Starting warbands - Post them here! (Read first post, plz)

Okay, so this warband has already played three battles, but I'd like to know what I did wrong.

Shadow Warriors

Maethan(70) _______________115
Elf bow (35)
Sword and dagger (10)

Saerandir________________70
Longbow (15)
Sword and Dagger (10)

Crithocuil________________70
Longbow (15)
Sword and Dagger (10)

Nienoremel______________70
Longbow (15)
Sword and Dagger (10)

Celeirhen_______________70
Longbow (15)
Dagger

3x Nekkid Shadow warriors__105

____________________________
500 gc

I know swords aren't particularly good, but I likey the fluffiness

[edit] Shadow Walkers are 35 each and Shadow weaver costs 55. sorry 'bout that, but inter - man u was kicking off as I was sending, so I was rushed

I finally got around to doing up some warbands last night. Why multiple? I have to get the local gamers interested and to do that, I'll have to provide all interested parties their own warband, assembled and ready to go. Paint is optional at this point, but eventual.

Okay, some caveats of why I chose what I chose: I had to use models and parts available so that I can at least achieve WYSIWYG at the beginning, and while I have a ton of Skaven models and bits, I have very few Empire models and bits. Second, we will be using the House Rule that shields confer an extra +1 save in CC, and I really like them because I use them in my other hobby a lot (beating people with sticks). Also, I wanted to construct the warbands so that they work well for scenario play (ie: maxing out Heros for after-game search rolls), not just one-shot game play.


Ralli's Ravagers from Reikland
Ralli von Schult, Mercenary Captain (120total)
Base (60gc), Crossbow (25gc), Shield (5gc), Sword (10gc), Light Armour 20 (20gc), Dagger (free)

Gottlieb vander Ploog, Champion (75total)
Base (35gc), Halberd (10gc), Light Armour (20gc), Sword (10gc), Dagger (free)

Hans Hoenschell, Champion (70total)
Base (35gc), Sword (10gc), Shield (5gc), Light Armour (20gc), Dagger (free)

Fritz Eichschloss, Youngblood (30total)
Base (15gc), Sword (10gc), Shield (5gc), Dagger (free)

Friedrich von Kampf, Youngblood (30total)
Base (15gc), Sword (10gc), Shield (5gc), Dagger (free)

4 Marksmen (43per, 172total)
Base (25gc), Longbow (15gc), Hammer (3gc), Dagger (free)

I gave Gottlieb an extra sword because the model I wanted to use for him had a sword in a scabbard worked into the model already, so I kept it and spent the gold on it. Plus, having fought a lot of polearm weapons, I like the idea of having a single-handed weapon available if an arm gets taken (yes, I know that's not as big an issue in MH, but forgive me my foibles, please). And I admit it, I named him "vander Ploog" because of a bit character in an episode of "Family Guy". I chose Hammers for the Marksmen as backup weapons because they were cheap, and I had a lot of hammer-wielding arms to harvest hammers from.

This is the first of my loaner warbands (I'll be doing a Dwarf Treasure Hunter warband and a Forest Goblin warband as well), but I still think it has quite a good punch with 4 Marksmen and the Captain flinging BS 4 fire from distance, and 4 meat shields to screen them. I had mistakenly read the rules to say that ALL members of a Reikland band got +1 BS, and had a lot more bows in the mix, but figured out my mistake and changed it to this to get an extra Marksman. My personal warband (as you can see from the cool little graphic to your left) is Skaven, which was a little easier to put together. For one thing, one of the many deals I stumbled onto on eBay netted me about 20 Assassin models (as well as other models; I have no use, really, for that many assassins), so I have plenty of models wielding Weeping Blades, which is on my short list of must haves in a Skaven band. The other on the list was Fighting Claws, as I think the claw arms are just about the best looking in the box set. I'm hoping to get my Eshin Sorcerer as well as one of my Black Skaven the Art of Silent Death skill. Once I've got that on the sorcerer, I'll either transfer the claws to him, or purchase another set, and pray hard every game to roll the Black Fury spell. I think the Black Fury/Silent Death/Fighting Claw combo would be nigh devastating and something I want to aim for.

Other than that, as you can plainly see below, I wanted every swinging rat to, well, be swinging a sling 'round their heads. Out of 9 ratmen, 8 of them have slings (all 9 would have slings, but Fighting Claws keeps me from that), which equals out to 16 shots in the 9" range, which at even BS 2 (adjusted for the -1 modifier when firing twice) equals out a bunch of hits (my Mathhammer is week, and couldn't tell you exact figures based on reasonable random dice throws, sorry). But everyone is pretty much a jack of all trades, very armour light (except for some shields), and very much suited to hugging cover and crossing the board to get into contact as quickly as possible. Enough teasing, onto the list!

