Last update 26-Sep-2007

House Rules

Movement The Mordheim rules state models can move over 1" obstacles without a movement penalty, and the buildings that come with the Mordheim set have floors about 2" high. If a 1" object (e.g. large barrel) is suitably placed, models can use the object to access the adjacent floor just like a ladder. Although animals cannot utilize ladders, they can utilize 1" objects to traverse floors. For traversing heights that exceed 2", use objects to create a set of stairs where each step is no more than 1" in height. In addition to providing a good visual aesthetic (ladders are not likely to be common in a disaster riven area, and people frequently use things other than ladders for vertical access), this terrain enhancement changes the overall tactics for games with war dogs and the like.

Mordheim Expedition Campaign In the spirit of Rules Crusade at http://www.ironhands.com/ This campaign background differs from standard Mordheim in that each team is operating under the auspices of a national sponsor rather than as independent mercenary/treasure hunting war bands. Replacements are therefore provided by the sponsor instead of the war band having to recruit new members. Given each scenario is based on a sponsored expedition, the timeframe of the campaign doesn't have to fall within the Mordheim timeline, and the locales can change dramatically between each scenario. Game play generally follows Mordheim rules, but the scenarios should generally favor exploration as much as combat. To reflect this change in campaign style, models are purchased from WFB Army Lists rather than Mordheim War Band Lists. During the course of their expeditions, the teams will probably acquire skills and equipment that varies from their standard military issue. Thus, each expedition team will be outfitted by three means: Reputation (Rep), Gold, and Experience. Reputation is a measure of the Sponsor's willingness to provide troops towards the expedition team's endeavors. Reputation points equate to WFB Army List points. 50 Rep per team is a good starting amount for an entry level campaign as that will allow most teams to start with a few Core Troops and 1 Special Troop. Gold can be used to purchase equipment from Mordheim lists, or any other mutually agreeable list, beyond what is provided in the WFB Army Lists. Experience can be used to purchase Mordheim skills beyond the basic skills/abilities listed for each troop type in the WFB Army Lists. Entry level campaigns can probably start with 0 Gold and Experience per team. Like WFB Skirmish and Mordheim, models are purchased independently rather than in units. Heroes and Lords of the Realms aren't generally available for most expeditions so that some restrictions are placed on what types of troops are available to expedition teams. The majority of expedition teams are drawn from Core Troops that want to make a name for themselves. Special Troops are generally already experienced and often too valuable to be spared. Therefore, only 1 Special Troop choice is available for every 3 Core Troops. Rare Troops are just that, and only 1 Rare Troop choice is available for every 7 Core and Special choices combined. For example, if the team has 6 Core Troops and 1 Special Troop, the team will also have access to 1 Rare Troop. Heroes and Lords are 10-to-1 and 15-to-1, respectively. Since expeditions tend to draw from a wide range of talents, troops from Allied Army Lists may also be available, but they tend to be more difficult for the sponsor to secure. Troop Type Minimum Ratio Allied Ratio Core 0 3:1 Special 3:1 7:1 Rare 7:1 12:1 Hero 10:1 15:1 Lord 15:1 20:1 To encourage the exploration aspect of expeditions, scenarios can borrow from the Space Crusade/Space Hulk "radar blip" idea, where there are unknown obstacles to overcome. Some scenarios might encourage alliances (e.g. big monsters), and others might encourage fighting amongst the teams (e.g. big prize), but most will probably lean towards overcoming as many obstacles as possible. Unlike moving the blips that represent Genestealers in Space Crusade & Space Hulk, however, expedition obstacles will largely be static. Most scenarios should have a variety of obstacle markers spread throughout the board. 