Quirkworthy

Well I could just list what’s in the book, but you know I won’t do that. Instead, before I get to the details of each individual army, I’d like to talk a bit about the overall philosophy I adopted for choosing the forces to go into this project.

Firstly, this is a commercial project. It’s Foundry’s game, so needs to help support their rather large range of fantasy figures. Some of these figures have been around for many years – fantasy is nothing new for Foundry. Other armies had been sculpted but were not released when I started to write this. All of these existing races had to be included. However, the brief allowed me a great deal of freedom to leave models out if they weren’t needed, or add things in (that could be sculpted and added to the ranges) if they would be characterful and fun. In addition I had to come up with at least one entirely new army that they would sculpt to my specifications. How cool is that?

The challenge here was that they wanted 10 armies in the book. That’s quite a lot.

On top of Foundry’s brief, I added some notions of my own.

• Every army would have to look and play differently. Obviously with this many forces there would be similarities (there aren’t 10 radically different tactical styles to pick from).
• Story was going to be important. In the end there are something like 20-25,000 words of background in the book, mostly in the army list sections. The histories of the various forces are interwoven and to get the whole picture you have to read them all.
• I wanted to bring together other elements to add depth of character to each army, not just a colour scheme. Each army worships its own gods so gets its own set of miracles to call on. They all come from different places so they all have their own terrain tables. You get the idea.
• Character is achieved by cool miniatures as well as text, so I built in as many opportunities for fun little projects as I could. Each army gets a camp and a baggage train for free, so there’s no excuse. These are great opportunities to show your army’s character. They are occupied by camp followers and sutlers who are also good for character and offer a chance to use those cool non-combatabt models which Foundry do so well. Every unit has a leader model who is critical for the game rules. He also dies last. This means that he is well worth the effort to model and paint distinctively as you know he’s important and will be on the table for ages.
• For the armies, I wanted a range of different races from the familiar to the unheard of. Even in the familiar armies I would add a little spin so that things were a bit more interesting.

Types of Troops

God of Battles includes formed and loose troops of a wide variety of types. Perhaps the single most unusual facet of this overall mix is the rarity of cavalry. Several armies have none. There wasn’t really one reason why I did this, though it is a nice point of difference. It’s also worth considering that things are always more scary if they aren’t familiar, and the rare cavalry units, especially the heavies, are fearsome indeed when they do make an appearance. Even light cavalry are worrisome to face, not least because they can do their (historically) favourite trick of running round your flanks and sacking your camp – and that’s worth victory points!

Of course, in terms of rules it doesn’t matter whether you’re foot or cavalry in GoB. There’s no mechanical difference.

So Which Armies Made It?

I’d rather you worked out some of the more obscure links yourself so I won’t describe the background in detail. However, the following should give you enough of an idea to start cogitating on. I’ll use the formal army titles.

