After a bit of a break for the summer, in autumn 2025 we ran another Empire Civil War event, centred around the Abbey of the Slaughtered Stag in Averland. Fifteen Empire players (and one Empire themed Ogre list) took part, as we fought over the rights to the titular Abbey.
I can never run an event without a gimic, and this time is was organic faction growth. At sign up I asked everyone to pick a faction or declare their own. Most people struck out on their own, with some notable exceptions who professed loyalty to Reikland and Talabecland. Then after each game, the winners made a small speach, while the losers had the chance to sign up to one of these winning factions. It created some amazing emergent storytelling across the day, with some factions going strong (the SIgmarite Abbey of Dorlosk), while others were subsumed into other factions before taking them over from the inside (Averland joined up with Stirland before ousting their leader and taking control).
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The day consisted of 3 games. A small skirmish mission where players had to loot Abbey treasure by torchlight whilst avoiding the horrifying monsters of the forest. Second was a supplies looting mission where you could either control or burn down a village (invoking themes of despoilation in the 30 years war). And finally a big multiplayer negotiaton gone wrong where each faction had to rescue their emissary from the centre of the board.
If you'd lke to try out any of these ideas yourself, check out the event and mission pack here!
And take a look at the next post for links to the prequel roleplay session and the full lore write up.
