Help me choose an Undead warband

Ok, guys, I´m currently feeling the urge to start making a second warband (hehehehe, this is a rare thing around here, right? ) and since there was a good space reserved for a graveyard on my WIP Mordheim table, I´m planning to build an Undead warband...

Problem is, I really don´t like the "feel" of the official Undeads warband... A very powerful "cinematic" Close combat vampire that rans with dire wolves was not what I want... The undead warbands published on the Town Cryier Khermi setting were too much "egyptian"... I wanted a more "Necromantic" warband, with lots of magic in it, not much CC... So I searched here and on the internet for alternatives, and found the following:

- Restless Dead from BTB (by the way, that supplement was amazing, well done, guys!)
- Khermi Necromancer list (found * here * on the internet from the guy that made the Khermi setting for TC)
- Necrarch Warband from LOD #1

The 3 of them have to some extent what I have in mind, a powerful caster (in some cases more than one) and a huge undead beast (the Bone Goliath for Restless Dead, the Bone Golem for the Khemri and the Abomination for the Necrarchs), and exactly because of this the choice was difficult to make...

The Khermi Necromancer list has some interesting possiblities, the undead vultures are a nice addition but it seems a little bit unbalanced and not much "polished".

The Restless Dead from BTB on the other hand seems balanced and quite powerful on later stages of the campaign, giving possibilities for a true "undead horde" warband, but the one I liked the most was the Necrarch one, as it has more "human" heroes and nice skills/items.

So the question is: anyone here played both the Restless Dead, Khermi Necromancer or the Necrarch warbands to give me some feedback on how they play and develop? I´ve read a couple of topics here about the Restless Dead, but did found nothing on the other tow... Or you could point out to other warband that I did not found...

Comments would be most welcome!

Cheers,

Arcuballis

I have not played one of the three warbands, but i played several undead warbands from the vanilla rules.

I just screened all three warbands.

Personall i think the Necrarch warband is the strongest warband of the three mentioned. It is also stronger than the original undead warband.
But i don' t believe that any of them is broken.
i would accept all three as warbands. The most important thing is that you and your group have fun. I would discuss the rules with your group and if you are not a barefisted competitive Mordheim gaming group ( i have not found one until now) i think thea can live with all three warbands.

Have fun.

Check the unpublished Bloodlines Vampires,

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B18J5DU-6cP_WWhzRVlKdndXbmM

They were meant to be in the Town Cryer but got cancelled on that issue, one of the choices is more necromantic.

I have developed a distrust of Khemri warbands over the last couple of years, but the Necromancer warband doesn't look too bad. Skeletons that can become heroes reminds me of the old 2nd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

That said the warband suffers from cut and paste errors that could cause confusion. Also the Khemri weapons choices are a bit fiddly.

I have played the Necrarchs once and played against them in a couple of campaigns. I had to retire my warband because it got too powerful for the others in the campaign to have fun. (I got lucky with the Thrall's first spell after I found a Tome of Magic. Two spell casting vampires and an abomination was too much.)

If the Thrall doesn't pursue a magical career, the warband can start strong but falters at the end since it can't shoot and it can't fight.

I have a Lahmian warband from Khemri (the website) and I like it very much! You have two building options depending if you play in khemri or everywhere else, and an interestin group of heroes. It's not overpowered. Take a look!

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

@SerialMoM: Yes, our group was not competitive at all, much more geared to fluff and characterful warbands. And since I am the one pestering them to play Mordheim and was in charge of balancing things for the entire campaign, that´s why I am worried about this being not balanced... My choice between those warbands over the official undead one was much more based on liking their fluff and history than being more powerful.

@brokenv: Thanks! will ckeck those out!

@Von Kurst: It´s great to hear from someone that had actual experience with those warbands! Agree with you, the Khermi Necromancer warband seemed a little bit "untested" and with too much Khermi campaign aspects to it, so probably will not use it... Skellies gaining experience for just 20pts seems broken to me, with all their other undead powers... As for the Necrarch warband being too powerful, that´s exactly what I´m trying to avoid. This was the one I liked the most, but I still could not decide for it against the Restless Dead one because the latter has 2 spellcasters, which is something I want, and was exactly what unbalanced things for you on the Necrarch... Agree that 2 spellcasting vampires which could use Acolytes in LOS to cast spells was overpowered... But do you think that if I change the Necrarch list by instead of using the Thrall (which was no spellcaster initially but a powerful CC hero) I use the Necromancer from Restless Dead (spellcaster but not an undead and less powerful) this will help balancing things out?

I´m really torn on that decision of which warband to use, Restless Dead or Necrarch... Both Leaders look nice and colorful for me, and both had a giant undead mosntruosity (which I want more from a modelling standpoint than competitive play)... But the Restless dead starts with the Liche AND the necromancer, which is what I want, but only have undead heroes and henchmen. The Necrarch has that "twisted human" heroes and henchmen that I want for my warband, but unless I was very lucky like you, the Thrall will be no wizard, and if he does, like you said, things got nasty for the others... Waht do you think of my idea above? Any suggestions? I am really aiming for a imaginative warband, not an overpowered one...

@Gherma: I´ve just taken a look at the Lhamian warband, and altough it looks interesting, I am a little bit afraid of complicating things too much with that Khermi/Non-Khermi aspects of it... Thanks anyway!

Cheers,

Arcuballis

I think 2 starting spell casters is always going to be a possible problem. I never got to the point of having both vampires able to use an acolyte to cast through, most of the time we forget that the big vampire can do that. I just got lucky with the spell roll and the combination was deadly.

I like to think that nowadays my friends wouldn't react so strongly to my surge in power, but I haven't much interest in playing undead these days to test my theory.

I do think that if you play for storyline and fun that most problems can be corrected without much difficulty.

I played the Restless dead warband twice.

Both time, they got just fair enough for other players. Even if the warband have 2 spellcasters, it only balance the fact that most figures cannot run.

If you choose this warband, invest on your lich, give her the best armor, get the drain touch skill and sacrifice some treasures to give it extra wounds. If your opponent focus too much on her, he is doomed.. trust me.

In one of the campaign, my necromancer died and I chose to have 3 grave guards and 2 wight heroes instead of buying a new one... this was a good choice indeed... they HURT with their wight blade ability !!

I have played in a campaign against the necrarch and in that campaign they were actually the weakest warband. The power level depends strongly on the spells you get and how the warband develops early on. Crappy spells and the warband will struggle. A highly skilled player can probably get more out of them, but i would not call them overpowered in any way. Magic is too random for that, close combat is much more reliable.

I really like the look of Restless Dead, I played against them once, and they seemed to have a lot of potential. Restless Dead have more darkness to them than Undead in my opinion, which makes them very cool in the Mordhiem. I have not any any experiance or knowlegde what-so-ever of the other warbands. But based on the small glimpse of Restless Dead that I have seen, they look really nice.