GiN has reviewed the tactical RPG Mordheim: City of the Damned:

RPG Paradise in Mordheim: City of the Damned

Mordheim: City of the Damned is not an easy game. It’s purposefully obfuscated, overtly difficult, especially in the beginning, and specifically designed to be punishing for those who don’t grasp the mechanics at a decent pace. In this game, you will live and die by the RNG- or Random Number Generator, for those unfamiliar with the term. Much in like a tabletop game, a series of poor rolls can end your adventure rather abruptly. So, would rolling the dice for such a game be up your alley? Let’s find out.

[...]

Overall, Mordheim: City of the Damned is an enjoyable game- but only if you’re into tough experiences that can, and probably will, test your patience. Fans of the XCOM strategy formula may find a lot to love if you give it time and pick up on the mechanics quickly. Those who are easily frustrated by obfuscated design decisions, painful AI RNG (especially when it comes to looting your fallen party members!), or maybe poor at strategy RPGs in general will want to stay far, far away from Mordheim: City of the Damned. For the audience that can appreciate Mordheim, there’s a large amount of content, multiplayer, and a variety of warbands and campaigns to try out while exploring the dilapidated city. For this reason, Mordheim earns 4 out of 5 GiN Gems.

Focus Home Interactive sent out a press release about the new playable faction in the Witch Hunters DLC, for Mordheim: City of the Damned.

MORDHEIM: CITY OF THE DAMNED WELCOMES THE WITCH HUNTERS DLC

Mordheim: City of the Damned, the video game adaptation of Games Workshop's cult classic tabletop game, today welcomes its new playable warband! After seducing players worldwide with its brutal and unforgiving tactical combat, Mordheim gets a new playable faction - The Witch Hunters - which joins four existing ones: the Mercenaries, the Sisters of Sigmar, the Skaven and the Cult of the Possessed. The Witch Hunters DLC is composed of lethal units such as the Witch Hunter Captain, the fanatic Flagellant and the Executioner. This faction will of course be playable in multiplayer, but will also offer a new and unique solo campaign scenario dedicated entirely to the Witch Hunters!

Amidst the rivalries and violence that splits the Empire, sinister forces creep back into the lands of men. Against these evils stand the Witch Hunters, remorseless warriors in service to the Temple of Sigmar. The witch practicing her fell magic, the mutant spreading its corruption of flesh, the necromancer violating the sanctity of the grave, the daemon seeking to possess souls - these are the foes of the Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunters will allow nothing to waver them in their defense of mankind against these evils. They are the Templars of Sigmar, and with sword and fire they will return their god's justice to Mordheim.

Aside the release of the Witch Hunters DLC, Rogue Factor have continued working hard adding new content and fixes based on all the precious feedback and comments from the player community, for which more information can be found here.

Here are some screens that came along with the press release.

Darth Roxor of the RPGCodex has reviewed the tactical RPG Mordheim: City of the Damned:

[...]

Hell’s Ditch

Nevertheless, despite ending the previous chapters on rather negative notes, my overall opinion of Mordheim is completely different. I think the fact that I currently have 80 hours of the game clocked on Steam, and that I’ve been playing it all the time for the entire last month, is enough of an indicator how much fun I’ve had with it. In those 80 hours, I’ve only managed to get one warband to max rank (Skaven, took me a whopping 60 hours in total) and take another one half-way through its campaign.

Simply put, Mordheim is just a solid game of squad tactics. If you’re a sucker for the genre and for the world of Warhammer, you should get it immediately. But even if Warhammer is unknown to you, The City of the Damned offers loads of content and plenty of good, old-fashioned fun. You just have to make sure to turn a blind eye on its remarkably bad technical side.

To be honest, I have no idea how many of the things I’ve praised or lambasted in this article can be traced to the original tabletop, and which are the work of Rogue Factor. But whatever the case may be, as a debut loaded with expectations from an unknown studio, Mordheim is proof enough that the lads have talent. I wouldn’t mind them delivering a PC adaptation of Necromunda in the future.

