Cedric the Wonder Halfling

I love narrative campaigns, they throw up the weirdest storylines and create characters that you would never have considered otherwise. Take this chap for example:

Behold! Cedric the Wonder Halfling!

In the campaign that we've just kicked off over on the Beard Bunker we combined elements of roleplaying with the wargaming and occasionally had our characters nipping off on missions that didn't require a full army to accomplish. In one of these missions (very early on) we were introduced to Cedric Sneakfoot, a halfling poacher and general naer-do-well who had fallen afowl of the law in Hochland and was being used as a dogsbody with threat of prison as a motivating factor. He was added to our little party as a local liason while we hunted for an artefact that my Dwarfs wanted back rather badly. Tom, who was playing Cedric, doesn't have a warhammer army so this was the best way for him to quickly get involved. Rather than going through the whole thing I shall summerise that Cedric started to get quite a reputation. He felled a goblin chief with his arrows and even leapt screaming onto the back of a grave guard which was threatening a mate of his. By the end of the mission, my Runesmith Dwalin Gravenrune was deeply impressed with the little guy and essentially blackmailed the authorities into signing Cedric over to him as a local liason and guide.

Cedric and Dwalin, bestest buds.

So fast forward through and the second mission had us investigating the ruins of a town when we were attacked by crazed fanatics. Once again Cedric was a sniper extroardinare and slew everything he aimed at with just the right amount of respectful pleading for us to get our rear ends in gear. Given that the dynamic of Cedric and Dwalin was somewhere between Jeeves & Worcester and Alfred & Batman we were having a great time with the pairing. I decided that Cedric would become a permanent part of my Dwarf army working as a slightly over cautious bodyguard to Dwalin. Rules wise we just made him a bow shooting stand and fire monkey with killing blow, he'll sod off after shooting and make himself scarce.

Given that Tom, and therefore the model of Cedric (which is a Reaper Miniatures Dicarus Darksword) live in darkest Devon. I needed to have one of my very own, a quick ebay search and a "warm up the painting muscles after a week away" session later and Cedric is reborn as Cedric Dwarf-friend with fancy new duds and a slightly brighter outlook on life.

This is the kind of thing I meant at the top of this post when I said "create characters that you would never have considered otherwise". There is no way on this earth that I would have thought that adding a tiny halfling dude with a shortbow to my Dwarf army was a good idea before these events. Now? I can't picture Dwalin without him. This sort of thing moves characters from a simple amalgamation of game changing statistics into living, breathing people whose agendas and lives you care about! No longer are you grumbling because your runesmith died and you don't get his nifty "no magic for you" ability. No, now you are reprising an Anakin "Noooooooo" because Dwalin the badass dwarf has been cruelly snatched from this world (only to be rescued and healed up by Cedric no doubt). It really brings the game to life in a way that the slightly more "Chess like" game style of stripping everything down to pure numbers doesn't.  Another example, these guys:

Just normal Quarreller Rangers. Not particularly well armoured (just light armour in fact) and toting crossbows and great weapons. Hitty, but fragile. Well, not in this campaign. These guys have been the absolute Daddy. Kicking ass and taking names wherever they went. Stromni's Wanderer's have become feared far beyond their points/ability calculation should warrent. And thats why I love the narrative element of this game of ours. I'm back to work here folks, and to prove it:

Titan 2 is underway! Until next time folks.

TTFN