In our Road to LVO series, we’re following several different players and hobbyists as they prepare to play in one of the largest wargaming conventions on the planet. In this article we’re kicking off Alice’s journey to LVO – she’ll be competing in the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament.

This year’s Road to LVO series is sponsored by Frontline Gaming.

Who am I?

If you’re a reader of Competitive Innovations in the Mortal Realms you’ve read my stuff. I’m an avid player of Age of Sigmar and have been active in the Tournament circuit since 2018, but I’ve only really been hitting the pavement since COVID let up in 2021.

I play Ossiarch Bonereapers pretty much exclusively. I got going with them when they launched in 2019 and aside from a brief dalliance with Daughters of Khaine during early 3rd edition when the Ossiarch rules were basically dead in the water, it’s the only army I’ve brought to tournaments. I’d much rather do well with an army I enjoy playing rather than try and chase the meta (no shade intended to those that enjoy that).

I consider myself to be… OK at Age of Sigmar. I’ve never held a podium spot, and I’ve never done better than a 3-2. I consider myself a consistent player, attending a GT every other month or so and while I don’t know if I’ll ever do better than I am right now, I still enjoy just playing the game and every bit of progress is worth it in and of itself.

So in short, this series is for you if you’re interested in Age of Sigmar tournaments, and what someone a bit more middle of the road tends to experience at large events like this.

Why LVO?

Frankly, LVO has become my favorite of the “big events” to attend. Vegas as a city is an absolute blast to be at, the atmosphere when amongst friends is intoxicating. The event itself is the largest event for Sigmar, which really gets the blood flowing even if you’re just shooting the shit in the mid tables. Not as big as 40k of course but still massive. I went to the usual January event this year and then was utterly shocked to see that they would be hosting it again that October. I wasn’t going to go to this event at first but a few of my usual events for the summer fell through: Atlantic City Open shifted to a Teams-only event (for Sigmar), and Summer Slaughter was being revived in a new, less convenient location for me.

So with some funds opening up the only limitation now being a lack of a roommate. This was rectified and now I’ll be attending the event with “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman (link to his Road to LVO series) who has been my partner in crime on my last two trips to LVO. We had some reservations about the change in venue, as previous years the event was located in the Rio. The casino was about a mile from the strip so that was both convenient for being close to the action and being able to simply walk down to the event hall without needing an Uber.

The new location is at The Expo at the World Market Center. The official hotel this time is the Golden Nugget, which is about a mile away from the convention center. Since we’d have to travel over anyway, Kevin made the decision to stay at the Luxor, the cheapest place on the strip if you still have enough dignity to not settle for Circus Circus or Excalibur. It’s still a pain in the ass to need to uber every morning, but for a 2 day event I think I can make it work.

What’s going to happen on this Journey?

To give some context, since 4th edition dropped I’ve struggled more than a bit with the game. Ossiarch Bonereapers changed a lot in 4th and I fully and I 100% agree their third edition iteration was some bullshit and needed some scaling back. That said, I’ve struggled to grapple with the army as it stands and had a pretty disastrous Adepticon this past March where I went 1-4 for the first time since I started playing the game. Simply put, Ossiarchs are fine but are very punishing to tactical mistakes: they have very good saves but require you to castle up and avoid taking too many hits. While the saves are high, every 1 or 2 hurts because recursion has been all but stripped out of the army, and due to the high wound count Rally isn’t really an option either. So every lost model is basically gone for good and once you lose a unit you are at a massive disadvantage.

So now I am at a crossroads: Do I stick to Ossiarch Bonereapers, or try out the fancy new Soulblight Gravelords tome that just hit? The Ossiarchs have been my baby for most of their existence, and easily what I would consider my “main” army. On the other hand, the range of Soulblight has advanced enough that it offers a lot of versatility, I could approach it as a horde army to try something different, or try out a more elite list to mimic the Bonereapers but I also get my precious revivification back.

Games Workshop’s Tacoma event is my first stop on the road to LVO so naturally there wasn’t enough time to prep a whole ass Soulblight Army for that, so it’ll be Bonereapers for that. NOVA is the next major after that, so by then Soulblight might be done, or I may choose to continue with what I got going on.

What’s next?

This article was just a preamble to get to know who I am and what’s coming next. I attended the Games Workshop open in Tacoma over the weekend using my Ossiarch Bonereapers and I learned a lot about using my army in 4th edition proper. So next time expect a full write up of how that went down. Plus, some of the practice prep that has gone into the event so far. This next article will come pretty shortly after this one, then expect something every two weeks or so leading up to the event.

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