New to Mord, undead warband, help please..

Hey all im first time mordheim-er, and im going to have a red hot crack at an undead warband, using corpse cart zombies, and more stylish dregs and ghouls (the vampire looks after his minions)..

Any way i thought id chuck up a list and see what you guys can tell me before i start modeling equipment

Vampire, Free dagger (FD), Sword. Shield, Axe 130

Necromancer, FD, Shield, Axe 45

Dreg, FD, Shortbow, Axe, Helm X 3 120

Ghouls X 3 120

and either:
1 Dire wolf 50 and 2 zombies with 5 extra GC
or
5 zombies and 10 extra GC

Im completly open to suggestions so please fire away..

Cheers

I'd first like to welcome you to a wonderful game! You'll find many kindred spirits on the forums here. One of our most revered undead players fields zombies from the corpse cart sprue and they are fabulous.

As far as your warband goes. It has great fluff right now, but it could be a bit more competitive if you like. I'll mention some options below:

First off, the only henchman which you can promote to a hero is the ghoul. Maxing out heroes should be a top priority in all warbands as it not only increases your strength and income, heroes are a ton of fun! Thus, I'd like to see at least one ghoul in your starting band, but more would be much preferred. Ghouls also have the added ability of being henchmen which can run. This can prevent your valuable (exploration-rolling) heroes from getting too far ahead of your more expendable henchmen.

Also, armor is woefully overpriced in Mordheim. That does not mean it's useless, but it just means that it's more of a luxury item. Instead of the helms on your dregs, I'd advise upgrading the shortbows to bows. As a side effect of the cost of armor, axes are not all that useful until later in a campaign. Hammers/Maces are cheaper, and their concussion rules are quite effective.

Dire wolves are very pricey, but they make good companions to your vamp. If you think you'll want him leaving the lurching mass of zombies, then giving him a wolf companion might be wise.

Now if you're playing WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), then some of what I've said is to be ignored. You'll want to start your models with the equipment which they'll use for the whole campaign (unless you employ magnetic limbs).

Above all else, field what seems most enjoyable to you. You'll learn as you go. Most of our first forays into Mordheim were catastrophic, but you learn quickly what works, what doesn't, and what's heaps of fun (blunderbusses and the leap skill for me ).

I agree to what Identity said (take ghouls, drop helmets and axes on the dregs). However, I am also wondering why you gave you Vampire two close combat weapons and a shield. You can't use all 3 in CC, so save the money and buy more henchmen Also, and axe might not be very useful for the vampire, as his strength gives him a armour save modifier anyway, and as not many warriors will run around with heavy or gromril armour in the beginning, there's no need for an extra AS modifier. Better take a mace or another sword (allows you to reroll parry attempts).

Eliazar wrote:

Better take a mace or another sword (allows you to reroll parry attempts).

Incorrect. Without using a house rule, a second sword will not give a reroll on parry attempts.

Oh, I didn't know that. Is it just the special skill allowing it? Or an outdated rule? Or did I make it up accidentally?

Thanks for the correction anyway

No worries Eliazar, it's a very common mistake as 2 swords really should grant a rerollable parry in the same was a buckler and sword. I often house rule it as such, and add it to a list of other house rules when I do campaigns at clubs just so everybody is aware of what rules will be in action.

Oh, entirely off topic but I also think you should be able to hit people with bucklers in Mordheim...

Alright, sorry for the earlier stuff up but there was already 3 ghouls in that list (just forgot to write it down)

So maybe drop shields and axes off our dregs and give them clubs?
Give vamp sword/shield/club combo?

What else??

Cheers

Hows this being slightly revised?

vampire Shield, Sword, Hammer (133)
necromancer axe (40)
dreg Helm, Hammer, Short Bow (38)
dreg Helm, Hammer, Short Bow (38)
dreg Helm, Hammer, Short Bow (38)
3 Ghouls (120)
6 Zombies (90)
3Gc spare

or

Dire wolf (50)
2 Zombies (30)
13GC spare

All models ofcoarse have free dagger (where applicable)

Thanks so far for all the help..these forums are grouse already..

Cheers

Please post your starting warbands in the apropriate thread! I won't merge this thread into it as this is already a bit long, but please continue the discussion of your starting warband there. Thanks!