|
Glorious Rainbow Gambeson |
Thoughts and Review
Guerrilla Miniature Games is a gaming entertainment conglomerate devoted to the play and exposition of miniature war and skirmish games. Operated by Canadian game designer Ash Barker, the channel is awash with miniature wargaming: including playlists and scheduled content around reviews, actual plays, and hobby - painting, collecting, and related media: games, books, films, and so on - updated on what seems to be a daily cadence.
I found out about Guerrilla Miniature Games when searching on a whim for actual play videos of Games Workshop's Mordheim: a discontinued skirmish campaign game wherein you take on the role of adventurers hiring a crew of mercenaries and delving into the heart of a ruined city for fame, glory, and most importantly - treasure! This theme should resonate with any classic OSR/TSR gamer - and may likewise with many others - though there is a shortage of actual play content for these old systems. Reviews abound, but play remains elusive.
So, in authoring this review, I wanted to bring to light Guerrilla Miniature Games' Mordheim series - a great playlist with over 70 videos as of this writing to vicariously experience a classic game.
What I Like
When watching wargame replays - the first thing that I don't notice is the terrain. Or, I don't want to notice. I want to think of the terrain as a compliment to the game - an element contributing to individual strategies employed by the participants. You want terrain on the table - but you don't want the artisanship of the terrain to overshadow the game, itself.
Guerrilla Miniature Games finds the perfect balance.
The terrain used on the channel is appropriate and pretty - but likewise, not
so elaborate or over-done such that I could expect the terrain I see at their
table to appear at a given hobby shop. It works for the game, it works for the
table, and it makes me think back to the days when I was playing the same
game, four other tables around me working through their own league
confrontations, and answering the occasional question from a young kid who may
or may not have mistakenly moved one of my rat-men. And those are good
memories to remember.
So, you have... rocks and ruins. Now try me a reason to actually care. Glad you asked! When watching these kind of programs - I look for two things: one, entertainment value (which, to be fair, is subjective); and two, educational value (which largely is not). While I cannot vouch for other playlists - as my interests led me to Mordheim - in the Mordheim playlist, Guerrilla Miniature Games does a phenomenal job in teaching the game. They follow a format - in the first episode of the series, they talk a bit about the rules: and before each match, they talk a bit about the different army lists in use. Further, they expose the rules - highlighting which one they are doing and how it works, if there is any nuance to it, during play.
Parry - for example - comes to mind: where a character armed with a sword may attempt to thwart an inbound hit.
Orkish animosity comes to mind likewise: where a specific condition applied to and otherwise overpowered (in my humblest of opinions) army list and impacts play, introducing an element of spice to the list.
So if you are aiming to learn the game while still keeping a fast pace at the
table, seeing the armies move, how they interact, and how the game operates -
this channel is for you.
What Are the Hold-Ups
The strength, however, of the playlist ties in to the weakness of the same playlist for my usual audience. This blog - and its corresponding YouTube and Podcast and other social media - focuses on the OSR: games and gaming which emulate or recreate the experience of the first ten years of D&D: the Gary Epoch - where fantasy adventure meets tabletop wargaming and crashes into personal role-play. In order to truly be OSR, a product must conform to TSR Dungeons & Dragons - and while Games Workshop, the company behind Mordheim, did build wide acclaim as the importer and distributor for Dungeons & Dragons during the Gary Epoch in the United Kingdom, the Mordheim and Warhammer systems are not built to be compatible with the D&D game - representing instead the company's own foray into fantasy: initially in the form of rank-and-flank battles.
With that in mind - Mordheim (and thus the Guerilla Miniatures Games playlist on Mordheim) is not OSR: but I would argue that it carries some elements that translate over. Mordheim brings several elements to the table which will resonate with an OSR RPG campaign:
- A core of heroes who represent the main protagonist.
- A squad of henchmen which must be managed.
- A focus on gold at the end of the adventure.
