Alice once again attended the year’s largest Age of Sigmar event at LVO. 

I had a lot of fun attending LVO last year. So much fun I decided I needed to go back. The Rio is in a premium spot, about a mile from the Strip. Easily walkable but without paying those prices. The hotel itself was…less great. We caught it in a transition year, when breaking away from Caesar’s and becoming their own thing meant that their deals with various stores and restaurants had to be re-negotiated. The Casino gave off a “dead mall” vibe, with nothing but closed stores and very few people. Not the best look, but LVO itself was great and I wanted to go again.

I went 2-3 with Daughters of Khaine last year, and wanted to see if I could do better this year with Bonereapers.

My List

My List - Click to Expand

I haven’t been able to play Sigmar in the past 3-4 months. Some personal stuff came up and it really impacted both my time and motivation to get involved. I almost dropped the event entirely, but the event and flight was paid for, so I figured I would try and find my motivation and do the best I could.

I was going to do a double mortarch list but chickened out at the last minute, feeling I couldn’t pack enough hammers. Katakros is my son, and I love him, so he always goes in my list. I swapped Arkhan for a Soulmason and a Boneshaper, but I think this was a mistake. Without the casting bonus it’s very hard to cast spells this season, and it’s almost better not to bother at all (outside of the one almost guaranteed spell with Dark Acolyte).

With my extra points I packed in a reinforced unit of Morghast, between them and the Immortis Guard, they can tank most hits and dish em out too. The Deathriders can do some decent damage, but mostly exist for the reliable “Trample the Defiant” Battle Tactic. The Mortek are there just to hit a nice 7 units for max CP.

I didn’t get to practice with this list at all so it was in God’s hands. I packed my shit and got ready to go Wednesday night.

Thursday

I got in at a reasonable time for once; dad dropped me off at the airport at 7 AM for an 8 AM flight, even with a delay in my transfer flight I still got in before 2 PM, thanks to time zones. I connected with fellow Goonhammer authors “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman and “Marchettus” Andrew Brennan, some of the earliest arrivals from our crew. After getting in line and collecting our stuff we decided to hit the strip. We hit up a few bars at the Bellagio and Aria before taking an Uber back and passing out to prep for Friday.

Friday (Day 1)

Round 1 – Kenny Stewart (Stormcast Eternals)

Mission: Power Flux

Kenny's List - Click to Expand

I hadn’t had the opportunity to play against Ionus or his Army of Renown yet, though I knew a fair bit: Avoid engaging him in combat unless you can spare to lose some attacks, and don’t clump up too closely. Since I was playing Null Myriad OBR, that second part wasn’t an option, but I figured I could weather the mortal wounds. I also had an advantage in having two Andtorian Locus while he didn’t have any. The downside to this mission is that if OBR lose priority and go first, they have to now spread out, and they arent very mobile (This is going to come up later).

Early on was going pretty well, I hunkered down and realized even if I just sat in my deployment all game, I was going to score one more point than him with my Andtorian Locus. I gave him the first turn and Round 1 and 2 went real well. We both got Magical Dominance (Him with Krondys’ casting bonus, and me with my command trait). Round 2 I won priority, handed it to him and he tried to do surround and destroy, forgot what he was doing and didn’t move them into the flanks. I then followed up with Trample the Defiant and charged my Deathriders into a dragon unit, tactic achieved.

It was round 3 that things started getting messy. See, I started to get nervous I would start running out of battle tactics. Ossiarch Bonereapers have like, two I can do reliably. This is better than some but not ideal. One of those is almost impossible on this map, so I had used up my one good book one. I went with Led into the Maelstrom with Katakros and Immortis Guard, and he used Focused Destruction from his book. I was still up but really needed him to not take the double back into me.

…so of course, he did, and that was my tactical error. He tried to do Magical Mayhem and failed to kill something with magic. He focused fire on my two Andtorian Locus, the thing keeping me in this game, so now my advantage was lost. I didn’t really have anything left to score with after that, my stuff was too slow and I didnt have any battle tactics I could score. With my Grand Strat out I called it and we ended fairly close.

