So there is a good amount of interest in a Fantasy Campaign. I am really keen to get it happening but i think we'll need to get an idea of what we all want from it.

There is no point coming up with a intricate campaign system with supply, revenue and movement if everyone wants a dirt simple bash each other over the head campaign.

We would like to have a campaign with:
(I'll keep this updated with suggestions)

1. A really pretty map, preferably a modeled 3D one with little army markers all over it

hmmmm...

It is really coming together well. I need to make another application of marble dust for the snow capped mountains and fill the rivers with pva. After that i'll have to get to work on the campaign markers
2. Siege Battles!
3. Seasonal change, something like 1 week for spring, 2 for summer, 1 for autumn and a winter downtime.
4. A time line for the campaign with fixed ending event. No longer than 12 weeks.
5. A cool story behind it. Conquest of a newly discovered/formed island, like the old Albion campaign or similar.
6. Simple rules to reflect loss and replenishing of armies. Less post battle upkeep. Similar to risk in format.
7. Acquision of magic items. Maybe stand alone games of skirmish/mordhiem to acquire rare items.
8. Special areas on the map that have in game effects, wizard towers etc.

Feel free to add to this, once we get a good list we can start making some rules to accomdate.

Players interested and what race they are using:
Chris - Chaos Dwarfs, there back baby!
Josh P - Lizardmen
Josh L - Orge Kingdoms
Marshall - Vampire Counts
Mathew - Orcs or Beasts, not sure
Ty - Bretonnians
Bryan - Orcs but unfortunately overseas for a good deal of the the campaign.

Sounds cool, will bring my space marines.

Who would be playing what??? help with story =P
I think as far as supply goes use a "risk" style. More zones held extra points to spend (nothing to game changing). Hold complete territorys extra quirky bonus.
A simple attack/defend system works for me, have seige battles to take castles

Not the least bit fantasy curious?

The risk style would work well. Simple enough. I have been playing a fair bit of game of thrones and the order system from that would be ace. Add an element of planning to the game.

I'm happy for our first fantasy campain to be relivily easy due to ease of running not alot of up keep and we're gonna make mistakes overal so keep it pretty simple atm as we can always make the next one have all the bells and whisltes otherwise whatever allows me to field the most "Irredeemably evil, bitter and self-centred creautres caring nothing for the life of others" Chaos Dwarfs

im actually kind of interested. could be a lot of fun and i do need to give the army a run. when are you looking to start it?? hopefully ill be back

Hoping to kick it off at the end of march.

Doh! Just before he goes away overseas Lol oh well we'll give you some games mate need to smash someone with my new chaos dwarfs hehe

too true and i do need to relearn the rules again

Yeah, hook me up. I will be playing demons?

I could buy some dwarves: WTS thread that enough to make a list?

Lol play daemons you'll have alot more fun than a static dwarf gun line very boring to play very bring to play against.

Don't worry Bryan its easy to pick em up theres a few changes but nothing you won't get your head around hehe.

It is a start, but from what I have seen you will need to fill out your infantry blocks, get some more missile troops and war machines.

I would select an army that you enjoy the look and story of over any other criteria. And if that means brutal gun line dwarfs than so be it...

NFI really, would be just to play with you lads. If dwarves are boring as bat ###### then no worries. Is there whole cavalry armies?

If you see something cheap on the forums or ebay let me know and I will pick it up.

Yes there are their called Bretonnians thats what Ty's playing lol
But if you wanted all mounted their are a couple of army books that allow you to do that Orcs & Goblins and warriors of Chaos off the top of my head

How many points do we need at this stage I can do 1500-1750. I can make it up to 2500

You can do all cav armies with, Bretonnians, Empire, Warriors of Chaos, Orcs and Goblins, Dark Elves (pretty sure dark riders are core), Wood Elves, Tomb Kings. I think that covers it.

I would like to play the campaign at 2000-2400 points. But I imagine that you will have armies over various point levels over the campaign.

I've got some, what I think are good concepts for the map, territory and movement. Putting it all down on paper now but if you imagine something like a 40k node campaign. Or an old school space empire strategy game where some star systems allow you to jump to others adjacent, and you won't be far off. I reckon that it will allow us to have a simple movement and territory system while using a 3D campaign map.

