My Totally Unofficial Mordheim Rulebook Errata

Ok so a bit about this Errata.


Many moons ago I ran a several very long campaigns of Mordheim and noticed some balancing issues as well as "realistic" issues with certain things.  Also within months of Mordheim's debut Warhammer Fantasy Battles came out with their new 6th edition which cleaned up many of those same issues (like that Vampires were basically man sized Dragons!) so I did my best to come up with something a little better.  I tried not to change things for the sake of change, only those things that needed some addressing.  My players voted between seasons on whether to use the my errata's or the original rules and errata was unanimously decided on till the very end. I've changes only a very little bit since then.  You may not like it all, but feel free to take what you like.  Also I am happy to address any questions/issues you might have and give my reasoning for all changes, so comment if you want.


Enjoy-
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Mordheim Rulebook Changes

As proposed by Richard Buckner III

Pg. 35            Fighting with two Weapons: add

            “Two Weapon Style” is a skill that allows warriors to use an additional close combat weapon proficiently.  Warriors that do not possess the “Two Weapon Style” skill and use an additional hand weapon do not benefit from the special rules of the additional weapon used (but can still benefit from the special rules of weapons used in the "main" hand), it only confers a single extra attack (however if a critical hit is scored, use the appropriate weapon's table as normal).

Pg. 36            Parry: 4^th paragraph 3^rd sentence.

            If your opponent scores several hits, you may still only parry one blow.  If your WS is less than or equal to your opponent’s WS roll 1d6 and compare it to what your opponent rolled to hit.  If your roll is higher than any of your opponent's you may choose to parry ONE of the attacks you beat (in the case of different kinds of attacks or different weapons you may choose which one you parry).  For example, if your opponent is armed with an axe and a sword and rolls a 4, 5, and 6 with the axe and a 3 with the sword and you roll a 5 to parry you may choose to parry either the axe blow that hit with a 4 or the sword blow (however you could not choose to parry either the 5 or 6).  If your WS is higher than your opponent’s you only need to tie the roll, so a higher WS warrior can parry a roll to-hit of 6, if their good (lucky!) enough.

Pg. 38            Routing: add

            If a warband routs any member of the warband that is carrying something they have collected in the scenario (wyrdstone or treasure, etc.) they must make an immediate Initiative check or drop the item when they escape.  Any items left on the battlefield are given to the victor of the scenario (including those dropped).

Voluntarily Routing:

A warband cannot Voluntarily rout Unless they are already taking rout checks (or have lost 25% or more of their warband in scenarios where there are no rout checks).  A warband that voluntarily routs automatically drops any items they have collected in the scenario (wyrdstone or treasure chests) and subtracts 1 from the number of dice rolled for exploration.

Pg. 39            Frenzy: 3^rd paragraph

            Frenzied warriors add +1 to their total attacks in hand-to-hand combat.  Warriors with 1 attack therefore have 2, warriors with 2 attacks have 3, etc.  If a warrior has an additional hand weapon they still only receive +1 attack for this as normal.

Pg. 40 – 43            Weapons and Armour: change to read

Close Combat Weapons: add

Short Sword 

Cheaper than its counterparts, the short sword is still quite an effective weapon but lacks some of the grace of its larger brother.  The short sword is closer in relation to the cruder weapons such as axes and maces thus making it easier to use and it is usually made from less refined metals.  These are the swords usually given to infantrymen over the more expensive swords reserved for specialized units.

Range: Close Combat; Strength: as user; Special Rules: Hand Weapon

 SPECIAL RULES

Hand Weapon: A model armed with this weapon and a shield receives an un-modifiable save on a roll of 6+ in hand-to-hand combat (this bonus does not apply against ranged attacks) in addition to normal armour saves. This special save works in the same way as “Step Aside” for rules purposes but a warrior cannot use both special saves against the same attack.

 Axe Range: Close Combat; Strength: as user; Special Rules: Cutting Edge, Hand Weapon

 SPECIAL RULES

Cutting Edge: An axe has an extra save modifier of –1, so a model of Strength 4 using an axe has a  –2 save modifier in hand-to-hand combat.

