3. Carried Items

Carried Items in a comet-shell

Carried items are physical objects within MiM scenarios that have value to warbands. The clearest example being your warband’s treasury which must be brought on to the table in most games. In addition to this, many scenarios include other objects of interest from random fortune to scenario objectives. These rules detail the control, movement, and recovery of carried items.

The most typical carried item is a storage container of some kind, from treasure chests and large sacks, to saddle bags and animal carts. The most relevant rules are:

  • Storage containers cannot be moved off the table unless a scenario’s special rules allow it.

  • You need not reveal to your opponent what is inside any of your storage containers, unless enemy warriors succeed in controlling them.

  • Any gold crowns, wyrdstone, and/or stored items that do not have a storage container to be placed in are lost at the end of any post battle sequence.

  • Dark Artefacts and Loyalty Symbols cannot be placed in storage containers, but are considered to have special vessels into which they are stored as carried items.

Storage Containers

The most relevant rules for Carried Items are:

  • Each carried item must have a model or marker representing it during the game.

  • A standing warrior in base contact with a carried item marker Controls it. Carried items with no standing model in base contact are Uncontrolled.

  • Both heroes and (non-animal) henchmen can control and move carried items. Unless stated otherwise, warriors can only control 1 carried item at a time.

  • Carried items must be controlled in order to be moved. Normal movement and running is not effected by carried items unless otherwise noted (for example heavy carried items). All other forms of movement (charging, intercepting, fleeing, among others) cause a loss of control unless otherwise noted (for example light carried items).

  • Warriors who any way end up in close combat, loose control of most carried items. Models which go out of action loose control of all carried items.

  • When the game ends all carried items controlled by your warriors are secured and evacuated from the battlefield into your possession (with the possible exception of heavy carried items). Carried items which are uncontrolled are at risk of being lost to an opponent. They are first issue to be resolved in every post battle sequence.

Carried Items

The list and details of all storage containers in Mayhem in Mordheim. Included are the maximum number of Gold Crowns (GC), Wyrdstone and Stored Items (i.e. Weapons, Armour and Equipment) a storage container can hold, as well as it’s Price and Rarity. Each container can contain the maximum amount of each category. So even if your treasure chest is filled with its full allotment of gold, it can still hold wyrdstone and stored equipment.

Storage Container Descriptions

Carried Items - Full Rules

In and around Mordheim there are little to no safe places for anything to be left unattended for long. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in the aftermath of the Doom, no one, from courteous clerics to rabid dogs, is above stealing whatever they can get away with. Warbands must constantly guard against being robbed by keeping their valuables close by. This means that your warband’s treasury comes on to the gaming table!

Since amassing wyrdstone equals Mayhem Victory Points, the possibility of stealing an opponent’s valuables during a battle becomes an added dimension to a player’s strategy and a factor every warband captain needs to take into account. The physical treasury of your warband is comprised of all the wyrdstone, gold crowns, and stored equipment you possess. This includes Dark Artefacts that are not being used and Loyalty Symbols which have yet to be gifted.

The follow rules for controlling and transporting your treasury are the most expansive addition to table top play that Mayhem in Mordheim introduces. Each warband starts the campaign with a free storage container, a treasure chest, into which is cached any remaining gold crowns after warband creation as well as future wyrdstone, gold and stored equipment. The rules for carried items also apply to other elements found within scenarios, like Random Fortune, for example. Essentially anything physical that warriors cannot equip on their person must be carried and guarded if you do not want to risk it’s loss to your opponent.

Your warband’s treasury must be placed into something so it can be easily transported. All such depositories are called Storage Containers. Your free treasure chest is but one of many kinds of storage containers. Other examples range from backpacks and large sacks to pack animals and opulent coaches.

All storage containers have the following rules in common:

1. Storage containers may not be moved off the table during a game unless the scenario’s special rules allow it.

Storage Containers

2. Each type of storage container lists the maximum number of Gold Crowns (GC), Wyrdstone and Stored Items (i.e. Weapons, Armour and Equipment) it can hold; as well as it’s Price and Rarity. Note, each container can hold the maximum amount of each category. So even if your treasure chest is filled with its full allotment of gold, it can still hold wyrdstone and stored equipment.

