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NOTE: This first post is continually updated. Last update 05/03/2017



Hello everyone, welcome to my project called, Hinterlands.

Hinterlands is a Skirmish Campaign system for Age of Sigmar. It is similar in scope to Mordheim or Frostgrave, but tries to stay as true as possible to everything we love about Age of Sigmar.

Version 1 was released in October 2016, and since then I have been very honoured with the positive response. It has become the #1 downloaded file on TGA and more excitingly, games of Hinterlands have been happening all over the globe!

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)
- You can download the latest version from the following link:

Hinterlands: Skirmish Campaigns in the Mortal Realms - by Sam James <- Download Link

Here are some screenshots of what to expect:



Hinterlands Version 2.0

NEWS: January 2017 sees the first update to Hinterlands!



Version 2.0 FAQ

I've had lots of great feedback from players about the rules for version 2 and a few grey areas have been pointed out (like Hanskrampf's comment!). I have decided to keep a living FAQ to answer these grey areas rather than constantly update the file. You can see it below and it will be included in the first post of this thread from now on:



UPDATE: 05/03/2017 VERSION 2.1



I am thrilled and honoured with the community response to Hinterlands and would like to thank all the players who have downloaded the rules and tried them out on the battlefield! :-) This started out as a personal project and a challenge to myself to make something that looked like the "real-deal", the Games Workshop logo on the front cover is a relic of that humble beginning as I really never expected the rules to receive this much attention. I have decided to remove the logo to make sure everyone knows this is 100% unofficial and to make sure that no ill-intent is perceived by any party.

As I had to update the version to do that, I took the opportunity to incorporate all the FAQ clarifications into the rules . The rules do not play any differently to version 2.0, but I would recommend downloading the latest version so you do not have to consult the FAQ.

I do not plan regular updates like this, instead you can look forward to a big update (version 3) coming later in the year! Happy gaming in the meantime!


Future Updates and Involving the Wider Community

With version 2.1 I think the rules are now a solid foundation. Gaming groups can tinker with any part of the rules and adapt/add/delete as they see fit. This makes customising Hinterlands super easy.

So why should I have all the fun?

I want to open up Hinterlands now to the wider community, so if you have a neat idea for some add-ons or would like to take these rules and make something even better out of them, DO IT! But even better, why not share it with the wider community too? If you are happy to do so I would love to start updating this first post with extras other forum members have made. So let's see what you can do



- bottle (Sam James)

If you'd like to follow me, or this project, I always recommend my blog here on DakkaDakka: Link

Awesome - I have been wanting to do something like this since AoS started. Congrats on actually getting it done!

Just preparing for a frostgrave campaign sorting out terrain etc (just got that game, looks nice). Have to have a look at what you have.

Cool nice work. Very well laid out. Well done.

Definitely looks like the real deal. I'll be sure to give it a good read over.

I know what I'm going to doing tonight. Reading through this! Looks great on a quick glance through.

Thanks so much for your positive feedback guys :-)

If you get a chance to read through or even play with the rules I would love to hear feedback and crits. I would imagine there are a few rules each of you would want to change here and there as well, be it down to them not quite working or from personal preference. I would love to hear that too.

The next step is to add a hobby section with example warbands for each type of campaign and then a roster sheet to record your warbands on too. The latter is proving a little tricky due to needing to fit lots of information on the page.

I just came onto Dakka to post an 'I wonder if GW will ever do a version of Mordheim/WFRP for Age of Sigmar?' post, when I saw that you've beaten them to it! Looks great, I'll definitely take a look at this.

So, this looks amazing. I'll definitely be trying it out with my friends. My plan is to print out a half dozen copies and spread them around at my game night on Friday. We've been trying a narrative war band campaign I put together, but it's imploding pretty quickly.

Quick question though...

Are the Rules of One in effect from the GHB? My guess is no, but it's not specifically mentioned. The GHB is so entrenched in so many communities that if you're not using some of its core rules, you need to say so. It seems like with a little luck you could get a Hero with a 1+ save, to hit or to wound.

Hey Kriswall, didn't see your question here. Firstly, thank you and good luck! Let me know how you get on with the rules if you have the chance to play them. To answer your question the answer is as you guessed - the rules of one (or any additional GHB rules (unless otherwise stated) are not in effect. I don't think it would make too much difference either way as you're not likely to have 2 Wizards in a starting Warband (as that would sink 2/3s of your starting gold). You might want to consider the rules of one however, because you could be prone to models generating more attacks being very good. I am considering in adding a "house rules" page to the first update and including many of the additions people are coming up with. Adding in the Rules of One could be one of those. Another house rule might be to ban summoned scenery. I think a Balewind Vortex would be grossly overpowered in a game like this.

