View at Picasa Now, we've got you21-Apr-2012 01:51

With the evening of campaign turn ten, fog from the nearby river rolled over Nachtdorf.  Just after the witching hour, an indistinct figure emerged from an alley in the town and moved, unseen, towards the west gatehouse.  Just over an hour later, Halfling Scout Nod Nibbles, out on patrol, appeared breathless at the east gate to warn of an incoming force of undead!  His two fellow Halflings began ringing the church bell to wake the defenders up and prepare for the assault.  Guardsmen rushing to the west gate discovered that it had been opened too late to secure it before the undead appeared.

The incoming force approached the town from three sides, with several minor vampires and necromancers in their midst, but not Strangulf himself or any of his mistresses.  Two powerful creatures gained by Strangulf from gaining influence in other play areas did accompany the attackers, however:  a powerful Varghulf (the “Ghoul King”), and mounted Zombie Lord Ash.  Master Necromancer Bonecaller also lurked in the ranks of the attackers.

A group of Skeletons and Ghouls led by a minor Vampire and a Necromancer approached with two siege ladders from the north.  To reach the town, this group would have to cross a bridge leading over the river, where the defenders had positioned a large defensive torch during the day.  Two militiamen led by the Burgermeister Kaufmann huddled in the northeast corner tower, overlooking this bridge, crewing a recently repaired dwarven cannon discovered in the depths of the armory.

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:50

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:50

In the west, near the opened gate, Ash led a force of Ghouls, Skeletons, and Rats along with a minor Vampire, the Necromancer Bonecaller (oft injured by the players), and one siege ladder.  The Sisters of Sigmar slept in the town hall close by the opened gate, and would be responsible for repelling this group.  In the northwest, a small satellite party of Zombies and Skeletons under the direction of a Grave Guard Seneschal carried a siege ladder, with a Banshee nearby.  No defenders on the wall directly opposed this group.  In the northeast, a single Crypt Wraith hovered near the open gate.

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:51

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:51

In the east, heading towards the closed town gate, the monstrous Varghulf hulked amidst a pack of Zombies, Dire Wolves, Spiders, and Grave Guard.  Two minor Vampires commanded this force, which would enter near where the Kislevites had been sleeping at the town inn.

The Dwarves, led by Captain Big Boss, were sleeping in the Church in the center of the town, along with Father McManus, Father Jonas, and Milita Sergeant Lowenherz who were guarding our five bitten townspeople.  The clanging church bells, rung by Halflings Nod Nibbles and Tubby Tiddletoes woke the Dwarves rudely from their slumber.  Alongside the church pond, three Giant Rats that had somehow snuck into town lurked in the shadows.

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:52	View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:53
View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:53	View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 18:58

Vampire Forces Turn One 

The turn kicked off with a “1″ rolled for scenario expiration.  When the count reached 35, the undead would be forced to retreat to their lairs.  In this first turn the forces all simply advanced on the town at maximum speed.

Player Turn One 

Father McManus successfully cast the prayer Hearts of Steel, providing a bonus to route tests and protecting those within 8″ of him from fear tests.  In the west, the Sisters of Sigmar poured out of the town hall near the open gate, arraying themselves in a defensive line near the gate with Sisters on either side in flanking positions.  Both Father McManus and Father Jonas ran from the church, in order to reinforce assaults at the walls and gates, leaving Sgt. Lowenherz stationed inside and the Dwarves up and hustling to the door in their wake.

The Kislevites streamed out of the tavern near the east gate, and most of the defenders on the walls (Captain Diedrich’s troops and the milita) moved towards the cannon turret.  A handgunner and spearman, part of Diedrich’s small force, lingered in the southeast tower near the closed gate.  The handgunner propped his weapon against the wall and blasted a round at the huge Varghulf, who stomped within range of a defensive torch and thus made itself visible even in the fog.  The shot smashed into the Varghulf’s head, taking out part of its skull and costing it two of its four wounds!  ”Take that, you bastige”, screamed the handgunner!

Sisters prepare for trouble in the West. View at Picasa Sisters prepare for trouble in the West.20-Apr-2012 20:14	Sigmarite Priests exiting the Chapel. View at Picasa Sigmarite Priests exiting the Chapel.20-Apr-2012 20:15
Kislevites block the road in the East. View at Picasa Kislevites block the road in the East.20-Apr-2012 20:15	Two militiamen retreat along the northeast wall. View at Picasa Two militiamen retreat along the northeast wall.20-Apr-2012 20:16

Vampire Forces Turn Two

With Vampire Forces Turn Two, another “1″ was rolled for scenario expiration, bringing the total to a measly two.  The undead in the north reached the middle of the bridge, putting them in the light of the defensive torch and thus giving the cannon crew something to fire upon.

In the west, the force led by Ash approached the open gate, with a group of skeletons bringing a siege ladder to bear on a nearby wall to provide a flanking force.  Just to the north along the west wall, a couple of wandering ghouls reached the base of the wall, and the Banshee floated near to the wall close by.

In the east, the Varghulf reached the closed gate, but failed to do much damage to it, removing only three of its eight damage points.  On his flanks, a group of Spiders and a Dire Wolf lept onto the top of the walls on either side of the gate.

Northern force reaches the bridge. View at Picasa Northern force reaches the bridge.20-Apr-2012 20:38	Western force prepared to charge through the gate. View at Picasa Western force prepared to charge through the gate.20-Apr-2012 20:39
Varghulf reaches the east gate. View at Picasa Varghulf reaches the east gate.20-Apr-2012 20:39	Spiders scale a tower in the east. View at Picasa Spiders scale a tower in the east.20-Apr-2012 20:40

Player Turn Two

All the Dwarves except for the Engineer Sparks and new henchman Dorito humped out of the church, heading towards the crashing sounds of the Varghulf beating on the east gate.  Father Jonas jogged ahead of them, also heading for the noise.

A huge roar cascaded through the town as the cannon on the northeast tower erupted.  BurgerMeister Kaufmann and crew had directed their first shot at the undead force crossing the northern bridge, illuminated by a defensive torch.  The ball landed perfectly beside the rear group of this force and destroyed a Grave Guard Seneschal.  A blast of shrapnel composed of Seneschal bits and bridge splinters knocked down a nearby Ghast and Ghoul, delaying the progress of this ladder team.  The crew cheered and began loading their next ball.

Just outside the Inn, Kislevite Sergei aimed his crossbow at a Dire Wolf that had lept onto the east wall and fired.  The bolt sank into the wolf and knocked it off stride, causing it to fall from the wall and break several of its limbs.  A number of other shots from Kislevites moving into a defensive line failed to damage any of the Spiders that had also just scrambled to the top of the wall.

In the west, the Sisters of Sigmar held their ground and fired a volley of slingshots at the cluster of undead being led into the open gate by Lord Ash.  This force was helpfully backlit by a defensive torch positioned just outside the gate on the road, but the shots all missed their mark.  On the southwest wall, one of Diedrich’s handgunners took a shot at Zombie Lord Ash, but missed as well.

Vampire Forces Turn Three

A third “1″ in a row was rolled for scenario expiration, bringing the total to three.  It was looking to be a long night.  In the north, the skeletons and ghouls crossing the bridge tried in vain to accelerate their pace and get out of range of the light profiling them for the cannon.

In the east, two of the Spiders on the wall spat webs at the Kislevites, with one hitting Luka and ensnaring her.  Another sprung down from the wall and charged Kislevite Sergei, wounding him, but being knocked down in return.  Two Dire Wolves positioned themselves outside the town to leap to the top of the southeast tower, threatening the handgunner that had previously shot the Varghulf.  At the gate, the Varghulf smashed through the first door, splinters flying as it roared, only to find itself faced with an interior gate, and then yet another door before the gatehouse would be completely breached.

Spiders attack the Kislevites View at Picasa Spiders attack the Kislevites20-Apr-2012 21:35

In the west, Lord Ash flailed at a line of Giant Rats and forced them to charge through the opened gate and into the Sisters.  Once they hit home, he spurred his rotting mount forward and charged into Sister Emmaline, stunning her.  Sister Simone swung her hammer and bashed the skull of one of the charging Rats.

Bonecaller gestured at the Banshee in the northwest, and the spirit cackled in response and glided smoothly through the west wall.

View at Picasa Ash and Rats charge the Sisters.20-Apr-2012 21:34

Player Turn Three

In the east, the Kislevites inside town counter-charged the knocked down Spider and slew it as Dwarves moved up to reinforce them.  Captain Diedrich headed out of the Temple towards the west, to reinforce the Sisters.

Kislevite Bear Tamer Martin and his Bear reversed gears and ran back towards the Temple of Sigmar.  He had caught an indistinct yell from the church about a ghost, he knew his magical spear might be needed.  Father McManus accompanied them.

Despite being ensnared in webs, Luka flashed a volley of knives at a Spider just visible on the wall.  The Spider slid to the base of the wall in a pool of gore.  Pytor put a crossbow bolt into another Spider that had just scrambled down the wall, ending its life.  The handgunner in the southeast turret took another shot at the Varghulf, but this time the round bounced off a muscular shoulder.

The cannon in the northeast tower erupted a second time, again targeting the beleaguered force attempting to cross the river.  It narrowly missed the Ghoul it had aimed at, but completely splattered a Necromancer and Ghoul behind it.

In the west, the Sisters counter-charged the Rats and Lord Ash.  Mother Madira hovered near a stable and cast her Soulfire spell, which stunned two of the Giant Rats.  A sling shot from an unengaged Sister knocked down another Rat.  Two of the Sisters killed Rats in close combat, and Sister Veronica wounded Ash with one of her hammers.  Ash struck thrice in response, but missed twice and clanged off armor the third time.

View at Picasa Kislevites counterattack20-Apr-2012 22:03

Vampire Forces Turn Four

The Vamps finally rolled more than a 1 for scenario expiration.  With a 5 on the die, the clock now sat out 8 out of 30 required for the allies to hold out.

In the west, the pack of ghouls led by a minor Vampiress charged through the open gate and into the melee with the Sisters.  Sister Superior Hildegarde lashed with her steel whip before the Vampiress could close, tearing its throat and knocking it out of the fight.  Sister Emmaline weathered a ghoul’s charge and responded with crushing hammer blow that took it out of action.  In the center of the melee, Ash spun his mount and struck a blow that stunned Sister Superior Salyra, while Sisters Hildegarde and Veronica failed to damage the mounted Zombie Lord.

In a corner near the west gate, a Cairn Wraith that had been hovering indecisively thus far finally got its act together and drifted through the town wall, appearing within inches of the engaged Sisters.  Boo!

To further threaten the Sisters, Bonecaller’s force of skeletons quietly placed their ladder against a nearby exterior wall and gained the top.  Bonecaller limped to front of his invading party, and noted a nearby stairwell leading directly  down to the Sisters’ flank.  Thoughts of revenge for his withered arm buzzed in his narrow skull.

Undead gain the northwest wall View at Picasa Undead gain the northwest wall20-Apr-2012 22:54

To the north of Bonecaller’s group on the same wall, a second group of Skeletons and Ghouls led by a Grave Guard Seneschal also placed their ladder and streamed to the top of the wall.  A Fell Bat provided air cover for this force.

In town, the Banshee cruised over the surface of the pond and through the wall of the Sigmarite Temple, soiling its wards against undead.  She spotted the nearby sole Dwarf henchman Dorito, and unleashed her horrible wail.  Dorito briefly contemplated the fact that every Dwarf henchman prior to him was buried just outside the church, and that he had no magic weapon, then responded with a curse and a rude gesture.

In the east, the Varghulf advanced to the interior door of the gatehouse, and began pounding on it.  Undead packed in behind the brutal monster.  Two Dire Wolves in the southeast tower bit at the guardsman and militia member defending it, but the fight proved to be a close-quarters stalemate.

Wolves attacking the turret while Varghulf violates the gate View at Picasa Wolves attacking the turret while Varghulf violates the gate20-Apr-2012 22:53

In the north, the remaining Vampire commander tried to get the ladders manned and moving again under the withering cannon fire.

Player Turn Four

On the northeast wall, BurgerMeister Kaufmann pointed and barked “Fire!”  The Dwarven cannon erupted with its third shot of the battle.  The shot fell perfectly again, smashing through the rear rank of the force still trying to get clear of the bridge.  Two Ghouls and a Ghast were pulverized, one Skeleton sent realing, and the ladder splintered to bits.  The front team, however, composed of four Skeletons led by a minor Vampire, was now clear of the light from the bridge’s defensive torch.  Over half his original force was lost, but he was now in cover of darkness and fog on the right side of the river bank.

Fire!!!! View at Picasa Fire!!!!20-Apr-2012 23:57

One ladder unit decimated View at Picasa One ladder unit decimated20-Apr-2012 23:57

In the southwest, Sister Winifred charged the newly materialized Cairn Wraith, and Sister Anne the Augur and her dog Brother Woof charged a Ghoul and Rat respectively.    Mother Madira cast her Soulfire prayer successfully again, to devastating effect.  Lord Ash was stricken from the combat, the Cairn Wraith wounded, a Rat stunned, and two Ghouls knocked down.  Tubby Tiddletoes, the Halfling Scout attached to the Sisters, fired his shortbow from the upstairs window of the Town Hall, and knocked down one of the Skeletons in Bonecaller’s flanking force.

View at Picasa 20-Apr-2012 23:54

A town militia member and one of Diedrich’s men who had been defending the southwest tower observed Bonecaller’s  make the wall, and headed into the Gatehouse to flank them.

Militiaman and Ostermark soldier sneak up on Bonecaller View at Picasa Militiaman and Ostermark soldier sneak up on Bonecaller20-Apr-2012 23:47

In close combat, the Sisters capitalized on the advantage provided by Mother Madira’s blast of holy light.  Sister Isolde finished off the Cairn Wraith with a blow from one of her hammers, and Brother Woof and Sister Anne each dispatched their fallen opponents.  Despite Bonecaller’s threatening flanking force above them on the town wall, the Sisters appeared to be turning the southwest gate combat for the allies.

Captain Diedrich, running to reinforce the Sisters, paused behind the corner of the opposite side of  the Town Hall from the melee, and checked his Pistols.

In the temple, the struggle with the Banshee continued.  Father McManus ran into the building and cast his Soulfire prayer, but failed to harm the spirit.  The Banshee struck and wailed at Dorito and Sparks, but they somehow avoided harm while trying to bluff her with their non-magical weapons.  Martin and his bear rushed into the building, but to late to enter the melee this turn.

Repelling the Banshee in the church View at Picasa Repelling the Banshee in the church20-Apr-2012 23:48

In the southeast tower, the melee between the Wolves and the tower defenders stalemated again.

