Splash!
Twas a rainy night...
In a small room of a residential building, a recent hobbyist who had started collecting miniatures was focused on painting a game piece in his hand.
His technique was clumsy, and much of the paint was applied crookedly.
The dark blue armor of the Ultramarines was painted a bright, sky blue by him.
The U-shaped insignia was also painted hideously.
Many joints and seams were painted quite roughly, with no sense of beauty to speak of.
Even the weapon in the hand hadn't been given much detail.
It was truly something a Warhammer nerd would have a stroke at.
His name was Caleb, a new player who had recently entered the expensive World of Warhammer, a new cash mule for Games Workshop to milk.
During his university days, he had learned about the lore of Warhammer through some novels or a certain pc game and discovered this game.
Later, after listening to some introductions, he officially joined the hobby.
Compared to the so-called 'dog-shit' plotlines, Caleb felt that playing with figures and such was more interesting.
Occasionally, he would play a match with other guys offline, but a single game simply took too long.
Later on, he didn't play matches often, limiting himself to collecting interesting collectibles.
"Sigh, if only playing tabletop was as simple as playing Auto Chess, that would be great!"
"I'd just throw the pieces down and let them fight automatically!"
"That would save so much trouble!"
"Ding-dong~"
The doorbell of the apartment rang, and not long after, his phone also started ringing.
"Mr. Watson, your delivery!"
Caleb held the phone between his shoulder and ear, still holding a paintbrush in one hand, painting the piece in his hand.
"Just leave it at the door!"
"I'll get it in a bit!"
"I'm not home, so I can't tip you, sorry!
Caleb didn't pay much mind, guessing it was the gaming board he had bought a few days ago.
Originally, this board was intended as a map for offline play, but since he went out less now, he planned to use it as a display base for his miniatures.
Carefully placing the painted pieces aside, Caleb looked at his own work, then at the pieces painted by the masters, and instantly felt a massive gap.
The pieces others painted were exquisite and elegant, full of depth and layering.
His own pieces were truly worse than someone's Lego toys.
"Sigh, whatever, I'll ask the pros for advice on how to paint later!"
"I really should have an art graduate help me paint, but that's so expensive. I'll just buy some paint and do it slowly myself!"
After washing his hands in the bathroom, Caleb quickly brought the gaming board in from the door.
When he bought it, he had no idea this gaming platform would be so large.
Its size was even twice as large as his own dining table.
Now, the entire living room was filled by this gaming table.
He had never considered it being this big before.
"Ah, I think I forgot to check the dimensions when I bought it. This scale seems a bit too large!"
Only then did Caleb look at the product manual, a full 20-square-meter gaming platform was indeed a bit big.
However, this size was actually still smaller than those pool tables at the clubs...
"Forget about it, bigger is better anyway, unless we're talking about inflation. I don't like dealing with refunds anyway! Too much of a hassle!"
"Let's open it first and see what the layout inside is like!"
Opening the packaging, the exquisite 3D model inside leaped out from the board.
"The faaaaa-"
On it was a complex model of a planet's surface, in the center of the planet's surface, a spire-like Hive City stood tall.
The interior of the spire depicted many complex objects, its topmost layer even featured an incredibly dazzling ecological dome.
This spire could be said to vividly portray the social hierarchy of Warhammer; the people at the very top had the best living environment, even having natural ecological chambers as food supplies.
As for the lower Hive City, it was foul with smog and flowing with sewage.
The high concentration of radiation was enough to kill, a single gulp of that sewage was more absurd than the periodic table of elements found in India's Ganges River.
The constantly emitting industrial waste gases would even be discharged directly into the middle-layer residential areas.
You could even see humans covered in pustules in the streets.
"What the actual hell!"
The moment he rotated the board, Caleb was shocked by the exquisite workmanship.
Not just because the board was beautifully made, but because the things inside seemed to move!
Picking up a magnifying glass and bringing it to his eye, inside a monastery, a priest was presiding over a ceremony of prayer to the God-Emperor.
On the sand dunes several kilometers away, there were many scavengers riding scrap-metal motorcycles wandering around the board.
Skitarii of the Adeptus Mechanicus, holding transuranic arquebuses, were patrolling near the God-Machines.
Orcs in the center of the jungle were constantly howling and roaring in the rainforest.
Every detail was so lifelike, every piece was made very realistically.
Many pieces were even smaller than ants, but the miniature society they formed within this Hive City made Caleb marvel in wonder.
"This is crazy!"
Standing at the edge of the board, Caleb exclaimed.
He had never imagined the board he bought would have such capabilities.
Clearly, this was no longer an ordinary board, this board itself was likely the surface of some planet in the warhammer universe.
Looking at the dials on the edge of the board, it seemed the map's scale could still be adjusted.
This feature was perfect; tabletop players hated playing the same map too many times.
Once a map was played too often, it would easily become formulaic, and once it became formulaic, everyone would instantly lose interest.
"This map looks a bit familiar. This ocean seems to be the Boiling Sea, then on the left is the main continent Ferrum Magna, and on the right is the sub-continent Vulkaris Reach!"
"There's also a vast jungle in the middle with some orks hiding inside, isn't this Armageddon? The planet destroyed by the three Wars for Armageddon!"
As a player who knew a bit of the lore, Caleb's understanding of this planet could be summed up in one word: tragic.
Although this planet was an important Industrial World for the Imperium, in reality, the Imperium didn't show any mercy just because it was an Industrial World.
The Grey Knights, during the first demonic invasion, put the entire planet's population to the torch.
