Editing Mordheim/Tactics (section)

===Official Warbands===

====Mercenaries====
The Mercenaries are the Humans of Mordheim, the traditional Jack-of-All-Trades Warband that can do most things, but not as well as the other Warbands... Or so it seems at first. While it is true that the Mercenaries can make most types of builds, including hordes, Hero Warbands, ranged, choppy and so forth, Mercenaries can't be called a "Masters-of-None" Warband. Mercenaries are among the best Ranged Warbands in the game, as they have easy access to Ranged Skills and BS 4 Henchmen, which is capitalized on through their truly massive starting selection of ranged weapons they can buy - but if you want to go melee, they can do so as well with the Swordsmen (easily one of the best out-of-the-gates melee Henchmen choices in the entire game), especially if the Warband is Middenheimers. Mercenaries can do everything well, and sometimes better than the rest of the Warbands in the game, but they are also a little bit boring for it; they have no Special Skills to choose from and no items of their own. Either way, the Mercenaries can never steer you wrong, so if you just want a good, solid and simple Warband, the Mercs of the Empire have your back.
** Mercenaries have the ability to choose what province they are from upon being created. Reiklanders add +1 to the BS of Marksmen (so BS 4 Henchmen. I shouldn't need to tell you why this is sweet) and a 12" Leader range instead of 6", Middenlanders gain S 4 for their Champions and Captain and Marienburgers start with 600 gc instead of 500 gc as well as getting a +1 bonus when searching for rare items.

====Witch Hunters====
Witch hunters are very similar to the mercs, similar stats and weapons. The few differences there are make a massive change in playstyle, the big ones being they get a stock magic user in their base warband in the form of a sigmarite priest, they also get to skip the need to gamble with the weak Young bloods, getting three basic warriors for heroes, while not as powerful as champions, they advance faster and are not weaklings like the kiddies the mercs grab, also of note are most of the warband hates unholy warbands such as the various chaos and undead, or gets some other form of bonus against them, cbined with a fearless and HARD hitting henchman known as the flagellent, and the affordable, powerful warhound chaff units, the one drawback to them is they are limited in a few of their hired swords options, and capped at a max of 12 memebers in a band, making them more vulnerable to route tests.

====Sisters of Sigmar====
The sisters are a terrifying foe in close combat, with access to your average garden variety hammers and the elusive Sigmarite Hammers that will absolutely wreck the day of any unholy abomination unfortunate enough to get a taste of one. However as a tradeoff, your ranged capabilites are restricted to slings. Sisters of Sigmar benefit greatly from deploying around their Matriarch, who has access to Sigmarite Prayers that will boost your survivability or killing power to absurd heights depending on what prayers you roll. From there it's most often a steamroll if your enemy is unfortunate enough to get into hammering range.
The Augur is a blessing in a Sisters of Sigmar Warband, while she's weak and fragile she starts with a rule to help gather your Warpstone post game easier, and once upgraded with a few select Speed Skills, she'll be running across the map grabbing objectives like no tomorrow.
Unique to the Sisters of Sigmar warband is that all their heroines can choose Academic skills, meaning you can have 6 Wyrdstone Hunters in a warband, skyrocketing your income to ludicrous levels. Do note that the Rabbits Foot item also confers the same benefit, so you may not need to waste an upgrade on Wyrdstone Hunter if your campaign hasn't banned it.

Ranged Hired Swords are invaluable for the sisters, and starting out a warband with a Halfling Scout, Elf Ranger or a Tilean Marksman, isn't uncommon. 


====Skaven====
A very fluffy warband that can be broken in the hands of a That guy, in comparison to humans the average skaven is superior in movement and initiative, with the trade-off of being cowards with poor odds of passing any leadership. They have lots of neat tricks and unique weapons, can start with the full compliment of heroes, including an upkeep-less spellcaster with access to devastating spells, champion proxies with strength 4, and Young blood equivalents who are average at shooting, and a healthy sum of henchman chaff easily, and have a warband cap at 20 members, you'll see an asshole run a skaven warband with nothing but slings, on occasion, these guys don't get too many games in before they get banned from the campaign. As far as weaknesses go there's the absolute trash leadership, and an inability to hire most hired swords, something your warband won't worry over much about as you can get a large target model in the form of an ogre. The most challenging thing about this warband is making sure you're building in a way that let's your opponent also have fun, as opposed to running 20 skavens with slings and shooting them off the board.