3. Any storage container holding 50+ Gold Crowns or 10+ Wyrdstone Shards or 5+ Stored Items becomes Heavy.

4. The contents of any storage containers your warband possesses need not be revealed to your opponent(s). You do need to have the contents of each secretly written down in case an opposing warrior is able to open or steal one of your storage containers during or after the battle.

5. Unless otherwise noted, the contents of storage containers can be inspected, added to, or completely removed during a game by warriors in base contact. To remove anything from a storage container an item must either be immediately equipped by the warrior or transferred into another storage container in base contact. Wyrdstone and gold cannot be equipped. A warrior may not add or remove items on a turn in which they ran or are hiding.

6. Any gold crowns, wyrdstone, and/or stored items that do not have a storage container to be placed in are lost at the end of any post battle sequence.

7. Unless otherwise noted, storage containers are also Carried Items and follow the rules for carried items below.

Carried Items are elements in a game of Mayhem in Mordheim that can be collected and transported on the battlefield. In addition to storage containers, other kinds of carried items often appear in scenarios that are of interest to warbands, from victory point objectives to extra treasures. All carried items have the following rules.

Carried Items

1. Each carried item must have a Carried Item Marker representing it during the game (a model, small die, or paper chit will do). The marker itself never provides cover, obstructs line of sight, or blocks the movement of any model.

2. A standing warrior in base contact with a carried item marker Controls it. Carried items with no standing model in base contact are Uncontrolled. Carried items are not miscellaneous equipment, thus both heroes and henchmen can control and move carried items. Unless stated otherwise, warriors can only control 1 carried item at a time. Control can be relinquished at any time leaving the carried item marker on the table anywhere a model has moved that turn. At the start of a game all carried item markers a warband possesses (like storage containers) must be controlled by at least one warrior.  Uncontrolled carried items may be lost at the end of your game (see 14 below).

3. Carried items must be controlled in order to be transported. While moving keep the carried item marker in base contact with the controlling model. It costs no movement to take, relinquish, or transfer control of a carried items. A warrior can move or run into base contact with either an item’s marker or a friendly model controlling the item to take or release control and continue moving. Unless otherwise noted, warriors may Jump, Climb, etc. and in all other ways move normally while transporting most carried items. Unless otherwise noted animals cannot move carried items, but some may control them (see 12 below).

4. Models cannot come into base contact with a carried item marker which is controlled by an enemy warrior. You must successfully charge the enemy warrior first.

5. Warriors who are successfully Charged or in any way end up in Close Combat, loose control of a carried item unless it is Light (see 9 below) or noted otherwise in the carried item’s description. The player whose warrior lost control places the carried item marker anywhere 1” inch away from their model. If two models control a carried item but only one is successfully charged, control remains with the unengaged model (move the marker enough to make clear who is controlling it).

6. A warrior who Charges, Intercepts, or Flees, automatically looses control of a carried item unless it is Light (see 9 below) or noted otherwise in the carried item’s description. Leave its marker on the table where the charge, intercept, or flee begins.

7. Warriors who are Fleeing or Escape From Combat cannot take control of uncontrolled carried items during their turn. If such a model comes into contact with a carried item marker, continue moving as if the carried item was not there or leave the warrior 1” away.

8. A warrior which goes out of action for any reason looses control of all carried items, including light ones and those which often are not lost by other means (example, backpacks). Place a carried item marker in place of the warrior’s model if needed.

9. Some carried items are defined as Light. A warrior can control any number of light carried items. Should a warrior collect 2 or more light carried items they are considered to be one item for the rest of the game. They can be added to but not separated from each other until post battle reallocation of equipment (they have been stuffed into a boot or shoved down shirts/pants, etc.). Use a small die or write on a piece of paper to indicate what and how many light items are controlled. Controlling this marker, controls all of the light carried items. Unless stated otherwise, light carried items cannot be controlled at the same time with other carried items, but can be placed into storage containers or together given to other models. Warriors will only loose control of light carried items if they are taken out of action, and may charge, fight, flee, be stunned, etc. while retaining control of them.

