Five warbands to give a wide overview over mordheim?

Hi,

I have another question for you:

We got some new players in our gaming group campagn and because they have no models for their own, they had to borrow some.

The one wanted to play lizardmen, but because nobody had any models, he chose another warband.

My idea would be creating five warbands, fully painted, that an interested newbie can come and play with them. He would have a good-looking warband and can try different styles of armies, before deciding for one. And I would have more warbands, which also would be a nice effect *g*


What would be your five warbands for such an idea? Which five warbands are essential to get insight to mortheim? Which are fluffwise so important, that you have to choose them?


I personally would take:

- Beastmen
- Dwarfs (as they both are my starting warbands anyway)
- Mercenaries (can be play as Reikland, Middenheim, Marienburg, with some spare models eventually as Averlanders and Osterlanders)
- Skaven
- Undead


I also like especially the more beasty warbands, but I’m not sure if they were a good overview.

Warbands which could be also interesting imho are:

- Lizardmen (when fighting with lustria rules only?)
- Sisters of Sigmar
- Posessed
- O & G ?
- Witch Hunters


I personally like having kind of a diversity. I don’t really want to play any real human warband, as they seem kind of boring to me, but with such a warband, you can play a lot of different styles.
I think, in a year, I really could have the five warbands (if I can convince my wife letting me buy them ;-) ). I won’t play more than 3-4 games a month, but I think it would be nice anyway.


What do you think? Do you have more than one warband? For which reasons you chose your different warbands?


Best regards,
Seikilos

Since I pick my warbands based on what currently interest me I'm not sure if they are the "most powerful etc." I'm more into nice looking miniatures and conversions. Also for me half the game is the battle, the other half is the exploration phase and trading, to me those are just as important and fun (sometimes even more fun ). Trading and exploration works best with human warbands or at least warbands that are on speaking terms with humans (doesn't mean thy can't be cultist etc.)

The five warbands I would go for (I take it you are playing in Mordheim and not some strange wilderness location, I'm also asuming you use only GW parts.)

1. Mercenaries - humans rock. There are so many different ways to play using human warbands that it seldom gets boring. They are also easy to grasp for beginners since every one can imagine a gold hungry adventurer and his entourage. I recommend getting the two state troops boxes for this warband. From bitz shops you can get different weapons as needed. It might be controversial but avoid the old Mordheim mercenaries box, it's too expensive and the models are beginning to show their age.

2. Undead - For the fun and horror factor. Undead are an other fairly common archetype that everyone recognize. Dracula and all. Some players bemoan the lack of different bloodlines but you can easily use that standard Undead list to create Strigoi, Lahmian, Blood Dragons and Necrarch as well as von Carsteins. Since this warband gets a bit more expensive to buy I would suggest using bitz stores to get the parts you need.

3. Witch Hunters - fits perfectly into Mordheim, especially if you have the Undead or the Cult of the Possessed as well, everybodies favourite bad good guys. If you push it you can even use your mercenaries for this warband. I built a Vampire Hunters (basically same as WH) warband using state troopers and flagellants.

4. Cult of the Possessed - body horror and madness, what's not to like? The really evil guys in the setting. Nihilistic and murderous, they provide some much needed evil to get away from standard high fantasy territory. This is the perfect place to get some more involved conversions going, if you got the flagellant box for WH you should have some left over parts to use on this gang. The chaos sorcerer would make for an excellent magister and the possessed are the place to go crazy, merge flamers of tzeetch with flagellant heads and beastmen arms.

5. The last spot is up for grabs depening on what you have / like to include in Mordheim. I would suggest an other human warband for more player interaction but then again something completely different can also be fun

Warbands I would avoid, either because it's harder to create a cool story with them (at least for me you might feel different) or they are hard to convert/buy.

1. Beastmen - because all they want to do is destroy all civilization.

2. Skaven - because they do not exist.

3. Fimir - because they stay hidden in the mist and makes for much better boogeymen.

4. Sisters of Sigmar - have you seen those ebay prices?

5. Elves - because everybody seem to argue about them being too powerful (they aren't but the argument always pops up).

Honorary mention. Halflings - because they are Moot scum and Gotrek hates them.


This is just some ramblings and shouldn't be taken to seriously. At the moment I'm actually making a Fimir raiding party, a Halfling caravan and Elven privateers...

I'd go for Sisters and Possessed (residents), Skaven and Undead (warpstone/wyrdstone collectors) and Witch Hunters to burn the other warbands. With this, you get a good mix of different races and warriors, different playing styles and some interesting options for story arc rivalries.

Throw in Dwarf, Elf, Halfling and Ogre hired swords plus Beastmen in the Possessed warband and you have most bases covered.

I think that Beastmen/Dwarves/Mercs/Skaven/Undead provide a good cross-section of the game's warband arch-types.

