Jun 20
Starting Orc & Goblin Mordheim Warband
I got forced into Orcs when I started up Mordheim again because I was the only one with the Mordheim warbands, and I couldn’t just have Skaven Warbands. But boy am I glad I did. I now understand the craze people feel for the greenskins. I’m in the middle of a campaign with a Orc and Goblin Warband, and I’m doing pretty well. I’ve developed/read about/seen a couple different tactics for starting an Orcs and Goblins warband in Mordheim, and I’ll try to share my thoughts on them here:
Orc and Goblin Necessities
No matter what direction I go with a Orc and Goblin Warband, I will always get all four heroes (200gc) as that directly affects my income after every game. Only getting four heroes to start is probably the biggest draw-back for the Orcs and Goblins.
Squigs and Goblins and Orcs, Oh My!
This is the warband I am currently playing with, and is probably the most fun of the Orc and Goblin warbands to start with. Squigs are so great at the beginning of a campaign with WS4 and S4, so I wanted to get all 5 of them (warband max). This means I would need to get 5 goblins, of which I would give one or two of them squig prodders and the rest of them get short bows. That’s 10 members in your warband for less than 200gc. These are your cannon fodder, and they are very easy to replace. The four Orc heroes brings the warband total to 14 and leaves 100 gold for equipment for them. I went ahead and got a Orc Boy (henchman) to work on getting another Hero, giving me 75 gold to equip my five Orcs. I would recommend getting more Orc Boyz as soon as you can to get more heroes.
Greenskins Bash’um Good
With 4 toughness, Orcs start out better than most units for Close Combat. Orc Boys armed with a club and dagger only cost 28gc, so you can get 8 of them for 224gc, leaving 76gc to equip your 4 heroes. Thats 12 Orcs in a starting warband! And since they all gain experience, they’ll all be getting better as you continue to play. (This is probably the warband a “power player” would create. It’s very powerful, but not as much fun as the above. =])
Big and Scary Troll
Trolls are a great investment for a Orc and Goblin warband. Yes, they have a 15gc upkeep and they’re stupid, but they will NEVER DIE! There is no chance that the troll will die after being put Out of Action; not to mention the unmodified 4+ armor save, three attacks, three wounds and causing fear. No matter which way you look at them, they are tough adversaries if you can get him into combat. If you get a troll and the four heroes, that only leaves 100gc for equipment and the rest of your warband. I’d try to get up to 9 models if at all possible, but it may have to wait a round or two.
Shooty Orcs
Although a shooty warband doesn’t take advantage of the Orc’s 4 toughness, there is no reason they couldn’t pull it off. I saw one guy arm as many Orcs as possible with Crossbows, which I would not do. Crossbows cost 15gc extra and only give you +1 str, and makes it so you can’t move and fire on the same turn. Bows cost more than 50% less, and is not much worse. If you’re going to go for a shooty Orc warband, I would get a pile of Orcs with bows, and a handful of Goblins with short bows (5 for 100gc). Then get close combat weapons for them as you get GC from games.
There’s my thoughts on starting an Orc and Goblin Warband.
Hope it helps,
-Ashton Sanders
UPDATE: If you are looking for the Orc Rules/Rule Book for Mordheim, I’ve uploaded a copy on this site. Click for Da Orc Mob Rules.
Hi all. Just started my first Orc & goblin war band (my usual band is a dwarf thunderers band)
started off with
big boss with 2 axes (no armour)
shaman with axe
1 big un with axe (and free dagger)
1 big un with halberd
2 orc warriors with axe and free dagger.
5 goblins with short bows (and dagger)
1 goblin with a prodder (to help control those squigs)
4 squigs
For a massive starting band of 16, (and 10 of them only count as half towards the rout test)
our little group play as. 1 set of rekland warriors, 1 sister of sgmar, and 2 skaven bands (those two players are rarely there at the same time so 2 skaven bands shouldnt be too much of a problem, just means they cant play each other) I also have my dwarf band free, so there is some room to change if 2 skaven groups causes problems.
Of all them, I think im most concerned about the sisters, I should be able to sneak up on those nasty hooman archers of reikland, or if i can get my gobbies close enough to keep control, do some damage to them with the squigs taking the arrows (have a distinct feeling most of my enemies will be taking to the trees - well the higher levels of buildings- to stay away from the might squigs )
we should be kicking off the campaign this week, so I may well keep this updated as to how it goes
If that wont bore too many people
That’s a great starting warband. You’ll definitely be a force to reckon with.
