Experiences with reduced warband sizes

[DonCarlos]

I wanted to share the experiences I had playing with a reduced warband size.
Inspired by the limitation to a gang size of 5 in the upcoming Necromunda game, I wanted to try out how it feels to play with such a small warband.
So far I always played with as many members as possible and I liked it.
I loved that I always had "expendable" Henchman, which I could use for special tasks, like: scouting, collecting wyrdstone/chests, body guarding the leader, "tanking" demons etc.
Therefore I was sceptical at first whether I would like it.
After playing about 64 missions, I can now say that I like the small warband size even better.
The immersion is deeper, you identify yourself much more with the remaining heroes and you are happy or suffer more intensively with them. The individual games are also much faster and even campaign missions (so far I played the four missions from the first act) are feasible.
I also reduced the warband size to a minimum of 4 for testing purposes, but then it was too difficult to reach the secondary objectives and I increased it again to 5.

What experiences have you made with such small warbands and what do you think about it?

[DonCarlos]

Inspired by the near release of Necromunda I tried out how it might feel to play with a gang-size / warband size of 5.
I have now played three warbands up to rank 10 (with most units at level 10):
* Cult - inspired by the melee-oriented house Goliath from Necromunda
* Skaven - inspired by the short/midrange oriented Orlocks from Necromunda
* Sisters - inspired by the ranged oriented house Escher from Necromunda
The warbands were all heroes, no henchmen and I played with 5 units all the time.
As a conclusion I can say:
The games were shorter and more intense - even small positioning mistakes can have bigger negative consequences. Every unit counts and you really have to consider with every action whether you collect Wyrdstone or pursue the secondary objective or whether you concentrate on the fight. This adds a lot to the immersion and I have to say I didn't miss the Henchmen for a second. I am looking forward to Necromunda...



Before someone jumps in: Of course, I know, that you can't really simulate the proper Necromunda feeling in Mordheim and my warband and skill choices may be questionable.

[kingts]

Old turn base team sizes don't do a thing for me sorry. I actually think they need to break the cealing with these small capped team sizes. Enough with 5/5 crap and I loved the large warband sizes, should go the other way, but that is me, no issue with both your comments

[DonCarlos]

One additional remark: Please don't take this as a recommendation for a general play style for Mordheim. The reduced number of units has some drawbacks. The number of active units at the end of the combat is used to determine the amount of wyrdstone/loot that is automatically gathered and with only 5 units you will only get about 30% of the total amount of wyrdstone.
Less units means also less bag space for looting.

[Bloodscape]

DonCarlos님이 먼저 게시:

One additional remark: Please don't take this as a recommendation for a general play style for Mordheim. The reduced number of units has some drawbacks. The number of active units at the end of the combat is used to determine the amount of wyrdstone/loot that is automatically gathered and with only 5 units you will only get about 30% of the total amount of wyrdstone.
Less units means also less bag space for looting.

But it is. When people are having problems, it is good advice to lower the number of warriors they are taking. In fact, that is how Power Leveling[mordheim-city-of-the-damned.fandom.com] against the AI is done.

Winning is the best way to gain (or not lose) loot. Warning about the challenge[gameknightplaysyt.wixsite.com] may just backfire on you and you will have people scrambling to prove themselves if it does.

[DonCarlos]

Bloodscape님이 먼저 게시:

DonCarlos님이 먼저 게시:

One additional remark: Please don't take this as a recommendation for a general play style for Mordheim. The reduced number of units has some drawbacks. The number of active units at the end of the combat is used to determine the amount of wyrdstone/loot that is automatically gathered and with only 5 units you will only get about 30% of the total amount of wyrdstone.
Less units means also less bag space for looting.

But it is. When people are having problems, it is good advice to lower the number of warriors they are taking. In fact, that is how Power Leveling[mordheim-city-of-the-damned.fandom.com] against the AI is done.

