I think we're fantasizing a bit prematurely for additional factions.
I think it is a real possibility, that there may not, (and likely will not) be any additional factions. These 3 are easily the most iconic warrior legacies that span from early to late medieval era, and are fairly enough infact. We may however, get additional heroes per faction Like an additional Vanguard, or a Hybrid, or may be even whole new classes.
There are more things to potentially add from these 3 factions. Samurai may have Ashigaru armed with a Yari as a hybrid, or a dual vielding duellist, with a daisho pair of Katana + Wakizashi but without any real armour, as an alternative assassin. Knights, man oh man, so many possibilities.
I personally would like to see another longsword character, perhaps with less armour like a brigandine, called a Duellist or Freifechter, using a more slender longsword, with a move set / style modeled to true versatilety and agility of that weapon, but with less durability than Warden, and may be also less class versatilety to differentiate it. There can be Landsknecht with two handed greatswords, any number of interesting and weird polearms, a Messer wielding character may be (an agile weapon with lots of counter attacking and also some joint locking tecniques in it's style), may be a sword and buckler character. Many possibilities. Finally there are maces etc, I'm not a fan of blunt weapons but they have their place, and fans, so there may be some options there too.
When it comes to Vikings, it may be a little harder to find more heroes to add, but there certainly are some other weapons, seax, a kind of large knife / dagger, and langsax, a short sword sized version of it. There may also be classic viking with shield and axe, but we already have classic viking with sword and shield, so would probably be rather redundant. May be a spear character fighting without shield, to differentiate from Valkyrie. May be also another viking with a bardiche type axe, which is a later period, but seem to have used by Varangian Guard of Byzantine emperors. Varangian Guard were kinda high medieval era vikings anyway, so wouldn't be too much of a stretch. Bardiche being a hybrid of an axe and a polearm, such a character could be an interesting alternative hybrid.
So, what I basically want to say is, there actually is expansion potential with existing factions too, and this would likely require much less story wrangling, and research on development team.
However, I will admit playing the game of thinking of additional factions is great fun! So I will indulge a bit myself.
Regarding whole Spartan thing, I think it is much better to have a faction that group together various warriors of antiquity in itself. Having distinct heroes from those eras would be easier this way.
- The heavy for that faction would be the Roman Legionary. Lorica segmentata as his armour, big scutum shield in one hand, and the gladius in other hand, hopefully the wasp waisted Mainz gladius type.
- Vanguard may be a Thracian warrior with Rhomphaia. It is a slightly inwards curving, or sometimes straight, single edged, two handed weapon, that is a cross between a polearm and early proto-two handed sword. Give the warrior a treatment of maille or scale armour and large, fearsome and formidable Rhomphaia with sweeping, cleaving strikes, and you have a winner for antiquity inspired Vanguard.
- Assassin : May either be a crazy Celtic / Gaulish / Germanic warrior without armour but with a longer sword or may be axe. Alternatively, it may be any of Roman Gladiators, but, I think Gladiators can be a faction themselves, more on that later. Since game likes to go wild with dual wielding whether it has hisorically been a thing or not, we may also have an Iberian warrior wielding dual falcatas instead of a falcata + shield. Falcata is one of my favorite ancient / classical era swords, and I'd love seeing it represented in game if additional factions will be a thing.
- Hybrid : Here we can have the classical Hoplite / Phalangite with a long spear and large-ish shield. You may as well make him a Spartan too.
Now, back to Gladiators I have mentioned above. There are so many types of Gladiators with unique equipment and fighting styles, they can become a faction themselves. It can make a little historical sense even, as there have been various gladiator uprisings, most famously the Spartacus' one. Though, when they rebelled, they have ditched gladiatorial gear and looted real soldier equipment instead, but hey, For Honor is historical fantasy afterall, so it can be ok to have gladiators fighting a war with gladiatorial gear too may be?
- Retiarius : This guy fought with a triden (a spear with three pointy bits, Poseidon or Maserati brand logo kinda stuff), and also a big net with weights tied to it's ends. He was very lightly armoured, pretty close to unarmoured actually, aside from a really large pauldron that also cover his face, but only on one shoulder, the one facing the enemy. Net throw could be a long ranged guard break, but character would need to retrieve the net, so it would be an unspammable, but long ranged guardbreak. Retiarius would be a Hybrid.
