Beastmen

[zdsdead]

What about a beastman faction?


I personally love these guys, Cloven hooves goat heads, other beast type heads, mutations etc
I love the thought of an albino type magical beastman
Could have plenty in there already mentioned in many other lists.

Generic beastmen (goat heads)
Minotaurs
Centaurs
werewolves
bears (possible Cavalry)
wolves (possible Cavalry)
boars (possible Cavalry)
giant spiders (possible Cavalry)
cyclops
etins
Trolls

Just like the Darker side of the forest ;-)

Im sure theres loads more too.

[Asmodai]

I'm not sure what the functional difference would be between the Beastmen you suggest and the Minotaur faction. If the head is a goat or a bull doesn't seem to make much difference, perhaps you could elaborate on what their culture would be like that would make them distinct or add your ideas to the existing Minotaur discussion.

Here are some thoughts to get you started:
Do your beastmen use weapons and armor or do they use claws, horns, etc. to attack?
If they use weapons and armor then you could have beastmen spearmen, beastmen swordsmen, etc. (you can come up with fancier names but you get the idea) instead of just a single "generic beastmen" unit.
How do they heal? Trolls regenerate but the rest would need some sort of shaman or priest to heal them I imagine unless you have some other unique mechanic in line.
This being World of Magic they are going to need some kind of arcane spell caster, what are your thoughts on that for them?

Basic animals like bears, wolves, and boars I think will be roaming the map already and can be convinced to join your side via various means as I understand it so they don't need to be on a faction list. That said as mounts wolves are likely already going into the Orc faction (if it ever wins a vote), giant spiders may be going in Dark Elf (if Drow win the culture vote), and boars may be mounts for Dwarves (there has been much discussion on this and I'm not sure where the devs stand at this point). Centaurs have been discussed in relation to Sylvan Elves, a stand alone Fey faction, and even having a faction of their own. Cyclops, Etins, and Trolls are all giant races and I personally don't really see them as "beast" races though you are free to disagree. Ettins and Trolls I often associate with Orcs and Goblins but that may just be me. Again if you outline a culture for us I think we can get a better idea of where you are coming from and how these things fit together.

Were-creatures and lycanthropy is an interesting topic... how they could be handled could be a whole discussion by itself but it seems very limited to just have them as a single unit in a faction army list.... there is so much potential there.

[War Troll]

Interesting. 'Beastmen' factions I think would suffer from the same problem as Minotaurs- making a full unit roster from a pretty restrictive race so I kind of agree with Asmodai. On the other hand MoM managed and it had pretty varied racial unit selection. I can see them like the Asylum faction in HoMM4- a faction of several different races considered outcasts. like Beastmen, Minotaurs, Centaurs etc. I think the trick is to not overstep into the roaming creatures roster and consider what unit would be best as what.

[Rybon]

I think you all are over thinking Beastman and Minotuars.

If you look at what we have so far most of the races are single race. With one or two power units. Like Unicorn or Griffin.

So why wouldn't both of these be the same way.

[Asmodai]

I think you all are over thinking Beastman and Minotuars.

If you look at what we have so far most of the races are single race. With one or two power units. Like Unicorn or Griffin.

So why wouldn't both of these be the same way.

That's what I was getting at when I asked if they used weapons and armor.
It's easy enough to make an army list by saying:

Beastman Spearmen
Beastman Swordsmen
Beastman Halberdier
Beastman Bowmen
Beastman Priest
Beastman Magician

That is the core of the Beastman army list from MoM. That's not what zdsdead did in his original post though so I was trying to get a handle on what his vision for their culture was because without more explanation it seems like a rather random collection of units. I'm interested in hearing what his vision was for the unit list he created instead of going the easy route I listed above.

As for centaur to me, and maybe it's just me, that means upper body of a human and lower of a horse. If however for a goat based beastman faction you just take like the guy in the picture above and give him 4 legs so he still has the beastman head and upper body but he has a full goat lower body then I think that would work great for the faction... I just wouldn't call the unit a centaur to avoid confusion with the classic man/horse hybrid. Just my $0.02 though.

I'm also interested if there was any unique mechanics for the race the op had in mind.

If they are goat/ram based then I might also suggest that their siege engine be a battering ram... like a large metal rams head fitted to a giant tree trunk suspended by chains from a frame so it can swing back and forth and knock down a door. I just think battering "RAM" and a goat headed faction would be amusing, rofl. Something like this:



Personally would also think they'd be more primitive so I'd likely turn the priest (cleric) to shaman (adept) but MoM beastmen had priests, engineers, boats, etc. so I don't get the sense they were meant to be primitive... again, this is why I asked what the op's ideas for the culture were.



