One Man Warband

Mordheim Musings: Flawed Warband Design Part 3 Over my holiday, I'm writing a series of articles on the design of Mordheim warbands from the Nemesis Crown supplement, with a focus on the deep flaws I see in some of them. If you haven't read part 1 you can  check it out here , or read part 2 here  (and while you're at it, why not check out some of my other articles on Mordheim  here ,  here , and  here ). With that out of the way, let's get into the meat of the article: Hochland Bandits Realistically, this should have been the first warband on the chopping block. It's easily the worst design offender of the bunch, with several elements that I consider utterly unsalvageable. The Hochland Bandits are, simply put, a mess, with a bloated roster of warriors and special rules that try to do too much, and as a result create a warband with an identity crisis and little unity. The bandits are another interesting warband concept: a small band of ruthless outlaws, ...

Mordheim Musings: Flawed Warband Design Part 2 Over my holiday, I'm writing a series of articles on the design of Mordheim warbands from the Nemesis Crown supplement, with a focus on the deep flaws I see in some of them. If you haven't read part 1, you can check it out here (and while you're at it, why not check out some of my other articles on Mordheim here , here , and here ). Forgoing the long preamble because I did that last time, I'm going to jump right into the analysis. Imperial Outriders The second warband I want to single out is the Empire Outriders, but not for the reassons the developers seemed to think they might be singled out. I'm picking a bit on the Empire warbands here, but they're the biggest offenders in my opinion. Of the two, the Gunnery School is the only one I've seen lamented online as being overpowered or imbalanced, so I'm probably treading off the beaten path a bit here. Even if the Outriders aren't the worst offend...

Mordheim Musings: Flawed Warband Design Part 1 Before I begin, a disclaimer: I know it's pretty nervy of me, a small hobbyist on the internet, to assume any kind of expertise in this sphere. With that out of the way, let me assume some kind of expertise in this sphere. As I've mentioned in previous articles , I think about Mordheim a lot, particularly for someone who doesn't currently play it. I build warbands, draft experimental rules, write blog posts, and regularly seek out other people's warbands, experimental rules, and articles about it. So while I may not have the firsthand tabletop experience, I have a serious academic interest in the game. Recently, I've been going over Nemesis Crown again, which is a bit of an oddball supplement to me. The idea of a Mordheim tie-in to a worldwide Warhammer campaign is cool in theory, but there are some head-scratchers in the idea. First, while the timeline of 2007's Nemesis Crown campaign is ambiguous (at least...

Tales from Dunwall Preview 2 I don't intend this to be a very long post, but I wanted to share another couple of sections of Tales from Dunwall for those who are curious about the mechanical changes I mentioned last time around. I've posted two excerpts, assembled in one PDF on Dropbox , detailing changes to the basic rules, as well as a list of weapons and armour available in the setting. Like last time , I'll dig a bit into these changes to discuss my rationale behind them, but broadly they're done with the same ideas in mind that I mentioned in the previous post. Rules Changes This section of the document is a working list, which I intend to add to over time. As I mentioned previously, one of the challenges I face with this project is taking the Mordheim rules and tweaking them to match the flavour of Dishonored. With this in mind, let me briefly describe a few of these changes. First, I've made a few alterations to combat so far: two-weapon fighting d...

Tales from Dunwall I recently shared a post on Instagram about one of my recent pet projects, a skirmish wargame based on Mordheim and set in the world of the Dishonored franchise titled Tales from Dunwall . It created a bit more of a stir than I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people engaged with the idea of a Dishonored wargame. Though it's still in development, I want to share snippets on the blog over the next little while, in the hopes of presenting a playable draft by the end of the year, if not earlier. Most of the concept work is done (i.e. blocking out warbands, characters, stats), but the deeper I delve into writing it, the more I realize I need to consider. It's an interesting exercise, to say the least. In this post, I wanted to share a bit of my rationale for creating Tales from Dunwall, my design philosophy, and a tidbit of the rules modifications so far. It's a labour of love for me, but it also seems to interest a fair amount ...

Today's installment of Mordheim Musings, a spur-of-the-moment heading which has become a semi-regular column on here, deals with a question that's been on my mind for quite a while, but that I haven't collected my thoughts on until now: should Beastmen Raiders have the option of equipping ungors with shortbows? If you've read my other articles (or, let's be honest, any article of this type), I'm sure you know where this is headed, but humour me. This turned out to be a bit deeper than I had first assumed. But First, Some Context The Beastmen Raiders warband saw its debut in Town Cryer #7 , way back in 1999. I know this, not because I was in any way involved in Mordheim or Warhammer then, but because I obsessively pored through and indexed the issues of Town Cryer over my summer holiday. That's not strictly necessary information, but it is relatively interesting to note that the warband then was not quite in its final form. It would be revised many issue...