I'm struggling at little at the moment with the Campaign. Anything i come up with for the map based campaign feels a little too complicated. I really want to get things started off quickly with very little stress. Jumping balls deep into it the campaign may leave some of us a little, chaifed.

In addition to that I keep getting drawn to a narrative style campign. A little backstory based around the theatre of war and the forces involved and let the games establish the story. I think it would be a bit more casual and get the fantasy fires going (insert barry white, oh yeah).

So, why not do both? We are all just getting into 8th, most with new, unfinished armies. An escalation, narrative style that builds into a full blown map based campaign should ease us into it. Spice that up with a 'Tale of X Gamers' style of army construction and we will have a great little event at the LMS.

Here is a preliminary outline of the Campaign...

*EDIT: Following Matt's suggestions (see post below), I have added an addtional stage in the campaign to allow armies to start smaller. Less stress on painting and more games.

Land Ho!

A significant new land mass has been discovered by famed explorer Marco Columbo. Tales of fabulous wealth and boundless resorces spread like wild fire through the Old World and beyond. Marco commisions maps to 'Columbo Isle' at a king's ransom. Fleets leave from all corners of the world to lay claim to the Isle, if for no other reason but to change it's name...

A Tentative Investment
Small skirmishes with rivals occur over the island as Generals seek to protect their fragile colonies and explore the island for wealth and power.

*EDIT: At the start of the campaign, all players roll 2d6, from the highes resultt to lowest players take it in turn to place their first settlement. This will become their capital when the campaign progresses to the MAp stage. It will also help frame our story.

- Players raise 600 point forces.
- Play occurs over the month of March with two offical meetings, 1st and 3rd tuesday of the month. Play can occur whenever, where ever.
- Players may enter and exit play as they like
- Army lists are free to change.
- Encouragement to build and paint 600 points of addtional forces within the month.

Players offer the motives of their Generals and we find a series of best fit scenarios to play out. The results of these scenarios may well effect the remainder of the Campaign.
This period is purely narrative in style, special scenarios and linked games and the like. Focus on exploration and treasure hunting

We need more monkeys!
As Generals carve their mark upon the landscape it becomes obvious that if the land is to be plundered, more men are required

- Players raise 1200 point forces.
- Play occurs over the month of April with two offical meetings, 1st and 3rd tuesday of the month. Play can occur whenever, where ever.
- Players may enter and exit play as they like
- Army lists are free to change.
- Encouragement to build and paint 600 points of addtional forces within the month.

Players offer the motives of their Generals and we find a series of best fit scenarios to play out. The results of these scenarios may well effect the remainder of the Campaign.
This period is purely narrative in style, special scenarios and linked games and the like. Focus on exploration, treasure hunting and border skirmishes

Prelude to full scale war
More troops arrive everyday, conflict intensifies and the exploitation of the Isle is brought to a halt. Thus turn the gears of war.

*EDIT: At this point i would like to incorporate some of the motives of various generals and where they wish to apply their forces. Keep it open and build suitable story and scenarios to bring everything together.

- Players raise their armie to 1800 points
- Play occurs over the month of May with two offical meetings, 1st and 3rd tuesday of the month. Play can occur whenever, where ever.
- Players may enter and exit play as they like
- Army lists are free to change.
- Encouragement to build and paint 600 points of addtional forces within the month.

Play in this period leads us onto the Map Campaign. Generals rush to secure strategicly vital areas, fortify borders and raise new troops. All while disrupting the enemy's attempts to do the same. Diplomats are dispatched, alliances formed. Beat the the hairy chest of war. We focus here on series of linked scenarios centered around the disruption of the enemy and the defence of your own territory.

WAR!
The last days of winter fade and armies march to war.

*EDIT: At this stage players will upgrade their settlement to the capital of their Realm. Either with a 2d6 dice off or an order determined by previous missions player take it in tuns to place down X number of towns, castles and farms. These map pieces create your realm on the map.

- Players raise their armies to 2400 points
- Play occurs over the months of June and July
*EDIT: will probably begin the campaign in mid June to allow for TERRACON!
- Offical meetings every two weeks with play to occur inbetween offical meetings
- Players may enter as they like. They will operate as mercenaries to an established realm, fighting for coin. Players with established realms will hopefully see out the Campaign.

We bring in the Campaign Map rules concerning banners, loses, mustering etc. Players fight for single campaign season (8 weeks) to determine who will rule the Isle. We will need to develop some concrete camaping rules but those will evolve over time as we all get a better understanding of the game and what we want from it.

