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ISSUE 07 DEC – JAN 2011
More toasty than toast MEGA Battle report:
Isle of the Dead Maelstrom’s Monstrous Monsters:
The BaneBeasts!
Plus:
Beautiful Beastmen Building of boards Babbling about Battlefoam Dastardly Dragons The Test Dummies Prizes ‘N Stuff
A magazine for gamers, hobbyists and collectors
Mark Wildman’S Check it out on page 22
Beastmen of the Darkwood
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WIN STUFF By subscribing to Unseen Lerker you automatically go into the draw to win the following: • GF9 Battlefield Status Markers • GF9 Psychology Tokens • Civilisation: the board game (as reviewed by the Test Dummies on pg46) • Maelstrom’s latest BaneBeast – the huge and impressive Chimaera! Congratulations to last issue’s winners:
Will Kirkwood, USA (Mantic Undead army), Per Kennum, Denmark (Mantic Undead cavalry), Christopher Rouse, UK (more Mantic Undead cavalry!), Michael Musselman, USA (GF9 Turn Counter), Andrew Stuart, Australia (GF9 Wound Markers).
Unseen Lerker
CREDITS THE UNSEEN LERKER TEAM
EDITORIAL
Editor: Isaac “Bobo” Alexander Business Overseer: Bryan “Ubertechie” Carmichael
Despite the fact that we tend to promote ourselves as being awesome most of the time, we here at the magazine were frighteningly reminded of our own helplessness last month. The massive rain storms lashing Australia in January have caused this issue to be delayed slightly, as our graphic designer Heath was stranded in Brisbane without power for almost a week.Yes, you damn well read that right – I’m blaming Mother Nature, the ultimate scapegoat, for any tardiness.
Editorial Consultant: Chris “Fitz” Fitzsimmons Proofreading: Owen “Comma Commander” Bell Illustrations by: Max “Brakken” Karpsten, Zach “Gokan” Kin-Wilde, John “The Killer Quill” Blake, Barry “Monet” Crocker
Anyway, for this issue we wanted to freshen things up a bit and get some exciting new stuff in the magazine. And what’s exciting, we thought? Well, dragons, of course. So we’ve put a certain… monstrous touch on this particular issue. I won’t blab on about it (this column being the least interesting part of the magazine), but I hope you enjoy it! It certainly was fun to put together.
Graphic Design: Heath “Scuba” Moritz Contributors: Mark Wildman, Chris Cousens, Wayne Kemp, Tim Fisher, Michael Biggs, Paul Scott, Greg Dann, Dan Comeau. Special Thanks: Ibis Miniatures, Middle Earth Games, Arcane Scenery and Models
On a completely unrelated note, it finally feels like winter’s icy fingers are loosening their hold. I am bloody well looking forward to the sunshine, I can tell you.
www.unseenlerker.com editor@unseenlerker.com Want to advertise in Unseen Lerker?
Isaac Alexander, Editor
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CONTENTS 4 22 Burninating the countryside Australian mastermind Chris Cousens gives us some pointers on using dragons in 8th edition.
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BaneBeasts Maelstrom’s Tim Fisher gives us the low-down on their new range of monstrous models.
Army Showcase Mark Wildman’s Beastmen of the Darkwood.
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From Scratch
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Isle of the Dead
Wayne’s World The Kemp’s conversion series continues as he constructs a demonic minotaur from one of the ugliest kits ever made…
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Some board-building article written by that editor guy. A bit boring, maybe worth skipping.
This issue’s main feature, including scenario & battle report. Four greater daemons, a huge dragon, an uber sword, wizards and a ritual. What more do you want?
LEGAL DISCLAIMER This magazine is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. The Chaos devices, the Chaos logo, Citadel, Citadel Device, the Double-Headed/Imperial Eagle device, ‘Eavy Metal, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Golden Demon, Great Unclean One, the Hammer of Sigmar logo, Horned Rat logo, Keeper of Secrets, Khemri, Khorne, Lord of Change, Nurgle, Skaven, the Skaven symbol devices, Slaanesh, Tomb Kings, Trio of Warriors, Twin Tailed Comet Logo, Tzeentch, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Warhammer World logo, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf logo, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.
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Dragons (Burninating the countryside...) by Chris Cousens
How to make the world your biatch with a dragon in WFB 8th Ed. Dragons feature in Warhammer in some of the most majestic artwork. They have some of the most imposing models. And yet in 8th edition, many people have declared the mighty dragon dead and buried. While that would require a damn big hole, there has been a noticeable lack of dragons being used worldwide – a drought of drakes, if you will. This is a great shame given the pivotal role that dragons have in shaping the imagery of any fantasy world. In a challenge, all blows are struck in initiative order. If there’s nothing left to hit by the time your dragon’s attacks come round, they are wasted, as is the thunderstomp. This can be avoided to some extent by putting a mage on a dragon (with a save of some kind) to try and keep unit champions alive long enough for the dragon to attack, but even then the thunderstomp gets wasted.
To sum up – dragons win fights less often, and break their opponents less often, than in previous editions, and cannons hit both rider and mount instead of just one. In return, they have gained thunderstomp, which doesn’t help in most challenges, or against anything bigger than a man-sized model. No wonder people think they suck, right? Wrong.
Three reasons dragons are ace: • Not everything has unit champions and steadfast. This means the dragon can still smash through the other bits of enemy armies – usually expensive monsters, cavalry and shooting units.Yummy victory points. • They’re fast – means you can avoid things that are bad and hit things that are good.You also have a lot of scope to redirect into a second enemy unit if the first flees. • They hit hard. Real hard. They will do more wounds in a combat round than just about anything else, and are generally harder to hurt as well. So you have bought your brand new dragon model, and want to know how to win with it? Listen up, youngling, and DragonYoda™ will tell all...
Unseen Lerker
Winning With Dragons – List Building
• Exalted Hero – Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Dawnstone, Dragonhelm, Halberd, Shield, Battle Standard
When using dragons, it is important that they are properly supported. This means that you need to have units that can keep pace with a dragon, and units to take out enemy war machines. In both cases, the answer is usually cavalry. Scouts are also quite useful in this role for shooting down war machines, but in armies that can include dragons, the only ones that would be seen often are Dark Elf Shades. Typically, a dragon can brave one cannon shot as it is unlikely to kill it, but you need to deal with those kind of threats as soon as possible. A Charmed Shield can also keep the rider alive for that one shot. Make sure that these units have champions, so that they can take a challenge that would otherwise be meant for your dragon rider, allowing the big fella to get stompin’. Alternatively, one of my favourite tricks is to run a ‘mini flier’ as backup for the dragon, largely to charge into the same combat and accept challenges. A few of the character builds I’ve used include: Examples:
I’d recommend having at least 1-2 additional units of fliers to back your dastardly duo up, plus fast cavalry and scouts if you have access to them. Some armies out there simply can’t deal with a Zulu Dawn style assault and you can occasionally win games just by rocking up to the table. UK wargaming superstar Ben Curry had great success with his dragon-lead Dark Elf army for over a year, but this was largely due to the massive volume of shooting and cheap throwaway units he was able to hurl at enemy war machines or other threats to the big beastie. Despite being the focal point of the battle, the dragon can actually wind up being largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, if that makes sense!
• Noble on Great Eagle – Great Weapon, Helm of Fortune, Dragon Armour, Shield, Guardian Phoenix, Battle Standard • Vampire – Flying Horror, Avatar of Death, Flayed Hauberk, Dawnstone, Battle Standard
Preparing for the kill A lot of the time Warhammer can be boiled down to simple logistics and maths. In this case, it’s pretty straightforward to understand that infantry take 3 turns to charge war machines, while it takes cavalry and fliers only two. If you get first turn, that directly HALVES the amount of shooting your dragon may take, not counting any war machines your kill with your shooting.
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It takes 36 elven arrows at long range to kill an Empire cannon, and only slightly more to kill a Dwarf one. Deploy your archers in range of the enemy war machines to minimise return fire. This is your number one priority.
phase. These are easy points to get, but take infantry units much longer to get the job done, and in the case of units like Stegadons or Abominations, infantry may not be able to handle the unit at all.
If your opponent has war machines, deploy your dragon out of sight of them if possible. Tactical genius, that. If not, line up your fast moving units opposite them. This includes the dragon, fast characters, scouts, cavalry, and so on.You need to kill the war machines before they kill your expensive fast stuff. It’s a duel that the fast stuff will win, but you WILL lose things in the process. Your slower units should be trying to stop the enemy from closing in on the faster units as they attack the war machines. This means threatening to flank the enemy if they try and charge your dragon/cavalry etc. Being prepared to lose units is vital because once the enemy shooting goes down, your dragon and flying characters can waltz around the field like Cinderella on a bad LSD trip. Even if you lose the dragon, as long as your other fast units take out the shooting, you should not be far behind on points and your opponent will have lost their best answer to your fast moving units – their shooting.
Finally...
A High Elf Prince on Star Dragon should kill a Hellcannon or Stegadon in a single round of combat. A smaller dragon will take a second round, but by combat reforming after the first round of combat, you will be facing in a direction of your choice when you have killed off the big gribbly. Same goes with charging units of 15ish missile troops – they will be steadfast for one round, but a combat reform will see the dragon ready to head in the right direction in your subsequent charge
When you include a dragon in your army, it becomes the focus of the game. Its Victory Points and killing power are unmatched in your army, and as such your opponent needs to neutralise it to win. That includes bogging it down in troops, or keeping it at bay with cannons. The rest of your army must be designed and used in support. The best generals use their army as a whole, with each unit having a role in relation to the others. As good as dragons are, they rely on the rest of the army to perform. As a final note, dragon-led armies will generally play aggressively, taking calculated risks and sacrificing units for the overall battle plan. Be prepared for some very bloody games, but ultimately for victory, if you can build your list appropriately and use your dragon wisely. DragonYoda™ out.
