Games Workshop Vampire Counts: Black Knights

Our Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

The Black Knights from Games Workshop are a great flanking unit with high mobility for your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. They get a twelve inch standard move, two wounds each and five plus save helps keep them alive. That save goes to a four plus against attacks with no rending against the Black Knights due to their Crypt Shields.

A unit of Black Knights has five or more models, but do really well in units of between ten and twenty depending on how big of a list you are building. Like Hexwraiths the other type of cavalry you can build with this box, Black Knights get two attacks with their Skeletal Steed’s Hooves and Teeth hitting on a four plus and wounding on a five plus. But they are also equipped with Barrow Lances that also get two attacks but hit on a three plus and wound on four plus. The Barrow Lances shine when you charge a unit of Black Knights because of their Deathly Charge ability. Deathly Charge takes their Barrow Lances from wounding on a four plus down to a three plus and changes the damage the Barrow Lances do per wound from one to two!

Black Knights should always be built with a full command. The unit leader is a Hell Knight and gets an extra attack with his Barrow Lance. Models in the unit can also be Standard Bearers or Hornblowers. As a rule of thumb make sure to remove an command models in the unit last to take advantage of their buffs for as many turns as possible. Standard Bearers allow a unit of Black Knights to subtract one from the bravery of an enemy units within six inches of the Standard Bearer. The Hornblower allows a unit of Black Knights to always get a six inch charge unless the charge roll comes out higher than six.

Black knights go well with a Vampire Lord who can bring back slain Black Knights every Hero phase with their Deathly Invocation ability and also grant them one extra attack to all of their weapons with the Blood Feast command ability, skeletal steeds included. Check the Black Knights from Games Workshop out for yourself for your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

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February 21, 2019 0

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars is Games Workshop’s latest edition of their Age of Sigmar starter set, including a full hardbound rules book for the 2018 2nd Edition rule set. This fantastic box also includes a whopping fifty-two miniatures in Games Workshop’s new push-fit easy to build style models.

Thirty-two Nighthaunt miniatures and nineteen Stormcast Eternals with the newest warscroll cards and unique battalion warscrolls are included in the model set. The Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars box also includes a plethora of support booklets. A sixteen page booklet with the full rules for easy reference, a thirty-two page Battle of Glymmsforge booklet containing some of the back story and fluff for the included miniatures, and an 8 page Start Here booklet providing all the essential information for starting the Warhammer Age of Sigmar hobby.

The box is nicely rounded out with a beautiful set of twelve 14mm six sided dice, a twelve inch ruler, assembly and painting guides for all the miniatures, transfer sheet for the Stormcast Eternals and a mini thirty-two page preview novel from the Black Library, Games Workshop’s repository of stories from the Age of Sigmar and 40K universes.

The Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars starter set is a great example of Games Workshop working to pack more value into their kits. They have truly pulled that goal off here. Even at a price point that is 30% higher than previous starter sets, this box is a fantastic value. It starts with the rule book. Previous entries only had mini versions or booklets of the rules, while this set includes the full hardbound edition of the rules. The rule book alone nets you 30% of the increased cost of the box.

Next, the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars starter set is packed with fifty-four models, the most they have ever included in a starter set. The kit is a solid place to start building a new Stormcast Eternal or Nighthaunt army. Games Workshop is killing the design of their new push to fit, easy to build models. The detail on these models is sometimes even better than GW’s standard model kits, and they are so easy to build that you have no excuse to put off assembling them.

Getting the warscrolls is a needed and much appreciated bonus, along with all the support books and dice. The included ruler is on the flimsy and cheap side, but most Warhammer players choose to use their own tape measure. However, the ruler they provide is serviceable if no other measuring device is available.

In my opinion, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars is one of the best starter sets Games Workshop has ever released. With immense value packed into every inch, gorgeous artwork and model design, and that beautiful full hardbound edition of the complete ruleset. It is a must buy for anyone who plays or wants to play Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.

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February 18, 2019 0

Citadel Nighthaunt Liekoron The Executioner Lord Executioner Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Our Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Review By: Kelly

The Lord Executioner is an interesting Nighthaunt army unit for Warhammer Age of Sigmar to say the least. It’s available in two different versions from Games Workshop. One is included in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Wars starter set and the other is available as a stand alone model with a completely different sculpt named Liekoron The Lord Executioner. However, both flavors use the exact same warscroll.

Normally, named versions of units have extra abilities or something that makes them unique enough to deserve a name in the background story and fluff. And honestly, on paper, the Lord Executioner should be an amazing unit worth the points cost in your lists as an extra Hero unit.

But in practice, I’ve had a completely different experience. This unit’s performance as a Hero hunter is not the greatest. While effectively able to hit on 2+ and wound on a 3+ when fighting another hero, along with a bonus two damage per wound on a natural six wound role and -2 rending, I’ve never been able to effectively use him in a game. Now, that may be my own fault but I tried, believe me, I tried.

