The 4 armies campaign--New empire units--
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:08 am
Hi all. Instead of continuing the corruption of my HE painting log with pics of the four armies we normally play in my gaming group i decided i'd start its own thread for the campaign we are currently playing.
As those who follow my log probably have seen, i play in a small group of people all very dedicated to the hobby and with several armies each. We begun in the hobby because of the warhammer lore more than anything and have always liked narrative campaigns in style of the ''shadow of the hornet rat'' and ''dark omen'' warhammer computer games. I mean, i normally write a story and a battle scenario related to it with different conditions etc. We have played many of these and its a pity that translating them to english is such a big work because either the tales written there and the battle scenarios have proven to be really fun and epic.
Speaking of epicness, this is undoubtly, the main fun factor of warhammer. Imo, nothing can compare to the climax which can be achieved only through a solid narrative of legendary and tragic events followed by the battles fought by the characters involved in those narrations.
The Armies:
First the empire: Leaded by the fervorous archlector of Sigmar, Lord Papawet Von Alfonshelm.
Some dwarven action: Leaded by the wise but prideful High King Torkrim custode of Grudges.
DA ORCZ: The great Waagh is leaded by the unfamous Bilordor the Warlord.
The high elves: The elves are leaded by the Noble and proud King Mithaniel.
[url=http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/miredorf/media/High%20elves/DPunit_1_zpsc2938603.jpg.html]
The campaign:
Now with the campaign. Around 2 years ago i decided to go a bit further in our gaming style and we created some solid rules for what i consider is the ephitome of wargaming: a map based campaign!
I got a set of the very old mighty empires ruleset (the 1990 or earlier ones) and began to adapt them. The original rules are over 100 pages with lots of roleplaying and stuff. I left them in barely 12 pages and adapted all i could to pursue a more strategic approax to the game instead basing things so much in dice rolls and random event tables.
The next step was creating a map where to unleash our conquering desires. The hexagonal tiles offered by GW are indeed a nice departure point, but in the end is a very limited (and expensive) way to create maps, so going on drawing was the best option. I took the colour crayons i had kept from my early school days and the dozens of maps i have from my LOTR roleplaying days and tried to make a map which offered all the strategic options that would arise in the real world.
The island of the gods campaign is the 2nd map we are playing. The ruleset have evolved in uncountable updates to correct and perfection its flaws (version 8.1 by now i think..).
This map is based on an island in the warhammer world which appears to have been occupied in ancient and unknown times by civilized races of warhammer, but which was taken up by chaos at some point. The map includes special locations and regions drawn in the map which offer special events and climatology when fighting in them.
The very center of the island, is a giant plateau filled with volcanos which is called ''The arena''. there it is said that the gods of chaos look upon the champions who fight in for glory and rewards. When 2 armies fight here they get greater glory rewards and can also obtain special legendary weaponry.
Fighting in these lands have special rules. For example, in ''the arena'' theres a 1/6 chance every turn that theres somekind of earthquake, volcano eruption or even a meteorite which will fall randomly anywhere on the battlefield.
Fighting in ''the howling plains'' for example, makes the chance for having windy conditions for the battle much bigger which makes it harder for the armies to use their missile weapons when fighting in all the region as this one is several tiles place.
So after the introduction come the pics. I will try to update this after each session, unfortunately we only play 1 or 2 times a month. I will post the pics of the different armies, with all the new stuff my friends finish painting and will comment on how the campaing evolves.
THE MAP: That thing which appears to be a kids LUDO game is in reality our game map . The orcs control the southwest and are represented in green (obviously, no? ). Empire is Northwest and use the yellow. Dwarves use the red and are Northeast, while the most glorious of all races which walk on the island (me, the high elves) use the light blue on the southeast. The white pins on the northeast corner are unused because the map was thought for 5 players so we left that section of the game.
We are currently in the 5th year of the campaign. I have managed to expand and take control of the ''blue mountains'' which divide the orc and HE domains after hard battles and tedious strategic moves of our armies. The orcs, however, hard pressed north by the empire have had to give up on this frontier which allowed me to claim it.
To the north elves and dwarves have had many battles in the ''nobodys'' open land which lies between both realms. Dwarves are not really interested in the plains, as they can get little benefit from them, but they look fiercely after the mountains ranges. In the beginning of the campaing i could defeat the dwarves several times which allowed me to gain control over most of the plains but lately i suffered 1 defeat and a draw which have made my king to call upon an all out war agaisnt the dwarves.
Im firmly decided to start a huge campaign agaisnt the dwarves leaded by my king himself and wont stop until either of the kings have perished. So im currently making preparations to unleash this attack on the next turn.
