War on Hunger Debrief

War on Hunger II: July 11th at the Crypt

We're back with the Crypt for another charity Regiments tournament on July 11th! 

The Power of Counts-as

We’re in a new golden age of hacks, fan supplements, and indie games. The options we have for gaming are staggering and it feels like there’s a packet or zine out there waiting for you that will cover anything you want to do in a game. I’ve had conversations with friends and hobbyists about how these rules documents can help support narrative gaming by injecting additional flavor and options into games we already enjoy. Content creation is the zeitgeist and many of us feel the need to emulate the output of people on social media, defaulting to supporting narrative play by creating more documentation. In that, I think we have lost appreciation for one of the most basic and primal of all tools a narrative wargamer has; taking one thing and using its rules to represent another.

Guest Article: The Cult of the Mushroom God

By Bonespoon (https://bonespoonminis.io/)

For NEMO 2025, I wanted to put together a new warband (because I don’t have enough warbands, of course) and I wanted to use these cool old metal goblins I had traded for at a oldhammer meetup in New Jersey. Thus The Cult of the Mushroom God was born!

Shaman Gutrot was a well-respected night goblin wizard, a pillar of the community, but had a strong predilection towards madcap mushrooms. After one particularly vicious mushroom trip, he fell into a coma for seven weeks. On his journey, he was granted a vision- Gork and Mork are not two separate beings, but truly are just two sides of one beautiful, mushroomy being- the Mushroom God. Awaking from his coma, the shaman rushed to spread the good word. Quickly condemned as a heretic, he was driven from the World’s Edge mountains with a small band of followers. Seeking power and resources to spread the gospel of the Mushroom God, the warband has wandered the Empire, finding themselves on the edge of the City of the Damned...

Guest Articles

 Over the last year, I've received a lot of submissions for Portcullis Magazine. The limitations of 26 pages of print have kept me from being able to include a number of them due to their length, color needs, number of pictures, or because they overlapped too much with an existing article. Recently, ideas for submissions began to come in for Portcullis 3 and I found the same thing happening again. What a waste! Our community is doing so much great stuff and it feels really fucking silly not sharing something cool because of printing logistics. 

I am opening up the Portcullis blog to guest articles so these submissions have a home. I'll also be accepting Portcullis submissions year-round at portcullismagazine@gmail.com from now on. If you have an army you want to showcase, new rules for a game you love, a tactics article, painting tutorial, battle report, or anything tabletop related you'd like to have featured in a future zine or guest post, I am waiting to read what you've got!

Ghosts and Dungeons

 The new year has brought with it a number of changes in my personal and professional life that have eaten a lot of my time and on top of that, I managed to blow out my knee and shoulder while central Massachusetts experiences its snowiest winter in years. The little free time I've had has been spent prone letting my mind wander, coming up with thoughts I would deem worthy of writing about but almost immediately forgetting. Rather than sit idly and hope for something to stick, I am just writing and we'll see what happens.

Border Princes: Campaign End

 

For our final turn, the forces of Chaos, already beleaguered from endless conflicts, were thrust into battle and forced to defend their holdings once more. Brad had been stuck in his corner for most of the game and was worthy of mercy, but we had not played a single battle during the campaign which means it had been months since we stood across from one another and threw dice. I also had a great idea for a campaign epilogue that would be well served by the Barrow Legion controlling Aldium. Ian just wanted a chance to crawl out of last place, no doubt.

Age of Fantasy: Regiments v3.5

 In October, onepagerules released their major yearly updates for all of their game systems. In years past, this has primarily been when they rebalance points costs, add a few new units based on upcoming model releases, and add or remove some upgrade options based on player feedback. This year, we saw a major reexamination of every army list and a fundamental change in the game's design philosophy. We've been using 3.5 and the new army lists for the last few months of our Border Princes campaign and, despite what some of my IG and discord posts may have implied, the game has not been destroyed by all of the changes. Regiments remains what I consider the best rules light rank and flank option, though it has nearly all of the same problems it had in 3.4 and several new ones. 

Border Princes: Turns 18 and 19

There is little as satisfying in wargaming than outthinking and outmaneuvering your opponent. Map campaigns allow for this on a much larger scale than one-off battles that exist solely on a gaming table. Unfolding dastardly plans over the course of weeks as your enemy can only guess at your goal is the ultimate rank and flank experience. Real general shit, sitting in the dim lighting of my office as I stroke my beard and plot. This is what I wanted to share with my friends by running and writing about the Border Princes and turn 18 sees it all come to fruition.

