Black Powder - Glory, Hallelujah! review

Since the release of Black Powder by Warlord Games, I've been using it to play games set in the American Civil War without difficulty. Still, I was looking forward to the release of their American Civil War supplement book, "Glory, Hallelujah!". I was interested to see how they suggested handling some of the defining aspects of the war that aren't particularly reflected in the main rules. These aspects include the different role of cavalry, presence of river gunboats, susceptibility of brigade and even division commanders to falling casualty, and varying sizes of artillery batteries (some 4 guns, some 6) and infantry regiments (which could vary greatly in size). Also, having more scenarios never hurts, though I already have plenty of scenarios I haven't played yet from other sources.

Playtest of fantasy skirmish rules: Empire vs Undead

I'm continuing to refine my set of simple rules for large skirmish fantasy wargames. I was pretty happy with the combat mechanics after my last playtest, but I made some changes to the morale and unit activation rules. I am also continuing to make small adjustments to unit stats and modifiers. As before, I don't yet have rules for magic, and special rules for things like the undead need to be ironed out. In both previous games the defender won my sample scenario, but it's hard to say if that was due to imbalanced forces or an imbalanced scenario, and it is way too early to start balancing those things. I'm still just just working out mechanics and characteristic values for the units I want to use.

I decided to play the same scenario again with the same units, but swap the forces. So this time, the undead warband would be escorting Princess Wutzernäm though the forest, when the Empire army suddenly ambushes them, trying to steal the princess away from her rightful owner. But the powerful vampire (whose bride she is intended to be) is approaching swiftly with reinforcements, so the Empire force will have to hurry to make off with her.

Second Playtest of fantasy skirmish rules: Empire vs Undead

I'm continuing to work on some simple rules for large skirmish fantasy wargames. After my first playtest game, I made some changes to the combat mechanics and played the same scenario again. As before, I don't yet have rules for magic, and special rules for things like the undead need to be ironed out, but I want to figure out the core mechanics before I get too far into those details. Like last time, the scenario sees part of the defender's army escorting Princess Wutzernäm through some dangerous territory. They are ambushed by a powerful vampire and his undead warband. The vampire wants to kidnap the princess, but time is short because help is on the way, and the undead will have to fight their way through the reinforcements to make off with their captive.

Playtest of fantasy skirmish rules: Empire vs Undead

Lately I've been working on some ideas for fantasy rules, essentially to have something to play using my existing collection of Warhammer miniatures. I've been looking for some existing rules that would work, but nothing I've read so far really fits what I'm looking for. It has to cover a pretty huge range of fantasy creatures, from mindless zombies up to gigantic dragons. I also want something with a 1:1 figure ratio, so each model represents an individual person (or orc, or dragon, or whatever). But I want the rules to be streamlined enough to have a lot of figures on the table, as I have many dozens of skeletons and zombies. Since I was unable to find any existing rules I liked that satisfied these needs, I started thinking about what kind of rules might do the job.

I've now made enough progress and gotten enough written down to try out some playtests of the rules, and this was the first game I played with them. I don't yet have rules for magic, and some special rules for particularly different things like the undead need to be ironed out, but I wanted to try out the core mechanics and see how it played.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar solo play test Empire vs Vampire Counts continued

I ended up going back to finish up the test game write-up I began in this post. See below for the thrilling conclusion!

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar solo play test Empire vs Vampire Counts

I decided to try out the rules for Age of Sigmar with a quick solo play test using my Empire and Vampire Counts miniatures. The Empire force had one unit of 10 Free Company Militia, one unit of 10 Handgunners, one unit of five Knights with lances, and one Luthor Huss (mounted warrior priest). The Vampire Counts had two units of 10 Skeletons with hand weapons and shields, one unit of 10 Grave Guard with hand weapons and shields, and a Necromancer.

First, some caveats. Obviously playing both sides is not really the same experience as playing against an opponent. Also, I decided not to use any of the "special" terrain rules, and since everything is based consistently I just measured from the bases instead of the models for everything. For simplicity, I didn't use any standards or musicians in my units, and I didn't use any of the Formations. I also needed to decide what to do about the raise spells. I was considering the idea that in order to raise a type of undead, you have to already be using that warscroll in your army, to prevent summoning for example a Zombie Dragon, which would be overpowering in such a small game. In the end, I decided that only models that were part of the army list to begin with, but had been either kept in reserve or removed as casualties, could be summoned.

Horse and Musket Bolt Action - with Cavalry Rules

I've taken a first pass at writing some cavalry rules for a Horse and Musket era version of Bolt Action. I have also cleaned up some of the other rules to make them more clear, and included it all below so everything is in one place.