You can exhibit many lores of magic, close combat monsters, huge variety of ranged weapons, fear, warband sizes, large creatures, fast & slow movement types, as well as featuring those of all stat lines. I think you would be hard pressed to pack more diversity into five selections.

You are missing the Elves and Greenskins. It would be nice to see the latter represented somehow. Perhaps O&G could replace Skaven in the line-up.

I've been trying to build diverse armies to keep things interesting also. My friend and I are playing a campaign where each of us has 5+ armies and we randomly determine which one is playing.

I have Ogres, Ostlanders (or Marienburgers), Wood Elves, Beastmen, Bretonnian Chapel Guard, Gnoblars, Protectorate of Sigmar, and Mordheim Fanatics.

He has brought Carnival of Chaos, Possessed, Forest Goblins, Black Orcs, Dark Elves, and Skaven of different clans.

We definitely don't play the same sort of game twice in night or even a month.

My choice would be Mercs, skaven, undead, witch hunters & sisters. With these five you can have variety of fluff to make and different style of play. And they are also easy to get, except the sisters. From one box of Empire Militia you can make any kind of mercenary warband and even witch hunters. Skaven Night Runners are perfect for starting with Eshin warband. And with little investment you can have an Undead warband, casue VC armies are so popular today, at least here where I live.

I'd say Mercenaries, Skaven, Undead, Witch Hunters and the Cult of the Possessed.  If you wanted to add a couple more choices, then Dwarfs and Orcs would be next on my list.  Then you might spiral out of control and end up with 24 different warbands somehow then wonder how the heck you're going to find time to paint them all   

For the human warbands, I think the Empire Militia (original Mordheim Mercs) still have some mileage in them.  From the newer stuff, the Empire Archers are pretty characterful and combined with the militia you have a wide range of weapon options and poses.  I'm less keen on the State Troops and Crossbowmen/Handgunners, you don't get a great variety of poses with those kits, though I should mention the heads and accessories are quite cool!  I'll add another recommendation for the Empire Flagellants to add that touch of weirdness that makes things Mordheimy, and also plenty of flaming torches for your Witch Hunters!  

I think the plastic zombies GW sells are still the same ones from ~15 years ago when I first got into Warhammer and began a Vampire Counts army.  Those guys are cool on their own and also mix well with the Empire Militia (I made a Scavvy gang for Necromunda mosty with bits from those two kits).  I'm not a fan of the current GW Vampires & Necromancers, but there are plenty of other options out there or the old GW models on eBay.

The Skaven Nightrunners were the Mordheim Skaven, and they have pretty much everything you'll need for a gang of ratmen.  I've no idea what the new Skaven plastic models are like.  You could always use bits from here with the human/zombie bits and some of your beastmen spares to make some freaky Possessed and mutants.  You could use the human kits from before for the cultists, or go for something more interesting.

I have actually done this. I have created fully painted warbands for new players to try out. I have two different Mercenaries, Witch Hunters, and The Cult of the Possessed. I beleive these give a baisc balance for "good guys" and "bad guys". Also the rules for these warbands are pretty baisc and stright forward so they are easy to use and learn. I'll be working on Orcs next. I might do Beastmen soon.

Well, its hard to choose ! I have over 20 warbands and its still not enough for me !! LOL...

But if I had to choose 5 trying to cover the most styles Id' go with :

1 - Mercenaries : Wide array of equipment, average stats, balanced shooting and close combat.

2 - Undead : Slow movement, cheap henchmen, cool magic, power center piece (vampire), fear effect, immunity to psychology

3 - Skavens : Fast movement, low morale, strength of number, close combat effectiveness(special skills)

4 - Shadow warriors : Fast movement, Shooting masters, expensive but efficient units (and NO they are NOT overpowered if you apply the sniper rule with the errata)

5 - Cult of the possessed : Diverse units, mutations, many way to play them and different spell lists (if you use the Corrupted character article)


I'd avoid

1 - Dwarves : They require some experience with charging and equipment managing.. not a good choice for beginners

2 - Beastmen : They require some experience with hiding and movement because of their almost absent shooting.

3 - Orc & Gobbos : Animosity, fanatics and squigs are rules that add a bit of complexity that is not a good thing for a beginner.

4 - Sisters of Sigmar : Because they should not exist at all.

Thanks for all your opionons!

I will think it over and then I'm going to make the complete opposit ;-)


Because I already have dwarfs and beastmen, they are absolutely in my choice.

Shadow warriors aren’t allowed in our bands, the only elves would be eventually dark elves.

I already spent days looking for great miniatures for all kind of armies in one of our biggest online-miniature shop. As soon as I’m done with my beastmen (at least two miniatures to go, maximum four, if I buy more models), I will start painting my dwarfs. They already are assembled and based and “only” need to be painted.
Because I really like the idea of painting undead and I never had anything to do with them, they will be probably next. Also in our gaming group we have actual skaven, reiklanders, pirates, marienburgers and outlaws of the stirwood forest, so making skaven isn’t necessary soon!