With Warcry Catacombs looming large on the horizon, it’s a good time to get a little extra practice in with your warbands. What better way to do it than with a proper challenge battle? These one-off battleplans can be played instead of a standard campaign quest if your warband has enough experience under their belts* to take them on.
Each of these challenges offers a new way to explore the Eightpoints, confronting legendary baddies and securing powerful relics – but be warned, some of them are pretty tough. They’re called challenge battles for a reason, after all.
Today, we’ll take a look at a few of our favourites from the Tome of Champions to get your bloodlust up. If you like what you see here, there’s plenty more where that came from – order a copy to see the rest!
Lord Splinterbone’s Feast
The Story:
The self-proclaimed Baron of the Bloodwind Spoil wants to invite you to one of his notorious grand feasts. While even the dullest blades in your arsenal can figure out that they’re likely walking into a trap in which they’ll become the main course, rumours of musty halls full of mouldering treasures promise to make it worth it.
The Battle:
Your mission is simple. Get in, loot the place, and get out – before you get eaten. In the build-up before the battle, you’ll mingle with your host and his court, sidle up to some choice bits of treasure, and then make a break for it once they figure out what’s going on. Once the gig is up, you’ve got to leg it while Lord Splinterbone and his Flesh-eater Courts warband swarms you.
The Spoils:
You’ll end up with an amazing campfire story, AND you get to keep any treasure you’re carrying at the end of the third round. Win! Each piece of loot allows you to roll on the lesser artefacts table. If you fail to steal anything, your warband will lose control of a territory as word of their embarrassing failure spreads.
Unveiling the Arcane
The Story:
The Eightpoints are rife with rumours of lost temples, hidden tombs, and powerful relics. Some of them are even true! Your warband has it on good authority** that there’s a recently-uncovered Stormvault within striking distance. Of course, these sorts of things tend to attract a fair amount of attention…
The Batte:
As it turns out, your warband isn’t the first group on the scene. You’ll have to fight your way past some Tzeentch Arcanites to take control of a Realmvault Key. Unfortunately for you, your adversaries happen to be led by an utterly-deadly Ogroid Thaumaturge. Even if you do get close to the key, you have to crack the code to activate it and open the vault.
The Spoils:
If you unlock the vault and control the key at the end of the fourth battle round, you’ll find the Blade of Carnage Unending, which heals the bearer when they score a critical hit at close range. If you fail, you’ll be forced to abandon two dominated territories!
An Ill-advised Expedition
The Story:
An ambitious – or foolish*** – wizard from one of Azyrheim’s noble houses fancies himself an explorer and hires your warband to protect him during his latest expedition into the Eightpoints. It’s possible that he’s actually found something of value, and it just might give you the edge you need to earn a name for yourself.
The Battle:
You must protect the Travelling Wizard as he conducts his research. Meanwhile, a rival warband will do everything in their power to take him hostage and discover what he knows – or at least kill him to deny you… He’s not without his own tricks, however, and he’ll fight to preserve his own life.
The Spoils:
If you manage to keep him alive and close to you until the end of the fourth battle round, he’ll reward you with D6+3 glory points! You can even haggle over his payment, represented by re-rolling the D6 if you so choose.
As you can see, there’s a wide variety of challenge battles, each broadening your experience of the Eightpoints. They’re completely optional, but there are great reasons to take part in them, and they can add variety and spontaneity to your games.
Grab a copy of the Tome of Champions and give these challenge battles a whirl to prepare yourself for Catacombs – keep an eye out for more information about that as soon as we have it!
* Face-belts are optional, except in the case of the Unmade.
** Well, maybe it’s not GOOD per se…
*** Or both.