Rogar'z Loota Ladz - Mordheim Journal

[Royals]

I intend to create a campaign journal for my Mordheim warband and our group's campaign. We have a good mix of players and warbands.

James (Myself) - Orcs
Richard - Skaven
Matthew - Reiklander Mercenaries
Alyssa - Lizardmen
Mark - Dwarf Treasure Hunters

I plan to take a lot pictures and keep you updated throughout the process. I'll be starting my warband from scratch. I bit ordered a lot of Orc pieces so I feel this will turn out to be quite a unique force led by Rotgar and his Loota Ladz.

Here's what I have planned for my initial warband.

Heroes
Rotgar da Blacktoof
Orc Boss: Great Weapon, Shield
Vragdish
Orc Shaman: Bow
Grok
Big 'Un: Battle Axe
Krog
Big 'Un: Battle Axe
Henchmen
Uungar
Troll
Scrappa Gobz
3x Goblins: Short Bows

It's a small starting warband but the Troll will never die and I feel that it is a must have for an O&G Warband. The Goblins only count as half a member of the warband so I'll need to lose two Orcs or three Goblins and an Orc before I have to take a route test. Overall, I think this is going to be great fun.

I will post pictures soon.

[Tulkas]

Here and waiting James.

[Jape]

I have terrible luck with Trolls, they tend to act as sirens of my O&G warband's demise - partly out of bias I prefer to go with hoards of Goblins. Regardless it seems a good list if you don't suffer terrible luck - powerful small warbands can prove a strong force if your enemies have gone for a spread out all-rounded warband, which Humans tends to do. And Skaven can be very fragile early on IMO. Good sir, looking forward to a report on your progress.

[Royals]

Last night, my Battle for Skull Pass Troll and the old WFHB boxed set Orc Arrer Boyz arrived. Hopefully I can get those cleaned up and assembled by the weekend. Pictures to come.

[Brother Fenix]

Rogar da Blacktoof Orc Boss: Great Weapon, Shield

Is the model going to have a Black toof?

Looking forward to pics, entries, etc.

[Royals]

I received my Black Orc bits for my Boss in the mail yesterday. The only thing I am missing now are the Squigs.

One thing I've noticed with the O&G list is that you have very little in the way of options for weapons. I've played a couple of Mordheim campaigns in the past, and two hand weapons is a great way to go. The O&G unfortunately do not have access to clubs so our cheapest options are Axes and Daggers. I usually don't like to equip a Henchman with more GC in equipment than it cost to purchase the model. So for an Orc Boy, I am looking at roughly 25gc worth of equipment. This leaves me with a couple of options for my Boyz and I'd like to hear your opinions.

Basha Boyz - Sword, Axe, Helmet
Soldja Boyz - Bow, Sword, Axe
Arrer Boyz - Bow, Axe, Helmet
'Ard Boyz - Sword, Shield, Helmet

Obviously, campaigns are unpredictable and you can find a lot of different items, weapons, and armor so these guys can and more than likely will end up with equipment over their base cost, but it's just a rule of thumb I go by. I like to keep my heroes with more killing power with things like Great Weapons, Morningstars, and Halberds. A tactic I've employed is engaging the enemy with a henchman, knocking it down, then charging in with a hero to takem them out of action with a weapon that is more likely to wound. I've read where people will send their mooks out in front to die and force a route test so their heroes and warband get full xp and wyrdstone, but that really takes the fun out of the game.

Goblins on the other hand, I feel, should be equipped as cheaply as possible. A short bow and an extra dagger may be all they really need. With a short bow and dagger, they weigh in at only 22gc. In my opinion, that's a steal! Squig Prodders are nice if you plan on including Squigs, but you may only need one or two of these to keep your fungi balls in line. Your gobs should really be at the front of your lines to soak up shooting and charges. They're very expendable and the loss of even a few of them in a game is no big deal.

I think in the end, if I were to max out my warband to 20 models, my roster would looks something like this, not taking into account Lad's got talent! results:

4 Starting Heroes,
1 Troll
4 Orc Boyz
7 Goblins
4 Squigs

I could play with the Orc Boyz/Goblin ratio a bit, but I think this would lead to a strong and not to mention extremely fun warband.

[Artinam]

Orc have acces to clubs, check the latest Errata. They cost 4GC I think.

[Royals]

Orc have acces to clubs, check the latest Errata. They cost 4GC I think.

Thanks! I just checked, they're 3gc a piece. Not a bad deal at all.

