Malign Portents Review

Hi all

Today I wanted to share a review of the Malign Portents book. The campaign has finished now and it seems to have been well received. The delay in review has been down to my own ill health - I had a pulmonary embolism and was hospitalised for a while, I have also been in the process of selling my house and trying to move. It has been a busy time lol. There is a bit of a backlog of reviews that I will try to fill in over the next few weeks.

So first up is a look at the Time of Tribulations which is a set of rules for fighting in the Realm of Death:

Malign Portents gives Wizards a spell called Pall of Doom which effects the bravery of an enemy unit. It also offers two new command abilities: 

Honour the Dead which potentially gives extra attacks to a single unit and Soul-Force Sacrifice which heals wounds on the leader to detriment of a unit within 3" of them.

The book provides rules for Realmscape Features. Before the game a D6 is rolled for a random game-long effect that applies to both armies.

Death can effect the battle with the introduction of a 'power of death' chart.

Malign Portents introduces Prophecy Points which work similarly to CP in Warhammer 40,000. Skills or tactics can be played by expending PPs, which are generated a number of ways for example - fielding one of the 4 new characters.

Skirmish rules are present including how to use PPs and the Harbringers. There are 6 command abilities, Artefacts and types of mysterious terrain. There is a 2D6 reward of battle section and 3 magic of shyish spells. 

Battleplans:

Skirmish - The Well of Souls - robbing souls from Nagash, whoever has most wins

In the narrative section, 2 battleplans make up 'The Doomed March' 

- Blood Moon Rising - ambushing the marching route of a powerful warband, basically wipe each other out.

- They Came From Below - this one has a really nifty Set-Up 

victory conditions are the standard ones. 

- The Twice- Death - not a follow on mission but still narrative. This one sounds brilliant. Basically set-up 2 boards. When you kill a unit on the main battlefield you can then hunt them again on the second battlefield forever wiping their essence from existence!!

All in all its a pretty good book. It's not my style of gameplay (introduces too many random or 'free' skills but I imagine it could be quite popular.

I haven't touched on the fluff because - for me - the fluff is actually richer at the start of the book before the Time of Tribulations, where it discusses trading across the realms which is really cool. Then it turns into the 4 Grand Alliances being drawn to the same spot and they just fight.

I hope you have enjoyed my insight into the book and apologise for the delay.

Stay fluffy.

Kaelo