Frostgrave Fightin'

Happy to get in a game of Frostgrave the other day with an old friend and opponent. We decided to kick off a campaign as this was our second ever game. I dusted off some of my homebrew Frostgrave terrain and a GW battlemat and off we went!

Our warbands were very similar, here is mine:

Melvin the Mildly Marvelous and gang.

Battlescribe Screengrab. Double click to expand

Wizard: "Melvin the Mildly Marvelous": (Elementalist.)

Spells: (See image below)

Spell cards. Before you ask, can't remember where I got them...

As the elementalist has the image of a traditional "explosive" damage dealer, I went with Elemental Bolt and Ball, Grenade. I also went with a couple of buffs (Fleet Feet) and debuffs (Slow, forget Spell)
EDIT: A friend has pointed out to me that I have chosen my spells wrongly. You choose 3 spells from your OWN school, three spells from aligned schools (but each of these must come from a different school) and two from any of the five neutral schools, (but again, each of these must come from different schools.) Thanks for the advice, and apologies to my opponent.

Warband: Some heavy hitters (Knight and Infantryman), ranged damage (archers), fast mover (thief) and cannon fodder (thug.)

I've still got to get a more "frosty" battle mat, so the city of Frostgrave was a bit verdant, but here are some photos and highlights.

The Warbands:

First of all, team photos:

Melvin the Marvelous (wizard at right) and Halfnar (the Cack-handed) at left

Da enemies.

The (decidedly unfrosty) City of Frostgrave:

Drone shot: Avenue of Heroes and Wizards Tower at center. Wailing watchtower at right.

The City Graveyard (scratch build treasure chest at top right)

Wizards Tower (with treasure chest)

The Old Stone Circle

Treasure chest (out in the open? revealed by the melted snow) by the Avenue of Heroes

Treasure in the town hall.

Highlights:

With both warbands on the table, I deployed mine into three groups, wanting to head straight up the table for a treasure grab. One treasure chest was right in front of me in the Graveyard, so Melvin, guarded by a couple of the warband, picked his way gingerly among the bones ("Damnit Jim, I'm an elementalist, not a necromancer").

Another group composed of the thug, thief and an archer sneaked off for the town hall - those corrupt politicians would surely keep their ill gotten gains from over taxation and bribery there right?

Melvin makes his way across the Graveyard. Thug and Thief at bottom right.

All that glitters...is not gold! (pill box, and gold tape!)

In these opening moves, Melvin failed to cast "Fleet Feet" on his underling, instead injuring himself. Halfnar the Cack-handed meanwhile DID get the spell off and the knight found himself able to run further than usual. (Although, as we all know, Knights were actually very mobile in their armour.)

Enemy warband makes their move, hiding behind (foam!) walls...

...and swiftly grabbing some nearby treasure.

Across town, the other warband moved up, making careful use of cover. After quickly recovering one chest of loot, their wizard successfully cast "Glow" on Melvin. Now lit up like Tokyo tower, Melvin is a juicy target for ranged attacks. An enemy archer grazes him, but he is then struck in the head by their tracker, and drops to the floor! DAMN!

Before his untimely death, Melvin looses an Elemental Ball spell,
while one archer picks up some treasure at top right.

Perturbed by his mentor collapsing like a sack of non-magical potatoes, Halfnar nonetheless surprises himself (and me), by actually managing to cast Elemental Ball, taking a whopping 13 points off the enemy wizard. Seeing how badly injured the enemy spell caster is, one of my archers takes a pot shot at maximum range, and manages to hit him. The other hauls one set of treasure to safety, and will now trudge back to base

The end of turn 2, and already two wizards have bitten the dust!

With both wizards out for the count, the two apprentices square off. Glow proves to be a devastating spell for my opponent, and he makes good use of it. I probably should have tried to use Forget Spell because of this, but was out of range.

Now into turn 3 and noticing one of the enemy trying to sneak off with some gold, Halfnar aims an Elemental bolt, but fails to complete the enchantment and for his trouble gets hit with an arrow (2 damage).

Halfnar, supporter by the Knight, looses an Elemental Ball

Stepping up to the plate, my second archer wings the enemy apprentice. Meanwhile my thief and thug sneak around the buildings, still heading for the town hall for a bit o' burglary.

The enemy warband proves their mastery of using cover by moving into good positions and continuing to lay down a hail of arrows, one finding its mark in my infantryman, who suffers a minor wound.

The enemy lines up some cover, continuing to loose off arrow shows.

...the enemy tracker moves forward. Aware of his predicament, Halfnar
hides behind the outhouse (Wizard's tower lacks plumbing!)

