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 (or as it has long been known to the Skaven, 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.

Special Stuff

Magic

Being a spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy, Mordheim naturally features magic, which is actually a lot more forgiving than in any other iteration of the Warhammer multiverse.

Spellcasting characters can cast a spell in the Shooting phase instead of using a missile weapon - they can cast a spell and then run away, however. To cast a spell, they roll 2d6 and compare it to the chosen spell's Difficulty value; if you roll equal to or higher than Difficulty, the spell goes off. If you roll under Difficulty, then the spell fizzles and nothing happens. Damage from offensive spells is resolved like any melee or shooting attack; you roll to wound with armor saves allowed unless the spell specifies otherwise. Spells don't cause Critical Hits.

Note that a spellcasting character cannot cast a spell if they are wearing armor or using a shield or buckler. The universal exception are characters using Prayers of Sigmar or who have the Warrior Wizard skill; individual spellcasting Heroes may also be exceptions to the rule.

Spells are divided into Lores unique to certain Warbands. When a spellcasting hero learns a spell, they roll a d6 to determine which spell they get.

Prayers of Sigmar

Used by the Warrior-Priests of Witch Hunter warbands and the Sigmarite Matriarchs of the Sisters of Sigmar, the Prayers of Sigmar call upon holy powers from the godking of the empire. Due to their "clerical" nature, Prayers of Sigmar are unaffected by any spells, items or other effects that target magic.

1: The Hammer of Sigmar (Difficulty 7) For 1 turn, the caster gains +2 Strength and inflicts double damage in hand-to-hand combat.

2: Hearts of Steel (Difficulty 8) Any allied warriors within 8" of the caster become Immune to Fear and All Alone tests, and the whole Warband gains +1 on any Rout tests they have to make. This spell lasts until the caster is knocked down, stunned, or put out of action, and multiple castings don't stack.

3: Soulfire (Difficulty 9) All enemies within 4" of the caster suffer a Strength 3 hit (Strength 5 if Undead or Cult of the Possessed) that ignores armor saves.

4: Shield of Faith (Difficult 6) The caster becomes immune to enemy spells. Roll at the beginning of each turn in the recovering phase; on a 1-2, the Shield of Faith expires, on a 3+ it persists.

5: Healing Hand (Difficulty 5) The caster or a model within 2" is restored to its full quota of Wounds and, if stunned or knocked down, returns to their senses, stands up, and can continue fighting.

6: Armor of Righteousness (Difficulty 9) Until the beginning of the caster's next Shooting phase, their Armor Save becomes 2+ and they Cause Fear, which makes them Immune to Fear.

Necromancy

1: Lifestealer (Difficulty 10) One model within 6" automatically loses a Wound, and the Necromancer gains an extra Wound for the duration of the battle, which can increase their maximum Wounds value. This spell doesn't work on Possessed or Undead targets.

2: Re-Animation (Difficulty 5) One Zombie that went Out of Action during the last hand-to-hand or shooting phase returns to the fray at any point within 6" of the necromancer. The zombie may not be placed straight into hand-to-hand combat with an enemy model.

3: Death Vision (Difficulty 6) The Necromancer Causes Fear for the duration of the battle.

4: Spell of Doom (Difficulty 9) One enemy model within 12" must immediately roll equal to or under their Strength score; if they fail, they have to roll on the Injury table.

5: Call of Vanhel (Difficulty 6) One zombie or dire wolf within 6" of the necromancer may immediately move up to its maximum Movement distance. If this brings them into base contact with an enemy, they count as charging.

6: Spell of Awakening (Difficulty: Auto) If an enemy Hero is killed by rolling an 11-16 on the Serious Injury chart, a necromancy can invoke this spell to automatically raise that hero as a zombie warrior under their command. The zombie warrior retains its profile, weapons and armor, but gains all of the Zombie special rules and now serves the caster's warband as a Henchman.

Chaos Rituals

1: Vision of Torment (Difficulty 10) Choose the closest enemy model within 6" - if the Magister is in hand-to-hand combat, they must choose a target in base contact. The affected model is immediately stunned (or knocked down if it can't be stunned).

2: Eye of God (Difficulty 7) This spell may only be invoked once per battle. Choose a single model, friend or foe, within 6" and roll a d6. On a 1, the model is smote by spiritual wrath and taken Out of Action, but recovers unharmed after the fight is over. On a 2-5, the target gains +1 to one of their characteristics chosen by the caster for the battle's duration. On a 6, the model gains +1 to ALL characteristics for the rest of the battle.

3: Dark Blood (Difficulty 8) One model in 8" takes d3 S5 hits. However, after casting this spell, the Magister must roll on the Injury table for themselves, treating Out of Action as Stunned. This spell hits the first model in its path.

4: Lure of Chaos (Difficulty 9) The spell has a range of 12" and must be cast on the closest enemy model. Roll a D6 and add the Chaos Mage’s Leadership to the score. Then roll a D6 and add the target’s Leadership to the score. If the Chaos Mage beats his opponent’s score he gains control of the model until the model passes a Leadership test in his own recovery phase. The model may not commit suicide, but can attack models on his own side, and will not fight warriors from the Chaos Mage’s warband. If he was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with any warriors of the Chaos Mage’s warband, they will immediately move 1" apart.

5: Wings of Darkness (Difficulty 7) The Magister can move 12". If they move into base contact, they count as Charging that target. If they move into a fleeing opponent, they score an automatic hit on the foe, who then flees.

6: Word of Pain (Difficulty 7) All models within 3", friend and foe, suffer a S3 hit that ignores armor saves.

Lesser Magic

1: Fires of U'Zhul (Difficulty 7) The mage blasts a single target within 18" for a Strength 4 hit. This spell hits the first model in its path.

2: Flight of Zimmeran (Difficulty 7) The Magister can move 12". If they move into base contact, they count as Charging that target. If they move into a fleeing opponent, they score an automatic hit on the foe, who then flees.

3: Dread of Aramar (Difficulty 7) A single model within 12" of the caster must pass a Leadership test or flee 2d6" directly away from the caster. A model that succumbs to Dread of Aramar must repeat this "flight test" at the start of each of their movement phases until they pass the test. This spell does not affect Undead or any model Immune to Fear.

4: Silver Arrows of Arha (Difficulty 7) The wizard summons d6+2 magical arrows that can target a single foe within 24". Make a Ballistic Skill attack for each arrow, using the wizard's BS value, but ignore movement and cover penalties. Each silver arrows that successfully strikes its target inflicts a S3 hit.

5: Luck of Shemtek (Difficulty 6) Until the beginning of the caster's next turn, they can re-roll all failed dice rolls, but must accept the second result.

6: Sword of Rezhebel (Difficulty 8) The wizard summons a magical sword that grants them +1 Attack, +2 Strength, and +2 Weapon Skill whilst they are armed with it. They must pass a Leadership test at the beginning of each of their own turns or else the spell ends.

Magic of the Horned Rat

1: Warpfire (Difficulty 8) Target a creature within 8", hitting the first model in the path. The first creature struck by this spell takes D3 S4 hits, and all models within 2" of the initial target take 1 S3 hit each.