In the east road leading to the gate, the bulk of the Kislevites headed to stairs just to the left of the gate, intending to defend the wall from the incoming force from the north that had been blistered by cannon fire.  Big Boss and the bulk of the Dwarves occupied their place in front of the gatehouse where the Varghulf raged.

Vampire Forces Turn Five

With a roll of 6 on the expiration die, the scenario counter went to a total of 14.

In the Temple of Sigmar, Kislevite Bear Tamer Martin screamed and charged the Banshee, as Father McManus unleashed his Soulfire and caused a wound on the raging spirit.  Martin missed the Banshee, but fortunately she also failed to harm the two defenseless Dwarves yet again.

The Varghulf howled and bashed into the interior east gate door a second time, sending splinters flying but still not penetrating the barrier.  Above him in the southeast tower, the battle with the two Dire Wolves and Diedrich’s men continued bloodlessly.

To the north, the remaining ladder squad, breathing more easily (well, whatever Skeletons do) now that they were out of the cannon’s view, advanced on the north wall of the town.

In the southwest, Bonecaller remained at the top of the wall and cast his Lifestealer spell, causing a wound on Sister Simone and adding the life force to his own.  Simone fell to the ground, stunned.  His Skeletons streamed down the stairs around him, preparing to charge on the next turn.

Of the remaining Sisters in close combat, the only result was Sister Anne taking a Ghoul out of action with a strike from her whip.

Player Turn Five

The first random event of the scenario occurred, with three townspeople breaking from a building to flee screaming through the streets.  Town Morale would decrease if Vampire Forces were able to reach these civilians and take them out of action, but that did not happen over the course of the scenario, so we will not revisit their flight again.

In the Temple, Kislevite Martin charged the Banshee and vaporized it with his magical spear.  At the east wall, the rest of the Kislevites streamed up the stairs to the ramparts, preparing for defense of the northeast wall segment.  The Dwarves positioned themselves for the eventual break-through of the Varghulf, joined by Father Jonas, who positioned himself right against the gatehouse wall.

Kislevites defending the east wall View at Picasa Kislevites defending the east wall21-Apr-2012 00:57

Father Jonas muttered a prayer, and with a flare of light his own Soulfire shot outwards, reaching even inside the gatehouse and wounding the Varghulf for a third time as well as knocking down a Ghoul.  The gatehouse shook with the Varghulfs screams of rage!

In the southeast tower, one of the Dire Wolves managed to stun a spearman, but his companion handgunner prevented the spearman from being eaten.

In the southwest, Captain Diedrich nipped out from behind the corner of the Town Hall and took a shot at Bonecaller, just visible through the torchlit fog up on the wall.  The shot buzzed past Bonecaller’s ear.  Halfling Tubby, still at the upstairs window of the Town Hall, skipped an arrow off Bonecaller’s shoulder, causing only a scratch.  Bonecaller began to feel somewhat put upon as the nearby door into the second level of the southwest gatehouse suddenly opened, and one of Diedrich’s handgunners inside fired off yet another shot that just missed overhead.  Starting to get seriously pissed, Bonecaller jigged and four sling shots fired from two Sisters down below clattered around him uselessly.

Under the southwest gatehouse, Sister Nadja knocked a Ghast down, while Sister Veronica’s hammers took a Ghoul out of action.

Sisters gaining the upper hand in the west View at Picasa Sisters gaining the upper hand in the west21-Apr-2012 00:58

Vampire Forces Turn Six

With a 2 on the turn expiration die, the total went to 16 out of the 30 points needed to conclude the scenario.

In the southwest, two Skeletons charged Captain Diedrich, but the resulting flurry of blows resulted in no wounds to any of the combatants.  Bonecaller cast his LifeStealer spell a second time from the top of the wall, and this time added a fourth wound by draining Sister Emmaline, who stumbled, knocked down.  Another Skeleton charged the militiaman that had kicked open the gatehouse door for the handgunner to take his shot, but that combat also resulted in a standoff.  Another Skeleton charged Brother Woof, who lept up on the creature in response, knocking it to the ground.  The last Ghast still engaged with Sister Nadja and Sister Superior Hildegarde failed to injure either, but they also failed to harm it.

Captain Diedrich distracts the skeletons View at Picasa Captain Diedrich distracts the skeletons21-Apr-2012 01:25

A skeleton enters the gate tower View at Picasa A skeleton enters the gate tower21-Apr-2012 01:26

The undead force that gained the west wall the previous turn opted to run for the cannon to their northeast rather than reinforce Bonecaller.  The Fell Bat flew with them, and the force came within charge range of the defenders guarding the wall entrance to the cannon tower.  The  small ladder group that survived the cannon’s earlier blasts finally made it to the northeast wall near the eastern gate.

Undead charge the cannon turret View at Picasa Undead charge the cannon turret21-Apr-2012 01:25

The north force finally reaches a wall View at Picasa The north force finally reaches a wall21-Apr-2012 01:25

In the southeast tower, Diedrich’s hangunner finally dispatched one of the Dire Wolves, his second major blow of the game.  The Varghulf finally crashed through the middle gatehouse door, leaving one final door between it and the town. One Spider that had survived the early cascade over the east wall snuck through alleys in the south, looking for food.

Player Turn Six

Continuing their heroic performance, Burgermeister Kaufmann barked at his crew, and they whipped the cannon around and directed it at the incoming undead forces on the wall.  The tower shook as the cannon belched fire for the fourth time, and the shot landed perfectly in front of the advancing force and buzzed right through them, sending body parts flying in all directions.  No less than two Ghouls, the Grave Guard Senschal, and two of his Grave Guard were splattered by this blast, which also did some minor damage to the newly repaired wall.

Now, we've got you View at Picasa Now, we've got you21-Apr-2012 01:51

In northeast, Kislevite Pytor entered the middle floor of the gatehouse, and fired down through a murder hole with his bow into the crowd of undead behing the Varghulf, but did no damage.  Sergei fired from the nearby wall and hit a Ghast not yet inside the gatehouse, but failed to wound it.  Father Jonas, still flattened against interior wall of the gatehouse, attempted to cast Soulfire a second time, but failed.  Big Boss and his Dwarves arranged themselves in position to charge the Varghulf, should it make it through into town.  The northeast tower fight between the two defenders and remaining solo Dire Wolf continued in a standoff.

Luka and Pyotr discover the joy of murder holes View at Picasa Luka and Pyotr discover the joy of murder holes21-Apr-2012 01:53

In the center of town,  Father McManus, Dwarf Sparks, and Kislevite Martin with bear Pooh ran out the back door of the temple, heading to reinforce the cannon tower.  The Cossack Stepan began hoofing down the road in front of the Temple to track down the Spider he’d seen sneaking around the foggy back alleys.

Martin, Sparks, and McManus rush out of the church View at Picasa Martin, Sparks, and McManus rush out of the church21-Apr-2012 01:51

In the southwest, Sisters Salyra and Hidegarde charged one of the Skeletons at the base of the stairs leading to Bonecaller’s positon.  With a crack of her whip, Hildegarde separated the skeleton into to pieces, leaving the path up to Bonecaller clear.  Captain Diedrich, nearby, blocked a blow from one of the Skeletons harrying him and landed a strike on the other that knocked it down.  Brother woof tore apart another Skeleton, while Sister Isolde struck a blow that knocked down a Ghast, sole attacker left from the group that charged through the southwest gate under Ashes direction.

Sisters close on Bonecaller's stairwell position View at Picasa Sisters close on Bonecaller's stairwell position21-Apr-2012 01:51

In the southwest gatehouse, the Skeleton defending Bonecaller’s flank knocked down the militiaman it was struggling with.

Vampire Forces Turn Seven

A 6 was rolled for scenario expiration, bringing the total to 22.  A couple more turns, and the undead would likely be forced to retreat, assuming any were left!

In the southwest, the Skeleton in the gatehouse failed to take out the knocked down militiaman, and Bonecaller also failed to get off Life Stealer for the first time.  Diedrich fought the Skeletons arrayed against him to a standstill again, while Sister Isolde finally dispatched the last remaining Ghast.

At the cannon tower on the north wall, Skeletons charged the spearman and militiaman guarding the western most entry to the tower.  The charge failed to perturb the defenders, and the spearman struck a blow that knocked one of the two Skeletons completely off the wall and out of action.  Two giant rats that had been lurking around the pond charged up the stairs at the two defenders guarding the eastern most entry to the cannon tower, but this charge also failed, and one of the rats was slain by a militiaman.

The Fell Bat swooped down on Baron Kaufmann, but the undead’s luck continued to fail as Kaufmann was knocked down but managed to stay atop the tower with his crew.

Battle of the cannon continues View at Picasa Battle of the cannon continues21-Apr-2012 14:01

Another giant rat charged Father McManus in the nearby group of defenders who had just emerged from the Temple back door, but neither party was damaged.  Opposite the temple on the south side of town, the sneaky Spider entered a building through a back window.

In the east, the Skeletons from the remaining ladder party finally began climbing to the top of the wall, within sight range of nearby Kislevites.

The Dwarves erupted in loud cheers as the Varghulf, bruised, bleeding, and down to just one of its original four wounds, finally pounded through the last door of the gatehouse.

Player Turn Seven

In the east the two Dwarf Trollslayers whooped and charged the injured Varghulf.  In a flurry of blows, KillMeNow took the beast out of action.  In the gatehouse above, Luka and Pyotr opened up through the murder holes on the undead behind the Varghulf, taking out a minor Vampire and a Zombie respectively.  The handgunner and spearman continued to struggle with the Dire Wolf in the southeast tower, while on the wall north of the gatehouse Kislevites fired on Skeletons climbing to the top of the wall but failed to take any out.

The grievously injured Varghulf in hand to hand View at Picasa The grievously injured Varghulf in hand to hand21-Apr-2012 14:01

In the north, Martin, the bear Pooh, and Sparks all charged the Rat on Father McManus, but succeeded only in knocking it down.  The combats at both entrances to the cannon tower were stalemates, and no damage was done to any of the combatants at the top of the tower.

In the west, Mother Madira cast SoulFire and a Skeleton fighting Diedrich staggered under the effects.  Sister Winifred charged into assist Diedrich with the other Skeleton, and together they took it out of action.  Sister Superiors Hildegarde and Isolde finally had a clear path to Bonecaller, and charged up the stairs into close combat with him, with Salyra wounding him once.  In the gatehouse at his back, the Skeleton fought the militiaman and handgunner to a standstill.

Bonecaller finally engaged in combat View at Picasa Bonecaller finally engaged in combat21-Apr-2012 14:00

To the south, Cossack Stepan rounded the corner of the building and, glancing through a window, caught the movement of the Spider he’d been hunting.

Vampire Forces Turn Eight

With a 4 for scenario expiration, the total rose to 26 out of 30.  Dawn was approaching and soon the Vampires would call their attack off.  Considering the lopsidedness of the affair against them, the sooner the better.  Not a single allied warrior had been taken out of action by the assaulting forces yet, and more than two thirds of the attackers were out of the combat.

The Skeletons on the northeast wall charged into the Kislevites, the minor Vampire commanding them from the rear. Mischa knocked down one of the charging Skeletons.  Undead that had been in the gatehouse behind the Varghulf charged into the Dwarves blocking their way into town, a Zombie managing to wound KillMeNow, but taken out of action in return.  Father Jonas failed to get off his Soulfire spell.

Kislevites hold the northeast wall View at Picasa Kislevites hold the northeast wall21-Apr-2012 14:43

In the north, Father McManus swung his hammer and smashed the skull of the Rat in.  On the wall around the cannon tower, a Giant Rat bit the leg of a spearman, who screamed and fell from the wall, the first allied warrior taken out of action, finally!  A bronx cheer from the undead.  At the other tower entrance, a Skeleton knocked a militiaman off the wall, but the warrior was luckier and survived.  At the cannon, Burgermeister Kaufmann struck a massive blow on the Fell Bat, sending it spiraling down from the tower and out of action.

In the southwest, all the undead were engaged.  Bonecaller managed to knock down Sister Hildegarde, but the Skeleton guarding his rear in the gatehouse was knocked down by the militiaman.

The Spider in the south lurked in a town building, up to no good.

Player Turn Eight

In the South, Stepan charged into the building and interrupted the Spider’s activities, striking it repeatedly and stunning it.

Just to the west, at the gate, Salyra struck Bonecaller for a second wound, while the militiaman failed to take out the knocked down Skeleton.  Mother Madira got her Soulfire spell off, this time blasting her primary target and taking a third wound from Bonecaller.

In the north, Father McManus ran to the base of the wall and cast his own Soulfire, taking out a Skeleton and a Grave Guard at the top of the wall.  Martin’s bear rumbled up the stairs and into a Skeleton, breaking it into bits.  There was little left of the force assaulting the cannon tower.

In the east, the Kislevites defending the wall took out one Skeleton, while Pyotr firing again through the murder holes in the floor of the second story of the gatehouse put a bolt through the head of a Ghast.  Below him, the Dwarves continued to weight in to the remaining forces that were led in by the Varghulf, with Trollslayer IDieSoon killing a Seneschal.

And to everyone’s surprise, the handgunner and spearman in the southeast tower finally defeated the second Dire Wolf in a combat that had been going on for most of the scenario.

Vampire Forces Turn Nine

With a 4 for expiration, this would be the last turn of the scenario.

In a last gasp, Bonecaller managed to get Life Stealer off and took Sister Superior Salyra out of action, but was taken out himself by a very angry Sister Superior Hildegarde.  The Spider in the South was dispatched by Stepan.

The Tally, and Conclusion Night 10

The first attack on the town went horribly bad for the heroes.  This scenario went in the opposite direction, with the allies taking near fifty models out of action and only losing two themselves.  The dwarven cannon could not have performed better, with never a misfire and with every roll of the artillery die for initial placement of the shot and carry through turning up the perfect number to hit the most models.

Flanking actions by the undead were mistimed repeatedly, with the flanking force always arriving a turn or two too late when the initial force had already been largely defeated.  This happened in the southwest, with Bonecaller only bringing his Skeletons up on the wall when the Sisters had crushed Ashe’s initial troops.  It happened again in the east, with the Varghulf taking much longer to get through the gatehouse than any of us expected and the troops that had been sent over the wall eliminated by the time it pushed through.

Both allied models taken out of action had Full Recovery.  The Varghulf survived with a nervous condition, and Ash lost an eye.

In terms of campaign Town Morale, a +1 was earned for the allies holding out without routing.  Another +3 was earned for taking three Vampire Forces Heroes (Ash, the Varghulf, and Bonecaller) out of action.  However, with only two dice to roll for unengaged forces in town buildings at the end of VF turns, with only a “1″ resulting in a civilian fatality, Stamper managed to roll snake eyes.  The Spider that snuck into the building in the south had managed to eat two townies before being taken out by Stepan, resulting in a -2 to Morale and the loss of two worker points for town actions during the day.  The net Morale gained was +2, which raised us back up to 5 out of 10 – a much safer place to be.  If Morale drops to zero, we lose the campaign.

