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Well, a friend of mine and I got together on Saturday to start off another Mordheim campaign.  There were three of us battling it out during the last one, with any luck we might be able to suck another one or two of our friends into this one...

Question - with the Sister's Steel Whips, can they charge and attack out to 4" (meaning a total of 12" range), or can they only use them when they don't charge (8" range, but no getting attacked back)?  We diced off for it since we couldn't find anything in the rules and played it that they couldn't charge and use the extra 4".

*edit* - I just found the FAQ/errata up on the Specialist Games site that completely changes the way that steel whips work, so the question is now moot... */edit*

Anyway, I was playing a Reikland Mercenary group:

Captain - Crossbow, Sword, Brace of Pistols

x2 Champions - Sword, Pistol

x2 Youngbloods - Sword, Buckler

x2 Swordsmen - Sword, Buckler

Marksman - Crossbow

Elf Ranger

He had 9 models as well, with a TON of whips and sigmarite warhammers spread throughout, along with a couple of shields and at least one set of light armor.

My rating was a few points lower, so I rolled for the scenario and it came up as Breakthrough.  I set up my band with the three missile troops in the back, each covering a line of advance (and the elf in the middle so he could move to either side if necessary) and my hand to hand guys all paired off a little farther up.  His band was split pretty evenly behind cover to the right and left.  There were buildings forming a parimeter around the center of the board which had a few scattered dungeon tile pieces (that all included walls high enough to hide a fig behind).

The sisters spent the first few turns cautiously advancing while I kept moving my shooters to close off avenues and my hand to hand guys moved to cover where the concentration would hit.  My first three or four turns of shooting did nothing (either missing or failing to wound when I did hit), but I had one good turn where all three had good no-cover shots that helped me from completely getting ganging up on.  His force hit my right flank hard where my Captain, one Champion, one Youngblood, and both Swordsmen were and though we bounced off each other for a few rounds it started looking grim after a Swordsman went down.  On the left, my Marksman managed to hold up one of his gals, but the Youngblood went out and my lone Champ was facing off against two of his girls with only two shooters to support him and two more Sigmarites ready to pile in.  The right flank degenerated into a mass of ugliness after I'd managed to drop his leader and a supporting henchman, but my leader pulled through for me by charging in and blasting one of his minor heroines out of the game.  He was forced into taking a rout check, needing a 7 since his leader was out, and failed it promptly with an 8 or 9.

After the game I lost the Swordsman that had gone out, but my Youngblood recovered with no injuries.  His leader got an Old Battle Wound (which really sucks), the lesser hero lost a finger and a point of WS to go along with it, and the henchie recovered fine.

My Champ from the right flank racked up two kills and got a point of WS (putting him at a nice '5', should help him not whiff on that nasty pistol charge again... ), noone else advanced this game.

Gotta spend a chunk of my earnings getting another Swordsman to replace the one I lost.  Those whips really hurt a list designed around parrying rather than armor, but I suppose my pistols and crossbows really hurt his 6+ saves so it's a push.  It was a good, close game that could have easily gone either way in the end.  Another turn or two and my left flank was going to be crushed, allowing him to get the 2 figs to the edge.  Not to mention that I was almost at the point of having to take my own Rout tests...

Our only question is about the whips.  I'll do a Google to see if I can find a FAQ or clarification or something, but if anyone here has an opinion or answer it would be appreciated.

Kev

Please please be in texas - I can't find a good Mordheim group anywhere nearby!

Close, Charlotte North Carolina.

But probably not close enough.

KW

Another report, against the same guy.  We've got a third one playing Reiklanders now, so I made up an Undead warband (always been interested and keeps us from having all human bands) and got absolutely squished by the Sister's. 

My new warband looks like this:

Vampire (hvy armor, shield, spear) - I like the 4+ armor save, and this guy's a beast so I figured I might as well splurge a bit with his kit.  Not sure if I like the spear yet or not, but I really like the idea of it and figured I'd give it another few games before I move on).

