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Mordheim

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Mordheim
Players2 and up
Setup time10 minutes
Playing time45 minutes - 1.5 hours
ChanceHigh
SkillsStrategy, Arithmetic, Dice rolling

Mordheim is a tabletop wargame set in the Warhammer Fantasy world, produced by Specialist Games (A division of Games Workshop). It is a skirmish miniature wargame based on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game, but on a smaller scale with only a handful of figures per side (aka Warbands) and lots of terrain to represent the destroyed city of "Mordheim, City of the Damned". The game is to Warhammer what Necromunda is to Warhammer 40,000.

Mordheim's Background

The game is set in the Empire city of Mordheim, 500 years before the present day in the Warhammer Fantasy time line. (Translated from German Mordheim means "home of murder", -heim being a very frequent toponym ending. To avoid these connotations the title of the German edition was changed Mortheim.) The Empire was a place torn: it had been in civil war for years – there was no Emperor sitting on the throne, and various powers were vying for control. In the Imperial year 1999, a great comet was sighted in the sky – a twin tailed comet, the sign of Sigmar. Astronomers predicted that it would fall in the city of Mordheim, where his convent of Sisters stood. It was believed that it would herald the return of Sigmar, which he would restore the land to its former glory and usher in a new golden age. Everybody traveled to Mordheim, filling the city well beyond its capacity. Such were the times that lawlessness soon grew out of hand. The citizens of Mordheim quickly degenerated to moral debauchery, giving themselves over to their own worldly temptations, living in an increasing state of anarchy. As time drew closer to the comet’s arrival, more and more people made the journey to Mordheim, and the situation became worse. As people gave in to acts of depravity, demons walked the streets like men, the seeds of Chaos and corruption long since having claimed the souls of the pitiful thousands who now called Mordheim their own.

The comet fell on New Years Eve, but it was not to be the coming of Sigmar as predicted. The comet smashed into the city, instantly killing those who had gathered around it. Word got out that Sigmar had passed his judgment, that he had smote those who he deemed unworthy. The place of Mordheim became a place of fear and paranoia. Soon after, word spread of a mysterious stone that lay scattered about the city, known as Wyrdstone, which had all manner of reputed qualities. It was discovered that factions would pay incredible amounts for this precious stone, whatever their motivation. So warbands began traveling to Mordheim, now dubbed The City of the Damned, hoping to find this precious stone and make their quick fortunes…

After the Great War against Chaos, Magnus the Pious razed the remaining ruins, and had the name of Mordheim deleted in every history record available.

The Game of Mordheim

Many people enjoy the game due to its detailed nature. Warbands' members grow on experience, and their characteristics and abilities evolve over time. It's easy for the players involved to then develop stories, or 'fluff', based on their different characters. Also, the rulebook layout is quite popular as it has many examples of excellent dark and surreal artwork, with fish and rats merging scattered across the borders of the page, macabre illustrations in the page corners, along with rather humorous pictures of rats on stilts and other such oddities.

Mordheim is more than a simple miniature skirmish game; it also features a campaign system. Warbands gain experience and equipment as the campaign progresses, in a similar nature to role-playing games such as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. For those who play Warhammer 40K, Mordheim is often cited as the Necromunda equivalent for the Warhammer Fantasy Universe. However, the warriors in Mordheim tend to have far more protections than those in Necromunda, therefore granting Mordheimers a much higher survival rate.

More recently, fan groups have released several "Alternative Settings," to allow players to fight in other locations, such as Albion, Athel Loren, Karak Azgal - Battles Underground, Khemri - Land of the Dead, Lustria - Cities of Gold, Mousillon, Sylvania using the basic Mordheim gaming rules. Also, fans continue to develop new warbands, and revise old ones, in a collective attempt to keep the game fresh and entertaining for everyone. Unfortunately, at this time there is no official news of a major revision. That last official revision was published in the Mordheim: Annual 2002.

Having gone almost a full five years with only marginal support, fans around the world have quitel begun to revise the original rules for Mordheim, fixing old oversights, and updating armies to be more in line with Warhammer 7th (Mordheim was designed under Warhammer 5th).

Game Balance

Although the element of random chance is high enough that any warband from the original rules can beat any other warband most players agree - as they have ever since the games release in 1998 - that the core rules are unbalanced. It should be stated that fans do not agree on the extent to which they think that the original rules are unbalanced, but the main points of criticism are as follows:

  • The rules for Skaven in the original rulebook render them by far the best warband of the core rules. Citation: [1]
  • The combined fact that there are no penalties for wielding two close-combat weapons and that armour isnt viable means that there is basically only one viable equipment choice for most models. Citation: [2] Quote from cited source: "For example, two weapons are the norm in Mordheim and almost nobody uses a weapon and

shield. This imbalance feels wrong to me: I’d much rather either was a viable choice, and one that was taken based on playing style, or perhaps warband type." (This is the officially endorsed Rules Reviewer).

