Idol of Gork Project: Part 2 'Da Snatch'

Ok, so last time I outlined the ‘big picture’ for the Idol of Gork campaign.  There are a few ‘Big Picture’ themes I’d like to return to in a later post, but today I am going to start unpacking my conversion ideas for the first scenario: ‘Da Snatch!’

The background (in brief):

·         In the hills not far from the new settlement of Rutgerburg, Lord Rutger’s men come across two huge hideous stone idols of the greenskin gods Mork and Gork.

·         Wanting to purge his new realm of this blasphemy, Lord Rutger orders the idols pulled down, but some dark enchantment prevents them from being moved without crushing the workmen.

·         Realizing some dark magic is at work, Lord Rutger orders the idols to be left alone, but under guard, and sends messengers on the long road north to consult with the Colleges of Magic and the Cult of Sigmar about how to cleanse the idols.

·         What is unknown to Lord Rutger but is known to the Iron Claw goblin shaman is that the magical ‘Crown of Gork’ was buried beneath the Idol ofGork, and by moving the idol this invaluable artefact can now be recovered.

·         Grotfang Skah, the orc warchief, dispatches a goblin raiding party to make a night attack on the Idol’s guards, snatching the Crown of Gork before Rutger’s men discover it.

The Battle:

The Battlefield:

The Idol of Gork Campaign seems a little contradictory between the map (see above) and the description of the battlefield, and of course will have to be modified to fit standard Warhammer 8^th Edition rules.  These seem to be the key considerations:

·         The Idols of Gork and Mork should be the centre of attention!  This is a fantastic first terrain project, and doubly useful because I think ‘Idol of Gork’ is one of the standard terrain features in Warhammer 8^th Ed, so it will be reusable.  Design ideas for the Idols deserve their own separate post (or three!) so I will move on.

·         The Idols should be the first terrain piece deployed, relatively centrally in the board but should overlap with the Empire army’s deployment zone – they are guarding them after all!  However, they should not be an unreasonable distance from the goblins either.

·         The rest of the battlefield is left to the player’s discretion – they give some examples of other scenery on the map but these seem rather uninspiring to me.

·         One possibility is that the idols of Gork and Mork were discovered in rocky badlands where Rutger’s masons were quarrying stone for his castle in Rutgerburg, so little rocks and outcrops seem to make sense. 

·         Another possibility is to have the area blighted by the dark magic of the orc gods – warped and deadened trees and treacherous bogs seem to be a fitting sacred site for the greenskins!  At this stage I like this option better, because scenario 3 involves very rocky terrain (Troll Rocks) so it will allow for some differentiation.

·         Given the importance of the Idols, both in terms of the game and narrative, something to be decided will be what sort of other ‘special terrain’ is available in this scenario.  I don’t want anything which ‘doesn’t fit’ or overshadows the idols either in story or game terms.  Will have to think about this one.

The Armies: (1000 pts. each)

The Empire:

According to Idol of Gork, the Empire can choose any units except for knights, wizards, war machines, or war altars.  Here are my thoughts:

·         Given how rare the Steamtank, celestial and light orbs (can’t remember the name – mounted wizard orbs?) and war altars are, they should be unavailable to the Empire for the WHOLE CAMPAIGN.  Besides, with the exception of the Steamtank we don’t have access to the models J.

·         No knights makes sense for this battle.  The knightly orders have better things to do than stand guard duty in the middle of nowhere!

·         The way the campaign is written, wizards are only available to the Empire if they win scenario 2 (to come).  However, given the importance of magic in 8^th edition and the fact that the goblins get a shaman, I’m not certain that the Empire won’t be hopelessly outgunned without some magical support.  I will have to think on this one.

·         No cannons makes sense for this battle – they would be too rare and valuable out in the Border Princes to be deployed anywhere but defending Rutgarberg itself!

·         I don’t have the Empire list in front of me at the moment but the units which the Empire would likely use for guard duty might well include lots of state troops (handgunners, halberdiers, spearmen, etc.) and perhaps some foot skirmishers – Free Companies and the like.

·         The Empire gets a captain for this battle: Manfred von Bock.

The Goblins (1000 pts.)

·         The only restriction Idol of Gork places on the goblin army is that it contains no orcs.

·         I like the idea of this force fielding all the variety of the goblins in one go (Goblins, Night Goblins, Fanatics, Wolf Riders, Squigs, Manglers, etc.) along with the good old Snotlings.

·         I was tempted by the idea of the Doom Divers (which are goblin after all!) but have decided against them – they are not mobile enough for an ambush.

·         Idol of Gork has the goblins lead by the Shaman ‘Oddgit’ – not certain about the level he should be given.  He is described as the head shaman of the tribe but doesn’t strike me as being of ‘wizard lord’ level.  And is it feasible to play a level 4 Goblin shaman in 8^th in a 1000 pt army?  (I think it is, but don’t have the book with me and can’t remember)  My decision here will impact on my decision about how much magic the Empire are allowed to field.

Right, that’s enough for now!