So work has continued a pace with the solo wargaming system which I’m hoping to have ready for people to play with from 1st January.
The cards as shown in my previous post will come in their own box (imagine Warhammer 40k data cards) along with a small leaflet on how to use them effectively.
Broken Ranks Action Card
I’m going to print a set if these soon for testing and a few at Woehammer will also be having copies to test with. Once I’m happy with where these are I will post a video on the website on how the whole system will work.
In the meantime the cost of printing out these cards is expensive, but with your support I can make it a reality. Please consider supporting us through Patreon. For as little as £1 a month you can help me make these a physical product which you can buy,
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.
Bryan Ansell started with his life in wargames by founding and designing for his own miniatures company Asgard Miniatures. He also had his own fanzine named Trollcrusher.
In 1979 Games Workshop approached Ansell to found their own miniatures branch Citadel Miniatures. The company was set up to allow Games Workshop to be self reliant for its miniature purposes, allowing her to create the miniatures for all the games which Games Workshop had the license for at the time. This took their reliance on other miniatures companies such as Ral Partha away.
In 1980 Ansell wrote his first wargaming rules called Laserburn which he had published via Tabletop Games. Although only a foot note in gaming history, Laserburn contained many elements and wargear of the future Warhammer 40,000 game, such as Power Armour, Dreadnoughts, Jet Cycles and Bolt Guns.
By 1982 Games Workshop was depending on the sales of Citadel Miniatures and Bryan Ansell brought out all of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s shared in Games Workshop and all the operations were eventually moved from London to Nottingham.
Laserburn which you can still find today as a PDF.
Ansell worked with Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley on Games Workshops‘ Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This was originally designed to be given out for free to encourage customers to buy the new Citadel Miniatures range.
He later left Games Workshop to Tom Kirby in 1991 and instead focused on his own company Wargames Foundry, a company which sells historical miniatures. These miniatures were originally sculpted by the Perry Twins for Citadel Miniatures, but were no longer sold as part of the Games Workshop fantasy ranges. Ansell took a number of figure molds used for historical and fantasy figures under Citadel Miniatures and Games Workshop, and they have become part of the Wargames Foundry range. Wargames Foundry continues to sell a range of metal figures for historical, sci-fi and fantasy war gaming.
Although not as prolific a writer as some of the other people focused on in “A Life in Wargames” Ansell has been involved in the rules development of 15+ games.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Guy Hayley returns to the Horus Heresy in the second book from the Siege of Terra. This is the follow on series from Black Library and was made as a great ‘drop in’ point for those who lost track of the Horus Heresy series. I previously reviewed book 1, which can be found here.
From the book:
With the solar defences overcome through the devastating strength of the Traitor armada and the power of the warp, Horus launches his assault on the Throneworld in earnest. After withstanding a ferocious barrage of ordnance, an immense ground war commences outside the Palace with every inch gained paid for in the lives of billions.
On the thirteenth day of Secundus, the bombardment of Terra began… With the solar defences overcome through the devastating strength of the Traitor armada and the power of the warp, Horus launches his assault on the Throneworld in earnest. After withstanding a ferocious barrage of ordnance, an immense ground war commences outside the Palace with every inch gained paid for in the lives of billions. The front lines are beyond horrific and the very air is reduced to poison and blood. Bodies are thrown into the meatgrinder but the outer redoubts cannot possibly hold for long, even with the loyal primarchs to reinforce them. For Horus has his own generals to call upon… Between the plague weapons of Mortarion and the fury of Angron, the defenders face a losing battle.
The Lost and the Damned includes the three Primarchs defending Terra from Horus and the attacks from Mortarion and Angron. Guy Hayley continues to tie together the threads of the battle, and as this book is based on Terra it is much easier to follow than Book 1 (which concentrated on the battle for the Sol system).
Sanguinius also makes his first appearance at the Siege, ignoring his brother Dorn’s instructions to stay behind the Wall, and going out to take the fight to the Heretics. His presence rallies the defenders and brings them hope that victory may be achieved… his appearance is great from a personal point of view, as I collect Blood Angels!
