Painting Survivor Series!

Greetings fellow wargamers, and welcome once more to my humble hearth. This time around, I have been inspired to talk about an invention of mine...

I like to think that I am an all round hobbyist, by which I mean that I play games, assemble and convert models (with even a little 'greenstuffing' thrown in from time to time), I write fluff, I collect, and I paint models. Now, not everyone likes every aspect of the hobby to the same degree. I will happily admit that I prefer gaming to almost everything else, and though I like seeing painted armies on the table top, and do paint from time to time, I haven't been concerned about the painting aspect sufficiently to push me to paint the hordes of models I have built up over the years.

I am sure that I am not the only gamer in this position: lots of models, but lacking the drive and motivation to get them painted. Sometimes I get into a painting mood and spend a few sessions knocking out a few models here and there, but I start to flag before I make much of a dent in my 'to do' list.

This is why I came up with the idea of the Painting Survivor Series. It's really just a bit of fun, a motivational tool intended to give inconsistent painters like myself a small incentive to start a painting project and keep going, rather than downing brushes a week later.

The premise is simple enough: an 'iron man' style endurance painting competition which is posted as a communal 'Work In Progress' thread on your forum of choice. In my case this is the Astro Wargaming Community forum. The basic rules are that each participant is required to post photos of the project they are working on every third day after the Opening Day, in order to display their painting progress, bearing in mind that the key phrase is 'Noticeable Progress'.

Progress includes everything from undercoat to completion of basing, which though not strictly all painting (static grass etc), allows people to get that last bit finished off before moving on to the next project. Any participant unable to post pictures of their progress for ANY reason is eliminated. This includes not having time to paint due to work or family commitments, batteries in the camera running out, or internet access problems.

To be a Survivor, you have to paint and you have to post, come rain or shine. If a participant was the 'last painter standing', then they are rewarded by being able to proudly display a badge in their forum signature declaring that they are a Painting Survivor. A fair amount of barracking and verbal 'one-upmanship' went on I can tell you.

Originally, the plan was to keep going until we had just one Survivor remaining, but within a couple of Series, this was resulting in 'paint-offs' that wouldn't end, the last two or three painters gritting their teeth and preparing to sell their soul rather than be eliminated.

I decided that, in order to be able to end a Series in a reasonable time, and give participants a 'light at the end of the tunnel' to aim for, (not to mention letting eager participants that had been eliminated have another bite of the cherry) I would limit the number of posts that would have to be made before reaching the end of the Series to twenty. That's twenty posting days met without being eliminated, which is about two month’s worth of painting work. Anyone who made it to the end would still get a Survivors badge to add to their signature, but if we did have a 'last man standing' situation before the end of the Series, then a purity seal could be added to the badge to display the winner's painting prowess.

In time, as people took part in successive Series, we decided to add to the existing badge rather than have more than one, so we added a tiny skull with a number on it’s forehead corresponding to the series that the participant took part in. The badges are awesome, and were created by a kind forum member, so a shout out goes to LutherMax, thanks for that bud, the icing on the cake for sure.



After six successful series, and about to start a seventh (after a lengthy pause it must be said), I have found that I have got more painting done as part of the Astro Painting Survivor Series than at any other time in recent years, and I am sure that others have felt the same benefit. It's amazing how much motivation you can draw from being part of a communal project, to see what multiple other painters are doing and how they are getting on all in one place, rather than as part of a single isolated thread. Why not mosey on over to Astro and have a look at past threads?

So, if you find that you struggle to maintain a fair pace when it comes to painting your miniatures, or that you are easily distracted by other things like the new series of Doctor Who, why not set up your own Painting Survivor Series, rope in those forum or club members who want to get their armies painted and on the table but don't seem to be able to build up enough steam to get it done, and see who has the stones to be the Last Painter Standing...

Thanks for reading.
　
　

The Eye of Morrslieb Narrative Campaign: Part 1 - Introduction

Greetings once more fellow wargamers, and welcome to my war room.

This time, I bring you part one of what will be a multi-part part series all about the narrative campaign I will (hopefully) be running. I have decided to post as the campaign goes along rather than wait till it's over and then post it all at once, to give an honest account of how things go. I haven't run any kind of campaign in an awfully long time, so I am not sure how it will pan out, but if I encounter problems along the way and can get around them, maybe others can learn from my misfortune. Here goes...

The Eye of Morrslieb

~~~

For twelve nights, the Eye of Morrsleib glared down on the land as it forged a shimmering path across the heavens, like the emerald spear of a god. It's luminescence lent the countryside below an eerie and unnatural hue, sickly and pallid. In it's wake, there did fall a rain of glittering dust which glimmered and sparkled with the pure stuff of Chaos.

In every place where the dust fell upon the land, it brought with it the power of change, unfettered and uncontrollable. It's taint permeated all: flesh, stone, earth and water. Living things were twisted into diabolical new forms, or rent assunder, mewling and ravaged. Dead things found their withered limbs, though creaking and splintered, imbued with terrible new life.

On the thirteenth night, the Eye opened and became one with the earth, and every creature attuned to the raging winds of magic turned their faces towards it's resting place, sensing its power...

~~~

The Eye of Morrslieb is a three battle linked campaign I am planning to run at my local club, in an effort to get enthusiastic but inexperienced Warhammer Fantasy players playing the game, and to allow grizzled old veterans like myself to get their teeth into something with a back story while hammering home the nuances of 8th edition. Also, it will make a welcome change from the slew of 40K battles that have been fought recently as part of our Club Warhammer 40,000 League. This is intended as a warm up before we go for either a Club Warhammer Fantasy League, or into a more involved map based campaign.

I have to admit, despite a barrow load of resources to refer to, planning a linked campaign for multiple players is much more complicated than planning one for just two armies. The campaign narrative breaks down into three plot stages, each represented by an appropriate battle. I am planning on using pre-made scenarios from various sources with as little tweaking as possible, just to keep things simple for this first campaign.

Now I stress, there are two things I would like this campaign to emphasise: Making a narrative work and be exciting, and to help people along with the rules and getting to grips with gameplay and how their army works. Although there will be an eventual winner, this is not intended as a competitive campaign.

