The Guild and Rashaar get some big reinforcements this week!
There are so many new character rules this week that we’ve had to split them up into three posts!
The Guild have got a new boxed set in the form of the House of Virtue, a bunch of harlots turned spies turned assassins that are deadly in the right hands. Meanwhile the Dagon Fanatics boxed set sees the Rashaar walk on land, dominating the streets and becoming a real pain, that’s for sure!
Today we’re going to have a look at the House of Virtue, and what these new rules mean for Guild players.
The House of Virtue
The House of Virtue have four different types of characters, and while only two of them are brand new, the other two have had some rules updates of their own!
The Madame is an excellent all-round Leader for the Guild, with a massive 6 Command Points and 6 Will Points, she can easily buff up her otherwise fairly middling stats.
The big change here though is her My Girls & Boys special rule. This one gives every other House of Virtue keyword character the Companion (House of Virtue) rule, so essentially all House of Virtue characters use the highest Mind value of the gang. Very useful, especially considering the Madame has Mind 6!
The Dancer is a brand new character class for the Guild, and she’s a very useful character at that!
With great Dexterity she’ll be hard to hit and great at jumping around. And with Slippery (2) as well, you’ll never find her caught in combat.
She’s a rare Hero class with Command Points (you can see how Command Ability based this sub-faction are, can’t you?), and her Communicative Dance Command Ability gives up to two friendly characters a free Move action, although one of them has to be another House of Virtue character.
The Dancer has a fairly low Attack stat, but her Poisoned Needle comes with its own benefits. Firstly Evasion -1 means it’s very accurate, although Penetration +1 means your opponent gets a decent chance to defend against it. The big power here though is the Poisoned Weapons special rule. If you damage an enemy they have to roll their Attack value, and any rolls under 7 cause them to lose a Life Point. The bigger they are, the harder they fall!
The Escort is a new Henchman choice for the Guild, and is excellent at protecting her fellow harlots (and others too!).
Her stat line is pretty standard, but her Sword gives her +1 Damage. With 13 Life Points she won’t get hurt easily, especially as she has Parry (2).
It’s good that she can take a lot of damage, because the Bodyguard rule gives her free charges if any friendly Heroes or Henchmen within 4″ are charged. She jumps right in the way and starts attacking!
One last thing to note is that this big lady is on a 40mm base, so she’ll be getting +1 to Grapples and Drowns – very useful for controlling where your enemy is, and throwing them away from the more vulnerable members of your gang.
Finally in the House of Virtue set we have two Harlots.
These characters have also had a little update. They’ve lost the Companion special rule (that’s now covered by the Madame), and their weapons have changed a bit.
Stilettos are small daggers that aren’t particularly powerful on their own, but will do a lot of damage should you find your mark. So their new profile gives them Penetration +1 to represent that armour will really stop them, but +1 Damage for when they slice arteries. Discrete yet bloody!
This little change ups the potential damage of the Harlots, and combined with the Madame’s Strike When They’re Vulnerable Command Ability to gain -2 Penetration (bringing them to -1 total), they become extremely deadly.
So that’s what these new characters do on paper. Later this week we’ll be back to have a look at some tactics for using them on the board. Spoilers: it’s all about the Command Abilities.
If you haven’t picked up your House of Virtue boxed set yet, what are you waiting for? Pre-order on the TTCombat webstore now!