Necromancer (sword, bow, lifestealer spell - blows so far).

x3 Dregs (x2 maces each) - keep 'em cheap until they begin to mature...

x2 Ghouls

Dire Wolf

x4 Zombies

He'd lost one of his henchmen in his last game (vs the Reiklanders, he lost), and one of his heroes was sitting out with a broken leg from the last game (wasn't pretty from what I hear).  What he HAD done, unknown to me before the game, was to kit out pretty much every one of his ladies with slings.  I played one game with a Skaven warband before switching over to the Possessed one in the last set of games we'd had, and I knew how devestating a run of good rolls could get against that many slings.

My Vamp, both Ghouls, and the Dire Wolf all lined up on the left side and I formed a 'mini-block' with 4 zombies, 3 dregs, and the necro following behind on the right.  He had two shooters on top of a building in his d-zone, 3 on my left including his leader, and the other 3 on my right.

I marched the big mass up my right flank while the ones that could run did so up the left.  I hit his leader with the ghouls, the vamp went chasing a guy farther back, and the dire wolf took on another on its lonesome.  We played the rules for fear wrong, instead I fell back into WFB and his guy fled from the vamp.  Oh well, now we know.  Hails of slingshot rocks peppered him all game, but the 4+ save kept him from losing both wounds to the light missile fire.  He ended up on the right flank.  Meanwhile, the ghouls pulled down his leader, and the dire wolf and both ghouls just couldn't pull down the last guy on the left flank (my rolling went from bad to worse).  He kept getting knocked down and stunned, but I just couldn't make that last roll (the one time he got stunned, his turn was next so he went right back to knocked down... )

The right flank eventually hit his line (which included the Auger), and things just got ugly.  I tried to back it up with the Dregs (2nd wave), and the vampire eventually.  The necro just tried to snipe one guy but couldn't ever roll the 10+ needed to get the spell off.  We swung back and forth with my guys getting knocked down a lot on his turns, and me barely scratching them in return.  One zombie went out early, but I had one turn where he'd knocked two zombies and a dreg down on my turn and he put two out on his (including the dreg).  The necro went out on a lucky slingshot and I failed my next rout test with an 11.

I see now that I can't split up into an 'uber' group and a big mass of slowness again.  Think I'll try splitting the 'good' fighters (vamp, ghouls, wolf) and 'bad' fighters (zombies and dregs) in half and try again with two, slow moving, branches.

My necro got a nervous condition, the dreg died, and all 3 henchmen (2 zombies and a ghoul that must have gone out on that same last round) survived.  We forgot to do $$, I'll have to catch it up before my next game.  Figured I'd buy another chepo-dreg and another ghoul if I could afford it, that'll bring me up to 13 figs and 4 for my rout test (might come in handy next time... ).

His leader, the only fig of his that got put out, survived against the odds and got a wound increase with the following advancement roll.  He got a henchie group up (+1 A), the Auger (skill), and another hero (skill).

I'm aiming at having my next game some time this week after work, I'll post it when I do.

Kev

Another week and another game with the Undead. This time I played against the Reiklander warband. My list was the same as last time, having bought a new Dreg to replace the dead one and a lucky charm and rope and hook for my vamp. The Reiklanders had four crossbow marksmen, a blunderbuss markman, and two hand to hand heros (one of his champions was out because of a failed Well test, as was one of my Dregs). We rolled scenario 7, the treasure hunt.

Terrain was pretty well distributed across the board, with 7 different locations that needed to be searched. 2 near my deployment zone, 3 closer to his, and 2 that were around the center line between us. He put 2 crossbow marksmen on each flank, the 2 combat heroes split between them, and the blunderbuss right in the middle. I spread out across my zone with a Dreg and Zombie ready to check one building on my right, 3 Zombies spread in front of my Vamp, one Ghoul, and the Necro in the center, and a Dreg Ghoul and Dire Wolf on my left.

