Equipment

Units can equip a variety of equipment that can be used during battles. This section gives general information on how equipment works, giving more detail on Melee and Ranged Weapons as well as all other types of equipment that a unit may use.

Unit Types & Equipment Slots

Equipment slots allow a unit to equip equipment. If a unit does not have enough slots to equip something, it cannot be equipped.

Heroes have a total of three weapon slots, two Melee Weapon slots and one Ranged Weapon slot. Henchman meanwhile, have one Melee Weapon slot and a second slot that is flexible, working as either a second Melee Weapon slot or as a Ranged Weapon slot. Both unit types have an Armour slot.

Arcane Casters are the exception to this rule, only having a single Melee Weapon slot. They do not have a Ranged Weapon or Armour slot either.

Weapons

All weapons share a number of common rules, which are described in this section.

Weapon Slots

All Weapons take up at least one slot. Ranged Weapons always take up a Ranged Weapon slot and Melee Weapons can take up one or two Melee Weapons slots, depending on whether the weapon would be wielded with one or two hands.

Unlike Ranged Weapons, Melee Weapons can take up multiple weapon slots (eg. two-handed weapons). A unit may have no more than two weapon slots worth of Melee Weapons (including shields).

Injury & Pierce Modifiers

Weapons can have both Injury & Pierce modifiers. These work the same way as Injury and Pierce modifiers work in stat blocks, except they only apply when that weapon is being used. This means that Ranged Weapon modifiers only apply during Ranged Attacks and Melee Weapon modifiers only apply when that weapon is being used in Melee Combat.

Melee Weapons

Melee Weapons are weapons that can be used as part of Melee Attacks.

Melee Modifiers

Melee modifiers lower the required roll for a Melee Check, similar to other modifiers.

For example, if a Warrior with Melee 14 attacks with a Spear, which has a Melee modifier of +2, the Warrior only needs to roll a 12 or higher to pass a Melee Check. It's important to note that this does not improve the roll for the purposes of Injury (ie. it is the complement of the Injury modifier).

Melee Dual-Wielding

If a unit only has one Melee Weapon (not including Shields), that weapon is used for all Melee Attacks. If a unit has two Melee Weapons, it is considered to be 'Dual-Wielding'. In this case, it receives an additional Attack in Melee Combat. Each weapon must be used to make at least one attack each turn in Melee Combat, but a unit's Melee Attacks can otherwise be split any way between the two weapons.

Unarmed Fighting in Melee Combat

It is possible a unit in Melee Combat may not have a Melee Weapon equipped. If this is the case, they are considered to be fighting 'Unarmed'. When fighting Unarmed, units make Melee Checks with Disadvantage. Animals and those with the 'No Equipment' skill are not penalised in this way and fight as normal.

Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons are used for Ranged Attacks and are generally similar to Melee Weapons, but have a Range and (unsurprisingly) no Melee modifier. Many Ranged Weapons have similar effects, so the most common and impactful of these will be described below, so that players may understand the implications of such weapons when purchasing them or when facing warbands that have them.

Range

This describes the maximum distance between a unit and the enemy it is targeting. If the target of your Ranged Attack is further away than this distance, the attack automatically misses. If Range also impacts whether you may have Advantage during Ranged Checks. See Being Elevated for more details.

Long Reload

Some weapons (usually Blackpowder Weapons) require a series of steps to Reload and so take some time between shots. For this reason, a Load Reload weapon cannot be used to Shoot if it was used to Shoot in the previous turn.

Blackpowder Weapons

Blackpowder Weapons are particularly powerful, generally having both Injury and Pierce modifers. The downside to their use is blackpowder's unstable nature.

Whenever a 1 is rolled during a Ranged Attack with a Blackpowder Weapon, the weapon Misfires. When this happens, the wielder of the weapon may get Injured. After that point, the weapon may not be used for the rest of the game, but is able to be used again in future games at no cost.

Ranged Dual-Wielding

In rare instances, Ranged Weapons can be dual-wielded if they have 'Dual-Wield' effect. Ranged dual-wielding works differently to Melee dual-wielding. Instead of gaining an extra attack, such a Ranged Attack is rolled with Advantage.

Other Equipment

Besides weapons, there are a few other types of equipment that units can use.

Armour

All units have one Armour slot, allowing them to wear armour that provides a bonus to their Defence. Shields are considered Melee Weapons, rather than Armour for the purposes of occupying slots.

Consumables

Heroes can equip one Consumable. Consumables are one-time-use items that have a wide variety of effects. Potions are the most common type of Consumable, ranging from Healing Potions to Potions of Invisibility.

Magic Items

Magic Items are some of the best pieces of equipment in the game. They can be any equipment type (Melee Weapon, Ranged Weapon, or Armour), or may not take up any of these slots at all (such as a cape or pair of boots). Like Consumables, heroes can equip one Magic Item at a time.