About a month ago, the legend that is Dave invited me to play a few games of Warhammer Fantasy with him in the coming year. I jumped at the opportunity, and what better army to play with than my old Dwarfs!
I’ve always had a soft spot for these boys ever since I started in Warhammer way back in 93′.
This would also be the perfect opportunity for me to start rebasing them back on to their proper SQUARE bases as is only right! It also means that by the time Old World gets released I may have a fully painted and functional army from the off!
We’re starting out in Fantasy with the Grudge of Drong as Dave has previously mentioned, and for the first battle in the series I need to muster a small force of 1,500 points.
The first battle takes place in Grudge Pass as an Elven force blocks the road to advancing Dwarfs looking to topple Queen Helga from her throne whom the Elves have allied themselves with.
In this case, Dave is replacing the Elves and using his old Empire army. However, I will be using the Dwarfs. The suggested order of battle is below, but this is a 5th edition campaign box and we’re going be playing with 8th edition rules so I will need to adjust this slightly.
We’re going to be using 8th Edition rules, so my force will look something like this:
Dwarf Lord
Master Engineer
Runesmith
Battle Standard Bearer
15 Warriors
10 Warriors
10 Longbeards
10 Thunderers
10 Ironbreakers
10 Miners
10 Miners
This is by no means a competitive army , but then its not meant to be as this is a narrative campaign and we’re playing to act a story out rather than attempting to table our opponent.
Some of these models are already painted, they just need rebasing!
I’ve still a fair whack to get through as well as rebasing the above models!
These were the top three lists from General’s War #46 held on 19th December 2021.
Piotr Kurkowski – Lumineth Realmlords
Piotr won the event with threw wins from three and 79 points. Beating an off-meta Nagash Soulblight Gravelords army in the first round, a Nagash Petrifex Ossiarch Bonereapers list in the second round and a Sons of Behemat list in the final round with four mega-gargants.
Allegiance: Lumineth Realmlords – Great Nation: Syar – Grand Strategy: Prized Sorcery – Triumphs:
Leaders ———- Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind (345)* Vanari Lord Regent (155)* – General – Command Trait: Goading Arrogance – Artefact: The Perfect Blade – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light Scinari Cathallar (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Total Eclipse
Battleline ———- 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Speed of Hysh 10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (145)* – Lore of Hysh: Lambent Light 30 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (450)* – Lore of Hysh: Protection of Hysh – Reinforced x 2
Units ———- 1 x Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (265)* 1 x Hurakan Spirit of the Wind (265)*
Core Battalions ———- Battle Regiment*
Total Points: 1985 pts
NB: – With the recent points update from Battlescroll: Gods & Heroes this list would now cost 2,085 points due to the +20 points for the Sentinels and is no longer a valid list for Age of Sigmar
Tomasz Litman – Ironjawz
Tomasz also managed three wins from three beating a Stormcast list with Vindictors and two units of reinforced longstrike crossbows in the first round, an off-meta Slaves to Darkness list in round two and a Soulblight Gravelords Grave Guard army in round three.
Leaders ———- Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)** – General – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Command Trait: Mega Bossy – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny (Universal Artefact) Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)* – Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist – Artefact: Destroyer – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Get ‘Em Beat Orruk Warchanter (115)* – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90)** – Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Battleline ———- 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)* –Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas 3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (150)*** – Jagged Gore-hackas
Core Battalions ———- *Warlord **Command Entourage – Magnificent ***Hunters of the Heartlands
Total Points: 1995 pts
NB: – With the recent points update from Battlescroll: Gods & Heroes this list would now cost 2,075 points due to the +20 points for the Gore-Gruntas and is no longer a valid list for Age of Sigmar
Robert Rajkowski – Soulblight Gravelords
Robert also managed three wins from three, facing off against a Tree-Revenant Sylvaneth list in the first round with Alarielle, a Kruleboyz Gutrippas spam list in round two and another Tree-Revenant Sylvaneth List with Alarielle in the last round.
Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords – Lineage: Avengorii Dynasty – Grand Strategy: Hold the Line – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders ———- Big Drogg Fort-Kicka (525)* – Allies Necromancer (125)* – General – Command Trait: Master of Magic – Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact) – Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify Vampire Lord (140)* – Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battleline ———- 60 x Deadwalker Zombies (345)* – Reinforced x 2 40 x Deadwalker Zombies (230)* – Reinforced x 1
Units ———- Zombie Dragon (295)* – Cursed Mutation: Urges of Atrocity Zombie Dragon (295)*
Roger managed four from five wins with 169 points.
Allegiance: Big Waaagh! – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Indomitable
Leaders ———- Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (105 pts)++ – Spell: Nasty Hex Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot(105 pts)+++ – Spell: Nasty Hex Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (General)(480 pts)+++ – Artefact: Amulet of Destiny – Command Trait: Hulking Brute – Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un Orruk Warchanter (115 pts)+++ – Artefact: Arcane Tome – Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat – Spell: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
A couple of the Woehammer group have been reminiscing about the joys of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB) and how much fun it would be to get some armies together to play not only this but the upcoming ‘Old World’, which is rumoured to be released in 2023. So we did just that, I’ve dusted off my fantasy collection and have started looking at which units I could take while Pete has been doing the same with his.
