Mordheim Day!

Oh MoM, its so far from WYSIWYG right now. I had so many dwarfs without weapons in their hands or paint on them. Now my brother does do a good job, and all his guys were above board. Inspired by him, I spent an hour tonight converting all my dwarfs to be up to snuff. So the next battle report should be decent and respectable.

The next battle report after this one, I should say:

Game 13! This is it, Grumpy the beardling, who's been with me since the very start, is one day from retirement. He needs to survive this game, then his last, which will be his retirement party. Lets see how he does.

The game was played against my awesome friend Joe, with the help of port and chicken strips. Joe lost his roster and started over fresh in the Dragon Hunt, where he did well, with underdog. This time he'd get 4+ for underdog, which is bonkers.

We rolled Bitter Rivals in subplots, and Necromancer's Tower scenario from Coreheim. I really want a magic dwarf, so the Tower was going to be mine, no matter the cost.

Thus is the 13th adventure of the Mordheim City Code Enforcers:

Bright was the sky and high our spirits when we set out to the Necromancer's tower (scenario rolled). The dread sorcerer was rumored to have evilly desecrated the covenant that beams or girders be spaced not less than 4 feet (1219 mm) on center and projecting not more than 6 inches (152 mm) below the required ceiling height. For this transgression, surely death was due him.


Dwarfs in the foreground close in on the tower

Upon the approach, a rival gang was seen, and refused to heed our warnings to turn back or cross steel. It was the [Mercenaries - Reiklander], our bitter enemy (subplot rolled)! The battle commenced, as our crossbowdwarfs took up positions in buildings overlooking the Necromancer's tower, and our heroes charged forward.

The humans made a curtain of bowmen opposite us, and began the rain of arrows that would last the battle. Zombies began, to our horror, to pour out of entrances which were in contravention of the standards of minimal egress widths for doors not of commercial structures. Fortunately, our courage held and the zombies were charged by Grom, Flex, and Flash, while Buck led a one-man flanking manuever around the right side of the building, and a herd of henchmen went left, straight towards the mercenaries.


Humans bowmen on their side of the evil tower

My shooting began excellently, with our halfling scout knocking out of action an enemy henchman. In retaliation, several of my advancing henchmen were knocked over, including Grumpy. With two zombies destroyed, Grom joined the charging henchmen, arrows bouncing off his legendary armor. Bolts of deathly magic shot from the tower all around the attackers, and the cackle of the dark wizard could be heard from within his tower (built, as it was, in a tract not zoned for dark magicks). These caused no injury, but were a nice touch to the atmosphere.

Battle was joined with more zombies shuffling out of the tower into the continuously whirring blades of Flash and Flex, Buck charging the enemy captain, Grom and two henchmen charging two champions, and another henchman attacking a youngblood. Combat was slow, with S3 attacks flying left right and center. Zombie bits went everywhere as Flash and Flex stopped the entrance to the tower in even-more-dead-than-usual zombies.


Shamefully unpainted dwarfs and curiously elf-looking humans come to grips

After a few turns, the enemy youngblood was knocked out, and Grom decapitated the champion he was up against. The enemy fled, but not before a lucky arrow found its way into Grim Orebiter's (clansman henchman) vitals. He was found motionless just as the field cleared and the Necromancer was thrown down from his tower, leaving the dwarfs victorious.

In the post game, my henchman recovered. Joe's henchman did too, as did his youngblood, but his champion would not see a third battle.

With so many zombies eliminated, advancements were thick on the ground. Grom got a WS, Grabthroat the engineer a Ld, Flex got a wound, Flash became a wyrdstone hunter (yay!), the halfling got a toughness, and the sole leveling henchman got an attack! A mixed bag, but the wyrdstone hunter was a great milestone. Due to 4+ on underdog score, Joe's yo's all leveled twice (except the captain), giving him quick shots and BS as far as the eye could see. One of his two henchmen groups became inspired to their highest ability, yielding a lad what had talent and an extra Ld for the remaining guy. Rebuying his champ, Joe now had six heroes.

I rolled well enough to get five 3's, with help from the crappy Mordheim map I had. This led me to a Jewelsmith, where the keen dwarf nose found a necklace worth more than a suit of armor. Grom donned this bling, and would gain 1+ to rarity rolls. I'd always wanted to find that.

