A Requiem For Mordheim

[Electric Badger]

After hunting around a bit in the last couple months, I discovered something. Mordheim is truly dead. There are still sites for it, and forums...but they lie nearly silent, macabre and forlorn. The crashing waves of time, rules issues, and lack of support have doomed the system.

So I'm in the market. Does anyone know a similar system for small scale wargaming, which is more amenable to adaptation and customization than 40k's well-intended but somewhat lacking skirmish rules?

Or, barring that, a friend and I are thinking of working on our own rules system...what would you all consider needful, advantageous, and desirable in a small scale wargame (with say, 12-20 figures per side)?

[Perturabo]

I know what you mean-I was truly taken by a skirmish game set in a dark forbiding city,I bought the rule book and started a nice little warband but could never get a game-even in my local GW i struggled, only one of the staff had a warband (the shops realy) and he wasnt the familiar with rules.
Im dissapointed that a game with great potential was allowedd to die but that is GW's way!

[infiniti]

i have a small ork warband but cant find people to play it has truly died through lack of care from gw and the fack it was difficult to handle i hope it can come back from the brink

[newpaintbrush]

If you like Mordheim, why don't you organize some games and/or a tournament season?

Think about it.

Maybe you have some friends that like the thought of Warhammer, but aren't into spending $500 for an army. Tell 'em that Mordheim will cost 'em $30 (or whatever), and that they can borrow your paints.

So you introduce new people to the hobby, they don't spend a lotta money, and you don't have to worry about rule updates and FAQs and all sortsa stuff like that.

And you can get everything through GW Mail Order.

Yes, you see, how simple it all is. You want to play Mordheim. You CAN play Mordheim.

But nobody is going to shove a good time into your hands. Just like everything else worth having, if you want something good, you're gonna have to do some work to get it.

work? oh noes!

Sheat, maybe I should order some sets of Mordheim . . .

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

ork warband? i guess you mean orc, right? i never even knew there were orcs in mordheim.

[Fluevog]

Yeah, Orc warbands kicked butt. I've seen it come and go in waves. The rules are kinda flawed with the crappyness of armor and some of the warbands far outrun others as they progess (Dwarf Treasure Hunters, for one).

Rakham has a similar game - Dogs of War. And their minis are fantastic!

[Electric Badger]

Thanks for the responses, and I'll be sure to check out Rakham, Flue!

[Perturabo]

Originally Posted by newpaintbrush

If you like Mordheim, why don't you organize some games and/or a tournament season?

Think about it.

Maybe you have some friends that like the thought of Warhammer, but aren't into spending $500 for an army. Tell 'em that Mordheim will cost 'em $30 (or whatever), and that they can borrow your paints.

So you introduce new people to the hobby, they don't spend a lotta money, and you don't have to worry about rule updates and FAQs and all sortsa stuff like that.

And you can get everything through GW Mail Order.

Yes, you see, how simple it all is. You want to play Mordheim. You CAN play Mordheim.

But nobody is going to shove a good time into your hands. Just like everything else worth having, if you want something good, you're gonna have to do some work to get it.

work? oh noes!

Sheat, maybe I should order some sets of Mordheim . . .

I have tried several times to organise Mordehiem Tournaments, but there is a general apathy from alot of players towards the game (I dont know why)! Mind you I have noticed this with most of the game systems that GW dont support much!

[Electric Badger]

there is a general apathy from alot of players towards the game (I dont know why)!

Some (most) of the warbands are nearly impossible to model (Sisters and possessed come to mind particularly) without a huge amount of converting, which is a daunting thing for most people (and me). The game mechanics reward mob fights rather than tactics, and campaigns especially reward those who don't fight more than those who win. A lot of the rules are very open to interpretation and will never be clarified (can a ghoul hero with the right skill use weapons?) and finally, the game is really intense scenery-wise, an area where many don't have much interest. So yeah, I understand why people aren't motivated to get into it, but I still really miss all the things that were good about it.

[experiment 626]

my gaming group ran a mordhiem campaign last winter for about 3 weeks or so - then all the younger members got board and lost intrest in it... we tried to continue on, but honestly you need more than 4 or 5 people otherwise it soon becomes tiresome fighting the same warbands over and over again!
shame really as i truely enjoy the individualism aspect, and modeling each warband member to be unique...

mind you, all this talk about warbands has really got me itching to build a new marienburger and skaven warband and maybe also go for a couple others too (hmmmmm... maybe greenies and dwarves?!!)

cheers!

