created their waste from the spoils of pillaging a nearby town. 

Ordering the warband to converge on the Orc's camp, Cholothrax's first thought was to parley with them, to tempt them into carrying out their particular kind of waste in the name of Nurgle and the Rot Tree. However, as the warband approached their camp, they were immediately set upon by the Orcs. 

The Orcs quickly created a blockade to cut off the Rotbringers from their glade, Cholothrax was loath to let this happen as he would soon lose his grip on the warband as his power was derived from the Rot Tree itself.

Cholothrax soon sensed a powerful presence within the Orc ranks, and dispatched his personal vanguard along with a gaggle of Plaguebearers he had managed to summon.

In the centre he commanded the most powerful of his warband, the Blight Kings, to engage what he perceived to be the epicenter of the enemy forces, a large group of Black Orcs. These proved a persistent and difficult to dispatch enemy.

On the right flank, Cholothrax sent a small group of his Plague Ogres and their attendant Nurglings, their orders to break through the ranks of the Orcs to get word to the rest of the warband.

Cholothrax himself held back surveying the battle, only committing himself to a course of action when  needed. Throughout most of the conflict, he supported various regiments with his mystic shield, only committing to physical violence when the enemy general presented his rear, expertly using an arcane bolt to execute him. He then moved on to support the remaining Plaguebearers in assaulting the Giant.

As the opportunity to retreat to the glade was becoming ever more unlikely, Cholothrax, after bringing the Giant to it's knees, fled the battle back to the safety of the Rot Tree, following the remnants of his Blight Kings, Plague Ogres and Nurglings, ready to lead the assault on the remaining Orc forces in the forest.

I guess that turned into a mini battle report of my first game too! Hopefully going to try writing like this after each battle, due to how rarely I get to battle this shouldn't prove too much hassle. Will do another post covering my battle highlights to keep things compact.

Plague Ogres Complete!

After what feels like an age, I've managed to just about finish the Plague Ogre unit. I had trouble for a long time trying to get the right size bases bought, but in the end I'm happy with how the bases have turned out, after a flash of inspiration after some pieces of slate fell off my roof -

The growths across the back are probably a little too much, but I'm still proud of them as these and the stomach below are my first attempts at greenstuffing.

However I'm really happy with the blending between the growth and skin.

The open stomach below is my favourite part of the unit, it was really easy to mold using the green stuff, and painted up I think it blends in with the model alot better than the back growths.

Even though the Plague Ogres have no rules for standard bearers (or other command models), I'm glad I kept it as is, rather than trying to convert it to using a normal weapon. I enjoyed the blending on the flag even though it's a bit rougher than the growth blending. The gnoblar that came with the miniature I swapped heads with a spare nurgling head from, I think, the Plaguebearer kit.

This last ogre goes with my Possessed warband (counts as plaguebearer unit, this guy counts as 2 in game). The yellow round his mouth doesnt seem as pronounced IRL...

Army Background

For some reason this has languished in drafts - for further army background see this post too.

Decided to have a think about the background of my army, in order to get motivated to continue, inform my modelling and painting, and to help me decide which way to go with the army in future.

From what I know of the Nurgle forces in AoS so far, they have currently been depicted in Ghyran, the Realm of Life, fighting the Sylvaneth (Forest Spirits) for control of that realm.

I've decided to base my army around a particularly corrupted tree in Ghyran, which I will hopefully model at some point. I intend each unit to have a particular purpose in regards to the tree.

Currently in my mind the army is split into two, the Humans and daemons, who focus on tending to and defending the tree, and the Beastmen, who focus on expanding Nurgle's influence in the realm.

Below are some thoughts on background for the warband I have just finished painting.


The current leader of the warband is Cholothrax, a somewhat powerful Rotbringer Sorceror. His work entails jovially tending to the trees needs, ensuring it's conduits have sufficient matter at all times, in order for it to thrive. Cholothrax's grip on the warband is tenuous at best, hinging on his innate knowledge of the Rot Tree.

His personal retinue is led by his brother, who has absolutely no magical aptitude, and so compensates with a large two handed axe, threatening to start hacking at the tree when the two have an argument.

Other notable members of the warband are The Brothers, a group of three gors who are scouting out the warband in order to ascertain if the Rot Tree is a worthy cause for the rest of their herd to follow, and an Ogre who tags along for the laugh.

Just from these few thoughts on the characters of the warband has cemented at least my next few months of buying for the army, as the two brothers begin to one-up each other in their dedication to Nurgle (with varying stages of daemonhood), as well as Beastmen reinforcements arriving at some point (or not), and possibly even the arrival of a more powerful entity to take control of the warband.

I'm loving how open Age of Sigmar is for writing your own background, and am glad I did this exercise, even though I found it hard at first, as it has really helped define the army for me.