Sam’s First Visit to the City of Mordheim
June 4, 2012 by dracs
Today I delved into a game which I haven't really played since I was twelve. Mordheim, that classic skirmish game in the ruins of Warhammer Fantasy.
My friend Khrystan ran me up a quick Witch Hunters warband, comprising of a Witch Hunter Captain, a Witch Hunter, a priest, a fanatic and two standard zealots. Oh and two dogs, because what self respecting Witch Hunter doesn't take his pets to work?
Armed with pistols, hammers, swords and a religious fanaticism unlike that found in any Church of England, I ventured into the ruined city to face off against Khrystan's swift (and damn annoying) Clan Eshin warband, armed with poisons, slings and an assassin which could move up to 18 inches in a single turn.
The scenario was just a standard face off between the two warbands in order to ease myself into the rules. I started off by getting my two Witch Hunters into a nearby tower to allow them to better use their ranged weaponry, leaving my zealots on one side of the tower and my dogs on the other, with the priest held back ready to enforce and offer some spiritual comfort where needed. My plan was to hold back and let the Skaven come to me, allowing me to pick them off as they approach.
Unfortunately Khrystan had other plans. His chief assassin infiltrated nearby and with his large movement range quickly scaled the tower and attacked my Witch Hunters. Thus began a hard fought battle with many parries, dodges and annoyingly low dice rolls. I brought the priest up to back up the two Witch Hunters, his Gromril armour and warhammer making him one tough opponent.
Down on the ground the zealots and the warhounds were gamely attempting to hold off the advancing horde of Clan Eshin's finest. The Flagellant attempted to lead the charge on a threatening Black Skaven, who had been peppering the zealots with his throwing knives. Unfortunately he was intercepted by a pair of Giant Rats who proceeded to take him down with depressing ease.
Meanwhile the two dogs were similarly engaged, proving that man chose his best friend well. Eventually however, both the Zealots and the Hounds were swamped, though not without taking one or two rats with them. A rout was narrowly avoided by my Witch Hunter's holy relic.
The sacrifice of the men and animals on the ground had not been in vane though, as it had bought the Warrior Priest and Witch Hunter Captain enough time to finish off the Master Assassin just before the other Skaven arrived on top of the tower to back him up, although not before he had taken down the other Witch Hunter.
Two Black Skaven and a Giant Rat had managed to get to the top of the tower I was defending, only to face the Captain and Priest, both of whom's abilities turned them into close combat monsters. One of the Black Skaven and the Giant Rat attacked the Warrior Priest. However, the horrible scarring of the Priest scared the Giant Rat so much that it proved to be almost useless. But then it didn't need to be, as a lucky strike from the Black Skaven managed to get through the Priest's defences, leaving him stunned.
While this was happening the other luckless Black Skaven was left to face the Witch Hunter Captain, who charged in sword swinging and pistol blazing. The pistol shot got through, taking the Skaven firmly out of action and leading to a full and much longed for rout.
And thus the two remaining servants of Sigmar lived to fight another day, though with their warband now greatly diminished and the Priest suffering from what must have been one hell of a concussion.
All in all I found Mordheim to be among the best skirmish games I have played. The rules were simple and easy to get to grips with, with rules easily available from the Games Workshop site. It just goes to show that the classics still hold up in this modern world of wargaming. Considering that our game was played out on a random assortment of littered pieces of cardboard with a group of eclectic minis representing our warbands its an easy game to get into before setting out to start building a proper warband.
How would you have played this scenario? If you haven't played Mordheim before do you think you might give it a try?
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but given the ramshackle nature of our game I thought it best to stick with the pics from the Mordheim rulebook.
yeah sorry my board is not very golden daemon 🙁 was a fun game.love mordheim alot and cant wait to scurry back into the rubble again sam, i have allys now willing to finish off that dang hunter. but there is always a few raving men and women mulling about in mordheim to reinforce you lines
Best game GW ever made.
I think it has been better served being ignored by the company in recent years than tampered with given their current track record with rules.
It’s right up there with Battle Fleet Gothic. It’s odd that the best games they came out with they ether shelved or just never drew the numbers to sustain it.
It’s not odd when you consider the lack of promotion that was put up for these games. I think these systems have great potential for a wider scope of campaigning in the main games of 40k and WHF; a 40k planetfall with a BFG battle taking place in the orbit or a big fantasy clash with a decisive skirmish played out over some relics (to be used in the next fantasy battle game) with the Mordheim rules. This way you could let the fans of these smaller games “play along” with the more numerous fantasy battle and 40k player base.
You are so right! They could have a system for that type of game switching to build a greater experience.
