Back to the Badlands

Rumours circulate the old world of rains of rats. Rats will only abandon a sinking ship... or flying fortress in this particular case. It seems that those sneaky skaven who nicked the fortress in the final hours of the Badlands campaign have come a cropper - with none of the artefacts the other armies had assembled, they didn't have a hope of controlling the fortress. It is coming back to Earth far sooner than anticipated...

I plan to run a sequel to the Blood In The Badlands campaign I ran last year. I am keeping it to a closed number though, as having run the campaign AND seen how others have run similar campaigns (and if I do say so myself, ours was better!) I believe the book is accurate in the maximum number of players that can fit on that map.

I have made a list of things that were an issue for us last time round (Dark Elf mines springs to mind) and plan to iron out all the details before we kick off the sequel. I've already produced a document with the bulk of the groundwork, I'm just checking back to see if there's anything I've missed before I make a final copy of it.

As there are limited spots, I will have to be semi selective with who participates, and some people may be disappointed. This is aiming to be a narrative campaign rather than a competitive one though, so I'm hoping you'll join in in the right spirit.

Returning characters will have priority. As in, if you are bringing back a character you used last time, then you have first dibs on a spot. This doesn't mean you keep the upgrades and magic items you earnt last time... nice try. No this means you keep the name and backstory you may have developed. You can change the character details some if you like. If you had a Captain BSB last time who did particularly well, no reason why he can't return as a Lord choice General this time. Several years have passed, I'm thinking about 20 in fact, and he can feasibly have worked his way up the ranks. I for one plan to have Sir Ulric return... however given the knock to the head he sustained in the opening battle of the campaign has not healed well over the years, I plan to use the rules for the Mad Elector count Marius Leitdorf for him, as opposed to the Templar Grand Master he used to be. A martial organisation wouldn't tolerate the old fool for long, but politics is always home to hot headed lunatics...

I DO need 8 players to make it work. Ideally we'd all sign up with mutual enemies and allies too, but that second part may be too idealistic and I may just have to lump it.

Other players that are interested in participating, who are either NOT returning or wish to bring a different army, I shall have to select based on my own judgement. Factors will include reliability (I don't want players to be let down, like often happened with Crusade of Fire) as well as how interested in the character side of things you are.

I don't plan to start this till after Dark Elves drop, and I will of course have to figure out how long I plan the campaign to take... with the increased club attendance I may have to stretch each campaign week to two weeks so that everyone can have chance to get their games in without taking up the entire club with fantasy boards. However, as a preliminary sounding, how many of you would be interested? Anyone bringing characters back? Anyone wanting to bring a different army? Anyone new wishing to join in?

And yes guys, I still have the notepad with all your old character names on, you don't have to try to remember them off the top of your head... particularly good news for Rich H with his lizardmen characters with names like txxxedcedetchenekkkkenfiz... 

Hi Ian,  I'd be up for this, however I no longer have my high elves, I now have warriors of chaos

rob

I still have my stuff written down somewhere but I think I would like to bring back my Slaan that accidently killed Karl Franz, your BSB and himself in 1 turn, maybe as a ghost Slaan and also my Saurus lord possibly now towing a Carnosaur mwahaha

Well Rob as you'd be bringing a different army I'd give first dibs to returning armies, but as there'd be a maximum of 6 returning armies and 8 slots it shouldn't be a problem for your warriors of chaos to pitch in.

And Rich, that slaan was in a standalone game, Karl Franz never went to the badlands. You did have the ghost slaan that died in the latter part of the campaign...

Following the insidious tactics employed by their dark kin, the High Elves that weren’t killed in the badlands were taken captive and forced to work in the mines of their Dark Elf overlords.

Their dark kin took great pleasure in torturing them and performing their sacrificial rituals, before leaving the broken and bloodied corpses to rot. The lucky ones had died in battle.

Over the years, the flesh fell from the bones till all that remained was dust and the skeletal remains of these once proud warriors.

However, all the death screams of these victims didn’t go unheard. Unbeknown to the Dark Elves, they had built their mines on top of a long forgotten tomb.

Something ancient began to stir…

As their blood seeped down through the sands, this ancient being grew more and more aware, till he finally awoke! In a scream that echoed through the tomb and collapsed the foundations of the mines, he summoned the souls of his warriors to him.

Drawn to the power of his call, the souls infused the long dead remains of the High Elves. As one, the bones began to fuse back together and take on new life, pulling themselves up from the dust. Secret passages long sealed, opened once more and legions of skeletal warrior poured out. All were ready to serve their master in death as they had in life.

These vengeful warriors cut down the Dark Elves without mercy. None would defile the ancient tomb or steal the wealth of their lord…. The time of the Tomb King Sentarus had come again!

So yep, I’d be up for it and my army is returning.... in a way

Kataded Shadowfall will look eagerly upon enslaving all other races!

Obviously my new Army Book isnt out until this saturday so depending on what has changed I may need to borrow some models again Ginge lol

@Ginge, oh yeah durr.

@Jason, don't forget to bring that Felheart guy my salamanders need someone to fail 3 look out sir rolls in a row and as he's the most experienced it's only fair he returns to show the rest of your characters how it's done.