 Bottle wrote:
Hey Kriswall, didn't see your question here. Firstly, thank you and good luck! Let me know how you get on with the rules if you have the chance to play them. To answer your question the answer is as you guessed - the rules of one (or any additional GHB rules (unless otherwise stated) are not in effect. I don't think it would make too much difference either way as you're not likely to have 2 Wizards in a starting Warband (as that would sink 2/3s of your starting gold). You might want to consider the rules of one however, because you could be prone to models generating more attacks being very good. I am considering in adding a "house rules" page to the first update and including many of the additions people are coming up with. Adding in the Rules of One could be one of those. Another house rule might be to ban summoned scenery. I think a Balewind Vortex would be grossly overpowered in a game like this.

The Balewind Vortex seems like it would be absolutely game breaking. Then again, most Wizards also have the Hero Keyword, so they're starting at 3 wounds. It also means that the Wizard must remain immobile. If faced with such an opponent, I'd just scramble to get the treasure and then declare a rout. Sure, he'd kill some models, but I don't think he'd have any real fun. You have to play to the scenario.

I was actually looking at a Moonclan Warband. As I understand your rules, Moonclan Grot Shamans would only cost 30 gold to recruit (60 GHB points divided by 2). My plan is to take two of them. You know what they say... one is a target while two is a threat. It's nice to know that I can cast Arcane Bolt twice. Mystic Shield seems mostly useless for something like a Grot army as it would only impact a single model. 60 gold for two Grot Shamans would allow me 90 gold for the rest of my Warband. That goes a long way with Grots.

So I have a question:

If I am thinking of getting into AoS (with no prior purchases) at a skirmish level with you Hinterlands supplement, what is the base level of 'official' material I need to purchase?

I have enough of a collection of Orcs and Skaven for a pair of skirmish forces there, and was already building a small mixed warband of Stormcast for another skirmish game (Lord Relictor, a single Prosecutor, and a box of Liberators with a mix of their weapons).

Can I just buy the Generals Handbook, download the free warscrolls for the Skaven, Orcs, and the freebies for the Stormcast I have, and then download the Hinterlands material to be good to go?

Absolutely you would only need the General's handbook and the free rules/warscrolls! Let me know how you get on. :-)

Kriswall, did you manage to put together your Moonclan Grot Warband? They sound potent with such cheap shamans. You should even be able to fit in something big like a River Troll too as a basic Grot is only 6 gold coins.

Can you please upload this anywhere else, where I don't need to create an account for downloading?

 Bottle wrote:
Absolutely you would only need the General's handbook and the free rules/warscrolls! Let me know how you get on. :-)

Kriswall, did you manage to put together your Moonclan Grot Warband? They sound potent with such cheap shamans. You should even be able to fit in something big like a River Troll too as a basic Grot is only 6 gold coins.

I decided to go with a Clan Skyre list using some models I already owned. I haven't used the list yet, but will be doing so on Saturday. I'll post my experience. My fear is that the Stormfiend is a terrible idea in a kill team scenario. His weapon just does 2d3 mortal wounds, so he's overkill against 1 wound models. His mission will be to hunt down and kill the enemy General or whatever bulky "bodyguard model" the General might have.

The fluff idea is that the list represents a Warlock Engineer, his two 'enhanced' brothers and his lab assistants out in the wild collecting ingredients for the next experiment.

Warlock Engineer (50g/100pts) - General
Rat Ogor with whatever their missile option is called - (60g)
Stormfiend equipped with Warpfire Throwers - (100g)
6x Clanrats - (36g)

4g leftover

My god Bottle that looks awesome. How did you do this?

Hanskrampf wrote:Can you please upload this anywhere else, where I don't need to create an account for downloading?

That is what I was going to say. Can't you upload this to dakka and we can download it from here? I don't really want to make a new account on another forum. I already have a hard enough time to scour the threads here on Dakka and The Tyranid Hive without going to another forum.

Well, looks like you beat me too it! I was working on mixing the path to glory campaign structure with the regiemnts of renown event rules, but this seems better than anything i could have come up with!