Cavalry

Cavalry models act the same as Infantry except as noted below.
Cavalry can mount or dismount using 6" of movement. While mounted, the following rules apply:

• Orders: They cannot go Down voluntarily. They can perform an escape move when assaulted by infantry, like a recce vehicle.
• Movement: They can Advance 12" and Run 24". They cannot enter buildings. They ignore obstacles, unless deemed impassible to Cavalry.
• Shooting: Shooting attacks against them receive a +1 to hit modifier. They suffer a -1 penalty to hit rolls when shooting while mounted. When firing on the move (with an Advance order), the only weapons they can fire are those that have the Cavalry type. The only weapons they can reload while mounted are those with the Cavalry type.
• Assault: Assault damage rolls against them receive a -1 penalty. They cannot benefit from using two assault weapons together.

Horse and Musket version of Bolt Action

I was thinking lately that I don't want to have to learn a lot of different sets of rules for playing different historical periods at the same scale/level of game. That will only discourage me from getting miniatures in new periods that I don't have rules for. So I'm thinking about adapting the Warlord Games "Bolt Action" World War 2 rules to earlier periods, such as the "Horse and Musket" era, approximately 1700-1900 AD. Before getting into my specific modifications, here are some things in Bolt Action that I think need to be addressed.

1. The long reload time of muzzle loading weapons needs to be represented.
2. Rifled weapons should be more accurate than smoothbore.
3. In Bolt Action, the roll to cause damage is based on the training level of the target, which I don't think makes sense for Horse and Musket periods. Aside from being behind cover, which is already represented by cover modifiers, I don't think soldiers were trained to avoid being shot.
4. I want to be able to represent some troop types being slightly better or worse at shooting, or slightly better or worse in assault. In Bolt Action, most individuals are pretty much equal in offensive ability, but I want Grenadiers to be better in an assault than Militia, for example.
5. Assaults should probably be less instantly decisive. With the need to reload most weapons after one shot, there wouldn't be as much shooting at point blank range to end things quickly. Having to beat each other with rifle butts might cause an assault to drag on longer.
6. There needs to be some detailed rules for cavalry. I don't think cavalry is addressed in the Bolt Action rules, though there may be rules for it in one of the army book supplements. Even if there are some cavalry rules, they probably aren't to the level of detail that would be desired in a game where cavalry would be more important and prevalent.

If you can think of other areas where the Bolt Action rules might need to be altered or amended, let me know. I think those six points cover most of what needs to change, at a minimum. With the exception of cavalry rules, which I'm not sure about yet, I think all of those points can be covered with a few simple rules change, a few modifiers, and some new weapon and unit stats. My proposed changes are listed below.

Last Saga beta rule suggestions playtest

I played out another solo game with the Last Saga beta rules to test out some suggested rules changes. The table setup and scenario were identical to my first Last Saga playtest game, but with the deployment zones swapped between the two sides. This would give me a chance to try out some different rules ideas and see what kind of effect they had.

Last Saga beta rules test

Last Saga is a skirmish wargame based on 32mm miniatures. Different factions fight against each other in a science-fiction universe. Games portray confrontations between two small groups of units, filled with action and where tactics are key to victory. In a Last Saga game each player uses between 6 and 15 miniatures.

That is the description of the game Last Saga taken from their Kickstarter project page. The rules are in development, and the current "Beta" version can be downloaded from a link on the aforementioned Kickstarter page. The purpose of the Kickstarter project is to raise money to create a range of metal miniatures for use in the game. The initial goal was to raise enough money for two initial faction starter packs, but they have exceeded that goal by quite a bit, and are now offering starter packs for 4 different factions, along with additional add on units for all of them. Only a few models have been sculpted already, but they have some really nice concept artwork for many more of them.

I had a read through the rules, and thought they had some really interesting mechanics behind them. I decided to do a quick solo playtest of the Beta rules to see how they play out. The kickstarter page links to a "Print and Play" list of downloadable files with printable unit cards, standups, tokens, and templates for playing the game. I created two 100 point factions using the units available in the Council and Raiders of Saanar starter packs (though I may not have used the same weapons that come with the starter packs, since I didn't check that). I decided to play the "Probe Lost" scenario, which has an item placed in the center of the table that both sides are trying to retrieve and return to their deployment zone.

Beyond the Gates of Antares Outline Rules Solo Playtest

I played through a quick solo playtest game of Beyond the Gates of Antares, using the outline rules that have been provided to backers of their Kickstarter project. I decided to take some pictures and write up a battle report of the game, along with my observations on how this early draft of the core rules plays.

The Story
There are no official scenario rules, so I went for a pretty straightforward and typical gaming scenario. Basically, both sides are trying to either rescue or capture a wounded downed pilot. The pilot's aircraft has crashed in the wilderness, and both sides are trying to get to him and carry him off first.

