Warhammer Albion

The club's Warhammer campaign set in Albion has been flowing along nicely over the last couple of weeks. Most of us have been playing quick games of 500pts apiece - its quite unusual to go so small, so its something a bit fresh for the players, as well as being quick enough to allow you to get in three or so games in an evening. I've played the biggest game of the campaign so far with a 2000pt against Gary's Lizardmen, but Angus and James played out a 1000pt battle last weekend, and there have been loads of the 500pt sized games. Tam's now emerged as the first person to win three games, giving him the chance to challenge someone to a big 'warhost' sized battle of 3000 points or more. It'll be interesting to see who (if indeed anyone) he goes for...

There's been some good fluff up on the forum from the players, which is good to see and keeps the whole thing moving along nicely. I've also produced a kind of summative 'news' for each week in the campaign so far, which I posted up on the DWC forum. Here it is for the first week:


Clutching his ragged robes tight about his emaciated frame, the necromancer grimaced at the scene playing out in the valley below. The near constant wind which coursed across this blighted island had a bite to it which could chill even his parched old bones. The mage did not care for it one bit. Nor did he care much for the dangers of his bondage.

Down there, in the valley below, his master fed. Vorguul, it was named. An ancient vampire of almost unfathomable knowledge and power. The creature had lain dormant for centuries before  Radoslav had discovered him. Ah, but that was not strictly true, the necromancer corrected himself. The body had lain dormant, dry as a husk, but the mind had been awake; trapped with its body for a tomb across near a thousand years. Radoslav had been ecstatic when he'd found it. He'd thought to bring the vampire back to vitality with the blood of the living. Drop by drop, month by month, the necromancer's work bore fruit. Too late he discovered his own hubris. The vampire's sanity had gone - it'd devolved into strigoi. Little better than a beast, but with the power of a walking God. As its strength returned, Vorguul had turned on him - sparing the necromancer's life only to bind him to his will as a slave.  Roles reversed, the necromancer now served the vampire, raising and maintaining the legions of corpses Vorguul set to his will.

Battle after battle - after months, perhaps even years on the road, that terrible will had drawn them here. It was a constant strain for Radoslav. Not unusually for his kind, Radoslav abhorred physical violence. Not so much violence inflicted upon others; from a safe distance Radoslav enjoyed a dismemberment as much as the next black hearted villain, but to be forced to stand in the front line was just... unspeakable. He shuddered again involuntarily at the thought of the great lizard crashing into the unit next to his own only hours before. The monstrosity was big enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the terrorgheist, hurling his hapless zombies like a hamfisted child throwing its toys from the cradle with each toss of its great horned head. Had the creature struck Radoslav's unit instead... The necromancer screwed his eyes shut to ward off the thought.

Regardless, the thing was dead, along with everything else in the valley - moving or not. The real monster was down there on the valley floor, hunkered over the prostate forms of the saurus warriors... feeding. Vorguul had killed ten of them himself; had Radoslav not witnessed it himself he would have doubted the tale. Ten of those gigantic brutes cut to ribbons in the time it takes a mortal to draw breath. Clearly Radoslav would have to re-think his schemes to throw off the strigoi's yoke. In the face of such power, he was going to have to be very, very careful indeed.

Vorguul's murderous fury aside, the battle had been all but won before he took a hand in the bloodletting. The battlefield had been torn with deathly screams along its length. Banshees, Terrorgheist, skabscrath - the maddening shrieks of the damned had long ago lost their lustre for Radoslav, but to mortals -even these cold blooded lizardmen - they wreaked carnage. The necromancer had watched fascinated as the huge brutish saurus warriors had dropped to the dirt at his feet. Some screamed themselves with that odd sibilant rasp of theirs, clutching at the sockets of ruptured eyeballs. Others simply keeled over dead, their brains rattled to jelly inside their skulls. Didn't take a keen eye like old Radoslav's to spot a dead 'un when they keeled over like that!

The first week of the Albion has Campaign has played out, seeing four warhosts make their landing on Albion's shores. No doubt more will follow in their wake, chasing along after rumours of treasures and pillage. As the factions establish their camps and haul supplies down from storm battered ships, two armies set out early to stake their claim to the land. The Red Banner's Vampire Counts under Derek defeated the White Banner's Lizardmen under Gary in a battleline (2000 pt) encounter. Other armies contented themselves with sending out tentative bands of scouts to feel out the threats and root for supplies. Mostly it was all quiet on the western front, but a handful of clashes saw Steven's High Elves under the White Banner defeat a scouting party from both Red Banner (Derek's Vampire Counts) whilst the Grey Banner's scouts kicked ass and chewed blackroot to see off both Steven's high Elves and Derek's Vampire Counts.

