Mordheim Campaign start is sneaking up on me

I have slacked a little in posting WIP for my Mordheim preparations but that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at work, quite the contrary.

I am nearly done with the terrain I think, hell if I'm not then what I have finished by the start date will just have to do.
I guess that goes for what I have completed in the way of NPCs and antagonists for the campaign.

Here is a teaser of what our warbands will be facing...

Scary stuff right?!

Anyways, as I am a bit ahead of schedule, I am starting the campaign a bit early 01-26-14 is our kick off date, sign up sheet is at the store.
The campaign will run for 8 Sunday gaming sessions with no games being played on 03-09-14 as I will be away at Cold Wars.

Next week I hope to post a full tour of Kragensburg and its people, so keep an eye out...

The Garden of Morr, oh and a little 40k thrown in just because...

Well first I guess I should mention the 1500 point tournament last Sunday.  It really was a great day even if the turn out wasn't so good.

Once again we used the Mechanicon Rules for the missions, I really do feel this is a superior way for tournaments to score games, but that is for a post in and of itself, one which I will get to in the not so distant future.

I took my IG army this time out, my list roughly looked like this:

HQ: Co Command, Standard, 3x PG in a Chimera Transport

1st Platoon: Cmd with 4x flamers in a Chimera Transport

2x squads with Auto Cannon and Flamer

Heavy Wpns squad with Lascannons

2nd Platoon: Cmd with 4x Meltaguns in a Chimera

2x squads with Auto Cannon and Flamer

Special Weapons squad with 3x Meltaguns

Vet Squad with 3x Plasma, Vet Sgt. with Plasma Pistol

Mounted in a Valkyrie

Vet Squad with 3x Plasma, Heavy Bolter, Vet sgt with Power fist, squad has Carapace

in a Chimera Transport

2x Armored Sentinels with Plasma Cannons (separate choices)

Nothing fancy, just lots of guys some transports and 10 scoring units.

I did pretty well, defeating Plague Marines, IG, and Tau in that order and taking 1st in our mini-event.

The highlight of the day was this

What you see there is Lt. Norris (formerly Sgt Norris) fighting with a Terminator in a Challenge.  Let me just say that his promotion was NOT post humus.  

That's right folks Lt. Norris defeated this Terminator Champion with  his big scary poweraxe in a challenge!

I'm positively going to have to build a new model for this fella, or at least convert the existing model with some wargear more suited to his new rank and station...

On the Mordheim front I have been hard at work still working on the board.  I recently picked up a Garden of Morr and spent the other day getting it together.

Above you can see a couple of mock up layouts to get an idea of how the cemetery will fit in Kragensburg, I need a little something else in that open space with just the 2 trees, but haven't quite decided what yet.

Ok, now brace yourselves for what is next folks, the other day I was going through the drawers in my office just poking about for some models to use in the upcoming campaign.  Then it happened, in the deepest darkest depths of the room, I found a bag with a long forgotten Forge World kit.

It was with the excitement of a 12 year old boy on Christmas Morning that I put this model together, and this is going to be a focus point on an adventure one week in my up coming campaign.

Yes, it's the Greater Spawn

I can't wait to get this beast painted up

Be afraid people of Kragensburg, be very afraid...

Updated Campaign Intro.

Okay folks, here is an updated rules sheet for my campaign.  I'll be putting together the sign in sheet over the next couple of days which will include all the campaign dates.  There is one weekend in March that I'm going to be away at Cold Wars so wont be running the campaign that weekend.

I will be printing these campaign rules out for everyone, and will have copies at the AetherStorm Games for everyone.

Please read through this rules packet carefully as there are significant changes to the current rule set.  For Example, you will see that Armor is much more important in this campaign, and many items that warriors can normally find are not so readily available in the wilds of the Middle Mountains.