2: Children of the Horned Rat (Difficulty Auto) Before the game begins, the skaven warlock may summon d3 Giant Rats that will fight alongside the warband for this battle only.

3: Gnawdoom (Difficulty 7) A single model within 8" takes 2d6 S1 hits.

4: Black Fury (Difficulty 8) The skaven warlock may immediately charge an enemy model within 12" (ignoring terrain and interposing models), gainin +2 Attacks and +1 Strength during this turn's hand-to-hand combat phase only.

5: Eye of the Warp (Difficulty 8) All standing models in base contact with the Sorcerer must take an immediate Leadership test. If they fail, they each suffer a Strength 3 hit and must run 2D6" directly away from the Sorcerer, exactly as if they had lost their nerve when fighting against more than one opponent.

6: Sorcerer's Curse (Difficulty 6) Target a single model within 12". During both the skaven's hand-to-hand phase and their own next shooting and H-t-H phases, the trarget must re-roll any succesful armor saves and to hit rolls.

Skills

The thing that separates your Heroes from your Henchmen, fundamentally, is that as they accumulate experience, they can gain Skills, which are special abilities that provide all kinds of helpful bonuses, modifiers and special rules to your elite characters. There's a set of "Common" skills that are universal across the Mordheim range, but many warbands, especially the non-human ones, often have unique skills that only they can accrue, to better represent unique cultural aspects or biological attributes.

Precisely what Skills a Hero can learn is dictated by the type of Hero; your Warband Leader usually has the broadest array of possible skills, allowing for maximum customization, but other Heroes tend to have much more focused Skill options that will generally mesh with their combat archetype.

Whilst Warband-specific skills will be analyzed in their warband analysis below, we'll break down the common skills here, since they can be applied so diversely and are the most likely to affect your game.

There are five Common Skill tables, each with six skills on them; Combat', Shooting, Strength, Speed and Academic.

Combat skills directly contribute to the hero's melee prowess, and consist of:

• Strike to Injure: Add +1 to all injury rolls caused by this hero in hand-to-hand combat.
• Combat Master: This hero is immune to "All Alone" tests and gains +1 Attack in each HtH combat phase so long as they are fighting 2 or more enemy models.
• Weapons Training: This hero can use any HtH combat weapon, not just the ones in his equipment options.
• Web of Steel: This hero gains +1 to all Critical Hit table rolls in HtH combat.
• Expert Swordsman: When this hero charges into combat, they can re-roll all missed attacks. Only works for heroes equipped with normal swords or weeping blades, not with two-handed swords or any other weapons.
• Step Aside: This hero can make a second, unmoddifiable 5+ saving throw against wounds suffered in close combat.

Shooting skills, obviously, are the projectile counterparts to Combat skills:

• Quick Shot: This hero can shoot a bow or crossbow twice per turn.
• Pistolier: This hero can fire a single pistol on the same turn it was reloaded, and can fire a brace of pistols (Any type) twice in the Shooting phase.
• Eagle Eyes: This hero adds +6" to the range of any missile weapon they uses.
• Weapons Expert: This hero can use any missile weapon, not just the ones in his equipment options.
• Nimble: This hero ignores the "Move OR Fire" rule for missile weapons. This cannot be combined with Quick Shot.
• Trick Shooter: This hero ignores cover modifiers when using missile weapons.
• Hunter: This hero can fire a handgun or Hochland long rifle each turn.
• Knife Fighter: This hero can throw up to 3 throwing knives or throwing stars in a single Shooting phase, and can divide their shots between any available targets. This skill cannot be combined with Quick Shot.

Strength skills boost a hero's physical brawn:

• Mighty Blow: This hero adds +1 Strength for close combat weapons only.
• Pit Fighter: This hero gains a +1 bonus to Weapon Skill and Attacks when fighting in a building or ruin.
• Resilient: This hero reduces the Strength of enemy attacks by -1 for determining their "To Wound" value.
• Fearsome: This hero gains the "Causes Fear" rule.
• Strongman: This hero ignores the "Always Strikes Last" rule for double-handed weapons and instead fights in normal Initiative order.
• Unstoppable Charge: This hero gains +1 Weapon Skill when charging.

Speed skills augment agility and mobility:

• Leap: This hero can make a d6" leap as a bonus during their Movement phase in addition to their regular move, run or charge. A leaping hero can clear man-sized models and obstacles 1" high without penalty.
• Sprint: This hero triples their Movement rate when running or charging.
• Acrobat: This hero can negate damage from jumping or falling 12" or less if they pass an Initiative test, and can re-roll failed Diving Charge rolls.
• Lightning Reflexes: This hero always strikes first when charged.
• Jump Up: This hero ignores Knocked Down results when rolling for injuries, unless knocked down by a successful helmet save or because of the No Pain rule.
• Dodge: This hero gains a pre-emptive, unmoddifiable 5+ save against missile attacks.
• Scale Sheer Surfaces: This hero does not need to makle Initiative tests to climb up or down, and can climb a distance equal to double their Movement value each turn.

Academic skills are a grab-bag of "thinking man" skills:

• Battle Tongue: Non-Undead Warband Leader only. This hero increases the range of their Leader ability by +6".
• Sorcery: Spellcaster Hero only. This hero gains a +1 bonus to spellcasting rolls.
• Streetwise: This hero gains a +2 bonus to rolls to find rare items.
• Haggle: This hero can knock -2d6 gold crowns off of the price of a single item (minimum price 1 gold) once per post-battle sequence.
• Arcane Lore: Cannot be taken by Witch Hunter, Sister of Sigmar Heroine, or Warrior-Priest. This hero becomes a Spellcaster using Lesser Magic.
• Wyrdstone Hunter: This hero can reroll one dice when rolling on the Exploration chart.
• Warrior Wizard: Spellcaster Hero only. This hero can wear armor and cast spells.

Warbands

Friendly Reminder

Remember that this page is dedicated to write about the pros and cons of playing "x" warband and detailing their rules a bit. Some rules are... complicated, so I Recommend reading these articles alongside the original documents. Don't worry, this awesome website gots you covered. I'm not the author of the broheim website btw. Anyways, let's start!

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 start with 600 gc instead of 500 gc as well as getting a +1 bonus when searching for rare items.

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 is 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.

Sisters of Sigmar

The sisters are a terrifying foe in close combat, with access to your average garden variety hammers and the elusive Sigmarite Hammers that will absolutely wreck the day of any unholy abomination unfortunate enough to get a taste of one. However as a tradeoff, your ranged capabilites are restricted to slings. Sisters of Sigmar benefit greatly from deploying around their Matriarch, who has access to Sigmarite Prayers that will boost your survivability or killing power to absurd heights depending on what prayers you roll. From there it's most often a steamroll if your enemy is unfortunate enough to get into hammering range. The Augur is a blessing in a Sisters of Sigmar Warband, while she's weak and fragile she starts with a rule to help gather your Warpstone post game easier, and once upgraded with a few select Speed Skills, she'll be running across the map grabbing objectives like no tomorrow. Unique to the Sisters of Sigmar warband is that all their heroines can choose Academic skills, meaning you can have 6 Wyrdstone Hunters in a warband, skyrocketing your income to ludicrous levels. Do note that the Rabbits Foot item also confers the same benefit, so you may not need to waste an upgrade on Wyrdstone Hunter if your campaign hasn't banned it.

