Warband Briefing: Von Stauffermann's Expedition

Von Stauffermann’s Expedition

By Chief Scrivener Hannan

Wissenland, 2522 I.C.

In the southern parts of Wissenland, the Knights of Sigmar (e.g. the Witch Hunters) are quite an active part of the landscape. Mutants, witches, beastmen and worse crawl in the darkness between the days, and the Witch Hunters patrol ceaselessly the villages and towns of the Empire rooting out such evils.

Amongst those who stand on the line between the darkness and the simple folk of the Empire is the decorated Knight of Sigmar, Georg Von Stauffermann. His name is whispered quietly when it is heard that his servants may be nearby, for Von Stauffermann has earned quite a reputation as witch-burner. 

The villages along the Grey Mountains are often in need of the ministrations of the Knights of Sigmar, and the Witch Hunters that are active in the area almost to a man owe Von Staufferman a great deal of loyalty.

It is only lately that Von Stauffermann has begun to call in these favors. He has assembled a warband consisting of the hardest Knights he could find, and the stone-craziest zealots and flagellants he could tear from their errands. Now, the expedition readies for a series of voyages into the darkness beyond the walls of the villages and towns of Wissenland to bring the light of Sigmar to all who would hide from it.

With Fire and Stake

The itinerant warband now wanders Wissenland, stopping where they can along their pilgrimage. Von Stauffermann has cited several “dark places” where he hopes to find the enemies of Sigmar, but does not share this information with his colleagues. Instead, they focus on one of the objectives at a time until they have done what they can for the folk who must live in the shadows of such things. Von Stauffermann and his warband have had much success in hunting the spawn of vampires, the beastmen and mutants of chaos and of course, plenty of witch-burning.

Von Stauffermann will stop at nothing to see that every entry in his “Book of Shadows” is investigated. This book consists of Von Stauffermann’s journal, and the scraps of testimony, folk legends and even a very few facts that he’s wrung out about the various cases the book contains. Accusations of witchcraft, mutation, worship of the dark powers and other, fouler deeds are contained and kept track of within. Though he’s been working on the book for almost five years, he has much work to do before there is even a dent in the volume of tasks contained therein.

Rulebook Ruminations: Dark Heresy Edition!

Howdy folks!

It's time for another game to start here at the Wargate, with our first World of Darkness game in the new edition having ended a few days ago. We'll talk more about that later, because today I'll be talking about some rulebooks we'll be using starting this Sunday!

Yes, it's time for Dark Heresy! We've used the basic rulebook before, but this time we'll be using the careers out of the main rulebook instead of stand-ins for space marine career paths. We've got a lot more players and plenty of miniatures, so we're going to be quite ready to throw down some game this weekend. But what books will we be using this go around?

The main Dark Heresy rulebook has a lot going for it, and despite what you might read on various boards around the net I think this is a fantastic volume. I've had mine since release, but I don't 'review' any books until the Wargate has a call to use them. I've already gone over a lot of the characters in other recent posts so I won't populate this post with a lot of that mumbo-jumbo. I'm going to speak for a moment about mechanics, instead.

Anyone familiar with the way Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd edition is run will be at home in the game. A few things are different to account for differences between the universes, but after a few rolls you'll be back into the swing of things in no time. Skills, Characteristics, etc. all use the same systems as that game, and advancement is also similar. A little time before the game spending experience and you'll have that down pat too - in many ways advancement is easier than Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - a lot of the career paths are straight lines in many places, with one or two alternate ranks and the final ranks branching out into two forks, one of which your character will follow.

Combat has a few differences, but these are minutiae dealing with bonuses for autofire, cover and so forth. Mosty the differences are in nomenclature rather than function, so I'm fairly certain everyone will be comfortable with this and we'll be able to teach new players even quicker.

We'll also have the Inquisitor's Handbook on the table! This is a great reference when creating and advancing your character as it contains new Homeworlds, the Adepta Sororitas career, and a horde of alternate ranks. Alternate ranks are like prestige classes. A lot of the material is centered on the Calixis Sector, which is the default setting for the game. However, we'll be in the Mardannon Sector, the area of space the Wargate has been waging war in for the last six years. This means that there may be availability issues with some Alternate Ranks, but we can definitely find the Mardannon equivalent to whatever it is. There will also be special Mardannon Alternate Ranks that may become available to your acolytes during the game.

Most of the Inquisitor's Handbook is chock full of gear, but I have to take a moment to talk about this. It's not going to be open season with this book, like with the Old World Armoury. There are going to be all sorts of restrictions on what you can get. The gear in the Inquisitor's Handbook is divided by planet type, so here's the deal. If you are on that sort of planet, availability is as listed in the book. If you are not on that sort of planet, I'll just tell you right now that's a fat chance. Depending on the gear you are seeking, there might not be an availabilty roll made - that's just how it's gonna be. So suck it up - there's plenty of gear wherever you are, I assure you.

So, Dark Heresy is gonna roll into full swing and not be just a myth. Either of these books are invaluable player aids, and I highly advise anyone interested in such a thing to pick up at least the basic rulebook, which retails for like $50, but can be had for as low as $30 new if you shop around.

So until next weekend, remember this always: The Emperor Protects!

Get Into the Mordheim!

In a few weeks, our new miniature skirmish campaign will kick off. Titled Death in the Delve: The Curse of the Alderhalls, the scenario is set beneath the hold of Khazid Grimaz, where the Alderhalls under the city have recently been discovered. For those of you that played in ourWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay game will be familiar with the setting, but for those of you who are just joining us, rest assured that there will be plenty of carnage to ensue.

The campaign will be the first serious Mordheim game that has been played by the club, so we'll be taking this one pretty close to the source material. In fact, you can pretty much sub in the words Khazid Grimaz for the word Mordheim in all the material and it's perfect.

So what's the deal with Mordheim, and why should you worry about it as a member of the Wargate?

Mordheim is a skirmish game produced by Games Workshop and stands alongside Warhammer Fantasy Battle as one of the games set in that universe. The games are much different from the battle game, however. The players' forces are called 'warbands', and comprise no more than eight to fifteen models. Small games, small scale...but it's a lot more brutal.

The main draw of the game is the inbuilt campaign system. We'll be using the system right out of the book, to showcase how this sort of game can develop. Your characters earn experience and gain new skills and equipment, like a roleplaying game. The game is similar in many respects to older editions of the flagship battle games, but playing it is a different beast altogether. Look for the full rules of the campaign to be published in the Battles Book very soon.

Mordheim presents a great opportunity to collect new models for a variety of purposes, but Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay springs to mind as one of our other games that you would benefit greatly from having a selection of models that you can use as a player, either as your own character or an NPC.

It's also one of the five miniature games that are being played in rotation at the Wargate. There are plenty of warbands floating around, so there isn't any danger of you not being able to play if you don't want to. The campaign begins on November 1st, so talk to me if you want to set about collecting a small set of models to battle with during Mordheim season!