Strategies

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EDITOR'S NOTE (2020/06/04) : The Community's help is needed for this section of the Wiki. I've played some, and had very good success with Marienburgers and Skaven. But I haven't played much the Close Combat Factions (melee), and don't know how these should be played... Please, post whatever strategy you've found out works well most of the time, either in the Comments or by editing this page. Thanks!

This page contains general strategies, tips, and tricks. For faction specific strategies, please see the respective faction page.

The following is designed to improve the understanding of how Mordheim: Warband Skirmish works from the point of view of the player. For those experiencing the high difficulty curve and the frustration of losing units to death, this guide will mitigate those effects, and enable more enjoyable, less annoying mobile gaming regardless of choice to spend real money.

Recruiting New Units

The generic tutorial as-is puts you in the position of hiring units without much regard for their relative worth, and as warband development progresses it is easy to assume that the strongest determinant of value to a warband is upfront money cost in the Tavern, Crypt, Burrow, or wherever you hire your characters. However, this is not the case; a lot depends on the statistics of the characters you hire, and often two instances of the same unit type at the same cost will perform at very different levels.

Therefore, pay attention to the statitistics. It is helpful to be picky. Using this Wiki to navigate to unit pages (generic henchmen statistics tables for each Faction can be found on the individual faction pages) to see what is best. For example, you may want to hire an ogre to be a strong unit that soaks up damage. The one available in your hiring pool may have a Wounds value of 9, which looks good compared to other units available. However, the Ogre page shows that the highest Wounds an ogre can have is 15. If this is the case, you may want to give that ogre a miss and wait for a better one, one that will cost the same and serve your warband far better.

The option to reroll what is available in your recruiting pool costs 1 Fate, but you can game the system by leaving to the Main Menu and returning by pressing 'Load Warband', although this only works once after every skirmish. The stock of items and characters available to your warband will be refreshed, and you can continue your search for the optimum character. During warband creation, it is possible to 'clone' units by returning to the main menu when first shown the recruiting screen and buying your chosen unit, then loading back in. If you are tenacious enough, it may take a few warband creation processes to find such a unit worth cloning.

Being picky is important. As your warband grows, the next available unit has a cost multiplier added to it. This multiplier is reset by dismissing units, but once all units in a warband have found their niche and are gaining experience together, it is difficult to then introduce a new character that will go toe-to-toe with high level opponents without dying. This problem can be mitigated with the option to Train units at 15 gold per point of experience, but at higher levels this becomes exorbitant.

Keeping Your Units Alive

Losing a character in a skirmish subjects them to the uncaring might of the Serious Injuries chart. The most notable roll on the chart is death, although usually it is as uncommon as any other given effect. The best way to keep a character's experience, equipment and sentimental value is to maintain them on the board during a skirmish. A character can be revived by spending Fate, but sticking to simple rules and relying on available equipment should avoid injuries altogether.

First of all, the two best items in the game conducive to keeping models on the board are Healing Herbs and the Lucky Charm. The latter helps to avoid the first instance of damage a model suffers in all skirmishes they enter, and the former restores all Wounds lost during a skirmish, being consumed at use. Keep in mind, a unit cannot use the Healing Herbs if stunned.

Avoiding Damage from Ranged Weapons

The best way to avoid damage from Ranged Weapons is taking cover. There are two types of cover in Mordheim: Warband Skirmish; complete cover that blocks line of sight, and partial cover around which an opponent with a ballistic weapon can still attack. Partial cover reduces the chance of successful ranged hit, but the Shooting skill Trick Shooter bypasses this negative modifier, as does the special quality of the Hochland Long Rifle & Sight. The fact that there is no indicator of what kind of cover any given unit is moving in to is a callback to the original tabletop game, where line of sight between of any part of the model determined whether or not a unit could shoot.

