The Old World meets Age Of Sigmar: Prince Ulther's Dragon Company

This is the first of what will be many house rules I will be creating for the Age of Sigmar, as I bring many beloved and forgotten things from the world that was into the new age.

I present the first draft of the rules for Prince Ulther and his Dragon Company, they were a Regiment of Renown back in the mid 80’s so 2^nd and 3^rd edition Warhammer Fantasy.

There are two Warscrolls one for Prince Ulther himself and one for his Imperial Dwarfs in the Dragon Company. 

Prince Ulther’s Dragon Company

Prince Ulther

M: 4

Save: 4+

Bravery: 8

Wounds: 5

Missile Weapons              Range   Attacks To Hit    To Wound           Rend     Damage

Dwarf Pistol                           8          1           3+            3+                   -1              1

Melee Weapons              Range   Attacks To Hit    To Wound           Rend     Damage

Dragon Axe                          1           3            3+          3+                    -1               2

Description:

Prince Ulther is a single model, he is armed with a brace of Dwarf Pistols, the Dragon Axe and carries a sturdy Dragon Shield.

Abilities:

Brace of Dwarf Pistols: Prince Ulther is armed with more than one Dwarf Pistol and can shoot twice in the shooting phase instead of once.

Dragon Shield: Prince Ulther may re-roll failed save rolls of 1.

Hatred of Chaos: Prince Ulther has sworn an oath to not rest until all the vile minions of Chaos are eradicated from his Realm. Prince Ulther may re-roll all failed to wound rolls when fighting models with the Chaos Keyword.

Command Ability:

Vengeance of the Ancestors: If Prince Ulther uses this ability, then until your next hero phase all Dispossessed units from your army that are fighting models with the Chaos Keyword may make one extra attack with each of their melee weapons if they are within 8" of him when they attack in the combat phase.

KEYWORDS: ORDER, DUARDIN, DISPOSSESSED, HERO, PRINCE ULTHER

 

The Dragon Company

M: 4

Save: 4+

Bravery: 7

Wounds: 1

Missile Weapons              Range   Attacks To Hit   To Wound           Rend     Damage

Dwarf Pistol                         8          1            4+          3+                  -1               1

Melee Weapons              Range   Attacks To Hit   To Wound           Rend     Damage

Dwarf Axe                           1          3            3+            4+                   -               1

Description:

A Dragon Company unit has 5 or more models. The Dragon Company goes to war armed with a Brace of Dwarf Pistols, a Dwarf Axe and a sturdy Dragon Shield.

Dragon Captain

The leader of this unit is the Dragon Captain. A Dragon Captain makes 2 attacks rather than 1.

Standard Bearers

Models in this unit may be Standard Bearers. Standard Bearers carry a Dragon Banner.

Hornblowers

Models in this unit can be Hornblowers. When a unit containing any Hornblowers runs, they can ‘Sound the Advance’. If they do so, do not roll a dice to see how far the unit runs; instead, they can move up to an extra 4".

Abilities:

Brace of Dwarf Pistols: Models armed with a Brace of Dwarf Pistols can shoot twice in the shooting phase instead of once.

Dragon Shield: Models with a Dragon Shield may re-roll failed save rolls of 1.

Dragon Banner: The unit is wreathed in runic dragon flames, if the unit suffers mortal wounds those wounds may be ignored on a roll of a 5 or 6. If the result is a 6 the mortal wound is ignored and the unit that caused it suffers a mortal wound.

KEYWORDS: ORDER, DUARDIN, DISPOSSESSED, DRAGON COMPANY

I will eventually test these scrolls out and make a nice PDF download once they are ready for prime time and I have the new models painted for them. 

Just for fun reference this is my original unit of the models painted in the 80's I have a new set in the box just waiting to be painted for Age of Sigmar. 

Until next time may you dice roll sixes!

Why Age Of Sigmar?

I am a very Oldschool gamer, I have been playing Warhammer in some form or another since 1^st edition back in 1983. I’ve played every edition that has come out of Games Workshop, whether I liked the changes or not. Let’s face it wargamers are not always the most accepting people when it comes to change.

I am going to be brutally honest here, as much as I loved Warhammer the last two editions of WFB just were not my cup of tea. The game in my opinion had become all about the number crunching to create the most effective army and that tended to leave the “fun or Fluffy” choices out. Also units had just become to “big” in my honest opinion.

By the time Age of Sigmar dropped I had not played a game of WFB in over 18 months. It just was not punching my ticket as something fun to play. While the End Times did have a lot of Great stuff in it, I had lost my passion for Warhammer. 

So when Age of Sigmar dropped, again being honest, I only checked it out because the Rules and Warscrolls were free from the Games Workshop website. A funny thing happened as I was reading through the Rules and Warscrolls something clicked in my head and I almost immediately felt the excitement I had for the earliest editions of the game.

Was I shocked that Games Workshop had done away with points, sure I was after having them beat the idea into my head over 25 years of gameplay; however I started thinking about how “we” played 1^st and 2^nd ed WFB. Back then it was all about scenarios, we thought up something totally cool and worth fighting over, brought out models out and played a game. While there were points we Never used them in this time period.

Suddenly my brain was buzzing with all sorts of cool things that we could do with Age of Sigmar that would not have been acceptable outside of a very specific group of players for many years. The uneven never going to actually win scenario, where victory is determined just by surviving or holding the enemy off for ‘x’ turns was again possible and much more acceptable as a way to play. 

As an oldschool Oldhammer fan, this is fantastic because most of the best campaign packs were very uneven affairs with preset lists and not a point value to be found. This is allowing me to update packs like “Bloodbath at Orc’s Drift”, “Terror of the Lichemaster” and “Tragedy of McDeath” into great Age of Sigmar campaign scenarios. 

