The Inside Scoop on Gaming

NOTE: If you've read any of my past reviews, you may have come to the conclusion that I love every game or that I don't give harsh reviews. Well, to be honest, I simply prefer to review games that I thoroughly enjoy. But just wait.....I'll post about some games I'm not too crazy about soon. LOL.

What is this game?

Mordheim is the third game in GW's skirmish series of miniatures wargames. The first was Necromunda and the second was Gorkamorka. Both of these were strong entries, but I think that this one is more sound and less flawed.

In case you are unfamiliar with the skirmish line, let me explain. GW's two core products are Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, which deal with fairly large scale battles. The skirmish series zooms in on specific aspects of these two game lines and focuses on small scale engagements. Necromunda dumps you in the middle of a Warhammer 40k hive city and lets you create and play your very own street gang. In Gorkamorka, you get the chance to slap together a Warhammer 40k Ork mob and duke it out with other Ork mobs on a wasteland planet.

But in Mordheim, you assemble your own band of vile, cutthroat treasure hunters (in the Warhammer universe) and delve into the meteor-wrecked ruins of the city known as (surprise, surprise) Mordheim. There, your crew can search through the collapsed buildings, rubble piles and dark city streets for an uncanny (and valuable!) mineral that originated from the meteor called Wyrdstone.

In a nutshell, that's the premise for the game.

Let's see what's in the box!

When you first pop open the Mordheim box, your eyes will be treated to a whole pile of goodies. There's a lot of stuff packed in it. Let's take a peek inside shall we?

The Miniatures:

The Mordheim set gives you two complete gangs comprised of plastic miniatures. For those of you who don't know----plastics aren't sub-par in quality any more. These babies are as good as any metal figures on the market. And best of all, GW has recently figured out that gamers want versatility in their mini's, so they started using multi-pose, mix-and-match formats. Yep, you can build and customize your own warband as you see fit. The box contains a wide variety of arms, heads, weapons, torsos, legs and other such pieces. Put 'em together as you like.

Like I said, there are two warbands in here. One warband is the vermin-like rat men called Skaven....the other is that of the human mercenaries. And the coolest thing about the human mini's is that there are alternate pieces that enable you to choose between two different human factions (Reiklanders or Middenheimers).

Another neat tidbit here is that there are a couple of sprues that contain various equiptment such as rope, a lantern, etc. These can be added to the miniatures for extra visual appeal.

The Buildings:

Simply put, the cardboard and plastic buildings that come in the box are the best GW has ever produced. Hands down. There are five complete buildings, and man are they elaborate! Once finished, these ruined buildings are worthy of anyone's tabletop.

The walls are made of sturdy cardstock and are painted to look utterly realistic. The corner stones, windows, doors, roofs, beams and other bits are done in plastic.

At this point, I must hand out a minor criticism. The assembly of the buildings can be quite involved and it's VERY easy to end up with a gap between the bottom of the walls and the tabletop, making them wobbly.

Beyond the buildings, there are other cool terrain/scenery in the box. A chimney (attached to a mostly destroyed wall), a ladder, a monument, two barricades, four "makeshift" plank bridges, and a walkway bridge that can be attached to link two buildings.

The Rulebook:

This 176 page book looks magnificent. I know, I know----appearance is only the icing. But what pretty icing it is! Upon opening the book, you'll see that it's divided into four sections;

RULES: Here you'll find...well....rules. This chapter spans a mere 37 pages, which is pretty compact considering the breadth of a miniatures game. To be truthful, the rules are well laid out and are easy to digest. This chapter covers everything from shooting to leadership to weapons to melee combat. Very thorough.

WARBANDS: Within these pages (26 to be exact), you'll learn all about putting together a warband, as the title might suggest. There are eight warbands, described in detail, along with any special rules for them. You can choose between Reiklanders (traditional, disciplined mideivel human soldiers), Middenheimers (rough and tumble humans with lots of physical power), Marienburgers (flambuoyant and wealthy humans), Cult of the Possessed (demonic Chaos worshippers), Witch Hunters (the equivalent of Inquisitors), Sisters of Sigmar (warrior nuns with an attitude), Undead (the walking dead, usually lead by a Vampire)and Skaven (rat-men).

CAMPAIGNS: This section details the rules of running entire campaigns. That's a redundant statement, I know. But what was I supposed to say? LOL! Anyhoo, this is one of the most interesting sections of the book, as it sports all manner of quirkiness such as the colorful Exploration Charts. You'll also find rules for experience, wound effects, income, trading goods, "hired swords", scenarios and a collection of Dramatis Personae (specific characters you can seek to hire).

