Monday Night Mordheim: Homebrew High Elves III

Monday Night Mordheim: Homebrew III- More Pointy Eared Wrong Headedness

So this week I actually got a chance to sit down and read the High Elf Army Book. That was an enlightening read. I've played against HE on several occasions, and I've got some HE models, but I've never actually looked over their fluff or crunch. I learned several things about elves, which I will elaborate on after the page break.

I mainly learned two things reading the HE rulebook. The first and the most important is exactly what Von had said in the comments of last week's MNM blog post. HE fluff does not make working them into Mordheim seem feasible. I found a way, but it will require me to go back and re-work from the ground up my views on how a HE warband (or army for that matter) should work. Not a big deal, and I'll get to that after I address the second thing that I learned.

The second thing I learned is that I HATE ELVES. I actually want to start a blog for all that controversial crap that I really don't want to spew all over this fine blog publication. I want this to be a postive place, even though I've not done that in the past. Oh, wait, I've so done that.

Now, getting to the meat of the matter. I looked at HE as the way that I always pictured them being played against me, a bunch of archers, bolt throwers, and a few wizards. That's the feel I wanted to capture with a HE warband. I realize now reading their army book, that's the wrong way to go about it. The thing is that there are already some nice distance warbands in the game (Reikland and Dwarves spring to mind). So to focus exclusively on the ability of the Elves as archers does a diservice to both the HE and the other ranged warbands already in the game.

So the main issue I ran into is that the main idea of HE is that they are a group of homeland militia fighters, and not very expansionist. So a group of them hanging out in Mordheim trying to deal with other warbands is not a very likely. However, there was a piece of fluff that I am absolutely amazed that no one else has hit on before. Especially since it has to do with the name of one of the most important special units in the HE range. So let me work this out while I talk at you.

The Loremasters of Hoeth Warband.

The Loremasters are elven wizards who are in search of knowledge to combat chaos. That's promising, and it is a great combination with the Swordmasters of Hoeth as a unit. It ties together nicely. Instead of focusing on Archery, the warband will focus on Magic. So it is going to be a bit different then I intended it, but it will allow for a different type of play style then I had originally thought about, while still being very thematic for HE. This will require a different type of warband then I had originally envisioned, but having read the book, I think I am in a better position to go forward.

There are a number of things that having read the rule book that I realize that I will need, and as always, I have a numbered list of stuff to do.
1. Re-do the Heroes and Henchmen, they are now not what I think a Loremaster warband should be.
2. Elven Universal Rules. This is should be a pretty easy one, since it is what all elves should have.
3. Campaign Skills. While just choosing from the skills available is a good start, I think that adding a possible Elven skill list will help define the warband from others. This would also include the High Magic list as well.
4. Write some Fluff. Er. I'm not a fan of doing that sort of thing, but I can do it. I have done it in the past, and I can do it again in the future. I'll do it for this project.


So let's get to work. I'm thinking that I'm going to do a bit of preliminary work first, and then work out the fine details next time.

1. Heroes and Henchmen
Now the first thing is to re-do the heroes and henchmen. Now what I wanted is not really working out, but I think that I have a better idea. However, I am going to keep the maximum warband size at 12.
Heroes:
1;Loremaster of Hoeth; a captain with access to hedge magic and the soon to be written High Magic list.
0-1; Apprentice of Hoeth: Like a youngblood, but access to EITHER hedge magic or high magic list.
0-2: Journeymen of Hoeth: Like the actual Swordmaster of Hoeth, but slightly brought down, and give them strongman skill.
Henchmen:
Elven Archers: No brainer. Elf=Bow. Done.
Elven Youth: I'm sorry, but reading the fluff, the stupid spearmen are expensive as heck, and surprisingily, the BETTER more experienced dudes then the archers. WTF? It's a bit like the 40K tactical marines, they are supposed to be the vets, whereas every other unit is newbs. I don't like that.
Great Eagle: I love warbands with a great big thing that is tough. I think that it makes for a characterful unit and a great warband center-piece. I also like including one since it will behave so differently from anything else on the table top.

2. Elven Universal Rules
Now, according to the HE book, the Elves have two general special rules and I think that both of them will do with a tiny bit of modification.

