We’ve been doing some digging in the dusty corners of the warehouse, and we’ve found some stuff that really needs to go.
We could spin out a whole sales pitch about it, but frankly, we’re sick to the back teeth of counting it and we want it gone as soon as possible.
It’s strictly on a first come, first served basis and when this stock is gone, it’s never coming back. If you see something you want, better buy it now.
Check out the collection here or look at the list below!
The frames are all priced at £1/$1.20, the price of the books and boxed games will vary from product to product.
FRAMES ARE SOLD INDIVIDUALLY AND DO NOT COME WITH BASES, DECALS OR INSTRUCTION LEAFLETS
BOXED GAMES AND BOOKS
Pirates of Nassau board game
Gates of Antares dice game
Terminator miniatures game
Terminator play mat (Subject to extra shipping charges!)
Bolt Action 2 Rulebook (Italian)
Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook (French)
Kyle Reese figure
INDIVIDUAL FRAMES
Terminator Endoskeleton frame
Terminator Resistance frame
Modern military frame
Female survivor frame
Female weapon frame
Ghar Assault frame
Early Russian Napoleonic infantry frame
Spartan upgrade frame
Ghar Bomber frame
Hanoverian frame
Concord squad frame
Praetorians command frame
Natal native contingent frame
Ancient hoplite command frame
Pike & Shotte infantry frame SOLD OUT
Late Russian Napoleonic infantry frame
Caesarian Legionaries command frame
Pike & Shotte command frame
Legionary Veterans frame SOLD OUT
Caesarian Legionaries with pilum frame
Macedonian Phalangites frame SOLD OUT
In addition to the massive discounts offered above, we’re also giving you the opportunity to pick up some back issues of Wargames Illustrated that are cluttering up the warehouse. Choose any 5 issues from the list below, and you can have them for £5($8.)
Shipping is $12.50 to the US though, unless you spend $50, in which case it is free. So a great deal if you had something you wanted from them anyway and want some extra sprues, maybe not so much to just grab a couple super cheap bits.
Went a little crazy and ordered ~80 miniatures plus some terrain. No idea what I'm going to do with them, but at £0.10-0.25 per mini it seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh well, I've spent more on worse...
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
$12 is... extremely cheap for overseas shipping between the USA and the EU, actually. Last book I ordered from the USA costed me $35 for shipping. And that was three years ago, and was a single, sofcover, big novel-sized book.
$12 is... extremely cheap for overseas shipping between the USA and the EU, actually. Last book I ordered from the USA costed me $35 for shipping. And that was three years ago, and was a single, sofcover, big novel-sized book.
The brain can sometimes throw up roadblocks when shipping costs more than the products you're buying. Whether or not the shipping cost is justified, it just feels wrong, and a lot of people can't seem to see past that.
I grabbed one of each of the female survivor sprues. Seemed like cool minis to have if I ever wanted to do zombie apoc gaming Didn't buy any of the modern military sprues though, anyone have any experience with those? I have 10 of the Hasslefree modern military so my thinking was I already have enough of those.
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
There isfree shipping at $50.
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Mymearan wrote: I grabbed one of each of the female survivor sprues. Seemed like cool minis to have if I ever wanted to do zombie apoc gaming Didn't buy any of the modern military sprues though, anyone have any experience with those? I have 10 of the Hasslefree modern military so my thinking was I already have enough of those.
they are awesome and contain all kinds of fun parts to make special forces or terrorists or whatever.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Mymearan wrote: Is postage simply that inexpensive in the US that even $12 seems steep? It's not far from what I pay for shipping domestically...
First Class Packages (with tracking), up to 1 pound, cost under 5 bucks to ship anywhere in the USA including to any US Military base in the world. Priority Mail, which includes insurance and tracking, is only slightly more, and the USPS has Flat Rate boxes where, if it fits, it ships, no matter how heavy it is, and will reach any destination in the USA within 1 to 3 days.
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
I don’t know what you ordered, but I bet the shipping is because you ordered in $$$ and not in £££. I always order from Warlordgames using the great British pounds price as they are just as bad if not worse than GW with the conversion rate. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the British flag to change currency to £s.
I ordered 10 sprues at £1each and was charged £5 shipped to St.Louis, MO, USA. £15 total and with my bankcard’s conversion fee is spent $19.13 total. I’ve done this with all my Warlordgames purchases. Conversion rate was 1-1.2753 which means my sprues were $1.28 each instead of $1.50 each and I spent $6.35 on shipping.
$12 is expensive shipping when it nearly doubles the cost of your order. The order I was going to make only came to $18. It didn't feel worth it to me. But, I'm going to piggyback Tamburlaine's order, so that's going to breach the $50 needed for free shipping.
Theophony's plan of using pounds instead of dollars is actually a damn good one though.
Boxed Games and Books
•Terminator Rulebook NEW IN SALE
•Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook (German) NEW IN SALE
•Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook (Spanish) NEW IN SALE
Individual Frames
•Praetorians frame NEW IN SALE
•Pike & Shotte riders frame NEW IN SALE
•Pike & Shotte horses frame NEW IN SALE
•Celt Warriors frame NEW IN SALE
Extra Bits and Pieces
•Bag of polyhedral dice NEW IN SALE
•25mm unlipped round bases NEW IN SALE
How big are those Pike and Shotte horsies? Big enough for GW dudes to ride in comfort, or do they look like they're comically overburdening their mounts?
Gallahad wrote: Guys, I'm about to spend $50 on stuff I didn't know I wanted and that I will never realistically use... somebody, please stop me!
What stopped me is the realization that, no matter how good a deal it is, it's not a good deal if you never actually use any of it. $50 is a lot for a box full of stuff you never do anything with.
highlord tamburlaine wrote: How big are those Pike and Shotte horsies? Big enough for GW dudes to ride in comfort, or do they look like they're comically overburdening their mounts?
Barzam wrote: $12 is expensive shipping when it nearly doubles the cost of your order.
That really depends on what you're ordering, though. If I sold you a Ferrari for $1.50, $12 shipping would be a steal.
This obviously isn't quite on that level, but you're getting $10-$15 sprues for $1.50. So ordering anything more than a single sprue still saves you money over buying at normal price.
The value of the goods has absolutely no impact on what it costs to ship them, unless the shipping includes a value-based insurance charge.
highlord tamburlaine wrote: How big are those Pike and Shotte horsies? Big enough for GW dudes to ride in comfort, or do they look like they're comically overburdening their mounts?
They are properly scaled, so they are way too small for GW figures.
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
I don’t know what you ordered, but I bet the shipping is because you ordered in $$$ and not in £££. I always order from Warlordgames using the great British pounds price as they are just as bad if not worse than GW with the conversion rate. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the British flag to change currency to £s.
I ordered 10 sprues at £1each and was charged £5 shipped to St.Louis, MO, USA. £15 total and with my bankcard’s conversion fee is spent $19.13 total. I’ve done this with all my Warlordgames purchases. Conversion rate was 1-1.2753 which means my sprues were $1.28 each instead of $1.50 each and I spent $6.35 on shipping.
