Fighting for Nothing

There are many stories of valour in Mordheim. This is not one of those stories...

Kalroth heard a dry, rasping voice speaking a foul language in the distance. Suddenly the air started to feel heavy with a familiar sensation. Black magic was being cast. He looked over to his lord, Ak X, and knew that the noble sensed it also. Ak X scowled but nodded his head and Kalroth slowly lowered his crossbow which had been aimed at the head of the human. There were worse things in the ruined city than humans.

"Undead are about. Truce?" Ak X asked and spat on the cobblestones.

The mercenary captain - a large, hairy Middenheimer - nodded and lowered his Hammer. He spoke a quick word to his men and the humans and dwarfs lowered their weapons. Looking around, the dwarf engineer pointed to a couple of ruined buildings that overlooked the area from which the foul words had drifted. His thunderers slung their crossbows over their shoulders and started moving. A couple of human marksmen followed with their bows.

Set Up
This game was a two-versus-two battle. The Dwarf Treasure Hunters (AR) were allied to the Middenheimer Mercenaries (AS). They chose to set up all together. The Restless Dead (AA) were allied to the Averlander Mercenaries (NP). They chose to set up in separate groups. The allied warbands in each of the teams moved simultaneously with their fellow warband to save time. The scenario was Skirmish from the Mordheim Rulebook and was played on a 5' x 4' table. A team would lose as soon as one of the two warband routed.

Round 1
Both warbands start advancing towards each other.

Round 2
Kalroth, the Dwarf Engineer, is situated in the second story of the large grey building. He misses a long range shot at the Averlander Captain. Tarstan (a Thunderer) in the damaged grey building misses Lucid, the Necromancer for the Restless Dead.

The Undead and Averlanders seek cover which slows their advance. This set back for the Undead is especially unfortunate for the Averlanders.

Round 3
The Dwarfs and Middenheimers decide to take advantage of the slow pace of the Undead and start moving towards the Averlanders. A Middenheimer Marksman slips while climbing down from the damaged grey building but lands on his feet.

Both of the Bergjaegers for the Averlanders slip around a wall to fire their long bows at the advancing Dwarfs and Middenheimers but both shots miss.

Round 4
A Middenheimer Marksman with a bad hangover arrives (this was the second battle for AS and he didn't realise that one henchman group had two Marksmen so we let the Marksman enter from the Middenheimer's table edge). An eager Middenheimer Youngblood climbs up on the castle wall segment separating the two sides. Tarstan feels dismay as he misses the Grave Guard named Dismay. Reliacer (another Thunderer) hits one of the Bergjaegers by her shot fails to wound. Kalroth moves to another window but his shot misses.

Nightmare (the Liche) casts Lifestealer on the foolish Middenheimer Youngblood and stuns him. Thankfully young fellow falls back against the crenelations of the old castle wall and doesn't fall to his death. Both Bergjaegers and a Halfling Scout miss their shots. The other Halfling Scout fails to climb up on to the little grey building.

Round 5
As the Dwarfs and Middenheimers continue to advance, Kalroth misses one of the Bergjaegers again and Reliacer misses the Grave Guard named Horror.

The Averlanders continue to shoot as they fall back. One of the Bergjaegers takes a Middenheimer Swordsman out of action (the first casualty for the evening). The other Bergjaeger climbs up the little grey building and shoots but misses. One of the Halfling Scouts  hits Darbrum (a Beardling) but fails to wound. The other Halfling Scout fails to climb again (it is obvious why he is a scout and not a thief).

Round 6
The Dwarfs continue their volleys of crossbow bolts but every shot misses once again. After a few shots whiz by, the Bergjaeger on the little grey building decides he is too much of a target and attempts to climb down. He falls and lands on hand which breaks his wrist (Hand Injury) the battle is over for him. The Averlanders continue to fall back and they shoot as they retreat but their shots continue to miss.

Round 7
Kalroth stuns Lucid with a well-placed crossbow bolt. Likewise, Tarstan shoots his crossbow and stuns the Averlander Sergeant. Nightmare's armour saves him from an arrow wound from the other (less foolish) Middenheimer Youngblood. A Middenheimer Marksman shoots a zombie through the head and returns it permanently back to the grave.

In retaliation, a Halfling Scout shoots Darbrum and takes him out of action although his wounds were not serious.

Unfortunately, it was pack up time and the battle in a draw just as blood started flowing.

