Colin Stricklin over on the Mordheim facebook grouo gave us an illustrated report at
A group dedicated to the GW skirmish game Mordheim.
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reproduced here:
Colin Stricklin
2 June at 19:36
RUN! THE HORSEMAN COMES!
My group just played through
Andrew Aulenback's "The Headless Horseman," the winning entry in the recent scenario contest. It was a brutal battle between Witch Hunters, Undead, and Norse. Click through for a bit of play-by-play and some first impressions on the scenario.
A hideous cave opens wide beneath the Cemetery of St. Voller, and the Horseman rides forth to claim his head!
My biggest criticsim of the scenario is that it lacks unique setup rules. We diced off for first placement as per standard multiplayer, but I think that taking turns placing heroes and henchman groups could have made for a more dynamic back and forth between players. As is, the Norse warband in the back set up first, and they got pincered between undead (foreground) and the Witch Hunter band (hiding in the orange-tiled houses at left and right). That elf ranger at top right turned out to be a bit of a kingmaker, being one of the few effective ranged warriors in any of the three bands.
It was a total meatgrinder in the middle of the board.
A pair of witch hunter heroes make a break for it in the background.
The Horseman approaches! The well marked the halfway point on the board, and most of the lads were still battling it out in the aforementioned meat grinder. In other words, this was the moment just before half the field went down to the Horseman's advance.
The bridge. It's not a covered bridge, but you can't have everything. The halfway point across was our official finish line.
Here in the late game, the only ranged weapons in play were in the hands of the Witch Hunters. Unnador The Baffled (the elven ranger) was plunking away with Quick Shot. Balthasar von Dernbach, the witch hunter captain with the scythe, had a crossbow pistol. There were some interesting decisions about whether or not to shoot the vampire (one of only two remaining undead) the Norse spearmen (the only remaining Norse) or to try and buy another turn by shooting the Horseman. Meanwhile, a dire wolf and a pair of witch hunter hounds were busy battling it out for first across the bridge. The witch hunter hounds ultimately won that honor, but being animals could not collect their prize of +1 xp.
The vampire played it smart. Count Blunttooth made it past the dog fight by climbing up the side of the bridge, making a pair of initiative checks to climbing-charge the out-of-line-of-sight elf.
By this time, the two witch hunter hounds had made it off the board, each with a chunk of wyrdstone attached to its collar.
The optional "flee from combat" rules saw A LOT of play in this scenario, as the fastest way to move along the board was to charge somebody further downfield and then make the leadership test to break from combat and double-move.
You're looking at the start of the final round. Witch hunters were up first, and both the elf ranger and the witch hunter hero (dude with the cutlass fighting the blond Norse warrior) made their leadership tests to break from combat, moving past the center of the bridge and on to safety.
The witch hunter captain (dude with the scythe in front of the white die) charged the vampire to try and keep it from exiting the field. That combat ended without any wounds inflicted.
On its subsequent turn the vampire successfully ran from combat with Captain von Derbach, thus winning the scenario and proving that vampires can in fact cross running water.
On the final turn of the game, the last surviving Norseman charged Captain von Dernbach. The pair were still locked in combat when the Horseman took 'em both, just inches away from safety.
It was a fun scenario, with lots of drama and some interesting "do I shoot the Horseman or my enemies?" decisions.
Still, the victory condition was a bit weird. Since the vampire was the only undead model left, it managed to win the scenario by becoming the first and only undead mini to move off the board. Witch hunters managed to get two dogs, an elf ranger, and a single witch hunter hero across the finish line, claiming three of our 4 random chunks of wyrdstone but not clenching the W.
Meanwhile, every single Norseman had to roll for serious injury, the poor blond bastards.
My conclusion is that this is a VERY deadly scenario, making for a "lose less" rather than a "win more" sort of game. That means it has an interesting equalizer effect on a campaign. When almost everyone in every warband goes down, that's good for relative newcomers since the dudes who are further ahead in terms of XP and gold have more to lose.
I'd play it again, but not more than once in a campaign. The losses are too great!
