Newbie looking for information on how to start

Hey all,

I have decided that I want to try playing a tabletop miniatures game. I had been looking heavily into Warhammer Fantasy, but the cost of entry seems to be pretty high. I've looked at it many times over the past few years, but have just never made the commitment to it. Then I read about Mordheim. It seems to have the tactics and strategy of Fantasy, the fantasy setting that I want, and really cool RPG elements (which I am really into ), and seems to have a cheaper cost of entry. However, it seems the game does not have much official support anymore.

I have skimmed through the core rulebook, but don't really know where to start. I am also having a hard time finding figures.

Me and my girlfriend would be the primary ones playing, so I guess we'd mostly be doing 2 player games.

My favorite archetypes in RPGs are magic ones, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of magic in Mordheim. Are there any warbands with heroes who can use lesser magic (as that seems to be the most traditional magic)? I have not been able to find any.

I am really interested in the Dark Elf warband (I realize they aren't in the core rulebook), but where should I get the figs to go about starting one? I like elves and they have a sorceress who can do magic. I am not sure yet what my gaming partner wants to play, but do you guys know of any good places to find figures and such? Or is anyone on here interested in selling any of their Mordheim stuff?

Other than the figures, what all is needed to get started? I see the rulebook is posted online now, so I can just print that out myself as opposed to buying it.

How many figures are needed to have a good time with this game? The rulebook says you only need 3 or so to start a warband. I am not a power gamer min/maxer, so I do not care so much about having a totally maxed out warband. I am trying to do this on a budget, or at least saving money where I can. How many figures would you guys suggest? Is the game still fun without 20 character warbands?

Thanks for all the info, sorry if this is the wrong section for this, but I didn't know where else to post =D.

Welcome to the forums.

Having a tough time finding figures--is this because of where you live or are you trying to find "Official Mordheim Minatures". If you are looking for Official figures do yourself a favor and stop. Any appropriate miniature will do. If you like Dark Elves just buy a Corsair box set (plastic) and maybe a Dark Elf Sorceress and boom there you are.

Or if you are OK with buying from other companies you can. Just look for miniatures that fit the warband you want. I use lots of Reaper Miniatures because of their selection of character models.

How many figures. I like to have 20 to 25 for warbands just to give myself choices. You really don't need that many but 10-15 is a safe bet.

Besides miniatures you will need scenery. You don't need to set your games in the City of the Damned if you don't want to. There are several scenarios and settings that need hills and trees more than ruined buildings. The Dark Elfs were written for the Lustria: Cities of Gold campaign supplement for example.

As for selling figures and such, check out the Trading section of the forum.

Thanks for the info!

Yes I meant official figures, thanks for the tip =). They are hard to find because I can't find many places online selling a wide selection, and as far as I know there are no stores near me that carry Mordheim stuff. I am in Birmingham, AL. There are some stores that carry Warhammer stuff, but I don't think any that still have Mordheim stuff.

So a box of corsairs and a sorceress is enough for Mordheim? 20-25 figures seems like a bit more than I wanted to spend. I would also probably have to pay somebody to paint them, as I have no real aptitude for stuff like that, nor do I have any idea how to get started, nor am I particularly fond of painting anyways =).

Yeah I was thinking about building some scenery, it would be a fun project for me and my dad when I am home over the holidays. I believe I saw in the tutorials section a tutorial on how to make a double sided game board, one side cobblestone, and the other side grassy wilderness. This would be fantastic. I am thinking about buying figures that I can use in both Warhammer fantasy and Mordheim, since I have an interest in playing both games. As far as buildings, while Gamesworkshop terrain is really expensive, it seems there are a lot of "off brand" cheaper terrains on Ebay, or I might just look in the train models section at my local hobby store.

Hi, bktanner, and welcome to the forum!

Use warhammer figures for Mordheim! The original Mordheim human mercs were repackaged as Empire Militia - minus the "hairy head" sprue. One box of militia = 20 very customizable figures. As Von Kurst suggested, the plastic corsairs are a great start for a Mordheim warband (and the new 40K Wych elves too, for that matter - except alas no crossbows... but the corsair weapons work well on the wyches).

Most of the warbands we play with are in the 8 to 15 models range. 20+ is huge, and with few exceptions (Skaven) you will only see them after many games in a campaign.

The cheapest way to build up your terrain is to make it - but that can be time consuming. There are companies that make some dang nice-looking paper terrain you can print off, so that is a somewhat cheaper option. Train stores won't have a lot of buildings that work in scale - but you can take your games outdoors, and hills are easy to make a model RR trees are pretty cheap.

Anyway - start a thread on the boards about getting started with inexpensive scenery. Lots of helpful people around here with good ideas!

By the way - my wife, who hates competitive games, really likes Mordheim, which can be played collaboratively if things become a little tense with the GF.

Cool, the Lads answered all your questions; SO, all I need say is WELCOME ABOARD Fearless Leader Tom's But Cool Nonetheless Mordheim Forum. May your stay be LONG & MERRY!

Welcome to the forum bktanner. The others have answered most of your questions very well so I'll just summarise!

• Don't limit yourself to "official" Mordheim models.
  
• Don't worry about amassing a huge collection of figures - a Mordheim warband is smaller than a single regiment for Warhammer.
  
• Do try building your own terrain - it's a lot of fun and will save you a fortune.
  
• Do have a go with whatever figures you can find and then start asking us rules questions! Don't worry if you get things "wrong" at the start. (I've been playing for 11 years and still get stuff wrong!)
  
• Keep posting here as we are better than any official support has been for years!
  
• Enjoy Mordheim!
  

Thanks again guys.

