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Mordheim: City of the Damned – A tabletop classic to go digital

Written by James Redmond

Game Workshop’s Mordheim will get a video game adaption and I could not be happier.

I am a Games Workshop fanboy. Even as I write this my living room table has three separate warhammer armies in different stages of completion. So when I read that another one of their tabletop games would get a video game adaptation, I peed my pants a little bit. You know, in excitement.

Focus Home Interactive, the same company that published Blood Bowl, and Rogue Factor formally announced Mordheim: City of the Damned and released a few screenshots on the Focus Home website March 26.

For those unfamiliar, Mordheim is a skirmish sized tabletop strategy game from Games Workshop, the same company that makes tabletop games Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and Blood Bowl.

As the official text says:
“Set in the Warhammer world’s decimated Empire city, Mordheim: City of the Damned is a turn-based tactical game where you lead warbands into bloody and lethal skirmishes. The game blends RPG elements, fast-paced tactical combat and intricate unit customization in a time wrought by chaos and rivalry where only the strongest survive.”

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Mordheim’s tabletop rules have many similarities to the video and tabletop game Blood Bowl, both have team or warband members leveling up and suffering persistent injuries between rounds of mercilessly beating the pulp out of each other.

Persistent wounds, mutations, leveling and an over-the-top grim setting all sound appealing to me. Combining Warhammer elements with a strategic turn based video game, basically gives me XCOM and Blood Bowl all in one video game. For me, this is a grim, dark Christmas come early.

I will admit I am fanboying over the prospects of a Mordheim game, but the best thing so far is not that it looks faithful to the original. The best news is that the game will feature multiplayer functionality. In addition to a single-player campaign players can “challenge other players in enthralling multiplayer modes.”

Games Workshop makes good games, and every game is made better when you can claim a hard-fought victory from your closest friends.

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So far, all I know about the game is what the release says.  However, what Focus Home Interactive has released sounds awesome to me:

“Devise the best strategy to annihilate your rivals. If you fail, some of your units might lose a limb… or worse. Keep in mind that in Mordheim: City of the Damned, a dead unit is lost forever! Consider the environment when formulating your battle strategy, exploiting the unique buildings, ruins or the layout of the streets. Deploy your troops carefully and anticipate the actions of your adversaries to set up ambushes. Organize ingenious battle plans where the talents of your units will be as important as your own luck during key moments of combat.

Loot items and weapons hidden in the ruins, or steal those of fallen opponents. Survive the dangers that abound in the City of the Damned and collect as many Wyrdstones as you can, but remain ever vigilant. Mordheim is one of the most treacherous places in the Warhammer world.”

Mordheim touts that players can pick warbands from “iconic Mordheim factions – Sisters of Sigmar, Possessed, Skaven, Mercenaries from the Empire, and many more.” The original tabletop game had eight different factions, so I can only hope that we will see many, if not most of them.

Focus Home Interactive’s website says to expect Mordheim: City of the Damned in late 2014 and has no mention of what platforms we will be able to play it on.

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James Redmond

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