Death on the Eerie Downs Campaign Log

 Death

on the

Eerie

Downs

 2012 Mordheim Campaign

In the Ostermark, there is a place of legend that very few men ever venture.  Surrounded by the Ostermark Marches, the horrid place is avoided like death itself.  This place is called the Eerie Downs, and upon the plain there is such stillness and quiet that it makes even the stoutest ogre mercenary cast glances over his shoulder and peer into the perpetual fog.  Rumors of men going mad, or simply being lost forever in the fog soaked vastness have circulated for centuries.  They say that the ghosts of the men lost upon the plain now haunt it, and their madness fuels the evil stillness that it persists to this day.

It is little wonder that we would be interested in this place.

Though the darkness hangs over the Eerie Downs like the fog that never lifts, there is a great call to this place.      The rumors seem true:  treasure lies scattered across the Downs.  A huge shipment of dwarf gold bound to Karaz-A-Karak went missing months ago - but now warbands are recovering pieces of fine art, casks of fine ale and even chests of gold from the place.  It is a time of great opportunity to those who could seize it....

Yet some new horror pervades the silent reaches of the Eerie Downs this year.  Terrible reports of beastmen warbands pillaging farms near the foggy plains have filtered into the camps along the River Stir.  Cultists have been sighted at evil spots on the plain, enacting horrid rituals and invoking their dark gods. As a result, merchants have become more paranoid and have begun hiring mercenaries en masse to guard their shipments as they pass through the Ostermark Marches and extra men for when they pass near the Eerie Downs.

Whether drawn by the ecstasy of gold or the promise of dark power to be found on the Eerie Downs, a number of warbands are converging on the plains on a course to bloody conflict.  None will step down, and only death and horror await those who cross into the silent reaches of the fog-soaked plains.  Yet if glory can be seized from the grip of this madness, an enterprising warlord might make something greater of himself.

---

Death on the Eerie Downs is the 2012 campaign for Mordheim!

This time it's something new for us at the Wargate!  Since we've taken up serious gaming with this system, we've done battle in the delve at Khazid Grimaz and in the actual ruins of the city of Mordheim.  We'll be using a slightly different ruleset this time:  Empire in Flames!

All rules from that supplement will be used!  In addition, we're now using the 2.1 updated Mordheim rulebook that is available pretty much anywhere.  This includes the Opulent Goods and rules for Mounts.  One member of each warband may take riding skills as normal.  There's a lot of extra stuff in the rulebook, so if  you need to get a copy just ask.

The game will consist of 1 or 2 Round Robins, depending on how often the warbands do battle.  At the end of the season, Warband Ratings will be multiplied by influence to determine the overall victor!

A few more things.  

1. Roll for missions using the table in Empire in Flames.  If doubles are rolled, instead play Upon the Downs from The League of Ostermark.  If the rolled scenario cannot be played for some reason, the players will also play Upon the Downs.
2. Beastmen warbands may use the beastman raider table instead, however if a 1 or 6 is rolled they must play Upon the Downs.
3. Multiplayer games are allowed in the final week, and counts for each applicable fight.  That is, Warband 1, 3 and 4 fight, so each warband counts that battle against each other warband.  This will fill Warband 1's games against 3 and 4, and vice versa or juxtaposed.  Players cannot play extra games due to multiplayer scenarios.

The Wargate is happy to announce the compiled lists of warbands and hired swords available to our players!  All the following are considered to be "official" and in-play here at our club.  This is a quite comprehensive list, and includes many new options.  These are the available HENCEFORTH and can be referenced here as needed.

