Warhammer Fantasy General

Because of Robert Howard's Stygia.

Does anyone happen to have any advice for a GM running wfrp, I'm planning on either sending the PC's to the border princes and using renegade crowns or setting the campaign in Marienburg and having them get involved in a cloak and dagger style conflict between various cults, secret societies and shadowy organisations. I was hoping that someone here might have some tips on how I could capture the feel of the warhammer setting without including to much combat or making the PCs to powerful.

The Stygians were more about demons and dark gods than they were the Undead, from what I can recall. Been ages since I last read my Conan though.

Anyway, where can I download the Warpstone mags?

>the fluff mentions them being scaled all the way up to siege variants that fire bolts as thick as tree trunks.
okay, I like this, a lot.

would it be feasible to shoot one of those bolts in a high arc to get the wood rain over the walls rather than through them?

because mummies have been the first and coolest thing Egypt has been introduced with to the western world for the most recent decades; spawning pop culture about them that influenced the first generation of modern fantasy from which warhammer has many of its roots.

Because real life Egypt was fairly unimpressive. Extremely low level of technology, wars weren't much more than skirmishes, we don't have a comprehensive enough idea of the people to make a new story.

There's potential, but like Gladiator you need a director that can make people care about it.

How about...

"Fantasy not egypt" is renaissance level country where people dress up like their ancestors did milenia ago due to resurgence of patriotism after they kicked out foreign power that occupied them for centuries (with a bit of their ancient kigs brought back via foul magic). Some richer and more educated city people are also returning to the worship of anceint half forgotten gods as the monotheistic church they've been part of for a while has become irredeemably corrupt.

Ruthless politics, no-win situations, villains whose villainy at least has an understandable cause, forlorn hope in a grim world nurtured and protected by a noble few.

Because Egypt is an interesting and exotic culture that's been fascinating people for centuries, most especially the British, and despite its exotic allure it's so familiar that there's no risk of alienation, unlike with something like China or India. Not to mention, in terms of the undead they're perfect because of the Egyptian obsession with preparation for the afterlife and death.

they have ballistae

So...Islam falls, and Egypt goes back to polytheistic god kings?

How the hell does that work with renaissance? Divine rulers are always aggressive insular societies that piggyback on the innovations of their neighbors.

Which id the best army building tool for The 9th Age?

I like the Strigoi. They have an interesting background as being pretty good for vampires, their current individualism and isolationism appeals to me, and their connection to a lost culture (and its remaining descendants) and desire to restore it is pretty badass.

The main thing I don't like about them is that they seem to be all feral beasts, without any capacity for tactics. Is it possible to get one that's remotely civilized? I'm not talking von Carsteins level, otherwise I'd just go von Carsteins but a pair of pants, talking in moderately fluent Riekspiel, and the ability to hold a weapon.

>The main thing I don't like about them is that they seem to be all feral beasts, without any capacity for tactics. Is it possible to get one that's remotely civilized?
That's pretty much the cornerstone of the Strigoi folklore, so I doubt that you'll find something like that even in Warhams.
The guy riding a Terrorghast is referred to as Ghoul King or Lord, or something along those lines, so they seem to be the epitome of Strigoi 'civilization' afaik.

Strigoi vary greatly in insanity. Many are feral beasts, most are animalistic but intelligent. Like the 30 Days Of Night vampires, but if most of their "pack" was The Descent monsters and normal Gypsies.

We barely ever got much Strigoi perspective lore prior to Age of Sigmar. In Ushoran's own novel, he himself isn't insane so much as traumatized. Like if Czar Nicholas II survived the deaths of his family and lived through the eastern front, then was just a sad and angry old man by the 1960's spending most of his time in his own memories and helping the odd person when he could.

Age of Sigmar Strigoi are the only AoS thing I like though. They're all over the map, but the ones in charge of the biggest tribes are intelligent, just delusional. Some are like Malkavians, most are like King Lear in that they see a magnificent kingdom and their wonderful court, but in actuality are head of a pack of ghouls and their "family" is other vampires like themselves. They'll don a fancy hat and make a snarl, which their fellows applaud as if it was a clever and hilarious joke. They'll toast each other what they think are cups of wine to sip but are actually skulls full of brains they tuck into. They actually use battle tactics, can still read and write although what they think they are reading and writing may not line up with reality, and if they get access to comforts and civilized things they'll use it.