====Undead====
A very bipolar warband , you start with the vampire: a fear causing one man army who will murder anything that he charges, and anything that charges him if you give him a spear, you want this guy in close combat murdering heroes, and taking names, there's just one problem: he's your leader who you naturally want to keep protected in the back hidden behind chaff henchmen, on the bright side the undead do chaff well, with cheap henchmen who don't need to purchase weapons: the human statline zombies who are very slow as they cannot run but charge normally, the youngblood-esque gouls who are faster, but can make up for the poor weapon skill of theirs with fear, and the blindingly fast AND deadly direwolves, rounding out the vampire and henchman is another spellcaster in the form of a necromancer who comes with a solid list of spells to use. Back to the bipolar side the necromancer and vampire are complimented by the dregs, your average Young blood equivalent with the typical weaknesses and need to level up to he any good. The warband cannot take most hired swords, but can take the "essential" ones, which are the ogre - who synergizes well with their fear-causing aura, and a warlock who can add some more bang at range, something that is lacking for our undead warband.

====Possessed====
A rather interesting warband, the possessed have a variety of tools at their disposal, ranging from Possessed and Mutants who have some absolutely trolltastic Mutation combinations, to crazed cult followers and finally to a few beastmen stragglers. Having played this warband a fair bit, it has its ups and downs like every warband (Well aside from Shadow Walkers, fuck 'em), early game they tend to be squishy and can get picked off fairly easily by other warbands though in the mid-late game you can really spiral upwards into a Mind-Rape train of destruction that ate its own breaks...

If your new to playing these, then i suggest either Min/Max your warband in 2 different styles:

"Cthulu's Cult" 
- This style of play is very simple, you start off with 500gc, firstly get your leader, a magister with H. Armour, a shield and a sword is a good start, it will cost 135gc which leaves you with 365gc, then comes the easy part, get AS MANY BRETHREN AS YOU CAN!. From this point onwards, once you have 8-10 brethren, which costs between 200-250gc depending on how many, you are left with 115gc, and at this point you may be worried that you have a bunch of guys who are going to have to fist-fuck their way through this campaign, but that little lump of gold at the end is all you need, you spend that on either twin axes for all of them, or an axd and the shield if you want a 6+ armour save, so now your set, turn up to the game and watch as your opponent either grins or despairs at the sea of lightly armoured models you bring, has he underestimated you? or is he simply revelling in the promise of lots of Experience points?, who knows, Hilarity will ensue. You should however remember that the magister cannot use magic while wearing anyt armour.
"Upsides"
With the sheer amount of models you have down all with axes(meaning you get a -1 save modifier on enemy armour without needing to be strength 4!!), and if you decide to take the pair of axes, you get an extra attack, which means that at best, you can churn out 16-20 attacks a turn at an average of hitting on a 4+ and wounding on a 4+/5+, so roughly 4-5 wounds will go through, of which one might be a critical. Now bearing in mind that most models at the start will have 1 wound, maybe 2 and an armour save of a 4+ (put to 5+ because of that sweet sweet -1 to their armour save), you can gang-rape a high cost enemy hero to death if you play it right and then go after the rest, Bon Appetit!, as for your leader, keep him at the back flinging spells and occasionally attacking if your ballsy enough.

NOTE* Always, always, always move in groups. If you leave people alone, they have to make all alone tests and will get smushed in a 1 to 1 with most enemy combatants, strengrth in numbers....strength in numbers....