Both kinds of Hochland Long Rifle have a range of 48 squares of distance. To transliterate this for practical purposes, its range spans most maps. This, accompanied with Initiative-based spotting skills, enables many Hochland Long Rifle users to fire without being detected, although the game gives a line of sight of the shot to provide an idea of where the bullet is coming from. The characteristic that enables characters to spot enemies is the Initiative skill, which has the dual role of determining turn order, and detecting enemy units. The Shooting skill Eagle Eyes, and the Speed skill Perception both increase this awareness range, as does the Lantern Item.

The Elven Cloak item can be equipped by all characters, and reduces the chance of a missile hit by 15%. For those with access to Speed skills, the Dodge skill does the same, and both effects stack.

Lastly, hiding is the best way to avoid getting shot. The tutorial tells you how to do this, but it is generally achieved by walking in to cover (when moving, a dashed line represents a walk and an unbroken line represents a run) and being outside the opponent's spotting range. Luckily, the game automatically informs you if you are in cover by making the character black and white and raising a crossed-out eye symbol to show a character is effectively hiding. However, characters with high Initiative and Speed skill access, such as Elves, will still be able to spot hidden characters at a distance. The Speed skill Hidden in the Shadows halves enemy Initiative for all spotting purposes, aiding in the purposes of hiding and seeting up ambushes.

Avoiding Damage in Melee

Melee combat is where the most damage is traded and where characters drop the fastest. For melee combatants, Weapon Skill is invaluable, as it reduces the chance to get hit as well as increasing the chance to hit. Positioning is important too, as characters are 10% more likely to be hit, and 10% less likely to hit for every enemy they are in combat with after the first. Be wary of swarming!

The next best option is increasing Defence, as it reduces incoming damage, and this is generally done with the Strength skill Resilient as well as purchasable Armour. Armour is a useful defence against most weapons, but loses its effectiveness against Bludgeoning Weapons (Warhammer, Mauler, Comet Maul, etc.), which cap the armour values of their victims. Armour also has a high marginal cost, and start to weigh a character down at values higher than 10 Defence. The Strength skill Armour Training mitigates this (Dwarves have their own variation of this skill).

For those that have to stay light on their feet and don't have a high enough Weapon Skill to justify melee combat, staying out of range is the best option. As a general rule, characters run at double their Move statistic, and most characters have 4 Move. Gaging how far a character will be able to run has to be done by eye, and in this case it is better to be safe than sorry, staying well out of running distance of a melee combatant. Access to the Speed skill Sprint adds 1 to the Move statistic, so be careful when facing warbands/hired swords with those skills! The highest Move characteristic in the game is 7, belonging to the peerless Vampire and Strigoi Vampire characters with the Sprint skill. Some melee weapons can also attack over a range of squares, so be on the lookout for spears, whips and the like.

Understanding Rating

Rating, if it becomes understood by new players at all, is learned peripherally; the number in the lower-right-hand corner is your rating, it determines the rating of the warbands available to fight through the Town Cryer. As you progress, parts of the map unlock by fighting warbands with specific ratings, and if you win or lose consecutive battles, the rating of opponents available rises or falls respectively.

Rating is increased by the skills unlocked by experience points and by items equipped to characters. As the reader may expect, it is possible to increase a warband's rating beyond their capacity to battle other warbands of the same rating. For specific guidance on what to avoid and what to invest in, see the Rating Management page. What is essential to understand is that what you don't know can hurt you. There is no way to be sure of how a skill will increase your rating, and no way to undo the decision once it has been made. As a general guide, skills that protect your characters inflate your rating less than skills that maximise their killing potential, and the same can be said for items. For instance, Attack Increase hugely increases your warband's rating, but Wounds Increase won't add to your rating. In another example, an Ostland Great Axe will pump up a warband's rating, but a Lucky Charm won't register.

Magic can be a worthwhile investment of skills, particularly because points spent in learning magic do not increase a warband's rating (yet!). See the page Acquiring Spellbooks as Loot for more information.