And similarly to much of the Horus Heresy series there are stories of ordinary defenders either from Astra Militarum regiments or from local PDFs.
A really good second book in the series – and definitely leaving me wanting to read the rest!
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
Rick Priestley grew up in Lincoln and dtart d writing wargames as a teenager with his friend Richard Halliwell. In 1979 the pair wrote their first game Reaper while still in school. Tabletop Games (a small games publishing company with no sales output) printed their rules and they contacted Brian Ansell who worked for Asgard Miniatures at the time before his move to Citadel Miniatures. Brian Ansell put them in contact with Nottingham Toy Soldier Shop who agreed to sell the Reaper rules.
Halliwell & Preistley’s first game
With one rulebook for sale, Halliwell and Priestley collaborated on a second effort, a science fiction miniatures wargame titled Combat 3000, also published by Tabletop, that used 15mm/25mm “space marine” miniatures from Asgard. Around this time Brian Ansell left Asgard Miniatures, and with backing from Games Workshop set up Citadel Miniatures.
Priestley joined Games Workshop in 1982 as part of their subsidiary company Citadel Miniatures. At that time Citadel produced the miniatures for use in Dungeons and Dragons. Brian Ansell the manager of Citadel asked Richard Halliwell to develop Games Workshops’ first in-house game, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Rick Priestley and Tony Ackland developed the product. Warhammer Fantasy contained many of the core mechanics or Priestley and Halliwell’s earlier game Reaper. Warhammer Fantasy was released in 1983 and was a huge success.
It allowed them a vehicle through which they could sell their own Citadel Miniatures. Earlier miniature wargames were designed to be played using generic models that could be bought from any manufacturer, but Warhammer Fantasy’s setting featured original characters with distinctive visual designs, and their models were produced exclusively by Games Workshop. This paved the way for Games Workshop to become the company it is today – all thanks to the three men who developed that first game.
Since before his time at Games Workshop Priestley had been working on a set of rules of Spaceship Combat called Rogue Trader which mixed Science fiction and fantasy elements. Priestley incorporated many aspects of this setting such as the lore and space travel into Warhammer 40,000 and dropped the ship combat element due to not having enough room in the book.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Games Workshop planned to sell conversion kits for their fantasy line to make them useable in Rogue Trader but eventually decided to instead dedicate an entire production line to the game and in 1987 Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was born.
During his years with Games Workshop he was involved in the design of virtually all of their top games such as Necromunda, Mordheim, Warmaster, Lord of the Rings, Gorkamorka, Mighty Empires and Warhammer Ancient Battles (affectionately known as WAB by those in Historical gaming circles).
Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB)
Rick Priestley left Games Workshop in 2009 stating that the corporate culture had grown too focused on sales and no longer cared about innovation in Games Design. He expanded on his view of Games Workshop in an article with Bell of Lost Souls in March 2015. In that, his thoughts on where Games Workshop was heading, was as a manufacturer of collectible miniatures and not games design.
After Games Workshop, Priestley co-founded Warlord Games which after Games Workshop is arguably the next biggest games and miniature manufacturer in Europe.
With Warlord Games, Rick Priestley has continued to develop fantastic wargame rulesets and being no longer held back by Games Workshop, these have included historical as well as Fantasy and Sci-Fi. The biggest games at Warlord such as Bolt Action, Black Powder, Gates of Antares, Hail Caesar, Pike and Shotte and Warlords or Erehwon have all been designed with Priestley’s input.
Bolt Action
In 2011 Rick Priestley was elected to the committee of the Society of Ancients. The Society of Ancients is a non-profit organisation that intends to promote interest in Ancient and Medieval history and wargaming.
This man is a true legend of Wargaming, is the father of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 and has done a lot that Games Workshop fans and historical wargaming fans have to thank him for.
I have tried to give a flavour of the 115+ rules and add-on’s he’s developed below. But as with Jervis’ article, this really does not even scrape the surface as to the lore and depth of his many games. Rick, thank you! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
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.
Two submissions this week under the #Woehammer on Twitter. Both members of the team.
If you want to see your miniatures on the site remember to use the hashtag #woehammer either on Twitter or Instagram.