They make good use of this maneuvering in turn 4. The tracker (surely man of the match?) looses another arrow at Halfnar, hitting him. The apprentice, (foolishly thinking that hiding behind the outhouse would keep him safe) sinks to the floor, ignominy adding to injury by the unpleasant smell of night soil that fills his nostrils before he succumbs (to the arrow injury, not the smell of night soil!)

Not wanting to go down without a fight, the now leaderless warband rallies and sticks to the plan. One of my archers hits the tracker, but doesn't kill him. My thug, thief and infantryman have continued towards the town hall, finally within reach of some treasure. The thug and infantryman now break off towards the enemy warband, hoping to put them under some pressure. On the right flank, the knight, now alone, makes a dash for home with some treasure. (This was a big error from the beginning of the game as I barely made use of him. I should have let an underling go for the treasure and run him into the enemy warband.)

My archer lines up a shot at the enemy tracker - and HITS!

Knight does a runner...

In turn five, the enemy apprentice fails to cast a healing spell on himself, resulting in more blood loss, and my second archer goes down to an enemy arrow, slumping lifeless behind a building. One of his band also gets a second treasure chest to the board edge!

With the tide turned against them, Melvin's band have some tricky choices to make. We have safely gathered two treasures, and the thief is close to a third, but will he make it back to safety? Over the next couple of turns my infantryman and thug decide to run interference, hopefully distracting the enemy as the thief gets his gloved hands on another box of treasure. The infantryman's leather armour doesn't protect him for long though, and he falls.

The thug does a bit better, tying up a few enemy in the center over a couple of rounds of combat. Despite his lowly reputation, he gives a good account of himself before being overcome by sheer weight of numbers.

Thug life...ain't no life.

In an exciting finish, and now totally alone, the thief makes off with his treasure. He runs from cover to cover trying to arrange arrow fire (pesky bowmen!) or magical interference. In turn 8, the thief makes a run from cover towards the solid stone walls of the graveyard. Falling back on an old tactic, the enemy apprentice casts "Glow" in the hope of aiding his archers, but fails! (taking another wound).

Sighting down his arrow, the archer lines up a final shot, lets fly...
...and misses, his arrow ricocheting harmlessly off a graveyard wall!

Behind the old tower...

...to the graveyard wall (notice the combat in the back as the thug runs in!)

...and to safety!

Relieved to have made it to safety, the thief staggers away into the mist towards the warband's lair with his prize, but with many injured, will anyone survive to make a run at the city again?

Post game!

Great fun! Lots of shooting (both mundane and magical) and lots of wounds and excitement to go around. In the final analysis I managed to get 3 sets of treasure out of the city, and he got two. As we decided to make this the first game of a campaign though, we consulted the treasure table. Here is what I ended up with:

Experience points:

-190 points of experience (I got off x4 spells, and 3 treasures)

-130 gold coins

-2 magic scrolls ("Write" and "Create Grimoire")

-1 "Banish" grimoire

-1 magic item ("Fate Stone")

Don't know if that is a good haul or not, but as to the warband itself:

• Melvin survived (phew!)
• Halfgar the Cack-handed recovers, but is "Never quite as strong" (so starts every game at -1 health)
• Archer 1: wounded
• Archer 2: OK, and hungry to return, and wreak some rewenge.
• Infantryman: Dead, DEAD, DEAD!
• Knight: ready for duty.
• Thief: ready for pilfering.
• Thug: Really dead.

Lessons

1. It is super easy to die. Use those buff spells on yourself if you have them.
2. Archery is really handy. Would it be fun to have a Robin Hood themed "Band of Merry Men"?
3. If you have debuff, get it in when you can (for example, Forget Spell might have helped by causing his wizard(s) to forget "Glow", which tipped the archery battle in his favor.)
4. Don't skimp on thinking about your deployment. As with many games, this is one of the most important aspects. I wasted my knight carrying treasure by putting him with the wizard. More careful consideration of who goes where at the outset might have helped me.

Cheers!

Shout Out to Battlescribe

Credit: calculator,pencil,pen by ShelbyCox on Flickr (cc by 2.0)

I'm going to get this out of the way first: I have no great love of writing up my army lists, running through the numbers, or fiddling around on a games day rewriting my armies. Some people DO have a great love of this, and see army list building as a fun part of the hobby - props to them, but that isn't me!

For this reason, army list software is a godsend, whatever game I am using. I have used both Army Builder and Battlescribe over the years, in both cases paying for full-priced versions (just to note that I have no connection - financial or otherwise - with either company or their owners). I started with the former, but then a proliferation of app and browser based options with lower-priced (and easier to manage payment) options came along, and I moved away from it. In particular, I found the payment process and licensing complex and frustrating (it may have changed since then.)

Over the last year, I used Battlescribe, but as I got in fewer and fewer games it sat mostly unused, until Jan this year when I wanted to prep for my first game of the year. That's when I noted that there is a new version, 2.0 (or maybe later by this point).