To conclude the Night Phase of turn 10, none of the existing bitten turned into Vampires, but Sister Nadja proved to have a bite on her neck, and will need to be quarantined with the other bitten until a priest can heal her.  Perhaps she was the one that crept to the southwest gate at the beginning of this scenario and opened the defenses there.

From the Diary of Dwarf Captain, “Big Boss”

1.  Get roused out of bed by the dang Hobbits screaming.
2. Wander out to the front gate behind a bunch of Kislevites.
3. Wait.
4. Priest wanders up.
5. Something is beating on the outer castle door.
6. Kizies leave to go get into firing positions.
7. Wait , hear handgunner on the wall next to the gate yell out, “Take that you bastige!”
8. Wait. Something still battering on front door. Lots of screaming from the other gate and the canon firing from the north tower . Can hear much rejoicing from the cannon crew.
9. Wait.
10. Wait. Yeah!, it’s now battering on the inner (of 3) gates!
11. Break out tea and biscuits.
12. Watch priest up next to the wall wave hands and make mystical motions. Ever so often the things in the gate house scream. Also some more screams because of the Kizzies shooting thru the murder holes into the undead in the gate house. One of them sounds quite vampirish.
13. Several games of Cripple Mr Onion break out.
14. Several dwarfs wander away to see if they can shoot any of the skellies who have managed to get a ladder up near the gatehouse. Kizzes are picking them off from the walls.
15. Hurrah!!, looks like they have made it through the last castle door finally (there was some debate earlier about just opening the door to hurry things up)
16. Troll slayers charge the big undead that had been knocking down the gate doors. It’s toast since it’s already lost 3 of it’s four wounds.
17. Troll slayers slaughter the other undead in the tower, there were about 3 left.
18. Looking at the remainder of the undead forces (1 rat, and 2 skells) and deciding that it’s dawn wander back to bed.
19. Meet the two dwarfs who had stayed in the church to protect it to hear their stories about a thingy that walked  thru the wall that was immune to being hit and had to be killed by the bear guy with a glowing spear. Decide they’ve been hitting the Ale a bit hard.

Checks my troops over. Not a single wound amongst them (no knock downs, stuns, or out of actions)
All in all a boring night.

Day 11

Our heroes plotted a Coffin Hunt to Schattenwald Tower for this turn, sending about fifteen or so of their number to explore the dungeons under the tower.  Due to the night attack, this group would be fatigued.  With the first level of fatigue, toughness checks must be made to run (charging does not require the check).  The remaining warriors in town were plotted to repair actions, fashioning stakes, and healing bitten.  Three heroes left town with six townies on a shopping trip, and will return in turn 12.

Unfortunately, when we revealed the Day Event card, we found that it was a surprise daytime attack by the Vampire Forces on the town.  Apparently the assault during the night had been a feint.  There are only around twenty-eight models in town to defend it, and ten of those are town milita and Diedrich’s men, all pretty average troops.  In addition, they will all be fatigued as well when we fight the scenario.  The Vampire Forces are less numerous during the day, and will contain fewer Vampires, but it still could be a dicey affair.

We did play the Coffin Hunt scenario before breaking up for the weekend.  We failed to find another of Strangulf’s coffins, but the revision of the dungeon rules did work better.  We lost one warrior for the campaign, Kislevite Timofey, who due to the fatigue failed to keep up with the rest of the force during the race to the dungeon entrance and fell to chasing undead.  We carried an enormous amount of loot out of the dungeon, including a suit of Gromril.

With only one of the five coffins located, we are running out of time.  Morale is in much better shape, and the number of bitten is well under control, but we may be forced to split our forces during the day and send two groups out on coffin hunts each day to have a chance of getting the remaining coffins before campaign time runs out.

We’ll pick up next report with the rest of Day 11!  Thanks for reading!

Oh ya, Pics from the Schattenwald Tower Coffin Hunt:

Bonecaller leading a pack of Ghouls View at Picasa Bonecaller leading a pack of Ghouls21-Apr-2012 23:58	A Giant Skeleton charges! View at Picasa A Giant Skeleton charges!22-Apr-2012 00:21
Racing the humans to SchattenTurm View at Picasa Racing the humans to SchattenTurm22-Apr-2012 00:58	First group in the dungeon. View at Picasa First group in the dungeon.22-Apr-2012 12:10, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 80
A Giant Skeleton on Level 3. View at Picasa A Giant Skeleton on Level 3.22-Apr-2012 12:49, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 80	A rescued handgunner brings unwanted company! View at Picasa A rescued handgunner brings unwanted company!22-Apr-2012 14:17, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 160
The Necromancer's Doomporium View at Picasa The Necromancer's Doomporium22-Apr-2012 14:48, Apple iPhone 4S, 2.4, 4.28mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 160

The 1.3 version of the campaign and some new supporting materials are available on the main campaign page:

The Vampire Hunters 

Several quick references guides for scenario and campaign play have been added to cut down on having to flip through the copious rules for basics.

The rules changes primarily make things a bit easier for the players, as in play-testing so far the campaign has proven to be quite difficult.  Another major change is that the dungeon rules were completely reworked, mostly to use a set of pre-drawn templates with random rooms rather than rely on tables to randomly generate an entire dungeon level.

• Morale increase given for minor vampires when slain or staked, not just staked.
• Morale bonuses improved for taking VF heroes out of action or slaying them.
• Morale bonus for completing a coffin hunt without a rout.
• Impact of first stage of fatigue lessened.
• Flyer and Leaper rules separated and clarified.
• New Scenario Tactical rule added for turning vampires if hero equipped with Holy Relic.
• New Optional Rules for Mulligan of a hero death, experience for VF heroes.
• Number of heroes assignable to Fashion Stakes and Fashion Silver Weapons increased.
• Giant Skeletion stats added.
• Turn expiration for coffin hunts increased from 30 to 35.
• Ratio of vampire coffins to empty and treasure coffins increased for coffin hunts.
• Reinforcing undead in scenarios cannot charge, cast, or shoot on turn of entry unless they are a command model or within Direct Undead range of another model.
• T+1 coffin treasures changed to mean two rolls on table rather than one roll at +1.
• Schattenturm dungeon rules re-written, use new dungeon templates, three provided per level.
• Random treasure tables altered to use mostly percentage dice.

Enjoy!

View at Picasa 08-Jan-2012 18:50, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100

Below are pics taken by moi of my brother Michael’s shadow elves, recently painted.  Some of these are conversions.  I will update either the captions on the photos or this post with info on where the bits for the conversions are from soon.  Enjoy!

 
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View at Picasa Initial layout for SchattenTurm scenario, day ten08-Jan-2012 13:33, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 298

After a somber morning ceremony to bury Captain Anton of the Kislevites, the townsfolk of Nachtdorf and our heroes grimly set about surviving another day.  The heroes decided to send a large force of warriors to an area not yet at explored at all:  SchattenTurm – the Shadow Tower.  This ruined tower at the edge of Shadow Wood supposedly was once the abode of a Necromancer, and has been avoided for decades.  It would seem a good location for Strangulf to secure one of his coffins.

Captain Diedrich, leader of the few Ostermark soldiers defending Nachtdorf, pulled the heroes aside and gave them a short briefing on the area.  He lost several men to the tower before leading his few remaining followers to Nachtdorf.  He informed the remaining captains (Martin now taking over the Kisilevites) that a magical device in the ruin acts as a gate into a dungeon, along with a general layout of the area.

Two of the halfling scouts stayed behind to search for supplies around town.  Father McManus (hired Sigmarite warrior priest) stayed to protect an additional room from vampires, and Sister Isolde, crippled with a smashed leg and a chest wound, stayed to direct work on a siege defense weapon.  The rest of the player heroes headed to SchattenTurm.

Initial forces included three Ghouls, three Ghasts, three Rats, four Grave Guard, two Seneschals, three Spiders, a Fell Bat, and two Dire Wolves.  The two Dwarf Trollslayers, KillMeNow and IDieSoon, setup right at the entrance to the ruined tower, using an ability gained from the exploration roll of the previous scenario.  The plan, suspiciously suggested by Torian the Elf, was to get them into the dungeon early to begin looking for coffins below ground.  The Trollslayers found themselves unable to resist this plan, despite its elfly origins.

Arrrrrrrgh! View at Picasa Arrrrrrrgh!08-Jan-2012 13:20, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	Not too close! View at Picasa Not too close!08-Jan-2012 13:55, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 320
The main body's initial deployment View at Picasa The main body's initial deployment08-Jan-2012 13:19, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.25 sec, ISO 200	Ghouls talking shop View at Picasa Ghouls talking shop08-Jan-2012 13:39, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 320
Dire Wolves lope around a crypt, far from the action View at Picasa Dire Wolves lope around a crypt, far from the action08-Jan-2012 13:33, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 320

The rest of our forces came in along the long western board edge, mostly in one big mass near the ruined tower, but another small group lined up near a ruin containing a possible above-ground coffin.

With the first turn, the western forces simply advanced onto the board.  The group near the ruin moved at regular speed and hid, hoping to search for their coffin quietly without attracting attention.  The two trollslayers entered the stairs leading down to the first floor of the dungeon.  There were a few missile shots from the main hero force against nearby ghouls and a spider, all missing.

Heroes advance View at Picasa Heroes advance08-Jan-2012 13:44, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Coffin patrol View at Picasa Coffin patrol08-Jan-2012 13:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In the first Vampire Forces turn, the Spider on the southern flank charged Kislevite Youth Sergey, but failed to wound him.  Other undead loped, scittered, or ran towards any heroes they could see.

We all hate spiders View at Picasa We all hate spiders08-Jan-2012 13:49, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In player turn two, Sister Winifred counter-charged the Spider threatening Sergey and took it out, while a large group of models on the northern part of the formation stood their ground an fired a mass of various missiles at incoming undead, somehow either all missing or failing to wound.  The small group of warriors searching for a coffin in the ruin succeeded, but the located coffin turned out to be empty.  The Trollslayers began exploring the dungeon.  Over the course of the scenario, they would locate a fair amount of loot in the dungeon but manage to trigger almost no encounters, so we will set them aside from the report for the moment.

With the first Vampire Forces reinforcements roll for turn two, Michael W. managed to roll up Strangulf himself!  The lead villain entered from the southwestern corner of the board, just across a waterfall from the large group of player heroes.  On his first turn on the board, Strangulf attempted to leap over this gap, but failed, and fell into the rapidly churning water.  This would delay him from coming to grips with the players, much to our relief, and much to the master vampire’s embarrassment.  The only other action during this undead turn was a ghoul charging new Kislevite henchmen Josef, stunning him.

Strangulf enters the fight View at Picasa Strangulf enters the fight08-Jan-2012 14:32, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Strangulf in an embarrassing moment View at Picasa Strangulf in an embarrassing moment08-Jan-2012 15:03, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 320

On player turn three, the main hero forces charged approaching undead on their left flank, while attempting to push forward through woods to get to the ruined tower with the main force.  Kislevite Misha, Sister Salyra, and Dwarf Popsi each took a Ghast out of action, while Mother Madira successfully cast her first Soulfire of a Coffin Hunt during the campaign and took out a Grave Guard.

Assaulting the Grave Guard View at Picasa Assaulting the Grave Guard08-Jan-2012 15:04, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK EASYSHARE M530 Digital Camera, 3.1, 6.5mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 286

There were no reinforcements during Vampire Forces turn three, but undead that had been moving towards the sounds of combat since the beginning of the scenario began to hit the player lines.  Kislevite Timofey took a Seneschal out of action, Frito and Spam combined to take out a Ghoul, and Mother Madira punished a charging Grave Guard with a whip crack, sending it out of the battle.  The allies took their first loss, though, with Sister Salyra falling to a charging Seneschal.

On player turn four, the allies counter-charged, attempting to clear the area once and for all so that the dungeon could be reached by more than just the Trollslayers.  Big Boss and Spam combined to take out a hated Spider, and Sister Hildegarde punished a Grave Guard with a whip crack, sending it’s bones flying.  The Kislevite Bear roared and charged a Dire Wolf, sending it out of the battle.  Sister Veronica further thinned the undead numbers, bashing a Grave Guard out of action with her Sigmarite Hammer.

Advancing to the tower View at Picasa Advancing to the tower08-Jan-2012 15:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Advancing through the woods View at Picasa Advancing through the woods08-Jan-2012 15:01, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Vampire Forces turn four rapidly turned the player fortunes for the worse, as Strangulf finally emerged from the stream, dripping and rather angry.  In addition, a Minor Vampire, four Spiders, and two Zombies appeared on the board as reinforcements – the Spiders in charge range of the player lines.  Strangulf flung three souls from his Cloak of Souls at the player lines, taking Kislevite Stepan out of action, knocking Kislevite Pyotr down from the tower hill (stunning him), and also knocking the Dwarf Engineer Sparks off the hill.  Souls from the swirling cloak constitute by far Strangulf’s nastiest attack, allowing him multiple powerful missile strikes.

Below the hill, acounter-charging Dire Wolf took the Kislevite bear out of action, and Sister Simone was taken out of action by a Seneschal.  A Spider caught Frito in its jaws and sent him out of action, and fellow Dwarf Spam also fell to a Spider.  The losses continued to mount, as Timofey was dropped by a Fell Bat.  Big Boss and Misha countered by taking out a Spider and the Minor Vampire respectively, but the damage was done.  Six allied warriors out in one turn!

More spiders! Oh boy! View at Picasa More spiders! Oh boy!08-Jan-2012 16:50, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

The players topside held on for one more turn to complete a last coffin search, and then voluntarily routed at the top of turn six (sustaining no additional losses).  The two Dwarf Trollslayers exploring the dungeon held on for the duration of the allowed time, finding a pile of loot and very little in the way of monsters (encounters in the dungeon may need some adjustment)!

Coffin patrol finishes searching a crypt, as Bonecaller lurks outside View at Picasa Coffin patrol finishes searching a crypt, as Bonecaller lurks outside08-Jan-2012 17:03, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In post scenario roles, we discovered that Timofey and Frito were both fatalities.  This took our total casualties for the campaign up to five:  three Kislevites (including their original Captain), and two Dwarves (both henchmen).  The Sisters have suffered no losses, but I have one champion with a sucking chest wound and a smashed leg (Sister Isolde), who I will probably refuse to replace even if I get another Lad’s Got Talent roll.

