Saturday 8 June 2013

THE COMING OF TAMURKHAN: CHARECTERS

a rather cool part of the coming of Tamurkhan campaign is the three armies that each player uses to control and conquer the map. each army is led by a designated general, a charecter designed by the players to add a extra level of storytelling to their games, as these charecters are ment to influence the force they are leading. to give you an example i have already put together my three (fourish, more on that in a bit) Generals for the vampire counts.

Valter Harkon
Valter Harkon is the Kastelean of the Black Fang, the undead stronghold in this area of the old world. an ancient Blood Dragon Vampire, Valter was one of the many vampires that escaped Vann Hels sack of blood keep in the imperial year of 1946. a strong tactician and awesome combatant, astride his nightmare Cauchemar,  Valter Harkon intends to lead a spearhead through the mortal races, extending the realm of the dead far far to the south.
Valter is simply a Lvl 1 Vampire Lord, with the sword of might, the dragonbane gem and a 2+ Armour save/ 4+ ward save. what really makes him deadly though is the Red fury and Quick blood bloodline traits, allowing him to hit hard, hit first, and keep hitting until nothing is left before him but mangled bodies. his armies will contain plenty of vampires and vampiric creatures.

Andemaneri
where Valter is headstrong, patient and ruthless, his ally is just plain mad. Andemaneri is a Vampire from the Necerach bloodline. content to sit in the Black Fangs dungeons as long as he has plenty of fresh bodies to experiment with, Andemaneri's mind was shattered centuries ago when he was caught by witch hunters in the city of Tillea and pegged out in the town center to be burned by the sun. escaping by creating a cloud of bats to block the harmful rays and shred his captors, the damage to his body reflected what the unimaginable pain had done to his shaky sanity.
Andemaneri is designed to be the ultimate caster of the campaign, he is a Lvl 4  Vampire Lord sat upon an Abyssal Terror to get to where he needs to be. he has a 5+ ward save and the cursed book of Naggash. its in his bloodline though that he shines, being a master of the black arts and being able to summon creatures of the night. hes going to be using lots of zombies, spirits and creatures. expect lots and lots of bats.

Cosmar and Kochma, the Black Twins of Sleeps End
Twin sorcerers of unknown origin, the black twins are a duo of powerful necromancers that have allied themselves to Valter for promises of power, and access to the books of Andemaneri. the twins are not identical yet they are almost always aware of the other one no matter how far away they are, as if they were being governed by the same, invisible puppeteer. this has led to speculation that they are in fact one in the same, and that the true power behind the two is hiding deep underground at Sleeps End, manipulating his surface puppets to create a world in which he can finally become lord of the endless hoard.
Cosmar is the actual official general out of the pair for the army. though he is only Lvl 3 (where Kochma is a Lvl 4) he manipulates the blackest magic that is the lore Undeath, where Kochma draws on the wind of Ghyran to fuel his Death magic. being on foot and easy to hide in units, Cosmar only has an opal amulet and an earthing rod. Kochma on the other hand flies around on his Hellsteed Kos`maro, so protects himself with a talisman of preservation and bears one of Andemaneri's tomes, the dreaded book of Arkahn. leading an army of skeletons and wights, the Black twins bring their cabal of necromancers to outlast their foe.

by being able to make back stories (for those who really like investing in back-story and character) should improve the flavor of the campaign, as it hopefully makes people think not about just winning, but the plight of their lords on the meat grinder that is a Warhammer battlefield

THE BOARD, THE COMING OF TAMURKHAN

alrighty took me this long to realise that my laptop had a orifice for the cameras memory card, here is the actual board in all its epic goodness. it took me about a month of painting (albeit doing about 40mins max on it each day) i decided to keep the colours simple but bright for maximum effect, they were:
Plains: base was Russian uniform (Vallejo) with a dry brush of green ochre (Vallejo)
Forests: base was Luftwaffe camo green (Vallejo) with a dry brush of warpstone glow (GW)
Fields: base was tan yellow (Vallejo) with a dry brush of Yriel yellow (GW)
Rivers/ Lakes: base was Caledor sky (GW) with light strokes of Teclis blue (GW)
Mountains: medium sea grey (Vallejo) with a dry brush of sky grey (Vallejo) with a light dry brush of the tops with skull white (GW)
roads/ villages/ embankments: base was flat earth (Vallejo) followed by Ushabiti bone (GW) on the roofs
Streams: base of temple guard blue (GW)
Piers/ wooden bridges: base of Bugmans glow (GW)
stone bridges: medium sea grey (Vallejo)


 better pictures will be posted as my camerawork improves/ the weeks go on

Thursday 6 June 2013

AND SO IT BEGINS

with the exception of Sam, who had much much heavier things on his mind tonight than the setup of the campaign, everyone turned up to prepare for the Tamurkhan campaign (only realizing i had spelt it wrong in previous posts after looking for some cover art). after a very brief intro (i was half way through a game with Hamish, and it proved why i was on the other side of the field from him. he spanked my Vampires something serious) we got around to randomizing the board. the basic rules of setup were quick and easy to follow and very soon we had a full sized, immaculate looking board to fight over. Rex rolled up to place his capital first, much to Toms annoyance, and snapped up the most heavily wooded section on the map (bloody wood elves and their tree hugging). the rest of us found nice sections to set up in, though Sam and Liam had to deploy centerish so both had to deploy hard up against another empire.

currently unable to find the cable to connect my camera to the computer we will have to go without the actual photos of the field for a day or so while i find them (the study's a mess, they could be anywhere) but, with the magic of computer gaming i can mock up a battle map that can be changed around during the weeks to show the fluctuating game board. thank you CIVILIZATION 5 for the map editor that allowed this to be possible
so with the board ready and the empires drawn, its time to draw up the battle lines. hide in your basement and pray to your false gods. for the maggot lord comes, and you shall know no mercy!

Tuesday 4 June 2013

THE COMING OF TUMARKHAN

the next seven weeks are going to be tense, as the warhammer Tumarkhan campaign kicks off in Ernest. the six generals  vying for the bragging rights over the whooole club (at least those warhammer based ones).  they are...

Nicholas "unlucky" Jebson : Vampire Counts
Hamish "sly bastard" Gordon : Skaven
Rex "gangly style" Foote : Wood Elves
Sam "rigged dice" Campbell : Daemons Of Chaos
Tom "WAAAAAGH!" Keirle : Orcs & Goblins
Liam "needs more armour" : Empire

with six rounds over six weeks the infighting will be intense, the shit talking will be apocalyptic in scale and empires will rise and fall.

pictures will be posted on Friday of the campaign board and the placements of the various empires, and i will keep a running report on what has been happening on the field (and off it)