At long last the Great Work is completed! The full pdf of the Loremasters of Hoeth warband is complete. I'm going to miss this project, I've invested a lot of time and effort into it. I hope you all like it. Next week will be an all new exciting Mordheim idea or talk or something. You'd think I'd run out of stuff to talk about, but nope! It's a never ending well. Without further ado;
THE LINK TO END ALL LINKS!
Showing posts with label Mordheim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mordheim. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday Night Mordheim; The Fickle Finger of Fate
Hello. Welcome back. Here I was thinking that I would have another edition of MNM- Terrain A Go Go, where I would have pics of all the things in a grocery store that make great terrain without having to convert at all.
The best laid plans of mice and men, cannot stand contact with the enemy. Or so the mashup of old cliches goes.
So Saturday the wife and I picked up a new mattress set as had been promised. So no trip to the grocery store.
Sunday was spent getting ready for the annual Cub Scout banquet. So no trip to the grocery store. However, found out that one of my kids cronies just inherited a WHFB Warriors of Chaos army. So good news there.
Today, ah, today was the beauty. Thought I would have plenty of time, since I took the day off for my birthday. Cut and dry, right? So during the day, the wife and I did birthday stuff, and went to the store for more bedding stuff. Then the youngest child got out of school late. We went home to wait for the other kids to get home from school. Then we ran out for birthday dinner. We went to Five Guys Burgers & Fries. Great place, but expensive when taking the family. The only local 5GBF is in Oakland. Ah, Oakland, where there are more college campuses then you can shake a syllabus at. Therein was the problem, Oakland also contains one of the better gamestores in the area. Since I had already spent more then intended to for my birthday, I decided not to tempt fate by going to the gamestore.
Leaving 5GBF went to the car, drove approximately a block and the car stalled. Went to my pocket for my cellphone, and I realized that I left it on the desk beside the computer. Had Eldest Child call my dad on HIS cellphone. My dad agreed to come out and give me a jump, if we had gone to the gamestore, he would not have been home. We waited and waited and waited. Turns out that while Eldest Child had my parent's home phone (which I still have memorized since I was 6), he did not have any of my parent's cellphones. To make matters worse, they didn't have his current number, just the old one. So they drove around the wrong side of Oakland looking for us for like 45 minutes.
My mom took the wife and kids home, and my dad stayed to help with the car. Turns out it wasn't a bad battery, or anything simple, it seems my alternator is dying. So my dad and I charged my car battery with a jump. The drive home was a nightmare. Had to cross a bridge that it is illegal to stop on. If the battery suddenly died there, I would be in real trouble.
Made it home with little fuss and little muss, but I had everything but the headlights out. Its funny how fast you think you are going without the dashboard to tell you how fast you are actually going. I thought I was going like 55, but my dad said that I drove 25 the whole way back.
Pulled the battery and threw it on the trickle charger so that I can get to the mechanic. I'm debating doing that for a week until my registration is up so that I can get it done with the inspection as well.
Now, if I had been able to get out at Oakland at a decent hour, I would have stopped to show you guys what can be done at the grocery store. Now it will have to wait until next week.
The best laid plans of mice and men, cannot stand contact with the enemy. Or so the mashup of old cliches goes.
So Saturday the wife and I picked up a new mattress set as had been promised. So no trip to the grocery store.
Sunday was spent getting ready for the annual Cub Scout banquet. So no trip to the grocery store. However, found out that one of my kids cronies just inherited a WHFB Warriors of Chaos army. So good news there.
Today, ah, today was the beauty. Thought I would have plenty of time, since I took the day off for my birthday. Cut and dry, right? So during the day, the wife and I did birthday stuff, and went to the store for more bedding stuff. Then the youngest child got out of school late. We went home to wait for the other kids to get home from school. Then we ran out for birthday dinner. We went to Five Guys Burgers & Fries. Great place, but expensive when taking the family. The only local 5GBF is in Oakland. Ah, Oakland, where there are more college campuses then you can shake a syllabus at. Therein was the problem, Oakland also contains one of the better gamestores in the area. Since I had already spent more then intended to for my birthday, I decided not to tempt fate by going to the gamestore.
Leaving 5GBF went to the car, drove approximately a block and the car stalled. Went to my pocket for my cellphone, and I realized that I left it on the desk beside the computer. Had Eldest Child call my dad on HIS cellphone. My dad agreed to come out and give me a jump, if we had gone to the gamestore, he would not have been home. We waited and waited and waited. Turns out that while Eldest Child had my parent's home phone (which I still have memorized since I was 6), he did not have any of my parent's cellphones. To make matters worse, they didn't have his current number, just the old one. So they drove around the wrong side of Oakland looking for us for like 45 minutes.
My mom took the wife and kids home, and my dad stayed to help with the car. Turns out it wasn't a bad battery, or anything simple, it seems my alternator is dying. So my dad and I charged my car battery with a jump. The drive home was a nightmare. Had to cross a bridge that it is illegal to stop on. If the battery suddenly died there, I would be in real trouble.
Made it home with little fuss and little muss, but I had everything but the headlights out. Its funny how fast you think you are going without the dashboard to tell you how fast you are actually going. I thought I was going like 55, but my dad said that I drove 25 the whole way back.
Pulled the battery and threw it on the trickle charger so that I can get to the mechanic. I'm debating doing that for a week until my registration is up so that I can get it done with the inspection as well.
Now, if I had been able to get out at Oakland at a decent hour, I would have stopped to show you guys what can be done at the grocery store. Now it will have to wait until next week.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim; Campaign Organization
Hello, and welcome to another installment of Monday Night Mordheim. I tend not to think too much about what I am going to post, unless I'm on a roll with something. I tend to look at what is happening around me and then riff off that.
Originally I was going to write an article about multiplayer, or about using Mordheim as a roleplaying substitute. However, after the events of tonight, I want to talk a bit more about the role of Campaign Organization.
I've talked a lot about campaigns here, and it seems that the subject is inexhaustible. So what brought me back to them tonight? Well, Boy Scouts. Those of you who know me, irl, know that my kids and I are involved in the Boy Scouts. Tonight after the Cub Scout meeting, there was a adult leader meeting. At this meeting, we worked on getting the Spaghetti Dinner. Lots of things were discussed, and I ended up getting the plum assignment of data entry of the mailing list to digital. Huzzah, at last the troop is entering the 20th century. Sitting around with the Scout Master, Assistant Scout Master, The Troop Council, and the other members of the adult leaders group, I realized something. It takes a lot of work to get something done right.
Like a Spaghetti Dinner, a good campaign requires a lot of forethought before it can be put into action. I've talked about the pre-campaign set-up, and the types of campaign that someone can run. What I've completly neglected to mention is the stuff that is required once the campaign starts up and gets going. So, yet again, I am going to hit up a bunch of different points, doing so in my favorite way possible; a numbered list.
1. Win-Lose-Draw Record. While each player in a campaign will probably keep this themself, but it pays to have someone keep an official track of it. That way, there is a neutral (or quasi-neutral) party keeping everyone honest.
2. Experience During a Match. Each scenario has ways to get additional experience beyond just the participation award. In most of them it is heroes that get additional experience for taking someone out of action, but in others models (heroes and henchmen) gain additional experience for completing certain tasks. This should all be recorded by another player who is not taking part in the battle that is going on.
3. The end of battle sequenece. This is especially important. I can't count the number of times that someone has lost their warband record sheet, and we had to rebuild from just the notes we had on file. Recording each post battle sequence can help this immensely. Also, it helps if you have some unscrupulous players (and we all know they are out there, but they obviously don't read this blog). Sometimes a surprise audit of the warband record sheet can catch those guys off guard, and keep 'em honest.
4. Game schedules. Depending on the type of game, this can resolve itself fairly easily, or become complex. A map campaign may have a set time for the campaign phase, and then each player schedules matches against opponents at their leisure. That's tough to handle, but it needs to be done.
5. Campaign Recorder. During the campaign, someone needs to keep track of what happens during the campaign. There are times that someone misses a meeting or a match, or doesn't catch what happened. The campaign record or some sort of telling of what happened during the game. This can be very important and very indepth, or it can be very open and vague. If you do something indepth, like battle reports, it can be a great benefit to the game. Especially if people like to use sneaky tricks. You can read up on them and see what worked and what didn't.
6. Space Maintainer. The janitor. Someone needs to clean up after the game is done, and it can be done in many different ways. Everyone splits the chore, last one out cleans up, owner of the space (if someone's house) cleans up, loser cleans house, the guy who didn't chip in for pizza. Something, anything. Leave the place you were in better then when you left it.
7. Liaison. This one is not really that important, unless you play in a FLGS, then it is VERY important. The Liaison should be someone there to help explain the game and promote it and invite more people to play in the game.
Well, that's enough for now. I can't take much more of this. Next week, I think I'll do something interesting.
Oh, and if you happen to be in Pittsburgh on November 12th, I can recommend a great place to get some spaghetti....
Originally I was going to write an article about multiplayer, or about using Mordheim as a roleplaying substitute. However, after the events of tonight, I want to talk a bit more about the role of Campaign Organization.
I've talked a lot about campaigns here, and it seems that the subject is inexhaustible. So what brought me back to them tonight? Well, Boy Scouts. Those of you who know me, irl, know that my kids and I are involved in the Boy Scouts. Tonight after the Cub Scout meeting, there was a adult leader meeting. At this meeting, we worked on getting the Spaghetti Dinner. Lots of things were discussed, and I ended up getting the plum assignment of data entry of the mailing list to digital. Huzzah, at last the troop is entering the 20th century. Sitting around with the Scout Master, Assistant Scout Master, The Troop Council, and the other members of the adult leaders group, I realized something. It takes a lot of work to get something done right.
Like a Spaghetti Dinner, a good campaign requires a lot of forethought before it can be put into action. I've talked about the pre-campaign set-up, and the types of campaign that someone can run. What I've completly neglected to mention is the stuff that is required once the campaign starts up and gets going. So, yet again, I am going to hit up a bunch of different points, doing so in my favorite way possible; a numbered list.
1. Win-Lose-Draw Record. While each player in a campaign will probably keep this themself, but it pays to have someone keep an official track of it. That way, there is a neutral (or quasi-neutral) party keeping everyone honest.
2. Experience During a Match. Each scenario has ways to get additional experience beyond just the participation award. In most of them it is heroes that get additional experience for taking someone out of action, but in others models (heroes and henchmen) gain additional experience for completing certain tasks. This should all be recorded by another player who is not taking part in the battle that is going on.
3. The end of battle sequenece. This is especially important. I can't count the number of times that someone has lost their warband record sheet, and we had to rebuild from just the notes we had on file. Recording each post battle sequence can help this immensely. Also, it helps if you have some unscrupulous players (and we all know they are out there, but they obviously don't read this blog). Sometimes a surprise audit of the warband record sheet can catch those guys off guard, and keep 'em honest.
4. Game schedules. Depending on the type of game, this can resolve itself fairly easily, or become complex. A map campaign may have a set time for the campaign phase, and then each player schedules matches against opponents at their leisure. That's tough to handle, but it needs to be done.
5. Campaign Recorder. During the campaign, someone needs to keep track of what happens during the campaign. There are times that someone misses a meeting or a match, or doesn't catch what happened. The campaign record or some sort of telling of what happened during the game. This can be very important and very indepth, or it can be very open and vague. If you do something indepth, like battle reports, it can be a great benefit to the game. Especially if people like to use sneaky tricks. You can read up on them and see what worked and what didn't.
6. Space Maintainer. The janitor. Someone needs to clean up after the game is done, and it can be done in many different ways. Everyone splits the chore, last one out cleans up, owner of the space (if someone's house) cleans up, loser cleans house, the guy who didn't chip in for pizza. Something, anything. Leave the place you were in better then when you left it.
7. Liaison. This one is not really that important, unless you play in a FLGS, then it is VERY important. The Liaison should be someone there to help explain the game and promote it and invite more people to play in the game.
Well, that's enough for now. I can't take much more of this. Next week, I think I'll do something interesting.
Oh, and if you happen to be in Pittsburgh on November 12th, I can recommend a great place to get some spaghetti....
Monday, September 19, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim; Official, Homebrew, and Thoughts Thereupon
So the whole map campaign thing is done for now, but I can foresee that it will rear its head again. Things like that don't stay buried for long. Now, when I write my Monday Night Mordheim articles, I like to either be very specific to Mordheim, or something that can be applied to any wargame that anyone would happen to play (like much of the Map Campaign stuff). This one is going to be both, so bear with me for a while, it will all make sense in the end.
There is one thing that Mordheim has that no other game in my experience has, and that is varying levels of 'officialness' or 'canoncity' if you prefer. The closest thing that you can get to it in another wargame is the occasional variant lists or White Dwarf codexes for 40K. While those are all well and good, that's basically two levels. Mordheim takes it quite a bit further, it has roughly four levels of officialdom. I say roughly because you can make a debate that there are actually only three, but that's a debate for another time and place.
So what are they, and how are they defined? Well, that's a tad tricky as well. Let me go through and lay it out, as I personally see it.
1. Official; These are the warbands from the main rule book, the Empire in Flames Supplement, and the 2002 Mordheim Annual. So there's quite a few there, they are also the only ones that currently have rules available from GW.. These are the most heavily play tested and balanced warbands.
2. Unofficial: These are warbands that are pretty much balanced for play, but due to release date or other whim of fate, did not make it into one of the three important books. They are fairly balanced, for a given value of balance. Many of them were created to support specific variations of Mordheim (like Lustria or Khemri), and are more balanced in that context.
3. Experimental: These are ones that are found all about the place, but are mainly unpublished fan stuff, but much of it has become 'default' and are only lacking official GW printing, but some of them are completely bonkers.
4. Homebrew: These are fan made stuff, some of which is tweeked official, unofficial, and experimental. Others are whole fabric completely new stuff.
Now, there's a bit more to that stuff then just the straight up where and when it was presented and how much it was play tested. There are also other FAQs that were done after the game had ceased support and were answered by the original designers and the people who were involved with GW's specialist games forums and publications. I wanted to establish what I was going to talk about before getting into it a bit more. Besides the obvious layers of officialdom, it does something that other games do not. Everything after the first layer of officialdom is wonderful great stuff...for those who are willing to do a bit of work. It keeps the game fresh, and opens up new layers of complexity and modelling challenges. There are several GW fantasy armies that have experimental or homebrew rules, thus allowing those who play those armies to start a Mordheim warband.
Which brings me to the meat and potatoes of what I want to talk about. The layers of officialdom invite monkeying around with the rules and the game. Not many other games have anything like this. You might see a homebrew codex out there on the internet, or a fan rules update to an army that hasn't been supported for awhile, but those are exceptions rather then the rule. If you go to any website about Mordheim, a great deal of it is dedicated to fan rules. Is this an issue? Nope! Fan support is what keeps Mordheim going.
While there are a lot of people out there playing other games, there is not the same level of fan support. Mordheim lives and breathes only because of its fans. 40K has its fans, and supporters, as does WHFB, or take it a different company, so does Maulifaux. However, there aren't many additional resources beyond the occasional fan-fic for them. Why is that? What is the difference between those games and Mordheim that makes them sacrosanct to change? Is it the 'tournament' culture or the WAAC gamers? Fluff vs. Crunch? I'm not to sure.
Take for instance the much maligned Chaos Space Marine Codex or the Tyranid codex. They are both rather older, and some people might argue non-competitive compared to newer codexes. Now, I freely admit that I don't get around the internet as much as I used to, but has any one released a fan codex of those armies to come more in line with what is being released currently? Granted, you can't use your homebrew Iron Warriors (now with added Basilisk!) at a tournament, but what about around the club table? Heck, that's what clubs and FLGS are for! Experimentation and tweaking to make the rules fit what you want to do.