With Town Morale at three, Strangulf having Full Influence and commiserate campaign rewards in two of the four game areas where he can gain Influence, with only one of the four coffins located and destroyed that we need to account for to force him into an endgame scenario, and with half of the campaign turns expired, things are looking very very grim.  Somehow over the course of the next eight or nine campaign turns we must locate and destroy three of the remaining four coffins, keep Morale from dropping to zero, and not lose many more experienced heroes whom we will need when we have to face Strangulf down in his lair.

To make this more difficult, with half the campaign turns gone we have had only one Night Attack on the town, which means that the second half of the campaign will feature several of these.  While we have built the defenses of the town up over the past turns, and will be a very difficult nut for assaulting forces to crack, the night attacks still interrupt player warrior rest, which makes it harder to go out on the coffin hunts we so desperately need to succeed in the daytime hours.  The only good aspect of increased night attacks is that since we are likely to win them, Morale of the town will rise.  At the moment, it appears if we lose, it will most likely be because we fail to eliminate Strangulf’s remaining coffins.  The only other way we can win is to slay Strangulf himself, and that is unlikely.  Even if taken out of action, he will only be roughly a one in six to die.

There are a few tweaks to the campaign rules that I will make to give the players more opportunities to raise Morale, and to make the Coffin Hunts somewhat easier.

We have a long list of ideas for Coffin Hunt balancing, and have voted on them.  The most popular is a very simple and sensible change suggested by Michael Weaver:  only allow reinforcing Vampire Forces models to charge on their first turn if they are either a command model (such as a Vampire), or are within the “Direct Undead” range of a command model.  This will limit the number of models that can appear on the board at the beginning of a Vampire Forces turn and immediately charge player models before they have time to react to the appearance of the new enemy models.  Several other changes will be considered as well, and the random dungeon rules for SchattenTurm will be reworked considerably.

All of these changes should appear in the 1.3 version of the rules, hopefully posted sometime in early to mid February.  My next chore, though, is to get the current 1.2 version of the rules posted here.

That’s all for now!  Thanks for reading!

... and I'm all out of bubble gum! View at Picasa ... and I'm all out of bubble gum!07-Jan-2012 23:36, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Day nine defending Nachtdorf dawned sunny and clear.  With town morale at three, the heroes decided to head for the fortified farmhouse of Bachmeir Baurenhof.  Even though we had already cleared Strangulf’s coffin from this area, it is the easiest area due to the presence of Orc bandits, who often interfere with undead close to the farmstead.  If we could stake one or two minor vampires, we could get town morale back up and buy us a few turns without having to worry about a campaign loss due to morale falling to zero.

All of my Sisters of Sigmar except for Mother Madira, including the new henchperson Emmaline, were included in the expedition.  Michael Stamps sent Big Boss, Popsi, KillMeNow, Frito, and Wooly, leaving Sparks, Spam and IDieSoon in town to work on defenses and weapons.  Michael Kingsbury’s Kislevites sent their full force, along with their new bear and henchman.  This constituted a large allied force to secure a successful outing.  Two of our new Halfling Scouts led a group of townfolk out to find supplies, while the other Halfling  snored loudly in bed, as he had been on patrol duty the previous evening.  Father Jonas tended to the bitten, and Father McManus assisted Mother Madira preparing blessed water.

Along the way to Baurenhof, a Shadow Elf by the name of Torian introduced himself to the heroes and offered his assistance for a few days (my brother Michael’s character, allowing him to run one good guy in addition to the Vampire Forces while visiting for holidays).

Initial Vampire Forces milling around Baurenhof were numerous, but not terribly strong.  There were eight Skeletons, six Zombies, three Ghouls, a Ghast, two Dire Wolves, one Grave Guard Seneschal, and a Cairn Wraith.  The Cairn Wraith was probably the strongest villain on the board.  The Orc bandits were mostly holed up in the otherwise deserted farmstead, but a small patrol led by the Orc Boss were visible just to the east of the farmstead, prepared to defend their territory from all comers.

Bachmeir Baurnhoff - Orc Archers on Scaffolding View at Picasa Bachmeir Baurnhoff - Orc Archers on Scaffolding07-Jan-2012 19:10, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Orc boss prepared to defend his captured farmstead View at Picasa Orc boss prepared to defend his captured farmstead07-Jan-2012 19:13, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Allied forces, numbering in the mid twenties, came in from two board edges in roughly equal groups, each led by a scout.  One group entered from the west edge, on the far side of the stream.  Most of the warriors in this group  came in from the southwest, near a bridge crossing the stream.  This group, led by Gustav, consisted of several Dwarves, a few Sisters, and a couple of Kislevites.  A few warriors entered on the north side of this edge, close to a ruin that might contain a vampire coffin.  This small squad consisted of Dwarf henchmen Frito and Daft Wooly, along with the Kislevite Boris.

The second group of allies came in far from the first, along the northeast board edge.  This group contained the remaining Sisters, the bulk of the Kislevites, and the Shadow Elf Torian.

With the start of allied turn one, a group in the northeast comprised mostly of Sisters along with Kislevite Misha ran into a ruined temple to search for a coffin.  Similarly, Torian and Sisters Nadja and Isolde moved to a another coffin near the edge, under some trees just east of the Orc watch tower.  This group did not have to run, so they hid upon reaching their location.   A group of Kislevites on the easternmost edge of our line held their ground and fired at nearby Dire Wolves, with Luka taking one out with her fancy throwing knives (magical, allowing two throws per turn, and she has also taken the Knife Thrower skill so she gets four shots per turn)!

A gang of Sisters and a Kislevite searching for a coffin in the ruins of a church View at Picasa A gang of Sisters and a Kislevite searching for a coffin in the ruins of a church07-Jan-2012 19:11, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Shadow Elf attempts to teach Sisters to sneak while attempting to locate a coffin View at Picasa Shadow Elf attempts to teach Sisters to sneak while attempting to locate a coffin07-Jan-2012 19:14, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the west, a group of heroes charged zombies that were milling around near the bridge.  Sisters Simone and Veronica each took out a zombie, and TrollSlayer KillMeNow also contemptuously quisanarted a zombie.  Frito, Wooly, and Boris moved toward the ruin on the hill overlooking a small waterfall.  At the end of allied turn one, we made two coffin search rolls.  The large group of Sisters in the temple ruin successfully located their coffin and opened it to reveal a sleeping minor vampire!  Sister Anne in this group conveniently was equipped with a Rosewood Stake, but unfortunately was not in base contact with the coffin, meaning it would be turn three before she could pound the stake through the thing’s heart.

Killing zombies guarding the bridge View at Picasa Killing zombies guarding the bridge07-Jan-2012 19:14, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

During the Vampire Forces first turn, a Dire Wolf charged and took out the newly acquired Kislevite Bear in the northeast, an ignominious start to the campaign for the beast.  A ghast and a ghoul ambled toward the church ruin where the Sisters had unearthed the minor vampire, and the Cairn Wraith also glided in this direction.  A large group of skeletons moved toward the bridge in the west, and a smaller group of skeletons in the southeast moved toward the Orc farmstead.  In the Orc part of the turn, a Boy near the farmstead charged and took out a zombie that had wandered to close to their territory.  The Orc boss along with some Boyz and BigNutz the Troll advanced towards the small group of skeletons that were approaching the farmstead from the southeast.

Orc boss and his gang threatening off undead View at Picasa Orc boss and his gang threatening off undead07-Jan-2012 19:53, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the allied second turn, our scenario expiration roll took us to a total of eleven out of thirty.  Salrya and Misha charged a ghast that was threatening the group occupying the ruined temple in the northeast.  Anton, Luka, Martin and David held their ground so they could fire on the remaining Dire Wolf.  Torian and his two accompanying Sisters continued to hide in a small wood near the Orc watchtower looking for a coffin.  In the west, Dwarves charged the skeletons that had moved onto the bridge, the rest of the allies moving in behind them.

Battle for the bridge View at Picasa Battle for the bridge07-Jan-2012 19:53, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Ghast attempting to rescue a soon to be staked minor vampire View at Picasa Ghast attempting to rescue a soon to be staked minor vampire07-Jan-2012 19:53, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the shooting phase, a distance shot from Kislevite Stepan took out a skeleton in the back ranks of the group on the bridge.  Martin knocked down the Dire Wolf in the northeast, and Luka managed to miss it with all four of her throwing knife shots, a great example of Mr. Kingsbury’s ability to roll spectacularly poorly  from time to time (shown below) – at least when rolling for his own models!

Pincushion duty View at Picasa Pincushion duty07-Jan-2012 19:53, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Kingsbury's remarkable dice rolling skills on exhibit View at Picasa Kingsbury's remarkable dice rolling skills on exhibit07-Jan-2012 19:52, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 200

In close combat, Salrya and Timofey combined to take out the ghast in the temple ruin, and on the bridge another skeleton fell to KillMeNow.

Vampire Forces turn two went well for the allies.  To start things off, Michael Weaver failed to roll any reinforcements for the villains, which helped enormously.  The skeletons in the southeast charged BigNutz the troll, and somehow managed to wound him twice and leave him stunned.  The Cairn Wraith charged into Sister Salyra, but failed to hurt her and fell to the ground Knocked Down by her return hammer blows.  On the bridge in the west, skeleton counter charges failed miserably, with KillMeNow and Kislevite Timofey both taking out their bony opponents.  In the Orc turn, a zombie fell to an arrowshot from the Boys in the watchtower, and the Orc Boss crushed one of the skeletons that had taken BigNutz down.

More interference at the temple View at Picasa More interference at the temple07-Jan-2012 20:09, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

A gang of skeletons overwhelm troll View at Picasa A gang of skeletons overwhelm troll07-Jan-2012 20:09, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Player turn three began with Luka, disgusted by her last knife throw, declaring a charge on the downed Dire Wolf and dispatching it.  Near the ruined temple, Misha charged a ghoul that was threatening Salyra, also taking it out.  Salyra finished off the Cairn Wraith with her blessed hammers, leaving the area of the ruined temple clear.  Anne, just inside the temple, capped this off by hammering a rosewood stake through the heart of the minor vampire found earlier.

Just to the west of the ruined temple, the small group led by Torian finally located a coffin, finding a minor Treasure inside.  In the far west, Gustav and a few Kislevites searched under the west end of the bridge for a possible vampire coffin.  Other warriors in the group crossed over the stream.

Vampire Forces turn three was uneventful, which was very good for the allies.  Again, there were no reinforcements, and few undead troops left to threaten us.  The two skeletons remaining on BigNutz failed to take him out, and in the Orc turn the boss and his ladz finished them off.

With things looking promising on player turn four, Isolde and Nadja accompanied Torian across the road toward the Orc watchtower and another possible coffin in that area.  The group in the ruined temple also began to move west.  The Kislevites in the northeast, finally with no targets, moved to climb a nearby rocky slope to get at another coffin location.  In the far west, the hunt for the coffin under the bridge continued, with other forces closing on a hill near the Orc farmstead across the stream that contained another possible coffin.  In the northwest corner, Boris, Wooly, and Frito finally got close to the coffin they were trying to find.

Climb, men, climb! View at Picasa Climb, men, climb!07-Jan-2012 20:44, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	Crossing the bridge View at Picasa Crossing the bridge07-Jan-2012 20:45, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
Unearthing a coffin concealed under the bridge View at Picasa Unearthing a coffin concealed under the bridge07-Jan-2012 20:45, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	Isolde, Torian, and Nadja run to the next coffin View at Picasa Isolde, Torian, and Nadja run to the next coffin07-Jan-2012 20:46, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Vampire Forces turn four finally resulted in some undead reinforcements.  A couple of ghasts appeared near the farmstead, three skeletons entered the board near  Torian and the two Sisters, and a Necromancer with a Soul Stealing spell came in from the northwest, near where Boris, Wooly, and and Frito were hunting for a coffin.  These new forces moved towards the warriors they could see, but did no damage to the allies this turn.  The Necromancer did attempt to steal a soul, but failed to get the spell off.

With player turn five, Torian, Nadja, and Isolde charged into the three nearby skeletons.  Unfortunately, Torian was taken out of action in the exchange of blows.  The Kislevites climbed the hill in the northeast, and at the end of the player turn located a coffin containing another minor vampire!  In the southwest, Popsi, KillMeNow, and Sister Veronica moved closed on a coffin under a tree, and the coffin under the bridge further to the west proved to be empty, as did the coffin in the northwest ruin where Frito, Boris, and Wooly were being threatened by the lurking Necromancer.

Skeletons! This should be easy, right? View at Picasa Skeletons! This should be easy, right?07-Jan-2012 21:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Dwarves approach a coffin View at Picasa Dwarves approach a coffin07-Jan-2012 21:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

To start of Vampire turn five, three giant rats, poisonous due to the event card from the previous night, popped up close to where the skeletons were fighting with Sisters Nadja and Isolde.  These rats charged into the melee, and Sister Isolde was taken out of action.  Near the farmstead, a ghoul that had brashly charged the Orcs took the troll BigNutz out of action.  On the subsequent Orc turn, a gang charge by Boyz returned the favor and took the ghoul out.  The Necromancer in the northwest continued to avoid the heroes, casting his soul-stealing spell again but failing to get it off.  A zombie wandered over from the farmstead area to help his efforts.

On player turn six, with the scenario expiration counter now at 23 out of 30, we failed to do much damage to the new undead forces.  Sisters Winifred and Emmaline rushed in to help Nadja, but failed to harm the rats or remaining skeleton.  Frito did manage to kill the zombie that had wandered over to screen for the Necromancer in the northwest.

Vampire Forces turn six was a little rough for the players.  The Necromancer finally got his spell off, sucking a wound from Daft Wooly and unfortunately also taking him out of action.  In the middle of the western edge of the board, a skeleton finally took Sister Nadja out of action.  Our losses were beginning to mount at this point.  Sisters Winifred and Emmaline each did take out a poisonous rat, which helped thin that combat down a bit to size.

Avenging Isolde and Torian View at Picasa Avenging Isolde and Torian07-Jan-2012 22:11, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Wooly and Boris play peekaboo with Necromancer View at Picasa Wooly and Boris play peekaboo with Necromancer07-Jan-2012 22:11, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

On player turn seven, we rolled a one for our scenario expiration, so our total was now twenty four.  Anton staked the minor vampire his Kislevites had discovered on the hill in the east, and the combat with the skeletons and the rats in the north was a standoff.  In the undead half of the turn, the Necromancer got off his spell again, and again took a model out of action, this time Boris.  Sisters Winifred and Anne both took out skeletons that had charged them in the north.  In the Orc part of the turn, the two archers on the watchtower spotted two ghasts in the woods around them, and opened fire on them.