Over the next week, warhosts will be sending out patrols to test the opposition's mettle, and discover what secrets this land holds. In the meantime, the scores are as follows (contrary to the 'official page' on the forum, as there was a slight clerical error).

Red Banner: 8pts
White Banner:5pts
Grey Banner: 4 pts
Black Banner: 0 pts


This was how it played out across the second week, starting with the fluff about Tomb kings from Paul:


Amun, the patrol's Sergeant of Charioteers observed the fall of the squadron's flaming arrows as the landed among the Marauder horsemen of the enemy. Several of the humans fell from their mounts - but not nearly enough. They were sure to close with the  the troop of undead horse archers who were also pouring bowfire into their ranks in the distance. The scouts had strayed to close to the Chaos horsemen, who were readying their flails for the inevitable charge...
Amun became aware of a concussive blast to his right, and turned to see Thoth - the Liche Priest and nominal 'commander' of their force - stagger from a cloud of dust, scratching his head in bewilderment.
'Bloody hell' thought Amun, ''that fud's gone and blown himself up again' In the the thousands of years he had known Thoth, his ability to miscast never seemd to diiminish. That was the problem with being undead -  trapped in time, it was impossible to change or learn from past mistakes. And for every time Thoth blew himself to bits with a miscast, he invariably came back in the next raising - as dopey as ever...
A troop of Chaos Warhounds rounded the corner of a farmhouse in front of his squadron. Amon smiled (well grinned even more than he usually did. He's a skeleton remember). The one thing Prince Pharakh's  expedition lacked was a mascot. This was perfect!

*           *           *           *           *           *           *          *          *          *          *


Radoslaw grimaced at the Liche Priest Thoth across the crowded battlefield. In the melee between them bony finger finger clutched at rotting gizzards as the dead plucked dumbly at the bodies of the dead. In all his travels across the length and breadth of the Old World under the beast Vorguul, the necromancer had never fought against the ancient dead. In all his years, he'd never seen the like of this!

The dead versus the dead. They'd fought each other to a standstill; each had countered every move, gone blow to blow without a winner. Powered by the magicks of the grave it quite literally could go on for the rest of the afterlife. No doubt the cunning linguists in the Reikland poetry guild could come up with some cutting and pithy limerick to describe the impasse.

Bastards. They'll find out how the pen truly compares to the sword once they dig themselves out of their own graves to chew on the flesh of the living. Wont be so funny then.

This was going nowhere. With a nod to his adversary, Solemnly raising his outstretched palm, Radoslaw gestured his legions to a halt. Mechanically, as one they turned and slowly began the march from the field. His eyeless gaze unbreaking, Thoth did the same, leaving the field to the wail of the wind and the dust of scattered bones.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *          *          *          *          *

Its been a busy week in Albion! Each of the banners have busied themselves exploring the coastline and feeling out the boundaries of their territory. Small patrol sized forces have ranged about at speed, all too predictably leading to bloody skirmishes on the floodplains.

The week saw the Black Banner - Ksher - cover itself in glory. Harky's WoC won one patrol over Derek's Vampire Counts. Angus' two patrols met with more mixed success, ripping apaprt Derek's rather squishy Vampire Counts, but being shown the back door by Martin's demigryphs, er, Empire. Angus' vanguard force also tasted defeat in a bloody clash with James' Ogres for the Grey Banner, Detholalle. Tam's WoC have emerged as the force to beat, taking victory in three patrols over Derek's VC (Red Banner), Paul's TK (Grey Banner) and Martin's Empire (White Banner). As well as claiming him a clutch of well earned points for his banner, this has earned Tam the right to throw down a 'warhost' challenge to a foe of his choosing. That's right, Tam is now entitled to challenge someone to one game of 3000 pts (or higher if both sides can manage it) when he chooses to! By taking three victories he is also now able to leave the Black Banner and strike out by setting up a new Banner of his own should if he want to... To round off, Derek's VC didn't take a total kicking this week, as I managed to play out my first draw in years vs Paul's TK.

So what are we playing for? The 'Landfall' phase will end with a four way game on Sunday 10th of November. This will be played between two players from the highest scoring banner on one side and two players from the second highest scoring banner on the opposing side. Points may be accrued by Banners until midnight on November 9th. Each player will field 1500pts for a 'dawn attack' scenario. The winning team will earn 20 pts for their banner; if its a draw then its 12 points apiece.