Result: 14-17, Loss

Game 2 – Jason Johnson (Stormcast Eternals)

Mission: Fountains of Frost

Kenny's List - Click to Expand

Jason’s list was basically mixed ranged fire, and a bear for me to deal with. Ossiarch really struggle against ranged Mortal Wounds that aren’t spells, a 5+ ward can only take you so far when boosted. The mission requires me to push up real far to actually score “more” points, which he had far more mobility than I did.

I went first, because I felt I badly needed to get my buffs up before he opened fire. I opened with Magical Dominance once again to cast the 4+ Ward on my Immortis Guard, then waited, he dropped down most of his army but got some pretty bad rolls. He failed his opening battle tactic Draconith Destruction, and I felt like I might have a shot.

Unfortunately, rather than give him the double round 2, I had taken enough damage I really needed to heal up, so I took the turn and hoped he wouldn’t double me into round 3. I did Trample the Defiant and pushed my Morghast up far enough enough to take an objective on his side, now I was up in objectives. He responded by dropping the rest of his army in with Intimidate the Invaders, and did a pretty solid chunk of damage (and me rolling terrible saves).

Remember how I said I needed to hope I didn’t get doubled into round 3? Well I did, and it was brutal. I accepted in that moment there was no coming back as he had removed almost everything but Katakros and my Soulmason, which he’d easily remove next turn. I took my two points and gave him max score for the rest. Ouch.

Result: 11-25, Loss

Game 3 – Ironjawz

Mission: Lines of Communication

List - Click to Expand

So I’m going to open with a disclaimer that this game sucked. My opponent kept using “gay” as a pejorative, saying that one of my units probably had “some gay shit” in it in regard to potential gotchas. This was in addition to several other times. In case you somehow didn’t know this: Don’t do that shit. As a queer person, this was particularly hurtful but if you see this happening even as an ally, make it clear that that’s not ok. I told him to stop or I’d tell a TO, and he was good for the rest of the game, though his actions really put a damper on things.

As for the game itself, this is a good mission for me. Ossiarchs love it when they get to camp on 2 out of 3 objectives in the middle. Ironjawz I find I tend to do pretty good against. Ossiarchs are one of the few armies who can tank their hits pretty well, but I’ve learned from experience that that is only true if you get your defensive buffs up first. I may have unwisely chosen to spread my army out a bit too much, I put my 10 Mortek on the far left in the hopes of baiting him into putting stuff on that side, it worked but I don’t think it was worth the aggravation, as we’ll see.

So I finished putting my army down first, and chose to go first because I wanted to make sure I was ready to tank the hit. I began with my usual opener, Magical Dominance with my warlord trait and…I roll double 1s. Not a great start. I healed the wounds off but having to cast a spell with my Boneshaper means I was at risk of losing it to an unbind, which did happen. So it goes. I popped Supreme Lord of the Bonereaper Legions and moved everything up on the right, hoping +1 to save would save the day when combined with All Out Defence and Impenetrable Ranks (For +1 to ward) would allow them to hold out.He responded with Lead into the Maelstrom, which was an easy in with Ironjawz. My Immortis Guard took one Maw-Krusha out, only 2 to go.

I won the roll off into round 2 and did Trample the Defiant, crashing my Deathriders into his brutes on the left. Leaving the Mortek out to dry over there was a mistake, since they don’t count on objectives when in combat with the Brutes. I should have just stuck to the right and middle. But I got the battle tactic, and Katakros brought down Gordrakk, leaving only one Maw-Krusha standing. He responded with Magical Dominance on his turn, cast his spell and stopped to make sure he got it, plus 2 objectives.

Round 3 got close, between his Brutes stopping my Mortek Guard from counting on objectives, and not really having anything to take the center, I only scored 1 point, plus two for Sculptors Entourage. He moved his stuff to the center for Dat’s Our Turf Now! and held 2 (for more). I did finally remove those Brutes on the left on his turn, leaving that objective as mine, finally.

At this point we were both pretty tapped for resources while I still had more models to work with, I couldn’t spread out too far this late in the game, but I was able to hold 2 for the last 2 rounds of the game, and pick up one more battle tactic (Intimidate the Invaders) before closing it out. I left him in a difficult position of not being able to choose any battle tactics, and either needing to leave the objectives with his remaining Megaboss or lose his grand strategy. In order to score the most points he did decide to leave, but still came up 2 points short.

