Warhammer Army Project/Araby

This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

Araby: Warhammer Army Project, 9th Edition Tactica

Created by Mathias Eliasson, this project was a homebrew attempt at giving many of the units, nations, and factions that never got Armybooks of their own (and those left behind and never got one in 8th Edition) such a thing.

It should also be noted that Eliasson is constantly updating his work, so don't expect this page to stay current forever. If anyone wishes to update this page and the items that need it, later on, go ahead.

Why Play WAP Araby

Pros

• AAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAABIIIAAAAAAAAN NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!
• An army that demonstrates the virver that followers of Warhammer gods have.
• Ride Horses that rival Elven Steads
• 3 variants of Fast cavalry in your core.
• When in melee, are the hardest to chase away and the Tarpity-us of the human factions.

Cons

• can only go up to Medium armour.
• Zealotry doesn't effect routs from shooting.

Special rules

Zealotry: This lets your units add their Combat Resolution scores to their unit strength when determining how steadfast they are( If their Unit Strength is greater than 10 and the enemies Strength, they can use their normal Ld when losing combat). They also roll 3d6 for break tests on the first round of combat, letting them stay in the fight despite any casualties.

• combined together makes the humans of Araby good at tarpiting first combat round as Zealotry lowers the chance of units fleeing from melee.

The Lore of Desert

Attribute: Shifting Sands: Casting a spell on an enemy unit forces them to re-roll any 6s on charge, pursuit, and fleeing.

• Signature: Sand Blast: (10/13) Magic Missile that deals d6 S2 hits and halves the target's movement, which drives home any advantage you have on running circles around them.

1. Curse of the Genie: (6/9) Hex, the target must re-roll successful wound rolls. Mitigate your human toughness, and make Araby more of a tarpit.
2. Mirage: (7/12) Hex, place a marker within the targets line of sight if it fails a Stupidity test, it is forced to use its movement to go towards the marker. Stall cavalry all game, or make infantry show their backs and out of buff auras.
3. Dancing Scimitar: (8/16) Magic Missile that deals d6 S4 hits before rolling to see if it moves on to hit more units. Augmenting doubles the damage to 2d6 hits and increases the range.
4. Sunstrike: (9/15) A direct damage spell, shoot a solar beam that decimates any infantry model under a 12" line. Ideally, you would have a Sorceror on a Carpet, flying on the sides of enemies formations.
5. Quicksand: (12/15) Having trouble against that unit of Empire knights? One unit that can't float must test Initiative. On failure, they must roll an armour save that kills on a success. Which are fucking nuts because this can kill any knights or mechanical monstrosities easily.
6. Sandstorm: (15/21) Nobody within 12" of the caster can shoot, and nobody inside can be shot. Flyers are stuck with ground movement, and enemies inside it cannot march. A utility spell for flying Sorceror lords to sabotage the enemy or protect your lightly armoured forces from shooting army like wood elves.

Equipment

Treasures of the Sands

• Blade of Holy Wrath: 60pts. Gives hatred and frenzy on top of adding a bonus to Strength equal to the initial number of Wounds on a model. This is a hefty beast-killer, but it's on a hefty price.

• Martyr's Shard: 50pts. You can sacrifice d3 wounds to insta-kill an enemy you wound. Excellent against Chaos Lord, as they HAVE to fight you 1v1, so you instakill them, but you need an initiative bonus to make sure he gets to use it before dying.

• Bow of Seeking: 25pts. S5 bow that ignores hit penalties, making this ideal for a hero joining mobile shooty units.

• Shield of Faith: 50pts. 5++ ward that also immediately breaks magical weapons that wound the wielder. This is some fucking choice shit.

• Armour of the Scorpion: 15pts. Light Armour with 5+ Natural Armour and poisoned attacks, giving you more like a 4+ save.

• Ring of Divine Healing: 40pts. Restores one wound each turn. For 40 points, isn't there better?

• The Golden Carafe: 25pts. This robs an enemy unit's magical armour of any properties it has and forces a re-roll on all ward saves.

• Lamp of Al-Ha-Dean: 25pts. once per game, Summon any Genie of any type for one turn.

• Rope of Kadizar: 20pts. Lets an infantry model vanish during remaining moves subphase and then reappear anywhere he wants.

• Sandstorm Staff: 60pts. Bound CL5 item that stores Sandstorm and lets you re-roll one power die for each spell.