X-Wing Miniatures Game First Battle

I got to play my first game of the Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing Miniatures game. I played the rebels, and had two X-wings with red squadron pilots (pilot skill 5). One had proton torpedoes. The Empire side had two regular TIE fighters with pretty standard pilots (pilot skill of 4) and one TIE Advanced (pilot skill 5) with cluster missiles.

Supply Raid Black Powder scenario

This is a scenario I wrote for a recent game of Black Powder. There are some things in the scenario specific to the Black Powder rules, but I tried to keep it generic enough to be easily used with other rules. We use centimeters instead of inches for Black Powder, so all the measurements in the scenario are in cm.

Supply Raid
Side A is on the march, and with them is a column of their supplies. Side B has set up an ambush in order to capture or destroy the supplies.

Battle for the Cave Multiplayer Warhammer Scenario

This scenario is the second part of a two-game mini-campaign. The first part is the Clash of Scouts scenario I posted previously. In our case, the Dwarf player won the first game, so the scenario is written with that taken into account, but it should be easy to figure out how to make it generic, giving whoever won the first game the bonuses I give to the Dwarf army in this scenario.

The Dwarf scout force has driven off the scouts from the other armies and is the first to discover the secret location of the cave that is rumored to contain a great treasure. The scouts of all armies have sent messengers back to their main forces with word of the location of the dwarf scout force. Now all three armies converge on the cave to battle for control of the treasure.

The Armies
Each player selects a 1500 point army using the normal army selection rules. Any models that survived the first battle can be taken for free and can be combined with other models or units in any way that results in legal units, but only include the points of the models you are adding. All percentages are calculated for the new part of the army and don’t include any point values for things you are taking for free. So if you add 150 points worth of models to a surviving core unit, that’s 150 points counted towards your core allowance for the army. Just make sure the 1500 points of new stuff you are adding follows all the percentages and rules for a legal army.

The Battlefield
The battlefield will represent an area in the foothills of the Grey Mountains. In the exact center of the table will be the cave rumored to contain the treasure. The cave can only be entered from the direction of the cave opening, and only one unit can occupy the cave at a time. To enter, the unit must move into contact with the cave opening. At the end of the movement phase, it occupies the cave. A unit can assault an occupied cave, but only one at a time and only through the opening. The units fight as normal, but the defenders always count as steadfast and the attackers will never count as steadfast. If the defenders lose the combat and break, they are wiped out as they are assumed to have fled deep into the cave system and gotten scattered and lost in the dark. The attackers can then occupy the cave if they wish to, or they can reform. If the defender wins, the loser takes a break test as normal. If there is a draw or neither side breaks, the combat will continue in the next turn. The attacking unit stays at the cave entrance and can be assaulted by other units as normal. The unit in the cave can be shot at as normal if they can be seen through the opening, but since there will be many places to hide they count as in hard cover.

Deployment
Deploy as in the Battle Royale scenario in the rulebook (page 406), except that there will only be an army deploying in the middle if there are 5 players. Also, units can’t be deployed within 12” of a table edge that is not their own. If there is no player in the middle of the table, then armies deployed on the short table edges can deploy 12” on instead of 6”. Since the Dwarfs won the first game, the Dwarf army will have first choice of deployment zone and will go first. The other players roll off as normal.

(To summarize the Battle Royale deployment rules: Each player rolls a die (roll off ties). The person with the lowest score sets up his entire army in a 16”x24” section in the middle of the table. Then go in descending order with each person picking a free table edge and deploying their army (except for anything kept in reserve) within 6” of their table edge and more than 10” away from an enemy unit. As noted above, I’ve made some changes to this.)

Since the Dwarfs were first to discover the cave with their scouts, any units made up entirely out of models from the Dwarf army that survived the first game can deploy at the beginning of the game. Everything else will deploy differently depending on how each of the armies chooses to approach the battlefield. Each player will secretly select one of the following deployment options (meaning you will tell me which deployment option you choose, but do not tell the other players):

Forced March: By marching day and night the army is pushed so its forward elements will arrive upon the battlefield very quickly. The player may deploy up to half his army (by number of units, rounded up) at the start of the game. Remaining units will enter play on a roll of 3+ at the start of each following turn, entering using the rules for reinforcements.

March: The army advances as a whole, but maintains regular speed. The entire army can enter play from anywhere along its deployment board edge at the start of Turn 2. Units that enter play in this manner do so using the rules for reinforcements.

Flank Attack: The player can move up to half of his army (by number of units, rounded up) onto the table anywhere along the table edge of his deployment zone at the start of Turn 2. At the start of each subsequent turn roll for each remaining unit. On a score of 3+ the unit can come in from either their own table edge of either flanking edge. Units entering play in this manner use the rules for reinforcements.

