Restless Dead in BTB Tactics, Tips needed

Hello everyone,
yesterday i played my first game in a new BTB campaign with a Restless Dead Warband (Silent Threat objective). I made some rather silly decisions like choosing to be the defender in the Blockade Secenario and ended up losing two wights against filthy skaven. All in all i won and the rats paid more, but i'd have preferred none of my warband dying. Or raiding that supply cart for that matter. My necromancer causes fear though, so not all went poorly.

I have started with three hired swords this time, because i wanted to change things up. Usually i just filled up my roster with zombies, but i figured i could do that later too, when the hired swords have experience. Turns out i rolled the reanimation spell with my lich, so that may have actually been a better idea.

So here's my warband:

Lich +Reanimation, Call of Vanhel
Necromancer +Fear, Reanimation
Graveguard
Graveguard +Step Aside
Graveguard +1S

Wight
2 Zombies
Witch +Cure, Warrior's Bane
Pathfinder
Cathayan Merchant

Everyone who can has a mace and i have a sword i will probably give the GG with Step Aside.

I don't see myself purchasing anything expensive in the near future with the upkeep of 40 GC.
I am hoping to eventually get a skill roll on the merchant and to put the reroll of the pathfinder to good use so i can balance out the upkeep. Any tips to help my corpses in denial out?

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!

Quote :

I don't see myself purchasing anything expensive in the near future with the upkeep of 40 GC.

On the plus side the Merchant should pay for himself without a skill roll and have a bit left over. What skill would you take if he rolled one?

I think stone cutter, if i got that, i'd be a lot less strapped for cash and i could start putting money aside for the Skeletal Giant fund. Most of the time he's a big waste of gold, but it's really fun to put that huge miniature on the field.

What would you try to do with this warband?

Sorry to be the only one answering. Despite the popularity of BTB, actual players who will post seem rare. I was just curious about the merchant as I only use the Arabian one and was too lazy to look up his rules.

Stone Cutter on average gives you extra gold whenever you sell treasure. I also took him because only 2 of my heroes can search for items. Though my group using a rather silly rule about item searching doesn't make that as bad.

Hello again, the first six games are through and i did quite okay i think (:
I won 5 out of them and my losses were the witch, 2 wights and a graveguard. Also a bunch of zombies, but i don't really count those.

Things that went great: The Elven player had found Belandysh by accident and managed to nab his sword by using Shadowbind. I then managed to grab the sword off of him and now my Lich doesn't look as stupid anymore with his WS3 and 2A advances.

The witch (with the curse of Stone spell) is really great for dealing with big strong models whom you will usually not be able to wound as easily.

Now, a slight problem is arising, however: There are two ogre players in the campaign, and their heroes are approaching areas around T6 with resilient and all those fun things.

Of course, i have my wight blades that wound on 6s, but i've found those ogres really a tough nut to crack, with them also being decked out in armor, lucky charms and so on and so forth.

The second thing at my disposal is the Lich with 8 wounds and the Broadsword of Damnation, but even with 8 wounds, his Toughness 2 won't have him lasting long in fights with ogres. Moreover i might put my opponents on tilt by turning their precious warband leaders into chaos spawns, which i can entirely understand.

So i've been trying to come up with different way of dealing with big, large, fast and strong models that do not involve my undead having to shatter ogre fists with their skulls.

Getting the witch back is my top priority, she's fun.

One thing is raising my model's strength with Halberds, Mighty blow and Dark Venom. But i think that's risky with them only having a single wound.

Another thing i read on this forum was using fire arrows, which really appealed to me. Especially since it only requires a single investment and only hitting, not wounding. I've had a Wight roll "the lad's got talent" and i'm wondering wether i should set him up to gain advances on the Shooting skill list. If i do that, i might also have him take Weapons Expert and deck him out with a crossbow or blackpowder weapon. Slightly silly, but if it works.  Has anyone got ideas on that?

If i'm feeling particularly desperate i might start using zombies carrying powder kegs as expendable suicide weapons, especially since they can be reanimated after delivering their payload (in contrast to Corpse bombs). Also, the fireworks is bigger with 1 S6 hit in D6+3'' vs D3 S4 in D6''.

Or should i invest a ton of Gold and wounds on my Lich into a Bone giant?

Are there other ways to disable, hamper or outright kill big, large models with weedy skeletons?