Unseen Lerker
Going in for the kill
Step Three
If your opponent plays well enough that you can’t charge their good units in the flank, you don’t want to line up your fast units in front of them in case they roll high and get to charge your dragon or support in isolation. Here’s a solution.
Charge. The extra character takes any challenge necessary, while the dragon and rider will be responsible for 7-8 kills not including breath attacks. Next round, you kill the same, and only the biggest enemy units will no longer be Steadfast. Obviously be far more wary of units like Chosen and Grave Guard which can killerise your dragon...
Step One Place a fast expendable unit (Eagle, Harpies, Fell Bats, Chaos Hounds) in front of the enemy unit. Then land your dragon and support units (fast characters or cavalry with champions) 12.1” away from the front of your expendable unit (making sure that they can’t be charged by anything else in the process).
Step Two Your enemy has two choices – charge the decoy, in which case they will butcher it, and overrun not far enough to engage your dragon and friends. Or, they can ignore it, backing away, in which case you will charge them anyway. Their best option is to advance slightly towards the decoy so that it is harder for you to land your dragon in the gap, but even then there will be enough space for at least the dragon and a fast character
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Unseen Lerker
Wayne’s World
Hobbying where none have dared before...
BY WAYNE KEMP
For this issue’s chopfest, I thought I would take on a box set which has not had the best feedback. In fact it has been criticised more than any for a very long time. I speak, of course, about the Games Workshop Minotaurs. My aim is to take these much frowned upon, sausage-like villains and turn them into something with a cooler look. I may have bitten off more than I can chew! The theme of the conversion is to keep them as Minotaurs but with a Nurgle twist, to fit in with the multi-god themed Daemons of Chaos army I’m creating at the moment. The twist being, that instead of having legs the Minotaurs will have a maggot-like body. For the article I will be working on one model but hope to do a whole unit later on. Well, that’ll do for planning – now let’s grab me ol’ sculpting tool and see what happens!
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After selecting a body from the three on offer, I glued the two halves together and then removed the legs. Be careful when cutting plastic like this; it can be quite thick and you don‘t want to cut yourself (like I did!).
After a good cry and a band-aid, I built the rest of the body, choosing a growling head and the great weapon option.
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For the maggot body, I needed something to sculpt onto. This was achieved by making an armature out of brass rod. I drilled a hole into the centre of where the legs used to be and glued the rod into place. The rod then had to be bent into shape, using some sturdy pliers.
On to the shaping of the lower body with green stuff. I use the Gale Force Nine tubes of the stuff as you get a much larger amount for your money, compared to GW. However I’m told there’s this great new invention (‘the internets’, I believe it’s called) and I am sure you could find some even better deals on there.
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Mixing up enough green stuff to create a snake body around the rod armature, I spent some time making it nice and smooth. As usual, it’s a good idea to keep your tools wet to stop them from ‘grabbing’ the green stuff.
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Once I was happy with the shape of the armature it needed to be glued to the base. Keep the rod which is going to touch the base straight as this makes it much easier to glue. When fixing this into place I used super glue and a spray activator/accelerant, as this will give you an almost instant bond. If you are more patient, you could use green stuff and leave it overnight.
To give this snake body the big maggot look, I had to create segmentation. This was done by taking a sculpting tool with a nice fine edge and indenting rings around the body. Try to match the space between the rings to the size of the body: larger spaces for the fatter part, getting closer together as the tail end becomes smaller and narrower. As with all my green stuff work, I left this stage to harden overnight.
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and turn the tool as you make them. This creates a smooth hole. I also added a funky design to the axe by drilling three holes into it in the same pattern. The last thing I needed to do was paint a thin coat of PVA glue onto the green stuffed areas, just to help smooth everything off a little better. (Of course this isn’t how the professionals do it, but it a trick that works for me! Shh!)
I now wanted to add some Nurgle detail – at the moment my creation just looked like Lonely Slug Boy 101. After some brief tea-assisted pondering I thought that some crawling maggots would fit the bill perfectly! Strangely enough I’ve made green stuff maggots before. To do this, take some green stuff and roll it out to about the thickness of a spear shaft. Then cut off a length you are happy with and roll off the end you have cut so that both ends are rounded off. Place the maggot onto the model using a tiny amount of pressure, as you don’t want to distort its shape. Once you are happy with the position, make indentations, as with the big slug’s body, but make them much closer together and keep them even in size. If you want, you can practise a few on some old bases. You will soon find that they are quite simple to produce.
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Apply a suitably putrid palette and there you have it, a Nurgle Minotaur. Use it as a Doombull, or a Plaguebeast, or make a whole unit, as I am in the process of doing. Hopefully you’ll agree that the converted model looks a lot better than the original kit – I certainly think it does, but then I am somewhat biased in this case! Well, that’s it for this month. Happy chopping!
At this point I wanted to give the model the mark of Nurgle by adding some pox marks. Take a small amount of green stuff and blend it into anywhere you like, so it looks like a big boil. Then make three holes (three for Nurgle) in a triangular pattern. I used a spear headed sculpting tool to make the holes. Keep it wet, of course,
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Mark Wildman’S Check it out on page 22
Beastmen of the Darkwood
Unseen Lerker
THE X-BOARD FIRST CAME THE X-MEN, THEN CAME THE X-WING. THEN THE X-FILES. BUT NOW, PREPARE FOR….
By Bryan Carmichael
The modern gamer requires many things to attend a tournament – not only a painted army but dice, army books, rule books, tape measures and a wide range of other paraphernalia. All of these things are available from a wide (and ever increasing) range of suppliers and stores – however until recently there has not been a company with a product that addresses the need for displaying your army and transporting it from table to table at tournaments. In the UK at least the usual method for transporting your army around is the trusty (tea) tray. Whilst these are cheap and convenient, they are not the easiest things to transport (especial yon public transport) and they do not provide a means for displaying your army (a requirement at many US tournaments). The clever folks at Battlefoam have devised a product that meets these needs in the form of their X-Board. The X-Board is a display board which measures 24”x18”. Made out of hard black plastic, the board is modular in nature and comprises of eight components: • Two flat panels (12”x9” inches) that are textured and have raised hill sections in the corner – think similar to a small GW Battleboard section. These can be assembled to have either hills in each rear corner or one large central hill. • One central brace that fits underneath the two flat panels and holds them together • Four edge sections (two with hand inserts) that form the outer rim of the assembled board • One black canvas bag to carry the disassembled X-Board in
The X-Board is fairly simple to assemble and the outer edges are held to each other with a set of trident shaped clips. A note of caution – these clips are very rigid on a new X-Board and need working with care – after several uses they become more pliable (but no less effective in holding the board together) – this fact is clearly explained on the instructions that come with the X-Board. Once assembled the surface area is much larger than an average tray and provides space to comfortably carry around even the largest of armies in one hit. The real advantage of the X-Board though is that it provides a great display platform for showing of your army; its textured surface is easily painted and flocked to match the basing of your army which is often different from the surface of the gaming tables used at tournaments. Lastly there is an inset space on the front edge piece for a name plaque that allows you to let everyone now whose fantastically painted army they are looking at. As with all Battlefoam products the X-Board is not cheap – it retails at $65 USD but for those wargamers who want a convenient all-in-one display solution for their army there is no other product on the market that offers the portability and professional quality provided by the X-Board.
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Middle Earth Studio - turning your unwanted toys to gold You know that old box of wargaming stuff you’ve got lying around in the basement, attic, cupboard, or all of the above? Those loose figures you have stashed in your sock drawer? Those sprues you hid behind the cat food? Or that painted army that you can never be bothered to sell but don’t really need any more? Well, Middle Earth Studio is here to help. It doesn’t matter what it is – send us the item/s and we’ll repair it, photograph it, sell it, and then pay you a lump sum for it at the end of the month (minus a small fee for our labours).
Interested? Email us middleearthstudio@hotmail.co.uk and find out how we can help you today.
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Banebeasts
A truly monstrous scheme Words: Chris Fitzsimmons Photos: Stuart White What’s that rustling in the bushes? Why is the water in your glass doing that rippley thing like it did in Jurassic Park? And what the heck, you ask, is a BaneBeast? Field reporter Chris Fitzsimmons provides all the answers, as he ventures into the wild to track down and capture the elusive Tim Fisher, one of the instrumental men behind Maelstrom Games. The BaneBeasts are a brand new line of monstrous figures produced by the company. With his robust supply of Tasty Timmy Treats our reporter managed to coerce Tim into telling us all about the latest creations of the Maelstrom menagerie. Go on then, obvious question first – what are BaneBeasts? BaneBeasts are a range of models of highly detailed large monsters, or, as I prefer to call them, “big gribblies”. So, uh, why monsters? What’s so cool about them and why would I want one (or three!)? Quite simply, monsters are the shiznitz. When I first got started in the hobby, twenty years or so ago, and was flicking through books and magazines with pictures of miniatures in, I couldn’t deny that it was always about the big monsters for me. I remember seeing one of the early lead giants – big, imposing, scary as hell – that’s what I always fixated upon when I was a young’un. I’ve never done a “goodie” army myself, not because they don’t have monsters in (they do), but perhaps because the “bad” monsters are even more, well, monstrous! Most armies that I’ve built for gaming or just painted as a collector have had the big gribblies. They’re the centrepieces. That’s what fantasy is all about for me – the monsters. Even in films, the best scenes for me are the ones where the monster turns up and starts kicking arse. They’re a huge focal point of the hobby, and one of the things that really gets people into it – if we were going to make any miniatures it made sense to start with the coolest ones!
Name: Tim Fisher Age: 32 Location: Langwith! Pre-tournament breakfast of choice: Nowt – I can’t eat early, I’m more of a brunch man myself! My new year’s hobby resolution is: Paint! Chances out of ten of sticking to it: I have a bet with a club mate, so will have to at least paint one army – otherwise he gets the army!
