Rulebook Ruminations: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay & Old World Armory

Our latest RPG campaign is winding down, and I thought I'd take a moment to appreciate the game we've been playing for the past few months.  We've played it before and liked it, but there's a certain elegance to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd Edition that ensures it's going to be a favorite around here for some time to come.

This isn't going to be much of a 'review' - instead I'm going to focus on how WFRP 2e and it's conventions have been expressed in our group, and what we consider now to be the foundation of the game.  That foundation is the basic rulebook, and the Old World Armory.  If you can only pick up two volumes, these are absolutely the ones to get.

Some folk might say Old World Bestiary or Realms of Sorcery fall on their own 'essentials' list, and they'd be right.  Really, WFRP 2e isn't complete without all of that and more.  However, the Old World Armory provides something more like the basic rulebook - something for players to really dig into.

What do I mean by that?  Well, lets just say the old WFRP 2e rulebook is well used at our table.  I've stated before that there are rules-oriented players in our club, and we probably owe a lot of that to how our competitive games are set up.  So, I always have the rulebook available to any player that wants to look at it, no matter which game I'm running.  I try to drum up additional copies of the main rules when I can, and encourage every player to get at least the basic rulebooks for wargames and rpg's they truly enjoy.

For WFRP 2e, these two basic books are fairly short, as far as rpg's go.  They can get really big, but there's not a lot of pages to both these volumes put together.  A lot of folk complained about the lack of a good description of the world, or places and things in it.  Yet, like I said - it's really for people who are wargaming anyway and want to roleplay.  We already have all that Warhammer material in the form of multiple editions of the battles game, along with multiple editions of our favorite army books.

The rulebook itself, to some roleplayers, looks pretty bare.  It covers all the rules you'd expect for a roleplaying game, including combat and magic.  Even a few monster stats.  If this is the only Warhammer World volume you have, and you're used to other rpg's, you might think you got gypped.  Yet, if you put this rulebook together with both a knowledge of the Warhammer World and the wargame - it becomes a lot more than the Dungeons & Dragons clone a lot of folk who are new to the 'verse are expecting.

Various conventions from across multiple game lines converge here, making it one of the most versatile and supported systems out there.  It's easily translatable to D20 - it scales on 5% increments to 100% (well, 98%) instead of +1 increments to 20, but the whole system is there.  It was designed by some of the guys from the original D20 SRD (Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition), so it's easy to see the same similarities.  However, the mathematical design of the game is overlaid on the basic rules of the older version of the game, making it far from a D20 clone, even though it shares the math and things such as Talents (Feats) and Skills.

The Old World Armory takes care of a bunch of things players care to know without burdening the GM with tons of extra material to pore through all the time.  The Availability system roots out a lot of the hassle.  Just let your players know this book is on the 'standard' rack - that is, things are freely available from it - and watch their interest flare up.  Of course, every single thing they want won't be available...

You'll get to see a lot of interesting things come up because of the gear available to players just using this book.  It pretty much covers everything anyone could want, and if it's not in there, there's something similar.  My players were able to utilize a lot of the items in here, but incendiary bombs might be the top used item for my particular campaign.

I used this while writing encounters as well, often using it a idea springboard.  I'd  be in a spot searching for a clever idea, then I'd open this book and try to make a piece of equipment the focus of that particular section of the adventure.  It's a good way to get the more exotic items into the campaign, or to open your players' eyes to items they may have overlooked, but you consider to be something they might want to look into, such as healing draughts for chirurgeons.

These are both excellent tomes, and absolutely vital for campaigns of WFRP 2e.  Having them on the table for the player group has increased their excitement and helped to create a vibrant atmosphere of cooperation.  I'm going to continue this trend going forward, and will have an equipment book on hand for every game I run that has one, such as the old school Arms & Equipment Guide.

We have added more books to our 'basic' pile since we started our first WFRP 2e campaign two years ago.  Those include almost all the published works, but for players themselves really only Realms of Sorcery is truly player oriented.  Most of the other works are good for the GM, but I've found that these two are the best for bringing players in.  The page count is low, keeping real-time consultation times to the minimum.  It also means the rules aren't that complex, and are easy to teach, especially to players of the wargame.

In short, we've had a blast.  We're getting more WFRP 2e campaigns ready.  There is still plenty more for us with this out of print game.

Bone Method: How Do We Use Narratives?

From the Wikipedia entry:

A narrative is a constructive format (as a work of speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre) that describes a  sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled".

So there you have it.  That's what a narrative is defined as, and looking at the description you can see how roleplay and wargames we've been playing fit neatly into the constructive format.  Now, you've seen me refer to these "narratives" numerous times on this blog, so now I'm going to elaborate on how we as a gaming club can invent and use narratives to keep our events and campaigns fresh and exciting for years to come.

First of all, narratives give the given scenario depth beyond the mission description.  It's one thing to be taking a heavily contested objective, it's another thing when that objective is the Dragon Sword in the Rhovanion.  It takes things one step beyond the standard "league" organization to make things more personal, and for some, more epic.  When we first started the narratives for a lot of our games, it was a neat experience to be sure.  Now, some years into the whole ordeal, the narratives begin to layer upon one another to form the campaign histories of our club.

This is sort of an organic process, as every club has rivalries and tales of valor.  Yet how many of those clubs really take the time to put the extra detail into the scenarios and campaigns to make things worthy of not just remembering which player and army, but a specific time and place that has impacted the games the club plays from then on.  Story affecting events that become recurring themes in certain universes adds a level of verisimilitude that can't be achieved by roleplaying games or wargames alone.