10. Carried items that are defined as Heavy halve the Movement Score of any warrior with a Strength less than six. Two or more warriors with a combined Strength of six or more may move normally while transporting a heavy carried item. All such warriors must control (be in base contact with) its marker. Warriors cannot Jump, Climb, or Swim while controlling a heavy carried item, but can run. Should a warrior be forced to swim the heavy carried item is automatically dropped and considered permanently lost in the body of water.  Heavy carried items are at greater risk to be lost to an enemy if your warband routs (see 13 below).

11. Friendly Stunned and Knocked Down models which are not in close combat may be moved as if they were heavy carried items. This only applies to roughly human sized models, i.e. those with 20–30 mm bases. All others are too massive or unwieldy to move.

12. Animals with both a Weapon Skill and Attack characteristic of at least 1 can control a carried item by Guarding. To guard, the animal must be in base contact with the carried item’s marker. All rules for controlling a carried item apply, except for movement. Animals cannot normally move carried items.

13. When the game ends or your warband routs, all carried items controlled by your warriors are automatically secured and evacuated from the field. All secured carried items become the property of your warband and can be sold, added to your treasury, or allocated to your warriors.

  An exception to this are heavy carried items. Should routing warriors that control a heavy carried item be both within line of sight and charge range of a standing enemy, the carried item becomes uncontrolled if the warriors’ movement rate is halved (i.e. they have a strength less than 6). The warriors may still attempt to secure the item, but an attempt must be made nevertheless (see 14, below).

14. Uncontrolled carried items on the table are not automatically seized by warbands when a game ends. In the confusion of battle warriors may not notice a dropped sack or are more concerned with saving their own necks or chasing after a fleeing enemy over salvaging misplaced treasure chests. All carried item markers which are uncontrolled need to be secured or they may be lost to your opponents. Do not remove warrior models from the table yet. Many scenarios contain carried items which award Victory Points to warbands securing them. When such a battle ends, resolve all uncontrolled carried items before calculating victory points to see who wins the game.

When the game ends players must resolve who secures any uncontrolled carried items. Do not remove models from the table until noted below. The process of determining which warband secures what uncontrolled item is as follows:

Securing Uncontrolled Carried Items

  1. Remove any models which already control carried items from the table, along with all carried item markers they control. An exception to this are heavy carried items if warriors controlling them have a combined strength less than 6 and are in line of sight and charge range of standing enemy models.

  2. Starting with the player whose warband did not rout, each player takes a turn choosing a single uncontrolled carried item to resolve. Should multiple warbands not rout, roll off to determine the order in which players choose.

  3. Once an uncontrolled item is selected, roll a D6 and consult the Uncontrolled Carried Item Recovery Table, below. The item will be secured by either a warband that has routed or the warband which remains on the table. The die roll is adjusted by the recovery modifiers listed below the table.

  4. Each time your warband secures an uncontrolled carried item, remove its marker from the table as well as your closest warrior capable of securing it. More on this below.

Uncontrolled Carried Item Recovery Table

Die roll Result

1–2 The carried item is secured by the routing warband as they retreat.

3–6 The carried item is secured by the warband remaining on the battlefield. 

Recovery Modifiers

  • +1 to the die roll if the majority of warriors within line of sight and charge range to the uncontrolled carried item are from the warband remaining on the battlefield.

  • -1 to the die roll if the majority of warriors within line of sight and charge range to the uncontrolled carried item are from the routing warband.

  • +1 to the die roll if the uncontrolled carried item is heavy.

  • +1 or -1 (possibly +/- 2) if your warband has a Band of Pitters (player chooses which modifier).

  • +1 or -1 to the warband with the most standing Quartermasters on the table (player chooses which modifier). Only applies if you are using this optional skill.