  • The internal balance of weapons is generally flawed: Sling is too cheap and too good, Halberd is nearly useless, Blowpipe is totally useless and so on.

Mordheim Warbands

In Mordheim, a warband is a defined group of adventurers, warriors, wizards, priests, mercenaries and/or animals that fight as a tactical unit. Each player controls one warband, composed of a certain number of warriors, each represented with a miniature. All the warbands have the same general game mechanics (i.e. stats, composition, etc) but each individual group has specific advantages/disadvantages.

These traits are represented in various forms, such as total number of warriors allowed, special abilities, point costs, movement, etc. Over time, the people at Games Workshop and the Specialist Games have created, play tested and publish many kinds of warbands; one for each type of troop or race available from the range of Games Workshop miniatures.

Informally, fans have grouped available warbands as follows:

  • Official Warband: Any warband published by Games Workshop, which is currently allowed to be used on Official Games Workshop Mordheim Tournaments. They are listed on the Specialist Games Mordheim Rules Review.
  • Unofficial Warband: Any warband published by Games Workshop, which is currently NOT allowed to be used on Official Games Workshop Mordheim Tournaments. They tend to be listed on the Specialist Games Mordheim Rules Review, but as a rule of thumb... if it is not explicitly listed as Official, then it is unofficial!
  • Experimental Warband: Any warband NEVER published by Games Workshop, and thus is NOT allowed to be on Official GW Mordheim Tournaments. For obvious reasons, they are not mentioned on the Specialist Games Mordheim Rules Review. They are usually home-brewed warbands and thus may be poorly balanced. Some of them appear to be ready for the big time, but they have never been submitted to Specialist Games for review or simply have been lost in the shuffle.

OFFICIAL WARBANDS

  • Cult of the Possessed (Chaos)
  • Marienburg Mercenaries (Empire)
  • Middenheim Mercenaries (Empire)
  • Orcs & Goblins Hordes (Orcs)
  • Ostlander Mercenaries (Empire)

UNOFFICIAL WARBANDS

  • Norse Warband
  • Pirate Crew
  • Pit Fighters
  • The Outlaws of Stirwood Forest
  • Tomb Guardians

EXPERIMENTAL WARBANDS: These warbands are some samples taken from The Mordheimer's Information Centre (site status: online)

  • Albion Barbarian Tribe: Natives to mystical island of Albion; primitive but effective.
  • Assassin Squad: Further (Skaven) Eshin warband.
  • Circus Extraordinaire: Circus performers...
  • Druchii Warband: Major revision and balancing of the Dark Elves Unofficial Warband.
  • Halfling Warband: They are chubby, slow and horrible fighters... but they can cook!
  • Mordheimers' Fanatics: Traumatized survivors of the holocaust that was the Wrath of Sigmar.
  • Night Goblins Warband: With sheer numbers, these weak and cowardly creatures can become a problem!
  • Wood Elves: Newly designed warband, based on the new Warhammer rules published on 2005.

Further links to experimental warbands

  • Clan Skryre Skaven[3]: This details the emergence of Clan Skryre in Mordheim and contains fiction to justify their appearance. Also details the many strange and disfunctional warpstone weapons available to a Clan Skryre warband.

Mordheim's Hired Help

Players may also include special models to increase their warband's effectivenss on the Streets of Mordheim. They are grouped into Hired Swords and Dramatis Personae.

Hired Swords are professional mercenaries that warbands may hire to join them in their quest into Mordheim, The City of the Damned. Taverns in the settlements and shanty towns around Mordheim are good recruitment centers for warriors who do not belong to any particular warband or retinue, but instead hire out their services to the highest bidder.

Players can recruit Hired Swords when he creates his warband, or during the campaign phase after a game. Hired Swords do not count towards the maximum number of warriors or Heroes a warband may have on its roster and don’t affect your income from selling wyrdstone. However, Hired Swords do count as part of the warband for purposes of Rout tests, etc whilst in battle. A player cannot buy extra weapons or equipment for a Hired Sword, and he cannot sell the Hired Sword’s weapons or equipment. To reflect their rarity, you can only have one of each type of Hired Sword in your warband. You may not use the Leadership of any of the Hired Swords for Rout tests.

