Hamsterjoes Mordheim campaign blog

Hey would you look at that! Im blogging! Or at least trying to!
A few thinks to consider when following my blog
* Updates are not regular
* My models do not wear the weapons that they have ingame, but my opponents are informed about their gear
* Im trying to get my warband painted! So keep your eyes out for new pictures!


Gregor the cold's acts of horror in the city of the damned
Undead warband

Gregor the Cold, a vampire thrall is in the city of Mordheim in order to do his master's bidding.
His assistant necromancer, Ivan is cold blooded and has been serving Gregor since his transformation and seeks eternal life through the vampires' magic.
Gregor's personal retinue of 3 dregs consists of his vampire mistress, Ivana Humpalot and to service gnoblars whos job is mainly to search warpstone and carry all the stuff.
and various henchmen. Most notably, Steven the Ghoul. A ghoul known in the arts of knife fighting... Shame he has no knife!

The current warband list (this one will be updated after each game):

Gregor the vampire, Sword and mace, bow
Exp: 29
+1 toughness
Step aside


Ivan the Necro, bow.
Spell: Call of vanhel
+1 BS
Exp: 12

Ivana, Dreg. Dagger
Exp: 5
+2 LD


Weapon Gnoblar, Dreg.
Exp:4
+1 Strength
Step aside

Stash gnoblar, Dreg
Exp:1

Bone guy (ghoul)
Promoted!
Exp: 2

Henchies:

2 zombies

Steven the ghoul
Exp: 4
+1 ws

Not-Steven the ghoul
Exp: 4
+1 ws

New guy (ghoul)
Exp: 1

1 Dire wolf

Gunnar, Warlock, hired sword
Spells:
Super sword(-1 difficulty)
and dread of aramar
Exp 3

Cash: 45 GC
Items to spare: None
Skirmishes fought: 4

First game! 4 players!
Skaven, Orcs, Dwarfs and Undead
Scenario: Surprise attack
Defenders: Skaven and Orcs
Attackers: Dwarfs and undead

Gregor had acquired knowledge of a small skaven group searching an old warehouse for wyrdstone, and had planned for a surprise attack in order to steal the warpstone they had collected!
A smart plan, Gregor thought. What he didnt expect was to see orcs relatively close to the area Gregor would attack from!.. Or that some silly dwarfs had gotten the same idea as himself!
The undead warband looked like this:
Gregor, sword and mace
Ivan, naked
3 dregs, naked
4 zombies
3x1 ghouls
2 direwolves

The undead, Dwarfs and orcs were deployed relatively close with the skaven warband far off and let on its own while the other 3 battled.

The entire battlefield. The orcs and dwarfs were positioned to the table edge farthest away behind the wall. Skaven closest.

The undead warband's deployment at a ruined house

A quick report:
The orcs were deployed thin with half its forces in reserves. The dwarfs came in and went directly after the orc leader who had positioned himself on the roof of a tower with his crossbow. He took the first dwarf that came up the ladder, out of action. But was not so lucky when the Dwarf noble entered the battle. The Tough dwarf quickly made a mess of the orc boss and stood victorious on the roof.

Dwarfs rushing to the tower! (notice the imperial spearman, dwarf!)


A proud noble, and his player in the background

The undead warband moved slowly up against the dwarfs, who formed a defensive line, while the engineer kept shooting at the closest zombie, while a direwolf moved into position together with the vampire for a charge. The ghouls stayed behind the zombie in front.
The other zombies provided a shield against an orc shaman with the zapp spell. Direwolf number two tried to charge the shaman but failed its charge.
The first direwolf tries to charge the dwarf spearman. I knew it was a risk and it ended fataly and it was knocked down by the spear man and later taken out. A turn after the glorious wolf charge, 2 ghouls (including steven) and a zombie makes a combined charge against a dwarf spearman and steven ruthlessly kills him with a critical wound. Wolf number 2 charges the dwarf noble who has exited the tower and he fails his fear test but flees too far for the hound to catch it.

