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.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Sunday, 12 June 2011
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).
Spells: Level 1: Acqueisance, Cure Light Injury, Hammerhand,
Level 2: Pavane of Slaanesh, Mystic Mist, Cause Panic
Equipment: 2 swords
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
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: 23Spells: 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 paintingFor 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.
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.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
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.
Front cover of Slaves to DarknessIt 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 DamnedThe 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.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Thanks for all your support
For some time there has been discussion in the online Wargaming community about the lack of support for Warhammer Ancient Battles from Games Workshop of late. This has only escalated since the sudden arrival of the Ancient rules boom, with fans of Hail Caesar and Clash of Empires keen to declare WAB dead and gone.
During the early years of WAB, it was well supported by range of supplement books that generally choose a particular era or conflict as a theme and provided background, scenarios and Army books. This proved to be an eclectic mix, with supplements chosen seemingly by whatever subject an author felt like doing. But they were much loved by the wargaming community due to their high production values and comprehensive detail. Since Forge World took over the running of Warhammer Historical. Since the much delayed release of WAB 2.0 there has been now further support. This has, understandably, lead to much grumbling.
Interestingly, there has been strong opinions expressed that the further support from Games Workshop really doesn't matter. This does not seem to be motivated by any great love of GW, but more by a belief that a rule set does not require continuous support to be viable.
I find myself personally divided. I own a copy of WAB 1st edition, but have never really played. I toyed with the rules when I first started looking into Samurai, but was put off by lack of a dedicated supplement. The long promised (and unfortunately named) Divine Wind has been endlessly delayed. This is the essence of the WAB problem, the extent to which the lack of support bothers you is dependent on whether the supplement you want has been released.
This raises the question of why we as gamers want "support"from games producers. If the rules work use them. The key is the extent to which the game is complete. We don't hear demands for further support of Warhammer: English Civil War, because rules and army lists are all in the book. Field of Glory similarly saw a complete set of army book released and then the supplements stopped with no sign of complaint. DBM is similarly complete in its four comprehensive army list supplements.
It's instructive to contrast Games Workshop's approach WAB with its approach to Warhammer Fantasy. Here we have a game that could do with a good deal less support. There has been a complete set of rules and army lists since 2nd edition twenty years ago. And apart from the addition and loss of a small number of armies, everything released since has been a re-jig of everything that came before. The latest trend is full colour hard back books.
If anything it would be nice if the company stopped producing new army books. Most players have no desire to buy a new book and reorganise their army every four or five years. Wargaming is not computing, there is no need to update rules to keep up with technological change. The only motivation for the endless cycle of re-releases is a need to sustain interest in a product that has already been completed. Interest in Warhammer waned when GW stopped new releases.
This leaves gamers and game producers in conflict. Popular and successful gamers justify a rapid run of releases, which means they run their course quickly and interest has to be artificially sustained with unasked for releases. In contrast, less popular or niche games see slow and incomplete support stretched out over a period of years.
So what does this tell us? Possibly that gamers will always want what they don't have or that the commercial interests of games companies will always conflict with their customers, but mostly that Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer Ancient Battles need to swap players.
During the early years of WAB, it was well supported by range of supplement books that generally choose a particular era or conflict as a theme and provided background, scenarios and Army books. This proved to be an eclectic mix, with supplements chosen seemingly by whatever subject an author felt like doing. But they were much loved by the wargaming community due to their high production values and comprehensive detail. Since Forge World took over the running of Warhammer Historical. Since the much delayed release of WAB 2.0 there has been now further support. This has, understandably, lead to much grumbling.
Interestingly, there has been strong opinions expressed that the further support from Games Workshop really doesn't matter. This does not seem to be motivated by any great love of GW, but more by a belief that a rule set does not require continuous support to be viable.
I find myself personally divided. I own a copy of WAB 1st edition, but have never really played. I toyed with the rules when I first started looking into Samurai, but was put off by lack of a dedicated supplement. The long promised (and unfortunately named) Divine Wind has been endlessly delayed. This is the essence of the WAB problem, the extent to which the lack of support bothers you is dependent on whether the supplement you want has been released.