Mordheim is still there plugging along waiting for anyone who wants to make changes. Its not Open Game License, but fan sources are now becoming the dominant force in the game. Let me let you behind the scenes a bit. When I was a kid, we played Hero Quest... a lot. We burned through the scenarios in the book. We did not see anything wrong or abhorrent about making up our own scenarios, and creating our own maps with grid paper. It wasn't just me and my couple buddies, everyone I knew that played that game did the same thing. In 2nd D&D everyone made up a ton of homerules for different things, until 3rd Ed came along and actually created rules for absolutely everything. Rules got more complicated to give the players whatever they wanted to do.
Or does the difference come from Mordheim's campaign structure? If asked I would say that is the most likely reason. The rules for changing the rules are right there in the book. Allow me to clarify a bit. There are rules in the back of the book for one off battles, where you can pay additional amounts for additional skills, stat increases, and the like. So it is just a hop, skip, and a jump from creating already powerful warbands, to using those same rules to create warbands that do not yet exist. Mordheim is for all intensive purposes an openly creative system. You can create a warband of Ogres by figuring out what the difference between an Ogre and a human is, and then applying the correct costs to build up humans to Ogre stats. Its all built in for people who want to use it. 40K, WHFB, and even Maulifaux do not have a campaign mode like that. Typically if you run a campaign with those, they are escalation games, where the amount of points able to be spent per game or overall changes based on what happens in the campaign, but it does not change the basic trooper.
Maybe that's what's missing from those games. I don't see that much fan stuff out there. There are the occasional (and becoming more occasional) fan Apocalypse data sheets, but I haven't seen a fan scenario in years. A few years ago, there were still a lot of fan made stuff. A friend of mine did a Dark Angels codex to come in line with 5th Edtion, the Astro Mag had published some updated Kill Team rules for 5th Edition, but those were way back at the beginning of the new edition.
It could be argued that WHFB and Mordheim are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Mordheim is almost nothing but a patchwork of fan based things that are held together by a solid core of official rules, but WHFB is almost nothing but official with no fan stuff. That's a problem. A game should feed off of its fans, and grow into what those fans expect. Right now, we get the same old same old for every WHFB edition and army book, because there is no one showing GW a different way of doing things. All of that zest, zeal, and other things starting with zed from the fans are all happening in Mordheim.
That's where I am looking from right now. All the vibrance of the games, the stuff to get excited about isn't from a designer or studio, it should develop nicely from the fanbase. I like stuff that makes a a game unique. I think lately that seems to be missing from the big games. The individuality that used to make every game unique. There are builds and builds and builds for army lists out there for 40K and WHFB, but they seem to be variations of a theme.
I think that's why I enjoy Mordheim so much. There's still so much creative energy going into it from the fans. I might take on the task of doing up a High Elf warband. I know that I'll never play it in a tournament, it might be the source of derision from the rest of the community, but it will be unqiue. Something that is mine, and whoever decides to use it. My challenge to you is what kind of home brew do you do?
There is one thing that Mordheim has that no other game in my experience has, and that is varying levels of 'officialness' or 'canoncity' if you prefer. The closest thing that you can get to it in another wargame is the occasional variant lists or White Dwarf codexes for 40K. While those are all well and good, that's basically two levels. Mordheim takes it quite a bit further, it has roughly four levels of officialdom. I say roughly because you can make a debate that there are actually only three, but that's a debate for another time and place.
So what are they, and how are they defined? Well, that's a tad tricky as well. Let me go through and lay it out, as I personally see it.
1. Official; These are the warbands from the main rule book, the Empire in Flames Supplement, and the 2002 Mordheim Annual. So there's quite a few there, they are also the only ones that currently have rules available from GW.. These are the most heavily play tested and balanced warbands.
2. Unofficial: These are warbands that are pretty much balanced for play, but due to release date or other whim of fate, did not make it into one of the three important books. They are fairly balanced, for a given value of balance. Many of them were created to support specific variations of Mordheim (like Lustria or Khemri), and are more balanced in that context.
3. Experimental: These are ones that are found all about the place, but are mainly unpublished fan stuff, but much of it has become 'default' and are only lacking official GW printing, but some of them are completely bonkers.
4. Homebrew: These are fan made stuff, some of which is tweeked official, unofficial, and experimental. Others are whole fabric completely new stuff.
Now, there's a bit more to that stuff then just the straight up where and when it was presented and how much it was play tested. There are also other FAQs that were done after the game had ceased support and were answered by the original designers and the people who were involved with GW's specialist games forums and publications. I wanted to establish what I was going to talk about before getting into it a bit more. Besides the obvious layers of officialdom, it does something that other games do not. Everything after the first layer of officialdom is wonderful great stuff...for those who are willing to do a bit of work. It keeps the game fresh, and opens up new layers of complexity and modelling challenges. There are several GW fantasy armies that have experimental or homebrew rules, thus allowing those who play those armies to start a Mordheim warband.
Which brings me to the meat and potatoes of what I want to talk about. The layers of officialdom invite monkeying around with the rules and the game. Not many other games have anything like this. You might see a homebrew codex out there on the internet, or a fan rules update to an army that hasn't been supported for awhile, but those are exceptions rather then the rule. If you go to any website about Mordheim, a great deal of it is dedicated to fan rules. Is this an issue? Nope! Fan support is what keeps Mordheim going.
While there are a lot of people out there playing other games, there is not the same level of fan support. Mordheim lives and breathes only because of its fans. 40K has its fans, and supporters, as does WHFB, or take it a different company, so does Maulifaux. However, there aren't many additional resources beyond the occasional fan-fic for them. Why is that? What is the difference between those games and Mordheim that makes them sacrosanct to change? Is it the 'tournament' culture or the WAAC gamers? Fluff vs. Crunch? I'm not to sure.
Take for instance the much maligned Chaos Space Marine Codex or the Tyranid codex. They are both rather older, and some people might argue non-competitive compared to newer codexes. Now, I freely admit that I don't get around the internet as much as I used to, but has any one released a fan codex of those armies to come more in line with what is being released currently? Granted, you can't use your homebrew Iron Warriors (now with added Basilisk!) at a tournament, but what about around the club table? Heck, that's what clubs and FLGS are for! Experimentation and tweaking to make the rules fit what you want to do.
Mordheim is still there plugging along waiting for anyone who wants to make changes. Its not Open Game License, but fan sources are now becoming the dominant force in the game. Let me let you behind the scenes a bit. When I was a kid, we played Hero Quest... a lot. We burned through the scenarios in the book. We did not see anything wrong or abhorrent about making up our own scenarios, and creating our own maps with grid paper. It wasn't just me and my couple buddies, everyone I knew that played that game did the same thing. In 2nd D&D everyone made up a ton of homerules for different things, until 3rd Ed came along and actually created rules for absolutely everything. Rules got more complicated to give the players whatever they wanted to do.
Or does the difference come from Mordheim's campaign structure? If asked I would say that is the most likely reason. The rules for changing the rules are right there in the book. Allow me to clarify a bit. There are rules in the back of the book for one off battles, where you can pay additional amounts for additional skills, stat increases, and the like. So it is just a hop, skip, and a jump from creating already powerful warbands, to using those same rules to create warbands that do not yet exist. Mordheim is for all intensive purposes an openly creative system. You can create a warband of Ogres by figuring out what the difference between an Ogre and a human is, and then applying the correct costs to build up humans to Ogre stats. Its all built in for people who want to use it. 40K, WHFB, and even Maulifaux do not have a campaign mode like that. Typically if you run a campaign with those, they are escalation games, where the amount of points able to be spent per game or overall changes based on what happens in the campaign, but it does not change the basic trooper.
Maybe that's what's missing from those games. I don't see that much fan stuff out there. There are the occasional (and becoming more occasional) fan Apocalypse data sheets, but I haven't seen a fan scenario in years. A few years ago, there were still a lot of fan made stuff. A friend of mine did a Dark Angels codex to come in line with 5th Edtion, the Astro Mag had published some updated Kill Team rules for 5th Edition, but those were way back at the beginning of the new edition.
It could be argued that WHFB and Mordheim are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Mordheim is almost nothing but a patchwork of fan based things that are held together by a solid core of official rules, but WHFB is almost nothing but official with no fan stuff. That's a problem. A game should feed off of its fans, and grow into what those fans expect. Right now, we get the same old same old for every WHFB edition and army book, because there is no one showing GW a different way of doing things. All of that zest, zeal, and other things starting with zed from the fans are all happening in Mordheim.
That's where I am looking from right now. All the vibrance of the games, the stuff to get excited about isn't from a designer or studio, it should develop nicely from the fanbase. I like stuff that makes a a game unique. I think lately that seems to be missing from the big games. The individuality that used to make every game unique. There are builds and builds and builds for army lists out there for 40K and WHFB, but they seem to be variations of a theme.
I think that's why I enjoy Mordheim so much. There's still so much creative energy going into it from the fans. I might take on the task of doing up a High Elf warband. I know that I'll never play it in a tournament, it might be the source of derision from the rest of the community, but it will be unqiue. Something that is mine, and whoever decides to use it. My challenge to you is what kind of home brew do you do?
Monday, September 12, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim: Return to Complex Map Campaigns
Last time I was here, I mentioned that I had done some work on adapting a complex campaign structure to the peculiarities of Mordheim. Well, I did some work on that, and what I am about to present to you is the rules that I have constructed for using Mordheim for a complex map campaign. Undoubtedly someone will poke holes in this like cheesecloth, but I'd love to hear some feedback on this!
Complex Map Terrain Changes to Mordheim
1. Territories Rules:
A. Types of Territories: Urban, Necropolis, Tainted, Riverfront, Park
B. Each type of territory provides different amounts of gold Crowns that can be used for the purchase of defenses and territory enhancements, it CANNOT be used to purchase things for the warband itself.
*Urban: Generates 5 GC per campaign turn.
*Necropolis: Generates 1 GC per campaign turn, but 6 for Undead Warbands.
*Tainted: Generates 1 GC per campaign turn, but 6 for Skaven and Possessed.
*Riverfront: Generates 8 GC per Campaign turn, and unit starting in a riverfront territory can move to any contiguous riverfront territory, breaking normal troop movement rules. This represents them using the river to sail up and down to other territories.
*Park: Generates 3 GC per campaign turn, but 1 for Undead.
C. Territory enhancements can be purchased from the GC gathered per campaign turn. These can vary depending on the type of territory and the cost.
*Tower: Costs 50 GC, large tower at center of game board that you get to set up in, regardless of scenario played.
*Pinned Scenario: 50 GC, only one particular scenario can be played in that territory.
*Blockade: 50 GC, block free movement on rivers. Available only on riverfront territory.
*Rubble, rubble, everywhere: 20 GC: All movement on the table top counts as difficult terrain.
*Alter 30 GC: All sigmarite warbands are at +2 to all rout checks.
*Totem 30 GC: Magic users get additional +1 to spell casting checks.
*Fortified: 75 GC: Defender gets to place terrain and set up first.
*Forge: 25 GC: Rare roll +1
D. There are two types of territory, occupied and unoccupied. A warband can take an unoccupied territory just by walking into it.
2. Defenders Rules.
A. A defense unit is a henchmen group. It must be a non-limited henchman group type, but otherwise follow normal henchmen rules, but do not count towards warband limits. This is representing 'locals' or the equivalent wearing your warband's colors and helping defend your territories.
B. Defense Units can only be purchased from the GC generated from territory, at standard costs.
B. Defense Unit henchmen do not gain experience.
C. Each territory must follow the warband's limits.
D. Defense Units can move at a rate of one territory per campaign turn.
E. Hired swords can be hired for defense purposes, but they still cost the normal amount and still cost the same in upkeep, both of which can only come from the GC generated from territories. These Hired Swords cannot be moved, and will never join the warband. This represents the locals banding together and hiring a neighborhood bruiser.
F. If a defense unit fails, all members are automatically considered dead. If they succeed in driving away an attacker, then they would roll normally for injury results.
G: Defense Units never make rout checks. They fight until the bitter end. This represents the fact that most of them are defending their homes.
H. Appropriate Defensive Unit Types by Warband
*Mercanaries: Warriors
*Possessed: Brethern
*Witch Hunters: Zealots
*Sisters of Sigmar: Sigmarite Sister
*Undead: Zombies, Ghouls
*Skaven: Verminkin, Giant Rats
*Orcs: Orc Boyz, Goblin Warriors
*Dwarf Treasure Hunters: Clansmen, Beardlings
I. If the attacking warband outnumbers the models in the defensive unit by a ratio of 3:1, the defensive unit automatically flees to an adjacent friendly territory. With two exceptions.
*Skaven will flee if outnumbered 2:1.
*Dwarves can choose to defend regardless of number, but it will result in a battle where the opponent might get some extra XP!
3. Warband Rules.
A. Any thing the warband buys can be given to a defensive unit. However, this will not be able to be gotten back from the defensive unit.
B. At any time, a henchman unit can be split off from the warband and declared a defensive unit, once declared a defensive unit they can NEVER join the warband again. This represents some of the henchmen 'retiring' or some such. However, they can be replaced, even if they are a limited henchman group.
C. At any time, a hero can for the period of one campaign turn leave the warband and go to any territory to aid in defense. The hero will not take part in any attack actions that the warband undertakes. The hero will still gain experience during that campaign turn (should they participate in battle), and afterwards, they still partake in the exploration phase, and can rejoin the warband after that turn.
D. Only the warband can attack. All other units are used only defensively.
E. Warbands if they are in an occupying territory can be joined by defensive forces, and this does not count against thier maximum warband number, but do count towards the rout check number. This is the only time that the defensive units will rout.
F. A player can at any point, gather 250 GC from territory income and start a second warband (using only the 250 GC), which can also attack. That player would then have two attack actions a round.
4. The Campaign Turn.
A. Each person rolls to see who goes first during the campaign turn.
B. Highest roll goes first in each phase, then descending.
C. Movement Phase; In order, each player gets the chance to move any of their units/warband into other territories. Each player moves all of their units BEFORE going to the next player.
D. Combat Phase: Resolve any battles that result because of having multiple players units in the same territory. Winner of battle takes territory. Each battle will result in its own post battle sequence.
E. Diplomacy Phase: In order, each player gathers their income due to their territories. They can then buy additional defensive units and territory enhancements. They may also trade territories, equipment, and even captives during this phase.
F. Repeat until victory conditions are meet.
There you go. And I would like to take this opportunity to say; 日本の人々を歓迎する. I am assured this means "Hello to the People of Japan!". I could be completely wrong, I don't exactly trust my source to the fullest. I just wanted to say that because I have seen that the third highest amount of traffic coming from Japan (US and UK are first and second respectively). I just want to say that I really respect those people viewing this website from Japan, reading a blog in a different language, about a game that is out of production. That my British and American friends is dedication!
Complex Map Terrain Changes to Mordheim
1. Territories Rules:
A. Types of Territories: Urban, Necropolis, Tainted, Riverfront, Park
B. Each type of territory provides different amounts of gold Crowns that can be used for the purchase of defenses and territory enhancements, it CANNOT be used to purchase things for the warband itself.
*Urban: Generates 5 GC per campaign turn.
*Necropolis: Generates 1 GC per campaign turn, but 6 for Undead Warbands.
*Tainted: Generates 1 GC per campaign turn, but 6 for Skaven and Possessed.
