The Farsetter Holds - Game 4, Finale

(Game 3 here) 
 
We had the final 4th game of our campaign, and it was very epic. Brace for it, because this is a long report and story.

 The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 4

The cold weather snowfall had hit hard and sudden. Although the clan was thankful it wasn't a hard blizzard. They had been preparing about a month, all the while the greenskins inside the hold didn't show any signs. But on this day Dunhill was going give them something to take notice. They emptied the fort of everyone fit for fighting. This was the entire throng, all of them. Lined up at the base of the mountain, in neat disciplined lines, waiting.

Towering over the throng in the middle was the Klad Barag, driven by Drake and a team of his best cogsmiths. Today was to be its first official battle, a magnificent tribute to Grungni. Also of the new engineerings in the throng was their last organ gun, the Beardforce, (a team of 6 in hovering gyropacks with brimstone guns and bombs), and one of Dunhill's earlier steamsuit prototypes, much larger and bulkier than his current model. It is being driven by his veteran longbeard, Behrun Farsetter.

The throng began to stomp in unison, chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!". Small rocks were rolling down the mountain face. The Klad Barage let out a massive horn blow, ear shattering and deep, the forest behind swayed as flocks of birds left the canopy. Rolling rocks became tumbling boulders as the mountain let loose more from the reverberations. It would be impossible for the greenskins to ignore such a display and call. Fighting was what they lived for.

***

Dust and some debris were falling from the high ceilings, every greenskin had paused what they were doing and looked up as they heard the distant call to war. The Profut was beginning to stand taller, as if the building waaagh energy was giving him youth. Grox was feeling it too. Then Da Big'un started laughing, big bellowing guffaws. A group of scouts returned shouting about a big battle about to happen, whispers of a waaagh echoed throughout the horde. Da Big'un began stomping in tune with the duardin outside.

Given time they all marched to the exit lead by the scouts. Not a single orruk was going to miss out on this.

***

Dunhill saw the greenskin horde pour out of the entrance, marching down the hill, chanting 'WAH WAH WAH' to match the rhythm of the duardin throng. They had taken the lure, not that they would object to it if they knew it was one. Dunhill signaled the Klad Barag and it let out 3 short horn blasts to alert the throng that the fight had come. The other veterans were calling to their units and forming tighter lines and locking shields. The organ gun was priming the barrels. The familiar hiss of fuel were filling the reserves in the drakeguns. Thunderer handguns were clicking and locking. A subtle thrum emanated from Bree and the other Runelords as she concentrated on the rune power adoring her battle dress.

The greenskins had formed up and marched forward. Da Big'un let out a massive WAAAGH! and as the horde responded, he bounded down the mountainside atop his magmadroth, and landed with a crash behind the cheering horde.

This was the final stand, Dunhill thought. This would be the end of it. The last chance to take back the Farsetter ancestral holds.

***

Each player brought 3000 points, abandoning most matched play restrictions to bring whatever we wanted. The goal was objective based, and the twist was enhanced magic (because of da WAAAGH POWA!), but double 1's or 6's dealt mortal wounds to the casters.

Jarom brought Da Big'un, a butcher, da Profut, and Grox, and a newcomer Warboss on Wyvern. Also his usual host of orruk and fat'uns, and a couple fat'uns carrying really huge guns (Ironblasters).

As in the story above, I had lots of Ironweld Arsenal and units of Dispossessed. The Klad Barag of course was the centerpiece of the army, and the most exciting part, I thought. I also had 3 Runelords to spread the runepower.

It was a really massive pitched battle with lots of back and forth, and by the end, most of our forces were nearly completely obliterated. The forest and rocky areas had been riggeded with firebombs and phosphorous explosives. Causing a lot of blindness with the greenskins in the forests (brought on by the Mystical terrain rule), and inhibiting movement around the fires in the rocky areas (brought on by the Lethal Inferno ruse card from the Open War cards). These worked to help against the greenskin hordes by splitting them up or delaying some of them.

On the right flank, the Beardforce (gyrocpters) were menacing the orruks and the longbeards, ironbreakers, hammerers, and thunderers held out strong against the spear boys, 'ardboys, and ironguts. Hammer Co. was a very early casualty from the brutally efficient Warboss on Wyvern though. The Warboss survived all the conflict and quickly made his way to the right flank to take on the objective that would have clinched the win for Destruction, but fell under irondrake firepower.

Meanwhile on the right, the huge mass of warriors (40 total) slowly marched up, shields locked and protective runes glowing, to meet the orruk mob at the edges of the forests. They had gained ground on it due to the phosphourous bombs there. Thunderers, irondrakes, and the organ gun shot at who they could. The Klad Barag advanced forward and met on some fat'un (ogors) and leadbelchers, and took them out completely in a brutal melee using its massive stomps and giant rune hammer. It got a chance to shoot its cannon and missile barrage, and its freshly carved antimagic runes helped some with the nearby castings of the Butcher and Shaman. Also Bree and the other Runelords were hard at work trying to keep magic at bay, and enhancing everyone's weapons and armor.

Da Big'un was caught off guard by the phosphorous traps as well, and turned out to be especially susceptible to them, losing a couple precious turns. Then destruction finally caught up with the Klad Barag and a few ironguts. They dealt mortal blows to the Klad Barag, and Drake knew it was going down. So in a final act before the boilers finally gave out, he lunged the massive machine forward to grappled Da Big'un and his mount, so when the machine shut down, at least there would be a crushing weight over top the menacing orruk monster.

During this, Grox was advancing with the warriors. One of Dunhill's much earlier prototypes they recovered from the hold (Warden King on Throne of Power), rushed forward to meet with Grox. Even the mighty fat orruk with many names was dealt much damage and nearly got knocked out completely, but even in such a debilitating state, the orruk was able to take out the contraption. Grox was barely holding on, and knew he needed to get to help Da Big'un with the giant duardin machine. However on his way he was mobbed by the winning unit of warriors and taken out.

