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Hi Folks,
I was just flipping through the mordheim rules and thought to myself "hey, this game was fun, but it sometimes felt seriously unbalanced"
Especially the high costs for armor or the unbalance in warbands ticked me off. Skaven and Dwarfs seem very deadly while human warbands...not so much.
Also slings are obscenely strong.
Are there any rules updates out there or has anyone changed the rules to balance these effects out?

Greets
Schepp himself

On the games workshop page under the specialist games tab there is a section on Mordheim, there should be articles or game aids in there. In there is a rules review from 2002 that clears up some of the issues you mentioned. They def take care of slings in it. They don't do anything to the warbands or the armor though.

In the old specialist games forums there was a lot of talk about coming up with a new set of rules based on warhammer 7th written by fans. As far as I can tell it hasn't gone anywhere, much like a lot of fan community rules sets.

In the campaigns my group and I start every few years we always remove the -1 armor save modifier for str 4 models. We say the negative -1 starts at str 5, -2 at str 6 and so on.
This seems to balance armor a little bit in that it becomes just a bit harder to negate an armor save and forces people to buy axes which are almost useless regularly.

Other than that there are a few websites that you can check out that have a quite a bit of mordheim content
the mordheimer.com is probably the best one with lots of scenarios extra rules and FAQS.

It seems that games workshop has pretty much nailed the coffin on games like mordheim and necromunda, which is a shame because I feel like they're actually better games than 40k or WFB.

Schepp himself wrote:Hi Folks,
I was just flipping through the mordheim rules and thought to myself "hey, this game was fun, but it sometimes felt seriously unbalanced"
Especially the high costs for armor or the unbalance in warbands ticked me off. Skaven and Dwarfs seem very deadly while human warbands...not so much.
Also slings are obscenely strong.
Are there any rules updates out there or has anyone changed the rules to balance these effects out?

Greets
Schepp himself

Hey,

Here are the house rules we used in our Mordheim Campaign. We found that things like slings were too powerful as well. We also saw that armor was very expensive, and gaining Strength in some form or another incredibly cheap. We found that armor started showing up later in the campaign, and coupled with using the Optional Critical Hits system, they actually got used every now and then. I think that some of these House Rules eventually made their way into the current rulebook, so ignore anything that already appears in the rules.

Let me know if you have any other questions, or want to know about our many successful campaigns. Oh, one other thing. We also found that the non-rulebook warbands were pretty 'unbalanced' in one way or another. For our next campaign, we're going to use rulebook bands only.

HOUSE RULES

Voluntary Rout
The new Voluntary Rout rules will be included. A warband may only voluntarily rout after the following numbers of members have been knocked out of action:

Warriors in Band Warriors out of action
3-6 2
7-8 3
9-11 4
12-14 5
15-18 6
19+ 7

Critical Hits and Blackpowder
Optional Critical Hits and Blackpowder Misfires will be included. Steel Whips and Iron Shod boots count as Unarmed Combat for the purposes of the charts.

Climbing and Charging
Models are able to charge enemy models who are on the upper floors of buildings, without the use of ladders, by following these charge rules. After the charge is declared, the distance moved (twice movement usually) is measured from the charger to the target, counting the distance climbed up the building. As soon as the charger reaches the wall, an Initiative test must be passed. If the test is passed, the warrior climbs up and is able to continue his charge. If the test is failed, the charger fails the charge and stops right at the base of the building, and may do nothing else that turn. Conduct combat as normal.

Climbing
Models are able to move and climb using their normal movement (not running) without the use of ladders. An initiative test must be passed as above to climb. If the test is failed, the model stops at the base of the building and may do nothing else that turn. This replaces the requirement that models stop at the base of a building before attempting to climb.

Lucky Charm
The Lucky Charm is now a one-time use item. As soon as the Charm is used (the model suffers its first hit), the hit is ignored and the Charm is gone.

Rabbit’s Foot
The Rabbit’s Foot is a one-time use item. As soon as the model uses a re-roll (either during or after the game) the Rabbit’s Foot is gone.

Hired Swords
Hired Swords and Warband members may only use the rules and special abilities that are listed in their profile. For example, Dwarf Troll Slayers may not select any of the special skills that are listed in the Dwarf Warband. Likewise, Beastmen in Possessed bands may not use the skills lists from the Beastman Warband.

Spears and any weapons or effects that only work in the first round of combat:
Spears (now Difficult to Use) attack with the number of attacks on the model’s profile, following the rules for spears in the rulebook. A spear-armed model may not gain a First Strike attack if they are already engaged in combat (beyond the first round). For example, if an orc charges a spear-armed human, the human gets the first strike attack with the spear. If another orc charges the human while he is still engaged with the first orc, then the First Strike may not be used.
Weapons such as the flail, morning star, and effects such as hatred work as above. Basically, any time you are engaged in ongoing combat, it counts as ‘after the first round’. You may only use the special ability if all of your opponents are OOA or knocked down or stunned. Then a new round begins.

