The Cimmerians
Cimmeria
“North of Aquilonia, the western-most Hyborian kingdom, are the Cimmerians, ferocious savages, untamed by the invaders, but advancing rapidly because of contact with them; they are the descendants of the Atlanteans, now progressing more steadily than their old enemies the Picts, who dwell in the wilderness west of Aquilonia.” – The Hyborian Age
Capital: Dun Cromnaghta
Current Ruler: Ard-Ri Cumal
The Cimmerians are a very mysterious race in the original tales, but a couple of tantalizing glimpses into their psyche and culture can be seen in Conan. According to Howard, the Gaels are the last descendents of the pure-blooded Cimmerian clans, so the faction will be based on them, with some continental Celtic and Iberian bits thrown in. Obviously they will replace Scotland, the units unique to the faction being swapped for Cimmerian ones. For some time I wasn’t sure whether the Cimmerians would actually be playable, both because of Howard’s deliberate decision to make Cimmeria a mysterious place and because they’d be a particularly powerful faction. In the end, I decided that half the fun of the game is barbarism vs. civilization, and the Cimmerians are certainly the most barbaric of all the factions! To balance it out, I decided that the numerous irregular soldiers would be very powerful, but cannot leave Cimmeria itself unless in a horde situation. The mercenaries can still leave, but will be too few in number to mount much more than border raids.
The Cimmerians have the most powerful shock infantry in the game, and even their “weakest” unit is more than a match for most other units. However, the levied units which make up the backbone of a Cimmerian army have no movement points: this means that although they will have a rough time fielding a substantial invasion force, they will find defending their settlement far easier, even against much greater numbers of foes. Only the rare and expensive mercenary units can move from their settlement, and a large number of them would be required for anything more than border raids. They are also the only faction to have no princesses: their daughters and sisters marry who they please, without any benefits of feudal arranged marriages, so princess are redundant. They do, however, have highly capable scouts, which act as “spies” on the main map: they are exceeded in skill only by the sorcerous agents of Stygia and Zamora. Their Assassins are not so much hired blades as highly brutal counterparts to the scout.
Rather than being called Priests and Diplomats, the Cimmerian versions of the priest and diplomat are instead called bards and elders: since Cimmeria has no official religious system they have no priests, and they have no need for silver-tongued politicians. Instead they have travelling storytellers who tell great tales of Crom and the dark heroes of the Cimmerian race, which fulfill many of the functions as a priest; similarly, a tribes’ oldest member is frequently the most respected, and so it is they who work as emissaries to other tribes and nearby barbarians. Their armies mostly consist of stalwart clansmen (the strongest “peasants” in the game), irregular soldiers akin to Irish kerns, and wandering mercenaries akin to galloglasses. None of the irregular soldiers wear armour as Cimmeria is a hazardous enough place without armour to impede their movement, but have incredibly strong attack and fortitude. Some mercenaries do wear heavy armour, but these warriors are used to fighting the heavily armoured soldiers of the southern kingdoms rather than among their fellow barbarians.
Units
The average Cimmerian ceitherne, or warband, is worth ten civilized men in battle, twenty in defense of their land. Dour and moody, they are ferocious warriors when defending their lands or avenging a slight against their clan, but they have little patience or interest in invasions or sieges.
Although every Cimmerian is a warrior when the times demand it, many Cimmerian men enjoy the bloody rage of battle enough to take it up as a vocation, as a member of the bonnachta (paid warriors). They can be found as mercenaries for Hyborian kingdoms, or tagging along with other Cimmerian or Nordic campaigns when their own tribe is at relative peace.
Cimmerian rastriagha (berserkers) are obsessive warriors, adventuring and plundering their Nordic neighbours and the soft Hyborian lands to the south. They wield big nasty claymores, useful for splitting the skulls of savages and discourteous civilized folks alike. They frequently enter a trance-like state of gloominess and emptiness, where they would lose themselves entirely in the bloodshed. Unlike their lusty and hearty Nordic neighbours, Cimmerian berserkers are unsettlingly emotionless and silent, never uttering a word during their cold, relentless reaping of heads and lives.
Some professional Cimmerian warriors prefer the use of a great axe to a claymore, and utilize great skill in crushing bone and plate armour with their mighty weapons. These warriors, the Scriostóira (destroyers), are frequently found on the borders of Aquilonia and the wild Border Kingdom, where plate-armoured knights are more likely to be on the other side of a battleground. They are every bit as deadly as the rastriagha, although they require much greater control of their minds considering the caliber of their chosen nemesis, the heavily armoured juggernauts of the Hyborian lands.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks