Choosing a Warband || Warband Theme || Spending Gold

omposing a warband in Mordheim is special because you will want your warband to evolve as you gain experience and gold from one mission to another. While this gives you the opportunity to adjust your warband in-between missions, decisions on composition and expenses will strongly affect your possibilities for the next mission. If you spend all your gold but lose all your heroes, there will be nothing left and you will have to restart from scratch.

irst, you must select a type of warband, similar to choosing an 'army' in other wargames. Following list offers a quick overview of the basic warbands included in the rulebook. Look out for separate strategy guides for each.

• Mercenaries: the 'ordinary' human warbands, as far as ordinary makes any sense in Mordheim. This is the most flexible warband: fair or good at almost everything and access to more equipment than any other basic warband. Although they have no spellcasters among their members, they can make up with missile weapons, and typically their tactics combine shooting and close combat. You can choose between the strong Middenheimers, the well-organized Reiklanders or the wealthy Marienburgers. With few special abilities or rules, they make an excellent warband to explore the game, and are very competitive.
• Witch Hunters: a fierce warband, agile and tough in close combat. They do not tolerate spellcasters, but can use prayers
• Sisters of Sigmar: also use prayers instead of spells. They complement an average profile with very powerful weapons and exceptional aptitude. Particularly effective versus possessed or undead opponents
• Cult of the Possessed: Strong close combat warband, with many unique features: The Possessed hero, mutations and fearsome chaos rituals
• Skaven: a vicious and cowardly warband, relying mostly on numbers and speed. Have an excellent special skill list, magic of the Horned Rat and the monstrous rat ogre
• Undead: very tough close combat warband: fear-causing, wielding necromancy and lead by an awesome vampire

Many other warbands are available, some official in the Town Crier magazines or on the Games Workshop website, some unofficial on Mordheim fan-sites. Most of these require additional rules and abilities, and Mordheim is complex enough as it is for a starting player. One of the basic warbands listed above should make a good start to get to know the game, before moving on to a more colorful warband

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hile choosing a warband type, you will have considered many options and reasons why you want this warband and not another. Strengths and weaknesses will have been important factors, but most people base their final decision on a certain 'connection' with the warband or its warriors. Much of the fun in playing Mordheim comes from your association with the warband, drawing on your own character and imagination. Perhaps without realizing it, you have already started to think up a theme for your warband: where they come from, why they are in Mordheim, and what they are trying to achieve. This theme will augment the fun you have with the game, and will be a crucial factor in all your future decisions as your warband evolves.

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ost warbands get 500gc to start with. Any gold not spent is saved up in your treasury, and can be spent on next missions. This way, you may save up enough to buy expensive equipment or employ proficient warriors. However, spending that extra gold on your warband may strengthen it enough to prevent losses or make more profit. Generally, it is a good idea to maximize the strength of your warband when starting out, even if it leaves your treasury empty.

Gold is spent on employing warriors, equipping them and strengthening your warband with hired swords or special characters. Previous chapters on warriors and equipment will give you an idea of what options are available and why you should take or leave them; consult those to decide what to put into your warband.

Pay special attention to the following:

• your warband leader is your most precious warrior; you don't want to lose him!
• the more heroes you have, the better your exploration potential, thus the more your warband will earn
• when a warrior dies (i.e. out of action and dead), al his equipment is lost; so don't give expensive equipment to vulnerable warriors
• when 25% of your warriors go out of action, you have to start taking rout tests; so for every 4 warriors you add after the first, 1 more warrior has to go out of action before you risk being ousted
• the more warriors are in your warband, the less you make from selling wyrdstone: every 3 warriors after the first put you in a higher category, reducing profits

You can see that some of these guidelines contradict; it's up to you to find a good compromise.

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