Nerd Rage of Sigmar

It's been an interesting week hobby-wise, I wrote a post for Corehammer that got a lot of attention, most of it positive at first, but then the dickhead, sexist, gamergate arseholes on Reddit got hold of it and took offence that they might be asked not to make quite so many rape jokes and consider being a considerate human being. 

Being all about ethics as they are, they flooded the comments with their barely coherent rage.

That was a fun little distraction.  

More rage was generated by the replacement for Warhammer: Fantasy Battles, Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

First off, I've played quite a few games so far and all have been great, nice and quick, loads of fun and everyone has had a good time. I've played more Age of Sigmar in the last two weeks than I've played Fantasy in the last 2 years. 

The hardcore nerds hated it.

The rule book is just 4 pages long. This sounds like a huge deal but it really isn't, with the Army Building mechanics shorn out of the rules and the fact that every unit has its own War Scroll with their rules on, meaning anything that was previously a Universal Special Rule is now on the War Scroll, it's plenty of space to fit the core mechanics on to. 

This seems simplified but in practice it allows them to expand unit by unit and easily add in as much extra stuff as they want in the future.

It works really well but still generated fury from people calling it childish (you know, as opposed to the super serious world of Squig Hoppers and Giant Hamster Wheels).

It's not in the least bit suited for traditional competitive play. It doesn't have points values or any sort of restrictions on what you can use, asking you to agree with your opponent if the game is going to be fair. Turns out, most “competitive” players can’t comprehend why you'd want to play fair when you're playing a game against another person when you can just overpower them and then you win. We've seen this happen with Unbound in 40K but they've doubled down here, use as much or as little as you like.

Then there were the “silly” rules, lots of the rules for the game give you benefits for little roleplaying things in the game, having a moustache, growling like a beast, etc. Being a rational and relatively mature human being I was able to see the funny side of this, but there have been more complaints, conspiracy theories about this trying to embarrass players into buying new stuff and throwing away the old and everything.

What you essentially have is the players no one actually liked to play, the ones who hadn’t bought any new models since 2006 and generally fucking stink raging at Games Workshop for ruining the game that they’d already ruined for most normal people. There was much flipping of tables (actually happened) and setting fire to their models in a pathetic and homophobic rant (again, actually happened) but the rest of us rejoiced, we can balance the games between us and not have to care about points and OP units any more. And so we actually tried the game. Because its free so why not?

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that, the game is free, the rules – free, rules for the existing models – free, the rules for new models – come with the models and probably free on the free app that’s on the way.

And yet still they complain.

Necromunda Part 3

Gangs, gangs, gangs!

The Underhive has loads of gangs you can join up to. Anyone who wants to get ahead in life joins a gang, it’s the only way to move on up and not be a victim, it’s a Giant Rat eat Giant Rat Hive World so make sure you bite first. Most young Juves will be born with an allegiance with one of the Hive City Houses, so I'll go through them first, they're the most common gangs in Hive Primus and what most players would use and, where possible, show you a typical ganger from the man whose pen defined my childhood, Mark Gibbons.

House Cawdor

Firstly is House Cawdor, this gang are strict members of the Redemption Cult,  a militant offshoot of the Imperial Cult that means they can’t show their face in public or risk death, so they wear heavy hoods, cowls and masks to hide themselves. This gang are typically aggressive and straight forward , they get access to lots of the close combat skills making them nasty in hand to hand.

House Delaque

The next house is House Delaque, these are the shiftiest dudes in the hive, if there is a scheme or a plot, these guys know about it. They wear long coats to conceal weapons in and shave their heads to make it hard for others to tell who is who, they prefer to shoot you in the back than take you on face to face, and they just think that makes more sense.

House Escher

House Escher are unique in that they're all women. Due to a genetic quirk, Escher men are all weak and a bit thick, so the women have to do everything. They are a fast, hand to hand gang who excel at getting in close before you can do anything about it. If you like to outmanoeuvre your opponent, before dispatching them in the bloodiest way imaginable, this could be the gang for you.  

House Goliath

Goliaths are all muscle, especially in their heads, they can grow into brutal combat monsters able to take a lot of pain and dish out even more, raging steroid enhanced techno-barbarians, they respect strength above all else. And they all have Mohawk’s which is cool.

House Orlock

House Orlock is the most populous House in the Hive City, they’re well balanced, having access to combat and shooting skills so are easy to use as you can build it the way you like to suit your play style as the campaign unfolds and adapt to who you’re fighting against, good all rounders who can take on any gang out there.