Martin, David, and Anton searching for a coffin View at Picasa Martin, David, and Anton searching for a coffin07-Jan-2012 22:12, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

For player turn eight, the expiration roll increased to 26 of 30.  Popsi, lurking under a hilltop tree near the farmstead, fired a crossbow shot at the Orcs on the watchtower.  The shot “thunked” ineffectually into the railing of the tower.  Trollslayer KillMeNow eyed the Orc farmstead from the hill, decided proximity of greenskins was just too much for him, and took off towards the Orc-loaded farm on his lonesome.  Sister Veronica sighed and followed, along with Dwarf Captain Big Boss.

With the battle in the north now over, a group of Sisters moved around the combat near the watchtower to try to uncover another coffin.  The kislevites in the east moved down the slope of the hill where they had dispatched their vampire, heading for the area where BigNutz the troll fell earlier in the fight.

In the undead part of the turn, two Dire Wolves appeared as reinforcements on the east edge, unfortunately in charge range of the rear of the Kislevite group.  They both charged Captain Anton, taking him out of action for the second scenario in a row!  Mr. Kingsbury was understandably distraught, but things would get worse with the injury roll later.  The only other assault was made by the two ghasts in the north, who scaled the watchtower and attacked the Orc archers there.  Both were repulsed, falling to the ground, but neither was taken out of action.

A ghast attempts the shooting platform View at Picasa A ghast attempts the shooting platform07-Jan-2012 23:02, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Orcs shooting ghasts in a barrel? View at Picasa Orcs shooting ghasts in a barrel?07-Jan-2012 23:02, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Player turn nine took our expiration roll to 27 out of 30, and a couple of coffin contents were revealed to contain loot, but the mood now was a bit more somber with a fair number of our warriors out of action including one of the captains.  Frito took the incredibly troublesome Necromancer out of action, and KillMeNow continued to charge the farmstead, with Veronica and BigBoss staying safely behind the crazy fellow.  Popsi “thunked” another quarrel into the watchtower, which the Orcs heard, but ignored as their attention was below the tower at the ghasts that kept trying to get up to them.

Popsi hiding under a tree, lighter about a quiver-full of quarrels View at Picasa Popsi hiding under a tree, lighter about a quiver-full of quarrels07-Jan-2012 23:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

With player turn ten, the expiration roll went over thirty, so this would be our last turn.  KillMeNow finally kicked open the door to the farmstead (once again, he reached the Orcs just in time for the scenario to end).  Popsi finally managed to take one of the watchtower Orcs out of action, but there were no other significant accomplishments for the players.

With that, the scenario ended, and we moved onto our injury rolls.  Unfortunately, both Captain Anton and Boris the Streltsi proved to be dead.  This would bring our fatality count for the campaign to three, having lost the Dwarf henchman Mopsi on the first weekend of the campaign.  Sister Isolde survived her injuries, but with a sucking chest wound (-1 Toughness) and a bad leg (cannot run).  The remaining warriors taken out of action recovered in full.  Kingsbury was somewhat traumatized by his Kislevite losses, but in partial compensation by the fates, he rolled two “Lads Got Talent” results for his henchman advancements, taking him up to six heroes for the first time in the campaign.

Our exploration roll resulted in the ability to place two models anywhere we liked for the next scenario, along with some minor loot.

Resolving the rest of our town actions for the day phase of turn nine, we produced more Blessed Water, another blessed Rosewood Stake, and more Silver Bullets for Big Boss to use in his double-barreled pistol.  Father Jonas also healed a bitten townie.

For the night phase of turn nine, we drew the “Journey into Shadows” event card, which gave Strangulf an Influence Point in the Schattenturm game area.  This gave him Full Influence in that area, which allowed him to add three more necromantic spells to his hand, lowered our morale by two, and earned him a campaign reward:  “Ash”, a zombie knight.  Ash will be able to appear in town attacks or Schattenturm scenarios as a command roll result.  We had one turn of a bitten into a vampire during the night, lowering town morale by yet another point.  We ended up with morale close to where we began, but had we not staked the minor vampires, it would have been a campaign loss!  Hopefully we would protect an additional room from vampires in day ten, using Garlic and Blessed Water, making it more unlikely for bitten to turn.

With that, turn nine came to a close.  I will get the day part of turn ten, the last thing we accomplished over this past weekend, posted soon!

View at Picasa Gotta be under this tree somewhere, lads!07-Jan-2012 12:58, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm

This weekend we had four participants instead of our normal three.  My brother Michael and wife Stacy were visiting for the holidays, and Michael agreed to run the Vampire Forces for the weekend.  He would also sneak in a Shadow Elf hero to help the allies in the battles after the one described here.  This would make three Michaels, outnumbering my one Jim for the weekend, with an occasional visit by a Scott.

MIchael, Michael, and Michael View at Picasa MIchael, Michael, and Michael07-Jan-2012 13:59, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 500

With the dawn of our seventh day defending Nachtdorf, the town bid farewell and good luck to three heroes and six townsfolk departing to purchase needed supplies and allies in Burgenhof.  Sister Isolde of the Sigmarite Sisters, Popsie of the Dwarves, and Bear Trainer Martin of the Kislevites led the shopping party, expected to overnight in Burgenhof and return before the evening of the eight day.  Five hundred and fifty eight gold crowns were secured in the wagons, which hopefully would be put to good use.  The wagons disappeared as the remaining heroes began setting the townsfolk to work.  We set aside our list of items that would be returning with them from the trip at the end of day eight, mostly armor and hopefully some Halfling Scout hired swords.  There had been suggestions that an Elf Ranger might also be a useful ally to search for in Burgenhof, but the dwarves strongly objected (“They smell of SOAP!”).

Gustav (our NPC scout) and Anton (captain of the Kislevites) headed out of town close behind the wagons on a scouting run of the surrounding area, taking five townsfolk with them, their purpose to scavenge supplies.  Their efforts for the day turned up some gold, a mule, a spear, and a weighted net.  Meanwhile, under other heroes’ guidance, townsfolk finished repairs on the last damaged town wall, made progress repairing an old dwarven cannon that had been found in a basement (under command of dwarven engineer Sparks, of course), fashioned some silver bullets, and improvised defenses around both the church and another town building to make it difficult for undead to break into them in the event of another attack upon the town.

Father Jonas (NPC priest of the town sigmarite temple) healed a bitten civilian, while Mother Madira (captain of the Sigmarite Sisters) and newly hired sword Father McManus both successfully produced vials of blessed water in the temple, vital both for ruining Strangulf’s coffins and for ceremonies to protect rooms harboring vampire bitten victims from the call of the fiends during the nighttime hours.

At dusk, the heroes awoke the night shift.  Burgermeister Kaufmann, Captain Diedrech, and Sgt. Lowenherz directed the town milita and state troopers to their wall posts and patrols, and took watch over the bitten, as the heroes retired to their rest.  During the night, Strangulf advanced his hold over Schattenturm, the ruined Necromancer’s tower to the east of town, and gained a necromantic spell as well as an Influence Point in this area.

No bitten turned into vampires during the night, but at dawn it was discovered that two new townsfolk were bitten.  Worse, one of the town militiamen that had been patrolling the walls and Kislevite champion Luka were pale and weak – clearly bitten as well.  Luka would have to spend the day resting indoors while her comrades ventured forth.  Mother Madira would stay behind on the eight day, along with Father McManus and Father Jonas, to insure that Luka and as many others as possible were healed from the undeads’ influence.  Several other heroes stayed in town this day to fashion rosewood stakes and produce silver weapons.

The majority of the player warriors decided to head to Schattenwald ruins on day eight to try to uproot one of Strangulf’s coffins in that area.  The weather initially appeared sunny, but as they approached the forest clouds mysteriously rolled in and darkened the day (Strangulf using an Alter Weather necromantic card).

The warriors divided into two groups, and converged on the ruined town in the forest with one group coming in from the east, the other the west.  The eastern group was led through the forest by Gustav, and all the dwarves and two sisters entered the area of the hunt from the southeast, with Gustav and a group of kislevites entering from the northeast.  Captain Anton led the western party into the area, near a river winding through the old ruins.  This party was composed of a small mix of kislevites and sisters.

Initial vampire forces appeared light.  A necromancer in the southeast appeared to be easy prey for the dwarves, with only a ghoul and a ghast prowling nearby.  In the middle of the area, forces were a little stronger, with three grave guard led by a seneschal, a giant skeleton (!), two fell bats, and a few spiders moving about the ruined buildings.  In the west, just on the other side of the river, a group of six fat, poisonous spiders crept under the trees.

Spiders lurking in Schattenwald View at Picasa Spiders lurking in Schattenwald07-Jan-2012 13:16, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In the first allied turn, Big Boss, Captain of the dwarves, charged and stunned the necromancer in the in the southeast.  Sparks dispatched a ghoul near a coffin just uphill from Big Boss.  Two sisters on the same hill spit sling stones at a nearby ghast and Sister Salyra stunned it, leaving it exposed to the two nearby dwarven trollslayers.  In the west, the allied warriors moved towards coffins and cover, doing no damage with missile fire.

In the vampire forces first turn, spiders in the east moved towards the visible allied warriors, spitting webs.  Captain Anton, leaning out from behind a ruined building, suffered a direct hit from one of the sticky messes, and found himself pinned.  The giant skeleton, grave guard, and seneschal moved west, away from the dwarves.  No vampire forces reinforcement rolls are made on the first turn of the coffin hunt, so things still looked good for our heroes.

Captain Anton struggling in webs View at Picasa Captain Anton struggling in webs07-Jan-2012 13:16, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the player second turn, the trollslayers charged the still knocked down ghast, with KillMeNow taking him off the mortal coil.  Big Boss finished off the necromancer, and the two Sisters on the nearby hill began navigating their way down the rocky slope.  The kislevites in the northeast moved into a three story ruin, beginning to climb up to a promising looking hideaway for a coffin on the third floor.  In the west, Sister Anne with wardog Brother Woof, Captain Anton (breaking free from the webs), and Sister Simone moved into position to climb up to the second story of a ruin to search for a coffin.

Trollslayers taking out a ghast View at Picasa Trollslayers taking out a ghast07-Jan-2012 13:17, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The second Vampire Forces turn saw our heroes fortunes turn for the worse.  The overcast weather made reinforcements more likely, and my brother Michael, guest starring over the holidays as our Vampire Forces player, managed to roll up six skeletons including a champion, a grave guard, and Mistress Mircalla with her two dire wolves.  Mircalla is the slinkiest of Strangulf’s mistresses, preferring to use her charm and special abilities from a distance rather than engage in combat.  Mistress Mircalla appeared on the board close to the eastern forces, and the skeletons appeared almost right on top of the dwarves.  Apparently the necromancer Big Boss had so easily taken out had completed a spell to raise the skeletons from the ground just in time.  The extra forces in the east caused Michael to change his tactics, which originally were to move away from the dwarves and sweep the small group of western allies, forcing us to the route point.  Instead, he decided to wipe out the outnumbered allies in the west.

Mircalla makes an appearance View at Picasa Mircalla makes an appearance07-Jan-2012 12:39, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm

Dwarves surrounded View at Picasa Dwarves surrounded07-Jan-2012 13:37, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The skeletons charged the nearest dwarves – Big Boss, Spam, and Frito (lone dwarf henchman).  Spam fell out of action, but Frito rallied and dispatched a skeleton.  Mircalla, her wolves, and a few bats that were nearby moved towards the sisters and kislevites to the east / northeast, with Mircalla managing to beguile Sister Winifred, who turned with glazed eyes towards Sister Salyra.  Spiders in the west rushed toward the building the small western group was occupying.

One dwarf down, two to go, chant the skeletons View at Picasa One dwarf down, two to go, chant the skeletons07-Jan-2012 14:36, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The player half of the third turn was largely uneventful, which considering the number of Vampire Forces that had reinforced the area on the previous turn, was not a good thing.  Missile fire failed to take down any undead.  Sister Salyra was forced to move away from the strangely behaving Winifred to avoid being charged, and the dwarves failed to take any of the skeletons out in close combat.  One coffin was found and searched, but proved to be empty.  In the west,  Anton and Anne climbed to the second floor of a ruin to search for a coffin, while Brother Woof and Sister Simone guarded the area from below.

Kislevites occupying a ruin as Mircalla advances View at Picasa Kislevites occupying a ruin as Mircalla advances07-Jan-2012 13:59, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Inevitably, the third VF turn was a hammer blow to the allies.  The reinforcement roll placed a minor vampire directly behind Sister Simone in the west, and added two ghouls and a ghast to the east.  Spiders in the west made initiative checks and scaled the walls of the ruin to drop in from above on Anne and Anton.  The vampire snarled and closed with Sister Simone.  Another spider could just see Woof near Simone, and charged Anne’s loyal guard dog.  On the second floor of the ruin, Anton fell to a spider bite, while Sister Anne used her steel whip to take one of the spiders charging her out of action.  Below, Brother Woof latched on to a spindly leg of the spider that had charged him and snapped it off, stunning it.  Beside him, though, Sister Simone was brutally taken out of action by the minor vampire that has surprised them, leaving Anne and Woof separated, alone, and outnumbered.

In the east, forces led by Mircalla charged into combat finally.  Mircalla attempted to charm the kislevite Streltsi David, who had climbed to the third floor of a nearby ruin, but failed.  Her forces were more effective, however.  The giant skeleton crashed into the kislevites at the ground floor of the ruin in the northeast, accompanied by Mircalla’s two dire wolves.  Giant bats few from her ranks towards the trollslayers.  Skeletons swarmed Big Boss and henchman Frito, who were cut off from engineer Sparks and the trollslayers by a steep hill.  Mircalla advanced up the hill with five grave guard, in position to charge either Sister Winifred or the kislevites next turn.

Giant skeleton and wolves charge View at Picasa Giant skeleton and wolves charge07-Jan-2012 14:28, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

During combat in the east, the kislevite warrior Misha was dispatched by the force of the combined charges of the giant skeleton and wolves.  Trollslayer IDieSoon traded wounds with a Fell Bat, and Big Boss and Frito somehow held their ground against a horde of skeletons, blows raining on their armor.

With the fourth player turn, after some discussion, we decided to voluntarily route.  This would be a blow to town morale, which was already low, but with a number of warriors out of action already,   more clearly to follow, and no visible chance of revealing the contents of any more coffins, there seemed little to gain in sticking around.

The scenario injury rolls resulted in no fatalities (those would come later in the weekend, my friends), there was a painful roll for Kingsbury’s kislevites.  Captain Anton, after falling from the upper story of a ruin to a spider bite, came up with the “Robbed” result.  He had apparently been rolled by the minor vampire that has taken Simone out at the base of the ruin.  All his items were lost, and as the captain, he was well equipped.  Amongst the pile of equipment lost, his family heirloom, a magical axe.  We decided if a minor vampire appeared in later scenarios, there would be a chance it would be the same one, carrying his axe around.

