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Create Your Own Faction (why not)


Nubgan

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I've always wanted a high fantasy army that is made up of a deep sea race. 

So heres my attempt at a new faction!

Melanok Tide

 58cb9076c3b29_maelstromabyss.png.bc5886c5b2fb808cfea75b1ae8b77569.png

[my sketch up of a basic troop]

The Melanok are the horrendous spawn of Mallus, shards of the world that was pierced the oceans deep across the mortal realms. From the dawn of Sigmar's arrival to the realms, hidden civilizations of monstrous creatures and vicious warriors thrive below the wars of chaos, connected by sunken celestial realmgates. As the wars come to an end, new realmgates realign with the old, and the Melanok arrive to the Mortal Realms in the name of conquest!

So basically they're Celestially touched sea life, which evolved to develop kingdoms, as well as integrate with normal sea life through bonding mutations. I envision them seperated into 3 castes, which are non gender specific. 

  1. Melanok Tide Lords
    1. Melanok Harvester - A shaman and tether to the particular shard of mallus the Tide belongs to, allowing them to channel mutations and bonds with sealife. Their role is advisor on field.
    2. Melanok Chimera - A master of combat and the largest of Melanok warrior class. These lords carry an entire army within their skin. They lead the charge and plan mission strategies.
    3. Melanok Lord of Mallus - The first Melanok to emerge from the abyss of a shattered mallus will always lead a kingdom. These Lords are noble kings and queens who have lived for centuries, becoming vessels for celestial power. Whatever the lord wills, the Tide enforces.
  2. Melanok Leviathan Lords
    1. Melanok under this title are worshiped as the carriers of life. They are massive Melanok who carry the spawn kin of the Tide Lords, Ensuring that more warrior class can be raised in the spread for the mortal realms. Leviathan lords are potent seige units, giving them a reputation as symbols of life, and death.
  3. Melanok Warriors
    1. Melanok Tide Warriors - These Melanok come from all walks of deep sea life, taking arms when the kingdom needs it to be so. Even the common class can stand eye to eye with the average stormcast. They can be bonded with lesser sea creatures for added abilities in the unit.
    2. Melanok Wave Runners - Wave Runners are the predators you never see coming. They assail their targets using portals of mystical water, the act of which gives them their name. They are armed with lascerator hooks that can pull enemies out of position.
    3. Melanok Mallus Bound - Very few Melanok have the honor of becoming a Mallus Bound. Exceptional Melanok soldiers may be bestowed weapons and armor forged with shards of Mallus, knights of the kingdom, chosen of the king or queen. These warriors tend to rely on mutating their enemies rather than mutating themselves.

hope that was enjoyable!

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@Teletomas thank you a lot, half my post had disappeared which did not help. Obviously some errors on my part do you input is really appreciated. I won't respond to all points as I am in work but I will take it into account for the next version.

Ps i did not take it as a rant or harsh critique, just excellent input thanks

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18 hours ago, Kosmion said:

Araby basically. Thats all i ever want, mix of arab/persian humans (or some other suiting race would work) with elephants, jihns, flying carpets the whole shebang. 

I wouldn't personally play this, but I would want it to exist.

I imagine it closely resembling the Haradrim from Return of the King (The arab-looking guys with the Oliphants).

Seems like it's pretty easy to make human sized models, it's a different aesthetic. Sandstorm could be a theme.

Plus there's plenty of desert-like options that we don't see much of currently. (Elephants I guess? Not really desert.) Jihns/Genies, Flying Carpets, curses, maybe even tomb-hunters that disturb mummies and curse who ever they get in combat with.

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14 hours ago, Thain said:

Here's my questions for everyone pushing a merfolk army: 

• How do they walk?

• How do they breathe?

