Injuries are a frustrating aspect to the game, and the biggest reason why Mordheim is so difficult. If your warriors came back after getting knocked out of action every time with no risk, the game would be quite boring, however. There would be no terror at a low health bar. This guide is meant to take away any mystery about how injuries work in Mordheim.

Getting knocked out of action is a problem that you will eventually have to face. When you do, the game does a die roll to determine a few things. A dice roll determines how many injuries you will receive. It is possible to receive up to 3, but typically you will only suffer 1 injury at a time. And then another die roll determines the type of injury received.

Note that it is also possible to receive injuries by gaining "open wounds". There are a few different ways to gain this status effect, but the most common is taking a critical hit. Open wounds stack, and increase your chances of getting a worse injury. Having one Open Wounds typically results in Light Wounds, though again, it is possible to get worse outcomes. Avoid this by building crit resistance on your characters and, for anyone who is a frontline fighter, buying a damn helmet. It's like 5 gold and saves lives. If you have Open Wounds, you can use a Poultice to remove the effect, though carrying around Poultices takes up inventory space that could otherwise be used for shiny green space rocks.

And now, onto the injuries themselves.

Here I have included every injury currently coded into Mordheim. I do not have any insights into frequency or events that cause one type of injury over another. However, with each injury I will give a brief explanation of whether the injury is good or bad, why, and how you should proceed. And now, the list:


The "Good" Injuries

No injury is truly "good", but if you have to get one, these are the ones you want to see.

Full Recovery: This is the one you want to see. Basically, your guy got beat up, but you can pretend it never happened. No negative effects at all. No recovery time.

Fortunate Return: Basically the same as Full Recovery, except you get this version if you lost the mission. I believe it is less likely than Full Recovery for that reason. No recovery time.

Cost of Defeat: Your warrior returns, but loses some of their equipment. Early game, this is basically as good as Full Recovery, since buying another base level sword or clothing costs next to nothing. Again, this only happens if your warband also lost the mission and routed. No recovery time.

Light Wounds: Your warrior is out of commission for 2 days. Probably the easiest of the wounds to deal with, and just almost as good as a Full Recovery. 2 day recovery time.

Deep Wounds: Your warrior is out of commission for 5 days. This is also fine... but at the start, you may consider simply replacing the warrior. 5 days is a long recovery time at the early stages when leveling up happens faster. However, this is easily one of the better outcomes if your warrior is mid to high level. 5 day recovery time.

Near Death Experience: Like Deep Wounds, only you also get an experience point out of it. This is fairly rare, but follows the same guidelines as Deep Wounds. The experience point is nice, but doesn't make this considerably better than Deep Wounds. 5 day recovery time.


The "Minor" Injuries

Some injuries have effects that are very situational, or only affect your characters in small ways. Typically these are ok to see, or are perfectly fine on some types of characters but not on others.

Broken Jaw: Permanent 5% penalty to spellcasting chance, and a loss of 1 leadership and 1 leadership max. Even on dedicated spellcasters, this isn't all that bad. Anyone else, it's just peachy. 3 day recovery time.

Burst Eardrum: Permanent 25% penalty to perception checks. Unless this happens to that one guy you have for perception, it's basically just another Light Wounds. Easily ignored. 3 day recovery time.

Amnesia: Lose 5 xp. This wound cannot send your character down a level though, so if you get this wound at level 5 with 0 xp towards the next level, you lose nothing. This one is... not so bad. Losing out on 5 experience is basically one mission's worth. It sucks, but it's easy to move past. No recovery time.

Brain Trauma: Lose 1 intelligence and 1 intelligence maximum. Terrible for spellcasters, but everyone else can safely ignore it. 3 day recovery time.

Confusion: Lose 1 Alertness and max alertness. Not bad at all. 3 day recovery time.

Twitch: Lose 1 Agility and max agility. Terrible for dodge builds, fine for tanks. This is usually particularly bad for archers, as they often do more climbing and jumping, and rely on dodge rather than parry. 3 day recovery time.

Tendonitis: Lose 1 Strength and max strength. Terrible for any melee build, acceptable for any ranged build. Can also affect your inventory size, which sucks a bit. 3 day recovery time.

Old Battle Wound: Lose 1 Accuracy and max accuracy. Bad for any character focused on doing critical hits, but usually even then it's ignorable. 3 day recovery time.

Megalomania: Can't use ranged weapons and spells cost 2 more Offense Points to use. Obviously ground for firing any dedicated sniper or caster, but on a melee fighter, it's basically a full recovery. No recovery time.


The "Bad" Injuries

All injuries are bad, but some are really bad. These injuries affect all types of characters and permanently screw up their effectiveness. While they usually aren't bad enough to merit firing an experienced warrior, a new or inexperienced fighter who gets one of these can usually just be replaced.

Severed Arm: Your character loses an arm and gains a +20% to dodge. They are now restricted to one handed melee weapons in combat. This is absolutely terrible. On a ranged character, they're fired, end of story. Any inexperienced character? Fired. If this happens to one of your stronger guys, they can still be used, but they'll never have the damage output had before. If they used a shield, they can still use a sword to utilize their parry skills. 5 day recovery time.

Severed Leg: Your character loses a leg, and can no longer climb. Jump checks get -25% on their checks, and movement range is reduced by 1 meter. All around terrible for everyone. Reduced movement is the worst, and if your character was meant to be agile, they can probably just be fired. They won't be doing their job well. 5 day recovery time.

Missing Eye: -10% chance to hit on melee and ranged attacks. But, +10% on perception checks, and +10 to initiative. For some reason. The buff does not make up for the fact that you can't hit the enemy as consistently. Can be acceptable, but it's never something you just shrug off. 5 day recovery time.

Impacted Vision: -1 to Weapons and Ballistic skills, as well as their maximums. Like Missing Eye, this is bad for everyone. Fighter is still usable, but less effective than before. 3 day recovery time.

Maimed Hand: Missing Eye without the buffs. Absolutely terrible. 4 day recovery time.

Chest Wound: Toughness and max toughness reduced by 1. Makes everyone easier to kill. Not so bad, but not something you want to see either. 3 day recovery time.

Mysterious Ailment: Flat -10 to wounds. Bad, but not so bad. 3 day recovery time.

Concussion: Lose 1 strategy point. Your character can't move as far. This is never a good thing, but they are still capable of contributing. 5 day recovery time.

Internal Wound: Lose 1 offence point. Your character cannot attack as often. Worse than concussion, but still acceptable, unless it robs you of a second attack with your weapon. Then maybe consider re-specializing your character or just replacing them. 4 day recovery time.


The "Consider Firing" Injuries (And Death)

Some injuries are so bad they're worth firing anyone over. The warrior may not be dead, but it probably won't be long anyway with these injuries.

Amok: Character will never flee or disengage. This can actually be good on some melee characters, and seeing this is a good excuse to make Intelligence a dump stat. But it takes away any strategic ability once a character is engaged, and that's bad. Decide for yourself. No recovery time.

Skull Fracture: Unless your character is engaged, they must pass an intelligence test or do nothing for the round. This is just... the worst. I always fire the fighter if they get this wound. 5 day recovery time.

Dead: You lose the warrior. At least you keep their equipment?

So there you have it. My guide on the injuries you can encounter in Mordheim. I hope you find it helpful. If you find I've made a mistake or overlooked something, please feel free to comment and I'll edit as soon as I get the chance. A lot of this is just based off of experience in-game and a little bit of google, but it should give you plenty to know what to expect, and hopefully how to react to an injury you haven't had before. I'm more than happy to answer any questions as well.

Thanks again for reading!
-Kenny