The party made it’s exploration rolls and limped back to town, Captain Anton wrapped in a borrowed cloak and darkly cursing his fortunes.  We finished up the rolls for town actions for day eight, adding one new rosewood stake, successfully healing Luka, a town militia member, and a towns-person of their vampire bites, and making some progress rounding up silver for some special bullets.

As dusk approached, the shopping trip party returned to town, along with much needed armor, Emmaline – a new Sister of Sigmar, Daft Wooly – a new Dwarf henchman, a bear for Kislevite Bear Trainer Martin, and three new Halfling Scout hired swords: Tubby Tiddletoes, Badwyck Bimpo, and Nod Nibbles (pics later, they are still being painted).  The new scouts were primarily intended to help us with the Find Supplies town action, which can provide equipment and loot by scouting the town and surrounding countryside.  Also we planned to use one of them on patrol at night, which can give us some benefits to starting position and turn order in a night attack scenario.

During the night, the Vampire Forces event was “Infernal Pestilence”, which makes creatures (Wolves, Bats, Rats) poisonous until another night event, and also gives Strangulf an influence point in both Bachmeir Baurnhof and Schattenwald.  This event gave Strangulf three influence points in Schattenwald, which is full influence in the area, and so granted him the campaign reward for the area:  a Varghulf known as the Ghoul King.  In future night attacks or scenarios in Schattenwald or Stangulf’s homebase of Altschloss, a roll of five or six on the initial forces dice can be spent to put the Ghoul King into the scenario.

Finally, one bitten turned into a vampire during the night, lowering morale another point, and one new towns-person was bitten.  Morale at this point was three – fairly close to a campaign loss.

This concludes the report for turn eight, next one will cover day and night phases of turn nine!  Cheers for reading through!

View at Picasa Mircalla and her wolves cascade down from the wall in darkness, and enter the northeastern part of town unopposed.03-Dec-2011 15:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Our campaign picked up this weekend with the night phase of the fourth campaign turn.  Our first weekend of play is described in an earlier report: http://hobbyblog.wargameweaver.com/mordheim/vampire-hunters-campaign-report-one.

We flipped over the event card for night phase of turn four, and beheld the title “Attack, my Children!”  The first assault on Nachtdorf by the Vampire Forces was begun.  As this was the first Town Attack scenario of the campaign, I will describe it in detail.  For future reports, I will probably just summarize scenarios.  So, if you wish to see the bloody deeds that took place, read on!  Click on any of the pictures to get a full-sized view.

We setup the town on our gaming tables, this time with only two ruined wall sections, one in the south and one in the east, as the gap in the north wall was repaired during earlier campaign turns.

Most of our warriors were executing rest actions for the night.  My Sisters of Sigmar were peacefully resting in the Temple of Sigmar in the middle of town, with the NPC Father Jonas awake and tending to the fevered dreams of our two vampire-bitten townies.  Michael Stamps’ Dwarf Treasure Hunters were piled into the blacksmith’s hut next to the town pond, chewing garlic sausages and muttering about “Talls”.  Michael Kingsbury’s Kislevites were sleeping off an evening of sampling the local ale at the inn, near the north-west corner of town.

But some defenders were alert and stalwart.  The NPC Captain Diedrech and his three spear-men patrolled the north and west walls, while our four recently trained town militia members guarded the gap in the south wall under the supervision of militia sergeant Lowenherz and town Burgermeister Kaufmann.  My Sisters of Sigmar captain, Mother Madira, patrolled near the gap in the east wall along with one of her hench-sisters.

View at Picasa Nachtdorf before the first night assault, as seen from the northwest.02-Dec-2011 23:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The southern gate, with kislevite crossbowman. Mother Madira womans a nearby wall.02-Dec-2011 23:57, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The gap in the south wall, manned by Burgermeister Kaufmann, Sgt. Lownherz, and the town militia.02-Dec-2011 23:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The next step was to generate the forces assaulting the town.  This is done by rolling a pool of d6.  For a night attack, four d6 are rolled per player, so that gave us twelve d6.  There is a bonus for each Influence Point that Strangulf (the principle vampire) has established in any campaign area.  As he had four IPs so far, that gave us sixteen d6 to roll to determine our opponents.  Stamper and Kingsbury rolled eight dice each, and managed to roll half fives and sixes.  This was very bad for us, as the ones through fours would be treated as random core forces, but the fives and sixes provided a number of options for the undead:  a single five or six can be spent to gain two random core forces, field a random command model, or provide two siege points.

In addition, just like Mordheim exploration rolls, multiples of certain numbers in the pool for grant the besieging vampire forces special bonuses.  In our case, four fives gave them the “Absolute Command” ability, which allows them to set up anywhere they like along edges instead of a random edges for each unit.  Four sixes were also rolled, and this gave them a free six siege points.

I chose to keep six of the 5+ dice for command units, and convert two of them to four extra core units.  This gave the vampire forces six command units, twelve core units, and six siege points.  Random rolls for the command units went incredibly bad for the players, and they ended up with Strangulf himself (with two free Fell Bat escorts), and all three of his powerful mistresses and their escorts, along with two necromancers for the remaining two commanders.  Since Strangulf and his three mistresses each come with two escorts, the six command units turned into a total of fourteen models.  Worse, Strangulf and his mistresses are loaded with special abilities and are much stronger than a standard Mordheim vampire.

After rolling up the core units (a mix of zombies, skeletons, dire wolves, and giant spiders), the total undead forces assaulting Nachtdorf numbered forty five!  They also had four siege ladders to scale walls.  The defenders numbered forty, about three-quarters of which were starting the scenario sleeping, meaning they would miss the first turn entirely and count as knocked down for the second.

I deployed the vampire forces in three groups.  One group with the siege ladders would target the intact north wall of the town.  This group was divided into two subgroups, one commanded by the imperious senior vampire mistress Carmilla (with two dregs as escorts) in the northwest corner, and one commanded by the beguiling vampire mistress Mircalla (with two wolves as escorts) in the northeast.  Carmilla’s group included an extra necromancer commander.

View at Picasa The vampire mistress Carmilla and a necromancer command siege forces assaulting the western end of the north wall.02-Dec-2011 23:56, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Carmilla with her Dreg escorts and zombies.02-Dec-2011 23:57, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The vampire mistress Mircalla commands a small siege force on the eastern end of the north wall.02-Dec-2011 23:57, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa The master necromancer Bonecaller commands a force of skeletons, dire wolves, and spiders in the east.02-Dec-2011 23:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The feral and winged vampire mistress Milagra with her harpy escorts, wolves, and spiders arrayed against the south wall.02-Dec-2011 23:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The third group contained mostly spiders and wolves, as they were the most distant from the a wall and would also have to get across the river.  This group was placed under command of the winged and vicious vampire mistress Milagra with her two harpy escorts.

The stage was now set for the assault to begin.  With each vampire turn, a d6 is rolled and added to prior results.  When thirty is reached, dawn approaches, and the vampire forces must retreat at the end of that turn.  The player goal is to hold out till this retreat.  The vampire goal is simply to rout the allied town forces and run roughshod over the unprotected town for as long as the remaining night allows.

The vampire forces spent the first couple of turns advancing on the town, while the sleepy defenders tried to assemble themselves into some sort of order.  With each turn after the first, the vampire forces also get a roll for a single reinforcement group, which may come in at any random location on the board.  This only happened once during the battle, but it was on their second turn, and three ghouls raised from the shadows of the roof of the gatehouse in the west wall.  Captain Dedrich and a single spear-man were running through the gatehouse below to reach the defense of the north wall, and the ghouls heard these noises and dropped down through a trapdoor onto the poor lads.

View at Picasa Ghouls, coming out of nowhere, slip down into the gatehouse from above and intercept Captian Diedrech and spearman.03-Dec-2011 01:50, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

With turn three of the vampire forces, the action began in earnest.  Two dire wolves charging through the gap in the southern wall were remarkably taken out of action by town militia under the command of Sgt. Lowenherz.  Milagra and her two harpies flew over the adjacent wall and landed on the top of a repair scaffolding to observe the struggle of these puny humans briefly before choosing a victim.

View at Picasa First wolves cross the gap in the south wall. Mircalla and her harpies observe from the top of the scaffolding.03-Dec-2011 01:51, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the west gatehouse, the ghouls that had seemed to drop out of nowhere leapt upon Dedrich and his spear-man.  The spear-man fell, but Dedrich held on.  On the nearby northern wall, the skeletons and zombies had placed their ladders and reached the summit of the wall.  A spear-man fell in this struggle, despite the advantageous defensive position.

View at Picasa The battle on the wall in the northwest.03-Dec-2011 01:50, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

In the east, Bonecaller’s forces entered through the ruined wall without opposition, but found themselves faced by a group of cranky dwarves interrupted from their sleep, assembling near the blacksmithy and preparing for a counter-charge.  During the allied turn three, the dwarves charged into this force, and their engineer Sparks managed to take a dire wolf out of action.

View at Picasa A wolf crossing the gap in the east wall as dwarves emerge sleepily from the blacksmithy.03-Dec-2011 01:51, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Bonecaller directs his troops through the east gap against the dwarves.03-Dec-2011 02:48, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Bonecaller directing his troops in something closer to night combat lighting.03-Dec-2011 02:48, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa Bonecaller again, who is photogenic, even if he does get taken out of action frequently.03-Dec-2011 12:51, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

During the fourth vampire forces turn, Milagra and her harpies swooped down on the melee just inside the gap in the south wall.  Milagra sunk her claws into a hapless militia member and tore him practically in two, while her harpies screened her rear and flank.  To make matters worse, Strangulf and his two bats gained the roof of the tower in the southeast corner, giving Strangulf a commanding view of both the melees at the south and east gaps.

View at Picasa Battle for the south gap in full tilt. The vicious Milagra has already dispatched an opponent, as harpies protect her flanks.03-Dec-2011 02:48, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

View at Picasa Strangulf sneaks onto the southeastern tower, an excellent location to unleash howling ghosts from his Cloak of Souls into either southern or eastern wall gap melees.03-Dec-2011 12:53, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

The battle at the east wall gap began to turn grim for the dwarves.  A second dire wolf overcame the dwarf hero Popsi, and the brave dwarf hero Spam fell to the bite of a spider.  Bonecaller, whom the allies had taken out of action and given a withered hand in a coffin hunt scenario the previous play session, cackled with unsurpassed glee.

With the allied turn four, the battle with Milagra’s forces at the south wall turned in favor of the town.  Sisters Nadja and Salyra reached the battle, and Nadja took a harpy out.  Father Jonas, the town priest, let loose a SoulFire spell from behind the ranks and wounded one of Strangulf’s bats, blasted a spider into oblivion, and even wounded Milagra herself, who shrieked with rage and marked the priest for future shredding.  A brave milita member splatted a spider between its many eyes as well.

At the east end of town, the dwarves counter-charged Bonecaller’s forces.  The trollslayer IDieSoon cleaved a wolf’s skull, while fellow trollslayer KillMeNow wounded on of Strangulf’s bats that had swept down on the battle.  Unfortunately for the dwarves, the engineer Sparks was taken out of action by a skeleton – the third dwarf hero to fall to Bonecaller’s assault.  This would not put them in rout check mode, as the rules for this campaign treat all allied forces as one for purposes of the rout check threshold, but once the threshold is reached each allied group composing the force must roll independently to see if they rout.

In the west gatehouse, Captain Diedrech finally fell to the ghouls.  The Kislevites began streaming up interior stairs to help defend the northwest corner of the wall.  A necromancer was knocked down from a blast of Anton’s (the Kislevite captain) pistol, and fell from the wall, knocked down at the feet of the liquored-up Kislevites.  Look, a present from above!

During the fifth undead turn, the forces led by the slinky Mircalla on the east end of the north wall began to work their way around the interior of the wall to the battle at the east gap.  Unfortunately for them, zombies were leading the way.  Being stuck behind zombies on a narrow ledge leads to grumpy undead.

View at Picasa Mircalla and her wolves along with some zombies and skeletons gain the eastern span of the north wall unopposed.03-Dec-2011 02:48, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In impatience, Mircalla scaled down the wall like a spider, and her two wolves sprung down beside her.  She was in the north-east end of town, civilians huddled in the darkened buildings, with no one to oppose her.  She spied Sigmarite Sister Winifred following her Matriarch down the east stairs to reinforce the dwarves, both oblivious to her presence in the shadows.  She used her powerful charm ability to ensnare Sister Winifred’s mind, and directed her at the back of her own Matriarch.  Having sown this seed of confusion, Mircalla turned back to the defenseless buildings in front of her.

View at Picasa Mircalla and her wolves cascade down from the wall in darkness, and enter the northeastern part of town unopposed.03-Dec-2011 15:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

And the battle for the east end of town needed reinforcing badly.  Bonecaller struck down the trollslayer KillMeNow, the fourth dwarf hero to drop, leaving only three dwarves (yes that’s right, there are currently seven – we may not let Stamper hire any more dwarves until he has a female hired sword that wears a frilly dress and goes by initials S.W.).  The dwarf henchman Frito (in fact, the only henchman in their warband) refused to say die, and clobbered a skeleton with a tear in his eye for his fallen comrades.  Perhaps some of them would prove to be dead, and he may be promoted?  One never knows.

View at Picasa Bonecaller's forces and the dwarves clash in the eastern part of town. Sister Hildegarde has a skeleton down, while the dwarf captain Big Boss takes aim.03-Dec-2011 14:59, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In the south, the wounded Milagra picked up a town militiaman that was screening her from Father Jonas, broke him in two, and hurled the pieces aside (yes, this would later prove to be a fatality).  Baron Von Strangulf, having observed the effectiveness of the priest’s insulting spell from his perch on the southeast tower, flung a soul from his cloak at the accursed holy man.  Father Jonas collapsed, stunned, to the glee of the nearby Milagra.

View at Picasa Sisters Salyra and Nadja reinforce the allies in the melee at the south wall gap. Father Jonas lies helpless before Milagra while the burgermeister is occupied by a Fell Bat.03-Dec-2011 14:59, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

In the north-west, the fallen Necromancer stood up, and realized that he was in a spot of trouble as the surrounding Kislevites growled.  Above, the mistress Carmilla, at the rear of the forces pushing toward the western end of the north wall, brandished her Skull of Terror, a magical device that can force All Alone tests at a -1 leadership using the flame template.  The blast of terror sent the blind Augur, who had come to support the battle, scurrying back down the stairs along with a Kislevite henchman.  One of Carmilla’s skeletons bashed at the remaining spearman of Diedrich’s, and the poor lad fell wailing from the wall.  The ghouls scuttled out of the gatehouse towards the fight on the wall, hungry for more savory human flesh.

