Hi all! Today I am chatting with a local friend who just ran an Ullanor mega battle for our local club. This involved a lot of coordination and work but the results were spectacular! Everyone, meet Joe
- Tell me a little about yourself, how long have you played 30K, what armies do you play?
In my professional life, I’m a computational astrophysicist (@AstroGlaser on Twitter, @leonisminis on Instagram). I’m in the Greater Pitt area now (read as Morgantown, WV) working on high-performance computing infrastructure for NANOGrav / West Virginia University’s Center for Gravitational Waves & Cosmology. While I currently work on pulsar timing arrays, I am intensely interested in the lives of exoplanets at all stages. I started playing in 2016 after having been interested in Warhammer for a long time, but never really being sold on the 40K narrative (or really lack thereof at the time). A few friends got me hooked with a few donation models and the idea that in 30K, there was an active story occurring that could be played out on the table-top without the hyper-competitive nature that 40K has sometimes been known for. This was when I was working on my PhD, so having a hobby that didn’t involve me staring at a screen was extremely appealing for me and painting was a very relaxing way to spend my evenings Combine that with commuter rail trips on SEPTA and Black Library’s excellent Horus Heresy novel series and well, the figurative dice were cast.
I am a Raven Guard player, through and through. They were my first army and will always be my favorite play style for their exceptional flexibility. I have recently dabbled in some Dusk Raiders (Loyalist Death Guard) due to being involved in an Istvaan III campaign last year, which has been quite fun indeed. Right now, I am working on a mechanized White Scars army and an all Thallax Ordo Reductor force, though the Silent Sisterhood is calling to me now that they finally have a full army list (something I have been hoping for since I started playing).
2. What was the inspiration for this event? Why Ullanor?
• When I play 30K, my focus is always on forging the narrative. As such, the big “What Ifs” of the Heresy always are a draw to me. Right before the pandemic hit, I participated in a fantastic event down in Baltimore re-enacting Signus Prime. The amazing work that Bo H. put together for that event drove me to start thinking about these larger format games. Fast-forward two years of devouring nearly all of the Heresy’s novels during various lock-downs and well, it came into focus: Ullanor, the greatest fulcrum of the entirety of Warhammer’s lore. What drove me to get it done sooner rather than later was a good friend of mine and lead of the Ohio Heresy group, Mack had been wanting to participate in Ullanor for ages. Combine that with his fast-approaching move across the coasts due to work commitments, I wanted to ensure the forever-EO got the chance to field his mightiest warriors in one hell of a memorable day.
3. How did you factor in the 7.5 rules for Orks? Did they get any reactions? How did you balance the sides?
• We wrote most of it ourselves and you can access them here. We plan on getting these properly fixed up for a release so others can make mirrored events. So the bulk of the Ork rules were handled by a friend who has been playing Orks for a good decade or two. We basically drew the best features of the army from 3rd-7th edition, sprinkled in some amazing scaling that the folks over at Aus30K did for HH 1.0, and simplified the units into bulk categories where possible to ensure speedy gameplay.
We made sure that Orks got Klan Kulture (X) special rules and advanced reactions, along with a grouping of extra core reactions to sell their key differences from humanity while keeping things simple. Balance came down to ensuring that Orks kept their terrible BS and Save stats. If the marines were smart, they would just fire at them from a distance and make sure they were the ones to charge the Ork horde rather than the opposite. We knew in advance that several Primarchs were going to hit the field, so we made sure to make up some Prim-Orks to lead each of the armies and fielded them in mirror to the Primarchs on the board to give some sort of interesting balance and targets for those who love tense character combat.
4. How did scoring work in the mission, did you have any special rules?
• Lots of event details can be found here. So the Primary Mission was, of course, to storm the Ork Warboss’s Tower and defeat him and his elite bodyguard in melee combat. Upon reaching a designated point, every player would be able to elect to send one unit to a custom Zone Mortalis scenario for this final battle. The larger battle would continue to occur assuming folks wanted to. All secondary objectives were turned on for the event (Secondary Objectives in effect: Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Last Man Standing, Linebreaker, Attrition, and Price of Failure), with each WarZone (each 6’x4’ table) having its talley done separately. Additionally, there was a surprise set of objectives set across the boards. A player could spend half of a unit’s shooting action to roll on a 1D6 table of possible results. If the objective was held at the end of the game, it would net 1 VP per objective.
5. What was your favorite moment from the event?
• Now that is a hard one given how long of an event it was! I mean, Horus missed turn 2 because he rolled a 1 on reserves, arriving via Deep Strike right near the Tower’s entrance in turn 3 like it was all part of the plan. Then there is Dorn being mortally wounded by Mag Uruk Da Overfiend (leading a horde of Boyz and Nobz) followed by Sigismund also getting bodied when said PrimOrk was at 1 hit point. Then of course, there’s the “Unlimited Grot Workz” list which featured 75 Grotz on a Knight’s base as a massive firing line. Then Valdor and the custodians took an “L” in melee to ensure Sangunius could break free from melee and join Horus in the Tower. Then there were two tables full of Iron Warriors which just sat back and did what Iron Warriors do best: shell heavy artillery from the other side of the board.
6. Looking back on the event, what went better than you had hoped?
• Honestly, the fact that the four Ork players were able to keep up with the 10 Imperium players. I was extremely worried that we weren’t going be able to ensure we were running on time, but we ended up being able to finish 2 hours early with an extremely satisfied (albeit tired) group of folks!
7. If you could do it again, what would you change?
• I’d probably lower the number of points for each army and try to cast a wider net for Ork players to join us for the event. Several folks were interested in playing, but the 5K mandatory was a bit rough for some 40K Ork players to manifest unless they were collecting for years (and thus had fond memories of Warhammer’s style before 8th/9th edition’s shake up). Additionally, I’d make the Tower ZM game a bit more challenging. Given each Imperium player teleported a Primarch into the final battle (except Dorn … RIP), the stats for the bodyguards were … less than truly horrifying.
What’s next? Are you planning another event soon?
• So all of my events are being run under the Astra Appalachia “brand” as a way to reference where exactly they are taking place (AKA driving distance from the core region of Appalachia). All events can be found on the website, and on our newly created Facebook group (helps expand visibility, so I have sold my soul), as they happen.
• Currently this is our forecast:
o January: The start of the year-long, asynchronous campaign. We’ll be releasing a new mission every two weeks which can be played anywhere, submitted via an online form. At the end of each two-week period, the narrative will progress! Currently, we are spanning Columbus (OH), Pittsburgh (PA), Morgantown (WV), and Philadelphia (PA). The core idea is that each city will act as a hub for a star-system with a Star Cluster. Folks in each city will war for control over the various locations for that star system. Should they travel, they can then war in that locality’s star system, etc.
o Feb/March: Treachery at Fornax Prime ~ Part 2! This will be an all day event in Pittsburgh at the Fabricator’s Forge featuring classic 30K games, Adeptus Titanicus, and Battle Fleet Gothic.
o April/May: The next in the Remembrance Series (working title) … The War in the Webway! Daemons will face off against the Emperor’s finest and the first of His lost, ghostly martyrs!
Thanks Joe! It’s always inspiring to see someone take the lead on creating such rich narrative content. If you are near any of these areas we hope to see you on the battlefield soon!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