Stage 1 - Investigation

The representatives of each of the participating armies, leading small scouting or vanguard forces who happen to be the closest to the impact area of the Eye of Morrslieb all rush to ascertain the nature of the object that has fallen from the heavens. It is clear to all that it is of significance and may be of value to their masters.

As the armies hurry to do their masters bidding, they unexpectedly run into rival forces, intent on reaching the Eye first in the name of their own masters.

This first battle will be played out using the Meeting Engagement scenario, representing the hurried nature of the forces, and their focus on getting to the prize first, rather than who else might be about. We have eight armies taking part, and each game will involve two armies. The results of this first game will determine which armies reach the crash site first.

The armies taking part are as follows:

Vampire Counts (me)
Skaven
Skaven
Warriors of Chaos
Lizardmen
Lizardmen
Empire
Orcs & Goblins

There will be restrictions on list selection, and as the first two games revolve around the smaller forces rushing to reach the crash site and what happens when they get there, the players will use the same list for both of the first two games.

The restrictions are intended to ensure that the forces that are selected are not going to unbalance these low point games, and to try and pruduce armies that are representative of the kind of force that is more of a garrison/scouting/vanguard type of force, rather than a main army force with all the big characters and support. That comes later...

Here are the restriction on the lists for the first and second game:

Maximum of 750 points in total

No Lord Choices - Your Lord is with his army, this is just a peripheral force

No Battle Standard Bearer - The Battle Standard is with your Lord and the main army

Maximum of one War Machine - this is a small force mobile force, not an artillery train

No Monsters - Again, this is a small force, not the Altdorf Zoo. The force is not equipped to deal with a monster

No Magic Items with an individual value of more than 25 points - Any characters with this force are not important enough to be able to afford anything more spangly

In addition, to avoid any situations where a single lucky spell wipes someones army off the table, spells are generated by rolling a D3 rather than a D6, ensuring that in the first couple of games we don't see any of the really big spells, and to allow the players to concentrate more on maneouvering and combat rather than sparkly sticks that go Whizz Bang!

I am hoping that non of these restrictions will have too adverse an effect on any of the armies, but being as I am using Vampire Counts (who aren't famed for their prowess in low point games), if the restrictions bite anyone in the ass it will probably be me! I haven't run a campaign like this before, which is another reason for starting small, so this is a learning curve for me in that respect as well.

Which armies run into each other will be determined at random using marked pieces of parchment marked with the symbol of an army. Once the Meeting Engagements have been played out, the results will affect who reaches the crash site first as follows:

Each army will roll a D6 with the following modifiers:

Fought and drew or lost = +0
Fought and won a Minor Victory = +1
Fought and Massacred the enemy = +2

The resulting scores will be used to determine the order in which the armies arrive at the site and discover the Eye of Morrslieb. Any players that draw scores will roll off to determine a final order between them. Obviously armies that achieve the best result in the first game will stand the best chance of reaching the crash site first, which comes with certain benefits in later games.

So, next comes the games themselves, who won, and what order they arrive at the crash site of the Eye...watch this space!

Thanks for reading.

The Monster & The Giant

The Monster and the Giant – The Invasion of Talos VII

Talos VII Planetary Profile

Designation: Talos VII

Type: Deathworld

Tithe Grade: Tertius – Regimental tithes, Adamantium ore, Chem and Bio weapon research

Location: Talos System, Kharvaria Subsector, Invigila Sector, Ultima Segmentum

Satelites: 2, (Perseus - type 3, Bresais – Type 2)

Est. Population: 4.6 Billion

Status: Loyal

Overview of Talos VII

Some believe that the Imperial world of Talos VII was saved from destruction, that the planet was spared in the name of the Emperor of Mankind. Others believe that the people of Talos VII may yet be damned..............

Talos VII itself is part of a system of eleven giant planets which lies in the Invigila Sector, far to the Galactic East, in the Ultima Segmentum. It is a world of twilight, acrid fog seas, blasted wastelands and voracious continent spanning forests. It is a Deathworld, a world poisoned centuries ago by Xenos spore that writhes in agony and rebels against the corruption within. The people of Talos VII are proud and stoic, strong in both body and spirit, but they are grim of countenance, as though they carry the same pain deep within them that infects the heart of their home world. Talos VII is a world redeemed, saved from the brink, though at a cost which is yet to be fully realised.

Hive Fleet Scylla

In 774.M41, the Talos system was engulfed by a tendril of the Tyranid Hive Fleet designated ‘Scylla’, after the many headed monster of old Terran mythology thought to have been slain by the Emperor Himself.

At the time when the Hive Fleet entered the Talos system, the monitoring stations lying in the systems outer reaches were old and poorly maintained, and many had been abandoned millennia before. No signals were received by the Monitoring Servitors of Talos VII of what approached from the void. The Hive Fleet quickly bypassed the four outer planets, which were a combination of insubstantial gaseous giants or great airless rocks and supported none of the biological life that the Hive Mind craves for sustenance, and Scylla steadily approached the prime system world of Talos VII.

Talos was an isolated world, and few interstellar craft passed through the system, though it was one such vessel, the light transporter ‘Guiding Light’, which first brought word of the approaching Hive Fleet. Her Captain was much travelled, and, understanding the gravity of the situation, reported the dire news directly to Planetary Governor Alexandus himself.

Immediately, the order was given to prepare for war. Every military installation on the planet was brought to alert status, units were re-called from leave, munitions were allocated and oaths were sworn. Just as the final Planetary Defence Volunteers reported to barracks, the long range augars of the orbiting weapons platforms began picking up the incoming fleet, and few though they were, they prepared to commence firing, desperate to destroy as many Tyranid vessels as they could before they made orbit.

The orbital weapons platforms may have been ancient, but unlike the outer monitoring stations they were well maintained and heavily armed, and they destroyed a great number of Hive Ships with high energy beams and immense armour piercing explosive shells, cracking meters thick armoured shells and spilling the ships innards into the icy void. Despite the determination of their crews, the orbital defences were too few by far to halt the Hive Fleet, but, resolved to do their duty and inflict as much damage as they could on the approaching flood of ships, the crews of the defence platforms sealed themselves inside and kept firing until their ammunition was spent and capacitors overloaded. Great armoured Kraken assaulted the defence platforms, crushing them with mighty jaws or piercing their metal skins with razor sharp beaks, disgorging thousands of Tyranid creatures into the stations which overwhelmed the trapped crews within hours.

