Criminal Underworld warband

One of the 'missions' that a player in BTB could choose was to form a crime syndicate and this got me thinking surely the criminal underworld in mordheim would have flourished in the ensuing chaos after the meteor and would be out there with the incoming warbands trying to find their slice of fame and fortune.

Criminal Underworld warband
Choice of warriors:

A Criminal Underworld warband must include a minimum of three models. You have 500gc available to spend.
The maximum number of warriors in the warband may never exceed 15

Crime Boss: your warband must include 1 Crime Boss, no more no less!
Enforcer: Your warband may include up to 2* Enforcers
Cat Burglar: Your warband may include upto 2* Cat Burglars
Snitch: Your warband may include a single Snitch
Crooks: Your warband may include any number of Crooks
Thugs: Your warband may include 0-5 Thugs
Attack Dog: Your Warband may include 0-5 Attack Dogs
*Total number of Enforcers and Cat Burglars may not exceed 3

Special rules:

Epicentre: Due to the fact that these people were living in Mordheim at the time at the time of the meteor and were exposed to the full effects of the wyrdstone some of them have gained some ‘interesting’ features. One hero in the warband at a time may have a mutation from the Possessed mutation list which is bought upon purchase.


Starting Experience:
A Crime Boss starts with 20 experience
A Enforcer starts with 12 experience
A Cat Burglar starts with 8 experience
A Snitch starts with 0 experience
Henchmen start with 0 experience

Criminal Underworld skill tables:
The Crime Boss may choose from the Combat, Shooting, Strength, Academic, Speed or Special skill lists.
Enforcers may choose from the Combat, Strength or Special lists.
The Cat Burglars may choose from the Combat, Shooting, Speed or Special skill lists.
The Snitch may choose from the Academic, Speed or Special skill lists.



Maximum characteristics: human


Criminal
HtH WEAPONS
Dagger 1st free/2gc
Club 3gc
Axe 5gc

MISSILE WEAPONS
Bow 10gc
Throwing Knives 15gc

ARMOUR
Light Armour 20gc


Thug
HtH WEAPONS
Dagger 1st free/2gc
Club 3gc
Axe 5gc
Sword 10gc
Double Handed Weapon 15gc
Flail 15gc

MISSILE WEAPONS
Crossbow 25gc

ARMOUR
Shield 5gc
Helmet 10gc
Light Armour 20gc
Heavy Armour 50gc

Burglar
HtH
Dagger 1st free/2nd 2gc
Club 3gc
Sword 10gc
Rapier 15gc

Missile
Throwing Knives 15gc
Crossbow 25gc
Crossbow Pistol 35gc

Armour
Buckler 5gc
Light Armour 20gc


Heroes

Crime Boss
1
75gc
The Crime Bosses have ruled the shady streets and seedy bars of Mordheim but the coming of the comet has presented the opportunity for them to expand their ‘Businesses’.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....4.....4.....3...4....1...3...1...8
Weapons/Armour: Weapons and armour chosen from the Thug equipment list

Special rules

Leader: Any models in the warband within 6” of the Crime Boss may use his Leadership instead of their own.

Streetwise: As detailed in the ‘living’ rulebook


Enforcer
0-2*
*Total number of Enforcers and Cat Burglars may not exceed 3
45gc
All businesses need good management and the Enforcers are just the men for managing a Crime Bosses various enterprises.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....4.....3.....3...4....1...3...1...8
Weapons/Armour: Weapons and armour chosen from the Thug equipment list



Cat Burglar
0-2*
*Total number of Enforcers and Cat Burglars may not exceed 3
35gc
For those times when a subtle approach is needed.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....2.....4.....3...3....1...4...1...7
Weapons/Armour: weapons and armour chosen from the Burglar equipment list

Special rules

Light Footed: The Cat Burglar may re-roll any failed initiative tests when climbing up or down.


