The Narrator has moved to Boston!!

I have left the 'Auld Reeky' city of Edinburgh, and carried all my crap across the atlantic to Boston, US.

I wish to give my heartfelt thanks to the folks over at 6s2Hit wargaming shop & cafe, who so graciously hosted all our Mordheim events and campaigning in Edinburgh, and provided all the tabletop scenery support one could hope for.

Congratulations to Kenny for putting together such a fine business, and together with Wayne and Tyler for making it so approachable and easygoing place to game, eat and just hang out.

Kenny (far left) and Wayne (far right).

Tyler

I will soon attack the local places, to gather around other Warhammer Fantasy gamers and raise an all-new Mordheim Campaign group from scratch.
Watch out, Compleat Strategist, Pandemonium Games and Hobby Bunker, I'm coming for you!

Mordheim Campaign: a playtest to "The Enemy Within"

Today I will show you a few snapshots and experiences from our Mordheim campaign, which has been running for the past year, in the hope to pass on some useful advice.

Roughly a year ago, I managed to spark interest among some Warhammer Fantasy gamers here in Edinburgh to start a Mordheim campaign. Throughout that period, a group of 5 swelled to 10, with a few others more interested, such that we didn't have any more space to cater. Even now, every two months or so another person manifests interest. The low barrier to entry (15-20 models required) and the flexibility of the system added to its allure, and our constant presence at the local venue and the amazing terrain at the table also drew a lot of attention.

To get this thing going properly, I decided to use the 'Empire in Flames' setting as the place for our campaign (with the fields and villages of the Empire as our stomping grounds). But I wanted the campaign to provide the players with a good dose of story for their warbands, so I introduced the innovations from"Border Town Burning" and "Mutiny in Marienburg".
So I cooked up a mashup of Empire in Flames together with Border Town Burning as a campaign framework, and injected loads of great Town Cryer scenarios that really bring life to the game. Thus, we started our fledgling campaign, Empire Burning: The End Times. (yes, it is a ridiculous title).

We are based at 6's2Hit, the local wargaming shop & venue, also now a cafe, which has become one of the best places to play wargames here in Edinburgh. Above you can see some of the tables we set up, thanks to their great and generous terrain collection, with also good use of my Terraclips modular dungeon scenery.

We had a wealth of warbands, and we explored also all of the different Objectives introduced in Border Town Burning and some from Mutiny in Marienburg.
Throughout this period, we substantially tweaked some fine points in the Mordheim rules, to address many of the imbalances people have cried out about over the years. We wanted everyone to have a good experience, and tidied several rules that the designers could themselves certainly have addressed. The fruits of our labour have been uploaded here: Mordheim Compendium - The Edinburgh Revision.
Thanks to these changes, people are now equipping their warriors with armor, no longer always giving two weapons to them, experienced warriors can parry better, and many other little things. Overall everyone has welcomed the changes, as they make the game flow smoother and fall less into powergaming builds.
I should note that our changes always try to be as little intrusive and complex as possible: we don't want to reinvent a game, we want to patch it up on the few holes it has, to the benefit of everyone. Nobody wins if the game ends up becoming unrecognizable to veteran players.

An interesting thing that happens in Narrative Mordheim campaigns is how the Objectives interact with the Scenario rewards, Exploration results and the special abilities of some warbands. Sometimes with very unpredictable and dire consequences, so be on the lookout.
One of these was the combination of the Ogre Maneaters warband and "The Body Trade" Objective (from MiM). To cater to the Body Trade objective in this campaign, we introduced a few scenarios where the winning warband could acquire captives. The Ogre player snatched a few stragglers through exploration and through scenarios, gobbled them up (thus raising the Ogres' Experience), and soon he had a veritable fighting force to contend against, and their Objective now granted them the ability to capture enemy warriors during combat. This caused a very quick increase in their Campaign Points (CPs) and more victims to increase their Experience, much to our worry!
Perhaps it was just a fluke in our campaign, but eventually we did have to carefully tweak the wording of the "Slaver" ability in the "Body Traders" Objective, to ensure that the player could not just simply capture enemies non-stop with his one all-powerful leader, and continually rack up CPs.

Narrative campaigns also provide great backdrop for alliances and backstabbings, which happened every now and again. Former enemies were forced to ally because they were faced against too powerful of an opposition (although still nurturing thoughts of betrayal). And certain individuals become infamous among the players, such as the Pestilence caster Marauder Seer (who would poison a quarter of a warband each
 time his spell was unleashed) or the magic-carpet riding Dwarf Noble with his missile weapons.