• Why do they care what happens on the surface?

melanok2piece.png.6bdbb7404acfac7699498da79e03d848.png

  • Well for my melanok idea, i'd have some of them travel in different ways. Wave runners have tentacled lower halves, traveling through mystic currents, Chimera's stand on humanoid legs, as they constantly shift and mutate to whatever suits their tactics. Your basic Melanok warrior slides through the ground with their fishy lower half through mystic waters too. I'm a big fan of Slardar from Dota 2, so that's where i'm grabbing a lot of inspiration from. Basically the way warcraft does it.
  • The harvesters help them mutate lungs using aquatic life who are capable of doing so, and bonding them to the army. However, this changes from realm to realm, as maybe the requirements for what they breathe and how are different. For example, your basic ghur or ghyranite Melanok will breathe in water, but the Melanok of Chamon and aqshy are completely alien in those traits.
  • The Melanok have been disturbed by the shifting of realmgates by mortals above. They are curious and thirst for new places to conquer as all they have known is the deep. Taking their newly meddled realmgates to the surfaces of the realms, they'll probably meet EVERYTHING with hostility before being added to sigmar's alliances, as they are by origin, made by remnants of the world that was.
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You know, those races are very good but... I think we should follow the trend with Fyreslayers and Kharadron Overlords. Select a thing in the Warhammer Fantasy universe and up it to 11.

 

My pick? Vampire Blood Knights.

A faction of Blood Knights, fusioned with Wizards that use the blood of his enemyes to fight. What kind of big model they can have? Abhorash! Abhorash in the form of a Big Dragon-Knight (Literally, a bypedal dragon-knight ) hybrid with lots and lots of blood.

The concept in my mind was something with a resemblance to this:
pit_lord_by_huussii-d7lmqaz.png

Vampire Knights mountind mini-blooddragons, Knights on foot (Vampires too, obviously),  even Abominations made of pure blood. 

The Fluff can't be easier. A rivalry with Khorne, you know, he has the monopoly of blood for too long.

Death its the Alliance that need more variation in its themes. And need it fast! 

Edited by Galas
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On 3/16/2017 at 8:56 PM, Gecktron said:

Interesting, I had a similar idea after seeing that kickstarter. But I thought that they would make a fine cathay army. Ninjas and Samurais tend to outshine its neighbours, even though medieval china has a rich history aswell.

These minitures gave me enough motivation to try to make my own warscrolls.

I have made two until now, one inspired by medieval warrior monks and the Shaolin. And one thats just the Chu Ko Nu repeater crossbows transported to the mortal realms. I even have a rough idea for a background story thats more than just basicly chinease history. 

Maybe putting them into GA: Chaos, as tzeentch was know to be openly worshipped by some parts of old cathay. 

58caeaf772c9a_2017_02.27ChuKoNupng.png.eda54d0fb83bc42719118ccb386344c9.png

This is just my first attempt for a completely fan made unit, so Im not sure in which direction I want to take this. But I thought about intergrating some kind of order system like the AM in 40K to show how highly disciplined cathays troops are.

I would just take the repeating crossbow rules from the dark shards . Change the movement a bit but then you should be set (and you have a reference points value). Love the 'Death by thousand cuts' title :D 

58ce64b87f93b_ScreenShot2017-03-19at11_58_54.png.ec75e1b615a574aecf322933ae701f86.png

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Whilst I think most nautical-themed factions are cool - I think the beauty of Age of Sigmar is how GW have taken older and more generic forces, chucked in a load of wacky new concept and come up with something that is still distinctly Warhammer-y yet fresh and new.

Example, the Merfolk concepts on this thread are great and I can see the effort put into that, but wouldn't they be better as highly-evolved remnants of whatever those sea-based High Elves were called? I was never much of an Elf fan before Age of Sigmar, so the name escapes me! Lothern Sea Guard or something?

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14 minutes ago, Circus of Paint said:

[...]

Example, the Merfolk concepts on this thread are great and I can see the effort put into that, but wouldn't they be better as highly-evolved remnants of whatever those sea-based High Elves were called? I was never much of an Elf fan before Age of Sigmar, so the name escapes me! Lothern Sea Guard or something?

Yes, the Lothern Sea Guard was part of the High Elves.
But there was also a whole race of Sea elves once in the world-that-was.

http://whfb.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sea_Elves_(outdated)

AoS could be the perfect opportunity to bring them back. Or somehow incorprate them into existing factions like the swifthawk agents or the scourge privateers.

