WarEngine Hack-n-Slash
Monday, August 13th, 2007 by OvertonI’m not shy about the fact that I really like the WarEngine rules. I wrote them, after all. So it makes sense that my favorite wargame experience was a WarEngine game.
Dave and I got together at his place in Atlanta (or was it at my place in Rockville?) Dave had a huge number of orcs, lots of Games Workshop figures plus an eclectic mix of troops from other manufacturers. Mine was also primarily a GW force, as I’ve always like rat-guys models, so had many, many Skaven I could put on the board. I also had a bunch of Heartbreaker figures with spears that made great skaven-slaves and some rat-guys on giant mice from one of “R” companies (Reaper? Ral Partha?)
We’d each put together a force list using the WarEngine builder rules. Between us, I bet there were some 300-plus figures on the board. The forces were very troop-heavy and mostly infantry. It had the feel I liked in Warhammer Fantasy Battles back when all the army lists were in the one Warhammer Armies book. Great stuff!
Unlike Fantasy Battles, though, this game just rocked along. I recall it taking about an hour-and-a-half, with several key points in the battle where units were desperately locked in a swirling mass of blades, clubs, and magic. The tide turned back and forth and it wasn’t clear until the very end who might emerge victorious.
I happened to win that one, but judging from Dave’s grin and the way it’s been mentioned from time to time by either of us for years, I don’t think that really bothered him all the much.
The WarEngine was designed for big games and works very well with the swords-and-sorcery genre. It’s a shame most people seem to only drop about 20-30 figures on the board. The miss the very best the system has to offer.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I would not have expected WarEngine to be able to handle this type of game in the time mentioned. The biggest games I’ve enjoyed have been Dances With Emutant’s WW2 games… say 40-50 figures on a side, 2-3 hour time of play, between players that were familiar with the rules.
Could you elaborate on how the game was played, and the structure of the armies used? Were any steps taken to streamline the play?