Slann
Scalenex
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I’m planning on designing my own campaign. Here is what I have so far, all advice and criticism welcome. Hopefully the GM of the last campaign I played can help me with a map since that’s not my strong suit. My biggest struggle is tradeoffs between contradictory impulses. 1) Fill the game with cool and interesting rules and twists. 2) Make campaign flow fast and simple
Campaign Premise
Yarlreck was the most talented Amber wizard the world had ever seen since Kadon. He was outspoken with his notion that “we should fight with the myriad creatures of the world, not against them”. Later, he claimed to have personally studied under Kadon but College of Magic historians claim he was born shortly after Kadon died. He probably did gain access to some of Kadon’s rarest records. Yarlreck’s experiments were ground breaking, especially with the creation of but increasingly morally indefensible as he experimented with creating new creatures. He kidnapped peasants to use as experimental materials or food for his creations.
Either shortly before or shortly after being banished from the Amber College, he turned to dark powers to support his experiments. It is unclear who he turned to. Rumors declare he turned to Tzeentch, Clan Moulder, the Sorceress Coven of the Druichi, an ousted Strigoi lord, and/or the Fmir. It’s said he took help from multiple sources and tried to turn them against each other. He took over a small island and gathered many rare beasts to him and began experimenting with ways of controlling and enhancing monsters.
He ended up repelling separate attempts by various groups trying to stop his dark works and various groups trying to steal his dark works (it is rumored that he reneged on his agreements to pay back his dark backers). One day, his citadel exploded and most of the island sank beneath the waves. Many have taken credit for this (or been given credit for it), but it is unknown what ultimately destroyed Yarlreck.
The large island became several small islands. The submerged areas aren’t very deep so it takes an intimate knowledge of the tidal effects of the area to sail safely through. Compounding the innate dangers of the area are the various aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures. Some were bred by Yarlreck to defend his originally coast lines. Some were terrestrial creatures that adapted to the watery environment. Knowledge of safe passages and harbors in the Isles of Yarlreck became a trade secret for bands of pirates and sea faring mercenaries.
Recently the waters have begun rapidly receding and the island has risen above the waves again. The foliage has grown rapidly on the newly emerging land. It is a safe assumption that some of the original fauna of the island is returning as well. It is believed to only be a matter of time before Yarlreck’s citadel to appear again. Armies have converged on the emerging island to stake their claim to as much of the island as possible.
Scoring
The player with the most relics wins at the end of the game wins. The game is split into months and seasons. Relics are gained primary from controlling tiles.
Yarlreck’s Spire: Two relics per season
Sunken City: Two relics per season
Yarlreck’s Cemetery: Three relics per season
Yarleck’s Citadel: Ten relics at the end of the game.
Monster Lair/Pirate Haven: One relic per season.
All other tiles: One relic per three regular tiles per season (round 2 up, round 1 down).
Play an end of season special scenario: All participants get d3 relics regardless of outcome, stacks with the next three.
Win any battle: gain a relic
Draw any battle: gain a relic on a 2+
Lose any battle: gain a relic on a 4+
Random Events: Depends on roll on chart
Mines: Depends on roll on chart
Bribery: If other players give you relics to buy a better fortification save or ransom a capture character. Players may NOT give away relics for nothing or trade relics for mercenary services, that would allow one player to throw the game to another.
Capture Enemy’s capital: You gain one relic, opponent loses one relic.
Liberate your capital: You gain one relic, opponent loses one relic. You cannot liberate someone else’s capital.
Movement
By Land
Each month an army can move 1d3 tiles in a single direction. They don’t have to move their full move if they don’t want to, but they have to stop if they reach the coast. If your route would take you through another army, you have to stop in their tile.
By Sea
If an army starts the month on the coast they can sail to any coastal tile regardless of distance. To get to their destination, they need to make a 4+ on a d6 roll modified by the following chart. Normally a 1 always fails and a 6 always succeeds. Not so. If your positive modifier let your reach your destination on a 1, you make it there automatically. If negative modifiers make it impossible to succeed on 6, your sailors refuse to launch the ships.
Sailing, succeed on 4+ d6 roll
Summer +1
Winter -1
Destination is part of your empire +1
Destination is only five water tiles away or less +1
You control at least one Pirate Haven +1
You control Yarlreck’s Spire +1
Destination is a hostile Fort -1
Destination is a hostile City -2
If you succeed a sailing roll, move your army to the declared destination. If you fail. Consult the following chart.
1- Lost at Sea: Remove the army from play
2-Problems en-route, figure out the half way point between your launch point and destination. The army goes there. If the half way point is lies on the divider between two tiles, the player decides which tile they go on. If there is no practical way to determine the midway point of your route, treat it as “Forced to Turn Back”.
3-Forced to Turn Back: Your army is stuck on the tile they tried to launch from this month.
4- Forced to Turn Back: Your army is stuck on the tile they tried to launch from this month.
5- Failure to Launch: Army can’t go to sea this turn, but the problems crop up early enough that your army can make a land move if they choose.
6-Failure to Launch: Army can’t go to sea this turn, but the problems crop up early enough that your army can make a land move if they choose.
Staking a claim
At the end of a month after battles are fought, armies can try to claim new tiles they are sitting on. If the tile an army is sitting on a tile, and it’s neutral, it’s yours. If the tile is controlled by another player they get a 6+ Fortification save to resist losing the tile with an improved save for the following modifiers.
Defensive Value
Bordering an attacker’s tile -1
Friendly Fort to the defender on tile or adjacent tile +1
Friendly City on tile or adjacent +2
Tile is a Lowland Tile +1
Tile is a Pirate Haven/Monster Lair +1
Unique Tile +?
Racial abilities apply +?/-?
Building the Isle of Yarlreck
Start of the Game
Take about 8 or 9 hexagonal tiles per player. It can be arranged as one large island or a cluster of medium sized island or one large island with some small islands jutting off it. Whatever strikes the GM’s fancy. Randomize what season you start on (Spring, Summer, etc)
Create one empire cluster per player. Each cluster should be five tiles. At least one should be coastal. A cluster should be as compact as possible, ideally one center hex and four touching it but slightly more spread out clusters are okay. No clusters should be sharing any borders. The logical center of a cluster is where the capital city goes but the capital should be coastal since it represents where your army set up camp off the ships.
Put four lakes (or clearly marked bays) on the island/island chain towards the center of the map, one sort of towards the northeast, one towards the southeast, one towards the northwest, and one towards the northeast. These are where the unique features will show up eventually as campaign objectives.
Mark one tile as a pirate haven per two players rounded down. Mark one tile as a monster lair per two players rounded up. None of these tiles should be in a player empire cluster though it’s okay to border a player’s starting realm or even border two players starting realms (border fighting is encouraged!). The pirate havens must be coastal and the monster lairs must be landlocked. No pirate haven or monster lair should share a border with one of the four campaign objectives.
