Cursed Freebooters

Hello guys, been a while but now winter is coming and its time to get back to miniature Mordheim I wrote up this list today. Its the first homemade warband I have made yet and I have yet to test it. however I thought id share it here and see what you guys think.

CURSED FREEBOOTERS
Most adventures have head tales of undead sailors haunting the seas of the Old world. The myth usually describe a crew selling their souls in exchange for immortality or a captain cursing his crew after a bloody mutiny. What the few tales tell, is the stories about how these skeletal freebooters from time to time go to shore, to plunder the living. Sometimes even sailing up the broad rivers of the empire to raid cities inland. No one knows exactly why the ghastly Captains lead their crews to Mordheim, or why they gather wyrdstone, and one thing is certain, dead men tell no tales.

Income and trading:
Undead pirates doesn't trade or have much interaction with the living, other then killing them. Instead they hoard their treasure in hidden caves or bury it on secret locations. whether to save up for the day when their curse is lifted or collecting booty to pay the dept. to the source of the affliction, the pirates will now and then take some of the looted equipment for themselves. When the treasure grows, more crewmembers will join the quest as the infernal entity releases more pirate souls from its locker.

MAXIMUM CREW SIZE: 12

MAX STATISTICS

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 6 6 4 5 4 5 4 10

SPECIAL RULES

There be no room for arrows in the powder keg: No member of the warband may use non-blackpowder missile weapons.

Soul Collectors: The Undead Pirates are always fighting to repay the debt to the demonic source of their curse and counts as possessed for the purpose of special results on the Exploration Chart.

Might as well have peglegs: All members of the warband are Undead and may not run, but may charge normally.

Grim bunch: Cursed Freebooters are all terrifying Undead pirates and cause fear.

Addled Swabs: None of the Cursed Freebooters are affected by psychology and never leave combat.

Grog's lost its taste: Cursed Freebooters are not affected by poison or decease.

Dead men tell no tales, nor do they feel pain: The undead nature of the Cursed Freebooters makes them treat a ‘stunned’ result on the Injury chart as ‘knocked down’.

No one trusts a Pirate, especially a dead one!: The Warband can't hire any Hired Swords, except for Warlocks who often hope to find a way to benefit from the powerful source of the curse.

CURSED FREEBOOTER EQUIPMENT

Melee:
Dagger 1st free/2gc
Sword 10gc
Club 3gc
Axe 5gc
Rapier 25gc
Whip** 10gc

Ranged:
Pistol 15gc (30 for a brace)
dueling Pistol 25gc (50 for a brace)
Blunderbuss 30gc
Handgun 35gc
Rifel 200gc

Armour:
Heavy Coat 5gc
Cloak* 25gc

Special Equipment:
Superior Black Powder* 35gc
Cursed Pet* 25gc
Robe'n'Hook 5gc

* Heroes Only
** Dread First Mate Only

HEROES

1 Cursed Captain
115 gold crowns to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 4 4 4 4 2 4 2 9

SKILLS: Combat, Shooting, Academics, Speed, Strength

Weapons/Armour: The Cursed Captain may be armed with weapons and armour chosen from the Cursed freebooter list.

Special Rules:
Leader: Any warrior within 6" of the Cursed Captain may use his Leadership characteristic when taking Leadership tests.

Forever Cursed: If the Captain is ever killed, the hero with the highest leadership score will temporarily take over leading the warband. However, as the captain can never truly be killed and is doomed to haunt forever he will rise again with time. The Cursed Captain can, after his death, be re-bought with all his equipment, advances and injuries for 100 GC + 1 for every experience point he has. Once he returns he will reclaim leadership of his crew.

Black Determination: The captain has become adept at seeking out at defeating rival officers who stand in the way of his redemption. As a result he gets +1 to hit enemies with Leader ability.

Start XP: 20

0-1 Dread First Mate
45 gold crowns to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 3 4 4 4 1 3 1 6

SKILLS: Combat, Shooting, Strength

Weapons/Armour: The Dread First Mate may be armed with weapons and armour chosen from the Cursed freebooter list.

Start XP: 8

0-2 Undead Cabin Boys
20 gold crowns to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 2 2 3 3 1 2 1 3

SKILLS: Combat, Shooting, Academics

Weapons/Armour: Undead Cabin Boys may be armed with weapons and armour chosen from the Cursed Freeboter list.

Start XP: 0

HENCHMEN

0-2 Wight Pirates
40 gold crowns to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 4 0 4 4 1 3 1 6

Weapons/Armour: Wight Pirates may be armed with weapons and armour chosen from the Cursed freebooter list.

Special Rules:
Scrabbers: Wight Pirates specialize in hand to hand combat and duels and may never use any form of ranged weapons.

0+ Skeletal Crewmen
15 gold crowns to hire

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
4 2 2 3 3 1 2 1 3

Weapons/Armour: Skeletal Crewmen may be armed with weapons and armour chosen from the Cursed freebooter list.