Unseen Lerker
Indeed. What beasts are currently available in the range then? Ooh all sorts. We have 7 on sale at the time of writing (so probably about eight when by the time this mag hits the streets). The plan is to release one a month in 2011. At the moment we have a Cyclops, the Ox-Gore, Jabberwocor,Vermin Fiend,Verminous Horror, Rotten Lord and The Terror of Fortriu – a huge Chimaera! And do you have a limit or a target number? We’re just going to keep going. Until I die. Or they come to life and eat us. We’ve got the briefs planned out for the rest of 2011 and the ones we’re planning now are for 2012. We’re in a position where we’re actually a year ahead of ourselves. It’s quite a long process from start to finish – the ones that are being sculpted now you won’t see until June or July. Any clues as to what’s coming next? Awesomeness! Really, you’re going to love this one. What we’ve got coming next is a Tree Man, which is currently being cast. It was sculpted by Aragorn Marks, who was head sculptor for Rackham Miniatures. It’s likely to be ready by March. After that we’ve got a Hydra and in fact a range of 32mm miniatures, which will be launched at Salute, a big UK wargaming convention in April.
The Chimaera – in our opinion one of the most impressive and finely detailed models ever sculpted.
Who designs and sculpts the miniatures? Well, myself and Maelstrom Overlord Rob Lane sit down over a cup of tea, and like a couple of big kids we decide what minis we want to release (or play with!). We’ve got no one else telling us what to do so we can do what we like. Then we go down the line of poses and the kind of armour or equipment we think the beastie should have and write all that down. Then, our chief concept artist Stefan Kopinski uses his brain scanner, pulls all the ideas out of our heads, applies ink to paper and manages to nail it every time. It’s magic, really. In terms of sculptors, we’ve had a new up-and-comer Alex Huntley work on a lot of the early stuff and as we’ve found our feet we’ve started working with some industry stalwarts. We now have a very impressive portfolio of talent working for us. They include Daniel Cockersell (of Weta fame – you’ll see his name in the credits for Avatar), Sean Green, Aragorn Marks, Allan Carrasco, Jacques-Alexander Gillois to name but a few. We’ve some even bigger names to reveal when it comes to our new 32mm range.
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What inspirations or influences would you guys cite? Loads – we much prefer the darker fantasy style. I’m a big fan of the sort of creature design you see used by movie making studios. Stuff that looks real and also fantastical at the same time. The Lord of the Rings movies are an obvious example of this done well. We’re big 2000AD fans and also Anglo-Saxon history plays a part (which will manifest itself further as time goes on!) Also Stef [Stefan Kopinski] is an artist I have admired for some time - his Sea Dragon artwork (google it – it’s ace!) is a seminal piece in my opinion and that sort of gritty style is exactly what we’re looking for – hence we gave him the gig! We’re wargamers, hobbysists and collectors and we know what we want to see – the only problem is we can’t do everything at once! Talk resin to me. All of the BaneBeasts are made with a very high quality resin. In my opinion our resin caster is the best in the industry bar none. Simple as that. High quality materials and decades of experience make for a great product. Resin is an expensive medium to use and it certainly reflects in the price of the products, but there is no better material out there for capturing fine quality detail. Every casting of the Chimaera for example has all the fine detail of Dan Cockersell’s master sculpt/ mould. There’s no shrinkage with resin, it’s very flexible in terms of different kinds of moulds and, at the risk of overusing the word, it’s just plain ace!
The Verminious Horror, sculpted by Alex Huntley.
Nagausith, the first of the non-monster BaneLords models.
Unseen Lerker
An exclusive sneak-peek at one of Maelstrom’s upcoming beasties. (We’re told that the missing hand will be operating a yo-yo.)
Do you have any tips for first time resin modellers?
What’s your favourite? (you must have one!)
As it happens we do! During 2011, every BaneBeast comes with a ‘working with resin’ guide in the box. Resin is a very easy material to work with, though it has different properties to materials like metal and plastic that people may be more familiar with – hence the easy ‘how to’ guide. It covers cleaning up, assembly and undercoating.
Easy - The Chimaera. I personally rate Dan as the best sculptor in the world and from day one back in the early days (we’ve been planning this for a while) my aim was getting him to work on the range. It wasn’t easy (he’s a busy man!) but I managed it. And what’s more, the Chimaera was just the first; he’s a fan of the work we’re doing and is about to start work on the next piece for us.
In terms of painting, as long as you wash the resin with warm soapy water (to remove the release agent) and spray with a solvent based paint (all covered in the ‘how to’ guide) painting is as easy as painting any other mini.
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The Terror of Fortriu in all its maned, scaly, goaty glory.
Finally, readers will see some fantastic paint jobs on these pages, who is responsible? Now that we’re working with the best sculptors, we also want to have the best painters to work on the sculpts. A favourite of mine is Ben Komets. I’ve been a fan of his work for a while and he has more awards than he knows what to do with. There’s also Sebastien Picque, whose work for Smart Max on the Smog range I simply adore. Both painters have that gritty, realistic style which fits our vision perfectly. Paul Whittaker (aka Old Fogey
on The Warhammer Forum) is the third guy to work on painting the range; he’s a true veteran of the hobby and again has the gritty painting style we’re looking for. True pros and nice guys all.Yours truly painted one as well (the Ox-Gore) and although it was a great figure to paint and turned out nicely I think I’ll leave it to the pros in future!
EMBRACE THE BEAST You’ll be pleased to know, dear reader, that we once again managed to use our patented Jedi Mind Tricks and talk dear Mr Fisher into letting us give away one of their fine gribblies. All Unseen Lerker subscribers will automatically be entered into the draw to win the scary looking dude crouching above – the fearsome Chimaera. The winner will be announced in issue 8, so hang around for the chance to score yourself a very unique and funky pet! Scar-Scath, the Fiend of Vermin.
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Unseen Lerker Around The World Reader Chris Willcox with UL issue 5 at the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Army Showcase: The Beasts of Darkwood
Mark Wildman’s Beastmen When it came to deciding on the latest army to feature in our esteemed* publication, there was really only one choice. At the recently held Unseen Lerker GT there were several stunning paintjobs, many of which have been around and winning awards for years. But the winner of the Players’ Choice Award, by a landslide no less, was Mr Mark Wildman’s Beastmen. Apart from having a funny (and somehow appropriate) name, Mark has only actively been playing Warhammer for just over a year. Starting with his Dwarfs way back in the day, he moved swiftly on to his trademark Empire army which he used in no less than 12 tournaments last year. Recently though his desires have been directed down a darker path. He has become...the...wild... man... No? Anyone? *note: we may be biased.
So, Mark, it’s quite a striking colour scheme that you’ve got going on through your army. Any particular inspirations? Before any of my army had been painted I took quite a long time looking at the colour schemes of other Beastmen armies. The problem I found with a lot of them was how easy it was for the detail to get lost in a sea of brown – brown skin, brown armour and brown cloth on brown bases. It all looked very dull. I also wanted to stay away from the “skin” colour I had been endlessly painting with my Dwarfs and Empire. After several attempts on a variety of different Gor, I approached my loving and dashingly handsome boyfriend who decided on the final colour scheme – red skin (for evilness) with shocking blue armour and cloth (for sexiness). I remember the first time I took my Beastmen to a tournament (Unseen Lerker’s very own Tempest Rising in May last year).
Unseen Lerker
At this point, the army was crudely painted – a basic coat of paint with Devlan Mud over the top. I clearly remember a certain chap by the name of Bobo commenting: “Your army will look awesome when it’s done.” Little did I know that 8 months later he’d rope me into an Army Showcase in his magazine!
“Marky Mark’s Golden Rules of Painting” For those who are wondering, I’ll explain my process of painting, as I do not think everyone paints the way I do. First off I paint each model with a basic coat of colour (in this case, red and blue) and put a layer of Badab Black or Devlan Mud over the top. I normally get an entire unit painted before highlighting any of the models. Then I usually spend an evening (roughly four hours) when I get home from work on each model, painting on the highlights and lowlights. I have a couple of rules I adhere to when painting:
Use four shades (not the pointy eared variety) I always make sure I put the minimum of four shades of colour highlights, from dark to light (usually with Skull White or Bleached Bone) on each part of a model (skin, bone, armour, belt… etc) Mark’s creature feature, used as either one of the Beastmen rare choices or as the Great Bray Shaman when it invokes the Transformation of Khadon!
Finish with a “wash”
It’s evident that there’s been a fair amount of work that’s gone into this army. How long did it take you to complete? How long do you typically tend to spend on a figure?
Whenever I have completed the highlights of a model I always finish the model by painting a dark wash (again, usually Badab Black; Devlan Mud looks too messy) into the crevasses. This just gives the model a little more depth and contrast of colour.
On each model? Ugh, I’d rather not think. I’ve never timed myself, but I would estimate 7-8 hours per rank and file figure…and of course a little more time on the characters. The entire army took me just under a year to complete; I’ve just put the finishing touches on my last WIP unit (Bestigors) and now I feel I can put my feet up for a while!
If I get bored – stop Anyone who paints models will undoubtedly get bored when painting large units of model. And if you don’t, you must be special! After about painting 5 Gor I would get tired and the paintjob starts to become sloppy and messy. At this point, I stop, and come back to it a week or two later. Ultimately there is no rush to paint models; we spend an awful lot of money buying them so we should equally give ourselves plenty of time to paint them.
Water is your friend Water is such a good tool to paint with, not only lots of nice layers, but more importantly with shading. GW washes are great to use for shading but heavily watered down paint can give great natural shading. A good example of this is my Wargore Battle Standard Bearer – lots of layers of watered down colour gives a great effect of shading. Harpies, converted using Gors and Tyranid Gargoyle wings.
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The impressive horde; Mark’s Beastmen have won Best Army awards at both major events he’s taken them to.
