An Ode to Obscure Games: Leviathan

 Hi!

I figured that after all this rummaging through my collection of obscure games, it was high time I actually posted about my main project this year, Leviathan!

Published in 1995 by Grendel Miniatures, Leviathan was a game that I discovered, like so many others, in Macs Models and was immediately fascinated by the stunning artwork produced by Adrian Smith. Macs Models even had lots of the original art up on the wall which I still regret not buying when they were available!

Unsurprisingly, I picked up the rulebook immediately and that was me. Sadly I didn't end up doing much with it until I headed off to university in 2006 where I arrived in Worcester, a city I'd only visited once and knew nobody having sold off literally every miniature I owned and most of the rulebooks and gaming magazines. While university was brilliant, I found myself hankering after miniatures and had for some reason, brought my rather battered copy of Leviathan with me and re-read it for the first time in over a decade.

Here was a very different fantasy world from the GW Old World. It had suffered an apocalypse called The Death which saw the thrice cursed Elves break a great seal which unleashed the princes of the fallen upon the world. At the same time a great storm of wild magic roiled across the world, mutating, changing and causing vast destruction as it went and now the surviving races must fight to survive this harsh new world.

The now throughly evil Elves squat in their great obelisks in the wastes ride forth to reconquer their shattered realm, accompanied by terrible monsters summoned from other realms and the warped remains of the dragons.

The barbarian tribes of the North march to a final war to avenge the mutilation of the Earth Mother. They ride great razorback boars and have the power to warp themselves in a battle frenzy and their druids can summon elemental creatures to aid them in battle.

The Orcs and their slaves, the Goblins pour from the endless plains of the east atop great lizards to ravage and claim the ruined world for themselves, driven on by their god Gorath who they summoned by the ritual sacrifice of all their shamans.

The Dwarves, locked up in their subterranean holds survived The Death better than most and now emerge with blackpowder weaponry and great steam driven engines of destruction to hold their mountain fastnesses and drive back the forces who wish to destroy them.

The rules themselves are pretty interesting but do feel like they are aimed at two very different styles of game. On the one hand, the setting and big beasties that were created for the game work for either small scale skirmishes with 5-10 figures a side fighting for resources or up to a large warband of several units supported by a handful of larger monsters or war engines, somewhat like 40k 2nd edition.

The rules themselves though seem to be aimed more towards Fantasy Battle sort of scale and need a 4'x8' board to play and regiments of troops fighting. At this level, it feels like it should have had a mass battle option with 10-15mm scale figures that would be better suited to the mass battle and mighty engines of war sort of thing.

Despite this, the game really appealed to me, and over the next few years, I picked up a lot of resin bits and bobs and even had a bash at creating usable warbands but the sheer size of the undertaking was too much and when I left uni, the project had stalled.

Over the next decade or so, I've tried to restart the game with limited success, managing to play a game each year using cardboard tokens to represent units and it actually worked pretty well but there is no substitute for a proper miniature game with painted miniatures.

This saw the birth of the Boar Company with their leader Grimli who I've sculpted in different scales over the years and their ongoing rivalry with their nemesis, Marik Goldhelm, a rogue wizard and much enjoyment has been had from it.

Similarly, as I played a small skirmish game using the setting, rather than the rules, the setting began to morph and change, with a new background forming until it was very much an original beast in its own right.

The Elves were now the remnants of an interstellar empire who unleashed The Death by creating a fell magitech machine to fight a foe so terrible that in defeating it, the Elves cursed themselves. Now there are multiple factions of them squabbling over the ruins. Some remain true to their original selves, others have fallen to evil or genetic modification or even magitech addiction.

The Orcs became Gorathians, soldiers from another world who the Elves used as footsoldiers in their wars who seek to return to their own world and will destroy all who stand in their way. They have access to crude blackpowder weaponry and when combined with their command of saurian mounts are a force to be reckoned with.

The Dwarves are engineers and builders whom the Elves had used to build their vast obelisk palaces and create the engines of war but turned against them when they turned on The Machine and now seek to bring order to the chaotic wastelands of Aeroth. They make use of technology and engineering but slowly turn to stone as they age so even their ancestors are still around and their souls can be implanted into machines to march to war along with their kin.

The Barbarians are the hardened survivors of The Death who roam the world in warbands seeking a new and safe homeland following the destruction wrought by the Elves. Once slaves to the Elves they are free people but live a hard, nomadic life of raiders and are somewhat like a combination of Mad Max and Slaine...

As the setting started developing off on a tangent, the background becoming very different from the original, I started moving away from the old resin sculpts and even the style of game that the original Leviathan rules were aimed towards and I have to say that I don't regret it as I've had a huge amount of enjoyment from putting together my own world and sculpting my own figures but I do find myself hankering after at least putting the original Leviathan to bed by completing at least one small warband using the original figures...

I still have a fair amount of resin miniatures from the range which could be put to good use so maybe this year will see me work towards getting a warband constructed and painted but I suspect that this is going to be beyond my abilities, if for no other reason storage for large painted resin miniatures is a bit of a nightmare and I just don't have the space for more than a 3'x3' board making gaming the original rules somewhat of an impossibility.

So where does this leave me? I do have plenty of options to use other rulesets but using the original setting to create some really interesting gaming. For example, how about using Frostgrave to represent different magic users investigating the ruined megacities of Aeroth in search of lost lore.

Rangers of Shadowdeep, Five Leagues from the Borderlands or Brutalquest could see brave bands of adventurers exploring the ruined wastelands and fighting dire foes to keep their homes safe from the perils of the post Death world.

There's even options for creating larger warbands with 30-40 figures to duke it out with each other with Rogue Trader or No Quarter so I do still have options!

At present, I've ben trying to get more of my SD sculpts finished that will represent the Children of the Worm, worhshippers of a great white worm that inhabits the southern deserts whose flesh, if consumed gives the gift of unlife so expect to see some fresh fights and rivals for the Boar Company.

But this approach is very slow as I can only sculpt about 4-5 figures a week and when you include painting, this stretches things out even more so I may end up with a bit of a two pronged approach to things and create some mini challenges of a Leviathan theme throughout the year, be it creating a couple of warbands for Brutalquest using pre-existing miniatures and building them up to Frostgrave levels or making scenery suited to the setting.

Coupled with this, I do find myself being drawn to another project, namely Void 1.1. With the upcoming release of Void 2.0 by Seb Games, I do think it would be fun to do a bit of an army challenge sort of thing where I give myself 3 months to paint one of the army starter boxes and then bulk it out to a full 1500 point army (which isn't too much of a challenge when that would be 30-40 figures and a vehicle or two).

This would give me lots to be getting on with and should keep me from burning out or losing motivation which is something I have had to deal with in the past, especially with Leviathan.

We shall see what I get through in the coming months but I do plan on trying out as many rulesets as I can this year (my record is currently 7 different rulesets played in a single year and I'm keen to break this!).

Hopefully I'll get myself in gear to make a start on the somewhat nebulous projects in the coming weeks but until then, All the best!