[Artinam]

They are almost a no-brainer choice in combat.

[Royals]

More updates:

I've assembled my Boss using the Black Orc plastic kit. With all of the extra armor the model has he stands out amidst the standard Boyz. I have two models that I am debating on using as my Shaman. I have one assembled using the standard bearer arms from the Boyz kit with a bow strapped to his back. The other one is holding a spear with the blade lopped off in one hand and the skull drumstick from the musician with a bow strapped to his back. I have one Big 'Un assembled using the plastic Warboss kit. He has both the axe and the sword. I have to say, he looks pretty intimidating with those big weapons. I then have three goblins assembled with bows, nothing too special. Finally, I have my Troll almost completely finished. I just need to greenstuff the unsightly gap around his belly area. That leaves me with one Big 'Un to assemble and I'll have my starting warband ready to base and paint.

It looks like the Reiklanders will be starting off with something along these lines:

Captain: Sword, Bow, Helmet
2x Champions: Sword, Bow, one with a Helmet
2x Young Bloods: Club
2 groups of 3x Marksmen: Bow, Club

He's going to put the extra BS of those Marksmen to work.

[Royals]

Update:

I played a trial game against the Reiklanders using the Skirmish Scenario. I was outnumbered 8-11 but it was a close game through and through. We had to end the game a bit early but it could have gone either way. We made a few rules errors, not having played in a couple of years. We misinterpreted All Alone Tests, and were taking them if a model had no friendly model within 6" at the start of its turn. Some models hid after having run. We also forgot that my Troll causes Fear.

Some notes on the battle:

- against a shooting heavy warband, especially when outnumbered, it pays to advance slowly and hide to keep from being shot. If you don't have the movement to get to a suitable place to hide, attempt to run to cover.

- let your Heroes hang back. Don't put them infront of Henchmen to be shot. Let the Henchman soak up shooting and charges.

- let your Henchmen charge in first. Get them in CC and try to knock down of stun the enemy, then charge your Heroes in to finish off the enemies.

- the club/sword combo is a good set up. It gives a parry save and the club has a good chance to stun an enemy. It's a good balance of offense and defense.

- the Troll is a fantastic shooting magnet. I treated it as an expendible model. I kept him out in front and he makes a great shield to soak up shooting and charges while the rest of your forces move into charge range. I definitely feel it was worth it to invest in a Troll from the get go. He's a brutal model and I don't feel he'll ever be outpaced by heroes and experienced henchmen groups. Plus, unlike other monstrous creatures availble to other warbands, there's no chance he'll be killed permanently and then you'll have lost your investment.

- Goblins make great Henchmen. I plan to keep them in large groups and armed with a Short Bow and two Daggers. With a lot of terrain, the short range of the Short Bow really isn't an issue and I feel it is almost a boon to the warband as you will rarely be able to use the full range of a Long Bow or a Bow. I only wish that my Boyz could be armed with Short Bows. Back to Goblins, they're extremely expendable and are very cheap to replace. I haven't tried out Spears yet but I think the two attacks outweighs the ability to strike first.

- The warband is pretty unreliable. Between animosity and stupidity, you have to be prepared to have a model do exactly what you don't want it to do. There were two turns in a row where my Troll did nothing but stand there are drool all over itself, holding up the rest of my warband. I even had my Goblins duking it out amongst themselves.



We plan on playing a few more trial games as we work on our terrain and painting/assembling out Warbands to make sure everything plays smoothly. We have a new player who is going to be fielding Marienburg Mercenaries. He's a great painter/player/terrain maker so I look forward to having him join in. I promise, as soon as I get a better camera than what is on my phone, I'll post pictures.

[Tulkas]

Good to hear your group is getting under way. Orcs are definately one of the most 'fun' warbands out there. You just have to make up your battle plan as you go, as there's no telling what's going to happen.

[Catferret]

Royals: The thing to remember about the comparative ranges of short bows, bows, etc is not the maximum range, it's the short range. As you mentioned, scenery will often prevent you shooting to the full range, but having extra short range will add an important level of accuracy. A bow has 4" more short range than a short bow. It's amazing the difference that makes.

Greenskins are average BS and need all the help they can to hit. You want to be minimising the to hit penalties as much as possible.

[Royals]

Royals: The thing to remember about the comparative ranges of short bows, bows, etc is not the maximum range, it's the short range. As you mentioned, scenery will often prevent you shooting to the full range, but having extra short range will add an important level of accuracy. A bow has 4" more short range than a short bow. It's amazing the difference that makes.

