Improving Halberd rules? + some other potential house rules

Hey all,

First post here, digging this forum as I'm a returning Mordheim player who's been away from the game for 15+ years and am trying to get a group at work into it.

I've been planning out some house rules for a potential campaign, and am attempting to improve some weapons and nerf others a bit so that there are more different choices made when arming our bands.

My ideas so far (please poke holes in them if you see some):
-1 to hit when dual-wielding (I've read the big dual wield thread and this seems like a decent starting point).

Splitting up double handed weapons and giving them their 1-handed weapon rule equivalent. So 2H Mace has Concussion, 2H Axe is -1 armor save, 2H Sword can Parry. Prices go up to 18, 20, 25 gold, respectively.

Considering dropping Light Armor cost to 10g, Then add Medium Armor at 20g which does 5+, make heavy armor give 4+ (still costs 50). Gromril becomes 3+ (same cost).

Also considering adding multiple types of Helmets. Light, Medium, Heavy. When you match them with the same type of Armor, it gives an additional +1 armor save. Otherwise all helmets function as helmets normally do (was thinking 10, 20, 30g cost).


Anyway: for the Halberd, I've been brainstorming how to make it more competitive, as it seems to get passed over in favor of most other options, which is a shame because halberds are freaking cool! What do you guys think of giving it the same "Strike First" rules as Spears? Cost would remain the same. Too overpowered? Seems like having it still be 2 handed means it won't be overpowered, but that's just theory.

Any feedback on any of this would be awesome. I'm excited to get back into this wonderful game/hobby! Thanks everyone!

We balanced the halberd by adding a skill to give halberd +1 I and Parry.
Which made halberd a tempting choice, so speed and strength.

We also considering the strike first rule for the halberd.
But one of my teammate said the halberd is half way between a spear and a two-handed weapon.  Not as fast as a strike first spear but not as slow (and not as damaging) as a strike last two-handed.

My group approached this by treating all 2h weapons as larger/more powerful versions of their 1h equivalents.

So weapons perks match:
1h:  Mace, Axe, Sword, Spear
2h:  Mace, Axe, Sword, Halberd

2h weapons retain the perk from their 1h equivalent, gain +1str, and -1int.  

Overall it felt like a good balance that (combined with the DW rule -1hit) encouraged a greater diversity of viable builds.

This is just our house-rule.  Personally it came from a strong feeling that 'strike last' on 2h weapons was a load of bullshit.  The myth that large medieval swords, axes, and maces were slow cumbersome weapons (only wielded by titanic-super-barbarians) really needs to be quashed.

They were all agile deadly weapons, used by skilled (not just brute) fighters.

Just my two gold crowns  : )

Skaal.

Thanks guys!

Skaal, I like that idea, will consider using it as well. What did you do with the Strongman skill? Ignore it, or update it to give a different benefit?

Strongman we changed to remove the -1int penalty.
Additionally we are trialling the idea of Strongman making your attacks more difficult, or impossible, to parry.

(we are also in the process of tuning some house rules for parrying, so its an unfinished process)

Of curiosity, what are your rules for parry that you are playing with? The group I am playing with is doing something similar, so potential cross-pollination could be helpful.

Don't you find halberds good enough using duelwielding penalties? It's my preferred choice as soon as someone earns a second attack, and a decent starting weapon for cheap sweeper heroes. Adding parry sounds like a nice boost if you don't find them good enough, specially if parry isn't improved via house rules.

BTW, about parry, we are using plain 6+ roll when using weapon with parry, like an armor save. You get +1 when using buckler or similar, +1 if your WS is higher than your rival's, and may only parry once per combat turn... it makes parry too good IMO, much better and cost effective than armor save, and makes things like dwarf axes + master of blades totally OP. Still searching for the spot on parry house rule.

The only change our group has done to parry is enabling bucklers to parry on equal results.
And in our group you need to have the new combat skill "halberdier" to get +1 Initiative and parry when using a halberd. Its a good bonus for heroes who want to use a halberd. Otherwise halberd is normal no changes.

As far as parry: we were brainstorming around a combination of other things people have suggested, making parry more relevant including bonuses for WS or equipment.

I have just seen the thread by NoisyAssassin  and his version of parry rules seems appealing.

Really it is unresolved at present.

The overall goal was to make parry more relevant, but have 2h weapons as the primary counter to it.

Skaal.

I know this has gone from Halberds to Parry, but just my 2 cents.

We dabbled in Parry houserules and it was a bit of a bloodfest of arguments for about month and a half
Eventually we settled for simplicity, and stuck with the original Parry rule (ie. if you roll higher than opponent's To Hit roll you Parry) with all the normal bonuses (swords give +1, bucklers give re-roll, etc), with one addition.
What we added was to specifically solve the lingering problem of high-WS models who got short-changed by Parry (because low-WS models could only hit them on 5+ anyway), making Parry more difficult for the defender (on a 6+ base).
Our rule is that if a model's WS is more than 2x than the attacker, you get +1 to Parry, which is exactly at the same WS differential that makes the attacker need 5+ to hit you). So Parry remains just as useful (on 5+ ish base). Low-WS models still get better use of Parry because they get to roll up to 4+ to succeed (if a high-WS enemy Hits them at 3+), but at least the difference isnt as big now.
At least this way you make less rolls.

Of course, this didnt occur in a vaccum: our off-hand weapon penalty is -2 (daggers is -1), all armour was increased by +1 (except tough leathers), shields always give at least 6+ save regardless of S, etc etc
I think we saw lots of variety in weapons going on...but I can check again with my crowd whats their position on parrying after this time.

We gave the halberd First Strike and +1S but you had to choose between which to use each round (thrust with the spear or chop with the axe). This would apply to all attacks during the round. Plus we raised the price to 20GC.

We like the parry house rule that adds WS to the roll. We also give warriors with bucklers a +1 to hit with their primary weapon which gives a nice balance between duel wield (-1 to hit) and shields (additional +1 to save in close combat).