Border Prince Lore: Beastmen

Krookentou
Jeff Morck

As the Beastlord Krookentou, the Cutthroat Spike, ascended a hill overlooking the area called the Border Princes, he could feel it in his blood that this was his time. Krookentou knew this was the place where he would start the return of the Children of Chaos to rightful place as masters of the land, and all the lesser races would hide in fear.

Since the night he fought his way out of the womb of the female that had borne him, he knew he was meant for greatness. Krookentou knows he has been blessed by the Dark Gods, because his first memory of that night was looking up and seeing Morrslieb when Morrslieb was most full and at his zenith. Krookentou recalled the stories he had heard as Young Beastagor from the older ones around the fire. Krookentou would gnaw on a piece of flesh he had taken from a Gor or a weaker Beastagor and listen to the stories about the old times where the Beast ruled world and other were just prey. His Blood would boil during the story of the Battle of Golden Hammer, where man rose to an undeserved level and stole the Children of Chaos power. Krookentou knows, he must learn from the past so the cloven-ones to rule the future

Krookentou had been there when Khazrak the One-Eye, had defeated Graktar in a challenge to become the Chieftain of the Warherd. Krookentou thought it was a sign of weakness when Khazrak had banished Graktar instead of killing him. Now that Graktar has returned and started to gather his own warherd, and caused the Breatsmen to become divided. Krookentou learned that the only good enemy is a dead enemy.

Khazrak the One Eye also taught Krookentou that a Beastlord must control a Warherd by sheer will and power. Krookentou knows that the Warherd would never as organized as a human army. Krookentou still demands discipline and total obedience. The Gor or Ungor that springs an ambush or a Wargor, who fails to lead his troop victory, may find themselves on the herds menu.

Now as his Warherd moves through the Black Pass into the Lands of the Border Princes, Krookentou knows he has learned his lessons, and he is ready. More importantly than Krookentou being ready he knows his Warherd is ready. As the warherd of Beastigors, Gors, and Ungors moved into the Border Princes, Krookentou could hear the roars and feel the rumbling of the ground as his monsters made their way to the Border Princes area. Krookentou felt Breatman’s pride in his Warherd, a Warherd where even the Ungors were impressive. This was the Warherd that put Children of Chaos back in charge of this world. As Krookentou walked back down the hill and to his rightful place at the front of this Warherd, he was told by waves of returning Harpies scouts that other groups were moving into the Border Princes. The Harpies report that groups of Elves, Lizards, Undead, and Rats. It did not matter to Krookentou, he knew that his Warherd would consume all the order and shat out chaos.

Border Prince Lore: Skaven

Razeek Twotail
Skaven Grey Seer
By Phil Sidebottom

When Razeek was young one of his spells miscasted sending him into unconsciousness, during which he was visited by the Great Horned Rat, may his schemes never fail. The Great Horned Rat, Great be thy name, told Razeek that he will find a great treasure that will lead the Skaven to greatness. When he awoke from his vision, he did what any self respecting skaven would do, he kept the vision to himself and study the details in secret. After several long years of pouring over books and scrolls, Razeek had discovered the area where he must do further research, but the place was infested with non Skaven nuisances. So the first step is to get a clan to clear the infestation out but without divulging his true goal . . . an easy task.

Razeek found Clan Wolf Talon as the perfect clan to use for this task. The clan was in disarray as the right to rule the clan was being claimed by three Warlords. He entered the grand hall of the Wolf Talon during one of their great “debates”(aka Insult war) and declared “ The Great Horned One has spoken to me and only one of the skaven in this room will be able to lead this Clan to greatness.” With this knowledge the three Warlords began to scheme and plan with their closest advisers. It did not take to much time for Razeek to gain the trust of each warlord in private, while a skaven's tongue can be sharpe and made of the smoothest sliver, no skaven can compare to a Grey Seer's sneaky tongue. For many months, the war of sly and cunning that only skaven can fight waged with very little progress except for Razeek, for he had successfully turned all of their advisers to his side, and on the last day of the month, Razeek had invited the three Warlords to the grand hall of the Wolf Talon. Along with them, came their advisers, whom up to this point was on the edge of deciding between their warlord of Razeek. Razeek addressed each warlord in turn and congratulated them and their advisers on their skill of cunning for the last few months then with a quick flash of his tongue he cut the ties between the warlords and their advisers showing that all the work was done by the advisers and not the warlords. The advisers all made their decision and furnished their blades and stabbed and cut the warlords in front of them, all of which were still oblivious of the treason that was to befell them. As the final grasp of air the last warlord exclaimed “You said on of us would be Clan Leader, you lied!” “I did say one of us would Clan Leader, that one was me.” Razeek replied with a skitter that would make the Great Horned Rat jealous, though no one could ever come close to his laughter nor try but this Skitter was a good one in The Great Horned One's eye.