Border Princes: Turns 15, 16, and 17

Last installment, I said that we were surely about to witness the bloodiest and most violent turns yet. By now, I should know better than to predict what my enemies will try to do. Hope you are all Bennie Hill fans.

Border Princes: Turn 14

 Battle erupts along the Blood River as the Gnawing Hunger and Barrow Legion charge into one another! To the north, the mountains impede the Covenant of Blood and Undead, giving the Dark Elves the advantage.

Border Princes: Turn 13

 

After weeks of planning, the Barrow Legion strikes at the Gnawing Doom, charging into their forces in the forest outside Malko and in the Blood River Bogs. Once again, the Crimson Host and Covenant of Blood battle in the Crossroads!

Border Princes: Turns 11 and 12

 

The crossroads of the Old Silk Road and South Road are once again the site of conflict as the Crimson Host encounters the Gnawing Hunger! I don't think either party expected this battle, but the Skaven find themselves facing a 450 point deficit!

Border Princes: Turn 10

 

The conflict at Aldium explodes! 5 banners are involved between the two forces, with the Dark Elves having a 150 point advantage in the conflict. Outside of this battle, the forces occupying the Border Princes reposition and expand their territories.

PORTCULLIS 2 IS HERE!

 

Central Massachusetts’ finest gaming zine is back and now includes 8 pages of FULL COLOR!

26 pages of articles, featuring:

An interview with Sean Äaberg and his psychedelic art

A short story by Maude Bogbody

Emily‘s Dungeon Crossword

Art by Andrew, Michael Coleman, Eon Fontes, Tyler Grecco, and Aran Timbrell

And much more!

$10+$4 shipping for US/Canada. DM me on discord or email portcullismagazine@gmail.com to order.

International warriors, DM me and we will work something out.

Border Princes: Turn 9

 

I was partially correct in my predictions and I was not (entirely) punished for my gamble! This turn proved a pivotal one in the campaign with clashes breaking out across the Border Princes.  I had hoped that the Skaven and Chaos forces would continue their conflicts, but both armies surprised me by turning their interests elsewhere! Thankfully, the Skaven moved and saved me from the worst possible outcome. My southern most banner rode into the their lines with a bonus for their victory in the previous round while they had one from the supporting banner across the river banks. We would be evenly matched! Had the western banner stayed in the bogs, their support would've meant I would be down 150 points. 

Undead Wizard's Tower

There are a lot of hobby ideas that have fallen out of favor but deserve to still be part of wargaming. Much of what the indie community is doing has been happening on and off since the inception of the hobby. Time is a flat circle and all that. One thing that hasn't had its time to shine again is the humble Pringle's can tower. 

Border Princes: Turn 8

 

The battles in and around the Blood River Bogs ended in victories for the ratmen of the Gnawing Hunger. The warriors of Chaos had no choice but to retreat to the west and regroup. This is the balance of power at the beginning of turn 8 in our Border Princes campaign. 

The Covenant of Blood has suffered a string of setbacks; they have been impeded by terrain, suffered defeat at the hands of the Skaven, and have struggled to pin down the Dark Elves. Their armies are in a fairly safe position with one gaining the benefits of fortification in their HQ while the army on the riverbanks would be supported if attacked. This could be a welcome chance to regroup.

The Gnawing Hunger has expanded their empire and tasted victory! With the raiders from the west repelled, is it time to support a push north into the territories of the Barrow Legion?

The Crimson Host of Maltherion expanded their borders with little resistance. They outmaneuver the Covenent of Blood in the west and march past Malko towards the obsidian towers of the Barrow Legion's necromancers.

The Barrow Legion's kingdom grew as the other powers battle with one another. They occupy the fortress of Malko at the center of the Border Princes with no sign of contest. None of the living have strayed across their borders, though the rising power of the Gnawing Hunger disturbs their ancient necromancers. War is inevitable. The generals give their orders...

The Covenant of Blood pursued the Dark Elves and are once again eluded. The waters of the River of Blood again prevented their forces from crossing to defend their holdings at Aldium. The Warriors of Chaos attempted to re-engage with the Skaven but they were unable to catch them. Brad has failed nearly every difficult terrain roll this campaign!

