Experiences with blunderbusses?

Hi guys, first post, though I've been lurking a bit before this...

So.

I just started playing Mordheim after a 5-6 year break. Small little league, 3 guys (so far, I think a couple others might be joining soonish). I'm Witch Hunters (having played Possessed and a bit of Carnival of Chaos before), and I'm up against Skaven (only 8-10 rats, but pretty kitted out, Rat Ogre, Hired Swords, Fighting Claws etc) and Possessed (no Possessed yet, only a couple dressed up Mutants and some Beastmen/Brethren). We play just for fun, no min/max, WAAC and so on, but the others are still a little in front of me in terms of skills and equipment since they played a few games before I joined the campaign (2 games in).

Long story short - I want some blunderbusses for a couple of my Witch Hunters (mostly for modelling reasons - the're might come pictures later) - but they are expensive, and it takes a Skill to even get access to them - and I wonder if I should wait a bit 'till my Warband's gotten stronger. So do any of you guys have good/bad experiences with blunderbusses?

Thanks in advance (and sorry for the first long post)

Anders

Welcome! No worry about the length of the post.

Blunderbusses are great fun. I genrally don't pursue them with Witch Hunters because of access to crossbows and pistols coming as standard equipment, however I understand the appeal of the weapon for modeling purposes and so on. I am currently playing piratey orcs and have secured one blunderbuss. I would like a couple more.

Blunderbusses are great against rats becasue they like to swarm and have T3 henchmen. They will make Chaos spread out a bit as well just becasue they can wound and crit T4. The weapon is mainly more bark than bite, but few warbands will rush pell mell into it more than once.

Other than that they are literally a hit or miss weapon. The first few games my orc had a blunderbuss he either had no opportunity to fire or failed to wound T3. For the last couple of games it has gotten an elf each outing and tonight it even sank a rowboat!

I like them. Sometimes they go BOOM and sometimes they go pfffft. But they tend to discourage the enemy from bunching up, and that is generally a Good Thing.

Von Kurst wrote:

For the last couple of games it has gotten an elf each outing and tonight it even sank a rowboat!

That is just awesome!

Since you are Witch-hunters, bluderbusses make a fine secondary weapon for your close-support ranged specialist (i.e. the guy with a brace of crossbow pistols, pistoleer, a cc skill or two that runs with your melee to provde support fire).

Since he is in the thick of it a lot it increases his chance that you will be able to actually use the blunderbuss. A Witch-hunter armed with a blunderbuss and crossbow tends to hang back and therefore sees less opportunity to use it.

If you are feeling extravagant, Superior Gunpowder *really* kicks it up a notch* in terms of it psychological effect. I must admit though, I have only ever done this once and only because I got the powder for free from somewhere.

*With the spice-weasel of course.

Superior black powder in a BB does seem nasty. Expensive, but nasty...

Blunderbusts are a good one shot weapon, and they can be really nasty against anyone who is willing to line-up their warband it a strait shot.

Now remember that you can only have 1 blunderbust per warband. So I would only do 1 model with a blunderbust. I have one of my Reiklanders set-up with one.

I was playing Lizardmen and I had 4 or 5 of my skinks shot by one. It completely changed the direction of the game. I thought I was winning because I was swarming his Chaos Dwarves, then the next thing I know I am making route checks.

Rudeboy wrote:

Now remember that you can only have 1 blunderbust per warband. So I would only do 1 model with a blunderbust. I have one of my Reiklanders set-up with one.

This an interpretation I have never heard before. Is this a house rule? My Marienburgers never leave home without at least 2. I have encountered up to 4 per warband, but economics usually limit the weapon.

Likewise, I too have not encountered this rule. You have seen more than me Von Kurst. The most I have seen was 2 on a dwarf dual-wielding them.

This brings up an interesting point:

In the rules, I believe that it is stated that: "People will never fire into a melee, because the chance of hitting your friends is too great."

Does this count for blunderbusses, too? Technically, it's just a 24" 1" template that you lay over and everyone gets hit, right?

The rules don't say "You may not nominate a model that is in close combat as a target for shooting" or something, they say "You may not shoot at models engaged in close combat". Everyone under the template gets hit and you get to choose where the template goes so by putting the template over warriors you are shooting at them.

That is how we interpreted it in the group I play in anyway. We reasoned that someone with an AOE weapon (e.g. blunderbus, flamer, scream-wand, etc) won't aim *near* a fight for the same reason someone with a more conventional weapon won't aim *at* a fight - too much risk of blue-on-blue fire.

We play the same as Lord O - you can't place the template so it catches models in close combat (unless the guys in melee are all from hostile warbands, in which case BLAMO!).

I think the one-BB-per-warband rule must be a house rule, I have never heard of it. Because of the cost, I rarely have more than two.

I had a great shot with a blunderbuss several months ago. I was playing a BTB scenario and a random encounter meant that 3 orcs and 2 goblins appeared to my left. Well orcs and goblins aren't the smartest and they started running towards my warband in single file following the orc that I presume must have been their warboss. My instructor lined them up and fired. BOOM! The first orc didn't flinch but when he looked over his shoulder he saw that the other two orks and one gobbo was OOA while the other gobbo was stunned. Needless to say the last remaining orc wasn't very happy when he finally charged the next turn into my warband and I routed the following turn.

Definitely worth having one or two.

I looked it up and I didn't see any rule about only one blunder bust per warband.

I don't know where I got that from sorry.

No big mate, I just had to point it out because I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something. Every now and then I discover some rule I've played the wrong way or that just doesn't exist even though I thought it did (or should).

That happens. Sometimes they do sneak in a rule change you miss, as I recently discovered with the Pistolier skill.