Ranged Hired Swords are invaluable for the sisters, and starting out a warband with a Halfling Scout, Elf Ranger or a Tilean Marksman, isn't uncommon.

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 guys don't 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 off 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 problem: he's your leader who you naturally want to keep protected in the back hidden behind chaff henchmen, on the bright side the undead do chaff well, with cheap henchmen 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 is another 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. You should however remember that the magister cannot use magic while wearing anyt armour. "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

Like the Ostlanders, Averlanders get a unique wearband list rather than just being "Mercenaries with a minor bonus", which means they require slightly different tactics.

For Heroes, an Averlander band must contain a single Captain, who is the band's default leader; that, they share in common with the vanilla Human Mercs warband. Their other Hero choices are 0-1 Sergeants (old veterans), 0-2 Bergjaegers (veteran rangers who can set traps), and 0-1 Youngbloods (youthful would-be mercs).

For Heroes, they can take Mountainguard (warriors with +1 Weapon Skill, but costing +5 crowns each), Marksmen, and 0-3 Halfling Scouts.

One major advantage Averlanders have over their Mercenary counterparts is that they're quick-moving; all your heroes have access to the Speed skill tree, which can really help you get around the battlefield. Remember, in Mordheim, it's equally important to use that trait to fall back as well as to launch ambushes!

Ostlanders

Like the Averlanders, Ostlanders get a unique warband rather than being "Mercenaries with a special rule". Mechanically, an Ostlander warband is defined by two special rules.

Self-Sufficient dictates that Ostlanders cannot hire any Mercenaries other than Ogres; Ostlands don't want to share their resources with outsiders, but clans of ogres who broke away from the Ogre Kingdoms to inhabit the Middle Mountains often find work in Ostland, and so they're accepted as neighbors. This may not seem like such a big issue at first, but it does mean your Ostlander warband is much more heavily slotted into the "hit stuff hard" niche than some, as you can't use Hired Swords or Dramatis Personae to broaden their tactics list or shore up weakspots in their tactical arsenal. So plan accordingly.

Nouveau Riche is the special rule that will probably give players the hardest time starting out; Ostlanders are almost universally poor and so have a real hard time controlling themselves when they get ahold of money. As a result, after a battle, an Ostlander warband must sell the first 8 pieces of wyrdstone they won from that battle, and then, once they have decided whether or not to hire any new warriors and paid off their campaign debts, 50% of the gold remaining must be spent on a single item of gear... luckily for you guys, the Annual 2002 reprint of this warband is missing this rule, so arguably you don't have to play with Nouveau Riche as a factor. Of course, you gotta convince the other guys to let you ignore this rule.

Ostlanders have a unique weapon; the Double-Barreled Pistol and the Double-Barreled Rifle. At the cost of requiring a full turn to reload each barrel, firing both barrels at the same target causes 2 hits rather than one.

For Heroes, an Ostlander warband has a mandatory Elder and can take 0-2 Blood-Brothers, and 0-1 Priests of Taal. For henchmen, they can take Kin, 0-5 Ruffians, 0-7 Jaegers and 0-1 Ogres. So, off the bat, your warband can take a pretty big boost in muscle and it can start play with a spellcaster, which are two edges rarely seen in the same warband. The downside is that with no Youngbloods equivalent, your exploration is stunted until and unless you can roll "The Lad's Got Talent!" for some of your Kin.

Ostlander heroes have the following unique skills they can develop:

• Bull Rush: When charging, the Ostlander can knock the foe down without hurting them by making an attack with a +1 "to hit" bonus.
• Foul Odor: The Ostlander's clothes are so saturated with stale liquor and sweat that living enemies suffer a -1 to-hit penalty in HTH combat, but fire attacks are +1 strength against this Ostlander and the Ostlander cannot carry open flames (torches, lanterns).
• Taunt: The Ostlander can make a "shooting" attack that, if it hits, forces the enemy to pass an LD test or else spend the next movement phase trying to get to the Ostlander.
• Animal Friendship: Normal animals won't attack this Ostlander, and the warband can take 2 "free" wardogs.
• Blood Oath: Leader Only. Can reroll a single Route test once per game.

Priests of Taal function like Priests of Sigmar, but have their own unique spell lists and have much lighter armor.

Kislevites

The kislevite warband is mostly a merc warband with some steps aside, forward and backwards with also no special skills. The bear tamer and bear could be a nice combo, but the opportunity to wield handguns can’t be discarded. As a personal note, you can spend either 210 gc on 3/3 streltsi with handguns and halberds to have nice firepower support or 160 in acquiring both tamer and bear, the latter doesn’t need gear, but the tamer is valuable, so buy him a shield and sword to take care of himself while the bear is occupied. Including Cossacks is situational, you’ll probably field Warriors most of the time. Remember to be careful when selecting inherited gear for the leader.

Leader

• Druzhina Captain (60 gc): Is your basic Merc captain... with a exceptional rule that lets the leader buy a single item for himself at half the normal price when starting the warband, and if for some reason the item is lost, the item must be replaced with the same piece of equipment buyed for the original cost plus half of it (example: you buy a single halberd that costs 10 gc but it's for the leader so it costs 5 gc, if its lost it must be bought at 15 gc). The cost of not buying that overpriced gear is having a -1 on every roll (all tests and rolls to hit, to be exact) until you buy the gear. Such ability is tricky, so think it twice before buying that brace of duelling pistols that you want.

Heroes

• Bear tamer (0-1, 35 gc): If you include him, It lets you purchase a bear, which passes stupidity tests automatically while 6" or closer to the tamer (and uses the tamer's leadership at the same range).
• Esaul (0-1, 35 gc) A normal Champion, which is single
• Youths (0-2, 15 gc each) Equivalent to Youngbloods

Henchmen

• Warriors (any, 25 gc) They’re your basic henchmen which you can field in any number with the same stats as the mercs. No, really, they’ve exactly the same stats.
• Cossacks are basically the same but cost +5 gc more and hate chaos.
• Streltsi (0-3, 25 gc) have the same stats and cost as the warriors but have a separate gear list, they can field the same close combat weapons as the others but in the ranged section they lack the shortbow and the throwing knives, instead having access to a handgun, and for armour only having access to L. armour, shield and helmet. If it has a halberd, the streltsi can use it as a gun-rest. It can’t move that turn (even if it can move and fire with a skill) but it will get a +1 to the hit roll with the handgun as long as it doesn’t move.
• Bear (0-1, 125 gc) (aka the big guy of the group) : Causes fear and is strong as expected, but if it isn't close to the tamer, it'll have to take stupidity tests. The bear hug special attack seems great, but if dice got unlucky, the target won't get damage and the bear won't suffer any consequences. If the tamer has to roll on the serious injury table and gets "Robbed" "Sold to the pits and "Captured" (and similar in other serious injury tables in other campaigns) it is ignored and treated as "fully recovered". Remember to have the tamer and the bear close, they're useful for each other.

