The Horror

Time to quit my slack off and start writing these things, or the weight of backlog games will wear me down rather sooner than later. Oh, these burdens.

A week ago I played a game of Mordheim with my Carnival of Chaos.

Opponent was Reiklanders, and we had about twenty point difference in warband ratings. I had higher, and so when scenario was Surprise attack, Reiklanders got the bonus of being attackers.

Now that I'm reading the scenario, I see one small detail we played wrong. We thought that I roll 4+ for each model in my warband to see if they're there at the start of the game. It should have been for each Hero and each Henchman group. Well, that doesn't bother me too much because the way we played made for one hilarious set-up for me, when I passed only two (2) 4+'s for my party of fifteen models. Brute with two handed weapon and one nurgling.

The nurgling isn't even showing in the first picture, but there sure are some Reiklanders in there...

Reiklanders started the game, and they shot the nurgling dead right away. But thankfully my three-wounded Brute survived a storm of crossbow bolts. One critical hit took away two wounds, but that was not enough to bring him down.

Brute tried to look for some cover in the small ruin behind him, as he was not able to charge anywhere. And... that was my turn.

Turn 2 Reiklanders managed to stun that Brute, but I was mostly just happy that he hadn't been taken out-of-action.

Carnival got another nurgling, plague bearer, the plague cart and the carnival master as reinforcements. Nice number of models I guess, but still one and half less models than what average expectations would have brought. Luckily they didn't come up from the farthest table edge, and considering reinforcement composition I guess it was good that they didn't arrive exactly from behind of Reiklanders either.

This was the turn when The Horror started. The Horror that is the Plague Cart. No, I don't mean it's menacing presence on the board... I'm talking about the rules it has. Or rather, the lack of rules. The rules for that model were spread all over the Empire in Flames supplement. In some cases the rules didn't cover what was different with the Plague Cart, and making up rules on the fly and trying to interpret something that defies all reason (= no text to interpret at all) is very distasteful for me. Playing with the Cart felt awkward, and skimming through the rule book took quite a lot of time from actual playing.

My personal tabletop nightmare. Well, at least rules-wise. Of course it might be more distressing if I accidentally flipped the table, somehow managing to smash only opponents' models, and the falling table breaks his or her spine and is in a half-coma for seven years. Maybe.

Anyway. Reiklanders shoot the brute out-of-action, and one brave soul charges the Plague Cart. Yet again, even if the Plague Cart doesn't cause fear to models on the table, for sure it will cause terror for opponents from now on. Even figuring out how the darned thing is attacked took a while to resolve. And the end result was - nothing happened.

Next turn I get exactly one (1) nurgling as a reinforcement. Thank you lord Nurgle! But I guess I shouldn't complain, for this was a very special nurgling indeed. It single handedly/appendagedly took down the Reiklander who charged Plague Cart, so we never had to spent ten minutes in trying to search how the Cart Guardian was supposed to attack.

Reiklander shooting wasn't too effective in the following turn. They only stunned the heroic nurgling, and possibly depleted Carnival Masters' Lucky Charm.

Then was, what, Carnival turn four? Finally I get some heroes to play. Both Tainted Ones show up from the directly opposed table edge from Plague Cart. So I still had four models who were nowhere to be seen. The were sure taking their time... Though at least I had been lucky with the table edges for the reinforcements.

Both Tainted Ones get to charge, and western flank tries to press aggressively... though what did I really have on that flank? A RNG 6 RAT 3 stream of corruption, two nurglings and a plague cart that I was almost afraid to play myself? Only Carnival Master there had a respectable BS 5 Quick Shoot bow attack. But I guess balance there was okay-ish, since Reiklanders were shooting as badly as I was returning any fire.

Jester Tainted One does nothing - not even dies. The other one scores a kill. Still not even remotely close enough to cause rout tests for opponent.

Reiklanders shot one of the nurglings dead and "only" brought every Hero I had to only one Wound remaining. Could have been worse, I guess. Still no need for a rout test for me neither.

