Orctober!

Last year for Orctober I wrote a post about my views on Orcs and the darker side of Orcs before presenting my solutions over a month later. This ear I decided to realise a project I've been meaning to do for a while. Build an Orc baggage train for use in my rapidly changing version WFB 3rd. Edition!

Unfortunately, as with all my wargaming projects, the reality of time prevented my ambitions. Well not quite, I did not finish the baggage train, but I did get started on painting the models and have an end in site. How ever, at the moment I don't have much to show, just one fully completed model.

I see this model as representing the sort of thing a prisoner would see looming over them as they wondered why they had not been killed. It is an Orc who has got to the point (and age) where eating captives is a simple pleasure. Cooking them and showing that your fellow Orcs that this adds to the enjoyment of battle is his aim in life. He has dozens of snotling and goblin servants who help him prepare the food and find fresh meet while he runs a busy kitchen with his meals in huge demand. Specialties, such as halfling, cooked in a stunty, cooked in a humie would cost you a massive share in the loot you obtained in the battle. But it is worth it!

I'm not massively happy with the results I got painting this, but this is because I haven't painted for a while so need more practise to get back to my usual not very good standard of painting. The model is, of course, a warmonger miniatures Orc.

Five months of peace!

Or at least it would seem like that for anyone who has bothered looking at my blog. Since I last updated, not a great deal has happened with my hobby, with the pressures of the real world keeping me busy. I have not been completely free of gaming though. I have managed to begin what will be my long term project. This is the narrative campaign based on the story line for Weisburg, incorporating development of the characters and further nations. With this, when I say long term, I really mean long term and is to be something burning in the background for the next ten years. It should shape how I develop the fantasy side of my hobby and will be very slow moving providing me with satisfaction of developing a narrative and characters but not much for the spectators. All the fantasy painting I plan will have some role with this, even if they ultimately end up being used with other projects.

So, here is a quick summary of the little progress I made with this over the last 5 months.

Painting
I have done little painting, but the painting I have done is mainly aimed at adding to my citadel free Empire army. As I mentioned, I am aiming to build my own world through a long narrative campaign and these miniature are related to it.

This is a Bright wizard (named Feuer Gehen) and is attached to Prince Otto's banner. Basically I used this model as an excuse to practice painting motion and red, aiming to vary the red giving the impression of both movement and flames, without actually painting the flames. It was the first miniature I had painted for a while and because of this I'm quite happy with the result. The miniature is a modern production of classic Ral Partha Storm Shaman.

This model was an experiment with painting armour and is a grenadier miniature. He represents a champion of law and I plan to expand on the background given for the Gods of law in the WFRP rule book.

Finally, here is a Midlam Miniatures bard in front of a cottage I modelled using the old White Dwarf Modelling workshop articles. Like most of the stuff I paint, he is not done to a particularly high standard, but I included him as an excuse to mention how great Midlam Miniatures were. They basically produce good quality cheap miniatures suitable for roleplay and filling out the ranks of armies that are not based on over scaled, cartoonish models. I have more of these to paint and will include them here when I have done them.

I am now painting at a rate of about one model every 3 weeks, with each model painted in one sitting in an evening. I want to paint more but have no time and so my painting skills are suffering a bit. but I still find it enjoyable to try and bring some life to models so it will remain the core of my attempts at escaping from the pressures of the real world.

Actual Gaming

Having no real time has meant a limited amount of gaming. But I have manged to start my narrative campaign, writing suitable background for Orc and Goblin and Empire armies. I have produced a Might Empires style map and begun movement of banners and a narrative to justify the movement.

Recently I did manage a battle between Empire troops and Goblins, resulting in the capture of White Tale and defeat of Goblins despite embarrassing defeats for some Empire regiments.

Facing down advancing Goblins and a rampaging Snotling Pump Wagon.

The main problems of my last game of WFB 3rd. Edition remained. In particular, the pointlessness of rolling to hit, rolling to injure then rolling to save stuck out and almost painfully slowed the game down. It also stuck out as unrealistic. If some one hits you with a sharp sword and you have no armour, then you will be injured, it won't bounce off a bone because you are a bit tougher than the  person hitting you with a sharp sword. I think in the future the roll to injure table will be ignored, with perhaps a modifier to the armour save for particularly strong creatures or tough monsters.

White Tail struggling to command some Snotlings and a Troll. He currently lives in a cage in an Imperial Baggage train facing daily interrogation by Imperial Wizards and execution when they have gained any enough information from him.

The second problem was the lack of command rules. Basically it makes no difference who is the general and what he is doing, the forces can move as the player wants them to and according to plan. I propose to try and experiment with my next game and use the Warmaster activation rules. Basically this allows no moves without orders other than initiative based moves when the enemy are virtually on top of you. Hopefully this will add amore tense tactical angle that will bring the characters of the commanders to life instead of the current situation where they are basically just better soldiers and everyone knows what they are doing, despite the fog of war.

I will feed back on how these changes work and if the game of Warhammer remains the same. They are in the spirit of Oldhammer and making the game more interesting and narrative based, rather than bogged down in rules, although a quick look at some of the people in the Oldhammer community suggests that I risk being burned as a heretic for trying such things.

Until I get to write about these experiences, all the best to all the fellow middle aged gamers out there.

Weisburg miniatures.

Here is a selection of miniatures I painted this week. As ever they have my own particular style which is aimed to be interesting, rather than Golden Demon competition material.

Starting with modes that can be used for roleplay and a baggage train. They are Reaper townsfolk models (specifically rioters) along with pack animals from Foundry. I'm fairly happy with how these turned out and just need to do some work on the mules' and donkey's bases'. I particularly like the man with the scythe who, once painted, turned out to be a very characterful model.

We then have two models that I feel fit the background in my last post. Lady Winona Von Haugwitt and her bodyguard Zara. Again these are Foundry miniatures. I am a bit disappointed with how the sword looks on Lady Winona having to do some repairs to it since the model arrived broken. I also need to work on their bases and might glaze Winonas dress. However they do, in my opinion, start to bring to life the narrative I have begun writing.

Weisburg; my Empire province.

Following my last post's I want to elaborate on the narrative that I am trying to build for my games. As I mentioned I am basing it in my own version of the Empire with the majority of the world and politics being influenced by the world of WFRP 1st. edition with my own additions. I am currently planning to  use a map and the original Mighty Empires system as a basis for the game with a greatly increased narrative backing up and elaborating on each action, so that I eventually have a history of the province based on gaming events that flows like a real history.

