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So I run a lot of the events at our LGS.
And I want to say, the Hinterlands is everything I wish I could do - it looks breathtaking, and when I presented it to my gaming group, they refused to believe it wasn't official. Serious props to you for putting in the time and effort to make this look as good as it does.
So after I convinced them no black magic had been performed, we sat down for a day's worth of games. I'll leave my feed back here.
First, Warband creation is simple and clean. That's very well in mesh with Age of Sigmar, and I really believe that's the correct step to take things.
I also really like the experience system - again, easy and clean. No convolution, just fun mechanics.
I see that you are adding more to the Realm Master side of the packet, and I should hopefully have some feedback for you by Sunday (I'm going to run silver tower using normal AoS and Hinterlands rules )

Now to offer my constructive thoughts.
The missions feel fairly 'swingy' for long term campaigns - what I mean by this is that if two players play, and one (player A) wipes the other (player B) out, it creates a really bad snowball effect. This could be changed by modifying how much gold the loot is worth, or by providing all players with a set amount, and then 'sprinkling' extra gold on top in the form of loot tokens.
Player A now has a bunch of gold to buy more models with, and Player B now has to make a bunch of rolls on the injury chart. At this low 'point' cost, a few uneven rolls can tilt the game, and having such a lasting effect seems overly effective. maybe make death a "0" result, and add the option to play a 'mortal campaign' where all rolls on the injury table are at -1.
I would advocate for the inclusion of heroes to be optional. The first thing my group discovered was how ridiculous they can be, even with a reduced wound count. The Knight Venator can easily remove 5+ models a turn from 42" away, and the Knight Azyros straight up kills everything within 8". I could be wrong on this, but I definitely felt disadvantaged when my opponent had a hero and I did not. Even playing at the same point levels, it felt off.
The Chaos Battle trait is fairly unreliable, where as the others are fairly beneficial. I like how it works, but just feel the reward for risking life and limb is just too little atm.

My players and I are super-stoked to play this; in February we're going to start a small skirmish league for Age of Sigmar, and I think it's safe to say you've given us the inspiration needed. I will keep you updated as much as possible. Thank you!

I really like the production quality you've put into this. As a fellow editor of a newsletter, I salute you. Your painting is top quality too.

Hello everyone, after a very busy January, this monthly update arrives 10 days late! This month is all about my Hinterlands rules and some exciting collaborations I have been involved with. If you like Skirmish Campaigns, Blanchitsu, Grimdark, Mordheim style games and Age of Sigmar this should hopefully be packed full of content for you. If not, well I am also preparing which tournaments I will be attending this year at the moment and starting to choose the models I will be adding to my tournament army. Hopefully I will be able to share more with you next update!



In January my Hinterlands rules were updated to version 2.0 and it's honestly been a bit of a whirlwind since. My Hinterlands rules are a simple set of skirmish campaign rules to use in Age of Sigmar. It is in many ways similar to Mordheim and Necromunda, and in some ways similar to Kill Team for 40k, but at the same time tries to embrace Age of Sigmar more than anything, so you'll find everything we love about the game from Battleplans to Artefacts to Command Traits and Triumphs and so on.

Version 1 of the rules came out in October, and you can read more about it here: (link). Version 1 accrued 550 odd downloads in the 3 months it was released, which blew me away. Version 2 has been out not even 2 weeks and has already been downloaded over 800 times! I would like to thank everyone for their support and positive feedback!

So what is version 2 all about?



Hinterlands version 2.0 builds upon the first by making everything fully modular for gaming groups. You are no longer limited to just 3 basic Battleplans. Instead 5 new Battleplans are included as well as rules for using every battleplan in Age of Sigmar, ever. That's a lot of gaming to be had!

The rules are free to download, and what you'll find are:

- Clear concise rules (the core rules are no more than 4 pages) for playing skirmish style campaigns and RPG style campaigns.
- Professional presentation (I have tried to make this look like the real deal!)
- Full modularity of the rules (so you can tweak/add/remove whatever you fancy without causing headaches for yourself with a long list of knock-on effects)

Here are some screenshots of what to expect:



Here's the download link: Hinterlands: Skirmish Campaigns in the Mortal Realms - by Sam James

Thank you to everyone who takes an interest. And if you want to get stuck into the discussion about the rules the best places are the threads on DakkaDakka (link) and TGA (link)





AoS28 is an exciting community project being led by Jake (Bruticus) of Ex Profundis. It is an attempt to explore the dark corners of the Mortal Realms, to bring out the shades of grey and grimdark more commonly associated with INQ28 (from where the name stems) and Blanchitsu.

When working on Hinterlands, Jake approached me to incorporate the rules in the project. Now AoS28 can be played with any rules of course (from Mordheim to Frostgrave), and it doesn't even have to be a gaming project (as it focuses on modelling and painting above all else), but the Hinterlands rules do offer a perfect platform for the community to play with and so I was thrilled to have a chance to take part!

To get you all excited and show what's possible, I am going to post some pics of Bruticus' models below. Behold!

