Twilight of the Dead

“Twilight of the Dead”: A Warhammer Skirmish Battle
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Dusting off my old copy of the 6th edition WFB skirmish booklet, Tony and I decided to pit our forces against each other on a much smaller scale. “Twilight of the Dead” depicts a small group of Empire State Troops desperately trying to hold out in an abandoned farmhouse against a near-endless horde of walking dead. If they can survive the night, they will be able to escape with vital information on the movements of the Undead. I would be playing the role of the Empire troops, while Tony controlled the numerically-superior Zombie forces. Can I hold out for 10 rounds? Or will the undead feast on the brains of my stout-hearted soldiers?
The basic rules of the scenario can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/69966286/44552114-Warhammer-Fantasy-Battles-EnG-Skirmish

Turn 1: Setup and initial waves.
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The rules allow the Empire player to set up to two models inside the ruined farmhouse, so I decided to have my best shooter, a Marksman with a Repeater Handgun, in the upstairs level covering the north, while another Handgunner took up a position to cover the east. The north of the farmhouse was also guarded by my Greatsword Count’s Champion and another handgunner, while a pair of swordsmen guarded the west. Both groups were also in easy distance of the well spawning area. The south of the house was guarded by the remaining Handgunner and Swordsman. (I actually used Crossbowmen models for the Handgunners, since my available models did not allow WYSIWYG, before anyone asks.)

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Tony’s deployment could not have been more perfect for him. Not only did he manage to spawn 12 zombies on the eastern edge of the battlefield, which was nowhere near where half of my forces were deployed, but he also managed to spawn 4 of them in the fruit cellar inside the house itself! I was going to be hard-pressed to get my defenders in a position to hold all of them off!

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I raced my Count’s Champion and the western Swordsmen to intercept the Zombies coming from the fruit cellar, while the Marksman and the Handgunners poured fire into the zombies coming from the east. Sadly, not one of my shots connected. This was not a good start to this battle! The remaining Swordsman guarding the south of the house moved in closer as well, but was too far away to do much good.

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Tony charged 6 zombies into the northern-most Handgunner. Despite the odds, he managed to pass his Fear test this turn, and was able to hold off their attacks, though he was unable to do any damage back. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, since a huge chunk of the eastern zombies were held up by just one guy!

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The Count’s Champion was also charged by the 4 zombies from the cellar area. The Greatsword was able to pass his Fear test and weather their attacks, being saved by his Full Plate armor. In response, he managed to cut down one of the undead, and knock down a second.

Turn 2: On the defensive!
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One of the northern Swordsmen charges in to rescue the beleaguered Handgunner that was swarmed by the Zombies. Meanwhile, a second Swordsman from the southern side of the building rushes to support his friends, and the two shooters on the second story manage to knock down a pair of Zombies coming in from the east.

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The third Swordsman charges a zombie, hoping to ease the pressure on the Count’s Champion, while the western Handgunner moves in to support his comrades. Combat results in a single Zombie being knocked down by the northern-most swordsman, but no further casualties on either side

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Tony directs his shambling hordes to skirt the edge of the farmhouse, in an attempt to gain cover from the fire from the Empire shooters.

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While the battle for the cellar results in more of the same (ie not much!), the hard-pressed Handgunner is Stunned by the Zombies, despite one being taken out by the Swordsman and another Knocked down by the Handgunner. With two turns down, and only two Zombies out, with the rest of the horde bearing down on me, this was going to be a tough battle!

Turn Three: Thin their ranks!
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I finally manage some good fortune with my shooters, as my Marksman with a Repeater Handgun manages to take out two Zombies!

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My close combat fortunes also improved, as the Swordsman and Count’s Champion manage to defeat two more Zombies, and Knock Down a third, despite both having failed their Fear tests!

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All is not completely on my side this turn, as the zombies finish off the downed Handgunner, though the Swordsman manages to Knock Down another Zombie. Because of the “Brain Feast” rule, the three Zombies will spend the next turn feasting on the corpse. Gah!

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Tony charges three of the eastern Zombies into the lagging Swordsman, who is killed by the onslaught. One of the Zombies sticks around to feed, while the other two pass their test to move freely.

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He also charges the northern-most Swordsman with the two Zombies that passed their “Brain Feast” rolls, though neither the Zombies, nor the Swordsman manage to inflict harm on one another.

Turn 4: To the House!
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While the Count’s Champion finishes off the last of the Cellar Zombies, the Swordsman moves to defend the top of the stairs. My thought was to use him to protect the upstairs shooters by forcing the Zombies into a bottleneck. Meanwhile the last Handgunner moves to the doorway leading inside the house. The Marksman manages to Knock Down two Zombies that were feasting on his comrade, as the brave Swordsman fends off a pair of brain-crazed Zombies.

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On Tony’s turn, the Swordsman succumbs to his fears, and is brought down by the Zombies as three more make for the door to the upstairs floor.

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Rather than tangle with the Count’s Champion, three Zombies charge into the Handgunner, though neither side manages to do any damage to one another.

Turn 5: Here they come!
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Knowing Tony would start to get reinforcements starting this turn, I tried to thin out his numbers the best I could. The Count’s Champion charged and managed to take out one Zombie, but my upstairs shooters just could not seem to find their marks this turn. In return, the Handgunner at the door was eaten alive. Halfway through, and down to half my forces… this was going to be close!