This raises the question of why we as gamers want "support"from games producers. If the rules work use them. The key is the extent to which the game is complete. We don't hear demands for further support of Warhammer: English Civil War, because rules and army lists are all in the book. Field of Glory similarly saw a complete set of army book released and then the supplements stopped with no sign of complaint. DBM is similarly complete in its four comprehensive army list supplements.
It's instructive to contrast Games Workshop's approach WAB with its approach to Warhammer Fantasy. Here we have a game that could do with a good deal less support. There has been a complete set of rules and army lists since 2nd edition twenty years ago. And apart from the addition and loss of a small number of armies, everything released since has been a re-jig of everything that came before. The latest trend is full colour hard back books.
If anything it would be nice if the company stopped producing new army books. Most players have no desire to buy a new book and reorganise their army every four or five years. Wargaming is not computing, there is no need to update rules to keep up with technological change. The only motivation for the endless cycle of re-releases is a need to sustain interest in a product that has already been completed. Interest in Warhammer waned when GW stopped new releases.
This leaves gamers and game producers in conflict. Popular and successful gamers justify a rapid run of releases, which means they run their course quickly and interest has to be artificially sustained with unasked for releases. In contrast, less popular or niche games see slow and incomplete support stretched out over a period of years.
So what does this tell us? Possibly that gamers will always want what they don't have or that the commercial interests of games companies will always conflict with their customers, but mostly that Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer Ancient Battles need to swap players.
Monday, 16 May 2011
I go, you activate
When Mantic Games released its Kings of War rules there were complaints from some quarters about its use of the IGOUGO turn sequence. The phrase, an abbreviation of "I go, you go" refers to a game in which one player takes a turn moving, shooting and fighting with their miniatures and then the other player does the same. This is contrasted with something that might be called "alternating activation" in which one player chooses a miniature and does something with it, then the other player, then back to the first and so on until the turn is over.*
IGOUGO has been criticised for being unrealistic as it does not allow players to respond to their opponents actions and because the 'passive player' has to wait for long periods of time before being able to do anything. These long waiting periods can make IGOUGO seem dull or jerky in contrast to AA's fluidity or dynamism. There is even a tendency to regard IGOUGO as slightly old fashion or out of date, a complaint that was leveled at Kings of War and at each edition of Warhammer that continues to use it. When Privateer Press announced their new big battle supplement for War Machine, stating that it would use AA, many applauded it as a step forward. As though the move represented a progressive shift, instead of a simple rules choice.
Alternating activation often goes along with the abandonment the of traditional turn sequence. Specific movement, shooting and fighting phases are usually lost in favour of allowing units to move, shoot and fight when they are activated, before another model does the same. One notable exception was Rackham's Confrontation, which used AA in its movement phase, before having separate shooting and close combat phases afterwards.
AA is very common for skirmish games, possibly because the quick back and forth between players better mirrors a dual or brawl than the careful maneuvering the characterises a big battle. There are, however, some big battle games that use this approach. Games Workshop's Epic Armageddon is one example and soon War Machine will follow. However, one aspect of large scale battles that is not easily modeled by AA is co-ordinated attacks.
In a game that uses IGOUGO game, with the turn divided into stages, it is easy to have one unit or miniature attack another and then be joined by a supporting ally. The actual combat resolution doesn't happen until later allowing multiple units to join the attack. This is much more difficult to model in AA. If one unit or character activates at a time, with no separate phases, then one unit completes its attack before another can join. It is possible to have combat engagements last over several activations, but this requires the initial attacker to survive the first attack.
Imagine a situation in which two weak units attack a stronger one. In IGOUGO they can both engage and the combat is worked out in one go. In AA, the first unit has two attack and survive a potential counter attack before its ally joins it.
There are ways around this problem. Malifaux has a companion rule that allows some groups of models to activate together, for example. However, these are generally compromises or fudges that work around the natural flow of the rules and arguably undermine the fluidity of Alternating Activation.
The point is that AA feels more fluid and sometimes more real, because the way the miniatures or units activate feels closer to simultaneous. However, the fact that allies cannot easily act in concert undermines that by demonstrating that it is still turn-based. Wargaming is necessarily a fudge that does its best to simulate the effect of real warfare whilst allowing players to actually play a game. Ultimately, Alternating Activation is as much a compromise as IGOUGO, they just have different strengths. Alternating Activation simulates the back and forth of combat, IGOUGO is better for co-ordinating strategies and careful maneuvering.
