A Narrative Campaign in 10mm: Session 0 and 0.5

I'm back from my summer hiatus! I started this blog at the beginning of the summer, and quickly got sidetracked. A majority of my time was taken up with traveling for work, and then starting a new job and getting acclimated to my new responsibilities. 

One project I was excited to start at the beginning of the summer was my Warmaster Dwarf army. I was able to get my hands on a large lot of original, 10mm, metal dwarves and the Union Gang, my local crew of wargaming buddies, were eagerly planning a narrative campaign.

I made it a goal to get to at least 750pts of dwarves ready for our kick off. I decided that the foundation of my dwarf army would be:

• A General
• 1x Hero - Armed with a Sword of Fate
• 2x Clan Warriors - Super tough brick of frontline troops. Great at absorbing hits, dishing out wounds, and bogging down enemies
• 1x Troll Slayers - Crazed naked dwarves that pack a punch. I would attached the hero to them in the first game to buff up their attacks. They have a thematic rule that if they survive a battle, your opponent gains points. So its important to kill them off!
• 1x Rangers - Great ranged skirmish unit that can pursue foes.
• 1x Thunderers - Ranged unit with some armor penetration

At first 10mm seemed intimidating, but the new challenge was really enjoyable. It took me a little longer than I liked to finish 750 pts. I wanted to mix in different colors for each unit, and make sure their beards varied, but in the end I was really happy with how they turned out.

In late September I headed to my buddy Tory's clubhouse with my freshly painted dwarves to kick off our narrative campaign. 

We decided to use the Mighty Empires ruleset to assemble our campaign map. To do this, we had a pile of terrain tiles and took turns placing down tiles starting with a center mountain. Each of us placed a new tile adjacent to two or more place tiles. One of the edges of the newly placed tile had to match the terrain type of one of the tiles it is aligned with. This led to a really fun, collaborative, world building session. As a group we built rivers, mountain ranges, coastlines and even placed down points of interest like an abandoned necropolis, bridges, and a wizard's tower which added flavor to the world and provide our factions with bonuses for seizing them.

The before and after assembling our campaign map

Once completed, we laid down our capitol cities which would control the immediate 6 hexes surrounding it. 

Glückspilz - Empire (Tim)

Tittypit - Chaos (Jerz)

The Iron Dwells - Dwarves (Mike)

Axegrind Pass - Dwarves (Beard)

Baltimorath - Dark Elves (Tory)

The Pit of Buboes - Chaos (Erik)

We also included 2 capital cities, Britannica and Vermouth's Rest, that would be reduced to single tile City-States for any players who wanted to jump in for a casual game.

A Baptism of Blood

Once our map was built, we decided to play a 2v2 game. An expeditionary force of Dwarves from the Iron Dwells had met with the forces Glückspilz at Emory Outpost to entertain the idea of a trade pact. It was at that point did a raiding host of Dark Elves and Chaos descended on the backwater settlement to raze it to the ground.

The forces of dwarves and men form on a rocky hill as the attacker approach.

The Chaos warband gathers on the edge of Emory Outpost, eager to lay waste in the name of foul Gods.

The bloodthirsty dark elves of Baltimorath arrive in support, ready to slaughter and enslave.

The two forces clash in the streets of Emory Outpost. Buildings burn in the twilight while blades clash and shields splinter.

The defender's left flank was held valiantly by the dwarf Troll Slayers and Rangers.

Though they ultimately perished, the Troll Slayers cut down a unit of mounted dark elves and spearmen.

The battle ended in a stalemate. The attackers razed 3 buildings and the defenders managed to cut them down until they retreated. 

The process of building our campaign map and kicking it off with a little 2 vs 2 battle was a lot of fun. The battle allowed for a lot of emergent narratives. Do I bring the fight to the forces of Chaos? Do I write the name of Glückspilz in my book of grudges for using my dwarven warriors as a meat shield? And the Troll Slayers and their last stand against the elves; do I seek vengeance? 

 I'm definitely looking forward to the next games in this campaign!