*Riverfront: Generates 8 GC per Campaign turn, and unit starting in a riverfront territory can move to any contiguous riverfront territory, breaking normal troop movement rules. This represents them using the river to sail up and down to other territories.
*Park: Generates 3 GC per campaign turn, but 1 for Undead.
C. Territory enhancements can be purchased from the GC gathered per campaign turn. These can vary depending on the type of territory and the cost.
*Tower: Costs 50 GC, large tower at center of game board that you get to set up in, regardless of scenario played.
*Pinned Scenario: 50 GC, only one particular scenario can be played in that territory.
*Blockade: 50 GC, block free movement on rivers. Available only on riverfront territory.
*Rubble, rubble, everywhere: 20 GC: All movement on the table top counts as difficult terrain.
*Alter 30 GC: All sigmarite warbands are at +2 to all rout checks.
*Totem 30 GC: Magic users get additional +1 to spell casting checks.
*Fortified: 75 GC: Defender gets to place terrain and set up first.
*Forge: 25 GC: Rare roll +1
D. There are two types of territory, occupied and unoccupied. A warband can take an unoccupied territory just by walking into it.
2. Defenders Rules.
A. A defense unit is a henchmen group. It must be a non-limited henchman group type, but otherwise follow normal henchmen rules, but do not count towards warband limits. This is representing 'locals' or the equivalent wearing your warband's colors and helping defend your territories.
B. Defense Units can only be purchased from the GC generated from territory, at standard costs.
B. Defense Unit henchmen do not gain experience.
C. Each territory must follow the warband's limits.
D. Defense Units can move at a rate of one territory per campaign turn.
E. Hired swords can be hired for defense purposes, but they still cost the normal amount and still cost the same in upkeep, both of which can only come from the GC generated from territories. These Hired Swords cannot be moved, and will never join the warband. This represents the locals banding together and hiring a neighborhood bruiser.
F. If a defense unit fails, all members are automatically considered dead. If they succeed in driving away an attacker, then they would roll normally for injury results.
G: Defense Units never make rout checks. They fight until the bitter end. This represents the fact that most of them are defending their homes.
H. Appropriate Defensive Unit Types by Warband
*Mercanaries: Warriors
*Possessed: Brethern
*Witch Hunters: Zealots
*Sisters of Sigmar: Sigmarite Sister
*Undead: Zombies, Ghouls
*Skaven: Verminkin, Giant Rats
*Orcs: Orc Boyz, Goblin Warriors
*Dwarf Treasure Hunters: Clansmen, Beardlings
I. If the attacking warband outnumbers the models in the defensive unit by a ratio of 3:1, the defensive unit automatically flees to an adjacent friendly territory. With two exceptions.
*Skaven will flee if outnumbered 2:1.
*Dwarves can choose to defend regardless of number, but it will result in a battle where the opponent might get some extra XP!
3. Warband Rules.
A. Any thing the warband buys can be given to a defensive unit. However, this will not be able to be gotten back from the defensive unit.
B. At any time, a henchman unit can be split off from the warband and declared a defensive unit, once declared a defensive unit they can NEVER join the warband again. This represents some of the henchmen 'retiring' or some such. However, they can be replaced, even if they are a limited henchman group.
C. At any time, a hero can for the period of one campaign turn leave the warband and go to any territory to aid in defense. The hero will not take part in any attack actions that the warband undertakes. The hero will still gain experience during that campaign turn (should they participate in battle), and afterwards, they still partake in the exploration phase, and can rejoin the warband after that turn.
D. Only the warband can attack. All other units are used only defensively.
E. Warbands if they are in an occupying territory can be joined by defensive forces, and this does not count against thier maximum warband number, but do count towards the rout check number. This is the only time that the defensive units will rout.
F. A player can at any point, gather 250 GC from territory income and start a second warband (using only the 250 GC), which can also attack. That player would then have two attack actions a round.
4. The Campaign Turn.
A. Each person rolls to see who goes first during the campaign turn.
B. Highest roll goes first in each phase, then descending.
C. Movement Phase; In order, each player gets the chance to move any of their units/warband into other territories. Each player moves all of their units BEFORE going to the next player.
D. Combat Phase: Resolve any battles that result because of having multiple players units in the same territory. Winner of battle takes territory. Each battle will result in its own post battle sequence.
E. Diplomacy Phase: In order, each player gathers their income due to their territories. They can then buy additional defensive units and territory enhancements. They may also trade territories, equipment, and even captives during this phase.
F. Repeat until victory conditions are meet.
There you go. And I would like to take this opportunity to say; 日本の人々を歓迎する. I am assured this means "Hello to the People of Japan!". I could be completely wrong, I don't exactly trust my source to the fullest. I just wanted to say that because I have seen that the third highest amount of traffic coming from Japan (US and UK are first and second respectively). I just want to say that I really respect those people viewing this website from Japan, reading a blog in a different language, about a game that is out of production. That my British and American friends is dedication!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim: Map Campaigns Simple Vs. Complex
Monday Night Mordheim; Map Campaigns, Part; I lost Track...Simple Vs. Complex.
Now, I want to talk a bit more about Map Campaigns, and I think that I'll have one more article on the subject before I move onto something that interests me a bit more. I want to talk about the final bit that you need to decide on before actually starting a Map Campaign, and this is often the most important thing just like all of those other most important things I've already talked about.
Simple Map campaigns, are just that, simple. They do not emphasize anything besides one person attacking, another person defending. That is about as deep as it gets. Each turn each person gets an attack action to try to take a territory, and can defend as many times as they are attacked. Some people make a rule about only one defense action round, that way no one gets overly powerful as the campaign goes on, since every game results in gaining experience.
Complex Map Campaigns are well, complex. Boy, I'm just a grand stater of the obvious tonight, aren't I? Well, here's the thing, and many of the reasons that people really like Map Campaigns are because of Complex Map Campaigns. Complex Map Campaigns are difficult and requires a TON of book keeping.
Complex campaigns are the ones that take after those RTS video games. There are resources management, plotting and planning, and difficult. This is where Mordheim and campaigns aren't really designed to work together. Mordheim is designed to be a simple campaign structure for ease of play. While many games like 40K, are primarily points buy base, and you can assign points to different areas, you really can't do that with Mordheim. I mean, you can, but you put yourself in dire straits with other warbands. I will address the specifics on creating some special rules for Mordheim complex map games in my next installment (told you I would have one more!). Before I get into more specifics, I want to cover some of the basics that seem to apply to all Complex map games.
*Each unit (or warband) can move one territory per turn, regardless of what type of unit it is.
*Each player has one attack option per turn (ie, a move into an opponent's territory).
*Different territories provide additional points/Gold Crowns, at different values for helping purchase units.
*Defenses can be built up in territories to help defend them.
*Special Territories take on special significance in terms of building units, or even moving units.
Well, um, that's about it for now. However, I really want to mention a really great article that my friend Reepy wrote. Two Players Big CAMPAIGN. He wrote it for 40K, but I think that a lot of the information in it is very helpful to starting a New Complex Campaign.
Now, I want to talk a bit more about Map Campaigns, and I think that I'll have one more article on the subject before I move onto something that interests me a bit more. I want to talk about the final bit that you need to decide on before actually starting a Map Campaign, and this is often the most important thing just like all of those other most important things I've already talked about.
Simple Map campaigns, are just that, simple. They do not emphasize anything besides one person attacking, another person defending. That is about as deep as it gets. Each turn each person gets an attack action to try to take a territory, and can defend as many times as they are attacked. Some people make a rule about only one defense action round, that way no one gets overly powerful as the campaign goes on, since every game results in gaining experience.
Complex Map Campaigns are well, complex. Boy, I'm just a grand stater of the obvious tonight, aren't I? Well, here's the thing, and many of the reasons that people really like Map Campaigns are because of Complex Map Campaigns. Complex Map Campaigns are difficult and requires a TON of book keeping.
Complex campaigns are the ones that take after those RTS video games. There are resources management, plotting and planning, and difficult. This is where Mordheim and campaigns aren't really designed to work together. Mordheim is designed to be a simple campaign structure for ease of play. While many games like 40K, are primarily points buy base, and you can assign points to different areas, you really can't do that with Mordheim. I mean, you can, but you put yourself in dire straits with other warbands. I will address the specifics on creating some special rules for Mordheim complex map games in my next installment (told you I would have one more!). Before I get into more specifics, I want to cover some of the basics that seem to apply to all Complex map games.
*Each unit (or warband) can move one territory per turn, regardless of what type of unit it is.
*Each player has one attack option per turn (ie, a move into an opponent's territory).
*Different territories provide additional points/Gold Crowns, at different values for helping purchase units.
*Defenses can be built up in territories to help defend them.
*Special Territories take on special significance in terms of building units, or even moving units.
Well, um, that's about it for now. However, I really want to mention a really great article that my friend Reepy wrote. Two Players Big CAMPAIGN. He wrote it for 40K, but I think that a lot of the information in it is very helpful to starting a New Complex Campaign.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim; Map Campaigns; Territory
Monday Night Mordheim; Map Campaigns; Territory
It would seem that I have an over affection for the semi-colon, doesn't it? It just flows off the keyboard much easier then its cousin the colon. I have to SHIFT+; to do it. Just seems to not be worth it for a worthless piece of punctuation. Anyways, back to the action.
Last week I talked a bit about the initial set up sort of stuff. Special benefits, and victory conditions. Now I want to get into the things that make a Map Campaign a Map Campaign- Territories.
There are really two main things to think about when deciding territories, and they both have to do with numbers. The number of territories can make or break a Map Campaign. Too many territories and the campaign gets bogged down and people get frustrated and bored, too few and the campaign ends all to quickly. The other problem is empty territory not held by anyone.
So let me talk this out a bit, because this is not an easy thing to quantify or put down coherently. The first thing that you have to think about is how many territories you want to have, and the other part is how many territories that people start with.
The first part of it is how many territories that you want to have. This where things can get bogged down. There's no real good idea on how to figure out how many territories that you start with. So here are my favorite ways to figure out how to do it.
*The 52 Pick Up; This is a seemingly random amount, but it is the number of playing cards in a deck. I'll get more into this one in a bit. It is best for a non-total domination victory.
*Rounds Method; This is a pretty simple one. Figure out how many rounds you want to play and divide in half. This is a good method if you want to do a total domination victory. It makes for a very quick campaign.
*Times Five: Take the number of players that you have and multiply by five. This can make for a very dense game between a few people, or a very long game with a lot of players.
*District: This is a method where you take a real map, and divvy it up into territories. There are multiple Mordheim maps out there, and then there's always real city maps. However, for a really interesting game, you might want to try and get the Gotham City map. Depending on the map, you can make almost anything out of it.
The second important thing to remember is how many territories to start with. There are two broad categories, what I call the Risk Method and the empty streets method. The Risk Method is named after that old board game chestnut, and all the territories are divvied out before the game starts. The empty streets method is where only a few territories are parceled out before the game starts and then there are empty territories. Now, let me get a bit more into specifics.
*Plus One: In a plus one game, each person starts with one territory for each player in the game, plus one. In other words X+1, where X is the number of players. This is great because no-one can get wiped off the map after the first turn.
*Turns: Each person takes a turn picking out a territory until all are gone. This is a great one, because it makes for some great meta-game tactics.
*52 Pick Up: This one is great for the 52 territories. You assign each territory a playing card value. Then you can deal cards to each person until reaching the agreed starting number of territories or all the territories are passed out. This is an awesome one since it adds a bit of chaos and unpredictability to the proceedings.
*Roll For it: Great for people who are obsessive about dicing. Each player rolls a die, and who ever rolls highest gets the territory.
*All 4 One: Each player starts with four territories placed however they want it. Regardless how many territories there are.
Well, that's about it for now. So far we've talked about the victory conditions, special stuff, number of territories, and how to parcel out territories. Each one of these could evolve into a long winded debate, and I'll probably get around to them at some point or another, but next week, I'm going to go into the two different types of ways to actually run a campaign.
It would seem that I have an over affection for the semi-colon, doesn't it? It just flows off the keyboard much easier then its cousin the colon. I have to SHIFT+; to do it. Just seems to not be worth it for a worthless piece of punctuation. Anyways, back to the action.
Last week I talked a bit about the initial set up sort of stuff. Special benefits, and victory conditions. Now I want to get into the things that make a Map Campaign a Map Campaign- Territories.
There are really two main things to think about when deciding territories, and they both have to do with numbers. The number of territories can make or break a Map Campaign. Too many territories and the campaign gets bogged down and people get frustrated and bored, too few and the campaign ends all to quickly. The other problem is empty territory not held by anyone.
So let me talk this out a bit, because this is not an easy thing to quantify or put down coherently. The first thing that you have to think about is how many territories you want to have, and the other part is how many territories that people start with.
The first part of it is how many territories that you want to have. This where things can get bogged down. There's no real good idea on how to figure out how many territories that you start with. So here are my favorite ways to figure out how to do it.
*The 52 Pick Up; This is a seemingly random amount, but it is the number of playing cards in a deck. I'll get more into this one in a bit. It is best for a non-total domination victory.
*Rounds Method; This is a pretty simple one. Figure out how many rounds you want to play and divide in half. This is a good method if you want to do a total domination victory. It makes for a very quick campaign.
*Times Five: Take the number of players that you have and multiply by five. This can make for a very dense game between a few people, or a very long game with a lot of players.
*District: This is a method where you take a real map, and divvy it up into territories. There are multiple Mordheim maps out there, and then there's always real city maps. However, for a really interesting game, you might want to try and get the Gotham City map. Depending on the map, you can make almost anything out of it.
The second important thing to remember is how many territories to start with. There are two broad categories, what I call the Risk Method and the empty streets method. The Risk Method is named after that old board game chestnut, and all the territories are divvied out before the game starts. The empty streets method is where only a few territories are parceled out before the game starts and then there are empty territories. Now, let me get a bit more into specifics.
*Plus One: In a plus one game, each person starts with one territory for each player in the game, plus one. In other words X+1, where X is the number of players. This is great because no-one can get wiped off the map after the first turn.
*Turns: Each person takes a turn picking out a territory until all are gone. This is a great one, because it makes for some great meta-game tactics.
*52 Pick Up: This one is great for the 52 territories. You assign each territory a playing card value. Then you can deal cards to each person until reaching the agreed starting number of territories or all the territories are passed out. This is an awesome one since it adds a bit of chaos and unpredictability to the proceedings.
*Roll For it: Great for people who are obsessive about dicing. Each player rolls a die, and who ever rolls highest gets the territory.
*All 4 One: Each player starts with four territories placed however they want it. Regardless how many territories there are.
Well, that's about it for now. So far we've talked about the victory conditions, special stuff, number of territories, and how to parcel out territories. Each one of these could evolve into a long winded debate, and I'll probably get around to them at some point or another, but next week, I'm going to go into the two different types of ways to actually run a campaign.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Saturday Campaign Update: R3S1- Draws?
Hmmm. Lemme post something, and then I'll talk a bit.
The Quick Score Sheet:
Tom Vs. Jim: Surprise Attack:
1. Who Killed Who:
Super Ghoul curb stomp Orange Hair Trollslayer
Dwarf Engineer shoots OoA zombie
Beardling OoA necromancer
Super Ghoul OoA hero thunderer
Vampire OoA thunderer
And.....
That's it. That's ALL we had time for today. A bit of background. We play at work. Clear off a couple desks and go at it. I'm sure you can tell from the pics that I've posted in the past. However, that means we have a very strict time limit. Start of shift until end of shift. We were busier at work then expected today. So we were left with a dilemma, what to do? Neither warband was ready for a rout, and neither guy really wanted to end the game, either. However, we HAD to clean up and get out. None of the 'We lost track of time' stuff can work, since the place shuts down as we leave (or at least our section).