10 obstacle markers per team are probably enough to keep players busy for a couple of hours. Try to keep the obstacles challenging enough that most teams won't end the game completely intact. Presumably, the expeditions are considered important enough that sponsors are willing to risk resources and team members are willing to risk life and limb. Therefore, Mordheim rules for war band Route Tests generally shouldn't be used; departing the expedition should be voluntary. The nature of each obstacle probably won't be known until an expedition member explores it. There are a couple of options for representing the variety of obstacles possible in an expedition. One option is to create a variety of markers that can be placed face down until explored; once revealed, the designated obstacle occurs. Another option is to roll on a table, or set of tables, to determine what each obstacle marker represents. The following tables are generic examples; feel free to modify them to match the setting and/or difficulty of the scenario: Obstacle: d6 1 Trap 2-4 Encounter 5-6 Loot Roll again on the indicated table. Trap: d6 1-2 Initiative Check 3-4 Toughness Check 5-6 Leadership Check If check is failed, model suffers a Wound. Roll an armor save, if the armor save is failed, and the model has lost its last wound, roll on the Mordheim Injury chart. Basic Encounters: d6 or use specific table below 1 Swarm 2-5 d3 Monsters 6 Big Monster Low Level Orc & Goblin Related Encounters: 2d6 2 Troll 3 Snotling Swarm 4 d3 Savage Orc Boyz 5 d3 Orc Boyz 6 d3 Night Goblins 7 d3 Goblins 8 d3 Goblin Archers 9 d3 Fire Kobolds (Warhammer Chronicles 2003, Goblin Ecology) 10 d3 Orc Arrer Boyz 11 d3 Black Orcs 12 Ogre Note: 3 Black Orcs wiped out half of a 50 Rep team, so choose opponents balanced with the team. 100 pt Warband Skaven Related Encounters: 2d6 2 d3 Plague Censer Bearers 3 d3 Poisoned Wind Globadiers 4 Rat Swarm (Roll d6, 5-6 = Plague Rat Swarm) 5 d3 Plague Monks & Deacon w/ 2 Hand Weapons 6 d3 Stormvermin & Fangleader 7 d6 Clanrat Slaves & Pawleader w/ Spears & Shields 8 d3 Clanrats & Clawleader w/ Spears 9 d3 Nightrunners & Nightleader w/ 2 Hand Weapons 10 6 Giant Rats w/ Packmaster 11 d3 Gutter Runners w/ Poisoned Throwing Stars 12 Rat Ogre w/ Packmaster Loot: d6 1 d3 Gold 2-5 Valuable Object: Must be carried off, worth 2d6 Gold Reward from sponsor 6 Mundane Item: Roll again on chart below Mundane Item: d6 1-3 Melee Weapon: Roll again on chart below 4 Missile Weapon: Roll again on chart below 5-6 Armor & Misc.: Roll again on chart below Melee Weapon: d6 1 Dagger 2 Sword 3 Axe 4 Hammer 5 Spear 6 Halberd Missile Weapon: d6 1 Sling 2 Short Bow 3 Bow 4 Long Bow 5 Crossbow 6 Throwing Knives Armor & Misc.: d6 1 Shield 2 Buckler 3 Helmet 4 Rope & Hook 5 Net 6 Lantern Post Battle Sequence Injuries Per Mordheim Heroes' Serious Injury Chart (pg. 119). Experience Team earns 1 XP per opponent taken Out of Action. Each team member may only earn a maximum of 1 new skill/ability per game. Any unspent XP is lost. Mordheim skills from any agreeable Skill List may be purchased for any team member. The XP cost for the new skill is the total number of skills/abilities the model already has, plus 1. For example, Troll Slayers start with Slayer & Unbreakable, so the first skill would cost 3XP. Abilities acquired from the Heroes' Serious Injury Chart, like Immune to Fear and Fear count against the cost. In WFB, few beings are powerful enough to cast Battle Magic, and they are generally considered Characters (Heroes & Lords). The skirmish level spells found in Mordheim are easier to learn, but casters are still relatively scarce. The Mordheim Academic skill of Arcane Lore skill is replaced with Casting. If a team member learns the Casting skill, the sponsor will make resources available between expeditions for the caster to learn spells from appropriate lists. Each spell counts as an additional skill/ability. Thus, a prospective caster must participate in at least 2 expeditions before being able to cast spells during a subsequent scenario. Casting is per Mordheim rules. Disarm Traps Skill Character may subtract 1 from the die/dice roll to disarm traps. Recruiting/Replacement 1 Rep is earned for each Obstacle Marker that is successfully resolved. If a team member is killed or no longer able to effectively contribute to the expedition team, the team can appeal to the sponsor for a replacement. The sponsor will provide additional/replacement troops up to the total Rep of the Expedition Team, in accordance with the allowable Troop Type Ratios, but any experience earned by the former team member(s) is forfeit. Trading Mundane treasure and items found by the expedition team may be kept by the team. Valuable objects should be turned