With the Wolf Talon clan under his control without even dirtying his own hands, as to be expected from the victor of a skaven secret war, the first task was done. Now all that is left is to exterminate the vermin leaving on the land he needs to search.

Border Prince Lore: Warriors of Chaos

Xizamiron

The Arkyrian Cabal is a secret society of wizards. They want to control the world from the shadows. While most members are in positions where they have to pretend they serve another, Vanacyr is rare in that she is in command of her own, albeit very small, army. Even rare is that some of her followers knows about the Arkyrian existence. The core of her Chaos army is made up mostly of elves, with dark elves being the most common. While much shorter and leaner, these elves are just as tough and skilled as their Chaos cousins. Vanacyr has used her army as the arm of the Arkyrian Cabal many times.

On this particular day her motives are more personal. As evening breaks into dusk, Vanacyr orders her forces to set up camp. Through the power of Chaos most of Vanacyr followers do not need sleep or food. They do consume food and wine quite often and sometime sleep because they enjoy it. This night, much like many others, they choose to eat and drink all night long. At least they plan to. However at midnight the partying quieted down. Each warrior suddenly felt extremely weary and had a great desire to sleep. Even Vanacyr felt the exhaustion and did not think anything was strange about it. That is until she sat down and started resting her eyes. An act she does so rarely that it alerted her mind. “Why am I doing this?” she asked herself. Not able to provide an answer told her something was very wrong. Vanacyr snapped awake with a blade in hand. Scanning her surroundings reveal to her that every follower dedicate to her was fast asleep. Vanacyr knew now she was dealing with dark sorcery, someone who skills surpass her centuries of knowledge.

Vanacyr felt a presence from beyond a copse nearby. Tighten her grip on her sword, she walked towards the presence. She might be outmatch in the arcane in general, but Vanacyr was confident in her abilities when combat is concern. After crossing the copse, Vanacyr felt an immense arcane presence. She immediately kneel, not because she was intimidate of the arcane energies, but because she recognize who the presence was. Vanacyr address the presence with a single word, “Master.” A few nearby twigs and leaves erupted with a purple flame. A deep and bellowing voice echo from those flames.

“Lady Vanacyr. You have serve me and the Cabal well. Both needs your services again.”

“Of course Master, anything you order I will see it done!” Vanacyr answered. Her gaze fix on the ground. If there was any detail in her surroundings, she would not have notice it.

“You are to travel west into the mountains. There you will feel a strange but strong arcane presence. Follow that presence until you get to the source. You are to give command of your army to this individual. He will lead you to the next phase.”

“But ...” Vanacyr started to say. She almost rose her head but then she just sigh in disappointment. “Yes master. If I may, how long do I have take orders from this individual and who is this person?”

“I will inform you when you may take back your command. As for the identity of this person …

He is the Essence of Pandemonium …
Xizamiron!”

Upcoming fiction

The next few posts here will all be short fiction. Hopefully to make it clearer each piece will have the Lore label and written in italics. Each army in the Border Prince Campaign has a background story. I will be posting my own background story as well as others whom give me permission to publish them. My army's in-between turn short story will also be publish during this time. Lastly, while the Solaris League was design to be "light" on story, I want to write a piece about my team. The stories will be posted one a day. After the last story and a short break the next entries will be dealing with either the Border Prince or Solaris League pages. Until then I hope you will enjoy the upcoming tales!

