Make do and mend

One side-effect of revisiting the old Realms of Chaos warband rules is that I have found myself trawling through back issues of White Dwarf looking for examples of warbands and models. The process has been illuminating about the way in which the wargaming hobby and Games Workshop in particular have changed over the years. The most obvious difference being the price.

Back when I started gaming in 1990, Games Workshop charged a standard £2.99 for a metal blister pack which contained, on average, 3-5 metal models. It didn't take very long for them to put up their prices, within a year they were £3.99 a pack, but even then it seems ludicrously cheap by modern standards. First issue of White Dwarf I ever bought contained a special offer deal for a 2,000 point Dark Elf army. This deal got you 84 metal models for £50. A modern Dark Elf battalion boxed set now costs £60 and gets you 53 plastic models.

It's actually very difficult to say with certainty how much something has increased in cost in real terms. Inflation has a huge effect as does the price of certain raw materials. Another factor is changes to game rules. I may be wrong, but my impression is that armies have gotten bigger since the 1990s (while points costs have gotten lowwer) which effects the overall cost of collecting an army quite apart from the cost of the individual models.

I bring all this up, not as a way to bash Games Workshop for putting up the prices, but because it made me remember my early experiences gaming. For a while now I have been commenting on blogs and message boards expressing my view that GW are in danger of pricing their customers out of the market, particularly given that their market is mostly teenagers. Oddly, looking at these old prices has lead me to revise my view.

The £50 army looks like a good deal to modern eyes, but the thing is, I couldn't afford it and neither could any of my friends. Maybe if we saved pocket money for months, but that wasn't going to happen. We used to buy models in fits and starts where we could and, like most teenage boys with limited patience, our focus was on low cost high impact models. It's no wonder Games Workshop started focusing on special characters, for a few pounds you could buy a single model as powerful as most units.

When my friends and I first started playing we used to improvise, using experimental rules from White Dwarf, proxying models, ignoring minimums and maximums, all so we could get in a game. In the early days we didn't even have the right dice and used to employ spinners or rolling odd number of six-siders to get the effects we needed.

Back then GW didn't produce much in the way of scenery, a few trees and fences, but certainly not the big plastic boxes of today. But if they had I doubt we would have bought much of it. Why spend money on scenery that you can spend on models? So we used anything to hand: books, video cases, polystyrene packaging and lego trees. I remember one memorable game of Warhammer 40,000 in which Eldar took on Space Marines in a 'Mountain Pass' made from the gap between the sofa and the coffee table. I even played one opponent whose Tyranid army was two-thirds paper counters.

My point is that for teenagers everything is too expensive, from video games to trainers. Miniatures are no different. Most teenagers have no source of income beyond their parents it didn't stop us then and I doubt it would now. While I would have jumped at Mantic Games cheap plastics had an equivalent existed, high prices were not going to push me out of the hobby.

It's a point that adult gamers can easily forget. Games Workshop may be at the pinnacle of high priced miniature companies (and I emphasise may), but this is an expensive hobby across the board, expensive in both money and time. It takes a level of dedication and commitment, possibly even a touch of obsession, to make something of it in the first place. The teenage audience that Games Workshop focuses on has this in spades, even if it doesn't have much money. I had forgotten just how keen I was to get my miniatures and get in a game, even if I couldn't afford to spend the kind of money I do now. With all that in mind, I wonder how badly Games Workshop's prices really will effect their audience? Perhaps, as long as they keep the quality up, price is less important than I thought.

Chaos Warband 2 - Saargash Warpscarred

In a tiny backwater on the edge of the Empire, a poor farmer's wife gave birth to a baby boy with a single eye in the centre of his forehead. Terrified of the taint of Chaos and the consequences to herself and her family she begged her husband to take the child and dispose of it. Her husband agreed, taking the baby into the forest, but when the moment came he found he couldn't bring himself to murder his son. Instead he abandoned it, reasoning that nature would take its course and offering a silent prayer to any watching God. The prayer was answered..

