Maybe Mordheim

Hello All-

My name is Doug and I am from North Carolina in the U.S. I have some friends who enjoy playing boardgames like Runebound, World of Warcraft (the boardgame), and more recently, Tannhauser (all produced by Fantasy Flight Games). All of these games involve miniatures and to a certain extent, a storyline, which are aspects of gaming that I really like.

So playing those games got me to thinking about other games I might be interested in, and I remembered having seen Mordheim in a store several years ago when I thought about getting into Warhammer. I ended up deciding against Warhammer, primarily because I'm not into fielding huge armies. I'd rather keep things on a much smaller scale and play a game with a STORY.

So, with respect to Mordheim, I guess I have a few questions:

1. I was wondering how much of a fan base is in the U.S., or are the fans mainly overseas?

2. I thought there used to be some kind of starter set, that maybe included a few miniatures, and perhaps a building or two. I could be mistaken, but that's what I remember. I couldn't find anything online - does such a thing exist?

3, I also looked at the Games Workshop online store for scenery, and didn't see any of that either. I thought I remembered seeing that, but here again, it was a while back. Is it available? I know I won't have the time to make it, unless it's pretty basic.

Given the fact that I like a game with a story, and I like miniatures, but I don't have time to paint them or create any scenery, would this be a good game for me? I would be willing to pay someone to paint the miniatures so that might not be an issue. And maybe I could find scenery for sale somewhere. I guess my real concern is diving in too deep right at the start and deciding I don't like it. Is there a way to get into it slowly?

I have also seen the games Inquisitor and Dark Age, so I'll be trying to decide among the three. Is there anyone who can compare/contrast all three games?

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug

First, welcome to the forum Doug!

I play a lot of boardgames myself, and actually Mordheim is quite similar to may boardgames I've played, only a lot more complex.

Now to answer your questions:
1. Sorry, no idea how many fans has in oversea, but I can imagine that there are quite a lot gamers.

2. Unfortunatly the starter set isn't sold anymore. GW gave up nearly every supprt for the game. But you can get the rules for free from specialst-games.com, and I'd try ebay for some cheap miniatures which can represent the warbands.
You'll need about ten minis for a warband in the beginning.
This might be the best, you simply buy some cheap fugures, get the rulebook for free, and as terrain you use books, cds etc.
If you like the game, you can get deeper into it, if not, you didn't spend much money on it.

3. There are a some companies which sell prepainted terrain, for example Ziterdes, and I think our member Bram Thazoul owns a gaming shop somewhere in Canada which sells these.
Best to contact him.


I hope I could help a bit.

Welcome dougbass68!

I agree with my friend Erkwin.

You CAN get into Mordheim "slowly". And it is a game that you can play with very few miniatures (you can also simply use Warhammer minis). Scenery, although absolutely essential, can be improvised with every day objects, although I recommend you build some proper scenery yourself.

Buy some styrofoam/cardboard and roughly assemble some random ruins with PVA glue. You don't have to paint them, but at least it allows for some more realistic relief on your table that coffee mugs and books. With cardboad you can build enough buildings (provided you don't paint them or add any detail) for a whole city within hours.

Don't worry about the gamers community overseas! If you can find someone who has played Warhammer/40K before, it shouldn't be a problem getting him to play Mordheim (if he doesn't already do so):

I really hope you give Mordheim a try. It is a very fun game, that has as many aspects and facettes as you can imagine.

dougbass68 wrote:

Hello All-

My name is Doug and I am from North Carolina in the U.S. I have some friends who enjoy playing boardgames like Runebound, World of Warcraft (the boardgame), and more recently, Tannhauser (all produced by Fantasy Flight Games). All of these games involve miniatures and to a certain extent, a storyline, which are aspects of gaming that I really like.

So playing those games got me to thinking about other games I might be interested in, and I remembered having seen Mordheim in a store several years ago when I thought about getting into Warhammer. I ended up deciding against Warhammer, primarily because I'm not into fielding huge armies. I'd rather keep things on a much smaller scale and play a game with a STORY.