The most sensible time to start seemed to be 2477. This is well before the actual events of the enemy within and following the 'defeat' of Drachenfels at the start of Jack Yeovils novel. So there is not to many major events that could encroach on a narrative that is meant to fit in with the great WFRP.

An introduction to the recent history of Weisburg
Weisburg is a small province in the North West of the Empire in the shadow of the Grey Mountains. it is largely isolated from the rest of the Empire by the great forest and rivers. While the nobility of Weisburg have previously played their part in the wider politics of the Empire, forming alliances with various factions, the Earl of Weisburg does not have voting privileges and the provinces relative geographical isolation and lack of real funds has meant that Weisburg is often ignored.

This physical and political separation has given Wesiburg and inward looking sensibility, dealing with local issues despite what the consequences for the outside world might be. Perhaps paradoxically, it has also attracted people who feel they can use this isolation to build power. This ranges from religious fanatics and would be politicians seeking to be big fish in a small pond, through to wizards who seek to practise their art away from the attention of the outside world. a recent magic storm on the outskirts of the provinces borders while being unusual, is not an unheard of event and is something that is put down to these visitors who have settled in Weisburg. It has also attracted the attention of fanatics following law who, with the 'defeat' of Drachenfels, plan to turn their attention to the Provinces in the shadow of the Grey mountains.

However, the recent history of Weisburg has been dominated by the Graf, Hans Bismarck, and his slow seizure of power. Bismarck was a merchant who left the Empire to trade from Marienburg. He then left Marienburg to earn his fortune in Lustria, returning laden with gold and a loyal groups of men at arms who had followed him across Lustria and now had a stake in the gold.

Upon his return, Bismarck rapidly recruited more men at arms, using his wealth to recruit men who were both skilled and trustworthy. But his next move was seen as strange for someone with his wealth. He journeyed to the small province of Weisburg.

However Bismarck realised that he only had economic power and if he needed to have permanent political power, instead of just influence, he needed to join the Empires nobility and become part of the rising power in the Old World. Weisburg offered this opportunity. His money soon bought him local power and the support, although not the friendship, of Weisburg's Earl, Otto Von Haugwitt. In exchange for helping Weisburgs failing funds, Bismarck was appointed Graf.

With no male heir, following his sons renouncing of their heritage in favour of religious beliefs, the Earl announced that whoever married his daughter would be heir. To the fury of his daughter, Lady Winona Haugwith, the Earl also stated that the Graf rule until he had an heir, effectively leaving her powerless and a prize to cement someone else's power.

The Earl died later that year, falling from his horse after an encounter with a mutant from the forest that had found it's way on to the Earl's estate. the Graf took power, announcing a year later that he was engaged to Lady Winona Haugwitt. He informed the Lady by letter.

The Lady was not simply going to allow this and took two actions. The first was to flee to the family castle with her loyal staff. She manned it with a small force of mercenary swordsmen and then sought help from possible allies.

Bismarck attempted to pressurise her allies and Lady Winona was disappointed by the response. It would seem that Bismarck's influence was very wide reaching. Of the response she got, one was from a Halfling retainer knighted by her father. He bought a small force of Halflings and pledged his life to the Lady.

The other responder stopped The Graf from storming the castle. It was the Emperor who declared that "...no woman of noble blood should be forced to marry a commoner!" Bismarck had no choice but to accept this. he could not go against the declaration of The Emperor. But he could try and change his mind. So began a stand off.

Lady Winona remained exhiled in the castle with Bismarck refusing to allow her to go beyond it's walls until she agreed to marriage. Something he had the both the physical power to do and the legal right as Graf to enact.

Bismarck himself began trying to build allies to change the Emperor's mind with varying success. Amongst those he approached was Prince Friedrich Von Sturm, the ambitious son of an elector counts Prince Von Sturm at first turned  down Bismarck's approachs for assistance with his advisers unanimous about not getting involved.

But at the same time a new menace was presenting itself. Following an increase in what is loosely described as unnatural activity around Weisburg, street preachers and clergy in the North West of the Empire were preaching for action. Prince Otto saw this as an opportunity to raise his profile as the man of action the Empire needed as the next Emperor. Although he was naive believing the fellow electors wanted that kind of Emperor, he was careful to choose what he did so he would not become entrenched in a long unwinnable war based on cleaning up Weisburg.

Instead he found an easier opportunity. A horder of green skins had gradually been sweeping south towards Weisburg since the recent magical storm. The Prince asked for Bismarck to give some forces to help fight the green skins in return for his political support.

Bismarck agreed and their combined forces converged at the village of Gimte, ready to face off the Orc and Goblin forces. The battle was a disaster.Out numbered the Empires forces were over run and although Prince Otto managed to marshal an orderly retreat he was humiliated.

Prince Otto's father nearly disowned him. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that it would be a public admission of weakness. Instead he went to the Emperor and suggested his son win the new war that he had started and use it to sure up the borders of Weisburg and the West of the Empire. Borders that has  been insecure since the Gwyn Eira dwarf war.

Prince Otto leapt at the opportunity, still believing he was the hero the Empire needed. He saw a way of ruling and expanding his family power with Weisburg. Even better, he was being given command of the Imperial Guard to achieve his goals. A wiser man would of realised that the open nature of the goals were not only setting him up for failure, but also meant that he never had real power in Weisburg or his own army. Prince Otto ignored this and at the head of a force of Imperial guard and Knights from various backgrounds, some of whom were even loyal to his family, Prince Otto rode into the province and the capital of Weisburg. he stood in front of the cheering crowds and declared himself protector of Weisburg!

A world to game in.

Like most people into wargaming my age, time appears to conspire against me, coupled with a problem finding opponents. If I'm honest, he finding opponents bit doesn't bother me that much since I've developed a very particular style of play which features abandoning rules if they get in the way of the flow of the narrative. The big up to the game, the developing of narratives and armies, the assigning of characters to models I paint and the preparation of figures and painting of them gives the most satisfaction. How they do in battle is part of the narrative, but the battle (the game) is a small part of the hobby. There are exceptions of course (e.g. Blood Bowl is a game that has to be played, but then only as part of a league) but every game is a part of a wider campaign and narrative I'm building and finding opponents to take part in this is great but not the be all and end all of the hobby or the reason I do it.

The time aspect is more frustrating. Trying to fit in a hobby around family, work, mundane tasks, other hobbies (including reading) is frustrating. Looking at what I've collected and what I want to do with it compared to what I have the time to achieve is saddening but it also reminds me that when I gamed as a teenager I did not have that much time either. Back then I had other things effecting my time and rarely had the time or resources (each paint pot cost quite a lot, even back then) to put on the game that were advertised in White Dwarf. Looking at it honestly, my hobby time as a teenager was always in competition with other things in my life and there was a reason I did not ever achieve the big games that were advertised in White Dwarf.