Warbands

1. Amazons  
2. Battle Monks 
3. Bretonnians 
4. Chaos - Beastmen Raiders 
5. Chaos - Carnival of Chaos 
6. Chaos - Cult of the Possessed 
7. Chaos - Marauders 
8. Chaos - Norse Explorers 
9. Dwarfs - Rangers 
10. Dwarfs - Treasure Hunters 
11. Elves - Cult of Khaine 
12. Elves - Dark Elves 
13. Elves - Forest Walkers 
14. Elves - Shadow Warriors 
15. Empire - Averlander Mercenaries 
16. Empire - Halflings 
17. Empire - Kislevites 
18. Empire - Marienburger Mercenaries 
19. Empire - Merchant Caravans 
20. Empire - Middenheimer Mercenaries 
21. Empire - Mordheim Fanatics 
22. Empire - Nuln Engineers 
23. Empire - Ostlander Mercenaries 
24. Empire - Outriders 
25. Empire - Reiklander Mercenaries 
26. Empire - Sisters of Sigmar 
27. Empire - Witch Hunters 
28. Greenskins - Black Orcs 
29. Greenskins - Forest Goblins 
30. Greenskins - Hobgoblin Wolf Riders 
31. Greenskins - Night Goblins 
32. Greenskins - Orc Mobs
33. Lizardmen 
34. Ogre Maneaters 
35. Outlaw - Bandits 
36. Outlaw - Outlaws 
37. Outlaw - Pirates 
38. Outlaw - Pit Fighters
39. Skaven - Assassin Squad 
40. Skaven - Clan Eshin 
41. Skaven - Clan Moulder 
42. Skaven - Clan Pestilens 
43. Skaven - Clan Skryre 
44. Tileans 
45. Undead - Blood Dragon Vampire 
46. Undead - Lahmian Vampire 
47. Undead - Liche 
48. Undead - Von Carstein Vampire

Hired Swords

1. Arabian Merchant 
2. Barbarian 
3. Bard 
4. Beggar 
5. Black Orc 
6. Bounty Hunter 
7. Chaos Warrior 
8. Clan Eshin Assassin 
9. Clan Moulder Packmaster 
10. Clan Moulder Rat Ogre Bodyguard 
11. Clan Skryre Poison Wind Globadier 
12. Clan Skryre Sniper 
13. Cleric 
14. Cursed Hillman 
15. Dark Elf Assassin 
16. Dark Elf Sorceress 
17. Duelist 
18. Dwarf Runesmith Journeyman 
19. Dwarf Sapper 
20. Dwarf Slayer Pirate 
21. Dwarf Treasure Hunter 
22. Dwarf Troll Slayer 
23. Elf Mage 
24. Expert Marksman 
25. Fallen Sister 
26. Goblin Lantern Bearer 
27. Halfling Scout 
28. Halfling Thief 
29. Hochland Huntsmaster 
30. Imperial Assassin 
31. Imperial Tactician 
32. Kislev Ranger 
33. Mule Skinner 
34. Norse Shaman 
35. Ogre Bodyguard 
36. Ogre Slavemaster 
37. Pit Fighter 
38. Priest of Morr 
39. Priest of Ranald 
40. Priestess of Shallya 
41. Road Warden 
42. Shadow Warrior 
43. Thief 
44. Tilean Marksman 
45. Warlock 
46. Warrior Priest of Sigmar 
47. Witch 
48. Witch Hunter 
49. Wolf Priest of Ulric 
50. Wood Elf Ranger

Dramatis Personae

1. Aenur, Sword of Twilight 
2. Bertha Bestraufrung 
3. Countess Marianna Chavaux 
4. Dark Emissary 
5. Dijin Katal 
6. Drenek Johansen 
7. Johann the Knife 
8. Nicodemus 
9. The Dark Jester 
10. The Salesman 
11. Truthsayer 
12. Ulli & Marquand 
13. Vermin Lord 
14. Veskit, High Executioner

Anyone interested in something they can't find the rules for need only ask!

---

The warbands gathered for the campaign are all steely veterans of past wars, and are ready to do battle on the dreadful Eerie Downs!

• Coven of Darkness (Von Carstein)
• Cult of the Repeated Mean (Cult of the Possessed)
• Pharoah's Mace (Tomb Guard)
• Chattel Herd (Beastmen Raiders)
• The Ruffians (Nuln Engineers)
• Ahuiateteo, Servants of the Old Ones (Lizardmen)
• Deathmaw Ogre Maneaters (Ogre Maneaters)
• De Jong's Detachment (Marienburger Mercenaries)

These ruthless and nasty cutthroats will maim and murder each other until nothing remains of any opponent!  