I do have another question though. My girlfriend, at least in RPG games, tends to like rogue archetype characters. Warriors who are sneaky, maneuverable, tricky, and fast hitting. Are there any warbands in Mordheim that fit this archetype?

Might want to look into Skaven. They are fast, hard hitting, and from what I have seen easy to learn with and forgiving of mistakes. Just do not worry about the Rat-Ogre at first in my opinion.

Dwarves.

Really, I think Skaven (or the unofficial Elves) would fit this / her bill nicely.

Although you could tailor human mercenaries to this playstyle, too, to some degree (they have a much broader choice of Hired Swords and Dramatis Personae); with the right configuration (heroes with Speed skills and throwing knives, hired assassin, Johann etc.) I could imagine that approach also interesting, if she does not want to commit herself to the ratpeople.

Other than that, there certainly are some unorthodox unofficial warbands out there that you could look into, but for the beginning, I would stick to the more conventional ones.

/Edit: Beaten by a Balrog. Seems I shall not pass...

As a long time player of Rogues, she sounds like my kind of Girl.
The Stirwood Outlaws would also fit with the Rogue thingy...rules-wise. OR you could pick something & tailor the War Band to your playing style with a "count as" approach...a Thieves Guild War Band would be oh-so-cool! My Goblins tend to be cast in the Rogue persona...or tactically perceptive as I refer to their gaming style. It's really a matter of how you play them & what background you come up with.

Very cool, again thanks guys for all the information and help.

Just a few more questions... maybe... =D.

So I like the sound of the Dark Elves, Skaven, Sitrwood Outlaws, and the Shadow Warriors.

I believe I've read that the Shadow Warriors were somewhat over powered, is this true? I don't want this to be a 1 sided campaign =).

So for Dark elves, buying a box of the Corsair regiment figurines would suffice, what about for the Highelves, Outlaws, and Skaven?

Thanks again guys =).

High Elfs-- I'd go with the archer regiment box for plastics or Reapers excellent range of figures if you want to go slow. Or the Wood Elf archer box for a more dynamic look. The High Elf box is an older style (8-10 yrs old).

Stirwood Outlaws--The Empire Huntsmen box set is the bomb. Or the Bretonnian Archer box if you want a more Sherwood Forest look. In our most recent campaign the Outlaw player used the Wood Elf models because they were the coolest.

Skaven--the Warhammer Night Runners are the original Mordheim figures repackaged.

Shadow Warrior overpoweredness. No offense to your GF but if the warband has a bit of a learning curve, it could be awhile before she masters all the cheese. If your GF is a power gamer then look out, otherwise the Shadow Warriors have the best chance of staying around against their evil cousins.

You want to play DE which will eat the Outlaws every game. The Outlaws are a very fluffy warband that force the player to adapt to survive.

Skaven would have a good chance against the DE.

Other Warbands to consider are the Hochland Bandits and the Arabian Thieves.

Very cool. I think I will go with Shadow Warriors and Dark Elves for us. Does the archer regiment box come with additional options besides bows? e.g. do the guys come with swords and cloaks and such?

There's 8 swords and 4 cloaks for 16 models. There are umpteen bows. Countless feathers and other poncy elf stuff.

Edit: there are also 4 standard poles which could become spears with a little alteration.

Shadow Elves vs Dark Elves would make an interesting pairing. In my experience, the SEs are a more powerful warband than the DEs. But try the out. If doesn't work out, I have a revised SE warband you could try the second time around, which is intended to be more balanced (but it has never been playtested).

Stats are similar for both warbands. The SE advantages are a much better mix of heroes and cheap starting missile weapons (all of the SEs can start with missile weapons; not at all true for DEs).

Incidentally, the Wood elf glade guard plastics and the DE corsairs mix fairly nicely together, to make some interesting models.

Thanks again guys for answering my endless questions =D.

Unfortunately I am trying to do this on a budget, which seems really hard to do with any Gamesworkshop thing, so I can probably only afford 2 sets of guys for right now.

I'll probably pick up the Corsairs and the Archers, and just print out the rule book off the net.

I was thinking about building a table with my dad over the holidays using some of the tutorials that are on here, seems like it'd be a fun project for us to do, and he likes to build stuff.

Sounds like an excellent plan. Keep us posted on terrain-building efforts, please!

Hey man! I too am starting mordheim. Building terrain is great I am on my 5th building or so, but they are nothing to be proud of. Building terrain is very rewarding. IMO shadow warriors are not overpowered... they just start out very well. In later stages of a campaign they are totally balanced. I play dwarves cus elves are frooty, lol jk. Later

Rory

Welcome to the forum Rory!

Interesting take on Shadow Elves. Every time I have seen them played (including three warbands of mine) if they survive the first few games without a catastrophic loss of characters they dominate the campaign. They have much better stats then pretty much anyone else, with the only limiting factor their expense (and hence, initially, their small numbers). Once they bulk up their numbers they have no weaknesses.

Dwarves are also powerful stat-wise, and have some nice special abilities, but they have more limiting factors to balance them out (including the critical 3 inch movement).

You are most likely right but in my campaign the elves started strong and they are now one of the 3 weakest in the campaign, likely cus the player only has 3 heroes. That said any warband played right is OP. Thanks for the welcome mweaver

OOoooOOo can they just not afford to replace fallen heroes? Three heroes is indeed a big problem! One of the balancing factors for the dwarves is that they can only start with four.

Yea I believe he got blown out by another dwarves player and lost i think 3 of his heroes

One of our relatively few house rules is that any warband can replace its captain if he is killed.

Except for the captain, the rules as written allow for buying replacement heroes. Is he using an elf variant that only has four starting heroes? Most have five starters, which means he should be able to have four, even with a dead captain and no promotions.