Mordheim- mortal realms or the old world?

[Jamopower]

Mordheim was a great game, but not because it was a great game, but because the setting and the warbands were great and the campaign system was fun. As a game it was quite boring to be honest. The games went very quickly to everyone hidden all the time with unbeatable heroes ruling. Either sniper heroes with crossbows or super possessed/skaven/orcs/warrior priests. I played usually with Possessed and oh boy were they broken. Because the possessed were so costly, the warband was in underdog position from the beginning, but still beating everyone, because they were worth their cost. At some point we were just playing the campaign system, the games were basically the underdog feeding few expendable henchmen to die and voluntary routing. Sometimes we didn't even bother to play the games, but just "drawed" the game and went to the good part of exploration and experience  But we played a lot. I may have played over 100 Mordheim games (of which part were not perhaps very "true" games...).

 

Now when you compare that to the modern skirmish games like Infinity or The Batman Miniature Game (those are the main games I have expereince from), there is a difference of worlds. If they could combine that kind of gameplay to the old campaign system (without it being broken, though I believe it's nigh impossible) adn to a thematic setting like the Ex Profundis Dark Age of Sigmar AoS28, be it set in the Mortal realms, or in the Old world, we would have a winner at our hands.

[Gorks Pokin' Finger]

Some of my favorite memories in wargaming come from playing my Greenskins Warband in Mordheim. Each summer, me and my friends from home do a summer campaign for a couple of nights. It always a blast. 

Sadly, as many have already alluded to, bringing back Mordheim as it was 20 years ago wouldn't work imo in today's GW. Firstly, its in the Old World, and at this point, GW has moved on from that setting as far as the tabletop is concerned. The Mordheim video games (PC and phone version) are where it will still receive official support.

Secondly, terrain. Mordheim requires a massive amount of it to reenact the decayed city landscape the warbands fight through. AOS doesn't have enough official terrain as is. They also are moving away (somewhat) from the architecture from WHFB which was 13th to 15th century medieval & renaissance buildings. They're still in AOS, but not as pronounced (at least that's how I've interpreted it) and I do not believe GW is producing any cityscape buildings like that. Outside the cardboard pieces from the original game, just about every Mordheim board you've seen is self-made by the fans. If it ever comes back, that will still be the case, even if GW produces some kind of terrain kit. 

Yet, there is optimism to believe the game could return.

Thirdly, the Mordheim community is actually still alive. The facebook group continues to thrive globally and people who don't even play warhammer anymore still post about new warbands they painted or show off their scratch-built boards of sections of the city. It's a blast to see the creativity of the Mordheim community and the fan-made website that continues to support the game. I cannot speak for Coreheim because it seemed too dumbed-down for me and my friends, but I know that too is still played somewhat. I don't know how they would feel about changing the game considering the fan versions have made it pretty darn good over the years.

I agree with @flamingwalnut that Skirmish felt like GW testing the waters to see if a Mordheim style game could work with AOS. The foundation is there to support such a game because Skirmish has been liked by the community. However, GW's aim with Skirmish was  to get players to play it, invest into it, and eventually, amass enough to start building an army for full-on AOS. Fair play to them because that's a respectable business model. Three forms of AOS (Skirmish-Path to Glory-Full AOS Armies) allows them to cast the net across spectrum to get any player they want depending on how they want to hobby.

Still, it could be easy for GW to relaunch skirmish or create a new branch of the game and add the Mordheim system with experience, leveling, and create unique warbands. Hell, they could even give us the ability to create our own warbands since AOS is so diverse. They did that with the hero cards for Warhammer Quest. 

So I think it is possible a Mordheim-like game could be created one day. Whether it would be a specialist game or GW just renovates Skirmish to do that remains to be seen. It will be some time, I feel, until this happens.

Until then, I'll keep using Boss KlawJaw and his boyz in Old World Mordheim to continue searching for some shiny stuff to loot and pick some fight with the stunties, 'umies, ratmen and spikey boyz I come across

[Jamopower]

Concerning terrain, the AoS Ruins that they produce, possibly expanded with more options, would be quite perfect to Mordheim type skirmish.

[CDM]

14 hours ago, Jamopower said:

Mordheim was a great game, but not because it was a great game, but because the setting and the warbands were great and the campaign system was fun. As a game it was quite boring to be honest. The games went very quickly to everyone hidden all the time with unbeatable heroes ruling. Either sniper heroes with crossbows or super possessed/skaven/orcs/warrior priests. I played usually with Possessed and oh boy were they broken. Because the possessed were so costly, the warband was in underdog position from the beginning, but still beating everyone, because they were worth their cost. At some point we were just playing the campaign system, the games were basically the underdog feeding few expendable henchmen to die and voluntary routing. Sometimes we didn't even bother to play the games, but just "drawed" the game and went to the good part of exploration and experience  But we played a lot. I may have played over 100 Mordheim games (of which part were not perhaps very "true" games...).

 

Now when you compare that to the modern skirmish games like Infinity or The Batman Miniature Game (those are the main games I have expereince from), there is a difference of worlds. If they could combine that kind of gameplay to the old campaign system (without it being broken, though I believe it's nigh impossible) adn to a thematic setting like the Ex Profundis Dark Age of Sigmar AoS28, be it set in the Mortal realms, or in the Old world, we would have a winner at our hands.

I really would like to see necromunda and a future mordheim to feature map exploration, controlling zones etc as part of the campaign. Big boss/monster fights, non playable characters/ factions and a good wealth of interesting missions like capture the flag, escorts etc.

Somethings to make the game fun! The game out the box is quite bland until you put some narrative on it. I play mantics the walking dead and they have produced very little missions buy fans continuously pump  great fun missions out

[Lucio]

I'd certainly like to see a better Skirmish level game added to the AoS world, the current version is still a bit of a stretch thanks to the differences between the heroes and the regular troops.

 

What I think would work quite well is a game set in the City of Secrets, you could easily have forces for Freeguild, Witch Hunter, Chaos Cult, Necromancer cult and Moonclan infestation. A similar feel could be garned by gathering prophecy shards and glimmers, and potentially mechanics arise from spending those shards to gain an edge.