The rules provided here are an alteration of the multiplayer campaign rules from the 5th edition Battle Book to work with the current edition of the Old World. They describe a Warhammer campaign system suitable for a group of four or more players.
The goal for each player in a multi-player campaign is to accomplish a Major Victory by obtaining more territories than the majority of his/her opponents and winning the final battle against the next largest rival power. The runner up is the player who manages to come in second for territories and play in the final battle. Other players can achieve a minor victory if they provide allied troops to the winner during the final battle.
In our case the campaign will run 9 months from October 2024 thru July of 2025 or until two players obtain 12 territories - if that occurs the top two players will play a game to determine winner and runner up.
If two players have not obtained 12 territories by July 4, 2025 then the two players with the most territories will play for campaign winner - if multiple players are tied for the 1st or 2nd spot (by number of territories) players will be placed into brackets by win/loss record and conduct a play in on July 19th, 2025 with the final game to be played on July 26th, 2025.
Current campaign status and territories for our campaign are updated weekly and can be viewed on the Current Status page.
The campaign takes place near the Worlds Edge Mountains - a wild and lawless land between the empires of the Dwarf Holds and the slaver city states of the Chaos Dwarfs. To begin the campaign each player generates three territories from the chart shown on the territories page. These represent a mix of settlements, terrain, and resources which their army controls. Once the campaign is under way new players can join at any time simply by generating three random territories from the chart.
Each player makes a note of his territories on a sheet of paper or his campaign notebook - if players are playing in our local campaign they should submit their territories via the google form at https://forms.gle/JXPzpKe9e9camjbe8
Players choose an army of 1,000 points for each battle and forces are chosen afresh every time the army fights, although each player must stick to the same army - Orcs, Empire, Bretonnians, Lizardmen, etc. Furthermore players must use the same Grand Army or Army of Infamy (ex. Bretonnian Exiles).
Designer's Note: 1,000 points was chosen as the original 5th edition battle book recommends 1,500 point armies - however unit costs were substantially more - limiting the armies to 1,000 points results in about the same number of models in this edition (Old World) as compared to prior editions.
Armies are chosen from the appropriate Legacy Army List, Ravening Hordes, Forces of Fantasy, or Arcane Journal. Players or hosts of gamedays/events may agree to further restrictions, here are some examples of what could be included:
Designer's Note: The first list of restrictions is common for tournament play in 5th edition - it is a good idea if you are running a gameday that is more similar to a tournament or round robin event.
No special characters.
No unridden large monsters.
No more than one war machine to be chosen for each regiment of troops included in an army.
Wizards are limited to a maximum magic level of 3, no magic items can improve on this.
Magic items with a points value of more than 50 cannot be included.
All games to end within 2.5 hours or after the completion of 4 turns within 2.5 hours.
Additional themed restriction ideas are included below:
No magic is permitted at all - the ebb and flow of magical power leaves the area devoid of magic.
Wizards not allowed or reduced to a maximum of one per side.
No characters can carry more than a single magic item.
No flying creatures allowed due to bad weather.
No cavalry allowed because terrain is too rough.
Only troops with a move of 6"+ allowed - the armies represent fast moving foragers.
No heavy troops (save of 4+ or better) as the armies represent lightly armed advance forces.
All missile fire including magic missiles reduced to half range due to high winds.
All shooting is worked out at an additional -1 to hit due to darkness.
No gunpowder weapons allowed due to damp weather.
Each side nominates on unit of troops as "grizzled veterans" and adds +1 leadership.
They types and quantity of troops that armies can field is restricted by the territory they control. As the army's commander expands his/her territories they also expand their army, attracting heroes and wizards to their cause, acquiring riches, and winning new magic items. To start off each player is restricted in their choice as follows:
Such as bridges, roads, and passes - limit access by your armies. To represent this armies are chosen to 1,000 points and larger armies can only be assembled by taking control of bridges, roads, and passes.
Each army may have one level 1 wizard and cannot include any other wizards unless the player's territory includes wizard's towers, sacred groves, shrines, or temples.
Each army must be led by a character chosen from the Warhammer Armies army list. The General can be a wizard if the army list allows this. Otherwise the army may not include heroes, champions, or other non-wizard characters unless the player controls villages or towns.
Each army can include on magic item worth up to 50 points. More magic items can be included if the player controls a source of income in the form of trade route, mines, treasure or mysterious ruins.
Each army can include up to one war machine or chariot (or unit of light chariots) and cannot include more unless the players controls Forests to provide wood to build machines and fuel furnaces.
Designer's Note: This is a significant change from the Old World ruleset which rarely limits chariots - in general we have observed that players will spam chariots before taking infantry which was expressly limited back in the 5th edition - we have leaned that way here also.
You cannot choose Monstrous Cavalry units (ex. Dragon Ogres, Demigryph Knights, Pegasus Knights) or Monsters unless the player controls mountains where such beasts live. Trolls, Ogres and other monstrous infantry which normally fight as foot regiments don't count for this purpose - Giants, Manticores, Dragons, Giant Eagles and such like do.
