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The battle lines have been drawn, the sparks of Aqshy have ignited, and the hunt for the Emberstone Shards is officially underway! Our Ravaged Coast Campaign launched in early March, and already the realms tremble beneath the clash of steel, the roar of daemons, and the cries of war. From now until June, players are battling it out not just for glory on the tabletop—but also for a shot at the first round of Emberstone Shard Cache prizes.

The Campaign has been divided into 3 Acts to follow the narrative theme of the Ravaged Coast battleplans selected for each month:

Prologue (March)

“Embers in the Ash”
The spark is lit. Forces gather, relics whisper, and old blood oaths are stirred as the Ravaged Coast stirs from its uneasy slumber.

Act I: April–June

“The Adamantine Chain”
War erupts along the shattered fortresses and molten ravines of the Adamantine Chain. Here, alliances are forged in fire—or broken upon the anvil of ambition.

Act II: July–September

“The Gnawing Dark”
The campaign spills into the warped hinterlands of the Gnaw, where reality frays and enemies skulk in the shadows. Here, survival is its own kind of victory.

Act III: October–December

“The Siege of Hel’s Claw”
All roads lead to ruin. The final push begins as warlords clash beneath the shadow of Hel’s Claw, and the fate of the Emberstone lies in blood-soaked hands.

June Emberstone Shard Cache – Prizes and Peer Voting

At the end of this three-month block, players will vote (blind peer voting) on four key campaign categories:

• Best Painted – Either whole army or army with an impressive unit/centerpiece painted.
• Best Sportsman – Friendliest, most helpful, or just fun opponent to play against.
• Best Theme – Hero & Unit Choices, Paths, Traits and Artefacts selected. Who has the most cohesive, themed army for the Ravaged Coast.
• Best Narrative – Written the best battle reports, backstory for their army, or themed content submitted during the campaign.

Votes will be based on participation and progress from April through June, so keep logging your games, showing off your work, and immersing yourself in the story of the Ravaged Coast.

December Finale – The Emberstone Crown Awaits

While the Shard Cache is the first step, the final leg of our campaign in December will crown one player as the true champion of the Ravaged Coast. Thanks to Tanuki Tabletop, that player will receive a model of their choice (up to $65 value) as a prize.

More details will be revealed when we reach the final third of the campaign and begin our run on the ancient, ruined fortress of Hel’s Crown.

Battles fought in April

Three dramatic battles have already carved their place into the campaign’s annals:

• The Solemn Saviours vs. The Aethergold Storm
  The Solemn Saviours struck with unshakable resolve, emerging victorious against the lightning-scarred ranks of the Aethergold Storm in a brutal clash of Stormhost vs. Khardron Overlord.
• The Solemn Saviours vs. The Cult of the Black Sun
  In their second outing, the Solemn Saviours once again stood firm, purging the heretical Cult of the Black Sun in a battle that left only a pile of burnt feathers and broken omens.
• The Celebrants Insatiable vs. The Grand Army of the Ratpublic
  The maddened revelers of the Celebrants Insatiable overwhelmed the cunning forces of the Skaven, laying waste to their schemes in a whirlwind of excess and fury.

Whether you’ve played one game or ten—or haven’t joined yet at all—there’s still time to be part of the story. New players are welcome to jump in and get catch-up games scheduled. There are rumors… strange ones. Of scaled beasts mounted atop even larger scaled beasts. If true, the Ravaged Coast is about to get a lot wilder.

Upcoming events:

• Sigmar Saturday – April 19th: We’ll try to rally as many players as possible for a big campaign day.
• Stand-Alone Tournament – April 26th: Crashgaming LLC and Hobby Town are hosting a local 1,000 Age of Sigmar tournament. Registration and details are available at: https://www.bestcoastpairings.com/event/JQEDsjhVqmlX

Keep an eye out for updates, photos, and featured stories. Don’t forget to share your hobby progress, narrative logs, and battlefield triumphs.

Good Afternoon. Rift in the peaks is coming to a close next weekend. This is close to your last chance to try for more emberstone shards before we move on to Rise through the Ashes and continue our journey to the Ravaged Coast. As an example, here are the choices I’ve made for the Solemn Saviours as they continue their quest to claim the Emberstone at Hel’s Claw. You can review all of the emberstone shard costs and options on this page.

