Extract from Kapitan daLeeva's logbook.
The Rotmoon. At sea, 117 leagues east of Mutiny’s End, The Mists,
Karkino Sea. 25th day of Tempayne.
While we are been in these boiling waters since three month now, we have
find ourselves lost for the first time. There has not a breathing of wind
for days, and we're unable to make readings of sun nor star, for thick
fog. Listen me: I never seeing alike before.
But they say, so, if there’s no bread, cakes will do. The crew busy with
make-and-mend aboard ship, and I set down to write in my log of this
cruise.
To begin, I say back to after we set out of harbour in Mutiny's End, on the last day
of the month of Huntyng, and we make our first land for near a week.
++ I ++
5th day of Skwales
Skinflint's Hollow. Battled with a Flesh-Eater Court who
believing themselves actors in a troupe of theatre (and so wore all manner
of strange object as costume, set and prop), their speed and ferocity
allowed they to escape with a larger portion of the loot than our. But we
were not left with the empty hand.
We next to explore a cruise past Hullbreaker Harbour. We were unable to defeated the storm and high sea of the region; our sail
and rigging being much mauled by them, so we set an easterly course,
toward Skull Sands and Claw Point.
Ship's Manifest:
+3 Emberstone Treasures
Plundered Artefacts:
The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva)
TREASURE HUNTERS
This place is replete with treasures from ancient times, gathered by the spawn of Krabnos. Claim them before your rivals do the same.
Before the battle, 5 Emberstone Treasure tokens are placed on the battlefield. The first is placed by the defender on the battlefield floor or a platform and within 1" horizontally of the centre of the battlefield. Then, the players alternate placing 4 more Emberstone Treasure tokens one at a time, starting with the attacker. Each of these treasure tokens must be placed on the battlefield floor or a platform, within 5" horizontally of the centre of the battlefield and more than 3" horizontally from all other treasure tokens.
The battle ends after 4 battle rounds. When the battle ends, the player who has the most fighters carrying Emberstone Treasure wins. Any other result is a draw.
Opponent: Matt / the_thinking_gnu
Warband: Flesh-Eater Courts
Deployment: The Trap
Victory: Treasure Hunt
Twist: Dawn
Location: Skinflint's Hollow
A great start to the day - I hadn't played Matt since Warhammer Fest in 2023,
so we were long over-due for a rematch. But, by Gork, the Royal Hunt is a
terrifying ability now!
++ II ++
17th day of Skwales
Put into Blacktar Refuge briefly and had clash with a crew of
Wildercorps Rangers there. After much mauling by dozen or more rabid dogs,
I put down the Warden who lead them, and chase off the other dogs. But the
rest of the Wildercorps has already made-off with more than half the
Emberstone treasures here. Well, as they say; Raise crows, they will pick
out your eyes.
Made-sail to look into the Hideout; found nought but sandbars and
treacherous shallows blocking the roads.
Ship's Manifest:
+1 = 4 Emberstone Treasures
Plundered Artefacts:
The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva)
Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo)
The skies darken but hints of treasure can still be spied here. Defeat your rivals and uncover it!
Before the battle, 1 objective is placed, by the defender, on the battlefield floor or a platform and within 3" horizontally of the centre of the battlefield. It must be placed on the battlefield floor or a platform and within 1" horizontally of the centre of the battlefield.
At the start of each combat phase, the player who does not have the initiative rolls a dice. On a roll of 3+ they place 1 objective on the battlefield) or D3 objectives if the score is 6). Place the objectives one at a time until there are 5 objectives in play, in total. After there are 5, any additional objectives are not placed.
Each objective must be placed on the battlefield floor or a platform, more than 6" horizontally from all other objectives, and more than 3” horizontally from the battlefield edge and from all fighters.
If there is no space to place an objective, it is not placed.
The battle ends after 4 battle rounds. When the battle ends, the player who controls the most objectives wins. Any other result is a draw.
(Each objective is worth one Emberstone Treasure to the controlling warband when the battle ends.)
Opponent: Ross / ruskins
Warband: Wildercorps Hunters
Deployment: Hold Out
Victory: Embers In The Dark
Twist: Warning Cry
Location: Blacktar Refuge
Ross and I had never managed to play a game, even though he's been to two
meet-ups before. That's fixed now! Only three out of the potential five
Objectives appeared, and we each had one the other couldn't reach. So the
Objective in the middle of the battlefield became like a black hole, with
its own gravity that drew in almost every fighter in both our warbands to
their inescapable death. Once I'd dealt with the big crossbow, I nearly
managed to take down the fighters on it, or Smash them off it, but he
was able to squeeze just enough back on to stop me from taking it from him.
