End of Turn Three!

Well after a three month gap in the middle slowing things down somewhat, Turn 3 of the Last Chance War is now over! It took eight months (five if we ignore that time when playing stopped while I worked on my comic art).

Here's the map as it now stands, prior to movement.

Click on the map to expand it.

If you look really closely, you'll see that I've added names for each of the named locations that have been mentioned in games so far. I've also made more of a feature of roads and rivers as I want these to play a bigger part in games and map movement from now on.

Roads help speedy movement (and so can rivers) but crossing rivers without a bridge is a problem for armies and That should be shown in the campaign. From now on, armies will need to roll a 4+ to reach a map sections on the other side of the river they are coming from. If they fail the roll they will spend their turn crossing the river and won't be allowed to move on.

Results

Let's examine how each of the forces have fared up until now in order of most to least successful...

1. The Tempestrians continue to hold place as the most flourishing realm, but the new additions of the Beastmen and Chaos Dwarf realms (as well as the updated Ogre Kingdoms army book) threaten to undermine their position before too much time has passed.
   
2. The Tomb Kings realm stretches right across the bottom of the map and has no enemies behind it, but due to its sprawling nature it faces attack from many different foes nonetheless.
   
3. The Beastmen have done well already and with an Ally on one border and only two enemies, they stand in good stead to be successful very quickly.
   
4. The Empire have yet to win a battle but clever manoeuvring has nonetheless allowed them to expand their realms. If my tactics ever improve, they might actually beat someone. We'll see...
   
5. The Wood Elves once held an unassailable position and a great realm but this is starting to slip. With the Knights of Ebon Scar beating on their eastern doors, time will tell if their floundering realm will be able to defend itself.
   
6. The Knights of Ebon Scar seem all but undefeatable (must tinker with those points values), and they have no enemies to their north. With such advantages, their strange chariots and terrible armour may be more than can be fought off. Their greatest weakness is that on this world they are completely without allies. Will this be their undoing long term?
   
7. The Warriors of Dunkel Schloss have only recently awoken from their centuries-old slumber but already they are expanding their realms into the west. It won't be long before they clash on all sides, driving their chaos-spawned prowess into their victims' hearts.
   
8. The Dwarfs have a tremendous advantage with only two aggressive neighbours, but somehow they are still proving to be a weak nation (largely due to some pretty crappy army manoeuvring earlier in the campaign by my friend Joao). Long term the odds are with them, but if their enemies take too much ground they won't be able to mount a credible attack.
   
9. The Chaos Dwarfs haven't fared too well so far but things bode well. With a new army list and what looks to be a complete army by the time of my next game, we'll see if they can't strike back at their full strength.
   
10. The Ogres have done very badly so far but the new army book has fixed some of their weak points and I've almost doubled the size of my army. Hopefully this will mean good things for them.
    
11. The Orc realm has recently been split in two (separating the Spider Goblins off) but they tend to fair pretty well in games. For now, they remain stable.
    
12. Despite a great victory against the Tempestrians last turn, the Chaos Daemons have fallen back a little. I've been practising with the Flamers though and they rock! Maybe things will change.
    
13. The Vampire Counts have been doing REALLY badly for a while now. REALLY badly. But they too have a new army book which tends to mean an upgrade in power and/or a lowering of points. With the Tomb Kings support nearby and few proximate enemies, they may be able to regain their footing.
    
14. The Spider Goblins really shouldn't be this far down the pecking order. It was my mistake setting them up as a smaller realm in the first place. In fact they've won all but one of their games. Here's hoping the initial realm size doesn't cripple them as they've gone down an army this turn.
    
15. Skaven. Oh dear. Again, they seem to win most games, but due to some bad losses early in the campaign and some weird spaced out army placement, they are doing very badly now. Spikehole, their capital is under threat. If they lose that then they are really screwed. 

 Take a look at the overall army victories:



And player victories:



My wife is actually winning considering she plays fairly regularly like Mike and me. Joao's one game ever makes him look really good but I think we all know the truth.

Random Events


I've introduced a new element to the campaign inspired and stolen from the Blood in the Badlands campaign book recently released from GW. I fairly recommend this book. I don't use Mighty Empires map tiles so it has limited application in this campaign (compared to the far superior General's Compendium) but the Siege Rules are great (and much awaited) and it looks good.

From now on, prior to map movement and counting up realms, I'll be rolling on the Random Events table I have created for each army. This will produce a variety of effects, some of them good - some bad. The Random Events table is available on the How the Campaign Works page. It's based largely on the Blood in the Badlands one with a bunch of changes made ot match a map campaign like mine.

Here are the random events for this turn:

Orcs	Cunning Commander	You may choose when your army will move (if another player rolls this then roll off to decide who chooses first)
Knights of Ebon Scar	Stacking the Odds	In one random game you have 25% more men than your opponent
Goblins	Bolstered Defences	Any Capital Defences gain +35% troops rather than +25%
Ogres	Fell Plans	In one random game you must deploy first and move second
Tempestrians	Sappers	If you attack a capital this turn, they get only +15% troops rather than +25%
Chaos Warriors	Swift Steeds	All your armies may have a second move on a 5+
Skaven	Stacking the Odds	In one random game you have 25% more men than your opponent
Vampire Counts	Caught on the Back Foot	In one random game, play the Storm of Chaos Halting the Tide scenario with your opponent having double the number of points
Beastmen	Unrestricted Resources	For each of your games this turn you may ignore the restrictions on Core, Special, Rare, etc.
Wood Elves	Sappers	If you attack a capital this turn, they get only +15% troops rather than +25%
Tomb Kings	Recalled from War	Remove one random army from the map for this campaign turn
Empire	Enemy Sympathisers	Any fortress defences this turn grant only +15% rather than +25% troops
Chaos Daemons	Bad Intelligence	You may move one enemy army this campaign turn (on their turn to move, before they move anything else)
Dwarfs	Raiding Party	Choose one enemy map section (other than their capital). That comes under your control
Chaos Dwarfs	Deserters	Choose one map section from your realm at random. That section goes over to the nearest enemy realm

Strengthened Alliances

In the coming turn I want to get the movement more in line with the logical alliancesthat are present. Here are the different alliances and from now on I want them working closer together to coordinate their efforts:

The Civilised Realms 

Tempestrians
Empire
Dwarfs

The Chaos Incursion

Chaos Dwarfs
Beastmen
Chaos Warriors
Daemons of Chaos

The Hordes of Disorder 

Skaven
Ogres
Orcs
Goblins

The Undead Nation 

Vampire Counts
Tomb Kings

All that's left now is to get on and move the armies.

Order of Movement 

Here's the order of movement in this turn:

Orcs

Knights of Ebon Scar

Goblins

Ogres

Tempestrians

Chaos Warriors

Skaven

Vampire Counts

Beastmen

Wood Elves

Tomb Kings

Empire

Chaos Daemons

Dwarfs

Chaos Dwarfs