One thing we discovered during playtesting Mordheim was that after a while very experienced warbands became virtually unbeatable when fighting against novice warbands.

Whilst this might be amusing for the player with the experienced warband, it will result in a very one-sided battle, where the inexperienced warband is swiftly crushed, without even a chance to put up a decent fight. Although the underdogs system balances this out somewhat, it is often much more fun to play with roughly equal forces, especially when introducing new players to the game.

The following rules allow both players to pick warbands up to an agreed equal value, say 1,000 gold crowns. This will make the game much more even, as the two forces will be roughly similar in strength.

Use the Warband lists to recruit and equip your warband. The lists tell you which Heroes, Henchmen and equipment your warband is allowed to use. The limitations of the list ensure that the warbands are reasonably balanced.

You must recruit at least three warriors, including a leader, and you may either follow the limitations for the maximum size of a warband given in the list or agree a maximum size with your opponent.

Each Hero you recruit may be armed with one or more weapons and any armour chosen from the appropriate list. Different types of Hero are restricted to different types of weapon. The Equipment lists for the individual warbands tell you exactly what equipment is available. You may buy rare weapons and armour. Pay the appropriate prices for these as given in the Trading charts.

Every model in each Henchman group must take exactly the same weapons and armour. This means that if your Henchman group has four warriors, and you want to buy them swords, you must buy four swords.

The weapons you choose for your warriors must be represented on the models. This way your opponent will know what he is facing (and he will not be shocked to discover in the middle of the game that the warrior who looks like a Halfling with a bow is in fact an Ogre with a club!).

The exceptions to this rule are knives and daggers, which you may assume are tucked in boots or concealed in their clothes, if not actually represented on the model.

In a campaign game, you must earn statistic increases, but in one-off games they can be bought beforehand. You may increase the starting characteristics of your Heroes by paying the cost in gold crowns given below.

Note that all races have maximum statistics values. These can be found in the Experience section of this rulebook.

Movement + 15gc per point.

Weapon Skill + 15gc per point.

Ballistic Skill +15gc per point.

Strength +25gc for the first increase/+35gc for each additional increase.

Toughness +30gc for the first increase/+45gc for each additional increase.

Wounds +20gc for the first increase/+30gc for each additional increase.

Initiative + 10gc per point.

Attacks + 25 GC for the first increase/+35gc for each additional increase.

Leadership +15gc per point.

Skills: +40gc for each skill. You may choose one skill at this price for each characteristic increase you take. Choose from the skills normally available to your warrior.

The warband is now ready to fight against your opponent