Rating also determines the kind of XP awarded for killing. Units can get either 1XP, 3XP or 6XP as an award for killing an enemy unit. How this is decided is by the rating differential between the slayer and the slain. Each character in a warband has their own rating, and some aspects of a high rating are postmarked. 1XP is for killing a unit of similar or lower rating, 6XP for the killing of a unit with much higher rating, with 3XP for something in-between. If you want to get a 6XP reward for beating a character, look out for characters that have mulitple attacks, or a Hochland Long Rifle, and - once it's safe - send a low-level unit in to do the slaying.

Understanding the AI

As a general rule, the AI is hyper-aggressive, and does not care about losing its own units so long as it manages to kill yours. The exception to this rule is during the Wyrdstone Hunt mission, when units will ignore the chance to hit in melee in favour of chasing a shard or reaching a visible enemy character that has a shard. There is a list of priorities that Legendary Games has given the AI to follow. The AI moves down the list in accordance with what is possible. This list is as follows.

1. Shoot with a Ballistic Weapon

If the AI character is not in melee, and the chance exists to fire a ballistic weapon at an enemy, they will take it. They will prioritise shooting at whatever they are most likely to hit, which makes summoned giant rats and zombies tempting targets and helpful screens for vulnerable mages.

The AI can figure out with precision the nearest vantage point to shoot a target. This priority will still manifest if the AI has to walk or run (in the case of thrown weapons and slings) to get their shot.

2. Run to Collect Shards

During Wyrdstone Hunt, a scenario in which victory is achieved by collecting Shards on the board, the AI receives a neq priority. Even if in a prime position to down a dangerous enemy, a unit will still ignore them if there are shards to collect. This priority vanishes once all the shards have been picked up, but reappears if initiative has led to the spotting of an enemy that has collected a shard. Note: shooting still takes precedent, so be wary of trying to exploit this rule around a warband with ranged characters.

When the AI acts on this, it is one of the few occasions when the skill Quick Reactions is useful in its own right.

3. Attack with a Melee Weapon

Apart from priority #6, this is the optimal priority for understanding and exploiting the AI. If there is an enemy in range to fight, the AI will fight them. If they need to charge to accomplish this goal, they will. If they are already in melee, they will fight and not leave melee, even if a much easier target is available beyond their reach. If multiple targets are available, the AI will fight or charge those that are easiest to hit - the one with the lowest weapon skill - and if they have the Combat Master skill, they will strike another available target in order to 'activate' this skill.

There are many ways to use this priority to your advantage. For instance, ranged units will be unable to fire when in melee, and stronger targets can protect weaker targets when the enemy AI is nearby.

4. Use an available Spell/Ability

Once any possibilities for melee have been resolved, the AI unit will cast a spell or use an ability. The AI seems to prioritise the spell or ability with the highest success chance, while ignoring 'flight' spells (Flight of Zimmerman, Wings of Darkness). Additionally, only one such ability is used per turn. This may seem par for the course for magic-users without access to the Blunderbuss, but even AI units with multiple Blunderbusses will only use one per turn. The Skaven unique ability 'Tail Fighting' seems to follow this rule as well.

The one case where this priority comes out of line is with Blunderbusses. A unit with a Blunderbuss will often fire it before their main attack. The AI seems to recognise when their enemy is bunched up, and will fire the blunderbuss into enemy crowds, even if members of their own warband are in mortal danger from the shot.

5. Remain in cover to avoid getting Shot

A rare AI behaviour, achieved in specific cases, comes about if the AI knows you have characters with ballistic weapons by using their Initiative, and they are not in range to charge you. The AI will seek cover, even if it is not complete cover, in order to minimise the chances of being shot. The exploit for this behaviour is straightforward: using Trick Shooter or the Hochland Long Rifle & Sight Master ability ignores cover, but even without these advantages AI health can still be whittled down while they are hiding in cover.