Slowly the Hive Fleet slipped into orbit above Talos VII, surrounding it with a sea of living vessels. As the transmissions from the orbiting platforms ceased, and the defenders below looked to the skies, the first mycetic spores began to fall, glowing hot as they plummeted ground wards through the atmosphere.

The Tyranid invasion of Talos VII lasted ninety three horrifying days, during which over four fifths of the population was slain and rendered down to feed the Hive Fleet. Tens of millions died in a visceral orgy of primal slaughter. By the thirtieth day, the rolling green grasslands, mist shrouded marshes and continent spanning forests were changed beyond recognition. The ancient fathomless lakes were transformed into bubbling seas of toxic murk, writhing with slashing tentacles and enraged bellows as the lakes ferocious denizens were poisoned by the alien spore infecting their habitats, and battled against ravenous Tyranid creatures in the depths. The year round snow upon the titanic sky scraping mountain ranges began to melt as the temperature rose with the choking of the atmosphere by alien spores and micro organisms, and the vast tracts of equatorial forests exploded in a chemically induced frenzy of growth intended to increase the volume of bio mass available for the Hive Fleet to consume, smothering settlements, arterial vehicular routes and major supply lines.

As the sky darkened and the heavens heaved and rolled with thunder and strangely coloured lightning, the war on the ground was raging. The Planetary Defence Regiments fought bravely, withdrawing to the mighty fortress cities of Talos VII which rose like mountains from the land. Here they could better defend the many thousands of refugees that had made the arduous journey from the rural areas to the cities as the first spores began to fall. Terrified men and women who were judged fit to bear arms were swiftly armed with what weapons were available, many of which were nothing more than converted tools, and pressed into service to bolster the inner defences of the cities. Thousands of street gang members from every territory arrived unbidden at the recruiting stations Their age old blood feuds and ancestral grudges set aside, they sewed service badges onto their clothing and swore binding blood oaths to defend their home cities to their last breath.

The backbone of the Talosian defence was to be the soldiers of six entire regiments of Talosian Light Infantry, and two of Talosian Armour, mustered for service across the stars. None could have foreseen that the blooding of these regiments would take place in the defence of their home world against such a terrible foe.

The vast swarms of Tyranid creatures numbering in the millions which flowed across the changing lands broke upon the huge bastions of Talos VII in endless waves of voracious scythed and clawed beasts. Those that looked out from the great plex-glass viewing occulus high in the fortress towers saw nothing but a tide of chitinous bodies crashing over and around everything, stretching as far as the eye could see, until the hordes were obscured by thick mists.

The gargantuan armoured weapon blisters which studded the kilometres high walls of the fortress cities spat forth enormous explosive shells and searing lasbeams as Macro Cannons and Turbo Lasers opened fire on the enemy. Wide mawed cannons would gout forth blazing chemical fire, scouring the approaches to the walls of enemy creatures, only for the vile Xenos to surge forward in even greater numbers, pouring between the scorched and blasted mounds of their own dead that they used as cover from the torrents of defensive fire.

The defenders of the bastion cities knew that they were trapped, and all contact had been lost with those caught outside the walls. With the huge influx of refugees from the settlements beyond the cities, provisions of food and water soon began to dwindle, and all supply routes had been cut save for the few brave pilots who, with the grace of the Emperor, managed to survive the frantic death runs from the upper landing platforms of one city to the next, dodging great winged Tyranid creatures that filled the skies, and bringing in what meagre supplies their limited holds could carry.

The ancient incoming aqua ducts had been contaminated with Tyranid spores and parasites, and across Talos VII thousands died in agonising convulsions as vile alien creatures exploded from within their wracked bodies before the order was given to seal all incoming pipelines. Even at those cities where the swarms had not besieged the walls, none that ventured out survived for long, as they became prey for roving packs of Tyranid warrior beasts. The limited numbers of armoured units that were far away from the cities at the training fields knew they were doomed, but courageously attacked the swarms where they could, heavy bolters and battle cannons spitting death and blasting gaping holes in the rushing hordes, but the enemies numbers were too great and the tanks ground to a halt amidst the sea of chitinous forms, scythe armed Carnifexes and Trygons tearing through their armoured flanks, and smaller rippers forcing their way through grills and vents to smother and choke the tanks engines with their own scorched bodies, or squeezing into crew compartments where crewmen were so confined that they stood no hope of defending themselves. Many poor crewmen died, choking on engine fumes or burned alive when their vehicles caught fire or were even devoured where they sat strapped into their seats, screaming as their blood and viscera pooled beneath them and showered their stations with gore.

The defenders of Talos truly believed the end had come when the ground vibrations caused by rampaging swarms of Tyranids were joined with a deeper shaking, and from the mists marched Hierodules and Hierophants, towering behemoths of bestial destruction armoured in meter thick armoured chitin shells and as large as the greatest Mechanicus constructs. The hulking Bio Titans strode through the storm of fire issuing from the wall emplacements, some falling to concentrated blasts, but those that reached the citadels struck the walls like living meteors, tearing the gun emplacements from the walls with their immense claws and bringing tonnes of stone and plasteel crashing down on the swarms which clamoured at the walls below. Where the Bio Titans breached the mighty walls, the swarms of assault beasts outside flooded through to slaughter the terrified defenders within. For the people of the cities that fell, it was as though the monsters of their darkest nightmares had come to claim them.

At the breaching of the walls of the northernmost fortress city of Kouris, perched upon a mighty cliff overlooking the broiling ocean, where the approach causeway was carpeted with the blasted carcasses of a million Tyranid creatures, swarms of scythe armed Hormogaunts and serpentine Ravenors flooded the tunnels and access ways, every corridor and every building until they could barely move for the press of chitinous bodies. Where they broke open store rooms and cellars and other makeshift strong points within which the terrified people had taken refuge, the butchery was horrific, and they had nowhere to run. Many went mad with stomach churning terror, and men turned their weapons on their families and then themselves rather than allow them to be taken by the Tyranids.