Hand Weapon: A model armed with this weapon and a shield receives an un-modifiable save on a roll of 6+ in hand-to-hand combat (this bonus does not apply against ranged attacks) in addition to normal armour saves. This special save works in the same way as “Step Aside” for rules purposes but a warrior cannot use both special saves against the same attack.

Hammer, Staff, Mace or Club: remove Staff and club, now reads

            Hammer or Mace

           

Made for crushing skulls, these weapons can deliver quite a blow.  A strike from a mace or warhammer can easily knock a man unconscious.

           

Range: Close Combat; Strength: as user; Special Rules: Concussion, Hand Weapon

           

SPECIAL RULES

            Concussion: Hammers and maces are excellent to use for striking your enemy senseless.  When using a hammer or mace a roll of 2-4 is treated as stunned when rolling to see the extent of a model’s injuries.

Hand Weapon: A model armed with this weapon and a shield receives an un-modifiable save on a roll of 6+ in hand-to-hand combat (this bonus does not apply against ranged attacks) in addition to normal armour saves. This special save works in the same way as “Step Aside” for rules purposes but a warrior cannot use both special saves against the same attack.

            Staff

Range: Close Combat; Strength: as user: Special Rules: Two-Handed, Parry

            Club

            Range: Close Combat; Strength: as user: Special Rules: None

            Spear: Special rules

            Strike First: A warrior armed with a spear may make a single close combat attack against his opponent when charged (regardless of the number of attacks that is normally allowed).  This is because of the long shaft of the spear allows him to thrust it at oncoming enemies before they have a chance to hit him.  Note that this only applies in the first turn of hand-to-hand combat, and only when charged (not when charging).  All other attacks are taken in normal order.

            Difficult to use: A model armed with a spear may never use a second hand weapon or buckler in his other hand because it requires all his skill to wield it correctly.  He may carry a shield as normal though.

            Double-Handed Sword, Hammer, Axe, etc.: Special rules, Strike Last changed to read

            Strike Last: A warrior armed with a Double-Handed Weapon strikes last in close combat. When charging, a warrior armed with a Double-Handed Weapon can make only a single attack (regardless of the number of attacks that is normally allowed) before opponents, as a Double-Handed Weapon is heavy and slow to bring back to attack position. Note this only applies when the warrior charges, at all other times this warrior strikes last in hand-to-hand combat.

Ranged Weapons: for ALL instances of Move or Fire change to read:
            Move or Reload: This weapon takes time to properly reload and ready.  Once fired, a character must stand still to properly ready it and cannot fire again until it is reloaded.  A weapon with this rule cannot be fired again until the model using it does not move in any subsequent turn to reload it.



Pg. 50            Armour: change to read

            Toughened Leather

            Toughened Leather is a cheap armour used to outfit many pirates and other mercenaries. It isn’t tough enough to give the wearer more protection if combined with other protective gear and once it is worn nobody in their right mind would want to buy it back (as it tend to mold itself to, and smell like, the original owner).

            SPECIAL RULES

            Save: A warrior who is wearing Toughened Leather has a saving throw of 6+.

            Not really all that tough: Toughened Leather cannot be combined with a shield to give the wearer a 5+ armour save (however a warrior can still get the un-modifiable save via the “Hand Weapon” special rule).

            Smelly and Old: Toughened Leather cannot be sold or traded away (even to other members within the warband) as .

            Ithilmar Armour:

            Ithilmar Armour counts as light armour and gives the wearer a 5+ basic save and does not slow him down if he also carries a shield.

Pg. 52            Miscellaneous Equipment: add

            Hook Hand: Cures any hand injury effects but the user may not carry a second hand weapon, buckler or shield in the hand that he lost.  The warrior may Parry as though armed with a buckler however (see Parrying on pg. 36).  If the user has the “Two Weapon Style” skill he may also make an attack with the hook hand (counts as a dagger).  From now on when the user suffers any Hand or Arm injury he may roll 1D6; on a 1-3 determine results as normal, on a 4-6 the injury is to the hook hand and has no effect, however treat the warrior as if he only has one arm until the hook hand is replaced.  A warrior may not have more than one hook hand.