---

The campaign is over!

De Jong's Detachment has won the campaign!

---

De Jong and his men quickly drew their swords as soon as they heard the sound of guns come from behind the broken ruins.  Smoke assailed his eyes, and he shielded them the best he could, but quickly forgot the momentary distraction when another round of gun blasts hurled towards him and his men, dropping one man to the ground and forcing the rest into cover.

The sounds of swearing mercenaries filled the small square where they had been readying the wagons.  There was so much treasure, De Jong had to search the city for wagons that were in good repair.  Now, there were three wagons with their teams ready to go.  

"Of course we would be short on horses." spake he.

It was time to leave this cursed place.  The sun was setting, and they could still see it.  If they got the wagons moving right now, they could follow it off the Downs and not have to camp on the forsaken moor another night.  Time for action, De Jong thought, as he boldly stood up to rally his men.

"Wagons, ho!" he called out, and motioned the men next to him with his sword.  They swiftly mounted the waiting wagons, and the fog was playing with their assailant's visibility, making the next volley scatter wide or strike the wagons themselves.  With a few cries of  'giya!' and 'go, horse!'  De Jong and his wagons full of treasure were barrelling away from the Ruffians who were closing in on them.

"Those guys are lucky I have to go spend ALL MY MONEY!" De Jong shouted, holding with one hand onto the railing of the speeding wagon, waving his sword at the fog coming off the Downs.

Dragon Sword Campaign Log

The Wargate Presents

Dragon Sword

2012 Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Campaign

The struggle has raged for centuries, but neither Sauron nor his enemies in Middle-Earth have been able to gain the upper hand in the eternal war.  The 3rd Age grinds onward, towards the doom of all...but there are many untold stories that yet influence the struggle between the powers.  Indeed, there are terrors in the world that predate the threat of Sauron himself...

It is the waning years of the Third Age of Middle Earth, and Sauron knows he must do all that he can to ensure his armies will utterly destroy the free peoples.  There are many monstrous beasts under his sway - but some are powerful enough not to kneel before him.  Creatures made by his long fallen master, Morgoth.  Creatures such as balrogs, werewolves, vampires...and dragons.  Now, the Black Enemy means to subdue as many of these powerful monsters as he can before his war can take place.

The dragon Arthax lives in the Ered Mithrin.  He has openly defied Sauron by eating every emissary that is sent to his lofty lair.  However, Sauron has servants who are skilled in the arts of slaying monsters...and with a little help could perhaps subdue many dragons and drakes to his will.  It is to that end he sends forth his mightiest warriors to search the Rhovanion for an artifact of his master's power.

It is called simply the Dragon Sword.  Some say it was forged by Morgoth himself during the First Age, and gifted to a favored general.  Even the Wise cannot say for certain, but it is indisputable that it harbors a terrible power within its shining steel.  Both the Wise and the Enemy have ascertained it's location to be somewhere near the Iron Mountains, in the fork between the River Running and Redwater.

The enemy have made many lairs here in their search for the sword.  It is now up to the forces of good, as led by the White Council, to destroy these lairs and end the search for the tainted sword.

---

Campaign Rules

Dragon Sword is the Wargate's 2012 campaign for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game!  The campaign runs the months of April, May and June ending on July 1st!

The rules for this campaign are simple.  The Forces of Good have 20 expeditions to mount into the Rhovanion to do battle with the Forces of Evil.  The Forces of Evil have 20 lairs in the Wilderlands as well.

Each Good player may pick and choose his battles against the Forces of Evil, pursuing leads where ever they wish to combat their hated enemies.  Each Evil player has five lairs that can be destroyed, and games can be played whenever time is available.

Any scenario can be selected, as long as a campaign narrative is discussed!  Whenever a Good  warband wins a scenario, the lowest lair is marked destroyed and counts as a Destroyed Lair.  If an Evil warband wins, there is no change.  In the unlikely event of a draw, the side that has destroyed more points has won, with all the consequences thereof.