Unique Items

• Vodka: (35+3D6 gc, lowest price 38, highest 53, Rare 8) The hero gives the vodka to the whole warband, +1 Leadership to everyone (no more than 10 L), but they must do a toughness test for each one. In case of failure, the warrior reduces -1 to their initiative, Everything before the battle.
• Bear-Claw necklace: (75+3D6 gc, lowest price would be 78, highest 93, Rare 9) gives Frenzy to the hero.

Dwarf Treasure-hunters

TOUGH. Everyone in the Dwarf Treasure-hunters have at least T 4 and a special rule that makes them harder to take Out of Action on regular hits... And if it wasn't clear, that makes them pretty much unkillable. No, this isn't the fun 1D4chan way of saying "oh dear they're slightly tough"; no Shirley, this Warband can actually be essentially, truly unkillable, and since this game is about relatively fragile Warbands that rout when a few of them drop, Dwarfs are close to broken. This author recommends removes the special rule regarding Out of Action and make the bearded buckaroos rely on their Toughness.

Aside from all this, Dwarfs hit fairly hard but move slow, as should be expected. They don't climb and do parkour well at all though they'll survive the fall much better. They have easier access to Gromril weapons and armor, but they're still very expensive, and can hire Troll Slayers, who will do absolutely wild and wacky shit every time you bring these orange-topped maniacs to the table.

Orcs & Goblins

The green, mean beating machines et al! Orcs and Goblin Warbands are positively spoiled for options: Orcs, Goblins, Ball'n'Chain so you can make your own Fanatics, Squigs and prodders and motherducking Troll; you can make pretty much any kind of Warband you feel like! However, the Warband has inbuilt issues though. The entire Warband suffers from Animosity, which causes them to stand around doing nothing, trying to kill each other or occasionally flying at the face of whoever you are fighting. The other issue is less obvious, as the Warband only starts with four Heroes! This all comes together to create an incredibly fun and wacky Warband that fits exactly into a light-hearted Mordheim campaign, but will probably get absolutely be run over by any competitive team. Also, your Orcs are actually decent shots, so buy them Crossbows, especially the Heroes! You can't sacrifice your extremely important money-makers in the grind of melee.

Beastmen

Of all things, they decided to… do this? C’mon, at least they should have new magic!

Heroes:

• Beastmen Chief (65 gc, The tough one, with WS/S/T/I 4)
• 0-1 Shaman (45 gc, WS/T 4, uses the possessed warbands’ magic)
• 0-2 Bestigors (45 gc each, WS/S/T 4)
• 0-1 Centigor (80 gc, WS/S/T 4, has M8 but also I2)

Henchmen (Bought in groups of 1-5):

• Ungor (25 gc each, WS/S/T/I 3, Re-rolls all “lad’s got talent” results)
• Gor (0-5, 35 gc each, WS/T 4)
• Chaos Hounds (0-5, 15 gc each, WS/S 4)
• Minotaur (0-1, 200 gc, WS/S/T/I 4, Fear and more rules which will be explained below)

Ok, let’s start. This warband is plenty of basic stuff, but its attributes are better than a human mercenary warband. What you know first, the complete lack of ranged equipment and shooting/academic skills. You can’t take ranged equipment, never, nor learn new stuff to power up your chief or shaman. Moving on the warband, All of them have at least M5 to accelerate the charge and engage in melee combat and all the heroes and the gors have at least WS/T 4. The chief is nice with its WS/S/T/I 4 which allows him to be on the frontline without getting hurt as often as others. The spellcaster, a normally frail subject, has WS/T 4, which is also a good thing. The bestigors are good champion options, proving to be up to the job. The centigor is really good. Take the chief, give him M8, reduce him at I2, an extra hoove attack which is unmodifiable, no penalties on moving inside woods, and the drunken rule. At the start of each turn, roll a d6. On a 1, do a stupidity test, nothing on 2-5 and on a 6, immunity to psychology and have frenzy. The henchmen are also neat. The Ungors… do the job, and have the advantage of limitless numbers, at the cost of never turning into heroes. The gors can become heroes, have WS/T 4, but a limit of 5 per warband. The hounds are powerful and cheap. The minotaur is awesome. M6, WS/S/T/I 4, Ld 8, Fear, can gain xp, and the Bloodgreed rule. If the minotaur takes out of action all the enemies he has in hand to hand combat, roll a d6 and on a 4+, it becomes frenzied (it doesn’t specify it but it might be until the end of the next combat phase). Of course, there’s the disadvantage of being a large target and everyone will be shooting at the biggest bipedal aggressive goat in the group. Anyways, let’s move on to the special skills. Yes, they have special skills. Surprised? Me too. Don’t get excited, it's mostly normal stuff. Shaggy hide lets the hero have a double-handed weapon on one hand, Mutant lets the hero buy one mutation, Fearless makes the hero immune to fear, terror and all alone tests, Horned One “additional attack w basic strength on a turn it charges”, Bellowing Roar is for the leader only, which lets him re-roll failed rout tests. Manhatred, hate humans. And now, the million dollar question: DOES THE CENTIGOR HAS ACCESS TO THE SPEAR CAVALRY BONUS RULE, GRANTING HIM A S 5? I don’t know. But before we move on, the Billion dollar question: CAN A CENTIGOR HAVE A MOUNT??? That question is better left unanswered. So, is this dakkaless warband viable? Of course it is! Well, if you are against a skavenslingers warband, probably you shouldn’t use this, but otherwise, it is nice

Carnival of Chaos

Think Possessed, but more fun and colorful. At least where their personalities are concerned. For your enemy, they can be an absolute nightmare. With access to unique spells and mutations, daemons and a Plague Cart, the Carnival is arguably the most unique warband in Mordheim. The Carnival has access to champions with the Strongman skill from the get go, allowing them to use 2 handed weapons without initiative penalties, along with Tainted Ones who can buy Blessings of Nurgle to become unkillable tanks or annoying little shits who throw said shit at the enemy. You can also recruit up to 2 Plaguebearers and any amount Nurglings in a warband, the only daemons in the game and your most terrifying fighters. Though they die more easily if taken out of action. IF being the operative word in that sentence. The Plague Cart is a gypsy carriage that helps mitigate the Daemonic Instability that makes your daemons go poof if killed, and raises the warband cap from 15 fighters to 17. Otherwise this clowncar works as a mobile cover and a great distraction. As a lovely bonus, Carnival of Chaos has access to pistols.

But that's just semantics and irrelevancies, what really raises the Carnival of Chaos to the top is Nurgle's Rot. As a spell AND a blessing, you can start spreading Papa's gifts like no tomorrow. Nurgle's Rot, once contracted, starts slowly eating your enemies away and spreading further. This works by rolling Toughness tests before battles, if failed they will permanently lose a point of toughness, and on a roll of 6, the disease spreads to another member of the warband. And yes, this can eventually kill when their toughness falls to 0. Expect any campaign that cares for balance to ban this immediately.

Unofficial Warbands

Amazons

Amazons appeared twice as an expansion-pack warband for Mordheim in the pages of Town Cryer, the official Mordheim magazine.