Speed Of Asurman; Normally it means that Elves ALWAYS go first. To be honest, this is a bit over the top for Mordheim. With their high iniative, elves will almost always go first regardless. However, I think that a good modification to this is that elves always go first in the event of a tie of iniative, otherwise they behave normally in all respects to turn order. I'll think about it and come up with a good fluffy reason for this, but so far so good on the crunch side of it.

Valour of Ages: This normally gives a HE army a re-roll for any type of psychology roll against Dark Elves. However, there are not really a Dark Elf warband in Mordheim (there is one, but I personally find it broken), so this rule is rarely if ever going to come into play. I'm thinking of modifying it to be that any HE model can re-roll 'all alone' tests, but the second result still stands. Yes, it does mean that they will rarely run away from being alone, but to be honest, I rarely see 'all alone' tests being made anyway.

I was thinking of some other additional rules. I probably won't use all of them, or perhaps any of them, but I would like to hear some thoughts on them.
Cut Off From Civilization: During exploration and purchases, the Loremasters of Hoeth warband is considered one category larger then they normally would be to represent the difficulty that they have getting supplies that would they would deem suitable.
Sharp Eyes: They can always re-roll one die during the exploration phase.
We want the Crown!: Cannot hire dwarven hired swords or ally with dwarven warbands during Chaos on the Streets matches.


3. Campaign Skills.
This is a bit difficult, since I've been thinking about it the least. So this is the most bare bones thing that I have.
Skills:
Loremaster of Hoeth: All skill Lists.
Aprentice of Hoeth: Academic, Speed.
Journeymen of Hoeth: Combat, Academic, Speed.

High Elf Magic: Still working, though I know that one of the spells will be a 'anti-magic' spell. I am also trying to work out some more stuff for this. I am basically going to re-work those that are appclible from the HE army book and perhaps the 40K lores to work appropriately.

4. Write Fluff.
Blah, Elf-shite, elf-shite, elf-shite. What's this fish? Mordheim, eh? Blah, blah, elf-shite. I stepped on an apple.
-Fin.

Monday Night Mordheim: Delayed With Cause- Homebrew II

Welcome back to my series on homebrew. I got delayed a day, Eldest Child had a paper due for school, so the internet ready computer was being used to email homework to avoid missing deadlines. So my deadline gets pushed back. So here's part two, with some more thinking.


As I had stated earlier, I really wanted to make a High Elf warband that was really characterful. Now, I was unable to obtain a copy of the HE army book. Which is unfortunate, since I wanted to do some really characterful special rules, much like the Dwarf Treasure Hunters warband. The first thing I did was some research on the relative different stat lines of all the warbands. 


Now, I would love to put my research on my blog, however, I'm not to sure what the exact GW rules on it would be. All it is each warrior's stat line and cost in gold crowns. It's information that is freely available for download from their website, so you can do the research yourself. I found some interesting things about the stat lines from that I would not have noticed. One thing that was almost near univerisal is that the 'leaders' of the warbands were not exactly created equal. Sure, the Vampire is a god-awful killing machine, but it was more surprising to me that the Skaven Assassin Adept was as cheap as the Mercanary Captain, or the Witch Hunter Captain, but with MUCH better stats and special abilities. This research has made me realize that I'm going to have to do some heavy lifting when it comes to figuring out what the cost of each model will be.


The easier part was deciding what to have as the Heroes and Henchmen. I did some preliminary work on the Heroes, and now I've thought about the Henchmen as well. 


Heroes:


1. High Elf Captain
2. High Elf Mage: Now, I'm going to cheat a bit with this one. It's basically going to be the hired sword with the same spell list (since HE get the same lores), but with the stat line of the elf.
3. Sword Master of Hoeth; Now, this will be the standard stat line from the regular elf, but with the Strong Man skill. Normally a Sword Master has two attacks, but it is a bit over the top for a starter in Mordheim.
4. Shadow Warrior: Again, quick cheat, the same hired sword. 


Henchmen:
1. Elf Warrior: Standard Stat line for Elf, and basically acting like the warrior, zealot, or brethren from other warbands. Cheaper and plentiful compared to the rest. 
2. Elf Archer: Standard Elf statline, but really replacing the marksmen of other warbands.
3. Great Eagle: Yeah, I went there. I love the idea of monsters in warbands. I think this is a good fit, because most other warbands have a rare choice from the army book as a henchmen. Skaven have Rat Ogres, Orcs and Goblins have the Troll, Witchhunters have Flagellants (er, special, but STILL). The Great Eagle is on pair to Ogres, Rat Ogres, Vampire, and Trolls. I'll have a few rules about flying, not entering buildings, and not gaining experience. 


