Video Boarding Action Battle Report - Tyranids vs Space Wolves

Hello!

Back with another Narrative Wargamer YouTube battle report! And this time, it's with the new-ish Boarding Action rules - though rather than using expensive, probably out of stock plastic terrain that neither Tony or myself own, we made a battlefield with card Necromunda and Space Hulk tiles. With that in mind we picked a thematic match up with my Tyranids taking on not-quite-terminators, in a mostly Gravis armoured Space Wolf force. The Wolves were kindly lent to Tony by fellow Narrative Wargamer Podcast contributor, Chris of the Unrelenting Brush.

In any case, after their kin inflicted a minor loss on the Tyranids, the Space Wolves were on the hunt, venturing into a space hulk looking to burn the nest, but the Nids were certainly not going to go down without a fight, especially as they were able to employ specialist organisms bred for this kind of battle. This would most certainly be a brutal, close quarters battle of ceramite against chitin...

I really enjoyed the differences here between a regular 40k game and Boarding Action. It really felt a lot more tactical than a normal 500 point game of 40k which usually goes one sided very quickly in my experience. The terrain and various changes to actions and overwatch etc meant there was a lot more thought going into how to negotiate the battlefield and it helped kept units alive a fair bit longer. I hope that comes across in the video, and you enjoy it - and maybe it'll inspire you to give it a go as well, especially if the barrier to entry has been access to the official terrain. 

In other news however, that won't be the last time my Tyranids will feature on the Narrative Wargamer channel. Much as Chris did with his Space Wolves, I am lending Tony my Tyranids for some months, and there is at least one more game in the pipeline featuring them...

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Narrative Wargamer Video Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus vs Orks

Hello!

It's been a while since I've been able to talk about being in a video battle report, but here we are again. This time though it's also something a bit new, because this is the first ever Narrative Wargamer battle report! As you may know, I've been appearing on the Narrative Wargamer Podcast alongside Tony and others on and off for a while now, so I was pleased to be involved as Tony is branching out into video content on YouTube. So here it is, our first report, obviously it's a narrative play game and as the title suggests, it's my AdMech (and Knight) vs Deathskull Orks:

As this is the first one, we'd love to get a load of feedback if possible! (And the classic like and subscribe...) That said, if you click and check it out expecting some pretty basic video of two sweaty dudes (it was a hot day!) mumbling over a game of Warhammer, you might be surprised. Tony has thrown a lot of effort into editing this one and personally I think it looks pretty slick. The first thing you'll see after the intro graphics is a 'briefing cut scene' to explain the situation, narrated by the talented RJ Bayley, and this will continue throughout with little narrative snippets during the game. While there's still plenty of room for improvement, it feels like we're hitting the ground running with something that takes good ideas from plenty of other YouTube battle reports, but puts the Narrative Wargamer spin on it. Hopefully there will be plenty more coming in the future!

Anyway, I really hope you check out and enjoy the video. Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Hive of the Dead

Hello!

I have to admit I've not been keeping up with posting about every Narrative Wargamer podcast on the blog - there's been a couple I've been in since the Fun Facts episode, but this one is a bit special. Halloween Special in fact! That's right, it's an extra spooky episode, where we play through a bit of lesser known Warhammer content, the choose your own adventure book: Hive of the Dead. 

In this episode I get to be a poor amnesia suffering Guardsman, waking up in a hive city that has been overrun with zombies (and worse). There's some sound effects and bonus voice acting as well, it's like we've got production values or something. I hope you check it out, and enjoy! Here's the PodBean link, or as you can see below, find it in your usual podcast places:

Hope you like it (and if you haven't checked out the podcast yet, the rest of it!) and stay spooky out there!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - 40k Fun Facts, Warzone Charadon

Hello!

More Narrative Wargamer Podcast goodness, this time something a little different as rather than delving into some crunchy stuff with new rules or missions from a new book, it's a quiz show!

For this episode, Tony came up with a bunch of questions based on the lore in the Book of Rust, which neither I or Dave had read through, and presented multiple choices, including the 'real' answer and some made up ones. It proved quite a challenge to try and work out just how silly and over the top the GW writers are, especially in the 'real Death Guard name, or random name generator' section. Overall it was pretty good fun, and I hope you all enjoy it so we can do it again! Stay safe!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Flashpoint Charadon Part 2

Hello!

Another appearance from me on the Narrative Wargamer Podcast, this time talking about the second half of the White Dwarf Flashpoint Charadon series. These few issues include a whole load of new Theatres of War, Crusade content and a unique mission for battling on floating platforms over an ocean. It's pretty cool!

We also had a bit of a chat about our games played, including the recent Crusade game with my Death Guard against 'The Narrative Wargamer' himsef Tony's Orks. It was a fun chat, and this time with only one 'main' topic we managed to keep it to just about two hours! Anyway, hope you like it, and stay safe.

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Unbalanced Games and AdMech on Crusade

Hello!

Another Narrative Wargamer Podcast! This time I got to take a deep dive into the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex to look at the Crusade section - which is as full of crazy stuff as the rest of the codex is, so that was quite a long chat! I'm really excited to get the Helios Exploratory Crusade back up and running and go searching for some Archeotech Treasures!

We also chatted about 'unbalanced games' - narrative ones where one side might outnumber and out-point the other, which I think is a concept that most narrative players will have dabbled with, while many tournament types would be horrified by. It put me in the mind of the Morgan's Reach campaign finale with SorcererDave, where a line of guardsmen had to defend against waves of Tyranids, with the balancing factor being that they just had to hold out and survive.