Our Eye rounded up some reviews of Mordheim: City of the Damned.

Wargamer:

So yes. Mordheim: City of the Damned is slow, with painstakingly-modeled combat to the points of being persnickety. It's stilted and gummy, fiddly in navigation and purposefully obtuse in hinting at item location. Hell, Mordheim has more numbers being flung about per turn than the United Nations Statistics Division receives in a week.

But to be honest, as my warband scurries off into the bastard burroughs of Mordheim's bountiful decrepitude once more, I don't think I'd have it any other way.

The Mittani:

Despite its flaws, Mordheim: City of the Damned is a fairly fun title that will appeal to strategy enthusiasts, and fans of the Warhammer franchise, while not alienating players that are new to the setting. Guiding a small squad between battles nicely satisfies the kind of itch familiar to players of X-COM or similar games, and the injury system means that sacrificing units is worth the risk — the time and resources invested in your characters won't be wasted by a knockout, and it's almost certain your warband will live to fight another day.

God is a Geek:

Mordheim: City of the Damned is an excellent turn-based strategy game that makes you care greatly for your Warband, even if they are heartless killers. There was a moment when the leader of Hex on Legs (my Warband) was on his knees, completely at the mercy of the enemy. I sent my hero and three henchmen to his aid, but in the process I lost lives and took serious casualties. I was angry and tired, full of sickening rage and frustration, but at the centre of my soul, I was upset. I was sad that I’d never see him again and he would never be able to exact revenge on the ones that slayed him. Rest in peace, Thonius. You weren’t supposed to die that way.

The Mad Welshman:

Obviously, the story did not go exactly that way, but that’s half the fun of a game like Mordheim: The stories it generates. Be aware that customisation is limited to costume colour and a few options for your characters, be aware that it’s not the most newbie friendly game out there, and you will very likely have some fun with this pretty well crafted and atmospheric game of urban strategy.

Explorminate:

Most concerning, to me anyway, is the price. I don’t usually weigh cost too much. What’s cheap to me might be hella expensive to someone else. In this case, though, $40 seems like a lot for what is, in the end, basically one scenario. This goes beyond the complaints with XCOM:EU having the same gas station on every map. No matter what you choose to do, it’s still your dudes vs. someone else’s in the same city. That’s it. To some extent, that’s the issue with the license: Mordheim takes place in one location and complaining that there aren’t other options is sort of like wondering why Monopoly doesn’t offer different layouts. But it doesn’t change my feeling that the cost is well above what players would expect to get for that outlay. It’s unfortunate. This is a well-made game that deserves to be played – I hate saying it, but you’re probably going to want to wait till this one goes on sale.

The Escapist, 4/5

That Video Game Blog, 9/10

Jame Slack Games, 8.5

Cube3D, 7

Softpedia, 4/5

Mordheim: City of the Damned launched today:

Release Note - Full Release (version 1.0.4.1)

Hello Everyone,

Rogue Factor and Focus Home Interactive are proud to present you the full release of Mordheim: City of the Damned!
After a tremendous year in Early Access and with the help of our amazing community of players, we have finally reached the last step toward one of our greatest and proudest achievement.

Here is a list of all the latest updates that come with this version (1.0.4.1)

Updates

• Up to 7 Languages available to play the game: English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Polski, Русский
• Unlocked progression to Rank 10 for Warriors and Warbands (max rank)
• Unlocked story missions of Act 2
• Added the introduction video for Mordheim: City of the Damned!
• Voice over for Prologue and Epilogue of Story missions have been added
• It will now be possible to select a Morale threshold for PvP matches. Be aware that once this threshold is reached, a Morale check will trigger
• In Skirmish missions, we added a Rating restriction field when creating a lobby
• Added multiple sound FX and narrator lines during missions and in the menus
• New musics for all bosses