It is my hope that this format will allow new players to join, casual gamers to be included in the story and the committed to see it through to ultimate victory. What do you think gentlemen?

Hey Ty,
I definitely like the idea of an escalation campaign. It gives the other blokes who don't necessarily have large armies or just starting out a way to launch themselves into the game. Also gives me a chance to get my Orcs and Goblins rolling.

One thing though, perhaps push back the start a month or half a month. The reason I say this, if meets are first and 3rd week of every month, that actually means you need your army at least assembled to the current points level at the start of the month (it leaves the remainder of the month to paint and build the next step of your army, but the initial army has to be done and ready at the start).

Some people will already have their army set to go cause they just haven't painted it, but peeps like me who are thinking of starting a new army will need time to get ready and assemble the forces.

So it might be better to say start in April, with March being used to assemble your models, get a head start on painting, and get people who haven't played too much Fantasy a quick starter into the game.

Also, it's actually pretty damn hard to paint 1000 points of models within a month. I tried this for 40k back last June, and even then it's quite hard (Although, I like to put in a lot of detail on my models in some respects rather than basecoat dip done). Especially with Fantasy armies generally having a large model count.

Just some food for thought.

Good points. Interesting in that i had another period beginning in March at 600 points but removed it as I thought the overall campaign would be going for too long. Do you think the addition of that period would be achievable? But I would be happy to push the start date back to April.

Look up, look at the campaign map, now back to me, my terminators are now Orges!

I am happy to follow your lead Ty, since I dont need to paint and my armies will lizard lists will be compiled by yourself all I need to bring is my amazing tactical acumen and superb rolling abilities...

I'm not fussed either way, but certainly want some extra time to get my army assembled and all that and work out how I'm gonna replace my missing arrer boyz (I've managed to lose about 20 - gonna have to go through my entire room again just to make sure but... :'( :'( :'().
The thing to remember about 600 point games is that some things like magic can be a bit unbalanced at that points level... odd stuff happens in WFB below about 1k.

So I'm not fussed. If we want to do a smaller 600 point month, that's fine. If we just want to get some games going while we work out the specifics, that's also cool.

Lets roll with the 600 points. We can reduce the wings of magic to 2d3. That should lower the scope of the magic phase. We'll just keep it really informal with some trail scenarios thrown in. We can look for a formal format and kick the campaign proper off in April at 1200 points.

Sounds good gives josh and myself a chance to learn how to play

i can do 600 now maybe even next week with luck. and oh ive moved over to the dark side of the force

Excellent. We have an agreement. Campaign will begin on monday 5th March with 600 points. I will emblish the first stage of the campaign shortly.

Am now expecting 600 points of flair!

Grow those mutton chops of yours out and then we'll see some flair

I have posted up the details for the first period of our Fantasy campaign.

I choose to move it to a new topic as i would like to have the campaign proper seperated from any rules discussion or mild banter. Keep your trash talk, compliments and complaints here gents, that is unless you cloak your insults in fluff and back story.

Oh and Mr Pope i'll bring my Lizards down on monday along with the army book. I'll leave them there so your free to build armies as you see fit. More than happy to help with list building however.

Awww thanks! Yeah a pre-made list would go down well as I have no idea x2

I wont be able to make the start date but I'll be keen play as often as I can.
Idea is that maybe the ogres are the original land owners of the land and they ain't to happy about the "white man " or the lizard, green or dead man for that matter taken over there lands

Leave your ogres at the shed I will play with them Will run with the lizards when you are at the shed to get a feel for the different races.

I think ogres would be the army I would buy anyway...

That's understandable, fixed dates will never suit everyone. I hope I have created a format that allows people to jump in and out of the campaign with little fuss. And a game can always be played outside of the LMS. I can meet you down at GW sometime.

I like the idea of the indigenous Ogres. A small tribe that have been there longer than they can remember. That would work well.

Mr Pope, the idea of an escalation campaign is for players to build, paint and play with there forces, I doubt Josh would be able to do that if he leaves his Orges awaiting your pleasure.

Yeah josh, sides I don't want your bad luck jinxing my ogres.
With the 600 do we need to take 1hero + 3 units???
Finding it hard to get a legal force.

The bad luck is non-transferable and purely restricted to armour saves.

