Improvement & Promotion
Whenever a unit Incapacitates an opponent, that unit draws from the Improvement Deck to see what happens. The outcomes are different depending on whether the unit is a hero or a henchman.
Hero Improvement
For a hero, check the 'Hero' half of the card. It will denote which stat will Improve. You may need to make a stat check for it to Improve.
If you succeed on the roll (or if there is no roll required), improve that stat by 1 immediately.
- Wound, Attack, Pierce, and Injure all increase by 1
- Melee, Ranged, Defence, Agility, and Morale all decrease by 1
If you drew a card that denotes 'Skill/Spell', that hero can learn a new Skill (or Spell if it's a caster). Note it down. At the end of the game, select a new Skill or Spell for that hero when updating your warband. See the relevant sections for more details.
Hero Improvement Table
The following shows an alternate method for checking Hero stat ups via rolling a d20.
| d20 | Result | Extra |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | W | |
| 19 | A | |
| 18 | Prc | |
| 17 | Inj | |
| 14-16 | Skill/Spell | |
| 12-13 | Def | You need to roll equal to or under in order to improve this skill |
| 7-11 | Mel/Rgd | Pick which stat to attempt to improve. You need to roll equal to or under in order to improve this skill |
| 4-6 | Agi | You need to roll equal to or under in order to improve this skill |
| 1-3 | Mrl | You need to roll equal to or under in order to improve this skill |
Hero Stat Caps
All units have base Stat Caps as per the table below and cannot improve past it under any circumstances. Should a hero need to make a check to Improve a stat that is already at the Stat (or Skill) Cap, draw another card from the Improvement Deck instead.
If a unit's Melee or Ranged is at the Stat Cap, the player has the choice to either attempt to Improve the stat not at the Stat Cap, or draw again from the Improvement Deck.
| Stat | Max/Min | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Skill | Max | 3 |
| W | Max | 3 |
| A | Max | 3 |
| Prc | Max | 5 |
| Inj | Max | 5 |
| Def | Min | 5 |
| Mel | Min | 5 |
| Rgd | Min | 5 |
| Agi | Min | 5 |
| Mrl | Min | 5 |
It is still possible to have a modified Stat that could be better than the cap. Great Hammers are a common example, where you could have up to a modified Inj of 12 (7 from the Great Hammer and 5 from your unit's base stat).
Recall that an unmodified roll of 1-4 is always a failure for Defence, Melee, Ranged, Agility, and Morale Stat Checks, so if a unit has Mel 5, it would gain no value from using a Spear, which normally gives +2 Mel.
The cap of 3 Skills does not include any Skills or Special Rules that the hero starts with.
Animal and Large Heroes
Animals and Large units can become Heroes, but do not have any learnable Skills. If they draw an Improvement to learn a Skill, treat it as if they are at the Skill Cap and draw another Improvement Card instead.
Henchman Promotion
For a henchman, check the 'Henchman' half of the card. It will usually be blank, but some cards will show the following:
- Promote a non-Animal, non-Large Henchman if the Incapacitated unit is a Leader! (3 cards)
- Promote a non-Animal, non-Large Henchman if the Incapacitated unit is a Hero! (2 cards)
- Promote! (1 card)
The 'Promote!' card occurs even if an Animal or Large Henchman draws it (this is the only way for them to Promote).
If the unit meets the condition, it will Promote at the end of the battle! It does not draw any additional cards from the Improvement Deck for the rest of the battle.
Discarding Improvement Cards
Once a card is drawn and resolved, discard it. It's recommended to place it under the Incapacitated unit, to help remember whether players have drawn the correct number of times from the Improvement Deck.
In the event that the deck runs out of cards, gather up the discarded cards and shuffle them together to form a new deck.