Egyptian Genre Gaming and RPGs--A Resource
Wargame and Roleplaying Miscellany. Wargods, Hamunaptra, Mythic Egypt, The Whovian Osirians and much more...
The children of the Great Desert are outstanding architects. But their
strength lies in their power as warriors and conquerors. Living a life
of creation and conquest, the Sphynx diligently prepare for their
glorious afterlife. They must live in glory and heroic deeds if they are
to be assured a place amongst their god-kings. The Sphynx stand solid
like their huge buildings, they seek to rid the world of all evil. When
they are tested by the sick corruption of other races, they know the
Great Sphinx will come to them and revel in glorious victory
This was captured from Origins. A big thanks to Ubisoft for creating such a tremendous video game.
In this cinematic animation video, we explore some of the major Landmarks, architecture, art buildings and landscapes of ancient Egypt! We also take a look at daily life and what the people of Ancient Egypt got up to.
A printable geomorphic dungeon floorplan compatible with any
RPG/Dungeon-Crawl game. Use as a standalone gameboard, or combine with any
same-scale tileset.
Contents: Five 10x10 battlemaps depicting doors and
entrances to Ancient Egyptian-style temples. Each tile features an outdoor area
(which matches with Desert Wilderness) and the interior of an Ancient temple or
tomb. The set is designed to work alongside the other maps in the Desert Temple
range to create huge Egyptian encounter maps.
Uses: Explore the lost ruins of Egypt, bring an artefact to
the Priests in the temple, escape the tomb of the Pharaoh with the Mummy's
treasure, unlock puzzles and ancient secrets, dare to awaken the Grand
Hierophant, discover if there really is a 'Curse of the Mummy', seek a blessing
of the spirits still haunting the temple complex, use the pools of water in a
summoning ceremony, visit the long forgotten Palace of the Pharaoh, walking
past the statues of ancient Kings.
Also included is a set of 300dpi full size jpgs, for poster
printing or VTT (Full jpegs feature gridded and non-gridded outdoor-area
versions)
About Heroic Maps
Our game boards were originally designed to be used with Heroquest.
That's why you'll notice we don't mark the doors or add furniture - you
can put these wherever you want them, using you favourite system (paper
or 3D). This will mean the board can be different every time you use
it. You can download our free door pack here:
Heroic Maps boards are flexible enough to be used with many game systems.
The artwork is done by the talented Daniel Mitchell
and shows off not only some of the historical units that are going to
be in the game but of course some of the mythological figures too. That
Ureaus looks amazing. A fire breathing Cobra, how can it get better than
that?
Necrotect is a Tomb Kings melee infantry unit in Total War:
Warhammer II: Rise of the Tomb Kings. All the Necrotects see now is purity
besmirched. With a whipcrack they strive once more for perfection.
Necrotects were the artisans of ancient Nehekhara - not
common labourers, but architects of extraordinary skills whose ambitions far
outpaced what could be achieved in a mortal lifespan. In death, Necrotects have
lost none of their frenetic drive. They are filled with a compulsive need to
pull down the inferior, vulgar cities of their enemies and supplant them with
vast monuments of their own design. In life, Necrotects were stern taskmasters
who oversaw tens of thousands of Nehekharans as they toiled under the blazing
sun. Under their gaze, an army of masons carved huge slabs of rock out of cliff
faces before vast columns of slaves dragged the stones across the desert and
hauled them into position. All Necrotects were foul tempered, and they would
dispense summary punishment at the slightest provocation, hating anything and
anyone that threatened their art. In death, much of their work lies broken or
damaged by the greed of tomb robbers and invading armies. Necrotects have been
driven to a blinding rage by the wanton desecration of their beloved
masterpieces, and they have sworn to have revenge. In battle, Necrotects lead
the Tomb King's regiments like the work gangs of old. They exude the same aura
of hatred they possessed in life, and their mere presence instils a magical
state of fury in the Undead warriors of Nehekhara.
Constructs generally are what will win the Tomb Kings
battles. The Necrotects provides bonuses exclusively to constructs. Simply put,
Necrotects will make constructs more defensive, giving them heals, missile
resistance, and armour. The unit itself is also a decent melee combatant with a
bonus vs. infantry. For this reason, they are useful for buoying the Tomb Kings
front line and maintaining their constucts. Overall, a solid support hero.
Ever since it was announced last GenCon, fans have been eagerly awaiting
the next installment in the legendary saga that began with Blood Rage
and continued with Rising Sun. The same creative team, including game
design by Eric Lang, art by Adrian Smith, and sculpts by Mike McVey, are
proud to bring you ANKH: Gods of Egypt, coming soon to Kickstarter!
The gods that rule over Egypt can no longer share the devotion of the
people. One by one, the gods must fall into oblivion, until only one
will remain. Spread your forces across the land, build monuments to
establish your dominion, reshape the land to your advantage, gain
followers to increase your powers and get the support of powerful
guardians. As the sands soak the blood in conflicts decided by both
strength and cunning, each god will use their unique power to climb to
the top of the devotion ladder. Will you be the one to achieve life
eternal?