General Fixes

• Fixed the opacity of Quest Helpers to make them more visible in all maps
• The Tiring debuff effect has been reduced from -20% to -15%
• The Dual Wield debuff effect has been reduced from -30% to -25%
• Fixed a quest FX that was not placed properly in the second mission of the Mercenaries
• Changed the starting position of the Chaos Ogre in Mercenaries Story mission 4
• When a caster suffers from the curse “Smite” or “Tzeentch’s Wrath”, during the next injury roll it can only get one of the following results:
• Amnesia
• Trauma
• Deep Wound
• Full Recovery
• Near Death
• Fixed an issue in Tutorial 2 where the keys to cycle between targets were displaying A & D instead of Q & E
• Modified the text for the achievements about looting Chests. It will now properly indicate you must search Loot Points
• A message has been added on Round start to let Player know that Out of Action warriors dragged themselves away from the battlefield, thus taking their weapons with them
• It is now possible to view the Injury Tab while training skills and spells
• We’ve split the Buff and Debuff panels in two different panels instead of being on the same one
• Repositioned the Offense and Strategy Points and grouped them 2 by 2 to improve their visibility
• Moved the Hired Sword list in the Reserve panel and specified it was View Only (no hired swords can be hired from there)
• Fixed multiple assets issues with LODs and materials
• Fixed buff animation not playing on the Bloodletter
• Updated all shouting sounds for all Warriors and Daemons
• Changed references to "Campaign" in the Main Menu to "Warband"
• Fixed issues with the attack camera
• Multiple miscellaneous bugfixes and tweaks

[...]

Focus Home Interactive released the campaign trailer for Mordheim:

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Some new screenshots appeared on the Mordheim site, showing bosses and neutral enemies.

Mordheim: City of the Damned shows off huge and powerful Bosses and Neutral Enemies!

Rogue Factor’s tactical-RPG Mordheim: City of the Damned put its most dangerous creatures under the spotlight with a selection of in-game engine artwork of the gigantic horrors that can be scouted out and killed in the doomed city. Whether it be bosses you'll encounter while playing the campaign or neutral daemons roaming the shadowy streets, danger in Mordheim can take multiple forms.

Considered as objectives in many of the missions, bosses like the gigantic Manticore or the ferocious Chaos Ogre will keep you on your toes. What are their special powers? How tough are they to kill? There is only one way to find out: have the courage to face them!

Among the neutral daemons is the lethal Bloodletter. This huge, hulking enemy stalks the wretched city of Mordheim and it is up to you to engage or ignore. Neutral enemies will of course attack any warrior considered as a threat, either from your warband or your opponent’s. Some players will remain hidden to avoid them, some will bravely choose to challenge them, and some might even lure them to have these relentless enemies engage the opposite forces.

Whatever your playing style, it's a good time to completely rethink your strategies with these game-changing monsters! Mordheim: City of the Damned is coming out this November on PC.

Thanks Eye.

GameWatcher interviewed Rogue Factor General Manager Yves Bordeleau about the challenges, development, and success of faithfully creating Mordheim: City of the Damned. Mordheim will be launched on November 20.

GameWatcher: The game you’re making is an adaptation of the tabletop game. What led you to pick Mordheim as the basis for an adaptation from tabletop to video game?

Yves Bordeleau: Well, first of all, we were huge fans of the tabletop game. So we had a good knowledge of the actual tabletop game’s lore and rules. When we decided to move forward with the idea of creating a video game for it, we were concerned with creating a game that would translate well.

GameWatcher: What kind of steps did you make to ensure a good seamless adaptation?

Yves Bordeleau: We were aware that sometimes one to one adaptations from tabletop games to video games doesn’t translate well because of the absence of physical human interaction and dice rolls or mechanics that are just clunky on computer. When we decided to work on Mordheim, we went out of our way to spot things that would be problematic in adaptation. One instance was the pace. The tabletop game has specific rules when it comes to things like order of player actions. By those rules, you play all of your units in your warband for a turn, and then your opponent plays all of their units. On a 10 unit vs. 10 unit map, you’d be waiting forever between turns.