Age of Sigmar thrives on Scenario game play, it gives a much more immersive and satisfying gaming experience to the charge forward and slaughter your opponent gameplay that had become the norm of the recent past. This is where GW make some money from us and there is nothing wrong in that, the scenarios they have created are only available in the paid for books or paid for downloads on the Age of Sigmar app. I highly recommend spending the money and getting the scenarios if you are not good at writing your own.

While some Heroes are really powerful fighters Age of Sigmar is not a return to “Herohammer” of the past, most Heroes are potent unit buffing tools for your army making units near them better just by being close to them. Army Synergy is a real thing in Age of Sigmar and more so than in any other edition of Warhammer has ever had.

Another thing Age of Sigmar has going for it is its ability to scale up or down well, smallish games and Large games are both extremely satisfying. Plus I must applaud Games Workshop for circling all the way back around and giving us the freedom to do what we want with our games and armies then actually encouraging us to do so!

Heck if you really need structure some of the brightest minds from the community have created “Comp” systems for Age of Sigmar that do just that. I have personally used the Clash comp done by Mo for Clash of Swords last year, I have tried Azyr comp, and am currently in love with the SCGT comp done by the fine folks at Heelanhammer for the South Coast GT coming up next month.

Bottom line is Age of Sigmar allows you the freedom to play Warhammer however you see fit. This is an excellent thing. So if you have not tried Age of Sigmar yet you really should, hell it won’t cost you a dime as the rules are free! 

In closing I have not had this much fun playing or have been this excited about Warhammer in 20 years to me that is the shining star of the whole affair. I am stoked about hobbying and playing this game like a kid again.

Until next time may your dice roll many sixes!

Chaos Grand Alliance list selections

I thought I would share some insight into the selection of units I did in my list. While a lot of the reasons I chose these units is the Rule of Cool because I do really dig and want to paint them. But enough of that.

First up on the list is the Lord of Chaos, while I have been dying to paint the latest plastic mini since it came out which is a great reason to add him. He recently got a really outstanding update in the grand alliance list. If he defeats an enemy general he can choose to transform into a full strength Daemon Prince; this is a great option if he has been severely wounded. Also if he is slain in combat with the enemy general he can be replaced with a full health spawn. Next up is that if he is marked by chaos he can share his marks ability with a unit with the same mark in his army.

Up next the pair of Chaos Sorcerers, these to me are an obvious choice for any chaos general. Their buffing a spell casting abilities are fantastic. The reason I took a pair is because of the Shaggoth, they automatically know the summon lightning spell that can be cast on him to heal D3 wounds on the beastie, which can keep him at full fighting capacity longer in the game.

The Bloodsecrator this guy is my insurance policy while I learn how the chaos units function. I will be making liberal use of the Mark of Khorne in the list, because when he plants his Portal of Skulls the immunity to Battleshock is a huge buff to the army. In addition all Khorne marked units also gain an extra attack, yes please!

Dragon Ogor Shaggoth, what can I say, he is one of 2 completely Rule of Cool models in this list. That is not saying he is not good in the game, especially when combined with the Chaos Sorecerers, but there are better monsters at the same pool choices. Bottom line is that I love the model and he is in as well as a Unit of the plastic Dragon Ogors when I pick em up.

Now on to the meat of the list, the unit Warscrolls:

Chaos Knights, what can I say I like Chaos Knights, I’ve got a unit of 6^th ed ones I have been needing to finish for 10 years. While on the tabletop they lack the punch of having rend, the 5 knights put out 18 freaking attacks on a small frontage. I can live with forcing saves for possible failures. Besides they are the first of my fast units for objective claiming.

Blood Warriors, I love these models having 15 of them in a unit makes em really resilient. I armed this first batch with dual Bloodaxes for the rerolls of 1 to hit, I figure without rend the more hits the better. It also great that they get to pile in and attack in melee if slain, these guys are great. I will make a second unit eventually with the Gorefists and their mortal wound potential, but for now it’s about offence.

Chaos Warriors with hand weapons and shields, these guys are my resilient objective holder with 15 of them and their ability to shrug off mortal wounds on a 5 or 6. Besides I don’t care how static people think they are I think they have the look of a unit on a determined advance, not caring one bit about what the enemy throws at them.

Next up we have 2 units of shield toting javelin throwing Marauder horsemen, they serve a few purposes in the army first and foremost they can move relatively fast with multi-wounds and are good objective grabbers late in the game. Secondly they are there for shooting support of the Knights and Chariots on each flank. Bonus is that they can shoot and Charge even if they retreated the same turn, this makes em more flexible in my book.

Chaos Chariots, I am building and using these for a few reasons. First off I have 4 of the old metal chariots and I figure what better way to show the difference between normal Chariots and Gorebeast Chariots other than just the draft animal. Secondly I have some great conversion ideas for the crews of these old metal models see above pic. Finally while they may not seem like a fast unit at first their “Don’t spare the Lash” rule adds a D6 to their movement every turn giving them a possible 14 inch move with an average of around 11 inches.

Finally we have the Chaos Gargant, I have the old Grenadier miniatures Chaos Giant I have had since the 80 and is screaming for a repaint, since my motto is “Making old miniatures new for Age of Sigmar” he’s just gotta be in here. Besides he is a freaking Giant and they start off with a large damage output and that cannot be a bad thing at all!

Well there you have it, a glimpse into this mad old wargamers head as to why I chose the units I did for my initial Chaos list.

Until next time, may your dice roll sixes!