40k Age of Sigmar: Space Marine & Tyranid Warscrolls

  As you may have noticed if you've read any of my other posts, I have played Warhammer 40k for many years.  I love the fluff and models.  Having gotten excited lately about the newer fare from GW, Age of Sigmar, I thought it would be fun to make some custom warscrolls for 40k armies.  I started by doing some research, which led me to this excellent interpretation of what warscrolls for a few Dark Angels units might look like.  Since I have a Tyranid army getting dusty on the shelf, and my brother plays Salamanders Space Marines, I figured the Adeptus Astartes would be a good place to begin.
  I started by riffing off of the aforementioned work they did on Dark Angels, likening Space Marines to the AoS native Stormcast Eternals, (namely Judicators with 2 wounds & 4+ saves) but with a few important differences.  I diverged from their formula for Dark Angels because I felt like to be true to Age of Sigmar, a unit ought to fit comfortably on a single sheet.  40k is a tricky fit for that because of their myriad weapon options, but I feel that I have made it work well through use of special rules.
  The first thing I did was to strip down weapon options by warscroll, ending up with a Tactical Squad that can wield Bolters, with a single marine carrying a Heavy Weapon, and all of them being equipped with Combat Knives.  The showcase special rule for the Tactical Squad is their Tactical Weapons, which accounts for their special weapon as well as the Heavy Weapon.
  By making the special weapon types into keywords instead of full weapons, I can reduce the number of weapons on the warscroll as well as the complexity of the rules while still capturing the overall feel of the unit.

  I mentioned before that the Tactical Marines are comparable to Judicators.  Judicators with Skybolt Bows have 2 attacks at 24" at 3+, 3+, Rend -1, and 1 damage.  I borrowed this bolter profile from the Dark Angels I mentioned before and added a point of Rend to it, but some analysis shows that this Bolter profile now deals the same average damage as a Judicator Skybolt Bow.

  To show another side of things, I'd like to also share a Tyranid warscroll.

  This was the first scroll I made for the Nids.  I used the Daemon Prince as my guide for the Hive Tyrant.  The damage output from its attacks is comparable overall.  My aim for the Hive Tyrant was to have its ranged prowess be worthwhile, but not the main event.  The overall damage output is comparable to the Daemon Prince on a basis of damage per turn per wound.
  The units I've examined so far show that damage per turn per wound ranges from .08 for Short Spear Ungors to .66 for Great Weapon Grave Guard.  My observation has been that the reasonable range is somewhere around .15 to .4 dptpw though, and I have been using it as a guideline in tandem with comparing similar warscrolls so far.
  Some statistical specifics about how I calculate this are that I divide the ranged attack damage output (vs a 4+ save) by 2 and add it to the melee attack damage output to calculate damage per turn, and then divide by the number of wounds the model has.  Because of Age of Sigmar's loose mechanical tolerances, it is pretty simple to produce rules that are balanced with existing warscrolls using math and then have fun writing flavorful rules.  The only hard part here was making sure that a Hive Tyrant with 'Many Bladed Limbs' was scarier in combat than a Tyrant without.
  I still have to playtest to see how it goes, but it should be a powerhouse while also being not too difficult to take down.

  I'll be back with more Tyranids and Space Marines, and probably some Space Orks (Space Orruks?) soon.

Battleplan: Blood and Glory

I've played some battles using the Clash of Empires (School League) Battleplan and I rather enjoyed it.  I had a thought that some similar principles could be applied in a fashion that would yield a more 'retro' warhammering experience.

I have created a battleplan that incorporates a force organization chart as a balancing mechanism just like in the days of old.  Each unit is restricted to no more than 20 wounds, so it does use wounds for balance to a certain degree, but with an extra twist.  I seriously considered counting attacks instead of wounds, but ultimately decided that wounds were the way to go.

It also uses reserves rules to shift the balance of power during the battle.  As your units are slain, your reserve units have a chance of entering the battle.  Since your reserve units are also the pool from which you may summon, this helps to tone down summoning somewhat while also bringing back an old mechanic for those who weren't going to summon anyhow.

The battle's victory condition is similar, but not identical to the 8th edition Blood and Glory scenario in that each army has a number of point representing their morale, and you must break said morale to win the battle.  Your starting morale is based on the number of detachments in your army and it is depleted as your units are slain and also as the battle progresses.

    

    

Edit: Added link to the pdf version of it.

Battleplan: The Ritual

Age of Sigmar: Mordheim

One of the bigger projects I've done for Age of Sigmar is a Time of War: Mordheim rules set with a Wyrdstone Hunt battleplan (you can look at the pictures here or get the pdf).  The idea here is to capture the general feel of Mordheim with as little cognitive load as possible.  I figured the best way to reach that end would be to build it within the existing structures of Age of Sigmar.

While the Time of War: Mordheim or the Wyrdstone Hunt battleplan are both usable by themselves for stand-alone battles, I've added a Campaign Ideas section to each set so that you can track your warband and its adventures through Mordheim as you see fit.  You might decide you like all the ideas I've provided, or just some of them, or have some different ideas of your own (if you do, I encourage you to post them in the comments).  

If you want make use of all the campaign ideas listed in both documents, you should start by creating your warband of up to 10 models.  Record the models in your warband on your warband roster.

