Welcome to Thistlewood – Warhammer Fantasy Battle’s second Scenario
Well, this gets messy these days.. Back in about 1983, Games Workshop Published ‘Warhammer’. Later to become Warhammer Fantasy Battle.. then it appears to have become ‘Warhammer Fantasy’, then Warhammer.. then technically now Warhammer: The Olde world (yet they feature new world races? and yes, that spelling mistake to make it sound ‘old’. learn old English ¬_¬ ah, I don’t bother with the new stuff… )
It was co-created mostly be Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley (sadly, Rick Priestley is the only one still with us). It came as three core Books in a book set, and included the first ever battle scenario ‘The Ziggurat of Doom‘. And I haven’t read it. I don’t really know much on First edition but maybe I should take a look sometime.
I know in Issue 43, Joe Dever gives a review of the game for the White Dwarf ‘Open Box’ page and gives it about 8 out of 10. I would argue he was bias. something that might confirm this is outside the Introductory battle in the core book, the first full Scenario came in White Dwarf #45 and was written by… Joe Dever.. yeah…
Thistlewood starts off with a nice little map of the general area and looking at it from a 3-4ed view (more 4ed then 3ed but I’m easy both ways), you can see how much the original system was just that. a System. While there was some ‘world of warhammer’, it wasn’t a HUGE HUGE thing. The Scenario was written for 2,4 or 6 players (aww… only multiples of 2..) with a umpire, cause like with alot of things, early days an umpire was something that kinda required while later it became ‘optional but best’. The field was to be 8 by 4 feet (which he points out it’s the size of an average table-tennis table.. useful to know for anyone that goes to a youth club at the time and surely something which is intentional. It also points out it can be scaled but try to keep everything in roughly the same places. They also recommend that when fighting goes into buildings, use the Dungeon Floorplans in a small area away from the main table. Wow, I must say the idea of taking the action to a ‘sub board’ like that.. isn’t something I’ve seen done alot. Though it highly reminds of me of how old RPG games are made. Outside you would have the building but when you enter the door, you are warped to a inside map where the building is most likely bigger then the outside cause you have different reasons and limits so you can explore it in more detail. It then goes into some minor details on positioning and stuff.
Now, we get to the Scenario itself, the Story and plot. I’ll quote this one:
Foro Malas, an Accomplished thief of a foreign guild, has successfully stolen the legendary golden chalice of Landemar, reputedly the most securely guarded treasure of King Amias’ rich Kingdom. The King has mobilised his army to hunt and capture the thief and to restore the holy relic to the cathedral altar before the news of its disappearance becomes widespread. From snatches of information the King has deduced that the thief is in hiding in the small northern village of Thistlewood.
Lord Vassago, evil necromancer and ruler of the King’s neighbouring Northlands, has learnt of the thief on his flight from the King. He has also discovered that Foro Malas is hiding in Thistlewood and that the King is less than one day away, but Vassago is determined to capture the chalice despite the risk of a costly battle. The relic is reputed to have great magical properties: should it fall into the hands of Vassago the security of the entire kingdom would be jeopardised as he would be able to command great power and influence over its populace.
The Victor is whoever gets the chalice and returns it to their baseline first. Well.. with some work, this story can be made to fit in with the Later Warhammer world but, it’s quite different. A necromancer in the Northlands? a King with a Kingdom? Well.. the Empire can have kingdoms but it’s not really a thing, they are more Barons and more lessor nobles. Bretonnia? maybe. It’s one thing which has been commented on with Warhammer is the de-british-ing if I can coin a word. At first, you would have very British names and places. Thistlewood is very much a British sounding name, though… Lets not think too much into this field as we would start to talk about people with the name and that’s a side-track not worth going into. King Amias? Well, that’s a French name and really, there is alot of that in Britain. Brief History, there are NO Native people from Britain. It’s kinda an island which people moved to, though there were land bridges when they first started. They mostly came from Germania if I spelt that right, and we had alot of Germanic people come over (Saxon’s being a main group, which then created Anglo-Saxons) and after the uniting of the Kingdoms to create England, we were invaded by the Normans, who were.. As I understand it, pretty much united France at the time. While we do have some ‘English’ names which are from the Scandinavian places, it’s mostly names from Latin, German and French originals (side note, my Surname is French though I haven’t been able to ‘trace it back to the Norman invasion’, but there aren’t many of us and most are kinda related within only a couple of generations).
