The Beard Bunker

  This post is more a public service announcement than an article, but since I've poured a lot of love and effort into the subject of this announcement, and since I'm not taking up our regular Monday slot with it, I figure the world will cope. Just about. Back in October, Jeff finally brought his Word Bearers up to Oxford, and we spent a week enacting an orgy of miniature violence known as the Raid on Lachesis . A self-contained week-long 40K Crusade campaign with a big ol' campaign map, a lot of narrative, angry marines, and a whole bunch of truly heroic Imperial Guard. This post, then, serves purely to direct those of you who enjoy this sort of thing over to Goonhammer. It's split into five parts, because we did not skimp, and this way it's easier for you to savour it over multiple sittings. Part 1 : rules, maps, artwork, lore. Part 2 : The players that fought in the campaign, and their armies. Part 3 : The beginning, in which there are Imperial heroics. Part 4 : ...

The Northern Border Princes map: normal style Credit: Charlie/Beard Bunker. Software used: Wonderdraft Would you like a map campaign supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Battle? Set in the Border Princes? For free? Because that's what's in this post. Of course, you could probably adapt these rules to a different game system with relative ease, so if nothing else it might be a source of ideas for those of you keen to play campaigns in 40K or some other system.

Hi folks, recently Em and I got the chance to throw down (I don't get to play her nearly enough) and busted out our respective Iyanden Eldar and my Blood Angels. Thinking that the yellow vs the red would make for an attractive game I brought my camera. Here's the results. Enjoy! Blood Angels deploy amongst the gantries. Iyanden take the township and seemingly hunker down and prepare to repel borders Lovely windrider jetbikes, first time I'd seen them in the flesh. So much better than last edition Em's shiny new fire prism sneaks in to take aim at my blameless tanks. The Dark Reapers lock and load atop the tower. Blood Angels bikers, acting as outriders for the tanks advance on the flank. The Fire Prism advances up the ramp to get up the right angle. Seconds later a Razorback was aflame. Guardians spot the incoming bikers and ask the Wraithguard to deal with it. The Wraithguard round the corner and ready their D-Scythes... ...

Today, Maisey and I bring you our first 40K 8th edition battle report. It will cover the splodes,  who done them, and why they was done. At the end, Maisey's providing a reflective plenary on his tactical learning points. The backstory (w hy was the splodes done?) There wasn't officially any backstory, but my subconscious provided one anyway: Inquisitor Drake  has heard rumours of heretic astartes poking about in some pre-Imperial ruins on Samalut IX . Putting on his brownest trousers, Drake has come to put a stop to... whatever it is they're doing. Upon arrival, he requests assistance from the most mobile Guard units available and heads for the traitors' last known location. He normally likes to plan things meticulously, so this sort of tactical improvisation scares the hell out of him. The armies (who done the splodes?) Both forces weigh in at a power level of 70. The Imperial force consists of a mechanised battalion (+3CP) from the Ankran 107th, and a...

Come one, come all, to this: the final instalment of the narrative that evolved over the course of the Beard Bunker’s Campaign Week. If you’re new here, you might want to start at the beginning , then read the first and second parts of the story so far. Also, fair warning: what with this last part being, like, totally epic and awesome and whatnot, it is not short . Be prepared for schturm and drang and much gnashing of teeth. The Survivors Somewhere in the Weiss Hills Someone was shaking Amelia awake. “Sorry, miss, but it’s time to move on,” they said. She squinted at the light; the sun was coming up behind a pale sheet of cloud. The moorland turf beneath her was cold.  Her vision was still blurry, but better than it had been after the miscast. Her joints ached, and her hearing was still off. As she came to, she took in the other eight survivors, and in doing so, brief flashes of their night-time flight swam back to her: sneaking through the burned-out ruins ...

Something I’ve learned from the first week of campaign play is that the “narrative” in “narrative wargaming campaign” doesn’t come so much from the battles you play, but the little bits of story that knit them together. Consider, for a moment, the structure of an action movie... obviously, there need to be explosions. We’re all down with explosions, not least of which so that badass people can avoid looking at them . Now imagine a film containing nothing but explosions. That’d get old faster than [insert reality-TV-launched boy band here]. Don’t get me wrong, action scenes still have story content, but they function more like a big, gory fulcrum around which a preceding chunk of plot will turn. Why am I rambling on about this? Because it serves as a preamble to the second part of our campaign’s story wot we started in the last post . If you haven’t read that, this post is going to make little sense from this point onwards.

Keen to reinvent the wheel as often as possible, I thought I’d try something a little different for the Beard Bunker’s third battle report. I’ve pretty much written a short story. With a narrative that, er, extends beyond the battle itself. Somewhat. I might’ve gotten carried away. It was fun, but very time consuming, so it won’t be happening again unless people are very vocally in favour of this sort of thing. Now, since the Beard Bunker is allegedly a hobby blog, as opposed to a place for fiction, there will occasionally be notes about the actual, you know, game in this thing. The notes are in green, and will be anecdotal or talking about the balance of the scenario (as described in my last post ). Why are these bits green? Well, if you find yourself getting immersed in the story, you can just skip the green parts and move on to the next bit in black so as not to break rhythm. A note on the setting/timeline: Oskar Brandt will, as previously mentioned, act as a sort of pr...

In the wake of the positive reactions to  my first battle report , and as promised  in my last post , I have here the tale of Nerd Thunder III. To the wild and reckless joy of my inner nerd,* photos of this game have already been featured on  Games Workshop’s official blog , for which I must thank Mr Dan Harden, who dropped by our table armed only with a camera and an excellent sense of humour.  [All due credit and respect for the original background stock in this image goes to Humblebeez . Many thanks!] A quick recap: our 8.5k-a-side game was set in the opening weeks of the Third War for Armageddon, on the outskirts of Helsreach Hive. The pugilists? Maisey and Jeff as the Imperial forces, with Mark and myself as little green space fungi. To find out just how messy it got, hit the jump.

First, my apologies: between going to France and Devon over the past few weeks, I’ve not found the time to do part two of the freehand tutorial. I shall be slapping it in the face (that means finishing it) this week. Now, moving on... I have something new for the Beard Bunker: a battle report. Kindof. I find myself wondering if I’m about to fall into some of the traps that sometimes befoul the White Dwarf team when they write one of these. At the least, I guess I can try to restrict my use of hyperbole. After all, dire portents are waxing nigh as the End Times descend upon the Olde Worlde, and who am I to indulge in mere rhetoric as such cataclysmic events unfold? Oops. Now, what the rest of this post may lack in hyperbole, it makes up for in length. You might want to put the kettle on before diving in...