Designate about a third to a half of the tiles as lowland tiles and the rest as highland tiles. The lowland tiles should tend to be found near the coast, but this isn’t a universal rule. Pirate havens and capital cities should never be on lowland tiles, convert these to highland tiles if necessary.
Each player rolls 2d6, reroll ties. The highest roller picks a cluster first, then the second highest and so on and so forth till all the clusters are chosen. If the GM is also a player the GM automatically picks last.
End of Season 1
Randomly select one of the four lakes, the one selected is the site of Yarlreck’s spire, the prize of the first season.
Start of Season 2
Roll a d6 for every lowland tile, on a 5+ they convert to highland tiles. Each player can add two new lowland tiles to the board. Only one can be bordering their empire. The new tiles cannot cause a capital city or a pirate haven to become landlocked.
End of Season 2
Randomly select one of the three lakes, the one selected is the site of the Sunken City, the prize of the second season.
Start of Season 3
Roll a d6 for every lowland tile, on a 5+ they convert to highland tiles. Each player can add two new lowland tiles to the board. Only one can be bordering their empire. The new tiles cannot cause a capital city or a pirate haven to become landlocked.
End of Season 3
Randomly select one of the two remaining lakes, the one selected is the site of Yarlreck’s cemetery, the prize of the third season
End of Season 4
Yarlreck’s Citadel replaces the last lake.
More than 5 players?
Instead of putting in four one-tile lakes on the map, put four one-tile lakes and two two-tile lakes. Use two Spires of Yarlreck (either east-west or north-south) and two Yarlreck’s Cemeteries (east-west or north-south, whichever setup was not used for the Spires), these make up the one-tile spots. Double the size of Yarlreck’s Fortress and the Sunken City, these make up the two-tile spots. Randomize between the two parallel sets of small lakes for seasons one and two and randomize between the two larger lakes for season three and four.
Base Terrain Types
Highland Tile: Highland Tiles are ordinary tiles that just use the baseline rules.
Lowland Tile: Lowland tiles have +1 to fortification saves because swampy land is hard to invade and claim. Most armies can’t build structures in lowland tiles, but Skaven, VC, and LM. Other army can use a structures built on Lowland tiles if they capture them .
Terrain Features
Mines, Wizard Towers, Forts, and Cities are placed by the player’s in their own empires. I have yet to decide how often players get to build features but I know everyone starts with a City.
Mines: Mines are built by players and you roll for them producing goodies every campaign month after armies move.
Wizard Tower: Wizard Towers are built by players and allow the controller to switch digits on a random event roll. You gain no additional benefit for having multiple wizard towers other than the insurance that you can afford to lose a few to invasions.
Fortress: Fortresses are built by players. Fortresses provide a +1 save bonus to their own tile and all adjacent friendly tiles. Battles fought on Fortresses are always Siege and tiles with Fortresses may never be captured without a battle.
City: Cities are built by players in tiles that already have Fortresses. They replace Fortresses. Cities provide a +2 save bonus to their own tile and all adjacent friendly tiles. Battles fought on Cities are always Siege and tiles with Cities may never be captured without a battle.
Monster Lairs: Monster Lairs have a fortification save bonus of +1. The controller of a Monster Lair gets 35% instead of 25% to spend on Scrolls of Binding in Monstrous and Storm of Magic games (controlling more than one Monster Lair tile confers no additional bonus). Though there are no Monstrous or Storm of Magic games in Season One and Two, but you can still claim a Monster Lair in seasons one and two.
If you control at least one Monster Lair, one character per army can be a “Master Hunter”. Wizards who are Master Hunters get -1 to casting difficulties when the target is a Monster, Monstrous Beast, Monstrous Cavalry, or Warbeast. Non-wizards who are Master Hunters get +1 to hit those creature types instead.
Controlling multiple monster lairs confers no extra bonus.
Though they can claim the tiles in seasons 1 and 2, no army can build on a monster lair tile until seasons three and four of the campaign (by season three it’s assumed everyone has gotten enough rudimentary control/understanding over the local monsters to be able to not have their construction crews get eaten).
Pirate Haven: The controller of one or more pirate havens gets a +1 to all sailing rolls. A controller of a pirate haven can add pirate mercenaries to his own army list though he is not required to use them. Before the game begins, each player decides which pirate force they want to be able to be aligned with. Once made this choice is irrevocable. Controlling multiple pirate havens confers no extra bonus. Exception is Dogs of War who have pirate affinity as their racial power.
Mixing and Matching is Verboten: No tile can hold two of the following Mines, Wizard Towers, Forts, Pirate Havens, Unique Features, Forts, and Cities. The exception is Ogre Capital Cities which are mobile and can share a tile with anything that’s not a unique feature (fortification bonuses do not stack, though other bonuses do). Cities have to be built on tiles with Forts (which they then replace). Building a Fort/Mine/Wizard tower on a tile with an existing feature automatically removes the old feature to make way for the new one. Pirate Havens, Monster Lairs, Unique Features can never be removed this way.
You cannot scuttle an existing structure without building a new one (scorched earth strategies would lead to embittered players).
Unique Tiles
Unique tiles rise out of the waves at the end of a season and are the contested prize of either a battle royale or a team battle. Unique tiles are immune to random events (though I have not yet decided how random events will work).
Yarlreck’s Spire: Yarlreck shaped the spire to into a fortress and a magical lightning rod. It gave him limited ability to control the local weather which served as his first line of defense against sea borne invaders. It also was used as a conduit to gather energy from the winds of magic.
Yarlreck’s Spire is the prize of the first campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the subsequent seasons. Yarlreck’s Spire has a fortification save bonus of +2, and bestows a +1 fortification save bonus on adjacent friendly tiles. This mostly iron tower is the highest point on the island. Due to the superior view of the area, the controlling player gets a +1 bonus on all sailing rolls. The controller’s armies get a +1 bonus to Metal and Heavens spells and one additional lore of the player’s choice, the choice is irrevocable when made. If the controller is a Dwarf, they get +1 to all dispel attempts instead.
The Sunken City: The first serious attempt to take out Yarlreck chose a very rocky outcropping as a landing point. The abundance of accessible stone made it a fairly obvious place to build a fortress. Even better was the fact that the only plant that seemed to be able to thrive there was the appropriately named Stink Tree. While unpleasant to most creatures, monsters REALLY hated the smell of Stink Trees thus making the cluster a good place to retreat to against Yarlreck’s fortress. Several successive invaders built their base here, using the wreckage from the last invader’s fortress to simplify making their own fortress. Eventually Yarlreck got tired of his many enemies using the site and called upon the waves to overtake the rocky outcropping. It is speculated that this violent act might have caused a chain reaction that sunk the entire island.