@Rich F, ironically your tomb kings probably have more meat on their bones than most scrawny high elves. and you've gone from an always striking first army to a nearly always striking last unless your playing lizardmen army.

Well, they are dead......

No problem Jason, assumed as much.

Rich (F) that is classic, I like that, and if you convert a regiment of skeleton warriors with a high elf banner top and a couple of shields i'll be even more impressed  

So, thus far we have...

1 - Ginge - Empire - Sir Ulric and co returning
2 - Jason - Dark Elves - Returning
3 - Rich H - Lizardmen - returning
4 -
5 -
6 - Rich F - Tomb Kings - kinda returning, in a way
7 - Rob - Leading an incursion from the chaos wastes
8 - Stephen - Taking up the cause of the High Elves after the last two crusades went so well...

I believe neil said he'd bring his hungry ogres back, which just leaves confirming if Scott would like to return. I'll start planning some dates for when to start this and the timescales involved, but don't worry Jason it'll be at least a few weeks yet you can get a practice game or two in with your Dark Elves before we begin...

Sounds good Ginge, thanks! Just wondered what the minimum points would be for a game of Fantasy now?

for the campaign I would say 2k because of the variables so may be worth people playing some 2k games in the build up to get used to not having so much redundancy and powerful characters galore.

Yeah I'd stick with the 2k base, as it works well. Our named characters can end up toting several hundred points worth of extra stuff, we can get a few hundred bonus points per game, then there are those special games where it's standard army PLUS your characters... definitely sticking with the 2k flat rate.

Ian just wondering do we need to have 3 army tokens again like last time, just thinking those of us using different armies might need to get that ready?????

Back online at last!

As discussed at the club Rob, we shall each need 3 army tokens. Those with returning armies can reuse, those with new armies may perhaps like to convert something a little more suitable.

However, you will have plenty of time to do so. With the release of Triumph and Treachery (and after a test game today I am very keen to incorporate it into the campaign) I am going to push the campaign back a little bit. With my plan to have each "week" of the campaign run for two weeks so people have time to get more games in if they wish, or to play campaign on alternate weeks and standalone games against those not taking part in the campaign on other weeks, we really needed to get started pretty soon if we wanted to avoid Christmas (when I know some people will have commitments that prevent them from attending as regularly) causing a bump in the campaign. With the desire to incorporate Triumph and Treachery, and thus the need to playtest said rules and hopefully allow each campaign player to get at least one practice game in with them, we need more time.

Furthermore, I am also trying to run the combat patrol thing before Christmas, and apart from taking away some of my attention, any games that need to be played for that would also intrude on campaign time.

So, I plan to run my combat patrol doubles thing (hereafter called Brace for Battle) at the beginning of December, and start the Badlands campaign in the new year. So you all have plenty of time to get your armies (looking at the short fat stunty players here) as well as build any new units you wish to field, as well as get some practice games in of T+T, as well as Siege and Storm of Magic if you fancy.

Incidentally, I have decided on the themes for my own armies.

Sir Ulric von Lichtenstein will be returning, however after the head injury he suffered in the first game of the last campaign he never really recovered from it - I will thus be using him as a counts as Marius Leitdorf (the Mad elector count special character) Risky, both tactically and in the risk of using a special character. However, he shall be accompanied by his son and heir (who will basically be equipped as Sir Ulric was last time, family heirlooms and all that) along with his household cavalry. Not a great army for siege games admittedly, I shall hope to avoid using that army in that effort.

Roughguts (my Beasts wizard riding the giant pigeon) shall also be returning, as the last campaign actually proved quite profitable for him - despite being such a high profile target he was one of very few of my characters to leave the badlands with more than he entered with, and no disabilities or slight cases of death to count against him. He made a very large ransom from capturing a dragon in the final battle before the fortress landed...

And finally, despite his compatriots not giving him the time of day, one other person did well from the last campaign - although he never lived to see it. General Wildes godawful poetry, while still mocked to this day, did provide inspiration to many - in the epic saga about the Mad Monk. In the past couple decades the story has grown quite a following, and Sir Ulric has been able to get financial backing for this venture by allowing The Church of the Martyrd Monk to tag along in the hope of finding the fallen prophets body. Sir Ulric hasn't told them this will be a difficult task unless they like sifting through 20 year old ogre shit - maybe there are some smarts in the old dog yet...

And I just built a 2000 point Dwarf army for the start!!!......  

/sigh, now I have to go buy the combat patrol stuff and build all that.... your in the bad books Ginge  

Oh shush at least you can get some practice games in now... though if you play them anything like you played your elves you won't go far wrong...  

He did in TnT when at the start I said if I can give you one bit of advice its be aggresive and get in combat. Hardly moved lol n when he tried a charge went 3"

Don't knock there stunty legs.

They were secretly holding back the 2 times I charged... and went forward less the 3". It was all a tactic to allow me to shot you....

Right, all of you (apart from skiver Jason) should have your campaign packs by now, have a read through and make sure you're all happy with everything before we start. I have included all the rules pages from the Blood In The Badlands book so we all have a copy of everything now, so hopefully we'll be able to get through the army moving/challenging thing a bit quicker once people regain familiarity with it.