Welcome to Kragensburg

A Warhammer Skirmish Campaign using the Mordheim rules

The City State of Kragensburg sits in the south western end of the Middle Mountains of the Empire.  The Middle Mountains is said to be a mountain range “shunned by all right-minded folk”, leaving it as a lair for bandits, rogues and other undesirables.  This makes the City of Kragensburg the perfect place for these types of people to live, and even prosper living outside of the influence of the Empire, a man must truly be desperate or crazed to call such a place home.  Yet there are those who live and thrive in Kragensburg, the city itself prospers with trade, the rare ore mined from the mountains, and the powerful magical artifacts in the many ruins within the Mountains make the place popular for adventurers, raiders, bandits and thrill seekers.  The City of Kragensburg has stood since the days that the Brass Keep was a bastion of the Empire, and has stood firm against the almost constant raids of the Warriors of Chaos who now call the Brass Keep home, maintaining a foothold in the midst of the Empire.  The taint of Chaos has blighted this land, and many monsters call the region home.  Graf Boris Todbringer, Count of Middenheim has raised many an armed expedition (as have other Elector Counts in the neighboring provinces) to clear out the taint of chaos and reclaim the Brass Keep but all attempts have failed, doomed from the start and few, if any of the brave souls that enter the mountains ever return…

The Warbands

Warbands will be constructed using the rules presented in the Mordheim Rulebook. 

The following Warbands will be allowed:

·         Reikland

·        Middenheim

·        Marienburg

·        Witch Hunters

·        Sisters of Sigmar

·        Undead

·        Skaven

·        Cult of the Possessed

·        Carnival of Chaos

·        Beastman Raiders

·        Dwarf Treasure Hunters

·         Marauders of Chaos (Follow the Darkest Tribes rules are not in use)

The House Rules

·        All intact buildings are impassable terrain, all doors have been magically locked by local wizards protecting the citizens of Kragensburg, NPC characters can of course enter buildings at the Game Masters discretion (exceptions to this rule will be clearly stated)

·        All other Empire in Flames terrain rules are in effect.  Note that all hills are considered difficult ground when changing levels.

·        The Critical Wound charts at the back of the Mordheim rule book are in effect

·        Escape from Combat rules in effect

·        Rewards of the Shadowlord in effect

·        Black powder weapon misfire chart in effect

·        Mounted warriors rules as per the Mordheim rulebook.

·        The Sling provides a +1 to a warriors armor save when saving against a wound from this weapon

·        Armor and Injuries: If a Hero rolls a death result on the injury chart there is a chance his armor will save him.  The Hero is allowed an armor save in this case and if the save is made death has been avoided!  For Henchmen, if they die after a game, they too are allowed an armor save.  If the save is passed, they are allowed a 2nd chance to live and a re-roll is made.

·        The Armor Save Modifier Chart is being shifted by one, so penalties do not begin until S5.

·        The Blunderbuss follows normal rules for targeting (must target the closest model and center your template on that model)  an appropriate template should be cut from construction paper for ease of play.

·        WYSIWYG is going to be enforced within reason, if you are not sure if something is appropriately represented check with me.

·        ALL MODELS WILL BE PAINTED!  I have been spending an incredible amount of time working on terrain, and models to populate the city I expect everyone playing in this campaign to have their Warband fully painted.  This includes later additions and the hiring of sell swords, so plan accordingly.

·        I will be using the Blood Pact rules, however not all Hired Swords will form such a bond with all Warbands, so check with me before making any rolls.

·        Important note on equipment: Any item that has a rarity value of 9+ and is in your warband equipment list can only be purchased without a roll at initial warband creation, this represents your warband starting out from their home, base of operations, fortress or what-not.  These items are not readily available once your warband is out adventuring, this includes later additions to the warband.

·        Rarity rolls: You may only purchase a rare item once after each game.  For example, if you make 5 rare rolls and score a 9, 8, 8, 9, 5.  You may only purchase 1 Lucky Charm, not 4.  You can choose other items, but only one of each may be

purchased after each round.  You would need to wait until after the next game to purchase a 2^nd Lucky Charm.

