Review of Dark Heaven Apocalypse

Thanks for your email Private wierd, here's a mini-review of DHA for anyone interested.

In DHA every figure has a class, from 1 to 4. Class 1 are the fastest figures, unarmoured flyers. Class 2 is light infantry, and so on to class 4 which is heavy infantry. Every turn you roll for initiative for every player, then the winner moves, shoots and fights with all his class 1 figures, then the player with the second highest initiative does the same and so on for all players, as many players each on their own side as you like. Then of course everybody acts with their class 2 in sequence and so on to class 4's. If your army is mostly class 4 you'll be constantly out-maneuvered by the lighter troops.

All combat and missile fire is an opposed roll, a single d10 is rolled for each figure with stats and a few mods added on to that. In melee the loser is removed, making for very quick battles. You roll for all enemies in base contact until no opposing figures are still touching. Missile fire is a similar opposed roll, if the shooter wins the target is killed, otherwise the shooter misses. Heroes and monsters have a special save factor that lessens the chance they'll be slain from one lucky shot. Another point is this games favour is that there is no record keeping at all. You'll need a sheet to record your stats of course, but once the game starts you won't ever need a pencil or scratch paper.

Spells are also conducted with opposed rolls. Different spells have different penalties to casting depending on how powerful they are. I love this game but the spell system is a bit weak, a lot of the spells are variations on magic missiles, with a few that are more unique.

Where DHA shines is the fact that battles are quick, even with lots of figures. And probably the best part is the simple points system that lets you make stats for any figure you own, meaning anyone with a warhammer army has tons of figures perfectly suited for this game already.

Finding a copy might be hard, DHA was never hugely popular. Reaper Miniatures used to have an earlier version of the game available on their website that was very similar, though I haven't played that version. I can't find it on their site right now, but it must be floating around somewhere.

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed reading this!

Dark Heaven Apocalypse

Here's a real blast from the past, one of my old favourite games: Dark Heaven Apocalypse, by Reaper Miniatures. I played this game heavily until I got into Warhammer 6th edition.

Rulebook and box it came in. The box also had 8 metal miniatures, quick reference sheet,
and a short novel, as well as 2 ten sided dice.

DHA was designed to be generic, and using a simple points system you pick the stats for all your figures, using any figures you happen to own. Half the rulebook is also given over to detailing the world of Avalorr, an optional place for setting your games. It's very detailed with many nations and descriptions of characters with stats. I put up a webpage for this game, back when the web was fairly new and you had to know some HTML to make a webpage. No blogger back then! The online DHA community consisted of my page and two others. That was it.

I wanted to use the beastmen I've been painting lately, so I made stats for them, basing them off black orcs. They were also joined by some suitably powerful chaos knights, "Death Bringer" the mighty evil champion and Malagor the beastman wizard. 5 Chaos Knights, 24 Beastmen and the two characters makes 1683 pts.

They were opposed by the goodly elves, led by Cedric the wizard, joined by 16 archers and 10 Swordmasters. Archery is very deadly in this game, and archers cost many more points than regular infantry. The elves totaled 1646 pts, close enough.

The battle of Vlenden was fought amongst the village of the same name, deserted by the inhabitants when they heard that the horrible Death Bringer and his demented servants were on the way. Battle was swiftly joined.

The beasts had no missile troops, and suffered heavily while advancing into the elvish longbows. Malagor and Cedric cast spells with some effect. Between missile shots and spells, Death Bringer and his beasts were destroyed, only killing a few swordmasters in return. Malagor and his beasts fared a little better but in the end all were killed by spells or arrows by the end of the game. Elvish losses consisted of all 10 swordmasters (most killed by the Death Bringer) and a few archers lost to Malagors magic.

View from the elvish lines, mid game. Cedric leads his troops from atop
his hill, while Death Bringer and his two remaining beasts advance.
Malagor and his beasts are advancing around the house on the right.

A fun game, and quick! DHA games are played to a definite finish (i.e. all of one side wiped out) in a fraction of the time of other games. I've never done it but the designers claim that massive battles with hundreds of figures can be played in as few as 3 hours. I've always wanted to try this, but have never had that many figures. You can also play a 3, 4, or more way free for all, with all sides fighting each other. You don't have to change any rules, it was designed to be able to do this. I've always had a soft spot for DHA and wish it could have been a little more popular. But at least I can still play any time I like! Hope you liked reading about this obscure game.

Elvish Retaliation

After the slaughter of the elves, the elvish king summoned Telor the Hippogriff rider to his court and begged him to take command of the counter-offensive. Telor was a controversial choice with a very mixed record of victory, defeat and running away, but the king knew that Lomsec, his trusty wizard would be there to take over if things went wrong. The elvish army set out and met the invading beastmen. The elvish army is Telor on his mighty Hippogriff, Caradryan the the hero and Lomsec the level 20 wizard. They command 5 silver helms and 16 warrior kindred armed with spears.