Turn five I get the hiding Brute and the sleeping nurgling to battle. I started to wonder if the last clowns would ever actually even get to the fight... Yet again I was lucky with the table edges, since they came right from the deployment edge of Reiklanders. They didn't get to charge anywhere, though, but came closer nonetheless. Perhaps threat saturation would work here.

I have no more pictures of the game, but I think Carnival Master shot one of the snipers off the roof. Plague Cart trod close to the barricade, and I gave up there with the Cart. I decided it wouldn't move anywhere at all any more, because I didn't even want to know if it could cross small enough obstacles with various tests. Perhaps "use common sense if rulebook is unclear" rule took priority here and said that walls are walls.

Reiklander turn six was nastiest so far. Of course I may have lost some models on my own turn six, but round itself cost me all nurglings, plague bearer and the Reiklanders also had the insolence to punch the clown in the belly. Jester went out-of-action. Plague Cart was at least useful in soaking a couple of bolts from Reiklander shooting that could otherwise went to a Brute nearby. Bolts killed a horse from the Cart. All this was more than enough to cause a rout test for Carnival, which I managed to pass.

Sixth hero and henchman group showed up, and I can imagine that Carnival Master uses a megaphone to shout "All right! Now everyone has arrived. Ladies and gentlemen, the show's on! Come one, come all! For tonight only!"

Brute charges in (I actually think he had a nurgling with him, so it probably died in my own combat phase.) Shooting from Brethren Hero and Carnival Master (and even Plague Bearer...) downed one Reiklander, Brute and at least imagined nurgling in the middle either killed two, or killed one and stunned another. The lone Tainted One skewered somebody also, aided by the henchman. Henchman was a sidekick who's only purpose in the play was to eat a sword, but not through his mouth.

The Carnival Master's clichés from the megaphone were too much for Reiklanders to bear, so they routed voluntarily.

The henchman who showed last turn and died right away was dead for real. "Tommy... hey, Tommy. Are you okay? I think you did that one trick wrong... the sword is sticking through your ribs..."

Shame, since Tommy had maximum experience for a henchman.

--

And then.

Since it's been quite a few games with the same warband, I think I'll compile a little bit more detailed warband composition. Instead of writing a small entry about upgrades to the end of the report I'll just add everything here instead.

Heroes so far for Serial Entertainers:

"Jack", the Carnival Master
M: 3, WS: 4, BS: 5, S: 4, T: 4, W: 2 I: 3 A: 1 Ld: 8
+ 45xp

Equipment: Sword, bow, rope & hook, lucky charm

Skills & injuries: Wizard (Stench of Nurgle... used for real purpose 0 times so far)
Quick Shot
Leg wound
--
Marc Bile, Brute
M: 4, WS: 4, BS: 0, S: 4, T: 4, W: 2, I: 2, A: 2, Ld 9 (whee... at max)
+31xo

Equipment: Ithilmar 2-handed weapon, lucky charm, tarot cards

Skills & injuries: (Strongman)
Resilient, Step Aside, Sprint (new)
Immunity to fear (injury result 63), Bitter enmity (Reiklander warbands)
--

Albert Eel, Brute
M: 4, WS: 4, BS: 0, S: 4, T: 4, W: 3 (max), I: 2, A: 2, Ld: 8
+32xp

Equipment: Double handed weapon, lucky charm

Skills & Injuries: (Strongman)
Sprint, Resilient, Strike to Injure, Jump Up
Old Battle Wound
--

Wayne Gassy, aka "Jester", tainted one
M: 3, W: 3, BS: 3, S: 3, T: 4, W: 1, I: 3, A: 1, Ld: 7
+13xp

Equipment: Axe, hammer, lucky charm, rope & hook, cured leathers

Skills & Injuries: (Cloud of Flies, Hideous)
Jump Up, Step Aside, Sprint
Old Battle Wound, Leg Wound, Madness: Frenzy
--

