The Holy Wars: Age Of Sigmar Tournament Live Blog
Dawn & Gianna are attending a tournament this weekend at the Hampton Inn in Illinois! The name of the tournament is The Holy Wars and will be a full on Age of Sigmar tournament with mighty armies clashing for control of the blasted new world we find ourselves in from Games Workshop.
You can find a full list of the rules for the Tournament HERE as well as the rules for building your armies for competitive play HERE. We're really interested to see how Age of Sigmar works in this competitive setting.
We'll be taking a look at the different armies, talking to the people behind the tournament and also following some of the gamers as they play through the first day of this weekend long event.
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Blogging At This Event:
The Holy Wars Have Started!
Right now as we speak there is an Age of Sigmar Tournament running outside of Chicago and we will be bringing you all of the action!
Ogres of the Rising Sun
The themes of the armies today are fantastic! Mike created his Ogres of the Rising Sun to capture a Far East theme (Cathay), complete with dragons.
Roving Terrain Keeps The Players On Their Toes
Some of the tables feature terrain pieces that will move throughout game play. On top of looking amazing, this can be total havoc for players should it run over their forces. It will undoubtedly make for epic moments, though it make feel less so for the unfortunate souls that are squished! The monolith is one such terrain piece, which has already made its way clear across the table.
Welcome to the Holy Wars Age of Sigmar Tournament!
Dawn talks with Steve the Holy Wars Tournament Organizer and long time friend Todd aka " Toad" who helped bring this awesome little tournament to our attention, all about the tournament.
Zach Shelley's War Winter Wolves
Zach is one of the participants we will be following throughout game play. Players also compete for points for painting. Additional points are scored for presentation. Zach'so War Winter Wolves are a beautiful example. Zach is participating at a level of Hobby Master, which is great incentive to push your skills.
Stunning Trophies For The Holy Wars
They have put a lot of thought into the lovely Trophies for the event. These gorgeous dragons have a built in letter opener sword. How awesome would this look on your desk!?
Dawn and Steve Talk Rules
Dawns sits down with Steve the Holy Wars Age of Sigmar Tournament Organizer and they have a chat about rules and how the rules have been adapted for this tournament.
Blood For The Blood God!!!
The Khorne are represented in bloody glory, with their tribute to the Blood God. Another fantastic example of a player carrying the themend of his army into a display.
Jake's Chaos Army With Mammoth Summoning
Jake is playing in his second AoS tournament and he's brought with him his Chaos army. He discovered his Mammoth has a Summoning ability, which has allowed him to summon mammoths in his opponent's corner!
We Get To Know Some Players
Dawn catches up with Zach and Jake a couple of players here at the tournament and they give us some insights.
The Undead Table Is Live In Round 2
Players on the Undead Table have to dig in the graveyard for the grail objectives. The kicker here is how to enter the graveyard. Your miniature has to be able to fit through the entrances in order to pursue the objective- so you can't just send anyone. One player has quickly noted that you can, however fly into the area!
Fantastic Use Of Live Plants In A Display Board
There is a wonderful variety of terrain displays here, and this one completely caught my eye with its gorgeous sprawling tree trunks. When I had a chance to talk to its creator, he pointed out that there are live plants in use on the board! He actually cut spots in the board where he sunk small potted plants. This not only looks beautiful but really made the board come to life.
Big Prize!
Dawn and Todd have a big announcement! Watch and see how you can win!
Storytelling Terrain Pieces Add Flavor To The Tables
Steve has done a brilliant job with the terrain on all the tables. Each table features a different place with its own storytelling point. The terrain not only looks beautiful but provides very important, interactive moments in the game play.
Lovely Display For The Guardians Of Witherhold
"Hern" put a lot of work and detail into his Guardians Of Witherhold display. There's something about the lush greenery (or perhaps shrubbery?) that really caught my eye. There's so much to look at!
XXXXXX Ale In Bugman's Brewery
One of the tables features the famed Bugman's Brewery. This lovely terrain piece provides both scenery and an objective as players can win an objective by having the most models in its walls, drinking! Is anyone else thirsty now?
Andrea's Stormcast Eternals Catch My Eye
One of the girls in the AoS tournament has brought her quite lovely Stormcast Eternals. She's got a very cool Celestant-Prime in her ranks too. I love her choice of paint schemes.