But it is also true that my teenage gaming was kept alive by two things. It was playing simple, easy to play games that were fun, challenging and fast moving and it was very easy to throw them together. The other thing that kept me gong was the wider narrative that did not just focus on the armies  I was fielding, but the idea that the game and what it represented fitted into a wider universe that I was helping to develop.

Space Hulk, for example,  was (and I'm sure still is) a quick game with endless possibilities and very simple rules. What kept me playing a campaign each weekend for about a year was the idea that the Marines in my force were individuals and they were part of the wider universe, not just a playing piece. By the time I would reach game six of a campaign, there was the underlying sense that these were the survivors of the marines elite first company, each had a story and I had witnessed them fighting this far.

Likewise, the Realm of Chaos books helped to revitalise Warhammer and give it a permanent place in my memories because it built a narrative and a background that lifted the models beyond being just pieces in a tactical battle game. A story was being brought to life. The quick easy games with warbands were just moving the story forward and the warband and champions story was what you were involved in, not simply a collection of statistics that enabled you to flank.

While this is a repeat of what I've already been saying in the previous posts of this sporadic blog, it is also something I feel I need to focus more on. I try to give al the armies I paint a theme but if I'm to get the most out of the little time I spend on this hobby, I need to focus less on gaming and more on my idea of world building. The way the army fits together for a game is a direct reflection of the role it plays in a world and the more complex and detailed this world is, not only will the narrative behind the game become stronger, but it will also make coming up with scenarios easier with multiple possibilities resulting from all parts of the game.

So I have come up with a few ideas about the world that I want to build a narrative around for my games.

It's the Warhammer world, but my Warhammer world.
The Warhammer world of my  teenage games was directly related to the highly developed and believable world of WFRP first edition. By being based on roleplaying game this world was developed and realistic, being given from the perspective of a powerless individual, without much control on the chaos around them.

The Enemy Within campaign, and to a lesser extent the original Warhammer novels, further developed this world and had a setting where interaction of the characters reflected the real world, complete with rules for class and superstition clouding what was really happening.

By the end of the Third edition of WFB this world had been abandoned. Leading into the fourth edition, armies were to become hero lead with the awesome elites being the emphasis. Rules for realistic things such as baggage trains and levies were largely abandoned along with most of the different religions and tensions in the empire (and other factions). Instead a high fantasy existed where the Emperor was a great warrior, not the compromise between different factions and society was not just  permanently at conflict but was in organised armies. The  forest moved from something to be feared containing beastmen and other horrors that preyed on isolated villages, to something another battleground for the highly organised Landsknecht armies of the warrior Empire.

The hidden war between the nobility, sometimes breaking into open armed conflict, mentioned in White Dwarf 91 article on nobility in WFRP was abandoned in favour of the united warrior nobility. The magic that posed both a threat and promise of power was formalised and controlled in official state universities and registered war wizards, destroying the possibility of adventure and creating a simplistic good and bad that drained the  colour and character from the Warhammer world.

This world changed with each edition and now no longer exists. Games Workshop put it out of it's misery, perhaps realising it was only nostalgia that kept it going and they had developed in a limited way. It's replacement is something that is not really aimed at gamers my age but does look as if it is full of more possibilities, returning to a kind of Michael Moorcock world of endless realms and eternal Champions. It should guarantee the continuation of Games Workshop with enough to inspire any imagination (other than the imagination of tournament players who found they could not win without thinking anymore). It reminds me of the aspects of the Warhammer world that was presented in 'Slaves to Darkness' and 'the Lost and the Damned'.

But I am not currently looking for that. I want to use the Warhammer world of first edition WFRP, the Warhammer world of my youth, and then expand it filling in the unwritten background or changing the background I don't like. This will be the world for my games, just as everyone has their own 'Enemy Within' campaign and events. If, for example, you like Orcs being rapists and feel this has to be done to make Warhammer real, I am not going to get into long arguments on background with you. Although I might question why you are insistent on this and what it says about you...

This will allow me to have 'Song of Fire and Ice' political style infighting,  reformation style religious conflict, every character to be equally important and to have their own aims and perspective, an overriding threat of apocalypse (very '80s cold war style) and Tolkien style ancient history effecting each kingdom with the irony being it is often based on lies. The 1st edition WFRP had all this and lots of room for expansion as well as more detail for armies that the later army books missed.

So I am going to focus on finishing my proxy Empire army using mainly Perry Miniatures. I plan to base it on the list in Warhammer armies and around the politics and threat to an invented small province that reflects and adds to the world of WFRP 1st edition, not the world of Warhammer as it was developed, even if I might borrow some of the aspects of these later developments. But in all I want it to be based upon getting a reflection of the world in my mind, rather than an army that is aimed at taking all comers. It is a reflection of a narrative. The skill and fun comes from being able to play and win within these constraints, producing heroes doing truly great things, not from building undefeatable armies.

The underlying focuses for my army will be the following:

The Enemy Within as a source book
As  mentioned above, the Empire army evolved into a form of Landsknecht  soldiers as WFB 3rd. edition developed. This was the continued in all subsequent editions. While it provided a very visually interesting army and fitted with the idea of a professional standing army, it didn't really fit with the kind of world portrayed in WFRP. The Empire is not a great power, but a political mess barely holding together.

In reality the Empire, in it's present incarnation, has only lasted for 200 years since Magnus the pious defeated Chaos incursions and united the Empire. The Empires armies are made up of many different elements, with the Imperial Guard forming the personal bodyguard of the Emperor and being an elite with in the army. With this, there are the provinces standing armies, ranging from nobles personal retinues, through to town militias. equipment and training varies with these forces. Finally there are mercenaries, used throughout the Empire and if we look at real history, they were often a vital element in providing a professional boost to a states armies in times of war (and were the role played by the original Landsknecht.

There is more detailed information on this on pages 28-29 of the 1995 Hogshead printing of 'Shadows over the Bofenhagen' and was originally in 'The Enemy Within' adventure module. A quick read through it shows that the best match army list is the one in Warhammer Armies and this gives plenty of scope to play with when trying to make this source material into an army.

The struggles of the Nobility
This is best summed up with  quotes from the White Dwarf 91 article on nobility:

"Imperial politics are based on the division of power among the electors, for whom the Emperor is but a figurehead. The divisions and alliances among the Electors tend to be at their most critical during the election of a new Emperor, but the process takes place all the time. Normally there are only a small number of figures at anyone time with the drive, energy and influence to be considered major figures in the hierarchy of the Empire... Behind these figures, a complex web of supporters spreads throughout all areas of the Imperial life."