Their delusion is contagious too, so nobody is quite sure what's really going on around them. Ghouls stop walking on all fours and salute like knights when the master looks to them. Strigoi march through a village, and the people either see them as monsters then get torn apart or as heroic knights that they rush to join.

So, after a new FLGS has opened up in my town, it turns out that there are people who actually play warhammer. There is a huge problem, however: All of them play Age of Sigmar, and not WHFB/9th age. The reason being is that they think that the original game is way too complex, and I cant argue that. But how do I gently push them into the right direction and away from AoS?

vampires can vary and bloodlines can thin, psyche and background of the individual may be more important than who gave them the blood kiss.

you could go with a rather recent addition to the strigoi descendants, perhaps a young prince who is still struggling with his inner beast and acts somehow deluded even when transformed in his "battle look".

Do Ogres live anywhere in/near the Empire proper? Or do they just rove there from the Mountains of Mourn?

Strigoi were always supposed to have that vibe. Caught between being animals and nobility.

Ogres live everywhere. The Mountains of Mourn are their Mecca, literally because at least once in their lives they make pilgrimage to the Maw.

Ostland is the Empire province with the highest Ogre population. They are citizens, and are loyal to the Empire rather than the rest of the Ogre race.

Maneaters are just wandering Ogre mercs.

Could go with a ptolemy inspired thing and have it ruled by assimilated foreign kings who marry their sisters

Is there a Tomb King Alexandria? Because I kind of want mine to be from there.

Are there any good sources on Ogres in the Empire and where they are found? Kinda wanna do a RP campaign with the players dealing with some Ogres.

Not sure where it describes the Ostland Ogres. Try Empire Heraldry?

If one of those large 20 stack armies from Total War: Warhammer is transferred onto the tabletop, what would its points limit be?

Why not just do living Nehekarans? the ones who were powerful enough to exist as a major world power while the Elves and Dwarfs were still at their height, and conquered everything as far north as the empire and as far east as the Darklands? They had powerful priest/mages, animated statues, and pretty much everything they have now except not undead. It would be even cooler if we had them be successful in bringing back Settra as their Immortal God-King who continues to lead the faction the way he is used to, explaining why They keep the ancient egypt vibe while also progressing magically and technologically. In the time of legends books they had some nehekarans using primitive firearms from Cathay, so perhaps they could at least have cannons at this point. Also had airships and automaton that relied on magic just as much as tech, and they also had those Living Ushabi. Living Nehekara would be cool in the current warhammer setting

Funnily enough, T9A has living Nehekharans.

What kind of units and numbers are we talking?

>T9A

No I'm talking about actual warhammer

>The elf solution to almost anything is to use magic
Then why not use magic instead of bolt throwers?

Battlescribe works great both on computers and phones

Actual Warhammer is dead, there's only T9A now.

Besides, if you go with real Warhammer then all Nehekharans are dead, end of story. Their culture only exists for the undead. Their living culture was unimportant and affected nobody else in a way that was worthy of note.

simply ask them to try it
you will help the attempt by bringing templates, rudimentary movement trays and being open in explaining the basic rules.
instead of giving them the full rulebook and armybooks to get lost between the options from the get go you could prepare some basic introductory lists yourself based on what you know they have and what kind of playstyle they should get to grasp the idea of how their army plays.

don't force it, it's always better to instill curiosity rather than imposing it.
perhaps offer an exchange: you try their game and they try yours; in any case more players are more players.

or you could even propose a simple multiplayer scenario: if there're many players they can probably do (and want to) a very big battles where everyone brings everything, considering whfb handles better this with less special rules dispersed over the armies and movement trays to make a phase faster.

There's more guys that can shoot than can cast spells safely.

I just like the idea of someone with the tattered trappings of a long-lost civilization, surrounded by a court/army of the most damned and disgusting things of the night. It's not as fun without that single point of contrast.

Or maybe a Strigany with dreams of carving out a homeland for his people, because vampire gypsies man. Fluffwise it seems like a pretty rare thing to happen though.

