Fate Farming

So you want Fate tokens but your mum won't let you use her credit card, you're a conscientious objector because of the price or you're just tight. Welcome to Fate Farming where I explain how to maximize your free premium currency, be warned that it works out at about 1-3 or $1 worth per hour on average so if you're flush for cash maybe just buy them.

## General Concepts

### Acquiring Fate

There are two ways to acquire Fate in the game, the first is to pay money and the second is to donate at the Temple for an 11% drop rate of 1 Fate and an 89% drop rate of +5 to one random stat for your entire warband for the next fight. One free donation can be made every 10 hours if you watch an ad or 20 hours else. Donations are 100G and can only be made by Warbands with a rating of over 100 and only once per battle.

It follows then that to maximize free fate you want to be completing battles as fast as possible and earning at least 100G per battle on average.

### Fast and Furious that you're not faster

To address the speed portion of this we obviously want to minimize time in game, more characters means more time. So we want fewer characters on screen to take turns, we want to be moving faster and we want to be moving more often.

### Rating 101

Rating or Threat is the matchmaking score in Mordheim, theoretically higher threat means a better warband. We already have a page on how to game threat so read there for more in depth information. But generally speaking higher threat means higher quality characters and a higher quantity of characters; both of which are bad for our purposes. Higher quality means they're more likely to be faster and more able to kill you in one round, higher quantity means they're more likely to be everywhere and accidentally collect a crate (explained later). Additionally their turn just takes longer.

Finally, I don't know the exact correlation but I believe a higher warband threat means your characters are more likely to receive an injury or die if they're downed.

In short for all these reasons we want to be facing lower threat warbands, which means our warband needs to be lower threat. And seeing as our warband needs to be over 100, 101 is the magic number we want to achieve, or at least as low as possible whilst still being over 100.

### 1 Character

There's serious benefits to only having 1 character, firstly if they get stunned after collecting a bunch of stuff they automatically run, meaning you get to keep it and they don't die. Secondly it's just quicker for turn activation and it lets you build an absolute defensive monster. Wyrdstone shards decrease with value when you have more characters in your warband and also when you're selling more shards. Finally I suspect injuries are more common with more warband members There's probably viable builds with 2-3 rats but I honestly believe that the only contenders for fastest Fate Farmer are either 1 Mercenary Captain or 1 Possessed Magister, and that's because of these spells:

### Flight of Zimmerman / Wings of Darkness

These spells are identical except that Wings of Darkness has a 10% higher base cast chance. For several reasons detailed in the In Depth Tactics section this spell is absolutely mandatory. In short it lets you teleport to anywhere within 12 squares and also run before and after. Additionally your character actually runs along the shortest path distance to the location picking up anything in between. Basically you take twice as many turns as the other guys.

The blue circle is the selected point on the map.Note the range is measured linearly and normal movement is measured along the path. When going around corners the character moves further.When you hit the spell button above your portrait you will be met with this confirmation prompt.

## The Strategy

### Map of Mordheim

The Map of Mordheim makes this strategy possible. In short it lets you pick whichever map you want and whichever scenario you want. Head over to the Map of Mordheim page for a really good guide on how to use it. Maps sell for 40G in the store, it sounds dumb but eventually they will be your limiting factor, you should buy them whenever you can and never sell one. You equip a map as an item to any character in your warband and it is consumed immediately upon use. If you equip a second map accidentally it has no effect and is not consumed, a prompt will also be displayed saying that custom mission is already available.

### University District

The map you be selecting every time is University District, this is because 4 crates spawn every time on the map. You will mostly be selecting 'Breakthrough', this is so you can end the game whenever suits you without killing anyone. 'Defend the Find' is situationally good because you will start in the middle if you're the defender and the enemy will prioritize moving toward the centre rather than screwing with you. The downside is that it puts a 10 turn limit on the game but chances are if you need 10 turns than you're better off without the disruption of the other team attacking you. Time should be set to 'End', this means the scenario takes place at the end of the day after you've already collected shards, effectively you start with 1-3 shards rather than them being scattered around the map. If selecting 'Breakthrough'; 'Attacker' needs to be ticked, if you're the defender than they're trying to get to your side, which isn't terrible but it's not what we want.

