Multiplayer, multifighting, multikilling ⚔️ a Mordheim afteernoon report

Our newborn wargaming club (with which we played a little tournament during Spring 2021) reunited on Saturday afternoon to fight amongst the ruins of the City of the Damned. This would have been the first act of our Sword of the Herald campaign which we hope to start playing soon (but there's a big news, more at the end of this post).

There were eight players and warbands:

1. Gunnery School of Nuln (the winner of the former tournament!)
2. High Elves Shadow Warriors (the runner-up)
3. Witch Hunters
4. Blood Dragon Undead
5. another Blood Dragon Undead (this is a new warband, whilst the previous one fought in the tournament too)
6. Dwarf Treasure Hunters (Grimbeorn's warband)
7. Averlanders (Frontlineminiaturist's warband)
8. Orc Mob (my warband)

After a random assignment of the tables and the opponents, we were distributed between three battlefields.

Candle light fight for me and the more skilled Undead warband! This will not end well...

Two three-players battles for the others. Here in the first table there are the Dwarfs (on the right), the Elves in the centre and the other Undead on the left

Some prepping and the last sales before battle

Here you can see the Averlanders in the centre, the Witch Hunters down on the left and the Gunnery School on the right border. Randomly both multiplayer battles were using the scenario Ambush from Annual 2002 (which my pards and I already played the Saturday before)

All set even for us: my Greenskins on the right are ready to beat up the Undead for the control of the big house

We started the game! I took some pics of my table, but both my mates forgot to take any (a real reporter squadron eheh), so here's what we got.

"Ready to take it Bozz!"

"Hey Bozz doz wolves seem to me a little strange..."

The Undead move forward with their henchmen ready to taste Orc flesh...

Dire Wolf vs Goblin? Nasty!

My elite troops are waiting for the enemy, but in the wooden balcony something horrible lurks...

"Hey Bozz here comz the ugly onez!"

Argh! My Shaman is beaten up another time. I really need to cover more this guy...

Check on the other tables! Here the Undead and the Elves fight harshly in the edifice at the centre of the battlefield

And here the Averlanders are fleeing with the Wyrdstone while the other warbands try to stop them

"Goodbye nice Imperial folks! The Wyrdstone is ours!"

The Vampire is hungry for Elven blood

Nice afternoon of wargaming. We had a lot of fun, even cause for some of us this was the first Mordheim game since last June. But what was the outcome of our three battles?

1. Table 1, Orcs vs Undead: decisive Undead victory. I lost more than half of my warband, and even if I controlled one section of the building (almost two) the Necromancer cast a spell against my Goblin henchman and stunned him good at the very end of the game.
2. Table 2, Dwarves vs Elves vs Undead: another Undead victory! The players reached an agreement on the Wyrdstone counters on the table, but the Vampire's servants where winners on the field. Grimbeorn says: The Elves (who were the defender) deployed well but they played last in the first turn, so they were attacked by the Undead which had an easy time, the Dwarfs on the opposite side tried to stop the lightning-fast Elves with little success, managing only to extort a couple Wyrdstone counters in exchange of the life of one of the pointy-ears. Eventually, a draw between Undead and Elves, except that an humble Zombie came out in striking the final blow on the Shadow Warriors' Captain, making very proud (and a little jealous) his vampiric Master.
3. Table 3, Witch Hunters vs Averlanders vs Gunnery School: similar outcome than the previous, but with Frontlineminiaturist's Averlanders on the first place. They manage to flee with some counters: the others were divided amongst the players.

We run the post-battle sequence all together as always, and we had a nice talk about the games. Some of us have a lot of gold to spend before the next battle!

Lastly, we decided to join a great adventure: even if we like the idea of the Sword of the Herald campaign, and we can obviously keep it for the future, we agreed to join the first national Mordheim campaign set up planned by the Mordheim Italia Community from May onwards. The campaign is called Tempesta Necromantica (Necromantic Storm) and will be focused on some dark forces from beyond the grave which lurk in the cold streets of Mordheim...

Ambush in the City of the Damned

Yesterday Grimbeorn, Frontlineminiaturist and I played a Mordheim match. Since December we decided that every new game is part of our new Sword of the Herald campaign, even if it is not totally defined yet. This scenario was Ambush from Annual 2002.

My Orcs, Grimbeorn's Dwarves and Frontlineminiaturist's Cult of Possessed clash in the street of Mordheim, where the Greenskins found a giant stash of Wyrdstone and try to flee with it...

The battlefield was just nice, but at the end we decided that in similar occasions the centre of the board must be more protected, or the defender will be simply taken out in few turns

"I see some Goblins up there"

Here they are! My boyz are set around the house, and my Heroes carry some Wyrdstone. We need to flee of the field in order to win

The Possessed look from behind the gates and think of an obscure plan

The only possible outcome for the first turn: I try to run, they try to catch!

My Troll is protecting my Boss from the enemy's quarrels. I already lost some of my boyz, and both Dwarves and Possessed are still strong

On the left, I try to escape. The Dwarves are too slow to catch me, but they try to stop the Orcs by shooting at them. On the upper side of the board, the Possessed are trying to intercept the fleeing Greenskins and collect every Wyrdston shard they have

Right moment for a truce: my Hero drops his Wyrdstone to save his life. The Possessed agree...

