Midsummer Madness

Tomorrow, we will be having one of our regular wargames club special events. Unlike our regular gaming Sundays, these days are for quick & fun multiplayer games with the odd alcoholic beverage and some far from healthy snacks. Normally, we run these things at Halloween and Christmas, but - because they are so popular - we've decided to add midsummer madness to our gaming calendar.

Now, I don't want to give too much of the game away in case any of my club mates loiter hereabouts, but I will say that I will be using Mordheim mechanics to run a one-off, heavily modified monster hunt which will be card-driven. Each player will only have one randomly-drawn figure to control which should make for a quick and nail-biting game. So, without further ado, let me introduce the foolhardy adventurers that will strive to slay the evil beast who will, for now, remain unnamed:




For the record, all of the oddly named Middenheimers above are based on fellow club members and were painted by the very talented Grimm over on LAF.

If there's any interest I'll post more details on the mechanics, the scenario, the hideous beast and a battle report after the event.

I for one love the idea. I've never done just one figure for a game, but I like limiting models for any game with more than 2 or 3 players. And you've got Grimm painting for you? Excellent. (I do a bit of lurking on the LAF)

With the game done and dusted, I can say that it was a collaborative game with all the players except one on the same side. Unusually for our club there was no backstabbing, treachery or lack of timely support for each other.

The game took place on a two foot tile which was supposed to be heavily wooded with a track running down the centre and a couple of pieces of impassable terrain. The players deployed in the four corners which - as they were supposed to be cornering and slaying the beast - each needed to have at least one warrior in it at the start of the game. The beast deployed in the centre of the board and initially was represented by three counters - a drunken Dwarf, a Halfling and an Elf - which moved independently. One of these represented the actual beast and once a player moved within awareness range (Initiative rating x2), it was revealed whether their day was about to be ruined or not. The sounds of the beast making mincemeat of a player could be heard from any distance so, once combat was joined, other players could run towards the fight. Prior to that, they were assumed to be moving warily and so could only use their normal movement rate. Other than that, it was a straight fight to the death.

As previously mentioned, I used a card-driven approach rather than Mordheim's normal 'I go, you go' system. There were cards in the deck for each of the Middenheimers shown in my first post, a shuffle card and the three cards below.





The bonus turn for the Middenheimers only applied to a single character. It was awarded to the first player to howl when the card was revealed, but only if the player did it with sufficient enthusiasm. This was decided by popular acclaim or, sometimes, on the roll of a dice. Same goes for the Jabberjock bonus card.

The Jabberjock for anyone wondering about it's mangled name was played by our club's resident Scotsman. Its special rules should be fairly self-explanatory. They're either standard Mordheim rules or taken from the critters in the official monster hunt scenario (skull of iron, staggered but not down) and the Troll in the Orcs & Goblins warband (Regeneration). The beast's stats are a slightly toned-down version of the Jabberwock in 2nd edition Warhammer. The strength 6 bite is down to it being venomous (dark venom).

A few game photos will follow once I've edited and uploaded them.

P.S. The beast's 1/5 initiative rating represents its speed and excellent sense of smell. The lower number was used in close combat, the higher one for any awareness rolls it needed to take.

Can't wait to see the photos of the game!

We ended up playing this three times (3-0 to the Jabberjock). Mainly, it has to be said, because the players were channeling dumb Middenheimers and threw themselves into close combay piecemeal, but also because we kept forgetting to roll for Jabberjock stupidity.

Some pictures from the third game when they almost killed the Jabberjock.

Too bad the Middenheimers didn't bring Michael Palin with them!