We took turns weeding down the possible locations while advancing on each other. He took pot shots with the crossbows, putting one zombie out but not much more. I consolodated everything behind the two remaining objectives in the center, daring him to come and check them. He stood back and waited. One of my Dregs found the treasure, as I moved in on both locations en mass. His shooting broke up the assault a little (though my vamp passed his first ever lucky charm save against the blunderbuss), but the ghoul and the vampire both got into combat with his two marksmen on the left as the Dreg began retreating to my board edge. I moved two zombies up in the center, trying to clog up the middle so he couldn't make a dash to get LOS to that Dreg, and the battle began to degenerate into isolated combats and the occasional pot shot from his other two marksmen. By the end of the game, he'd take six of my henchmen out of action (both ghouls, the dire wolf, and three zombies) and I'd taken a hero and three henchmen out of action on his side. We were both making rout checks and trying to hold on for those last few turns. The Dreg with the treasure made it out due to the heroic efforts of a Zombie holding up his leader for three turns, the only member of his warband that was even close to intercepting the retreating Dreg. On a high note, my Necromancer managed to get off his Lifesteal spell the one time I had the chance to cast it - putting a marksman out of action before the vamp had a chance to swing at him...

After the battle I rolled insanely well, only losing the dire wolf (yeah, that hurts, but it could have been a lot worse). I don't remember if he lost anyone or not, but I don't remember it being too painful for him. He got a BS 5 marksman, and a BS 5 "that lad's got talent" marksman, as well as some other random advance. My vamp got the Jump Up skill (heh, heh, heh), the Necro got +1 BS (yay /sarcasm), the Dreg that found the treasure got Resiliant and a point of Ld, and my Ghoul pack got +1 A (which sounds like it'll be really nasty next game).

Next game his champ has to sit out due to a bad well roll (yet again he's down a fig), but he made enough to get a second blunderbuss!!! I replaced the dead dire wolf and added a third ghoul; bringing my number of members up to 13 (seems like a good number for an undead band).

It was a very close, and very good game all around. As with most good games, it just came down to a couple of die rolls in the end that decided how it all ended.

I had to run back to my house to pick up the poker tabletop for the night and feed the dogs, by the time I got back the Reiklanders and Sisters were going at it. It looked like the Sisters had managed to flank around the Reiklanders, as they were all knotted up in a little defensive castle trying to use those BS 5 guys to hold off the advancing slingers of doom (tm). The Sisters made the final dash around the corner into the firebase and things began getting ugly. They might not be the best shots, but man do those bitches pack some heat in close combat. Reiklanders started going out and he decided to take the voluntary rout instead of sticking with it (definately the better choice considering the situation he was in).

Next battle is against those same Sisters, can't wait to see if the 3 Attack ghouls live up to the hype...

Kev

Hoo-ray, Dakka ate my report!

Ah well, here 'tis again...

Saturday saw two more games, one vs each of my regular opponents. 

The first game was against the Sisters.  We rolled up the wyrdstone hunt scenario, with 4 pieces of wyrdstone.  Three pieces were placed closer to one edge, the other on the other edge.  He won the roll for set up, and made three groups of three spread pretty evenly across his deployment zone.  I set up my Vamp, Dregs, and Dire Wolf on the left; Zombies, Ghouls, and Necro on the right.  He moved forward and grabbed up the three pieces on his side fairly quickly.  I grabbed the one on the right with a ghoul, speeding them ahead of the zombie screen, behind some good rock cover.  The left group just sped ahead, keeping to cover where possible and keeping the two less experianced Dregs ahead of the Vamp, Wolf, and other Dreg.  Sling shots didn't do much, and my ghouls began to crumble the right flank as the left flank began to falter for the undead.  All three of my Dregs were put out, as the Vamp took out one of the two assailants on him.  The Ghouls, however, buzzsawed through just about everything they hit.  After dropping every henchman on the right flank, they lined up for a triple charge against his leader.  Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, Gid chose to voluntarily rout before things got worse.

His henchmen recovered fine, but I lost a Dreg (the one with the most experiance, of course) and rolled the same injury for BOTH of the remaining Dregs; -1 movement.  Yippee.  I did get a free zombie from my loot roll, and bought a second Wolf and a replacement Dreg with my winnings; putting me at a fun 15 members for my band.  The vamp got an initiative increase, as did the ghouls, and both crippled Dregs rolled new skills so they're now resiliant.