++ III ++
3rd day of Tempayne
The Rotmoon become grounded on a sandbar in the
Razor Shallows. Took us near three day of backbreaker work in
blistering heat, to haul the ship back to deep water.
When we drop anchor at last in Groggy Head we find a great stash
of Emberstone in the ruins. We load up and head back to the ship, but run
into a band of rotten scoundrels. They make a shocking mess of poor
Doktoro.
Took what small reward we could get away with, and so nearly got a sight
more. Decided to head south instead, through the Mists.
Ship's Manifest:
+2 = 6 Emberstone Treasures
Plundered Artefacts:
The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva)
Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo)
Shadow Compass (El Doktoro)
TAKING WHAT’S RIGHTFULLY OURS
Both warbands have gone through hell to 'retrieve' artefacts and treasure. As they make their way back to camp they meet a rival warband, who are also weighed down by loot. Both warbands immediately decide they need to take the other's loot and add it to their own stash.
Place an Emberstone Treasure token on the battlefield floor or a platform in the centre of the battlefield.
After deployment, the attacker picks 2 fighters from the defender's warband. The defender picks 2 fighters from the attacker's warband. Each of the fighters picked is now carrying an Emberstone Treasure.
The battle ends after 4 battle rounds. When the battle ends, the player who has the most fighters carrying Emberstone Treasure wins. Any other result is a draw.
Opponent: Rictus / recalcitrant_daze
Warband: Nurgle Rotbringers
Deployment: Refused Flanks
Victory: Taking What’s Rightfully Ours
Twist: Crushing Ambushers
Location: Groggy Head
Rictus came to an Animosity narrative event I ran last
summer and he defeated me even more convincingly then. I nearly managed to snatch a victory
with a very long shot, in the last couple of activations of the game, but
the dice did not go my way. But it feels like I did better. So maybe next time?
++ IV ++
19th day of Tempayne
In the Mists and how does it look like? It look like ambushed by hundred of Skinks. Listen me: we have killing a dozens, I know
El Doktoro blasted several to smoke for certain, but more and more kept
appear and they slippery gitz escape with a portion of our loot! But in
bad times, good face: we once more didn't left with empty hand.
But now we have not get out of the Mists since many
days. The sleeping crab is carried by the current. We may be too, I
hope.
Ship's Manifest:
+2 = 8 Emberstone Treasures
Plundered Artefacts:
The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva)
Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo)
Shadow Compass (El Doktoro)
Tradewinds (Bortagno)
Opponent: Leila / mura
Warband: Hunters of Huanchi
Deployment: Mismatched Opponents
Victory: Taking What’s Rightfully Ours
Twist: Mysterious Vapours
Location: The Mists
My goodness Hunters of Huanchi are so fast! Even with the movement
penalty for carrying treasure, there was almost nothing I could do to catch
them. It was a fantastic game - but playing against Leila always is.
+++
Animosity Weekender 2025
On Saturday I ran another narrative Warcry event at Warhammer World. With it
done, the Animosity Campaigns 2025 Weekender has ended. This global campaign
opened with the AoS Grand Narrative at the Las Vegas Open, which was run by
Naro and Alex from the Animosity team. There was an online component on the
Animosity Discord server and the campaign closed, two weeks later, with the UK
Discord meet-up at WHW.
I took 7 sets of my scenery and boards, and Rictus brought his Nurgle temple
board. Each board was labelled and themed as a location on the campaign map.
Whisper Cove
(Rictus's amazing Nurgle temple with a disgusting looking pool, made with
multiple pours of tinted resin.)
+++
Blacktar Refuge
An ill-fated name, for there is no refuge here. The souls of the damned
haunt the ruined port and the waters around it.
+++
Port St. Marian
A Strongpoint built at the final destination of the ill-fated Dawnbringer
Crusade of Saint Marian the Luminant. Infected and undermined by the madness
of the Flesh-Eater Courts the citizens still believe themselves to be
successful Dawnbringers. To their eyes the city is a gleaming example of
Sigmar’s Plan achieved: White stone houses with terracotta-tiled roofs, gilded
with gold decoration and adorned with celebratory murals and statues,
depicting their triumphs and victories. Holy smoke wafts from censors and
choirs raise their clear voices in worship. In reality their blood-daubed and
rotting ruins lean haphazardly as they sink into the vile, stinking swampland.
Gibbering cannibals howl at one-another through the smoke of charred flesh.
+++
Groggy Head
A ramshackle outpost built into the craggy cliffs overlooking the foggy sea,
accessed via paths made of damp wooden planks that creak perilously underfoot.
The place is seldom visited and the few residents have strangely large eyes
and cold, pallid complexions.
+++
Skull Sands
Hundreds of tiny rocky islets, each with a small fort or stronghold clinging
to it like a limpet. Most of them are simply the hull of a wrecked ship,
braced with salvaged timbers and lashed with rigging, and the odd rusted metal
plate riveted over joints. Some have lasted for decades (although many have
been washed away). Each stronghold was once home to a paranoid pirate captain
and their crew who built a stronghold to defend their loot from their greedy
neighbours. Now they’re each home to a paranoid Wight Captain and their
Deathrattle crew! There is a strong chance that they share the same names as
their “predecessors”.
+++
Skinflint's Hollow
A small twisted bay that offers a little shelter from the perpetual storm
known as The Maelstrom. The calmer waters are a welcome relief, despite the
incessant rain, but many ships have been lost as they tried to leave the
Hollow; swept into Hullbreaker Harbour by treacherous tides and dashed on the
razor-sharp rocks there. On the wet sands of the Hollow there is an inn and
gambling den called the Rusted Anchor - built decades ago by Sebastiano
Skinflint, a retired pirate of some renown… in his day.
+++
The Mists
A rolling semi-sentient fog bank that moves unpredictably and unexpectedly.
Sometimes it remains stationary for weeks at a time. Sometimes it expands to
shroud a vast area of the sea and land. Other times it all but evaporates,
receding to a small area centred on the three islands at its heart. Within
this fog dwell unspeakable eldritch horrors; tentacled, toothed and clawed.
+++
Anchorage
A jagged, windswept enclave bordered by half-submerged shipwrecks. Stone ruins
serve as the foundation for rickety wooden structures, their salt-stained
exteriors leaning precariously against the persistent sea breeze. The distant,
mournful calls of seabirds echo through the fog that clings to the settlement
like a shroud.
+++
(There's an LED candle under the Emberstone crystals.)
+++
Nine people played 3 or 4 games each, earning Emberstone Treasures and
"Cursed Plunder" (upgrade cards).
Each round everyone played a Battleplan with the same predetermined Victory
condition but drew a Deployment and Twist card themselves, so everyone played
slightly different games with the same rewards available.
The Emberstone and Plunder cards were my custom replacement for the standard
Warcry narrative campaign system (which I love, but I'm very conscious that it
takes far too long to use between games in a one-day event like this, and
doesn't provide many changes over 3 or 4 games. It's far better suited to
regular weekly games).
The Emberstone Treasures were orange acyclic crystals that were used as
Treasure Tokens (in the 2st and 3rd round games) or Objectives (in the 2nd
round games). Each game had between 1 and 5 Emberstone Treasures on the
board.
I told everyone to keep hold of the Emberstone their warband controlled at the
end of each game, (and distributed new crystals at the start of every
subsequent game), as they were also our campaign victory points for the day.
I think this system worked pretty well, as there was still something to be
gained from fighting a losing battle to the bitter end. Trying to turn a 5:0
loss into a 4:1, or even a 3:2 was always worthwile: Even if the battle was
still lost, there was something to be gained.
The cards were a mix of upgrades to stats or abilities, and artefacts. They
formed a very simple experience / progression system that was atmospheric,
quick and easy to manage, and impossible to intentionally "powergame".
Before each game players drew a hand-made Plunder card from the deck. They had
to assign the card to one fighter for the rest of the day, the special rule on
the card could only be used by that fighter (with a couple of exceptions) and
they couldn't give a fighter two cards.
After the first card, which was always beneficial, there was about a
one-in-three chance of getting a "blood-spattered"
Cursed Plunder card that had a negative effect.
By the end of the day everyone had a small handful of Emberstone Treasures,
and 3 or 4 Plunder cards.
At the end of the day Kyle (redangel97) won individually with his Splintered
Fang warband. He'd amassed a very impressive 14 Emberstone Treasures, the next
highest total was 11 Emberstone Treasures, so it was pretty clear-cut.
When that had been decided, the players gave their Emberstone to support one
of 3 factions (by placing them in one of 3 boxes marked with the Coalition
flags):
The final Coalition totals were:
- 38 Emberstone Treasures for Stormdance Reavers
- 22 Emberstone Treasures for Umbral Dominion
- 9 Emberstone Treasures for Blackwing Corsairs
I hope everyone who came along had as much fun me. They all certainly seemed
to be enjoying themselves.
I'm pleased with how the battleplans, cards and tokens worked - they meant I
could join in playing Warcry without needing to "manage" the campaign
narrative, or oversee aftermath sequences, and without any risk of tipping the
scales in my favour, or making choices based on information no one else had.
Plus I got to make some atmospheric game components / accessories!
