Requiem Compendium Factions for a General Campaign Corrected

The EOTD Requiem Compendium introduces 16 new factions or faction specialization to Empire of the Dead. These factions fall into five main categories, many of them will actually fall into more than one. These broad categories are; Faction Leader is a Special Named Character, Many Special Rules, Underpowered, Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules and Campaign Ready. Of all 16 of these new factions IMO only three factions; the Special Branch, The Tong and the Imperial Explorers Club are robust enough to play in a general campaign competing against any of the 4 original EOTD factions. Here is a list of the compendium factions with notes on which are faction specializations. 

1 Special Branch

2 Great Detective

3 Criminal Gang

4 Street Gang (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

5 Tong (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

6 Criminal Mastermind (Criminal Gang Faction Specialization)

7 Nemesis Criminals

8 Dracula

9 Vampire Slayers

10 Captain Nemo

11 Jerusalem Clickers

12 Order of the Garter (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization)

13 Imperial Explorers Club (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization) 

14 Bedlam Brotherhood

15 Union of the Snake (Gentlemen’s Club Faction Specialization)

The five categories explained:

1)     Faction Leader is a Special Named Character- This faction is lead by a special character like Captain Nemo, Dracula or The Great Detective and there is no indication in the rules detailing what happens to the faction if this character is killed in a campaign.

2)     Many Special Rules- All the models in this faction even the subordinates have their own individual special rules. I feel that this can bog down play trying to remember all these rules.

3)     Underpowered- Simply put they aren’t able to fight werewolves, vampires or heavily armed gentlemen.

4)     Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules- The mechanics of this faction are incompatible with the campaign rules.

5)     Campaign Ready- Self explanatory.

Here is the faction list again with each category that faction fits into noted.

1 Special Branch Campaign Ready

2 Great Detective Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Underpowered

3 Criminal Gang Underpowered

4 Street Gang Underpowered

5 Tong Campaign Ready

6 Criminal Mastermind Underpowered

7 Nemesis Criminals Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Underpowered

8 Dracula Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

9 Vampire Slayers Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Many Special Rules Underpowered

10 Captain Nemo Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

11 Jerusalem Clickers Don’t Fit with Campaign Rules

12 Order of the Garter Faction Leader is a Special Named Character 

13 Imperial Explorers Club Campaign Ready

14 Bedlam Brotherhood Faction Leader is a Special Named Character Many Special Rules Underpowered

15 Union of the Snake Faction Leader is a Special Named Character

So IMO Requiem adds three factions to the campaign pool giving EOTD a total of 7 campaign playable factions not a bad number IMO.

First Impressions EOTD Requiem

This is a beautifully illustrated supplement, jammed packed with sketches and color paintings by Andy Cooper.
 
What you get;

Factions & character profiles for numerous Gothic/Victorian books, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, Dracula, Van Helsing.

Criminal Factions

Alternate Gentleman's Clubs

Special Branch Police Faction

As well as two novel special rule driven factions (The Bedlam Brotherhood & The Clickers)

The Vehicle Rules
Profiles for ALL the special characters currently available in EOTD 


For the KS Backers
This edition has stats for all the figures released in the KS which is a nice bonus. All of these KS special edition figures have interesting back stories which suggest they are earmarked for EOTD stories/books some time in the future.

The Cons;
There are many typos in this document which suggests that the original KS sections haven't been updated since the original KS release. So all the issues KS backers pointed to since last year remain unaddressed.

EOTD Requiem Compendium Rules now availible for purchase.

The finial version of the EOTD Requiem PDF has been release to all KS backers and now for the first time they are available for purchase by the general public. They can now be purchased here.
One of the most important additions to this version in my view is this warning clarifying the author's intent in regards to the Gothic book characters factions.

EOTD in Action

I and all of you now have a unique opportunity to see a 4 person Empire of the Dead campaign from the perspective of three of the four participants as three of the players have been blogging about their campaign. This campaign was started by Scott at his local club you can see his initial post here.
Here is Ste's take on the same game on his blog. And finally the third participant Paul providing an AAR of his game with Scott on his blog. These guys should provide a great window into how an EOTD campaign works.

Is Empire of the Dead back from the Dead? Updated

With Andy Cooper's January 19th announcement that the Requiem Compendium is near completion soon to be available for KS backers then after that for general release, has this statement breathed new life into the game? The announcement can be found in full here. I've noticed that three of my intrepid readers Kaspar, Scott and Ste have begun playing EOTD again is this a flash in a pan or the beginning of something? Many people have taken an interest in my article "Empire of the Dead thoughts on the rules" and I intend to write another on playing with the basic rulebook.

I've noticed that I've acquired two new followers A.W. Kitchen of the blog tin soldiering on and Blaxkleric a lover of zombies and author of  Fantorical Blog. Welcome gentlemen!

