vampire hunters report two up

Hi,

Our second report of the mordheim / empire in flames campaign we're playing is up:

http://hobbyblog.wargameweaver.com/mordheim/vampire-hunters-campaign-report-two

More tweaks to rules during and after this session, but I hope to have them posted by end of this weekend.

Yikes... another battle like that and I wonder whether Nachtdorf will fall.

I'm looking forward to when you post the rules. The concept sounds really interesting. My gaming group has been interested in cooporative Mordheim gaming recently and this may be of interest to them.

I can't wait your next report! It's like anticipating the next episode of a favorite tv series.

I wanna play!

I demand a more detailed description of the coffin raid!

Are you mucking around, mweaver? I thought that it was your gaming group.

No, 'tis my brudder and and friends. They are in middle Tennessee. I am in south Texas. I do have a group of volunteers and we hope to start this campaign early year. Almost all of the group I will be playing with are new to Mordheim, except for a few D&D sessions where we fought some bigger-scale battles using Mordheim rules.

Ahhh... well I can understand why you are itching then.

This is a very nice report.

The battle sounded not really fair to me. I hope you did not loose to much player morale within this one.

The terrain is marvelous, the minis are very well painted. This is the way i like Mordheim most.

Have fun the next time too.

EXCELLENT BATTLE REPORTS...the photos, terrain, & minis, not necessarily in that order, are BEAUTIFUL! This pic is my favorite:



KEEP 'EM COMING!

I like that terrain set-up a lot. But I admit I am fond of the picture with the cheery Christmas tree in the background!

Great campaign! I hope the defenders can recover from the loss.

The shopping mechanic seems to be working well - there is a considerable amount of email discussion going on about prioritizing for the next shopping trip.

I had such high hopes for the next part ... and you did so not disappoint!
I love the abruptness of the tides' changing in this campaign, and how, in the end, it all fits together and makes for a great tale - ol' Strangulf's simply brutal retaliation for the events from the first report (showing Nachtdorf who's the Man - yet), and then the small, but significant blow the defenders manage to strike with destroying that coffin. Just classic!
But most importantly, one can see that you all really have a blast with this campaign!
So do I reading about it (and rooting for the poor Nachtdorflers ) - thanks for continuing the work of reporting, and cheers and best wishes for continuing the fun of playing!

Great pictures!

I like the Empire in Flames atmosphere but have never chance to play in this setting.

Thanks for all the replies! Sorry I was late getting back to this thread!

It is a lot of fun, and does seem to have some pretty dramatic ebb and flow over "who's on top". It will definitely take one or two other groups playing it before the rules settle down, most likely. A key is that while it is written to support two to five player warbands, we are of course playing it with three at the moment, and I have no idea rather my "math" to handle the other player counts is going to work.

This one fight was very lop-sided against the players, but the other two players (Michael and MIchael, neither of them my brother Michael) seemed to really enjoy it, and we might have been able to hold out till dawn if we were willing to put some key NPCs at risk of out-of-action injury rolls.

Of the five scenarios we have played so far, the players have won three, vampire forces two. The difficulty level is their own fault. The last campaign I ran a few years ago they repeatedly told me was too easy....

The 1.2 version of the rules is very close to being done, and I should have them up within the next few days.

Again, thanks a bunch for reading through these and commenting!

That last comment isn't entirely fair. It's pretty accurate but not fair.

It should be mentioned that at the time we complained about the difficulty level we were running extremely advanced warbands. If my Kislevites came up against the lizards I was playing in the previous campaign the smartest thing they could do would be to route at the first opportunity. When we talked about something more challenging we weren't expecting you to throw super villains against us when we're still low level, low on equipment and short on personnel. We were thinking of a more dramatic increase in the risks as we went along. A gradual thing.

Having said that I'm having a great time and wouldn't have it any other way.

Dorf

Argh! They've tracked me down!

Dorf, the good news is, the vampires won't get any tougher over the course of the campaign, but we will!

Well, you will if you survive.

The vampires won't grow stronger? What fun is that? Maybe a leeetle bit?

Nope, they don't get stronger. Of course, the principle vampires all start out nastier than your traditional Mordheim vampire, and Strangulf is almost un-takeable in a straight up fight. He can turn gaseous when not engaged and auto-escape, and his stats and other abilities are very nasty. Like Carsten, you just keep thinking you've killed him and he shows right back up again.

One of the reasons I put in the fluff that he's in Ostermark is Vlad getting a competitor out of the way under the guise of preparing for an invasion of the province, when in fact he's planning on hitting Stirland first, anyway.

But, as Influence grows, the number and quality of opposing troops available to him does increase. So while you don't, as the CM, have to keep up with experience and improvements for the baddies (only injuries to the principle ones), the opposing forces should get rougher over time from the player's perspective.

Of course, all just theory. Until it's been played more, dunno how well it's balanced. And when you run it, if you want to try improvements out for the main baddies it would be fun to see how it works. Bonecaller (the chief necromancer) is the one we seem to see a lot. Having been taken out of action three or four times, he certainly at this point would not complain about an improvement roll or two.

One of the reasons I cut out improvements and exp for the baddies is just to cut down on book-keeping required by CM, particularly since CM may well be running a warband him or herself.

And stop trying to stir up more trouble for Stamper's poor dwarves, who have suffered a quite unfair share of the out-of-actions so far ;-)! If they just had longer legs, so they could run away faster....

numbertenox wrote:

And stop trying to stir up more trouble for Stamper's poor dwarves, who have suffered a quite unfair share of the out-of-actions so far ;-)! If they just had longer legs, so they could run away faster....

Aye but we be hearty little buggers. So far I've had at least 6? OOA's. Results that I can remember.

1 Fatality (Moxie we hardly knew you)
1 Frenzy
2 Lost initiative points
1 Hardened (Of course it was on a Trollslayer who is immune to fear anyway).
1 No problem
1 Stupid (Luckily he had the dwarf skill that lets him reroll the injury and got a No Problem. First skill I'm buying for all the dwarfs)

if you've never played the dwarfs they are only taken OOA on a 6 not a 5 & 6.

Of course in doing this I think I've racked up more exp than the other 'biggers'.

The pity is that on the defence scenario I manage to rout on my first roll needing only a 9. Otherwise I think we would have out lasted them.

"if you've never played the dwarfs they are only taken OOA on a 6 not a 5 & 6. "

Sadly, if you are KD or stunned and they biff you, that doesn't help. But overall it is a nice ability!

mweaver wrote:

"if you've never played the dwarfs they are only taken OOA on a 6 not a 5 & 6. "

Sadly, if you are KD or stunned and they biff you, that doesn't help. But overall it is a nice ability!

Yeah but that didn't happen once. They were all straight rolls.

Well, that's embarrassing.