Dunhill, furious at seeing his eldest taken down with the Klad Barag, approached the pinned struggling Big'un. With a sheer hatred that spanned his entire ancestry, he overexerted his armor's boiler, and pummeled Da Big'un as his suit shut down. Movement from Da Big'un ceased.

Profut had seen seen the battle turn, and knew when it was wise to run away as the remaining warriors charged after him, calling a retreat back into the hold.

This was all that was left at the end of turn 5. This is how you can tell the intensity of a game, by what's left on both sides.

The Farsetter Holds - Epilogue

It had been a day of recovery from the battle. Dunhill was anxious to uproot his entire expedition and fort into the hold, he didn't want to give the remaining greenskins any chance to regroup and recuperate. As they regained and recovered some of their ancient homes, they also lit the halls again.

After a few weeks, life was returning to the holds. The proper life. But the clan was significantly reduced in number, and it would be entire generations before it would return to the glory since the Age of Myth. One thing for sure, they did not have near enough to populate all the halls, many remain in darkness, and occupied by other undesirables.

Dunhill stopped sending exploratory teams deeper in search of resources and riches when they stopped returning. It still bothered him that after the dust of the battle cleared, they couldn't recover the bodies of Da Big'un or his generals. The so-called Profut was still at large, that grudge not yet struck out.

The clan decided to keep relatively close together as they resettled the holds, and all were working in full force to repair and retrofit what they occupied. New legends and genealogy records were being scrawled into the walls and pillars of their great journey.

King Dunhill sometimes felt content as they were once again living in their rightful ancestral home, but had to remind himself the threat was far from removed. The greenskins and probably more were deeper in the mountain, and they couldn't dream of eradicating it yet. He knew the time was precious for the recuperation of his house, but all the time spent on that, the orruks had the same. This was not the end of the war, but this would be a new chapter for the Forthammer Clan Throng.

***

And there you have it. That is the end of the entire campaign. What a rush! Even though Jarom won with the most renown points, there was still a lot of back and forth in the games, and they were all very epic and exciting. I seriously recommend playing a campaign like this to anyone. These are where the best stories out of Warhammer come from.

As for the campaign rules, we both felt it was an excellent way of handling the whole thing. We looked over the rules packet I made, and came to a couple planned changes from our experience. One in particular was Renown rewards. No longer will it be random with die rolls, because each time I had the opportunity to roll for Renown, I could never roll above a 1, and Jarom was getting high numbers. So we are opting for static numbers based on the wins and types of wins/losses. I will make a post with the updated campaign rules for that at a later date.

The Farsetter Holds - Game 3

(Game 2 here)

The third out of our four game campaign took place and it was a close battle, really close.

 

The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 3

   Dunhill remembered this door, he remembered it well. In his youth and younger days he spent much of his time behind those doors. For it housed the Engineer's Guild hall. The door is decorated to reflect that, with its many intricate artistic gears carved into it. A loud clanging noise breaks him from his trance. Ancient mechanical work turns behind the walls and door slowly swings open. Drake stepped away from the lock mechanism that started the process.

   It smelled old, but fortunately not chaos tainted like some of the other parts of their ancestral halls. This remained untouched. Clansmen, who remember working here, lit the place up with the hum of electric bulbs lining the walls. With each bulb sparking to life the old projects became clearer. Various inventions lay still, some integrated into the walls, some on carts.

   Dunhill smiled as he remembered this place alive with the sound of forges and whirring engines. His smile shortly turned into a frown when he remembered why they had come here. These battles with the greenskins were not going well. They should have had the entire hold by now, but are driven out at every turn. They needed some help. They needed some weapons.

   Drake was busy inspecting everything, barking orders to the rest of the engineers and cogsmiths. He approached his father who was pulling down a dust covered tarp from something of impressive size.

***

   The greenskins had found a feasting room. Luckily there were many kegs to bust open and drink of the contents. Stunties made good grog, and this stuff was old, making it all the more potent. The fat'uns and other orruk were sharing in merriment, along with Da Big'un. It was a massive orruk, at least twice the height of an ogor. Enough to put any proud Ironjaw to shame. Accompanying it was its Magmadroth. These beastly creatures normally were companions only to the fierce Fyreslayers, but any orruk with the toughness to withstand the beasts heat and temperament could tame one as an animal companion.

   The ale was a pleasant distraction, but a distraction. Grox knew he needed to find a fight for Da Big'un, or else it would turn on the rest of the horde. And it needed to happen soon. Luckily the scouts were returning. They arrived in the feasting hall, and whatever they were going to report, immediately went to the back of their thoughts as they delighted in the sight of their brethren consuming stolen grog.

   Grox stormed up to one and smacked the stein from his hands. He briefly frowned at the sight of the foamy liquid spilling over the floor, but Grox' large fist yanked at his leather straps, snapping him from his stupor. "REPORT, GROT!"

   "Uh- We found dem, boss! Da stunties was getting into a big room. One wif all dem mek-works or sumting."

   This concerned Grox. He had encountered mek-works before. The orruk weren't too savvy on mechanical contraptions, mostly being the specialty of the grots. The sky-stunties were also known for it. Whatever form, they were very destructive and usually meant lots of dead boys. The scout reported him the location. He knew of it during their exploration. They can easily get maneuver and surround it.

   Profut Big'un was nearby listening to the report. "Powerful Grox, if I may, da boys is still drinking, and Da Big'un might not want to go anywhere roight now."

   "All roight. My boys fight better when their bellies are full anyway. Full of grog. But as soon as those kegs are empty, we march." The scout had already grabbed another full stein and brought it up to his lips when Grox snatched it from his hands. "Get yer own!"

