The First Skirmish!

Our first skirmish, Monday, February 6, 2023, was between Perry's Reiklanders and Jay's Cult of the Possessed. It was a night of learning the rules and showing off some new custom terrain. And bloodshed.

The streets at the outer edge of the city of Mordheim were set for the first Monday night delve. Two warbands immediately ran into each other, a company of Reiklander mercenaries, and a band of Cultists of the Possessed! There was bloodshed, screams, and many knockouts! This area of the City of the Damned had a variety of obstacles, ruins and interesting structures.

The two warbands emerged from opposite sides of the wide street once known as Klugenn Way, named for the fountain sporting the statue of General Klugenn who fought in one of the wars against the orc warlord Kragnox the Insufferable.

The Reiklander mercenary company of DIETRICH'S DOGS was led by none other than Dietrich Grossenheimer, once a captain in the Imperial Army who led a company of halberdiers. After a horrible slaughter against an army of chaos led by one Mattholox the Unstoppable, Dietrich was the lone survivor of his company and decided to retire from the army and become a mercenary. Along with his best friends, and known champions for the Empire, Wolfgang Baur and Hermann Reichert, he formed Dietrich's Dogs. Both Dietrich and Wolfgang brought along their young strapping sons, Peiter Grossenheimer and Reinhard Baur.

Wolfgang brought along a duo of cutthroat warriors, who called themselves the Sneidklingen: Franz Baumann and Karl Muller. Both had once been in the Imperial army of Reikland, but had deserted just before a battle with beastmen, led by Grexoxorus the Cruel; they felt no shame for saving themselves, and were sturdy swords for hire. Dietrich also recruited a trilogy of bowmen, literal marksmen of fine shot, the Wiebe Bruders, which consisted of Jurgen and Stefan Wiebe and their friend Hans Schmidt. As a company for hire, Dietrich's Dogs found themselves under contract with a noble with ties to the Grand Prince of Reikland. They wanted wyrdstone, and Dietrich promised him wyrdstone!

On the other side of the street, cultists of the Possessed, the Brotherhood of the Golden Void, followers of the Dark Emperor of Mordheim known as the Shadowlord! The Magister of this warband, Meister Herwig, brought with him a massive man, the Exalted Vessel Sven (Possessed by a daemon), as well as a horrible mutant with a scorpion tail, the Honoured Brother Karlheinz! A lone beastman, Cousin Rupprecht, its soul sworn to the Magister, was nearby, its massive war axe held at the ready. The rest were a rabble of deluded souls who wished for nothing less than the unknown power of Chaos: Brother Gosric, Brother Baldur, Brother Klaus, and Brother Jurgen.

They huddled together on the other side of the street, waiting orders from their Magister, as the beastman Cousin Rupprecht and Exalted Vessel Sven the Possessed got ready to move forward.

Dietrich, seeing the cultists, placed the Weibe Bruders on three higher points for their bows, and ordered the rest of the Reiklanders to charge! The cultists waited, lurking in the shadows. The Magister Meister Herwig called upon the dark daemons and cast Eye of God upon Brother Gosric who had proven himself earlier that day by stabbing himself in the leg to draw the requisite amount of blood out to cast said spell.

The Magister sent the Possessed out, charging the hot headed Franz Baumann. The appearance of the massive cloaked form sent shivers up the Reiklanders spines, but Franz Baumann met the abomination head on! The Possessed smashed into Baumann and knocked the Reiklander sword-for-hire down to lie dazed on the cobblestones while Dietrich and his son Pieter watched in shock! Nearby, Reinhard Baur, emboldened by Karl Muller and his father Wolfang's goading, charged two of the cultist brethren. Despite a heated melee, both sides avoided injuries.

The Rieklander bowmen fired and fired, but arrows failed to find their mark. Wolfgang Baur, spotting the mutant Honoured Brother Karlheinz crouching behind the fountain, fired his duelling pistol and caught the chaos follower in the chest, knocking him prone and stunned! The Magister ordered the rabble of brethren and the beastman to charge forward, swarming both Karl Muller and the young Reinhard Baur! While the young Baur managed to hold off the attacks, Muller was struck from the side by the beastman's great axe, and then speared by Brother Klaus! Blood spurted from Muller's chest and between his lips...it did not look good as he went Out of Action!

