Sold to the pits

Last Thursday my Carnival of Chaos played three games. And how terrible games they were.

I wonder why it is that every time I go to play Mordheim, I haven't slept, like, at all. Ever.

So this is why I'm writing these Mordheim games first, though I still have one Warmachine game to write up that was played earlier. But I need to do this quick or I'll forget just about everything.

Anyway, first game was against Reiklanders warband.

I only have one decent picture from this game, so it will have to do.

Scenario was surprise attack, and I rolled really good for warriors who started the game on board. Only one brute, tainted one and brethren hero started off board. Nice, I thought. But then I had to deploy all of the warriors so that nobody was within 8" of another... not so nice.

I had taken chances with the double handed weapon wielding brute and deployed it close to one of the table edges with no lesser models acting as buffers. Of course Reiklanders randomly started just from that table edge.

Reiklanders' start was a bit underwhelming, though their archers got nasty positions in a tower, and other warriors had clear charge lane to the double handed weapon brute.

The brute survived an attack of four enemies, though he stunned only two of them. Then he failed his "all alone" test and took a run, provoking two automatically hitting attacks. And yet he survived even those.

What he didn't survive was a rally check, and he ran off the board.

Joker (hideous + cloud of flies) Tainted One and flail wielding brute showed up on my next turn, and from a random board edge - which was the very same edge Reiklanders started. So it was some sort of double-surprise attack?

Joker charged the two stunned Reiklanders and put them out of their misery. Flail guy killed another Reiklander

So things looked pretty good - Reiklanders managed to take down only two nurglings, which wasn't enough to cause a rout check.

But then the downfall began. On my very own turn, even. Flail guy turns into a fail guy and knocks himself down in combat. I don't remember what happened to the joker, except that he didn't get any kills either. My last hero didn't show up even this turn.

Reiklanders then kill both the flailer and the joker, and even a poor little nurgling. Things went horribly bad in very rapid succession. Voluntary rout it was.

When I started rolling for injuries, I almost cried when I rolled 1 for tens for flail brute. But then I was relieved when I rolled 6 for ones, meaning brute didn't die, but suffered multiple injuries. Then I almost cried again when I rolled SIX additional injuries. What an emotional rollercoaster.

Brute rolled bitter enmity (Reiklander warbands), which was good. And then he rolled four full recoveries. So I was again quite relieved. But then the last was "sold to the pits", and the pit fighter brutally mauled him. And again to roll injuries... Deep wound, miss one next game. Phew.

He also got a skill advance, which was Step Aside.

My new and improved Tainted One rolled a leg wound (-1 M), and I had a vision of converting a clown on a pogo stick... but anyway. That sucks.

Brethren hero raised his Ballistic Skill.

I think two nurglings died out of three taken out of action, but I bought them right back.

As an added insult one of the Reiklanders was sold to the pits, too. And won.


Game 2:

Second game was against a Possessed warband, and a terrifying warband it was. Scenario was Skirmish.

I managed to arrange nice little bottleneck to the middle with a nurgling. Probably the best hero of the Possessed got stuck there.

Double handed weapon brute merrily charged in to the thick of Possessed henchmen - backed up with a couple of nurglings and arrows from my own henchmen and heroes.

I remember I rolled five dice for exploration, so one of the heroes must have been taken out of action. I don't remember who it was, but enough nurglings plus the hero died, so I took my leave voluntarily. My reasoning behind this was that I sorely needed some cash, and didn't want to risk losing any more exploration dice against melee monsters of Possessed.

With five dice I find two shards. Whee...

Two handed weapon brute rolled an extra point of leadership. Yay.

The new Tainted One rolled an extra skill, and I decided to take Sprint to make up for the loss of a leg.

Another Tainted One rolled extra Initiative.

I think two nurglings died again, but I replaced only one.


Game 3:

Because last game was so quick, we played another one, so this was against Possessed, too. I hoped for a little better outcome, because two last games had been so underwhelming. But...

The scenario was Chance Encounter, and I was carrying one shard, opponent two.

This time I had good feelings about the game - I got to deploy first, so I was able to take good positions. Opponent would need to come get me from inside the building, where all of my carnival was.

And things looked going well enough - opponent had to split his forces, so I got to pick my fights. Random happenings gave a thick fog to the field, which annoyed my ranged weapons a little, but it also denied crazy long charges for the enemy.

But then suddenly everything went wrong. Every attack I could make with flail brute, double handed weapon brute and joker tainted one either missed or didn't wound. One tainted one failed to climb to a building despite having I4. Joker killed himself, and two nurglings were gone, too.

If I remember right, the Plague Bearer took something out of action at least.

Opponent charged Carnival Master dead and the last nurgling died, but double handed weapon brute stood valiantly. A bit of a shame that I just couldn't take any enemy warriors out of action, not even with two attacks at weapon skill 4 and strength 6. I don't believe the Possessed were impossible to defeat here - I just didn't score those few critical hits that would have impacted the game.

But I didn't want to leave the game as cowardly as I last time did, and I was hell-bent on inflicting some casualties on the Possessed, who have a very good chances of starting to snowball their way to power level over 9000. So I don't voluntarily rout, and pass my test.

Henchman and a hero take a diving charge against whoever it was that killed carnival master, and the tainted one who failed to climb came to assist with his meager WS2.

Double handed weapon brute managed to stumble down and stun himself, and the combat in the middle wasn't going much better, but at least they didn't offer themselves as a sacrifice for the Possessed next turn.

But it happened anyway. Flail guy and double handed weapon brute both went out of action, and plague bearer was stunned.

This was too much. I took my leave.

Funny thing, really. I rolled as many wyrdstone shards with two dice as I did with five dice... c'est la vie.

Carnival Master rolled multiple injuries... first was a leg injury. And second was "sold to the pits". Damn it! And though my carnival master fought quite a few rounds more than my brute ever did, he still lost. And was robbed as a consequence.

Flail brute rolled a skill again and picked Resilient. He should be tough one to take down now with two wounds, toughness 4, step-aside and resilient! But we'll see.

Hideous & Cloud of Flies Tainted One rolled an old battle wound, so he'll be out of about 16% of games from now on.

Brethren hero rolled a skill... through these three games I rolled quite a lot of skills. Anyway, I took Wyrdstone Hunter for him, since my luck in finding wyrdstones has been so abysmal...

This time there were no real life-costing (or existence-costing) casualties. Only very crippling ones.

Damn, I start to remember the good old days where I had my beloved Clan Eshin Sorcerer with only one leg, one hand and one eye - plus possibly a chest wound.

My plans of getting a Plague Cart are not going too well.