The Sisters of Myrmidia

I have an idea for a Sisters of Myrmidia warband and could really use your inputs.

Sisters of Myrmidia is an order dedicated to the goddess of the art of war. From the unofficial Estalia armybook:

Quote :

For centuries the nobility of Estalia has sent its wayward and troublesome daughters to the Order of the Sisters of Myrmidia to be initiated into the only order of priestesses dedicated to Estalia’s patron Goddess. The Sisters of Myrmidia have traditionally travelled Estalia administering to the sick and poor, tending to the needs of orphans, curing the diseased and curing broken bodies. As well as the healing arts, which they practice with expert knowledge, their advice is frequently sought by those about to make an important decision, for the Sisters of Myrmidia are famed for their ability to predict the fickle course of battle.

The Sisters believe they have a holy mission, a task which they have been set by Myrmidia herself through the holy Inquisition, that they must submit themselves body and soul. The regiments of the Sisterhood are led by tough Matriarchs, each accompanied by a body of warrior priestesses. The training and harsh discipline of the convent includes mastery of martial as well as ecclesiastical skills, for mastery of the body is but the first step towards mastery of the soul. Their favoured weapon is the spear, the instrument of Myrmidia, seen as her holy symbol, alongside the eagle and shield.

Their specialities are spears, shields... and healing. And since Sisters of Sigmar can't use spears, I decided to base them on the Marienburgers - we do not accept unofficial warbands in our campaign. Also, we have a few house rules giving shields and armours an advantage (http://mini-skulls.blogspot.com/2012/04/combat-house-rules.html):

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Shields:
[S]ince a shield takes the place of an additional weapon, it should also always have an effect in hand-to-hand combat. The solution to this ended up being to rule that the save given by a shield will only ever be nullified by attacks or effects that ignore armor saves all together.

Armor:
Suits of armor are expensive and just as easy to nullify as the save earned by wearing a shield. We didn't however want to make armor piercing weapons useless, so we decided to, rather then buffing armor on the battlefield, give them a save against serious injury.

This means that a warrior who goes out of action can make a roll to avoid rolling on the injury chart. This save is not modified by shields, mounts or barding, but skills such as "Shaggy Hide" will add to the result.

So if a warrior is wearing light armor, sword and a shield, he will have a 5+ save vs. attacks during a battle. But if he is taken out of action he can avoid any injuries by rolling a 6. Had he been wearing gromril armor, he would avoid injury on a 4+.

No rerolls will ever be allowed on rolls to avoid serious injury and skills or equipment such as step aside or lucky charms have no effect.

The starting warband will look like this (590 Gold):
1 captain: halberd, heavy armour, helmet.
2 champions: halberd, heavy armour, helmet.
2 youngbloods: spear, shield, light armour, helmet.
4 worriers: spear, shield.

The Captain can choose from all skills and I'm thinking Strike to Injure, Step Aside, Mighty Blow, Resilient and Dodge will be priorities.
Champions and Youngbloods can choose between Combat, Shooting and Speed, so they will go with Strike to Injure, Step Aside, Dodge, and perhaps Lightning Reflexes.
The henchman hero will choose Combat and Strength and go with Strike to Injure, Step Aside, Mighty Blow, and Resilient.

For gear-upgrades I'm thinking Gromril Armour / Ithilmar Armour, the halberd/spear combo (Ithilmar Spear - or Ithilmar Halberd for those with the Lightning Reflexes skill), Crimson Shade, Black Lotus (for those with spear), Dark Venom, Healing Herbs (when a hero has more than one wound), Tears of Shallaya, Garlic, and Blessed Water.

This will make them spearfighters using lots of herbs, which matches their description - and the +1 bonus when attempting to find rare items will come in handy.

Are there any skills or gear-upgrades I haven't thought of? How would you play them? What are their flaws / what types of warbands will give them their deathblow?

And before suggesting that I use their shooting skills: I know I'm not realizing the full potential of the Marienburgers, but shooting is not part of this theme. I like specialized warbands, and I'd rather stay true to the fluff than play to win at all cost

I love the theam. It's too bad you can't go with un offical. Amazons may fit better in some ways.
Healing Herbs are common and 25 gc (thus reflects the healing). Also the use of Javlins would allow you some shooting that is spear like.
Matriarch would also be a spell caster

any way onto more of the theam your going with to the list.

Rabbits feet (Re roll 1 dice per battle or exploration) would be a good piece of equipment for you. Theam wise it fits as it will reflect your ability to predict the outcome of the battle... you make desisions based on what is to come.

I over all like the list. Little spear heavy BUT still I understand the theam so that is a by product of this.

