Warband Creation

This section will describe how to create a warband at the start of a campaign, as well as how to purchase equipment and units generally. To create a warband, you need to do the following steps:

1. Choose your warband
2. Choose your faction
3. Buy units and equipment
4. Name your warband and units
5. Add in other necessary info

You will do this by referring to the section of your chosen warband and filling out the Warband Sheet.

Throughout this process, you are encouraged to think of your warband's motivations and goals. This can help you and your fellow players build a shared narrative throughout the campaign by acting as a starting point. Events will inevitably not go according to plan and their will be both heroic and painful moments. Having a basic idea of your warband's story prior to this campaign can help inform how your warband would react to such events.

Warband Selection

There are numerous warband to choose from, which all vary in complexity, difficulty, and playstyle. Select whichever warband you like the most! There is nothing stopping multiple players playing the same warband either, although more variety in warbands among the player will generally give a better overall experience.

Once the warband is selected, note it down in the 'Warband Type' section of the Warband Sheet and begin going through the chosen warband's section. Note down the Max Units (12, 15, or 18) and Rout Threshold (usually 6), as described in the warband's section. Here is a brief description of each warband:

Human Warbands

Human warbands tend to be the most straight-forward, with less-varied statlines. Their equipment and special skills make them feel distinct from each other.

• Sellswords: The 'vanilla' warband. These humans are versatile, with a wide equipment list and some of the best access to Blackpowder Weapons. If you want a simpler starting experience, Sellswords are a solid choice.
• Inquisitors: A warband where the Inquisitor heroes cobble together a bunch of religious zealots from different walks of life to purge the world of their enemies. Their hounds provide some mobility and their equipment list is more focused.
• Paladins: This warband slows grows into an elite force, with powerful melee weapons and specialised units. In contrast to the chaotic nature of the Inquisitors, these religious believers are disciplined and structured. They lack many ranged options.

Undead Warbands

Undead warbands share common rules. They are slower and tend to lack good ranged options, but are terrifying when they finally make it into melee combat.

• Undead: Centred around being able to use your Leader to resurrect your Incapacitated Undead, the Undead are an overwhelming horde of enemies that can be tough to take down. They can field a terrifying Bone Giant, a slow but nearly unstoppable creature.
• Vampires: While the Undead are centred around their Henchman, the Vampire heroes are the focus in this warband. Each one is an elite unit with extra wounds and terrifying Melee abilities. Their henchman are rarely Undead, there to support their heroes.

Non-Human Warbands

Non-human warbands tend to have more extreme stats and abilities, making them play very differently to other warbands.

• Dwarves: Dwarves are slow and incredibly hardy. Their ingenuity at crafting weapons and armour means they can become a terrifying force when well-equipped. They are able use Blackpowder weapons, rivaling the Sellswords.
• Ratlings: Ratlings are quick, numerous, and agile. The have poor ranged weapon options, but make up for it in aggression. Their poor morale means that certain victory can turn into defeat if they are careless. They can hire a Rat Monstrosity, an unintelligent but brutal unit.
• Wood Elves: Wood elves are elite but fragile units. They excel in everything, except Defence. Their leader can quickly become a killing force and they can recruit a massive Treat to their cause. Nearly every unit expensive, so this warband can fall apart quickly with some bad losses. Due to their nature, they are tricky to play.

Spending Gold

This step is the core of your decision making for warband creation. Here you decide what specific units and equipment you are going to purchase. All warbands start with 500g, which can be spent on (nearly) any units and equipment. Any gold not spent during this step is lost. There are some restrictions on what you can buy:

• You must buy the Leader hero
• You cannot buy more heroes (including the Leader) than your Hero Slots
  • As everyone starts with 3 Hero Slots, this means you cannot buy more than three heroes at warband creation (unless you buy more slots)
• You can buy any equipment in the warband's section, but can only equip it to a unit if it's in that unit's equipment list
• Henchman can only equip two slots worth of equipment, either:
  • one slot worth of Melee Weapons and one slot worth of Ranged Weapons, or:
  • two slots worth of Melee Weapons
• Heroes can equip three slots worth of equipment, which are two slots worth of Melee Weapons and one slot worth of Ranged Weapons
• You cannot buy any 'Large' units upon warband creation (but they can be bought later)

Now, work out what exactly you wish to purchase. To buy a unit or piece of equipment, note down its cost and subtract it from your current gold. You cannot buy something if you cannot afford it (ie. it would bring your gold to below zero).

You may store equipment that you have bought, to be equipped to units in the future. Write down any such equipment in the 'Stored Equipment' section of the Warband Sheet.

Buying Hero Slots

You may buy more Hero Slots at warband creation, allowing you to buy additional heroes immediately.

Hero Slot	Cost
4th	50g
5th	100g
6th	150g

Buying Casters

If you buy a Caster, you must immediately choose their starting Spell from the relevant Spell list. If they are an Arcane Caster, they already know their Basic Spell (in addition to their starting Spell).

Naming and Tidying Up

Make sure to give your warband and your heroes suitably thematic names. If you so wish, you can name each henchman type too. After that, make sure you have filled out the following sections on your warband sheet:

• Player Name: That's you!
• Gold, Wins, and Losses will all start at 0
• Hero Slots will start at 3 (unless you bought more during the 'Spend Gold' step)

At this point, you are nearly done. You will learn about Factions Selection in the next section. After that, you will be ready for your first battle. Onwards!