The approach of a new General’s Handbook for Age of Sigmar heralds a change in the way we contruct our armies. Seasonal rules change and Battle Tactics change to reflect this. One thing that defined this season was the inclusion of Galletian Champions. These were unnamed, smaller heroes on foot who, for this season, were given access to extra enhancements, benefitted from some battleplan rules, and allowed us to access certain Battle Tactics. Now, they’re strolling off into the sunset.
In order to see them off on their journey, we’re holding a little challenge. By we I mean a number of really cool blogs which you’ll no doubt have encountered several times in our 5 on Friday posts:
To be fully honest, I’m not quite sure why I’m in there. I have a fraction of the readership of these other sites and although I love AoS, I’m not sure I have as firm a grasp. Clearly, dear readers, I’ve gone for quality over quantity on the readership front. That said, I love these blogs and the folk who run them are pretty great, so I love being included.
AoS Pete is running the whole thing and will do a draw on Saturday morning at 11 (UK time) to determine the match-ups. He’ll then play it put over his streams for a while.
Right, let’s hop on, eh?
The Contest
The Rules
Each person’s entry comprises one foot hero. Any model that qualifies as a GC is valid for the
competition.
In addition to their warscroll, your hero has access to the following Abilites and Enhancements:
- All Allegiance Abilites for their facton (incl. Battle Traits, any unique Heroic Actions, Subfaction and so on). The only exception is no faction terrain. If that’s important to your hero’s kit, it might be best to pick something else!
- Command Trait
- Artefact
- Any Unique Enhancements they qualify for, including an Aspect of the Champion
No summoning at all – that’s not what we’re doing here. Not from Allegiance Abilities, not from your warscroll, not from anywhere! This is mano a mano, we don’t want little armies springing up on the table.
Both players get one CP each Hero Phase (but not the extra one(s) for the Battle Round). With only one model to splurge them on, these things need to be somewhat scarce. 3 or 4 CPs per round just makes them too cheap.
The Games
The format is a straight elimination bracket. Lose a battle and you’re out; the winner progresses to the next round. AOS Pete will stream the games on his Twitch channel, via TTS.
Fights will take place in a 9” by 9” arena and will generally lean towards the aggressive option.
There is no terrain, and as noted above this also means no faction terrain.
No VPs, no Battle Tactics, no objectives, no Grand Strategies. Keep playing until one hero is removed from play, and the remaining hero wins. This is the Thunderdome.
Other than the restrictions noted elsewhere, the games will be structured as a standard game of AOS. So there’s a Hero Phase with Heroic Actions, a priority roll between rounds and so on.
My Entry
I considered a few options. Before I’d seen the full rules and the fact that summoning would not be allowed, I considered a FEC character. I also thought about an Ironjawz Megaboss, just for sheer fun killyness. I briefly considered a Wurrgog Prophet as well, just to really bank on the staring contest, but in the end I settled on a Slaanesh mini; The Contorted Epitome.
My copy of this model is not painted, so here’s one from a clubmate (and fantastic stall-holder) that was painted up at the end of last year:
Cracking, innit?
So, how’s the model been kitted out? Let’s take a look!
The Contorted Epitome has been equipped to be annoying, more than anything else. If the opponent gets irritated and walks away, that counts as a win.
I started by giving her a command trait. I chose Strongest Alive, which gives a +1 to hit and wound with no friendly units within 6″. Given that there will be no other friendly models on the board, that’s a constant buff. Nice.
For the Artefact, I went with The Crown of Dark Secrets. This item, represented by the AI-generated artwork above, is pretty great for this challenge. In my first hero phase, I get to pick an enemy unit (well, there only is 1) and reduce each melee weapon’s attacks characteristic down to 1. That will seriously reduce the sort of damage output that the big combat beasts can dish out.
I can still be hit, though…
Let’s fix that with the spell!
Do… do people still remember that game?
The Phantasmagoria spell has a low casting value; made all the more achievable by the Contorted Epitome’s built-in casting rerolls. The spell is cast on an enemy unit and then, when they are chosen to fight, a friendly unit can retreat.
I swithered over taking Flaming Weapon, but I feel that this would just be more fun. For me; not for an opponent. Essentially, I intend to leg it every time the enemy would fight me. Yes, this means that my opponent will be charging me every turn, but with a 2+ ward against mortal wounds, any impact hit-like abilities will hopefully be largely negated. With a casting value of 5 and the Contorted Epitome’s built-in rerolls on casting, I stand a firm chance of getting this off. The second cast would usually go on mystic shield, though if the enemy is on low on health I may attempt to snipe with Arcane Bolt.
The occasions where I would not run is when an enemy’s attacks are reduced to one, and it’s doing a single or two damage and I am still healthy. If there are any larger attacks, or I’m drifting below 5 wounds, I’m legging it every time he would fight me first on his turn. On my own turns, I’ll fight and then leg it when he intends to fight me back.
Running away in each combat phase also sets me up with plenty of opportunity to use heroic recovery if required. Of course, this would just as easily apply to the opponent.
Fuelled by Ghurish rage will further add to my survivability.
No Rerolls 
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