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Which is the Best Warband? |
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The other four warbands in the rulebook, the Sisters of Sigmar, Witch Hunters, Possessed and the Undead, are all fairly balanced, each having their own strengths and weaknesses which can be exploited by a canny general. Once you go beyond the initial six warbands (eight if you include the different mercenary types), things start getting a little more complicated. The official warbands that have been subsequently released to the Rulebook are the Orcs and Goblins, Shadow Warriors, Dwarves, Kislevites, Beastmen, Carnival of Chaos and two more Mercenaries (Averlanders and Ostlanders). These warbands are a little more complex, and while Fanatic has done everything to ensue that they are balanced to the originals, some players feel they are over/under powered. All of these warbands can be found in the Mordheim 2002 Annual, which should be available everywhere Mordheim is. Next on the list we have the Experimental warbands. These, for various reasons, have not yet been granted official status. You must discuss using these warbands with your gaming group before you use them in a campaign. These warbands include Bretonnians (Town Cryer 8), Pirates (Town Cryer 9), Pit Fighters (an early version appeared in Town Cryer 14, but was later drastically revised in Town Cryer 21), and Amazons (who appeared in Town Cryer 15, but was later printed as a Mordheim warband in Town Cryer 23). Whether these will be granted official status remains to be seen. Finally we have the alternate settings. These are Lustria, Khemri, Karak Azgal and Mousillon. Of these, Lustria and Khemri have been printed in Town Cryer, so you’ll probably find it easier to convince your group to use those. They are, of course, unofficial so far. You might like to note that the articles that have appeared in Town Cryer are not the same as those that appear at the settings original website. While the authors of each setting have striven to keep their warbands balanced, they are more so balanced to others of the setting than to the original warbands designed for Mordheim. Only attempt these warbands when you’ve tried out the originals. The Dragon Caves' Players: For the purposes of our campaign, if you want to play any Unofficial or Experimental Warband you must justify its inclusion in their background. All warbands must be pre-approved. See "House Rules" for details.
Mordheim Math: Heroes = Money = Better Warband = Victory!It is very simple. The more heroes you take, the more will survive, the more money you will get, the better you can gear up your warband with new equipment and henchmen and the more games you win. Heroes not only have exceptional combat abilities and stats, but also have access to rare goods, experienced henchmen and Dramatis Personae.Your heroes generally have the best profiles, and even when they do not, they advance the fastest and can take skills. Fairly soon among they are among your most effective members. Yes, even a pants-looking Youngblood! Now obviously, some warbands cannot take full sets of heroes, but the general rule is every available hero should be brought. Each warband has a different set of heroes, and each comes out as different money for occasionally different number of models. While the numbers below do NOT represent a true statistical analysis, the numbers do show the same principles. If you remove the extremes for each of the warbands, you get the same relationships at a lower cost:
This works out on average at…
It’s Hard to Get Good Help These Days…Experience gaining henchmen: there are various splits available for henchmen, and one of the most obvious is gains experience and does not. The does nots are routinely cheaper and since most of them are animals do not need equipment, but you should aim to get XP gainers where at all possible. These henchmen will serve well, fighting bravely and doing what you want generally as much as non-gainers, and halfway through the campaign you do not realise everyone is too tough for them now. Besides, as a general rule of thumb, gainers are a damn sight more reliable as they have higher Ld.
Quantity vs. QualityDo you max out a chosen few, or do you take loads and loads of men? That is the question. I believe in statistical probability (and loaded dice) so I favour quantity. Statistically speaking, if only by luck, it would be easier for 20 Skaven armed with slings to kill (Out Of Action) a single enemy warrior that is 5” away than for 2 marksmen armed with long bows at 30”. Why? Well the Skaven will get 40 shots, and they could easily get 20 hits, of those get 10 wounds, and the victim could fail at least 2 armor saves. The massive amounts of shots will compensate for the lack of ability.The argument behind quality is that eventually you catch up and your superior armaments start to win you battles. To me this is hard to believe. After all, at the end… this is a game ruled by chance and dice. So it seems logical to have as many dice as you could. This is not to say that you should just ignore weapons: everybody should have the weapon that they need for their job. But extravagances should be avoided. Armor is a common one - anything with Blackpowder, an axe or high S can generally make a mockery of armor and even when this does not occur, it still rarely does the trick. The most, I ever go to at first is armor for my leader, and even that is not common for me.
Rout Tests: Stay and Fight!With careful planning, you can dampen the effects of rout tests. The first and most obvious is inclusion of as many high leadership types as possible. The next is to try to bolster your warband where possible to 9 rather than 8, 13 rather than 12. In short, get over the limit to how many go out before you start looking like breaking.
Hired Swords: Be Your Own AccountantBefore considering any Hired Sword, check you cash flow. You must think more about the future well being of your party than the next battle. If you hire many mercenaries, and your warband becomes extremely dependent of them, one day you will find unable to pay their upkeep and your warband will rapidly become parts of Mordheim’s furniture.Do not hire any of them at the beginning of the campaign. Wait until your warband is close to its maximum, because hiring regular warband characters do not have any upkeep. Once your roster is full, then the Hired Sword’s characteristic of not counting towards your warband’s size limit can come handy. Also at this point you may not be too concerned about money (not many expenses and have most of the gear you want) so you can spare some to maintain the mercenaries. Of all the Hired Swords, I strongly recommend the Halfling Scouts and the Pit Fighters. The Scouts are very cheap and will increase the warband’s size limit by one. The Pit Fighters are of average cost, but they are savage and efficient fighters.
Large Monsters: Expensive Targets?Some believe it is hard to win with large monsters in a starting warband, and they are right. They are often temperamental with generally low leadership and suffer from Stupidity. Large are expensive, and buying them when starting your warband will leave you under powered in many areas, such as fewer henchmen (low rout test) and extremely basic equipment. As you start to rely on this monster for your edge in combat, enemy warbands will focus their attacks on to these creatures and by sheer number of attacks will take them Out Of Action swiftly. This leaves your under-powered warband against a well balanced enemy. This is not a good situation.The best recommendation is to purchase them as a backup, and not as a primary fighting force. Once you have won several games, and your rosters is almost full and well equipped, and then get one of these juggernauts. Now you are forcing your opponent to pick between big evil brute and nasty evil hero, then kill them with which one they fail to go for.
Flexibility: No Longer Something You Do Before Exercising.Try to make certain your warband can deal with as many situations as possible. This is the key for your warband’s success. A warband may have to face many different foes in many different scenarios. It is okay to build the close combat monster of them all, but it will suffer in breakouts and other missions giving ranged combat opponents a good chance to sweep the streets of Mordheim with your corpses. Defensive warbands will tend to loose at Wyrdstone Hunt (or any other situation that requires speed) and ranged combat warbands tend to have a hard time if an enemy manages to close the gap and enter close combat.Try to cover all your bases: a few tough defenders, supported by hand-to-hand warriors, watch from above by some snipers.
Balance: Ying-Yang Your Way Towards Victory.All warbands have strengths and weaknesses. You must learn these fairly quickly and remember to play around them! For example, a Skaven warband is strong in mobility, numbers and combat power and may try to build a powerful quick combat machine. An Undead player may counter this with fear causing models exploiting the Skaven's weak Ld. Next battle; the Skaven may attempt to use the Undead's lack of mobility to run rings around them. When playing, try to pick out a weak point of the enemy where you are strong, and combine it with another strong point of yours or weak point of his. In the above example, the Skaven may very well decide to run around the Undead pelting them at close range with missiles. Shooting and Mobility are two notorious weaknesses of Undead, while Skaven have good mobility and powerful short ranged shooting.
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