Snitch
0-1
20gc
Although hated by their allies as much as by their enemies, due to their untrustworthy and cowardly nature, the information they can get their grubby little hands on is invaluable to any Crime Boss in the City of the Damned.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....2.....2.....3...3....1...3...1...6
Weapons/Armour: weapons and armour chosen from the Criminal equipment list

Special rules

Rumours: A Snitch has always relied on his knowledge of the local gossip to gain the protection of the Crime Bosses and this ability is just as important if not more in these turbulent times. If the Snitch was not taken OoA then he may re-roll on die in the exploration phase.

You Scheming little...!: A Snitch cannot ever become the leader. if captured the Snitch will be added to the capturing players warband as a new non experience gaining henchman group with all of his experience/skills unless he can pass a Ld test (although player can choose to use other captured rules such as selling to slavers if they want). A ‘captured’ Snitch can still be ransomed back to the original controlling player like normal.


Henchmen

Crooks
0+
20gc
These petty criminals form the core of any Crime Bosses empire.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....2.....2.....3...3....1...3...1...7
Weapons/Armour: Weapons and armour chosen from the Criminals equipment list


Thugs
0-5
30gc
Thugs provide the muscle for many criminal operations carried out in Mordheim.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....4.....2.....3...3....1...2...1...7
Weapons/Armour: Weapons and armour chosen from the Thug equipment list

Special Rules:

Brawler: Over the many years spent brawling in taverns all around the city gangs of Thugs have worked out how to use their size and numbers to overwhelm their opponents. If two or more Thugs are in combat with a lone opponent they are at +1 to hit.


Attack Dogs
0-5
15gc
The more powerful members of the criminal underworld are often accompanied by various breeds of hunting dog. While smaller and less powerful than the Warhounds of the Witch Hunters these hounds are bred for speed and are invaluable for chasing down anyone who might owe the Crime Boss money.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
8.....4.....0.....3...3....1...4...1...5
Weapons/Armour: Teeth and Claws

Special Rules:

Animal: Attack Dogs never gain any experience.





Special Skills:
Cat-Like: (Cat Burglar only) The Cat Burglar has such incredible balance and poise that they can perform daring and otherwise foolish feats of acrobatics safe in the knowledge that they will always land on their feet. The Cat Burglar may re-roll any failed Initiative tests.

Infiltrate: (Cat Burglar only) As detailed in the ‘living’ rulebook.

Persuasive Nature: If accompanied by at least two Thugs who did not go OoA in the last battle the hero may attempt to ‘persuade’ local traders to part with their rarer goods. The hero may re-roll a failed rarity roll when attempting to find a piece of rare equipment.

Con Artist: The hero is an expert at running profitable short cons although there is always the risk of getting caught. Instead of searching for rare items the hero can run a con and must roll a D6, on a 2+ everything goes to plan and he gains 2D6gc but on a 1 he has been found out and cannot run another con for the next D3 games while he waits for the heat to die down.

Intimidation: (Not Snitch or Cat Burglar) The hero uses their imposing stature and aggressive nature to rattle the nerve of a potential ally of their enemies. Before each battle the hero may track down one randomly determined Hired Sword from the enemy’s warband and try to intimidate them. If the hero can pass an unmodified strength test then they may roll on the table below:
D6 ...Result
1 .... The Hired Swords resolve is just strengthened by the encounter and they hate the hero for the whole of this battle.
2-5 .... The Hired Sword was really rattled by the encounter and fears the hero for the whole of this battle.
6 .... The Hired Sword is left quaking in his boots and is so scared that he refuses to fight this battle.



Edit: I've replaced the Assassin with the Cat Burglar, made the Crime Boss more expensive, made the thug a bit more characterful, fluffed up the Snitches rules a bit, included a few special skills, made Cat Burglars and Enforcers 0-2 but nomore than 3 between the two types in total and added Attack Dogs.

