Mounts and warband rating - +20 or +3/+5?

Initially, I thought this was a pretty simple question. The Mordheim rulebook is pretty clear on this question p. 119 "A horse increases a warband's rating by +3 points, and a warhorse by +5 points."

Then I saw in Border Town Burning, p. 28, "In the latest Mordheim Rules Review all mounted warriors have the large target special rule meaning every mount should increase your warband rating by +20 points."

Looking at the Rules Review, it makes the following correction to Mordheim Annual 2002: "Page 66, 2nd column
Add a new special rule between Armour Bonus and Bolting Mounts:
“Large Target: All models mounted on a riding creature from this section count as Large Targets as defined in the shooting rules. Unridden riding creatures are not Large Targets.”

I'm not sure if I agree with the interpretation that mounts add +20 points to the warbands rating given that they are only large targets some of the time, but the authors of the BTB have much more experience with the game, so perhaps they are right.

My question is, what takes precedence, the Rulebook or the Rule Review?

If the answer is +20, this has implications for an (admittedly unofficial) warband, the Outriders from Nemesis Crown. Given that the whole warband is mounted, this will result in a very inflated warband rating without a commensurate increase in ability, so the other warbands in a campaign are almost always going to get 'underdog' bonuses. On the other hand, I would say the +3/+5 rating increase suggested in the rulebook is quite reasonable.

How do you generally rule on mount's affect on warband ratings?

We are counting horses/wagons etc as equipment and therefore no increase in warband rating. This is due to the fact that the bonuses associated with both are generally equalized by the negatives

These are only our house rules though

If you want what is official then go with the rules review as it was intended to replace the printed rulebook. I would suggest that you use the rules from the rulebook if you wish to actually play with mounted models or make a house rule as suggested above.

The 'official' rules given in the rules review seem intended to provoke arguments at best or to make mouted warriors a poor choice for a warband to take at worst. They are an awful solution to a problem that did not exist. The beautry of the present state of the game is that you can make a choice within your group.

We use the horses count as +3 to warband rating and any mount with an attack counts as +5.

what do you do with wagons Von Kurst?

So far I keep forgetting the darn rules!

As far as warband rating the wagon adds nothing and the horses add +3 per horse.

We do as Von Kurst.

+3 per mount, +5 if the mount have an attack.

+3 (x2) for wagons.


But ideally a case by case is better.

Ex: What happens with the daemon pulling the engine of chaos from the black dwarfs warband ???

Personally I'd say it add 20. Its a large model and tough it do not attack, its much stronger than horses.
The same is true with a Rhinox. They have an attack however so I'd add +5 for a total of 25.

The best is to define those rules by consciensus.

If you use a btb scenario it counts +20 .. Otherwise +3 +5.