Skeletons: a viable option for Undead warbands?

My friend Travis is our local undead player, and asked me some time ago about using Skeletons as well as zombies in his warband, and I said, 'why not?" After some pondering and more than a little playtesting, here's our idea of Skeletons.

Cost: 20 Crowns apiece.
M4 WS2 BS2 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 Ld7
Skeletons are henchmen that never gain Experience. They also have the following special rules:
-Cause Fear
-May not Run
-Immune to Psychology
-Immune to Poison
-No Flesh: Skeletons have an unmodified 5+ save on top of armor against all shooting attacks, as the shots pass right through the spaces between bones.
-Shatter: Skeletons have the following Injury Chart: 1-3 Knocked Down, 4-6 Out of Action
-Skeletons may NOT be chosen/fielded if the Undead Warband does not have a Necromancer in it (ie someone with the ability to cast Necromantic Magic, be it the Vampire or Necromancer himself), as they are animated by his sorcerous will.

(If the Necromancer is taken OoA, the Skeletons fight on, as the Necromancer may not be dead just yet! However, if he DOES die, the skeletons collapse into a pile of bones, and cannot be fielded again until a new Necromancer joins the warband to animate them again.)

Its pretty good
In my group we just field them with the zombie rules though. Dead dudes are dead dudes, its a matter of appearance and warband theme
I do like the idea that they have some protection against shooting a lot. Way to often I've seen undeads loose a game without even getting into the fight properly.

The Restless Dead warband of bordertown burning supplement includes skelletons.

You can download the rules here : http://www.bordertownburning.de.vu/

I like it. But shatter is a bit too severe. How about make it give clubs +1 on the injury roll for them? A bone should only shatter when hit by a blunt object, right?

And if you are going to have them be the property of the necromancer, how about add this:

* May march when within the necromancer's ld in inches (ie: ld 7=7 inches)

If gives a much needed bonus, when you can end up losing all of your skeletons (and their gear!) should the necromancer die. Without these two changes, I personally would just stick to ghouls.

My group also just used Skeletons as Zombies as well; Dead is Dead. A miniature is just a representation of the character on the table.

Giving the Warband new henchmen class and ablilties, changes the over all balance.

Well said. Besides, regarding background skeletons are much more difficult to construct/resurrect than zombies and mordheim necromancers aren't good ones.

Fair points, though we play it that the skeleton's aren't lost, they just can't be fielded until a necromancer re-animates them. Their gear isn't lost either, and can be swapped around as needed and necessary.

I have enjoyed the skellys we have Travis playing. There not imbalance imo. There more expensive then zombies but can use wepons, we also ruled the raise dead spell or whatever only works on zombies, so when I shatter a skelly he can't raise it since its more like a construct and not like raising a zombie. It's worked well and gave his warband more flavor.