Questions & Answers
On these pages there are a number of frequently asked questions that came up during playtesting as well as some clarifications we chose to put here instead of cramming them into the rules texts where they are not relevant for most players. If you encounter any extraordinary situations or have other questions or suggestions then please do not hesitate to contact us through the Border Town Burning website at www.bordertownburning.de.vu – we would be happy to hear from you!
Perilous Phenomenon
Q: The many different monsters needed for the monster encounters look demanding from a modelling standpoint…
A: Don’t hesitate to use alternative models in
your games. If you have no Hydra models but
you have a couple of Giants available, then just use
those instead! It is your hobby and most of the rules
here are suggestions developed for expanding
campaign games. Never let trivial limitations stop
you from having fun!
Objectives
the scion of chaos
Q: What is the “Circle of Summoning” that is required for the Daemon Prince Dramatis Personae as mentioned in the Objectives?
A: This a spell that can be learned by any wizard
enabling them to summon daemons of Chaos.
Magical scrolls may contain the spell too. Rules for
this spell, such items and other peculiar things will
appear in a future Mordheim supplement. Look out
for it in the future!
the celestial protectorate
Q: In our campaign there are two Celestial Protectorate warbands. Together we have all four Chaos Artefacts. Can we just share the victory?
A: The rules deal with this quite well. There are two possibilities.
- If one of you has access to Ghartok’s Tomb, then both of you have to survive a few battles against the other warbands – ie, don’t let them take the artefacts from you! – until you two can play the Ghartok’s Tomb scenario together. It then should be no problem to bring all artefacts to the tomb and capture a victory for all Celestial Protectorate warbands.
- Another possibility is to hire a merchant as bearer. To do so one of you must play against/with a Merchant Caravan warband and sell the artefacts to them. Then the merchant can sell the artefacts to the other Protectorate so that that warband has all of them. Of course, you should only award the most trustworthy merchant with such a delicate contract!
the silent threat
Q: Do Clan Pestilens Plague Censors weapons count as poisoned for the purpose of poisoning enemy Heroes out of action?
A: Yes, of course! Weapons that come
automatically poisoned – be it magically or
not – do count. Besides normal poisons and
venoms this includes the Skaven Clan Eshin’s
Weeping Blades and the Clan Pestilens’ Decease
Dagger and Censer.
Scenarios
horrors of the underground
Q: My Merchant Caravan is the defender in the “Horrors of the Underground” scenario and thus starts inside the tunnels. Now where do I place the Trade Wagon? I can hardly drive it through the tunnels and if I leave it at the entrance, the attacking warband will slay the horses, destroy the wagon and steal all of my stored equipment!
A: For this scenario it is safe to assume that the
merchant has parked the wagon somewhere
near the tunnel entrance but well hidden so that
others don’t discover it. In this game you don’t
need to place the wagon at all. If for some reason
you do want to place the wagon then it must be on
the entrance tile since neither the wagon nor the
horses may enter the tunnels. The same applies to
other wagons and carts, of course, including
Opulent Coaches that use the optional rules in the
back of this supplement.
blockade
Q: Can I set the tower on fire and thus cause the defenders to leave the building? How do I win the game then?
A: Of course you can! In fact, that is not only a
legitimate but also very fitting tactic. The
defending warband should try to keep the attackers
from setting fire to the tower and if they fail and
leave the tower winning the scenario is rather easy
for the attacking warband.
the tainted copse
Q: We found it to be very fatigable to move too many forest sections across the board each turn. Is it really necessary to use so many sections?
A: The number we found optimal is seven. This
will allow you to roll a D6 to determine the
other forest section when you have the ‘Er, are we
lost?’ result on the living forest table. Seven worked
quite nicely and using only two more sections does
make a big difference when you roll for each section
every turn.
Marauders of Chaos
lad’s got talent & throwing axes
Q: Henchmen may use throwing axes but heroes may not. What happens to a Marauder henchman with 'Lad's got talent'?