House Van Saar

The Van Saar are the most technically advanced of the Houses, they are renowned for making the most reliable tech in Hive Primus and so can sell at a premium price, because of that, they’re very well off. Most Van Saar have a knack for technology, which is a massive advantage as the campaign unfolds, the Techno skills are very handy. Its appropriate that this is literally a very beardy gang.

Outlanders; renegades, outcasts and psychopaths. 

The Outlanders supplement introduced a few other gangs as well, these less common gangs all operate very differently from the standard gangs and so you should check with your group if these are ok to use.

Ratskin Renegades

No MG image for the Ratskins, sorry, this is ace though

 The Ratskins are the natives of the deepest parts of the Underhive, thousands of years living among the debris of the Hive has given them a deep spiritual connection with it that no one else has, they avoid the other humans that don't show the Hive the respect it deserves.Some Ratskins do get involved in the world of the Hive City, through curiosity or to revenge harm done to their people. Known as Ratskin Renegades, they have been shunned from the tribes and group together into gangs of their own.  They have pretty crap ranged weapons, unable to make much technology themselves but are decent at hand to hand and can get around the Hive better than nearly anyone else.

Scavvies

The Scavvie gangs also live in the deepest depths of the Under Hive, not because its their ancestral land like the Ratskins, but because they’ve been driven out of the slightly more civilised areas of Hive Primus, they’re mutants and freaks all. They have tons of weird mutations but really bad at getting ammo for their weapons meaning they run out quickly. They can get an equivalent to a Heavy in the truly abhuman crocodilian Scalies, who have massive harpoon guns or shot cannons.

Redemptionists 

The Redmentionists are members of the same intolerant religion as House Cawdor, but they’ve decided that not enough is being done to purge the Hive of sin, so they gather up as many flamers as possible and set about doing it. These guys have tons of flame weapons, all their basic weapons can fit a one shot flamer on to add extra burning goodness.

Spyre Hunters

Just one of the 4 Hunting Rigs available to the Spyrer kids, the creepy Malcadon

The Spyrers aren’t from the Hive City or the Under Hive, they’re from the Spire, the world of the upper class, the rich and powerful. The 1% on Necromunda literally and figuratively look down on the teeming masses. They also hunt them for sport. That’s what Spryrer gangs are, bored and spoilt teenagers, proving themselves worthy of inheriting their family fortune by donning advanced Hunting Rigs with hosts of exotic and powerful weaponry and then hunting down the proles for a lark. Its fox hunting taken to its logical conclusion. Rich people never change, as is now, as will be in the 41^st millennium. They’re the smallest gangs, numerically, you’re never going to have more than 5 gangers, but each one is massively powerful, starting with weapons and armour even the more experienced gang could only dream of and it gets better the more they kill.

Another Goliath because they're cool and never get enough love. 

That covers all the gangs in the main game and the expansion set, there were more though, the Arbites, the Pit Slaves and more but that's for another time, next article will be about the Hive City and how to go about getting one of your own to fight over. 

Necromunda Part 2

Last post was some info on the world of Necromunda and the premise of the game, this time, I’ll talk about playing the game itself, the choices and setting up your gang to make your claim for glory in the Under Hive.

War on a different scale.

Thing is fucking huge.

I’m going to be controversial and assume most wargamers know about Warhammer 40k, chances are, if you stumble across this blog, you play it, you might have heard of Necromunda and wonder how it differs.

Warhammer 40,000 is typically played with a company of troops, maybe 100 models a side, depending on the faction, fewer for Space Marines, more for the horde armies like Orks, this can scale up to the thousands if you wish, with tanks and other larger war machines, up to the building sized Titans in your game, with Forge World recently releasing the massive Warlord Titan, which ^st Millennium.

stands at over 2 feet tall. These games represent the bitter struggles of armies of the 41

 Necromunda shows the grim reality of life for the downtrodden forgotten citizens of the Imperium of man. Gangs are around 10 strong and they’re regular citizens for the most part, to start with at least.

Because its smaller in scope, this means there is a lot more room for detail, each Gang member should have a name and will develop a story as they go on, gaining skills and injuries to show for their exploits.

Each gang member has a stat line, which looks the same as the current 40k one except it has a mysterious M at the start of it, this, if you play Fantasy Battle you’ll know, is the Movement Value. A typical human has a Move of 4, meaning in the Movement phase, they move 4 inches.