Barzam wrote: I was going to make an order, but then I saw the flat $12 shipping. Yeesh. They should've offered free or at least reduced shipping for this sale.
I don’t know what you ordered, but I bet the shipping is because you ordered in $$$ and not in £££. I always order from Warlordgames using the great British pounds price as they are just as bad if not worse than GW with the conversion rate. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the British flag to change currency to £s.
I ordered 10 sprues at £1each and was charged £5 shipped to St.Louis, MO, USA. £15 total and with my bankcard’s conversion fee is spent $19.13 total. I’ve done this with all my Warlordgames purchases. Conversion rate was 1-1.2753 which means my sprues were $1.28 each instead of $1.50 each and I spent $6.35 on shipping.
Enjoy your exalt, I never thought of doing this.
Some quick math shows Warlord converting at 1.60
Now, how to get a VAT refund?
If your living in the US and have it shipped here I don’t think VAT gets added.
highlord tamburlaine 762227 10113643 wrote:How big are those Pike and Shotte horsies? Big enough for GW dudes to ride in comfort, or do they look like they're comically overburdening their mounts?
They are properly scaled, so they are way too small for GW figures.
I use them with Bretonian Damsels and Ungol horse Archers, anything where a smaller horse does not look out of place. For this purpose I think they are great.
Also some Algoryn infantry sprue. What with the Soviet and the drones and heavy suits of the gbarr, you could make a pretty.big not-tau force for.really not very much. I might be tempted if I wasn't drowning in Tau models.already...
•Celt Command frame NEW IN SALE •Algoryn armoured infantry frame NEW IN SALE •Algoryn command frame NEW IN SALE •Project Z Red Zombie Dice
Sadly the Terminator playmat has now sold out as I'm impressed with mine which just arrived as it's going to be ideal for small skirmishes
Edit: There was a coupon code valid to 30th September for 10% off my next purchase as a thank you for making my first order (even though it wasn't) so if you've already ordered from them and want to try it it's DESERT_RAIDER (if only it has arrived before I made my second one)
My first order took almost 5 days to show up fulfilled and the second order at least as long. Both of my items showed up within 24 hours of each other, despite being fulfilled nearly a week apart
Mostly to annoy my friends who religiously only use GW models, I plan on starting a new counts as Tau army using the C3 sprues for Tau Fire Warriors and Gun Drones, the Ghar for Tau Stealth Suits, and the Al Sprues for Vespids.
Anyone have suggestions on where I can get 20 pairs of cheap wings that will look good and the Algorin ?
If I didn't alreadybhave a tau army I would have done the same.thing
For vespid wings you could.try getting a paper punch and using it on 0.5mm plasticard. You'll probably wreck the punch quite quickly, but it should be good for 20 pairs.
I don't think I would use punched out paper dragonflies or novelty flies, but if I can find some plastic dragonflies at the dollar store, I may be in business.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Someone bought up the Celtic Command Sprues. I hope they noticed that those sprues don't have the heads on them.
I just got a shipping notice for my order that I received weeks ago. I really hope I won't have to go through the hassle of returning another 200 romans.
lord_blackfang wrote: I just got a shipping notice for my order that I received weeks ago. I really hope I won't have to go through the hassle of returning another 200 romans.
Mostly to annoy my friends who religiously only use GW models, I plan on starting a new counts as Tau army using the C3 sprues for Tau Fire Warriors and Gun Drones, the Ghar for Tau Stealth Suits, and the Al Sprues for Vespids.
Anyone have suggestions on where I can get 20 pairs of cheap wings that will look good and the Algorin ?
I bought the C3 models to also do a Tau-esque force, but I now I am kind of wishing I had of waited and got the Algoryn instead, as they seem a little bit larger and more in line with GW's Tau. Anyone have any size comparison pictures?
20 sprues of C3 should be more than enough though. I'll just have to work with what I have I guess
The Algoryns are the right size, but not the right proportions. C3 could work as some sort of diminutive client species for the Tau. At least you got 20 awesome drones.
The drones were exactly what sold me on getting the C3. I bought as soon as I saw the sale go up, but it was too early for the Algoryns. The drones are fantastic, and can be easily converted to what I want.
Looking at the miniatures, the C3 aren't as bulky as GW figures, but they look much better proportioned, and I should be able to work something out. Height wise, I think they'll do fine.
Apparently they oversold stuff so you may not get everything you actually bought. My box came without my 8 modern soldier sprues and I had to email CS to find out why.
I really like that these are plain skeletons (no rags or armour on parts) makes them much quicker to paint in large numbers.
But I always found them really fiddly to put together, the waist joint is a tiny contact point but has to support a lot of the models weight.
Look good once done, and give that Jason and the argonaughts feel with their Greek style weapons.
Helllllooooo Skeletons! I was waiting for Warlord to bring these back. They're great as a source for plain bone decoration for all sorts of things. Sadly I only managed to get a single box before Wargames Factory went down. Been a long wait.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Depends on what Warlord asks for them. At thrice the original price, the Shocks Troops won't be much fun.
And that is the real question too. What will Warlord ask for these?
If I remember correctly the Apocalypse Survivors' price nearly trebled, when you accounted for reduction of numbers and price increase. I'm hoping they don't do that here...
I am always interested in more skeletons, and have wanted some of these for a while. Being plain means that you can convert them any which way you might like. But also because they come with open right hands, which is fantastic if you want to make conversions.
They are smaller and more spindly than other skeleton miniatures, which is troubling, so I'll have to see how they turn out.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Depends on what Warlord asks for them. At thrice the original price, the Shocks Troops won't be much fun.
The Shock Troops have cool coats and face masks, but the anatomy and posing are certainly not the best. They are fine for generic scary bad guys in various sci-fi skirmish games though. And yeah I would not pay a lot for them, the ones I got were something like $0.7 per model.
Taarnak wrote: If I remember correctly the Apocalypse Survivors' price nearly trebled, when you accounted for reduction of numbers and price increase. I'm hoping they don't do that here...
Same. Would really like to finish off my Tomb Kings and the rags on Mantic skellies don't look the part. But I'm not paying 15 quid for 10.
Hopefully they'll still be low-cost - even beyond my undead army, I've found unadorned-bones skeletons tremendously useful. Especially now that I'm working on Fallout terrain and I don't have much of my original stock of WGF sprues remaining.
Psychopomp wrote: Hopefully they'll still be low-cost - even beyond my undead army, I've found unadorned-bones skeletons tremendously useful. Especially now that I'm working on Fallout terrain and I don't have much of my original stock of WGF sprues remaining.
Hopefully. A price increase over Wargames Factory is inevitable, but maybe the skeletons will be a horde unit in that fantasy game and priced accordingly.
The Orcs are some of my favorites. I will probably buy some more at some point. Their hands aren't great, but their faces and proportions are fantastic.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: That's just terrible. On the plus side, in two years they might be selling the sprues for $1.50 each...
