Bones II Club Fund

Last year, we were fortunate enough to get in on the original Reaper Bones Kickstarter.  This year, Reaper's giving us another go around with Bones II - a new set of minis made with the company's new material.  We liked the original package so much that this time, we've gone in for almost twice as much as we put in last year - and next fall when we get our Bones II, we'll be getting a huge package of minis for a fraction of what it would cost us in any other medium, or at any other time.

The funding period for Bones II has passed, but we're still collecting funds to add more to our package.  Already we've raised quite a bit, but everyone has their favorite pieces they want to see added to the club's miniature vault.  For that reason, I thought I'd provide a list of the sections that we're getting so far.

• Core Set
• Expansion #1
• Greater Demons
• Gelatinous Cubes
• Demon Lords
• Devils
• Dungeon Decor
• Mouselings
• Dragons Don't Share II
• Thank You
• Hill Giants

If you see a set on the Bones II page that you would like to see added to the Wargate's vault, drop me a line here and we'll get on the funding.  We're still looking at adding Expansion #3, and possibly Expansion #2 as well.  We're on our way to having most of these Bones in our set already, but take some time and go over it at least once more.

We have until near the end of December to fund everything we like, which is a long time for a collective like we have.  We'll most likely take the final sums for Bones II a little after Krampus Day this year, so we'll keep it open for at least another month.  This Bones Kickstarter is going to be as awesome as the first one...so make sure you grab what you like now!  They will be much more expensive once they hit the store shelves, and this is too great an opportunity to miss.

Let us know what you think about the new Bones II promotion, and how we've handled it for the club.  With the way we've been operating in the last two years, we're likely to see more club activities like this.  Who knows...maybe there will be a Bones III next year...

And Now, A Word From Fekul-Hoof

Today's article comes from Jerry Wargate, who recently won (again) our Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign The Brightflow Gap.  Jerry's done well recently in our campaigns, and his armies are one of the main reasons the Wargate is such a horrible place, filled with monstrous creatures, nasty warped mutants and general vitriol.

I wanted to put down in writing any strategy, technique, or thoughts I have on this recent end to this particular Wissenland Campaign.  I send out a big shout out to Dave Bone for concocting, arranging, and documenting this event week after week, his efforts to shape and create fun campaigns and events is the life blood of our club.  Big shout to Cap’n Video who was the fuhrer minor of my campaign battles and map movements in my leave during this campaign (had to work!), this year he really came through in some tight places and made some awesome games and moves happen.  Also an Accolade goes out to all competing generals that participated… General Jake, Bone Lord Skimulah, Iron Gut Joe, General Bone, and General Greg… without friends to play there is no game.  Weekend after weekend these fellahs have shown up and taken time to enjoy the sport and share in brotherhood with friends and family. Hurrah Wargate!

Okay now to the details I want to point out. This was the build I used the most at 1000pts:

• Fekul Hoof – Lvl 4 Great Bray Shaman (Lore of the Wild) – 235pts
• Feebs – Lvl 2 Bray Shaman (Lore of Beasts) – 125pts
• Sacks the Giant – 225pts
• Gor Herd (20 Gors w/ 2 hand weps, 1 banner, 1 musician, 1 Boss Gor) – 185pts
• Gor Herd (20 Gors w/ 2 hand weps, 1 banner, 1 musician, 1 Boss Gor) – 185pts

Total:  955pts 

This is a super light detachment in its structure.  We are talking two bases of 20 Gors, who aren’t well armored at all the way I build them (no saves), a Giant, and two spell casters.  The real fist is in the spell workings.  If both casters take the same spell list, one will get the spell I want.  On average I rolled Fekul’s four spells first and feebs last for his last two.  Focusing on Fekul getting the Savage Dominion spell to summon more giants is my first priority, as Feebs  makes an excellent jack of all trades on the table.  Sometimes Feebs will get Transformation of Kadon but its still not all bad, as Fekul will switch spots and roam the table with the herds using his powers to make chaos.

Reserving one unit of Gors for Beastman Ambush is a must!  On average I come out in a bad spot on the table but when I do roll good it can sway the tide for me.  Arriving directly behind an enemy breaks more morale and makes more sad faces than almost any other play I've seen on our table top.

I make a priority to keep my Giant Summoner Caster hidden and out of sight.  This is my key piece as he summons Giants that arrive almost anywhere on the table.  This is the bread and butter.  Primal Fury is an awesome advantage when it rolls right.  To reroll misses in hand to hand is epic!  It made a few battles go down in a flash.

