Topic: (WFB) my attempt on pirates armybook

[Spacefrisian]

Atm iam working on a pirates armybook for fantasy battle, for this i would like some ideas from others.

Atm i have the following:

Special rules: Sea legs (ignores water terrain in reagrds to movment)
gold rush: very small movment bonus when lore of metal is being used (1 unit)

Harpoon - Nothing special just a renaming of spear.

Special rides: Sea horse, Sea Kraken, Sea dragon

Lords: Grand Pirate Captain:
has several different statts to represent the different races that could lead the force. currently:
Human, Elf, Orc, Dwarf, Skaven

Elf has option of lvl1 wizard upgrade, Dwarf is stubborn.


Thats it for the moment so feel free to give youre ideas. (please dont add links to stuff saying it has already been done before)

Newly added:

Lords:
Ship sorcerer (might need a name change)
lv3 wizard (lvl 4 upgrade)
All lores except lore of metal
Human or Elf

Core:
Sea dogs crew:
1 stattline represents a mix of races.
Handweapon and upgrades as in Pistols or handwapens.
Leader can be upgraded to a Dwarf granting stuborn.
Standard bearers are named animal bearers, seem to suit pirates more to carry an animal to battle instead of a regular standard.

Sea Dogs Muskets:
1 stattline represents a mix of races.
Handguns or Crossbows
Leader can be upgraded to a Dwarf granting stuborn.
Standard bearers are named animal bearers, seem to suit pirates more to carry an animal to battle instead of a regular standard.
volley fire?

[WisdomLS]

Interesting idea, have you played Man o War, if not take a look as it'll no doubt give you some ideas.

A few ideas:

Harpoons should be very different to spears as they are ranged weapons, maybe something like a lower str bolt thrower.
Grappling hooks and lines not sure of rules but they should hinder enemy movement.
Cutlass's maybe increase to Initiative or re-roll wounds.

What about special characters? You could do famous real world pirates with a warhammer slant. Think a skaven version of Jake sparrow 

[Spacefrisian]

The idea for Harpoons as short range is a neat idea. S3 R6 ? perhaps and treating it as a spear in cc.

As for grappling hooks i was thinking about making a special unit made up of Ogres that would cary these around, not sure on what they should do though..

Cutlass (or Cutlasses) will be added in several forms, cant leave out an iconic pirate weapon. I was thining about several different ones.

The Jack Sparrow like character will most defintly make an appearance. 

[Sir_Godspeed]

Replace sea horse with "Hippocamp", Sea Kraken with simply Kraken (ever heard of a "land kraken?) and sea dragon leviathan or sea serpent or somesuch thing.

The problem I see here is what direction you'd like to go in. I don't see pirates fielding massive amounts of monstrous sea creatures, to be honest. That seems more like what some sort of underwater sea kingdom would do.

On another note, it would be cool to see Figureheads (you know, the kind of things that are on the prow of a galleon) as army standards.

[Spacefrisian]

I was thinking about using animals instead of stanard bearers. Monkeys and such. Not quite sure on it however.

[Full Metal Geneticist]

Also cutlasses should be hand weapons. No need to be weird!

If you want an interesting thing instead of a movement bonus when using the lore of metal cause pirate units to frenzy whenever you cast the 6th spell from the lore of metal in the radius that normally causes stupidity.

I would suggest your pirates to use something along the lines of the old beastmen mob rules (Skirmishers but can get a +2 bonus only to rank). This would indicate their loser fighting formations and inability to stand upto a regiment but their added flexibility. It would also add some ranged protection considering I would not suggest high armour saves for your troops. I think your core should be made up of the equivalent of empire free company (with worked rules),  archers/crossbows/handgunners (with worked rules), swordsmen and maybe some greatswordsmen.

Specials? Duellists using the rules for shades and the bonus of the old beastmen mob rules.

I cannot think of funkier things to add. Apart from Cannons and Bolt Throwers.

[Benis]

I agree with Sir_Godspeed that you need to work out the direction and feel of the list a bit before actually constructing rules. Right now it doesn't feel like a unified concept that would work as an army. Try to establish them into the Warhammer world and what their assets and short comings ought to be.

As for harpoons I suspect you mean something like these? In which case they should really by javelins/throwing spears with perhaps some fun rule against monsters/monstrous beasts.

[Sir_Godspeed]

The old mercenary lists had a few pirate characters... or maybe it only was that Dwarven pirate dude. Anyways, there are a few other things you could let yourself be inspired by; such as the aforementioned mercenaries, the Ogre Maneaters, etc. If there ever was an army that could potentially be interracial, this would be it.

As for the harpoon gun; perhaps a chance to pull a monstrous creature in a certain direction or simply impeding its movement?

[Spacefrisian]

Traits as in: (not sure if i hit the nail on its head)
Good at long Range, great in cc, weak on the Cavalry part.

[Full Metal Geneticist]

Great in CC? They aren't Chaos or Elves! Average in Close Combat is what you are thinking of!

[Re-roll?!]

Very cool concept.

You may want to look up the old Warhammer Chronicles rules for the "Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast" I wont post a link because you said you didn't want links everywhere, but a quick google search will turn it up.

It was an old undead pirate army released around the time of the lustria campaign and it might be a useful resource for ideas.

My favorites are the deck guns (two man teams who ripped deck guns off their ships), cannonades (half cannons) and the Queen Bess which was a giant, named warmachine.

Also, it might be useful for magic item ideas, as the mini-dex is full of cleverly named magic items. (Most of them suck BTW, so you'll have to come up with new rules for the items, but the names are worth plundering)

[Spacefrisian]

Great in CC? They aren't Chaos or Elves! Average in Close Combat is what you are thinking of!

Some of them are Elves actually. But Average isnt that bad all in all.

As for zombie pirates, i havent realy figured out how to pull that one off, the idea is nice but id rather have it among the living for a large part. Though that doesnt rule out the idea of having a type of Sorcerer that can resurrect units as undeads (with a curse).

Zombie (undead) pirates is best reserved for more advanced options.

Deck guns and such certainly fit in. Cannons + Deck guns as special was my thought. Queen Bess (or the like) as Rare obviously.