We would like to thank Games Workshop for providing a copy of Dawnbringers: Book V – Shadow of the Crone for review.

People can push a lump of plastic around a table anywhere. They come to the Mortal Realms to earn honor through the skilled application of violence, show off battle Barbies with a sweet paint job, and see Nagash fail over and over and over again. As a Goonhammer reader there is something in the amalgamation of lore, modeling, and gameplay that creates a bouillabaisse that has gotten better since the initial launch of the game. The core rules of Age of Sigmar 3.0 serve as a mother sauce that allows for open play, matched play, and narrative play to each be distinct and consistent. After three years the Dawnbringers books are throwing new ideas and ingredients into this mix. The fifth book in the series is the first to have both Regiments of Renown and Armies of Renown, and adds a new battlepack very late in the third year of the edition. Dawnbreakers: Book V – Shadow Of The Crone has some spice, some undercooked aspects, and signals that the Dawnbringer Crusaders are going to definitely have a harmonious final chapter (if you define harmony as the reaping of skulls and souls). The parts of Dawnbringers we’re tasting today include:

• Strongpoints – Rules for allowing the skilled application of violence to inanimate objects. No, not trolls; buildings.
• Path to Glory – It wouldn’t be Age of Sigmar third edition without some additional Path the Glory rules in the penultimate entry in this series.
• Strongpoint Assault Battlepack – Taking some of the rules from the Strongpoints, this battlepack involves teams fighting in a different matched play experience.

Strongpoints:

I didn’t think too much of Strongpoints when I first thumbed through the 100+ page book, but after having a few weeks to look over and play out a few scenarios against myself in my unfinished basement, I really like the idea and execution of Strongpoints and think it’s one of my favorite “additional rules” sections. Strongpoints has taken something that often gets no reaction and mixes in enough thoughtful ideas that it overcomes some slight misses. Terrain in Age of Sigmar 3.0 has always been a bit bland. It’s telling that ignoring mystical terrain is as easy as asking your opponent, “Do you want to do mystical or not?” Imagine asking, “Do you want to do drops or not?” or, “Do you want to play with objectives or not?” Unless they have an important caster that needs arcane or have a specific strategy in mind the response is normally, “I forget about this rule during the game anyway.” Interactivity with faction terrain in Age of Sigmar is a binary question that asks, “Do you have the ability to smash to rubble?” with the outcome hanging on a single dice roll.

Strongpoints fix these problems for certain maps. They are deployed according to the battle plan provided with the defender having the option of adding specific terrain. These are terrain features that have been sold by Games Workshop in various boxes, but are often not available or out of stock creating a shortage of ingredients. It is more than worthwhile to come up with proxy terrain or create your own rules. Strongpoint terrain includes:

• Guardian Idol: A person holds a spear and shield that gives a 6+ ward to models within 3″ of the terrain. At 5 resource points (10% in a typical game) that feels slightly overcosted when you consider how many models and factions have access to a 6+ or better ward already. The larger bubble compared to mystical terrain is a good start but I don’t think the size of the model is much smaller compared to your average terrain piece. I don’t think this is a particularly compelling choice unless you’re able to create some specific bottlenecks and then add:
• Nexus Syphon: This is a pretty cool hut or gazebo that increases the ward of the Guardian Idol to a 5+ within 24″.  At a cost of eight resource points this should cover most of the battlefield but really isn’t a needle mover since you’re throwing good resources after bad resources.
• Cleansing Aqualith: That’s what I’m talking about baby. This is basically the Lumenith-looking terrain piece that was sold in the Thondian Strongpoint box that held the Incarnate, and it’s full of “elf bullshit” if you’re fighting against it. In addition to being extremely tanky at 30 wounds, this terrain heals each friendly unit wholly within 12″ at the start of your hero phase. Given the size this is a great piece of terrain for only 12 resource points that lets you completely heal up small support heroes who have taken chip damage. Nurgle would HATE having to deal with this terrain piece on a regular basis.

  

• Shattered Temple: It’s the big temple with the steps and columns that can serve as a garrison for up to 30 models. This allows you to both rally on a 5+ and get an additional +1 to chanting rolls when you’re wholly within 12″. Most priests I play don’t seem to have problems gaining favor from a chosen deity and the rally is really dependant on what you’re taking as an army. The real benefit is the sheer amount of board space this thing takes up when a unit is hiding inside it.
• Baleful Realmgate: This allows you to set up a unit wholly within 9″ at the end of the movement phase, wholly within 7″ of the battlefield edge, and more than 9″ from all enemy units. As it reads you aren’t restricted to units that are outside of combat or haven’t moved, making this a great piece of terrain that seems under costed at eight resource points. Would you rather have a unit getting a 5+ ward instead of a 6+ ward by cowering near some rocks, or tell some poor sod to get out there and take some rear objectives or die?
• Domicile Shell: This is the least expensive Strongpoint at only two resources, and one of the more impactful ones when actually playing the game. By allowing you to create a line-of-sight blocking feature you’re able to allow units to avoid lots of bad things happening to them and create very unfortunate charging lanes to protect your units. Models wholly within 6″ that would flee don’t if you roll a 4+.

