YE MORDHEIM LEGENDS GAZETTE
18 Angestag, Erntezeit .................................................................................. 2 Groats

By Tuomas Pirinen.

Mordheim

There was a time when it seemed like the Empire itself was dying. Torn by a terrible civil war, the realm of Sigmar had fallen into anarchy and Chaos. Come now to those dark and terrible days when the struggle for the throne of the Emperor divided brother from brother.

Fires burn in the tomb-cold night, as bounty hunters and ruthless mercenaries search for Wyrdstone amidst the ruins of the Eastern city of Mordheim. All that is left of a once-proud city is blackened ruins, devastated by a comet from the sky. And when the vigilance of the authorities lapses, the traitors and Chaos worshippers gather. Corpses stir as practitioners of the forbidden art of Necromancy emerge from their hiding places.

The people of Mordheim pray for Lord Sigmar to deliver them from this horror, but these are dark times when Chaos is ascendant and walks abroad across the heaths and hills, corrupting those who fall easily into temptation. There is dark under the sun.

Welcome to the City of the Damned! In this new series of articles I will be detailing a new project we are working on, along with experimental rules and game ideas. This should prove entertaining and give you an insight into how we develop our games. Hopefully in the future we can do this with with several new projects as we work on them. Of course this all depends on what YOU think about the idea. So if you like this sort of article, write in and tell us!

Let's get down to business then. At the moment my stalwart comrades-in-arms here in the Studio are busy with a new game idea. Whether it ever becomes a finished game in it's own right and hits the stores in the future is of course unknown. However, this series of articles will show how Games Workshop games are born and developed. So, how did it all get started...?

In the beginning...

As those who read my Soapbox in White Dwarf 221 know, I've been experimenting a lot with small-scale Warhammer battles lately. First we played a few battles under the rules for skirmishing from the Warhammer rulebook, but after a few games our warriors had developed their own characters and personalities. We had grown fond of them and wanted some continuity in our battles, so I decided that I would write rules for a skirmish-style Warhammer game.

With these outlandish thoughts in my head, I sat down with Rick Priestly, the author of Warhammer, and proposed my plan. We both agreed that doing such a skirmish game would be brilliant fun! But first we needed a setting for the battles, an exciting, fascinating place where skirmishes could take place. We came up with a dark, ruined city in a remote corner of the Empire, devastated in a catastrophic disaster. Thus was born Mordheim, the City of the Damned- the setting for our game.

The background is often the first thing developed for a new army book, game or supplement, and for me personally, it is the most important part of our games. The rich and detailed world where the Warhammer games are set has been developed for over 15 years, and now is one of the most evolved of all fantasy worlds. It supplies a writer with a virtually inexhaustible source of ideas, and continues to inspire our artists and miniature designers. It is my love of the Old World and its strange and fascinating inhabitants which led me to play Warhammer in the last place. So flipping through my army books, I found a suitable place and time for our city. I knew that once the background sounded right, everything else would follow. Throughout this article you can read about the catastrophic history of Mordheim.

Empire in Flames

It is the year 2000 of our lord Sigmar, and the Empire is in flames. The once-proud realm of the Emperors has fallen into anarchy and intermittent civil war. Centuries of disunity and rivalry has weakened the Empire and demoralised it's people.

The Elector Counts have fought for control of the Imperial Throne for centuries, and inevitably their ceaseless wars have disrupted the administration of the provinces. Rebellions and famine are the norm in the striken lands of the Empire.

Now, four ambitios nobles have declared themselves as the rightful Emperor. The counts of marienburg, Middenheim, Talabecland and Reikland all have a claim to the throne and none of them are willing to back down. So armies march on the roads as men struggle for worldly power. For many the world collapses as ruthless soldiers burn harests and murder men whose only crime is to live in the wrong province.

For the common folk of the Empire it seems that the end of the world is nigh. A thousand redemptionist cults have sprung up throughout the land. Doom-laden flagellants travel from place to place preaching the coming twightlight of the gods and spreading a message of universal destruction. Lead by the maniac Johan Cabal, these fanatics have grown powerful indeed.

As the power of the Electors has waned, the rich merchants of the Empire have grown to fill the power vacuum. The Merchants Guild now almost rivals the nobles in power. Larger towns have become prosperous under the leadership of the Burgomeisters, elected from the mercantile classes and other wealthy citizens. The Merchants Guild has even gone so far as to recruit it's own troops.

When the times are desperate, men turn to the last hope: the Cult of Sigmar has grown powerful as men flock to the temples and shrines in hopes of salvation. But even the faithful of Sigmar are not safe. Despite the ancient laws which outlaw the use of sorcery and witchcraft, more and more wizards are reported to the Cult of Sigmar every day. Though the Order of Witch Hunters prosecute all manner of wizards and magicians tirelesly, and many a man has lost his life in the purifying flames, the use of magic persists.

But as people flock to the shrines of Sigmar, the Dark Gods too grow in power. More and more men turn to the worship of the ancient gods of Chaos, the eldritch deities who thirst for the end of the world. Young innocents are stolen from the streets and sacrificed in horrible wats to satisfy the bloodthirsty gods of Chaos. Truly, it is a dark time.

Rules, Rules and More Rules

After writing a rough storyline for the City of the Damned, I started experimenting with new game mechanics which would be better suited for dealing with battles between small groups of warriors. Soon I came up with rough rules for fighting skirmishes in the Warhammer world. Though the game system is firmly based on Warhammer, there is much more detail, as one might expect from a game which concentrates on individual warriors instead of whole regiments and armies! The combat system has become more evolved, with critical hits and special rules for equipment such as duelling pistols, bucklers, helmets and so on. In this way each warrior becomes an individual, with his own history and personality as opposed to being just another miniature.

The biggest difference compared to the standard Warhammer game is of course that all the warriors fight and act more or less as individuals- though staying close to your leader always helps! You have to make every move carefully and decide whether it is better to run or shoot your bow, take cover from enemy arrows or charge forward.

As warriors fight battles and adventure in the dark alleys and ruinous palaces of Mordheim, they gain experience and become more powerful and skilled. They accumulate new equipment, treasures and gold, and fortify their encampment against raids.

A good game needs interesting heroes and villains, so I developed rules and background for several warbands. In the vastness of the ruined city of Mordheim, Dwarf fortune-seekers, Witch Hunters and Mercenaries fight with possessed Chaos Cultists, the revolting Undead, vile Skaven, and, of course, each other. Each of the warbands has it's own unique agenda, a motivation as to why they have come to fight in this desolate place. All i needed now was a few playtesters to start fighting it out in the City of the Damned.

- Tuomas