The second battle was against the Reiklanders.  We rolled the mission where you start with d3 pieces of wyrdstone, gain one for every enemy hero you put out, and lose one for every hero you lose.  I won the set up roll and made a big messy mass of corpses pushed right up against my forward corner.  It wasn't quite enough to force him back off the ledge in his zone, so he had two BS 5 crossbowmen staring down at the horde with a BS 4 xbow near his table edge and the rest of his guys (including both blunderbusses) hiding behind some walls next to the sniper perch.  He won the roll for first turn, and proceeded to blow my Necro and a Dreg off the table.  The game went downhill for me from there...  My vamp ended up getting on the sniper perch and came through the two, 2+ to hit crossbow shots unscathed only to end up being tied down with the hero that wouldn't die (my dice were apparently mad for some reason... ).  I swept around both sides of his hiding spot and managed to wither the blunderbuss shots, only losing a zombie, but my charges faltered and only came in piecemeal.  I began having to take rout checks, and failed the second one ending the game.

Nothing horrible happened in my recovery.  Jon was, of course, fine since I didn't manage to drop a single one of his guys all game.  He made a ton of loot, and got a couple of advances.

More to come next week, as we see if Gid (the sister's player) keeps the services of the Ogre Bodyguard he picked up for free from his exploration roll.  Thankfully he's got to play Jon first...

Kev

Kev, awesome to see some Mordheim battle reports. Some players in my own gaming group are beginning Mordheim as well. Could I get your feedback on the following 500 gold Warband?

Vampire: Spear (I like the strike first ability), heavy armor, shield, free dagger

Necromancer: Bow, sword, free dagger (May change his equipment around depending on what spell he rolls, if that's allowed)

2 x Dregs: Sword/mace/free dagger, mace/mace/free dagger (I kept them cheap like you advised)

2 Ghouls

2 Ghouls

And either 1 Direwolf or 3 Zombies (If the Necro rolls Reanimation, I'll keep the Zombies and buy a Wolf or two later on)

Rockin' reports.

Keep them coming - I'm going to go reread the rulebook and try to convince my wife to play.

I think I'll start posting our battle reports -- from South Asia.

Navin

Sorry for the lengthy downtime, been busy.  It sounds like a good starting force.  The T 4 on the ghouls and the ability to have the majority of your force moving more than 4" a turn will be nice.  I'd try to hit the 10 model mark out of the gate, if you can squeeze the points out.  If not, it shouldn't be a big deal for the first game or two, and you should be able to get enough gold to up your numbers fairly quickly.

Things I've noticed - it's easy to get a nice horde of shambling dead going, but don't expect them to steamroller over your opponent.  Leadership increases on the vamp are just about a must have for this kind of warband - I've taken and failed more rout tests than with any other Necromunda/Mordheim gang I've ever played.

I had another game two weeks ago against Gid's sisters.  He massacred me.  It was a breakthrough, and I was the attacker (uh-oh right off the bat).  I had the vamp and two wolves on my left, uber ghouls and non-crippled dreg on my right, and a huge mass of five zombies two 3" move dregs and the necro going down the center.  He'd added a pair of figs to his warband and was up to 11 this game.  He split his force up, using the Ogre bodyguard to counter the vamp and wolves, and just spreading the rest of his guys around.  The vamp and wolves made it within two turns of hitting the board edge, but things got bloody in the center and on the right quickly.  One turn of phenominal rolling on Gid's part and about 1/2 my warband was out of action.  I failed the rout, having only put one of his guys out.

However, every model that could get an advance got an advance this game.  My vamp got that all-important point of leadership.  The necro got another point of BS, of course - no spell lovin for that guy any time soon (sigh).  All three dregs got skills - the crippled ones both picked up mighty blow so they're effectively S4 T4 in hand to hand now.  The new dreg went ahead and picked up resiliant.  My ghoul group got a "that lad's got talent" increase finally.  The now-hero ghoul got a toughness increase (yay T5 ghoul!!!), and the 'group' of one (the third one died this game) got a WS increase.  I had enough gold to replace all my henchmen losses, but blew the roll to add one to the uber-ghoul squad and had to settle for a non-upgraded ghoul as a replacement.

