Best warband to start out with?

[Green1]

I have all DLC & started out with the vampire. I know I`ll most likely have to start over many times but just wanted to know who`s good?

[Paranoia]

Vampires are not the friendliest Warband to start with for new Players, because they are a synergy Warband, and as such are only as strong as you know to play to their internal synergy.

Mercenaries, Sisters and Witch Hunters (that is, all Warbands of Order) are those that are easier to start with, mainly because they are very straightforward.
Witch Hunters have the most straightforward Story Missions. And some are immune to All Alone, Fear and Terror, making things a bit easier at the start.
Mercenaries have the strongest Shooting and some of the strongest Tanks.
Sisters are simple due lack of Ranged (apart from DLC Smuggler), and have immense Magic potential. So one either ignores magic and goes heavy into melee or heavy into magic or a mix.

Cult, Skaven and Undead (Destruction side) have harder to grasp mechanics.
The reason for Undead being harder for new players I mentioned already.
Cult has Mutations complicating Building Characters. And Dark Souls are not all that reliable either.
Skaven have not-so-trivial-to-understand Poison mechanics.


Sure, if you want to, you can start with Vampires. Their Story Missions (apart from the very first one) are the second most straightforward/easy ones. You´ll just need to pay attention to how they play together, especially the Necromancer with everything else.
As an example about an advanced non-obvious interaction, two Necromancers, one with Basic Call of Vanhel, one with Mastered Call of Vanhel, can buff Zombies to Movement 10/11 (depending on whether Zombies have K:Mordheim or not), making the Zombies into very tanky sprinters. This is because Basic and Mastered versions of Spells and Skills stack, even if the Skill/Spell is in itself non-Stackable. One would also be good to make regular use of Necromancers´ Default Skill, because Curse and Spell Cost reductions are vital, especially when buffing multiple Zombies.

Just as an example. Does not sound trivial, does it? :b

[kriscardiac]

At the very start I'd say the following:

Sisters will teach you to turtle
Skaven will teach you to run and swarm
Mercs will teach you ranged

Edit
'Ninja'd by Paranoia' achievement procs again.

[uddhava]

Welcome

- Mercenaries are versatile and have good statlines and are as such quite userfriendly. They ecell in range and tanking.

- Undead require more synergy to be really effective but in the beginning Terror and Fear are powerull weapons (they get weaker as you progress since the effects are static but units will get better and are thus less affected by it).

- Witch Hunters are good because they combine a bit of mercenaries with quite some Psy immunity which can be good vs Undead (new players tend to struggle against the Vampire).

- Sisters of sigmar are allright because they are very straight forward: no ranged (except magic).

- Skaven have the benefit of being really fast (movement 8 across the board) and as such give the added benefit that difficult deployments are easier. Also collecting wyrdstone is easier.

- Cult is generally considered the hardest. While they also have some Psy immunity, their henchmen need specific builds to work well, and most heroes are glasscannons which require good positioning. Also, mutations are random and can ♥♥♥♥ up a build if not planned right.

Some general tips:
- Avoid scattered and three strike deployments in the beginning. While mission difficulty does indicate how hard said mission will be, that is only to an extent. Deployment type has much more influence. i.e. a Hard mission with wagon deployment will be much easier, than a Normal scattered mission.

- Avoid Brutal and Deadly in the beginning.

- Gang up on units, create 2vs1 to force all Alone's.

- Try not to be greedy. Being greedy is a short path to death. Remember that you will always find some wyrdstone for every unit alive after the mission. Thus, as your warband grows you will find more and more wyrdstone, even if you do not pick it up.

- Don't buy skills in the beginning except for some cheap and mandatory ones (Quick Reload for shooters, shield specialist for tanks for instance). But only after a while. Money will be very tight.

- The Units are expendable, the warband isnt. The warband needs to survive. Worst case scenario you can fire everyone and buy new units (make sure to have enough cash).

- The beginning is the hardest, it will get easier over time and with every restart (due to veteran ranks which will increase your starting cash).

- Charge Terror causing units. Even if they fail their test they can still strike once.

Originally posted by kriscardiac:

At the very start I'd say the following:

Sisters will teach you to turtle
Skaven will teach you to run and swarm
Mercs will teach you ranged

I'll add to that:
Cult will teach you to accept
Undead will teach you to combine
WH will teach you to not give a ratsass cause you can heal everything.

Originally posted by kriscardiac:

Edit
'Ninja'd by Paranoia' achievement procs again.

Me too ;)

[The Punchmaster]

Against all advice I say the Undead are easy. Your henchmen are mostly all immune to poison, and any mind test, and most traps do jack so if you fail to spot them it's not an issue. Vamps can tank well enough, and ghouls are good at ferrying stone and flanking and can be built as a dodge machines to tie up important enemy units. Dregs make excellent bowman if needed, and Necros can cast spells to shore up the weakness in your zombies, which is speed.

