Chicago Skirmish Wargames

The campaign rolls right along. Here's night 3 which took place on July 8th.

Terrain Progress: Improving Old School Mordheim Buildings

First off, here's a bit of progress I made on the old Mordheim buildings James had brought. The unknown builder (he was given them from a game store) had done a pretty good job of construction - even using a few Mordheim plastic pieces- but the basing was plain and there was room for a lot of rubble and dry-brushing. Also, the inner walls of the buildings were painted the same colors as the outer and the bases were too large.

I first separated the two large blue buildings into separate sections to enable more flexible arrangements. I stuck the thin wood bases right to pieces of self-adhesive vinyl floor tile for weight and stability. I then cut the bases back very close to the building edges. Smaller base area is important for Mordheim because if you're treating the building rubble as rough terrain, you usually want to be able to leave space between the buildings for open terrain while still placing the buildings close enough to have them connected by overhead walkways.

I applied various wood scraps, broken dollhouse bricks and some of my usual hardware store "Sand Mix Concrete" over the bases and much of the upper floors. This incredibly cheap (less than $10 for 40 pounds) product has fine cement for a nice soil base, sand for some added grit, and small gravel bits mixed in. It's my go-to, one-step mix for rocky soil and rubble. The cement base means it cures up wonderfully hard and sturdy when applied over a water based PVA and even more so after being hit with washes or paint.

Basing Applied:

Then a few dark washes and a bit of dry-brushing:

After these pictures were taken, more drybrushing (especially to lighten up and differentiate the inside walls) was applied, but you get the idea. I also applied a few more wood crossbeams to the exterior with the easy method of first giving Balsa wood pieces a brown wash and then gluing them in place.

I think the results are much better-looking buildings. These possibly-decades-old buildings have been spruced up and are ready for the next 20 years of gaming! Thanks to James for letting us use and modify his buildings. I really wanted lots of these type of structures for our campaign, but didn't have time to build my own from scratch.

Game One:  The Debauched Ones (Michael) vs Skaven (Charlie) vs Akaf Norse (Karl)

The battle as relayed by the chronicler of the Debauched Ones....

Ishtar the Lewd, leader of The Debauched Ones, had heard of a cash of green wyrdstone in a tributary feeding the River Stir:

She led her band forward and saw a warband of Norse engaging a Skaven warband by the tributary:

After weighing the situation, she decided to lead her outnumbered force into the fray:

The two Possessed, ‘The Brute’ and ‘The Disfigured’ attacked. As that battle raged on Ishtar went to the waters edge to search for wyrdstone. She was soon joined by the Mutant Rhall:

No wyrdstone was found in the river, the barbaric Norse having grabbed most of it already- but after a while both opposing warbands routed leaving The Debauched Ones alone.

‘The Disfigured’ took out an opponent and ‘The Brute’ took out two more. One of these was the Skaven leader an Assassin adept. The Assassin adept was captured and ransomed to the Norse warband for 30 gold crown who then sold them on to the Skaven in exchange for a Norse prisoner. The Debauched searched the ruins of a shop and also a still-warm corpse that was found. Besides some gold crowns the corpse yielded an axe. Two pieces of the precious wyrdstone were also found. The wyrdstone and gold allowed Ishtar to add three Brethren to The Debauched Ones, one of which was armed with the found axe. Afterwards The Debauched Ones moved off into the ruins of Mordheim in their search for wyrdstone.

Victory: Michael's "The Debauched Ones"

Game 2.  Middenheimers (Tim) Vs Count Duchain (Undead)

No one is quite sure how this battle unfolded amongst the ruined hellscape of inner Mordheim, but if rumors are to be believed, the hardy Middenheimers once again took the day.

Victory: Tim's Middenheimers.

 

After Night 3 the standings are as follows.

Tim: (Middenheimers) 3-0
Mattias: Lurkers of Leechhead (Posessed) 2-0
Karl: Sam Flat Akafligast (Norse Explorers) 1-2
James: Count Duchain (Undead): 1-2
Michael: Debauched ones (Posesssed): 1-1
Charlie: (Skaven): 0-3
Jon: (Church of Sigmar): 0-2

Stay tuned for night 4!

Karl