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Another thing i read on this forum was using fire arrows, which really appealed to me. Especially since it only requires a single investment and only hitting, not wounding. I've had a Wight roll "the lad's got talent" and i'm wondering wether i should set him up to gain advances on the Shooting skill list. If i do that, i might also have him take Weapons Expert and deck him out with a crossbow or blackpowder weapon. Slightly silly, but if it works.  Has anyone got ideas on that?

I guess that in order to answer several of your questions one would have to ask what rules you play by since there are so many different versions of Mordheim on the web.

Fire arrows as presented by GW for example are one use only items, so they actually require a continued investment.  (and repeated searches) [See "Ye Olde Curioustiy Shoppe" Mordheim 2002 Annual. p.85]

Also the version of Restless Dead that I can find on the BTB site does not include Shooting skills as a skill set that the warband can use. So if you play by the 'official' rules, no shooting skills at all.

If you are using the optional critical hits tables then a melee hero with a double-handed hammer, Strongman, and Web of Steel is a good foundation for a monster killer. The high strength lets you score wounding hits, and if you get lucky and crit then a 5 or 6 (thanks to Web of Steel) sends them OOA regardless of remaining wounds. S4+DHW(2)+Mighty Blow(1) gives you a strength of 7. Strike to injure doesn't hurt.

The necromantic spell Spell of Doom will also take models OOA regardless of toughness and wounds if it works. The skills Mind Focus and Magical Aptitude will help you get the spells off. Also, get yourself a familiar if your group allows them. Life-Stealer will also bypass toughness.

The hired sword Witch (which you are familiar with) has some handy-dandy curses that will debuff the targets. Scry helps you pull off the crit-hammer guy, Curse helps Spell of Doom succeed and so does Age of Stone.

Hey, the campagin ended and i finished 2nd. My Lich also got to keep his Sword because the Merchant Caravan won their final scenario, good times. The next campaign is starting soon, so if you've got any further favourite Restless Dead strategies or ideas to share, feel free to do so (:

Von Kurst wrote:

I guess that in order to answer several of your questions one would have to ask what rules you play by since there are so many different versions of Mordheim on the web.

Fire arrows as presented by GW for example are one use only items, so they actually require a continued investment.  (and repeated searches) [See "Ye Olde Curioustiy Shoppe" Mordheim 2002 Annual. p.85]

We play with the Living rulebook (and basically everything considered official) as well as the BtB rules.
Houserules too, but combat wise only that shields grant +2 armour in melee instead of +1.

I read up on the Fire Arrows in that book and it doesn't say they only last for one battle. Compare that to the
superior blackpowder from the rulebook (or the flashpowder from "Ye olde curiosity shoppe") which says it last for only one battle.
Then again, sure the firebomb does not state it only lasts for one battle so eh.

Is there a specific bit of rules text that clarifies this?

My group says the fire arrows work like the hunting arrows which are also infinite (on our table).
But i'm happy to hear arguments for a different ruling.

You're right about the shooting skills, those are off limits to my wights :V
Guess i will need to take better care of my witch in the next campaign (:

Lord 0 wrote:

...

I will suggest using the alternative tables, they look very entertaining and might make people more eager
to use more varied weapons rather than just swords.[/quote]

My group tends towards RAW so we play Fire Arrows, Fire Bombs, Healing Herbs, Hunting Arrows, etc. as infinite items also.

Quote :

I read up on the Fire Arrows in that book and it doesn't say they only last for one battle.

Um, well I don't know what to tell you, since those are the exact words  that appear in my copy, my friend's copy and the two places I can find the 2002 Annual hosted on the internet.

Just starting a Restless Dead warband for later in the year, when our campaign at our house gets off the ground.

The warband size seems small enough that after filling out the essentials [Lich, Necromancer, 3 grave guard, 3 wights] and looking at scarecrows or even skeletons versus zombies, fitting in zombies beyond the possible skill-provided free ones seems difficult to justify in my head.

On the main subject, though, of monster killing, the strength of the warband does seem to be magic, and as pointed out, there are several necromancy spells that can definitely help, which would mean spell-enhancing skills might be the way to go for "monster"-killing, with the wight-blades-plus-fear for mopping up the middling and lesser heroes.

As for fire arrows, in Town Cryer 7, the last line of their description says they last for one scenario only. In the updated rules from the 2002 Annual, the last line of their description says they last for one scenario only.