Monsters & Mercenaries II

[Quelmotz]

I don't know, but the monsters and mercenaries list doesn't feel complete yet, with a lot of other common mythological/other eccentric monsters still missing. I'm trying to compile a list of them, and maybe some of them will be possible candidates for a monsters and mercenaries 2 faction.

I'm fully aware that the monsters and mercenaries is currently the latest faction out, and I'm not trying to rush another mercenary army or anything.

Abilities
Same "spoils" ability.

Core

Arachna Warriors: Offense: (5) 6/4 Defense: 2/1 Range:- Courage: 11 MC: 5" Health: 4-3-2
Equipment: Four swords and two shields. Let's see you trying to parry against four swords and attack against two shields.

Wizards: Offense: (6*) 5*/5* Defense: 2/1* Range: 10.5" Courage: 13 MC: 3.5" Health: 2-2-2
(-2) -1/-1 when engaged. +0/+1 vs range. Equipment: Wizard's robes, staff, book of spells. These wizards are masters in area-effect spells.

Hobgoblin Hammermen: Offense: (6) 5/6 Defense: 1/3 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 3.5" Health: 4-4-3
Equipment: Two warhammers or a maul. Hobgoblins are common mercenaries in the land of Tangath (spelling?), where their families' homes have been destroyed.

Beggar Swarm: Offense: (9) 4/4 Defense: 1/1 Range:- Courage: 11 MC: 3.5" Health: 3-3-3
Passes all rout checks if you mark the spoils box. Auto rallies at the end of the turn. Equipment: Sticks, hammers, shovels, etc. Though unskilled, the sheer number of these beggars is overwhelming.

Giant Toad Cavalry: Offense: (4) 5/6 Defense: 1/3 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 5" Health: 4-3-4
Cavalry. (+1) +0/+0 when charging (this is in addition to the normal charging bonuses). Leap and bound: You may spend one command action to give toad riders MC: 7" and no maneuver penalties for the turn. Equipment: Spear, whip, leather amor.

Novice Horsemen: Offense: (5) 5/5 Defense: 2*/1 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 6" Health: 2-2-2
Cavalry. +1/+0 while charging. Equipment: Spear, sword, leather armor. Cheap and fast, these novices are often sought after by generals who are on a tight budget.

Standard

Pirate Mercenaries: Offense: (7) 5/5 Defense: 2/2 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 3.5" Health: 4-4-3
Equipment: Cutlass, hook, normal clothes. Pirates will do anything for money. Anything.

Whirlers: Offense: ( 5/5 Defense: 2/1 Range:- Courage: 13 MC: 3.5" Health: 4-3-3
Equipment: Double-bladed spear, leather armor. These skilled warriors whirl double-bladed spears at incredible speed.

Snipers: Offense: (2*) 8*/6* Defense: 2/1 Range: 14" Courage: 13 MC: 3.5" Health: 3-2-1
Does not lose attack dice for being in the red or yellow. (+2) -3/-1 when engaged. Equipment: Crossbow, leather armor. Although these snipers take a long time to aim, their bolts fly with unerring accuracy and unmatched power.

Elite

Arcanists: Offense: (3) 7/7 Defense: 2/1 Range: 17.5" Courage: 14 MC: 3.5" Health: 2-2-2
You may not play command cards when arcanists is attacking. Equipment: Staff, orb, robes. These elusive mages are hard to find, and require a lot of gold to convince them to join your army.

Griffins: Offense: (5) 6/6 Defense: 2/3 Range:- Courage: 14 MC: 5" Health: 6-3-3
Units within a 7" range of the griffins' front center point get C+1. Fearsome. Large. Can fly. These magnificent beasts are part lion, part eagle. They rarely come to war, but when they do, they are fearsome fighters.

Minotaurs: Offense: (5) 5/6 Defense: 1/3 Range:- Courage: 13 MC: 5" Health: 4-4-3
Fearsome. (+0) +0/+1 and +1/+0 when charging (this is in addition to the normal charging bonuses). +2 impact hits when charging. MC: 6" when final rushing or routing. Part-bull, part man, these monsters ravage anything in their way when charging.

Giant War Tortoise: Offense: (4) 5/7 Defense: 1/4 Range: 7" Courage: 14 MC: 2.5" Health: 5-4-4
+3 impact hits when charging. MC: 3.5" when final rushing or routing. Equipment: Rider's whip, magic staffs. Though slow and plodding, these beasts impregnability and the range of magical spells make up for it.

Cyclops: Offense: (5) 5/7 Defense: 1/4 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 5" Health: 7-0-7
You may spend a command action to mark cyclops. It gains a range of 14" for the turn.


If you have any constructive criticism, suggestions, changes to be made, etc. feel free to post.

[Forevernyt]

Vampire- quite obvious... Possibly some kind of self-healing--maybe every 2 points of damage it does in one round of combat it heals a point of damage or something like that?

I would rather see a whole Vampire faction.

Hobgoblin- a goblin that lives in a human house. No less fearsome than the normal type of goblin, and it can be very protective of the family inhabiting the house (no family=no food).

Again, Hobgoblins could be a faction or a unit in a faction of similar creatures.

Griffins- a mutant of an eagle and lion, usually with an eagle's front body, head and wings, and a lions, legs and back body. King of the birds+king of the beasts=what do you expect? King of every animal! (yeah right)

I'm ready for this one.

