As our little group has continued to grow and play, we've all wanted to do an organized event of some kind. I've been spending my time doing a lot of demo games, both to teach others and continually refresh myself, so a break from that routine would be really nice. Luckily, one of the other players did the legwork and cobbled together a Narrative Campaign from rules used for various editions of Warhammer and related titles. We'll be starting in 6 days as of posting this (October 12th) and I have a lot to do!
Hobbyist - I Am Not One
I've been wargaming since I was 15, over 20 years now, and never once have I enjoyed the hobby side of the house. I'm a player, always have been and always will be, and I'm not artistically inclined. That being said, I'm trying to be okay with my limited abilities and work within them, so I've set a goal by having my Campaign Army fully painted before the end of the event.
The one paint scheme I've ever been able to make work is "ghosts": painting a vibrant color with white highlights and then rusty/dirty weapons. While this is not appropriate for ALL armies, I'm playing Vampire Counts and the scheme works well with my intended story. The exceptions will be my Vampire Thrall and likely other Vampire models such as Blood Knights. I'll need to figure out a "slap-chop" method for those and do my best, which isn't very good. :P
The Path of the Campaign
While I won't detail all the rules of the Campaign here, the basics are that we start at 500 Points and utilize Battle March composition/restrictions. On top of that, we may only take one Character, which has to be "Hero-Level" for those familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, who is our General for the entirety of the Campaign. We may take no Magic Items except the General gaining a 50pt Magic Item from the Core Rules OR a 50pt Runic Item, depending on which of the two Factions we ally with. Over the course of the Campaign, Units and Characters gain XP which can improve them: Units typically gain Special Rules while Characters can gain rules, weapons/armor, and even attributes.
We all play two games per Campaign Turn, which last two weeks. One is against a fixed opponent with a special Scenario, the other is more of a pickup game with whatever Scenario we want. Every Turn our points for our armies go up, and you get a little extra if you win. We also roll on a random chart after every game which can provide a wide range of boons such as XP, more army points, turning a Character into a Stone Thrower, etc.
One key rule is we cannot remove models or units from our armies once they're added. This made list building difficult because I need to keep whatever I start with, or be willing to expand on it. At the same time, I have to make a working story for my army. Since creating the story is both easier and more important, I wanted it to inform my army.
After waffling between Beastmen and Vampire Counts, I decided I liked my undead a bit more this time around. After writing my initial fiction (more on that later), I came up with the following restrictions to self-impose:
- No Zombies
I'm imagining my Vampire as a Red Dragon and they're focused on skeletons for their chaff, not zombies. As a result, I won't be including any Zombies or Corpse Carts.
- A Focus on Cavalry
My undead models are heavily themed on Brettonia which both gives me a direction for fiction and for army composition. With that in mind I want to heavily utilize Black Knights and Blood Knights, as well as other fast moving units like Dire Wolves, Fell Bats, etc. While those are more often aligned with Strigoi, I think it'll work just fine thematically.
- No Further Vampire Characters
The focus of my narrative is on my vampire growing in power and discovering herself, I don't want any other vampires to muddle those waters. So other than my General I'll be sticking to Wights and Necromancers. I also won't be using any Master Necromancers, that would take the focus off my General, so Acolytes it is.
- Accept All Challenges
Finally, my Characters will accept any Challenges and always declare a Challenge, befitting their martial background. This isn't the wildest restriction, Vampire Counts are a good fighting army, but it's something I'll stick to regardless.
The Starting Army
Actually creating a serviceable army that I simultaneously want to grow has been a bit of a challenge. I can't get any Wight in so that I can turn Black Knights/Grave Guard into Core which leaves me with just Skeletons as my primary infantry choice. In turn, those only take up so many points because they're locked into Battle March composition: no more than 20 bodies per unit.
At the same time I have to upgrade my Vampire Thrall to a Wizard or my army isn't legal, meaning she's on foot for the time being due to points restrictions. After spending way too much time on a 500pt list, I've decided on the following:
Vampire Thrall (General) w/ Full Plate Armor, Great Weapon, Shield, Level 1 Wizard (Necromancy)
10 Ghouls w/ Champion
20 Skeletons w/ Champion and Standard
20 Skeletons w/ Champion and Standard
4 Fell Bats
I gave this a go at our recent meetup night and it went pretty well. My opponent was inexperienced but I was also pulling punches so it cuts both ways. The main benefit is I'll keep all this stuff, the Ghouls are the part I'm the least excited for but they'll make a good escort for a Necromancer.
Just by playing both my games I'll be able to add 150pts to this army, plus a bit more if I win games. I'll gradually step up my amount of Skeletons but I can also quickly add Cavalry and mount my General. From there I'll do the same, for the most part, bumping up my Skeletons to provide stability and adding more Cavalry for hitting power.
For my General, the focus is growing her magical and physical power. For every 3 XP a Character obtains you can buy an additional Wizard Level (which costs points too) all the way up to Level 4 (even if the Character can't normally be a Wizard!) We're using the Renegade Packet for Legacy Armies, that's why I have Full Plate, so I'll be able to kit her out quickly. Once I hit Level 4, I'll go all in on attributes and build the gnarliest vampire that I can!
Battle Reports to Come
I'll attempt to do Battle Reports, in a narrative style, for all my games, certainly all of my "fixed opponent" games. It'll be nice to do some writing again, but for now the paint brushes call to me and I cannot ignore their siren song (I mean I can but I won't). See you soon!