***

   Dunhill was overseeing the largest of the carts being slowly pulled across the walkway which left the old Engineer's Guild hall. These old machines would do nicely. They had sorted out the creations that were working well enough and those which needed too much to be usable in the near future. This big one had barely made the cut. All of the usable ones were loaded on carts and pulled by pony and clansmen. They just had to get them outside to the fort that the rest of the clans and throng were stationed at the foot of the mountain. Luckily during their explorations, they had found a shortcut outside, another large entrance. This was closer to their location.

   A watcher called out a warning of approaching greenskins. Immediately Dunhill called to his own to form up and get ready to defend the walkway. They had retrieved more drakeguns in the room, so clansmen were donning the irondrake armor. Bree was at Dunhill's side as the rest of the throng took up defensive positions on and around the walkway. They just needed to defend and buy enough time for the caravan to get out of the holds.

   Dunhill did see the hordes approaching from one side of the walkway, and before he could order all to that side, a warning cried out and the other side had about an equal amount of them. They were surrounded.

   Drake called to his father as a crew of sub-engineers wheeled out of the room two gun emplacements. "My lord, these are the last of them, but I have a feeling we will need them now." The crews were already expertly setting the organ gun and cannon up and loading them.

    By now the greenskins on both sides had gotten closer. The gun crews were doing final adjustments and barking orders when an ear piercing roar reverberated through the halls, which gave pause to everyone.

   Before anyone could react, they discovered it came from a massive orruk in heavy armor, wielding a club that rivaled its own size. It sat astride a magmadroth. The rider and mount came bounding across the hall, and leapt up onto the walkway. It's speed was equally as impressive as its size. Without a chance to react, the magmadroth crashed into the organ gun crew and sent them flying, and the big greenskin brought its club down on the gun itself. The forge runes glowed and sparked briefly under the incredible strain of impact before finally giving and shattering into pieces. The imposing brute let out a powerful WAAAGH! and the rest of the greenskins charged forward, eager to get to the fight.

***

The objective card for this game was Kingslayer (kill-points mission, enemy General worth double), and the deployment had me in the center 24" zone, with Jarom having 12" on either side of the table. I was surrounded. For the Twist this game it was Double or Nothing, meaning on a 4+ the game had 2 more Twists applied to the battle. As per my rules, we each picked one of the other Twist cards on the campaign tree, ones that were not connected and had not used yet. Jarom picked Eager for the Fight (granting everyone +2" movement and +1" to run and charge rolls always), and I picked Set Piece Battle. Despite being surrounded, that last twist helped out in this as I got to wait for Jarom to completely finish deploying, then I got to counter-deploy. This helped me by making sure all my big guns were lined up to the big targets, like Da Big'un (counts-as Megaboss on Maw-krusha). Unfortunately Jarom got first turn, and most of his stuff was able to charge in immediately, including Da Big'un leaping up onto the walkway and taking out my organ gun and crew in one combat.

However when it was my turn, all the guns on the walkway immediately turned on to Da Big'un and took it out in one shooting phase, but that meant all the guns didn't fire on the masses of greenskins below during that precious first turn. Eventually as the turns ground on, the hordes fought their way through the ground troops and flooded the main walkway. Grox went down under gunfire after he took out one of the irondrake squads in a single combat round. But the battle was losing despite the heavy losses on both sized. Eventually all I had left was Drake, Dunhill, Bree, and a few thunderers, and Jarom had a unit of Ogors, some Ardboys, a unit of Ironguts, and his Profut Big'un.

The game ended with a Major Victory for Destruction, and a Major Loss for Dispossessed. Killing Grox and Da Big'un was just not enough in the face of all the casualties I suffered. I got my 1 renown for the loss, and Jarom rolled 3 for his win. Right now in the campaign I am sitting at 3 renown, and Jarom at 7. The next and last game will be worth double renown, so If I can take the win in it, I would need to at least roll 2 renown to tie with Jarom, or 3 renown to win the campaign.

***

   Profut Big'un stepped up to the hole where he last saw Da Big'un. It was picking itself up from the fall, the magmadroth as well was shaking its head as it regained consciousness. The blasting of cannon fire, drakeguns, and thunderer rifles must have destabilized the ground, and with Da Big'uns weight, it fell through. It appears to be more halls and caves below. The Profut cursed the duardin guns and their maze-like halls. It was too far below to try pulling Da Big'un out. They would have to search around until they could meet up with it again.

   The Profut's 'Ardboys were helping Grox up as he too regained his bearings after being shot off the walkway ledge. As he realized what had happened, he bullied one of the 'Ardboys, both to vent frustration and save face among the remaining boys. The Profut sneered as he thought of the several times he could have easily dispatched Grox at any point, taking the horde to himself, but he still knew he needed him, for now. While Da Big'un was a massive inspiration to the Waaagh!, it was no leader. It barely spoke outside of grunts and yells. The Profut wanted to teach it some things so it could become an orruk general, and his need for Grox would pass.

***

   Dunhill still didn't like the raw light of Hysh illuminating the sky. He preferred the comfort of the dimly lit halls. Their hike out of the hold had been thankfully uneventful, outside of a few broken wheels on the carts pulling the engineerings.

   The Forthammer Clan Throng fort had grown significantly since the last Dunhill saw of it. They left a contingent of duardin to remain behind to guard over the families and supplies. They had been working nonstop, with the women of the throng being most of the work force. A note of pride for duardin are the stout hardworking nature of their women. It had been constructed primarily of wood from the nearby forests. Dunhill noted the signs of battle that were among the clear-cut trees. He imagined they had a story or few to tell of their own.

   The gates swung open with duardin efficiency and what remained of the throng marched in. Families were reunited, and widows stood sternly. Careful to keep their pain inside, as this was not the time for mourning. The entire expedition was nearly a failure, and Dunhill knew he would need to consult the rest of the elder council tonight about it. They had come to take the holds, but instead are going to need to prepare for a final battle, outside at the base of their birthright.

