Warmachine Campaign - The Heart of Thornwood

So I had a couple of the guys over the other night for gaming. We had been discussing doing a campaign in WarmaHordes for a while. I have a Mighty Empires tile set I painted up from when I used to work at the one of the GW's in town, and it seems like a waste to not use it again. It even works in an abstract way as the Thornwood with the Black River running up the right hand side into the lakes of the region.

While gaming and building we chatted about how we would work it. By the end of the night we had a decent set of rules to start from, with a few areas left to ponder about further. I think the Hordes special rule needs something more, but that's just me.

But, I'd like to hear what you guys think. Do you guys and gals have an suggestions? Comments? Issues?
Let me know below!

My Mighty Empires tile set, which hangs on the wall next to my gaming table.

The Rules (Thus far):

Campaign Turn Phases

1. Planning

2. Movement

3. Battle

4. Resolve

5. Claim

6. Build

7. Draw

Basics

- Each player selects three casters to count as their generals. These casters cannot be different versions of the same caster (ie. one casters cannot be Captain Victoria Haley and another Major Victoria Haley).

- Each player plays one game each campaign turn against one of the other campaign players. 

- Armies move D3 tiles during the movement phase of the campaign.

The Tiles

- The map were uses hexagonal tiles, so every tile is adjacent to six other tiles. This arrangement of seven tiles (the centre tile and its six adjacent tiles) are called "the flower." So where you see this, it is referring to this tile arrangement.
- Players begin the campaign with a "flower" arrangement of tiles in corner of the map with the "Fortified Encampment building on it. This building also counts as the players headquarters.
- For our purposes we used Games Workshops Mightly Empires set, however, any hexagonal map would do, even a hand drawn one.
- Tiles are captured by a player if that player has an army on that tile at the claim phase of the game.
- Each Tile can only have one building on built on it.

Buildings

- Only one building may be built per turn, during the build phase of the campaign. 

- Each building grants the controlling player a particular bonus, and each building can only be activated once per turn. Buildings are activated through ability cards.

- A building cannot be built adjacent to another friendly building. A building may be built adjacent to another building if that building is owned by another player (however, this is not without risk).

- If a tile is captured by a player from another player who had built a building on it, the new owner of the tile may choose to either keep the building or raze it, removing it from the tile. Faction buildings are automatically removed when an opposing player captures a tile. 

- Building cannot be built on mountain tiles.

Ability Cards

- Ability cards allow a player to activate a single building during the planning phase of the campaign. To activate a building, the player discards a card from their hand.

- Each player gains one (1) card during the draw phase of the campaign. A player gains an additional card if they win their game during the battle phase. 

- The maximum hand size for any player is 5. 

Special Rules

Warmachine Factions - Special Building: Train Stations

- Train stations count as adjacent for the purposes of movement. Train stations can only be used if the tiles between the stations are owned by the player, or the two players agree that movement can occur (otherwise the train would be intercepted by the opposing player). 

Hordes Factions - Affinity to Nature

- Hordes armies may build on mountain tiles.

Common Buildings

- Stables: Reduces the PC of cavalry units/models by one (1) to a minimum of one when building your army list this turn.

- Barracks: Reduces the PC of infantry units/models by one (1) to a minimum of one when building your army list this turn.

- Warjack Repair Station -  Reduces the PC of a single warjack by one (1) when building your army list this turn. A warjack can only be affected by one repair station per campaign turn.

- Taming Grounds - Reduces the PC of a single warbeast by one (1) when building your army list this turn. A warbeast can only be affected by one taming ground per campaign turn.

- Arcane Nexus: Only one nexus can be built by a player. Grants the player's warcaster/warlock the following special rule:
Arcane Attunement: Once per game, all spells/animus' cast by this warcaster/warlocks (or by warbeasts in its battlegroup) have their cost reduced by one to a minimum of one. 

- Fortified Encampment: Buildings may be build adjacent to the encampment and may ignore other buildings if they are also adjacent to the same encampment. 

Faction Buildings

- Coming soon...

Trying out new things

I hope everyone had a good long weekend (at least for those of you in North America). I had a very good weekend, which will probably be one of the last I can play away from home in a bit, as my wife is about to "pop" with our second child. And I admit, I'm a little late on this post, as it has been very busy in the hustle and bustle leading up to his arrival.