Border Prince - Turn 3 Map

I've crafted two maps to help visualize the progress of the Border Prince campaign thus far.  The first map shows where each army setup its capital.  A key to the colors is as follows:

Beastmen - Brown
High Elves - Blue
Lizardmen - Green
Skaven - Yellow
Vampire Counts - Dark Purple
Warriors of Chaos - Red

The next map shows the territory each empire controls and where their banners are located after turn 3.

1. Bloody Hooves
2. Bloody Sky
3. Amendial
4. Elendir
5. Creeping Sepia
6. Smoulder Stride
7. Skaven Banner 1
8. Skaven Banner 2

9. Unholy Undead - Largely shaped from what Dieter brought with him from Kleiberstorf, its now expanded by nearly a full fifth since entering the region.

10. The Night Riders - Dieter's Vampire cousin, Von Hayek loves close quarter combat and prefers the use of cavalry and chariots.

11. Pandemonium - Randomly picking from the main army and the monsters he subjugated on the mountain, Xizamiron marches into the Border Princes keeping his plans to himself.

12. Vanacyr's Blade - Surrounded by her most trusted and loyal followers, Vanacyr looks for enemies to unleash her frustration at losing command of her own army.

The campaign is on a brief pause so the battle between Creeping Sepia vs Pandemonium can be resolved.  Both sides have support so the battle will be a massive 3200 vs 3200.

Update in Chaos (8-25-14)

Sometimes life can throw you a curve ball and if you do not have strong convictions it can derail your plans.  I'm recovery from such a situation.  On the bright side (assuming the issue is done with) I am in a much better position to work on this blog.  Since my hiatus a lot has happen in my gaming world.  Here is a rundown of that news.

Warhammer - My group has decide to end the Blood in the Badlands campaign early.  Many players were unhappy with the rule set.  I suppose I am not surprised.  Blood in the Badlands has a lot of interesting ideas and concepts but the rules were too loose and confusing.  A good GM can run patch these problems as they come up to make an enjoyable campaign.  However our GM ran the campaign in a tournament style with a prize for the winner at the end.  With a campaign like these the GM doesn't have the flexibility need overcome these problems and the Badlands flaws quickly became quite obvious.  I also think the designers wrote Badlands to be more of a narrative style campaign anyways.

For our next campaign the group decided on a narrative Border Prince campaign from the General's Compendium.  The GM did some minor tweak to the rules and added that players get bonus points for battles by writing short stories about our general and/or army adventures in the campaign.  The campaign has already started and we are on turn 3.  With Border Prince battles are not automatic each turn.  Two enemy banners need to meet up before a battle will happen.  If at the end of the turn there are no battles to fight we will immediately proceed to the next turn.  This is why we are on turn 3 after the first meeting.  I will post a map later this week to show what everyone controls so far.  In the coming weeks I will make a page for the campaign.

My World of Chaos page and entries are still coming.  Work on them will start once my current games are up to date.  I've change the topics I was going to start with.  Because of the Border Prince campaign the first two entries will be on the Arkyrian Cabal and Arkyrian member Vanacyr.  Amirren's forces will probably be after them.

Battletech - My friend has started a Solaris Battletech League which I am a part of.  Each player that joins the League starts with 3 pilots and $30,000,000 C-Bills to buy at least 3 mechs.  Players can play as much or as little as they want or have the time.  In the coming weeks I will make a page for the League so others can follow some of the action.  Given how the League operates I am unsure at how to format the information.  It may take me much longer to get it out than the Border Prince page.  We will see.  I will be posting some short stories about my faction here.  Summaries and links will be on the League page.

Flames of War - There is still talks about starting a Flames of War campaign but nothing has been formalized yet to my knowledge.  I hear that the number of FoW players in the area is growing so once a campaign does get off the ground there should be more than enough interest to support it.  On the hobby side I've decide to change how I collect Flames of War.  Originally I was going to choose my purchases by picking units I like using.  After a while I would have a large enough force that I can using my own models without proxying.  This is how I built (still building actually) my Chaos army.  However when my friend Tracy mention he wants to go to a tournament sometime I realize I did too.  To make a legal list as fast as possible I've decide to write up a list I am happy with and only buy items in that list.  I will still play with other lists in pick-up games and/or the campaign if one starts.  I will make that list after Battlefront gives the point totals for official tournaments in the 2014-2015 season.  Until then I can pick up the things I know will be in the list and work on the story behind my fantasy German army.

