Mordheim
Mordheim is an awesome game to revisit. It combines the good parts of playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle (interesting lore, cool models, variety) with none of the drawbacks (overpowered magic, blatant stupidity, the need for hundreds of models), all wrapped up in a narrative skirmish game that kicks more ass than you could possibly imagine.
For those looking to play the game in the 2020s, Broheim is a still active fan-site that has all the rules/warbands/hired swords/named heroes ever released for Mordheim, sortable by how 'official' they are; plus a ton of other useful links.
Setting[edit]
In the Warhammer universe, there was once a city known as Mordheim. Things were generally all right there, until a goddamn motherfucking bitch ass 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[edit]
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).
- Original Warbands:
- Mercenaries: Come in Marienburg, Middenheim, and Reiklander varieties. Easiest starting warbands, by far; you're just different flavors of human with a few altered rules. On paper they are the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none basic warband, but due to their easy access to shooting weapons and powerful melee fighters for the cost, they tend to be more of a master-of-all sort of warband. Still, the standard warband (Reiklanders with fucktons of ranged weapons) is perhaps one of the best ranged warbands in the game.
- Sisters of Sigmar: Dead hard in the hands of a good player, Sisters get the coveted Steel Whip, one of the best 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, and the models are expensive as fuck on Ebay, so be forewarned.
- Skaven: Rats cosplaying as Naruto and friends, only with poisoned swords, claws and fucking magic flintlocks. 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'. If you spot someone playing that, slap them hard in the nuts.
- Undead: Generic undead list; zombies, necromancer and wolves, nothin' too fancy here... Except for that one-army beast called Vampire. Even with the large amount of extra warbands, the Vampire is still one of the best starting Leaders in the game. Notable for the fact that most of their Henchmen cannot gain experience, so you really have a hard time when you lose an important Hero in the game. Ghouls are your friends when you need XP, but they can't wield weapons. Dregs are your best friends.
- 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. Most of their models are hard as fuck, especially Fanatics, who are S/T 4. Even their Hounds are S 4. The Witch Hunters hate psychics as well.
- 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.
- Warbands added later:
- 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. Also, their lore is an extended league of gentleman reference ("You're my wife now").
- 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: 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.
- 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.
- Ostlanders: Inbred and dopey mercs who get access to a priest and a goddamn Ogre in their normal warband! On one hand, they get access to goddamn doublebarrelled gunpowder weapons
, but on the other, they have this weird rule that forces them to spend half their money each turn on one item of some sort. Very, very FUN*this was removed in the 2002 annual, now they are a solid alternate choice to the other Mercenary warbands. - Averlanders:
Shooty mercs. Next. Though you do get Halflings in your normal warband because that's what everyone wants... Right?... Guys?Good equipment access all round. They have some good shooting heros and henchmen, with Halflins being cheap good shots but worse than Reikland marksmen in close combat. Their Mountainguard henchmen are more expensive than normal but gain a higher starting WS to compensate.
That's for the official, now some of the unofficial bands. Many of these came with upgraded settings, for which they tend to be be balanced for.
- Lustria Warbands: (Tend to be at least slightly OP compared to other warbands. Ye who plays a campaign with elf-lovers, abandon all hope.).
- 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").
- Amazons: Warrior-women from the jungles of Lustria, brought in underwear to Mordheim by slavers. Armor doesn't exist to them and their heroines have lasers. Yes, lasers.
- Dark Elves: Combine super high ballistic skills with great mobility, stealth and repeating crossbows... that's why everyone hates Dark Elves and no one wants to play against them. Probably the most OP warband in the game, they start fairly weak but soon become godly snipers.
- Lizardmen: Fukken nasty at everything; they'll make your enemy think you've rolled on the Advancement table twice as much. They don't get armor, but they're armored automatically. Also, regular Henchmen with S 4/T 4. Can be mighty fun when pitted against other, unofficial warbands, but damn-near broken against anything else.
