Barbarians of Yakranda

[Chlor]

Hi, here's my first faction idea. Thought it'd be interesting to have a faction that doesn't have statlines that are simply minor variations of the standard line unit's.

It's still a work-in-progress, so I'd be glad to have as much feedback as possible.



Faction abilities

Battle Fury - Spend a command action to mark the Battle Fury box on one of your units. For this turn, the unit receives -1/-0 and passes all courage checks. You may not play any command cards on a unit whose Battle Fury box is marked.

I don't know whether this is too weak or too strong. I don't know whether just -1/-0 or no command cards is enough.



Units

Fyrn Savages - Core
A: (7) 4/6 D: 0/2* R: - C: 12 MC: 5" 4/1/4
Impulsive. +0/+1 vs. ranged attacks.
Equipment: Hatchets, long knives, leather armor.
Living a life of hunting and woodcutting high in the frosty hills of Yakranda, these men are fiercely loyal to their nation, abandoning their work without hesitation to join wars whenever they are called.

Yakrandan Battleaxemen - Core
A: (4) 5/6 D: 1/2* R: - C: 13 MC: 3.5" 4/2/4
Impulsive. +0/+1 vs. ranged attacks.
Equipment: Battleaxes, thick leather armor.
Battleaxes are the preferred weapons of the large majority of the population of Yakranda.

Yakrandan Axe Throwers - Core
A: (4) 4*/6* D: 1/2* R: 7" C: 13 MC: 3.5" 4/1/4
Javelins. Impulsive. No move and shoot penalty. (+0) +1/-1 when engaged. +0/+1 vs. ranged attacks.
Equipment: Battleaxes, throwing axes, thick leather armor.
While heavy and inaccurate, a lucky hit from their axes can cleave through the thickest armor.

T'narn Cannibals - Core
A: (6*) 4/5 D: 0/1 R: - C: - MC: 5" 2/3/4
Fearsome. Passes all courage checks. Permanently on close and standing orders may not be changed. (+1) +0/+0 when the unit Cannibals is engaged with is in the yellow, (+2) +0/+0 when in the red.
Little more than beasts, these fighters charge into battle with no weapons and a few drabs of clothes.

Weird 2/3/4 health because they smell more blood and meat as combat lengthens.

Gnashers - Core
A: ( 4/5 D: 2/2 R: - C: - MC: 6" 4/3/2
Fearsome. Passes all courage checks. Permanently on close and standing orders may not be changed. 1 impact hit.
Incredibly thick hide, a mouth full of teeth like stalactites in a cavern, and an unwavering lust for crunching bones, these monstrosities strike fear into the hearts of any warriors.

S'raen Flailers - Standard
A: (6) 5/6 D: 2/2* R: - C: 14 MC: 3.5" 5/2/4
*+0/+1 vs. ranged attacks. When at least one "6" is rolled while Flailers are attacking, roll a die. If the result is 4 or higher, Flailers take 1 point of damage.
Equipment: Flails, shields, thick leather armor
Even in the hands of masters, flails are incredibly dangerous to use.

Vanquishers - Standard
A: (4) 5*/7 D: 1/2* R: - C: 14 MC: 3.5" 5/2/4
(+0) +1/+0 vs cavalry or large. +0/+1 vs ranged attacks.
Equipment: Mauls, thick leather armor
Awkward and incredibly bulky, mauls are unorthodox weapons, but in the hands of Yakrandans, they hit like clankers.

Headhunters - Standard
A: (3*) 6/5* D: 2/1 R: 14" C: 12* MC: 6" 2/2/2
Cavalry. (+1) +0/+0 when engaged. (+0) +0/+1 when charging (additional). C+2 when engaged with a unit not in the green.
Equipment: Longbows, longsword, leather armor
These warriors go after their beloved trophies with equal zeal be they half a battlefield away or fighting in melees.

Drummers - Standard
A: (5) 4/4 D: 0/1 R: - C: 13 MC: 3.5" 3/3/3
Drummers may use one type of drum beat each turn. You must choose which to use during your Movement and Command Phase.

-Tremble drums: All opponents within 5" of Drummers' front center point take a courage check. If they fail, they receive C: -1.
-Rally drums: All of your routing units take 1 point of damage and rally. This is to represent the fact that some will still desert the troop, but the majority rally upon hearing the drums.
-...