### Crates

\*Maps sell for 20G but we're not selling them

This means that statistically each crate is worth about 40G to us, and only averages matter because we're going to be grabbing a metric crap ton. So on average if you can snag all 4 crates you'll be getting 160G from the crates and 34G from the Wyrdstone shards. Practically you'll sometimes not get all 4 crates because the enemy will grab one, you'll get downed or a fourth crate just won't spawn. Sometimes a crate spawns on a character so they pick it up before the match starts, if it's an enemy there's no way to tell which.

In any case you will be earning more than the 120G on average required to both donate to the temple and buy a Map of Mordheim every game. I say 120G - 100G for the donation and 20G for the Map because Maps are only in the shop about half the time and cost 40G.

The other thing to note is that at a 20% drop rate over 4 crates if you grab every crate you will get 0.8 Maps per game. At 50% drop rate (or thereabouts) in the store you can bring this up to 1.3 Maps per game. In any case if you're actively buying Maps your Maps will increase, if you're not it will decrease. My suggestion is ultimately pick a number, say 10, if you're flush for cash (which you will be) just dash for the finish if you have more than 10 maps and collect crates if you have less than 10 Maps. And always grab the convenient crates on the way.

AND OBVIOUSLY DONATE AFTER EVERY GAME.

But this is the endgame build, how do we get there?

## The Build

I'm going to give an example build with a Reikland Mercenary Captain. It's one of the best option but probably not THE best. Ultimately you will probably also do this because they're freely available and we're here because you're too cheap to buy Fate. Marienburg is probably marginally better just because you have an easier time acquiring the gear and I'm not sure about the Possessed Magister, I don't own them yet.

The thing to remember is that we are running around the enemy, collecting crates and running to the finish line. THIS IS NOT A GUIDE TO CREATE A SUPER SOLO, this is a guide to create a solo super at nicking stuff and running for the door. So we don't care a hoot about punching back (although we become pretty good coincidentally) and the main thing we care about is getting shot. You can avoid almost all melee fights if you want to but you cannot avoid getting shot at, that said it can make things faster if you're not afraid to take a punch.

With this in mind let's go over the skills:

### Combat Skills

Weapons Skill increase: Chance to hit in melee is 50% +/- the difference between weapons skills. So a higher weapons skill means you are harder to hit in melee. Useful.

Attack Increase: Required to access Web of Steel but otherwise not defensive, 1 level might be good but (spoiler alert) greatly increases your warband rating so I advise against.

Unarmed Master: Offensive-useless

Strike to Injure: Offensive-useless

Web of Steel: Parry - good but as you'll see later, don't get it.

Weapon Master: Offensive-useless

Combat Master: Immunity to all alone tests, good.

Expert Swordsman: Offensive-useless

Advanced Weapon Master: Gives access to better parry, we'll be using the Ithilmar sword so we want this.

Step Aside: 10 defense for no downside, good.

### Shooting Skills

All bad, they are purely offensive and the only one worth considering is Blackpowder training. This is so we can equip a Blunderbuss or 4 which don't increase threat. We already have the skill and we have better options for items so ignore this altogether.

### Academic Skills

It's not even really worth going through this school because it's so rocks and diamonds. Arcane Lore and Sorcery are completely mandatory and nothing else matters except maybe leadership increases. You'll be swimming in money and we only need to buy like 8 things so Haggle, Street Wise and Wyrdstone Hunter aren't worth you're time until you have excess levels.

### Strength Skills

Strength Increase: Take to get to Wounds Increase

Wounds Increase: Mandatory

Unstoppable Charge: Offensive-useless

Strongman: Offensive-useless

Resilient: Free 10 Defense - good

Pit Fighter: Meh, not bad but not good. I have no opinion.

