Some years ago, when the Warcry boxed set with the Darkoath Marauders in came out, I asked for it for a present (I think it might have been my birthday). At any rate, I assembled it, flicked through the rulebook, painted a couple of the Darkoath, and then... didn't do anything else with it. I have never actually played a game of Warcry. Then, tonight, at the Llangefni Wargamers, I spoke to K and got him to teach me.
I won, although I did accidentally cheat a little because I was using Strength rather than Damage to cause Damage... oops. Anyway, here are some photos to explain what happened in a bit more detail:
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| To play a Warcry scenario, first of all you roll to randomly create a deployment map. The six little symbols correspond to where the three groups you split your warband into deploy - in this instance one starts on the board, and the other two groups come on at the start of the second Round |
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| Then you roll to randomly generate a victory condition! This is what we ended up with |
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| This was the warband I used - the Untamed Beasts - painted by K, and incredibly badly photographed by me |
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| The Cursed Relic! Otherwise known as a little token. All the scenery was provided by K; he is a Warcry fiend in much the same way as I am for stuff |
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| A really nicely painted statue of Sigmar. I love the way the verdigris and moss have been done - top notch stuff from K here |
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| Deployment - K's Lizardmen (which included THREE Kroxigors) have the top and right hand sides and their on-board group have deployed on the wrong side of the wall from the objective. My Untamed Beasts have sent in their most rubbish fighters to go and grab the objective as quickly as possible, with the heavy hitters standing back to come in and do mischief later |
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| End of Round 1 - my bunch of Plains Runners have surrounded the objective, while the Kroxigor and the Saurus Champion leading the Lizardamn warband swing round opposite ends of the central wall to try to threaten the obective |
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| End of Round 2 - the Lizardman champion ran up and obliterated one of my Plains Runners with a single hit, while the Kroxigors in reserve wandered on to be met with excessive violence from my warband's Heart-Eater and a Preytaker. Meanwhile my own left flank reinforcements swamped the Lizardman champion and killed him with a huge number of attacks from three models. Although actually, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't've done because I wasn't using the right stats for the damage... |
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| End of Round 3 - it was midway through this Round that we realised I'd been doing damage wrong. The main difference this would make is the number of wounds I did to the Kroxigors; as I killed one and put a lot of hurt onto another. In return a Kroxigor hurt one of my surviving Plains-Runners, and injured the Rocktusk Prowler quite badly. I did however manage to despatch one of the Saurus that had come on as reserve from the top edge last Round |
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| End Round 4, End Game - I managed to finish off the second of the Kroxigors, and reduced K's warband to just two models - an injured Saurus and a Kroxigor. Meanwhile I had almost my entire warband within 3" of the Cursed Relic, so I won! |
It was a really fast, fun game, easy to pick up (once you recognised what the symbols meant) and flowed nicely. Lovely crisp mechanics. I think I'll play some more of this, using my Daughters of Khaine, and see how they fare. As A said however I think the campaign is where my real interest will lie. We'll see how that goes in the future, maybe.
Speaking of campaigns, I got my second game of the first round of the Mordheim campaign in tonight as well - my Cult of the Possessed against M(i)'s Orcs, Uzgak's Maggoty Brute Boyz. We rolled up Defend the Find as the scenario, and as I had a lot less models than M(i) did, I was the defender...
