8th Ed. New World of Gold: Mordheim in Lustria

Battle Report: Mordheim Test Game

Played a quick test game with my wife today, using some simplified Mordheim rules and lots of my newly constructed jungle terrain.

1) Setup and Warbands Lists​

2) Battle Report​

3) Results and Pictures​

 

Setup:

The game was very simple to prepare for, I used all the jungle terrain I could fit onto the table. The centerpiece was the burial mound I have been working on for the last month, plus the jungle plaza and road pieces. I put the main buildings around the edges and fit the jungle trees and plants wherever they could go to make the board nice and congested.



Warbands:

Since this was the first game of Mordheim I have ever played (and the first Warhammer exposure my wife has ever gotten) we kept it nice and simple. I ignored the “500 gold pieces” rule in favor of a simplified warband setup using a mixture of heroes and henchment.

Each warband was identical in construction, using the Bretonnian Warband rules. I figured using humans on our first Mordheim match would make it simpler, plus we wouldn't need to take the obligatory skink priest and need to figure out how magic worked.

- The Questing Knight was the warband leader, equipped with a sword, heavy armor, and a shield

- Knight Errant: also with a sword, heavy armor, and a shield

- 2x Squires: one for each knight in the warband, each had a sword and a bow

- Two units of 2x Men-at-Arms: each had a halberd and a shield

- One unit of 3x Bowmen: each only had a bow, but all warband members have the free dagger too

I played as the King's Men (the Red Knights), my wife was the Templars (the White Knights).

Red Knights:



White Knights:



I glossed over most of the crazier games rules for my wife, and in interest of time. The game was crazy enough without a ton of random encounters or hazards laying over the board, or surprises each turn. If we get used to the game more we might include these things, especially if I ever wind up doing an actual campaign.

 

Battle Report:

We played the Wyrdstone Hunt scenario, mostly because it looked the most fun to me before we started, and I really wanted to use the wyrdstone/warpstone tokens I made. We put out seven tokens on the board (token #4 was the treasure chest). Token #2 was inside the arch in the lower right-hand corner of the map, and token #5 was inside the pyramid house.



The primary objective was to grab more tokens than the other player, the odd number ensured there were no ties!

Deployment zones were on opposite sides of the narrow-sides of the board. I rolled to deploy first, and took the side closer to the pyramid house and the other building (red zone), with my wife taking the opposite side (white zone).



First Few Turns:

Immediately starting the game I grabbed token #2, and ran out into the center of the board with my Knight Errant and a men-at-arms backup group and grabbed token #3.

My wife took a similar aggressive strategy and positioned her troops to grab token #4 on top of the pyramid and fall back. She also placed her archers on top of the pavilion to prevent me to getting to token #1, so I counted that one as a loss.



I was not expecting her to grab token #6 so fast, and I was only able to grab #7 with my questing knight before she also fell back to her deployment zone.

During this whole time we continued to exchange arrow volleys across the center of the board, her from the pavilion and me from the building and wood bridge next to the pyramid house.

One of my squires hiding from enemy fire and trying to snipe the Templars:



My wife's archers in the pavilion, one having just been knocked down:




Final Turns:

In the end the game came down to the final brawl inside the pyramid house.

I had four tokens and she had three, but her soldiers had the exit from the inside of the pyramid covered. My knight errant and his men-at-arms bodyguard charged her troops in order to break out of the pyramid but the attack grounded out into a war of attrition. I was able to stop her reinforcements from coming into the pyramid with my questing knight, but not before she killed one of my treasure-token carriers and stole one of my wyrdstone!



My archers on top of the pyramid didn’t wind up doing as much as I had hoped. I had positioned my archers on the top of the pyramid early in the game so that I had the high ground in the center of the board for good fields of fire. Though I tried for the last three turns to shoot down her running away questing knight (he had two treasure tokens on him that he was attempting to carry off) but his armor and the soft terrain bonuses kept him alive.

 

Results:

Me: 3 tokens (Loser)

My wife: 4 tokens (Victor)

In the end the brawl inside the pyramid house was the decisive fight. We didn’t cause many casualties throughout the game, but the combat was enough to make the crucial treasure token change hands for her to win!



The game was a lot of fun, more so than expected. The whole thing lasted maybe an hour from start to finish, including most of the rules-explaining part at the start. Initially my wife was wary of the huge amount of nerdiness approaching her as I challenged her to a battle, but her competitive spirit took over once we started and she figured out what she had to do.

Spoiler: More pictures

My soldiers rush into the pyramid while a squire tries to get his bow into a better vantage point:


Some great overall shots:



Army campsite next to the ruins:



Pavilion:



Another great atmospheric shot of the table:

Not sure when I will play another game, but I will double check the knocked down/stunned rules (I think we were doing this wrong) and experiment with some different warband compositions. If that goes well, we will maybe try a campaign sometime to try out the encounters and experience point system.

I also want to make more buildings to really add some additional height to the board and extra places for the troopers to explore, plus some more ladders to climb over.