Combat resolution, Recruitment, "Knocked Down"

Hi, I have some questions, I have home-answers, but I want to know how do you play these situations :

- we have 2 fighters, A and B, A has an initiative of 4, B of 5. A was equipped with a spear, B with a mace. B is charging A. Who strikes first ?
- same characters, same equipement, A intercepts B when he's charging C. Who strikes first ?
- a Reiklander warband has 1 captain, 2 champs and 7 marksmen. After a battle, the captain dies, and a marksman become a heroe. One of the champs is now the new chief. Two questions : can I recruit a new champ ? Can I recruit a new marksman ?

And finally, I want to know what do you think about the rules "Stunned" and "Knocked down" ? We thought it was quite boring to wait our turn for raise our figs, so we do it each turn, and we love to play that way (that's the enssential, yuh? )

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- we have 2 fighters, A and B, A has an initiative of 4, B of 5. A was equipped with a spear, B with a mace. B is charging A. Who strikes first ?

B strikes first. Charging grants the attacker "strike first". A spear grants also "strike first" in the first turn of combat. Since both models now strike first, the order is determined by the models' Initiatives.
This is a rules change from the Mordheim Rules Review. In the original rulebook you'll see that a spear always strikes first - even before attackers. This was deemed confusing and therefore changed.

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- same characters, same equipement, A intercepts B when he's charging C. Who strikes first ?

B is still the attacker and thus strikes first. If you use the common rule that you move A who intercepts B into base contact, then you have a close combat with A and B (where B is still the attacker and striking first), while C is watching the whole thing and glad to not be in danger. For now...

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- a Reiklander warband has 1 captain, 2 champs and 7 marksmen. After a battle, the captain dies, and a marksman become a heroe. One of the champs is now the new chief. Two questions : can I recruit a new champ ? Can I recruit a new marksman ?

Both: no. The 0-2 and 0-7 restrictions remain. The Champ is still a champ (and not a Captain) so your warband still comprises of the maximum 2 Champions. It's the same with Marksmen. A Marksman Hero is still a Marksman so your warband comprises of the maximum 7 Marksmen.

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

And finally, I want to know what do you think about the rules "Stunned" and "Knocked down" ? We thought it was quite boring to wait our turn for raise our figs, so we do it each turn, and we love to play that way (that's the enssential, yuh? )

In my unworthy opinion this completely screws with the game balance. If you're fighting an extremely developed Hero with 3 Wounds, Toughness 4 (or 5!), Gromril armour + shield, step aside and resilience you need the turn in which you might have him knocked down or stunned or your entire warband will die from that one model. Especially when someone in your group starts a new warband and has to fight stronger models this will totally destroy him. It also makes ranged combat even more ineffective since only out of action shots are relevant if you can't even combine the charges of your close combat models with the shots from your archers and crossbowmen.

I was gonna answer you questions, but Cianty (once more) did it better than I ever could

cianty wrote:

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- we have 2 fighters, A and B, A has an initiative of 4, B of 5. A was equipped with a spear, B with a mace. B is charging A. Who strikes first ?

B strikes first. Charging grants the attacker "strike first". A spear grants also "strike first" in the first turn of combat. Since both models now strike first, the order is determined by the models' Initiatives.
This is a rules change from the Mordheim Rules Review. In the original rulebook you'll see that a spear always strikes first - even before attackers. This was deemed confusing and therefore changed.

I agree, it was in the rules, and it's as we play it

cianty wrote:

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- same characters, same equipement, A intercepts B when he's charging C. Who strikes first ?

B is still the attacker and thus strikes first. If you use the common rule that you move A who intercepts B into base contact, then you have a close combat with A and B (where B is still the attacker and striking first), while C is watching the whole thing and glad to not be in danger. For now...

I play the same, but I've found some Mordheim's group who played the interceptor is the charger and "strike first" as a "house rule".

cianty wrote:

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

- a Reiklander warband has 1 captain, 2 champs and 7 marksmen. After a battle, the captain dies, and a marksman become a heroe. One of the champs is now the new chief. Two questions : can I recruit a new champ ? Can I recruit a new marksman ?

Both: no. The 0-2 and 0-7 restrictions remain. The Champ is still a champ (and not a Captain) so your warband still comprises of the maximum 2 Champions. It's the same with Marksmen. A Marksman Hero is still a Marksman so your warband comprises of the maximum 7 Marksmen.

Aaaaaaaah !!! Finally I've found someone who's agree with me
But we don't play this way for the champ, because of the possessed... We have two possessed players, who likes to "sacrifice" their magister, and have a chief-possessed who can cast spells, etc... So we made an "house rule" which give us the obligation to re-buy a chief as soon as we can (if you loose your leader, while you re-buy a leader, you can't buy anything else ! )

cianty wrote:

Lanyssa Ryssyll wrote:

And finally, I want to know what do you think about the rules "Stunned" and "Knocked down" ? We thought it was quite boring to wait our turn for raise our figs, so we do it each turn, and we love to play that way (that's the enssential, yuh? )

In my unworthy opinion this completely screws with the game balance. If you're fighting an extremely developed Hero with 3 Wounds, Toughness 4 (or 5!), Gromril armour + shield, step aside and resilience you need the turn in which you might have him knocked down or stunned or your entire warband will die from that one model. Especially when someone in your group starts a new warband and has to fight stronger models this will totally destroy him. It also makes ranged combat even more ineffective since only out of action shots are relevant if you can't even combine the charges of your close combat models with the shots from your archers and crossbowmen.

I understand, we play this way to permit someone "stunned" during his turn to survive, but as you noticed, it was completely unbalanced for ranged weapons, and their effectiveness is less than acceptable

Thanks for your answers !