One of the most epic moments: a single Goblin take out a Dwarf Quarreler and a Trollslayer! A true hero! At the end of the game, the Dwarves result in permanent dead... Grimbeorn will not forget this

The closing act of the game: my Boss is almost out of the battlefield, when Von Pfalz, Frontlineminiaturist commander, a dreadful Magister, possesses him with his magic. There's nothing to do against the power of Chaos...

... and my Boss turns and charges my Troll! Gork please help!

The game ended with my warband almost entirely out of action, every Wyrdstone shard in the hand of the Cult of the Possessed and some underdog Dwarves exhausted from running around... not the best, except for Frontlineminiaturist who collected a lot of gold. Fortunately, I permanently lost just a couple Squigs. In the future we need to train better to confront the forces of Chaos that haunt this streets...

As always, after the battle I feel particularly inspired... so I created a Wyrdstone token! I found a simple and nice way to do it rapidly, so I'm going to paint some of them for every occasion.

"That's mine!" "Come take it if you can!"

My precious...

Speed painting in 10mm... more or less

After our last battle with my Celtiberians, my friend Alexander and I planned a Hordes of the Things game with the same armies (at least for me). Some time ago I purchased some elements from Pendraken to deploy in fantasy games played with historical armies: the figures derive as much as possible from the mythological background of Celtic and Iberian populations, merged with what I thought could result cool on the battlefield.

I seized the opportunity to try some speed painting with my 10mm figures. After all, this is one of the reasons why I like this particular scale, but my last deeds - almost two years to paint an army - weren't really coherent with this thought. So, I gave it a try.

The models I bought from Pendraken: there is an assortment of giants, trolls, centaurs and other creatures I found right for the setting of my Celtiberians and Celtic armies

Some prepping to polish the metal figures

The seven elements I chose for this particular venture: Behemot (giants and trolls), Magician (the druids with the menhir in the background), Beasts (deers on the right) and Lurkers (the treemen)

Firstly, black undercoat on every miniature

Then I proceed with my usual recipe: heavy Wraithbone drybrush and Contrast Skeleton Horde on the models. Then, one element at time, I go nuts with Contrasts and drybrush. Always very simple, speed is the key

After an evening, here's the result! Five elements are completed, apart from the bases, one Behemot element is still to complete and I left out the Magician element

Well, here my speed painting attempt encountered a problem, because I couldn't go on with the hobby for a couple days. Never mind, the experiment was still a success, even if not 100% complete. When I finished the two remaining elements, here's the result

As per the Celtiberians, first thing on the base is a layer of Agrellan Earth

Time to battle! I wanted to finish the bases but I had not quite the time. So, we packed up with our nice metal box (every element is magnetized) and went to crush the enemy

First HotT game for my enhanced Celtiberians! We were up against Alexander's Lizardmen (superb models from Eureka), but it was a nasty battle... battle report here!

Just a first view of the battlefield!

Back home, I completed the bases and call it done. It was an useful experiment, I learned that 10mm are just right for speed painting like this! Next time I need to paint some Celts...

This shamans are deployed as Magician, and the deers as Beasts (even if they're not carnivores as depicted in the HotT core book)

Behemots

Lurkers. Some more grass and tufts for them, obviously!

They match just right with their human kin. Pretty happy with the result!

"Take out those lizards!" - Enhanced Celtiberians in HotT

I integrated my 10mm Celtiberians with some fantasy elements to use them in games of Hordes of the Things. I want my ancient armies to be as fantasy as they can when needed, and mythology is just here for the purpose.

With some giants, trolls and trusty deers from the great forests of their land, my scutarii and caetrati are ready to defend their territories against invaders much worst than the Romans.

This time, we went after my friend Alexander's Lizardmen: a colourful army with some nasty tricks on their side.

Nice battlefield cut in half by the river. Lizardmen defend their stronghold, but my Lurkers wait in the forest...

The superb Hordes of the enemy squeak and squawk waiting to overwhelm the human kin

My General oversees the situation from his position

After a couple turns, the enemy Flyers are behind my back and their terrible General on Carnosaur is in front of my General on horseback and his bodyguard

On my left flank, my Shooters and Beasts are ready to confront enemy Hordes. This side will be crucial to the end of the fight

My strong side however struggles to move toward the enemy. The Lizardmen mounted elements wait for the right time to proceed...

"Raaaaaargh!" [screams in Celtiberian]

Behemot charge! Enemy Beasts are taken out by the giants

After some recoiling, my General is crushed against the river (and eaten by the monster). The Magician tries to confront the Lizardmen General, but water defies his magic powers...

The Lizardmen Cleric charges against my Blades element. Hordes close the door on the flank: we tried to hold on on this side, but only my Beasts survived the enemy tide

Oh no! My Magician is ensorcelled! Although, nice tower

Lizardmen Hordes keep return from the stronghold

Last view on the battlefield! 6-4 and my General is lost. Nice game, we really suffered on the left side where my Blades couldn't reach any combat site

A nice battle indeed, even if we lost. I love HotT because you can field whatever you want with simple rules and a nice focus on your army and how you want to play it... the free spirit of the game is really a plus! Next time we'll be prepared...