Greenskins are average BS and need all the help they can to hit. You want to be minimising the to hit penalties as much as possible.

I feel that I should be attempting to close the distance instead of standing back. Shooting is a bit of an after thought for me in my warband. I do agree longer ranges make sense in other armies like Dwarfs and Mercenaries.

[Royals]

I have a few questions for you guys. We were discussing what to include in a starting Dwarf warband, and we saw that Gromril Armor is only half the cost for a starting warband. We began to question whether or not it would be a good idea to have a tooled up Dwarf Noble in Gromril Armor with a Shield and a Dwarf Axe. He would be tough as nails. He'd have a 3+ save, and a Parry save. What are your thoughts on this set up?

[Tulkas]

That goes two ways. If you've already got your mind set on getting your Noble kitted out in Gromril 'at some point', then you might just as well save 50% and buy it now. On the other hand, that suit of armor also gets you a Thunderer with a Crossbow. So either posh kit that might you might loose sooner than you think (think Robbed or something) or a solid Dwarf warrior with a S4 30" range hit and incidentally one body extra removed from Routing.

Honestly, I can't remember the number of Dwarf warbands I've started of the decade and at least 50% of them had a Noble with Gromril armor, but they weren't any of the more recent warbands.

[Royals]

I spent last night modelling basing Orcs and Greenstuffing my Troll while my friend Charlie modeled Marienburgers. He's using the new Finecast Witch Hunter as his Captain, and it looks awesome! He has a real knack for modelling so I am excited to see his force come together. He's using Empire Archers/Huntsmen for his Swordsmen and they look fantastic. We're both at a bit of a stand still when it comes to modelling, however; we decided to base our forces on round bases and we've run out of bases. I ordered sixty round bases so hopefully those get here soon. In addition to the bases, I have enough Dwarf bits coming to assemble a Dwarf Treasure Hunter warband. It will make a nice back up army if someone wants to jump in for just a game. We also ordered bits to make cool objective markers, as well. There are a couple of dead elves from Kings of War, the Orc casulty from the Empire Archers boxed set, the Dwarf Wagon from BFSP, and a bunch of Gnoblars carring big bags of loot and clubs from the Ogre Kingdoms. There are some cool weapons chest that have handguns and pistols from the Empire Cannor or Helblaster kit that would make a good objective marker as well as the caged/running Empire guy from the Giant boxed set and the hanging State Trooper from one of the OK sets.

We've taken a bit of an inventory of our terrain and we have a fair amount. A lot of the terrain is the prepainted stuff from Battlefield in a Box or Pegasus Hobbies. The're amazing looking for Mordheim. One thing that really makes games interesting is the terrain, so I am realling looking forward to having a nice variety of terrain to use. Our most recent procurement is the entire Hall of Heroes, which is an impressive piece. It's huge! There's a lot of things I would like to buy from battlefield in a box. For example, the Bestial Huts and Chieftan Hut, Crystals, more Ruins, Tree of Woe, Rivers, and maybe some hills or woods. Pegasus Hobbies also has great prepainted terrain. They have cheap ruins, crates, and fences.

[Royals]

Which skill would you choose: Strongman or Mighty blow?

In particular, I am debating on what to give my Orc Boss and Big 'Uns. With Strongman, I can have my Boss striking at strength 6 and the Big 'Uns at strength five. This almost guarantees that they'll wound most anything on a 2+. I tend to hold my heroes back and then charge them into combat when my henchman are engage and have knocked/stunned the enemy to get the easy kill, however; things don't always go as planned so if I go with Mighty Blow I can get in an extra attack at slightly lower strength.

[Catferret]

Perks of Strongman: S6 means that S3 people can't parry you. Also means you'll go through pretty much any armour without needing a critical hit.
Perks of Mighty Blow: Decent chance to wound and likely more attacks from dual wielding rather than a 2-handed weapon. Or decent strength and still being able to use a shield.

Both are good. Do you have an awesome model in mind? That may decide your skill choice.

[Royals]

Perks of Strongman: S6 means that S3 people can't parry you. Also means you'll go through pretty much any armour without needing a critical hit.
Perks of Mighty Blow: Decent chance to wound and likely more attacks from dual wielding rather than a 2-handed weapon. Or decent strength and still being able to use a shield.

Both are good. Do you have an awesome model in mind? That may decide your skill choice.

I am using Black Orc models armed with Maces and Hammers as well as Greatweapons. All of them look awesome. I guess I could just mix things up a bit and have the best of both worlds.