Steel Rat Renegades
Ra'ood Sharptooth of the Black Paws Sept, Assassin Adept (112gc)
Base (60gc), Weeping Blades (50gc), Sling (2gc), Dagger (free)

Malik Shieldbiter of the Hooded Sept, Eshin Sorcer (67gc)
Base (45gc), Sword (10gc), Sword (10gc), Dagger (free), Sling (2gc)

Hardik Grindsword of the Blue Tailed Sept, Black Skaven (57gc)
Base (40gc), Flail (15gc), Sling (2gc), Dagger (free)

Mardik Wallclimber of the Blue Tailed Sept, Black Skaven (75gc)
Base (40gc), Fighting Claws (35gc)

Kirkit Eyegouger of the Hooded Sept, Night Runner (37gc)
Base (20gc), Sling (2gc), Sword (10gc), Shield (5gc), Dagger (free)

Yllis Snaresetter of the Black Paws Sept, Night Runner (37gc)
Base (20gc), Sling (2gc), Sword (10gc), Shield (5gc), Dagger (free)

3 Verminkin of the Black Paws Sept (37gc per, 111gc total)
Base (20gc), Spear (10gc), Shield (5gc), Sling (2gc), Dagger (free)


I was almost tempted to drop Verminkin entirely and pull in 7 Giant Rats instead, but as it wasn't an overwhelming number (like 15) and I wanted more man-shaped figures to scamper around, I kept them. I chose spears for them mostly because I like the spear models, and being able to strike first in the first round of close combat is a bonus. The 2 swords for my sorcerer, Malik, are in the hopes of rolling Black Fury and general self-protection if he gets into close combat, and I really didn't want to spend the big bucks on a Warplock pistol, which is one thing I'd like to eventually get. The flail is another cool weapon that I really like the model of, so I had to have one, and gave it to my other meat shield Black Skaven, Hardik. I forsee the twins, Hardik and Mardik, way in front of everyone else most games, with everyone else hanging back just a bit and laying into my opponents with concentrated sling fire.


Oh, one last note - when I was assembling the models for these two warbands, I was really cramped for space and having a hard time keeping all of the little bits for each model separate. Digging around the place, I found the egg tray for our refrigerator (which we don't use), and put one mini and all of its attendant pieces in each egg cup. It has worked out really well, so far, and hoping to get the Reiklanders assembled tonight (as well as some pics posted) and the Skaven bits I'm missing started. I'll take a pic of the egg tray in use as well, as you folks might find it handy.

I managed to scrounge together some decent monk models so decided to put this warband together.
Any comments would be appreciated, kind of flying blind since I've never seen this team in action or even a started list.

Emissary
- Horse
- Bow
- shield 105

Officer
- Bow 50

3x Dragon Monks
- 1x Quarterstaff 180

5x Peasants 50

2x Soldiers
- 2x Bow 70

Warrior Monk
- Fish Hook Shot 45

Which should be 500.

The idea being that the peasants are clearly intended as fodder while you shoot and get monks up closer.
Monk with Quarterstaff to shield the others should all the fodder screen die, and Fishhook Shot for the non-hero monk as he is meant to knock down targets for the Dragon Monks to out OOA.

Right now you have 13 models, but only 8 non-peasant models. This means you can lose all your peasants, and still have to lose 4 more models (half of your real warband) before you can voluntarily rout. This is good in a one-off, but could be catastrophic in a campaign. I'd probably drop 2 peasants and the horse, replacing them with a warrior monk and an extra dagger&club for the soldiers. This reduces you to 3 models for rout, and makes the soldiers better melee fighters. You want the soldiers in melee rather than shooting with their bows, cause you want to lose henchmen rather than heroes. I'd probably ditch the soldier's bows in favor or better melee equipment as well.

It may seem like I'm planning for you to lose, but in a campaign you have to be able to minimize losses if things go bad (usually meaning you have enough cheaper henchmen to lose in order to rout with your heroes).

Oh, and I advised ditching the horse because at the start of a campaign, all it does is paints a huge red bullseye on your leader, begging the other warband to shoot him. He's not strong enough combat-wise to do anything on his own, so he's gotta stick with the warband for a few games, so the movement bonus is negated... That just makes him a large target for shooting for 30 gold. Later in the campaign, a horse will become a good idea.

Nice analysis, Identity.

