Optimal equipment and skills

Hi.

I'm about to start a Mordheim playing spree with some friends and would like som advice, specially since I have barely played Mordheim before.

So, I'm planing on playing Skaven and I don't want a cheesy list. My particular questions is how you guys suggest I should upgrade my heroes when they get new skills:

My assassin has weeping blades, a pistol and rope and hook. I was thinking of giving him "lightning reflexes" and "acrobat"

One of my black skaven has eshin claws and rope and hook. I really want to give him "art of silent death", "tail fighting" and "pit fighter". This should give him a hella lot of attacks when cornering enemies in houses and the likes. Please comment.

The other black skaven has a sword and dagger, rope and hook and throwing stars. I wanna give him the "knife fighter" skill, but dont really know what else.

My night runners have slings and loiter in the back. I really don't know what to expect from these guys except that they should gain XP fast. Please tell me what you experience is best.

I would really appreciate all help so please reply.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

From my experience Art of silent death is worth every penny you put into it. Something that I enjoy doing is giving weapons training to one or two of my night runners so they can wield a bunderblass. They're rather expendable units and act as efficient shock troopers. Even if he doesn't wound a lot of troops it will always have your opponents on edge, possibly giving you the tactical advantage.

Ahoy Thar,

Well i don't play skaven awhole lot, but i have played with and against them before. As far as your assassin is acrobat necessary? Does he jump off buildings alot? If your taking it for a sort of RP thing then don't let me discourage you, but how often will your assassin be falling 12"?(unless it's something different in the old rule book i use the PDF offa GW) Another thing is that weepign blades are nice, but one thing one of the skaven players in my group likes to do, that i thought was kinda clever, was starting an assassin off with weeping blades and later up-grading to fighting claws and takng art of silent death. Don't get me wrong having black lotus on your weapon constantly without paying for it is pretty cool, but later on if your really want poisons you can just buy them and still have all the awsomeness of fighting claws. Can't go wrong with quick skaven and lightning reflexes.

Going the attack monster with a black skaven is pretty neat, get him combat master as well to stack up those attacks.

The ninja skaven with throwing weapons is a pretty neat idea. As fas as skills after giving him knife-fighter give him eagel eyes and trick shooter, and then after that...i dunno give him another ranged weapon that he can fire until he get into range for throwing knives? I personally like having the black skaven strong man; the guy whose S4 has strongman and might blow for all those pesky high toughness monsters, and then you could go ninja with one of your night runners, (of course he'll need more skill rolls to get there, but he could get there pretty fast) but thats just me.

The blunderbuss night runners is one way to go, i usually just sort of let them sit back and be lower skilled verminkin and hope they survive until they get some skill ups, and then i let the skill rolls tell me what that night runners should be doing.

Anyway theres my two cents hope you find it helpful.

thanks for the replies.

I played against my first opponent now and won quite easily. We played scenario 3 and I got all the tokens and he ended up routing voluntarily. I got lots of Xp and close to 100gc while he only got some xp on his marksmen, since i OOA'd all his heroes.

HOWEVER! when we rolled to see what happened to the ooa heroes, both my assassin and ninja black skaven died, I rolled uner 16 twice in my first game. While my enemy got fear and frenzy on his heroes.

How do I avoid this, which is to ask, how do I avoid getting my heroes killed?

Thanks.

For the first few games I guard my heroes behind a line of henchmen. In these few games heroes are about just as strong as your henchmen, perhaps an additional WS or S higher, but nothing that will turn them into juggernauts. In those games I reserve my heroes for ranged attacks and mopping up any unlucky model that is stunned or knocked down and I'll avoid putting them in a straight up fight unless they have friends with them.

the injury table is cruel mistress indeed. nothing you can really do about bad injury table rolling, except avoid having to roll on it. when i'm starting a warband that has little to no armor i like to spring for the step aside and dodge skills (depending on what kind of warbands you find yourself having the most trouble with). then hunting down some lucky charms for your more valuable heroes; their cheap and easy to find. outside of that hiding behind your henchmen and then counter charging weaker foes with your heroes is probably you best bet.

Ikikis wrote:

...while he only got some xp on his marksmen, since i OOA'd all his heroes.

Warriors get experience even if they go Out of Action - they simply can't be used to explore.

And there's nothing you can do about the injury table except keep your heroes from being taken out during the game. Lucky charms can help with this, though (as has been said), in the first couple of games it's a good idea to play cautiously with them.

Skaven! The best Starting Warband! MY FAVORITE BAND!



Weeping Blades, overpriced IMO. They only bonus on 6’s to hit. I’d rather spend the gold elsewhere. The main strength of Skaven is numbers. Get all the Heroes and as many Verminkin as possible. Starting out:



Assassin: Sword, Club, Sling, Dagger

Black Skavens: Both with Fighting Claws, Dagger.

Eshin Sorcerer: Club, Sling, Dagger

Night Runners: Both with Club, Dagger and Sling.

Verminkins: Club, Dagger, and Sling



Black Skaven Skills: First, Art of Silent Death, then Tail Fighting. Then they have 3 claw attacks and a tail strike with the dagger.



Night runners skills: Weapon’s Expert. Buy Long Bows, (Skaven with 36 inch range, nasty) SNIPERS! Just keep getting them Shooting skills



Keep the Night Runners and Sorcerer out of HtH. This keeps 3 Heroes looking for Wyrdstone.



The Advantage of Skaven, they start out strong and then max out advancements quick. The Verminkin and Giant Rats are great Fodder. The enemy has to shoot and charge the Closest enemy model. Let them charge your Giant Rats and then Verminkin charge the ones fighting the rats. So what, if Verminkin and Giant Rats go OOA. After all, to Skaven, Life is Cheap! BUT MOST OF ALL, Charge the enemy model with 2-3 or more Skaven. If you swarm the enemy, they have a better chance of taking the Victim OOA before he gets to fight back.