A Chaos centaur, hunting in the forest stumbled across the infant. A helpless human child would normally be no more than an easy meal for a centaur, but this one saw the child's single eye and recognised him as a gift from the Chaos Gods. He took the child back to his tribe where he was raised among the Centaurs as one of their own, naming him Saargash (meaning gift of fate or fortune).

As the child grew he displayed signs of magical power and the Centaur's counted themselves blessed. Taking Slaanesh as his patron he assisted the Centaurs in the raiding. However, spoiled by his Centaur 'parents' he became increasingly arrogant and vain, demanding the other Centaurs treat him as a superior and provide him with tributes and gifts. Many of his tribe resented this, but more troublesome was his frequent attacks on human settlements, born from a desire for vengeance against his true parents. With Saargash drawing unwanted attention, many started to speak out against him.

Open conflict was only avoided when Saargash announced his intention to leave the tribe and seek his fortune as a Champion of Slaanesh. Secretly, he had long tired of the Centaurs limited ambitions. Two of his centaur 'brothers' joined him in his quest and formed the first members of his warband.

Saargash's first destination was a clearing inhabited by a small band of beastmen. The Centaur's had had dealings with them before, trading plunder for alcohol and weapons that the centaurs were too clumsy to construct themselves. Saargash intended to trade for supplies, but when he approached the camp a more sinister idea came to mind.

With his centaur brothers in front, acting as bodyguards, Saargash strode into the clearing chanting arcane words and raising his hands in strange and obscure gestures. The confused beastmen rose to their feet ready for attack, but then something strange happened. The beastmen started to dance around the clearing in a stupor. They dropped their weapons and ignore Saargash and his warband. As the dance reached a crescendo, Saargash's brother stepped forwards and thrust his spear into their leader's heart. The dance ended immediately. The Beastmen, confused and leaderless, saw that Saargash was a mighty champion and falling to their knees submitted to him. Saargash simply smiled.

The Warband of Saargash Warpscarred – Champion of Slaanesh

Saargash Warpscarred – Champion of Slaanesh (Level 15 Human Wizard)

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
4	5	1	4	4	3	4	1	9+2	9+2	9+2	10+3

Chaos Attributes: One Eye

Magic Level: 2

Power Level: 23
Spells: Level 1: Acqueisance, Cure Light Injury, Hammerhand,
Level 2: Pavane of Slaanesh, Mystic Mist, Cause Panic

Equipment: 2 swords

2 Centaurs

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
8	3	4	4	3	2	3	2	7	7	7	7

Equipment: Hand weapons, Shields

Saving Throw: 6+

5 Beastmen

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
4	4	3	3	4	2	3	1	7	6	7	6

Equipment: Hand Weapons and Shields. 1 carries a banner, 1 carries a drum.
Saving Throw: 6+

After I had written up the details of my last warband, it occurred to me that I hadn't written anything about the process that created it. I had forgotten that just because I had a copy of Realms of Chaos to hand, it doesn't mean everyone did. So for this warband I will explain how it was created.

I started with my champion and rolled on the Starting profiles table. This got me a human, hardly surprising as this is the most common result though Chaos Dwarves and Dark Elves are also a strong possibility. Having generated a human, I rolled again to find out what type and got lucky rolling up a Level 15 Wizard. The level 15 refers to the number of bonus points added to the standard human profile, so my wizard has a total of 15 bonuses.

Next I chose my patron God. As a wizard, Khorne was right out and I already had a champion of Nurgle. Tzeentch would have been an obvious choice for a Wizard, but my little brother had generated a Tzeentch warband so I decided on Slaanesh. My choice of patron determined my champion's Mark of Chaos, for Slaanesh this got me a +1 bonus to my champions willpower and a random chaos attribute. For the latter, I had to roll on the gargantuan d1000 Chaos attribute table and got 1 eye. This doesn't do much except reduce his ballistic skill, but at least he didn't lose a leg or an arm.

