A scary fact: after I finish the new Hobgoblin and Fimir updates, all books will have gotten their proper 8th ed upgrades, meaning that apart from minor updates and polishing the existing material, there's not a whole lot left to do with the Warhammer world (well, there's still Storm of Chaos and Allied Contingents I suppose).
At any rate, this has got me pondering about the fishmen, long seen as nothing but a joke in the Warhammer world, even though they definitely exist (the Lizardmen, Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos books all mention them). Though I don't intend to bite off more than one can chew, so any such list would probably just be released as a smaller army list in the same vain as Zombie Pirates, meaning it would appear in the Allied Contingents book in this case.
So what's the general thought of Fishmen as a playable army? Is that something anyone would find interesting, or is it better to keep them as the butt of many jokes?
Welcome to the Warhammer Armies Project, the home of the unofficial 9th Edition for Warhammer Fantasy Battles and the most popular unofficial army lists online. It will gradually be updated with new books in a rules-only format. It also serves as my hobby blog for my personal Warhammer collection.
Make it, please
ReplyDeleteI think it would be pretty interesting. I mean, here's a faction that can face of against some of the most dangerous world powers. Not only that, they are able to strike from almost anywhere near water and command giant sea beast. I say go for it.
ReplyDeleteAs a dedicated empire-Averland_Player, I would really love playing fishmen. Simply to stick to my friend who constantly laughs about Marius Leitdorf for his campaign against the fish people! :D
ReplyDeleteHi! What about Khuresh? IMHO snakesmen would be a better faction than fishmen
ReplyDeleteI've got to agree with the last comment. I have never found Fishmen all that interesting, and of the attempts (both model and book wise) I have seen in the past, none have been too successful. I think they've just become the laughing stock of the Warhammer fluff, and no attempt can be taken seriously anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think Khuresh would be far more interesting. What about the Badlands, or the Border Princes?
JJ
Bear in mind that one does no exclude the other, Khuresh might also make their way into the Allied Contingents book ;)
ReplyDeleteSame goes for Border Princes, although the Badlands are inhabited by Orcs, so they probably won't see their own army per say.
Regardless, I don't expect any such list to be out for the nearest 6 months (but then again, I have been wrong before!).
Maybe you should add ''fishmen'' as a allied contigent to pirates? I think it would be a nice idea to add creatures like a sahuagins or kuo-toa from D&D and the like
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand it would be a nice idea to create a race of ''fishmen'' but in style of Cthulhu myths.
ReplyDeleteI think that, despite as much as I like Lovecraft, would base Fishmen primarily on Greek mythology, since "the king of the seas" from Man O'War is called Triton (which is the name of Poseidon's son). That said, it might still be possible to sneak in one or two Cthulhu based units in it.
DeleteI would agree with both of you. Use greek mythology to give them cultural uniformity, but give them the grim background we expect form warhammer. Cthulhu mythos gave us half-sunk cyclopean structures covered by mist and rotting fish. You could place your greek fishmen in that kind of ominous surroundings.
DeleteHypothetical RoR of Nigel Stillman for WFB5 : SHARKI'S FISHMEN OF THE ISLANDS
ReplyDeletehttp://www.warhammer-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=100089
Thanks, that's pretty interesting! :)
DeleteIf you go to the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum link on this very page you can find an army list for fishmen called the Nauticans if you are looking for any ideas. It is pretty old but should be able to convert to 8th ed without too much difficulty.
ReplyDeleteI'm well aware of the Nauticans, the guy who made that list tend to review and promote my army books on the various forums. He actually wondered if I wanted to give them an 8th ed overall a while ago, though I had way more army books to update back then so I didn't ahve the time.
DeleteIf I make a fishmen army, I would definitely take a look at that list, though it might be more of a spiritual successor to the Nauticans as opposed to just being a straight up 8th ed update.
To my opinion Fishmen "army" must be a alternative Lizardmen army.
ReplyDeleteI would say that part of the list would be based around the sunken lizardmen city of Chupa-something (the one that Lokhir Fellheart raided), but the list as a whole would be more varied than that. Think some kind of Mermen, WC3 Nagas (ancient Saurus), Sirens, Sahuagins (ancient Skinks), Kuo-toa and so on, as well as huge sea monsters from Man O'War.