I think there were White Dwarf articles on how to do something like this … but they should really promote in more widely; global campaigns, like the Crown of Lustria (or what was it), online/downloadable tools to keep track of progress, that sort of thing, to get everyone involved and working together. The ethos of “Specialist Games” however seemed geared in a different direction; i.e. making the experience less accessible.
http://www.coreheim.com/ While not as far ranging as the Warbands of Mordheim, in the fan adaptation ‘Coreheim’ they streamlined a lot of the rules and changed some things to make it easier to play. The only thing that doesn’t really make as many waves is that you have very few Warbands to choose from. I’m glad that people can get back into the world of Mordheim as it seriously is one of the best games (alongside Blood Bowl) that GW ever made, totally agree @dais . The best bit is coming up with scenarios on your own. I remember one that… Read more »
i wana tie some games together with a driving story arc. something along the lines of the pits and the night lord. sam better be ready for some hard fighting
I find Mordheim the single best game in terms of the feel and spirit it conveys. Art in the rulebook is mind blowing and the design on the minis remains one of the most coherent and innovative in the entire GW range. The whole idea of a fantasy exclusion zone, sort of WHF meets S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is awesome too. It seems like GW learned from the Necromunda and made Mordheim a good deal more streamlined. Here is a mock-up flyer I drew for a planned introductory campaign last winter; http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=3&u=17069457 The idea was to start the campaign in the city before… Read more »
Not much compares with Mordheim, Bloodbowl and Necromunda (IMHO :))
I’d kindly invite fans of Mordheim, Necromunda and Gorkamorka to check out Gangs of Nu Ork. A fan-made re-implement of Necromudna system, that allows to use any 40k race in a mixed gang, with rules for vehicular mayhem. A lot of inspiration for the post-game phase was taken from Mordheim and while the slightly humorous nature of the game might not be to the taste of grimdark affectionados, you must admit it’s quite funny when the game allows you to play an Ultramarine with the career of a Hipster. In-game benefits? Doesn’t cause break tests when down/out of action (everybody… Read more »
I bought BFG on release, the package with the boxed game and the Imperial and Chaos fleets, never found anyone that wanted to play it ….
… Oh and I hate the landscape format of the rulebook with a passion 🙂
I think a very important approach to enjoy these GW’s Campaign games is a sort of “Scahdenfreude” mindset, where half (or more) of the enjoyment of the game stems from your gang suffering grievous wounds that carry over, having gang members locked-up and missing in your next game and other unexpected things that mess up your plans to level up your gang into a well-oiled killing machine. If you want to play these games with a min-maxing mindset, to find loopholes in the system and make an invincible warband you’re kinda missing the point, I think. It’s the story that… Read more »
It’s nice to see that a game that’s been essentially dead (without GW’s support) for the last decade to get some coverage. Mordheim (and its spiritual predesessors Necromunda and GorgaMorka) have been one of those games that have a lasting appeal to come back year after year. You dust of the terrain and minis, play a campaign or two, have tons of fun, store everything away and do it again the next year. Mordheim’s greatest strength are the campaings, warband progression and the relatively flexible set of rules which easily allow for player generated content. Mordheim also has quite a… Read more »
Sam your fun has just begun. Mordheim is one of my all timefavourites. you should check out http://www.mordheimer.com/
that being said I will have to give coreheim a look.
do feel to bad about taking a whipping skaven are one of the better starting warbands.
Dude, I beat them.
sorry man I was still half a sleep when I read this, and In that case well done.
Mordhiem was an amazing game, contemplating bashing a 3′ x 3′ board from old packing boxes etc together. Some balance issues, punch anyone who takes all missile elves but never the less great fun.
Had many a happy hour playing 6 way multiplayer which drinkign beer. Leads to some very silly situations
Oh and Sam, if you’ll find time to do it, I’d be most interested to follow the development of a potential campaign, so another report would be much appreciated!
I’ll bear it in mind. At the moment the only ones I know who play it round here are myself and Khrystan but I shall see if we can’t get the rest of the BoW crew involved.
Cool, thanks. A 1:1 campaign is perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned though, even if it would have been interesting to have more of the BoW team play – we could then vote for every player what band they’ll choose and root over a series of games. 🙂
You guys could do that with Blood Bowl as well …
Mordheim is one of my all time favorite miniature games and as finn source of pride as it was writen by Tuomas Pirinen
Modheim still has a place in my local Games Group,a campaign is run for several weeks every year.And we find that one warband is never enough(and its great fun kitbashing your Fantasy models to fit!).
Great fun everytime its played as sometimes losing will give you just enough XP to grab some great upgrades for your warband.
Everyone is usually grinning like fools when rolling for upgrades loot etc
What about Man’O’War, Fantastic game, still played at my house. Baa to dread fleet, that one trick pony.
A great game, sadly a bit harder to get into. Proxying with Uncharted Seas minis and searching the web for “printed” materials might be well worth it though.