The Weald - Another forest folk horror game

 The Weald

Another forest game perhaps worth trying is The Weald

The Weald is a 28mm Skirmish Wargame inspired by the folk horror genre.

The Weald is a once lively forest that has been plagued with a horrific disease, transforming plants, animals, and entire landscapes into a foul plague known as the Gnarl. The Gnarl seek to overtake the Weald, as they destroy small townships with ease. Nobles and Leaders have long since run out of guards, and have taken to hiring Wardens to defend their towns from the Gnarl threat.

Players create Warbands of Models that battle through Scenarios on the tabletop. Choose between the Warden and Gnarl factions in this easy-to-learn all-in-one rulebook. Extensive Warband creation and freedom coupled with a simple, narrative-driven skirmish wargaming ruleset is what The Weald stands for.

Rules are available free here: https://28-mag.com/games/

 

Supplement for The Weald: The Rites of Summer. This is a small narrative campaign containing several scenarios for players of The Weald to use, or to provide inspiration for creating their own scenarios and campaigns: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RJG5IE1p4Tyh_bmChZUnjrsl86jmiiti/view

https://ko-fi.com/post/The-Rites-of-Summer-S6S05OWX6

 

Exploring the Weald: https://ko-fi.com/post/Exploring-the-Weald-H2H15O9Q0

See: https://www.beastsofwar.com/news/grimdark-games-the-weald-lobsterpot/

See: https://ko-fi.com/post/Welcome-to-the-Weald-W7W55O8MK

Some inspiration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhyZMV7JZrA&ab_channel=PabloElMarques

His cursed trees are also worth seeing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p8sxE3abws&ab_channel=PabloElMarques

Verrotwood folk horror

The skies over the Verrotwood have turned a sickly grey. The hopes of men have withered as fast as the crops. Desperate for salvation the people have begun to turn to the long forgotten and unspeakable things that rest in slumber somewhere deep in the forest.

 

Pagan cults clash in the name of their gods. They do awful things to gain their favor, in the hope that they can awaken their gods.

 

Verrotwood is a grimdark fantasy miniatures agnostic skirmish game. The game's core rules are designed to be simple to pick up and play. It uses a ten sided dice pool system that helps to speed up play by removing the need for math at the table.

 

A simple but versatile cult customization system allows you to pick from a large list of unique rituals to cast upon your enemies. As you play through the competitive campaigns, your cult will gain power and grow stronger with an easy to follow leveling system. In-between games your cult will explore all of the horrifying things that the Verrotwood have to offer in a random event system.

Rules are available here: 

https://www.wargamevault.com/m/product/425504

Good blog of ideas here: 

https://gardensofhecate.com/blog/miniature/verrotwood-part-one

See this interview with the author evidently it all started with a well and a wailing girl… https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/what-is-verrotwood-interview-designer-michael-crutchett/

 GMG Review here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHIas_1XZlk&t=132s

What I like about the rules is that there are no good guys. The feel and aesthetic is very pleasing and reminds one of a Black metal band in a forest. 

There is thus a fair amount of musical inspiration one could listen to whilst playing and painting suitable miniatures. Listen to for instance Behemoth covering the Cure with the song A Forest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYZdaYobCSU

Indeed, a cult based on the band Immortal could be awesome... demon war paint and spikey clubs - what more do you want... 

Similarly going with a metal theme one could use Zombicide Iron Maiden Eddies as the basis of a cult. With Fear of the Dark being the summoned miniature. 

The rules and author also encourage kitbashing and scratch-building miniatures for the game which can add a whole new level of excitement, especially given the low miniature count - a cult being four miniatures and then potentially a few options for what they might summon. I also like the idea of each cult having a totem and one can be creative here as well. A must of course is loads of trees - time to get digging up roots see my trees here: 

https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/2020/04/golgothas-model-trees.html

I do think a cult made up of Wendigo would be ideal. A number of suitable miniatures are available including 3d prints.

Basil H. Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives a description of a wendigo:

The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.

Free paper buildings

 Free paper buildings here including Falklands War http://cardmodelsbytony.weebly.com/

Heraldry Inspirational images for shields

 Herewith is a great source of shield ideas for your knights. These are high-resolution well-detailed images so one could even print them as the actual shields for one's miniatures. 183 shields to choose from ideal for in particular Baron's war but many of these also be perfect for 100 Years War too. 

See: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1615416/page/13/?order=desc

See also The Destroy Carthage store on Etsy for transfers/decals for shields - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DestroyCarthage?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1193882544

ZULU WWII Official Merchandise - Cap for playtesters

 ZULU have been busy tweaking the rules and playtesting additional scenarios. They have also been working on developing a website and merchandise.