It's when the wargaming and roleplaying come together that truly interesting narratives appear, almost spontaneously, from the histories that create themselves.  Let me illustrate with the following example, using our wars and adventures in the Mardannon Sector from all our Warhammer 40,000, Necromunda, and Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay games for the last few years:

1. 2009 - Space Marine (using rules from Dark Heresy) -  In this scenario, the Mardannon Crusade drops into planet Ordavis, an important planet in the Carpithica system.  Here rampaging orks are destroying the important hive cities, and only the crusading Astartes have any chance of turning the tide.  The players fought across the open plains of Ordavis in the waste zones between the hives on the superhighways, and eventually freed the governor from the clutches of the insidious Alpha Legion who had seized control of one of the last hives.
2. 2009 - The Battle for Ordavis (Warhammer 40,000) - Two tribes of orks, two chaos space marine factions battle the space marines of the Infinity Watch for control of planet Ordavis in a long map campaign.  Chaos space marines seize the resources on the planet, but leave it to the marauding orks.  The crusade recoils, and the Infinity Watch are dealt a terrible blow they have yet to recover from.
3. 2010 - Under a Vast Grey Sky (Dark Heresy) - A team of acolytes under the direction of Inquisitor Corvus Mandera of the Ordo Hereticus investigate the Watchers of Poul, a Imperial Cult suspected of grievous heresy, on the planet Lucruzu Prime.  The players interact with the most powerful men on the planet, and save the governor from an insidious plot to murder and usurp him committed by his own son.
4. 2011 - Brave New Waaagh! (Warhammer 40,000) - On the planet Nokk (known to the Imperials as Tangrus III) aliens battle for the right to launch a new Waaagh! into space.  Eldar attempt to stop the ork tribes from completing their fleet of ships and hordes of stompas, yet there were two giant hordes to deal with.  The Necrons awoke during the carnage, marking Tangrus as tomb world, but in the end it was the threat of the tyranids that depopulated the world.  Now it is a terrible wasteland of eternal war between xenos.
5. 2011 - Gangs of New Waco (Necromunda) - We visited New Waco once, and we return to the outlaw planet once again to determine the state of the world.  The Red Redemption flourishes across the sector, and New Waco is the center of the movement in Mardannon.  The Adeptus Arbites crush most resistance, but the infamous Band of Basterds (from Under a Vast Grey Sky) elude thier grasp - though many suspect their involvement, no one but our acolytes from Dark Heresy know they are really working for the Inquisitor Mandera...
6. 2012 - Horrendous Hordes (Warhammer 40,000) -  Planet Nydrazom is came under attack from rampaging chaos forces!  The Warmaster Laserwolf and the Umbral Stalkers Cabal have summoned forth Azu'kulman the Blood Daemon, and opportunistic Dark Eldar strike from the webway to drink of Nydrazom's suffering.  The onslaught did horrible damage to the Black Templar's Mardannon Crusade, and armor regiments from Lumis were likewise horribly mangled.  Nydrazom is now in ruins, and the pirates have fled back into their hidden lairs deep in space.

Now, 40k is big so we've jumped around a bit to liven things up, but all this has taken place in the Mardannon Sector.  This year has two more 40k bits coming that directly relate to our Dark Heresy game - the continuing adventures of Inquisitor Mandera's acolytes as they visit planet Kelphis, and we return to Lucruzu Prime in our Necromunda campaign later this year, aptly titled Imperial Crackdown - we'll be seeing the aftermath of said acolytes actions as the Imperium reigns in the chaos on this vital world.

Our Warhammer Fantasy Battles games and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay  games are likewise intertwined, although a bit more closely than our 40k games.  It's this inter-connectivity that keeps everything fresh and moving forward, and also the shared history of fighting in the campaigns.  There are four major campaigns since we started this Wargate, but we've been playing in the Warhammer World almost constantly.  Actually, these four campaigns account for over a year's worth of gaming in and of themselves.

1. 2010 - Into the Delve (WFRP 2e) - Our player characters establish themselves in Khazid Grimaz, ground zero for our narrative and home of the dwarves near Karak Norn in the Grey Mountains.  Terrible events lead to a long forgotten underground city, and the players battle tribes of orcs, undead monsters and chaos entities to free the newly discovered Delve from evil.  In the depths of the forgotten city under Khazid Grimaz, they players discover The Black Vein - a warpstone corrupted node of Gromril.
2. 2010 - Death in the Delve (Mordheim) - Everyone knows wyrdstone is worth something.  Recently, a large amount has been rumored to be in a secret underground city under the dwarf realm of Khazid Grimaz.  A chaos cult known as the Despoilers of the Blight beat out all comers, apparently securing a horde of wyrdstone for some nefarious purpose...
3. 2011 - Welkommen Zu Wissenland (Warhammer Fantasy Battle) - Our warbands campaign depicted the fighting in Wissenland during the months surrounding our last two campaigns.  The Herd of Fekul-Hoof won the day, and the dark pall of beastmen has hung over our campaign narrative ever since!
4. 2012 - The Doomforge (WFRP 2e) - Our latest RPG campaign is literally one session away from being done.  The Black Vein under the Khazid must be gotten rid of - but there is hope the star iron can be cleansed as it was in ancient days with a mysterious device known as the Runewell.  However, even with the Runewell's power, an ancient forge with mystical properties must be set alight to burn away the taint of chaos from the Gromril.  Will the players succeed in finding the long forgotten records and defeat the hidden threats to the Khazid's existence?  Or will the dwarfs be damned as they are overcome by hordes of orcs and beastmen?

Later this year (next season in fact!) we'll be seeing the next chapter of our Games Workshop fantasy narrative come up in The Greystone Pass War for Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  We've got a lot of adventuring to do here yet, and the story is just starting to get really good!

