Mordheim: City of the Damned

So, I will be splitting this guide up into five sections. First is an overall strategy section, then I will do a section for anything special about each warband individually.

1) Overall Strategy

Right off the bat, you need to know about the two different ways to build tanks. You can build parry tanks, or dodge tanks. Parry tanks are better overall because they will be able to get more counter attacks than dodge tanks, but there are some enemies that cannot be parried, and so require dodge tanks (most of the yellow enemies on the map, rat ogres, and chaos spawns). I will detail how to build each type of tank and what abilities to put on them.


Parry Tank:

They should equip the heaviest armor they can so that they get good armor absorption and should use a one-handed weapon and a shield. Some impressives cannot use a shield, so they must use a sword to be able to parry.

For physical skills, focus strength so that their counter attacks will hit a bit harder, then toughness once that is maxed. Don't put points into agility because you will want them to get hit so that they parry and can use an ability to counter attack very cheaply.

For mental skills, it does not really matter, but I always focused leadership so that they were more likely to pass all alone, fear, and terror tests. Once that is maxed, put points into whichever other skill you prefer.

For martial skills, focus weapon skill to increase parry chance by quite a bit per point, then put any extra points into accuracy.

For abilities you will want to get the following:

(Active)
Web of Steel
(Passive)
Shield Specialist
Flash Parry
Swift Counter
Quick Incision

(Then upgrade those abilities with priority: web of steel > shield specialist = flash parry = swift counter > quick incision)


Dodge Tank:

They should equip Clothing in order to boost dodge chance and a one-handed weapon and a shield (melee resistance = lower enemies chance to hit)

For physical skills, focus on agility to increase melee resistance, making them harder to hit, even without using dodge stance. Then put extra points into strength if you want them to hit harder, or toughness if you want them to have a little more health.

For mental skills, there are two skills you can get that require nine intelligence and fifteen alertness for mastery. You can either focus on one and get the base version of the other, or focus one and put the rest of the points into leadership to improve all alone, fear, and terror tests. Just definitely focus at least one of those skills before leadership. I recommend alertness for the Awareness skill.

For martial skills, focus weapon skill then put any extra points into accuracy.

For abilities you will want to get the following:

(Active)
Sidestep
(Passive)
Avoid
Anticipation
Knowledge: Tactics (Requires nine intelligence to master)
Awareness (Requires fifteen alertness to master)
Shield Specialist (Purely for the melee resistance)
Quick Incision (Optional)

(Then upgrade those abilities with priority: sidestep > avoid = anticipation > knowledge: tactics = awareness = shield specialist > quick incision)


Ranged Units:

Every warband should have two or three ranged units, especially for some story missions. Sometimes, you just cant fit all your units around an enemy and ranged units will still be able to hit them. Their build is pretty self explanatory, but I will detail them as well.

For physical skills, focus agility then toughness.

For mental skills, doesn't matter, I prefer focusing leadership for all alone, fear, and terror tests.

For martial skills, focus ballistic skill then accuracy.

For abilities you will want to get the following:

(Passive)
Quick Reload
Trick Shooter
Eagle Eyes

(I have almost always made my henchman my ranged attackers, so they were unable to get these skills to mastery)

Each warband has some unique skills that may be beneficial to these types of units. If they do, I will note it in that warband's section.

Now that you know the main different types of units, I can talk warband composition. I went through the game with skaven and cultists and made it most of the way through mercenaries with all parry tanks before I hit a relatively hard wall where I needed a dodge tank. Therefore, I HIGHLY suggest that every warband have a couple of dodge tankers. The general composition I recommend is:

Leader - Parry Tank
Hero 1 - Dodge Tank
Hero 2 - Dodge Tank
Impressive - varies by warband
Henchman 1 - Parry Tank
Henchman 2 - Parry Tank
Henchman 3 - Ranged Attacker
Henchman 4 - Ranged Attacker
Henchman 5 - Ranged Attacker

This composition should work for every warband, though I will go into detail on differences for each warband later.

