Whoa Boy! - Why Mounts in Mordheim are overrated

Kyle Sheppard made this post on the Mordheim Yahoo group today. Aside from being an entertaining read it gives some good reasons why mounts are not necessarily the ne plus ultra piece of equipment but a mere sign of foolish decadence. Enjoy!
- cianty

1) Mr Big Shot Buys A Pin Cussion... So you have made it...you got money to burn...you want to show your status and buy a 130 gc Warhorse with all the expensive options. Bottom line...not many people can afford a mount...and they will be jealous. Just like the the friendly folks who scratch a pompus jerk's porche in the parking lot...or block it in so he can't leave...or flattens thier tires...or makes rude comments about the driver trying to make up for something else that they are lacking in...Mr. Big Shot will attract a lot of unwanted attention. Usually from a far. Do you enjoy long distance love affairs?...cause cupid will be shooting a lot of arrows, rocks, warp fire, lightning at you.

2) Mr Big Shot All By Himself. Only heroes and some hired swords can ride...not a big issue given the cost but does limit any ideas of a cavalry based warband...however...your mounted heroes will quickly become separated from the rest of your war band if you are not careful. I meen...that's why you bought the horse right...to go far and fast? Otherwise...what is the point. So giv'er...see new places...meet new people...."Well good-day sir...thanks for coming by so quickly. I see you are all alone. Well let me just relieve you of your life." (insert evil possessed laugh here as you and your horse are surrounded)

3) Who Put All These Walls in My Open Field? As per the rules...you can only have 2 mounts (not including hired swords) when playing "in" Mordheim (or any other city) and lustria (pg 4 TC 14). When playing in the country side or Khemri...there are no limits. So the game limits a "calvary" theme in 2 ways now. Maybe that's not a big deal. However, it is not convenient to run around Mordhiem with a horse. Horses can't go in doors. I don't know too many warbands that will stick to the open steets for you to let you run them down. (insert 2 goblins jeering at you here after they dove in through a windo to lose you...one giving you the rasberry...the other gives you the finger (we all have seen that model) singing Na na na na na na! as
they load their short bows standing just inside the door way.)

4) Excuse Me...You Want How Much! Very pricy for a one attack model...80-100 gcs. Although the shock value may be worth it...I played dark elves once and had my captain mounted on a cold one. I had to because he was a criple and couldn't keep up with the rest of the war band.
Fortunately the first few encounters went well with the other team running away...which was fortunate...my captain was a pansy and couldn't fight worth crap....there was a reason he was a cripple.

5) Excuse Me...Can We Have a Time Out While I Get Off My Horse? Mounting/Dismounting takes a full turn of movement...in my mind, severly limiting flexibility when changing your plans halfway through a game...you need 2 skill upgrades to fix this. Remember those two annoying goblins hidding in the door...well they now have had 2 shots at you at point blank range with out your mounted armour bonuses as you were wasting time getting of your horse.

6) Run...Run For the Hills! Mounts Bolting...oh yeah...that sucks...nothing like having my best hero running around the board trying to catch a freaked out 130 gc warhorse with barding...(because unless some one else in the war band has the ride skill or is a specific "horse" handler (another skill which is mount type specific)...your rider is s.o.l and on his own. Start running. It is unclear what happens to a bolted animal if it runs off the board...do you get it back? I can't find where it clairifies this...I think you roll like a henchmen OOA. On the Whoa Boy table...a roll of 3-4 and then a further 1-3...when the mount runs of the table...it says you recover it after the battle...but this is the only refference I see so maybe it is not all that bad...if you get the horse back...you don't loose the money invested...and with your horse running away you are less likely to be tempted to riding the darn thing.)

But the absolute worst...

7) Whoa Boy! So you have tooled up your leader...he has all the gear...skills galore...character increases out the ying yang...a nasty 4 A, S4, T4 with 3 wounds. a goliath! You buy him a warhorse with barding for 130 gcs because he is better than everyone else and has earned it...right? You are playing the skaven...and plan to run those rats right off the table...that is untill you are hit with a flurry of sling shots. A lucky sling shot hits you. No big deal, right? Then you are unlucky again and are wounded by thus mentioned "lucky shot"...no big deal right...you have 2 more wounds right? Wrong! You are on a horse!

