Warlord 101

It is time for another game system review by yours truly. Warlord is Reaper Miniature’s fantasy wargame. It is a skirmish level game set in a high fantasy realm that looks like it could be a D&D campaign realm with all the usual trappings. So let’s look at this game.

Setup
Both players bring forces of a predetermined point size with 1000 points being the recommended size. These forces are chosen from 18 factions that are found in two books and one online faction. Both books contain the core rules, so you will only need to buy the book containing the faction you want to play.

From these factions you construct your army. Armies are broken down into individual troops. Each troop is made up of a leader, basic troops of varying ability, and sometimes an elite model. Some troops can also consist of one model and these single model troops are usually powerful monsters or heroes.

The game is played on a 48”x48” table. It is played with a 10 sided die. Terrain can be as abundant as you wish, and the terrain rules are more abstracted, i.e. no true line of site.

Before the start of the game, players will need to create an initiative deck. An initiative deck is smaller deck of cards created by using a standard playing card deck of 52 cards. Each player chooses a suit (color is best) and a card is added to the initiative deck for every troop a player has. Certain game rules allow for more or less cards to adjust the size of the deck.

The Game Turn
Each game turn has three distinct phases: initiative, action, and end. The initiative phase is where the top card of the initiative deck is turned over. The suit that is showing indicates which player may activate a single troop. The player then conducts actions for that troop. After which the players flip over the next card on top of the initiative deck and repeat the process. It is possible that a player may activate several troops in a row before their opponent does.

The action phase is where troops do things. Every model can make two actions. There is no set order of actions, so models can charge and then fight or they can fight and then move off. This no set order of actions gives a player some tactical flexibility. The actions are grouped by movement, combat, specialty and free actions.

After all troops for both players have activated a single time then the end phase happens. The end phase is basically clean up for the turn. Certain effects will happen, the initiative deck can be altered if troops are wiped out, and the initiative deck is reshuffled

End Game
The game has two types of victory conditions which players must agree upon at the start of the game. Wipeout your opponent is one. The other is play to turn 5, calculate points of what is left on the table, and the player who has more points left wins. This isn’t to say players can’t design their own scenarios or victory conditions, but those are the two conditions provided in the book.

Conclusion
Overall I like this game. I think it provides both a beer & pretzels sort of feel while also allowing for some nice tactical depth. Although there are synergies in this game many of the tactics are based around timing actions correctly, which I am a bigger fan of. I really like the flexibility of turn actions, and the intermixed player activations. I think it’s a game worth trying especially if you enjoyed Mordheim.

So what are you’re thoughts on fantasy skirmish games? If you’re in Austin, TX on April 14th at 7:00 PM I’ll be running a Warlord demo at Dragon’s Lair. Stop on in, say hi, and roll some dice with me.

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Book Review: Faith and Fire

“Faith and Fire” is an exciting novel about the Adeptus Sororitas by James Swallow. I normally do not pick up novels by authors I do not know on faction fluff that I care very little for; however, this little gem showed up in our break room at work in the take-and-read library. Since it was free and I enjoy the 40k universe I thought I would give it a chance.

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Review: Foundation Series Paints

Before I invest whole hog in new paint lines, I like to check out a few of the paint line’s colors. I do this to this to see if the new paint is going to be worth investing in. Well I spent a cozy evening with two colors in the Foundation Paint Series by Games Workshop and here are my thoughts.

Because I play Dark Angels I decided to pick up Mechrite Red and Orchide Shade. The main thrust of my experiment was to see exactly the type of coverage I could expect, paint thickness, and to test the rumored drying speed

Coverage
Wow! The descriptions in the “White Dwarf” were not kidding. This stuff can cover black like no other’s business. I didn’t paint the stuff directly on the model from the paint pot. I transferred paint to my palette, and then thinned it with my “gunk” mixture. (Gunk is a mixture of water, flow improver, and slow dry additives. For more info on “gunk” go here.) This thinned mixture went on well. The nice part about the thinned paint is that it took fewer coats to obtain coverage.

Normally it takes 6 to 8 coats of almost any color to obtain coverage over a black primer coat. With the Foundation Series Paints it took two thin coats to obtain coverage. (I would like to emphasize that when I said thin I meant it. I thinned the paint 1 part paint, to 1 part gunk mix, and 1 part water.) When it comes to coverage this paint does the trick.

Paint Thickness
This paint is about as thick as standard GW paint. If you use a lot of GW paint you will understand the maxim of the Heavy Metal Team: Always thin your paint. The Heavy Metal Team has this maxim because GW paints tend to be a little thicker than the Vallejo or the Reaper Master Series paints. An experienced painter will thin any paint that they use to some degree.

If a painter doesn’t thin the Foundation Series Paints the results they will obtain are atrocious. The best way to describe it is leaving a paint pot open for an hour and then painting from that pot without thinning the paint at all. If the painter paints over details they may as well start over because this paint will appear to fill details in like putty. I think that this effect is also heightened by this paint’s opacity

Drying Speed
Straight out of the pot this paint dries almost as fast as rubbing alcohol. This has some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that is if you are trying to turn out a fully painted army as fast as you can then this paint is the way to go. Foundation Series Paints are perfect for assembly line painting. This is because by the time you reach the end of your assembly line the first model will be dry and ready for the next color.

This fast drying can be a disadvantage. When it is thinned with anything, it is terribly difficult to blend, and needs to be manipulated almost as soon as it is painted. During my session an example of this was experienced while painting an arm. I started at the shoulder and moved my way towards the hand. By the time I had finished the hand the shoulder was already dry. This occurred in the space of less than a minute.

Overall Opinion
Using the Movie Critics star system, I will rate this with paint brushes in lieu of stars. So out of five paint brushes I give this 2 1/2 paint brushes.

I’m giving it this rating because Foundation Paints are a great tool for the intermediate to advanced painter. It allows these painters to paint a nice saturated base color from which to work up from. The experience I had with the paint was that it was great for laying down my base color tones. It worked well for painting red over black, and for painting an eve shade of green. I wasn’t inclined to use it any further than that. As soon as I had the base color I was looking for I immediately switched over to my GW and Reaper Master Series paints because of the vibrancy, flow, and workability of these colors.

I would recommend giving them a try. Try them in a color that you use often and are familiar with. I would not recommend sinking $45 on them unless you are absolutely sure you know you will want and use them.

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