And

"One of the sad truths about the noble class is that they love fighting. No harm in that, you'd have thought, given the enemies beyond the border, but the fact is they prefer fighting each other. There is a kind of institutionalised violence in the Empire called the Private War. This is a family feud blown out of all proportions, involving the raising of armies, battles, sieges etc. It's called a private war because it is actually illegal to 'join in'- you are supposed to be hired by one of the principle parties involved, related to one of them, a retainer of one of them or just one of them. The rules of the private war are simple; you can d what you like to the people on the other side, but you are supposed to avoid general mayhem around the place."

In other words, the nobility are not united but are full of differing interests, feuds, power struggles and questionable loyalty. Basically I aim to reflect this in the background to my Empire army and let it show in the campaigns that it is involved in.

Religion
WFRP, reflecting renaissance Germany, has religion as a major factor. The obvious conflict between followers of the cult of Sigmar and followers of Ulric are well covered and can be easily represented. But WFRP mentions the other ods which might be followed by conscripts in the army or the alternative to Ulric, Myrmidia, the Goddess of War who represents strategy and is seen as unfit for a warrior to follow by Ulric's worshippers.

Then there is the opposite to the Chaos Gods, the Gods of law. Long neglected with only a paragraph for each of them. I  see that there followers can have as harmful an impact as the followers of the Chaos Gods with their triumph also representing the destruction of society and the world. Solkan, the master of vengeance and law could be used as a deity for defeated champions and a motivation for witch hunters and puritan politicians.

Magic
White Dwarf issues 113 and 114 presented the beginnings of what became colour magic for Warhammer. The interesting thing was that it gave background that individualised the magic users and encouraged them to be more than simply a choice for the army. The underlying suggestions are that magic is a powerful addition to society and has it's own secret underworld and power struggles. It would be foolish not to tap into this rich vein and tie it up into the narrative of my games. Coupled with the struggles of the nobility, the reason for battles and the objectives in the scenario can be extremely varied.

Next blog I'll start showing how my Empire army looks and how I'm beginning to develop the narrative around it. hopefully there won't be too much gap between this post and the next.

A WFB 3rd edition battle report and pictures.

I don't have that much time to game at the moment and what little time I have had has reduced to nothing due to a recent house move and work commitments. But I still plan to try and continue with my hobby (and by default this blog), continuing with focusing on the bits that interest me and developing interesting narratives to base my hobby around.

Despite this lack of time, I did mange to try out third edition rules and fight a battle before Christmas on an improvised table. I played alone and did aim at re-familiarising myself with the rules by basically playing a scenario based on a defence against an advancing horde. I used all my Orc and Goblin force and my developing Empire Force, which is based on Perry Miniatures fantastic historical models. Photos are of course rubbish but were only taken to give an idea of the action, not to be beautiful diaromas. If they were, I failed at the first hurdle of providing a decent table.

This is not competition wargaming or wargaming to sell miniatures, it is to have fun in an evening while telling a story.

Background
Following the events outlined in the previous post, the Orc and Goblin horde has begun raiding and wiping out towns in the West of the Empire. Prince Horatio, an elector count, has decided to build his reputation by taking on the force. He has entered into a bargain with the merchant Bismarck. In exchange for the use of his troops, he will support Bismarcks attempt to marry the Duchess Winona. This would bring the Merchant Bismark into nobility and give him claim to throne of the small Duchy of Weisburg and real power. As it stands, Bismark is already a powerful figure in Weisburg having purchased land and power with gold that he gained from adventuring in Lustria. While known as unpredictable, he is a powerful figure who's backing is depended upon by nearly all the factions in Weisburg.

All that is except the Duchess Winona, who despises the figure and has claim to the inheritance of the Duchy when her frail father dies after her elder brother renounced all claim to the his inheritance and became a warrior priest of Sigmar. Her father listens to his daughter but is increasingly pressured to marry her off with increasingly influential voices telling him to arrange a wedding between Bismarck and her for the good of the Duchy. Bismarck see's that only a bit more pressure is needed and so has started to ally himself with nobles outside of Weisburg. Prince Horatio, the son of an Elector Count who is already seeking glory presents himself as a perfect ally.

So far the Orc and Goblin Horde has presented no real threat, other than a stream of refuges and distress from small villagers. Nobles are not wanting to mobilise against it,  seeing an all out war as what is wanted and so what should be avoided, allowing the Horde to break down under the weight of infighting. Prince Horatio agreed with this, until something happened. A group of clergy, from various religions started preaching about the evils of ignoring the greenskin menace. Prince Horatio's advisers advised to ignore this, until slowly one by one they did u-turns and advised the Prince that it would improve his standing if he engaged in crusade aganst the green tide.

It was a week after the last adviser changed his mind that Bismarck approached the adviser with a proposition. In exchange for his support of the marriage of the Duchess Winona, Bismarck would allow the use of his private army and they would face off against the Green Horde along their path of advance.

While their was no real path of advance, the village of Gimte provided a clear target for the Greenskins and agood place to assemble to beat them. The Prince agreed. He marshalled his small force of pikemen and called for help amongst the noble Knights aligned to his father and to Weisburg. He had a force and marched on Gimte.

The edge of Gimte and beginnings of the Great Forest. The Field of Battle

The Battle
Bismarck and The Prince's forces were camped in Gimte for a week before something happened. It started with scouts not returning and those that did reported a large force of Greenskins gathering but not approaching. The force outnumbered the Princes and Bismarck's combined forces. Bismarck's commanders and The Prince agreed open battle would not be possible and they would have to allow the Greenskins to break against their defences in Gimte. They set up with the nights on the Eastern flank next to the elite mercenary swordsmen of Bismark. Then the Princes artillery and Pike at the edge of the village and Bismarcks gunners and crossbowmen defending the village. The aim was to keep the Greenskin form the village and the break as many advancing as possible.

I did say the table was improvised! Empire Knights assembling

The Greenskins came on mass, with Night Goblin Archers and infantry heading for the village and Goblin Spears heading for the Princes men and Elite Swords. They were backed by a huge spider crawling with goblins and Orc boys.

The Empire fired on the goblins and soon a healthy number of casualties were being made.

 But more and more Greenskins entered the field of battle and the giant spider advanced onto the Empires right flank.

In what looked set to become a legendary heroic charge, Prince Horatio ordered his knights to charge the beast. Unfortunately heroism is a lot easier in legends than it is on paper and the knights panicked at the enormity of their task and stayed in place, struck down by fear. The Goblins spurred their Araknorak (the spider) forward and charged instead. The Knights ended up locked in combat with the beast, only just holding and not routing.

