The World Of Twilight

I've been playing around with packaging and the likes recently and one thing I would really like to have is a few boxed starter forces. I've been thinking through various ideas, but I thought I might be very cheeky and throw this out there and see what people think!  ;D

The challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to come up with starter forces for one of the cultures. Whoever comes up with the best ones (ie the ones I actually use) will get a couple of Twilight points.

The force needs a name (optional), a quick description (optional), between 290pts and 310pts of models and must cost between £35 and £40 if you were to buy the components from Pyre studios or Hasslefree The prices only need to be approximate. You can split up sets if you want (eg 2 Grishak are £6 therefore 1 Grishak would be £3) and if you've got any queries then just ask. Any models from either of the two books or the magazines are allowed.
A KalGush is probably going to cost 30pts and the Herder captain will probably be 40pts.

You can enter as many times as you like, just post the ideas in this thread.

As an example...

Empire Small Starter (yes, rubbish title)
Villages across the Empire need defending from the vicious Devanu. Brave Knights of the Empire and Local Militia stand together to defend their homes.
  Knight Unit (Captain + 3 Knights), 175pts, ~£14.50 (£18 for the unit, less 1 knight @~£3.50)
  Militia Unit (Militia Captain + 5 Militia) , 100pts, £16
  2 Herders, 30pts, £6
Total: 305pts, ~£36.50

If I'd ever got a copy of the second book I might be able to help, but no knowing the points costs  :-\ 

The Fubarnii Foragers
 300 points

A small group of light troops from a lager force/army sent out as scouts looking for food, Devanu nests or Delgon Troop’s
1X Herder Reyad @ 50 points,4x Light Cavalry @ 80 points , 1X Hunter with 2 Graku @ 70 points and
1 X Herder unit 1-Herder Captain & 4Herder’s @ 100 points
You need 1-Fubarnii Herder unit @ £14.00, 1x Hunter and 2 Graku@ £9.00 and a light cavalry unit @ £18.00
Total £41.00

I need to double check a few of these, but as a start:

Delgon
Roban - 250
NuraSen (priest) - 40
NuraSen Gohral - 60
NuraLehn/NuraKira (acolytes) - 15
KalDreman (bodyguards) - 20 (max 4 per NuraSen, 1 per NuraKira)
KalGarkii - 10
KalDru (derak) - 20
KalJoran - 15
KalGush - 30
Striders - 50

Empire
Captain Danomar - 150
Knight of Relan - 40
Militia Commander - 100
Brenar - 100
Knight Captain - 100
Knight - 25
Militia Captain - 50
Light Cavalry Reyad - 50
Light Cavalry - 20
Slinger Captain - 40
Slingers - 15
Hunter - 40
Graku - 15
Skerrat - 10
Beru - 30

Devanu
Arak-Katain - 225
Kopa - 175
Matriarch/Sempa - 125
Hunter/spear/handler jenta - 50
Kosok - 25
Grishak - 25

1000 close ranked empire knights in wedge formation....

:)

...nah...1000 striders!

fubarnii theme force. "THROUGH THE WILDERNESS"
1x trader caravan. (n/a)
1x hunter with two graku.(70pts)
3x fubarnii light header cavalry (this includes a reyad). (90pts)
1x captain Danomar. (150pts)

price 41.25
points cost: 310

Based on my personal love of all the models. I named it a theme force because I imagine there is a story to it with the trading caravan heading toward a city with its hunter scout and Danomar with a unit of headers has turned up to see them the rest of the way.
The force has an objective piece, a unit, cavalry and a character. so is good for expanding or starting.

25,000 <> 300 and 3,000 <> 40 (even with a bulk-buy discount).
Somebody didn't read the exam question properly  ;)

Guppug's idea is a neat one - it has character and makes for a nice consistent theme. It also avoids having to buying any models that I've sculpted  ;D
Through the Wilderness is fun, but I think I'll avoid including the trader caravan in a set as sits nicely as a separate expansion pack. It would be great to have a Danomar led Knight force, but if anything that ends up being a little bit too 'cheap' for the points (hence how you can fit the trader caravan in). I might have to think if I could stretch to 400pts and do a Arak, Danomar and Roban set of forces...

