Warhammer Mordheim Appreciation Thread

[F. J. Rothchild III]

"Look upon the ruin of Mordheim. The mortals fear this desolation, only the bold or desperate come here to scavenge or steal, only the most fanatical have come here to claim this devastation in the name of their gods."

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There's a thread on here focused on the video game adaptation of Mordheim, "City of the Damned", but not one for Mordheim in general.
I'm probably more familiar with Warhammer than, say, your average grandma likely is (though you never know with some grandmas these days).
Simply hrough cultural osmosis and being an RPG/game fan I know a lot of the names, places, factions, versions, etc. but, outside of messing around in Warhammer PC games, I'm an absolute neophyte when it comes to actually playing the real thing.
I messed around in "40K: Dawn of War" as a kid and, more recently, some mindless co-op in "Vermintide" with friends.That second experience enamored me to the Skaven (despite essentially genociding them), who seem to be prevalent in the Mordheim setting.
I only recently discovered Mordheim (would those with their orc finger on the pulse of Warhammer consider it to be more obscure among fans, or no?).
It really appeals to me more than any Warhammer-related thing I've yet to come across. Unfortunately, getting the original tabletop game seems to a ridiculously expensive endeavor. I really adore John Blanche's artwork for it, though.
Any fans of Mordheim on here? I'm looking to get into it (as much as I can, without spending hundreds of dollars, of course).
It seems really special to me when compared to other settings (is setting even the right word? I keep using it.), and it has countless elements that I adore.
It's a tactical "skirmish" game with warbands, etc. but apparently has campaigns, as well, and RPG progression, thus why I deemed it "General RPG Discussion"-worthy.

So, what are your thoughts on Mordheim?

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[Fedora Master]

The game is great, except for the story missions. Those can suck my ass.

I have no idea how the same devs managed to fuck up Necromunda so much though.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

There's a thread on here focused on the video game adaptation of Mordheim, "City of the Damned", but not one for Mordheim in general

I’m not specifically referring to the video game (and there’s actually two of those. Another was on mobile first and now the Switch, so I’m not really sure which one you meant), but if this thread belongs in a non-“video games only” part of the forum and that caused the confusion, my apologies.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

Well, this died like a bloated plague rat infested with maggots. Fitting, I suppose. Perhaps Mordehim is fairly obscure? That or the Codex simply couldn't give two jester decapitations about it at the moment.
That's fine! This will be here should anyone who wants to talk aboutMordheim eentually stumbles upon it one day.
That, or I'll just talk to myself here and journal my eperience getting into it.Eith works for me!





All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy.
All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no Mordheim makes Rothchild a dull boy. All effort to make a thread, but no....

 

[Trithne]

This should be in The Gazebo, you'd get a bit more traction there.

Generally speaking, while the Codex does participate in roleplaying of the tabletop variety, discussion is usually more lively for video games.

As for Mordheim, the tabletop game is a war game, but the Warhammer Fantasy Role playing Game is basically what you want, and as more or less tailor made for Mordheim style games.

 

[F. J. Rothchild III]

This should be in The Gazebo, you'd get a bit more traction there.

Generally speaking, while the Codex does participate in roleplaying of the tabletop variety, discussion is usually more lively for video games.

As for Mordheim, the tabletop game is a war game, but the Warhammer Fantasy Role playing Game is basically what you want, and as more or less tailor made for Mordheim style games.

Can anyone with the power to do so move it there?

 

[FritzedProcess]

I got it for Christmas back in '99, really dug the apocalyptic millennialist feel the setting had. I played a few games with my neighbour, who was into Skavens in WHFB (so I played with the other band in the box, the humans, I made them Reiklanders IIRC), and the rulesets are quite similar, but as noone that I knew had the game it saw very little action. I also got that elf character that came with a White Dwarf issue. Not much in the way of scenery either, we used whatever came in each of our Warhammer Fantasy boxes and a couple of cups. It's in my storage room now with the rest of my Oldhammer & Bloodbowl stuff. I reckon there was an attempt at reviving it after the PC game released.

