The Count of Ventimiglia's Misericordia

The question is how the artifact works around the Dwarf's "Hard to Kill". Does it override it, or will it simply mean that it stuns on 1-5 and takes OOA on 6's still?

In my group we have house-ruled the dwarfs to get -1 to OOA and the dagger to give +1 to OOA and +2 to stun. This means that the effects will cancel each other out in the OOA bracket and the dagger will have full effect in any other bracket i.e. 1-4:stunned, 5-6 OOA.

I see - interesting solution! And with Strike to Injure we're back to the original effect vs. Dwarves as well ^_^ I'll see how that solution fares with the group (the main players has a thing for Dwarves) - thanks!

Any others who do it in another way?

Might as well use my own thread, since the topic is just this specific artifact.

My next question is: How does the skill Expert Swordsman work with the Dagger, which is to be treated as a Sword?

In my group we allow it to be used with anything that works with swords. In this sort of situation we generally rule that 'counts as' stuff are a sort of 'quantum' situation where e.g. the item is both a sword and a dagger so if something only works with swords it will target the Meriscordia and if something only worked with a dagger it would work with the Meriscordia. By the same token, if something was *immune* to daggers it would be immune to the Meriscordia and if something was immune to swords it would be immune to the Meriscordia.

Sometimes this leads to a few odd situations, but we mostly shrug those off with 'its a game, not a simulation' and the convenience and consistency makes things easier to deal with when it pops up in other situations. For example we also use this guideline when a warrior is in close-combat with only KD/Stunned enemies. They will count as both in combat and not in combat depending on what is happening. They can be shot at because they will count as not being in combat, but any abilities they have that require them being in combat will be able to be used also.

Alright, I can understand that rule. I think my group said 'the artifact is already good as it is without Expert Swordsman', which I can understand... But it's an artifact! And if it treated as a normal Sword rulewise, then I'd discard the Dagger rules, which were probably only made, so that all future warbands would be able to use it.

Lord 0 wrote:

For example we also use this guideline when a warrior is in close-combat with only KD/Stunned enemies. They will count as both in combat and not in combat depending on what is happening. They can be shot at because they will count as not being in combat, but any abilities they have that require them being in combat will be able to be used also.

Interesting. Our interpretation is the opposite - they cannot be shot at, because they count as being in close combat. This is why we interpretate it like that:

"Moving from combat
Once models are engaged in hand-to-hand combat they cannot move away during their movement phase. They must fight until they are either taken out of action, until they take out their enemies, or until one or the other breaks and runs. The exception to this rule is that if all a model’s close combat opponents are knocked down or stunned, he may move away from the combat if you wish, and even charge other enemies within range."

So they're considered in close combat, and their opponents are considered as 'close combat opponents'. Thus they cannot be shot as, since they're in close combat. However, in their turn, they may leave close combat and will no longer be considered as being in one, except if they charge another opponent.

Oh yeah, that is totally how the rules work. We just like the cinematic visual of somone standing over an ally, about to administer the coup-de-gras and then THWACK! From out of nowhere comes a ranged shot into the baddie! The dude on the ground weakly looks off-camera and gives a grateful smile to their friend with the bow, who returns the gesture with a stoic head-nod. And so forth.

Haha, yeah, I love the cinematic moves done in Mordheim - really gets a story going!

In our games the baddie won't get hit though... he just won't get a kill either, judging from the arrow through the head of the dude on the ground.