OPTIONAL RULES: The author presents us with a slew of cool optional (read: advanced) rules such as individual critical hit charts for particular weapon types, mounted warriors, black powder weapon misfire chart and more. Great section, but I feel it was a touch incomplete. Not a whole lot here. I would like to have seen several more options, but I have a feeling they were running out of available room so Mr. Pirinen had to limit what went into the section.

The Other Stuff:

The box also has all the trappings included with pretty much every GW boxed game; counters, range rulers, dice and the "Getting Started" booklet.

The System:

I'm not going to go into great depth here, but I'll give you a few basics.

All characters have nine stats; Movement (how many inches he can move per turn), Weapon Skill (how accurate he is in close combat), Ballistic Skill (how good he is at shooting/throwing), Strength (damage in unarmed combat), Toughness (how easily he can shrug off damage), Wounds (basically his hit points), Initiative (how fast and nimble he is), Attacks (the number of attacks he gets in close combat), Leadership (his courage, self control and charisma).

Each game turn is divided into four steps. 1. Recovery (stunned/knocked down models recover) 2. Movement (move all your models) 3. Shooting (make any ranged attacks) 4. Close Combat (any models in base to base contact with an enemy model can attack...and the defender will get to attack as well. The order of attack is based on Initiative scores for the most part)

Ranged Combat in a Nutshell: When trying to shoot someone, the attacker rolls a d6 and references his Ballistic Skill (BS) on the following chart to see what he needs to roll to hit.

BS: To-Hit: 1..........6 2..........5 3..........4 4..........3 5..........2 etc.

There are modifiers to the roll to reflect certain circumstances, such as shooting at a target in cover, shooting at a large target, etc.

Close Combat in a Nutshell: I'm gonna really only hit the bare bones on this one since close combat is far more involved and detailed than ranged combat.

Basically, the attacking model compares his Weapon Skill (WS) to his opponent's WS on the Close Combat chart. By cross referencing, you can find the target number. Roll a number of times equal to your Attack number.

Wounding in a Nutshell: If you hit an enemy in either close combat or ranged combat, you must now see if you actually hurt him. To do this, compare your Strength (or the weapon's Strength) to the defender's Toughness and consult the Wound chart. Cross reference and see what you need to roll in order to hurt him. For each wounding hit you caused, the opponent loses 1 Wound.

If the victim has armor, he can make an "armor roll" to avoid taking the Wound. Each type of armor lists what wearers need to roll to save.

What if your model reaches zero Wounds?

Roll a d6. On a 1-2, he's knocked down. On a 3-4, he is stunned. On a 5-6, he is out of the battle! Each result has their own details, but I won't go over them here.

Obviously, I've only glossed over a few of the rules here, but it really doesn't get any more complicated than this. All in all, it's pretty simple stuff. People who are unfamiliar with miniatures gaming may need to study the rules a bit more carefully though, as they can sometimes throw newbies for a bit of a loop at times.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!

Okay, guys, it's time to lay it all on the table! I'm gonna tell ya what kicks butt, what doesn't kick butt and what really bites dog crap about Mordheim! Here goes!!

THE GOOD:

**The smooth rules system makes for very fast and furious gameplay. In general, games usually last from 1 to 3 hours (which is fast compared to most miniatures games).

**You get a TON of cool stuff in the box! The miniatures and terrain are of mega-high quality and are IMO superior to any others in any boxed game ever.

**Warhammer miniatures are compatible with Mordheim. For example, if you have an Empire character model, you can insert him into your Reikland warband as it's Captain. The models in the box were even designed specifically so you could swap bits with other Warhammer multi-part miniatures. This makes the options almost endless.

**Mordheim's setting is exciting and atmospheric! There's a certain thrill in having your warband skulking through the streets, battling it out with who-knows-what amongst the ruins of this once-great city. It's very gritty.

**It's great for campaign games! The rules for advancement, wound effects, and trading really add a great deal of depth.

THE BAD:

**The Price! With the price at sixty bucks, many gamers simply will not be able to afford the set. Granted, you DO get your money's worth, but if you're a bit low on cash, consider yourself screwed.

**No index! I'm a firm advocate of indexes. I like to be able to locate a needed rule as quickly as possible when in a pitched skirmish. By not having an index, the rulebook becomes more difficult to navigate in the heat of battle. Not a good thing.

