ShiverShield – 2026 Warband – Part 1 – The Woods in the Woods
Well, while it hasn’t been confirmed by the time of writing this, Most likely the Woods in the Woods, which is the Games day for Oakbounds ‘The Woods’ game system, will be end of June/ start of july and with a new version coming out (version 3 of the Skirmish roles, now referred to as ‘Shivershield’ (compared to the 3rd edition Roleplay being ‘Deepwood Shadows’ etc)) its most likely, the 3ed will be the main played rule set.
So, I’m working on a new warband for this year. the last couple of years, I have used a Yaltog Caravan band with some tweaks of course, which used… non-oakbound figures (in fact, they were mostly Cats ^_^) and I do love them figures, but decided on a new band for this year. and the Yaltog Caravan was an ‘expansion’ warband from… I think Mythic cycles. I’m not 100% sure on how ‘compatible’ some extra stuff is with the new rules, but new rules for them will come out most likely in the next expansion, just not everything in one go of course.
And in the new Rules, the Yaltog Caravan isn’t there. One of the pros with the Caravan was it’s somehow unique ability to have a mixture of specialist troops. I’ll explain.
When you pick a warband type, you have access to the figures and specialist troops of that type. For example. If you picked the Gnawlochs, the Ratmen, you could then pick any gnawloch like the Ledrath, Muskrath etc. If you wanted an ally from another force, there was only certain types you would ally with (of course) but then you only had access to a ‘basic’ generic member. With the Yaltog Caravan, however, it was a gathering of misfits and rebels etc, who were kicked out of their own places. While you couldn’t pick from ANY army list, you had a range and what’s more, you could use these specialist troops. My Caravan had a Gnawloch Muskrath, working with Tutha (human) warriors, Goblin bogles and more. It was an interesting choice and mixture.
The new Shivershield rules change how a warband is made up and how you create one. Not in a bad way, I think it’s a very interesting change which has pros and cons, which is about right ^_^ One of the changes is you don’t have the basic profile when it comes to allies. you can have specialist troop types as allies. Fair enough. when the Caravan’s return, I expect they will still have the pro of having a much wider range to pick from, compared to normal armies, but that’ll be in some later expansion book.
Well.. So time to look at another warband to collect. And, unlike armies where it’s a big investment to start a new army, warbands are up to 12 figures on the whole. Much easier to deal with when you are sourcing and painting only a unit’s worth ^_^
Warband Recruitment
I decided to pick one which I had minor interest in but I like some of the new changes. the Bucca!
The Bucca are merfolk (about the only major type of Merfolk in the Woods game system) from the seas and are dark and nasty people (and I hear rumours that might mate with the humans in some depraved old fishing towns). Some of the new changes for them now are basically, the undead! Bucca have been known for sacrificing people to their dark god, the Lurker of the deep, but now they are able to take these dead from the seas and put them to battle.
As I might as well point out, in 2ed Woods, you picked a leader from the race type, so it would be say a Bucca. Different group types were in the various catalogues (like merfolk). The new system makes it easier to build a more mixed group as if you don’t have to pick something like a Spriggan warband, and then see about Leprechaun allies, you can now just make a Hillfolk warband which can be all Spriggan, or all leprechaun, or a complete mixture of the two.
Technically, I’ve already got a couple of possible figures for their band as I got and painted up a Nuckelavee some time back but was never 100% happy with it. Well, I’ve decided to do a Merfolk (Bucca) warband for this year. I got until mid/end of June (unless things change) so it’s possible to get done for me.
While the new rules are out in April with the new starter set, I’ve used a special preview of the rules to work out a new warband to start with. So Let’s just go through this now.
The new rules change the recruitment of a warband from a set point score to having it created from 4 troop types: Command, Elite, Rank & File (Curadh, Eachraidh, Rinc & Fyrd). Command is the replacement for the old leader and is, well, whoever is the leader. Elite are the highest ranking specialist troops, Rank and File are roughly the same but bunk out the warband with more standard troops. Each category not only has a few options BUT some options can and will contain more then one unit. Anyway, first thing, to Pick a Command.
