Ulthuan

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/Cothique_6.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

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Dude your empire appears vast, congratulations on showing just how mighty High Elves are.

_________________
Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.
Beastly member of The Mage Knight Guild.

I got the worst roll for choosing an initial kingdom area and took that one. It was certainly the best for expanding but at the same time was the hardest to defend. Also took the chance of 2 turns with few battles to empower the kingdom bulding structures.

So far, my enemies seem happy avoiding me somehow.. But im about to take war into the very heart of the dwarven realm. This is going to cause the orcs to get on me, im sure. But it will be much more fun if it happens =).

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Nice map Mireadur!!!! (And lovely armies too )

On my old group we'll start a new campaign this september; we could try your rules. Also, if you are by Seville, you could join.

Cheers!

I'll PM you (my apologies for non answering you on time)

_________________
PedroGZC painting blog

Sure, just let me know if you want the rules. The part about joining is harder though :/.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

I would love to see the rules - are they hard to post? And are they based on Mighty Empires, or totally homebrew?

They are based originally on the 1990 mighty empires edition. Around 14 pages total plus the racial rules for the different armies.

The main problem is the language: They are written in spanish. I guess i can send them through email if you are interested.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Hi, we had gaming day today and took a load of pics. Unfortunately, it was with friends camera and they didnt turn out as good as usual. For some reason these pics dont have much definition.

I want to divide this in 2 posts, since theres so many pics and things to tell.

1st of all, this weekend only played empire vs Orcs. Me and dwarves only watched and after this we went on the strategic map part to set up more battles. This single battle was so exciting that instead playing a friendly one me and dwarves we rather spent the day watching their fight.

We had time to make a nice diorama board though showing my full HE army and friends almost complete dwarves.

I arrived early to the club so deployed all my army on a typical Eataines landscape with their cropfields, a tower and some forests. Later on, when the dwarven player arrived he said he wouldnt be less than any elf so deployed all his army on the other side of hte board accompained by all the dwarven scenery we own. The result was like this:












I will post tomorrow the battle report of the amazing battle the empire forces of Lord Papawet fought to keep closed the mountain pass from the green tide that wanted to ravage their realm (too many pics to manage at 2am ;o).

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Wow!!! I'm speechless... Both armies are stunning, the terrain is sick (especially the 2 dwarven stone faces). You sir, are blessed with a great gaming group!!! I really wish that one day, my friend and I will be able to put armies on the table that look half as good as those with some decent looking piece of terrain .

_________________
My own blog here
Armies collected: Lizardmen (main army), High Elves, Skaven, Beastmen

Fantastic! I love the amount of cavalry you have and that dorf force is pretty nice, missed opportunity, his war machines would have looked awesome on top of that dwarven terrain piece with the faces. If he'd castled around that it would have looked awesome. You are right, that camera wasn't very good but you can still see how good everything is.

_________________
Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.
Beastly member of The Mage Knight Guild.

I wished my group had time to get their army's painted (we have 7 guys, each guy has at least 2 armies and we game every second Friday). Looking at what your group has accomplished is amazing (to say the least) I can really appreciate all the work you guys have done!! . We played last night, so maybe in a couple of weeks I can show you some of our stuff too. Not as finished as what you have, but it's alright.

_________________
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck??..

Hi again, im back with the update of the last battle of this turn. The group is amazing indeed, but in truth most of the scenery is bought. The forests on the elves-Dwarves map and the big mountain in this battle report you are going to see next are home made for example, but the dwarven mines, statues, elven tower, crop fields and river were bought. Since we dont have much time anymore due to work and family reponsiblities, but in exchange we have money we decided it was much better to spend a good amount of money on scenery and get to play the games we've always dreamed with. I think its been close to 400€ in scenery but it's been worth it, also still need a volcano, some mountains and a empire small castle/abbey to complete the package .


Island of the Gods year 5. Empire fights an orc waagh which has just crossed the mountain passes into the realm of human.


In the vast region known as the howling plains, the Empire had gathered a huge army as a last stand agaisnt the green tide which had just crossed the icyhowl pass. This corridor was the main pass through the ''end world wall'' mountains which separated the Empire from the southern green pastures and woods the savage orcs inhabited. Unfortunately the human couldnt take positions in time inside the gorge and arrived to the area just right when the orcs were getting out of the pass. The battle which ensued then would dictate the destiny of the young and growing empire of humanity.

