New Scenario: Clock Tower

Poof: I'm back, just like Cianty predicated seven years ago! Why? My older son currently has no memory of his 5-year-old excursions into Mordheim, and that's a stinking shame. We must rectify this situation forthwith!

Alright, on to this post. I'm filling in what I consider holes for scenarios, and was amazed when I failed to find one based on the Clock Tower. Here is my take:

Clock Tower

The Clock Tower was a broken ruin, smashed to rubble by the comet’s rain of wyrdstone. Yet rumors say it is standing again. What Chaos is this?

TERRAIN

In the center of the table place a narrow building at least three stories high, preferably four, representing the clock tower. Place a counter representing the Clockwork Artifact on the top level of the tower. For 12” around the clock tower, place a lot of rubble, leaving just enough room for large creatures to navigate pathways through it. Then place other terrain as normal. After this, place at least four ladders per warband on the battlefield standing or lying on the ground, however no ladders are to be placed within 12” of the clock tower (nor inside it).

WARBANDS

As normal.

STARTING THE GAME

As normal.

SPECIAL RULES

Ladders. Ladders are heavy objects. Warriors may only carry one ladder at a time, and animals may not carry them. A ladder may be carried by a large warrior without any impact to the warrior's combat or movement. If carried by a single warrior who isn't large, the warrior may not run, climb, jump, charge, shoot, cast spells, attack in melee, use shields, nor use defensive skills (such as parry) which require the use of hands - the warrior may drop the ladder at any time to do any of these things. Two warriors (in base contact with a ladder at the start of their turn) may together carry a ladder and move together as one model - if so, they may run, climb, or jump. Both carrying models must pass all Initiative test for climbing/jumping, or both fall and drop the ladder. If running, both models must pass an Initiative test - if either fails, they may only make a normal move. While two warriors carry a ladder, neither may charge, shoot, cast spells, nor attack in melee - of course a warrior may drop its end of a ladder to do these things. Two warriors carrying a ladder may still use a shield or the defensive properties of a one-handed weapon as normal.

Field of Rubble. The ground within 12” of the Clock Tower is difficult terrain, and halves the movement of all models crossing it.

A Murder of Crows. Crows have been attracted to this tower, and feel zealously protective of their new home. Any model on or within the tower is attacked just after it moves, receiving 1 automatic hit at D3+1 Strength (representing how many crows attacked and how ferociously). Models within or on the tower move at half rate, suffer a -1 Initiative, and cannot see past melee range due to the black wings in their face.

Crow Season. However, the Crows may be driven off for a little time. Spells which do damage at range and missile weapons can be used for this. If a warband’s spells/missile weapons can reach the very top eave of the tower, and together in one turn succeed at causing at least 3 Wounds against T3, the crows are driven off until that warband’s next Recovery phase. While driven off the crows do not cause their usual effects nor attacks.

Clockwork Artifact. At the top of the clock tower is a special clockwork gear made from wyrdstone, which has caused this magic tower to appear. Only heroes may pick it up, and they must pass a Leadership test against fear to do so. Once picked up, the artifact may be taken off the battlefield.

The Time Has Come. As soon as the Clockwork Artifact leaves the tower, the tower crumbles! Anyone still in or on the tower immediately falls to the ground, with the usual effects of falling. Remove the tower building from the battlefield. Any model within 3” of the tower (including those who fell, and whoever carried the artifact out of the tower) must pass an Initiative test or suffer 1D3 S3 hits from falling rubble. The good news is that the crows disperse to other haunts and do not return.

Losers Weepers. During this scenario, if a hero carrying the Clockwork Artifact is taken out of action, place the Clockwork Artifact where the hero fell – other heroes may pick it up. If a warband carrying the Clockwork Artifact routs, they retain it.

ENDING THE GAME

When one warband gets the Clockwork Artifact off the battlefield, or when both warbands have failed a Rout test, the game ends.

EXPERIENCE

• +1 for Surviving. All models which survive this scenario gain 1 Experience.
• +1 Winning Leader. The leader of the winning warband gains 1 Experience.
• +1 Per Enemy Out of Action. A hero earns 1 Experience for each enemy he puts out of action.
• +2 For Retrieving the Clockwork Artifact. A hero who retains the Clockwork Artifact at the end of this scenario gains 2 Experience.