• Battle Host of Quithnilian: this is the most formal and old fashioned of the elf armies, under the Emperor Quithnilian IV. Their armies are exceptionally well trained, at least the elves in them are. Most of Quithnilian’s soldiers are actually human vassals, organised in their traditional formations and used as cannon fodder by the elves: “if ten humans die instead of a single elf then the trade is well made”.
• Sea Elves: this is an odd army as it exists partly between dimensions. Like their Imperial cousins, the Sea Elves bring many subjects and allies to war. Unlike their cousins, none of them are human. The Sea Elf Marines and the elite of Shushain’s Chosen are well trained and deadly. Unfortunately they are not plentiful. Armies often include units of Merfolk to bulk them out, and then there’s the Ambassadors of the Deep (one of my favourite units in the game).
• The Godless Horde: in a world where the gods walk the battlefields dispensing blessings and curses, who but a fool would deny their existence? Well, this lot would. The Godless are regarded by most as entirely insane, and that’s about right. Insane, that is, in a particularly nasty and vindictive way. In fairness, it’s not really their fault, but that is little solace to their many victims. This is an elite army with the most expensive units in the game. They’re worth it. Godless armies will usually be outnumbered, though they can always bulk out their forces with the deranged remnants of their unspeakable tortures.
• Norse Dwarfs: one of the more “normal” armies is the Norse Dwarfs. Basically, these are short, fat Vikings (with crossbows). They have no steam or gunpowder technology, and a grand total of zero war engines. However, they can sometimes persuade fire drakes to accompany the army. Oh, and the sky god they worship gives them one of the nastiest miracles in the game: Skies Fall.
• Orc Warlords: professional brigands and bullies, as you’d expect. This includes goblins, orclings, wolf riders and lanky trolls. The army is surprisingly flexible with a wide variety of options available, though units of War Orcs are always a good standby. Goblins don’t turn up in massive units. Instead they are in relatively normal sized units – you can just have loads of them. I like this as a way to model the force gradually running off rather than a huge number either being OK or leaving a huge gap – it’s less binary. I envisage goblins as having a vast spectrum of abilities and bravery so having large tides of them moving at once feels wrong.
• Mercenaries: this army is centred around the “Free” Cities – free, that is, from the meddling of the Elves. Their lands have been encroached upon by Quithnilian’s armies, and so they have turned to professional soldiering to both defend themselves and earn a crust. Foundry have long had orcs, dwarfs, ogres and humans all dressed in the same Renaissance finery of slashed doublets and be-ribboned hose, and this army is designed to include them all. In the background, this finery has become the symbol of the resistance to Elf dominion, contrasting as it does with the practical and rather dour equipment of Quithnilian’s vassal troops. The army has loads of choices and though the core is often humans it doesn’t have to be. This army is also the only one with black powder weapons as it is an invention of the Free Cities. There’s a reason why the Elves don’t want to use it.
• Blood Gorged: these are beastmen. They live in the forest and over their short lives strive mainly to reach that pitch of perfect battle which forces a physical change from youngling to brute. They have little patience for subtlety and are a scary army to fight against. The Blood Gorged ability lets them save trophies from early kills to trade in for extra attacks later in the battle. If there’s anyone left to attack.
• Lords of Undeath: a boney undead army. There are (shock, horror!) no zombies here, nor vampires. Instead there are a variety of grades of desiccated or picked-clean dead, resurrected with more or less care and skill. The trick to remember is that it takes more effort to raise someone with their memories and skill intact. You can’t train the undead, so if you want decent fighters you’ve got to find dead ones and carefully raise them up. Of course, any fool can raise the dregs if all you want is a big horde…
• The Thousand Tribes: the Southlands are, predictably, far to the south. Here the sun shines and men dress like Conan. And why not? Actually it’s somewhat more African than that, but let’s not split hairs. Like the Mercenary army this offers a huge choice of tribes to fight with. Not quite a thousand, but a lot. This includes the second most expensive cavalry unit – Bison riders. In fact they have an unusual number of mounted options including pygmies on terror birds who are rather fun.
•  T’lekkan Empires: the most bizarre looking of the armies is perhaps the T’lekkan. These insect warriors are literally bred for battle and have various troop types who are designed for specific tasks. They can take their Queen to the battlefield to inspire the army, but it is a risk. Luckily they can also take the behemoth to protect her.  As you might imagine, he is quite big.

The GoB rule book includes 10 full army lists to choose from. In fact, that’s the bulk of the page count.

These lists are a mixture of the familiar and the unusual with some features common to most wargame rules and a few that you might not have seen before.

Overall, choosing an army follows the familiar concept of agreeing on a set number of points for a game with your opponent and then using the army lists as a shopping list to pick what you want up to that value. For God of Battles a small game is 24 points, an average one 36 and a large one 48 or more.

So far we’re on safe ground.

Cloven in Twain*

The first unusual feature comes when you look at the army lists themselves: each is split into two parts. The first part is called the Main Force, and is just that. This part lists units of infantry and cavalry and provides the bulk of the models in an army. It is what makes the army look like an army when you lay it out on the tabletop.

The second part of each army list is called Command & Support. This includes all the bells and whistles that add “chrome” to the army and give it more character as well as offering a lot more to think about during the battle. It has the army’s characters, bodyguard unit, war engines, monsters, and any character or unit enhancements that may be available. Some of the items bought from the C&S section add or modify a unit bought from the Main Force section whilst others are units in their own right.

When you’re choosing an army you get a fixed number of points to spend. In God of Battles, you spend this twice – once on each list. So, a 24 point army really consists of 24 points of Main Force plus 24 points of Command & Support. Note that you cannot swap points between sections – each total is dedicated to a specific part of the list.

I chose this structure for a number of reasons.

1. It forces people to build proper looking forces rather than just picking 10 cannons and a wizard, or whatever nonsense the internet tells you is unbeatable this week. It controls the cheese.
2. I can play the game with armies that have been chosen from the Main Force alone. This allows for easier training games, quick and dirty games when time is short and so on. The split very simply separates off the core of an army from all the extras, with all the additional choices and rules (and therefore time to play) they entail.
3. It helps you to focus when picking a army. The process of building the shape of the army as a whole and the process of adding the fine tuning and the frills are conveniently separated.
4. It means that I can have a reasonably balanced way of building an army with no further restrictions (other than occasional things being unique). Again: a simple rule with a lot of useful implications.

Point Values

I might talk about how the points are arrived at in more detail another time. For now, what I wanted to say about point values is that they are carefully balanced against the overall army sizes. Unless you’re playing a vast game (60+ points) you won’t be able to take everything you want. That is very much part of the plan.

Being able to take everything you want in an army is dull, unchallenging and uninteresting. For me, both the skill and the entertainment of the army building phase (something I greatly enjoy) is based on having to make tough decisions about what to take and what to leave out precisely because you cannot have it all.

