Against the Grain

Lore & Background

The Reikland farmlands are the Empire's lifeblood, producing the grain that feeds its armies and cities. When the Skaven, under the leadership of the warlord Rasknitt, began corrupting these fields with warpstone, they aimed to starve the Empire into submission. The Ubersreik Five, a band of heroes from the earlier Vermintide, are dispatched to halt this plot, venturing into the heart of the countryside where the Skaven have established a base of operations in a fortified barn and windmill complex. The campaign underscores the Skaven's cunning—they don't just fight with claws and blades but with biological and chemical warfare, using warpstone to taint the land itself.

In Their Own Story

The morning mist hung low over the fields, the golden wheat now sickly and blackened at the edges. Kruber spat into the dirt, his hand tightening on his halberd. 'They're poisoning the very ground we walk on,' he muttered. Ahead, the windmill creaked, its sails turning slowly, as if mocking the Empire's helplessness. Bardin sniffed the air. 'Warpstone, lads. I can taste it. They're grinding it into the grain.' The team moved forward, the silence broken only by the distant chittering of ratmen. Saltzpyre's prayer was a low growl: 'Sigmar, grant us strength to cleanse this filth.'

Reader's Guide

This mission kicks off at a trampled farmstead, where the first objective is to torch three Skaven supply caches hidden in barns and silos—each one guarded by chittering packs of clanrats and the occasional stormvermin patrol. Watch your step: warpstone traps litter the ground, glowing green and ready to erupt in toxic clouds. Midway, the path funnels toward a rickety stone bridge, where a Skaven warlock engineer frantically rigs it with explosives; you’ve got seconds to snipe him before the bridge collapses and cuts off your advance. The finale erupts inside the windmill’s grinding chamber, where a Rat Ogre smashes through the grain sacks. While your team fights the beast, one player must sabotage the warpstone-grinding mechanism—a series of glowing gears that need to be smashed in sequence. Once the mill groans and collapses, the Skaven’s poison supply is buried, but the lingering warpstone dust in the air reminds you: this is just one wound in a war of attrition.

Did You Know?

• The windmill in Against the Grain is a reference to the classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario 'The Farm of Doom' from the 1990s.
• Warpstone, the Skaven's corrupting fuel, is a key element in the campaign, mirroring its role in the End Times lore as a catalyst for disaster.
• The campaign's barns and fields are filled with hidden Skaven tunnels, a nod to their underground empire-building in the Warhammer world.
• Against the Grain was one of the first Vermintide 2 missions to feature dynamic weather, with rain and fog affecting visibility and gameplay.