Scenario: The Wise One's Tower

First off: I searched aorund a bit, but I couldn't a Scenario part of this otherwise excellent forum, so I'll post this here, and if that's completely wrong perhaps one of the moderators can move it. Now...


The Wise One’s Tower

A scenario for Mordheim

Warbands plow their way through Mordheim, battling all kinds of vile creatures (Skaven, Mutants, Dwarves, and, worst of all, human mercenaries!). But all this carnage can’t give any answers to the great existential questions. What does it matter if I get my hands on a piece of wyrdstone, when I might end my next day with a dwarf axe planted between my eyes? Should I retire to lead a quiet life tending to some fields and an orchard? Am I really fighting on the right side? If I stab the captain, will the others accept me as the new leader?

Until now, those searching for answers to these questions have not found them in Mordheim, but for some unfathomable reason the Wise Alba has decided to settle in one of the ruined towers of the city, there contemplating the fleeting nature of the world to the sound of battle clamor and the wailing of tortured souls. Many are the heroes courting Alba for answers and guidance, and in only a few days, several skirmishes have taken place near the tower. Your warband is now on its way to partake in Alba’s wisdom, but you’re not alone…

Special rules

Set up a diverse city environment with Alba’s tower in the middle. For game purposes Alba’s tower need to be several storeys high, with good possibilities to move models around the different floors. It’s good if the streets around the tower are narrow and winding – otherwise a fast moving warband might set up in the tower and just shoot the competition away. It’s also important to clearly state where tower ends, because of the victory conditions.

The Wise Alba is preferably represented by a model, but this is purely for visual and measuring purposes. Alba does not move, nor can Alba be moved, or attacked in any way.

Warbands

The warbands set up at the table edges, at equal distance from the tower. Define set up areas, and dice off to see who sets up first.

Starting the game

Players dice off to see who gets the first turn.

Ending the game

The game lasts for eight rounds. There’s no need to take rout tests, but a warband that has lost 25% or more of their starting numbers may leave the table. For a warband to win, they need either to be the single warband left, or have the largest number of experience points in the tower. You do not count count the number of models in the tower, but the total experience from each warband in the tower. An interesting, but slightly more complicated, way to determine the winner is to measure the distance from each model in the tower to Alba (in a straight line from the model to Alba – it’s a question of how well they can hear Alba’s garbled mumblings), round it off, and divide the model’s experience with the distance, round it off, and add all your models experience-through-distance together.

Experience

+1 Survives. If a hero or henchman group survives the battle they gain +1 experience.

+1 Winning Leader. The leader of the winning warband gains +1 experience.

+1 Per Enemy Out of Action. Any hero earns +1 experience for each enemy he puts out of action.

+1 For Closeness to Alba. Each hero or henchman group (one representative is enough) earns +1 experience if they’re within 8” of Alba (straight line).

Why this scenario?

I wanted to create a scenario where you want to hunt down the other players’ heroes, and at the same time felt a need to get your experienced models into the fray. Hopefully it’s a good addition to the scenario flora.

Right, forget to mention one thing: any constuctive criticism is greatly appreciated!

A nice scenario with some very original ideas for the victory conditions, i particularly like the idea that the distance to Alba determines the winner.

However the scenario seems to be a bit too bloody for me. The rule that you can only rout once 75% of your warband is ooa is very harsh. You can easily wreck a warband that way, especially if a very experienced warband is playing relative novices (this is also a very bad idea if you use the total xp in the tower victory condition ).

I like the scneario but agree on the 75% is too extreme or would be better suited for the last game of a campaign.

I like the premise of the scenario and I can empathize with the wish for a deadly anit-hero scenario. I succumb to this every couple of years or so although I've never written a scenario that has worse than a 50% loss trigger for routing.

My experience is that it is better to leave the decision to rout to the players. I have encountered several players who routinely fight to the bitter end, but even they whine when told to fight to a severe threshold.

js

Hm, the actual wording was that a warband could rout when reduced beyond 75% of their original numbers, which means that when they've lost 25% they can rout. Still, I can see that my chocie of words was not the clearest, so I've edited the text above. Hopefully there won't be any more misunderstandings. I played this scenario a couple of days ago with my son and a friend, and we had a blast. We all agreed that the scenario was playable, especially if you use the advanced rules, which make you fight a little extra just to be sure you've won.

Yes, it seems to be playable and I like the idea as noted by Horatius of the distance to the main guy at the end of the game. That is really cool and I will "borrow" this idea for future scenarios.

That REALLY is an EXCELLENT scenario: challenging victory conditions, a unique storyline with fine possibilities for an interesting Battle report, PLUS some incentive for a modeling/painting project. VERY WELL DONE...I salute you.