*This is a slight simplification as many games that use some variation of AA have a mechanism that allows one player to activate two or more miniatures or units in sequence. Broadly we are talking about a system in which one player gets to activate some, but not all, of their models and then the other does.
IGOUGO has been criticised for being unrealistic as it does not allow players to respond to their opponents actions and because the 'passive player' has to wait for long periods of time before being able to do anything. These long waiting periods can make IGOUGO seem dull or jerky in contrast to AA's fluidity or dynamism. There is even a tendency to regard IGOUGO as slightly old fashion or out of date, a complaint that was leveled at Kings of War and at each edition of Warhammer that continues to use it. When Privateer Press announced their new big battle supplement for War Machine, stating that it would use AA, many applauded it as a step forward. As though the move represented a progressive shift, instead of a simple rules choice.
Alternating activation often goes along with the abandonment the of traditional turn sequence. Specific movement, shooting and fighting phases are usually lost in favour of allowing units to move, shoot and fight when they are activated, before another model does the same. One notable exception was Rackham's Confrontation, which used AA in its movement phase, before having separate shooting and close combat phases afterwards.
AA is very common for skirmish games, possibly because the quick back and forth between players better mirrors a dual or brawl than the careful maneuvering the characterises a big battle. There are, however, some big battle games that use this approach. Games Workshop's Epic Armageddon is one example and soon War Machine will follow. However, one aspect of large scale battles that is not easily modeled by AA is co-ordinated attacks.
In a game that uses IGOUGO game, with the turn divided into stages, it is easy to have one unit or miniature attack another and then be joined by a supporting ally. The actual combat resolution doesn't happen until later allowing multiple units to join the attack. This is much more difficult to model in AA. If one unit or character activates at a time, with no separate phases, then one unit completes its attack before another can join. It is possible to have combat engagements last over several activations, but this requires the initial attacker to survive the first attack.
Imagine a situation in which two weak units attack a stronger one. In IGOUGO they can both engage and the combat is worked out in one go. In AA, the first unit has two attack and survive a potential counter attack before its ally joins it.
There are ways around this problem. Malifaux has a companion rule that allows some groups of models to activate together, for example. However, these are generally compromises or fudges that work around the natural flow of the rules and arguably undermine the fluidity of Alternating Activation.
The point is that AA feels more fluid and sometimes more real, because the way the miniatures or units activate feels closer to simultaneous. However, the fact that allies cannot easily act in concert undermines that by demonstrating that it is still turn-based. Wargaming is necessarily a fudge that does its best to simulate the effect of real warfare whilst allowing players to actually play a game. Ultimately, Alternating Activation is as much a compromise as IGOUGO, they just have different strengths. Alternating Activation simulates the back and forth of combat, IGOUGO is better for co-ordinating strategies and careful maneuvering.
*This is a slight simplification as many games that use some variation of AA have a mechanism that allows one player to activate two or more miniatures or units in sequence. Broadly we are talking about a system in which one player gets to activate some, but not all, of their models and then the other does.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Game Retrospective - Space Marine
My very first set of wargame miniatures for anything at all was a set of 6mm Ork Raiders purchased from Games Workshop mail order (as it was known back then) in 1990. I was attracted by the promise of hundreds of Orks and dozens of battlewagons and hadn't fully realised the implications of the scale. When they arrived I was slightly disappointed by their small size, but I quickly forgot this when I lined them up in ranks on the table (not very Orky, but I was new to the game).
Games Workshop players with long memories may remember that before Lord of the Rings came along, there was another 'third core game'. A 6mm battle game set in Warhammer 40,000 universe, it went by different names, but generally referred to as Epic, a term used by Games Workshop to describe scale in a canny piece of marketing. The first edition consisted of two games Adeptus Titanicus, a game of giant robot Titans and Space Marine which introduced infantry and tanks. But the version of the game that made the most impression on me was the second edition.