Wild Rider by Bruticus


Spiritseer by Bruticus


If that has got you excited, here are all the links you will need:

Ex Profundis - The home of AoS28 on the web!
AoS28 Facebook Group - Already 500+ members, including Mr John Blanche himself.
TGA AoS28 Thread - Crammed full of WIPs and inspiration
#AoS28 - The official twitter hashtag

If you go ahead and start creating your own warband and want to play games with them, the Hinterlands rules posted above are exactly what you need. Of course, the idea behind AoS28 is that you should never feel restricted by the rules and should let your imagination run wild! With that in mind, we put together some guidelines for breaking the Hinterlands rules for AoS28:





I hope you have enjoyed this month's update focused entirely on skirmish gaming with Age of Sigmar. Now I didn't finish any models this month due to being so busy getting this all off the ground, I did however start my own AoS28 warband as I got caught up in all the excitement. This will be a mini-project you will see in the blog over the next few months. I present my first WIP of Greywater



I'm basing my warband on Greywater Fastness from the Season of War. If you don't recall the conclusion for that city, they were basically overrun when they set off all their warmachines at once (including giant "macro" Hurricanums) that obliterated the entire countryside for miles in all direction.

That countryside was already drained swampland, so being subject to a post-apocalyptic explosion no doubt left it dank, gnarly, polluted and an altogether grim place to live...

With that in mind I thought the inhabitants should wear longcoats and hoods to keep off the acid rain as well as lanterns to see through the smog. As the place is quite technologically advanced I gave them all rifles and other gadgets like ad-hoc grenades and mechanical looking back packs.

I plan to add in a Stormcast model to lead the group and invoke the classic INQ28 Space Marine appeal. The Chamber will be one of my own creation and the story around them is that the entire chamber is cursed. They were outside the city gates when the bombs went off and were obliterated along with the enemy, killed to the last man. Upon being reforged, every one of them returned not much more than a silent automaton...

Hopefully next month I will have the finished model to show you!

More to come...

Making quite a name for yourself, aren't you Bottle? Well done on the partnership and that warband you've made yourself! I'll be sure to look into it

Gosh darn it, I'm not supposed to be buying any more models at the moment! But I'm going to have to get involved with this at some point, it's such a great idea.

Not so much 'right up my street' as 'Has taken a liking to my street, purchased in property there and is moving in as soon as I have the funds to make this project happen'...

Super conversion work, love the lantern guy.

Fantastic stuff Bottle!! Already can't wait to see your Warband all painted up - I'm sure they'll look immaculate! I'm definitely going to have to look in to creating a warband of my own when I have a bit more time!!

Grimdark AoS oh wow, I can't wait to see those Greywaters painted

WarbossDakka wrote:Making quite a name for yourself, aren't you Bottle? Well done on the partnership and that warband you've made yourself! I'll be sure to look into it

Haha, I am trying my hardest. Not going too badly so far

Paradigm wrote:Gosh darn it, I'm not supposed to be buying any more models at the moment! But I'm going to have to get involved with this at some point, it's such a great idea.

Not so much 'right up my street' as 'Has taken a liking to my street, purchased in property there and is moving in as soon as I have the funds to make this project happen'...

Super conversion work, love the lantern guy.

Haha, yes you have got to involved mate! Would love to see what you can come up with!

NathanD298 wrote:Fantastic stuff Bottle!! Already can't wait to see your Warband all painted up - I'm sure they'll look immaculate! I'm definitely going to have to look in to creating a warband of my own when I have a bit more time!!

Yes man, you should get involved too! I'd love to get some games in against you using the rules!

TheDraconicLord wrote:Grimdark AoS oh wow, I can't wait to see those Greywaters painted

Thanks

 Bottle wrote:

NathanD298 wrote:Fantastic stuff Bottle!! Already can't wait to see your Warband all painted up - I'm sure they'll look immaculate! I'm definitely going to have to look in to creating a warband of my own when I have a bit more time!!

Yes man, you should get involved too! I'd love to get some games in against you using the rules!

I'll definitely have a think about what I could do with it! Haven't really converted any models since 5th ed 40k, so I'm probably a little rusty

Nice stuff. Wish I could highlight as well as you! Especially nice work on the Empire. Or are we not supposed to call it that?

Welcome everyone to April's update. What happened to February and March, you ask? I have no idea either. Looks like even a monthly post is too much to be asked of me right now, but it doesn't mean I am not busy with the hobby, in fact it is quite the opposite. Hinterlands continues to be explosive in popularity hitting 4,000+ downloads today (and the Ao28 group has almost reached 3000 members too). I have also been doing lots of painting. The big projects currently are for Shadow War: Armageddon and the start of my AoS tournament season which kicks off in June, but I hope to bring you more news on that later...

This month I bring forward the idea of Triumvirates in Age of Sigmar (and show you mine), a showcase of my Freeguild General on Griffon (with green armour paint splatter) and share with you some podcasts I have guested on recently as well as bring you the latest Hinterlands news. I hope you enjoy!