Equipment: Drums, leather armor
The drums of the Yakrandans are more than signalling equipment, they are used to raise spirits and incite troops into crazed battle furies.

Praenyx - Elite
A: (4) 6/6* D: 3/2 R: - C: 14 MC: 6" 3/2/3
(+0) +0/+1 while charging (additional).
Many a maimed warrior surviving a fight with one of these beasts recall little but the eerily malevolent but intelligent gleam in the eyes of these men-like beasts.

Clankers - Elite
A: (4*) 5/6* D: 0/4 R: 10.5" C: 14 MC: 3.5" 4/4/4
Terrifying. (+1) +0/+1 when engaged. Ranged units cannot do damage on Clankers unless they have a power of 6 or higher.
The armor of these beasts is said to be tougher than steel; the strength of them said to be enough to pull boulders thrice their size. Whatever is true, the sight of catapults hurling rocks from the back of these is only matched by their ferocity in melee combat.

Y'gan Berserkers - Elite
A: (7) 5/6 D: 0/3* R: - C: - MC: 3.5" 6/2/4
Fearsome. Passes all courage checks. Permanently on close and standing order may not be changed. +0/+1 vs ranged attacks.
Equipment: Great axes, warhammers, short halberds, thick leather armor.
Despite wearing little more than leather, Berserkers feel no pain during the battle, even with the grievous wounds they usually receive from their incredibly reckless style of fighting.

Command Cards

War Cry x1: During this turn, all enemy units engaged with units of yours that cost more points than them suffer C: -1 during all courage checks.

Stampede x2: Your unit gains 1 impact hit during this combat phase. If its MC is above 5", it also gains an additional (+1) +0/+0.

Death before Dishonour x2: Your unit gains +0/+1. If your unit is not in the green, it gains an additional +0/+1 and passes all courage checks for the turn.

Last Stand x2: Your unit gains (+1) +0/+0. If your unit is not in the green, it gains an additional (+1) +0/+0 and passes all courage checks for the turn.

Intimidate x1: Play during a battle where your unit costs at least 50 more points than its opponent(s) (individually). The opponent gets (-0) -1/-1 during that battle.



I'm still working on this at the moment.

[RushAss]

Nice first effort!  I just want to point out that with the exception of the Gnashers, all of your core units are pretty fragile.  You may want to tank one of them up, if you know what I mean.

[gornhorror]

I would say to increase the offensive stats and keep the defensive stats weak.  That way, you will truly have a faction that DOES damage as opposed to preventing it.  Kinda like an offensive player in chess that has no problem sacrificing pieces to gain the advantage.  I like the faction, seems like a good start.  Sitting back and soaking up damage is no fun....CHARGE and get in there!!!!!!!

[Kevin]

I would say to increase the offensive stats and keep the defensive stats weak.  That way, you will truly have a faction that DOES damage as opposed to preventing it.

That way you convince your opponent to take a stand-and-shoot army and evaporate half your line before you get there. 

[gull2112]

I would say to increase the offensive stats and keep the defensive stats weak.  That way, you will truly have a faction that DOES damage as opposed to preventing it.

That way you convince your opponent to take a stand-and-shoot army and evaporate half your line before you get there. 

I was gonna say you should drop all the six strengths and increase the defense, mostly to counteract power creep, but then as I looked at it and gave it a more thorough consideration, I like things just the way they are. Kevin does have a point with the Stand and Shoot option (I've learned Kevin always has a point  ), but I'd hate to see this cool army undone because there is one build or strategy that completely ruins it. I would council to keep it as is, and if required we'll try to come up with a unit or tactic or some creative counter to the stand and shoot. I figure one of the limits to a S&S build is to use terrain for cover or blazing speed in the open to reduce the number of exposed turns. Maybe give the x/1(defensive stat) troops a -1 vs. missile fire to simulate nimbleness or something, just like the High Elf rangers.

[gornhorror]

I would say to increase the offensive stats and keep the defensive stats weak.  That way, you will truly have a faction that DOES damage as opposed to preventing it.

That way you convince your opponent to take a stand-and-shoot army and evaporate half your line before you get there. 

Well, that may be true.  But, I do love when people play a pure stand and shoot and you get there mostly intact and then shred them.  .....and they deserve it.

[Chlor]

5 replies in one day 

Regarding the Stand and Shoot issue, I guess it's possible to make some of the units +1/+0 vs ranged fire, like cavalry, but it doesn't really fit the theme of barbarians. I mean, I'd picture barbarians as just crazily charging in without caring about what damage they take. And I hardly see them parrying arrows/dodging around, they'd just charge like crazed beasts.

