The latest issue of Fanatics Town Cryer magazine just arrived. And, as allways it looks very promising. After a short Editorial by Steve Hambrook, Town Cryer No 14 starts with its main topic: Rules for mounted Beasts in Mordheim. Especially for those Mordheim players who are planning to buy a mount for their warband might be interested in the new rules . The article introduces a couple of new interesting skills like Trick Riding or Horse Archer, rules for Riding (loosing control over your mount included) as well as new riding animals like the War Boar, the Giant Wolf and the Elven Steed.. Although the new rules are very interesting to read I doubt that they will ever be used on a regular term, as riding animals are very expensive and most Mordheim players will think twice before they buy a mount (unless they have large amounts of money to spend which is quite unlikely as most Warbands suffer from a permanent lack of money). The article ends with two new scenarios which can only be played with the new rules.

The next two Article belong to the "Lustria- Cities of Gold"-setting. The first article describes new Artifacts for Lustria from the "Jaguar Mace" to the "Circlet of the Slann". Although the new items were created for the Lustria setting, some of them could easily converted for the use in a normal Mordheim campaign. Especially items like the "Plague Sword" or the "Crimson Armour of the Blood Dragon" sound very interesting. The second part of the Lustria-section
introduces a new Warband: the Tileans. And to be true, this new Warband seems to be very, very intriguing. Like the normal human Mercenaries, the Tilean Mercenaries can belong to three different backgrounds: the Miragleans, the Remasens and the Trantios. Each of this warbands has special benefits, for instance the Miragleans are expert crossbowmen, the Trantios have more starting money (like the Marienburgers) etc. The only other difference to the ordinary Mercenary-warband are the Duellists which replace the Swordsmen. They are
experts in a special fighting technique called cloak and dagger which allows them to use a hand weapon and a dagger while being treated like having a shield in close combat. There is also a new weapon introduced, the pike which allows you to attack your enemies from up to 3" without being part of a melee. Anyway I see no reason why you should not use the Tileans in a normal Mordheim campaign.

For those who already got bored by the never ending skirmishes in the City of the damned the new Rules about Pit Fights might be interesting. If you liked Gladiator, the movie, you will like this rules. Town Cryer describes totally new rules for Arena fights as well as a new Warband: the Pit Fighters. Although this new Warband seems to be a little bit too overpowered, the rules promise hours of fun. Nearly all of the Pit Figther in the warband are expert warriors and a Dwarf Trollslayer (tough) and a Ogre Pit Fighter (very tough) can be bought as warband members. All in all the new rules seem to be a nice change to the normal Mordheim-scenarios.

The next Article is in my opinion the most interesting in this issue: Dark Rituals of the Chaos Gods. It makes the Possessed warband more powerful as it adds new Rituals to the range of spells available to the Magister. With the new Rules it is possible for the Magister to devout himself to one of the major Chaos Powers (Slaneesh, Nurgle or Tzeentch) to benefit from the bargain with those foul gods. It is possible to summon Daemons or cast specific spells like
Father Nurgles Pestilence which is my personal favourite. Although I like this new rules as the Possessed are one of my favourite warbands, I'm not sure if they will be accepted by all MH-players because they make the Possessed even more powerful than they already are.

The final section of Town Cryer 14 is a list of all new rules and additions from the previous Town Cryers. This list is extremely useful if you are searching for a certain rule or new Warband. In addition to the location of the Rule the list also states if this Rules are official or just experimental Rules. Fanatic plans to publish this list in TC on a regular term to give the players an overview where to find which rules.

All in all Town Cryer 14 is a good choice for every Mordheim-player as it adds a lot of new and good stuff to the setting, this time the Lustria section is also useful and interesting as much material can be used in an ordinary game of Mordheim too. To be honest, I'm impatiently looking forward to issue 15. (nc)