My only recommendation would be to cut 1 guy out to get down to 15, because that 1 extra guy will cost you 5-10 gold every time you sell your wyrdstone.
(Also don’t forget to put your two orc henchmen into separate henchmen groups
I’m curious to see how your games go.
Good Luck!
-Ashton Sanders
well, last night we had our first battle (only had one because we started late and it was gone midnight by the time we finished)
First battle was a breakthrough against humans (reiklanders) with them attacking.
It may be a good time to note, with the above war band list, I had mis-remembered and in fact I had 3 orc boyz for a total of 17 models at the start.
On set up.
He placed his 5 bow men in 3 story building at his end of the map, and lined the rest up to move towards me, mostly (as it turned out) heading towards the centre
I decided to leave a fair amount of my band at the back in case he managed to break though, so i left 4 goblin archers, 2 orc boyz and a squig.
i sent a gobby archer, orc boy and orc hero up the left flank, my big boss, and other orc hero up the middle, using cover to move forward and my shaman 3 squigs and goblin with a prodder to control them up the right flank. (this was to be my main assault)
It was obvious early on that the centre was his main attack, and I decided to move one of the right flanking Squigs towards the centre to help out (that turned out to be a mistake)
as soon as we had moved within bow range, and the fight really started ( I wont bore you all moves of the early turns) he started to pepper my war boss on his turn, and also took a pot shot at my squig that was moving in to help, and had wandered ito the open, archer had a Bs of 4, he had moved, and it was long range, ( i wasnt too worried) then rolled a 6 to hit the squig, a 5 to wound ( ouch) then another 6 for the effect, and yup out goes the squig ( he also failed the survival test at the end to become a dead squig)
On my turn, the war boss thought he heard one of the goblins call him a pin cushin, and spent he turn throwing insults back at his own boys (yup failed his animosity test) the shaman tried to cast his 1 spell (fire of gork) and failed miserably. my hero with a halberd, charged at the closest enemy, who happened to have a spear, and got impaled (and taken out of action).
All in all the first round of combat didnt go well for me.
the next round, he charged a few but luckily for me ignored my shaman (perhaps the spell fail had given him a false sense of security)
and fired a few more arrows at my war boss( that toughness of 4 REALLY helps)
at this point, he had his leader, and 2 heros moving towards my pinned down big boss.
My shaman tried again with the fire of gork trick, this time hitting one of his heros and taking him oow.
one of my squigs took out one of his henchmen, and my other big un stunned one of his swordsmen, even a goblin archer managed a good hit on one of the pesky humans (a 6 to hit ) for another knockdown
the fight carried on in the middle, he carried on similair tactics, lots of fire at my leader from his archers ( in the end that was his mistake, he concentrated on the wrong target) and his leader and another (swordsman i think) moved towards him.
On my turn i moved fired again with the shammy, knocking 1 archer out of the window to fall 4 inches to his death and killed another outright (decided to split the spell)
I was able to get 2 squigs and my leader in at those two units 1 squig stunned the swordsman, whilst the other actually managed to knockdown his leader, who was easily then dispatched by my big boss.
on his turn he turned and ran from the field with what was left of his little band.
in the aftermath, his leader , his champion and one of his henchmen, all died of their wounds, and he decided to disband and rebuild a fresh.
All in all, I was pretty lucky with dice rolls, but also he underestimated the power of the shaman.
A good first fight, and hopefully more in the same vain to come.
Gosh that was a bit of a novel lol.
Great Battle Report! And good job!
Quick note: Animosity only affects henchmen. So your Warboss is not affected (or any other heroes). Also remember that the henchmen will never charge a hero.
I look forward to the next one!
oh darn it, yeah just re-read its only henchmen that have to do animosity. Ah well didnt make too much difference.
Have to ask, where did you get the henchmen will not charge a hero rule? I am reading the manual at moment, is it in there somewhere?
on page 24 it says a model may charge any model. cant see any mention of not chargin heros, or is it an orc 7 goblin thing?
Re: Henchmen with Animosity charging a hero:
The rules for rolling 1 - 1 are pretty complicated, and the paragraph is very long. Near the bottom of the paragraph, the rule says “If none of the above applies, or if the nearest friendly model is an Orc Hero, the warrior behaves as if a 2-5 had been rolled on this chart.”
It took me a long time to figure it out. When I first figured it out, I started a thread at Tom’s Boring Mordheim Forum about it to make sure it wasn’t just a mis-typed rule. Here’s the Animosity Thread.
