12. Mordheim Mercenary Market

Using this optional rule Hired Swords and Dramatis Personae are not as readily available per normal Mordheim rules. This represents a scarcity in warriors who are willing to serve merely for money (most are opting to join warbands for a share in wyrdstone futures). Colloquially dubbed the Mordheim Mercenary Market, this is not an organised house of commerce where soldiers are on display, but a haphazard combination of whispered rumour, flagrant boasting, and persuasive endorsements that spread the word of where warbands can find mercenaries willing to work for gold.

Hired Swords in this option are unique characters who will return to the Mercenary Market after having served a warband. Each has their own quirks and talents which distinguish them from similar types of sell swords (no two pit fighters, warlocks, or halfling scouts are alike). Some serve faithfully, others have odd requests/demands, and many have unique hallmarks that benefit or challenge warbands (often both!). Even though each mercenary is a unique individual no warband may have two of the same Hired Sword Type as per normal Mordheim rules.

Hired swords from the Mordheim Mercenary Market are not recruited during the post battle sequence. Your Campaign Administrator will list all available hired swords/dramatis personae as part of each chapter’s Turn Chronicle. Recruitment is carried out by making an offer, a bid, to a mercenary you wish to hire. Whether your offer is accepted or not is revealed to you along with your scenario appointment for the turn.

In all other ways hired swords follow the normal Mordheim campaign rules. They do not add to your warband size, you cannot use their Leadership for routs tests, they roll on the Heroes Advancement table, etc.

The description and profile of all mercenaries have the following format.

• Name, what the hired sword calls themselves, plus a short descriptive text.

• Hired Sword Type: what kind of hired sword. No warband can hire two mercenaries of the same type.

• Characteristics: Mordheim stats; Movement, Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, etc.

• Save: armour saving throw, if they have one.

• Equipment: what gear they come with. Hired swords will never give/loan their equipment to anyone!

• May be hired: what warbands can hire the mercenary. Only the warbands listed can bid on the hired sword.

• Minimum hiring fee: the minimum value in gold crowns you must bid in order to hire this mercenary.

• Upkeep cost: the cost paid each post battle sequence of keeping the hired sword in your warband.

Mercenary Profile

• Rating Modifier: how many points your warband rating increases while this mercenary is fighting for you.

• Feather In My Cap Experience (optional): an optional method of tracking the experience of hired swords, making them more akin to your heroes (more below). If you use this rule, the starting experience of the hired sword can be different from the normal zero xp. The increase in warband rating from a hired sword in this option is calculated by adding 5 to the experience listed here.

• Skills: the skills the hired sword may come with as well as the skill lists they can choose from.

• Special Rules: any special rules applied to this mercenary which make them unique.

The Mordheim Mercenary Market requires the Campaign Administrator to list all hired swords and dramatis personae which are available each turn. The Mordheim Mercenary Market list is usually a part of your Turn Chronicle. Players may bid on any mercenaries in the list as long as your warband can hire them and you have the funds to do so.

To place a bid use your Start of Turn Worksheet. Write the name of the mercenary you want in the Mordheim Mercenary Market Bids table. In the Max Bid column, record the highest sum of gold crowns you are willing to pay for that mercenary. This bid may not be lower than the minimum hiring fee listed for hired sword, and may not be higher than the gold crowns you have in your treasury. If you bid for more than one mercenary, your total bids cannot exceed the gold in your treasury*.

The warband with the highest bid for a mercenary contracts them and must pay the winning hiring fee. This equals the second highest bid plus 1 gold crown or the minimum hiring fee of the hired sword if no one else made a bid. When breaking a tie (see below), the winning hiring fee is equal to your max bid. The winning player then deducts the hiring fee from their treasury and adds the mercenary to their warband roster for this turn’s game. After each scenario warbands need only pay upkeep to retain any hired sword but dramatis personae must be bid on again next turn if you wish to engage their services.

Bidding For Mercenaries

*Here is an example of when “total bids” can exceed the gold in your treasury. There might be times when you can only afford one hired sword but wish to bid on several just in case you do not succeed in hiring the one you want. In the Notes column you can indicate this (or any other intentions) to your campaign administrator. For example, you can list several hired swords in order of preference and state you will only hire the first mercenary you successfully bid on. So even if the sum total of all bids would exceed the gold in your treasury, this is irrelevant as you will only pay for a single hired sword.