Assuming you have 50 resource points and eight slots to work with you can pretty much include any or all of these strongpoints in a Strongpoint battle. I really like the Aqualith, Realmgate, and Domicile Shell and think that the abilities of the Idol and Syphon aren’t worth it. If you’re using a healing heavy army like Cities of Sigmar or Sylvaneth your mileage might vary.

What’s really cool about Strongpoints is that if you’re the attacker, you can blow it all up. Those warscrolls that give better rallies and chanting and healing also come with a save and wound roll. Each Strongpoint is treated as an enemy model, and you can use the attack sequence (shooting and melee) as normal to inflict damage. Dawnbringers rules provide some clarity and specifically say that these terrain features can be attacked and are part of the army of the player who set them up. Additionally, they are unable to be healed or moved. Instead of being a 3+ roll to destroy, Smash to Rubble is modified and debuffed to do 5 mortal wounds to a Strongpoint. Since you’re treating terrain as an “enemy model” I don’t see anything that would prevent you from using your spells, prayers, or any other ability to cause damage.

I asked Games Workshop if the intention was to have Strongpoints function as units with an engagement radius, needing to charge them, and keeping you stuck in combat. Alone in my unfinished basement I played with them as terrain that you can shoot and just need to get within 3″ to attack and treating them as full units that can be charged, block movement, and can be targeted by spells. I think that sections 1.2.1 and 1.3 of the core rules favor this ruling but ultimately I’d like to know what the intention is.

Having the terrain be considered an “enemy model” makes for some really interesting situations such as an attacker is having movement impacted and making charges on empty terrain because they want to tear down civilization. Getting caught up fighting a waterfall for three combat rounds is INCREDIBLY embarrassing as is the inability to rally or use heroic recovery as some pointed hat-wearing idiot casts spells at you and you can’t pile in to swing at him. I can also see the argument against allowing it, since being able to charge a house feels dumb and gives a lot of free movement to the invaders. At Goonhammer we typically say there is no wrong way to play minis games but the objectively correct way to invade Strongpoints is with Kragnos and Ogors doing 30+ mortal wounds to a giant temple in a single charge phase.

Realmscape Objectives are another rule in Strongpoints but they are given much less space and could almost be ignored. The suggested objectives are sold as a set but basically any sort of bits on a smaller base would work. As I didn’t have them on hand I found myself often having to look down and remember what the special rule was, and it didn’t offer the visceral joy of the strongpoint rules. The rules suggest that they should be used in the Strongpoints battleplan and two of the Path to Glory battleplans. When combined with the Strongpoint rules they feel like a hat on a hat and outside of a single rule didn’t add much tactically when I played. They did however, include a wishlist rule of mine and allow objectives to be contested from different distances.

Ancient Objectives:

• The Vigil Flame: Models can contest this objective while they are within 9″ instead of only 6″. It’s by far the most interesting rule and the only one worth keeping. This is a rule I’ve been waiting and wish there was a way to toggle between 9″ and 3″ during the battle.
• The Realm Orrey: Add 1 to casting rolls for wizards while they are within 6″ of this objective. This rule is boring, played out, stepped on, and lacking the +1 to dispelling rolls.
• The Idol of Myth: Models can issue the All-out Attack command to units within 6″ of this objective without a command point being spent. This rule is boring, played out, stepped on, and lacks any sort of juice.

Strongpoint Objectives:

• The Reliquary: Add 1 to chanting rolls for Order Priests while they are within 6″ of this objective. Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made with melee weapons that target an Order Priest while it is within 6″ of this objective. I like the idea of this rule because you’re hitting a very specific unit with a risk/reward trade-off. The chanting roll bonus is more powerful compared to the +1 to hit but this is the type of rule that adds flavor so I’m supportive.
• The Dawnbringer Bell: Models on the objective rally on a 5+. This rule is boring, played out, stepped on, and isn’t welcome at any game of Sigmar I play.
• The Banner Heraldor: I refuse to dignify this rule by describing it. Just thinking about reminding my opponent or being reminded about this rule makes me feel like I’ve found a hair on a biscuit.