- 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.
- 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. You can also enslave heroes from other warbands and make them fight for you with a mop, which is fun.
- Pit Fighters: Someone was watching too much Gladiator in GW at the time (not really, they just ported Escaped Pit Slaves over from Necromunda), and they decided to make a warband with this guys. Crazy killing machines in close combat that will make you cry and think why did I agree on playing with unofficial bands.
- Hochland Bandits: The bandit warband, filled with thieves, cutthroats and thugs, lots of flavorful rules and very good in the postgame sequence.
- Gunnery School of Nuln: A requirement for graduating in the prestigious Gunnery schools of Nuln is to undergo fieldwork to get experience with firearms, so they are sent to places they feel will be best for training, they're a mostly shooty warband, if you like sitting on a roof and taking potshots at everyone then this is the warband for you.
And lastly, the créme de la créme of the fan-made bands. There are innumerable versions of different warbands made by fans, each more OP than the other, but a few keep to the standards presented by the original game.
- Border Town Burning Warbands: (set in Cathay, very weeaboo and chinese.).
- Battle Monks: No one has ever played this warband, but they look funny as hell. They like to fight unarmed, which kind of defeats the idea of Mordheim, but whatever. Monks can get stupid fast, sort of like Skaven, too. In fact, just play Skaven; it's essentially the same.
- Merchant Caravans: Merchants look fun on paper, but tend to do shitty in-game, unless you're lucky with your first few rolls. Brings about the box of infinite fun that is the Trade Coach; it barrels through the board like it was made by cardboard and plastic if touched by the smalles shortbow arrow.
- Restless Dead: Undead but not. Has skellies and grave guard, and the leader is a Lich, but it's basically the same.
- Marauders of Chaos: Proper fuckoff vikings, oh yeah! They'll slap the shit out of human warbands in melee, and the warband can even get Marks! Really makes Beastmen look shitty in comparison, but then, that's accurate to main game too.
- Norse Explorers: Vikings, though not very chaos. Just play Marauders.
- Maneaters: A warband of Ogres; balanced by most of the Ogres not being proppa Ogres, but smaller, weaker Oggies. You can make a viable warband with only three models, all with three Wounds each.
- Night Goblins: THE horde band, your most expensive hero costs 65 gold without gear. since you have the cheapest units in the game it's almost mandatory to take the troll. A barrel of fun almost as great as default O&G.
Hired Swords[edit]
Even amongst Mordheim's denizens, some freaks and weirdoes are particularly unique. These mercenary units, Hired Swords in the game's lingo, will hire on for various warbands, granting their own unique edges. What seperates them from Dramatis Personae is that Hired Swords represent special units who are still generic; they don't have the inherent back story of the game's special characters.
Corebook:
- Pit Fighter: A tough, battle-hardened human warrior, who carries a unique weapon. Starts out with S/T 4, so it works well as a bruiser to soak up some nasty models. Just let your Heroes take the kill for the Exp.
- Ogre Bodyguard: A wandering ogre, lured to serve for the promise of violence, food and loot. This is most Warbands' only access to Large Target models, and can be considered the standard of the "Ogre Models". Some models are clearly better (like the Rat Ogre or the Troll), while others are kinda worse (Minotaur).
- Halfling Scout: A sneaky little halfling, whose cooking talents grants the warband the ability to hire an extra warrior beyond the normal limits on warband size. Exceptionally mediocre unless you're running a huge mob, and then you probably don't wanna pay the upkeep for a Hired Gun.
- Warlock: A hedge mage, willing to offer their somewhat dubious skill with lesser magic to any band willing to risk it. His magics aren't very powerful, but its something, and quite a few Warbands' only access to a magic user.
- Freelancer: A poor, disposessed noble turned hired sword. He's fast and tough, but is easy to flank and cut down over time if he doesn't get the alpha hit.
