Exploits of the Mouseketeers

I remembered to bring my camera to my last couple of games, so I can finally write a proper battle report! Yay! When I go tto the store there was a game just starting between a Skaven player and a Dwarf treasure Hunter warband. At the empty table next to them, I paired up with my first opponent of the day, Ed, also playing Dwarf Treasure Hunters. Lots of hot Dwarf on Skaven action apparently. Someone had already graciously set up terrain, so we got right down to it. Scenario rolled was lower warband rating's choice, and since my rating was over 100 points higher than his, he opted to be attacker in the Surprise Attack! scenario. A reasonable choice.

Here we can see part of my deployment. I had just over half my warband start on the table, which meant I actually ran out of buildings to deploy rats in/next to given the 8" rule, and had to have some just hanging out in the open, hoping to avoid dwarf crossbows.



And the arrival of the short ones. Conveniently placed to have line of fire to several important characters. 



But they are being dramatically watched by the ratmen. A dark sense of foreboding accompanies them into the streets of Mordheim.



On Ed's first turn a crossbow bolt finds one of my Black Skaven, Gnawdoom, and takes him out of action. So much for that foreboding! My turn 1 I mostly rush around redeploying and finding high ground and cover. A few henchmen get to take shots with slings, but the most I accomplish is him passing a single 3+ armor save on the Noble.

Dwarf turn 2 sees the whole blob advance toward the Skaven's waiting trap. He loses some crossbow bolts from the Engineer and Thunderer Hero who have quickshot, but nothing comes of it. (bonus game: spot all the Skaven in the picture below!)



Suddenly, there are a LOT more rats on the table. The feeling of foreboding returns. However, my slings still can't accomplish anything. Pretty sure he was wearing magnetic armor or something, because I could neither miss (hitting on 5's and 6's) nor wound (needing 5's). 




It's also important to note that in a previous game the Noble took a rather nasty bump to the head, leaving him with a BIT of a temper. I dropped a Giant Rat just at the edge of his charge range, and being Frenzied, he had to take the bait. Foolishly, this caused the Dwarves to split their forces. This turn also sees a Verminkin dropped by a crossbow bolt and the Giant Rat axed apart in combat.



Now the trap is truly sprung. Skaven advance from all directions on the poor Noble and Clansman, while the elite strike force bears down on the remainder of the Dwarves. A blunderbus shot with two critical hits starts things off right, and my slings finally start finding their marks. All told I left the Dwarves with an OOA Engineer and Thunderer, a Knocked Down Clansman, and a Stunned Thunderer. 




Wanting absolutely no part of what was going to happen the next turn, the Dwarves pumped their undersized legs as fast as they could go and abandoned the field of battle. 


Recap: this game went about as well as could be expected for Ed. I outnumbered him 18 to 7 (although really only 17 to 7, because Skittircreep never showed up), and had more experience and better equipment. Splitting his forces thanks to Frenzy wasn't helpful for him either. But, ultimately, neither of us suffered any lasting effects from injuries, and both netted about 60 crowns in loot and wyrdstone. I used the opportunity to finish kitting out all my heroes with Lucky Charms and Rabbit's Feet.

Game 2 of the day was against, surprise, more Dwarves! Adam had a few more models than Ed, but was still lagging over 100 behind my warband rating. Giving out underdog bonuses like candy! We rolled up Breakthrough for the scenario, and he chose to be attacker (thanks to the Infiltrate and Hunch skills I would pretty much automatically win on turn 1 if I attacked). We were playing on a 4'x3' board, and I decided to be nice and let him try and break through the short way. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of this game, having utterly forgotten about the camera I was using not 20 min prior. Oh well.

Dwarf Turn 1

After deploying in close line toward one table corner they all advanced at full speed. One model with quickshot loosed a crossbow bolt, but it went wide of its mark.

Skaven Turn 2

Everybody advances from all directions. Since we started so close to each other (14" away) many of my models were already in short range. Sadly for Adam, a lucky sling stone took his Noble in the throat, knocking him out instantly.

