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I'm just getting into Mordheim this week (both the online and offline varieties) and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for starting an Orcs & Goblins Warband

Looking to strike a good balance between fluffiness and power, without going for cheesy builds. However as I'm building my IRL warband from converted 40k Orks and some LotR Moria Goblins I'm somewhat limited in the gear and bodies I can easily field. Boyz are readily available, as are all heroes, but Goblins are limited to 6 Spear and 3 Bow. For gear, I can have any amount of helmets, light armour, axes or crossbows, and there are quite a few swords and shields. I cannot field a Troll and Squigs may or may not be on the menu depending on how well I can build them from plastic putty. The Shaman must be equipped with a two handed weapon (a staff) because it's a Weirdboy model and I don't want to chop that weapon off!

Here's my proposed warband so far. Go on, rip it to pieces, I know you want to!

//Da Big Boyz//

Da Boss (80) + 2x Battle Axe (10) + Helmet (10) = 100

Big 'Un (40) + Battle Axe (5) + Dagger (0) + Helmet (10) 55

Big 'Un (40) + Battle Axe (5) + Dagger (0) + Helmet (10) 55

Shaman (40) + Two handed weapon (15) 55

//Da Warriors//

Orc Boy (25) + Battle Axe (5) + Shield (5) + Helmet (10) = 45

Orc Boy (25) + Battle Axe (5) + Shield (5) + Helmet (10) = 45

Orc Boy (25) + Battle Axe (5) + Dagger (0) + Helmet (10) = 40

Orc Boy (25) + Crossbow (25) + Dagger (0) = 50

//Da Grots//

Goblin (15) + Short Bow (5) + Dagger (0) = 20

Goblin (15) + Short Bow (5) + Dagger (0) = 20

Goblin (15) + Dagger (0) = 15

Feedback much obliged!

A good rule of thumb is that because your guys will die a lot regardless, armor is pretty worthless in the early game. The coins would be better spent investing in bodies since the closest models come into play a lot in Mordheim, and having a guy take a bullet for you is the best armor.

I would suggest stripping the helmets and shields... 70 more gold gets you 2 boys with weapons, or 4 dagger goblins (2 with bows) etc... you get the idea. Hitting 12 models is good, but if you could find a way to climb to 16 you'd be pretty strong at the start of the campaign. Other than that, it looks good and I think you'll have fun with it.

Clubs all the way for Mordheim the bonus to knock down rules is really useful.

I've always wanted to get into Mordhiem, but the art in the book was so wierd, it turned a lot off after flipping through a few pages. Hopefully they do another release, maybe with an alternate sight with a less tormented and sadistic artist.

The little I did play, no one was using a giant war party, and the smaller elite groups were trouncing the mid sized groups at the start, so I'm surprised to hear "you need more men". But I would certainly go with the Vets (or feel out the group and see what they are doing).

I too am starting mordheim, and from what i've read, you need more bodies in a boyz mob.

If you insist on using armor, grab up another bow where you can.

I found an entire blog dedicated to orcs in mordheim, if i find the link, I'll post it.

In the long game, save up extra gold for a troll.

Bodies are definitely better. A rule of thumb is that strength is cheaper than armor. Between the armor mods for s4 and higher, the inexpensive nature of halberds, etc., and the basic critical hit system ignoring all armor saves, there is no reason to invest in armor. Clubs, hammers, daggers to generate more attacks is where its at.

That being said, some people play Mordheim as a pseudo-rpg, and run smaller bands with lots of equipment and armor, etc. It's basically just another way to play.

In our multiple campaigns, no one had success with less bodies, and particularly with less than max heroes (even the youngbloods which look bad on paper).

 Cruentus wrote:
In our multiple campaigns, no one had success with less bodies, and particularly with less than max heroes (even the youngbloods which look bad on paper).

This is a very important element of campaign play. Max heroes is almost mandatory for lengthy campaigns. As Heroes are the ones who earn you shards after the battle. Also heroes are the only ones who earn in battle experience in almost all the missions. I think the treasure chest mission is the only one henchmen can earn experience in the battle.

You still want as many numbers as possible to shield the heroes and to avoid taking the gang break tests for as long as possible.

I probably had more trouble running Orcs than any other warband I owned. In our campaigns, I tended to play shooty warbands -- or at least warbands with shooty heroes -- just because warbands are more efficient that way. You let replaceable henchment take the brunt of the h2h punishment, and keep your valuable heroes upright and shooting from safer spots, hopefully meaning more wyrdstone after the game ends.

The first, fluffy instinct you have with Orcs is to field choppy heroes and shooty henchmen, but that's an uphill climb IMO. Gobbos are never going to be great archers, and while Orc heroes can get pretty choppy, you're risking OOAs and low shard generation by throwing them into combat, especially considering that Orcs only start with 4 heroes max.

So the last thing I tried with Orcs flipped convention on its head and used shooty Orc heroes and lots of choppy Gobbos and Squigs. At first blush it seems kinda daft. But note that Bosses and Big 'Uns get shooting skills, and remember gorgon's rule that any hero with shooting skills should get them -- and Quick Shot in particular -- ASAP. They're that good. And while Gobbos are fairly terrible, fairly terrible henchmen in numbers can be pretty solid in MH. Note that the Squigs (S4, yay) can help the Gobbos out in the early phases of a campaign. The Shaman is the one hero you might want to run with the choppy stuff, but that depends on your spell(s). When I had more gold, I added some boyz with bows to serve in a flexible shooting/combat role. With the first WS/BS upgrade, they were BS4, which is solid enough for henchmen. Otherwise, as others have said, spend on bodies, no armor and minimum gear at first.

I won't say that this approach was a smashing success, but it worked better than anything else I tried. Personally, I think Animosity is a terrible rule that really holds back the warband. MH is a somewhat meticulous game that involves lots of careful positioning of individual models, so a rules mechanic that blows that and possibly your battle plan out of the water so easily seems overly random and unfair. I always thought one potential fix was to allow a Ld test for each affected model...pass it and you can behave normally. *shrug*