The main reason I recommend having a few ranged attackers is for certain story missions (mainly the library mission for each faction) they will be able to sit up on a ledge and attack units that can't get to them. It is relatively slow, but incredibly safe to do this. Also, when going through the teleporters on the library missions, make sure you have cleared your current area of enemies, then send your impressive through first, just in case there is an enemy in the room. DO NOT send a parry tank or ranged unit into a teleporter before you know what is on the other end. None of the library missions have infinite reinforcements, so take as much time and as many turns as you need to be safe.

If you are having a hard time keeping up with upkeep, you can bring fewer units to the battle. The enemy team will always match yours, except for story missions, where you should always bring a full group. If you bring fewer units into a battle, it means you will have less upkeep to pay after that battle. It will be a little more difficult to gather wyrdstone, but you do get a decent chunk as long as you win.

If you are having a hard time keeping up with wyrdstone deliveries, it might sound counterintuitive, but playing brutal or deadly missions which have a wyrdstone rating of exceptional can help a lot. Even with only picking up around five pieces of wyrdstone, I was routinely getting more than one hundred wyrdstone weight JUST from winning. If you are able to pick up a few safe pieces of wyrdstone, then just focus on keeping your units alive, you should come out of the battle with just under half the maximum asking amount for the delivery. This means you only have to do approximately these missions and one or two easier ones to make a delivery. Just be warned, try to find these missions where it says both warbands start in an arc around their wagon, so none of your warriors get caught alone. Also, recommended to stay away from these missions until your warband rating is close to two thousand.

If a warrior goes out of action, there is a chance he will receive an injury, or even die. Most injuries do not affect much when it comes to the group, for example losing a point in strength or agility etc. is not that bad. However, there are some injuries that are very detrimental. Some that I remember are:

Internal Wound (lowers offense points by one, normally means one less attack each turn, not the end of the world)

Megalomania (prevents use of ranged weapons / spells, effectively kills the unit if it was a ranged unit, otherwise is harmless)

Skull Fracture (causes stupidity and forces an intelligence check or skips turn if not in combat, if a unit gets this injury, seriously consider firing them and getting a new one.)

Severed Arm (The warrior cannot use a secondary or two-handed weapon, but they gain 20% to dodge chance. This effectively kills every unit except dodge tanks, who actually greatly benefit from it.)


I will now talk about some of the differences of each warband below. I will list them in the order I played them, though I would highly recommend playing the cultists later, as having more gold available at the start will help greatly.


2) Skaven

I started with the Skaven and had almost no trouble with any story missions. The only one that was troublesome for me was the library mission, but that is because I was not using any ranged units at that time. It would have been MUCH easier if I had some ranged units. I actually had no idea what I was doing with the warband management for like the first ten hours I played with them, and used that time to kind of figure out what worked well.

Their impressive unit is the rat ogre. You should build it as a dodge tank since it cannot parry, but it also suffers from stupidity. This means it will lose its turn if it fails an intelligence test. For this reason, you should absolutely focus on intelligence first for its mental skill.

I used eshin sorcerer heros as my ranged units because I preferred the warplock pistols, and used five warpguards as parry tanks since they could use heavy armor. Honestly, you could probably do just fine with any team comp, but make sure you have a couple ranged units at least.

The library mission is Act II-I for the skaven, make sure you have some ranged units to make your life easier.

The Skaven have access to the unique skills:

(Active)
Warp Poison (has a chance to lower enemies offence points)
(Passive)
Swarm (increases hit chance and critical chance if multiple units are engaged with the same enemy)

I highly recommend swarm relatively early, as hit chance is pretty important in the early game.


3) Cult of the Possessed

This warband sucks. The units are RNG based with their mutations and some mutations can make a unit you were training almost useless. I suggest playing this warband later than second as you can start with more gold and buy a high level impressive. I was lucky and bought a rank 6 impressive after my second free mission and he carried me literally through EVERY SINGLE mission. Seriously, I soloed multiple free missions and at least three story missions with the impressive alone.