The baseline stats are also higher than average so your henchmen last longer and hit harder.

That being said I only run two zombies, and one of them is beyond a pimp. Viking von zombie can go toe to toe with impressives and come out ahead. Truly a beautiful creature that one.

[uddhava]

I agree, undead are not that difficult to start out with. But to make then shine requires more knowledge of the game

[kappahun]

Normally I would suggest mercenaries. Their captain is a good tank (armor + shield), and will help you out in many situations. Since the introduction of the undead, mercenaries suffer from psychology effects. If you can work around that with charges and pendants, they are fine.

Witch hunters are also fun, and you get the templar knight as first hero, who can be built in many useful ways. Flagellants are great. No psychology effects, but can still disengage, and can use great flails.

Undead are nice, heavy armor vampire + zombies will steamroll everything, but you will suffer with looting due to low movement. If you add a poison wind globadier, then they are overkill on low levels.

Cult is also manageable, if you avoid mutating heroes, just use magister and henchmen, maybe add doomweaver.

[Blood Angel]

In my experience Merc is the best choice for starter WB as it can be use as melee or range.

Second to that I find Skaven is the easiest due to its speed and you can reform or regroup very fast unlike any other WB and due to this can easily swarm any other WB.

Undead is not a good choice as the unit have different speed hero being fast and troops being slow so you get surround or isolated if you are too greedy and it can be very hard to recover if it happens.

Chaos and WH I find it hard for new players due to the henchmen can't disengage and if you are not careful it means they die a lot.

[Kalon]

My first warband was skaven....and I am kinda sad it was because now I am playing sisters and I am like "hoooooollllyyyyyy sh******T these girls are sllllllooooooooowwwwww".
Problem is, all the warbands are slow compared to skaven....and they are all going to anger me the same way until I get them all knowledge mordheim mastery, armor proficient mastery and some crack pills
(edit: apparently there are no crack pills in the game)

[kappahun]

Originally posted by y4uhittaz:

(edit: apparently there are no crack pills in the game)

Give them maps. They usually don't work, bu they, at least you tried.

[kriscardiac]

Exhaustion mastery is crack pills!

(Edit: Sister superior spams For Sigmar so the tanks can move)

[Paranoia]

Originally posted by y4uhittaz:

I am playing sisters and I am like "hoooooollllyyyyyy sh******T these girls are sllllllooooooooowwwwww".

The other unnamed reason why I do not recommend Skaven and/or Undead to new Players.
Because general Movement 8 Warband where the slowest is Movement 7, or one having Movement 7 Vampiric Characters and, if one wishes to, Movement 11 sprinting Zombies spoils the player perception of general Movement speed.

That said, making a Sister Warband with extreme focus on speed.
Let us consider my Purifier: K:Mordheim Mastery, Exhaustion Mastery and Meditation Mastery.
Or my Smuggler: K:Mordheim, Exhaustion Mastery, In and Out Mastery.
And so on.
And Sister Superior who slingshots them all even further.

Let us say that For Sigmared Matriarch (who is the Purifier with extra SP) sprints halfway accross the map in a turn.

And why do I prefer this on Sisters? Because Healing Circle allows for spamming Exhaustion. Not as easily as Infused Globes, but I take what I have got.

[Mikey]

Originally posted by Paranoia:

The other unnamed reason why I do not recommend Skaven and/or undead to new Players.
Because general Movement 8 Warband where the slowest is Movement 7, or one having Movement 7 Vampiric Characters and, if one wishes to, Movement 11 sprinting Zombies spoils the player perception of general Movement speed.

Too true. There's a reason I never managed to properly move on from my first successful warband (Skaven), and I suspect this is it.

[Stardustfire]

for starters i woud say Mercs, there henchys are very clear shaped rolevise and good for what they meant to be.
WHs are the second WB with clearly filled roles, but the flagelants need a little playtime till u know how to use them best for u playstyle.

[Doc]

Originally posted by Green1:

I have all DLC & started out with the vampire. I know I`ll most likely have to start over many times but just wanted to know who`s good?

Id say start with the Sisters or the Mercs. They are the most straight forward of all the Warbands.

Sisters are straight up Melee bruisers that like lots of Armor, Mercs are jack of all trades with some pretty powerful heros.

I don't recomment starting with the Possessed(unless you love Chaos) some of the "Gifts" you can recieve on your heros can screw you over, example: getting an arm mutation that makes it so your Bow wielding Mutant can't use bows anymore. Not game breaking but can cause some frustration.

Skaven: I didn't play much Skaven, I prefer Chaos.

Witch Hunters are fairly straight forward, Flagllents take some getting used to.

Vampires: I'd recommend playing another warband first, Vampires are really strong in the early game if you makes good use of your Leaders Terror effects. Zombies don't cost Moral if they fall in combat, so make good use of your heros.