Priests of the Empire

Shopping Phase: A capital idea. If you need any help, I'd be glad to jump in. Heck, I'll even boot the thread back up, keep it warm for you.

Seafaring: Yeaaaaah.... if you're doing a whole ship-to-ship battle system like Warhammer Ahoy, currents & wind make sense. Otherwise, K.I.S.S.

For reference here are the current EiF rules for boat movement.

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MOVEMENT
Boats move 6" when moving with the current of a river (the direction of the river flow must be established before the start of the game). Rowboats may move 4" when travelling against the current. Rowboats must move at least half of their movement allowance unless they have been anchored or tethered to the shore.

For further reference I recommend Warhammer Ahoy! (3rd edition), The General's Compendium, Warhammer Historical's Legends of the High Seas and Flame Ons Yarrpocolypse.

We use the Directional Dice from GW to mark river currents or wind direction. We are quite happy with an assigned movement value and crew requirements to simulate the intricacies of boat movement. (I thought we were getting both from the EiF rules but it turns out we use the crew requirements form Warhammer Ahoy!.)

Thanks Werekin in regards to hiring priests. I definitely think that they will still get used by people.

I'm currently going through the article again with my gaming group as we decide when to add it into our campaign. I'll post again if we have any further questions.

Ok, as far as religion goes, I remember something about some of the Southern Norse tribes still worshiping Ulric and Manaan. So Norse Explorers ARE allowed Priests correct? But Marauders obviously would not Norse or not.

Handrich would be perfect for my Southlands as they are trying to go find their fortune after all!

Interesting! Always god to have more options for your Empire warbands.

@Balrog - Wolf Priests should be exclusive to Middenheimers. They're such a zealous sect it doesn't make sense having them fighting alongside Norse mercenary warbands. However, a Norseman might give his self over to the God of Winter & Wolves and become a faithful Ulrican! For this there definitely is a precedent.

Contrary to my earlier post, the only faith that really suits the Norse is Manann. You'd be just as likely to see the northmen worshiping the God of the Sea in his darker aspect, Stromfels.

The reason I realised Priests of Morr are not fitting in with the Norse pantheon of worship is this factual tit-bit;

"...doom in battle admitting them to Norscan Valhal."

A loose indication that your typical Norse warrior, after death, does not wish to be left in Morr's keeping!

@Styro - It's time we put this piggy to market!

In terms of seaward action, my mind is tacked on to a different approach to pursue oceangoing warfare. I totally agree that Warhammer Ahoy! stuff from the General's Compendium acts as one of the richest sources for messing about on boats.

Edited page 2 of file as follows;

Any warband that includes humans can hire a human Priest and in doing so the Priest replaces one of the warbands Heroes. Only one Priest can ever be included in a warband. Unless specified elsewhere Priests may not be hired by followers of Chaos, Orcs & Goblins, Dark Elves, Skaven and Undead warbands.

"The people need to see their heroes from time to time. Without that, they lose faith. And faith is everything."
— Emperor Karl Franz, Elector Count of Reikland

Stromfels would be a fun conversion as well. Especially since it would not take much from a Marauder box to do.

I've just converted one myself using 100% metal components... and this Mutant-Priest dedicated to the Lord of Predators is being used in games by one of the guys in my group, in a new warband dedicated to the Storm God.

I have been looking forward to this article, thanks for the hard work Warekin!

Thanks Pathfinder. Of everything that I've been able to give back to the community this download has been the greatest labour of love!

I just gotta say that im absolutely BLOWNED away off the effort and true love you have put down in this excellent article!!

My mind started to spin with all the inspiration and cool ideas i had even before i had finnished readin it thru.

Sadly, Im the only one interested to play Mordheim (what I know off) in these part so even if im gonna convert me a priest or two, he or she wont see any battle...

With that said, im off to see what ive got for suitable model to convert...

From the Prayers of Myrmidia

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6 Vengeful Wrath Difficulty 6
Lifeblood of the wronged fuels a divine command of unbridled fury. The Priestess
dictates vengeance upon all hated foes in a rite of retaliation.

