apologist

The Nogthrong's dramatis personae: Cyng Nurnanog I'll be using the older rules for a Dwarf Lord on a Shield, and I just love this little diorama. Everything I like about dwarfs! The Runesmith Tremblestave The same figure as one I had as a nipper playing 3rd edition Warhammer. It's nice to have a way to use this characterful sculpt again. Since I'm using an adapted Cities of Sigmar set of rules, I'm toying with the idea of using him as an actual wizard. Any thoughts? Eorlcyng Nialon the Disapproving Feudal underlings to the Cyng above, Eorlcyngs are the Tallowlands' equivalent to Thanes. Coln Snorri Spilaf, Thegn of Nog The lack of ways to represent characterful models like this is the main reason for me diving into usign some of the older rules. I could use him as a Warden King, but as you'll see here, I've loads of models better-suited for that. I guess treating him as a Runesmith – based on the banner bearing terrible runic magic, rather than Snorri himself – could work, but I'd prefer to use the Dwarf Warscroll Compendium rules Thegn Kazasturn, Gesith of the Cyng Leader of one block of Ironbreakers. The Weartling Cwichelm Not to be outdone, Cwichelm will bring his snazzy Crimson Few into battle as Ironbreakers.

Abstract The PCRC – that's the Plastic Crack Rehab Clinic – are a group of nine hobbyists. Over the years we've played a variety of games; from boardgames to roleplaying, and tabletop wargaming's been a fairly constant presence since the group's inception. Enthusiasm for Warhammer has waxed and waned amongst the gang over the years, with some PCRC members being keen players of older editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, games like Fantasy Flight Games' Chaos in the Old World, or simply enjoying the fiction. The destruction of the Old World and the nebulous, delayed coming of the Age of Sigmar saw a us create the Tallowlands as a stable spot for our gaming. I hope this is the correct spot for me to record our narratively-led gaming here on TGA. Our tastes run from high to low fantasy, so we wanted a little corner of our own. It's intentionally a big fuzzy as to whether it's part of the Old World, the Mortal Realms, in order to allow us maximum freedom. The Tallowlands are thus a sort of half-way house setting, which owes a lot to the traditional Warhammer Old World while embracing the freedom and personal creativity that the Age of Sigmar setting offers. Thus you can expect some familiarity alongside the sheer surprise that we believe a fantasy setting should offer. I hope, therefore, that whether you favour the roleplay-led fantastical and uncharted early editions of Warhammer; the tightly-mapped, ordered and pseudo-historical middle editions, or the latest expansive potential of the Mortal Realms, you'll find something that gets your imagination spinning. *** The history of the Tallowlands, as reckoned by the dawi of the Gorm Ranges Draw close, manling, and pass that well-water your brewer flatters with the name of ale. Hm. Passable, after all. Perhaps I misjudge the children of Sigmar. At the least, my throat is not so dry as it was. While the fire burns still, let me tell you a little. You have been hospitable to my sister in her illness, and my kin do not soon forget kindness. Of the Tallowlands, it is said the Star Giants drew their plough across these lands – long ago; before the raising of the Hold, before the coming of Man; before the kingdoms that now flourish. The land buckled and melted in the heat, and the bones of the earth themselves grew soft and flowing. For two wholemoons the skies rained ash and fire as the plough drew slowly through the groaning ground. All who stayed on the surface perished. As the Giants passed, the land grew cold once more, and the mountains set into the soft rolling hills you see now. Ages passed – ages of war and terror; long since passed into the myth of man. Then it was that the great King-before-Kings came to explore the furrow they had ploughed. As Nog reached the edge of the blackened land, he saw a long scar in the earth. It sank deep – deep beyond his sight – and was seeded with gems and ore to delight a thousand lifetimes. It was hard, then, and bare: naught but thin grasses and heathers stretched across the moorlands, and the wind was chill. The Old gods, the hungry gods, were abroad in those days. Nog bought his safety through cunning pacts and bargains with Caer-Nadhg; and with wondrous gifts to He-that-is-named-Tidh. Nog knew then that he would raise a hold. A Hold of a thousand – ten thousand! – families. He and his kin would steward these new Tallowlands. And so it became. A fort was raised; and then a keep. Over five manling lifetimes Nog laboured and sweated to bring his hold to reality; while drawing the richness of the furrow to himself. Then came the greenskin nomads, and the silver-tongued infidious elves – and with them they brought their war... *** Hm. Elves. They inveigled their way into the holds of the dawi-folk with flattery and bluster. At first, we were glad to have company, for the winters were long then, the wild things of the world fiercer, and elves – for all their failings – are always beautiful, always quick to laugh, always with the brightest stories and the finest riddles. Safely ensconsed within stout dwarf-built walls, they built their damnable towers; and spied on the heavens. They peered too far. In his arrogance, their Princeling Lauim declared he had found the first Great Lesson: that gods and mortals were not meant to stand alongside each other. The elves cast the ancient Pacts of the gods and Nog asunder, and used their witch-ways and towers to shift Caer-Nadhg and He-that-is-named-Tidh and Listan and Dairayan and the rest. No longer were they