Pistols in Combat

Looking at the rule for pistols it seems to me that after your strength 4 attack in the first round there is nothing else. So does this mean that after the first round you are left with only your free dagger or a second hand weapon (ie.: My Witchhunter charges with a mace and a pistol. First round he has 2 attacks one with his pistol at str 4 and the second with his mace. The next round he now only gets one attack now with his mace, being that the str 4 attack is only in the first round.)

If this is true then, if after the first round, will he be able to use his mace and his free dagger (since u never lose the dagger), or because the ruling that u must declare what weapons you are using before combat and cannot switch or change during combat, will he only allowed 1 shot with the hand weapon previously declared?

A second is, does the pistol count as a weapon after the first round? Can it be a counts as mace, or a unarmed attack. Fluff wise I can see a Witch Hunter reversing his grip on the pistol and using it as a club (ala Equillibrium style). I like this option, but when ran by my friend he pointed out that then u have a weapon that u can use at range then stuns on 2-4 in cc

By the rules you are allowed to switch out weapons when using a pistol. This is an exception to the normal rule and is either outlined in the rules for pistols or in an FAQ.

As for the pistol being used as a weapon after it is fired, this was a rule in 5th and 6th edition Warhammer and is the way our group has always played the rule in Mordheim. We count the pistol as a club that strikes at the bearer's strength after the first round. It took visiting this forum and reading the discussions of pistols in combat for us to realize that the way we played it wasn't in the rules. So now we know its a House Rule. lol.

We count it as a club. For a long time I thought this was actually the rule, but apparently not. I think Tuomas Pirinen suggested it as a house rule in an early FAQ, which is probably why I had it in mind that it was official.

Shadowphx wrote:

The Dwarf Pirate Slayer uses a pistol as a club. It’s one of his special rules.

This is true, although in all honesty it is a bit of a mistake. Being the author of the Dwarf Slayer Pirate, I'll go ahead and take this chance to point out that until fairly recently, my group played by the "pistols as clubs" house rule that Von Kurst and mweaver played by, mistakenly thinking that it was the official rule.

So the inclusion of using pistols as clubs in that hired sword's rules is simply reiterating what I thought, at the time, were the official rules. In reality, I see no reason why he should be treated differently from any other model carrying pistols, whether you play them by the book or houserule it.

I would buy a club for him on the roster, and say that he is using his pistol as a club, after the shot in hth combat. Then you don't have to put a club on the model, but you have still payed the gold (3gp) needed for being able to use a club, according to the rules.

Louis's compromise seems reasonable.

the way ive always seen it played and it works out well is that after the shots in the first round it can count as a hand weapon (no special rules but no negatives) since we have seen counting it as a club a little unbalanced with a weapon being able to do it all. if it means that much just buy a club their cheap. on a side note we also play that all rifles can count as clubs but it needs two hands to use it as such (not as a twohanded weapon though just requires two hands to use)


on a historical and practical note pistols were used as a hand weapon. but when i asked multiple reinactors and myself what would be more effective in combat , a baseball bat or a pistol and hands down the baseball bat was always picked and a baseball bat is the bare minimal club aka no studs,spikes,weights or reinforced bands. let alone that warhammers maces and the like are by far better at knocking someone senseless then a mere pistol or a bat for that matter.

True. But then, we usually forget clubs' stunning bonus anyway...

We allow you to switch hand weapons in combat, but you can't switch back until after the combat is over. So you could drop your pistol and grab your sword - but you have literally dropped your pistol, so you can not stoop down to pick it up until the fight is over. I think that was another house rule that Tuomas said his group used.