Right, as I was saying, Early on there were alot of more British names and types, then later they cut out the humans into two main camps. The Empire who were very much German (mostly Holy Roman Empire period but also kinda up to WW1 era with all the Graf Vons and stuff), and the Bretonnia’s were.. well, French (as in, from Brittany) and alot of the stuff you would see as stereotypical British was kinda phased out. This might be partly due to the whole ‘foreign is exotic and cool’. But alot of this is kinda the point of view of looking at parts over a period of time. I think the Perry twins also had a hand in some of this as they were very much into medieval history and at the time, we were pretty much ruled by the French, with the Holy Roman Empire being a rival.
Anyway, its a nice and simple setup for the battle while giving room for expanding it. We now have the two armies. They are designed for three battle scales, depending on figures you have (Skirmish level, Engagement Level and Mass Battle Level) and of course, if you play with more then 2 players, you split stuff. Oh and to make it easier, they use the 3 numbers in brackets to say how many troops in each mode. I’ll do that too. So if I say (1-2-3), that mean 1 figure in Skirmish mode, 2 figures in Engagement mode, and 3 figures in Mass Battle Mode.
The first force is the King’s Army, the Honourable and lawful good feudal people of the King’s Kingdom. There is a bit of information on them which is basically just these are the great nice guys and the King is a great guy, there is even a bit more on the town itself, the local population (60, of which 65% are women and children.. so.. 39 are women and Children and 21 are men), who are loyal to Baron Galen, and the mayor is a wizard called Polias, even though the kingdom treats magic with suspicion and contempt… But lets look at the forces themselves:
King Amias is leading your army as a character and of course, is only 1 figure no matter the scale of the game. We also have second in command Baron Galen. Now we move to the army
Imperial Guard (3-5-10) . Fair enough, that a solid start.. small amount also makes sense for an elite force. There are then… the Royal Centaurs (3-5-10). Royal Centaurs? well.. Centaurs are fine and all but they very much seamed to get side-lined and only really used for Chaos later on. Still, fun. King’s Pikes Regiment (10-15-20), King’s Sword Regiment (10-15-20) & King’s Mace Regiment (10-15-20). Three standard troop units. we now have some slightly more interesting ones, going back to the Centaur like ones. We have Loyal Half-elves (10-15-20) and Loyal Dwarves (10-15-20). Half-elves are another group that seams to get very side-lined and I guess with the re-focus of Elves as.. while not evil, kinda Prideful and showing distaste of groups like Humans, having ones which are Half human-Half Elf is a bit more out of place. We then have the largest unit, Baron Galen’s Cavalry (10-20-30). For some ‘magic’ back up we also have the Local chuchman, Bishop Milendon with a bunch of spells and stuff, mostly support spells (as it should be) So Mass battle is 151 figures? something like that. Skirmish is 68…. huh.. Can’ say I would call 68 figures ‘Skirmish’ level but maybe it’s just a sign of the times. Not being totally familiar with 1ed, I’m not sure why it’s pointing out that no more then 20% of the army should be armed with missile weapons… this is a pre-set list.. the Half elves appear to be the only ones I would say probebly have bows but.. oh well, like I said, I don’t know the rules at this point so maybe the Pike men can be armed with bows ^_^
We then have the Boo-hiss evil Lord Vassago’s Army and it points out how nasty and evil this necromancer is and… huh.. he is a Necromancer in charge of Orcs and Goblins.. Undead not really being a army thing right now, eh? also WAY before Chaos as a force. There are some undead through, for example the second in command, the undead Champion Spectre N’aarsh… mm.. that names has a ring about it… (also, the picture of Lord Vassago’s Standard Bearer… Chaos Sorcerer? is that you? ^_^ okay, it’s not, that figure wasn’t even sculpted yet but.. mm.. very much get that vibe from him.