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  • 1 month later...

I, for one, would like to see Arabs and medieval Persians as well, it's a great theme - like in the Rise of Legends video game, for instance. Other than that, I agree too, that sea races could be helpful - we have ground and now aerial forces, but don't have underwater ones.

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6 minutes ago, Menkeroth said:

I, for one, would like to see Arabs and medieval Persians as well, it's a great theme - like in the Rise of Legends video game, for instance. Other than that, I agree too, that sea races could be helpful - we have ground and now aerial forces, but don't have underwater ones.

Going further on that sentiment I would love it if it also impacted gameplay. So maybe turning Skaven Verminus/Moulder/skryre into a underground assault force. Big mole like creatures digging up during the course of the battle (visual- bigger broodhorror) with the classical Skaven randomness added to it. hordes of weak skaven pouring out of those holes. Could tie in to their fluff of being the only race capable of creating gateways between the realms. 

I find it hard to invision something like that with a 'Water' theme but it would certainly be cool. 

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58 minutes ago, Kramer said:

Going further on that sentiment I would love it if it also impacted gameplay. So maybe turning Skaven Verminus/Moulder/skryre into a underground assault force. Big mole like creatures digging up during the course of the battle (visual- bigger broodhorror) with the classical Skaven randomness added to it. hordes of weak skaven pouring out of those holes. Could tie in to their fluff of being the only race capable of creating gateways between the realms. 

 

I guess it could be so when GW gets to the skaven battletomes (apart from already existing clans Pestilens tome, of course). 

59 minutes ago, Kramer said:

I find it hard to invision something like that with a 'Water' theme but it would certainly be cool. 

Bestimmt. Water forces certainly have some troubles in games quite often, though some of them feature very lovely ones - Dominions with R'lyeh, Atlantis and Oceania,Warlock 2 with Wrath of Nagas DLC etc. Maybe something like turning the table into water with bonuses for aquatic beings and penalties for ground ones (but flying units will be unaffected). Then the magic of aquatic priests would be to change the landscape?

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my fraction that i will eventually convert will be the Fireborn. a unique race of men that were abandoned in the fire realm. overtime thier skin turned to stone, and lava replaced the blood. They live in black temples of unknown origens, the leader of them of was the first Fireborn in existence, Drath-Knar.

They do not use conventional weaponry, prefering to use weapons made out of obsidion as normal weapons would merely melt in thier hands.

It is unclear, how they came to be, but multiple sighting have shown massive 2-headed turtles that spew fire advancing with the Fireborn.

They are generally a race that keeps to themselves, with them being able to escape chaos due to the sheer amount of lava in the  lands making it unbearable to be in even for chaos warriors.

 

 

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I would like to see a new Duardin (dwarf) faction. We have fire-vikings, we have sky-pirates, and we have the remnants of the Old World. Each of those factions fit into several of the tropes of Dwarves from Fantasy fiction, so let's go another way: Deep Duardin. The skies are taken, but what lurks below?

My idea is a faction of Duardin that have been digging their way around and creating subterranean cities and realms. Like Moria from Tolkien combined with the Dwarves from Dragon Age, they dig deep, and most have never seen the sky. They utilize some nasty monsters (I would aesthetically base them on real-life cave dwelling animals), have some kind of drill tank(s), and make use of golems.

I would also like to see another faction of Elves. We have seen plenty of High, Wood, and Dark versions before, what about something else? Nothing particular comes to mind, but a new Elf faction would be a good way to bring Tyrion/Teclis back as super-beings.

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I would love an asian themed army with ninja, samurai, warrior monks, oriental style dragons, etc. But that already seems to be a popular choice. So I'll add something else to the mix.

 

Imagine a were-beast army. I picture these being nomadic barbarian-style human tribes. Each warrior has a special affinity with a certain animal spirit which they can transform into during battle. Their armies would include regular barbarian human units along with more elite were-beast units. A possible play mechanic might be for the human units to have the ability to transform into their beast form during battle; perhaps when they fail their battleshock rolls, instead of fleeing, the warriors are enraged into a frenzy and transform into their beast form.

