Mordheim - turn-based tactics in the Warhammer universe

[Saark]

Protip: If you start a msision on brutal, fight versus sisters who have a Maiden of Sigmar and spot a chaos ogre who is tagged as "dramatis personae" who has 650hp... Dont try to kill him just because you can deal about 150hp to him in one turn. Downed 2 of my skaven and 3 sisters before he eventually got put down.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Playable top down perspective would had made this game 10 times better ,would load as fast too.What is the point of that 3th person view and (tacticul)zoom out when you can't even see if units are elevated.This UI makes nuxcom's masterpiece in comparison

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Decided to try it, here are a few things I can think of at the moment:

- Loading times are as bad as people say. The only upside is that the game handles alt-tabbing very well, so I'm writing this while a mission is loading.

- Turns can take damn long as well. See 6 enemy units queued in the initiative list? Better alt+tab and write another post.

- Progressing through the game and building your warband is generally enjoyable, except the extra tedious story missions, fuck those.

- For people who are too attached to their precious warband, the forced ironman mode can be fooled by making a copy of your save directory in case rng fucks you up too bad.
And it will, with its "three attacks at 73% chance? Don't even bother trying, bitch!".

- I'm torn on the separate action points for movement and for combat. I'ts just weird to see a character run across half the map, loot 2 chests and still unleash his full number of attacks.
On the other hand, different abilities consuming different points (or their combination) is kinda interesting.

- Wonky camera, consolish controls, what more is there to say. It's also rage-inducing when you fail an objective when you can't loot the required item, because it is in another characters zone of control.
Your character. Out of combat. You still have to wait a full turn.

- The ability to jump/climb (and the chance to fail and fall) is seldom seen and interesting feature, even though the somewhat retarded architecture of the randomly generated levels does not do it justice.

- The missions are always about beating the crap out of the enemy. You do get some side objectives, but those are mostly luck based, as the enemy warband is usually routed much sooner than you can complete them.

 

[Zeriel]

You can select where you deploy by pressing "Launch and Deploy" instead of simply "Launch".

Also the game doesn't even have full controller support yet, so lets not bash it for consolitis

I've used that button before, it didn't do anything. Don't know what to say, really.

 

[LizardWizard]

You can select where you deploy by pressing "Launch and Deploy" instead of simply "Launch".

Also the game doesn't even have full controller support yet, so lets not bash it for consolitis

I've used that button before, it didn't do anything. Don't know what to say, really.

You were probably ambushed.

 

[Saark]

Theres a couple of missions that won't let you deploy properly, and getting ambushed will deny you the option to deploy even on those where you normally could do it. I think all the "scattered"/"scared" missions won't let you deploy either.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

You can select where you deploy by pressing "Launch and Deploy" instead of simply "Launch".

Also the game doesn't even have full controller support yet, so lets not bash it for consolitis

Yeah except the game is SO PAINFULLY OBVIOUSLY designed for this control scheme that it's not even funny.
NOT EVEN FUNNY MAN.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

You can select where you deploy by pressing "Launch and Deploy" instead of simply "Launch".

Also the game doesn't even have full controller support yet, so lets not bash it for consolitis

Yeah except the game is SO PAINFULLY OBVIOUSLY designed for this control scheme that it's not even funny.
NOT EVEN FUNNY MAN.

It's not bad enough to make the game unplayable, but yeah - control scheme fucking sucks.

 

[Jimmious]

The only part about the controls that I hate is the deployment. At least let us do while looking at the fucking map!!

 

[rashiakas]

Yeah and click on spots to deploy instead of switching trough them all. Despite my hate for the loading times, the UI/controls, camera and the fact that there are like 3 maps I just can't stop play this game. So much potential.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Is it just me or is the human (mercenary) faction he weakest? I can beat them on deadly difficulty without losses, but skaven/chaos give me trouble even on hard... ;/

 

[Saark]

The sisters certainly seem to be one of the stronger warbands while the mercs are kind of meh, can't say much about the skaven since I play them myself and I usually don't run into any issues fighting against other skaven. The difficulty of the story missions sure does seem to pick up once you finish act 1 though.