Anyway, hope you like the podcast. I think this one in particular was a good showing of what the Narrative Wargamer Podcast is about - filling the niche that most of the big 40K channels ignore, that is Crusade and other narrative play content. I hope we are doing a decent job of showing that actually, that stuff is also cool and interesting. So please, give it a listen if you've got some painting to do or some time to kill, and stay safe out there!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Crusade, Plague Purge

Hello!

Another podcast, this time talking about the Plague Purge mission pack, and Deathwatch on Crusade. The Plague Purge pack is an interesting one, released alongside the Book of Rust, it's been largely ignored by the community as far as I've seen. It feels like a 'chapter approved' for Crusade content, with new missions and amended Agendas, not necessarily specific to narrative play in the Charadon sector. It definitely feels like an overlooked gem for Crusade players.

Anyway, there it is. Hope you enjoy, and stay safe!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Warzone Charadon - Act One: The Book of Rust

Hello!

Another Narrative Wargamer Podcast with me on it! This time it's about the recent 40k supplement, Warzone Charadon - Act One: The Book of Rust. It's a very 'crunchy' episode with a lot of rules talk - but not so much all the matched play rules that you'll undoubtedly have heard all about all over the internet already, but mostly focusing on the campaign and Crusade rules that somewhat flew under the radar. 

I'm still not sure if I'll buy the book myself, it does seem a lot of fun to play some of the special missions and or put together a Mechanicus defence cohort, but I'm not sure how much use I'd get out of it. I hope GW does make more of this kind of book though, a supplement that's truly optional, not essential.

Anyway, hope you like the podcast. Stay safe!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Flashpoint Charadon

Hello!

After a bit of a break, I've been on another Narrative Wargamer Podcast, this time about another White Dwarf series - Flashpoint Charadon. This seems to be a cool little series with a bunch of different sets of Theatre of War rules each with a series of battlefield rules and some Crusade content for if you win games in them. Narratively they take place in the Charadon Sector, representing worlds and areas not covered in the main GW supplements, but there's no reason you can't use them to spice up pretty much any game.

Using a picture here of SorcererDave's Sisters because as I mention in the community spotlight section, he has been using some of these Theatres of War in his recent 'solohammer' battle reports. While they aren't as much fun as having a real opponent there for the banter it's still good to stick on for a few hours of painting.

As usual, this post is pretty much just a 'I did a thing' post for completeness, so I've not got much more to say, other than I hope you enjoy listening to the podcast and stay safe.

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Flashpoint Argovon Campaign

Hello!

I did another Narrative Wargamer Podcast with 'Mr Narrative Wargamer' Tony, which I'm mentioning in a blog post mainly for completeness. It's largely about the Flashpoint Argovon series that has run in recent White Dwarfs, a cool narrative campaign to run with a gaming group over three phases. You can find it here, or in all the usual podcast places.

The Argovon campaign seems to be primarily designed for Crusade and based around the Pariah Nexus, with rules for gathering necron inspired xenotech. Though it allows for any kind of play, even a matched play campaign if you wanted, and of course with anything like this you could put it wherever you want in the lore with a bit of tinkering. I'm considering using it myself for Tabletop Simulator games, which have been the only chance most of us have had to play 40k for a while. (It is currently early 2021 - if you are reading this in the future, hopefully it got better from here!)

Anyway, hope you enjoy the podcast, and stay safe!

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Beyond the Veil

Hello!

I recently did another podcast with the Narrative Wargamer crew, aiming at further discussion on Crusade and the new-ish Beyond the Veil supplement, though as is often the case a significant chunk of is is discussing hobby projects, games played, and other tangents! I'm guessing it you are into the podcast you'll have found it by now, but in case you've not heard it and you fancy giving it a go, check it out here.

Now we're back in lockdown in the UK, and we're not looking like getting any 40k games in any time soon, it's a great time to catch up with podcasts, YouTube battle reports and other community content! So if you like what you hear, feel free to check through the 'back catalogues' of other people's content I've been involved in! Hope you enjoy, and even if not, stay safe out there.

Narrative Wargamer Podcast - Our First Crusades

Hello!

As you may remember, I was on the Narrative Wargamer Podcast back in August, and played a Crusade game last month against Tony, the host. Apparently he still wanted me back, so we recorded another episode, talking about our first few Crusade games. You can go here to listen, or find it on various podcast outlets.

It's always fun to have a nice chat about 40k, and especially to talk about all the fun little stories that pop up in our games, and that's what this was. In addition to the three Crusade games I've listed on the blog, we also heard tales from Tony of his second game against Tyranids, and from Cadian Dan on his first two games with his Cadian (surprise!) Crusade. I enjoyed it, so hopefully it'll be fun to listen to. Thanks for checking this out, and stay safe out there.

Narrative Wargamer Podcast

Hello!

Bit of a different one this - I was on a podcast! I stumbled upon the Narrative Wargamer Podcast while finding stuff to listen to when travelling to SorcererDave for a battle report. I figured it would be worth a go, since I was indeed going to play a narrative game of 40k, and that's pretty much what they talk about - they aim to fill the somewhat empty niche when it comes to talking about narrative play in 40k and focus on stuff like running campaigns or specific narrative scenarios.

Fast forward a bit, and I contacted them about appearing on the show - a little narcissistic perhaps but I feel like I had something to offer and participating in the wider Warhammer community is something I'm a fan of (hence why this blog is here and not just a series of private documents just for me.) After a somewhat cursed first attempt, we finally recorded something, and here it is: Cleanse the Hull (can also be found on assorted podcast sources) - a podcast discussing the scenario of the same name from Saga of the Beast, which is not about cleaning a certain city north of the Humber, but is in fact about fighting over breaching sites on the outer hull of a star ship.

I hope you enjoy listening (and if so, they have a bit of a back catalogue now which might be of interest) and stay safe!