Yeah, waiting for the sprues to be discounted in a future sale would be the most economical way to get some skeletons. If you needed/wanted them sooner I’d suggest just ordering off the British site, the conversion rate from your credit card will be better than Warlord’s. Right now a pound is worth $1.28 so 23.5 pounds is $30 which would save you $8 over ordering from the US site.
Yeah, $40 for 24 of those skeletons is too much. And aside from a few metal characters, I'm thinking they aren't going to have miniatures ranges at all for the other factions. This will probably just be a rulebook to use with your existing fantasy miniatures. But they could have picked a better name. At least something pronounceable.
Warlords of Nowhere. Seems like a pretty lazy effort. But I think Warlord is just making too many games.
Gallahad wrote: I don't know where you guys are getting the $40 USD from. 20gbp currently converts to 26 USD, which isn't atrocious for 24 middling miniatures.
That’s if you buy in £££ and have your bank do the exchange rate. If you order from the US in $$$ then their website currency exchange prices are the $40.00. Go to the bottom of any of Warlordgames.com webpages and select the American flag and look up the prices in $$$. Find a £24 kit on the £££ page and then look it up on the $$$page. Just like Mantic they have their own idea of how much the currency conversion should be.
I always buy in £££ and let my bank handle the difference, but some companies like GW have their trade practices set where we cannot do that .
Gallahad wrote: I don't know where you guys are getting the $40 USD from. 20gbp currently converts to 26 USD, which isn't atrocious for 24 middling miniatures.
That’s if you buy in £££ and have your bank do the exchange rate. If you order from the US in $$$ then their website currency exchange prices are the $40.00. Go to the bottom of any of Warlordgames.com webpages and select the American flag and look up the prices in $$$. Find a £24 kit on the £££ page and then look it up on the $$$page. Just like Mantic they have their own idea of how much the currency conversion should be.
I always buy in £££ and let my bank handle the difference, but some companies like GW have their trade practices set where we cannot do that .
Huh, I wouldn't have expected them to be so far off the actual exchange rate. My credit card doesn't charge a currency conversion fee, so I should be good.
Yeah, I've thought about trying to just order in pounds before since it comes out cheaper, but then even without free shipping it's almost always even less expensive to just order from here: https://store.nws-online.net/wagase.html
Has the pricing been confirmed? Wargames Factory models used to be dirt cheap, but after the tooling's acquisition by Warlord the pricing shot up a fair bit. To the extent that I'm turned off from buying the models now, regardless of how reasonable others new to those lines think the prices are. I'll wait till sales or shows where they sell their sprues for a few pounds each I think (assuming they don't liquidate the line like they did with the modern stuff. ...Which needs some explaining).
Actually, skeleton warriors and orcs are both 18 pounds / $29 for 24 of them. Rulebook is 30 / $45. An army box of 91 plastic and metal figures is 50 / $80.
Given it's billed as a "warband" sized game, that 91 figures should be much more than you'd need. And 24 should be a good start to a force. Rick has said it's for about 5-6 units of about 5 or more models.
Still, £18 converted to $$$ on that sheet is a 1.6% exchange rate. Since Brexit was announced the £=$ has been around 1.3% to 1.4% with it going into the 1.2% range a bunch of times.
I’m sure many readers will know what it means when I
say that fantasy wargames have been around for so many
years now that our monsters, creatures and armies have
acquired an almost historical familiarity. Whether
inspired by literature, films, television or by established
miniature ranges, there can’t be many out there who
don’t have a definite notion of what an Orc is or just how
curmudgeonly a Dwarf can be.
That’s why I have not set out to re-write or re-define such familiar and well-established concepts within these game rules. My aim has been simply to breathe new life into established ideas, so that anyone who wishes to do so can play just as easily by dusting down existing collections as by starting anew. Indeed, dusting down my own collections was the first, and fatal, step of a journey that has resulted in the game you are now reading. That’ll teach me.
I started out with the intention of writing a game that embraced the entire genre of myth, legend and folklore as well as the fantasy of literature, movies, TV and games.
This is not a book that sets out to present just one world or one vision of fantasy. Hence, I have included a selector list for forces inspired by mythical Amazons and Greek Heroes. Other lists take their inspiration from Celtic Legends and Medieval Romance. Most, however, are drawn from what has become a tradition of fantasy as portrayed in role-playing, tabletop, and video games: themselves inspired by sources
too many and varied to mention.
These rules are not specifically tailored for use with any one manufacturer’s offerings. Please feel free to use whatever models you have or such models as you care to purchase. I’ve tried to cover the most popular and widely accepted interpretations of fantasy warriors, monsters and arcane machineries within the rules and warband
selector lists. Inevitably, because it is a game developed amongst friends and fellow players, what might be familiar to us might not be familiar to others; but such are the perils of this gaming life. For those who want to take things further, the rules are designed to be flexible and expandable, and can easily accommodate yet more forces,
new monsters and different interpretations of old ones should you wish.
Readers will notice that this book has been illustrated with photographs of models both venerable and modern, made by different manufacturers, and from a variety of collections. Legal precedent precludes us picturing the models of every manufacturer,
so our photographs don’t necessarily represent a comprehensive selection of what is available – as I’m sure most readers will realise. Fortunately, these days it is very easy indeed to find catalogues of models online, and a quick search will soon reveal the
extent of different manufacturers’ offerings in metal, resin and plastic.
The game is intended to be played on an average sized tabletop using warbands of a few dozen models. Models are moved and fight as loosely organised groups or units of similar types, or as individuals in the cases of larger and more powerful monsters and machines. I think of it as a ‘warband’ style game, larger in scope than a man-to-man
skirmish game, but smaller than a battle game with massed ranks and hundreds of models. This is a size of game that has great appeal and offers considerable scope for scenario building and role-play style adventures, whilst at the same time keeping things manageable in terms of the size of forces and space required. Gameplay is built around the D10 system developed for my science-fiction game Beyond
the Gates of Antares and the order dice mechanic first used in the Bolt Action WW2 rules. This allows for a game with some mechanical depth and considerable adaptability, but remains reasonably well-paced and intuitive once players are familiar with the basics.
As with all games, one has to balance complexity and accessibility, and on the whole I have assumed players are reasonably experienced wargamers seeking a game with some tactical challenge and enough variety to reward repeat play. As always, I would bid the reader to remember that playing wargames is a social affair, whether our opponents are old friends or perhaps fellow players meeting for the first
time. We play for the enjoyment of the thing, for the challenge, and as an opportunity to meet like-minded enthusiasts. In a game of relative sophistication we know that there will be occasions when a situation requires interpretation, or where players are unable to find a rule during play, and when this happens the best thing is to agree on an interpretation and get on with the game. You can always roll a dice to decide how to interpret a rule if you wish. The gods of battle are uncannily arbitrary when it comes to such things. Similarly, if players are happy to ignore, change or add rules then please feel free to do so, and if the game is improved as a result so much the better.