It’s also why I am very strict on the points value being a fixed and immutable limit. If you pick a 24 point game and then “let people off” with a couple of points then you’ve just taken away all the challenge and allowed their laziness to win. Don’t let them off, instead show them how to finesse the army. Look harder. Try more options. That way you’ll learn more about both your own decision making as well as the army. In any case, God of Battles plays so quickly that you should be able to get a couple of games in an evening, so why not try out both army builds you were considering?

In order to give you a frame of reference, individual Main Force units vary from 2 to 16 points with most costing 4-6. Units with a cost of 10+ are unusual and tend to have a major impact on the battle, one way or another. You can see from this that most armies will have 4 or 5 units of troops to move about in a 24 point battle – not counting whatever they get off Command & Support.

Army Size

God of Battles armies are relatively small compared to, say, Warhammer forces. I’ve done this for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, needing to collect vast armies is a massive hurdle to getting new gamers to play, which is a Bad Thing in my book. It’s also a huge barrier to getting armies from the fevered mind of the general and onto the tabletop. I daresay that I’m not the only one who’s had their plans thwarted by the time or expense associated with collecting a vast new force. 24 points is an ideal size battle for a 4×4 table and is a great place to start. Obviously there are a lot of variations between the 10 armies, but 50 models would be a reasonable ball park figure for a 24 point army. My orc army has lots of goblins in it and comes to 57 foot figures and a chariot. If I’d chosen all orc units instead of goblins I could have done it with 24 fewer models.

Secondly, I want some space to manoeuvre. Too many games I see are shoulder to shoulder units across a battlefield with no space to move. All you can do is roll forwards and all semblance of tactics and thought go out the window. Having a lower model count allows some space to move in, and some flanks to protect and exploit. It adds loads more game play and is a real world example of less (units) being more (fun).

Thirdly, I wanted it to be easier to add to an army. Once you’ve built your core 24 point force, you can expand it to 36 or 48 by adding new units, or simply include some extra units so you can try different 24 point builds. By making units relatively small (6-16 models) you can get the fun and excitement of the new tactical challenge a new unit gives you without it costing as much or taking as long to get it on the table.

Fixed Units… Sort Of

One thing that is bound to cause some initial upset is fixed units. When you look at the various units in both sections of the army list you’ll find that they have a fixed number of figures in them. If you take a unit of nymphs there will be 8 of them. I can see people deciding against this as a terrible affront to their choice. Well I’d say give it a try first. I think it’s a really good plan.

To start with, the units aren’t entirely fixed. You’ve got to pick which of the standard bearer, musician or marksman model(s) you want in each. You can add characters to units (in fact you have to), and these characters can have various bits of extra kit and affect the unit in different ways. Most armies include a number of unit enhancements which can be added to units to make them tougher, fightier and so on. Layering several of these choices onto the same unit can make a huge difference, so they’re not quite as immutable as all that.

What you can’t do is faff about with adding a single model here, changing swords for short spears there. That’s all nonsense. You’re a general for crying out loud! You should be worrying about whether you need more cavalry or more elite regiments; whether the priest will be more useful than a really big cannon, and so on. I want to take you back to commanding an army, not piddling about finding a lost farthing in the accounts. A general needs to know whether that unit is city state pike or ogre gunners, not whether Jenkins has tied his laces properly or Hobart is wrapped up warm (his mother did ask). Deal in the big picture, the sweep of the battle, the army as a whole. That’s the general’s job – he has flunkies for the details.

Extras

One final quick thought about armies. I want my army to have loads of character and individuality to it. With this in mind, every army also gets a Camp and a Baggage Train for free together with 2 units: one of camp followers and one of sutlers who guard these areas. These are great modelling projects and ideal opportunities to use some of the brilliant models available which look cool and amusing but which have no real place in line of battle. I’m thinking here of things like Foundry’s vignette of goblins torturing a dwarf (by shaving off his beard). Character and fun.

I would also encourage you to collect scenery specifically for your army. When you set up a game in GoB you work out who is attacker and who is defender. The battle is then fought in the defender’s land, using the terrain table for that army (every army has their own) to generate the battlefield. Each terrain table adds more character to a force, and if everyone collects the terrain for their own army (their home turf, if you will) then you always have what’s needed whenever two armies meet 🙂

Only The Start

There’s lots more I could say, but I’ll pause here for the moment. There may be questions or comments. What do you guys think?

* It’s very unlikely I’ll be using this schlock piece of hack fantasy prose seriously, so I thought I’d leave it here, where it can’t do any harm.

Like it says in the title, God of Battles finally has a date set for its official release: the 1st of March 2013.

A handful of copies have snuck out already, and there’s even a review of the book online (though he hadn’t played the game when he wrote it). For most people, however, it’s been unavailable. But there’s not long to wait now.

To celebrate this momentous event, there will be an event at Foundry HQ on the 1st and 2nd of March. I’ll be there on both days to talk to anyone who will listen about GoB and run folk through the rules. Most of the demo armies seem to have gone walkabout with the change in management at Foundry last year, but I’m sure we’ll find something to use.

Anyway, just me doing my happy dance 🙂