Halflings!

[Mr. White]

(Imagination thread)

With AoS being an opportunity for GW to rebrand it's factions by zooming in and cranking to 11 some of their more iconic units...what would that mean for Halflings?

Will they ever make an appearance?

If they did, how would GW theme and dress them up for the Mortal Realms? What would set these new halflings apart from what other companies and settings have done? I doubt they would go the traditional Tolkien way. Halflings as savage barbarians was done by TSR (and doesn't seem related at all to Old World hobbits). So, what could be done?

[Rogue Explorator]

Well, assuming there are any, there are probably some who survived the Age of Chaos mostly in Azyr scattered in the Free Cities and other settlements of Order fulfilling much the same role as they did in the World-That-Was, being useful for their food skills, making some ill gains on the side and trying not to show up for wartimes. These would be interesting for Roleplay, skirmish and maybe provide a unit or two for Free Peoples/Free Cities forces, but over all staying inconsequential for mainline AoS.

 

If they where to show up as a full faction and be made interesting, I would really like to see them in Destruction. This may seem odd at first, but it actually would make a lot of sense in the context of AoS.

For starters, there is their amoral character. While Warhammer Halflings might really enjoy the easy living of civilization, they are also egoistical, shortsighted buggers that mostly care for their own comfort and full belly. In a time such as the Age of Chaos that would quickly develop into an unapologetic "take what you can get" way of life. One they then would be unwilling to change come the Age of Sigmar.

Then there is their relation and natural synergy with Ogres. In the World-That-Was, Halflings and ogres where closely related, created at about the same time, from likely the same source and with similar qualities. Even in WHFB where they where for the most part kept apart by geography there where numerous instances of individual Halflings and Ogres more or less teaming up and even one instance of an Ogre Tribe completely replacing its Gnoblars with Halflings. In the Mortal Realms, "everyone is everywhere" allowing for far more instances of great numbers of the two to meet. And in the Age of Chaos, where there where no forcess of Order to hide behind, Ogres would actually be Halflings best bet of Survival. Yes, they will occasionally eat or squish them, but only by accident or because there was nothing else to eat. All in all, Halflings are just more useful to Ogres alive than dead and Ogres (or Ogors) are just about smart (and glutonous) enough to realize it. They would have to be more cautious around orruks, grots and troggoths, but I could see them following Waaaghs at a safe distance, picking over the devastated areas for all food and livestock their inattentive predecessors left over with little to no resistance.

As for Halflings fitting with the theme of Destruction with a capital D, they may not be a military threat, but they could be a real environmental hazard. They would be like a plague of lokusts, their migrations clearing the areas they move through of absolutely everything edible, particularly if they migrate as part of a tribe of ravenous Gutbusters or trailing after a Greenskin Waaagh.

I would not imagine them as barbaric per se (I agree that barbarian Halflings have been played out by D&D, not just in Dark Sun, Eberron as them as well), just very irresponsible nomads.

That is the most interesting variant I can think of. If that is still not be enough to carry a full faction, I could see them replacing Gnoblars among Gutbusters, with the option to play a "Gutbusters" army mostly or entirely made of Halflings.

 

[Mr. White]

^ Cool take!

[DarkWingDuck]

IIRC, Old World Halflings were also almost complete immune to the corrupting effects of Chaos. It's thought they were created by the Old Ones as an answer/remedy/weapon against the Ruinous Powers, but that they never finished the project. Since Ogres were created at the same time, it's speculated that the two were to be combined at some point and a powerful anti-chaos creature would be created.

Rogue Explorator already talked about the Ogre/Halfling similarities, how about Sigmar weaponizing Halflings against Chaos. A Halfling might be able to "deal with"/guard/wield chaos tainted objects with little to no corruption. Azyr Halfling Witchhunter bands! Complete with the big hats and brace of pistols.

[JPjr]

In actual battle terms I'd have them as spies, spotters and scouting troops for a combined Free Peoples force, they could do things like provide ranged troops with shooting bonuses or allow out of line of sight attacks, something like that.

Or they bring back the glory of the WHFB 3rd edition, the baggage train, and they can (half-)man that in fancy chefs hats.

[JPjr]

Actually if we're going to AoS them and turn it up to 11, I wouldn't just have them in OTT wide brimmed hat renaissance spy costumes, I'd also have them rigged up with some kind of da Vinci'esque hanglider contraption so they can fly around the table, spotting enemy troops for your artillery units and dropping bombs on the troops below.

With the new aerial rules we need more flyers so I'd be down with a halfling Air Force.

[Ragnar Alpaca]

In my opinion I say no, I don’t see how they could add anything to any army, so think they should stay away from adding Hobbits.

[Kronos]

I second a Halfling destruction force. I always wanted to do a halfing army, before the moot and the world undetneath was destroyed.