Finally the empire, leaded by an archlector they share the same grade of fanatism than their leader, so far they have not stop of sending attacks agaisnt anything close enough to them, unfortunately they have already suffered 2 crushing defeats by orcs and dwarves.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MAP: The round colored pins mark the borders of the kingdoms. Everything within them belongs to 1 player. The big squared pins mark the cities and fortresses which are also drawn in pencil in the map (so they can be deleted if pillaged). The tall round pins which have a number on top are the armies of each player. Currently each faction has 3-4 armies moving around. They are limited by the number of cities/fortresses which can sustain them during the winter. The small black round pins mark special locations such as tombs, resources, landmarks, regions, etc. The small round colored pins mark small towns and/or special locations built by the players such as mines, or in the case of high elves the ''white tower'' a special location which allows for the inclusion of mages and swordmasters in the army. Every race has their share of these.
In detail: the mountain pass known as ''The Gorge''. A narrow place which has proven very difficult to cross by any army of size. Finally after several turns the elves managed to cross and claim control over it thanks to the establishment of a fortress in the vicinity (represented by the big white square marker pin). In the map you can also see a small round white pin which is an elven spire, a special location built by elves which grants magical advantages in battles fought there. Also can see a black small round pin which marks an ancient wood: a special location which grants resources to the player owning it.
In detail: The empire fortress, bastion of the Reiksguard knights. It was built in the valley known as ''the refuge''. Theres only 2 access to the place through narrow mountain passes which make a perfect position to be defended.
Down there you can see 2 armies close, the yellow pin with the number 4 of the empire which in the last turn sieged and pillaged and orc fortified town. After that the orcs sent an army to punish the empire (the green pin with the number 2) but were repelled by the empire army which used the river and the town ruins to their advantage for the defense.
To the right you can see another 2 armies, the yellow pin number 1 with Lord papawet Von Alfonshlem himself leading the army prepared to defend the empire lands from the big orc army (green pin number 3) which crossed the mountain pass willing to take vengeance for the loss of the orc town in the previous battle. This battle will be fought next weekend and involves nearly 3000 points for each army. If the empire losses they will lose control over the mountain pass through the mountain range called '' the worlds wall'' which separates their realm from the orcs.
In detail: The battle for the citadel of Noyvern. This fortress is the seat of the empire order of the white wolf knights. The empire player made the mistake of leaving it undefended and the dwarves laid siege upon it. When everything seemed lost, the dwarves were repelled with great casualties and a small empire force (the yellow pin with a number 3 on its top) arrived just in time to try and lift the siege.
In there you can also see a black small round pin which marks a fallen hero tombstone, a special location which grants a small magic item to the player owning it. An ancient wood, explained earlier and a special region called ''the enchanted woods'' fighting in those tiles causes special events when units move through those woods during a battle.
I dont think the dwarves will be able to maintain the siege during the coming winter, so now it is an all or nothing for them to gain control of the fort. This battle will be played next saturday and i will take the camera with me to keep record on the events =).
Thats all for now, more pics and info next sunday
As those who follow my log probably have seen, i play in a small group of people all very dedicated to the hobby and with several armies each. We begun in the hobby because of the warhammer lore more than anything and have always liked narrative campaigns in style of the ''shadow of the hornet rat'' and ''dark omen'' warhammer computer games. I mean, i normally write a story and a battle scenario related to it with different conditions etc. We have played many of these and its a pity that translating them to english is such a big work because either the tales written there and the battle scenarios have proven to be really fun and epic.
Speaking of epicness, this is undoubtly, the main fun factor of warhammer. Imo, nothing can compare to the climax which can be achieved only through a solid narrative of legendary and tragic events followed by the battles fought by the characters involved in those narrations.
The Armies:
First the empire: Leaded by the fervorous archlector of Sigmar, Lord Papawet Von Alfonshelm.
Some dwarven action: Leaded by the wise but prideful High King Torkrim custode of Grudges.
DA ORCZ: The great Waagh is leaded by the unfamous Bilordor the Warlord.
The high elves: The elves are leaded by the Noble and proud King Mithaniel.
[url=http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/miredorf/media/High%20elves/DPunit_1_zpsc2938603.jpg.html]
The campaign:
Now with the campaign. Around 2 years ago i decided to go a bit further in our gaming style and we created some solid rules for what i consider is the ephitome of wargaming: a map based campaign!
I got a set of the very old mighty empires ruleset (the 1990 or earlier ones) and began to adapt them. The original rules are over 100 pages with lots of roleplaying and stuff. I left them in barely 12 pages and adapted all i could to pursue a more strategic approax to the game instead basing things so much in dice rolls and random event tables.
The next step was creating a map where to unleash our conquering desires. The hexagonal tiles offered by GW are indeed a nice departure point, but in the end is a very limited (and expensive) way to create maps, so going on drawing was the best option. I took the colour crayons i had kept from my early school days and the dozens of maps i have from my LOTR roleplaying days and tried to make a map which offered all the strategic options that would arise in the real world.
The island of the gods campaign is the 2nd map we are playing. The ruleset have evolved in uncountable updates to correct and perfection its flaws (version 8.1 by now i think..).
This map is based on an island in the warhammer world which appears to have been occupied in ancient and unknown times by civilized races of warhammer, but which was taken up by chaos at some point. The map includes special locations and regions drawn in the map which offer special events and climatology when fighting in them.
