When to Hold 'em, when to Fold 'em.

Discuss and participate in the development of the Mordheim Druchii warband here.

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Cuban eight
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When to Hold 'em, when to Fold 'em.

Post by Cuban eight »

Hello everyone. First post here on Druchii.net and I'm after a bit of Mordheim advice.

A friend and I have recently dusted off our Mordheim boxes and started a couple of warbands. I've been collecting a Druchii army for Warhammer over the last 6 months so chose to use the "Druchii Warband 1.0" from this site. My opponent has several warbands but fielded the Dwarf Treasurehunters for our first couple of skirmishes. I've discovered how very hard it is to take the stunted Dwarfs out of action!!

My starting out warband was as follows...

    Highborn - Sword, Axe, RxB, Helmet
    Lordling - Draich, RxB, Helmet
    Lordling - Sword, Dagger, RxB, Helmet
    Sorceress - Dagger, Doombolt
    Beastmaster - Spear, Beastlash, RxB
    Shade - Sword, Dagger, RxB


Anyway, after two scenario's, I have 0 wins, 2 losses, several tactical blunders, many learnings and a dead warband leader. In game two, after 3 rounds of combat pounding on a stunned Trollslayer (needing 6's to take him off the table) the dwarf has stood up and knocked my Highborn out of action. :evil: This was followed up with the same thing happening to my draich wielding lordling and I voluntarily bottled it.

I subsequently rolled snake eyes on the injury chart for my leader.. = Dead.

Then rolled double 2's for my lordling giving him a broken leg and -1 movement.

On the upside the other lordling and the beastmaster gained enough experience to take a feat. I gave them both "Strike to Injure" to improve my chances of taking the dwarves out of action. My Sorceress had previously rolled hideous scarring on the injury chart and now causes Fear.

I also have enough gold to purchase another henchman. I was thinking of a Witch. To make up for the loss of the leader, and hope for a "lads got talent" roll sometime in the future.

My question is, should I continue with the warband and make the best of it or is the loss of the leader (and his equipment) too big a blow to continue and still have a competitive warband?
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Hi. Dwarfs are tough enemy. Actually, our group considers them overpowered, and we discourage playing them.

But to your question. Noble as such is not so big loss. His Ld9 is useful, but someone else can get it as well (I have spent most of one campaaign with warband led by my Ld10 beastmistress), and your sorceress has access to academic skills. The biggest hit IMHO is loss of one die for searching wyrdstone after battle.

After second battle, restart is still a reasonable choice, and I am also not sure if it is better to restart or go on. Although restart could allow you to change warband composition. I don't know how the dwarf warband looks, but in Mordheim, numerical superiority often wins. I would also not give beastmaster spear - it is two handed and you cannot use it together with beastlash. Some other equipment could be dropped for one or two more models.

Buying Witch, especially if you can afford to poison her weapons, is IMHO good idea. She can get a lot of attacks, which with poison means almost sure wounding. However, you should also consider a dog - it is as close to fodder unit as you can get and your warband needs some fodder.
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Cuban eight
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Post by Cuban eight »

Thanks for the reply. I didn't realise the spear was classed as a two handed weapon. I mainly took it as I was using the beastmaster model that came with my hydra and that was how he was equipped.

I think I will continue on. If I restart now I'll still be needing 6's to take out the dwarfs and struggling to win battles. At least now with two characters with the Strike to Injure feat I can level the field as far at getting Out of Action rolls and with superior Weapon Skill and Movement should be able to get the charge and first hits in. My main worry is I read elsewhere that if you roll badly for injuries at the start of a campaign it can create a gap between warbands that is not possible to make up later on. With this poor start, I'd not be looking forward to another twenty games of beatings!
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Unfortunately Mordheim is a game with a strong positive feedback loop - winners become stronger and losers have hard time to keep up. This makes some sense if you want to differentiate winners and losers quickly, but detracts from game enjoyment in longer campaigns.
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Cuban eight
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Post by Cuban eight »

Update:

A couple more scenario's played yesterday by the Druchii warband and things are starting to look up. I still haven't won a game yet though! Fought against a starting Skaven group and a more experienced Reiklander warband. The Reiklanders rating was more than 100 above mine so the Druchii earned an extra 2 experience as underdogs which helped tip most of them into an upgrade.

Warband list and changes so far are:

    Lordling (leader) - Sword, Darksteel Axe, RxB, Helmet. Strike to Injure, +1 to BS
    Lordling - Draich, RxB, Helmet, -1 Move,+1 Wound, Immune to Fear
    Sorceress - Doombolt, Dagger, Fear, +1 Str
    Beastmaster - Spear, Beastlash, RxB, Strike to Injure, Step Aside, -1WS.