We finished off the round, and while Tom was on the point of needing to take a rout check, it would not have happened until the next round. Jim, on the other hand was SLIGHTLY more healthy. It was a particularly hard fought game, and while the numbers don't seem to bare (bear?) that out, it was a great match. I seem to say that alot about Tom's matches, and for good reason. He loses, but he does so with dignity and keeps trying. Dwarves were a good idea for him, he doesn't give up halfway through.
However, that leaves the point, where do we go in the campaign from here? I've thought of a couple of options.
1. Both people roll for rout, and if one fails, they lose.
2. Declare a draw. Which brings up its own set of questions.
Now, what we actually did, and I might take back, since it was done under duress, is the first option. Jim rolled an 11, so technically he lost. I don't particularly like that, since the game was still at a point where it could have gone either way. We have a definitive loser, and Tom doesn't win nearly enough. So Tom would get the extra die during the exploration phase. My main beef about it is that the game was still playing, but there was no way that we could have re-set up next week, since like a dumb ass, I stayed up late playing Civ IV, and rushed out the door without my camera. Also, like I said, we had to clear out and clean up before end of shift.
Declaring a draw, though, that might be more to my liking. It would mean that Tom still would have a 1 in the 'W' column, but a draw isn't so bad. The problem with it though is that there isn't really anything for it in the rules. So what it boils down to is if to treat it as both people winning and both getting the extra die for exploration, or treating them as both losing and neither getting the extra die. The additional problem though, is what to do about the campaign record. How does one count a draw? As half a win, or not at all? For Tom, its not going to make a huge difference, since the difference between 1 win and 1.5 isn't that big of a deal. For Jim, on the other hand, it is a different story, A difference of 1/2 a point could be the difference between second or third place. Since we will be winding down the campaign after this round, it makes a big difference. Or should we just go by straight wins and draws being the tie breaker?
Ah, so much to think about until Monday when work starts back up and we can sit and talk about it like 'Rational Adults'. Pshaw, someone is going to slug someone, and I really don't want that person to be me!
The Quick Score Sheet:
Tom Vs. Jim: Surprise Attack:
1. Who Killed Who:
Super Ghoul curb stomp Orange Hair Trollslayer
Dwarf Engineer shoots OoA zombie
Beardling OoA necromancer
Super Ghoul OoA hero thunderer
Vampire OoA thunderer
And.....
That's it. That's ALL we had time for today. A bit of background. We play at work. Clear off a couple desks and go at it. I'm sure you can tell from the pics that I've posted in the past. However, that means we have a very strict time limit. Start of shift until end of shift. We were busier at work then expected today. So we were left with a dilemma, what to do? Neither warband was ready for a rout, and neither guy really wanted to end the game, either. However, we HAD to clean up and get out. None of the 'We lost track of time' stuff can work, since the place shuts down as we leave (or at least our section).
We finished off the round, and while Tom was on the point of needing to take a rout check, it would not have happened until the next round. Jim, on the other hand was SLIGHTLY more healthy. It was a particularly hard fought game, and while the numbers don't seem to bare (bear?) that out, it was a great match. I seem to say that alot about Tom's matches, and for good reason. He loses, but he does so with dignity and keeps trying. Dwarves were a good idea for him, he doesn't give up halfway through.
However, that leaves the point, where do we go in the campaign from here? I've thought of a couple of options.
1. Both people roll for rout, and if one fails, they lose.
2. Declare a draw. Which brings up its own set of questions.
Now, what we actually did, and I might take back, since it was done under duress, is the first option. Jim rolled an 11, so technically he lost. I don't particularly like that, since the game was still at a point where it could have gone either way. We have a definitive loser, and Tom doesn't win nearly enough. So Tom would get the extra die during the exploration phase. My main beef about it is that the game was still playing, but there was no way that we could have re-set up next week, since like a dumb ass, I stayed up late playing Civ IV, and rushed out the door without my camera. Also, like I said, we had to clear out and clean up before end of shift.
Declaring a draw, though, that might be more to my liking. It would mean that Tom still would have a 1 in the 'W' column, but a draw isn't so bad. The problem with it though is that there isn't really anything for it in the rules. So what it boils down to is if to treat it as both people winning and both getting the extra die for exploration, or treating them as both losing and neither getting the extra die. The additional problem though, is what to do about the campaign record. How does one count a draw? As half a win, or not at all? For Tom, its not going to make a huge difference, since the difference between 1 win and 1.5 isn't that big of a deal. For Jim, on the other hand, it is a different story, A difference of 1/2 a point could be the difference between second or third place. Since we will be winding down the campaign after this round, it makes a big difference. Or should we just go by straight wins and draws being the tie breaker?
Ah, so much to think about until Monday when work starts back up and we can sit and talk about it like 'Rational Adults'. Pshaw, someone is going to slug someone, and I really don't want that person to be me!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim; Map Campaign Startings
Map Campaigns, Starting Thoughts
I've been gathering information about map campaigns for some time now, as those of you who follow this column will know. There's a lot to think about and a lot of things to gather about it. What I want to talk about you for the start up portion.
The first thing that you want to think about is the victory conditions. A map campaign has the potential to last literally forever. That is why it is even more important to set victory conditions from the start then it is in a regular campaign. The victory conditions can vary as much as how your group is. The thing that is important about the victory conditions is that they will help set the length of the campaign. The more difficult the victory conditions, the longer the campaign will last. The problem with that is a long campaign can get causalities, and not the fun 'I killed your Necromancer!' type, but the unfun 'Wow, Jim, so you're moving to Antarctica? Sure, I know it is a once in a lifetime trip to study Leopard Seals, but WHAT ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN!?!'. So you might want to take the one or more of the following victory conditions list;
*A time limit. The good thing about this is you can close it off at a certain time, and then count up map territories and then decide who wins. This is a great condition, because it can keep casual players in a bit longer, hoping for that one last surge of wins.
*Percentage of the Territories: Important to note this is NOT the complete take over of all the territories. That's a different condition. This one is generally something like 50% or 75% of the total number of players. However, it can be discouraging to those who are NOT winning.
*Full Decimation: This is the one where it is winner takes all. Depending on how much territory you have, this can be the longest of all campaigns. I'm not a fan, and it is a discouraging thing. Lots of people get knocked out or just plan old bored when it comes up to round 26.
*Capture Keys: Many map campaigns include a few 'special' or 'key' areas. With this victory condition, you see a lot of action, since capturing all the 'key' territories can mean a sudden win. This is probably the most volatile of all campaigns, because it means that someone can come in and prevent a total victory with a single well place win.
*Set Victories: Someone is declared the winner after X amount of wins. Doesn't matter what the what else is going on, if you win that amount of victories, you win the whole enchilada.
So while victory conditions are the most important thing, the second most important thing in my mind is the special stuff. I love special stuff. It makes a map campaign so much more fun. Now, in different games, these can be a lot of different things. That's what makes different games different. Er. That sounded stupid. Allow me to elaborate. In 40K being allowed to take an extra 200 points over your opponent means something, but in Mordheim it is almost impossible to do the same thing, since you are growing a warband. That's the simple bit, making stuff appropriate to your campaign. The hard part is that the special stuff comes in two parts. The first part is the different conditions of getting something special, and the second part is what to get.
Party of the First Part; Conditions. There are two main ways to get benefits of special conditions.
*Special Territories: These are individual territories that convey some sort of benefit.
*Number of Territories Taken: After a certain number of territories are taken, then someone gains a benefit.
Party of the Second Part; Benefits. There are actually a lot of different things that make the benefits worth something, but they all fall into some broad categories.
*Deployment Benefits: Deployment benefits can range from choice of who sets up first, to special deployment conditions, to even choice of scenarios.
*Extra Forces: Extra forces benefits are great. They allow you to break the normal rules of how many people that you are allow to place on the field and smash them to bits.
*Free Stuff: Free Stuff benefits allow you to take something without cost that you would normally include as part of your cost per game.
*Terrain Benefits: This is by far the most crazy stuff. Terrain benefits are typically tied to a single territory, and typically some sort of unique terrain feature like fortresses, or extra towers, or something like that.
So I've gone over some of the opening stuff to think about, and right now I need to customize it a bit with some of the stuff I thought of for a Mordheim based map campaign.
Special Areas Ideas:
1. Brewery: Bugman's is common.
2. Mercanaries Quarters: 1/2 upkeep on hired swords (except Ogres, Warlocks, and Pitfighters)
3. Slaughter House District: No upkeep for Ogres or Trolls
4. The Gladitorial Pit: Free Pit fighter, no upkeep, but does not gain XP! Can still hire pit fighter as normal.
5. Well Spring: +1 to casting checks for wizards, etc.
6. Powder Magazine: +2 on rare rolls for blackpowder weapons
7. Wharf: Warband counts as three less members for wyrdstone exchange.
8. Assayers Office: +1 die on exploration roll
9. The Tower: There is a HUGE (like 2 foot tall) tower in the middle of the territory, that the defender can ALWAYS set three models in before the game starts.
Bonuses:
+1 to rare roll for every 5 contigious territories.
+1 to maximum warband number for every 10 territories you hold
+1 to maximum heroes in warband for every 20 territories you hold.
I've been gathering information about map campaigns for some time now, as those of you who follow this column will know. There's a lot to think about and a lot of things to gather about it. What I want to talk about you for the start up portion.
The first thing that you want to think about is the victory conditions. A map campaign has the potential to last literally forever. That is why it is even more important to set victory conditions from the start then it is in a regular campaign. The victory conditions can vary as much as how your group is. The thing that is important about the victory conditions is that they will help set the length of the campaign. The more difficult the victory conditions, the longer the campaign will last. The problem with that is a long campaign can get causalities, and not the fun 'I killed your Necromancer!' type, but the unfun 'Wow, Jim, so you're moving to Antarctica? Sure, I know it is a once in a lifetime trip to study Leopard Seals, but WHAT ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN!?!'. So you might want to take the one or more of the following victory conditions list;
*A time limit. The good thing about this is you can close it off at a certain time, and then count up map territories and then decide who wins. This is a great condition, because it can keep casual players in a bit longer, hoping for that one last surge of wins.
*Percentage of the Territories: Important to note this is NOT the complete take over of all the territories. That's a different condition. This one is generally something like 50% or 75% of the total number of players. However, it can be discouraging to those who are NOT winning.
*Full Decimation: This is the one where it is winner takes all. Depending on how much territory you have, this can be the longest of all campaigns. I'm not a fan, and it is a discouraging thing. Lots of people get knocked out or just plan old bored when it comes up to round 26.
*Capture Keys: Many map campaigns include a few 'special' or 'key' areas. With this victory condition, you see a lot of action, since capturing all the 'key' territories can mean a sudden win. This is probably the most volatile of all campaigns, because it means that someone can come in and prevent a total victory with a single well place win.
*Set Victories: Someone is declared the winner after X amount of wins. Doesn't matter what the what else is going on, if you win that amount of victories, you win the whole enchilada.
So while victory conditions are the most important thing, the second most important thing in my mind is the special stuff. I love special stuff. It makes a map campaign so much more fun. Now, in different games, these can be a lot of different things. That's what makes different games different. Er. That sounded stupid. Allow me to elaborate. In 40K being allowed to take an extra 200 points over your opponent means something, but in Mordheim it is almost impossible to do the same thing, since you are growing a warband. That's the simple bit, making stuff appropriate to your campaign. The hard part is that the special stuff comes in two parts. The first part is the different conditions of getting something special, and the second part is what to get.
Party of the First Part; Conditions. There are two main ways to get benefits of special conditions.
*Special Territories: These are individual territories that convey some sort of benefit.
*Number of Territories Taken: After a certain number of territories are taken, then someone gains a benefit.
Party of the Second Part; Benefits. There are actually a lot of different things that make the benefits worth something, but they all fall into some broad categories.
*Deployment Benefits: Deployment benefits can range from choice of who sets up first, to special deployment conditions, to even choice of scenarios.
*Extra Forces: Extra forces benefits are great. They allow you to break the normal rules of how many people that you are allow to place on the field and smash them to bits.
*Free Stuff: Free Stuff benefits allow you to take something without cost that you would normally include as part of your cost per game.
*Terrain Benefits: This is by far the most crazy stuff. Terrain benefits are typically tied to a single territory, and typically some sort of unique terrain feature like fortresses, or extra towers, or something like that.
So I've gone over some of the opening stuff to think about, and right now I need to customize it a bit with some of the stuff I thought of for a Mordheim based map campaign.
Special Areas Ideas:
1. Brewery: Bugman's is common.
2. Mercanaries Quarters: 1/2 upkeep on hired swords (except Ogres, Warlocks, and Pitfighters)
3. Slaughter House District: No upkeep for Ogres or Trolls
4. The Gladitorial Pit: Free Pit fighter, no upkeep, but does not gain XP! Can still hire pit fighter as normal.
5. Well Spring: +1 to casting checks for wizards, etc.
6. Powder Magazine: +2 on rare rolls for blackpowder weapons
7. Wharf: Warband counts as three less members for wyrdstone exchange.
8. Assayers Office: +1 die on exploration roll
9. The Tower: There is a HUGE (like 2 foot tall) tower in the middle of the territory, that the defender can ALWAYS set three models in before the game starts.
Bonuses:
+1 to rare roll for every 5 contigious territories.
+1 to maximum warband number for every 10 territories you hold
+1 to maximum heroes in warband for every 20 territories you hold.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim; Campaign with Style
Monday Night Mordheim: Campaign...With Style...
Sorry about the delay, I was unfortunately caught up in real world work stuff. I guess that's the real nature of the world, fun stuff always seems to get pushed back.
On with the show! I've been thinking about the various types of campaigns that I've been involved in over the years that I've been playing Mordheim. Some are structured, some are not. All of them have their benefits and their drawbacks. What I want to do is talk about each type of campaign. The good thing is that quite a few of these are good for more campaigns then just Mordheim. If you wanted to run a campaign using say 40K or Maulifaux, then you would not have any trouble doing so with a quick adaption.
Campaign Style 1: Chaos
A chaotic campaign is the simplest of all the campaigns to run. Basically it means having a set time to play, and who ever isn't already playing another player, gets together and plays.
Benefits: Loose, doesn't require a lot of dedication. Zero book keeping.
Drawback: There is a chance that people play each other over and over again, and different warbands can quickly become lopsided.
Campaign Style 2: Tournament Brackets
A tournament bracket campaign is possibly what most people think of when I say campaign. It is the standard double-elimination type of bracket.
Benefits: Structured schedule of matches. Definitive winners and losers. Minimal book keeping.
Drawback: After the second round, you lose a lot of players, and each round after that you continue to lose more- which can be frustrating for people playing late bloomer warbands (like Dwarfs or Possessed).
Campaign Style 3: Round Robin
I personally Round Robin is my favorite for a number of reasons, which I've outlined previously. Round Robin everyone plays everyone.
Benefits: Set schedule of matches. Potential to go forever, allowing even late bloomer warbands to eventually flourish. Everyone plays everyone. Standard book keeping.
Drawbacks: Only works for a dedicated core of players, lossing players can have detrimental effects on a campaign.
Campaign Style 4: Map Based Campaign.
If you didn't think of the either of the tournament styles, you probably thought of the map based campaign. I think that many other games do better with maps then Mordheim, but don't sell it short.
Benefits: This campaign lends itself to narrative scenarios much better then any others. Easy to drop players in and out of the campaign.