Aftermath
During exploration the Middenheimer Mercenaries found 3 gold crowns in Ruined Hovels (6 6) and four shards of wyrdstone. The Restless Dead bump into the Ogre Bodyguard named Nightmare Catcher and he agrees to Return a Favour (6 6 6) from years and joins the warband for their next battle. This is fortunate since they only found three shards of wyrdstone and won't have a Grave Guard participate in the next battle due to a poisoned Well (1 1). The Averlander Mercenaries also meet a Hired Sword who chooses to Return a Favour (6 6 6) although this character remains a secret. The humans find four shards of wyrdstone. The Dwarf Treasure Hunters find four shards of wyrdstone but nothing else of note.

Returning to Mordheim

It has been a while but the lure of wyrdstone has attracted a fresh wave of explorers into the city of the damned. This year there are some new faces (LS, NG, AR and AS) joining the old crew (AA, JF, MD and BN). This campaign will be a training opportunity for the new recruits while allowing the rest of us to muck around  before things get serious. We will continue to use our house rules and will be playing in and around the city of Mordheim itself.

The first game was a large three-versus-three battle.

The forces of evil went up against the forces of good. The evil alliance was made up of NG (Beastmen Raiders), LS (Marauders of Chaos) and AA (Necrarch Undead) while the goodies were made up of MD (Shadow Elves), AR (Dwarf Treasure Hunters) and BN (Reiklander Mercenaries). The scenario was Treasure Hunt from the 'Chaos on the Streets' article found in the Mordheim Annual 2002 and was played on a  6' x 4' table.

Set Up
The good team managed to set up on the edges with the most wyrdstone. They also rolled to move first. This *should* have allowed them to start with some early momentum.

Round 1
The Marauders of Chaos set up last and had no wyrdstone nearby. Therefore the entire warband was put on the table within 12" (and direct line of site) of the entire Reiklander Mercenary warband. Without thinking the Reiklander Mercenaries with four Marksmen with crossbows stood firm but only succeeded in taking a single Warhound of Chaos out of action. In retaliation the Warhounds of Choas charged and dispatched the two Youngblood heroes. (The Reiklander Captain obviously had never encountered this warband before and did not realise that the warhounds were able to charge 14".)

The other warbands started fanning out to collect the loot.

Round 2
The Marksmen took out another Warhound of Chaos but two Marksmen were lost in the counter charge. The Necrarch vampire who had previously climbed to the top of a building to secure a shard of wyrdstone and was taken out of action by a Shadow Walker.

Round 3
The Reiklander Captain decided that losing four warriors was too much and called the retreat (failed rout test). The Abomination trundled out into the open towards the Dwarves.

Rounds 4, 5 and 6
The Dwarves charged into the Abomination which was a very bad idea. The Abomination made quick work of the Dwarves and successfully routed them (voluntary). Unfortunately the Necrarchs lost an Acolyte and also routed. Prior to their rout, the Centigor charged a Troll Slayer and was cut down.

Rounds 7, 8 and 9

The forces of chaos swarmed the Shadow Elves. The fleeing dwarves and humans last saw the five elves fighting valiently but the force of evil was too great empowered no doubt by the high concentration of wyrdstone in the area. Not one of the elves was ever seen again.

Aftermath

NG found found 8 shards. LS found found 4 shards. AA found 2 shards.The evil warbands chose to share the spoils of war evenly though (surprisingly) and so all three ended with 4 shards.

MD disbanded his Shadow Warriors after all five warriors were taken Out of Action and the Shadow Master died. The only other death was a Warhound of Chaos. Both Reiklander Youngblood heroes will miss their next battle (the wimps).

During exploration the Necrarch's found a Well (1 1) that looked interesting but an Acolyte only found poisoned water and will miss his next game. The Dwarfs found a Ruined Hovel (6 6). The Reiklanders found a vague Mordheim Map in an Overturned Cart (5 5) and also found a Ruined Hovel (6 6). The Marauders found a Straggler (4 4) and immediately sacrificed him to the dark gods. It is not known whether the Beastmen Raiders found anything of note.

The human sacrifice must have impressed one of the dark gods as the Marauder Chieftain received a mark of chaos. One of the Gors proved his worth by collecting wyrdstone and was promoted to be a hero.

Sweat, Strong Drink & Rotting Flesh (Round Two - Shornaal's Beastmen (DG) verses the Liche Chronicles (AA))

"Sweat, Strong Drink & Rotting Flesh"

The Liche Chronicles / Restless Dead / Silent Threat verses Shornaal's Beastmen / Beastmen Raiders with Mark of Shornaal / Scion of Chaos

Wyrdstone Hunt

An old crone cackled softly to herself as she hung some goatsweed up to dry next to her window, for that window gave her a good vantage point of the surrounding area. If a gale hadn't been blowing, Ursaltia would have gone outside for a better view, but her withered frame did not take kindly to the biting wind so she pulled up a rickety stool and propped her elbows on the window sill in anticipation of the following show.

