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Gloamspire: A Custom City of Sigmar


OkayestDM

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Greetings all!

This is  vanity project that I've been fiddling with off and on for a while, and finally sat down and did some crunching to try to give it some rules. I'm trying to make sure that the rules fit the city thematically- but also that I don't go overboard and make things too overpowered. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the rules I have in mind, perhaps a bit of backstory on the city would help!

 

Gloamspire is a city caught between two realms. Unlike Hammerhal, which occupies two realms simultaneously via a realmgate, Gloamspire is only ever in one realm at a time, but bounces back and forth between Ulgu and Shyish seemingly at random. This strange anomaly was first discovered by Wanderers of Ulgu during the Age of Chaos, who preferred to avoid the area rather than risk suddenly being transported from one realm to another.  With the coming of the Age of Sigmar and the arrival of the Collegiate Arcane in the Mortal Realms, this strange anomaly generated profound interest.  They petitioned the God-King to grant them the protection of his Stormcast Eternals as they unlocked the secrets of the magic at work there, and Sigmar agreed.

It wasn't long before what began as a glorified research encampment blossomed into a full-blown city, particularly when the Collegiate Arcane began to suggest that they could predict - and possibly even learn to control - the region's ability to shift between the two realms. The growing city eventually became home to the Wanderers that had originally discovered it, who now thought to use it as a safe haven to venture forth from. It also attracted a large force of Phoenix Guard hailing from Shyish known as the Brotherhood of Whispers, who looked to the city as a safe haven to be protected.

Now, as the Lumineth Realmlords deem to join in the struggle against the forces that threaten the Mortal Realms, they have sent a large contingent of troops led by one of their most powerful wizards to shore up the cities defenses, and apply their superior arcane acumen to unlocking the secret of understanding and controlling the strange magical forces that move this city between realms. After all, if they can discover and control how to move a city between two specific realms, what's to stop them from learning to move it to any realm they choose?

 

Relevant Heroes

Alishar:  An enigmatic figure who leads the Shadowblades that reside in Gloamspire. Alishar is actually not one, but two people. Originally from Teclis's aelves of Iliatha, the two fled from their home after murdering a powerful mage who they had learned was succumbing to the lure of Tzeentch's magical power. Unfortunately, the mage they slew had covered his tracks cunningly, even his twin didn't know of his corruption, and the Alishars fled rather than risk facing the surviving twin's wrath.

Talion and Elthalar: These aelven brothers fought and died against forces of the Beasts of Chaos in Shyish, but were returned from the brink by the Ur-Phoenix to continue the fight as leaders of the Whispering Brotherhood. Unlike most Phoenix Guard, the Brotherhood of Whispers are not silent in the face of their enemies. As their name implies, they can speak, though only in hushed whispers. Nevertheless, whomever they choose to address can always hear their words, even over impossible distances. This is believed to be tied to their life and death in the realm of Shyish, but neither the Brotherhood or their Whispering Lords have ever substantiated that theory.

Zalar: An incomparable wizard hailing from the Hyshian Great Nation of Iliatha, Zalar leads the Lumineth Realmlord contingent that has taken up residence in the city. Supremely confident in his own abilities, particularly in comparison to his peers within the city, Zalar has positioned himself as the leader of all research into understanding and controlling the cities Realm-hopping abilities, and has quickly insinuated himself into  an influential role among Gloamspire's Council of Defenders. Outside of his roles within the city however, Zalar is reclusive and withdrawn, locking himself away in his tower to study. It is peculiar that, despite being from Iliatha, there is no evidence of Zalar having a twin.

There are other characters planned, but I haven't developed them much yet.

 

Now that the lore is explained, here's a first draft of the City's rules: (these are very much a work in progress and I'd love any feedback or critiques. I've broken a few conventions with these rules for the sake of fun and flavor, but I really want the force to be fairly well balanced and fun to play with/against. Please feel free to point out any potential exploits you spot so I can tweak them.)

GLOAMSPIRE BATTLETRAITS: Alliance of Defenders

Death and Shadow: Gloamspire flits between two realms, never remaining in one for very long. A Gloamspire army can be from either Ulgu or Shyish.

Lights in the Darkness: Though a more recent addition, the Lumineth Realmlords have become a powerful influence within the city.  A Gloamspire army can include LUMINETH REALMLORD units. 1 in every 4 units in an army can be LUMINETH REALMLORD units. These units gain the CITIES OF SIGMAR keyword and the GLOAMSPIRE keyword.

Inured to Fear: The terrors of both Ulgu and Shyish have made the people of Gloamspire stalwart indeed. The Bravery characteristic of friendly GLOAMSPIRE units cannot be reduced by any means.