My next step was to generate starting equipment, as a level 15 wizard my champion got d6+2 points to spend, but I only got 3. As a Wizard, my champion couldn't use armour or a shield without reducing his ability to cast spells, so I simply bought him two hand weapons so he could benefit from an extra attack. Finally, I generated my Champions magic points and spells. A level 15 wizard can cast up to level 2 spells, and has three at each level. I had to take the level 1 and 2 Slaanesh spells and then picked a selection from the Battle Magic list that seemed interesting.

With my champion generated, I had to roll for his followers. My first roll got me d4 centaurs. I rolled a 2. This left me with an unusual warband, a human wizard leading a pair of centaurs and it took me some time to think up a background story that made sense. I was inspired by a passage in the Realms of Chaos section on beastmen that described how mutant children are sometimes abandoned by their parents and raised by beastmen. If beastmen could do it, why not centaurs and so Saargash Warpscarred was born.

A little while after this my brother and I decided we would give our champions two rolls on the followers table as this would make for more interesting battles. My second roll got me 5 beastmen who automatically got a standard and a musician.

Saargash's warband ready for painting

For the body of Saargash Warpscarred I used an Empire Flagellant, my brother and I had acquired a box as he had ended up with 4 Chaos Cultists as his starting followers. The torn and bedraggled robes seemed to suit a champion who had grown up in a forest and probably had to scavenge and make his own clothes. I replaced the weapons with two swords from my Beastmen box. As a Champion of Slaanesh, I wanted Saargash to start out reasonably good-looking so I used a spare head from the Bretonnian Knight boxed set, using greenstuff to cover up his eyes and add a new one to his forehead.

The warband was fairly simple to put together. I already had a beastman boxed set and used spare parts from the Chaos Marauder warband to give them a standard and a musician. For the Centaurs I decided to use Centigors, grabbing two from Games Workshop mail order before they convert them to finecast.

Chaos Warband 1 - Rolf Hurtziger

Rolf Hurtziger was a member of mercenary band plying its wares in the Northern Empire and Kislev. He was a physically large and powerful fighter, the Regimental Champion and first into the fray in every battle. Celebrated by his colleagues he was secure in his position. This was to change.

Following an encounter with a group of Northern Bandits, Rolf woke one morning to find his arms covered in marks. At first he took them for sores and feared he was coming down with a nasty disease, but on closer inspection he realised he was covered in tiny suckers. Fearful of his comrades reactions he covered his arms and tried to carry on as before. But the changes were to continue, the bones in his arms softened, the joints disappeared allowing him to flex them in all directions. When his fingers shrank away into his hands he could no longer keep his mutation concealed.

His comrades caught him sneaking away from a battle and at first assumed he was deserting. Pursued, Rolf panicked and, finding he could still grip his sword in his tentacle arms, killed three of his former friends before he knew what he was doing. Chased by his own band, Witch Hunters and Imperial troops, Rolf fled into the Drakwald forest..

Abandoned and starving, Rolf cursed fate, his former comrades and the Gods that had abandoned him. He defiantly vowed he would serve any God who restored him to his former place. His call was answered by the Chaos God Nurgle, his pain dulled and his skin took on a sickly pallor.

Still lost and alone, Rolf blundered through the Forest until he came across a small band of Beastmen. Rolf drew his sword expecting to fight, but the Beastmen recognised a Champion marked by a Chaos God and pledged their allegiance to him, becoming the first of his followers.

Leading his new followers into the depths of the forest, Rolf encountered a small group of Orc scavengers camping out after raiding a merchant caravan. Rolf had faced Orcs before and knew how best to handle them. Approaching their leader he bellowed out a challenge. An angry armoured Orc with two massive cleavers faced him. Armed with an axe given by his Beastmen followers, Rolf slew the Champion, his tentacle arms giving him a longer reach and range of motion.

Standing over the body, Rolf expected the Orcs to flee, but they seemed uncertain. Recognising Rolf as an aspiring champion of Chaos and seeing his Beastmen followers, they threw down the weapons and pledged to join his warband. Rolf gave a silent prayer to his new God for guiding him to these new followers.

