Mordheim scenario: 'Smoke'em Out'

This scenario pits one warband, consisting of Lawful investigators, against an undercover warband of devious intentions. 
Suitable for adventures set in the Old World, such as the Empire in Flames, Sartosa or Relics of the Crusades settings.

Download: Smoke'em Out

I love the more narrative-oriented scenarios for Mordheim, along the lines of Mule Train, The Caravan, Down at the Docks, Kidnapped, etc. And, of course, pretty much all of the Munity in Marienburg scenarios, as well as the more mission-based scenarios from Border Town Burning and Sartosa :)
They all take some assumption that we may have of the plots and endeavours that a warband may do when not engaged in bloody combat, and then throw another warband at it. Instant narrative without effort. Great modelling opportunities ensue (caravans, boats, crates & barrels) as well as breathing life into what the warbands are really after in their long quest for success.

But there was a certain type of scenario that seemed under-explored. Maybe, from those published in Town Cryer, Down at the Docks comes close to it. Many in Mutiny in Marienburg also do, but not quite.

What do I speak of? I speak of rooting out infiltrated cultists from a local neighborhood: the classical Enemy Within narrative.
I wrote this scenario to cater to those poor criminal enterprises who, due to their more unsavory nature or beliefs, cannot really mingle with civilized society. Or can they?
This type of scenario fits well for cultist/type Chaos warbands, as well as Undead and Skaven warbands. All of them are known to infiltrate society from the shadows and coerce its weaker-willed member to cooperate.

It is perfectly reasonable to believe that these warbands have it in their interest to cultivate a local net of supporters, who can provide them with access to goods and shelter from prying eyes. They would not participate in the regular expeditions in search of Treasures (or wyrdstone, or corpses, or what have you) so they wouldn't be part of the warband, but they would be considered the larger cult that they are establishing.

The scenario involves finding the Hideout, by asking around the homes of locals, and running to alert the Watch: nothing more. But the undercover warband can sneak out of the sewers, and some homes belong to their collaborators, who can ambush the investigator warband. And the streets are full of people moving about (that is, until a fight breaks out).
Patience, strategy and subterfuge play a large role in succeeding in this scenario.


This is the first original scenario that will become part of a future Empire in Flames full-fledged campaign, "The Enemy Within".

Hope you enjoy it.
Feedback and suggestions appreciated.

Mordheim Campaign Turn and Mission Generation

In this post I will share the set of Campaign Turn rules I scrounged together for our Mordheim campaign, set in the 'Empire in Flames' setting.
It allows for easy setting up of games and die rolls between players, without requiring all players to come together at the same time to play each of their games.
It also includes a list for generating scenarios, compatible with warband Objectives (from Border Town Burning and Mutiny in Marienburg).

You can get the PDF of this part of our rules here: 'Empire Burning' Campaign and Scenario generation.
(that campaign name is awful, I know. it's a work in progress).

So I'll start with saying that getting all players together to play this kind of campaign is a nightmare. People may be legitimately busy, or legitimately something unexpected happened, or they may simply be lazy and forgetful and not show up or warn anybody. That can grind campaigns into a halt.

So I took Cianty and Werekin's Campaign Turn system (from Border Town Burning and Mutiny in Marienburg) and adapted it so players don't need to all be together when deciding who plays against who, the they can plan their games separately.

How does it work: Very simply, you roll everything you need after you finish a game (including which scenario you might play next round) and then go home. This 'Downtime' allows you to buy stuff for your warband and select any skills you earned.
Then you need the magic of the internet (a forum or Facebook group works great) to come together, and compare Warband Ratings/ Campaign Points in a list, to decide who's in the lead and not. In order, each player will then challenge another (or others, for multiplayer games) to the scenario they had already rolled (so they do know in advance what their mission might be). Repeat until all players have a game set up.
Once they come together to play, players resolve any intended Rarity rolls in the presence of their opponents (or allies!) and start their scenario.

How we fit it to our needs: Because we are a busier bunch, we give two weeks for each campaign turn to sort itself out (but if you have enough free time, this can be done in a week). People organize individual games (mostly 1v1, but some 3-player and 2v2 games) throughout this time, and post up the result online afterwards.
Once everyone has played, Ratings/Campaign points are posted up, listed in ascending order, and challenges start with the person lowest in Campaign Points.
(we dabbled in starting with the lowest warband rating, but Maneaters and Dwarves just kept popping up there and always challenging first, so we changed it to Campaign points). Warband Rating woes.

Scenario generation: The PDF includes also my massive list of scenarios used for this campaign, which create a huge diversity in missions and make the whole Objectives system (again, from Border Town Burning and Mutiny in Marienburg) very rewarding. The scenarios were gathered from several sources online, from old Town Cryer magazines as well as a few Community-made scenarios (and a couple of my own design and/or adaptation).
If you're trying to figure out where the hell to get these scenarios, click here: Massive PDF list of Mordheim material. My thanks to the kind soul who put this together online :)

It should be said that this campaign is still in development, so the list of scenarios is likely to change a bit.
But the Campaign Turn system works like a charm! :D
My thanks go to Cianty and Werekin, and all those who have helped (and are helping!) bring those two supplements too life. They have revolutionized Mordheim in my humble opinon.

Hope it can be of use, especially for those who may be struggling to organize a campaign and people don't have enough schedule flexibility all the time.

Cheers,
Nuno

Rules Patch: Fear and Terror v8.1

A few of these are taken straight from the recent rumours for Warhammer Fantasy 9th edition.
They are indeed good ideas that re-balance rules that have been mostly nerfed since the beginning of 8th edition, and had caused some spells and items to have become too expensive or useless.
(update: these rumours turned out to be utter fabrication and did not feature in the release of Age of Sigmar at all... but I take my hat off to those who tought them up!)

PROBLEM: Fear and Terror have little impact on the game, mostly due to the ability to re-roll Leadership tests in proximity of the Battle Standard Bearer. The penalties they grant are just fine, but it rarely comes into play.
SOLUTION: Fear tests are taken at a -1 penalty to Leadership, and Terror tests are taken at -2 to Leadership.
In this way, Fear/Terror causing units now suddenly become more risky to fight against, and the psychological impact of having your WS reduced to 1 now and again vs another unit is an effective deterrent during the game, essentially recreating a General's worry that their troop's nerve might not hold against such scary opponents. Additionally, it makes Terror significantly more powerful than Fear, and fittingly so, especially for Monsters and some characters. Also, it makes some spells and items now quite useful.


PROBLEM: many Fear-granting spells and items become useless on units that already benefit from that rule.
SOLUTION: Whenever a unit with the Fear ability gains the same ability from another source, it stacks and grants the Terror ability instead.