Starting Mordheim: Undead warband

[Theblackdwarf]

Hello all. Me and a couple of friends have decided to finally get serious about expanding our gaming beyond Games workshop's core systems and try our hand at some specialist games. With an abundance of fantasy figures to hand we've decided to rock a mordheim campagin. After reading up on the warbands, i've decided to give my fledgling undead the chance to pillage some warpstone. Heres my speculative warband list. I would appreciate it if more learned eyes than mine could take a gander and see whats what.

Mordheim Undead

Heroes
Vampire- 100 GC
W/ Sword

Dreg- 33 GC
W/ hammer and helmet

Dreg- 33 GC
W/ hammer and helmet

Dreg- 45 GC
W/ Double handed weapon and helmet

Necromancer- 65 points
W/ Light armour and sword.

Henchmen

Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
Zombie- 15 GC
2 Ghouls- 80 GC
Dire Wolf- 50 GC



[Nasha]

ok well first of all....WELL DONE...on finding Mordheim it was the game i started with as a wee infant back when it was first released and ive always come back to it every few years...now onto the list...undead warbands are SLOW...the Vampire is the best non beasty guy you have...dire wolves are awesome...get as many as you can...also im not a big fan of using Zombies other than screening my more important characters with them...

hope that helps a lil bit

kerby

[BigRob]

Hello,

I have played a few undead warbands so heres my take.

Vampire: He needs another hand weapon and a bow. That BS of 4 is tasty and he might even get a chance to use it. The vampire will be the workhorse of your warband and needs the best gear ASAP. (Lucky charm etc).

Necromancer: Is pointless now he has the armour, it stops him casting spells Armour in mordhiem is terrible (more on that later). The Necro's spells are weak and he is weaker, keep him back and safe ready to explore and earn income until he becomes a bit tougher.

Dregs: Good start, drop the two handed weapon, they are a death sentence without the strongman skill. Two hand weapons apiece and helmets is fine (if you can afford the helmets, I tend to leave them for later. In the beginning when they are weak I use my dreggies as Necromancer guards.

Dire Wolves: Very pricey for a S3, T3 model. Yes its undead, yes it has +1S on the charge and yes it can keep up with your vampire but they die so so easily to missile fire and when they reach combat they don't last long. They look nice but I am not a fan, I'd rather have an Ogre Hired sword for the M6 people.

Zombies: Zombies are the weak link in the chain, slow, rubbish and easy pickings for the enemy. Most necromancer spells will only hit one at a time and he has to be close to them. With your maximum number being 12, you need all your slots for....

Ghouls: The heroes of the henchmen, Ghouls can gain XP! Yes they can't use weapons and equipment but they have a pretty good starting profile, fast, tough, plenty of attacks and once you have the old Lads got Talent ghoul your laughing all the way. I personally ignore all other undead henchmen because Ghouls are solid gold win


Now quickly, mordhiem is a great game but has some ..... issues with the power of the dual wield and the misery of the pants armour. Alot of people will encouage you to take up houserules or homebrews like Corehiem and so on. IMO give it a go, provided you use the warbands in the main rulebook you will find it surprisingly balanced

And remember, the table needs at least 75% terrain cover, no tall buildings in anyones deployment zone, when you lay the terrain out think cramped city and make plenty of barricades and other bits and bobs.

Have fun

[Theblackdwarf]

Hey Big rob. I posted that list earlier today and have since had my first game with it. A win no less. I did realise a few mistakes after i changed it.

A: The necro and armour. I noticed that as soon as i posted the list, i lobbed the armour off of him straigt away. School boy error that!

B: Vamp did indeed go into battle with two swords. Oddly enough me and my mate agreed to make the extra off hand attack -1 to hit to even things out- You're like a specialist game Nostradamus! Will look into the bow thanks. Coreheim is something im saving for a nice evening read.

C: The two handed guy didnt fare too well sadly so you make a fair point (poor sod got carted off to the slave pits)

D: The ghouls were fantastic and i agree they need to be in larger numbers. Oddly, i didnt lose a single zombie the whole game which i certainly didnt expect.

E: The wolf is strength 4 and has +1 attack on the charge. He was pretty handy, though i think i actually need more than one. I reckon they could be killer if i dont throw them away.

[BigRob]

Good win

Now go buy lucky charms

My bad on the direwolves but I stand by my "buy Ghouls" point. Yeah for a game or two the wolf seems better but he drops back as soon as the advances come running in.

Pure powergaming but consider a club on the vamp for the stun power and have the sword offhand for the free parry (unless you plan on investing in the Swordmaster skill and some Gromril swords...)

You may not have lost a zombie but did they actually make it to combat or do anything useful? I have never had a game where I managed to get mine into combat, usually they are ignored, outmanovered or shot, unless my opponent fancies some zombie bashing for the XP.

My Longterm undead warband involved a vampire with sprint and a elf cloak who was my cruise missile, a ghoul pack that followed him round and my dreggies and necromancer chillin at the back snagging objectives and drinking tea. Be sure to check out the hired swords, you have a very limited choice but that Ogre is as nippy as your vamp and makes a nice meatshield.

