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Righto Dakkaites, I'm not going to mince word with you. I need help with the basics of Mordheim; strategy and the like. I'll be playing Dark Elves (there are fan-rules for them that my group allows), but I'm limited to my WHFB models, which are just a few spearmen, a warrior champion, some crossbowmen, and a master. I don't know where to go with this... help!

Beware Skaven and their slings.

As I recall Elves (of all kind) are quite unbalanced in Mordheim. They came out as an addition to the original game and are considered WAAAAYYY overpowered. can't remember why though.

Crossbows suck until you get some skills that allow you to move and shoot with them. Better off getting longbows if your group allows proxies.

I will let some of the veterans take over, I can't recall all the rules and I'm out of practise (doing necromunda now).

Good luck though.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually I will do some researching tomorrow morning and get back to you. Hopefully my advice will be a bit better then.

Also it would be good to know who you are facing. Able to give better advice that way.

I'm not sure who I'll be facing. I'll ask on the FLGS forum.

Ok, after looking through some Mordheim information my memory has been refreshed a little. It looks like Dark Elves are an elite army. Looking at their starting stats you have a ton of heroes and even henchmen that start at WS and BS 4 or higher. But you also have to pay a premium for this.

Although its tempting to take a lot of repeater crossbows and keep the band small....DON'T! Your basic skill set is based around speed, combat and stealth. Sure, have 1 or 2 shooters but just stick the rest of your guys next to cover and keep running until you get into into charge range. You will simply find yourself outnumbered in a shooting match.

My starting Dark elf warband would look something like this:

Highborn
2x sword

Felblade
axe
repeater crossbow

Fleblade
2x sword

Beastmaster
axe

Sorceress
axe

Corsair
sword

Corsair
sword

Corsair
repeater crossbow

Total = 495

Note: everyone has a knife.

In this setup you max out the number of heroes you have and keep the focus in cc. One of your felblades has the repeater crossbow so as not to waste your highborns high WS. Parrying with multiple swords early is a good advantage, though its expensive.

Against most cc opponents you should really just charge straight ahead, though if they have many shooters take it slowly and hide in cover each turn. Against fear causing armies (possessed) use your shooters bring them down. Their extra starting wound, high WS and fear will probably hurt if you get into cc.

Skaven are one of the warbands I would really worry about, they will be using similar tactics to you but they will outnumber you (even more so as the campaign continues) and they can use their heroes for some lethal cc and their henchmen as sling carrirers. Not much advice except use your repeater crossbows to bring them down and force a rout test as early as possible. Your heroes will be hard pressed against too many skaven in cc.

Good luck.

If you are looking for a warband that has some ballz/teeth then consider the following:

Shadow Warriors:
Shadow Master--Dagger, Sword, Elf Bow.

Shadow Weaver--Daggerx2, Bow

Shadow Walker-- Daggerx2, Elf Bow

Shadow Warriorsx2--Daggerx2, Elf Bow

Shadow Novicex2--Dagger, Sword, Bow.

Run and shoot. Hold off getting more people and put everything back in skillz/equipment at the start. With a few lucky skill rolls (quickshot) and some upgraded arrows (Fire) you can completly wreck people from shooting and with movement 5 only skaven can keep up with you.

They are small/weak at the start, but if you do it right in the endgame they are the most powerful army in the game.

Speaking of which... Skaven are simple THE most powerful early stage army in the game by far. Give em slings and take lots of them you just overwhelm people early game with massive ammounts of shooting.

I have a list somewhere on dakka with my starting skaven warband from last summer. I won overall with that warband and trust me... it works.

If you want I can dig around my hard drive and post it here.

Dont forget possessed and Vampires for undead. They also have high movement speeds, and are tougher than elves. T4 and 2 wounds to start is not to be ignored.