New Norse update out now!

A little bigger update this time, changing the following:

- Counter-Charge now only applies to units with a King or Jarl in them, streamlined function to avoid confusion with multiple chargers.
- Most Infantry 1 pt cheaper.
- Fearless rule for Reaver removed.
- Marauders and Half Giants only have hand weapons as basic, have to purchase other weapons.
- Some graphical changes.
- Fixed text duplicates and typos.

Edit: Small errata for Berserkergang, not yet uploaded:

"Whenever a unit of Norse makes successful charge (including Counter-Charge) it may take a Leadership test at the start of their close combat round (before testing for Fear). If passed, the unit is Frenzied for the duration of the turn."

Possible Allied Contingents book in the future

As some of you may have read, I have been tinkering with the idea of making a book for Allied Contingents in the future . Seeing how many of you seem to want to these list playable in an 8th ed format, I will probably just have to cave in and give you those armies at some point... ;)

These Allied Contingents would be smaller army lists of maybe 10-20 pages each, containing about a dozen units (with about half a page of text/art for each). This would also include a couple of pages of background for each army list, but nothing major like the complete army books.
If I were to put together a book like this, what armies would you like to see? At the moment I was thinking:

• Tilean Mercenaries (replacing Mercenaries of Tilea, but will give you more distinct mercenary units instead).
• Border Princes (based on the Balkans, Byzantines and Greeks)
• Marienburg (based on Dutch trading companies)
• Gnoblar Hordes (updated WD list)
• Dwarf Slayers (updated SoC list)
• Army of the Cairns (updated WD list)
• Cult of Slaanesh (replacing the full book, updated SoC list)
• Zombie Pirates (updated WD list)
• Hinterlands of Khuresh (based on Snake-men, Naga, as mentioned in Monstrous Arcanum, only a maybe here)
• Pygmies (maybe)

Also note that this is only a "maybe" announcement, haven't decided upon anything yet. This supplement would be created only after all other books are up to date (so probably not until next year then).

New Norse update out now!

The usual Day 1 patch, it takes care of some minor bugs as reported by you guys, as well as some very minor layout changes. Recommended unless you like overpowered Ice Drakes ;)

Details for upcoming Estalia update

Hot on the heels after Norse are Estalia! I want to wait until the High Elf book comes out until I start working on the Wood Elves' rules, so they will yet again take the back seat I'm afraid.
Fortunately, I know there are plenty of Estalia fans here (mostly from Spain, not surprisingly!), so this will hopefully still be rather welcomed news. Estalia haven't seen an update since sometime back in 2011, and there are plenty of things there that needs changing.

The Estalia update will be a bit down-played compared to most of the other updates, with less fantasy-elements (as befits their Inquisitorial setting). I haven't decided on their new units yet, though they will probably be fewer than those of other armies.
The army as a whole will probably land to be somewhat of a mix between the Empire and Dogs of War, though they won't have crazy magics and steampunk elements or a ton of different races to choose from. Rather, they will be a very human-centric army which will rely more on tactics and finesse over "ZOMG, explosions and stuff!".
So for those of you who prefer your armies with less fantasy, this would be a good choice (WAB players apply here), otherwise you will probably be better off just reading the background for fun and playing the Empire.

I will keep this post updated with the progress and planned features. However, right now I need to slow down work on these books for a few weeks to focus on studies, so do not expect this to be as quick an update as the Norse was. I will probably have it out in a month or so, and will be able to pick up the pace again after June 8th.

Planned features (so far):

• New (possible) units: War Dogs, Royal Guard, Almogavars. Plans for Seraphim (angels) and Gorgons (armored bulls) existed, but I feel those would be a bit too much for Estalia. Inquisitorial Henchmen, Serfs are gone.
• New special characters: Isabella Giovanna Luccelli and the High Inquisitor among others. Current special characters will be renamed so as not to be the same as their historical counter-parts.
• Full colour update (the usual stuff, have tons of new cool artwork for the book).
• Tercio formation will be added as army special rule.
• Lore of Myrmidia will be relegated to Bound Spells like the Empire Warrior Priest.
• Tactical Supremacy will be revised to be more useful.