·        Hunting Arrows MAY NOT be purchased by beginning Warbands.

The Hired Swords

·        Ogre Bodyguard

·        Halfling Scout

·        Warlock

·        Freelancer

·        Elf Ranger

·        Dwarf Troll Slayer

·        Grave Robber

·        Bard

·        Beast Hunter

·        Road Warden

·        Highwayman

·        Old Prospector

·        Human Scout

·        Runesmith Journeyman

·        Pit Fighter

Additional Notes

If there is a Hired Sword that you want to hire that is not on the list, or not normally allowed by your Warband so that we can discuss the possibilities.

I am using the equipment list from the Mordheim basic rule book.  If anyone wants to search for equipment not listed in that book, present a copy of the rules and again it will be discussed.

Back to Mordheim

Well last week was a nice diversion.  A dangerous thing for me, because I get caught up and after playing my Spaces Wolves for a day, I spent quite a bit of time thinking of new lists and ways of making my Wolves a bit more effective while maintaining their uniqueness.

But it was back to work on Kragensburg, and my upcoming Mordheim Campaign.
I've gotten quite a bit done since my last post, first up we have 2 new buildings.

A Chapel and a Wizards Tower, These don't actually belong to me, they belong to my friend Matt.  When I saw them on a table with no paint on them I struck a deal.  Let me paint them and use them in my upcoming campaign  boom, deal struck.  I have some more buildings for my board, and after the campaign Matt has two painted buildings for his Warhammer Fantasy Games.

Also on the building front I finally got an Email updating my order status from ArmorCast telling me my items were shipped!  It's been awhile Oct 25th in fact is when I placed the order.  I know they cast to order so take a little bit longer, but damn, I was starting to get worried.  Though I wont truly be relieved until they arrive on my doorstep.
I am waiting to see if I like the product before I place another order with them.  If I do then I'm certainly going to place another order straight away anticipating a long wait.

I have also been painting up some more people to populate my town.

Above you can see three more from Lead Adventures.  My new favorite miniature company, maybe I'm a bit biased because they are German, but that aside, the minis are great.  Nice detail, fun to paint, and it actually looks like someone cleaned the flash off of them before I get them.  Of course there is still some, but man they are clean.
These have also been great fun to paint because I have been experimenting with all sorts of different pallets of color, as the figures need not represent just one regiment or province.

Yesterday I went down to Aetherstorm Games to set up the board, and get a couple of games in, try a few board lay outs and generally get a feel for ease of transport.

I got two games in with my Reiklanders Warband against my friend Chris and his Beastmen.  We both decided to start fresh Warbands for a kind of mini Warm-up campaign to help me work out some kinks.

 Above you can see my Reiklanders getting stomped by the Beastmen, this happened to me twice yesterday!  Oh well, at the end of the day, my Warband didn't end up too badly.  Nothing really hurt but their pride (and a life or two)

By chance Les stopped by the store to get a make-up game in with a player in his current Mordheim Campaign.  After his game, he wrote up a Possessed Warband and took the fight to Chris giving my table another test run.

Here is a view of the Layout we used yesterday, quite cluttered but still lots to do, getting there, but lots to do...
I also spoke with both about the campaign, and my ideas for some of the rules I'm going to be using.  Once I get it all figured out, I'm going to take all my assorted notes and type up a game packet to go with the sign up sheets.

Some ideas were tossed around, and some of my original ideas seemed not so good, and some seemed better.  As I get closer to campaign kick off I think that the real challenge for me is going to be attempting to ensure that all players have a good time.  That means keeping the Players that are more stat and combo oriented "reeled in" while not giving too much to the "softer" in it for the campaign experience players.

In the best interest of AetherStorm I decided to increase my player cap to 12.  I don't think that it's going to effect too much as most wont be able to play in both sessiosns on Sunday anyway.