However, it's good to be on the lookout for multiplayer scenarios which allow allied players to share the reward: in some scenarios warbands can themselves ally against an NPC monster, and then share its hoard (and thus there are no warbands competing on the table at the end). Such scenarios must ensure that at least 3 players are present at the beginning, otherwise there is no way to prevent both players from taking advantage of the rules (as they are no longer competing with each other, only against "the rules of the scenario").
Another important point about Scenarios is "winner-takes-all" types of scenario, especially multiplayer ones. Sometimes only one winner is intended and the reward is meant to be large (these scenarios should be used more seldomly, more relegated to Special scenarios). Other times, multiplayer scenarios where 3 or more warbands should  have secured objective items around the table end with many of these items still unclaimed (and thus the winner takes them all): these scenarios seem harmless at first but many force the losing warbands to drop every objective item they are carrying, while the winner gets to earn all other unclaimed items. This can lead to large imbalances, so either make sure losers still get to carry something home (if they are not within charge distance of an enemy when they Rout) and don't put down too many of these objectives per scenario.

We also optimized a way to generate matches and determine scenarios, so that it could accommodate several players meeting for games separately instead of having to meet all together in one day to decide opponents.
We are still tweaking it as we go: for a long time the system favoured the underdog, which was not a problem, until it became clear that the warbands further ahead in CPs simply could not choose beneficial scenarios for them because they never go to pick one.
Now there is a chance that the challenged warband gets to instead pick the scenario.
The balance to strike is between fairness on a game-by-game basis, overall game balance and just players having fun each round.

But perhaps the most important thing we found about Mordheim Narrative Campaigns is: how long should they be?
Our own was running at the speed of a game turn every two weeks (give or take a few holiday periods), and we got 20 turns done so far. We are all either professionals or graduate students, so our schedules are pretty full to arrange a game every week.

Belandysh the Cursed Champion
of Tchar, riding his mutant
steed Tol'Agath

Certain scenarios granted CPs bonuses to certain Objectives if the warband wins it, so there was an extra boost that sped up the campaign, depending if the right warbands won the right scenarios: I added this in specifically, which would mean our campaign would progress more quickly. Because of the Border Town Burning specific objectives,the campaign revolved much around the four Chaos Artifacts. These were damn hard to find, so until they were there was a long, long crawl in terms of Campaign Points for several Objectives, while others surged ahead at high speed (those which DIDN'T need Chaos Artifacts to gain their CPs). This is something to bear in mind when playing Border Town Burning as well.

The thing to be careful of is how long people are willing to invest. Wargamers generally are interested in shorter, few-months long campaigns, while they paint up their warband and any other accessories they might acquire, before joining a different campaign (of the same game or another). Roleplayers might be interested in campaigns lasting a year or two, where there are more stories unfolding with each game. Of course most people fall somewhere between these two extremes, and the frequency of game turns will also make a lot of difference.
It is possible that a bit of liberal and careful boosts to everyone's CPs now and again, or throwing in campaign Items (like Chaos artefacts) at a set turn number, may help propel things forward.

Finally, after stress-testing and optimizing so many scenarios and Objectives this past year, I will pull all of this together to craft a proper, final version of the Empire in Flames campaign, "The Enemy Within". It will focus on village-raiding and hostage-taking (of imperial nobility), with the possibility of manipulating imperial politics so that warbands are thrown into opposition. All the while leaving the way open to invaders and conquerors.

Hope we have helped, and possibly inspired someone else to organize their own campaign, or just pick up Border Town Burning and run it from there.

Stay tuned for more developments!
Roll high and prosper!

Freeform Movement for 8th Edition: further playtesting

Here is the latest testing and tinkering with the Freeform Movement rules. Some things work well, others not so much...and I'll give my opinions on how to best make it smoother.

It's time to come back to this, as I've played some more games testing these experimental rules (when I've not been playing Mordheim).

Highlights:

The Pile In move is great!

 Above you can see examples of how the Pile In move, which is performed on each model's turn in initiative, before attacking, can be used to maneuver a unit around the enemy, and ultimately surround it.
We noticed that it blended in very well with all existing rules, without interfering with anything else. And because it is optional, a player can forego using it to surround the enemy, and instead simply perform a mild reform of the unit's ranks.
Because Piling In with all models ultimately leads to reduction of ranks, there is a strategic decision to be made in terms of how to advance your models: more ranks for increased ranks bonus, or the chance of extra attacks and possibly make the unit slowly shift into flanking position.