Let us know how the campaign goes.  I've got another game tonight (hopefully) against Jon and his Reikland marksmen of DOOM (two guys with BS5, crossbows, AND nimble so he can move and shoot - I need to get there early so I can hide a lot... ; ) ).

Kev

 

As promised, Jon and I had a tumble yesterday afternoon. 

He had a total of 8 guys, every single one of them had a crossbow, three had blunderbusses, two halberds, the leader had a brace of dueling pistols, and four BS 5 shooters - those are the highlights... 

His rating was about 20 lower than mine, so he rolled the scenario.  It was the find the loot one again.  We set the terrain up so there was the outlines of a big ruined building in the center of the board, using old dungeon wall tiles so there was a decent amount of cover from ground fire.  Around this was a nice perimeter of houses and buildings.  We had a total of 7 possible locations for the loot to be on the board, scattered around nicely - 3 of them inside the massive ruin which seemed right to us.

He won the roll for set up and made me put down first.  I chose a side that would leave him without any tall structures that he could get up on while leaving me plenty of good ground level cover.  My vamp, two dire wolves, non-crippled dreg, and all three ghouls set up on the left so they could make a dash up the board edge.  The zombies formed a bolt-catching screen in front of the two crippled dregs and the necro near the center.  He spread out with a BS 5 shooter on each side, the other two dead center, and his leader on my left flank.  I won the roll for first turn.

I ran as fast as possible up the left side, deciding that if I was going to get hit I might as well have something that I could jam down the shooters' throats in exchange.  The zombie horde moved up behind the closest section of the massive ruin and reformed into two blocks, each ready to move around the sides of that section.  Jon and I quickly searched the loot counters and ended up with the one that my horde had surrounded as the last one on the table.  By this time, my vampire, wolves, and ghoul henchmen had maneuvered around to Jon's far right flank (my left), giving him little in the way of shooting options and forcing him to move in toward the center to avoid getting overrun.  With the loot counter revealed, the mess was on.  I moved my necro around the corner and shielded him from shooting with a pair of zombies, moved the other half of the horde out in the open, and moved the fast guys to the right so they were able to threaten his right (my left) flank.  He shot, a lot, but those out results from shooting just weren't coming up like they had in the last game.  The blunderbusses (or, shotties as we call them) mowed down a line of undead, but only put one zombie out.  Another zombie went out somewhere, as did the newest ghoul henchman.  By that time, I had my vampire in combat (put one guy out and had a second one knocked down) and the two dire wolves had put one guy out and had a second one down.  The whole time my necro booked it toward my table edge with the loot.  I could have been an a$$ and held him near the edge to give my vamp a chance at putting out the knocked down guy at his feet, but I was in range and decided to just end the game on a high note.

I lost both zombies that went out, but the ghoul recovered with no problem.  His henchman was fine, but his hero has to skip the next game due to an injury (he rolled the 'miss d3 games' injury and got lucky... ).  Only one of my heroes, the non-crippled dreg, got an advance but next game I'm all set to mop up even if I lose.  We haven't rolled up what was in the treasure box yet - we were running too short on time to completely finish the downtime stuff.

So, a close and well fought game.  I was starting to doubt the competativeness of this warband with the last couple of losses - now I feel a bit better.  Next game is against Gid's sisters though, we'll see how I feel after that one.

KW

I really enjoy your reports, kwade. Usually I don't have the patience (or the attention span) to read all-text batreps, but your writing has a concise and descriptive style that really lends itself to these entertaining blurbs. I can envision what's going on and where, which makes for a nice read. Kudos.

Posted By Reodd on 03/02/2006 6:07 PM
Rockin' reports.

Keep them coming - I'm going to go reread the rulebook and try to convince my wife to play.

My wife wont be interested but my 9 year old daughter will be keen...just found my rulebook.....ummmm.......BYE( Hurridly scurries to bits box for minis!!!!)