Let me add the following:

- I would kick some Peasants out of the starting warband. They key reason is that they do not gain experience (the other is that they cost only 10gc each but that somewhat goes hand-in-hand). If you decide to go with many Peasants now and only hire additional "normal" henchmen later, then you are missing out on a lot of Experience points which could break your neck in a campaign. There is almost no other way for henchmen to gain experience other than to take part in battles at get the +1 for survival. This means that you will want to have as many henchmen (who are capable of earning experience) in the starting list as possible. You can easily, very easily in fact, hire additional Peasants later in the campaign whenever you have 10gc spare. Their low price ensures that you will always be able to buy one or two new peasants later but hiring new monks or soldiers with equipment is much more difficult. So I'd focus on my normal warriors in the starting warband and then add a few peasants if I had the money. Of course, the peasants are nice way to get to 13 models so that probably IS worth hiring a few of them - just make sure that it's not at the cost of your other models.

- Officer: You are only giving him a bow which means you are wasting his close combat potential. His BS 3 doesn't support missile fire and you are wasting his WS3 and I4 stats. His hiring costs are due to his profile (and context) so if you don't try to make use of what you're paying for you are likely to lose against other warbands who do stress their strength (like giving clubs to orcs and (cross)bows to Reikland marksmen).

- Are you sure about giving the Staffs to the Dragon Monks? Remember that the Attacks made with the staffs do not benefit from the Art of Silent Death skill they start with. Again, if you don't make use of this skill you are wasting the money you paid for them. This could be, however, still be valid option depending on your environment. If you know that there will be a lot Beastmen, Orcs, Dwarfs with Toughness 4 then you can expect the Art of Silent Death to be non-effective so you can of course ignore it. Still, the 15gc for a staff are probably better spent on henchmen (because of the XP as described above).

- Starting with a Fish-hook shot is a nice idea. I have never seen anyone in our group do that (I know I never did). Since you can hire a Peasant for the same money instead it is a tough decision. Still, if you are lucky with your rolls the hook shot might be very useful.


You can see a sample starting warband if you go to the warbands section on the Border Town Burning website. Go to the Battle Monks; there is a downloadable roster PDF file. That list is not necessarily a perfectly tuned power gaming list but you can combine it what has been said here.

I hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck in your campaign! Let us know how your games go!

Thanks guys,

I appreciate the input, I'll have another look over the list and maybe play a trial game or 2 with them.

We are currently 4 games deep in a 10 warband campaign so it'll be a while till I get to play them, partially because i don't have all the models constructed yet but mostly because I'm not about to relegate my marauder warband that has 3 scorpion tails an extra arm and tentacle and a champion with Bloated Foulness from rolling 64's in random happenings and a condemned with WS Str and T 5 .

jerk_burger wrote:

Thanks guys,

I appreciate the input, I'll have another look over the list and maybe play a trial game or 2 with them.

We are currently 4 games deep in a 10 warband campaign so it'll be a while till I get to play them, partially because i don't have all the models constructed yet but mostly because I'm not about to relegate my marauder warband that has 3 scorpion tails an extra arm and tentacle and a champion with Bloated Foulness from rolling 64's in random happenings and a condemned with WS Str and T 5 .

Wow. Congratulations! Sounds like a lot of great rolls (after only 4 games!).

Indeed,

2 rolls of 64 in 1 game of Tainted Copse was insane..

My opponents skaven got something like 13 wyrdstone shards and a couple of extra arms and I got the blessing, 4 mutations and 7 shards.

I'm still modelling the extra appendages.

Still no mark of chaos though

Hi.
Last year I used shadow warriors (as I use high elves in WFB ) but I found it way too easy. I chose a warband of Norse explorers (rules in the Border town Burning website.)
Fluff wise they're a cult of Ulric.

Heroes
First sword (Jarl)
Sigefrid the heavy armed:
Light armour, shield,helmet, sword

High priest (Ulfwerenar)
Witnere (that means nightmare in saxon):

Accolyte (bondsman)
Sihtric:
Axe, free dagger

Accolyte (bondsman)
Guthrum:
Axe, sheild

Henchmen

Temple warriors (maruaders)
Berwulf and Ralla:
Axe, sheild, throwing axe, helmet

Temple warriors (hunters)
The Stenach twins:
Sword, sheild, bow

500 Gold crowns

It's been a while since I've played mordhiem but I reckon I'll have a good chance with this warband. And Witnere should be living up to his name with his 18" movement (sprint) + his d6 leap move.

@Pentagathus: Cool that you are using Norse! My first campaign of Mordheim was with Norse, so I have a special place in my heart for them. About your list: you need more bodies and less armour! Norse have the advantage of being able to start with 6 heroes and doing so will help you in the exploration phase. It also means you are one of the blessed few who do not have to keep their fingers crossed for 'lad's got talent'. In short: buy some berserkers!

