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Andrei Andreiovich peered slowly above the broken window frame. What he saw affirmed his suspicions.
Ogres.
He had smelt them from several miles away, and they had obviously smelt the wyrdstone. This little expedition from camp was about to get a little more heated than he had intended. Although Andrei and his small band of Kislevites were itching to blow off some steam, he had hoped their first encounter within the bounds of this blasted town, was against a slightly.. softer opponent.
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As I said last time, we've come back to Mordheim.. well Grunveldt, a neighbouring little town, close to the city of the damned that I came up with last year to host some narrative games. This was an attempt to bring something different and original to the table (pun intended), but in a way that keeps things grounded in the setting we know and love.
Running the campaign with the Empire in Flames rules allows us to explore the setting a little bit more, and also use the terrain we have on hand - lots of forests, roads, rivers, rural farmland, as well as the ruined buildings and empire cityscapes that one would usually associate with Mordheim. With between three and five games running on a club night, this was necessary until we had built up a bigger collection of buildings and ruins. Plus, the scenarios are inspiring and it really adds another dimension to our games.
With a full crew, we played our first round of games - a mix of veterans and newbies and it was a sight to behold. Beers were drunk, some great tables prepped and everyone gave a quick run-down of their warband. To try and set the scene, I started the night by handing out a letter to everyone, written from the perspective of a beleaguered Grunveldt watch captain, who describes the effect of Mordheim's demise (26 years ago) on his home town and the surrounding country. There are some narrative teasers in there for later in the campaign!
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| Too much? |
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| Andrei the giant goes toe-2-toe with an Ogre youngblood.. he survived. Just (photo from https://aergewinn.blogspot.com/) |
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| After emerging from a warehouse, these unfortunate Kislevites found themselves on the end of beat down from some well-dress ogres! |
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| Just before an encounter on the bridge, where Andrei and his two champions held back a wave of undead. |
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| Sasha, Masha & Olaf make their way warily through the streets. |
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| Liam's Ogres encounter some sneaky skaven trying to lift Wyrdstone from the graveyard. |
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| The outskirts of Grunveldt |
Unfortunately I was too exited and didn't take many photos, but I pinched a few from Liam.. check out his blog https://aergewinn.blogspot.com/ for some better ones.
My first game against the Ogres was a loss, I voluntarily routed after being serious outmanoeuvred. I got off very lightly in the post-match. Second game I won, against Cail's Masters of Horror - a really cool derivative undead warband. I managed to roll an insane amount of crits, which made for some hilarious moments. The undead routed and I gained a fair bit of XP.
At the end of the first night, our warband ratings:
Delectable Deserts (Ogres) - 92
Ulrich's Underworlders (Cult of the Possessed) - 120
Cheesy Sneakers (Skaven) - 129
Mangled Charlatans (Masters of Horror) - 81
Andrei's Rota (Kislev/Middenheim) - 106
Sneaky Cheezers (Skaven) - 107
Purity of the Final Flame (Witch Hunters) - 124
Hell's Kitchen (Carnival of Chaos) - 83
Zug Noir (Black Orcs) - 86
Giant's Bane (Cult of the Possessed) - ??
I'm posting this two weeks late, so pretty soon I'll have another ready with some better pictures from our second campaign session. Thanks for reading!