First Turn
The players move in the order in which they choose deployment zones. The game will use the turn sequence from the Battle Royale scenario in the rulebook. To summarize: In the movement phase each player completes all their movement in turn. Then there is a combined magic phase. The player who went first rolls 2D6 for the Winds of Magic, and all players use that roll for magic and dispel dice. (you should all bring at least two different colors of dice with so that you can have your magic and dispel dice in front of you, since it will save a lot of time if it is completely clear how many power and dispel dice everyone has left) In the shooting phase, again each player in turn does all of their shooting. Then there is a single close combat phase where everyone fights.

Game Length
The game will last 8 turns.

Victory Conditions
The army that has a unit occupying the cave at the end of the game is the winner.

Secret Rules
Unbeknownst to the players, there was a dragon inside the cave guarding the treasure. The first unit to attempt to enter the cave discovers this, and must fight the dragon exactly as if they were fighting against an enemy unit already occupying the cave. Since the dragon is unbreakable, someone will have to slay it before any other unit can occupy the cave.

In addition, I came up with the following army specific special rules for each army, which were told to that player but kept secret from the other players.

Elves: Your army’s goal is not to capture the treasure for yourselves, but to prevent the lesser races from getting any of it. If there no enemy unit in the cave at the end of the game, it counts as the Elves controlling the cave.

Dwarfs: One unit of up to 20 miners may be selected to tunnel into the cave. If the cave is unoccupied when they arrive, they occupy it. If it is occupied, they automatically count as charging the occupying unit in the rear. The combat will be resolved as described for the rules for the cave, except that the defenders do not count as steadfast, and should they flee they will flee out the cave mouth. Should the attacking miners be forced to flee, they will scatter into the depths of the cave and be lost. If neither side flees, then the combat will continue the same way in the next turn.
Also, because the Dwarf scouts got the better of the scouts of the other armies, the Dwarf army will know which deployment option the other armies have chosen before they choose theirs.

Warriors of Chaos: One of your heroes has made a pledge to the dark gods he will capture the great treasure in the cave for them. You may choose one of your heroes to have made the pledge. At the end of each movement phase, if that character is closer to the cave than at the start of the movement phase, or if he occupies the cave, he may roll on the Eye of the Gods table. However, if he is ever farther from the cave at the end of his movement phase than at the start, he must take a leadership test. If he fails, he turns into a chaos spawn.

Clash of Scouts multiplayer Warhammer scenario

Inspired by all the great scenario and narrative gaming ideas in the Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition rulebook, I recently decided to run a small narrative multiplayer campaign. The story centered around rumors of a long lost treasure being found in the foothills of the Grey Mountains. Several armies are sent to search the area for this legendary treasure horde, and encounter each other while searching. We would play a series of two linked games. The first would represent the scout forces of the two armies encountering each other and attempting to drive off the enemy scouts. The second would be after the treasure was located, and would be an all out battle to control the cave containing the treasure.

Below are the rules I used for the first of the two games, representing the clash of the scouting forces. It could work for up to five armies, but we played it with three and it went really well.

The Armies
Each player selects a 1500 point scout force. No lords may be taken. Each player must indicate on his army roster which unit each character will start the battle in, or if they will be on their own. If this is not clearly indicated on the army roster, the characters will not show up for the battle at all.

The Battlefield
I will set up the battlefield. It will represent an area in the foothills of the Grey Mountains where the scout forces are searching for evidence of a rumored hidden treasure. Rumor has it a great treasure horde was discovered by a group of prospectors out panning for gold.

Deployment
Deploy as in the Battle Royale scenario in the rulebook (page 406), except that there will only be an army deploying in the middle if there are 5 players. Also, units can’t be deployed within 12” of a table edge that is not their own. If there is no player in the middle of the table, then armies deployed on the short table edges can deploy 12” on instead of 6”.

To summarize the Battle Royale deployment rules: Each player rolls a die (roll off ties). The person with the lowest score sets up his entire army in a 16”x24” section in the middle of the table. Then go in descending order with each person picking a free table edge and deploying their army (except for anything they choose to keep in reserve) within 6” of their table edge and more than 10” away from an enemy unit. As noted above, I’ve made some changes to this.

First Turn
The players move in the order in which they were deployed. The game will use the turn sequence from the Battle Royale scenario in the rulebook. To summarize: In the movement phase each player completes all their movement in turn. Then there is a combined magic phase. The player who went first rolls 2D6 for the Winds of Magic, and all players use that roll for magic and dispel dice. (you should all bring at least two different colors of dice with so that you can have your magic and dispel dice in front of you, since it will save a lot of time if it is completely clear how many power and dispel dice everyone has left) In the shooting phase, again each player in turn does all of their shooting. Then there is a single close combat phase where everyone fights.

Game Length
The game will last 6 turns. At the end of turn 6, roll a D6. On 4+ there is a Turn 7. At the end of Turn 7, roll a D6. On a 5+ there is a turn 8, which will be the last turn.