   "By Grungni's beard, the greenskins will pay." Dunhill recognized the voice, and embraced Grundi. The runelord was old, older even than Dunhill's father. He was among the oldest in the clan, and Bree's tutor and master runelord.

   "They will." declared Dunhill. "There is much to be done. If one thing about this whole endeavor has reaffirmed me with greenskins, they will seek out the biggest fights," he gestured to Drake organizing the engineering carts within the fort walls, "So we will give them one."

   Grundi grimaced at the largest cart. It carried a bipedal machine with an imposing duardin presence. When standing it would reach 2 maybe 3 stories tall. He never trusted the newfangled contraptions that Dunhill and his son had an affinity for. "Will it work?"

   "A large enough foe is too much for any orruk to refuse a fight. With this we can lure all the cursed grob-kin out of our holds, and crush them. I could never get the damned thing to work in my youth, but if anyone can get the Klad Barag up and running, it's my son."

(Game 4 here)

2017 Year in Review

This was another good hobby-filled year. So here is a summary of 2016 for me.

T'au Empire (Warhammer 40,000)
I took my T'au to the Harvester this year. While my Index army didn't have too much success, it was fun. Let's hope they get a good codex in 2018. At least I have some newly painted battlesuits.

James' Necrons (Warhammer 40,000)
I guess you could call this a commission. Something I did for my brother so he could attend the Harvester of Souls with us. We will see what kind of codex will come out for it in 2018.

Censers & Tocsins (Nurgle Mortals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This is an army I have been trying to keep up on with painting. Compared to last year's summary, I only had some built, and none painted. My goal with this army is if I build something for it, I paint it, before building the next thing. There will definitely be more to come for this AoS force.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I have had a ton of fun with this army. I took them to the Las Vegas Open, added some cool conversions, and am running them in a campaign, which is still ongoing. I have more on the painting table for these guys, so I am not done with them yet.

The Klad Barag (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This deserves its own entry here because I consider it quite the achievement. Still not 100% sure what I will use him as, but he will be a proxy for any big dude I want to run in friendly games. Perhaps not tournament legal due to being a proxy and all. I do plan on taking some better photos of this guy and sending them to White Dwarf. Let's hope something comes from that.

Forgesworn Eternals (Stormcast Eternals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I haven't really added anything to this army, just got completely caught up on painting. Lately nothing has really stood out for the line to get me to want to add here. At least with being completely painted, if I do add anything, I will be inclined to immediately paint it. Like my plans for my Nurgle dudes.

Tempest's Eye Rangers (Grand Alliance: Order - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I only have a couple things here for the army, for now. They are only really ever intended to be for some Grand Alliance army, rather than a start of Freeguild. I would like to paint them this coming year.

Song of Blades and Heroes Stuff
For my favorite non-Warhammer fantasy skirmish game, I have added a lot of Reaper BONES minis to it here and there. And I made some nifty ruins for it as well. But most of all I am still slowly working on the Song of the Deep Empire campaign supplement for it. More on that in the coming year.

And that sums up the year. Lot's of fun projects, and of course, lot's of plans for 2018. Stay tuned.

The Farsetter Holds - Game 2

(Game 1 here)

The second game happened and it was brutal. This time we debuted my dwarf hold terrain with some really positive results.

The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 2

   The abandoned holds just were not the same. In their days of being occupied by the clans and houses of the once proud duardin, they would be well lit and alive with the noise of chatter, massive pyres, and sometimes music. Now they were dark, abandoned, and silent. Eerily silent. The only light here is from the torches of the expedition and the only noise is from the footsteps of the throng.

   Dunhill's steamsuit was in working order and marching its mechanical gait with the rest of the throng. They had followed the greenskin horde into this great hall, which was easy to get into due to its wrecked front gate. Dunhill didn't recognize this one. With the runes adorning it, he also knew it wasn't his own families. This belonged to a neighboring clan, the Deephelm family. Architecture was similar of course. All proper duardin knew good mountain hold architecture, therefore, apart from some embellishments, they were all very similar.

   Bree was walking right beside Dunhill, her father. Where Drake inherited his father's engineering prowess, Bree inherited his stubbornness. This daughter was so defiant in refusing her father's wishes to stay out of battle, that she pursued the art of runecrafting and apprenticing under their old runelord. Something that she has shown quite a knack for. "He stinks." She commented.

  She was referring to the dirty naked blonde haired duardin manically jogging back and forth in front of them, like a hound searching desperately for a scent trail. This unfortunate individual was unforged. A term used to refer to one who's mind was broken. In searching this hold, they had managed to find one lone survivor. He had forgotten his own name, but it can be assumed he is the last known survivor of the Deephelm clan. He had managed to survive in complete isolation for this long, since the exodus, on whatever mushrooms he could find. It made him crazier than an outhouse skaven, but he is useful here. They can really only get him to talk in incoherent ramblings, but he recognized the Forthammer clan ancestral emblem, and seems to be leading them to a pathway there. The unforged had on a loincloth, which was the best they could get him to wear. His whole body is scarred in runes. Perhaps living among civilized duardin, good ales, and proper meals could bring him back to sanity, but most likely he will suicide himself in battle, like the ancient slayers of legend. The unforged suddenly stopped and held perfectly still.

   Dunhill signaled the rest to hold. It takes a minute for the whole expedition to halt as well. As soon as it does though, the silence of the hold is broken with distant footsteps. Ones that began to rapidly multiply. Darkness in the distance, but the sound of a horde coming through.

   The unforged stared off into the darkness ahead "Great green?!"

***

   "Da Big'un is close, I can feels it." hissed Profut Big'un.

   Grox had just about enough of the Profut's ramblings. "SHUT YER GOB! Das enough of da big'un."

   The Profut cackled. He knew Grox was growing impatient, they had been wandering in this maze under the mountain for days, but they were going to be rewarded. "All we need is a foight. A foight to wake da big'un from his slumber. And I see a foight comin' now." He pointed his oversized staff down the hallway, toward the torches in the distance.