To add to this, mangler squigs started to rampage through the Empire lines and the majority of the Empire forces looked set to be left out of the battle as Orcs and Goblins closed on the crossbowmen and gunners defending the village.

 In an effort to engage and split the advancing greenskins who looked set to ignore the majority of his defences the Prince ordered his pike men forward to form a block in the centre of the field. Unfortunately they were charged by the Orc General and accompanying battle standard barer. Two models but I imagine it would be the equivalent of 50 (1 model represents 25 actual soldiers) super hard, huge Orcs armed to the Teeth lead by a couple of maniacs. They were followed by more Orcs and a Goblin regiment side charging the pike men.

With this the Prince ordered those who could to withdraw. Bismarck had already gone, abandoning his mercenaries who gave a fighting withdrawal. The Empire weren't routed but they were defeated. The village was the Orcs and symbolically, for this disparate group of tribes, they had defeated the Empire for the first time. They were ready to stop raiding and march to war! The reign of Finbad the Unrepentant, warlord and Emperor was about to begin!

Lessons
The battle showed a few things to me. Firstly it highlighted the flaws of 3rd. edition Warhammer. Despite it allowing more depth and range of actions, it drags as the battle gets bigger. If I am to continue resurrecting it, I will limit my games to 1500-3000 point afairs. In particular the combat system drags and does need honing down. Close combat should be short quick and brutal, not a drawn out affair. Anyone who has done martial arts training will tell you that you cannot physically spend hours fighting back and forward, but third editon seems to suggest this is exactly what happens over a tiny strip of land.

The second issue was manoeuvre and orders. I want a game where the general is giving and struggling to give orders, not just being a leadership bonus while units can freely manoeuvre. In my next game, I'm tempted to use some kind of order system based on Warmaster, to represent orders struggling to get through. The logical thing would be to back this up with an initiative move system which could result in forces doing the opposite of what you want them to do.

Finally the use of all my Orc and Goblin armies was over the top and made the game one sided. While I don't want to end up tied to army lists and points, I need to both remember restraint and use suitable size armies for time and space that match up more evenly. So I'll probably never paly with my full Orc and Goblin force using third edition rules again

My Orc and Goblin army

My Orc and Goblin army

My Orc army has been produced over my 29 years of on/off playing Warhammer. Basically when I first played Warhammer I played a lot of battles against Dwarfs with Orcs, before developing an interest in chaos thanks to the mighty Realm of Chaos books. When I got back into Warhammer, I wanted some continuity from the early days while using  a mixture of my old models and some of the best of the new models. It comes to 4000 points based around the 8th. edition Orc and goblin list, although it roughly matches this using a list based in third edition Warhammer Armies. But the aim is to play loose games of third edition based Warhammer with it. I am still in the process of adjusting rules to fit some of the new profiles for models such as the Arachnorak and squigs so that I can easily play with my version of 3rd. edition. But a bit of friendly play testing and adjustment should work this out. After all I don't do competitive gaming and it is playing out the narrative and the challenges this throws up that is most important.

So, the background!

In the Grey Mountains, the Dwarfs' of the  seven holds of Eira Gwyn fought a devastating 20year war of attrition against invading groups of Orcs. The battles would range from bloody sieges to personal, small scale skirmishes aimed at keeping mountain passes open. Finally a bloody push managed to drive the majority of the Orcs into the forests that marked the beginning of the Empire and allow the final five years to be based around mopping up the small groups of Orcs and Goblins that remained in the areas around Eira Gwyn and what the Dwarfs considered their territory.

The Orcs in the forest entertained themselves by fighting amongst themselves, beastmen, bullying the local spider worshipping goblin tribes and avoiding two nasty Orc characters. These were Finbad the Unrepentant and Gomidja.

Finbad the Unrepentant was a huge Orc who refused to accept that Orcs were defeated in Eira Gwyn. It was rumoured that he, along with his small band of big 'uns, was planning another big war. This was fine, however, despite their love of violence, Dwarfs did not like getting massacred and embarrassing defeats. The Empire was too strong around the  forests, the beastmen were too strong and the Dwarfs were definitely too strong to take on in a big war. Little fights were the order of the day and more fun. Finbad didn't accept this, but if you told him he would simply show you how good he was at war and completely destroying his opponents. He was very good, or so the Orc corpses would suggest.

Gomidja, on the other hand, was weird and dangerous. He was a powerful Orc shaman and he only appeared when he had a dark purpose, casting magic that caused deveestation, but also made the average Orc warrior feel strange. It was not clear what he believed in, but during the Eira Gwyn war he had turned up to battles and sieges where he then focused on plundering and capturing specific objectives, despite what the Orc chieftans tried to tell him what to do. It was also noted that any Orc who tried to tell him what to do met with a very sticky fate, meaning that he was left alone and any help he gave was gratefully accepted, even if it wasn't that helpful.

The Red Back tribe was the largest tribe of Forest Goblins and they were sick of the Orcs. It was bad enough fearing the Beastmen of the forests, without having to avoid the new influx of Orcs. After a while they decided to get their shaman, White Tail, to do something. The shaman decided to consult their god Araknorak, Red Back.  After a slow start the sky darkened and the drumming and dancing of the ceremony took on a life of it's own. The clouds darkened and spiders swarmed through the trees, White Tail and his assistants danced and let the sacred spiders bite them. Then at it's height, White Tail was struck by green lightening and from the sky and fell to the ground. Red Back emerged from the cave and stood over the prostate goblin before lifting him and cocconing him in silk.

The spider remained guardian for the rest of the night as the other goblins looked on in fear and awe, As dawn approached, a ripping sound could be heard. From the cocoon White Tail emerged. HE looked around at the hundreds of goblins and spoke! He told the Goblins he had ea vision. He would lead the Goblins against the Beastmen at skull rock clearing, freeing up the entrances to the Snarling Moon Night Goblin tribes caves. The Night Goblins would be in their debt and free to collect the forest mushrooms that were prized by their shamans. They would ally with the forest goblins. White Tail then assured the awe struck Goblins that they could then order Finbad to join them and he would, because he would see the Goblins power at defeating the Beastmen. They could then take on the Empire and be free from hiding from bigger foes. Foes would hide from them!

From the darkness of the woods an unseen watcher smiled and lent on his staff, tired from the spell he had just cast. Gomidja's plan was beginning, he would take Finbad to watch the battle at Skull Rock and from here he would build an army!