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The Cults of the Barrow Kings.

In the lands of the dead, mortals can find themselves lost and out of place. Interring their ancestors into giant barrows, the cults of the barrow kings provide them with an intermediary to the God of the Dead.

Acting as priests, mentors and protectors, the ancestors of the mortals guide them through life so that they can become productive members of the deathly procession.

The idea is to have mortals fighting alongside the dead. Skeletons and the like will be the elite as they're old and angry and suffused by the power of Shyish. The mortal units will have multiple wound bases to represent the ancestor and his descendant, but shouldn't be elite powerful units.

Eld feared (elder fjord)
The militia of the cult. They carry a fetish of their ancestor which allows one of the minor ancestral priests to accompany them.
    2 Wounds, representing a man with his spirit ancestor.
    1 attack = 1/5+/5+/-1/1
    1 attack = Guy with spear

    Shouldn't be much more effective than a normal milita man.

Eld carls (Carls of the elders)
The 'elite' battleline unit. They wear the bones of the ancestors, now becoming steel-hard after being infused with the energy of violent deatrhs. Carrying glaives made of the bones of the ancestor.

    2 Wounds. A reasonable save (4+)?
    Similar attacks as the eld feared but with a better attack for the carl.

Bone sacrementals (Bone priests)
Minor priests. A man wearing bone armour. The armour will have it's own arms as it is becoming able to fight on it's own.

    4 wounds, losing ancestor bonus after 2 wounds.
    Ancestor bonus: Extra movement due to anscestor. 2 rending attacks.
    Minor mortal attack, but generally used to restore and reintegrate ancestors
      for the battlelines. Can restore 1 wound to d3 units each.

Eld guard (Elder guards)
After many mortal lifetimes being carried into battle, the elders can now enter battle themselves.

    2 Wounds, reasonable save. No reduction in capability as they take wounds
    Should be able to go toe-to-toe with a Stormcast.

Barrow King
A Wight king effectively. Should be capable in combat, but as a major priest of the cult will exhort mortals and guard to greater hights.

Mysteriarch
The High Priest of the Cult. Large and combat-capable priest with prayers to Nagash. A mortal who had all the bones of previous Mysteriarch implanted into him. Swollen with the power of Shyish, multiple arms spreading from his back.

    8 wounds, reducing ancestor bonus after every 2 wounds.
    Capable of taking on chaff units, not a monster killer.

The King Under The Barrow
Most barrows will have accreted around a warrior, fallen in battle defending the World That Was. Many will be the channel between the ancestors and Nagash, some though are biding they time waiting for the time to strike, others are still fighting the old battles. Should provide the mystery and uncertainty about loyalties that every army needs.

This guy should be Ogre-big and scary. Not a chaff-slayer, but will go one-to-one against other combat beasts.
  

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5 hours ago, Dorimant said:

The Cults of the Barrow Kings.

In the lands of the dead, mortals can find themselves lost and out of place. Interring their ancestors into giant barrows, the cults of the barrow kings provide them with an intermediary to the God of the Dead.

Acting as priests, mentors and protectors, the ancestors of the mortals guide them through life so that they can become productive members of the deathly procession.

The idea is to have mortals fighting alongside the dead. Skeletons and the like will be the elite as they're old and angry and suffused by the power of Shyish. The mortal units will have multiple wound bases to represent the ancestor and his descendant, but shouldn't be elite powerful units.

Eld feared (elder fjord)
The militia of the cult. They carry a fetish of their ancestor which allows one of the minor ancestral priests to accompany them.
    2 Wounds, representing a man with his spirit ancestor.
    1 attack = 1/5+/5+/-1/1
    1 attack = Guy with spear

    Shouldn't be much more effective than a normal milita man.

Eld carls (Carls of the elders)
The 'elite' battleline unit. They wear the bones of the ancestors, now becoming steel-hard after being infused with the energy of violent deatrhs. Carrying glaives made of the bones of the ancestor.

