Campaign house rules

Hi guys girls and halflings,
these are the rules for an upcoming campaign, just wanted the community to give them a once over and pick any major faults. The main players will be 3-4 senior/veteran players and hopefully 4-6 junior/newbie players. these will hopefully give a mix of enjoyable games and still a challenge for the player who want to win.

The Following warbands will be allowed; Averlander’s, Beastmen, Cult of the possessed, Dwarven Treasure Hunters, Marienburger’s,  Middenheimer’s, Orcs and Goblins, Rieklander’s, Sisters of Sigmar, Skaven, Undead and Witch Hunters. The rules for these warbands can be found in the rulebook or at www.mordheimer.com .

Middenheimer merc’s may replace either a champion or a youngblood with a wolf priest of Ulric

To Limit the destructive ability for the warbands, once the warbands rating hits 400, it will move on into a different part of the city and be disbanded. You will have to restart the warband or start a new faction.  
No Dramatis Personae will be allowed.

Hired swords can be used, they will be treated as heroes for the case of injury and exp. Advances, but cannot search for treasures after the battle. If they lose their equipment (robbed, captured etc) then the hired sword will purchase his/her/it’s own equipment before the next battle. (you’re not paying them if they can’t supply their tools!!!) Once the services of the hired sword are terminated (eg you stop paying him) he will disappear, if you wish to hire him again he will have the starting stats.

The Following hired swords will be able to be used; Pit fighter, Ogre Bodyguard, Halfling scout, Warlock, Freelancer, Elf Ranger, Dwarf Slayer, Bounty Hunter,  Duelist, & Tilean Marksman. The Rules for which are in the rulebook or listed below.

The Following optional rules will be used; The New Critical hits chart, Escaping for Combat, Rewards of the Shadowlord, Black powder weapons chart. Other rules may be introduced as the campaign progresses.

The following house rules will be used; At warband creation armour will cost 50%, during the battle rounds armour will cost 75% of the stated cost. Armour rating and costs are as follows
• Toughened leathers, 5gc (5gc) 6+, Cant be traded/sold, can’t be combined with shield ( available to all models that can take light armour)
• Light armour, 10gc (15gc), 5+
• Heavy armour, 25gc (35gc), 4+
• Gromril armour, 75gc (100gc) 3+
• Ithilmar armour, 45gc (70gc) 4+
• Shield 5gc (5gc) +1 to save

Dual wielding will be at a -1 to hit with the offhand weapon ( nominate weapon before roll), Note this doesn’t affect pistols in combat,  and the combat skill “ambidextrous” will be added. This will ignore the -1 penalty to hit. Extra attacks from tail fighting, extra arms etc are not affected. Paired weapons ( fighting claws etc) are not affected.

A target can be shot at if any part of the body if visible eg. Hands, boots or tentacles. A model cannot be hit if only equipment, eg. feathers, weapons or shields, can be seen.

Slings will use s3 for a single shot and s2 for multiple shots. (as well as the -1 to hit for multiple shots.)

Henchmen are able to use all common miscellaneous items ( lanterns, rope& hook etc)

If a warband falls below its starting gold coins then it shall automatically be given a bonus to restore it to its starting gold. Eg. Ben’s Possessed take a mauling and his remaining models and equipment only add up to 350gc he will be given 150gc to rebuild his warband. This is to give everyone a fighting chance and incentive to struggle on with a warband after a few bad losses.

A up to date and readable roster will need to be with you when ever you wish to play a game. Any questions/ non WYSIWYG/ counts as are to be pointed out before the game starts. Rosters will be available from Ben, either hard copies or an editable excel roster.

All exp. Advances, exploration, injure or any other rolls must be taken in front of another person. For D66 rolls if the dice aren’t nominated (eg red dice is 10’s white is 1’s) then the lowest number shall be used ( don’t nominate, roll a 5 and a 1, it’s a 15 – Dead! So remember to nominate!!!!)

Any disputes will be either resolved by the game master or if he is unavailable by rolling a D6 1-3 is in favour of the player who’s turn it is, 4-6 is to the non turn player.

Terrain with ropes: Warriors treat ropes on terrain in the same as a rope and hook. They still have to roll for Initiative but get to reroll a failed Initiative test.

All terrain is to be respected, looked after and placed back in the box after the game. It has be purchased for the enjoyment of all but woe behold anyone who damages it on purpose.

If a Henchman rolls “The Lads got Talent” but your warband already has 6 heroes, you may dismiss any of the heroes except the leader to make room for the henchman. All of the dismissed heroes equipment goes into the stash.