THE UGLY:

**Limited run! Yes, folks, this is the bane of all GW's "spin-off" games. They only support these games for a limited amount of time (18 months, I believe). I've always felt this was absolutely ridiculous, especially since many of the limited run games are as good or better than Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. On the upside, there's always a devoted following for most of these games who refuse to let them die.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Mordheim
Author: Tuomas Pirinen Category: Miniature Company/Publisher: Games Workshop Line: Mordheim Cost: $59.99 Capsule Review by Baby Cindi on 11/11/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	NOTE: If you've read any of my past reviews, you may have come to the conclusion that I love every game or that I don't give harsh reviews. Well, to be honest, I simply prefer to review games that I thoroughly enjoy. But just wait.....I'll post about some games I'm not too crazy about soon. LOL. What is this game? Mordheim is the third game in GW's skirmish series of miniatures wargames. The first was Necromunda and the second was Gorkamorka. Both of these were strong entries, but I think that this one is more sound and less flawed. In case you are unfamiliar with the skirmish line, let me explain. GW's two core products are Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, which deal with fairly large scale battles. The skirmish series zooms in on specific aspects of these two game lines and focuses on small scale engagements. Necromunda dumps you in the middle of a Warhammer 40k hive city and lets you create and play your very own street gang. In Gorkamorka, you get the chance to slap together a Warhammer 40k Ork mob and duke it out with other Ork mobs on a wasteland planet. But in Mordheim, you assemble your own band of vile, cutthroat treasure hunters (in the Warhammer universe) and delve into the meteor-wrecked ruins of the city known as (surprise, surprise) Mordheim. There, your crew can search through the collapsed buildings, rubble piles and dark city streets for an uncanny (and valuable!) mineral that originated from the meteor called Wyrdstone. In a nutshell, that's the premise for the game. Let's see what's in the box! When you first pop open the Mordheim box, your eyes will be treated to a whole pile of goodies. There's a lot of stuff packed in it. Let's take a peek inside shall we? The Miniatures: The Mordheim set gives you two complete gangs comprised of plastic miniatures. For those of you who don't know----plastics aren't sub-par in quality any more. These babies are as good as any metal figures on the market. And best of all, GW has recently figured out that gamers want versatility in their mini's, so they started using multi-pose, mix-and-match formats. Yep, you can build and customize your own warband as you see fit. The box contains a wide variety of arms, heads, weapons, torsos, legs and other such pieces. Put 'em together as you like. Like I said, there are two warbands in here. One warband is the vermin-like rat men called Skaven....the other is that of the human mercenaries. And the coolest thing about the human mini's is that there are alternate pieces that enable you to choose between two different human factions (Reiklanders or Middenheimers). Another neat tidbit here is that there are a couple of sprues that contain various equiptment such as rope, a lantern, etc. These can be added to the miniatures for extra visual appeal. The Buildings: Simply put, the cardboard and plastic buildings that come in the box are the best GW has ever produced. Hands down. There are five complete buildings, and man are they elaborate! Once finished, these ruined buildings are worthy of anyone's tabletop. The walls are made of sturdy cardstock and are painted to look utterly realistic. The corner stones, windows, doors, roofs, beams and other bits are done in plastic. At this point, I must hand out a minor criticism. The assembly of the buildings can be quite involved and it's VERY easy to end up with a gap between the bottom of the walls and the tabletop, making them wobbly. Beyond the buildings, there are other cool terrain/scenery in the box. A chimney (attached to a mostly destroyed wall), a ladder, a monument, two barricades, four "makeshift" plank bridges, and a walkway bridge that can be attached to link two buildings. The Rulebook: This 176 page book looks magnificent. I know, I know----appearance is only the icing. But what pretty icing it is! Upon opening the book, you'll see that it's divided into four sections; RULES: Here you'll find...well....rules. This chapter spans a mere 37 pages, which is pretty compact considering the breadth of a miniatures game. To be truthful, the rules are well laid out and are easy to digest. This chapter covers everything from shooting to leadership to weapons to melee combat. Very thorough. WARBANDS: Within these pages (26 to be exact), you'll learn all about putting together a warband, as the title might suggest. There are eight warbands, described in detail, along with any special rules for them. You can choose between Reiklanders (traditional, disciplined mideivel human soldiers), Middenheimers (rough and tumble humans with lots of physical power), Marienburgers (flambuoyant and wealthy humans), Cult of the Possessed (demonic Chaos worshippers), Witch Hunters (the equivalent of Inquisitors), Sisters of Sigmar (warrior nuns with an attitude), Undead (the walking dead, usually lead by a Vampire)and Skaven (rat-men). CAMPAIGNS: This section details the rules of running entire campaigns. That's a redundant statement, I know. But what was I supposed to say? LOL! Anyhoo, this is one of the most interesting sections of the book, as