Houserules v.1

Hello Forum,

here my houserules so far. Most ideas are based on discussions throughout the internet, concerning balance issues between combat vs shooting and dual wielding vs weapon&shield vs two-handed. I tried to make all three viable and thus meaningful choices.
I was quite astoinished that I couldn`t find any Mordhiem specific rules for miscasts, although IMO hilarious miscasts are one of the specialties of the Warhammer world. So I created tables for myself.

Please excuse my english, which is a foreign language to me.

OK, enough introduction, here are the rules:



· Negating armour saves begins at S5, not S4.
· The extra attack when dual-wielding is at -2 to hit. You may choose (and have to declare before rolling) which one is the extra attack. All other attacks are performed with the other weapon as normal.
· Shields/Bucklers give Parry and –1/-2 armor save modifier vs melee/shooting.
· The Skaven Pavise gives 2 Armour Save against shooting and counts as Cover (both for the pavise holder and one friendly model in base contact), but it is too unwieldy to give any benefits in melee (no armour save, can not be used to parry).
· A weapon with the Parry rule allows you to do the following: You may perform one parry in a round. You may choose the attack you wish to parry. Once an attack hits but before rolls for wound, you may attempt to parry the attack. To parry the attack, roll a d6 at –1 to hit, comparing your WS to the opponent's WS as if you were making an attack on them. If your roll would succeed in hitting the opponent, you have parried the attack, preventing them from being able to roll to wound. If you have the option to re-roll a parry (e.g. sword and shield), you may either re-roll a failed parry attempt or you may attempt to parry a separate attack.
· Having two weapons that allow you to parry (e.g. two swords) provides you with no additional benefit.
· You may not parry attacks made at a Strength value two points or higher than your own.
· Slings give the enemy +1 armour save, just like daggers.
· Sea Dragon Cloaks give 6+ armor save against melee and 5+ save against shooting. They can only be combined with Light or DarkSteel Armour.
· Spears` Always Strikes First in the first round of combat overrides the ASF by being charged, but not the ASF from other sources (e.g. the skill “Lightning Reflexes”). So, for example, if a fighter with a spear is charged, he will strike first without comparing Initiative. But if he charges (or is charged by) a fighter with Lightning Reflexes (or also armed with a spear), the fighter with the higher Initiative will strike first.  
· Tzeentch`s Curse:
A natural roll of 2-3 when casting magic results in Tzeentch`s Curse
A natural roll of 2-3 when casting prayers results in Anger of the Gods

Tzeentch`s Curse Table (roll D6)
1 – Memory Worm
The Caster cannot cast spells in this and his next shooting phase
2 – Pushed By Unseen Force
The Caster is knocked down
3 – Ghostly Manifestations
     It`s raining blood, the surrounding walls open shrieking mouths, shadowy figures move in the corner of the eye, or make up your own. In any case, all models (including the caster) within 12 inch must pass a Leadership Test immediately. If they fail, models engaged in melee are at –1 To Hit for the remainder of the round. Those who fail and are not engaged in melee flee at full speed towards the nearest table edge without engaging in melee and without leaving the table.
4 – Falling Upwards
Gravity buckles, and the Caster is lifted d3 inches into the air. After a few seconds, he falls down, taking falling damage as normal (i.e. d3 hits with 1-3s).
5 – Blast Wave
All models within 6 inches except the Caster are knocked down immediately.
6 – Mindnumb
The Caster is Stunned.

Anger of the Gods Table (roll D6)
1 – You Are Unworthy
The Pray User cannot cast prayers in this and his next shooting phase
2-3 – On Your Knees!
The Pray User is knocked down
4 – Offer Me Blood
To appease his god, the Pray User cuts away at his own flesh. Take 1 S2 hit with no armor save allowed.
5 – Fist of the Gods
All models within 4 inches (including the caster) must make a Toughness Test. Those who fail are knocked down immediately.
6 – Crawl, Worm!
The Pray User is Stunned.



So far, I`ve playtested them only with my own warbands, and they seem to work just fine. But I`m sure that the more experienced players here can help me to make them better.
Feel free to comment, discuss, criticize, steal or use.

I know this is useless, but sling stones were actually the bane of armored warriors (including the conquistadores versus central American natives). And that old chestnut, David versus Goliath...
See also Old Testament 1 Samuel 17

Quote :

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.[a] 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; [b]6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.[c] His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Just sayin'

We nerf slings by increasing cover saves (old warhammer rules [4th through 7th ed.]: hard cover provides a -2 to hit.)

Love the Sea Dragon cloak rule.

Spears and always strikes first. One of my players wants to re-visit this too. Sigh. We suffer this like every other year or so.

StyrofoamKing did a miscast table for one of his campaigns--
https://sites.google.com/site/styroheim/storm-of-magic

Von Kurst wrote:

And that old chestnut, David versus Goliath...

I`d count this as a critical.
Main idea was to provide a cheap counter against heavy slinging (and, to a lesser extend, shooty elves with cheap bows): A few henchmen with shields at the front. Combined with the +2 armor save from shields, it would be 4+ against slings, and 5+ against bows, for 5 gc. A cover bonus may not help so much against elves with high BS.

Quote :

Spears and always strikes first. One of my players wants to re-visit this too. Sigh. We suffer this like every other year or so.

Yeah, it really bugged me that spears are useless in the hands of a low-Initiative henchman. The basic idea of a spear is, historically speaking, exactly to receive charges with lowly henchmen.

Quote :

StyrofoamKing did a miscast table for one of his campaigns

Nice, thanks!
Seems a bit harsh for standard Mordheim. And it maybe unbalances casters vs. pray users, if the latter have nothing to fear from invoking their power.