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V i si ons

A C hronopi a M agazi neI ssue 1Includes:Chronopia SkirmishOf 20-Sided Dice3 Terrain Building ArticlesAnd a Battle Report,Firstborn vs. Crystal Lotus


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CreditsGame Design: Excelsior EntertainmentMagazine Design: Glenn McCluneEditors: Richard GradyWriters: Glenn McClune, M. JeremyLambdin, Richard Grady

Table of Contents:Chronopia Skirmish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Of 20-Sided Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Terrain Quickies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Battle Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10


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C hronopi a S kirmishBy Glenn McClune

Chronopia Skirmish is a new concept de-

veloped to make Chronopia: War in theEternal Realm playable at a small scale, orat about 200 points using about 5-10 fig-ures. As many of the rules in Chronopiawill not work in a skirmish format we havehad to make some adjustments. Thesegame modifications take on some aspects ofthe dead game Chainmail to allow for themost fun and quickest play.First, figures are all considered to be indi-vidual units, this allows for a greater

amount of flexibility in unit selection. Notethat because of this modification leaders areconsidered veteran troops and standardsand musicians havetheir effects played outin a 4 radius aroundthe bearer. Second, afull turn should only befour laps around thetable, This means thatyou should activate of your army each activation. This aspectspeeds play and makes for a quicker moreexciting game.Third, no single unit may consist of morethan 1/3 your armys cost. This restrictionkeeps down the use of incredibly large unitsthat will dominate the battlefield. Also thatincludes cost of spells.Fourth, and one of the most fun aspects iscross-army units, this allows you to buyunits from outside your army. To deter-mine what units can be purchased you need

to use the following calculation: Take theleadership characteristic of your units withCommanding Presence and subtract it by12. That value will determine the amount ofsize categories from cross-faction units you

can bring.Example: An Elven Lotus Eater has a

Leadership value of 15, therefore he cancommand up to 3 sizes of units, meaning hecould have an Ogre Heavy Infantry underhis command or else an Orc Assault War-rior and Goblin Spearman or any othercombination of size characteristics that to-tals to three.Also note that a cross-faction unit must beactivated on the same turn as a command-ing unit, and the commanding unit musthave enough points to command the cross-faction unit.That is actually it, playing with thesechanges is loads of fun and can be a good

way to play if you dont have a big armybuilt yet or just dont have the time to playa 2000 pt game very often. The following is

an example of a small army as well as a

combat encounter:

Example: Jons Risen Warriors close onGlenns Dream Warriors, the Dwarf swings

his sword, but misses with a 9. Then the Elfswings at his brethren managing a blow at

a 3, the Dream Warrior rolls his armorsave missing at a pathetic 15. The Dream

Warrior that lives then takes his turn strik-ing at the Dwarf Risen, the Dream Warri-

ors blow strikes hard with a 6, then theRisen makes his armor roll and just barely

fails with a 9. Then combat continues asnormal.

Jons 200 pt Devout Army Glenns 196 pt Crystal Lotus Army1x Elf Risen Warrior 23 pts 2x Dream Warriors 70 pts

1x Dwarf Risen Warrior 26 pts 2x Elven Archers 62 pts

2x Swordsmen 50 pts 2x Elven Militia 26 pts

2x Orc Risen Archers 38 pts 2x Elven Swordsmen 38 pts

1x Shadow Stalker 63 pts


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O f 20 -S i ded D i ceA veteran gamers foray into theworld of Chronopia

By M. Jeremy Lambdin

After about 10 years of playing miniaturegames and 20 some years of war games, Iwas introduced to the Eternal Realm. I washesitant at first due to the lack of exposure.And was set aback by the major obviousdifferences in the models, the marketingand the game mechanics.

I had never seen or heard of Chronopia the

first time around, as I only played Bat-tletech and various GW game systems. Butafter talking to my friend, I was possiblywilling to give this new 2nd edition a try onthe tabletop.

The first real attraction hit me when Iasked, Are there any real celt/highlander/barbarian races? The answer was Yeah,Sons of Kronos, but nobody wins withthem. At least not in 1st edition

Not ever being a power gamer and alwaysup for a challenge, I decided to check outthe Tribes of the Untamed.

