Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

Just magic related discussion here please.

Question regarding standard magical items for Nautican units - are these available to the Nautican race, e.g., Power stones, Biting Blades?

Reviewing the army history I would argue that they wouldnt be and that a distinct rule would need to be implemented along the lines of...

... Due a lack of contact with the land based races of the Warhammer world Nauticans do not have access to the standard magic items available to those races. Rather they rely solely on Nautican developed magical items that are suited to their water based existence and need for elemental magic to survive on land.

Some additional item ideas....

MAGIC BANNERS

Creatures from Below - 25pts
Even the bravest Nauticans fear to go to the deep places of the Ocean, especially those areas tainted by Chaos. This banner is imbued with the trapped essence of those few who tried and lived to tell the tale.

Units carrying this banner cause Fear.

Thanks for the ideas Kiwi, I like the banner. I'll put it in especially now the Mariner Souls and Ghost Wreck are being moved out of the Core/Rare unit lists into either bound items or more likely a Special Character upgrade option.

Following the above change the army will now need some more defence against fear.

Re: Magic Items, I had assumed that the Nauticans would have some sort of equivalent items. Maybe not exactly the same, eg. a power sea shell rather than a power stone, but something similar.

Let me think about that for a while. If I excluded the "common" magic items then I'd need to have another good look at the magic item list because the Nauticans would be left a bit short especially as the army is already slightly underpowered in magic items in relation to some others.

Putting together more lists last night - playtesting Tuesday and Thursday this week will let u know how it goes.

Noticed some big gaps in the items available to the Sirens and Mermaids. The Arcane and Enchanted sections need boosting... some suggestions

ARCANE

Staff of Nemo 45 pts
Bearer is immune to effects of their first miscast in each magic phase.

Coral Amulet 15 pts
Adds 1 power dice to the bearers casting phase

Sea Sponge 50 pts
Absorbs 1 enemy PD and adds it to the Nautican dispel pool at the start of each enemy magic phase

TALISMANS

Pearl of Neptune 15 pts
All attacks by bearer and unit count as magical

Sirens Charm 25 pts
Bearer mimics the haunting charm of the Nautican spell casters. Bearer and unit have 4+ WS.

BANNERS

Pressure of the Depths 25 pts
Few creatures can withstand the crushing pressure of the deep ocean. This banner mirrors this crushing pressure in order to protect the Nautican army from enemy weapons. Units carrying this banner have a 4+ WS vs. Missles including magic missles.

Need some more banners here in the 25pt range so Trident Guard have something to carry.

ARMOUR

Helm of Posideon 25 pts
Grants the bearer a 6+ AS which may be combined with other armour as normal. Bearer also re-rolls all failed Armour Saves

Shark Cloak 40 pts
Bearer gains +1 wound, but cannot be combined with other magical armour.

ENCHANTED ITEMS

Casandras Cloak 40 pts
A mortal woman who fell in love with the King of the Seas Casandra used her knowledge of the arcane to create a cloak that would allow her to join her beloved in his ocean realm. Bearer of cloak may only be hit and wounded by magical weapons and/or magical attacks.

... trying to think of a few more without copying too much from my HE and Dwarf books, although most army books duplicate each other in some ways.

Thanks for all the ideas Kiwi. I mixed them all up a bit in the meat grinder and some of them made the final Nautican pasty

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate the input and feedback.

I have added a mgic ring caled the Silver Gale Ring to make up for the loss fo the Man o' War.

The ring is reasonably cheap (30pts) and not that powerful (bound 3) and does no damage but it does blast a gale at the enemy which stops a unit from march moving in it's subsequent movement phase.


Note: I removed the Man 'o War because it was not particularly well received in the "which units would you take in your army" poll (on naut2.blogspot.com) and I couldn't find any suitable miniatures anyway.

I like it

Thanks Kiwi.

The Ring is another utility item for the Nauticans. They are going to prove a little bit more tactically challenging than say Vampires ( my usual army).

I'm contemplating something of a magic rewrite. I'm not sure how serious I am about this right now. The current magic is workable (although I'm conscious that magic items need tweaking) but not inspiring.

The idea is that because the source of magic, ie. the oceans is so different to the source of magic for other races, ie. the Winds of Magic, then they might operate in a different way altogether. The two sources of magic might vie for dominance in the Warhammer World. Who knows ? I like the idea though.

Still, just mulling this one over right now but I'd be interested in opinions. I'll be updating my design notes blog with my thoughts, so if you're interested you can follow them here:-

naut2.blogspot.com

Please leave comments here or on the naut2 blog.

PS. I should add that I will be pulishing the draft 3.6 version o fthe army in September on a pdf. I won't be changing this.

Any ideas, suggestions, comments etc will be daved fro future versions and playtesting/feedback.

The "Live" playable version will be the pdf one. That's what we need feedback on most.

I expect to publish it sometime near the end of Septermber.

Sigmar, I was thinking; wouldn't Nauticans be able to raise water up from the ground. So, maybe this spell. Feel free to change it.
The Stagnant Swamp- 12+
The Nautican spell caster raises up the water that exists underground, and raises it up to ground level. Foes sink in the swamp as they struggle to escape, their protection dragging them down into the ground
The Nautican creates a swamp where foes can sink. The swamp takes advantage of good armor. If the target has no armor save, they sink on a 6+, then 4+. If the target has a 6+ armor save, they sink on a 6+ and so on. This spell only affects the front rank of a unit.

hi galeac, apologies it's taken so long for me to reply. I didn't spot your post (just getting accustomed to the new format etc - that's my excuse !).

I like the spell. I wouldn't mind doing it for toughness instead of armour though. Let me think about it a bit more.

I need to make a couple of tweaks to the army list and need to look at magic again so I'll bear your idea in mind. If I don't find a place in the magic lore, I can certainly add a bound item because I know of 2 others I would like to remove.

Thanks for the idea, keep them coming.

I think Galeac's idea is easily redone by using "Mistress of the Marsh" in the Lore of Life. Just my 2 cents.

Good point Powner, thanks.

The Nauticans can actually select Lore of Life along with Light, Heavens and their own Aqua Lore.

Sigmar, I was just thinking, maybe add some Ice magic to the aqua lore.