   Grox sniffed the air, and sense the familiar stench of stunties. These were probably the same ones they encountered outside of the mountain. "Now dats more loik it!"

   The Profut delighted as well. The sound and magic of a battle would be what's needed to get da big'un riled up. "Wait, Grox da fateseeker, in dis battle, you must send in da fat'uns first. Those boyz get da waaagh going real good. Da big'un will loik it."

   Grox didn't mind the caveat to this coming battle, he was just glad to have one. "KLEEVAHS!" he called to his elite squad of fat'uns. They were renown for fighting brutally with their oversized cleavers, hence the name. "Get da rest of da fat'uns to da front. Dis be our WAAAAGH!"

***

   The disciplined duardin were forming their lines, ready to receive the greenskin charge. Bardin Thunderborne had taken his squad of thunderers up to one of the higher paths, and Drake had take the Irondrakes up to the opposite path. The unforged continued to ramble about the 'great green'. Bree approached him, and pointed to the barely discernible greenskins that were becoming visible down the hall. "Is that the great green?"

   The unforged manically shook his head, then a sudden series of stomping sounds echoed throughout the halls, stomps so powerful that some of the ceiling tiles in this ancient unkempt hall began to fall to the floor below. They were as long slow clashes, completely different than the rapid footsteps of the now closer greenskins. This was something else. The clashing sound range again, this time the ground shuddered beneath the sure-footed duardin. The unforged turned to Bree, eyes wide open "Great green!"

***

We had another great fight, but this time of 1,500 points. The objective was a single marker in the middle of the board that a unit could pick up and carry, and whoever held it at the end of the battle got a major victory. But the twist was a chance for ceiling tiles in the hold to drop on units and cause mortal wounds. These ceiling tiles are broken free from the stomping of Da Big'un as it gets roused from its slumber with the battle and WAAAGH! energy. Deployment was a standard Hammer and Anvil type. We arranged my new terrain to be a grand hallway running along the length of the board.

Jarom's destruction force was primarily Ogor units, meant to represent only the big ones going into this fight. But he also had profut big'un, his weirdnob shaman, a unit of 'ardboys, and a big unit of greenskin boys. It was of course lead by his Ogor Tyrant, Grox. My Dispossessed force had minimum squads of ironbreakers, irondrakes, hammerers, warriors, thunderers, and longbeards, plus a new Unforged. Along with the usual assortment of heroes: Cogsmith, Runelord, and Warden King, Dunhill, leading the army.

It was a fun game, but was nearly over by the end of turn 3. Ogor units are very powerful and tough, and combined with a few bad charges not getting enough duardin into melee range, very few were surviving the combats near the end. My irondrakes and thunderers didn't get much done because they had to move around and got charged fairly early. Grox was extremely deadly and plowed through just about every unit he charged. Jarom found he could keep Grox on higher ledges, and reach the duardin with his 3" reach gutgouger, while duardin weapons only had a reach of 1", meaning the only ones that could touch him were the ones up on the ledge with him, which was very few.

The big unit of orruk boys didn't reach my main battle line until turn 3, but Grox had also arrived and quickly overwhelmed them. By then destruction had a firm grasp on the objective and there were very few duardin left on the table. Calling for a tactical retreat.

Jarom got the major victory for holding the objective, and rolled 3 renown. I had to take the 1 renown for the loss. On the rewards tables Jarom decided to give Grox another big name on his warscroll, and rolled 'the Fateseeker', granting him a 3+ armor save. Grox is turning out to be quite the power house. Then he rolled Smashing and Bashing for a unit of Ironguts, which he called Da Kleevahs. And Vendetta on a unit of Ardboys, he calls Da Chargahs. For my one renown I rolled Iron Discipline on my newly painted unit of Hammerers. They are Hammer Co.

***

   Another tile smashed down right next to Dunhill. He was quickly getting surrounded by filthy savage orruk. There was no stopping them this time. The throng was getting beaten by the numbers, and sheer brute strength of the bigger greenskins. Dunhill called for the retreat, and the rest of the throng tried picking up any wounded they could carry. The ceiling was falling at a much faster rate, until eventually entire chunks of wall and pillar were crashing down. Almost as if something was trying to smash through. Something big.

   As the remaining duardin were making their way back, under the cover of falling debris, Bree called out "FATHER! I feel the runes! This way!" She ushered in who she could into one of the doorways leading under the main paths above. They had lost their unforged guide to the magic using orruk, but not before he helped take out a few of the bigger ones. A fitting end for such a tortured soul. May Grungni welcome him at his table.

   The falling rock was getting more violent, hastening their retreat. Just as Dunhill entered the doorway, he caught a glimpse at one of the great walls, a shape forming behind the billowing dust. Two large figures were emerging. Bigger than any orruk.

***

   Profut Big'un was maniacally laughing, even as orruk was getting smashed and demoralized by the sight. Grox was beginning to make out the shape. He stood in awe. He resolved that moment to never doubt the prophesies and ramblings of the Profut again.

   Da Big'un had finally arrived.

The campaign tree after 2 games. The cards are protected in card sleeves and stuck to the poster board with sticky tack. My current renown is 2, represented by runestones. Jarom's is 4, represented by orruk teef.

A sample record sheet filled out after 2 games. 2 renown means a total of 2 rewards listed. This is all part of the campaign system I made. After this game I will edit the document and create a version 2.0 with some errata we figured out through playtesting.

 (Game 3 here)

The Farsetter Holds - Terrain Interlude

Game 2 is happening this weekend, but before that I got some special terrain made for it. Jarom and I decided that the next game should take place within one of the great holds of the mountain range. So I went out with the goal of making enough terrain to fill a 6'x4' table and simulate one of the great halls or interior of a grand dwarven hold. If you remember the Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings, and Orzammar from Dragon Age: Origins, you get the idea.