Pictures

All done with a poor camera which is unfortunately over harsh on the highlights.

A group photograph of the Orcs' and Goblins' ready for war.

Finbad with Harboth's archers in the background

Above is Finbad the Unrepentant with Harboths archers who joined his army in the interest of violence and looting. Harboth's archers were a Christmas present in about 1989. I never painted them until I started collecting Orcs' and Goblins' a few years ago. They are one of a few links in this army to my past gaming.

A Black Orc hero and White Tail, the shaman who thinks he is general

I basically built the platform for White Tail to give the impression of grandeur and the potential for magic power. All of this is borrowed from Gamidja who has his own (non- Orcish) aims and oacts but needs an army that would not follow him alone. Finbad is also Gamidjas puppet but is manipulated differently with Gomidja persuading him that they both have the same aims.

Lunarus, forge world shaman and one of my favourite miniatures.

The army is very strongly shamans. I noticed this as I painted it, but it fits with the narrative I'm developing for my battles with unseen and unknown power struggles between magic users of all races being partly behind all battles. This is above even some generals who never truly understand the wars they fight.

Red Back

Finally a shot of Red Back, the model that I got form my wife for my birthday three years ago that re-started my Orc and Goblin collection. The photgraph definitely doesn't do it justice and I will eventually get some better daylight ones done. I used an airbrush for the first time while painting this and I learnt quite a bit about painting as I did it. It is not the best thing I've painted, but  it is the largest and it showed me how inspiring some of games Workshops modern models are, despite what some older gamers say. In the bottom left corner are some Nigh Goblin archers. I really didn't want to paint such a big unit in balck. In fact I almost didn't bother with such a big unit but felt it fitted with my idea of how goblins would fight. In the ed I used brown in instead of black since I felt it gave a better, more gritty look and seperates them from the cartooney image of Night Goblins in 4th. and 5th. edition.

I won't list the exact army here, since, as I mentioned, I am still trying to work out how to play games based on third edition rules with some models that did not exsist in that version. There for there is not an exact list or points values. But then who needs point values, this is narrative gaming with each model and unit having it's own story!

More on Orcs', my solution!

I spent slightly more than 24 hours getting round to writing this, basically once again my world sped up and I had to drop things to keep up!

In my last post I basically had a negative rant about Warhammer Orcs' nad found that they were at best simply a copy of human raiders, complete with a few nasty overtones. Why bother with Orcs' when you have the more interesting chaos raiders? Or Beastmen from the forests? Or Skaven from below?

Does the idea that they rape and pillage make them different from many historical armies and the perception of most raiding forces? Why not focus on the nastier and more mysterious Fimir than the neanderthal turned green skin Orcs? At least the Fimir have an air of mystery mixed with real horror and revulsion, a left over factor of their source material from Celtic mythology.

Orcs going into third editon had no real culture and were just a brutish bad guy who the best that could be offered was some comic writing. Yet the solution to this came from Games Workshops development of Orcs, starting with 40K.

Around 1991 games workshop developed the concept of the orc for 40K, basically making it the Ork. I think the same problems pervaded with the orc being a bad guy with a gun but little else. The big developments were the idea that Orc society was something that was inherent in the minds of the orcs, not some constantly changing political society that humans live in. Culture amongst the orcs did not develop, it was programmed into them, they just knew how to develop weapons, technology and so on. Hierarchy was simply the largest at the top and war was simply an instinct, not a means to achieve something (although this instinct did allow them to plan and implement grand ideas such as conquest and enslaving so that they could build for more conquest and enslaving.)

With this the concept of the Ork changed too. Language was not taught, it was known, Orks didn't have family  unit, they grew from fungus and then joined tribes, conveniently getting rid of the long standing sore point of Ork wifes waiting and bringing up little Orks in a family unit based society. The reproduction of Orks was done by spores with the spores being released when Orks were happiest, basically when they were violent and at war.

Now returning to Orcs, the Warhammer equivalent. fourth edition hinted that these things occurred and introduced a more unified idea of Orcs. I can't see why it doesn't serve the Old World that was presented in WFRP better to have this idea of Orcs. Basically do away with the idea that Orcs (and goblins) are like some kind of raiding barbarians with a tribe based on family bringing up their young. Replace it with the simple facts that Orcs occur like fungus and war is their instinct. Tribes are built around this and can occur almost out of no where. While orc settlements can be found, caves can be infested with goblins and so on, there is no such thing as an orc kingdom or goblin kingdom, just large groups who from alliances behind the biggest and strongest leaders.

Orcs' in my Warhammer world are like this and this is the background I will base my games on, giving them a different purpose to other races. So:

Orcs and Goblins

The Myth

Consisting of tribes of brutal raiders from the badlands, intent on pillage and destruction. The abomination of the Half Orc shows their intentions. They will plunder and at times invade for territory. They are followers of dark gods' and pure evil. It is only the fighting amongst themselves that prevents them form completely over running the Old World.

The Reality

Although goblins often have malign intent, the Orcs main aim is simply violence and as much of it as possible. The Orcs are produced from spawns, like fungus, which grows more orcs, goblins, squigs or snotlings where ever it falls. They have similar intelligence levels to humans but rarely study, with most of their skills coming from instinct and the only learning done is learning better ways to be violent. They gather in tribes which are little more than collections of warriors behind the strongest leader who then takes the orcs to war. The stronger leaders tend to unite several tribes although  this rarely lasts long due to infighting. The more violence the Orcs experience, the more spores they release, resulting in the more Orcs. The Darklands to the east are over run by Orcs as a result. hHowever their inherent disorganisation has also meant other factions have been able to enslave and dominate large numbers of Orcs.

One of the horrors of fighting Orcs is the notion of half Orcs. Although rare, they tend to live longer than most Orcs due to possession of a judgement that is not based on simply finding the best way to commit acts of violence. A half Orc occurs when Orc spores infect a dying human or recently deceased corpse If the human was living he soon dies of a raging infection. Basically this corpse nourishes the Orc which as it grows absorbs some of it's DNA. Normal Orcs are asexual, while half Orcs can be make, female or neither. Some can even reproduce and legend has it that some noble families have Orc blood in them. This last factor has been exploited by the Chaos Dwarfs in their experiments with breeding different strains of Orc.

The truth about Orcs. An Orctober post.

While keeping with the notion of giving my ideas of background based on the Warhammer world I thought I would write something about Orcs. Firstly my one completed. army is an Orc and Goblin one. Secondly I have, at one stage or another, played Orcs in all Fantasy games I've played. Finally it is Orctober so I should do a post about Orcs!

