Factions in FMB

For a long time I have wanted to add something to my standard FMB layout.  The game plays fine as it is but I think it would have a lot more replay value if people got to really change their strategy each time they started a new game.  At the moment they can change up their armies to contain different mixes of the 8 basic units but that somehow doesn't feel like enough specialization.  Initially I had designed several new factions that each had 4 new units in them, all of which had special powers.  This worked fine on the drawing board but had the issue that I have 3 different colours for the basic units and would need yet 4 more colours for the different factions.  This would mean I need to make a truckload of basic pieces and faction pieces and even then every player would have two different colours for their army (regular pieces and faction pieces) which would makes things difficult visually.

I came up with a new idea today that I think works much better.

Faction:  Pit Fiends Army Points:  4 Special Unit:  Cerberus Spells per Turn:  2 Use:  During your Spell phase. Effect:  One friendly ranged unit may attack up to two additional times this turn.  Each attack must be against a different target and each attack costs one Movement Point.	Faction:  Faerie Kingdoms Army Points:  5 Special Unit:  Sprite Spells per Turn:  2 Use:  During your Spell phase. Effect:  One friendly unit gains +1 Speed and ignores all terrain effects on movement until end of turn.	Faction:  Mountain Clan Army Points:  4 Special Unit:  Cyclops Spells per Turn:  2 All friendly units treat Mountains and Hills as Plains for the purposes of movement.
Faction:  Sylvan Army Points:  6 Special Unit:  Dryad Spells per Turn:  3 Whenever a friendly unit is Destroyed the attacker gains one extra Gold.	Faction:  Forged Ones Army Points:  6 Special Unit:  Golem Spells per Turn:  2 All friendly units must pay two Movement Points instead of one to make an attack.  Any unit with only one Movement Point may still attack if it did not move during its turn.	Faction:  The Legion Army Points:  3 Special Unit:  Paladin Spells per Turn:  1 Any friendly unit that is adjacent to one or more other friendly units gains +1 Strength.

Faction: Cabal of Blood Army Points:  4 Special Unit:  Vampire Spells per Turn:  2 Any time your Vampire is Stunned or Destroyed you may Stun one of your units that is not currently Stunned to negate the effect on your Vampire.	Faction:  Warlock’s Conclave Army Points:  5 Special Unit:  Pyromage Spells per Turn:  4 All friendly units take a -1 Strength penalty during enemy turns.	Faction:  Things from the Deep Army Points:  3 Special Unit:  Horror Spells per Turn:  2 After an opponent draws Spell(s) during their Production phase they must choose and discard a Spell.
Faction:  Northern Tribes Army Points:  4 Special Unit:  Yeti Spells per Turn:  1 Friendly units do not pay any Movement Points at all for any Water spaces they enter and also do not pay the additional Movement Point cost associated with leaving Water spaces.	Faction:  Golden Mercenaries Army Points:  0 Special Unit:  None Spells per Turn:  2 Your army consists of one of each of the following units:  Elf, Dwarf, Centaur, Worg, Ogre, Unicorn, Dragon.	Faction:  Iron Knights Army Points:  0 Special Unit:  None Spells per Turn:  2 Your army consists of one of each of the following units:  Elf, Dwarf, Centaur, Worg, Ogre, Unicorn, Dragon.

The idea behind all these new factions is that each player chooses a faction and doing so gives them a special unit with special rules, a bonus or penalty and also determines how many Spells per turn they get and how many points they have to spend on the rest of their army.  Overall I think each of these factions is balanced (with the caveat that I haven't tested them properly) and they will certainly give a unique feel to each game.  The last two factions (Golden Mercenaries and Iron Knights) are there so that new players have an easy introduction that is built right into the expert version of the game.  A new player can be handed those factions and they don't have to worry about special unit rules or unique abilities and their army is prebuilt.  Assuming I have the balance right the newbie factions should be just as powerful as the specialized ones, just less involved.

Hopefully the new layout will mean that experts can have all kinds of interesting matchups and designs but the physical piece requirements should be minimal.  I can just make one copy of each of the special units and give them all the same colour since only two will be on the board at any given point.  Below is the list of the special units including the point costs I assigned them.  The point costs are placed on a scale where normal units cost either 0, 1 or 2.

Special Units	Strength	Speed	Type	Point Cost	Ability
Sprite	0	4	Ranged	0	Flying
Dryad	1	4	Melee	1	Stealth
Cyclops	2	3	Ranged	1.5	Attacker
Golem	3	3	Melee	2.5	Stand Firm
Cerberus	2	4	Ranged	1	Short Range
Paladin	2	3	Melee	2	Healer
Vampire	1	5	Melee	2.5	Double Strike
Horror	2	4	Ranged	2	Fear
Yeti	1	5	Melee	1.5	Defender
Pyromage	1	5	Ranged	1.5	Immolate

Descriptions of Special Powers:

Flying:  The unit treats all terrain as Plains for the purposes of movement.

Stealth:  The unit cannot be affected by any enemy Spell or Artifact effects.  Attacks made by this unit may not be affected by any enemy Spell or Artifact effects.
Attacker:  The unit gains + 1 Strength while attacking.

Stand Firm:  The unit may not be pushed or moved by any unit, spell or artifact.  It is only moved when it is Destroyed and is put back in the Fortress.

Short Range:  The unit may only make attacks against adjacent units.
Healer:  The unit and any friendly units that are adjacent or sharing the Fortress remove their Stun condition during your Spell phase.  They may act as normal.
Double Strike:  The unit may make two attacks on its turn.  The second attack comes directly after the first and does not cost Movement Points.
Fear:  When this unit successfully Hits an enemy unit the enemy unit is Pushed 1 space in addition to the normal effect of the attack.
Defender:  The unit gains + 1 Strength while it is being attacked.

Immolate:  When the unit successfully Hits an enemy unit which has a Strength of 1 or less the enemy unit is automatically Destroyed.