The very center of the island, is a giant plateau filled with volcanos which is called ''The arena''. there it is said that the gods of chaos look upon the champions who fight in for glory and rewards. When 2 armies fight here they get greater glory rewards and can also obtain special legendary weaponry.
Fighting in these lands have special rules. For example, in ''the arena'' theres a 1/6 chance every turn that theres somekind of earthquake, volcano eruption or even a meteorite which will fall randomly anywhere on the battlefield.
Fighting in ''the howling plains'' for example, makes the chance for having windy conditions for the battle much bigger which makes it harder for the armies to use their missile weapons when fighting in all the region as this one is several tiles place.
So after the introduction come the pics. I will try to update this after each session, unfortunately we only play 1 or 2 times a month. I will post the pics of the different armies, with all the new stuff my friends finish painting and will comment on how the campaing evolves.
THE MAP: That thing which appears to be a kids LUDO game is in reality our game map . The orcs control the southwest and are represented in green (obviously, no? ). Empire is Northwest and use the yellow. Dwarves use the red and are Northeast, while the most glorious of all races which walk on the island (me, the high elves) use the light blue on the southeast. The white pins on the northeast corner are unused because the map was thought for 5 players so we left that section of the game.
We are currently in the 5th year of the campaign. I have managed to expand and take control of the ''blue mountains'' which divide the orc and HE domains after hard battles and tedious strategic moves of our armies. The orcs, however, hard pressed north by the empire have had to give up on this frontier which allowed me to claim it.
To the north elves and dwarves have had many battles in the ''nobodys'' open land which lies between both realms. Dwarves are not really interested in the plains, as they can get little benefit from them, but they look fiercely after the mountains ranges. In the beginning of the campaing i could defeat the dwarves several times which allowed me to gain control over most of the plains but lately i suffered 1 defeat and a draw which have made my king to call upon an all out war agaisnt the dwarves.
Im firmly decided to start a huge campaign agaisnt the dwarves leaded by my king himself and wont stop until either of the kings have perished. So im currently making preparations to unleash this attack on the next turn.
Finally the empire, leaded by an archlector they share the same grade of fanatism than their leader, so far they have not stop of sending attacks agaisnt anything close enough to them, unfortunately they have already suffered 2 crushing defeats by orcs and dwarves.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MAP: The round colored pins mark the borders of the kingdoms. Everything within them belongs to 1 player. The big squared pins mark the cities and fortresses which are also drawn in pencil in the map (so they can be deleted if pillaged). The tall round pins which have a number on top are the armies of each player. Currently each faction has 3-4 armies moving around. They are limited by the number of cities/fortresses which can sustain them during the winter. The small black round pins mark special locations such as tombs, resources, landmarks, regions, etc. The small round colored pins mark small towns and/or special locations built by the players such as mines, or in the case of high elves the ''white tower'' a special location which allows for the inclusion of mages and swordmasters in the army. Every race has their share of these.
In detail: the mountain pass known as ''The Gorge''. A narrow place which has proven very difficult to cross by any army of size. Finally after several turns the elves managed to cross and claim control over it thanks to the establishment of a fortress in the vicinity (represented by the big white square marker pin). In the map you can also see a small round white pin which is an elven spire, a special location built by elves which grants magical advantages in battles fought there. Also can see a black small round pin which marks an ancient wood: a special location which grants resources to the player owning it.
In detail: The empire fortress, bastion of the Reiksguard knights. It was built in the valley known as ''the refuge''. Theres only 2 access to the place through narrow mountain passes which make a perfect position to be defended.
Down there you can see 2 armies close, the yellow pin with the number 4 of the empire which in the last turn sieged and pillaged and orc fortified town. After that the orcs sent an army to punish the empire (the green pin with the number 2) but were repelled by the empire army which used the river and the town ruins to their advantage for the defense.
To the right you can see another 2 armies, the yellow pin number 1 with Lord papawet Von Alfonshlem himself leading the army prepared to defend the empire lands from the big orc army (green pin number 3) which crossed the mountain pass willing to take vengeance for the loss of the orc town in the previous battle. This battle will be fought next weekend and involves nearly 3000 points for each army. If the empire losses they will lose control over the mountain pass through the mountain range called '' the worlds wall'' which separates their realm from the orcs.
In detail: The battle for the citadel of Noyvern. This fortress is the seat of the empire order of the white wolf knights. The empire player made the mistake of leaving it undefended and the dwarves laid siege upon it. When everything seemed lost, the dwarves were repelled with great casualties and a small empire force (the yellow pin with a number 3 on its top) arrived just in time to try and lift the siege.
In there you can also see a black small round pin which marks a fallen hero tombstone, a special location which grants a small magic item to the player owning it. An ancient wood, explained earlier and a special region called ''the enchanted woods'' fighting in those tiles causes special events when units move through those woods during a battle.
I dont think the dwarves will be able to maintain the siege during the coming winter, so now it is an all or nothing for them to gain control of the fort. This battle will be played next saturday and i will take the camera with me to keep record on the events =).
Thats all for now, more pics and info next sunday