When a warband recruits a Hired Sword, you must pay his hire fee. Subsequently, after each battle he fights, including the first, you must pay his upkeep fee if you want him to remain with the warband. If the Hired Sword is killed, or you no longer require his services, you don’t have to pay any upkeep! These costs are indicated in the entries for each Hired Sword. The money paid to Hired Swords comes from the warband’s treasury in the same way as buying new weapons or recruiting new warriors. If you don’t have enough gold to pay for the Hired Sword, or want to spend it on other things, he leaves the warband. Any experience he has gained will be lost, even if you hire a new Henchman of the same type.

Dramatis Personae, on the other hand, are the strangest and most famous (or infamous) characters to be found in Mordheim and the outlying settlements. Occasionally, these warriors join forces with a warband (usually demanding wyrdstone or a bag of gold in payment). The following characters (known as ‘special characters’) are hard to find and expensive to hire – you must be lucky and wealthy to attract their attention.

The appearance of these characters becomes more frequent as a campaign progresses. If two or more players wish to hire the same person; then the Dramatis Persona will go to the highest bidder. If Dramatis Persona is freed from service of a warband, for whatever reason, then another warband can hire them. The Dramatis Persona will again go to the highest bidder.

Each Dramatis Persona is unique. They will not gain experience or advancements, as stated in the main rulebook, but will retain any injuries. There will only be one Dramatis Persona available and if they die, that Dramatis Personae will not reappear for the remainder of the campaign.

Mordheim Resources

  • Mordheim: City of the Damned - Basic starter Campaign Boxed Set. Includes 10 Skaven, 8 Human Mercenaries miniatures, rulebook, lots of card and plastic ruins terrain pieces, counters, range rulers and dice. *The Living Rulebook - This is the updated version of the rulebook that comes on the basic box set. It is available for free download (in PDF form) at the Specialist Games website's Rulebook section at no cost.
  • Mordheim: Blood On The Streets - A building expansion pack for the basic Mordheim game system.
  • Mordheim: Empire In Flames - This supplemental expansion rulebook allows players to take the fighting from the narrow, cramped streets of the ruined city and out into the untamed wilderness of the Empire. Out of print, hard to find. It is also available for free download (in PDF form) at the Specialist Games website's Rulebook section.
  • Mordheim: Annual 2002 - This supplemental expansion rulebook contains new warbands and rules for the Mordheim game system. It s based on new rulings by the Mordheim Rules Review Committee. Out of print, hard to find.
  • Town Cryers - Original publications on the White Dwarf Magazine (issues 1-6) and later partially re-printed in a single book ("Best of Town Cryer"), later compiled into a short booklet (issues 7-29). They contain many optional rules, warbands, Alternative Settings, etc. Many of the articles were approved by the Mordheim Rules Review Committee and were included on either the Empire In Flames or the Annual 2002. While they are out of print, they continue to be sought by players and collectors alike. They can be found on Online Auctions and prices range from US $4 to US $10 per issue.
  • Fanatic Online - This is a free monthly online magazine published by Games Workshop's Specialist Games. It is the current form that the old print magazines (such as Town Cryer) has taken form. While it encompass articles, rules revisions, ideas, etc, for their many "specialist's games", you can find Mordheim specific articles. Be warned, that the site has been severely criticised for being somewhat difficult to navigate. Taking time to search would yield a valuable lot of resources at no cost!
  • Fan Sites - Games Workshop acknowledged the existence of various fansites in 2005. It would be advisable to visit these lists for more information.
  • Gentlemens Mordheim - A continuously updated 60-page rules overhaul, that updates various rules and frees Mordheim from the Warhammer parrent game.
  • Mordheim Official Specialist Games site. Contains Core Rules available for free download.
  • The Mordheimer's Information Centre One of the largest non-official fan-based site. Some of the articles of interest include:
  • Mordheim Ultimate FAQ: Compilation of Official FAQ and FAQ's from reliable sources (such as Yahoo's Mordheim Group, original Mordheim creators and designers.)
  • Warband Tactics: Compilation of tactics and techniques of playing different warbands.
  • Mordheim Master Equipment List: Compilation of all Official and Unofficial equipment, including references of origin.
  • Mordheim Master Skill List: Compilation of all Official and Unofficial skills, including references of origin.
  • Mordheim's Scenarios Master List The only and largest compilation of Morheim scenarios in existence at this moment it includes 193 Scenarios, inlcuding Official and Unofficial scenarios.
  • Brahmsbook - Home to Sylvania setting and an incredible array of player aides and supplements.
  • Strike to Stun Fantastic Mordheim fan site. Includes a new setting, Karak Azgul.
  • Tom's Mordheim Blog Non-official fan blog, current information full of hints about the hobby.
  • Mordheim in Montana Non-official blog about creating everything one needs to play.
  • Gentlemen's Mordheim A fan-made rules-overhaul.
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