I’m liking my glass-cannon Prosecutors as my primary deep strike threat. Thematically, I like the idea of my Knight-Questor calling in reinforcements from the Celestial Realm, and these avenging angels answering the call. But with only 3 units and 6 total health, they’ve been juked on the deep strike more than once, so it’s time for an upgrade.

I spent 3 emberstone shards (140 point unit) to reinforce the Scions of the Great Sanctuary up to 6 units. Since they’ve also seen the most action and suffered the most wounds, I’ve set them on the Stormcast Eternal Path of the Redeemer from the SCE Battle Tome. For 1 emberstone shard, they embark on the path as an Aspirant, and I chose Heralds of the Tempest.

3d6 Charge +1 on a 9″ Deep-strike, and hopefully they’ll get juked a little less. I decided to lean into them for their other weakness and spend 2 emberstone shards to upgrade them to Elite status. From there, I selected Blaze of Glory.

Now, even as they’re picked off, they have a chance to inflict a Mortal Damage on death. These prosecutors will dive in, charge in, and get the job done, even in death.

Since I’m leaning into the role my Knight-Questor and his Soulsworn are taking in their Sigmar-given quest in the Ravaged Coast, I’ve decided to upgrade them with complementary Paths. Since their whole job is to Quest-mark an Objective, advance and take it, then sit on it as my Anvil, my Knight-Questor will embark on the Path of the Duellist for 1 emberstone shard. At Aspirant rank, he will now be immune to all Critical Weapon effects. As he continues on this path, he’ll become a formidable hero able to pierce through wards, crit on 5+ and stare down any threat one on one.

For my final emberstone shard, his loyal Questsworn have embarked on the Path of the Guardian, and will now benefit when the Knight-Questor declares All-Out Attack. As they progress on the path, they’ll excel in their supporting role of the Knight Questor, eventually pushing out Mortals against enemy combatants, improved saves, and access to strike-first for themselves and their sworn knight.

That’s a total of all 8 Emberstone Shards spent from our best victory over the Cult of the Black Sun. This will bring the army to 1140 points, avoid stalled reinforcements in most cases, and start to specialize our elite forces in their roles.

Battle Wounds

But it’s not all fun and games. The Solemn Saviours suffered the most wounds in their crushing defeat under the tide of the Gloomy Looniez and their ravenous squigs. With most of our forces wiped out in the melee, at the end of the battle, we had suffered 10 total wounds:

• Prosecutors – 2 Wounds
• Reclusians – 3 Wounds – Healed by Lord-Vigilant
• Liberators – 3 Wounds – Healed by Knight-Questor
• Lord-Vigilant – 2 Wounds

Our heroes attempted and successfully healed the wounds on the Reclusians and Liberators. The Prosecutors and Lord-Vigilant will carry 2 battle wounds each into April.

Cheers to the weekend. Another army of profit seeking Duardin have descended on the Ravaged Coast. The Oathsigned Profiteers have met the Cult of the Black Sun in battle. While the forces of Chaos held the field in the end, the ships of the Profiteers managed to secure more Emberstone shards for their efforts.

This is the last weekend to get games in before we lock in our shards and wounds and move on to Rise through the Ashes next weekend. There is a dragon on the horizon, so stalled reinforcement rules will come into play in a few matchups next month. Objectives in this battle plan can be contested for Victory points, so Control Scores and abilities will come into play. Depending on who’s playing, the battleplan will also have clearer setup, deployment, and underdog rules since not everyone will have the same amount of emberstone acquired from March.

Additionally, I’m playing with the idea of doing a few themed “prizes” at key junctures in the campaign. My initial thoughts is every 3 months (not including March), so end of June, end of September, and end of the campaign in December in the following categories. Everyone (excluding me) can cast a secret vote for their pick for each category, and voting should be based on the prior 3 month’s participation.

• Best Painted Army – Either whole army or army with an impressive unit/centerpiece painted.
• Best Sportsman – Friendliest, most helpful, or just fun opponent to play against.
• Best Thematic Army – Hero & Unit Choices, Paths, Traits and Artefacts selected. Who has the most cohesive, themed army for the Ravaged Coast.
• Best Narrative Contribution – Written the best battle reports, backstory for their army, or themed content submitted during the campaign.

I figure the June and September prizes will be an extra emberstone shard cache (based on how many everyone has acquired up to that point) to spend on your force. Then the final votes for December will cover the whole campaign with an additional prize for the army that claims Hel’s Claw in the end. I’ll get some gift cards or something from each of the local stores that support us for each category for the end of the campaign winners.

