Campaigns

Warbands travel to the City of the Damned from all over the Old World. They come from many races and for many reasons but ultimately they must all face the dangers of the dim alleys and twisting, winding streets of Mordheim.

Although it is great fun to fight individual battles, part of the challenge of Mordheim is to build your warband into a force to be reckoned with. A campaign gives your warband the chance to gain experience and new skills, as well as the opportunity to hire extra warriors as its fame and fortune increases.

starting a campaign

To start a campaign you’ll need at least two players, preferably three or more. Players may have more than one warband, but most people prefer to run one at a time, as this allows them to devote more of their attention to painting, modelling and playing with their favourite warband.

You can start a campaign as soon as two players have recruited their warbands. New players can join the campaign any time after that. Although the new warbands will be less experienced they will soon learn new skills. Fighting other, more powerful, warbands will allow them to develop more quickly.

playing a campaign game

To start the campaign, the two players select one of the scenarios to fight (see the Scenarios section). At the end of each game the players work out how much experience their warriors have earned and how much wyrdstone the warband has collected before returning to its encampment.

Experience is expressed as Experience points which Heroes and Henchmen groups receive for surviving each game. This is covered later in the Experience section. When a Hero or a group of Henchmen has sufficient Experience points they receive an advance. An advance might improve a warrior’s characteristics profile, adding to his WS, BS, S etc, or he might gain a special skill such as Mighty Blow or Acrobat.

After each game the warriors collect wyrdstone. This is recorded on the warband’s roster sheet, and can later be sold for gold, used for trading, etc. You can recruit more warriors or buy new weapons from traders. All this is explained in the Income and Trading sections, later.

warband rating

Each warband has a warband rating – the higher the rating the better the warband. The warband rating is simply the number of warriors in it multiplied by 5, plus their accumulated experience.

Large creatures such as Rat Ogres are worth 20 points plus the number of Experience points they have accumulated.

The warband’s rating changes after each game, because surviving warriors will gain extra experience, warriors may have been killed, new ones added, etc. Hopefully your warband rating will go up, signifying your increase in power!

post battle sequence

After the battle is over, both players work their way through the following sequence. You do not have to work through it all at once (try to do the first three parts straight after the battle – you may wish to consider further purchases later) but any dice rolls must be seen by both players or a neutral third party

Step	Action
1	Injuries. Determine the extent of injuries for each warrior who is out of action at the end of the game. See Serious Injuries.
2	Allocate experience. Heroes and Henchmen groups gain experience for surviving battles. See the Experience and Scenarios sections for details.
3	Roll on the Exploration chart. See the Income section for details.
4	Sell Wyrdstone. This can only be done once per post battle sequence.
5	Check available veterans. Roll to see how much Experience worth of veterans is available for hire. You don’t have to commit to hiring any at this point.
6	Make rarity rolls and buy rare items. Make rolls for any rare items you intend to buy and pay for them. These items go into the warband’s stash.
7	Look for Dramatis Personae. If you want to hire any.
8	Hire new recruits & buy common items. New recruits come equipped with their free dagger and may be bought common items. This is done in any order and may be done several times. Note that newly hired recruits cannot buy rare items. They can, however, be equipped with rare items if there are any in the warband’s stash in stage 9.
9	Reallocate equipment. Swap equipment between models as desired (provided they are eligible to use it).
10	Update your warband rating. You are now ready to fight again.

disbanding warbands

You may disband your old warband at the end of any game and start again with a new one. All the warriors in the original warband and any equipment and other benefits they acquired are lost. You can also dismiss any warrior in your warband at any time.

death of a warrior

When a warrior is killed (Hero or Henchman) all his weapons and equipment are lost. This is very important, so be clear about it from the start. It is not possible to reallocate a warrior’s weapons or equipment once he is dead.

death of a leader

If the leader of the warband is slain, the Hero with the next highest Leadership value takes command. He then gains the Leader ability (although he must continue to use his original Skill list) and can use the Equipment list available to the leader. If there is more than one Hero eligible to assume command, the warrior with the most Experience points becomes the leader. In the case of a tie roll a D6 to decide the new leader. Note that you may not hire a new leader for your warband.

In the case of Undead warbands, the death of the Vampire means that the warband’s Necromancer must take over. If the warband doesn’t include one, the spells that hold the restless dead together unravel, and the warband collapses into a pile of bones. You can buy a Vampire after the next game, at which point the Necromancer will step down (whether he wants to or not) and lose the Leader skill.

If the leader of a Sisters of Sigmar, Possessed or Carnival of Chaos warband dies then their successor will be entitled to learn to use magic in their stead. The new leader may roll for a prayer/spell from the appropriate list, instead of rolling on the Advance table, the first time they are eligible for an advance. After this they are considered to be a wizard/use prayers as appropriate for their warband and use the Advance table as normal.

buying new equipment between games

As explained in the Trading section, warriors may purchase new equipment and armaments using the warband’s treasury. Warriors can also swap equipment between themselves. Alternatively, old equipment can be hoarded and re-used at a later date. Weapons and armour purchased, swapped or taken from storage for your warband must be of an appropriate type for the warrior, as indicated by the warband lists. Record any changes to the warrior’s equipment on the roster sheet.

serious injuries

During a game some warriors will be taken out of action and removed from play. At that time it doesn’t matter whether the warrior is dead, unconscious, injured or just playing dead – in game terms he is no longer capable of fighting in the battle which is all that matters.