Meanwhile the orc reinforcements entered the table edge furthest away. Near the skaven, that moved slowly towards the brawl.
A lonely verminkin engages them but does nothing to the bigun... Which in return.. does nothing either.. for the rest of the game.

We have to end the game before any routs due to time issues. And no warband wins the game. But there were some who gained more then others.
The undead warband have had a direwolf, ghoul and zombie taken out of action, and none recovered their injuries! The other warbands had all their wounded recovered and the dwarfs are now leading in Experience points. But still has the lowest Warband rating.

We all gathered almost the same amount of warpstone. The dwarfs found a twohanded weapon, the skaven found a light armour suit and Gregor found a rambling man in the streets, who he put out of his missery and reanimated.

So to conclude. Gregor lost a direwolf and a ghoul and only gained 1 exp for all in the warband for surviving. Got 60 Gc for the wyrdstone and invested in bows for him and Ivan and 2 maces for each of the gnoblars, and bought a warlock.

Hey! Welcome to the forums. Nice report!

I am a bit confused about the scenario played. Which warband got surprised? The orcs? That and why did the Dwarf Noble flee from fear? In Mordheim the worst that can happen if you fail a fear test is that you need 6s to hit in the first round.

Looking forward to more,
js

This Beasty HAS possibilities. I can imagine what your games will look like six months from now; as your scenery develops & the War Bands start acquiring Ubercool paint jobs these Battle Reports will be SOMETHING TO BEHOLD!
This one is pretty cool already. I REALLY like the mini you chose for your Vampire AND how you're painting him up. I LOVE his consorts name, Ivana Humpalot [my kind of girl ]; I hope you have a mini to do justice to the name [show her off when you've got her painted ]. The Dwarves, with all those old Citadel minis, look Ubercool. GOOD REPORT, FINE PHOTOS; Keep Posting [or ELSE ]!

Nice report AND photos !
Did you play with the Mordheim Rules Review ? Because it's odd for me to see some dwarves with spears...

Oh ups, then we made a mistake with fear. No worries
The Orcs and skaven were out searching warpstone. Im sorry if im not making my Battlereports that clear, But its not my strong side i usually just write the fun stuff without consistensy
Also, time was pressing so we just played a multiplayer battle. Instead of using the Empire in flames scenario chart (half of the scenarioes were unavailable), we used the one in the rulebook designed for two players.

Thanks Deaf. Ivana Humpalot is directly copied from Austin Powers 2 so I can take no credit for that! But I am painting the suitable model for her!

Lanyssa, we use the rules for the Dwarf treasure hunters found GWs website. They can have spears?... Are there any other resources for dwarfs?


I hope to bring some more. Next game is set for saturday. Lets see how the new warlock does! Im excited about how much the firepower i have bought will do.
Last time i really wished i had some bows to fire while moving up. While the dwarf engineer was knocking zombies down one after another.

Oh and i really want to buy my vampire a suit of heavy armour to justify the model... But i know that armours arent that good... would it be a waste?

No, the matter aren't the dwarves rules, it's about the spear rules.
You should have a look at this : Rules Review

You'll see the spear rules are corrected... As the dwarf engineer rule too !

Wait havent they updated the rulebook(on the website) with these erratas?

I'll read them through, Thanks!



Okay read them through... But i still dont see what you mean

The point is about the dwarves low initiative, which makes spears nearly useless.
The rules review changed the spear rules, now a spear gives you the strike first rule. This is exactly the same rule the charger gets, with exactly the same benefits.
So now you have two models which both strike first, effectively cancelling it for both models. This means that they strike in order of iniative, which is bad news for the dwarves with an ini of only two .

Personally i think that this ruling is too strict and makes spears useless, but that is only my opinon.

It's useless for lower initiative, yes, and for the dwarves, it's "fluff" ! Never seen a dwarf with a spear ? Come in Mordheim !