For the Merfolk, I have 3 choices. a Deep Priest, a Raid Leader or a Nuckelavee. The Nuckelavee is a big nasty avatar of the lurker, and like I said, I already got one painted up and it’s a nice model, even if I’m not 100% happy with my job on it. But I’m not using that. A Raid Leader is a kinda generic leader, but still powerful but I’m going for the deep priest. This is a high top-ranking priest of the Bucca and gives fateweaving skills (basic Magic-like) alone with it’s basic weapons of a Leaf sword and scales. He also comes with a captive. What are captives? hehe. they are potential sacrificial victims. While they can’t attack or anything on their own, a priest can kill one for various benefits. Any Bucca with a net can capture new victims which can be sacrificed later on during a battle. However, they have a major downside. You need to drag them around. This means it costs twice the stamina to move while you are dragging them. That means, instead of using 3 stamina to move, If the priest (or someone else) was dragging a captive, they would have to spend 6 stamina! The Deep Priest has 7 stamina, so it’s a large bulk of his actions to drag the captive around, but it’s not like they are going to go anywhere and the priest should have a bit of a distance from any melee.
Oh, a quick bit on the Melee. It had a major overall last year and was really fun to try out. It also makes some bits a bit more skilful and less of a foregone conclusion. Normal attacks allow you to use one of two runes in the attack. An Attack rune, and a Defend rune. The number of runes you have is based on how much stamina they want to put into the attack among other things. The Leaf Sword which the Deep Priest carries allows the Bait rune to be used. Now, the runes are basically tally tokens for what you do. If you play an attack rune, that inflicts 1 damage. However, the defender might play a Defend rune, this removes one of the opponents attack runes. There is also a bit less on the side of ‘who is the attack and who is the defender’ because, even if you are defending, doesn’t mean you can’t get an attack in. Say I moved a figure into the grapple and had three runes to play. I picked 3 attack runes. The other player, decided to play 2 defend runes but 1 attack rune. well, two of my attacks are nulled out by them defends. But that third gets through, so that’s one damage I did, However, they also attacked, so I take one damage. Simple and fun right? Now, the Leaf sword, like I said, allows the Bait rune to be used. this is good for me attacking. What it means is a Bait token is placed on the character I attacked and the next time I attack him (doesn’t matter who attacks him or when) has an extra rune they can use when engaging in combat. It’s possible to build up this, so I could do my first attack, and inflict 3 Bait runes, so the next time, I automatically get a +3 runes to attack with. In fact, lets go a rough look at how many that Deep Priest would most likely attack with.
The Deep Priest has a finesse value of 4 (Agility + Strength). So I start off with 4. There are more which can be added based on if I creeped up unseen on my target or not, but lets say the target saw me coming. so no bonus from that. I then can commit some stamina to the attack. I already moved up to him, which would use 3 stamina, giving me 4 left. I don’t want to use all of that encase he needs to defend so, lets use just 3 (not much left after that but fine).. that gives me 7 runes to attack with. Start of the next round, they are still in a grapple and start again, but if you happen to have another character near by, they can move into grapple, at which point, the opponent has already used some stamina so will be weaker. So Grapples can be used in a couple of ways depending on how you play. But you get the idea ^_^ and this Deep priest probably won’t be alone. And as we are here, he has Scales, which gives an Absorb value of 2. Armour which has an absorb value, can be used to negate damage. IF you had Absorb 1, then when you are attacked, you can negate that one point of damage. This allows him to absorb 2 points of damage without problem. This also means that I can probably (in most cases) ignore having to use 2 of my runes for defence.
Then it goes to my Elite choice. well. I have the choice between a Priest (with another captive), 3 Spearfish, which are the standard troops, or 2 Netfish, which are the troop type that goes out to catch new victims. While spearfish and netfish give me an extra figure on the table (well, 2 for spearfish), I decided to go for the priest. If you are going to go for the dark arts, make it a good strong force for them. a Priest is a slightly weaker version of the higher ranking deep priest but stat wise, it’s not a huge difference, but enough to be noteworthy. He has the same Leaf Sword and Scales as the Deep Priest. Like with the Deep Priest, I get another captive, so I do get 2 figures, but really, as the Captives can’t be used to attack, they aren’t so much active force as supplies.