Jeffrey Laughter, tainted one
M: 4, WS: 3, BS: 3, S: 4, T: 3, W: 3, I: 4, A: 2, Ld 7
+24xp

Equipment: Sword, hammer, rope & hook, cured leathers

Skills & Injuries: (Stream of Corruption... what was I thinking?)
Sprint, Dodge
Hand injury
--

Brethren Hero, aka The Brethren Hero (Shoot + Academic)
M: 4, WS: 3, BS: 6(max), S: 3, T: 3, W: 2, I: 4, A: 1, Ld 8
+20xp

Equipment: Hammer, shield, light armor, bow, rope & hook

Skills & Injuries:
Wyrdstone Hunter
Hand Injury

Henchment:

2x Brethren armed with short bow and hammer. Group was purchased right now so I won't bother to list statistics.
4x Nurglings
2x Plague Bearers
Plague Cart

13 gold in treasury and two Wyrdstone Shards in stash.

Stored equipment:
1x each: short bow, sword, flail

Rating: 240

Audience is not amused (but why do you try to perform for demons?)

Last Thursday I played a couple of Mordheim games.

Well, one real game. The other one... well.

Let's talk about that.

My Carnival of Chaos (rating 195) was against Possessed warband with disturbing Warband rating of 270+

Well, at least that meant +3 additional experience for my clowns... if they only survived. But of course they would, because I had my beautifully converted Plague Cart on the board.

Scenario was Hidden Treasure, where you find the treasure if you roll double sixes when you enter a building. If there is only one building left to search, treasure is automatically there.

Carnival got to start the game, and one of my Movement 4 heroes with Sprint entered one building on turn 1. And double sixes. Treasure was found. Oh my.

Possessed had one Hero who was able to Sprint 15", and once it stopped the advance of my treasure haulers by being close enough to deny running.

I tried to snatch one extra kill for my warband by charging the hero with my jester and two Nurglings. But this bit me back, when the Possessed hero in question tore the clown apart. Well... even more apart than it was before. Reinforcements who arrived then aided in killing the Nurglings also, but really. Game was over right next turn when I carried the treasure off from my table edge.

I guess it was a nice surprise that there was, in fact, a little game in there after all. Just running into building and pretty much instantly winning would have felt pretty bad. The jester got smashed leg and needed to miss next turn. And we did play another game.

Carnival found only five shards of wyrdstone.

Flail wielding brute upgraded his weapon finally for Ithilmar 2-handed weapon, which might have been a ridiculous thing to do since their base Initiative is only two. Same guy also got a new skill, which was Resilient.

Second brute got third wound.

Jester got a third skill, which I seem to have not picked yet. Let's make it official here, then. Jump up goes for the Jester. Seems somehow fitting for such a character.

Last Tainted One (the one who found the treasure" got two 'level ups', and gained +1 Wound and +1 Str. Nice, I guess, but this performer has Weapon Skill 2 from previous injuries.

Brethren Hero got a point of Ballistic Skill, getting him to respectable value of BS 6.

Brethren henchman rolled for WS/BS, and I took Weapon Skill.

My warband rating jumped to some 220ish.

Game 2:

Next scenario was Breakthrough, or something like that. Possessed objective was, anyway. to get two models within 2" of my table edge. This game was a bit more interesting than the last one, though I the Possessed were still so very damn threatening that I sorely missed my Jester.

Oh well.

My ranged weapons were completely useless during whole damn game. And I did use them quite a bit. And I did have Quick Shooting BS 5 carnival master, BS 4 brethren and BS 6 brethren hero trying to shoot, plus one or two Breath of Corruption shots that were made during play. Not a single wound was inflicted.

However, the BS6 Brethren Hero didn't get to fire too many times, as the enemy leader model ran to balcony fairly close to the Hero, and cast a spell that instantly stunned him.