The War-Priestess may re-roll each failed roll to hit during the next close combat
phase, and each failed roll to hit with missile weapons for the rest of the current
shooting phase. The Priestess must charge the nearest enemy model during the
player's subsequent turn.

We have some questions about this prayer. First, "each failed roll to hit with missile weapons for the rest of the current shooting phase."

How does this work? Spells may not be cast in the same phase in which a spell caster shoots. And the effect can't happen in the following phase because the priestess must charge.

The Priestess is charging in her next turn but the prayer's re-roll effect happens in "the next close combat phase", which is presumably during the current player turn. Are these 2 seperate effects of the prayer?

Also is it the nearest enemy model within charge range? Or does she charge as far as she must? What if she can't charge?

Sorry for late pick up Von Kurst!

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How does this work? Spells may not be cast in the same phase in which a spell caster shoots. And the effect can't happen in the following phase because the priestess must charge.

Keen peepers sir. Yes, shooting and casting is not permitted. Certainly need to remove that insertion. We'll call it a poor conversion from the roleplaying rules.

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The Priestess is charging in her next turn but the prayer's re-roll effect happens in "the next close combat phase", which is presumably during the current player turn. Are these 2 seperate effects of the prayer?

The re-roll would only be useful if the warrior is already in close combat! This would make more sense if the result was that the spell granted its benefit for the next round of hand-to-hand being fought by the Priestess.

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Also is it the nearest enemy model within charge range? Or does she charge as far as she must? What if she can't charge?

This needs to be reworded to match how the charging aspect of frenzy affects a model.

Thanks,

Werekin

Something like this Van Kurst;

The War-Priestess may re-roll each failed roll to hit the next time that a round of hand-to-hand combat is being fought. Until her next close combat has started the Priestess must always charge if there are enemy models within charge range. The player has no choice in the matter – the Priestess will automatically declare a charge.

Thanks for the clarification.

You're welcome. As the popular music artist MC Hammer once sang, "We've got to pray just to make it today".

I read the miracle worker and corupted rules again, I wish it would be possible to hire the priest as hired swords too. The corrupted rules favor the chaotic and evil warbands much more than the miracle workers favor the good warbandsof light. I know that you wanted the priests as additional heroes, what was too much. But now i think priests as hired sword may be a fair addon.

Currently we are not using the corrupted rules but the we integrated the miracle workers in our personal Mordheim universe. I really would love to hire a priest of Solkan or a priest of Morr.

What do you think?

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I read the miracle worker and corupted rules again, I wish it would be possible to hire the priest as hired swords too.

Priests are heroic. They're not mercenary. Well, not unless they're followers of the Trickster God.

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The corrupted rules favor the chaotic and evil warbands much more than the miracle workers favor the good warbands of light. I know that you wanted the priests as additional heroes, what was too much. But now i think priests as hired sword may be a fair add on.

Yes, that was my mistake. Encouraging additional Heroes was a bad idea. The game is played fairer when a Priest replaces any existing Hero in a warband.

There are all sorts of nasty drawbacks for a character becoming corrupted. Some might call it a blessing but for others it is a course. Lady luck is not always kind.

Whilst the Witch Hunters warband in my current campaign has been steadfast in their support of Sigmar's holy testament, we have two other players who currently hire other priests. We have a Crime Syndicate warband who are a gang of thieves & smugglers (styled like lascars in an Indic cartel) who have sought the company of a Priest of Morr. We have a Battle Monks of Cathay warband guarding one of the Ten Great Families (merchant houses of Marienburg) who have drafted in a Priest of Handrich to bring them bountiful favours.

Alas we don't currently have a War-Priest of Solkan or a War-Priestess of Myrmidia doing the rounds! Nor do we have a Priest of Manann praying regularly in the campaign but the Cult of Stromfels has a Mutant-Priests who makes fine use of Manannan

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Currently we are not using the corrupted rules but the we integrated the miracle workers in our personal Mordheim universe. I really would love to hire a priest of Solkan or a priest of Morr.

Then what's stopping you from hiring one in place of one of your normal Heroes?

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What do you think?

