Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Three Battalions of Himmlisch Drachen Stamm

Episode 8 of War Journal: Flames of War was release over the weekend. If you haven't heard it yet you can listen to it here. The episode is a week late due to various issues, some of which I will discuss in the future when the pain is not as raw. I do want to expand on Episode 8's "Our Hobby" segment. I was a little nervous and I don't think I explain my three Battalions very well.

First I said I was going to named my army the Ruby Dragon Army. I misspoke. What I should have said was that I was going to named a branch of my army the Ruby Dragon Army. I also failed to mention that at this stage all my ideas have a historic mirror. The mirror for the Ruby Dragon Army was the Heer. I'm also toying with names for other branches of my army; Emerald, Sapphire and Diamond. If I go with these names Sapphire will be the mirror for the Luftwaffe and Diamond for the SS. I am more up in the air for what to use Emerald as. If I eventually go into more supernatural fantasy the Emerald Dragon Army could be the force that has steam punk elements like mechs or I could go into the mundane and use Emerald as the mirror for the Kriegsmarine/Navy. As far as I know Kriegsmarine is not in Flames of War in any way so it doesn't matter how I use Emerald Dragon until I bring Himmlisch Drachen Stamm to another game.

I touch on this lightly but the reason I am putting so much effect into the design structure of my army before I paint or even put anything together yet is because it does affect how the model looks. For example take the 3 digit number that is on many German tanks. That first digit refers to what company that tank is from so I need to know what company that tank belongs to when I'm painting it. I am sure there will be other things that are battalion or company specific that will affect the look of the model, either historically or of my own creation.

Bridge at Remagen has 4 German list to play as. Three are Heer and they work together. By working together I mean under the Support Platoons section of each list you can take elements from the other two. The fourth list is a SS one and their options for support are completely different with the exception of the 512th Heavy Tank Hunter Battalion 3rd Company. And the 3rd Company didn't work with the rest of the 512th. This basically means I have a choice between two separate webs/interconnected choices. Of the 4 lists the 512th is my favorite to play with so I pick the web that the 512th was apart of. So those three Heer list are 512th Heavy Tank Hunter Company, 654th Heavy Tank Hunter Battalion and the 506th Heavy Tank Battalion. All three are battalions so I am making my fantasy versions also battalions (the game list name for the 512th is Company but the description refers to it as the 512th Heavy Tank Hunter Battalion). I decided to call my versions of the Heavy Tank Hunter Battalions the Fire Dragon Battalions and for the Heavy Tank Battalion I call mine the Red Dragon Tank Battalion. I haven't decided on numbers yet. However to me it is more important to know what will be my unified forces.

Next I was going to break down what options can be used in other list but at this point it will not matter much. I will be starting with the 1st Company of the 512th and they have no options to take 654th or the 506th (they do have the option to take 512th 1st Company). At my current rate it will be many months before I would be ready to pick up anything from the 512th 2nd Company, 654th or the 506th and there is no telling if my plans will remain the same then. Say nothing of the fact that I still want to build an Italian force at the same time. Nevertheless I think I have address the elements I wanted to talk about. The big thing was the deal with Ruby/Heer which I completely failed to mention in the podcast. Hopefully my ideas are a lot clearer here but I am not sure if that is the case. If not, I'm sorry. In any event I hope you enjoy the podcast as well as this piece. Until next time!

Friday, May 15, 2015

The Border Prince ... is Over?

The Border Prince Campaign has come to a troublesome junction. The Game Master (Vampire Counts) will be unable to participate for a couple of months so my group has decided to end the campaign early. Using the current standings after turn 15 the High Elves are the overall Border Prince winners. Warriors of Chaos took 2nd place and Beastmen took third. As the host and Game Master the Vampire Counts was ineligible to win.

Of course this now leaves myself and Chaos Magic in a very uncomfortable position. First of all in general I hate ending a campaign early. Most of the campaigns I've been apart of have ended early and while I agreed with the reasoning to end early for some of them, every campaign that did end early left me feeling disappointed and the experience tainted. Besides my own personal enjoyment of it, the Border Prince campaign was suppose to be the starting point of my campaign storyline. I was planning to play a different faction for the next campaign but the events of Border Prince were going to play a role in future stories. Now that the Border Prince has ended with my story unfinished what am I suppose to do next? Should I remove all the Border Prince material on Chaos Magic and try again next campaign? Should I finish my Border Prince backlog and then leave the story unfinished? Should I write an early ending to the Border Prince storyline? All three options I find very unsatisfying. The first two options is what I've done in the past. My problem with the first option is that unlike with previous campaigns which ended before I got much done on Chaos Magic, I already have a sizable amount of material online with more on the way. The Border Prince Campaign was three quarters of the way of being finish and even thou I did get behind most of what I wanted done did get posted. It would be such a waste to lose all that material. On a similar note, it would feel like a waste to leave the story unfinished which is why I dislike option 2. With everything I have said option 3 would sound like the most obvious choice. However my writing style is such that I reveal small but important details through out the tale with a (hopefully) big payoff at the end. Rushing the end feels like it will undermine what I was going for. That said a good writer can probably make just about anything work. If anything I am probably too stubborn to write a rush ending to do option 3. So what option is left for me?

Option 4, continue the Border Prince campaign with a new group! The choice to use this option was not easy. Getting new players to finish someone else campaign is like heresy. Yet it is the only option that will fulfill my needs as I mention above. The continuation of the Border Prince campaign will not be happening anytime soon. Finding people willing to help me with this will take some time. I also think I will need a break due to the nature of what I am attempting. And lastly I want some experience running my own campaigns for the time being. While I said Border Prince was suppose to be a starting point for my campaign story lines, there were going to be others. Starting one such campaign is one of two options I am considering for my immediate Warhammer future. The other option would be a Border Prince side story campaign. The idea is to explain the story reason why Razeek Twotail withdrew from the Border Prince region after turn 8. This idea requires the original player to pick up the Skaven mantle again. The player said he was willing to do so but also express interest in playing a different army for his next campaign. Can't really blame him as he has 8 armies last I counted. Whether I go with option one or two will be entirely based on what he wants to play. If option 1 happens I will probably be playing Warriors of Chaos again. On the other hand if option 2 happens then I will either play Orcs and Goblins or Bretonnians. I will explain why later along with more campaign details. One thing to say about my up coming campaigns is that they will be very slow moving. A secondary reason for me wanting to run a campaign is to give some local players that I know a chance to play. These players are normally so busy with work they are unable to keep up with a normal campaign schedule.

That in a nutshell is my current plans with the Border Prince campaign. Due to other issues I'm dealing with I will not be able to start the new campaign for at least a month if not longer. Until then I will be working on the Border Prince backlog which includes the Border Prince page. I also have other ideas for material to help expand the Border Prince narrative. When I do get back to the Border Prince campaign, how I report the remaining 5 turns will be difference from my current style. How difference will depend on how much my blogging skills level up by then. In the meantime please enjoy the upcoming works of my current projects.