Warlord Dead? Release rulebook free like CAV

[herzogbrian]

What I would REALLY like to see is for Reaper to try a Kickstarter or something to spin ReaperGames off as it's own company under the HobbyQ aegis.  With all the RAGE games they would have product ready to sell.  It would allow the Game aspect to have it's own budget, invest, plan long term, and advertise as a game system needs to in order to survive in the market while not opening the main company up to potential losses from a failed system launch and maintaining control over the Reaper brand name.

 

Reaper has had SEVERAL great ideas and game systems over the years and EVERY one of them has died due to lack of support from Reaper.  I have heard the old 'We are a miniatures company and not a game company' line time-and-time again.  What has always baffled me is why then 'waste' money on putting out game systems that it is KNOWN will not be supported.   There was a LARGE bump in Warlords popularity with the Savage North release and demand simply died as folks could not obtain sold out rulebooks and miniature releases failed to appear for SN models.

[Phaedros]

I bought an Overlords starter 4 years ago on impulse, liked the models but was sad that there was little to no interest in the game at that time, hopefully it'll see a resurgence with the advent of Bones.

 

A pdf with free rules would be great advertising and is done by most viable companies nowadays, just nix the fluff and it'll still give me a reason to buy the book later. :)

[prophetic_joe]

They had a list of bones figures for Warlord factions somewhere didn't they? I would love to play and have the Savage North rule book but I have no one here who plays, no FLGS, and none of the guys I can get to game at all have their own minis so it is solely my bones collection.

[Dibbler]

How does warlord play? What should I expect compared to SBH and Warmahordes? :)

[TGP]

How does warlord play? What should I expect compared to SBH and Warmahordes? :)

 

It plays in about 2 hours if it is 1000 points per side. Individual models can cost from 7 to 150 points. A 1000 point force will typically have 25-35 models. The usual game is 6 turns.

 

Forces of equal point values really are about equally likely to win. Such a good job was done assigning a point value to each model it is difficult/impossible to win by composing the unbeatable force.

 

350-500 points is about the minimum size and results in a faster game than 1000 points.

 

The game is turn based  ---either it is your move or it is the opponent's--- but it uses a random activation mechanic which does a good job of introducing some uncertainty. Playing cards are used for this.

 

Armies are divided into smaller units called Troops. My army has 6 troops but others often only have 3. In that case there will be 9 cards face-down in a stack. 6 Black cards 3 Red cards. When a turn begins a card is drawn if it is black I choose one troop and it moves/shoots/attacks. This repeats until all cards are drawn and everything has moved. Once that happens the turn is finished. If one of my troops is eliminated totally the deck diminishes to 8 cards for the next turn.

 

There is much rolling of D10's to resolve shots and combat. Only ten-sided dice are used for rolling. D4s or D6s are very useful to mark wounds on models however (but other methods are allowed).

_________________ 

 

Is SBH Song of Blades... ?  I know nothing about SBH and I have only observed Warmachine so the only comparison I can make is that a Warlord army will typically be more models than most Warmahorde forces I have seen. One leader/caster with retinue of 2 big things, 3 medium things and 4-5 grunts is not a typical Warlord army, but that is my impression of the typical, small Warmachine force.

[Dibbler]

SBH = Song of Blade and Heros :)

[McSmash Smash]

TGP summoned up Warlord nicely.  A few things I would add would first be Damage Tracks.  Warlord uses data cards that can be printed off of reapergames.com.  On the card there is a grid with all your models stats.  As your model takes wounds the stats change to reflect their weakened state.  For example if my model takes one wound, I would look down the Damage Track (DT) 1 column to see my models new stats.  I guess a very loose comparison would be the damage grids that are used in Warmahordes for the jacks and beasts.

 

I also would like to emphasize TGP point about army balance.  This makes for incredibly engaging games.  I've played other systems where you face that new or updated army and you get wiped out the within a couple turns, not so with Warlord.  Since everything is so balanced winnnig really depends on you developing a strategy and not just using brute force or spamming a certain unit type.  

 

Last thing I would add would be Defensive Strikes.  Each time you engage an enemy in a melee or ranged attack, they have to opportunity to attack back with their full number attacks unless a spell or special ability prevents that.  This really makes you think before attacking knowing that you could take a good deal of damage back.  

 

If you go on reapergames.com they have a quick play guide which walks you through game play and also a series of learn to play videos  I'll link it here so you can take a look: http://www.reapergames.com/warlord.php?display=Downloads      

[TGP]

...and plus what McS² said.  Also, the standard game is 5 turns (but tournaments often make it 6).

 

Another comparison / contrast of Warmachine v. Warlord: 

 

Warmachine, by design, is very keyed to the warcaster----the other units depend heavily on him/her/it. Warlord by contrast, and in spite of its name, is not as dependent on the character/leader being up and still in the fight. (And a Warlord force can be led by a pair of Captains and have no Warlord figure at all.)

[Dibbler]

Thanks for the summary, guys.

 

The damage grids sound a bit like Wrasslin'

[Goblyn]

i want an army book for each faction illustrated by talin

 

[Keldain]

My question is are all of the Warlord minis cast in Bones now? And why are there no starters listed in the shop anymore?

 

Also, I've awoken from my slumber.

[Qwyksilver]

i want an army book for each faction illustrated by talin

 

They started doing faction books back in v1.0 but determined that popcorn books were not working, so stopped making them.

Crusaders, Reven, Overlords, Nefsokar, and Necropolis were made, and you may still be able to find them on secondary markets.  A lot of the fluff got rolled into the v2.0 book.

[TGP]

My question is are all of the Warlord minis cast in Bones now? And why are there no starters listed in the shop anymore?

 

Also, I've awoken from my slumber.

Many of the Warlord minis are still metal at this time. But it is possible to build some Warlord armies totally or mostly out of Bones figures. Vince and some others had a thread going in here somewhere where such builds were being posted.

 

No idea what happened with the starter sets----sold out / discontinued / Not In Catalog status would be my Scientific Wild Acred Guess. (SWAG: NIC)

 

//sends virtual coffee

Edited September 8, 2014 by TGP

[Bonwirn]

I played in the Warlord tournament at Reapercon this year.  My Crusaders army was entirely made up from Bones (with legal proxies).  Not a lot of cavalry in Bones until KS2 arrives.

 

My 1000 pt Crusaders army cost me (retail less than $60) less than $30 for the few pieces I needed more of (most of the army was from 2 Vampire Boxes from KS1).

 

Reapers proxy rule allows you to substitute any Reaper figure for your mini.... with some caveats.

 

It is a fun game!

[Moes1980]

Yeah, I also would like to see more support for warlord. I have the first edition rules and second edition, and just ordered a copy of savage north from amazon. I also have the necropolis book and man, it is awesome. I love the fluff and that it included a special scenario for undead. A kickstarter releasing factions in bones and updated rules and fluff would be awesome as this seems to bea. Very underrated game and could probably do much better in sales with a more robust marketing push and kickstarter platform (heck, who knows, maybe the CAV kickstarter is a test run for warlord).

 

One thing I don't understand though is, why were so much of the rules cut out between first and second edition? I miss things like volley ranged attack, looting bodies, coup de grace, stunts, battling through doors, and the awesome campaign rules and other things. I guess the second edition is a bit more simple, but a lot of the other cool rules would make good optional advanced rules.

 

I hope this game comes back in force.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Moes1980