The Sunken City is the prize of the second campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the subsequent seasons. The Sunken City counts as city that is also immune to any racial abilities that reduce fortification saves (though the adjacent tiles are not protected from racial abilities in this fashion). The Sunken city also counts as a mine that can’t be exhausted. The owner of the Sunken City can put free barriers in his deployment zone at the start of any subsequent battle other than a special scenario. The number of barriers is one per 1000 points in his army, rounded down.
Yarlreck’s Cemetery: Yarlreck put almost all of the dead creatures resulting from his failed experiments in one place. He used the site for experimentations with necromancy. Yarlreck’s foray into Necromancy was not very successful, but the creature cemetery is still steeped with magical power.
Yarlreck’s Cemetery is the prize of the third campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the final season. Every unit in the controller’s armies automatically causes Fear to all Scroll of Binding units and pirate models as well as any neutral monsters resulting from map features. The controller’s wizards gets a +1 casting bonus to all spells in the Lore of Death, Beasts and one additional lore of the player’s choice, the choice is irrevocable when made. If a Dwarf player controls Yarlreck’s cemetery, every unit in that player’s armies gains MR1 stackable with other sources of MR. If the same empire controls Yarlreck’s Cemetery and Yarlreck’s spire, the bonuses stack.
Yarlreck’s Fortress: Yarlreck’s Fortress is the prize the last battle in the campaign is fought for.
Pirates
Each player chooses a pirate force to align with. If your realm controls a Pirate Haven, then you have additional unit choices in your army. Basically since most gamers collect two or more armies, I figured this lets people branch out a little. The pirate forces I came up with are not exhaustive, any army could work. Even though not all these groups are pirates, for simplicity they are all called pirates for rules purposes.
-Pirate characters can never join non-pirate units.
-Pirate characters can never serve as general or BSB
-Your ordinary characters can never join pirate units
-Pirate units can use the general’s inspiring presence, but not your BSB’s stand your ground.
-Pirate characters may not take magical items out of their own army book (BRB only). Duplicate item rules still apply so you can’t have a pirate character and a regular character with the same magic item from the BRB
-You cannot choose a pirate force pulled from the same army book as you.
-Pirate mercenaries are treated as part of your army for the purposes of your spells and effects, no allies rules or anything like that
-You cannot spend more than 25% of your total points on pirates.
-Pirate characters cannot take mounts except for specific exemptions.
-Pirate choices all stack with your regular choices for determining your minimum Core and maximum Heroes, Special, and Rare, just as if they were part of your army book.
-You cannot spend more points on Pirates in Core, Special, Rare, or Heroes than you spent on your own units in any of those respective categories.
-Before the game begins, you decide which pirates you want to be affiliated with. This choice cannot be revoked without GM permission. Any pirate cove will give you access to your accessible pirate force.
-You are not required to include pirates in your armies just because you control a pirate haven.
-Controlling multiple pirate havens gives you no extra bonuses.
Ogre Pirates: May take any Ogre Core as well as Leadbelchers, Maneaters, Sea Cats (Sabertusks), Hunters, and Bruisers, and or Giants with the following restrictions.
-You cannot spend more on Sabtretusk, Gnoblars and Giants than you spend on all Ogre units and characters together.
-Sabertusks are in fact Sea Cats. They have the same stats as Sabretusks accept they have WS3 instead of 4 and have Aquatic as the LM power.
Dogs of War Pirates: May take any Dogs of War infantry for Special and Core except for Militia and Norsemen. May take Mercenary captains, Dwarf Gold Seekers, Espringals, and mercenary cannons. May take Regiments of Renown (any infantry or Malakai’s Goblin Hewer). I'm using the fanmade 8th ed rules. The following restrictions apply:
-Brettonians may not hire Dogs of War
-May not take cannons without at least one Mercenary Captain or Gold Seeker.
-May not spend more points on DOW war machines than you have spent on DOW infantry units.
-May not take Mercenary dwarfs without a Gold Seeker
-May only hire Regiments of Renown if they are specifically allowed to your army in the “for hire” description
Greenskin Pirates: May take Goblins, Orcs Boyz, Orc Arrer Boyz, Orc Big Bosses, Goblin Bosses, Snotlings, River Trolls, Giants, Goblin Spider Riders, Snotling Boats (Pump Wagons with Sea Creature). Spiders have Marsh Strider and Sea Creature instead of Obstacle Strider and Wall-Crawler.
-You may not hire Greenskin Pirates if you are a Force of Order
-You must take at least one character. They won’t follow an outsider without a Boss telling them it’s okay.
-You cannot buy Snotling units unless you have at least one Orc model.
-Unlike most pirate characters, Goblins characters may take mounts provided those mounts are spiders. You can’t take more spider rider units than you have mounted Goblin characters.
-You cannot spend more points on war machines, Trolls, and Giants than you spent on all your other Greenskin units combined
Empire Privateers: May take any Empire Core save Knights or Spearmen. May take Huntsmen, Greatswords, Great Cannons, Mortar, Flagellants, Master Engineers, or Captains
-Forces of Destruction may not Hire Empire Privateers
-You cannot take any war machines if you do not have at least one Engineer.
-You cannot spend more on war machines and Engineers than you spent on all other Empire units combined
Chaos Cult: May take Exalted Heroes, Warrirors of Chaos, Marauders, Forsaken Warhounds, Giants, and Chaos Spawn. Warhounds and Chaos Spawn have Sea Creature in addition to their normal rules.
-Forces of Order may not hire Chaos Cults
-You must take at least one Exalted Hero, they won’t follow the orders of another without one of their own giving them the okay.
-You must take at least one unit of Marauders.
-If you want to take any Marks of the Gods, you can choose either Tzeentch or Slaanesh only (not both). Tzeentch is interested in Yarleck’s mutation experiments and Slaanesh just likes piracy. Khrone aligned warriors would not even stoop so low to pretend to follow another’s orders. No sane sailor would invite the forces of Nurgle anywhere near their ship, too many sailors fall ill already.
-You cannot spend more on Giants and Chaos Spawn then you spent on all other Cultist units.
-Unlike every other pirate army, you have to take some Cultists in every force until such time as you control of your pirate haven. One you made a deal with them, they won’t let you try to renege on your agreement. If you lose control of your pirate haven, one of your army's generals must roll on the character casualty chart.
Lost Lizard Tribe: May take Skink Chiefs, Scar Veterans, and any Lizardmen Core, Swarms, and Terradon riders.
-Forces of Destruction may not hire Lost Lizard tribes
-You must take at least one Skink Chief. Lizardmen won’t work with the lesser children of the Old Ones unless they are told to do so and very few Scar Veterans would come up with that idea by themselves.
-Unlike most pirate characters, Skink Chiefs may take a mount though the only mount they can take is a Terradon. You can’t take more Terradon Rider units than you have Skink Chiefs with Terradons.