Dietrich and his son charged the huge form of Exalted Sven, and Deitrich's halberd sliced a hunk of daemonic flesh! Franz, dazed at the feet of the furious melee, struggled up and shook his head free of the cobwebs, and jabbed his dagger deep into the chest of the Possessed, felling it with a cry, and taking it Out of Action!

The rabble of brethren and beastman Rupprecht swarmed young Reinhard, the Magister Meister Herwig cackling maniacally from the shadows! Wolfgang cried out as his son screamed in surprise, and amidst the stabbing spears was taken Out of Action! Cousin Rupprecht turned his horned head towards the champion Wolfgang and charged, and the two engaged in a furious melee, neither managing to wound the other!

Hermann Reichert, who had been standing a ways back from Deitrich, cursed under his breath as young Reinhard fell. Hermann fired his brace of pistols, knocking one of the Brethen onto his back! Franz Baumann launched himself at the Brother Gosric with a cry, but the brethren, strenghened by the Eye of God laughed, and smacked Baumann across the chest with his spear, again knocking the Reiklander dazed onto his back! Baumann quickly bounced back up, the strength of the Empire coursing through is veins, and met Brother Gosric with sword and dagger! The other two Brethren engaged Dietrich and Pieter and Hermann!

The Magister Meister Herwig drew a wicked looking knife and charged to join Brother Gosric. The brethren stabbed Baumann, knocking him dazed to the ground, and before the Reiklander mercenary could recover, the Magister gave him a vicious stab, and toook Baumann Out of Action. His cackle of victory was short lived, however, as Deitrich and his son Pieter cut down Brother Klaus with axe and halberd, leaving brethren to lie in a bloody heap. Hermann fired his brace of pistols and his shot knocked down Brother Baldur. Looking around, Meister Herwig made the quick decision to flee before any more his his flock fell to Reiklander blades! Deitrich's Dog's had secured their first victory on the streets of Mordheim!

POST BATTLE

Franz Baumann, although dazed from having been knocked down several times during the battle, made a full recovery and left the City streets with little more than a few nasty bruises. However, his friend and comrade Karl Muller had not been so lucky. The beastman's axe had chopped deep and the mercenary had bled out on the cobblestones. Worse still, Baumann was unable to collect his friend's corpse, as the rats and other unsavoury vermin of Mordheim are quick to pounce upon the dead, and drag them away into the shadows and pits of gutters, never to be seen again. For the young Reinhard, although he lived his leg was broken in two places and never fully healed - he would walk slower with a limp after that. Of the Brotherhood of the Golden Void, Brother Klaus succumbed to his halberd and axe injuries and was lost. Brother Baldur, having been dragged out by Meister Herwig made a full recovery, the bullet from Hermann Reichert still residing in his shoulder but without any negative affect. As for the Exalted Vessel Sven, the Possessed had dragged itself to safety, and was more emboldened than ever, its last vestages of fear removed from his psyche. For the Brotherhood of the Golden Void, the excursion had not been fruitfull. Meister Herwig managed to scrounge up one wyrdstone from an old planter pot during the Brotherhood's scramble to safety. For Deitrich's Dogs, the Reiklanders managed to find three shards of wyrdstone, as well as the remains of an old ransacked shop. The young Pieter managed to find not only a single gold crown, but also an old holy symbol of Sigmar. Dietrich laughed, and told the boy to keep it, as such a trinket would no doubt be a Lucky charm for the lad on future engagements into the City.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND HIGHLIGHTS

A fun game as our first! A good run through of the rules and getting a feel for the game after a hiatus of (gulp) 20+ years! Some highlights during the fight: Perry KEPT ROLLING 1s TO HIT AND DAMAGE. It becamse so many, I thought I was cursed. But I still had fun, which was the main thing. Jay was dismayed when a single, pathetic dagger felled his great Exalted Vessel Sven with a critical hit! And of course, the glass jaw of Franz Baumann was hilarious, as the fiesty Reiklander got knocked down no less than four times in the game before finally being taken out with a sneaky dirty stab by the Magister himself! Also, the bowmen, although well placed, couldn't hit shit (so much for being Marksmen!) :D Looking forward to our next meetup, where we are tentatively scheduling Greg's Witch Hunters vs Matt's Skaven! Stay tuned!