The first version, seen in Town Cryer #15, was part of the Lustria: Cities of Gold setting expansion for Mordheim, and presented Amazons as a reclusive, xenophobic and highly territorial race of women, reputedly descended from a lost Norse colony, with a particular enmity for both Lizardmen (who they hunted for food and skins) and the Norse. This is reflected in the assortment of special rules that Amazons get under these rules; in addition to "Not One Of Us!", which prohibits them from hiring mercenaries and Dramatis Personae who aren't Amazons, they get the rules "Isolationists" (re-roll missed attacks in the first round of combat against Lizardmen and Norse opponents) and "Norse Enmity" (when facing a Norse warband, Amazons get to re-roll their first failed Rout check, and can't voluntarily fail a Rout check unless their leader is down). Their final special rule is "Sacrifice", which is almost identical to the Cult of the Possessed special rule of the same name, except that sacrificing a Skink will have the added bonus of rewarding the party with a free Enchanted Skins (also called Skins & Charms), a suit of magical armor that has a 6+ armor save and a 5+ dispel save against spells.

This "mark 1" Amazon warband is led by a Serpent Priestess, a Leader/Wizard combo character in the vein of a few other warbands; for Heroes, they can take 0-2 Eagle Warriors (melee-focused champions) and 0-2 Piranha Warriors (ranged-focused champions). Their Henchmen are simply Amazon Warriors, though they can also take 0-3 Jaguar Warriors, whose special rule "One With The Jungle" lets them ignore jungle terrain when moving.

This version of the Amazon warband has its own Special skill table, which is available to all three Hero types; its heroes are otherwise characterized as extremely martial (universal Combat skills) and quick (universal Speed skills); the Serpent Priestess can take Academic skills, the Eagle Warrior can take Strength skills, and the Piranha Warrior can take Shooting skills. The unique Amazon skills are Skink Hunter (always strike first vs. Skinks), Elixir of Life (re-roll one Out of Action roll after a battle), Mesmerizing Dance (models in base contact must pass an Ld test to attack; doesn't work on Lizardmen or undead), Savage Fury (immune to charm & fear, +1 Attack when charging) and Concealment (when hiding in jungle terrain, enemies halve the range at which they can spot this Amazon). This iteration of the Serpent Priestess uses Amazon Rituals as her magic lore, the spells of which consist of Singing Wind, Serpent's Strength, Wendala's Maelstrom, Shield of Thorns, The Living Jungle, and Siren's Dreams.

The second version appeared in Town Cryer #23, and whilst building on the same lore as the previous version, was somewhat more official; it presented the Amazon warband as representing captured Amazons who were shipped to the Empire as curiosities and courtesans, freed by the chaos of the wyrdstone meteorite and now trying to amass the wealth needed to pay for a trip back to Lustria.

These Amazons only maintain the "Not One Of Us" and "Sacrifice" special rules from their prior version, and lose the Enchanted Skins armor - this restricts them to just helmets and bucklers, making them even more fragile than the original Amazons were. They replace a number of their unique artifacts as well with new versions, and lose their Amazon Special Skills.

The new Warband is still led by a Priestess (having dropped the "Serpent" prefix), who is still a Leader/Wizard and still using the same Amazon Rituals magic lore as before, complete with the same spells. However, she's gained a major boost in skills; now she can take Shooting and Strength skills in addition to her original Combat/Academic/Speed trinity! The new Heroes are 0-2 Champions (who, weirdly, despite being WS4 and BS3, can learn Shooting skills) and 0-2 Totem Warriors; melee-focused (WS4, BS2) who can learn Strength skills and who have the Frenzy special rule; both retain the affinity for Combat and Speed skills of their earlier counterparts. For Henchmen, you can take Amazon Warriors and 0-3 Scouts, who use the generic Stealthy rule and replace the old Jaguar Warriors.

Bretonnians

This warband was published on town cryer 8. It has the “anti-dakka curse” which consists in: Take a Ld test with the warband’s leader. If it’s successful, the curse is applied. When a enemy model tries to fire a blackpowder weapon, it must roll a d6 first. On 4+, it can use the weapon normally, below, it can’t. When using any other shooting weapon, it has to do the test only if it aims against the Questing Knight or any of the Knights Errant. Also, the maximum warrior number is 12.

Heroes:

• Questing Knight (80 gc, WS/S/I 4, immune to all alone tests)
• Knights Errant (0-2, 50 gc each, immune to all alone tests)
• Squires (0-3, 15 gc each, shit WS/BS 2)

Peasants:

• Men-at-arms (0-8, 25 gc each, Ld 7)
• Bowmen (Limitless recruitment, 20 gc each)

Special Equipment:

• Barding (Rare 11): Yes, the French are so french that the special stuff is not for their warriors, but for their goddamn horses. It adds a extra +1 save for a model mounted on a barded warhorse (so a +2 for the natural +1 of being mounted). A warhorse with barding will only be killed on a D6 roll of 1 (injury roll) if it’s taken out of action instead of the normal 1-2. The barding is exclusive to warhorses.

Forget about the shooting and academic skills, they don’t exist here. Also, the Bret*nnians are so classist that there’s a equipment list for each type of warrior: Knight, Squire, Men-at-arms and Bowmen. Alse there’s this funny “If I don't, neither you do” mechanic with the horses. There is the Questing Knight, the Knights Errant and the Squires. The squires only can have horses if the Questing Knight or any Knight Errant has a warhorse, and the Knights Errant only can have a warhorse if the Questing Knight does. So, if you want all of your Heroes mounted, you have to spend 360 gc on them all. And we’re not counting the barding, which would cost a total of 90 gc more for all three knights, which leads us to 450 gc spent only on the horses and armour!... Moving on, all the three knights have this rule of immunity to all alone tests. The differences on the equipment lists are tricky so read the doc yourself is fucking free. Moving on, the WS/S/I 4 of the Questing knight is the best starting stat of the whole warband, the Knights Errant have nearly all 3s on their statline making them very basic, but the squire has 2 on WS/BS so it has the amazing job of intercepting enemy charges against knights.The men-at-arms are also nearly all 3s on their statline, better than a squire, but no missile weapons on their equipment list. The bowmen, as their name says, have access to bows and longbows, with a better BS than a squire. Let's move into the special skills. Of course, they're all exclusive to the Questing knight. Dispel a spell on 4+, re-roll failed hit rolls against enemies with higher Strength, re-roll a failed rout test if the knight is not knocked down, stunned or out of action, hate enemies with shooting weapons and finally, roll a D3 each time you want to charge, adding the result to the charge distance. So, in general terms, this warband can be quite expensive (damn horses) and have less ranged power than the average merc warband, but it can be really nice with the right choices.

Outlaws of Stirwood Forest

Heroes:

• Bandit Leader (60 gc, WS/BS/I 4)
• Champion (0-2, 35 gc, BS 4)
• Petty Thieves (0-2, 20 gc)
• Cleric (0-1 replaces one champion or one petty thief, 35 gc, can do prayers of Sigmar lets goooo!)