On the long weekend, though, I got a night and an afternoon of gaming, each time trying out casters I don't usually use. Friday night, after being issued a challenge from a friend who wanted to see a Cygnar melee list, I wrote up a small list with eStryker. Monday afternoon, I was over at a friend's place where I played two 50 point games with a Kara Sloan Trencher list. Both were interesting. For the first list, it was 25 points a person and it was a team game. Now, while I wanted the two Legion players to team up, we did it randomly, and the Legion players were on opposite sides with myself (playing Cygnar) and our fourth friend playing Trollbloods.

My teammate Legion player, played with Lylyth (Shadow of Everblight), while my opponents played with Jarl Skuld and Thagrosh (the Messiah). It led to some interesting rounds of combat. Jarl magic bullet'ed poor Lylyth to death through her warbeasts early on, which lead Lord Commander Stryker to attempt to tank both our opponents. He almost got an early charge off on Jarl using his Velocity spell to move him forward 2" per focus, however, I forgot that Skaldi had counter-charge. Thus, the moment I moved forward, he charged me. But, he was in range of Ol'Rowdy's counter-charge, so I charged
him back. This lead to a Stryker ultimately smashing Skaldi and then popping his feat to move himself back and advance his army up to provide him cover. The next turn, Jarl killed Lylyth, but it left him exposed to another charge from Stryker. This time it was successful; the Lord Commander took his head clean off with a nice bonus 11 strength from Overload. Thagrosh then charged Stryker taking him to his last health box.

And this is why I really enjoy Warmachine. You can end up with nail-biters like this. Stryker just has to kill him this round, with no use of his Overload. And I almost succeeded. Stryker brought Thagrosh down to HIS LAST BOX. And then Thagrosh poked Stryker and it was game.

On the Monday, a friend hosted a "WarmaHordapalooza" at his place. I brought out a Kara Sloan list using all trenchers that I had been mulling over over the course of the weekend. The only trencher models I own I didn't get into the list were the commandos and Jonas (since I didn't have a merc unit). It wasn't a bad list, but I did see it's flaws.

I got two games that day. The first game was against Legion. It started out very good for me, however, I found out the trencher range isn't the greatest if you don't kill things. It was almost a win for Cygnar on Kara's feat turn, with so much being shot down range and clearing decent lines of sight thanks to Taryn. Unfortunately, his caster survived the barrage of lead (his warbeasts, however, is another story). Once again it was Thagrosh who struck down my caster is a blaze of glory, after I attempted to get shot him (and having my trenchers throw grenades at the backs of other trenchers just outside Thagrosh's reach so that the blast killed my trenchers in his engagement zone, so I didn't have to deal with the defense bonus of him being in combat). Sadly, it failed and I hadn't planned my line of fire correctly. So Thagrosh simply charged with his reach and smited down Kara where she stood.

My second game was against Circle. This game went much better for me. Having learned what works and doesn't in my first game, I stayed strictly within what I knew worked. My cannon, hunter, minuteman andd Kara focused on taking down the Wolddwardens and Megalith, and Baldur, with the aid of Lady Aiyana, Holt and Taryn, while the rest my army dealt with the rest of his. And it work the way I planned. Turn two I had everything of mine (and he was in a position favorable to what I wanted). Kara popped her feat and she and her battlegroup unleashed hell on one of the Woldwardens and Megalith, enough to destroy both and still have enough shots to continue through into Baldur. The rest the army took out a good chunk of his druids and the UA to one of his unit of stones. On his turn, he came out swinging, taking out my stormcaller, some of the trenchers and punching my minuteman into the ground. Kara, with the help of Aiyana and the Hunter that Baldur fell.

Overall, with both games I learned a bit more about casters I don't usually play. I'm definitely playing more eStryker. And Kara seems to need a bit of finesse, and careful planning to execute properly (and the list I had wasn't great against higher armour things). I've been thinking of trying out a suggestion I've seen quite a few times as a way to prep for tournaments and using eStryker as part of it. The plan is to select three casters and play the crap out of just them, each time using different things, testing and refining the lists. This is also so those three casters are understood fullyand are used when it comes to multiple list style tournaments. Caine is a my favourite personality within Cygnar (especially after reading his book from Skull Island Expeditions), and I just have to decide whether I want to use pCaine (support) or eCaine (assassination). Something to think about on my end.