If you’re new to the hobby, WHFB was the precursor to Age of Sigmar. Rather than large skirmish games with quite unconstrained movement, WHFB focused on the clashes of large units in tight formations with precise movement and positioning. The element which particularly appealed to me was the aesthetics of the game which are very much focused on those large blocks, rather than large monsters (though these do exist in the game).
We’ve decided to start by playing out a narrative campaign, and where better to start than the Grudge of Drong, a Campaign Pack written by Nigel Stillman for Games Workshop. The campaign was written for the Fifth Edition of the WHFB ruleset, but we have chosen to use the Eighth Edition rules as we are more familiar with these and have the necessary army books etc. The campaign pits stalwart Dwarfs against the perfidious High Elves who have aligned themselves with one Dwarf faction against another in a rather fractious internal dispute.
We will need to modify the campaign a little for the armies we have available to us but are looking forward to getting this kicked off. In the meantime, we will be putting out some articles on the armies and how they are developing over the next few months, before beginning the campaign in the New Year.
Both Pete and I look forward to sharing more with you soon and may all your Grudges be satisfied.
I’ve always enjoyed creating my own rules and scenarios for the games I play, and last year I jumped into writing my own ruleset for Napoleonic Wargaming called ‘Clausewitz’.
But I thought it may be fun to create a ruleset with the community which could then be hosted here on the site for free.
So what should it be? A historical game? Sci-Fi, Fantasy? Should it be Grand Tactical, skirmish level or something in between?
What about measurements? Should they be in inches, centimetres, base widths or something completely different?
As you can see there are a lot of points to consider before getting into the nitty gritty of it all. So let’s tackle the first question.
Genre
What about the genre? What should it be. Well that’s up to you all. Why not vote in the poll below that I’ll keep open until the next article and you can decide here what we work on. Of course there’s always an argument to make the game genre agnostic as well, meaning the ruleset can be used for anything…
This report is the second from Games Day ’89; Gary Brough (Goblins) against Mark Sutcliffe (Wood Elves).
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
It’s been a little while since I last posted to the A Life in Wargames series, for which I can only apologise. These articles take a lot more effort than the others I write and unfortunately I’ve simply not had the time for the research recently.
John Stallard, from the wonderful city of Cardiff in Wales is a Games Designer who for 27 years worked with Games Workshop. In 2007 her left and set up Warlord Games along with Paul Sawyer (who some of you may remember from White Dwarf).
John lived in Cardiff until he was four years old, at which point his family moved to Scotland where his father was working for BP, eventually at the age of ten John and his family moved to Worcester.
His cousin introduce him to military models and toy soldiers after his cousin thought he was much to grown up for such things handed John his collection. John set about expanding his collection by making weekly purchases of Airfix kits with his pocket money.
The first set of rules that John played was the Airfix Guide to Napoleonic Wargaming written by Bruce Quarrie (1974), which he then followed up with Skytrex’s Middle Earth Wargames Rules (1976).
Airfix Guide to Napoleonic Wargaming (1974)
After university John moved to Nottingham a move which was prompted by reading a job advert in White Dwarf. After a successful interview John joined Bryan Ansell‘s Citadel Miniatures team, initially working in the Mail Order team reporting to Rick Priestley.
John learnt about customer service from Bryan Ansell and his wife Diane. Games Workshop was very forward thinking at the time where orders would be sent as soon as an order form was received, meaning the customer often had their orders within the week rather than the 28 days advertised.
After a year John left the Mail Order team to retake his exams, which he failed. He put this failure down to playing Warhammer all the time. John then worked in a freezer warehouse during the summer where in a forklift truck accident he lost most of the toes on his left foot. He then attended the Wargames show in Manchester on crutches and saw Rick Priestley behind the Games Workshop Mail Order stand. Rick Priestley asked if he wanted his job back and he returned to Citadel Miniatures.
John progressed from Mail Order to Trade Sales, followed later by becoming Sales Manager and later became Head of Sales and then Sales Director. He stayed with Games Workshop until 2007 when he set Warlord Games.
Warlord Games came into being because I had always wanted to do historical military models. I’ve been fascinated with them since I was six. I kept on saying to two consecutive bosses at Games Workshop that the company should start to do historical models. I remember Tom Kirby, a man I admire very much, saying to me, “John, I’ve done a study and if you add all the historical gaming companies together it comes to £2m, there’s just not enough money in it.” Being older and wiser than me, he’d actually done the research. I said, “But Tom, that’s because it hasn’t really been done before. What was the market for Goblins with spears fifteen years ago? Bugger all! Citadel and Games Workshop made the marketplace by making great models and banging the drum and producing wargames rules.”
– John Stallard
John teamed up with Paul Sawyer (White Dwarf Editor in yesteryear) who’d also been made redundant by Games Workshop, they contacted Renedra Ltd, the plastic manufacturing company who has previously been Games Workshop‘s plastic manufacturing arm. They also bought on board Bob Naismith to make their figures.
Warlord’s upcoming British Starter Set for Black Powder: Epic Battles
It takes around four months for the complete manufacture of a set of plastic models. During the period after the final designs were made for their Warlord Games plastic models (Romans), John found out that the Perry twins also had an upcoming plastic release. They were still working for Games Workshop at the time but they had set up Perry Miniatures in the background (which was allowed within their contract). They were going to release some plastic American Civil War figures which would be made as either Confederate or Union troops. There release would be the first ever 28mm plastic historical wargame figures, beating Warlord Games by only two or three weeks.
John Stallard’s work:
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
