Mordheim: day zero

Two posts in a day? WTF?

Yeah, I have time and if I don't do it now when I have time, I won't do it.

So our local group has been playing Mordheim for a few months and just decided to restart the campaign. My Halflings were just murdering people. At last count, I had seven BS 5 henchmen, my Elder had BS 5 with Quickshot & Trick Shooter, and both my Youths had BS 4 and Quickshot & Trickshooter. I'd received a Pit Fighter for free, had purchased and Ogre, and was starting to purchase melee Halflings. And my band wasn't the sick-and-broken one. That honor went to the Amazon list with a model with Frenzy, Str 5, and 3 base attacks.

Like all groups, we struggled with armor. Essentially it's more worthwhile to buy an extra guy than armor. So the first thing we did was reduce the cost to 40% of list price (light armor is 5 gp, heavy is 20 gp).

It still didn't fix the problem, so I came up with a radical idea: in addition to be 40% list price, we increased the body armor by +1. So Light Armor grants a 5+ save, etc. We tested it out with a Gromril-heavy Dwarf list. In essence, if a shield+gromril armor (a 2+ save) isn't broken, then the idea had merit.

Turns out, it worked. I mean, it does make guys more survivable (which is the point), but not excessively. Suddenly people are looking at double handed weapons, morning stars, flails, axes, etc. People aren't just putting 2 maces on every model. People are considering "crazy" things like light armor and shield.

And its having positive ripple effects. It sounds weird that 7 gp could get someone a 5+ save, but the cost point vs the benefit makes it a viable option. So models are now only making 1 attack (since they have a shield), which means parrying suddenly seems like a better idea.

So its not that 2 maces are going away (it's still a decent option against light armor & shield). It's more that its one possible option among many. Warbands are starting to have a mix of axes, double handed weapons, swords, etc. Which is cool.

I ordered a box of Empire Militia to recreate the Marienburger warband I did when I first played 10 years ago. Scott is borrowing my Dwarves, so I picked up a box of Dwarf Warriors (because all I had for henchmen was Thunderers with crossbows).

I spent a couple days designing Dwarf warbands and I started thinking it'd be fun to build a Gromril'd up Dwarf warband. Scott felt 6 models was too few. So in the end, I built 15 dwarves out of the box of warriors so we could both have enough.

Then I saw these: Yaar! Me Mateys!

Dwarf pirates.

Dwarf. . .pirates.

DWARF. PIRATES.

Sveeet...


So here's my warband:

"Captain" (Dwarf Noble): Brace of Pistols, 2 Dwarf Axes (the cutlasses 'count as' Dwarf Axes)

"Master Gunner" (Engineer): Brace of Pistols, 2 Axes

"Bosun's Mate" (Slayer): 2 Dwarf Axes

"Bosun's Mate" (Slayer): 2 Dwarf Axes

"Midshipman" (Clansman): Brace of Pistols, 2 Dwarf Axes


Yep, 5 models. And no armor. I fully expect to be murdered each and every game. But it's gonna be fun, and I'll document it here.

The New Ekrund ExPatriots

I had planned to post this a few days after Kublacon, but you know what my motto is about plans. So I've got 45 minutes before the eldest child wakes up: just enough time to get into writing, not enough to do real work. Anyway, for the 1 of you that read this and didn't go to Kubla, here's some more pictures on the New Ekrund ExPatriots.

The team in all it's glory:

Quarterback Thoom Broody & Coach Bild Billy-Chuck

The "Chaos Dwarves"

The "Bull Centaurs"

The Hobgoblins

If you're interested in how I came up with the name . . . you're fricken bored. Here's a map, open it and zoom in a little bit on the Black Gulf region (which is roughly centered).

To the right of the Black Gulf you'll see the Dragonback Mountains. At the bottom of those is Ekrund (Mt. Bloodhorn).

So basically I needed something that sounded like "England." Then I looked through various wikis and found this:

-1498 Imperial Years

The mines of Ekrund are siezed by the Orcs after heavy fighting against the Dragonback Dwarfs and the watch towers of Mad Dog Pass are gradually abandoned and siezed by the Goblins.

So I constructed some fluff that the original survivors of Karak Ekrund made their way north and settled in the foothills of the Moot, founding New Ekrund. After years of breeding with Halfling women, the folk of New Ekrund weren't exactly Dwarves and weren't exactly Halflings. They were gnomes.

Yeah, okay, a lot of silly thought for a Bloodbowl team. But I have a lot of time during the day where I'm physically busy but the brain is otherwise unengaged.

Right, there you have my team. I have considered doing Undead next year, using Malifaux minis. I've also looked at doing Lizardmen, using the Impact Minis Sarcos. Right now, I'm thinking of maybe taking the New Ekrund Expatriots again or maybe doing the Ogres. I had fun with both of those teams.

Or maybe I'll just dust off the High Elves. Unlike most folks, I give them Block when they get advancements because I like to mix it up. But passing is fun too.

