I'm primarily a High Elf player, and when I started Mordheim, it bummed me out that there wasn't any way to really play as my chosen race besides Shadow Warriors, who... have their own problems. As a result, I'm developing a Swordmaster warband. With my friends' gracious approval, I've used it in one round of a campaign, and it doesn't seem too imbalanced so far, but I thought I'd get some outsiders to pick it apart.
Here's the list
Design Notes:
I chose Swordmasters for two reasons. First, of all the High Elf units, I always liked their fluff. Jedi Secret Police with a dash of Indiana Jones thrown in? How cool is that? They've got a good excuse to be wandering the world, and, for the most part, their list makes sense. Second, it allowed me to make a non-shooty elf warband. From what I've seen, the biggest problem when making elves is that they are too good at shooting, so I mostly took it away. The only way to get a hero that can take the shooting skills, in fact, is to advance a Sea Guard henchman to be a hero, so there will never be a lot of shooty heroes.
The warband drew a large amount of inspiration from Dwarves and Druchii.net's Druchii warband. When it came to fluff vs game balance, I tried to choose balance because having 3 heroes start with the "Swordmaster" skill would be just too much!
The spells are from the "Elf Mage" hired sword, so hopefully they are pretty balanced.
Test Notes:
I've played them in one "round" in a 4-person campaign- 3 battles. Standard rules, except armor is all half price.
The results so far-
Swordmasters: 3-0, Rating 168
Vampire Counts: 2-1, Rating 141
Skaven: 1-2, Rating 187
Possessed: 0-3, Rating 129
Going by this, they are pretty powerful. In their first battle, against the Skaven, the Swordmasters probably should have lost. We were playing an "Occupy" scenario, and the rats failed a rout test, resulting in them fleeing while they had 2 of my 4 heroes on the ground, waiting to be slaughtered and had claimed 3/4 of the buildings. Turns out, though, that in "Occupy" scenarios, you aren't supposed to take rout tests - oops. In addition, the
SM have benefited from their above-average leadership against both the
VC and Possessed. Next campaign, we'll see how they fare against mercenaries and dwarves.
I haven't rolled any additional skills yet, so they haven't been tested at all yet.
Specifics
The Bladelord's been really useful and killy, as is appropriate for a 100 gold character. He got an addition point of
Ld, and, in his last game, an additional attack.
My White Tower Acolyte rolled the "Fleeting Shadows" spell, and it's saved his butt more than I ever thought it would. Other than soaking up some attacks, though, he hasn't been real useful. He's only taken 1 enemy OOA.
My two regular swordmasters have performed well, but not super. I'm not sure what to do with one of them - he's suffered an eye and chest wound, resulting in a BS2, T2 elf! He can't shoot well and I'm loathe to get him in close combat... Guess we'll have to see.
Swordmaster novices, ditto. Good but not great. One advanced to hero.
The Sea Guard have been the surprise badasses. I've equipped them with bows and a second dagger. With some lucky shots, they took out the Vampire in the game vs the undead, and they are great for picking off henchmen.
Conclusions
I've got a few other pages of notes, but I'd like to avoid boring you and I'm more interested in what you all have to say.
