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Shadow Warriors Tactics - The art of guerrilla warfare
Advanced Tactics
By Archeonicus,
Edited by The Mordheimer.
PDF at
Downloads!
About the author:
Archeonicus is a living relic when it comes to gaming. Years of
knowledge, experience and love for the game have made him a great
Mordheim player. While he is the unofficial European Mordheim Champion,
he still is a humble avid player. If you visit the Netherlands or play
at the EuroGT, feel free to challenge him and take his title home! Many
thanks for all his kind words and collaborations!
WebMaster's Note: In my humble opinion,
elven warbands need to be revised.
Their stats, while apparently seem to be at par with WHFB and their
story lines, are way to high. While compared to mere humans, an average
elf may be faster or more skill with the blade or bow, their stats are
so high that there is little room to grow. Even among elven warbands
their distinction between each other is minimal - for not saying not
existing. One of the elven types must be faster
than the others, or more skilled with the blade or bow. Differences like
this are clearly stated among humans. Middenheimers are stronger;
Reiklanders are more skilled at range combat; Marienburgers are plain
average but have greater resources so they compensate with higher
quality gear; Averlanders are scouts, etc. This overpowering warbands
create great conflict on campaigns. Understanding that those who
adventure in Mordheim are "wanna-be's", warriors who are starting on
their path to glory, one could expect this races to also "mold" closer
to average stats.
To balance their incredible stats (like hitting most
opponents on 3+, only missing a climb on a natural 6, etc) the designers
have reduced their maximum numbers, high jack each unit cost, among
other things. While this creates a sense of fairness, on the long run it
fails miserably... either crippling the warband terribly or allowing it
to become god-like. Hopefully, this warbands would be re-designed in a
near future for everyone's enjoyment.
My opinions have created very heated discussions in
multiple forums. I do like elven warbands, but they do not seemed quite
finished (unlike the Dwarves, who are quite balanced) and someone should
attempt to re-design them. Seeing that the Shadow Warriors had been
removed from the Official List by Games Workshop, it seemed clear to me that I'm up
to something. Please
email
you comments... we want to hear from you!
I.Characters: Knowing the Gang
Shadow Master
A necessity. Very expensive at 70
GC but worth it with WS and BS 5, Ld 9, the leader skill and a lovely
starting selection of skills. Try to keep him alive, but do not be
afraid to get stuck in with him. Avoid close combat monsters like the
plague. His best role is towards the back of the warband and in the
middle, using his superior leadership to keep them fighting.
Shadow Walkers
You can have three of these, and I
recommend all three. Admittedly, they cost 10GC more than an ordinary
Shadow Warrior, but I think that being a hero and it entails is worth
it. Call that extra point of weapon-skill a bonus- it gives you a
skilled warrior to attack the enemy with that is not your leader. These
should be handling the enemy in close combat - you do not have any
better warriors in your warband, and they are cheap enough for it not be
a major catastrophe when they die.
Shadow Weaver
See above, but you can only get
one. This time, the bonus is powerful magic. It is little terrain based,
but powerful, easy to cast and with access to some snazzy items.
Logically, he should be kept out of combat where possible, but he is
still a good enough warrior in case things go wrong. Plan your spells in
advance, and keep your eye on the terrain. Most of his spells are
defensive in nature, so a spellbook to access lesser magic is needed if
you want a walking cannon type mage. Since he has magic to use, a bow is
unnecessary for him at first.
Shadow Warriors
The backbone of the warband. They
have superlative stats, can be taken in any numbers and are relatively
cheap (at least for this warband!) They should be taken in numbers with
swords and bows as good starting equipment. These should used where
possible and should be the ones in the dirty situations unless you have
<spits> novices </spits>. If promoted, you have several options...
Combat Masters (take any two from combat, speed and strength [a.k.a.
special] skills) to hit enemies, Shooting Lords (take Shooting and Speed
skills) to shoot enemies or Support (take Academic skills) who helps
getting rare stuff easily and cheaply, as well as one day learning magic
(satisfying the other two with the right spells)
Shadow Novices
Cheap! Stats better than a human
and at the same price. For an elf however, they have bad stats, so only
take them to bulk out the warband at the start and then sack them- if
you use them. Personally, I would rather take an unequipped warrior to
be equipped soon then one of these with a bow.
*WARNING! * These things are as beardy as hell. Do not use them.
*WARNING! *
II.Starting Tips:
So how would
you begin with a warband, what is important to look at when you start?
If
possible buy as much heroes as possible! They are the
guys that actually bring in the money, after a battle. The money… I cannot
stress that enough! In one-time-only games
that fact does not matter, so then there is more room for experimenting.