A: If a henchman from any warband becomes a
hero due to 'Lad's got talent' then he still uses
gear from his original equipment list. A marauder
henchman who becomes a talented lad is therefore
still eligible to use throwing axes. However, if the
warrior learns the Chosen of Chaos skill they must
be put to the warband’s stored equipment
immediately.
Q: It is impossible for a Marauder to gain the Weapons Expert skill, but if my warband were to somehow acquire the throwing axe associated with the Beast Hunter from Empire in Flames, could they use it?
A: Yes, they could. Throwing axes appear in the
equipment lists for the Norse Explorers and
Marauders of Chaos warbands. This is a unique
situation where two sets of rules exist for what is
essentially the same type of weapon.
the condemned
Q: How exactly does the Condemned increase his stats through experience?
A: When you get a characteristic increase for one
of the Condemned variable attributes, roll a
D6 (D3 for Attacks) instead. You may then choose
whether you want to set the variable to the scored
number thus making the attribute invariable from
now on or keep the attribute variable. The advance
is used up in both cases. If you choose to keep the
attribute variable you can still set it later if you roll
the same characteristic increase again.
Q: How are the Condemned's variable stats handled in one-off games?
A: You can apply the same system for rolling for
characteristic increases in one-off games.
Simply roll for each increase you bought and set the
attribute once you satisfied with the result. Needless
to say that your opponent should be at present
when you make the rolls!
tchar rituals
Q: My Seer bumps his Wounds by +1 with theTchar’s Reward spell. He is now at 2 Wounds. In the subsequent close combat phase he loses a Wound (so he is at 1), and in the enemy’s combat phase he loses his last Wound and gets knocked down. In my turn he gets up again. Now what happens at the end of my shooting phase when the Reward ends and his additional Wound is lost?
A: The spell allows you to temporarily boost your
Seer but you cannot evade your inevitable fate.
Unless you re-cast Tchar’s Reward in your shooting
phase, the Seer will lose the additional Wound and
must roll on the Injury chart. Note that after losing
one’s first Wound a warrior is always as zero
Wounds. This means that a previously wounded
Seer would always count as losing his last Wound,
when the spell ends, even if he didn’t suffer any
further damage between the turn he cast the spell
and the turn the spell ends. This means that
generally it is not a good idea to increase the Seer’s
Wounds stat with Tchar’s Reward.
northern tribes
Q: A hero that was taken out of action by a Hung marauder of Chaos rolls the Bitter Enmity result on the serious injuries chart. From now on he
hates all warbands of that type. Does that mean he hates Marauders of Chaos in general or does he hate marauder warbands of the Hung tribe only?
A: The various tribes of Chaos are in fact so
different that the model hates only those
Marauder of Chaos warbands that are of the same
tribe as the warband that caused the injury. So in
the above example the hero will hate Marauders of
Chaos warbands of the Hung tribe only. However,
we suggest that Marauders of Chaos from one of the
Norse tribe and the Norse Explorers warband
originally published in the Lustria supplement are
considered the same warband type in this case.
Merchant Caravan
trade wagon & additional wagons
Q: Normally all the caravan’s stored equipment is lost when the Trade Wagon is destroyed. But what happens if my warband has more than one Trade Wagon?
A: The Trade Wagon’s Storage special rule
applies only if the last Trade Wagon is
destroyed.. It is thus advisable to have one (or
more!) additional wagon with draft horses in case
the original Trade Cart is destroyed in order to
prevent the accumulated stored equipment,
treasures and wyrdstone shards from being lost.
Q: Do I have to assign ownership to a certain model in the warband like it is normally the case with miscellaneous equipment? I’m asking because of the “Dead” (11-15) and “Captured” (61) results of the Heroes’ Serious Injuries chart.
A: Yes, per the normal rules the Trade Wagon
(and any other wagon) belongs to one of the
warbands Heroes. This must not necessarily be the
Merchant himself!