Here is the cap they have done for the playtesters and counters/markers are also in the pipeline. 

See: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=141029.0

Wycombe Warband - What a Cowboy by Too Fat Lardies - Old West Wargame

Latest wargame at the club What a Cowboy WAC by Too Fat Lardies 

See: https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/whatacowboy/

Had first wargame using these rules, 6 players with only one having played before and worked out well. Many concurred preference for these rules over Dead Man's Hand or even Fistful of Lead. Especially the no cards on the table and minimal record keeping. With players enjoying the making of choices with the activation dice. Likely to be starting a campaign soon. 

Less certain was the civilians and the ability to dodge which may require some tweaking. At one point we may have misinterpreted the spotting and cover for pinned characters. A 3x3 table would also speed things up...

See: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=101948.4170

Zulu WWII - Zulu an Overview - Further contextualisation to the rules

 Zulu WWII An overview

Zulu Games is a generic gaming platform to replicated mechanised warfare in a tabletop game (typically 6X4). The Zulu gaming engine will support multiple eras of mechanised warfare and due to the unique fog of war and visibility mechanisms, warfare that has been traditionally been very hard to replicate on a tabletop such as guerrilla warfare can be supported. 

The planned implementation is: WW2 first release (Autumn 2023 ) …Cold War next…then Vietnam…so an exciting range of games ahead. The current design centre is 10 – 15mm, 1 stand = 1 platoon , so a game is roughly battalion in scale. We wanted players to use existing stocks of 15mm WW2 miniatures. Games can be smaller and much larger depends on how long you want to play for!

We are introducing two ways to play scenario and competitive, with an dramatic narrative play in both. We are hoping that this best replicates the shock violence and surprise of modern mechanised warfare but importantly makes tabletop game exciting, hopefully attracting new players from other genres.

First out is Zulu WW2 is designed for you to recreate battles of the Second World War. Inspired by the dramatic mobile warfare during the period, Zulu WW2 was designed to replicate these confused and frantic mobile engagements, whether on the frozen Kalmyk steppe outside Stalingrad, the desert wastelands around Sidi Rezegh or on the rolling French plains of Arracourt.

We believe that the core challenges faced by commanders in mobile warfare, in any period of history, is dealing with high levels of uncertainty, yet being required to be decisive and violent in execution. It requires confidence in action despite the lack of information available to you. Hard decisions must be made, with either glory or catastrophe facing each one. Some of the best practitioners of mobile warfare, Patton, Rommel, Roberts and Rybalko were able to deal with this high-risk tolerance, a unique trait, rare amongst commanders – can you meet the challenge.

Therefore, we have designed Zulu WW2 to restrict as much battlefield information as possible available to both you and your opponent. Yet at the same time demand from the player to play with aggression, speed and cunning. Much like card game of poker, the player must either be forced put their chips on the table or fold their hand in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

In Zulu WW2, you are the commander of a task force built from a selection of many real-life formations that fought battles across Europe during the Second World War. You will assemble your companies for action and lay down plans for engagement on the battlefield. Do you want to leave reserves and discover your opponent’s main course of action, or will you gamble on a high tempo manoeuvre with the mainstay of your forces to enforce your will over the enemy early on?

What will your opponent do? Has he left his right flank thin with weak infantry forces? Or is it a trap goading you to put your main forces into a kill zone? Maybe he has hidden forces moving at high speed on the left flank, which could be comprised only of recon vehicles, or perhaps it could be their main armoured column? Only establishing a contact with your own forces will you find out. Its these challenges and choices that make Zulu WW2 a new way to wargame.

The choice is all yours. We have restricted the amount of ‘luck’ when determining your plan and manoeuvring the troops you want. The game is not going to make you play any other way, besides what you are as a commander and the capabilities of your troops. Consequently, a key understanding of combined arms and the role each unit plays on the battlefield is key. We have built unit and weapon profiles to combine not only their historical combat traits, but their behaviour on the

battlefield, in battlefield awareness and Mobility. You may have seized the initiative with aggressive manoeuvre with your main armoured thrust but being forced to leave your foot slogging infantry behind, your tank crews have run themselves into enemy hidden anti-tank guns, which they couldn’t spot, and you didn’t predict until it’s too late.

You won’t have success because your opponent failed a dice roll to activate a certain key unit, but rather because you chose the right time, with the right troops, to risk it all. Or perhaps your opponent chose their worst time, with a force poor for the job……play to find out!