(This means that generally, it’s a little slower to get to grips with the enemy compared with the current 40k rules where most infantry moves 6 inches, it makes movement more important to get right and more of a challenge to think about, I have no idea why they got rid of this and replaced it with a standard movement and tons of special rules to make things move at different rates.)

Each Gang has a Leader, which in the typical 90s GW style, is your representative on the battlefield, which I always get a kick out of. The Leader has access to the best kit and is generally a little handier in a scrap and has better Leadership characteristics (obviously).

Most gangs then have a Heavy or some equivalent, for the standard gangs this is the guy who is a bit more capable than most and so is entrusted with looking after the best weapons, they’ll usually have a big gun, the most common starting Heavy will have a Heavy Stubber, maybe a Heavy Bolter if they’re very lucky.

The majority of your gang is then made up of Gangers, these are your average Joe or Jane Grox Pack, they have average stats and can have pretty average guns, Lasguns and Autoguns are popular, or a pistol and club if you want them to be more fighty than shooty.  As the system is more detailed, the amount of weapons you have can affect your combat ability, if you’ve got a Heavy weapon or a Rifle, its going to get in the way when things get up close and personal.

(Melee combat is very, very deadly in Necromunda but it’s a challenge to get into close range so it’s a gamble.)

Lastly, you’ll have the Juves, short for juveniles (this is common Mega City 1 slang for a young delinquent, unashamedly borrowed for the game set in a city which shares a lot of similarities with the home of Joe Dredd), these are the inexperienced kids, throwing their lot in with a gang for survival or for the glamour of being in a Gang. They’re lousy shots and worthless in melee and can only grab a pistol and a knife but after a few fights, they’ll soon toughen up and be a match for any other experienced ganger.

Your Gang isn’t just the bodies in it, its also its territory, as a Gang, you hold influence over an area of the Under Hive, what’s in your territory is randomly selected, you might have an archeotech horde with the promise of untapped wealth inside, a mine where you can work captured enemy gangers to death digging up the discarded waste of the millennia or just an old sump that you might be able to scrounge some water up from, each gang starts with a few of these and can expand over the course of the campaign, or of course, lose them if things go very wrong.

Next time I’ll go over the types of gang you can choose from and how they differ from each other! 

Necromunda!

I'm going to start a few posts to introduce people to what is easily the best game GW have ever made, Necromunda!

What the hell is Necromunda anyway?

It’s the 41^st Millenium, the Imperium of Mankind holds a million worlds throughout the galaxy, such a massive empire requires lots of sacrifices to be made, whole planets devoted to growing crops, factory worlds and more.

 Necromunda is a Hive World, it has a population of over 100 billion, all cramped in to huge Hive Cities, towering structures that stretch miles into the air and back down into the depths of the planet. The population manufactures mostly weapons, all natural resources long since depleted, they process millions of tons of resources from other worlds and recycle the waste of previous millennia into useable material.

At the top of each of the Hive Cities the richest and most power live, amongst the Spires above the pollution, they live in relative luxury and decadence, far away from the riff raff, below there is the Hive City itself, the countless billions live and work in the factories and recyc-plants, working for the Noble Houses making weapons to meet the ceaseless need of the Departmento Munitorum, scraping out a life as one of the untold cogs working themselves to death for the good of the Imperium.

Then, there are those to whom this life of unceasing work is an unreachable luxury, those who survive in the Under Hive, this is where life is cheap and disposable, people survive by bartering with the Merchant Guilds, scavenging among the refuse piles for a bit of useable tech or material that could be sold on and by grouping together in gangs. Gang warfare is common, gangs align themselves with the Noble Houses, working to do their dirty work in return for patronage and the promise of one day moving up in to the Hive City proper, or perhaps hoping to hit it reach with an archeotech hoard that will raise them up to the Spires.

Ok, so Necromunda is a planet, but isn't it a game?

In the game of Necromunda, you take on the role of one such gang in the Capital Hive City of the eponymous planet, Hive Primus, your gang is usually aligned to the Houses Cawdor, Delaque, Escher, Goliath, Orlock or Van Saar, each have their own history and predilections, from the more technologically advanced Van Saar to the near barbarian House Goliath and each will begin to affect how you play.