            Peg Leg: Cures any Leg injury effects but the user suffers -1 movement.  From now on when the user suffers any Leg injury he may roll 1D6; on a 1-3 determine results as normal, on a 4-6 the injury is to the peg leg and has no effect, however the warrior must miss any games until the peg leg is replaced.  A warrior may not have more than one peg leg.

Pg. 54            Horses and Wardogs: add

            A horse or warhorse counts as 1 member toward the max number of warriors in the warband.

            A wardog counts as ½ member toward the max number of warriors in the warband.

Pg. 55            Lantern: change to read

            A lantern grants the warrior using it a 8” range for detecting hidden enemies instead of their initiative value.  Additionally other warriors can benefit from the light radius of a single lantern in the same way as well, provided the hidden enemies are also within 8” of the warrior holding the lantern, effectively the lantern covers the entire area within a 8” radius.

If holding a lantern a warrior may not use a shield, buckler, double-handed weapon or second close combat weapon (unless they have a third arm or tail fighting, etc.).

Pg. 56            Allocated Spells: change bottom paragraph as follows

            Each wizard starts a campaign with one spell chosen by the player, but may gain more.  Roll a d6...

Pg. 58            NECROMANCEY SPELLS (change to read)

1            Lifestealer                                                                                                Difficulty 10

             The Necromancer targets 1 model within 6”, the target loses 1 wound (no save allowed) and the Necromancer gains an extra wound for the duration of the battle.  This may take the Necromancer’s Wounds above his original maximums value.  This spell cannot affect Possessed or Undead models.

2            Re-animation                                                                                                Difficulty 5/7

            The Necromancer can re-animate a single Zombie (Difficulty 5) or Skeleton (Difficulty 7) that went out of action during the last turn.  Place the model anywhere within 6” of the Necromancer, but not into hand-to-hand with an enemy model.

3            Gaze of Nagash                                                                                                Difficulty 8

            The Necromancer shoots one bolt in a direct line at a single enemy target within 18”.  The target suffers a single Strength 4 hit.

4            Spell of Doom                                                                                                Difficulty 9

            The Necromancer selects a warrior within 12” who must immediately make a Strength check or the dead emerging from the earth will pull him to the ground with supernatural strength.  If he fails, roll on the injury table to see what happens to the unfortunate warrior.

5            Call of Vanhel                                                                                                Difficulty 6

            A single Skeleton or all Zombies within 6” of the Necromancer may immediately make another move using all their normal rules for movement (including the “may not run” rule).  They may declare a charge if able. 

6            Spell of Awakening                                                                                    Difficulty Auto

            If an enemy hero is killed (i.e., your opponent rolls 11-15 on the Serious Injury chart) then the Necromancer may raise him to fight as a Zombie in his servitude.  The dead Hero retains his characteristics, except Initiative, which drops to a 1, and all his weapons and armor but may not use any other equipment or skills. He counts as a henchman group on his own and gains all the special rules for a Zombie (pg. 89) except that he counts as a full member of the warband (does not get to take advantage of the “Doesn’t Eat” rule).  The Hero also retains his current experience even though he cannot gain more.  Furthermore he may no longer use the spear special rule “Strike first” or the rules for Parrying, as these are reactionary (and zombies don’t react).  This spell always succeeds (rules for Henchmen and experience are described later).

Pg. 64-65 Starting a Warband:

            Any warband in Mordheim can support up to 15 members.  If you get too many more than that then and your camp starts to get a little crowded, food gets scarce and the Empire starts to take notice.  The last thing you want is the Militia policing your actions.