Yarlreck’s Lost Undead Allies: May take Wights, Zombies, Skeleton Warriors, Crypt Ghouls and Bat Swarms. If you control a Monster Lair you can also take Fell bats and Dire Wolves, and Wights can then take steeds. If you control Yarleck’s Cemetery you can also take Corpse Carts, Spirit Hosts, and Cairn Wraiths (as a unit but not as characters).
-Nominate one wizard in your army to be your “Necromancer”. The Wizard must have Lore of Death, Beasts, Dark Magic, the Lore of Nehekara, or something at least remotely compatible with the dead. Your “Necromancer” gains Undead, Vampiric, and Stupidity special rules. A “Necromancer” can no longer join your regular units but may join undead pirate units (an exception to the usual rule that you cannot mix with pirate units. A “Necromancer” cannot serve as your general, BSB, Heirophant, or anything similar since it takes all his concentration to keep the undead inline. If the “Necromancer” dies, your pirate undead armies make crumble checks just as if they had lost a vampire general. If you lose access to your undead allies (through losing your pirate haven) then the character retains Stupidity but otherwise turns back to normal.
Guidelines on Creating your Own Pirate Forces:
-Avoid cavalry unless it’s easy to justify water friendly cavalry
-Avoid the big things unless they have a personality that lends itself to being a mercenary (like Giants)
-Generally a pirate force should be made up of at least half of their main units point wise so the whole pirate force isn’t composed entirely of monsters and artillery.
-Lords and magic users should never be part of a pirate force, such a character would try to take charge rather than following your orders
Racial Abilities
Beastmen: Beastmen are driven into a state of fury by the trappings of civilization. Any tiles occupied by a Beastman army, and any adjacent tiles, do not get any fortification saves from fortresses or cities. This includes Beastmen tiles as well. The penalty can also benefit third parties who are adjacent to Beastmen tiles but not engaged with the Beastmen.
Brettonia: The leading nobles have a legitimate purpose to be here, but most of the younger knights stopped listening when they heard the phrase “island full of dangerous monsters.” They covet trophies and are loathe to give up hunting grounds. Brettonians get a +1 fortification save bonus to any tile they control that contains a monstrous lair or is adjacent to one. Other armies get a -1 save penalty versus Brettonians when defending monstrous lairs or tiles adjacent to them.
Chaos Dwarfs: The mines are sturdy and well-defended structures. Chaos Dwarf mines add +1 to the fortification saves of the tile they are in, and any adjacent tiles.
Daemons of Chaos: The real Chaos attacks are against the hearts and minds of their opponents. At the start of Season One, a Daemon player can choose the racial ability of the player on his left or right. All subsequent turns, a Daemon player can choose the racial ability of any player whose realm borders his provided he hasn’t used their ability last season. If no eligible realms border his realm at the start of a season, the Demon player gains nothing that season.
Dark Elves: Dark Elves are expert sailors and add +2 to any sailing check. Enemy tiles get a -1 save penalty when an attacking Dark Elf army arrived by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn). Dark Elves get a +1 Fortification save bonus versus invaders coming directly by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn).
Dwarfs: The mines are sturdy and well-defended structures. Dwarf mines add +1 to the fortification saves of the tile they are in, and any adjacent tiles.
Empire: The lands claimed by the Empire are garrisoned with serried ranks of State Troops. Empire cities and fortresses provide an additional +1 fortification bonus.
High Elves: High Elves are expert sailors and add +2 to any sailing check. Enemy tiles get a -1 save penalty when an attacking High Elf army arrived by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn). High Elves get a +1 Fortification save bonus versus invaders coming directly by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn).
Lizardmen: About half the Lizardmen army and the vast majority of their civilians are semi-aquatic. Lizardmen can build freely on lowland tiles and enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowland tiles versus Lizardmen conquests. Lizardmen retain the +1 save bonus on their own lowland tiles
Ogre Kingdoms: Ogre tribes migrate across the land, never staying in one place for long. The capital city of an Ogre empire can move in the same way as an army, but may not leave the borders of its own empire. The Ogre capital may not move to a tile with a unique feature. Tile features stack if the capital is on a mine or wizard tower but not if it’s on a fort or another city. The capital city can only move overseas if the sail check would indicate an automatic success. The Ogre capital can freely enter lowland territories even though Ogres cannot normally build there, they lose the innate fortification bonus from the lowland tile when they occupy one however.
Orcs and Goblins: Orcs and Goblins are prone to have dumb luck run in their favor periodically. Once per season, a greenskin player can re-roll a chart roll for sailing checks, Spoils of War, Ignominious Defeat, or Mines, or Random Events and choose which one they like better.
Skaven: The Skaven’s usual underground expansion is problematic on the Isle of Yarlreck. If you dig too deep, you just hit water. Fortunately the Skaven are nearly as used to swamps as the underground. Skaven can build freely on lowland tiles and enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowland tiles versus Skaven conquests. Skaven retain the +1 save bonus on their own lowland tiles.
Tomb Kings: A typical mobile Tomb King soldier on a roving force has been killed and raised several times. Whenever a Tomb King army is removed from the map return to an unoccupied tile anywhere within their own Empire immediately as opposed to the start of the next campaign season.
Vampire Counts: Until fairly recently, the lowland tiles were actually ocean shallows that claimed quite a few ships. The swamps are thus teeming with corpses and undead don’t have to worry about trifles like breathing. Vampire empires can build freely on lowland tiles. Enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowand tiles versus vampire conquests. Vamires retain the +1 fortification save bonus on their own lowland tiles.
Warriors of Chaos: The warriors of Chaos don’t have the overall sailing experience of the elves, but they have more practice on coastal raiding. Warriors of Chaos get +1 to all sailing checks. Enemies gets a -1 to their fortification saves against Warriors of Chaos arriving by sea. Enemies get the same -1 fortification penalty when Warriors of Chaos attack by land if both the tile that Warriors of Chaos arrive from and the target tile are coastal (it’s assumed part of the forces arrived by a short longboat trek). The bonuses apply to tiles on the ocean coast only, you cannot use this bonus from lakes.
Wood Elves: Wood Elves can attune themselves to the land almost anywhere. During the Spring and Summer Wood Elves get a +1 bonus to all fortification saves. During those seasons, enemies get a -1 penalty to fortification saves versus Wood Elf invaders. During the Winter and Fall seasons, Wood Elves get no bonus (but they don’t get a penalty either).
Dogs of War: Mercenary leaders are well practiced at getting different cultures to fight together and are not too proud to work with colorful characters. The Dogs of War capital counts a pirate haven, so the realm begins play with access to a pirate force. If the player captures an actual pirate haven, they can take a second pirate allied force. If you have two forces the 25% points limit becomes a 50% points’ limit but you still can’t spend more than 50% of your Core, Special, Rare, or Heroes on pirate units. The first and second pirate force has to not be brutal enemies, dwarves and elves is okay but dwarves and orcs are not okay. A Dog of War realm can never gain a third pirate ally (that just makes my head hurt).
