Mordheim

Mordheim is living proof that the better a game, the less Games Workshop will actively support it. It combines the good parts of playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle (interesting lore, cool models, variety) with none of the drawbacks (overpowered magic, blatant stupidity), all wrapped up in a narrative skirmish game that kicks more ass than you could possibly imagine.

Setting

In the Warhammer universe, there was once a city known as Mordheim. Things were generally all right there, until a goddamn comet crashed into it, leaving shards of Wyrdstone around and generally destroying the city. This is bad for general business, but good for foolhardy adventurers who really, really want to loot the living hell out of an abandoned city while killing other opportunistic looters. This is considered to be the default setting for Mordheim, although other books have built on this considerably, giving you options for playing in Lustria, the Border Kingdoms, Araby, and even far-off Cathay.

Continuity-wise, it's set several hundred years before the current Warhammer timeline, which no one will care about when you're playing.

Warbands

Hoo boy. It'd be easier to say what Mordheim doesn't have, because there is a lot of extra material produced by GW, along with glorious fan-made material. But, to be complete, here's the list of 'official' warbands that are legal in your neighborhood GW store (unless you are in the UK where GW has banned all specialist games from their gaming rooms).

Mercenaries: Come in Averlander, Kislevite, Marienburg, Middenheim, Ostlander, and Reiklander varieties. Easiest starting warbands, by far; you're just different flavors of human with a few altered rules.

Beastmen Raiders: Whoo, Beastmen! Prepare to have no ranged weapons when you start the game, and some difficult models to control when you start out. They can get good mid-to-late game, but if you're not careful with your heroes, things will go very, very badly for you.

Carnival of Chaos: Glorious, glorious Nurgle-centric army. Generally do fairly well in the first few missions, but some of their rules (namely Nurgle's Rot) can and will completely screw over other players in a long-running game, by breaking their heroes into useless pieces of crap.

Cult of the Possessed: Chaos up in this shit! You start weak, then you get crazy strong, then hilarious mutation tables screw you over completely and you laugh because it's Mordheim, baby! Not recommended for beginners, but smart play with buying mutations can lead to some scary-good forces.

Dwarf Treasure Hunters: Slow, heavily-armored, and expensive, Dwarfs can be a force to be reckoned with. Just remember; you're a tough motherfucker, so keep your expensive heroes safe, and you'll rock out. Always prepare for ridiculous shit to happen to your Troll Slayers.

Orcs & Goblins Hordes: Greatest bringer of fun in Mordheim out there. Every turn, you need to roll Animosity for your warband; bad rolls can result in stupidity, in-fighting, or suicidally brave charges. A barrel of fun whether you're winning or losing, and they actually have a chance of winning thanks to pretty good stats.

Sisters of Sigmar: Dead hard in the hands of a good player, Sisters get the coveted Steel Whip, one of the best goddamn weapons out there. They also have the advantage of armored spellcasters (not that you'll use armor in anything but Gentlemen's Mordheim), good statlines, and a lack of the usual crap that burdens a lot of warbands. They're a lot harder to kitbash than other Warbands, however, so be forewarned.

Skaven Warband: Initially, these guys get a bad rap. Then, you have fun playing with them. Then, you play a guy who runs a horde of naked Skaven carrying slings, and you hate everything forever, because it turns the game from 'hilarious, quirky skirmish' to 'being a beardy motherfucker'. Technically, they're Clan Eshin.

Undead: Generic undead list; nothin' too fancy here. Notable for the fact that most of their Henchmen cannot gain experience, so you really have a hard time when you lose a Hero in the game. Ghouls are your friends when you need XP, but they can't wield weapons.

Witch Hunters: BURN THE WITCH! You get to shut down other magic users, plus their option to start the game by RELEASING THE HOUNDS is a fun and viable strategy.

Shadow Warriors: Elves from Nagarythe. Like the Skaven in that shooting is your best friend but whereas Skaven can shoot lots of shots on average or above average BS, Shadow Warriors can shoot you from halfway across the board and still have a good chance of hitting you (and killing if you didn't take armour or as its better known "playing properly")

Bretonnia Knights: Although they aren't really supposed to be in Mordheim they were added due to popular demand. So gather up your knights and purge the evil from Mordheim on horseback while archers and riflemen are confused why they can't fire at you.

And from White Dwarf, we have some more factions:

Amazons: Women from the jungles of Lustria, brought to Mordheim by slavers. Their heroines have lasers. Yes, lasers.

Pirates: You know what pirates are. Notable features of this warband are the Boatswains, henchmen whose experience in the ship's rigging makes them good at traveling above street level, and the ability to bring a small cannon ashore for a bit of fire support.

Gameplay

At first glance, it's basically Warhammer Fantasy in a skirmish format. Then, you realize that it's goddamn awesome.

Each player starts the campaign with 500 crowns (or teeth, or slave tokens, or whatever the hell it is your race uses to pay the poor bastards who run around for them). You use this to hire Heroes and Henchmen. Each warband can hire a maximum of five (or six, if you're a fucking rat) heroes to start out; these are the most important characters in your warband, as they give you the much-needed Wyrdstone and gold needed to keep looting the city. You fill out the roster with Henchmen, who are somewhat less talented and inspiring than the rest of your heroes.