Kublacon

Finally about functional after Kubla. The kids took longer to recover, as shown by Jocelyn wanting to be picked up on our short walk Thursday. I myself didn't have a ton of energy that day either.

So here it is:

Wednesday: Scott arrived at 2:40pm. Promptly when he said he would. Which, if you know him, was a gentle shock. So I packed the kids up and we picked him up at the airport. He hadn't slept well, so no gaming that night. Which was fine.

Thursday: Manny arrived at noon. Left Scott behind (couldn't fit everyone in the car) but Jocelyn wanted to see Papa. She'd been saying "going to Klubla" for about a day now. Met Scott at Neto's for lunch. They make sausage burgers. Manny was braver than I, and had the Linguica Burger.

Picked up some terrain and GK, cooked some tri-tip, during which got rained on (!). Neither Scott nor I had played Bloodbowl since December, so I pulled out my High Elves and he borrowed my Norse and we stumbled through the Bloodweiser Bowl. After wards, Manny was to tired to play. Something about being up for 24 hours.

Pansy.

Anyway, crashed out at about 1:00 or so.


Friday: was woken up by Jocelyn ("Dada get up! Dada get up!"). Manny was up, but Liam was asleep in the office. So figuring I couldn't really pack & print stuff out, Manny & I played a game of cardhammer. I won't describe the details, let's just go with "Manny now hates dragons as much as healer mages."

Mer woke up around 10:00-ish and we started packing. About 2:30pm or so we were ready to go. Oy.

Got there at 3:30. Unloaded, checked in, then had to switch rooms so we had adjoining rooms, then swap keys in and out. Then it was run to the BBCS. This was the pattern all weekend.

BBCS was great. Had 10 people show (more than we expected). Round one, I got to reveal to super secret Blood Bowl team to Manny.

Drum roll. . . .



Chaos Dwarves! Behold, the New Ekrund Expatriots!

See Manny hates Chaos Dwarves with a burning passion. And he's a New England Patriots fan. So I made a Chaos Dwarf team and painted them up like the Patriots. Only, I couldn't just do that. So I got the Impact Miniatures Gnome Contraption team, which is a proxy for the Ogres & Goblins team.

So the contraptions, mounted on 30mm bases, are Chaos Dwarves. The Gnomes on foot are Hobgoblins. And the Deathrollas are Bull Centaurs.

Manny did not find this funny at all. He pouted through the entire first round. I'm serious. He. Pouted. The. Whole. Time. He was surly, nothing-is-funny Papa-bear despite beating me 1-0 at the Ulthuan Bowl (overly strict officiated Blood Bowl). Everyone else thought it was hilarious. Not Manny. It's okay, not like he's people anyway. He keeps trying to get up on the furniture.

Next round I played the Hurricane Bowl against Trent's Dark Elves. Played on an archipelago where the tide could come in. Was fun and I won 1-0, mainly because Trent simply didn't have enough land to run away.

Last round was Mordheim Bowl against Scott's Norse. I believe it was a 1-1 tie, but don't remember clearly. It was late, and what I do remember is that Scott thumped me. At one point, I had 4 Chaos Dwarves and 1 Bull Centaur either KO'd or killed.

Three fun games though. Frankly, the most fun I've had had at BBCS. We crashed out sometime around 2:00am.

Saturday: I was awoken by my daughter. Had some coffee (we were smart and brought the coffee maker this year), a muffin, and packed up for Battleground Fantasy Warfare (aka cardhammer).

We played a three round Civil War in Hawkshold, with me playing Hannibal. Frankly, this was the low-point event for me. I thought it'd be more fun, and it was, but more a "me'h" kind of thing.

Round 1, I played Manny and IIRC, I pretty well butchered him. He was playing the unreleased Dark Elves and so he really didn't know what he was doing. The funny part was him trying to pull the same trick on me with his drake riders that I'd done with my dragon earlier. Wasn't having any of that, and I sent some elephants to take care of bidness.

Rd 2, I played Niko, the guy who wrote version 3.0 of the rules. I was tabled. It was ugly, quite possibly the worst defeat I'd taken in awhile. I was doomed from the beginning, as he had more line units than I did and there was nothing I could do. The my dice decided to desert me. Oh the pain.

Rd 3, I played Trent. In another odd-couple army pairing Trent decided to take 4 units of archers at the time when I decided not to take any skirmisher meat shields. The game ended up a draw by like 15 pts or so, mainly because my Hannibal's Elite failed their courage check (again!) and then his T-rex mulched through my line until it was pinched by two elephants. A draw and a good game.

After that it was race upstairs to drop everything off and then off to an In & Out run. Oy. We had to get our order three times, and by the time we got back it was cold and Manny got the wrong order... Next year, the Walla Walla folks can borrow my car.

After food, it was grab the Rezolution terrain & minis, then head downstairs. In another theme of the year, we had more people than we expected. So many that I ended up bowing out of the event to simply run it. The event maxed out at 4 people and I was too fried to figure out how to adjust it for 6 people. Turned out Trent didn't make it either, so he played GM for the event.