6. Run towards the Objective

When there is nothing else to do, the AI will run towards the objective. In most scenarios, the objective is your warband. If they are the defenders in Defend the Find - style missions, they will walk around the centre of the circle, without carrying out melee attacks unless an enemy presents itself both in charging range and in the circle. If any member of your warband can be perceived, the AI will move towards them.

This is the best indicator of AI behaviour, as it is the priority they will be obeying the most. If you can't see the AI, and they aren't shooting at you, rest assured, you will see them soon. If they can't reach you, they will try. This provides the best opportunity to ambush enemy units and defeat them.

Leveling

• Melee and hybrid units should prioritize increases in "Weapon Skill" when starting out. Skaven with high starting "Weapon Skill" are a notable exception. In terms of real money spent healing deaths and injuries, it is considerably more cost effective to obtain "Hidden in the Shadows" as quickly as possible.
• Rating Management—the players quintessential goal while leveling should be to maximize lethality and survivability while avoiding bottlenecks. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is by actively keeping the warband's rating as low as possible. Normally, this does not mean sitting on unused skill points. That is only an effective choice in a small set of specific circumstance described here. Typically, the player is better served by placing those points in speed skills (high defense units) or magic (low defense units) as they offer hefty boons at a paultry increase in rating.
• Spellbooks—you can avoid spending skill points learning new spells by equipping your unit with its respective spellbook. Fore example, while Necromancers and Vampires require a Tome of Necromancy, Warlocks, Reiklander Captains, Marienburg Captains, and Middenheimer Captains require the Tome of Magic. Purchasing the wrong book will waste both gold and time so be careful. Furthermore, You can obtain them for "free" by purchasing a Map of Mordheim (40G) and playing the University district (best choice defend the find and attacker, because it gives you 10 turns to get all the loot) since, both Tome of Magic, Tome of Necromancy and Inscribed Shard (purchased for around 300G) are drops of this missión at a high regularity and in the worst case scenario you would recuperate the 40G inversion of the Map of Mordheim.
• Increase your Weapon Skill—even on shooters, because that's one of your best protection against powerful melee combat units (like Ogres). Hit chances are basically 50 +/- WS spread.
• Use proven Archetypes—the skills system allows for thousands of combinations. But there are proven Archetypes in the game, and you'd be better training your Heroes into one of them, instead of picking some cool skills here and there. The order skills are learned is important, and sticking to a known archetype will prevent you from picking skills that are useless in the long run (classic case is Zealot first taking Crossbow Training instead of Blackpowder Training, because of the Hand Gun's price).