As I went to download the app, I could see that there was an unusually high number of very low ratings for the app (at time of writing) on the Google Play store. These were mainly to do with speed issues and how the new version was inferior to the old version. Some of these also noted that despite paying for the old "Pro" software they were now being asked to pay again for 2.0. (NOTE: As an existing user, I was able to input my old license on the website, and you can get a discounted price on the app if you bought the old version.)

With some trepidation, I downloaded the free app, which has ads and limited functionality, and set to work making a list.

Battlescribe (ver 2) on Android phone

I soon found out that on my tablet, the app was very slow, with some buttons taking seconds to respond, but overall, it was intuitive and relatively easy to use. Unlike some users, I didn't have massive issues (which is not to say that they didn't!) The app did what it said on the tin, and allowed me to make lists in short order and make on the fly changes to a list. It isn't likely to be perfect (as the app uses source data created and updated externally by others). It is faster on my phone by the way (Galaxy S7, so much newer and faster than my tablet).

Battlescribe on my PC (Win 10)

On that basis, I went ahead an also downloaded the new version for my PC. As you can see in the screenshot above (double-click to enlarge) it is quite barebones in terms of design, but it does what I want:
-Download the appropriate files for your game system.
-Select your army roster.
-Choose your units.
-Adjust their weapons and loadouts.
-Print roster (not that easy for me, as I use Google Cloud Printing and had some problems with the PDF) or save as a file.

Army Builder does these things, but could be said to offer a more polished interface and other advanced features, but at a very different price point ($39.99) and with a different model. No doubt Army Builder is the right option for many, even if not for me. (If I needed some of the features on offer, or played on a regular basis I would likely invest).

To cut a long story short, I became "a supporter" of Battlescribe, and paid for the Android app and the PC version at the cost of "$1.99 per platform, per year". Yes, it is slow on my tablet, but the developer seems active so I expect it will get better, and the app is faster on my phone and the PC version works well. I'm willing to pay a low annual subscription fee to a small firm for software that meets my needs. If it DOESN'T, then I will not renew my pass, but I don't begrudge spending less than $2.00 to a company that addresses a need I have for an enjoyable hobby, especially when getting into a game can cost hundreds of dollars.

To existing customers, (or potential customers), before purchasing anything take a good look at the Battlescribe website and the FAQ. In November, the developer made an effort to describe why the changes have come about, and provided further information about upgrade options and offers for existing customers. (The developer is also active on the reddit thread for the software).

So, Battlescribe, keep up the good work, and I wish you the best - keep at it!
:-)

Cheers.

New Year's Destruction!

++Black Templars beat(en) down++

So I headed over to one of my local Games Workshop Warhammer stores for a New Year's game of 40K. This was my first trip to the Harajuku shop in Tokyo, and I enjoyed stepping into a GW as it is something I rarely do - even rarer that I play a game on site.

My opponent and I had previously agreed 1,500 points. I decided to take Black Templars, and he brought Daemons. Not having played a game in ages, I took a very standard list that I had read about online as it matched the models that I have (and I really didn't have any idea about my opponent's models or list).

TL:DR
In a game of Purge the Alien I got crushed and we called it at the 5th.

• Enemy VPs: 12?! (2 from destroying my independent characters. 7  from eliminating my units, 3 from Firstblood, Linebreaker, and Kill the Warlord)
• My VPs: 2 (1 from eliminating a unit, 1 from an enemy Deepstrike mishap)

Lessons learned:

• Templars yearn to get up close and personal. Let them! (I let my Tau gene rule my head and tried to rely on firepower from the back. Didn't work!) Otherwise you are just wasting the (limited) Chapter Tactics we have that come into play when advancing or getting into close combat.
• It is one thing to have Adamantium Will, but Daemons bring SO much psychic power to the table you should expect to just eat it. 
• With dedicated transports/ vehicles giving up Victory Points, fragile skimmers and flyers are easy points (and a lot of psychic shooting will take them down!)
• Space Marines are of course going to go down to massed flamers.

First, my list:

+++ Black Templars 1500 pts  +++

+ HQ +

• Chaplain [Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanum]
• The Emperor's Champion

+ Elites +

Sternguard Veteran Squad

• x2 Veteran [Combi-Grav]
• x2 Veteran [Combi-Melta]
• x1 Veteran Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Chainsword]

Venerable Dreadnought [Assault Cannon, Powerfist w/ Built-in Storm Bolter]

Drop Pod [Storm Bolter]

+ Troops +

Crusader Squad [Rhino]

• Sword Brother [Boltgun, Boltgun, Melta bombs]
• x3 Initiates [Boltgun]
• Initiate (Heavy Weapon) [Multi-Melta]
• Initiate (Special Weapon) [Flamer]
• x2 Neophytes [Space Marine Shotgun]