We can even create narratives inside canonical restrictions, as I've spoken of in other posts.  We see that blossoming our Warmachine games into rivalries, and more players are taken notice of that extremely cool game.  Later this year, when the Iron Kingdoms RPG comes out I'm sure we'll be taking a stroll through that as well, intertwining the narratives between the RPG and Wargame so that it seems like the same game really.  As new players (warcasters) join our battles, more narratives will form.  When we make PC's for the RPG, we'll be adding new narratives.  All these will blend together to create our very own gaming stew, that's just the right amount of flavor.

I appreciate everyone doing their part and helping out with the stories we're telling.  The narratives from our armies are growing, and I might even give them their own category to help out with finding our individual forces background flavors from the growing amount of stuff on the site.  As we go forward, a lot of the new stuff appearing on the horizons from our favorite game developers will go into the narrative bucket, and we'll get to see our newest narratives interact with the latest gaming awesomeness (such as Colossals for Warmachine) to help us keep pace with the best clubs in the world.

That's enough from me for today.  Remember - when you build an army for the wargate, you're building a character for our narratives!

Lt. Caine's Skirmish Team! (15 Points)

Well, the Warmachine season is over, so for the next few months we'll be working on some other nifty modelling projects.  Yet before it's too long forgotten, I'm going to post this last season's project log as I actually got something accomplished (however small the project...)!

I finally buckled down and started painting, and turned out a 15 point force for my warcaster, Lt. Caine.  I've heard he's not all that competitive (and I certainly didn't do well in the campaign) but I don't know if it was because my force selection wasn't up to par or just being newish to Warmachine in general.  Whatever that case may be, I do think I painted some passable models.

Lt. Caine

I decided to do this project with Army Painter Quickshade, which a lot of our recent projects have been using.  This particular army is done with Strong Tone, as I prefer a darker appearance.  I used a variety of Games Workshop and Army Painter colors, and basically tried to paint the scheme from the books, which is sort of a new thing for me.

Gun Mage Captain-Adept

Warmachine has a nifty advantage in terms of painting projects.  That is, the forces are smaller than the hordes of minis you have to paint for some other games.  Not that I mind that, but I find the smaller forces for a lot of the Schedule 2 games make for satisfying opportunities to accomplish something with my downtime.

Hunter Light Warjack

Warjacks are fun to paint.  That is really the point of this entire post.

Charger Light Warjack

It makes me want to play Battletech, really.  I might really yearn for a Rifleman and a Longbow, but these 'jacks do scratch the giant robot sized itch in my heart.

Defender Heavy Warjack

I finished the bases with a combination of Autumn Blend and Autumn Foliage, by Gale Force 9.  I really liked the effect, and I'll be playing with these a lot in the future I can tell.  It's always neat to do something different for the bases, and to be quite honest I wanted to break from my "Forbidden Planet" routine for bases.

Long Range Recon (15 pts) - March 2011

Next season we're expanding to 25 points!  There will be more mayhem and 'jack handling in the Iron Kingdoms in a few months, and we're going to be seeing a lot more projects for Warmachine down the line.

Bone out!

Horrendous Hordes Campaign Log

Warhammer 40,000 season is over for now, but the impact of the invasion of Nydrazom will be felt throughout the sector.  Now we commit the campaign to record with a recap of...

Horrendous Hordes

Warhammer 40,000 Campaign 2012

Planet Nydrazom - Nydrazom system, Incendia Paeniteo subsector.

Once, the world was a thriving garden.  It fed the entirety of it's system, and even tithed food and other agricultural products to the Administratum, such was it's bounty.  Now, all that has changed - perhaps forever.

For nearly a year, the world of Nydrazom has been under attack by the dark forces of Chaos.  Now, something even more sinister approaches through the depths of space and time.

The Imperial defenders of Nydrazom are in dire straits.  Wave after wave of Chaos Space Marines crash against the lines, and their infernal machinations have stretched the line so thin, it is only a matter of time before heretic forces push through the beleaguered Imperial Guard and into the fertile agri-land where the general populace lives.  Who can say what their agenda is?

The war has dragged on, with Chaos Marines falling from the sky and Imperial defenders repelling them.  However, the Chaos raiding has brought with it another evil.  Daemonic legions have begun to claw their way through the walls of reality, and join the Chaos Marines in their attack on Nydrazom.

The forces of destruction seem to have one goal:  smash the Imperials' ability to defend themselves, and plunder the world at their leisure.  When the daemons arrived, the line was close to breaking.  However, something miraculous happened to the loyal defenders of Nydrazom.

Only a few days ago, during a great battle with daemons and the traitorous marines, the sky broke apart.  Beams of light dazzled the raiders and defenders alike, and the force of their arrival swept whole divisions of Chaos scum away.  The Mardannon Crusade has arrived on Nydrazom.

Loyalist space marines rapidly reinforced the lines, and repelled the enemy attack.  However, Chaos ships in orbit have engaged the fleet, and now support is limited.  However, the objective is now clear.

Soon another Chaos attack will come.  The Imperial defenders must hold the lines at all cost, lest all they know be swept away in the fire and blood the invasion will bring.

And all the while, the machinations of an unknown menace circles the star...watching...waiting...

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Horrendous Hordes is the Wargate's Warhammer 40,000 campaign for 2012.  This campaign is a little different from some of the other campaigns we've done in the past, but we've decided to change things up a little, so here's a brief explanation of how this works.