The game was tense, but it was good to finally get a win after 2 back to back losses. I was exhausted and headed back to my room, due to the 3 hour time difference I was wiped super early so I laid in bed till I passed out.

Result: Victory

Saturday (Day 2)

Got up, and the event started very late at 10 AM so I headed to Denny’s across the street and grabbed a veggie omelette before settling into my next game.

Round 4 – Charles Beliveau (Seraphon)

Mission: Limited Resources

Charles' List - Click to Expand

I was feeling iffy on this one. On one hand, Seraphon is an army I’m good against, as long as I kept my 9″ aura in check I’d have a 2+ Spell Shrug and help reduce most my damage. On the other side, this mission is brutal for Ossiarchs. If you hold an objective for 2 turns in a row, you can no longer score off it (but your opponent can). The ideal situation is to not take your own, move up and hopefully trade the objective back and forth so it isn’t drained, and then fall back if you have to. It’s always easier to come back to the objectives in your own deployment. I can’t really do that – Ossiarchs are slow and lack a reliable teleport, so I instead concentrated on my death ball and hoped to push up, snatching at least 2 objectives per turn. I would be down in points early on, but I could hopefully make up for it later once his units were wittled down.

I felt some encouragement when I saw him spread out, he was going to make a land grab. This is a common mistake people make when they encounter this mission, trying to grab as many objectives as they can. Due to how Sigmar’s scoring works (One, Two, More) you really only need 2 objectives for max score since I was sitting on 1. I handed him first on turn 1 and he snatched up 3 and I felt like my plan was gonna work out. I followed up with Magical Dominance and cast the 4+ Ward on Katakros (Since he cannot receive the anti magic field) before moving up and capturing the center right for 2 objectives.

I won priority and handed him turn 2, he moved some of his Saurus Warriors up to grab a 4th objective, he tried to do Surround and Destroy, but forgot about it and dropped the objective. I responded with Trample the Defiant and pushed my horses into the aforementioned Saurus Warriors, taking that objective and winning 3 points plus battle tactic.

It was at the beginning of round 3 that Charles noted he couldn’t capture many objectives, because he had just drained too many (and the ones remaining I was sitting on). He attempted to get me with Overwhelming Numbers, but couldn’t kill enough of my guys on an objective. I kept pushing up, moving Katakros and my Immortis Guard into combat for Lead into the Maelstrom. Since he only had one objective at a time, 2 objectives was just fine for getting 3 points.

The highlight of the game was at the top of 4, he took it and tried to respond with his own Lead into the Maelstrom. He summoned some battleline to charge into my backline and try and take my Soulmason out for my Grand Strategy, and his Carnosaur into Katakros. I warned him Katakros is dangerous if he fights a Hero, but he had to do it. Katakros put him down, and the Immortis Guard took out the Battleline charging my Wizard, failing the battle tactic. I responded with Intimidate the Invaders and held one objective on his back line to finish it up.

I won the initiative and to wrap it up I simply went for the Sculptor’s Entourage, and dashed my Morghast across the field to pick up one more objective for 3 more points, ending the game with both of our Grand Strats.

Result: 25-18, Victory

Round 5 – David Pate (Kharadron Overlords)

Mission: Geomantic Pulse

David's List - Click to Expand

I was feeling pretty good to bounce back from 2 losses to a 2-2. I wanted to try and walk away with a winning record. I don’t play against KO much, but I know armies with lots of shooting are my Achilles’ Heel. The mission is also not ideal, my army is not fast enough to go chasing the pulse, I’ve found the most success trying to put myself in the middle, and try and make up points late game by anticipating it coming my way.

For the first time my opponent was also a one drop, he won the roll off and put his boats in the corner (with everyone inside), and Gotrek dead center. I responded by putting my guys dead center, and the Mortek Guard flanking them, so whichever side the pulse went they could try and catch it. He made me move up first, so I opened with Magical Dominance, did my auto cast to put the 4+ Ward on my Immortis guard and stopped there. I didn’t move up my main force, trying to give Gotrek some space, and only tapped my Deathriders on an objective to get the single point I needed this turn. David responded with Intimidate, easy with the boats and auto advancing Gotrek 6″, and we were tied up.