Getting gold crowns and Fate tokens for free legally

• See Fate Farming for an in-depth guide.
• The quickest way to get gold crowns is by purchasing a Map of Mordheim and selecting as the Custom mission Map: University District, Scenario Defend the Find, Attacker (easier to do initially) or Breakthrough, Time End, Attacker (you start with extra Shards and can end it faster). In the University district there are 4 loot crates that contain one of the following items: Ragged Robes (drop per crate 9% sell for 0G), Black Lotus (drop per crate 9% sell for 7G), Tears of Shallaya (drop per crate 11% sell for 8G), Mandrake Root (drop per crate 3% sell for 14G), Healing Herbs (drop per crate 9% sell for 15G), Crimson Shade (drop per crate 8% sell for 20G), Halfling Cookbook (drop per crate 9% sell for 20 G), Mad Cap Mushroom (drop per crate 7% sell for 20G), Map of Mordheim (drop per crate 20% sell for 20G, although it is better to keep it for future custom University District missions), Tome of Magic (drop per crate 5% sell for 206G), Tome of Necromancy (drop per crate 5% sell for 206G) or Inscribed Shard (drop per crate 5% sell for 206G). In general, is better to run away with the loot and survive than loose it fighting. In average after 50 Missions I have earned 175G per mission, adding gold obtained selling the shards and loot and discounting the price of a Map of Mordheim (40G).
• If you want to get Fate tokens for free legally, you need to donate gold crowns in the Temple. After approximately 1000 donations, the Fate drop is 11%. Thus in average you will get 1 Fate token for every 1000 gold crownsthat you donate to the Temple (this is without taking into account the Free available donation every 10 hours). Additionally, you can only make a donation after each battle you play and only if your Warband rating is of at least 100. Thanks to the previous tip on getting gold crowns, getting Fate this way is not that hard, but it could be time consuming.In order to reduce the time invested on getting those gold crowns and Fate tokens, and to minimize the casualties suffered on your main Warband, you should create a solo Warband.
  • Solo Warbands are much faster to play because you only have one Hero and in general, the opponent will have four of less.
  • Solo Warbands are more resilient, since they run away as soon as your warrior is stunned; reducing your mortality rates (but be advise if you don't play with a cold head your Captain could die just as any other Hero).
  • The best solo Warband for this purpose is the Marienburg Mercenaries Captain (because they start with a Store discount), but the Reikland Mercenaries or the Middenheim Mercenaries Captains are also good options. You will make them Wizard pistoliers or Wizards with Throwing Daggers and a Staff of Summoning/Rod of Will. Skaven assassins due to their great mobility (Gutter Runner (7 Move), Infiltration (additional Turn), Black Hunger(+2 to Move)) could also serve this purpose but they cannot fly and the University District has two playable stories, same goes for Vampires (without considering that you need to hire them 1000G and fire the rest of the Warband). Magisters of the Cult of the Possessed could also be a good option, but they cannot be pistoliers or great throw weapons experts.
  • You want to get a Warband rating barely above 100, so once you get to that point you should not invest any additional skill points you earn. If you invest them, it would get to a point (around 300) where your solo warband is not as effective and the missions take much longer, since the enemy warbands have more members.
  • Developing a solo Human Mercenary pistolier Captain: Blackpowder Mastery, Hunter, Pistolier, Sprint, Strength Increase 1 (not necessary with Middenheim Captain), Wounds Increase 1 (not necessary with Middenheim Captain), and then depending if you already got some Tomes of Magic Arcane Lore, Sorcery, Flight of Zimmerman up to 100% Casting (Initial Tome of Magic), Attack Increase 1 (if you want to get to a 100 rating fast, if not you should not increase its Attacks and only focus on shooting skills to have a 100 rating monster, but it takes a lot more levels), Strength Increase 2, Wounds Increase 2. The rest of the development up to a rating of 100 is a little up to you, I prefer to get with Tome of Magic, Silver Arrows of Arha 1 and Sword of Rezhebel 1 (This is supper cheap rating wise considering that gives you +1 Attack, +20 Weapon Skill and +20 Strength, and you don't loose the extra pistolier shot). I also like to get Leadership Increase up to 5 (less trouble with all alone tests, without the high increase in rating given by Combat Master and better at maintaining the Sword of Rezhebel active, considering that normally you will activate it at 40 or 50%. Eagle Eyes, Wyrdstone Hunter and Initiative Increase are also great choices. But remember even though there are a lot of juicy Skills out there it is best to keep your Hero at a warband rating of 100.
  • And alternative pathway to a pistolier are the Throwing Daggers, which work really good in conjuntion with Flight of Zimmerman and Silver Arrows of Arha. The initial development would be Thrown Weapons Training, Thrown Weapons Mastery, Ballistic Skill Increase up to 45+, Knife Fighter instead of the Pistolier path. The advantage of this path is that you have an additional 10% to spell Casting, thanks to the Staff of Summoning or Rod of Will, and +5 to Initiative thanks to the Throwing Daggers. Additionally you could make 9 shoots in a single turn (4 from Throwing Daggers and 5 from Silver Arrows of Arha).
  • Best equipment: Flat Hat (Marienburg Mercenaries cannot equip ip) or other low Defence high Leadership Hat, Mystic Robe or Scholars Gown, Dual pistol (initially a Knife or Falchion will suffice) and Pistol or Throwing Daggers and a Staff of Summoning/Rod of Will, Elven Cloak, Lucky Charm, and if you want a Lantern or a couple of Blunderbusses.
  • To increase your survivability, you should employ the hit and run strategy, you charge the enemy and after attacking, you run out of range with Flight of Zimmerman. This could be employed in combination with the skipping one turn strategy to have two consecutive rounds of attacks before you run out of combat (only usable if you are the Hero with the highest Initiative).
  • Don't bother discovering new areas, the initial maps have a reduced size and thus are much faster to play. This comes handy when you have more gold crowns than you can expend in the Temple. This initial Maps will take 1 to 3 minutes to finish and give between 1 and 3 Shards (in some scenarios, even 5 or 6). Once again, the goal of these missions is not to win but to get as much Wyrdstone Shards as possible and finish them quickly, so you can make a donation in the Temple.

