Discussion: How to improve the relevance of weapon skill?

In our games the weapon skill attribute is nearly irrelevant.

There is only a difference if you hit on 4 or 3. It is very seldeom that someones WS is more than double so high and he therefore only is hit on a 5.

So i propose to increase the worth of this atrribute by adjusting the to hit table.

Same WS: Both hit on a 4
Difference of 1 or 2: The higher skilled warrior hits on a 3, and is hit on a 5
Difference of 3 and more: The higher skilled warrior hits on 2 and is hit on a 6.

In this way all the "useless" leaders with high WS, I and Ld and 20 ex. get a boost.

An unskilled Younblood won't be as effective as they are now.

Now it would make sense to hire dwarf warriors instead of beardlings.

Now you may be happy if you roll an increase of WS during a level up.

One problem is that warbands with elite warriors like elves or dwarfs gets a boost in the whole.
So there may be an imbalance.

What do you think?

I'm not a fan of changing something this deep in the core rules. As you say it poses a lot of further questions and those questions may keep coming until you end up playing a game that is no longer Mordheim (e.g. I think that Coreheim has changed the WS table). I'm not saying your idea is bad though but rather I don't have any thoughts on the matter. You are right that WS is one of the attributes that is generally less desirable to get.

One idea that I'm rather fond of is the parry house rule based on WS that some people use (which I'm hoping to start using). The attacker adds WS to the roll to hit and then the defender rolls to parry and adds WS to the roll. If the parry result is higher than the parry is successful.

It is true, it is a core rule.

But to adjust this rule doesn't change the game to something other than Mordheim.

All the people using their own house rule sets are still playing Mordheim.

This adjustment would increase the worth of high weapon skill values. A bad fighter will hit an opponent around 16% worse, like an Youngblood who tries to hit an mecenary captain. He will hit on a 5 and will be hit on a 3. Currently it is 4 and 3 in the same order.

I think more import is a fight of an WS 3 (normal talented fighter) against an WS 6 ( master of fighting) opponent. Currently the WS 3 guy hits on a 4 and will be hit on a 3. The same as fighting against a WS 4 or 5 guy. With the adjusted rules he would hit on a 6 and will be hit on a 2.
This would increase the worth of high WS also, it wouldn't be as important as S but more important as it is now.

Maybe there are others who likes to discuss here too?

I have no problem with WS as is. There are enough low WS warriors out there to give some variety and there are situations/items that add +1 to hit meaning that suddenly some warriors would have the same 'auto' hit possibilities that come up in shooting.

Hitting on 3s is a big boon already. Our lads are always pleased to have a 7 come up for a hero.

The problem with changing things directly relating to a model´s statline is that it should also affect the cost of a model (e.g. a youngblood will get significantly worse, is 10 GC a fair new price?) and if you go down that route your are opening a whole new can of worms. If you use other houserules like different shield or parry rules that is less of a problem, as all warbands can benefit from it simply by buying the right stuff.
Because of this i prefer RationalLemmings suggestion of using WS in a parry, that is less intrusive.