I first play tested with some Reaper High-landers that I had lying around and used thefollowing units:

Bezerkers,Hearthguard

HorsewarriorTribal Warriors

I maxed out each unit. I didnt bring anystandards or horns and I lost miserably.

So what happened?

Dice:

My first hurdle problem was the d20. I hadnever been into role-playing and thereforereally only had seen a d6.

I was so used to grabbing a pile of 40 d6,and saying, Hey, look. I hit you 16 timeson 4+

This large, 20 sided die just made me feeluneasy. That and I had to perform simplemath problems. 14 armor 6 damage

equals OUCH!. My brain hurts. Oh, I haveto role an 8 or less?

OR LESS?

For me, it had never been good to role lowon anything but a leadership test, and thenthat was just under 12, not 20!

Eventually, the d20 and I became friends.

Tactics:

In every game system I had ever played, Ifound the cheapest troop choice and madethat my biggest unit(s). Add one individual,some kind of elite choice and maybe a bigmeanie (tank, monster etc.) and I was done.That simple.

Chronopia tactics are quite different. AndSOK tactics are even more different.

In Chronopia I discovered through muchconversation and discussion on the Excel-sior forums that I had to make my warbandssmall, specialized and hard-hitting units.


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There really are no elites in Chronopia, andindividuals come along for the battle, theydont truly lead. So, the game makes it pos-sible to bring endless varieties of army lists.Something that I was also not used to.

And, with SOK I then learned that I neededto take them en masse against the enemy.

With my original formertactics, I had lost 6 gamesin a row, but soon was onmy way to great and glo-rious victories with myarmy of shirtless, tree-hugging barbarians.

I began to leave the Bez-erkers at home, discov-ered the joys of ViridianLords and Blade Maid-ens. The effectiveness of5 little Warhounds hadeluded me until I learnedto use them against aBlood Totem. And therereally is nothing like a us-

ing a small warband of tribal warriors towaste the time of a beefy Crystal LotusKnight.

As I have come to discover, Chronopia istruly a skirmish game that can be played ona large scale. And that is a great thing, bothfor gaming and the pocketbook. I have asmuch fun playing 750 points with 20 mod-els as I do playing 2000 pts with 60+ mod-els.

After losing some of my former preconcep-tions about gaming and games in general,and learning that is much nicer to just carryone die in my pocket I found that Chrono-

pia, is easily the best game system that Ihave ever played. It is easy to show others.And it is easy to build a variety of forces.

I have found that many things are difficultand frustrating at first, but become the mostenjoyable experiences in my life. As far asgaming goes, Chronopia has become thatexperience.


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T errain Q uickies

Building Stone Walls

By Glenn McClune

This tutorial is formaking basic andsimple stone wallsfor wargaming ofany type. Pleaseread all the instruc-tions before attempt-ing.You will need the following supplies:Gravel (I use aquarium), Paperboard(Cereal box), Scissors, Tacky Glue, Sand,

Paint, and a crappy brush.First, Cut out the shapes you want for yourwalls, I usually make mine 3 inches long, instraight and corner sections, but I am goingto do more soon. Then you want to takeyour glue, squeeze some into a disposablecup, then thin it down with some water, itshould clump a little onto a brush, but notbog the bristles too much. Brush the glueover the cardboard pieces then sprinkle thesand over them, once that is dry, take andrun a line or two of glue in a line where youwant the walls, then you can either placepieces of gravel by hand or dump them onrandomly, doing it by hand takes longer,but produces better results. Keep buildingup layers until you achieve the height youwish, I usually aim for waist height, sincethat is high as you would need to keepsheep or other smaller livestock. Once youhave finished this, take them outside anddrop a coat of black primer on them, if youonly have grey, then paint them black be-

fore you begin. Next take a dark grey anddry brush the rocks many times, it buildsthem up, then use a light grey and dry brushit a few times, if you dont think they lookshadowed properly you may wish to dry

brush it with a white as well. Once you likehow the rocks look, then move unto the

base, take and paint that brown, drybrush it if you want. Then decidewhere you want grass to be growing,you can either flock it or else justpaint that area green. And thatsabout it, if youd like to make themlook even better, you can add fieldgrass and other accessories. Tomake field grass just take an old cornbroom and slice off some of the bris-

tles. Otherthings youcan do isadd skulls,

toss weap-ons leaningagainst themand thingslike that.