Where do you go for your hobby tips and/or inspiration? Any favourite websites, podcasts or publications? Or do the voices tell you? Seeing photos of miniatures in magazines or online just doesn’t do it for me for some reason; I always feel I need to see the models in the flesh to fully appreciate them. As a result I spent quite a lot of time in the miniatures gallery at Warhammer World when I first got into the hobby. The UK tournament scene is ripe for inspiration for the same reasons. I have so much respect for people who paint an entire army at such a high standard as it’s a slow and painstaking process.
Mark’s characters, including Transformation-inclined Great Bray Shaman, super choppy Beastlord and Beast-Banner-bearing BSB!
The army’s main combat unit, 40 Gors! We’ve personally witnessed these guys kill Bloodthirsters and Chaos Knights in combat. Fear their awesomeness.
Unseen Lerker
There’s no denying that the basing is a huge part of your army’s image. Have you created these yourself, or acquired them from elsewhere? When I first started painting models I didn’t really care for bases. My entire Dwarf army was the traditional “Goblin Green” based army – eye watering stuff! When I started painting my Empire I went a little further and got some sand and flock. It looked nice, but it didn’t have that ‘wow’ factor I’d started craving. It wasn’t until I came across a Daemon army by Shane Metcalfe that I first learnt about resin bases. All his models were on painted lava bases – it looked brilliant and I thought, ‘Damn, I want some of that!’ I searched the internet and hobby shops for a long time trying to hunt down some decent resin bases. Eventually I found a little eBay shop called Base-X-of-War. Mine are of their “Darkwood” range of bases, perfect for the Beastmen theme. As they say, the rest is history; I kept buying more and more bases and movement trays to complete my army. My last order with the company I received a free hot dog shaped sweetie! I must be one of their favourite customers! When my army is together, I feel that the
basing just makes it stand out so much more. I have to admit that the resin bases are somewhat more costly than flock and sand but if you are fortunate to either 1) have the money to buy them or 2) have the time to spend making bases complex and detailed, you really should do. In my opinion the bases and movement trays are just as important as the model itself. What’s next in the pipeline for you then? I have been painting my army for the best part of a year now and along with a full time job, a demanding boy friend (he will kill me for saying that), two huskies and the 15 tournaments I went to last year, I think I’ve earned a break! I am looking forward to taking my army to events this year. It’s not the most competitive army out there, but it’s really nice to see them on the battlefield. And what they lack in effectiveness they make up for in style! Ever the perfectionist though, I look back now and see things I could have done better with my Beastmen. I’ve bought an Undead army which I’m going to work on slowly, taking my time. I think my painting has a long way to go before I am ever truly happy with it – but isn’t that true for most people?
Pumba leads his friends to the watering hole. (Sorry, couldn’t resist! –Ed.)
Want to see more of this lovely army? Well, you can! Just go to www.unseenlerker.com/gallery
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From scratch Building a scenic gaming board By Isaac alexander I got tricked into doing this article. Sad thing is, I’m not even sure who it was that tricked me. It was my idea originally to do a ‘mega’ battle report recreating the Isle of the Dead battle, featuring a really cool gaming table with cliffs and a raging sea, a bridge spanning the abyss, hills, forests, and a ruined temple for all the mages to hang out in. However, it never really occurred to me that I would be the one building the damn thing! Oops.
Stuff With no way to go but forward, I set off to my local hardware store to pick up the things I was going to need. I’ve made terrain and stuff in the past, but I’d never built anything of this scale before, so I made good use of my good friend and life-squire Andrew Chesney and his knowledge in all things hobby related. I had a rough plan of how I wanted the board to look, but I know from experience that projects like this have a way of evolving as they reach completion. The basic plan was to have a 4’x4’ board for the game to take place on. For ease of transport and storage the board would actually be made in two 4’x2’ sections (simply pushed together for gaming). Following my overseer’s advice, I acquired the following items through use of my winning smile (although my credit card may have also helped): • Two 4’x2’ pieces of MDF board. • 24’ of 1”x1” timber, cut into 4’ and 2’ lengths. • A saw. • 30 or so 28mm screws. • ‘No More Nails’ adhesive. • A dark green-brown paint (about half a litre).
Stuff I already had, and would need: • A power drill. • A large paintbrush. • 1” thick polystyrene modelling foam. • PVA glue – a lot of PVA glue! • Sand (I recommend pillaging your local quarry, preferably by night for dramatic effect) • 2kg of easy-mix plaster powder. • A sack of cork-bark. • Various kinds of plasticard. Other things to keep in mind if attempting a project like this: • Wear clothing that you don’t mind getting wrecked. I’m not saying that you’ll end up tearing yourself to shreds, but it’s not worth the heartache of getting paint on your favourite Mighty Ducks t-shirt. • Space. A big factor of a modelling project this large is drying time, believe it or not. At various stages you’ll need to wait for glue, plaster and paint to do dry – all of which can be about as entertaining as, well, watching paint dry. I was lucky enough to be able to commandeer a table and tarpaulin in the Unseen Lerker office space for the week or so it took to complete the gaming board, but if doing a project like this at home stashing your work in progress creation in the garage is probably ideal. For God’s sake don’t take over the dining table, I assume no responsibility for any kettle-based wrath your spouse may inflict upon you. • Time. As mentioned there’s a fair amount of thumbtwiddling in between stages of DIYing like this. I’d estimate that the whole project only took me about 10 hours to complete, but that was spaced over an entire week. Right, enough jibber jabber and bullet pointing – let’s get hobbying!
Unseen Lerker
Stage 1 – Framework
Stage 3 – Construction
The first thing to do was to attach the lengths of timber to the perimeter of the flat MDF boards, making them look quite similar to large Warhammer movement trays. Essentially what did was provide a tough exterior for the boards and ensure that the foam (which was going to be laid inside) didn’t get dented and battered during transport and storage. The timber was attached using PVA and then screwed in place.
Now the real work began! Cutting down into the foam around where the sea was going to be, I pushed in and glued my sections of cork-bark to act as cliffs. They looked a bit weird just protruding like that, so the next task was to build up an island on one side and a shoreline on the other. This was done just by breaking up appropriate shaped pieces of foam and gluing them down in layers until they reached the right height. I used a lot of glue and No More Nails during this stage of the process to ensure my structure was solid. I also built up two hills on the board.
Next, the foam sheet was wedged into place and glued down using a combination of No More Nails and PVA glue (which is cheaper!).
Stage 2 – Planning Now it was time to finalise the layout of the board’s features. The idea was to have the island isolated in one corner and the rest of the scenery geared towards funnelling the viewer’s attention towards it. Not only would this work best aesthetically but it would also mean I could cheat a little bit by using the board edges as ‘invisible walls’ and only have to build the front portion of the island, rather than the whole extent of the thing. It also meant the island wouldn’t take up too much room, which would actually make the game flow better. Rather than mess around with mud maps and sketching on paper, I just drew my design straight onto the foam. This would give me a much clearer idea of how much space everything would occupy when it was finished, as well as give me a good guide for building my terrain up.
‘The foam is strong with this one…’ The blue material you can see all over the page here is the stuff that we regularly use to make our scenery out of. It’s sturdy, can be bought in bulk, is quite easy to work with and best of all doesn’t look all ‘bubbly’ like normal polystyrene!
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Stage 4 – Plastering
Stage 5 – Glue & Sand The plaster takes a few hours to dry; I’d recommend leaving it overnight just to be sure. When it is dry, though, there’s the very fun (and simple) task of covering everything in PVA glue. Wee! I have a 10L container of the stuff, so with decadent glee just poured it all over the board then brushed it to cover the whole surface. Then I got my trademark big bucket of sand and poured that over the top.
Things still looked a little dodgy, I thought, so I was hoping that the next stage (plastering) was going to save my bacon. I worked with small batches of plaster, adding cold water to the powder and mixing it until it was the consistency of goopy porridge. Using my hands, I quickly slathered the mix all over the built up areas of foam, around the edges of the hills and in the gaps where the foam met the timber edging. The aim here is to fill all the gaps and trying to give the smoothest look possible where the raised areas meet the ground. At this stage, you should also resist the urge to give yourself the White Hand of Saruman using plaster… Resist….resist….fail! Damn!
Stage 6 – Refreshments And so we reached yet another juncture of drying time. There’s really nothing to do in these in-between moments except put your feet up, make a cup of tea, and read your favourite wargaming publication.
The temple of doom The ruined temple on the island was likely to be the main focal point of the battle, so I wanted to pay it particular attention. Big paved flooring always looks good, so I found a grooved piece of plasticard and glued that in place right in the centre. Strategically placed cake pillars followed, made from a suspiciously similar substance to the plaster I’d just lathered the board with. The pillars were actually complete and undamaged before I had my way
with them. In other words: boring! Using a blunt instrument of choice (a dull kitchen knife, rather than my flatmate) I hacked away at the pillars until I thought they had “character”. They were then glued in place using No More Nails (that stuff is amazing), ensuring that the ruined, fallen bits wouldn’t mean that the posse of mages had nowhere to stand! Finally a spare Shadow Warrior was pillaged from my High Elf collection and glued in place atop the complete pillar as a statue. Result!
Unseen Lerker
Stage 7 – Paint After the sand is dry you can hit it with the paint. I used the same shade of greeny-brown, called “Dehli Bazaar”, that we paint our terrain with. It’s very earthy and neutral so provides a good base colour, as well as being easily complemented by a light drybrush and various kinds of flocks and static grass. I covered pretty much the entire board in Dehli Bazaar, sparing only the temple itself and the channel between the cliffs where the water was going to be. I watered down the paint a little bit to ensure I got maximum coverage and it could really get into the cracks. Cue more drying time, and more tea!
movement, its glorious curves, its…sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah, spoons. In small semi-circular dragging motions (or folding, if you want a baking term), work the plaster into small wavey shapes. Because we wanted a really rough and tempestuous looking ocean I had the waves going in every which way direction, lapping up over each other, swirling around and crashing up against the cliffs. (Insert more drying time.) The cliffs themselves were dead simple to paint – basecoat grey, drybrush a lighter grey, drybrush an even lighter grey, win. The water was painted a nice dark blue colour (Wargames Foundry’s Deep Blue, shade 29A), and highlighted with a gradual series of grey to white drybrushes. Finally, I took a medium sized brush and painted pure white onto the extreme, bulging parts of the waves to give the appearance of foam. The entire water section was then painted in a high finish gloss varnish.