Mighty Blow: Offensive-useless

Armour Training: We don't want anything that negatively impacts our ability to cast spells, bad.

Fearsome: Good - means most people need to take a Leadership test to charge you. Skaven are quick and numerous and therefore the 2nd most problematic matchup. This is a hard counter to Skaven.

### Speed Skills

Initiative Increase: Good, you want to be going first so you have the option to skip and double dash.

Quick reactions: Required to get to Dodge

Perception: I'm in two minds, it's good to see where they are but I suspect the turn goes longer if you do. It definitely increases how much your screen snaps around the place when looking for crates.

Hidden in the shadows: not bad but maybe not worth it.

Lightning reflexes: Required for Dodge

Dodge: Mandatory, this plus an elven cloak does so much to prevent shooting which is you're main enemy.

Sprint: The single most important skill, we're taking this first.

Quick Recovery: Useless, if you're stunned you're fleeing when there's only one of you.

Ambush: Ranged, Useless.

### Lesser Magic

Nothing matters except Flight of Zimmerman which is the most important part of this build.

### Level 5 - Starting your warband

Without further adieu, let me introduce you to the Warband 'Fate Farmer Geoff' featuring Geoff and no-one else.

First up, we buy a cheap weapon so we're not punching on, something less than 10G, I like an axe if possible. Secondly we're buying a Map of Mordheim if it's available. Thirdly we're paying 150G to level to 6 and we're taking Sprint. The difference between Speed 4 and 5 is the difference between getting charged every turn or not. The bad news is that if you fight Skaven before you get magic, you have to fight, you can't outrun them.

Set up a University district level, End of day, probably Defend the Find and set yourself as the defender. Grind those levels following this chart until you have magic. Try and pick up as many crates as possible but for a variety of reasons you may have to do a few normal levels. Don't take any new areas because they're bigger on average and that's bad. It is possible to follow this guide without ever playing a map other than university district if you're lucky.

### Essential Levelling

I think this section is the straight up correct option, I can't see an argument for going any other way. Remember if you're floating gold before you get to 101 Warband rating, just pump it into training.

DO NOT SELL THE FIRST TOME OF MAGIC THAT YOU FIND. It is very important that we get a Tome of Magic Quickly, save up for one until you find one or you can buy one (400G and they're super rare). We dont care about any subsequent Tome's. They can be used to learn a random spell but we actively don't want any spell besides Flight of Zimmerman, we're not going to use it and it raises our warband rating.

Essential Levels
 7
 8
 9
 10
 11
 12

At this point if you buy and Equip a Mystic Robe or Scholar's Gown you be at 100% chance to cast Flight and Warband rating 19. This is the peak of farming ability vs. rating. If we could donate to the temple we would stop here.

### Equipment

Head - Flat Cap 5G, + Leadership and there's no other good head option. Remember we can't take any armour or it will reduce our chance to cast Flight by an equal percentage.

Armour- Scholars Gown or Mystic Robe 192G, Required to get to 100% cast chance and cast chance needs to be 100%

Right Hand - Ithilmar Sword 88G, gives a high parry chance AND +10 initiative

Left Hand- Spiked Gauntlet 50G, +12% Parry chance

Item 1 - I personally leave this slot open to faster equip Maps of Mordheim

2 - Elven Cloak 135G, required, defense against shooting.

3 - Lucky Charm 200G, required, disregards first damaging hit (not first swing, first damaging hit)

4 - Garlic 1G, it sounds weird but Strigoi are your hardest matchup because they have a bloody 7/7 speed. Anything to make it harder for them.

Other good items:

Lantern 10G, I'm in two minds, it's good to see where they are but I suspect the turn goes longer if you do. It definitely increases how much your screen snaps around the place when looking for crates.

Holy Relic 35G, It's good but you're leadership is pretty high so I'd prefer garlic.

Blunderbuss 30G, Items don't add to your rating and this thing is heinous. But again we're not doing offensive weapons and if you ding up their squad too much they might run early.