Flexible Unit Shape is... clunky and time-consuming.

This rule made it so that models in the same unit could move independently from one another, but must still maintain unit cohesion and facing.
The major benefit of this experimental rule was that it allowed units to better "squeeze" through scenery and terrain, and made it more realistic. Models away from the front rank could still be brought to bear against an enemy unit when engaged, because of Pile In.
But in practice, using this type of movement was time-consuming, and complicated a few rules interactions. We felt that, while it looked good, and it worked well for small units, doing this with large units made it too complex and clunky for a game of this size.

Interestingly, reaching that conclusion meant that for smaller units, or smaller games, this type of movement would fit well. This immediately reminded me that the "Loose Formation" rule can be used for smaller units (up to 10 models, or 3 models for Monstrous units). Furthermore, using this rule for most units in games of Warhammer Warbands (where almost every unit is small) can make full use of flexible unit shape.


Flexible Movement looks... odd for large units.
The experimental rules for freeform movement allow models in a unit to move independently from each other, and also allow a 180degree range of movement, thus allowing even large units to move and turn sideways without hindrance (even when marching).
However, we found this too strange-looking, as large units seemed to "slide" sideways without penalty (which seems weird, in addition to reducing the penalties involved with movement).

Conclusions:

What this leaves us is one part of the rules (Pile In) working perfectly, and the other one (flexible unit shape & movement) not very much. Thankfully, the two sets of rules are independent, so Pile In can stay untouched. Now, what to do with the movement?

The biggest problem with current movement rules in 8th edition is how unforgiving they are when it comes to moving through tight spaces. Kings of War has dealt with this problem by allowing units to disregard friendly units and terrain while turning or pivoting: allowing for unit corners to pass through them. as long as they are clear of obstacles when they finish moving. Let's call this Flexible Squeezing for now (not very catchy, I know).
Maybe a resolution as simple as that would solve most movement issues in 8th edition... playtesting awaits. But there is more.

As mentioned before, for units of infantry up to 10 models, 5 models if cavalry or 3 if Monstrous, the Loose Formation can be adopted, which allows for skirmisher-like movement (a la 7th edition).
This rule first appeared in an "official manner" in the General's Compendium, allowing for units to maneuver through dense forest. Such models benefit from movement flexibility and do not gain rank bonuses, but unlike proper Skirmishers they do not benefit from the -1 To be Hit by ranged attacks, do not benefit from Standards for Combat Resolution and do not count as Skirmishers for moving through terrain.


Perhaps simply adding Flexible Pivoting and Loose Formation to existing 8th edition rules allows for sufficient movement dynamics, bringing the MSU (Multiple Small Units) style of play to once again feature in Warhammer tactics. However, in order for this to be most effective, and to balance out the huge value that large ranked units present in the game, I recommend adopting the following house rules as well:
- all rank bonuses involved in a combat count (not just the highest)
- a unit has its ranks Disrupted and loses Steadfast if it's charged in the flank or rear by a unit of at least one full rank

Rules Patches: ranks and Combat Resolution v8.1

PROBLEM: in a multi-unit combat, only the highest rank bonus from each side counts, even when several large units are involved. This removes value from horde-like tactics, and relegates large units of weak troops to be speedbumps or tarpits to slow down the enemy.
SOLUTION: all rank bonuses from units from the same side, involved in a multi-unit combat, count for the purposes of Combat Resolution.

This one may be a risky rules change... it can tip the balance of play quite a bit... and give even more power to large units of elite troops. Perhaps this rule should only be implemented if there is a limit to the size of units (see here) and flanking units with 2+ ranks should be able to disrupt its Steadfast (see here).

Rules Patch: Army Composition v8.1

PROBLEM: while large units of weak troops are and should be a staple of the game, large units of elite troops, especially when carrying "certain powerful magic banners" (you know what I'm talking about!), become unforgiving "death stars". These concentrate most points of the army into very offensive but also very defensive points, which make for extremely difficult games with few options left for the opponent.
Additionally, many of an army's most powerful units come from the Rare section, and very often whole army builds are designed around them (including 2 copies of the same rare unit to maximize their benefit). Not only does this make for very difficult army builds (as some Rare units can be very very powerful centerpieces), but also breaks the verisimilitude of seeing 2 Rare units on the same battlefield more often than you would see 2 of the same Special unit.
SOLUTION: any single unit (before any characters are added during the battle) cannot exceed 20% of the total points of the army (this would be 500 points in a usual 2500 points army). Only 1 of the same Rare unit and 2 of the same Special unit may be taken in a normal-sized army (up to 2500 points). These values are doubled for Grand Armies (2500+ points).

