Mordheim brings a lot of good (terrible) memories... I think last games of Mordheim I played some six years ago.
So I tore into my nostalgia boxes and unearthed my old Carnival of Chaos warband.
I had played with Carnival of Chaos and Skaven before, but I sold my Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle a long time ago, so just about all of the ratmen went away to hide in another hole.
But the Carnival, looks like, had been waiting me all these years.
My initial roster was:
Carnival Master
- Sword, helmet, Stench of Nurgle
2x Brute, one with Flail and one with Two Handed Weapon
Tainted One
- Axe, Mace, Hideous mutation
Tainted One
- Sword, Stream of Corruption mutation
2x Brethren
- Hammer, Shield, short bows
3x Nurglings
Five players gathered in a basement last Friday, and the warbands there were:
Possessed
Beastmen (from Empire in Flames)
Middenheimers
Undead
We had two boards, so there were one two player game and one for three. I got to the pool with three players. Others were the Undead and Middenheimers.
Scenario was Wyrdstone Hunt (I think...) anyway, we had two Wyrdstone shards lying around.
Turn order was Undead -> Middenheimers -> Carnival of Chaos and first picture is taken from the end of Carnival turn 1. Empty 20mm square bases are the wyrdstone shards.
I aimed to get the shard over the stone block and leave vampire and Middenheimers to duke it out with the other shard. After all, there were just some zombies and the necromancer plus some heroes (dregs? Ghouls? I know not).
Anyway, the Carnival took residence in a nearby building. Brutes are both in front of the house, if you look close enough you can just see their weapons there in the second picture, which is from the end of Carnival turn 2.
Next turn the tougher undead up there in the side of Middenheimers did some serious flanking, and I was quite happy about that. They'd be a lot more important threat to deal with than my clowns. I don't remember if it was this turn where the necromancer took one of Carnvial brethrens down with a lucky shot.
Middenheimers shot one wound off from vampire and secured the central wyrdstone shard, and I tried to do the same with the brutes over at the stone block. Now they would just have to weather a crapton of WS 2 STR 3 attacks. Shouldn't be a problem, really.
Except, well, it was.
Flail using brute went down to the minor undeads, and the two handed weapon wielding brute failed its Leadership check versus fear. I don't remember what the vampires & its buddies did there in the right, but I remember that Middenheimers shot the ancient evil out with a cross... bow. Wyrdstone carrying Middenheimer failed initiative test to jump down.
Despite losing one brute I was quite sure I'd be able to take enough zombies down to make escape with the shard a real possibility. Hideous Tainted One charged there in, too. The clown killed his targets easily, but the brute, hitting on 3+ and wounding on 2+ failed to do anything. One attack missed and one just didn't cause a wound.
Next turn undead initiated melee with Middenheimers. In the melee phase the last remaining brute did nothing yet again, despite attacking first, having two attacks and hitting on 3+ and wounding on 2+. Oh, he did do something. He got stunned. He got stunned from WS 2 STR 3 attacks.
Luckily Middenheimers were too busy with the undead on right, though the undead were rolling as badly in melee there as I was rolling on my side of the board. They suffered quite severe casualties.
I was panicking with the stunned brute, and tried to charge in with everything that might even remotely be in range. Well, Tainted One I had forgot to activate after turn 2, failed its charge. Last remaining brethren succeeded to charge, though, but got into contact with only one zombie.
In the close combat phase the hideous tainted one continued to win, but brute was put out of its misery, as was the brethren. Yippee.
But undead had lost too many party members and decided to voluntarily rout. Middenheimers shoot down the tainted one who had failed charge, and then it was turn for Carnival to rout or continue.
I decided to continue, snatched the wyrdstone shard and took a run as far as possible. That hideous tainted one was truly the only successful actor in this play... Anyway. Middenheimers took a couple last shots at the hideous tainted one, and then Carnival routed, too.
Carnival didn't lose any henchmen, which was good. They did lose the two handed weapon wielding brute, though. The other brute got Hardened -injury result, so he became immune to fear. Stream of corruption tainted one suffered a hand injury, so he was WS 2 from now on.
Super heroic tainted one got an advancement, and he raised his Leadership. Oh wow. I doubt anything could have been worse upgrade for him, since thanks to hideous blessing of Nurgle he was immune to fear anyway. I bought a short bow for Carnival Master.
Game 2:
I played a second game against the undead of last match. Scenario was breakthrough, and I chose to be the attacker. I thought that three models with ranged weapons on top of buildings would have some effect in a scenario like this.
I forgot to take pictures from this game and took only one from few last turns.
Anyway, things went horribly wrong in this game. In the left side of the map I had both tainted one's, brute with flail and one nurgling. On the right were the three short bows and two nurglings.
First I tried to break through from left, and I tried to accomplish this by sacrificing my brute and charging him to undead. Two attacks against a WS 2 zombie, wounding on 2+. Two hits. No wounds. Thank you.
Next vampire and things like that charged to hideous tainted one. This time he wasn't so heroic and died somewhere. Undead close combat phase the brute attacked first, and yet again failed to cause even one wound. Thankfully none of the undead did anything important either.
Well, things looked grim now. The shortbows had been missing every shot they made during the game, except one zombie that a brethren managed to kill. Uh oh. Nurgling started to crawl forward. If the nurgling were models that won me the scenario, how hilarious would that be? In the close combat phase flailing brute scored a first kill for any brute in two games. Wow.
Next the undead butcher both the flail brute and stream of corruption tainted one.
"This play is over" thought the Carnival Master and voluntarily routed.
Injuries were thankfully non-existent. Three full recoveries. I was able to re-recruit a second brute with a two handed weapon.
Flail brute, both tainted ones and brethren all got advances. The brute, who was immune to fear anyway, got to raise leadership. Dice, why do you mock me so!
Hideous tainted one got a good advance, additional attack. Stream of corruption WS 2 tainted one got a skill. I was torn between some defensive skill and sprint, and in the end I got sprint. In this scenario it would have been really useful, as well as for future wyrdstone pick & runs speed would be welcome, I thought.
The henchmen raised initiative, which was neither good nor a bad advance. At least they'd have over 50% chance of climbing now.
So.
Those were the two first games of Mordheim.
It's still a fun and light-hearted game. I hope my luck improves a bit later on, and I learn when to voluntarily rout.
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