This is a glimpse of my current projects.  I will be going into far more details on everything discuss so far and more in the coming weeks.  Until then.

Metal Forest

One Sunday afternoon some of my friends and myself were discussing the idea of a metal forest in a fantasy setting. They talked about things like different types of trees being compose of various metals; how people would learn to forage for "ore" or how dangerous the Fall season would be. Me. My first thoughts went to Ent like creatures from Lord of the Rings. Large wood/metal creatures of various metallic colors and armed with branches and blades filled my imagination. The great thing about this hobby is that a random idea can lead to the foundation of a new gaming project. Such a project can take shape in numerous ways. The Metal Forest idea could simply be a background detail in the fluff. Or I could make a Metal Forest terrain piece. If done right it could be a beautiful visual on the battlefield. I have no idea how to attempt to make a terrain piece but finding a way to make an image in my mind a reality on the gaming table is another part of this hobby I have grown to love. Another way to use the Metal Forest idea is to base an entire army (or just a few units) around it.

If I were to create a Metal Forest Army I would start with the fluff. Knowing the army's history and personality is key to figuring out the proper tone that the rules and models should follow. Initially I thought the rules should be next. However after thinking it over I realize the rules and models should be both work on together. You need the models to know what type of rules are needed and you need the rules to know the require number of models for a game. Looking at them separately there are several ways to pick/create the rules. By far the easiest method is to simply use an existing army's rules. My issue with this method is that I think the favor of a Metal Forest army is too different in style to use with a current army. Now aside from Warriors of Chaos, I have only a rudimentary idea of the capabilities of each Warhammer army so it is possible that you could do a Metal Forest Army justice with a current force. On the other hand using existing army rules would make finding a willing opponent to play against much easier. Still if I decide to go with custom rules, there are 3 different methods I could choose for that. Going from easiest to implement to the most difficult, the 3 methods are: a.) picking an existing army and making minor adjustments to it; b.) picking and choosing units from different existing armies to create a single army that has the proper tone; and c.) write brand new army rules from the ground up. Which method I would choose would be base on the initial vision I have for the Metal Forest army and how far away existing rules are from reaching that vision. Picking the models is much more of an art. I have to keep the vision of the army in my mind while browsing through different companies' miniature lines. The first things to look for are miniatures dealing with elves, nature and other things of that sort but that is just the beginning of the search. Eventually I will need to expand my search to include every model line I can find. Focusing on the army vision is important but I also need to be flexible in case I come across a miniature that is meant for a very different purpose but with a new paint scheme and some conversions will fit in with a Metal Forest. It is a long process but the journey is well worth it. If I take it.

And if is the key. I really like the idea but it is unlikely I will attempt something like this any time soon. I already have a lot on my gaming plate dealing with Warhammer Fantasy, not to mention my Flames of War and BattleTech projects. My purpose with this article is to explore a gaming idea that I may take up in the future or hopefully inspire someone else to take up the challenge. If the Metal Forest Army is something you want to work on yourself or you have already build an army that is similar, please let me know. I would love to hear about it. If my guidelines have inspire you to work on your own project, I would to hear about that too. And send pictures. Until next time.

The World of Chaos

One aspect of what I would like to achieve with this blog is to provide story elements to supplement my war game campaign experience. While my previous attempts have ended in unsuccessful ways, those games have pave the groundwork for a cast of characters and ideas I will continue to use in future campaigns, short stories and other projects. If those campaigns had worked out like I wanted, the overall framework would look something like the following: I would start with an introduction article that explains the campaign and the storyline behind it. The introduction would be followed by a series of character articles. Each of these articles would discuss the history and back stories of the campaign's major actors. Lastly, one or more articles/short fiction would be posted to explain the actors link to the campaign storyline. That was the plan. In practice I never got much further than posting the introduction. Some articles were written but never posted. Others were thought up but never written before the campaign's untimely end.