TREASURE

Clockwork Artifact. The Clockwork Artifact bends time around it in strange ways. It must be assigned to a hero for use. When used, the Clockwork Artifact:
• Enables its wielding hero to add his normal Movement characteristic to the distance of all his charges and runs. (This means normally that a hero with the Clockwork Artifact can charge/move 3x his Movement characteristic. A hero with Sprint would instead charge/move 4x his Movement characteristic.)
• When the wielding hero is not charging/running, his Movement characteristic is at +1.
• At the end of each scenario during which the Clockwork Artifact is wielded, roll 2D6: on any result except 2, the wielder gains 1 Insanity Point [reference At the Mouth of Madness in Town Cryer 8]; on a result of 2, the Clockwork Artifact disappears to the Warp, never to be seen again during this campaign.
As the Clockwork Artifact is an obviously Chaos-infested item, warbands who follow Sigmar, Taal and the like will refuse to use it – they may hand it over to their superiors for safekeeping and receive a 100gc reward.

Welcome back! I saw your name, knew that I knew it but couldn't place it until I opened the thread. I hope that you enjoy playing with your son.

I like the scenario and I love the Clockwork Artefact. Very cool.

I think that there are too many challenges that will cause the scenario to play out differently to how you intend. The ladders make it seem that the clock tower does not have an internal stairwell. (Perhaps though they are just to provide a secondary method to scale the clock tower.) I think that the 12" of difficult terrain around the tower plus climbing up the outside of the tower will be too much when combined with the crows. Also, the clock tower crumbling once the artefact is taken from the tower will limit the number of warriors that are sent up (the crows may limit the number of warriors sent also). If I played this scenario then I would be inclined to hold back, let the other player retrieve the artefact (and hopefully lose some warriors to the crows) and then steal it when they try to take it off the table edge.

I suggest removing the difficult terrain from the field of rubble. Also, perhaps giving +2 Experience to the warrior who leaves the tower with the artefact instead of the hero who ends the battle with it would be an option to give more incentive to actually collecting the artefact from the top although this is mid-battle bookkeeping which can be a pain. Maybe the crows could ignore the warrior carrying the Clockwork Artefact because of the taint of chaos.

It would be worthwhile mentioning that a warrior needs to end their turn on the artefact to pick it up.

There are rules for ladders in Border Town Burning if you want to reuse those rules.

Echo RationalLemming's suggestions. Also, the rules for dispersing the crows won't work, because of the order that things occur during a turn:
- recovery
- move
- get attacked by crows
- use spells/ranged attacks to disperse crows
- combat
- next player (not attacked by crows)
- next player (not attacked by crows)
- etc (until back to dispersing warband)
- recovery phase
- crows come back
- move
- attacked by crows

So you can only ever help your opponent's warbands by firing at the crows.

Welcome back! Hope you have a good time playing

Thank you for the responses and the feedback! The thoughts are especially why I posted this scenario here. I've adjusted the scenario so that the terrain setup specifically prefers a tower without stairs, difficult terrain doesn't show up until after the tower collapses and covers a smaller area, the crow attacks aren't quite so sudden, and crow season gives a better benefit. I've also mentioned the Border Town Burning rules as a possibility for ladders. There is still the issue of waiting around for the other warband to take the initiative, but that's a normal part of Mordheim - some battles may go towards routing the opponent first, then scaling the tower - that's acceptable to me. Version two of the scenario:

Clock Tower

The Clock Tower was a broken ruin, smashed to rubble by the comet’s rain of wyrdstone. Yet rumors say it is standing again. What Chaos is this?

TERRAIN

In the center of the table place a narrow building at least three stories high, preferably four, representing the clock tower. The clock tower should have platforms/stories every 2" or so, however should have no stairs in or around it – ladders or climbing will be needed to scale it! Place a counter representing the Clockwork Artifact on the top level of the tower. For 12” around the clock tower, place a lot of rubble, leaving just enough room for Large creatures to navigate pathways through it. Then place other terrain as normal. After this, place at least four ladders per warband on the battlefield at least standing on ground level, however no ladders are to be placed within 12” of the clock tower (nor inside it).

WARBANDS

As normal.

STARTING THE GAME

As normal.