In the Necromancer's tower, which I chose to not burn down, I found a grimoir of ancient secrets. Buck read its magical pages, and now can chose to roll on lesser magic when he gains a new skill! I don't have to look for tomes of magic, which is what Flex was going to have to do (Flex has academic skills from a alchemist's lab). Totally sweet. With help from the necklace, I also found a accurate Mordheim map (three rerolls!), and used the last of my money to find and buy two dwarf axes for Flex. What an excellent game. Now with 99% WYSIWYG warband, I'm ready for the retirement party.

That does sound like an EXCELLENT game for all concerned...except the now homeless Necromancer. COOL PHOTOS & a FINE REPORT!  

We had our 14th game last night, which featured the return of our orcs! It was Grumpy's retirement party, which didn't stop him being crumped by a troll, and much fun was had. I even got a sixth hero, Cpl. Cuddy, the thunderer, and my troll slayer buck leveled to gain a new spell, which turned out to be Flight of Zimmerman! I'll post the gory details later today.

Grumpy will be missed...other than by the Troll that is.  

And Grumpy's okay! The bloodthirsty troll rolled two hits on him, wounded twice, and came up with '66' to put Grumpy away. In post-battle, however, he recovered fully and went off to a nice mountain where he'd be much happier. But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves.

To start, the game we rolled was down on the docks, with 5 skaven smugglers attacked by dwarfs, human Reiklanders, and the newly returned orcs. The dwarfs rolled "sore heads" on the random events, so it looks like the partying got off to an early start.



The orcs made an aggressive march straight for the smugglers, putting their archers on the vast second story. The humans mobbed forward, also with lots of shooting in their warband, and the dwarfs trudged along (which a very dwarfy word, if feel). The first action was the fast troll in the orc warband running into two smugglers, who had only managed to load one crate when trouble arrived.



The smugglers where quickly put down by the huge troll (here, a rat ogre), just as the dwarfs showed up. The troll then crumped Grumpy, who was given the honorable task of leading the warband, and bottled up the whole ally he was in. T-Flex, the monster slaying, resilient, T5 crazy man, took down the troll, which was awesome. The rest of the warband made it around another way, and shot down a smuggler, causing the other two to skedaddle. The orcs were closing in along the river that the smugglers were escaping down, but they were abutting the humans, who were themselves about to reach the river.

The orc bosses knocked out two humans, then turned their attention to the fleeing boat. The dwarfs got a hold of four crates and began booking it back, under arrow fire from the humans. The humans, having lost thier vangauad, held up in a building but were being shot at and charged by more orcs.

As the dwarfs booked back, then came into combat with two humans while the crate carriers moved as fast as they could. The orc big un and boss decided that I2 was good enough to leap from the raised river bank to the escaping ship, which they did successfully, mincing the last two skaven smugglers and securing a crate. Other orcs fought with humans, while to goblin archers killed one of their own, bring the orc trophy rack to humans, a dwarf, skaven, and a goblin all in one game.

Deciding that running was not the most valient move, all dwarfs not carrying things or fighting humans charged the orcs. Several climbing tests were part of this, which made me proud. It was a good day for I2. In the end, the humans chose to rout (without losing anyone my dwarfs were in combat against). The orcs stuck around, in a combat against my Noble Grom and his guard in an ally. Goblins dove into combat from the building on one side they occupied, and a dwarf did the same from across the street, leading to a very exciting fight. My thunderers managed to shoot down the orc boss, and Ld4 or whatever the next guy had just wasn't enough. Just kidding! The fight went on another two turns, Grom felling three gobos and winning the day.

In post battle, the orcs lost and rebought a shaman, everyone else making full recovery. The humans lost a champion, but had a lad get talent. It was the remainder of the group that got talent last time, then rolled talent again (which it had to reroll), before settling for Ld. These guys were all about leadership.

I had a henchman, Cuddy, level up to give me sixth hero! This was splendid, as I had been hoping for that real bad. I was able to roll ten dice, due to all the crates I recovered, and ended up finding a slaughtered warband, thanks to all my +/-1 from resource hunter (the dwarf skill). I had all the heroes I needed, a maxed out warband, and tons of supplies. To put the frosting on the cake that was the dwarf's 14th game, Buck, the slayer who got all magicy last game, leveled up, got a new skill, and chose to learn and spell. It turned out to be the Flight, so now I have a flying slayer! (I had thought of giving him the reroll to serious injusry, which everyone but he has, but I decided that life is short and I can replace him if he bites it.)