Ivan snorted, and though the chill wind stole the sound, Rasputin's warm ale in his belly and his shaggy hide were more than enough to dispell the cold. Ivan barked a few orders through the wind, and tightened his grip on his sword as he strode forth into this little valley. There were rumours that a lucky warband might find some treasures if they look hard amongst the burnt-out ruins of this once-quaint little out-lying village, and with the ale making Ivan brave and itching to fight, Ivan was hoping that he wasn't the only one to have heard the rumours.

Magnus shivered with the chilling wind, but found no sympathy with any of his company even though he was second-in-command. For undead, of course, do not feel sympathy, let alone feel the cold. Lestat de Lioncourt, once a great magician and now a great liche, had surprisingly left Magnus in charge of the undead horde in order to search an abandoned building by himself. Magnus was now on his way to a smaller building next to a large patch of forest in the middle of the valley, but even with all this backup around him, a feeling of unease started to add to the miserable chill he was feeling.

The normally eerie voices of the forest did nothing to daunt the beastmen this day - even the hounds had lapped up their fill, and even even having one of his Gors and he himself find a treasure each did not satiate the bloodlust that Ivan was now feeling. Unfortunately, there didn't look like there would be much blood split, for one a straggly-haired, rat-faced human looked like the only opponent that would spill any blood. Never mind, for the zombies and wights accompanying him would provide for some spirited gore-flinging.

A smile spread across Magnus's face as he held up the gold ring that he had found, but the smile slowly faded as he realised what he was looking at through the ring. "Company!" he yelled, as a warhound and Gor charged through the large burnt-out opening in the forest side of the building. His sword whipped out quickly to parry the Gor's clubs, while the zombie next to him engaged with the chaos hound.

Warned by Magnus's shout, Armand the grave guard and two zombies rushed to attack a couple of warhounds who were sprinting towards them from the forest. The power of the wight blade was then seen, as a warhound felt it's energy-sapping strength as was taken OOA. The other warhound, though against two zombies, managed to avoid injury and knocked down a zombie in retaliation.

A stalemate seemed to ensue and Magnus and the Gor traded hit for hit, but with neither managing to find a damaging blow, though the tables seemed to turn in Magnus's favour when the warhound was stunned by the zombie. A short-lived lull in the wind caused Magnus to cough, as the overwhelming stench of sweat, strong drink and other nasty (for humans anyway) odours quickly filled his nostrils in the confined space. Magnus was used to the smell of rotting flesh though, so he was not put off and kept up his defense without pause.

Outside, more join in the battle, though the slowness of the undead hinders their cause. A Gor knocks down a zombie which is then taken out by a warhound, while two other warhounds kill another zombie and knock down Armand. Gabrielle, once a famed local beauty but not a ghastly wight, is lucky enough to kill a Gor and Nicholas, another grave guard, knocks down a warhound, but this does little to stop the carnage as one of the warhounds kills Armand.

Inside, the tide has swung the other direction as the zombie takes out the warhound and Magnus stuns the Gor and manages to reanimate a zombie into the forest - the dark shapes watching on hadn't escaped his somewhat distracted notice.

Ivan snarled - his version of a smile - as a zombie appeared nearby. With a roar that ended in a growl, he charged in and knocked the zombie, but was soon sounding a roar of frustration as Rasputin took the zombie OOA. Ivan stared murderously at Rasputin, but Rasputin was not worried, for he knew how much Ivan needed him. He was under no disallusions however that if he had been anyone else his head would likely not still be attached.

Lestat did not at first pay much attention to the sounds carried on the wind, for he was distracted by the little trinket he had found. As he looked out the window to see a handful of beastmen rushing to the very building he was in, he quickly cast his spell of doom on a large bestigor, who dropped down stunned. Seeing that his warband was in trouble and he was likely to soon be standing alone against against multiple enemies, Lestat quickly called for a retreat.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" cackled Ursaltia as she clapped her hands and rocked back on her stool after the entertaining show. Now that the show was over, she slowly ambled over to the fireplace to stir the frogs-eye stew she was cooking for dinner. As the fire put some of the warmth back into her bones, she silently congratulated herself and decided that she would make sure a few more rumours were spread about - for her personal entertainment of course.