A huge brawl broke loose in the graveyard in the middle. Three Nurglings of mine, the 2-H weapon brute, the WS 2 Tainted hero and brethren henchman were involved from my side, plus whatever carnival master and the brethren hero were able to contribute with ranged weapons. This was fairly entertaining fight. See that half-painted Nurgling with a yellow hat in the middle, close to the brute? If you do, that's enough for now.

Here I must say that Cloud of Flies is a wonderful skill. Turn after turn the Possessed launched devastating charges against that one tiny Nurgling and the brute. Well, of course they charged the two other Nurglings, too, but they died fairly quickly. But these two impenetrable bastions... I'm impressed with their performance. Now. If they only would have fared as well in dealing damage, that might have been enough to demoralize the Possessed. Brute did score random kills here and there, but they were against Henchmen only and not the true threat - acid blooded Hero.

Honourable mentions goes for the Weapon Skill 2 Tainted Hero. I don't remember who or what charged him, but it got skewered right away.

Fighting had also started on the right side of the board, where the Plague Bearer scored all the kills, and not my brute with the shiny beautiful new Ithilmar 2-handed weapon.

I had finally caused enough casualties for enemy to take Rout tests. I had lost two or three Nurglings, most of my still standing heroes were at 1 wound remainings, and I had lost the Brethren hero.

Opponent passed the Rout test, and final turn went badly for me. The Incredible Nurgling who had soaked most of the attacks in the middle died, and as a result the brute in the middle went down, too.

Once my next turn started I deemed my situation too grave, and rout voluntarily. There wasn't so much a WS2 hero could do against six or so possessed.

Two of the Nurglings were banished back to the realm of Chaos, and brute with 2-handed weapon took old battle wound. Brethren Hero took an arm wound, so his role win the team wouldn't be questioned, like, at all... ever. Ws 2, Bs 6.

Carnival Master gained an extra wound. The ithilmar wielding brute purchased a tarot deck for his enjoyment. Why him? Because of Ld 9 he had been "lucky" enough to build up during games...

Ws 2 Tainted Hero rolled for either Weapon skill or Ballistic skill, and I chose Ws. Three is almost like a four when you are able to combine it with Cloud of Flies.

Dwarf tossing and clown tossing

Last Friday I played two Mordheim games. Both were two player games, but they were against different opponents.

First game was Skirmish scenario against a Dwarf warband. Jester hero with old battle wound didn't show up, of course.

Since I was rather afraid of dwarven shooting skills, I tried to skulk behind buildings for many, many turns before finally engaging the beardfolk. About this time I also finally realised that there were actually only two dwarves with ranged weapons... oh well.

Once the dwarf crossbowman on the second story of their building shot a nurgling knocked down. That was all action we had until the set-up in last picture. Carnival had to expose itself to dwarven warband after all.

Carnival Master miraculously sniped off the dwarven crossbowman turn after. All the demons charge some dwarves, and some heroes attempt that, too. Only flail wielding strongman gets into melee, though - but it's against a knocked down dwarf.

I don't remember if demons killed any beards, but two casualties were already enough to cause dwarves to voluntarily rout.

That was a bit unexpected, though I guess that dwarves wanted some wyrdstones and didn't want to risk losing heroes.

In the aftermath my dreams for this particular warband finally became true - I had the gold to buy the Plague Cart!

Which made me wonder a bit about if it was good choice. Was 120 gold pieces actually worth +2 warband size, more reliable demons and only one STR3, WS3 attack? But damn it. I got the cart!

But back then when we were playing I didn't notice one tiny little detail about the cart.

That STR3, WS3 attack causes Nurgle's Rot.

Anyway. Only ringmaster and henchmen group got advancements, which were +1 str to ringmaster and +1 BS to brethren.

Game 2:

Second game was against the dreaded Possessed warband. As I had missed one game night already, the enemy warband rating was surely over 9000.

Well, I exaggerate slightly, but I did get a little underdog bonus.

Scenario also was Defend the Find, which was rather absurdly designed.

Defender is the player who has least models, and he must defend a building in the middle. If at the end of any defender's turn there is more standing attackers within 6" of the building, defender loses and game ends.