In Skaven II-I you get to invade a library which is overrun with daemons. There is little space to maneuver, which plain sucks as a skaven, and there are portals all over the place that port you around to different small ledges that are all somewhat connected to each other (you can jump down to lower ones, but cannot climb upwards). Had to fight 2 daemonettes, a plaguebearer, a bloodletter and a couple of pink and blue horrors. Every lesser daemon has a terror aura that reduces SP and OP by 3 if not resisted, aswell as fear for -30% hitchance. And because that's not enough already, the final "boss" during that mission is a chaos sorcerer with 600+ hp, who throws fireballs left and right and constantly buffs himself with 200% melee/ranged resistance. My first two tries ended in the unique unit you get for every story mission getting soloed by the first daemonette, the third run went fairly well though. The bloodletter just charged through one of the portals after spotting one of my rats and blindly walked into 4 melee and 2 nightrunners with warplock pistols, all ready to unload.

The portals were a real pain in the ass: You could usually send all your units through them unless one of the units on the other side was engaged in combat. Then noone could pass through basically cutting off reinforcements. The sorcerer just happened to spawn on one of the smallest ledges and the plaguebearer decided to join the fun.

Spoiler

All seemed lost already but thankfully I could position myself fairly well, having 3 units sit on a higher elevation shooting down with their pistols while one lonely warpguard was sent in to take a couple of hits before he would be downed. I had 4 more warpguards in reserve that would run in as soon as the previous one died but for some reason the very first one became a hero that day. He tanked the plaguebearer and the sorcerer for 6 turns, which is about how long it took me to wail on him to get him down to fairly low health. Thats when I dropped down from the ledge with 2 black skaven and finished the bastard off, the plaguebearer probably shat its pants knowing that he was going to be next.

Spoiler

You usually get 1 XP per unit-kill but daemons gave 5 per, our warpguard hero managed to slay not only a daemonette but also the wizard, so that little motherfucker is certainly going places.

If future missions are anywhere close to this one, I am pleasantly surprised after the first 4 were kind of disappointing.

 

[Zeriel]

Is it just me or is the human (mercenary) faction he weakest? I can beat them on deadly difficulty without losses, but skaven/chaos give me trouble even on hard... ;/

Skaven are imo the most challenging simply because they seem to have the highest mobility. That's really the only challenging part about the AI, since it tends to beeline for you. Skaven can get most of their guys into combat really quick, presenting a sort of challenge. Ambush maps are likewise pretty rough for the same reason. Other than that I don't notice much of a difference between Normal and Brutal difficulty, the hardest part is not getting ambush deployment or Skaven enemies. And I never go to Normal or Hard difficulties anymore if I can help it, since they aren't much easier at all while having way less rewards.

(Good luck with the 300+ weight wyrdstone requests later on if you regularly take Average/Poor mission rewards while your squad is eating up 100+ gp in upkeep alone.)

 

[rashiakas]

Let´s share some good character builds.

Mercenary Champion:

Good at tanking and dealing damage, the Champion is probably the best melee character in Mordheim. With 58% melee resist (78% in def stance) 55% damage reduce and 22% chance to crit he can easy tank and kill two opponents, even on deadly missions. He is using an axe of misfortune, ignoring 12% of enemy armor and decrease enemy crit resistance by 4% each hit. Combined with fatality, his chance for a critical increased by 8% each attack. On top of that, Champions gain 3% melee resistance per hit, increasing his survivability even more as the fight goes on. I also skilled armor proficient (2), blitz (1) and onslaught (1). This gives him the range to ambush even skaven - 9 vs 7 meters and adds a parry attempt after ambush.

This guy even killed a bloodletter solo.

Mercenary Marksman:

My main damage dealer, a marksman with lads got talent. He can shoot 5 times a turn and also uses misfortune/sharpshooter combo. His crit chance for the last shot is Usually >50%. Quick load(2), hunter(2) and introspection(1) are needed for 5 shots/turn with a longbow.