These days I decided to get full retard into 40k with the Leviathan box, so maybe I will take the old stuff out of storage to attempt to fix my crummy and murky paintjobs with the more extensive kit I have now (I used to have just a shitty brush, and a kolinsky sable one for detailing).

 

[Borelli]

I played this for the first time about half a year ago.

Despite the many many flaws the game has that something special about it. The hardcore roguelike live with your consequences part appeals to me.

Never played WHFB but the small amount of models required for skirmish games means my wallet accepts this arrangement, for now i proxy the figures from other board games but have been slowly getting into miniature painting.

The game has many many flaws, the rulebook for starts. First time reading it it's fun, less like you are reading the rules but more like someone is telling you about them. But on subsequent reads the chapter order and formatting is horrible.
Luckily various cheat sheets and mordheimer.net help here.
The rules design is very 90s, this is like adnd version of skirmish games, some things are roll over, some roll under, tables for everything, races are flavor over balance (although this part can be fun at times).

The spirit of the rules is generally understandable, but there are lots of unexpected interactions, especially with less official warbands. Speaking of those, i had dnd prestige classses flashbacks when reading them.
I get that it was part of the development process (the creator said in some interview) but boy does it create more problems than it solves,
i don't have a problem with a game being house rule heavy but i really wish the designer would slam his fist and make a definitive list of rules.

A match itself does not take long (most of it is setup), there is lots of verticality, diving charges are fun, i like that individual soldier perspective
takes precedence over your eye in the sky strategic needs ie he cannot run if there are enemies close, he must shoot at closest if at ground lvl etc.

The only thing i hate is d6 (not granular enough, impossible to implement variant cover, too easy to crit fish) and dual wield being easily accessible (fuck that shit).

 

[AdolfSatan]

Mordheim is a fantastic game, but you do need a decent amount of players to keep the game interesting. Tournaments are where it shines the most to me.
Shame there hasn’t been a single satisfying adaptation to PC.

 

[Optimist]

God, I fucking love tabletop Mordheim

Back in my late high school/ early studying days, we had a "league" of sorts, where 7 players created their warbands and met for skirmishes now and then in groups consisting of whoever was able to make it. The results were then published on a small wiki which, I'd assume, still lives somewhere. Most of us couldn't afford minis, so we went with paper cutouts, but it's been a bunch of fun nonetheless.

I still remember the frustration I felt when my Tilean "buddy" decided to break the shaky alliance we held for the last two games and opened fire on my group of dwarves in a three-player game. I was hoping to get off relatively scot-free, as there was a chest-high wall right next to the group, but, uh, crossing stuff like this scales off of initiative with dwarves having pretty abysmal initiative. Cue a few rounds of duck hunt, but the ducks were a group of burly men unable to go over a relatively short wall.

Good times, I think the key to enjoying the game was not to treat it too seriously, but mostly as an excuse to have a few beers. It's obviously imbalanced (FUCKING Carnival of Nurgle), and the roguelike mechanics combined with odd shit the dice can roll for you between the games made any serious planning impossible.

I mean, a season-focused, dice-based skirmish game could work in the modern gaming environment, I'm wondering why no one done something like this.

 

[AdolfSatan]

I think we all had an implicit agreement not to use Carnival of Nurgle, as, indeed, it was completely broken.
But yeah, the risks were the biggest part of the fun. One dude reached the end of a tournament with a dwarf that was a slicing machine… or would have, if its movement hadn’t been restricted to 4cm or so because its legs were totally maimed. Another guy that was playing with the Possessed actually modified his minis as they suffered mutations. My favorite band to play with were Orcs, animosity rolls created lots of fun situations.

But I think those times are gone. Much like you, it all transpired in those years between the end of high school and the first years of working/college. You never get the same amount of coordinated free time again.

 

[Borelli]

Only the Nurgle's Rot is broken, the rest (brutes and nurglings -1 to hit aura) is stronger than average but not broken IMO. Well, the rest of the spells are, but lots of spells in Mordheim are broken so it balances out.

 

[Cyberarmy]

It is a great game but not fit for everyone.
It is sad that they stopped backing this one for their Necromunda fuck up...