Squatters - Mordheim AAR

The Mordheim campaign continues, and Reinhard's Rangers found themselves fighting against Mike's Carnival of Chaos in the streets inside the city's walls. 

The scenario was Occupy, and we rolled up four buildings for the objectives which were (going clockwise) the skull tower in the center, the wizard's tower with the spiral staircase, the yellow square tower, and the red shingle roof building.

Mike and I deployed opposite of each other and I won the roll for first turn. Apart from some shooting on my side (and a lucky critical hits from my leader's Elf Bow), both warbands sprinted to get into the nearest buildings. I managed to place some men in the skull tower and the yellow tower (knowing that I could rush at least my leader and a champion into the red roof building before the game was over. Mike got a couple guys into the second floor of the skull tower, and a few more into the wizards tower.

So the game ended up mostly being a fight between the units in the yellow tower. For a couple turns it seemed like the two sides were evenly matched and the game would end in a draw. Unfortunately, even with my Warrior Priest's Hammer of Sigmar spell (and why does he only get Academic skills?!), my men in the tower were eventually overpowered and taken out, leaving it in the squishy, sticky hands of the Carnival in the last turn.

The after-game rolls weren't terribly bad for me. Mike lost a couple Henchmen, but got a decent number of advances for his warband. I got a few advances as well: my Leader gained Quick Shot and my Warrior Priest gained Healing Hand, which seems extremely useful.  The spell allows models that are knocked down or stunned to instantly get back up, and it only needs a 5+ on 2d6 to be successfully cast. My Outlaws (re: meatshields) went up to WS4, which is great for their intended use.

Unfortunately, my warband didn't come away unscathed. My Warrior Priest will be missing the next game, and my Petty Thief was killed, so most of my gold was spent acquiring a new one, and I also rolled high enough on my Rarity rolls to get another Lucky Trinket/Rabbit's Foot combo for my second Champion. One more game and I should have enough to give it to my Petty Thief, and that will see my Heroes kitted out. Although Mike did point out to me the usefulness of Fire Arrows...

Observer Effect - Mordheim AAR

Last Sunday the local gaming group met up to play the first game in the yearly Mordheim campaign they run. Since it's my first time in the campaign, I decided to put together a Outlaws of Stirwood Forest warband. They seem a little underpowered, especially compared to some of the other warbands available, so my goal for the campaign isn't to win, but to survive!

The first scenario saw four warbands all vying for warpstone counters. Four warpstone counters could be found near the initial starting points, but a larger cache worth 1d3 warpstone was placed at the center of the table, which would entice the warbands to duke it out for the motherlode.

The Undead were the first to reach the main cache. However, the Carnival were close behind, enganging with both the Undead and Dwarves.

My Outlaws could see the scuffle on the horizon and thought better trying to engage in that mess. Instead they climbed the tower and lobbed a few arrows into anyone they could see.

The vampire was joined at the top of the hill by a couple brutes from the Carnival, and one actually managed to deal a wound to the Undead leader.

The Dwarves were also up to their beards in Plaguebearers and Nurglings.

There was a massive fight between the numerous Undead and the Carnies, with fighters getting knocked down again and again.

Still my Outlaws looked on, not wanting to get into the massive three-way fight in the center.

Finally the Carnival and Undead did enough damage to each other that they were forced to begin Rout tests. The Undead were the first to leave the table, followed by the Carnival.

I then had a problem in the form of four angry Dwarves heading my way. Arrow after arrow pinged off their armor. However, I luckily managed to gang up on the Dwarf leader and knock him out, and Bruce (the player running the Dwarves) failed the first Rout check he had to take.

Somehow, the Outlaws had won the game!

I didn't get the massive warpstone, but I got lucky on my exploration and rarity rolls. My leader got an Elf Bow, Lucky Trinket, and Rabbit's Foot (house rules for the campaign means a warband can only buy a single Lucky Trinket and Rabbit's Foot after each game), and another hero got Hunting Arrows. Unfortunately, my Petty Thief drank some bad well water and will miss the next game. He did find a fancy jewelled sword as consolation.