    Shade - Sword, RxB, Dagger, +1 I, +1 Ld.
    Witch - Axe, Dagger, +1 Attack
    Slavehounds x2
    Corsair - Axe, Dagger, +1BS


Very happy with the Witch getting +1 attack. With her frenzy and the extra weapon means 5 attacks! Will have to get her some poison for next battle. I really wanted to keep my henchman groups to one member each to try to increase my "lads got talent" rolls, but thinking of getting another witch in this group to make it less likelihood of getting wiped out on a serious injury roll of 1-2. Less happy with the Shade getting extra initiative and leadership. Woopdedoo... He now has highest leadership of my band as a henchman!!
Also thinking of giving the Beastmasters' RxB to the Corsair with the better BS, although again I'm wary of risking the crossbow on a character I can lose so easily...

I still have 90g to spend before next battle so have some decisions to make. Might give my sorceress a better weapon to make use of her extra strength..... the beastmasters spear perhaps.

Suggestions anyone?
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Post by 2thedeath »

Hello,
What I would be doing here would be looking to get another hero in the list, more hero's equal another dice to throw when searching for shards..shards equals dosh...& the circle continues.

I've given my corsair an RXB, even though I've yet to play my warband. If he does get taken out he's got a 50-50 chance of surviving, to be honest at this early stage I'll just avoid getting him into close combat until my warband is bigger & badder.

If you spend gold on a spear for your Beastmaster he won't be able to use his beastlash as a spear is a two handed weapon, give him another beast to play with instead.


Hope this helps 8)
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Cuban eight
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Post by Cuban eight »

Yes, I'd love to get another hero but I already have the maximum allowed number of heroes from the warband list. My problem is that my Highborn leader is dead and I'm not allowed to buy another one of them!! My only hope for more heroes is a "Lads got Talent" roll for one of my henchmen. The sooner the better. ;)

I wasn't planning on buying a spear, just giving the one my beastmaster has to the sorceress as she only has a dagger at the moment. Then getting a sword for the beastmaster to go with his whip. I've been using my sorceress for ranged attack so far with very little result, so I'm going to try her in hand to hand. In four games her doombolt has knocked down one enemy who got right back up next turn. Magic seems very difficult to get to work to me.

After a bit of consideration I think I will spend my 90g like this....

    45g - Witch, as another solo henchman group
    10g - Sword for the new witch
    5g - Poison for the new witch
    5g - Poison for the old witch
    25g - Hound to max the pack at 3


Then give the Beastmasters spear to the Sorceress so she has strike first.
Then give the Shades sword to the Beastmaster so he has parry to go with the whips strike first. Then keep the Shade out of close combat until I can re-weapon him.

I'll leave the RxB with the Beastmaster. He tends to follow the hounds into combat and has been in position to repeat fire at short range a few times with success at taking figures OOA.
Last edited by Cuban eight on Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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2thedeath
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Post by 2thedeath »

Yeah looking good.

I like the RXB for the beastmaster idea & certainly one I'll be considering once my warband gains a little wonga.

It's shame you lost your leader so early on but your next leader could potentially be more powerful as he'll/she'll have more XP boxes to fill & skills bonuses to acquire on the way up. ;)
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Post by Dangerous Beans »

I think 2TheDeath has a good point about levelling up the replacement (hopefully!) hero quicker! (*prays for one of your witch elves*).

Those decisions to swap and buy things look really solid: you should consider skilling someone up with the Master Poisoner Dark Elf skill so you can save dosh longer term (the earlier you get this skill the more it saves you...)

edit: have you considered using a witch? Her charms and debilitating effects of her spells I think would complement the druchii really nicely - either in hexing one opponent or boosting one of yours: all the spells seem to be good
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Post by Loflar »

You could also use rabbit foot for sorceress, to raise her chances of casting that doombolt.

Some hired sword might help you. I have never used a witch, because her usage is discouraged in our group, but I have considered her several times as well ;-)
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Post by Dangerous Beans »

Rather than discourage, do you think that your mordheim gaming group might do better to modify her rules in way that she will not be considered overpowered? EG. Increase in cost or decrease in effectiveness? I think she should be 40gc to hire and 20 per game (justified by the concept of her needing to buy potions etc)
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Post by 2thedeath »

Loflar wrote:You could also use rabbit foot for sorceress, to raise her chances of casting that doombolt.

Some hired sword might help you. I have never used a witch, because her usage is discouraged in our group, but I have considered her several times as well ;-)


Rabbits foot? Ooh! What's that :D

(I know...it's the foot of a rabbit :roll: )
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Post by Dangerous Beans »

Ditto! I've never heard of the rabbits foot for mordheim?!
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Post by Loflar »

Rabbit's foot was published in Mordheim Annual 2002, in "Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe". 10 gc, rarity 5 (we are now playing with 6),
allows 1 reroll per battle, and if not used during battle, then during wyrdstone search.

Regarding the witch - yes, we might try some changes. The spells are really powerfull.
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Post by 2thedeath »

Loflar wrote:Rabbit's foot was published in Mordheim Annual 2002, in "Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe". 10 gc, rarity 5 (we are now playing with 6),
allows 1 reroll per battle, and if not used during battle, then during wyrdstone search.

Regarding the witch - yes, we might try some changes. The spells are really powerfull.


Cheers Loflar, I'll see if I can dig it up & get it into our campaign, my sorceress won't be the only one who could do with it 8)
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