The game is designed to be ran as a campaign, with ongoing experience, with your gangers getting better the more they fight, earning credits to buy better weapons and equipment but risking injury and ruin at the same time. You’re aiming to become the biggest and badest gang around but a few bad decisions and luck not going your way will see you plummeting into the Sump with nothing but a rusty autopistol to your name.

Warhammer Quest and Deadzone

I've been mulling over doing a set of modern Warhammer models to use to play Warhammer Quest for over a year now, I have most of the miniatures I need in place and yesterday I finally started painting some heroes, both WIP so far. Haven't painted human (or dwarf) skin in quite a while, the Barbarian is especially nice to work on, rippling as it is with muscle, cuts and scars, lots of interesting things to work on, decided against the fur cloak he comes with, even though the original WHQ one has one, because it obscures some gorgeous sculpting on the back.

Easily my favourite miniature, Barbarian Dude Redux by Raining Frogs, I think between me and my painting friends, I have two of these of the 500 cast, gorgeous model. 

Also started on the Dwarf, although you can't really tell as it belnds with the primer, the beard is also started, I'm trying to match the Dwarf from the original as well as I can in spirit, which calls for him to be a Greybeard.

I also started and finished a Deadzone model in about 15 minutes, wanted to try something on this model and I have two of them to do, so here it is, its mostly drybrushed, with a touch on line highlighted for the extremes. It was quick and looks ok and really, thats all I am aiming for with Deadzone, the "Restic" miniatures aren't worth spending any real time or effort on.

Added some blood effects too, the Resin version includes a ripped
apart soldier and will need even more blood. 

Improving Basing

How it looked before

So last post, I showed the painted Thanatar Siege Automata, and talked about how I wasn't happy with the base and letting it tell the story that I wanted.

I decided that adding a discarded shoulder pad of the Sons of Horus would help tie the theme in, I decided to change this to Death Guard, keeping it more relevant for 40K if I'm able to use Mechanicum forces in that game at some point, and I think it would mix in with the corruption and rust a bit better.

Pad in place and weatherd to match. 

Layering up bone to white, then sponging and stipping rust on to the pad gave it the look I wanted, a few washes of Vallejo Smoke dirtied it up a bit and picking out the edging in a dirty bronze.

This was then glued next to the beam and stippled with the weathing powders used on the base to tie it together.

Something is still missing from this though, looks bare. 

Despite this addition, it was still missing something, so it was back to the drawing board/ the Facebook discussion group for more ideas, I had thought of adding more discarded Astartes parts, weapons etc. but I didn't think it would help to be honest.

My friend Pete suggested grass. We chatted and I've tried it and I think it looks good,

 The idea was again, to represent the spreading corruption of the Heresy and the Chaos Gods in general, the addition of the shoulder pad helps now, its as if even a discarded part armour of a tainted soul is enough to desecrate the ground, but the loyal forces of the Emperor still stride on, impervious.


This has been a really fun project and its nice to have gotten a model and base totally finished, this is the first model I've managed to finish completely since moving house 6 months ago!

More dead grass would be
great to really sell it

Thanatar Siege Automata Finished

Good week of painting progress, managed to zenithal prime the Knights and finish the Thanatar!

Heres the progess and what I've done, I decided that to tie it in with the Thallanxi, he should be mostly brass coloured, with red as a nod to the Mechanicum and because its better for adding some weathering.

Base wise, I wanted it simple, but added a beam of plasticard, nothing specific, and wanted that rusted and leaking out. My idea was that this loyalist robot was stomping over the degraded and spreading corruption, not sure that actually somes across though, I think I might add a Sons of Horus shoulder pad with similar rusting and weathering next to it to drive that home.

Base colours started, Warplock bronze, leadbelcher and khorne red for the most part

Got carried away and started some weathing a bit early here,
had to be redone later on because the red needed work

All base coats finished here and started pushing the red to be
more "red" with a lot of fine layering of glazes, Balthazar gold then Auric Armour to  highlight

Almost finished here, armour gone over with Brass Scorpion, reds highlighed with Wazzdakka Red and re-weathered,Vallejo Smoke applied as a wash to most of the model, plasma Mortar some with Vallejo Icy Blue, highlighted up to white.
Loads of powders on the rusty beam and base as well as brushed to the feet

Forces of Mars

Ok, so, constant distractions aside, this week, I will be working on some paining, I have a Thanatar a Knight and some Thallanxi all assembled, want to start to work on my Mechanicum army for 30K, which it looks like it might be able to grow into a 40K army pretty soon! Lots of nice teasers and peeks of Skitarii around online today

Some sort of walker, not too keen yet.