Should two or more warbands offer the same winning sum for a given mercenary (a tie bid) the hired sword will choose to serve the warband with greater campaign standing, i.e. the one with more MVPs. If this is tied, the player with the higher warband rating wins the bidding. Should warband rating be tied the campaign administrator randomly determines which warband the mercenary will join.

Resolving Tie Bids

Mercenaries which go out of action make post battle serious injury rolls as henchmen. If they die (D6 result of 1 or 2), inform your CA by recording their death in the Serious Injuries table of your Post Battle Worksheet. Most mercenaries are then removed from the campaign, but a rare few might survive a brush with death.

Death of Mercenaries

Dramatis Personae are special, often powerful, characters that players can hire to serve them in games. Any such mercenary in the Mordheim Mercenary Market list will be distinctly labeled as a DRAMATIS PERSONAE or be given their own separate list should your gaming group use several of them.

In many ways all the hired swords from the Mordheim Mercenary Market can be thought of as dramatis personae, for each are unique. There are, however, important differences. First, dramatis personae will never remain in your warband and need to be bid on each turn you wish to hire them (no upkeep possible). Second, they do not earn experience, either having maxed out their xp or their advancement is predetermined in the campaign.

Disregard the need to search out dramatis personae as described in the Mordheim rulebook when using these optional rules. In all other ways dramatis personae work exactly the same as any other mercenary; players bid for them and they do suffer post game serious injuries rolls.

Dramatis Personae

Soldiers of fortune who survive eventually return to the Mordheim Mercenary Market. A mercenary that parts ways with a warband (other than dying) becomes available for bidding and is included in the next Mordheim Mercenary Market list. Hired swords retain any experience they have gained as well as new skills and upgraded characteristics that players have chosen for them.

When a mercenary leaves your warband inform the campaign administrator by making a note in the Scenario Spoils/Notes table of your Post Battle Worksheet. Also send the CA an updated roster for the hired sword including all new experience, skills, and equipment.

Returning to the Mercenary Market

Current Hiring Fee: Advances gained by mercenaries add to their hiring fee. For each advance a hired sword attains increase their basic hiring fee by +5 Gold Crowns, but upkeep remains the same. If you are using the Feather In My Cap optional rule (see below) the basic hiring fee is increased by +2 GC per advance and upkeep should never be lower than a third of the current hiring fee.

The CA or your gaming group as a whole can decide how many and what manner of Hired Swords/Dramatis Personae are available in the Mercenary Market. We suggest a starting list of hired swords equal to half the number of warbands in the campaign (rounded down). On any given turn should the number of available mercenaries be lower than the starting number, additional warriors can be introduced. Hired swords encountered within scenarios often directly offer their services to warbands that impress them (avoiding the competition of the market). If not immediately recruited these warriors are often enter the mercenary market and can be introduced into your market list if and when you wish to use them.

The following is an example mercenary for chapter 1 of a Mayhem in Mordheim campaign. Players wishing to bid on him or other available hired swords need to reserve cash from their starting gold crowns when creating their warband.

Mercenary Market List

Erkenbrand Bellyfoot

Erkenbrand Bellyfoot is a halfling scout who, along with his cousins Tristone and Isoldely, are looking to go on a grand adventure. The trio got split up when raided by the Bastardly Bandits outlaw gang. Erkenbrand is selling his services while looking for his cousins.

Hired Sword Type: Halfling Scout

M WS BS S T W I A Ld

4 2 4 2 2 1 4 1 8

Save: (helmet 4+ against stun)

Equipment: Bow, dagger, cooking pot (counts as helmet).

May be hired: By any human, dwarf, or elf warbands.

Hiring Fee: Bidding for Erkenbrand starts at 15 GC

Upkeep Cost: 5 GC each turn paid during the post battle sequence.

Warband Rating Modifier: +5 plus 1/experience point.

Feather In My Cap Experience (optional): 0

Skills: none

Erkenbrand may pick from Speed and Shooting skills.

Special Rules:

Kin Ties: Erkenbrand will never attack either of his cousins, Tristone and Isoldely. Should warriors of the warband Erkenbrand is serving in charge or shoot his cousins, he will abandon the warband and fight the rest of the game for the warband his cousin serves in before returning to the Mordheim Mercenary Market. If Tristone or Isoldely are attacked by any model, Erkenbrand must move as directly as possible to charge the model fighting his kin.

Cook: Halflings are renowned for their cooking skills. A warband with Erkenbrand may increase its maximum size by +1, as warriors from all around are attracted by the smell of great food! This does not increase the maximum number of heroes you may have.