The imperial forces were leaded by Lord Papawet himself, Sigmars greatest archlector and the last beacon of faith in a decadent Empire. He decided to set up guarding the western road, the main route to the capital. The preparations were fast, since the orc vanguard was already getting out of the gorge. The empire generals made some debatable decissions, such as setting up the arquebuss fast cavalry behind the hill, where they would need to move to gain a target thus losing the chance to shoot 1 turn.

(just noticed the imperial set up in the pics isnt the real one, can see the final deployment in the 4th pic)






Lord Papawet kneels in a deep prayer to Sigmar and he receives the ''hand of the innocent'' blessing (orc player said it was the ''hand of the naive'' though).


Orcs begin to move. Fast goblin wolf riders advance to menace the imperial artillery. The rest of the army advances at once in an unseen act of orcish discipline (he didnt fail a single animosity check in all the battle) while the dwarven player and his ''smooth-faced'' brood watch the events with a mix of anger and envy in their eyes.



The empire answers the threat by blocking the pass of the wolves with the tank and doing a flank move with the cavalry. The greatswords (reiksguard on foot here) move to the hill setting up a defensive position up there. Empire flagellants (far left, unassembled and unpainted) advance fast on the left flank.

The empire cannon shoots causing 5 wounds on the giant and blowing up the orc chariot right behind. A good shoot indeed for which the engineer dettached with the crew will get an honour mention and an empire laureus after the battle.


Orc turn 2. The orc warboss on the wyvern and a goblin chariot charge on the flagellants to the left, wolf riders advance heading for hte cannon and the giant gets threateningly close to the tank wishing to destroy it with its special attacks against big creatures.

The savage orcs to the right move sorrounding the mountain aiming for the arquebuss cavalry (we use savage orcs as skirmishers in our house rules). The orc cavalry you see getting closer to the empire greatswords is in reality a super heavy black orc boar riders party. To the far left, a huge orc boyz party and a chariot take the hill and continue advancing to sorround the empire forces.


The flagellants managed to hold the charge taking few casualties from the combined attack (that was 4+1D6 attacks from the warboss 5 total attacks from the wyvern and the chariot impact hits plus attacks) and in the imperial turn made flee both the chariot and wyvern warboss. Flagellants chased but didnt catch any of them.

The halberdiers charge forth making the wolf riders to retreat behind the black orc boar riders and keeping the cannon save.


Lord Papawet, accompained by his trusty reiksguard honour guard, swears and oath from atop of the hill which echoes in the nearby mountains and can be heard everywhere in the battlefield. Right after, the tank charges on the goblin riders and shoots the Str 3 steam cannon on the nearby giant hoping to get a 6 to wound and take the last wound remaining on the monster.


And it seems Sigmar listens his prayers...



On their 3rd turn, orcs charge flagellants on the flank, getting tarpitted and comencing a fight that would last for the rest of the battle. The savages to the right charge the empire fast cavalry and kills most of them in combat making them to flee.

The orc chariot on the far left moves preparing to charge on the swordmen detachment who moved left to avoid getting enveloped by the orcs. The warboss regroups.



The empire just moves forth the halberdiers and nothing else this turn. The cannon takes a shot at the orc chariot and leaves it with 1 wound.

4th turn orcs. The warboss screams WAAAGH and the orcs charge forth in anger. Boar boyz and savages charge the reiksguard on the hill. The warboss and the chariot charge the swordmen and they flee. The goblins have just regrouped from a failed panic test and the goblin chariots are moved so they block the movement of tank hoping to delay its charge on the boars flank.


The reiksguard takes huge casualties but hold the combined charge, although they have to give up their defensees on the hill. Lord papawet kills both orc champions in the ensuing challenges. The tank charges on a goblin chariot and destroys it. The halberdiers turn back and move towards the big orc party.

Orc turn 5. The warboss moves next to the cannon. The empire engineer decides to sacrifice himself exiting the warmachine crew trying to block wyverns path to charge the cannon. From inside the halberdiers unit, one more imperial hero appears and moves towards the warboss: He is a witch hunter (house rule empire hero) and with his many fetishes he is a fearsome one, witch hunters are famous mainly for their anti undead and daemon skills, but also for their heroic killing blow abilities and he shall take his chances with the wyvern.