Rick Priestley
I do sometimes wish Warlord would make their mind up what they want, produce a few games and stick with them - they seem to be firing out new games scatter gun to find a few that stick
Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
That's the same for like 90% of the tabletop miniature games released anymore. The market is flooded.
Another month and another Magazine.
Issue 375 has been printed and bagged so we can finally show off this months goodies.
In the next issue you’ll find either 2 American PT Boats or some Torpedo markers for use in Cruel Seas from Warlord Games, look out for more freebies next month!
I do sometimes wish Warlord would make their mind up what they want, produce a few games and stick with them - they seem to be firing out new games scatter gun to find a few that stick
Calling it Warlords of Nowhere (nowhere is Erehwon backwards!) is making me suspicious that Rick & Warlord aren't too pushed on this one...
Wargames Factory didn't release any other fantasy sets apart the Orcs and Skeletons, right?
I do sometimes wish Warlord would make their mind up what they want, produce a few games and stick with them - they seem to be firing out new games scatter gun to find a few that stick
Calling it Warlords of Nowhere (nowhere is Erehwon backwards!) is making me suspicious that Rick & Warlord aren't too pushed on this one...
Wargames Factory didn't release any other fantasy sets apart the Orcs and Skeletons, right?
It's been said that Rick wanted to call it something like (if I recall correctly) Beyond the Pillars of Hercules (to tie it in more with Beyond the Gates of Antares). But Warlord Games vetoed that name, perhaps in part becomes it implied a fantasy Greek setting, whereas the game actually doesn't really have a setting of its own, it's for using whatever fantasy miniatures/setting you want. Hence, Warlords of nowhere.
It's been said that Rick wanted to call it something like (if I recall correctly) Beyond the Pillars of Hercules (to tie it in more with Beyond the Gates of Antares). But Warlord Games vetoed that name, perhaps in part becomes it implied a fantasy Greek setting, whereas the game actually doesn't really have a setting of its own, it's for using whatever fantasy miniatures/setting you want. Hence, Warlords of nowhere.
War Banner/Footsore miniatures are supposed to be releasing an Ancient Greek version of Test of Honour next year, I'm guessing that''s another reason Warlord mighn't want a game with a similar Greek sounding name.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
Mid level skirmish gaming in an open fantasy background using the bolt action engine? A lot of people are waiting for just that, so there'll be a lot of book sales to people who just want a framework to use for their gaming. Certainly I know of at least five who've declared a sale just on that basis.
Who cares if they don;t follow up with masses of stuff? Its not as if fantasy models are exactly hard to come by.
We're going to play ours collectively and firmly set in the Old World.
I'm going to use mine as an alternative 1480s setting, when Tudor brought diabolical pacts to the field, Richard III survived Bosworth and its all gone to ruin as York and Lancaster have utterly splintered but now have roaming chaotic forces and the emerging dead to contend with as well.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
Mid level skirmish gaming in an open fantasy background using the bolt action engine? A lot of people are waiting for just that, so there'll be a lot of book sales to people who just want a framework to use for their gaming. Certainly I know of at least five who've declared a sale just on that basis.
Who cares if they don;t follow up with masses of stuff? Its not as if fantasy models are exactly hard to come by.
We're going to play ours collectively and firmly set in the Old World.
I'm going to use mine as an alternative 1480s setting, when Tudor brought diabolical pacts to the field, Richard III survived Bosworth and its all gone to ruin as York and Lancaster have utterly splintered but now have roaming chaotic forces and the emerging dead to contend with as well.
I care if they don’t do follow up stuff. I believe they said five armies to start with(could be wrong), if that’s it that’s not enough variance for covering the armies of the old world. Expansions are necessary to flesh out a universe to fill multiple roles and why new factions are constantly added.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
Mid level skirmish gaming in an open fantasy background using the bolt action engine? A lot of people are waiting for just that, so there'll be a lot of book sales to people who just want a framework to use for their gaming. Certainly I know of at least five who've declared a sale just on that basis.
Who cares if they don;t follow up with masses of stuff? Its not as if fantasy models are exactly hard to come by.
We're going to play ours collectively and firmly set in the Old World.
I'm going to use mine as an alternative 1480s setting, when Tudor brought diabolical pacts to the field, Richard III survived Bosworth and its all gone to ruin as York and Lancaster have utterly splintered but now have roaming chaotic forces and the emerging dead to contend with as well.
I care if they don’t do follow up stuff. I believe they said five armies to start with(could be wrong), if that’s it that’s not enough variance for covering the armies of the old world. Expansions are necessary to flesh out a universe to fill multiple roles and why new factions are constantly added.
Well thats up to you. I'd just DIY it - and often do. Don't need it from above if you can make it yourself.
PS...........there is 11 lists + monsters in the book. If thats not enough for you, then up to you.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
Mid level skirmish gaming in an open fantasy background using the bolt action engine? A lot of people are waiting for just that, so there'll be a lot of book sales to people who just want a framework to use for their gaming. Certainly I know of at least five who've declared a sale just on that basis.
Who cares if they don;t follow up with masses of stuff? Its not as if fantasy models are exactly hard to come by.
We're going to play ours collectively and firmly set in the Old World.
I'm going to use mine as an alternative 1480s setting, when Tudor brought diabolical pacts to the field, Richard III survived Bosworth and its all gone to ruin as York and Lancaster have utterly splintered but now have roaming chaotic forces and the emerging dead to contend with as well.
I care if they don’t do follow up stuff. I believe they said five armies to start with(could be wrong), if that’s it that’s not enough variance for covering the armies of the old world. Expansions are necessary to flesh out a universe to fill multiple roles and why new factions are constantly added.
Well thats up to you. I'd just DIY it - and often do. Don't need it from above if you can make it yourself.
PS...........there is 11 lists + monsters in the book. If thats not enough for you, then up to you.
If there are 11 lists that’s better than I thought. Though house ruling to fix stuff always limits who you play against and the possibility of growing a community or having tournaments.
TwilightSparkles wrote: Very hard to imagine what these new rules could introduce that give them any traction beyond the initial release. Warlord products seem to get a lot of “noise” but very little has staying power beyond their original core games.
Mid level skirmish gaming in an open fantasy background using the bolt action engine? A lot of people are waiting for just that, so there'll be a lot of book sales to people who just want a framework to use for their gaming. Certainly I know of at least five who've declared a sale just on that basis.
Who cares if they don;t follow up with masses of stuff? Its not as if fantasy models are exactly hard to come by.
We're going to play ours collectively and firmly set in the Old World.
I'm going to use mine as an alternative 1480s setting, when Tudor brought diabolical pacts to the field, Richard III survived Bosworth and its all gone to ruin as York and Lancaster have utterly splintered but now have roaming chaotic forces and the emerging dead to contend with as well.
I care if they don’t do follow up stuff. I believe they said five armies to start with(could be wrong), if that’s it that’s not enough variance for covering the armies of the old world. Expansions are necessary to flesh out a universe to fill multiple roles and why new factions are constantly added.
Well thats up to you. I'd just DIY it - and often do. Don't need it from above if you can make it yourself.