  No matter how many modifiers are applied, the natural roll of a 1 awards an uncontrolled carried item to a routing warband and a natural 6 to the warband remaining on the table. 

  The player who secures the carried item removes both its marker and their closest warrior capable of securing it. This represents the warrior either evacuating with the carried item as they retreat, or the warrior standing guard over it and no longer getting involved securing other uncontrolled items. Should the closest warrior be a hero with the optional Quartermaster Skill, you can choose a different warrior instead, as long as the chosen model is both in line of sight and charge range of the item’s marker.

  To secure carried items a warrior from a routing warband must be able to both control and transport carried items, while a warrior from the remaining warband need only control them (with a wardog, for example).

  Keep resolving uncontrolled carried items in turn until none are left. A warband which no longer has any warriors remaining on the table which can secure items, only does so if the die roll is a natural 1 for a routing warband, or 6 for a remaining one (their opponent just somehow forgot the item on the battlefield and the securing warband returned to find it later).

Recovery in Games With Multiple Warbands

In battles with multiple players warbands will often rout at different times. This makes recovery of uncontrolled carried items slightly different. Warbands which rout before the game is over remove all their warriors but must leave any uncontrolled carried items on the table. When the game ends there will often be two (or more) routing warbands to consider.

  First roll for each uncontrolled carried item normally to determine whether it falls into the hands of remaining or routing warbands. Only the modifiers pertaining to the final warbands in the game are applied. Carried items going to the remaining warband which did not rout are secured normally.

  For each carried item that routing warbands recover roll on the recovery table again, this time counting the last warband to rout as “remaining on the battlefield” and the first routing warband as the routing warband. As there are no models for the warband that routed first on the table anymore, only apply the modifiers for Heavy, Band of Pitters, and Quartermasters (remember how many standing quartermasters you had on the table).

  If there were 3 routing warbands this procedure is repeated every time a carried item is recovered by a routing warband. The order in which warbands routed again determines which warband is considered “remaining” or “routing”.

Example

Four warbands take part in the turn 10 finale. At the end of the game only 1 warband remains, the others having routed. Six uncontrolled carried items are on the table. The last warband to rout (the Burgher Kings, which still has remaining models on the table) has a Band of Pitters serving them. After recovery rolls 3 carried items are secured by the winning warband and 3 go to the routing warbands. Next the Burgher Kings must test to see how many of the three items recovered by routing warbands they secure. For these rolls the Burgher Kings are now considered to be “remaining on the table” and the first two warbands to rout are collectively “routing”.

The Kings secure 2 of the carried items, so the last still needs to be secured by one of the two last routing warbands. The second warband to rout (Prospero’s Spears) is next for being considered “remaining on the table”, while the first to rout (Sisters of Cersei) are “routing”. The Sisters happened to have had a standing Quartermaster when their game ended, and this turns the die roll in their favour, securing them the final uncontrolled carried item, and leaving Prospero’s Spears empty handed.

Should a game end with both warbands not routing adjust the Uncontrolled Carried Item Recovery Table so that each has an equal chance, before modifiers, to recover any uncontrolled items.

Example

The Knights of the Living Dead and the Follypop Guild both remain on the table at game’s end with 3 uncontrolled carried items on the battlefield. The Uncontrolled Carried Item Recovery Table is adjusted so that a roll of  1–3 will reward a carried item to The Knights of the Living Dead and a roll of  4–6 to the Follypop Guild. Modifiers are added to the roll normally.

Recovery in Games With No Routers

Storage Container Descriptions

Storage Containers are used to hold the gold crowns, wyrdstone and stored equipment of your warband. Note that Dark Artefacts and Loyalty Symbols cannot be placed in storage containers as they are too valuable or fragile to be thrown in with the rest of your treasury. They are assumed to have their own vessels in which they are placed.

All items listed below are considered storage containers unless otherwise noted. They are available for purchase between games using the normal rules for trading in the Mordheim Rulebook. Should your warband end a post battle sequence without any storage containers, you will lose all wyrdstone, gold crowns and stored equipment remaining in your treasury.