The highest scoring Banner will take the honours for the first 'Landfall' phase of the Albion campaign. From their knowledge of the land and by winning control of the best resources armies in the winning Banner will all gain +1 on the roll to go determine who goes first in every battle they fight in the second phase of the campaign.

Scores from phase one of the campaign will be logged and entered into a table on the website by Geoff. The Banners will then all be set to '0' for the start of phase two and the chase for new honours. If anyone is thinking of setting up a new banner, this would be a perfect opportunity! Banners can be set up by players taking their army out of an existing Banner to establish their own, or bringing in a second army that they want to play with.

Red Banner: 14 pts
White Banner: 14 pts
Grey Banner: 13 pts
Black Banner: 23 pts


I also set up a painting competition for November 17th. If we can keep a realistic number of entrants up, then it'll run each month. First competition is to paint a denizen of Albion - a barbarian warrior, fimir, giant or sidhe monster or some such. The winner takes 12 campaign points, which is fairly hefty. Hopefully the prize will motivate the lads to get their paint on!

I reckon this big guy looks rather like Conan's dad in the Momoa version. I've been painting another D&D adventurer type barbarian in a scale mail shirt, but compared this big lug he just looks girly. Not a great phot, but with a bit of work he could be my submission, or...

...this guy! An ancient Fimir model from Heroquest, hacked up into a simple conversion. The phot is poor again, but there's some nice freehand tattoos on his shoulders and the tones on the model came out pretty well. Plus, I feel he fits well into the campaign background and the first painting challenge.

Tonight I've been mucking about with photoshop to produce some promo style banners for the campaign. The more I can do to keep it up there in people's minds and drawing their eye, the better!

I good fun working on these, and its brushed up my photoshop skills no end! Otherwise, its been a bit of a non-event week. Had a viewer for the flat, so we've spent most nights just scrubbing or doing DIY.

...and all things Greek

Still on my October hols and getting back into this blog!  Over the last few months, John has been running the PBM game I wrote set in ancient Greece. At first admittedly I was a bit precious about it - cos I wanted to run it! - but he's turned out to be putting on a rather good show. Obviously, I've seen this play out three times before from the GM's perspective. I knew which cities were lemons and which ones held the best potential for nationwide domination. I plumped for Athens - one of the lemons - as I've never seen it prosper, even though historically of course it was the powerhouse of Greece for over a century.

Five months into the game, things have been going well. I'd aimed to conquer the cities of the Isthmus and into the Argolid, along with grabbing a few nearby islands, to give me a 'circle' of territory in central Greece. I was expecting a threat early on from the north by Thebes, but an expedient alliance has kept the northern border safe as the Thebans looked west instead. In the south I've bagged Eleusis, Megara, Corinth after a protracted to and fro war, and now Epidaurus. My fleet bagged Keos as an island outpost to mark my seas before the islands jumped in, and I've allied with Salamis, Argos and Mycenae. Just Troezen and Aegina to bag and my original goal will be complete, hopefully on or around turn 15.

How things stand after turn 10. The 'circle' is almost complete...

When he began the game, John made it clear that he would provide little 'fluff', expecting it to come from us. To be fair, when I ran the game the fluff was by far the most time consuming part (other than actually waiting for some players to submit their turns!), so thats an acceptable sacrifice to keep the turnover from losing momentum. Other than the schemes and the various wrangling and deals between players on club nights - which invariably completely change on a turn by turn basis - the best part of the game so far has been writing our fluff. Mostly this is in the form of diplomatic messages to other powers, of which there have been an awful lot passing to and fro. Sometimes though, we get the chance to write something for the GM to try and persuade him round to our own point of view. This is one I sent off on a recent turn after a neutral city crossed me:

MESSAGE TO LIMERA: “Fucking whoresons! Who are you to deny the will of Athens? Fucking pigs! Cunts! You are not men, you are rodents clad in the mantles of the lowest of men! The will of the Demos has turned its eye on you like a lion regarding a fucking vole crawling in the dirt by its paw. They call for your blood, they want your city desolated! Scourged! The Demos clamour for Athenian armies to claw down your measly walls and let our Thracian mercenaries run wild through your city! Your men will be hacked down in the streets, their innards torn out, their spirits fleeing to Hades with the taste of Thracian piss in their mouths! Your children will be strangled to a babe, their brains dashed out against the walls, their screeching cries the music to accompany your city’s ugly demise. Your women?! The whores of Limera shall dine on a fucking banquet of Thracian cock! Every hole will be stuffed, pounded until it bleeds, engorged on a feast of blood, piss, shit and cum! We shall fuck them while they wail for us to stop, and fuck em again until they’re begging us for more! Fucking limp-dicked Limeran cuckolds! For a generation your city will be remembered only for its fabled fucking whores and their love of a barbarian’s cock! And you will cling to it, cling to the memory like a child with its fucking comfort blanket because even though this ill-renown will burn you every day with the shame of it, for those token few survivors it will be all that remains of your city, of the fucking shithole that you call home!

But there are voices, a handful of voices. All but drowned out by the colossal rage of the Demos, but they placate – they offer reason. They may be few, but they are powerful, respected. If listened to, they may sway the will of the Demos and through their mercy offer a way out for Limera and its people. Even so, you struck against Athens, interfered with the business of the Empire. There must be a price for that. How high that price is lies in your hands. Your Spartan friends are on their knees; even if the Gods deem that they shall live, they are stretched so thin there shall be no help from them. You are alone, like a lamb on the altar waiting for the cut of the knife to end it all. If you think to stand before us, to deny the will of the Demos and the Empire, it will not go well for you. As instrument of instruction, you need only look to Corinth and Epidaurus. They resisted, in their own foolish ways. Both cities thought to have won their freedom. By the will of the Gods alone, Athens’ army was turned aside, thrown back in battle. But, like the passage of the sun itself, the army of Athens came back, again and again. By a trick of fate you may score a victory in battle, but you cannot hope to win the war. Do not think either that some chance of war with another Empire will distract us. The war with Epidaurus continued even through our war with Sparta and its infamous act of betrayal. Stand against us, and our armies shall batter against your walls until they come tumbling down like leaves in the autumn wind; then the Demos and our Thracian mercenaries will take their price!

There are other options open to you. The wise fathers of the Demos offer you this: you can surrender now, spare your citizens the scourging and submit to Athenian rule. Open your gates to our army, which will occupy the city and welcome you as friends. Limera will become a prosperous and noted arm of the Athenian Empire – your men shall take a hand in the building of Hellas’ finest Empire, and shall have a say in the fate of thousands. There will be no destruction, no rape, no killing. You need only disband your army and hand over liberty and rule of your city to Athens. Limera will live on in prosperity and vigour. Your fighting men will be re-enlisted in the ranks of the Empire’s army and become the sword of democracy! If this is not to your taste, then you may instead retain your liberty and self rule and serve us as a tributary. There is however a cost for this luxury. Limera will immediately bind itself in alliance to Athens as your master city. You will provide Athens with the use of 2000 disciplined men each year, and pay us the sum of 8 talents a year in tribute. You shall never trade or ally with an enemy of Athens, but otherwise we will allow to operate under normal diplomatic terms. Athens may also station any number of men or ships in your city at any time.

Your city is a proud one; that much we have seen through your bold though misguided actions on the battlefield. These terms will come as a shock to you, but there is little time for you to dwell on them. You have until the end of summer to decide. If for one moment you think that the price is too high, look to your wife, or daughter, and think of those beautiful, beloved lips stretched wide around the root of a stinking, crab-ridden Thracian cock.

Good day to you,

Athens

Quite clearly, things did not work out well for Limera...

I had good fun writing that! Since the last post on this game, I masterminded a scheme to collapse Tam's Buthrotan Empire. Robert's Macedonians, Angus' Olynthians, James' Spartans, Paul's Kephellenians and my Athenians would hit all of the Buthrotan cities as one and strangle him out. it was all beautifully co-ordinated to go off on turn 8. In the event of it, word got out and Tam found out through Paul, setting him to some intrigue of his own. The Spartans, whom I was to rendezvous with before the attack turned on me by surprise, crushing my army before bizarrely just turning about and marching off home, stating 'no one tells Sparta what to do'. The GM told us Robert's Macs hadn't gone in, Paul betrayed us as did Sparta, so that left Angus' army going in alone. Angus and I made a deal with Tam to call it all off, with Tam giving me Amphissa in exchange for a yearly tithe and a promise to call it all off. With my back to the wall with the Spartans, I was more than willing! Angus and I both declared peace, though unfortunately it turned out Robert's macs had in fact carried out their part of the plan and invaded too. Inadvertently we'd left him high and dry, and the Buthrotans rallied their armies to give him a resounding beating. I regretted that, but Sparta was the more pressing matter for me now.