One thing I did get to do was set up Jason with the broken psyker-nun, on the promise that he pulped Manny. I don't know how well he did that, but they seemed to be having good natured fun.

Having Trent as GM freed me up to play a playtest game of cardhammer with Niko. Played Alexander against High Elves. He wiped me out again, but it was a good game and showed him what the list could do. Probably shouldn't have played drunk either.

Oh yeah, did I forget that part? Saturday night we busted out the Cokes . . . with nothing else in them. They were Just Cokes. So yeah, three Just Cokes and Corey doesn't make the best tactical decisions.

Also very cool is the miniatures coordination pounded his Just Coke on an empty stomach and then proceeded to play Tzeentch Bowl. Good times.

Crashed out at about 2:30 or so. Not exactly clear on the time...

Sunday: I roused myself sometime around 8:00ish in a fog. Thank goodness for coffee. Because I had to shower, then load up the terrain & minis for 40K, and out the door.

We had 10 people. I was shocked. We did everything we could to discourage people except lighting entrants on fire. Seriously, we had them read the Macharian Manifesto and sign it.

So the campaigns rules turned out to be a wee complex... But everyone loved it. They loved awarding experience and giving their guys upgrades. They loved the wackyness. They complained the rules weren't wacky enough. Huh, okay.

Rd 1 I played Scott, against my Orks. I wasn't tabled...because we ran out of time. It was some bad luck, but also the new Battlewagon really brings the army together. Despite being whupped, I had a great time.

Rd 2 I played Manny. His luck was terrible. He had units not make reserve rolls for most of the game. Which balanced the fact that I read the rules wrong and let him deploy three force org selections instead of three units. It was this mistake which allowed him to have anything left on the table as opposed to nothing.

By this point, none of the guys who wrote the campaign rules were even keeping track of experience. We were just happy to play.

Rd 3 was against Trent. I did a fair bit of damage, and might have pulled it out, but he won the scenario. If we'd fought it out, it would've been a draw most likely. But I was kinda done and didn't want to play anymore.

In the end, I was bored with my army but had a great time playing. Strange, egh? Essentially, the Martian SRO played too similar to regular shooty IG and so I got bored after about 2 games. But the scenarios and the opponents were awesome, and it was cool to know everyone had such fun.

So we finished up, brought stuff back to the room, and came back down for some Battlestar Galactica (boardgame). We only got half a game in, but it was funny. Highlights include

--Trent's HORRIBLE poker face as he tried to convince me he wasn't the Cylon.

--Me almost single handedly brigging and then airlocking Trent (at which point he was revealed as a Cylon).

--Manny playing like this was Twilight Imperium and thus appearing guiltier than Dick Cheney, despite actually not being a cylon.

--Jason & I teaming up to airlock Manny in the last round (we stopped after the Sleeper Agent phase) just because we felt like it. Only to find out he was the Cylon.

Monday: We all crashed out, got up, had our annual brunch, packed, checked out, said bye to Trent, Darby, & brood, Dana, Michaela, then drove home. Unpacked, returned some stuff to Game Kastle, gorged on pizza rolls, watched the kids while Mer crashed out.

Then we decided to play some more. It was our usual game of lazy choice: cardhammer. I figured I'd show how the Romans played against his Undead. And by "show him how they work" I apparently meant "show them how bad they get thumped when Corey consistently rolls three 5s and a 1." (low is good in that game)

Yeah it was ugly. I was tired so I got a little frustrated for a few minutes and then it just became comedy. I refused to quit and wasn't tabled...because time ran out.

After that Manny and Scott played Bloodbowl on the Kislev Bowl. Didn't get to see much because I was sort of ghosting in and out, playing with the kids, etc. Plus I was simply exhausted so if I sat still I knew I'd collapse. There was lots of broken ice and skating, and general wackyness. Apparently Scott rolled really well when blocking ("a skull and the roll he needs" according to Manny), but Manny still won 1-0. Manny whining while winning seems to have been another theme of the weekend. ;-)


Tuesday: wake up, hang out with Manny, take him to the airport. Was sad to see him go, but maybe he'll fly out for the Geek Weekend in July. Come back, relax outdoors with Scott and some very tired kids. They crash out, and we played some more Cardhammer, Romans against the playtest Alexander list. We had some terrible rolling on both sides and didn't play it to the death because we were so tired. But the Romans had collapses the Alexander flanks and were going to roll them up, so we weren't worried.

Wednesday: wake up, take Scott home. And with that Kublacon was officially over. The entire ride home, Jocelyn kept saying "We going to Klubla?"

Was a great weekend. I'd say we 90% escaped the Even Year Curse. Liam teething and not sleeping well was rough on Mer & Janet (I got to escape most of it). Plus logistics was rough, with Trent & I running around quite a bit.

But the gaming was a total blast. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and at all but the cardhammer event we had 10 people. Pretty impressive, frankly. I got in 15 total games and I can't say I had a bad one. Even ones where I got crushed I had a blast and I'd have to go back to 2007 to say that I had fun at every single game I played. So in that regard it was the best Kubla in years.