I wanted to make the cat burglar a hero and give them all sorts of awesome speed skills (acrobat, scale sheer surfaces, dodge) but though that they would be too powerful. Anyone got any ideas of ways to make them a bit more cat burglary without being too powerful?

Give them Rope and Hook similar to a Pirate Boatswain? They would prob need to go down to init 3 though as init 4 plus that and bs 4 is really good for a henchman.

Heroes: not a bad mix, but what if you merged the Cat burglers and the snitchs?

Cat Burglar
0-3
30gc
For those times when the subtle approach is needed.
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....2.....4.....3...3....1...4...1...7
Weapons/Armour: weapons and armour chosen from the Criminals equipment list. Have Rope & hook on starting list.

Special skills (must be learned)
Infiltrate
Snitch - Each exploration phase, after you have rolled your normal exploration dice, you may roll an extra exploration dice, and discard one of your choice. If your extra dice dice comes up a 1, however, you must discard TWO dice- this is the result of the Snitch squealing on YOU! Only one Snitch may use his ability in any postgame.

0-2 Bodyguards (alternate name: enforcer)
M...WS..BS...S...T...W...I...A..LD
4.....4.....2.....3...4....1...3...1...8
Thus, your heroes are SUPER strong, but they are very specialized... you have the climber who's a good shooter and climber, and the enforcer who's a good fighter and not scared easily.

Crooks - like them

Thugs - Too similar to Crooks. Give them a bonus rule and raise their price to 30.

Example:
Footpad - Thugs are experts at wielding blunt objects. Any Thug attack from a club, morning star, or flail receives -1 armor save and -1 to Helmet saves.
(Alt. Clubs give them +1 S on a charge, as they bonk their opponent in the head.)


Some fun skills about black market trading and breaking people's legs sounds fun.

Thug:
Aggresive Negotiations: Each thug allows this once per post-battle, and only if they are not taken OOA. S test to reroll the random dice for a rare item and keep the roll you liked best, but if failed the Thug rolls on the serious injury chart. Or make it just miss a game and then give it to the enforcers?

Thanks for the ideas guys i will have a think about how to change it this evening but I have to get to work now, oh and styro how many cat burglars/enforcers were you suggesting because 1 Crime Boss, 1 Assassin, 2 enforcers and 1 cat burglar seems a bit too strong to me.

Nice idea for a warband! I think it looks promising, although together thugs might be too many if they get special abilities. Oh, and the crime boss is probably too cheap at 70gc, with T4 and Streetwise from the start.

Edyy: Ditch the assassin. Boss, 2 enforcers, 2 cat burglars. The Burglars have the same BS as the Assassin, so they'll serve the same niche.

If the boss REALLY needs an assassin, he can just hire a hired sword (imperial assassin, dark elf assassin, tilean marksman... lots of options.)

Just thought of two fun skills for Enforcers to learn:

Knee Capper - The Enforcer is so proficient in using clubs that even if he does not cause serious injury he will often knock foes off their feet. If an enemy passes an armor save to resist an attack made by the Enforcer with a club they must pass a T test or be knocked down anyways.

Curb Stomper - The Enforcer is so used to fighting enemies while they are down that he treats knocked down models as stunned when attacking them. In addition he may give up his normal round of attacks to make a single attack on a knocked down or stunned model in base contact with him, even if they have an ally still standing. This special attack goes last, even after strikes last weapons such as 2H weapons.

Oooh... What was that 'mission' called?

Quote :

One of the 'missions' that a player in BTB could choose was to form a crime syndicate...

My play group is using a Marienburg Mobster warband. The Crime Syndicate is led by a Racketeer in much the style of the flavourful stories about smuggling & thievery featuring these 'Low Kings'. Our gang of Mobsmen is being piloted by a CCG player so he'll be sure to abuse any combinations available in the warband list I have baited him with.

Regards,

Werekin

Warekin it's called 'The Silent Threat' and it's one of the objectives for BTB. is the mobster warband just an adapted marienburger warband or has someone created a new warband?

