Path to Glory
Tactics Pages[edit | edit source]
Tactics for Age of Sigmar are here.
Tactics For 40K are here.
History[edit | edit source]
Way, way, way back in the dawn of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop released two books that covered the forces of Chaos for both settings. These were the Realms of Chaos duology: Slaves to Darkness (Khorne and Slaanesh) and The Lost And The Damned (Nurgle and Tzeentch). As part of their rules these books contained "Path to Glory", a mini-game that blurred the lines between wargame and roleplaying game that allowed players to take the roles of Chaos Chosen, Aspiring Champions who would fight (mostly each other, but also, potentially, other races and monsters) to try and attract the favor of the Dark Gods, with the game ending with death, damnation or daemonhood. For the goody two shoes, there were also Sensei, supposedly secret descendants of the Emperor that were explicitly compared to the other Chaos Champions as good-aligned versions from the Emperor. Instead of daemonhood, they sought apotheosis into a Sensei Master.
Fast forward many editions...
Do you remember when White Dwarf was awesome? Because, after the first half of the release of Hordes of Chaos, White Dwarf spent the first four months focusing on god-related fluff and model articles... and then the next five months on updating Path to Glory to 6th's rules. And when Beasts of Chaos came out, they did a special update article, allowing for beastman aspiring champions in Path to Glory as well.
Sadly, with 8e and White Dwarf's descent into suck, Path to Glory was left behind, languishing in the darkness with all the other awesome things of those days. The fact it had walked the middle line between Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay/Rogue Trader and the main games was a likely culprit, as Games Workshop had circled the wagons after their near bankruptcy and the ascent of Kirby into the position of CEO resulting in them killing off all the old Specialist Games over time.
After the death of Warhammer Fantasy and Kirby stepping down, revamped versions of "Path To Glory" were released for both AoS and 40kK as a digital download during the Black Library advent calendar. While it is uncommon in 40k, AoS has seen a serious uptick in the amount of content for Path to Glory, with each new battletome including warband tables for it.
Path to Glory 6e Articles[edit | edit source]
Note: Issue numbers and dates are for the UK Edition. Take a look at Lexicanum's White Dwarf page for conversion between UK issue numbers and US/CA or foreign-language versions. If you are looking up perfectly legal and legitimate means of examining White Dwarf back issues, you will find that everyone who has ever uploaded WD scans was full of FAIL and could not be arsed to check whether the issue they had was the same as one uploaded under a different number. So the cover images and page numbers are provided as a sanity check.
White Dwarf 275 November 2002[edit | edit source]
Cover: Aragorn and some Two Towers minis. Pg. 32-45
The daddy of Path to Glory 6e, this article had the basic rules for founding a warband to play the game with, including tables for determining followers and equipment. Perhaps coincidentally, this issue also had the preview list for Beasts of Chaos, to provide stats and rules for the followers associated with that army.
White Dwarf ?????[edit | edit source]
White Dwarf UK-275, says that rules for advancement and gaining favor points will be forthcoming "next month" (p.34). But White Dwarf UK-276 definitely does not have those rules; it has scenarios only. So where the hell are they? Good fucking question. Some previous person said that this was the contents of 276:
> Rules for gaining favor points and for Advancements - the ability for the warband's Champion to score increases and abilities depending on luck and the whim of the Dark Gods. Simpler than the originals back in Realms of Chaos in that only the Champion advances and evolves, with followers remaining vanilla. It also included the basic rules for handling injuries and what happens if your Champion turns into a Chaos Spawn as a result of a bad Power Advancement roll or due to acquiring 5 Mutations.
White Dwarf 276 December 2002[edit | edit source]
Cover: Tomb Kings. Pg. 22-29
Three simple articles, all scenarios to use when fighting on the Path to Glory. Eight 1v1 scenarios and one multi-player.
White Dwarf 277 January 2003[edit | edit source]
Cover: A The Lord of the Rings tower, presumably one of the Two Towers. Pg. 26-27
Tiny article, a roster sheet for tracking your warband's status.
White Dwarf 278 February 2003[edit | edit source]
Cover: Eomer of Rohan. Pg. 58-60
Expanded mutation tables, replacing those from the original table back in 275 with god-specific ones, from Tzeentchians able to swallow opponents whole to Nurglites with xenomorph-style jaws to Slaaneshi with snake-like bodies to Khornates who absorb enemy spells to get stronger. It also includes more detailed rules for handling injuries: what happens to a Champion, or even a follower, who gets taken out in one battle.
White Dwarf 279 March 2003[edit | edit source]
Cover: Golden-armored space marine with a bigass hammer. Pg. 80-83
Rules for a multi-warband battle scenario and some magical items to receive as a result.
White Dwarf 283 March 2003[edit | edit source]
Cover: Guardsman from Cadia.
No new rules appeared in the main body of the magazine, but copies of WD 283 came with a free booklet which collected all the Path to Glory rules in one 30-page volume. This included the Beastmen rules.
White Dwarf 284 August[edit | edit source]
Cover: Beastmen. Pages: Unknown. The issue seems to be absent from all perfectly legitimate PDF collections.
Some previous anon said it contained:
> Coinciding with the official release of Beasts of Chaos, this issue's article focuses on Beastman Aspiring Champions and the unique warbands they gather.
Black Library Advent Calendar December 2015[edit | edit source]
Neckbeards may rejoice knowing that Geedubs have brought back "Path to Glory" has been brought back for both Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K. Allowing you to create your own warbands once more.
General's Handbook 2017[edit | edit source]
The Age of Sigmar General's Handbook (2017) includes an expanded version of the Path to Glory released by Black Library, differing from usual because it also allows to non-chaos armies to be used, adding tables for Stormcast Eternals, Skaven, Fyreslayers, Ironjawz, Sylvaneth and Death armies.
Path to Glory Campaign Book[edit | edit source]
In 2017, GW also released a standalone Path to Glory book that included Warband Rosters for most of the factions, new battleplans, and a list of what warbands can be made from each Start Collecting! box. From this point on new Battletomes also included warband rosters for the faction.