I’ve brought him in later rounds to surprise enemy generals or spell-casters. I’ve slowly worked him up the board behind a large unit of Chainwrasp Horde or Glaivewraith Stalkers. He just never seems to perform, once he engages close combat with any melee hero, he melts in less than a turn and never seems to eliminate his target. I’ve found that his points are better spent on Crawlocke The Jailor or a Cairn Wraith or other similar boosting heroes in my lists.

The models themselves have really cool sculpts, and each one has their own charms to their design, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to keep playing one in my lists. Check the Lord Executioner out for yourself and see if he has a place in your Warhammer Age of Sigmar collection.

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February 18, 2019 0

Dungeon Roll Dice Game

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

Dungeon Roll by Tasty Minstrel Games is a fantastic dice rolling, dungeon delving game for one to four players and a recommended age range of eight plus. However, with some minor coaching, our six-year-old Robby was able to pick it up and play easily.

In Dungeon Roll each player has a character they play (the player type can either be handed out randomly, or chosen by each player depending on the rule set you choose), which hearken to the types of characters you’d see in a Dungeons and Dragons style game. Each have different passive and active abilities to aid your party in the dungeon.

One of the fun aspects of this game is that every player gets to takes turns being the Dungeon Lord (Dungeon Master). The Dungeon Lord rolls the dungeon dice to reveal monsters to slay, magic scrolls and potions. Meanwhile, the challenging player tries to defeat the dungeon levels and collect treasure and XP.

Our son had a great time being the Dungeon Lord and rolling the “bad guy” dice for Mom’s party to fight. He did sometimes find it hard to remember to advance the dungeon dice as the levels increased, but with a little coaching, he was able to make it through the full game like a pro.

It took us a few rolls to get the game-play down, but once we did, we all had a ton of fun. The game gets into a rhythm as play goes around the table, turning Dungeon Roll into a quick-paced game for family game nights. It would be a fun transition game to play between your favorite card games and board games, as play typically lasts fifteen to thirty minutes.

Dungeon Roll is also quick to learn and accessible for a new players. Dungeon Roll originally came to life on Kickstarter and crushed their goals early in the campaign. Dungeon Roll was so successful that it’s now available just about anywhere that board games and card games are sold. Check out Dungeon Roll for yourself and see if it fits into your family game nights as well as it does ours.

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February 18, 2019 1

Games Workshop Nighthaunt Hexwraiths

Our Rating: 5 of 5

Review by: Kelly

Hexwraiths are an amazing cavalry battleline unit for a Nighthaunt allegiance army in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. I have to admit, i’m massively biased when it comes to Hexwraiths, I absolutely love them! And Games Workshop indulges my love of Hexwraiths with the Deathriders Battalion Warscroll in the Citadel Nighthaunt Battletome.

The Deathriders Battalion include two units of Hexwraiths (I run two units of ten), A Black Coach and one or two Dreadblade Harrows (I run them both and call them the Murder Bros). All of the units in the battalion get plus one to their charge rolls. And if they roll a nine plus on the charge, they can immediately pile in and fight a round of combat. This is amazing because they can still be selected to pile in and fight as normal during the Combat Phase. I run a two thousand point list based on this battalion and it is tons of fun!

Hexwraiths are available in units of five in their own box and in the Start Collecting: Malignants box. They have two wounds each, a whopping twelve inch move, and a four plus save. They have four attacks split between their Spectral Scythes and their Skeletal Steed’s Hooves and Teeth with fairly modest attack profiles. But the Spectral Scythes do automatic wounds on a hit roll of six. The unit leader is a Hellwraith and gets and extra attack with his Spectral Scythe. To top that off, if you make a move across an enemy unit, roll a dice for each Hexwraith that passed through an enemy model on a five plus the unit suffers a mortal wound.

I like to charge them in for a round of combat, then move through the unit im fighting, do those extra mortal wounds, charge, then pile in and attack again. I back up each unit of Hexwraiths with a Vampire Lord ally (only available through Games Workshop) to give them extra attacks and bring back dead models/heal lost wounds. Always ensuring the Hexwraiths are dealing damage and staying at a reasonable unit strength.

Hexwraiths are an amazing option for your battleline units in your Nighthaunt army for games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. They are a must buy to at least have a fast, heavy hitting unit for capturing objectives or flanking enemy units.

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February 18, 2019 0

Games Workshop Age of Sigmar: Stormcast Eternals Judicators

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

Games Workshop Judicators, like Liberators, are a battleline unit for Stormcast Eternals armies in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. However, Judicators are a ranged unit equipped with either Skybolt Bows or Boltstorm Crossbows. One in every five models may instead be armed with a Shockbolt Bow for extra hits or a Thunderbolt Crossbow for an almost automatic D3 wounds on large model count units.