I imagined Halfings as somewhere inbetween Flesh Eater Courts and Beastclaw raiders. Lots hatchets and cleavers, skinned decor. Just truly wicked creatures with little paunches. And Im sure Gw could do a great hot pot reinvention like they did with the black coach. and some goat riders too. 

 

 

[AKING]

While there may not be an official halfling army, there is nothing stopping you from making your own and playing it as Free Peoples!

Check out my blog on that:

 

[flamingwalnut]

Halflings were also a bit too plain and goofy for me. Sure, Hobbits worked in context, and when you needed comedy, they were easy. But Goblins/Grots do that as well AND are vicious, conniving and uncaring. So, halflings in Destruction is just reskinned goblins that need to catch up on the humor and madness.

Now, for Order...perhaps. Personally I would have loved a HARD push of them to be a weird Fae counterpart. Take old English trickster folklore, add lots of pagan rituals and ranger-clanfolk ideas, sprinkle in a bit of over-the-top tinkerer ideas from Warcraft's Gnomes, and you could have a fun and crazy, but a bit more...Order, counterpart to Grots.

On a side note, I had kind of hoped the Kharadron Overlords would be halfling/gnomes, but that may just be my Warcraft nerd showing.

[kenshin620]

Take a leaf out of 40k and give all halflings SIDEBURNS! ?

 

In all seriousness I think haflings exist in AoS, I mean AoS's world is far bigger than the world that was. Its basically like a mini section of a 40k galaxy!

But I'm sure much like in WFB, their numbers and combat prowess may not be big enough to have standing armies outside of mixing militia with the rest of a Free City.

[Lior'Lec]

     Interesting ideas here, but what i’d like to throw in the mix is the same thing I’d like to see done with Fyreslayers: Grand Alliance neutral or at least flexible. I think a fifth, neutral, alliance that doesn’t have any alliegence abilities of their own but can ally with a couple of different grand alliances would make the game more interesting and fit with the fluff of the Fyreslayers’ mercenary lore. 

     For halflings (hobbits are still copyright protected) having a limited number of support units that could ally with Order or Destruction (even if only parts of them) would make for an interesting faction. For fyreslayers you could expand on their ally list (Order and Death or maybe just specific legions) and let them be one of a limited few “neutral alliance” armies which could make an actual army on their own (and thereby having their own alliegence abilities).

[MacDuff]

I think Sigmar had a few of them in his pockets when he was flung into the void. So naturally he forged them into Mini Stormcast. Sure, they only have 1 wound and their stats are nerfed, but their crossbows are deadly and their forked-shaped tridents strike deep.

[MacDuff]

It looks like another of my brilliant ideas killed a perfectly good thread. Sorry!

[Sharkbelly]

Freeguild is definitely the way to go.

[kenshin620]

9 hours ago, MacDuff said:

It looks like another of my brilliant ideas killed a perfectly good thread. Sorry!

It's less that and more Halflings being one of the less interesting parts of warhammer. It is hard to go "yup they are a proper fleshed out warhammer race and totally not just copy pasted from LOTR/D&D". They only really lived in one place in large numbers (the moot) and their uniqueness was...they fought with food cooking equipment. Sure they were immune to chaos...but doesn't really matter if you're as tall as a dwarf and as powerful as a goblin, without the benefits of either of them.

I mean theres a reason why they never really got much attention in oldhammer, with one of the last things they got was the Mercenaries units.

Could they get reinvented in AoS? Maybe. But I get the feeling GW would prefer something more heroic or destructive. Like Fish People!

[Lior'Lec]

5 hours ago, kenshin620 said:

But I get the feeling GW would prefer something more heroic or destructive. Like Fish People!

     Look, my wallet can only handle so many cool ideas and new toys before it starts to strain... you’re hurting the poor guy here, quit giving them even more ideas to leach my money away. But fish people do sound good, give me some destruction aquatic forces to eat... I mean beat the deep kin.

[MacDuff]

Are fish people better to eat if they're breaded, deep fried, or grilled?

[kenshin620]

37 minutes ago, MacDuff said:

Are fish people better to eat if they're breaded, deep fried, or grilled?

Probably have to ask the Halflings! ?

[Remus Prime]

Haelflings?  Haubittes?  I think there’s a chance there may be a squad or something if they do a “free cities” battletome, or maybe just a character.  I think destruction has enough tiny guys for now.

[AssistantRegionalManager]

I agree - I had a 3,000 pt WHFB Halfling army, looking to convert into something for AoS I could still use. In that sense, it would be a free people army. To see them officially there would be great. I think if you didn't fall in love with them in WHFB and their quirkyness - then you might not see the benefit of them returning now?

[Orsino]

I genuinely like the idea of tiny Stormcast, if halflings are gonna appear in AoS it will hopefully be a weird new take on them like that.