This means that if that Hero dies who has the Trade Wagon on his equipment list, the Wagon would be lost normally. Also if a captured Hero is sold to slavers the captors get to keep all of his equipment – including any wagons and associated draft animals! I’m stressing the “normally”, because we play it that wagons (and the respective draft animals) are warband property and not associated with one specific Hero. However, this is a house rule so make sure you agree with your opponents as they have the right to keep the Trade Wagon (or watch it getting lost on the death of its owner).
The Restless Dead
the liche
Q: I am desperately looking for some magical weapons to equip my Liche with. Which weapons that he can use are available at all?
A: The Border Town Burning setting provides the
Chaos Broadsword of Damnation, one of the
four powerful Chaos Artefacts. Searching them is
probably one of your goals anyway and there are
numerous ways to get hold of them.
There is also the Sword of Rezhebel spell from the Lesser Magic list, which generates a magical sword. The Liche will have to acquire a couple of tomes of magic and hope to learn the spell from one of them.
Finally, if there is a merchant caravan player in your campaign then he might have his merchant learn the connected skill. This give him access to not only the Border Town Burning artefacts but also the original Mordheim artefacts. If he manages to purchase The Count of Ventimiglia’s Misericordia he might sell that to the Liche – at an “appropriate” price, of course!
the necromancer
Q: How exactly does the Necromancer’s Apprentice rule work?
A: If a necromancer wishes to learn a new spell
with a skill advancement, they randomly
determine the spell from among the spells known
by the Liche. For instance, to start off, the Liche
knows two spells (randomly chosen as normal) and
the Necromancer knows one spell. Roll the Liche's
spells first. From those two spells determine one to
be 1-3 and the other to be a 4-6 on a D6 and roll to
determine which of the spells the Necromancer
learns. After this, if the Necromancer wants to learn
a spell and there is only one spell that the Liche
knows that the Necromancer doesn't, then the
Necromancer automatically learns that spell,
likewise, if they know the same number of spells, a
Necromancer cannot roll on the spell chart for an
advance, but can choose from the other skills
available should they desire, thus there is no chance
that an advance can be wasted.
Q: Can the Necromancer learn Lesser Magic spells from a Tome of Magic?
A: No, he can't. He can learn Lesser Magic spells
individually if the Liche learns them first (roll
from among the spells the Liche knows, no matter
what list they're from) but he can't learn them from
a tome by himself... a Necromancer is completely at
the mercy of his master as to what spells are taught
to him. Remember, if the Liche dies for good, the
Apprentice rule no longer applies and in this case,
all normal magic rules apply from then on.
Battle Monks of Cathay
the emissary
Q: What happens if a new Emissary must be bought for the warband because the original leader died, but there are already six Heroes in the warband?**
A: You must remove one of your Heroes from the
roster so that a new Emissary can be bought.
Having six Heroes is not an excuse to ignore the
Emissary’s Decree special rule.
The Black Dwarfs
engine of chaos
Q: In a battle against a Reiklander warband my Black Dwarfs fail their Rout test and retreat. At that time there is no warrior left on the Engine of Chaos. Do I recover the engine after the battle or do the Reiklanders get hold of it? Can they use it?
A: The winning warband – in this case the
Reiklanders – should get hold of any
abandoned wagons. Although the Reiklanders have no
real use for an Engine of Chaos they may either sell it
for half its normal price (97 gold crowns) or they can
cut a deal with the Chaos Dwarfs as described in the
Captured Serious Injury.
Maneaters
gluttony
Q: If the ogres eat a Hired Sword do they get to keep his weapons and equipment? Are Dramatis Personae edible, too?
A: The weapons, armour and equipment of Hired
Swords and Dramatis Personae always remain
with the Hired Sword/Dramatis Personae, so by eating
one the ogre player gets the Experience points but not
the equipment.
Ogres can eat Dramatis Personae following the same rules as Hired Swords. However, there are already only few Dramatis Personae willing to work for Ogres so eating them might not be the best idea! Since Dramatis Personae suffer Serious Injuries the same ways as Heroes it would make sense to consider this to be the death of the character and not use him again for the remainder of the campaign. Alternatively you can house rule it to disallow eating Dramatis Personae.