Stage 8 – More Plaster, More Paint Things go pretty quickly from this stage onwards, and it’s very exciting to see the whole project come together in a few short hours. The first task was to create the aforementioned raging sea. Despite hailing from Australia, I can’t actually swim and have an inexplicable fear of water, which may be a contributing factor to me never having created any water-based scenery in the past. In short: I was groping in the dark here. Still, with some advice from my colleagues I began building up layers of plaster just like I had in Stage 4. This time though I was told sternly not to use my hands, and to use a teaspoon instead. This worked surprisingly well, as with a little practice you actually ‘become one with the spoon’ and learn to appreciate its grace and suppleness, its ease of
Stage 9 – Um, more paint? While this had been going on, the board itself had also been drybrushed with a nice sandy colour to bring out…the sand. Huh. Fancy that. The temple, meanwhile, was more of a dilemma. After some consideration I decided to try and emulate the look of ruined stone structures around Greece and the Mediterranean. I was a little worried after I basecoated it a VERY distinctive beige shade (beige: a colour that God clearly invented while being hungover and half-asleep), but after a couple of highlights up to pale bone and near-white it actually turned out okay.
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Stage 10 – Flock you, motherflocker
December /January
persuasive powers! Naturally I had to have three different kinds of trees: two different shades of green to make the forests on the mainland look varied and interesting, and an albino white for the trees on the island to make it stand out a bit. Attaching the trees were pretty much the last thing that was done to the board itself. Because the trees had some wire ‘stalks’, I just spiked some tiny holes in the board’s surface using a spare nail and then slipped the trees straight in. Seamless and simple!
Stage 11 – Black is the new black
More PVA was then painted onto semi-strategic locations of the board’s surface, areas which were then flocked with either static grass or broken up hedge foliage. I acquired both of these things from our local hobby stockist, Arcane Scenery and Models (www.arcanesceneryandmodels. co.uk). They are very convenient for us since they have their HQ within walking distance of our office, and we tend to buy everything short of Corn Flakes from them. While I was there picking up my different kinds of flock, I stumbled upon their assortment of trees – and simply had to have some! Damn hobby shops and their
All that was left to do from here was paint the edges of the board black to give it a crisp, finished look, and hey presto – we’d created the Isle of the Dead! The project was surprisingly easy to complete, and I learned loads while doing it. There was a touch of anxiety and fear when I started out, not really knowing what to do, but I thoroughly recommend that you try something like this yourself; it’s really re-invigorated my spirits and showed me a new aspect of the hobby I didn’t know existed. Now, how about I try building a chariot racing course…
Unseen Lerker
The Legend of Aenarion
A
enarion was the greatest of all the High Elf Phoenix Kings, and his legend is still recounted by the modern day sages and poets of Ulthuan. The tales of his exploits are even remembered by some across the great seas in the lands of men. Aenarion lived and died in the time known as the Age of Strife, when countless daemons and chaos beasts rampaged across the blessed home of the elves. He was the light in the darkness, the sword against the evil, and under his leadership the High Elves fought back against their vile foes. Mighty victories were won against the great enemy, but ultimately the elves were doomed; evil knows nothing of relenting or surrendering. The blasphemous creatures of chaos were entering the mortal plane of existence via the gates of the Old Ones, arcane portals which had been warped and altered by time and disuse. The only chance the elves had of saving their home – and, ultimately, their race – was to close these gates.
Aenarion called upon his greatest friend, the archmage Caledor Dragontamer, and together they hatched a plan to end the horrors assailing their people. It was desperate, but it was their only chance. With a cadre of his most trusted disciples, Caledor travelled to the Isle of the Dead to create a vortex that would close the gates and seal away the power of chaos for good. The Phoenix King, along with his dragon Indraugnir and what remained of his army, defended the shoreline as the forces of chaos hurled themselves at the Isle, knowing that their doom was at hand. At the climax of the battle, Aenarion, wielding the infamous and cursed Sword of Khaine, found himself opposed by four greater daemons of chaos. It was to be a clash of the titans.
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Scenario: The Isle of the Dead The Battlefield:
Deployment:
The scenario is played on a 4’x4’ board, with a mixture of woods, hills and dangerous terrain scattered throughout. On one side/corner should be the isle itself, isolated from the mainland by a raging torrent. The water counts as a River of Light, and is impassable to non-large targets. The ruined temple on the island counts as an Elven Waystone, allowing all wizards within 6” to Channel on a 5+.
Split the battlefield diagonally as you would for Meeting Engagement. The elves deploy on the shoreline, at least 12” away from the central dividing line. Caledor and his Archmages must deploy on the island. Aenarion and the Daemons all start in reserve, and may enter the board on the first turn along either of their allocated board edges. The Daemons automatically have the first turn.
Special Rules:
12”
Aenarion the Defender, Phoenix King M
WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Ld
7
4
3
4
10
4
10
0
8
8
8
1
8
9
Aenarion 5
9
Indraugnir 6
8
Special Rules Aenarion Speed of Asuryan: Like all High Elves, Aenarion has the Always Strikes First special rule. The Phoenix King: While Aenarion is alive all High Elf units on the battlefield may use his Inspiring Presence rule. Dragon Armour of Aenarion: Dragon armour. Grants a 1+ armour save and a 4+ ward save. Sword of Khaine: Strength 10. Multiple wounds (D6). At the end of each of his own turns, Aenarion must take a Ld test to resist the whispering voices of the Sword. If he passes there is no ill effect, but if he fails takes 1 wound with no saves of any kind allowed.
Indraugnir
The End of Days: It is the climax of a war that has lasted hundreds of years. Only the most hardened and bitter warriors have managed to survive until now, and they loathe their enemy with their every fibre. Combined with the presence of the Sword of Khaine, this makes all High Elf units on the battlefield subject to Hatred. In addition, all of the Daemons are subject to Frenzy. Mage Coven: Caledor and his 3 Archmage bodyguards form a unit of Skirmishers. None of them may move or cast spells during the game; they are too caught up in the ritual of closing the vortex. They may attempt to dispel enemy spells as normal. All of the wizards may declare challenges as normal (indeed, we encourage them to do so!), and as long as Caledor is alive the unit is Unbreakable. Summon the Vortex! Each turn Caledor and his Archmages may attempt to Channel as normal. Each time one of them successfully Channels in his own turn, every Daemon on the board must immediately take an Instability test to represent the fabric of reality tearing and the Daemons being pulled back through the gates into the Realm of Chaos.
The Combatants: The Foul Host: • 1 Keeper of Secrets with Spirit Swallower, Many Armed Monstrosity, Enrapturing Gaze • 1 Great Unclean One with Balesword, Trappings of Nurgle, Stream of Bile, Slime Trail • 1 Lord of Change with level 4, Twin Heads, Power Vortex, Flames of Tzeentch • 1 Bloodthirster with Awesome Strength, Armour of Khorne, Immortal Fury The Defenders of Ulthuan: • Aenarion the Defender with Sword of Khaine, Dragon Armour of Aenarion, shield, and Indraugnir the Dragon. • Caledor Dragontamer (Archmage) with level 4 and Loremaster’s Cloak • 3 Archmages of Saphery • 10 High Elf Archers: full command • 10 High Elf Archers: full command • 15 High Elf Seaguard: full command • 15 High Elf Seaguard: full command
Fly, Terror, Scaly Skin (2+), Breath Weapon (S5)
Victory Conditions & Game Length:
Loyal to the End: If Indraugnir fails a Monster Reaction test, the High Elf player may choose the result instead of rolling.
The game lasts until one side achieves its objective. The Daemons win if all of the mages on the island, including Caledor, are wiped out. The High Elves win if all of the Daemons are wiped out or if the mages on the island manage to close the gates by successfully Channelling six times during the game (note that only successful Channels in their own turn count towards this ‘Counter of Doom’).
Lord of the Skies: Indraugnir may issue and accept challenges as if he were a character. Note that all the usual rules for challenges still apply.
Unseen Lerker
BATTLE REPORT:
The Isle of the Dead Paul Scott (High Elves) vs Michael Biggs (Daemons)
As reported by Isaac “Wolverine” Alexander
Well, we’d built the board and written the scenario for this issue’s battle report. Now we were psyched to actually see the game happen! All we needed to do was find some suitable Warhammer celebrities to embarrass in print….er, play the game, that is. Paul Scott was selected to play the High Elves. Paul is about as widely published as you can get as a wargamer, having featured in That Other Magazine in several battle reports and the most recent Tale of Four Gamers series. His funky red Tau army is even featured in the Wh40k rulebook. Paul is not a regular High Elf player but he does excel at rolling 6s, which is what the elves need to do to win in this game, so we thought he was the perfect candidate for the job! In his spare time Paul likes spending time with his cats and wife (in that order), and verbally abusing random passersby.
Michael Biggs is the current captain of the England ETC team, and is a regular player on the UK tournament scene. His recent achievements include winning the last Throne of Skulls Final using his Daemons, and achieving the second highest victory points total at the Bad Dice Masters. When not wargaming Michael enjoys listening to the vocal stylings of John Barnes, and recreating recipes from his favourite cookbook: Cooking With Coolio. A few dry runs of the scenario had shown that even with the uber-killy Sword of Khaine, the Daemons were still very hard to stop in this matchup. Aenarion struggled to be everywhere at once, and Paul was going to need to use his supplementary “sacrificial” elf units cleverly to stop multiple Daemons assaulting the island at once. But enough blabber from me – over to the players.