As you guys are a house rules kind of group maybe you could see about introducing a new skill into the combat list:
Spear Fighting: Warriors armed with a spear always strike first in h2h combat regardless of initative.
may be a fun way to test out the rule for latter use in creating this as a home made warband

we use healing herbs as a re-roll on serious injory to up there use for all (henchmen too) as armour is not available to all warbands your armour buff by default hurts those with out armour. It's why we did not look at that rout. If it works for you guys/gals then great. just throwing out that tid bit of info if your interested.

Pervavita wrote:

Rabbits feet (Re roll 1 dice per battle or exploration) would be a good piece of equipment for you. Theam wise it fits as it will reflect your ability to predict the outcome of the battle... you make desisions based on what is to come.

Unfortunately this isn't on the official list and as of now we don't use any other lists

Pervavita wrote:

we use healing herbs as a re-roll on serious injory to up there use for all (henchmen too) as armour is not available to all warbands your armour buff by default hurts those with out armour. It's why we did not look at that rout. If it works for you guys/gals then great. just throwing out that tid bit of info if your interested.

This is actually a great idea. We tried to make armour and shield (and bucklers, but I didn't include that rule in my first post) useful, but you are right - warbands without access to armour will be punished. I will take it up with the others

Thank you!

And a bit of fluff. If you are not a fluff type of person, just ignore it. But I think it sets the mood rather well:


Vania surveyed the plains. The sun had yet to make its way over the horizon and a heavy rain blurred her vision. Still she stood unmoving and alert, looking for motion and hearing nothing but the sound of rain drops bouncing off of her armour. Finally she realized she did it more out of duty than to some effect and returned to the tent.
- Sister, she said - acknowledging the presence of Inez, who were taking stock of their herbal supplies.
Inez looked up and smiled.
- A beautiful morning, she said.
Vania nodded thoughtfully.
- The pelter will surely be a disadvantage to our enemies.
Vania took off her helmet and placed it on the bedroll.
- It's a beautiful morning, she repeated in a clear voice.
Her greeting was followed by stirring as seven other women wakened. Their first task of the day was to arm themselves and every step of the ritual was accompanied by prayers to Myrmidia. The prayers recounted the functions of the armour or weapon taken up. For a while sounds of rain against the canvas, soft voices and clatter of scale males and breastplates fused into a toneless chant, and Vania closed her eyes and felt the presence of the Goddess.
The path of Myrmidia was not so much a path of faith as it was a way of living. By doing what she had done before them, they became the art of war. Though martially skilled, they were often physically weaker than their opponents. Hence they relied on strict discipline, tactics and herbal arts. They fought as a unit, not as heroes; they avoided unnecessary conflict through use of clever strategies; and they readily turned to poisons and drugs when advantageous. What Ulricans and Sigmarites saw as cowardly, Myrmidians saw as prudent. And so Vania had been chosen as their Matriarch, not due to her faith nor her abilities as a soldier, but because she had a record of winning battles with the least amount of bloodshet. "Sigmar brings you to war, but Myrmidia brings you back," as the saying went.

Annual 2002 is offical and the Rabits foot is there. It's not in the core book but it's as offical as it gets.
allong with Dwarfs, O&G, Shadow Elves (who were latter removed), Kisav, and more.

I only have a hard copy of the book so I can't shoot you the file with the Annual but I'm sure others will have it.

We made Armour better by price cuts, an extra armour boost, and reduce the armour negating effect from crits.
Armour has proven to be quite valuable for those that can get it still and does not make tanks unstopable ether.

The little fluff bit up there may be fun to place in the battle reports and continue allong with as your games progress.
well writen and I enjoyed it.

Pervavita wrote:

Annual 2002 is offical and the Rabits foot is there. It's not in the core book but it's as offical as it gets.
allong with Dwarfs, O&G, Shadow Elves (who were latter removed), Kisav, and more.

I only have a hard copy of the book so I can't shoot you the file with the Annual but I'm sure others will have it.

We made Armour better by price cuts, an extra armour boost, and reduce the armour negating effect from crits.
Armour has proven to be quite valuable for those that can get it still and does not make tanks unstopable ether.

Annual 2002! That's the book we can't find. Hm. Must. Try. Harder. Then. And I definitely agree - the Foot would be perfect for this warband. Thanks again!

Oh - and the armour: I don't have enough experience to make that kind of judgement. My fiance and one of the other players did the balancing. I will send him this link

Ya I got lucky to pick it up a few years ago back when I wasn't playing but intended to get back into the game. I just saw the Mordheim book, thought it was the core rule book and picked it up. Some mistakes work out great

Roger on the balancing.

Pervavita wrote:

The little fluff bit up there may be fun to place in the battle reports and continue allong with as your games progress.
well writen and I enjoyed it.