Dave has started a new 40k 9th Edition army, this time focusing on the Space Marine Chapter the Imperial Fists. The model below is his first Marine for the army, and I think you’ll agree its a stunner!
Dave’s Imperial Fist
Dave has gone for an awesome golden yellow armour tone and black trim denoting the 5th Company.
The detail on the base is great, and I especially love the coiled barbed wire and spent casings next to the dismembered head.
It’s little different this week for Declan’s submission, here we have an army shot of the force he took to Mancunian Carnage last weekend.
The blue armour really stands out along with the spots of Red. Declan has joked in the past that his Orcs have been called the Crimson Fists. It’s a great army and Declan finished the weekend 3-2!
And talking of Declan’s fantastic tournament performance, only yesterday he was interviewed by the AOS Coach on YouTube about the Gloomspite Gitz! I’ve included the video below for you to watch.
Remember to use the #woehammer for your painting. While you’re at it why don’t you check out our painting competition below where you could win a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box of your choice all thanks to our sponsors SCN Hobby World. By signing up to their mailing list you receive 25% off all GW products or 15% for the web only products.
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.
Predator, Prey by Rob Sanders; The Emperor Expects by Gav Thorpe; The Last Wall by David Annandale
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
As mentioned in my previous book review on I Am Slaughter by Dan Abnett, The Beast Arises series is now available in compilation E-books. The first of these – Beast Arises Volume 1 – contains the first four books. If you missed that review it can be found here…
There are some spoilers for later in the series included below… you have been warned!!
If you’re keen to hear my opinion on books 2 – 4 just read on:
Predator, Prey by Rob Sanders
This is a great fun, quick to read addition to the story. The Orks are starting to threaten the security and survivability of the Imperium and the Lords of Terra are starting to believe that this may be a threat they need to engage. It’s unashamedly pulp-fiction but it’s fun pulp!
The Emperor Expects by Gav Thorpe
The Beast Ork invasion is ongoing and threatening the Imperium whilst the High Lords of Terra are being taken over by the Navy… who really need to be killing Orks.
More characters are being introduced, and some expansion on the power, prestige, and inertia of the High Lords of Terra continues to add interesting twists to the story. This is still very much about the Imperium though, and whilst the Orks are the greatest threat since the Horus Heresy, there is little included about them.
A great, fast paced addition to the Beast / Ork Invasion series.
The Last Wall by David Annandale
An Ork moon sits over Terra and the Space Marines designated to guard Holy Terra are destroyed… what’s worse, the Black Templars and other successor chapters of the Imperial Fists are too far away to make it back in time.
The High Lords call on volunteers and the Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) to assault the Ork Attack Moon. With the help of the Imperial Navy, and their transport vessels can they make it through and destroy the Moon?
The fourth in the series – another short novella lengths story – they continue to be interesting stories from the 31st Millenium, but do lack for any overarching peril in the story telling. Whilst people and ships can die, we know that the Imperium eventually overcomes the threat.
Some interesting ideas, and fun set pieces – the first four books are an fun light read.
Unfortunately my work week has been extremely busy this week and I’ve not managed to get any painting time in yet. This means that my Imperium backlog is slowly mounting up, with the list now standing at:
Space Marine Lieutenant
3 Assault Intercessors
3 Necron Warriors
3 Skorpekh Destroyers
1 Plasmacyte
Still, with the paint scheme I’m going for on the Necrons, I know those at least will be fairly quick to do.
Issue 4
I mentioned at the end of the article last week what good value issue 4 is, and its worth repeating now. In this issue you receive a pot of Leadbelcher paint worth £2.75 plus three Skorpekh Destroyers and a Plasmacyte. As I also mentioned the equivalent kit on Games Workshop goes for £34.50 on the Games Workshop site:
For an issue worth £8 this is a bargain, with nearly £40 worth of goodies included. You’re also given a lovely thick battle matt to replace the smaller one given to you in issue 1.
The issue itself is the same as the others so far with lore, building and painting guides. The lore this week covers the creation of a Space Marine and their progression within a chapter. You’re given the obligatory battle record for the Skorpekh Destroyers and the more I see of these battle records the more I love them.