Special Rules:
Forever Part of the Crew: The crewmen are cursed to serve their captain for eternity and must re-roll any advancement result of Lad's got talent.

NEW EQUIPMENT

Heavy Coat: 5gc (Cursed Freebooters Only) Common
A reinforced leather or oilskin coat that acts like a light armour, but can't be combined with any other form of armour, other then a Cloak, or sold back.

Cloak: 25+2d6gc (Cursed Freebooters only) Rare: 6
A long heavy cloak that acts like a buckler without taking up a hand.

Cursed Pet: 25+3d6gc (Cursed Freebooters only) Rare: 9
Pirates often keep small animals as companions to starve off the loneliness at sea, in some cases the sailors curse is affecting his pets as well. Any Hero in the Cursed Freebooter warband may have up to one Cursed Pet.

M WS BS S T W I A Ld
7 2 0 3 3 1 3 1 5

Weapons/Armour: Claws, paws or beak. Pets may never use any kind of weapons or equipment, and suffer no penalty for this.

Special Rules:
Almost Cute: The tiny companions doesn't have the same scary demeanor as their masters and though they are undead, they do not cause fear.

It sleeps in me left boot: Pets are small, insignificant creatures and doesn't count as members of the warband in any aspect, be it Rout tests, income or maximum number of warriors.

Whip: 10gc (Dread First Mate Only) Common

Range Strength
Close Com As user -1

SPECIAL RULES
Cannot be parried: The whip is a flexible weapon and the first mate use it with great expertise. Attempts to parry its strikes are futile. A model attacked by a whip may not make parries.

Whipcrack: when the first mate charges they gain +1A for that turn. This bonus attack is added after any other modifications. When the wielder is charged they gain +1A that they may only use against the charger. This additional attack will ‘strike first’. If the first mate is simultaneously charged by two or more opponents they will still only receive a total of +1A. If he is using two whips at the same time then they get +1A for the additional hand weapon, but only the first whip gets the whipcrack +1A.

That's the list
Feedback is highly appreciated.

On a side note I'm thinking on using Black Scorpions Undead Pirates for the warband.
http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/index.php?cPath=25&osCsid=q4tfj1eovef4f268ut252d5t72

There are so many undead pirate models and so few Undead pirate warbands. Thus I applaud your attempt at creating one.

We use StyrofoamKing's Ghost Pirates in our campaigns. The warband has its flaws, but with the right spells, it can be a good attempt at Cursed Pirates. (Otherwise its a band of living models with Undead heroes.)

I like that your warband has no living models, however, it suffers because you have only one type of henchmen to promote and then you can only have 2 of them. Not a recipe for success in the income department I say that from the experience of playing the original Khemri Tomb Guardians.

I'm not sure the warband is all that powerful that it needs the 12 man limit.

Things I would like to see:
-A magic user with a themed spell list.

-More mates. No undead cabin boys. I understand that they fill the youngblood/dreg slot, but they don't feature prominently in pirate lore (or undead pirate lore). Or perhaps I missed something.

-I really like the Ghost Pirates ability to enslave captured enemies and I like when those enslaved folks show up as zombies more than as living servants of the undead pirate captain. I miss that with your list.

-I'd like the warband more if you had an undead pirate skills list to go with it.

-Undead guns. I am fond of the old Warhammer Zombie Pirate Cursed Pistols and Handguns that always hit on a roll of 6+ (and always misfired on a 1). The Tomb Kings rule of undead missile weapons always hitting on a 5+ would be better for Skeletal Pirates...

-I also liked the Zombie Pirate rule that all units were aquatic.

Stuff I don't like about this list:
-4 heroes. And the choices of heroes, see above.

-No magic. Undead warbands gotta have magic.

-Only one henchman type can be promoted. Need more Wights if nothing else.

-Wights only use melee weapons. Er, these lads is pirates mate. Dead uns, but pirates all the same.

-The Heavy Coat. Sounds a lot like Toughened leathers, why not call it that and save some ink.

-The Freebooters' Cloak. Undead pirates are Tilean duelists? How about a skill instead of an odd equipment choice? (Not too many dead pirates come with cloaks. Out of the selection from Black Scorpion I only see one... None of my Reaper minis have a cloak...)

When all is said and done its your project and this is just my buck fifty or so. I might write my own list up someday.  

Thanks a lot for the feedback Really gave me something to think about.
My wife initially considered them overpowered, while you seem to find them kinda underpowered.
I'll try to go through you comments and suggestions to explain the thoughts behind the decisions I made.

