Salvadors Magnificent Flying Machines

The eccentic genius Salvador Alberto DaVinci was well-known in Mordheim for his clockwork inventions and amazing creations. Since the Meteor, he has rebuilt his sprawling workshop on the outskirts of the city. Times are good: the city is full of interesting people, inspiration for new and exciting inventions is easy to come by, and adventurers going into the streets of Mordheim are ready to act as test-pilots for even the most bizarre experimental devices if the pay is good. Are you desperately grubbing for cash for your warband? Searching for wyrdstone getting you down? Looking for an exciting way to earn a bit of extra cash? And some crazy engineer is offering cash up front for testing out his inventions? Are you crazy? It cant be that dangerous, right?

Get Me a Flying Machine!

Any warband can send a Hero to approach Salvadors workshop. After signing a few uninterestinglooking disclaimers and waivers, he will be given an experimental Flying Machine to test out. Salvador provides all the gear and a worryingly brief theoretical demonstration. There is no cost in fact, hell pay you to test it out for him! Jolly good!

Prepare your Test Pilot:

You will need to provide a suitable model before you can take your first test flight. Salvadors experimental devices take a variety of forms, and all are unique, and rather odd. Backpacks with propellers; giant feathered self-flapping wings; hats with helicopter blades; man-sized medieval hang-gliders; miniature steam zeppelins; a massive bunch of multicoloured party balloons on a stout rope; clockwork gyrocopters, steam jet packs, rocket boots: the odder the better. Tip out your bits box and go nuts. Salvador has his reputation to think about, and would not dream of field-testing an unfinished prototype, so only painted models may be used. Only Heroes can use a Flying Machine Henchmen dont get paid enough to take such risks. The Hero must be man-sized or smaller Salvadors creations arent quite up to flying Possessed or Ogres yet and the Hero may not wear armour of any sort while strapped into the device. Dont worry hell be perfectly safe! Carry on!

In the spirit of daring, seat-of-the-pants, surely-this-cant-be-that-dangerous, and what-does-thisbutton-do? adventure in which Salvador creates all his inventions, you may like to miss out the section called How Do You Fly this Thing? and only read it when you play your first game. Tally ho!

Whats In It for Me?

Salvador monitors the test process meticulously, making extensive scribbled notes and observing the various idiots zooming, whooshing and plummeting all over the city from the zeppelin moored to the highest tower of his workshop. There is a constant stream of soot-blackened, windswept and slightly crazed individuals dragging odd devices up to the workshop, to report on how the field testing is going. This gives Salvador a chance to make repairs, adjustments and on-the-spot improvements, and of course, to pay a handsome reward for testing out his devices. After any game in which your warband flew a Flying Machine, you will be paid a flat Experimental Testing fee of 20gc. Salvador is also particularly interested in reports of how his machines stand up to combat conditions. He will pay an additional 5gc for every model taken Out of Action by a model piloting a Flying Machine. He may well have been watching through a telescope at the time, so no exaggerated combat reports! Test pilots are subject to extreme stresses, and tend to learn fast, go mad, or die horribly. Models piloting a Flying Machine can claim +2 Experience for surviving a battle, instead of the usual +1, as long as they flew at least once. In addition, they may choose from a new Skill list Birdmen! whenever they roll a new Skill.

So How Do You Fly This Thing?

Models strapped into a Flying Machine can still move normally, but cannot run, climb or charge they have to fly to do that! An unengaged model, if it starts its turn standing up, may take to the skies as follows: 1. Declare the intended Landing Point. This can be anywhere over 6 away, at any height, and the pilot does not need Line of Sight to his landing point. 2. Generate Lift. Decide whether to roll 2D6, 3D6, or 4D6, and roll it! 3. Doubles, triples and quadruples mean something has gone wrong look up the Whoops Flying Mishaps chart. 4. If there are no doubles / triples /etc then add up the total rolled. Far enough to reach the landing point: Perfect landing! Move to the landing spot. The model may still shoot this turn if he wishes, counting as moving. Good Show! Not enough to reach landing point: Move the model as far as you rolled towards the landing point the flying machine then runs out of puff, and the model will plummet to the ground. Determine the height the model falls from by simply moving in a straight line towards the landing point and seeing how far up he is when he runs out of lift! Models who end up falling 1 or less simply take D3 S1 hits. Even if he is unhurt, the model lands in a bit of a tangled heap and may not shoot or do anything else this turn.

See? All jolly straightforward!

Whoops! Flying Mishaps

Any double: Overcooked it! Move the model to the intended landing point, then move it an additional 2d6 straight ahead. The flying model will stay at the same height as the intended landing point. The flying model takes a single hit (at the same Strength as the 2D6 roll) for every model he moves through, and each model he hits takes the same damage. If this move takes the flyer into terrain, he takes another hit, then stops. Fences or similarly breakable terrain should be removed. At the end of the overshoot move, the flying machine will fall to the ground, taking Falling damage as normal if more than 1 from the ground. If the flier miraculously survives all this unscathed, he is too shocked to do anything else this turn! Any triple: Seriously overcooked it! Exactly as above, but roll 3d6 instead of 2d6. Ouch! Any quadruple: Ah. The flying model manages to defy physics and gravity in some spectacular and massively entertaining fashion, sending himself into low orbit, sailing clear over the outer city walls and into a distant forest, or ploughing a furrow in the stone cobbles before ending up in the sewers below the city. The Hero is taken Out of Action. Dont worry, Im sure the flying machine will be fine!

Aerial Charges
Once you have mastered the art of flying around the city (or at least, done it once or twice without dying, which is pretty much the same thing) you might like to test out your new Flying Machines combat capabilities. Jolly good! When nominating a Landing Point, you may choose to charge into combat. You need Line of Sight for this, so consider flying up somewhere high first. Test pilots are a bit reckless and/or soft in the head, and so can be considered to automatically pass any Fear tests. Roll for Lift, work out if you reach the target, and work out Mishaps as normal. If you successfully reach combat, you have performed an Aerial Charge Tally ho! Models successfully completing an Aerial Charge must make a single Initiative test. If they pass, they inflict a single Impact hit on their enemy (with the Strikes First rule) with a Strength equal to the number of dice used to generate Lift. If they fail the test, the target and the flier will both suffer the Impact hit. Then resolve the combat normally, with the flying model getting +1 to Hit and +1 Strength, just like a Diving Charge.

New Skills - Birdman!

Spiffing Moustache A model with a Spiffing Moustache may re-roll any one Lift dice, once per turn. This makes piloting a Flying Machine practically safe! Shoot on the Wing The warrior may resolve his shooting in the Shooting phase from any point he has flown over in the Movement phase. Declare you intend to use this skill before you both forget where you flew from! Dive-bomber the warrior may re-roll failed Initiative tests when attempting an Aerial Charge. Steady Flier the warrior does not suffer the usual -1 to hit penalty for moving and shooting if he shoots while flying. Frankly Suicidal the warrior may choose to roll up to 5D6 for lift. Good luck with that!