Also released as Space Marine (GW knew what its audience liked even then), it was a game of infantry companies, tank divisions and vast war machines like the Titans. Infantry were mounted five to a base and tanks appeared in squadrons of three or more. The appeal of Epic to a teenager in the 1990s was obvious and diverse. For a start, infantry was produced entirely in plastic at a time when vast majority of models were metal. Getting hundreds of models for the cost of a couple of weeks pocket money was hugely tempting. Then there was scale. Warhammer 40,000 might see one or two tanks a side, in Epic there would be dozens and even the smallest game was huge in scope.
Second edition Epic had deceptively simple rules. It used an alternating activation system, still unusual in GW games, with players moving and shooting with whole formations at a time. Troops profile and weapons were all recorded on one stat line. Shooting generally consisted of a roll to hit and, if opponent was lucky, they got a saving throw modified by attackers weapon. Most infantry got none. Some weapons, referred to as Barrage weapons, used templates. The whole formations barrage points were totaled up and the higher the score more templates used and the more damage done. For close combat, every model had a close assault factor (CAF). Each player rolled 2 dice added CAF and highest score won. The only additional complication was war machines, such as Titans, which used a targetting grid and damage charts depending on where you hit.
The games other innovation was order counters. Players placed them face down next to formations at start of turn. They were fairly basic with only three different types: First Fire, Charge and Advance. The choice of order determined the actions available to the formation. First Fire allowed units to shoot with increased effectiveness but prevented them moving. Charge meant you couldn't shoot, but moved fast and could enter close combat. Advance was a compromise with normal movement and shooting. The orders did not have a huge impact on the units behavior, but failing to place them prevented the unit moving and left them shooting with reduced effect. This forced the player to pay attention to his units and what he intended to with them at the start of the turn.
My favourite feature of Space Marine was its army selection system which used army cards instead of an army list. Players selected army cards, paid their points and received the units listed on the card. There were three main types of card, Company, Support and Special. The core of your army would be company cards, representing large formation such as a Space Marine company or an Ork horde, usually consisting of several squads and some kind of command unit or units. For each company card you took you could have up to five support cars, generally a single squad or one large tank. You could have one special card for each company, these would be characters and big stuff like Titans. All points costs were divisible by fifty, so totalling up your points was quick and simple.
Army cards also showed the break point, how many units had to be destroyed to force the formation to fall back, and victory points, the number of victory points your opponent got when you did it. This Neatly combined moral and victory rules with the army lists.
There were some variation in the use of Army Cards for different armies. Ork support cards added to their company formations making for vast mega formations with massive break points worth large amounts of victory points. This made Ork army powerful and durable, but few in number and prone to sudden collapse. Chaos replaced all cards with Greater Daemon and Minion cards. Each Greater Daemon had to have 3-5 minion cards. This added some character to the army while still keeping the lists straight forward and largely consistent.
So in principle a straight-forward and simple game, but in practice this was not quite true. Three main supplements were produced to accompany the game - Armies of the Imperium, Renegades and Warlords, each with the rules and cards for two armies. Each expansion introduced new troop types and almost all of them had special rules unique to them, even if it was as simple as restricting the units choice of orders. Some of these were a lot of fun such as the Ork Dragster, which featured a force field that bounced enemy attacks in a random direction and Eldar Wave Serpents which used a special template for shoving enemy units out of the way. The upshot of this was a game that was quirky and characterful but became bogged down in special rule interactions and the need to reference different books.
After all the supplements and models had been released, Space Marine plodded on two or three years supported in White Dwarf with one or two articles a month. It was very much the third game, but still one of Games Workshop's big three. This was to change with the release of Titan Legions.
Titan Legions had been intended to be a fourth supplement, but was delayed time and again, swelling up with new rules as it did so until it became an entirely new game. Andy Chambers, in his designers notes, lamented that focus of Epic had shifted from Titans to infantry and tanks. Titan Legions was attempt to address the balance. The game was not a new edition, but an expansion of the existing rules with some tightening up and the introduction of some new unit types. It introduced titan companies, large formations of three titans that acted as company cards and reintroduced the Knights, one man Titans that had been around in Epic first edition.
So far so good, but more was to come. As with all Games Workshop games of the period, Titan Legions came in a big box with lots of new plastic miniatures. These included the massive Emperor Class Imperator Titan and the Ork Mega Gargant. These cost as much as a small army (the Imperator was 2250 points) and brought in whole new level of Complexity to game. Each one had two card templates, one a hugely complicated damage location chart plus damage tables and second to track crew, damage and effects of weapons.
This was point where complexity of second edition Epic reached critical mass. It didn't help that only Orks and Imperials had access to Titans in this class, leaving other armies looking underpowered. Then Introduction of new army, Tyranid, with a whole new set of, hexagonal, army cards complicated matters further. There was still a lot of fun to be had with the game, but without self limiting their army lists players could become horribly bogged down in special rules.
The game had become unwieldy. But at the same time the universe described by Epic had diverged from its Warhammer 40,000 parent. Both were supposed to be set in the same universe, but armies and models often bore little relationship to one another, many Epic miniatures had been designed based on a much earlier edition of the game. A new edition was inevitable, and most players accepted it, but when it happened it was not well handled
For a start, Games Workshop took 2nd edition Epic off the shelves months before the release of 3rd edition. When 3rd edition did come they rebooted the whole range with almost entirely new models. These were some of the most spectacularly detailed sculpts they ever produced, but they were expensive, the first range cast entirely in lead free white metal. They also changed the packaging, the late 2nd edition blisters had contained pictures of the painted models, the new packs looked like a collection of semi-identifiable blobs. Then there was the infantry. Epic Infantry had traditional been based on 20x20mm squares in a cross pattern, like the 5 on a six sided dice. Now they were based in a line on 40x10mm strips. There was no strict requirement to re-base, bu the alternative was to have an inconsistently based army or use nothing but old style infantry. The decision added an unnecessary complication for existing players.
Finally the rules. After the over-complication of second edition, third's simplification was welcome. And the rules contained a lot of new ideas to like. The concept of blast markers was introduced. These markers were placed on formations when they suffered casualties, but also when they came under fire at all and reflected the suppressing effects of fire. A formation was broken when it had more blast markers than units. Plus the markers in the box were card explosions which had the effect of making the unit look as if it were truly under fire.
But the new rules also dramatically changed way units worked. What had been quirky and grungy, became abstract. Most infantry in any one army were the same except for one or two simple special generic special rules. Units were now abstracted into formations which fought as a collected group. For example, shooting was carried out by totalling up the fire power values of an entire formation and cross referencing on a table to find how many dice to roll.
As unit rules got simpler and more abstract army lists got more complicated. Instead of the elegant card system, formations became hugely complex custom creations. Army lists had multiple types with multiple options that could be built up from scratch. The idea was to create a number of custom formations and record them on the supplied record sheets. But this required considerable advance work and could be baffling to new players.
Although embraced by many, particularly games designers, third edition was such a radical shift from its predecessor and from other Games Workshop games that it is hardly surprising that it was never fully accepted. It received far less White Dwarf coverage than second edition and ultimately shuffled off into the wilderness as a never well supported 'Specialist Game.'
The story of 4th edition Epic, also known as Epic Armageddon, is a little better known. A strong rules set developed by Jervis Johnson, the original designer of first edition, was boosted by considerable assistance from online play testers. It was a synthesis of the strongest elements of 2nd and 3rd simplifying formations and giving units individual stats, but keeping blast markers. The new edition warmly received by the player community, but just as it was taking off Games Workshop hit major financial difficulties and the game was all but abandoned, with only the Imperial, Orks and Eldar armies released. Since then, a dedicated group of online fans have updated rules and produced new army lists, while the models are still available from the Games Workshop website (for now at least). But essentially Epic Armageddon feels like a half-finished game.
Although in many ways Fourth edition is the best and most elegant Epic rule set, I will always have a special fondness for the second edition. It was the version of the game I first built armies for and played the most. But more than that, it was the version of the game that could stand proudly as the third Games Workshop core game.
Games Workshop players with long memories may remember that before Lord of the Rings came along, there was another 'third core game'. A 6mm battle game set in Warhammer 40,000 universe, it went by different names, but generally referred to as Epic, a term used by Games Workshop to describe scale in a canny piece of marketing. The first edition consisted of two games Adeptus Titanicus, a game of giant robot Titans and Space Marine which introduced infantry and tanks. But the version of the game that made the most impression on me was the second edition.
