Accessorising Your Maidens
Items and Magic are available in games of Aryiki that use the extra Heroine Rules.
Equipping your Units and Heroines with Items and Magic, accessorising, will allow
you to customise your army of damsels to fight a particular army, to fix any weaknesses,
improve upon strengths, or if you so wish, to decrease the capabilities of your maids
(that shall be got to later).
Accessorising for the Occasion
There is nothing worse than to be unprepared for the date, incorrectly armed and armoured
for the meeting at a Meadow of Glamour. Your maidens deploy into formation only to
see that their opponents are stringing extra-powerful longbows that will make an advance
against them just as suicidal as standing still. Or who can forget not making sure
the Heroine was wearing her best, hair and makeup perfect, for that showdown with their Heroine,
whom with an unparalled wardrobe, none could resist.
Firstly, know whom you are going to engage with. Study the kind of maidens they have
and how they like to battle and what their accesory option are. Most will be similar
to your own but each tribe, race or faction has some subtle differences. The Unseelie
have an entire Couture that is drastically different. With this research you can plan
more accurately your own accessory requirements and not get caught up too much in
choosing just what kind and colour of accessory to take that matches your maids' hair
or eyes.
For example, the Tir all have quality archers and in fact their missible capability
becomes more dangerous the closer you get! It can take forever to advance through
their deadly hailshower if at all. Even Hoplites can have trouble. What is the solution
then? Armour and Speed. Now, immediately you may think that is good, then remember
that the more armour worn the slower you will be. In the case of un-accesorised maidens
this is true. With the right accessories this can be overcome, to a degree. Firstly,
determine which is the more advantagous: a high D or M stat.
The greater D the less chance of hits and being Pushed-Back, the greater M the more
distance can be recovered from any Push Backs.
In Damsel Book One all races can supply a maid in a Unit with some sort of instrument
(Musician M+1 Cost:5) to increase their speed. Most can improve their D (Shield Drapes
D+0/+1 Cost:5, Bronze Corset D+1 Cost:10, Fae Glyphs D+1 Cost:5). Races in other Damsel
books or on the website might have accessories that provide similar benefits.
Choose those accessories which will be beneficial against whom you are fighting. For
Heroines, who can have multiple accessories according to how Glamourous they are,
this is even more important. Heroines play a dual role on the Meadow: firstly to Duel
and defeat enemy Heroines; secondly to assist the maidens in routing the enemy Units.
As a Heroine will usually not fight alone gainst enemy maids, her choice of accessories
does not need to be as targeted as the advice above. Glamour is her best weapon and
she can use it to drive all before her. Glamour will also help her in Duels but for
the best results just as armies need to study each other and accessories accordingly,
Heroines must know everything about their likely opponent: how she does her hair,
does she wear necklaces or bodices, what kind of shoes - are they stilettos, how Glamourous
can she become? The loss of a Heroine to an army is demoralising and leaves the maidens
hopelessly alone.
If your Heroines like to work together, a team-act, complementing accessories are
a good idea. For instance a Magi, who will not want to fight, should ensure she has
something in her pretty head to improve the duelist or lessen the Glamour of the foe.
Improving your Natural Assests
When you are good at something, there is nothing wrong with being even better. Hoplites
are tough and strong and can beat most other maidens in combat without accessories
but with that little extra armour or tailoring the girls will be even more formidable
or maybe unstoppable. Giving Tautha longbows to Archers increases the deadliness of
their missile fire. Sadistic Dhrow are frightening enough, eager to fight wearing
nothing but few maids will stand in their way when one is slathered in blood and gore,
licking crimson lips, veritibly glorifying in the blood.
Improving your assests makes your maidens better at what they already do. If the enemy
damsels have a hard time against some of yours, they are the best candidates to accessorise
in this way. Make hard difficult, and difficult impossible to resist.
These maidens or Heroines are even more so the linchpin of your battle line. They
must be used to win, to defeat the enemy at the best possible place whether it is
in attack or defense.
