We played The Ritual last night, one of the scenarios in the first Age of Sigmar big book.
One side is performing a magic ritual and the other side has to stop them before it's complete. We rolled off, and the Orcs and Goblins were performing the ritual, the High Elves had to stop them.
The giant obelisk in the back of the town was the Mystical Artifact, the center of the ritual.
We setup the board similar to some awesome pictures of an Oldhammer battle that I saw from Salute 2015.
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| setup |
Orc deployment outside of the town
High Elves deployment
Deployment - both sides
The mildly famous Orc Shaman on the Wyvern takes the field for the first time, near the obelisk
Battleline shot
High Elves column in view...
Can the Night Goblin Shaman complete The Ritual before the High Elves stop him?
After multiple games of getting shot off the board or just falling down, the Fred the Giant finally makes it into combat. He was pretty devastating. First turn, the massive club makes short work of the elf spearmen. He also grabbed the spearman behind him and stuffed him in his bag 'for later'.
Turn 2, High Elf bowman have taken a commanding position in the Tower on the Hill, unleashing a Storm of Arrows on the giant. 6 wounds and he began to slow down.
Few turns later and it was getting tense. Ritual was almost complete and the Reaver Knights hopped the hedge to avoid the snotling pump wagon.
High Elf Archers sighting their big target.
There he is...
In the end, the greenskins managed to complete the ritual, but we had the giant charge the High Elf prince for a climactic last stand. With a huge kick, Fred inflicted the final two wounds on the prince, but he rolled an improbably double-sixes to make the save!
We'll meet again...
It was a great scenario. lots of fun. As most of The Internet commented, this scenario is tough for the attackers especially if they don't have a mounted or fast general. He's the only guy that can stop the ritual and it's a long slog across the battlefield.
The beauty of AoS really came through again. With no points, the players have the freedom to just take whatever units they want. You have a quick conversation, but even if it's unbalanced - who cares? It makes it more challenging, but it also seems to make the game more fun. We don't even bother using other comp systems (Clash, SCGT, SDK).