The rules state that when the rider loses a wound (any wound...not his last one) you roll on the whoa boy table. Not good. At this point...regardless of what happens...you are screwed.

The best case senario...goliath looses a turn trying to control his mount (roll 1-2). So your goblin buddies safely shoot the snot out of him safely from the comforts of an open window (which you can't go through). Or...roll a 3-4...and Goliath is thrown from the horse on his butt and takes a S2 hit (remember...you were just wounded with a lucky shot...chances are this strength 2 hit will wound you as well because it is quite clear the gods hate you...even if you don't get a wound...you are stunned and at the mercy (and there is none) of your enemies (remember those possessed guys who where so pleased to see you all alone??). Finally, the ultimate humiliation...roll a 5-6 and your goliath is OOA regardless of how many wounds he has. You have to roll again...(remember...the gods hate you) roll a 1-2 and your mount is dead dead dead and goliath has to roll twice on the injuries chart. The gods still hate you so you will most likely roll a leg injury to spite you for wanting to go fast and will throw in stupidity to make you as dumb as the beast you tried to ride in the first place. Two injuries like this will make your leader very "un-goliath" like and you lost 130 gcs to boot.

Now its not all that bad...there is a certain comic relief that is added when you introduce mounts into your games. When your "goliath" has the bad fortune like discribed above (been there, done that, started drinking and went into therapy...which didn't work) you can't help but laugh. If you must buy a horse...I recomend tying it to a post at the begining of the game a go fight on foot. I would rather spend the money on a hard hitting Ogre, Rat Ogre, Clan Skyre Rat Ogre or a pack of hounds. They are more usful in a fight and you don't die when they fall down.

Maybe I have no luck (I will never drive a porche...my station wagon gets me into enough trouble) and maybe you can pull it off...but the above are the top 7 reasons why I find "mounts" troblesome.

BUT, worst case scenario, at least your War Dogs won't go hungry.

Still, the +1 Armor can be the final nail. In our group, we had a Warband leader with Gromril Armor, Lucky Charm, & Rabbit Foot mounted... I think he lasted 5 combats with a Possessed, a Mutant, and 3 NPC Zombies....

... Of course, that was before our group banned Riding Boots and made the house rule that you can't Step Aside will mounted. Still, that guy WAS a Juggernaut.

Hmm... what are Riding Boots and where can I get them?

I think the title of the thread should be useless, under powered or gutted rather than over-rated. Who rates them highly? The mounted warrior can be powerful, but generally he just picks up injuries from the horse falling on him. In RotC, Khemri, EiF we start with 250 gold that can be spent on mounts. Some warbands become horse thieves, grabbing loose mounts from stunned opponents, but usually the mounts are quickly killed. In 7 years of games no one has ever had all 6 heroes mounted,

In our last campaign Shufti was the only character who retained his mount from the first game through the last. All the other warbands were unhorsed after week 3 or so. Cloud Dancer only survived because Shufti was a shooter not a fighter. In the final weeks Sasha became a mounted terror because she had 3 wounds, was T5 in melee and S5 because of Mighty Blow. She survived mainly because her warband had 2 models with the Heal prayer.

In the final game we had 3 models with 1+ armor saves. 2 were taken OOA by warriors on foot. Ali took a "2 wounds, +2 on the injury roll, no armor save" from another horse warrior.

I see the Blazing Saddles rules as similar to the problems with shields, handguns and fighting with 2 hand weapon rules. They are something that needs fixing.
js

I agree on the horses, they're definately not a great choice for your best warriors, might do good on some cripples still though.. I used a cold one for my Saurus Totem Warrior, gave him 3 different attack phases!! (still only 3 attacks, but one at cold ones initiative, one regular attack at i2 and one bite attack that hits last) besides that, even without our houserules with +1 as for shields, a saurus would have 5+ for thick hide, 3+ for cold one and +2 with shield.. 2+ armor save and 3 attacks with s4 in 3 different phases - ROCKS

And i know that lizzies aint official - and damn my group whined when this guy took out a dragon singlehandedly - but it's possible