In the following descriptions you will first find the storage container’s name followed by a chart showing the maximum number of Gold Crowns (GC), Wyrdstone and Stored Items (i.e. Weapons, Armour and Equipment) it can hold; then it’s Price and Rarity. Note, each container can hold the maximum amount of each category. So even if your treasure chest is filled with its full allotment of gold, it can still hold wyrdstone and stored equipment.

The storage container’s description includes any special rules pertaining to it.

Backpack

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

25 3 1 4 GC Common

The backpack is a carried item. Unlike other carried items, a warrior need not loose control of the backpack when charging or when successfully charged. The same applies for fleeing, intercepting, escaping from combat, or suffering any injury other than out of action. However any warrior in close combat while controlling a backpack (even an empty one), suffers a -1 to WS. A warrior can choose to loose control of a backpack at any time (dropping it to the table 1” away). If the backpack is worn into combat, enemy warriors have no chance to control it until the warrior carrying the backpack goes out of action, at which time it drops to the ground normally.

Warriors with a backpack can also control and move one additional carried item (normally models can only control a single carried item). Unless light, any warrior doing so moves as if this additional carried item were heavy whether it is or not. If this additional carried item happens to also be a backpack, treat it as if it were a Large Sack (so it must be dropped when charging or successfully charged, etc.).

Large Sack

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

50 10 5 2 GC Common

The large sack is a carried item.

Pouch

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

6    or 1 - 2 GC Common

The pouch is a special storage container which is not a carried item, but miscellaneous equipment. Only heroes may use a pouch. It needs no marker as it is a part of the hero’s equipment. As with all other equipment, only if the hero dies or is robbed, is the pouch and its contents lost. The pouch can contain 1 wyrdstone shard or up to 6 GC, but not both as other storage containers can.

Saddle Bags

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

25 5 2 5 GC 6

One set of saddle bags can be attached to a mount. As a specialty of saddle bags, the 2 stored items it holds can be equipped so that they are ready for immediate use by the rider. Thus a hero can have at their disposal up to 2 additional weapons (close combat or missile) beyond what they can normally equip while they are mounted.

Furthermore, a cavalry model with saddle bags does not loose control of them when charging or successfully charged; nor when fleeing, intercepting, or escaping from combat. Only upon going out of action will the saddle bags will drop to ground normally.

While a mount does not control the saddle bags, it may move with them even without a rider (when bolting, if you use the Mounted Optional rules). Warriors can control and remove the saddle bags when in base contact with a riderless mount. When not attached to a mount, treat saddle bags as a normal carried item.

Treasure Chest

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

100 20 10 10 GC Common

The treasure chest is a carried item. Unlike other storage containers the treasure chest is considered to be safely locked during battles. Its contents therefore cannot be examined by enemies controlling them, nor can anything be added to or taken out of the treasure chest except by heroes of the warband who deployed with it (they all have keys). Between games any controlling warband can examine and change its contents freely (if stolen the padlocks are changed).

The treasure chest is slightly more challenging to transport than other storage containers. Even when it is not heavy, warriors may not jump, climb, or swim while controlling a treasure chest (including using the Leap skill). Treasure chests are lost if a warrior carrying it is forced to swim. You may use stairs and ladders normally.

Each warband starts the campaign with a treasure chest for free.

Pack Animal

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

- - - 20 GC 7 - mule

- - - 40 GC 8 - horse

A pack animal is not a storage container, but up to two treasure chests and four large sacks can be tied to its back if not ridden nor pulling a cart/coach (note that ridden animals cannot carry any storage containers other than saddle bags). Unless otherwise noted, all storage containers are tightly secured so nothing may be removed or added during battles. The pack animal does not control the storage containers, but may move with them (when bolting, if you use the Mounted Optional rules). A pack animal can be controlled by any warrior in base contact. Should the pack animal go out of action all storage containers it carries fall to the ground, place their markers on the table where the animal’s model used to be.