over to the sponsor, usually for a reward, because most teams won't have access to the right buyers, and fences don't pay well; teams are working to promote their sponsor's interests after all! Unneeded items acquired by the team (not those provided by the sponsor via WFB Army Lists or Scenarios), may be sold or traded for half their Mordheim (or agreeable) value. Since upkeep and maintenance for the team will generally be provided by the sponsor, reward money and mundane loot may be used by the team as it sees fit as described in the Gold section above. Update Expedition Team Ratings The Team Rating is the total of Rep, spent XP, Gold, and value of any non-sponsor provided items held by the team. Sponsors don't generally liked to be outdone by their rivals, and to keep their team competitive, the last place team will provide additional training to the most junior member of their team, determined by the member with the least Rep, XP, and equipment. Remember to update the Team Rating based on the additional XP earned by this team member during their extra training. Designer's Notes I drew a lot of ideas from Sean Patten's Space Crusade style campaigns outlined in his Rules Crusade web site (he runs a great campaign), where troops are easily replaced between games, team configuration is easily modified, and team growth is governed by three separate resources (Rep/Fame, XP & Gold), each acquired through separate channels. To keep team growth better balanced, I introduced the Sponsor jealousy rule as I don't like campaigns where team balance falls apart in the first few games. I kept the system closely aligned with GW hoping that it might appeal to a wider audience than a less well known system. I originally planned to limit troop choices to base stats for each type (i.e. no Champions or additional equipment) and grow them like Mordheim, but my friends wanted the WFB Army Lists open. We decided to restrict XP advances to skills only; stats would have to be bought with Rep (e.g. upgrade your Core troop to a Champion or Special by paying the Rep difference, maintaining required team ratios… if your team gets too good, your sponsor may recall some members for other roles/battles). In my original idea, additional equipment was more precious. Accordingly, the reward for loot was only a d6, and loot was scarce. Now a sword that would cost 10 gold on the Mordheim list may only be 1 Rep, devaluing gold considerably. To adjust, I increased the frequency of loot and increased the reward to 2d6. I'm not sure this is enough, but I plan to play test more before making another adjustment. The devaluation of gold is likely to throw of my original Team Rating formula, and I'll probably need to modify the formula to something like Rep + XP + (Gold & Equipment/10). The first few games have been played in Dungeon style settings, but future games will probably be played in ruins and more exotic locales. I'll expand the campaign material as I get more experience and/or input, and I especially welcome constructive feedback.

Allowing characters to execute all their actions at once, even only an average of half their actions are actally executed, gives rise to devastating attack sequences with no chance of retaliation or reprieve. Most characters have speeds from 4 to 6, which are relatively close. Therefore, characters with a speed of 4 should have some opportunities to act before a character of with speed 6 can complete their entire turn. An impulse chart is a reasonably equitable way to achieve this. Be forewarned, however, that increased realism and fairness can considerably slow play. Games that used to take 20 minutes may now take 2 hours, but my friends and I find the tradeoff very worthwhile. To use the Impulse chart, create a list with all the characters, sorted by speed, then sub-sorted by initiative within each speed. Start at impulse 1, Speed 9. All characters with speed 9 have an opportunity to act. In initiative order, each player declares their intent, then rolls a d6. If the roll is 4 or higher, the character can attempt to execute their intended action. Once all Speed 9 characters have completed their impulse, move on to Speed 8, then Speed 7. Looking at the chart, Speeds 6 through 1 do not have an imulse. Move on to impulse 2, Speed 9, and progress through the chart until Impulse 9, Speed 1 is complete.

Inquisitor Impulse Chart . Speed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Impulse 1 - - - - - - 1 1 1 2 - - - - 1 1 - 2 2 3 - - 1