Ladders in Mordheim

Greetings everyone!

I've recently, in a state of inspired rage, spent some evenings at home madly putting together a good handful ruined, crumbled, burned down buildings, enough to fill out a full 4' x 4' battle mat. The plan is to start campaigning in the city of the damned some time next year, when it's all finished up and we have managed to gather warbands in our little local gaming community here in Copenhagen.

I have a technical question though, and I'm looking for some advice on what to do. Most of my buildings are three or four story houses, and I've constructed them with gameplay as the primary focus, trying to avoid all too narrow spaces, tight rooms and gaps that would make moving the miniatures around too cumbersome. Since some of our games might even be accompanied by a beer or two occasionally, we would like to get the full enjoyment of playing without knocking things down all the time.

So, to connect all the floors and platforms, I have put together a few dozens of ladders. My plan was originally to glue them permanently to the buildings, but for now I've sprayed them black and will paint them individually so they don't obstruct the painting of the inside of the buildings unnecessarily even if the fine motorics fail.

While I'm still leaning towards attaching them permanently to the buildings to encourage the use of multiple levels without having to take Initiative tests all the time in order to take advantage of the heights, I'd like to ask you about your experiences with this issue. It's been about twenty years ago since I played Mordheim last time, so I'm really not into all the mechanical and tactical details of the game. Would it spoil the strategic challenges of the game to have ladders permanently connecting the different floor levels? And of how much importance is the height advantage generally in the gameplay? My primary concern for leaving ladders out would be that battles would be fought mainly on ground if climbing buildings instead of using ladders doesn't prove to be worth the effort, and since I've now spent so much time putting together multiple story buildings, I certainly want everything to be used!

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

First up, welcome aboard.

Personally, I wouldn’t permanently attach your ladders as it limits flexibility plus your players will learn which buildings are easy to navigate the levels in.

The experience in my group is that players tend to play at ground level unless objectives (e.g. wyrdstone) persuade them to “go high” or they’re looking for good sniping positions for their shooters. That said, your tall buildings will provide some benefits even if the upper levels don’t get used much e.g. looking good and blocking line of sight.

At the end of the day, I don’t think you want to make it too easy and risk-free for players, so include some buildings that need to be climbed. People will soon pick up the equipment and skills to help them, if it’s worth their while.

Finally, consider including  some options for players to travel between the upper levels of buildings e.g. gaps that can be leaped or rickety bridges. These help introduce some high level movement albeit with some risk.

Welcome to Toms Ellegaard. I agree with CS on all points.

Thank you, gentlemen. It's great to see the Mordheim community is still alive after the good old Egroups-days!

And thank you for the comments - that's very valuable insight. I will keep my ladders in a little box for now and see how it plays out. I just don't want my terrain to end up like downtown Doha, with an impressive skyline that's never really being used, since I've now spent time making all floors very accessible.

And a very good point with the bridges! I've already made four approximately foot-long walkways to connect the upper levels of the buildings, and I'm at the moment waiting for the local super market to throw out some more empty apple boxes to provide balsa wood for even more walkways. The idea would be to make it possible to travel from one end of the table to the other without touching the ground ... that really appeals to me. It's my ultimate goal to have a full table that offers this extra dimension of gameplay.

I might post some pictures in a new thread. I'm having a hell of a time painting all those ruins up at the moment, and I can't wait to start playing!