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Tony’s Zombies charge and Knock Down the Count’s Champion as more Zombies appear on the edge of the battlefield, as well as one crawling up from the well!

Turns 6-7: The tide turns!
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The Count’s Champion manages to stand back up in time to deal with three zombies, while the Swordsman holds off a Zombie trying to come up the stairs. Yet again, the shooters manage to do minimal damage, with only a single Zombie taken Out of Action out of 4 close range shots! Despite striking last due to standing up, the Count’s Champion hacks down two of the foul Zombies!

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Two more Zombies spawn from the Cellar, and combine charges with three Zombies moving in from the North! Combined with the last Zombie from the previous combat, the Count’s Champion was going to have his hands full…

Turns 8-10: Abandon House!

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Despite his best efforts, the Count’s Champion is no match for so many Zombies, and is brought down by the mob.

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The Swordsman guarding the stairs is also defeated, leaving the last two defenders in a very precarious situation!

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While one Zombie feasts on the corpse of the Swordsman, the Marksman is charged by the other, though he manages to pass his Fear test and defeat it. With the undead pouring into the ruined house, and no more close combat soldiers to protect the last two shooters, I decide to take a gamble…

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Risking D3 Strength 3 hits if they fail their Initiative tests, both of the shooters jump down from the upstairs ledge. Fortunately for me, I passed both tests, and moved them to the Southeast corner of the battlefield.

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The good news was that I still had two survivors left and only one turn to go. The bad news was that after rolling for his new Zombies, Tony had four of them within charge range! Uh oh…

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Fortunately for me, both of the Shooters managed to pass their Fear tests, and the Marksman even manages to take out one of the Zombies that charged him! With the end of the 10th turn and dawn approaching, the Zombies withdraw from the field, leaving only two exhausted and battle-weary survivors to warn their commanders of the approaching threat.

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Soooo many Zombies swarming into the house...

What a game! From the start, I knew that this was going to be a hard-fought skirmish, and I have to hand it to Tony for really using his head when it came to the Zombies and where to position them for maximum threat. Even on the last turn, the outcome was still up in the air, as his dice were VERY kind to him during his reinforcement deployment. This whole scenario could easily have gone the other way with just a couple of different dice rolls. If my last two survivors hadn’t passed their Initiative tests to jump down successfully, it was going to be the end for me… On the whole, I’d say both of our dice rolls were pretty kind to us, and though it was a smaller scale battle, I had a blast. A posthumous VIP has to go to the Count’s Champion, who faced down more Zombies than any other model on my side, and even though he ended up as Zombie chow, he managed to bring down six of them! Once again, cheers to Tony for a great game, and I’m definitely looking forward to our next battle!

CONGRATULATIONS! You're the only Guy I know who has survived that scenario. Win or lose though it is an exciting game.
The Battle Report brought the excitement to life or unlife depending on your point of view; the photos did a fine job enhancing the narration. VERY WELL DONE!

Great job! Congrats on surviving. I used to run that scenario as an in store demo back in the bygone days of my LGS career. Always a good time.

Very nice game and good scenario.

I have the skirmish scenrio booklet anywhere around. There are some nice ideas in it, which you can use for Mordheim scenarios.

This one is a fine example, especially if it would be possible to translate it in a single player last stand scenario.

Thanks guys for the kind comments. Before I got into Mordheim, 6th edition skirmish rules were one of my favorite elements of the WFB hobby, and I love the idea of a connecting narrative with small skirmishes having effects on future, bigger battles. The Skirmish booklet was a great find for me, and even though it's a little out of date, I still like to break it out from time to time for interesting battle ideas.
This one is probably my favorite from that book, but there are a few others that I also really like, and I may do some more battle reports like this one on other skirmish scenarios as well.
@SerialMoM: the link I posted at the beginning of this thread is actually to a .pdf file that has the entire booklet available for copying and printing.

I hadn't heard of WFB skirmish so I'm glad I read this thread. The game seemed like a real nail-biter and looked like tons of fun. Thanks for posting. The models and building looked great too.

My group is doing a mini campaign where an empire contintent is marching to Mordheim to rescue a Witch Hunter who got in over his head while hunting down a necromancer. So we might need to include this scenario as the penultimate mission to determine who there is left to rescue. I'll make sure to post when we finish our event.

Rhoaran wrote:

I hadn't heard of WFB skirmish so I'm glad I read this thread. The game seemed like a real nail-biter and looked like tons of fun. Thanks for posting. The models and building looked great too.

My group is doing a mini campaign where an empire contintent is marching to Mordheim to rescue a Witch Hunter who got in over his head while hunting down a necromancer. So we might need to include this scenario as the penultimate mission to determine who there is left to rescue. I'll make sure to post when we finish our event.

Thanks! Mordheim is essentially based on the old 6th edition skirmish rules, and it translates VERY easily to any campaign you're gonna do. I would suggest, however, if you're going to include a hero or two in this scenario, to up the number of zombies spawned each turn, as a Warrior Priest (esp. with the "Soulfire" prayer) can just carve up the zombies.

Actually it would be the reverse. It's Skirmish battles (6th ed) that would be based on Mordheim as Mordheim came out in 5th ed.

love the sequence and makes me want to get some zombies to make a go for this as both a skirmish rules and also as a Mordheim battle.

Exciting and interesting, I read it all