The subsequent ork invasions turned the planet's surface into scorched earth.
The population had no human rights whatsoever, except for those parasitic nobles.
The turnover rate of the population here had long reached a jaw-dropping level.
[Warning: The match is about to begin~]
[Chaos Fleet is invading...]
[Your opponent is: Khorne, the God of War]
[Please arrange your pieces to garrison the Armageddon defense line.]
[Mission objective: Strike the vanguard of the demonic forces and score 1,000 points... Mission reward: Second Heart, which can enhance the host's blood circulation and significantly improve the host's physical fitness.]
[Skill: Designate... You can Designate other objects to forcibly become a specific piece in Warhammer.]
[It will retain the functions of the piece and accept the identity you designated.]
"Huh?" Looking at the floating window hovering in mid-air over the board, Caleb was in a state of total bewilderment.
Other suckers transmigrate to Warhammer themselves, but he was lucky enough to be able to use a board to intervene in the Warhammer world.
So what was he? A Warp Chaos God? An Outer God?
Or a player who could play chess with the Chaos Gods?
Right now, Caleb couldn't find his own place at all...
The key was that this 'Designate' skill seemed a bit overpowered.
Anyone who has seen people play tabletop knows that some players love to 'proxy' one piece as another.
You could point at a Great Unclean One and insist it's a Slaaneshi demon.
You could also point at a World Eater and insist he's a Blood Angel.
Well, as long as the pieces were similar and everyone agreed, they could be played on the table.
However, some players could be a bit more outrageous, like those who would bring Touhou Project figures to the table.
There were also players who would take succubus figures from adult doujinshi and flatly claim they were Slaaneshi Daemonettes.
Well...
As long as the designation wasn't too excessive... veteran players usually chose to turn a blind eye.
After all, he had done this kind of thing himself.
Suddenly, Caleb glanced sideways at the figure of Artoria Pendragon next to him...
'Hmm... it could pass as 'genderbent' version of the Lion of Caliban.'
He even tried to bring it out to games.
Every time he brought out this piece, the Warhammer nerds around him would laugh their heads off!
Bruh, I can't imagine the First Legion going into battle with something like that!
If the Lion really became like this, then the First Legion's greatest secret would probably be the Lion himself lmao.
Whenever he recalled those words, Caleb, who knew a bit of the lore, would also laugh.
Well said. Putting this piece down would make anyone burst into laughter.
Whenever he thought about Games Workshop suing someone for infringement and having to admit this woman was the Lion, he couldn't help but chuckle.
Caleb had many such ridiculous pieces in his room.
Looking at the Emperor figure he had placed on the throne... without even thinking, Caleb directly snatched it off and placed it next to the board.
"Oh, saving Armageddon and repelling the Chaos army, how simple!"
"Just air-drop an Emperor, GG EZ? No?"
And just then... the originally calm board shook slightly.
The ground began to crack, and in some areas of the Sub-continent, raging flames actually erupted.
Magma from deep within the mantle surged out, mixed with vast Chaos energy, beginning to erode the veil between the material universe and the Warp.
The roars of war were constant, and battle cries echoed one after another from the abyss deep beneath the ground.
Gate of the Red Angel~
This was the gate connecting to the Brass Citadel. Almost all humans near the gate were tainted by this terrifying aura.
The population of an entire Hive City, in almost an instant, became a feast for a Khorne Daemon Prince.
The foul sewage was covered by flowing blood... the industrial waste gases that were constantly being emitted also stopped at this moment.
Blood and slaughter spread continuously through the streets of this Hive City... a large number of Khornate Cultists began to appear on the planet's surface.
At this moment, this Hive City could be described as being in critical danger, but if one looked closely, most were relatively low-level mortal units.
For a battle of this level, let alone the Emperor... even throwing down some basic Astartes Intercessors would probably be enough to slaughter them all.
[Friendly reminder: You must follow the system's deployment point rules.]
[Units exceeding the deployment points cannot be deployed.]
[The units you Designate also cannot exceed the deployment points. You need to complete your mission within the specified deployment points.]
"No free lunch huh?"
Caleb had wanted to put the Emperor piece on the board, only to find that his current deployment points were far from enough to deploy the Emperor.
This was very reasonable; after all, the Emperor's deployment cost was indeed very expensive.
According to the system display, this Emperor actually required a full 10,000 deployment points!
"Then system, what are my current deployment points?"
Seeing the situation in the Hive City getting worse, Caleb wondered if he would fail this first mission.
If he couldn't even beat the initial tutorial level, that would be too embarrassing... it was just about dealing with the vanguard, it didn't say he had to kill all the demons!
[Your current deployment points are: 1,000]
[You can deploy basic Astartes squads or some expensive special units.]
Caleb understood now... he had to use a bit of his game knowledge to play for efficiency.
Constructing a reasonable lineup based on the enemy units... only then could he ensure his pieces could defeat the enemy.
"However..." Caleb gave a wicked smile.
Many tabletop players are actually trolls. If the playstyle is too conventional, it's no fun.
So Caleb gave up on deploying the expensive and boring Emperor.
Instead...
"Artoria- ahem, Lion I chose you!
Caleb brought this woman to the side of the table, then pointed at the piece on the tabletop and activated his skill.
"You! Are the Lion!"
"You are Lion El'Jonson!"
"You are the Primarch of the First Legion, the Emperor's truly loyal son!"
[Deploying the Primarch of the First Legion, Lion El'Jonson.]
[Deployment successful. Commencing automatic combat.]