Chicago Skirmish Wargames

At the end of June we gathered for the second night of our Mordheim campaign. Game records ranged from the fantastic to the non-existent, so here they are in that order...

Game 2.1  Mattias's Posessed vs Charlie's Skaven.

Mattias's account of the game, as told by Magister Slinsiod Krell:

"The Shadowlord whispered to me of the Auld Temple Quarter and its many ruins rich with wyrdstone. But no sooner had we arrived at the edge of the district than faithful KURIDAX, my sweet and loyal daemon sphynx scented RATS. And lo! No sooner scented than sighted, scurrying after our trail. The vermin were going to try to BREAK THROUGH to our promised hunting ground. We would have to stop them here, at the river.

The rats swarmed over the bridges, and more plunged into the befouled river. We hid on our side and bid our time, but I sent Kuridax and J'Gog'th'zoz, who are fleet, through the river to surprise the skaven on their flank. The rats saw them coming and flung their stones, but to no avail. On the south bridge, Splaytooth and Gorish Knuckle held their advance while Kuridax and J'Gog'th'zoz encircled them. The fighting there was brief, and spiteful. Gorish fell to one of the rats' heroic efforts, but that rat was in turn felled by Splaytooth. In their screams I heard the Shadowlord's mirth.

On the north bridge came the skaven leader and his pet sorcerer. Z'beel'z'brz and Bosh Monocula held them back--but out of the riverwater came a clutch of rats with spears, nearly overwhelming them.

The Shadowlord, however, was generous, and granted them strength. They fought clear long enough for Leonid Skree to land a killing blow with his barbéd and venomous tail. Seeing their many fallen comrades, the cowardly vermin scattered and left us to our hunting.

All but one. J'Gog'th'zoz brought to me bound the 'hero' who had wounded Gorish Knuckle. The lad will be fine, a mere scrape, but even so that would not do. I had the beastmen bind him to my black altar and I filled its runnels with his blood as my followers looked on in joy and wonder.

It was here that I felt doubt enter my mind, for I did not feel the Shadowlord's approbation at this sacrifice. I fear He may have desired to feast on this rat himself. I sent Knuckle and Skree into the crater to seek His favor, but they returned with nothing...I was furious, ready to believe the Shadowlord had abandoned me. That is until, during our hunt, we heard a snuffling and snarling out of the dark. And there emerged, by His Grace there can be no doubt, two foul creatures of divine beauty--bat wingéd, six-leggéd, sharp and bloody of beak and claw. It seems sweet Kuridax shall have siblings, and I a menagerie of adorable pets. I think I shall call them...SKITTER and SLAKE"

OOC: We rolled breakthrough and I chose to defend since my warband rating was slightly lower. Charlie got unlucky with his hit rolls and I was able to get off a few decisive charges, resulting in a voluntary rout. It was a great game, and with one or two different dice rolls could have ended with me routing instead, since I was at a numbers disadvantage.

I took one of Charlie's heroes captive and sacrificed him to the Shadowlord to give my leader an extra XP. I then used that to roll an advance in the hopes of getting a new spell, rather than send Magister Krell to gain the favor of the Shadowlord, and it didn't pay off. Krell got +Ld, but both my mutants rolled "nothing happens" on their gift of the shadowlord rolls, and I'm sure that's the Shadowlord's vengeance for my cowardice with Krell. That's what I get for not submitting myself entirely to Chaos. I've learned my lesson.

Other advances include J'Gog'th'zoz gaining RESLILIENT, Z'beel'z'brz gaining +1 WS, and Bosh Monocula gaining +1 BS. Gorish Knuckle rolled a full recovery on the injury table.

During exploration, we found a fletcher (triple 4) and gained 3 bows (which I gave to my magister and each beastman) and 4 Wyrdstone (total roll of 22). I sold those for 70 crowns and, thanks to some good rare item rolls, purchased two more wardogs (to be represented by the Stirges Skitter and Slake) and a luck charm for Gorish.

Winner Mattias

Game night 2.2
Karl Vs James.

No pictures of the battle will be forthcoming, but this was the table we battled on. The buildings are some classic Mordhiem home-builts that James saved from a local store. Look or these to return in a future battle with some improvements....

And here was the Norse warband:

The "Norse" are actually Alternative Armies "Sidhe". Cool Figures I got in a huge bin of lead a decade ago. I painted them up years back when I first started assembling what is now a rather large Chaos Army.

The 2 headed wolves and Wulfen are Privateer Press Hordes Circle Orboros figures. The wolves were painted by CSW webmaster Josh.

The Battle:

The Afligast Norse met Count Duchain in the ruined old quarter sparring over a particular building where Wyrdstone seemed to be present. Duchain arrogantly pushed his minions to hold a cache of Wyrdstone, despite the obvious location and the likely combat to ensue instead of cutting his losses or setting up an ambush. The Norse was able to take advantage of this and rush the area with no time for those there to establish a foothold. Loses were high on both sides but after a few ambushing Norsemen leapt madly into the fray from upper levels, the tide turned and the undead withdrew.

After the battle, luck was with the Norse as nearly all their wounded recovered and one young Marauder advanced as a Hero. However, though a well stocked brewery was discovered, the celebrating warriors drank down nearly all the brew leaving only a couple casks to sell.

The results of the battle for the Undead were a mixed bag. After losing Bob, a ghoul ate him and became the new Bob after the battle. Igor the Necromancer took a chest wound and almost bled out, but inspired the rest of the dregs to blindly follow their master's wishes. (-1 T, +1 LD) . The dregs that survived learned to specialize a bit better. And as for Count Duchain? He killed so many animals he learned to be even faster. (+1 I)!

Winner: Karl

Game 2.3

Tim's Middenheimers beat Jon's Sisters of Sigmar among the overgrown ruins of the old border fort.

No Battle report forthcoming, but here's the battlefield I setup for them to fight on:

I am rather proud of this layout. All the palisade walls and houses are lovely work from Tim representing many hours of casting, building and painting with Hirst Arts plaster bricks.  However, the houses all had nice intact thatched roofs, so I built a bunch of attic floors. They are simply doll house shingles stuck on self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles with a couple washes and a bit of paint on the bottom and edges. This enabled the roof to roof battling across this overgrown fort section of town that presumably lies at the edge of the city and was abandoned long before the meteor hit Mordheim.

At the end of the night, the standings for the campaign are as follows:

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

Stay tuned for Night 3!