Far to the south, the ancient citadel, L’Havar, was decimated by a dozen or more Bio Titans which crashed through the plascrete walls and went on a furious rampage, demolishing walls and towers, habs and manufactoria with their titanic bulk, tearing down everything around them until all that was left was a mountain of smoking rubble, tens of thousands of humans and Tyranids alike crushed beneath the mounds of rockcrete and plasteel, or hopelessly trapped in creaking and flooded pockets beneath the ground, effluvia and alien parasites pouring in to devour them.

At the mountain fastness of Heavens Gate, a great many winged Harridans circled above the city, and from their cyst covered underbellies they disgorged great clouds of shrieking Gargoyles which swept down through the ceaseless anti-aircraft fire to smother the city. Though the air defences brought down great swathes of Tyranid monsters, and the blasted bodies of Gargoyles fell like rain and giant Harridans plummeted like chitinous meteors to crash into the buildings below, one by one the defences were silenced, their ammunition hoppers ringing empty or power couplings fused with the continuous fire, until the city was utterly choked with a sea of chittering Gargoyles and membranous wings and was devoured.

At Phyrros, out on the eastern plains, the beleaguered defenders retreated from the outer walls after Tyranid Bio-Titans swept them clear of defenders with great gushing torrents of organo-acids and corrosive bile. Those doused by these vile fluids died where they stood, screaming in agony until their throats sloughed away and their lungs dissolved, their bodies hissing as they burned until their legs gave way and plunged them into the liquid, their bubbling remains carried away with the toxic flow. The survivors retreated to the ancient and impregnable keep at the heart of the city and sealed themselves inside, in their desperation leaving thousands outside when there was no more room, trusting, praying that help would come. When the Imperial Scourging Teams opened up the keep several weeks later, they found a charnel house of horrors. Pict-records showed that broods of Lictors had managed to infiltrate the keep before it was sealed, and trapped in the darkness, terrified and with nowhere to run, the Lictors hunted the people through the narrow corridors and halls and butchered them one by one.

It was at the planetary capital, Talos Invictor, where the fighting was most desperate. Here, the difference between the Planetary Defence troops and the elite of Talosian Light Infantry regiments was plain. The entire strength of six infantry regiments (the 1^st, 5^th, 10^th, 11^th, 18^th, and 24^th) and two armoured regiments (the 3^rd and the 8^th) had dug in around the city in a ring of heavily fortified gun positions. Over twenty five thousand men and nearly 250 tanks all told, including a company of Shadowsword Super Heavy tanks, thus far kept in reserve to defend the Talosian capital, ready to defend the city.

As the assault began, and huge waves of Tyranid assault beasts bounded towards the Imperial lines, the infantry manned heavy weapon emplacements and dug in Leman Russ Battle Tanks opened up, taking a fierce toll on the enemy creatures. Time and again they swept the killing fields clear of shrieking and chittering Tyranid hordes, the pre-prepared crossfires of lasbeams and explosive shells hammering the approaches mercilessly. It was only where Bio-Titans and broods of Carnifexes led the assaults on the walls that the lines were sorely pressed. The Hierophants and Hierodules were engaged by the mighty Defence Laser ‘Spear of Righteousness’, from its housing high up on the Tower of Eternity, and by the Volcano Cannons of the three Shadowswords, and where they pierced the armoured carapaces of the Bio Titans, they cracked and split as their innards were superheated, and many were brought crashing to the ground.

In some places the Tyranids reached the outer defences, and here they were driven back by grim veterans wielding massed flame units. Where the largest assault beasts led the attacks, mighty Tyrgons and Mawlocs bursting up from beneath the cratered ground, and broods of raging Carnifexes crashing into the Talosian positions and scattering helpless Guardsmen like chaff, the line threatened to buckle under the horrific onslaught. Only the actions of noble officers and even individual troopers kept the enemy from tearing great holes in the lines as short ranged but deadly melta and plasma weapons were brought to bear, bringing the creatures down through sheer volume of fire backed by Talosian grit. Many names passed into the annals of regimental legend during those close and desperate engagements, as the brave men of Talos stared death in the face.

The battle for Talos Invictor was to turn at the positions where a concentration of Hive Tyrants led the assault: the approaches to the great western gate. Here the Tyrants led great numbers of Hormogaunts and Genestealers behind an impenetrable wedge of Carnifexes five ranks deep. Though many of the living engines of destruction were felled by concentrated fire from dug in Leman Russ, Demolishers and Vanquishers, they were too many to be halted and they smashed through the lines of tanks in a tide of destruction not yet seen during the battle. They were an unstoppable mass, tearing through tank armour and smashing them aside to continue the charge, driven by the overriding directive of the Hive Mind. The Talosians morale was reaching its limit as this monstrous assault crashed towards the city walls, and the firing intensified as the Tyranids closed in.

It was at this critical point that the volume of defensive fire was abruptly cut in half. Broods of Lictors which had infiltrated the Imperial positions under cover of the attacking Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants sprang from cover to assault the gun emplacements and command posts from the rear and they were powerless to engage this new attack, the Lictors upon them in an instant. With the defensive fire so greatly reduced and the Talosian soldiers embroiled in chaotic short ranged battles against enemies attacking seemingly from every direction, Tyranid creatures began to pour through the breach in the lines and into the outer reaches of the city.

Those defenders that were able retreated within the city walls, under covering fire from defenders within, and those that could not sealed themselves inside rockcrete bunkers as the enemy flowed over and around them, screaming, their hands locked over their ears as the chitinous horde scraped and scratched and battered at the hatches, eager to gain entry and slaughter those locked inside.

Defenders within the city were forced to fight a frantic fighting withdrawal deeper and deeper into the wounded stronghold, using the tight alleys and access ways to funnel the attackers towards one prepared position after another, tenaciously defending every foot of ground until they were overwhelmed or the positions became untenable. They held every street corner, every tunnel, every building, many giving their lives to slow the Tyranid advance and buy precious time for the defenders and civilians deeper within the city.

At the city’s heart, Governor Alexandus had descended with his personal guard ready to stand and face the enemy at the finish. Within the deep catacombs beneath the city where the Ministorum Priests had gathered the faithful, fearful pleas for salvation could be heard, filling the vast underground spaces with prayers to the Emperor of Mankind for deliverance. At the last barricades, and with nowhere else to withdraw to, the Talosians steeled themselves to face the foe. All around them they could hear the shrieking and chittering of the swarms as they built for the final assault.

