Hired Swords...!!

Which Hired Swords do you guys play with ....or NOT play with??

In our gamingclub we are looking to start a campaing ...and since Im new to Mordheim I have been going through everything-Mordheim related I could find on the net ...among them the various hired swords (from the official website). - Now one that has really stuck in my eye is the Arabian Merchant ...what the hell were the designers thinking with that special Marketeer special ability??? Basically offering rare equipment for half price w. only a 1/6 chance of it "breaking" ...not to mention autooption to buy magic equipment such a flying carpet (not that I mind playing dwarfs ...but still???)

Since I actually kind of like the merchant ...I was contemplating suggesting to our group that the marketter spc. ability be exchanged for the academic skill of streetwise (+allowing the merchant to go search the market / which AFAIK can only normally be done by heroes not TOA?)

what do u guys think? ...any other thoughts on Hired Swords?

Claus

EDIT: This user is a bot and has been deleted since.
- cianty

My group is pretty casual. Our system is to generally allow any hired sword that's been published. If we find that hired sword to be too powerful, we modify it for future campaigns. It's funny that you mention the Arabian merchant because that's the one hired sword we modified before ever testing in a game.

One hired sword that comes to mind is the witch. Our group found that a couple of her spells (scry and curse) were absurdly powerful for their difficulty. I think we upped scry's difficulty by 2 and gave it a max range, and upped curse's difficulty by 1 or 2. Now people still pick her, but she has a more balanced effect on the game.

Also, no one has fielded him yet, but the Khemri thief's ability to steal heavy armor on a 2+ every game would certainly need to be addressed.

Some hired swords we want to use, but they seem underpowered, so we beef them up a bit so that we can see them in our campaigns. I forget offhand which we did this to.

If your group is new to Mordheim, I'd stick with the official hired swords, and open it up to others in future campaigns. There's plenty to keep you entertained in your first Mordheim campaign without worrying about the dozens of possible hired swords out there.

The one HS everyone uses (since I introduced it to our group a while back) is the beggar. You place it in some spot you hope your opponents forget in a minute and don't touch it all game. But after the game he is worth his 5 GS every time and more. Plus, he counts towards your rout tests even if he is never in danger of getting killed. If he gets enough experience to influence your band rating, you just drop him for a new one. Maybe not the way he is ment to be played, but works fine.
The lantern goblin is similar, but just a little worse, if you look closely. Still, if I ever played an evil non-beastmen Warband, I'd probably take both.

The Arabian Merchant (and the Cathayan one) I looked upon as well, just didn't want to bother, since I never had the cash spare for the good equipment anyways. An opponent of mine now uses him, I'm curious if he is really as strong as he looks. Since only the equipment of one of the three markets might get destroyed (always overlooked that one) and you should be allowed to use the rabbit's foot in case of the rolled one, he probably is.

Heya Claus.

We played the Merchant in our wilderness campaign and it worked very well. He cops a lot of stick in combat if the bodyguard gets tied up! I was happy to see our group using the revised set of rules you'll find in the Border Town Burning campaign pack. Christian actually spoke to Nik Kyme about the Merchant character before working a few themed revisions to help him fit into the bigger campaign picture.

The secondary ability allows a trader to act as a fence. It doesn't seem to fit the character but we'll be carrying that one forward on another character in another campaign setting.

There's a more recent version of the Merchant in an article called Swords of the Empire, which has been linked elsewhere on this thread.

The Swords article includes some cool new gimmicks to try if you're running a Mordheim campaign. I'm about to bump the thread as we have a groovy new warband roster to record your Hired Swords progression upon. Will probably do this straight after the holiday season.

Regards,

Werekin.

I am a fan of both the bounty hunter and the arabian merchant (haven't seen the other one). The arabian merchant can sell you stolen goods, but after the first use you have to roll a d6 and on a 1 they are an elaborate fake and will be destroyed after the first use, but they are at a sizable discount. Use it to buy one-shot items.

I have only recently recruited an Arabian Merchant for the first time. He does seem quite useful. On the other hand, the Tilean Marksman and the Elf Ranger and many others are also danged useful.

They are not mutually exclusive and the merchant subsidises himself.

We've run a number of hired swords. I have found as an 'evil' player that the Dark Elf Assassin it a nice addition to the warband (Skaven). I haven't tried the witch so I can't comment on issues regarding it. However, we found that the Dramatis Personae tend to unbalance things a bit and stopped allowing their use: which is a pity after Veskit duffed up Johann the Knife quite nicely.

Our most popular Hired Swords are (in no particular order)
-the Elf Ranger
-the Ogre Bodyguard
-the Tilean Marksman
-the Warlock
-the Witch
-the Halfling Scout
-the Dark Elf Assassin
-the Troll Slayer
-Pit Fighter (doh!)

Ones that see some use
-the Duelist
-the Imperial Assassin
-the Freelancer
-the Arabian Merchant*
-the Slayer Pirate
-the Swashbuckler
-the Elven Mage
-the Bounty Hunter

Campaign specific Hired Swords
(I don't encourage the use of HS outside of their home setting except for the Dark Elf and other assassins. The Tomb Robber and the Shadow Warrior are other examples.)
Sartosa
-the Orc Pirate and Goblin Swab
-the Old Smuggler
-the Swivel Gunner
-the Leviathan Hunter

Lustria
-the Shadow Warrior
-the Pathfinder
-the Chameleon Skink
-the Pygmy Scout

Khemri
-the Tomb Robber
-the Snake Charmer

Empire In Flames
-Imperial Outrider

Nemesis Crown
-the Old Prospector

-Relics of the Crusades
-the Holy Man
-the Crimashin Assassin

*Hired Swords that are unwise to use
-the Arabian Merchant has access to goods that have incomplete or broken rules or both yet he is classed as an 'official HS'. A dropped ball that is still rolling around.
-the Big Game Hunter. The rules for use make no sense.
-the Sigmarite Warrior Priest. Again his rules do not make any sense.

we use the Pit Fighter very often. He gives a starting warband a good punch with a good defence (T4). Later he become the living shield for many heroes, because he is more expendable than some Henchmen (for example Gors with 4 advances or more).

The other hired Sword we use are the Tilean Marksman, the Elven Ranger and the warlock. Once i used the Halfling, too. He was cheap and was needed to bolster my numbers over 13 Modells for routing tests. Additionally he was used as meatshoield to block a strong NPC (we played Duke Hoard), which should kill the halfling and then should get a full attack of my stronger heroes.

I do not know if I ever played a warband without an Elven Ranger. But I seriously doubt it.
The Imperial Assassin makes a nice addition, too, with his flexibility of being able to equip and use most weapons you come across.

I too was surprised that the Arabian Merchant is officially considered official, with all the controversy surrounding him. Talk about the power of money, hm?
(Although I absolutely love the model for him! )

Most people in my group run Hired Swords that go along with the fighting style of the warband... magic bands grab a warlock, shooty bands get a tilean and/or a dark elf assassin.

Personally, I LOVE the Ogre Bodyguard. Expensive as heck, but if you roll the Return a Favor result, I snatch him up every time. He moves fast, distrupts the enemy like crazy, and takes 4+ guys to bring him down. Can't think of a better use of money.