Wrath of the Gods 2013

Page updated 16-7-13

It is a time of war! The Persian Emperor Xerxes has decided to subdue the Greek cities once and for all and is unleashing the Titans to help him. These ancient and powerful creatures were cast into the darkness by the gods but Xerxes' sorcerers have almost found a way to unleash them. They have been greatly assisted by their Egyptian allies whose knowledge of the dark magic and necromancy has greatly assisted the process.

All is not lost however. The Greeks have some of the finest soldiers in the world including the legendary Spartans and many of their heroes are demi gods themselves. Nor do they stand alone. The Celtic tribes of Europe have come south to aid them, warned by their shamans that if Greece falls they will surely be next.

Campaign Basics

Start: Saturday, 13 July

End: Sunday, 1 September

Wrath of the Gods is a miniatures skirmish campaign that will run over the summer 2013 at the Gamers Guild in Redhill. It is intended to be beginner friendly and to promote both the gaming and painting sides of the hobby.

The setting is the a mashup of cool things from the ancient world and its mythology. It's also inspired by movies like 300 and The Clash of the Titans - it's not serious history at all... Humans, undead and appropriate mythological fantastic beasts exist. Check out the Faction Lists below for more details. There are no orc, elves or other generic fantasy races, nor are the any medieval fantasy humans.

How do I build my warband?

Check out the Warband rosters:

• Greeks
• Persians
• Celts
• Egyptians 

How big can I make my warband?

Since Song of Blades and Heroes is a new set of rules for us, and many people will also be gradually painting up models, we are going to start small and make the games bigger as the summer goes on. The maximum point size game you can play and the maximum number of models in a warband will increase as shown below.

The minimum number of models in a warband is eight.

Week starting	Maximum Points	Maximum Number of Models
15 July	300	20
22 July	400	20
29 July	500	25
5 August	500	25
12 August	500	25
19 August	600	30
26 August	600	30

Unlockable Achievements

As the campaign goes on you can unlock certain things like in a computer game. Perhaps the most notable of these is the army builder. Song of Blades and Heroes has a rather wonderful army builder that you can use to make stats for anything you like. It isn't available until you have played five games because I think you need a basic grasp of the rules to get the most out of it. There is also a limit to how many points you can spend on custom designed units so that warbands don't become wildly unpredictable.

                                                                                                               

Veteran: Play 5 games.
You may design your own troop types using the army builder. You can't spend more than a third of your points on this type of unit.

Inspiring Commander: Paint at least 10 models for your warband
Gain one of the warband advances from the main rulebook. Choose one of the advances and put a note on Facebook saying what it is. You keep that advance for that faction for the whole campaign.

Strategos: Win 6 games.
Gain a one re-roll per game. This allows you to roll all of the appropriate dice again. Note that you cannot re-roll a re-roll. ;-)

                                                                                                               

What miniatures can I use?

Part of the fun of the miniature gaming is seeing nicely painted models on the table that look like what they are supposed to be.  For this reason all miniatures must look appropriate to the ancient world. Using space marines, orcs or medieval knights as proxies is not allowed. Have a look at these great mythical / ancient / fantasy type miniatures.

How do you win?

Each game is played with a scenario that has certain victory conditions. The player who meets those conditions is the winner. More broadly, victory points are awarded for each player and each side. The total number of victory points is tracked and the winner will be the side with most victory points at the end. Each game you play and each model you paint is a step towards victory for your side! Click on the link for more information about Victory Points.

Is this going to be expensive?

No. You can buy suitable miniatures from the Gamers Guild and £10-20 can easily buy you enough for a warband. £10 is quite feasible if you share a box with someone else. You'll need glue to assemble them if you don't have any. There is a big list of possible miniatureslinked above to get you started.

Beyond that you'll need to pay the normal £3 table charge to play at the Guild just as you would for anything else.

Painting your miniatures is highly encouraged but not necessary to take part in the campaign.

The rules are easy to learn and there will be a paper copy at the Guild for people to reference. There is no need to buy them unless you want to.

What are the rules called?

The rules are Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games. Unfortunately they are only easily available in PDF form. They are very easy to learn and a  300 point game takes somewhat over an hour if both people are complete beginners. Once you know the rules you can play in under an hour.