When you are playing a campaign it matters a great deal what happens to warriors who are taken out of action! They might recover completely and be ready to fight in the next battle, or they might have sustained injuries. Worst of all they might die, or be so badly injured that they have to retire.

When a Henchman receives a serious injury this is treated differently than if a Hero received one (this is to represent the greater effect that losing a Hero would have on your warband). Working out the extent of a Henchman’s injuries is very simple. You will need to roll on the chart opposite to determine what has happened to your Hero. The chart covers a whole range of injuries and random things that might befall your warrior. Bear in mind that only Heroes who are taken out of action are obliged to roll on this chart.

henchmen with serious injuries

Henchmen who are out of action at the end of the battle are removed permanently from the roster sheet on a D6 roll of 1-2. They have either suffered severe injuries, died of their wounds, or decided to quit the warband. On a roll of 3-6 they can fight in the next battle as normal.

heroes with serious injuries

After a battle some of your Heroes may be taken out of action. You will need to determine the extent of their injuries before the next game.

To use the Heroes’ Serious Injuries chart below, roll two D6. The first dice roll represents ‘tens’ and the second ‘units’, so that a roll of 1 and 5 is 15, a roll of 3 and 6 is 36, etc. This type of dice roll is referred to as a ‘D66 roll’.

heroes’ serious injuries chart

To determine the outcome of a Hero, roll a D66.

D66 Roll

?

11-15 Dead

The warrior is dead and his body is abandoned in the dark alleys of Mordheim, never to be found again. All the weapons and equipment he carried are lost. Remove him from the warband’s roster.

16-21 Multiple Injuries

The warrior is not dead but has suffered a lot of wounds. Roll D6 times on this table. Re-roll any ‘Dead’, ‘Captured’ and further ‘Multiple Injuries’ results.

22 Leg Wound

The warrior’s leg is broken. He suffers a -1 Movement characteristic penalty from now on.

23 Arm Wound

Roll again: 1 = Severe arm wound. The arm must be amputated. The warrior may only use a single onehanded weapon from now on. 2-6 = Light wound. The warrior must miss the next game.

24 Madness

Roll a D6. On a 1-3 the warrior suffers from stupidity; on 4-6 the warrior suffers from frenzy from now on.

25 Smashed Leg

Roll again: 1 = The warrior may not run any more but he may still charge. 2-6 = The warrior misses the next game.

26 Chest Wound

The warrior has been badly wounded in the chest. He recovers but is weakened by the injury so his Toughness is reduced by -1.

31 Blinded In One Eye

The warrior survives but loses the sight in one eye; randomly determine which. A character that loses an eye has his Ballistic Skill reduced by -1. If the warrior is subsequently blinded in his remaining good eye he must retire from the warband.

32 Old Battle Wound

The warrior survives, but his wound will prevent him from fighting if you roll a 1 on a D6 at the start of any battle. Roll at the start of each battle from now on.

33 Nervous Condition

The warrior’s nervous system has been damaged. His Initiative is permanently reduced by -1.

34 Hand Injury

The warrior’s hand is badly injured. His Weapon Skill is permanently reduced by -1.

35 Deep Wound

The warrior has suffered a serious wound and must miss the next D3 games while he is recovering. He may do nothing at all while recovering.

36 Robbed

The warrior manages to escape, but all his weapons, armour and equipment are lost.

41-55 Full Recovery

The warrior has been knocked unconscious, or suffers a light wound from which he makes a full recovery.

56 Bitter Enmity

The warrior makes a full physical recovery, but is psychologically scarred by his experience. From now on the warrior hates the following (roll a D6):

D6	Result
1-3	The individual who caused the injury. If it was a Henchman, he hates the enemy leader instead.
4	The leader of the warband that caused the injury.
5	The entire warband of the warrior responsible for the injury.
6	All warbands of that type.

61 Captured

The warrior regains consciousness and finds himself held captive by the other warband.

He may be ransomed at a price set by the captor or exchanged for one of their warband who is being held captive.

Captives may be sold to slavers at a price of D6x5 gc. Undead may kill their captive and gain a new Zombie. The Possessed may sacrifice the prisoner. The leader of the warband will gain +1 Experience if they do so.

Captives who are exchanged or ransomed retain all their weapons, armour and equipment; if captives are sold, killed or turned to Zombies, their weaponry, etc, is retained by their captors.

62-63 Hardened

The warrior survives and becomes inured to the horrors of Mordheim. From now on he is immune to fear.

64 Horrible Scars

The warrior causes fear from now on.

65 Sold To The Pits

The warrior wakes up in the infamous fighting pits of Cutthroat’s Haven and must fight against a Pit Fighter.

Roll to see which side charges, and fight the battle as normal. If the warrior loses, roll to see whether he is dead or injured (ie, a D66 roll of 11-35). If he is not dead, he is thrown out of the fighting pits without his armour and weapons and may re-join his warband.

If the warrior wins he gains 50 gc, +2 Experience and is free to rejoin his warband with all his weapons and equipment.

66 Survives Against The Odds

The warrior survives and rejoins his warband. He gains +1 Experience.