The Imperial soldiers opened fire one last time as the alien host charged at them across a wide thoroughfare, littered with fallen statues of ancient heroes, wrecked vehicles and falling masonry. Behind the Talosians, the Preachers cried out above the din of battle, and just as the soldiers braced for the assault, and the prayers of the people reached a crescendo, the ground shook and lurched violently. The prayers ceased immediately and the people wept in terror.

Outside the city walls, where the hordes of Tyranid creatures clamoured to enter the city, and Bio Titans prepared to tear down the walls, beams of searing light meters wide lanced down from the heavens, evaporating the discoloured clouds and vaporising great swathes of Xenos, the armoured behemoths buckling before this intense and pinpoint bombardment. From the high towers, the people there saw a sight such as few ever live to see. The sky was alight with hundreds of fiery spears as Imperial troop ships descended from orbit. Darting between the monolithic troop ships were wings of Marauders and Thunderbolts which harried the Tyranid Harridans and Gargoyles that swarmed in the skies, and strafed the swarms on the ground, dropping hundreds of tonnes of high explosive munitions into their midst, tossing broken Tyranid bodies left and right.

Within the heart of Talos Invictor, the Tyranid charge had faltered, and before the Hive Tyrants could reinvigorate the attack, squad upon squad of hulking Terminators in Bone coloured armour materialised before the barricades, blocking the path of the Tyranid swarm, their Storm Bolters and Assault Cannons spitting death, and Heavy Flamers incinerating great masses of aliens, leaving charred mounds of fused Tyranid corpses strewn across the thoroughfare. Even as the Tyranids charged forwards, they were cut down by the Deathwing’s relentless fire, joined now by that of the Talosians, their faith renewed and eager to cleanse their world of the Xenos invaders. The size of the swarm was great, and they yet pressed forwards, but as they did so, Dreadnoughts and Marines of the Dark Angels Chapter, delivered to battle by gunship and drop pod, engaged them from the rear, pouring ever more fire into the Tyranids until, caught between the grim Terminators of the Deathwing before them and the Dreadnoughts and Battle Companies pressing from behind, the swarm disintegrated.  

It transpired that the Imperial Fleet that had been en route to take on board the Talosian regiments before striking for the nearby warzone of Kairis Ultra had found a sight they never expected as they arrived in the Talos system, and, caught unawares, the Hive Fleet in orbit was annihilated by the vessels of the Imperial Navy and the Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers of the Dark Angels force in attendance. The following hours and days were hard fought, and many Imperial servants yet lost their lives before the majority of the Tyranid creatures were finally eradicated from the surface of Talos VII. The halls and passageways of Talos Invictor were scoured with fire and shell, and great numbers of the Tyranid invaders, bereft of their Hive Fleet and many of their leader beasts, succumbed to their inbred survival  instincts and vanished into the wilderness to spread their vile Xenos corruption. Though the tendril of Hive Fleet Scylla that attacked the Talos system was vanquished, the mass of the Hive Fleet, stretched across many light years, continued its journey deeper into the inhabited galaxy, and to this day, more than two centuries later, the people of Talos are watched from the shadows by agents of the Inquisition for signs of Xenos taint or corruption, lest a beacon be lit to draw the Hive Fleets once more.

The soldiers of the Talosian regiments fight in the Emperor’s name across the length and breadth of the Imperium, courageous, loyal and tenacious, they fight to repay their debt to the Emperor for saving their world from annihilation.

What's Your Story?

Greetings wargamers, and welcome once more to my cardboard bunker...

Today's topic is inspired by a post on The Burning Eye blog (please see a link on the right of my page, I recommend a read), which was about the naming of Characters and Units in your army, and by doing so, bringing them and the battles they participate in to life. Not literally of course. That would be weird. Like Toy Story...with Melta Guns. And a two inch tall Vulkan.

I would like to explore fluff from another angle, and that is the creation of the backstory for your army, its history and its place in the setting of the game, whichever game that might happen to be. I guess elements of what I write here can be applied to a variety of games, but my experience is all with GW games, primarily the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 settings.

Some people might not care about their army background, which is fine, but I feel like I would really be missing out if I didn't tell my own part of the story, and read that of other peoples armies, particularly material written by fans. The setting after all is one of the big draws of Games Workshop games. I mean, look at the vast number of novels you can buy which tell the exact same kind of stories that I would want to be told about my own armies.

In my mind, the story behind my army is very important, and adds immensely to my enjoyment of the hobby. When an army has a story behind it, it stops being a simple collection of playing pieces (no matter how well converted or painted they may be) and becomes a living, breathing entity. There is little difference between reading about a battle fought between the Talosian 3rd Army Group and the Orks of Waaagh Griffnut, and reading about the Battle Of Arnhem Bridge, apart from the fact that one is based on fact and the other a fabricated game setting. A great example of this would be Forge World's Imperial Armour books for 40K, which not only include history, unit details and army lists, but also amazing photos which look incredibly life-like. If you removed all the names from such pieces of text, you might be hard pressed to judge which was the factual history, and which had been made up by a geek (I myself am proud to declare I am at least 40% Geek) on a computer...

When I think about writing background material for an army, I can think of three main ways to approach it, each with varying degrees of work required by you, the narrator of the army's story. First, and easiest, is to simply use existing background material, from a rulebook, army book, campaign book or even a novel based in the same setting as your army.

For example, if you decided to collect an army of Ultramarines for Warhammer 40,000, they are probably the single most comprehensively written about Space Marine Chapter in the history of existence, which is just how Marneus Calgar likes it I'm sure. The point is you can look at their background and simply say 'my army is the Ultramarines 3rd Company', and you already have not only instructions on how to paint them and mark them out as the 3rd Company, but there are probably bits of fluff all over the place that tell you about their history, their famous heroes, homeworld and their part in major events in the history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

There are lots of armies that have taken part in specific events in the history of their settings, like the First, Second and Third Wars for Armageddon, The Thirteenth Black Crusade, and, more specific to the Ultramarines, the wars with the Tyranids on the Eastern Fringe (may the Hive Mind envelope the snot nosed Tau and their piddly Empire and reconstitute them all as mindless snot licking toad-things...).