PS...........there is 11 lists + monsters in the book. If thats not enough for you, then up to you.
If there are 11 lists that’s better than I thought. Though house ruling to fix stuff always limits who you play against and the possibility of growing a community or having tournaments.
The old tournaments chestnut............. They've nothing to do with me, so aren't a consideration in my gaming nor creative projects. People want them fine, but - again - thats up to them.
Epic Armageddon has been doing pretty well for tournaments despite being run on "house rules" for over a decade now. Same with Blood Bowl before the latest box set came out. If your group has your own army lists, then you've got enough to start - just include your additions as part of the tournament pack - but you'll be better off trying to grow the community first, in that case.
Read the descriptions of the rules that have been posted. This is a set of rules for people to use with their existing fantasy miniatures or any range they want to use. It's not intended to be supported with a game-specific miniature range for all of the factions. I doubt Warlord Games is going to start their own fantasy ranges for these factions, they're just taking advantage of the fact that they already own orc and skeleton kits (and maybe amazons?) from buying out the old Wargames Factory ranges.
Albino Squirrel wrote: Read the descriptions of the rules that have been posted. This is a set of rules for people to use with their existing fantasy miniatures or any range they want to use. It's not intended to be supported with a game-specific miniature range for all of the factions. I doubt Warlord Games is going to start their own fantasy ranges for these factions, they're just taking advantage of the fact that they already own orc and skeleton kits (and maybe amazons?) from buying out the old Wargames Factory ranges.
+1
This is exactly what we intend to do. We all play Bolt Action, we've all played Antares...........we like the mechanics and have fantasy models kicking about. This puts 1+1 together and gives scope for creative freedom in the background and setting
Albino Squirrel wrote: Read the descriptions of the rules that have been posted. This is a set of rules for people to use with their existing fantasy miniatures or any range they want to use. It's not intended to be supported with a game-specific miniature range for all of the factions. I doubt Warlord Games is going to start their own fantasy ranges for these factions, they're just taking advantage of the fact that they already own orc and skeleton kits (and maybe amazons?) from buying out the old Wargames Factory ranges.
+1
This is exactly what we intend to do. We all play Bolt Action, we've all played Antares...........we like the mechanics and have fantasy models kicking about. This puts 1+1 together and gives scope for creative freedom in the background and setting
Yeah, I like it. I'm glad it is based on the Gates of Antares engine, like Hail Caesar and Pike and Shotte are evolved from Black Powder or Konflict 47 from Bolt Action. A family of games with similar mechanics but some differences that allow you to play different eras is a better approach I think than doing sort of "one off" things like Test of Honor or the zombie apocalypse game they did.
Fairly boring teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u5SDvPc7Lc Though it does show some of the artwork from the book. Also, it looks like they may have altered the Wargames Factory skeleton sprue, as they show a skeleton with little horns, and one with a helmet. But maybe those are just conversions.
Warlord threw a couple of metal minis in with the samurai sprues when they released them. Maybe the special skeletons are metal minis capable of the heavy lifting needed to raise prices drastically on plastic minis.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Warlord threw a couple of metal minis in with the samurai sprues when they released them. Maybe the special skeletons are metal minis capable of the heavy lifting needed to raise prices drastically on plastic minis.
Yes, it is probably that. The army bundles say they include plastic and metal miniatures, so they probably made a couple metal skeleton unit leaders or something. Though the bodies, just from the quick look in the video, do look very just like the plastic skeletons. Maybe just metal heads? Don't know. And I don't have any of the Wargames Factory orcs, so I'm not familiar enough with them to have spotted any differences.
The game really looks slapped together, that being said I am looking forward to playing some Bolt Action in spa.... I mean Antares with Orcs and Skellies. I just hope 12 Orders dice are enough to get started with.
Also, it looks like they may have altered the Wargames Factory skeleton sprue, as they show a skeleton with little horns, and one with a helmet. But maybe those are just conversions.
Pretty sure the helmeted and horned skull came with the standard WGF box . I bought about 5 boxes years ago strictly for conversion fodder.
Also, it looks like they may have altered the Wargames Factory skeleton sprue, as they show a skeleton with little horns, and one with a helmet. But maybe those are just conversions.
Pretty sure the helmeted and horned skull came with the standard WGF box . I bought about 5 boxes years ago strictly for conversion fodder.
Interesting. I don't think the original release included those heads. But I remember Wargames Factory at one point re-cutting the sprue in order to make them less fragile. Perhaps the new heads were added when they did that. Or maybe I just didn't use any of those heads and am not remembering them.
Eldarain wrote: Been searching for reviews but yeah doesn't seem like any advance copies went out for review.
Still the Antares system is really solid so I remain optimistic.
You are one of the select few, those who have experience of existing Warlord Games. Fair enough to target your existing customers, makes sense, but there are thousands, tens of thousands? of fantasy gamers out there in a limbo, looking for a successor to WHFB. How about informing them what the game is all about and how they can use their old collections? A company as big as Warlord can surely put together a few instructional videos as advertising. All I have seen so far is some pretty dodgy facebook stuff and a youtube battle report by two random gamers. There's a battle report on the Warlord website, but let's just say it's a little brief.
I'm waiting for a solid review before I make a decision on this one, myself. Things are oddly quiet on that front, as everyone mentioned. If someone spots a review, could you please post it here?
Psychopomp wrote: I'm waiting for a solid review before I make a decision on this one, myself. Things are oddly quiet on that front, as everyone mentioned. If someone spots a review, could you please post it here?
Play video off of YouTube.
Rick talking about the game
Other videos on YouTube, mostly French ones that I saw.
My player review of the game that I posted on my community facebook page. (I reference another article i wrote there, that is not here, so when you see that initially just be aware i was referring to that which they had the link to in the group)
Warlords of Erehwon - a player review
When asked what I think of Warlords of Erehwon, I wanted to put a good list of things that I consider when picking games to play and how I think that this one pans out.
I did a review on the five commercial fantasy warband games out right now (AOS, Middle Earth SBG, Dragon Rampant, Warmachine, and Warlords) that I am familiar with and gave a side by side comparison.
This post will be more about the system overall and how it operates as well as some things that I personally like about it and where I can see things possibly being a downside for players.
ARMIES
The game is warband scale. Its default point cost is 1,000 points, and for 1,000 points you get about what you'd get in Age of Sigmar for 1,000 points.
The undead army that I posted came out to be 33 models.
The game can be extended up to 2000 points per the book.
Armies have no real restrictions in terms of having to pay a core tax or anything like that. You are typically going to have one warlord (of which you must have one, and typically only one) which is the most powerful hero, and then anywhere around 1-2 extra heroes depending on the army list. The undead army as an example can only have one extra hero.
This prevents the game of hero hammer from happening largely as you will only have 1-3 heroes and the rest of your force will be composed of everything else.
It can be possible to get some overbearing lists put in place. Some of the more powerful monsters have a cap of one in the warband max, but other entries can be spammed. For example, the undead could take nothing but carrion beasts or artillery as there are no caps on those.
