1.       The Library of Ook

Your scouts have discovered an abandoned library that seems to be filled with hundreds of thousands of books and scrolls of magic. From the number of footprints around the building it seems you are not the only person to find this place…

Game

Fight an objective battle with the inn as the main objective.  This is placed after both sides deploy by the highest rolling player, but must be at least 12 inches away from all units on the table.

Winner

The winner may choose one wizard who gains ALL the spells from any one lore of magic and an additional dispel scroll for the final battle.

2.       Nature’s bounty

Whilst exploring the island, you come across fields and fields of corn, rippling gold in the wind as far as the eye can see.  With this much food you can supply your army for months to come.

Game

Each side deploys as usual. There is no scenery as this battle takes place in the middle of a field.

Winner

Count each board quarter that a side occupies with a scoring unit and compare to the table below:

1: 25 extra points for the final game

2: 50 extra points for the final game

3: 75 extra points for the final game

4: 100 extra points for the final game

3.       Arrow proof monk

A funny little man in an orange toga has somehow managed to enter your command tent without anyone stopping him.  He explains that he has been sent to guide the worthy one to victory and has come to see if it is you.  Whoever can prove their worth to him will receive the monk’s wisdom.

Game

Fight a normal pitched battle. 

Winner

The side with the highest victory points has proven their worth and receives the monks zen advice.  This allows them to reduce their number of core choices by one and increase both their number of allowed rare and special choices by one each.

The High Elves picked a fight with both the lizardmen and chaos warriors and despite back up from Puff the Magic Dragon, fell victim to a combined force of skink blow darts and Keithezzalbubesetdrakonthwaldrethiest (Keith for short) the Demon Prince.

The orc horde raced towards the cave, having the occasional swipe at anyone who got too close and pausing only to push fanatics towards all and sundry.

Come the end of the battle, not much was left standing on the field (well not much that wasn’t green) and the Orcs were left holding the cave, with a unit of Saurus including a Slann Priest looking most vexxed for not being able to contest it.

Meanwhile the Skaven and Wood Elves decided to have a tea party by themselves.  All bar one unit of Skaven tunnelers who were MIA, as usual.

Scouts have brought back word that the local islanders are dripping in gold, picked up directly from the river than runs down from the mountains. Whoever takes control of the mountains, will have a steady stream of income to hire more troops for the rest of the campaign. 

Game: Fight a normal pitched battle. 

Winner: The winner will receive 100 bonus army points towards the end game.

 2. Grandbelf the Grey

A meddlesome wizard has taken an interest in you and your enemy’s affairs and is willing to aid whichever side is the strongest. 

Game: Fight a normal pitched battle. Set up Grandbelf at a random location on the battlefield (by dropping a dice from above).  Grandbelf may not be deliberately targeted for attack, however he counts as impassable terrain and if hit by a scatter/misfire/explosion has a ward save of 5+.  If he dies, no one may make use of him! 

Winner: The winner will receive 1 free level 1 shadow wizard for the end game. He is equipped with Grandbelf’s Staff (provides a 5+ ward save) and on foot.  

3. Mysterious cave, I want to get close to you…

Cleeshay Island is riddle with p(l)ot holes and caves.  The one you have found seems to radiate a green glow from inside.  Sadly your opponents are also on the scene to find out what causes the glow. 

Game: Fight an objective battle with a cave as the main objective.  This is placed after both sides deploy by the highest rolling player, but must be at least 12 inches away from all units on the table. 

Winner: The winner receives 50 points of items from the common magic items for the end game.  These items may be added as extra to a characters normal magical item allotment.

Rumours of a fantastic treasure lying somewhere in the abandoned Castle Scabies have drawn armies to the once peaceful island in search of the treasure.  Only one side can leave the island with the treasure in hand.  Who will it be?

First up was the clash between Toby and Rob. The Orcs and Goblins lined up, with some new additions to their ranks. The Empire lined up opposite, in a slightly straighter line and with less infighting.

The game started and the Orc battle plan was, as usual, promptly forgotten as some units charged ahead and others stood around fighting amongst themselves. The Empire army proceeded to shoot lots at the oncoming green horde. This theme was to continue for the next 6 turns.

Highlights included misfire war machines (not uncommon when fielding as many as Rob had) and the amount of time several key Orc units hid behind a forest. The fanatics, as usual provided comedy moments, not least two falling short of the Empire line and then heading back to their own lines.

With a massacre of his boys, Warlord Toby was heard to mutter after the battle,

“More zogging squigs! That’s the key to this game…”

On another battlefield, several miles away, the Skaven (Chris) and High Elves (Jon) meet to do battle.