This is great if all you want is to know a bit about the history of your force, and are happy go with what's already there. This is probably typical of Historical Wargames in particular, where battles are often re-fights of great clashes from history, and the troops, commanders and locations are taken straight from the documentary evidence. A variation on this idea is to make your army the followers of a particular Special Character, who all come with their own often extensive histories, and tying your army to their background material. Just don't tie your army to Commissar Yarrick and the Battle for Golgotha. That's where we saw the demise of the Squats after all. I'd love to know how the new Black Library novel 'Chains of Golgotha' spins that one...

The second option is to base your army around an existing force, but make up their battle history, create named personalities to lead them and even design your own insignia and such for them, rather than using pre-fab Special Characters. I could use my Dark Angels force as an example. The army is based around and uses the paint scheme of the Dark Angels 4th Company (the one with the fiddly check patterned design). I didn't want to use the 3rd Company because to me it's an obvious choice, being the first Battle Company, and I chose to avoid the 5th because that's the Company that the Games Workshop studio army is based around (in the last Codex at least), so I went for the 4th Company. I say 'based' around the 4th Company because my collection as a whole, in keeping with the established Dark Angels (and Space Marines generally) background, is part of a larger strike force which includes elements of the 1st Company (Deathwing), 2nd Company (Ravenwing) and 10th Company (the Scout Company).

This army rarely includes any Special Characters, but every squad has a name, as well as every vehicle and character model. The history of the strike force is based loosely around the various major battles I have fought with them in the time I have been collecting Dark Angels, which is getting on for twenty years, so they took part in defending Talos VII from Hive Fleet Scylla, they fought on Armageddon during the Third War, and they joined the rest of the Chapter and the Unforgiven as a whole during the Thirteenth Black Crusade fighting Abbadon's forces and chasing 'The Voice' around the Cadian Gate. The whole time, my strike force commander, Teranius, Master of the 4th Company and Bearer of the Blade, has been responsible for hunting down a prominent Fallen Dark Angel known as 'Kraven'.

By taking this approach, you can base your background around a theme or army that you like, but take the step of adding some additional background flavour to make it more personal if that's what you want, to feel like you have had more of a hand in creating the story that supports the army.

The final option I would like to talk about (and the one I prefer), is that of writing the background for your army pretty much from scratch. It's not quite totally from scratch, because every race has its 'army wide' backgound that your own fluff will tend to agree with in most cases. Imperial Guardsmen are, broadly speaking, grunts with flashlights, no matter what world they're from, they all have traits in common. Orks are all frothing thugs who want nothing more than to bash someone's head in, (preferably yours) regardless of whether the Idol represents Gork or Mork. Tyranids want to suck out your brains regardless of whether they are red, green or puce with lime green polkadots. You get the idea I'm sure. Apart from staying within these fairly broad guidelines (unless you can fabricate a good reason not to), you can go wild.

Writing background from scratch opens up a world of possibilities, literally, because you get to create (almost) everything, including cool stuff like homeworlds, culture, colloquial language references, fighting styles, preferred or specialist combat environments, and of course, names. For this one, I'll use my Imperial Guard as an example. They are the Talosian 24th Light Infantry Regiment. The Talos System is made up of giant planets. I took the name Talos from the bronze giant of Greek Mythology.

Talos VII, the planet that my regiment hails from, is also the world that was fought over in a very early (possibly our first ever) campaign played by the group of gamers I went to school with in the mid nineties. The campaign revolved around an Imperial world being defended by the Guard, which was being invaded by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Scylla (which became my Tyranid army), and which the Eldar (half our group played Eldar) also had a vested interest in because there were functioning Webway Portals hidden on the planet which they needed to shut down or at least seal, before the Hive Mind gained access to the Webway.

These days, the back story of my Guard talks a bit about their culture before the Tyranid invasion, and a bit about after the Hive Fleet was driven off (by the arrival of the Talosian Fleet, led by my Dark Angels strike force of course), and what has become of them today. At the moment, my Guard are embroiled on the staging world of Barakka Prime, which was invaded at the outset of the Third Armageddon War by my Ork army (led by Warlord Griffnut, tasked with this staging world's destruction by Ghazgkhull himself. I think Ghazgkhull just wanted him out of the way because he's got his eye on the crown), as part of the Orks coordinated effort to strangle the supply network feeding the beleaguered warzone.

As you can see, many of my armies have background that is interlinked, which is another benefit of writing from scratch, because this is relatively easy to accomplish when you have free reign to make things up as you go along. In the case of my Imperial Guard, I used a campaign that we had fought way back in the mists of time as the inspiration for their history, which was nice because it really was their history. The names I chose to give my officers were taken straight from my Secondary School teachers, so the Talosian 24th are led by Colonel Riccarius (Richard) Bailey, with Lieutenants and Captains named after teachers I remember. There is so much you can call on to create your background. Why not delve into real world history for some inspiration? Is there a culture or period of history that sparks your interest? A particular commander perhaps? It doesn't take a genius to work out that Lord Commander Solar Macharius is based on Alexander The Great.

The key thing to remember is that whatever approach you decide to take, you have the chance to make your army background exciting, to give your games context in the sense of your army's wider involvement in the setting. If you expand on the army's background through incorporating battles and even campaigns fought within your local gaming group, then the group as a whole has the chance not only to expand their individual army fluff, but also to build one that connects them all together in an epic shared existence.

One last thing to remember...history is always written by the victor.

Thanks for reading...

So Many Armies, So Little Time...

Greetings once again fellow wargamers. If it's a bit crowded in here, it's because my various armies have a conference on.

This time I would like to talk briefly about the fix that I and I'm sure many others find themselves in, either due to the length of time they have been collecting, or because they are compulsive buyers. I am talking about owning lots of different armies, and how this affects our hobby experience compared to gamers who play just one or two armies. I don't mean lots of models, because some people have truly huge armies, which comes with its own issues. I mean owning lots of different armies using different army books and codices.

I have been collecting Games Workshop models for just over twenty years, and in that time I have accumulated eleven different armies: six for Warhammer 40,000 and five for Warhammer Fantasy, not to mention stuff for specialist and other games like Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Inquisitor and not forgetting Man O' War.

Now having this many different armies (rather than multiple armies that use the same book, like three different Chapters of Vanilla space marines for example), many of which are quite sizeable, has had a number of effects. First, as you would expect, it means having lots of models, which requires copious quantities of storage space and vessels to store the models in.

