Warhammer Fantasy Brawl

To me the best bits of the gaming blogsphere are posts which make you think, and Whiskey Priest's SuperUltimateHammer post from a few weeks back is one such.

I feel that while system is important the scenario is more important, which got me thinking in a way I haven't before about the scenarios I enjoy and why. A big influence on what I feel makes a good Oldhammer scenario are the ones I had access to when new to the hobby, shaded by more recent gaming experience. Key factors seem to be size and mood.

In terms of size less than 100 models a side seem right to me. I don't want a true skirmish game of around a handful of models per side, I want the scenery to be something you can make use of rather than manoever around, and (surprising to me) I don't really want the massed ranks of troops. This isn't so much about avoiding all the painting so much as a magpie nature, I'd like to be able to do lots of different forces and setups rathern than build a monolith.

Mood is less easy to define but part of it comes back to the size question. I'm much more interested in a game about a boatload of vikings up to trouble or a raid on a caravan rather than formal battles, which especially in Warhammer seem to quickly tend to the self-important. I can't imagine an old school scenario which involves having to stat up the Emperor Karl Franz, nevermind putting him on a griffon...

Slann raid on Skeggi - a brawl not a battle!

Going back to the system question, it's noticable that older scenarios tend to be much smaller, and I think it's no coincidence that with these the rules creak a lot less, and can have some of their quirks be strengths. So I thought I'd count up the troops involved in the scenarios which I had access to in my youth (even if I didn't get around to playing Kremlo until last year).

• The Legend of Kremlo the Slann (1st ed, 1983)
  • Young Slann braves attack a Norse village as part of a coming of age ritual. The Norse try to destroy the Slann village in revenge
  • Players: GM ("essential") and 2-6 players
  • Skeggi - Troops A: 15 warriors, approx. 30 civilians (5d6 villagers, 12 fishwives) = approx. 45
  • Skeggi - Troops B: 4d6 braves = approx. 14
  • Zapotec - Troops A: 27
  • Zapotec - Troops B: approx. 42 to approx. 64*
• The Magnificent Sven (2nd ed, 1984)
  • 7 washed-up heroes / personalities are recruited to save a village from Slann raiders
  • Players: GM and 2 or more players (up to 14 all with victory schedules!)
  • Troops A: 7 heroes, 40 villagers = 47
  • Troops B: 77 Slann
• The Dolgan Raiders (2nd ed, 1985)
  • A tribe of nomadic humans attack a hobgoblin caravan passing through their lands
  • Players: 2-4 players (GM not mentioned)
  • Troops A: 45 humans, a centaur, 5 war dogs = 50
  • Troops B: 6 lobotomised slave ogres (chained to caravans), 52 hobgoblins and goblins, 20 "civilian" goblins, 10 wolf riders = 88
• The Vengeance of the Lichemaster (2nd ed, 1986)
  • A skaven raiding party and the Lichemaster both want the McGuffin hidden at the monastary. The Master of the monastary is an insane Frankinstein-esque wizard
  • Players: GM and 3 players
  • Troops A: Master, 12 warrior monks, 5 wizard monks = 18
  • Troops B: 44 skaven, 4 firethrower crew = 48
  • Troops C: Lichemaster, 52 undead (plus any summoned) = 53
• Blood on the Snow (2nd ed, 1987)
  • A force of goblinoids have captured a dwarf outpost and occupied a nearby shrine to Sigmar. A force of dwarfs and humans aim to drive them out
  • Players: GM and 2+ players
  • Troops A: 54 dwarfs, 54 humans = 108
  • Troops B: 65 orcs, 86 goblins and 3-man stonethrower = 151
• Forenrond's Last Stand (3rd ed, 1987)
  • Famous but inept elven commander gets his troops drawn into an ambush and himself killed. His second in command tries to extracate the survivors
  • Players: GM and 2+ players
  • Troops A: 20 elven infantry, 32 cavalry = 52
  • Troops B: 50 orcs, 73 goblins, 20 wolf riders = 143
• The Valley of Death (3rd ed, 1988)†
  • A goblinoid raiding party looking for a fight is confronted by the armies of two dwarf holds, protecting their homeland
  • Players: GM and 2-4 players
  • Troops A: 128 dwarfs, 5-man stonethrower, organ gun
  • Troops B: 64 orcs, 2 trolls, 142 goblins, 2 chariots and 5 bases of snotlings = 215

* It's very hard to count the Slann troops in the Zapotec scenario - the player gets to pick 3 units out of 5, and 3 of those units are a random size, as are the number of defending villagers at points throughout the gauntlet
† When first seeing The Valley of Death my thought was "that's a lot of figures", I've never played it and have no real desire to

Graphing those troop numbers the picture is rather clearer - 

Troops for the listed scenarios, significant growth over 5 years but essentially the same ruleset

Other than the numbers there are a few things of note with the scenarios -

• In the first three there are significant numbers of "civilians" who are pressed into combat, the last three are much more traditional Warhammer forces
• The Magnificent Sven has the most "heroic" setup, but the characters' backstories are jaundiced rather than pompous
• Vengeance of the Lichemaster has three conflicting sides, for the first three scenarios and Blood on the Snow there's conflict (or at least competition) within one of the sides 

So coming back to Whiskey Priest's question of what I want in my game -

• Large skirmish - figures move as units, but individually (like SAGA or Age of Sigmar)
• Capacity for fine distinctions between troops, especially characters
• Variety between characters: not all leaders are strong fighters and vice versa; a skilled swordsman may be physically weak
• Guidelines for unbalanced sides and complex victory conditions (e.g. an outnumbered force needs to hold out for a certain period, or escape an ambush - how much smaller should they be?)
• Psychology reflecting the fantasy setting and stereotypes (especially fear, animosity and hatred) and other limits on the player's control of their troops

Unfortunately I don't think the exact ruleset exists, but it's there somewhere within the various versions of Warhammer.