We rolled off and he won, he decided to take it. I was a bit taken off guard, but I think he wanted that early charge with Gotrek to hopefully end it all. I stuck to my plan and put the pulse on the far right. He then Blasted to Smithereens my Deathriders. Not great, as that meant I was down a battle tactic I really needed. He then moved Gotrek up and charged in to my Immortis guard. Between the 4+ Ward against mortals on the Immortis Guard, the +1 to wound from Counter Strike on the Guard and Katakros, and -1 to hit I put on Gotrek from my Terrain Piece, Gotrek was surprisingly manageable. He took down a single Immortis Guard, they fought him and I piled in in such a way that Katakros got to join. Then the Immortis Guard got their once per game second attack, which finally put him down for good. I was ecstatic, I had never put Gotrek down before and now he was down 480 pts. I responded with Sculptor’s Entourage and now I could push up into the middle.

He won the roll off round 3, and did Surround and Destroy, another easy one with Fly High. I kept a holding pattern in the middle, trying to lock down the center 2 objectives to count for the pulse and it’s adjacent ones. All I had to do was keep weathering the bullets.

Round 4 I won the roll off but didn’t have any battle tactics, so I gave it to him in the hopes opportunity would present itself. he did Boots on the Ground to get out, and fired on my units doing negligible damage to my castle but he did take out my Mortek on the left, meaning I’d have to scoot over there for the last round. I lead into the Maelstrom with my Immortis Guard into a boat, and Katakros into the other boat. The Morghasts took out one boat but Katakros stayed comfortable in combat. I was doing pretty good until round 5 got hairy.

In Round 5 I knew I was in trouble: I was doing well holding objectives, but he hadn’t dropped a battle tactic and I would need to drop one for round 5, there simply wasn’t any I could do. We’d tie up, and he’d win on battle tactics. He took the turn and did Mobilize the fleet, pulling his last boat out of combat and throwing everyone into it. On my turn I took my shot, the Morghasts flew to the pulse to capture it, and Katakros charged the boat. Now that a Hero had piled inside, Katakros would get his full power, so I prayed and rolled, and his spear absolutely decimated the remaining Frigate, bringing it down and we called the game there, nothing else mattered once he was down 3 points from his grand strat.

Result: 26-23, Victory

I was very happy to end the weekend on a positive ratio, and since I had time to kill I decided to check out the thing in Vegas I most wanted to see: The Orb.

I also found an amazing Taco bar called Tacos and Beer, highly recommend if you’re in the area.

What I Learned

3-2 really wasn’t bad. This might scandalize you dear reader but I am not a great player (editor’s Note: yet). I try my best but I haven’t quite cracked that 4-1 mark. I still try and learn something from each event, to try and not repeat it.

• Keep in Coherency – Easily my weakest trait, but I’m getting better. I have a penchant for trying to spread out too much. I get anxious that if I don’t overextend I’ll miss objectives and fall behind too late to recover. But Ossiarchs rely on keeping a lot of important spells up and and remain within 9″ bubbles of heroes. I got a lot better at this, especially toward the end.
• Magical Dominance is a Good Opener – but not your only one: Magical Dominance is great for this list’s Command Trait, cast the spell and as long as you don’t fail you get it, and can stop casting. But if you think you’re going to get into combat round 1, it’s a poor start. You’re only getting one of your 3 good combat spells (Empower Nadirite Weapons, Reinforce Constructs and Drain Vitality). Either don’t open with that, or deploy far enough away that you can at least try and cast them all.
• Practice makes perfect: Like I said in my intro, I had a few months off. The rust hadn’t shaken off in my first 2 games and I forgot stuff, stuff that maybe woulda won me the game. That’s why constant practice really is needed even if you don’t think you need it.

Final Thoughts

While I was going to do the team tournament with Marchettus, we both agreed we were exhausted and decided to just take Sunday off. I spent most of the day in the hotel, sore as hell.

Las Vegas was great once again. I really enjoyed the games I got to play and the venue was phenomenal. Rio was an improvement over last year, fewer “Dead Mall” Vibes, and the location is still great. Very excited to get my reps in and try and do better next year.

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