No, I'm joking, it's a quite strange use for them... But it's not for Lizardmen, and on another side it's quite desperating to use spears with only skavens and elves in Mordheim

If all the challengers agree with the first spear rules, and they love to play this way, it's the most important, never forget that ! And when I see your pics, I think we're in this case, so continue !

Ooooh
It all makes sense now Thanks for the clarification. We just assumed that the spear would hit first in any case, which is a tad overpowered in my eyes. I'll talk to the dwarf player about it.

A picture update! Woohoo!

First!
Gregor's lover, Ivana Humpalot
This beautiful Warlord miniture is used as Gregor's number one pet.. erh.. dreg.






Isnt she lovely? ... I know the skin paint is really thick, but such is the state of my dwarf flesh right now
Im in doubt if she should be dipped.

Moving on to Gregor's 4 trusty zombies that will never fall!
2 of them needs to be dipped and then they are done too!


And last the now lonely direwolf, Fido.
He is still not complete, but close for the final stage, dipping

Gregor goes bounty hunting

second game.
4 player game (same warbands as last time). Bounty hunting scenario from Empire in flames

Gregor had recieved news from Ivana that there was a bounty on some bandits. He quickly gathered intelligence of where they might be hiding. Once the location was known he moved out. But other warbands had also heard of this bounty and wanted it for themselves. This easy bandit hunting mission quickly became a free for all skirmish with the other warbands.

Gregors warband:
Gregor, Sword, mace and bow

Ivan the Necro, bow.
Spell: Call of vanhel

Ivana, Dreg. dagger

Weapon Gnoblar, Dreg. 2x maces

Stash Gnoblar, Dreg. 2x Maces


4 zombies
Steven the Ghoul
Ghoul
1 Dire wolf
Gunnar, Warlock, hired sword

The battlefield was accordingly:


The orc warband deployed behind the temple ruins in the upper left corner.
The dwarfs in the dwarf mine. Upper right.
The skaven warband deployed behind the big rock. Low middle.
And Gregor deployed on the left edge on the middle near the orc village.

Deployment was tough. Gregor deployed last and didnt really have much cover. And Had to fight both the skaven warband and the orcs. While the bandits probably were going to shoot at his warband as well.


Orc deployment

Turn 1 :
The orcs went first. The orc player sent a shaman and big un against the entrenched dwarfs in a try of blasting the dwarf shooters down with Zaapp! But he wasnt in range for the spell to reach his target the first turn. Shame.
He also quickly decided to send the rest of his warband down towards me. His orcs went into a tight formation, while the goblins in the ruin moved up on the walls so they could fire down on my warriors.


Dwarf close combat warriors ready to defend the shooters on the mine, from attacks

The coward of a dwarf noble.
The dwarf player was next. His thunderer and Engineer placed nicely on the mine, shot at the shaman and knocked him down i think. And he moved his close combat soldiers in to defend the ladders up to the shooters.

Then it was me!. I did a risky move. I moved my direwolf straight towards the skaven warband with my necro behind it. Used call of vanhel and moved the direwolf in for some killing of skaven, While zombie reinforcements were coming.. slowly.
I moved my dregs closer to the bandit hideout in order to be shot by them and gain some nice exp. While the rest of my warband went into defensive positions.
The direwolf knocked down a vermin kin but didnt do anything else. I quickly realised my mistake.

The skaven player charged in on my direwolf with 2 night runners and 1 black skaven and together with a verminkin already engaged with it. Now... None did any damage on the wolf. Lucky! The wolf didnt do any damage either, but they was excellent! Kind of.

Turn 2... (in short)

THe orc shaman moved a little closer and was in range now. But failed the spell dificulty.
The goblins got shot after my zombies and knocked one down. The orc boys moved closer.

The dwarf CC units moved closer to the shaman and bigun. And shot a little.

