Town Watch fan-made warband rules

Lol apoligies for the multiple posts, please need as much feedback as possible. Anyone who would being willing to playtest please do

I'll have a proper read tomorrow, but is there any chance you could change the black text to something more readable?

Hope that helps

Looks interesting, Thompo.

After a very quick once-over, my initial reaction is that there is a fun and viable warband here, but you need to ratchet down the power in a few places. For one thing, three of your four heroes have the Middenheimer +1bump to strength. If your intent is to make this warband compatible with the official warbands, then that needs to go - it is the only benefit Middenheimers receive, and your Captain and detectives receive it as well as lots of other little perks for the warband.

Similarly, one of the "special perks" for the undead is that they are the only warband that can replace a captain. Your lot also receive this benefit. If the Commissioner goes down, one of the other officers should be promoted to leader - again, to keep them balanced with the other warbands, none of whom (except undead) can replace a captain (mind you - we have a house rule that all warbands can replace a captain).

One of the benefits for the Witch-hunters, compared to other human warbands, is that they can take cheap nasty dogs from the start - which your guys can do, except they can take even more. I think the dogs are in keeping with the spirit of the warband, but I would argue they should take fewer dogs than the witch-hunters, not more. Three, perhaps?

And while the marksmen don't have the +1 BS bump of the Reiklanders, they have access to far too many specialized weapons that even Reiklander marksmen can't carry. I don't think any official warbands have henchmen who can take dueling pistols, for example.

Overall, it looks very promising.

I like the idea, but agree that the strength bonuses should go.

I'm not quite sure the titles commisioner and detective are entirely fitting. To my (admittedly limited) knowledge the historical town watch organisations were more military in their structure and bureaucracy.

Otherwise I find it flavourful and inspiring!

Much better colour, thanks!

I agree with the "over-powered" comments above and I'd like to suggest these replacement titles:

Commissioner: Captain

Detective: Sergeant

Deputy: Lance-Constable

Officer: Constable

(With thanks to Terry Pratchett!)

Thanks for all your comments so far guys really helpful.

1. Strength Bonus: ok makes sense to change.

2. Replacing Heros: seemed fluffy to me as rather than spending what limited resources they have training up a Deputy to the level of Commissioner they would simply draft in a new one from a different force. Agreed it kinda steals the thunder from Undead.

3. Names: I based my idea on a police force rather than a town watch but calling it "Mordheim Polce Force" didn't sit well on the tongue, hence "Mordheim Town Watch"

4. Attack Dogs: Witch-hunters can have 5 dogs and Town Watch can have 5 dogs also, I literally lifted Attack Dogs straight out the Witch-hunter list and changed the name. Gotta love KISS

5. Marksmen: Fair comment, I tried to cater for the detective who uses their equipment list. Perhaps I could move him to the Town Watch equipment list instead and knock off the duelling pistols.

Thompo wrote:

3. Names: I based my idea on a police force rather than a town watch but calling it "Mordheim Polce Force" didn't sit well on the tongue, hence "Mordheim Town Watch".

For the same reasons Commissioner, Detective and Officer don't work. They sound like characters from 1930s Batman, not a medieval city...

Constable would outrank lance constable, incidentally.

"Detective" probably works better than "sergeant", since this hero is specialized, not just a superior constable.

"Commissioner" probably doesn't work that well, though, since even if the rank was used the commissioner would be unlikely to be on a beat - he'd be in an office somewhere.

You can't be too fussy about making the watch names Medieval since there really wasn't anything this organized that early. Britain did not receive its first professional, full-time police force until the early 1820s.

mweaver wrote:

Constable would outrank lance constable, incidentally.

Really?

True enough about medieval-sounding... Mordheim/Warhammer isn't really medieval anyway!

How's this?

Commissioner: Captain
Detective: Detective
Deputy: Sergeant
Officer: Constable

Ranks--medieval may not be the correct term but the warband should have a Heroic Fantasy vibe rather than a True Crime one.

-Inspector is always useful. Informant, investigator, prefect, superintendent.

-Corporal Nobbs is, um, a corporal.

Relationship with the Witch Hunters--ought to be some rivalry.