Irresistible Arcana: The Collegiate Arcane can sometimes manipulate the forces of magic to ensure success, but doing so always comes at a cost. If a Gloamspire BATTLEMAGE unit attempts to cast, unbind, or dispel and the roll result is a double, they may choose to treat that roll as the exact result needed for the casting, unbinding, or dispelling to be a success. If they use this ability when casting a spell, that spell cannot be unbound. In addition, if they choose to use this ability - after the casting, unbinding, or dispeling has been resolved - they immediately suffer D3 mortal wounds.

Raiding Parties: With the city of Gloamspire constantly flitting between realms, the forces they send abroad always prioritize locating and securing essential resources quickly and efficiently. The first time your army gains control of an objective, you immediately receive 1 command point.

Command Ability - Fade and Strike: Fighting in Ulgu has trained the warriors of Gloamspire in the art of weaving in and out of combat.  You can use this command ability in your movement phase. If you do so, pick one friendly GLOAMSPIRE unit wholly within 12" of a friendly GLOAMSPIRE hero. That unit may retreat and still charge later in the same turn.

GLOAMSPIRE COMMAND TRAITS: Council of Defenders

Whispered Word: This general has learned from the Brotherhood of Whispers, and can leverage their unique gift on the battlefield. When using a command ability - instead of using that command ability's normal range rules - this general may select a single friendly GLOAMSPIRE unit anywhere on the board, so long as they can draw line of sight to every model in that unit. That unit counts as being wholly within range of this hero's  Command Abilities.

Grim Determination: Time fighting in the realms of Shadow and Death have left their mark on this general,  who ensures that nearby forces make their strikes count. You may reroll wound rolls of 1 for attacks made by friendly GLOAMSPIRE units wholly within 12" of this general.

Deception and Cunning: This general believes that discretion is the better part of valor. Subtract 1 from hit rolls for melee attacks that target this general. In addition, once per game, if an enemy unit completes a charge move within 1" of this general, you may immediately move this general up to 6". You must complete this move more than 3" away from any enemy units.

GLOAMSPIRE ARTEFACTS OF POWER: Treasures of Gloamspire

Nadarite Blade Trophy: Retrieved from the battlefields of Shyish, this blade can steal an opponent's life-force.  Select one of this hero's melee weapons. An unmodified 6 to hit with that weapon generates 2 hits instead of 1. Make a wound and save roll for each hit.

Tome of Arcane Mastery: A book of powerful magical secrets. A hero with this relic gains the BATTLEMAGE keyword. If the bearer is a WIZARD, they know an additional spell from the Lore of the Spire. If the bearer is not a WIZARD, they know 1 spell from the Lore of the Spire and can attempt to cast it in your hero phase.

Gloaming Armor: This shadowy armor seems to blunt the force off both blade and bow. If the weapon used for an attack that targets the bearer has a Rend characteristic of -1, change the rend characteristic for that attack to '-'.

THE GLOAMSPIRE SPELL LORES: Lore of the Spire (I'm not certain if the casting values for these spells are well balanced. Feedback would be much appreciated.)

Shadow of Death: Drawing upon the nature of both Shyish and Ulgu, the caster shields their allies from harm. Shadow of Death has a casting value of 6. If successfully cast, select a friendly GLOAMSPIRE unit wholly within 18" of the caster and roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to that unit. on a 6+, that wound or mortal wound is negated.

Unnatural Terror: This wizard draws upon the dual terrors of death and shadow to demoralize the enemy. Unnatural Terror has a casting value of 7. If successfully cast, select an enemy unit within 15" of the caster. Until your next hero phase, that unit has -2 bravery.

Mists of Ulgu: The caster draws upon the powers of the Realm of Shadow to move their allies into striking position. Mists of Ulgu has a casting value of 8. If successfully cast, pick one friendly GLOAMSPIRE unit wholly with 18" of the caster that is visible to them and more than 3" away from any enemy units. Remove that unit from the battlefield and set it up anywhere on the battlefield more that 7" from any enemy units. It may not move in the subsequent movement phase.

Edited by OkayestDM
Rules tweaking.
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  • 1 month later...

Designing custom Free Cities is all the rage now! 😃 Will love to see this in a nice PDF with a bit of background lore at some point.

I think your Battle Traits could afford to be a bit stronger... Especially your +1 to cast when compared to things like Hallowheart. But keeping that feel of Ulgu-Shyish will be important 👍

Actually I think the "Whispered Word" trait could even work well as a main Battle trait, as it would define the army...

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11 hours ago, Nuno M said:

Designing custom Free Cities is all the rage now! 😃 Will love to see this in a nice PDF with a bit of background lore at some point.