So... game ended right there on the second turn as a victory for the Possessed.

And every standing hero within 6" of the building (from either side) gets a wyrdstone shard for free. Heh, though now I check the scenario there was this slight caveat... "maximum of 3 per warband". I guess I erase the two shards I didn't actually gain... Sob. Perhaps I should notice the Possessed player, too, who got four extra shards, I think.

Anyway, in the only picture I got time to take from the game shows my beautifully painted Plague Cart that I finished there right between the games.

Har har.

Only one hero fell during game and was robbed as a consequence.

And thanks to +1 underdog bonus every hero got advances.

Ringmaster got a skill, and he chose Quick Shot. He also bought Lucky Charm.

Flail strongman got Leadership. What a cruel joke that my "immune to fear" strongman has higher leadership than ringmaster himself! Anyway, he also got a Lucky Charm.

Two-handed weapon strongman got a skill and chose "Strike to Injury". I'm tired of only stunning people. He also got a Lucky Charm.

Jester tainted one got a skill and chose "Step Aside" and bought Rope & Hook, Lucky Charm and Toughened Leathers.

Horned skeleton head tainted one got an additional Wound. He was the one who got robbed, so he bought his gear back, plus Lucky Charm, Rope & Hook and Toughened Leathers.

Brethren hero got two advances and got Ballistic Skill and Leadership.

I also bought two additional nurglings.

And now I just need to construct a plague cart before we play next time...

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.

Then they punched the clown in the tummy. Its guts fell out.

So.

Last Thursday there was a gathering of five Mordheim players, and I ended up playing one three player game.

I was absurdly tired then (well, nobody forced me to stay up for over 30 hours) so anything I write here should be taken with a grain of salt. Or perhaps even with mixture of crushed glass and salt.

But that much I know that the scenario was multiplayer ambush where defender was the warband with highest rating (beastmen) and the rest were attackers, and game would last for ten rounds without taking rout tests... how insanely punishing for the defending warband! Well, I guess it's high risk, high reward sort of thing, because every defending hero was carrying d3 wyrdstone shards.

We also used the Random Happenings, where every player rolls a dice at the beginning of turn and when 1 comes up, something happens, and only once per game.

It looks like I was a sloppy picture taker here, as I took only three shot. But first, however, seems to be taken from turn where the beastman leader saw a Nurgling from across a crumbled wall, and thanks to frenzy, it had to charge in.

Well. The beastman leader was in a horrible position, but still I didn't dare to attack it. The leader had this scary special skill, where it'd get to make attacks first, regardless of charges and initiative.

So instead I thought it'd be best to try and shoot the beast down, as I got to make four ranged attacks against it, three of them at point blank range. Four attacks only stunned the leader, but at least my clowns would feel a little bit more confident next turn to charge a target that was lying unconscious on the ground.

Somewhere here a random happening number fourteen was rolled - the upcoming hurricane has caused some high winds to hinder combat. From now on all hit rolls (in close combat and ranged attacks) were made with -1 penalty and all initiative tests suffered the same penalty, too. I guess this was a boon for beastmen, who, to be honest, needed it.

The beastmen and the undead hadn't yet closed in that turn, but soon enough they did. Second picture is from an angle that will break necks, but anyway, it looks like Carnival has managed to shoot that beastman leader down, and at least Centigor is stunned or knocked down. One undead wolf-hound or dire wolf or what they are called seems to be dead, too - wasn't enough to stall whole bunch of beastmen, I suppose.

Carnival's plague bearer (Hordes Feralgeist in picture) and brute with double-handed weapon were slowly skulking to right side of the board, hopefully coming late even to the afterparty, and rake in a few extra wyrdstone shards from half dead targets.

Undead closed in against the beastmen next, which was fine by me. In the picture you can see the joker-esque Tainted One stalking a good time to charge in with its impressive WS 4 and three attacks.

Beastman leader went dead here, and half of my warband were rather stranded away from action.

