We’ve got new characters, which means we’ve got new rules!
Today I think is the biggest set of new additions to Carnevale since the gang builder went live last year!
You’ve seen the cool new models, so let’s get into the rules, shall we?
The Vatican
Look, we all know that the Vatican are bad in the water and on rooftops. They own the ground game, but aren’t that mobile.
Luckily, the Inquisition boxed set is here to help with at least one of those things!
The Inquisitorial Spy is our first stop on our tour of the Vatican, and he is right up on the roof!
This guy forgoes the heavy armour or unwieldy weapons that a lot of Vatican characters use, replacing them with speed. A Move of 5″ and Dexterity of 5 means he will be rocketing up walls and jumping with ease. Although he won’t need to do that at the start, since Infiltration means he can start the game on a roof, saving a turn or two to get high.
His Sharpened Dagger is Penetration -1 which means he’s already quite good at dealing with armour, and get a good charge from above and that’ll add up to -6 making him an excellent assassin. Although with only 3 Attack he’ll likely need to use some of his 3 Will Points to boost up that all important strike.
Once he’s jumped from the roof his Parry helps him avoid harm, and he’s then best at Pickpocketing Will Points or an Objective and running away with it. His Illicit Information rule is the cherry on top though, offering a free re-roll each round. This guy is will help a lot of Vatican gangs!
Next up is the Stalker, and this one is a bit of an annoyance for your foes!
While not as fast as the Spy, he still has a high DEX, and Infiltration helps him start up on the roof. He trades the speed for better Protection and Attack, making him a really good all-rounder.
Expert Marksman with his Handbow gives the Vatican a little ranged support, and while the 8″ is good on the floor, he’ll need to get really close up if targeting someone on ground level from his spot on the rooftops.
To help with that is his big rule though. The Pursuit special rule is a real doozy, and one that will put the fear of Stalkers in your opponent! Basically, at the start of a round you pick an enemy character. If your opponent moves that character while at least one Stalker has line of sight to them, every single Stalker on the board gets to make a free move. Play your cards right and that essentially means you’ll get an extra move action each round, or it’ll cause your opponent paralysis on a key character to stop you getting it!
Finally for the Vatican we have a simple Witch Finder. This guy is like a mini Exorcist, although can be even more annoying!
His big thing is the Suffer Not the Witch special rule, which allows him a decent chance of dispelling enemy magic. If you’re playing the experimental rules in the FAQ and Errata (which I recommend you do), you’ll get a lot of use out of this, and it helps to make a Vatican list that’s focused on attacking rather than spells.
Speaking of attacking, while the Witch Finder’s Attack of 3 isn’t super great, his 2″ range Stunning Snare is pretty useful! Expert Offence means he’ll rarely miss, and Engage (2) means he’s excellent if anyone tries to run away. Pair him with someone like the Avignon Guard and everyone will begin to fear his pokey stick!
So there we have it, three very specialised characters for the Vatican. All three are Henchmen too, so there’s really no excuse not to try them out in your gang!
Strigoi
With those holy boys out of the way, let’s talk Strigoi. More specifically, the Romani Caravan. This is a subfaction that does everything that the regular Strigoi don’t. Although they aren’t good at the things regular Strigoi are, so a little balance is probably needed!
We’re all about magic in the Romani, so let’s see what the Seer does!
The Romani are all about magic and movement, and the Seer is no different!
With DEX 5 and Slippery (2) she’s hard to pin down in combat. That’s lucky because armed with only a Staff and Protection 3 it’s not where she thrives.
However, Mage 2 is pretty good! That’s 3 spells including the cantrip. She only has a choice of Fateweaving (one of the reasons she’s only 14 Ducats), but with Mage 2 that’s a really good discipline for her. Fateweaving has loads of options for her, although Blessing of the Sky and Curse of the Rent might be my favourite.
Fate’s Bounty is a good call too, as you can combine that with her Soothsaying Command Ability to give so many re-rolls to your gang. Her Premonition ability also lets her re-roll the Destiny Dice once during her activation, which helps her be one of the most reliable characters out there. Do a Cantrip of the Stars and that’s 2 Destiny Dice re-rolls – one for her, and one for someone else!
The Tarot Reader is up next, and while she’s not as reliable as the Seer, she has so many options!
Again, combat is not her focus, although Parry (2) helps her avoid harm (she’s seen the attack coming a mile off in the cards).
Minor Arcana means that she will always know 4 different spells, and she has three disciplines to choose from, meaning you can really tailor her at the start of each game depending on who you’re fighting. If you don’t want to get too specialised and keep your options open, she’s who you want on your team.
Cartomancy is the big thing to talk about here though. Essentially you can turn your Magic Cards over and pick one at random to cast. If you succeed, you can replenish a Will Point from her or someone nearby. That’s pretty big! With 3 spells from one discipline and a cantrip from another, even with the cards flipped you’ll always know where one cantrip is, which means you’ve got a surefire way of replenishing Will Points. Take Cantrip of the Stars as your extra cantrip and a Difficulty of 5 should be easy!
There are two supporting mages for your Strigoi gangs, and they really are something special. The Romani Caravan box lets you go crazy on your magic too, with all 5 as mages!
The Starspawn
One more to go, and this is for anyone that really, really doesn’t like magic.
The Starspawn is a beast that’s been accidentally summoned through the Rent in the Sky, torn through into our world, and it is not happy about that fact.
This character is a Gifted Henchman, which on the surface is great for Gifted players, meaning they have more choice than just the Commedia dell’Arte, but it also means they can take even bigger gangs! For every other faction the Starspawn is great too, offering unparalleled magic hunting ability.
Let’s deal with the bad stuff first. At 22 Ducats it is not cheap. Mindless, Primitive and a Mind value of 2 means that its not capturing Objectives, and half the time will either be Stunned or attack the closest target. There’s a chance though that he’ll gain +1 Attack, so that’s you know… well it’s not a great trade-off.
However, with Dexterity 5, Attack 5, and Fanged Tentacles that do +1 Damage, he’s a real combat monster! Vampiric Attack (2) and Berserk add to that, giving the Starspawn a decent chance of surviving a long time, and if it does go down to 5 Life Points or less, it gets +1 Attack and +1 Action Point too!
Alright, we’ve ignored the rule this long, I just wanted you all to understand what a combat monster it is. However, let’s talk about Thirsty.
This rule is similar to the Stalker’s rule from earlier, but on overcharge. Any time an enemy mage casts a spell, the Starspawn can move. And if it gets the chance, it can charge that mage! This is an unlimited rule too, meaning he can move dozens of times in a turn if your opponent has lots of mages. That’ll really make them think twice about casting spells unless they really need to!
Alright then! That’s all our new characters, what do you think? As always, you can find these new characters in the Carnevale Gang Builder, or you can download the stat cards for free in the Resources section of the Carnevale website.
Every character here is available to pre-order at the moment, so head over to the TTCombat webstore to check out the awesome models and expand your collections today!
