My Seraphon Update

Hello!

Another Seraphon post, this time with stuff for me! As mentioned before, I managed to grab most of a launch box, so here's what I did with my own new Slann and Raptadons:

Raptadon Chargers - I opted to make both units the melee focused ones, which seem the most powerful individually, as I'm probably not going to be running enough of them to make the synergy between the two types reliable, they are more likely to be running out on their own to charge onto objectives or get in the way of stuff. Still, I'm a big fan of these models and I enjoyed painting them with a more muted but hopefully still striking scheme. They are based on the Snake-kicking Secretarybird, not quite a desert creature for the theme but I think it works well alongside the mostly brown lizards.

And here is my new Slann, sitting on his sandstone throne. I used pretty much all the alternative components to the lava one I built previously, including the cheeky Snakebite symbol at the top! Once again, it's a great kit and I had a good time painting him a bit like the Hypnotoad!

Here he is side-by-side with his predecessor. I didn't quite realise how much bigger this model is! The old frog isn't too far off but his throne is tiny- makes him look very cramped!

Of course the box also came with a new Battle Tome and assorted cards to go with it. Before got round to painting up the models, I had a go with the new rules, playing against Blades of Khorne with a Koatl's Claw Coalesced list. 

The game ended up in a narrow loss, but was pretty close and probably could have gone either way based on a couple of key rolls. The Saurus units felt a lot better than they did previously, with extra wounds, better attacks and better save near objectives made them really tough to shift outside of mortal wounds from charging bloodletters. The army rule changing from +1 to hit to +1 to wound on the charge was a big improvement, allowing it to stack with all out attack for a pretty nasty charge from pretty much anything Saurus. Both the dinosaurs I used, the Carnosaur and Troglodon felt much more impactful as well, with more beneficial buffing rules, extra wounds and more forgiving degradation. Judging by internet reaction it looks like the Starborne are the more powerful option these days, but I'm happy enough with the improvements to continue to play them as the no-nonsense fighting lizards I'm sort-of used to. I'm a little disappointed that the Saurus Knights got left out the book in favour of newer, bigger models, but with the doubling of cost for Warriors I've got plenty to fill the gaps!

Hopefully there will be some more AoS oppertunities coming soon, I would love the get the new units on the table, and play around with more of the new rules. As an aside, all the cards that came with the box are great, and I'm glad 40k has gone to data-cards, they are super useful compared to flipping through a codex or searching on an app! Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Lava Lizards Seraphon Project - Wave One

Hello!

I've been pretty excited about 40k recently, with 10th edition around the corner, but I have also been quite excited about Age of Sigmar as well! In particular, the lizards. When the Seraphon launch box popped up, I got asked to paint it's contents, plus some extras, in exchange in part for most of another launch box - so of course I said yes! Painting lizards is fun, and I wanted my own new magic frog!

The brief I had for this lot was blue skin, and fire/lava themed - so I had a go at molten rock for their scaly backs and stone accessories. I like to think they are summoned from the ground like a mini volcanic eruption, or dropped from the sky on burning meteors. In any case, here's a selection of lizards, dinosaurs and frogs:

In reverse size order, here we start with the skirmishing Skinks. It turns out these were a good place to start painting because their scales are large with significant gaps between them so it was quite forgiving for trying to find the method that would look right. In the end I opted to paint the whole orange/red/yellow area after the blue skin, then heavily drybrush black over the scales. Orange for the crests was an obvious fit with the rest of the model and the base, and the rest of the model was largely single colours (gold, brown, earth) with Snakebite Leather contrast over it.

Next up, the core of the footsloggers, two units of the lovely new Saurus Warriors. I was really pleased with the molted rock effect on these guys, since the gaps between scales are narrower, but more pronounced, though it did end up giving them a much darker look overall. I think this will work well on the tabletop because they will allow the big cool stuff to really pop. Though in a bid to add a little more colour I did decide to use green as a bit of a spot colour for feathers etc.

Which leads neatly onto the Raptadon Hunters and Chargers - both of which are wildly more colourful than their slower moving companions. The green feathers from the previous units suggested there should be some green here, and it kind of went from there! I got a little bit carried away with these dinos, adding in sky blue for the spots at the ends of the crest, arm and tail feathers. With the chaff, objective holders and quick response units done, it was time for some command, and some heavy damage dealers...

Obviously the natural answer is a comet-summoning magic frog! Here is the new Slann Starmaster, which is an amazing kit, surprisingly with loads of options. You could easily have two very different looking Slann from the same kit, with even little details like the skink attendants being swapped for a lizard or a frog. I love the floating effect they went for here and there are so many fun little details - though sadly this does mean he takes a while to paint!

However, sometimes a magic frog isn't enough, and you need an even more magic, slightly less alive frog...