The Warband of Rolf Hurtziger – Champion of Nurgle

Rolf Hurtziger - Champion of Nurgle (Level 5 Human Hero)

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
4	4	4	4	4	1	4	2	7	7	7	7

Chaos Attributes: Tentacle Arms (2)

Fear Points: 1

Equipment: Sword, Light Armour

Saving Throw: 6+

3 Beastmen

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
4	4	3	3	4	2	3	1	7	6	7	6

Equipment: Hand Weapons and Shields. 1 carries a banner, 1 carries a warhorn.

Saving Throw: 6+

6 Orcs

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	INT	CL	WP
4	3	3	3	4	1	2	1	7	5	7	7

Equipment: Spears, Hand Weapons, Light Armour and Shields

Saving Throw: 5+

Rolf's warband, assembled but unpainted

The Warband of Rolf Hurtziger was my first randomly generated warband. Everything was randomly generated, though MLB agreed to let me fudge the rolls I got for the Orcs, swapping war boars for spears.

Rolf's body, cloak and upper arms, are a spare Gripping Beast plastic Saxon. One major advantage of the Gripping Beast box sets is I ended up with a few spare parts. His tentacle arms are bit box pieces, probably from the plastic Chaos Spawn box. His head was a spare Bretonnian Man-at-Arms, who I thought had a suitably grim look. Finally, I got the axe and pendant from the Marauder Horsemen box, the latter covering up a rather inappropriate Crucifix on the original miniature.

Rolf's warband needed little converting. The Beastmen are from the current GW Beastman Gor box, which seems a lot more reasonably priced when you only need a handful. I swapped out their banner, which seemed a little large for such a small warband, for a spare from the Chaos Marauder box. The Orcs are veterans of Warhammer 3rd edition; they originally came from the Ruglud's armoured Orcs boxed set, which still exists today in a somewhat different form. These were the first Orcs for my original 3rd edition Orc army and have fought with me through 4th and 5th edition, though I never got around to painting them. The 3rd edition aesthetic and battered armour seemed to suit a Nurgle warband.

A painted Rolf, ready for battle

A Brief look at Realms of Chaos

Back in early 1990s, Games Workshop's production of supplements for its core games was not nearly as straightforward as it is today. Now each army has its own army book released along with most of the miniatures for that army. Back then things were a touch more haphazard. Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd edition was not too complex, the majority of the games army lists were included in the single source book Warhammer Armies. Warhammer 40,000 players, however, had a more difficult time. Each army list was published first in White Dwarf, the majority of which were collected into two best of collections the Warhammer 40,000 compendium and the Warhammer 40,000 compilation. The Orks were lucky or unlucky depending on your point of view and got two huge source books 'Ere We Go and Freebooters. In addition to this, 40K received two supplement books revising the rules for vehicles and weapons.

Front cover of Slaves to Darkness

It was in this context that the Realms of Chaos books appeared. If it isn't now, back then Chaos was certainly regarded as the defining idea of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K games, as well as being the concept that linked them together. Realms of Chaos was Games Workshops attempt to provide the definitive sourcebook to describe Chaos in all its forms and across its games. It was released in two huge hardback volumes, subtitled Slaves to Darkness and the Lost and the Damned, costing a hefty (for then) £18 each. They covered Warhammer, Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Interestingly, rather than split the books by game system, Games Workshop chose to divide them by Chaos Power. Slaves to Darkness focused on Khorne and Slaanesh, the Lost and the Damned on Nurgle and Tzeentch.

As well as rules for Daemons, Chaos Magic, Chaos Weapons and army lists for both games, the books provided extensive rules for randomly generating Chaos Champions and their Warbands. These could be added to your armies, or used as the basis for a Campaign pitting champion against champion in a quest for Daemonhood. This was an early example of a campaign system that saw players lead small groups of miniatures that gained experience over time and foreshadowed the systems used by Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Gorkamorka and Mordheim.