            Some members of your warband take up less space, or eat less food (by choice or because they are forced to) than an average warrior.  Therefore these warriors only count as ½ a member toward the maximum number of warriors that a warband can have (thus every 2 of these types of warriors count as 1 actual member).  All warrior types that count as a ½ member have a maximum number of 10 of that type of warrior that can be hired (if not already restricted to less in the specific warband rules). This counts for warband rating, turning in wyrdstone as well as rout checks, for example the Orcs certainly won’t run for cover when a few little Goblins die (in fact it is expected), Vampires really don’t care if Zombies are taken out of action, they can always raise more.  Other members of a warband are the opposite, Rat Ogres, Trolls, Possessed, and even Vampires use up more resources (eat more food, need more space, etc.) and therefore count as 2 (or sometimes even 3) warriors toward the maximum allowed (this does not mean, however, that they roll more dice for exploration, one model only rolls 1 die).  Again this also counts for rout checks, if the Vampire falls in combat it may shatter the moral of the Necromancer and Dregs, if something is strong enough to take out a Rat Ogre, the other skaven probably wont want anything to do with it.  Any warriors that do count as more or less than 1 warrior will have it noted in the special rules for that warrior.

            Some Items or Hired Swords may change this 15 warrior maximum (Halfling Cookbook, Halfling Scout).  Hired Swords do not count toward your total members either, as they are paid to help, and some probably do not even stay at your camp.

DESIGNER’S NOTE: I have written out new warband rules for all warbands and will post it in this blog soon if you have any questions on who counts as a ½ warrior and who counts a 2 – however a good rule of thumb is if the warrior is “roughly” human it’s a single, those who are “Big Guys” (Vampires, Possessed, Trolls, Rat Ogre, Minotaur, Tomb Prince, etc.) count as 2, and those that are smaller and not as important (Zombies, Goblins, Giant Rats, Wardogs, etc.) count as ½.

Pg. 64            Leader: add

            When a Leader is purchased, they choose one skill from those that they would normally be able to choose from.

Henchmen: add

            Starting Gear. When a Henchman is first purchased, he has 15 gc worth of weapons and armour for himself.  This is not actually 15 gc and anything not spent is lost.  The items and equipment bought in this way cannot be sold or traded to any other member of the warband and if the henchman is killed/retired the items purchased in this way are also lost; however you may supplement this equipment with any stored money and equipment as per normal as well.  This represents the fact that most people do not walk into Mordheim naked.  As such any Henchman that cannot use equipment will not get this 15 gc bonus.

Pg. 65            Weapons and Armour: change first sentence to read:

Each warrior may be armed with up to two close combat weapons (but remember they cannot use the "Special Rules" of the off hand weapon if they do not have the “Two Weapon Style” skill), up to two different missile weapons and any armour chosen from the appropriate list.  While a henchman cannot trade/sell their “Starting Gear” it can be ignored in favor of supplemental equipment.

Calculate the warband rating: remove last paragraph and replace with

Remember that the number of warriors may not be equal to the number of models.  If a model counts as more or less than one warrior this is taken into account.  When adding half warriors always round up.

Pg. 117            Death of a Leader: Change as follows

            Remove the sentence “Note that you may not hire a new leader for your warband.”

            Remove the last paragraph and replace with:

            If your leader is killed you may hire one (but you do not have to).  Larger groups sponsor many of the warbands that operate in Mordheim; the Sisters of Sigmar would be sent a new Sigmarite Matriarch to watch over the warband, Clan Eshin would send another Assassin Adept to keep the other skaven in line (probably not trusting a mission of such importance to a lowly Black Skaven or Gutter Runner). Sending word of the death, as well as the new leader traveling to Mordheim, takes time though so you must play at least one game without hiring a new leader first.  If you do hire a new leader then the Leader ability is lost by whoever acquired it.

Pg. 119            16-21 Multiple injuries: change to

            The warrior is not dead but has suffered a lot of wounds.  Roll d6 times on this table. Re-roll any “Dead”, “Captured”, “Full Recovery”, “Sold to the Pits” and further “Multiple Injuries”.

            61 Captured: Remove the sentence

            “Captives who are exchanged or ransomed retain all their weapons, armour and equipment.” because that should be determined by the terms of the ransom.

Pg. 120            Underdogs: change to

            When a warband fights against an enemy warband with a higher rating its warriors earn extra experience points and roll more dice for exploration as shown on the table below.  The higher the opposing warband’s rating the bigger this bonus is.