Drawbacks: Potential quagmires where the same few players end up playing each other over and over again. High amount of book keeping. Potentially huge mismatch of Warband Ratings can happen if not carefully refereed.
Campaign Style 5: Sports Style
This is a potentially different campaign, which I rather like. I haven't run one myself, and I've mainly seen it with Blood Bowl, but I am willing to say that it would work well for Mordheim as well. The best way to describe it is like a sports season, where there is an initial 'season' where there are scheduled matches and no one gets eliminated, and then it goes to the 'playoffs', in which the top few warbands go through a single elimination tournament to find a final winner.
Benefits: Everyone gets to play everyone, set schedules, set end with final winner.
Drawbacks: Set end. Much book keeping.
Those are what I consider the main styles of campaigns that can be run. There are probably more, and variations of those I've mentioned are probably too numerous to even mention. While I'm done talking about the particular styles of campaigns for now, I think that I'll be talking about the different ways of running campaigns in the future. I think that most of them can be covered in a single post, but I think the map campaign deserves its own special listing.
Sorry about the delay, I was unfortunately caught up in real world work stuff. I guess that's the real nature of the world, fun stuff always seems to get pushed back.
On with the show! I've been thinking about the various types of campaigns that I've been involved in over the years that I've been playing Mordheim. Some are structured, some are not. All of them have their benefits and their drawbacks. What I want to do is talk about each type of campaign. The good thing is that quite a few of these are good for more campaigns then just Mordheim. If you wanted to run a campaign using say 40K or Maulifaux, then you would not have any trouble doing so with a quick adaption.
Campaign Style 1: Chaos
A chaotic campaign is the simplest of all the campaigns to run. Basically it means having a set time to play, and who ever isn't already playing another player, gets together and plays.
Benefits: Loose, doesn't require a lot of dedication. Zero book keeping.
Drawback: There is a chance that people play each other over and over again, and different warbands can quickly become lopsided.
Campaign Style 2: Tournament Brackets
A tournament bracket campaign is possibly what most people think of when I say campaign. It is the standard double-elimination type of bracket.
Benefits: Structured schedule of matches. Definitive winners and losers. Minimal book keeping.
Drawback: After the second round, you lose a lot of players, and each round after that you continue to lose more- which can be frustrating for people playing late bloomer warbands (like Dwarfs or Possessed).
Campaign Style 3: Round Robin
I personally Round Robin is my favorite for a number of reasons, which I've outlined previously. Round Robin everyone plays everyone.
Benefits: Set schedule of matches. Potential to go forever, allowing even late bloomer warbands to eventually flourish. Everyone plays everyone. Standard book keeping.
Drawbacks: Only works for a dedicated core of players, lossing players can have detrimental effects on a campaign.
Campaign Style 4: Map Based Campaign.
If you didn't think of the either of the tournament styles, you probably thought of the map based campaign. I think that many other games do better with maps then Mordheim, but don't sell it short.
Benefits: This campaign lends itself to narrative scenarios much better then any others. Easy to drop players in and out of the campaign.
Drawbacks: Potential quagmires where the same few players end up playing each other over and over again. High amount of book keeping. Potentially huge mismatch of Warband Ratings can happen if not carefully refereed.
Campaign Style 5: Sports Style
This is a potentially different campaign, which I rather like. I haven't run one myself, and I've mainly seen it with Blood Bowl, but I am willing to say that it would work well for Mordheim as well. The best way to describe it is like a sports season, where there is an initial 'season' where there are scheduled matches and no one gets eliminated, and then it goes to the 'playoffs', in which the top few warbands go through a single elimination tournament to find a final winner.
Benefits: Everyone gets to play everyone, set schedules, set end with final winner.
Drawbacks: Set end. Much book keeping.
Those are what I consider the main styles of campaigns that can be run. There are probably more, and variations of those I've mentioned are probably too numerous to even mention. While I'm done talking about the particular styles of campaigns for now, I think that I'll be talking about the different ways of running campaigns in the future. I think that most of them can be covered in a single post, but I think the map campaign deserves its own special listing.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Mordheim Campaign Bat Rep: Round 2 Session 2
Round Two Session Two
Well, its the first week to play again since we have been busy at work lately. Fortuitously we were able to clear off a slightly larger space then what we have been using, so it makes things a bit more interesting. Not that we pariticularly used that extra space. It was a pretty good couple of games, even though halfway through my game the computer I was using Blue Screen of Deathed me, so I lost all the notes I had for my game. Please forgive the state of these notes, they are just what I jotted down during the match. As for the pics, this time I'm not busting out of the borders here, but I'm not too satisfied with the size. This time I'm thinking that its too small.
Tom Dwarves(WBR 131) vs. Megan Orcs & Goblins(WBR 200)
Megan's O&G Setup.
Tom's Dwarf Setup.
OT1:
Two gobs fail animosity, one of them stuns a 3rd gob.
DT1:
Move forward
OT2:
Two gobs fail animosity, but do nothing. Move forward
DT2:
Move Forward
OT3:
One gobs fails animosity and WAAGH's. Another goblins grabs a wyrdstone counter.
DT3:
Dwarfs move forward. Engineer fires and hits and wounds goblin, who is knocked down.
OT4:
One gob fails animosity and does nothing. O&G move and fortify themselves.
DT4:
Dwarves move up. Engineer fires and takes out gobbo.
OT5:
One fails animosity does nothing, Big Un 1 grabs wyrdstone.
DT5:
Move, engineer shoots and misses
OT6:
Passed all animosity, one with spear charges Dwarf Noble, one with spear charges thunderer. Shooting: 3 gob archers miss. CC: Gob 1 misses, Dwarf noble criticals and stuns gob. thunderer hits and knocks down.
DT6:
Bit of movement. Shooting. THunderer kills OB, CC: Noble curb stomps gob. Thunderer gets over toughness.
OT7:
OB fails animosity and stands, move forward, shooting: shaman spell suceeds for the very first time on thunderer, 2 fail, 1 hits, and knocks down. one gobbo crits on noble takes him to stunned.
DT7:
recovery, mov up, Shooting: thunderer miss via lucky charm, engineer misses troll
OT8:
charges, Dwarf Noble survives with his 3+ gromril armor and shield, boss takes out already wounded dude, troll knocks down other guy.
DT8:
movement, charges. Shooting: Thunderer shoots big un, does not wound. CC: thunderer vs. gobo does nothing, noble vs shaman nothing.
OT9:
gob that was going to charge failed animosity and fought another gob. troll takes out beardling.
DT10:
orange hair takes out orc boss
OT10
Shaman takes out noble
orange hair takes out gob
II takes out thunderer
I gets a curb stomp
DT10:
needs rout check fails rout.
The Quick Score Sheet:
1. Who Killed Who:
Engineer kills gobbo
Gobbo grabs wyrdstone
Big Un 1 grabs wyrdstone
Noble curb stomps gob
Thunderer kills gob
orange hair takes out orc boss
Shaman takes out noble
orange hair takes out gob
Big Un II takes out thunderer
Big Un I gets a curb stomp
2. Injury Results
Dwarf Noble: snake eyes dead
beardling with hammer is dead
Orc Cheif: full recovery
orc boy dead
2 gobs with spears dead.
3. XP gained.
tom: +2
engineer: 3 (20 total: +1 str)
orange hair: +4 (17 total: 2 rolls, 1 +1 attack, skill)
white hair +2 (15 +1 ws)
thunderers: (that lad's got talent, skill, the other +1WS)
Chieftain: 3: (36: skill)
Shaman: 2 (15: +1 Attack)
BU1: 3 (26)
BU2: 2 (24- skill)
OBS: +1 Ld
4. Exploration results
4432: +1 wyrd dwarf = total of 4 wyrdstone (straggler, get +1 die on next exploration phase)
33224: double 2 shop (6 GC), 3 wyrdstones
5. Recruiting
Tom: 2 XP: thunderer with handgun.
Megan: 7 available
6. New standings.
Tom:
Megan: 203
Tom left early, so I didn't figure out what the new total was, and Megan did not tell me what she bought.
Jim Undead(WBR 149) vs. LAZ Skaven(WBR153)
Here's our set up:
My Right Flank: That's a termagaunt standing in for a Giant Rat.
My left Flank:
My Eshin Sorcerer in the building. I love this shot, its kinda arty.
Turn 1: My advance
Jim Advance
Turn 2: My ill thought out charge. I didn't take anyone out.
Jim's counter charge, led by the Vampire.
Jim's advance on my other flank.
This is where we ended up on the left flank.
This is where we ended up on the right flank.
1. Who Killed Who:
Eshin Sorceror got wyrdstone
Black Skaven I: killed a dreg
Vampire got wyrdstone
ballless dreg killed BS II
Vampire killed verminkin
2. Injury Results
Undead all survive
1 verminkin dead
black skaven full recovery
3. XP gained.
Vampire: +4 (total 37: +1 WS)
Necro: +1 (total 14: new skill)
Painted: +1 (total 7)
With Ball: +1 (total 7)
Ballless: +2 (total 8- +1 str)
Super Ghoul: +1 (total 6- +1 str)
ghoul group: +1
eshin sorceror: +2 (17skill)
BS1: +1 (total 18)
BS 2: +2 (21 skill)
Pierced Tail: +1 (3)
Verminkin A: 8
Verminkin B: 3
4. Exploration results
S: 444: fletcher: 3 wyrdstone, 3 Bows. (60 +15 GC)
U: 66521: 4 wyrdstone, (ruined hovels 5 gc), (60 GC)
5. Recruiting:
Jim XP pool: 6
LAZ XP pool: 11
6. New standings.
Jim: 160
LAZ: 179
Well, its the first week to play again since we have been busy at work lately. Fortuitously we were able to clear off a slightly larger space then what we have been using, so it makes things a bit more interesting. Not that we pariticularly used that extra space. It was a pretty good couple of games, even though halfway through my game the computer I was using Blue Screen of Deathed me, so I lost all the notes I had for my game. Please forgive the state of these notes, they are just what I jotted down during the match. As for the pics, this time I'm not busting out of the borders here, but I'm not too satisfied with the size. This time I'm thinking that its too small.
Tom Dwarves(WBR 131) vs. Megan Orcs & Goblins(WBR 200)
Megan's O&G Setup.
Tom's Dwarf Setup.
OT1:
Two gobs fail animosity, one of them stuns a 3rd gob.
DT1:
Move forward
OT2:
Two gobs fail animosity, but do nothing. Move forward
DT2:
Move Forward
OT3:
One gobs fails animosity and WAAGH's. Another goblins grabs a wyrdstone counter.
DT3:
Dwarfs move forward. Engineer fires and hits and wounds goblin, who is knocked down.
OT4:
One gob fails animosity and does nothing. O&G move and fortify themselves.
DT4:
Dwarves move up. Engineer fires and takes out gobbo.
OT5:
One fails animosity does nothing, Big Un 1 grabs wyrdstone.
DT5:
Move, engineer shoots and misses
OT6:
Passed all animosity, one with spear charges Dwarf Noble, one with spear charges thunderer. Shooting: 3 gob archers miss. CC: Gob 1 misses, Dwarf noble criticals and stuns gob. thunderer hits and knocks down.
DT6:
Bit of movement. Shooting. THunderer kills OB, CC: Noble curb stomps gob. Thunderer gets over toughness.
OT7:
OB fails animosity and stands, move forward, shooting: shaman spell suceeds for the very first time on thunderer, 2 fail, 1 hits, and knocks down. one gobbo crits on noble takes him to stunned.
DT7:
recovery, mov up, Shooting: thunderer miss via lucky charm, engineer misses troll
OT8:
charges, Dwarf Noble survives with his 3+ gromril armor and shield, boss takes out already wounded dude, troll knocks down other guy.
DT8:
movement, charges. Shooting: Thunderer shoots big un, does not wound. CC: thunderer vs. gobo does nothing, noble vs shaman nothing.
OT9:
gob that was going to charge failed animosity and fought another gob. troll takes out beardling.
DT10:
orange hair takes out orc boss
OT10
Shaman takes out noble
orange hair takes out gob
II takes out thunderer
I gets a curb stomp
DT10:
needs rout check fails rout.
The Quick Score Sheet:
1. Who Killed Who:
Engineer kills gobbo
Gobbo grabs wyrdstone
Big Un 1 grabs wyrdstone
Noble curb stomps gob
Thunderer kills gob
orange hair takes out orc boss
Shaman takes out noble
orange hair takes out gob
Big Un II takes out thunderer
Big Un I gets a curb stomp
2. Injury Results
Dwarf Noble: snake eyes dead
beardling with hammer is dead
Orc Cheif: full recovery
orc boy dead
2 gobs with spears dead.
3. XP gained.
tom: +2
engineer: 3 (20 total: +1 str)
orange hair: +4 (17 total: 2 rolls, 1 +1 attack, skill)
white hair +2 (15 +1 ws)
thunderers: (that lad's got talent, skill, the other +1WS)
Chieftain: 3: (36: skill)
Shaman: 2 (15: +1 Attack)
BU1: 3 (26)
BU2: 2 (24- skill)
OBS: +1 Ld
4. Exploration results
4432: +1 wyrd dwarf = total of 4 wyrdstone (straggler, get +1 die on next exploration phase)
33224: double 2 shop (6 GC), 3 wyrdstones
5. Recruiting
Tom: 2 XP: thunderer with handgun.
Megan: 7 available
6. New standings.
Tom:
Megan: 203
Tom left early, so I didn't figure out what the new total was, and Megan did not tell me what she bought.
Jim Undead(WBR 149) vs. LAZ Skaven(WBR153)
Here's our set up:
My Right Flank: That's a termagaunt standing in for a Giant Rat.
My left Flank:
My Eshin Sorcerer in the building. I love this shot, its kinda arty.
Turn 1: My advance
Jim Advance
Turn 2: My ill thought out charge. I didn't take anyone out.
Jim's counter charge, led by the Vampire.
Jim's advance on my other flank.
This is where we ended up on the left flank.
This is where we ended up on the right flank.
1. Who Killed Who:
Eshin Sorceror got wyrdstone
Black Skaven I: killed a dreg
Vampire got wyrdstone
ballless dreg killed BS II
Vampire killed verminkin
2. Injury Results
Undead all survive
1 verminkin dead
black skaven full recovery
3. XP gained.
Vampire: +4 (total 37: +1 WS)
Necro: +1 (total 14: new skill)
Painted: +1 (total 7)
With Ball: +1 (total 7)
Ballless: +2 (total 8- +1 str)
Super Ghoul: +1 (total 6- +1 str)
ghoul group: +1
eshin sorceror: +2 (17skill)
BS1: +1 (total 18)
BS 2: +2 (21 skill)
Pierced Tail: +1 (3)
Verminkin A: 8
Verminkin B: 3
4. Exploration results
S: 444: fletcher: 3 wyrdstone, 3 Bows. (60 +15 GC)
U: 66521: 4 wyrdstone, (ruined hovels 5 gc), (60 GC)
5. Recruiting:
Jim XP pool: 6
LAZ XP pool: 11
6. New standings.
Jim: 160
LAZ: 179
Friday, July 22, 2011
Hobby: Rat Ogre
I am trying to put more Rats on the table. So here's the Rat Ogre. From step 1 to finish.
Step 1: Base Coats
Step Two: Adding fleshtones and base fur color, with initial washes.
Step Three: Drybrush of Fur
Step Four: Final Details
Step Five: Pinky and the Brain together for the first time. I'm not entirely enthused over how the white fur appeared over the larger model. I'm not sure what the term is, but it seems like it is washed out or doesn't pop as much. Ah, well.