Giants… Okay here it is.  They are awesome havoc makers and life takers but like all things in Warhammer they have their weaknesses as well.  Other than being totally clumsy, falling down a lot, and being a complete arrow and battle magnet they are awesome pieces to field all around.

I feel the tactics I used most were the most simple.  Don’t be afraid to change plans during the battle as far as movements go.  Beastmen move 10 inches at a march and eat up distance quickly.  Reforming a spearhead movement must be done, sometimes twice in a battle before hand to hand is made.  If disreguard is made for this idea you will never get 1 Gor into Hand to Hand, their low leadership of 7 makes it an easy “Run Away” squad, so use Gors wisely!

Also the spell Viletide is an awesome warmachine breaker.  5D6 Str 1 hits!  You're gonna roll a couple 6s!
All in all I enjoyed this campaign and send out a big awesome to all who participated.  I am thrilled to have won with so much more aggressive and hostile opposition than last year.  This was no give away game.  Ill be looking forward for the next engagements.

- Jerry Wargate, October 2013

The Toropets-Kholm Offensive

It's early January, 1942 here at the Wargate.  We've been schlepping tanks to the Eastern Front for a while now, and just yesterday signed off on a huge transfer of men and equipment that will take the war all the way into the next phase.  Yes, it's Flames of War season once again.

Our campaign this year already has it's page up, so check out the State of Play on the right.  Since we have a lot of new folks jumping in and participating this year, we're keeping the mechanics of the three month ordeal to a minimum.  There are two teams, and those teams accrue Influence as battles are played.  Easy - but don't worry all you crunch-kins out there.  You still have the Flames of War rules themselves to come to grips with, and it is an excellently designed set of gaming conventions that are pretty easy to figure out even if they are somewhat removed from some of the ideas you might possess if you live your life in a Games Workshop hole.

Yet it's how we structure the campaigns overall that is the most interesting part of our venture for me.  Each campaign will document the Eastern Front over the course of the war, inching ahead one month at a time.  We have looked at several major engagements to make sure the guns will be barking somewhere in Russia or Germany the entire time.

We are going to remain faithful to the historic tales, changing them only where they must be changed to fit our particular continuum.  For example, during the real Toropets-Kholm offensive armored support was very limited for the Russians, amounting some 13 tanks (mostly the tiny T-60).  For our battle, the tank forces are portrayed by my T-34 and KV-1s tanks - up gunning the Russians considerably.  The Germans have more than they had historically as well, with Heer artillery batteries and Waffen SS Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers.  That's ok - it's just a game.  Yet, the narrative will follow the historical one...with just a few fictional tweaks to make it relevant to us here in our time and space.

To find out more about the historical operations, Wikipedia is a good place to start.  Desertwar.net has a lot of information on all the operations and conflicts you care to research, but the section on Toropets-Kholm lead to some interesting insights.  It's not a secret I'm a Soviet sympathizer, but I encourage you to do your own research.  Maybe you'll come to the same conclusion that I did - that WWII was darker and grimmer than any hand-me-down grim dark future someone can imagine.

The Brightflow Gap Campaign Log

The 

Brightflow Gap

The Wargate Season 3 2013

The Brightflow Gap Campaign Map

Mitterfruhl 3, 2526 I.C. - The Spring Equinox

Over the last year, the dwarfs in the Grey Mountains have fought and lost a horrible war.  Greystone Pass is lost to his malicious whims of vile Dark Elves, and all manner of other evil creatures encroach upon Wissenland from the mountain passes.  As refugees from Khazid Grimaz pour into human lands seeking a respite from the orcs, beastmen and dark elves harrying them, the men of the Old World find themselves properly involved in the conflict.

In the middle of the Grey Mountains, a tributary of the Reik known as the Brightflow erupts from the mountains.  The streams and rivulets gather in the valley, and join with the mighty river north of the town of Wurmgrube.  Named for the exceptionally sparkling surface of the river, the Brightflow valley is also known as the Brightflow Gap - for it is also a pass directly through the mountains and into Bretonnia.  It is vitally important to trade both in Bretonnia and in western Wissenland, and is the site of many Imperial villages that must be defended by the Empire.

Over the skies of the Brightflow Gap waft huge plumes of evil black smoke.  Some say that they see things in the billowing clouds.  Sometimes, they are tinged a fell color...and some men have gone mad by watching them drift by in the spring sky.  The clouds of vile smoke drift from the west, and already at least one village has been made into a ghost town as the inhabitants frantically got out of the way of the evil plumes.  Horrible tales are told in taverns from Skaeling to Bradenham, but the truth is far worse.