In this campaign, the Chaos forces are attacking the well defended battle lines of the Imperials.  Chaos must capture a number of territories in order to claim victory.  Each territory is worth a certain amount of Campaign Points, and each side adds or subtracts them from their total running Campaign Point totals.  At the end of the campaign, totals will be assessed and the side with the most points wins the narrative!  Battlefield influence will be applied to individual campaign totals and individual scores will show your overall rankings for prizes.

So how exactly does it work?  It's pretty simple.  The campaign map (Nydrazom Battlefront) is broken into six tiers.  On each tier there are four battle zones.  Each of the four zones in the first tier will be attacked by a Chaos team member and defended by an Imperial team member.  If chaos wins, the zone is taken by them.  If the Imperials win, the Chaos attack is stalled and they must attack again!

Play proceeds through seven Attack Rounds.  Here are the general steps and rules for conducting the campaign.

1. The Defenders place their forces on each Battle Zone.
2. The Attackers place their forces on an initial "Attack Vector".
3. Attack Rounds commence.  Each Chaos player may conduct an attack on the topmost tier in their current vector OR may conduct a joint operation with another Chaos player, switching vectors to deal with a difficult enemy.  In order to do so, Chaos forces simply swap places with an adjacent force on the same tier.  Example:  Legion player on Vector 1 can attack Tier 1 defended by Lumisi Armor.  However, they feel threatened by the tanks and would rather their allies the  Brotherhood take them on.  Legion slips to Vector 2, while the Brotherhood take their place in Vector 1 during the Attack Round.
4. Once all four battles in each Attack Round are fought, the next one begins, until seven rounds have been conducted.  At this point, all totals will be tallied and battle honors given!

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The military forces taking part in the conflict are quite remarkable.

Order Forces

• Lumisi Armored Divisions - The defenders of Nydrazom from the beginning, these regiments of Imperial Guard were on hand to handle a tithing of foodstuffs and men and marshal for their next warzone - but the warzone came to them.  The morale of the Armored Divisions has increased tenfold since hope appeared when reinforcements from the Crusade arrived.
• The Mardannon Crusade - Black Templar space marines have been carrying out a crusade in the sector that started fighting orcs near Carpithica - but the Crusade has an objective in mind.  Having recruited small forces from various space marine chapters it has encountered along the way, the Crusade's influence in the entire sector is growing.
• The Grey Knights - A hidden taskforce within the Crusade, this enclave of Ordo Malleus operatives seeks knowledge of the daemonic threat on Nydrazom.  Having divined this catastrophe, Grey Knight commanders convinced the Marshall of the Crusade to invest ships in Nydrazom's defense - and hitched a ride in the process.
• Unknown ?? - A hidden (or not so hidden) ally!  Who could it be?

Destruction Forces

• Umbral Stalkers Cabal - The Alpha Legion raiders strike at the defenders of the planet with a frightening precision and an unsettling amount of siege weaponry.  Apparently bent on wrecking everything they encounter, these bandits undoubtedly have an ulterior motive.
• Brotherhood of the Most Hated - Warmaster Laserwolf wants Las-Cells.  He wants YOUR Las-Cells.  He has brought his renegade Chaos marines to plunder this weak and defenseless world, but now that other Astartes have showed up to play he's become more invested in the campaign.  He will break the so-called Mardannon "Crusade" in half, and prove he's the Chaos Lord with the Most.
• Daemonic Legions - Little is known of the daemons breaking through, but the Ordo Malleus suspects the Umbral Stalkers' heretical teachings to be responsible.  Once the Daemons are quelled, the Cabal can be dealt with by the Crusade.
• Unknown ?? - A hidden (or not so hidden) ally!  Who could it be?

The Unknowns are actually known!  However, the campaign will unfold in time - and everyone will learn exactly what is happening on Nydrazom!

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Presented here is the current Battlefront and Campaign Statistics.  There are seven Attack Rounds, after which standings will be tallied and the winners declared!

The Campaign over!
Brotherhood of the Most Hated have won the campaign!
Umbral Stalkers Cabal wins 2nd Place!
Grey Knights win 3rd Place!
The Mardannon Crusade is Dead Last!

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Campaign Updates

1. (1/1/2012) - Order ally determined as Killing Frost of Craftworld Tir' Tairngire.
2. (1/8/2012) - Destruction ally determined as Writhing Lash Dark Eldar Kabal.
3. (1/22/2012) - Attack Round 1 completed.
4. (1/29/2012) - Attack Round 2 completed.
5. (3/6/2012) - Attack Round 3 completed.
6. (3/8/2012) - Attack Round 4 completed.
7. (3/13/2012) - Attack Round 5 completed.
8. (3/20/2012) - Attack Round 6 completed.
9. (3/27/2012) - Campaign completed.

Final Scores

Once again, the Chaos Space Marines sweep through the defenses of another world.  The balance of power is tipping in Mardannon, and soon the Imperium might discover it is in a precarious position.  The ships of the crusade have to turn back, insufficient to deal with the masses and machinations of the traitor legions and renegades.  Soon they may return, but the Crusade has other matters to deal with...

The Warmaster Laserwolf of the Most Hated fills his ships holds with loot (all the lascannons on the planet), while the Alpha Legion do Chaos-Gods-Know-What in their hidden spaceports.  With the Dark Eldar hovering about the planet but unable to get to their newly won slaves, the Chaos Marines banished the daemonic Azu'Kulman back to the warp from which they called him forth.  The pillaging can truly begin on Nydrazom.

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Broken Deals

"What do you mean they won't give us their lascannons?!"  the Warmaster bellowed, as he put a tag on another crate of large output las-cells.  "We told them that's what we wanted from the very beginning."  