This simple rule change can single-handedly remove many of the more problematic army builds that have plagued 8th edition, such a 2x Terrogheists, 2x Hellpit abominations, etc. 
It should also curb some of the most powerful elite units from turning into veritable death stars, by preventing them from increasing their numbers exponentially and on top giving them expensive magic banners (which normally creates a unit that either is as destructive as it is impervious to damage, or simply so destructive that it will gain so much Combat Resolution advantage that it is unlikely to lose combat).

Mordheim content hosting

This blog now hosts official (and unofficial) supplements for Mordheim, for download.  
Click here and grab them!

As some might have noticed, there is this little panel on the right where you can click to get our Mordheim Rules Compendium.
This is our own "debugged" version of the Mordheim ruleset, in which we have attempted to file away the inconsistencies and imbalances in the Mordheim rules, but with changing as little as possible.
This is a product of labour for the past year and a half, from our Mordheim Edinburgh campaign group, in collaboration with wargame store & cafe 6's2Hit.We've had a blast, and the ruleset now really makes everyone happy.

In addition to his, Warhammer Narratives will now also be hosting all the major Mordheim supplements and official rules originally released way back when, and until now.
None of these are my work, except when specifically noted.

These include the original rulebook, as well as supplements released later in the Town Cryer and Fanatic magazines, as well as more recent Community-driven supplements which are done to a professional standard.
Much of the Mordheim Community, especially the old hands, regularly make use of this material, but for those getting in it in recent years, it may be a bit daunting. So I feel a bit of organization for those new arrivals may be in order.
I've compiled the most important supplements I feel worth mentioning, in a neat list (still in construction). The list will grow with time, so keep an eye on it (I am quite busy with work as of late).

For the more curious, they can always dive through the internets in search of Mordheim material, because it's all out there for free (that's where I got it from in the first place!).

Hope it helps and you can make use of it.
Roll high and prosper.

Warhammer Narrative scenarios: some playtesting

Here I will show a few examples how much a good dose of narrative elements, or even simple narrative scenario objectives, feed into a great atmosphere for a Warhammer game.
Simply by following the scenario rules, nothing more.

Flank Attack (6th Edition Rulebook)

Flank Attack is a common type of war scenario, where a contingent of of the attacker's force comes onto the table as reinforcements starting from turn 2 onwards (on a dice roll). In return, the defender benefits from being in a defensible position, with buildings, walls and possibly some sort of Arcane Architecture.
Furthermore, it provides a good opportunity to array those buildings and terrain pieces from your collection,  in the shape of a town, military station, or secluded temple (which happens rarely due to the random terrain rolls).
Highlights: you can really go to town on setting up a good-looking defensive location, with buildings, walls, etc, for a great cinematic feel. With these simple scenario rules, you can simulate any sort of attack on a non-fortified location such as a camp, shrine, temple or village.

Capture (6th Edition Rulebook)

Capture is another very common war scenario. Here opposing armies must take control of a terrain piece located in the center of the table. This can be a hill, a building, some piece of Arcane Architecture, or a village square.

This is possibly the most straightforward way to introduce a narrative in a Warhammer battle, by laying some interesting terrain in the table center, and generating a reason for the conflict between the armies.
Highlights: at its most basic, this can be a King of the Hill type game, and it is very competitively balanced. You can make it more interesting by putting a building as the objective, or better, a piece of Arcane Architecture (which throws round some sort of benefit for some of the units). At its most ambitious, you can use the Witchfate Tor or the Fortified Manor scenery, and battle to capture a multi-part building.

The Battle of Vallaya's Gate (The End Times: Nagash)

This battle takes place underground, with a Dwarven defender trying to protect a temple Gate.
The attacker bursts into the field through two tunnels at each corner of the table, on the side opposite the gate (here represented by two fortress gates, with fortress walls delimiting the perimeter of the cavern wall).

The dwarven defenders have pretty much the whole table to deploy their array of defenses, wholly bent in stopping the advance of the attackers onto the other table edge.
The attackers win by making units cross through the gate.
Highlights: the cinematic feel of armies marching through tunnels into a major opening into the Dwarven Underway is breathtaking. Stepping into the cavern immediately put the attackers under cannon fire, while they tried t get to the gate at the end of the table. We played the scenario as stated, with Undead vs Dwarves, but honestly it would feel much better if the attacker was Skaven or Goblins.