Designer's Note: This is a substantial change from the 5th edition ruleset - primarily because Monstrous Cavalry are extremely overpowered in the current edition - this limits their use heavily and makes players have to choose between large monsters which are substantially better than prior editions or selecting some of the best units.
You cannot choose allies as part of your army. However you are allowed to ally with other players as described on the Fighting Battles page.
You cannot choose mercenaries in your army unless you have Tavern territory. Characters and magic items in mercenary units (such as Prince Uther's Dragon Company) do not count against army limits.
The following sections describes some special rules to start out each army in a fluffy manner - if you are running your own campaign consider these optional.
Book of Grudges - When defeated by an opposing player, the next time the Dwarf player plays the same player they may add a free Dragon Slayer or Doomseeker to their army. This bonus stacks up to three times but resets (i.e. no additional slayers) once the Dwarf player defeats their opponent. The Dragon Slayer(s) or Doomseeker(s) may not purchase any magic items/runes.
Rune Magic - Instead of taking a level 1 wizard - Dwarfs may instead take a Runesmith. Instead of taking a level 2 wizard, Dwarfs may instead take a Runelord. Instead of taking a level 3 or 4 wizard Dwarfs may instead elect to select an Anvil of Doom - if they do the they must also use their appropriate war machine allocation since the Anvil of Doom is both a wizard and war machine. Additionally magic item allowances may be spent on runes - note that this is per item limit not a per rune limit - for example a Great Weapon with the Rune of Fury (25 pts) and the Rune of Might (20 pts) would only count as one 45 point magic item not as two separate items.
Honor and Chivalry - When rolling for a territory Bretonnian players who roll a Spy result instead change that roll to Lost Valley. No upright Bretonnian would stoop to spying and poison! Note that this restriction does not apply to Bretonnian players who are playing as Bretonnian Exiles. Bretonnian armies may take a Paladin Army Standard Bearer without controlling a necessary Town.
Quantity is a Quality All Its Own - Empire armies start with one additional territory (and thus start with four instead of three) roll for it's generation as normal.
Masters of Magic - High Elf armies start with the ability to take one Level 2 wizard instead of one level 1 wizard.
The Trees are Moving - One of the elven starting territories is always a Forest, additionally the war machine allowance from Forests can be used to recruit Treeman.
Raiders - May elect to play underdog games against opponents with more territories than themselves rather than just those opponents who have double (or more) territories.
It's a Giant! - Beastmen armies always start with an allowance of one unit in the large monsters or monstrous cavalry category, regardless or not if they have a Mountain.
Mortuary Cult - Tomb King armies start with the ability to take two level 1 wizards instead of one.
WAAAGGHHH! - Each time an Orc and Goblin army wins, they may add 50 points to their army allowance, this bonus stacks until the army is defeated (a draw does not count as a defeat, just a good scrap) and may stack up to three times.
Masters of Magic - Dark Elf armies start with the ability to take one Level 2 wizard instead of one level 1 wizard.
Blackfire industry - Chaos Dwarfs armies start with the ability to take two war machines in their starting allocation instead of one.
It's a Giant! - Ogre armies always start with an allowance of one unit in the large monsters or monstrous cavalry category, regardless or not if they have a Mountain.
It's a Jungle out there - Lizardmen players always start with one territory as a Lost Valley, they roll for their other two territories as normal.
I'm telling you it was a man sized RAT - Skaven armies always start with a Spy network in addition to their three starting territories.
It's a Giant! - Chaos Daemon armies always start with an allowance of one unit in the large monsters or monstrous cavalry category, regardless or not if they have a Mountain.
Gifts of Chaos - Chaos Daemon armies are unable to select common magic items - instead their Chaos Gifts and Daemonic Icons use their magic item allowance (i.e. if you have a trade route, a Chaos Daemon player could take up to two gift(s)/icon(s), each gift/icon up to 50 points - one from their base allocation, and an additional from their trade route).
Growing Horde - Each time a Vampire Count army wins, they may add 50 points to their army allowance, this bonus stacks up to three times and remains until the army's general is destroyed in close combat. Wins against other Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings players do not generate bonus stacks, although if the general is destroyed in close combat in those games it will still reset the bonus.
Want to see what territories you can obtain? Or the max number of territories per player - head over the Territories Chart.
Some armies have characters that can be upgraded to Wizards, such as Vampires in the Vampire Counts army or Greater Daemons in the Chaos Daemons army. These characters can only have their magic levels if the player qualifies for a wizard of the appropriate level.
Example: A Vampire Counts player has a Sacred Grove, which permits him to take a level 2 wizard. Armies are also permitted to take a level 1 wizard as part of their initial allocation. Therefore the Vampire player could field:
Vampire with two wizard levels and a Level 1 necromancer OR
Level 2 necromancer and a Vampire with one wizard level
If the player did not have a Sacred Grove he (or she) would be limited to selecting either the Vampire to have a single wizard level or a separate Necromancer character.
Great now you know the base rules . . . how do you go about setting up games? Head on over to the Fighting Battles page.