Henchmen:

• Marksmen (0-7, 25 gc, BS 4)
• Outlaws (Limitless recruitment, 25 gc)

So, suddenly there are these guys we’ve never heard of. Robin Hoods, but some of them are actual thieves. They have a very specific rule towards ranged weapons. “All warriors in an Outlaws warband may be equipped with only one missile weapon at any time. All warriors must carry a type of bow, but not crossbows, as part of their equipment. So, even if an Outlaw acquires skills that allow him to use additional ballistic weaponry, he cannot do so. The only exception to this is the Cleric who may choose to carry a bow, but is not compelled to do so.”. I don’t understand this quite well and I hope future editors do. But moving on, they have an interesting hero choice, which allows them to have a priest and champions (which are quite decent) at the same time. The petty thieves aren’t that good, so I would exchange them for the cleric and more gold for the warband. Both henchmen options are nice and cheap. But wait, enthusiastic hooded youngling! They have exclusive common equipment:

Hunting Arrows (30 gc): These are available to Heroes at the time of their initial recruitment without having to roll for Rarity. If you wish to subsequently purchase this item during the Trading and Exploration stages of the game, then you would have to roll for Rarity as normal.

Forest Cloak (50 gc): So long as the wearer is beside a tree, bush or hedge, any enemy using any kind of missile weapon at a warrior wearing a Forest Cloak is at an additional –1BS to hit (in addition to all other modifiers). Similarly, if any spellcaster wishes to target a magical attack against an Outlaw camouflaged in this way, he can only do so by successfully rolling a 4+ on a D6. The only exception to this is if the shooting warrior or the spellcaster is already within their Initiative range in inches. Forest Cloaks are available to Heroes at the time of their initial recruitment without having to roll for Rarity. If you wish to subsequently purchase this item during the Trading and Exploration stages of the game, then you would have to roll for Rarity as normal. Availability: 50gc, Rare 10, Outlaw Heroes only

Hunting arrows at the start of the campaign can be quite useful in combination with a longbow (which is also hero exclusive). Not to mention the hunting arrows are already useful for taking down important targets. The forest cloak is really useful!... unless you’re playing a campaign based on Araby, Khemri or any other forestless battlefields.

Sample Warband:

• Bandit Leader (65 gc) with longbow (15 gc), hunting arrows (30 gc) and a sword (10 gc)
• Champion (35 gc) with two hammers (6 gc)
• Cleric (35 gc) with bow (10 gc) and axe (15 gc)

All that reduces our gc to 279

• 3 Outlaws (75 gc for all) each one with shields (15 gc for all) and hammers (9 gc for all)
• 3 Marksmen (75 gc for all) each one with bows (30 gc for all) and axes (15 gc for all)

The final reserve is 60 gc. We got our sniper bandit (we didn’t pick the cloak because this list is for all campaigns with or without trees) A champion in charge of stunning whatever is in its path and the cleric balanced between ranged and melee. Our henchmen are also in charge of stunning everything and the marksmen have what they need to do their thing.

Shadow Warriors

Alias; the big cheese, shadow the edgehog warriors, the thinking mans warband.

These guys used to be an official warband introduced in the lustria campaign until the creators committed ritual suicide. This warband is noteable for being so op it became banned officially and made unofficial. Anyone playing this warband either doesn’t know any better, or has just asked for 20 slings to the face.

Why are they op you ask, dear reader?

Bs4 baseline elves bs5 warband leader. Ws4 for heroes.

a magic lore that in addition to being quite easy to cast has wonderful gems such as ‘aoe hidden aura that cant be broken unless you move within 6 inches on a 6+’ this is not even the best spell.

I6 and at worst i5 in every fucking model and m5, and high ld.

Access to elf bows for cheaper and easier.

Common house rulings:

Cap elves at t3

Move house before your opponent comes over

Hire Assassins to kill opponent

Provide loaded die to opponent

If you must fight a player with this warband, kill his mage promptly, then his most expensive heroes, the only way to stop shadow warriors from quickly snowballing in campaign is to cull them early and brutally, once the mage is down ruin his most expensive heroes quickly.

Tactics FOR shadow warriors:

Abuse your insanely good bs,movement and initiative to be up high and run away from your vertically challenged opponents. Choose at least longbows, get quick shot then trick shot. If you instead desire a melee focused elf. Get the weapon master skill, then obtain a rapier(or 2) these work wonderfully with your high ws meaning you will get to roll far more attacks than is listed on the hero.

After 1-3 matches of this, congratulations you have won the campaign as you are now the sole player, don’t worry I hear Lucifer has a shadow warriors band just like you.

Border Town Burning

Introduces the following warbands alongside a sparkly new campaign set in the Border Towns along the Old World's Silk Road. Chaos Marauders are moving south to reclaim relics of a great Chaos Lord, while mercenaries of all kinds do their best to gather riches from this pillaged land; some of them employed by Cathay to protect the border towns, others with their own, dark agendas. The campaign is made specifically so most Warbands can fit into it; all the original Warbands at least have reasons to be here.

The campaign has specific goals for each "team" that is advanced as the game goes on. For some it is simple; Scourge of the Land just needs to beat shit up forever, but others are really difficult. The Chaos team, for example, needs to find specific Chaos Artifacts only gained in super-difficult scenarioes that are hard to find. It is a very fun way to play that gives a good amount of texture and context to what you do in your games, with a set end-goal for all groups.

Marauders of Chaos

With this warband, you can upgrade your heroes faster after some matches. There’s the Eye of the gods special rule which grants the chieftain obtain a mark or become a giant twisted abomination whose actual name can’t be said. If you won the preceding battle, roll 2d6, adding +1 to the result for each enemy model the leader took Out of Action, on a 12 or more you get the mark for the leader. If you lose, roll a 2d6, adding +1 to the roll for each friendly hero that was taken out of action during the battle. On a 12 or more, the leader becomes a Chaos s…uper mutant. This test happens after each battle, when the leader gots a mark, the tests won’t be taken anymore for the leader (if the leader dies, the remaining hero must do the quest for the mark again) The EotG test won’t be taken if the leader didn’t take part of the battle. The warband can’t have more than a single chaos super mutant, so, if your leader or your condemned becomes one and your warband has one already, they are abandoned which means they’re completely erased from the warband roster.

The Warband

Leader:

Chieftain (95 gc): It has a nicer stat line than your average merc captain, with S/T 4, I 5 and WS5.

Heroes:

Seer (0-1, 45 gc) It has S, T and WS 4, Ld 8 and I4, but hey, that’s a spellcaster in your stock warband. They get marks automatically when hired, which defines the type of magic they can use. (Not very) Fun fact, with this guy you can port fucking nurgle’s rot as a spell picking the nurgle mark.

Champions (0-2, 45 gc each) S 4, Ld 7, WS 4, These are the ones you want as bodyguard for your seer when he isn’t well equipped and more focused on casting spells.

Henchmen:

Marauders of Chaos (35 gc, any number) WS 4 basic trooper, noice

Chaos Warhounds (15 gc, 0-5) WS/T 4!!!

Chaos Spawn (180 gc, 0-1) The big guy of the group. It's good to keep it around. Or don't and use the money to get more marauders (or more hounds if kurgan)

The spellcaster is a seer, who has to choose a mark (even khorne) to determine which spells casts or what does. Moving on, marks are exclusive to leaders and seers.