Crusader Squad

• Sword Brother [Chainsword, Melta bombs, Power Fist]
• x6 Initiate [Chainsword]
• Initiate (Heavy Weapon) [Multi-Melta]
• Initiate (Special Weapon) [Flamer]
• x6 Neophyte [Chainsword]

Land Raider Crusader [Extra armour, Multi-Melta]

+ Fast Attack +

• x2 Land Speeder Typhoons [Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher]
• x1 Stormtalon Gunship [Twin-Linked Assault Cannon, Typhoon Missile Launcher]

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

The plan was simple:

1. Put the big Templar squad and the Emperor's Champion in the Landraider.
2. Keep the smaller squad with the Rhino back field for objectives.
3. Deepstrike everything else, using the Landspeeders and Stormtalon to harass anything on objectives, or threaten my opponents back field.

(Edit) My opponent's Daemons list (1,499 points)

Daemonic Incursion detachment:

x1 Lord of Change (Exalted Reward)

x1 Daemon Prince (Lvl 1 psyker)

x1 Daemon Flock of 8 Chaos Furies

Warpflame Host

x1 Herald of Tzeentch (Lvl 3 psyker, Exalted locus, exalted reward, paradox)

x2 Exalted Flamers of Tzeentch

x11 Pink Horrors

x11 Pink Horrors

x11 Pink Horrors

x11 Pink Horrors

x3 Flamers of Tzeentch

x3 Flamers of Tzeentch

x3 Flamers of Tzeentch

So what went wrong?

a.) I didn't get stuck in and stayed on my side of the board with my LRC and big CC squad, effectively wasting them for most of the game!

b.) Relying on my guns to whittle down the enemy was a mistake. Sure I had plenty of Typhoon missile launchers and cannon support from the LRC but I just didn't manage to finish off some units.

c.) Without taking advantage of the Black Templar Chapter tactics, a regular Crusader squad is going to struggle in CC, and a Chaplain is no wrecking ball!

d.) Multiple flamers make short work of Space Marines.

Visual Highlights (and lowlights)

Brother Marius drops in and takes a stand, by good fortune blocking the board.

Dreadnought Brother Marius had a fortunate Drop Pod arrival, not going where I wanted, but still managing to block the center of the board and take down a fair number of daemons before being destroyed.

Brother Marius faces the Daemon horde alone.

A squad of Sternguard drop onto the table to high ground, but their poisoned weapons fail to do any damage to one of the larger Daemons (bad luck? Or was this ordained?)

5 Sternguard drop onto the Flyer pad, overlooking the enemy below.

A Chaplain makes his final stand, his squad all but obliterated by Flamer and Close Combat.

When I decided to disembark my big Templar squad, I intended to move into close combat and then leapfrog from that into the next Daemon unit. However, I failed the charge miserably, leaving the squad out in the open.

Big Crusader squad takes to the field...felt good.

This allowed them to be surrounded by flamers. A unit of three appeared....

...until Daemon flamers turned up to turn this into a barbecue party. Three at right.

 ...then one more at top (a big one!) and the remaining flamer from another unit (at bottom.) Under all of these flamer attacks, the squad got roasted!

...and another flame attack from below, and ALSO from top left. Voila! No Templars!

Stormtalon v. Flying Daemon Prince? That is a one way ticket to hell for the flyer!

Despite being tabled, I had a good time. My opponent was friendly and patient, and we had some good laughs at fate and dice rolls (I rolled x4 ones at least once, but some other good rolls too).

Happy New Year!

p.s. If you are ever in the Harajuku area, don't hesitate to drop into the Warhammer store there. Although very small, it has very friendly staff, a decent selection of items, and a small gaming area in the main shop too. (Also, it is only a few minutes walk from the station.)

40K Funk

++Squeek++
The guilt in the pit of my stomach can only come from not having written anything on this blog for a long, long time. Every time I have thought about it I just couldn't muster the energy. I have to admit it...

I haven't painted anything.
I haven't played anything.
I haven't purchased or read any rules.

I'm in a 40K Funk.

Credit: Despair by Lloyd Morgan on Flick (CC2.0)

I think this started for a particular reason, and continues for one more. Perhaps writing this will be therapy?

Reason 1

The funk was initially caused because there was just too much stuff coming out. I'm all for options, but as a casual 40K player I also want simplicity. With access to only very occasional games, it simply became overwhelming to keep up with the different releases. Not only "Keep up" in terms of purchases - I simply don't have that kind of wealth, but "keep up" with the sheer volume of content coming out and what it means for the game and the rules. 

I play as Tau and Space Marines (Black Templars to be precise) and I just felt that all the different rule books coming out if different formats, and the changes to the force organization in terms of units and formations is over the top. I started to feel this after buying the new Tau books - there were what, 4 of them in two packs?? Then this started to be the base with the different rules for chapters etc.