Difference in Warband Rating	Experience Bonus	Exploration Bonus
0-50	None	None
51-75	+1	+1
76-100	+2	+1
101-150	+3	+2
151-300	+4	+2
301+	+5	+3

            It stands to reason that if a smaller warband is fighting a larger one (instead of just avoiding them) that this might be because they know of a wyrdstone cache that the larger one does not, thus explaining the bonus to exploration.

Pg. 121            Advance Rolls: change to

            2D6            Result

2            Any Skill. Select any skill out of Combat, Shooting, Academic, Strength or Speed, even if the Hero is not normally allowed to take skills from that table.  The Hero may instead choose a skill from the Special table he may usually choose from.  If the warrior is a Wizard he may pick any spell from the list he uses instead of rolling for a random spell.  See Magic section.

3-5     New Skill. Select one of the Skill tables available to the Hero and pick a skill.  If he is a

Wizard he may choose to randomly generate a new spell instead of a skill. See Magic section.

6                Characteristic increase.

Roll again: 1-3 = +1 Strength; 4-6 = +1 Attack.

7                Characteristic increase.

Choose either +1 WS or +1 BS.

8                Characteristic increase.

Roll again: 1-3 = +1 Initiative; 4-6 = +1 Leadership.

           

9                Characteristic increase.

Roll again: 1-3 = +1 Wound; 4-6 = +1 Toughness.

           

10-11   New Skill. Select one of the Skill tables available to the Hero and pick a skill.  If he is a

wizard he may choose to randomly generate a new spell instead of a skill. See Magic section.

12              Any Skill. Select any skill out of Combat, Shooting, Academic, Strength or Speed, even if the Hero is not normally allowed to take skills from that table.  The Hero may instead choose a skill from the Special table he may usually choose from.  If the warrior is a Wizard he may pick any spell from the list he uses instead of rolling for a random spell.  See Magic section.

Characteristic Increase: add

If a warrior cannot (or has not ever in this campaign) use a ranged weapon they may act as though their BS is at its maximum.

ELF

Profile	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Elf	5	7	7	4	3	3	9	4	10

BEASTMAN

Profile	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Gor	5	7	3	5	5	3	6	4	8

POSSESSED

Profile	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Possessed	6	8	0	5	5	4	7	5	10

VAMPIRE

Profile	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Vampire	6	8	6	5	5	4	9	5	10

Pg. 122            Combat Skills: add new skill

            Two Weapon Style. The warrior has trained to use a weapon in his off hand giving him an advantage over other fighters.  This warrior can now benefit from all the special rules of both weapons in close combat, in addition to the extra attack gained for using an Extra Hand Weapon (roll attacks separately if rules for the extra weapon are different than in main hand).

            Shooting Skills: change to read

            Quick Shot. If the warrior is armed with a Bow, Short Bow, Long Bow, or Elf Bow he may fire twice per turn if he has not moved that turn except to pivot on the spot.

Pg. 132 Experience: add

            +1 Occupying. A Hero or Henchman group gains +1 exp. for being inside an objective building at the end of the game (limit of one per objective building).

Pg. 134 Exploration Procedure: change 1^st sentence to read

            Roll 1D6 for each of your Heroes who survived the battle and one extra dice if you won, plus any extra dice allowed by skills, equipment or underdog bonus.

Pg. 146            Price Chart: change to include

ARMOUR
Item	Cost	Availability
Toughened Leather Light Armour	5gc 10gc	Common Common
Heavy Armour	30gc	Common

MISCELLANEOUS
Item	Cost	Availability
Hook Hand	4gc	Common
Peg Leg	8gc	Common

Pg. 147            Injuries: change Hired Swords to read

            If a Hired Sword goes out of action during the game roll for his injuries as you would for a Hero (pg. 119).

 Town Cryer 8/28

Sawbones: change

The Sawbones CAN treat a Chest Wound, but a roll of 4, “Its gotta come off”, results in the death of the character (obviously!).

Mordheim Annual 2002

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop

            Rabbit’s Foot: Add

            If not used in the battle, the Rabbit’s Foot can also be used to re-roll 1 die on the Serious Injury Chart.