    2 Wounds. A reasonable save (4+)?
    Similar attacks as the eld feared but with a better attack for the carl.

Bone sacrementals (Bone priests)
Minor priests. A man wearing bone armour. The armour will have it's own arms as it is becoming able to fight on it's own.

    4 wounds, losing ancestor bonus after 2 wounds.
    Ancestor bonus: Extra movement due to anscestor. 2 rending attacks.
    Minor mortal attack, but generally used to restore and reintegrate ancestors
      for the battlelines. Can restore 1 wound to d3 units each.

Eld guard (Elder guards)
After many mortal lifetimes being carried into battle, the elders can now enter battle themselves.

    2 Wounds, reasonable save. No reduction in capability as they take wounds
    Should be able to go toe-to-toe with a Stormcast.

Barrow King
A Wight king effectively. Should be capable in combat, but as a major priest of the cult will exhort mortals and guard to greater hights.

Mysteriarch
The High Priest of the Cult. Large and combat-capable priest with prayers to Nagash. A mortal who had all the bones of previous Mysteriarch implanted into him. Swollen with the power of Shyish, multiple arms spreading from his back.

    8 wounds, reducing ancestor bonus after every 2 wounds.
    Capable of taking on chaff units, not a monster killer.

The King Under The Barrow
Most barrows will have accreted around a warrior, fallen in battle defending the World That Was. Many will be the channel between the ancestors and Nagash, some though are biding they time waiting for the time to strike, others are still fighting the old battles. Should provide the mystery and uncertainty about loyalties that every army needs.

This guy should be Ogre-big and scary. Not a chaff-slayer, but will go one-to-one against other combat beasts.
  

I love your idea. But I wonder if you couldn't just do this already by mixing models from the Death line with some of the priests and flagellants of the Devoted of Sigmar faction. Sure, you wouldn't get the special bonuses of the units you came up with, but you could have the whole backstory. I would love if one of the locals had an army like that in my area.

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On 17/03/2017 at 7:41 AM, Praecautus said:

Voodoo Zombie Cult

thid is somewhat like a genestealer cult

A great spirit known as a Kongo Loa had infected a town, taking over a charismatic individual and moulding them to their image. The Kongo loa has started a cult of death worshipping mortals who believe in the power of the spirits and that becoming a zombie allows them to commune with the spirits of their ancestors, gaining power.

Beneath the Kongo Loa leader are

Voodoo Priests who use voodoo dolls to damage and debuff enemy heroes as well as unbind

Bokor darkmagicians who channels the energy of the spirits to create power spells and illusions.

city guard who have been dragged into the cult. Some standard cheap troops.

Supplicants crazed mortal dancers who attack with a flurry of blows. Quite weak but At any point in the battle supplicants can be converted to voodoo zombies. This is a one way change done at the order of a leader.

Voodoo zombies a very very slow but very hard to shift unit. Perfect for holding an objective

death dancers are a specialist infantry unit - great at hand to hand combat and very very fast but expensive. Death dancers can change in a battle to a ghede loa spirit host whereby they lose some powers  but become harder to kill. They have become possessed by the spirits so it is a one way hangs.

Cacophonists a unit of musicians who can buff nearby units to greater heights of frenzy while debugging enemy units due to the confusion caused by their music. The more musicians the wider and more potent the buff/debuff.

Loa summonable spirits - these possess units so they replace a unit with the new spirit unit

Rada Lia which can cast spells, possess a hero and add spell cast power

Petro Lia who is a combat spirit, possesses a hero and  provide combat power 

Ghede a swarm of spirits. These can only be brought in by possession of death dancers. They cause the dancers to lose some powers but gain save and maybe other powers.

bit of a melee magic force  with no obvious range (maybe city guard?) but with the unique point of some units being converted to another type mid battle and some debuff fun. I see them as a brightly coloured force charging across the table to cause damage with some units being changed at key points in the battle.

I'd say this is fine with one exception remove the voodoo dolls actual voodoo priests/queens don't use them they come from witch craft not voodoo.

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