question about the effect of a house rule regarding shields

the local mordheim campaign that will be starting up in my area includes this house rule regarding shields.

A model armed with a weapon and shield can make an extra attack at I=1 this attack roll to hit and wound normally (with users weapon skill and str) if a wound is made the roll for the injury is modified to this: 1-4 knocked down, 5-6 stunned.

I was wondering what people think this will do to the dynamic of mordheim. Will shield be worth taking now is one of the main question I am wondering about. But any thought would be very much appreciated.

Nik

We do something similar to make up for the fact that shields are completely worthless. In addition to the 6+ armor save, we let a shield give an attack resolved at -1 Strength with no possibility for crits.

So far it's worked out well, because having a shield is cool, but nobody in their right mind would sacrifice an extra attack for a 6+ armor save.

1-4 KD 5 STUN 6 OOA seems far more balanced to me

otherwise, its a very cool fix!!

Perhaps use the regular Injuries chart, but just apply a -2 to the roll (or for Asp, a -1). That way the benefits of Strike to Injure can be maintained.

Did you test using Strike Last rather than I1? Strike Last seems simpler, so I'm wondering whether you found any real benefit/reason to use I1 instead.

The affects I see would be an increased willingness to use shields, though it wouldn't replace DW with the current rules at all. Perhaps this is the nudge we need to the DW/armor balances we ran through multiple treadmills a little while ago!

I don't think this has been tested much. Since, i was under the impression the person that came up with it has not played mordheim in quiet awhile. Anyway, I will keep you guys posted as the campaign starts and we see if this rule make a large amount of difference.

Nik

What about bucklers, man? They need love, too!

bucklers, schmucklers

Some kind of attack bonus with shield would be good. Make sure you post results of whatever you try out.

I'd rather go for the "5+ AS in close combat shield house rule".

Popmouth wrote:

I'd rather go for the "5+ AS in close combat shield house rule".

I'd rather go for both

5+ AS like in Warhammer Fantasy is the best way to go.

hannibalisfun wrote:

Will shield be worth taking now

If that's your goal, you'll have to go beyond bumping shields to 5+. There's been more discussion on this topic than anyone would possibly care to read here: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/rules-and-gameplay-f1/dual-wield-and-chance-t2022.htm?sid=3f603ae7ab3beda5e8c47f090aaa4c5f. Sometime in January I might post a white paper explaining why, exactly, this is an unsolveable problem within the confines of SG acceptability (what Da Bank espouses). Anyway, adding an attack ability to shields is certainly a good approach (as I suggested with a Shield Bash ability in that referenced thread). Making it a basic ability of shields, but with the restrictions of striking last (I=1) and without the ability to directly OOA an opponent seems suitable (i.e. it's hard to argue that shields with this ability are strictly better than a typical off-hand weapon and at the same time aren't strictly worse).