So, I'm all kitted out, and ready to serious prod buttocks. All I need now is to find a magical artifact, and I'll have reached all my self-made campaign goals!

It sounds like you had a FINE game; AND the LOVELY Photos add to the excitement. GREAT STUFF!  

Well done on achieving most of your self-made campaign goals. I hope that your opponents are also enjoying the campaign and achieving some of their goals also.

Game 15! The dwarfs squared off against the possessed in a rat race.





The possessed started off with three rats in hand, and didn't stick around long after they had them. The action of note involved the flying slayer Buck, who learned magic last battle.

As the dwarfs hilariously plodded towards the withdrawing possessed, Buck grew magical wings and landed on the neck of an enemy henchderp on the other side of a building. He killed to fool dead first go, but was then exposed all by himself. He ate some arrows and was stunned next turn, and charged and out of action the next turn. His attacker was put down by leader Grom, and the possessed disappeared.

In post battle, I rolled a 1 for the tens place on the serious injury chart, and gritted me teeth. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the next dice was a six, and only suffered hardened and full recovery. It was the first hero I'd had out of action in a long time, and my only hero to not have the "reroll the serious injury table result" skill.

I searched for Gromril, found nothing, but got some loot. It was a relief.

There's nothing quite like a Battle Report with COOL photos to start the day. GREAT STUFF!  

Game 16! The dwarfs (try to) do battle with the Undead in a stakeout (lol).



Above you can see the ruined city of Mordheim, with the dastardly undead deposited in their dark depot. On all sides, four of the five groups of dwarfs can be see closing in.

The game had a subplot, sewers, which could cause moving models to fall into collapsed sewers, but nothing came of that. The objective for the undead was to run the vampire off the table. Our table wasn't huge, so he did that first turn with sprint. It was a little silly. Very short game. The only other thing that happened was my engineer got shot, but he lived.

In the post game I got Buck the skill he needed to not die (extra tough, can reroll a serious injury), found my engineer a blunderbus, and found my initiative 4 dwarf an ithmiril ax. The undead player got his ghoul hero an extra attack, and let some zombie go so he would only be at 15 dudes.

I rolled a 123346 for my exploration, rerolled the 1 from wyrdstone hunter and got a 4. I used resource hunter to get quad fours (armory) and found three helmats, which was terrific. Undead rolled 8 dice from having six heroes, a map, and victory, and went with the double whatever for overturned cart. He was hoping for a map, but got the jeweled sword and dagger, which he decided was suitable for his vampire. He also found two ithilmar weapons for his high-initiative heroes.

It was a stupidly brief game, but a fun post game. The undead player wants another run at my dwarfs now, which is the real victory: more Mordheim in my future.

Enjoying the game AND having it lead to a further challenge sounds like a successful outing to moi. Have FUN!  

Snow has fallen over Mordheim:



We played a 3 player game with dwarfs, possessed (played by a guest player) and Joe's human archers. The scenario was Don't wake the giant, which I figured would be a good group game where there was a disparity between the warbands' strengths.

The first three turns consisted of each team moving towards the giant. My magic flying dwarf succeeded in flying on the first two turns, and was far enough ahead to be shot by arrows the two turns after that. When battle was joined, most of my warband charged the giant, the humans grabbed two treasure chests, and the possessed main monster attacked several of the human's supporting archers.

Long and bloody melee ensued. The giant eventually was killed by one of my henchmen, the possessed took out three archers, and a several of my dwarfs that didn't reach the giant had fallen to the rest of the possessed hoard, taking out two of their heroes along the way. The humans made off with one of the chests they were carrying, and when my main force arrived in the fight with the possessed, he decided it was time to leave, too.

Dwarfs win! In the post-battle phase, two of the three human casualties expired to the great archery butts in the sky, one beastman was done, and the dwarf Hammerhawk went underground for good. There was only one level-up, in which my newest hero got an extra toughness. On exploration, I rolled 6654411, rerolled a 1 into a 5, and used resource hunter to make it all end up as six 5's. That gave me a fighting manual, which I haven't decided what to do with yet. I didn't find any of the gromril armor I was looking for, which was a bit of a bummer. I think I'll stick to looking for maps until I get one of my academic dwarfs to learn streetwise.