Quick and easy trees, that look good!!

By Glenn McClune

This is a basic tutorial that will let youbuild a forest in a night, without spendingall your gaming cash.

Gather the following: Lichen (I get minefrom Michaels Craft Store for $5 a bag),get some basing material like air dry clay orelse paperboard, sand, glue, and sticks, ac-tually you want to find some sticks around3-5 with lots of branching, I get mine froma bush in front of my house.

First make up your bases, I cover them insand then paint them up in browns andgreens. After that I take and glue the treesdown, I usually have holes in the clay to in-sert them, after that I go ahead and decidehow much foliage and where I want it.Then you need to clear coat them to makesure the foliage doesnt dry out.branchesand trees on the larger bases or else on their


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Garou's Terrain Workshop

By Richard Grady

June 18, 2003Terrain is a large part of what miniatures

games so visually appealling is the terrain.Terrain in any form adds complexity anddepth to the game, as commanders strugglenot just with each other, but with the lay ofthe land. While anything can serve as ter-rain, from soda cans to books, actualwargaming terrain can create a truly stun-ning table.It is possible to spend weeks and weeks ona particular terrain item, but rarely is suchdedication required, or even desirable. I am

going to focus most of these articles on ter-rain that can be built quickly and cheaply. Ialso will be focusing on terrain that issturdy and portable -- a table of kewl terraindoesn't do much good if it can never leaveyour basement. Pretty much everything Ibuild is intended for weekly use, and manyof these pieces have been used once ortwice a weeek for more than a year, withminimal damage.For each piece, I will provide an itemized

materials list, and some step by step pic-tures. I will also try to list substitutions oralternate methods, if a material is difficultto find or a step is difficult. If you havequestions or comments, go ahead and dropme an email.Quick and easy rocksOkay, they're actually not all that quick,since there is a drying time involved, butaside from that, you'll spend far more timepainting and basing these than actuallymaking them. They're also pretty inexpen-sive. Even if I had to go out and buy paintand brushes, this project would cost lessthan $15. As it was, it cost me about $8,with one can of GreatStuff and 2 sheets offoamcore. And, as you can see below,

you'll get a lot of ter-rain out of it.Materials

Great Stuff

expandingfoam

CD (AOL CDs

are great for

this!) OR foam core/

cardboard/MDF (also known as Me-dium Density Fiberboard)

Exacto knife (for cutting foam core/

cardboard, and trimming excessfoam)

Paint, brushes, etc

Instructions First off, decide what you aregoing to build. Are you going to makesome really big rocks, or a bunch of smallerones? How do you want them based? Doyou want a bunch of small rocks on onebase, or on many? Will the big rocks havesmaller rocks around them, on the samebase? Sketch out the approximate size ofwhat you want to create on the MDF/foamcore/cardboard. If you are makingthings that are small enough, spare AOL

CDs work quite well. Take a couple min-utes on this step, because once you startspraying that foam around, you won't be

able to make changes.


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Some quick advice on working with GreatStuff. First, once you start spraying, you

are going to want to use the whole canister.Unless you have mineral spirits handy, the

foam will seal off the hose, so you might aswell use it all at once. when using it, I typi-

cally have three or four terrain projects Iam going to use it on at once. Second, it ex-

pands, so things will get larger than theystarted. The blob was originally going to fit

entirely on the CD, but the expansion wassuch that the CD is no longer visible. Third,

it's sticky, and messy, and does not come offhands, furniture, floors, etc easily. Lastly,there is a definite odor -- open the windows

before you use this indoors. Still, it is very

durable, and light, which are both verynice. As an added bonus, when you see how

many things you can make per can, it's verycheap.Start spraying the Great Stuff. Don't try tobuild ahugemoundof it --it'll justfallover.Applythestuff in

layers, going back and forth. You will notuse the entire can on any piece unless youare trying to build a mountain. As you cansee, one can goes a long way. Once theseare cut and separated, it should give somefairly decent cover to a 4" by 4" table. I stillhave one sheet of foam core left, so I'll saveit for another project. All this took only acouple of minutes.

Let it dry. I wait a full day. It'll changecolor a bit, but it's still basically a pale yel-low. It does expand, as you can see. Mostof the expansion happens in the first halfhour, but I think it expands for close to twohours.I've never actually timed it though.

