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As many of you know, I enjoy a lot of video games and have recently been playing one called Mordheim: City of the Damned. This is a computer rendition of an old Games Workshop game and the creators have done a great job of making a fun game that truly captures the brutal feel of the original game. This is the first game in a many years that handed me my head on a platter the first time I played it; it has sucked my soul ever since. I couldn’t just roll through the game like I do so many others and have actually had to learn and create tactics for it so that I can survive the mission and maybe even thrive. Today I wanted to share a tactic that has helped me out to no end, and one that I learned doing SCA Heavy Combat melees.

The tactic is the bubble. In the ruined city of Mordheim, there are many places that are choke points, places that you can control the flow of battle. In this game, if you are not controlling the flow of the fight, then you are likely surrounded and dead, so it is better to learn the best method to utilize these areas. The bubble tactic is simple; arrange your fighters on one side of a choke point where that point opens up into a wider area. You need to place one of your warriors in that hole in such a way as the opposing warriors cannot slip past them, but that you warriors can flank anyone that gets into combat with that warrior. This allows you to create 2 on 1 or even 3 on one fights. Add in an archer behind that can put a few holes into your enemy and you have a wonderful place to murder your adversary.

This tactic works even better in this game than it does in real life since you do not have the ability to column charge the guy plugging the hole and burst past him. I have used this method countless times in the game so far and have found that it can allow a much weaker force to truly decimate a larger force. If you enjoy this game as much as I do, give this a try and reap the rewards!

-Dominic