My game plan is to allow 2 games a week, these must be played on Sunday.  I will arrive at about noon each Sunday for table set up.  This will allow those who are not going to make the later session to get a game in before the main session kicks off.  The first main session will kick off at 2:00 with a projected end time of 4:00 (if it goes longer no big deal) there will then be plenty of time for a make up game until session 2 which will start around 6:00 then if time allows and I still have enough steam, another make up session after round two.

And finally we have a bit of what I have been working on.  I came across a couple of these lovelies while trying to find an empty game case for my Warbands.

The paint job is old, very old.  But I think they are good enough for campaign use.  Now to build an adventure hook around them.

Above you can see my current WIP stuff.  A couple Merchants, a guy locked up in the Stocks, and of course my baggage cart.  Have I said still lots to do?

Thorgrimm's Return! (a 40k post)

A little something different today, a 40k post.  Yesterday I went down to the corner store (AetherStorm Games) for a little 40k Tournament. 

This event was a little different from the standard fare that is usually run down there.  This event was an effort to raise some Toys for the local Toy Drive through Lower Township.

The event was a good turn out, one of the local radio stations covered the event and we had 12 players show up.  Which is good considering the local event usually only gets about 8 on average.

After much debate (with myself, which is quite a site) I decided to give the Iron Warriors a little break and dust off my Space Wolves.  With more than 10000 points painted, I thought I should be able to come up with something at least viable.

I must have left the list at the store, but here is the general make up from memory:

1850 Points

HQ: Wolf Lord Thorgrimm, in Runic Armor, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Space Marine Bike,

Saga of the Beast Slayer

HQ: Wolf Priest on a Bike

Troop: 10x Grey Hunters with a pair of Melta and all the other goodies in a Drop Pod

Troop: 10x Grey Hunters with a pair of Plasma and all the other goodies in a Drop Pod

Troop: 8x Blood Claws with a Flamer, Plasma Pistol, Power Axe in a Drop Pod, with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with combi-PG and Power Fist

Elite: 5 Wolf Scouts with Melta

Elite: 5 Terminator Wolf Guard in a Pod with a couple of Combi-PG an Assault Cannon, and a Fist

Fast Attack: Bike Squad with Attack Bike, Melta gun, Melta Bombs, Power Fist, Wolfguard with Combi-MG and a Power Fist

Fast Attack: Bike Squad with Attack Bike, Melta Bombs, Power Fist

My Thought was to overwhelm my opponent and quickly cripple my opponents forces.  Well that was the thought...

First round challenges came up, and I was challenged by some young upstart named Brandon who also plays Space Wolves, the young man wanted to challenge the Alpha Wolf!

His list was quite different from mine.  Crusader with Blood Claws, Pod with Grey Hunters, 2x Long Fang packs, couple Rhino units. 

The game was an absolute blood bath as one would expect from a Wolf vs. Wolf battle.  My Wolf Scouts were actually the ones to gain me first blood with the destruction of a Razorback

At the end of the game I won holding 2 objectives, I also had First Blood, Line Breaker, and Slay the Warlord giving me a solid 12 points going into round two.

I should note here that for this tournament we were using the Mechanicon style points system for Battle Points.  I find this a superior system as Power lists are not as reliable, because we don't use a win-loss system.  It's all about the amount of Battle Points you manage to gain, and pairings are done that way.  This leads to interesting pairings, and interesting games.

Above you can see me pushing hard I don't think he managed to get out of his deployment zone the whole game.

The down side to doing well in your first game, is the pairing you have to face in game two.  In this case it was an Eldar list.  Farseer, and Council all on bikes, Dire Avengers x3 all in Transports, a Trio of Walkers, and 3 heavy support skimmers with the Torrent weapon thingy...   Now before I even continue, you should all know I hate the Eldar.  No, you don't understand, I really, really hate the Eldar.  I will never even paint one.  Now Josh (the young man playing this army) is a nice kid, he typically plays up the road at Jester's Playhouse.  He tends to play the flavor of the month and I swear he designs his lists just in an effort to stir me up.

Anyway, I won the roll off for first turn.  I decided that all was lost if the Farseer didn't die immediately so I deep struck my 2 pods in, bringing my Plasma GH pack and the Terminator pack and just pushed forward as hard and fast as my bikes would travel.

Then it happened, I caused enough wounds through his stupid invuln saves to force a break check, he responded with box cars and fled off the board.  Now the real problem is after first turn I chased over 800 points off the board and I still struggled the whole game.  The Eldar are stupid.  They break all the rules of the universe and is one of the reasons why I am so frustrated with 6th edition.  Anyway, at the end of the day no troops survived on either side and I won 3-2 with First blood and Slay the Warlord, his two points were from Slay the Warlord.

Well, after such a minor win I was looking forward to a relaxing 3rd game, maybe vs. the disgusting Mechguard list that was floating around.  

But nooooooo, I would have to face against Stephen's Eldar!!! fuck...

His list had a Farseer and a Council on foot, some Aspect Warriors in the form of Howling Banshees, Fire Dragons, Dire Avengers, two squads of Guardians, all the Transports he could manage, a Fire Prism, and of course that giant Knight thing.  Oh and his army Warlord was that special character Autarch guy.

His army is for the most part painted quite nicely (its not finished yet). but have I mentioned that I hate the Eldar?  Anyway, again I got the first turn and went for the same tactic.  Go for the Farseer and Seer Council.  I killed 8 of the 9 leaving his Farseer and 1 Warlock alive.  They however passed their leadership and stuck around. 

Oddly enough, Russ saw fit to reward our bravery and his last Warlock died to a perils of the warp also awarding me with first blood!

This game was another blood bath, with Thorgrimm taking out the big Knight guy in close combat, and ending the game locked in combat with his Warlord (we are now sworn enemies)

I held a 4 point objective and took another minor win with 7 points to 0.

So thus ended the day with 3 wins, but nothing convincing enough to place.  Not a bad day considering my match ups.

I have a bit of a rant to go on with my thoughts concerning the current state of affairs 40k is in with 6th edition, but sadly that is for another time as I must get to work.

Next up another Mordheim update.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

A Kragensburg update, just some stuff I've been working on

I said I needed some scatter terrain.  Well here is the set I ordered (I actually got two, the other is still in the box), they came in on Wednesday!  I think I said they were from Infinity.  I was wrong, or the seller on Ebay was wrong.  They are from Micro Mini.  A nice set, all resin, not a whole lot of flash on them.  After a quick wash, and some scraping I primed them black then gave them a coat of Brown Army Painter spray.  When I hit them with the brown, I didn't give it a very thick coat, as I wanted to leave some of the black showing as a sort of shading.  Worked out pretty well I think.
Next I'll put some details on them, a quick coat of wash on the bags, and done.

I have also been working on more miniatures to populate my town as NPCs

Above we have the Grave Digger from Reaper.  He is the metal version of this model.  One of my favorites from Reaper truth be told.  A simple paint job, but I think he painted up nicely.  I have his Ogre companion primed and ready for paint as well.

I also finally got around to opening up and taking a closer look at my figures from Lead Adventures.  Here you can see one of them mounted on his base.  I love this company, the models are clean with crisp details, the one pictures below has had no work done to it other than gluing it to its base.  Hardly any flash at all.

Above we have one that I painted up, nice detail.  I played around with this guy for about an hour, simply enjoying the model.  Kind of silly I guess on a simple Villager, but I have just been getting a little caught up with this project.  That's a sack he has slung over his shoulder, might be a bit hard to tell from this angle.