Victory Conditions
The objective is to take the field and drive off the enemy scouts. Each player receives one victory point for controlling a table section (for each 2’x2’ section), and half a point for contesting a section. You also receive one victory point for your general surviving the battle. Any units that have not been destroyed or fled off the table at the end of the game will be added to your army in the following game.

Reward
The winner of this game will have first choice of deployment zone in the following game, and will also have some other deployment bonuses. If the game is really close, I might also give something to the second place player, so it is worthwhile to try to do well even if you can’t win. And keep in mind that any enemy units you destroy will keep your enemy from having them in the next game.

Secret Rules
Only the following types of units will deploy at the start of the game: fast cavalry, skirmishers, flyers (non-monster), warbeasts, and scouts. Starting on turn 2, the following units can arrive as reserves on the roll of 3+: infantry, cavalry, monstrous infantry/cavalry, and swarms. The following units can arrive as reserves on the roll of 4+ starting on turn 3: war machines, monsters, chariots. Any characters assigned to units will arrive with the unit. Any characters not in a unit arrive as regular infantry.

The buildings on the table represent the shacks of the prospectors, and are haunted by their ghosts. If a unit is occupying the buildings and is not fighting in combat in the close combat phase, they will be attacked by one base of Spirit Hosts. A unit that survives the game after being attacked by the ghosts will know about the dragon protecting the treasure horde in the next game.

The winner will be allowed to deploy his survivors at the start of the following game, regardless of which deployment option he chooses. The winner will also know which deployment option each of his enemies has chosen before he chooses his own. A second place player will know which deployment option the last place player has chosen before choosing his own.

Black Powder Command Rolls

I thought I should elaborate a bit on something I mentioned in my review of Black Powder. I wrote that when you roll to carry out your orders, you roll 2D6 and compare the result to your Command Value, which is normally 8, but which can be modified. If you score greater than the modified value, you normally do not carry out your orders. If you score equal or one less, you can move one move segment. If you score two less, you can move two move segments. If you score three or more less, you can move three move segments.

I brought it up because the expected results of this mechanic seem strange, in that you are often less likely to get two move segments than either getting one or three. It seems like the intention should be that when your command value is modified to be lower than normal, you should be more likely to get no moves than to get one, more likely to get one than two, and more likely to get two than three. By the same token, when you have positive modifiers so that your command value is high, you should be very likely to get three moves, less likely to get two, even less likely to get one, and unlikely to get zero.

Warlord Games's Black Powder Rules

The announcement by Warlord Games about a year ago, that they were going to release a set of rules called Black Powder written by Rick Priestley and Jervis Johnson, is what got me started in historical gaming. You can read about that in this post concerning My Introduction To Historical Wargaming. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited when I heard Black Powder was finally being released, so I made sure to pre-order myself a copy and it arrived about a week after the release date. I've since had a chance to read through the entire book and reflect on its contents, and will now write my review of Black Powder in order to help out others who are considering picking it up.

Warhammer Fantasy Map Campaign Rules

Here are some rules I've come up with for playing Warhammer Fantasy map based campaigns using the Mighty Empires map tiles and accessories. I'm trying them out right now with my gaming group in a multi-player campaign, and they seem to work well so far. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements.

Set Up
Set up a randomly generated hex map to represent the region being fought over. Each allied force gets one side of the map opposite the other force. Each player selects a single hex that is one hex away from his edge. This is where his Fortress is. There will have to be markers made for each player that can be placed on hexes to show that he controls them. To start with, these markers are placed on the fortress hex that the player starts on. As players capture or lose castles, cities, and towns, markers will be placed on or removed from the map hexes containing them.

Each player starts with the same number of Armies, usually three. They will all represent a Warhammer army of an agreed upon points value, usually 2000. Armies are represented by a flag of a different color for each player. Each player places his armies on his Fortress hex or within one hex of it. Two armies of the same side can never occupy the same hex.

Each player will be allowed only one lord level character in the campaign, representing the commander of his army. This Lord choice is essentially a special character, and he will not change from game to game. If he is used in a battle, he must be taken with exactly the same magic items, mount, etc. Each player will need a token to represent which of his armies the Lord is currently with. It can start with any of his armies, and during a player’s movement phase, he can move his Lord to any of his armies. Otherwise, the character moves along with the army he is with. If the army the Lord is in gets into a battle, the player may choose to use the Lord character in the game if he wishes. If the character is used, points are paid for him as normal, and he uses up a character slot. If the character is with an army that gets completely Massacred, the character is captured or killed and can no longer be used in the campaign. If the character is killed in a battle in a challenge, then the character is killed and can no longer be used.

Features such as towns and villages are placed randomly on the map.

