Sigmar's Blood (1)

My regular Warhammer opponent and I have both recently bought Sigmar's Blood, a new supplement for WFB.

The supplement is a 64 page hardback book with the slightly eyebrow raising price tag of £20.

For Warhammer players of a certain vintage the book is probably closest in spirit to the old 5th edition campaign packs like Grudge of Drong or Idol of Gork or, if you're really long in the tooth, Terror of the Lichemaster or McDeath, albeit without the rather charming cardboard scenery that the earlier packs contained. The book consists of lots of background relating to a campaign undertaken by the Empire Arch Lector Volkmar the Grim against a resurgent Manfred con Carstein who has returned to undeath in Sylvania. This background forms the basis of a campaign of four linked scenarios that refight Volkmar's invasion. The battles start small and build as the campaign processes with each battle after the first including the forces from the preceding games. There's no attrition of the units, casualties are replaced (or bought back from the dead) for each game, but there are some rules for advancing characters and gaining benefits as games are won (or lost). There are also some brief rules for playing games as the darkness (magically summoned by Manfred) gradually covers Sylvania. As you'd expect from a GW book, its a lovely looking thing with plenty of glorious colour photography and artwork. 

Now I've always been a sucker for this type of thing (in fact I pitched unsuccessfully for  something like this during my time in the Studio) having played Orcs Drift as one of my formative Warhammer experiences and played most of the 5th edition scenario packs at one time or another. Games driven by narrative, with limited, sub-optimal, choices in forces and magic and with battles having an impact on subsequent games appeal to my gaming sensibilities, especially (as in this case) when coupled with minimal book keeping.

And so, gentle reader, my chum and I have decided we will play through the campaign using the forces exactly as proscribed in the book. Fortunately between us we have almost everything we need already painted and ready to go. I say "between us" when what that actually mean is he has fully painted Empire and Vampire armies. Me, I ain't got nothing. Despite the extensive collection already available there are a few gaps that need filling as some of the selections in the historical forces are a little esoteric as you'd expect from such a publication.

We have vowed not to start the campaign until we have everything ready to go as otherwise I fear we'll come to a sudden crashing halt from which we'll never recover.

So first up for me are a unit of ten Dire Wolves soon to be followed by 20 Empire militia. In think my chum has chosen the nice models to paint, leaving me some of the, ahem, more challenging sculpts to get on with.

I've made a start on the wolves, essentially following the GW painted examples. This one us nearly finished and I'm reasonably happy though the flesh is perhaps little pink I think.

Hoping to finish a few more of these tonight and complete the unit by the weekend. I've assembled most of the Militia and will be taking them down to Swindon with me next week to help the long, damp evenings fly by.