DeleteYeah u should have done tht ages ago the nautical list was interesting and i used to use it being my favorite army but the book was crap compared to others overpriced units and all like for eg the leviathan want powerful enough and was overpriced i liked the giant octopus the lore and magic items and army rules though was very fun the giant crabs etc were funny i would love your take on them if u could make the units similar and rules but sort out the layout and points as well as add new units btw when u upload your books can u please embed the fonts that way its a easy print with no hassle and i can print most of your books
ReplyDeleteEmbed the fonts? Wouldn't that just be necessary when printing from a word doc, the pdf should have them embedded already? Genuinely asking, I'm far from an expert at this sort of thing.
DeleteAre we allowed to argue a Border Princes book would be a better idea?
ReplyDeleteThe plan is to make both as part of the Allied Contingents book actually, so there's no need to argue about it really ;)
Deleteepicness
Deletewhat ideas do you have units wise?
DeleteI only have a relatively rough idea at the moment, but you can probably expect to see sea creatures similar to those of D&D as well as the monsters from GW's Man O'War make an appearance.
Deletesounds ace. oh and in relation to allied contingents, what armies/groups were you thinking of including overall?
DeleteCan't remember them off the top of my head, but I made a post about in in April. Just check the Allied Contingents label in the archive and you should find it.
Deletewill do, cheers
DeleteJust a thought, I would suggest keeping idea of medieval Balkans for border Princes. Using influences from more classical era's is perhaps redundant considering late medieval basis for rest of human realms. just a thought though.
DeleteThe good thing about the Border Princes though is how you can really fit both in, considering it consists of multiple kingdoms. That said, any influences from Ancient Greece will be just that - influences. The armies as a whole will be based a lot more around medieval ages as opposed to the ancient period.
Deleteoh course, just thought it would be odd having ancient Greeks next to the Holy Roman Empire.looking forward to this books, am sure it will be as good as your other work.
DeleteDepends on what you think is good about them, it probably won't look quite as polished or be as original, but then again, I haven't started working on any rules yes, so I can't say for sure yet.
DeleteI suppose I like the variety and originality of your other works. But hey if it has a border Princes list i can combine with my Empire army I'll be over the moon anyway.
DeleteWell, in that case you probably won't be disappointed. The Border Princes list will in general be mostly fan service to all those clamoring for other historical settings/factions than those available at the moment. Should be something for everyone, I hope :)
Delete:)
DeleteI think it would be great for you to do a fishmen/Nautican army. Your books are great and you need another on your armies project wall to make it fully complete.
ReplyDeleteThe Storm of Chaos book will take that spot regardless, so I might be forced to make yet another one after that if I want it to even out properly. More likely, I'll change the layout of the blog a bit, by putting the books in a sidebar through dropdown menus or something like that eventually.
DeleteLooks good, also I have a question regarding some of the special characters, is there some type of rule that goes without saying, that you can't make a character as powerful or more powerful than Archaon?
DeleteWell, he is kind of supposed to be one of the most powerful characters out there ;)
DeleteIn general though, I make mostly human armies, and there are few humans that are going to be more powerful than Karl Franz or Louen Leoncour, let alone Archaon.
This is interesting, and I'd like to share a story. In 2003 or so, I worked at a games workshop in the oakridge mall, in San Jose California. My name is Chris Wolfe. Andy Chambers and Gav Thorpe came in person to our store in May and had a very cool meeting with us to show off how the newer style plastic sprue models were modeled and to generally sign autographs and promote the announcement of the Ogre Kingdoms, though it was still secret, they were stirring up interest.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I had worked at another game store just months before, and one of the items we had in stock was a Pokemon block of its game system, entitled "Aquapolis" I believe. I thought it was funny, and of course when they were in our GW store and we were all throwing guesses at them as to what the new army was, I joked "How about the Fishmen of Aquapolis". They both looked rather amuzed and nodded agreeably with one another and decided that was not only funny (British I suppose) but worthy of noting.
A short while later rumors online began to circulate that the new army would be Fishmen, seems that it was funny enough to tease gamers with at Kubla Con (which they were both attending after seeing our shop) and beyond. In fact, within a few issues of white dwarf, Gav signed one of his editorials with "Fishmen".
The story of Fishman persists, I read not a few days ago in the 8th ed rulebook a line written about the absurdity of the Empire's populace believing in Fishmen.
My quip flourished into a rumor, and into the lasting pages of Games Workshop's literature. We all have our 15 minutes, I suppose.
Feel free to contact me at my current place of employment as manager of Legends Comics and Games, 1855 41st Ave, Suite F12, Capitola, CA 95062. 1-831-475-0400