I would ditch the light armour, helmets and shields and equip the heroes with two melee weapons each. Also, but maybe it is just my bad luck with ranged weapons talking, consider dropping the bows on the hunters. You will be outshot by shooty warbands anyway and BS3 means you will often hit on a 6 only, if at all. Better wait until they get BS4 before you give them bows.

Last comment: don't forget about wolves. They may not be great fighters, but they can provide you with cheap cannon fodder and charge interceptors. They can also be sacrificed without much pain when you need to rout. At 15GC they are a bargain, so try finding some money for one or two.

Just my two coppers. Good luck with your cult of Ulric!

Thanks.
I'll drop the helmets on my maruaders and the light armour but I'm going to keep the bows (becuase I feel vulnerable without shooting) and the shields (becuase I like shields and dislike two hand weapons.) Oh and throwing axes will have +1 str in our house rules. I've already got two wolves
Edit:
And I might be able to get my group to agree to a shield bash house rule.

I have my own Witch hunter war band and I made a list for an upcoming tournament:


1 Witch Hunter Captain; pistol, hammer, free dagger - 78
1 Witch Hunter; pistol, hammer, free dagger - 43
1 Witch Hunter; sword, hammer, free dagger - 38
1 Witch Hunter; axe, hammer, free dagger - 33
1 Warrior-Priest; hammer, free dagger - 43
4 Flagellants;flail - 220
3 Warhounds - 45
Total = 500

In earlier lists I had two crossbows, but due to lack of results I decided to ditch them this time and see how a close combat group turns out.

Here are my starter lists for Posessed and Reikland

Posessed:
Magister Sword, Hammer 83
Posessed xtra arm 130
Mutant xtra arm 3 Hammers 74
3 Beastmen Hammer 144
Cultist Spear, Shield 40
Tilean Marksman 30

This one is tricky to play early in a campaign as you need to get some money quickly to boost the size, but with only 3 heroes I usually lose the first few games to keep them alive. I put the Beastmen in seperate groups both to up the chance of getting a new hero and because I want to give one another hammer one a flail and one a double-hander

Reikland:
Captain Duelling Pistol, Sword, Hammer 98
Champion Crossbow, Hammer 63
Champion Double Handed Weapon 50
Youngblood 2 Hammers 21
Youngblood 2 Hammers 21
2Marksmen Crossbows 100
2Marksmen Longbows, Hammer 80
2Marksmen 2 Hammers 62

This warband is much more sucessfull. The first upgrades I got for are longbows or crossbows for the Marksmen without missile weapons and then fill out the rest of the band with swordsmen

Hey guys. Starting a campaign today and I have chosen to start an undead warband.

The list is the following.

Vampire with sword and mace
Necro
3 dregs, all with maces
6 zombies
2 ghouls
2 direwolves.


I have been told to lose some zombies perhaps?

Maybe lose some zombies for an extra ghoul? If you make every ghoul a separate group you have an extra chance to roll 'Lad's got Talent'. More heroes = more wyrdstone.

Thanks for the quick reply!

So it would look something like this.

Vampire with sword and mace 123 GC
Naked Necro 35 GC
3 dregs, naked 60 GC

2 direwolves 100 GC
3x1 ghouls 120 GC
4 zombies 60 GC
Total : 498 gc

I'd probably lose one more zombie for some maces for the heroes and a short bow for the necro, but otherwise that list seems OK with me.

Hmm okay. The first battle has been played. I think I'll start a small blog or something but dont really know how much I'll update it, but lets give it a try!

The ultra risky, not exactly legal, but probably acceptable(by most players), dwarf warband that will either get lucky and win or die a most bloody death and never survive to continue past the serious injury table. Also Known As how much gold can I put into a single model and still field a warband of three members (arguably four).

Dwarf Noble - 85gc
-Gromril Dwarf Axe - 45gc
-Gromril Armor - 75gc
-Shield - 10gc
-Helmet - 10gc
-Bear Mount (Kislevite Tamed Bear Cost and Stats) - 145gc
-Barding - 80gc

Beardling - 25gc
Beardling - 25gc

Total 500gc

The good part: chance to parry, armor save 1+, 1-2knockdown, 3-5 stun with a 4+ chance to make it knockdown, only a 6 for out of action.