The decrepit slave shuddered at the thought of his master's wrath, but continued steadily.  "They are being obstinate, my lord.  They keep saying those are their lascannons,"  Tubes running in and out of the slaves' face bubbled furiously with noxious fluids as he continued, "and their commander has sent warning that any more attempts to wrest the spoils of victory from the Cabal will result in your annihilation."

Laserwolf put down the clipboard, looked at the pathetic slave, and sighed.  

"Return to your post.  Send this message to the Alpha Legion dogs," he began.  "Dearest Battle Brothers:  You reneged on our last deal, I knew you would renege on this deal.  All lascannons on the planet were to be mine.  Therefore, all you guys is toast.  Sincerely, Warmaster Laserwolf."  His hands on his hips, the Warmaster was obviously pleased with his stern rebuttal of his erstwhile allies and sometimes enemies, the Umbral Stalkers Cabal.

"Is that all, my master?"  the slave asked hesitantly.

"No,"  the Warmaster growled, and the slave recoiled as slightly as he could from Laserwolf's frightening countenance, "tell the fleet to make ready.  We're heading back to Discordia."

The Warmaster glared around him at all his crates of las-cells and lascannons.  A giant, bubbling laughter gurgled out of him, causing some of the Brotherhood to stop and cast a questioning look at their leader.  Not that they were afraid he was insane, but usually this meant the Laserwolf had a new idea.  

The Warmaster raised his fists above his head and drank in the glory of victory.  They he yelled, at the top of his augmented lungs...

"I'M GOING TO BUILD A GIANT LASCANNON!"

Forest of Shadows Final Scores!

The campaign has wrapped up this last week, and as usual - I'm a week late with the S2 game wrapup...so here it is, the latest one to be neglected in the publication schedule:

The Forest of Shadows

2012 Warmachine Campaign

There is no question the Kingdom of Llael has faced fewer tests of it's mettle mightier than those it now faces.  Having been without a King for at least eight years, the small country has recently been subjugated it's larger and aggressive neighbor - the Empire of Khador.

Many nobles have been caught up in the courtly intrigues that plague the Llaelese Council of Nobles, many for years.  Each jockeys for position, even as they kowtow to their Khadoran oppressors.  However, not every noble in the last decade has busied themselves with such nonsense.

Many years ago, a Llaelese Baron named Du Vantaine was one of the last King's most proficient warcasters.  He took the threat of Khador seriously, but never got quite the political following it would take to do much more than take minor preparations to defend his homeland from invasion and war.  The Baron traveled far and wide, meeting with other magic users from all walks of life in order to learn all he could that may help prevent what he saw as inevitable - war between Llael and Khador.

As the Baron traveled the realms, he grew more and more detached from the Council of Nobles and the court of the Llaelese King.  When the last King died, Du Vantaine retreated to his castle at the edge of the kingdom, in a remote forest near the Khadoran Willow Barrens.  There, he began to experiment in secret...

When the invasion came and the Khadoran warriors attacked the castle, they made a dark discovery.  The entire castle was bristling with warjacks, and a single warcaster stood upon the battlements.  The very forest itself seemed to turn against the attacker, and a fierce battle ensued.  An entire company of soldiers were deployed there, and to a frightening result.

At least five Khador warcasters were killed, and nearly two hundred men.  This devastating damage was done by a single warcaster - the Baron himself.  There are many rumors as to how this was accomplished.  Some of the few surviving soldiers tell of a huge magical orb in the courtyard discharging disintegrating beams.  Others speak of the frightening warjacks of unknown design the Baron commanded.  All this, along with a huge loss of warjacks (around twenty) prompted the Khadoran forces to set the castle to ruin and leave the area.

Now, the castle has seemingly rebuilt itself.  The ruined castle is ruined no more, but the forest where it is located has turned to a dreary and desolate haunt.  Now, years after the battle - the place is shunned by those who live nearby, and the Khadoran army has yet to return to the area.  In this dark place, our warcasters converge on separate missions, all to the same place.  Castle Du Vantaine houses many secrets, and if even a few of them are true there will be another great battle here.

Some say the Forest of Shadows is haunted.  They say that the dead walk, and that the woods themselves come alive to strangle the life from the living.  Still others speak darker tales in frightening whispers.  Some even say that the Baron has returned to Castle Du Vantaine, despite having been reportedly killed in the invasion.

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The Forest of Shadows is the 2012 campaign for Warmachine at the Wargate!

The campaign will take the form of a three segment round robin, with scores calculated from performance during the campaign.  All normal battle rules apply, and players need only have 15 point forces in order to participate, but players can play any size game that's mutually agreeable.

Each scenario will be determined randomly as in the rulebook.

Each warcaster will play each other warcaster three times, earning Campaign Points as they battle.  Battles can be played any time until two battles have been played against each opponent.  The final round can only commence once all other games are played, and represents the warcasters reaching the castle.

A win is worth 3 points, a loss is worth 1 point, and the unlikely draw is worth 2 points.  Campaign Points will accrue for all battles played during the campaign, and players will have between 9 and 27 by the end.

Each warcaster will also have a calculated Influence score, which is their current win percentage.  This starts at 0%, and by winning all 9 games players can finish with an Influence score of 100%.  This represents your warcaster's dominance of the lands around Castle Du Vantaine as the campaign progresses.

The Adjusted Score (or Final Score) is obtained by multiplying your Campaign Points by your Influence rating.  This score will be used in the final rankings, and our 1st Place winner will receive a commendation for their outstanding performance!  As always, the final ranks will dictate the outcome of the narrative of the campaign!

