The Last Faction

[Helgi]

Could have gone with either the Amazons, Khauran or Khoraja, so I went with Khauran, who knows?

[SixFeetUnder14w]

I CANT VOTE!? The Jewish trickery!

[Antagonist]

I kind of like the Amazons as well - particularly since (AFAIK) what little Howard mentions of them at least makes them sound like something vaguely plausible (based on things like the Dahomey Amazons) as against a nation of blond women in a jungle where everyone else is sub-Saharan African. Ultimately what decides me on a faction over anything else is uniqueness of the unit roster, and their's would presumably be unique even if not large.

Khauran and Khoraja do sound interesting, but in my experience small factions in the path of big ones tend to get quickly steamrollered in TW...

Antagonist

[Spartan198]

Khauran and Khoraja do sound interesting, but in my experience small factions in the path of big ones tend to get quickly steamrollered in TW...

Like the poor Seleucid Empire?

[Taranaich]

Lots of good stuff guys!

I kind of like the Amazons as well - particularly since (AFAIK) what little Howard mentions of them at least makes them sound like something vaguely plausible (based on things like the Dahomey Amazons) as against a nation of blond women in a jungle where everyone else is sub-Saharan African. Ultimately what decides me on a faction over anything else is uniqueness of the unit roster, and their's would presumably be unique even if not large.

Well, this is the full sum of what Howard has to say of Amazon:

South of Stygia are the vast black kingdoms of the Amazons, the Kushites, the Atlaians and the hybrid empire of Zembabwei. - The Hyborian Age

The (Hyrkanians), after their conquest of Shem, had overthrown a Stygian army at the Nilus and over-run the country as far south as the black kingdom of Amazon, of whose people they brought back thousands as captives, settling them among the Shemites. - The Hyborian Age

So basically all we know is that it is a "vast" black kingdom south of Stygia. Interestingly it's listed first of the kingdoms, before the more well-known Kush or Empire of Zembabwei: does this mean it's bigger or more powerful? In any case, knowing Howard it seems likely he was wanting to evoke the mythological/historical Amazons for the kingdom.

Regarding their ethnicity: though it would be logical to presume that the Amazons would be black (considering it's a black kingdom), there are a surprising number of African legends regarding lighter-skinned warrior women. An interesting connection has Diodorus Siculus detailing an Amazon army assisting Egypt in repelling a Lybian invasion in the Bronze Age. These Amazons went on to conquer and settle in Hesperia (now thought to be Morocco). To this day, the Berbers of Morroco tell tales of the Azoun women warriors, and the Tuareg have a legend of white warrior women in the Ahagghar Mountains in Algeria.

I'm probably going to make the Amazons either black, or (partially) Shemite: a lot of black kingdoms (Keshan and Zembabwei especially) have a strong Shemite or Stygian strain, or even a split Shemite/Black population. Perhaps the Amazon Women are Shemite women revered as semi-divine by the black males (like the Puntans and Keshans worship "Ivory-skinned goddesses"), and form the warrior caste. Of course, there's also the Dahomey Amazons to consider, which Howard would probably have been familiar with. I'll have to explore this more with the scholars.

In any case, they won't be pale blonde waifs: these girls will look like they could break a normal man in two!

Khauran and Khoraja do sound interesting, but in my experience small factions in the path of big ones tend to get quickly steamrollered in TW...

Khoraja would probably have a better time of it than Khauran since it isn't quite as close to Turan, and they seem to do well against overwhelming odds (Under Conan, some 14,000 Khorajans and mercenaries defeated Natohk's 100,000 strong horde of Stygians, Shemites and Kushites, which is pretty impressive)

Does the last faction have to be in the actual campaign?
If not,then here's an idea: Why not take a somewhat generic bodyguard unit with a buxom blonde beauty in command,give it incredibly high stats (but not as high as King Conan),rename it "Valeria" (I'd imagine you know where I'm going by now),then gather a roster of the game's best mercenaries (human mercs,of course),and call it the "Red Brotherhood" or "Free Companions"? They could,perhaps,start out as an incredibly powerful horde (there'd,of course,need to be at least three or four horde units to start with) somewhere on the continent.
Or,even if you did want them playable,it could be like starting a campaign from literally nothing to building a type of "mercenary nation"?

That's actually a really cool idea. We have incidents in history of mercenaries taking over - the Sons of Mars being a prime example - and Howard himself has the Kozaks adopting an independent nomadic lifestyle. It's certainly worth considering.

But,if my above idea doesn't seem worthwhile (or if Valeria is already doing something else for the campaign),consider my vote (probably predictably) in the "Amazonia" bin (just do any nudity tastefully,like REH,and not for the simple purpose of "naked boobs and butts for everyone" ).

Well to be honest I wasn't sure what exactly to do with Valeria: I had intended to make her a "special mercenary unit" that would crop up every so often for the player to hire (it would be a unit of swordsmen with her as an officer), but I'm open to suggestions too.

[Spartan198]

Well to be honest I wasn't sure what exactly to do with Valeria: I had intended to make her a "special mercenary unit" that would crop up every so often for the player to hire (it would be a unit of swordsmen with her as an officer), but I'm open to suggestions too.

As in a recruitable mercenary general? What you should do is give her and her unit incredibly high stats rivaling King Conan and the Black Dragons,to simulate her as his equal,but make her holdable for a certain amount of turns before she moves on. Valeria's not the type of woman to basically "sell herself" to a faction. I'm sure we both know why she was on the run in the beginning of "Red Nails",after all.

Edit: Just out of curiousity,have you worked out anything yet on the idea of making factional leadership and generalship equal to the sexes? You mentioned something about it a while back, and even your listed Ophirean faction leader is a queen.

[Taranaich]

As in a recruitable mercenary general? What you should do is give her and her unit incredibly high stats rivaling King Conan and the Black Dragons,to simulate her as his equal,but make her holdable for a certain amount of turns before she moves on. Valeria's not the type of woman to basically "sell herself" to a faction. I'm sure we both know why she was on the run in the beginning of "Red Nails",after all.

Heh, true. That might be the sort of thing I do with her.

Edit: Just out of curiousity,have you worked out anything yet on the idea of making factional leadership and generalship equal to the sexes? You mentioned something about it a while back, and even your listed Ophirean faction leader is a queen.

I don't think it's possible to make new queens as faction leaders, but it is possible to give unique models to faction leaders and heirs for the start of the game: this is what I plan for Olivia and Sancha (and eventually Yasmina), as well as Countesses Belesa and Tina, and the rebel queens Taramis of Khauran, Yasmela of Khoraja, Tamuris of Eruk and the as-yet unnamed queen of the Amazons.

There are some drawbacks: no "official" spouses - otherwise we'd have lesbian queens - but they'd have Prince Consort ancillaries. They'd also have no speech on the battlefield, otherwise they'd have somewhat deep and unladylike voices. However, I think they're fair enough concessions to having proper queens on the battlefield.