I'm considering taking a Hinterlands war band consisting of two Ironjawz Orruk Gore-gruntas and a single Moonclan Grot Shaman. That works out to 150g for the three models. The goal would be for the Gore-gruntas to rush forward and either attack key enemies or claim treasure tokens. With 5 wounds and a 4+ save, they're pretty durable. The Shaman would be there for support via Mystic Shield or to snipe enemies with Arcane Bolt if possible.

Thoughts?

Unless you're wanting to do Destruction, I feel like Gore Gruntas are a little too durable. They pay for their points in durability and I'm thinking that they might not be able to cover enough ground by themselves. I feel like some Chaos Knights and a Chaos Sorcerer would be able to do the same job, and be able to cover more ground. CK are tough enough at 3 wounds, 4+, and you won't be overkilling anything you come across. Overkill is of course bad in skirmish games like this one as them points you paid for them are dealing unnecessary wounds.

 Kriswall wrote:
I'm considering taking a Hinterlands war band consisting of two Ironjawz Orruk Gore-gruntas and a single Moonclan Grot Shaman. That works out to 150g for the three models. The goal would be for the Gore-gruntas to rush forward and either attack key enemies or claim treasure tokens. With 5 wounds and a 4+ save, they're pretty durable. The Shaman would be there for support via Mystic Shield or to snipe enemies with Arcane Bolt if possible.

Thoughts?

I feel like on issue you might have is that if your opponent has a warband of 10 or so models you might simply find yourself playing catch up, especially if your enemy scatters their models and you have to spend ages traipsing across the board from one model to another while the models you can't engage with are busy claiming objectives.

In a skirmish game with individual models, the gore grunta is at a disadvantage because you could possibly charge and overkill one model because its the only one in range, then your turn is done then the rest of your enemies can move in for the kill.

aquietfrog wrote:
In a skirmish game with individual models, the gore grunta is at a disadvantage because you could possibly charge and overkill one model because its the only one in range, then your turn is done then the rest of your enemies can move in for the kill.

It seems like that would be an ideal situation for the Gore-grunta. Multiple enemies charge in, one attacks and then I get to attack back and split my attacks among everyone in range before the second enemy attacks. With even a little luck, I could take out multiple 1 wound models. I think a good opponent would try to bait me with one model at a time, but the Gore-gruntas are really just hunting down heroes and anyone who holds a treasure token.

I think i wouldn't necessarily try to counter-charge so much as having my back up models 2.5" away from the bait model. So the GG charges and the supports are out of your 1" range and they wait to pile in until after you attack

Whoops, just looked up gore grunta profie. You can have a weapon with 2" reach. So as long as you took that you would be safe against someone trying my plan. I guess in a skirmish game that 2" reach is actually pretty useful. Cool!

Volund wrote:
I think i wouldn't necessarily try to counter-charge so much as having my back up models 2.5" away from the bait model. So the GG charges and the supports are out of your 1" range and they wait to pile in until after you attack

Whoops, just looked up gore grunta profie. You can have a weapon with 2" reach. So as long as you took that you would be safe against someone trying my plan. I guess in a skirmish game that 2" reach is actually pretty useful. Cool!

I'm not sure how that would work. If I charged you, I'd be able to position to have as many models as possible within melee weapon range while trying to keep the rest more than 3" away. Remember that I don't have to charge directly towards the closest model... I just have to finish the charge withink 1/2" of A model. If you charged me, you'd need each model/unit to finish it's charge move within 1/2" of my Gore-grunta, which works for me. Otherwise, they'd have to be at least 3" away and wouldn't be in combat.

In either scenario, I'll attack either first or second and likely attack multiple of your units that haven't attacked yet. I really think it would work.

It's more like a screen of guys with backup guys 2 inches away. The more front guys you come into contact, the more supporting models you pull in. Also, splitting attacks between multiple targets is a disadvantage unless you can efficiently allocate one attack per wound your enemy has. Otherwise some attacks will be overkill that wont spill over to the next model.

aquietfrog wrote:
It's more like a screen of guys with backup guys 2 inches away. The more front guys you come into contact, the more supporting models you pull in. Also, splitting attacks between multiple targets is a disadvantage unless you can efficiently allocate one attack per wound your enemy has. Otherwise some attacks will be overkill that wont spill over to the next model.

Fair... but realistically, in the context of a rule set that has a max of 15 models, how often are you really going to be able to pull off a proper screen with a second rank of support dudes behind? If you try that out, I'll just spend a turn going around your screen... or ignoring that blob altogether and going after treasure tokens or outlying models... basically play the mission. I'm probably going to have the mobility advantage versus any blob of infantry that could pull off a screening maneuver. I'd be stupid to charge a screen.