Yet again, it seems like I went beyond the border. I'm not sure how to resize the pics when posting them. I'm still learning. I may have to upload them to photobucket at a different size. So I might have to start that again.
Step 1: Base Coats
Step Two: Adding fleshtones and base fur color, with initial washes.
Step Three: Drybrush of Fur
Step Four: Final Details
Step Five: Pinky and the Brain together for the first time. I'm not entirely enthused over how the white fur appeared over the larger model. I'm not sure what the term is, but it seems like it is washed out or doesn't pop as much. Ah, well.
Yet again, it seems like I went beyond the border. I'm not sure how to resize the pics when posting them. I'm still learning. I may have to upload them to photobucket at a different size. So I might have to start that again.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
From the Pit: Mathhammer Pt 2
Last time we spoke, I mentioned the superiority of ranged weaponry over melee combat. Well, now its time to investigate the flip side of that. Close Combat wins games. Going back over some of the stuff from last time if you remember that even the worst WS can still hit the best WS on a 5+. So that means even your lowly zombie with a WS 2 can potentially hit even that super evolved Possessed model.
Therein lines the rub, though. Everyone can potentially hit everyone else with equal ease. So what makes the difference? Well, mainly its choosing the right tool for the right job. And when picking the right tool, there are a few things to consider. Those are the Weapon Skill, Strength, Initiative, and lets not kid ourselves, the cost. These are really the things that make a difference.
Before we get into those, and how they effect close combat I want to take a moment to mention something. This is something that is completely overlooked by most wargamers, and most people that play any of GW's games. The base line model in Mordheim is the standard human. Most stats are 3, except for wounds and leadership. In 40K the baseline is the tactical marine, and everything is scaled up or down from that. Mordheim, everything is scaled from a base of 3. That makes a huge difference. It means that for almost all actions you have a 50/50 chance of succeeding. That's our center point.
With three being our center point that's where the WS, Strength, and Initiative come into play. Anything that is under three is low, anything over three is high. Three is the magic number, and it doesn't make a difference. With a three in any score, you concentrate on the other stats instead of the one that is a three, and if all of them are three, then just do what you like. There are things that you need to consider with each other. I could make a whole spread sheet of different combinations, but that would take awhile, so I am going to highlight each one.
Low WS: These guys are your filler. They only have a 33% chance of hitting, so in most cases you want to avoid things that don't improve your chances of causing a wound, because you might not get a chance later.
High WS: These are the mainstay of your close combat troops. These are the guys that you want to give weapons with special abilities to. The axe, club, are excellent in these hands. Especially the club, which can help get a stunned result.
Low Strength: With a low strength you almost have to take some sort of strength increasing weapon, fortuitously there are very few things that have a strength lower then three.
High Strength: While it is tempting to give these guys weapons that increase thier strength to really high amounts, it isn't worth it. Save yourself some money, and go with weapons like halberds and morning stars. These increase your strength by one, and a five strength wounds the most common toughness on a 2+, with an armor modifier of -2 as well.
Low Initiative: There's two ways around this. You can take a spear which always hits first (except against other spears, or special skills), however that only effects the first round. The other thing to do is to take a double handed weapon, since you will be hitting last anyway, you might as well make that hit a big hit.
High Initiative: These guys are gods in Mordheim. The only thing you want to avoid totally is the double handed weapon. Speed is their strength, so don't turn it into a weakness.
So those are the main things to keep in mind, because they effect almost every hit. However, there are a few things lesser things that you want to keep in mind as well. They effect each combat, but are of lesser importance. Those are handedness, cost, and something else to be determined.
Handedness: This seems kind of obvious, but it can make or break a model. A single handed weapon can allow you take a shield, buckler, or a second single handed weapon for a bonus attack. The two handed weapons generally have a better ability or a strength increase, but they don't allow you to use a second weapon, shield, or buckler in close combat. You have to weigh the benefits of two handedness special abilities against the defense or extra attack a one handed weapon can give you.
Cost: Again, seemingly obvious, but it makes a big difference, especially at different points in the game. A low cost weapon, like a club/hammer/mace or axe are great for the beginning when you want to put boots on the ground or you are playing a horde warband, but give very few extra abilities. The mid point weapons are often what I like to call the game makers. Mid point weapons, like the sword, halbred, or spear have almost no drawbacks and a pretty good ability. High cost weapons like flails, morningstars, and double handed weapons have huge advantages, but also have huge drawbacks.
These are the things that make a difference in Mordheim, WS, Strength, Iniative, Handedness, and cost. There is a lot more to think about when equipping your models with close combat weapons then with ranged weapons, but I hope I gave you a bit more food for thought with these.
Therein lines the rub, though. Everyone can potentially hit everyone else with equal ease. So what makes the difference? Well, mainly its choosing the right tool for the right job. And when picking the right tool, there are a few things to consider. Those are the Weapon Skill, Strength, Initiative, and lets not kid ourselves, the cost. These are really the things that make a difference.
Before we get into those, and how they effect close combat I want to take a moment to mention something. This is something that is completely overlooked by most wargamers, and most people that play any of GW's games. The base line model in Mordheim is the standard human. Most stats are 3, except for wounds and leadership. In 40K the baseline is the tactical marine, and everything is scaled up or down from that. Mordheim, everything is scaled from a base of 3. That makes a huge difference. It means that for almost all actions you have a 50/50 chance of succeeding. That's our center point.
With three being our center point that's where the WS, Strength, and Initiative come into play. Anything that is under three is low, anything over three is high. Three is the magic number, and it doesn't make a difference. With a three in any score, you concentrate on the other stats instead of the one that is a three, and if all of them are three, then just do what you like. There are things that you need to consider with each other. I could make a whole spread sheet of different combinations, but that would take awhile, so I am going to highlight each one.
Low WS: These guys are your filler. They only have a 33% chance of hitting, so in most cases you want to avoid things that don't improve your chances of causing a wound, because you might not get a chance later.
High WS: These are the mainstay of your close combat troops. These are the guys that you want to give weapons with special abilities to. The axe, club, are excellent in these hands. Especially the club, which can help get a stunned result.
Low Strength: With a low strength you almost have to take some sort of strength increasing weapon, fortuitously there are very few things that have a strength lower then three.
High Strength: While it is tempting to give these guys weapons that increase thier strength to really high amounts, it isn't worth it. Save yourself some money, and go with weapons like halberds and morning stars. These increase your strength by one, and a five strength wounds the most common toughness on a 2+, with an armor modifier of -2 as well.
Low Initiative: There's two ways around this. You can take a spear which always hits first (except against other spears, or special skills), however that only effects the first round. The other thing to do is to take a double handed weapon, since you will be hitting last anyway, you might as well make that hit a big hit.
High Initiative: These guys are gods in Mordheim. The only thing you want to avoid totally is the double handed weapon. Speed is their strength, so don't turn it into a weakness.
So those are the main things to keep in mind, because they effect almost every hit. However, there are a few things lesser things that you want to keep in mind as well. They effect each combat, but are of lesser importance. Those are handedness, cost, and something else to be determined.
Handedness: This seems kind of obvious, but it can make or break a model. A single handed weapon can allow you take a shield, buckler, or a second single handed weapon for a bonus attack. The two handed weapons generally have a better ability or a strength increase, but they don't allow you to use a second weapon, shield, or buckler in close combat. You have to weigh the benefits of two handedness special abilities against the defense or extra attack a one handed weapon can give you.
Cost: Again, seemingly obvious, but it makes a big difference, especially at different points in the game. A low cost weapon, like a club/hammer/mace or axe are great for the beginning when you want to put boots on the ground or you are playing a horde warband, but give very few extra abilities. The mid point weapons are often what I like to call the game makers. Mid point weapons, like the sword, halbred, or spear have almost no drawbacks and a pretty good ability. High cost weapons like flails, morningstars, and double handed weapons have huge advantages, but also have huge drawbacks.
These are the things that make a difference in Mordheim, WS, Strength, Iniative, Handedness, and cost. There is a lot more to think about when equipping your models with close combat weapons then with ranged weapons, but I hope I gave you a bit more food for thought with these.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Missing Matches
Well, two weeks in a row, and it looks like it will be three weeks next week that I miss my normal Mordheim game. See, I have a unique position, on Saturday the boss is out of the building, and we are just waiting for calls to come in. So we play. Usually its D&D, but right now, I've convinced some of my players to give Mordheim a try.
It works out well, except for two things. If work gets busy, that's it, no Mordheim. Gotta put food on the table and paint in the pots. Second, if someone is sick, they call off and we have to scramble to figure out what's going on.
Two weeks due to busy. Next week I have to pick up the Elder Children from Boy Scout Camp. So three weeks without Mordheim.
Which brings me to the topic on my mind. How to deal with missing matches. It is a common problem with Mordheim that doesn't necessarily come up in other games. Since Mordheim is a campaign based game, those missing games cost dearly.
There's a few problems that need to be thought about in the grand scheme of things when talking about handling a missing game or match.
Single Person Missing;
Now, from what I've been able to tell, there's really two ways to handle it.
The first is just like in Little League, the team that doesn't show up forfeits. The winner gets to roll on his exploration phase as normal, but the loser doesn't. This can be a huge advantage, since the person who gets to do the exploration phase gets all the benefits of winning, but without the potential causalities. This can cause a moderate warband, or one with cheap troops (ie Giant Rats, Zombies, etc) to expand exponentially (or is it geometrically, I get them confused). This sometime isn't a bad thing, necessarily. If the one who misses a game has a very high warband rating, and the other has a very low one, then a missing game can be a great equalizer. However, I suggest using this method sparingly, if at all. It can be done, and over the course of a campaign, it will probably happen to everyone at least once.
The other way is to re-arrange the schedule of matches. This one is often the best of the options, but sometimes harder to pull off. It takes a well defined schedule to being with, and a group that doesn't mind changing what is happening. As long as you don't let it happen too frequently it should be fine as long as everyone stays at roughly the same amount of games. In our campaign, the first week, Megan was unavailable (I think she had a longer night then expected), so we re-arranged all the matches so that she wouldn't have to play that week. However, the next week, she had to face the rest of us. Each one of us had played at least two games, and were pretty pumped up from it, but she was on the short end of the stick for the first two games. Fortuitously, Megan's Orcs & Goblins warband was up to the task and she handled herself well in all of them. However, that was just luck.
Missing An Entire Session:
My this shouldn't happen, but it does. Work gets in the way, the kids get sick, and Bill's dog bit the mailman. Sometimes you don't have enough players or time to make it worth playing. There's a real problem. The good thing is that it doesn't upset the schedule of games, or create monster warband ratings. However, missing a whole night of gaming can cause problems.
The main problem is that one missed session can lead to a second, and then well, you've already missed two, so what's a third? That's when gaming inertia sets in. Its easier to keep going if you are going, but once stopped, its hard to get going again. The main problem with gaming inertia is that it can end a campaign faster then anything else. Once gamer inertia sets in, then the often dreaded gamer ADD picks up and people want to move onto another game.
There is a solution, by no means is it an easy one. The main thing is to make them keep thinking about the game, maybe you can show them this neat blog you found dedicated to Mordheim. You have to keep the interest alive. Keep telling people about what is happening in your campaign. Let them know that you are still figuring out how you can whup their Reiklanders, or marvel at how bloody the last fight between the Possessed and the Witch Hunters was. However, just keeping their mind on the game is more then just the obvious like the above. Sometimes its more subtle. Like showing off the beautifully painted minis that you happened to have time to do, or showing them a neat little rule that can help them in their next match (much like I showed the Dwarf player that starting in the upper floor of buildings protected his thunderers against the Undead Zombies!).
So lets say you beat the dreaded gamer inertia. Then you face the other problem. People forget what is going on. This really shouldn't be an issue, but unsurprisingly it is. The main thing you need to do is keep everyone on the same page. That can be as easy as starting a blog/forum post/email list, just to keep the tallies of who beat who. It can also be as indepth as doing your own mini Town Cryer. What you want to do is keep the information spreading. Even check in with a phone call before the game to make sure that the other person is well aware of what is going on.
The last problem is sometimes getting people to come back. Even if you avoid the gaming inertia, and you keep people up to date, they might not feel like coming back. The great thing is that this is the simplest solution. Food and drink. This works especially well if you've missed a few sessions. Pizza and beer for the night brings most gamers running. If you are a bit cheaper, or a bit more chefy, a spaghetti night can be a great way to welcome back the club. Its cheap and easy, and it looks like a real meal! An hour or so to eat and enjoy each other's company and then you'll be ready to vivisect each other in no time flat!
Well, I think that I've run my mouth off enough for now. I think that I'm starting to repeat myself and my ideas. I just realized that I brought up a lot of jargon that might only apply to me, and how I structure campaigns. So I think that maybe Monday I'll do a post on that sort of thing. Tomorrow, I'll be busy, so I probably won't be posting new stuff, probably just something from the the archives. Needless to say, I've been posting at least one thing a day here, and sometimes more, but right now everything is new. Chances are that it will slow down fairly soon, right now I just want to get everything set up and ticking over before I suffer from my own gaming ADD.
It works out well, except for two things. If work gets busy, that's it, no Mordheim. Gotta put food on the table and paint in the pots. Second, if someone is sick, they call off and we have to scramble to figure out what's going on.
Two weeks due to busy. Next week I have to pick up the Elder Children from Boy Scout Camp. So three weeks without Mordheim.
Which brings me to the topic on my mind. How to deal with missing matches. It is a common problem with Mordheim that doesn't necessarily come up in other games. Since Mordheim is a campaign based game, those missing games cost dearly.
There's a few problems that need to be thought about in the grand scheme of things when talking about handling a missing game or match.
Single Person Missing;
Now, from what I've been able to tell, there's really two ways to handle it.
The first is just like in Little League, the team that doesn't show up forfeits. The winner gets to roll on his exploration phase as normal, but the loser doesn't. This can be a huge advantage, since the person who gets to do the exploration phase gets all the benefits of winning, but without the potential causalities. This can cause a moderate warband, or one with cheap troops (ie Giant Rats, Zombies, etc) to expand exponentially (or is it geometrically, I get them confused). This sometime isn't a bad thing, necessarily. If the one who misses a game has a very high warband rating, and the other has a very low one, then a missing game can be a great equalizer. However, I suggest using this method sparingly, if at all. It can be done, and over the course of a campaign, it will probably happen to everyone at least once.
The other way is to re-arrange the schedule of matches. This one is often the best of the options, but sometimes harder to pull off. It takes a well defined schedule to being with, and a group that doesn't mind changing what is happening. As long as you don't let it happen too frequently it should be fine as long as everyone stays at roughly the same amount of games. In our campaign, the first week, Megan was unavailable (I think she had a longer night then expected), so we re-arranged all the matches so that she wouldn't have to play that week. However, the next week, she had to face the rest of us. Each one of us had played at least two games, and were pretty pumped up from it, but she was on the short end of the stick for the first two games. Fortuitously, Megan's Orcs & Goblins warband was up to the task and she handled herself well in all of them. However, that was just luck.
Missing An Entire Session:
My this shouldn't happen, but it does. Work gets in the way, the kids get sick, and Bill's dog bit the mailman. Sometimes you don't have enough players or time to make it worth playing. There's a real problem. The good thing is that it doesn't upset the schedule of games, or create monster warband ratings. However, missing a whole night of gaming can cause problems.
The main problem is that one missed session can lead to a second, and then well, you've already missed two, so what's a third? That's when gaming inertia sets in. Its easier to keep going if you are going, but once stopped, its hard to get going again. The main problem with gaming inertia is that it can end a campaign faster then anything else. Once gamer inertia sets in, then the often dreaded gamer ADD picks up and people want to move onto another game.