Anyways, now we have a bunch of basicrocks, which look pretty much like this:

When it comes to painting, Great Stuff doesnot take paint well. The first coat is prob-lematic, and tends to bead off, as you cansee from the picture below. That is actuallythe


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second coat, and there are still a few gaps.Good thing craft paint is cheap.

Great Stuff can be sanded, and I am plan-ning on sanding a few and seeing if theadded texture helps the paint adhere. Use athick acrylic paint -- house paint would beideal, but I tend towards inexpensive craftpaint. (Oddly enough, I use the same paintfor my miniatures, just thinned.) Once Ihave the basc undercoat on, I drybrush witha series of grays, each a couple shadeslighter than the previous. Usually, 2-3 grays

is more than sufficient.Rocks are actually more ofa brownish-gray, but I ac-tually like this look morefor rocks this size.

Last, flock is applied to thebase and several locationson the rock. Static grass isgreat for this, but only inmoderation, as it can makeit look funny, and is ex-pensive. Finally, a glossysealer was applied. Al-though glossy sealer do, astheir name implies, givethings a glossy appear-

ance, they also provide better protectionthan matte or satin varnishes. When I amgoing for a realistic effect, I first use twolight coats of gloss, with a couple hours inbetween to allow for drying. Then, I useone coat of matte varnish, which dulls mostof the shine, giving a somewhat more real-istic appearance. I still get the protection ofgloss, but the appearance of matte. Thematte coat does need to be touched up fromtime to time, however, as simply handlingthe piece can cause it to wear off.

Anyway, there you go. They're quck,they're durable, they're light, and they'repretty cheap. Best of all, they're easy to do,

and you can get some very nice results onyour first try.


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F irs tborn and C rystal

L otus

The sides:Crystal Lotus (me)Crystal KnightWarkillerBlue Lotus Eater (w/ Sky Chariot)Silver Lotus Eater (W/ Freeze, Blizzard andIce Weapon)2 units of Archers1 Unit of Spear1 Unit of Axe1 unit of SwordsmenFirstborn (Dan)JudgeRepulsar Knight1 unit of Archers1 unit of Iron Guard1 unit of Macemen2 Units of SwordsmenAll units (his and mine) had any optionalmodels (Standards, Great weapons, etc),and if memory serves, one of his units had amagical standard.Since he was still figuring out what units he

wanted to use, I set up the table. We havefound this worksfairly well, aslong as the otherperson gets tochoose the side.Here's what itfinally lookedlike:

Deployment -- I

won, and forcedDan to start de-ployment. SinceI outnumberedhim (in terms of

units), I figured I would still be able to reactto his setup. As it turned out, I didn't seeanything that radically changed my deploy-ment strategy, though I did adjust the place-ment of a few cards

Turn 1 -- The Elves won initiative, andpromptly forced the Firstborn to move aunit. The first turn revealed that each of ushad pretty much guessed the others deploy-ment accurately, so there wasn't a whole lotof shifting of units. Mostly, we just ran to-wards each other, although I did attempt toSky Chariot my archers forward, only tofail in the attempt.

Turn 2 -- The Elves win initiative again,and force the Firstborn archers to move.While the Firstborn archers were taking uptheir position on my left, I taxi'd my archersinto firing range on my right flank. Bothsides continued their advance, with hisMacemen and a unit of Swordsmen losingone member each to my archer fire, but get-ting a little too close for my comfort. Dan'sJudge moves up in front of them, making ita choice archery target for next turn.

Turn 3 -- TheFirstborn wininititative for thefirst time thisgame. Danchooses to forcethe Elf fodder(aka Swordsmen)to move. I obligeby bringing themup to support thearchers, since hismace andswordsmen aregetting a little


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close for comfort. Dan moves his Macemenup, blocking the line of sight from my arch-ers to his judge. Not wanting to commit anyof my troops just yet, and wanting to waitwith my archers, I run my Blue Lotus eaterup towards the combat. Sitting back in hisdeployment area is fine, but only it's actu-ally able to do anything. Dan's Swordsmenmoved up to provide support for his Mace-men, who promptly lose three of their num-ber to my archery. The Iron Guard take up ashield wall to close against the other arch-ers, momentarily forgetting the Warkillercreeping along their flank. Gambling thathe will win initiative next turn, Dan bringsup his Judge and Repulsar Knight. All I

have to do is win initiative, and they aremine. To further improve the odds, the Sil-ver Lotus Eater casts Freeze on the unit ofSwordsmen,rolling a per-fect successand freezingthem solid.