Dwarf Turn 2

Some more cautious advancing, followed by a wave of crossbow bolts. Thanks to cover and some ill-fortune, the only thing to drop was a Giant Rat.

Skaven Turn 2. 

Of the remaining 17 models in my warband, 12 of them charged this turn. It was an utter bloodbath. Don't remember the exact outcome, but I think I knocked a model down with shooting, then OOA'd 3 models in combat and stunned another. Poor Dwarves didn't even get to swing.

Dwarf Turn 3

Voluntary rout.


Recap: not sure there was much that could have gone differently here. I had numbers, mobility, and experience on him. These treasure hunters had slightly better gear, but I still probably came out ahead there too. Again though, no casualties in the post battle sequence (I swear I my henchmen are blessed by the Horned Rat. I have yet to lose one permanently). I found a bunch of wyrdstone and some crowns, ending up with 90 some coins between exploration and what I had left over. Managed to find some superior blackpowder to load a blunderbus with in the final game of the league term coming up next month, and got a few skill advances. More importantly, my henchmen finally got scary! A total of 4 Verminkin ended up with S4, and 2 got an additional attack. Woot!

Sadly, won't get to enjoy the spoils of war for long, as there is only a month left before we reset everything and start over.

Thanks so much for the report. I feel like the spot the skaven bonus is unattainable. There are so many! (I see four with hints of six total)

D***it, I knew I'd been forgetting something: moar batrep pictures! Again, I was a bit spotty remembering to take pictures (and that's being generous), plus these games happened almost a month ago too. Figure I might as well post what I've got though. This was from the final day of our Mordheim league term, so the stakes were high!

Game 1 - vs Adam's Dwarves - Street Fight

A rematch! Sadly for Adam, it ended about as well as the last time. We rolled Breakthrough 4 times in a row until it finally came up different, ending at a Street Fight. Not so great for the outclassed Dwarves, but at least I won't be able to out-maneuver and surround him again. Here's the deployment:




Those rats in the building are Verminkin inflintrated with the Hunch skill, just behind them is the Night Runner with the blunderbus. Hehehe. Well, nothing for it, let's get to swarming forward



Nothing too exciting that turn. He managed to OOA a Giant Rat with Crossbows, while I took out the henchman with the spear on the left with a barrage of slings from the rooftops. Now onto turn 3



As you can see, poor Adam failed to account for my blunderbus. I think I managed to hit six different Dwarves with it. Don't remember the exact outcome, as no pics of after the dust settled, but OOA'd enough between the bus and slings to allow for a voluntary rout at the beginning of Adam's 4.

Honestly, not an exciting game. Like the last time, the conclusion was pretty much foregone, just a question of going through the motions really. It's games like this that made me decide the try a different warband for the next league term. Roflstomping your enemies is fun exactly once, then it's just boring (and obviously not a lot of fun for the person on the receiving end either).


Game 2 - vs Geoff's Orcs - Occupy

I'd been looking forward to playing against Geoff for a while, as he's a pretty great guy, so I was ahppy to set up against him. Less happy about the Troll he had recently hired, but hey, you can't have it all. No real structured pics from this game, and my memory of the sequencing is fuzzy at best, so just a few highlights.

- We were playing Occupy, but mostly just brawled on each other, figuring one of us would be dead before the turn limit anyway. The only exception was a tower away from the main action where I posted two henchmen with Hunch. Turns out he really didn't want me to have that tower and sent a hero and two of his henchmen to clear them out. I was more than okay with this, as it was 1/4 of his warband but only 1/9 of mine. They still managed to do some quality sniping before getting charged and massacred though.

- Crook-Tail, the inflitrating, blunderbus weilding Night Runner lured three Orcs away from the main pack, and OOA'd one of them while knocking down another with a hail of hot lead. Sadly, his Lucky Charm couldn't help him improve that result of Knocked Down. The two remaining Boyz scraped with him for the remainder of the game, before he finally succumbed after taking one of them out. At one point he had a knocked down opponent in combat and failed to roll a 4+ to wound with either attack. Stupid rat! He still did well though, drawing off another 1/4 of the Orc force, and putting two of them down.