Rout test don’t have to be taken, only voluntary routing can be taken once the warband loses 25% of its models. This means that the players will have choose when they have had enough of a hammering, and if it’s time to go.  

Thanks in advance for any C&C
SoR 

There is certainly quite some thought in these rules. Some of it I've seen often, some not (no rout test). I'm curious who'll be able to get the toughest warband by working his way around the crutial 400-points mark. At what point is the warband to be dispanded? In the exact moment you hit the 400 in the post-battle sequence, or are you allowed to then drop a henchman/misdeveloped hero to get below the 400?

One rule that always annoyed me was that you had to start a movement-phase at the bottom of a wall if you wanted to climb it. To allow climbing a wall without the necessity to stand at its bottom if you have enough inches left is a houserule I highly recommend. Makes the whole phase less of a fuss and the whole game quicker.

That is a good point, about the 400xp cap, i guess we will play it that once the warband reaches 400 rating then it will have 1 after battle sequence to drop their rating below 400, but considering that to reach 400 its 15 guys and at least 3 maxed out heroes and some serious henchmen groups hard decisions will be needed on who to drop.

Are you even allowed to drop a henchman? I always thought that once you hired a henchman orhero, you're pretty much stuck with him until he dies. If you could always make a house rule that you can't drop henchmen or heroes out of your warband.

I always thought that u could dismiss henchmen groups whenever u wanted, I mean if my marksmen got +1 S, WS and A I'd dump them to get some new marksmen and try for better shooting

I always thought that u could dismiss henchmen groups whenever u wanted, I mean if my marksmen got +1 S, WS and A I'd dump them to get some new marksmen and try for better shooting

I find that a bit of a cheap way of playing. "I didn't get what I wanted. Boo hoo." Might as well just re roll the advancement instead until you get what you wanted in the first place. Its pretty much the same thing. Which leads to why do that in first place. "So I can win". Bit of power gming which ruins the fun for me.

Um, it doesn't sound cheap. The player is dismissing an experienced henchman. If they are going by the rules the dismissed warrior is keeping his equipment (oh you may dismiss any warband member at any time, see the paragraph disbanding warbands in the campaign section of the Mordheim rulebook.)

You are going to pay at least the cost of replacing the fired henchman, plus his equipment (unless you have a house rule that allows keeping equipment). Your warband rating will go down for the loss of experience. And you have to hope that the new warrior isn't killed before he becomes useful. Personally I just make marksman with A advances into close support warriors that can fight if they have to, but to each his own.

Marksmen that don't hit a hey barn is what ruins the fun for me, but that's not the topic, so I'll keep quiet   

Money waise, yes it isn't cheap. But in thespirirt of the game, it kinda is. You didn't get the roll you wnted so you ditch them altogether. Accepting the bad rolls and bad advanments is part of the challange of the game. And that challange is part of the fun of the game. Using what you got. And when you have some disadvantges and still win, the victory is more sweeter.

If I got some markmens with a higher ws then their bs, I would buy them some pistols (or work on it) gave them a hand weapon and go with it. Make the game a bit more intresting or at least different.

I just dismiss marksmen with high WS or swordsmen with high BS because of the limit to the warband rating, u can have 4 marksmen (20 rating) with 6 xp each (18 rating) taking up space in the warband rating. we dont play win at all costs, but we play hard and fast and losing isnt fun!
But back on topic, the house rules are ok? no one can see any glaring problem i have missed?

I don't think the slings need dropping in strength for the multiple shots. You have a number of veterans in the group so they should be able to give the newbies tips on how to work around the advantages of slings. After all, the 'L' in LTP is there for a reason .

As an option for the warbands and the over 400 thing, perhaps make it so that a warband over 400 may only fight another warband that is *also* over 400. Make it so they genuinely *are* simply in a different area. In the group I play with we will often have one high-level warband and one lowbie warband and it is generally mutual agreement who goes against what and it often works out well.

Everything else seems like it should work fairly well, but I am not sure about the 'no rout test' thing. I have a feeling it will be a very significant boost in power for the Skaven and the Orcs and Goblins, but this is only a gut impression and I haven't play-tested anything like this.

On the side-topic of dismissing henchmen, I am of the do-as-you-will crowd. Personally, I don't dismiss ranged henchmen unless their second advance isn't BS. As far as the 'cheapness' of it goes, well, historically there have been a number of military groups (mostly mercs or gangs) that offered probationary membership. Those that didn't make the grade would be cut, so I have no problem with someone wanting to cut those that don't measure up.