Marks

The mark of chaos undivided; Leader: at 6' (and 12' with battle tongue) every friendly model may reroll failed Leadership tests. Seer, use chaos rituals (consult possessed warband), and include 0-3 gors (but reroll any “lads got talent” result for those)

Tchar, the eagle (Tzeentch); Leader: Makes it a spellcaster (but -1 to casting rolls if it wasn't a wizard before) Learn a random spell from the tchar lore. Seer: Learn 2 spells from the rituals of tchar, choose one, the other by the dice.

Arkhar, the dog (Khorne) Leader: Frenzy, +4 any spell is negated Seer: Seer? Magic? Sorcery? NO, it becomes a blood father that can upgrade some of their stats (WS, S, T, I but only a +1) for each model taken OOA in hand to hand combat until the end of the battle and can also choose from the strength skills list at the moment of choosing a new skill.

Onogal, the crow (Nurgle) Leader: Immune to poison, +1 T, reroll on serious injuries table once. Seer: Use rituals of nurgle, immune to poison. If you choose this mark, you'll be able to pick blessings of nurgle when having the mutation skill. And the rituals of nurgle give you nurgle's rot. Also the blessing. Yknow what to do.

Shornaal the Serpent (Slaanesh) Leader: Some ability that, with some rolls, makes the attacker suffer a hit automatically against your hero, if they don't do the test, they can't attack your hero. If they pass the test, they can attack your hero normally. Is tricky to explain so better check the BTB document. Seer: use Shornaal rituals and give the warband an equivalent to bugman's that can't be sold (cause cocaine juice recipe is mommy’s secret).

SUBFACTIONS FOR MORDHEIM

Norse: +1 rarity rolls, but eye of the gods happens at 13+, so grab tattooed body skill when you have the chance to do so.

Kurgan: WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?! They can include any number of warhounds (Pack of hounds, 'ere we go!), have common bows at 10 gc but a -1 on any rarity test that isn't a great axe or a barbed whip.

Hung: Mongol chaos worshippers from the far east. Max. Members are 12 and have warhorses at 40 gc, and every hero or lad’s got talent automatically acquired the Ride Warhorse skill. In the BTB setting there's no restriction for mounted models per warband.

The special skills list

Chosen of Chaos: Congrats. You’ve been rewarded by the gods without ending up as a semi sentient warped flesh abomination. Use the Chaos Warrior stat profile in the warband document.

Tattooed Body: Leader only. Using the power of rock and roll (also natural pigments and dead foes’ blood) your chieftain tattoos itself attracting the god’s sight. EoTG happens on a 10+ roll and 11+ for Norse. That means you can get a mark easily… and become a spawn easily.

Sweeping Blow: Whenever the Hero takes an enemy model out of action using a double-handed weapon he may immediately make an additional attack against another model in base contact. Requires the Strongman skill.

Mutant: You are able to buy a mutation. If you choose the mark of the crow, you can also buy blessings of nurgle with the exception of the mark of nurgle blessing (It doesn’t specify that cult of the possessed mutations are locked if you choose the crow mark, but if it doesn’t, you should be able to choose from both lists. That is powerful) You can choose this skill more than once, having to acquire it for each mutation you want to take

Heart of the warrior: Only the warband’s leader may have this skill. He may re-roll any failed Rout test and is immune to fear and all alone tests.

Special Items

Great Axe: 25 gc, Rare 8, only models with the Chosen of Chaos skill can equip it. It’s two handed, with a strength as User +2, and its strike last effect can be deleted if the warrior has the Strongman skill. A Great Axe has an extra save modifier of –1, so a model with Strength 4 using a Chaos Battle Axe has a –4 save modifier in hand-to-hand combat.

Barbed Whip: 15 gc, only one hero can have it, with a strength equal to user’s. It cannot be parried, has the whipcrack rule (see sisters of sigmar), the Hero may use his whip to make the Enrage: Warhounds charge wildly. As long as he is not involved in close combat all Warhounds of Chaos within 4” gain +1 attack.

As you can see, taking the Strongman skill is important.

“Let the chieftain die, keep the seer"

It works surprisingly well. The thing is that you get both of the benefits of the mark. If you get lucky enough or unlucky enough to get your chief dead, you can still run a campaign pretty good with the seer.

With the Chaos Undivided mark you can have the gors and act as a Cult of the Possessed Magister with the L tests re-roll at 6”. Two out of five With the Eagle mark you’ll have three tchar spells, two random, one chosen. Three out of five With the Dog mark, you’ll have a blood-priest that can say fuck off to spells on a d6 of 4+, have frenzy indefinitely, temporarily upgrading its stats with each enemy taken down in glorious hand-to-hand combat with a passed leadership test and take strength skills Four out of five With the Crow mark you can act as a carnival of chaos blessed one and carnival master, having access to the spells (daemonic vigour is replaced with one listed in the BTB document) and the mutations with the needed skill, also having +1 T and being immune to poisons. Four out of five With the Serpent mark… uhh… I'm going to copy-paste it straightforward from the file: Enemy models that are not immune to psychology cannot attack the Hero in close combat unless they pass a Ld test with 3D6, discarding the lowest D6 result. If the roll is failed, these models are hit automatically in close combat. Once they pass, they do not have to test again for the duration of the battle. Note that the Lizardman’s Cold Blooded special rule cannot be applied to this effect. Far from that, you can use the rituals listed in the btb document and do the mommy’s cocaine juice recipe/chaos unsoldable bugman’s ale if it wasn't taken OOA instead of searching for rare items. Three out of five

The Restless Dead

Are you disappointed by the lack of skeletons in your warband? Do you think sprinting is for sissies? Want a leader who can by mid game have 8 wounds? Then restless dead is for you.

Leader:

• Lich: spellslinging, wyrdstone guzzling liche that CAN sprint, wear armour and never equip non magical weapons- this guy is your bread and butter. After the first few matches building up his wounds and pitiful melee score he quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with, aswell as the ultimate escape artist.

Heroes:

• Necromancer: what's that you say, 2 casters? He like the liche uses lore of undead. Is your warbands only living member.

• Grave guard: 35gc, gets you almost baseline human stats but undead (so bs2 and crap initiative) , they also have the fantastic inbuilt ability wight blades: where any attack that rolls a 6 automagically wounds (still roll for crit chance if applicable)

Henchmen:

Wight: 30gc. It has a human stat line, but bs2/ws2. these very crappy skeletons are useful for only one thing, hiring in single groups and praying for a lads got talent roll as they are your only xp gaining minion. I recommend 2 clubs, or a sword and a club if you are feeling generous.

Skeleton: Can’t gain xp. This 20 gold skeleton has a weighty zombie stat line but with bs2, and in theory can be equipped with a bow. Treat them like equippable zombies and send them to die in droves.

Zombie: It’s a zombie what do you expect? 15 gold and not needing equipment is very good for padding warband numbers though.

Scarecrow: fast moving animated constructs and a conversionists dream. 65g for a t3 (6 against shooting and magic but flammable) s3 model with 1 wound, 2 attacks and can recollect non fire based injury rolls. They also need to be tethered to either your necromancer or lich meaning if the tetherering sorcerer suffers a wound then you take an ld test or these guys go out of action. Fluffy, but pretty shitty in the crunch.