The mule is an especially hardy pack animal and moves normally (Movement 6) over difficult ground and their movement score is not halved if one or all the storage containers it carries are heavy. Not so for the riding horse (Movement 8).

When your game ends, uncontrolled pack animals are treated as uncontrolled carried items. Mules are ornery towards strangers. When rolling for uncontrolled mules, the warband which deployed with the mule gets a +/-1 modifier to the Uncontrolled Carried Item Recovery roll, the player choosing whether to add or subtract the modifier.

Pack animals cannot leave the table unless specified by the scenario. A bolting pack animal will end its bolt if it comes into contact with the table edge.

Cart

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

- - - 60 GC 7 - mule

- - - 80 GC 8 - horse

The cart includes a draft animal(s) to pull it. The cart is not a carried item, yet needs a hero controlling it to move (drive). Up to five treasure chests, ten large sacks, or twenty backpacks/saddle bags can fit into the cart. Players can also choose to keep gold, wyrdstone, and stored items openly into the cart. For each storage container placed in the cart reduce the amount of treasure that can be openly held in it by the storage container’s maximum values.

Any warrior in base contact with a cart can control it and add or remove anything the cart contains, as long as the warrior did not run or hide during their turn. The warrior must be able to control or equip anything they take.

If you are not using more detailed rules for mounts or vehicles*, here are some simple mechanics for carts in games:

  • Any hero controlling the cart may drive it during the movement phase (Movement score of Horse: 8, or Mule: 6). The cart may turn once up to 90° during it’s movement, only 45° if running, or 180° if moving half it’s movement.

  • One additional warrior can ride in the cart.

  • Any warrior in a cart cannot shoot if the cart moved in the movement phase (it’s not a chariot) but can cast spells.

  • Designed to transport goods, the cart moves normally even when carrying heavy storage containers.

  • The hero driving the cart only looses control if successfully charged. Place the driver in base contact between the charger and the cart. If an additional warrior is riding in the cart they can automatically intercept a successful charge, leaving the driver in control of the cart to continue moving if no other enemies come into base contact.

  • A cart may not leave the battlefield during the game unless noted otherwise in the scenario.

*Like Vehicles of the Empire in the Empire in Flames supplement.

When your game ends an uncontrolled cart is treated as an uncontrolled carried item.

Opulent Coach

GC Wyrdstone Stored Items Price Rarity

- - - 250 GC 10

The opulent coach is not a storage container, but its roof can fit two treasure chests or four large sacks or eight backpacks/saddle bags. Only storage containers can be fitted on the opulent coach, no openly storing your gold and wyrdstone on the roof of the carriage! The only exception to this is that the opulent coach can transport Loyalty Symbols and Dark Artefacts even if the roof is full (they are always carefully placed inside the coach). Any warrior controlling the opulent coach may freely remove or add such items.

Opulent coaches are pulled by horses and use their Movement score (8). Unless you are using more detailed rules for mounts or vehicles*, treat an opulent coach as if it were a cart.

*Like Vehicles of the Empire in the Empire in Flames supplement.

Warmount

A warmount is any ridden animal with both a Weapon Skill and an Attacks Characteristic of 1 or more that can be ridden. A warmount is not a storage container, but saddle bags can be equipped to it. During a battle enemy warriors can control, but not ride, a riderless warmount by coming into base contact with its model. However, enemy warriors must make a successful Leadership Test when both first coming in to base contact as well as during each recovery phase or suffer an immediate attack from the warmount. Warriors with an appropriate Ride or Beast Handling Skill automatically pass this Leadership test. Controlling enemy warriors cannot remove saddle bags from a warmount during the battle but can empty them if they were not attacked on their turn and transfer the contents into another storage container or possibly equip the items themselves.

Like pack animals, warmounts cannot leave the table unless specified by the scenario. A bolting warmount will end its bolt if it comes into contact with the table edge.

When your game ends, all uncontrolled warmounts are automatically secured by the warband that deployed with it (they answer to a special whistle or call). Only if a warmount is controlled by enemy warriors can it be lost to an opponent’s warband.