The balance overall remains to be seen as the game is brand new and minmax exploits have not yet hit the internet to be copied.
MODELS
The game has no official model line and openly embraces any model line that you may have. Bases also do not matter, so bring your squares or your rounds or anything in between.
GAMEPLAY
Scenarios typically last six turns OR when your army is deemed broken. A broken warband is when you have reached a point in the game where you have half of your starting units remaining on the table. At that point, unless you are in the sixth turn of the game and the game is over, you will roll a D6 to determine if you go to the next turn or not.
Broken armies can never score more points than unbroken armies. That means once an army is broken, it will be playing to break the other army to try to win on score in what little time it has left or it auto loses no matter what the score actually is (barring a scenario changing that win condition up)
TURNS
The game eschews the traditional IGOUGO mechanics of classic games and many modern games. Instead, for every hero or unit that you possess you will drop a colored dice or token into a dice bag, as will your opponent.
During a turn, you will draw a token from the bag. If it is one of your tokens, you will activate a unit that has not yet activated. If it is one of your oppoenents, they will do the same. There are some exceptions where you can keep orders activated on a unit and not put the dice in the bag, but ultimately the game will be bouncing back and forth between players activating different units as opposed to standing there for an entire turn (or two if you are playing AOS and fall prey to their double turn mechanic) taking it on the chin with no way to respond.
The orders you can give correspond to a facing on a D6. Warlord games sells special order dice for Bolt Action and Antares, which uses the same system.
You can choose to Advance with a unit, where they can move and shoot any missile weapons. You can choose to fire with a unit where they shoot without moving (some larger weapons or artillery can only receive this order to fire for example). You can choose to run which lets you move double or even triple your movement (unless you are wearing heavy armor which slows you down).
You can choose to issue a rally order which will help that unit and any unit near it remove "pins" from it to make it easier to stop fleeing and recieve orders. Pins are a mechanic where losing combats, taking damage, and exhausting oneself (or miscasting spells) add to a tally that is much like morale. Once you reach an amount of pins equal to the units command score, they flee the table. Rallying helps remove some of those pins. (pins also make issuing orders to those units more difficult)
You can issue a Down order which makes your unit hit the ground and make it harder to be hit.
Last you can issue an Ambush order which lets you put a unit's action in wait. They can then later activate in response to an enemy unit activating, as an Interrupt, provided they pass an initiative test.
This lets you weave more complex tactics and strategies into the game where units can lie in wait for an opposing action and then activate to spoil that action. Or perhaps just simply dive into cover with a Down command if they are being targeted by a nasty missile unit.
DICE
The game uses D10s as its primary random number generator though also uses D6 and D4s sparingly as well.
COMBAT MECHANICS
To charge into combat, units must be issued a run command and they can run (double movement) or sprint (triple movement) into an enemy unit. There are no random charges, though terrain can spoil your charging as it has an impact in the game and can slow you down.
Shooting and combat both function off of the same mechanics. You roll a D10 for each model to hit based on either an accuracy score or their strength score, and all hits are allocated to the enemy unit. Hits must be spread out across the unit. There is none of the tanking shennanigans that other games employ where an indestructible front model soaks up all damage.
Once hits are assigned, the player taking the damage rolls a resistance dice (a d10) for each hit. Armor raises a resistance score, though some strikes ignore armor. Strikes also have a strike value which can lower resistance, and you will find an assortment of weapons that have various strength or sv boosts.
Models that fail to save are removed as casualties. Everything in the game has a single wound, except for heroes which can buy extra wounds.
A tough skill allows you to reroll a failed resistance roll, and heroes can buy several of these to use throughout the game (as they count game-wide, ex: if I have tough 2 that means I can twice in the entire game re-roll a failed resistance roll with that hero)
Units can run away and if they flee must be rallied or can run off the table.
There are a variety of modifiers to both shooting and combat. These are covered in the quick reference sheet in the back of the book and is worth copying and printing out for your games.
MAGIC
Magic is pretty straight forward. You can give magic levels to the heroes that can have magic. The higher your magic level, the more potent the spells can be. However you only cast one spell a turn with that hero so the power level of magic is nothing like in other games where it can easily tip the game over.
Spells can also be dispelled by enemy wizards. Its more of a utility than a primary tactic.
You get one spell for your caster free that you pick and additional spells cost more points (even though again you can only cast once a turn no matter how many spells you decide to take)
MAGIC ITEMS
There is a small selection of extra magic weapons you can give your characters. It is not really a big list but gives you some extra options should you wish to take them.
There could definitely be an expansion that gave more magic armor, standards, potions, etc, but currently its just limited to a small handful of weapons.
MONSTERS
There are bound monsters in the game the same as existed way back in the day of 5th edition whfb. The monsters section is listed as player optional and requiring player permission to include, but gives you access to the classic beastiary of yester-decade with things like dragons, ogres, giant spiders and scorpions, etc, plus things like ghouls and swarms.
Monsters have their own reaction chart to damage, just like they did in 5th edition whfb, so you can have a monster hurt enough to be enraged and tear through everyone's forces, or it simply walks off the table.
CHARIOTS
Another key unit type are chariots, which many warbands have access to. Chariots have their own damage chart as well that they roll on and heroes in chariots can continue to fight on foot if their chariot is destroyed.
TERRAIN
Terrain matters in this game. Obstacles can stop you in your tracks, terrain can slow you down, and hills block line of sight. The game functions in an intuitive manner. If you have models in cover, they gain a bonus to their resistance as you'd expect.
OVERALL
Warlords of Erehwon obviously takes a lot of things from classic Warhammer of the 90s and early 2000s. The army lists remind me greatly of Ravening Hordes, which was seen as the golden age of Warhammer in terms of balance back when 6th edition came out in the fall of 2000.
Some of the paragraphs in the book seem lifted from my 5th edition WHFB rulebook, which is not surprising since Rick Priestly was part of that design team.
PROS (for me, in my opinion)
Intuitive gameplay that centers around maneuvering and playing the game over wombo-combo building and listbuilding skills. Your excel powers will not be as useful here as they are in 40k or AOS.
There are really no combos to exploit in terms of taking Unit A gives Unit B and C a boost. There are no free abilities to exploit like having more than 20 models in a unit gives you a free +1 to hit. There are no ways to really raise up double your points values with unbalanced summoning mechanics.
The initiative system alternating from player to player instead of the much outdated IGOUGO system means you aren't standing there for 30-45 minutes watching your opponent move while you just take guys off the table. It definitely means you don't have to suffer two turns in a row and up to 60 minutes of watching your opponent attack you while you take models off the table like in AOS.
At 1000 points and roughly 30-50 models a side, the game also should play out really fast.
The ambush system where you can set up interrupts is also a huge positive for me as it creates layers of interaction that can weave a powerfully tactical tapestry where you can set up traps and responses (and which can fail!) as opposed to knowing your turn will always go off without any interruption at all.