- Murmillo : This is the standart gladiator image one thinks of. He is quite well armoured for a gladiator, with a gigantic full helm, scutum shield, "manica" guarding entirety of sword arm, and some greaves too. Also, I think a pauldron on one of shoulders but not sure. Weapon is the Gladius. Murmillo would probably the Heavy.
- Thrax : Modeling Thracian warriors, this too is a sword & shield gladiator, but is lighter than Murmillo. Somewhat less well armored, has a smaller and different looking shield, and his weapon is a sica, a reverse curved short sword. May be a Vanguard.
- Scissor : not sure whether to call this one heavy or assassin but, for sake of gameplay he can be made the assassin. Gladius in one hand, and other arm is encased inside a metal tube, which has a semi circular sharp blade at it's end as a second weapon. He also has a fully enclosed helm. Since this guy doesn't have a shield due to having two weapons, and both his weapons are of short range, this class is the only gladiator type that was allowed to wear a torso armor in form of a scale suit. But we already have "kinda sorta armoured assassins" so he would work as an assassin I'd say.
If we get back to medieval era now... Well in my opinion only interesting faction to add from medieval era would be China. They have many interesting sorts of weaponry, nice looking armour, are also an iconic warrior culture, and would bring some variety indeed. They even have weird-*** weapons for some annoying assassin classes like hook swords, butterfly blades, meteor hammers, you see even the names are outlandish 
. They also have some proper brutal or agile weapons. Jian as an agile straight double edged sword, kinda reminds European swords but handles rather differently. Many types of Dao sabers, some brutal chopper, some are agile finesse weapons. Guandao, a polearm that is scarier than a naginata if you'd ask me. Dadao, a two handed but relatively short, brutal chopper weapon. Various types of halberds and other polearms etc etc. Chinese martial culture is fairly rich and iconic.
Middle East rooted factions are being pitched by people too. But honestly, I don't think they are as good options for a few reasons. They are just not as iconic. Weapons and tactics, if we look at melee department on which the game focus, are really not that different from European ones for most part. Majority of time, Arabian warriors actually fought with swords that are straight and double edged like the European ones, curved ones are actually fairly late weapons. If we look Ottoman armies, what set them apart was cavalry and archery. There are many archery treatises and manuals and people still actively and successfuly practice traditional archery in Turkey, but there is just about nothing, no material what so ever about martial arts detailing use of melee weapons of Ottoman Empire. Melee infantry was, usually either sword & shield (sword being kilij, a curved blade), or heavy infantry with a halberd that just looks somewhat different from European halberd but functions fairly similar in all likeliness. May be only factor that can differentiate is, axes seem to be used just a little bit more often as a weapon in Middle East than Europe. In the end of the day, they just don't have the iconic popularity of Vikings, Knights or Samurai. Before someone accuse me of saying these due to some sort of racism or jingoism, favoritism, or whatever, let me say that I am from Turkey myself actually. But if you look at it from a historical perspective, and if you want the most iconic melee oriented warriors, Middle Eastern ones do not quite make it to upper parts of that list, nor do they provide particularly unique weaponry, or fighting styles compared to what we have. Also, unlike Japanese or Europen ones, there aren't much living martial arts about use of Arabian or Turkish swords in a martial context.
May be India would be better for providing variety as they have some weird-*** melee weapons like punch daggers aaand even punch-swords, as well as other types of both straight and curvy swords, maces etc. So they would definitely be somewhat unique, but, I am not sure if they would make the iconicness cut for most people. Also unlike most Middle East ones, there are living martial traditions regarding use of melee weaponry from this culture, even if they have become less martial and more ceremonial-ish in time.
Mongolia, also primarily a cavalry AND archer force, not fitting with game's infantry melee focus. Aztecs etc. oh please no... no metal weapons, no armour at all etc, I personally would not like seeing them in this game, not even one bit.
2 people found this helpful
Junior Member
Member
Junior Member
Member
, and i hope we see it very soon its the perfect fit also with other great factions Romans, Spartans, Gladiators.
Member
Junior Member
Junior Member
Junior Member
Member