Turn Phases
If there are multiple players on each side of the war, all players on the same side take their turn at the same time. Each turn is broken into the following phases:

1. Move Armies


2. Fight Battles


3. Battle Results

Move Armies
Armies are allowed to move a maximum of D3 hexes during their turn. They subtract one from the roll if they start their move adjacent to a hex with an unbroken enemy army, to a minimum of 1. Each army is rolled for and moved one at a time, so you will not know how far the rest of your armies will be able to move. You can not move through a hex with an enemy army in it or an enemy controlled settlement. You may pass through a hex with a friendly army in it, but may not end your move in the same hex as a friendly army. You may end your move in a settlement (Town, Village, City, or Fortress) controlled by an allied player, provided there is not another army already there.

An enemy controlled settlement without an enemy army in the hex can be captured by an army ending its move on the hex. Mark that the capturing player now controls the settlement. Enemy controlled locations that have an enemy army on them can be captured, but in order to do so the attacker must first win the battle with the enemy army. An army can move into a hex that an enemy army is occupying, in which case it must halt there even if it has more movement. The two armies will do battle.

Fight Battles
After movement is complete, a Warhammer battle will be fought anywhere there are armies from both sides occupying the same hex on the map. Each player selects an army up to the points value agreed upon for the armies.

The two players proceed to fight the Warhammer battle with their selected armies. The attacker is the player whose turn it is. The defending player deploys a unit first in the game and the attacking player gets the first turn. Roll off for choice of deployment zones as normal. At the end of the game calculate victory points to determine the results.

Instead of always fighting a pitched battle, you can determine the scenario you fight by rolling on the following chart:

1-3: Pitched Battle
4: Supremacy
5: Flank Attack
6: Last Stand

If a Pitched Battle is being played, both players randomly select a special objective and reveal it to the other player. (Note it is possible to get a blank special objective, which means you have no special objective for the battle). For either side, completing the objective gives that player bonus victory points equal to 10% of the size of the game. So for 2000 point games, it would grant 200 bonus victory points.

As an alternative, instead of fighting a Warhammer battle, the result of the battle can be determined by dice rolling as follows. Each player rolls a die. A player subtracts one if his army suffered a minor defeat in the last turn, or two if the player’s army is broken as a result of a major defeat. Subtract one if attacking an enemy on a special location. The results are compared, and if one player gets a higher result than the other, the difference determines the level of his victory according to the following chart:

Difference: Result
0-1: Draw
2: Minor Victory
3: Major Victory
4-5: Massacre


Battle Results
Draw
If the result of the battle is a draw, the attacking army is moved back one hex to the hex it came from.

Minor Victory
If the result of the battle is a minor victory, the loser moves back 1 hex. If the attacker lost, he must move back in the direction he came from or one of the two adjacent directions from the hex where the battle was fought. If the defender lost, he must move in the direction opposite the one the attacker came from, or one of the two directions adjacent to that one. A losing army is not allowed to retreat into an enemy controlled settlement. In addition, the losing army is shaken. This means that for one full turn, the army suffers the following effects in any battles it fights: his opponent is allowed to choose a deployment zone, he must begin deploying first, and his opponent may choose whether to go first or second.

Major Victory
If the result of the battle is a major victory, the loser moves back 1 hex as described in the Minor Victory section above. In addition, the losing army is now considered broken until it can rally. A broken army cannot attack another army, and if it is attacked it suffers the following effects in the battle: the army gets 10% fewer points, the opponent is allowed to choose deployment zone, the entire army must be deployed first before the opponent’s army being deployed, and the opponent can choose to go first or second. Broken armies can rally by ending their regular move (not retreat move) on a hex with a friendly settlement. Once they do this, the army returns to normal.

Massacre
If the result of the battle is a massacre, the losing army is removed from the game permanently. The winning army stays where it is. If this happens to an army containing the player’s Lord character, the character is captured and takes no further part in the campaign.

Surrounded
In the case of a Minor or Major victory when the losing army is compelled to make a retreat move, cases may occur where it is impossible for the army to make the required move, due to enemy armies or the edge of the map or mountains blocking all the possible destinations. If this happens, the army is trapped, and is wiped out as if the result of the battle was a Massacre. If the army is blocked by a friendly army, they may move one extra hex through them if possible and if there is no other possible place to move.

Ending the Game
The game is played until one side has no armies remaining, or one side has lost all their fortresses. The other side is the victor.

Special Locations
Towns, villages, hills, bridges, and other features of the landscape can be used by a clever general to gain tactical advantages over his opponent. The following are some special locations that may be placed on the hex map. Special locations grant certain benefits to armies on or near them. Unless otherwise specified, benefits of special locations apply to an army occupying the hex the terrain feature is on. If a battle takes place on a hex with a special location, unless otherwise specified the benefit applies to the defender. In cases where the player is allowed to place terrain, it is placed after all normal terrain has been set up for the game, and deployment zones have been chosen.

