Warlord Online: A Year in Review
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jason a. engle ‘prolong the fight’
Introduction
The year 2020 will go down in infamy, especially within the Warlord Community. Although 2020 brought numerous challenges to the world, a silver lining (or black boarder if you’d prefer) was the somewhat resurrection of our beloved Warlord Saga of the Storm. Despite Warlord’s end of production in 2011, it has somehow persisted throughout the years, clinging to life in a method that would make even the Elves jealous. This undeath was evident with small groups of acolytes around the globe (ranging from Kentucky to Australia) still meeting to conduct tabletop warfare, which culminated in the Annual GENCON event (which always produced amazing prize support). And although Warlord refused to die, it could not be categorized as alive either. It was something in between, like a Bodach stuck in the sacked city of Corinth. This state of undeath was what Warlord had become. That was until the year 2020 which is when we witnessed the community rally together and produce a robust change in the trajectory of our endearing cardboard-based game.
Enter the Digital Plane
Much like the Ghed-esque creatures of the Storm resided on an astral plane, the world of Warlord was about to enter the plane of the World Wide Web. Although loyalists had been playing on various online platforms, in 2020 a vast majority of the warlord community was introduced to Untap.in. A large thank you to a handful of devoted zealots, who produced the first ever online event, which included an untap introduction video created by the King of Slugs and a Discord channel brought to life by the lover of Makusog (Editor’s note: Luke Johnson is the mastermind that created the Discord). The first Untap event (labeled Untap 4/20 on the Guardians of the Storm site…. not sure of that was intentional or not….) brought forth 21 players from across the globe. Fittingly, CaptainToni and Xod pulled out the first ever online Warlord tournament! And from here, it was as if the horde of ‘Throgs had been unleashed on the digital plane. The community continued to hold monthly events, alternating between fun formats and the current Gold Standard format called Ancients. The fun formats ranged from a Jautya Syne event (where we saw great warlords such as Stza Fasthand and an evil reindeer!) to a Carter inspired Highlander format, which produced more Allisara decks then I’d like to think about. The monthly Ancients events turned out to be a bit more competitive than the fun formats and resulted in some great games and even greater warlord moments, such as when Averisk pulled a MATI out of his skintight pleather pants and turned it into a shocking victory against the Dwarf-gargoyle Stonefist (why does he have powerattack? seriously). A more detailed report of each Ancients event as well as decklist can be found on the Guardians of the Storm site. (Editor: and soon here)
During the 2020 era of Untap events we saw over 50 different warlord players from around the world gather virtually to click on some dice (although clicking a d20 doesn’t produce the same tactile sensation as rolling a good ol’ d20 off the tabletop). During these events, factions were represented almost equally, with Elves being the most prevalent of races (22% of all Warlords played in a 2020 Ancients event were Elf) and Chosen being the most…. Brave? (coming in at a lowly 3% prevalence rate). I have combined the data from all of our 2020 Ancients events and broken the prevalence rates into enrolled, Top 8, and Winners for both factions and class. Here’s a link to a summary of each Warlord enrolled throughout the year and how well they did (shocker, Xod was the most played Warlord of Ancients 2020).
Although examining the statistics of who and what won is fun, what is maybe the best part of the Warlord 2020 year was the community’s evolution and growth. Although existing mostly on Facebook and Discord, the community grew closer than it had been in quite some time. Inside jokes began to form (thinking of Rollo’s dice and Karura’s alt art Warlords) and the first ever online metas even began to manifest (stupid draw hate he says in his Gollum voice). Another wonderful aspect was the international play! Despite giant time zone differences (looking at you Yotakafish), the community almost effortlessly collaborated and clicked on dice together! There were some late nights and early mornings, but the pleasantry of interactions was fantastic! I can speak for most of us when I admit that Ive truly enjoyed meeting most of you and have grown quite jealous of SlyfoX always having some type of pastry treat before our matches. It seemed at last, the world of Warlord had a way to interact despite any distance. Not only did the blend of cultures bring great memories, but it also brought forth certain enjoyable elements that Americans may have never got to know, such as the Germans and their passion for dominance (*cough* *cough* Behlial destroying a fun semi-Halloween event). Although I said the community was the best part of 2020, that may have been an exaggeration… What in fact might have been best aspect (or at least tied for the best aspect) of 2020 was the potential for a future of Warlord. Maybe our beloved game would once again rise to its corporeal form!
What is Dead May Never Die
After a successful year of online Warlord play (with an average of 26.75 players per event), 2021 brought forth a little more structure. Considering 2021 was the 20th anniversary of Warlord, the individuals running the Untap.in events decided to change things a little bit and structure the foreseeable future of events as an homage to the history of our game. This meant from January to April the events would take a stroll through memory lane, starting with Saga edition (which reminded us why we all despise Gravity Flux) and concluding with a revisit of 4th edition. Additionally, these events would produce the first ever online Warlord Leaderboard, where players can earn points from enrolling and playing in events, and even more points for winning and securing top faction. Not sure what will come of these Leaderboard points, but I know the lover of Makusog always has something up his sleeve (and by something, I mean it’s usually incredible prize support). Although a booked docket of Warlord events is exciting, something even more exciting was just around the corner.
After Todd’s teaser (“I can hear the drums of war”) was posted on January 7th, 2021, the Warlord community quickly fell into a conspiracy tailspin suggesting anything was possible, ranging from reprints to a live action movie starring Sylvester Stallone as Krun and Steve Buscemi as Slayer. However, on January 21, 2021 (how did we not see that coming), a post would be made that would increase AEG’s stock so much, you’d think Reddit had something to do with it (I imagine we’d name our Robinhood app the Logan app). With a simple click of a Facebook post, the community of devoted cultists had been informed that for the 20th anniversary of Warlord, NEW CARDS WOULD BE PRINTED! Not only would new cards be printed, but they would be new Warlords inspired by none other than the most clout producing figures from the lore, the Medusan Lords. Each Warlord would have their associated item as well in addition to a new print of Brine Fiend and a new Overlord (as of 1/30 the conspiracy theories are still spinning on who this will be). With all of this being said, I can confidently state that the Warlord community is currently consumed with an ineffable feeling that lies somewhere in between utter excitement and a motivation to build 500 new decks. If you don’t believe me, please go examine the Warlord Facebook page, which is currently getting an average of 6 to 8 new posts a day, as well as a swath of new members to both the Facebook page and Discord channel.
I struggled on deciding how to end this, but I think I landed on the feeling of excitement. As stated previously, a small community of acolytes have kept this game in a state of undeath with enough enthusiasm to summon the Storm itself. However, up until this point all we had to look forward to was maybe a once a year event at GENCON (which is not always accessible to everyone for many reasons). Now, however, that has all changed. We have an incredible community that is more connected than it has been in sometime (seriously this community would have the Freeks leaving Braxton to chat on Discord about those horrendous, yet tempting food concoctions Woodrow constantly posts), a booked docket of online events (which can finally allow international play to happen in a routine fashion), NEW WARLORD CARDS, and most importantly, the hope, proof, and excitement that our nostalgic 2000’s cardboard game is anything but dead. As a wise Elf once said, “A [card game’s] life may be short, but [its] undeath is eternal.”
Below are the 2020 Online Ancients event stats displayed in pie graphs. Enjoy!
Overall Faction Representation in Ancients 2020
Top 8 Faction Representation in Ancients 2020
Event Winning Faction Representation in Ancients 2020
Overall Class Representation in Ancients 2020
Top 8 Class Representation in Ancients 2020
Event Winning Class Representation in Ancients 2020