Charging up a ladder?

Ok, so we have a house rule that you are able to climb as part of a Charge move (distance climbed couints as 2" for every 1").

If you have a model that is standing at the top of a ladder, is it therefore impossible to Charge him, as there is nowhere to place the charging model?

Would that then mean that you could place one model blocking a ladder, place bows/crossbows on that level, and make it impossible to be charged?

Had this tactic pulled on me, and it seemed kind of game-breaking...

I believe that the top of a ladder is considered to be a "defended obstacle", requiring the attacker to hit only on rolls of 6, if i'm not mistaken. Under the rules as written, ladders are considered open terrain, and may be moved/charged over as any other normal terrain. Plus, the easier method is to just shoot the guy.

As spectre wrote ladders are open terrain. More than that you can climb as normal and then charge or just make a "climbing charge" (remember you must see a model before you charge).

This thing is from mordheim annual and I believe is an answer. We play that if charged model is standing on the edge of a building he must make some room for charging model.

Spectre76 - Where this "defended obstacle" rule is from (sound like fb but if it's mordheim where did you found it)?

In my opinion Mordheim is better as a three dimentional game. Anything that prevents people using upper layer of terrain is bad. Ladders have to be "open terrain" with no penalties for charging or any other movement or the game is worse for it.

Rules for Defended Obstacles can be found in the scenario Encampment Raid TC#28 p.19. They do not mention ladders as a defended obstacle, but we have used that as a House Rule on occassion.

Von Kurst wrote:

Rules for Defended Obstacles can be found in the scenario Encampment Raid TC#28 p.19. They do not mention ladders as a defended obstacle, but we have used that as a House Rule on occassion.

That rule is for the purchased encampment item 'barricade', a 6"x1" defendable item for the encampment.


Page 10 of the LRB says "Models are also considered to be in hand-to-hand combat even when separated by a low wall or obstacle, where it is impossible for the bases to touch physically because the obstacle is in the way."

You can read that as they can fight despite ladder obstacles, or just make the charger 'push' the blocker out of the way a bit as they charge up the ladder.


I've always assumed that anyone going up a ladder can climb up to the side of the ladder if it is blocked anyway, so standing at the top of ladder gains nothing but the chance to do an initiative test when knocked down or stunned. I've always found it better to place 1" away from the ladder to intercept warriors and make them take initiative tests.