Village: Defender can place up to 12” of linear obstacle in his deployment zone. He gains +50 bonus victory points for each of his starting table quarters that he controls at the end of the game. An army that starts its turn on a Village, it gets +1 movement.

Town: Defender can place up to 18” of linear obstacle and one building (up to 2 stories) OR one special terrain feature in his deployment zone. He gains +100 bonus victory points for each of his starting table quarters that he controls at the end of the game. An army that starts its turn on a Town, it gets +1 movement.

City: Defender can place up to 24” of linear obstacle and up to two buildings (up to 3 stories) OR one such building and one special terrain feature in his deployment zone. He gains +150 bonus victory points for each of his starting table quarters that he controls at the end of the game. An army that starts its turn within 1 hex of a friendly controlled City gets +1 movement.

Fortress: Play a siege game. The defender gets 75% of the point value of the attacker. Both armies get 25% of the point value of the attacker to spend on siege equipment. If the attacker wins, it counts as a massacre. If the defender wins, it counts as a minor victory. An army that starts its turn within 1 hex of a friendly controlled Fortress gets +1 movement.

Hill: Defender can place a hill of any size in his deployment zone. The attacker is not allowed to place any hills in his own deployment zone. The Defender adds +1 to his roll to determine deployment zones, and +1 to his roll to determine who goes first.

Bridge: It is difficult to attack and retreat across a narrow bridge. If the attacker loses a battle on a hex with a bridge, the loss is counted as one level more severe. So a minor victory for the defender becomes a major victory, a major victory becomes a massacre.

River: Fighting in the area of a river with no bridge makes it hard to escape if an army gets surrounded. Both armies fighting a battle in a river hex gain double victory points for controlling table quarters. If there is a bridge in the hex, use the rules for a Bridge location instead.

Warhammer 40,000 Eldar Special Character

Harai Grae Dei
Aka Lieutenant Grady

Lieutenant Grady is legendary among the pirates and corsairs of Tito’s fleet, who consider him to be a good luck charm. His fame began during a battle against a small force of Space Marines on the Exodite world of Tirathain. At the time, Grady was just an inexperienced young corsair guardian. His unit was pinned down by heavy weapons fire from a squad of marine devastators. In a legendary act of stupendous courage and foolishness, Grady shouted at his comrades to follow, and charged out of cover towards the marines.

The rest of his squad immediately yelled at Grady to stay down, but he would hear none of it. He was hardly interested in hearing any of their extremely sane advice. The others could only look on as Grady broke cover and sprinted across the open ground towards the position of the space marines.

Once Grady was in the open, the marines focused their fire on him and let loose a torrent of heavy bolter and assault cannon shots. Grady was struck several times by the heavy weapons fire, and fell to his knees. His horrified squad looked on, but the Grady quickly disappeared in clouds of smoke and debris caused by the heavy weapons fire tearing into the ground all around him.

Seconds later when the dust cleared, his squad mates could make out the miraculous sight of Grady, getting back to his feet and continuing his charge towards the space marine position. Inspired by Grady’s miraculous resilience and insane dedication, the others in his squad let out a cheer and sprinted out of cover after him.

The space marines were stunned to see Grady get back to his feet and charge out of the cloud of smoke and dust towards them. After a second’s hesitation, they retrained their weapons on him and let loose another fierce burst of weapons fire. Grady was struck again, and this time wounded more severely. He fell to the ground, finally incapacitated by the absurd amount of fire directed at him.

But as Grady collapsed, the rest of his furiously inspired squad charged past him and towards the space marines with incredible speed. With Grady having drawn such a great deal of fire from the marine heavy weapons, the rest of the squad made it to the marine position with few casualties. In their enthusiasm the Eldar pirates completely overwhelmed the marine position in the ensuing combat.

After the battle, the others returned for the heroic Grady and in another miraculous testament to his incredible resiliency and force of will, Grady actually survived his wounds. He did have to receive several bionic implants and replacements in order to recover from his injuries, but he survived. From then on, the pirates he fought with, and soon all who heard the incredible story, praised Grady both for his idiotic courage and for his sheer dumb luck.

Since then, Grady’s reputation has spread. The other pirates and corsairs in the fleet considering him to be something of a good luck charm. He inspires those around him to greater acts of bravery, as they feel much safer knowing they have Grady there to draw fire away from them. For his part, Grady has tried to perpetuate this feeling by very often doing stupidly courageous and even utterly suicidal things on the battlefield. This has led to him being wounded many times, and requiring more bionic replacements, but he still has yet to be killed.

He even survived an incident where he and a small group of Eldar pirates were mysteriously sucked into the warp and transported to the daemon world of D’Elaware. There, he and his army were made to fight against the retinues of several other champions for the amusement of the Chaos gods. All of the champions ended up battling on a massive Ziggurat of Doom. A deadly unit of Harlequins killed two of the other champions, including a massive daemonically powered Ork warboss who had completely wiped out a squad of pirates Grady had been leading, though Grady himself, as always, had survived. In fact, Grady survived the longest of any of the champions, but was eventually badly wounded by enemy fire. The surviving Harlequins rescued Grady and managed to escape the daemon world with him, and he lived to fight yet again.