• Expansions?
• Codexes?
• Supplements?

I'm probably going to pick up a lot of hate for this but it takes up too much headspace for the casual gamer.

Perhaps the recent release of Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade will help?

Reason 2

Compounding the funk has surely been the disappointment that is (by most current accounts), the poorly implemented release of WH40K Eternal Crusade. If you were a 40K fan (check!) and a PC gamer (check!) and a shooter/ coop combat fan (check!) then this WAS looking like it would be a dream come true. 

From https://mmos.com/review/warhammer-40000-eternal-crusade 

Sadly, almost all the promised gameplay has failed to materialise so far, and players are left with a sub-par lobby shooter which appears to not only be not much fun, but also looks poor (and performs even worse. Granted, any reviews you read are going to be subjective, and there is a lot of blame out there right now (especially for the publisher, who has pushed this out in a poor state), but if these first few days are anything to go by the player base will be very small and this will probably be shuttered pretty quick, even as a full price game.

In my mind, perhaps unrealistically, I had been hoping for a 40K theme Planetside 2 (which remains one of my favorite games of all time) so the negative reviews have been a real blow (as is the current inability to customize your space marine armour to that of a chapter of your choice other than several presets - so no Black Templars (by SIGISMUND!)

Looks good eh? Apparently not the case...

There is a glimmer of hope though - the devs seem to be working hard to fix the most egregious issues, and they obviously have some love for the source material - but even "glimmer" may be too positive a word. Also, there are plenty of videos of people having a good time as Space Marines, Orcs and Eldar (but even these make me concerned about the long term viability of the game.)

Hopefully I'll get over this soon!

Total War: Warhammer. The tabletop comes to life!

Or, should that be Total War: Waarrrrghammer?

If there was ever a game that would attract tabletop wargamers, surely it would be the Creative Assembly's long time bestselling Total War series:

• Control thousands of troops at a time, organized by units and blocks
• Fight battles in "real time" (but with the option to pause to give commands while paused at the easier levels)
• Have your general at the head of your troops, and control them through his leadership
• Use terrain to your advantage (or your enemy's disadvantage!)
• Zoom down to troop level and into the thick of the fighting.
• Carefully plan your troop placement before the battle begins.
• Use tactics and maneuver to swing the course of a battle by attacking your enemy in the rear.

...and all that is just when you fight a battle - winning a war will take strategy, diplomacy and planning, all played out on a beautifully realized world map.

Sounds good right?
...and overall it HAS been good, even when just considering all the time-periods and cultures that have been covered in the series to date (Rome, Barbarians, British Empire, Japan etc. ) The combination of strategy and battlefield tactics has deservedly been a winning combination, even when some games have launched in a less than stellar condition.

The big news here though is that with the release of Total War: Warhammer, you can now wage war using many some of your favorite fantasy races and armies from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. What is it like? I've been playing the game for 260 hours (according to Steam) and I have now finished two campaigns Empire and Dwarf, covering both normal and hard settings, so feel ready to comment.

The Old World comes (back) to life

If you played and enjoyed Warhammer Fantasy Battles (8th edition or previous - the game is set before the End Times) there is a lot to like here. Battle to take control of the Old World in race-specific campaigns for The Empire, Dwarves, Vampire Counts or Greenskins (and as of July 28th, the Beastmen)...

...and what a world it is! The world map looks amazing. You'll see the winds of magic blow across the land, armies and generals advance, and enemy and friendly agents stalk across the map infiltrating, assassinating, impeding and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Take a few moments to zoom down to ground level and scroll slowly across the swamps, mountains, towns and forests that make up this world. Even when you see how detailed it is, you'll still come across small details that will bring an involuntary smile came to your face. A broad grin split my face when a sea monster (or whale?) suddenly surfaced near one of my fleets for just a second before diving out of view.

This detail isn't all just for show however. You'll need to become intimately familiar with the provinces and regions that make up this world and the information shown as you hover over the terrain. The type of terrain will affect the battlegrounds you play on and the buffs and debuffs that will affect your forces (e.g. you'll suffer attrition when moving through regions owned by enemy forces.) Simply hover anywhere to get an idea of the kind of land it is, who owns it, and how it might impede you on the battlefield or affect your forces on the march. 

The fun here of course isn't just the world map (as nice as it is) but that each race has specific units, campaign objectives and methods of waging war that will feel quite familiar to any fan of the tabletop game. As the Empire player, regardless of whether you play as the Emperor Karl Franz or arch-mage Balthazar Gelt it is quite a challenge to fend off the forces of darkness while trying to unify your fledgling empire. As the Empire, you have access to a wide spread of methods of waging war, from Swordsmen to massed cavalry, gunpowder weapons and Steam tanks. Because of this you'll need to make careful decisions about which parts of the tech tree to invest in as you develop your capital. Will you focus on cavalry or artillery? What about heavy infantry (Greatswords!) 