Oops More Empire of the Dead Releases

Oops forgot these figures. Now I don't recall a "spirit vacuum" in the rulebook but this chap looks mad as a hatter and that's good enough for me.

Empire of the Dead New Releases

 

More of the EOTD Requiem KS miniatures have been released for general sale they include these two fine sets of Victorian servants. I'd say these sets are a must for all Gothic Horror gamers.

And these rather fine sets of villainous thugs. The first set contains some great brutes but the guy with the box in the second set projects a real air of menace to me. Say what you will about Westwind's utter cockup with their ETOD game support they are in my opinion still the best manufacturers of Victorian Gothic figures in true 28mm.

I am both delighted and outraged by these wonderful figures pictured above. I'm delighted because stylistically they are very much like the previous set of Order of the Dragon thugs giving the player a total of 8 (both sets) stylistically similar troops enough for a IHMN company if you play that game. I really hope a 3rd set with some thugs with rifles will be released in the near future that would be just perfect! These figures are brand new sculpts they were not part of the Requiem KS and so none of the KS backers have this particular set of figures. (hence the mild outrage) Its nice to see brand new Gothics from Westwind.

Also a few more resign vehicles have been release:

EOTD Police Dog Handler

The Police Special Branch Infernum Hound and Handler blister is now out. Backers of the Westwind Requiem KS have been awaiting this figure for nearly a year.

I'm sorry guys I've know about this for 2 weeks but the holidays have keep me of the computer for some time now. I'm horribly behind on Clint's wonderful naval game, the Padre's commandos, Wargamer girl's prodigious challenge output and I'm sure so much more. I'm furiously writing posts for you guys, expect a small flurry this week as I'll be very busy at work New Year's week. There will be more EOTD figure release photos, Christmas folklore and a London Board update in store for this Christmas week.

The Past Becomes The Future

 Zombies from the West Wind EOTD Zombie Box Set painted by me.

Let me tell a story from the past; it was 2009 as many of you recall Zombie Apocalypse gaming was all the rage that's when I first began to check out wargaming blogs on blogger. I started following a then little know blog called vampifans world of the undead where I found out about WWG printable card buildings and a zombie wargame that could be played cooperatively or even solo called All Things Zombie (ATZ) by an American company called 2Hour Wargames. I played this game using die cast cars and printed card buildings just the way you see Bryan playing it on his blog above it was a blast!

When West Wind Miniatures put out there box set of Victorian Zombies naturally I had to have them. (You can get them too direct from West Wind here.) I purchased one along with the other EOTD boxes sets as soon as they became available. The boxed set was for EOTD to represent the 10 model Zombie Mob that some factions could purchase in the game. This notion of Victorian Zombies stated rattling around in my head I'd bang my head against the wall in an effort to dislodge it but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. The name of a Victorian Zombie project popped out of my head "The Zombie Incident of 1888" I blogged about it and even came up with a survivor concept you can see here. But these were just fragments really a vague notion that I would add random zombies to my EOTD games. That wasn't the idea rattling around in my head I can't contain it any longer I'm just going to let it out and act on it. The idea in my head is a full on Victorian Zombie Apocalypse.


PS I've added Colgar6's fine blog to my roll I don't know how I missed it.

Empire of the Dead Thoughts on the Rules

I began this blog to chronicle my adventures playing Empire of the Dead by West Wind Productions this game received a smattering of press when it came out over two years ago but it didn't gain traction until West Wind's kickstarter Requiem. The Lunatic and I bought 2 rule books and all the box sets when it first came out. I think the game gained a lot of followers during the kickstarter that had lots and lots of shinny new models for Gothic Victorian Games. Then the promised additional rule book was released to the kickstarter backers.

This ebook took the wind out of the EOTD sails (no pirate pun intended) and nearly all the EOTD bloggers lost interest. I say nearly because there is one left (perhaps I'm the only one) who still thinks the core rules are a well balanced fun game.

Why did this happen? Let me come right out and ruffle a few feathers here and say kickstarter. Kickstarter is the land of broken dreams, Requiem's successful run guaranteed the failure of the supplemental rules book. The kickstarter was supposed to fund a bunch of new models including a whole line of vehicles for the game and rules to use those vehicles in the game. But as the kickstarter gained momentum shinny syndrome took over. All sorts of crazy faction sets suddenly sprang up to be unlocked by eager backers; the Bedlam Brotherhood, the complete cast of the novel Dracula, Nemonians, did anyone really think these would be playable factions that could fit into a campaign with the existing factions? 