Meanwhile, the battle on the hill continues, theres little knights of the reiksguard remaining and finally the 2 orc bosses present gather the guts to challenge Lord Papawet in a duel to the death.


Once again the Archlector begs Sigmar for strength in the ensuing challenge, as this time he will be facing both orc bosses at once (house rules again which allow 2 characters to challenge a single one meanwhile their total points value wont be higher than that of the single character).



In the turn 5 rounds of combat Lord papawet killed the foot orc boss and kept the fight with the orc BSB, none of them able to lay a definitive blow.

Orc turn 6. In the last turn, the orc warboss charged on the remaining reiksguard killing them all and making lord papawet flee. A sad day for the empire where his brave king got caught and killed in the chase. The Warboss, savage orcs and the BSB all chase and so BSB and savages charge on the tank which only had 1 wound remaining by now. The wyven moves further and the battle ends for him.

On the last empire turn the cannon kills the chariot and the witch hunter charges on the savages and challenges the BSB. The halberdiers charge finally on the orc party but lose the fight by 1 and fail their morale test.

Another epic challenge here where the empire hero lands 2 killing blow hits severing the orc head and banner from its pole (Sigmar clearly was avenging the death of his beloved archlector). The tank survives making the remaining savages flee and with this the battle is done.


The day is over and theres no clear winner. Both sides have suffered uncountable casualties. In the end, the orc warboss calls for what lasts of his Waagh and moves back into the mountain pass, probably thinking in coming back again for more stompin' the next summer. The empire men lift the corpse of his fallen Lord and take him back to the capital for a funeral fit of Sigmar's fallen chosen...

After this battle comes the winter season in the campaing where players calculate their money earnings and other things and decide which troops to train and what buildings to construct. I will go with the 6th year in the next post with some pics of how the movements went and all the battles which have been set up for this 6th campaign season.

Thanks for following =)

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Wow that looked like an epic battle!!! I really enjoyed the battle report and I really wish the pictures would have been a bit more like the 1st ones you took. Hopefully next time, you'll have your good camera and it'll be eye candy once again!

_________________
My own blog here
Armies collected: Lizardmen (main army), High Elves, Skaven, Beastmen

It was certainly epic. Epic enough to keep me and dwarven player just watching it all the day without playing ourselves at all!

I bring some pics made by the dwarven player. He also plays Bretonnia and we have rules for questing knights on foot. And here are the conversions! he just finished the 1st row:





The fleur de lys isnt attached well, i gave him so advice about how to make it sticks and fits in the small chest plate.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Awesome.
I love your prince/noble on the white lion just wondering is he played using house rules or counts as

Wow your friends all all very good painters and don't even get me started about your skills... That being said, your Dwarf/Bret friend needs to make better bases for his units, they don't do justice to his painting!

_________________
My own blog here
Armies collected: Lizardmen (main army), High Elves, Skaven, Beastmen

Yes, we house house rules for the lion, we use it as a monstruous mount giving the rider US3 2 HA Str 5 attacks and +1 wound! (of course it has the problem of 4+ for look out sir).



We wont stop giving him shit about it, but he wont move from the scorpion green at all!. At least we have managed he started adding snow to the dwarven bases hehe. You know those longbeards are such headbutts about progress..

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

I found a copy of the old mighty empires book in english on the GW website http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat440006a&aId=1400005

Yes those are the rules we based on. Then we did a heavy job of trimming the excesive roleplaying aspects and modifying rules for increased playability. Finally its been around 3 years of testing/correcting. Hope they can also be useful for you because they are great rules =).

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

What a neat campaign. Well painted armies and a well written report on the battles. You have inspired me to restart my ME campaign.



It's such an easy system to adapt to and really suits a small gaming group as much as a larger one. (although I would welcome any tips you have to make the phases between the fighting campaign more balanced)

_________________
We will stand defiant and emerge triumphant. Ulthuan shall never fall!

It just ain't cool if your chrome don't shine!

Gonna do a translation on the way for the phases we follow in the campaign season. We use exactly the same steps, but we do many things different like baggage. I think it'd be interesting to translate the full thing at some point.

As you know theres campaign season and winter season. Campaign season divided in 6 turns (months) and winter being 6 months played in a single turn. (i go with what i have written in my own rules now):

CAMPAIGN SEASON

1- Subsistency: the same i think, although our baggage rules are completely different.