In order to break this up, we introduced an initiative ladder, which factors in an initiative stat value given to all of your units and your opponent’s units. The higher a unit’s initiative, the sooner that unit will have their turn. It made the game much more dynamic. It opens the opportunity for players who want to act first and fast to construct their warband with units that have high initiative, sacrificing statistics like armor that other players might favor more.

We also decided to implement a system inspired by the Warhammer Fantasy RPG from Fantasy Flight which used maneuver points and skill points. Our version is blue points and red points. Blue points are strategy points and red points are offense points. There are moves that use points from one category or a mix of both. For instance, reloading a weapon with ammo costs a few blue points and a red point where casting an offensive spell will require red points alone. This helped to add variety to the game. Outside of changes like that, we tried to remain extremely faithful to the original tabletop game with hardcore elements like permadeath and limb loss; you can literally have a leg chopped off. These were fan favorites. [...]

GameWatcher: The game you’re making is an adaptation of the tabletop game. What led you to pick Mordheim as the basis for an adaptation from tabletop to video game?

Yves Bordeleau: Well, first of all, we were huge fans of the tabletop game. So we had a good knowledge of the actual tabletop game’s lore and rules. When we decided to move forward with the idea of creating a video game for it, we were concerned with creating a game that would translate well.

GameWatcher: What kind of steps did you make to ensure a good seamless adaptation?

Yves Bordeleau: We were aware that sometimes one to one adaptations from tabletop games to video games doesn’t translate well because of the absence of physical human interaction and dice rolls or mechanics that are just clunky on computer. When we decided to work on Mordheim, we went out of our way to spot things that would be problematic in adaptation. One instance was the pace. The tabletop game has specific rules when it comes to things like order of player actions. By those rules, you play all of your units in your warband for a turn, and then your opponent plays all of their units. On a 10 unit vs. 10 unit map, you’d be waiting forever between turns.

In order to break this up, we introduced an initiative ladder, which factors in an initiative stat value given to all of your units and your opponent’s units. The higher a unit’s initiative, the sooner that unit will have their turn. It made the game much more dynamic. It opens the opportunity for players who want to act first and fast to construct their warband with units that have high initiative, sacrificing statistics like armor that other players might favor more.

We also decided to implement a system inspired by the Warhammer Fantasy RPG from Fantasy Flight which used maneuver points and skill points. Our version is blue points and red points. Blue points are strategy points and red points are offense points. There are moves that use points from one category or a mix of both. For instance, reloading a weapon with ammo costs a few blue points and a red point where casting an offensive spell will require red points alone. This helped to add variety to the game. Outside of changes like that, we tried to remain extremely faithful to the original tabletop game with hardcore elements like permadeath and limb loss; you can literally have a leg chopped off. These were fan favorites.

- See more at: http://www.gamewatcher.com/interviews/mordheim-city-of-the-damned-interview/12388#sthash.M2bfopK9.dpuf

Mordheim: City of the Damned is getting closer to its official launch planned for the first weeks of November! Here's an overview trailer:

Rogue Factor announced on Steam their turned based tactical RPG game Mordheim: City of the Damned has received a new Early Access content update.

Release Notes Early Access Content Update 4

Hello Everyone, Rogue Factor and Focus are proud to provide you with this forth update of the Early Access. Like we did before, we want to present you a list of all the updates that come with this version, but also the known issues and limitations of this Early Access version.

WARNING: We’ve added a lot of data in this version. The installation of the game now takes about 22GB where it used to be about 7GB. This updated version will have a download size of about 6GB.

Rogue Factor sent a press release with information their turned based tactical RPG game Mordheim: City of the Damned has new content & entered Early Access Phase 4.

Mordheim: City of the Damned enters Early Access Phase 4

Engine switches to Unity 5, new maps and max-level warbands made available!

Mordheim: City of the Damned, Rogue Factor's turned based tactical RPG adaptation of Games Workshop's tabletop game, is receiving another content update for its Early Access!

