Storytelling in wargaming through AoS Open War Cards and other means

Playing this scenario pack actually got me to read Shakespeare (for a great bard, he showed a decided lack of interest in featuring treemen in his tales).

True old school Warhammer requires a game master as well as (at least) two players to fight battles. Fantasy (and sci-fi) wargaming followed pen and paper roleplaying in that regard. That is not entirely surprising as Gary Gygax & friends started D&D out as a variant system to wargaming. It should be no surprise that the oldest game supplements Games Workshop released tended to be adventure like campaign packs linking mutliple battles into a story. I vaguely recall playing through The Tragedy of McDeath campaign in the eighties (sadly with cardboard counters (if only I had taken the 100 quid miniatures deal way back then)). Unfortunately I remember the long discussion between players and GM about the utter lack of balance in the missions better than the actual game itself. That and playing an Appetite for Destruction cassette so many times the tape actually wore down. Sigh, happy times, nostalgia.  Looking back through the booklet makes me want to revisit this scenario someday, AoS style of course. It has rules for buildings that beg to be made into warscrolls and scenario's with interesting special rules. Let's first finish my drawn out move to a new house, then do something with the Grudge of Drong and set McDeath AoS style to somewhere after that...

Age of Sigmar Gifts from the Heavens objective markers

Not every project needs a lot of time and work to complete. The Gifts from the Heaves pitched battle scenario in Age of Sigmar (General's Handbook) requires two meteorites that crash on the table in turn two. After making do with dice, coins and some other improvised markers I recently made these two. I took two 90x52 mm oval bases, added a 'half moon' of cork to make a raised bit that simulates a comet striking the ground. After that I added sand with PVA, waited for the glue to dry and added more sand and PVA to the outside edges of the cork (to smooth it down). The comets themselves are strangely shaped rocks I bought at an after Christmas discount  sale. A bit of drybrushing and some washes and this is the result. Time for another pitched battle...

Now these look like meteors worth fighting over.

Age of Sigmar Terrain: Blood geysers for the Brimstone Peninsula time of war

Last year I started planning new terrain projects based on the battles and time of war missions in the Age of Sigmar Realmgate Wars books. As my first project I picked the three opening missions of Mighty Battles... that take place on the Brimstone Peninsula in Aqshy. The realm of fire has been thoroughly corrupted by the influence of the blood god Khorne and battlefield on the Brimstone Peninsula feature geysers that spew boiling blood (queue Raining Blood by Slayer). The rules tell you to use six markers, numbered one through six and place these on the battlefield. At the start of each hero phase the player whose turn it is rolls a die and at the number he rolls blood spews forth and all units within 6" suffer D3 mortal wounds. To put this in the game, I decided I would make bloody geysers on a 6" radius MDF base with a move-able marker. The end result looks like this.

That's D3 mortal wounds for you mister!

Three tips for organising and designing an Age of Sigmar (or any other wargame) campaign

With the release of the Age of Sigmar General's Handbook we have been given some really nice guidelines on playing campaigns. This (at least to me) has always been one of the things that would truly make warhammer work. But from the old school pen and paper campaigns on hex maps (that tended to bleed to death), to the campaign books like Sanctus Reach (that tend to putter out after a few games) it is hard to get a campaign right. With the many forms on offer in the General's Handbook I decided to give the ladder campaign a try at my local gaming club. The result was the Conquest of Crawling Swamp. 

Don't release all the fanatics at once you gits! This is a campaign!