Lord Vassago’s army is lead by Vassago himself s a magic user who has a number of undead raising spells. We then have N’aarsh being kinda in charge of the undead side, and Ugrash-Ka being in charge of the Orc/Goblins side. We also have a Wyvern.. unless you are playing mass battle mode where we now have 2 Wyverns. Nasty.
For some Elites, we have a group of Trolls (2-3-5). We then have Black Uruks (5-10-20). This is kinda still more Tolkien Orcs I would say in that as this is a unit of what are later Black Orcs. there is a unit of Ghouls (5-10-15) for the undead side but.. lets see how many minis you have cause we have the Vile Rune Orcs (30-40-50) and the Black Sun Goblins (30-40-50). Them some nice big units. There are then a Unit of Skeletons (10-20-25) and some Pack Wolves (10-20-30).. aww.. can’t get the Goblins on the doggies yet.. and oh, no more then 25% of the army can have missile weapons.
This is a pretty big army here. 200 in Mass Battle. Not a huge change from the good guys really. 150 vs 200 but on Skirmish mode, 91 figures compared to the heroes with 68. clearly not what we would call Skirmish mode these days.
There is then the one page Umpires guide. Basically, this is with various information about the village cause neither side are quite as local as you might think, so they don’t know what’s inside so only the Umpire knows, when you enter the houses you have some NPCs to deal with, ranging from the Priest, the Mayor Wizard, Random Peasants, a mad dog and the thief himself.
We then have, in much smaller print, something very nice. Figure Recommendations! Most of them are Citadel but not all. there is a nice mix and.. some of these are still in production. Lets go through the list:
King’s Army Forces:
King Amias & Baron Galen – Any two Citadel boxed set Goodly Knights of Law.
Imperial Guard – Citadel’s C38/3b range which were two different Spearmen in full armour (Oringally DA19 ‘Byzantine front rank heavy infantry’ and DA81 which I can’t find)
Royal Centaurs – Asgard FM21. This figure isn’t in production, but many of Agard’s other Centaurs are.
King’s Pikes – Citadel C37/1e Knight with spear (originally M18 ‘Foot standard Bearer’)
King’s Swords – Citadel C37/1a Knight with sword (Originally M11) or Chronicle CF5. Chronicle was a series by Nick Lund till the mid 80s where they were brought by Citadel who then pretty much used it as a brand name for a while before fazing out the range. Nick Lund had joined Citadel but then created Grenadier Miniatures UK and I don’t believe these miniatures are in production anywhere as they are probably under Citadel’s control.
King’s Mace – Citadel C37/2a Men-at-arms with axe or mace (originally M8 ‘armoured infantry in aketon with hand weapon’)
Half-Elves – Ral Partha PO2/3d. While Ral Partha (ugh… trying to work out who they really are now with the split and stuff) are still going with alot of old models still in production, I’m not sure about these ones.
Dwarves – Citadel C06/1a-d. These would be Dwarf Hero (Originally FA29), Dwarf With two-handed Hammer (FA15), Dwarf in Plate Armour with Halberd (FS53-2 AND DASP-5) and Dwarf Attacking with Hammer. That’s quite a range of weapons really.
Galen’s Cavalry – Citadel C39/1d. I’m not sure which of the C39/1’s this one is meant to be but it’s a guy on horse back of course.