There is a solution, by no means is it an easy one. The main thing is to make them keep thinking about the game, maybe you can show them this neat blog you found dedicated to Mordheim. You have to keep the interest alive. Keep telling people about what is happening in your campaign. Let them know that you are still figuring out how you can whup their Reiklanders, or marvel at how bloody the last fight between the Possessed and the Witch Hunters was. However, just keeping their mind on the game is more then just the obvious like the above. Sometimes its more subtle. Like showing off the beautifully painted minis that you happened to have time to do, or showing them a neat little rule that can help them in their next match (much like I showed the Dwarf player that starting in the upper floor of buildings protected his thunderers against the Undead Zombies!).
So lets say you beat the dreaded gamer inertia. Then you face the other problem. People forget what is going on. This really shouldn't be an issue, but unsurprisingly it is. The main thing you need to do is keep everyone on the same page. That can be as easy as starting a blog/forum post/email list, just to keep the tallies of who beat who. It can also be as indepth as doing your own mini Town Cryer. What you want to do is keep the information spreading. Even check in with a phone call before the game to make sure that the other person is well aware of what is going on.
The last problem is sometimes getting people to come back. Even if you avoid the gaming inertia, and you keep people up to date, they might not feel like coming back. The great thing is that this is the simplest solution. Food and drink. This works especially well if you've missed a few sessions. Pizza and beer for the night brings most gamers running. If you are a bit cheaper, or a bit more chefy, a spaghetti night can be a great way to welcome back the club. Its cheap and easy, and it looks like a real meal! An hour or so to eat and enjoy each other's company and then you'll be ready to vivisect each other in no time flat!
Well, I think that I've run my mouth off enough for now. I think that I'm starting to repeat myself and my ideas. I just realized that I brought up a lot of jargon that might only apply to me, and how I structure campaigns. So I think that maybe Monday I'll do a post on that sort of thing. Tomorrow, I'll be busy, so I probably won't be posting new stuff, probably just something from the the archives. Needless to say, I've been posting at least one thing a day here, and sometimes more, but right now everything is new. Chances are that it will slow down fairly soon, right now I just want to get everything set up and ticking over before I suffer from my own gaming ADD.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Mordheim Tactica: The Opening Gambit
Mordheim is a very fun game, and right now it seems to be gaining some traction on the forum I frequent: Astronomican. There's a bunch of reasons to get into Mordheim, and they are the same reasons that I find myself getting into the game over and over again.
First off is the expense. While many of Games Workshop's games are very expensive to get into with some armies getting into hundreds of dollars. Mordheim's rules are free from GW's website, and it is possible to get everything you need for certain warbands for under $35. If you happen to play one of the many armies that has an associated warband, you might be able to play with everything you need with stuff you already own.
Second is that it is a campaign based system, and makes it great for a game club or regularly meeting groups. Most other skirmished based systems (Maulifaux comes to mind) have no way for improvement of your models, but Mordheim has that built right in! Although it does hurt it for one-off games, but it more then makes up for it.
Third, there's a lot of conversion opportunity. If you ever joined a full WYSIWYG league, then, man is this game for you! One of the great things about Mordheim is that it can be done with straight models pulled from their appropriate lists, OR you can really get into the weird and wonderful Mordheim look. Either way, you might just want to model someone with things that the normal model doesn't have.
However, there is a lot of easy to make mistakes that beginners make. However, there are more easy fixes then problems! So I present to you one of my favorite things, a numbered list of things to consider when creating your warband and running your first few games.
1. Armor in the opening gambit, and even well into the middle of a campaign, light armor even when coupled with a shield doesn't provide much protection. The 6+ (or 5+) save is negated half the time either by strength or by weapons with the cutting edge or piercing rules.
2. Numbers, numbers, numbers! The bigger the warband the less likely it is that you will suffer rout checks. This is especially true for warbands like Undead or Skaven who have lots of cheap expendable troops.
3. Ranged weapons rule far more in Mordheim then in the regular game of Warhammer. Any time you can possibly hit an opponent without them getting a returning hit is a benefit that cannot be over looked.
4. The best ranged weapon by far is the humble crossbow. With strength four, it will eliminate most armor, and wound most models on a 3 or better. Its main drawback is that it is move or fire. This seems much worse then it actually is, because you take a penalty to hit if you moved, and you don't want your ranged weapons anywhere where they can hit back.
5. Mordheim is far more of a three dimensional game then your standard Warhammer game! Remember the upper floors and roofs. If you can set up a ranged weapon guy on the top floor, they can choose their target instead of just the closest person. And the upper floors have an added benefit that some (zombies) models have a low initiative have a difficult time to try to climb up to get you.
6. Remember to stick to cover. This seems like a no-brainer, but there is nothing worse then a high cost model getting sniped by a Reiklander Crossbowman from a rooftop!
7. Animals and other things that do not get experience are only good in the opening games. Use them to fill out your warband in the beginning, but replace them as soon as you can. Things that can gain experience are preferable, even if they start out worse then an animal (or zombie), they can and WILL get better.
8. If you ignore every other piece of advice that I give, take this one to heart. Take every hero you can, and don't allow them to get into combat unless they are a monster! Heroes are how you make money in the exploration phase. Keep them safe at first. Let them get into it later, but at first keep them back, let the henchmen and animals do the work. Even if you lose a game, if all of your heroes survive you still make money in the exploration phase. Sometimes its better to lose then win. There are times when even those unbreakable warbands should cut and run. Unless there is a lot of wyrdstone or treasure in the offering, run before you end up costing yourself men and equipment that is expensive to replace. Weigh each victory before not running.
9. Remember that the club/mace/hammer is cheap and very effective! For many warbands, its the best weapon to take in the beginning. With the expanded stun range, it can help you knock down someone so that they stay down. Then when stunned, you can automatically take them out of action. Great thing to do is charge with your henchmen, and then use a hero to finish someone off. In almost every scenario heroes get XP for every person they take out of action. The henchmen don't get that bonus!
10. Don't underestimate the value of a helmet! A 4+ save on being stunned can often be the difference between a free curb stomp out of action or a roll over toughness!
So ten tips, and if you guys want, post and I'll continue with more tactica. Maybe some specific warband ideas, or middle/late game ideas.
First off is the expense. While many of Games Workshop's games are very expensive to get into with some armies getting into hundreds of dollars. Mordheim's rules are free from GW's website, and it is possible to get everything you need for certain warbands for under $35. If you happen to play one of the many armies that has an associated warband, you might be able to play with everything you need with stuff you already own.
Second is that it is a campaign based system, and makes it great for a game club or regularly meeting groups. Most other skirmished based systems (Maulifaux comes to mind) have no way for improvement of your models, but Mordheim has that built right in! Although it does hurt it for one-off games, but it more then makes up for it.
Third, there's a lot of conversion opportunity. If you ever joined a full WYSIWYG league, then, man is this game for you! One of the great things about Mordheim is that it can be done with straight models pulled from their appropriate lists, OR you can really get into the weird and wonderful Mordheim look. Either way, you might just want to model someone with things that the normal model doesn't have.
However, there is a lot of easy to make mistakes that beginners make. However, there are more easy fixes then problems! So I present to you one of my favorite things, a numbered list of things to consider when creating your warband and running your first few games.
1. Armor in the opening gambit, and even well into the middle of a campaign, light armor even when coupled with a shield doesn't provide much protection. The 6+ (or 5+) save is negated half the time either by strength or by weapons with the cutting edge or piercing rules.
2. Numbers, numbers, numbers! The bigger the warband the less likely it is that you will suffer rout checks. This is especially true for warbands like Undead or Skaven who have lots of cheap expendable troops.
3. Ranged weapons rule far more in Mordheim then in the regular game of Warhammer. Any time you can possibly hit an opponent without them getting a returning hit is a benefit that cannot be over looked.
4. The best ranged weapon by far is the humble crossbow. With strength four, it will eliminate most armor, and wound most models on a 3 or better. Its main drawback is that it is move or fire. This seems much worse then it actually is, because you take a penalty to hit if you moved, and you don't want your ranged weapons anywhere where they can hit back.
5. Mordheim is far more of a three dimensional game then your standard Warhammer game! Remember the upper floors and roofs. If you can set up a ranged weapon guy on the top floor, they can choose their target instead of just the closest person. And the upper floors have an added benefit that some (zombies) models have a low initiative have a difficult time to try to climb up to get you.
6. Remember to stick to cover. This seems like a no-brainer, but there is nothing worse then a high cost model getting sniped by a Reiklander Crossbowman from a rooftop!
7. Animals and other things that do not get experience are only good in the opening games. Use them to fill out your warband in the beginning, but replace them as soon as you can. Things that can gain experience are preferable, even if they start out worse then an animal (or zombie), they can and WILL get better.
8. If you ignore every other piece of advice that I give, take this one to heart. Take every hero you can, and don't allow them to get into combat unless they are a monster! Heroes are how you make money in the exploration phase. Keep them safe at first. Let them get into it later, but at first keep them back, let the henchmen and animals do the work. Even if you lose a game, if all of your heroes survive you still make money in the exploration phase. Sometimes its better to lose then win. There are times when even those unbreakable warbands should cut and run. Unless there is a lot of wyrdstone or treasure in the offering, run before you end up costing yourself men and equipment that is expensive to replace. Weigh each victory before not running.
9. Remember that the club/mace/hammer is cheap and very effective! For many warbands, its the best weapon to take in the beginning. With the expanded stun range, it can help you knock down someone so that they stay down. Then when stunned, you can automatically take them out of action. Great thing to do is charge with your henchmen, and then use a hero to finish someone off. In almost every scenario heroes get XP for every person they take out of action. The henchmen don't get that bonus!
10. Don't underestimate the value of a helmet! A 4+ save on being stunned can often be the difference between a free curb stomp out of action or a roll over toughness!
So ten tips, and if you guys want, post and I'll continue with more tactica. Maybe some specific warband ideas, or middle/late game ideas.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Nerd Rage, Starter Boxes, and Mordheim
Like most of us who play any of Games Workshop's games, I was angered by the latest round of price increases and the way that GW is treating their different retailers. I mean I was really ticked off. Super mad.
Some people weren't that upset, since there has basically been an annual price increase for several years now. Others took it in stride with the finecast models. And still others didn't see the big deal.
I've talked about this other places, and vented my rage all over the internet. So I'm not going to do so further here.
The issue though is that it spurned me to make a final decision. I'm pretty much done with GW. I had been on the edge since the latest Imperial Guard codex nerfed my points from 2000 to a mere 1500 (including the new stuff I had bought!). The latest price increase priced me out of the market for the big games of 40K and WHFB.
In the past I would typically buy about $200 worth of stuff in one go, once a year, across a couple games. Can't really afford that now. It isn't enough bang for my buck. However, you might have noticed I said "pretty much done", not done completely.
The reason for that is because I am a starter box nut. I love starter boxes! It doesn't matter what kind or game they are, I'll buy them. I love starter boxes! WOOOO! Even crappy ones like the Isle of Blood. That's one of the big things that will keep me buying GW models, god I love those starters! The GW ones are really great though, and they keep getting better. I swear half of the Isle of Blood models are better sculpts then the regular models.
Enough, I could spew about starter boxes all day. Not really the point though, is it? Getting back on track, the thing is that I bought the Isle of Blood, and unsurprisingly, I went from having 4 Mordheim warbands, to having five. There was enough stuff in that box to cover almost everything for a Skaven Warband (no giant rats, though). That's when I made a decision.
I already have a Possessed Warband, a Dwarf Warband, an Orc Warband, Undead Warband, and now a Skaven Warband. Which is almost all of the official warbands out there. So I decided that I would buy all of Mordheim. I want everything for it. This is not an unattainable goal. Soon I'll really start in on it.
In the meantime, this is my list of things I have and/or need. From what is currently official. After I finish painting the Skaven, I might start to look at the other things (although, I do have all of those lovely High Elves to paint as well). Some I might hold off on, since there is always a chance that
Random Happenings:
Bloodletter: 1
Skeletons: 12
Spawn: 1
Giant Spider: Research!
Dogs: 6
O&G:
Boss
Orc Shaman: Need
Orc Boys: 19 (have some, need to research)
Goblins: Have
Squigs: 5
Troll: Have
Dwarfs:
Noble: Have
Engineer: Have
Trollslayers: Have
Dwarfs: Have
Reiklanders:
Mercanaries: 15
Middenheimers:
Mercanaries: 15
Marienburgers:
Mercanaries: 15
Possesssed: Have (complete)
Undead:
Vampire: Have
Necromancer: Have
Dregs: 1 of 3
Ghouls: 4 of 14
Zombies: 10 of 14
Dire Wolves: 5
Sisters of Sigmar
Matriarch: 1
Sister Superior: 3
Augur: 1
Novices: 10
Sisters: 14
Witch Hunters:
Captain: 1
Witch Hunters: 3
Warrior Priest: 1
Flagellents: 5
Zealots: 11
Warhounds: 5
Skaven:
Assassin Adept: 1
Eshin Sorceror: 1
Black Skaven: Have
Night Runners: Have
Verminkin: Have
Giant Rats: 19
Rat Ogre: Have
Hired Swords:
Ogre Bodygaurd; have, needs assembly
Pitfighter: Have
Warlock: Needs Assembly
Halfling Scout: 1
Elven Dude: Have, needs painting
Troll Slayer: 1
Free Lancer
Imperial Assasin
Tilean Marksmen
Some people weren't that upset, since there has basically been an annual price increase for several years now. Others took it in stride with the finecast models. And still others didn't see the big deal.
I've talked about this other places, and vented my rage all over the internet. So I'm not going to do so further here.
The issue though is that it spurned me to make a final decision. I'm pretty much done with GW. I had been on the edge since the latest Imperial Guard codex nerfed my points from 2000 to a mere 1500 (including the new stuff I had bought!). The latest price increase priced me out of the market for the big games of 40K and WHFB.
In the past I would typically buy about $200 worth of stuff in one go, once a year, across a couple games. Can't really afford that now. It isn't enough bang for my buck. However, you might have noticed I said "pretty much done", not done completely.
The reason for that is because I am a starter box nut. I love starter boxes! It doesn't matter what kind or game they are, I'll buy them. I love starter boxes! WOOOO! Even crappy ones like the Isle of Blood. That's one of the big things that will keep me buying GW models, god I love those starters! The GW ones are really great though, and they keep getting better. I swear half of the Isle of Blood models are better sculpts then the regular models.
Enough, I could spew about starter boxes all day. Not really the point though, is it? Getting back on track, the thing is that I bought the Isle of Blood, and unsurprisingly, I went from having 4 Mordheim warbands, to having five. There was enough stuff in that box to cover almost everything for a Skaven Warband (no giant rats, though). That's when I made a decision.
I already have a Possessed Warband, a Dwarf Warband, an Orc Warband, Undead Warband, and now a Skaven Warband. Which is almost all of the official warbands out there. So I decided that I would buy all of Mordheim. I want everything for it. This is not an unattainable goal. Soon I'll really start in on it.
In the meantime, this is my list of things I have and/or need. From what is currently official. After I finish painting the Skaven, I might start to look at the other things (although, I do have all of those lovely High Elves to paint as well). Some I might hold off on, since there is always a chance that
Random Happenings:
Bloodletter: 1
Skeletons: 12
Spawn: 1
Giant Spider: Research!