Looks like it'll be a small release like the Harlequins, I've seen a tiny photo of a Skitarii trooper that looked quite good, I'm quitely hopefuly, could also be a little cheaper than FW Tech Thralls!

The Trouble with Oldhammer

Nostalgia, it’s a great thing, you can while away many hours looking back on things from the past fondly, basking in the warm reassuring glow of a less complicated time. 

Hobby nostalgia is a growing thing apparently, as the kids of the late 80s to mid-90s become adults, they look back at their childhood, when Games Workshop was the coolest shop in the world, that transported you to a fantasy realm full of treasures and adventure, before you realised they were a business that wanted your money, before you became a jaded, bitter adult.

Shaitan from the Oldhammer forum's
really cool Khorne Chaos Champion

Some take this nostalgia very seriously. They call themselves the Oldhammer community, and it has many admirable traits, they take the hobby in the spirit it was presented at the time, when the rules were a bit more slapdash, the armies weren’t as structured and the armies were smaller and made of lead. They want to play with models they loved as kids, playing the game as a friendly RPG-like experience as it was designed in the late 80s, they favour the late 80s 3^rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 rules, complicated tomes with a lot of mechanics and imbalances that overcomes that with the narrative driven, GM-led gameplay it suggests. They claim to appreciate a time when GW wasn’t afraid to be funny or satirical, saying today’s books are overly serious and po-faced.

These are all good and fine ideals, the models have an aesthetic that is easy to admire, they were all sculpted by hand, each model is an individual, made to be a particular person in a force, when a unit might have 10-20 models at most, and an army rarely had more than 50 models in it, this was a lot more feasible than with the modern editions. In effect, each character comes imbued with the personality by the sculptor, and a lot of the time, this really shows through. 

There are problems though, one is prevalent in almost all hobby related communities, an attitude that

ranges from distrust to outright hatred of Games Workshop. There is more though, there is a sense of superiority, that lead models are inherently better than today’s plastic and resin, that sculpting by hand is inherently better than the CAD and 3D prototyping assisted sculpting, that the rules were better when there weren’t as many inherent restrictions and while they claim to love the humour of the period, I’ve yet to see much of that humour manifest itself in their discussions.

Brand new Champion of Khone, similar
 but different, better? Thats subjective.

These aren’t universal truths, and they manifest themselves in massively silly ways. People decry every new model Games Workshop release, no matter the quality, out of hand. They compare models to older versions and claim the old ones have more “soul” or “character” or other such indefinable qualities, seemingly unaware or unable to admit the role that nostalgia plays in how they’re looking at the miniatures.

The Legio Cybernetic, original
80s Robots, cerified Oldhammer

I’ve seen people argue that the original Legio Cybernetica Robots, great models and really inspiring, are much better than the recent Forge World equivalents that were inspired by them. Maybe I’m bias, I never owned the original Robots, they weren’t in the game anymore when I started, thanks to some ridiculously complicated rules, but I just can’t see how anyone would argue with the idea that the Forge World ones aren’t just the same concept but done to a better standard.

The Castellax, the new version
of the Castellan

The Vorax is a reimagining of
 the Crusader

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Oldhammer is just the Games Workshop/Wargaming hobby from when you were 10 until whenever a person you liked touched your genitals and you reassessed your priorities. It’s as simple as that, and that’s fine, just admit it and don’t let bitterness ruin yours, or other peoples, hobby.

Kanban: Organising your hobby

Call it a stupid New Year's idea but I wanted this year to be a bit more organised for my hobby, so I started a Kanban board. The idea comes from project management in business, you use different parts of the board to show bits of a project and what stage they're in in, at a glance you can see how far along you are with certain parts of a project.

Its a really simple but effective way of organising a project, so I wanted to show a few ways this can be used to make your hobby work a little bit more organised. Or if you want to procrastinate while still convincing yourself that you're being productive.

For this I've used Kanban Flow, a free to use website that offers a subscription for more advanced tools, but everything you'd need as a hobbyist is available to the free accounts, sign up here: Kanban Flow

Firstly, I have set up an overall hobby goals board for 2015, which I've put various projects on with overarching details about each part of the project:

Here, I've got the over all view, each task is a hobby goal, with some details of the sub tasks to complete each, across my boards, different types of task have different colours, Green here represents Terrain, Blue are army projects and Yellow are individual units or models. I have different coloumns for how far along they are and one for "On Hold" for when something, like a missed delivery ot something, is stopping me progressing right now.