2- exploration: i think it is very different. the banner rolls 2D6 and has to obtain 4+ to explorate succesfully. Then we use modifiers for each terrain feature like mountains which is a -3 to exploration, rivers -1, woods -2, etc. With all the modifiers factored you roll and have to meet the new difficulty, being a roll of 10+ an auto success. Spies in the banner helps this.

3- Movements This is prety much the same.

4- Battles:

The most important thing is that we set up scenery to represent as accurate as possible what we see in the strat map we have painted. This gives the players the opportunity to think on how to use enviroment to their advantage and defending armies the chance to set up in favourable places if they have been owning the tile for more than 1 turn. Here go rules about how to deal with scenery and how to represent better what you see in the map.

1st you roll climate, using a table on 2D6 created for it. Then we use the tactical maneuvers table given in the original rules to further up strategic deployment and choose who goes 1st. We also use hidden deploy because this method is much more similar to how ancient battles were fought.
To calculate victor we use the same % system there, but have modified what happens when you lose and lose and scatter.

5- Sieges: We only do this through tables and rolls, although the system is basically the same, i have modified it in a attempt to make it less random and dice dependant. Also have added a table for when defenders comence to starve and attackers rebel agaisnt officers due to lack of baggage.

6 & 7- Raze and reorganization is basically the same.

WINTER SEASON: did many modifications here, mainyl removing the excesive RPG, empire morale i think is a totally new feature of our own. which has great influence on the winter events.

1- Troops retire to winter barracks, may have to cross enemy tiles to do this (suffer casualties) and also can choose to spend winter outside in wilderness thus having more casualties.

2-winter events: this is a 3D6 roll modified by your value of ''empire morale'' which can modify from -5 to +3 this roll. goes like this although i wont explain details
-2 revolution (theres a chance that every city/castle rebels)
-1 rebellion (1 city/castle rebels)
0-1 peasant revolt (basically you collect less gold from taxes)
2-3 Plague (all your banners lose troops)
4-5 Rebels! (a rebel banner pops within your frontiers, it will move randomly around and grow if it is not exterminated)
6-9 raids (some of your frontier tiles get raided and thus wont give gold this turn)
10-15 nothing happens
16 special tribute (you make more money)
17 superior earnings (you make more money)
18 abundant crops (other way to make more money).

3-revenue: here we use our on values for revenue from tiles and special landscape features such as mines etc. But basically is the same deal.

4- Construction: Again the same deal, with our own values and buildings. Some self added buildings are watchtowers to help defend your lands without needing an army in every tile, or mountain strongholds to protect the mountain passes.

5-Calculation of empire morale:
EMPIRE MORALE------------ 1 2 3 4 5 6-7 8 9 10
Modifier to winter events -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3

Now, for example, winning a battle adds +1 morale, while losing deducts -2. The death of your king deducts -2. Severe taxation deducts -3 while soft taxes add +1.

There are several more modifiers but i think you get the deal with this. In this step you calculate the new morale of the empire accounting all the things occured during the season and will use this value for the next winter season events.

6- Diplomacy: we have limited this to tracing alliances between 2 players which are very limited to ensure playabilty and the negotiations for captured characters and banners.

7-Recruitment: in addition to buying more troops for your banners, we have added many mercenary regiments which can be bought by players. They are expensive and require annual payment, but can strengthen one weak point of your army.

8-Baggage: buy and distribute baggage. baggage consumption during winter sieges explained here.

9-Banners deployment. Start of the new campaign season.

APPENDICES:

We got rules to limit the duration of the campaign and victory points when the turn limit is met. Things that give points are for example the battles won, kings killed, cities conquered, gold and troops owned, etc.

chronologies: It is nice to keep a diary of what happens during the campaign. What we do normally, when we feel specially inspired by what is happening in the campaign, is to write short narrative stories using the characters created for our realm and where we talk about whats happening using the biased point of view of our faction (its a great moment to give as much shit as possible to our rivals too ). Basically military propaganda to exalt our greatness .

Legendary battles: when a specially epic battle has occured, one where 1 of the sides got a stunning victory or a battle where heroic deeds happened, we mark the campaign map with a symbol and a number and do a quotation of what happened there and the year it happened.