I also started some work on some pieces for objectives or key mission pieces, below you can see a baggage cart

I think the name of the company is Blue Moon miniatures, I'd have to double check if anyone wants to know specifically.  The cart itself isn't too bad, the horses are one piece metal, and had lots of flash to be removed, they are a little smaller that GW scale, but once I mounted them you can hardly tell.  I also think that a piece of the hitch was missing, but again not a big deal, I simply glued a piece of balsa wood in its place, problem solved.  The cart itself has been mounted on a piece of movement tray cut to fit as a base for the miniature.  I think it will paint up nicely.

I guess that's about it for now, I'm itching to get back to working on this stuff, but there is a Tournament at AetherStorm games tomorrow and I still don't have a list written up...

Practice, Practice, Practice...

Yesterday I got a few practice games of Mordheim in, as I am trying to re-familiarize myself to the rules.
I also wanted to check out my board layout at this point to see what still needs to be added.

Above we have Kragensburg as it stands now.  While I like the density, I really need more scatter terrain.  

So of course me, being me, I ordered some.  I found a nice kit by Infinity online, so got 2 sets of it.  They should be in by the end of the week.

Anyway, on the South side of the wall, you can see "Old Towne" most of which lies in ruin, as border skirmishes, and Chaos raids have happened over the centuries, the borders of the town itself have changed, new walls and buildings constructed over old ect... 

The Castle wall represents the border to "New Towne" right now I only have a Manor House on that side, but that will change as I am still waiting for my order from Armorcast which has 3 cottages, and a town well.

As I shift south and add a second board, there will be an ancient cemetery, a shrine to chaos, along with more ruins, hills and some forest as we head from the mountain area and towards the foothills of the Middle Mountains.

I managed to get 3 games in yesterday with my old Reiklanders Warband, they were led by Lt. Bombay under orders from Captain Kallilor to scout the area and set up a base of operations for their future ventures.

Lt. Bombay found an ideal spot, unfortunately a group of Dwarven Treasure Hunters were eye-balling the same territory out in the ruins of Old Towne. 

We played the 3 games in a sort of mini-campaign so I could play with the after action stuff as well as get the hang of the rules.

I didn't take many pictures though, as the Dwarves were unpainted, and I was more focused on game play than doing any real battle report.

Above you can see a quick picture of my Warband after 3 games.  I quickly hired a Wizard after the first game, and after the 2nd game added the Free Lancer.  This proved to be critical as after the second game Lt. Bombay suffered an injury and had to sit out game 3.

I wasn't sure how balanced things would be against the Dwarves, but I think things turned out well over-all.  I had a ton of shooting, but the hardiness of the Dwarf Treasure Hunters allowed him to take a lot of punishment.

I'm still getting the hang of this new PC, but I played with the map just a bit, and managed to pinpoint Kragensburg on the map

I know, not the best, but as I have more time and actually get a mouse rather than working with the stupid pad on the laptop, I will play with it more, and maybe even add more details.

So, I had a discussion with my buddy Les last eve, and he said he reviewed my rules.  They all got his approval with one notable exception.  He raised concerns about the Hochland Bandits Warband.  This Warband comes from the Nemesis Crown Expansion, and while it has a lot of character many of the rules seem a bit, well off or unbalanced.

After our discussion I have to say that I agree, and my knee-jerk reaction was to just pull the Warband from the list.  Les has a lot more experience with Mordheim than most in my area, and also comes from a Magic background, so certainly knows how to crunch a rules set and find the combos.

One player however has already expressed a desire to play the Hochland Bandits already, and seems pretty pumped about it.

I think what I'm going to do, is play test them myself in the next week or so.  I think in the end I may allow them, but with a tweaking of the rules.

Right now I'm thinking of dropping the Foraging rule, the Huckster and the Poachers.  The area is just too dangerous for the Huckster to want to hang out in, and the town is considered cursed by the Hunters of Hochland, who refuse to go into the region so close to the Brass Keep for fear of becoming cursed by Chaos themselves.  So with no Poachers, there is no one in the warband to forage.  

I think that will solve the problem, while still allowing for a characterful Warband that can represent a group of Bandits in the area.