A nice poached image of a Spartan hoplite. I've also been doing a bit more work on the edited version of the Game Rules through Publisher. So far, I'm about half way through chapter 7: Projects.

I've spent the last three turns crushing Sparta for their betrayal, using good old fashioned seabourne raids and assaults, along with help from Martin's Eleans in the west. Sparta should fall soon and then Martin and I will hoover up the remaining neutrals in the Peloponnese between us. Plenty going on elsewhere though; the islands are hotting up, with Eretria, Kephellenia, Paros and the new Cycladic League all trading victories over each other as they vie to conquer new islands. I think Athens will stay clear of that lot for the long term! In the north, Macedon and Olynthus have a difficult relationship. Both empires have expanded about as far as they can get without either fighting each other or picking another empire to sack. Tam's Buthrotans are looking strong, although Gary's Lamians are a bit of unknown quantity. All of them have no where to go except into each other. There will be a war there soon which will suck the lot of them in. Probably see one or perhaps two of them washed away by turn 15 or so. As for me, after Sparta's gone and the neutrals have been bagged, I've still to decide what to do next. I should have bagged the cities I wanted within the next three turns, the Gods willing I'll be well placed to make a move.

Of the other players, so far I think Angus is the most powerful. He's playing the game really well - maximizing his cities' natural resources and working the diplomacy like a master. Tam's learned from his narrowly averted gangbang and turned Buthrotum into a bit of a rock. I don't see the islanders influencing much on the mainland for a loooong time yet, and it'll be a while before a clear winner emerges from the pack. John in Thebes and Gary in Lamia are playing a quiet game, and I'd say both of them need to act soon to avoid being left behind and eventually overwhelmed by a more powerful empire looking for land. They need to publicly get on board with another big empire and get stuck into the killing. After a disastrous start, Martin is looking very handy with his Eleans, though he does seem dogged with excremental luck! Fighting the war against Sparta has shown me the best way to campaign in this issue of the game. Two empires on one, every time. The big planned attack on Buthrotum failed because there were too many elements and too many people involved. If successful, it would have crushed him in only two turns, but it was too complicated. Martin and I on James has proven unassailable. The Spartans may scrape the odd win at a single city, but they cant cope with an all out empire wide attack. It may have taken three or four turns, but together Elis and Athens have proven pretty deadly. The very best thing about this run of the game however is that quite clearly no one is to be trusted! Perhaps I should be keeping one watchful eye on those Eleans!

The Eleans get robbed at Mantineia!

I've been immersing myself in the ancient Greek milieu lately. Last month, I did a Spartan race with my brother and a mate! I'm not one for sporty things, but last Christmas I made a comment to Roger that I was getting fat and he suggested that we do this 'Spartan Race'. It was only 5k, so doable for a beginner like me. I joined the gym and got training about 6 weeks before it, getting my weight and my times down as the weeks went by. The race itself was great fun! 26 obstacles across a cross country course. I made them all except the spear throw (gutted!) and the running was by far and away the hardest part. Mashing a treadmill is by no means preparation for real running in the great outdoors! It was raining sideways the whole time, but it was a great day!

Looking good. Jamie feels the heat.

Like a boss!

What is this for, then? Is this a spear?

Roger considers the spear....

Been a long time since I won a medal for anything...

Who let the Spartan have the microphone?

Other than running about and PBM gaming, I've read three ancient Greek 'historical' fiction pieces on the bounce. Poseidon's Spear by Christian Cameron is set around a Plataean survivor from Marathon and his scheme to run tin ore from Britain back to the Med for a phat profit. Cameron's attention to detail is almost immersive, and I loved this book! Reading this you really get the feeling that the world was just there for the Greeks to grab. Absolutely brilliant. I followed that by finishing off David Gemmell's Lion of Macedon (for the fifth time!) and I'm now on the sequel, 'Dark Prince'.