So why are these boring rules so objectionable on objectives and perfectly acceptable on terrain? It’s because the basic terrain rules in Strongpoints are good, fun, and add something to the game that you can’t get elsewhere. These objective rules take four parts chickenshit and two parts chicken salad and expect you to be satisfied.

I loved the additional interactivity of being able to tell a normal group of grunts to tear down that building or wall. Oftentimes the standard, “Two wyldwoods, two garrisons, two impassable, and two other” format of matched play leads to really weird table setups that could easily be solved by the application of violence by a skilled practitioner. These are good ingredients and some heroic TOs are going to find the internal strength to run a GT using fun and interactive terrain rules similar to Strongpoints.

Path to Glory

If Strongpoints is a welcome additional ingredient that changes the way you experience Age of Sigmar, the rules for Path to Glory are like when Wendy’s adds a sauce to the spicy chicken sandwich and calls it something new. If you liked it before you’re going to like it now, and if you didn’t you’re not going to change your mind. Dawnbringers: Book V – Shadow of the Crone, however, has Path to Glory rules dealing with growing your city and defending it from attacks and incorporates the Strongpoints rules above.

First, before you get to fight, the Path to Glory rules explicitly remind you that this is part of a larger story. Before we get to use violence to solve every problem in the Mortal Realms we get to build a city. An EXTREMELY sour part of the experience is that you need to follow the steps in the Cities of Sigmar book. While I know that Games Workshop are telling a specific story I think that using an extra page or two to allow non-cities factions to found a settlement, or reprinting the rules from a specific battletome, would be welcome even by those who have already purchased the Cities of Sigmar battletome. Each city has a quirk from a table and you get 20 resource points to purchase Strongpoints.

The fights that occur over your city use a battle matrix to determine what is being fought over and who has the advantage. Each player chooses various levels of aggression with the invader (attacker) deciding between a scout mission, a raid, or a full-fledged attack, and the custodian (defender) determining if they will hold, use ranged weapons, or counterattack. Depending on the results a custodian could get additional resource points and the invader could receive additional glory points. Based on the maps, the battle matrix is trying to add a level of rock paper scissors to setting up the battle and made something much more compelling than “roll two dice.”

Aftermath rules include additional bookkeeping for Strongpoint damage, raiding damage, and the ability to repair. People get tickled in different ways and I’m sure if you are playing Path to Glory already you understand the level of commitment and recordkeeping involved that isn’t supported in an official Games Workshop app.

As for the battles themselves there is a strong mix between Strongpoint and your standard narrative battle play that includes a slight twist to the rules. Without a partner to play through them I can’t fully report on how they feel, but the rules interactions with Strongpoint terrain should make for some interesting battles. If I were meeting a friend to have a drink and paint minis I would 100% make sure we played Streets of Blood (custodian picks Ranged and invader picks Attack on the matrix) due to the high number of potential Strongpoints.

This continuation of Path to Glory isn’t going to convert any new followers and is a great example of “playing to the base” that should define a narrative book that builds on nearly three years of releases. If you’ve been building a Path to Glory campaign with a friend around the Dawnbringers books I think the addition of the Strongpoints to the mix is going to help keep things moving along until Dawnbringers VI.

Unless there is an announcement between when this article is submitted and published, the official announcement of the Dawnbringers VI: TBA title book is part of the Path to Glory Rules. Like books II to IV Dawnbringers teases what will happen next in the story. Per the Path to Glory book the work you’ve done in your Dawnbringers campaign since Reign of the Brute will pay off in an epic battle to defend your city in a battle that is determined in a “final, climatic battle.”  I’m sure I won’t watch Kingdom of Heaven before playing these rules out.

Strongpoint Assault Battlepack

For those that haven’t been keeping up with the Dawnbringers saga through a Path to Glory army there is a way to experience the Strongpoints in a new Battlepack. This is a matched play event that requires teams of four players and incorporates the Strongpoints rules above without the need to run Path to Glory. If you frequently run events and have heard the grumbling about this GHB’s battle tactics, grand strategies, and blizzard this pack is a good way to mix things up, but won’t replace the generally accepted team event format that has developed in Age of Sigmar.