III. Warband
Types:
So now you
know something about the characters and about important starter points. Now
let’s get to the warband designing. Of course there are a lot of options, but
often they come down to the following three types of warbands.
The "fluff" warband
The warband which has a
lot of goodies such as Repeating Crossbows and Dark Elf Blades. With starting
500 gc, you can have the following goodies (no pun intended) warband:
1 Shadow Master with
Sword, Bow
3 Shadow Walker with
Sword, Bow
1 Shadow Weaver with
Bow
1 Shadow Warriors
with Bow
3 Shadow Warriors
with dagger
Now with this warband
you'll be looking to replace casualties after the first game, followed by
supplying swords and bows throughout your warband. After that, casualties aside,
you should be looking to replace bows with longbows, give spears out as
secondary weapons, and perhaps get a couple of double handed weapons, along with
the usual miscellaneous goods - lucky charms, holy relics, hunting arrows and
your lovely special items are all good. After more games, you should be looking
to be at full size and have some Hired Swords.
Pro: Since almost
all of your warriors have BS 4 from the beginning, you will be dead good at
shooting. With M 5 and I 6, you will be able to shift it very quickly round the
board and get into almost anywhere. With WS 4 and I 6, you are actually quite
good in combat; you'll be hitting first and hitting easier most of the time.
Lots and lots of lovely 'Elf only' items, plus a special skill list and you do
have access to all skill tables too.
Con: Small equipment choices. You have no access to poisons or drugs, and
your starting equipment lists are very small and generally very expensive. High
cost warriors; at 35 gc for the average henchelf you will not get large amounts
of warriors starting. Only average strength and toughness; with a delayed access
to strength skills, not much armor and little strength raising weapons for
extras.
Strategy: With
these points, the best idea is a flexible force running rings around the enemy.
However, do not be fooled by the high BS. You want to be engaging the enemy in
combat. You should be able to charge when you want, you have a high WS that
allows you to hit easily. By all means sit back and put a couple of arrows into
those disgusting close combat monsters you don't want to see but you should be
aiming to see combat.
IV.Shadow
Warrior Magic:
Pool of Shadow:
The Living Shadows:
Wings of Night:
Cloak of Darkness:
Shadowbind:
Shield of Shadow:
V. Advancing:
More Tactics
By Tseench,
Edited by The Mordheimer.
When it comes to Shadow Warrior
tactics I think it might be useful to make the advantages of their heightened
senses, high movement and high initiative more prominent. A Shadow Warrior
warband will most often be outnumbered. At startup because of their relative
expensive units, and later on because of their relatively small maximum warband
size. Because of this they need to "soften up" the enemy before actual hand to
hand combat begins. For instance with "guerilla-like-sniper" tactics. Because of
their heightened senses, high movement and high initiative they are the best
warband to succeed in this.
To maximize on this advantage, I
often give them lanterns after the first or second game (depending on the costs
absorbed by replacements), this way they can spot hidden enemies up to 16". This
gives them AT LEAST two effective rounds of shooting before close combat begins,
and three if you are smart enough to get to higher ground with most of your
warriors. Which often is enough to take two or three units out of action.
Taking them to higher ground not only
often gives them an extra round of shooting, it might also enable them to make
diving charges against the enemy warband. Because of their high WS they will hit
most starting warriors on 3+, with a successful diving charge this will become a
2+! The +1 strength bonus is also very useful for Shadow Warriors. So it pays to
scan the battle table for strategic sniper/diving positions. Good positions are
those with room for multiple elevated warriors (your warriors are to fragile to
handle an isolated situation), diving charge potential and preferably with room
for supporting ground troops. But be careful with to much "diving activity" in
the first battle, with initiative 6 they still have a 17% chance of failing
their test, with T3 a serious risk when done with your entire warband! Therefore
it is really helpful to buy rope and hook for all your heroes after the first
game. For only 5 gc/hero this is the best investment you can do, since the
chances of failing an initiative test for an Elf with rope & hook are less then
3%! (Check the math if you don't believe me.)
I think these tactics might be a helpful addition for most Shadow Warrior
players. They worked for me and I've fought 20-30 battles with then, one tie,
lost none. Which is not a means of saying that Shadow Warriors are too
broken to be played with, especially in the beginning of the campaign. It is a
difficult warband to play with because of their low starting number. If you
don't succeed in limiting your casualties during the first few battles you will
have a hard time with them. They start as a moderate warband, they will become
good after 5-10 battles, and after 20+ battles they can become one of the
strongest warbands around (just after Possessed with 50+ Possessed/Beastman
monsters.)