I've tried lots of variations and it is very difficult to make a force to those requirments which either has no cavalry (Cost gets too high for the points) or all cavalry (Points get too high for the cost)

Closest I got were

Home Guard (300 points, £36)
The milita force of a well funded town can fight of most agressors
Brenar/Militia Commander
2 units of Militia


Knight Patrol (305 points, ~£33)
Knights are sent far and wide acrss the Empire to protect the populous, some are even accopanied by the famous knights of Relan to inspire them in combat.
Knight unit
2 extra knights
1 knight of Relan


Advance Force (300 points, £36)
Knights are often joined by local Enuk riders who provide a skirmishing force while advancing on the enemy
1 knight unit
1 light cavalry unit

Engineers Escort (305 points, ~£40)
Engineers are too precious a resource to let go wondering the open countryside (as they are prone to do), when travelling from one town to the next a heavy escort is provided for thier safety (and sometimes the safety of others!)
Beru
Militia Unit
Knight Captain and 3 knights

i like that so much i'm putting it in my signature! :)

(although i feel the need to correct the spelling... although wondering is probably a better description of a twilight engineer! :) )

The 'classic' Beru with escort is a nice simple option, as is the herder themed force.
How about any ideas for the Delgon and Devanu? They get a little bit more tricky...

Jenta Hunting Party (300points, £39)
Groups of juvenile devenu often leave the family group to hone thier hunting skills, even at this young age they are more than a amatch for any wild game, or the occasional fubarni caravan.
Hunter
Spear
Handler
4 Grishak
2 Kosok


It is very difficult to make a Devanu force using Sempa and Kopa devanu. They are just so efficent in terms of points per £!!

Beast Training (300points, £33)
Sempa and Jenta Devanu often make use of hunting beasts as skirmishers or for flanking attacks
Sempa
2 Kosok
Handler
3 Grishak

Delgon are hard to make a force for this time in budget, so many cheap (points wise) troops. Infact so cheap I struggle to get the basic troppers in there!

NuraSen Gohral Escort (315 points, ~£39)
High ranking priest require extreme protection while outside the confines of the delgon empire
Nurasen Gohral
4 bodyguards
5 Shock Troopers
2 Striders

KalGush Formation (265points, ~£40)
The Kalgush is a new and frightning sight among the fubarni empire, destroying whole villages who wont submit to the will of the delgon and thier living gods
NuraSen
2 bodyguards
1 troop unit
4 KalGush

My 2 cents ...

Delgon Tunnel Fighters: 305 points, £50ish
Originally designed to protect mountain passes these formations are now used to clear out the tunnels beneath Fubarnii settlements. A task they are horrifyingly effective at.
1 NuraSen + 2 KalDreman
1 NuraKira + 1 KalDreman
8 KalJoran
2 KalDru
1 KalGush

Devanu Jenta Patrol: 300points, £40ish
A light, fast moving patrol that packs some surprising punch. One or both of the Spear Jenta can be swapped out for Hunter Jenta depending on the needs of the patrol.
1 Beast Handler Jenta
4 Grishak
2 Spear Jenta
2 Kosok

spoilsport...

Thanks for all the ideas so far. One option for the Devanu would be to actually include an excess of points within the force - maybe including an extra Jenta so they can choose which to use. Strictly speaking that is probably cheating, but I don't think Devanu players would complain too much :)

Devanu Starter: 300pts (+50pts), £36
1 Sempa
1 Jenta (2 different models provided)
4 Grishak
1 Kosok
That force would have the advantage of fitting the original scenario in the first rulebook.

I was also considering the idea of increasing the size of the starters to fit with the main characters and aiming at 400pts:
Roban, 2 NuraKira, 2 Bodyguards, 5 KalJoran: 395pts, £39
Danomar, 2 Knights of Relan, 7 Knights: 405pts, £43
Arak katain, 1 Jenta, 3 Grishak, 2 Kosok: 400pts, £36 (could add an extra Jenta, allowing an option or letting Arak be used as a Kopa)

I actually quite like the feel of all those, but I'd be nervous whether they give a good introduction to the game. What do you think?

I'd think of the characters as expanding the starter forces, if you could make the two complement each other you have an easy way to expand your armies.

Are these starter sets going to be in addition to the game starter sets?

HN

I'm generally rethinking how all the packaging etc works. I think the small starter set is still quite a good place to start, but it might also be good for a new player to be able to pick up everything they need to play with their chosen culture (minis, combat stones etc) in a single box.
It's a good question though - if the starter set still exists in its current form, then it would be good for the Devanu and Empire box sets to supplement that without giving too much repetition. More food for thought, thanks :)

There is another way. I think for Dystopian Wars Spartan Games offer the rules plus two factions (of customers choice) to make up the starter set. They even offer a massive starter set with all the faction starter sets in, for those with the big bucks.

I suppose you could do starter sets then expansion sets and offer deals for combing them.

HN

maybe to keep it simple do a set that includes everything you need to play the first set of scenerios with a particular force.
The one thing i found, was that with the model options you get in the starter, i needed new stuff really soon as i got through the scenerios i had models to play with.

Delgon scouting patrol  6 striders = 300 points - £36.00

I highly, highly approve of this list.

Kinda. But it really needs more strider variants to make it work.
Plus, it might give Alan an aneurism.

Uuuuuuuuuurrrrrrk....

<THUD>

Oh it's easy enough to repose them all.