"Downsides"
Due to the high model count and how mordheim works, you get less warpstone when you sell it, meaning you have a slower progression as a warband, however once you have got enough gold you can let loose some of your brethren and evolve the warband into a playstyle you find more fitting, this style of play does not really work in the late-game unless of course you get each of them heavy armour and helmets and maybe shields.

"Sayl the Faithless, Nightmaw and......Dominique!"

This is my preferred warband of choice by a long way. why?. Because it consists of 3 models, those models are armed to the teeth and are absolute tanks, and it is gimmicky and fun to use, very much a Dick Dastardly and Muttley warband in the sense that 90% of the time you will fail, but that sweet 10% is all worth it(but no seriously, you can get stomped pretty easily so watch out!) Take the magister, a Mutant and a brethren, first give your magister a shield, H. Armour and a sword, this leaves you with 365 gold, then purchase a mutants, give them H.Armour, Shield, Extra limb, Gargantuan Size, Toughened Hide, Extra head and a few other things off the extra mutations chart which can e found somewhere on the internet, this racks up a cost of exactly 325 gold, and for it you get a multi-limbed monstrosity who gets 3-4 attacks in close combat, 3 wounds, a 3+ save and a bunch of other quirky and useful tricks, see that expensive hero? mince him!, see that poor zealot trying to flee? lunch!. Finally get a brethren with sword and shield, and boom there is your warband, use the 'Mutant' to barrel in and mulch combatants, use your magister as support and finally keep dominique by the magisters side to record the events and laugh diabolically.

"Upsides"
- its FUN
- You have a perfect excuse to use Sayl the Faithless and Nightmaw without doing any conversions to make a warband.
- Dominique.
- Very low model count means lots of moolah for your warband.
- the mutant is fantastic for beating down just about everything, though be wary of minster hunting units such as trollslayers, they can dampen your day a little.
- Since the Mutant is not a spawn, it can gain the benefits of all the mutations without the drawbacks, it is much more controlled destruction.

"Downsides"
- Dominique may die
- if one of your members die, it is problematic, if your magister or mutant die, kiss goodbye to the warband
- easily swamped by horde warbands
- all your eggs are in one basket with these three models, don't crack them early.

====Averlanders====
Like the [[Ostland]]ers, [[Averland]]ers get a unique wearband list rather than just being "Mercenaries with a minor bonus", which means they require slightly different tactics.

For Heroes, an Averlander band ''must'' contain a single Captain, who is the band's default leader; that, they share in common with the vanilla Human Mercs warband. Their other Hero choices are 0-1 Sergeants (old veterans), 0-2 Bergjaegers (veteran rangers who can set traps), and 0-1 Youngbloods (youthful would-be mercs).

For Heroes, they can take Mountainguard (warriors with +1 Weapon Skill, but costing +5 crowns each), Marksmen, and 0-3 [[Halflings (Warhammer)|Halfling Scouts]].

One major advantage Averlanders have over their Mercenary counterparts is that they're quick-moving; all your heroes have access to the Speed skill tree, which can really help you get around the battlefield. Remember, in Mordheim, it's equally important to use that trait to fall back as well as to launch ambushes!

====Ostlanders====
Like the [[Averland]]ers, [[Ostlander]]s get a unique warband rather than being "Mercenaries with a special rule". Mechanically, an Ostlander warband is defined by two special rules. 

'''Self-Sufficient''' dictates that Ostlanders cannot hire any Mercenaries other than [[Ogre]]s; Ostlands don't want to share their resources with outsiders, but clans of ogres who broke away from the [[Ogre Kingdoms]] to inhabit the Middle Mountains often find work in Ostland, and so they're accepted as neighbors. This may not seem like such a big issue at first, but it does mean your Ostlander warband is much more heavily slotted into the "hit stuff hard" niche than some, as you can't use Hired Swords or Dramatis Personae to broaden their tactics list or shore up weakspots in their tactical arsenal. So plan accordingly.