That's all I got so far. Next week, I'll be posting a bit more. Hopefully, I'll get my hands on the HE armybook so that I can work on more special rules along with the base experience and skill sets. 

Monday Night Mordheim: Thinking About Home Brew

Well, good evening, and welcome to the latest installment of Monday Night Mordheim. Before we get started, I want to thank the over one hundred people that viewed this blog in the last week. Now, chances are that I didn't get real traffic, just some odd overflow since one of the labels I used last week was 'whipping'. I always try to put something silly in my labels, because that's the type of thing that makes me laugh. Lesson learned, more humor, less potentially misleading labels.

Now, as I mentioned last week, this weekend was Cub Scout weekend. Me and the kids went to the local state park where we did some cabin camping. So lights, but no heat. It rained and was freezing. However, the mess hall had a full kitchen and a fire place, so in between snipe hunting, fishing, and helping the rangers stock the creek with rainbow trout, we had a lot of time that we normally would have been running around in the woods spent inside.

So what did we do? We play board games. Lots of board games. The nice thing about our troop is that I am not the only geek. So there were games of Rio Grande's Masons, Munchkin, and of course the old standby Scramble. Now, me being me, I brought my terrain box, some models, and my paint (the idea of painting in an idyllic forest setting in natural light appealed to me, but I neglected to check the weather forecast).

Naturally Eldest Child wanted to play Mordheim, as did some of his buddies. Yet again, we had a bunch of lookie-lous. The guy who played Chaos last time wanted to play something different. He knew since I had Isle of Blood that I had plenty of Elves. However, I have no rules for Elves. He was disappointed and decided to play Undead instead.

So that got me to thinking again. There's a Shadow Elf list online, and some Dark Elf list. Neither one appeals to me, they come across a bit like the Elf Blood Bowl team. Over powered and way too killy. Now, the thing is that I rather like the IoB High Elf models. I think they're keen. So over the next few weeks, I'm going to be working on creating a warband wholesale from nothing but the other things that around. I'm going to refer back to the Mordheim rule book, the High Elf Rule Book, and possibly the good intentions of others (that means you my constant readers!)...not to mention lots of numbered lists.

The first thing that I want to do is set down my goals. I think that's very important for homebrew to set out some goals before getting to work. If you know what you are setting out for, its easier to keep your eyes on the prize.

My Goals for A High Elf Warband:
1. Balanced. I do not want something horribly powerful. I want something that will play out well against everything else.
2. Thematically relevant. I want the HE warband to feel like High Elves. If they play like Mercanaries or worse, skaven, then I missed the point.
3. Using only the models from IoB. Granted a bit of a stretch, but I do not plan on buying a bunch of new models for this.
4. Use as much already published material as possible. Why re-work the wheel?

Now to get a good start, I think the first thing that I am thinking of is what heroes will be. That's a good starting point. Most warbands have 4-5 starting heroes. Given the more elite status of HE, I think that four is better, especially since that is what Dwarves (also special rules heavy) have.
1. High Elf Captain
2. High Elf Mage
3. Sword Master of Hoeth.
4. Sword Master of Hoeth OR Shadow Warrior.
Right now, I'm not sure which to include. I think that having three options from the 'Special' section of the Force Organization chart is a bit over the top. So I want to limit to one or the other. However, I have a fun option for troops broiling in my head. However, that will have to wait until next week.

Monday Night Mordheim: A New Topic

Well, its time now for a new topic. I've talked and talked and talked about new players, and hell, other bloggers are doing it now. More eloquently at that. However, I want to talk about a topic that everyone in wargames uses constantly, but I've never seen discussed at length.

Measuring Devices.

Ha-ha! Did you catch the pun there? In all seriousness, though, it seems like for something that we all use so much we really don't talk about them that much. To be honest there's a reason I'm bringing this up now. I bought a couple new tape measures. They were in the remainders bin at a local discount shop. For fifty cents each, I thought I was getting a good deal. They are tiny, and well, I got what I paid for.

