Practice... We Talkin' 'Bout Practice..?

Randroid and I have been able to get together to play practice games for the AoS campaign we're going to be involved with at the beginning of June.  I'm learning a ton, both about my warband and about how to play this game.  Randroid has tried out multiple builds since he has more experience with the game than I do.  And I've stuck with one build and tried out different strategies.  Some with good success, some leading to a quick death.  His group isn't fully finished yet but he at least has basecoats on each of his minis, this makes my Lord Castellant on Dracoth stick out like a sore thumb.

I got too caught up to remember to take photos.  I wish I had.  So, next time I'll take some; I promise.

As for painting the rest of the warband, I feel like I'm close to having the other nine done.  I need to finish their base and some touch-up then they'll be don.  I had grand ideas of how the army would look but my mind is a much better painter than my hand.  This coming weekend is a holiday weekend here, so I'd like to get the whole shooting match done this coming weekend.

I cleaned up my work space again so I'm re-motivated to paint, which is very good since I have to get it done.  Hopefully I'll have more pictures soon to keep track of what to do.

In the Meantime 6/2/15

Another Monday has passed and we weren't able to get the large group together for some Mordheim action so a couple of us played our little side game instead.  We've played two of the side scenarios in the past and the score was Skaven 1, Witch Hunters 1 but in the most recent game three members of the WH band died.   So we were a bit short handed.  In the post game searching roles we did find an elf ranger, so there was that.

The scenario was a chance encounter (or something like that).  The Skaven deployed first and went first.

Skaven turn one saw them move forward and fire a steady barrage of slings toward the Witch Hunters.  Eight projectiles missed their targets, one knocked out-of-action a zealot with a bow, and one glorious stone did a wow.  The skaven needed a 7+ to hit the elf ranger; the rolls came down as 6, 4 (needed to hit), 4 to wound, and 4 to stun.  I didn't even get to use my new toy!

Turn one for the WH saw the ranger roll over, some hiding, and my lone crossbow shot stunning a night runner.

Skaven turn two sent a black skaven in to finish off the ranger.  Also my lone remaining shooting warrior was stunned by a stone.

In turn two for the WH's we passed our route test and proceeded to do a whole lot of nothing.

Turn three for the skaven saw more sling fire take out the crossbowmen and a flagellant was charged and taken out.

Turn three for the WH's didn't happen as we voluntarily routed.

Rolling for injuries at the end saw the flagellant die and the crossbow carrying witch hunter go stupid.  So needless to say I will be restarting that warband.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of this slaughter because my phone ran out of memory.

Darkest Before Dawn 5/1/15

Darkest Before Dawn

There’s power in the nighttime that you won’t find in the day. Greed doesn’t only manifest while the sun is up, it grows stronger in the dark.  Rumor has it that the Scalari hid a multitude of riches around the city and a map to some of these treasures is buried in the square.    

Terrain

4’ x 4’ table.  Each player takes turns putting out terrain on the table.  Each warband will place one treasure chest.

Deployment

Each warband will start within 10” of a table corner.  The warband with the lowest rating will deploy first, then the next lowest and so on.  If there are more than four warbands, play can be on a 6’ x 4’ field and deployment will be spaced out close to evenly.

Starting the scenario

Roll off d6, then go clockwise from the high roller

Ending the scenario

All but one warbands routes, maximum of 8 turns

Special Rules

To open a treasure chest come into base to base contact with a chest.  Roll a d6, on a 4+ the chest opens.  Each chest can only be opened once contains 2d6 gold.  Any chest left un-opened at the end of the game is vacated.

Night fighting – During the first four turns of battle it is dark out.  When shooting, all to hit rolls have a negative one modifier.  Shots needing a 6 to hit (before darkness modifier) cannot be fired. 

Treasures – Beneath the gallows at the center of the square there is a map.  The first hero to come into base contact with the gallows get the map.  If the hero is knocked down/stunned/OOA he drops the map and it is picked up by the attacker.  If the hero is knocked down/stunned/OOA by shooting the map falls to the ground.   The next hero to come into contact with the map now has it.  The hero that holds the map when the scenario ends will add it to his warbands holdings.  If no one holds the map at the end it is lost.

Experience

                +1 to winning warband leader (if multiple warbands fulfill all eight turns this is not given out)     

                +1 survival

                +1 to a hero for any warrior taken out of action

                +1 to the hero that holds the map

The hero holding the map may re-roll one exploration dice.  Also his roll for rare items gets a +2.

The scenario actually started and ended in the dark.  Four warbands routed on their turn four.  The scenario winners were the Ratkateers.  However, they were unable to obtain the map.

Here are some photos of the game:

City setup

City setup

Dwarves to the left of me, Skaven to the right...

Set to Charge a Rat Ogre... didn't go well.

The Drill 4/21/15

Two of us were able to meet-up last night and played a 1v1 scenario.  The scenario we played was a custom scenario entitled "The Drill".  Here is a copy of the scenario:

The Drill

Fever!  The low-lives of Mordheim have heard the rumors of the riches below.  Many rudimentary digging devises have sprung up around the city, some even work.  You have stumbled upon one of these dig sites.  The machine must be destroyed and plundered.

Terrain

4’ x 4’ table with a machine in the center.  Each player takes turns putting out the remainder of the terrain on the table.  Each warband will place one treasure chest.

Deployment

Each warband will start within 10” of a table edge.  The warband with the lowest rating will deploy first, then the next lowest and so on.

Starting the scenario

Roll off d6, then go clockwise from the high roller

Ending the scenario

The machine is destroyed, all but one warband routes, or eight turns.

Special Rules

The machine has 4 wounds and 5 toughness, the machine is immune to poison, shooting, magic, and critical hits.   The machine is automatically hit.  Roll to wound.

