Hired Swords

Hired Swords are mercenaries available to most of the warbands. Some are useful to augment the abilities of a warband, others can add a valuable new dimension such as shooting skills to a combat focused warband. I have accumulated a number of Hired Swords, both from the Mordheim range as well as bunch of custom figures from past narrative campaigns. Further variety is provided by Dramatis Personae who are famous named characters of the Mordheim lore.

Wizards: The necromancer, exorcist and hedge wizard (from the left) provide different types of magical support to those who desire it. The figures are all from the Warhammer range. The hedge wizard in the middle was originally an Empire Amber Wizard and was one of my first painted Warhammer figures. His age definitely shows…

Mercenaries: I have used mercenary Hired Swords in narrative campaigns to balance competing warbands. The mercenaries are regular human captains or champions that can join warbands in a similar way to Journeymen in the Blood Bowl system (i.e. the underdog gets a free Champion/Captain depending on the gap in warband value). All figures are from the Mordheim range and painted up in colours not usually associated with any of the traditional mercenary warbands (to avoid confusion).

Travellers: Small but feisty, the Halfling Scout is a superb archer for a very low price. The Dwarf Troll Slayer can add some combat punch to most warbands. Both are Mordheim figures. The merchant hails from Araby and has some of the finest goods for sale (and a big sword to defend them against free-riders…). The Witch Hunter is a Warhammer Empire figure – I got two of them – and the Marco Colombo figure is from a limited edition run a long time ago.

Chaos Villains: Narrative campaigns sometimes need neutral arch villains and what better choice than the twisted followers of Chaos. The Tzeentch sorcerer with his familiar can be removed from the large custom base. The other two are old chaos warrior figures from the Warhammer range.

Assassins: Assassins are a very thematic option for Mordheim campaigns so I made a few of them. The figures are old Dogs of War mercenaries from the Warhammer range.

Children: Can’t forget the little ones. These came with the Peasant Mob pack for Mordheim with the adult variants used as Zealots for my Witch Hunter Warband.

Bertha Bestraufung: Bertha is a famous Sister of Sigmar and often lends her support to the various groups of Sisters struggling in Mordheim. The figure and rules are original Mordheim. Just ignore the two Matriarch on her side (photography coordination issues…).

Gortrek & Felix: Made famous by the series of novels by William King from the Black Library, Gortrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger wonder the Old World to slay mighty monster. They sometimes appear in Mordheim and have been known to slay entire warbands that get in their way. The figures are Warhammer collector items that I picked up at some point in the distant past.