Mordheim/Tactics

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This will soon become a 'tactics' hub for Mordheim, the fun game of who-can-spam-the-most-slings - If you want to add to it, feel free to help out!

Mordheim is wellknown as the campaign Skirmish wargame, which has inspired many games like it, such as the Heralds of Ruin Kill Team system and the Malifaux universe. The game itself is set in the destroyed city of Mordheim, which was smashed to splinters by a comet of pure Wyrdstone (which is plain renamed Warpstone), which in turn attracts mercs, chaos and other wicked things like a raunchy story thread attracts fa/tg/uys on a friday night. You can read about it here.

General Tactics

In the game, you create a warband of assorted models, gear them out and go on a happy adventure within the cursed city of Mordheim, collecting Wyrdstone, unique weaponry and fighting the other warbands over the spoils. It's not particularly balanced, but it sure is fun, and can be fukken great with a good band of friends, which might be the most important thing to remember - While the game, and the tactics on this site can be focused on winning and doing the absolute best, don't forget that the game is a friendly game and can easily be broken, if you're not careful... And by being careful, we mean 'be careful not to buy twenty Clanrats with Slings', so it's not that hard to keep yourself from making your campaign into the most hatefilled war of attrition ever to grace your gaming boards.

That said, Mordheim is a game meant for fun and games and for making your own band of heroes to adventure with, while creating stories about how your warriors fought over a stash of Wyrdstone, or how a Youngblood slew a great Possessed, or how you miraculously found that Hochland Long Rifle within the ruins. Mordheim is a game that creates stories, both fun and FUN*.

Creating your Warband

Making a Mordheim Warband in this day and age can range from being very expensive relatively to the size of the warband to be something you can do with the bits you have left around for Warhammer Fantasy. For some factions you have no choice but to go for the original models (Sisters of Sigmar and to some extend the Cult of the Possessed), while others can be made easily with existing kits (Mercenaries in particular, but Dwarves, Skaven and Undead can also be made with existing models from the modern day plastics). No matter what though, you'll certainly be doing a lot of conversion, unless the weapons the models come with suit you perfectly - For complete WYSIWYG, many models need to be scratch build in a way that no other game requires of you - Orcs with shortbows, Sisters of Sigmar with slings, Skaven with a Blunderbuss, all can be seen in the Mordheim, and often it's better to not accept the static nature of the models given. Especially ranged weapons are important, and if you can, sculpt some bows or slings on as many models you can - You never know if you'll need to fell an Ogre at range, 'cause close combat with such a beast ain't no good!

When starting a campaign (and playing Mordheim out of campaign is not really the what the game's for, so you're making one for a campaign), you start out with 500 Gold Crowns (or whatever currency your faction uses), which you'll then need to buy new warriors, new gear, pay upkeeps for big units and so forth. Gold is also what'll keep the Warband hummin' along during the campaign, and it's smart to have a little bit of Gold in your Treasury at all times, since it will help you get new warriors, if a battle doesn't go in your favour. A Warband must start with a Leader, who is the most powerful warrior in the Warband, and can buy more warriors from there: Heroes, who can gain equipment and have special abilities, and Henchmen, who can only gain experience. During the course of the game, the different models can move around the roster - Henchmen can become Heroes and gain special equipment, while Heroes may become Leaders for a time, if the Warband's Leader bites the dust.

A few notes to remember about Mordheim:

