Mordheim: City of the Damned

The easiest way to describe this game is XCOM + Valkyria Chronicles with a dark fantasy blanket and I love it. You'll have many a 95% hit chance misses, enemies coming out of nowhere, unlucky positioning and a lack of resources but all these elements will harden your skills, make you learn from your mistakes and choosing to study the map more rewarding. The unit customisation, warband management, equipment & looting and mission embarking are such great systems behind the meat of the game that is the turn-based strategic combat. The atmosphere, art direction, lighting and the overlord "DM voice" that plays all add up to create a unique experience not much found elsewhere. Beware though, there are some janky elements to the game. Animations look off when in motion, UI could do with an overhaul to better support keyboard and mouse, there is an over-reliance on RNG and you'll be raging at your screen when missing those 95%s! But I believe the good points much outweigh the bad and I definitely recommend this game to those who love turn-based tactical combat and love to crunch stats.

Right off the bat - if you're the kind of player that loves playing XCOM in Ironman mode and revels in punishing and complex turn-based tactical combat, this game has it in spades, and you will most likely love this game. But, the problem is that getting to the juicy meat of this game takes the patience of a saint (or Sigmar?) to get to, and even when you do the RNG will still foil triple redundancy plans, and then due to the AI pathing, the gameplay can flip between really easy or really hard. In many instances it will seem like the game is actively lying to you about percentages you're shown (XCOM players should be familiar). I really want to love this game, it's got such great elements going for it like the lore, the warband management and deep tactical decision making, but the game itself is so inconsistent in difficulty and gameplay that the great moments to be had are not worth the effort it takes to get there for most gamers. This game is made for those that love to crank the Darkest Dungeon difficulty to the max, who like nothing better to play The Long War modded XCOM, etc. If you're more of a player that gets attached to your random party characters, and wants to play every mission perfectly and ends up save scumming to negate bad rolls, do not buy this game... it will only bring you rage and pain.

I originally bought this game because it had a discount and I could play as Skaven. I am writing this review after about 20 hours of gameplay. The game is a squad PVM game where your squad and an enemy squad face off for map controll and combat. The combat is my biggest problem with the game, some people will like it, but I don't. It uses a dice system where each time you attack it rolls a several dice to see if the enemy blocks and how much you hit. You can get pretty upsetting streaks where you miss 70%+ hits continously, while the enemy lands crit after crit with 50% hit chance. Every so many battles the game also puts you against overpowered enemies that most often have an easy time defeating you, such as a vampire squad with maxed gear and multiple heroes. The shop is also random mostly consisting out of regular items that give you no powerups whatsoever. You cannot bargain or request magic items and they do not drop from battles eighter meaning you are always fighting at a disadvantage while the enemy gets maxed gear. You cannot buy enchantments eighter, you have to find them in the shop which is random and thus can take many ingame months or reallive days to get the enchantment you want. The enchantments are also single use, so if you spend weeks searching for an enchantment you can only use it on one item and the grind starts again. When the enemy steamrolls you they can also steal your magic items, so if you have spend reallife days getting good gear and the game throws overpowered enemies against you, they will a lot of times steal your gear. This happened to me more than once and was very upsetting. This game came from a time when "hardcore" and "permadeath" where a trend and devellopers where jumping head over toe to implement such mechanics. As such this game also has no save function and is permadeath. If you dislike all the things I have listed avoid buying this game.

I'll start with saying I bought the Steam version a couple years ago because I couldn't wait for it to arrive on GOG. I was also a Mordheim player sixteen years ago and love the smaller warband tabletop style. The good: The game really captures the Mordheim setting. The skirmishes are great fun. Unlike the tabletop game, the movement system allows you to optimize your moves. This is a blessing when the computer naturally optimizes its moves according to its AI. The permanent pos/neg traits from exp and wounds! The bad: Plan on repeating the plot scenarios a few times before you get through them, all the while your warband will be taking permanent damage and you'll have to step back and fight a few skirmishes to earn cash and rebuild. True to the Mordheim rules, different weapons are strictly regulated to only certain character types. It's really frustrating to buy a cool weapon and then realize none of your characters can use it. The AI opponents get stuck on terrain. The RNG has been called out here by others, and I have to say I've been a victim as well. Don't talk about it, though, or others will tell you you're a whiner and that's just how the dice roll. I took the time to build a spreadsheet and download each game log to track anomalies. The game definitely cheats on rolls. It was so bad I could reliably predict a hit/miss and tweak strategy to account for it. After the second plot-driven scenario your warband (and the enemies') grow to the point that every battle is a two-hour affair. Ugh. I don't have the time. Tips: Never go one on one with an enemy. Always arrange your attacks so that you're three-on-one and the enemy is jammed up on his own troops. Get the DLC. It's a shame that it's essentially just a data-lock on warbands that already exist. You'll fight against them, but you can't play them until you pay. I really wish the developers would have added more warbands. I loved all the alternative warbands, Orcs/Goblins, Pirates, Slann (lizardmen), etc.

This game is fantastic! A lot of games are very much the same. This game is different and fresh. There have been some comparisons with XCOM. XCOM is about line of sight. There is some of that, but Mordheim is more about melee combat. The creatures/characters are great. The terrains are great. Voice overs are good. Music is good. There is a learning curve to it, but it's worth it. Keep analyzing the tutorials - go through every one. Google any questions you have, and you'll get it. The name of the game is keeping your guys together and trying to swarm enemy characters one at a time. If you go 1-on-1, your guy will lose a bunch of health. So you want to try to do 2 or 3 of your guys against 1 enemy character to take him down quickly. Then just keep picking away at them 1 at a time. For example, lets say a map starts out with 7 characters on each side. If you can find an enemy by himself and swarm/kill him, then it's 7 vs 6 and you have the advantage. If you kill another, then it's 7 vs 5 and you'll probably win the game. If one of your guys is ambushed, disengage and run into a building. Then stand in a doorway so only 1 enemy at a time can engage until help arrives. I own a lot of games and have played a lot of games. This one is different and fresh.