To open a treasure chest come into base to base contact with a chest.  Roll a d6, on a 4+ the chest opens.  Each chest can only be opened once contains 2d6 gold.  Any chest left un-opened at the end of the game is vacated.

Experience

                +1 to winning warband leader   

                +1 survival

                +1 to a hero for any warrior taken out of action

                +1 Warrior who destroying the machine

Bonuses:  The warband that destroys the machine adds a d6 to your exploration dice.

The first turn belonged to the skaven, The Ratkateers and they used it to move up toward the drill.  Orden Molotka, Witch Hunters, moved forward in their first turn as well and got a few shots off with nothing but a knock down coming from it. Turn two saw a steady barrage of fire come from the Skaven slings not doing much damage but getting some stuns.  Witch Hunter turn two saw some shot but no action or damage.  Turn three meant both warbands were close enough for charges so some hand-to-hand could start-up.  Unfortunately for the Orden Molotka this began the Witch Hunter exodus.  Over the next three turns,  The Ratkateers took out 6! Witch Hunters and lost no warriors.  The Orden routed and The Ratkateers won the day.  They didn't, however, destroy the machine.

The Board

Rats Hiding as Rats Do

Group of Hunters

Game Play 3/23/15: Mordheim

One month between games?  No not really.   I just didn't post before before and now I changed up my warband.  I will still be playing Witch Hunters just a slightly different lineup.  (After a death in this game it will change again.)

Occupy 3-21-15:
We finally got all four of us in one place and played a four way Occupy of sorts. Each of us started within eight inches of a corner and had one main building in our quadrant to occupy.  We also placed a central building to give the game five total objectives.  Here are a couple shots of the city.

City View: Occupy

City Veiw 2

The participating warbands were Undead, Possessed, Skaven, and Witch Hunters.  Here are the starting views of each warband.

Undead

Possessed

Skaven

Witch Hunters

The scenario began with each warband moving forward in turn 1.  All four leaders started with the same approach of splitting up and heading toward opponents and objectives.  Turn two is when the first carnage started and it led off with two Skaven slings taking out a Flagellant and my captain on a steady stream of sixes and fives from the Skaven warband.   Since my warband only had seven members and two were taken out before I did anything other then move, I decided to rush the rest of my members into fights.  I took one Possessed henchmen OOA and then proceeded to lose almost everything else.

Witch Hunters about to route

I voluntarily routed with only two warband member left in play.  The Undead left one turn after me and the Skaven snatched the victory out of the hands/claws of the Possessed.

Post Game
One of my flagellants lost his life.
The only Witch Hunter who did anything will Miss Next Game.
The remaining three that I rolled for all got a full recovery.
I found four shards of Wyrdstone and no extra GC.
We haven't sold Wyrdstone or searched for rare items yet, we'll do that at our next game.

We should be playing some one on one matches on Monday.  Hopefully my Witch Hunters can perform better.

Update 2/24/15: Mordheim

We played!  We didn’t get as many games in as we thought but at least we played. 

Scenario:  The first game of the evening saw my Witch Hunters take on the Undead.  The scenario we rolled for was Surprise Attack.   My Witch Hunters were too busy searching the ruins to notice the Undead approaching from the west.  I’ll do a story style write-up later. 

Result:  The Undead destroyed me causing me to have a route test from the get go.  They continued to maul me for a bench of turns but I was very stubborn and kept passing route tests.

Injuries:  One of our Witch Hunters received multiple wounds which included a miss next game and a -1 Initiative.

Most Valuable Warrior:  The Warrior Priest did his part to keep us in the battle taking 2 of the Undead out-of-action including an outright kill on a Dreg.

Money:  My Injured Witch Hunter had to fight a Pit Fighter.  He defeated him in round 1 of combat and won 50 gc for his trouble.

Exploration:  2 Wyrdstone were found

Blurry shot of the table

My first knock down.  He knocked me down earlier but my boy took care of him.

The second game was between the Undead and Skaven.  I enjoyed this game from afar.  They played the Scenario:  Wyrdstone Hunt.

Skaven with "Wyrdstone"

Necromancer with "Wyrdstone"

 It was so much fun to get to play.  Now I know to make some wyrdstone tokens, hiding tokens, and other stuff I overlooked or forgot about.

Game Play - Practice Games

I'm getting closer and closer to knowing all the rules but I'm still so far away.  Last night hosted two more practice games of Mordheim.  A friend of mine wanted to tryout Skaven so we played a couple Skaven versus Witch Hunters games.  I should have taken photos but I forgot.  This was my first opportunity to use some of the terrain I'm working on and it definitely adds to the game.  Once I get it painted up it'll be even better.

The first game was Break Through and the Skaven chose to be the attackers.  As the previous Storytime hinted at I dropped my two zealots and added a crossbow to one Witch Hunter and pistols to the other two.  The added shooting helped me quite a bit in this game.  The rats used their speed well and covered it with sling fire very well.  My flagellants, though tough, thought they shouldn't be there and were quickly put out of action.  My Witch Hunters passed four route test before the Skaven even had to take one.  Luckily for me they failed their first test and gave the Witch Hunters the win.  Of my eight warband members who started the game only three finish. The Skaven started with ten and routed at 7.  I won the objective but the Skaven kicked my butt.

The second game was Skirmish.  Once again the Skaven showed their speed and fighting prowess against me causing me to pass three route tests.  I was able to attack their weakest players and cause them to take their first route test which they promptly failed.  Again they won the pure number game but I accomplished the objective.  My flagellents again proved worthless in hand-to-hand combat with all three of them getting put out of action, two of them by henchmen with daggers.

I'm looking forward to getting more scenery done, my warband done, and painting up and converting the Skaven.  Hopefully we can get a campaign going soon...