The Game looks TERRIFIC & sounds like an enjoyable time was had by all. GREAT STUFF!  

Oh I wish I could sprinkle snow on our tables. Looks great

I thought I knew where the fallen giant scenario was, but I see that TC #15 just has it as a random event. Is it hosted somewhere? I finally had to look at the Coreheim scenarios, since they are very much changed from the original ones and I was always wondering what rules you were playing by. Stakeout is improved over what Gav Thorpe wrote for certain. The improvement in Down on the Docks is less noticeable and I miss the swivel gun... I do like the crew trying to load their ship rather than just standing around waiting to die.

Von, I linked the scenario above to the Mordheimer website that I got it from. Try have about a million scenarios from all the setting (Lustria etc.) and a bunch of what I assume are TC.

The rules we are playing with are a few tweaks to armor and shields, nothing majorly divergent from the basic rules. We allowed dwarfs and orcs, and we add scenarios from whatever source catches my eye (Empire in Flames, Coreheim) and we used the random events+subplots, but only use the most basic hired swords, equipment, and rules besides that.

I'm still waiting to roll "the thing in the woods" from EiF on out scenario chart and get one of my dwarf turned into a werewolf.

Mordheim is like the sea.

I'm drowning in it.


Game, uh, 18! A bar room brawl with the Undead! All the serious injuries can be rerolled after the battle, but there are no voluntary routs.



The two warbands square off. Brian's killer ghoul hero tore through some dwarfs, but the wall of gromril eventually overcame the undead. Most of each warband was downed before the vampire had enough, including Buck who had made a flying attack against the necromancer before getting vampire'd. Surprisingly, no one died in this battle, it was all fun and games (a thrall lost an eye).

In post battle I was able to roll a ton of "substitution dice", but had to pick my favorite 5. Through a lot of luck and dwarvish treasure hunting abilities I found the entrance to the catacombs (66666) and will henceforth be entranced to the catacombs (permanent reroll of one die on exploration). This was one of my big goals for the campaign, so I was super excited. I also found a third suit of gromril armor for my new hero Cpl Cuddy, with the help of good rarity rolling and Grom Emanuel's opulent jewels.

Once more the scenery & the minis are or, in the Living Impaired Lads case, soon will be LOOKIN' GOOD. Your Vertically Challenged Ones certainly excel in the exploration phase.  

I just got done playing my 23rd game with my dwarves Mordheim City Code Inspectors, which leaves me with five games to report on.

I'm getting close to retiring my shorties back to the mountain and getting a Sisters warband going, since I'm now playing against several low-powered warbands, and competition would be better if I played something besides the dwarves. Additionally, I only have 21 experience left until my warband leader, Grom Emmanuel, reached 90 xp. my ultimate goal, however, is to find a magical artifact, and that day may be fast approaching as well.

The game I played last Saturday was against Dave the Welder, who as played a few times with my brother's possessed, but who drew up a Marianburg list with lots of dueling pistols. Due to a fake map of mine, he got to pick the scenario, which was Wyrdstone hunt. His faster humans had an advantage against my armored dwarves as we set up.


Wyrdstone counters can be seen in the snow to the left and right of the center huge building, and in the second floor of a building to the right.

This was a quick and simple game. The humans grabbed wyrdstone, the dwarfs shot at them, and the humans fled after taking some casualties. The hard part was scaling the ledge that separates the lower city level I deployed on from the level where there was wyrdstone and humans, but many of my fellas made the climb successfully.

In the post battle Dave leveled many time due to underdog advantage, and went for sprint and Pistolier on many of his models. I found a true map of mordheim, which is a first for me and will go a long way to helping me find a magical artifact.

ONCE MORE the game looks & sounds TERRIFIC!  

Game 20 was also new human warband versus dwarfs, in the form of a stagecoach ambush from Coreheim. A "stage coach" with four npc guard would make its way down the road, and the last warband standing would get extra exploration dice for looting it.



We rolled a 1 on a D6 before the game, which caused random events. We got acid rain for a few turns, which knocked down my engineer, and a giant spider, which my slayer dispatched.


Here you can see my dwarfs in a bunch where the guards used to be, and the rat ogre playing a giant spider on the left. In the center top building my opponent has bunched up on the top floor, intending to wait me out.