It also means that, as I did a lot of my collecting in my teens, I have lots of unpainted models. I don't really see this as a drawback, because thankfully it means that now I am really getting back into army painting, my standard of painting is much better than it was when I started collecting. That's not to say I don't have shares in dot 4 hydraulic brake oil. I have had my painting apocalypses in the past just like anyone else. It's also a good thing collecting so many different armies because it's rare for people who have so many different models to paint to get bored of them. Oh look, I have another space marine to paint to add to the company I already painted. Whoopee...

Another impact is the maintenance cost of having so many different armies, and by maintenance I mean the cost of picking up the latest Army Book or Codex as they are released. This was less of an issue when they were knocking them out at around twelve quid each, but now they are going for thirty of Her Majesty's finest pounds, it's a lot more expensive. If it turns out that my armies all have a book come out in a very short period, that's quite an investment just to be able to play using the latest rules, which I guess is par for the course having fingers in lots of pies, and I do like to pick up the occasional new toy here and there (Mortis Engine, ye shall rise soon, I promise) but still...

An advantage is that if I only played one army, I'd be having to rush out and get the new book as soon as it came out to be able to play using the latest rules, but as it is I won't be picking up the new Warriors of Chaos book till Fathers Day, because I have four other Fantasy armies I can play till then. Plus, having half the Army and Codex books available is great if you like fluff, because you end up with a much bigger picture of the background as a whole than if you just had one Codex and the rulebook.

The greatest effect having this many armies is the one it has on my gaming. I like to play all of my armies, rather than focus on just one or two, because they each give me something different and exciting, and I hate the thought of all that hobby goodness being left on a shelf or in a box and not being used. I would never sell one of my armies for 40K or Fantasy, because each has a huge monetary and emotional investment in them. I have had most of my models longer than I have had my wife, and most are older than my youngest brother, plus, they remind me of some of the greatest times and best friends of my childhood.

The impact that switching armies so frequently has is two fold. First, it keeps my regular gaming opponents guessing about what army I'll be playing next, but more importantly, it affects how conversant I can be with any single army. Given I get about two games a month in, if each one is with a different army, and we regularly have new editions of game rules, army rules for my armies and army rules for my opponents armies to contend with, this results in little opportunity to really get used to playing a single army under stable conditions for an extended period of time. 

I have plenty of general experience playing Fantasy and 40K, and know the game rules well, but always find myself learning something new about using my armies from people who stick to the same army week in week out. In my head, this puts something of a cap on how good I can get as a player, because it's easier to get better sticking with one army and getting to know every little detail and trick inside out than picking it up every now and again.

I guess at the end of the day I have a couple choices. I could give up some of my armies, either shelving them (as if), or more sensibly, sell them off (never!) in order to better concentrate on one or two armies and play them until I can beat any player and any army, or, I can continue to play eleven different armies, winning less, but getting to take part in a far wider spectrum of gaming possibilities.

To be honest, I have got quite attached to my armies and their associated fluff, my named characters and the general history of their victories and defeats. I couldn't send them out into void now even if I wanted to...

So, next time you see the grizzled old veteran at the club or store that always seems to bring a different army to play, but rarely walks away victorious, just remember that the more armies you play, the more opportunities you have to immerse yourself in the hobby. Why play 40K or Fantasy one or two different ways when you could be playing a dozen different ways?

Once again, thanks for reading.

Why I don't play at Tournaments.

Greetings Wargamers. Thanks for dropping by, get yourself a drink and have a seat.

I have taken recently to listening to Warhammer & 40K podcasts, and have found some that I really like. Cutting the list to a level that allows me to actually listen to them all has been tricky though. Too many feeds and you can easily find yourself with days and days of shows and not enough time to get through them all.

Currently in my list are:

The Dwellers Below (Warhammer Fantasy)
A Tale of Four Geeks ( Warhammer Fantasy)
Bad Dice (Warhammer Fantasy)
Garage Hammer (Warhammer Fantasy)
The Independent Characters (40K)
The Second Founding (40K)
SkaredCast (40K)
CanHammer (Warhammer Fantasy)

I recommend all of the above, and I get something good out of all of them.

Now I do enjoy listening to these in the car travelling to work and back, and they put out some great shows, discussing all sorts of hobby topics, but one thing many podcasts (and blogs for that matter) have in common is that they talk at great length about the tournament scene, what's coming up next, which events they are attending or running etc.

This is great, and I have no problem with tournaments in general. They sound like fantastic social and gaming events, but there is one thing I have realised about them. I used to think I didn't want to play in tournaments because they involved time and expense I couldn't spare, or because I still haven't managed to finish painting a complete army, or even that I am simply not a good enough player to be successful at an event. I realised while listening to all this talk about the various tournaments going on (Adepticon is the next really big one), the thing that puts me off is the lists that gamers take to events, hoping to do well and give a good showing.

The problem for me is this: broadly speaking, tournaments are competitive, which in itself isn't an issue. Wargames in general are competitive, one person is attempting to defeat the other. My perception of tournments (and as always, please feel free to comment and tell me how very wrong I am), is that these days, with such a comprehensive network of forum sites, blogs and podcasts, all talking about what they think the best lists are, my fear is finding that, in a effort to be competitive, gamers attend tournaments and are all packing very similar lists, varying by race more than by preference. This at least is the impression I am getting from listening and reading about the tournament scene.

Organisers may try and address this by running a variety of scenarios with differing victory conditions, and not knowing who and which armies you'd be playing against will also have an effect, but in many cases lists have been hammered so much and so publicly that the optimal allcomers tournament list is posted all over the internet. Add to this the various power levels of armies at the moment, again something discussed in great detail by the community, and you seem to end up with people who are experienced tournament players and organisers being able to predict with some confidence what races and compositions they expect to see dominate at an event. 

It's reminiscent of a well known fashion guru stating at the start of the season 'this is what's popular at the moment, what's "on trend", so this is what everyone will be wearing this season.'

Now, not all players are equal, and we of course have the dice to factor in (never discount the ability of the dice gods to spit on your well laid plans from a great height), so in the end, every tournament will have a winner who we would hope is the player with the best plan and the most consistent win record, but what is the likelihood that their list is different to the majority of other players fielding the same race at the event?