He is pretty squishy, but with 20 in ballistic and chain shot he doesn't need higher ground to be useful, so protecting him is rather easy, especially if he sticks close to the champion.

 

[Jimmious]

My Skaven leader is now a one-handed 95% dodging Rat, with a mace in his one Hand which has constantly 95% to hit, 4 times per turn. He also has a 20% crit chance so far. Good times

 

[Jimmious]

By the way guys, how does a character actually *die* in the game? Is it a random roll when they get permanent injuries or is it like 5 perm.injuries = death?

 

[rashiakas]

It is a random roll.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I had unit die after his first injury so it seems random.

 

[Jimmious]

Then I guess I'm just very lucky so far. No deaths but quite some injuries.

 

[Zeriel]

Then I guess I'm just very lucky so far. No deaths but quite some injuries.

Some injuries might as well be deaths at high levels since they make you fire a character. Penalties to offensive points are I think the worst and instantly make me fire the warrior, but to hit penalties aren't very nice either.

 

[Jimmious]

Then I guess I'm just very lucky so far. No deaths but quite some injuries.

Some injuries might as well be deaths at high levels since they make you fire a character. Penalties to offensive points are I think the worst and instantly make me fire the warrior, but to hit penalties aren't very nice either.

Thats true, but so far I only fired my secondary leader for losing his leg. Worthless fuck

 

[Saark]

My skaven assassin adept (leader) has 3 brain traumas (-1 intelligence each), now he cannot learn the poison resistance penetration mastery....

 

[Anthony Davis]

It is a random roll.

You will also die if you lose a second eye, arm, or leg.

ie. You lose an eye, then another eye, you die. You lose an arm, and then another arm, you die.

You can lose an arm, a leg, and an eye, and survive.

At least that's how it was in EA, I haven't had it happen yet in release.

 

[Anthony Davis]

My skaven assassin adept (leader) has 3 brain traumas (-1 intelligence each), now he cannot learn the poison resistance penetration mastery....

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha


I actually did, here at work, laugh out loud when I read this.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Here is my quick feedback for Jasede and anyone else interested:

The gameplay, while still a little rough around the edges, is VERY compelling for me. The tactical aspect is enjoyable, though things can be subjected to a prolonged RNG swing - for good or for ill. It does not feel as random as your warband gets stronger.

Building the warband is also very enjoyable. Keeping them paid, balancing the demands of your sponsor with injuries, training, etc, I find to be very enjoyable.

I really dig the Veteran Skill system, which allows you tweak your warband and it gives you a sense of progression that persists after your warband has lost it all.

Most of the content in the game, is open world 'ad-hoc' stpry creating. Ie., there isn't an overall story, but rather there was this battle where a bunch of horrible/amazing things happened. Check out my one handed marksman with a handgun, he's AMAZING! Story that is unique to your playthrough - if that makes sense. I had a similar experience with the original X-Com - though that game had a framework story and an endgame.

Which brings me to the one real weakpoint of the game, the lack of some sort of end game content. Some sort of way to end the "run" of a warband (other than failure). X-Com had the Assualt on Cedonia. I don't think Mordheim has an end. Now they did add a second act for the story quests, so maybe there is something there and I just haven't experienced it yet?

I've sunk 47 hours into the game, and I'm anxious to sink more - as soon as work and the holidays calm down.


Also, rashiakas , I liked seeing your builds. I've been playing the game, probably not nearly as optimal as I could be, but it's great to see the potential is there. I also make a Marksman Hero (lad's got talent) and have been really satisfied with it. Let me ask you another question, do you find the Ogre to be worth it? He takes up a total of 3 hero slots - and he is amazing, I just don't know if he's more amazing than 3 champions.

To anyone -

Are they going to add more races/classes/etc? I want a Bright Wizard and a Witch Hunter. I want more customization.

I do love this game.