YE MORDHEIM LEGENDS GAZETTE
18 Angestag, Erntezeit .................................................................................. 2 Groats

The Square of the Snake
A Four-Player scenario By Christian Ellegaard

Through centuries Mordheim was known as a big and wealthy city, beautiful and with proud inhabitants that despite providing crops from the surrounding fields mainly depended on the lively trading that took place in the many squares that dominated the city map. From the banks of the river Stir, merchants and traders arrived in impressive boats and ships with trade goods from all parts of the world, from the fabled cities of Araby to the mysterious Nippon, that were sold on market places and in stores.

However, after the catastroph in the Year of Our Lord 2000 most of the trading squares were utterly destroyed apart from only a few that became so twisted that no one that had seen them before could recognize them again. The White Rose Square in front of the western gates became known as the Forbidden Square, the Altenweiss Tour changed into the Zombie Square and the Square of the Fish that crashed andbecame the terrible Nightmare Gap.

One of these proud market places, the Hunter's Square, collapsed completely as the giantic blow from the comet struck the buildings, and the Wyrdstone shards that came with the comet were buried deep below the surface. It was told that the small earth worms that lived under the city suddenly grew and multiplied, and their twisted minds drew them upwards, towards the dark moon of Morrsleib. And thus the Square of the Snake was born...

The scenario
In this scenario, four warbands have clashed over the Square of the Snake, unaware of the many dangers hidden under the ruins. In the middle of the square is a large platform of marble that has somehow reststed the meteor without even suffering a single crack.

"The first thing that stuck me was that huge platform of marble, situated in the very middle of the square. As the first bows were launched and the first swords swung the stone began to glow in the darkness, like if it were magical. Ignoring the arrows that were directed against me I decided to find out what that stone was." -Ignatius, Witch Hunter

The warbands
Unlike other scenarios this battle includes four warbands. Any warbands can participate in this scenario, regardless race and experience.

Objectives
The first objective is to reach the marble platfor wherefore the warbands must start the cleanse and finally enter the platform again. Victory points are achieved during the battle as described later.

Setting up and deploying
The scenario is played over any suitable table, preferably a 4' times 4' table. Set it up representing a square with a lot of buildings beneath the edges of the table and with fewer buildings in the middle, perhaps a couple of old tents, barricades or other ruins. In the very middle is the marble stone that should be approximately 1" x 1" or 2" x 2".

All players flip coins, roll dice or whatever to decide who deploys first. The winner chooses a corner to set up in and he starts with deploying his warband within a triangle no further than 8" from the corner, as shown on the map . The turn goes clockwise until all players have deployed, then the player who deployed first gets the first turn.

Special rules
The first thing all warbands must do is to reach the tombstone in the very middle of the battlefield. Here the warbands will get the secret informations about which opponent they must take out. The warband that gets to it first is rewarded with a Victory Point bonus as described later, and in addition he will be allocated a random opponent. Make four cards and write Player 1 - 4 on the back of the cards and let the warband captain draw a random card. The opponent that he draws is the opponent that he must eliminate.

These cards are kept secret. However, at some time all players will discover which warband is their enemy as they suffer from continuous attacks, but keeping the cards secret adds even more excitement and tactics to the game.

The Tail-Biting effect
A very interesting thing that may happen in this scenario is the Tail-Biting effect where player 1 attacks player 2, player 2 player 3, player 3 player 4 and player 4 must take out player 1. If you use the method with drawing cards, then there are 50% chances of achieving the Tail-Biting effect, but alternatively you can use a moderator. He will allocate the informations in the right way so that this very interesting effect happens.

"As I touched the stone it was like if I had touched Sigmar himself. As I lifted my face I saw a big pillar of light over me, continuing into the endless skies, through the dark clouds that hung over the city and further upwards. And then I knew the enemy." -Sister Helena, Sister of Sigmar

Snakes!
As the battle goes on the snakes are awakened, and they will slowly penetrate the surface to attack the warriors. Every time a warrior Routs, place a Stake counter at the spot where the warrior lost his nerve. The snake can be represented by a cardboard token or, even better, a Serpent swarm. All serpents are moved before player 1's turn. They move 2D6" in a random direction decided by a Scatter die - or, alternatively, use a bottle. We've found that a gun works particularly good for this purpose - especially when it's loaded and goes on once in a while! If a snake touches the base on any model, then the model will suffer an automatic hit with Strength 2, and no armor can stand the venom of the snakes.

Ending the game
Once one of the warband achieves to put all warriors of their chosen opponent out of action they must get to the tombstone again, and once they have reached it the battle ends. The warrior who reached the tombstone in the end of the battle will be awarded with 5 free Experience points.

Who has won
To find out who has won, all players must count together their Victory Points as described below.

"Melchior, the proud Youngblood whose ax had cut through the throat of the last foul rat touched the marble platform in the middle. And by Sigmar, I tell you it raised. Slightly, but it revealed a deep gab under it. 'Quickly!' shouted Melchior to us, and soon we all stood on the stone. And from the gap came hundreds, probably thousands of small as well as big snakes! As our enemies eyed the cursed serpents they panicked, and while some escaped others were caught and suffered a slow and horrible death." -Hummer "Bigmaw", Mercenary Champion

Tactics

This scenario is a huge scenario that may last for an entire afternoon, if not more. As you play it more and get used to the conditions you will discover that there are a few basic tactics that can be used.

Firstly, consider the strengths of your warband. It is not necessary to be fast to reach the tombstone as the first warband - even slower and more regular warband have good chances to enter the tombstone when facing warbands that are much faster such as the Skaven. When the enemy warriors seem to get too close to the stone, then just launch the crossbows and fire the bows and see them collapse only a few feet before the stone.

To counter this ranged attack then it is important to take use of all possible cover. In addition, a small group can be sent over to the enemy archers to make them busy defending them selves.

Once the real fights have started, then remember that even though the battlefield may look very chaotic you have only one enemy that is truly against you, so you do not risk to see three warbands suddenly standing in front of you wishing that you were dead.

Therefore, keep calm and don't panic.

The goal is plain now: Kill all warriors in your enemy warband! Keep close to him so that the opponent that will need to bring you out of action will find it harder to get in combat with you. You must try to score as many points as possible while your opponents should be hindered in doing this, so try to get within close combat range with them and throw the gauntlet.

Also be sure to fight close to the middle. This will make it much easier if you should be the first warband to put all opponents out of action, and it will just increase the chaos on the battlefield when all warriors plunge together on the middle.

A very dirty trick is to keep one or two warriors lurking in the ruins far from all fights so that the warband which has to put you out of action must hunt them over the entire board. This keeps him from winning, at least! Mind you, though, that this is only the most desperate warband captains that would attempt to do so!

Overall the most important thing in this scenario is to keep the survey. Be focused on your opponent, and don't let you disturb by all the war cries that rise on the battlefield. Good luck,