Topic: Lore on Tilea, Estalia, Border Princes ...

[GamesPoet]

Evidently the new rule book has Lore on Tilea, Estalia, and The Border Princes ... "The Southern Kingdoms" ... here's a new video ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiwZy6D57a8

[SaintofM]

It will be interesting how they play out. Think this will mean a return of the Dogs of War?

[Gankom]

So far it seems the first part of the story, the Brets vs Tomb Kings, are being set down in the Border Princes and the nearby areas. So at least we'll get some nifty lore on it. The map suggests there's a Kislev Border Prince who's a fairly key player.

[Dazgrim]

I'm expecting a campaign book of some sort that will add in assorted Border Princes and their armies as mercenaries for hire

[lcmiracle]

I my experience GBoG has a tendency of inserting head canon in between the lines,

...like that time he thought the C7 Imperial Zoo supplement said the Dread Maw now belongs to Kuresh, and interviewed the C7 writers only to be told that it's not, they just wanted to put the possibility of "a few" Dread Maws there by way of an Imperial scholar's speculation

...or that time he said the C7 Lustria campaign said the Old Ones created a predcessor Lizardmen species that became the Snake people of Kuresh... and I found nothing throughout the whole book except one line amounting to "some of the Old Ones' experiments failed"

...and that time he said the Up in Arms supplement added new lore for Araby, except it's the same story of the Blazing Sun's defense of Magaritta, with just the Black Scimitar Guard changed to the "Black Guard"; not even the attacking Emir's name was changed, yet he thought the mentioning of the Emir meant Jaffar had been retconned

...

so I will wait til my books arrive... eventually. Though I do know from the page previews on the GW store and the interactive map that the story was Settra launching a punitive attack on Bretonnia against a prior invasion via land, crossing the Badlands and into the Border Princes. The key battle was at Castle Louen, guarded by the outcast Sir Cecil Gastonne.

The free Battle of Matorea scenario PDF on WH Community also showed that the Duke of Brionne's relief force had to assault Citadella Bouelia to reach Cecil. With this I assume the siege of Bouelia would also be playable, and hopefully this "Prince Ptolethor" on the interactive map would have an army made up of the southern regions flavored units, at some point.

[lcmiracle]

Having read the coresponding sections on the rulebook, I'd say they haven't changed much. The border princes got a lot more ink spilled but I argue that's due to the fact the instigating conflict in the starter sets was set within the Border Princes. A lot of names were thrown into the region, 3 imperial, 3 bretonnian, 2/1 Tilean and 2 Estalian, 1 Kislevite and 1 Norscan -- I think one of the Estalian lords was through under a bus in the Siege of Matorea scenario to explain why the Bretonnian relief force came with the Lady's Blessing (so no need to pray)

Tilea remain fractured with independent city-states, a centre of creatively, science, and art, and the first Old-Worlders to reach Cathay by land (Ricco & Rubbio) and reach the New World (Norsca not mentioned again). The city-states continue to rely on mercenaries (though the merchant princes do have personal guards, somewhat like the Rico's Republican Guards I guess). The Dogs of War can sometimes get hired to go on expeditions far from Tilea and there are Tilean outposts in "Lustria, Southlands, and the Dread Sea" (no locations given on the interactive map, though we know the Lustrian ones from existing lore). They added that the Pirates of Sartosa can get hired by merchant princes to act as Tilea's navy.

Noteably for Estalia, the lore about it consisting of many independent petty kingdoms from old WFRP 1E lore is reaffirmed. Each kingdom has their own, usually small, navy. Their military uses pike and crossbows, and their fighting style is compared to the Tileans'. They have young noble horsemen as well as Templars such as the Blazing Sun. The War of Blood against Nourgul from 5th and 6th VC army book gets a brief mention. It is also said to fight the Arabyans from time to time, and the Crusade Against Araby is also reiterated, probably to justify the Bretonnian Crusade army list. Also some Estalian nobles are of Arabyan descent.

This is definitely heftier than the 6E & 7E rulebook sections about "Other Nations", but I won't say there's any new information that hints at their coming. Note that both Kislev and Cathay gets new lore in the rulebook and Kislev has its own section of the interactive map painted while Tilea & Estalia are not, yet Kislev is not available on release