A bit of background and the problem with Orcs.
The history of Orcs in fantasy has been well documented by a lot more knowledgeable  writers than me. I don't want to get into debates about their historic meanings or if Orc really means foreigner and reflected a subtext of racism in Tolkien's work, as interesting as such debates can be. Having said that I do find it a bit strange that a man who was a Roman Catholic and believed in the Latin Mass, would of had that much of a distrust of anything foreign.

For me, though, the idea of Orcs as the big, ultimate bad guys stemmed from their use as basically foot soldiers in Lord of the Rings. My interest in green skins generally, came from the Goblins in The Hobbit. Malign Goblins living on the out skirts of society, riding wolves and attacking strangers fired my imagination when I read The Hobbit.  In particular the description of Wolf Riders gave a sense of evil at the side of society.

Warhammer originally showed goblins as similar to this with their harder bigger cousins the Orcs being a separate entity (they even had a paint called Orc Brown. In my D&D games and AD&D games I tried reflecting the Goblins in this Tolkienesque vision with Orcs, if used at all, bein g the hired muscle for evil. Even as I started appreciating the subtlety of using a group of Orcs to provide a good kicking, they tended to be the hired henchmen of evil, not a force in themselves.

By the end of WFB 2nd edition Orcs and Goblins were part of one big hooligan family called the Green skins. This was reinforced with WFRP and the decision in Warhammer armies to stop you taking an all Orc or all Goblin army with a compulsory choice of 20 Orc archers and 20 orc boyz coupled with a compulsory 20 goblin stickas and goblin spearmen. The reasoning behind this basically turned the Goblins into a subservient race. It was no longer the Goblins who brought down the dwarfs but Green Skins in general.

This helped make the Green skins more of a faction in themselves and the notion of dangerous wilderness was taken over by chaos in the form of beastmen, the chaos wastelands and an enemy within (and under if you count the skaven). They made an excellent replacement and the only time I used Goblinoids in WFRP when I was Games Master was with the encounter with Elf Wardancers originally printed in White Dwarf (an encounter that is all the more interesting if someone is playing a miserable and angry Giant Slayer who has little time for Elves at his best but also has little hope of fighting the troupe and surviving, But I digress).

This left the Goblinoids, now dominated by a hierarchy starting with the Orcs, at a bit of a loose end narrative wise. On the one hand you had a competent army that was portrayed as a kind of fantasy group of football hooligans, ready to take on all comers, living only for the fight wandering and marauding. This was fine for the tabletop battles and provided me with a lot of amusement. I happily let chaos take the sinister threat role and started collecting Orcs, or proxying them with card due to not being able to afford a full army, as did nearly everyone my age back then.

On the other hand Orcs were meant to be organised in some way.. They had tribes and they lived in the unexplored darklands.  While they could be used as mercenaries because of their love of a fight, it is also suggestive that they had some kind of family life with reproduction being between male and female orcs. It was also possible between Orc and human with half Orcs being mentioned in WFRP and WFB 3rd edition, suggesting rape is one of the things the marauding bands of Orcs get up to. Jack Yeovil, in the over-rated Drachenfels, mentions Drachenfels Orcs abusing young boys stating

"A raiding party of Orcs from the fortress had made sportof his two little sons, and killed them afterwards." Drachenfels 1989 p.13

In the short story Red Thirst Jack Yeovil again uses this metaphor, writing "Always he allowed the goblins to pick out a woman or two , or perhaps a comely youth, and watched them at their sport." Red Thirst 1990 p.15

This is distasteful. But it is also a fine picture fo Orcs and Goblins. The problem is they are not really Orcs or Goblins with these descriptions. The two aspects above could very easily describe any human group of warriors and the things the Orcs do have been done throughout history. From Viking Raiders and Genghis Khan through to modern wars in Africa. From Operation Barbarossa through to modern neo-Nazi thugs, there is nothing particularly Orcish about Orcs other then their look. Their stats are similar to humans, their organisation is similar to some human armies and their background is no different from thuggish humans. You begin to wonder, why have Orcs at all when you could have humans and followers of chaos fulfilling their role while fitting the Warhammer world just as well. They are not ultra thugs when compared to some historical raiders and the fact that writers feel  the need to get them to take part in child rape to make them scary, something plenty of humans have done during war, means to me, that these writers are struggling to make Orcs and Goblins different from humans and to develop a fantasy race that has a purpose ands is realistic.

The rape stuff and half Orcs comes across as desperate and is covered in a more scary way with the Fimir. By drawing Celtic myth, a race was created that is different, repugnant and playing on genuine fears, while, through the use of Daemons and the tribes matriarch,  is not doing something that could just as easily be done with a human tribe. The same with Beastmen. While making a good table top force, Orcs became something that was redundant in the Warhammer background.

I will try and look at solutions to this in my next post tomorrow.

After months of nothing, some Miniatures.

This blog was always going to be a bit irregular, basically being a random collection of my thoughts on gaming. Sadly I haven't had much time for the blog lately with the very little time I have for my hobby being spent on, well, my hobby. However I did have a burst of energy last night which might be the beginning of doing more.

I managed to finish three models last night. As with all of my painting, none of them are particularly well done, but do show my rough style which keeps me happy and reflects my rough personality and what I want to get out of my hobby. Namely relaxed, a bit loose but with personality.

The first one is two reaper models. One designed by Tim Prow and sold as a dark cleric, the other one a variation on the traditional overloaded adventurer also sold by Reaper.

I painted the model as an Amethyst wizard for Warhammer, if I bother using colour magic rules.  Personally I find it hard to imagine the 'dark cleric' being used for anything else and I get the feeling Tim Prow always had Warhammer in mind when he did the original sculpt. I added the overladen adventurer behind as faithful retainer, possible apprentice. This means that the mode would be wrongly based for the playing strictly by the rules and could not be used in competitive games.

But as I don't care for that kind of thing and narrative is more important, I think it adds a lot to the model, including difficulty to paint due to the retainers detail. Basically in Warhammer, unless your using it for a small skirmish, a model represents between ten and twenty five actual people in my mind. Characters have their retinue with them. Wizards in particular are the most powerful of their type, way above the majority of wizards you would ever meet or play in the roleplaying version. I imagine they have a big group of staff, apprentices, juniors and bodyguards with them when they go into battle. I can also imagine really powerful dark wizards needing none of this who can easily take on twenty five heavily armed Orcs with enhancement spells that you don't need to show in the rules, in which case one model is one model. The important thing is remembering a model is simply showing the presence of  something, not literally representing the person (skirmish gaming, such as how 40K was intended,  of course, is slightly different as is some smaller scale gaming).