On a side note, I've been distracted with trying to finish off some 40K armies. As a preview of my next post here's what I've been working on.

Grey Knight Brotherhood Champion test conversion

Also in the News: UPDATE FOR WAR ROOM!
I'm still going through it, testing it's new features. The topic of a future post maybe?

Privateer Press at Templecon: Part 2 - Hordes

In part 2 of my look at  the Privateer Press' keynote presentation, I look at the preview of the upcoming book for Hordes: Exigence.

Flame on!

Hordes new book: Exigence

I'll be completely honest, Exigence excites me more than the Cephalyx. Probably because there seemed to be more to this preview. The plot lines of the last several Hordes and Warmachine books are starting to converge and this book, along with Warmachine: Vengeance (out next month), present this. First up, they show the new warlocks, along with reappearances of past warlocks.

Helga the Conquerer, digital sculpt. 

They presented three warlocks set to appear, the first being a new Farrow warlock; Helga the conquerer. The first female warlock for the Farrow, she appears to be a support caster with a spell list that leans towards supporting those around her. Her model looks very cool from the preview they showed.

Also, to appear was another female warlock, Jagujagu, the first female Gatorman period. It sounds like she is going to be more spell based, with a snake who fights along side her.

Xerxis, digital sculpt.

Lastly, was a new version of Xerxis. The last we saw him, he was severely injured and being dragged off the battlefield by his comrades. Now, with his return, instead of going the Professor X route, he's forgone the wheelchair and taken up an armoured war rhino! He appears to be a combat beast, but we don't know what his spell list will be like, so time will tell on that one.

I look forward to see what other casters may be coming down the pipe with Exigence, especially when you combine this news with the news of lesser warlocks. Not unsurprisingly, the announcement of lesser warlocks comes shortly before the release of the next Warmachine book, which features journeyman warcasters. These models represent novice battlegroup leaders, lesser versions of your army's commander.

Una and her team of falcons.

The folks at Privateer Press preview two, a Circle of Orboros lesser warlock and a Trollblood lesser warlock. They are similar to the journeyman warcasters, in that they have less fury and spells and can command a small battlegroup. The one that stood out for me was Una the Falconer. She is focused around falcons (obviously), and forms battlegroups around Circle griffins. Not only is her art fantastic, but from the digital mockup they previewed, her model is going to be fantastic too! I look forward to seeing what her rules bring to the table. 

Close up of Una's digital sculpt.

The other lesser warlock they previewed was Holger Ironstrike (I think that was his name). He focus' around Pyre and Slag trolls and gets them at a discount! He even has abilities that enhances their ranged attacks. Between this warlock and the Circle lesser warlock, it appears that there will be a nice variation between them, but also some similarities that bring together a nice theme to the new book.

Exigence also will feature, at least, two new battle engines. Both of the ones seen were for Minion subfactions, which may be a way for them to flesh out these groups. The first was for the Gatormen and was called the Sacro-vault (?), which is a tall pillar like tower with a sacrificial alter on the top. This battle engine is said to be powered by the souls of the models that die within proximity of the Sacro-vault. The second is for the Farrow and called the meat-thresher. It's essentially a spiked, steamroller powered by BBQ'd razorboars (seriously). 

Xerxis and his mount, Rhinox.

The last new feature announced is the "Warbeast Pack." These are essentially warbeast units. They can do many of the same things a warbeast can do (use fury, damage transfer, etc) but also can act like a unit (unit coherency, damage points instead of spirals, etc). The idea of mini warbeasts running around is kind of frightening. I can only imagine what happens when a warbeast pack frenzies! I can only hope my warlock is not the closest model. 

All in all, this seems like a really exciting book, both gameplay wise and story wise. With some beautiful models coming along with it, it makes the next few months of very interesting as the models slowly get released. Exigence is scheduled to come out sometime this fall, so I might as well start saving up now, because Warmachine: Vengeance is already going to leave a dent in my wallet.

I'll end this post with a few images I snagged from the video presentation that were never really explained. 

Is this a new Legion warlock or lesser Warlock?
A shot of it's sculpt was seen also in the video.

New Satyr?

Trollblood Highwaymen? Please!

Tell me what you think of Exigence? And don't forget to join us on Facebook!