I hope that helps.
-Ashton Sanders
ohh got ya, thanks, sorry mate i didnt realise you were talking about not charging a hero because of animosity, I thought you meant henchman can’t charge an enemy hero (phew was panicking then lol)
Things are a bit delayed at the moment, because one of the guys playing is playign a sisters band, he ordered a set from games workshop (we are in the U.K. btw) and 10 days later it still hasnt arrived.
(we have said that he can build his band on paper and then use other models (some human models probably) to represent his sisters untill the real ones arrive)
Also, one of the players has never played before so we are teaching her the rules.
soon the mighty Squigs will be feared by all
Hey guys.
I’m also playing a Orcs & Goblins warband.
Representing:
big boss with a sword(parry) and light armor (and free dagger)
shaman with no equipment
2 big un with two axes
4 orc boyz with halberd
3 goblins with spear
2 goblins with short bow
and im trying to collect the gold to get a Troll
My question is now:
Can the Troll use the Leadership of my leader to roll stupidity,
if my Orc Boss is inside range (6″) of the troll?
Cause else I won’t buy a Troll (leadership 4)
Thx for the help
- DonDunn
and by the way, nice battlereport =D
Hi DonDunn,
Looks like a menacing Warband. Do you have a name for it?
Yes, the Troll can use the Boss’s leadership if the Orc Boss is within 6″ (thank goodness).
Hi again.
No not really..
I’ve fought 2 battles with it.. But I’ll name it soon
Won both matches btw.
And thank you for the help! Then I’ll keep my 70 gold and take a few more battles to afford the troll!
Not so long ago started to play Mordheim with a small group of guys in the Netherlands. I started with a full Night Goblin warband that after a batlle or 3 now consists of:
Night Goblin Big Boss (spear and shield) on a giant squig
4 Night Goblin Bosses with sword and shield)
1 Night Goblin Shaman
2 Night Goblin fanatics (yes with the ball and chain)
5 Squigs
6 Night Goblins (with spear and shield)
They are called the Wee Free Men and are holding up pretty well against: A carnival of nurgle gang, Averlander Halflings and a orc warband.
Didn’t win much of the scenarios but wreaking a lot of havoc and chaos in the games, which is good clean fun! I found that even though they are not really winning, the warband is progressing very rapidly: due to the masses you can get very quickly?
Definitely like your blog here and started our own little one as well. What more fun to introduce your warband and write about it (gives them much more character in the end!).
hi all,
just started playing Mordheim with a couple of friends, and i really wanted to play orc n goblins.
they remind me of english hooligans, so i named the warband:
DA FIRM
warband is it now exists (after three battles (1 against posessed, got my ass kicked in that one; 1 against reikland mercenaries, kicked his ass on that one; 1 against undead, very exciting game! barely won)):
1 orc boss; immune to fear (result of getting killed and sent to the pits); and mighty blow; +2 WS and +1 S
1 orc shaman; +1 wound (level up bonus)
2 big uns; one of them has +1 WS and both have +1 I
2x 3 orc boys; both groups +1 WS
2x goblins (1 group of 3 and 1 group of 2); 1 group has an extra attack and the other group has +1 I
4 squigs (1 died against undead)
so if i re-buy the died squig, its 20 strong (Mordheim max. as i understand)
i now am thinking of saving up for a troll, and upgrading weapons and armor
the shaman has the spell Fooled Ya!, does anyone know a nice use/tactic for this spell? the three matches that i have played, the shaman just runs after the group waiting for the battle to end…
i need one more xp for him to level up, so i hope he gets a nicer offensive spell, so he can make some difference. since he has 2 wounds, he could be a real pain in the ass.
nice to read all different solutions!
i will now start working on some massive piece of scenery: a large wrecked church!!!
hi i want 2 start an ork team but cant find any rules for them can u suggest anything
Sure, Here’s Da Mob Rules
official rules: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?community=&catId=cat1290322&categoryId=1100010&aId=5300009
more info: http://www.mordheimer.com
We are starting a campaign this weekend! first one!! untill now, only skirmishes have been fought.
i decided to start with a troll! i think its a tricky move, but i also think after 2 battles, i will have a lot of henchmen and ALLREADY have my troll…
i’m really curious how it will work out!
warband as it exists now:
orc boss with 2 swords
orc shaman with 2 daggers and the fire of gork spell
2 big ‘uns with 2 maces
2 goblins with dagger and club
2 squigs
1 TROLL
allmost all of the scenery is painted, we are now searching for a nice ‘floor’ to play on, something that covers the table and doesnt degrade the scenery, any suggestions?