At the end of the campaign when the Forces of Good exhaust their expeditions, warband Influence (Win / Loss ratio) is applied to the team score for each team.  Forces of Evil use the number of remaining lairs, while the Forces of Good use the number of Destroyed lairs.  Each player will have a different influence rating depending on the number of games played and how well they did in each of them.  Individual Scores will be calculated this way, and the Team Score will be the total number of final Individual Scores added together.

---

Armies
The following armies are doing battle in the Wilderlands.

Forces of Evil

• Raiders of the Ruthless East - Mordor Orcs led by fierce Orc Captains and Shamans!  They will stop at nothing to carry out the will of the Eye!
• Dragon Warriors - Powerful warriors from far away, the Easterlings have arrived to sway the dragon to join their conquest of the Free Peoples.
• Minions of Mordor - The orc rabble of Mordor, and a few other interesting servants of darkness.
• The Goblin King - A nazgul operating in the Misty Mountains, the nefarious Goblin King has been sowing discord for years around the Mirkwood.

Forces of Good

• Riders of Rohan - Warriors from the noble houses of the Horselords of Rohan, these mighty warriors follow the tales of the Wise looking for enemies to destroy!
• The Grey Company - Battle hardened men and elves from the North, the Grey Company wishes to keep the dragons in the mountains where they cause relatively little harm.
• The Fellowship - Heroes committed to the cause of the Wise.
• Dol Amroth - From Gondor hails the Swan Knights, who have traveled far to heed the wisdom of the Wise and stop a greater evil from occurring.

---

Campaign

Campaign ended July 1st, 2012!

The Black Gate has won the campaign!
Rivendell has been defeated!

---

Updates

• (4/2/2012) - Campaign page posted.  Will update the following as they occur:
• (4/22/2012) - The Dark Lord Sauron manifests partially in Middle-Earth with the full power of the One Ring, but only briefly.
• 3 Expeditions exhausted.
• 3 Lairs wiped out.
• (5/6/2012) - The Forces of Good surge forth for weeks, breaking lairs where they find them.
• 8 Expeditions exhausted
• 5 Lairs wiped out.
• (7/1/2012) - After the initial surge, the armies of evil routinely pushed ever forward, and the forces of good can do little to stop them.
• 18 Expeditions exhausted. 
• 7 Lairs wiped out.

Evil has won the campaign!

Tales of the Dragon Sword

• They say that the dragon Arthax has a strong dislike of orcs.
• The Dragon Sword contains a portion of Morgoth's power, and that power has sway over dragons themselves.
• Nazgul are coming closer every day...
• It seems the Dark Lord can manifest in Middle-Earth, but only briefly...and the more powerful his form, the shorter the amount of time spent in the material world.  However, he can now influence events with a much firmer hand than the Eye of Mordor...
• It seems the Dragon Sword has been found.  Large warbands of orcs have carried it to the Black Gate itself...

Darkness gathered in the ruined tower where the orcs gathered to meet their master, the nazgul.  The assembled orcs groveled as the wraith manifested, a cold chill heralding its' presence to the devoted followers of the Eye.  With a wicked hiss, the shadowy form stretched out it's hand to Snurkh, captain of the Red Fangs.

The orc warrior proudly hefted the Dragon Sword, Inilrach.  The eldritch weapon was snaked with runes of dark power, and had a strangely organic texture about the hilt and pommel.  He reverently placed the sword in the wraith's outstretched hands, and was rewarded with an even louder, more triumphant shriek from the being.

Khamul the Easterling, second among the Nazgul, held Inilrach and communed with his master.  Now, as Saurons' captain at Dol-Guldur, he would have the resources he needed to crush this council of the 'Wise'.  Even now, fanatic Easterlings and droves of orcs marshalled to march toward Mirkwood.  Soon, they would all be at his disposal to destroy the free peoples.

His castellans drew around him, and the wraith of Khamul was gone from the tower in a swift rush of whirling darkness.

And the shadow crept further across Middle-Earth.

Charge into Greystone Pass!

The muster of Duke Zigler is the last best hope for the men of the Old World.

Well, it's long overdue but the Greystone Pass War page is up.  The new campaign has started, and you can even download the Battle Sheets for the campaign.  Expect updates this week, since today will be fraught will danger!