Campaign Premise
Yarlreck was the most talented Amber wizard the world had ever seen since Kadon. He was outspoken with his notion that “we should fight with the myriad creatures of the world, not against them”. Later, he claimed to have personally studied under Kadon but College of Magic historians claim he was born shortly after Kadon died. He probably did gain access to some of Kadon’s rarest records. Yarlreck’s experiments were ground breaking, especially with the creation of but increasingly morally indefensible as he experimented with creating new creatures. He kidnapped peasants to use as experimental materials or food for his creations.
Either shortly before or shortly after being banished from the Amber College, he turned to dark powers to support his experiments. It is unclear who he turned to. Rumors declare he turned to Tzeentch, Clan Moulder, the Sorceress Coven of the Druichi, an ousted Strigoi lord, and/or the Fmir. It’s said he took help from multiple sources and tried to turn them against each other. He took over a small island and gathered many rare beasts to him and began experimenting with ways of controlling and enhancing monsters.
He ended up repelling separate attempts by various groups trying to stop his dark works and various groups trying to steal his dark works (it is rumored that he reneged on his agreements to pay back his dark backers). One day, his citadel exploded and most of the island sank beneath the waves. Many have taken credit for this (or been given credit for it), but it is unknown what ultimately destroyed Yarlreck.
The large island became several small islands. The submerged areas aren’t very deep so it takes an intimate knowledge of the tidal effects of the area to sail safely through. Compounding the innate dangers of the area are the various aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures. Some were bred by Yarlreck to defend his originally coast lines. Some were terrestrial creatures that adapted to the watery environment. Knowledge of safe passages and harbors in the Isles of Yarlreck became a trade secret for bands of pirates and sea faring mercenaries.
Recently the waters have begun rapidly receding and the island has risen above the waves again. The foliage has grown rapidly on the newly emerging land. It is a safe assumption that some of the original fauna of the island is returning as well. It is believed to only be a matter of time before Yarlreck’s citadel to appear again. Armies have converged on the emerging island to stake their claim to as much of the island as possible.
Scoring
The player with the most relics wins at the end of the game wins. The game is split into months and seasons. Relics are gained primary from controlling tiles.
Yarlreck’s Spire: Two relics per season
Sunken City: Two relics per season
Yarlreck’s Cemetery: Three relics per season
Yarleck’s Citadel: Ten relics at the end of the game.
Monster Lair/Pirate Haven: One relic per season.
All other tiles: One relic per three regular tiles per season (round 2 up, round 1 down).
Play an end of season special scenario: All participants get d3 relics regardless of outcome, stacks with the next three.
Win any battle: gain a relic
Draw any battle: gain a relic on a 2+
Lose any battle: gain a relic on a 4+
Random Events: Depends on roll on chart
Mines: Depends on roll on chart
Bribery: If other players give you relics to buy a better fortification save or ransom a capture character. Players may NOT give away relics for nothing or trade relics for mercenary services, that would allow one player to throw the game to another.
Capture Enemy’s capital: You gain one relic, opponent loses one relic.
Liberate your capital: You gain one relic, opponent loses one relic. You cannot liberate someone else’s capital.
Movement
By Land
Each month an army can move 1d3 tiles in a single direction. They don’t have to move their full move if they don’t want to, but they have to stop if they reach the coast. If your route would take you through another army, you have to stop in their tile.
By Sea
If an army starts the month on the coast they can sail to any coastal tile regardless of distance. To get to their destination, they need to make a 4+ on a d6 roll modified by the following chart. Normally a 1 always fails and a 6 always succeeds. Not so. If your positive modifier let your reach your destination on a 1, you make it there automatically. If negative modifiers make it impossible to succeed on 6, your sailors refuse to launch the ships.
Sailing, succeed on 4+ d6 roll
Summer +1
Winter -1
Destination is part of your empire +1
Destination is only five water tiles away or less +1
You control at least one Pirate Haven +1
You control Yarlreck’s Spire +1
Destination is a hostile Fort -1
Destination is a hostile City -2
If you succeed a sailing roll, move your army to the declared destination. If you fail. Consult the following chart.
1- Lost at Sea: Remove the army from play
2-Problems en-route, figure out the half way point between your launch point and destination. The army goes there. If the half way point is lies on the divider between two tiles, the player decides which tile they go on. If there is no practical way to determine the midway point of your route, treat it as “Forced to Turn Back”.
3-Forced to Turn Back: Your army is stuck on the tile they tried to launch from this month.
4- Forced to Turn Back: Your army is stuck on the tile they tried to launch from this month.
5- Failure to Launch: Army can’t go to sea this turn, but the problems crop up early enough that your army can make a land move if they choose.
6-Failure to Launch: Army can’t go to sea this turn, but the problems crop up early enough that your army can make a land move if they choose.
Staking a claim
At the end of a month after battles are fought, armies can try to claim new tiles they are sitting on. If the tile an army is sitting on a tile, and it’s neutral, it’s yours. If the tile is controlled by another player they get a 6+ Fortification save to resist losing the tile with an improved save for the following modifiers.
Defensive Value
Bordering an attacker’s tile -1
Friendly Fort to the defender on tile or adjacent tile +1
Friendly City on tile or adjacent +2
Tile is a Lowland Tile +1
Tile is a Pirate Haven/Monster Lair +1
Unique Tile +?
Racial abilities apply +?/-?
Building the Isle of Yarlreck
Start of the Game
Take about 8 or 9 hexagonal tiles per player. It can be arranged as one large island or a cluster of medium sized island or one large island with some small islands jutting off it. Whatever strikes the GM’s fancy. Randomize what season you start on (Spring, Summer, etc)
Create one empire cluster per player. Each cluster should be five tiles. At least one should be coastal. A cluster should be as compact as possible, ideally one center hex and four touching it but slightly more spread out clusters are okay. No clusters should be sharing any borders. The logical center of a cluster is where the capital city goes but the capital should be coastal since it represents where your army set up camp off the ships.
Put four lakes (or clearly marked bays) on the island/island chain towards the center of the map, one sort of towards the northeast, one towards the southeast, one towards the northwest, and one towards the northeast. These are where the unique features will show up eventually as campaign objectives.
Mark one tile as a pirate haven per two players rounded down. Mark one tile as a monster lair per two players rounded up. None of these tiles should be in a player empire cluster though it’s okay to border a player’s starting realm or even border two players starting realms (border fighting is encouraged!). The pirate havens must be coastal and the monster lairs must be landlocked. No pirate haven or monster lair should share a border with one of the four campaign objectives.
Designate about a third to a half of the tiles as lowland tiles and the rest as highland tiles. The lowland tiles should tend to be found near the coast, but this isn’t a universal rule. Pirate havens and capital cities should never be on lowland tiles, convert these to highland tiles if necessary.