After hiring your models, you then buy equipment for them, and you're ready to start.

When a model loses its last wound, you roll a d6; they have a chance to survive and keep fighting after being knocked down or stunned. If a model is taken out of action, you roll on the giant table of injuries (for Heroes) to see if they've died, gained a crippling wound, or somehow picked up some awesome abilities due to scars.

As models survive games, they gain experience, which can give additional skills, stat increases, and power to your warband. This is the appeal of Mordheim; it's a campaign game, designed to let you create a characterful warband of unique figures.

There are a huge number of optional rules for Mordheim. It is generally suggested that you play with them, as they enhance the whole game experience to a huge degree.

Getting Started

So, you want to play some Mordheim? Here's some of the things you'll need;

• Friends. I know this is the internet, but we're gonna start with the easy things
• Minis to represent your warband. Do this AFTER you've thought up your list, and where you'd like it to go. Mordheim is all about character, so work out some interesting stuff. Most warbands can be made out of a single box of troops, and there's a lot of alternatives out there.
  • Special mention must be made to Perry Miniatures Mercenary Box Set; it lacks some of the nicer bits, but you can build most human warbands out of it. It also comes with enough minis for several people, making starting a game even easier.
  • If you're dead-set on GW, then you'll need to know what's useful for what. In no particular order
    • Empire Free Company: Is it a Mercenary warband/vaguely similar to an Empire Warband? Congratulations, you've got all you need!
    • Beastmen: A little conversion work, and you can build a decent warband from a box of Gor. You have to get creative if you want a Centigor, but nothing in life is free, eh?
    • Skaven: Night Runners if you're aiming for the usual list, Clanrats if you're willing to do more conversion work and have fun.
    • Dwarf Treasure Hunters: Warriors work if you've got the spare gun bits laying around, and you'll need to do some crazy conversion work for Troll Slayers. Mantic Games's dwarfs can work, but the poses are a bit static for some people, and you need to really buy in bulk before they're really worth it.
    • Orcs and Goblins: Box of Orc Boyz and a box of goblins is more than enough. Use the extra bows that come with the Goblins if you need 'em for your boyz, otherwise you've pretty much got everything. As usual, you'll need to do some conversion work.
    • Marauders of Chaos: Box of Marauders, convert, and you're good. For warhounds, you should try to scratchbuild something if you're aiming to be cheap.
• Terrain: This is the big one. Make it out of corkboard if you have time, Terraclips if you want it to be fast and good, random shit if you don't care. Remember; clutter the board, and build UP! Nothing makes Mordheim fun like building up, because otherwise, no one can suicide-charge off of rooftop or place their ranged henchmen high in the land to get picked off one by one.

This shit is pretty much all you need to get started. A normal campaign is best with at least four people, but if you can get folks at your FLGS interested, a larger narrative campaign can be fun.

Culture

If you read the above section, you can probably tell that Mordheim isn't the most balanced of games out there. It's not meant to be; if you're looking for a balanced, competitive skirmish game, you've come to exactly the wrong place. Random shit will happen (if you use that table), and you will laugh at it, because if Mordheim stands for anything, it stands for STUPID FUN.

Most games are played using a Gentleman's Pact, wherein the players agree on optional rules and what sort of strategies (Skaven slingwall, Shadow Walkers) are off-limits for the duration of the campaign. Narrativity is usually encouraged, as that's part of the experience.

Supplements of Renown

You can find them if you ask nicely. Most were hosted and supported by Specialist Games.

• Border Town Burning: One of the biggest post 2004 development in Mordheim. It contains detailed expansion rules for campaigns in the Cathayan borderlands, detailing the merchant travels along the "Silk Road" from Cathay to the Old World. New warbands are Marauders, Norse Explorers, Merchant Caravans, Battle Monks of Cathay, The Restless Dead, Black Dwarfs and Maneaters.
• Relics of the Crusades part 1 and part 2: Set in Araby during the Crusades. New warbands are Arabian Tribes (Ghutani, Muzil and Turjuk), Clan Skryre, Slavers and The Fallen. The author went on to create the Nights of the crusades rpg about 9000 years later.
• The Empire in Flames: Introduces campaigning in the wilderness around Mordheim.

Coreheim

Coreheim is an attempt to balance Mordheim; /tg/ alternately likes and loathes it, depending on the player. It fixes the notorious balance issues, but also completely misses the point of Mordheim: there are only six available warbands (most of which are flavors of mercenary), the randomness is removed, and it tries to treat itself as a 'serious' wargame, rather than something that creates glorious stories to tell around the gaming table.

It's a decent game, but it's not Mordheim.

There be a shitstorm a-brewin'

There is apparently a video game based around Mordheim in the works. It has the potential to be the best thing ever or flop hilariously - Much like Mordheim itself.

• It's out on early release now and (for a GW fan but non-Mordbeard) it's shaping up rather spiffily *

See also

• /TG/heim
• Mordheim/Tactics