Live Magazine June Edition - Spider-Man!

was dead-set on the campaign, and
didn’t give my suggestions much
play. These conversations went on
over some time, without an end. At
some point Sean just started building
terrain.
Sean: Perhaps strangely, I never
totally shunned the idea of a few
points match games. That section,
hidden away in the back of the
rules-manual, always struck me as
a curiosity - however it just doesn’t
“feel” like Mordheim. Mordheim, for
me at least, was always a vessel for
telling a story. A collection of narrative
games, or a loose campaign,
of which all added up to something
greater than the sum of its parts.
Needless to say, I was extremely
impressed (and perhaps equally
surprised) when Ben presented me
with a narrative campaign he’d written
as though he plucked it from
The Pit.
Ben: Not long afterward Sean began
his terrain building and had assembled
a whole bunch of buildings,
I got inspired to put some campaign
material together. Sean has an old
Carnival of Chaos warband he’d
done up for Armies on Parade, and
won, so I think that was fresh in my
mind and ultimately could be where
the spark of inspiration came from.
I thought about what happens when
the carnival comes to town; how the
people feel about it, what they’ve
heard about from rumours, and how
they react.
I didn’t really tell him though, I just
started quietly outlining a story.
This was about the carnival coming
to town, and the ‘good folk’ who’d
heard the stories of horror rallying
against it. On the other side would
be those who were aligned with the
chaos powers, and those who either
didn’t care or enjoyed the anarchy,
they’d be all for the carnival’s
arrival. I liked the concept, and over
the next couple of weeks I went
through all the different scenarios
gathered from various sources, and
fitted them into a loose story. I also
thought about small benefits that
could be earned down the line for
each win.
A little while later I showed my
working draft to Sean, and he was
keen for it, so then I wrote it all up
nicely in campaign document. We
discussed and agreed on several
key points:
1. 100% painted. No half-measures
here. Paint all your models, and
all the terrain. Make every game
gorgeous.
2. All-new warbands. Nothing
you’ve already painted.
3. All-human warbands. We previously
ran and enjoyed a Human-
League for Bloodbowl and loved it.
So we outlined a select list of Human
warbands that we’d use for
this campaign
Sean: The main intention regarding
the enforcement of human warbands
was for the purpose of longevity.
We’d invested so much time
in building terrain and planning the
campaign that we felt we needed
to make it last more than a dozen
games. I suggested that by limiting
which warbands available for
use we’d almost have ready-made
ideas for the future (and hopefully
be itching to convert/paint/run the
warbands we REALLY wanted to do
also!). Pirates warbands in Sartosa,
Witch-hunters sent to investigate
Slyvannian border-towns and competing
Cults of Possessed are all
plot-points which have been thrown
around to ensure we get the most
of hobby investment without Mordheim
going stale... But before all
that, it was time to get hyped up.
The circus is coming to town...
Ben: With our criteria sorted, we
made a list of both available resources
for the scenarios and resources
to be made/painted, and
then started to recruit additional
players for our campaign. We still
know plenty of gamers, and so the
call went out. We started the campaign
with four of us committing to
regular gaming, and another few
who would play occasionally. We
added everyone to a Google Drive,
and a Facebook Group so we could
share resources, updates, pics and
such. We then set a date... and
that date passed. We revised, and
missed, a second date. Eventually,
nearly six months later, we had finished
our warbands, enough terrain,
and were able to get together for
our first games! The point here, is
never give up because it’s hard to
coordinate dates. Keep throwing
them at each other until something
sticks.
So join us over the next few issues
as we share with you some of the
warbands involved, the battles we
fought, the scenery we’ve built,
and the players behind the madness.
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