• Banner of the Desert: 50tps. Enemies must re-roll to hit this unit with missiles and enemies in base contact take -1WS.

Artefacts of the Creed

Assassins, being the secluded society of cutthroats they are, are able to nab their own special tools instead of magic items. Most of these aren't considered magic items thus aren't exclusive on a pre-army basis and are stackable on weapon and many will also affect his throwing weapon. With only a 50pts allowance, you can only pick up a max of two items is feasible.

• Orb of Illusion: 40pts. Talisman. This Apple of Eden gives a 50/50 chance to negate all hits in close combat before saves. For 40 points, that's a pretty steal. But can't afford any other Artefacts, Strong survivability on glass duelist instead of attack power.

• Venom of the Desert Snake: 30pts. hit rolls of 6 AutoWounds and forces anyone wounded to test T or eat another wound. Every wound landed counts.

• Hidden Blade: 20pts. The trademark weapon from Assassin's Creed offers KB for 20 pts. Work to circumvent Armour and Regeneration saves.

• Shadowstrike: 20pts. Gives Multiple Wounds (d3). Kills Characters with only 1 to 2 successful wounds instead of 2 to 4.

• Dagger of the Grand Master: 20pts. Magic Weapon. A magical Additional weapon that wounds one designated enemy character on a 2+, and he must re-roll successful Armour save. The millage will vary on how good you are at delivering assassins to their designated target.

• Cloak of Shadows: 20pts. Enchanted Item. Missiles take -2 to hit the wearer, but this only applies when they're alone.

• Code of the Creed: 20pts. Re-rolls hits in challenges and forces enemies to accept a challenge. Prevent that general, wizard, or support character from running to live another round.

• Nethertoxin: 20pts. Poisoned Attacks that also always wound on a 3+. May not work on some armies but your usually hitting on 2+ against most characters.

Army Units

Lords & Heroes

Special Characters

• Khalil al-Zahir, Great Sultan of Araby: Your faction leader is a man sitting on Slann palanquins, truly a worthy position for such a decadent folk. He's always embedded in a pack Place Guard that gains Immunity (Psychology), which kind of adds a tax to his presence beyond the exorbitant price tag. Has a lager Inspiring Presence, and acts as a Battle Standard Bearer, so you'll need to make those guards really good. He can bark orders to other units that grant temporary perks.
  • Strength of the One: Re-roll hit and wound rolls of 1 in close combat, which is a good thing since you'll be needing it a lot.
  • Fury of the One: Gain an extra attack.
  • Faith of the One: The unit gets Stubborn and Immune (Psychology) to foil any fear-based shenanigans.

• Sultan Jaffar: A truly wicked grand vizier, befitting the archetype. He's an L4 loremaster of shadow or death who is the mandatory general with the option of up to two djinns or efreets. While those within 12" can re-roll psychology, anyone outside that range takes -1 to Ld because of his dickishness. He has the means to mind-control a unit in b2b and make them betray allies. However, he is forced to cast each turn (or die), and every time he casts, he needs to sacrifice d3 models and add that many dice to the power pool.

• Salah Ah-Din: A legendary hero and tactician among crusaders, and Warhammer's version of the Saracen leader, Saladin. His Inspiring presence is 18" range, lets his unit re-roll psychology, and adds +1 to their combat resolution. His weapon grants ASF and ignores armour and has a medium plate that forces enemies to re-roll to wound. If He is your general, core units become Ambushers.

• The Golden Magus: He's a Sorcerer Lord who owns 3 genies. He's protected by a 5++ ward that makes close combat attacks take -1 to hit him, and his sword gives +1S and flaming attacks while insta-killing the flammable.

• The Prince of Thieves: The Prince of Persia from the pre-Sands of Time titles, who can never be the general. He hides in an army like an assassin, but his gimmick is stealing magic items and running over obstacles that aren't water. While he makes all close combat attacks against him re-roll to hit and has a badass weapon that wounds on a 2+ with re-rolled armour saves, he's the sort to keep mobile by bailing from a unit right after combat.

• Layla bint Suraya: She's a handy supporting leader on a mount, rallying all units within 12" under any circumstance. She can fight with a 4++ Ward and a sword that adds +2S on the charge and a bonus attack, but keep her alive - all losing her gives everyone is hatred for the unit who dropped her.