Fekul-Hoof the Foul, Master of Giants and Lord of the Horde, has come to Brightflow.  He has been gathering the herdstones of the tribes he has subsumed, and brought them to one spot near the pass.  As he gathers more herdstones, the shaman has bade his tribe to create a horrid fire about them.  Now, this pyre of feces burns bright and great with all manner of foulness and evil sacrifices.  And as souls are claimed by the fire, the smoke that erupts from the destruction and offal is tainted by Chaos.  Yet, if Fekul-Hoof is to gather enough energy to finish his fecal plan, he must go to war.  War with the Empire itself.

Yet the men and beasts bicker without knowing they are being observed.  Other powers watch - and plot their own moves.  Though they do not know it yet, as man and beast tear each other apart in a vicious and hateful struggle, they are weakening themselves against a foe they are unprepared for.  Neither of them suspect that the ancient dead have designs on the land they now shed their blood upon.

The ancient dead...and even stranger powers now enter the struggle.  A struggle that will prove to be a pivotal flashpoint in the long struggle against the old dark...

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Campaign Rules

The Brightflow Gap is the Wargate's Season 3 Campaign for 2013, for the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game.  The campaign will begin July 1st and end on October 1st.  It is a map campaign that utilizes many conventions we have employed in previous campaigns.

Of particular note is the abandonment of Battle Magnitude and the concentration of armies into teams.  There is no longer a need to have a particular number of players, nor are teams restricted to a certain number of member armies / players.  As you will find, the new system encourages more games to be played and neither has a minimum or a limit to the number of games that can be played.  We heartily invite anyone who wants to play to join in our campaign and fight as many battles as they like under their army's banner, or simply join campaign games as allied forces!

Forces

• Provincial Defenders of Wissenland (The Empire / Dave Bone)
• House of Zigler (Bretonnians / Buff Bagworm)
• Ahuiateteo (Lizardmen / Bignutt)

• Herd of Fekul-Hoof (Beastmen / Jerry Wargate)
• House Von Klockenshrok (Vampire Counts / Captain Video)

• King's Vengeance (Tomb Kings / Skim)
• Face-Eater Tribe (Ogre Kingdoms / Joe Kool)

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Campaign Updates

Brightflow Gap Finals

1. (7.1.13) - The Campaign has begun!  Expository turns see the map cluttered with Fortifications by the Imperial and Tomb Kings teams, and a trail of Pillaged areas by the Chaos Team.
2. (7.7.13) - Tomb Kings attack Chaos and push them off the Caravan Route and back toward the Fekul-Pyre.  
3. (7.14.13) - A combined force of Imperial and Bretonnian troops fight a beastman horde to a standstill in the woods near Eastern Oaks.
4. (7.21.13) - The Imperial team continued its' vicious assault, yet they appear ill-fated from conception.  In the Eastern Oaks, an undead army commanded by Dieter Von Klockenshrok drive the Imperial forces away from the Oaks and back towards Schloss Bestrafe.  In the north on the plains near Wurmgrube, the Tomb Kings defend against the Imperials as a massive coalition of forces descend on their positions.  The Imperial team turned out in full, and the Tomb Kings had some temporary help in the form in Dieter Von Klockenshrok, whose home at the time was under the control of the King's Vengeance.  However, the Imperial coalition was annihilated by the Tomb Kings and the army scattered.
5. (7.28.13) - Unwilling to admit defeat, the Imperial army moved once again to dislodge the Chaos forces from Greenhenge, but failed to do so even through the fighting was horrible and bitter.  Tomb Kings forces move south into areas controlled by both Chaos and the Imperials.
6. (8.4.13) - The King's Vengeance decimates the Dwarf Refugee Camp and Ansbourg.  In addition, the host of the undead met with Fekul-Hoof's monstrous herd, and a great battle ensued that saw the Chaos beasts overrun and destroy the Tomb Kings army near Greenhenge.
7. (8.11.13) - House Von Klockenshrok finds itself under siege by the Imperial team, but in the forest around Bradenham the Bretonnians find themselves haunted by wraiths and flee the city.  Near Greenhenge, the Von Klockenshroks there put up a great fight against the Imperial army, but another battle sees no victor at that black monument.
8. (8.14.13) - The King's Vengeance is attacked in the third phase of the massive Imperial offensive, but after clashing together the armies simply fall back to their original position and prepare to fight again.  The huge Imperial offensive isn't broken, but they have only lost ground during the push.
9. (8.18.13) - The Face-Eaters Tribe is attacked near the Refugee Camp at dawn, and after fighting all day, the armies retreat to their original positions to lick their wounds.  Hostilities die down for a few days. 
10. (8.25.13) - The King's Vengeance moved on the Herd of Fekul-Hoof, but both armies fought to a stalemate.  House Von Klockenshrok holds out under siege as the beastmen pillage it.  The Provincial Defenders attack beastman forces near Ansbourg, achieving victory. 
11. (9.8.13) - The King's Vengeance skirmishes with the Provincial Defenders, finally sending them packing for Schloss Bestrafe.  Fighting breaks out again at the Fekul-Pyre as the herd moves on the Tomb Kings who have put out the fire and attempted to cleanse the foul hole.  The King's Vengeance maintain their position and severely hamper the fighting ability of both the Empire alliance and the Chaos forces.
12. (9.15.13) - The House of Zigler rides to break the stalemate near Eastern Oaks, and together with Imperial troops manage to seriously disrupt the vampire's magic.  The undead army is repulsed, and the Alliance gains momentum.  Elsewhere, the Tomb Kings battle with the Herd of Fekul-Hoof attempting to regain entry to the site of the Fekul Pyre.  The King's Vengeance is smashed by giants swarming from the woods, and retreat from the battlefield.
13. (9.23.13) - The final battles of the campaign are fought as the King's Vengeance is harangued around the Fekul-Pyre by the herd.  The House of Zigler is defeated near the caravan route, and pushed back to the border.  Chaos has risen to the top in Brightflow Gap!