Yes, the last 'miniature' in this wave, it's Lord Kroak! A huge AoS centrepiece model, and as I understand it an absolute monster on the table, he's a fitting conclusion to this project - for now at least. I think of all the models, this is the one that the molten rock look really works the best on - there's a lot of detail that it highlights on his throne and the surrounding rings. That aside, it's another mini with loads of little fun details, like his bed of snakes and the little frog (painted green here) chilling at the back.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there.

Skirmish in the North 3 - aka Learning Age of Sigmar Part Four

Hello!

This past weekend I went to the Skirmish in the North 3 event, a 1000 point Age of Sigmar tournament run by Hull's Angels wargaming club (in Hull, obviously). I was not expecting to do well (my last AoS game seems to have been back in April last year) and with five smaller games on the day I was going in looking for a fun and educational time, literally doubling the number of AoS games I have ever played - and one of those was in first edition before they had points costs.

As it happens, that's exactly what I got, coming away with a much better understanding of how the game works and, spoilers, the last place award. I was running the current/old Seraphon book with a fairly basic selection of Koatl's Claw Saurus units and no magic to keep it simple; two units each of Saurus Warriors and Knights, a unit of Skinks to get in the way, led by an Oldblood on Carnosaur, a foot Oldblood and a Sunblood. As usual with these tournament reports, I'm just going to run through a very brief summary of each game and then some final thoughts. Here goes.

First game was Morgan, who had Magotkin of Nurgle. Some cultist types, a couple of characters and a big blob of Blightkings. Nurgle does nurgle stuff, so I was expecting tough units and a sprinkling of mortal wounds, which is what I got.

I had a good go at killing off the various units and scoring some points, but ultimately I had no answer to the Blightkings, after the Carnosaur killed three of them, then got easily cut down in return. 26-15 to Nurgle.

Second game was against Ryan and his Gloomspite Gits. Lots of squigs and lots of Trolls.

Unfortunately the Gits had some fun mushrooms that meant a unit of squigs charged and ate my general in turn one, which was not an ideal start. Elsewhere I found out that Troggoths hit hard and are really tough, so the rest of my forces struggled to make a dent. Particular disappointment were the Saurus Warriors who charged the Cave Squigs and only managed to kill two of them, and then obviously got slaughtered in return. 28-8 to the Squgs.

Game three was against Rob and his cool alternative Idoneth Deepkin. A couple of blobs of thralls plus two units of angler fish-eels and a big boss riding a rather scary eel. Wasn't sure what to expect from these guys other than fast and elf stuff.

This felt like a close game with a lot of back and forth action on a central objective that then split into two. However I was foiled by consistently failing to kill stuff. Saurus Warriors with character support failed to finish off a unit of Thralls, Carnosaur failed to finish off some eels, and finally the two generals met and did about one wound between them. Close until it wasn't - 24-9 to the fish elves.

Game four was a lizard-off against Lee and his also Koatl's Claw Seraphon. He didn't have a big dinosaur, but he did have two reinforced blocks of Saurus Warriors and magic Skinks to buff them. He also had, amusingly, brought the Sunblood to get some use out of it having unique rules before the new book turns it into a generic Oldblood.

The main story of this game was the Carnosaur getting taken out by Skinks. A little unit of ten got buffed to dish out mortal wounds on sixes and between that and some awful saves they took 6 wounds off the dinosaur in melee! Much reduced it struggled to eat them and finally got taken out by the lizard wizard on the pyramid. Ouch. My foot heroes did a lot better, each taking a beating before they finally fell, (and my Sunblood was winning the duel until he got swarmed by Saurus Warriors instead) but I didn't really have an answer for those big blobs. 28-12 to the blue Seraphon.

Final game was against Conner and his Gloomspite Gits. Having faced them before I was wary of the damage squig units could put out and the survivability of the Troggoths. Luckily he didn't take a Cave Squig missile, instead opting for a big unit of gobbos to hold his home objective.

This game was a real close one with a lot of back and forth, and the general finally got to do proper big dinosaur things as he chomped through a load of squigs and trolls through the game. Conner was a few points ahead of me all game, pulled away a little at the end, but thanks to having last turn I was able to stop his grand strategy (have something in my territory at the end) and complete mine (no enemies in my territory) which left the game agonisingly close, but wasn't quite enough to grab one win from the event. 23-21 to the Gits.

So with that, I went 0-5, and into last place, but I did pick up the favourite player award, which is nice. I do genuinely try to make my games enjoyable for my opponent, as it tends to mean the game is more enjoyable for me as well, so it is appreciated that apparently I wasn't seen as a salty loser or anything. And importantly I did have fun - four of the five games felt like I was at least in with a shout, and I feel like I got most of my rules correct once I'd gotten going. 

I'm starting to understand now a little better how you are 'supposed' to play AoS - how to work around the various rules that differ from 40k, such as the 3 inch engagement range, the double turn, and chargers not auto-striking first. I've also learned that some of these old Seraphon units are massively outperformed by equivalents in other armies. If only they had an up to date Battletome...

Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!