I think your Battle Traits could afford to be a bit stronger... Especially your +1 to cast when compared to things like Hallowheart. But keeping that feel of Ulgu-Shyish will be important 👍

Actually I think the "Whispered Word" trait could even work well as a main Battle trait, as it would define the army...

Conversely The Whispered Word is the only part that gives me cause for concern, mostly I'm thinking area of effect command abilities such as a Nomad Prince essentially giving board wide buffs with a +1 to hit due to the low LOS blocking terrain density of the setting.  I would add the specific caveat that this ability only benefits command abilities that specify a unit to buff, rather than risk area of effect abilities becoming too potent.

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12 hours ago, Nuno M said:

😃

I think your Battle Traits could afford to be a bit stronger... Especially your +1 to cast when compared to things like Hallowheart. But keeping that feel of Ulgu-Shyish will be important 👍

Actually I think the "Whispered Word" trait could even work well as a main Battle trait, as it would define the army...

I deliberately chose to exercise restraint with the battle traits until I had the chance to run it through its paces. It's really easy to go overboard with those kinds of things, and I don't necessarily need this city to be competitive, just fun.

The +1 to cast bonus was kept weaker specifically so it wouldn't step on the toes of Hallowheart, and becomes more usable if you take the Tome of Arcane Mastery artifact.

Whispered Word is one of the more powerful options on the list, which is one of the reasons it was relegated to a command trait. The other reason is that the Phoenix Guard are only supposed to be one of many parts that make up Gloamspire, and making that a city trait would have implied that they played a far more dominant role than they do.

1 hour ago, Melcavuk said:

Conversely The Whispered Word is the only part that gives me cause for concern, mostly I'm thinking area of effect command abilities such as a Nomad Prince essentially giving board wide buffs with a +1 to hit due to the low LOS blocking terrain density of the setting.  I would add the specific caveat that this ability only benefits command abilities that specify a unit to buff, rather than risk area of effect abilities becoming too potent.

That's a fair point, particularly because the city was made specifically with Wanderers in mind. 

I usually play with more densely populated terrain on my tables, and this ability was meant to increase the utility of slower foot heroes like the Nomad Prince, but I hadn't considered how OP that ability might be under different circumstances. That's definitely not what I'm going for, and I'll have to make some adjustments.

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agreed with Melcavuk, yes. Restricting to Abilities affecting only 1 unit would fully retain the value of the ability as intended, plus its a short simple description to understand.

My suggestion with the +1 to cast was more... when designing the traits that will make Gloamspire 'feel' Gloamspire... its better to lean on something exclusive in than to make a budget version of another city.
But maybe im underestimating that +1 to Bravery and that retreat+charge ability when combined w Lumineth as 1/4 of the army 😉. And the whole package works well after all.

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On 9/9/2020 at 11:42 AM, Nuno M said:

But maybe im underestimating that +1 to Bravery and that retreat+charge ability when combined w Lumineth as 1/4 of the army 😉. And the whole package works well after all.

Well that's the tricky part. Until I test it out I won't really know just how good everything is.

+1 to bravery isn't a terribly exciting bonus, but over the course of a game can prove to be a big deal. 

The retreat and charge is where I think the money is at, particularly if combined with cavalry units, which typically do much better on the charge.

As for the +1 to magic, I'm definitely open to other options. The idea is to show that the Collegiate Arcane has sent the best (or perhaps most knowledgeable) of their mages to the city. The occasional +1 to magic is meant to represent that Eureka moment when one of those mages gets their act together and pulls off something profound.

Before I sat down to make the city traits, I looked over the other cities to see if there was a pattern to the traits that were given to them. Within the variation, there were some consistencies. First, every city got a mild but consistent and dependable buff (+1 to run in Tempest Eye, heal 1 in Living Cities.) Second, most cities got a situational ability that was somehow tied to models or units (Runelord Prayer in Greywater Fastness, bonus in combat when a unit is slain in Phonecium.) Finally, every faction got a unique command ability.

Some factions got one or two additional bonuses, but again I figured better to start cautiously and add on after the fact.

With regards to Whispered Word ability, I might tweak it so that if you choose to use it on a unit out of range, you can only ever affect a single unit, regardless of whether of not the command ability is single target or area of effect. I'd just have to figure out the verbage for that in rules-speak.

Edited by OkayestDM
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Finally came back to tweak this.

- Reworked Inured to Fear to make it more unique (and a little more powerful.)

- Replaced Arcane Inspiration with Irresistible Arcana. The power is still fairly random, and now comes with a drawback, but it should also be a bit more interesting.

- Added the Raiding Parties city feature (not really satisfied with the name, but it'll do for now.) I wanted something more interactive than the other two traits, and something that helped portray the fact that - with the city teleporting hither and thither- securing essential resources was a top priority for Gloamspire.

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