Licking your wounds, counting your coins, your warband plans its next move. The city is worse every day- increasingly there are two factions, those of unbridled hedonisms and those of unrivaled bloodshed.
You approach your camp. You find the old veteran. One of the ninety-niners, somehow surviving since the first days of the city’s destruction. They tell you that this violence must be the brothers von Gottleib. The sons of the old Baron von Gottleib. They came to this city about a year ago, driven by intense competition and rivalry, each seeking to outdo the other. Lothar was steeped in hedonism, driven to drink, eat, and roar to excess. Nothing could stop his greed and lusts. Johan was a creature of blood. He slew a great witch hunter captain the day he arrived, and a line of corpses have trailed behind ever since. They had always hated each other, and now it spilled into the open. Their feud will take the whole city down with it. But, they mused, that still doesn’t explain all that wyrdstone….
Whatever your goals, your warband has no choice but to brave the ever more violent streets. Once more, you sally forth…
We return to the city of the damned!
Our warbands that returned this week were:
- DungeonBuddy’s Orc Mob- Brutes
- AFatBlackCats Pit Fighters- Brutes
- Rockfists Dwarf Treasure Hunters- Smugglers
- Skylar’s Clan Pestilens- Cult
- Chegg’s Black Orcs- Smugglers
- Bonespoon’s Witch Hunters- Cult
- MachCurry’s Black Orcs- Brutes
After last week, each warband had been bloodied in the city of the damned in the year 2007, when the city was suddenly flush again with Wyrdstone. This week, our warbands get their first narrative scenario, and their first inkling into what has caused this sudden change!
Although this was the first ‘narrative’ scenario. The structure was very simple- we used the Chance Encounter scenario with a random event (Mordheim Annual rules- each player rolls a D6 at the start of their turn, a 1 triggers the event). I had painted up a special surprise for this- some Demonettes of Slaneesh and Bloodletters of Khorne! When the random event was rolled, a portal is torn open and a demon strides into the fray. The City of the Damned is not what it seems- Chaos is rampant and no one is safe!
Since demons are dangerous (big swords and crab claws), anyone taking them out of action gets a bonus warband experience (the custom warband upgrade system designed for this campaign). In addition, any hero taken out of action by a demon does get a special bonus if they survive on their injury roll.
When a warband hits enough experience, it gains a tier and gets and upgrade. This is intended to help center the ‘warband’ as the main character for each player and provide some spice to their story. I’ll release the details of that when we’re done with the campaign. In addition, we rolled up secret objectives for each player based on their warband archetype above. Warbands that achieved that objective also picked up additional warband experience, and sometimes a nice bonus!
The Games
This week we had enough in person players for 3 tables! We had the two tables from last session (rearranged to represent new districts) and a quick third board we put together with a folding table, a neoprene mat, and some partially painted (but still very nice) 3d printed terrain. It’s not always so hard to throw together a Mordheim board- even if its not perfect a gang will usually have enough mats and fantasy doodads to pull something together!
Table 1: An ancient grudge, Rockfist’s Dwarves and DungeonBuddy’s Orc Mob battle over the artist’s quarter.
The Dwarf Treasure Hunters and twisted Orc Mob closed in on each other after a day of looting. Both warbands took advantage of the high terrain and odd deployment of chance encounter (table quarters) to pile up on top of the buildings during deployment, given their low initiative models. The goal seemed to be to have a battle on the bridges connecting the artists’ residences!
They got stuck in right away in a bloodbath on the rooftops, though both players agreed the railings would keep them from rolling initiative tests for falling over the side! It quickly became a bloodbath, with orcs and dwarves falling in the scrum.
Suddenly, a portal tore open revealing a demonette of slannesh, drawn to the ongoing combat! This demon started on the ground level far from the fighting, but quickly climbed up to join the melee (initiative 6 is good for something)! It got stuck in with the dwarves, claws snipping away. However, with weight of numbers, the doughty dwarves were able to take it out!
Unfortunately, for the Dwarf Treasure Hunters, they had suffered 25% casualties and routed, leaving the field to the orc mob!
After the battle, many advances were rolled and the Orc Mob gained the Artist’s Quarter for their turf. A particular highlight of the after action was the goblin Frick (or Frack?) who got a lads got talent- and was immediately brained by all the proper orcs. Gotta love an orc mob!
Table 2: A scrum in the rich quarter, Afatblackcat’s pit fighters, cheeg’s black orcs, and skylar’s pestilens scrap over the rich quater
Three warbands closed in after a hard days prospecting. They were going to battle it out for control of the rich quarter. This used Chance Encounter modified to work with the Chaos on the streets using a slightly larger board, giving a bit room to maneuver, broken into 12” deployment squares in a checkerboard pattern.