Each player rolls 2d6, reroll ties. The highest roller picks a cluster first, then the second highest and so on and so forth till all the clusters are chosen. If the GM is also a player the GM automatically picks last.
End of Season 1
Randomly select one of the four lakes, the one selected is the site of Yarlreck’s spire, the prize of the first season.
Start of Season 2
Roll a d6 for every lowland tile, on a 5+ they convert to highland tiles. Each player can add two new lowland tiles to the board. Only one can be bordering their empire. The new tiles cannot cause a capital city or a pirate haven to become landlocked.
End of Season 2
Randomly select one of the three lakes, the one selected is the site of the Sunken City, the prize of the second season.
Start of Season 3
Roll a d6 for every lowland tile, on a 5+ they convert to highland tiles. Each player can add two new lowland tiles to the board. Only one can be bordering their empire. The new tiles cannot cause a capital city or a pirate haven to become landlocked.
End of Season 3
Randomly select one of the two remaining lakes, the one selected is the site of Yarlreck’s cemetery, the prize of the third season
End of Season 4
Yarlreck’s Citadel replaces the last lake.
More than 5 players?
Instead of putting in four one-tile lakes on the map, put four one-tile lakes and two two-tile lakes. Use two Spires of Yarlreck (either east-west or north-south) and two Yarlreck’s Cemeteries (east-west or north-south, whichever setup was not used for the Spires), these make up the one-tile spots. Double the size of Yarlreck’s Fortress and the Sunken City, these make up the two-tile spots. Randomize between the two parallel sets of small lakes for seasons one and two and randomize between the two larger lakes for season three and four.
Base Terrain Types
Highland Tile: Highland Tiles are ordinary tiles that just use the baseline rules.
Lowland Tile: Lowland tiles have +1 to fortification saves because swampy land is hard to invade and claim. Most armies can’t build structures in lowland tiles, but Skaven, VC, and LM. Other army can use a structures built on Lowland tiles if they capture them .
Terrain Features
Mines, Wizard Towers, Forts, and Cities are placed by the player’s in their own empires. I have yet to decide how often players get to build features but I know everyone starts with a City.
Mines: Mines are built by players and you roll for them producing goodies every campaign month after armies move.
Wizard Tower: Wizard Towers are built by players and allow the controller to switch digits on a random event roll. You gain no additional benefit for having multiple wizard towers other than the insurance that you can afford to lose a few to invasions.
Fortress: Fortresses are built by players. Fortresses provide a +1 save bonus to their own tile and all adjacent friendly tiles. Battles fought on Fortresses are always Siege and tiles with Fortresses may never be captured without a battle.
City: Cities are built by players in tiles that already have Fortresses. They replace Fortresses. Cities provide a +2 save bonus to their own tile and all adjacent friendly tiles. Battles fought on Cities are always Siege and tiles with Cities may never be captured without a battle.
Monster Lairs: Monster Lairs have a fortification save bonus of +1. The controller of a Monster Lair gets 35% instead of 25% to spend on Scrolls of Binding in Monstrous and Storm of Magic games (controlling more than one Monster Lair tile confers no additional bonus). Though there are no Monstrous or Storm of Magic games in Season One and Two, but you can still claim a Monster Lair in seasons one and two.
If you control at least one Monster Lair, one character per army can be a “Master Hunter”. Wizards who are Master Hunters get -1 to casting difficulties when the target is a Monster, Monstrous Beast, Monstrous Cavalry, or Warbeast. Non-wizards who are Master Hunters get +1 to hit those creature types instead.
Controlling multiple monster lairs confers no extra bonus.
Though they can claim the tiles in seasons 1 and 2, no army can build on a monster lair tile until seasons three and four of the campaign (by season three it’s assumed everyone has gotten enough rudimentary control/understanding over the local monsters to be able to not have their construction crews get eaten).
Pirate Haven: The controller of one or more pirate havens gets a +1 to all sailing rolls. A controller of a pirate haven can add pirate mercenaries to his own army list though he is not required to use them. Before the game begins, each player decides which pirate force they want to be able to be aligned with. Once made this choice is irrevocable. Controlling multiple pirate havens confers no extra bonus. Exception is Dogs of War who have pirate affinity as their racial power.
Mixing and Matching is Verboten: No tile can hold two of the following Mines, Wizard Towers, Forts, Pirate Havens, Unique Features, Forts, and Cities. The exception is Ogre Capital Cities which are mobile and can share a tile with anything that’s not a unique feature (fortification bonuses do not stack, though other bonuses do). Cities have to be built on tiles with Forts (which they then replace). Building a Fort/Mine/Wizard tower on a tile with an existing feature automatically removes the old feature to make way for the new one. Pirate Havens, Monster Lairs, Unique Features can never be removed this way.
You cannot scuttle an existing structure without building a new one (scorched earth strategies would lead to embittered players).
Unique Tiles
Unique tiles rise out of the waves at the end of a season and are the contested prize of either a battle royale or a team battle. Unique tiles are immune to random events (though I have not yet decided how random events will work).
Yarlreck’s Spire: Yarlreck shaped the spire to into a fortress and a magical lightning rod. It gave him limited ability to control the local weather which served as his first line of defense against sea borne invaders. It also was used as a conduit to gather energy from the winds of magic.
Yarlreck’s Spire is the prize of the first campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the subsequent seasons. Yarlreck’s Spire has a fortification save bonus of +2, and bestows a +1 fortification save bonus on adjacent friendly tiles. This mostly iron tower is the highest point on the island. Due to the superior view of the area, the controlling player gets a +1 bonus on all sailing rolls. The controller’s armies get a +1 bonus to Metal and Heavens spells and one additional lore of the player’s choice, the choice is irrevocable when made. If the controller is a Dwarf, they get +1 to all dispel attempts instead.
The Sunken City: The first serious attempt to take out Yarlreck chose a very rocky outcropping as a landing point. The abundance of accessible stone made it a fairly obvious place to build a fortress. Even better was the fact that the only plant that seemed to be able to thrive there was the appropriately named Stink Tree. While unpleasant to most creatures, monsters REALLY hated the smell of Stink Trees thus making the cluster a good place to retreat to against Yarlreck’s fortress. Several successive invaders built their base here, using the wreckage from the last invader’s fortress to simplify making their own fortress. Eventually Yarlreck got tired of his many enemies using the site and called upon the waves to overtake the rocky outcropping. It is speculated that this violent act might have caused a chain reaction that sunk the entire island.
The Sunken City is the prize of the second campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the subsequent seasons. The Sunken City counts as city that is also immune to any racial abilities that reduce fortification saves (though the adjacent tiles are not protected from racial abilities in this fashion). The Sunken city also counts as a mine that can’t be exhausted. The owner of the Sunken City can put free barriers in his deployment zone at the start of any subsequent battle other than a special scenario. The number of barriers is one per 1000 points in his army, rounded down.