---

The following warcasters are making their way to Castle Du Vantaine, each on their own separate mission and unaware of the danger they are walking into.  Some come for money, others out of patriotism or religious fervor.  Each seeks an artifact of immense power that they believe was responsible for the Baron's reported powers.

Lt. Allister Caine has been dispatched by Cygnar Command to investigate the site of the Khador defeat and ascertain it's cause.  A secondary objective is to locate the Baron's personal papers, correspondence or perhaps a journal.  Caine will have to fully explore the castle, which may turn out to be a perilous task indeed.

High Exemplar Kreoss is come from the Protectorate, to do battle with Menoth's defilers.  The Baron Du Vantaine was a devout Menite, and had performed great deeds on behalf of the church in his youth.  Du Vantaine was a powerful enchanter, and his faith in the Creator was total.  He spent a year on a holy crusade in Cygnar, and at the height of his piety created an enchanted spear of legendary power.  With this spear he smote the worshippers of the Devourer Wurm all across the east, before returning to his homeland.  The spear is known as the Lance of Ancient Law, and Kreoss is certain it exists, and the Khadorans do not possess it - he has seen it in his dreams.  This prophecy is the gift of the Creator, and High Exemplar Kreoss will serve him.

Warwitch Deneghra has come here at the bidding of Toruk, on the trail of the magical artifact her master desires.  The Sphere of Remissal has surfaced again, and after long centuries the Dragon himself wishes for the return of his creation.  Forged from a fragment of his essence in the heart of the world, the Sphere has many powers - one of which is known as the Seal of Unmaking.  Deneghra herself feels attuned to the Sphere after the Lord Toruk made his will known - not only can she find the artifact, but she will understand how to use it...

Mercenary Drake MacBain has been commissioned to reconnoiter and if possible secure the Castle Du Vantaine at the border of Llael and Khador.  Since he's accepted the job from the Guilders, Drake has heard a few stories about the place the locals call the Forest of Shadows.  His interest piqued, he's very interested in finding out more about these warjacks who reportedly outperformed the Khadoran army by such a wide margin.  Surely such a piece of machinery would look fine next to his Nomads.

---

Campaign statistics are presented in this section, with updates to follow.  The first two rounds take place in the forest itself, but the final round takes place at Castle Du Vantaine.

The campaign is over!

Exemplar Kreoss 
has seized the 
Lance of Ancient Law!

---

Campaign Updates

The Creator must truly condone the purpose of the Protectorates' more recent acts of aggression, as Skim totally pulled ahead of everyone once again during our campaign!  Exemplar Kreoss and his Cinerators have but a boot in, and defeated all the wards and traps of Castle Du Vantaine to obtain the mystical artifact he had pursued there.

Domination by Exemplar

1. Skim: Exemplar Kreoss, 1st Place - 11.11 CP
2. Captain Video: Warwitch Deneghra, 2nd Place - 8.44 CP
3. Dirty Greg: Drake MacBain, 3rd Place - 5.33 CP
4. Dave Bone:  Lt. Caine, Dead Last - 2.89 CP

Not exactly the same placings as our last small campaign, but very similar.  Captain Video's Warwitch did some serious damage this time, preying on the weak and advancing the cause of Lord Toruk.  Drake MacBain and Lt. Caine battled for Dead Last, and of course I got Dead Last.  

Hey, I got both Dead Lasts this season.  I'm glad we only hand out certificates for one each season.

---

Exemplar Kreoss entered the gates of Sul with his head held high.  The banners billowed in the wind, and the magical lance he'd recovered from the haunted fortress was gripped in his hand.  He held it point high, so the white Menite pennant could be seen by every peasant and lord.

The procession greeted Kreoss and his warriors near the city's cathedral district.  Kreoss motioned to the lords that had gathered, among them scrutators of his own faith.  He offered the lance to the most senior of the priests that had joined the throng, and all the while the ranks of the Exemplars in Kreoss's procession moved into the small plaza where they had stopped.

"This is the Lance of Ancient Law."  Kreoss intoned, and the priests dropped to their knees in praise of Menoth.  "I have brought the artefact here as was Menoth's will.  You are to safeguard it from evil in the lowest and best guarded vaults of the cathedral."  Kreoss's instructions were concise and clear, and there was little the assembled priests could do but bear witness to the Lance's coming back to Sul.

"Are you certain..." one of the priests began, but Kreoss raised his hand to cut him off.  The warcaster gestured toward the lance, now in the hands of the elder priest.  "Look for yourself."  The skeptic began to gaze at the weapon, and his eyes glazed over.  There was a nimbus of bluish flame dancing around the pointed blade of the lance, and all assembled - save Kreoss and his Exemplars - gasped in awe.

"Soon, our nation will have a need of the magic in this lance.  You must safeguard it until I return."  With this Kreoss turned, rejoined his procession and began to climb atop his mount.  The priests' puzzled looks turned to panic when they realized Kreoss intended to simply leave, to continue to enact Menoth's will elsewhere.

"Exemplar?!  What are we supposed to do?"  the senior priest cried out as the lance flared to life in his startled hands.

"Take it to the Visgoth.  I must off."  Kreoss flatly replied, checking his gear for riding.  He still had to get fresh supplies for his knights before the returned to the front.  The priests were not yet satisfied, however.  

"Why must we be prepared?"  one of them barked, obviously indignant at how they'd been treated by the knights.

"All of the battles of late have been skirmishes, priest.  Yet soon, we will have a real war on our hands."

Horrendous Hordes Finals!

The battle for Nydrazom is over!

The epic war for the planet ended April 1st, and the scores have been tallied and the damage assessed!  Now, out of the smoking ruin the victors comb the ruin for what salvage can be had.  This campaign was the Mardannon Crusade's first real engagement, and will set the stage for next year's 40k campaigns.  So how did it turn out for the Imperial defenders?