The point of all this ruminating about tournaments isn't to knock them or people who enjoy them: they are what they are and look like they are here to stay, and they add another facet to the hobby experience, which is great. No, the point is that I like to play my army the way I like it, which is a bit competitive, but equally fluffy and story driven, and this means playing with armies that are not the latest flavour of mean. As an example, I have been playing Vampire Counts since before they were Vampire Counts, and tonight I'll be using Ghouls for the very first time. It seems as though throughout the last Vampire Counts book, winning involved spamming Ghouls and not bothering with any of the other core choices, but that didn't fit my idea of what the army is meant to be.

I don't like the idea that I'm playing the same list as everyone else, and I'm not prepared to take the list that lots of other people are taking just because it's been determined to be the best at the moment. Other people are welcome to do this, and good luck to them, but it isn't for me. I feel happier going against the grain. If that means I win half my games playing the kind of armies I like, rather than winning all my games playing the same list as lots of other people then that suits me fine. I've decided I get more from playing in'the spirit of my army' than I would playing with what feels like someone elses list. I want to progress the story of my army, not rack up wins that mean less to me than the context of the games.

I guess that's why I'm not keen at the moment on attending any big tournaments. Maybe one day I'll have to give one a go and see if my perception turns out to be right or wrong. In the meantime, thanks for reading.

During the War...

Welcome wargamers once again to my sporadic textual emission.

Today, for a change, I will talk about something other than wargaming, but which is still military in nature.

What I am going to talk about is in no way intended to belittle anybody, merely point out a difference that I perceive from my personal point of view. I will be talking about the differences between equally valid experiences, and the effects that those differing experiences have on those who come after.

I am from what is essentially a military family. My great grandfathers on both sides served in the army fighting for Britain and Cyprus respectively, my grandad on my dad's side served in the British army for twenty five years. My dad and my uncle are both Navy men, and my male cousins in Cyprus have all done their national service. It is really with my generation that this tradition of military service has ceased in our family. I remember considering joining up when I was in my mid teens, and my granddad advised against it.

What I have come to believe recently is that, to me at least, there seems to be a line. Before the line, are people like me, who could all have the conversation that began 'what did your grandad/dad do in the war', 'The War' being the Second World War. After the line are those folks whose grandparents were too young to have served, even if they lived through the war as children, who have their own unique stories to tell.

To me, it feels like people who grew up being able to have that conversation about their grandparents share a bond that seems less present amongst those who aren't able to have that same discussion. Watching parades on TV and seeing the World War II veterans march (or roll) past has a different meaning when your grandparents served during the conflict.

I'm not implying that this makes everyone else 'less' in some way, just that I personally see a distinction, like people who like marmite and people who have a sense of taste. The half dozen people who like Jedward and everyone else in the world. It's like the kind of bond that people have through an experience that their family members lived through. I guess you could compare it to meeting people who are complete strangers, until you find out that they too are wargamers, and then they don't seem like strangers anymore.

I know there have been other conflicts since the Second World War, but none in my mind that have the same lasting impact. It shaped the world as we know it today, and it's events reverberate down the decades that have followed. It was a different kind of conflict from anything that went before or after, a unique few years in this races shared history that separated entire peoples, and tied others together forever.

It is my feeling that when there are no veterans of the Second World War left, it will truly be the end of an era. When there are no people left who even remember being told about the war by their grandparents, the world will have lost something of the sense of connection, the gravity of that experience, that it can never regain, however many books we read or films we watch. We can all show respect for those involved, but the personal connection carries something different.

War in any situation is a tragic thing, and I'm sure the vast majority of right minded people would prefer it to be avoided in all but the most dire of circumstances, but I also realise that sometimes it is unavoidable. At these times, it is the experiences of the common soldier, sailor or airman that are passed down through the generations to their decendants, and I think having had that living connection affects the way we view the world.

When we see in the news about things like War Memorials being vandalised, it makes me sad and angry and sick all at once, but it also makes me think that people who can commit that kind of despicable act are unlikely to have had the kind of personal connection to the War and the people who served in it that I have. I'm not saying for a second that if your granddad didn't fight in the war you're going to go out and vandalise a memorial, just that I can't see from my biased viewpoint how anyone who has that connection could even contemplate such a thing, because it would be so massively disrespectful to the things that members of their own family fought and possibly died for.

I think it's fantastic when I meet someone younger than myself who doesn't have that connection, but talks and feels like they do, and this gives me a kind of hope that, for all the bad things that came from that horrendous conflict, the good things that came from it like the sense of cameraderie, of the good side of national pride, and tremendous respect for the people actually fought on our behalf.

I also like to see programs on TV that show old service people who fought on opposite sides during the war meet decades after the war ended, and who bear one another no ill feeling. It reinforces the idea that the common soldiery were simply there to do a job, and were not themselves responsible for the actions of their overall commanders. They were just two people wearing different uniforms and speaking a different language, but with many things in common with each other that allows them to empathise. In another life, they might have been great friends. This is not always going to be the case though, because war is war, and some people never get over it.

In my mind this allows people of whatever country to take a certain pride in the actions of their own family members when all those family members did was show courage in the field, and look after themselves and their mates in some of the most unbearable situations a person could ever have to survive. Some things are impossible for a person to live through and not be profoundly affected by their experience, and the way that this affects them can colour the view of that experience held by their families.

I am very fortunate indeed. My granddad survived everything the war had to throw at him and came out in one piece. I am fortunate because I got to enjoy and benefit from having a grandparent like him that, molded by his experience, was a courageous, pragmatic man that saw the job that needed to be done and got on with it. You might call it a sense of righteousness, or fighting spirit, but it probably isn't even that complicated. I think he just had a simple idea of what was right and what was wrong, and saw it as his duty to look after those around him. I think his experience made him grateful to be alive and grateful for what he had to show for it - his family. I hope it has made me think about things the same way.

Again, I stress that this is just a ramble about how I feel, and isn't intended to comment on how anyone else should feel about the subject. Everyone is entitled to their own views and to express them, which is what gives us all the potential to be interesting in our own right. Maybe there is something in my view, maybe it's all in my head, maybe I just miss the old bugger, but if others have an opinion I'd be interested to hear it.

Thanks for reading.