Video Border Prince Campaign Logs

[Djekar]

Hey everybody! We have a small campaign going on right now - 4 armies (High Elves, Lizardmen, Ogres and Dark Elves) plus a randomly moving fifth army (Orcs and Goblins). We decided that we would start recording the games, and even some of the map turns. To facilitate everyone in our group's use of the channel, we started a new youtube channel - Bromance WarGaming.

Here is part one of game 1 and here is part 2. Let us know what you think. I'm pretty much the only active member of Warseer right now, but most other people troll along and should get your comments/concerns in due time.

Just a note: We are all either new players or starting new armies - so there will be a lack of painted models. One of the reasons that we are doing this is to encourage us to get on that painting, as well as to get some fun feedback from the community.

Enjoy!

Game 2

Unrelated 2700 point tourney practice game between Ogres and Dark Elves
Second unrelated 2700 practice game

Game 1 of Campaign Turn 6 Dark Elves vs. Lizardmen
Game 2 of Campaign Turn 6 Orcs & Goblins vs. High Elves

Random 1500pt Ogres vs. High Elves - Jody and Chris haven't played yet and so they decided to fight it out to find out who's the best. Man, this is a great game - I highly recommend it.

Campaign Turn 7

Campaign Turn 8. Or 9. We haven't figured it out yet. Probably 9.
Turn 9 Game 1 - Orcs vs. Lizards
Turn 9 Game 2 - High Elves vs. Ogres

Tournament Prep 2500 Ogres vs. Dark Elves

Turn 10

Dark Elves vs. Lizardmen in Turn 10
High Elves vs. Ogres in Turn 10

Turn 11
1800 HE vs 1500 O&G
1650 HE vs 1600 Ogres

[-Totenkopf-]

nice match.. only one video for the game was really needed.. looking forward to the rest of your campaign

[BooMeRLiNSKi]

Interested to see this one develop, maybe you should do a review of the campaign map, rules you are using for it and story so far? It all depends on how much time and effort you want to put in, but I find the idea of following a series of reports on a map based campaign with multiple players about the most compelling thing to appear in video reports for awhile, so it would be worth putting the time and effort in to up the professionalism slightly. Don't take that as criticism, they are fine as is... I just think you are on to something here and it'd be worth the extra time and effort for the polish.

There were sound problems halfway (ish) through the first video, I just turned my sound up of course but you may want to check what is happening there.

Two thumbs up, will watch again

[TsukeFox]

Cool cool-
Need a little more lighting and some close up on those mighty armies when clutch events are happing.

[Djekar]

Right now we are using iPads for our video, though Jody says that the quality of picture as well as the audio is better off of his iPhone, so I think that we'll try and see if we can't do better that way. If that fails, we either are or have friends who are tech-savvy - we intend for the quality to improve! Close ups, painted models and less of my finger over the microphone! /shameface

And Boomer - we are going to record our next campaign session which should be this Friday - and we are going to go over the rules and give you views of the map and all that. I'm glad that the idea interests you - we thought it was pretty dang interesting ourselves!

Thanks for the views and comments guys, we will certainly take them into account and keep these things coming!

[TsukeFox]

So for the siege battle:

Perhaps a rule can be made that charges are allowed from connecting walls- ?

Maybe allow charges from the wall to the courtyard-?

Did the defender of a wall get a special bonus against attackers in close combat?
Maybe a +1 armour save-??

How was the points determined for the defender& attacker? Seems like maybe a fairer match could have been made if defense got 500-700 less points. Dunno

[Djekar]

@Tsuke:
We talked about assaulting from 1 wall to another before the game and decided against it. After the game we revised our opinions and decided that for further games we were going to allow that.

As for the walls and courtyard, we just used the standard building rules - so no special bonuses and no charging out of them into the courtyard. We *do* wave the 1" rule within the courtyard and require that the defender not be "gamey" and leave all of his units right up against the inside of the courtyard walls. Another fun rule that we decided after the fact involves the side of the castle with a (working! I mean, come on - kids toys these days!) drawbridge: we said that if the wall with the drawbridge is not defended that the bridge is lowered allowing units to get in through that. Also the defender can lower the bridge if he desires, like if you have cavalry that you want to sally forth with, or a super unit to beat up on other stuff, or even just excellent stallers. However if the bridge is voluntarily lowered, it doesn't come up until the start of the defender's next turn. One last rule that we made after the fact - no more lords. This prevents the siege from being a non event with either the unkillable dreadlord holding/taking a wall single handedly (though very flavorful!) or magic from being the deciding factor, since it is *much* easier for the attacker to fit in a level 3-4 wizard than the defender.

As far points - we did the attacker at 2000 and the defender at 1000 + 150 from being in a fortified city. I felt like the game was pretty balanced at that point value. I certainly didn't feel like as the defender I was at an overwhelming advantage such that I needed to drop any points!

Also note that the top post has been updated with game 2 of campaign turn 5!

[TsukeFox]

In the Ogre vs DE battle A lesson to be learned is to always plan out the turn before declarations are made.

