Survivalist Chaos: Looking at the Warhammer Chaos Gods through a different lens.

Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh. These supernatural beings are the infamous Chaos Gods within the Warhammer universe – both Warhammer 40K, and Warhammer (Fantasy battle and Age of Sigmar). For those familiar with the Warhammer lore, they will know that the Chaos gods are often at the heart of the major storylines and conflicts; for those not familiar, they are described as the biggest threat to order, stability and general life, and portrayed as the major evil along with their villainous followers – even in the lore of 40k where no faction is inherently ‘good’. However, to say that the Chaos Pantheon are evil may be too critical of them, and what Chaos is and those that follow it. I’m not suggesting that Chaos are the “good guys” (if that exists in Warhammer), but neither are they the traditional “bad guys” (if this exists in Warhammer, too) expected from fantasy and sci-fi narratives.

Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings

If I were to recap my wargaming past, I don’t imagine anyone would be surprised to learn it began with Games Workshop – thought maybe a little when I say it wasn’t Warhammer. I remember when I first saw an advert on TV for The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, afterwards shouting “MUM!!” and begging that we could by the first issue; little did I know that it was the beginning of a hobby and passion for small plastic soldiers that I would enjoy almost 20 years later! I was then introduced to Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and Warhammer 40k. It was with Games workshop that I would enjoy wargaming… until now.

The game was Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings. At first I thought it was based around the Early Middle Ages (no ‘Dark Age’ crap) but soon learned it was fantasy. I was immediately taken by the look of it. However, it was the idea of a rank and flank style of game that kept making me hesitate. But, after seeing some online reviews and some really good introductory game videos by On Tabletop, on Youtube, I was sold and wanted to start playing it as soon as possible. Sadly, this was at the beginning of 2020, and literally a couple of weeks after getting my box set and rushing to get all the models assembled to start playing, the pandemic hit the UK and the dawn of the lockdowns began. Luckily, one of the guys who plays it managed to set up an Excel simulator for the game – now with terrain features and all – and so I have managed to play the game many times now, even over lockdown, and hoping that regular physical gaming can soon pick up again with lockdown in the UK easing up. This game has become very important to me, for several reasons, and I want to tell you about it.

100 Kingdoms: Household Knights

Becoming God: An RPG noob now GM

If I was to recall one regret in life, one of them would be not getting involved in RPGs earlier. I’ve played RPG video games like Skyrim, and The Witcher, to name a couple, but the RPG style of pen and paper, or even with miniatures was an unexplored realm to me; even when I started playing tabletop wargaming, it was still something other people did – not me. I think I was worried, that would inevitably be playing with a group that always included “that guy” – the person who would literally believe they are a wizard and criticise me because I wasn’t embracing my character properly or because I was making an action that wasn’t optimal to the meta…or some shit. This was until a couple of years ago, when my best mate said that he, his partner and a couple of their friends had played a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and asked if I’d like to join too. I said yes, simply because I thought if my mate is enjoying it (who has never been much of a role-player himself), then, at the lest, I’ll have a laugh with him anyway. His partner has organised a house party, but which had turned into an evening long DnD session… and you know what – I love it! I was playing a socially awkward Dwarve with poor social etiquette (suited me perfectly), who happened to fart every time things got awkward or stressful. I was also a healer for the party. It was brilliant fun, very laid back, and far easier for me to imagine my Dwarve and engage with him as a character than I ever thought it would.

Skip ahead to now, and I have been involved in a nice little range of DnD games now; currently, I’m nearing the end of a The Lord of the Rings RPG campaign as a Rider of Rohan (mostly me riding around shouting DEATH!), will soon be starting a Warhammer 40,000 campaign as a Dark Angel (the best chapter), and the GM for a fortnightly session within the Witcher universe.