Warhammer Campaign

Its time for Warhammer to go big at the club again. Numbers have been dropping off all through summer, culminating in a bit of a crisis meeting with Martin, Tam and Harky a couple of weeks ago. The doubles league is a great concept but the reality of getting four guys together and planning a game to happen is just not happening. Either guys are showing on the night to find there's a drop out and the games off, or so many guys are pinned down in a game that other guys are just coming along to watch and not playing themselves. Either way, the number of fantasy tabletop wargames actually being played at the club is dwindling massively. Quite often the lads are just ending up playing GoT the board game, which is good fun but requires up to 6 lads and doesn't look very impressive to the new members we've had show up for a look lately. Added to this, the 40k Stormshield tournament has stalled, and those who aren't in to Hail Caesar and the mounting interest in that are getting sidelined. With this in mind, we decided to get a new Warhammer Campaign on the go to draw interest back in. Each of us would always bring an Warhammer army to club as well, to make sure that people aren't showing up on club night and leaving early without getting a game. Geoff needs bodies in paying their £3 fee, otherwise the maths is simple: we lose the hall and go back to Ben View.

With this in mind, I came up with an idea for a new Warhammer Campaign and posted this on the club forum:


After a bit of a hiatus, about a month ago I came to a weighty conclusion: I'm not playing enough Warhammer. Sure, I've dabbled in new systems, I've sat in on some fun multiplayer boxed set games, but over the last 3 months I can count the games of Warhammer I've played in on the fingers of one hand.

Its time to change that, and I want YOU to help me...

I'm setting up a Warhammer Campaign for the club. It's not long term - it will have an end - but neither should it be a short term flash in the pan. It should sit safely in the mid term. Maybe wrap up for crimbo, maybe not. It depends on YOU.

Its not going to be a league, where you arrange matches and wait for guys who might only occasionally drop by. Its going to be a campaign, but there wont be a rigid map. There will be no 'campaign turn'. You take part by showing up on the night and fighting a righteous battle knowing that somehow, what you're fighting for is making a difference.

There will be a few tiers of game, starting at regiments of renown sized scouting parties with rugged champions carving out a name for themselves, to battles of 500, 1000 and 2000 points. Those who do well and gather victories to their banner will gain the ability to throw down a challenge for epic clashes of greater value (Points value of their choosing), so you can test your abilities from the smallest to the greatest of battles. Are your forces best suited to fast running, deadly border skirmishes, or sweeping set piece encounters which determine the fate of Kingdoms? YOU decide on the size of battle you run. How well you do and how big you go determines the benefit you bring to your banner. Also, there will be no set lists - bought a nice mini at the weekend? Play it in your battle on Sunday!

There will be fluff to come. There will be battles aplenty. Who will have the deadliest blade? Who will have the finest regalia? Whose loyalties will be divided? Who and how many take part isn't the most important part of this campaign (although it would be rather appreciated if a few at least pitched in...). Every battle that is played - regardless of scale  - will push along the narrative and see events unfold. I at least, will enjoy its telling! This Campaign is not meant to replace the doubles league either, but will hopefully run alongside it. Its tough to pin down four lads at a time, and a shame to see folks arrive for a game and yet have nothing played. This provides a 'go to' alternative if your big four way falls through, or an alternative warhammer option if you want to get a game on.

If you're interested in taking part, I'm looking to organise players into camps, which I'll call 'BANNERS' (shameless, I know). Initially, I want three Banners to be raised. Each Banner shall have a Captain. This man need not be particularly good at winning (!), but he should be a keen and willing player who will always be happy to break out his blade and cleave a skull in twain! I need one player to Captain the White Banner (Quel) - this banner is for armies of light only, although non-aligned neutrals (Ogres and TK) may also join. I also need one player to Captain the Black Banner (Ksher) - this banner is for armies of destruction only, although again non-aligned neutrals may join. The third man I need will Captain the Grey Banner (Detholalle) - this banner is for those of greyer morals and mercenary persuasions; non-aligned neutrals may find their natural home here, along with the more nefarious Empire, Dwarves, Wood Elves, and Lizardmen, or the less picky Greenskins, Skaven and beastmen. Safe to say, the truly good or the blackest of the evil do not have a home under this banner!

Each Banner will have Captain and no more than 4 members (player armies) in total. At any point in the campaign, players may publicly turn their back on their Banner and join another faction! Any battle YOU win under a given Banner will win Campaign points for that Banner. There is a great deal of flexibility here too - players may enter more than one army in the Campaign. Need a break from playing your Beastmen? Enter the Empire army you've been working on and join another Banner! The only proviso here is that one player cant enter more than one of his armies under any one Banner at a time.

Dont like our Captain? After 3 games, players are also free to breakaway and establish their own Banners. Mind your bannermen lads, lest they desert to a finer cause!

