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Inspired by Redwall, Monastic Orders, Golden Compass and Mouse Guard

Lords

Abbess
Cantor


Heroes

Pilgrims


Core

Brothers
Slingers
Badgers
Scampers

Special

The Guard Rangers
Burrow Team
Cat Tamer
Chanters

Rare

Sparrow Flights
Bear Bodyguard


Lore of the Monastery

Special Characters

Abess
Blindmeiss
Prince of Bears
Cat Lords

I'll post more on this later.

Basic Hidden statline

M 4
WS 3
BS 3
S 3
T 3
W 1
I 3
A 1
Ld 7


Basic Badger Statline

M 4
WS 3
BS 3
S 4
T 4
W 1
I 3
A 1
Ld 6

Basic Bear Statline

WS 6
BS 3
S 4
T 4
W 3
I 3
A 3
Ld 7

Lord Choices

Abbess- The Abbess is the head of a Hidden monastery. She guides their physical and spiritual training and so an Abbess might know all the Forms and Ways or train in specific Forms and Ways. An Abbess can either train heavily in the Lore of the Hidden or in the Forms and Ways.

Cantor- The Cantor's faith expresses itself through his melodic voice and hymns. As such, he has access to not only the Lores of the Hidden, but also to the Lores of Life and Beasts.

Shepherd- They meek become the heroes of legend. A Shepherd is a powerful combat lord who focuses solely on learning the Forms and Ways.

Core

Brothers- Armed with staffs and the Forms and Ways, Brothers go to battle trusting in their robes and faith. But don't let the staff fool you. They are trained to incapacitate and can bypass armor.

Slingers- Skirmishers. Brothers armed with slings.

Badger Guard- Badgers bear their shields and armor in service to a monastery in exchange for education and charity for their communities.

Scampers- Fast Cavalry. Monks on All fours can travel faster than a two legged Monk. They attack and move in pairs, deftly maneuvering around obstacles with their daggers in their teeth and a sling at the ready.

Maybe just use the Skaven rules and swap out the fluff?

Icky Skaven. They yucky.

malfred wrote:Icky Skaven. They yucky.

Well... yeah.... But Deamons are the epitome of Evil and Im using their rules for an Angel Army.

Im just saying... Its a lot easier than coming up with an entire home brew army... I started that with my Archons, using the old HoC book as a reference. Not so easy... Especially Balance issues...

Lot easier to find an Army that has a similar theme, or play style you are looking for. Then just swap out fluff, rename things...

It's a little different. Don't skaven have back rank command
and other odd things like that?

malfred wrote:It's a little different. Don't skaven have back rank command
and other odd things like that?

Skaven have a lot of odd rules. You CAN lead from the back, but you dont have to.

Also maybe consider the Orc and Goblin Army. One of the most versatile and varied armies out there. And now with Chaos divided by 3, it prolly is. Models of all sizes are in it. Though you may not wanna deal with Animosity... But its an idea.... They have fast cav and heavy cav. Chariots. Monsters. War Machines. Cant go wrong...

Yeah, Orcs and Goblins sounds like a better match than (ew)
Skaven. But let me finish my mental masturbation before
I go and finish that idea.


Special

The Guard Rangers- The Guard watch the roads and help keep each Monastery safe. These are the killers of the monasteries, people who could not follow the Vows but left to train as soldiers instead. With two hand weapons they're like Wardancers with their coordinated melee attacks. They can choose to do multiple attacks at STR 3, or a single Coordinated thrust at STR 5 (like a GW). I'll have to check the math to see if its viable to have both.

They're skirmish units and therefore do not benefit from ranks. I'm not sure if they should be able to move through woods (especially since that's not a USR).

Burrow Team- These are like Dwarf Miners, only weaker. Useful for setting up a flank charge. Probably more fun fluff wise than useful.

Chanters- Chanters are the monastery's choir. In place of individual musicians and Standards in units, a unit of Chanters sing out and provide the benefit of musicians and standards to units within x" of the Chanters.

Tamers- These knights have tamed the wildcats that threaten the Hidden, and ride them into battle. I haven't decided if I'd want them to be like Wild Riders (Fast Cavalry) or Knights.

Rare

Sparrow Flights- Flocks of Sparrows "launch" at high velocities to drop rocks in numbers on targets on the ground. They cannot Monstrous flying mounts, as it goes against their natural survival instinct, but they will drop rocks onto enemies on the field.

Bear Bodyguard- This would be the monster of the list, I suppose. Bear Bodyguards swear themselves to the Monastery, benefiting from the learning of the Brothers who also benefit from having a big fat bear in armor defending them.

Special Rules-

Way of the Chant- The Hidden do not elect standard bearers or musicians to bolster their units. Instead, Chanters sing their hymns to both inspire and protect all units within x" of the Chanter unit, where x = the number of Chanters in the unit. Those who study the Way of the Chant learn to sing even in the midst of battle, and so units benefit under its influence even when the Chanters are engaged in close combat. All units in range gain +1 LD, +1 CR, and an additional +1 LD on Rally checks.

Form of Peace- A brother's fighting style is meant to incapacitate rather than kill. With their quarterstaff, a Brother counts as having two hand weapons, and reduces armor saves by 1 as they look to use their staffs to trip and club rather than slay.

Form of Wind- Scampers work in teams and are unhindered by terrain that would halt other brethren. When Scampers move, they ignore all penalties from any terrain aside from impassable terrain.

Way of the Viper- Guard Rangers move through forests without penalty. In addition, when Guard Rangers attack, they may choose to do an additional attack or combine their attacks to strike like a Great Weapon.

Have you every read mouse guard?

That's kind of why I did this.

I even picked up a signed hardcover and poster at gencon.

Nice guy. Cool stuff.

Totally obsolete credit card machine.

malfred wrote:That's kind of why I did this.

I even picked up a signed hardcover and poster at gencon.

Nice guy. Cool stuff.

Totally obsolete credit card machine.

Then i expect a Black Axe style Special Character for your list.

I should reread the book before I tackle this.

Or maybe I'll wait until I find something convertible before
I start going into the list.

Let me see what the new Lizardmen list has to offer. It seems to have
everything I'm looking for (well, other than the whole nasty toad on a palanquin
thing).

so... from a fluff point of view, are these guys like The Skaven of Order ™ or something?

Something like that and not.

The concept is a bastardization of two things: Mouse Guard and Redwall. Redwall
is what you describe, but more monkish. Mouse Guard are more like Rangers.

Some how as i was reading this, i kept think of them as being modeled as little units an each base. Like bringing epic models to 40k. Archers would be a little sedge weapons. Bear is their version of a giant ^__^

Any way stat wise they sound ok ... more a question where do they fit into the fluff ... are they a play thing that was sealed away and only released by accident by a monk that taught them ... or something

As much as I like Fantasy the game, the background fluff hasn't really grabbed
me the way that 40k grimdark did once upon a time. I tried to read a few of the
novels (including some of the free ones from Adepticon!) and I just wasn't
interested.

This was more about holding out for someone to do some Redwall-esque figures
and making rules for them.