The Nauticans - the Army Concept (part I)

I'm not really sure where the original idea for the Nauticans came from. It started about 9 months ago and I might have been sitting in the garden rolling the sausages on the barbeque with a beer or maybe I was inspired late one night and woke up and scribbled some notes before snoozing off again.

What I do know is that once I got started I just couldn't stop.

The army really began to evolve during a holiday in Greece where I enjoyed a lot of snorkeling which got my imagination going. (It helped that there was nothing to watch on TV which I could understand and there was plenty of time to sit and think with a notepad).

Very early on I decided that I wanted the army to be quite unique in the way it could be used in battle. Heavy armour and cavalry charges were not the "order of the day" for an army comprised of peoples and creatures from the sea.

The Nauticans were not to benefit from any great proficiency with missile weapons either and certainly not artillery like cannons or stone throwers.

Nope, what I had in mind was an army that would require a lot of tactical planning both before and during battle. This army would not be able to bludgeon it's way to victory or sit comfortably behind a gunline.

So, this left me with something of a dilema. I obviously had to work within the constraints of the Warhammer Rules so how exactly could I come up with a balanced force capable of taking on all comers ?

I decided to form an army that could exploit it's enemy's strengths. So whoever it faced there would be an element of balance from the very start.

I also decided that the army could not rely on the Winds of Magic, why would they ? No, the Nauticans would use the Waves of Magic, ever in conflict with the ocean's Winds of Magic. This would give me a good excuse for some special characters and magic items that could lessen the power of magic reliant "surface dweller" armies.

Anyway, my journey to work is nearing it's end so I'll write more tomorrow. More detail about the Army concept and, of course, some answers to that question "So, how exactly does a Nautican army breathe on land ?"

To be continued...