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‘Your magic-fu is weak, mage boy.’ Michael: As a dyed-in-thewool tournament player, it’s been many years since any sort of scenario or storydriven game has crossed my gaming path. But the chance to play in an Unseen Lerker battle report and the chance to finally play a game against Paul, who I’ve never had the chance to play, was one I couldn’t pass on. So like the dirty tournament player I am, I skipped past the fluff and got straight to the rules of the game.
The scenario’s a tough one for both players. As the Daemon player, I’ll need to be patient. This will give Paul the chance to roll a bunch of Channels and win the game, but I think the chances of that happening are smaller than the chance of Aenarion taking out my Daemons one by one if I try and rush the island. I’ll also have to be careful not to expose the Lord of Change or Keeper of Secrets to too much bow fire. A few cheeky wounds from Paul’s archers combined with a bad instability roll could easily result in me losing a Daemon cheaply, putting me in real difficulty. My basic plan is to try and manoeuvre so that Aenarion will find it difficult to charge without leaving the Archmages exposed to the other daemons and to use the time that buys me to try and pick off the elf infantry. This will also give me the chance to try and Bolt of Change Aenarion a few times so I actually have a chance of taking him down in combat. If I get an opportunity, I’ll also try and get Acquiescence off on him; an unlucky stupidity roll could virtually win me the game on the spot as I could rush past Aenarion risk free. Of course, if Paul rolls a lot of Channels early on, I’ll have to go for a high risk direct assault on the island. So here’s hoping that doesn’t happen!
Unseen Lerker
‘That ain’t the Sword of Khaine in my pocket.’ Paul: After a whole year of getting back into Warhammer, I was well up for a chance to flex my tactical genius muscles in this report. I’ve been looking forward to playing Michael too, since we see one another quite often but haven’t had a one-on-one game before. And what better place to do so than in print! Even better, we would be re-enacting one of the pivotal moments in the rich background of the Warhammer world. So, what had these scenario-writing cretins given me to work with then? Looking over the rules for Aenarion, I was quite pleased – a mighty elven hero, pinnacle of nobility, skill and marked for greatness. He had the speed, the power and the durability to give even the nastiest daemons a good kicking. The only slight drawback of his ruddy great big sword was that he and all his descendants were cursed for life, but them’s the breaks I suppose. Accompanying my one man army would be the brave elves lucky (or unlucky) enough to be under his command, defending the mightiest mages in history and the future of the whole world. No pressure then! And
the puny enemy they would be facing? Daemons, you say? No worries, says I, merely a bunch of gibbering mindless spawn, nothing but spear- and arrow-fodder. Reading further, I discovered this was not the case, and that I would actually be facing not one, not two, not three, but FOUR of the biggest, meanest, face-smashing, limb-eating, horrifyingly tooled up Greater Daemons you ever have seen. Oh dear. After a couple of test runs through the scenario it became fairly evident that the Archers and Seaguard defending the shoreline were much more than just glorified speedbumps – they were glorified speedbumps with bows. I knew I had to try and soften up the Daemons with my shooting, not so much to make Aenarion’s job of dispatching them easier (he hardly struggles using the Sword of Khaine), but hopefully just to stall their advance long enough to buy me some time to Channel. The warm-up games had also shown how vital it was to guard the bridge – if I can force Michael to go through the river not only does he risk being blown up by Light magic, but it also forces him to waste a whole turn climbing the cliffs. Aenarion’s job early on would be to try and limit the flying greater daemons’ movement options, while the Seaguard built a wall of bodies in front of the bridge and I tried to kill either the Keeper or Lord of Change with bowfire, cleaning up anything that ventured too close using Captain Choppy. Simple, direct and brutal – much like myself. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?
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The Foul Host: 1 Keeper of Secrets with Spirit Swallower, Many Armed Monstrosity, Enrapturing Gaze (Lore of Slaanesh: Acquiescence)
1 Lord of Change with level 4, Twin Heads, Power Vortex, Flames of Tzeentch (Lore of Tzeentch: entire lore)
1 Great Unclean One with Balesword, Trappings of Nurgle, Stream of Bile, Slime Trail (Lore of Nurgle: Miasma of Pestilence)
1 Bloodthirster with Awesome Strength, Armour of Khorne, Immortal Fury
The Setup As per the scenario rules, the mage coven deployed on the island and all of the High Elf units defended the shoreline. With the Greater Daemons entering from almost anywhere Paul had to be careful to cover all the angles and make sure Michael didn’t have any easy advance lanes on the island. He deployed both Seaguard units to one side of the bridge and both Archer units on the other – a cunning plan, perhaps? We would have to wait and see. With no other units left to deploy, Paul and Michael shook hands and started the game. The battle for the survival of the world had begun!
The Defenders of Ulthuan: Aenarion the Defender with Sword of Khaine, Dragon Armour of Aenarion, shield, and Indraugnir the Dragon
10 High Elf Archers full command
Caledor Dragontamer (Archmage) with level 4 and Loremaster’s Cloak
15 High Elf Seaguard full command
3 Archmages of Saphery
10 High Elf Archers full command
15 High Elf Seaguard full command
Unseen Lerker
Turn 1 Paul wasn’t the only one with cunning ideas though, it seemed, and Michael demonstrated the full potency of his master plan when he moved the Greater Daemons on in his first turn. The Bloodthirster came on alone to the south, while the other three formed a terrible trio to the east and began slogging their way toward the distant shoreline. Clearly he was using the biggest, scariest Daemon to try and distract Paul’s attention away from the main threat of the combined Keeper, Great Unclean One and Lord of Change assault. Magic started off with an almighty boom as Michael rolled double 6 for the Winds of Magic. The Lord of Change unleashed with a Firestorm of Tzeentch against the closest Archers, incinerating four elves and creating a new Horror in front of them. The elf mages managed to hold the rest of the magic at bay, and the Greater Daemon’s hurled flames sizzled short of target. It was only in Paul’s movement phase that the true evil genius behind Michael’s plan was revealed. He had presented Paul with a real poison pill: move Aenarion to counter the Bloodthirster before it swooped onto the island and started tearing the mages limb from limb, or move the Phoenix King east to guard against the marauding attentions of the other three Daemons. In the end Paul settled on somewhat of a compromise, flying the elf lord down the western board edge and trying to project as much of a threat reach as possible.
Unfortunately the most ideal position to do this from was the edge of a forest. It did not turn out to be particularly mysterious (they rolled a ‘1’), but it did turn out to be fairly dangerous nonetheless as Paul rolled a 1 for his dangerous terrain test, randomised the wound onto Aenarion and then promptly failed his ward save. There was much cursing (from Paul) and much laughter (from everyone else) as the Phoenix King effectively took a wound from flying headlong into…a twig. Not to be put off, Paul shuffled the rest of his units around a bit and moved on to the magic phase. Caledor and his retinue made their first successful Channel of Doom – something which would have both players and spectators alike shouting ‘DOOM!’ every time it occurred. All of the Daemons passed their instability tests though, and we chalked one up on the Vortex Counter – only five to go. Shooting proved uneventful apart from the lone Horror being eradicated, and it was back to the Daemons…
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Turn 2 This turn nearly got off to a very explosive start with Michael’s Frenzy tests – the Bloodthirster needed to roll a 9 or less on two dice to avoid having to charge Aenarion (and be summarily skewered on the Sword of Khaine). He rolled exactly a 9 – phew! It can be quite difficult to be patient as the Daemon player in this scenario, with the countdown literally ticking away and the constant instability tests prickling at your resolve. To his credit Michael kept his head and didn’t go rushing headlong into the enemy, content to bide his time for another turn. The Bloodthirster abandoned its extreme flanking manoeuvre and swooped over to join its advancing brethren. Michael continued with the tactic he’d used last turn, using the tougher Great Unclean One and Bloodthirster to provide cover for the squishier Keeper and Lord of Change. In test games the sustained volleys of strength 3 bowfire had proved lethal for the Keeper of Secrets in particular, and Michael knew he was going to need all his Daemons for the final assault on the temple. Firestorm of Tzeentch was dispelled this turn, with Caledor matching the Greater Daemon’s will and stifling its casting abilities. Shocked by the elf ’s power, the Lord of Change failed to reach the casting value for Bolt of Change. The Keeper of Secrets did manage to cast Acquiescence on a unit of Archers though.
In response Aenarion and Indraugnir took up a very commanding position atop the bridge, daring the Daemons to come closer. The Seaguard positioned themselves to soak up potential charges and let the Sword of Khaine counter. The fabric of reality buckled and tore as the mages on the island furthered their ritual with another successful Channel. This time both the Bloodthirster and Lord of Change screamed in mid-flight as the arcane wave hit them, suffering one and two wounds respectively. Trying to capitalise, the elven bowmen unleashed on the Lord of Change, inflicting a further wound, but the ward save was passed.
Unseen Lerker
Turn 3 The Daemons continued biding their time; a brave and determined course of action with their doom humming in the air all around them. Michael manoeuvred the Bloodthirster and Lord of Change out of sight of Aenarion, leaving the Keeper of Secrets and Great Unclean One as bait – if the Phoenix King charged into them he’d be pinned for at least a turn and allow the flying Daemons a clear run at the mages. A successful Boon of Tzeentch generated only two new power dice, but it did cause the elves to waste two dice trying to dispel it. ‘Now for the big mama,’ says Michael, casting Bolt of Change on an impressive 21 against Aenarion himself. Paul picks up his remaining two dispel dice – and rolls double 6, the git! Unperturbed, the Lord of Change ripped into the closest Archers with Gift of Chaos, killing all bar one and sending the survivor fleeing, never to return. Despite the prominent offering of a charge on the Keeper and an overrun into the Great Unclean One, Paul knew that his most valuable asset would lose too much time taking care of the Daemons. Instead he pulled Aenarion back onto the Isle of the Dead itself. Paul also edged his Seaguard up into charge range, shielding the bridge and making sure that any Daemons that charged into them could be counter-charged by Aenarion next turn.