One caveat to this, is I had to make it as cheap as possible, and as fast as possible. So I am not making any sort of award winning terrain here. The main build source material here is the really cheap dollar store foamcore. I have already given my review of sorts on dollar store foamcore, but it works here because this terrain really isn't meant to last very long.

I didn't chronicle the exact process and steps I went into for building this, but it really starts with something like this sketch I made in Publisher, then with some simple maths, and ideas sketched and penciled down on it. It becomes a work in progress as you make the terrain pieces.

Going for the build it fast theme, everything is pretty much held together with hot glue. This all took me a couple days to build. The blue stairs are made of course with 1/4" extruded foam board. What took a couple more days was the painting.

All the white foam in the foamcore had to be painted over with a thick layer of cheap black craft paint. Then I spray painted with my trusty Rustoleum grey primer, but in a splotchy pattern, I wanted to create some texture. After that I sprayed with a texture paint, which didn't really do much, honestly. This was a test to see if texture paint could work for terrain, and it really only adds a touch texture, not much of a visual one. I could have gone without it completely. Finally I did edge highlighting with a light gray cheap craft paint. That really brought it all together and proudly showed the details. Another note is I drybrushed a bronze craft paint within the doorways to help them stand out slightly.

The nice thing about these pieces is how modular they can be to represent different layouts with the holds. This is an alternate layout, still for the 4'x6' table.

We look forward to Game 2 this weekend, so stay tuned for that.

The Farsetter Holds - Game 1

My brother and I have officially started our 4 game campaign using the Realms of Glory rules. This will focus on an overarching narrative that will be dictated by the games we end up playing, and their outcomes. I will be doing a blogpost for each game, with the story and a summarized battle report covering it.

The Farsetter Holds - Chapter 1

   Dunhill Forthammer, lord and king of the Forthammer Clan Throng, took a long deep breath. It had been centuries since he had seen the great Silver mountains of Chamon in the distance, and the smell brought back memories of nostalgia of an age past. He was but a beardling when his father, Grundi, lead the clans out of their ancestral holds when the Age of Chaos was at its worst. Grundi's father fought to the last and died so the entire family line would not perish that day. The human god-king, Sigmar, was providing a refuge that so few came to. None of the neighboring holds that Dunhill recognized made it. While they kept themselves occupied in Azyrheim, helping to build a home for all the refugees, the Forthammer Clan knew it was only temporary. Then Sigmar opened the gates again to unleash his champions, the Stormcast Eternals, Dunhill knew the time to strike and reclaim their ancestral holds was at hand.

   "Grobi." cursed Behrun, breaking Dunhill out of his trance. He used a term Dunhill had only recognized from ancient texts, but he remembered it was an old term for grot. Behrun was named after his great grand-uncle, Behrun Farsetter, Dunhill's great great grandfather. Behrun was the Old Guard, veteran of Longbeards. And a title he deserved well. He was among the oldest beards in the throng. His insults and stubbornness were legendary.

   It hasn't been a pilgrimage without incident or battle, and it looked like that was not going to let up. Dunhill looked in the direction Behrun pointed, and noticed the moving green horde in the distance. It was hard to miss between the snow laden mountain and its barren base. Dunhill didn't think these were grots, as they looked too big, but he also suspected Behrun already knew that, and that didn't matter. Greenskins were greenskins.

   "Gather the throng." he commanded without looking. Behrun turns and nods "My king." before marching off.

   "Drake!" Dunhill called out to his eldest son. The boy was not far behind.

   "Yes my King." he snapped in reply. Drake was among the new generations born in Azyrheim, and unfortunately had no memory of the Farsetter Holds, but his passion to take back the family birthright was no less ardent. Like his father he has a proclivity for engineering, developing marvelous devices, almost rivaling his father, almost. He counted himself among the Ironweld Arsenal, a Cogsmith of Order.  Drake's armor was bulky, but housed the powerful generator for his arsenal of weapons.

   "Help me in my steamsuit. We march to face greenskin."

   Drake spat. Not at his father's command, but at the mention of orruks. Even during the Age of Myth when Sigmar had his pantheon, the duardin were never completely comfortable with the minions of Gorkamorka, but never quite sure why. He hoisted the mechanical steamsuit from the cart that housed it. The machine stood on its own. The front opened up where he helped his father climb in and insert his limbs into the machine's legs and arms. With a kickstart from Drake's own back generator, the steamsuit whirred to life, and Dunhill was given motion. The steamsuit gave him increased strength and protection. It impressed him everytime he donned it. Another testament to the ingenuity of his son. Dunhill had started the steamsuit project long ago in Azyrheim, but abandoned it after many failed attempts to make it work in a quality manner. It was until his son, with his Cogsmith career taking off, finished the project for him.

   Dunhill gave a slight grunt in approval, which was all Drake ever needs to know he pleased his father. The machine is well maintained. Frequent tune-ups and repairs between battles keep it in working order.

   He snatched the massive mechanical hammer from the charging mount. The rune covered gear laden weapon is a head taller than him, even in the suit. He abruptly stamped the pommel on the ground, and a horn blared behind him. The throng is now in an impressive disciplined line, eyes affixed on their king. Dunhill was determined. After such a long costly journey, the goal was in sight. He was not going to flee or let it get away. "Reclaim our holds!" he shouted.

   "Reclaim our grudges!" the throng rang in reply.

***

   "Stunties!" the orruk snarled. He is called Grox the tall, Grox the tyrant, Grox the longstrider, or Grox the skinny, though you would never call him that last one to his face, lest you risk dismemberment from his great gutgouger. The hook-blade at the end of the chain and haft rattled with every motion. Many a orruk has been cut in half when he overhears the insult, forgetting the deadly weapon's reach. Grox was very tall, even for an orruk, and fat, with an impressive gut that happens to be a side effect of his overeating and constant drinking. The reason for the undesired nickname is he has a fairly narrow set of shoulders for his species, even though none of the other boys rival his sheer mass. He is part of a unique breed of orruk, that were it not for their green skin, they would be commonly mistaken for Ogors. They call his kind Da Fat'uns. Though that is not an insult for them.

