First. Ever. Warband.

Hi, I've just posted in the newb thread, saying hi and all.
I have no warband, what's a captain with no warband?
So, I was thinking of having a shooty Reikland warband, at first I thought Ogres, too big for crawling around ruins, then, Dwarf Treasure Hunters, then I thought of the movement factor, and a little tactic of how to play, here's a warband list I'm thinking of, but if anyone knows anything that sounds more fitting, please say

Mercenary Captain
 Bow
 Mace
 Helmet

Champion
 Helmet
 Doublehanded Weapon

Champion
 Axe
 Sword

Youngblood
 Mace
 Lantern
 Rope & Hook

Youngblood
 Axe
 Rope & Hook

Marksmen x3
 Crossbow
 Rope & Hook

Marksmen x2
 Bow

I may have a couple of the rules mixed up, but I used to stare on in wonder at all things Mordheim when I was younger, I might be thinking too much into the rules.
Cheers!

Apologies for the double post, I've been looking at possible halfling miniatures I could actually get my hands on, thinking they might make a good shooty warband.

Hey Captain.
Sorry it took so long to get to your post, but I wanted to check the rulebook before I stuck my foot in.

One issue your warband has is that you have assigned Miscellaneous equipment in a starting band.  You may only buy things like Lanterns and ropes and hooks AFTER your first game unless the equipment is listed on your starting equipment list. This is not the case for mercenaries so you have to pick up lanterns, ropes and hooks later.  

In addition only heroes carry such mundane items as ropes and hooks unless a henchman is specifically allowed in his equipment description, so no mercenary henchman will ever get a rope and hook.

My only quibble otherwise is assigning a champion a double-handed weapon at start.  Since these weapons strike last, your champion will always be attacked by his opponent even if he charges.  If he survives the attack he will only get one attack back, even if this attack does strike with +2 strength.  The only time I assign double handed weapons to beginning warriors is if the miniature is armed that way and I REALLY want to use that model.

Halflings!  I really like the halfling list and had a blast playing them.

Cheers,
VK

Wow, thanks for all the info, I'll have to look at getting champions with crossbows or something, and maybe go for the mace/sword combo, I like the idea of having a couple of guys with the hooks and ropes and crossbows. My tactic was to have the young bloods scouting for hidden enemies whilst my marksmen pick 'em off.
I had a look at thebattleforge website at the Halflings, but, it'll be quite pricey to get a good enough warband together, I'm tight for cash, and £40 is a little too much right now, plus paints, brushes, green stuff. I do like how the halflings could be played really sneaky with an ogre taking most of the punishment.
I'm thinking of playing a reikland warband in the guise of rough woodsmen/hired brigands (with a noble back story) so fur hats and beards will be my theme I think, going from the free company on the GW site, with green stuff. Going to be a challenge since I haven't painted one mini in about 8/9 years.

In my personal experience, starting out with crossbows is not really a good idea (especially in existing campaigns). There are several reasons for this:
- Crossbows are static. Too static. If your model has a crossbow, he can either only defend a small area, stand out of cover or waste precious turns to reposition. All are bad for you
- Models with crossbows attract fire. Crossbows are relatively scary, so people tend to want them silenced. This makes them work well as bait, but not as main shooting in your army.
- Crossbows are pricey. For 25 gold pieces, you might consider going for a longbow, shield and toughened leathers, or a bow and pistol instead. This gives them a bit more survivability in close combat, and a lot more mobility.
So in the end, you have a static, arrow-attracting pricey and vulnerable model. I'm sure crossbow fans don't think about it the same way, but for beginning warbands armoured marksmen (or one or two more, of course) are the better choice to me.

I see your reasoning, I was thinking of the S4, but didn't think of the draw backs, would S3 be good enough for most scenarios? I'm thinking if I come up against dwarves or ogres, I suppose I could make some minis with crossbows to bring in later in campaigns. I take it, there aren't many advantages to shooty warbands, apart from keeping away from scary beasties?

On the contrary! Reiklanders, pretty much the most shooty official warband, tend to get really powerful rather quickly. With fair-priced heroes to do the close combat, you can put all your remaining funds into BS 4 marksmen to shoot at your enemy with.
The downside with shooting is that you can't easily finish off knocked down or stunned models easily, but hey, an archer not firing for one or two turns or a tooled-up fighter knocked to the ground for your heroes to finish off is a victory too, no?