'''Nouveau Riche''' is the special rule that will probably give players the hardest time starting out; Ostlanders are almost universally poor and so have a real hard time controlling themselves when they get ahold of money. As a result, after a battle, an Ostlander warband '''must''' sell the first 8 pieces of wyrdstone they won from that battle, and then, once they have decided whether or not to hire any new warriors and paid off their campaign debts, 50% of the gold remaining '''must''' be spent on a single item of gear... luckily for you guys, the Annual 2002 reprint of this warband is missing this rule, so arguably you ''don't'' have to play with Nouveau Riche as a factor. Of course, you gotta convince the other guys to let you ignore this rule.

Ostlanders have a unique weapon; the Double-Barreled Pistol and the Double-Barreled Rifle. At the cost of requiring a full turn to reload each barrel, firing both barrels at the same target causes 2 hits rather than one.

For Heroes, an Ostlander warband has a mandatory Elder and can take 0-2 Blood-Brothers, and 0-1 Priests of Taal. For henchmen, they can take Kin, 0-5 Ruffians, 0-7 Jaegers and 0-1 Ogres. So, off the bat, your warband can take a pretty big boost in muscle ''and'' it can start play with a spellcaster, which are two edges rarely seen in the same warband. The downside is that with no Youngbloods equivalent, your exploration is stunted until and unless you can roll "The Lad's Got Talent!" for some of your Kin. 

Ostlander heroes have the following unique skills they can develop:
* ''Bull Rush:'' When charging, the Ostlander can knock the foe down without hurting them by making an attack with a +1 "to hit" bonus.
* ''Foul Odor:'' The Ostlander's clothes are so saturated with stale liquor and sweat that living enemies suffer a -1 to-hit penalty in HTH combat, but fire attacks are +1 strength against this Ostlander and the Ostlander cannot carry open flames (torches, lanterns).
* ''Taunt:'' The Ostlander can make a "shooting" attack that, if it hits, forces the enemy to pass an LD test or else spend the next movement phase trying to get to the Ostlander.
* ''Animal Friendship:'' Normal animals won't attack this Ostlander, and the warband can take 2 "free" wardogs.
* ''Blood Oath:'' Leader Only. Can reroll a single Route test once per game.

Priests of Taal function like Priests of Sigmar, but have their own unique spell lists and have much lighter armor.

====Kislevites====

The kislevite warband is mostly a merc warband with some steps aside, forward and backwards with also no special skills. The bear tamer and bear could be a nice combo, but the opportunity to wield handguns can’t be discarded. As a personal note, you can spend either 210 gc on 3/3 streltsi with handguns and halberds to have nice firepower support or 160 in acquiring both tamer and bear, the latter doesn’t need gear, but the tamer is valuable, so buy him a shield and sword to take care of himself while the bear is occupied. Including Cossacks is situational, you’ll probably field Warriors most of the time. Remember to be careful when selecting inherited gear for the leader.

Leader

* Druzhina Captain (60 gc): Is your basic Merc captain... with a exceptional rule that lets the leader buy a single item for himself at half the normal price when starting the warband, and if for some reason the item is lost, the item must be replaced with the same piece of equipment buyed for the original cost plus half of it (example: you buy a single halberd that costs 10 gc but it's for the leader so it costs 5 gc, if its lost it must be bought at 15 gc). The cost of not buying that overpriced gear is having a -1 on every roll (all tests and rolls to hit, to be exact) until you buy the gear. Such ability is tricky, so think it twice before buying that brace of duelling pistols that you want. 

Heroes

* Bear tamer (0-1, 35 gc): If you include him, It lets you purchase a bear, which passes stupidity tests automatically while 6" or closer to the tamer (and uses the tamer's leadership at the same range). 
* Esaul (0-1, 35 gc) A normal Champion, which is single
* Youths (0-2, 15 gc each) Equivalent to Youngbloods