I aslo set up boards for those army tasks if they're big ones:

Here is my list for the Legions of Chaos army that the Warriors of Chaos task evolved in to (must update the name of that task), These are all individual units and this time, instead of subtasks, i have coloumns, as in this fine detail view, its better at representing the progress made so far.

This is just a little glance at a tool you might find useful or interesting, let me know if you liked it.

Warhammer World Once More

Birthday trip to Warhammer World with the Painting group on Saturday, still mostly a building site, more of the gaming hall was closed off and the heat was pretty intense, as were some of the smells, some bad nerd stink going on.

Had a 4 player game of Fantasy with my newly painted Legion of Chaos Army, not finished but I got some point on each unit, which, as I'd started them on the Monday, was pretty cool I thought, really like the look of this army, with the Plague Bearers, Warriors and Beastmen all looking very different but tied together with greens and purples, exactly how I have always wanted a Chaos Fantasy army to to look, thankfully, the Legions of Chaos list in The End Times: Glottkin lets this happen. Have a few more units to work into it, and all the Daemons are on round bases but have Regiment trays with holes, so its two (rather limited alone) armies in one!

Pics will have to come later, as my phone died early on in the day, so I'll photograph after a painting session this evening.

We then had a few turns of a big 40K game, again 4 players, the armies were all mostly painted and its looked ace, really sad i didn't get any photos .

Ordered myself a present and got some Thallanx to make a bigger squad for my Solar Auxillia/Mechanicum Horus Heresy Army.

The Worst of The Internet, Titan Edition

Ever since I saw the art work for Titan Legions, I was obsessed with the Titans of 40k, massive walking war machines the size of sky scrapers aren't an original idea at all, but having them look like Gothic cathedrals on legs? Yeah, that was a new one on me.

So I love Titans, everyone loves Titans, the Forge World ones are gorgeous but you're talking £600 for a Reaver and so a lot of people make their own.

This is a hobby that encourages you to use your creativity and stretch yourselves, many talented people spend a lot of time making amazing looking models, but its also a hobby that seems content to not laugh at the worst the community has to offer. I am not happy about this and am going to do something about it.

Adding spikes to your pile of cardboard boxes doesn't make it a Chaos Titan. 

This Warlod was retired from the Legiuons due to Flat Feet

The answer to "What do I do with all these left over Necron guns?" is apparently to just glue them all over some cardboard and spray it black. Excellent detailing on this one. 

Fierce Warhound of Khone, shame about that blind spot. 

I can see one vulnerable spot in this design

A titan on roller skates, yeah why not.

This Ork Gargant needs to start on the Protein Shakes, his mother is worried he's just not eating well

I'll just glue some shit to my toys, thats the same as a Titan, right? The Right one doesn't even have Knees, so it'd just shuffle up towards you slowly,

Even Titans shouldn't skip leg day/ 

Something Different: Rules

For a change, I've had a go at writing some rules, to be used in recreated battles in the Webway, meant for a campaign between the Inquisition and Harlequins that will probably never actually happen.

Fighting in the Webway

Portals

In the Webway, time and space are mutable, one step can take you to a place many metres away, some of these spaces are stable and almost fixed in entrance and exit, , gateways built around them to stabilise them further, but other times the eddies of the Webway, where the warp brushes against it, can cause people to shift around quickly but seemingly at random.

To represent this, first, when you’re setting up terrain, you can set up D3 pairs of Portal markers, the Harlequin player gets to place the first pair or markers, then the opponent. 

Each portal marker is treated as adjacent to its paired marker, so you can move up to one and finish your movement from the second, however, due to the shifting and swirling patterns in the stable portals, they cannot be fired or charged though. Consider them only active while you are moving model, either in the movement phase or while Consolidating after combat.

Flowing Power and Ebbing Luck

For this effect you will need a deck of regular Playing Cards. 

At the start of each player turn, shuffle the deck and draw D3 cards, consulting the chart below. Each Card must be given to a unit that fits its Suit and will grant the effect mentioned in the second chart, if you can't give a Card to a unit, then it must be discarded. At the end of a player turn, remove all Playing Cards and put them into a discard pile. 