So, with respect to Mordheim, I guess I have a few questions:

1. I was wondering how much of a fan base is in the U.S., or are the fans mainly overseas?

There are plenty of fans here in North America. Myself, I play in a league with 20+ members up here in Canada, so look and ye shall find.

Quote :

2. I thought there used to be some kind of starter set, that maybe included a few miniatures, and perhaps a building or two. I could be mistaken, but that's what I remember. I couldn't find anything online - does such a thing exist?

Yes it does. The direct services department at GW is going under the knife right now, and the restructuring is not yet completed. I still have the gameset for sale in my store, and I can still order it, despite the fact that it doesn't appear on the Canadian GW site either.

Quote :

3, I also looked at the Games Workshop online store for scenery, and didn't see any of that either. I thought I remembered seeing that, but here again, it was a while back. Is it available? I know I won't have the time to make it, unless it's pretty basic.

There are lots of options for scenery. One of the most noteable (and most reasonable, in my opinion) is a company out of Germany called Ziterdes. Beautiful stuff, flocked and nearly ready to go! All you need to do is apply some dry-brushing to make it look a touch more "real", or if you're THAT constrained for time, use it as-is. You can find terrain almost anywhere, from Ebay to your local hobby shop (model train stores have loads of it as well).

Quote :

Given the fact that I like a game with a story, and I like miniatures, but I don't have time to paint them or create any scenery, would this be a good game for me? I would be willing to pay someone to paint the miniatures so that might not be an issue. And maybe I could find scenery for sale somewhere. I guess my real concern is diving in too deep right at the start and deciding I don't like it. Is there a way to get into it slowly?

I have also seen the games Inquisitor and Dark Age, so I'll be trying to decide among the three. Is there anyone who can compare/contrast all three games?

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug

Inquisitor I cannot comment on, but Dark Age I can; great game, fun to play, awesome minis, ACTIVELY PROMOTED. It's a touch clunky until you find yourself with a very firm grasp of the rules, so be ready to reach for a rulebook several times early on. Mordheim, on the other hand, is rather simple, easy to learn but difficult to master, no longer actively promoted by GW and a blast. Mordheim is one of my all-time favorite games, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

As an American, I can say that Mordheimers abound, but u have to look carefully. I live in Montana, and I'm probably the only active Mordheimer in Montana, but I found a "Geek" Store that knows 3-4 guys who still would like to play it...

If you're looking for people to play with, I would recommend finding a model gaming store in your area and asking about it.

And if you're ever in Montana, I'd love some competition =)

All-

First off, thanks so much for the warm welcome. There seems to be a real sense of community here, which is a very nice thing to have. I think it's great that the blog and this forum exist. Thanks to Tom and the rest of you for making it what it is.

I think I will give Mordheim a try. I will download the rules and look them over, but I'd also like to find out from Brahm if he would sell me one of the starter boxes with the minis. Do you have a website where I could order it, or a phone number I could call?

With respect to the scenery, I think I'm going to see if I can find some on the web that I could print out on cardstock and assemble, just for the time being. I will look into Ziterdes or some of the other scenery companies later.

As far as finding people to play with, I'll check with my friends to see if any of them are interested but if not, there is a comic book store here in town that might have a bulletin board where I can try to recruit some players. There aren't any game shops here anymore I have a dream to start one some day, but that's a ways off.

And if I'm ever in Montana, I'll look you up Ashton!

~Doug

You can order it from Mordheim Boxed Game . Be sure to select a shipping option; I've had guys from as far away as Australia select "in store pickup" because it's the default.

Cheers.

Brahm Tazoul wrote:

You can order it from Mordheim Boxed Game . Be sure to select a shipping option; I've had guys from as far away as Australia select "in store pickup" because it's the default.

Thanks, Brahm. Just now placed the order. Didn't see any options on the screen for "in store pickup" anywhere, so I hope I did it right.

Weird; it says that it auto-selected it for you as well...there was no shipping charge, but it DID charge you GST (which it shouldn't have because you don't live in Canada, thus you are not subject to our retarded taxation)...

I'll have to look into it. All I can say is that there is going to be a shipping charge added, and the tax removed. I'll email you with the total to ensure that you're still ok with it.

Cheers & thanks for the business!