The Gnawing Hunger reinforced their western border, moving an army back into the bogs while another fortified their position directly to the south, creating a deadly wall of troops further supported by forces on the southern bank of the East Blood River. Enemies battling either of these banners would be facing an army with at least 300 additional points! 

The Crimson Host of Maltherion sent their banners further south, capitalizing on the pressure applied to the Covenant. Aldium looks to be theirs for the taking. Meanwhile, their eastern forces prepared to invade the lands of the Barrow Legion!

The Barrow Legion marched toward their enemies and the Gnawing Hunger are the first to meet them on the field of battle. Reinforcements are en-route from the north should this push fail. The Ghoul King Marrowflayer flew from Malko, expanding the Barrow Legions territory as the other armies avoid the areas surrounding the desecrated fortress.

The battle between the undead and ratmen was vicious, bloody, and hard-fought. Legions of skeletons took to the field only to be shattered under the blades of Doomwheels. A great and terrible zombie dragon devoured regiments of plague monks before being obliterated by the mysticism of a Grey Seer. Only the desperate efforts of Hagan the Horrible and a last minute flank assault by dire wolves prevented utter defeat. The Barrow Legion was victorious, but at a cost. It would take time to find the corpse of another dragon. The bodies of the ratmen, however, would more than replenish the skeletons lost in battle. As they are a Vampire Counts banner that was victorious in battle, this banner will have an extra 150 points if it fights in the next turn!

The Skaven retreated into a powerful defensive position, making further pushes into their empire extremely challenging. The territory captured this turn by the Barrow Legion gave the undead enough resources to support a 5th army on the map. It seems likely turn 9 will be the most violent yet, with many enemy banners adjacent to one another! I have my theories as to what my enemies will do and I am preparing to gamble on their actions...

War on Hunger: Charity Regiments Tournament

Portcullis has teamed up with the Crypt for a charity Regiments tournament on October 11th! 

What is War on Hunger? Inspired by the Foodmachine events run for Warmachine, it is a Regiments event where you donate food in exchange for bending the rules of the game! You receive one ticket for each food item you bring to donate, including your entry fee. You can spend the tickets to do things like re-roll, give a unit a special rule for the game, or even cast one of your opponent’s spells!

EVENT  DETAILS:

When and Where: October 11th at The Crypt, 161 Chestnut St #1, Providence RI

Registration: 10:00 am

Dice Roll: 11:00am

Army lists: 1500 points with force organization rules. Players may bring units from up to two factions in the same list, but they must select one of them as their primary faction. Mixed armies must consist of at least 60% worth of units of their primary faction, and heroes from either faction list may only join other units from their own faction.

Number of rounds: 3. 

Painting: There is no painting requirement, but models must be fully assembled and on movement trays where appropriate.

Entry: Minimum 10 food items or a $10 donation.

All donations benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Their most needed items:

Canned Fish and Meats

Canned Beans and Lentils

Canned Fruit and Vegetables

Canned Soups and Stews

Spices and Condiments

Rice and Pasta

Please do not donate glass packaging, perishable or prepared foods, or items that are open, out of date or otherwise damaged or unusable.

THIS EVENT WILL USE THE 3.4 RULESET AS 3.5 WILL STILL BE IN PLAYTEST AT EVENT TIME

NOTE: Due to space limitations, this event has an 10 player maximum!

You can find the full packet here! Reach out to the Crypt to sign up

Return to the Border Princes

 This past winter, Steve organized a Regiments league that used the Border Princes map from the General's Compendium to track score. It was great fun and reignited my desire to organize a true map campaign. Playing games of Regiments with the boys is always a good time, but I wanted to share the excitement another layer of strategy could add to the game and show how much fun linking all these separate battles could be like we do in Mordheim but with an army scale game.

The Border Princes map campaign is a lot less cumbersome than the original Mighty Empires, but still has a level of depth that makes the decisions made on the map matter for gameplay. Each player starts with an HQ placed at the edge of the map and a single banner within that space. That banner represents one of your armies. Every turn, players submit orders for each banner they have under their control. They can move, fortify their position, or raze the map section they are in. Fortified banners get bonus points and defensive terrain features if they go to battle. Razed map sections lose any special rules and do not count towards victory points at the end of the campaign. Banners moving through tiles capture territories for your little kingdom and more banners are generated at your HQ once you control enough spaces. When one of your banners occupies the same tile as an enemy banner, you play a game of Regiments to determine who takes it and the loser retreats. Banners can lend support to one another during combat. Friendly banners adjacent to one in battle add points to that force! Strategic positioning of your forces will give you a sizable advantage over your enemy.