Maintaining your Warband 

- Whenever a hero is slain in battle (as a result of the injury table) they are removed from your roster permanently.  Any other injuries persist into the next battle, but are healed after that.
- At the end of each battle, add any loot gained during the battle (gold pieces of wyrdstone shards) on your roster to track your warband's hoard.
- At the end of each battle, add any surviving Dogs of War hired to your roster.
- Gold Pieces can be spent to hire new models for one coin per Wound.
- Wyrdstone Shards can be sold for d3 Gold Pieces. 

Experience

- At the end of each battle, each player chooses one of their opponent's models who performed particularly well to gain a wound and an attack and the hero keyword if they don't already have it.
- At the end of the battle, roll a dice for each Veteran who survived the battle.  On a 6, they retain their Veteran ability permanently and gain the hero keyword if they don't already have it.

My warband is Richter Krueger's Cursed Company.  I've been using the old Regiment of Renown as my Grave Guard for many years, but they found new life!  After my first battle, I have:

Cursed Company

Shards: 1

Gold Pieces: 0

Richter Krueger (Wight King)

Sarkhan the Dead (Cairn Wraith) - head injury, arm injury

Skeletork* (Grave Guard) - +1 to Hit and to Wound

Bonequol* (Grave Guard) - +1 Attack and Wound

Grave Guard x3 w/ unit champion

Black Knights x2 w/ unit champion

Spirit Host

*Skeletork and Bonequol are orruk and skaven skeletons respectively.

Edited 5/1/16 to update rules and add pdf link.

Battleplan: Blood Feud

I made this battleplan hoping to play Age of Sigmar in a Warmahordesesque fashion.  I think it's got some potential.  When I played it, my opponent summoned a Gorghon and charged me turn one, so I'm not sure how it would go under more reasonable circumstances.

Age of Warhammer

I've lately picked up playing Age of Sigmar.  When it first came out, I really wanted to like it, but couldn't get into it.  I played half a dozen games with my brother and a few others and all of them devolved into a massive kill box in the center of the battlefield.  It was boring, didn't make me happy, and I moved on to Malifaux for a few months.  As time went on, I found that Malifaux (an excellent game, check it out!) didn't scratch the itch that Warhammer used to of pushing minis around the battlefield and trying to eke out victory with the dice providing ridiculous outcomes no matter how hard you may try.  So I decided to give Age of Sigmar a second chance.

I decided that my main problem with Age of Sigmar was that I didn't like the feeling of moving blobbed infantry units around and navigating them into combat as much as I liked moving ranked infantry blocks in Warhammer Fantasy, so I set about resolving the issue.  I created the optional rules page I call 'Age of Warhammer'.  It brings back ranked infantry in a way that has so far been quite functional and enjoyable without clashing with the general vibes of Age of Sigmar.  The most important thing about Age of Warhammer is that every rule in it is optional.  It has miscasts, misfires, and ranked infantry, but ultimately it doesn't force anybody to play by rules they aren't interested in.

AoS Downloads

These are other supplements I have created for Age of Sigmar (there are more scattered throughout the blog, but these are the ones I think are worth looking at).

  
  

Campaign - Efengie (Efengie book 1) - a five battleplan two-player narrative campaign with a history the Vale of Efengie and Time of War rules for battling there.

Campaign - Through the Deathgate (Efengie book 2) - a five battleplan two-player narrative campaign with Time of War rules for fighting at the Gates of Eucebium.

Campaign - Coalescence: Aftermath (Efengie book 3) - a five battleplan two-player narrative campaign with a recap of the events of Coalescence: War of the Ring.  Also includes the Colossal Red's Wrath raid-style battleplan and warscroll!

Campaign - Malign Portents (Efengie book 4) - a five battleplan two-player narrative campaign themed around Malign Portents.  It also includes the stories of Coalescence: Malign Portents, and Coalescence: Desolation of Eristrat as well as Regions of War rules for battling in Ghyran in the Vale of Efengie.

Campaign - Escalation (Efengie book 5) - a five battleplan two-player narrative campaign chronicling Efengie's involvement in the war between Kytos and Lamellia.  It also includes stories, rules for naval battles, and Allegiance abilities for the Bloodpact of Kytos, Lamellian Sellswords, and the Magi of Efengie.

Skirmish Campaign - Big Trouble in Little Azyrheim - a five battleplan skirmish campaign following the story of two warbands battling for control of the city of Reaper in Efengie.

Battleplan - Stuff of Legends - a narrative battleplan that uses story-gaming principles to help you forge the narrative

Campaign - Heart of Darkness - a broad-reaching campaign book laying out building blocks for telling stories in the Dark Age of Sigmar.  This book includes five grisly battleplans, dark age spells, artefacts, etc, some history and fiction set in the Ruins of Hammerstadt, and a brand new Quest style of narrative campaign!

Campaign - Soulless Seas - an expansion that adds naval battles to Age of Sigmar.  This book includes rules for fielding warships.  It also includes rules for weather, specialty munitions, high seas command, and a three battleplan naval campaign.

Age of Warhammer Irresistible Force table:

** This is solely a not-for-profit fan activity and in no way intends to infringe on copyrights held by Games Workshop (only to have fun with their awesome stories and models!).