- The Troll. The horrid, terrible, unkillable Troll! We counted the number of Regen saves he passed. 11. Out of 12. 4+ saves. And he passed 11. Until about turn 5 the only thing that was able to put any wounds on it was Skittitpaw, the Lad with Talent hopped up on Madcap Mushrooms, swinging with 6 S5 spear attacks. And he only inflicted a single wound. We were laughing like crazy, but dear sweet Horned Rat was that Troll vicious. I think it OOA'd two heroes and a Giant Rat before Spine Marrow the Rat Ogre finally stepped in and downed it with a critical hit.



After I finally stopped the rampaging Troll (and a henchman plus the Boss the turn after that) Geoff decided that the toll was getting too high to keep grinding out the attrition game, and voluntarily routed. The combination of no route checks and the end of the league being nigh certainly led to a more desperate and bloody game than any I'd had before. But it was great fun!


Game 3 - vs. Ash's Cult of the Possessed - Hidden Treasure

I'd played Ash and her Possessed once before, when I learned that despite their fearsome reputation (and multiple 2 wound, 15" moving models - eek!) the squishy group of supporting cultists were easy pickings for rats. This time she had finally spent all her gold that was laying about, adding in a couple of acid-blooded Mutants and a pair of Darksouls, so I anticipated a good scrap. Again, game was a long time ago, and I didn't really take pics, so only some quick highlights:

- One of my Hunched Verminkin deployed in the top of the tallest tower in the middle of the board, and proceeded to find the treasure on the first turn. Well that was unexpected. He then made his way down the tower and dodged past the ramparts on the way to safety. Soon he was joined by the Assassin (who wasn't keen on putting himself anywhere near the Chaos-fuelled monstrosities) to make off with the wonderful golden prize



- Spine Marrow and one of the Possessed spent quite a few turns slapping at each other in combat, achieving absolutely nothing. Shockingly, a Giant Rat managed to hold up the other Possessed for several turns as well.



- Foulsqueak, the Sorcerer, went on a rampage! He took on the Magister and smacked her down (I 3> the Black Fury spell), then went on to slay a Brethren and a Darksoul in the ensuing turns.

With her warband in tatters (and the Possessed facing off with Spine Marrow wounded) Ash decided to flee the scene, leaving the Skaven to enjoy their delicious and well-earned candy prize (reminder to self, look into building/buying a treasure chest model).


Final Tally

Overall, I had a blast playing the Skaven as an intro to Mordheim. Powerleveling when coming into a campaign late gives some opportunities I think normally wouldn't be available (like picking Infiltrate and Weapons expert at the same time, knowing I'm getting two skills on the same model). However, after losing my first two games (first against the undisputed campaign front-runner, second juuuust barely) I didn't have any games that were even close. As I mentioned earlier, that isn't fun for anyone involved. Next league term (starts in a week and a half!) I'm bringing Orcs, with a focus on shooting. Figure the shift to longer ranges and being much much slower should be a good change of pace for me. And hopefully I'll remember to better chronicle my games!

We're still waiting to hear what the final results were from the term, but I think I should be in the running to win most kills (not OOAs, actual dead enemies). Especially seeing as I got a kill in each of these three games. Astoundinly, I didn't have any of my henchmen die, which means I went an entire term (10 games I think?) without a single henchman death (heroes were not thus charmed; two of them died).


P.S. - @Von Kurst: the "Where's Skaven" game answer, is, as far as I can tell, 4 visible models, and a 5th that is entirely hidden in a shadowy doorway. So you got the right answers, but I've also got you paranoid and making shadows into rats!

"We were playing Occupy, but mostly just brawled on each other"

Hahaha very familiar!

Woot, update: turns out I came out ahead in the league, taking it with a total of 12 wins. Also got the "headtaker award" with 9 enemy models murdered and devoured.

Thanks for the final reports and congrats on your standing in the league   

Your store has some great looking warbands, too.

Thanks for the OH-SO-COOL photos & reports; AND CONGRATULATIONS!