I've gotten these images by just searching google images... it seems most of them come from Warhammer Beastmen if you want to look further into them. I've never played warhammer but they seem similar at least visually to what I imagine the beastmen of MoM were.

[Rybon]

Sorry, I see your point.

If think a goathead or ramhead race would be more in the style of the other race so far.

[ampoliros]

This being World of Magic they are going to need some kind of arcane spell caster, what are your thoughts on that for them?

Why do they NEED a caster? Isn't the player the biggest baddest spellcaster of them all?

[zdsdead]

Asmodai, Those images are the exact type of beastmen im talking about. Have you ever played warhammer fantasy battles? There are many different types of beastmen, in there.

It maybe just me, but I personally see the minotaurs as a very special unit, very strong, great in combat, but very limited in numbers(compared to the Goat men). Sorry I did not read your list, Ive just took a quick peek while writing this so forgive me if lots of these things have already been discussed, I like it a lot by the way ;-).

Ok I will give the list a go :-

Beast Rabble :- armed with hooves, claws clubs broken swords etc ferocious ill disciplined questionable morale, no armour to speak of.

Beast Bretheren :- Warrior caste, leather armour, Spearmen units, shields, also a swordsman variant maybe?

Beastmen chosen :- warrior elite, chainmail, halberdiers, very good morale, good discipline.

Werewolf Beserkers :- No armour, immune to physcology ? Armed with teeth claws, fast, and agile unit

Minotaur bodyguard :- Top class melee unit strong, double handed axes assortment of metal armour, good morale good discipline maybe till they taste blood?

Dark Centaur archers :- (ghengis khan type equipment and looks) very good horse archer unit lightly armoured, leather. composite bows, swords

Dark centaur Cataphracts:- Very heavy cavalry armed with spear barding

Dark Centaur Lancers :- medium cavalry, spears, shield, chainmail

Owlbear :- big monster type, Claw claw BEAK attack!!

Herd Priest :- healer type

Hag queen :- high level caster

Siege weapon :- Battering Ram .


Ok theres a quick list, I will try to fill some more fluff etc in later

---------- Post added at 11:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 PM ----------

The ram exactly what i was thinking!!!

[Asmodai]

Why do the NEED a caster? Isn't the player the biggest baddest spellcaster of them all?

That's the impression I was given when I dared to suggest the dwarves might not need one, rofl.

---------- Post added at 07:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 PM ----------

Asmodai, Those images are the exact type of beastmen im talking about. Have you ever played warhammer fantasy battles? There are many different types of beastmen, in there.

Nope, but like I said that's what my google images search found and I noticed a lot of them were from Warhammer.

It maybe just me, but I personally see the minotaurs as a very special unit, very strong, great in combat, but very limited in numbers(compared to the Goat men).

It's not just you, I totally agree.

Ok I will give the list a go :-

Beast Rabble :- armed with hooves, claws clubs broken swords etc ferocious ill disciplined questionable morale, no armour to speak of.

Beast Bretheren :- Warrior caste, leather armour, Spearmen units, shields, also a swordsman variant maybe?

Beastmen chosen :- warrior elite, chainmail, halberdiers, very good morale, good discipline.

Werewolf Beserkers :- No armour, immune to physcology ? Armed with teeth claws, fast, and agile unit

Minotaur bodyguard :- Top class melee unit strong, double handed axes assortment of metal armour, good morale good discipline maybe till they taste blood?

Dark Centaur archers :- (ghengis khan type equipment and looks) very good horse archer unit lightly armoured, leather. composite bows, swords

Dark centaur Cataphracts:- Very heavy cavalry armed with spear barding

Dark Centaur Lancers :- medium cavalry, spears, shield, chainmail

Owlbear :- big monster type, Claw claw BEAK attack!!

Herd Priest :- healer type

Hag queen :- high level caster

Siege weapon :- Battering Ram .


Ok theres a quick list, I will try to fill some more fluff etc in later

Looks like a great start to me! It's rather large though and I think our initial units per list will be rather limited so you might want to specify what you believe the core few are. There has been a mention of a limit of 8 but that seems rather small and is smaller than even the example lists Aaron has posted. That said it gives a good idea of your priority if you list the 8 or so units feel are most central to your theme (excluding settlers, engineers, siege engines, and boats). Might I also suggest manticore to complete the MoM tribute?

[Rybon]

Zdsdead,

How about switch out the Harpies for Centaurs. You could get archers and quick mobile attack.

Trying to think of a Beast to replace Minotuars. So we could save Minotuar and Centaur.