Black and Blue and Green All Over - Mordheim AAR

I've been taking part in a Mordheim campaign at a local shop, using my Orcs & Goblins. They're an... interesting warband. I decided to lean heavily into the goblins and squigs, which may have been a mistake. But by this point I'm relatively behind the rest of the group since I can't make the regular meetup nights, so I should just start throwing the greenskins into the fray and just deal with the consequences at the other end.

One recent game was against Les and his Reiklanders in a modified version of Wyrdstone Hunt, with six wyrdstone counters on the table.

While I had managed to grab three of the six, enough of my squigs, goblins and orcs went down and I decided to retreat rather than continue to be shot full of arrows. Unfortunately, my leader got captured. Les was kind enough not to just slit the orc's throat, but he did take his armor and Lucky Charm.

I also played against Christan and his Possessed in a normal version of Wyrdstone Hunt. I knew his warband was pretty far along in their progression, so I was looking to just feed my goblins and squigs to the twisted freaks and get away.

The strategy worked, but I lost enough of the henchmen that I had to spend most of my gold to get them back, and the advances I got weren't especially useful.

I'll probably continue to muddle through in the campaign, but I probably wouldn't try this version of the warband again.

Painting Update - Mordheim, Warmaster

It's been a while since I've posted a painting update, so here's a look at what I've been doing since the last one. 

Also, this is the first painting update I've done with a lightbox. Please let me know if it improves the images at all!

I painted a Mordhiem warband for a campaign that started earlier this year. I liked the look and theme of the Outlaws of Stirwood Forest. They're a fun bunch of range-focused models that can take a Warrior Priest. His Prayers of Sigmar have been extremely useful so far.

I've also finished my Dogs of War army for Warmaster!

This first brigade consists of four units of Knights - heavy cavalry with good armor that can deal a lot of damage on the charge, but still grind through combat if they're not flanked.

My artillery brigade consists of two Galloper Guns - lighter guns than Empire Cannons with less range but better movement speed - and two units of Dwarf Warriors.

And pikes! This Pikemen brigade is one of the unique features of the Dogs of War list. Pikes are based like cavalry, and count as defended when being charged by cavalry in the first round of combat. However, I found that they were almost always better on the offense. While their armor isnt' great, they can put out an intimidating amount of attacks on the charge.

Since the Dogs of War list forces you to take four units of Crossbowmen, I decided to back them up with combat units. This brigade has two units of Ogres supporting the ranged units.

And this brigade has two units of halberdiers, which can be fielded either as cheaper Swordsmen, or better armored Marauders.

And finally, the commanders and the monster! The old Dogs of War list had a Tuska - i.e., a mammoth/elephant equivalent - but this has been replaced by a Giant in the Revolution list.

The Commanders consists of a General, a Hero on a Griffon, a Paymaster with his Paywagon, and two Wizards.

You'll see the army in action in two more upcoming battle reports, and I plan to use it again at Fall In! this year.

Also, this counts as one of my five armies for my painting goal!

The Sons of Ulric - Mordheim AAR

We're back in the ruined streets of Mordheim again this week with another campaign game. 

This time I played against Ted and his Middenheimers. This was Ted's first game of the campaign, so the Mercenary warband was fresh against my more experience Outlaws, but the difference in Warband Rating wasn't enough to net Ted any underdog bonuses. 

Knowing he'd be facing off against a shooting warband, however, Ted did decided to equip his heroes with Wolfcloaks, which gives a +1 save against ranged attacks. This meant I was facing off against at least three heroes with 3+ saves!

The scenario was Wyrdstone Hunt, with three wyrdstone tokens on the table. We deployed on opposite edges and I had the first turn. 

With no ranged attacks coming back at me, I cautiously (although Ted would say cowardly) advanced my Outlaws forward and managed to grab one token with my Petty Thief. 

Confident in his armor saves, Ted moved his warband forward, grabbing the other two available and putting pressure on my warband. 

  

My Petty Thief and his guard were forced to retreat as an Outlaw was taken out by one group of Middenheimers.

While on the other side of the board, a sacrificied Outlaw meant my Champion was able to ambush one of Ted's Youngbloods and put him down. Ted's leader also fell from a constant barrage of arrows. After this loss, Ted decided to rout rather than keep moving towards my warband. 

While not the most pulse-pounding of games, Ted came out of the arrow-storm generally alright and didn't suffer any real losses. For my part, I had to replace an Outlaw that was killed, but scored poorly on my Rarity Rolls, so no Fire Arrows for the Rangers just yet. 

We did note that table might have had more open lanes than it should have, which meant my longbows could reach across the table fairly easily. 

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.

Gromril, You Say? - Mordheim AAR

With the start of the new year comes, apparently, the start of a tradition with some players at Aetherstorm Games - a Mordheim campaign. 

I was intrigued when I first heard about it since Mordheim is one of those old Specialist rulesets that Games Workshop abandoned, but still has a dedicated following. And unlike Blood Bowl, Necromunda, and Epic (sort of), there hasn't been much in the way of reviving Mordheim since the Old World was blown up. 

I decided to go with the Outlaws of Stirwood Forest warband featured in one of the later Town Criers. It's a primarily ranged focused warband of humans, relies only on bows, and can have a Warrior Priest in support. 

This test game was against Bruce and his Dwarves. It wasn't a great matchup for my Outlaws, since I have to roll 5+ to wound (after rolling to hit) and then roll 6+ to actually remove a dwarf from the table. But since this was just a pre-campaign skirmish game, I'd take this as a test.

The table, by the way, is a massive 16'x4' area with a variety of terrain, held at the store and placed by Bruce. It's very thematic and looks great!

For the first few turns, it seems like things might actually go my way. I managed to take out two dwarves after stunning them and charging with other members of the warband. But then Bruce's Noble got stuck in. Between his 3+ armor save, Toughness 4, and an insane amount of criticals, he cut a swathe through my fighters. Even though he was rolling morale checks each turn, the Dwarves' high Leadership meant that they were likely to stick around for awhile (although I now realize he should have also been taking All Alone tests on his Noble as well. Something to remember!).

I eventually decided to retreat rather than allow a single dwarf to take out my entire warband, or just rout from a failed leadershop roll. I won't go into all the details about after game events since this was a one-off, but I did decide to drop two Henchmen and instead give my leader light armor and hunting arrows. My Warrior Priest also recived light armor, which will give him a 5+ armor save with his shield. So while my warband will only have eight members, I'll have a little more survivability and lethality from the get go.

My plan when playing dwarves in the future? Run around them and shoot a lot! Hopefully I'll be able to complete objectives without having to engage Bruce's warband. Otherwise, I'll just have to cause as much damage as possible from a distance.