View at Picasa The battle at the northwest tower rages, as the ghouls have finished with poor Dedrich and emerge from the gatehouse. Gustav and his Kislevites pals bravely prepare to hold the line by protecting both rears simultaneously.03-Dec-2011 15:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

View at Picasa Carmilla directs the battle for the northwest wal from the rear, forcing allies off the wall with her Skull of Terror.03-Dec-2011 15:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

During allied turn five, Father Jonas crawled away as Sister Salyra charged a harpy screening Milagra and took it out of action.  The Burgermeister finished off the fell bat that Soulfire had wounded earlier, and a remaining militia-man dispatched a spider.  Sgt. Lowenherz bravely charged Milagra herself, in an attempt to allow Father Jonas an escape.

In the east, the trollslayer IDieSoon took the other bat out of action.  Under the north wall, the Kislevite captain Anton skewered the necromancer that had blundered into their midst, and Gustav along with several Kislevites engaged the ghouls that had emerged from the gatehouse.

View at Picasa Northwest tower melee heats up. Too bad the sunlight is only in real life, and not in the battle. Dawn is too far away for our heroic allies...03-Dec-2011 15:22, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa Battle for the northwest tower as seem from the rear.03-Dec-2011 15:22, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 200
View at Picasa A necromancer, fallen from a a northwest wall, gets a rude reception by Captain Anton of the Kislevites and two of his henchmen. Sister Anne and Brother Woof hover nearby.03-Dec-2011 15:22, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

Turn six for the Vampire Forces would prove to be the beginning of the end for the allies.  It began well.  On the north wall, Kislevite warrior Timofey took a zombie out of action and Sister Simone dropped a skeleton.  In the north-east corner of town, Mircalla and her wolves entered a building and began to terrorize the civilians inside (this is a scenario mechanic that may cause civilian fatalities that reduce worker points and morale, and also may increase the number of bitten).  The charmed Sister Winifred fortunately failed to harm her matriarch, as Mother Madira slapped her to her senses.

In the east, a skeleton charging Sister Superior Hildegarde fell to a whip crack.  In the south, Sgt. Lowenherz payed the price for protecting Father Jonas, as Milagra hurled him aside and out of action.

This brought the allies to their combined rout total, and each group would have to begin making rout tests starting with allied turn six.

The Sisters of Sigmar immediately failed their test at the start of allied turn six, leaving the less than half strength dwarves to hold the east entirely on their own, a few NPCs to hold against Milagra in the south, and the Kislevites to deal with Carmilla’s assault in the northwest.  And absolutely no one to oppose Mircalla or her forces in the northeast.  Things were looking very grim.

Gustav, the NPC scout, charged a ghoul on the northwest tower and took it out.  Timofey, however, fell to a ghoul.  The allies could definitely not afford to trade out of actions at this point.

The remaining three dwarves at the east wall gap charged bravely into battle, ganging up on Bonecaller and a few of his nearby helpers.  Frito slew a zombie, continuing his campaign for promotion should one of the fallen heroes prove to be deceased.

View at Picasa Bonecaller and Dwarf Captain Big Boss clash mano a mano!03-Dec-2011 16:44, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 200

In the south, the situation continued to worsen as the last remaining militiaman fell to a spider, leaving only Father Jonas and the Burgermeister to hold the wall.

During the vampire seventh turn, Mircalla and her wolves continued to wreak havoc inside town buildings in the northeast that would be assessed at the end of the scenario.  At the east gap, the dwarves resisted counter-charges well, with Big Boss and IDieSoon dropping zombies, and Frito cementing his campaign for promotion by bouncing a beer mug off of BoneCaller’s head and dropping him for the third time in the campaign.  Garrrrrr!!!!  There’s only three of us left, but we will cut you all off at the knees!!!

At the south gap. Milagra charged the Burgermeister and slashed the stalwart leader of the town across the ribs with one blow, and pummeled him into unconsciousness with another, taking him out of action.  Finally!  Father Jonas who had dared to wound her was mere feet from her with no more flunkies to get in her way!

With allied turn seven, the raging dwarves finally routed.  All three of the little tikes.  Hard to do, as their leadership is very high, but they certainly put up a good fight and took their blows well.  This left only the Kislevites to hold the entire town, as most of the NPCs were also down.  Since the two remaining NPCs were important for the campaign, after some discussion we decided to have the Kislevites voluntarily route rather than try to hold out the two or three more turns that would probably be required before we hit the total of thirty on the scenario counter.   This would be punishing in terms of morale for the town and the bitten track, as their is a penalty of three morale for a town defense scenario rout, and the bitten dice bonus for the night is doubled.  But, we avoided the risk of our very important priest or scout NPCs being lost.

So, on to injury rolls.  Amazingly, despite the high number of allies taken out (around twelve to fourteen), there were only three fatalities:  all three town militiamen that had fallen defending the south wall.  Probably most of them were torn to pieces by Milagra, the most feral of the vampire mistresses.

Concluding the campaign turn, our Morale fell to about the halfway point, and the number of bitten townies jumped up to seven.  Morale at this point is the danger as far as losing the campaign goes.

View at Picasa Oh dear. After the rout. Bitten track higher, morale much lower.03-Dec-2011 17:59, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

For campaign turn five, we all agreed to spend the day phase recovering rather than push out on another coffin hunt.  For one thing, all of our rest actions the previous night were interrupted, so going out in the day would fatigue those warriors.  We decided to plot most of our heroes on the Train Militia action, to replace the three brave warrior citizens that had fallen the previous evening.

A boost to player moral occurred at the top of the night phase for turn five, as Sister Isolde returned in the wagon with armor, weapons, and even a Warrior Priest of Sigmar all acquired on her shopping trip.  We dug in for the night, hoping not to get hit a second time in a row.  The vampire night event card proved to be “Dark Studies”, which granted Strangulf three cards from the Necromantic Spells deck.  This deck contains campaign effects for him, such as altering the weather on a turn.  Probably trouble down the road for us, but not an attack on the town again or additional Influence Points for him in any of the game areas, so a sigh of relief from us at this draw.

For day six, we primarily allocated our player warriors to a Coffin Hunt at the “Bachmeir Baurenhoff” game area.  This location is dominated by a fortified farmstead, occupied by orc bandits, and has a historical problem with banshees from the Eerie downs and even a famous local banshee known as “Cold Margaret”.

I’ll just summarize this scenario .  Several of our models were taken out of action, but no fatalities, and it proved to be our most successful Coffin Hunt to date.  We divided into three groups, and each group was able to search several of the twelve coffins scattered throughout the board.  We staked our first minor vampire, which raised town moral for us by one point, and located and ruined one of Strangulf’s five coffins containing his native soil.  This is crucial, as to ultimately eliminate or drive off Strangulf to win the campaign, we have to be able to corner him.

The most dangerous opponent in this scenario was Cold Margaret herself, who blasted a Sister of Sigmar henchsister clean off a bridge and into the river.  The banshee wail power we are playing with is taken straight from warhammer, designed to inflict enough wounds to damage units, so directed at a single model it is entirely capable of eliminating a multi-wound hero in a single shot.  I’m considering weakening this power a bit for Mordheim / Empire in Flames, but for the moment we will keep it as is.  It certainly makes a banshee a model that alters your entire strategy for a scenario.

Below are the pics from the campaign, including KillMeNow the trollslayer’s despearate attempt to get stuck into the barricaded orcs before the scenario expired.

Rules posted hopefully within days, and another campaign report after our next play session (about a month, most likely).

Thanks for reading!

View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 22:22, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 22:22, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:01, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:02, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200
View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:02, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa Stamper directing missile fire.03-Dec-2011 23:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200
View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200
View at Picasa 03-Dec-2011 23:41, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa 04-Dec-2011 01:17, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa I'll do you!!!04-Dec-2011 01:42, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

View at Picasa The town of Nachtdorf!28-Oct-2011 23:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

We began a new cooperative Mordheim campaign on Halloween weekend, very seasonally themed:  The Vampire Hunters.  It is really an Empire in Flames campaign, as it is set in southern Ostermark in and around a town named Nachtdorf, some miles from Mordheim.  The year is 2009, roughly a year before Vlad Von Carstein explodes upon the Empire from his stronghold in Sylvania.

The plot for the campaign is that the town hires several warbands from Mordheim to protect them from the forces of a powerful Sylvanian vampire who has recently made his nest near the World’s Edge mountains.  The civil war has left no central authority to help them.

There are two ways to win the campaign.  The players can slay Strangulf, the principal vampire, or they can force him to retreat from the area by locating and purifying the five coffins he brought with him to Ostermark that contain his native soil from the far East.  Players can lose the campaign in three ways:  More than twenty campaign turns expire, the morale of the town drops from ten to zero, or the number of townspeople or warriors bitten by vampires rises to thirty.  There are six game areas in the campaign where scenarios are played.

The campaign rules are written over the top of Empire in Flames mechanics, and combine roleplay, boardgame, and of course standard Mordheim skirmish styles of play.  I will try to get the rules and campaign accessories published to this blog by early December.  At this point, since we’ve just started the first play trial of the campaign, we are still making tweaks.

Map of Nachtdorf and Environs. Mordheim to the west off map. View at Picasa Map of Nachtdorf and Environs. Mordheim to the west off map.Canon CanoScan LiDE 70

During the first weekend we finished three and a half of the twenty possible campaign turns and played three skirmish scenarios.  I was playing Sisters of Sigmar, Mike Kingsbury Kislevites, and Michael Stamps Dwarf Treasure Hunters.

We played one prequel scenario.  As the warbands and a guide the town sent to hire us (Gustav, a kislevite spy and scout) reached Nachtdorf, we found the town under attack from the Vampire Forces.  I purposefully made this a light assault, to give the players a bit of a head start.  There was a catapult manned by a few grave guard, and a cairn wraith as the primary heavies.  The wraith proved the most dangerous of the opponents, taking several models out of action before warriors with magical weapons could be brought to bear on it.  The only fatality was a Dwarf henchman that was taken out of action by a warg on the back side of the town, fighting alongside Sisters.  The townspeople buried him respectfully on a small hill near the town.

For the first formal campaign turn, all the player warriors and town NPCs stayed in town.  Each turn is divided into a day phase and a night phase, and there are a number of actions that can be performed in the day to shore up the town’s defenses.  The players worked on repairing the town walls, training civilians to add to the town militia, and exploring the town and immediate area for supplies.  During the night, we hunkered down and guarded the town, with a few civilians waking up the next morning pale and lethargic (a couple of bitten).

More campaign turns follow the photo album spread!

Next »

View at Picasa The town of Nachtdorf!28-Oct-2011 23:40, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa The town of Nachtdorf, only brighter. Anti-vampire lamps deployed.28-Oct-2011 23:41, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	View at Picasa Introductory scenario, stone thrower included. Never got off a shot. Crypt wraith, proved dangerous28-Oct-2011 23:41, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.7, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Three zombies try to decide if one of the town gates is edible.28-Oct-2011 23:41, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.7, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Beating the crap out of the stonethrower crew.29-Oct-2011 00:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Crypt wraith battle. There would be some out of actions on our side before that thing went down.29-Oct-2011 00:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Same scene, different lighting. Almost looks real.... spooky. Notice Kislevite chasing Necromancer in the background, and what is probably a puddle of pee left behind by one of the warriors on the Cairn wraith, just to their right.29-Oct-2011 00:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa A shot made while tearing down Nachtdorf for reference. Have to put it back together again soon....29-Oct-2011 12:00, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.077 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa First campaign turn after intro scenario spent all in Nachtdorf29-Oct-2011 13:12, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.4, 4.9mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 200
View at Picasa First Coffin Hunt on day 2: Hugel Friedhof29-Oct-2011 13:44, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa Hugel Friedhof from another angle. Needs more trees next time.29-Oct-2011 12:18, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa And Hugel Friedhof from yet another angle.29-Oct-2011 12:18, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 125
View at Picasa Lots of warriors resting at night29-Oct-2011 15:41, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 200	View at Picasa Plotting second coffin hunt on the away board for day 3: Schattenwald29-Oct-2011 21:18, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Using wound counters from another game for Worker Points29-Oct-2011 21:18, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa Second Coffin Hunt: Schattenwald, and a belly button29-Oct-2011 21:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250	View at Picasa Schattenwald from another perspective. Less bellybuttonage.29-Oct-2011 21:43, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 125	View at Picasa Light resistance near the bridge.29-Oct-2011 23:20, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.4, 4.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

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View at Picasa Heavy resistance near the bridge. Wolf leap proved entertaining!30-Oct-2011 00:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa Closer view of bridge fight; Seneschal in the back directing charge30-Oct-2011 00:58, Panasonic DMC-TZ3, 3.3, 4.6mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa 28-Oct-2011 23:39, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm
View at Picasa 28-Oct-2011 23:39, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa 28-Oct-2011 23:39, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa 28-Oct-2011 23:39, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm
View at Picasa 29-Oct-2011 16:19, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa 29-Oct-2011 16:19, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa 29-Oct-2011 17:30, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm
View at Picasa 30-Oct-2011 01:00, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa 30-Oct-2011 01:00, Motorola MOTWX435KT, 4.31mm	View at Picasa Map of Nachtdorf and Environs. Mordheim to the west off map.Canon CanoScan LiDE 70

During the day of the second campaign turn, a mix of player warriors from all three warbands went to a nearby hillside cemetery, Hugel Friedhof, where our Kislevite scout Gustav believed one of Strangulf’s coffins might be squirreled away.  The party had its first encounter with one of the Vampire Forces Heroes during this outing, Bonecaller, Strangulf’s chief necromancer.  A Coffin Hunt scenario has twelve coffins on the board, which may be empty, contain treasure, or contain a sleeping vampire.  One could even be one of Strangulf’s coffins, and even if he is not sleeping in it, that allows the players the opportunity to ruin one of his resting spots.

The party would manage to search four coffins, with only a few models taken out of action, before time expired on the Coffin Hunt.  A minor vampire was found sleeping in a coffin, but the press of monsters in the area did not afford the players an opportunity to stake the creature through the heart.  Bonecaller was taken out of action, however, and suffered an injury to his hand that will lower his weapon skill in future encounters.

Vampire Hunters includes some new items and random treasure tables.  In addition to the standard Empire in Flames “Treasures” (the equivalent of wyrdstone), players may find items or cold hard cash during exploration or as scenario rewards.  After the first coffin hunt, one of the highlights of the weekend was the discovery of a random magical weapon:  A Squig Herder of Light.  After some speculation amongst the heroes as to what this could possibly have been used for, the decision was made to be sure to handle it with gloves and sell it at the first opportunity.

On the third day, the party went on another Coffin Hunt to a ruined town in a nearby forest, Schattenwald.  In addition to undead, this area is infested with web spitting giant spiders.  The party found four civilians had been offered by Strangulf as a bribe to get the spiders completely on his side, and had an opportunity to rescue those civilians in addition to searching coffins during the scenario.

