Werewolf warband for evaluation.

My nephew loves werewolves, but I couldn't find any werewolf warband that had werewolves he liked. The Norse warband had one werewolf, but that wasn't enough.

It is at the point were I have a whole bunch of different ideas in my head about what I want to do with the warband and they are all starting to run together so it is time for outside opinions.

If people could cast their eye over it and let me know what they think, that would be super.

Werewolf warband.pdf

Love the idea of a werewolf warband! Reading the list it looks VERY powerful.

The regenerative skill is a big one. I know from countless attacks on trolls that just ignore the wounds on 4+. This could perhaps be a selectable special skill from advancement?

The rarity and cost of the silver ammo, weapons, and wofsbane means there is almost no hope of balancing a fight against the werewolves. Especially early in the campaign. Making these items more common and less expensive would help with balance, perhaps a consumable item like silver dust in resin to coat weapons and ammo that lasts a game.

Infectious bite from the leader is scary. With wolfsbane being costly and rare, opposing warbands will be losing warriors most likely, and early in campaign it is almost certain. This can cripple some bands.

The spell list is also powerful but I dont think broken. I do question the flaming weapon in a warband where fire is one of the feared sources of damage?

The presentation of the list looks great. Very professional. Our group has talked about the Norse warband being appealing because of the werewolf as well. Thanks for sharing!

I knew it was going to be powerful, but I was hoping to make it at least manageable.

Happily, the list is not going to be used by a power-gamer, so I can afford to be a bit less rigorous than I usually am when evaluating lists.

The fire is there because a) flaming weapons are cool, b) sometimes werewolf warbands would fight each other, and so would be handy, and finally c) it was one of the few things I could think of for the fire rune to do. I wanted something fairly literal involving fire. I would expect they also have a few vials of aconite and perhaps some silver for just such an occasion too.

The aconite is perhaps a bit hard to come by, so I will probably drop the rarity by one. I think I will drop the price to 15 gold too, that would make it 30 gold for a cure. The wolfsbane was added for the purpose of having something relatively inexpensive that could be purchased by low warbands, but it is probably a bit expensive and hard-to-come-by as it is.

The typical campaign here will likely have 6-8 players in it, so warbands will not have to go up against a werewolf warband very often. I *think* that means that wolfsbane and silver bullets will be much like holy water - something you only buy a few of, carry around for a while, and only use during the games where you actually use them.

The regeneration will be pretty tough at the start, but they aren't going to have much armour, but even so I think I will make shields weremaeg only also.

I am also probably going to prune one or two werewolf skills, but I don't know which ones. Which skills do people think are the most suitable? I will prune the others.

My security program doesn't like your file...  

Pity. What does it say about it? It is just a standard pdf, as far as I know.

Lord 0, if at all possible can you tell me what you use to present your warband in this pdf? i would love to have the authentic looking warband with the mordheim font for a couple of warbands i have created for friends to print off (at least three, khainites necromancers, and lizardmen)

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Warning. This type of file can harm your computer.

Danger, Will Robinson!

I just got a pdf editor and stole all the images out of the official books . The font is HansFraktur and a quick google search will bring up about a jillion places to download it from. Make sure you install the font while no instances of LibreOffice/OpenOffice are running before you open the file.

Of course, once you have made any changes you require you can then export to pdf from inside the file menu.

Von Kurst, here is a re-export of the PDF, just in case there was something wrong with it. If your security thing still hates it, I guess you can try the ODT.

Werewolf odt

Werewolf PDF re-encoded

Fixed my access issue right there. Downloaded.  

Feedback absorbed and assimilated. New draft going up.

Werewolf ODT

Werewolf PDF

I think maybe you should change 'silver powder' to 'silver ammunition', so that other ranged weapons can fire it too (because if you think about it, silver-tipped arrows, crossbow bolts and throwing knifes make sense). The ammunition found must then be defined as either arrows, bolts, bullets or throwing weapons. Also, I'd think it would be better to have the price of silver weapons scale with the base price of the weapon a bit more (for example, 30gc plus thrice the weapon cost), because both in game terms as in terms of realism a silver dagger costing 62gc and a silver sword costing 70gc doesn't really make sense...

Also, I'd be cool for it to be possible to hire hired swords, but in order to hire them they have to pass a rarity roll (predetermined per hired sword). If this roll is passed, the hired sword is hired, but has the Lycanthrope (aka Curse of the Balewulf) special rule.

Because it is a poison Silver Powder can already be used by all ammunition except blackpowder. For blackpowder weapons you must use the silver bullets. Just like normal poison can go on throwing knives, arrows, bolts, etc. so can Silver Powder.

If the current means of them getting hired swords proves too cumbersome (alternate TLGT for the weremaeg) then I probably will do some kind of rarity thing.

I think I might make Silver powder only as effective as Aconite though, and leave silver bullets and the silver weapons at d3 wounds.

For the silver weapons it is a silver plating rather than a solid silver blade as that would be far too soft. Most of the cost comes from the labour rather than the price of the silver itself. Never-the-less, you are probably right about the price. Something like 2 * weapon + 50 for buying one and weapon cost + 70 for plating an existing weapon. If the weapon cost is already multiplying the base cost, the multiplyers will be added, e.g. a silvered gromril weapon will be 4 times ((3+1)*base) the cost rather than 6 times ((3*base)*2).

I think you have done a great job with the warband even though my first impulse is to run screaming from T4, W2 Heroes with 4+ Regenerate.  

I would be inclined to recommend that Regenerate be 5+ to make it in line with the Beowolf. But I would also tone down the effect of silver weapons and Wolfsbane. I'm thinking that knocking out regen and wound on a 4+ is enough. D3 or double wounds sounds scary.

I really like the idea of LGT henchmen becoming the Hired Sword through 'learning' a career.

I have only read it over a couple of times, but these are my first impressions. I can recognize the balancing elements, but I am not sure of how effective they will be.

The 4+ regenerate is intended to replace their armour since the only armour they can ever get it toughened leathers, and that isn't going to save a lot. Granted, they can get that up to a 5+ with the skill, but that means they aren't taking a damage skill and I suspect Step Aside and Dodge will be more valuable to them anyway.

I think I will take your advice and make it 5+, maybe 4+ with a skill.

4+ wounding, no heal, and d3 wounds is pretty strong, but I am not sure how much it all balances. It will take some play-testing, but I am pretty sure I will drop one of them - I am just not sure which one/s. Perhaps replace always 4+ to wound with always crits on a 6+ so you can still crit, even if that is what you need to wound. Maybe make it always wound on a 5+.

I am also thinking of making their max leadership 8 to reflect their somewhat bestial nature and the fact that they are ambush hunters.

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4+ wounding, no heal, and d3 wounds is pretty strong, but I am not sure how much it all balances. It will take some play-testing, but I am pretty sure I will drop one of them - I am just not sure which one/s.

I agree on the need for play-testing, that's always important.

I like the idea of 4+ regenerate being a skill. Ld 8 might make things interesting as well.

Well, I have had a few games against the werewolves and so far they don't seem too bad. The weremaeg and wulfmaeg are only T3 also, so it is pretty easy to win by shooting out the henchmen and making them run away.

I suspect that will change a fair bit once they get a few levels under their belt, but that is what playtesting is for .