Fuck off, Warhammer doesn't have to be dead if we don't want it to be. T9A was only created for rule balance, and its setting only made to avoid copyright.

>its setting only made to avoid copyright.

It's better written than the real thing, though. A setting setting with no new content and updates is a dead one so you better get used to T9A taking over.

Ushoran himself, or the high nobility of Mourkain, sounds like your thing then. The weaker vamps would be more like werewolves, infected by someone and out of control. The older ones would be bitter towards the rest of the world, protective of the Strigany and any unfortunates like mutants or Ghouls or lesser Strigoi who come to them, and would have ambition but no plan for rebuilding.

Also, T9A is okay. Its getting new content, which is why I like it. It also has much more wiggle room for Your Dude stories than Fantasy did, so double bonus.

>T9A taking over.
no need to be harsh to that other user, we are all going on through community-based inputs at this point: be it from T9A or from headcanon it makes little difference

Thats funny, I just went to go look at my Warhammer fantasy rulebooks and fluff and its all still there. Didn't die, didn't go anywhere. I tried reading T9A fluff and i almost got cancer, so i think i'll stick with my official rulebooks, thankyouverymuch

>after they kicked out foreign power that occupied them for centuries

So the fall and annihilation of Islam? I like it.

I gotta say, the Strigoi are the only thing I like in Age of Sigmar. 'Contagious madness' is a thought-provoking idea.

What did you find unpleasant about it?

Islam, Juddaism, and Christianity don't exist in Warhammer. There's no Abrahamic faiths, just the Elf Gods, Dwarf gods, a handful of ascended mortals, and Chaos.

Ogres can be found particularly in Ostland and the Moot. Most work as mercenaries, and they're expensive to keep: you can easily trick them into being paid in food, but they eat a LOT.

In rural areas, you'd probably see them more as a village beast of burden.

Umm, I suppose a standard army with up to 10 units being from the special section, up to 5 units from the rare section, a minimum of 5 units from the core section and the army containing a single lord and two heroes.

The Moot? Seriously?

Ogres are relatives of Halflings. The dumb Ogres raid the Moot in warbands to take Halflings to be cooks, and rations if they get impatient, which is why one of the Ogre bits is a bag of struggling Halflings.

But not all Ogres are dumb, some are loyal and some are intelligent-ish.

There's Ogres aware of the fact that if they play nice, they get to live in the Moot and get good food all the time, as the Beauty and the Beast Gaston of the town.

the only differences between halflings and ogres are size and means of getting what they want.

The names, god, they are worst than the Age of Sigmar names. the journalistic in-universe Writing style for EVERYTHING provided little to no actual information on anything. Part of the appeal in original warhammer was getting the unreliable narrator bits in addition to the normal explanations. With this new style you need to read the old warhammer fluff and then translate it into all these weird character and name translations, and even then it doesn't all fit. Overall I don't like this setting, and I don't play so i could give askavens ass about balanced rules. If i want warhammer, i'll stick to actual warhammer fluff, not this weird fan fiction

People still play with rules and settings that are decades old. I don't have to do anything, especially only a few years after GW abandoned WFB, and while it's still getting games and such.

...that's it? Names?

How is Sirens being Daemonettes or Von Karnstein being Von Carstein worse than "Soulblight Nighthaunts" for trying to figure out what stuff is?

Also, you don't need to read the old Warhammer fluff at all to get the new stuff. Every model has a story that goes with it, unlike the old fluff which just gave you a basic description.

We're never getting more Warhammer story though. If you want to read anything new, T9A is the only option.

Besides, Warhammer itself was just fanfiction of Moorcock and D&D in the first place.

I don't really know what that's supposed to justify. What if I don't like what T9A brings to the table? Avoiding copyright aside, what it creates is different, even if basic structure is the same.

You're acting like I need something new, some push to the story, otherwise I'm going to die. I'm not going to die. I'm going to turn into a bitter grognard, sure, but no death will be occurring.

This. Ogres that are smart enough to be civil are very well-liked in the Moot, having a surprising number of parallel world views to halflings.

You might laugh at the idea of halfling fieldwardens, you won't be laughing when their buddy the ogre shows up.