I recommend using the leader and two darksouls as parry tanks, two possessed and the impressive as dodge tanks, and three brethren as ranged units.

Do no try to use one of the heros as a parry tank because they could get mutations that either make them unable to use a shield or unable to use heavy armor, or if you are really unlucky and get two arm mutations, they might not even be able to parry at all. Your best bet is to just use two possessed as dodge tanks so you don't have to deal with that crap like I did.

Their story mission Act II-I has enemies that are invincible unless lit on fire (you can damage them, but they heal when they receive damage, so you cannot kill them with physical attacks). You can also use spells to kill them since you have Merga for this mission, so make sure she is near the front to be able to hurt the enemies, however, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND stockpiling oil bombs throughout your gameplay and bringing them along for this mission as that will get rid of the invincibility. You also have the ability to create oil bombs during this mission, though it can be risky and if you are unlucky the enemies can completely block you. I beat it without bringing any oil bombs, but if you have some it would make the mission easier.

None of the Cult of the Possessed's unique skills are really noteworthy, but feel free to look at them if you want.


4) Human Mercenaries

This is the warband that I hit a pretty hard wall with using only parry tanks. Act II-III has mostly units that cannot be parried, with three respawning units that also cannot be parried. It was not fun failing this mission three times before getting incredibly lucky and finishing with one archer and the special unit left alive.... yea it was that bad. Lucky for you I'm telling you to absolutely use at least two dodge tanks!

I recommend using your leader, two soldiers, and the impressive as parry tanks (the impressive will need to have a sword in at least one hand, since it cannot use shields), two youngbloods as dodge tanks, and three marksmen as ranged units.

Make sure you have at least two dodge tanks trained, preferably at rank ten, before starting Act II-III. This mission absolutely sucks and I recommend looking up what you have to do for this mission beforehand so you do not get caught off guard.

The Human Mercenaries have access to the unique skills:

(Passive)
Combat Expertise (if engaged with multiple enemies, increases dodge and parry chance, VERY good, highly recommend)


5) Sisters of Sigmar

The Sisters of Sigmar is probably my favorite of the warbands, but I would recommend playing a different one first, as this one plays very differently and you do not want to get used to it. They do not have access to any ranged units, but they have a lot of spellcasters with a spell that is just as good as a bow.

I recommend using your leader and impressive, as well as all five of your henchman as sisters, as parry tanks, then your two heroes as Sigmar's Purifiers as dodge tanks. For any units that you will be casting spells with, using the sigmarite warhammer as your weapon will lower the chance of divine wrath by a little bit.

What is really nice about the Sisters of Sigmar is that you can build all of your non-henchman as tanky as you want and they still can put out good damage from any range with comet of sigmar. Most of the time, the mental skills do not really matter much, but for this warband, you should focus intelligence on your leader, heroes, and impressive. By putting comet of sigmar on each of those units, and upgrading it, you will actually be much better off than having multiple ranged units.

Another reason the Sisters of Sigmar is such a great warband, is they have the easiest access to healing. All divine magic users have access to a spell called healing circle. This will heal everyone within five meters of the caster for 20 wounds (40 when upgraded). While this does not seem like much, remember if you position your units correctly, you could be healing up to eight other units for that much! Not to mention, having multiple units use this will be very helpful for surviving story missions with infinite reinforcements. While this spell is very helpful, it is expensive, so it is much better to wait a bit before investing in this spell.

Some types of enemies are pretty much completely immune to spells, so be prepared to have to go in and melee. Some examples are the pink / blue horrors, the alluress and Merga. Though you will have to get in close, you do not have to rush, make sure to take the time to keep everyone full health between engagements during story missions.

The Sisters of Sigmar have access to the unique skills:

(Passive)
Devotion (lowers chance of divine wrath when casting)
(Spells)
Comet of Sigmar (ranged spell that ignores armor, best thing about sisters)
Healing Circle (heals nearby units, very helpful for story missions)
Sigmar's Might (leader starts with it, with proper unit placement, you can greatly increase damage output)


Let me know if anything is not clear, or if you have anything to add.