Warhammer: Norse Proper 8th ed out now!

Keeping ahead of schedule again! This huge update for the Norse adds/changes the following:

• Extended background for the Norse, especially in their history and geography department.
• New units: Sons of Thor, Thralls, Ulfjarls, Half Giants, Norse Horsemen.
• 2 new special characters - written by Stefan Wolf, who is starting to become a bit of a regular in helping out with writing supporting background for the units!
• New Lore of the Seidr - spells based on the Aenir (Norse gods)
• Revised Magic Items - the cooler ones from the old list is back in new form, with several new ones to boot.
• Lots of balance changes - infantry is generally more expensive, but the Norse list have plenty of more variation now
• Full colour artwork and graphic layout, with plenty of great new illustrations to peruse.

Read and Download:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34396670/Warhammer-Armies-Norse 
http://issuu.com/m4cr1ii3n/docs/warhammer-armies---norse_20100908_225556

Alternative Miniatures: Araby

The first of a series of entries that details where you can get models for your armies. In each, I will detail all miniature companies I can think of that makes suitable models for each army. If there are any I have forgotten (which I am sure there are), please write in the comments, and I'll add them to the list.

Black Tree Design (Warriors of Islam)
Gripping Beast (Moors)
Gripping Beast (Saracens)
Gripping Beast (Arabs)
Perry-Miniatures
Reaper Miniatures
Old Glory Saracens
Old Glory Turks
Artizan Designs
Footsore Miniatures
Magistermilitum
Brother Vinni
Shieldwolf
Assault Group
Eureka
Fireforge
Lancashiregames
Irregular (Mamluks)
Irregular (Ayyubids)
V&V

New Cathay and Nippon updates out now!

These updates makes the following rules changes for both armies:

Cathay:

- Cho Ko Nu 7 pts (they are way too spam-friendly to be 5 pts each)
- Emperor's Guard back to 11 pts (their extra Initiative combined with Halberds and Glory for the Dragon Emperor makes them on par with greatswords in combat)
- Fire Arrow nerfed to Strength 3, no armour piercing. 100 pts.

Nippon:

- Katana allows models to re-roll 1's when rolling To Hit instead of +1 To Wound.
- Great Guard Imperial Armoury rule replaced with Impale Attack for Kirin, 60 pts.

The Nippon book now uses a new link (updated at the top and bottom of the page) since the old one bugged in Issuu (showing two Nippon documents instead of one).

Support feature added

Seeing as there have been several people whom have been wanting to pay for these books (which was never the plan, and still isn't from my part), I have after much deliberation decided to add a support feature to the site, where you can donate through PayPal whatever amount you want.

As you can probably imagine, working on these books is both time consuming and also cost me a fair share of money in tracking down old White Dwarfs, WFRP source books, Army Books and so on, which are needed to update old units and extend the background sections of the books. I'm not asking for a hand-out since I do get by myself (though I'm hardly rich as a student), but if you feel like helping out, you now have the option to do so. Any donations received will strictly go towards being able to improve these books further in the future.

I would also like to yet again point out that the books consist of far from only my own material, and any donations should only be considered being for the work I do myself. As such, whatever you think these books might be worth to you, I would only give half or even a third of that, because I absolutely do not want any credit for material made by someone else, let alone be receiving money for it.

Regardless if you want to support the site or not, all books will still be freely available as before, and will be kept updated as usual. Thank you.

 

New Cathay update out now!

This update changes some things based on the feedback from you guys, so thank you for helping out!
Several things are clarified, nerfed/buffed as follows (as well as some general bug fixes):

• Dragon’s Breath 50 pts.
• Stormhurler Ballista 75 pts.
• Emperor's Guard 10 pts.
• Plumage of Flames count towards the combat result.
• Flames of Azure hits are resolved in close combat, counts towards resolution.
• Bereavement of Life causes 3D6 hits.
• Path of Light movement increased to 3D6, cannot be used to charge.
• The Swift Cat is activated in remaining moves phase.
• The Cunning Fox unit must stay within deployment zone.
• Jade Sword of Feng Wu 40 pts.
• Brush of 1000 Years can only be used with Lore of Ying and Yan.
• Standard of Grand Cathay additional hits counts towards the combat result.

