I remember when I was 16 or 17 and read those stunningly good Battle Reports in White Dwarf about WFB, Epic and the other GW games. I guess, I started playing Tabletop games because of this Reports. I was fascinated by the wonderful painted miniatures, the great terrain and the stories around those battles. At that time I was really envious at those guys at GW who were able to play at such a level. Since that time it was always my dream to write my own Battle Report and I knew, that the day would come when this will happen. When last year the idea rose about creating an online-fan magazine I was sure that I will write such a Battle Report for this. I asked much of my fellow gamers if they would be interested in supporting me, but most of them were deterred by the expenditure of such a project. Fortunately, Michael, a good friend of mine and member of our local Mordheim-liga agreed with me and promised to support me. You cannot imagine, how happy I was, because Michael isn't just a good player but he is the Master-tinker in creating fantastic scenery for war games. His pieces of terrain and scenery are at a very high level, I would almost say, that they are on GW-level… (hint, hint ;o)). It was clear to us, that we would play Mordheim, as Michael prefers this skirmish-game and my WFB-Empire army stands almost unpainted on the shelf… (…and I hate it to play with unpainted miniatures).

All we had to do now was to choose our Warbands and a scenario. This was a hard decision for me, as I like all of my Warbands. Finally my decision fell on the Witchhunters. I could have also played Possessed or Reiklanders, but as the Possessed are not finished yet (I made some nice conversions) and Michael also prefers Reiklanders, the decision was clear. Being a nice guy, Michael allowed me to choose my opponents. He had a Reiklander Warband, a pack of Skaven and a Beastmen-horde ready to play. It was clear to me that I wanted the classical good guys vs. bad guys in my battle Report. Although when playing Witchhunters, you cannot really be sure on which side they are standing, I knew that I didn't want the Reiklanders as my enemies. One Warband with Imperial Background was enough… Okay, the Beastmen would also be a bad decision, because they are really tough opponents (I know them from our Mordheim-liga, and they are the most dangerous warband there) and I wanted my Witchhunters to survive until round three… With only the Skaven Warband remaining, my decision was clear: the sons of Sigmar would cleanse the city of the damned from that foul disease called Skaven…

Michael: Hmmm… good, Nattl made a decision and now I have to play those ratmen… I personally prefer Reiklanders because of their superior shooting skills. But I allowed her to chose my warband and she choose the Skaven for me… I knew she would play her Witchhunters and that means very tough henchmen. But the Skaven are a deadly warband. They are quick and the use of slings often causes serious casualties to their enemies. Their only drawback is their weak Initiative, which means that you need as much models as possible to get a high breaking point. Firstly I chose an Assassinadept with Warplock-pistols (I like those guns...) and weeping blades, because of their strength in close combat (they are wounding automatically when rolling a 6). Also I wanted black Skaven in my warband. The one Black Skaven got Fighting Claws which would make him a horrible enemy in close combat, the other one would fight with a Flail, which means S 6 in the first round of close combat. As the one with the Fighting Claws cannot use any weapons, only those with the flail would get a sling for more firepower. An Eshin Sorcerer should add some arcane powers to my warband. Arrgh… I rolled a 2 on the spell-table: Children of the Horned Rat… This would add 1d3 additional Giant Rats to my warband without additional cost. Hmmm… A sling would give him more opportunities in the shooting phase. To complete the ranks of my heroes I added two Night Runners. Although they are relatively weak they are heroes and can get experience. Both got slings and their free daggers, one got a sword, the other one would have to fight with a second dagger. Now I had to choose my henchmen. With only 87 Gold crowns left I wouldn't have much choice… Two Verminkin with spears (always strikes first) and slings and one Verminkin with a sling and the free dagger. With only one point unspent I was ready for the battle. [Chin Lengs Warpstonehunters]

Natascha: I chose the Witchhunters because they are my favourite Warband. The Witchhunters strength are their henchmen: For 40 GCr you get tough Flagellants with S 4 and T 4 and immunity to fear… Okay, their armament is very restricted, but they are worth their price. Also, the Warhounds are a good choice, at least for starting Warbands: M 6 WS 4 and S 4 for only 15 Goldcrowns… The only drawback is that they cannot get experience. In my opinion, the Zealots are needless: poor stats and poor armament. If ever, I would take them only because I like the minis… Compared to other Warbands, the Heroes are very average. Only the Witchhuntercaptain has good stats and their hatred against spellcasters is nice but of not much use in combat (except if your enemies warband consists entirely of spellcasters…). The Warrior Priest is a good choice as he has a couple of good spells available.

I started with the Witch Hunter Captain: A sword and a pistol would give him a good stand in close combat (in addition to the usual free dagger). For the Witch Hunters I used different armament, because all my Models are nearly WYSIWYG. The first got a Sword, a pistol and I think the huge metal torch he wields in his right hand could also be used as a mace… The second one got an axe, a mace (torch) and a crossbow for some firepower. For the third Witchhunter I chose a sword, the free dagger and a pistol, which is a quite good choice. The Warrior priest would have to fight with a Warhammer and his free dagger. Rolling on the Spell Table I rolled a 1: The Hammer of Sigmar, which would make him a mighty warrior in close combat (+2 S and causing two wounds (!)). For the henchmen I chose three Flagellants with Flails (S 6 in the first round of combat) and two Warhounds as a quick shocktroops. I decided to save the 4 unspent points, which meant I would go into battle with 496 points. [Malleus Sigmaris]