Liche Chronicles (AA) - Round One

Liche Chronicles
Warband Type: Restless Dead
Objective: Silent Threat
Campaign Points: 1
Rating: 115
Treasure/Wyrdstone: 0
Gold Crowns: 57

Round One - B'trark Gorehorns (MD) verses Liche Chronicles (AA)

Whispers were in the wind. Something was afoot... or was it? Those few warbands who were lucky or resourceful enough to have heard the whispers weren't going to sit idly by wondering. This is how the B'trark Gorehorns (MD) and the Liche Chronicles (AA) encountered each other on an outlying Cathayan settlement - trying to gain information in any way they could.

The sun was pulling humidity from the bogs and acid pools this fine morning around this borderland settlement. The warm southerly breeze coming through open windows spread the sweet smell of breakfast throughout the stilted Cathayan huts, but did nothing to temper the humidity at all. One family was just sitting down to start eating when a polite knock came at the door...

Scraggly though he was (and what was that strange smell permeating his clothing?), the humans were willing to give some information to one of their own (Magnus, the Necromancer, gained 7 points from questioning two families, but when he tried to torture the second family for more information he was quite unsuccessful). These were tough villagers, used to living on the wild frontier, and were certainly not fond of Beastmen. Five of the six families living in this small community were questioned and tortured by the Beastmen, and only two families gave out any information and only as their children's lives were being threatened (Gaurin 2pts; Albrath 3 pts). But the real excitement of that day came when the two warbands crossed paths...

Now a large lake acid lake split this village in two, with two families living on the far side. Magnus the Necromancer was heading around this lake through a small patch of forest with two Zombie bodyguards. The keen ears of the Beastmen didn't dismiss the sound of dead twigs breaking, and the threesome were soon spotted and charged from both sides - Gaurin, the Beastman Chieftan and his warhound charged around from the East side of the lake, while Albrath, the frenzied Centigor and another warhound charged from the West. Luckily for the Necromancer, the haunted forest added extra protection, as one of the warhounds was spooked by the strange noises and refused to enter. Luck was certainly not with Gaurin, or maybe his pride was his downfall, for his wild swing missed the Zombie altogether and he was promptly knocked down in return. Albrath had better luck in his frenzied state, quickly taking a Zombie OOA, but this had little effect as the zombie was quickly reanimated by Magnus to rejoin the fray. Seeing Gaurin on his back, the cowardly Magnus also took the opportunity for an easy kill. And that is how, without landing a single blow, came the end of Gaurin - with no great deeds to his name. (BG loses 2 information points)

Outraged, Albrath stuns Magnus to the ground, but is unable to finish him off as one of the Zombies demands his attention. The reanimated Zombie attacks the brave warhound, who avoids injury and knocks the Zombie to the ground. The whimpering warhound meanwhile had issues of its own, as it was still too afraid to enter the forest and was then charged by a Grave Guard (Nicholas) and a Wight. Nicholas was quick to put an end to that battle, but could but sit and watch as the battle in the forest went on, lest he dare enter the acid lake in order to join the fray.

Further East, where a line of three houses stood including the longhouse of the village leader, the main bulk of both warbands stood glaring at each other. The Beastmen were the first to strike, but fear overcame the two Bestigors, leaving two Gors to make their run for glory. In their first rush, Kudu knocks down a wight, and Nyala does the same to a zombie. Their minor triumph is short-lived, as two Grave Guards and more zombies join the fray. Kudu is knocked down by Louis and put OOA by a zombie, and Armand does the same to Nyala, who manages to endure the hit a zombie puts on him. Seeing Kudu OOA, the two Bestigors charge Louis, who is put OOA and forced to miss the next game with an arm injury by Bragor.

Back in the forest, the brave warhound takes the knocked-down zombie OOA, while Albrath takes his zombie out with a critical hit. Albrath doesn't stop there taking Magnus OOA (LC loses 7 info points).

Refusing to let the loss of three of their own deter them, even if one was their leader, the Beastmen bravely hold out against the fear-causing undead. In the end, the Liche realised the game was lost - they had lost the information the were seeking, and there was no easy victory here - and withdrew his fledgling hoard in order to build up his strength. This one is willing to wait a long time for revenge...

So the question now is, will this fledgling Beastmen warband who have just lost their too-proud leader go running back to their woodland stronghold, or will their new Centigor cheiftan be sober and intimidating enough to hold them together and lead them to victory...?

B'trark Gorehorns found 3 treasures and 11 gold crowns; bought an unholy relic.

Liche Chronicles found 3 treasures, 7 gold crowns, and reanimated a corpse into a Zombie; bought a rabbit's foot (or lucky charm - one of them).

Liche Chronicles (AA) - Starting Warband

Warband Roster: Liche Chronicles
Warband Type: Restless Dead
Objective: Silent Threat
Campaign Points: 0
Rating: 101
Treasure/Wyrdstone: 0
Gold Crowns: 0