Warlord Warlord - the state of play

[TGP]

Yeah, I've been monitoring the Whatthehammer! angst on other forums...  

We are gnashing our teeth, mumbling in corners, and running around in circles because the rules for the game that is replacing Warhammer have leaked and they are so terrible that if I described them here no one would believe me.  If Reaper had decided to use Bones III to relaunch Warlord their timing couldn't possibly been better.
 
In totally unrelated news:
 
What's the elevator pitch for Warlord if someone were to be shopping around for new games to play.

 

My version of the elevator pitch is this. All you need to try the game is your warhammer minis, either of the 2nd ed. Warlord rulebooks, some ten-sided dice, some playing cards (an old deck that is missing a few cards will do), and some wound markers (actually your warhammer D6s will work for those.)

 

There are plenty of warhammer minis that would be decent counts-as models for official Warlord minis. You could cobble together two modest forces to experiment with several ways. What warhammer minis do you have?

[smokingwreckage]

More pitch: to play your army a different way, you buy and paint 3-12 models for $3 to $6 each, rather than 50-60 models for $200 - $300 total... or for Warmahordes, 3-12 models for $200 to $300 total...

BONES! I loves them. Also, for more poses among grunt models, you can grab Warhammer regiments from people leaving the hobby ;P

[MiniCannuck]

 

the general consensus is that we just were [not?] invested in the Warlord world.  The current books don't have much of a story and the parts there are a bit generic.  The models are amazing but there is no overseer to the game in order to make sure the styles work together between and in each faction.  Warlord falls into the realms of the Vortex game system - the rules are fine but it is hard to get invested when there is no story.

 

A few years ago, I was part of a group who were trying to come up with ideas on how to revitalize the game.  Some of the suggestions were great but nothing came of it.  Perhaps someone will have better luck in the future.

 

1. Why does there have to be a story?

 

2. Write your own story[?], draw your own map, assign factions various places...

 

3. The Warhammer players are gnashing their teeth, mumbling in corners, and running around in circles because the owning company of Warhammer ...literally blew up the planet and annihilated everything they had ever written...

 

...being invested is not that great of an idea. Background story is called "fluff" for a reason.

 

Ummm... we do write our own stories - there for our RPG sessions.

 

1.  For our group, the story is needed to develop investment in the factions/models.  A story is a hook for the game, whether it is inherent in the system itself (Warmachine, Malifaux, Warhammer) or it is developed through gameplay (BloodBowl, Dreadball).  I support Warlord but the quality of the story is lacking.

2.  I could but there is only so much hobby time to go around.  I tend to invest my "non-playing" time writing for RPGs and painting my minis for war games.  Sorry, there are too many war games out there that give you a world to play in already.

3.  "tis better to have have love and lost, instead of not loving at all".  I play Warhammer and the drastic story/game change has upset me and the other players in my gaming group.  The reason we are upset is because we care about the world and the characters we have grown up with over the past 25 years.  I don't think that is a bad thing.  I WISH that people cared that much about the characters and factions in Warlord.

 

It is clear that we both approach games differently.  Being games, I don't think either of us are right or wrong, just different.  I can only tell you why Warlord isn't making it to the table with my group.  I will let other people come up with their own reasons why they aren't playing or can't find players. 

 

I really like the people at Reaper and am hoping that sharing my experiences will contribute to ideas if they want to invest further into Warlord.

[lowlylowlycook]

Yeah, I've been monitoring the Whatthehammer! angst on other forums...  

We are gnashing our teeth, mumbling in corners, and running around in circles because the rules for the game that is replacing Warhammer have leaked and they are so terrible that if I described them here no one would believe me.  If Reaper had decided to use Bones III to relaunch Warlord their timing couldn't possibly been better.

 

In totally unrelated news:

 

What's the elevator pitch for Warlord if someone were to be shopping around for new games to play.

 

My version of the elevator pitch is this. All you need to try the game is your warhammer minis, either of the 2nd ed. Warlord rulebooks, some ten-sided dice, some playing cards (an old deck that is missing a few cards will do), and some wound markers (actually your warhammer D6s will work for those.)

 

There are plenty of warhammer minis that would be decent counts-as models for official Warlord minis. You could cobble together two modest forces to experiment with several ways. What warhammer minis do you have?

 

Most of the people I play with have too many models.  But since you asked,

 

I've got Orcs and Goblins that are Mantic orcs mixed with Reaper goblins and some GW night goblins and Black Orcs too.

 

I've got some Elves that are mostly Tom Meier's stuff and GW's LOTR elves.  Oh and some spear elves from GameZone.

 

Pretty soon I'll have an entire Mantic undead army from their kickstarter.  Clearly a great investment...

 

Also have bunches of stuff from Bones I&II KSers.

[lowlylowlycook]

Does Warlord scale up to really big models like a dragon or giant?