And regarding the crossbow: S4 is always nice to have, but your opponent is not going to voluntarily position his ogre or possessed or other creepy thing within sight of your archers, so the extra manouverablitily of bows helps counter this.
However, crossbows on your heroes (especially your leader) do work really well, as they are where the big bad guys are going to anyway

Great! I was beginning to think maybe I had made the wrong decision, I've written some fluff for my band haha. Yeah, you make some seriously good points, I'd love to see a battle report with you involved So, stick to bows/long bows for my marksmen, and basically unload my treasury in to making my champions and captain good all rounders.
I've just ordered some bits from bitzbox.co.uk for my guys, some heads with fur hats from the empire archers box set, with a little mix of bows, quivers and swords, oh, and pistols, for close up shootyness. I'll be handing out maces and swords to my champs, and maybe go overboard and give them crossbows, then my captain can have a crossbow, pistols, and hand-to-hand gear. What do you think about having youngbloods with spears? Maybe as a first strike for hth and keep them with my bowmen?

If you can spare some extra 15 gold, give your henchmen some clubs. So they have 2 melee attacks (free dagger + club) but without the disadvantages from a normal fist. Also I tend to equip my youngbloods with two hand weapons (club and axe for 8g is a good combo). And after they won some xp - if they surive - they'll get swords and/or armor.

I've gone beyond clubs, I've been thinking on it all, been pretty distracted with it, I'm giving the marksmen longbows and swords, here's my new (WIP) Warband line up.

The Oakley Poachers

Captain - Rolf
Sword
Mace
Pistol
Crossbow

Champion - Rudeger
Sword
Crossbow
Axe

Champion - Volkhard
Sword
Mace
Pistol

Youngblood - Reuban
Mace

Youngblood - Engel
Axe

Marksmen x4
Longbow
Sword

This is with a view to a few different tactics. Buying a lantern for a Youngblood so he could act as a scout for the bows. The champs can support the Captain by many means. My Captain will be able to shoot every turn with S4 hit, maybe keeping the pistol for up close. I imagine my bowmen firing from a high up window as the Captain and champs advance down a street, the youngbloods ahead of them slightly, then, bang! Skaven burst from a door a few houses down, the youngbloods retreat behind the Cpt and champs firing line, supported by the longbows... But that's just one scenario.

Sorry for double post, wondering on a rule, if my Captain has on his sheet, that he carries a pistol and a mace, in fluff/modelling terms, could he just be seen to be using the pistol as his mace? Historically they were used in that manner, and the rules in the book confuse me, not sue if it's talking about firing in hand-to-hand, or, as I mentioned, like a club. Cheers!

The rules are a little vague, but it boils down to this: You can only fire a pistol(s) during the first round of hand-to-hand combat, and afterwards, you have to resort to other weapons in place of them.

If you wish to use them as clubs, make sure you pay the extra 3 gold each, and let your opponent know this is what you're doing. I don't see this being so big of an issue.

sounds good to me thanks, it would make for a good scene I think, firing off the pistol and then spinning it around for a quick whack on the nose.

I've seen old-fashioned flint-locks in my local museum, and they had some pretty stout frames reinforced with lots of metal. They certainly looked like they could deliver a powerful blow to the head!

Oh yeah, they were probably used once or twice with ship boardings and used as clubs the rest of the time, some of them even have that metal ball built into the end, good old days eh? They don't make 'em like they used to!  

I've been poking my nose around, and found a list for mercenary warbands, seeing as I'm not using swordsmen, I'm thinking of using the Stirland mercenary rules, does anyone know if most people ue these rules? For the Stirland, they are all basic, but the benefits are that, you can have 0-12 marksmen with BS+1 and all marksmen start with "heavy pull" giving them +1 strength when using any bow, are these rules a little over powered? And do you guys think most would allow me to use these rules? Matches pretty well with my fluff too

I have never encountered the rules you refer to. 0-12 Marksmen with S4 bows...No.

Ah right okay, I thought it seemed a little overpowered, here is a link to the site where these rules are posted - http://www.killershrike.com/Mordheim/NewWarbands/Mercenaries.aspx - I'll avoid using this site I think.

Looking at it I kind of wonder at the timeline of the post. He includes several warbands that got a full treatment by GW including Averlanders and Kislevites. Perhaps he wrote this before those warbands were published?

At least it is obvious that this his rules are fan-made.

Yeah, I'm going to have to be careful of that. Looks like I'm going to have to try and set up my own gaming group where I am, so it might be me they look to, to kind of govern it, I'll just have to put them in touch with you guys haha