The thing is when considering what measuring device you want to use there are certain things that need to be considered. Size, length, legibility, and flexibility. Some of these are obvious and some are not, and well, I like to list things almost as much as Cracked.com does- so well, here's a break down list. And then I'll have another breakdown list of the different types of measuring devices!

-Size. This one seems to be pretty obvious doesn't it? Well, it is a bit more complicated when you get down to it. This is almost a second thought for most people, especially those who play big games on open fields like WHFB or 40K. In Mordheim, though, it is much more of a consideration. If your measuring device is too big, you will have a hard time getting around terrain. In Mordheim you want a tape measure that is less then two inches by two inches. Smaller would be better, but any larger then that and you are running into some serious problems.

-Length. Ah, the whole thing that everyone talks about. The thing is that in most wargames, you really don't need that long of a tape measure. To be honest, if you are trying to shoot at something more then 48 inches away, then you are worrying about the wrong target. That's why most smaller tape measures are great, they top out around five feet. Now, there are reasons for an even shorter length, but those are typically specialized equipment.

-Legibility. I cannot stress this one enough. If you can't read it, what's the point? It's even better if your opponent can read it from a distance as well. Not necessarily mandatory, but helpful.

-Flexibility. This is a different one, and in most cases less flexible is good, however, there are times when a bit of flexibility is good. I like a very flexible measuring device, especially when playing Mordheim. There are times when you want to walk around something and if your measuring device is too rigid then it is difficult to measure accurately. The flipside of this is that if you want to measure long distances, less flexibility is preferred since flexibility will cause your targeting to be droopy.

So while I talked a bit about the things to think about when getting a measuring device, but I also want to talk about the three most common types of measuring devices.

The Whippy Stick: Now, for those of you who have ever bought a GW starter box, these are the 18 inch long red sticks. I like calling them Whippy sticks, cause they are AWESOME to smack your opponent with. They are bendy enough to get a great smack, but that's about all they are good for. They are too large to get in between even WHFB terrain, too short for most distance shooting, too inflexible to use in small games, and they are the most illegible things for measuring that I have ever come across.

Tape Measures: The ultimate tool. It's easy the most legible, and the most common. While being flexible enough to kinda bend around corners, most of them are rigid enough to measure distance easily. The recoiling action of them is also great for saving space. The main thing about them is getting the right tape measure. Anything will work, but to be honest, I would skip out on the GW ones, and I'd spend the extra couple of bucks for a name brand one from a tool company. I personally love the three Stanley tape measures I have. One of them is rather small and I got from a set of screwdrivers, the others I stole from my dad years ago. They are all over ten years old and have no rust or wear on them. Now, my Eldest Child has stolen one of them for his Star Wars RPG game. The cycle goes on.

String and Sticks: Now, bear with me here. I like string and sticks. I think they are great. The main problem is that they are inherently illegible. The thing is that they work. You need to get permission from your opponent, and chances are that the opponent will spot check your measurements. I like to use strings since I can just lay them down where I want to go, and boom there is the distance I can travel. Sticks are great for distance. The thing is that you can have a different string/stick for each different measurement you have. Most warbands (and most games for that matter) only have a couple of different ranges. So a few strings roll up comfortably in almost nothing. Sticks are a bit more, but if you have a max range of 12 inches, they are a treat. It's a bit different, but it is cheap and effective. Which is something I like, if you haven't noticed.

Well, that's all for now. Next week, I might not have a post, its Cub Scout weekend, so taking the kids away for a weekend of fishing, dodge ball, and we might just be able to get some games of Mordheim or Star Wars d6 RPG in (weather depending).

Monday Night Mordheim: Still Talking About New Players

Well, yet again, here I am talking about new players. I love talking about new players, and I rather fancy that my blog here is for both new players and veterans. Now, the thing is that people all over are hitting on new players pretty hard. Love that, especially since I've been doing that for so long.

Let's take a look at some of the stuff out there.

From House of Paincakes:

Tea and Biscuits I

Tea and Biscuits II

From Bell of Lost Souls:

Barrier to Entry

FrontLine Gamer:

Hobby Needs Evangelists

Does the Industry Do Enough?

So Quite a bit out there. Not to mention my own contributions, which are intriguing and well worth the read. I won't do the links, since they are all there on the left hand side of the screen, which is an amazing little thing to go into. The thing is that they call talk about the same thing, the cost of entry. Granted Bigred is probably the most on point about it, and Frontline Gamer is probably the most prolific. This doesn't change the fact that I primarily started playing Mordheim and blogging about it because of the price increases of GW.