Try and get these as soon as you can but Magic is the priority. I had them all by Level 12 and I have bought anything besides Maps since. At this point your warband rating will be 29.

### Recommended Levelling

This is where you may want to deviate if you want to build a super solo that can also farm. Options include pistolier and knife thrower. Ratings are based on having the abovementioned equipment.

### Optional Levels

I think these are a good option but as you can see things went a bit wrong. In some cases it might be good to boost your rating with expensive equipment or a second dude to temporarily get above 100 and start farming, you can always switch back and dismiss him once your main gets to the right level.

At Level 23 if you equip a Hochland Long Rifle your rating is 74, Comet Mall 60, Nordland Great Axe 70.

At Level 29 HLR 100, Handgun 91 and Pistol 87

DAMIT! I did not expect the rating to jump by 60 freaking points! I was hoping for Web of Steel to bring me to 101. While I don't know exactly how the rating works just remember it's based somehow on your damage output. So all offensive buffs are mulplicative not additive. So an Ostland Great Axe, which seems to add the most, will only boost a bad henchman by about 5 whilst it'll buff a monster by much, much more.

In hindsight given the rating spike I recommend following this until Level 29 and then taking skills like Combat Master, Initiative Increases, Leadership increases, Pit Fighter and Unstoppable charge until you hit 101. I would probably just do Initiative and Leadership really.

## End Game Loop

1. Finish a game
2. Donate at the temple
3. Buy a Map of Mordheim if available
4. Sell everything else
5. Equip the Map of Mordheim
6. Map Settings: University District, Breakthrough, End, Attacker.
7. Collect all four crates and finish ASAP.
8. Repeat

All told it should take about 5 minutes.

Which means you're farming 1-3 Fate per hour, which means you're valuing your time at about $1 per hour...

## In Depth Tactics

### Pickup Hit Boxes

Mordheim Warband Skirmish works on a discreet square grid system. That is to say that it's like a big chess board, every character takes up one square and it does not work like a hex system of other games. Ordinarily two characters canot occupy the same square (although there are situations where the game glitches and allows it, like when summoning rats).

When picking up an item you will pick the item up if your character is ever considered in the square the item is in, or a square orthogonally adjacent to it. Squares Diagonally adjacent do not count. This is useful knowledge to reduce the amount of movement it takes to clear a level.

It's also worth noting that you can attack someone in melee with a range 1 weapon from a diagonal square, however if you are in an orthogonally adjacent square you will immediately pick up any item they drop. This is not true for the diagonally adjacent squares.

### Flight/Wings Movement around Corners

Flight of Zimmerman and Wings of Darkness can be used to move around corners. You can use it to follow the shortest path between you and any point within 12 squares measured linearly. This is different to ordinary movement which is measured in path distance.

In this photo you can see the blue target circle, moving here would be nearly equivalent to running twice. Additionally the character will follow the ordinary movement line and pick up the crate on the way there.

### Ladders

Characters climb ladders very slowly, although they descend them quite quickly mercifully. In any case characters go through ladders almost instantly when moving as a result of Flight of Zimmerman.

### Spells and Free Strikes

I'm not certain about this one but I do not believe that characters get a free strike from the Speed skill 'Quick Reaction' if the character moves away by use of a spell.

### Skipping

Often moving to collect a crate will result in getting charged. If your character has a higher initiative you can skip down the initiative order and take the last turn of the current round and then take the first turn of the next round. So two turns in a row, with Flight of Zimmerman this is nearly half the map and can avoid taking a lot of unnecessary hits.

### Kiting

Remember that enemy models will pick up crates following the same rules as you, except for rats, dogs etc. Given that they will move directly towards you often it is possible to end your turn in such a spot that the enemy moves around the crate rather than picking it up.

### End Zone

The hit box for the end zone seems to be where it is indicated plus 1 square in every direction but it does NOT include other levels. In the event that the end zone is on the top level, you cannot finish the game on the middle or ground level.