To take part, either as a Bannerman or Banner Captain, YOU need to do three things. First, post your name on this thread. Second, state the army you're putting down (the first one you'll use, at any rate), and which Banner you want to join - first come first serve! Lastly, make up a list (exact points numbers to follow) and bring models with you every time you come to club, because you never know what's gonna happen on the Sunday I hope this gets your Warhammer excitement stirring, folks. Be good to get back on the bandwagon and see the hall full of battles once again.

Geoff got on board and set up a specific page for the campaign on the club's website  ( http://dumbartonwargamesclub.webs.com/wfbalbioncampaign.htm ). The lads seemed to have jumped at it too. A week after posting it up, we've got four banners each filled with 4 players. Tam, Martin, John M. and myself are the Banner Captains, so there should always be games getting played. Misusing the first day of my October hols, I had a bit of fun on photoshop to stir up the interest in the campaign.

Heh heh. I've set the campaign in Albion, which should be good for the fluff and let me get giants, barbarians and fimir in at some stage! Once interest was apparent, I posted up the setup:

Welcome to the 2013-14 Warhammer Campaign! By taking part, you have landed on the shores of Albion as either a powerful Warlord in your own right (Banner Captain), or you've pitched your hat in the ring as a chieftain serving under a faction Banner. Either way, you are fighting to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!

After making landfall on these rocky and inhospitable shores, each Banner is fighting tooth and nail to secure its foothold and claim a lion's share of the coastline's scarce resources. Soon you'll be marching inland, but setting off without a secure supply route is like trying to cross the deserts of Araby without any water!

As each Banner struggles for dominance and territory, clashes will be frequent and deadly. There will be 5 LEVELS OF GAME available to play:

SCOUT - 100 point game. Full Regiments of Renown rules apply, including 'experience' (found in the Club Literature > Documents page).
PATROL - 500 point game. No rare choices, no war machines, no models with more than 3 wounds allowed.
VANGUARD - 1000 point game. Normal rules apply.
BATTLELINE - 2000 point game. Normal rules apply.
WARHOST - 3000+ point game. Only a player who has just won 3 battles may issue a challenge to a 'Warhost' sized battle. They determine points value, up to 4000, although they may go higher with special arrangement (ie think of the amount of time available)

The more battles you play, the more points you build up for your Banner. The summary below gives the rewards for a Win, Draw or Loss at each game size:

SCOUT: W2 / D1 / L0
PATROL: W4 / D2 / L1
VANGUARD: W6 / D3 / L2
BATTLELINE: W8 / D5 / L3
WARHOST: W12 /  D7 / L4

Other than 'scout' sized games, battles should roll on the standard scenario list in the WFB Rulebook to determine scenario during the 'Landfall' phase of the campaign.

There is no order of battle in this campaign, nor rules limiting how many times you play the one adversary (although really there are plenty to chose from!). With the various sizes of battle it is more than possible to play several campaign battles in one club night. The best approach is to always bring an army with you (you never know what might happen when you get to club), with a few army lists written up which are ready-to-go at the various points sizes available. All that I ask is that you record your results and leave a note of them on Geoff's admin table at the front of the hall. If you can, any brief details of what happened (big heroes fighting off overwhelming resources, zombies killing a greater daemon, a unit holding a bridge or tower vs allcomers, etc) would also help as I'll write up some fluff of what happened in Albion each week. To make sure you know whose job it is, we'll say the winning player has to leave the note! It is important you do this, as otherwise your battle wont accrue points for your Banner.

The 'Landfall' phase of the Campaign will run from Sunday 6th October to Sunday 10th November. The Banners with the highest and second highest points at the end of the night of Sunday 10th November will both receive a bonus to their player's games come the second phase of the campaign: 'anabasis'.

The 'anabasis' phase will introduce some different scenarios, along with rewards for the best scouts (regiments of renown), best painted company and best hero. As we venture into the creepy mists of Albion I'll also be looking for any players who have barbarian or norse models, any Fimir, and most of all, giants!

That covers the first stage of our campaign, lads. Any questions on the rules or setup, then please post them here. My main hope is that we bring armies along each club night, and whether you have a game booked in or not, we're getting games played and the hall filled with miniatures and the sound of rolling dice!

Can you see where it is yet?