Corruption--ought to be loads of that!

Relics of the Crusades has a game mechanic for a town watch. There is a jail break scenario and trial by combat to avoid jail time.

Hehe the names were the first ones that came to my head so if you do play test (and I hope you do ) feel free to use your own terms and see how they work.

@Von Kurst: I did start out with some corruption vs. lawful rules but they seemed pretty complicated at the time and for a first draft I wanted to use KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!)

I'm suprised no one has commented on the whole Wyrdstone and Arrested Criminals rules yet as this is where there is potential for overpowering/underpowering/complications...

Thompo wrote:

@Von Kurst: I did start out with some corruption vs. lawful rules but they seemed pretty complicated at the time and for a first draft I wanted to use KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!)

I have a compulsive urge to overcomplicate!

WarbossKurgan wrote:

I'd like to suggest these replacement titles:

Commissioner: Captain

Detective: Sergeant

Deputy: Lance-Constable

Officer: Constable

(With thanks to Terry Pratchett!)

I prefer these names to the ones you've used. Mordheim isn't Medieval (Reeves, sheriffs etc.), but it isn't modern either (which your names sound). At the very least the names Warboss Kurgan put forward are archaic enough to sound believable (yeah Pratchett!).

I would say that you need some kind of penalty for the Wyrdstone rule. Say, you lose one of you henchmen during the next battle as he is signing the docket for the exchange/guarding the convoy to Mordheim. As to the Arrested Criminals I would recommend looking at Davespacemans' model on the same subject.
The other major problem I found is that the Marksmen have a ton of range weapons available to them. I would cut them back by at least half. Maybe lose some of the pistols and hunting rifle.

Other than that it looks like a fun band! I really like the idea of a City Watch trying desperately to make 'order' in the middle of the chaos. Enjoy!

--Ironfoundersson

Fair comment, i did write int he Wyrdstone rules that a Hero has to go to the Constabulary to pick up the items and so won't be able to explore, perhaps I should make that clearer.

The Marksmen equpiment has come up a few times so it has been editted, Detecive (whom I shall now call Inspector) takes the Town Watch List

I haven't seen Davespaceman's model, could you link me?

Thanks for your help

Isn't the whole idea of Mordheim that there is no Town Watch to keep order?

Someone once wrote an Imperial Defectors band. You might want to look into that

Thompo wrote:

Fair comment, i did write int he Wyrdstone rules that a Hero has to go to the Constabulary to pick up the items and so won't be able to explore, perhaps I should make that clearer.

The Marksmen equpiment has come up a few times so it has been editted, Detecive (whom I shall now call Inspector) takes the Town Watch List

I haven't seen Davespaceman's model, could you link me?

Thanks for your help

Aha. That makes a lot more sense. I didn't pick up on that, so a clarification would be good

Here's the link to Davespaceman's post on the same topic. I think you just commented on it recently His 'Arrest' rules are about half way down the first page. It's a little more like the Pirate's warband rules Kidnapped! rule where if you role Captured on the Serious Injuring Table then the 'Captured' model is under the jurisdiction of the Watch warband. It might be a more complicated rule, but I think the idea is good. Gets complicated if you have Pirate Crew player 'tho...

Anyway, you've obviously put time into this, so it's up to you in the end, but I don't mind helping if I can.

--Ironfoundersson

Ah yes I did have a read of that, seems complicated and much like the Pirates rules.

I feel the difference between the Pirates and the Watch (apart fromt the obvious legal standing) is that the Watch have to actively arrest criminals whereas Pirates capture straglers and put them to work. With that in mind I wanted to make a unique ruleset where the player has to fulfil a set of critera in order to capture a criminal rather than get lucky on the Injury roll.

I think I'll stick with my arrest model unless there are some more issues I have missed...

Very good point. I reread both of them, and I think both are equally as good. Yours adds some extra thinking and planning during game play, and his adds another element afterwards.
Do you have any models for this yet? What are you thinking of using?

--Ironfoundersson

I'm thinking on basing them on the Braganzas Besiegers who have the massive sheilds which the rest thier crossbows on, as of yet I have no models to work with but once I get payed I will grab a 3 pack and do some modelling.