Situation looked really hopeless for the Beastmen, but somehow they managed to slowly endure the waves of undead. The undead player was rolling dice really badly, and was grateful when he rolled a second hit in the whole game in somewhere around third round of combat, or something like that...

Centigor and some other gor were going to come at the two-handed weapon wielding brute and plague bearer, but there isn't a picture for reference. Situation there went something like that some kind of gor charged the brute and stunned him, and it was Carnival turn next, so brute raised one step to "knocked down" status... still a really bad status to be in combat! Plague Bearer had to charge in to save the brute, though I was really hesitant to get the bearer into melee... they're 50 gold coins per nose, or in some cases multiples of noses, but the point is they're not cheap, and if taken out of action, they die 50% of the time.

But the plague bearer didn't die. Swarm of Flies and the high winds and WS 4 caused enemy to hit mostly on 6+, or in some rare cases 5+. It's a mystery how the flies weren't blown away by the winds. I don't think it killed the gor, though it did kill the centigor next turn. If memory serves, the gor was stunned, so when my turn came around the brute stood up and smashed the gor.

Somewhere, somehow, I had thought that the joker Tainted One could charge beastman shaman, and perhaps kill it or at least stun it with three attacks. Nope. Not today.

When it was the beastmen turn, the shaman and tainted one attacked each other with same iniative, and took each other out of action. Pantomime gone all wrong. Or right. Depends from the point of view.

So, I had only three heroes on board now (one was recovering from his dive to the well and didn't take part in this game) and I really wanted some wyrdstone shards from search, too. Since beastmen and the undead were mostly occupied with each other, I did the courageous route of action, and ran as far away as possible with my whole warband all the remaining few turns.

I got to pay for my cowardice right away. I found only two shards, though I had collected four from beastmen.

Two nurglings out of three dead nurglings died completely, and my joker... my poor joker. My beloved little joker. He died.

Other than that I couldn't complain the advances I got. Carnival Master raised ballistic skill by one, and the two-weapon wielding brute got another skill, which was sprint. That's 12" charging Strength 6 hero right there, with two Wounds and Resilient skill. If I ever lose that one I think I'm bound to cry.

The surviving Tainted One rolled one extra attack, which was a bit of a lackluster with only WS of 2.

The henchmen group of two Brethren rolled "The lad's got talent", so I was overjoyed. I chose academic and shooting skills for him, because if I ever lost Carnival Master, I'd lose access to academic skills forever. Or at least until I'd get another Lad's got talent, which isn't something you should count on.

He also got an additional wound from the free roll at hero advancement table, and seems like I have forgotten to re-roll the result for the lone guy at henchmen group. Need to remember that next time.

I had one wyrdstone shard stashed, and I sold all seven. I couldn't bear the loss of my joker, so I bought him back, new and improved. Though it cost just about all gold I had, I thought it'd be good investment for future to have a Tainted One with Hideous and Cloud of Flies mutation. I guess if you want to think it storywise, yeah, the clown did die even by Carnival's standards, and he was left rotting in some back alley. And when he got back to camp later, stinking more putrid than ever and nesting a host of flies, nobody even said: "Oh, sorry. Welcome back."

I still got gold to buy one nurgling I had lost.

Even after all these changes and advancements my warband rating dropped. Well... only by one, but still.

Now I need to start saving for the plague cart. Can't make a proper show without a decent cart.

If there's an earthquake, just dance! Dance!

Last Wednesday I played two Mordheim games against Beastmen warband. We played at my apartment, and I was a bit worried about the scenery situation here. However, as I put all the Mars Attacks and Deadzone scenery pieces together, there were some rather nice multi-story buildings. Unpainted, but what can you do. Well, you can paint. Which I didn't. But I digress...

My warband was the unfortunate Carnival of Chaos, which I intent to play as long as realistically possible.

First scenario was Chance Encounter, where Carnival rolled one wyrdstone shard and the Beastmen rolled two.

We were supposed to use "random happenings" chart from Annual 2002, but we kind of... forgot.