"I have never felt like any one army has grossly out powered any other."
No CommentsStunning Floating Waterfall Offers Unique Location For Grail Objective
One of Steve's new terrain additions for this year, is a really beautiful floating waterfall. This handmade piece offers an interesting location for the grail objective. Players get to fight for the objective from above and have to roll each turn to see if they are washed off the raised terrain.
End Of Game 2 Catch Up
Dawn catches up with Zach and Jake at the end of game 2 and see how they have been playing up to this point.
The Golden Hammers Of Sigmar Are Ready To Charge Into Battle
Patrick's Golden Hammers Of Sigmar are the ready to charge into battle. They are displayed beautifully to show off their classic GW paint scheme against the green of their board. Extra points from me on the nice water feature that runs through his display.
Table Talk
Dawn and Steve talk about all the different tables that players will be playing on this weekend. Steve gives us the inside scoop into all the details that went in to the work of each table.
Prize Support!
Dawn gets a quick chat with Dan from Draxtar Games who has kindly donated an Age of Sigmar Starter Set for one lucky viewer to win!
"The Battle Rages On In Day 2 Of The Holy Wars Tournament!"
No CommentsDwarves Stomp Their Way Into AoS
It's fair to say that there's been equal representation of all fantasy favorites in the AoS tournament play this weekend. Not to be forgotten, the dwarves stand proud.
The Forces of Order Bring a Troglodon Into Battle
Martin's Forces of Order not only look fantastic, but they are bringing a Troglodon into battle! Things always look more epic when a big creature stomps onto the table with your army.
Sean's Freedom Fighters Ready for Battle In the Next Round
Sean's Freedom Fighters are ready for Battle in the final round. This is bound to be a fantastic, brutal game on the Dark Elf table against the 2 top scoring players for this Holy Wars AoS tournament.
The Warriors of Tzeentch
Chaos is in full effect with this Warriors of Tzeentch army. Not only are these guys painted beautifully, but they are full of character. A sucker for anything with wings, I love the creatures included in this army.
Holy Wars Awards Chat
Dawn and Steve sit down for a quick chat about the different awards players can win at this year's tournament.
Another Stormcast Eternals Army Charges Ino AoS
One of the greatest things about miniature gaming is the ability to have players using the same sort of armies, but they can look completely different and tell another story according to how they are painted. Here's another beautifully painted army for the Stormcast Eternals.
An Update From Jake One Of Our Spotlight Players
Dawn catches up with Jake to see how he is progressing in the tournament.
Marv's Khorne Ankle Biters
We found Marv performing the often necessary emergency fix on one of his models. The joys of gaming with your miniatures is having to adapt on the fly and prepare for the occasional mishap. Fortunately, a bit of glue is a wonderful thing. His Khorne Ankle Biters are battle ready.
Highlights From Zach's Last Game
It's been great fun to follow Zach's game play through the tournament. Each game has been an adventure and had its own story.
An Ellryian Raiding Party Arrives
The Ellryian Raiding Party brought the beautiful Phoenix to the tournament. This army brought forces mounted on horses as well as in the air.
Spotlight Player Zach's Update
Zach gives Dawn the lowdown on how the tournament has been going for him.
The Nurgle Rotbringers!!
With faces that only a mother could love, the Nurgle Rotbringers offer a different view of the creatures you might fine in the Age of Sigmar universe.
A Look At Jake's Army In Action
It's been great talking to Jake about how his games have gone at the tournament this weekend. Here's a look at some of the action on the table during his last game.
Action Underway On The Championship Table
The last game is underway and the players are considering their strategies.
"Onto The Battlefield For The Final Time This Weekend Come The Combatants "
No CommentsThe Skaven Set To Run All Over Their Enemies
If rats are a thing in your nightmares, then the Skaven would cause fear in even the bravest mjnds. These creatures are ready to overwhelm in their seemingly countless numbers.
Goblins Are Lurking In the Shadows
We found a nice little army of goblins, and all the creatures you might find with them, Lurking in the shadows.
Brad's Everchosen Featuremail An AoS Favorite Model
Brad's army featured the very beautiful, Archaon the Everchosen. It's probably one of my favorite models for AoS.
