Witch Hunter Captain Grübers Journal

16-3

We arrived in Mordheim today. With 'we' I mean me; my three best witch hunters Karl, Uli and Fritz; our priest Theo; three of my best dogs; and four fearless flagellants we picked up on the way to this damned place, for damned it is. The place is a mess made up of ruins, rubble and rotting carcasses. And this mysterious green glowing wyrdstone. From all over the Empire and beyond criminals, heretics, witches and daemons have come to this wretched place for this wyrdstone. I must get my hands on a small sample for proper examination.

Upon arrival we quickly learned of an area near a ruined temple that was rumoured to hold a lot of this wyrdstone, so we headed for that area. We had just passed the ruins of an abandoned blacksmith when suddenly Karl shouted: "Take cover!" I heard the sound of crossbow bolts flying by, and I ducked.
"In the name of Sigmar and by the edict of the Grand Theogonist, let us pass!" I shouted.
"In the name of Sigmar and by the edict of the Grand Theogonist, leave this place or face the wrath of the holy order of Witch Hunters!" someone shouted back at us.
"AND I WILL EAT YOU.... IN THE NAME OF SIGMAR!"
Was that an ogre? I have had dealings with these foul hunger-driven goliaths before. No servant of Sigmar in his right mind would ever think of collaborating with an abomination like that. On top of that, the monster just blasphemed!
"Prepare to meet your fate, you filthy heretics! We are coming through!" Even as I shouted these words, words that Sigmar Himself had put on my tongue, I signalled my warriors to split up in groups of three. I would take two of my trusty dogs and one of these flail-wielding fanatics to take the easternmost route. Another group split up to the west, leaving Karl in charge of the centre group.

Soon enough I heard the clattering of steel, the frantic shouting of orders, gunshots and above all the booming voice of brother Theo praying to Sigmar to engulf the hearts of these heretics in a holy fire. Screams of agony after that! These must be heretics then, or Sigmar would not smite them. The sounds of battle grew louder and louder when I rounded the church and spotted the monster. I ignored the crossbow bolt that got stuck in my cloak to take a good look at the ogre, who also had two dogs with him, well-bred ones too. We circled each other for a bit, then attacked. Who charged, whom I hit, who hit me, I remember not. All I do remember is that the lights went out at one point during the fight with the blaspheming ogre and his dogs.

I woke up to find our group mostly intact and went on to search for wyrdstone. Fritz and Uli could not come with us, because they had come out of the battle with severe injuries to their hands. I took one of the flagellants instead. We did not find much of this wyrdstone and were forced to sell it all to buy equipment and food. Another setback was that the fanatic swallowed tainted water and is too weak to be of any use for a couple of days.
Thankfully we have good news too. We did not just buy food, we got ourselves a halfling. These little fellows are famous for their excellent recipes. On top of that, this fellow claims to be a steady shot too. The smell of the soup he made for lunch attracted a beggar to our camp. He asked for some soup to nourish his body, which he got. Then brother Theo took him under his wing and taught him a few simple prayers to nourish the poor man's soul. The fellow then pledged his life to the holy work of Sigmar.

PS: This is an account of my first battle in an ongoing Monday night campaign. Most of the other warbands in that campaign have already fought at least eight battles, so I would start as an underdog no matter whom I fought. The first battle was a Breakthrough against another band of Witch Hunters. They were quite experienced and they had an ogre with them. My starting warband is posted in the appropriate section. I split my group in three and advanced with each seperately, forcing him to do the same. He had two heroes with crossbows set up in buildings. I used cover as much as possible, but did not let the bolts bother me too much.

The result was a huge melee on the left side of the table that involved two-thirds of both our warbands and a fight with my captains group, his ogre and two dogs. In the end I got about four kills, two of them with my priest. I lost two witch hunters, a flagellant and two dogs. When the fight against the ogre went against me (one dog OoA, the rest stunned or knocked down) I decided to rout.

The aftermath: everybody survived and got at least 3 XP for surviving and being underdogs. One flagellant rolled LGT, but misses next game. Two Witch Hunters now have WS2 thanks to hand injuries and I bought a halfling cook and a zealot to boost my numbers.

Warband after the first battle:
Hans Grüber, witch hunter captain: +1BS (I plan to give him eagle eye and make him a pistolier)
Fritz, witch hunter: -1WS, +1A
Uli, witch hunter: -1 WS, +1W
Karl, witch hunter: step aside
Theo, warrior-priest: +1I, +1Ld
Johann Gottfried, flagellant hero: jump up (he can choose Strength and Speed skills)
Johann Wolfgang, flagellant: +1I
Immanuel, flagellant: +1A
Friedrich, flagellant: +1WS
the Sigmari Canes, 3 dogs
NEW:
Josef, zealot
Jamie, halfling cook

PPS: My prose needs some work, but I hope you enjoy the battle report nonetheless.

A nice report, make more of them! I like the way you combine a story with the actual battle, but for the future i would appreciate some more details on the battle...and pictures, of course .

One question: Why did you choose jump up for your flagellant hero? Personally i take that skill only very late (as 4th skill or so) as an additional defense (or even never), before that i find step aside to be much more useful (or some close combat skills like strike to injure).

HOORAY FOR THE UNDERDOGS! EXCELLENT READ! AND the Forces of Sigmar's Light emerged Victorious [pretty easy, when both sides are the Forces of Sigmar's Light ].

Thanks for the nice replies and the constructive criticism! No pictures were taken during this battle and the next one in an upcoming report, but MagnoliaFan, Melvino$, another friend and I will have a separate mini-tournament tomorrow. I plan to bring a camera then and write the battle report sooner after the actual event.

To answer your question about the flagellant: I took Strength and Speed as his lists to choose from. Combat has too many useless skills for the fast and rock hard flagellant that I want him to be. First I wanted a defensive skill to increase survivability, so then it came down to Resilient and Jump Up. I also contemplated Strongman and buying a two-handed weapon, but decided that I should improve numbers first.

The next battle is between me and Melvino$' Possessed. I can tell you it was a bloody affair! We still have to do the post battle sequence (which we will do tomorrow). After that I will type up the whole thing.

wHAT'S IRIONIC IS I TO PLAY IN ALEWAGUE ON MONDAY NIGHTS AND ITS MY FIRST LEAGUE. i PONDER WITCH HUNTER BUT WENT WITH MARIENBURG INSTEAD. gOOD LUCK JUST REMBER ANYONE CAN ROLL A 6 TYO WOUND AND THEN THERE GOES HIS EXPERIENCED MODEL.

Nice work. I see you're a fan of Die hard 1.