The rules were certainly complex and not always well explained. Champions were randomly generated, received randomly generated followers, fought battles and gained further followers and Chaos rewards. Slave to Darkness outlined the system, but didn't do a great job of it. A two page diagram intended to explain it visually ended up making it more confusing.

See, simple!

It was left to the Lost and the Damned to really run with the idea, simplifying and clarifying the basic rules as well as updating the followers table. It also included new rules for Beastmen, Minotaur, Centaur and even Dragon Ogre champions and a series of random scenarios, concepts and locations for games. The rules strongly encourage using a Games Master to moderate proceedings, which was probably sensible as the rules were decidedly rough and ready and little attempt was made to explain how such small 'armies' worked in the context of a game designed to accommodate large forces.

Front Cover of the Lost and the Damned

The rules read very much like a tool box that players can dip into and use, picking and choosing what elements they like and ignoring what they don't. In that way they mirror Warlord games Black Powder and Hail Caesar, though Rick Priestly was only credited as contributor on the first volume and co-writer of the second.

One of most enjoyable aspects of the rules for me is how glorious random it all is. Games Workshop of old loved d100 tables and there are plenty of them: a table for randomly generating starting champions (mostly humans, but allowing Dark Elves, Chaos Dwarves and a range of strange possibilities including Gnomes, Vampires, Halflings and Werewolves); tables for randomly generating followers, with separate tables for Minotaurs and Beastmen; tables for magic items; tables for Chaos rewards (plus one for each God); Chaos weapon tables; a table to determine the features of a randomly generated daemon prince; and best of all a d1000 table for Chaos attributes, a range of mutations from tentacles arms, cloven hooves and beaks, to invisible, walking head and growing a futuristic weapon out of your arm. Following the tables exactly would have meant hacking your models to pieces every few games to produce new conversions.


It's also completely unbalanced and unfair. Although the tables skew towards weaker followers and champions it is entirely possible to see a starting warband lead by a Level 25 Minotaur Champion (Warhammer 3rd edition ranked champions in levels from 5 to 25) with two dragons facing an ordinary human with a single goblin armed with a stick. This is another reason why a Games Master is all but mandatory. But to some extent this fits the concept. Chaos is inherently random and random isn't fair.

Another interesting thing is that the rigid distinction between armies present in modern Warhammer does not exist here. It is perfectly possible to see Goblins, Orcs, Dark Elves and Skaven join a warband. Even halflings and Vampires can get in on the act. This reinforces the idea that Chaos prevails throughout Warhammer world touching all races and that anyone can pledge themselves to a Chaos god. Chaos armies and warbands united by religion, not race and Chaos is a concept that touches the whole Warhammer world.

When I first started collecting Games Workshop models, Slaves to Darkness had been released but the Lost and the Damned was still on its way. At that time, the first port of call for any Games Workshop news was always White Dwarf and extracts from the new book were printed regularly. Long before I even knew what Warhammer was, I knew what Realms of Chaos was and the concept of randomly generating and building warbands fascinated me.

With modern Games Workshop miniatures having gotten so expensive now seems like the perfect time to return to a way of playing Warhammer that requires only a small number of models and that can be built in increments.

With that in mind, my little brother and I have dug out the rules and have been rolling up random warbands in earnest in preparation for a new campaign. We have made some slight tweaks to the rules to, hopefully, make a more interesting campaign. Each starting Champion gets two rolls on the followers table instead of one, this is because one character and one unit each does not make for a very interesting game. We also agreed to re-roll ridiculously extreme results, a rule we had to follow very quickly when MLB's first champion managed to generate a sword with a Daemon Prince trapped inside it.

In many ways, the Chaos Warband system is ideally suited for modern Games Workshop models. Plastic miniatures are more easily converted than metal, come in multiple pieces and, mostly, provide plenty of spare bits for conversions. I've accumulated a pretty substantial 'bitz box' over the years, which makes it easy to put together a few warbands. With the price of miniatures constantly rising, a small, skirmish game seems far more appealing than mass-battle Warhammer. Expect to see more posts on our progress soon.