Gorgeous Chaos Dwarves Army
The Legions of Azghor Chaos Dwarves look beautiful. On top of being gorgeous models, they're painted up really nicely too.
"Kudos to players for embracing the new format of Age of Sigmar"
No CommentsFinal Thoughts from our Spotlight Players
Dawn gets one final chat in with Zach and Jake with their final thoughts about the weekend.
And the winners are...
After a fantastic weekend of fantasy gaming at its best, it came down to 8 gamers walking away with their own dragon trophies:
The Fan Favorite (peer voted)- Andrew Simons
The Best Hammer Hobbies the (overall army that exemplifies the hobby we love, scored by the judges)- Mike Butcher
The Best Model (each gamer nominates one of their own models and decided by the judges)- Jeffery Even
Best Appearance (highest points scored by judges' votes)- Peyton Shipman
Best Army (painting & theme per judges' votes)- Andrew Simons
Best Sports (highest sports score)- Domus
Best General (highest battle points)- Sean Troy
Best Overall (battle + sports + painting)- Sean Troy
Congratulations to all the winners. It was a blast following you and your armies through this weekend of fantasy gaming.
That is some interrsting looking terrain.
Thanks, I will be building a new table and terrain for our next event on 11-4-16 Holy Wars: Holy Havoc. Check out @HolyWarsGT and @HolyHammerHern on twitter to see WIPs shots.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out, heard a lot about this on the Garagehammer podcast.
Hopefully Dave will invite me back 🙂
Woo- Hoo! Looking forward to this! I don’t care what the naysayers say……. I have a blast every time I play this game… ” ONLY THE FAITHFUL! “
Great terrain, great tournament. Wish I were there!
Great looking stuff – hope everyone has fun
Great coverage ladies, looks like a blast! I got to say that Sand Portal is quite possibly one of the best pieces of terrain I have seen in a long time. So simple but so dynamic and eye-catching at the same time. I really love terrain that doesn’t take attention away from the miniatures, yet still gives the battlefield a strong narrative and that piece nails it!
Love the Holy Wars coverage!!
It was really great to have BoW there just so blown away they would wanted to cover our event.
I wish I could go again this year but thanks for providing the coverage on this live blog and pics on Twitter. Hope everyone has a blast and when I’m home I absolutely want to come back next year. My shield is a permanent part of the dwarf table terrain it appears;)
As always, gorgeous tables and models and the variety in scenarios makes this tournament to notch. Wonderful group of players. Grats to Steve and his crew and I look forward to watching the coverage from overseas.
Ahem, go duardin!
Kenny, hopefully your shield got packed! I expect you to be at our next event on 11-4-16 Holy Wars: Holy Havoc.
I’m actually very tempted to get into this game….. 😉 Awesome live blog!
Thaat Chaos army wit the mammoth is just insanely good… wow
The minis and terrain is really cool, but it also really looks like a nice place with many cool people. I love this kind of events, especially if there’s a great community involved.
Great reporting as usual guys, I do like the armies and terrain setups. Can’t wait to catch up on the next instalment.
Great reporting, great tables, great terrain…. What more can we ask for. Well done
those tables look awesome
Thanks I plan to build a new table for our next event. Should be really different.
Awesome terrain and great painting, thanks!
Just goes to show AoS can work fine as long as you add some form of army selection rules and scenarios.
Always enjoy these live updates and it is especially cool to see AoS being played in a competitive environment. I look forward to more updates!
Having an awesome time with the event. This is everything I’ve been looking for in a war game.
Thanks! Was great having you there.
This makes me tempted to get a starter army and try some.
The terrain is pretty good. The blood god one is crazy gory. Who thought that Corn could be so vicious!! ..er… oh yea.. Khorne.
Good terrain always makes things look thematic and the above pics prove my point well.
The more I come back to see the progress during the day the more impressed I am with the staggering variation in the armies. I have never been a fan of Warhammer so when it went through the huge conversation into AoS it kind of passed me by. Seeing the huge amount of fun and character in these armies and the bizarre battlefields has actually made me wonder if I should give AoS a second look.
I know a few peeps at this. Wish I could have made it
Our next event is 11-4-16 Holy Wars: Holy Havoc, AoS Team Event.
Terrain and Scenarios look awesome.
Man I whish I coluld make terrain like that and had the space to store it.