Bone Goliath: this bad boy costs 225 to construct (and sacrificing wounds from your liche, Unless you build him on warband creation, in which case he’s just the gold). S5, T5, 3 attacks and non magical injuries discarded on a 4+ This guy eats ogres for breakfast and can absorb approx 1 gajillion enemy shooters fire. Get him on warband start if you can.

Building a warband:

Liche, light armour and shield

Necromancer

3x graveguard( maximise their average stats by giving them 2 weapons early game, hide armour if you feel extra generous) more attacks=more chance of auto wound., also they can equip bows if you have the cash.

3 wights with dual clubs.

As many zombies or skeletons as you desire.

Alternate warband: big boiz

Lich

Necromancer

Graveguard x3 1x dagger 1x club.

Bone colossus

Mutiny in Marienburg

Shallows Beasts (Cthulu's crew)

To cut to the point it is a Cthulu cult in Mordheim, except instead of worshipping the giant dream Calamari, you worship a deified version of jaws. The little lore that there is on these guys indicates that they are pirates with a divine agenda. Stromfels being the pirate god of storms is your main divine figure, though for the sake of home-brew and fluff, it is noted that there are many sea-creature worshipping cults around, another notable one being the cult of the Promethean, essentially a group of people who worship the most Horrific, Primal, Gothic and downright scariest iteration of Mr. Krabs ever to grace the tabletop scene. Instead of serving you up an underwater burger, they are more likely to cut you in half and feed off you before sinking back into the ocean while the cult members do some 'Oonga-Bonga' chant.

So as i said, you have the freedom to pick whatever sea creature god you want and worship them, go nuts.

As for their playstyle, they incorporate a rather interesting style of play, they combine some of the best aspects of a chaos aligned warband such as the mutation side of things, with the horde aspect of say goblins or orks with decent-ish stats.

Special rules: this is where it gets good.

Aquatic Mutants This ability allows ALL of the heroes to buy a single mutation at the start of the game, which is unbelievably strong if you play your cards right, you can start with a warband of head-strong heroes that use mutations to make up for their inherent weaknesses.

Seafaring

Gives a bonus to boat stuff, only useful if there is boat and water combat, or boats in general, their heroes consists of:

Buccaneer: your cult 'leader' essentially, the big cheese with an even bigger starting stat-line having 4's across the board to begin with for all bar 2 of their stats, to put this into perspective, they are 1 attack and 1 initiative away from having the same stats as a vampire, a FUCKING VAMPIRE....

- add that on with the mutations and you are good to wreck ass.

Mutant Priest: your caster of the group, can use chaos rituals, though it is always better to home-brew a deep-sea spell lore and get it approved by your Opponent/DM, stats are pretty strong for a caster. The priest has one massive ace up their sleeves which is the item known as Stromfels Heart, long story short if you sacrifice 3 captives at one of your temples, you turn into a giant FUCKING SCARY OCTOPUS DEATH MONSTER that rapes everything you go up against, and even if it 'dies', the item is simply lost and the priest returns to normal, this item is funny as hell to use and gives you creative freedom to make a water-borne chaos spawn.

Foundlings: Children who are taken in by the cult and converted into cruel, devout ruthless killing machine's from a young age, stats are weak to start with, but can re-roll advancement rolls, which is kinda useful but is also a bit meh.

Renegades: Elite cult members, better than foundlings worse than Priests and Buccaneers, send in ones or twos to take out individual targets or small weak groups of enemies.

Wreckers: Standard warband soldiers, they are pretty good with base stats and fill in the role of regular cult members.

Fishmen: As the title suggests, mutated creatures/ humanoid individuals, they excel at going through water and don't have to take penalties for it, strong and situational, but expensive for what they are.

Swampers: Ocean-druids which heal your guys, basically sit them behind your fighters and watch your opponent writhe as your 2 wound miniature gets put up a wound on a 4+, oh yea, and you can have 2 of them.

The Sealed City

Site: http://sealedcity.blogspot.com/p/setting.html

The Sealed City is Is an unofficial supplement set in a once hidden city in the Great Ocean. Accidentally discovered by a Tilean carrack fleeing from Dark Elf slavers, the city is located on a vast plateau-like island, which seems to have emerged from the ground of the sea. The city itself could also be seen as a single structure of cyclopean size, streaked by several layers of walls and topped by a lithic roof.

When the carrack's sailors brought back a blueish glowing mineral and broken clockwork devices to Tilea, their worth was perceived by an alchemist of House Fierezza, a noble Tilean family, and he persuaded the family's patriarch Ricardo di Fierezza thereafter to fund an expedition to the discovered island.

This is still being made but has /will have rules for the following new warbands

Pristekk Completely cut off from their tunnels, the Skaven desperately defend their outpost in the city's rock.

Clockworkers Outcast engineers from the Empire decipher the city's wonders and build up a force of clockwork creatures.

House Guard The personal guards of the expedition's three financiers: Riccardo di Fierezza, Luca di Baluardo and Ginevra Halcon.

Maidens of Dusk and Dawn A prophecy is fulfilled and therefore every newcomer is treated like a deadly foe.

Pirates of the Great Ocean Ruthless and sinister seafarers, held together by hard cash and promised fortunes.

Silent Brotherhood Operatives, assassins, informers. They are everywhere and nowhere at once.

The Brood of Ghurash Too long these horrific Trolls have dwelled in the dark depths - or long enough to have little in common with trollkind anymore.

Warhammer 40.000: Death World

An unofficial homebrew written by User:TheWiseDane, Death World is a fully separate skirmish wargame based on Mordheim and the Border Town Burning unofficial supplement. The game is set on the dusty planet Pax Primus somewhere in the Halo Stars. Players take control of treasure hunters, raiders, cults and mercenary bands that traverse the Wastes to gain Loot and beat their rivals. It also features a campaign system that pits players into a story of survival and chaotic corruption; one that could end with the creation of another Great Rift...

The rules are mostly the same as Mordheim, barring a few changes here and there. The Warbands are the versatile Remnants, brutish Orks and kunnin' Meks, Witch Hunters sent by the Imperium, mysterious, Eldar Dunedancers, the Devoted to Chaos and disgusting Nurglites.

The game is still in beta and may need changes; if you find an issue or problem, feel free to write it to User:TheWiseDane.

• Rulebook
• Cheat Sheet

Since the Rulebook, I have written a few additional expansions for those who want to test them. These have not been thoroughly tested.

• Chaos Raiders Warband
• Redemptionists Warband
• Rebel Grots Warband
• Special Characters (Lugnut is not written yet, disregard his segment)

New Rules

Mordheim is old and very VERY unbalanced, and thus many campaigns choose to use house rules to make the game a bit more fun. This is not a definitive list of what you need to have, but rather the most common ways to create more balance.

Common House rules in campaigns:

• No elves (or limit them to max t3)

• No Nurgles Rot (absolutely ruins campaigns and definitely not fun)
• No Rabbits foot (makes Wyrdstone Hunter obsolete)

• Armour starts going down at S5 instead of S4 (armour is overpriced for it's effectiveness)

Dual wield fixes

• Shields give +5as or.

• -1S for attacks made with a second close combat weapon aside from the dagger (There's no reason not to take that second sword for a second attack)

General nerfs

• Slings lose extra attack or go down 1s

Campaigns

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