Post by Balgin on Apr 24, 2018 17:53:27 GMT
Hey there folks. I thought I'd post some basic faction overviews here. My knowledge of certain factions is limited so I'm mostly going to be describing the kind of models in a faction and/or the Warhammer army they most closely resemble.
The Good Guys:
The Griffons of Akkylania: A human religious inquisition style army with more technology than faith. Also lots of face masks. Witch Hunters, Inquisitors. Not a lot of miracles or faith based magic. More technology and terror than the humility of the Lions of Alahan. One of the very powerful factions.
The Lions of Alahan: Knights. Religious knights. Priests. A few wizards. Basically if the Griffons of Akylania are the terrifying inquisition then the Lions of Alahan are the glorious crusade. Their miracles of the faithful are more in line with what you'd expect from a religious force. Perhaps the FGriffons are offence focused with the Lions being more defence focused but it's hard to say. One of the very powerful factions.
Sessair Celts: The good guy Celts. Very Cuchulain. Warp berserkers. Giants. Centaurs. Druids. The celts in this world divided into two clans. The Sessairs are the good guys.
Dwarfs of Tir na Bor* : (Not Tir Na Nog of Celtic folklore). The Dwarfs of Tir Na Bor are the good guy dwarfs. They like to walk around almost naked most of the time. Obsessed with wild boars and weapons far too large for them to wield even remotely accurately. They look like dwarfs but they actually play like Greenskins. Lots of almost impossible all or nothing rolls. They do have a bit of a dwarven feel to them as well but it's hard to find. Also they once enslaved the goblin race for 150-250 years.
*They started as a neutral race but somehow became good later on. Weak faction due to too much reliance on trying to roll 6's.
Elves of Cynwall: Basically High Elves. Just High Elves but with less of a religious/angelic feel than their GW counterparts had at the time. Supposedly quite a powerful top tier faction.
Neutral Guys:
Orcs of Bran O Kor: Savage Orcs. Kind of hard to describe. Have an interesting shamanic magic system that does not interract with the other races' magic systems making it hard to counter but also easy to affect them with your own spells.
Orcs of the Behemoth: More civilised looking looking orcs. Lots of tribal furs and armour. Look a bit "ethnic" (Mongolian, Eastern European, American Indian etc). Have an interesting shamanic magic system that does not interract with the other races' magic systems making it hard to counter but also easy to affect them with your own spells. Some ride big giant monsters.
Goblins of No Dan Kar: Goblins who worship a rat god. Many look very Oriental. Some look "tribal" (in an American Indian sort of way). They specialise in swarm tactics and dirty tricks but have a lot of big point models because the game places a figure limit on force organisation so you have to have some expensive things to legitimise all those cheap models. I always think of them as being German because No Dan-Kar sounds a bit like No Danke or Nein Dunke to me. Weak faction. One of the only few to give the dwarfs a balanced game.
Wolfen of Yillia: Giant werewolf things that aren't werewolves but are always anthropomorphic wolf people. Very popular. Very powerful. A very "forigiving" faction that allows a player to recover from disasters. Slightly druidic style & theme? One of the most powerful factions.
Daikinee Elves: Not very many releases. Wood Elves but with a strong beetle flavour. This was one of the last factions that Rackham began releasing before deciding to overhaul their entire range and replace it with prepainted plastics. Not a very developed faction.
Concord of the Eagle: Kind of a weird "these few mercenaries from other factions can work together" faction. Barely developed. Even less releases than the Daikinee Elves. Dates from the same time as the Daikinee and underdeveloped for the same reason. Just 4 or 5 models. Barely a faction.
Wicked Guys:
Drune Celts: Evil celts. Cannibals. Torturers. When the Drunes split off from the Sessairs they turned really nasty. Some undead wraith/wight types (fully corporeal). Rumoured to be towards the top end of the mid tier factions.
Alchemists of Dirz: Nasty "genestealer" genetic engineeer villains with their lab experiment clone warriors to act as minions and brute force. Have some ability to genetically evolve models mid game. One of the very powerful factions.
Devourers of Vile Tis: Evil Wolfen. Like the Wolfen of Yillia but wicked. Just very, very, nasty. I never saw them play but they might be quite top tier as well.
Dwarfs of Mid Nor: Chaos Dwarfs. Chaos Dwarfs who used to be normal dwarfs. Their hero got beaten up by a Hydra who then gave him the Cthulu power to mutate dwarfs and make them join his cause. Lots of mutations. Lots of Cthulu & horror style rules and figures. Might play more like traditional Chaos (with a silly twist) than Chaos Dwarfs.
Living Dead of Acheron: Undead. Top Tier (or at least high mid tier). Some very wierd mechanics. Behave in strange ways. Hard to explain.
