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!