Wyvern- A dragon that only has two legs. (the name makes it sound like a worm though)
Got this covered as well.

Gargoyle- A monster with wings-somewhat resembles a demon.
Same with this, got it covered.

Werewolves-Obvious enough-humans that turn into wolves on a night with a full moon.
So, looking forward to when I can use my lycanthrope model.

Cyclops- Somehow related to the orcs, ogres, trolls and hideous co. A large one-eyed creature that is supposedly able to shoot beams of light from its eye.

Wasn't he in the X-men? I don't recall the mythological creatures shooting beams from their eyes, but I could be wrong.

Loch Ness monster- Big creature somewhat like Apatosaurus (or any other big sauropod) except that the legs are replaced with flippers.

Actually it would be more like a pleisiosaur. (sorry, kind of a dino freak).

Werewolf - just because I like to share:

[Karasu]

Loch Ness monster- Big creature somewhat like Apatosaurus (or any other big sauropod) except that the legs are replaced with flippers.

Actually it would be more like a pleisiosaur. (sorry, kind of a dino freak).

Hmm, I always liked the idea of him being a Tanystropheus.

Then again, maybe it's just because I like the name   (another dino freak)

[RushAss]

Sphinx- Egyptian animal that has a lion's body and human's head. Asks passerbys riddles to beguille them.

I can see the text on the card now...

"Each combat turn Sphinx asks target unit it is engaged with a riddle or question.  That unit rolls a courage check.  If the check fails, that unit loses 1 attack die for that turn.  Units that are stupid or have a permanent close standing order roll at a -2 penalty."

[Quelmotz]

Sphinx- Egyptian animal that has a lion's body and human's head. Asks passerbys riddles to beguille them.

I can see the text on the card now...

"Each combat turn Sphinx asks target unit it is engaged with a riddle or question.  That unit rolls a courage check.  If the check fails, that unit loses 1 attack die for that turn.  Units that are stupid or have a permanent close standing order roll at a -2 penalty."

Interesting. Although I would say stupid units automatically fail the courage check when engaged with a sphinx.

Any other ideas?

[Chad_YMG]

If we want to incorporate the riddle into the Sphinx I don't think we do it by having it ask them of the units its fighting. 

We could say that a player taking a Sphinx loses his first X command actions, reflecting the idea that instead of being focused on final battle preparations he had to answer riddles in order to keep the Sphinx from deciding he's unworthy and leaving the field.

[RushAss]

Riddle me this, Spearman!

[Quelmotz]

Maybe you could tell me which ones are most suitable, and I might make some stats for them. There are 15 monsters, but I think a set is supposed to have 12.

[Seabass1313]

The problem I can see relates to how rare the monsters are. It's one thing to have an army of relatively cheep hobgoblins. It's another to face off against multiple sphinxes and Loch Ness Monsters...

Also, for the abilities some of the monsters have, the price for each will probably shoot up. While it may be good for a mercenary faction it might not be able to hold its own against a standard faction...

Just my $.02 

[TheJustWiseSage]

Cyclops- Somehow related to the orcs, ogres, trolls and hideous co. A large one-eyed creature that is supposedly able to shoot beams of light from its eye.

Wasn't he in the X-men? I don't recall the mythological creatures shooting beams from their eyes, but I could be wrong.

Sounds like a mix up of two creatures the cyclops (Greek one eyed orge) and Balor, leader of the Fomorians (celtic gaints), whom only had one eye but whose gaze killed those he looked upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balor.

Tim

[Quelmotz]

Cyclops- Somehow related to the orcs, ogres, trolls and hideous co. A large one-eyed creature that is supposedly able to shoot beams of light from its eye.

Wasn't he in the X-men? I don't recall the mythological creatures shooting beams from their eyes, but I could be wrong.

Sounds like a mix up of two creatures the cyclops (Greek one eyed orge) and Balor, leader of the Fomorians (celtic gaints), whom only had one eye but whose gaze killed those he looked upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balor.

Tim

I was probably mistaken about cyclopses in mythology shooting beams from their eyes but I am quite sure a cyclops is an original creature from greek mythology.

[ZiNOS]

Yeah, the Cyclops is more or less an one eyed Ogre, half giant or giant, depending on what you consider a giant. He was about 3-5 metres tall or something. The most famous was Polyfimos which was tricked by Ulysses

[Karasu]

"Nobody has attacked me!  Nobody is getting away!  I have been blinded by Nobody!"

You've get to admit that Odysseus (the original, Greek name) was a right sneaky so-and-so!

Of course I also seem to remember that the Cyclops in episode 1 of Ulysses 35 also shot beams of light out of its eye.

[Quelmotz]

I am working on the stats and abilities for some of the units now. I would appreciate if you give feedback on which units do you think are less/more plausible for an army.

[Quelmotz]

I've made the stats for the units 

With other suckers added in just to fill in the cores/standards. Sad to disappoint forevernyt, but I didn't incorporate the werewolf...well maybe I should...why should I?...*hears forevernyt snarling like a werewolf*...ok...I think I should...*starts writing the stats*......

Werewolves: Offense: (6) 5/6 Defense: 3/1 Range:- Courage: 12 MC: 6" Health: 3-3-3
Fearsome.
All enemy units within a 7" range of the werewolves get C-2.