The leader of the unit is Judicator-Prime who gets plus one to hit with his weapons. Boltstorm crossbows are the option for down and dirty encounters with their lowered range of only twelve inches compared to the Skybolt Bow’s range of twenty-four inches. However, the Boltstorm crossbows get one extra attack if the unit didn’t move during the movement phase. This allows the crossbow equipped Judicators to really put out a hail of withering fire against enemy units.

The reduced range of the crossbows can open up your Judicators to being charged and bogged down in melee. I find it very effective to screen them with either a unit of Liberators or some Paladin Protectors. Add in a hero or two, like the Lord-Castellant, and you can fairly easily lock down an area of the battlefield.

Being able to take Judicators as a Battleline unit opens up some interesting possibilities for shooting army of Stormcast Eternals. Especially with the recent Stormcast Eternals Sacrosanct Chamber releases, you can really build a mostly shooting army pretty easily. Units such as the Celestar Ballista & Castigators go really well with Judicators in this case. I’m personally planning on setting up a shooting army of Stormcast Eternals with twenty Judicators, three to four ballistas, some Castigators, a Lord-Ordinator general and some Vanguard-Raptors and Vanguard-Hunters.

Judicators are a great ranged option for your Stormcast Eternals Armies and are pretty flexible depending on how you want to play them. The sculpts are beautiful detailed as we have come to expect with Games Workshop’s models. The only issue I have with the kit is that there really isn’t a lot of variety of poses with the models.

I would have liked to see a few more dynamic shooting poses with them. But Games Workshop fixed that desire with the release of Castigators. Castigator’s easy to build kit and their standard kit have different poses with some models holding their bows in the air or aiming and feature both male and female characters. It’s so much easier to build a unique and varied looking unit with access to that variety. Definitely check out Judicators if you are planning a Stormcast Eternals army for your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

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February 18, 2019 0

Games Workshop Warhammer 40k: Knight-Vexillor

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

The Knight-Vexillor is a great support Hero for your Stormcast Eternals armies in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. The Knight-Vexillor’s sculpting is gorgeous and fits in well with the Stormcast Eternals esthetic. Games Workshop has done a great job, as usual, designing the look of the Stormcast Eternals.

The Knight-Vexillor can then either take a Meteoric Standard or a Pennant of the Stormbringer. The Meteoric Standard allows the Knight-Vexillor to call down a fireball during your hero phase by picking a point with twenty-four inches of the model. Every enemy unit within 2D6” of that point suffers D3 mortal wounds. This is a great ability to soften up some frontline units or a hero ball.

The Pennant of the Stormbringer allows the Knight-Vexillor to teleport a friendly unit to any point on the battlefield as long as it is more than nine inches from enemy units. Again the model can only use this ability once per battle. This ability can allow you to suddenly pop a unit behind enemy lines or to a previously out of reach objective giving your Stormcast Eternals some great flexibility to redeploy mid battle.

No matter which one you take, after you use the once per battle ability, the Knight-Vexillor can still give units charge rerolls with their Icon of War ability as long as they are within eighteen inches of the Knight-Vexillor. The Knight-Vexillor is fairly decent in combat himself as well with four attacks hitting on a four plus and wounding on a three plus and one damage each. The Knight-Vexillor only costs one hundred and twenty points in pitched battles making it a great filler hero for rounding out a list where all of your other needs are met. Check him out for your Stormcast Eternals army in your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

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February 18, 2019 0

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternals Liberators

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review By: Kelly

Games Workshop Liberators are the main battleline unit for armies of Stormcast Eternals in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. The leader of the unit is a Liberator-Prime and gets an extra attack with his equipped weapon. Liberators can either be armed with Warhammers or Warblades and they can take them either paired to reroll hit rolls of a one or single with a Sigmarite Shield allowing them to reroll save rolls of a one. One in every five models can instead take either a Grandblade or Grandhammer to add some extra damage output and some rending to the unit.

Liberators have two wounds, a five inch move, and a four plus save making them pretty hardy against most other melee units. While Judicators may also be taken as a ranged battleline unit option, Liberators are a great choice for holding objectives or locking down enemy monster and hero units thanks to their ability Lay Low the Tyrants.

Lay Low the Tyrants allow the Liberators to get plus one to their hit rolls when fighting units with five wounds or more.Giving them a two plus to hit with blades and a three plus to hit with hammers. Liberators go great with a Lord-Celestant on foot backing them up. The Lord-Celestant’s command ability Furious Retribution can further boost the Liberators to hit rolls by another plus one, guaranteeing that those hit rolls go through.