GLORY POINTS FOR GENERALS:

This is the small part we allowed for RPG in the campaign. Basically as the generals of your banners meet certain requirements they gain traits and bonuses which make them more fearsome or...not!

fearsome trait. It works as the general wins or losses battles agaisnt a specific race. For example my elven general agaisnt orcs. 1 victory counts +1, 1 defeat -1, if he ever reaches +3 victories agaisnt dwarves total, he and his unit will begin cause fear to dwarves. This goes up in power as he meets higher values such as +5 or even +10, but theres also the -3 where he will suffer a Ld penalty when fight that enemy.

Glorious trait: Works like the fearsome trait, but counts on total victories for that general, not only 1 specific race. As he goes up in the table he will get increases in Ld range and will even allow leadership rerolls like a BSB, his death in battle however, can be a severe hit for his army.

Cunning trait: When your general reaches a +3 in the strategic maneuvers table that take part b4 a battle he gains this trait. It will allow him to re-deploy 1 unit after both armies are deployed.

Tough trait: When your general has survived wounded 5 battles he gains this trait. he gains +1 wound and can reroll the result in the ''characters death during battle'' table

Tireless trait: A general which spends at least 30 turns in the campaign season in the wilderness will gain this trait. He gains a small buff to his banner movement ability.

Legendary fighter: A general who has won 5 challenges (and survived!) will become stronger. You can choose to gain +1STr +1Ini or repeat to hit rolls for this general. Whatever you choose for him will be permanent until he dies.

Genocide: A general who has razed at least 3 cities/forts after a siege will gain this trait. He gains +1 to the throw to see who wins a siege.

Irreducible defender: A general who has successfully defended 3 sieges. He gains +1 to the roll to see who wins a siege.

Expert attacker/expert defender: when the victory counter in battles where the general was the attacker/defender reaches +3 he gains this trait. The advantage here is for those battles where you are outnumbered where he will neglect the enemy certain advantages for outnumbering him.

Well this is all more or less. Then theres also the racial rules which present the different troop limitations and also certain race specific buildings with their bonuses (for example the HE white tower of knowledge, magic monoliths or vauls anvil, empire abbeys or dwarven temples of grimmir).

Also next monday we will be playing another campaign battles. ill try not to forget the camera this time (last sunday i forgot the camera and couldnt take pics of the clash between both elven and dwarf kings )

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Thanks for that. I'll show this to my group and see what they think.

_________________
We will stand defiant and emerge triumphant. Ulthuan shall never fall!

It just ain't cool if your chrome don't shine!

Hi, we could play another turn yesterday and here are the pics of the day and a brief narration of the events. The campaign just reached its peak in emotion as i could finally unleash an all out attack on the dwarven empire thanks for a cunning alliance i drew up with the orcs. The pact included my help defending the orc lands from the empire armies which are strongly besieging the orc territories and in return he would stop harassing my flank so i could focus on the dwarven campaign. Also the last part of my machiavelesque plan was to allow the most ambitious generals to finally focus on the battling on the Great Arena where you can reap rewards in the form of legendary magic items given by the gods themselves...

So 1st of all some pics of the new stuff painted by my friends: Some empire halberdiers with their amazing unit banner, some WIP Squig herder unit and a bretonnian damsel painted by the dwarven player (he painted her in turquoise in honour to my elven army gayness so she is riding amongst my ellyrion reavers in the pic).






So following with the campaign. We finished the last 2 battles of the turn 6. Elves faced dwarves (DRAW) and empire totally annihilating the orcs (literally no orc remained on the board when the game was over) thanks to some insane rounds of dice through all the game. Some pics of the games..




Orc player looks so happy. He still doesnt know there will be no orcs on the board just a bit later..






After the games we moved on resolving the next turn, the seventh. Thanks to the alliance i talked about i could move all my armies towards the dwarves, he wasnt able to hold so many banners and he retreated into the mountains which mark the borders of the dwarven kingdom. We have engaged in 3 battles, i took several tiles from his realm and finally laid siege on a small town of him with my Phoenix King banner.




An unusual an spectacular event happened in the Great Arena: 3 huge armies commanded by some of the most powerful lords in the campaign met in the same tile for what will be known as ''The battle of the 3 armies''. It was a pity i was allied with the orcs so that i couldnt participate too in the fight (theres a limit to the points 1 faction can move into the same tile).

On the bright side this means i wont get to play that day so i can make a complete battle report of this epic battle where legendary artifacts await for the condentants as they seek the glory of the victory in battle.



