The Longest Night 2020 Approaches

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Today, I’m coming at you with another exciting new way to play WARMACHINE & HORDES. I’ve been hard at work on all our new Organized Play (OP) events, but today we are talking Longest Night!

When I took on the reins of OP, I wanted to mix it up and add my own personal touch. I also wanted to be sure that these OP events could be played with any number of people and came with a ton of replay value. I know people have been hurting from not being able to play physical games with current events, so I’ve done my best to give everyone a good reason to come together in safe, small groups to play.

With that said, let’s dive right into Longest Night 2020!

I started by considering a lot of cool mythology linked to the end of fall and the beginning of winter. A few cultures have embedded in what is, essentially, a harvest festival the concept of other dimensions bleeding into one another. The basic idea is that the life of the harvest is followed closely by the death of winter. This life-and-death dichotomy causes the afterlife (both good and bad versions) to bleed into the mortal world. The places where this happened are described as liminal space. These liminal spaces are simultaneously connected to the two different dimensions, creating a bridge for monsters to enter into the mortal world or for humans to lose their way into another dimension.

I pulled on this concept of liminal space to create Longest Night 2020. In the blood-soaked farmlands of Cygnar, harvests lay untended as the oblivion rages. In turn, the massive death toll of oblivion mixes to create breaks in reality leading to either Urcaen or Infernal space. Players will side with either the Harvesters (Grymkin) or the Corruptors (Infernals) as the Wicked Harvest continues its neverending war on the sinful.

There will be one scenario in which players will each place a liminal space. The Harvester space will connect to portions of Urcaen controlled by the defiers while the Corruptor space will connect to the far-off dark corners of the universe controlled by the lords of the Infernal horde. Although creatures can’t transverse these liminal spaces, they can use their near limitless powers to influence events close to those spaces. At the beginning of each turn, players will roll on a table designed for either Harvester or Corruptor, and the liminal space will either strengthen their forces or weaken their enemy.

In addition to the liminal spaces bleeding into the world of Caen, players will be met with six secondary objectives to complete during the event. These objectives range from killing enemies in specific ways to collecting candy. When players complete these objectives, they will be offered a treat from the Harvesters or the Corruptors will inflict a tick on their enemies. Here’s just one of those secondary objectives:

Go Seek

Special Rules

After players choose their table sides, place three pieces of candy anywhere completely within 20˝ of your opponent’s table edge and at least 10˝ apart from one another. These candies are considered impassable terrain.

  • Friendly warrior models gain Harvest. (Harvest (*Action) — RNG 1. Choose a piece of candy. If that piece of candy is in range, remove that piece of candy from the game.)

Objective

When the third candy is removed from the game, you have completed this objective.

Treat

  • Friendly models gain +2 SPD and Rapid Strike. This Treat lasts for one turn. (Rapid Strike —This model can make one additional melee attack each Combat Action.)

Trick

  • Enemy models suffer –2 SPD and can make only one initial attack. This Trick lasts for one round.

As you can see, some of the objectives will involve putting candy out for you to collect in various ways. Earlier in the rules document, candy is described as “bite sized,” so don’t imagine that you’ll be putting out a massive bag of suckers and blocking your opponent in. Also, you are the only one who can interact with any candy you place, so, despite the fact that other objectives will reference candy, you can’t just harvest any old piece.

Some of you know we are creating at-home kits for future OP releases during the pandemic; this will apply to the Longest Night 2020 kit. This kit will be made available to anyone and everyone direct from our online store once it’s released. The Longest Night 2020 at-home kit will contain only 2 patches instead of 8, however, as Longest Night 2020 at-home kits are made to support two players for each kit purchased. We understand that not everyone will feel safe going into a store to play in an event, so we hope by offering these alternate Organized Play kits, more people can safely enjoy WARMACHINE & HORDES.

I hope everyone enjoys the fun of the holidays despite current events. Whether you are a Harvester or Corruptor, I want everyone to have some wacky fun as they beckon for the end of a rather odd year. I’m outta here—stay tuned for an update on the forthcoming second installment of the Oblivion campaign!

P.S.: The Harvesters are obviously the good guys, though!

HORDES, Insider, Organized Play, WARMACHINE
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