While featuring new content, today's update also notably switches engine from Unity 4 to Unity 5 bringing improvements to the game's lighting, shadows, and post-processing effects... maiming Skaven and Possessed - or Humans - has never looked so good!

Three new skirmish maps are available - one procedurally generated map, and two unique locations: the Bridge, and the Library. These new maps emphasize verticality, with plenty of opportunities for both ambushes and sniper nests.

Today's update also brings max-level warbands for all 4 currently available races. With these, you'll get a taste of how powerful your own warband will be when experience gain and levelling will be made available in one of the future updates. You'll also get to try dozens of new spells and skills to bring havoc on the battlefield!

More features will be added in the future, such as customisation, consumable items, and Warband levelling. Be sure to check our Steam Page for more details about what's coming next!

Rogue Factor has been busy this week on Steam as they released two updates for Mordheim: City of the Damned. The first update mentions phase three with a video.

The second update talks about the latest update for the second phase of Early Access.

Our second content update and it provides the new features:

• A new playable Warband: The Cult of the Possessed.
• Reserves in Warband management: Warbands now have "reserves"
• You can choose from, to organize your Units before going to combat, based on their class and cost.
• All actions described in the tutorials are now available:
• Search and pray are now possible during Missions.
• New Extra objectives: With the search action now available,
• Various extra objectives have been added as a new option to the Skirmish
• Games (Marked for Death, Crush their Will, Wyrdstone Rush).
• Turn timer is now available in Skirmish: As requested by our
• community of Players, you can now set a time limit for a Unit turn.

As we already stated, we value the input of our players and we've done
some adjustment according to the feedback we gathered.

Peter Parrish of IncGamers posted a new video preview of Mordheim.

IncGamers' Peter Parrish and Tim McDonald go head-to-head in Mordheim's skirmish mode. It's an Early Access game, so that's pretty much all you can do.

Mordheim: City of the Damned gets its second gameplay video, and this time we get to see the Sisters of Sigmar faction that will be added in the next update.

New gameplay feature video as Mordheim: City of the Damned shifts into Early Access Phase 2

The Sisters of Sigmar, weapon and armour equipment now available.

Rogue Factor’s turn-based tactical-RPG Mordheim: City of the Damned will receive its first content update on Thursday the 11th, having successfully launched its Early Access campaign – to 90% ‘very positive user reviews on Steam’ – a few weeks ago. Based on the Games Workshop tabletop game, from Thursday Mordheim: City of the Damned will now feature The Sisters of Sigmar, and the first part of the Warcamp – a hub from which you manage your warband and other activities – with weapon and armour management.

Mordheim: City of the Damned launched with The Mercenaries of the Empire, and The Skaven of Clan Eshin, with the first content update slated for Thursday bringing that total to three. The Cult of the Posessed along with a host of other features will be released in the near future according to the Early Access road-map on the Steam page.

For a detailed explanation of exactly what's coming in this first content update, see below:

The Sisters of Sigmar: A magic and melee based warband deemed as 'heretics' by the broader Cult of Sigmar because they miraculously survived the impact of the twin tailed comet. Completely devoted to their god, the Sisters of Sigmar seek to cleanse Mordheim of the many evils within the city walls, locking away the wyrdstone to ultimately contain its corruptive properties. Their skills include 'Healing Circle', an AOE healing spell. 'Comet of Sigmar', a magical attack that bypasses armour. And finally "Blessing of Speed", which increases movement of its target by 1 meter, and increases climb, leap, and jump-down checks by 10%.

The Warcamp: The Warcamp is a hub from where you’ll head into skirmishes and manage your warband. This feature will be updated incrementally, to include more activities throughout Early Access and to release.

Armour and weapon customisation: In this update, you will be able to change the armour for each unit in your warband with statistical changes. Visual changes will be coming later in the Early Access. You will also be able to change weapons, with two sets for each unit. Visual changes for weapons are included in this update.

Do not worry about looting items for now - as we head into Early Access Phase Two, we've given you a whole lot of armour and weapons to choose from, which can be accessed from the Management area of your hideout!

More information.