• Combat is very dangerous and risky: While all tapletop battle games will make you remove models left and right, Mordheim isn't messing around - Few models have more than one wound and more than T 3, and armour is, as we'll cover later, both expensive and easy to negate. Therefore, you don't want to make your warriors too expensive, and you want dedicated models to go directly to combat - Anyone else should mostly stay at arrow-point and pepper the enemy for as long as possible. Most importantly though, your models are not necessarily made to withstand any hit, so expect your combat people to be as much at risk as those they charge. For this reason, many like to outfit regular dudes with little to no armour, maybe a helmet if they are important and two weapons, since it'll net an extra attack. Also remember that a downed model isn't necessarily out of the game, as they might just be stunned or crawling about instead. Still, that's not the best place to be, so try and keep your guys from falling over.
• Don't go overboard with equipment: This shit ain't 40k - There's no way to make your guys so heavily armoured or give him so large a gun that nothing might stop him - All you get is a guy with a big sword at best, and he's only marginally better at punching people than if he were completely naked. Regular Henchmen are usually glad with just a weapon or two, and maybe a ranged weapon if they can take one, while Heroes can take some better gear, since they have a harder time dying and can use a lot of gear better than Henchmen. They also tend to have special abilities that are better to focus on rather than their weapons. Just remember to rein in you desire to go wild at the market - That Hochland Long Rifle might look nice, but it's 200 gc. Thats 40% of a starting Warband. Just... Don't.
• Fear the Rout Test: When 25% of your Warband are down and counting, you'll need to roll a Rout Test on the Ld of your Leader, and if you fail the test, you lose the battle automatically. As we've already seen, losing models isn't hard, so this isn't just an unfortunate happening that comes around once in a while, it's the way the game is lost most of the time. This is the main reason why you don't want to risk models, unless you know you can force a Rout test on the enemy instead. For the Warband who wants to explore and survive, it can be quite easy to keep the Rout away, since a Mordheim board is very cover-heavy, but for those who want to see blood, be prepared to run for the hills.
• Don't be a doof - Flee: When things don't go your way, or a battle simply doesn't seem like it can be won, give up. Rout voluntarily. Don't risk healthy warriors for the right to search for treasure, when said warriors can lose their healthiness very quickly. Sometimes things just doesn't go your way, sometimes your luck turns on you, sometimes you are just weaker than your enemy, or the enemy has the bonus of being Super Effective against you, and when that happens, don't sweat it - Just walk away calmly. Do mind though, that while this won't damage your Warband, it will definitely damage your growth, so if it happens too often, you might have problems later in the campaign.
• Money is Everything!: Unlike many wargames, Mordheim isn't about winning battles and making the meanest mother-hubbard of a Warband - It's about makin' those sweet mons. Before EVERY action you take, ask yourself: "How is this going to benefit me?". Will it save an expensive model from dying, or maybe secure a piece of Wyrdstone? Well then, then it makes perfect sense for you to go do something about that wouldn't it! But don't stay in a battle that will cost you more in the long run to replenish from. If you want to have some fun and risk your high-Experience Troll Slayer against a Vampire or something that is fine, but always remember that every action in Mordheim can cost you; and for every thing you have to pay for, you get less gold to pay cool shit with.

And last, but not least...

• Mordheim is supposed to be both fun and FUN*: If you wanted to play a wargame where every choice must make 100% sense and be optimized, Mordheim isn't for you. Mordheim is about creativity, stories your models make through game after game and loads of fucking random bullshit that'll make just wanna laugh at how stupidly awesome it is! When your Goblin charges an enemy Rat Ogre randomly and is made into pinkish paste, when your entire Warband is addicted to Crimson Shade and race across the table like an even-more shambling and bloodthirsty cover of Michael Jackson's Thriller (I mean what the fuck Kasper), and when a random critical hit causes your favorite Hero to bite the dust and have his eye gouged out so he won't be any use to you even though you gave him a Rifle, that's Mordheim - and it's fantastic. However, if that sort of thing infuriates you, maybe Mordheim isn't for you. Take the game lightly and laugh a lot, and Mordheim is some of the greatest fun you can have on the tabletop.

Warbands

Official Warbands

• Mercenaries: The Mercenaries are the Humans of Mordheim, the traditional Jack-of-All-Trades Warband that can do most things, but not as well as the other Warbands... Or so it seems at first. While it is true that the Mercenaries can make most types of builds, including hordes, Hero Warbands, ranged, choppy and so forth, Mercenaries can't be called a "Masters-of-None" Warband. Mercenaries are among the best Ranged Warbands in the game, as they have easy access to Ranged Skills and BS 4 Henchmen, which is capitalized on through their truly massive starting selection of ranged weapons they can buy - but if you want to go melee, they can do so as well with the Swordsmen (easily one of the best out-of-the-gates melee Henchmen choices in the entire game), especially if the Warband is Middenheimers. Mercenaries can do everything well, and sometimes better than the rest of the Warbands in the game, but they are also a little bit boring for it; they have no Special Skills to choose from and no items of their own. Either way, the Mercenaries can never steer you wrong, so if you just want a good, solid and simple Warband, the Mercs of the Empire have your back.
  • Mercenaries have the ability to choose what province they are from upon being created. Reiklanders add +1 to the BS of Marksmen (so BS 4 Henchmen. I shouldn't need to tell you why this is sweet) and a 12" Leader range instead of 6", Middenlanders gain S 4 for their Champions and Captain and Marienburgers simply start with 600 gc instead of 500 gc.