   "OY BOYS! WE GOT STUNTIES!" He called out to the camp, bringing life to the unusually subdued gathering of orruk. You didn't act like anything Grox said was unimportant, you reacted. That's why he's the warboss. It's been long enough since they had a good fight. Though there were those spikey humies that gave them a skirmish a few days ago, but an eternity to Grox.

   A crazed looking weirdnob approached Grox, his red cloak mounted on a stick across his back flailed under the mountain breeze. The heavy fetished staff attributes to his awkward gait. The weirdnob shaman staves are usually not that big, but Profut Big'un never did anything small. "I am up for a good foight as much as any proper orruk, Grox da tall, but da Big'un is close. I can feels 'im. We musn't be distracted."

   "SHUT YER GOB, wez gonna get to yer Big'un soon enough." Grox was beginning to grow tired of "da Big'un". The legendary giant orruk, or something that is supposed to be the destiny of all greenskins. This shaman was called Profut Big'un because he's always going on about the Big'un; always seeking the Big'un; being lead to the biggest fight under the gaze of Gorkamorka by the Big'un; going on like a prophet of sorts, hence the name. Grox never really believed it, but the shaman gets the boyz properly riled up about it, and this quest does quite well in getting them into plenty of fights, so he really can't complain much. Fights like these stunties he sees marching down the valley. The shiny glint of their armor on the small bodies is unmistakable, other than the much larger shiny armor lightning humies.

   "Allroight, boss. Jus' don't lose this'n, the 'ardboys will fight for ya."

   Grox ignored the Profut's comment. The boys had begun to gather in greater numbers. Most numerous were the 'two choppa' boys. They would always chant "Two choppas all da way!", which they had already started. It was a trend that caught on quickly among new boys and yoofs.

   Grox began swinging the gutgouger above his head, the chain rattling loudly. He bellowed: "DA STUNTIES IS LOOKIN' FOR A FOIGHT! LES GIVE 'EM ONE! LES GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF GROX- er... WAAAGH BIG'UN!" The gathering of greenskins roars a reply. He nearly slipped up the name of the Waaagh!, he had to remember the main reason why they were all here was for that blasted Big'un. But no matter, it was time for fighting. What proper orruks were mean to do, were meant to strive for.

   "WAAAAAAAAGH!" The horde followed his charge down the valley.

***

Jarom's 1,000 point Destruction army faces off against my 1,000 points of Dispossessed with Ironweld Arsenal allies. The objective is a simple 2 marker objective mission, with one in each deployment zone. Holding both during an opponent's turn grants you a major victory. Otherwise victory just goes to kill-points. The Twist card drawn for this battle was Grudge Match, meaning no battleshock tests would be taken during the entirety of the battle. Both were itching for a fight, and neither were willing to run from it.

The destruction force is lead by Grox with many names. An Ogor Tyrant. We decided to allow Jarom to initially permanently pick one of the big names on the warscroll (choosing Longstrider), and later he can, if he wants, roll on the table again to get additional names instead of using the normal rewards table. He took the Bellowing Tyrant command trait to keep permanently through the campaign, as well as the Battle Brew artifact. He leads an army of 'Ardboys, a huge squad of Boys with two choppas, a unit of Ogors, and the Weirdnob Shaman, Profut Big'un.

The Disposssed army is lead by Dunhill Forthammer, a Warden King. He took Resolute for his warlord trait from the Dispossessed allegiance, and the Piledriver Gauntlet for his artifact (represented by his huge steam hammer). The force consisted of a unit of Warriors, Longbeards, Irondrakes, Hammerers, and Bree Dunsdottir (a Runelord, or Runemaid I should say). Along with them Drake Dunsson (the Cogsmith), and a gyrocpter for Ironweld Arsenal allies.

The game was pretty brutal, with the entire orruk Boys and 'Ardboys battle line reaching my duardin by turn 2. Things were looking pretty dire at first with very few Boyz dying initially and no battleshock tests, and Grox charging into Dunhill and killing him in one hit. However the Hammerers got their vengeance by completely surrounding Grox and taking him out in one combat. After that it was a sludge of fighting, but the Irondrakes ended up being MVP when they don't move and fire their devastating guns twice and taking out swathes of Boys. That's when the battle began to turn.

It nearly came down to just a combat of Longbeards vs 'Ardboys, when the Weirdnob shaman got in range and made a phenomenal casting roll for the Foot of Gork, which completely wiped out the 8 man unit of Longbeards in one magic phase. Bree was in range, but failed to roll an 11 to dispel. The unit of Ogors pretty much did nothing the entire game as Jarom couldn't risk letting them leave the objective so my flanking Gyrocpter could take it and potentially get me an instant major victory.

Evidently the greenskins weren't able to take my objective and were shot off the board by the Irondrakes. The Objective card stated that a major victory was only possible if one took both objectives, otherwise it went to kill-points, in which I took the minor victory.

A game loss grants 1 renown to Jarom, and a minor win grants D3 renown. I rolled a 1 on it as well. We are both tied for renown after game 1. Jarom rolled on the Destruction followers table in the Path to Glory supplement and got Smashing and Bashing for his Boys with two-choppas. They are going to be brutal. I rolled for my Longbeards and got Punishers from the Order followers rewards table, giving them a grudge of their own.