Yeah, you still do need to meet the minimum requiresments of a hero + 3 units (Unless Ty houserules it).
Units at this points level tend to be pretty different, but the rule is there to stop deathstarring to an extent.

My suggestion is keep your Bruiser/Butcher pretty barebones. In my list, my Orc Big Boss all I've given him is a 5+ ward and a Great Weapon. Remember that your Bruiser's have to an extent, better stats than many lords in the game. You can give him all the cool trinkets and stuff when we move up to the next points level.

Just an example, I don't play Ogres but I'd consider something like this in 600 points:
Bruiser, Heavy Armour, AHW
5 Ogres, Standard, Muso, Look out Gnoblar (Bruiser goes here)
4 Ironguts (2x2 unit)
3 Leadbelchers

You can throw in a cheap unit of Gnoblars to meet the minimum requirements as well. Cheap as gobs and minimun unit size of 10. Even a largish unit of them like 30-40 strong will be costing you as much as a minimum unit of bulls.

Just get as close as you can. Where does it sau you need 3+ units?

Page 134. under the heading Minimum Three Units

all good I have a list now, just trying not to take anything I dont need later down the track

Errr duh...

O.k got my list

Butcher
Lv.2 Gut magic

Ironguts
5 guts: Full command

Leadbelchers
3 belchers

Gougers

Fluff to come....

So we had some 600 pointers tonight. Interesting stuff.

We limited the magic down to 2d3. This was more than enough to power the level 1 and 2's on the board. Magic had a fairly big effect but I don't think it is a disproportionate. In mine and chris' first game his level 2 reduced his level down to 0 letting Mr Columbo throw searing doom around the place. In the 2nd game Chris' sorcerer totally beat face. With Curse of Hasut he killed both Marco and the Baron plus two kights. Damn evil spell. In a third game with Josh, his skink priest got harmonic convergence but it had little effect while searing doom ate a good number of Saurus. All things considered I think the 2d3 works well.

I need to provide a little more direction in terms of story. Embellish the scene a bit. Maybe add bit of battle recording. Most notable event, turning points in the game, attitudes of characters, how many men you kill with pistol. Etc, etc. We can spin on table events into future scenarios.

Thanks for showing me the ropes of Fantasy, will need to have a few more games before the campaign kicks off.

I think the 4x4 works well at 600 and troop sizing is good, maybe with a few more games I will have a better appreciation for the magic phase and its trade-offs.

Changed my list this morning Ty you'll be happy though no war machine I figured I needed more punch so dropped unit of hobgoblins for 3x bull centuars LOL its fast hard hitting cavalry and don't need to take animosity either so they won't run off the board like that unit of hobbies did hehe.

More than happy with the 2d3 magic works well and I don't think over powered its just mages doing what mages do against mere mortals haha

The risk vs reward is still there. If not more so as characters, particularly when they cost 20% of your army.

More so if you roll up a direct damage snipe one like I did makes it just nasty but then it works in reverse as well due to the fact there's little difference between power and dispelled dice and you pretty much know your opponent is going to try and dispelled it regardless.

Hi guys,

I have been lurking this thread for a while as I really like what Origin has put together.

When the embargo hit I impulse bought enough kit for an entire 3000+ point High Elf army. Even though I haven't played the game since primary school.

Over the past week I've been busily throwing this army together, dusting off and opening up those boxes that have sat in a cupboard all these months!

So I'd love to jump in on this. My army is themed around being a task force sent from Chrace to investigate this baffling appearance of an island that has somehow escaped being charted by the Ulthuan navy! What a mystery to solve!

More than welcome to jump on in mate the more the merrier gives us a greater range of armies to butt heads with hehe

Happy to have you on board Brad. Good to have another 'good' race in the field.

Looking forward to seeing you and your elves on the field. Just a reminder regarding your campaign tokens. You'll need one 'settlement' and a number of resource and unique tokens.

Also please note that the offical launch of the campaign is on the Tuesday 6th March. If you cannot attend but are keen to play in the campaign please let me know. I will place your settlement on the campaign map for you.

And can someone get word to Marshall? Tell him to pull his finger out and get on wargamer!

I'll give Marshall a yell over Facebook.

Not sure if I'll be able to make next weeks session. Got a company event over mon-tues, so not sure what time it's going to finish on Tuesday, but I'll try and make it down so my Orcs can have a bash.