MORDHEIM - CITIES OF GOLD
PYGMIES

By Tommy Punk

I have based this Warband on the WFB Pygmie army list by Rick Martin.

The jungles of Lustria are jammed packed full of small tribes of humans. Of these some of the most famous are the all women warrior tribes of the Amazons. While most of the indigenous tribes are peaceful and keep themselves to themselves, there are some very warlike tribes as well. The most savage of these are the Pygmies. These are small people, and very violent and aggressive peoples. Some of the tribes even practice cannibalism and the black art of Voodoo. While only small, isolated tribes the Pygmies lack the kind of military threat of most of the other races of the Warhammer World - an encounter with a Pygmy war party, or stumbling on a Pygmy village is always a very frightening and often deadly experience for the unfortunate commander.

Pygmies are short and squat, rarely more than 5' tall and often shorter. Although small they are by no means puny. Their skin is dark and their hair is black. They often paint their bodies in a similar way to the Slann, and are very keen on ornamental mutilation such as nose bones, lip and ear plates, filed teeth, ritual scarring and tying great big weights to their tender bits.

The Pygmies are materially primitive, having little by way of possessions other than a simple loincloth and some weapons. The Pygmies chief skills are hunting and tracking rather than formal fighting, and their characteristic weapon is the blowpipe. Their weapons and ornaments are made from bone, wood and stone and the use of metals is altogether unknown. Pygmies have difficulty obtaining any quantity of metal, and so their weapons are made from wood and stone. The Pygmies uses fire-hardened wooden javelin, flint daggers and stone clubs that can both be thrown and used in melee combat. However, the most favoured weapon is a poisoned blowpipe dart. Darts are tucked into a belt with room to hold around six darts and a pygmy can carry his blowpipe plus club, or blowpipe plus three javelins, in his shield hand.

The Hunting Parties are the skilled Hunters of the Pygmy tribes. Pygmies survive largely by hunting crocodiles, monkeys and lizards. They hunt from swift dug-out canoes, using poisoned darts to immobilize their prey. They practice their skills hunting monkeys and similar animals, and are masters at track a path through the jungle. Expert and dealing out silent death with their blow pipes, and working their way through the jungle with out breaking a single twig, the Hunters make expert trackers and scouts when the tribe goes to war.

PYGMY EQUIPMENT AND SPECIAL RULES

JUNGLE FIGHTERS

Pygmies are jungle fighters par excellence. They may move through jungle and other wooded areas without penalty. They may see and fire missile weapons up to a distance of 4" (rather than the normal 2") within jungle or wooden areas.

TARANTULA VENOM

The Shaman of the Pygmy Tribes will often be very skilled in preparing poison extracted from the fangs of deadly tarantulas. In many pygmy tribes the tarantula is seen to be their sacred animal. This poison may be administered to any arrows from short bows, darts from blow pipes and to throwing spears.

Posioned weapons:

All Pygmie javelins, arrows, throwing darts and blowdarts are coated in Tarantula Venom and have their Strength of the attack increased by +1. However, this benefit does not give an extra -1 armour saving throw modifier, nor does it work on opponents which are not living, Undead or Daemons.

JAVELINS

The Pygmy tribes carry a supply of spears which they throw at their opponent as they charge forward to combat.

Special rules

The javelin actually benefits from a runup and the model suffer no penalties for moving and shooting or shooting at over half range. The Pygmy is assumed to have enough spears to last the entire battle.

THROWING AXES/CLUBS

Pygmies have difficulty obtaining any quantity of metal, and so their weapons are made from wood and stone. The Pygmies uses stone clubs that can both be thrown and used in melee combat.

Special rule

The throwing axe/club is both a missile weapon and a hand-to-hand combat weapon. In hand-to-hand combat treat the throwing axe/club as a club/hammer/mace.

The throwing axe/club actually benefits from a runup and the model suffer no penalties for moving and shooting or shooting at over half range.

THROWING DARTS

The Pygmies make use of throwing darts, these are always coated in venom to paralyze the victim as the Pygmie closes in to finish it off with his dagger or spear.

Special rules

The dart actually benefits from a runup and the model suffer no penalties for moving and shooting or shooting at over half range. The Pygmy is assumed to have enough darts to last the entire battle.

BLOW PIPES

The blow pipe is the traditional and preferred weapon to the hunters of a pygmy tribe. However the darts are small and may be stopped by any amount of armour, or even thick clothing. The blowpipe therefore have a positice armour save modifier and an unarmourmed model has a save of 6+ against a blowpipe. Note that the Strength includes the bonus for being poisoned.

WAR PAINT

The Pygmy warriors will invariably coat their bodies in war paint on the eve of a battle, this make them look very frightening. The more famous and powerful Pygmy warriors use war paint, made from sacred and special creatures like toads and monkeys, and prepared by shaman to provide a magical protective ability.

CHOICE OF WARRIORS

A Pygmie Warband must include a minimum of 3 models. You have 500 Tokens which you can use to recruit your initial Warband. Maximum number of models in the Warband is 15.