Because of his insane courage and luck, all those who fight with Grady have grown to love him and even treat him as something of a folk hero. This despite the fact that most who fight alongside Grady are not nearly as lucky when it comes to surviving as Grady himself.

LIEUTENANT GRADY – 60 pts
WS:4 BS:4 S:3 T:3 W:3 I:4 A:2 Ld:9 Sv:5+

SPECIAL RULES
Fleet of Foot, Independent Character.

Iron Will: Grady has incredible will power and refuses to go down. He has the Feel No Pain universal special rule.

Cybernetic Body: At this point, most of Grady’s body has been replaced with cybernetic augmentations. These augmentations provide further protection and also incorporate redundant life support systems to keep Grady alive. Grady is immune to Instant Death from weapons with a strength twice or more his toughness. Things that cause instant death in other ways will still work as normal.

Insane Courage: Grady is always out in front of the men, placing himself in harm’s way. When part of a unit taking fire, Grady will always be hit by as many shots as legally possible when distributing hits. So if the unit takes a single wound, Grady will have to take a save for it. If a unit takes one more wound than it has models, Grady will take two saves and everyone else a single save, etc.

Man of the People: Grady is by no means any sort of military strategist or brilliant commander of troops. He can never join units of Aspect Warriors, as there is no way they would follow his orders. However, any unit Grady does join is so inspired by his courage that they may re-roll any leadership based test they are required to take.

Grady can be chosen as an upgrade for any unit of guardians, instead of being chosen as a separate HQ choice. In this case, he no longer counts as an independent character and does not use up an HQ slot on the force organization chart.

WARGEAR
Shuriken pistol, close combat weapon, plasma grenades, haywire grenades, forceshield (4+ invulnerable save).

Warhammer 40,000 Eldar Special Character

Rai luith aeth
Aka Pirate Captain Raleigh

Captain Raleigh is the captain of one of the cruisers in Tito’s fleet, as well as the leader of the ships ground forces. He is a competent naval commander and military strategist, but his greatest skill lies in his mastery of guerilla warfare.

Through many decades of piracy and raiding, Raleigh has become an expert in stealth, ambush, and sabotage. He would often sneak behind enemy lines or into encampments to plant booby traps. He would then conceal himself and wait for the perfect moment in order to spring an attack when the enemy least expects it.

Perhaps his most famous battle occurred while raiding an imperial outpost. Unexpectedly, the outpost ended up having several squads of Ultramarines guarding it. After springing their attack, Raleigh and his men suffered a brutally swift counter-attack from the highly trained Space Marines.

All of Raleigh’s men were wiped out in the ensuing firefight, but Raleigh managed to escape and conceal himself. The Ultramarines thought the battle was over, but Raleigh would not leave without avenging his fallen men.

Using his incredible stealth, Raleigh stalked the Ultramarines, waiting for individual units to be isolated. Then suddenly he would be upon them, his arcane but deadly rad grenades weakening the marines before he charged in the finish them off. Then, as quickly as he has sprung upon them, he would fade away back into the darkness before another squad could arrive to help.

Captain Raleigh repeated this tactic, isolating each of the marine combat squads, ambushing them, and then escaping into hiding. He continued his guerilla campaign until he had slain every single one of the Ultramarine guards at the outpost. This amounted to killing around 15 or 20 Space Marines single handedly.

But more importantly for Raleigh, he had killed those who had slaughtered his brave men, and avenged their loss. Afterward Raleigh made his way back to his ship to get reinforcements, and the outpost was then successfully raided. All who heard of the raid learned of the value of Raleigh’s guerilla warfare tactics.

CAPTAIN RALEIGH – 120 pts
WS:6 BS:6 S:3 T:3 W:3 I:6 A:3 Ld:10 Sv:3+

SPECIAL RULES
Fleet of Foot, Independent Character.

Master Strategist: Captain Raleigh is essentially the corsair equivalent of an Autarch. He has the Master Strategist rule, just like a regular Autarch.

Guerilla Warrior: Captain Raleigh is an expert in guerilla warfare. He has the Infiltrate and Hit And Run universal special rules.

WARGEAR
Shuriken pistol, power weapon, avenger shuriken catapult, plasma grenades, haywire grenades, forceshield (4+ invulnerable save), mandiblasters.

Rad Grenades: These extremely rare grenades saturate a small area with a burst a powerful radiation that is engineered to quickly dissipate once the initial damage is done. A model with rad grenades can re-roll any of his to wound rolls in the first round of any assault.