The background story of my main warband (Reiklanders) are already posted in the fluff section. This will be too, when I'm done with the concept. I'm still reading up on Myrmidia

on armour balancing (and Dual Wielding) balancing there is a ton of information in this thread.
I'm sure on a rainy afternoon your fiance has nothing better to do then read over 7 pages of this.
I mean after all, Paint minis: no, hang with fiance: no, read up on some rules, YA!

Shelena wrote:

Pervavita wrote:

The little fluff bit up there may be fun to place in the battle reports and continue allong with as your games progress.
well writen and I enjoyed it.

The background story of my main warband (Reiklanders) are already posted in the fluff section. This will be too, when I'm done with the concept. I'm still reading up on Myrmidia

will give it a look.

Pervavita wrote:

Also the use of Javlins would allow you some shooting that is spear like.

Compared to throwing knives the Javlins are overpowered. But the idea is good. We've just decided, that the 'Throwing star/knife' is to be renamed 'Throwing weapon', which includes javlins, bottles, rocks, throwing axes and so on. Late game Weapons Expert and Knife-Fighter will now be need upgrades to this warband!

Pervavita wrote:

Matriarch would also be a spell caster

While reading on the cult of Myrmidia I've actually realized they are against magic

Shelena wrote:

Pervavita wrote:

Also the use of Javlins would allow you some shooting that is spear like.

Compared to throwing knives the Javlins are overpowered. But the idea is good. We've just decided, that the 'Throwing star/knife' is to be renamed 'Throwing weapon', which includes javlins, bottles, rocks, throwing axes and so on. Late game Weapons Expert and Knife-Fighter will now be need upgrades to this warband!

I think the balance is there. Javlins better early but with the skill upgrade throwing knifes are better. Not that the change you guys are making is bad. just stating "why" i think it was the way it is in the rules.

Quote :

Pervavita wrote:

Matriarch would also be a spell caster

While reading on the cult of Myrmidia I've actually realized they are against magic

too bad, could always play it as prayers if you went that rout.

read the story and enjoyed it.

Nice idea! I'd love to see some pictures of them

For the Annual, check the Mordheim Yahoo Group, they should have it. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in having a look at werekin's rules for priests (Miracle Workers)), developed for the new Marienburg setting. They offer a variety of priests (including Myrmidia) as replacement heroes (much like the Wolf Priest for the Middenheimers). They are well balanced and perhaps you can convince your group to allow them

The link to the annual on the yahoo group is dead, along with several other pdf links.
So if anyone could point me in the direction of it, and perhaps the towncryer's on pdf aswell id be gratefull.

As for house rules, fanmade stuff and semi official things we agreed in our group to only change the official rules when we found them broken or silly, and add as little new stuff as possible, in an attempt to not ruin the grateness of simplicity

Eliazar wrote:

Nice idea! I'd love to see some pictures of them

I'll post pics, when they are done. So far, I'm still on the planning stage. But it'll be a mix of High Elf Spearmen, Amazon Torsos, Amazon Heads, random bits, and quite a lot of greenstuff... The colour theme will be that of the Knights of the Blazing Sun, mainly black and gold. My main warband is quite dusty/autumnish - I'm in the mood for something dramatic

Eliazar wrote:

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in having a look at werekin's rules for priests (Miracle Workers)), developed for the new Marienburg setting. They offer a variety of priests (including Myrmidia) as replacement heroes (much like the Wolf Priest for the Middenheimers). They are well balanced and perhaps you can convince your group to allow them

As Stronzo writes: We have decided not to use fan made stuff (and we don't use the Wolf Priest expansion either). But I'm happy to see that other people have used Myrmidia, and I'm looking forward to reading it! Thanks!

Brokenv has the Annual in PDF form. he requires you to e-mail him to get the information (link to his drop box).
brokenvmail@gmail.com

I want a copy of the Annual too in PDF form so I got inspired to hut for it

good luck and happy hunting

Thanks alot!

Hhah, tell Stronzo not to be such a party-pooper! :-p

I spent way too long developing the article for priests... FYI the rules are essentially a translation from 2nd Edition
Warhammer RPG to tabletop skirmish.

Everyone here would love to see and hear about you putting a War-priestess of Myrmidia into action during your games.

Where are these pics of your gang?

Well... I really like your idea as I am myself a bit obsessed with thematic.
I lose more often because of this but for me, having a warband that have a story is more important than winning.

I know you do not accept unofficial rules but you should really check the ''Believe in miracle'' article

http://libermalefic.blogspot.ca/search/label/Rules

The guys that made those rules are REALLY invested in their work and their stuff is better than the official one...
Put an eye on the Border town burning supplement and you'll be convinced.


Maybe you should put some pressure on your fellow gamers and ''open up'' your mind to new stuff !!!

Have fun !!!