Here's the breakdown after 7 Attack Rounds!

As you can see, the Imperials didn't fare well at all this season.  The Forces of Destruction scored almost a total landslide, with most of their armies crushing a good portion of the defenses on Nydrazom.  Their team victory, however, they owe to the Warmaster Laserwolf and his Chaos Marine alliance!

Jerry Wargate (Most Hated) - 1st Place, 55.71 CP

It was a huge victory not just for Destruction in general, but the top two players were Chaos Space Marines!  In fact, Jerry stapled the cash prize to his chest and wore it like a severed head until he donated a good portion of it to some upcoming club projects.  It looks like the Eye of Terror will be spilling it's vileness forth in even larger waves next year!

Mark B. (Umbral Stalkers) - 2nd Place, 25.71 CP

Though he claims he's more of a role-player than war-gamer, Mark B. has been continually placing in the top 3 of almost every game he plays!  This year's 40k is no exception, and piloted my own Umbral Stalkers (Alpha Legion) to 2nd place!  We're headed into fantasy season now, and I've no doubt Mark will prove a quite capable fighter in the wars to follow...

Captain Video (Draigo's Response Team) - 3rd Place, 22.22 CP

The only Order player to place in the Top 3 was Captain Video, whose Grey Knights managed to hold on to a good portion of the battlefront despite repeated attacks by the daemonic forces of Azu'kulman.  Though he played more battles than anyone in the campaign, the Grey Knights only managed to place 3rd...but that small glimmer of hope will have to be enough for the Imperials this time.

Dave Bone (Mardannon Crusade) - Dead Last, 2.50 CP

Well, I finally scored a certificate from the club.  I knew my first one would be Dead Last, and my Black Templars weren't very lucky this go around.  I'm undeterred however...next time I'll have more transport tanks, and woe to the unwary - especially the Most Hated!  I vow to the Emperor that I'm going to take 1st in one of these campaigns, very soon.

Anyways, the planet Nydrazom has been ravaged and burned.  It's entry in the Index Mardannon will be changed to the following to reflect the damage the campaign has caused to it's infrastructure, populace, cities and natural environment.  Mayhaps one day, the Imperials will retake the world in the name of the Emperor...but if so that time might be long coming.

Nydrazom System

• Nydrazom 

• History:  Of the two fertile planets in this system’s life belt, Nydrazom was colonized first.  At the time of the Old Crusade, the planet was inhabited by an unknown group of humans who had colonized millennia before.  After the planet was compliant with the crusade, Imperial doctrine has been the meat and bread of this agri-world, which was controlled mostly by the Guilder houses until the invasion by Chaos Space Marines. 

• Geography:  The northern hemisphere consists mainly of one large continent that has two seasons, Spring and Summer.  The south portion of the planet is icy oceans dotted with volcanic archipelagos. 

• Inhabitants:  The people of Nydrazom lived in rural communities, and in a few places, giant Agri-Plexes that serve as the large cities of the northern hemisphere.  Now they have been enslaved by the forces of the Most Hated and Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines, and its rulers have been asking for aid from the Crusade for almost six months.  With the Crusade’s current committals, it might be some time before aid arrives…

I'll have the campaign log up in a day or two.  The full story of what happened on Nydrazom will be told, and all the defenders of the Imperium will know what the Laserwolf wants.

He wants lascannons.

Innistrad Draft Tournament!

Well, better later than never.  

Now that we've got a better schedule for Magic: The Gathering there's been a lot of talk of spells around here lately (not that it ever dips below a certain level).  Personally, it's gotten me more excited about playing cards, and I think I'm going to be doing a lot of random challenges on Game Day.  Plot to play Magic against me, as I'm going to try to take over the universe.  Just need to see more open dueling!

One of the reasons that it doesn't really matter that we are a few months late is that we sort of exist inside a strange "game bubble" that isn't necessarily "on the pulse" of each game we play's own publishing schedule.  The sheer amount of material and stuff we move through each season means we can't do everything as it's being done by the game manufacturers...for example, we'll be doing our first Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition campaign six months after it's released, assuming it's released this July (we do 40k in Quarter 1).  We're far out from any real sort of FLGS club, so there's not a lot of interaction with the "mainstream" as far these things go. 

It's not like we're restricted from learning about, obtaining or even gaming with a lot of products during the time they are being promoted by their manufacturer.  It's just that we're literally so busy with everything else going on that some of these things are obtained by the club, only to be used months later.  We have this stuff all around us, for all game systems, waiting for the seasons to roll back around until they are needed / constructed / painted / repaired.  Magic: The Gathering is no exception to this:  a few of us might get some of the new cards from each set as they are published, but don't actually play with them for months.  Every time.

I guess there's a time and a place for everything.  In fact, that's kinda been our de facto motto this whole time.  Meaning there will literally be a time and a place for everything we want to do.  

As a result of this "delay effect", during each of our drafts there have been many players have never seen these spells before, or even heard of the expansion.  Such was the case with Innistrad, as we only had 2 players during the draft who'd had experience with drafting this expansion.  You might be surprised to hear those of us with more knowledge averaged on the low end of the winning players.

Most of our players are novices who've only been playing drafts with us.  We've had a formal Constructed tournament, but not really a day given to open dueling.  To that end, I'm going to have to play Magic every game day.  Really.  So make sure you bring a deck, since you will end up needing it at some point.  Maybe not this weekend, maybe not next, but rest assured YOU WILL be brought to task!  MOAR DOOLZ.  Period.

