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[Mephansteras]

Some friends of mine just introduced me to Mordheim. We played a test session last weekend for a few hours and we've got a tournament going on this Saturday.

Due to a lack of funds to buy new figures (a $1900 laptop purchase will do that) I had to make due with some more-or-less appropriate figures I had for D&D. Which pretty much limited me to a Mercenary warband, so I went with Marienburg. My initial configuration was too defensive and mostly consisted of heavily armored heroes with swords. Didn't work that well. So for the tournament I've mixed things up a bit and added more henchmen (mostly marksmen) and added a mix of weapons. 3 of the 6 warbands are Dwarves, so at least I can specialize a bit to counter them.

Any of you play? Got any tips or stories to share?

[nenjin]

Own it. I have made some terrain for it. I haven't had anyone to play with for years, but I love the game so much I occasionally crack open the rule book, get inspired and make some terrain. One day, eventually, I'm sure I'll find some folks to play with, or get my friends down with playing a game of it.

I haven't actually played a lot of it, so I can't give you any real tips. From what I remember though:

-Never let your guys get caught "all alone", which I think is 4"? inches away from any other team member. Smart players will gang up on them and take them out immediately. Travel/operate in pairs or not at all...unless you have absolutely no chance of being engaged.

-Ranged is amazing Mordheim. Because everyone tends to keep their guys close together, melee can turn into a quagmire very, very quickly. Add in intercepted charges, multiple guys increasing injury rolls....yeah. Having a good ranged squad on an elevated position above the main area can keep your loses down, and force bottle tests on them much, much earlier. This comes down to army selection though.

-There is no shame in Mordheim, at least in my book. Voluntarily fail bottle tests early. There will always be another day, but not necessarily a whole team of guys you've worked hard on and gotten lucky skilling up. Be warned: this tactic can make for short games, and can piss your opponents off for a variety of reasons. When you bottle out, game is over and so are their chances for xp and loot. If they've got the upper hand, they'll be a little bitter about it. And if you're doing it just to save loses...they'll be mad that you effectively called the game early against the risk of anything bad happening. They'll be somewhat glad for the winner xp though.

But eh, fuck it. It's Mordheim! If they want honor and all that, let them play WHFB.

-Objective based battles are a hell of a lot more interesting than grudge fights over warp stone. People get a lot less bitter too when their loss doesn't come with a shit load of casualties.

-More champion characters = better loot rolls at the end of the battle. While it will drive the cost of your warband up, make each loss hurt more and leave you a little short-handed, when combined with bottling out early it can give you a resource lead early on in tourneys, which then lets you expand your warband ahead of everyone else.

-Skaven 4 Life.

3 of the 6 warbands are Dwarves, so at least I can specialize a bit to counter them.

Exploit their movement. Marksmen are a good move assuming they have strong enough weapons to do some damage. Slings ain't going to do anything against a pimped out Dwarf band. Skaven can swoop in and secure the objectives quickly, then spend the rest of the game covering their retreat. As a human warband, you've basically got the banquet of options. I prefer avoiding melee combat when I can help it, as a good character can go down the tubes with one missed role.

Also, check out the additional download supplements from the GWS website on Mordheim. Has rules for combat outside the city proper, on boats and a bunch of other scenarios (like "The Beast of the Woods")

[Mephansteras]

I think I've got a decent set-up against the Dwarves.

1 Captain with Sword, Hvy Armor, Shield and Helmet
1 Champion with Sword, Hvy Armor, Shield and Helmet
1 Champion with Halbard, Hvy Armor, and Helmet
1 Youngblood with Sword, Light Armor, Shield and Helmet
1 Youngblood with Bow and Helmet
3 Marksmen with Long bows
1 Swordsman with 2 Swords, Light armor, and Helmet

I've got about 2x as many troops as they did last time, and a lot more ranged firepower. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I love Youngbloods because they're cheap, add to your loot roll and you don't cry as much when they die.

That said, you've got a lot of champions and almost no one expendable to throw into the meat grinder, so plan to lose some of those champs to outright death or injuries.

Also I would get Crossbows ASAP. They may not have the range, but you can't beat the 4 Str and armor penalty. Unlike WHFB or such, there are not monstrously huge toughness values on most stuff (I think Chaos warbands can get up to a 7?), so high strength weapons REALLY pay dividends. Even more so against dwarves, since their movement penalty effectively negates the range reduction on the crossbows. Those dwarves will be crying into their beards when you're rolling 4+ to wound their rank and file, and they only get 5+ armor save on their guys with the heaviest armor.

Also give everyone shields. They're effectively an optional +armor save when you want it, since the rules state that anyone can swing a shield over their back. So I always give 2 weapon users and archers a shield just in case.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, they're on my upgrade list. As are a bunch of warriors with spears to act as fodder. But my champion figures are running around in Full plate, so it felt wrong not paying for the Heavy Armor. Ah, well, Marienburg is all about style anyway, right?

Fortunately I'm playing with a bunch of Role-players rather than a bunch of munchkins, so it should be ok.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I came up in the "Munchkin" crowd, so my philosophy on Mordheim is pretty cut throat. Which is why I prefer Skaven. I'd rather get in, get out and get my advances, than gamble on serious losses. And I like having some of the cheapest replacement troops and Youngbloods around.

Plus there is little anyone can do against a pair of Skaven with prehensile tails, claws and poison.

[Mephansteras]

Ah.

Well, we have 3 Dwarf armies, Two undead armies, my Mercs, and an Elven army. The elves might end up being more of an NPC style warband by my friend who's running the tournament, since the numbers are uneven. And she has some sort of plot in mind, so we'll see how that goes. They're technically Shadow Elves, but may change depending on what she needs the plot to do.

So I have to deal with Dwarves and maybe Undead or Elves, depending on who I draw for the fights. So hopefully my mix is good enough to handle whatever comes my way.

[nenjin]

Are you guys doing 3 or 4-way battles? They aren't really supported by the rules, but it makes for an epic bloodbath.

[Mephansteras]

I think we're doing 2-person battles for most of the day and a giant battle at the end.

[Mephansteras]

Well, my warband performed reasonably well. Won some battles, lost others. And the ones I lost were pretty much due to my opponent rolling obscenely well (sooooo many crits) while I only rolled average. I also technically lost the last battle, but only because we ran out of time and I was on the attacking side. My unit itself was doing fine in that battle and hadn't lost any men yet.

I did have one *very* frustrating Warlock, though. She was technically awesome, with the arrow spell that lets her fire D6+2 arrows with a difficulty of only 7 to cast. Problem was, she was cursed. I rolled well over 40 dice with her and only rolled about 3 sixes in the entire campaign. She even got an improved Ballistics Skill after leveling, which instead of making her hit more often just made it so that I rolled even worse. One volley of 6 arrows didn't roll above a 3. *sigh* The only battle where she accomplished anything of note was the last battle, and that was when she was fighting off some neutral monsters that had been summoned.

Fun regardless.