The mages’ chanting had begun reaching a crescendo now and a third Channel was produced, bringing the High Elves halfway to victory! This time the Daemons managed to resist the call of the warp however, suffering no wounds from instability. Shooting proved more deadly, with the Lothern Seaguard demonstrating their ‘mad multi-tasking skillz’ and shooting two wounds off the Keepers of Secrets! Finally, Aenarion managed to pass his third consecutive leadership test to avoid licking the Sword of Khaine, and the ball was back in the Daemons’ court. That horrible, horrible court…
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Turn 4 ‘To hell with this waiting malarkey,’ declared Michael, charging both the Bloodthirster and Keeper of Secrets into the proffered Lothern Seaguard. Either he was worried about Paul performing multiple Channelings in the upcoming turns and felt the need to get stuck in, or he thought he had waited long enough that now it was safe to throw it all forward and take the risk. The Lord of Change swooped up onto the island, just out of Indraugnir’s line of sight, while the Great Unclean One headed for the bridge and prepared to vomit on the remaining Archers. Magic was very fortuitous for the Daemons this turn. First Paul let through Gift of Chaos, which not only killed an Archer but also stripped a wound from a very surprised Archmage, despite their 2+ ward save! Another Archmage then took a wound from Flickering Fire, and Paul began to sweat – he needed as many of his wizards as he could in order to stand a chance of winning. The final two spells were both targeted at Aenarion himself. The first, Acquiescence, was hurriedly and enthusiastically dispelled by Paul – a failed Stupidity test at this stage could very easily cost him the game. However he couldn’t stop Bolt of Change, which ripped straight through the anti-flaming properties of Aenarion’s dragon armour and inflicted a crippling five wounds on Indraugnir! The Great Unclean One unleashed his Stream of Corruption and drowned six Archers in puke. In combat, Paul directed as many of his attacks as possible at the
Keeper of Secrets, hoping to get lucky and kill the wounded creature. No such thing occurred however. In return – and there’s no easy way to say this – the Bloodthirster and Keeper…went mental. After they dust had cleared they had caused no less than 23 wounds on the poor elves, who were totally obliterated in a typhoon of blood and destruction. The two Greater Daemons overran, crucially out of line of sight of Aenarion, and smashed into the second unit of Seaguard. In the High Elves’ turn there was precious little to do except pray for some Channelling success. Alas it seemed that the proximity of the Lord of Change had caused one of the mages to stutter, and no 5+ was produced this turn. Uh oh! Aenarion, seeing what was to come, had moved to the far side of the island and was waiting for the Lord of Change to make its move. The last two High Elf Archers had aboutfaced and fired their arrows into the winged Daemon, but could not produce the required to-wound roll. The second unit of Seaguard, on the other hand, had no such problem! Inflicting two wounds on the Bloodthirster before it got to strike, Paul’s mouth began to water as Michael failed both 3+ armour saves….only to be snapped shut as he made both 5+ ward saves! The Keeper emerged unscathed as well, and together the deadly duo carved and stomped their way through all 15 Seaguard, inflicting just enough wounds to wipe them out. Compelled to overrun again because of Frenzy, the Keeper of Secrets suddenly found itself calf-deep in the River of Light – only to be blessed by a Speed of Light spell and gain +1WS!
Unseen Lerker
Turn 5 Despite the destruction wrought last turn, Michael was still acutely aware that all Paul needed to do to win was roll three successful Channels. His hand almost forced, he charged the Lord of Change into the mages sheltering in the ruined temple – he needed to reduce Paul’s chances of Channeling as quickly as possible. The rest of the Daemons, knowing Aenarion’s attentions would be fixed on their feathered friend next turn, loomed closer. The Bloodthirster roared and slammed down on the bridge, staring straight at the mages, while the Keeper dashed across to the cliff face and prepared to climb. The Great Unclean One would have liked to join them, but was suddenly overcome by bloodlust as it failed its Frenzy test and charged into the last two Archers in front of it! They too failed their (terror) test, fleeing into the river where they were destroyed by the charging Daemon, who stopped in contact with the cliffs. The sea raged and boiled around it, purging its flesh with a powerful Banishment spell. No wounds were inflicted however – the only discernable effect was that the Great Unclean One had suddenly been transformed into a Great Clean One. With the Lord of Change in combat magic was a nonevent, although a sneaky Gift of Chaos spell did manage to inflict a wound on to High Mage Caledor himself! Gasping for breath, the magelord despatched one of his colleagues
to fend off the Daemon while he and the others continued the ritual. The valiant Archmage was ripped to shreds in the challenge, but help was on the way. Heeling his dragon forward, Aenarion flew like a lightning bolt into the Lord of Change. Caledor knew the situation was desperate, and chanted ever more vigorously to complete the ritual, obtaining the fourth successful Channel of the game. This crippled the Lord of Change with a further wound from instability, but it made no difference as Aenarion tore into it with the Sword of Khaine, disintegrating its body and blasting its essence into the warp with a single blow. Eager for more, Aenarion reformed to face the remaining three Greater Daemons.
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Turn 6 The tiles of the stone bridge shattered and heavens trembled as the Bloodthirster launched itself forward at the mages. This…was going to hurt.
Expectedly, another Archmage bravely issued a challenge and, expectedly, the Bloodthirster ripped him to shreds. Only Caledor and one Archmage remained!
Nearby, the Keeper of Secrets and Great Unclean One spent their turn of movement scaling the mighty cliffs, preparing to follow their crimson brethren next turn.
Aenarion came to the rescue once again, hammering home into the Bloodthirster’s flank. Caledor’s colleague demonstrated why he was the last one still alive, managing the fifth Channel of the game! Only one more 5+ and the vortex was complete! In combat, the poor Bloodthirster never stood a chance. The Sword of Khaine ripped into it, inflicting 16 wounds before Indraugnir even had a chance to attack. The Phoenix King and his mount overran 8” into the waiting Keeper of Secrets. The tension was really building now!
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Unseen Lerker
Turn 7
Turn 8
With exactly five models left on the board at this stage, and their objectives very clear, the Great Unclean One charged into Caledor and the last Archmage.
Caledor could only look on helplessly as the Greater Daemon battled Indraugnir. The outcome would likely decide the fate of the world.
Aenarion continued on his killing spree, slaughtering the Keeper of Secrets but suffering a further wound in return. Bleeding profusely, the Phoenix King and his injured mount turned to face the Great Unclean One.
The Great Unclean One struck first, smashing the oldest of the dragons with a single mighty hit. This proved enough, and with the damage already inflicted by Bolt of Change earlier in the battle Indraugnir toppled to the ground, slain alongside his master.
The last Archmage screamed as the Balesword obliterated him. The Great Unclean One snarled and gazed down at Caledor with its single, putrid eye. Caledor met its gaze, determined to fight to the last. Aenarion charged into the flank of the Great Unclean One, knowing that the moment of truth had arrived. It was now or never, and Paul rolled his single Channelling attempt, needing a 5+ to win the game and secure the fate of the world…..he rolled a 4. The Phoenix King roared a wordless challenge, and the Great Unclean One swung to meet him, its weapon already hurtling around. Aenarion hit three times, wounded three times. The Great Unclean One made a single regeneration save, and the 2d6 wounds from the Sword of Khaine inflicted a paltry five wounds on the Daemon of Nurgle. In return, the Balesword tore Aenarion from his saddle, throwing him to the ground. He tried to rise, but the Daemon’s weapon smashed into him again, shattering his defences and slaying him outright. The Phoenix King was dead! Indraugnir tore at the Daemon in anguish, but could not finish it off. The game was still on!
The Great Unclean One turned its baleful gaze on Caledor. Paul had one chance to win the game. He needed to Channel with Caledor on a 5+, on 1d6. He failed – and the Balesword descended once more.
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‘The world is mine.’ Michael: Well, although it got more than a little close towards the end, the forces of evil have triumphed, the Old World is overrun and the Chaos gods can laugh at the foolish mortals that tried to oppose them. Still, it doesn’t seem appropriate to gloat too much. The game could easily have gone the other way if Paul had a little more luck with his Channeling, or if I’d have failed that frenzy test with the Bloodthirster. I really should have had it facing backwards to avoid taking the test, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it – all this fluff-bunny, story-driven gaming shenanigans seems to be getting to me! From a tactical point of view, things went pretty much as I’d hoped, with a slightly unplanned diversion through the river! Aenarion couldn’t really commit without risking becoming stranded, the Great Unclean One provided some good cover for the Keeper of Secrets and Lord of Change, allowing me to get all the Daemons onto the island at some point.
From the other side of the table, I think (twig induced embarrassments aside) Paul played Aenarion well. I was kind of hoping he’d be silly enough to try and charge the Great Unclean One and overrun into the Keeper of Secrets, giving my flyers free reign, but he avoided that trap and patrolled the island instead. Where I think he could have done things differently though was with his infantry. With champions in the units, each block would likely hold a Greater Daemon up for a turn. If I were Paul, I would have been tempted to be more aggressive with elves to try and give Aenarion more time to deal with the Daemons. Being able to overrun from one block into another and stay out of Aenarion’s line of sight was a massive boon and I think the turning point of the game. I have to say that playing this scenario was a really good change of pace for me. It can become easy to get stuck into only playing Warhammer in one way and forgetting the myriad of other options that the game provides. So if, like me, you’ve played the same type of game for years, I thoroughly recommend going outside your comfort zone and trying something a bit different. It’s something I’ll certainly be doing more of in the future.