This is aimed at visually alluding to this. It doesn't take too much work with a friendly opponent to work out a couple of house rules to allow you to work round different base sizes. WFB second edition even had suggestions for this different basing and it adds to the narrative by giving the characters presence in my opinion.

The next models I painted are from Foundry's swashbuckling range. These were aimed at either small skirmish games or adding character to my empire army, perhaps to represent particular objectives on the table or to become part of an Empire baggage train. I painted them very quickly and both look heroic without adopting the over the top look of that scale. They also reflect my approach to gaming, trying not to just represent heroes but believable narrative and fit in with the Warhammer world of WFRP first edition rather than that of later editions that lead to Age of Sigmar.

The earlier Warhammer World of WFRP First Edition and the pre-seventh edition was something that was more akin to a setting where youn played out your narratives and something that I aim to get back to. As such, I will show in future posts how I see this world and plan to develop my armies in it in the future games I play. After all, thirty years on the slow creep of doom presented in The Enemy Within carries more possibility and excitement than any sudden apocalypse caused by an over sized, over priced model called Nagash. I hope to devote the next few posts to show how I am developing that world and narrative with my gaming.

What I game with (part three: the army lists)

Army lists are a strange thing. On the one hand they provide a bit of order so the an army is both balanced and represents the background a game is set in. (As I have mentioned, this is not 'fluff' unless you think that background is light and no real substance to a game. An approach I avoid like the plague!) On the other hand it encourages the belief that all armies must look a certain way and must conform to this and the game is about maximizing forces to beat an opponent, not participating in the playing out of an event!

When reviewing Ravening Hordes, Warhammer second editions army lists and expansion, Rick Priestly stated that the book was not a scenario (like the previous 2nd edition releases) "but a scenario construction kit." (White Dwarf 90 June 1997 p.2 I knew there was some reason for keeping a magazine for 29 years!)

Some army lists yesterday.

'Warhammer Armies' the third edition army lists states that

"The purist approach is to use army lists as they stand, with no alteration , and to use the rules for scenery deployment and the like as given in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Alternatively, the players may decide to allow a certain amount of leeway ('if you let me use an extra Level 25 Hero, I'll let you use your homemade Orc Ornithopter'). Scenery could be organized by discussion rather than random generation, with players using special buildings or terrain models."
Nigel Stillman and Friends 'Warhammer Armies' 1988 p.4

I would also like to point to the statement on p.5 of this book which states "Players shouldn't feel over restricted in their choice of models...these guidelines have been formulated to make games easier to play- not to restrict players or make them use specific models."

Over the years many army lists have been released by Games Workshop and other companies. Some have continued in the tradition of facilitating the playing of games. Others seem to be more geared towards getting people to buy models. A particular pastime has arisen in the past 10 years on the internet involving gamers moaning about army lists making armies overpowered/ underpowered. Those of you that have read my last two posts won't be surprised to think that I feel they are missing the point and if the army list is that much of a problem, they shouldn't use it and agree another way of forming a force with their opponent! As suggested, lists should just be a tool to get a representative force for a scenario or campaign, not to enslave choices. If you are going to use an army list (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't) ask three simple questions.

1) Does it represent what you want it to represent?
By looking at the background of an army it is possible to give you an idea of the force you want to represent. A narrative should already be forming in your mind about what you are building and why. For a scenario you should already have a strong narrative, likewise a campaign should give you an idea of the starting point for your army with it's history up to that point.

Historical gaming enables you to actually read up about the forces that you are going to use and then search for a force that represents this. Likewise, fiction can be an inspiration. My current interest in Warhammer started with being given an Araknorak as a present and building an army around this. The list I used was the Warhammer eigth edition 'Orc and Goblin' army book. But this list was used as a guide to builfd the force I wanted, not the definitive list. I considered using other list published but stuck with this guide, adapting it for the version of the rules I play with (see my last post). What I didn't allow was for the list to dictate what I was my force would look like.

Some lists are specifically built for campaigns (for example the lists in Forge Worlds Imperial Armour books or Flames of Wars briefings). These tend to need little work done to them since they are based on the background. Conversely, other lists are simply aimed at all games with in a rules set. These generic lists can be used to represent a narrative army with some work. But they also seem to suffer from the Max-Min competitive gaming mind set. basically the ideas that you must take this and never take that in order to win your games. Basically ignore that, use what you want and move on to the second question to gain balance.

An example of some excellent campaign themed army lists which can be used to add to narrative, rather than simply restricting your force.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning that some lists expect you to buy and assemble massive units of rank and file just so you can play the special models you want to play. Ask yourself is this really necessary? Will adjusting this aspect of the list really matter? If it does perhaps you should use another army list and if there is no other try a different rules set. After all these are tools to allow you to play, not restrictions to prevent you from playing!

2) Will it allow balance with in the game I am playing?

So you carefully select the list that will provide the guide for your themed force and then you realise something, it is looking a bit different from the other army. In fact it has bigger, harder units and they are all elite. Now it can be interesting to play out famous massacres and walk overs, with the challenge being  allowing some of your army to survive through heroic actions, if you want the narrative to continue beyond one game, every game being a walk over (or massive defeat) soon becomes boring. Likewise, having your army composed of if it's unit variety your after)lite units might be interesting for a one off game but will soon become boring and will not produce narrative gaming.

3) How can I adjust it to do these things?
The best way of adjusting is too have a narrative in mind when assembling your army. The list is a guide and should be used to work with the narrative and adjusted with it. Always have a theme for your army, giving an idea of why they are at war who they are fighting and let this then be reflected wit the list you choose. From here adjust the list as you want and talk to your opponent about adjustments used.

These adjustments can take the  form of altering the profiles if your list is form a different edition of the game (but gives a better variety of troops or is more reflective of the background your after. Other changes can be adding or taking away troops, ignoring minimums or maximums and so on. The main thing is to get the army you want  to collect and play with represented on the table and not to be slave to someone else's idea of what that army should look like.

As a rough guide I find that for every adjustment made to a list that gives it an advantage,  you should also make an adjustment that reduces its abilities elsewhere. However it is entirely up to you. The only real rule is to stick to a narrative since your developing an army and a story aimed at making your collection more than game pieces and also discussion with your opponent of both the narrative and how you see it playing. You then have a starting point for your scenarios.

With this and the previous two posts in mind, I am now going to stop the lecturing posts and continue this blog writing about what I am doing for my hobby and why. This will probably take the form of sporadic posts about what I've been painting and  the background I'm using, with a few comments on how I play the games. I also aim to put up my recently completed Orc and Goblin army to show how the vague principles I write about actually work.