Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast - rules and feedback

[Mr Feral]

I've recently wrote a few new profiles for Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast. They have yet to be tested, but I wrote rules for:

Zombie Pirate Deckhands
I say Deckhands but to differ from Zombies of a more traditional nature, they are more a hybrid of (from the Fantasy army list) Deckhands (no Blackpowder weapons) and Gunners (with Blackpowder weapons obviously). I've decided instead of them sitting back and shooting as with normal missile weapon armed Monsters, they get an "ambushing" shot before the combat starts, then they are treated as normal non-missile Monsters. Hope that makes sense!

Bloated Corpses
This one will most likely need more refinement, its tricky to balance something that explodes when killed but is not that strong or resilient in the first place.

Scurvy Dogs
Similar to Warhounds / Chaos Hounds, might need a change of special rules to make them more unique.

Animated Hulks
The random D6 attacks is per the Fantasy rules, but otherwise the rules seem OK to me.

Shipwrights
The "hero" level Monster and also the hardest one to balance I think stat-wise, I also wrote a replacement chart for Magic Weapons just for Vampire Coast denizens.

As I've said, the rules are completely untested, they are initial ideas and are rather likely to change a lot before I can say they are complete.

I hope people read them and add their thoughts and opinions!

[Inandantia]

I like the idea of the Bloated Corpses, perhaps they could be Strength 2 and Toughness 5, that way they do most of their damage after they've been killed making for quite a unique monster. Also if victims fail their test to resist the damage I'd have the d6 ignore both Toughness and Armour.

Good work!

[Memnos]

If Zombies are weak, have no armour and die en masse, you should make it like a traditional Zombie film.

Special Rules:

Zombie Infection! - Every mansized or cavalry sized model killed in hand-tohand results in a single Zombie joining the unit.

[Mr Feral]

I like the idea of the Bloated Corpses, perhaps they could be Strength 2 and Toughness 5, that way they do most of their damage after they've been killed making for quite a unique monster. Also if victims fail their test to resist the damage I'd have the d6 ignore both Toughness and Armour.

Good work!

I suppose that could work, although I don't want it to be so useless it does nothing until it gets killed (too easy a way to earn Gold). I think when it explodes I might force an Initiative check on the Warriors to avoid the explosion.

If Zombies are weak, have no armour and die en masse, you should make it like a traditional Zombie film.

Special Rules:

Zombie Infection! - Every mansized or cavalry sized model killed in hand-tohand results in a single Zombie joining the unit.

Nice rule, but all Zombie Pirates are raised by Luthor Harkon, not through infection as shown in modern-day interpretations of "Zombies" in film and media. I also want to differ Zombie Pirates from their Vampire Count counterparts by not allowing them to be raised in-game.

[Memnos]

I suppose that could work, although I don't want it to be so useless it does nothing until it gets killed (too easy a way to earn Gold). I think when it explodes I might force an Initiative check on the Warriors to avoid the explosion.



Nice rule, but all Zombie Pirates are raised by Luthor Harkon, not through infection as shown in modern-day interpretations of "Zombies" in film and media. I also want to differ Zombie Pirates from their Vampire Count counterparts by not allowing them to be raised in-game.

Having played Zombie Pirates, I should warn you:

Having expensive, T 3, no armour, weak troops that can't be raised and always strike last is not a recipe for success.

[Mr Feral]

Fair point there.

I (having no experience of playing Vampire Coast in Fantasy) just translated the rules across as closely s possible.

Since you say they are underpowered as they are, it leaves me with two options:

- Buff up stats, same Gold cost
- Reduce Gold cost and keep the same otherwise

Which would people think is a better option? Personally, I'm thinkingthe first one.

[Memnos]

Fair point there.

I (having no experience of playing Vampire Coast in Fantasy) just translated the rules across as closely s possible.

Since you say they are underpowered as they are, it leaves me with two options:

- Buff up stats, same Gold cost
- Reduce Gold cost and keep the same otherwise

Which would people think is a better option? Personally, I'm thinkingthe first one.

Not a bad idea, either one, really. Reducing gold costs would make them feel more like a horde army while increasing stats would make them feel more like Pirates of the Caribbean zombies. Either one could work.

Also, eliminate BS 0. They're more likely to kill themselves than to kill someone else. I might suggest letting them fire pistols in to hand to hand(Giving them strength 4, AP in hand to hand).

Also: The ability to pop out of water like the old Zombie Pirate Regiment of Renown would be nice. Scouting zombies from the deep would rock.

[Inandantia]

I would reduce the gold for the profiles you have at the moment. What level party would these be aimed at do you think? You could always create seperate, beefed up zombies for higher levels.

@Memnos: Gold doesn't dictate how many monsters the warriors are fighting, just how much gold the party earns after they defeat them, so you wouldn't need to reduce the gold to make them a horde.

[Mr Feral]

Not a bad idea, either one, really. Reducing gold costs would make them feel more like a horde army while increasing stats would make them feel more like Pirates of the Caribbean zombies. Either one could work.

I want to them to be stronger then, because pirates are always cool!

Also, eliminate BS 0. They're more likely to kill themselves than to kill someone else. I might suggest letting them fire pistols in to hand to hand(Giving them strength 4, AP in hand to hand).

Yeah I like that, I think giving them a whole load of pistols and using them for combat is a good idea.

Also: The ability to pop out of water like the old Zombie Pirate Regiment of Renown would be nice. Scouting zombies from the deep would rock.

Yes, now that is cool! I'm going to include that one. It will also give a bit more interaction between the board sections and the Monsters that dwell in them.

I would reduce the gold for the profiles you have at the moment. What level party would these be aimed at do you think? You could always create seperate, beefed up zombies for higher levels.

I'm going to go for around Battle-Level 2 and into 3, mostly because when I get around to actually starting our groups games, they will be playing "normal" games before going to Lustria.

- - - - -

Right, with that I propose the following changes:

Change Blackpowder Weapon to Armed with weapon (Blackpowder Weapon)

Such Monsters can use their missile weapon in combat as well, in which case they use their WS (instead of their BS) to determine if they hit or not. However, if a unmodified 1 is rolled for the "To Hit", the Monster instead takes an unmodified 1D3 Wounds, as the weapon backfires on the Monster.

Replace references to Pistol in the Deckhands and Shipwright entries to Armed with Brace of Pistols (Blackpowder Weapon).

Replace previous chart and Pistol rules for:
Brace of Pistols (Strength 4, ignores first point of armour)

Change Deckhands Ballistic Skill from Special to 6+

Add paragraph to Aquatic;

In addition, such Monsters can hide in wait of ambush if emerged in big enough a body of water, slime, marsh etc. To represent this, if such Monsters are deployed onto a board section that visibly is covered by at least half of it in deep water (or equivalent) then they gain the Ambush rule as well. Don't trust the water!

- - - - -

So, what do people think? Can these changes work? Do they even make sense?

[Mr Feral]

After whoever knows how long, I'm working on these rules again! It probably has something to do with this project here!

So, this delightful PDF I put together contains my rules for:

Zombie Pirates
Deck Gunners
Bloated Corpses
Scurvy Dogs
Animated Hulks
Shipwights

There is also a number of new Special Rules to reflect how I believe Zombie Pirates should work in WHQ, as well as a new chart for Vampire Coast-themed Magic Weapons!

As I've probably mentioned before, these are untested and so any thoughts on them (or even some playtesting and feedback) would be grand!