One zombie charged (with the help of Vanhel) the black skaven engaged with the wolf and killed it with a critical wound.
my vampire moved down to help the wolf.


Defensive positions!

The skaven killed the direwolf and moved in on the undead reinforcements. And shot the necro to death.

Turn 3, also in short.
The orc shaman and bigun roll a 6 on animosity and move closer to the dwarfs!
One of the goblin archers also get a 6, falls down from the wall, fails initiative and gets stunned. Another goblin shoots an arrow after the orc boss!
They move even closer towards me. Now inside charge range.

The dwarfs took out the shaman with shooting and charged the bigun.

I make a quick withdrawal with my dregs (i lost one to the shooting from the building) and vampire from the skaven and prepared for the green tide.

The skaven killed the last zombie in front of them and moved up into a tower. and moved his giant rats closer to the bandit house.. not good.


The green tide!


Turn 4:

THe orcs charge! One fails the fear test and breaks the line formation. He sends two orcs up against two zombies. The first one does no damage to his opponent and the zombie quickly takes the orc out of action with a critical wound (yay for zombies!). The other orc knocks down his zombie target though.

The dwarfs kill the bigun and moves around the bandit building.

I counter attack with my Warlock, Who has the sword spell. and knocks down the orc. Steven the ghoul charges up into the orc that failed the fear test. The killer zombie charged an orc further behind. Now the road is open for Gregor and he charges directly up against the Orc Boss, who fails his Ld test. and gets knocked out.

THe skaven are now in position to shoot but does little to no damage to the other two fighting warbands.

Turn 5:

The orcs rout. (fushtah! My heroes didnt get to take any of all of the knocked out orcs out of action and didnt gain any Exp. )

THe dwarfs move closer to the undeads.

I voluntarily rout. I cant fight the hiding skaven and the dwarfs with only half strength.

The skaven then routs.


The winner: Dwarfs. Bunker tactics work well... And now he has 6 crossbows! :O
The skaven player, orc player and I got +1 exp to our leaders due to our exploration rolls.

I now have 45 GC to spend on something but dont know what. The only loss i took after recoveries was a zombie. List has been updated in the first post.

Hmmm... I'll just follow this blog around the different forums and post where I am. Nice report. Good job with the recovery rolls you had a lot of gold OOA.

The wolf worked better for you than the shaman did for the Orcs.

I'd spend the gold on another ghoul to reach for that Lads got talent ghoul. Or lucky charms! By the way what rules are you playing with? Not because of anything wrong just curious as to what I could suggest for equipment.

js

A very nice report, keep them coming!
I would also buy a new ghoul, hero-ghouls can become really awesome close combat monsters.

Von Kurst wrote:

Hmmm... I'll just follow this blog around the different forums and post where I am. Nice report. Good job with the recovery rolls you had a lot of gold OOA.

The wolf worked better for you than the shaman did for the Orcs.

I'd spend the gold on another ghoul to reach for that Lads got talent ghoul. Or lucky charms! By the way what rules are you playing with? Not because of anything wrong just curious as to what I could suggest for equipment.

js

hehe okay Von Kurst

Well yes excellent exploration. Just one more and my vamp will be much better... i hope ...
I recieved 60gc and gave 15 to the warlock in upkeep... but the dwarf is really way ahead now with extra gold for winning the scenario.

We just use the equipment from the main ruleset and only the scenarios from Empire in flames. We try to keep it simple.


Ghoul it is!

OK. Ja, the Dwarf. My advice is kill dwarfs early.

I don't know your group, but I would suggest playing some one on one games. Multi-player games are fun now and again but as a steady diet they tend to favor the warband that can claim a superior position and hold it. (See the last battle report in my Sartosa campaign...)

Plus one on one games are really fast and furious when warbands are just beginning.
Good luck with the building projects.

js

But dwarfs are hard to kill :O

Yea we wanted to play one on one this time, but some stuff came in and we played a multi battle instead.

