Empire in Flames Pt. 2

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Chuikov's chest heaved as he looked back anxiously through the forest. The darkness was oppressive, and even with his adrenaline heightened senses, he could barely see a thing. Gathering his wits, he crouched behind a rotting, fallen oak. He could not see the others, but feared calling out, lest those foul chaos worshippers were close behind. 

It suddenly dawned on him that he may be the only one left alive. He was only meters from Andreiovich as he was cut down by some nightmarish mutant, and he could do nothing as young Oleg had his arm eaten by that foul spawn!

Andreiovich.. such a fool, Chuikov thought to himself. A huge, bloody fool. Now here they were, leaderless and lost in Ostermark. Those not dead or injured were being chased by mutated freaks through a bloody southern forest.

He shook his head and grunted in resignation. What was he thinking? If they were all going to die, he would make sure it was not with empty pockets. Filled with a sudden resolve, Chuikov hefted his polearm and trudged off through the forest in search of the others.. the unnerving howls of the cultists not too far behind.

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Week two of the Mordheim campaign. I've played four games now and my leader just died, Cut down in combat by a darksoul from Dan's Cult of the Possessed Warband! Not only this, but my youngblood lost an arm.. chomped right off by a big scary possessed.

That's Mordheim right? Oh well, it was hilarious. We had a heap of laughs as the narrative continued to build. I fared a lot better in my first game of the night against Christoph, where I managed to clean up against his Carnival of Chaos. I gained a lot of XP and some upgrades but then I lost a good chunk of my warband rating after game four.

I'm yet to play against Black Orcs, one of the skaven warbands, the Witch Hunters and another possessed warband. Looking forward to week three of the campaign this Friday. Hopefully we roll up some fun scenarios!

Enjoy the Pictures.

The battlefield for game three

Carnival of Chaos deployment

The Kislevite's right flank as they move out of the forest

Andreiovich and his cronies

Blunderbuss!

Obligatory crutch shot

Dan & Cail's game

Being opportunistic, this youngblood sneaks some wyrdstone from a fallen enemy

Andrei the giant no more..

Forever young, youngblood

Goodnight sweet prince

Cool parting shot from Christoph & Cail's game. Masters of Horror vs. Carnival of Chaos.

Back to Grunveldt.. again - a Mordheim Empire in Flames Campaign

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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!

Too much?

Andrei the giant goes toe-2-toe with an Ogre youngblood.. he survived. Just (photo from https://aergewinn.blogspot.com/)

After emerging from a warehouse, these unfortunate Kislevites found themselves on the end of beat down from some well-dress ogres!

Just before an encounter on the bridge, where Andrei and his two champions held back a wave of undead.

Sasha, Masha & Olaf make their way warily through the streets.

Liam's Ogres encounter some sneaky skaven trying to lift Wyrdstone from the graveyard.

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!