I eventually failed a rout test after my flying dwarf flew into the building and was pistoled, and a few henchmen were killed by the guards. My hopes of getting a huge pile of exploration dice were spoiled, but all my dwarfs recovered, so it was not so bad. I'd have to wait for another game to try for six-of-a-kind and a magical artifact.

Well you can't win them all; especially if you expect to have other folk continue to play with you. Be that as it may, The Game looks terrific...that is a real plus for moi. GREAT STUFF!  

I played two more games, numbers 21 and 22 with the Mordheim City Code Enforcement dwarf warband. In the first one I lost The Middle Bridge, which was basically a foot race against Joe's sprinting mercenaries. There was lots of shooting and close combat, including a duel between my leader Grom and Joe's captain, which was a slug-fest. I had one dwarf shot off a third story ledge, then charged by someone on the ground floor. My halfling scout did a diving charge to protect the stunned fallen dwarf, failed his initiative test, and also was stunned. My warband has trouble with long distances, especially verticle ones.

In the post battle phase I found another suit of Gromril armor for my engineer, so now all my non-slayer heroes have suits of armor. I managed to roll five 2's and gave my engineer, who is good for nothing, academic skillz.

In game 22 we rolled a beastman scenario called raid. Four buildings in the center of the table would be targeted by the attackers (Joe and Dave's mercanaries), who would have to burn them down by rolling a 4+ test after spending a turn in base to base contact with them. Each building would spawn D3 townsfolk who would fight for the defenders. The game was over once all the building were burned, or the attackers routed.

The two attacker approached the square of buildings from opposite corners. The each sent sprinters forward to attempt to set the buildings on fire, while trying to avoid the pack of angry dwarfs. As they got close to the buildings, I rolled high for townsfolk and three came out of each (we used Skaven minis; clearly a small villiage of Skaven living in mordheim's ruins would hire a band of dwarfs to protect them from raiding humans.)

On Joe's side, lots of his archers were on the street covered by close combat guys to engage the attackers. The Skaven were cut down relatively quickly, but dwarfs made it through to the archers and started causing casualties. A Youngblood was desparately trying to light the nearest building for several turns as dwarfs pushed back humans all around him, to no success. A second Youngblood, who's last eight advancements had been shooting and speed skills but who still only had BS2 managed to shoot my halfling out of a window, then do the same to one of my Thunderers. As this hero sprinted, lept, and scaled-sheer-surfaces into one of the target buildings now clear of my guys, his warband routed before he could set the thing on fire. Joe had killed many Skaven, but had torched no buildings.

On Daves side, a more cautious game was played. Dave ran forward to tease out the Skaven from the target buildings, but then ran back to safety. He feigned an attack to the left, then sent sprinters to the right and burned down the first building on his side unopposed. One of my thunderers in the second story of the burning building had to immediately leap out, and while his leap succeeded in that it brought him into contact with the ground, he landed on his head, was stunned, and riddled with pistol shot by the humans. A dwarf troll slayer hired sword that Dave had hired had trouble keeping up as his speedy humans zipped in and out of buildings, up and over ledges, and generally confused the dwarf warband.

Neither side seemed interested in engaging head on, but something had to give. My engineer lined up a blunderbus shot, his first of the campaign, on a pack of humans in a ruin but injured none. I charged my whole warband forward, and seeing that joe had routed, Dave sacrificed two swordsmen and routed himself.

In post battle I lost a henchdwarf that joe had felled, and joe lost his two best henchmen marksmen. Joe and Dave leveled a million times due to underdog bonus, and my newest hero Cpl. Cuddy got an extra T.

For exploration, I was sitting pretty. I have two true Mordheim maps, which I've spent countless rolls looking for, an enterence to the catacombs (66666 on the exploration chart), and one guy with Wyrdstone Hunter, from finding a alchemists notebook (22222 on the chart) for a total of four perminant rerolls. Five of my six heroes have resource hunter, for plus or minus onemodification on an exploration dice. I rolled my seven dice, and with only one or two rerolls landed six-of-kind 2's and a shot at finding a magical artifact! This was my ultimate campagne goal, so I was very nervous to make the 5+ check to find one. I passed the 5+ for a holy relic and for heavy armor, but rolled only a 2 for the artifact. I let out a sigh and stared to look forward to the next game.

The elusive artifact at least is giving us another exciting game to look forward to...obviously the absence of the camera influenced Lady Luck.  

The winter streets look great. Thumbs up