Looks like a good warband if you can keep your Troll from drooling. Recently, I’ve had a hard time getting my Troll to keep moving (even with being next to the Orc Boss)…
But I do find it tough to save up for a Troll later in the game, so I think it’s a good idea.
I guess you have a house rule for your spell (or just keep recreating your warband until you get the one you want?), but normally, I stick with the “you get one roll for your spell” rule.
tonight we will do another try-out game, i’ll be playing against skaven (small band with a red-ogre), we’ll see how it works out.
i also noticed saving for a troll with a warband of 20 pop is very hard, since you dont get very much cash for your wyrdstone, so i think that it pays off eventually. altough its not very common for orcs n goblins to be the underdog, and gain some extra xp…
i played against posessed lately, they were allready 4 levels up, and my warband was fresh from the marktet, still he was the underdog…
i rolled once for the spell indeed, its really cheesy to keep recreating till you get the right spell.
got lucky with the fire of gork, but last time, when i played without a troll (see post above) i had the ‘Fooled Ya!’ spell, and all my shaman did was just walk behind the band all the time. he would be better off with a war drum
hmm, i’m starting to come back on my discision…
since the only units you have, are a troll, which steals the kills of your hero’s, and on the other hand your hero’s, who become sort of cannon fodder…
with a small troll based warband, you will defentaly lose heroes before routing or winning, so the amount of dice you can throw for wyrdstone is not much…
since the upkeep is 15, there will be little left for adding members, maybe a goblin with a club…
Yea… That is the major drawbacks. The idea is to let your troll be the cannon fodder if at all possible. He’ll take the hits, and even if he dies, there’s no way you’ll lose him after the game.
But yea, that upkeep is killer.
ok, the campaign has begun, and i started out with the boss, the shaman, two big uns and 10 orcs. i devided the orcs in groups of 2 so the chance of 1 becoming a hero is greater.
i will immediately start saving for a troll.
there are a lot of bonuses in the campaign maps, so i hope i will be a little lucky and maybe after 3 battles can afford a troll.
we will see how it works out. next battle is probably against mercenaries, who got very lucky on looting imperial armory…
fingers crossed!
hi there
im starting up with mordheim and want to start an orc warband but cant find a warband list. could you point me in the right direction.
cheers
Ed
Hey all
im just startet my orc warband and was thinking about making it this way.
orc boss: 2 axes (no amuor)
2x big uns: 2 axes (no armour)
2x orc boys whit 1 axe (no ormour)
5x orc boys whit 2 axes (no armour)
just wanna to hear your others apinion on it ^^
and 1 shaman btw whit free dagger forgot that
i think you can better start with clubs (or maces), they are much cheaper.
in this way, you can start with your heroes and 10 orcs. its a nice powerplay warband.
we just started a new campaign and i decided to start with a troll. he cant die permanent, and saving to buy him later in the game is very hard (since you start with 14 units, your income is very low)
i do fin it tough to play against all shootie warbands (such as Reiklanders).
Ashton, do you have some advise for me for the shootie battles?
my next battle will be against wichhunters (i cant use my leader due to armwound, so the troll will be droolin a lot!), and the battle thereafter will be against skaven (i cant hire new men between the battles because they are in the same campaignround).
so this will be a very tough round for me! fingers crossed!
Hey wunderbaard,
Very good point. I hadn’t been using clubs because I was still using the White Dwarf version (which didn’t have clubs for sale). Clubs are definitely the power player’s weapon of choice.
Personally, I try to stay away from being a power player, especially since the Mordheim Orcs and Goblins warband can be ridiculously fun.
Against shooty warbands, I always recommend the same thing: Terrain. Mordheim was a overcrowded, tiny-street city, which exploded. There should be pieces of buildings everywhere. I’d use at least two sets of Mordheim Buildings.
Good luck with your campaign!
I have bin playing whit my orc warband the one whit orcs only. and since i win all the time its not relly fun to play when the risistens is relly low i can see now why its a power player warband. SO! i statet a new warband 4 orc 5 squigs and a 8 gobbos the 4 orc have bow’s and the 8 gobbos got short bows. its a relly nice warband but the income is not relly hight but Its still a lot of fun! squigs and gobbos running all over the place.
and its works to.