[Theblackdwarf]

The ghoul point is spot on and i will be bringing more in. THe zombies did make it into combat to drag down an eshin sorcerer though admittedly that was because i happened to be positioned next to the building with the treasure in, so the rats came to me.

[BigRob]

I have often thought zombies needed a rule like "Two Zombies take up one slot" or something. I have used a zombie horde in a special campaign scenario in the Graveyard. We had a Necromancer with his dregs and about 30 zombies. We gave them a bunch of skills and advances and all the necromancer spells. The warband still won

Watch out for any Merc/witchhunter warbands with thier good shooting, they will have a field day with the slow zombies.

[Theblackdwarf]

Aye. The skaven warband i faced was fairly sling heavy but the zombies seemed to be living a charmed afterlife. The rats were worryingly accurate at times but just couldnt wound them. I dont expect it to be a recurring thing.

The game is fantastic if in need of a few House rules/agreements to even things out. That being said, it's a much more casual affair than warhammer or 40k and we both had immense fun.

[BigRob]

Mordhiem is a very fun game, you can do an awful lot with it

Skaven Sling is overrated, remember what I said about terrain, a 4x4 board with 75% terrain cover makes for a great game for everyone A 4x4 board with just the card terrain that comes in the box is fun for shooters and sad for everyone else.

[Theblackdwarf]

We had plenty of terrain on the board luckily. Just seems like the eshin lot had ate their weetabix the morning of the scrap. They were just particularly accurate. Couldnt wound to save their lives though

[djpringle]

Speaking about Undead, what figures would people recommend to be used for Dregs instead of the official not really available ones?

[Theblackdwarf]

Im planning on mixing ghoul bits with empire free company. Theyre just supposed to be downtrodden humans so that should work well enough. Until then, battle pilgrims are standing in

[Lord 0]

Skaven or goblin torsos will help you get that hunchback look. Maybe some orc legs? Not sure how the orc legs would look though.

[Theblackdwarf]

Think orc legs would look a bit meaty with those torsos.

[Theblackdwarf]

Right, thought i'd update you with my warband's progress. We're starting to get a few other people interested in the game so hopefully within a month there will be more than just my Undead and my mates skaven duking it out.

We've played three games so far, two of which ive won. First scenario was treasure hunt which i won by routing the skaven (though by the process of elimination, we found the treasure was on my side of the table, positioned near my vamp, so we both conceded i probably had the edge in both regards.

Second was street fight which once again ended in the skaven routing and some brilliant injury rolls. My Dreg Barry Chuckle was robbed, blinded and made frenzied by the end of it

Third was break out that saw me rout after my zombies took an absolute mullering by the skaven (which is a shame as theyd been fairly indestructible up until then). Three of them "died" but luckily thanks to a decent haul of shards, ive brought in more ghouls.

Oh yes, on my first advancement roll, one of the original ghouls rolled "Lad's got talent!"

[Asp]

Propositions for making the Undead list more balanced:

- Zombies can run.
- Zombies cannot be taken OOA by Shooting (excepting Blackpowder)
- Dire Wolves cannot climb

(Yes, Dire Wovles can climb per vanilla Rules)

[Theblackdwarf]

I'd accept zombies running as it could be justified as the vampire impelling them. Im sure that level of puppetry is necromancy for starters.

For the shooting, perhaps only crits with shooting has a chance of taking them out? Could represent the need to destroy the brain. I wouldnt feel comfortable completely ignoring OOA with shooting (my skaven opponent may have words :P)

[Sergeant Uriel Ventris]

I really like the idea of making zombies immune to OOA except for crits. I think I'm going to bring this up with my buds. I'm not sure about the running, though, because I like my zombies slow and magical, not fast and 28 Days Later-ish. Also, because I'm a background guy as opposed to rules guy, I would NEVER let wolves climb, even my own. Maybe if there were stairs.

[Oakwolf]

Hi there, i've played Undeads alot in Mordheim.

The Vamp is of course the star player of the team. No matter how you equip him with, a bow is mandatory. You really can't go wrong with the vampire. We use a house rule that gives Hand Weapon+Shield a +1 to save, so it becomes interesting too (especially against the infamous dual dagger combo)

I'd also advise a bow for the Necromancer, it can really help him when his spells are not too great. His bs of 3 is about the best you can get apart from the vampire.

Dregs: Equip them as you will, but dual clubs is good.

Ghouls: -the only real troop type, they are very good especially with experience. Get many and early, so they get those advances quick.

Zombies: Not all that useful except as fodders, but they are annoying for your opponent in that particular role.

Wolves: they can run with your vampire to form a hit squad. They are good at the start of a campaign...and loose effectiveness from there on ( a bit like witchhunter dogs)

[someone2040]

Hmm...
Something like Zombies within 6" of the Vampire can run (Probably not a new idea).
Maybe also only taken out of action on a 6. But not sure if that makes them too tough, considering they cant be stunned either.

The way I see it is, they can somewhat keep up with the Vampire, but if they're shot and knocked down, then the back ones will be reduced to wandering aimlessly (well, not quite aimlessly) and slowed down.