Generalship 101: the Intro Battles of Warhammer (Part One)

The rules of Warhammer are generally rather long, dense, and confusing. Veterans of wargaming, and of Games Workshop wargames, will become inoculated to this with time. New players, however, will generally have to stumble through the rules and pray that everything clicks into place.

To remedy this, Games Workshop has often included introductory scenarios in their rulebooks, so as to provide a decent framework upon which a decent understanding of rules may be built. So how did this approach change over time, are the missions any good, and should Games Workshop bring this concept back to the tabletop?

Warhammer first edition was the first foray of Games Workshop into wargames rules, summoned into reality following a lengthy ritual performed by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley in 1983. If you've ever read these rules then you know it's a relatively basic game. There are no points values and no army lists until a later addition, meaning the impetus for game balance (whatever that really means) is on the players. And unlike later editions the rules do not suggest a game-master, so no neutral arbitration to keep things fair. I would suggest these factors meant that Warhammer's first edition really needed an introductory scenario. Thankfully the boffins fourty years ago predicted this critique, and thus they included one. 

The Ziggurat of Doom pits a band of dwarves led by the "famous Dwarf Chieftain" Thorgrim (Branedimm, not that fraud Grudgebearer). This band of six dwarves would have higher base stats to represent their prowess and could be equipped with any combination of wargear provided it is WYSIWYG compliant, though chainmail and a few ranged weapons are recommended. Thorgrim himself carries the magical warhammer Foebane which causes fear and poisoning as well as frenzy-on-command, alongside mythril chainmail. 

Facing the dwarves is a group of goblins led by their chieftain Guthnog Bristlenose, a tougher goblin stat-wise. The goblins started with six troops, which could optionally be slightly-stronger hobgoblins, and in each of the goblin-player's next three movement phases an extra d6 goblins would arrive on a board edge picked by the dwarf-player.

As the name suggests, the battle takes place on and around a large ruined ziggurat which provides some interesting special rules such as hiding behind masonry for cover or dropping stones onto enemies below. Both sides would have different goals for the battle. The dwarves must survive for as long as possible, gaining one point for each finished round with at least one dwarf alive. The goblins instead must kill the dwarves, gaining two points per dead dwarf and six points for killing Thorgrim. These objectives provide ample pressure to make use of the ziggurat's terrain, with the dwarves pushed higher and higher so as to avoid the goblin hordes and thin their ranks by using thrown rocks or the natural chokepoints of its ramps.

Overall, whilst the idea of  TZoD is fun and very evocative of the pop-cultural understanding of dwarves and goblins, it is hardly an amazing scenario. Much like the wider rules it is sparse and lacking certain key details such as where the forces are to be deployed. Similarly it is perhaps guaranteed for a goblin victory given their much greater numbers and higher points gained per objective completed. There are some upsides, mainly the low total model count of thirty (six dwarves, and up to twenty-four goblins), and the simple yet interesting setup and goals. These factors mean The Ziggurat of Doom is a generally okay introductory scenario, however I would definitely recommend it for already experienced players as a nice change of pace.

Second edition would not come packaged with a scenario in the core rules. Instead it had many campaign supplements, each with three or four linked scenarios. However, I would not consider these introductory scenarios so we must instead look to the third edition of Warhammer.

Third edition builds on both first and second edition with its scenario. Much like first it's scenario has a pre-written conflict with unique aims for each side. It also adopts an interesting feature of second editions campaign supplements, that being paper cut-out models allowing you to run the scenario straight out of the box with no miniatures necessary. It is also built upon the many rules revolutions of the years since 1983, benefiting from points values and tighter army lists.

Third edition was unleashed in 1987 as a mighty 300-page tome of rules, fluff, hobby tips, and more. The last proper chapter of the book, chapter seven, details this edition's sample scenario: Forenrond's Last Stand. This battle depicts the devious ambushing of an elven army by a force of orcs and goblins. It starts with a whole page of background fiction describing how the dim elven leader, Forenrond, is fooled by a half-orc spy and led into an ambush despite the better judgement of his deputy Corma Lightmantle. In brutal Warhammer fashion the story ends with the assault of the hidden greenskins upon the elves, with the titular hero dying to an arrow before the fighting even begins.

With the death of Forenrond the elves are instead led by the aforementioned deputy Corma Lightmantle. He is a level 15 cavalry hero wielding a lance and a fair amount of armour, leading a unit of nine other mounted elves into combat. The elves have a further twenty horsemen, ten more lance cavalry led by the level 5 wizard Atlanta, and ten mounted archers. For infantry the elves have an elite unit of ten archers led by the level 10 hero Labrielle, and a regular unit of ten archer also led by a level 10 hero called Sola Brighthelm. The elf-player's command sheet describes some further background on Corma, as well as describing the deployment of the army and some tactics suggestions. The elves begin in the centre of the table with the army split down the middle by a river, lacking any real cover. The command sheet recommends for the elves to play defensively, regrouping the force onto one side of the river and using the cavalry to strike out at the greenskin units without leaving the archers defenceless. For the elves, winning means holding out without being completely destroyed or routed, although annihilating the greenskin force is an option too.

Compared to the fifty elves of Corma Lightmantle, the greenskins are a veritable horde. Mandraks the Murderer and his Open Sore Orcs bring 143 greenskins to the fight. This includes two twenty-strong units of orc warriors, ten orc archers, thirty goblin spearmen, forty-one goblin archers split into a unit of fifteen and twenty-six, two ten-strong units of goblin wolf riders, and two goblin fanatics. This is not to mention the several high-level heroes, including level 20 Mandraks himself who wields a magical axe and heavy armour. The greenskins also have the advantage of an ambush, being able to split the army across the edges of the entire battlefield including behind hills and huts, as well as starting with the first turn. This relative strength in the recommended tactics, which boil down to shooting the elves to pieces with the larger greenskin units and slowly chipping away at the cavalry with the big infantry blocks. The goal of the Open Sore Orcs is to totally wipe out the elves, whilst trying to minimise the number of units wiped out by animosity from your own army.

This scenario has a lot of good things for beginners. Firstly, you don't need titanic amounts of models to play. Whilst TZoD benefits from the lower model count and more skirmish-style gameplay of first edition, by third edition the clear way to play is with large blocks of models so simply reducing the model count wouldn't work. Instead FLS copies second edition and includes paper cut-out models for every single unit, which also includes the model's name and character level if relevant. This way the 193 necessary models are actually achievable rather than needing heaps of cash to even begin playing. The command sheets are also a great touch for new players in terms of strategies, but also as a way to instil the players with the mindset of the forces they command. FLS also represents a more regular style of battle, with two points-balanced forces fighting over a battlefield containing normal terrain as opposed to something like a ziggurat, and a game-master to keep everything flowing smoothly, but without devolving into a basic punch-up. The scenario is far more hands-on in terms of rules writing providing information on when to end the game, how to expand into a full campaign, as well as sign-posting which rules you need to read before the battle. In my opinion FLS excellently displays how much the rules writing of Warhammer had matured since first edition, when you compare it with the foggy writing of TZoD. Whilst it is a big battle for sure, especially within third edition's slightly clunky rules, I would say FLS is a pretty great introductory battle.