I think that you need to bite the bullet, ditch one of your run-of-the-mill Heroes and try something totally different for a change. The article is intended to provide new choices and possibly inspire some creative modelling opportunities.

Regards,

Werekin

I encourage you to give Corrupted Characters a try even in just one campaign. The rules are powerful (maybe a little over the top from my experience) but they are fun. Miracle Workers as replacement heroes keep in line with all existing priests from Town Cryer (e.g. Priest of Morr, Wolf-priest of Ulric and Warrior-priest of Sigmar all come to mind). Werekin has simply expanded on that existing idea.

The rules are not perfect but we now include them by default in my gaming group (e.g. I currently have a priest of Taal with the Tranquil Fauna mark of Taal in my inbred Osterlander warband). I think some tweaks need to be made (e.g. Reduce range of Purify prayer and make Manaan give +1 inch to boats instead of +1 Strength to make it more applicable to more rules).

My concern is that there are some warbands in the middle (e.g. Undead, Dwarfs) who get no benefit from either article. This is probably my main concern for potential balance issues but this is not easy to fix.

All of those wonderful neglected rules for mutations become a liability when you get a Witch Hunter Captain arrriving with a bee in his bonnet! So far the Sigmarites have bested the followers of Chaos every time in our campaign...

We playtested a new scenario last week for an 'Illegal Salvage Operation' last week. Finally the Cult of Stromfels got one over the zealots! Unfortunately for the wreckers this was only a trial run not part of our live campaign feed. You can say they were testing the waters. *guffaw*

FYI Rational - Following topical discussion with Von Kurst the MiM salvage op scenario expands upon the rowing guidelines and includes rules for building rafts so that any warbands without watercraft can join in the scavenger hunt.

We have been using the Miracle Workers for the last three or four campaigns. We have had mixed results with one player having consistently good results and others having less success.

The weapons choices for priests confused some players who did not understand the aterisks.

We are a bit of a special case since we spend so much time in Araby, Sartoas and the Lustrian coast. I for one would love a cleric of the One for my Arabians.

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The weapons choices for priests confused some players who did not understand the aterisks.

The equipment chart is hardly perfect but it does avoid the rigmarole of listing all the stuff ten times.

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We are a bit of a special case since we spend so much time in Araby, Sartoas and the Lustrian coast.

Von Kurst your warbands visit some weird-ass locations. Tomb Raiders from Araby are your force of choice?

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I for one would love a cleric of the One for my Arabians.

One of the players in my campaign would say; "there is only one god and he is our lord Sigmar!"

I would like to think that my supplying an article to back all of the popular deities of the Empire and it's neighbouring nations is enough! Screw the likes of Dazh, Ursun and your One. They are likely but nature spirits and sources of false worship.

Or you just take the priest rules which fits best and just rename them.

I really likethe switch in heroes, but my gaming group does not have enough core members so only the same 2-4 people are playing with several rare gamers.

Because of this we often start new warbands ( because we have so many minis and there are so many excellent rules out there). So now i have several warbands with fine developed heroes where i did not want to switch out one of them ( Pirates, Marienburger, Kislevites, Miragleans, pit fighters) or i would have to switch the priest i already have ( witch hunters, Bretonnian chapel guard, Arabyan nomads) or i can't choose any of them ( Undead, BtB ogres, Possessed, BtB Chaos Marauders, treasure hunters, nemesis crewn dwarfs).

So in the end i will have to wait until one of them dies and switch then one priest in or i wait until your Mutiny in Marienburg will be released and start a new warband ( i believe there will be minimum 2 must have warbands for me) where i can switch in the priest.

I do not know if you have read the rules from styro ( mages and sages) but there are nice ideas about switching in a mage or also one of the priests of you supplement and to modify them to leaders by downgrading he existing one. There are so many excellent fan made materials, that we will never stay in one campaign.
And we really like to hire some hired swords because of the increased variability.

The advantage is, the battles are mostly fair and balanced and we play our newly painted and purchased minis, but we also never came to an endgame stage of a campaign.

Maybe this will change sometime.

Our gaming group sounds a bit like yours, SerialMoM.