Jul 28
Example Blog Entry 3
Warhammer is just one of many games set in a fictional universe. Warhammer is notable for its "dark and gritty" background world, which features a culture similar in appearance to Renaissance Germany crossed with Tolkien's Middle-earth.
The geography of the Warhammer world strongly resembles that of Earth. This is said to be due to the actions of an ancient spacefaring race known as the Old Ones. This mysterious and powerful race visited the Warhammer World in the distant past. Establishing an outpost, they set about manipulating the geography and biosphere of the planet. Assisted by their Slann servants, they moved the planet's orbit closer to its sun, and arranged the continents to fit their standard geomantic template.
The Old Ones were subsequently expelled from their colony when the polar "Warp Gates" that they had created collapsed and chaos gained entry to the world. Before leaving however, they had established the Lizardman empire, and had conducted numerous genetic experiments, which had led to the races of elves, dwarfs, men, ogres and halflings.
The elves and dwarfs eventually founded empires of their own, and were initially allies. The early elven empire later splintered, with a sect of elves secretly corrupted by Chaos taking refuge in the northern lands of Naggaroth, leaving the still uncorrupted elves, or High Elves on their island home of Ulthuan. The alliance between the High Elves and the Dwarfs broke down due to the machinations of the newly formed Dark Elves, leading to the War of the Beard between the two powers. The elves who stayed behind during the waning of elvish influence in the Old World established a realm within the forests of the old world, most notably Athel Loren and became known as Wood Elves.
The men were the slowest to develop, but eventually formed several strong realms, able to resist both the forces of Chaos and the older powers. Chief amongst these are The Empire, Bretonnia, and Cathay. Nehekhara, a former empire of men to the south of the Old World, has since fallen to the undead. Its long-dead armies now march to war under command of the Tomb Kings.
The forces of evil are often depicted as not a localised threat, but a general menace. The Skaven exist in an "Under Empire" in extensive tunnels beneath the other races, while the Orcs & Goblins are nomadic, and regularly attack without warning. Chaos and the Undead also routinely infiltrate the other nations, especially The Empire.
The current Empire Army Book describes the Warhammer World to be in the Year of Our Lord Sigmar 2522 although this may differ between races. A timeline in the same army book placed the Sigmarite year zero at the acension of Sigmar to the throne of the Empire.
Jul 28
Example Blog Entry 2
Warhammer is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 25 mm - 28 mm heroic scale miniatures. The rules of the game have been published in a series of books, which describe how to move miniatures around the game surface and simulate combat in a balanced and fair manner. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. Any individual or group of miniatures in the game is called a "unit", whether represented by a single model, or group of similar troops.
The current core game rules are supplied in a single book, with supplemental Warhammer Armies texts giving guidelines and background for army-specific rules. Movement about the playing surface is generally measured in inches and combat between troops or units given a random element with the use of six-sided dice. Army supplements also assign points values to each unit and option in the game, giving players the ability to play on even terms. An average game will have armies of 750 to 3,000 points, although smaller and larger values are quite possible. There are also different rules for games called a skirmish that consist of 500 point armies.
Game play follows a turn structure in which one player completes all movement for troops, then simulates casting spells (when spell-using units are available), uses all ranged or missile weapons in the army such as bows and handguns, then any units touching fight in melee or close-combat. After finishing, the second player does the same. This repeats for a number of equal turns, generally six, although occasionally to a time limit or until no units are left on the playing surface. The winner is often determined by victory points; earning a number equal to the value of enemy units killed. Special factors, or "objectives" can add or subtract from this total based on pre-defined goals, usually holding parts of the battlefield or killing powerful units (such as the enemy general).
Dice rolls generally use traditional six-sided dice (D6), with a high result being desirable (in most cases). For example; an archer unit may be given a statistic that allows it to hit on the roll of a four or more. Various factors can change this number, reducing or raising the number needed. Mitigation of random results is a large part of the game, as well as traditional battlefield tactics. In some cases, other types of dice are needed; this can be a D3 (simulated with a normal die, 1 and 2 counting as a result of 1 and so on), or it can be a 6-sided 'scatter' dice used to generate random directions, often used alongside an 'artillery' dice, used mainly for cannon, stone-throwers, and unusual variant artillery.
Jul 28
Example Blog Entry 1
Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles, formerly Warhammer Fantasy Battle and often abbreviated to Warhammer, WFB or WHFB, is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop and the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting.
The game is played with 'regiments' of fantasy miniatures. It uses stock fantasy races such as humans (The Empire, Bretonnia), Elves, Dwarfs, Undead, Orcs and Goblins, Vampires, as well as some more unusual types such as Lizardmen, Skaven, etc. Each race has its own unique strengths and flaws; Wood Elves, for example, have the most powerful archers in the game but have poor overall defence and Bretonnia have the strongest cavalry but weak peasants.
Since first appearing in 1983, Warhammer has been periodically updated and re-released with changes to the gaming system and army lists. The current official version is the seventh edition, released on 9 September 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Battle
3:19 AM Jul 30