***

   The Irondrakes breathed a sigh of relief under their gromril masks when their drakeguns stopped belching flames, and the orruks didn't get back up behind the rubble. The truth was they were retreating under the cover of the smoke. Profut Big'un had called for a retreat, and to retrieve the unconscious body of their warboss, Grox. Profut Big'un could have dispatched the orruk right then and there, free to accomplish his quest for the Big'un, but he knew he needed Grox. The boys always followed the bigger ones, and Profut Big'un couldn't compete in size. He wasn't going to be happy when he woke up, and the shaman wasn't pleased either. Some of the boys were still out hunting when Grox decided to charge in. However, it was a good fight. Lot's of stunties died, or got smashed under the fantastic Foot of Gork, the most potent spell in his arsenal.

   Other orruks were joining the retreat. Afterall, a good fight and retreat often meant you could come back and fight again later. Besides, the Big'un was close. He could feel it.

   The battlefield fell eerily silent. Drake holstered his pistols as he watched the disappearing greenskins. It seemed like mere seconds ago the air was filled with the cacophonous din of battle, now it was filled with dust and smoke.

   Bree, his sister, approached him. "How's father?" asked Drake.

   "He's well. The orruk smashed the suit and trapped him inside. Right now he's cussing like a cornered gryph-hound."

   Drake chuckled at the visual image, but grimaced at the thought of his father's attitude and the coming repair job. They approached the wreck of the steamsuit, half buried into the soft soil. It took one hit to take him down. It will be a few centuries before anyone would be able to bring up this story during drinks. Several clansmen were trying to help him upright as he spouted insults. Insults at both the greenskins and the 'beardlings' trying to lift a measly piece of machinery. "Well fought, my king."

   Dunhill shot Drake a glare at the tone of sarcasm. "It would have been better if weren't for this umgak-grobkaz!" The insult referred to the steamsuit as shoddy grot work.

   Drake ignored the hasty slight. "Worry not, father. I'll have it up and running again before the next battle."

   The front finally opened and Dunhill spilled out onto the ground. He shot back up. "Right then! Gather the throng, make camp. We march at dawn. Get me a full report on the losses. There are still plenty of blank pages in the book of grudges."

NOTE: We realized later that Jarom had accidentally only brought 900 points to the battle. A regrettable mistake that won't happen again. Stay tuned for Chapter 2 of this campaign!

(Game 2 here)

Realms of Glory Campaign - Alpha

Here is an alpha build of a campaign system I wrote for Age of Sigmar. My brother and I are planning on doing a short narrative campaign. So I mocked this up last night and today.

DOWNLOAD HERE

It is a short campaign system (4 games long) that uses the General's Handbook matched play rules, Open War cards to set up the campaign tree, and Path to Glory for the rewards tables to progress the story of your army.

Basically it started when I saw the Open War cards used to make a tree campaign from the General's Handbook. After picking them up at the Harvester of Souls, my brother and I played 2 games with them. The games were really good fun. They can be easily used with matched play rules and create some interesting scenarios.

We got excited to try the tree campaign idea, but with some added bonuses. Bring on the Path to Glory campaign book. I will be honest I never tried Path to Glory, nor do I ever want to. The biggest problem with campaigning I found is an effect called snowballing. It is where one player gains an early boost from luck or playing well, and the advantage helps to compound as the game goes along, creating a clear winner early that becomes harder and harder to stop. Hence snowballing. Path to Glory is very guilty of this. There are ways to curb snowballing I have found, and one of them is a points limit on all games.

Anyway, never wanting to try Path to Glory, I do like the Rewards tables because they are useful and flavorful for upgrades and things like XP rewards you may find in other games.

So we got 3 parts culminating into Realms of Glory: Path to Glory rewards tables, Open War cards for a campaign Tree, and the General's Handbook for matched play rules. We are excited to try this out, then I will likely come back and edit the document until I get some semblance of readability.

Let me know what you guys think!

Song of the Deep Empire - Playtest

Over the weekend I had some friends stay over for the solar eclipse. We were lucky enough for our town to be smack dab right in the middle of the line of totality so we got to see the entire eclipse in all its glory. So to celebrate this wonderful celestial event (which some weirdos mistakenly predicted to be an apocalyptic event), we played out another apocalyptic event in the making:

Again, I am absolutely kicking myself for not having taken any pictures of the battle in progress. But I can at least give a little report on it. My friend brought several pre-painted D&D minis from his own collection and we hammered out a themed 300 point warband:

Left to right: Incubus Warrior, Elemestra, and Naga Warrior

Jake the Savage Slaver and his 5 Slaves

This faced off against a Deep Empire Rise:

Top left to bottom right: The Bride, Lord Mo'clor'rath'kritlor, Karkarion Warrior, 2 Spikeshell Warriors, 2 Naiad Warriors, Naiad Piercer

I had just finished painting these guys before he came over. They certainly set the tone for the entirety of the Deep Empire. I will do a quick report of painting bones minis: I certainly love it. It is true that they do not need to be spray primed. I just coated them with a some of Reaper's brush on primer, and they painted like a dream after that. The bottom 3 of course are not Reaper bones, but are from Mantic's Kings of War range. I bought a small kit of them off of ebay because they could fit the deep empire very nicely. As for basing I just used a mix of spackle(filler), sand, and paint. The idea is a marshland theme. For the grass tufts I used a very creative method found here.

Dried grass tufts being made from a really cheap paintbrush I already had.

Anyway about the battle. It was a lot of fun, and got really intense. His Gorgonites got beat out in the end though, and part of the failure was due to the encroaching waters, which is sort of the idea. The waters are intended to make the campaign an uphill battle for the participants. However I did figure something out: placing D6 water tiles onto the table each time a Personality activates is way too quick. The waters came up fast and after a few turns the board was pretty well flooded. I will be reducing that likely to D3 water tiles per Personality activation, or even just each time the Deep Empire player begins a turn, bring in D3 waters. This is why we are experimenting with this. He did have some cool moments though, like his Incubus Warrior leaping from building to building, and the slaves surrounding and taking out the Karkarion Warrior in a mass of naked bodies.

I would like to get some more of my Deep Empire models painted before I get the chance to play again.