Restless dead viable late game?

He guys,

For my second local campaign I want to start a RD warband. I have some doubts about the late game viability for this warband though. What are your thoughts on this? Isn't the purpose of this warband to swamp your enemies in zombies and skelly's while the liche and necromancer blast spells form behind? Assuming you get the spells of and they dont get killed by missle fire (how do you guys deal with this?). The grave guards are not that good also, but the wraiths can gain xp, but are not heroes. So you can only search with 3 dice (1 for the liche and 2 for the necromancer if I remember this correct).

So my basic question is how you guys handle this warband? I have experience with the normal undead warband btw.

Regards,

Rory

Could you quote the rule about exploration dice?  I don't see any reference in the warband rules to this.

(I think you may be confusing Exploration with Trading, although I may have not seen the appropriate rule in the warband.)

I've been playing Restless Dead in my current campaign. More mid-campaign than late, but I have some thoughts based on my experience.

They're a warband of extremes. They are very strong in many ways from the start. The spellcasting is very strong, and the Liche becomes nigh unkillable. Mine already has 8 wounds from just devouring wyrdstone. The special skills are great, especially Corpse Bomb which terrifies other players.

Grave Guard are actually quite good. Their stats are nothing to write home about, but the Wight Blades (auto wound on a 6 to hit) are awesome.

The henchmen on the other hand are fairly weak. Only 3 xp gainers with crappy stats. Scarecrows are nice for their speed though.

The warband is very slow and there's little you can do about it. Some scenarios are nearly unwinnable with the lack of speed. Shooting is a weakness, but utilizing terrain and hiding helps.

Another issue is that they hit their ceiling quite early. With few xp gaining models, a low warband cap, and limited hired swords means you are limited in his much your warband can grow.

All in all they are a unique warband. They are very strong early but even out later in the campaign. The slow speed is painful sometimes, but the Liche and special skills are great fun.

Caledore thanks for the feedback. Do you think the warband is balanced then? I think the other players in my campaign might think the auto wound on a 6 is a bit OP what do you think? Or is it a good balance because the rest of the henchmen are crappy? Same goes for the extra wounds.

Btw what models are you using for your warband? Would you mind posting a pic? (if you have not done so already).

regards

I think the warband is balanced enough to have fun. We've played with a RD warband in our group and didn't have any problems. The auto wound on a 6 is balanced by weaknesses elsewhere in the warband such as speed.

Oke, but do the wight blades ignore armour saves after the auto wound or not? Dont believe it says in the rules

It doesn't ignore armor, no. You still roll a wound roll, just to see if you get a 6 for a critical.

I think the warband is reasonably balanced, at least by normal Mordheim standards. They are strong in many areas, but the slow speed is a huge issue. It can be frustrating at times, but terrifying opponents with corpse bomb makes it worth it.

As for models, I can't get pictures at the moment, but here's what I'm using:

Liche: Heresy Miniatures
Necromancer: Avatars of War
Grave Guard and Wights: out of production metal Warhammer Grave Guard, with one of the new plastics
Zombies: mix of metal from Heresy and plastics from Mantic
Scarecrow: Spyglass, I think? I believe they might be out of production

I'll try to get pictures when I have the chance.

I briefly played a Restless dead warband in our last campaign,
They would be a good choice late in campaign because of the suicidal nature of the warband, with the right skill you will have 2-6 free zombies each game, one of your non free zombies will be the corpse bomb the enemy will not know which one is the bomb so they will be cautious.
Wight Blades are great at dealing with super toughness vampires and possessed that pop up late campaign.
Grave guard cannot search for rare items but they still have exploration dice.
which is Ok because the necromancer is really good and finding rare items.
And due to the exp bonus the apprentice skill will soon be void as you can boost the liche and necro with spells.
And because of the liches skill eternal you can throw him into places you would usually be more reserved and putting your leader.

Only played against RD a couple of times years ago. They were pretty tough, though the player fielding them was rather good with every warband. Why I am writing is because the question for the Scarecrow turned up. I'm too lazy to post pics, sorry, but you will find nice scarecrows from REaper, Westwind Productions and Silver Fox Productions Inc. (plus the awesome Batman-Scarecrows from Knight Models, but they are too big, modern and rather expensive).
I also like the Miedo a Morir from Freebooter'S Fate Brotherhood:


Oh, it's totally easy to put in pictures if you don't have to download them to your harddrive but can simply link the pic's adress... Now I know.

Oke, yeah im gonna have to look for some scarecrows. Im just wondering of the other players in my campaign are nog going to find the auto wound effect of the wight blades op. Even though it is a good compensation for the slow movement.

Btw do you guys use the normal necromancer spells for this warband? Or the altered one on the site of Border town burning?

Use the altered list from BTB. It is different in two ways (if I recall correctly). First, one of the spells is unique to Liche and a separate spell is unique to Necromancer. I'm not sure if both are new to the list or if just one is new. Second, the in-game resurrection spell also works on Wrights I think in addition to zombies.

Oke, was just wondering. I am going to introduce the rest of my gaming group to these rules.

Guys I am getting the empire battle wizard kit for xmas. I want to paint one of them up as a new necromancer. Would it be a good kit to make a lich out of? Would it be possible without greenstuff you think? Maybe using a skull head in sted of the normal head maybe?

On another note, I still have the old metal vampire necrarch (with dagger and skull), do you guys think it would fit the theme? Or are lichs always skeleton in form? I do believe necrarchs are dedicated to magic and such so.

And on another note...I also remember having one of the old warhammer metal wraiths. But I do think it is kind of plane looking for a powerfull lich. Your thought?

I don't think the old GW-Wrath looks anything as powerful as I imagine a Lich.
Both the Necrarch and the Emperial Wizard should make for nice Lichs on the other hand. Most pics I googled show Lichs as being somewhat skeletal, but skimming thorugh the entries for Lichs on Wiki I think being undead will suffice. Especially the Emire Wizard Kit should give you plenty of opportunity to convert your Lich. Pretty much all the heads and right arms and probably the staff with the snake or the skythe would work if painted up right. If you choose the head with the mask you wouldn't even have to decide if your lich was having a skull or not.