Winning is the best way to gain (or not lose) loot. Warning about the challenge[gameknightplaysyt.wixsite.com] may just backfire on you and you will have people scrambling to prove themselves if it does.

I can't comment on your second point (the D-I-E challenge), since I never tried it.
But the powerleveling you mentioned first, is no contradiction to what I said. With powerleveling your focus is on an improved rate to gain xp for your units and your warband and the cost you have to pay for that is less loot, less wyrdstone and hence less reputation with the other factions.

[Bloodscape]

Ya, I was being cheeky. Just joking. In terms of making the warband reputation, unless your looking at immediate goals, its just a drop in the bucket to use less warriors. The biggest problem with your "advice" to use heroes only is the expense of the units.

It does sound fun though, be careful or you will get everyone doing it. (lol)

[Evil Overlord]

Funny enough my best hero is a former henchman Novice, best dodge tank ever.

[DonCarlos]

Evil Overlord님이 먼저 게시:

Funny enough my best hero is a former henchman Novice, best dodge tank ever.

Well, then you are going to have some trouble soon :-). While a Novice as a hero has some merits (she has the biggest pool of physical attribute points of all sister heroes), she also has the drawback that her attribute pool for martial attributes is quite low and with a max weapon skill of 12 she will have trouble to hit anything in the mid- to end-game. You may try to compensate for that by using mace or maces but that will only help so far.

[Bloodscape]

Kinda depends where your at. With concentration on primary faction only (until level 4), end game can use Weapon Skill Tome for 15 WS. Including +4WS armour and +chance to hit will make the Novice decent in end game, depending on her value with her other abilities. It does take some luck for the enchantments though and LOTS of wyrdstone per game.

@ Evil Overlord: Your review contains false info. If the AI gets stuck, you just save and quit and re-enter to free the AI... There is no need to abandon the mission and get penalties. (Not that backing up your saves is bad advice or anything)

[kingts]

DonCarlos님이 먼저 게시:

Evil Overlord님이 먼저 게시:

Funny enough my best hero is a former henchman Novice, best dodge tank ever.

Well, then you are going to have some trouble soon :-). While a Novice as a hero has some merits (she has the biggest pool of physical attribute points of all sister heroes), she also has the drawback that her attribute pool for martial attributes is quite low and with a max weapon skill of 12 she will have trouble to hit anything in the mid- to end-game. You may try to compensate for that by using mace or maces but that will only help so far.

Have to agree with Carlos a little here. Few other things. Though the Sisters are one of the best Melee' factions in the game and can toe to toe with Warpguard and other faction henchmen. Vulnerable to spells, poison continuance and range. If isolated, they can dwindle her down and no match for many of the potent hero builds, and god help you if an impressive comes out of no where. Love the sisters, and if she is your so called best tank. You maybe doing something incorrect in your other builds. If your only discussing henchmen, ok, but the Sister's main heroes are far superior to magic/melee tank builds.

[Evil Overlord]

Thanks for letting me know that Bloodscape. I went and altered the review to indicate that's probably the smarter option.
As for my poor novice hero under fire for being not awesome enough, what can I say? I like her as a dodge tank. I never intend to take this online and she has taken me through some tough times as she has so far been able to handle everything the AI has thrown at me provided I not stick her in dumb spots.

[Bloodscape]

No problem.

The thing about the AI is that almost any build can work against it. Novices are great in the early game and can be turned into runners in the late game. The fact that they are easy to build allows newer players experience with late game problems. Dodge feels much better to a newer player and all other sisters (except the maiden) are more equipped for Parry.

One of the natural progressions with sisters is to use novices first, realize they will be mostly runners and switch to sisters who get movement from getting wyrdstone. Saying that there is better choices does not take away from the fact that Novices can do the running for the sisters in the late game and have enough defenses to defeat AI henchmen and pull attacks off heroes if need be.

Just saying that the WS is not the end-all of the Novices. Sisters getting movement for picking up wyrdstone is (plus they get better WS, lol).