The bad part: a critical quickly makes a mockery of all of the expensive armor, which lead to a house rule that instead of ignoring armor a critical only takes -1 for roll 3-4 and -2 for roll 5-6 for criticals, along with the usual 2 wounds staying intact. Additionally it is easy to see that if this noble gets OOA we have a good chance of losing that mount with no way of getting enough money to continue this game as a campaign.

Hey everyone, Skaven starting campaign warband. Campaign will consist of Blood Dragon Warband(undead), Skaven, and Witch hunters.

6 heroes
7 henchmen

Assassin, Two swords, helm, sling. (87)
Sorcerer - Sling, club, f/dagger (50)
Black Skaven - Fighting claws (75)
Black Skaven - Flail, sling (17)
Night Runner - Sling, f/dagger (22)
Night Runner - Sling, f/dagger (22)

x3 Verminkin - Spear, sling (96)
x3 Verminkin - Club, f/dagger, sling (75)
x1 Giant rat (15)

499g
13 Units, rout after 4, max heroes.

I ideally want to get all verminkin spears and slings but can't offord it yet, so at least for now I have 3 spearweilders, a handy weapon to stop charges and 3 other verms with two attacks.

The black skaven will be cc focussed (hence the flail and fighting claws) and night runners held right back just slinging until they can get enough exp to be dangerous.

I don't know about the giant rat though, he's only there to get my rout up to 4, so I doubt I'd want him up front leading the way. I could always get rid of the spears but right now spears are what I want my rats to end up using so I want to get some right away.

perhaps drop one spear and the giant rat and make that into another verminkin with club?

I like it, done.

edited, got rid of the sling off the black skaven with flail, gave it to the verminkin so its now 5 verminkin with club and sling and 2 with spears. Good numbers for me.

Right then my proposed starting Averland warband - Motre's men. They all have the starting dagger on top of this lot. The idea is a nobleman looking for his missing son in the city with a few trusted men. Of course they have to finance this lot hence the morally grey selling wyrdstone etc.....

Count Von Motre (Captain) - 90
Twohanded weapon, pistol Yes I know two-handed weapons are not that good but I like the model.

Motre's squire (youngblood) - 35
Sword, Bow Sword and Bow so he can develope into either another sniper or a close combat person

Sergeant Klaus (Sergeant) - 50
Sword, Buckler

2 Bergjaegers - 50 each
Longbow Sniper by another name

3 Mountain Guards with spears - 120 for all 3

1 Mountain Guard with a sword and buckler - 45

2 Halfing scouts with Bows - 60

EDIT - I'm may not get the halfings and second bergjaeger in time for the first game so it may look like.....

Count Von Motre (Captain) - 90
Twohanded weapon, pistol Yes I know two-handed weapons are not that good but I like the model.

Motre's squire (youngblood) - 35
Sword, Bow Sword and Bow so he can develope into either another sniper or a close combat person

Sergeant Klaus (Sergeant) - 50
Sword, Buckler

Bergjaegers - 50
Longbow Sniper by another name

3 Mountain Guards with spears - 120 for all 3

3 Mountain Guards with sword and Bow - 150 for all 3

Leaving me with 5 gcs spare. Not the list I wanted but such is life. Only 10 starting models instead of the 11 I had before and only 1 BS4 sniper.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes. This is my initial idea for my warband's composition and fluff.

CAPTAIN MARIAN'S LOST PATROL

CPT MARIAN WEST
Capt
Sword
Mace
Bow

GREGOR DAIMUS
Champ
Sword
Mace

SOLOMON LEINHARD
Champ
Sword

JOHNATHON TRENT
Youngblood
Mace

SOLOMON RITTER
Youngblood
Mace

MARIAN'S MULES
Warriors (6)
Mace

THE LOOKOUTS
Marksmen (3)
Long Bow
Mace

1 GC left...


The names are admittedly not very Empire-ish (ie not very Germanic) but I think they work. Marian and his men were part of a unit of runaway soldiers from the Imperial Army. The archers were in a detachment that followed them. Marian was the captain of his unit and had high asperations for advancement in the military. These came to naught, however, as his self serving nature constantly led to official reprimand and hindered his promotion despite his natural leadership skills and prowess. Finally, deciding his skills had been unappreciated for the last time, he met with his most trusted men, and they all agreed to leave together to find fame and fortune. The open road did not treat them well, however, and soon they had spent all their gold and sold much of their equipment. Unable to return to anywhere they would be recognized (being deserters) they motley band trudged on to Mordheim, vowing to stay until they are all rich, or all dead.

What do you guys think of the fluff and the competitiveness of the list?

My only problem with it is that although you have a lot of heroes you have a lot of henchmen, that means you'll be earning less in exploration. Mabye you should have only 3 warriors, better equiped.