The
storyline of the game, the reason for such conflict – beyond sibling
rivalry – is the transition undertaken in ancient Egypt from polytheism
to monotheism.
“The
people are losing faith in the gods,” says Lang, “One by one the gods
are actually dropping off as they lose the devotion of their followers.
And you want to be the last god standing. I should say one or more
because in this game, unlike any other mythology, two gods can actually
merge together during the course of the game become one god – like
Amun-Ra or Bastet.”
This
mechanic is one where an event in the game forces the player lagging
behind the other gods in devotion to join with another god. This melding
of the gods fits with the way that the Egyptians, over time, joined
together gods like Amun and Ra to form Amun-Ra as a kind of
father-of-all life god amongst the gods. Interestingly this nods towards
the mutability of the beings we control in Ankh: Gods of Egypt – while they are all powerful, they are at the whims of man, collectively.
“Gods
are rated in devotion, which is the stat that allows you to stay in the
game. It’s sort of analogous to victory points except it’s not really a
VP track. Your status goes up and down as you gain or lose devotion,”
says Lang, “It’s the only ‘track’ in the game. You start in the bottom
third, and you are trying to gain the devotion of followers by
conquering regions or worshiping at monuments or erecting cool things
for them.”
“And
you lose monuments by losing battles or by causing plagues and all that
bad stuff. So, it has upward and downward mobility. As the game goes
on, near the end of the game, players that are stuck in too low devotion
will actually be eliminated, although, not for very long.”
Gameplay
wise this newly joined god still plays as two separate entities. They
take separate turns, take their own actions and command their own
warriors on the board. The conjoined god is judged on the devotion of
the least worshiped of the two players.
“So
even though they get double the actions and double the power, they
actually have to take care of the worst performing one of the two,”
explains Lang. This acts as a kind of swing moment, rebalancing in the
game. The additional actions, and the focus of having two players
working together suggests these events aren’t defeats, just marks for
getting revenge. “It’s a dynamic that I really liked. I haven’t seen it
before in a game like this. I wanted to make a game that earned its own
place on the shelf.”
Out
of the box players will be able to become the powerful gods of ancient
Egypt in the forms of Anubis, Osiris, Isis, Ra and Amun. The game
promises to be highly asymmetrical, with each god feeling distinctly
different from the others on the board. We asked Lang for a couple of
ways which these gods interact with the board and one another.
“Amun is the keeper of the underworld,” explains Lang, “Normally, just like in Blood Rage and RisingSun,
if any of your figures die for any reason, they just go back to your
pool and you can re-summon them again. In the case of Amun, when he’s in
play, if any figures die, he can actually take that figure and take
them into the underworld. And he gains strength for every figure that’s
in the underworld. If anybody wants to take their figure back from him,
they have to give Amun a follower, which is the main ‘currency’ of the
game.”
As
much of the game is about courting followers and devotion, it’s also
about tripping up your fellow gods. It is easy to see how these
interactions work against other players. Some powers are a vicious tax
like those granted by Amun, whereas others are more insidious – less
obviously evil until an action is taken.
“Isis
is a protector. Her pieces are able to share spaces with other warriors
unlike anybody else. If any of her figures are killed, instead, those
sharing the space with their figures are killed. She’s really good at
protecting her own people and making other people their shields.”
This
kind of cut-throat play style will go down well with those looking for
high intensity action on the board. Everything you do in Ankh: Gods of Egypt has
a very real feeling heft to it. But the powers of the gods don’t just
end with their effects on the warriors and followers around them. The
very earth can be changed in huge and sweeping ways. The board itself,
originally set out with three regions separated by the Nile (Upper
Egypt, Lower Egypt and the Delta) can be altered dramatically. The board
state can be quickly reformed by any individual player with a single
action – including dividing regions up, so while on your turn a monument
was in your region, that can quickly be flipped on its head by another
player.
“As
you progress down the timeline of events players get to place these
camels on the game to form caravans, which split regions into two. This
creates a new region on the board and players are incentivized to do
that to their advantage,” says Lang. With this we can see something of
the central ‘desperate but powerful’ theme coming through. While you as a
god are claiming the devotion of others, the areas you can make those
claims from are splitting. As the gods meld together, the world
fractures. This leads to even more emergent narrative, as well as
variety between games.
“So
the map is going to look different every time you play the game because
it gets divided in different ways based on the needs of a player at any
given time,” says Lang “every time you play it’s just going to look
like you’ve, you’ve redrawn the map in different ways.”
These
huge power plays are part of the core flow of the game. A series of
actions are taken by the players until one of the thresholds has been
hit. This triggers the timeline to move on another notch, moving event
to event. This tells you what happens in the game, whether that’s
building pyramids, dividing regions, triggering conflict for monuments,
and so on.
“And
when an event hits, whichever player triggered the event is going to
control how to split that region. So ultimately there’s a lot of timing
in the game,” says Lang. Players are always building towards the next
event, the next threshold being reached. While there is a conflict for a
monument coming up, there may be also a regional shift coming up after,
meaning players will want to work the board to their long-term
strategic advantage.
“In reality, of course, you cannot possibly win everything,” says Lang, “so you literally have to pick your battles.”
