Rayford's Raiders Battle Log

Well, I got my first game of Mordheim earlier tonight. We had six players, so we did a 3 on 3 game. We didn't really want anything too in-depth, so we just threw a bunch of terrain together and rolled off for sides. I ended up playing with another Mercenary band, this one of Middenheimers, and a Shadow Warriors (High elves, I think?) was also on our side. We were up against an Undead player, a Reiklander mercenary force, and a skaven force. Because all of us were basically brand new to the game, we didn't do a real scenario, we just said that each individual player had to make their own rout tests for their warbands, and even if one fled, the others could stay and fight. At the time I didn't think it was a real scenario or anything, but in the end when I looked it up, it looked like we were doing the Skirmish scenario.

Here's what I brought with me:

Rayford's Raiders
Marienburg Mercenaries

Captain Rayford Duncan
-2 Duelist Pistols, Sword, Heavy Armor, Dagger

Champion Dustin St. Gulik
-Sword, Buckler, Dagger

Champion Oro deLeon
-Sword, Buckler, Dagger

Youngblood Alex Weston
-Sword, Buckler, Dagger

Youngblood Colm
-Dagger, Dagger

3 Marksmen
-3 Handguns

2 Swordsmen
-Swords, Bucklers

Turn 1 was basically me and my mercenary teammate running towards our enemies, heedless of overall strategy or tactics. I think I sent my handgunners around the side to try to pull some flanking action but as seen later, it did not have the result I intended. The Shadow Warrior player had a bunch of elves climbing to the top of this building and readying these ridiculously long ranged bows.

Our enemies didn't really do much tactical either, just advanced towards us. The skaven player did send his forces out to the sides like my handgunners did but in much greater force. I wasn't actually paying a whole lot of attention to what he was doing and I didn't realize where most of his guys were until later

Turn 2 had us shooting up a zombie or two, and Captain Rayford got into position with Alex, Colm, and Oro all backing him up, along with the two swordsmen, while Dustin escorted the handgunners around the side. The other mercenary gang had a small run-in with a skaven that had run frantically into a nearby building. Neither side did any wounds to the other, but the bulk of our forces are right up the middle.

The enemy cast some weird spell that flung a zombie forward into melee with Rayford. The Vampire leader stepped forward like right out in the open. The rest of his forces began to file in behind him, and the enemy mercenary knocked down one of my swordsmen with his handgunners. A skaven that was apparently pretty beefy made it very close to the building with the elves at the top. Rayford dodged the zombie attack and blasted it to oblivion with one of his pistols.

On our turn three, we fired three handguns, a dueling pistol, a regular bow, and one of those fancy elf bows all at the Vampire that was sitting there in the open, but he laughed and shrugged it off like it was nothing. The skaven/mercenary fight in the building ended in tragedy for the Skaven, and both of our mercenary forces were pretty much dead center, waiting for the undead to get into charge range. I'm not really sure what happened with the elf player; apparently he had to roll 6s to fall as he descended the building, and his luck saw him with 3 of his 6 elves either knocked down or stunned. I'm not sure what changed over there; I think our other mercenary player may have sent some heavy reinforcements to help, but the beefy skaven began to retreat.

Their turn came, and his Vampire charged Captain Rayford. From nowhere all the Skaven that I lost track of appeared behind buildings and began lobbing slingstones at us. I also saw the enemy mercenary force appear very close to where my handgunners and Dustin were beginning to panic from the rather large number of enemies that were suddenly within view. The vampire whiffs his rolls in combat and Dustin manages to blast a wound off of him.

In all honesty, everything kind of got blurry here because it deteriorated into a furball. I remember that the other mercenary captain actually jumped into combat with the vampire, but the damn thing beat Rayford unconscious and almost took out the other captain before a random warrior ran up and scored a critical hit on it, taking out its last wound and knocking it out of comission. The skaven and their empire allies overran what was a laughable attempt by Dustin and his three gunners to hold their side of the field. Oro deLeon was taken out by a zombie, and both Alex and Colm managed incredible leadership tests in their fights against multiple opponents before they were taken out. At the start of my turn, I made my rout check, and I think the high elf player shot up the skaven that was running, but they didn't quite kill him. On their turn, the vampire player failed his rout check, and since some people had to work the next day we let them finish their turn before calling it. They weren't able to force anyone other than me to make a rout check, and I rolled it just to see, and made it, so our side was declared the victor.

The real fun came after the game when we started rolling on those charts.

Captain Rayford, given up for dead, managed to crawl back to the rally point. Unfortunately, some thief made off with his gear. Those duelist pistols and armor were expensive! Luckily, he still lived, considering I spent entirely too long matching bits and painting him to the closest thing to a nice paint job I've ever managed. We tallied up experience, and I found that somewhere along the line he'd killed a zombie. With our side being outnumbered by about sixty points, he gained 4 experience points. I rolled and got a new skill. I think I'm going to give him the Eagle Eye skill, so that when he saves up enough gold, he can fire those guns from further away. For now, he's probably going to have to make do with a bow of some kind.

Dustin St. Gulik, horrible injured in the skaven/mercenary charge, walked away with a dreadful scar on his chin. It now looks like a frown on his chin, but he's so angry about it that his mere stare is enough to cause Fear. He didn't kill anything though so was one shy of making an advancement roll.

Oro deLeon was killed. Which is good, because he was a glory hog who never accomplished anything. Fool.