Also released as Space Marine (GW knew what its audience liked even then), it was a game of infantry companies, tank divisions and vast war machines like the Titans. Infantry were mounted five to a base and tanks appeared in squadrons of three or more. The appeal of Epic to a teenager in the 1990s was obvious and diverse. For a start, infantry was produced entirely in plastic at a time when vast majority of models were metal. Getting hundreds of models for the cost of a couple of weeks pocket money was hugely tempting. Then there was scale. Warhammer 40,000 might see one or two tanks a side, in Epic there would be dozens and even the smallest game was huge in scope.
Second edition Epic had deceptively simple rules. It used an alternating activation system, still unusual in GW games, with players moving and shooting with whole formations at a time. Troops profile and weapons were all recorded on one stat line. Shooting generally consisted of a roll to hit and, if opponent was lucky, they got a saving throw modified by attackers weapon. Most infantry got none. Some weapons, referred to as Barrage weapons, used templates. The whole formations barrage points were totaled up and the higher the score more templates used and the more damage done. For close combat, every model had a close assault factor (CAF). Each player rolled 2 dice added CAF and highest score won. The only additional complication was war machines, such as Titans, which used a targetting grid and damage charts depending on where you hit.
The games other innovation was order counters. Players placed them face down next to formations at start of turn. They were fairly basic with only three different types: First Fire, Charge and Advance. The choice of order determined the actions available to the formation. First Fire allowed units to shoot with increased effectiveness but prevented them moving. Charge meant you couldn't shoot, but moved fast and could enter close combat. Advance was a compromise with normal movement and shooting. The orders did not have a huge impact on the units behavior, but failing to place them prevented the unit moving and left them shooting with reduced effect. This forced the player to pay attention to his units and what he intended to with them at the start of the turn.
My favourite feature of Space Marine was its army selection system which used army cards instead of an army list. Players selected army cards, paid their points and received the units listed on the card. There were three main types of card, Company, Support and Special. The core of your army would be company cards, representing large formation such as a Space Marine company or an Ork horde, usually consisting of several squads and some kind of command unit or units. For each company card you took you could have up to five support cars, generally a single squad or one large tank. You could have one special card for each company, these would be characters and big stuff like Titans. All points costs were divisible by fifty, so totalling up your points was quick and simple.
Army cards also showed the break point, how many units had to be destroyed to force the formation to fall back, and victory points, the number of victory points your opponent got when you did it. This Neatly combined moral and victory rules with the army lists.
There were some variation in the use of Army Cards for different armies. Ork support cards added to their company formations making for vast mega formations with massive break points worth large amounts of victory points. This made Ork army powerful and durable, but few in number and prone to sudden collapse. Chaos replaced all cards with Greater Daemon and Minion cards. Each Greater Daemon had to have 3-5 minion cards. This added some character to the army while still keeping the lists straight forward and largely consistent.
So in principle a straight-forward and simple game, but in practice this was not quite true. Three main supplements were produced to accompany the game - Armies of the Imperium, Renegades and Warlords, each with the rules and cards for two armies. Each expansion introduced new troop types and almost all of them had special rules unique to them, even if it was as simple as restricting the units choice of orders. Some of these were a lot of fun such as the Ork Dragster, which featured a force field that bounced enemy attacks in a random direction and Eldar Wave Serpents which used a special template for shoving enemy units out of the way. The upshot of this was a game that was quirky and characterful but became bogged down in special rule interactions and the need to reference different books.
After all the supplements and models had been released, Space Marine plodded on two or three years supported in White Dwarf with one or two articles a month. It was very much the third game, but still one of Games Workshop's big three. This was to change with the release of Titan Legions.
Titan Legions had been intended to be a fourth supplement, but was delayed time and again, swelling up with new rules as it did so until it became an entirely new game. Andy Chambers, in his designers notes, lamented that focus of Epic had shifted from Titans to infantry and tanks. Titan Legions was attempt to address the balance. The game was not a new edition, but an expansion of the existing rules with some tightening up and the introduction of some new unit types. It introduced titan companies, large formations of three titans that acted as company cards and reintroduced the Knights, one man Titans that had been around in Epic first edition.