Playstyle

• Hiding—stealth is an essential element of the game and should be used often to avoid being shot or charged. Since the AI makes little use of hiding, new players who model their playstyle on the AI can experience heavy losses over many games before figuring out its correct use for themselves. A unit can be made to hide by either walking into cover (as opposed to running) or deferring a turn while standing in cover.
• Turn Skipping—encompases two of the most usefule strategies in the game. It enables Turn Grouping (Alpha Strike) and Stealth Movement. When standing in cover, pressing the skip button to delay the turn automatically hides the unit. Doing this deliberately during matches can make it far more difficult for an opponent to precisely track (or even remember) the movement of any particular model. This is especially helpful when using multiple hidden units to intersect the path of a hidden vampire as the vampire can be made impossible to locate.
• Counter strategy to Turn Skipping—don't let opponent play their game when they're faster than you and abusing the Turn Skipping strategy (see above). Skip too, and delay the actions of your units. That way, you'll deny opponent the opportunity to Ambush and Attack (they'll have to choose one or the other), and they won't get two consecutive combat phases (end of this turn + start of next turn). This won't necessarily give you victory (hey, you don't attack first, remember). But you won't let opponent attack you twice or thrice (with Ambush) before you get to retaliate.
• Flight of Zimmerman (Warlocks, some Captains)—use that spell to fly up to 12 squares away, in addition to your normal move and attacks. That way, you can fly for 12 + run/charge for 8 squares (with Move 4) and cover a lot of ground. It's the single most useful spell in all the game (add a Lantern to this unit to reveal far away snipers).
• Factions—learning to exploit the weaknesses of each faction is critical. For example, Marienburgers don't wear armour, Skaven have very low leadership and are more susceptible to Fear and All Alone tests, etc. Additionally, most factions strongly favor specific attack patterns. Effectively countering these strategies is essential to victory.
• Host the Missions—if the objective is Defend or Capture the middle of the map, the player who hosted will always be the one in the middle (defending that position). If your team is particularly good at range, you may prefer that, rather than charging that zone (a strategy more appropriate for melee).

Weapons and Items

• Defence Modifier—the most effective weapons in the game have negative defense modifiers (e.g. "Enemy Defence: -25" or "Enemy Max Defense: 25" depending on weapon type).
• Hammers vs Axes—with their high critical hit but small defense modifier, axes are appropriate for characters with comparatively many attacks and are superior to hammers against soft bodied targets. Hence, they are typically the better choice for early-to-mid game. Though it can be helpful to have one unit with a hammer. As the player progresses, this trend will gradually reverse however. Against Gromril armor, maxed WS, Resilient and Step Aside skills, axes can yield little, if any, damage. Against such foes, The Comet Maul is the weapon of choice.
• Non-weapon/non-armour Equipment—items are often neglected in favor of weapons and armor. But a Lantern is mandatory to reveal hidden units, Rope and Hook are quasi-essential in certain maps, and Blunderbuss is an overpowered tool that is underestimated by most. Also, there is absolutely more demoralizing than seeing that nearly stunned Ogre get fully healed by some Healing Herbs. And don't get impressed by the price tag of consumables when you see a Fate counter there. You can also buy these with gold.

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