• Ottokar Mehmed Agha: Captain of the first division of Janissaries. Though he's fairly decent in combat with a sword that gives both a +1 to hit and a 6++ parry and a re-rollable 4+, his real skill is in his retinue of Janissaries. These guys can not only buy handguns and good melee weapons, but these guys can also move and fire with these guns, though this is only available to the front rank.

• Sindibadu: Corsair lord and totally not based on the comedian Sinbad. He lets all corsairs use his Ld8. While his dual weapons that re-roll 1s to hit and +1 attack per model in b2b and 5++ ward don't look like much, he also has another rule: all units attacking him must test Ld or be forced to only hit him on a nat 6.

• Malik Ibn La'Ahad: Altair. No, seriously, he's freaking Altair. He's a super-assassin with a sniper that can make extra attacks for each missed attack an enemy makes at him and carries a magical Damascus blade that adds +1S and can break magical weapons. This is on top of the Hidden Blade and Code of the Creed.

• Abdul Alhazred, the Mad Sorcerer: Jumped over from Lovecraft's universe to a universe inspired by Moorcock. He is pretty good at summoning Genies if you swing there. Don't bother using him as your lone Death Wizard because, besides the signature, he has to roll a d6 to determine what spell he knows each turn. If you successfully cast a spell, he must make an Ld test or become stupid or lose a wound.

• Khar-mel the Djinn: A named Djinn+1 any Sorccorors can buy. She's great at running down enemies with re-rollable charges, and nearby enemies suffer -1 to hit, armour, Ward, or regeneration rolls.

Generic Characters

• Emir: Your classic foot commander. He can also grab a shortbow, a handgun, or ride a War Elephant in addition to his melee weapons options. Palace Guard or Janissaries (both shooting and melee variants) make for better bodyguards for them.

• Sheikh: Your classic captain and mandatory BSB. You could take one with a Bow of Seeking and a Carpet to fly out back to go wizard hunting.

• Sercerer Lord/Sorcerer: Your wizards. He has access to the lores of Fire, Metal, Heavens, Light, Shadow, Death, and Desert. Taking Sorcerer on a carpet or horse to deploy Genies.

• Hashishin: The Brotherhood of Assassins in Warhammer form. They're basic assassin fare, hiding in units before striking. Has some useful Assasin Gear instead of the normal Magic item Allowance.

Mounts

• Arabyan Steed: These are warhorses that have M9. Super speedy.
• Camel: A slightly sturdier horse with M7, gives most human riders +1T. Your only going to buy this for Wizards or spending 2pts less for a Steeds.
• Flying Carpet: Pick this only if you like the idea of being friggin' Aladdin. These things can't fight and only offer flight.
• War Elephant: A bulldozer mount and your Emir's high leadership make them more controllable. It is still a chance to send your general deep into enemy territory or run back home like a sissy.

• Genie: Monstrous Infantry Elementals, bought by Sorcerers and are summoned as solo units if the Sorcerer passes an Ld test at the start of your turn. If a Genie is slain, it the Sorcerer can re-summon, but suffer -1 on the roll. There are 4 types of Genie, each with a special rule and one bound spell. They're better used when deployed near combat.
  • Dao: the Toughs of the Genies, with T5 and Natural Armour(4+) and knows the spell Flesh to Stone. Provide access to a spell you don't have, +2T makes Zealots harder to rout.
  • Marid: has Magic resistance(2), Immunity(ice), and 4 attacks. Knows Iceshard Blizzard.
  • Djinn: can fly and know Wind Blast.
  • Efreet: the strongest fighter, Hatred, Flaming Attack, and Immunity. Knows Flaming Sword of Rhuin.

Core Units

• Warriors of Araby: Your basic rank & file troopers. They can have a Holy Man to act as a secondary champion who gives Hatred in close combat. They can also buy a Dibbukim with frenzy (but means the whole unit suffers from berserk Rage) but provides a more damage output from your unit. All this + Zealotry makes Warriors decent chaff on chaff units as they will dish out more to rase their Combat Score so they either win the round or be unlikely to break when they lose.

• Bowmen: Your basic Arabyan archers to volley more shots or Crossbows to puncture shields. They can take Light Armour, but you'll take Shields if you get into archery fights.

