Chad, our resident Harlequin (and now 9th Age Dwarves) player and all-round gaming enthusiast, is taking part in our current Mordheim campaign at the club, organised by Rich. Chad is also a blogger and writer, and we've been lucky enough to be given the green light to feature his work from his blog https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com.
We'll be following his progress and reports throughout the campaign, so here's his first post:
My friendly local gaming club, the Surrey
Spartans, are starting a Mordheim campaign. It’s to run over the next
three months (I think, correction pending) and of course I’m getting
involved – any professing warband style game is immediately appealing
for me, and besides what I fear will be an infrequent Ninja Allstars
league I’ve got nothing on at the moment. So I put myself down for a
dwarves treasure hunting party and assumed I would be able to run up a
list in no time.
This was until I saw I could play Forest
Goblins and give them Giant Spider mounts. Cue the creation of the Order
of the Golden Snotball:
Sir Dick Spiderlin, Lord of the Order of the Golden Snotball (Chief)
Giant Spider, Spear, Shield, Light Armour. (115gp)
Rob Anybody, Spider-Knight of the Golden Snotball (Brave)
Giant Spider, Spear, Shield, Light Armour. (95gp)
Twatter, Squire of the Golden Snotball (Brave)
Axe. (25gp)
Scatgob Oddball, Weirdo (Shaman)
Light Armour, Shield. (65gp)
Stabhack, Stabber of Men, Hacker of Elves, Lover of Spiders. (Red Toof Goblin)
Giant Spider, Axe, Axe/Sword, Light Armour. (95gp)
Murk, Moss Farmer (Slugga)
Throwing Weapons. (35gp)
Slink, Grass Hermit (Slugga)
Throwing Weapons. (35gp)
Midge, Moth Herder (Slugga)
Throwing Weapons. (35gp)
Warband Total: 500gp
This list may be somewhat of a
post-revisionist Goblin list in the eyes of some gamers out there – e.g.
there’s seven models when I could have got ten for 150gp – but I think
it’s quite characterful. Not only do I get to imagine my Spider-Knights
being well spoken English gentry types leading a hopefully increasing
number (and variety) of goblin peasants to war and glory, but it’s a
massive bully boy list. I also already own most of the models (painted)
so that’s a plus too.
My plan is for the Spider riding guys to
roam around and grab objectives/look scary while the dudes of foot
(Twatter, Scatgob and the motley thrown weapons crew) take on smaller
numbers of henchmen as a group. The three Sluggas get to chuck their
shit (possibly literal) three times a turn, hopefully resulting in an
average of one hit a ‘shot’ from each of them. This should be enough to
take a henchman or two out, and Scatgob will hopefully get some kind of
useful spell to support this ‘artillery fire’. Twatter will then kick
anything knocked down in the dangly parts, or hit it with his axe. The
cavalry will arrive when and if they can all get into base contact with
the same person, hopefully knocking them down with the two spear
wielders striking first. This will let Stabhack stab and hack them apart
while mostly defenceless.
This doesn’t get around the fact that
it’s quite possible I’ll be outnumbered by Dwarves, Elves and other
‘high point per model’ races in the first round. Sure, I can recruit
more Goblins in droves (15gp a time before equipment, 20gp if I want to
get more Sluggas or Red Toofs) later on but initially I’ll have to be
fairly tactical. Or cowardly. So how will I deal with threats?
High quality infantry: Mug individuals and pick off stragglers/flankers. Gang up with as many dudes using the same thing as possible.
Being Outnumbered: Kill anything
fast first, preferably at range. Do not get entangled in long melees,
hit and run wherever possible but don’t take risks. Spend a lot of time
hiding and waiting for the enemy to split into smaller groups under the
mistaken impression a pincer tactic with infantry is the best way to
deal with a cavalry/ranged enemy.
Being Outnumbered by High Quality Infantry: Err.
Shoot them to thin numbers and throw everything I can at their most
expensive models. Hopefully something should stick and they’ll be
knocked down. Once they’ve been broken up as a group, the cavalry can
pick on stragglers/front runners with shock tactics.
Large Creatures: Having neglected
to get a Gigantic Spider (serious temptation but in the end having
multiple cavalry and more models won out) I have nothing that can really
go toe-to-toe 1v1 with Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs or whatever other big
guns people bring along. However, I should be fast enough to evade it
while the cavalry picks on smaller chaps. I’ll probably leave it to
Scatgob and the Sluggas to wear it down with attrition, ranged attacks
and old age.
Being Outranged: I know there’s at
least two Empire players and one Dwarf player in the league, so it’s
pretty likely that someone will have the smart idea of just bringing
crossbows. My last Mordheim league featured 8 pluck dwarves with
crossbows and it was terrifying. I was running six skaven chaps, mostly
heroes, with warlock pistol braces and a Night Runner who regularly
impersonated a psychopathic Spider Man – I met with lots of success but
my lack of armour meant the crossbows took me apart in games where I
couldn’t just stay hidden. In this campaign I either have a head long
rush, Charge of the Light Brigade style, at the shooters or try to
manoeuvre around terrain until I can get to them in one turn. Or just
run and hide.
So my strategy is pretty much run and
hide until my opponent makes mistakes. I can live with that, as long as I
don’t get too bloodthirsty and continue charging through and enemy
warband after meeting some initial success.
What are my goals for future progression?
Ideally, everyone gets their own spider and Dick gets a Gigantic
Spider. That’s going to be expensive though. Really I want three more
Sluggas with throwing weapons, five Red Toofs on foot with twin axes,
five normal Goblins with spears and shields, two more combat types on
spiders and the three most veteran Sluggas mounted on spider-back. Or
all of them. So we’re looking at spending another 1,025gp for the ideal
warband. Before getting people light armour. Good.
Realistically two more combat spider
riders, three Sluggas on spider-back and six combat goblins on foot with
spears and shields would be great. And much more affordable at 570
before any light armour, which would only really be bought for people on
spider-back. First order or purchase is likely the spear-goblins to
bump up my numbers, probably extending to five spear-goblins and five
axe wielding Red Toofs for ‘shock’ counter charges. It does largely
depend on how successful I am in my games, which I fear may be not very.
One of the guys is playing to vampiric
nobles, a Lahmian-Blood Dragon couple, who take their pet wolves for
walks in the city and are set upon by various adventures. This is the
smallest warband in the league, to my knowledge, but I only just
outnumber them two to one. None of that sounds good for the Order of the
Golden Snotball, but I’ll role-play the hell out of it. And who knows,
one vampire might get knocked down by a hail of random objects
being thrown at them. So far the lists I’ve seen haven’t featured many
Ogres, Treemen or other large, tough targets so that’s nice for me I
suppose.