The models themselves are beautiful along with all the other Stormcast Eternals sculpts from Games Workshop. The easy to build kit is a great way to fill in your units if you want hammers, but can easily be kit-bashed to blades if you pick up a full box of liberators as well. Liberators are available in several different boxes of models. The come in a unit of ten models in the standard box from Games Workshop. They also come in an easy to build box of three models and the Stormcast Eternals Start Collecting box in a unit of five models.

Ready to start building your army? Get the Stormcast Eternals Start Collecting Box on Amazon Here.

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February 18, 2019 0

Games Workshop 40K Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternals Paladins Retributors

Our Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review by: Kelly

Paladins are a must buy for your Stormcast Eternals armies for games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Boxes of Games Workshop paladins can build three different sects: Retributors, Decimators, and Protectors. No matter which version you choose, these big boys have three wounds each, a four-inch move, a four plus save and are bravery seven. Each type of paladin is equipped with a different weapon. These weapons give the paladins amazing flexibility in their role on the battlefield. This allows you to build a versatile army built of primarily paladins since you can take two minimum units of Judicators for your battleline units in a Stormcast Eternals allegiance army.

Two in every five models of paladins can take a Starsoul Mace. In general, you’ll want to take the maximum number of Starsoul Maces. They do an automatic D3 wounds per Mace on a hit roll of a two – five. On a six they do D3 plus one wounds instead and a hit roll of a one misses. Starsoul Maces are consistent damage output for units of Paladins, no matter which variant you take. The only time I don’t take maces is with Decimators.

Decimators are equipped with Thunderaxe’s that make a number of attacks equal to the number of enemy models within two inches of each Decimator. Up against large blobs of enemies, Decimator paladins do exactly as their name implies, they are capable of completely destroying a large blob of one wound low bravery models in one round of attacks. And Decimators reduce the bravery of enemy units in the battleshock phase by two, increasing the chance of extra models running away.

Protectors are equipped with Stormstrike Glaives with a whopping three inch range. Stormstrike Glaives are designed to deal massive damage to monsters with their Deathstrike ability. Deathstrike turns hit rolls of a six into d6 damage instead of one. Stormstrike Glaives also allow Protectors to knock missle weapons out of the air with their Storm-shield ability, giving them plus one to their saves against shooting attacks as well as boosting the save of any units being shot at that are wholly within six inches of a unit of Protectors. Taking Starsoul Maces are a great option with Protectors for consistent damage output against a variety of enemy units.

Retributors are equipped with Lightning Hammers that do two damage with each hit and do an automatic two mortal wounds on a hit roll of a six. Retributors are the best all around version of paladins for doing consistent wounds to just about any enemy unit they get in close combat with. They have the shortest range of any of the paladins at one inch. Taking the maximum number of Starsoul Maces with units of Retributors is pretty much required to boost the damage output of the unit.

Paladins are more or less required when building armies of Stormcast Eternals for your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Their flexibility means building at least one unit of each type a must for your collection. Further boxes can be collected to build up an army of mostly paladins which can be great fun on the battlefield. These boxes also contain a ton of extra bits making them useful when kitbashing or converting other models. Paladins were once available in box by themselves in a unit of five models you could build into any type of Paladin. They were also available in the Storm of Sigmar box in a unit of two Retributors. If you’re lucky, you can still find them in the Stormcast Eternals Start Collecting box in a unit of two Retributors.

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February 18, 2019 0

Games Workshop Warhammer Spirit Hosts

Our Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review By: Kelly

Games Workshop Spirit Hosts are a fun little unit for your Nighthaunt army in games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Spirit Hosts are available in a unit of three in their own box and in the Start Collecting: Malignants box. Units of Spirit Hosts can be any number of models but I highly recommend taking them in a minimum unit of at least three. A unit of three is only one hundred and twenty points per the 2018 Generals Handbook which makes this the perfect filler for that last bit of points in your list. And boy are they worth the points even in units of only three.

Spirit Hosts are also a battleline unit if your army has the Nighthaunt allegiance so taking massive amounts of them and spamming their crazy six attacks per model is viable. Spirit Hosts are tough with three wounds each and a four plus save. While they only hit on a five plus and wound on a four plus, their number of attacks generally guarantees wounds going through every round of combat. And if the hit roll is a six, they inflict an automatic mortal wound!

The sculpts of the models are really cool looking with each model having three spirits floating around with their Spectral Daggers. However, whoever designed the model and build instructions was a sadist. There are so many little bits that you can accidently break off cleaning up leftover sprue on the pieces. And there are several points where you have to glue pieces together and let them sit for a while before gluing on the next piece. This makes building the models themselves a rather tedious and delicate process. And they are as delicate once built as a lot of other Nighthaunt models, so they have to be more carefully stored and transported.

Spirit Hosts are a fantastic option for your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar by Games Workshop. They do well as long as you take at least a minimum unit of three, and can really put the hurt on in units of nine or twelve. Check them out for your Nighthaunt army today!