For instance @11:50
The Maneaters look about 12/14" away from either of the cold one knight units-who of charged could not flee.

[TsukeFox]

@20:52

Great play by Chris & his ogres to to redirect those crossbow men to block the hydra from flank charging.

Not sure however on what the ogres can do against that Calvary-

[Djekar]

First point updated with superfluous 2700 point games. Campaign turn 6 to follow soon (we hope!)

[TsukeFox]

Totally dig how the Mean Green acts the same way barbarians do in Civilization.

[Djekar]

We got our campaign turn 6 posted up. It's pretty short. Let us know if anything needs more explanation and we'll try to hit it when we do turn 7 this Wednesday!

[TsukeFox]

Diggen the close ups on the battle field!!

[Djekar]

1st Post updated with turn 6 games and their results. Turn 7 is this Wednesday, so we should have it up before the weekend. Also, we just started a Facebook page if you want to follow us there - we'll be posting the games there along with some other bits and bobs.

[Lord Cedric]

Hey Djekar. I've watched several of your Campaign videos and wanted to say that you guys are doing good! It's one thing to not only start up with the hobby, but to do it with a campaign is pretty involving. Kudos to you guys for continuing and sticking with it.

Your overall video recording is better and has improved quite a bit since your first. I like hearing the players take on how their turn went and their overall thougths on the game as well as an MVP unit. We do that in our club as well and I think it helps with the tactical learning of the game.

The Border Princes is the campaign that I have wanted to start with my club, but our schedules are so different that even getting a game in is pretty hard, sadly. How hard was/is it to get together and play? Also, good job on your mapping of the campaign progress. When each faction submits their actions for a turn, do all of you do that in-person? Or just some of you while the action commands are already turned in? Also, what was your initial starting points for your first army.. if you already gave that, then sorry, I must have missed it. I am assuming that you are going with the direct rules from the Generals Compendium then - have you guys come accross certain rules that just don't fit right yet? If so, have you changed them, or have you made any house rules in addition-to or in-place of a book rule?

Sorry for all the questions! I am just really glad to be able to see this specific campaign unfold so I have a better idea on how to run it in the future for my club.

In regards to your last video on Campaign Turn 6 - I think Jody's High Elves Elyrian Reavers were a subtle MVP who just wouldn't die. lol! Great job with them. Also, he mentioned that he absolutely hates fighting chariots thus his determination to destroy the Goblin Wolf Chariot. Does he plan on having (or does he have) any chariots of his own in-campaign yet? Personally, I really like playing with and against them as they are an Attack or Go Home unit with enough threat to be targeted yet not enough points to worry about point sinking imo. Playing High Elves against an Orcs and Goblins army can be discerning for the HE player in that they field so few models compared to the very large assortment an O&G army can field. hehe - just look at that gigantic Squig block for instance! WOW. lol. (out of curiosity, what were the staring points for each army in that game?). Both Jody and Matt played a really fun and close game. Kudos to them both (and maybe next time, Jody's dice can get a better blessing from the dice gods).

- Lord Cedric

[Djekar]

Hey Djekar. I've watched several of your Campaign videos and wanted to say that you guys are doing good! It's one thing to not only start up with the hobby, but to do it with a campaign is pretty involving. Kudos to you guys for continuing and sticking with it.

Your overall video recording is better and has improved quite a bit since your first. I like hearing the players take on how their turn went and their overall thougths on the game as well as an MVP unit. We do that in our club as well and I think it helps with the tactical learning of the game.

Thanks! We certainly are glad that you are watching and that you are liking it! We are all really glad to continually be improving, so thanks for letting us know that it's working! Let's just hope that you are still interested at the end of 25 campaign turns - that'll be quite a few battles more!

The Border Princes is the campaign that I have wanted to start with my club, but our schedules are so different that even getting a game in is pretty hard, sadly. How hard was/is it to get together and play?

Well it took a good bit of pre-planning to get a night that we could all come together on, and to decide how much time we would have between turns. We settled on Wednesdays every other week, which gives us 2 weeks to schedule and play the games we need to. So far that has worked fine - we just schedule our games around the stuff that is happening at the time, so it's pretty flexible. When we start having more games than 2-3 in a turn we might even lengthen the time in between turns if scheduling becomes too rough. We do have 1 new father (Chris) and a father with another on the way (Jody) so those things do take priority!

Also, good job on your mapping of the campaign progress. When each faction submits their actions for a turn, do all of you do that in-person? Or just some of you while the action commands are already turned in?

We are all present, but we write the orders on slips of paper and don't reveal them until everyone is done. Movement is then done simultaneously (so one banner can leave a map section while another one enters). Theoretically someone could submit their moves without being present, the rest of us would just have to not cheat and look at where they were going before we submitted our moves.

Also, what was your initial starting points for your first army.. if you already gave that, then sorry, I must have missed it.

Each army is starting at 1500 points. If you are asking where we started expanding from, then we picked as per the General's Compendium - we rolled off with the highest roller picking first any map section at least 1 away from a board edge and not including any special sections or road sections. We then proceeded in decending roll order until everyone had placed their HQ. The banners moved out from there to capture territories.