I've updated the list and decided to keep the Snitch because I just felt that having 5 good heroes would make them just too strong. But thanks for the help guys any further suggestions would be welcome.

Looks good. I suggest you make the both of the Enforcers and the Cat Burglers be 0-2 and be limited to a total of 3.

Ex.

0-2* Cat Burglers - 35 gc
The total number of Cat Burglers and Enforcers in your warband cannot be greater than 3.

I understand that you don't want 5 strong heroes, but with the default BS being 2, some players would probably be glad to switch an enforcer for a second sniper.

(The same thing would be underneath the Enforcer's name too. Some people put that in the section with the Experience, but I've found that if you don't post it DIRECTLY under the hero's price and above his stats, they'll miss it completely and go "oh boy, 6 heroes!")

Yes the Silent Threat was the objective we designed for Skaven. There are aspects of it which could apply to Mobsmen but overall it's been tailored more to suit ratmen than smugglers. I think something similar in terms of a plot could be developed to be pursued by both factions. Anyone who has read 'Grey Seer' will understand what I mean because in that story there's a mob of smugglers chasing after the same goal as a few of the Skaven clans.

My group has been playtesting a number of brand new warbands and a few of these are themed around piracy. The last one I worked on was a Mobsmen warband. Mobsters are completely different to mercenaries. They're smugglers, meaning the characters are crooks. The themes explored relate to the skills/traits of thieves and assassins.

A Racketeer leads the Crime Syndicate and the aspiring crime-lord has an array of motley men in his employ. Similar to your ideas, an Enforcer is amongst the Heroes, acting as the Racketeer's chief informer and right hand man. There is also a Fence employed by the Racketeer to help him move hot goods and broker deals on illicit merchandise. The rest of the smugglers gang is comprised of various other rapscallions and cut-throats which includes some juvenile delinquents as befits a street gang operating scams in a city-port. They all contribute towards fulfilling the smugglers quota, in order to help keep the crime bosses of the city's underworld off the Racketeer's back.

There loads of ways you can illustrate this kind of gang which is what attracted me to include in amongst the new warbands in my Marienburg adventure.

In terms of miniatures, I've opted for Indic and Arabyan looking Citadel's. I'm depicting the Mobsters as some kind of Indic drug cartel.

Should be able to release some warband documents on the forum later in the year. The games we've been playing have been going really well! A lot of fun to game with these factions in a continuous campaign.

I know that this thread has been dead for ages but I was just looking over this warband again recently and decided to impliment a few of the changes that were suggested so I have changed the restictions on the Enforcers and Cat Burglars like Styrofoamking siggested. After looking at the Enforcers stats I felt that they should probably start off with 12 exp instead of 8, I also decided that 2 henchmen choices was just too few so I added in some Attack Dogs (basically faster but weaker Warhounds) for a bit of variety.

Who says crime doesn't pay!

I've been making changes to the Marienburg 'Crime Syndicate' due to behaviours in respect of campaign plots being developed. It's amazing how much stuff you have to mess around with to make a warband function properly within a campaign environment. There have been constant adjustments. The guy playing the warband has lost his patience once or twice with my 'making up the rules' as I go along, but we are all having a lot of fun with it and the rationale is always discussed, explained and understood after the heat of battle.

Tonight I am going to the pub to hand out copies of a Conviction Chart to players whose warriors were placed under arrest in a multi-player game. We have a warband following plot objectives allowing them jurisdiction as being law enforcement. There was even a ghoul arrested! I wouldn't wanna share a cell with him. LoL

Regards,

Werekin

It is an interesting warband - one that I had missed when it was originally posted. I think the limitation of three max for the enforcers/cat burglers combined is a good fix.

This seems like a fun warband! Thanks for bumping, I'd missed the thread the first time around.

Edyy wrote:

Enforcer: Your warband may include up to 2* Bodyguards

I think this needs fixing.