Telor, warrior kindred, silver helms, Lomsec in the background.

The beastly army is led by Zorn the chaos knight, Bazor the Beast Hero and Malagor the beastly shaman. They lead 4 mounted chaos warriors and 15 beastmen. Both armies are 1500pts.

Beastmen, then chaos warriors.

Elves on the left, beasts on the right. A magical tape
measure sits in the foreground.

Turn 1: The elves all advance. Lomsec casts a lightning bolt that kills three hideous beastmen. Malagor the beast shaman casts a fireball that slays 1 silver helm. Magic missiles are mighty indeed when they disallow armour saves!

Turn 2: Lomsec really earns his keep with a mighty lightning bolt that destroys 4 chaos warriors and wounds Zorn. Zorn charges into the elf warriors and challenges Caradryan to a duel. Zorns mighty frostblade easily sucks the life out of Caradryans soul, but the press of warriors is enough to force Zorn into a rout.

Caradryan lies still, a frozen husk.

Turn 3: Telor swoops after Zorn on his hippogriff, chasing him right off the battlefield. The Silverhelms fight the beastmen, pushing back and forth with no one able to get an advantage. Lomsec casts Cause Stupidity on the beasts, but they shrug off the effects.

Turn 4: The warrior kindreds and Telor charge into the beastmen as they fight with the silverhelms. The beasts fail their panic test and are all quickly slain or fled.

End game.

In all, a decent fun game, although it took as long to set up as it did to play! Lomsec was the most important warrior, single handedly destroying the beasts best unit.

The Lightning Raid of the Beasts of Chaos

After several years of quiet, trouble is brewing on the northern borders of the elf kingdom. A terrible storm of multi-coloured lightning and thunder that sounded like the bellowing of mad giants tore a hole in reality, allowing the beastman Malagor, Zorn the Slayer, and their fiends of chaos to launch a raid of the peaceful elves. Lomsec the magician and Duranbar the Hero set forth to defend their green valley.

Malagor, center, commands his minions to cross the bridge of joy.
Mounted chaos warriors on the right, a herd of beastmen on the left.

The elvish defenders do not arrive in time to block the bridge. Archers
on the left, warrior kindred in the center, silver helms with Duranbar on the
right. Duranbar has a mighty Hell-Honed Blade that can cut armour like wood, wood like it
was cheese, and cheese like it was some icky smelly gooey specialty cheese.

A 1000pt battle. The chaos army was not terribly chaotic with only a few minor mutations, none of which affected the battle at all.

Turn 1: Zorn leads his chaos warriors in an uncontested crossing of the bridge. The silver helms attempt to charge them, but fail and end up disordered for their effort. This was not good. The arrows of the archers bounce harmlessly off the chaos warriors heavy armour. Lomsec rushes forth to attempt a steal mind spell on zorn but it fails.

Turn 2: The chaos warriors charge the disordered silver helms, easily routing them in their disordered state. They flee, but all the other elves keep their cool. Zorn gleefully pursues the elves, slaying every silver helm himself. The beastmen crossed the bridge in an orderly fashion, much to the disgust of Malagor who prefers chaos to order. The archers continued to rain accurate archery on the chaos warriors, but failed in every case to penetrate their armour. Getting desperate, Lomsec casts steal mind on Zorn with all his remaining power - and succeeds! Zorn stares stupidly, his companions lead his horse by the reins.

Turn 3: The beastmen charge the warrior kindred spearmen, and fight them to a draw. The archers, undaunted, continued to shoot the warriors, and finally killed one! The foolish warrior had raised his visor to scratch the wart on his nose.

Turn 4: The chaos warriors charged the warrior kindred in the rear, causing the elves to fail their panic test and flee. At the this point the gods took pity and ended the game to prevent the wholesale slaughter of the remaining elves. Total victory for chaos.

The end, right before the elves fled in panic.

A fun, short game. I haven't played warhammer in over 2 months, so I spent my day off re-reading the basics of the rules and had a go.

The attack on Urgal and the terrible Oliphaunt

Dear Gaius:
Oh fickle hand of fate! Oh cruel mistress of fortune, who raises us so high then smites us down! I hope this letter reaches you friend Gaius, though I be deep in the territory of the dreaded Gothians. Following our triumph as related in my last missive, our hero Julius Crassus struck deep into the heart of Goth territory, the goths refusing battle until we threatened their city of Urgal, but pride cometh before the fall as those heretical Christians are wont to say. I will get straight to the point, and hope my misery can be salved some what.

