One for the Mordheim players 'Rising Tides'

 Welcome back my readers to our literary Khanate! Pull up a fur, get comfortable, and enjoy something a little different today. We are going back to arguably one of the best specialist games that Gamesworkshop ever produced. I am speaking about Mordheim. Released in the balmy yester year of 1999. Those of you lucky to have played this know that was wild time. 

In 2006 I had spent an entire day playing this game and drinking with a mate before we hit up a night on the town. To this day nothing makes me laugh like remembering my drunken friend proudly declaring he had the 'haggle' skill and should not have paid full price for his drink. 

In another of my challenges in writing I found a competition on a Mordheim facebook group. These days this is the main, if not only, place that Mordheim survives. Carried on by the loyal fans that continue to play it. The competition was simple. Create a Mordheim scenario. I thought to myself that I would give it a go. I am not a 'games designer' though to be fair at this point I had been playing Dungeons and Dragons, 40K, Lord of the Rings, and a number of other games. As such I was able to draw on this to hopefully create a fun fast paced play experience. I gave myself the following rules

- Chaotic: I wanted a scenario that create a frantic pace that balanced combat with a game state that made players feel under pressure
- Heroic: I wanted to create a scenario that would push players to have their gang members to make heroic efforts to survive the scenario. To create those moments that they would laugh about post game. 
- Environment: I wanted to create a 3rd player. The Environment would be against the players and offering a ever present threat. 

This being said I present my scenario

"Scenario: Rising Tides

The city of Mordheim is not just a city of crumbling buildings, the comet’s strike has left parts of the city itself crumbling. Beneath the city is a vast series of caves, tunnels and crumbling sewers. Sometimes these areas will collapse under the weight of world above. Wary explorers will give these unstable areas a wide birth. However the more opportunistic scavengers see these areas as unclaimed treasures. Greedy minds often scheme alike and often the more desperate amongst them are prepared to fight to claim these unsteady grounds. It is still to be seen if these warbands, or even the city, can survive such greed.

Terrain

Terrain for this scenario is placed in a specific way. There must be one piece of terrain that is at least 3 stories tall. This piece is placed in the centre of the board. Players take in then in alternating turns to place 2 storey buildings within 6 inches of the central terrain piece. Then the players place another ring of buildings around the two storey terrain all buildings in this ring should be single storey. One all buildings are placed ensure they are all linked by walk ways and bridges. Leave an area around the edge of the board with no terrain. The game should roughly take place on a 4x4 board.

 

Warbands

Players roll off to select who deploys first. The winning players picks a table edge and the opponent deploys on the opposite board edge. All players can deploy within 6 inches of the board edge.

 

Special rule: The rising tide

At the start of the second turn roll a dice. On a 4+ the ground begins to give way and a rush of fetid sewer and water rushes up into the streets. Models caught on the ground must pass a strength test, rolling equal to or below their strength. If they pass they may move to the nearest build and may attempt to climb on their turn. If the model fails they are ‘swept away’ remove them from the game and treat them as ‘out of action’. On each subsequent turn roll a dice subtracting 1 from the roll for rising tide eg 3+ on turn 3, 2+ on turn 4 etc). Each time the tide risings it moves up one level of elevation. Eg the first time the tide rises it effects the ground level, the second time it effects the 1st storey, and so on. Each time a model is caught by the tide repeat the strength test as previously described. The tide will stop when only the highest terrain is left. Additionally any model that falls from a higher elevation into the tide effected levels must take a strength test to avoid being swept away. If they pass move them to the nearest safe terrain as previously outlined and allow them to begin their climb again.

Starting the game

Players roll a d6 the highest roll takes the first turn.

Ending the game

The game ends if one player elects to rout or a warband fails a rout test.

Experience

+1 Survives – If a hero or henchman survives the game they gain one experience

+1 Winning Leader – The winning warband’s leader gains 1 experience

+1 Take enemy out of action –Any hero or henchman that takes an enemy out of action gains 1 experience.

+1 King of the Castle -  Gain +1 experience if you are the highest model at the end of the game"

If you are a fan of the great Mordheim then I want you to try this scenario out. I was not successful in my pitch, but I stand by the merits of this scenario. It was my first attempt at game design for a competition. If you give this a try then I ask only one thing. Let me know how the game played and what feedback you have on refining the idea.