As I continue to work on my lizardmen force, I also continue to work up a bit of world building for my own little fantasy battle universe. I thought it might be nice to share a little of that. First off... I don't have a good title for it yet, but I will probably call the Lizard "Tzunkarans", we'll see. Secondly, while my focus is lizards at the moment, and they are present in the universe, they are not necessarily the "star of the show". So what is it? It's essentially a less magical, version of warhammer, through the lense of the ancient world of real life. The map, is essentially that of the Mediterranean, Europe, Northern Africa, etc. The exact details might vary, but for the most part, you can just assume it's like the real world in terms of rough geography. Secondly, the "year" is probably something like 200 BCE in real world equivalence. Nation State Capable Species: Humans (Occupying most land masses) Orcs (Think in the style of Skyrim, these are much more human like Orcs (though they have small tusks... they typically occupy mountainous regions and can be found somewhat spread out. Rules will allow some customization of the faction via "traditions" that your particular tribe might follow. Generally, these Orcs are isolationists who occasionally raid their neighbors and are more like Vikings than Game Workshop Orcs) Tzunkarans (Lizardmen and their various offshoots, inhabiting the larger chunk of mid to south eastern Africa... a landmass that has been magically "entombed" in a bubble of distorted time for millions of years (a desperate act to save their people from the calamity that destroyed the dinosaurs). Elves (The vast majority of Elves occupy the eastern landmasses we might consider China, they are by far the most advanced race, but their relatively slow birthrate leaves them vulnerable to wars of attrition) Other Species: There are Dwarves, Cyclops, Giants, and other "man-like" species, however, they have all been enslaved, co-opted, exterminated, or otherwise driven to the periphery of the world... they are currently no plans for any of them to have independent factions, but instead are available to the other factions as mercenaries and the like. Quick note on evolution/origin of species: ---In effect the earth has had two large-scale periods of life, the Dinosaurian, and the Humanoid so-to-speak. During the Dinosaurian, the various lizardmen species evolved, and while there were periods of conflict between their species, eventually they formed a singular empire in their "pangea" style continent. ---After a comet strike and subsequent shattering of the world into more than one continent, the Dinosaurian period ended (and it's intelligent species put into time-stasis in what is present day Africa), and the second era of life took hold. The Humanoid era of life followed the same pattern and included an explosion of intelligent life derived from human-like stock. Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Orcs, etc. all share a common ancestor (as do the Lizardmen)... however, these races did not unite, and instead continue to war, compete, and exterminate each other. ---Any other intelligent species, such as say... a Centaur... is not the result of nature and fantastical evolution, but instead the result of magical work, and extremely rare. Quick Note on Magic: I haven't done too much to figure out magic yet, but magic access is based on overall type and these types kind of reflect classic elements. Magic Types: Fire, Water, Earth (Stone/Metal), Storm (Electricty/Air), and Blood (Healing and Necromancy) Human Nations The Roman Republic --Good armor, widely available --Useful and practical pre-battle setup abilities to represent logistics --Overall poor ranged attack options, but good siege weapons --Mediocre cavalry --Generally lack access to large warbeasts, but do have access to Dwarven-Made Golems --Limited access to fire magic The Carthaginian Regime --Okay armor, elite units can get better --Good access to wide variety of mercenaries from both Africa, the Middle East, and Spain --Good cavalry --Access to War Elephants and other beasts through mercenaries --Limited access to both fire and water magic The Greek Allies --Okay armor --Access to special "monster like" infantry such as Cyclops --Leaders and special characters are usually much better in close combat than other human characters --Good access to both fire and water magic --Overall poor ranged attack options and poor siege weapons, but monsters can make up for this. The Egyptian Throne --Poor armor --Faster infantry and cavalry than most --Ranged attack cavalry is available --Access to War Elephants and special chariots --Limited access to both fire and water magic, but has access to necromantic spells --Similar to Dwarven-made Golems, Egyptians have learned to imbue objects with some life... allowing for some interesting monster-like units. (Try to think of Egypt as the Tomb Kings, long before their civilization entirely died out, they use some necromancy, but it isn't the whole of their civilization) The Sahellian Empire -Poor armor --Faster infantry and cavalry than most --Good ranged attack options --Access to War Elephants, War Rhinos, Camel Cavalry --Good access to Water Magic, limited access to Earth Magic (In effect, the Mali empire come about centuries earlier... a powerful African nation. Safe from their southern border since the dawn of time (due to the magical barrier that cuts off southern Africa until recently), they've developed a very prosperous gold mining operation. They are now in a precarious position, dealing with the occasional demands of their human neighbors (Mostly Carthage, sometimes Roman expeditions, and Egypt) whilst now contending with the mass of Lizardmen that now inhabit the southern half of their continent practically overnight!) Celtic/Germanic Tribes --Poor armor, some elite units have better --Decent ranged attacks --Access to Orc mercenary units --Access to "cursed" units such as Werewolves/Werebears --Giant Elk is a unique Warbeast, Lesser Elk cavalry are excellent skirmish Cav --Leaders have good options for ambush tactics
Other Nations: Tzunkarans (Lizardmen) -Good armor all around -Access to highly specialized infantry and monsters -Best Warbeasts in the game potentially -Poor ranged attack -Poor siege weaponry -Access to Storm Magic -Everything is expensive -Lack access to "Ranked" tactics for infantry squads, make up for it with sheer stats Orcs of the Steppe (Russia/Asia) -Okay armor -Excellent if short-ranged, ranged attack cavalry -Access to wide variety of cavalry and chariots -Very poor siege weaponry -Limited access to earth and blood magic -Lack access to "Ranked" tactics for infantry squads -Has access to monsters similar to Greek forces (Cyclops/Giants) Orcs of the Mountains (Europe) -Okay armor, some elite units have great armor -Decent ranged attack -Though cavalry is limited, it's very good -Very poor siege weaponry -Access to earth and blood magic -Has some ranked units -Has access to monsters similar to Greek forces (Cyclops/Giants)