The new Battle Magnitude system will be put through it's paces since there isn't a maximum number of players or battles.  This will really help us put battles where we need to get them, without excluding anyone or, conversely, making them feel obligated to play too many games for their schedule.  This is the single biggest development in this campaign, and I'm sure it will come down to the magnitude of the overall campaign when final scores are tallied.

Also, this campaign is our first six month campaign.  Warhammer Fantasy Battle now inhabits what we're calling the '2nd Half' - that is, July through the end of the year.  We're changing our award system too - now the champion of each game will hold a unique title for a full year, until that games' season comes along again. We're gonna let you wonder though - we'll unveil these and few more surprises over the course of 2013.

We have a new player in this campaign, and a new segment to the narrative!  Buff Bagworms' Bretonnians have been getting together for a while, and we'll see some development on that score soon enough here on the blog.  This comes at the perfect time...for it seemed all men and dwarfs have been run off the mountain where Khazid Grimaz stands in ruins.  We'll see if the horsemen have what it takes to secure the Pass, or if the forces of order can unite as allies in the face of destruction.

Thanks to everyone for their patience with me.  I can't ever seem to get enough done, no matter how much time I have.  I have a few more posts for you this week, so check back later for our last campaign logs.  Hurry in and get some games today - and the rumor is we're serving breakfast for dinner!

Buff Bagworm and the Victorious Masterstroke

Buff Bagworm and his spoils of war.

Always stick up for the underdog.

A few months ago, our buddy Buff Bagworm started his wargaming career anew.  He's been on hiatus for the last decade and a half, but he picked up a friend's army and started back in at the top of our last campaign season.  In both games, no less!

Well, his first games went great.  A few weeks later, and no one suspects he's going to do exactly what we though he would not be able to:  be a serious contender for the top spots in the campaigns he was taking part in.  So we were quite surprised when in the final month of battle, the victor in both The Lord of the Rings and in Mordheim looked to be the luscious Buff Bagworm himself.  In both games!

That's right, folks.  We were taken by surprise.  Buff Bagworm rocked out 1st place in both games this season.  Here's the basic stats from the games, the details will be given later this week in the logs for Dragon Sword and Death on the Eerie Downs.

Dragon Sword

2012 Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Campaign

• 1st Place:  The Black Gate (Buff Bagworm), 75% Influence, 10 pts
• 2nd Place: Tie - Raiders of the East (Jerry Wargate) and Dragon Warriors (Dave Bone), 60% Influence, 8 pts each.
• 3rd Place:  Bad Company (Shaunny), 50% Influence, 7 pts.
• Dead Last:  Rivendell (Uncle Mark), 0% Influence, 0 pts.

Death on the Eerie Downs

2012 Mordheim Campaign

• 1st Place:  De Jong's Detachment (Buff Bagworm), 128 Warband Rating
• 2nd Place:  The Ruffians (Uncle Mark), 95 Warband Rating
• 3rd Place:  Fekul-Hoof's Bray Guard (Jerry Wargate), 45 Warband Rating
• Dead Last:  Face-Eaters (Joe Kool), 0% Influence + Lowest Warband Rating

Surprised?

We've been looking at revamping our awards system for a while, and have considered several models as we've discussed in part here on the site.  So, we decided that this season we would hand out a special award and move forward to our new commendation system.  Now, awards will be handed out for each game and a title will be held for 1 year, at which time the next year's campaign will decide the new champion.  Yet, there was something special about this season's award.  It's the first time anyone has defeated everyone in every campaign at the same time!

Therefore, we award Buff Bagworm the award for Victorious Masterstroke.  His cunning plans unfolded before our eyes, and Buff will be the only person ever to receive this award from the Wargate.  His accomplishment will be remembered throughout the ages!  In addition, he won a new box of Bretonnian Men-at-Arms to add to his first personal army:  the House of Zigler!  Look for more info next season as he enters the Greystone Pass War.

Yet this glory is a double-edged sword.  Mark my words, friend Bagworm:  everyone will be gunning for you next season!