Let me take a moment to talk about the strengths of the game which to me is the ability to play a Mordheim or Necromunda style campaign with Gothic Horror factions; werewolves, vampires, religious wackjobs and gentlemen. The factions are reasonably balance and they have a number of interesting growth options. The core rules bring out that great experience. The only fault I have with them is their archaic IGO YOUGO activation system but that can be easily fixed.

There are still useful things in the Compenduim the vehicle rules are workable and there are two factions that could be incorporated into a general campaign. Special Branch and Criminal Gangs.

Now I haven't played with a criminal gang yet so I don't know how useful the various character types are in a game and only two affiliations Criminal Mastermind and the Tongs are usable. The Street Gang affiliation is total rubbish.  The Special Branch on the other hand should work just fine with the original factions. So in the near future when the people get over their kickstarter blues I hope they'll give the game another go.

HorrorClix the Trick Up a Horror gamers Sleeve.

 

Figures from the author's collection. 

Every horror figure collector should become acquainted with the HorrorClix line of pre-painted plastic figures. The original release featured Gothic horror standards like Jack the Ripper and Dracula, but for many the appeal of HorrorClix is in gaining low cost "grunt" monsters for your games like this Dire Wolf and Mummy.

 

But for me the real appear of HorroClix are all the unusual characters and figures found in its various lines like the one below.

Monster Patrol

 There are 3 expansions to HorrorClix; The Lab, containing Aliens (from the movie), Greys, Dinosaurs, zombies and mad science experiments,

 From the Lab expansion.

 Freakshow; includes clowns, animals and sideshow freaks,

The Zombie Puppeteer, Mr. Fright and the Fiji Mermaid are all from Freakshow.

And Nightmares supposedly inspired by classic literature.

I'm not aware of any classic literature with killer garden Gnomes.

HorrorClix are in 30mm heroic scale. See them pictured with West Wind zombies below for a size comparison.

 These are the 2 HorrorClix I have repainted and rebased so far.

 Consider HorrorClix's superhero cousin HeroClix in your quest for interesting figures to add to your Gothic horror collections. All though HeroClix is a line of Marvel and DC superhero figures many figures suitable for Gothic horror can be found there.

Like this woman werewolf in superhero bathing suit.

This is one of the better monsters' I've seen.

Dr. Jekyll transforming.

What's on the Work Bench

With the holidays and everything I haven't had much time to finish a project. But shinny syndrome being what it is, I've dived into my lead pile with ADD abandon, that is to say I've begun cleaning, basing and painting many figures but I haven't finished any of them. My hope here is by throwing all these half started projects up here I can force myself to focus on finishing them. So here they are:

 Order of the Sacred Blood: London Expedition

The Heresy Miniatures posing vampire and West Wind EOTD brother.

The Wolf Pack

This is the simple name I've chosen for my Lycan faction. I've been adding to the original starter set to flesh out the pack I'm very happy with the extra wolves I've sourced.

Wolves

From right to left. 

OOP Ral Partha Werewolf the Apocalypse wolf, West Wind EOTD wolf.

From right to left. 

OOP Citadel 1980's wolf, West Wind EOTD wolf.

Sourced wolves next to EOTD werewolf for scale.

 Werewolf

 

  From right to left.

OOP Ral Partha (late 80's?) Werewolf, West Wind EOTD werewolf.

Horrorclix

 I have a number of Horrorclix figures I picked up while waiting for my EOTD miniatures to arrive. I apologize for the the very poor picture I didn't have proper lighting. Mr. Fright is mounted on a 40mm base and he is close to being finish though you couldn't tell it from this picture.

Re-purposed Figure

OOP Ral Partha Werewolf the Apocalypse giant wolf.

I had originally intended to use him as a werewolf in my LOTR games when they put out the SBG rules for werewolves. GW never did put out rules for werewolves. I didn't get the Hound of the Baskervilles when I participated in the Requiem KS it was a separate figure not part of the 221 B Baker Street set. But now I discover that the Hound is part of the Great Detective (221 B Baker Street) faction in the new rules as written and I'm without a Hound so guess who's my stand in.

Hound stand in vrs West Wind EOTD werewolf for scale.

In addition I have 3 Lideo carts to convert, base and paint. I've found some brass rod to serve as an axle for the replacement wheels and some chariot bases. I need a driver for the 3rd cart but otherwise I just need to sit down and convert and paint them.

And lets not mention the half painted zombies moaning in the cupboard.

I still don't know which direction to move in first but hopefully if I stare at this mess long enough I will.

Requiem Burke & Hare

Up the close and doun the stair,
But and ben wi' Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beef.

—19th-century Edinburgh skipping rhyme

Burke & Hare as they appeared in the EotD Requiem Kickstarter.

Their portraits in the Edinburgh newspapers during their trial.