Introduction

One of the things I really like about the latest Warhammer 40,000 releases for 'The Gathering Storm' is the idea of a Triumvirate. This was a word I had not heard before and as well as sounding very cool I also liked the meaning behind it:

Quote
'(in ancient Rome) a board of three officials jointly responsible for some task'

I have also recently been thinking about backstory writing for my Age of Sigmar mixed Order army, and as I recently finished my third centre-piece model for the army (A Freeguild General on Griffon), it seemed the perfect chance to add my own "Triumvirate" into my army.

The Roots of the Story:

When Age of Sigmar first came out, I put together a backstory for my army called 'Siegfried's Desperados'. I had an old blog here on Dakkadakka which was quite popular at the time, perhaps because it was one of the safe havens away from the heat the game was getting from some disgruntled veterans. You can check out the thread here if you are interested:

Siegfried's Desperados

To summerise, the initial background I created for my army was that they were a mercenary outfit (called the 'Desperados') operating out of Azyrheim.

I wanted to add a bit more grey and a bit more low fantasy into the backstory (as it was something Age of Sigmar didn't really have at the time), so I came up with some hooks and ideas of the dark side of aelven society in Azyrheim (lots of intrigue and assassinations among the nobles),  the ideas of slums in the city, and that a mercenary outfit might employ a necromancer in their ranks.

This was also an excuse to add in Aelves, Duardin and even Death into my army which was all a lot of fun to play with before the General's Handbook came out.

But since the General's Handbook came out the narrative and story behind my army has taken the backseat. I have been focusing a lot more on Matched play and my narrative outlet has been with Hinterlands.

As the recently finished Freeguild General on Griffon was meant to be Siegfried Stormhart once more, I thought it would be fun to update the story of the Desperados, and so the Triumvirate was born.



The Triumvirate of Mistmire; Master Geppetto, Siegfried Stormhart and the alchemist, Massym Al-Izzar

Creating a Triumvirate:

I want to throw out the question to all of you, what cool Triumvirates could you add into your collection? All you would need are the following:

1. 3 Cool Models

2. A Cool Story that connects them

For me, I had my 3 Centrepieces. The Griffon, the Steamtank and the Hurricanum. I wanted them to have some sort of purpose other than being in an army together, so I decided to bring back the old Necromancer I used to run in the Desperados pre-GHB. He goes by the name 'Cornacaprious'. 

I decided that he has since betrayed the Desperados, and has resurrected an ancient vampire (with the title of the "Blood Queen"). This gives me a reason to finally paint my Neferata model and also gives the triumvirate a goal to accomplish (they of course seek to kill both the Necromancer and the Blood Queen).

So with the scene set, I put together a 4 pages as if they were from a campaign book and detailed my Triumvirate of Mistmire. I would love to hear what you think, but more importantly I hope this inspires you all to go off and create a Triumvirate for one of your armies too.  

My Triumvirate:








As you will have seen above, I have recently finished my Freeguild General on Griffon. I have been playing with the model in my games of Age of Sigmar and have found him to be a much needed addition to my army (as it gives me my first real unit that is both mobile and has strong combat prowess). I was really happy with the finished model, especially the green armour on Siegfried. (I plan to add an aelf unit in the same scheme, my "Spire Guard" if you read the above Triumvirate story).








In March I had the exciting oppurtunity to appear on two podcasts. Even more exciting because I am a fan and regular listener of both of them! I guested on both the Black Sun and Fjordhammer to talk about my Hinterlands skirmish ruleset.

So if you're interested in Hinterlands, or would just like to put a voice to a face (unfortunately I do not sound like a cute Korean girl, prepare to have the illusion shattered! haha) - then you should give them a listen!

Out of the two podcasts I did much better in the Black Sun, as I was a bit nervous and somewhat dry on Fjordhammer. There are two parts to the Fjordhammer interview, where I go into real depth on the design process and philosophy behind Hinterlands (which should be interesting if any of you are keen to make fan supplements and want some ideas and tips on what you should consider to reach a wide audience) - so I recommend both, but recommend the Black Sun especially if you only want to listen to me once

Download the Black Sun episode

Download the 1st Fjordhammer Episode

Download the 2nd Fjordhammer Episode

I would love to go on more podcasts in the future. If you want to know a random fact about bottle, I actually had a regular radio show when I lived in South Korea about DJing and EDM music, so it is something I miss indeed!



The last section for this month is to give a quick update to Hinterlands as today version 2.2 came out. Here are the headline changes:



This latest version makes the balance much better by limiting the amount of Mortal Wounds a player gets access to. To download the latest version you can do from here:

DOWNLOAD HINTERLANDS 2.2

So that's it for this month's update. Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear any comments or thoughts on anything in this post!

Cheers,

bottle

More to come...

Fantastic work Bottle. Great high quality work as we've come to expect from you. Thanks for the updated rule set as well!

Very cool blog entry, Bottle!
The background write-up for the Desperados is quite interesting, as is the idea of AoS trimuvirates.


Dropbox Link for Hinterlands 2.2

Thanks for the kind words you two! :-)

What fantastic models. I know nothing about the rules for AoS, so I almost feel guilty for not being able to comment on those.

As far as the models and layout of everything goes, top notch work! Can't wait for more monthly updates! It really feels like I'm reading a professional quality magazine.

Thanks for all of your hard work!