I've decide it is time to flush out these unwritten stories and begin posting them here regularly(and in the process create new ones). These character articles will be short fiction that explains who the character is, what powers they possess, who they associate with and a little bit of their history. I will be following each of these short fiction with an article series that I will be calling "World of Chaos." I will be discussing in these article the characters from a game play point of view. This means how I plan to convert a character's lore into table top game stats and all other issues this creates. I will also setup a "World of Chaos" page that will serve as a nexus for my fantasy setting. Among other things, the page will include brief versions of character lore and links to the full articles.

Now all this is just for my fantasy setting, represented by games like Warhammer Fantasy or Kings of War. It is unlikely any of my Flames of War campaigns will have story elements to them. I will have a science fiction setting to chronicled my adventures with BattleTech. However any character fiction article will be written to contribute to a particular BattleTech campaign or league. At that same token any BattleTech nexus pages will be for a particular campaign.

I will conclude on one final point. My fiction is independent of gaming systems. By that I mean my fiction is not set in the universe of the game I'm playing in. For example my Chaos fiction has many elements that goes against Warhammer Fantasy lore. Warhammer Fantasy did inspire me but I quickly morph those initial ideas and concept into my own world. As a side benefit this will allows me to change game systems if needed and I can still continue with the same story.

...

I hate it that this keeps happening but I've decided to end my coverage of the Blood in the Badlands Campaign. The problem this time was a difference in perception of what I thought the campaign was going to be and the style the GM decided to run with. In the coming weeks I will write a review of Badlands and briefly discuss the two styles. I'm currently in the process of writing new campaigns from the ground to replace Badlands but that will take some time.

In the meantime I talk with a friend about getting a Battletech League off the ground. He had already wrote a rough draft of the rules. Now he just need to iron them out and have the players/other Battletech fans look them over for possible errors or potential game play problems. Hopefully we can get the League started soon. When that happens I will provide some type of coverage here(what exactly are also things to be iron out).

Badlands Turn 1 part a

The legend of Fozzik's Flying Fastness is known throughout the world. Bandits and kings alike have dream about getting their hands on the treasure inside for the last millennium. Would-be thieves with the ability to reach the Fastness above the clouds learned the hard grisly way that their prize is not undefended. Nevertheless seers, diviners and others with the ability to foresee the future have learn of a secret, perhaps THE secret about the Flying Fastness. For one day only the Flying Fastness will land at its place of origin and its magical defense will be deactivated. At that point anyone could walk in and claim the Flying Fastness as their own. Of course there is a slight problem. While the exact date is known, the exact location is not. Not even the strongest future tellers could gleam at the location and history only says Fozzik created his masterpiece somewhere in the Badlands. That leaves a simple solution: conquer all of the Badlands ahead of time so when the Fastness land, it will be controlled territory. Arriving in the Badlands a year in advance revealed a flaw with this plan as well. Six others had the same idea.

Welcome. The Blood in the Badlands Campaign is now in full swing. This guide will give a general overview of the campaign and a summary of the first half of turn 1. Blood in the Badlands is split into 12 turns, with 3 turns representing a season. Each season has its own special rules and ends with a separate group mega battle with all the players (or as many that can attend) involved. Turns have the following phases: Fortress Movement, Random Events, Banner Movement, War Declaration, Mines, Fight Battles, Resolve Battle Results, Expeditions and End Turn. I will explain each phase when I discuss that part of the Turn 1 summary.

As with most campaigns, the first thing to do is to set up the map. Players take turns picking their capital and surrounding lands. Here is the map after all armies have moved.

1. Warriors of Chaos
2. Lizardmen
3. Dwarves - Tristan
4. Dwarves - Jeff
5. Orcs and Goblins
6. Empire
7. Dark Elves

Everybody starts with 7 lands, 3 banners lead by a general and two lieutenants, a capital city, a mine and a fort with the exception of the Dark Elves. They started next to a special territory that can not be claim until the Summer mega battle so Dark Elves only have 6 lands. With the Flying Fastness starting in a random location, the campaign could begin.

The first phase of the turn is the Fortress Movement. The Flying Fastness moves in a random location. Any battle fought either in the territory with the Flying Fastness or in a territory next to it uses Storm of Magic rules and earns both players extra relics. In our campaign the Fastness move deep into Dwarven territory at the bottom right of the map, completely away from any battle.