HEROES

1 HEAD HUNTER WAR CHIEF at 60 Tokens

The Head Hunters are the real elite warriors, they wear large, frightening ceremonial masks, and adorn themselves with the heads of their victims.

Weapons and Armour: Pygmies may be equiped with weapons and armour chosen from the Pygmie Equipment List.

SPECIAL RULES

FEAR: The ceremonial mask is large, imposing and has a frightening face painted or carved on it. The Head Hunter causes fear.

0-1 SPIRIT WALKER at 35 Tokens

The Spirit Walkers are possibly the most bizarre members of the tribe. On the eve of the battle, they drink a potion prepared by the shamans, made from cocktail of venom and saps from jungle fauna and flora. They work themselves into a trance. While their physical bodies are safe in the village, they send their spirits to fight with the tribe. They are a very rare sect of the Pygmy culture indeed, and few can survive the trance, or the potion. The combination of deadly poisons often leads to painful death, or madness and insanity. Many of the Wild Ones are the delirious wrecks of those who have braved the spirit trance - and failed! Even those who successfully negotiate the trance find then they have paid a high price for their powers. If their spirit body is killed, then it is not their physical being which is lost, it is their very soul!

Weapons and Armour: Pygmies may be equiped with weapons and armour chosen from the Pygmie Equipment List.

SPECIAL RULES

SPIRIT FORM: The Spirit Walker take the form of a glowing spectre of no real substance. When he is attacked, the magical aura is affected, and so he can be attacked as normal. However the Spirit Form gives him the benefit of being able to walk through any terrain worth no penalty. Notice that this means that he still can't charge a target he can't see, even if he can move through buildings and such.

TRANCE: The Spirit Walker is in a trance, and therefore is unaffected by any forms of psychology. However, he is still affected by Break Tests as normal.

FEAR: The Spectral Form is frightening and the Spirit Walker thus causes Fear.

0-3 HEAD HUNTERS at 25 Tokens

The Head Hunters are the real elite warriors of Pygmy Tribes. These mighty warriors are the ones who hunt the jungles for people, occasionally capturing them for the Boiling Pot, or disembowelling them to thrust on stakes around their villages to ward off intruders. The Head Hunters wear large, frightening ceremonial masks, and adorn themselves with the heads of their victims. When they march to battle they sing strange chants.

Weapons and Armour: Pygmies may be equiped with weapons and armour chosen from the Pygmie Equipment List.

SPECIAL RULES

FEAR: The ceremonial mask is large, imposing and has a frightening face painted or carved on it. The Head Hunters causes fear.

HENCHMEN

PYGMY WARRIORS at 20 Tokens

The Pygmy Warriors are the mainstay of the tribe. Each tribe member is savage individual, and the harsh nature of their jungle environment has shaped them each into formidable warriors. Although savage, they are smaller than a human, and therefore physically not as strong.

Weapons and Armour: Pygmies may be equiped with weapons and armour chosen from the Pygmie Equipment List.

0-1 WILD ONES at 25 Tokens

The Wild Ones are the delirious wrecks of those who have braved the spirit trance - and failed! The Wild Ones are the most uncontrollable members of the tribe. They are banded into one mob of lunatics, and pointed in theright direction and hopefully they will do something right.

Weapons and Armour: Pygmies may be equiped with weapons and armour chosen from the Pygmie Equipment List.

SPECIAL RULES

LUNATICS: The Wild Ones are insane and switch from a catatonic state to a raging frenzy. Some speculate that the Wild Ones are trapped on the Spirit Plane and they react to the spirits around them. At the start of each turn roll a D6 for the group. On the roll of 1-3 the group is subject to Frenzy and on the roll of 4-6 they are subject to Stupidity. If they pass their Stupidity test they may move and fight as normal but if they fail they will do absolutely nothing, apart from talkign to spirits noone else can see.

FEARLESS: The Wild Ones are not entirely aware of their surroundings and even when they are they dont seem to recognize danger. The Wild Ones are Immune to Psychology, but not Break Tests as t hey can still be forced back.

PYGMIE EQUIPMENT LIST

Note that all javelins, throwing darts, arrows and blowpipe darts are coated in venom, and resolve hits at S+1. This extra strength doesn't affect the saving throw modifier.

MINIATURES

The only problem I foresee with this lot is actually finding some mini's for them. I did find a couple of savages from Ral Partha on their on-line catalog which would do. The Citadel Pygmies would also be good, but they are really hard to get hold of as they aren't listed in the GW Mail Order cats, although I am under the impression they are still available. The only other suggestion I can find is to try and get some Historic Zulu models for the pygmies, as I believe most historical models are smaller than GW models (I am not a historical gamer, I don't really know), I guess they'd work and be reasonably cheap. This bit is the background and equipment list, more to follow. Anyway, enjoy.

Plaugelord Lepri of Clan Pestilen
Tommy Punk - UIN: 9946419 - Kalmar, Sweden
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