- Elf Ranger: An elven scout whose talents are quite useful in this Chaos-touched urban jungle. He starts with a Elven Bow, Elven Cloak, Elven everything, inclduing a BS of fucking 5. One of the best snipers in the game.
- Dwarf Troll Slayer: One of the legendary suicidal dwarven warriors of the Old World. Either throw him at whatever to see if he'll down it (which he very well might, being a Slayer and all) or let him slaughter chaff Henchmen - just don't expect him to survive. If he does, he can get craaazy strong.
Town Cryer:
- #6: Imperial Assassin: A stealthy killer, whose lethal array of poisoned blades and special rules makes him deadly in ambushes.
- #6: Tilean Marksman: A crack-shot crossbowman who can whittle enemies down from afar with his trusty weapon.
- #12: Priest of Morr: A servant of the Imperial God of Death, dedicated to ensuring that the dead stay dead.
- #13: Duelist: A skilled, professional fighter.
- #13: Bard: A morale-boosting minstrel.
- #13: Bounty Hunter: A hardened tracker, whose bounties contribute to the warband's upkeep.
- #13: Witch: Hermetic practitioners of alchemy and hedge magic.
- #22: Arabian Merchant: A seller of exotic goods who is also handy at dealing with anyone trying to pay with their steel instead of their gold.
- #25: Clan Skryre Rat Ogre: A unique cybered-up undead rat ogre that can be purchased by the Skaven warbands of the City of the Damned.
- #26: Highwayman: A mounted pistol-packing bandit.
- #26: Roadwarden: A tough and skilled mounted warrior.
- #28: Beast Hunter: A fearless foe of all monsters and great beasts.
Fanatic:
- #3: Halfling Thief: A sneaky treasure-hunting halfling who has a 1 in 6 chance of pinching all of your Treasures and valuables.
- #5: Dwarf Treasure Hunter: A dwarf who lacks the combat skills of the Troll Slayer, but whose ability to increase your chance of finding valuable loot makes him quite useful.
- #22: Wyrdstone Inventor: Not a Hired Sword in the traditional sense, but rather a wandering NPC who can provide random magical trinkets in exchange for offerings of wyrdstone.
- #25: Fallen Sister: A Sister of Sigmar who fled her abbey in shame after spontaneously awakening her own magical talents.
- #45: Dwarf Slayer Pirate: A pistol-packing variant of the iconic Troll Slayer, native to the coastal dwarfhold of Barakk Varr.
- #49: Cursed Hillman: A werewolf in everything but name.
- #89: Ogre Slave Master: A malevolent ogre who serves Chaos warbands by keeping their slaves in line.
- #94: Halfling Knight: A rare halfling warrior who rides to battle atop a fierce but loyal hound.
- #94: Beggar: A humble scavenger, desperate enough to risk his life fighting in battle.
- #94: Imperial Tactician: A human master of the arts of military leadership and tactics.
- #94: Wood Elf Hunter: An adventurous wood elf youth.
- #94: Slaver: A ruthless scumbag who will use other men like cattle.
- #94: Swashbuckler: A flamboyant swordsmaster who relies on agility and panache over armor.
- #94: Emissary of Chaos: An aspiring Champion of the Dark Gods of Chaos.
Mordheim Annual 2002:
- Imperial Assassin: A stealthy killer, whose lethal array of poisoned blades and special rules makes him deadly in ambushes.
- Tilean Marksman: A crack-shot crossbowman who can whittle enemies down from afar with his trusty weapon.
- Mule Skinner: A trained animal handler who isn't much use in a fight, but who can help a warband get the best out of their steeds and animal companions.
Dramatis Personae[edit]
A fancy way of saying "special characters", this is the list of especially infamous denizens of Mordheim who can be persuaded to hire on temporarily with a warband. They're difficult to gain and honestly don't do much for the work it takes to get them; just get some more Henchmen instead. If you're up for some fun though, feel free to try to hire one.