What do you think of a more thematic solution: increasing their health? They'd have more than "average" health because they have horrible defense but their battle fury allows them to "tank" the blows without dying even though a normal soldier might fall to it. I'm not sure whether this should be represented as increasing toughness instead though. From what I gather, health reflects more on unit discipline and number of troops.

And do you have any suggestions on the drummers? I like the idea of a spellcaster with an "area effect" on enemies instead of picking specific targets, but I don't really have any brilliant ideas so far.

In retrospect, savages seem too similar to cannibals. Perhaps I'll reduce cannibals to (6*) 4/5 instead. After all, they're attacking with little more than bare hands.

[Hannibal]

Thought it'd be interesting to have a faction that doesn't have statlines that are simply minor variations of the standard line unit's.

Its worth mentioning that you don't need to get crazy with stats to make an army play differently.  BGFw is a game of subtly, where minor variations have huge impacts in game play.  Take for example the upcoming Thracian Peltasts in the Alexander faction.  They're a fairly baseline skirmisher unit, but when engaged they go from (3)5/4 to (3)5/5 (because of the their rhomphaia).  That little tweak makes them play very differently than, say, Caetrati.

On a side note, you may want to check out my Corrigan faction that I drafted up awhile ago, maybe for some inspiration.


On the subject of making these guys not just utter junk against shooting, I'd say thematically what about giving them a toughness bump vs ranged:  "+0/+1 vs ranged attacks."  This represents them shrugging off the effects of arrows and such.

[gornhorror]

On the subject of making these guys not just utter junk against shooting, I'd say thematically what about giving them a toughness bump vs ranged:  "+0/+1 vs ranged attacks."  This represents them shrugging off the effects of arrows and such.
[/quote]

Hmmm, I like this.  Rather than a bonus to defensive skill vs. range(ala High Elf Rangers), a buff to the defensive toughness. 

[Chlor]

I like the idea of +0/+1 vs ranged attacks - could represent them being able to simply pull out the arrows provided they don't hit in critical areas and continue charging, and that their head needs to be actually chopped off or something before they stop.

Any comments on Battle Fury (or suggestions to revamp it/other abilities altogether)?

[Chlor]

Happy new year! 

Well, maybe it's a bit early for you all, but it's 11:38pm on 31 December here.

Anyway, I've done some editing, putting in a new unit (the Praeynx), changing some stats, flavour text, etc. I've also added in more command cards.

Hope I can get some suggestions on: more faction abilities, more spells for the drummers, and more command card ideas.

I think I'll come up with the history for the faction soon.

[BubblePig]

Any comments on Battle Fury (or suggestions to revamp it/other abilities altogether)?

I haven't analyzed this faction to the same degree as others, but it occurs to me that having "pass all courage checks" as a faction ability is extremely strong on the active turn and essentially useless on the opponent's active turn when you don't need it anyway.

Basically what most people try to do is 'break through' where they have the advantage and 'roll the line' before their opponent can do the same. Usually you want the breakthrough to happen on the opponents turn so that you get to move next, allowing your unit to pinch and roll before the opponent can plug the hole. Battle Fury basically forces the opponent to destroy a unit on damage to make that happen, which means you need to make that a real possibility or the faction is overpowered IMO.

[Kevin]

I like Battle Fury.  Yes, the opponent will need to wipe the unit out on pure damage. On the other hand, with your unit 1 easier to hit and unable to have a blue card played on  it you'll wipe it out very quickly--and the opponent had to spend a CA for the privilege of the unit becoming so vulnerable!

[BubblePig]

Yeah, I like Battle Fury, too. My point is that IMO it shrinks the window of how 'fragile versus tanky' the line units can be without the faction being dreadfully overpowered or underpowered. Also, you need to factor in that there are 4 faction ability cards which enable a unit to pass all courage checks without making that unit easier to hit. An opponent can't bank on forcing a rout check nor getting those easy hits a significant fraction of the time. That does not mean I think Battle Fury is broken, but balancing the faction is going to pose some interesting challenges.

[RushAss]

I'm not too keen on the War Cry and Intimidate command cards because you need to calculate the cost of the opposing unit.  There are a bunch of things that can make this clunky.  Could you just eliminate that portion of the cards and have them stand as is?