Vastarian: the Smallest Church in Saint-Fauré

Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum, with a sister of the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Bill Ford, of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame, created an amazing game board to represent the interior of a small Imperial chapel for Vastarian, complete with pews and a raised dais. The main board was created primarily with foam, with individual stone tiles created from foam. The walls and flying buttresses are from Pegasus Hobbies 28mm Gothic City Building model kits. Having just received the board, we really wanted to create a narrative framework for the board that would easily allow us to play thematic games at upcoming events, such as Under the Dice Fest at the end of the month! We ended up devising that the chapel is one of the houses of worship for the Church of the Red Athenæum, and current resting place of a significant holy artifact, the Codex Pháros:

Chapel board created by Bill Ford.

In his search for the escaped Pilgrym, before the calamity of the opening of Cicatrix Maledictum, Kirill Blokhin found himself on the vast Cathedral world of Vastarian. Although all his leads to the enigmatic child went cold, he immediately recognized the scholarly significance of Vastarian, for in addition to the chapels and houses of worship, every usable stretch of land was crenelated with with cyclopean libraries, bibliothecas, scholams, and places of learning, with repositories so vast they seemed to rival many on hallowed Terra itself. Realizing these archives’ potential to substantiate and strengthen the Church of the Red Athenæum’s records of the Emperor’s final moments as an ambulatory vessel of divine spirit, as well as to bolster their archives of Remembrancer accounts, Blokhin requested, via astropathic choir, assistance from the bibliognosts from their Red Church on Terra. To his surprise, Aseneth Levedescu, (3rd) Cardinal of Church of the Red Athenæum, agreed with his assessment and sent none other than Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost of the Church, along with an entourage of Sisters of the Order of the Crimson Hour. Filipovic immediately integrated himself into the circles of ecclesiastical scholars on Vastarian, trying to glean new insight into the apotheosis of the Emperor and His final days before internment in the Golden Throne. Much of his efforts were spent studying the Codex Pháros, an ancient copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus. The Codex was rumored to be a personal copy of Remembrancer and Saint Euphrati Keeler, complete with margin notes written in the Saint’s own hand.

Kirill Blokhin exits the church.

Filipovic’s scholarly pursuits ground to a halt when the planet descended into tumult and unrest with the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum and the subsequent unified dreaming of the apocalypse. This turbulence escalated to bloodshed, as the collective dreaming culminated with the psychic awakening of much of the population, the coming of Saints, a time of apostasy. And while much of the bloodletting was seemingly without a greater purpose than subjugating ideologically different congregations, a few cults recognized the value of retrieving holy artifacts and notable scholars in an effort to convince others of their divine destiny to unify Vastarian and become a beacon of holy order in a crumbling Imperium. And so some Cults set their sights on a small church in Saint-Fauré, home of the Church of the Red Athenæum, Bibliognost Ehret Filipovic, and the Codex Pháros.

Ehret Filipovic in the center of the church, surrounded by pews.

As mentioned earlier, we want to use this narrative thread as a central theme for scenarios to play games in the Vastarian setting. The particulars of the scenarios will ultimately shift depending on the ruleset used for the games. For example, if using the more complex rules of Necromunda, we foresee using a modified version of the Core rulebook scenario Smash and Grab (pg 206). If using a more streamlined ruleset, like Ramshackle Game’s MiniGangs, we would use a modified version of Rescue the VIP, where the attacker is trying to kidnap Ehret Filipovic, by first injuring him and having another adjacent model move them off a table edge. Regardless, we are excited to play some games on the board, and hope to see some of you at Under the Dice Fest or Adepticon this year! Also, thanks again to Bill Ford for creating such an excellent board!


Assault on the smallest church in Saint-Fauré

In this scenario, the attacker is trying to raid a church and kidnap a religious scholar from it.


MiniGangs version, modification of Rescue the VIP:

Setup the board as normal, with the defending gang set up on the table edge with the raised dais and the attacker set up on the opposite edge. One of the defending gang members is a cleric (Ehret Filipovic).

The attacker wins if they are able to injure Ehret Filipovic and then move them off a table edge. This is done by taking a move action with a model that is adjacent to the injured Filipovic and moving off a table edge. The defender wins if they injure every attacking model.


Necromunda version, modification of Smash & Grab:

Attacker and Defender
The Church of the Red Athenæum player is the defender, with one of their models being the scholar Ehret Filipovic. The other gang is the defender.

Battle Type
The scenario is an Underhive or Zone Mortalis battle. Vehicles or wargear that gives the Mounted condition are not allowed.

Battlefield
The battlefield should approximate a church, with pews, a dais, etc.

Crews
Both gangs can select 5 models for their crew. One of the Church of the Red Athenæum’s crew is Ehret Filipovic, who counts as a champion with a bolt pistol and staff (close combat weapon).

Deployment
The defender deploys their entire gang within 10” of the table edge with the raised dais in the church. The attacker deploys their gang within 6” of the table edge opposite of the raised dais in the church.

Gang Tactics
This scenario uses the standard rules for gang tactics.

Ending the Battle
If either gang has no fighters left on the battlefield at the end of any round, the battle ends immediately.

Victory
The attacker wins if they take Ehret Filipovic out of action and move them off any table edge. Otherwise the defender wins.

- Eric Wier