[Qwyksilver]

There are stats for giants, a couple dragons, a greater demon, so yeah.  It works.

[McSmash Smash]

There is the Icingstead army which pretty much, if you wanted, could consist of all giant creatures such as frost giants, dragons, yetis, ice trolls, and frost wryms.  Your model count for an army like that would be pretty low since the points costs are pretty high, but it still would look impressive.

[Shakandara]

You mean like this? 12 models, nothing on a standard sized base. And it's not just playable; it can win games, and win them ugly in the right hands.

 

Re; lowlylowly's query about SoBH vs. Warlord... there are some similarities in general game play between the two (i.e. the Warlords and big Solos are much like the high-end Leader models), and the lower stat values and fewer damage tracks for rank and file are similar to models with higher Quality scores, but otherwise the game play is quite different, as is the overall feel of the battlefield. Warlord's longer ranges and higher Movement values make playing the game on a larger playing field a necessity, and the game feels like it is operating on a larger scale because of it.

 

On the whole, I think I like the RAGE mechanics better, but I've been having more fun playing ShadowSea and DeepWars lately (both of which run off the SoBH engine).

 

~v

[Reaperbryan]

But wouldn't it be great if, while he was crunching numbers on which models to include in the kickstarter, that Warlord was dancing through his thoughts and he put more figures, both the named, and the rank and file troops, into the kickstarter (namely the mounted figures!) and has the thought that maybe, just maybe, now would be a good time to revamp the Warlord rules into a multi layer PDF... all in color for its viewing glory, and with the ability to turn off the page background and border, for folks to be able to print out a reduced rule set (with color or B&W pictures)?

 

The background story for the world would be included in the print version.

Allow me to state for the record that while we certainly work to include Warlord figures as well as Dark Heaven within Bones, there will not be a stretch goal in Bones III that includes the printing of a book, the release of a PDF, or the release or re-release of existing warlord print materials. Warlord as a game, rules set, system, or otherwise is beyond the scope of a Bones III Kickstarter, whose goal is the production of Plastic figures, and we would risk even more delays than we are infamous for by introducing the complexity of non-figure/plastic model subsystems within the rewards, excluding our other core proficiencies, such as paint or cases.

 

The time necessary to do this would distract key personnel form their efforts coordinating and otherwise preparing for the promised rewards.  Any hypothetical endeavor involving Warlord as a book or PDF would by necessity be its own project and would not be mixed in with other projects, similar to how we did CAV as a separate thing and did not mix CAVs in with other models or subsystems.

 

Thank you for your enthusiasm.

[McSmash Smash]

Well, that sounded "official".  Lol. Oh well, the term "hypthetical endeavor" gave me some hope for some future Warlord support.  At least we can look forward to some new Bones to be used in Warlord in the next kickstarter.

[Wizard Lee]

I think that Warlord still has a chance of catching on and becoming a popular game.

 

Let's face it, between Bones and the low number of minis needed, Warlord could become popular.  More and more games are trending toward low cost entry and maintenance.  One of the reasons SoBH ate up my group is that it was an $8 pdf download and you can use any figs you want.  The rulebook isn't very expensive and even if you bought a large army of Bones, it would still be cheaper for the most part than getting a competitive force in Warmahordes and worlds away cheaper than GW. 

[Baphomet69]

With the WH implosion, the iron doesn't get much hotter than this...

[Last Knight]

With the WH implosion, the iron doesn't get much hotter than this...

KoW2 is selling out, so many WhFB players are jumping ship. Imagine Privateer is seeung something similar with Warmahordes.

 

Especially with so many unit models already available as Bones, and more no doubt to come, this seems like a grand time to push Warlord.

[Baphomet69]

 

With the WH implosion, the iron doesn't get much hotter than this...

KoW2 is selling out, so many WhFB players are jumping ship. Imagine Privateer is seeung something similar with Warmahordes.

Especially with so many unit models already available as Bones, and more no doubt to come, this seems like a grand time to push Warlord.

So true. I read that Mantic kind of got caught off-guard with how fast KoW2 sold. It uses larger units than Warlord. I think (I haven't played) SoBH is more skirmish sized units like Warlord.

 

I soooo want to see Warlord take advantage of this opportunity and assume its rightful place (at my side. Together, we could rule the Galaxy! Ahem, sorry...). I know most of the players in my circle are looking for more skirmish-scale options (a la SoBH, SAGA (personally not a big fan) and Warlord (if only)).

Edited July 4, 2015 by Baphomet69

[Last Knight]

SoBH is fairly small scale, five to ten man units generally. Unless you're playing undead and trying to bury your opponent under a mass of zombies...

 

I haven't played beyond 300 points, trying to get my usual group to pkay something new - not to mention me getting time to play anything at all - is a pain in the arse.