Quite apart from these questions, you also have to make decisions about how to "Level up" your generals and characters as they acquire new skills. Will you sink skill points into boosting their leadership capabilities, or make them into deadly melee killers capable of stopping enemy characters, (or whole enemy units!) in their tracks (or weakened versions of both?) In TW:W one difference from other games is that you want your generals to get stuck in to the fray. On the field of battle, they have an aura of command that influences your army, and as you win and fight battles you can arm them with the spoils of their victories in the form of magic armour and weapons, most of which influence either their stats or buff/ debuff units around them (at a time of your choosing, sometimes literally turning the tide of a battle.)

We could leave the Old World at just the terrain, but story missions also play an important part of the game for each general. The IP for Warhammer has always provided great stories to round out the central characters of the Old World, so it is nice to see key moments recreated here. As your general progresses, they will unlock missions on the map from key moments in Old World history. These will lead you to special battles. Each of these has an animation and opening speech. Winning them usually unlocks a magical weapon or armour important to your general or his race. I enjoyed these as they added a nice bit of change to what can otherwise become a series of monotonous battles, and they were a little bit more challenging than some of the run-of-the-mill battles on the main map.

Close up Carnage!

So what about the battles themselves? 

If you have already played a Total War game then you know what to expect. The actual mechanics haven't changed much - left click to select a unit, right click to give them a destination, and drag to change the shape of their formation. Units are easily selected from their images or using ctrl and click to drag around them. You'll need to master grouping units and other shortcuts for best effect, as you will soon find yourself with 20 or more units to manage on the field.

Each of these lines is a separate group in my army, allowing for fine control

Vampire counts... wolves and Chaos Warhounds are a constant threat!

A vampire counts army assaults a Dwarf-held hilltop.

What HAS changed is the variety and unit types. If you play as the Empire you'll spend a lot of time with swordsmen (and later Greatswords), spearmen, cavalry and missile units (crossbowmen, handgunners etc.) but each army has a good variety to choose from, depending on your race. Some only become attainable with goodly amounts of gold or investment in high-level buildings, but it is nice to see such a nice variety. Each walks, fights (and dies) in a different way.

Chaos giants lumber across the field. Very well animated!

Vampire Counts Zombies - the very definition of cannon fodder.

Dwarf Firedrakes add a little heat to the proceedings.

They don't just walk though...
...in a first for a Total War game, you will get access to flying units like giant bats (Vampire Counts), Pegasus Knights (Bretonnia, available in multiplayer I think) Gyrocopters (Dwarves) and Griffons. Once you have upgraded Karl Franz to give him access to Deathclaw the Griffon, you may just spend a minute or two in cinematic mode. The animation on the flying units is generally excellent. Even as they decimated my gun line I marveled at how units of Pegasus Knights would circle, swoop down and savage my troops.

Flying units also add a new tactical challenge. Even with just a single unit that flies, you will be able to harass your enemy's backfield with ease, opening up new opportunities for disrupting his plans by attacking his warmachines or slowing an advancing unit. This is good as it forces you to take new approaches to managing your army on the field. As Dwarves, a gunline approach that would decimate an infantry based enemy may struggle to deal with "Von Carstein's Flying Circus" (as I like to call it) of multiple flying monsters and heavy cavalry. Not only will they be on you in moments but they will make a bee line into the middle of any defensive formation, distracting your gunners from more threatening unit.

Dwarf gyrocopters...Tally ho!

Seeing all of these units and giving them orders on the screen in undeniably enjoyable if you like tabletop wargames. Early on there is a huge tension about key battles, with regular nail-biting moments as you monitor the morale of your troops - will that one unit of halberdiers hold off that Chaos chariot long enough for you to reinforce the line from your reserves? Part of the enjoyment for me is that this mirrors the tabletop experience.

What takes this game beyond that experience is that the animations, sound effects and clash of units is done very well, with the graphics on display here being leagues above most of the other Total War series. Zooming in to the individual soldier level is fantastic, even on medium graphics settings. Animation, colouring and unit movement is well worth getting to ground level to experience. Having a helicopter view just doesn't cut it when you can zoom in and watch your general wade into the the foe!

A Dwarf flame cannon let's fly.