Still to be done before we can start... each army needs a token to represent it on the map. I have the flag box from last time, and have found...

My three tokens
Rich H tokens
Neils tokens
Jasons tokens (one in need of repair)
Rich F tokens - though he has changed army now, however given the amount of effort he put into them he could probably get away with using them for Dwarves too   
And Robs tokens... though as Rob has changed armies he may wish to do something other than High Elf helmets, unless he sees them as trophies of war...

So really that just leaves Scott and Stephen to produce army tokens.

I shall also need your starting characters - that is a General and two lieutenants, one to lead each army. You can create other characters if you so wish, but there is no need to. Once you have created a character, you have to use them, so choose wisely before you make extra characters... or do what I did, go storyline mad and spend all your Lord allowance on two guys that are gonna have to be in the same unit cos one of them is insane and the other guy is there to keep an eye on the loon...

Thus far I have my characters (obviously) and Rich H characters, so if the rest of you can prepare some that'd be good. I gave most of you cards already, if you need more just ask.

The sooner we get all this done the sooner we can kick things off   

Ill do new ones Ian. Steve can have the high elf ones if he wants????

I'm not feeling the love in this thread....

Just for ginge, I will make something up for the dwarfs!

Mine rolls we should have done last week...

Scott - +50 points for his army for game against Rich F
Rich F - +100 points for his army against Scott

Ginge - +150 points for the next game for Army of the Martyred Monk
Stephen - +300 points to an army

Rob - +1 Relic, +50 point item
Jason - +1 Relic, +50 point item

Rich H - +1 Relic, + Amulet of Spite (See random item table)
Neil - +1 Relic, + Daemonslayer Sword (See random item table)

Rob won vs Ginge, No injuries. Stephen won vs Neil (Both characters lost) Rich H won vs Jason (Jasons general lost)

Ian did I read somewhere our game was for a particular tile and as I won the game is there something else I should do / roll?

Our game was for a particular tile, of Neils. But any and all battle result rolls will take place next week after all battles have been fought. The only roll we did this week was the one we SHOULD have done the week before but forgot. The plan is to only do dice faff every two weeks.

ok, so results are in...

Consult your campaign packs, cos i'm gonna put the summaries here. Some of you will have to make decisions based on the outcomes below, where these decisions have been made I shall put the details down. If you all could chime in with any such decisions you make so we can all be updated I'd appreciate it.

Jason (Beastmaster) and Neil (MAge) each had an army disbanded. Stephen rolled badly on the random events table and lost an army too.

Rob - Spoils of War roll - 2 (the army used week 1)
Ginge - Ignominious Defeat Roll - 3 (The unit of 5 Outriders is now half strength)
Rich H - SOW6 +1 Relic +20 pt item (the army used week 1)
Jason - ID4
Stephen - SOW1 (the army used week 1)
Neil - ID3 (the army used week 1)
Stephen - SOW4 (the army used week 2)
Neil - ID1 (the army used week 2)
Rich H - SOW4 (the army used week 2)
Rob - ID4 (the army used week 2)
Rich F - SOW5 (crossbowmen ASF)
Scott - ID3 (5 shades)

Jasons General loses one random magic item (Beastmaster) which Rich H did NOT gain
Stephen Captured Neils character (Mage)
Stephens General on dragon has +1M... useful if he gets unseated I suppose

Rich H conquered Jasons mine
Scott conquered one of stephens towers
Scott gains a 20 point standard for a unit in one army TBD

Mine rolls... Neils was neutralised by enemy action. Robs collapsed, Ginges collapsed, BOTH Stephens collapsed.
Scott +1 Relic +60 pt item
Rich H - extra 300 points for the army facing RIch F, extra 250 points for the army facing Jason
Jason - extra 200 points for the army facing Rich H
Rich F - +1 Relic gain Random Talisman 63/64

Games lined up...

Stephen vs Neil for the unclaimed mine
Scott vs Stephen for the empty tile Stephen just claimed
Rich H vs Jason for Stephens mine
Ginge (Ulric army) vs Jason for Jasons mine
Rich F vs Rich H (Rich H mine)
Ginge (Church of the Martyred Monk)(carrying +150 from week 1) vs Rob (Daemon Prince) for the spoil heap that was once a mine...

So, Jason needs to play both me and Rich H. I don't mind which order. Whichever week we aren't playing Jason we can have our respective games against Rob/Rich F. Stephen has two games lined up too, against Scott and Neil. Up to you guys who plays in what order. Some of you only have one game lined up, so feel free to play some 40k on your week off from campaigning.

Relics

Rich H - 2
Rob - 1
Jason - 1
Neil - 1
Rich F - 1
Scott - 1
Ginge - 0
Stephen - 0

Don't forget, some of you may also have magic items you can still assign, if you want o bring a little extra to your game, make a character for it, but remember, once a character is made you HAVE to use him.

Finally, forgot to ask at the club. Stephen made a rookie mistake - he assigned a dispel scroll to a named character. Will everyone allow him to make a quick alteration to the character to take the scroll off him so other armies can potentially use it?