Next we have the Rank, and then the File. while these two types are kinda the same, they don’t have the same options. For the Rank, I’ve decided on 2 Netfish. Technically, this is probably a mistake. They are the same stats as the spearfish, so you are just getting one less then if you went for the spearfish, you are gaining the nets. The nets aren’t melee weapons but can be thrown to trap a target. Once trapped, that figure is in alot of trouble and can’t move or get free unless they have a friend get them out. But also, while trapped they became potential victims for the Lurker. It’s a one-shot weapon though, so I’m really weakening my attack force to give a possible boost to my priests. Though even if the victim is freed from the net, It’s barbed so anyone trapped loses one point of endurance as well as causing bleeding. The problem is that is Bleeding doesn’t last long unless you can inflict multiple bleeding runes, then they can just bleed to death.
So, after that, I need some form of attack force, even if just for defence, so I’ve decided on a company (of 4) of Shellycoats. Shellycoats are the drowned victims raised from the deep seas. My priests do have the ability to raise more from the water during battle (and there are ways to get around areas without any natural water) and while the weakest of my forces, give a nice line of defence. Or that’s the theory, anyway. While Shellycoats are aquatic, they can’t restore their stamina via the water and instead of the scales, they are covered in barnacles and all kinds of stuff, which makes a strong abrade 3 armour. Abrade armour, unlike Absorb, can be used to negate any damage including piecing, which is damage that can bypass normal absorb armour. However, it’s a one-shot thing. after three hits, it’s worn away. As these are very generic quick use type, that should work pretty well for support.
As said briefly, the Shellcoats are a company. A Company is a dedicated unit. They activate at the same time, need to do their best to stay within 2 inches of each other and if one gets into a fight, they all pile in as a group. This means a company can be a pretty strong force to deal with, but they do suffer from the weakness of being more classed as a group. You can’t have them battling 4 different targets, for example, or going off on their own if the need arises. So again, you have pros and cons.
Troop Round up & Initial Figures
So what does this give me? 10 figures to source and paint up.
* Deep Priest
* Priest
* 2x Captives
* 2x Netfish
* 4x Shellycoats
Due to being able to raise more shellycoats during battle, I might want to throw in a couple of spares, on top of any troops I might recruit later on (as the games day can play as a campaign, so you can recruit during the time)
Merfolk are only allowed 1 type of Ally, and that is the Wildfolk, which are Tuatha outlaws, mostly members of the Wulver cults. Makes sense I can ally with other cultists, even if they claim a different god. So I might see about making sure to have some possibly allies ready. But anyway, force on the main band.
I decided to pick up Oakbound’s own release for the Deep Priest and the normal Priest and as I’m writing this, netfish are out of stock. No hardship as I have both plenty of time to pick them up and can look elsewhere too. For the Captives, that’s a bit trickier.. there really is a shortage of captives as figures around. No problem. My first captive I’ve started work on is a Fae (Elf) made from an oathmark Elf infantry plastic set I have for some reason (I think I got it for parts for something a few years back). I don’t want to make too many of them the same so I’m not sure what’ll do for the next one, but oh well. That’ll come when it comes.
Now, the Shellycoats are the harder one. The first figure which came to mind was a Hæmovore from Blacktree’s old Doctor Who line, cause I’m sure I had a spare one. well.. turns out I didn’t. I had an ‘Ancient One’, which was the leader of them. the Hæmovores were… basically aquatic vampires/zombies. (right.. as the name says, there are blood eaters, but they aren’t vampires cause in Doctor Who, Vampires were a specific ancient race at war with the Time Lords. And when making the story, they made a HUGE point to NOT have them called Vampires cause there was no connection.) So great! barnacles and all. Slight problem that I only have one, and as I started to paint him up, I noticed the lasergun strapped to his side.. well.. I COULD cut that off but.. decided I might as well kinda ignore it. Who says it’s a lasergun? he has been in the bottom of the sea for years.. maybe he came from across the void between worlds to the mortal world of Talamhlar where the Bucca caught up and sacrificed him…. mmm.. wasn’t that kinda the opening to Planet of the Apes? well, that’ll do fine for me. Though as I started painting it.. I don’t think it is a laser gun but… a truncheon? well.. that’s all for a later date ^_^
either way, I still have 3 more shellycoats needed atleast. Time to get out some skeletons and zombies and add barnacles to them. As well as checking out some figures to see if I can find anything of interest.
Oh, I do know that Oakbound will be releasing a bunch of new figures but I’m still interested in looking around ^_^
Next time, Lets look a bit more at what this band can do (which will be great if anyone reading this is gonna be fighting against me ^_^) and more on stuff on prepping and the figures themselves and whatever comes up.
