Warhammer Narrative scenarios: some playtesting

Here I will show a few examples how much a good dose of narrative elements, or even simple narrative scenario objectives, feed into a great atmosphere for a Warhammer game.
Simply by following the scenario rules, nothing more.

Flank Attack (6th Edition Rulebook)

Flank Attack is a common type of war scenario, where a contingent of of the attacker's force comes onto the table as reinforcements starting from turn 2 onwards (on a dice roll). In return, the defender benefits from being in a defensible position, with buildings, walls and possibly some sort of Arcane Architecture.
Furthermore, it provides a good opportunity to array those buildings and terrain pieces from your collection,  in the shape of a town, military station, or secluded temple (which happens rarely due to the random terrain rolls).
Highlights: you can really go to town on setting up a good-looking defensive location, with buildings, walls, etc, for a great cinematic feel. With these simple scenario rules, you can simulate any sort of attack on a non-fortified location such as a camp, shrine, temple or village.

Capture (6th Edition Rulebook)

Capture is another very common war scenario. Here opposing armies must take control of a terrain piece located in the center of the table. This can be a hill, a building, some piece of Arcane Architecture, or a village square.

This is possibly the most straightforward way to introduce a narrative in a Warhammer battle, by laying some interesting terrain in the table center, and generating a reason for the conflict between the armies.
Highlights: at its most basic, this can be a King of the Hill type game, and it is very competitively balanced. You can make it more interesting by putting a building as the objective, or better, a piece of Arcane Architecture (which throws round some sort of benefit for some of the units). At its most ambitious, you can use the Witchfate Tor or the Fortified Manor scenery, and battle to capture a multi-part building.

The Battle of Vallaya's Gate (The End Times: Nagash)

This battle takes place underground, with a Dwarven defender trying to protect a temple Gate.
The attacker bursts into the field through two tunnels at each corner of the table, on the side opposite the gate (here represented by two fortress gates, with fortress walls delimiting the perimeter of the cavern wall).

The dwarven defenders have pretty much the whole table to deploy their array of defenses, wholly bent in stopping the advance of the attackers onto the other table edge.
The attackers win by making units cross through the gate.
Highlights: the cinematic feel of armies marching through tunnels into a major opening into the Dwarven Underway is breathtaking. Stepping into the cavern immediately put the attackers under cannon fire, while they tried t get to the gate at the end of the table. We played the scenario as stated, with Undead vs Dwarves, but honestly it would feel much better if the attacker was Skaven or Goblins.

 

 

Sanctifying the Stone of Blood (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

Here both armies are vying for control of the sacred Stone of Blood, an impassable terrain piece in the center of the table (here represented by a cluster of Warpstone crystals). Unlike a normal Capture scenario, one army wishes to approach the Stone to anoint themselves and draw power (thus gaining Stubborn, or +1 power dice if a wizard) while the other wishes to destroy the Stone.
Highlights: The scenario fits well for Chaos-worshipping armies to draw power from the Stone, but one can also use the same rules for the Stone to be a relic of the Lady of the Lake, or an ancient dwarven Rune anvil, etc. The narrative of this scenario, in that the attacker is trying to destroy the Stone, fits very well into campaigns where special map locations harbour sacred shrines (such as this Stone).

 

 

Bursting Through the City Walls (The General's Compendium)

This is a complex Town Raid scenario, where the attacker has just burst through the outer wall of the defender's town.
The table is filled, in addition to other buildings, with a number of special 'Key' buildings that the defender can use to aid the defense: taverns that embolden the troops with their drink, a town square that reinforces their resolve, and waystations and barracks that 'generate' new troops at given intervals.
The attacker's job is to loot and set fire to as many buildings as he can, with 'Key' buildings worth more points. The defender scores extra points for enemy units eliminated, and for each 'Key' building intact at the end of the game.
Highlights: this is where you go all out in city-building with your terrain collection. Honestly we could have done more, in terms of little props, but we were pressed for time. It is interesting how this changes the dynamics of combat so much, where units need to be small enough to be maneuverable, and the attackers need to be quick to attack and set fire to the buildings that send off reinforcements to the defender. These "Key Buildings", such as Town squares, Temples, Barracks, really give considerable bonuses to the defender, or allow him to deploy more troops every other turn, giving the real feel that the place is mustering their defense against the attacker.

Invasion! (8th Edition Rulebook)

In this scenario the defender has 3 key areas that he must hold in order to win: a watchtower on a hill, a building and a walled trench.
The attacker advances slowly from the short table edge, but in endless hordes: any Core unit destroyed can come back in as reinforcements from the same table edge.
Highlights:  our terrain placement here was quite poor, as you can see in the picture. But here, because the defender is the one who sets up the whole terrain for the battle, you can put up walls and swamps and other sorts of defensive shenanigans wherever you like. If you have a gift for terrain-buildings, you can make trenches and earthen battlements (as the scenario actually encourages for it). In return, the attackers gets to hammer the defender with never-ending troops which he can sacrifice slowly to weather the defender's forces.

The Fallen City of Mattengard (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

This scenario requires quick-thinking, strategic deployment and a couple fast,  maneuverable units.
The table is cramped with several buildings and ruins, but one of them hides a Lost Book which the armies are looking for.
The armies must stall each other, because once the book is found, it's a scramble to get it off their table edge first!!
Highlights: another great city-battle, this one is less rules-heavy than 'Bursting Through the City Walls', and gives a much better feeling of medieval urban warfare in a torn-down settlement. It also puts interesting challenges to the armies, as speed and having many units become very important: our standard army lists and units turned out to be quite clunky and unwieldy to maneuver, although this is made easier by systematic occupation of buildings to move across the city.
In the end, the Daemon Skullcannon ended up finding the Mystic Book, and with its speed and high maneuverability, sped off the table just before being caught by a lone Vampire on foot.
Great stuff.

Blood Beneath the Branches (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

This is a Capture scenario but with split objectives:
D3+3 in total, which are in fact placed by the defender, each inside a terrain feature. The defender also can deploy anywhere on his half of the table, instead of only 12" from the edge.
Both armies' objective is to control the most objective areas (marked here with a warpstone crystal) by the end of the game.
Highlights: we had to improvise here with our capture markers, so cinematically it didn't look as visually stunning. The scenario kind of implies this takes place in a heavily forested area, although you can apply the rules to work for any environment: ours was more of a swampy-type location. But I think tactically this is a great mission, that works well with normal army lists (ie. not specifically tailored to a scenario). Within the context of a narrative campaign, you can allow rolls to find some sort of treasure for each objective held at the end of the battle (as that is the original intention of these objectives in the scenario).