• Tribal Skirmisher: Your skirmish Javelinirs or Slingers. vanguarding Shorter range missiles with Ap. Break faster than archers when under enemy pressure because of their Ld 6. Slings are bows with AP but need line of sight, while Javelins are better when moving in close and charging into fights.

• Corsairs: Your skirmishing infantry and Ambushers, set with either shields or dual weapons. Although they don't disrupt formations when flanking, they still add more DPS and Combate score so other units can win. With 10-15 models, they will make up your Front line vanguard, flankers, or backline saboteurs.

• Slave Levies: Your expendable meatshields. They have a terrible Ld of 3, so need to keep the mandatory Slavemaster champion alive so he can lead them from the back row, but the unit will take damage if it fails an Ld test at the start of your turn. They will not survive to turn 3, but that just means they are doing their job.

• Sipahis: Araby's Feudal militia knights. Your core light Spear Fast cavalry with M9 for your hammering needs, with the option for a side of the bow action.

• Desert Riders: Fast cavalry with Quick to Fire. They are practically stripped-down Sipahis and better-mounted archers. They are very good at harassing the enemy or save points from the gear you don't need. (a stripped-down Sipahis is more point efficient than a Fully upgraded Desert Riders, so don't buy everything). Can put out extra DPS on charges against low defence units because of charging shot with bows and spears.

• Camel Riders: Desert Riders that trade Speed and Quick to Fire for 4T. A more durable Fast cavalry or pay 1 point less for mounted archers.

Special Units

• Palace Guard: They are a Hero bunkers, like Empire Greatswords but harder to break having both Stubborn and Zealotry. With S4 and Great weapons, they can cleave through standard infantry models and monsters.

• Janissaries: Like real history, they are children taken from the southern realms to be rased as the Sultan's most elite, educated, and most loyal Warriors. Hard troopers that never panic and roll 3d6 drop highest when testing for redirecting charges, restraining from pursuit, marching, and reforming. These guys are elites at everything. Give shields or polearms with armour for elite warriors, or Bow and handguns for elite crack shots that could also Sword & Board.

• Mamelukes: More elite cavalry than Sipahis, Medium Armoured cavalry with S4 and Devastating Charge. They are a speedier and offensive-minded equivalent to the knights of the Old World, favoring getting into charge range first and hit with a flurry of attack rather than high armour and a single powerful attack.

• Silent Guards: Warhammer Unsullied. Unbreakable Soldiers that make fine Anvils. More price efficient in multiple minimum sizes of 15, because they are not as durable for their price, but they don't run when their fellow Desertmen get pasted by a giant green foot.

• Nafftaun: Skirmishing grenade-chuckers. These bombs are S4 flaming attacks that ignore armour and force panic for any casualties, making them great for discouraging enemies from charging and cracking elite nuts by forcing tests until they fail. One model may take a Naphtha Siphon, which acts as the bombs in Breath weapon form(the Siphon has unlimited uses but can only be used as a Shooting weapon) given the unit a longer attack range.

• Nomad Scouts: Your lone shooters and they're skirmishers with the scout. They have handguns with 30" range but are still move or fire. Find a hard to reach map corner and pick units off all game.

• Flying Carpet Riders: Now this is some silly awesome shit. These guys are flying bowmen (on a magic flying carpets) that can carpet bomb units they fly over with d3 S2 poisoned bombs. Some of your best "Fast Cav" as the 20" flying march easily puts you where the enemy can't reach, and the carpet bombs just make it better.

• Dervishes: Skirmishing whirlwinds of poisoned combat. These human Beyblades don't charge as normal, instead of running through any units, dealing d3 S3 hits per dervish to reach the full distance rolled. Those d3 S3 hits also apply when enemies charge the dervishes like impact hits. Dervishes are like Goblin Fanatics without the surprise or unpredictability. They should be able to charge through the enemy's first turn and cause some units to break in early game.

• Bladedancers: Harem assassins. Dual welding skirmishers are protected by only a 4++ parry + dodge ward and select one stance each turn so long as nothing is repeated (KB, +1 attack, -1 to hit rolls against them). They could do well by themselves but will assist Warriors and Corsairs in the infantry fight to yield better results.

Rare Units

• Pegasus Guard: Knights that ride Pegasus with each model having a one use Breath weapon. Flying over the enemy formation and then decimate their back rows (per mounted model, you get an S5, two S4 attacks + an S2 template).