Finally, the long and bitter war between the Empire and the Orcs. Not only the empire has been beating repeatedly the orcs in their latest engagements, but now the humans have moved deep into the orc realm claiming numerous tiles from them and laying siege on 2 of their fortresses.



But my caledorian prince mounted on star dragon managed to cross half the map to arrive right in time to release the siege on a fortress empire was about to conquer.

The brave elven general honoured the alliance by crossing the Blue mountains and arriving in time when the imperials were going to launch the final assault on the almost undefended fort. It is said that a message with the seal of the dragon had reached the orc commander in the fortress giving them hope to resist. The message said the following:

''Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East''

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

a ahahaha poor Nabil losing all his orcs! Hope he have more luck in his next game. So would you do a report of your game against dwarves? Was the dragon shot down by cannons?

keep on!

_________________
PedroGZC painting blog

hi, yes hopefully he can recover this turn because he was crying so loud that we thought he would quit the campaign hehe.

About the battle agaisnt dwarves the dragon didnt die because i kept it behind the hill and the woods all the game while throwing spells. Most of the things i killed in that battle were thanks to its fire spells.

I played very conservative because the dwarves had slightly more points than me and also a powerful caster (the runic anvil), managed to pull a draw in the end. In my last turn i charged with the dragon and spearmen on his unit of clan warriors and BSB and eventhough i lost both combat rounds neither of my units failed its check.

The huge 24 man unit of swordmasters didnt participate in the battle at all as we do secret deployment so it was too far away from any enemy. He kept blasting it with the anvil of doom leaving only 6 SM standing in the end.

Biggest let down in the battle was how he killed 3 of my support units (2 eagles and 1 chariot) in his 1st round of shooting and the other chariot in his 2nd round after i charged it into the musketeers and routed them. So after that all i could do for the rest of hte battle was to stay out of range of the organ gun.

After i lost all support units i began thinking in getting a draw and kept moving back while he moved in, having the 1st real melee encounter on the 6th turn.

Wasnt really too much of a game to remember but at least quite tactical.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

update with dwarven player just finished pegasus knight standard. It looks beautiful!

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Hey guys, my friend just finished his Popemobile for his empire army. A neat conversion work he did here. Sucks that now that im seeing the pics i took earlier the light isnt so good.







He used some bit of wood for the chariot frame. For the horses he was gifted 2 bretonnian horse from the dwarf/bretonnian player of our group. Then he bought a mini which looked a lot like Sigmar and converted it to wield a hammer. Lately he used the warrior priest called ''the blessing of sigmar with its pulpit and added a lot of details here and there. He did a lot of 2 headed comet freehands all around (like the one on the floor of the chariot frame. He also attempted for his 1st time directional lighting from the fires behind the horses.

What i think came out the most awesome are the parchments filled with prayers. The colour and writings on them look certainly realistic.

Hope you like it even if pics arent so good.

EDIT:

I would also like to show you orc player's aracnarok. I had the pics here but it seems i never got to upload them. Notice how he removed the aracnarok castle and instead made a small diorama with a tied up slayer and the goblin shaman who invoked the spider to eat the dwarf

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

I also had these pics of a battle we played long ago in the campaign (turn 4 i believe) that i hadnt got to upload. Im posting them now too b4 i leave tomorrow for my trip and work.

THE BATTLE AT THE GORGE:



The elves had long protected the main pass of the blue mountains into their realm, but that spring orcs were pressing hard and finally with the 1st ices fading in the mountains the green tide moved into the pass.

Commander Fingon aligned his forces behind on the East side of the river which divided the narrow pass, protecting the magical spire that the mages of the White Tower had erected there to help protect the area.

But as the battle advanced it became clear that Fingon had made a serious mistake positioning the cavalry where it could not charge. The heavy rain and strong winds which punished the battleground also neutered almost completely elven artillery and bowmen, allowing the orc infantry to reach elven lines unharmed where they took advantage of their numbers.

By the end of the day, elves were retreating with heavy loses and Fingon fallen in battle.. A noble death to cover for his bad leadership.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

That spider is pretty amazing, the base work is awesome!

_________________
Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.
Beastly member of The Mage Knight Guild.

Hey, nice spider conversion.

Good battle too, even if you lost.

_________________
"I say the Eatainii were cheating - again." -Aicanor
"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
"What is it with Eataini being blamed for everything?" -Aicanor