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!

Portcullis #1 Crossword Solution

 Eons have passed, but the ancient text has finally been deciphered! The Dungeon received a message this weekend that contained the first complete solution to Emily's infamous crossword. Congratulations, Chloe! 

Thank you to everyone who played and talked to us about the puzzle. I am glad you all gained insight into Emily's insidious mind and exactly what kind of dungeon crawler she truly is. Be warned, those who wish to one day defeat the puzzle on their own, for below you will find its secrets revealed:

Across: 

4. Beholder

5. Hobgoblin

7. Skeletons

11. Bugbear

13. Bless

14. Stirge

15. Gold

17. Roleplaying

18. Familiar

19. Die

Down:

1. Gelatinous Cube

2. Darkvision

3. Magic Missile

6. Vorpal Blade

8. Long Sword

9. Ten Foot Pole

10. Trip Wire

12. Mithril

15. Gygax

16. Wizard

Emily's Dungeon Crossword will return for issue 2!

Rock Labyrinth: A Regiments Scenario

Last fall, I had grand ambitions to run a Regiments map campaign for the NEWC. I had played and run the Border Princes campaign from the Generals Compendium (perhaps the greatest WHFB book of all time) about half a dozen times and thought its narrative focus and game within a game nature would be a huge hit. I spent a long time rewriting rules, converting scenarios, and transcribing mechanics but ultimately decided to drop it at the eleventh hour in favor of a league inspired version Steve came up with and ran. It worked out great and everyone had a blast! The Border Princes asks a lot from its players and with our geography it didn't look like it was set up for success. Doesn't help that I was pitching a 14 page rules packet to a group who prefers to do things on the fly! Someday, I hope to assemble a dedicated group and share what is easily one of my favorite wargaming experiences. 

I've slowly been repurposing some of the work that I did and this scenario I am sharing is part of that. This was a special mission for use on a specific map segment of the Border Princes called the Warrens. In this region, bandits and ne'er-do-wells calling themselves the Carrion Band lurk behind labyrinthine rock formations. Human factions could bully them into providing support, gaining some extra points in the upcoming battle. The big flashy part of the scenario is that both players could nominate one unit in their army to become skirmishers! This was exciting because that type of unit does not exist inside the confines of Regiments and was a cool problem to try to solve. Below is a version of that scenario with the campaign related rules stripped out so it can be used in regular games of Regiments. There are likely many issues with skirmishers I had not foreseen, so if you try this, let me know how it goes!

ROCK LABYRINTH

Overview. Two armies meet in the Warrens, a rugged area in the foothills of the Black Mountains which is home to a labyrinthine series of rock formations. Maneuvering and shooting in the Warrens is difficult and ambushers may lurk around every corner.

Armies. Armies are chosen as normal.

Battlefield. The table should be covered by rock formations that turn the battlefield into a maze. All of the rocks are very steep and thus impassable terrain. Rock structures should be set up at least 7” apart to allow units to pass in between, but there should be no straight paths from one side of the board to the other. 

Mission. Place D3+2 objectives. Players roll-off to go first and then alternate in placing one marker each outside of deployment zones and over 9” away from each other. At the end of each round, if a unit is within 3” of an objective while enemies aren’t, then it's seized. Objectives stay seized even after leaving, but if units from both sides are contesting an objective, then it becomes neutral again. The game ends after 4 rounds and the player controlling the most objectives wins.

Deployment. Players roll off and the winner picks a long table edge as their deployment zone, with their opponent taking the opposite. Then the players alternate in placing one unit each within 12” of their table edge, starting with the player that won the deployment roll.

Skirmishers. A single unit in each player’s army may adopt a Skirmish formation for the duration of the battle. Skirmishers have the following changes to their rules:

Movement and Formation. Skirmisher units do not have to be in formations. Instead, unit members must stay within 1” of at least one other member and within 9” of all other members. All facings are considered the unit’s front facing. The unit may only be within 1” of other units when charging and may only charge if at least one charging model is within charge distance of the target unit. Skirmishers may move or shoot in any direction.

Melee. Once one model makes base contact with their charge target, the remaining models in a Skirmishers unit rank up around it to maximize contact as though it were a normal Regiments unit. If charged, once the enemy unit makes contact with a model, turn all models to face this unit and rank up around the charged model. Skirmishers do not receive any combat bonuses for the number of rows their unit has. Skirmishers otherwise follow all other melee combat rules as presented in the Regiments rulebook.  

 

PORTCULLIS IS BACK IN STOCK!

26 pages of cannibal children, killer art, and a mind melting crossword (prize still unclaimed)! Printed locally in Worcester MA, the blacks are blacker and images are even crisper!

$10+$4 shipping for US/Canada. DM on Instagram/Discord or email portcullismagazine@gmail.com to order. Accepting Venmo and PayPal.

Locals - I’ll have these with me at meet ups if you wanna save shipping

International warriors - DM me and we can work something out!

Thank you all for the support!