Backers of the EotD Requiem Kickstarter had the option of selecting this villainous pair as part of their rewards package, But just who are these men? William Burke and William Hare where real persons tried for the murder of 16 people in the city of Edinburgh in 1829. They are popularly know as Resurrectionist or Resurrection Men that is to say grave robbers but they were not strictly speaking robbing graves. They where Irish Immigrant laborers who came to Edinburgh to get work on the canal and remained in Edinburgh after it was completed. Edinburgh was the European center of medical knowledge specifically anatomical knowledge. It was known at the Scottish renascence.  If one wanted to become a renown surgeon then one had to study anatomy at Edinburgh. Now the only real way to learn human anatomy is to dissect a human body but there was only one way to legally obtain anatomical specimens (bodies), executed criminals who consented to having their bodies given over to scientific research. Now there was a religious superstition prevalent in Scotland at this time, that a dissected body would be resurrected in pieces not as a whole person. This idea was so horrific to the common folk that the vast majority of Edinburgh's criminals preferred to have their bodies hung in chains in front of their homes or crime scene and literally rot  to pieces rather than be dissected. This need for bodies created a new line of work grave robbing or "reserecting bodies" for the purpose of dissection. In cities around the world this gruesome task was usually performed by the medical students them selves. In Edinburgh gangs of professional body snatchers sprang up to meet the needs of the medical colleges. At this time diffing up bodies was not illegal anywhere in Western Europe or America but the relatives of the snatched where outraged by it. The wealthy cemeteries built watchtowers and hired armed guards, the poor organized volunteer guards from the relatives of the deceased. Mr. Burke and Mr. Hare tried their hand at grave robbing but where nearly caught by armed guards on their first attempt. Mrs. Burke ran a flophouse and one of her tenants died so Mr. Burke And Mr. Hare took the body to the famous Anatomist Dr. Knox who gave them 8 pounds on account of its freshness. Then Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare got a bright idea murder tramps and vagrants then sell their bodies to Dr. Knox. They would get a mark drunk then suffocate them by holding their nose and mouth shut. After 16 murders they where finally caught by the peelers.

Now Dr. Knox was a brilliant surgeon who's medical lectures where very well attended, near the end of this association with Burke & Hare he had to hold 3 lectures a day to accommodate his 300 students. His medical knowledge enriched Edinburgh and his students enriched him.  The Edinburgh Gentry didn't want his reputation tarnish by the murder of a few tramps. The attitude towards the victims of the Scottish Gentry is embodied in this quote by famed Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott

“Our Irish importation have made a great discovery of Oeconomicks, namely, that a wretch who is not worth a farthing while alive, becomes a valuable article when knockd on the head & carried to an anatomist; and acting on this principle, have cleard the streets of some of those miserable offcasts of society, whom nobody missd because nobody wished to see them again.”

So a deal was struck William Hare would turn crowns evidence and testify that Dr, Knox couldn't possibly have know they where bringing him murdered corpses in exchange for a full pardon. The 1972 British film Burke & Hare portrays the murders very authentically, but be ware this is a 1970's horror flim so there are numerous bare breasted scenes. The full movie can be found on youtube in 9 parts. Below is the theatrical trailer.

The confession and subsequent execution of William Burke became and instant best seller. The common folk of Edinburgh unlike the Gentry of Edinburgh were not content to allow William Hare to escape his crimes unpunished a crowd grabbed hold of him as he tried to leave Edinburgh and throw him into a lime pit. The lime permanently blinded him and he live out the remainder of his days a blind beggar on the streets of London. One would think after all the trouble the Edinburgh Gentry went through to exonerate Dr. Knox in this affair he would emerge unscathed, not so no one believed his claim that he that he didn't know he was paying for murdered corpses. His students abandoned him en mass leaving him impoverished and friendless.

I've noticed that several people wanted "special rules" or "character profiles" for EotD for all the special characters in the Requiem release. The Requiem special character figures are a combination of three groups EotD background specific characters, Victorian literary characters and historical persons like the pair above. The historical persons are Burke & Hare, Nadezhda Duroa, (see her profile here)  John Brown, Queen Victoria and the famous authors set. I'll do a post on each one of this persons and if your interested in a post on the Victorian literary characters in the Requiem KS let me know in the comments.

Carts of Course

I've been working on carriages for my London board here are some work in progress shots.

Lideo Bakers Van with Recreation Conflict Harness Mule

Here is a period picture of a similar van apart from the wheels which I will replace what do you think?

Here is the Lideo plastic driver. Victorian drivers are proving hard to come by.

Do you guys think the mule is a good size for the baker's van? Please let me know in the comments.
I bought the Lideo vehicle from Recreational Conflict he sold out of this vehicle but has some others. The Mule is also from Recreational Conflict and can be found in the Tiger Miniatures section under colonial Equipment.