So far so good, but more was to come. As with all Games Workshop games of the period, Titan Legions came in a big box with lots of new plastic miniatures. These included the massive Emperor Class Imperator Titan and the Ork Mega Gargant. These cost as much as a small army (the Imperator was 2250 points) and brought in whole new level of Complexity to game. Each one had two card templates, one a hugely complicated damage location chart plus damage tables and second to track crew, damage and effects of weapons.
This was point where complexity of second edition Epic reached critical mass. It didn't help that only Orks and Imperials had access to Titans in this class, leaving other armies looking underpowered. Then Introduction of new army, Tyranid, with a whole new set of, hexagonal, army cards complicated matters further. There was still a lot of fun to be had with the game, but without self limiting their army lists players could become horribly bogged down in special rules.
The game had become unwieldy. But at the same time the universe described by Epic had diverged from its Warhammer 40,000 parent. Both were supposed to be set in the same universe, but armies and models often bore little relationship to one another, many Epic miniatures had been designed based on a much earlier edition of the game. A new edition was inevitable, and most players accepted it, but when it happened it was not well handled
For a start, Games Workshop took 2nd edition Epic off the shelves months before the release of 3rd edition. When 3rd edition did come they rebooted the whole range with almost entirely new models. These were some of the most spectacularly detailed sculpts they ever produced, but they were expensive, the first range cast entirely in lead free white metal. They also changed the packaging, the late 2nd edition blisters had contained pictures of the painted models, the new packs looked like a collection of semi-identifiable blobs. Then there was the infantry. Epic Infantry had traditional been based on 20x20mm squares in a cross pattern, like the 5 on a six sided dice. Now they were based in a line on 40x10mm strips. There was no strict requirement to re-base, bu the alternative was to have an inconsistently based army or use nothing but old style infantry. The decision added an unnecessary complication for existing players.
Finally the rules. After the over-complication of second edition, third's simplification was welcome. And the rules contained a lot of new ideas to like. The concept of blast markers was introduced. These markers were placed on formations when they suffered casualties, but also when they came under fire at all and reflected the suppressing effects of fire. A formation was broken when it had more blast markers than units. Plus the markers in the box were card explosions which had the effect of making the unit look as if it were truly under fire.
But the new rules also dramatically changed way units worked. What had been quirky and grungy, became abstract. Most infantry in any one army were the same except for one or two simple special generic special rules. Units were now abstracted into formations which fought as a collected group. For example, shooting was carried out by totalling up the fire power values of an entire formation and cross referencing on a table to find how many dice to roll.
As unit rules got simpler and more abstract army lists got more complicated. Instead of the elegant card system, formations became hugely complex custom creations. Army lists had multiple types with multiple options that could be built up from scratch. The idea was to create a number of custom formations and record them on the supplied record sheets. But this required considerable advance work and could be baffling to new players.
Although embraced by many, particularly games designers, third edition was such a radical shift from its predecessor and from other Games Workshop games that it is hardly surprising that it was never fully accepted. It received far less White Dwarf coverage than second edition and ultimately shuffled off into the wilderness as a never well supported 'Specialist Game.'
The story of 4th edition Epic, also known as Epic Armageddon, is a little better known. A strong rules set developed by Jervis Johnson, the original designer of first edition, was boosted by considerable assistance from online play testers. It was a synthesis of the strongest elements of 2nd and 3rd simplifying formations and giving units individual stats, but keeping blast markers. The new edition warmly received by the player community, but just as it was taking off Games Workshop hit major financial difficulties and the game was all but abandoned, with only the Imperial, Orks and Eldar armies released. Since then, a dedicated group of online fans have updated rules and produced new army lists, while the models are still available from the Games Workshop website (for now at least). But essentially Epic Armageddon feels like a half-finished game.
Although in many ways Fourth edition is the best and most elegant Epic rule set, I will always have a special fondness for the second edition. It was the version of the game I first built armies for and played the most. But more than that, it was the version of the game that could stand proudly as the third Games Workshop core game.
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