The fact that you can use any models you want is also positive, and the fact that bases are listed as not relevant means that someone wanting everyone on the same base or getting angry has no leg to stand on. Rebasing entire armies to try and keep up with the latest base size is quite frankly annoying, especially if you put any work into your models appearance and don't want to destroy a finished base to put a bigger circle on it to appease someone that gets upset because 7mm extra is to them a huge advantage.
Thats personal taste I realize.
Also a big pro for me is that this game does not give you the ability to really alpha strike someone off the table. You can't get engaged in turn 1, you have to position for it and risk falling in opposing traps. There are no teleporting into combat units here nor are there units that are going to charge across the table in turn 1 (though speed can still get you close!)
CONS
The game has no fluff or narrative. For some thats also a huge PRO and that may even be for you. For me, the lack of story means that every game is set somewhere different. I like persistant stories and settings, so thats just a niggling issue for me.
For pick up gamers though that don't care about such things, the gameplay alone is more than enough to stand on in my opinion.
Additionally, there are some key armies missing here. The skaven, lizarden, and chaos warriors especially will find it hard to proxy their models in for one of the existing warbands.
Also, much like the cons levied against Ravening Hordes in 2000 by the warhammer community back then, you pay for the balance with lack of flavor. It would be nice to see a supplement really flesh out these army lists with their own spells and some magic items of their own. Games Workshop really does a good job at giving each faction its own place in the world, and I think that would go a long long way with Warlords of Erehwon.
Now the book states in the beginning that things that may be missing can easily be added as you wish. Rick encourages you to be creative. I know that come summer if we are still missing some skaven or demons or chaos warriors that I'll likely put my own in the game for campaign sake. He even has posted in their facebook explaining the design principals that he used to help you design your own units, but hopefully those formulas make it to a publication to help us tinker with the game more in a better and more knowledgeable way.
For a lot of players also the lack of the wombo-combo list building is a huge CON. Fans of popping synergies off and combo chaining with units that feed off of each others' abilities may be turned off by that lack of ability here.
Additionally players that enjoy alpha striking and dictating how a game is played by virtue of bringing an alpha strike list that gets stuck in on turn 1 will also likely be turned off by having to employ maneuver to get where they want.
FINAL SCORE
For me this is one of my favorite systems at the moment. Its rules are solid, and what weaknesses it has can be remedied by the community should Warlord Games not pursue the game much past the initial rulebook.
I look forward to writing some material in this game universe and getting some campaign time in with Mr. Priestly's work.
Ta da, Mr P himself talking about his new game. He gives an overview and briefly explains how the game plays. If you have played Bolt Action or Antares, skip this, but if you are a Warlord virgin then well worth a watch.
auticus wrote: My player review of the game that I posted on my community facebook page. (I reference another article i wrote there, that is not here, so when you see that initially just be aware i was referring to that which they had the link to in the group)
Warlords of Erehwon - a player review
When asked what I think of Warlords of Erehwon, I wanted to put a good list of things that I consider when picking games to play and how I think that this one pans out.
I did a review on the five commercial fantasy warband games out right now (AOS, Middle Earth SBG, Dragon Rampant, Warmachine, and Warlords) that I am familiar with and gave a side by side comparison.
This post will be more about the system overall and how it operates as well as some things that I personally like about it and where I can see things possibly being a downside for players.
ARMIES The game is warband scale. Its default point cost is 1,000 points, and for 1,000 points you get about what you'd get in Age of Sigmar for 1,000 points.
The undead army that I posted came out to be 33 models.
The game can be extended up to 2000 points per the book.
Armies have no real restrictions in terms of having to pay a core tax or anything like that. You are typically going to have one warlord (of which you must have one, and typically only one) which is the most powerful hero, and then anywhere around 1-2 extra heroes depending on the army list. The undead army as an example can only have one extra hero.
This prevents the game of hero hammer from happening largely as you will only have 1-3 heroes and the rest of your force will be composed of everything else.
It can be possible to get some overbearing lists put in place. Some of the more powerful monsters have a cap of one in the warband max, but other entries can be spammed. For example, the undead could take nothing but carrion beasts or artillery as there are no caps on those.
The balance overall remains to be seen as the game is brand new and minmax exploits have not yet hit the internet to be copied.
MODELS The game has no official model line and openly embraces any model line that you may have. Bases also do not matter, so bring your squares or your rounds or anything in between.
GAMEPLAY Scenarios typically last six turns OR when your army is deemed broken. A broken warband is when you have reached a point in the game where you have half of your starting units remaining on the table. At that point, unless you are in the sixth turn of the game and the game is over, you will roll a D6 to determine if you go to the next turn or not.
Broken armies can never score more points than unbroken armies. That means once an army is broken, it will be playing to break the other army to try to win on score in what little time it has left or it auto loses no matter what the score actually is (barring a scenario changing that win condition up)
TURNS The game eschews the traditional IGOUGO mechanics of classic games and many modern games. Instead, for every hero or unit that you possess you will drop a colored dice or token into a dice bag, as will your opponent.
During a turn, you will draw a token from the bag. If it is one of your tokens, you will activate a unit that has not yet activated. If it is one of your oppoenents, they will do the same. There are some exceptions where you can keep orders activated on a unit and not put the dice in the bag, but ultimately the game will be bouncing back and forth between players activating different units as opposed to standing there for an entire turn (or two if you are playing AOS and fall prey to their double turn mechanic) taking it on the chin with no way to respond.
The orders you can give correspond to a facing on a D6. Warlord games sells special order dice for Bolt Action and Antares, which uses the same system.
You can choose to Advance with a unit, where they can move and shoot any missile weapons. You can choose to fire with a unit where they shoot without moving (some larger weapons or artillery can only receive this order to fire for example). You can choose to run which lets you move double or even triple your movement (unless you are wearing heavy armor which slows you down).
You can choose to issue a rally order which will help that unit and any unit near it remove "pins" from it to make it easier to stop fleeing and recieve orders. Pins are a mechanic where losing combats, taking damage, and exhausting oneself (or miscasting spells) add to a tally that is much like morale. Once you reach an amount of pins equal to the units command score, they flee the table. Rallying helps remove some of those pins. (pins also make issuing orders to those units more difficult)
You can issue a Down order which makes your unit hit the ground and make it harder to be hit.
Last you can issue an Ambush order which lets you put a unit's action in wait. They can then later activate in response to an enemy unit activating, as an Interrupt, provided they pass an initiative test.
This lets you weave more complex tactics and strategies into the game where units can lie in wait for an opposing action and then activate to spoil that action. Or perhaps just simply dive into cover with a Down command if they are being targeted by a nasty missile unit.
DICE The game uses D10s as its primary random number generator though also uses D6 and D4s sparingly as well.
COMBAT MECHANICS To charge into combat, units must be issued a run command and they can run (double movement) or sprint (triple movement) into an enemy unit. There are no random charges, though terrain can spoil your charging as it has an impact in the game and can slow you down.
