Death on the Reik - Scenario playtesting (The Enemy Within campaign)

This post discusses our playtest of the "Death on the Reik" scenario, and of our current revised rules for boats in Mordheim.

The second in a series of scenario playtests, 'Death on the Reik' takes its name from one of the modules of the original Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Like the module, it introduces all the lovely river life of the empire to the players, and is a great way to explore the rules for boats without actually having to buy any with your hard-earned gold crowns.

The updated version of the scenario can be found here:

Death on the Reik (click to download)

'Ahoy Riverdogs!'

To this end and to ensure everything went smoothly, I have compiled a revised set of boat rules for Mordheim. This puts together the original rules from Empire in Flames and the revisions in the Sartosa supplement, with Warhammer Ahoy! rules (by Tim Eagling) to augment the range of actions the models can take, and ensure most common situations are covered (like boarding actions!).

The ruleset was expanded from the original boat rules, for adaptation to the "Mutiny in Marienburg" Mordheim campaign. Werekin (from Liber Malefic) laid out the framework and direction for all this, and DicLombardi (from TBMF) helped steer the rules development in the right direction.
Ahoy Riverdogs (revised Mordheim boat rules) (click to download)

Please note these rules are still a work in development. Much has been done before in other rulesets regarding boats in Mordheim by other members of the community. This is no attempt to infringe on their creations, quite the contrary: I would like to pool their knowledge and tested rules to hopefully craft a better, more smooth ruleset for boats in the game.

This scenario involves a defending warband having to protect a boat's contents from raiders. 

The scenario is actually several scenarios in one: the 'River Life of the Empire' table will randomly decide what is on the barge and the corresponding objectives and special rules. The defenders may have to protect Cargo crates, a Merchant, a Priest or even a group of annoying nobles having a boat party. Alternatively, the defenders may get stuck actually defending smugglers, and might have to make the decision to take them to the authorities instead (and perhaps skimming some of their goods). Take a look at the table: there is a lot of narrative potential there, and each option will result in a very different battle unfolding.

Something we noted right when we were setting terrain was that the width and shape of the river will affect the battle a lot. Make sure to follow the guidelines to place a few bottlenecks to reduce the width to the right amount: otherwise attackers will have to swim very far to even have a chance to reach the barge. Yes, models can swim across the deep water, but they better not risk a trip while wearing heavy armour!

Players should remember that 2" from the shores is still shallow water, so models can still stand and move slowly across it, helping to close the distance to the boat if they wish to swim. It also means that boats should avoid the shallows, else they may risk running aground.

An Elven kinband from Laurelorn forest guards a
merchant boat headed up the Reik.

We found this scenario to be a good introduction to the boat rules, as no warband needs to own any boats in advance (but if they do they can field a small flotilla!). 

The scenario gives the defender the control of a barge with sails, so it introduces all the basic rules for boats plus the rules for sails. The attacker gets a raft and a rowboat, so the boat rules are even simpler for them.

Cultists of Chaos lie in wait for the boat to approach.

Still, these cover many important interactions, such as when boats are allowed to move, or how can characters climb on board or hold on to moving boats, and of course boarding actions. 

Several new rules for boats took shape from the 'Warhammer Ahoy!' ruleset. This includes the sails, oars and running aground rules.

Beastmen and Cultists advance aboard their raft.

The Mutants and Cultists on the rowboat reveals themselves
from out of a canal tunnel.

We realized quickly that setting a boat on fire is one of the best ways to force its crew to be distracted, as they must put it out quickly or risk it destroying the boat. The rules to set boats alight and the ones for the crew to put the fire out looked quite balanced, so while it will always be worth it to try and burn an enemy boat down, it by no means spells doom for the boat if it is properly crewed.

The Cultists strike with thrown torches, which quickly set the
boat on fire... making the elves on board scramble to put it out.

An important support role was filled by the fraction of the defending warband that deployed in one of the river shores, especially if they are armed with missile weapons. They can put pressure on the attackers on land too, and have better maneuverability to aim and shoot than their mates on the barge.

For attackers, having more boats is definitely a better approach. In our game some of the attackers had to swim to get to the barge, something that takes ages and can be quite dangerous. But if the barge is adrift (if the captain is kept distracted with, say, a knife to the throat) then swimming aboard becomes much easier.

Kithband warriors escort the merchant boat from the shore,
taking aim at attacking Cultists on the raft.

Boarding action!

It turned out that stealing cargo away from the barge was quite difficult: once aboard, attackers tend to be quite busy fighting the defenders to grab Cargo, unless they have overwhelming numbers . It is much more straightforward to try to commandeer the barge. Nonetheless, we kept the rules as they were, because just in case someone manages to steal some of the Cargo, at least they may get some benefit from it.

A swift boarding by the Cultists makes short work of the
elven bodyguards.

A Possessed swims across to climb aboard the boat and wreck havoc,
while a many-armed mutant sets his sights on the boat captain.

The last elven defenders aboard the boat are cornered by
drunken Cultists and Beastmen.

This scenario has its own small table of Random Happennings, thematically suited to the river location (and also to make the scenario less complicated by avoiding the usual Random Happenings). In our case this involved the defender being flanked by a troupe of forest goblins. But it couldve very easily have been the attacker's warband. Other encounters involve river pirates or riverwardens (on a rowboat), a bog octopus or even rocky shallows!

The captain holds valiantly to the wheel of his ship, but is at the
mercy of a Mutant. The boat soon belongs to the Cultists of Chaos.

And here it is, finally some update on Enemy Within.
Rules development has been moving here in the background, but I still am changing lots of the text and putting things together in nice PDFs. 
Don't believe it? Here is my commuting-notebook for evidence! :)

Many things are drafted, but unfinished. But it is all moving at a steady pace.

TEASER: next time
Recently our group playtested the "Castle Wittgenstein" multiplayer-fest scenario. I still have to make changes to all the rules that raised issues, but it served quite well as a big slufest with multiple objectives and different battlefield areas to control. Suitably Epic, and should work as a good mid/late-campaign get-together. I shall put up the scenario rules soon.

Until then, roll high and prosper!