The map has a variety of environments that modify how you play on it and as well as gameplay in Regiments games. Rivers, swamps, and mountain ranges all impede your movement during map phases, casting doubt on whether your banner will reach its destination. There are locations with specific scenarios to be played in battles there, like the Warrens and Geistenmund Hills. The ancient tower of Tor Anrok gives players unrivaled control over movement in the surrounding tiles. The orcs found within the Iron Claw camp can be recruited by greenskins and harass and pester other races, adding or subtracting points from armies battling there. 

Every army gets a special rule that either modifies map level play or Regiments games. Examples include Orcs and Goblins being able to force march one banner per turn to potentially move 2 tiles instead of 1, Vampire Counts banners growing in size for the turn immediately after beating an opponent, and Warriors of Chaos being able to pursue a routed foe to force another battle in the next turn!

It really is a near perfect campaign with a lot of opportunities to add your own flourishes and hack up some of the rules to better suit your play group. The rest of the General's Compendium is really sick, too, with tutorials for making scenery and a lot of insight into making games your own. It aligns so well with the indie gaming/IRWT way of thinking that it should be a stable in everyone's libraries. It is long out of print, but you can find pdfs easily with your favorite search engine. Worth the read if only to see that none of what we are doing is new. Gamers have been gaming this way forever.

I've said the above and more to most of the War Council (some multiple times. Sorry!) in hopes of getting a little traction. Sadly, we are spread very thin across New England and the campaign can generate a lot of games to play each turn. Coordinating 6-8 people over such a large space, each with adult responsibilities requiring flexibility, made a full War Council campaign almost impossible, so instead I grabbed three of the guys I game with the most for a smaller version that would let us keep things moving without becoming an absolute shit show. This campaign season, the Border Princes are contested by the Barrow Legion (Undead, me), the Covenant of Blood (Warriors of Chaos, Brad), the Crimson Host of Maltherion (Dark Elves, Alex), and the Gnawing Hunger (Skaven, IPT). We decided to play for 20 turns and whoever has the most territory at the end is crowned the Lord of the Border Princes. Special territories like Aldium and Tor Anok are worth 5 territories while the fortress of Malko at the center of the map is worth a whopping 10!

We're about 7 turns in, but here's how the campaign started. Alex placed first and chose an excellent starting position. His HQ sits in the mountains, requiring any attacking forces to pass a difficult terrain roll to take it. He is also adjacent to a road, which allows for some rapid movement south. The proximity to Tor Anok and its elf-specific bonuses didn't hurt either!

Brad's Chaos Warriors chose the south-west of the map as their home. Like Alex, he has good access to a road as well as a bridge to safely cross the Blood River without making a check. The river will also impede invading forces. 

I placed the fortress of the Barrow Legion high in the mountains in the northeast for the same reasons Alex chose his starting location. It gives the Legion access to a number of roads and rivers and is close to the thematically aligned Geistenmund Hills.

Ian's Skaven took the last remaining corner. Though there are no roads nearby, the long river insulates him from attacks from the north, letting him build is empire without worrying too much about the undead. Brad's focus seems to be on the north, so perhaps there's some potential for western expansion?

Here is the map as of the fight phase in Turn 7. The intervening turns were largely expansion of territory and securing a few important locations. The Barrow Legion immediately sent a banner to Malko, capturing the fortress town for the undead. Chaos struck out and captured the merchant town of Aldium while the Dark Elf forces installed their wizards in the tower of Tor Anok. These two have been chasing each other across the intersection of the Old Silk Road and South Road, each beguiling one another with unorthodox movements. The empire of the Gnawing Hunger had grown unimpeded, drawing the attention of the undead and the Covenant of Blood. Banners met along the Blood River and in the bogs surrounding it, giving us our first real battles of the campaign!

So far, its been everything I'd hoped for. A little strategic discussion, a lot of shit talk, and the joy of moving markers across a map. I'm excited to see how things shake out and what feuds erupt from these initial skirmishes and border disuputes!