Mordheim Troll Tribe
Here it is: the first post!
When I saw the new Gloomspite Gitz models, a large part of me became tempted to sell off most of my existing Warhammer and jump on them. I may still do that, but for now I wanted to share some homebrew rules inspired by some of the larger upcoming releases; that is to say, the trolls! Or troggoths, as I suppose they're called now. Seeing that crew of ugly hulks got me thinking: why isn't there a Mordheim warband that consists entirely of trolls? (There is, technically: the Brood of Ghurash from the in-progress Sealed City setting. Arguably, though, they're a very setting-specific breed of troll, and I wanted something more general.)
So I set about writing one.
The Dropbox link to the rules can be found below; these should be viewed as a work in progress, although it will take a while for me to playtest them (read: I may never playtest them). I wanted to discuss some design choices here, in case that's of interest to anyone.
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My starting point was the Troll from the Orc Mob: this gave me a baseline for what a troll should be in Mordheim, including a hard value in gold crowns, a statline, and a set of special rules. This baseline established a few important details: trolls are large, cause fear, regenerate, spew vomit, and of course, suffer from stupidity. Each of these aspects posed a design challenge, each of which I've tried to address.
First, the size. An entire warband of large targets poses the challenge of being very vulnerable to shooting, and introduces an inherent drawback from the get-go. I looked to the fantastic Maneaters warband from Border Town Burning for what a warband from a physically large faction should be, and what concessions can be made to maintain the feel without throwing them to the dogs. While the Maneaters' Leader and secondary hero choices are large, and they can hire two more large warriors, their youngbloods and rank-and-file are standard size, making it possible to screen and divert shooting attacks to some degree. I decided to apply this design to the trolls, including options for Runts and Half-Trolls (not exactly what the name implies).
Fear, on the contrary, posed the problem of being too much of a benefit, and therefore upping the cost of the trolls dramatically. Though it is a signature feature of trolls, I didn't want their cost to be so prohibitive that a starting warband couldn't afford three warriors. The Maneaters also taught me how I might apply fear to the trolls, and by leaving it off of Runts' profiles I could still keep a relatively inexpensive hero choice. As they stand now, the trolls can muster a tribe of exactly three to begin with (more if you don't take a Hag).
Regeneration is likely one of the most defining characteristics of fantasy trolls in general, so unlike fear, I didn't feel that I could just remove it from any single troll without compromising the warband's flavour. Instead, I dialed it back on the Runts and Half-Trolls so that they wouldn't be too difficult for a standard warband to take down, but added the possibility for these characters to improve their save over time so that the poor save can become less of a burden. The Orc Mob's Troll is unkillable thanks to its regeneration rule, but since we're talking about an entire warband that wasn't feasible. Re-rolling Serious Injuries, and the potential to regenerate old wounds, seemed like a more thematic solution, and while the caveat regarding fire means more bookkeeping, it gives enemy warbands struggling to delpete the trolls' numbers an "out", as well as keeping the proverbial fear of god in the troll player's heart.
Vomit only needs a brief mention: like fear and regeneration, I restricted it to keep costs down and fairness up. It wouldn't do to have a beginning tribe melting all of their foes automatically (S5 and no save is no joke!), but since it's thematic, I made it a skill for the trolls who don't start with it.
Last of the special rules is stupidity, posing an even bigger problem than large size. Other warbands with stupid warriors usually have just one, and it's easy enough to keep one model near the Leader for support. A whole warband of stupid warriors can't just bunch around the Leader and hope for the best; this leads to one-dimensional play, and frustrating penalties for choosing a warband that appeals to you. I could have selectively dropped the rule, but besides the Chief (who's old and wise as trolls go) that didn't sit right with me at all. So I added the Pack Mentality rule, with the philosophy that if another troll is nearby, it serves as a constant reminder to the first that there's something it should be doing. I still wanted a troll player to have to play strategically and manage stupidity, and if they aren't careful about positioning they will learn just how dumb trolls can be.
While many questions arose as I wrote, and are answered at length in the rules themselves, one more glaring issue that I feel the need to address is the warband's size. On paper, the tribe can have up to twelve members. This is small, intentionally so, but compound it with the fact that they cannot take Hired Swords (including the Halfling Scout and his pot), or use items (like the Halfling Cookbook), and that 12 is a much harder limit. As mentioned above, a starting tribe can hire exactly three heroes, not exactly a horde, and their most powerful options are extremely expensive. With all that at play, one lost warrior could be a huge financial burden on the tribe. The regeneration rules above helped remedy this, but another subtle addition is "...but then they just... wandered off." An alternate voluntary Rout condition allows a troll player a chance to back out with grace, rather than risk their significant investments on a losing fight.
The only member I'm particularly unsure of now is the Troll Hulk. He's inspired by the upcoming Dankhold Troggoth, and is partly there as a joke (a large warband with an even larger warrior choice). At a whopping placeholder cost of 400 gold crowns, he's ridiculously expensive, but has a ridiculous statline to match. I thought he was worth two trolls, but he might be worth more or less.
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And there it is: first post of many, and a taste of what I like to write. If you're like me, and like the idea of a troll tribe rooting around Mordheim, consider taking these big lugs out for a spin and see how they feel. I'm happy to take any input!
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