Our Roman cavalry faced off against half the gothian cavalry which sat atop a hill. Our legions and artillery were to the left, faced by the remainder of the gothian horsemen. But wonder to behold, the Gothians had an armoured oliphaunt amongst their force! No one has seen one of these beasts in generations, and it was thought the king of the east, Antiochus Nicator, kept them all for himself, never to let them out of his own army. Yet this beast was clearly crewed by soldiers of the Eastern king. Worrying enough without all the other bad news. Our cavalry on the right flank fought the gothians and had the worst of it, yet the greatest disaster was to befall our left flank. The gothian cavalry charged our legion and many men were slain on each side, until the gothians were forced to retire, but before they had slain almost all the men of Julius Crassus legion. The oliphaunt advanced steadfastly, and even a squarely aimed stone flung from our catapult failed to halt the monstrous creature. Julius Crassus bodyguard untimely fled, despite our leaders protests. Seeing this, our artillery crews fled as well. Our remaining legion fled immediately once the oliphaunt came within striking distance.

Our valiant legions fight hopelessly against the Gothian horde,
while the dreaded oliphaunt approaches from within the
town of Urgal.

So there you have it, a shameful defeat indeed. The army is in tatters and withdrawing rapidly back to the river Kwai and the bridge at St. Marks. Perhaps I will see you soon, dear Gaius.

I remain:
Flavius Flachus

Julius Crassus gets revenge

Dearest Gaius, how very different are the circumstances of this letter than the last! I trust you will be the first to hear the glorious news, I am entrusting the letter to my nephew Trebonius, himself carrying the official dispatch from Crassus himself.

As you will no doubt recall, after Julius Crassus unauthorized and disastrous attack on the Gothians his honour was at an all time low, and some whispered that the emperor may imprison him - or worse. All will be forgiven now, I can assure you!

Julius Crassus mustered what was left of his army, and called in every favour from every client he possesses. He put together a large cohort, and even 300 cavalry! The gothians were brought to battle near a small hamlet and its fields. The Goths held their line back, with a catapult firing from atop a hill, and a ballista shot at our cavalry skewering several with each volley. Julius ordered his 120 archers to take and hold a small wood from which they could fire at the catapult, eventually slaying its crew. Meanwhile the legionarii and cavalry advanced steadily. The cavalry was slowed down by the hamlets fields, yet they advanced never-the-less.

Our cavalry in the foreground advance through the field, while the
cowardly gothians wait while their siege machines do all the fighting.

At this point - Gods be praised and glory to our general Julius Crassus! - the Gothians nerve failed at our relentless advance, and they fled without a blow struck. Their general managed to rally them back to the battle, yet when our legionarii and cavalry charged they fled once more, this time for good. Our cavalry lost 23 men and our archers lost only 14, all due to Gothian artillery.

After a mighty victory like this, their is only one thing a true roman could do...advance and conquer! Much glory to Rome and her mighty legions.

Truly, friend Gaius, words cannot alone express Romes glory so here I will end this missive, young Trebonius is saddled and impatiently awaiting my finishing this letter. So without further ado, good luck and glory to Rome...always!

Julius Crassus vs. the Gothians

Dear Gaius, I hope this letter finds you well. I am so happy that your wife is once again with child! Truly you are blessed with many fine sons and daughters. Not a day goes by when I don't think of my poor Maria, gone these ten years.

But much more important matters are afoot than the cares of people such as you and I. The entire empire was shocked when our emperor Draco Severus sent peace envoys to the Gothians after their raid on St. Marks! Shameful indeed. Julius Crassus, leader of the border legions, raised a cohort of men at his own expense and marched off to seek redress of our wrongs from the Gothians. Honour is not yet dead in the Roman Empire.

Julius force was a single 480 man cohort of legionarii, assisted by 120 archers and 5 large ballistas. Our small force crossed the river Kwai and marched for 3 days into Gothian territory before we found the Gothians who had burnt St. Marks. There were no less than 300 of them, all well-mounted nobles. The barbarians quickly offered battle.

The Gothian horde.

The heroic band of Julius Crassus.

The entire battlefield seen from the
south atop my hill. The Romans are on the left.

The Goths advanced en masse. Our archers sprinted forward to shoot from close range,  and our ballistas shot as well. Alas, only minor causalties were inflicted. The rampaging Gothians then impacted our legionarii. The archers fled, and the impact of the heavy Goth cavalry pushed our legionarii back. The Goths continued to surge forward until the legionarii broke and fled the battle. In all, our romans lost 93 killed, though our archers and ballista crews escaped unscathed. The Goths lost 72 men killed or wounded, a poor trade indeed. I fled for my life for several days until I crossed the border back into the empire. I found your letter waiting and wrote back soonest.

Please do not worry about me, I am exhausted though unharmed. Pray instead for Julius Crassus who tried only to avenge Rome but brought shame instead. I fear the emperor will be wrathful.

Your friend, Flavius Flachus.