I really enjoyed running this event back in June and while the story of the Godbeast Eristrat this event is purely focused on the current story revolving around Shyish and the Malign Portents. If you haven't picked up the Malign Portents book yet I highly suggest you do so. The level of detail it dives into about Shyish is worth it alone. Be sure to check out the companion website as well for even more stories and details about this strange time in The Age of Sigmar.
The event also coincides with the Global campaign, Dread Solstice, as well where players across the world are helping shape the future and story of The Age of Sigmar. Every game will count toward reporting so be sure to track the wins and losses at your table and report them to your participating location.
One of the coolest additions from Malign Portents is our four Hero models, one for each Grand Alliance. While their power and use in Matched Play is debatable they are perfect for a narrative game and with an event themed around their release I thought it necessary to make them part of my local event. Each of my players can bring their respective Malign Portents Hero for free in addition to their armies and my local club has been very excited about this as there is no reason not to play with these great models now. I am allowing proxies for these models, but if players want to win the infamous "Coolest Award" from my event they should find time to buy and paint one of these up.
The pack is laid exceptionally well and is built for each scenario to grow from 100 to 1250 to 1500 points from game to game. I love the idea of growing your army each ga,e, but sadly this will be the one item I change. Since the event is the weekend before Adepticon time has been a bit of an issue for my local club as we all scramble to prepare. For my local event will be playing each game at 1000 points only. This is twofold as it will allow us a fun and quick day of gaming and as a lot of my club will be playing in the team event at Adepticon we can practice the use of our armies in a relaxed fashion. It is a small change, but one I felt worked well for myself and the players at my event.
One of the great ideas from last summers event was to add your local story to the overall narrative. As I am a big fan of Aelves I used Tyrion and Teclis as the driving force in my local lore and made fun little teasers involving them and the event centered in my local area. I even brought Tyrion and Teclis as leaders of my Aelven army last year to play as my ringer army and have some fun on the tables. I couldn't resist doing this once again and with the well-timed Daughters of Khaine release who better to involve this time other than Morathi. I plan to theme my ringer force once again around her and Teclis will be my be Harbinger, although with slimmed down rules.
As I did last year I will also create a small wrap up teaser after the event to help tie in my local result with the overall narrative and, hopefully, set up some plot devices for the third event in June. If you want to see how the first Coalescence went to my local club be sure to check out the article I posted about it. The post also lays out my local story from beginning to end in case you wish to read that as well.
Much like last year, I couldn't see running this event without some fun prizes. While a smaller event I did not go as overboard as I did in June, but I got some nice prizes and certificates for my players to battle over. I made the certificates using a PDF created by the Neon Team which I printed at a local shopping center as 4x6 pictures and picked up some simple frames to put them in. I love doing these nice little awards and they are well received by my local club when I create them for my events. All in all, each award costs less than two dollars so it is worth doing even if you do not have any prize support.
Narrative gaming is a lot of fun and a great way to play Age of Sigmar. While Matched Play may get the spotlight it doesn't mean you should shy away from doing both or even doing Open Play. Each of these pillars is great ways to keep your gaming in the Mortal Realms varied and fresh. I encourage you to participate in the Global Coalescence event day on March 17th, even if it is just you and a friend playing the scenarios. Be sure to report your overall winner as laid out in the pack to help be a part of this great event! Let me know if you are running a Coalescence event in the comments below and be sure to keep an eye out for coverage of my event in a future post. Until next week, Happy Hobbying!
Chuck Moore