seen plainly, as in the Time of Ancestors; and nor could they be treated with by the words of honest dawi-folk – for the Old gods had moved beyond where the wind of breath could reach them. It was an ill place, then; and without their presence the balance of the Wilds was broken. Tangled forests erupted with half-beasts and the mountains became treacherous with ogres and giants and trolls. Greenskins boiled forth from their hideouts and lairs, and the Wars of Sorrows began. Many towns were lost, and the dawi-folk were driven from the lowlands to their great holds. Beyond the hillside farms, we have never hence returned. The elves were ejected, then, and have never since been welcome; but that did not save our underhalls, for the greenskins and beastmen and crawlers are braver now than once they were; as they have no gods to fear. The Throng of Nog, as it stands in these benighted times. *** Ask them, now, in the towns of Man, where the lands they dwell in began, and they will not know. Only the dawi remember, for we have rune-cunning; and carve our memories in stone. Aye, us, and perhaps the elves; though well it is said that it is better to trust a knife in the dark than an elf. The Sin and the Gorach were the first of the Men to settle, the first to trade, and the first to build cities. Where the dawi-folk had bargained with the gods, knowing them to be part of a great balance, Man brought their own gods with them – Khând, Hain-Amur, Mithrest – and grew strong. Their temples displaced those of the wild gods; and Those first kingdoms are now lost, long lost, and lamentably lost. The Southern fiefdoms – the latecoming Rhôvers – are a dreary place in comparison with the glories of the Twin Empires. But such is the way of Man. Far-reaching, and short-sighted, the Sinian and Nygorach strove ever onwards. At first, so the ancestors have it, there was a spirit of friendly competition, the two cities growing to become kingdoms, then empires... As the strength of each waxed, so they strove not merely to out-do one another, but to eclipse the other. After centuries, the Sinians, it seemed, had won – and bloodlessly, too – for their rich lands bordered much to the south, providing them with space to grow; while the thin soils of Nygorach grew stripped-back and starved as the people of the peninsula cannibalised what land they had in raising increasingly impressive monuments, their grandeur giving the proud rulers an inadvertently desperate air, that made visiting dignitaries' wine sour. The Gorach would, eventually, fall to the temptations of powers that even the blade-ears avoid, and by the beard of Gazul, their new-found power would consume them. The Tallowlands; a map charted by the umgi Warmtamale and Omricon. It was not long since – within my lifetime, and I am no great age for a dawi – that Sinian fell. In two-score years, its garrisons and towns and castles were eaten from within. The Sinian Emperor, and then his line, were lost, and the lands themselves seemed sickened. Trains of refugees and exiles swept down the mountain roads, seeking sanctuary. Armies of monsters trailed them, and as our holds became besieged, we learned then how it was that the Great Sinian Empire had fallen so quickly – for Nygorach had traded with dark places, and learned how to draw life away. So Sinian soldiers fell, unblemished; and even their firearms and gunpowder failed to light, as the spark of fire lost its life. It was then we learned once more the value of steel and sinew over the alchemy increasingly favoured by our cousins and by the youngling races. Turning to the ancestors, we found ancient tomes from the time the elves lived alongside us, and our runesmiths learned to yoke their sorcery; breaking its will and writing it into our runes, and thence to beat them into our steel. Thus strengthened by good dwarfish craft, were our holds able to withstand the tide. The conflict became known as the Ghoul Wars, and it continues to this day. It is our great sorrow to bear witness to the weakness of Man. With the strong arm of the Sinian Empire lost, the wild things of the Tallowlands grow bold once more. The mould-hearted children of the Nygorach are triumphant – though their mad king rules naught but charred wasteland. Pain, despair and hunger, the three children of war, stalk the Tallowlands...

Lovely, a dedicated dawi thread After a few false starts over the years, our gaming group is getting into Age of Sigmar (you can see our blog, The Tallowlands here, if you'd like to follow along), and the release of Cities of Sigmar has allowed me some way of using my favourite models. There are around a hundred infantry in all, at various stages of completion ranging from primed with the bases completed (I did a big batch) to those above. We're aiming for an internal 'Armies on Parade' at the end of May, so I'll be getting a wriggle on. Having a dwarf army again after many years (back in third edition) is great, and I dearly hope there's eventually a dedicated 'ground dwarf' list. Personally, I don't hold much faith in the weirder engineering like cannons and gryocopters, so I'd like to see more emphasis on quarrellers, the return of bolt throwers, grudge throwers and similar – even a bit of (properly harnessed) magic. Looking forward to NinthMusketeer's allegiance abilities

Agreed with MaatithoftheBrand. I find acronyms and jargon in general really tiresome – particularly when there's a double-layer of meaning. I'm not really confident of what 'battleline tax' means, let alone giving it an acronym that evokes a sandwich. I'm not against abbreviating things where it aids discussion, but using them for specific fan-made terms is needless jargon that discourages discussion and shuts people out.