Chris had decided to bring the biggest unit of Skaven ever (or was it two units jammed together, no one could ever tell), whilst the High Elves lined up with spears gleaming and… hold on some shadow infiltrators in front of the Skaven?

Jon had found the funds to recruit some Shadow Warriors to his cause, who bravely set up in front of the Doomwheel. Chris’s eyes lit up and with an evil cackle his Doomwheel rolled towards them… until it got to the top of the cliff, realised it was a bit steep and looked for another way down.

With a lot of fancy manoeuvring/luck the Elves were left in possession of the board and a large pile of Skaven corpse. Rat kebab anyone?

The final battle saw Jon facing off against the bloated monstrosity that is Chaos Lord Jeff.

The High Elves deployed as a force of 90% cavalry, hoping to take the battle to the Chaos horde. The Chaos forces deployed in a nice long line along with a friendly giant.

The battle saw a lot of manoeuvring, a lot of flee reactions and avoidance of charge arcs. Having ploughed through a unit of marauders (read sacrificial lambs), a unit of Silverhelms and an Elven chariot found themselves behind enemy lines. Fearing they may be lost, the friendly giant decided to offer them some advice… such as don’t stand still whilst a giant jumps up and down on you!

The rest of the battle went along similar lines, with the High Elf force encircled and smashed between two lines of Chaos troops. More glory to the dice gods of Chaos!

So onto empire building and new challenges for all.

The Skaven and Orc joined forces to get revenge on the Empire by wiping out the unit in one round of fighting and running away.

In the mean time, the forces of Chaos moved in on the High Elves, who opted to tactically withdraw, shooting as they went.  This was to little avail and saw them chased out of the competition.

The Skaven and Orc  alliance then spent several turns chasing the Chaos Marauders around the board, before eventually the Skaven forced them off the table.  Sadly this left the Skaven in a bad position, and in an ironic twist saw them stabbed in the back by their ex-allies.

The Orcs claimed the day and the treasure!

The prospectors, enjoying a good fight have decided that they will give the map to the winner of the King of the Hill challenge.

How to win: The winner will be the unit stood at the top of the hill after 6 turns.

Entrants: Each army wishing to enter must first provide the dwarfs with a 10 gold entry fee. Then organise 1 unit worth up to 200 points. Each unit must contain a champion who can be armed with up to 25 points of magical items (even though not normally allowed). No warmachines, characters, or rare units are allowed. Units must come from the core/special unit choices and may be infantry or cavalry.

The field of battle: 4×4 board with one large hill in the centre.

When: as soon as all entrants are together again – come prepared.

The treasure: 1 Sword of Might, 1 Powerstone and 1 dispell scroll. All of these may be used in 1 game anytime in the future as additional items free of charge.
Remember – there can be only one!

Events chosen were:

Chris – Scouts

Rob – Elite army (expect 6+ cannons anyone fighting him this round)

Toby – Scouts

Jon – Landgrab

Jeff – Diplomacy against Chris (this time it was a delivery of tainted sesame seeds to the Skaven)

Challenges looked like:

Chris – Jon

Rob – Toby

Toby – Rob

Jon – Jeff

Jeff – Jon

Jon opted to fight one at a time against Chris and Jeff, fearing the ill tempered mutated ratmen and gribbly chaos alliance.

Everyone, except Jeff, chose scouts. Jeff decided to send some large amounts of warpstone to Ratboy Chris, thus diplomatically ensuring no challenges from Chris against Jeff this turn.

On to the fights. Toby decided to take his challengers on one at a time, in a Jackie Chan stylee. Some poor animosity rolls saw the Orcs and Goblins forgetting the battleplan and half the army stopped to admire the scenary, whilst the rest rushed off to go meet the Chaos horde head on. This saw them promptly being squashed under the plate armour and tentacles of Chaos and left room for Keith with the Big Teeth and Throg to go finish off warmachines. A Chaos win.

Toby then took on Jon’s High Elves. Jon dared to mock the dice gods before the game… oh dear. With 6 out of 10 rolls ending in ones and Toby’s rock lobber decimating the eagle rider and horsemen with some amazingly lucky shots, the game ended in a draw. Jon only being saved from a defeat by the board quarter and one standard he had captured in the game. Mock the dice gods again Jon, I dare you!

Rob and Chris’s game looked a lot closer across the 6 turns. With enormous amounts of shooting from the Empire a lot of the ratmen ended up staring at the sky without even making it to the enemy. To help/hinder his own plan Chris also managed to singe the fur of a lot of his own troops with misfiring warpfire throwers being rife (never trust the warpstone given to you by a Tzeentch player). The end result was a victory to Rob!

Empire points were spent of some expansion for some and mining and raiding for others.  All of the games in turn 3 had seen additional troops bought with gold and so most people want more of the same to give them that 250 point edge.