A most intriguing fantasy world idea! I've been working on a fantasy expansion of the historical skirmish game SPQR, and some of these ideas make great inspiration for the units I'm adding to the different factions. Combining Tomb Kings-esque units with real historical Egyptians in particular is a fantastic move. What sort of aesthetic are you thinking of for the Lizardman faction? Because the Aztec theme of the Warhammer range would look rather off in ancient Europe My only real complaint is that personally I dislike any wargame that incorporates the Celts and Germans into one generic 'barbarian' faction, just because they shared similarities in their fighting strategy. The two peoples were significantly different cultures with different gods, myths, languages and customs and also different in their army structure (SPQR avoids this, but I've seen games that fall into this boring trap, such as Broken Legions and Infamy, Infamy!). Celts would be more of a balanced army with a mixture of lightly armoured chaff and heavily-armoured nobles, along with chariots in the case of Britons and very good cavalry for the Gauls (Gallic Cavalry consistently outfought their Roman counterparts, to the point that in the end the Romans largely did away with recruiting cavalry of their own and drafted in Celtic mercenaries or auxiliaries from the Celtic territories they conquered). Also if magic is to be incorporated, I think Celts would be pretty powerful in this field thanks to the power of the Druids, who weren't just priests but also wisemen, naturalists, scientists and teachers. I like the idea of Giant Elk as mythological units, and in my rules I have been inspired by Mierce Miniatures' Darklands range (which is set in the Dark Ages rather than the Iron Age Ancient World, but warfare in those two periods wasn't fantastically different, and neither were the cultures) to give the Britons access to humanoid dragon monstrous infantry based on Y Ddraig Goch: https://mierce-miniatures.com/index.php?act=cat&cre=dkl-bry&sou=cat Horrendously expensive models, but an awesome concept that would be great fun to proxy cheaper models for. The Germans on the other hand would have pretty much no armour at all, but would wield different weapons to the Celts, mainly clubs and axes compared to the Celts' swords and spears. Cavalry would be light and priests would be significantly less powerful than Druids, but the Germans would have access to specialist infantry like Berserkers and Angry Wives (whose screaming and breast-baring would encourage their allies to fight harder and intimidate their enemies). Myth units for them would be creatures from Norse myth, like Trolls and Giants, as Teutonic mythology barely changed from the Iron Age to the Dark Ages. Again I was inspired a lot by Mierce's Norse range which has Trolls and Giants in abundance, as well as humanoid ravens which look pretty good: https://mierce-miniatures.com/index.php?act=cat&cre=dkl-nor&sou=cat Other than that, though, keep working on this world of yours, I'll be happy to assist you if your stuck on ideas at any time
Hey there! Thanks for the input I appreciate it. If you ever want to chat in a more real-time way, let me know we could do discord/etc. 1) The Roman mention of Cav was intended to represent Celtic/etc. mercenary Cav. 2) These are really cool models, I really like the bird/men/crows etc. SO much so, it's making me rethink how magical or not magical this little world should be...originally I was thinking to minimize magical monsters as much as possible... but then Greek myth and these bird things make that hard lol! 3) I think my idea for Celts/Germans/and some Orc like races is that they really have a large baseline of units available, but you then pick various cultural traits that remove/add options and change some rules for them/etc. So kind of a "build a bear" method for tribal peoples. Dunno... we'll see lol.
I’m not familiar with Discord, is it similar to Telegram, i.e. instant messaging? Well, you’re working on a fantasy Ancient World, why not go the whole hog and make it Age of Mythology-style fantasy? It is fantasy after all, the only real limit is our imagination! You don’t have to include much in the way of magical spells and such if you want to keep to your ‘less magical than Warhammer’ idea, but giving each faction the option to take myth units would firmly root it into fantasy proper. That’s fair, Warhammer Ancient Battles did this (I managed to download the rulebooks for it not long ago) and that’s not too bad a way of doing it. Personally I’d still prefer to see an army list for each nation as SPQR does (one for Britain, one for Gaul, one for Germania, one for Dacia, e.t.c), with different mercenaries and myth units available for each of those factions, and I can help see that done with my work on my fantasy expansion for SPQR (at the very least in terms of ideas, if not the rules as well if you’re willing to consider using SPQR as the base ruleset) but if you’re really set against this then by all means go with the build-a-bear method. It’s your own world and game idea after all.
I think you raise a good point about fleshing out each faction... I think I'm sold... afterall, Celts weren't known for using Chariots but the British Celts were (it doesn't help that "Celt" has multiple valid definitions when talking about this lol) Discord is probably the premier platform for PC gaming communication, it is instant messaging, channels, community chats, VOIP communication and Streaming/Screensharing all in one. Relatively ad-free and free. Some gaming integration/etc. If you ever used Steam, it's kind of like Steam but without a store-front and as if a competent UI designer worked on it for more than a hour.
For purposes of Celtic races I refer to continental Celts as Gauls, British Celts as Britons and Scots/Irish (who I'd debate as being worthy of the accolade of being Celts at all) as Gaels. And you're exactly right, each of these factions had different battle tactics and strengths and weaknesses. Britons were more infantry-oriented but with light cavalry and Chariots, while the Gauls had archers and some of the best cavalry in Ancient Europe. I've joined Discord and set up a Fantasy Ancients Wargaming discussion server here, I look forward to discussing your world in greater detail there: https://discord.gg/RQrgxReQSq