Last weekend I kicked off the 'landfall' phase with a 2000 pt 'battleline' games vs Gary's Lizardmen. This was the first time I'd played a game against Gary and really spoken to him properly; he turned out to be a top guy, and we had a great game! I scored the first win for my Red Banner, crushing the poor Lizardmen. This was the first time I'd played this army and I'd thought they would be a lot gnarlier. The saurus warriors were the equal of my graveguard, but with a slightly better save of 3+. The stegadon with its skink howdah was brutal at shooting, but to fair it was faced with a wall of cheap undead core cheese so had little real bite. In combat it was disappointing and was overwhelmed. I took the Strigoi killing machine as my lord and he reaped the saurus unit along with his grave guard hammer unit. The strigoi himself killed 10 Saurus warriors in the first round of combat! There was probably a lot of luck going my way too, but it turned out to be a solid win for the vampire counts (and they're rare these days!).

Just like the Titanic, this big boy goes down easy...

Some of the other lads were smashing out some of the regiment of renown level games, which I joined in with afterwards. I got my fingers burned though and got trounced by John's Dwarfs and Steven High Elves. It was a good first weekend for the campaign though! The Magic Draft took precedence the following Sunday, but next week looks like there will be plenty of games on. I've also set up some 500 point bounce games to take place during the week. I love being on holiday!

Magic Draft

Its been a loooooooong time since I've posted here. Suffice to say work and laziness has interceded... I've been keeping up the gaming though; the Greek PBM is rattling along thanks to John, I've been busy setting my 'Hail Caesar' Greeks and getting some practice games in, playing a couple of Warhammer games (not for the doubles league though, alas) and I've set up a Warhammer Campaign at the club. Last night however, was Martin's Magic Draft.

Jen had to work late unfortunately, so I didn't make it along in time to take part in the actual 'draft', which was a shame as it sounded good. The lads sat round one table with a big pile of land in the middle. The booster packs were opened and split into even sized blocks, which players got 30 seconds to look at. After the given time, each player picked the best card and passed the deck to their left. Once they'd assembled a 40 card deck, a tournament began; each player was to play 3 opponents, the winner of each match-up being the best of three games. Martin had bought the newly released Theros edition of cards for the draft. They are all themed to the legends of ancient Greece, and tied in nicely with the club's current vibe for ancient Greek warfare.

I arrived half way through the first game. Martin had put a deck together for me, and James had sat in against the first oppo. I'd gotten a red/white deck, with some nice critters. Satyrs, Minotaurs and hoplites, along with a hundred handed Titan (nicely referenced Greek legends which Martin subsequently schooled me in. I really do need to brush up on my Greek mythology - so embarrassing for a Classicist...). I ended up losing to my first oppo, Kev, but beating the next two. I think there was a prize for getting a 2-1, but they might have all gone before I could get my games done! Tam won overall with 3 straight wins, so gets first pick of the cards next week. He drew a 'God' card in the draft, with the 'indestructible' power, which may have contributed to his win ratio somewhat... I reckon he'll want to keep hold of that. I for one would like to keep a hold of the 100 handed titan, as he was great fun to use! The draft was good fun overall, and it was great to have our first stab at a tournament style set up. The £12 in money was reasonable, though I hope I get some cards out of it by the end... Real shame I missed the draft part, as it sounded like it was great fun.

Over the past few months I've been getting my read on big time! After Wolves of the North, I went for a pulpy change of pace and read Dan Abnett's 'Traitor General', one of the Gaunt's Ghosts books which Robert had bought for me a couple of years ago (I have a shameful backlog, worse than a government dept.s 'to do' list...). I've read Necropolis, and Sabbat Saint - both of them great, immersive reads - but both were from quite early on in the series. Traitor General is eighth or so. The plot put gaunt and a team of chosen men on a suicide mission to an Imperial agri world occupied by Chaos troops after an invasion, in order to hunt down and assassinate a captured Imperial General under interrogation by the Chaos Governor's forces. I love the depth that black library provides to the GW gameworlds. This one ignored the obvious subject matter of out and out battle and instead centred on the warping effects of living on a chaos governed world - how it affected the psyche of the men along with the mental, emotional and physical effects upon the populace who'd endured a far longer dose. The desperation of the resistance fighters was really well observed, along with the sense of irreparable damage being done. This feeds nicely into the Imperial mantra of 'you must burn and destroy to cleanse the taint'. Abnett also picked up on how chaos affected the ecosystem and other species living on the planet. The occupation forces were by no means cardboard cutouts either, ranging from the insidious interrogators of the captured general, to the elite and arrogant team of Chaos Space Marines leading the hunt, to the low level yet omnipresent threat of the local security forces with their terrifying 'wirewolves' - creatures of the warp summoned to possess a mechanical forms to hunt down the resistance. I raced through this one - a nice change of pace and subject after all the historical fiction I've been reading lately.