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I have written a review of latest GW supplement, so there you go guys:

http://mightyminiatures.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/blood-in-the-badlands-campaign-book-review/

I wrote a quick review for my blog as well, and I came to some different conclusions. I think the book looks like a lot of fun as well, but I was disappointed by the lack of real content - too many battle reports for my taste, and not enough rules. The battle reports are fun to read, but I was hoping for more suggestions for my own gaming group, and less about what others have done.

Looking forward to playing the campaign, though, and I'm interested in seeing how everyone gets along once the armies finally hit the table.

I think that using either the old siege rules from WHFB, or the Warhammer Historicals: Siege and Conquest book would give you much more bang for your buck. Either of the above are based on the whfb engine, so making adjustments for the current game would be easy.

That, and they are full of content, as well as tons of inspiration.

jwoolf wrote:I wrote a quick review for my blog as well, and I came to some different conclusions. I think the book looks like a lot of fun as well, but I was disappointed by the lack of real content - too many battle reports for my taste, and not enough rules. The battle reports are fun to read, but I was hoping for more suggestions for my own gaming group, and less about what others have done.

That was kind of the point. Read the introduction. They basically say 'this is what we did in our campaign, these are some of the campaign specific rules we made up for it, use it as inspiration for your own games'.

The rules aren't even actually tested rules for games, its stuff they just made up for their campaign, same with the 'loot' magical items and scenarios. It's basically a book to get people interested in playing campaigns by showing what happened in a studio campaign, not specifically give rules for campaigns.

How does it compare to the Compendium?

Aerethan wrote:How does it compare to the Compendium?

The only thing that BitB has over the generals compendium is thats its hardback, so you don't have to treat it like a priceless, fragile antique that will fall apart in a light breeze.

Other than that its ... adequate, but nowhere close to the sheer fun that compendium still is, even after 2 editions of Fantasy. Or 3?

If you buy it expecting it to be like the generals compendium, it will feel like when you are watching a great vulgar/violent movie on basic cable with all of the things that made it great censored and blurred or bleeped out. Sure its still enjoyable, but its just not the way its meant to be.

With that said, being that I'm a WHFB fanatic, I bought it, enjoyed it and will get some good mileage out of it. Supposedly its a sign of things to come, so I'm stoked for what they have in store for Fantasy.

I mainly want it for the siege rules. Do you know how they compare to the siege rules from the Annual 2002? I still have that thing laying around.

Thanks for the review! The only bummer for me is that we don't do campaigns, so most of the book will be of no use... I do like the (very basic) siege rules quite a bit, though.

I've got some questions if you could please answer them.
Firstly, how viable of an campaign is it? And would it seem viable to ~4 players?
And secondly, do you know roughly what points the games are supposed to go with? I tried skimming the copy at my FLGS, but it seemed like they didn't even give a recommendation, just anywhere between nothing and everything...

RiTides wrote:Thanks for the review! The only bummer for me is that we don't do campaigns, so most of the book will be of no use... I do like the (very basic) siege rules quite a bit, though.

Are you able to compare the siege rules with those in the Annual 2002?

So, if I'm to get this straight, it's less a rules supplement and more of a "Here's what WE did just to give you some ideas" and a sparse, get you by set of Siege rules book?

Pass, I'll stick with the Compendium, updated 6th ed Siege rules, and writing my own stuff. And here I was thinking GW had something that might get their hooks into my wallet again.

Platuan4th, that's more or less accurate. There's campaign rules at the start as well- slightly more in depth than the siege rules, but if you're already playing in a group that's enjoying your own adapted stuff then it may not be for you.

I liked it as jumping off points for imagination, though I thought there was bit too much battle report and a little light on ideas. Still decent value...

I miss stuff like the General's Compendium, but this seems decent enough.

Still, I'll have to get my hands on a copy of both (or the Compendium at least) and compare them. I like to book, but $33 or so for just 8 pages of siege rules and bits of campaign stuff (which I'm sure you can find in Mighty Empires) is a bit... underwhelming.

Cornerfag- its pretty viable for everybody that wants to run campaign and you can always lightly modify it as well. Points wise you get three aries to move mon the campaign map with (sometimes forth) but its up to you how big they are really.

Okay, thanks a lot!
Now, to get my gaming group together and start collecting an army worth of doing a campaign with..

well the generals dieing... and spoils of war and everything is awesome ideas to make it though the year in the campaign.... its built for 8 players but making it for 4 should be great... you need storm of magic to play this to cause some areas are som games with monsters n gak.. and there is no limit on points were trying 2000 but could easiley move up

You also need two tables setup to play battles simultaneously!

Kodeack wrote:well the generals dieing... and spoils of war and everything is awesome ideas to make it though the year in the campaign.... its built for 8 players but making it for 4 should be great... you need storm of magic to play this to cause some areas are som games with monsters n gak.. and there is no limit on points were trying 2000 but could easiley move up

Again, it's not really a hard list of campaign rules. It's something to inspire your own campaigns. You could really just replace those SoM games with large normal games if you really wanted to avoid buying SoM.

I love how I still can't get an answer as to how the siege rules stack up to the Annual 2002 rules.


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EDIT: looks like I have egg on my face, the Annual 2002 has updates to the siege rules that are in the 6th edition rulebook(which I don't think I own anymore).

So I guess I'll be buying the book after all.

@aerethan if you do get the book, can you post a rea review of the rules and siege stuff. I find it very telling that its hard to get this book pinned down on the actual usefulness of the rules (especially for $33) compared to the annual/6th ed and general's compendium.

well, i dont have an annual 2002 so i couldnt make a comparison but rules are simple and good i would say. perhaps not too sophisticated, but good. You even have starvation roll factored in (every defending unit rolls a dice before the gae and might have some damage due to starvation).

Loki, you're right. I suppose I should have read through a copy before picking the book up. Still wished for a little more usable content, but I guess they were trying something new.

It can't be all bad, though, as it's inspired a friend and I to start a campaign of our own:

http://headwoundminis.blogspot.com/2011/12/campaign-turn-1.html

@jwoolf: Went over and took a gander at your campaign. Very cool!

For those wanting a comparison- difficult to say? The siege rules here are far simpler. I haven't thought through all the implications, but it seems that they probably leave the door open for some problems by sticking to the BRB building rules.

There's also a somewhat dissatisfying rule about a relief force winning the game for the besieged if it can fight its way to the gate. I can imagine one last hammerer staggering over and collapsing in the gate house to declare the siege lifted...

As for campaign rules, I think they are right about the level of what the compendium had to offer (though I'm not looking at them side by side). Simple rules, racial bonuses, and a structure that can be played easily by a group of players, but could really shine with a GM.

We get our book in a couple of days and I am beyond excited for our campaign.

Red_Zeke, thanks for taking a look. This is my first WHFB campaign, and after just one turn it's clear that this will ratchet the fun factor of our battles drastically.

For anyone who's interested in seeing how we adapted the campaign system to accommodate a simple, 2-player campaign, here's the rules we came up with:

http://headwoundminis.blogspot.com/2011/12/marshes-of-madness-campaign-rules.html

Nice write-up Jwoolf! Look forward to more

Nice to see the reviews.

Currently starting one up with one of the local GW Staffers over here - I liked the book simply because it was quirky and the campaign system is a lot easier to grasp than the one suggested in the Mighty Empires supplement or my friend's attempts to homebrew campaigns (Seriously, the man keeps trying to get an economy phase which involves far too much micromanagement....)