However, there is also reason to accessorise other maids in your army, not just the
best. Specialist maids, such as Aryidannan Slingers can be given Lead Slingshot (A+1,
Cost: 5) and used to counter enemy missile fire better. This both improves a natural
asset and matches the occasion. You have to also think not just about making some
of your maidens better, but ensuring that those accessories you take improve your
army as a whole.
Heroines usually have a greater choice than maidens when accessorising, as they should.
To them, accessories are life, meant to make her better, more beautiful,
more deadly. More Glamourous and desired. Nothing fulfills a Heroine more than being
better than her counterpart. Heroines must look to their role in battle and so accessorise;
duelling: ornate weapons and armour; breaking the hearts of maids: jewellery, enticing
lipstick, pumps that lift her legs and... maidens must only look at that and be too
awestruck to do anything else.
Covering your Rear
No army of maidens is perfect and capable of defeating all challenges. Otherwise they
would all be Heroines. Each race always has a weakness some area or two. After the
first weeks of fighting the Aryidannan invaders, the Tautha dispaired their lack of
armour and how short their javelin were against the Hoplite spear. The Aryidannan
too felt the sting of Tautha missiles and the speed of Fae charges and responded by
increasing the number of Slingers and Peltae in their contingents to counter the threat.
Believe that your enemy will take advantage of your weakness and use that to defeat
you. Therefore is it not best not to have that weakness anymore? Are you knives too
short? Give your maidens swords. Are they too soft? Cover their skin with leather
or chain.
Use accessories to cover your rear and turn them into an asset. Sidhe Archers in stockings
and nothing else are easy victims to most Aryidannan maidens, but with a little bit
of Glamour, say flowers in their hair and rose on their cheek, the redheads may be
too unnerved to advance any closer and the tall-standing Sidhe can continue to loose
their long shafts.
Throw in a Little Surprise
Do the unexpected! Like you, your foe will study your army composition and know the
quality of your maidens and the glamour of your Heroines. They will expect a certain
composition and accessories that will follow the principles outlined above already.
Believing to to know exactly what you will do it is time to be avant garde.
Look for accessories that provide something a little more than a direct improvement.
For example, increasing the D of Hoplites. That is what the enemy would likely expect,
but what if instead the Hopites were given throwing weapons? That would catch your
enemy off-guard, just as giving some maidens a citation or sash to wear and boost
their morale so they become harder to rout.
Of all accessories, creating surprises will be the hardest to accomplish, yet like
hard things, the reward for their success will be greater.
Taking Advantage of Bad Hair Days
Voluntarily accessories can be doned that will have the opposite affect of what accessories
are meant to do. Instead of making maidens or a Heroine better, they will mak her
feel worse, improve upon her weaknesses or failures, exacerbate her problems.
Why would you want to do this?
Because in some circumstances, to make some of your maidens feel and look better,
others will have to sacrifice and suffer in return. Your Heroine desperately wants
a new hair-comb in blue to go with her makeup so she will appear more Glamourous than
she would without. Yet your resources are finite, just not enough money to go around
and please all your girls. The Heroine wants it, needs it, and won't fight
without it because their Heroine has one in red and orange and not to outdo their Heroine
is just not on.
So she gets it, and instead of experienced maidens to hold the right flank you have
to make do with some enthusiastic yet raw juveniles or worse yet take away the stiff
bone corsets for the Hoplites and replace them with simple leather.
Giving with two hands usually requires taking from one as well. The trick is to balance
what is being lost and think of that as an advantage as well; maybe not to the jibbed
maidens but for your army as a whole. A weak forlone hope, stripped and chained together
looking miserable can entice the enemy into a rash engagement and then the damsels
you did spruce up beyond measure announce their debutante and win the day.
Conclusion: The Bold and the Beautiful
When using Heroine Rules, accessories are a must and choosing the right ones for your
maidens is a firm step towards victory. However, Accessory Points (Item & Magic
Points) are limited and quality accessories expensive. Rarely will an army be able
to accessorise all of its Units and allow some a second choice and the selection to
choose from will only increase (Heroines can also choose accessories from
here
and there is an article on Tautha accessories
here
). All four topics above must be addressed during your selection and remember
that your opponent will be doing the same.
May you have Glamour and Fame.
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