Henchmen

* Warriors (any, 25 gc) They’re your basic henchmen which you can field in any number with the same stats as the mercs. No, really, they’ve exactly the same stats.
* Cossacks are basically the same but cost +5 gc more and hate chaos. 
* Streltsi (0-3, 25 gc) have the same stats and cost as the warriors but have a separate gear list, they can field the same close combat weapons as the others but in the ranged section they lack the shortbow and the throwing knives, instead having access to a handgun, and for armour only having access to L. armour, shield and helmet. If it has a halberd, the streltsi can use it as a gun-rest. It can’t move that turn (even if it can move and fire with a skill) but it will get a +1 to the hit roll with the handgun as long as it doesn’t move.
* Bear (0-1, 125 gc) (aka the big guy of the group) : Causes fear and is strong as expected, but if it isn't close to the tamer, it'll have to take stupidity tests. The bear hug special attack seems great, but if dice got unlucky, the target won't get damage and the bear won't suffer any consequences. If the tamer has to roll on the serious injury table and gets "Robbed" "Sold to the pits'' and  "Captured" (and similar in other serious injury tables in other campaigns) it is ignored and treated as "fully recovered". Remember to have the tamer and the bear close, they're useful for each other. 

Unique Items

* Vodka: (35+3D6 gc, lowest price 38, highest 53, Rare 8) The hero gives the vodka to the whole warband, +1 Leadership to everyone (no more than 10 L), but they must do a toughness test for each one. In case of failure, the warrior reduces -1 to their initiative, Everything before the battle. 
* Bear-Claw necklace: (75+3D6 gc, lowest price would be 78, highest 93, Rare 9) gives Frenzy to the hero.

====Dwarf Treasure-hunters====
'''''TOUGH'''''. Everyone in the Dwarf Treasure-hunters have at least T 4 and a special rule that makes them harder to take Out of Action on regular hits... And if it wasn't clear, that makes them pretty much unkillable. No, this isn't the fun 1D4chan way of saying "oh dear they're slightly tough"; no Shirley, this Warband can actually be essentially, truly unkillable, and since this game is about relatively fragile Warbands that rout when a few of them drop, Dwarfs are close to broken. This author recommends removes the special rule regarding Out of Action and make the bearded buckaroos rely on their Toughness.

Aside from all this, Dwarfs hit fairly hard but move slow, as should be expected. They don't climb and do parkour well at all though they'll survive the fall much better. They have easier access to Gromril weapons and armor, but they're still very expensive, and can hire Troll Slayers, who will do absolutely wild and wacky shit every time you bring these orange-topped maniacs to the table.

====Orcs & Goblins====
The green, mean beating machines et al! Orcs and Goblin Warbands are positively spoiled for options: Orcs, Goblins, Ball'n'Chain so you can make your own Fanatics, Squigs and prodders and motherducking Troll; you can make pretty much any kind of Warband you feel like! However, the Warband has inbuilt issues though. The entire Warband suffers from Animosity, which causes them to stand around doing nothing, trying to kill each other or occasionally flying at the face of whoever you are fighting. The other issue is less obvious, as the Warband only starts with ''four'' Heroes! This all comes together to create an incredibly fun and wacky Warband that fits exactly into a light-hearted Mordheim campaign, but will probably get absolutely be run over by any competitive team. Also, your Orcs are actually decent shots, so buy them Crossbows, especially the Heroes! You can't sacrifice your extremely important money-makers in the grind of melee.

====Beastmen====

Of all things, they decided to… do this? C’mon, at least they should have new magic!

Heroes:

* Beastmen Chief (65 gc, The tough one, with WS/S/T/I 4)
* 0-1 Shaman (45 gc, WS/T 4, uses the possessed warbands’ magic)
* 0-2 Bestigors (45 gc each, WS/S/T 4)
* 0-1 Centigor (80 gc, WS/S/T 4, has M8 but also I2)

Henchmen (Bought in groups of 1-5):
* Ungor (25 gc each, WS/S/T/I 3, Re-rolls all “lad’s got talent” results)
* Gor (0-5, 35 gc each, WS/T 4)
* Chaos Hounds (0-5, 15 gc each, WS/S 4)
* Minotaur (0-1, 200 gc, WS/S/T/I 4, Fear and more rules which will be explained below)