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Chaos has won the campaign!

Brightflow Gap Final Positions
White = Imperial Fortification
Red = Chaos Fortification
Blue = Tomb Kings Fortification
Text Indicates Army

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Chaos has overwhelmed the armies in the Brightflow Gap.  Though outmaneuvered at nearly every turn, the Herd of Fekul-Hoof remained strong enough to punch through the front lines of both the defenders of Brightflow Gap and the would-be invading Tomb Kings.  Though the undead managed to douse the Fekul Pyre and stop the emanations of chaos emitting from the horrible pit, the damage had been done.

The Fekul Pyre was a smoke signal, made of chaotic energy and directed by fell sorcery.  The call to the herds has gone out, and horrible monsters of all sorts gather in the forests in greater numbers than ever before.  Though the herd has been destabilized, it has only scattered.  Now it harasses everyone, everywhere in the Brightflow Gap.  In some ways, this has done much for Fekul-Hoof's cause.  Soon the herd will come together again...and this time it will be a terrible horde.

The vampire count von Klockenshrok has joined with the Fekul Herd, and has began to amass a large army of undead soldiery.  The trade lane is disrupted by mobs of undead and beastmen, and whole caravans are lost before the route to Bretonnia is closed.  Ansbourg, taken by the Tomb Kings, becomes a necropolis overnight.  The western pass is truly lost to the men of the Empire, and the defeat here will surely be felt for years to come.

Warmasters 2013 celebrate victory!

Jerry Wargate and Captain Video formed the Chaos team, and won the campaign with a final score of 19!  They are the title holders for 2013, having defeated their enemies soundly!  Tomb Kings team came in second with 13 points, and the Imperial Alliance was vanquished this year with a total score of only 9.

Congratulations, Jerry Wargate and Captain Video...this year's Warmasters!

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The night was full of the chirping of crickets.  

Rain dripped on the leaves above him, and fell upon his gnarly countenance, matting the nasty fur against his mis-shapen skull.  He crouched in the darkness, in the bushes under the treeline, watching the small settlement sleep in the dead of the night.  It was quiet and dark, no one at all was stirring.  Confident that he maintained the element of surprise, he waved his warriors forward and smiled.  Fekul-Hoof was pleased.

Not a sound was made by the horde as it filed into the streets of the small village, nor did the shambling of the undead regiments marching up the road through the forest.  As his gors ran up the lane to the small footbridge leading into the village, the dead filed past as well.  Gors hopped and slipped between ranks of zombies and skeletons who barely noticed them prancing about.

Fekul-Hoof and his bestigors stepped out onto the road.  The beastman shaman met the eyes of the mounted necromancer who marched beside the column of rotting flesh.  They merely nodded to one another, for the "plan" was as simple as it was effective - stay silent until everything was in position, then kill everyone and everything.  So far, it was all going very well.

The night was full of the chirping of crickets.