Nice Photos AND a fine Battle Report. The COOL thing about your Thread is watching the games, minis, & scenery evolve. KEEP PAINTING & POSTING!

Thanks for the kind words.
I might have another game on saturday, but i left my stuff at the gaming club, so i wont get any models painted for next time unfortunately.

Game 3
Chance encounter with the dwarfs!

So the undead warband runs into the dwarf treasure hunters in the end of the day and they fight for their wyrdstone shards!
But this time the dwarf warband ran into

The undead warband was this:
Gregor, sword and mace, bow
Ivan, dagger, bow

Ivana, dagger
Stash gnoblar, 2 maces
Club gnoblar, 2 maces
Steven the ghoul
Not-Steven the ghoul
Ghoul
3 zombies
1 direwolf
Warlock, staff

The dwarfs looked like something like this:
Noble
Engineer
2 slayers
1 promoted beardling hero
4 thunderes
2-3 beardlings with spear.

"Gregor had a found a great deal of wyrdstone in this day's hunt! 3 shards! Not bad when thinking about how easy those ramblers were to kill. But his rival dwarf warband had also been out scouting the area but hadnt been as lucky as gregor and had only found 1 shard today. So they decided to engage the undead warband! Big mistake!"

I was worried about the shards since i had 3 and he only had 1. I would loose my shards for every of my heroes taken out of action (to a maximum of 3) while i only could get 1 from him! Not that great since i had my vunerable dregs.

The beginning wasnt that good for me. I started out and used zombies in the front to take hits and cover while moving up! I flanked with my vampire to the left, and a ghoul and the direwolf to the right. My biggest concern was that i would have one turn out in the open when going in for the kill!
I dont have any pictures of the setup only from when we got into close combat. I lost all of my 3 zombies to shooting. In the turn where i would have to move in the open, Steven the ghoul lived up to his reputation, since he was the closest enemy the dwarfs had to shoot at him. But ! Not to worry, Steven dodged every single bullet and saved my charge!


Gregor after his successful DIVING CHARGE! (I love that rule!) Of course he didnt manage to take the poor beardling out of action.


Gregor's diving charge creates a diversion and the rest of my warband charges in, wreaking havoc in the dwarf gunline. Killing slayers left and right. Unfortunately my two gnoblars are taken out action to dwarf shooting.
Steven and the rest of his ghouls did well as always! Never underestimate the power of dead things!
After the initial charge and a succesful rout test from both sides my vampire finishes off the beardling (because i forgot to charge him out). At the end of the turn its sure that the dwarfs are going to die, but then my warband routs! xD


Gregor ready for his charge out against the dwarf noble. Shame Gregor chose to turn tail.

Aftermath:
Gregor gained +1 toughness
Ivan +1 BS
Gunnar the warlock got the same sword spell and reduced its difficulty to 7.

I had lousy recovery rolls for the dregs
They were both captured by the dwarfs and I paid 20 gc for the one with step aside while the other was lost.
1 zombie didnt make it.

I didnt get any doubles, tripples or anything but got 90 GC with everything paid to upkeep to gunnar and 20 gc to the dwarf for the dreg i now have 60gc toplay with
And we both ended up with 2 shards each.

So... what should i buy?... either a 4th ghoul and a dreg. A new dreg and equipment for both of them. Heavy armour for Gregor and some other equipment?...

Is it even possible to buy a new dreg?

DARNED THIEVING DWARVES!
COOL PHOTOS! The Lads & Lass are looking good.
I think I'd go for a Dreg with a bow, then the Ghoul, & save the Heavy Armour for a bit later in the campaign. Of course, I'm NOT a noted tactician.

Yes! Stupid dwarfs!

Im going to fight them again on saturday.
Yes dregs with bows might work better than close combat dregs.

the thought about a 2 wound Toughness 5 vampire with an armour save of 4+ (shield and HA) appeals to me :O