Weapons

Slings remain at 5gc to purchase. In addition, slings offer a +1 armor save modifier (similar to daggers).

Spears now count as ‘Difficult to use’. This means that a model armed with a spear may not use a second weapon or buckler in his other hand, because it requires all his skill to wield it. He may use a shield as normal, though.

Iron Shod Boots become melee weapons (but do not count against the maximum number of weapons that you can carry), and require the combat skill Weapons Training to be able to use them.

Steel Whips - At the end of either player's movement phase, any sister armed with a steel
whip and not in base-to-base with an enemy model may declare a ranged whip
attack(s) against a single enemy model within range. From that (and only
that) sister's standpoint, she counts as being in base-to-base with that
enemy model. Therefore, sisters using whips to make ranged attacks may not
shoot in their shooting phase of the same turn. Other sisters not in
base-to-base and not making ranged whip attacks may shoot at enemy models
as normal in their shooting phase. When two sisters warbands fight each
other, the players whose turn it is declares ranged whip targets last.

All ranged whip attacks are resolved in initiative order and never receive
any bonuses from charging.

Spells

In order to cast any spell, the caster must have a valid line of sight to the target. You can only affect people with an area of effect spell if you can see the target and others happen to be in the radius.

Interception

A model may intercept a charging model, if the interceptor is:
1. MEASURABLY CLOSER to the charging model than the intended target; and
2. Within 2” of the most direct charge route.

Further, this bit of text is intended to replace the original rules for intercepting charges (by Tuomas):

“A model may charge any model within its charge range, but it may not charge a model if there is another unengaged (i.e. not in hand-to-hand combat) enemy model within 2” of the charge route. It will undoubtedly be intercepted if it tries to run past the enemy.

In this situation, move the intercepting model into the charge path and the charging model engages the intercepting model instead of his original target. The charging model still counts as charging for the purposes of determining the strike order, weapon bonuses, etc. and taking any required psychology tests.

If the charger fails to get into contact with the intercepting model for any reason (such as a failed Fear test) the intercepting model is still moved to a position where it could have intercepted the charge – it’s sudden appearance is the reason for the failed charge, after all!”

Hired Swords and Wyrdstone

There seems to be some confusion regarding how Hired Swords interact with a warband. A Hired Sword DOES add its xps to the warband for warband rating purposes. A Hired Sword DOES count towards the number of models in the warband for Rout purposes. A Hired Sword DOES NOT count toward the number of models in the warband when trading wyrdstone. For example, my warband has 12 members and 2 Hired Swords. I have 14 members for Rout purposes (4 out of action to test for Routs). However, when I trade wyrdstone, I use the 12 column to determine how much gold I get for the shards.

Buying Henchmen with Experience

There also seems to be some confusion regarding purchasing ‘experienced’ henchmen. At the end of the game, each player rolls 2d6. This is the amount of ‘experience’ that is available to hire experienced henchmen. For example, if I have a henchmen group with 4 xps, and I roll a 9 on 2d6, I have 9 xps I can purchase. I could add up to 2 henchmen to my group (with one xp left over). However, the henchmen purchased in this manner add 2 gc per xp point to the cost of the henchmen. So, if I am buying a warrior to add to my group, it costs 25gc for the warrior, 8gc for experience (2gc x 4 xps), plus the cost of weapons. This costs applies to every henchman purchased. Finally, you can only add experienced henchmen to existing groups. You cannot purchase ‘experienced’ henchmen to create a new group.

New Henchmen/Heroes and Rare Item Rolls

The only weapons, armour and equipment your warriors can use is in the starting Warband's equipment list (without any special skills). When starting a warband, you may only equip them from the Warband's equipment list. This means no common items such as ropes or lanterns may be used in a starting warband (i.e. the first game). When you first equip your Warband, if there are rare items in the list, you may start out with these. HOWEVER, when you're adding a new warrior or buying extra equipment, midway through a campaign, YOU MUST ROLL ON THE RARE TABLE.

The Rulebook is as follows: (pg 65, Weapons and Armour)
"Note that you may buy rare weapons and armour when starting a warband, as indicated by the list in the warband's entry, but after playing the first game the ONLY way to get further rare weapons and armour is to is to roll to see if you can locate them (see the Trading section)"

This means that now you MUST have the equipment before you can add an extra henchman to an existing group, as later on "Every model in each Henchman group must be armed and armoured in exactly the same way." And you can "only" get rare items through trading.