Yarlreck’s Cemetery: Yarlreck put almost all of the dead creatures resulting from his failed experiments in one place. He used the site for experimentations with necromancy. Yarlreck’s foray into Necromancy was not very successful, but the creature cemetery is still steeped with magical power.
Yarlreck’s Cemetery is the prize of the third campaign season and cannot be freely entered until the final season. Every unit in the controller’s armies automatically causes Fear to all Scroll of Binding units and pirate models as well as any neutral monsters resulting from map features. The controller’s wizards gets a +1 casting bonus to all spells in the Lore of Death, Beasts and one additional lore of the player’s choice, the choice is irrevocable when made. If a Dwarf player controls Yarlreck’s cemetery, every unit in that player’s armies gains MR1 stackable with other sources of MR. If the same empire controls Yarlreck’s Cemetery and Yarlreck’s spire, the bonuses stack.
Yarlreck’s Fortress: Yarlreck’s Fortress is the prize the last battle in the campaign is fought for.
Pirates
Each player chooses a pirate force to align with. If your realm controls a Pirate Haven, then you have additional unit choices in your army. Basically since most gamers collect two or more armies, I figured this lets people branch out a little. The pirate forces I came up with are not exhaustive, any army could work. Even though not all these groups are pirates, for simplicity they are all called pirates for rules purposes.
-Pirate characters can never join non-pirate units.
-Pirate characters can never serve as general or BSB
-Your ordinary characters can never join pirate units
-Pirate units can use the general’s inspiring presence, but not your BSB’s stand your ground.
-Pirate characters may not take magical items out of their own army book (BRB only). Duplicate item rules still apply so you can’t have a pirate character and a regular character with the same magic item from the BRB
-You cannot choose a pirate force pulled from the same army book as you.
-Pirate mercenaries are treated as part of your army for the purposes of your spells and effects, no allies rules or anything like that
-You cannot spend more than 25% of your total points on pirates.
-Pirate characters cannot take mounts except for specific exemptions.
-Pirate choices all stack with your regular choices for determining your minimum Core and maximum Heroes, Special, and Rare, just as if they were part of your army book.
-You cannot spend more points on Pirates in Core, Special, Rare, or Heroes than you spent on your own units in any of those respective categories.
-Before the game begins, you decide which pirates you want to be affiliated with. This choice cannot be revoked without GM permission. Any pirate cove will give you access to your accessible pirate force.
-You are not required to include pirates in your armies just because you control a pirate haven.
-Controlling multiple pirate havens gives you no extra bonuses.
Ogre Pirates: May take any Ogre Core as well as Leadbelchers, Maneaters, Sea Cats (Sabertusks), Hunters, and Bruisers, and or Giants with the following restrictions.
-You cannot spend more on Sabtretusk, Gnoblars and Giants than you spend on all Ogre units and characters together.
-Sabertusks are in fact Sea Cats. They have the same stats as Sabretusks accept they have WS3 instead of 4 and have Aquatic as the LM power.
Dogs of War Pirates: May take any Dogs of War infantry for Special and Core except for Militia and Norsemen. May take Mercenary captains, Dwarf Gold Seekers, Espringals, and mercenary cannons. May take Regiments of Renown (any infantry or Malakai’s Goblin Hewer). I'm using the fanmade 8th ed rules. The following restrictions apply:
-Brettonians may not hire Dogs of War
-May not take cannons without at least one Mercenary Captain or Gold Seeker.
-May not spend more points on DOW war machines than you have spent on DOW infantry units.
-May not take Mercenary dwarfs without a Gold Seeker
-May only hire Regiments of Renown if they are specifically allowed to your army in the “for hire” description
Greenskin Pirates: May take Goblins, Orcs Boyz, Orc Arrer Boyz, Orc Big Bosses, Goblin Bosses, Snotlings, River Trolls, Giants, Goblin Spider Riders, Snotling Boats (Pump Wagons with Sea Creature). Spiders have Marsh Strider and Sea Creature instead of Obstacle Strider and Wall-Crawler.
-You may not hire Greenskin Pirates if you are a Force of Order
-You must take at least one character. They won’t follow an outsider without a Boss telling them it’s okay.
-You cannot buy Snotling units unless you have at least one Orc model.
-Unlike most pirate characters, Goblins characters may take mounts provided those mounts are spiders. You can’t take more spider rider units than you have mounted Goblin characters.
-You cannot spend more points on war machines, Trolls, and Giants than you spent on all your other Greenskin units combined
Empire Privateers: May take any Empire Core save Knights or Spearmen. May take Huntsmen, Greatswords, Great Cannons, Mortar, Flagellants, Master Engineers, or Captains
-Forces of Destruction may not Hire Empire Privateers
-You cannot take any war machines if you do not have at least one Engineer.
-You cannot spend more on war machines and Engineers than you spent on all other Empire units combined
Chaos Cult: May take Exalted Heroes, Warrirors of Chaos, Marauders, Forsaken Warhounds, Giants, and Chaos Spawn. Warhounds and Chaos Spawn have Sea Creature in addition to their normal rules.
-Forces of Order may not hire Chaos Cults
-You must take at least one Exalted Hero, they won’t follow the orders of another without one of their own giving them the okay.
-You must take at least one unit of Marauders.
-If you want to take any Marks of the Gods, you can choose either Tzeentch or Slaanesh only (not both). Tzeentch is interested in Yarleck’s mutation experiments and Slaanesh just likes piracy. Khrone aligned warriors would not even stoop so low to pretend to follow another’s orders. No sane sailor would invite the forces of Nurgle anywhere near their ship, too many sailors fall ill already.
-You cannot spend more on Giants and Chaos Spawn then you spent on all other Cultist units.
-Unlike every other pirate army, you have to take some Cultists in every force until such time as you control of your pirate haven. One you made a deal with them, they won’t let you try to renege on your agreement. If you lose control of your pirate haven, one of your army's generals must roll on the character casualty chart.
Lost Lizard Tribe: May take Skink Chiefs, Scar Veterans, and any Lizardmen Core, Swarms, and Terradon riders.
-Forces of Destruction may not hire Lost Lizard tribes
-You must take at least one Skink Chief. Lizardmen won’t work with the lesser children of the Old Ones unless they are told to do so and very few Scar Veterans would come up with that idea by themselves.
-Unlike most pirate characters, Skink Chiefs may take a mount though the only mount they can take is a Terradon. You can’t take more Terradon Rider units than you have Skink Chiefs with Terradons.
Yarlreck’s Lost Undead Allies: May take Wights, Zombies, Skeleton Warriors, Crypt Ghouls and Bat Swarms. If you control a Monster Lair you can also take Fell bats and Dire Wolves, and Wights can then take steeds. If you control Yarleck’s Cemetery you can also take Corpse Carts, Spirit Hosts, and Cairn Wraiths (as a unit but not as characters).
