40k Age of Sigmar: Wulfen and the Sanguinor

I received a request in the comments to make a Wulfen warscroll, and it rang some bells in my head, so I ended up spending way too much time today revisiting both the Blood Angels and Space Wolves warscroll compendiums.  One thing I wasn't super happy with when I first made them was how the specific chapters interact with vanilla marines.  With the addition of Wulfen and the Sanguinor, I feel like these two chapters are now more like proper Age of Sigmar factions, each with a few of their own "battleline" sorts of units, and their own leader.  The updated warscroll compendiums are available of course at the 40k Warscrolls tab, but here are the two new warscrolls (although many of the older warscrolls in those two factions have been tweaked as well).

The Wulfen are inspired a little by the new Orruk Brutes in that they have mixed weaponry like crazy.  These guys make up the foot troops of the newly minted "Fenryka" faction of Astartes.  I imagine that they would work as their own faction with Wulfen and Thunderwolves making up the massed units and the Wolf Lord at the fore.  They've even got their own Psyker (the Rune Priest), so they really have everything a faction needs.  By renaming them Fenryka, they're also able to work for successor chapters (not that the Wolves have many of those).

Similarly, the Blood Angels are now "Sanguine Astartes".  What they lacked was a leader, so I added the Sanguinor.  Even though he was a special character, I feel like the proper Sanguinor model or Astorath or just some cool looking dude with a jump pack and a big sword could do the trick quite nicely.  This guy is really just a beatstick character with a pretty cool command ability, and he rounds out the faction.  So Sanguine Astartes now has a leader, a psyker dreadnaught, and two units of their own (Sangunary Guard and Death Company) to round out a proper faction.

Of course all this isn't to say you can't mix them with plain old Imperium Astartes, it's just that they have some fun internal synergy now.

40k Age of Sigmar: Ogryns, Ratlings, and Chimeras... OH MY!

Continuing with the Astra Militarum, I've made a design decision.  I think that the IG will only be defined by the "Imperium" keyword.  I think that unlike other Imperial sub-factions, they are going to be kind of the default Imperium forces.  Some keywords seem necessary while others don't, and so while Sororitas or Inquisition seem fairly important, Astra Militarum doesn't.

So as I mentioned before, the Imperium forces will feed off of the Infantry Squad to play into a kind of platoon structure where the infantry forces are important.  The Ogryn are pretty heavily cribbed from Ogor Kingdoms what with the Bull Charge, but you know, they carry guns.  I don't know if I'll make an Ogryn Tyrant with a Ripper Gun.  I just can't say.

I also made Ratlings, who actually seem like they could be pretty beast despite themselves.  They can't stand up in a stiff breeze, but they sure can dish out some pain from a long ways away.

Last, but definitely not least, I didn't want to leave those of you who might actually be using these high and dry while I finish up other things.  I figure the Chimera and Heavy Weapons Squad should round out the essentials.  I'm actually pretty proud of the Chimera's design since it's pretty different from a Rhino.  It's a little less durable, but it's got a lot more going on.  I think that Mobile Command Vehicle will be great not only for people playing IG, but also for carrying around Inquisitors, or even other Imperial heroes who want a bit of safety.  To clarify (and I'll try to reword the ability on the warscroll to give it greater clarity), the Chimera should be able to hold a unit of 12 in addition to a Hero.

Turning the Leaf

In July I ran the third installment in my five part Age of Sigmar Game Day series.  This month, the forces of order, reeling from their loss at Fort S'nak, have attempted to regroup at the mythical Skywell to be empowered by its nourishing waters.  The events have grown steadily in participation.  In the first one, we had 4 people, then 5, and now 6 for the Ambush at the Skywell.

I though this one went especially well and that I'll explore more heavy handed special rules in the future (like the Ambush).  The things that made this successful I think were that the special rule had a large impact, but didn't need to be remembered throughout the battle.  It made an early splash and then was unimportant for the remainder of the battle.

At the end of the day, a newcomer rocking the new Sylvaneth won the most battles, so the story ended up being about how her Sylvaneth intervened and "betrayed" Lord Cueyatl and Lady Vendetta to steal the skywell's power for herself.

This Sunday, we'll be following up with a climactic multi-player battle on the Windswept Plain!

40k Age of Sigmar: Astra Militarum

Having received a request to do the good old Imperial Guard next, I shall oblige.  I've only gotten a little bit completed so far, but here's a few warscrolls to get you started.  I've got rough drafts for the Company Commander, Infantry Squad, and Imperial Commissar.  The Company Commander is cool because he can issue two commands per turn.  I figured since the IG have issuing commands as a mechanic in 40k, they should probably be awesome at issuing commands in AoS.

The Imperial Commissar is a support character who can dish out a bit of hurt while also keeping his charges from running off.

The heart of the Astra Militarum is the Infantry Squad.  For obvious reasons, they're very similar to a tactical squad, but they have access to mortars, which do not require line of sight!  Other "Infantry Platoon" units are going to get a bonus for being near an Infantry Squad, which will make the Infantry Squad a great focal point for the Astra Militarum to rally around.