Dogs: 6
O&G:
Boss
Orc Shaman: Need
Orc Boys: 19 (have some, need to research)
Goblins: Have
Squigs: 5
Troll: Have
Dwarfs:
Noble: Have
Engineer: Have
Trollslayers: Have
Dwarfs: Have
Reiklanders:
Mercanaries: 15
Middenheimers:
Mercanaries: 15
Marienburgers:
Mercanaries: 15
Possesssed: Have (complete)
Undead:
Vampire: Have
Necromancer: Have
Dregs: 1 of 3
Ghouls: 4 of 14
Zombies: 10 of 14
Dire Wolves: 5
Sisters of Sigmar
Matriarch: 1
Sister Superior: 3
Augur: 1
Novices: 10
Sisters: 14
Witch Hunters:
Captain: 1
Witch Hunters: 3
Warrior Priest: 1
Flagellents: 5
Zealots: 11
Warhounds: 5
Skaven:
Assassin Adept: 1
Eshin Sorceror: 1
Black Skaven: Have
Night Runners: Have
Verminkin: Have
Giant Rats: 19
Rat Ogre: Have
Hired Swords:
Ogre Bodygaurd; have, needs assembly
Pitfighter: Have
Warlock: Needs Assembly
Halfling Scout: 1
Elven Dude: Have, needs painting
Troll Slayer: 1
Free Lancer
Imperial Assasin
Tilean Marksmen
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday Night Mordheim: Tuesday Night Special
Monday Night Mordheim: Tuesday Special
Well, if you are observant, then you are probably realizing that this isn't Monday, its Tuesday. You probably realized that it was the Fourth of July, Independance Day, a major holiday here in the US. Had a lot to do, parade in the morning, picnic at my sister-in-laws for lunch, and then over to my wife's aunts where we could have a big BBQ dinner and watch fire works off the back porch. Needless to say, I didn't have time to do a piece of Mordheim tacitca.
I wasn't just telling you that to make you jealous of how great my holiday was, there was a point. Mordheim is a campaign game, which means you have to play a series of games over time for it to go from an okay game to an amazing one. Today, I'm going to talk about the campaign side of things. I thought about this for two reasons, because I didn't get to post a tactica yesterday, and the fact that my normal weekly game didn't happen. So this is an excellent time to talk about it.
Most of you should be familiar with the term campaign, its one that us wargamers appropriated from the real military. In short a campaign is a series of connected battles. Which is exactly what Mordheim is, each battle represents your warband in another skirmish against different foes, but it is the same group. There are some significant differences from playing a campaign and playing a short one off battle. For one thing, your tactics have to change and evolve as your and your opponents warbands change. For the other, a campaign requires a bit more logistics and thought then just walking into your FLGS throwing down your warband and taking on all comers.
The logistics are what really keep the game going, and without proper logistics, your campaign isn't going to continue. The first part of it follows the standard journalism questions, of who, what, when, where, and how. So lets break them down a bit.
Who do you get to play? This seems like a really easy question, most of us have friends, or a constant game club to play with. However, there is a bit more then that to it, especially if you have no friends. One of the key considerations for who you want to play are not the same as who you want to play in a one off game of 40K or WHFB. The people you want to get to play are people who are ready to play the same thing over a long period of time. So many players you may otherwise enjoy playing with may not be able to participate due to the time that is required. The main thing you should do when inviting someone to play a campaign is make sure that they are aware of how much time it will take to play out the campaign. While it might not seem like a big deal now that they spend the entire month of August in a cloistered monastic retreat communing with the cosmos, when July 30th comes around it becomes a much more important thing.
What do you play? Mordheim, duh! Well, yes, but to a point. There is a lot more considerations to ponder then that. While Mordheim is in and of itself a self contained game, there are a lot of extras out there that you might want to consider. Most of them have to do with the different rules out there floating around on the internet. First and foremost, is what do you want to allow? Do you use just the main book, or do you expand it to all of the information currently available on GW's Mordheim website? Do you allow Dramatis Personae, or just hired swords? Do you allow the experimental warbands or unofficial warbands that can be found out there? These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before you can start your campaign.
When do you play? I think this is the most important of all the questions. There are really two parts to this question. First is the actual time to play, and I've found it best if you use a consistent day of the week and time. That way everyone can plan around the campaign, instead of trying to campaign around plans. Our group, we play Saturdays from 8:45 am to 5pm. The second part is almost as important, which is how long the campaign is going to last. I love to play Mordheim in the summer. For me, that's the best. I like to start right after the kids get out of school and go until school starts back up. That's me, a good 11 weeks, and at 2 games a session, its 22 games which is just perfect if you ask me. You might want to go differently, and that's fine, but the key thing is that you have to have a definitive start and end date for the campaign. Playing forever is nice, but like all things, you will get tired of it and you might want to go to another warband.
Where do you play? Ah, this is a tricky one, and almost as important as the ones above. It's great if you have someone's house to play, because you don't have to worry about anything. However, most of us aren't lucky enough to have a game room, so you might end up playing at your FLGS. This is not a bad thing, but you may have to contend with 40K Tournaments, Magic Drafts, tables being taken by Flames of War, or that creepy guy with the beard (oh, wait, that's me). So if you intend on running a campaign at your FLGS you may want to speak to the manager/owner to see if you can reserve tables or make sure that you aren't running into tournaments or the Harry Potter Re-enactment Society's annual Muggle Awards. My group, we play on an improvised table at work, but for some of you that probably isn't an option.
How do you play? With dice, models, and tape measures! Of course, but it is a bit more then that. This is the really labor intensive part for someone that wants to run a campaign. Besides taking care of everything that appears above, it also determines how the campaign is to run. There are several hard decisions to make in this phase. Part of it is to gather the decisions of the above and put them out to your players so that everyone is on the same page with the other stuff. Another important bit is to determine how the campaign is going to be run, is it a round robin where everyone faces everyone else, rinse and repeat? Or is it going to be a map based campaign and who goes to what area determining what games are being played? Or is it going to be the most labor intensive where warbands of the same rating are matched up each round? Besides just the way that the campaign is run, you also have to determine what will happen if someone can't play a game? Do they forfeit, and their opponent gets a free win? Do you re-arrange the game schedule to accommodate them? Or do you move the game time so that everyone gets to play? The last decision is either the easiest or the hardest, depending on your game group, how do you handle rules disputes? That is something that should be set in stone before the campaign ever starts. It will save you alot of headache later!
So let me show you how my group handled this:
Mordheim Campaign!
When: Saturday 8:45 am-5pm Saturdays from now, until we return to Ravenloft in September.
Where: At Work
Important Stuff: Only rules from the main book, Best of Town Cryer, and Empire in Flames are allowed. This will be a round robin campaign, with everyone facing everyone and a big Chaos on the Streets match at the end of each round. If someone is missing we will re-arrange the matches of that round. Rules Disputes will be handled with fisticuffs until the boss yells at us.
Matches Taking Place per round:
1-2: Jim vs. Tom
3-4: LAZ vs. Megan
2-3: Tom vs. LAZ
4-1: Jim vs. Megan
3-1: LAZ vs. Jim
2-4: Tom vs. Megan
Chaos On the Streets
If you notice, I did leave out a few things, like who was going to play. That's because our game group has been pretty stable for quite awhile now, with the same people. So I didn't need to think about that. However, these are just the basics of the things you need to think about before starting a Mordheim campaign, and possibly at a later time, I'll come back to something that I touched on here later.
Well, if you are observant, then you are probably realizing that this isn't Monday, its Tuesday. You probably realized that it was the Fourth of July, Independance Day, a major holiday here in the US. Had a lot to do, parade in the morning, picnic at my sister-in-laws for lunch, and then over to my wife's aunts where we could have a big BBQ dinner and watch fire works off the back porch. Needless to say, I didn't have time to do a piece of Mordheim tacitca.
I wasn't just telling you that to make you jealous of how great my holiday was, there was a point. Mordheim is a campaign game, which means you have to play a series of games over time for it to go from an okay game to an amazing one. Today, I'm going to talk about the campaign side of things. I thought about this for two reasons, because I didn't get to post a tactica yesterday, and the fact that my normal weekly game didn't happen. So this is an excellent time to talk about it.
Most of you should be familiar with the term campaign, its one that us wargamers appropriated from the real military. In short a campaign is a series of connected battles. Which is exactly what Mordheim is, each battle represents your warband in another skirmish against different foes, but it is the same group. There are some significant differences from playing a campaign and playing a short one off battle. For one thing, your tactics have to change and evolve as your and your opponents warbands change. For the other, a campaign requires a bit more logistics and thought then just walking into your FLGS throwing down your warband and taking on all comers.
The logistics are what really keep the game going, and without proper logistics, your campaign isn't going to continue. The first part of it follows the standard journalism questions, of who, what, when, where, and how. So lets break them down a bit.
Who do you get to play? This seems like a really easy question, most of us have friends, or a constant game club to play with. However, there is a bit more then that to it, especially if you have no friends. One of the key considerations for who you want to play are not the same as who you want to play in a one off game of 40K or WHFB. The people you want to get to play are people who are ready to play the same thing over a long period of time. So many players you may otherwise enjoy playing with may not be able to participate due to the time that is required. The main thing you should do when inviting someone to play a campaign is make sure that they are aware of how much time it will take to play out the campaign. While it might not seem like a big deal now that they spend the entire month of August in a cloistered monastic retreat communing with the cosmos, when July 30th comes around it becomes a much more important thing.
What do you play? Mordheim, duh! Well, yes, but to a point. There is a lot more considerations to ponder then that. While Mordheim is in and of itself a self contained game, there are a lot of extras out there that you might want to consider. Most of them have to do with the different rules out there floating around on the internet. First and foremost, is what do you want to allow? Do you use just the main book, or do you expand it to all of the information currently available on GW's Mordheim website? Do you allow Dramatis Personae, or just hired swords? Do you allow the experimental warbands or unofficial warbands that can be found out there? These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before you can start your campaign.
When do you play? I think this is the most important of all the questions. There are really two parts to this question. First is the actual time to play, and I've found it best if you use a consistent day of the week and time. That way everyone can plan around the campaign, instead of trying to campaign around plans. Our group, we play Saturdays from 8:45 am to 5pm. The second part is almost as important, which is how long the campaign is going to last. I love to play Mordheim in the summer. For me, that's the best. I like to start right after the kids get out of school and go until school starts back up. That's me, a good 11 weeks, and at 2 games a session, its 22 games which is just perfect if you ask me. You might want to go differently, and that's fine, but the key thing is that you have to have a definitive start and end date for the campaign. Playing forever is nice, but like all things, you will get tired of it and you might want to go to another warband.
Where do you play? Ah, this is a tricky one, and almost as important as the ones above. It's great if you have someone's house to play, because you don't have to worry about anything. However, most of us aren't lucky enough to have a game room, so you might end up playing at your FLGS. This is not a bad thing, but you may have to contend with 40K Tournaments, Magic Drafts, tables being taken by Flames of War, or that creepy guy with the beard (oh, wait, that's me). So if you intend on running a campaign at your FLGS you may want to speak to the manager/owner to see if you can reserve tables or make sure that you aren't running into tournaments or the Harry Potter Re-enactment Society's annual Muggle Awards. My group, we play on an improvised table at work, but for some of you that probably isn't an option.
How do you play? With dice, models, and tape measures! Of course, but it is a bit more then that. This is the really labor intensive part for someone that wants to run a campaign. Besides taking care of everything that appears above, it also determines how the campaign is to run. There are several hard decisions to make in this phase. Part of it is to gather the decisions of the above and put them out to your players so that everyone is on the same page with the other stuff. Another important bit is to determine how the campaign is going to be run, is it a round robin where everyone faces everyone else, rinse and repeat? Or is it going to be a map based campaign and who goes to what area determining what games are being played? Or is it going to be the most labor intensive where warbands of the same rating are matched up each round? Besides just the way that the campaign is run, you also have to determine what will happen if someone can't play a game? Do they forfeit, and their opponent gets a free win? Do you re-arrange the game schedule to accommodate them? Or do you move the game time so that everyone gets to play? The last decision is either the easiest or the hardest, depending on your game group, how do you handle rules disputes? That is something that should be set in stone before the campaign ever starts. It will save you alot of headache later!
So let me show you how my group handled this:
Mordheim Campaign!
When: Saturday 8:45 am-5pm Saturdays from now, until we return to Ravenloft in September.
Where: At Work
Important Stuff: Only rules from the main book, Best of Town Cryer, and Empire in Flames are allowed. This will be a round robin campaign, with everyone facing everyone and a big Chaos on the Streets match at the end of each round. If someone is missing we will re-arrange the matches of that round. Rules Disputes will be handled with fisticuffs until the boss yells at us.
Matches Taking Place per round:
1-2: Jim vs. Tom
3-4: LAZ vs. Megan
2-3: Tom vs. LAZ
4-1: Jim vs. Megan
3-1: LAZ vs. Jim
2-4: Tom vs. Megan
Chaos On the Streets
If you notice, I did leave out a few things, like who was going to play. That's because our game group has been pretty stable for quite awhile now, with the same people. So I didn't need to think about that. However, these are just the basics of the things you need to think about before starting a Mordheim campaign, and possibly at a later time, I'll come back to something that I touched on here later.
Like a Phoenix
Hello all!
To those of you who don't know me, I'm LAZtheinfamous, moderator at The Astronomican. For those of you who don't know me here's a brief breakdown;
1. I like numbered lists. They make the world a neater place.
2. I use the word However, far more then it was ever intended to be used.
3. I can always think of a third thing when making a numbered list.
4. I like wargames. I like wargames alot. Especially miniatures.
5. I like to convert, sculpt, and paint models.
6. I REALLY like Mordheim.
Which brings us to this new blog. I've been doing a running thing on Astro about my favorite Games Workshop game, ever, Mordheim. I don't get a huge response for it. Which makes sense, since it is a Warhammer 40K forum. I'm hoping to get a bit more of a following here. Much of it, if not most of it will be repeat information from over there. Some of it will be. However, (see there's that word again!) I will probably be throwing more half baked ideas over here. Unformed ideas, ramblings, and the such.
I plan on posting here simultaneously as what I post there. So expect at least one post a week. I'm not going to say that is the ONLY post I am going to do, for instance, I'll be posting another one right after I post this one. Then I have a bit of a backlog to get through, and I might just post some other stuff up here when I have some time.
Also, if anyone has some free art that I can use for this, it would be great. Let me know. Especially since I really am not an artist!
To those of you who don't know me, I'm LAZtheinfamous, moderator at The Astronomican. For those of you who don't know me here's a brief breakdown;
1. I like numbered lists. They make the world a neater place.
2. I use the word However, far more then it was ever intended to be used.
3. I can always think of a third thing when making a numbered list.
4. I like wargames. I like wargames alot. Especially miniatures.
5. I like to convert, sculpt, and paint models.
6. I REALLY like Mordheim.
Which brings us to this new blog. I've been doing a running thing on Astro about my favorite Games Workshop game, ever, Mordheim. I don't get a huge response for it. Which makes sense, since it is a Warhammer 40K forum. I'm hoping to get a bit more of a following here. Much of it, if not most of it will be repeat information from over there. Some of it will be. However, (see there's that word again!) I will probably be throwing more half baked ideas over here. Unformed ideas, ramblings, and the such.
I plan on posting here simultaneously as what I post there. So expect at least one post a week. I'm not going to say that is the ONLY post I am going to do, for instance, I'll be posting another one right after I post this one. Then I have a bit of a backlog to get through, and I might just post some other stuff up here when I have some time.
Also, if anyone has some free art that I can use for this, it would be great. Let me know. Especially since I really am not an artist!
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