You won;t die. The setting will. Only 9th age can sustain WHFB.

...ever thought about personally brewing your own crack at home?

I understand you like T9A and want to get supporters and converts, but you realize that just saying something doesn't make it true? It's not like there's T9A roleplay, or there'll ever be a T9A videogame.

Woah, calm down dude. Nobody is attacking you.

We were discussing it because someone went on the offensive against it, not because anyone is trying to make you do anything. Like what you want, chop lore as you please, respect when other anons do the same.

You must have been spending too long in the AoS thread, I take it? Not saying you are one, just asking if you were trying to reason with them. Those guys can get like the bastard child of /tv/ and /v/ at times. It'd put anyone who isn't an insane douchebag or trolling shitstain on edge.

Total war: Warhammer and other games set on the warhammer world are proof that the setting isn't going anywhere. Sure the tabletop game will never get new rules or content, but thats it. The setting still exists, and will for a long time with or without your community made home-brew fan fiction. TW:WH is the only 9th edition I accept.
>There will be more games set in the Warhammer world
>there will be multiple expansions for Total War: Warhammer
>There will even be Age of Sigmar Video games eventually
>T9A will never be anything for than an online fan-project

I'm not saying you're wrong for playing T9A or trying to promote it, but you are wrong by saying that its the only way the setting will live on because thats objectively false.

I know there's a smarmy Warcraft comment to this, but I just can't come up with the right phrasing.

Also, there doesn't need to be T9A Roleplay. WFRP doesn't need competitive balance, and discontinued models mean nothing for it.

Actually, after TW:W finishes releasing DLC, we won't have any more vidya either.

You're never gonna see Age of Sigmar games. And if one does come out it's gonna be a flop or shovelware. Just because AoS is based on smaller armies which appeals to nobody. Doesn't appeal to RTS fans since it's dumbed down too much, and doesn't appeal to casuals since it's not as action packed.

The only people who even like AoS are Stockholm Syndrome having fa/tg/uys who just can't accept that GW could just kill their beloved WHFB game and so they prop its corpse up and pretend it's really alive.

I don't know, Dawn of War was about small armies and totally sucked, but its still popular.

The Dawn of War series is awesome and still is. And the reason that's popular is because as time went on you got more units, and it's sci-fi. It's gonna be hard to draw in a crowd who likes space marines and the idea of a galactic wide war to "here's a few dudes fighting in some sort of dimensional rift". It's just not gonna have the same appeal.

1) Dawn of War sucked as an RTS, and was worse than all its competition. The only positive was its IP. That's fine if you enjoyed it, I loved Syar Wars Battlefront 2 despite it being sub par compared to its competition at the time as well, but don't pretend Dawn was a good game at the time.
2) If they sell it as what it is, which is a ripoff of Warcraft: Frozen Throne/Burning Crusade, then it'll get some interest.

I'll take the bait. If DoW and Battlefront sucked ass compared to the competition, enlighten me as to what these better games were.

>The only people who even like T9A are Stockholm Syndrome having fa/tg/uys who just can't accept that GW could just kill their beloved WHFB game and so they prop its corpse up and pretend it's really alive.

FTFY.

I still find it hilarious that T9A shills will adamantly claim that AoS is dead in the water and no one plays it and it will fail any minute now, while also claiming that EVERYONE plays their home-brew fanfic and that its the only way Warhammer can live on. AoS threads move faster than 40k threads at this point, with minimal shitposting to boot.

>with minimal shitposting to boot
But together we can change that.

DoW 1 and 2 were both inferior to Warcraft 3 in every way, from sibgle player to comp play. Both were also balanced worse, which was never fixed.
But since that's low hanging fruit, I'll also name Age of Empires 2 and Stronghold.

As for Battlefront, Battlefield 2 was far superior as an RTS war game.

Also, why does that give you a boner?

Reminder that talking about AoS is against the rules as it is off topic. :)

How can Dark Elves be enjoying what they do? Most of these guys weren't part of Slaaneshi cults, but were just disgruntled people following Malekith as he fucked off from the rest of the High Elves. But in only a short span in elf years, they've turned into genocidal maniacs who sadistically love any sort of pain.

The ones who were like that already existed.