Mirroring checking line of sight on the tabletop, I've often found it useful (actually essential) to spend time at ground level checking the lay of the land before positioning my troops. In battle, the Del/ Ins key fixes your view on a particular unit, from which you can zoom in and out more freely, and position your camera just right to enjoy them slamming into the enemy, or bracing themselves to receive a charge. Depending on how you feel about blood in video games, the DLC Blood for the Blood God expansion either adds or detracts from this experience...(Should I feel guilty for particularly enjoying closing in to watch my cavalry cut down fleeing enemy units??) As we are on the topic of graphics, I should note that unlike quite a few players, for the most part my experience has been smooth. I'm getting very playable framerates on the campaign map and battles by keeping settings at Medium, which still has a good level of detail for me. (I'm using an Intel Core i7 2700K, x2 Nvidia GTX 770's in SLi, 16 GB of RAM on a 1920 x 1080 screen)

Artillery can really make a mess of the enemy (Blood for the Blood God DLC)

If it was only the graphics that were good though, battles would soon be disappointing, but I've found there to be two key factors that help to avoid this.

Firstly, the races that I fight against DO feel different. Chaos are fast and difficult to pin down, Bretonnian elite cavalry is devastating on the charge but vulnerable to handguns (with rank and file peasant archers and infantry making up much or their armies). Orcs and Goblins are a mix of fast cav and infantry.

Secondly, your generals play an essential role in the battle itself. You'll WANT them in the thick of things and this adds another layer of excitement and tactics to the fray. Their combat powers go way beyond the cannon fodder that makes up most of the units you field, so where should you deploy them, and against whom? At times I've thrown them against whole enemy units to slow them down, sent them charging into the rear of an enemy unit engaged with my own rank and file or, especially when they are airborne (yes you can tool them up with a Pegasus or Griffon) used them to engage enemy flyers that would otherwise attack my own backline of archers and handgunners (I'm looking at you Fell Bats and Pegasus Knights....)

Ungrim leading his army and ready to get stuck in.

Von Carstein

Even in situations where your own general might be massively outgunned by a higher level enemy leader, they still have a very important role to play because their presence affects the leadership of your own troops (as shown by a blue circle of influence around your general). As well as thinking carefully when to use any powers you've given them, they can also still be used in more mundane ways (e.g. to slow down an enemy general or character in hand to hand combat, or distract AI forces by luring some enemy units into chasing them away from the main battle - but watch out, because you are losing the benefit of their leadership if you do!)

Magical Mayhem

As well as flying units, another major addition is magic. It simply wouldn't be the Old World without wizards, so it was a relief to find that for the most part magic is integrated very well. It IS powerful, but it doesn't dominate the game due to two useful mechanics. 

The "Winds of Magic" blow freely across the map, affecting the amount of magic your wizard(s) can call on during battle. You can influence this by equipping your armies and wizards with followers and skills that enhance the winds, but very rarely will you have a surplus of magic that feels like you have more than you need. At the beginning of each battle, you also have the option to flip a coin for a chance to get more magic, but as often as not I was unlucky in my rolling, ending up depleting the winds!

Also, magic comes in a variety of forms. Sure, there are potentially devastating spells to those who level up their wizards in pursuit of destructive magics, but even these are unpredictable as most take the form of area of effect spells that can veer off in a random direction. Just as useful in my experience were the non-offensive spells that buff your units or affect your enemy. I struggled mid-game against fast moving Chaos chariots and units of monstrous creatures, but then I discovered the light wizard's Net of Amyntok spell, which holds the enemy in place for a few seconds and gives me just the time I needed to bring my handgunners to bear or send a character or swarm of spearmen into melee to delay them.

Regardless of how effective they are spell effects do LOOK good when they go off, making using magic fun as well as tactical.

Agents of Destruction

I mentioned Empire Captains above, and it is worth noting that as well as generals, you will need to supplement your forces with characters/ agents.
For the Empire, this means Wizards, Empire Captains, Witch hunters and Warrior Priests. Dwarves have Thanes, Runesmiths and Engineers. Every race has agents like this, and they will prove important to you not only on the battlefield, but for affecting other factions on the map by assassinating their leaders, impeding army movement, infiltrating and downgrading their settlements, and buffing your own provinces or towns. Access to them is granted by building the right facilities in your towns. They don't come cheap though, so be careful about how you use them and who you send them against...
...having a new and expensive agent assassinated is not only a painful experience, but if you don't have your own, you will also be at a distinct disadvantage later in the game both on the campaign map and on the battlefield. Agents level up just like generals, with access to an increasingly powerful array of spells and skills that can be used in a variety of situations to impede your enemies and help your empire.

Gripes and Groans

As you can see, so far I've been very happy with the game, but there are frustrations, although these have more to do with me just not being a great player!

1.) Despite being successful on the battlefield, everything seems (for me) to ultimately descend into a realm-wide game of "Bat the rat". Enemies from all quarters are constantly popping up, and even when you have a lot of money in the bank you never have enough armies to deal with them all (buying units isn't a problem - army upkeep costs are!). You'll come to hate some of the generals that pop up regularly both for their armies AND their timing. Of course, resources shouldn't be finite, but after a while it feels...annoying! Perhaps this is just because as an Empire player, the territories I want to make my own are spread over a large area, and rather difficult to defend.