• Witch Hunters

Witch hunters are very similar to the mercs, similar stats and weapons. The few differences there are make a massive change in playstyle, the big ones being they get a stock magic user in their base warband in the form of a sigmarite priest, they also get to skip the need to gamble with the weak Young bloods, getting three basic warriors for heroes, while not as powerful as champions, they advance faster and are not weaklings like the kiddies the mercs grab, also of note are most of the warband hates unholy warbands such as the various chaos and undead, or gets some other form of bonus against them, cbined with a fearless and HARD hitting henchman known as the flagellent, and the affordable, powerful warhound chaff units, the one drawback to them I they are limited in a few of their hired swords options, and capped at a max of 12 memebers in a band, making them more vulnerable to route tests.

• Skaven

A very fluffy warband that can be broken in the hands of a That guy, in comparison to humans the average skaven is superior in movement and initiative, with the trade-off of being cowards with poor odds of passing any leadership. They have lots of neat tricks and unique weapons, can start with the full compliment of heroes, , including an upkeep-less spellcaster with access to devastating spells, champion proxies with strength 4, and Young blood equivalents who are average at shooting, and a healthy sum of henchman chaff easily, and have a warband cap at 20 members, you'll see an asshole run a skaven warband with nothing but slings, on occasion, these guysdont get too many games in before they get banned from the campaign. As far as weaknesses go there's the absolute trash leadership, and an inability to hire most hired swords, something your warband won't worry over much about as you can get a large target model in the form of an ogre. The most challenging thing about this warband is making sure you're building in a way that let's your opponent also have fun, as opposed to running 20 skavens with slings and shooting them on the board.

• Undead

A very bipolar warband , you start with the vampire: a fear causing one man army who will murder anything that he charges, and anything that charges him if you give him a spear, you want this guy in close combat murdering heroes, and taking names, there's just one probablem: he's your leader who you naturally want to keep protected in the back hidden behind chaff henchman, on the bright side the undead do chaff well, with cheap henchman who don't need to purchase weapons: the human statline zombies who are very slow as they cannot run(but charge normally, the youngblood-esque gouls who are faster, but can make up for the poor weapon skill of theirs with fear, and the blindingly fast AND deadly direwolves, rounding out the vampire and henchman are anannnate spellcaster in the form of a necromancer who comes with a solid list of spells to use, back to the bipolar side the necromancer and vampire are complimented by the dregs, your average Young blood equivalent with the typical weaknesses and need to level up to he any good. The warband cannot take most hired swords, but can take the "essential" ones, which are the ogre-who synergizes well with their fear causing aura - and a warlock who can add some more bang at range, something that is lacking for our undead warband.

• Possessed

A rather interesting warband, the possessed have a variety of tools at their disposal, ranging from Possessed and Mutants who have some absolutely trolltastic Mutation combinations, to crazed cult followers and finally to a few beastmen stragglers. Having played this warband a fair bit, it has its ups and downs like every warband (Well aside from Shadow Walkers, fuck 'em), early game they tend to be squishy and can get picked off fairly easily by other warbands though in the mid-late game you can really spiral upwards into a Mind-Rape train of destruction that ate its own breaks...

If your new to playing these, then i suggest either Min/Max your warband in 2 different styles:

"Cthulu's Cult" - This style of play is very simple, you start off with 500gc, firstly get your leader, a magister with H. Armour, a shield and a sword is a good start, it will cost 135gc which leaves you with 365gc, then comes the easy part, get AS MANY BRETHREN AS YOU CAN!. From this point onwards, once you have 8-10 brethren, which costs between 200-250gc depending on how many, you are left with 115gc, and at this point you may be worried that you have a bunch of guys who are going to have to fist-fuck their way through this campaign, but that little lump of gold at the end is all you need, you spend that on either twin axes for all of them, or an axd and the shield if you want a 6+ armour save, so now your set, turn up to the game and watch as your opponent either grins or despairs at the sea of lightly armoured models you bring, has he underestimated you? or is he simply revelling in the promise of lots of Experience points?, who knows, Hilarity will ensue.