Question for Bottle: are we allowed to bring formations? If i can bring one model from each of the appropriate units, is there a way to work out the price of a formation? I personally vote for 1/5 of the formation's points cost (that way i can exactly fit a dispossessed clan throng within 150gp )

 Kriswall wrote:

aquietfrog wrote:
It's more like a screen of guys with backup guys 2 inches away. The more front guys you come into contact, the more supporting models you pull in. Also, splitting attacks between multiple targets is a disadvantage unless you can efficiently allocate one attack per wound your enemy has. Otherwise some attacks will be overkill that wont spill over to the next model.

Fair... but realistically, in the context of a rule set that has a max of 15 models, how often are you really going to be able to pull off a proper screen with a second rank of support dudes behind? If you try that out, I'll just spend a turn going around your screen... or ignoring that blob altogether and going after treasure tokens or outlying models... basically play the mission. I'm probably going to have the mobility advantage versus any blob of infantry that could pull off a screening maneuver. I'd be stupid to charge a screen.

It's true the gore gruntas are gonna be brutal against anything that comes within melee range of it. However, with dense terrain, there will probably be several choke points that a single model would be enough to screen (the screening guy will probably be very dead). Also with d3+3 objectives, you have 3 guys who are running around grabbing objectives, while your opponent can have up to 15 running for them. I imagine this would play a lot like one side is playing blood bowl (with d3+3 balls but no throwing) while you are playing whack-a-mole .

Yeah, gore-gruntas are potentially better than hero characters. There are already better than most heroes with similar cost (for this supplement), as they start out with +2 wounds than any hero, and they have 5 levels to gain to reach catch up with any abilities or number of attacks. But having a lot less models to work with can be a problem.

I would probably field something like this:

2x Goblin Warbosses on giant wolves (60)
2x Grot Wolf Riders or spider riders (40)
10x Grots (50)

The warboss will act as screeners for the wolf riders who are the main loot grabbers.
The grots are there mostly as speed bumps, battleshock fodder and extra wounds for the warboss if they are near enough. If they are free, then can also be objective grabbers.

That said, with the quality of the troops i'm bringing, only the warboss has a decent chance of actually killing your gore grunta. every one else is just there to swarm up and hold them down for a while.

Hanskrampf wrote:Can you please upload this anywhere else, where I don't need to create an account for downloading?

Davor wrote:My god Bottle that looks awesome. How did you do this?

Hanskrampf wrote:Can you please upload this anywhere else, where I don't need to create an account for downloading?

That is what I was going to say. Can't you upload this to dakka and we can download it from here? I don't really want to make a new account on another forum. I already have a hard enough time to scour the threads here on Dakka and The Tyranid Hive without going to another forum.

Thanks Davor, if you're interested I made this on Photoshop. The miniature photos are all of my own figures, the artwork has been sourced from the web (the lower image on the front cover is from FFG WHQ CCG for example).

I'm going to keep it on TGA. To be honest if you like AoS then you need to have an account there. It is the best AoS forum on the net and even a few of the game designers have accounts there as well as the big podcasters and the entire independent tournament scene is located there (US and UK).

Volund wrote:Question for Bottle: are we allowed to bring formations? If i can bring one model from each of the appropriate units, is there a way to work out the price of a formation? I personally vote for 1/5 of the formation's points cost (that way i can exactly fit a dispossessed clan throng within 150gp )

Hey man, battalions are not allowed as per the rules. But I sort of added that in without even thinking people would question that. I am interested in hearing what filthy combo you have planned if battlalion bonuses were allowed! I am also compiling a list of "house rules" to add in as optional tweaks as I come across them. For example some people have suggested a "Fleshwound/Down/Out of Action" roll for when models are reduced to one wound, which could be fun (as it is in Necromunda/Mordhiem).

I am also loving to read these combos you guys are all coming up with. Let me know if something really breaks the game. My play testing has been with "balanced" warbands of 5 odd grunts and a couple of heroes. Over January I plan to give the campaign a real rigorous play and release an updated version (with Warband rosters and a "hobby section").

I'm sure there will be some way to break the game, but by most part you've elimimated most problems. I'm still working out a way to make Stormcast work, but being such an elite army I can't have enough of a punch before running out of gold.