So, what about the Innistrad draft itself?  Very smooth this time, with double-faced cards causing the appropriate amount of confusion when distributed to gamers who've never heard of them.  Everyone was quite eager to get new spells, and I can't wait to see some of the Modern decks these cards will give rise to.

The most popular colors this time were white and green, which everyone seemed to be drafting.  A few guys drafted red or black, but blue was left in the pile almost every time.  I don't think anyone fielded a deck with blue in it at all, even a splash.  (*Correction: Both Jerry and Chris drafted blue, and Chris even beat me with an Undead Alchemist*)

The breakout card from our draft has to be Mikaeus, the Lunarch.  Newcomer Chris hadn't even heard of the expansion, though he's familiar with the current Magic rules from his PS3 (or whatever video box it is).  He won two of his three matches, along with McNutt, Greg and Jerry!

Don't worry Mark, that's just my leg.

Captain Video also got a Lilliana of the Veil, and he was the big winner Sunday winning all three matches!  I don't know if that was his breakout card, but it seems suspicious to me!  I concede I might be biased there, because I had only won one match out of three.  Only one, and I had gone in with full knowledge of the set and even having a few drafts under my belt!

So there's not any more confusion on dates, I just need to reiterate the following event days for Magic.  We'll probably review this every few months, just to make sure everyone's listening!  If it becomes an issue, I might put a permanent Magic page on the site for upcoming events.  Anyways, the next several month event schedule currently appears as thus:

• May 6 - Dark Ascension Booster Draft (limited signup)
• June 3 - Avacyn Restored Booster Draft (limited signup)
• July 1 - Modern Constructed Tournament
• August 5 - M13 Booster Draft (limited signup)
• September 2 -  Modern Constructed Tournament

For those with limited signups, make sure your name is on the list at the Wargate when we ask!  They fill up quick, so you'll want to make sure you're around when we announce these things.  It's first come, first serve, and I can't wait for everyone to be there all the time.  For Mr. Keiner, I apologize about Sunday - but I'm putting you on the Avacyn Restored list as soon as I announce it!

Just a few more things.  Many, many  thanks to contributors this week!  We've done a lot of things with your monies, including buying a resin village to stab each other in, awesome wagons to ambush, and we're getting several new shelving units to enhance our space around the gaming area.  So, special thanks again to Jerry, Mcnutt, Uncle Mark and Shaunny Shaun Shaun Shaun Anderson Andrews.  You guys are helping make us AWESOME.

Also, if you want a new 2012 Wargate T-shirt, we'll be ordering them the week after the 15th of April!  If you want one, talk with me sometime betwixt then and now.

More to come tomorrow!

The Search for the Dragon Sword!

Lots of stuff this week, going to try to keep up with the demanding schedule!  Many apologies for not posting more last month, but I'll try to make it up this week!

The schedule 2 campaign this year has prizes!  If you weren't already in the know, there winner will get a new unit or two, so Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game might even have more players next year - but that's next year.  What about now?  Check out the new campaign page!

This campaign centers around Sauron's search for a mystical artifact, the Dragon Sword.  The Forces of Good are attempting to break the concentrations of the Enemy's followers before their evil plan can come to fruition.  There are some slight anachronisms (certain members of the Fellowship, maybe?) but overall our campaign is entirely within the mythos, and remember - at the Wargate, no canon is sacred.  It's entirely possible in our "reality" the Dark Lord wins the War of the Ring.  Unsettling, to say the least.

This campaign is very similar to our last Schedule 1 campaign (Horrendous Hordes) in that it's an "attack" campaign.  This time it's good-guys on the attack and the evil players are defending their camps and dig sites.  One other neat feature is that there aren't actual "Attack Rounds", but any game can be fought at any time.  Though it's up to the players to decide, it's probably a good idea for each good player to get 5 of the expeditions, unless a player can't get all his games.

We're trying a new system to promote team battles also.  At the end of the campaign, players will have their personal Influence scores, but those will be compared to the total number of objectives scored by each respective side.  The total team win score will be the adjusted totals of all players on a team.  Therefore, the teams will be more closely linked this time.  If one of your team mates fails or is destroyed, you can be the entire alliance will feel it.

Dragon Sword will also let us see some brand new armies here at the Wargate!  If you're in the game, get a warband painted so we can showcase a bit of your force this season.  Remember, this time you're fighting for something real - namely a set of new models for your army!

Death on the Eerie Downs Commences!

Whew!  Long time between posts, and I've really been feeling it.  I was finally able to get some work done, I think I'm still a few days late to this...but our Mordheim campaign is kicking off today (among many other things)!

This season we're introducing a new version of the rulebook (2.1) and the material from the Empire in Flames expansion!  This doesn't change a lot of the basic rules, but a lot more options have been added.  There's a lot of breadth to Mordheim, and we're going to be adding new stuff every year.

That means that this season we're adding a lot of new stuff to our fantasy skirmish game.  Some rules are being adopted as official, and there's a huge list of available warbands and hired swords on the campaign page.  I imagine a lot of us aren't fully familiar with all of the options, so make sure you check them out - you might find yourself with a new project next year!

There are a few neat scenarios that are going to come up, but Upon the Downs will surely be a hated ordeal.  We're getting a bunch of new items that will allow us to play a lot of the more interesting scenarios from Empire in Flames, such as the Stagecoach Ambush.  New and more interesting terrain will be on the table, so get those warbands painted up so we can showcase them!

The game is going to last at least 1 round robin round, so start your games as soon as you can!  We'll be updating the campaign page with more information on the warbands and the campaign leaderboard later this week.  Stake your claim to the treasure on the Eerie Downs now!