Updated Rule Book

The Rule Book link has now been updated with the latest version of the game.  This mainly fixes some grammatical errors but also introduces the "Exhausting a Unit" mechanic, which allows you to activate a unit twice in the same turn however another unit in your army will have to forfeit their turn to do so and the exhausted unit will miss their next turn as they recover.

If you try this new mechanic out please let me know what you think.

Battle Reports from James' Wargaming Weirdness

Clive (and his pal Ed) have been replaying some of the pivotal battles from the The Hobbit / The Lord Of The Rings using War of the Sundered Realms and you can read the battle reports below.  They use a wide range of miniatures from the modern SBG all the way back to some from the '70s(!) so they are definitely worth taking a look at. 

Battle of the Five Armies

https://jameswargamingweirdness.blogspot.com/2021/07/battle-of-five-armies-aar-using-war-of.html

Battle of the Pelennor Fields

https://jameswargamingweirdness.blogspot.com/2021/08/battle-of-pelennor-fields-using-war-of.html

The Battle of the Black Gate

https://jameswargamingweirdness.blogspot.com/2022/10/battle-of-black-gate.html

Overview Video

I've filmed a quick overview video of how to play War of the Sundered Realms which you can view on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/mD74BkD_sF4

What miniatures to use?

Though the army lists provided are tied to the world of the Sundered Realms as this is a miniature agnostic game each list has been designed so that a player can use a number of different ranges for each Realm.  With this in mind I've outlined below some ideas as to what miniatures you can use for each of the armies, this isn't an exhaustive list by any means and they'll be many more options out there.  Remember have fun and be creative.

Realms of Men

The Realms of Men are very much the Hollywood knights in armour force so foremost in my mind would be King Arthur and the Knights of the Grail using some special characters and historical miniatures, one I'm personally tempted by thanks to Excalibur.  Then of course you have you have the big franchises like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings so you could field a Gondorian army or even the combined army of the Khaleesi.  The forces of the Hyborian age would also work well, perhaps recreate the battles from the Hour of the Dragon?  Finally there are the classic Empire and Bretonnian armies for all those of you with them sat in your display cases.

Orc Tribes

There are various Orc miniatures out there from many manufacturers down the years but the list would equally work well with Knolls, Kobolds or even Rat Men.

Dwarven Holds

Admittedly Dwarves/Dwarfs are pretty much just that however there are various interpretations from the good to the bad (and the ugly?) from various ranges over the years.  Personally I have an army of Fallen Dwarves that are a mix of the classic evil Babylonian style Dwarf mixed with a Tolkienian aesthetic.

Forests of the Fae

This is the home for the huge array of Elf and Sylvan miniatures out there as well as Beastmen, Treemen, Halfings and all the other quirky 'nature' based miniatures.  Want an army of Mushroom men?  Here's your ticket.  Or perhaps wild creatures of the wood?  Bob's your uncle.  You can let you imagination run wild with this list and thanks to the availability of 3D printing there are some truly fantastic options out there for miniatures.

Castellans of the Pale Tower

So we come to the quintessential bad guys of the lore.  These could be run simply as an evil force of Men (Mordred and Morgan Le Fey leading their black knights) or a classic undead force led by a Vampire or Lich.  Alternatively a ghost army would also work and so you could mix miniatures from all of the above suggestions into one force for a truly eclectic army. 

Philosophy behind the design

In this post I just wanted to quickly outline why I designed the game the way it is so that you can see why certain decisions were made with the rules.

When writing the rules my number one goal was to make them as simple as possible, this not only makes them casual game friendly but also means that you can really scale up the size of games and the rules won't start tripping up on themselves.  Too many times now I've played a game and instead of focusing on what is happening on the battlefield I'm checking the rule book about this situation or that, or checking which special rule cancels out which etc.  I really wanted a game where the complexity comes from out witting your opponent with maneuvers and feints or a vital charge at a key moment, not unlike chess to be honest.  The rules should allow you to play out the game you want to play not dictate what that is.

When testing the game we've had some great moments play out, for example when certain units manged to break the flank of an army who then had to react to this without exposing themselves to further charges from the center.  A real head scratcher for sure but one born out of the battlefield and not the rules.

I hope you have as much fun as we've had playing the game and it would be great to see pictures of any games you've had along with feedback from them over on our Facebook group.

Welcome to the Sundered Realms

Firstly welcome to the website for War of the Sundered Realms, this is just a quick post to introduce the rule system I've put together.

Some of you may be aware that I created a set of Lord of the Rings army lists for use in Kings of War and this is where my primary love for fantasy gaming comes from, the works of Tolkien concerning Middle Earth.  However there are also many other touchstones for me when it comes to the fantasy genre, Jim Henson (more specifically The Dark Crystal), The Never Ending Story, Legend, Willow and so many more, each of which has had some impact on these rules.

As for the genesis of the rule system, my small gaming group has predominately collected Lord of the Rings miniatures for fantasy wargaming, either licensed ones which have been released over the decades or others that fit into the feel of Middle Earth.  We have used various different rule sets over the years and I've read several more recent ones all with an eye to see which one would suit us best however even with all the fun we've had playing games each rule set has always had its niggles for us.  Then with the onset of being "locked down" for several months the idea sprung in to my mind to put together my own rule set, and so it began...

What started off initially as a way to play with our own collections quickly expanded to include a wider range of tropes for each of the army lists.  Then with a rule set in hand I needed to come up with a name, there were a few different ideas I had in mind but I soon settled with War of the Sundered Realms.  This then led me to wonder what the Sundered Realms looked like so I drew a (very, very basic) map, which in turn led to a background for the Sundered Realms to be written and then a shake up of the army lists to tie in with this (though they are still generic enough that any miniatures can be used to play the rules with without consideration to the background).

The rules have gone through several iterations and I think that they are now in a good enough state to put out into the world though they are still in an Alpha state.  The army lists should all be in good working order though points costs and the odd stat line will need changing the more the games are played.

I hope you'll enjoy playing War of the Sundered Realms and encourage you to share your feedback, pictures of miniatures and battle reports.