2.) Agents, agents, EVERYWHERE! My goodness, enemy agents are annoying. Not only do they seem to be extremely damaging to your armies and settlements, they seem really good at assassinating my generals and agents at key times. On the other hand, my agents just simply don't seem very good at this - almost never succeeding in knocking off their enemy counterparts (what am I doing wrong?). I should note that in a patch, I think enemy agent aggressiveness was toned down, but mastering the use of agents is a skill that I'll have to acquire. You'll receive agents at key points early and mid-game who will join your faction. It is worth looking after them, because again, the end game will see very high level enemy agents quite easily assassinating your own general and agents.

3.) Diplomacy doesn't seem to allow me to be very diplomatic! I do manage to setup trading partners, non-aggression pacts and targets for my allies to assault, but even after defeating the Chaos hordes of the Everchosen and being the 2nd most powerful nation in the game there are factions who just won't do my bidding! (Drat! You will pay, someday you will PAY!)

I love the Dwarves of the Old World, but I HATE how demanding they are as allies (yes, I know stubborness is a dwarven trait, but it isn't endearing for long in TW: W!)

4.) "Chase the army" is something I can't get used to. Why can't I catch these guys on the map? I've poured points into developing my general's ability to move freely on the world map, but the enemy armies always seem just...out...of...range...AND then they disappear as soon as I get near them.

5.) Lack of a decent manual IS annoying. The PDF supplied as a manual on the steam page for the game just isn't enough for a game of this complexity. Even having played some Total War before, I found myself wanting to understand important game concepts in more detail by having a read. Do I have to brace my troops against charges? Do they do it automatically? How does population work in detail? I know there is in-game help accessed via a browser, along with tooltips almost everywhere you point, but these still don't replace a good manual!

6.) Legendary Lords can sometimes be a bit...OP. When defending a city using a garrison, it become tiresome to basically defeat the enemy army, but then have each of your units ripped apart by a single lord before fleeing in ignominy. Sure, Legendary Lords like Von Carstein and Azhag the Slaughterer SHOULD be powerful, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating when they almost single-handedly work their way through 100+ troops.

7.) Repetitious battles and gameplay do get boring after a while, even with the story missions, different races and campaigns adding some variety. At it's heart, you are forging an Empire, and this revolves around your budget, building your cities, and fighting battles. The battles look and sound great, but you will fight hundreds of them. Sure, you can autofight a battle, and there IS variety, but once you have found dozens of armies with your own you will get a sense of what approach "works" to defeating them. At the end game of the Dwarves, I was making more than 20,000 gold per turn, even while maintaining 4 to 5 full armies. I just had to grind out some of the final objectives! Very rarely did anything happen that really surprised me.

Dwarf tactics. Find hill, line up gunline, decimate incoming enemy (repeat)

DLC of Doom

Before closing, I'll mention the area (issue?) of DLC. In general, I'm one of those people who thinks that if you are paying 40-50 pounds for a game, then asking for more in DLC is just plain greedy on the part of the developers.

The aftermath of battle. The Dwarves stand unbroken (but certainly bloodied).

BUT having said that, I don't have a problem with playing a couple of pounds for a something like the blood and gore pack. It doesn't make major gameplay changes, but the game looks better, and so the low price is acceptable. I ALSO don't have problems with the approx 12 Pound price (after discount) of The Call of the Beastmen DLC campaign. Firstly, it is a full campaign for a completely new race, objectives and map area, and not just a cosmetic pack. That potentially means 10-20 hours, if not hundreds (if you are a crappy general like me) of new gameplay with new units. A lot will depend on how the Beastmen play as a race. If they are a carbon copy of other Chaos races then maybe I will change my tune. The developers have tried to answer some frequent questions about the Beastmen here. It is interesting to note that they will appear in various way for people who don't pay for the pack (and that the Empire is getting a new Amber Wizard as "Free LC" as part of the update.) Compared to an FPS, strategy games like this offer a lot more bang for the buck IMHO - this also reminds me of the tabletop game too...
...you pays yer money, but you get hundreds of hours out of it in various ways!

In Closing

If you like tabletop miniature wargaming (and especially Warhammer Fantasy) there is a good chance that you will like this game. It "feels" right in terms of battles and has the added bonus of having a complete empire building system built-in. The final thing to say about it is that while the initial price may seem expensive, just like the table top hobby itself you can get hundreds and hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of this game. I've finished both the Dwarf and Empire campaigns, played around 260 hours of the game, and still haven't started the Orcs and Goblins or Beastmen campaigns - good value in my book! :-)

Cheers!