For the third point - Mordheim does, by memory, award experience for Wyrdstone (a precious resource sold for gold and the primary reason for warbands to be in the city) acquired: whether that is scenario specific or core, I would have to look up - but at the core of it, gold is how you keep your warband moving. The logistics aspect is abstracted - that is, when playing a campaign, you don't need to feed your troops (where in an OSR game, you would) - but you will need to equip them, replace casualties, upgrade equipment, and perform other administrative concerns tantamount to resource management. What Mordheim can teach you in this regard is a skirmish game mindset - which is how TSR D&D operates.
- The core of heroes - your stable and your player characters - represent the main protagonist.
- Your hirelings and henchmen - bought, paid for, and managed - represent the warband.
-
Gold-provisioned XP focuses on treasure at the end of the adventure.
So - in that sense - Mordheim can get you into the right mindset: where the battlefield on the screen might be a ruined city, the battlefield in your campaign may be a cramped tunnel in a dungeon. But - if you enjoy (or are curious about) the domain aspect, this game might be a good spark for your interest.
Lastly - speaking to my own experience of Mordheim - the story is what you make of it. Some players would simply do the upkeep/advancement aspect and keep playing, others would keep campaign journals where they detailed the intents and opinions of the warband chieftains. In this sense - the Guerilla Miniatures Games channel, while it does follow the campaign rules - players come back, warbands make repeat appearances, grow, shrink, win, and lose: some coming back for rematches against one another - it does not weave a story with it. With essentially all OSR actual play channels, there is a central story - either forced by a mediocre DM or emerging from the experiences of an active player base - with this playlist: you need to be here for the game, expressly.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like I mentioned, some players are
there for the game. And if that is the case - if you're looking for a story -
you will want to look elsewhere. It's right there in the name: Guerilla
Miniatures Gaming is about... guerilla miniatures gaming.
Further Consideration
In terms of the game, itself, Mordheim has sadly been discontinued (though GW appears to have kept Blood Bowl, which is nice) - however, miniatures from any fantasy range can be used (including Age of Sigmar or upcoming Old World miniatures from Games Workshop / Citadel) and a quick internet search can easily uncover PDF versions of the old rules.
In terms of Guerilla Miniatures Gaming - if you enjoy his style and content, there is a plethora of other, similar content available on the over-arching YouTube channel. In addition, they can be found on social media - including a WordPress blog, on Facebook, and on Instragram - as well as operating a Patreon, which - while I am not a member - does have a free tier and does put out content regularly.
Lastly, for folks curious about Mordheim but who do not want to shell out for
a dozen miniatures and a hobby shop at which to play, a video game version -
Mordheim: City of the Damned
- has been released for Windows and console, available on multiple platforms.
I have not played the video game version, so I cannot speak to its quality or
fidelity, but it did look neat when I watched the preview.
In Conclusion
To conclude, does Mordheim really belong on an OSR review column? Probably not. But as mentioned above - the game has some OSR-compatible elements and brings to the table a real mindset that can get you into the mood for the domain tier of the game. For that reason, I've rated it Gambeson: Glorious Rainbow Gambeson - for the wonderful paint schemes that I remember classic Empire armies having back in the day when I first learned about tabletop wargaming... and for the widely utilized armor that somehow didn't make it into (or, at least not by name in) TSR D&D.
I enjoy Guerilla Miniatures Gaming - and if you enjoy tabletop battles - I think you will too.
Delve on, readers!
Mordheim cover art sourced from
BoardGameGeek.com but is property of Games Workshop. Still of Orks vs Reikland taken from Guerilla Miniatures Gaming YouTube,
Throwback Thursday: Mordheim playlist, episode 12 (link) and is property of Guerilla Miniatures Gaming. Cover art for Mordheim: City of the Damned - Complete Edition retrieved from the Microsoft Store and is property of Microsoft, Focus Home Interactive, and Games Workshop. All images included and all trademarks referenced are included as under Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 as
non-commercial review and remain property of their respective owners - Clerics Wear Ringmail makes no claim of ownership
nor to rights over them.