‘Can’t see the woods for the tree…’ Paul: Aaargh! How? I mean come on; I had it in the bag! Well, almost. To answer my rather flippant question in the introductions: twigs, that’s what can go wrong! I knew from our forces and from our warm up games that it was going to be tough for the elves: essentially an army of fodder backed up by a tomahawk missile who has to be everywhere at once. I think to be successful in this scenario I really needed to plan ahead and position my troops correctly to anticipate Michael’s moves. Unfortunately it would seem that Michael was able to anticipate my fore-plans before even I knew what they were! To be fair I suspected this would be the case; from all I’ve seen Michael plays Warhammer on a completely different level to me (I’m not even sure what level that is; all I know is that it’s tricksy, and good!). I usually have a reputation for being a ‘jammy diceninja’, but alas, it would seem that my averages were actually, well, average for once and the Daemons were
able to walk away with the win. I’m still not really sure what I was thinking, landing Aenarion in that forest. Running the numbers now there’s like a 1/36 chance that he takes a wound on average. I swear it was the Changeling disguised as a branch that just reached out and poked the Phoenix King in the eye. At least, that’s what we’ll write in the history books. (Paul, you know that the victor gets to write the history books, right? –Ed.) I was a little bit disappointed with the performance of my Seaguard, who had been absolutely stellar in the test games and managed to kill the Keeper twice. I guess Michael learned his lesson there! Aenarion on the other hand was awesome, obliterating three out of four Greater Daemons and doing a bang-up job of trying to finish the fourth. At the end of the day though, regardless of the result, it was a bloody good game and a lot of fun. For once tactics won out against sheer bloody-minded luck (curses!) and we managed to violate a little bit of Warhammer history. All in a day’s work. The best thing about the whole game is that the only surviving model, Papa Nurgle himself, is actually painted and owned by me. And so I, quite fairly, am going to claim the moral victory!
Unseen Lerker
Unseen Lerker is currently stockpiling as much quality content as we can, to be featured both in future issues of the magazine and on our website. So if you fancy putting pen to paper, participating in a battle report, or doing some painting or photography, drop us a line at submissions@unseenlerker.com
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What’s more, if your article gets published we’ll send you TWO free copies of that issue – one for you to read, and one to hang up on the wall and show off to your mates!
Coming soon:
The Arena of Death! Sixteen go in. One comes out.
The ultimate character showdown, next issue in Unseen Lerker. Think you’ve got the ultimate fighty character setup? Well why not put your money where your mouth is and enter him (or her!) into the contest. We’re picking our favourite entry from each race and having them face off in a battle to the death. The rules are: • Lord or Hero, but no points limit (outside normal item allowances) • No mounts, except for Bretonnia and Templar Grand Masters, who may ride warhorses • No spells may be cast • No challenges may be issued • No break tests are taken • No greater daemons! • No surrender!
You can submit multiple entries into the competition. Whoever’s character wins overall will get their Arena of Death Champion painted up to a professional standard and sent out to them! Send your entries to: aod@unseenlerker.com
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THE TEST DUMMIES
CIVILIZATION: THE BOARD GAME Producer: Fantasy Flight Games | No. of players: 2 – 4 Type of game: Board game “Civilization:The Board Game is inspired by the legendary video game series created by Sid Meier. Players are tasked with guiding an entire civilization throughout the ages, taking ownership of your people’s technology, economy, culture, and military, as well as all the choices that go along with them.There are four different paths to victory, and each is riddled with opposition. Players will be able to explore a module game board, build cities and buildings, fight battles, research powerful technology, and attract great people by advancing their culture.” OG Games, official sponsor of the Test Dummies
Dummy #1: Dan Comeau Oh Fantasy Flight, how I love thee. First you produce numerous top quality games based around my favourite miniature wargame, and now I can get all excited over a brand spanking new game based on my favourite computer game franchise – Civilisation. Firstly, a quick summary of the computer game in case you are unaware of its glorious existence and think the height of technology is a Spectrum ZX (as a Spectrum ZX owner, I find this highly offensive.You’re fired -Ed.). Civilisation is a series of strategy games based around building up a civilisation and leading them to greatness. There are several ways to win, ranging from military conquest to technological advancement. This translates very well in the board game, but more on that later. So what do you get in the box? I’ve always rated Fantasy Flight for the quality they put into the games, and this is no different. Numerous amounts of tokens and cards and some fantastic artwork, very reminiscent of the later computer games. The stand-out piece for me was the additional board provided to use to organise most of the additional pieces such as buildings and army units. This kept the game tidy and running smoothly as it enabled players to find the piece they required with a quick glance. The rulebook is very user friendly and easy to understand, and thanks to the very simple mechanics of each turn the game is very quick to pick up. There are six different civilisations that can be used in the game, each one has certain strengths and weaknesses, for example, Russia is strong in production and military might, but is weaker in cultural development (these guys are my personal favourites, I’m not known for my subtlety and enjoy military might!). The good thing about these traits though is the balance in the game. Although some civilisations may be stronger in certain areas than others, they are not crippled in the areas they are weaker at, as in the above example, although Russia is not strong in cultural advancement, this does not stop the player
from attempting a cultural victory. This balance is present throughout the entire game, and at no point does a player feel helpless and unable to win. Unless of course all the other players gang up on someone and prevent them from achieving any of their goals, but more on the fun stuff later! In a lot of games that have more than one method of winning, it is very hard for these to be balanced and one type of victory tends to be easier to achieve. For example, if anyone has played Chaos in the Old World, it seems to be a lot easier to claim a “dial advancement” victory over the other methods of winning. However with Civilisation, each of the victories are achievable, so long as the correct strategies are played to meet those ends. As I stated before, the game does include an element of “screw your neighbours”, using various cards and working together with another player to disrupt an opponent’s actions. Normally I love this type of mechanic and enjoyed the banter this created playing Civilisation, up until we played a three player game. During a four player game, even with 2 players ganging up on you, there is always an option of working with the fourth player to work against your opponents’ unholy alliance. Unfortunately, when we played a three player game, I happened to be on the wrong end of such an alliance and was unable to perform many actions as my opponents worked together to block me and counter any of my military actions. I felt this had dominated the game too much I can see this happening a lot in three player games resulting in one player not enjoying themselves. Overall I loved this game. It looks great; the translation from computer to board game works very well, if you have played any of the computer games, you will definitely feel that come through, but it is different enough to not just feel like a stale crossover. This is great value for money as the game has a huge amount of variation and replay value. Be prepared for this to take up a good chunk of an evening though, the average game can take between 2-3 hours to play.
Unseen Lerker
As always we’ll be giving away a copy of the game we’re reviewing (all our subscribers are automatically entered into the draw, subscribe today for your chance to win!), but if you want to pick up a copy for the game for yourself head over to the Test Dummies sponsor & provider: www.oggames.co.uk
Dummy #2: Greg Dann When it comes to adapting video games into alternate mediums (such as turning them into films, books or “real” games) their longevity and success tends to be stilted at best. So you can imagine my trepidation when I heard that one of the most successful video games of all time was being turned into a board game. The test for any cross-genre product is to maintain the ‘feel ‘ of the original, and it could be said this is easier working from a book or movie where the requirement is that the characters/organisations act or gain benefits when acting in a manner according to that theme. The issue faced coming from a computer game is that there is not only a theme to maintain but also a playstyle that die-hards will want to see replicated, or at least acknowledged. Quite sensibly for this game Fantasy Flight seem to have leaned more towards the Civilisation Revolution computer game which is, in effect, Civ Lite. Each Civilisation begins in a city on its own home tile (dictated by the nation you’re playing). This serves to balance the starting areas but also make sure that no one player is screwed by a poor starting area. Each tile has 16 squares on which the map is drawn. Each square contains a different resource, indicated by symbols on them; it’s these resources you use to build units, armies, scouts, buildings and wonders, research new technologies which offer abilities, as well as unlocking new building types and upgrading your units. There’s a great balance between military and research, since while a lot of people will be tempted by the gung-ho jarhead approach there are some totally game-winning technologies if used at the right time. I was pleasantly surprised with the simplicity of the game turns: for such a grand game everything is so easy and intuitive. The square symbols mean that you can quickly determine what you can and cannot do at any time (and also what your opponent can do). During your turn you can landmark and build new cities, trade with (and
deceive!) your opponents, manoeuvre your armies and scouts, and spend your resources on research to try to get the edge in the technologial arms race. Of course, you can also attack! Combat is a bit of a tricky mechanic to get the hang of. It’s got a very cut-and-thrust feel to it, with both players acting and reacting almost simultaneously with a collection of unit cards and potential bonuses. Often the clash can result in a stalemate where both forces limp away bloody and battered, but more often it can boil down to one side completely ganging up on an enemy division and annihilating them to reduce the enemy’s options in further turns. Pretty realistic if you ask me! It takes a few rounds to get used to and appreciate how to use it properly, but after a couple of games I was confident in my understanding and it became more than just a tool of conquest. One thing I was concerned about was the predictability of the ‘long endgame’, like in old school Risk it always became obvious one player was going to win but with the game still some way from finishing. With Civ, though, every four player game we played finished with a turn or two of manic activity as three players were all within touching distance of the win, and some of those players having more than one way of achieving it. This resulted in desperate attacks on cities in an effort to divert resources or even sneak a Military Win before the end of the turn saw a Technological Victory, while a third player was sitting on a Cultural Victory in the next turn! I can’t recall another game I have played for three hours which has offered up quite so tense an ending; and this all helps keep people hooked in for the whole game and not drifting off. The main issue for some players is that the game really needs four players to give the best experience and it will take three or so hours to play. Some people may find this hard to achieve but I really hope you can as this game is well worth it. At our local club we had more players than we could fit in, plus the spectators who enjoyed it almost as much as we did. This is definitely a board game that will come out again in preference to some of the others on the market.
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Put on your 3D glasses and don your safety helmet, because in Unseen Lerker issue 8 you’ll find…
™
Putting the quo back in your status
ISSUE 08
FEB– MAR 2011
The Arena of Death A dirty word starting with ‘W’ The Art of Frugal Gaming Plus NEW ‘Army Doctor’ column!
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