This time I tried to make use of nurglings, that had been just hiding in the shadows until now. Well, mostly this was because beastmen outranged my charges with every single model they got. And I thought no matter what, I would be able to re-recruit at least two back.

The beastman shaman had this Eye of God or Chaos or something like that spell, and it cast it successfully on one of the gor heroes.

I really don't see other way to act other than close in and take the charge in, blocking at least some charges with the wall of pus and ooze. Here I realized how damn good ability the Cloud of Flies really is. It can easily make enemies hit only on 5+ in melee, which normally happens only when you got over double Weapon Skill over your opponent. Not a single nurgling got Out of Action.

A few beastmen got a charge against Carnival heroes, though, but failed to cause any casualties. Brute with double handed weapon wrecked its melee opponent though.

On my turn all the heroes except carnival master either continued to fight or charged into melee. As I'm completely unfamiliar with the beastmen warband I can't give any names here, but the situation was that one beastman hero had gone out of action, and I believe all henchmen (sans minotaur) had fallen also.

Beastmen unvoluntarily routed.

Carnival got a total of six wyrdstone shards (four from rolls and two from scenario). I added fourth nurgling and a plague bearer to roster.

Carnival Master got a really good advance, +1 toughness. Two handed weapon wielding brute got a skill and took Resilient (-1 enemy strength in melee combat). Carnival Master upgraded his weapon ranged weapon from short bow to an actual bow.

Then we played a second game.

Scenario was Skirmish. This time we remembered to use the random happenings, and first player (the beastmen) rolled a random happening right away - and it was an earthquake. And the maximum number of turns, too. That's three, so not too bad.

Beastman shaman tried to cast its spell, and succeeded. Target was the minotaur, but I guess whatever god the shaman worshipped didn't hear quite correctly what the shaman was praying for because of the roaring earthquake. Minotaur died.

I tried the same tactic I was using last game, screening carnival heroes with nurglings. One gor or ungor was flanking carnival from the far right. I don't think it shows very well on the pictures. A lucky shot from Carnival Master's bow dropped that guy.

Beastman leader, suffering/benefitting from frenzy, charged a nurgling and died to that nurgling. Wow. The game was definitely giving the middle finger to beastmen now.

Elsewhere nurglings started finally dying, but any attacks against heroes failed to kill. Except attacks against beastmen heroes and henchmen. They were dying in droves. Carnival wasn't rolling dice that well during their own turns, but in beastmen close combat phases they somehow started (t)rolling hard.

But again I'm going too far ahead. Beastmen could have routed, but since they got quite a few heroes still around, they chose not to and made all-out charge. I think only the shaman didn't get to melee. One henchmen and some nurgling more went out of action from carnival again, but heroes were impervious to any and all damage.

Carnival played one more turn, and then beastmen rout voluntarily.

And the testament to the poor luck of beastmen during this game was the fact that the minotaur died - permanently. That sucks. I guess it fell down to a crack caused by earthquake, and then the crack closed. One nurgling died permanently from carnival, but it was summoned right back.

Advances Carnival got were really good - flail wielding brute got an extra wound, the joker-esque tainted one got Weapon Skill 4 and the tainted one with stream of corruption got yet another skill. It chose Dodge (5+ save against ranged attacks) so I guess that guy is my dedicated runner escapist now.

Carnival rolled four shards and a well. Flail-wielding brute took a dive to the well because he saw a shimmer of wyrdstone there. After half an hour other carnival members started wondering what had happened to the flailer, and there he was. Still at the bottom of the well. He failed toughness test and must miss next game.

Well, carnival master bought rope & hook for himself, and joker tainted one got a lucky charm. The other tainted one also bought a light armor, because I didn't have the money to buy two and equip them to henchmen.

Next Thursday there should be more multiplayer Mordheim, so let's see how many clowns survive until the end of the year.

Stench stinks (Mordheim)

People suddenly started playing Mordheim in this town.

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:

Carnival of Chaos
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.