Ok, let’s start. This warband is plenty of basic stuff, but its attributes are better than a human mercenary warband. What you know first, the complete lack of ranged equipment and shooting/academic skills. You can’t take ranged equipment, never, nor learn new stuff to power up your chief or shaman. Moving on the warband, All of them have at least M5 to accelerate the charge and engage in melee combat and all the heroes and the gors have at least WS/T 4. The chief is nice with its WS/S/T/I 4 which allows him to be on the frontline without getting hurt as often as others. The spellcaster, a normally frail subject, has WS/T 4, which is also a good thing. The bestigors are good champion options, proving to be up to the job. The centigor is really good. Take the chief, give him M8, reduce him at I2, an extra hoove attack which is unmodifiable, no penalties on moving inside woods, and the drunken rule. At the start of each turn, roll a d6. On a 1, do a stupidity test, nothing on 2-5 and on a 6, immunity to psychology and have frenzy. The henchmen are also neat. The Ungors… do the job, and have the advantage of limitless numbers, at the cost of never turning into heroes. The gors can become heroes, have WS/T 4, but a limit of 5 per warband. The hounds are powerful and cheap. The minotaur is awesome. M6, WS/S/T/I 4, Ld 8, Fear, can gain xp, and the Bloodgreed rule. If the minotaur takes out of action all the enemies he has in hand to hand combat, roll a d6 and on a 4+, it becomes frenzied (it doesn’t specify it but it might be until the end of the next combat phase). Of course, there’s the disadvantage of being a large target and everyone will be shooting at the biggest bipedal aggressive goat in the group. Anyways, let’s move on to the special skills. Yes, they have special skills. Surprised? Me too. Don’t get excited, it's mostly normal stuff. Shaggy hide lets the hero have a double-handed weapon on one hand, Mutant lets the hero buy one mutation, Fearless makes the hero immune to fear, terror and all alone tests, Horned One “additional attack w basic strength on a turn it charges”, Bellowing Roar is for the leader only, which lets him re-roll failed rout tests. Manhatred, hate humans. And now, the million dollar question: DOES THE CENTIGOR HAS ACCESS TO THE SPEAR CAVALRY BONUS RULE, GRANTING HIM A S 5? I don’t know.
But before we move on, the Billion dollar question: CAN A CENTIGOR HAVE A MOUNT???
That question is better left unanswered. So, is this dakkaless warband viable? Of course it is! Well, if you are against a skavenslingers warband, probably you shouldn’t use this, but otherwise, it is nice

====Carnival of Chaos====
Think Possessed, but more fun and colorful. At least where their personalities are concerned. For your enemy, they can be an absolute nightmare. With access to unique spells and mutations, daemons and a Plague Cart, the Carnival is arguably the most unique warband in Mordheim.
The Carnival has access to champions with the Strongman skill from the get go, allowing them to use 2 handed weapons without initiative penalties, along with Tainted Ones who can buy Blessings of Nurgle to become unkillable tanks or annoying little shits who throw said shit at the enemy. You can also recruit up to 2 Plaguebearers and any amount Nurglings in a warband, the only daemons in the game and your most terrifying fighters. Though they die more easily if taken out of action. IF being the operative word in that sentence. 
The Plague Cart is a gypsy carriage that helps mitigate the Daemonic Instability that makes your daemons go poof if killed, and raises the warband cap from 15 fighters to 17. Otherwise this clowncar works as a mobile cover and a great distraction.
As a lovely bonus, Carnival of Chaos has access to pistols.

But that's just semantics and irrelevancies, what really raises the Carnival of Chaos to the top is Nurgle's Rot. As a spell AND a blessing, you can start spreading Papa's gifts like no tomorrow. Nurgle's Rot, once contracted, starts slowly eating your enemies away and spreading further. This works by rolling Toughness tests before battles, if failed they will permanently lose a point of toughness, and on a roll of 6, the disease spreads to another member of the warband. And yes, this can eventually kill when their toughness falls to 0.
Expect any campaign that cares for balance to ban this immediately.