Next phase is Random Events. Each player rolls on a table to see what bane/boon affects them this turn. The important results were the following: Lizardmen destroyed a Dark Elf fort, Dwarves(Jeff) found a map which earn them a relic & a mine and Dwarves(Tristan) muster extra troops, allowing their force to be 25% larger than their opponents. The third phase is where the players move their three banners. This will affect who and where battles are fought and elements of the Expeditions phase. However for these summaries unless something unusual happens I will be leaving the Banner Movement phase out.

War Declaration. This is the phase where the players can challenge each other. Once everyone have been assign to at least one battle we decide where on the map each battle takes place and which two banners are involved. This may be obvious such as when two enemy banners are in the same location. For our campaign, Turn 1 war declaration were the following:

Dark Elves vs Empire
Dwarves(Tristan) vs Warriors of Chaos
Lizardmen vs Orcs and Goblins
Dwarves(Jeff) vs Orcs and Goblins

Phase 5 of the turn is where players learn how much their mine has earn them. Each mine can give their owner gold, relics, magic items or it can collapse in on itself. Gold allows players to field extra points in the up coming battle. Each players roll for each mine they have. The results are the following:

Orcs and Goblins - The mine collapsed
Warriors of Chaos - 100 gold
Dark Elves - 200 gold
Empire - 300 gold
Lizardmen - a relic and a 60 point magic item
Dwarves(Jeff) - 300 gold, a relic and a 20 point magic item
Dwarves(Tristan) - a relic and a 50 point magic item

The next phase is where the actual battle take place. It also marks the end of the first campaign meeting and this guide. Our group needs a two to three week period to arrange time for the games to take place. Next up will be Chaos back story and a narrative battle report of the Dwarves vs Warriors of Chaos battle.

NA LCS Charts - Week 5

I had an idea for a chart since super week but I need to wait until I had more data points to work with.  My idea was to have a chart show the ranking of each of the 8 teams after they have played an equal number of games.  I wonder what it would look like to rank the 8 LCS teams after each team played an equal number of games.  In actuality some teams end a week with more or less games played as others.  I do not think you can properly compare teams with uneven games played, hence my chart.  After 5 weeks of LCS action that chart looks like this:

While developing my rank chart I notice the teams win percentages from game to game.  I put that data into chart form and came up with this:

While the rank charts shows there are a top 4 and bottom 4 teams, this chart really shows how far ahead TSM and C9 is of the other six teams.  Six of the eight teams have a win rate of 50% or less.  Incredible.

So What's Next?

Greetings.  Things here are moving fast and I'm struggling to keep up.  There are a few subjects I want to discuss, starting with the LCS.

My initial plan was to write up random facts each week about the previous week in the NA LCS.  Then I notice the LCS displaying a lot of these same facts during their cast.  At first I thought that made my random facts a little pointless unless I can come up with unique facts.  But then I notice the LCS are not displaying some of these facts very long.  So I think I will write up another batch of random facts next week.  I also have an idea for a chart I want to put up as soon as I can.

The next subject I want to discuss are campaigns.  There are actually two that needs to be mention.  The first is that the Badlands are back though I am not running it this time, sadly.  GM campaign fell apart and in its place my group is redoing the Blood in the Badlands campaign.  The first meeting was last night and the stage was set.  The campaign will have 7 players and the first round of battle have been picked.  The GM has decide that every ones general and lieutenants will remain secret so I will not be posting character stats here like I did last time.  However everything else I post here or wanted to post here for the last Badlands campaign I plan on doing again here.  The extra campaign pages will be going up later this week.

The last thing I want to discuss is the other campaign I am involved in.  I have friends who really want to play in a Flames of War campaign but are not sure how to go about it.  Given my experience with war game campaigns I told them I would be will to run it.  It is probably a good thing I am not running the Badlands campaign after all.  Right now we are still in the planning stages.  We are looking at adopting a boardgame like Supremacy or Risk and replacing its combat mechanics with Flames of War battle.  I hope to get the campaign off the ground within the 4 or 5 weeks.