A New Year and a New Games

Our BTB campaign unfortunately fizzled without any result. However, we have learnt some lessons about running campaigns that we will be able to apply in the future.

We have started our next Mordheim campaign now that 2012 is upon us. This time we have started with a simple, muck-around campaign without Campaign Points or any way of determining an overall winner. We are also focusing on using mainly the official rules together with our house rules and the content from Liber Malefic. We just want to play Mordheim!

The first game of the campaign was a muli-player Treasure Hunt scenario (from Chaos on the Streets / Town Cryer 5). JF decided to give Undead a try. BN played Osterlander Mercenaries and set up opposite to JF on the table. AF (in her first Mordheim campaign) played Skaven and had no choice but to set up on a table edge between JF and BN.

Round 1
The skaven moved first and began scurrying towards a three story building close to the centre of the table. Every warrior had a sling and they were eager to barricade themselves in safety. The undead moved to cover behind buildings and began skirting around behind the skaven. The mercenaries split up sending Brother Benedict (a Priest of Taal who started with the Earthshudder spell) and two henchmen towards the building that the skaven were fast approaching and the rest of the force (the heroes and the ogre) to try to gather wyrdstone.

Round 2
The skaven had reached the building in their second turn and used the ropes to get two warriors up to the top and one gained some wyrdstone. The undead inched closer to the skaven careful to stay in cover. A ghoul picked up a piece of wyrdstone. Brother Benedict and his two cousins also carefully moved closer to the skaven.

Round 3
The Eshin sorceror (with the Gnawdoom spell) and some verminkin moved out of the building in preparation to take on the undead while another pair darted out towards to shards of wyrdstone in the centre of the table. The vampire left the cover and safety of his warband and charged the exposed sorceror surprising the ratmen but failed to land any hits. The sorceror then proceeded to knock the vampire down. The rest of the undead moved towards the skaven as quick as they could (not very quick) while the mercenaries continued to move around the table (a henchman and the ogre both gained wyrdstone).

Round 4
Extra ratmen spewed forth from building and charged the vampire and a verminkin took it out of action while other skaven pelted the undead warriors with stones to little effect. The two skaven who were sent out to collect the wyrdstone were both successful. In retaliation for the demise of their leader, the ghouls charged the closest verminkin. Brother Benedict also broke out from cover and ran forward to successfully cast Earthshudder on the skaven's stronghold. After the dust settled, the only effect was that the skaven assassin adept had been knocked down while the other two skaven left in the building were unaffected.

Round 5
The destruction of the building gave the skaven free movement to charge all warriors forward. Brother Benedict was then charged by a black skaven who like the vampire was ineffective in close combat despite the priest not being combat oriented. The fray between the skaven and undead was also bloodly but at the expense of the skaven. The casulties for the ratmen were quickly mounting.

Round 6
The cowardly skaven ran away with their tails between their legs. This left the undead and the Osterlanders. The undead had the advantage that they were in a single group while the Osterlanders were split up. However, the mercenaries had the advantage that they were still at full strength while the undead had lost only a single warrior but the vampire is the backbone of any undead warband.

Round 7
The undead charged Brother Benedict and his two cousins who were both slain to protect the priest. The dregs also fired at but failed to hurt the mercenaries heroes and the ogre who were coming across the table as quickly as possible.

Ending
The undead had lost enough warriors that they turned and fled before the ogre could avenge the deaths of his kin. The undead finished with 1 shard of wyrdstone, the skaven with 2 shards and the mercenaries with 2 shards. A shard dropped by the skaven was unable to be collected by the undead or the Osterlanders before the end of the battle.

Aftermath
The undead had a ghoul die but the vampire fully recovered. A skaven Night Runner was killed and the Eshin Sorcorer was captured by the undead. The Osterlanders lost two henchmen kin. Taal deemed fit to grant protection to Brother Benedict from future close combat by granting him Tranquil Fauna (a Mark of Taal from the Liber Malefic article Miracle Workers).