It was the war starting that made the lunatics go to Nagarythe and join Malekith while the puritans sided with the Everqueen.

Which is the best undead army?

There is Gashnag, he's a Strigoi romantic. He was obsessed with refined and romantic trappings. To the point that he spread the false rumor that he was once a handsome prince and his hideous form was the result of a horrible curse and had stories and poems written about the tragedy of it. He's basically made himself out to be The Beast from Beauty and Beast.

>warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gashnag

The body of elves that Malekith led into exile was almost entirely comprised of soldiers. There were very few farmers, smiths, stonemasons, or anyone with any kind of special skill or trade. Thus, in order to survive, it was necessary for them to being raiding their neighbors to secure people with those skills. And then of course you have to force these people into working for you, after you've abducted them from their homes. Again, most of these Elves were soldiers, ones which had just lost a bitter civil war and been forcibly exiled from their homeland. Elves feel emotions very strongly, and I imagine those first generations of slaves acted as a sinkhole for all the frustration and impotence the new Dark Elven society was working through.

So you have a relatively small number of angry, bitter soldiers lording over a large population who, being non-elves, they consider inherently below them, yet are also reliant upon for survival. It doesn't seem too strange that the cruelties used to keep the slaves in line quickly became endemic, then over time, warped the exiles into the Dark Elves we know today.

They were already that way though. The lore specifically states that Aenarion's court in Nagarythe was basically Slaaneshi, and would put the Dark Eldar to shame.

Your explanation makes sense, but sadly isn't how GW wrote the lore. Dark Elves are bad because Dark Elves are bad. The seemingly good Elves suddenly had enough torturerapist Elves out of the blue that Malekith had an equal amount to the good ones. All Dark Elves were torturerapist evil, all High Elves were stick up the ass up to the throat good.

...

I have a rules question for WFRP 2e.

The were mutation says that you gain Frenzy, and when you Frenzy, you transform and change your profile in accordance with the mutation. Now, do you STACK the effects of Frenzy and were? IE, does were cancel out the WS penalty of Frenzy, but also worsen the INT penalty and neutralize the WP buff?

>DoW 1 and 2 were both inferior to Warcraft 3 in every way, from sibgle player to comp play.

Not him but that's quite bullshit except for comp play, since WC3 comp did actually grow into something somewhat big before the matchfixing scandals tore it down.

Something that's been bothering me - no matter which wiki I check, it seems like half the WFB wikis are sparse or just don't have some articles, and sometimes don't quite match up to each other. Who should I trust when I need to check the net quick for some information?

So far, my top bet is just having Chrome translate one of the wikis in a foreign language. They're a lot more complete for some reason.

>They were already that way though.

Not to the extent that they developed into, as far as I'm aware. Aenarion's court was certainly arrogant, cruel, and merciless, but they seemed more influenced by the darker side of the Elven pantheon rather than out-and-out Chaos worship. The explanation I posted was how their society was described in the White Dwarf article that went alongside the release of the 7th edition DE army book, though I suppose it's quite possible newer fluff retconned that.

>So far, my top bet is just having Chrome translate one of the wikis in a foreign language. They're a lot more complete for some reason.
If you are talking about lexicanum there should also be an english version of it.
But yeah, lexicanum is generally the only warhammer/40k wiki that makes it a point to cite and verify sources.

Information about AoS stuff is also pretty sparse at the moment because the system is still new.
And I figure the kind of fandom it takes to wade through ~30 years of publications and transcribe it onto a wiki is simply not there yet for AoS.

Greetings, locals.

How fares your civilisation? Has it invented writing yet?

According to /twg/ the Chaos Dwarfs are going to be in total war: warhammer

Have any of you ever collected any post-2011 chaos dwarfs models (I guess you can count the hellcannon)?

>elves

>Stunted Folk
>ever having been relevant

I want asur to sit on my face.

...

Those are hideous sloth-things.

Also that reminds me, holy SHIT did TWWH ever improve on Razorgors and Manticores by getting rid of their bugged-out eyes and mega-snozzes respectively.

He's also not so transformed that he can't wear armor yet, which lets him cover up his deformity.

I still don't like the spikes on their backs and the tail maces desu.

almost there, panzee