Mordheim 2019: Witch Hunter games

The grim figure of the Sigmarite Warrior Priest Vieuxpont goads his pack of blood-thirsty warhounds into battle, followed by two fanatics proclaiming prophecies of impending doom.

As a follow up to Eric’s post describing the endeavors of his undead at the Mordheim 2019 event, I wanted to write about my experience using the incredible Witch Hunter warband that Ana Polanšćak created! The first game was against Johan Egerkrans' Undead Warband, and the second was against Ana Polanšćak’s Cult of the Possessed and Mikko Luoma's Chaos Dwarves.

Mordheim 2019: Undead games

Church of the Ever Burning Saint attempt to banish a vampire twisted and warped by wyrdstone.

My brothers and I played a multitude of games of Mordheim during the Mordheim 2019 event, all of them unique and filled with surprises. With this post, I wanted to describe the two games played with my undead warband, the first against Nicky Grillet‘s Sisters of Sigmar and Alexander Lunde’s Witch Hunters, and the second against Erik Blomqvist’s Sisters of Sigmar.

Mordheim 2019: Undead warband

A living death awaits us all.

It is hard to imagine Mordheim is twenty years old; it means that I have been a part of this hobby for over two decades! And while I never got the opportunity to play the game when it was first released, I remember poring over each new issue of White Dwarf, looking at the new warbands being released, battle reports, and their dedicated magazine the Town Cryer. Games Workshop’s skirmish games have always been my favorite games they release, with GorkaMorka being the first of their games we really played extensively. Games like Necromunda, Inquisitor, and Mordheim allow the player to dive deeply into the strange and morbid worlds Games Workshop has created, and actively encourage you to carve out your own unique niche within their creation. Mordheim 2019 has been a fantastic opportunity to explore the Old World like I have always wanted to, building upon imagery and models that have always inspired us. While Alex defined the basic motivations behind the major factions, Tears of Envy, another incredible hobbyist involved in the event (who made Mordheim 2019’s excellent logo), had the fantastic idea of looking at the city of Mordheim through the lens of the Strugatsky brothers’ Roadside Picnic/Stalker. This science fiction classic explores the aftermath of an extraterrestrial visitation. Despite the alien visitors abrupt departure, their presence irrevocably and mysteriously changed the environment where they visited. These “Zones” were eventually cordoned off from the wider world to be studied. Could the meteorite that hit Mordheim have a similar effect, and what would happen to the city after being poisoned by this wyrdstone for 20 years? How would its inhabitants and the city itself be affected and corrupted? And what sort of adventurers would risk their lives to find fortune by venturing into the City of the Damned? This concept really captured my imagination, leading me to start experimenting with different warband designs.

Mordheim 2019: a recap

A few Witch Hunters carefully advance through the broken streets of Mordheim.

Last weekend was the culmination of over a year of work by many talented hobbyists, who gathered in Helsinki to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Old World Skirmish game, Mordheim. This collaborative event, known as Mordheim 2019, was hosted by Alexander Winberg of the Echoes of Imperium blog. We were fortunate to be able to make the trip to Finland to take part in the event, using the warbands we have been chronicling over the last few months (as well as one created by the estimable Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate). The event was far too big and filled with all manner of excellent people and exciting happenings to ever be covered in a single post, so we plan to separate our coverage of Mordheim 2019 into multiple posts (covering all of the games we played), and maybe a few podcasts. This post is going to be a short one, showing a few pictures, and ultimately thanking everyone involved, especially Alexander Winberg for inviting us and hosting the event. It is hard to put into words how wonderful the weekend was, filled with fantastic models and even better company. It was great to see old friends and create new ones, putting faces to people we have long admired. And although the event is over now, we are more inspired than ever to keep building models, crafting stories, and connecting with the hobby community!