 

 

Sanctifying the Stone of Blood (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

Here both armies are vying for control of the sacred Stone of Blood, an impassable terrain piece in the center of the table (here represented by a cluster of Warpstone crystals). Unlike a normal Capture scenario, one army wishes to approach the Stone to anoint themselves and draw power (thus gaining Stubborn, or +1 power dice if a wizard) while the other wishes to destroy the Stone.
Highlights: The scenario fits well for Chaos-worshipping armies to draw power from the Stone, but one can also use the same rules for the Stone to be a relic of the Lady of the Lake, or an ancient dwarven Rune anvil, etc. The narrative of this scenario, in that the attacker is trying to destroy the Stone, fits very well into campaigns where special map locations harbour sacred shrines (such as this Stone).

 

 

Bursting Through the City Walls (The General's Compendium)

This is a complex Town Raid scenario, where the attacker has just burst through the outer wall of the defender's town.
The table is filled, in addition to other buildings, with a number of special 'Key' buildings that the defender can use to aid the defense: taverns that embolden the troops with their drink, a town square that reinforces their resolve, and waystations and barracks that 'generate' new troops at given intervals.
The attacker's job is to loot and set fire to as many buildings as he can, with 'Key' buildings worth more points. The defender scores extra points for enemy units eliminated, and for each 'Key' building intact at the end of the game.
Highlights: this is where you go all out in city-building with your terrain collection. Honestly we could have done more, in terms of little props, but we were pressed for time. It is interesting how this changes the dynamics of combat so much, where units need to be small enough to be maneuverable, and the attackers need to be quick to attack and set fire to the buildings that send off reinforcements to the defender. These "Key Buildings", such as Town squares, Temples, Barracks, really give considerable bonuses to the defender, or allow him to deploy more troops every other turn, giving the real feel that the place is mustering their defense against the attacker.

Invasion! (8th Edition Rulebook)

In this scenario the defender has 3 key areas that he must hold in order to win: a watchtower on a hill, a building and a walled trench.
The attacker advances slowly from the short table edge, but in endless hordes: any Core unit destroyed can come back in as reinforcements from the same table edge.
Highlights:  our terrain placement here was quite poor, as you can see in the picture. But here, because the defender is the one who sets up the whole terrain for the battle, you can put up walls and swamps and other sorts of defensive shenanigans wherever you like. If you have a gift for terrain-buildings, you can make trenches and earthen battlements (as the scenario actually encourages for it). In return, the attackers gets to hammer the defender with never-ending troops which he can sacrifice slowly to weather the defender's forces.

The Fallen City of Mattengard (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

This scenario requires quick-thinking, strategic deployment and a couple fast,  maneuverable units.
The table is cramped with several buildings and ruins, but one of them hides a Lost Book which the armies are looking for.
The armies must stall each other, because once the book is found, it's a scramble to get it off their table edge first!!
Highlights: another great city-battle, this one is less rules-heavy than 'Bursting Through the City Walls', and gives a much better feeling of medieval urban warfare in a torn-down settlement. It also puts interesting challenges to the armies, as speed and having many units become very important: our standard army lists and units turned out to be quite clunky and unwieldy to maneuver, although this is made easier by systematic occupation of buildings to move across the city.
In the end, the Daemon Skullcannon ended up finding the Mystic Book, and with its speed and high maneuverability, sped off the table just before being caught by a lone Vampire on foot.
Great stuff.

Blood Beneath the Branches (Nemesis Crown Campaign)

This is a Capture scenario but with split objectives:
D3+3 in total, which are in fact placed by the defender, each inside a terrain feature. The defender also can deploy anywhere on his half of the table, instead of only 12" from the edge.
Both armies' objective is to control the most objective areas (marked here with a warpstone crystal) by the end of the game.
Highlights: we had to improvise here with our capture markers, so cinematically it didn't look as visually stunning. The scenario kind of implies this takes place in a heavily forested area, although you can apply the rules to work for any environment: ours was more of a swampy-type location. But I think tactically this is a great mission, that works well with normal army lists (ie. not specifically tailored to a scenario). Within the context of a narrative campaign, you can allow rolls to find some sort of treasure for each objective held at the end of the battle (as that is the original intention of these objectives in the scenario).