• War Elephant: A behemoth ridden by a crew of dudes with 1d6+1 impact hits and terror. If this big guy gets shot, he has to roll Ld or move 2d6" in a random direction out of panic, and deals impact hits towards anyone it runs over. It also has a list of upgrades to use.
  • Mahout: Re-rolls Ld tests for stampeding
  • Armour Plates: A 5+ save, which is good since it lacks any protection.
  • Spike Chain: Increases the Impact Hits to 2d6 and deals more damage on Stampedes.
  • Spiked Tusks: turn each Seccesful hit into 2.

• Roc: Super Giant eagles, stats near equal to a Moon Dragon. If it moves over any Monstrous models that can't fly or aren't a ghost, it can pick it up and drop it on the ground, killing the bastard and, if it moved over another unit, dealing D6 S4 ("Look Out Sir!" protects against this, and an Initiative test negates it). A good way to efficiently kill off the expensive unit, especially lone heroes on big mounts like Archaon. Easy to do with a 20" flying march.

• Cannon: A Cannon with a braver crew.

• Monster Bombard: A super Great Cannon like the Hellhammer Cannons. Re-roll bounce distance and Wound rolls, but can't move and more explody on misfires,

• Sandglass of Time: This here's an oddball. It's a war machine that doesn't attack but instead gives magic resist 1 to units within 12" and gives a bonus channel/dispel die. However, breaking it deals 2d6" S4 hits to everyone within 12". Its means of use are in several bound PL5 spells, all of which remain in play.
  • Abeyance: Forces a unit to give up one of the following each turn: moving, casting, shooting, and fighting.
  • Recede: Let a unit shoot twice and adds a bonus round of attacks. This, at least, gives it use for every unit.
  • Gravedust: A death curse that robs -1 M/S/T/I from a unit every turn until they die or the spell is dispelled.

Building Your Army

Army Composition

Araby's main feature is that its units are hard to break during the first round of melee. They are also a fast cavalry faction, having a lot of the same empire tools.

You need a line of cheap Slave levies, staunch Warriors of Arby, Heavy armored Palace Guard, Janissaries and/or unbreakable Silent Guard to hold while your fast cavalry, Mamelukes, and Pegasus Guard do cavalry things.

Your list may also encompass much shooting from as you have bows, handguns, and cannons. And Calvary can take bows.

Like skaven and tomb kings, you want a solid front line that doesn't move, while overwhelming the enemy with an amass of arrows, artillery, maneuverable fast flankers, and big monsters.

Magic

• Fire: DPS and boosts the wounding of a shooting unit
• Metal: lot of armour ignoring and decorating spells, turn medium armour into plate, and +1 to hit.
• Heavens: mix of reflex humming ice, attack rolls, pushing the enemy out of cover, and armour negating lightning.
• Light: Gives you a lot of very nice buffs (Speed of Light is a godsend should your opponent get into your artillery) and debuffs (particularly Net of Amyntok). A particularly nasty combo (if you can get it off) is Speed of Light and Birona's Timewarp, which together will make your Palace Guard with their greatweapons hit like Frenzied High Elf Swordmasters. Very good lore, especially considering the fact that it's statistically the easiest lore to cast.
• Shadow: gives more mobility to your wizard and lower your enemy's attack power and toughness, so your zealot troops can grind them up.
• Death: Four words: Purple Sun of Xereus. It also has very good buffs and debuffs, though you've got to be pretty close to an enemy for the latter.
• Desert: DPS, and protective debuffs. the main draw is Mirage and Sand Storm that prevent an enemy from shootings at your, not as armored troops, Quicksand punishes humans and Dwarfs decked in armor, and Sand Blast slows units.

External Links

The Project's website

Warhammer Army Project Tactics Articles
General Tactics	About 9th edition Magic Items Magic Tips Regiments of Renown
Forces of Order	Albion Amazons Bretonnia Cathay Cult of Ulric Dwarf Empire Estalia Halflings High Elves Kingdoms of Ind Kislev Lizardmen Nippon Wood Elves
Forces of Destruction	Beastmen Chaos Dwarfs Daemons of Chaos Dark Elves Orcs & Goblins Skaven Vampire Counts Warriors of Chaos Zombie Pirates of the Vampire Coast
Unaligned	Araby Dogs Of War Hobgoblins Norse Ogre Kingdoms Pirates of Sartosa Tomb Kings