Point limits for 1,000 and 2,000 events are the same as what is included in the 2023-2024 GHB with the exception that at 2,000 points you can include up to four endless spells. There are no restrictions on what factions can be on a team; optional rules suggest that all teams come from a single grand alliance, but if this is too restrictive an additional optional rule exists for allowing Ogors, Fyreslayers, and Sons of Behemat to be selected by any team. Army building is basically the same but the pack does include four grand strategies that have been used before and three brand new battalions. Battalions include:

• Strongpoint Guard: Consisting of 2-3 troops (not a Leader, Artillery or Behemoth) this battalion adds 1 to save rolls against melee attacks when you are wholly within your territory.
• Wall-Breaker Battery: Consisting of 2-3 artillery pieces this adds 1 to the damage characteristics of attacks made with missile weapons that target a Strongpoint terrain feature.
• Swiftrunner Scouts: These are mounted units that are not Leader’s Artillery, or Behemoths that have a save characteristic of 4+ or worse. They count as three models for the purposes of contesting objectives that are within no players territory.

All of these battalions have a place in the mission pack. Large reinforced units of swiftrunner scouts can be used on three of the included battleplans and standing on circles better is one of the best abilities in the game. The game is screaming at you to put the Strongpoint Guard in your “custodian” force and include the Wall-Breaker Battery in your “invader” force. An additional point of damage against Strongpoints makes a big difference if you’re including multiple artillery pieces. for all of these battalions I like the way that the design makes these abilities feel impactful and meaningful and changes the way a unit will play on the table.

Players that have longed for easier battle tactics will find some familiar tactics like “This One’s Mine,” “Desecrate Their Lands,” “Gaining Momentum,” and “An Eye for an Eye.” New tactics include:

• Go For Glory: A tactic that involves contesting (but not controlling) every objective on the battlefield
• Drive Them Back: This tactic is scored if at least one enemy unit is wholly within your territory and there are no enemy units wholly within it at the end of your turn.
• Bring Ruin: Only available in the Stronghold fight, this involves destroying a Stronghold terrain feature.
• Daring Counter Attack: Only available to the defender in a Stronghold fight, this involves taking an objective that is not on your border and is controlled by your opponent. You score this if you control the objective.

Fights occur with each team having a Strongpoint base and two open field battles (east and west). Team captains roll off and declare that they have sent a player to a location, but don’t reveal that location. Once during the battle, each team can pick one location that a player has been sent to and have that revealed before sending a player. Most team events have a real tension in the pairing process where you submit a list and don’t really control what that list is up against. Part of me wonders why they didn’t incorporate a matrix similar to the one in the Path to Glory. Unless I’m missing something (very likely), fights on the east and west battles feel like a sideshow. There really isn’t anything to prevent you from making attacking and defending lists and sending them to the correct spot.

East and West locations are fought on three battleplans that are more or less the same as a matched play battle with even deployments, a twist on scoring, and an even results table. While there isn’t anything wrong with these missions or deployments I would be disappointed if I got together with friends to play the Strongpoint Assault Battlepack and didn’t get to use the cool terrain.

The main show, however, are the Strongpoint bases that include all of the special terrain from the strongpoints. The defender gets 50 strongpoint resources to set up allowing them to put a decent number of non-wall resources. For final scores, however, the defender can only earn up to 6 points vs. up to 15 for the attacker with a draw heavily favoring the attacker. This tracks as the battle is asymmetrical with the defender easily controlling three objectives, with two in no-mans land, and a single objective in the attackers territory.

Overall this battlepack feels like distinct enough from the current GHB and I’d be pretty happy to play through it during a 1-day event or even on the Sunday of a GT after cuts have been made. This compares favorably to the Thondia battlepack that never established itself as distinct from the GHB matched-play games. Also, due to the options presented in the pack and the natural inclination of TOs to make adjustments and change I don’t anticipate anybody playing this pack exactly as written. The pairing process lacks tensions since I’d expect most teams to be built around 1 Defender 1 Attacker and 2 others that could handle a bad matchup. What would be really neat is if they used a Path To Glory ingredient and added a battle matrix that would allow some more strategy and make the East and West battles feel more relevant to the proceedings. Four maps is also a bit slight to run an entire event around since most people try to avoid playing the same map twice in an event.

Final Thoughts

In the northeast U.S. there are a ton of diners that are vaguely the same with big menus that serve hundreds of items 24 hours of the day and seven days in the week. They’re all bespoke and are highly dependent on the quality of the owner or manager. All over the southern U.S. we’re blessed and cursed with a great gift from capitalism and Georgia Tech, the Waffle House. Playing narrative events has always felt like a northeast diner where the quality of the experience is dependent on the person running it. Strongpoints, the best part of what I reviewed, give that Waffle House experience and a depth to Path to Glory and Stronghold Assault Battlepack. While the good outweighs the bad, there are a few sour notes, first, the Stronghold Assault Battlepack needs just a little more time in the oven and a few changes that let everyone participate in the Strongpoints rules. In Path to Glory the requirement that city building is dependant on having a specific battletome just rubs me wrong. Finally, most of the rules for objectives are just bland and boring.

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