As the fight began, the three warbands began to cautiously close in on each other, gathering near the town square.
Suddenly, with a roar, the random event was rolled, an a red glowing portal tore open! Two bloodletters of khorne (since we had three players) leapt through a portal in between the three closing warbands. One headed to the pit fighters, the other to the black orcs. The bloodletter facing the pitfighters closed the distance- but was counter-charged by the whole pitfighter warband! This accomplished their secret objective (WAGGHHH) and also allowed them to take out the bloodletter before it could take them out!
The bloodletter against the black orcs fared better, standing its ground against the orcs before being swarmed by Skaven. A lucky skaven dagger knocked it down, and the demon was then taken out by an orc! Unfortunately, however, after some casualties the orcs routed (their leader had to miss the game due to a previous injury). The Skaven soldiered on, but eventually enough were eliminated by the pit fighters that they routed too!
This left the pit fighters in charge of the field. The pit fighters had accomplished their secret Brute objective (charge successfully with 5 models in one turn- WAGGGH). The Skaven had also accomplished their secret Cult objective (Arcane Lore- climb to the top of the highest point on the board with your spellcaster and end your turn there). This gave the Skaven a warband experience point, and their spellcaster also got a spell!
Again, there was much leveling up and purchasing. Of note, the pit fighters, having won two games, hit enough warband XP to become Tier 1, our first Tier 1 warband! They rolled the upgrade ‘tough as nails’, allowing their team to re-roll toughness tests.
Table 3: Blood on the Quay, Machkurry’s black Orcs and BoneSpoon’s Witch Hunters stab each other on the quayside.
Machkurry’s Black Orcs and bonespoon’s witch hunters met on our new C board – which needs some painting, but already looks nice! We spent some time maneuvering as we closed, in which the witch hunters failed to climb onto a building to bring their crossbows to bear (despite buying ropes and hooks), while one was stunned by a bow shot by a youngun!
But then luck started to swing to the witch hunters. The nuttas had to charge out against a screen of wardogs (due to their special rules), leaving one of their number stranded. This unlucky nutta was taken out by a dog! Two black orcs got stuck in against two flagellents, who luckily survived the charge, as another black orc charged out against a wardog, which also survived. This allowed a mess of wardogs and the captain to countercharge! While the orcs did take out a witch hunter, a dog, and a flagellent, in exchange the hunters started to get very lucky. A handful of crits got through the insane armor of the black orcs (natural armor + heavy armor + shield + bulwark special rule) to take them out! The leader and the two main black orcs went down, leaving only the befuddled youguns to lead the warband.
They failed their rout check, before a demon could leap through a portal! The witch hunters and black orcs remain ignorant of the growing threat of chaos!
I accomplished my secret mission- armor of faith (fail all armor rolls for the game- easy when you have no armor!). Lots of skills and level ups were had, including some clutch bonus wounds for the orcs and a new spell for the warrior priest (soulfire- wooo)!
Status of the Campaign
After two games, we have one warband pulling ahead, the pit fighters!
- DungeonBuddy’s Orc Mob- Brutes, 1 win, 1 loss, Tier 0, with 2 turf locations
- AFatBlackCats Pit Fighters- Brutes, 2 wins, Tier 1, with 2 turf locations
- Rockfists Dwarf Treasure Hunters- Smugglers, 1 win, 1 loss, Tier 0, with 1 turf location
- Skylar’s Clan Pestilens- Cult, 2 losses, Tier 0, with 1 turf locations
- Chegg’s Black Orcs- Smugglers, 2 losses, Tier 0, with 1 turf location
- Bonespoon’s Witch Hunters- Cult, 1 win, 1 loss with 1 turf location
- MachCurry’s Black Orcs- Brutes, 1 win, 1 loss with 1 turf location
Our warbands are starting to gain a foothold in the city and the powers that be are beginning to take notice. Riches and fame will attract challengers like flies to dung.
But worse, it has been revealed that the streets are torn with the powers of chaos. The Brothers von Gottleib are clearly invoking the powers of the gods Slaneesh and Khorne.
Your warband returns to your lairs, battered and wounded but still standing. The riches are overflowing, and you are beginning to establish yourself in the city of the damned. But a new power is rising, a new war is consuming the city. It has never before been so dangerous. Literal demons prowl the alleyways- nowhere is safe. But it is too late to turn back. Each warband has come for its own reasons, drawn to the power of the city.
Will our wyrdstone hunters survive in the city of the damned?
Find out next time, in Blades of the Damned!
-BS