Corebook:
- Aenur, the Sword of Twilight: A mysterious elven swordsmaster, a wandering adventurer who wields an enormous sword called Iehn-Khain ("The Hand of Khaine").
- Johann the Knife: Greatest knife-fighter in the empire, an assassin and thief without parallel. He can throw somewhere around 149 knives per second.
- Bertha Bestraufrung: High Matriarch of the Sisters of Sigmar, a heavily armored warrior-priestess who splits skulls in a whirling fury with her twin hammers.
- Veskit, High Executioner of Clan Eshin: A cybernetically augmented skaven master assassin.
Town Cryer:
- #22: Countess Marianna Chevaux: A vampire assassin who despises vampires and specializes in hunting her own kind.
- #25: Simius Gantt, the Crow Master: A surgeon fallen into madness and now a practicing necromancer.
Fanatic:
- #17: The Dark Jester: A capering, Nurglite daemon-possessed jester, only available to Possessed and Carnival of Chaos warbands.
- #62: Countess Marianna Chevaux: A vampire assassin who despises vampires and specializes in hunting her own kind.
Mordheim Annual 2002:
- Nicodemus: A cursed wizard whose foolish wish to a Lord of Change forces him to seek Wyrdstone, afore he grows into a giant monster. The model for this guy was larger than other human models at the time, which informed his rules.
- Ulli & Marquand: Two of the most treacherous bastards to ever haunt the City of the Damned, originally appearing in their own comic series in Warhammer Monthly.
Gameplay[edit]
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, slave tokens, whatever the hell it is your race uses to pay the poor bastards who go out and catch arrows with their face). 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[edit]
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 first.
- 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.
- Night goblins: Box of night goblins or, how they call them these days, "moonclan grots", some fanatic bits an if you want some squigs will give you what you need.
- 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. Alternatively, you may want to buy a box of flesh rippers from FFG's Runewars: the miniatures game.
- Pit fighters: The "iron golem" warband from Warcry is basically perfect.
- Lizardmen: The Underworlds "Starblood Stalkers" + a box of skinks/saurus (or a Kroxigor) is enough, but you could make a whole warband out of a box of skinks and some conversions.
- 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[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
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.
The Coreheim team have since changed their focus and released Wyrdwars which is much closer to the original Mordheim rules in spirit and contains balanced rules for twenty two warbands.
Mordheim: City Of The Damned[edit]
From 2014 to 2016 Mordheim received an early-access vidya called Mordheim: City Of The Damned. It is quite well received by the Mordheim community mainly by making like Blood Bowl and just being a faithful adaptation of a tabletop game you can't buy (new) minis for anymore, and managed to buck the Steam trend of early access games being cash grabs that will never be finished.
The game has been released on 19 Nov, 2015 and it is no longer in EA.
At release, the game had 4 "races" with their own campaigns. Mercenaries, Sisters of Sigmar, Skaven, and Chaos Cultists. The Witch Hunters and Undead (of the Von Carstein family, get away Restless Dead fans) were later released as DLC warbands, though you don't need to pay to get them as enemies in your campaign. Future warbands are now very unlikely as the devs have begun work on Necromunda, so no Orc Elf Dwarf Beastmen clusterfuck unfortunately. We are deeply sadened by this as fans of other warband will not get their favorite race navigating Mordheim :(.
See also[edit]
- /TG/heim
- Mordheim/Tactics
- Mantic Games' Kings of War: Vanguard
- 40k's Necromunda
- Warhammer Quest: Cursed City
| Provinces of the Empire |
|---|
| Reikland - Averland - Hochland - Middenland - Nordland - Ostland - Ostermark - Stirland - Talabecland - Wissenland |
| Cities: Altdorf - Averheim - Middenheim - Mordheim - Talabheim - Nuln |
| Lost Provinces: Solland - Drakwald |
| Independent Provinces: The Moot - Marienburg - Sylvania |