For the black-powder rule, I would recommend using the option that broken weapons can be repaired for half their purchase price or 50 gold for the hunting rifle.

The 400 line is probably a good idea with the newbies, but after this campaign you could probably consider removing it. Higher warbands can be brought back down by multiple warbands ganging up on them e.g. someone gets an item that lets them pick the next scenario, they make an alliance with two other similar warbands and then they Ambush the larger one. Fun times for everyone .

I like the changes to armor, we use similar rules and it's made the game more fun. I, too, am not a fan of no-rout-test. While it can cut games short, it also allows unexpected victors to turn up if a weaker warband uses their LD to stick it to a more powerful team that rolls unlucky.

This is not meant to be a pile-on, but I do dislike the idea of no rout tests intensely. Just last Sunday a warband I out-rated by +80 or so sneaked a victory on my Amazons because I failed my first rout test. If I don't take that test his warband starts to bleed more heroes, cause he only had a couple henchmen left.

I am a bit baffled by your nerfing slings and then making Skaven a bigger monster by eliminating their biggest weakness (?)

I'll jump on the route checks are necessary bandwagon. 

And my group hasn't had a problem with slings; remember that they can only double tap at short range and if they haven't moved. I'd consider swapping their range with shortbows (so slings 16", shortbows 18") and bumping them up to 5 crowns though. More armor should also help against sling-spam. 

I'd also recommend what has been suggested above about letting the higher rated warbands stay together and simply only allowing them to play against other highly rated warbands. A sort of area of champions.

Firstly thanks for the feed back, its good to have unbiased comments as the skaven players dont like the sling rules and the dwarf player LOVES the armour (wonder why??)
We have played the "no rout test" rule a few times, it comes from the idea that a vampire isnt going to care if 5 zombies die, or if u have the treasure chest 8" from the table edge and a henchman that was left to hold up the chasers dies why would the leader run away leaving the loot behind? As a leader u have to make a choice do i risk it to get the rewards, or do i flee to save my forces. yesterday i played a game my marienburg VS a witch hunters warband. he pushed the attack once he had lost 6 guys (from 10) and managed to take out my 2 champs, so to save what i had left i ran. he  would have started taking rout tests 4-5 turns before but took a risk an forced his guys forwards for a win. ( and some nice loot)
as for the slings i am sick of campaigns being killed off by 20 skaven with slings and clubs! once someone new realizes that that is powerful they run with it!! and i wrote its rules wrong it should be " first shot S3 no neg to hit, second shot S2 -1 to hit)
And the armour is working well, along with the new crit hit charts it means that guys can tank for a turn or two to hold alleyways and choke points.
And for the 400 rating cap, once 2 or 3 warbands start hovering around that cap we will either increase it or remove it, its more to handicap the veteran players so we dont leave newer kids in the dust with noone to play.

Well you can't say better than that. It is in the end your campaign, have fun!

There is still talk about making armor useful by making it cheaper. Which high strenght and such, most armour will still be cut through like butter and the cost (even cheaper) is still a waste of money.

The best house rule that I used was taking away the strenght bonus for armour pericing. Ie: S:4 is -1 to armour save. S:5 is -2 to armour save etc. Only the weapons that have armour percing special rule should perice armour. This way a mear henchman with S:4 and a 15gc double handed weapon (looking at you beastmen.....) Won't make a 50gc heavy armour or the 90gc eleven armour useless and a waste of money. Plus it would make the weapons that have the armour pericing special rule, more useful. The high cost of armour and armour percing weapons become justified.

Hope the campaign goes well. We have never particularly had problems with slings in our campaigns, but you are certainly not the first person I have heard who has concerns about them.

I admit that even after your explanation I have reservations about the eliminating the rout test. As others have noted, it is pretty important for balancing some bands. Skaven will be much more powerful without it.

We don't play competitively much anymore (all of us discovered we like collaborative campaigns better), but we used to have a house rule for some of the competitive scenarios where one warband holds a treasure chest/the merchant's kid/the winning lottery ticket where the warband that had the whatsits had a +1 bonus to leadership roll. Actually, I suppose it was more of a -1 bonus, but "-1 bonus" just sounds weird.

It might be worthwhile to build in certain "review" points in advance - after every four games for example - where you can all sit down and discuss any house rules that might need adding/deleting/adjusting.

Hope it works out. Sounds pretty fun!

-Michael