To Valhalla! Details for upcoming Warhammer: Norse!

Having finished (for the moment) exploring the mysterious East of the Warhammer World, it's time to go back to my own (former) culture: the Norse! I know I said that I would do Wood Elves after Cathay, but... VIKINGS! Okay?
This should be a reasonably quick update, since I won't have to rewrite whole chunks of fluff like with Cathay or Nippon. For the proper Norse 8th ed update you can look forward to:

- Extended background on Norsca.
- New units: Sons of Thor, Thralls, Slavers, Ulfjarls, Half Giants, Norse Horsemen. Norse Dwarfs will unfortunately disappear from the list for fluff reasons.
- New special characters.
- New Lore of the Seidr.
- Revised Magic Items.
- Lots of balance changes.

I hope to be finished with the book at the end of April, so check in then! Now to summon the power of Thor by playing Amon Amarth (look them up) all day!

Current Progress:

Contents/credits - in progress.
Society - done.
The Tribes - done.
History - done.
Timeline - done.
Geography - done.
Bestiary - done.
Special characters - done.
Magic Items - done.
Spell Lore - done.
Army list - done.
Summary - done.

Update: Most of the book is finished now, still need to finish up the special characters though. I'm currently going through the main background text for Norsca and editing a lot of the grammar (which is sorely needed), so the new version should read a lot better in certain parts. If possible, I'll have the update out by tomorrow night.

Glory for the Dragon Emperor! Warhammer Cathay: Proper 8th ed update out now!

And not even halfway through April yet! I expected to be hunched over the background section for weeks, but fortunately, it worked out rather well a lot faster than that. This new and much improved version of Cathay includes the following:

- Additional background for Cathay's history. Every single official mention of Cathay is in there (as far as I know), and all dates are concurrent with the rest of the Warhammer World.
- New units: Field Engineers, Wu Xia and Brass Titans.
- New Special Characters: Tian Shi, Huan Bei, Chu-Ye Xian, Cheng Long and Dalan-Tai.
- New magic items.
- Completely revised Ying and Yan lore.
- Lots of balance changes to bring the army better into 8th ed.
- New full colour layout, filled with tons of new art.
- Bugs fixes, as usual.

Again, great thanks to Stefan Wolf who helped me with parts of the fluff, especially that of the special characters! And as usual, let me know of any bugs or other oddities. I shall now feast on toast to celebrate this joyous moment before passing out. Cheerio!

Download:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30816182/Warhammer-Armies-Cathay
http://issuu.com/m4cr1ii3n/docs/warhammer-armies---cathay_20100908_224913

Development Update 2: Cathay

Figured I'd post how each section is progressing, so you can have a better idea of when it's getting closer to completion. Still a lot of work left to do, but it's moving forward!

Contents/credits - done.
History - done.
Timeline - done.
Society - done.
Geography - done.
Bestiary - done.
Special characters - done.
Art of War - done.
Magic Items - done.
Spell Lore - done.
Army list - done.
Summary - done.

Most of the Magic Items are completely new, and greater care have been given to the special characters this time around, of which there will be plenty of new ones to try out.

Update 1: Progress is going faster than expected! About the only real "hindrance" left is rewriting the history section (which is quite extensive). I haven't quite decided on just how long I will make it, but I will probably try to keep at 10 pages at most, which is on par with the official books. Getting a decent feel for China's history now, so I will hopefully be able to do this without hitting any blocks. If it goes well, I might have the book out in two weeks.

Update 2: History section is done! Became 15 pages, almost than twice as long as I had expected, but that's hardly a bad thing! Cathay now has a much more extensive history which details all Dynasties, unlike the old book which only detailed the first ones, a couple of battles and the Celestial Dragon. The background should be be 100% compatible with the rest of the Warhammer world, although I will have to rewrite a couple of dates in the Nippon book later.

Oh, and this is not an April's Fool's joke. I'm super cereal.