Bishop Milendon – Citadel C03/1b Cleric Swinging Hammer
Lord Vassago’s Army
N’aarsh – Citadel C01/4a-d so one of either Anti-Aladin (Originally FA24), Anti-hero (FA33), Chaos Warrior or Chaos Warrior with Two-handed Weapon (FTF U-02). I really like the second variation of Chaos Warrior but that is probably gonna be a pain to source.
Ugrash-Ka – Ral Partha P11/1d. Again, No sure if this one is still in production. sigh, companies and the renaming of figure codes..
Wyvern – Citadel C30/1d Wyvern (Originally FF54)
Trolls – Citadel C20/1a-d Trolling Attacking with Tree Trunk (FTT1), Troll Hurling Rock (FTT3), Troll with Captive Girl (FTT4) and Troll Discipline Master with Whip (FTT6). All by Tom Meier
Black Uruks – Chronicle CM9 – again, see above about Chronicle. This figures were in fact sold as Hobgoblins which is interesting to me cause I always picture hobgoblins, if you are going with them being in a orc/goblin style as being kinda orc sided goblins, so quite skinny. where as these are pretty thick
Vile Rune Orcs – Citadel C15 & C16 ranges. A bunch of Orcs, too many to list here.
Black Sun Goblins – Citadel C13/1a-f. These were labelled as ‘Goblins Two’ at first, then ‘Night Goblins’ but not as we later think of Night Goblins. Anyway, Goblin with Morning Star (which is a flail, not a morning star)(FF21), Goblin with Sword (FF20), Goblin with Bow (FF22), Goblin with spear (FF23), Goblin Commander (FF63) and Standard Bearer.
Skeletons – Citadel C17. A range of Skeletons
Ghouls – Citadel C18/1d (originally FF7-2)
Pack Wolves – Ral Partha P15/4g
Lord Vassago – Citadel C18/1a Liche (Originally FTS14) or Chronicle CM12
Now.. It doesn’t list the NPCs and all but in the photos shown, alot of the figures weren’t the ones ‘recommended’ so.. that’s interesting. They were figures from the collections of Gary Chalk, Gary Keep and Joe Dever, and they had alot of minifigs and some other stuff. On Lost Minis, some figures have been IDed and are more of interest. N’aash shown is in fact, Specially set ‘Elrik Darkhelm‘ body (SS1) with ‘Goron Widowmaker”s Head (from the same set). Oh, I’ll point out also the Standard Bearer is C03 ‘Evil Chaos Cleric (thus the connection to the HQ chaos Sorcerer) with a standard added, is often said to be the original source design for the Chaos Sorcerer instead of Akron from the Specially set which is more CLEARLY the HQ Chaos Sorcerer. But really, they were pretty close figures through Akron is probably easier to source these days.
There is also an interesting thing in that the Wizard Polias is shown with a Mini on a throne (in fact, the FS5 ‘Old Wizard on Throne’ figure). What is interesting is it very HIGHLY hints that the Wizard is dead. When you enter the Wizard’s Tower, you can find an old man in blue robes dead at the foot of the stairs with him having written ‘Malas’ in chalk. Going up higher in the tower, you can find his throne and a letter from Foro Malas saying he is going to visit. While it’s a bit weird how you know this, it also states that Malas killed the Wizard when he tried to look into Malas’s Sack. So it’s weird to have a Miniature of him shown which isn’t a corpse.
The recommendations don’t give any recommendations for the NPC characters and figures, but these required figures include:
Priest Varlie, a bunch of Peasants, including women and children, Mallin the Shopkeeper & Foro Malas. Oh and a Dog.
And I guess I better point it out, as well as making your own buildings and stuff, they also recommend bits from the Bellona range of accessories. Bellona was a range of Vacuum formed scenery stuff for wargames and railway scales. They were kinda an imprint of Micro-Mold. Well.. I say Kinda cause.. I’m not 100% sure. Micro-Mold 100% manufactured and distributed all the Bellona stuff, but that doesn’t say they designed them. Micro-mould is still around and doing plastic injection moulding but I’m not sure about Vac-formed.. but maybe. The Bellona range appeared to have died out in the late 1980s but the name was trademarked to ‘Chart Hobby Distributors Limited‘ from 1964 to about 2012 and Chart Hobby also owned the Micro-mold trademark so appears to be the same company. The last time the trademark was renewed was 1999, so it appears they were still thinking they would trade using that name in 1999, so make of that what you will.