Suit	Unit Type (Troops can use all suits)
Heart	HQ
Club	Fast Attack
Spade	Heavy Support
Diamond	Elite

Face	Name	Effect
2	A place in the Dance	The unit can move an extra 1” in the Movement phase
3	Death Abounds	The unit gains the Split Fire rule
4	A Tumble of Fools	The unit can roll and extra d6 when rolling a random distance to move through cover, run or charge, discarding the lowest
5	The Surprising Resurrection	The Unit leaves the board and be placed into Ongoing Reserves and then can Deep Strike next turn
6	Fury of the Rilletann	The unit gains Rage Special Rule for this turn
7	Focus of Cegorach	The Unit gains +2 I
8	Stare Down the Face of Death	Take a leadership test, if passed, the unit gains Fearless for the rest of the game, if they fail, they fall back immediately
9	The Race Against the Fall	If this unit moves more that 12” in this Player turn, including running or charging, then you gain 1 Victory Point
10	Hidden Amongst The Tides	This unit gains the Stealth Special Rule
Jack	Avatar of the Dance	The unit gains the Counter Attack special rule
Queen	Esdainn's Control	The Unit can place a Portal marker in contact with it and place its twined Portal Marker anywhere within 2D6+6” then discard this card
King	Luck of the Laughing God	The unit can choose to reroll any one dice roll this turn, once you've rerolled a dice, discard the card
Ace	Arebennian Incarnate	The Unit can reroll all misses in the Shooting and Combat phases this turn

The Campaign will also let your Characters gain power and have ongoing wounds. As this is for smaller games, there shouldn't be many to keep track of.

Gaining Experience 

Keep a log of every time a model with the Character subtype kills enemy models. Enemy Characters killed count as 5 models, 10 if killed in a Challenge. Every time you reach a threshold, you can roll 1D6 on the Experience Bonus chart below to receive an upgrade.

Thresholds: When kill count reaches one of the following numbers - 5,10,20,35,50,70,100

Roll	Name	Effect
1	Webway Channeler	The Character can sommon forth a blade of force while in the Webway, while fighting in the webway, they may, at the start of their combat phase, swap any weapon they are holding for a Power Weapon of any type
2	Portal Dampener	The Character can concentrate their mind on an active Portal and force this to close, in their Shooting Phase, instead of making a shooting attack, the Charcter can remove a twinned pair of Portal Markers
3	Wayward Projection	Subconsiously, the Character uses the Webway to create an image of themselves that is several inches from where they truly are, this makes them difficult to hit and gives him a 6+ cover save at all times, this can be improved in the normal way by Stealth or Shrouded or any other effect that improves cover saves
6	Empowered By The Webway	Being this close to the Webway and outside of the normal rules of the Universe has empowered the Character, boosting them physically , roll a D3, 1 = +1 S, 2 = +1 T, 3 = +1 W
7	Enhanced By The Webway	Being this close to the Webway and outside of the normal rules of the Universe has empowered the Character, making them more skilled , roll a D3, 1 = +1 WS, 2 = +1 BS, 3 = +1 LD

If you roll a duplicate of a power 1 or 2, you can reroll, all other effects can stack, if you get multiple Wayward Projection then your cover save improves by 1.

Casualties of War

If a character is removed as a Casualty in a Game, then at the end of the game roll on the table below.

Roll	Name	Effect
1	Dead	This Character is dead, you must promote a replacement, create a new Character to use in their place, this new Character had none of the previous Experience Bonuses and kill count is rest
2	Weakened	Remove one random bonus power gained from the Experience Bonus table, if the Character had no bonuses, then treat as Dead and they loses the few kills they had, if any.
3	Injured	In the next battle this Character takes part in, they are at -1 W, after that battler, the effect is gone. If this would take him to 0 then treat this as Weakened, this may still kill any unpowered Characters
4	Shamed	Demolized by their defeat, the Character is at -1 Ld for the next battle they are in, after that battle, this effect is gone
5	Hideous Scars	The injuries sustained have scarred the Character beyond recognition, but they wear the scars as a badge of pride, this Character leads from the front and their troops have their confidence boosted by their presence, the character gains +1 Ld permenantly
6	Near Death Experience	The Character awakens from their injured state determined to prove themselves, taking the lessons learnt and turning them into opputunities to improve, the Character can immediately roll on the Experience Bonus table, regardless of kill count