Blood Bowl – Mordheim Marauders Part 6

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's get ready to fumble! The first team of the CBL is ready - the Mordheim Marauders are here!

I have prepared a full roster for the Chaos Team, with 16 players, covering 10 beastmen and 4 chaos warriors incl. mutations, as well as two Star Players, using the classic miniatures from the 1994s Chaos All Stars team, released for the 3rd edition of Blood Bowl.

Along with the miniatures itself, I prepared a bit of lore, set in the funky parallel universe of Blood Bowl's Old World, along with a banner / icon, that shall be used in a retro-ESPN styled coverage, based upon the late 80s helmet designs.

I really liked the fluff part of the starter rule set and Death Zone, so I had to write my own team info for the Marauders and I hope to do that for all the teams of my league. The Hall of Fame, MVPs and honours will be filled with the actuall events that are ahead. So this is kind of a living part that will be updated.

Name: Mordheim Marauders
Players: Chaos
Colours: Green / Brown / Purple
Home Stadium: The Pit (located in the eastern part of the City of Mordheim, 66.400 capacity, surface: cinder pitch)
Management / Owner: Andhu'l Morrskal
Head Coach: Brian "The Red" O'Conan
Health (Apothecarius): Snyd Pussfinger
Cheerleaders: The Wyrdstone Shards
Motto / Chant: Hit 'em like a meteor / Comet cometh

Team Honours: Winner of the 2022 chaos qualifiers for CBL
Hall of Fame: yet to be earned

A few close ups of the models. The core team from the boxed set covered 3 Chaos Warriors (3 different poses) and 8 Beastmen (4 different poses two times). While painting them, you notice that these are single cast models and not quite there were the Warhammer range was. For example the horns on the WHFB beastmen had a bit more structure and were easier for me to paint / wash, this gave me a hard time with these. I love the middle pose of the Chaos Warrior, very oldschool and dramatic, really captures the artwork  from the Deathzone cover as well.

There was a booster blister covering mutants, with a Chaos Warrior with Claw and Foul Appearance, a Beastman with Tentacles (he has prolonged teeth, so I am not sure if that is meant to cover Razor Sharp Fangs as well) and another one with Multiple Arms. I was struggling with a decision for the tentacles for quite some time. I was stuck between human flesh and doing some purple tentacles like from Day of the Tentacle. But along with the team colours, I thought that the flesh coloured ones would be a better fit.

The two Chaos Star players were set. I really love the model of Lord Borak, and the guy itself is a running gag with our local club, as we had a Döner Kebap joint near us that was called Borak Döner. I do prefer this model over the new incarnation by Forge World, yet it was a bit tricky to paint as there is a lot going on and splitting the team colours along with the various trophies and charms he's carrying I had my troubles to not overcrowd him with different paints or make him to noisy.

As for Grashnak Blackhoof, he plays a double role in this team. Either as the Starplayer himself or - by using one of the LRB rule sets - as a Big Guy / minotaur. It is interesting to see how different this sculpt is compared to the Warhammer minotaurs. I could have done a bit more reddish skin tone for him and now in the close up angled the numbers on his back plate a bit more. But yeah, that's done and maybe I'll distord from that by adding a bit more chipping to the numbers.

Yet the Star Players and Mutants make for a great group picture.

It's been 3 months since the last time that BLITZ! magazine editor Rarcel Meif talked with Andhu'l Morrskal, Owner of the Mordheim Marauders, and now that the team is ready for the new season, it is the perfect time to catch up. (I am thinking of giving my drawing skills another go and come up with some head shots of the different characters of the league, similar to the small pictures in the 3rd edition rule books).

Rarcel Meif: Mr. Morrskal, thanks you very much for the invitation to the team introduction!

Andhu'l Morrskal: Ah, Mr. Meif, welcome to Mordheim. As I take from your glow, you had the chance to be backstage and meet the Wyrdstone Shards?

RM: ... ehm, yes. Thank you for that as well. It was an intense experience. As we can see the team is all dressed up. So you could sign some sponsors pre-season?

AM: Absolutely. The team is ready. Orcidas is our team outfitter and covered us with multiple sets of jerseys, in all the different sizes Chaos comes in. To the fans out there, grab the new authentic players jerseys for just 149 Gold Crowns each! Beyond that, Coach O'Conan set up a tight training schedule along with a strict nutrious diet. Three full days of training, a day off for rest, along with a day and a half of tactical training before matchday. And of course the best halfling food you can get.

RM: That surely sounds like a plan. But wait ... did I get that right, Halfling food? Mr. Morrskal, do you speak of dishes prepared by Halfling cooks or halflings as part of the nutritional regime?

AM: I guess that depends on the individual players.

RM: It surely does! Just as we speak the team is getting in position to be captured for the team picture. Do I recognize him correctly, is that Albrecht Duerre?

AM: Yes! We send a letter to Nurnburg and due to the interesting architecture of our city of Mordheim, Herr Duerre couldn't wait to drop by. The picture should be ready any minute.

RM: Then let's switch to the studio for the press picture. Mr. Morrskal, thank you for you very much for your time and see you soon on kick-off!

I tried to recreate the look of the original packaging with the Marauders and am quite happy with the result that I got through photoshop.

The team is made for 3rd edition of Blood Bowl, but will give me enough options to play newer editions like LRB 5 or even the latest installment of Blood Bowl as a Chaos Chosen team. That is something that I went for in most of my Blood Bowl teams, to have the option for a reasonable overlap across the different editions. As Blood Bowl is known for taking itself not too seriously, I gave the players according names. Would like to know, if you catched my Easter Eggs.

I managed to paint the Mordheim Marauders team in about 2 months, but had a break of 3 months after that for just the decals, as my desk was crowded with different projects. So these were standing in a 95% stage for quite some time on the shelf. Yet, it gave me confidence for the next projects. So this is the first of 13 teams done, 12 to go for the full setup of the franchise. Next one will very likely be High Elves. This going to be an interesting new challenge, as it will require a much cleaner approach and paint job. But more on that on the introduction of the next team, in a similar setup to the Chaos team.