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by Ken Kennedy
 The
summer of 2005 is destined to be a time of incredible Warhammer
activity. All of the Games Workshop businesses around the world
are focusing their attention on the jungles of Lustria and have
been collaborating to create the most amazing gaming experience
possible. This year, the emphasis is on helping clubs and gaming
groups organize and play their own Warhammer campaigns. With this
focus in mind, Games Workshop has created a whole host of gaming
resources for players.
With so much material being made available to players, it is easy
to get overwhelmed or even confused by it. This article is here
to help you wade through the swampy undergrowth of Lustria-related
products and resources along with what you will need to maximize
your Warhammer gaming this summer.
 Warhammer
Realms: Lustria is where it all starts. This amazing 80-page
supplement is a must for bold adventurers serious about seeking
fame, glory, and – most importantly – treasure in the
perilous jungles of Lustria. The pages of this valuable resource
contain rules for fighting in the damp, dense undergrowth of the
rain forest. Anyone wishing to explore the mysterious continent
of Lustria will need these Jungle Fighting rules and will
need to know how to organize their units into Loose Formations.
This supplement also contains encounters and events that can affect
battles taking place in the jungle and has a whole host of unique
scenarios that can be used to play your games. In addition to all
of this gaming material, Warhammer Realms: Lustria has a
huge color section that details how to construct all kinds of Lustria
terrain for the gaming group that wants to get serious about its
campaigning this summer.
A book with all the content listed above would be great, but what
puts Warhammer Realms: Lustria over the top is the huge section
on creating and running Warhammer campaigns. These rules and guidelines
take campaign organizers and players through the steps of participating
in a node-based campaign from making and populating a map to how
to actually play the campaign. Rules for moving your armies, capturing
territories, battling your opponents, and even engaging in espionage
are detailed in this valuable section.
 Wait,
there is even more! Besides providing all the rules you would ever
need to make your own generic node campaign, Warhammer Realms:
Lustria also contains "The Rise of Sotek." The Rise
of Sotek is a ready-to-play, node-based campaign set in the tumultuous
past of the Warhammer world – specifically, in the jungles
of Lustria during the Age of Strife. This campaign uses the node-based
rules and the Jungle Fighting rules found earlier in the
book but also contains a few additions and changes to give the campaign
that ancient Lustria flavor.
The Rise of Sotek map has added Lustria-specific locations (and
the rules to go with them) like the Star Tower, Temple-Cities, and
the Pyramid of the Heavens to give the map the proper geography
of that era. The campaign also adds new rules and modifications
to the core Lustria node-based rules to make the campaign as historically
accurate as possible. Finally, the Rise of Sotek revolves around
the ancient conflict between the Lizardmen and the Skaven, when
many of the other civilizations of the Warhammer world were still
in their infancy or were just not involved in this conflict.
 Since
a global campaign that involved only the Lizardmen and Skaven would
not go over too well with all of the devoted Warhammer players,
Games Workshop developed the Conquest of the New World (COTNW)
campaign supplement.
The Conquest of the New World is a ready-to-play node campaign
that takes place on the continent of Lustria during another interesting
period of Warhammer history. COTNW takes place in the Imperial
year 1492 (over 1,000 years before the Storm of Chaos!) shortly
after Marco Columbo’s “discovery” of the New World.
The COTNW campaign is all about the exploration of this new
land and the race between all the denizens of the Old World to plunder
its riches and claim territory as their own.
Like the Rise of Sotek, the Conquest of the New World node
campaign uses the core rules found in Warhammer Realms: Lustria.
Without these rules, the COTNW booklet will make some sense,
but not enough to play a proper node campaign. Also like the Rise
of Sotek, this campaign has a set of new locations, new rules, and
new scenarios. It also contains the rules for three new mercenary
units and ideas that can help you get all Warhammer armies involved
in your COTNW campaign.
 To
help Warhammer players get the most out of their summer campaigns,
we have created a web site with all the resources you would ever
need to organize and play a campaign this summer. The site includes
background information, hobby articles, events, forums, and many
other online resources to help you run your campaigns. While most
of the resources are specific to the COTNW node campaign,
there are many articles about campaigning in general and a few about
other kinds of campaigns. Just because Warhammer Realms: Lustria
focuses on node campaigns doesn’t mean your gaming group can’t
have fun running and playing a different kind of campaign. This
year, the global campaign is about gaming groups all around the
world playing Warhammer campaigns and having a great time along
the way.
- Warhammer Realms: Lustria contains the rules to create
and play a node campaign. It also contains rules for playing Warhammer
in jungles.
- The Rise of Sotek is a ready-to-play node campaign found in
the Lustria book. This campaign has Lustria-specific rules and
territories.
- Conquest of the New World is an additional supplement
that contains another ready-to-play node campaign set in Lustria.
This booklet contains new rules, units, territories, and scenarios.
- The global summer campaign web site focuses on the Conquest
of the New World campaign, but encourages Warhammer gaming
of all kinds.
We hope that this explanation of the different products and resources
related to the summer campaign season has been useful. At the end
of the day, the summer campaign is all about Warhammer and having
a good time playing against your friends in a campaign of your own
design.
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