it sports all manner of quirkiness such as the colorful Exploration Charts. You'll also find rules for experience, wound effects, income, trading goods, "hired swords", scenarios and a collection of Dramatis Personae (specific characters you can seek to hire). OPTIONAL RULES: The author presents us with a slew of cool optional (read: advanced) rules such as individual critical hit charts for particular weapon types, mounted warriors, black powder weapon misfire chart and more. Great section, but I feel it was a touch incomplete. Not a whole lot here. I would like to have seen several more options, but I have a feeling they were running out of available room so Mr. Pirinen had to limit what went into the section. The Other Stuff: The box also has all the trappings included with pretty much every GW boxed game; counters, range rulers, dice and the "Getting Started" booklet. The System: I'm not going to go into great depth here, but I'll give you a few basics. All characters have nine stats; Movement (how many inches he can move per turn), Weapon Skill (how accurate he is in close combat), Ballistic Skill (how good he is at shooting/throwing), Strength (damage in unarmed combat), Toughness (how easily he can shrug off damage), Wounds (basically his hit points), Initiative (how fast and nimble he is), Attacks (the number of attacks he gets in close combat), Leadership (his courage, self control and charisma). Each game turn is divided into four steps. 1. Recovery (stunned/knocked down models recover) 2. Movement (move all your models) 3. Shooting (make any ranged attacks) 4. Close Combat (any models in base to base contact with an enemy model can attack...and the defender will get to attack as well. The order of attack is based on Initiative scores for the most part) Ranged Combat in a Nutshell: When trying to shoot someone, the attacker rolls a d6 and references his Ballistic Skill (BS) on the following chart to see what he needs to roll to hit. BS: To-Hit: 1..........6 2..........5 3..........4 4..........3 5..........2 etc. There are modifiers to the roll to reflect certain circumstances, such as shooting at a target in cover, shooting at a large target, etc. Close Combat in a Nutshell: I'm gonna really only hit the bare bones on this one since close combat is far more involved and detailed than ranged combat. Basically, the attacking model compares his Weapon Skill (WS) to his opponent's WS on the Close Combat chart. By cross referencing, you can find the target number. Roll a number of times equal to your Attack number. Wounding in a Nutshell: If you hit an enemy in either close combat or ranged combat, you must now see if you actually hurt him. To do this, compare your Strength (or the weapon's Strength) to the defender's Toughness and consult the Wound chart. Cross reference and see what you need to roll in order to hurt him. For each wounding hit you caused, the opponent loses 1 Wound. If the victim has armor, he can make an "armor roll" to avoid taking the Wound. Each type of armor lists what wearers need to roll to save. What if your model reaches zero Wounds? Roll a d6. On a 1-2, he's knocked down. On a 3-4, he is stunned. On a 5-6, he is out of the battle! Each result has their own details, but I won't go over them here. Obviously, I've only glossed over a few of the rules here, but it really doesn't get any more complicated than this. All in all, it's pretty simple stuff. People who are unfamiliar with miniatures gaming may need to study the rules a bit more carefully though, as they can sometimes throw newbies for a bit of a loop at times. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly! Okay, guys, it's time to lay it all on the table! I'm gonna tell ya what kicks butt, what doesn't kick butt and what really bites dog crap about Mordheim! Here goes!! THE GOOD: The smooth rules system makes for very fast and furious gameplay. In general, games usually last from 1 to 3 hours (which is fast compared to most miniatures games). You get a TON of cool stuff in the box! The miniatures and terrain are of mega-high quality and are IMO superior to any others in any boxed game ever. Warhammer miniatures are compatible with Mordheim. For example, if you have an Empire character model, you can insert him into your Reikland warband as it's Captain. The models in the box were even designed specifically so you could swap bits with other Warhammer multi-part miniatures. This makes the options almost endless. Mordheim's setting is exciting and atmospheric! There's a certain thrill in having your warband skulking through the streets, battling it out with who-knows-what amongst the ruins of this once-great city. It's very gritty. It's great for campaign games! The rules for advancement, wound effects, and trading really add a great deal of depth. THE BAD: The Price! With the price at sixty bucks, many gamers simply will not be able to afford the set. Granted, you DO get your money's worth, but if you're a bit low on cash, consider yourself screwed. No index! I'm a firm advocate of indexes. I like to be able to locate a needed rule as quickly as possible when in a pitched skirmish. By not having an index, the rulebook becomes more difficult to navigate in the heat of battle. Not a good thing. THE UGLY: Limited run! Yes, folks, this is the bane of all GW's "spin-off" games. They only support these games for a limited amount of time (18 months, I believe). I've always felt this was absolutely ridiculous, especially since many of the limited run games are as good or better than Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. On the upside, there's always a devoted following for most of these games who refuse to let them die. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)