Brill, ta. I think that's probably the route I'll take – work out where I want my fortress/city/settlement to sit in terms of the lore; then work out how best to represent it within the strictures of the rules. If I decide to take an artefact, I'll use the rules as written, but 'reskin' it as something appropriate to the lore. In terms of the artefacts, are those in the Age of Sigmar Gaming book that was recently released, or are they in the Cities of Sigmar army book?

The origin of the city will be in the lore, so I don't think that'll cause too many ructions. In any case, are the artefacts compulsory? If not, I've always got the option of simply not taking one, right?

Thanks for the continuing help and ideas (and the kind words!) – it's been hugely helpful to have my misconceptions cleared up. I now need to sit down and work through where I want to site the dwarfs' fortress. I'm leaning toward Ghur, as that seems to fit nicely with the no-black powder thing, and provides an excuse to have the Throng of Nog being rather more aggressive than might be typical for Old World Dawi. Other options are the Realms of Life, Shadow or Death; mainly owing to the forces my regular gaming partners are likely to be – orcs, wood elves and ghouls.

Thanks all for the considered thoughts. Very much appreciated; and – to be honest – quite a relief to hear the answers. I hope the 'Realms' would offer a huge creative space, and it's sounding like they're intended to be large enough to hide an independent city/fortress in, rather than fully mapped-out by GW themselves. Is that fair to say? If that is the case, I think I'll have a closer look at the various realms and see which one appeals, then begin to build around that. I'm not averse to adding in some non-dwarf elements, but I want to have the 'core' of the dwarf city established before allowing in any manlings or tricksy elves. The advice above has given me lots of options and ideas for things like the crossbow dwarfs, so I'll again have a closer look. In terms of picking a realm... From the little I understand, Aqshy is the sort of 'default' space for humans, elves and dwarfs; but anything can turn up in any realm. Have I got the wrong end of the stick, or is that broadly right? I thought I had read that the inhabitants of various realms picked up aspects of the realm – so the dwarfs from the Realm of Metal, for example, would have a metallic sheen to their skin (or similar), while those from the Realm of Death might be more gaunt and humourless. Again, is that correct? Are there any existing stories or bits of background that hint at or detail specific realms? On a related note, are all Fyreslayers from the Realm of Fire? Can dwarfs exist in any of the eight realms, or are some Realms exclusive to certain factions? What happens to a dwarf from (say) the Realm of Beasts if they go to another realm? Do they retain their 'beastiness', or change somehow? Thanks again for your help. I find the background fascinating, but quite hard to get a grip on.

I'm looking to take my dwarfs back onto the front line, but there's a lot to take in about how the setting work! I always like to build some background material to help get me into the spirit of the game, and wondered if the TGA community could offer some thoughts and opinions to help me refine the broad ideas I'm outlining below, to help fit them into the brave new world of the Realms. I (and my gaming group) have ummed and erred about getting into Age of Sigmar proper, and the new Cities of Sigmar offers me a way in. I hope you can give me some ideas on how best to field my forces. Thanks! Overview First off, I have very little experience of playing Age of Sigmar beyond one or two small introductory games, which I enjoyed. However, I've been playing for a while and am part of a gaming group that's fairly liberal in terms of rules – we're quite happy to play with counts-as or make up our own rules. However, I'd like to minimise the amount of that that I need to do, as it'd be good to understand how the game works more generally, in case I end up getting a game in against someone new. While I liked the characterisation of the dawi of the Old World a great deal, I don't feel I want to recreate that. AoS seems to offer some more creative space to play with and personalise my dwarf force. Neither the Fyreslayers nor Overlords really grabbed me – they both have great touches, but the core appeal of the dwarfs to me is the pseudo-Norse feel. For that reason, I'd like to avoid blackpowder weaponry; instead looking for crossbows, catapults etc. While I'm open to magical stuff – this is a fantasy game, after all – I'd like the focus to be relatively 'low fantasy', so that magic items and events really stand out. At the core of the army, I'd like to use my existing models, which are mainly the modern plastics. Specific questions In background terms, would there be any 'oddness' to most AoS players to have an army completely consisting of Dwarfs? Similarly, would the absence of blackpowder tech seem odd, or could that be explained by the city being based in (say) the Realm of Beasts? The Cities of Sigmar book means I have to pick a city. How can I reconcile that with the question above? The new Cities of Sigmar allows me to use lots of my models as-is – the majority are Ironbreakers, Longbeards and Hammerers. However, I've also got a regiment of dwarfs with crossbows (veterans of 3rd ed. Warhammer, when I last properly played!). Am I better off using these to count-as Free Cities Crossbows, or is there a way to 'ally in' dwarf Quarrellers? Do dwarf clan warriors (i.e. not the elite Ironbreakers, Hammerers etc.) exist any more? Is there a way to field them within the Cities of Sigmar book, or will they have to be counts-as Freeguild Guard? Thanks in advance for your help (and patience!)