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| Deployment - the Cult are in the tower in the middle of the board, ready to defend their gains from the yelling and raucous orcs, who are approaching from just two sides |
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| End Orc Turn 1 - M(i) went first as the attacker, and as there was no Animosity to worry about this turn, moved up everyone except his Big 'Un with bow and the hench-orcs with bows, who fired (ineffectively) at the Magistrix in the tower's first floor |
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| End Cult Turn 1 - I rearranged everyone to avoid being shot at as easily, getting the Magistrix, Karina and The Lover into cover in the tower, while The Blessed and Elizabet moved around the rear to guard that angle and cut line of sight to the bow-armed orcs |
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| End Orc Turn 2 - the Boss and his ladz moved up on the left of the ruin next to the tower, while the two hench-Orcs under Big 'Un Auzbosh Wukgukk took the right. None of the Orcs suffered from any animosity (again), while one of the hench-Orcs with a bow critically hit my Magistrix, who - luckily! - was only stunned. Yikes - what a shot! |
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| End Cult Turn 2 - the Magistrix rolled over and became knocked down, groaning a bit and thanking the Dark Powers for the extra eye in her side that the arrow had hit, while Elizabet charged the oncoming Orcs on the left of the ruins... and promptly completely failed to hit or wound. As did the Orc she'd charged! |
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| End Orc Turn 3 - at last, Animosity happened! Both the Boss and one of
his arrer Boyz decided they needed to leg it towards the Cult, and did
so. The Boss then promptly failed a Fear test to charge The
Lover, and instead waved on his ladz and pretended he'd not really
intended to try and charge in anyway, and if you said different he'd
smack you one, so that was that. Over on the other side of the ruins, the Big 'Un and accompanying Orc Boy piled into Elizabet. In the ensuing slap-fight no-one managed to hit, or, if they did, then failed to wound...! The arrer Boyz and Big 'Un with bow didn't shoot at anyone as they had no targets |
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| End Cult Turn 3 - while the Magistrix stood up, dusting herself off, The Lover and Karina sprinted out and charged the two Boyz on either side of the Boss. On the other side of the ruin, The Blessed charged into the Orc with a spear, who failed his Fear check and missed before being crushed into the ground by The Blessed's claws - so long Kezbigh! While this was going on, the Magistrix tried (and failed) to cast Visions of Torment on the Orc Boss. Elizabet, the Big 'Un, and the remaining Orc Boy all continued to flail around, unable to do anybody any damage. Karina, meanwhile, missed both her attacks and was then promptly skewered by her opponent's sword, becoming stunned. Uh oh. The Lover and the Orc it was fighting exchanged blows, but failed to wound each other |
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| End Orc Turn 4 - Animosity struck, paralysing the Boss as he stood his ground, grumbling angrily about Ladz These Dayz and similar things (too much Dwarf in his diet no doubt). A sneaky Boy managed to get righ up to the base of the tower, threatening the Magistrix, and potentially starting to meet the victory conditions of the scenario. The Boy on the Boss's left handily despatched Karina, while the Arrer Boyz and bow-armed Big 'Un continued to fire at the Magistrix. No expertly aimed arrows this time, however, and she weathered the arrows with ease. The Lover finally landed a blow on its opponent, knocking down the Orc. The ridiculous pantomime fighting between the Big 'Un, Orc, and Elizabet continued as yet again no damage was inflicted to anyone. I have no idea what they were doing, but either it was a really expert display of skill, or a comedic scene of bumbling worthy of Laurel and Hardy (probably the latter, frankly) |
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| End Cult Turn 4, End Game - the Magistrix charged down from her first floor perch and into the hapless Orc who'd tried to sneak round the back, but she continued to fail to be able to harness the fickle winds of Magic and couldn't summon the power to cast Visions of Torment on him. Meanwhile, The Lover charged the Orc Boss, and The Blessed charged the Big 'Un next to Elizabet. The Magistrix may not have been able to cast, but did, however, manage to whack her opponent with her huge magic staff, causing him to become knocked down. The Blessed's flurry of attacks on Auzbosh Wukgukk the Big 'Un overwhelmed him, and he was taken Out of Action. Inspired by this, the fight between Elizabet and the Orc in front of her finally went her way, and Agoc was also taken Out of Action. On the other hand, in a recurring theme, neither The Lover nor the Boss could really hurt each other, despite a couple of hits each. With that, M(i) decided at the start of his turn to voluntarily rout. His Orcs had lost three models and he doubted his ability to overpower my surviving heroes and take the centre tower. The day belonged to the Cult again! |
Obviously the most important part of any Mordheim game is the Post Battle Sequence, during which the Ninefold Path of Eight Ways uncovered a total of 5 shards of Wyrdstone (promptly sold to various buyers for 100 gold crowns), and found a vaguely intact fletcher's shop with two Short Bows remaining in it. Karina survived but lost her right eye (-1 BS - not that she needs it), while Elizabet increased her Strength to 4. The Blessed developed a new skill, Mighty Blow, making all its attacks in combat more potent (S6 for its normal attacks and S7 with its Great Claw!). The Lover, on the other hand, became faster, gaining Sprint. One of the two short bows was sold, making just enough money to afford to hire and equip three Brethren with bows and clubs. The remaining short bow has been picked up by the Magister, to give her something a little more dangerous at range than her spell...
The Ninefold Path of Eight Ways now has a Warband Rating of 98, two victories under its belt, 8 members (praise be to the Dark Powers!) and a totally empty treasury. Time to see what Campaign Round Two will bring in a few weeks.
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