Alex Weston got a skill, which I have no idea what to put in, since he's a joke and never really did anything other than get in the way. I'm thinking the Sprint skill, just so that he can get quickly from place to play and try to force people to make All Alone checks, since he can't hit anything to save his life. On the other hand, rumor has it he may have had a part in Oro deLeon's death. But that's fine with me, because deLeon was a bastard.

Colm rolled another Wound, which is interesting. Maybe he can help tank against things. I was hoping for like an increase in his Initiative or something, since I have him modded up like a knife fighter, but then again I shouldn't be surprised considering the odds of getting that result.

Every henchman I hired unfortunately survived. I was hoping that a few of the handgunners would die.

I will say that it was a very entertaining game. I probably should have been paying more attention to things, but hey. I was too busy having fun to care that I was getting massacred. In the final analysis I think I was the only one on our team who had anyone taken out of action; everyone else pretty much walked away unscathed. I found 3 pieces of Wyrdstone, netting me 65 gold, so I'm going to go about rearming Captain Rayford with some simple weapons and try to get another Champion to replace that idiot Oro deLeon.

All in all, the game was a blast, the random tables in the back were even better, and I'm looking forward to Rayford's Raiders' next game!

Despite suffering from the "fog of war" syndrome, you came up with a FINE Battle Report. AND you achieved the ultimate goal of a war game; i.e.,you had a GRAND OLD TIME! WELL DONE!
May you have MANY more semimemorable & enjoyable games...just be sure to keep reporting them.

Sounds like a fun battle. Good to hear deLeon was a bastard (his surname suggested he was.)

Well my friend that was a battle log of battle logs!!!! Like me and my buddy (hes the only one around here how wants too play aparintly ) You play for fun,I don't see many players like that so kudos too you man!!

Well, I had my second game today. It was against the Skaven player from the opposite team from my last game.

Turn 1: I begin running my team forward, but I move the handgunners into a building for better sniping positions.

On his turn, he pretty much does the same thing.

Turn 2: I get the handgunners into prime firing positions at the top of the building. My other guys continue to advance.

He again pretty much moves his guys up towards mine.

Turn 3: I fire at some visible rats, killing one of them, and move into charging positions. Dustin St. Gulik moves around to try to provide a side defense with his Fear.

His turn 3: Captain Rayford, Alex Weston, Colm, the newly introduced Charles Litton, and the two Swordsmen are taken out by sling fire. Dustin St. Gulik gets charged by a rat assassin and is taken out of action.

Basically I had 2 people alive at the end of the third turn, the handgunners in the building. I attempt to make my rout check, and make it, but neither of us saw any real reason to continue.

I began rolling on those awesome charts in the back of the book, and both Captain Rayford and Alex Weston are killed. Dustin St. Gulik gets a wound and has to sit out of the next battle, and Colm goes down to initiative 2. One of the swordsmen dies. So after the end of it, I pretty much had a youngblood, a swordsmen, and two handgunners who could fight, with no money to buy any replacements. Seeing as how hopeless it looked I decided to retire the warband.

It definitely could have been a better game! I sorta sucked that he had something like 30 shots to fling at me with his slings, but I suppose that stuff happens. He got some pretty nice level up bonuses and a ton of gold from his exploration and wyrdstone rolls, so I'm glad at least one of us walked away a good deal richer!

I had picked up the Skull Pass set for Warhammer Fantasy a while back but I hadn't opened it yet, so I've finally got a reason to paint up some dwarves, which I'll be using for the next game. Hopefully I'll have better luck with them!

Now that WAS painful. You took it VERY well however, AND it's a PERFECT excuse to paintup MORE minis. Keep posting your exploits...GOOD READ!

Well that dose suck! I hope as a Dwarf player you will do better.Oh and may I be the first too wellcome you the Dwarf team my friend!

Hey Earthcrosser - I dont think you should give up on your mercenaries just yet!!

I love your battle reports, but I think you should re-work your equipment choices.

For example:

Why does your captain have heavy armor? You could give him light armor and a shield (Even if you just put it on his back, to protect against shooting) for 25gc, and save some money.


Why give your marksmen hand-guns? Long Bows are cheaper (By 20gc!), you can move and fire them, they can fire EVERY turn, and they have a longer range. If you really want the extra kick, crossbows are S4, longer range, and cheaper (But only by 10gc). I'd strongly suggest the Long Bows for starting warbands.

Statistically speaking - your chances are higher for getting a kill if you are dual weilding (opposed to using sword/buckler on your champions). I'd suggest giving them a club in their offhand. This is also cheaper. (You lose the ability to reroll a parry though)

Ditch the dagger on the youngblood, give him a club (1 more gc, and infinitely better)...


So, if you made those few changes, you would save...

3 Hand Guns exchanged for Long Bows = 60gc
Heavy Armor exchanged for Light Armor + shield = 25gc
3 Bucklers exchanged for Clubs = 6gc
Ditching the dagger = 2gc

This all comes out to 93 gc.

You could then take that money, and buy another Marksmen (40), and another Swordsmen (50). And afford to give your youngblood a club. (3)

If you wanted to drop the brace of dueling pistols, you could afford yet another Marksmen or Swordsmen. Which would bring your Warband # up to 13, which means you would have to lose 4 models before making a Rout Test. (As opposed to 3 now)


These are just some suggestions I thought up that may improve your enjoyment of this warband a little bit. If you would like any more feedback, just let me know and I'm more than happy to try and help!



ps - Dwarves are cheap and lame!