"Upsides" With the sheer amount of models you have down all with axes(meaning you get a -1 save modifier on enemy armour without needing to be strength 4!!), and if you decide to take the pair of axes, you get an extra attack, which means that at best, you can churn out 16-20 attacks a turn at an average of hitting on a 4+ and wounding on a 4+/5+, so roughly 4-5 wounds will go through, of which one might be a critical. Now bearing in mind that most models at the start will have 1 wound, maybe 2 and an armour save of a 4+ (put to 5+ because of that sweet sweet -1 to their armour save), you can gang-rape a high cost enemy hero to death if you play it right and then go after the rest, Bon Appetit!, as for your leader, keep him at the back flinging spells and occasionally attacking if your ballsy enough.

NOTE* Always, always, always move in groups. If you leave people alone, they have to make all alone tests and will get smushed in a 1 to 1 with most enemy combatants, strengrth in numbers....strength in numbers....

"Downsides" Due to the high model count and how mordheim works, you get less warpstone when you sell it, meaning you have a slower progression as a warband, however once you have got enough gold you can let loose some of your brethren and evolve the warband into a playstyle you find more fitting, this style of play does not really work in the late-game unless of course you get each of them heavy armour and helmets and maybe shields.

"Sayl the Faithless, Nightmaw and......Dominique!"

This is my preferred warband of choice by a long way. why?. Because it consists of 3 models, those models are armed to the teeth and are absolute tanks, and it is gimmicky and fun to use, very much a Dick Dastardly and Muttley warband in the sense that 90% of the time you will fail, but that sweet 10% is all worth it(but no seriously, you can get stomped pretty easily so watch out!) Take the magister, a Mutant and a brethren, first give your magister a shield, H. Armour and a sword, this leaves you with 365 gold, then purchase a mutants, give them H.Armour, Shield, Extra limb, Gargantuan Size, Toughened Hide, Extra head and a few other things off the extra mutations chart which can e found somewhere on the internet, this racks up a cost of exactly 325 gold, and for it you get a multi-limbed monstrosity who gets 3-4 attacks in close combat, 3 wounds, a 3+ save and a bunch of other quirky and useful tricks, see that expensive hero? mince him!, see that poor zealot trying to flee? lunch!. Finally get a brethren with sword and shield, and boom there is your warband, use the 'Mutant' to barrel in and mulch combatants, use your magister as support and finally keep dominique by the magisters side to record the events and laugh diabolically.

"Upsides" - its FUN - You have a perfect excuse to use Sayl the Faithless and Nightmaw without doing any conversions to make a warband. - Dominique. - Very low model count means lots of moolah for your warband. - the mutant is fantastic for beating down just about everything, though be wary of minster hunting units such as trollslayers, they can dampen your day a little. - Since the Mutant is not a spawn, it can gain the benefits of all the mutations without the drawbacks, it is much more controlled destruction.

"Downsides" - Dominique may die - if one of your members die, it is problematic, if your magister or mutant die, kiss goodbye to the warband - easily swamped by horde warbands - all your eggs are in one basket with these three models, don't crack them early.

• Averlanders

• Ostlanders

These inbred variants on the human Merc theme come with a few neat advantages, namely having an ogre and a spellcaster available to their stock warband, upkeep free, the disadvantage of this is that since they are dirt poor and irresponsible with their newfound wealth, they must sell all of their warpstones and spend half of their income on one item. Ogther than that they are mostly just humans, with the noted exception that they start with two champion equivalent heroes, but no youngbloods, making them stunted in exploration until they can get a henchman to roll "lads got talent"

• Kislevites

• Dwarfs

• Orcs & Goblins

Unofficial Warbands

• Bretonnians

• Pit Fighters

• Shadow Warriors

Campaigns

{Work in Progress - Feel free to add things yourself}