I am assuming that you are going with the direct rules from the Generals Compendium then - have you guys come accross certain rules that just don't fit right yet? If so, have you changed them, or have you made any house rules in addition-to or in-place of a book rule?

Pretty much we are running straight out of the General's Compendium with the modification to the point total (GC recommends 2250 I believe). There have been a few issues that we've had to iron out - notably that the ogres don't have a map based special rule! We all came together to make one up that we like, and Chris was very excited about it and the rest of us thought it was very flavorful as well. When we meet something that hasn't translated well from 6th edition we generally just hash it out before we do the relevant campaign turn. Overall, however, we are playing things very straight forward.

Sorry for all the questions! I am just really glad to be able to see this specific campaign unfold so I have a better idea on how to run it in the future for my club.

Don't worry about it - we love answering questions!

In regards to your last video on Campaign Turn 6 - I think Jody's High Elves Elyrian Reavers were a subtle MVP who just wouldn't die. lol! Great job with them. Also, he mentioned that he absolutely hates fighting chariots thus his determination to destroy the Goblin Wolf Chariot. Does he plan on having (or does he have) any chariots of his own in-campaign yet? Personally, I really like playing with and against them as they are an Attack or Go Home unit with enough threat to be targeted yet not enough points to worry about point sinking imo. Playing High Elves against an Orcs and Goblins army can be discerning for the HE player in that they field so few models compared to the very large assortment an O&G army can field. hehe - just look at that gigantic Squig block for instance! WOW. lol. (out of curiosity, what were the staring points for each army in that game?). Both Jody and Matt played a really fun and close game. Kudos to them both (and maybe next time, Jody's dice can get a better blessing from the dice gods).

Jody hasn't run any chariots yet, but as he says, he is pretty new, and he doesn't have a lot of diversity in his model collection as of yet. Also, even though no one would be very upset, he doesn't want to proxy, so chariots are out for a bit. I actually haven't asked him what he thinks about running them, but I know that he lurks around on Warseer, so maybe he'll come let us know! As far as the starting points, we are playing all games at a flat 1500 point limit with some map based ability to change (fortification, special map sections, etc). Also, as I am Matt, I'll pretend I didn't hear you hope for Jody to get better dice!

[Jamesc1v2]

Cedric, thanks for the encouragement! I have been thinking if running chariots, but am still not sold that 85 points is worth it for me, especially in 1500 points. I really like the lion chariots, but again, 140 points is a lot to sink when I can get almost 5 dragon princes for the same, or run 9 of my infantry specials for 135. But, I guess using them as chaff that can hit really hard might be better than 5 reavers at the same cost.

As Matt said, I want to try to only use what I have so that limits me until I can save some more $$.

Regarding the dice, once I pick colors and buy dice to match I'm sure I will roll nothing but 6's! Either way, I appreciate the encouragement. Thanks for following the campaign, and be sure to check out this weeks turn as we plan to give a little info about each player,

[Lord Cedric]

Thank you both, Djekar and Jamesc1v2, very much for your input and answering questions! I'm sure I'll have more later on as the campaign progresses. Out of curiosity, what did you guys decide as the "bonus" ability for Ogres? I can also respect Jody's decision to run wysiwyg models, though, I bet it can be a bit frustrating not being able to field "this unit" or "that unit" when it could so idealy work in those situations. On the other hand, I can see where this can make better practice at tactics as well, so kudos to him for doing so.

I really like your groups overall gaming enthusiasm. A large part of me wishes I were living locally to you guys as I'd LOVE to get myself in on this campaign... and just to simply play some games. Alas, Michigan is a bit too far. But if for some reason you guys (any of you) find your way to SouthWest Michigan (Kalamazoo/Three Rivers area), let me know! :-D I'll be checking up on your next campaign move. Keep up the great work!

- Lord Cedric

[Djekar]

The Ogre rule that we decided on is that Ogres, being greedy, mercenary gits (and expecting everyone else to be much the same) will often try to bribe their opponents before a battle to make it easier on themselves. When moving (and expecting a fight), the Ogres can declare a "bribe" by writing it on their orders slip. If they do in fact encounter an enemy, then we roll on the "bribe" chart. 1-2: either the ogres got tired of waiting for an answer or their enemies lied - either way the enemies keep the tribute. This is represented by the opposing player gaining a single magic item up to 50 points that is added to a character that can carry it - this is not restricted by normal army composition so doubles or going above max is fine in this occasion. 3-4: The bribe worked! Look as some of the troops leave on "special detail"! This is represented by the opponent removing 50 points from their force for the upcoming battle. 5-6: It's working so well, we might have to do this again! Now the opponent is really getting into it - the Ogres paid off quite a lot of their foes!

And if we are ever in Michigan good sir, we'll look you up!

[Jamesc1v2]

Lord Cedric - check out our Facebook page as well! I'm going to try to get my list up their soon, and it has links to all the videos, and will soon also have video bios for each of us. It's just under Bromance WarGaming.