To celebrate the holidays we organized a large game of Age of Sigmar between a Christmas themed Gloomspite Gitz army and Sylvaneth. I calculated points for everything I had painted for Sylvaneth (list below) and my opponent fielded a similar amount of Gloomspite Gitz (list below). He has more than double what he fielded, but I am not as productive at the painting desk as he is. We set up an 8′ by 4′ table and using a custom battleplan started what will hopefully be the inauguration of an annual event.
The Xmas story begins
Skagg-rat the false loon king has been an incredibly successful recruiter to his cause. Recently he has been working to gain the favor of a local Dankhold Troggboss who goes by the name Santa. Santa seems amenable to joining the quest for the bad moon. To join the moon mission, he has required an elaborate celebration. Santa was quite explicit in his demands for said celebration; it must, take place during a specific phase of the moon, at a Broken Tooth mountain summit, and have a giant pyre in the shape of an ‘X’. Fortune smiles upon Skagg-rat as always and his scouts have found the mountain top and tunneled their way to it.
Sylvaneth need a new glade
Drycha Hamadreth sat in her glade. Moment to moment alternating between bitterness toward her lot and anger toward her current forest. She grew restive and bored of her familiar surroundings and thought it might be less awful to grump at a new forest in a new glade. All the better if it was in a dreary and bleak place. Always happy to take reprieve of their leader’s presence, some spite revenant scouts went looking for a location to suit her needs. After a long search, they came upon a beautifully barren stretch of land in the mountains of Ghur. Drycha and her army set out to seed a new winterleaf glade immediately after the details were reported, .
The conflict ensues
While setting up their loon shrine, Skagg-rat’s forward party planners spotted a forest that had previously gone unnoticed. Never questioning good luck, they reported back to Skagg-rat and he recruited a few hundred of his closest followers to harvest the lumber for the pyre. The gitz began harvesting lumber and quickly discovered that it was lightly used and apparently inhabited by spites, revenants and various forest spirits. This may take a bit more effort to acquire, but the souls will make for a much better tribute to the bad moon…
Turn 1
Sylvaneth
Drycha’s winterleaf glade won the initiative. They rush into Santa’s territory, setting up wyldwoods as they go (creation of the wyldwoods). The Treelord Ancient used his ability to place a wyldwood and Drycha summoned one as well. Kurnoth hunters let loose with their shooting and combine with flitterfuries from Drycha to kill some front line gitz. The plan for the first turn was to set up screens and get my big trees into position to score 3 points.
Gloomspite Gitz
The gloomspite gitz rush forward on their first turn to engage. Spells and many git sized arrows plink away at the trees. In the charge phase the gitz unleash fanatics into a spite revenant screen, making short work of them. The front line masses of gitz are mostly ineffective, killing some sylvaneth battleline, but losing far more of their own in the process.
The spirit of Durthu was positioned so that if the dryads were charged, he would be pulled into the combat. This was my first time using the winterleaf glade, the double hits on a natural 6 to hit roll is as nasty as I assumed it would be. Durthu killed 26 gitz by himself, this plus some dryad kills resulted in a unit of 60 grots being destroyed on their own charge. No big deal for the gitz though as they just reinforced at half strength from the loon shrine caves. Gloomspite gitz harvested some wyldwood trees, but didn’t score them yet. Sylvaneth 3 – Gloomspite Gitz 0.
Turn 2
Gloomspite Gitz
The Gloomspite Gitz win the initiative and the game turns pear shaped for the Sylvaneth. Gloomspite gitz use the double turn very effectively and chip away at Drycha and Durthu with spells. The assembly line of gitz passed harvested wyldwood along. Stockpiling it in the centrally located loon shrine. More tiny git arrows begin to whittle down screens and elite troops alike. Santa caught the treelord ancient out of position and rushed in for the kill. Santa lumberjacked it for 15 damage on the charge and one shotted the poor big tree. Sylvaneth elite troops did their best to thin gitz numbers, but this was proving to be a big task.
Sylvaneth
The reinforced gitz manage to block summoning from the branchwraith, preventing some much needed help in the middle. Drycha heals up to 5 wounds and makes a desperate charge toward the false loon king. Shooting from behemoths and kurnoth hunters damage the false loon king a bit and get rid of a shaman. The net number of gitz is somewhere around negative 150 at this point, but there are plenty more and they just keep popping back up.
Sylvaneth 5 – Gloomspite gitz 8
Turn 3
Gloomspite Gitz
Initiative goes to the gitz. Their spells splinter Durthu down to only a few remaining wounds. A combination of spells and arrows finally slays Drycha. Drycha and Durtha are victims of the false loon kings moon onna stick. They burned slowly under it’s curse. The gitz have lost many of their numbers. Despite this, they have harvested almost all of the sylvaneth lumber at this point.
Sylvaneth
The Sylvaneth tried their best to rally the troops and make one more push into git territory. Despite killing hundreds, it was Drycha’s army that was losing momentum. After combat Durthu has only a single wound left, diminishing future scoring potential. Gitz killed all healing and summoning wizards off the table. A solid Gloomspite Gitz victory is inevitable. The game ends. Sylvaneth 6 – Gloomspite Gitz 13
End of a battle, beginning of a war.
The trees did not start the war on gitmas. The trees will end it.