Shooting and combat both function off of the same mechanics. You roll a D10 for each model to hit based on either an accuracy score or their strength score, and all hits are allocated to the enemy unit. Hits must be spread out across the unit. There is none of the tanking shennanigans that other games employ where an indestructible front model soaks up all damage.
Once hits are assigned, the player taking the damage rolls a resistance dice (a d10) for each hit. Armor raises a resistance score, though some strikes ignore armor. Strikes also have a strike value which can lower resistance, and you will find an assortment of weapons that have various strength or sv boosts.
Models that fail to save are removed as casualties. Everything in the game has a single wound, except for heroes which can buy extra wounds.
A tough skill allows you to reroll a failed resistance roll, and heroes can buy several of these to use throughout the game (as they count game-wide, ex: if I have tough 2 that means I can twice in the entire game re-roll a failed resistance roll with that hero)
Units can run away and if they flee must be rallied or can run off the table.
There are a variety of modifiers to both shooting and combat. These are covered in the quick reference sheet in the back of the book and is worth copying and printing out for your games.
MAGIC Magic is pretty straight forward. You can give magic levels to the heroes that can have magic. The higher your magic level, the more potent the spells can be. However you only cast one spell a turn with that hero so the power level of magic is nothing like in other games where it can easily tip the game over.
Spells can also be dispelled by enemy wizards. Its more of a utility than a primary tactic.
You get one spell for your caster free that you pick and additional spells cost more points (even though again you can only cast once a turn no matter how many spells you decide to take)
MAGIC ITEMS There is a small selection of extra magic weapons you can give your characters. It is not really a big list but gives you some extra options should you wish to take them.
There could definitely be an expansion that gave more magic armor, standards, potions, etc, but currently its just limited to a small handful of weapons.
MONSTERS There are bound monsters in the game the same as existed way back in the day of 5th edition whfb. The monsters section is listed as player optional and requiring player permission to include, but gives you access to the classic beastiary of yester-decade with things like dragons, ogres, giant spiders and scorpions, etc, plus things like ghouls and swarms.
Monsters have their own reaction chart to damage, just like they did in 5th edition whfb, so you can have a monster hurt enough to be enraged and tear through everyone's forces, or it simply walks off the table.
CHARIOTS Another key unit type are chariots, which many warbands have access to. Chariots have their own damage chart as well that they roll on and heroes in chariots can continue to fight on foot if their chariot is destroyed.
TERRAIN Terrain matters in this game. Obstacles can stop you in your tracks, terrain can slow you down, and hills block line of sight. The game functions in an intuitive manner. If you have models in cover, they gain a bonus to their resistance as you'd expect.
OVERALL Warlords of Erehwon obviously takes a lot of things from classic Warhammer of the 90s and early 2000s. The army lists remind me greatly of Ravening Hordes, which was seen as the golden age of Warhammer in terms of balance back when 6th edition came out in the fall of 2000.
Some of the paragraphs in the book seem lifted from my 5th edition WHFB rulebook, which is not surprising since Rick Priestly was part of that design team.
PROS (for me, in my opinion) Intuitive gameplay that centers around maneuvering and playing the game over wombo-combo building and listbuilding skills. Your excel powers will not be as useful here as they are in 40k or AOS.
There are really no combos to exploit in terms of taking Unit A gives Unit B and C a boost. There are no free abilities to exploit like having more than 20 models in a unit gives you a free +1 to hit. There are no ways to really raise up double your points values with unbalanced summoning mechanics.
The initiative system alternating from player to player instead of the much outdated IGOUGO system means you aren't standing there for 30-45 minutes watching your opponent move while you just take guys off the table. It definitely means you don't have to suffer two turns in a row and up to 60 minutes of watching your opponent attack you while you take models off the table like in AOS.
At 1000 points and roughly 30-50 models a side, the game also should play out really fast.
The ambush system where you can set up interrupts is also a huge positive for me as it creates layers of interaction that can weave a powerfully tactical tapestry where you can set up traps and responses (and which can fail!) as opposed to knowing your turn will always go off without any interruption at all.
The fact that you can use any models you want is also positive, and the fact that bases are listed as not relevant means that someone wanting everyone on the same base or getting angry has no leg to stand on. Rebasing entire armies to try and keep up with the latest base size is quite frankly annoying, especially if you put any work into your models appearance and don't want to destroy a finished base to put a bigger circle on it to appease someone that gets upset because 7mm extra is to them a huge advantage.
Thats personal taste I realize.
Also a big pro for me is that this game does not give you the ability to really alpha strike someone off the table. You can't get engaged in turn 1, you have to position for it and risk falling in opposing traps. There are no teleporting into combat units here nor are there units that are going to charge across the table in turn 1 (though speed can still get you close!)
CONS The game has no fluff or narrative. For some thats also a huge PRO and that may even be for you. For me, the lack of story means that every game is set somewhere different. I like persistant stories and settings, so thats just a niggling issue for me.
For pick up gamers though that don't care about such things, the gameplay alone is more than enough to stand on in my opinion.
Additionally, there are some key armies missing here. The skaven, lizarden, and chaos warriors especially will find it hard to proxy their models in for one of the existing warbands.
Also, much like the cons levied against Ravening Hordes in 2000 by the warhammer community back then, you pay for the balance with lack of flavor. It would be nice to see a supplement really flesh out these army lists with their own spells and some magic items of their own. Games Workshop really does a good job at giving each faction its own place in the world, and I think that would go a long long way with Warlords of Erehwon.
Now the book states in the beginning that things that may be missing can easily be added as you wish. Rick encourages you to be creative. I know that come summer if we are still missing some skaven or demons or chaos warriors that I'll likely put my own in the game for campaign sake. He even has posted in their facebook explaining the design principals that he used to help you design your own units, but hopefully those formulas make it to a publication to help us tinker with the game more in a better and more knowledgeable way.
For a lot of players also the lack of the wombo-combo list building is a huge CON. Fans of popping synergies off and combo chaining with units that feed off of each others' abilities may be turned off by that lack of ability here.
Additionally players that enjoy alpha striking and dictating how a game is played by virtue of bringing an alpha strike list that gets stuck in on turn 1 will also likely be turned off by having to employ maneuver to get where they want.
FINAL SCORE For me this is one of my favorite systems at the moment. Its rules are solid, and what weaknesses it has can be remedied by the community should Warlord Games not pursue the game much past the initial rulebook.
I look forward to writing some material in this game universe and getting some campaign time in with Mr. Priestly's work.
auticus this was very well written. Where can your comparison text of the various systems be found?
auticus this was very well written. Where can your comparison text of the various systems be found?
Apologies for not picking up this sooner. Both of these were posted in my community's facebook page. My wordpress site was down so I couldn't post it there and just link it.
auticus this was very well written. Where can your comparison text of the various systems be found?
Apologies for not picking up this sooner. Both of these were posted in my community's facebook page. My wordpress site was down so I couldn't post it there and just link it.
Which one is it, as I would be interested to read it.
, but a quick look on their web page and switching back and forth on currencies had a £23.50 box being $38.00.