Happy Tuesday! Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to Tanuki Tabletop this past Saturday. We were able to get 5 different games in and first chance to meet many of the participants in the campaign. Special thanks to Stephen and Dro who took the time assisting Alex in his first two games of Age of Sigmar. I really appreciate everyone embracing the spirit of welcoming and learning together in the first month of this escalation style campaign. New players to Age of Sigmar are welcome to join and get involved.

First in action, the Solemn Saviours claimed victory over the Celebrants Insatiable. Meanwhile, in their first foray into the Ravaged Coast, the Whiskers of the Labyrinthium claimed victory against the Cult of the Black Sun. Next, the forces of Destruction emerged, with the Gloomy Looniez burying the Solemn Saviours in a tide of Squigs, while Krule Intentionz pushed the Whiskers back into the Labyrinthium. Finally, the Celebrants Insatiable held back Da Toof Punchas as they couldn’t quite WAAAGH! across the field.

The action continued Monday night, as the Knights of the Ramparts and their dragons proved dominant against the Grand Army of the Ratpublic. The Solemn Saviours were able to follow up against the Grand Army on the ground, but those clever Skaven managed to escape with the majority of the Emberstone shards before fleeing back into their Gnawholes.

In the wake of the Grand Army of the Ratpublic’s battles, a letter was left behind. If you have a few minutes, take a look on their army page here. Some amazing back story for the Celebrants Insatiable appears on their page as well. Hopefully these inspire more lore, battle reports, and short stories as we continue the narrative together.

Some quick housekeeping notes. Reminder that your Emberstone shards to spend on your April list come from your “best” battle, and are not cumulative. I’ve added a standings table to the results log so we can quickly see where everyone’s at. With the good comes the bad, so your battle wounds for each month should come from your “worst” showing each month (the battle where you accumulated the most wounds). The most any one unit on your roster can acquire is 3 per month, and reminder you do get up to 2 heal rolls (if you have 2 heroes), so I don’t expect we’ll see any permanent battle scars until May or June at the earliest. I’ve purposely been playing it a little loose this month as everyone gets their feet under them and comfortable with the format. For battles with an * next to wounds, we can roll for the actual wounds / heals at the end of the month when we spend our stones together. I’ll continue to update the site with available Paths, Enhancements, and Artefacts that are unique to the Ravaged Coast for players without the book so they know what’s available for purchase. There are some powerful traits and artefacts available in the Ravaged Coast.

Also, a quick discussion about Faction Terrain since we have 2 Skaven players so far. In Path to Glory, Ravaged Coast, page 27 says “Your Path to Glory army does not start with a faction terrain feature”. I took this to mean, and maybe incorrectly, that you do not start with Faction Terrain that you would deploy in the Deployment Phase of Core rules 10.0 “Deploy Faction Terrain Features”. However, the Skaven Gnawholes (and they are tagged as “FACTION TERRAIN” on their warscroll), do not deploy in this phase. They deploy “Once per Round (Army), Start of the Battle Round” from the Skaven Faction Rules. Three out of five of the Skaven’s Faction Rules depend on Gnawholes being on the field, so lack of access to them I interpreted as a handicap to how the army functions, compared to other faction terrain that buffs, but isn’t core to the army. Thematically, we’re invading the Skaven’s territory of the Gnaw to claim the Emberstone of Hel’s Claw, so I’m ok with a little home-field advantage. These are the reasons I’m allowing Skaven armies to use Gnawholes at no Emberstone cost. For all other army Faction Terrain, it is a one time cost of 3 Emberstone shards to add it to your Roster. Ravaged Coast page 40 describes it as “Acquire a faction terrain feature: Construct an outpost on the Ravaged Coast”. Thematically, that makes sense to me needing to build a Stormreach Portal, Bossrokk Tower, Skaregob Totem, Bad Moon Loonshrine, etc or any other Faction Terrain that would go down in the Deployment Phase before the battle.

There’s still a week and half left in the month if you’d like to try to acquire more Emberstone shards or join the campaign, however, I would not recommend facing Sigmar’s Dragons if that’s your goal. If you’re up for a challenge though, they’re looking to be a tough nut to crack. Anyone is also welcome to join the campaign next month or in the future.

April’s battleplan, Rise through the Ashes, is posted on the schedule page if you want to look ahead at our path to breaking through the Adamantine Chain of Aqshy. The field shifts 45 degrees, and control score comes into play as you acquire VP for each objective controlled, rather than just uncontested in the Rift in the Peaks.