While two of the civilians would be rescued, intense fighting resulted in the players routing with five models out of action.  Fortunately there were no fatalities, just a minor nervous condition for Sister Hildegard, one of the Sisters of Sigmar heroes.  Four coffins were explored, and some treasure discovered, but no sleeping vampires.

The fourth day was spent entirely in town, shoring up defenses again and sending Sister Isolde to the local town of Burgenhof to shop for common items and a hired sword.  A shopping trip action takes two campaign turns to complete, so Sister Isolde will not return with her purchases until the night phase of the fifth campaign turn.

At the end of the weekend, the vampire’s “Influence Points” in the area totaled four.  Two in Schattenwald, one in Hugel Friedhof, and one in Bachmeir Baurenhof (a nearby farmstead with both an orc bandits and a banshee problem).  The Influence mechanic reflects the vampire’s growing presence in the region.  When he reaches three influence in a campaign area, he gains an especially powerful ally.  In addition, as influence grows the monsters in scenarios become more numerous and powerful.

The number of bitten at the end of the weekend was only two out of thirty, so that aspect of the game is well in hand at this point.  Town morale is still quite good, at nine, having lowered only one point due to the coffin hunt route on turn three.

Next play session hopefully in December, beginning with the night phase of turn four.

Bretonnians Revisited

Michael Weaver

The Kingdom of Bretonnia is far removed from the cursed city of Mordheim, and few in the Kingdom have ever heard of the distant Imperial city.   But a handful of valiant Bretonnian knights have made their way to the city, for reasons obscure to outsiders. Perhaps they search for wealth to restore their family’s fortunes.  More likely, they seek opportunities to display their valor and martial prowess.  Some may travel to the city of the dead as part of a quest, undertaken in the name of the Lady of the Lake.  Whatever the reason, these knights and their retinues have added an interesting exotic flavor to the ramshackle communities that have appeared on the outskirts of the city of the damned.

A Bretonnian warband represents the retinue of a single knight who has travelled to Mordheim for purposes he holds close.  Most, if not all, of his initial warband will be made of his countrymen: his loyal squire (perhaps a younger kinsman), his skilled master of the horse, a handful of commoners, and – perhaps – a novice damsel of the Lady.

Special Rules

Bretonnians: The history, culture, and social structure of Bretonnia sets it apart from its imperial neighbor.   While citizens of the Empire, from Reiklander to Kislevite, find the Bretonnians’ beliefs to be quaint and obscure, the children of Bretonnia know their place in the social order, and their ties are bound even tighter when venturing far from their home and kin.  The following heroes and henchmen type have the Bretonnian special rule: the knight, the novice damsel, the master of the horse, the squire, the sergeant, archers and men-at-arms.   When using the knight’s leadership, all warriors with the Bretonnian special rule (including the knight himself) count the knight’s leadership characteristic as one point higher than its actual value.   Additionally, when the knight is mounted, warriors with the Bretonnian special rule can use the knight’s leadership characteristic when they are within 12” of him; however, if they are beyond 6” must use his actual characteristic, without the bonus +1 to its value.

You talk funny, mister: Bretonnians in Mordheim are far from their homes, and people tend to view them with suspicion.  In practical terms, this xenophobia means that Bretonnians rarely secure good bargains when buying supplies.   To represent this problem, when selling warpstone shards a Bretonnian warband always counts as one size category larger than its actual size.

Far from home: those who have followed the knight to Mordheim are not easy to replace.  After any game, if the Bretonnians wish to recruit someone who has the Bretonnian special rule, roll a d6.  On a roll of 5+, the recruit they seek is available.   If the first roll was a success, and the band wishes to hire a second recruit after the same game: they may roll again and successfully recruit a second Bretonnian recruit on a roll of 6+.  Recruitment of Bretonnian henchmen is subject to the normal restrictions on hiring experienced henchmen.

Choice of Warriors

A Bretonnian warband must include a minimum of 3 models. You have 500 Gold Crowns which you can use to recruit and equip your warband. The maximum number of warriors in the warband is 15.

Bretonnian Knight: your warband must include one Bretonnian knight, no more, no less!

Novice Damsel of the Lady: your warband may include a single Novice Damsel.

Squire: your warband may include a single Squire.

Master of the Horse: your warband may include a single Master of the Horse.

Sergeant: your warband may include a single Sergeant.

Archers: your warband may include up to five Archers.

Men-at-Arms: your warband may include up to five Men-at-Arms.

Local Recruits: your warband may include any number of Local Recruits

Starting Experience:

The Bretonnian Knight starts with 20 experience.

The Novice Damsel of the Lady: starts with 8 experience.

The Squire starts with 0 experience.

The Master of the Horse starts with 8 experience

The Sergeant starts with 8 experience

All Henchmen start with 0 experience.

Heroes:

1 Bretonnian Knight (65 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A     LD

4        4       3      4     3      1     4     1      8

Bretonnian: the Questing Knight is a member of the Bretonnian aristocracy.

Knightly Leadership: when the Bretonnian Knight is on foot, any warrior within 6″ of him may use his Leadership characteristic when taking Leadership tests.  When the Questing Knight is mounted, the range of this ability is extended to 12” for all warriors with the Bretonnian special rule.

Ride Horse: the Bretonnian Knight may ride a riding horse or warhorse.

Man of Faith: the Bretonnian Knight knows that the Lady guides his steps.  He may reroll any of his Fear and All Alone checks, and he automatically passes his first rout test.  However, since he places his faith exclusively in the Lady, he will not carry any Holy Artifacts found in Mordheim or its environs, knowing them to be worthless trinkets.

Weapons/Armor: The Bretonnian knight may be equipped with weapons, armor and equipment from the knight’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

0-1 Novice Damsel (30 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4        2       2      3     3      1     3     1     7

Bretonnian: the novice damsel is a member of the Bretonnian yeomanry or aristocracy.

Ride Horse: the damsel may ride a riding horse.

Devoted of the Lady: The novice damsel has been dedicated to the Lady of the Lake, and she begins the campaign with one of the Prayers of the Lady.

Weapons/Armor: The novice damsel may be equipped with weapons and equipment from the novice’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

0-1 Squire (15 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4       2       2      3     3     1      3     1     6

Bretonnian: the squire is a member of the Bretonnian aristocracy.

Ride Horse: the Squire may ride a riding horse or warhorse.

Weapons/Armor: The squire may be equipped with weapons, armor and equipment from the knight’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

0-1 Master of the Horse (40 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4       4       3      3     3     1      3     1     7

Bretonnian: the Master of the Horse is a member of the Bretonnian yeomanry.

Ride horse: the Master of the Horse may ride a riding horse or warhorse.

Horse Doctor: if the Master of the Horse is not taken out of action, the warband may reroll for any horse taken out of action that rolls a “1” or a “2” on its serious injury check.  If the reroll is a 3+, then the Master of the Horse has saved the animal, although it will miss the next game as it recovers.

Weapons/Armor: The master of the horse may be equipped with weapons, armor and equipment from the knight’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

0-1 Sergeant (35 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4       4       3      3     3     1      3     1     7

Bretonnian: the sergeant is a member of the Bretonnian yeomanry.

Weapons/Armor: The sergeant may be equipped with weapons and armor from either the men-at-arms or archer’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

Henchmen

0-5 Archers (20 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4       3       3      3     3      1     3     1     7

Bretonnian: archers are members of the Bretonnian peasantry.

Weapons/Armor: archers may be equipped with weapons and armor from the archer’s section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

0–5 Men-at-Arms (25 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A    LD

4       3       3      3     3      1     3     1     7

Bretonnian: men-at-arms are members of the Bretonnian peasantry.

Weapons/Armor: men-at-arms may be equipped with weapons and armor from the men-at-arms section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

Local Recruits (20 gold crowns to hire)

Profile            M     WS    BS     S     T     W     I     A     LD

4       3       3      3     3      1     3     1      7

Weapons/Armor: local recruits may be equipped with weapons and armor from the men-at-arms section of the Bretonnian equipment list.

Bretonnian Equipment

Knights

Weapons

Dagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1st free/2 gc

Mace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 gc

Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Double-handed weapon . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Morning Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Lance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 gc

Armour and mounts

Light armour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Heavy armour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 gc

Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 gc

Helmet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Warhorse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 gc

Riding Horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 gc

Barding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 gc

Heraldic Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 gc

Novices

Weapons

Dagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1st free/2 gc

Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 gc

Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Armor and mounts:

Riding Horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 gc

Archers

Weapons

Dagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1st free/2 gc

Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Axe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 gc

Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 gc

Missile Weapons

Bow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Longbow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Armour

Light armour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Helmet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Men-at-Arms

Weapons

Dagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1st free/2 gc

Hammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 gc

Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Axe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 gc

Spear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Halberd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Double-handed weapon . . . . . . . . . 15 gc

Armour

Light armour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 gc

Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 gc

Helmet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 gc

Bretonnian Skills

Knight:  Combat, Strength, Riding, Special

Novice:  Academic, Speed, Riding, Special

Squire:  Combat, Strength, Riding, Special

Master of Horse:  Combat, Strength, Riding, Special

Sergeant:  Combat, Shooting, Strength, Special

Bretonnian Special Skills:

Renowned (Bretonnian Knight only): The Bretonnian knight has made a reputation for himself in Mordheim, and merchants are proud to deal with him; the warband can now ignore the You talk funny, mister special rule.  Additionally, he receives a 10% discount when purchasing weapons, armor, and horses (round up).

Channeler of Grace (Novice of the Lady only): If the Novice of the Lady is not taken out of action in a game, and does not search for rare items after the game, she may attempt to bless one of the warband’s swords with the Lady’s grace.  If the Novice of the Lady makes a successful Leadership test, roll a d6 to determine the results:

1 – 2  The sword acts as if it was an ithilmar weapon

3 – 4  The sword grants +1 on rolls to hit

5 – 6  The sword grants +1 attack

Additionally, the sword counts as a magical weapon for purposes of hitting ethereal creatures, etc.  All results last only for the next game.

Horse Trainer (Master of the Horse only):  If the Master of the Horse is not taken out of action in a game, and does not search for rare items after the game, he may attempt to improve the training of a single horse or warhorse.  If the Master of the Horse makes a successful Leadership test, roll a d6 to determine the results of the training.  The same horse or warhorse can be trained multiple times, but each result can only be rolled once for any mount; reroll if the initial die roll indicates a training result the horse or warhorse has already received.

1-3 The horse or warhorse gains +1 weapon skill

4-5 The horse or warhorse gains +1 attack

6  The horse or warhorse grants its rider the Evade skill

Respected Veteran (Sergeant only): henchmen within 6” of the Sergeant may use his Leadership skill for Leadership checks, and when doing so his leadership counts as one point higher than his actual value (for example, if the Sergeant’s Leadership score is “7”, henchmen within six inches of his have an effective Leadership of “8”).

Knighted (Squire only): The squire can be Knighted any only if at some point in the campaign he took out of action a large opponent, a multi-wound opponent, or an enemy warband’s leader.   When knighted, the squire becomes a Bretonnian knight and gains +1 weapon skill and + 1 leadership; when the new knight is mounted, an additional +1 is added to his leadership.   Any henchman with the Bretonnian special rule within 6” of the new knight may now use his leadership value for leadership tests.

Sturdy Build: the warrior is especially fit, and may wear heavy armor and bear a shield without suffering a movement penalty.

The Lady’s Favor: a hero with the Lady’s Favor may, once per game, before rolling, use the Favor to insure that the next roll is successful.  It can be used for rolls to hit, to wound, characteristics tests, armor saves, and spell casting.  It cannot be used to generate a specific number (a “6” to generate a critical hit, a 5 or 6 on an injury roll to take an enemy out of action, etc.

Special Equipment:

Heraldic Banner (20 gold crowns if purchased when the warband is created, 40 gold crowns if purchased subsequently).  The heraldic banner is mounted on a staff, and shows the Knight’s heraldic device.  The staff may be carried in a game by the Squire or the Master of the Horse.  The banner carrier can use a single hand weapon, or he can use a shield for defense.  He cannot use a missile weapon, any weapon that has the two handed special rule, or two hand weapons.   During a scenario, if the banner carrier has not been taken out of action all warband members who have the Bretonnian special rule receive a +1 to their Leadership score if they are within 12” of the banner.   After a game in which a heraldic banner was carried, if the warband attempts to recruit a new member who has the Bretonnian special rule, the warband receives a +1 modifier on the roll to check for the availability of the recruit.  Additionally, if a Bretonnian warband has a heraldic banner, after a game the Knight can make a Leadership test (at his base score) and, if successful, the You talk funny, mister penalty is negated for this post-game phase.

Prayers of the Lady

The Lady’s Blessing (Difficulty 6): The Lady answers the novice’s pleas for assistance and sends her Blessing.

The novice may re-roll all her failed dice rolls, though the second results stand. The effect lasts until the beginning of her own next turn.

Champion of the Lady (Difficulty 7):  The novice channels the Lady’s favor to a chosen hero.

This spell may only be cast on a mounted Bretonnian within the novice’s line of sight.  The warrior’s mount has its movement increased by 1” and the warrior gains +1 attack.  The affected warrior must make a leadership test at the beginning of the each Bretonnian turn; if the test fails, these bonuses are lost.

Prayer of Healing (Difficulty 7): The novice invokes the Lady’s mercy for Bretonnia’s wounded warriors.

Any one model within 4″ of the Novice (including herself) may be healed. The warrior is restored

to his full quota of Wounds. In addition, if any friendly models within 4″ are stunned or knocked

down, they immediately come to their senses, stand up, and continue fighting as normal.

The Sword of the Lady (Difficulty 8 ): a glowing sword appears in the novice’s hand.

The sword of the Lady grants +2 to weapon skill, +1 attack, +1 strength, and reduces the target’s armor saves by 2 points.   Take a Leadership test at the beginning of each of the novice’s own turns. If the test fails, the sword disappears.

Protecting Winds (difficulty 8 ): The novice’s prayers bring winds that swirl around her, to the dismay of her enemies.

The winds the spell produces  protect the novice and all Bretonnians within 10” of her, and any missile attacks aimed at them are at -1 to hit.

Blessed Armor (difficulty 9): The hero’s armor shines with the grace of the Lady.

This spell may be cast on any warrior wearing heavy armor.  While the armor is blessed, all critical hits against the protected warrior are ignored and are treated as normal hits instead.  Further, anyone who scores a wound on the chosen warrior in melee suffers a Strength 4 hit in return.  Every time the chosen warrior is wounded, roll a d6: the spell is lost on a roll of 1 – 3, but remains active on a roll of 4+.

Printable version (word document): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22702196/Bretonnians%20Revisited.docx