-A magic user with a themed spell list. wrote:

Originally i wanted to add some Voodoo themed spell list, but as I was writing i realised that it did not fit with the feel i was going for. These are regular freebooters who got hit by a curse and not spellcasters themselves. Also 3 of the heroes have access to acedemics skills, and can pick up magic later on.
Another reason for not giving them magic and a skill list, is that im a little bored with every new warband having spells, special skills, special equipment and special rules to boot. I find that a bit of moving around, a bit of renaming and just a little new stuff can create an exiting new warband in fact my group rarely allows warbands with too many "special features".

-More mates. No undead cabin boys. I understand that they fill the youngblood/dreg slot, but they don't feature prominently in pirate lore (or undead pirate lore). Or perhaps I missed something. wrote:

hmm... good point. I do like the randomness and fast advancement of "youngblood'ish" heroes, but youre right, ill ponder a bit on this

-I really like the Ghost Pirates ability to enslave captured enemies and I like when those enslaved folks show up as zombies more than as living servants of the undead pirate captain. I miss that with your list. wrote:

The whole "capture" special warband rule allways bothered me in general, and i know my group would never go for it

-I'd like the warband more if you had an undead pirate skills list to go with it. wrote:

As above, i dont really feel that they need it. The warbands set of undead special rules along with the captains 2 (very powerful) special rules covers that pretty well i think. That being siad, i also love it when a warband has a shiny set of skills

-Undead guns. I am fond of the old Warhammer Zombie Pirate Cursed Pistols and Handguns that always hit on a roll of 6+ (and always misfired on a 1). The Tomb Kings rule of undead missile weapons always hitting on a 5+ would be better for Skeletal Pirates... wrote:

I dont think they need it with their current stats, but if game testing proves that they are underpowered I'll definently consider it

-I also liked the Zombie Pirate rule that all units were aquatic. wrote:

That is so cool! I'm so gonna steal that idea!

-4 heroes. And the choices of heroes, see above. wrote:

I limitid the number to balance the fact that the warband consist of experience gainging undeads, but you might be right.

-No magic. Undead warbands gotta have magic. wrote:

Normally i would agree however these guys are cursed by someone(or something) who is not with the warband.

-Only one henchman type can be promoted. Need more Wights if nothing else. wrote:

Again i think you might be right. I'll play test with this in mind and raise the number of wights if need be.

-Wights only use melee weapons. Er, these lads is pirates mate. Dead uns, but pirates all the same. wrote:

Your right. I dont what i was thinking ill remove the rule and give them bs 2.

-The Heavy Coat. Sounds a lot like Toughened leathers, why not call it that and save some ink. wrote:

Toughened leathers have been changed slightly in our gaming group, and i wanted something with the original rules for it, for these guys

-The Freebooters' Cloak. Undead pirates are Tilean duelists? How about a skill instead of an odd equipment choice? (Not too many dead pirates come with cloaks. Out of the selection from Black Scorpion I only see one... None of my Reaper minis have a cloak...) wrote:

Mainly because i diddn't want to give them a whole skill list but like the idea of swashbuckeling undead pirats relying on parries rather then armour to stay upright in longer fights

Again, thanks for the feedback! I'll try to get a test game going this weekend and tweak and change with your suggestions in mind.
I'll return when i have more data on their balance issues

Also i think i might add some special rule that helps the warband with income (like Khemri and dwarfs) to avoid them falling to much behind early in campaigns.

Stronzo wrote:

Also i think i might add some special rule that helps the warband with income (like Khemri and dwarfs) to avoid them falling to much behind early in campaigns.

This would make a great excuse to have some kind of 'Where did we bury the Treasure again Captain?' rule  

To represent them sending off a few minions to dig up/ retrieve an old stash, but maybe not having the best memory or using rotted maps  

Overall I like the theme of the warband, and I agree with points that both of you have made so far. I also find it annoying when every warband under the sun has it's own spell and skill list; it's nice every now and again, but frankly I prefer sticking with the original warbands when possible, as I feel they are better balanced (with the exception of Sister's needing some common consensus changes).

I've never been a fan of 4 hero warbands wither, as I feel that the rule which replaces the extra hero tends to just end up being more powerful than having an extra hero; you start off slower, but then build up almost unstoppable momentum the moment you start getting The Lads Got Talent and have 5 - 6 heroes + the special rules  

I agree that everyone should be able to have missile weapons- giving the Wights some kind of Tomb King-like ability to always hit on 5s (or maybe 6s) would be cool and still keep them being limited to lucky shots.

And I don't think you should worry about taking a wizard in the warband if you wanted one; being able to take a Lesser Magic user could be fluffy, i.e.: a captured wizard at the time of the curse being bestowed- who can only cast spells if a nearby hero passes a leadership test? Could be entertaining from a fluff point of view, and would fit in with the lack of other slaves/ cabin boys/ swabbies etc.

I also find the ability to capture other people's crewmen to be a bit cheesy, but in the case of something which was fitting for the warband and not over-powered I'd probably allow it (like the Spell of Awakening)