-Nominate one wizard in your army to be your “Necromancer”. The Wizard must have Lore of Death, Beasts, Dark Magic, the Lore of Nehekara, or something at least remotely compatible with the dead. Your “Necromancer” gains Undead, Vampiric, and Stupidity special rules. A “Necromancer” can no longer join your regular units but may join undead pirate units (an exception to the usual rule that you cannot mix with pirate units. A “Necromancer” cannot serve as your general, BSB, Heirophant, or anything similar since it takes all his concentration to keep the undead inline. If the “Necromancer” dies, your pirate undead armies make crumble checks just as if they had lost a vampire general. If you lose access to your undead allies (through losing your pirate haven) then the character retains Stupidity but otherwise turns back to normal.
Guidelines on Creating your Own Pirate Forces:
-Avoid cavalry unless it’s easy to justify water friendly cavalry
-Avoid the big things unless they have a personality that lends itself to being a mercenary (like Giants)
-Generally a pirate force should be made up of at least half of their main units point wise so the whole pirate force isn’t composed entirely of monsters and artillery.
-Lords and magic users should never be part of a pirate force, such a character would try to take charge rather than following your orders
Racial Abilities
Beastmen: Beastmen are driven into a state of fury by the trappings of civilization. Any tiles occupied by a Beastman army, and any adjacent tiles, do not get any fortification saves from fortresses or cities. This includes Beastmen tiles as well. The penalty can also benefit third parties who are adjacent to Beastmen tiles but not engaged with the Beastmen.
Brettonia: The leading nobles have a legitimate purpose to be here, but most of the younger knights stopped listening when they heard the phrase “island full of dangerous monsters.” They covet trophies and are loathe to give up hunting grounds. Brettonians get a +1 fortification save bonus to any tile they control that contains a monstrous lair or is adjacent to one. Other armies get a -1 save penalty versus Brettonians when defending monstrous lairs or tiles adjacent to them.
Chaos Dwarfs: The mines are sturdy and well-defended structures. Chaos Dwarf mines add +1 to the fortification saves of the tile they are in, and any adjacent tiles.
Daemons of Chaos: The real Chaos attacks are against the hearts and minds of their opponents. At the start of Season One, a Daemon player can choose the racial ability of the player on his left or right. All subsequent turns, a Daemon player can choose the racial ability of any player whose realm borders his provided he hasn’t used their ability last season. If no eligible realms border his realm at the start of a season, the Demon player gains nothing that season.
Dark Elves: Dark Elves are expert sailors and add +2 to any sailing check. Enemy tiles get a -1 save penalty when an attacking Dark Elf army arrived by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn). Dark Elves get a +1 Fortification save bonus versus invaders coming directly by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn).
Dwarfs: The mines are sturdy and well-defended structures. Dwarf mines add +1 to the fortification saves of the tile they are in, and any adjacent tiles.
Empire: The lands claimed by the Empire are garrisoned with serried ranks of State Troops. Empire cities and fortresses provide an additional +1 fortification bonus.
High Elves: High Elves are expert sailors and add +2 to any sailing check. Enemy tiles get a -1 save penalty when an attacking High Elf army arrived by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn). High Elves get a +1 Fortification save bonus versus invaders coming directly by sea (unless the invaders arrived by sea last turn).
Lizardmen: About half the Lizardmen army and the vast majority of their civilians are semi-aquatic. Lizardmen can build freely on lowland tiles and enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowland tiles versus Lizardmen conquests. Lizardmen retain the +1 save bonus on their own lowland tiles
Ogre Kingdoms: Ogre tribes migrate across the land, never staying in one place for long. The capital city of an Ogre empire can move in the same way as an army, but may not leave the borders of its own empire. The Ogre capital may not move to a tile with a unique feature. Tile features stack if the capital is on a mine or wizard tower but not if it’s on a fort or another city. The capital city can only move overseas if the sail check would indicate an automatic success. The Ogre capital can freely enter lowland territories even though Ogres cannot normally build there, they lose the innate fortification bonus from the lowland tile when they occupy one however.
Orcs and Goblins: Orcs and Goblins are prone to have dumb luck run in their favor periodically. Once per season, a greenskin player can re-roll a chart roll for sailing checks, Spoils of War, Ignominious Defeat, or Mines, or Random Events and choose which one they like better.
Skaven: The Skaven’s usual underground expansion is problematic on the Isle of Yarlreck. If you dig too deep, you just hit water. Fortunately the Skaven are nearly as used to swamps as the underground. Skaven can build freely on lowland tiles and enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowland tiles versus Skaven conquests. Skaven retain the +1 save bonus on their own lowland tiles.
Tomb Kings: A typical mobile Tomb King soldier on a roving force has been killed and raised several times. Whenever a Tomb King army is removed from the map return to an unoccupied tile anywhere within their own Empire immediately as opposed to the start of the next campaign season.
Vampire Counts: Until fairly recently, the lowland tiles were actually ocean shallows that claimed quite a few ships. The swamps are thus teeming with corpses and undead don’t have to worry about trifles like breathing. Vampire empires can build freely on lowland tiles. Enemies get a -1 save penalty to their lowand tiles versus vampire conquests. Vamires retain the +1 fortification save bonus on their own lowland tiles.
Warriors of Chaos: The warriors of Chaos don’t have the overall sailing experience of the elves, but they have more practice on coastal raiding. Warriors of Chaos get +1 to all sailing checks. Enemies gets a -1 to their fortification saves against Warriors of Chaos arriving by sea. Enemies get the same -1 fortification penalty when Warriors of Chaos attack by land if both the tile that Warriors of Chaos arrive from and the target tile are coastal (it’s assumed part of the forces arrived by a short longboat trek). The bonuses apply to tiles on the ocean coast only, you cannot use this bonus from lakes.
Wood Elves: Wood Elves can attune themselves to the land almost anywhere. During the Spring and Summer Wood Elves get a +1 bonus to all fortification saves. During those seasons, enemies get a -1 penalty to fortification saves versus Wood Elf invaders. During the Winter and Fall seasons, Wood Elves get no bonus (but they don’t get a penalty either).
Dogs of War: Mercenary leaders are well practiced at getting different cultures to fight together and are not too proud to work with colorful characters. The Dogs of War capital counts a pirate haven, so the realm begins play with access to a pirate force. If the player captures an actual pirate haven, they can take a second pirate allied force. If you have two forces the 25% points limit becomes a 50% points’ limit but you still can’t spend more than 50% of your Core, Special, Rare, or Heroes on pirate units. The first and second pirate force has to not be brutal enemies, dwarves and elves is okay but dwarves and orcs are not okay. A Dog of War realm can never gain a third pirate ally (that just makes my head hurt).