Turn 4 --The Elves

win initia-tive. Ipromtply ac-tivate myarchers. Atthis range, Idon't want towaste an ac-tion aiming -- not if itmeans an-other shot. My first shot missed, and thesecond action is a Perfect Fumble, endingthe entire units activation. (Yeah, we knowthat may not be the case. But we agreed onit before the game.) Personally, I blame theguy who was trying to reglue my dice. (For

those who do not know, my dice tend to bevery unkind to me. After a terrible game

last week, I took two dice and pulverizedthem, as a lesson to the other dice. They

were rolling much better this week -- rightuntil Sean proposed gluing them back to-

gether. Back to the BatRep.) The Judgecharges in and cuts down two Archers,spreading panic throughout the unit. Unfor-tunately, this leaves him open to a chargefrom my Swordsmen, and he gets cut downby a Vorpal Swordmaster. His other unit ofSwordsmen advanced to provide support asmy Warkiller charges into his Iron guard,killing one. His main unit of Swordsmenfail to break free of the Freeze spell, and are

held fast. As my archers maneuver to a bet-ter position for targeting the Iron Guard, hismacemen charge into the fray, killing one

moreSwordsman.The BlueLotus eaterattempts an-other SkyTaxi, butfails, so my

Axemenhave towaste an ac-tion runningbefore theycan chargein, and man-age to killonly oneFirstbornSwordsman.

Turn 5 -- The Firstborn win initiative. Timewas running out (the store was closingsoon) and, determined to get as many pointsas he could, Dan took the initiative. His


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Macemen cut down the Vorpal Swordmas-ter, a Swordsman and an Axemen. I acti-vated the Axemen, charging them in andcutting down almost all the Macemen. Sev-eral Axemen even managed to get to theRepulsar Knight, doing 1 wound. HisSwordsmen charged in on the exposed Ax-emen, killing one. (Funnily enough, oneSwordsman charged the Axe leader, whowas on wait and countercharged. Both hit,both saved.) On the other side of the board,the Warkiller managed to kill off another ofthe Iron Guard. Dan's archers fired into themelee, and did another two wounds to theWarkiller. (He never hit one of his ownguys, either.) My spearmen moved into po-

sition, but they weren't going to do any-thing in this battle. The Repulsar Knight ac-tivated, and took all three actions to kill oneof the Axemen basing him. The Blue LotusEater Sky Taxi'd the Crystal Knight towhere he could do some good, and Dan'sFrozen Swordsmen failed again to breakfree. The Crystal Knight charged into theSwordsmen, killing two and freeing upsome of my Axemen for the next turn. Un-fortunately, we had to pack up at that point.

Afterthoughts -- both of us are still avoid-ing the Give Orders action, mainly becauseDan is still learning the game and so we areconcentrating on the fundamentals. Thisgame was actually pretty close, eventhough I had scored the majority of thekills. Finishing out this turn likely wouldhave meant that my Axemen and Swords-men were severely decimated, at the cost of

his Repulsar Knight and his Swordsmen. Itcertainly would have been fun to play out.And, lastly -- just to prove that I did indeeddestroy my dice, I offer the followingproof:To view all of the pics form this Battle Re-

port please go to:http://www.prairienet.org/~garou/batrep1.html


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C hronopia: W ar i n the

E ternal R ealm

I ssue 1Welcome to the world of Chronopia, inside these pages youwill find information of great Orc warlords, powerful ElvenLotus Eaters, the rathful Sons of Kronos, the mysteriousStygian menace, the Lords of the Firstborn, the dreadedDevout, and of wondrous Dwarven Blood Totems. Alsoyou can find terrain articles, battle reports, fluff, houserules, and many other things for your enjoyment.

In this issue, is a loose skirmish rule mod written by, well,

me, a reflection on the game by a veteran gamer, a few ter-rain articles and a battle report between the Firstborn and Elves of the Crystal Lotus.

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