Oh, lets have some fun..
Lord Vassago takes his name from a Lesser Dæmon in alot of Demonological books like the Lesser Key of Solomon.
Black Uruks take there names from the Uruk-hai, a form of black Orcs from Tolkien’s Middle earth series
Ugrash-Ka‘s name isn’t 100% clear but it’s a Hindu name meaning Lord Shiva. Possible Tolkien style name as he took alot of names from such things.
N’aash I have no clue with but it’s kinda generic Tolkien sounding. But for some reason, I just get a heavy ‘Nagash’ feeling to the name like maybe that Necromancer was inspired by this undead Champion? We have like 1 letter difference here.. Am I missing a common source?
King Amias is probably taken from the French name Amias which can mean To love, and is acceptable for male or female. Also, could be from the French town of Amiens
Baron Galen is a greek name which has been used for soo many things that it’s hard to track it down well. Maybe taken from the Planet of the Apes TV series? or the Disney/Paramount film ‘Dragonslayer (1981)’ which seams more likely.
Wizard Polias might take their name from the Greek Goddess Athena, who was also known as Polias, from the word ‘Polis’ meaning City state, as her temples were normally heavily protected city-state like places.
Foro Malas well.. Małas is a common name in many languages, Arabic, Polish, etc while Foro is most likely from the Arabic
Bishop Milendon is.. erm probably not named after Millendon, a suburb of Perth, Australia and is probably from the old English surname which is believed to be connected to old English elements basically saying about a Mill in a valley.
The Chalice of Landemar is probably from the Anglo-Saxon name, from old Germanic meaning Famous Land.
Priest Varlie I have no clue on.
Mallin is a probably Irish name.
Vile Rune Orcs are interesting. It appears they first appeared in some of Gary Gygax’s work. They first seam to appear in the Battle for the Brown Hills for Chainmail in 1971, before making it into the first miniatures for them in 1974 (with their symbol of a fist with raised digit) and were kinda used as part of a removal of Tolkien names for Orc in the DnD Monster Manual (1977), while they kept the Tolkien link name structure. After Thistlewood (1983) the Warhammer ones appeared in the Bloodbath of Orc’s Drift (1985) for 2ed, where Fangor Gripe was the Chieftain. Of course, Blood Bath was also Gary Chalk and Joe Dever (but with Ian Page) and they don’t appear to have been used outside of Chalk and Dever’s works.
How does this Scenario hold up? not quite sure as not having played this with the original rules but I can see it being pretty easy to use the scenario for many different game systems, so you could easily play it for 3ed or 4th. The main issue I would say is kinda requiring a DM / Games Master / Umpire. Neither side should know too much about the village and the layouts of the buildings so you don’t know where Malas is hiding. With the experience of later editions, being able to go into and explore buildings is a very interesting and somewhat unusual. I sadly don’t get to play much to be able to run an update or tweak of this but It does sound like fun and I would be interested in seeing what I can come up with.
Oh and if you are interested, I think it’s Mike at Broadsword miniatures (which is kinda not going now?) runs ‘Broadswords and Beasts‘ blog (https://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com) and has some of Joe Dever’s figures which include ones used for the photos for the Thistlewood scenario, So check out his blog. He also tried to source figures to make up the missing ones (or ones damaged) and paint them up as close as possible. Nice work so check up on them if you got the time. He has also done some nice work to ID some more of the figures and some bits.
And Thanks to the oldhammer forum for help with the rune translation, and Fighelm that cracked it, though others were aware of what it was meant to be ^_^