So I am still going on about it for a long time since I was first inspired. These guys have added to the argument, and I think its worthy of continue to talk about it. That's whats getting to me right now, is that there's a great conversation going on, and I on the other hand have either said what I need to or are exhausted to add new stuff to the comments. So I'm out for now. I'll be back next week, and I promise that I'll be hopefully done with talking about new players (at least without just linking). I apologize with the lack of quality this week, but I am hoping that I'll get a energy boost, or at least a new topic to beat like a dead horse.

Monday Night Mordheim: Is Mordheim Too Small?

So again, I'm linking back to something that I was reading earlier. Man, that Frontline Gamer gets my stuff thinking. Even when its not on his blog, its still worth a read.

This is what I'm talking about

In that post, Lauby made a point that WHFB has grown so large in scale that Mordheim isn't really a valid entry point since the warband you create will not even provide a fraction of the models that you need for a full scale WHFB army. An excellent point, all around.

Except for one thing. There were never enough models in a Mordheim Warband to be a viable beginning for a WHFB army. Maybe back in editions older then I remember it would have been. However, Mordheim didn't exist back then.

I love Mordheim, and I even have a soft spot for Necromunda, and I think that I might just pick up Bloodbowl eventually. The model count is secondary, it was really a way to allow people who already had armies to get into a small campaign based game.

Mordheim IS too small...to serve as an intro game. I've crunched the numbers here before figuring out what it would cost for each warband using only the regular WHFB troop boxes. While each one sets you back a pretty penny, at most you have two, maybe three units for a WHFB army. This is not a viable way of starting an army.

The thing of it is that Mordheim was intended as a standalone game, always was, always will be. Is it a good way to get people involved in GW? Yuppers. It introduces the basic concepts of GW games (like what to roll). It also introduces the campaign play, which I find more critical then other people do.

That's all I'm going to say for right now, I've been busy this weekend, and I'm plum out of ideas, energy, and synonyms. Works been hell, family's been hell, car's been hell. All around hell. I haven't been thinking about stuff like I should be. I'll be coming back GOOD to stuff soon, right now, I'm treading water until I get my energy left.

Monday Night Mordheim: Thinking about New Guys

Well, its been almost two weeks since the fateful night when I took Mordheim to Boy Scouts. Tonight, I went to pick up Eldest Child from the Cub Scouts where he is a den chief (learning more about the intricacies of the BSA is one of the added benefits of this blog), I saw one of the other guys who had played Mordheim with us. He had been interested since he had inherited some Chaos (Both of the 40K and WHFB varities).

So I got around to talking about stuff that I like to tell new players. There's a bunch of stuff. So I wanted to think a bit about what I consider important.

1. The Location of the Good Game Store: There are four game stores that sell GW stuff in Pittsburgh. ONE of them is worth dropping cash at. Especially since the others don't have discounts, or a bits bin filled with used and old minis.

2. GW Paint: Been having a lot of conversations about this recently (most likely due to the new paint releases). I suggest regular craft paint-with a few exceptions. The metallics are better quality then just about any craft paint. The washes, are in my mind not bad and a good way to get used to them. Are GW the best? Probably not, I've heard good things about Vallejo and PP paints. However, price to quality to volume, I'm not seeing a big enough difference between GW's stuff and Applebarrell or Americana.

3. Paint Techniques: Luckily the new guy's mom knows her crafts. So I just dropped some terms, which she picked up on right away. Over brushing, dry brushing, blending, and base coat. I could spend a whole afternoon talking about that stuff along with color composition and army paint theory. I dig that stuff.

4. My favorite Places on the Net: Seriously, this is a resource that you are using RIGHT NOW. It wasn't available to me when I started, so I picked up techniques and tips and tricks much slower then I did. You can see all the links I sent to him in the Mordheim Links section of this website (plus a few more that I didn't send him).

Those are my top four things I like to impress on New Players. I thought this list would be longer. I really did. Which is why I thought it would be a good blog post. Unfortunitly, I'm a bit short on ideas lately. We've been busy at work, so all that time I spent thinking about cool stuff is going to mundane things like remembering everything that I am supposed to so that I can keep my job. Hence, short post, unless you guys can think of other things that are good to tell new people.