Ophidian Alliance: Snakemen with lobotomised human slaves to act as their guards & soldiers. Kind of like Lizardmen with the Lizardman/Skink divide except it's the human slaves and the snakeman masters. Slightly less developed than some of the other factions but they were around for quite a while.
The Good Guys:
The Griffons of Akkylania: A human religious inquisition style army with more technology than faith. Also lots of face masks. Witch Hunters, Inquisitors. Not a lot of miracles or faith based magic. More technology and terror than the humility of the Lions of Alahan. One of the very powerful factions.
The Lions of Alahan: Knights. Religious knights. Priests. A few wizards. Basically if the Griffons of Akylania are the terrifying inquisition then the Lions of Alahan are the glorious crusade. Their miracles of the faithful are more in line with what you'd expect from a religious force. Perhaps the FGriffons are offence focused with the Lions being more defence focused but it's hard to say. One of the very powerful factions.
Sessair Celts: The good guy Celts. Very Cuchulain. Warp berserkers. Giants. Centaurs. Druids. The celts in this world divided into two clans. The Sessairs are the good guys.
Dwarfs of Tir na Bor* : (Not Tir Na Nog of Celtic folklore). The Dwarfs of Tir Na Bor are the good guy dwarfs. They like to walk around almost naked most of the time. Obsessed with wild boars and weapons far too large for them to wield even remotely accurately. They look like dwarfs but they actually play like Greenskins. Lots of almost impossible all or nothing rolls. They do have a bit of a dwarven feel to them as well but it's hard to find. Also they once enslaved the goblin race for 150-250 years.
*They started as a neutral race but somehow became good later on. Weak faction due to too much reliance on trying to roll 6's.
Elves of Cynwall: Basically High Elves. Just High Elves but with less of a religious/angelic feel than their GW counterparts had at the time. Supposedly quite a powerful top tier faction.
Neutral Guys:
Orcs of Bran O Kor: Savage Orcs. Kind of hard to describe. Have an interesting shamanic magic system that does not interract with the other races' magic systems making it hard to counter but also easy to affect them with your own spells.
Orcs of the Behemoth: More civilised looking looking orcs. Lots of tribal furs and armour. Look a bit "ethnic" (Mongolian, Eastern European, American Indian etc). Have an interesting shamanic magic system that does not interract with the other races' magic systems making it hard to counter but also easy to affect them with your own spells. Some ride big giant monsters.
Goblins of No Dan Kar: Goblins who worship a rat god. Many look very Oriental. Some look "tribal" (in an American Indian sort of way). They specialise in swarm tactics and dirty tricks but have a lot of big point models because the game places a figure limit on force organisation so you have to have some expensive things to legitimise all those cheap models. I always think of them as being German because No Dan-Kar sounds a bit like No Danke or Nein Dunke to me. Weak faction. One of the only few to give the dwarfs a balanced game.
Wolfen of Yillia: Giant werewolf things that aren't werewolves but are always anthropomorphic wolf people. Very popular. Very powerful. A very "forigiving" faction that allows a player to recover from disasters. Slightly druidic style & theme? One of the most powerful factions.
Daikinee Elves: Not very many releases. Wood Elves but with a strong beetle flavour. This was one of the last factions that Rackham began releasing before deciding to overhaul their entire range and replace it with prepainted plastics. Not a very developed faction.
Concord of the Eagle: Kind of a weird "these few mercenaries from other factions can work together" faction. Barely developed. Even less releases than the Daikinee Elves. Dates from the same time as the Daikinee and underdeveloped for the same reason. Just 4 or 5 models. Barely a faction.
Wicked Guys:
Drune Celts: Evil celts. Cannibals. Torturers. When the Drunes split off from the Sessairs they turned really nasty. Some undead wraith/wight types (fully corporeal). Rumoured to be towards the top end of the mid tier factions.
Alchemists of Dirz: Nasty "genestealer" genetic engineeer villains with their lab experiment clone warriors to act as minions and brute force. Have some ability to genetically evolve models mid game. One of the very powerful factions.
Devourers of Vile Tis: Evil Wolfen. Like the Wolfen of Yillia but wicked. Just very, very, nasty. I never saw them play but they might be quite top tier as well.
Dwarfs of Mid Nor: Chaos Dwarfs. Chaos Dwarfs who used to be normal dwarfs. Their hero got beaten up by a Hydra who then gave him the Cthulu power to mutate dwarfs and make them join his cause. Lots of mutations. Lots of Cthulu & horror style rules and figures. Might play more like traditional Chaos (with a silly twist) than Chaos Dwarfs.
Living Dead of Acheron: Undead. Top Tier (or at least high mid tier). Some very wierd mechanics. Behave in strange ways. Hard to explain.
Ophidian Alliance: Snakemen with lobotomised human slaves to act as their guards & soldiers. Kind of like Lizardmen with the Lizardman/Skink divide except it's the human slaves and the snakeman masters. Slightly less developed than some of the other factions but they were around for quite a while.