From The Journal Of Richter Haustmann...

"It has been slow going in the city of late. Our prospects for riches and the finding of the Sigmarite artefacts has dried up and so we took our leave from the city, moving to the ramshackle shanty town that has built up around it's walls and gates. Here adventurers meet to trade their ill gotten gains and mercenaries sell themselves back to richer clients. Every corner of this dank and run down place is filled with scum and villainy.

Still, that has not stopped The Fishhook from being a tavern worthy of frequenting. The ale they sell is of a decent quality owing much to the Dwarf tavern keeper who makes sure everything is well stocked. With the amount of trade passing through it is no wonder he can afford such shipments. From what I can tell he isn't too well liked amongst his kind but he does not seem to care overly.

I have however been hearing some interesting stories, a few of which have made even me quake in my boots..."

Let's Try This...

So, alas I wasn't able to get more gaming in this weekend. A combination of rugby and other things conspired against me! However I did spend a lot of time thinking up some interesting scenarios for people to play when they are diving into the world of Mordheim. Below I have come up with what I think could be some fun objective based scenarios that are worthy of telling in the tavern.

The Ritual

The first of these scenarios involves the massed forces of the undead. With the abundance of magical energy and wyrdstone floating around in the air it provides ample opportunity for those with knowledge of the winds of magic to ply their trade. Necromancers are also aware of this and might find that raising a long dead master is a lot easier in the City of the Damned.

For this one you'll need a model to represent the Necromancer, a handful of zombies, and a Vampire too for when things get a bit hairy. Both sides will set up as normal but in the centre of the board you're going to have the Necromancer standing over a grave or tomb of some kind. Give him d6 zombies as well as a starting clutch of creatures.

The objective of the game is to get into the centre and stop the Necromancer before he raises his Vampiric master. He does this by taking the souls of the living and so whenever your heroes and warriors are taken out of action it feeds his spells. He only needs five of them to do it so be careful!

Of course there has to be a reward for doing this and I think it's apt for there to be another shard of Wyrdstone for the warband that lands the killing blow and stops the ritual. With two warbands fighting it out against zombies (raise another d6 each turn) you'll have to balance your scuffle between getting to the Necromancer and stopping him (the game will end if the vampire is raised and runs off the board) and making sure you're the one who does it.

I think this kind of scenarios is pretty ace for people that like a bit of uneasy alliance in their games. Play with this one as you see fit but I think the main thing here is to make it feel dangerous and as if time is running out. Giving the Necromancer a clutch of spells too also helps as he spins a bit more dark magic around the streets.

One of the interesting twists you could put into this to change it up is maybe having one warband (especially if they are Undead) protecting the Necromancer and then add in another player to help take on both undead forces. Maybe two factions put aside their differences to stop them from summoning another vampire into Mordheim.

Leave Him To Me!

I like the idea that bitter resentment spews out between warbands in Mordheim and leaders of various factions all hate each others guts. That sounds like the perfect way to start a scenario doesn't it?

Leave Him To Me is played like a normal game of Mordheim/Coreheim except only each of your leaders can take the other out of action. All other rules apply apart from the routing one. When your warband loses enough figures to rout they scarper off into the back alleys but your leaders are so incensed with hatred and rage that they will stick around and fight. If this happens the other player can no longer move anymore of his heroes or warriors and only the leaders scrap it out.

To benefit the player who managed to rout the opponent you could give their leader a number of re-rolls they can use during each turn as the men cheer them on. This of course means it should fall in your favour but never underestimate the plucky resolve of those trapped in a corner.

Of course if one of the leaders is taken out of action before the rout then that solves the problem even earlier! With this one it might need a bit of tweaking but I love the idea of the leaders squaring off against each other in the midst of the fighting and everyone else has to get out of the way or face their leaders wrath.

This one might be good for the end game portion of a league or campaign.

Rats!

As most lovers of Warhammer Fantasy will know the Skaven have tunnels and other ways into most of the cities in the Empire and Mordheim is certainly one of them. With that in mind it falls to some poor fellows to have to scour the sewers of these vermin and this time that is you.

Both warbands have been told that another one had made it's way through the area and stashed a bunch of wyrdstone in old sewer outlets across the district. Not sensing that this could be a plot of some kind you've both headed out to snatch it before someone else does. Needless to say the Skaven are waiting in ambush.

As with one of the standard set-ups for Mordheim you take three counters to represent wyrdstone or indeed a sewer grate and place them around the city. As per normal if a warband makes it to one and searches it they can run off with the wyrdstone stashed into their pouch.

Alas if only it was going to be so easy! When one of the warbands searches the grates he has to take an initiative test. If he fails he is hit by the trap loaded into the grate and is hit by a strength 3 attack. After that take a handful of Skaven, maybe three or four, and place them within 5'' of the grate as they dart from the shadows.

This suddenly makes things all the more frantic and I have even toyed with the idea of not telling the players about this if I was a games master and surprising them with it as they open the grates! Needless to say if you can get away with the wyrdstone without routing then good job but otherwise maybe it will be another case of an uneasy alliance while you deal with the Skaven foe.

I would say that, much like with The Ritual, you might want to make it so other Skaven warbands can join in the ambush but since most Skaven clans hate each other that is less likely an outcome.

What Tales Have You Heard?

So that is my thoughts on three interesting little scenarios you might want to try out. They are not balanced in the slightest and I love the fact that they aren't. This is the City of the Damned and it's very rare that anything is ever fair. As well as that they add a massive dose of narrative and an interactive, ever changing world feel to the game meaning that you'll have something to write home about when you get somewhere safe.

If this was part of a major campaign with a games master then I'd consider making the map something all players can add to. Maybe they want to cross off an area and say "Beware of Skaven!" or "Undead Here" as they play and discover more about the city. This also means that as a games master you have something to draw on as you go back and make up new scenarios for them to fight.

With all that said what kind of scenarios have you played in Mordheim or Coreheim? Have you ended up coming up with something that you'd love to share with others?

If so, drop it below!

The City of the Damned is a dangerous place!