You’re also given the biggest battle to date where you can line up your Lieutenant and Assault Intercessors against the Skorpekh Destroyers and Plasmacyte. I will play through these scenarios once I have painted the models and post the results here to create my own little story of the war between the Void Dragons and Necrons.
Next weeks issue sees a Space Marine Captain enter the fray, and this model is one that is unique to the Imperium magazine series as it is currently unavailable through the Games Workshop website.
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.
I’ve been toying with the idea for a while now on creating a solo wargaming experience for wargames, but primarily at this point focused on Age of Sigmar.
The idea behind the system is relatively simple, with a deck of cards for each battle tactic. The battle tactics will be decided some simple mechanics at the start of the turn, and depending on which is chosen that deck of cards would be used.
Each faction would be classed as either Aggressive, Neutral or Cautious. For example an army such as Orruk Warclans would be Aggressive, Cities of Sigmar Neutral and Kharadron Overlords would be Cautious. This categories would have purpose when units are interacting with objectives on the battlefield.
When an AI unit is near an objective, you would roll a D6 and refer to their aggression level:
Aggressive
4+
Neutral
5+
Cautious
6+
If the score is equal to or higher than these scores then the AI unit will draw a card from the deck and carry out its instructions.
These would be on regular playing card size cards and a card would be drawn for each AI unit on the battlefield.
Below is an example card from the Broken Ranks deck that I’ve created for Age of Sigmar.
Based on the units keywords you would choose the relevant box for its instructions. For example Orruk Brutes may be classed as Melee, while Archeon could be classed as a Monster or as a Hero, however as the Monster box is above the Hero box on this card the Monster box takes priority.
I am developing these not only for AoS but for other major game systems as well. It’s early days by I’m hoping to have the first full deck ready to download from my Patreon page in the next couple of months.
If you’re interested in joining and supporting me on Patreon then please follow this link. You can become a supporter for as little as £1 per month.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
This weekend sees the Black Templar army set go up for pre-order. Games Workshop are also releasing two old Blood Bowl teams from the 90’s as made to order for a limited time period.
This week’s GW releases
Warlord are releasing a supplement for Bolt Action – Italy: Soft Underbelly. To go with this they are also releasing a shed load of miniature sets for World War 2 Italian armies.
Warlord are also releasing Project Z this month, which is their Zombie Apocalypse survival game.
A number of new releases this month for Mantic for Deadzone, Kings of War and Armada.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
With Orktober well and truly upon us, it’s time for an Ork special of our irregular ‘Book Review’ series. One series has screamed ORK(!) in the last years and that is ‘Beast Arises’.
This is a multi-author series over 12 books released in quick succession in 2015 & 2016. It is similar to the Horus Heresy books and set in the 32nd millennium 1,000 years after the events portrayed during the Heresy series. However, the Beast Arises is different in that it is a new story (or nearly new, I don’t know enough about Imperial Fists), which means that the authors can tell their own story… however as the Imperium does reach the 41st Millenium, they can’t rip it apart or destroy it.
Within these limitations, the first book is written by Dan Abnett, who launches many of the series and is (I assume) one of the top selling authors within the Black Library group of regulars.
‘I Am Slaughter’ is the usual top draw sci-fi pulp fiction from Abnett. The Imperial Fists are responding to an invasion of ‘Chromes’. But, as they lose Space Marines, and the fleet is damaged by gravity distortions it begins to be clear that the Chromes aren’t the real problem.
Of course, as this is Orktober, the lurking horror may be obvious to a reader 6 years and 12 books later, but the introduction of them, and the attack of the Imperial Fists includes some great fight scenes, heroism, and some cameos from the Mechanicum of Mars.
It’s a great set-up novel and well worth picking up to see if you would like the series. It’s available from your local book shop, Black Library or Amazon.
As the series was published several years ago, you can also pick up the first four books in one compilation. If you’re interested in the Orks or Imperial Fists, it’s worth grabbing.
All four books in a great value compilation
A series with promise, featuring an Xenos fan favourite .
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.