SPECIAL RULES

Ladders. You may wish the use the rules for ladders from Border Town Burning, however following are our house rules for ladders. Ladders are heavy objects. Warriors may only carry one ladder at a time, and animals may not carry them. A ladder may be carried by a large warrior without any impact to the warrior's combat or movement. If carried by a single warrior who isn't large, the warrior may not run, climb, jump, charge, shoot, cast spells, attack in melee, use shields, nor use defensive skills (such as parry) which require the use of hands - the warrior may drop the ladder at any time to do any of these things. Two warriors (in base contact with a ladder at the start of their turn) may together carry a ladder and move together as one model - if so, they may run, climb, or jump. Both carrying models must pass all Initiative test for climbing/jumping, or both fall and drop the ladder. If running, both models must pass an Initiative test - if either fails, they may only make a normal move. While two warriors carry a ladder, neither may charge, shoot, cast spells, nor attack in melee - of course a warrior may drop its end of a ladder to do these things. Two warriors carrying a ladder may still use a shield or the defensive properties of a one-handed weapon as normal.

A Murder of Crows. Crows have been attracted to this tower, and feel zealously protective of their new home. Models within or on the tower move at half rate, suffer a -1 Initiative, and cannot see past melee range due to the black wings in their face. Each round after all players have taken their turns, any model on or within the tower is attacked, receiving 1 automatic hit at D3+1 Strength (representing how many crows attacked and how ferociously).

Crow Season. The Crows may be driven off for a little time. Spells which do damage at range and missile weapons can be used for this. If a warband’s spells/missile weapons can reach the very top eave of the tower, and together in one turn succeed at causing at least 3 Wounds against T3, the crows are driven off until just after that warband’s next turn. While driven off the crows do not cause their usual effects nor attacks.

Clockwork Artifact. At the top of the clock tower is a special clockwork gear made from wyrdstone, which has caused this magic tower to appear. Only heroes may pick it up – when a hero ends its movement in base contact with the artifact, and passes a Leadership test against fear to pick it up, the artifact is taken by that hero. Once picked up, the artifact may be taken off the battlefield.

The Time Has Come. As soon as the Clockwork Artifact leaves the tower, the tower crumbles! Anyone still in or on the tower immediately falls to the ground. Remove the tower building from the battlefield. Any model within 3” of the tower (including those who fell, and whoever carried the artifact out of the tower) must pass an Initiative test or suffer 1D3 S3 hits from falling rubble. From this point through the end of the scenario, the ground within 6” of the center of the battlefield is difficult terrain. The good news is that the crows disperse to other haunts and do not return.

Losers Weepers. During this scenario, if a hero carrying the Clockwork Artifact is taken out of action, place the Clockwork Artifact where the hero fell – other heroes may pick it up. If a warband carrying the Clockwork Artifact routs, they retain it.

ENDING THE GAME

When one warband gets the Clockwork Artifact off the battlefield, or when both warbands have failed a Rout test, the game ends.

EXPERIENCE

• +1 for Surviving. All models which survive this scenario gain 1 Experience.
• +1 Winning Leader. The leader of the winning warband gains 1 Experience.
• +1 Per Enemy Out of Action. A hero earns 1 Experience for each enemy he puts out of action.
• +2 For Retrieving the Clockwork Artifact. A hero who retains the Clockwork Artifact at the end of this scenario gains 2 Experience.

TREASURE

Clockwork Artifact. The Clockwork Artifact bends time around it in strange ways. It must be assigned to a hero for use. When used, the Clockwork Artifact:
• Enables its wielding hero to add his normal Movement characteristic to the distance of all his charges and runs. (This means normally that a hero with the Clockwork Artifact can charge/move 3x his Movement characteristic. A hero with Sprint would instead charge/move 4x his Movement characteristic.)
• When the wielding hero is not charging/running, his Movement characteristic is at +1.
• At the end of each scenario during which the Clockwork Artifact is wielded, roll 2D6: on any result except 2, the wielder gains 1 Insanity Point [reference At the Mouth of Madness in Town Cryer 8]; on a result of 2, the Clockwork Artifact disappears to the Warp, never to be seen again during this campaign.
As the Clockwork Artifact is an obviously Chaos-infested item, warbands who follow Sigmar, Taal and the like will refuse to use it – they may hand it over to their superiors for safekeeping and receive a 100gc reward.

Revised version of the scenario looks much better!