Ninjabread - Wargaming Scribbles, by Curis, every Space-Friday

Playing the game, not the system

One of the questions facing Rob and me these last few weeks is: Is it actually possible for either side to win Battle for Armageddon?

QUICK! Adopt White Dwarf poses

No matter which variant you play the drawing bracket is pretty wide. The Imperial player has to control every single Hive, have them intact AND kill the enemy commander (Ghazghkull/Angron). If people were playing with a hardcore 40K tournament mentality it'd be very easy for the Orks/Chaos to just keep the commander on a supply line and deny the Imperials victory.

The main reason we enjoy the game so much is the background. The whole game is grounded in some of 40K's richest fluff. Indeed, the rulebook itself is actually a story of the entire campaign penned by the mighty Bill King with a few pages of rules slipped in. The point of the game (as far as we're concerned) is to take on the role of the army commanders rather than actually try and win.

Huh?

Well, the Ork player has just punched a hole in the Imperial defensive line. He decides to pour two whole clans through the gap, and avoid further causalities swamping the rest of the line.

It's very unOrky. (Well, unless you're playing with the Chaos Attacks Blood Axes). In fact, with our gaming philosophies it's almost cheating as that's not what the Orks would do (or "did" if you take the fluff as seriously as us).

This is the roleplay element that is present in wargames I love. Deciding what your pewter captain model will do, and not the omniscient player towering far above his miniature legions.

The 6th Imperial Army prevail!

It's lovely when you play games where both players have this attitude. They're fun, and you have cool discussions over which Hive Yarrick should be in based in. This is in great contrast to tournaments, where the WAAC attitudes mean the games are decided by who's able to fudge their inches the most get the petty rules anomalies rules in their favour.

Labels: Battle for Armageddon

Posted by Curis at 6:52 AM

When Chaos Attacks

You may well know I've been playing a lot of Battle for Armageddon of late, but I had yet to try the supplement Chaos Attack. (If you're interested, you can download them for free from Games Workshop's Specialist Games site.)

Chaos Attack is set during 500 years previous, when Angron invaded. He paused halfway through his campaign to build statues to the Chaos Gods, which allowed Logan Grimnar time to organise the second continent's defences, and summon a whole pile of Grey Knights. He was subsequently banished back to the Warp for 100 years.

You may also know that The Chaos Attack supplement allows you to field Squats, much to my glee. With this in mind I went over to Rob's to give it a go.

He rightly pointed out that since we were playing the First Invasion, Inquisitor Horst and the Golgothan Squats didn't turn up for another 500 years. However, much to my glee, turns out the Chaos side get Chaos Squats! Both Khorne and Nurgle flavours. Here they are having just stomped on Helsreach Hive with Angron himself and the Deaths Head Titan Legion.

Chaos Squats in Armageddon, who'd know they'd be so ace?

Chaos Squats in Armageddon, who'd know they'd be so ace?

(I wonder if the writers knew that Deaths Head were also an elite Waffen-SS division. Perhaps they were oblivious, like Simon Furman when he wrote the character Death's Head in the 1980s Marvel Comics.)

As a testament to the game's designers the Chaos play very differently to the original Orks. I was expecting them to swamp the Imperials under sheer weight of numbers, and then see if the Imperials could recover with their Build Phases. However, the Chaos player has to be more cautious, especially as he lacks the surprise attack rules. At the end of turn 8 I only had 4 Chaos counters left on the table, and lacked the numbers to occupy 2 of the 4 hives I'd destroyed. Rob had come very close to winning throughout, but was ultimately unable to roll a those 4-ups to banish Angron back to the Warp.

Great game. And there's a tonne of variants still to try.

Labels: Battle for Armageddon

Posted by Curis at 2:01 AM

Armageddon Bound

This last month I've been playing an awful lot of Battle for Armageddon. It was one of the three "Wargame Series" boardgames released by Games Workshop in the early 90's (the others being Horus Heresy and Doom of the Eldar).

But it's not a proper copy, I downloaded it from Games Workshop's site and printed it off. It was originally stuck up on the site back in 2000 as part of the hype surrounding the Third War for Armageddon campaign. But with the new Ork Codex round the corner Jerv's drawn our attention back to the ability to download and print off our own copies. You can get it from Games Workshop here.

Battle for Armageddon by Games Workshop/ Let's you even fight as Squats.

Battle for Armageddon by Games Workshop/ Let's you even fight as Squats.

It's a bit of a bitch to assemble. Rather than put any thought into digitising the game, it was just scanned in warts and all. (One of the Ork Strategy Cards reads "BUILDING AND MOVMENT" - which I love.) Then, whichever bright spark chopped up the board made all the pieces different sizes. And cropped off some of the edges. And the counters don't line up.

But hey, it was free. What do you expect?

It's a great little tactical game, with a surprising amount of depth. You have to think ahead, like Gothic and Aeronautica. You choose Strategy cards detailing what four actions your counters will make in the coming turn, without knowing what your opponent's are, or what who'll play theirs first. It can also form the bases for a tightly-structured 40K and Epic campaign, which is interesting.

With my post-GT 40K funk it's been a great game to bring along and play. As it's just a folded card map and a bag of counters I'll be keeping it in my gaming satchel for those nights I can't find a board.

But that's not the best bit. In the Chaos Attack supplement it lets you play as Squats. Corr!

Labels: Battle for Armageddon