Today we’re going to take a look at the Mission of the Round for Round 1: we’ll have a new Mission of the Round for all four rounds of the campaign, and playing one can earn you extra Achivement points in our Global Campaign 2026.
Realmgate Wars
All four special Missions will be taken and adapted from the four iconic Realmgate Wars campaign books. These were a big deal back in the earliest days of AOS and they’ll need a bit of a rework to be AOS4-compatible, but there’s some fun missions in there to spice things up. We’ll be pillaging the campaign books in order, starting with The Quest for Ghal Maraz.
Original Battleplan: War of Storms
This is the one we’ll be reworking:
Credit: Games Workshop
It’s a really cool idea: as you’re winning the battle, you’re pushing the storm front back and forth, with the war on the ground feeding into the war between the rolling thunderheads and vice versa.
But in practice, 99% of what you’re actually doing is just killing your enemy’s general, and I reckon we can do a bit better than that.
Updated Battleplan: Lord of Storms
As well as moving onto an AOS4 map, we’re going to have a second way to push the stormfront back, namely controlling terrain pieces.
This will give you something to do other than rushing your opponent’s general, and more importantly, incentivize your units to flow into different parts of the battlefield rather than smoosh up into one massive blob.
Note: There are no VPs in this mission, so no Battle Tactics will be used and there is no Underdog bonus.
Two armies clashed as thunderheads rolled above them, the ruinous deluge crashing into the mighty tempest. The war in the heavens is as key to victory as the one taking place on the ground.
Attacker and Defender
Before the game starts, the players roll off. The winner chooses whether to be Attacker or Defender. The Attacker begins deployment.
Each player has access to the following respective abilities for the duration of this battle.
Attacker’s Ability: A Fell Voice on the Air
(Passive) While your territory is larger than your opponent’s, your opponent’s units must subtract 1 from the number of dice rolled (to a minimum of 1) when making charge rolls while they are within 12″ of your General.
Defender’s Ability: Heralds of the Storm
(Once per Game, Your Hero Phase) If your territory is larger than your opponent’s, Heal (6) your General and immediately move the storm front 3″ away from the edge of your battlefield.
The Storm Front
The dividing line running from along the border between both players’ territories is the Storm Front, the point where two warring thunderheads meet. As the battle progresses, this will move, causing one player’s territory to grow and the other’s to shrink.
Stormcaller: One Wizard or Priest in each army may use the following ability in each Hero Phase. If they do so, they may cast, chant or dispell one fewer time in that Hero Phase.
Effect: On a 3+, immediately move the Storm Front a number of inches equal to the roll.
Avatar of the Storm
At the end of each player’s turn, the Storm Front moves as follows:
- Starting with the active player, the storm moves 3″ away from their edge of the battlefield for each enemy hero that suffered any wounds that were not negated during that turn up to a maximum of 12″. If any enemy heroes were destroyed that turn, the storm moves 12″ instead. Note: this is a hard cap of 12″ in total per player, regardless of how many heroes were damaged or destroyed.
- Their opponent repeats the above steps.
- Then, if the active player controls more terrain pieces than their opponent, the storm moves 6″ away from their edge of the battlefield for each additional terrain piece they control. For example, if the active player controls 5 terrain pieces and their opponent controls 3, the storm will move 12″ away from their edge.
- Their opponent repeats the above steps.
Winning the Game
If the Storm Front ever reaches one player’s battlefield edge, their opponent immediately wins a major victory.
If this has not happened by the end of the 5th battle round, the player whose territory is largest wins a minor victory. If both players have equally large territories, the result is a draw.
So that’s our first Mission of the Round. The upside of being a small team is that we can be highly reactive: we’ll be actively GM’ing this whole campaign, so if anything looks a bit dodgy, speak up and we can step in to fix it up pronto.
Catch you soon,
~ Pete
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