[Perturabo]

Im half tempted to dig out the Sisters of Sigmar I have tucked away (that sounds kinda wrong) and finish painting them up-them I remeber all the conversion work that needed doing and I start to loose interest-perhaps its eBay for them!

[Mr Nude]

I was thinking about starting mordeheim in the near future, problem is not many people play it around here and you cant play it in GW.

[Perturabo]

Wow so GW have actualy stopped playing it in store!Interesting seen as you can still buy the bits and that normaly makes it a "supported system"

[Mr Nude]

Yeah you cant play specialist games in most GW stores anymore. Just the 3 main systems, i did hear some GW shops have specialist nights, but alas no more blood bowl or gothic... sigh

[Perturabo]

Thats quite a major thing for GW to do!They still sell the stuff in the shops as well (bit two faced realy-buy it here but dont play it here).My local GW has moved into a shopping centre so it doesnt have games nights anymore as the centre closes at 6!

[Mr Nude]

Aparently the specailist games just werent profitable enough and younger gamers werent interested in them. On the plus side you can download all the rulebooks from the specialist games website.

[Electric Badger]

I got Rackham's Confrontation book and a few figs last night...seems like a really good system for skirmishes, I like it alot from what I've read so far (although it's also very complex...hoping it's easier to play than read...!)

Anyhow, if anyone else is looking for skirmish stuff, I'd definitely recommend it.

[Dominic Baelfore]

Originally Posted by Mr Nude

Yeah you cant play specialist games in most GW stores anymore. Just the 3 main systems, i did hear some GW shops have specialist nights, but alas no more blood bowl or gothic... sigh

YOUR KIDDING ME!!! GW Dublin have stopped palying them in store? yu sure?

(please tell me your not!)

[infiniti]

if gw simplified the rules and made the gangs more equal it would probable come back also maybe if they made it less secenery hugging and for more open spaces

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by infiniti

if gw simplified the rules and made the gangs more equal it would probable come back also maybe if they made it less secenery hugging and for more open spaces

while the high level of detail in the rules was very cool, it was also very intimidating for many younger gamers too...

the other big problem i found with playing in a mordhiem campaign was just how quickly all the heroes became 'uberfied within only a few games... (usually only took 4-6 games!)
after a couple of advancements, all the heroes very quickly became powerhouses that could each take one entire groups of henchmen on their own! i found that henchmen became simple bullet catchers and then once the heroes started swinging, it could take upto 4 or 5 turns for of them to actually kill the other guy!

path to glory was an interesting and simplified alternative, but again, the warband champions could very quickly become far too powerfull!

cheers!

[Khadhar'phak]

I wanted to do an Undead warband, but since no-one else was really interested, I decided to buy the new Black templars. Anyway, if you're looking for skirmish level games, I can suggest a great website with rules for all kinds of sizes. But since I don't think I can put it in a post, PM me if you're still interested (p.s. on there is a great Skirmish game that allows you to really personalize your warriors, but make them from any time. CONFRONTATION RULES!)

[Stubber]

The one really good thing about Mordheim is if you collect a fantasy army you can just grab a few of your nicest, shinyest, most heavily converted models and your pretty much ready to go. All you need then is to make some nice ye olde type buildings.

Didn't White Dwarf have a Mordheim Campaign for three or four months in the not too distant past?

[LuckyG]

Originally Posted by Electric Badger

After hunting around a bit in the last couple months, I discovered something. Mordheim is truly dead. There are still sites for it, and forums...but they lie nearly silent, macabre and forlorn. The crashing waves of time, rules issues, and lack of support have doomed the system.

So I'm in the market. Does anyone know a similar system for small scale wargaming, which is more amenable to adaptation and customization than 40k's well-intended but somewhat lacking skirmish rules?

Or, barring that, a friend and I are thinking of working on our own rules system...what would you all consider needful, advantageous, and desirable in a small scale wargame (with say, 12-20 figures per side)?

I know this is basically a dead thread, but if you're looking for small-scale 40K skirmishing, myself and a few friends have designed a game based on the Mordheim ruleset - with a few tweaks and using the 40K weapons and races. You can find all the relevant information at www.worldinarms.info. Cheers!

[Luisjoey]

Oh! is a nice resource... i always wanted to play 40k as mordheim thanks