Composing an army

This page is about choosing what goes into an army and how it is split up. It keeps two things apart. The plain text states rules of the game, and each rule links to the mechanics page that sources it. The shaded blocks labelled Opinion are advice from one player, and another player could build differently and do just as well. If a rule changes in a later version, the rule is what to trust, not the advice.

The screens and orders themselves are explained on Army management. How a blow is settled is on Combat, and what breaks an army is on Morale and rout.

Start from what an army is

An army is a set of squads, and each squad is led by a commander. A commander cannot lead more troops than his or her leadership allows, and can lead at most five squads, so the commanders you have set a ceiling on the size of the army (Army management). Troops with no commander over them cannot be given a move order (Map movement).

Nobody steers units once the fight starts. You choose the squads, where they stand and what each is ordered to do, and the battle then plays out on its own (Army management). That is why composition matters so much: the army you fight with is the one you set up the turn before.

Commanders and leadership

The numbers that bind a commander are on the unit card. Leadership comes in three kinds, for ordinary troops, magic beings and the undead, and units of a kind a commander cannot lead rout without one who can (Unit attributes, Morale and rout). The number of squads a commander leads also moves the morale of every one of them, in steps set by the commander’s base leadership, and a poor leader pays a morale penalty even for a single squad (Army management). Experience raises how many troops a commander can lead but not the morale tier (Morale and rout). Squads that include undisciplined units, or that mix undead or demons with ordinary soldiers, lose morale (Army management).

If every commander on one side is dead or has fled, that whole side flees, however large it is (Combat).

Squads: keep them of one kind

The morale that is tested is the average of the squad, and the whole squad runs together when the test fails (Morale and rout). A squad’s formation can cost it a point of morale too, as the sparse line and skirmish layouts do (Army management). The manual points out two uses for the sorting shortcuts: veterans can be grouped into elite squads whose morale is higher than that of ordinary squads of the same unit, and limping units can be moved out so that a squad does not open gaps as it advances (Army management).

The front line

A front-line soldier is judged by the numbers every unit has: protection, defence skill, hit points and morale (Unit attributes). Protection depends on the body part struck, and a shield helps only on a shield hit (Protection). Weapon kind matters against armour (Damage types). Every attack a unit makes adds fatigue equal to its encumbrance, and each full ten points of fatigue costs a point of defence (Fatigue). Each time a unit is the target of a directed melee attack it also loses a point of defence for a while (Combat).

Chaff

By chaff I mean cheap, plentiful troops whose main job is to be in the way. The word is my label, not a term from the manual. The rules that make it cost something are these. Upkeep is a fifteenth of a unit’s gold cost every turn (Army management). Each unit eats supplies according to its size (Army management). A battlefield square holds ten size points of units (Army management). And an army that has lost three quarters of its hit points routs (Morale and rout).

Missile troops

Missile attacks do not use defence skill. Where a shot lands depends on the shooter’s precision, the number of units in the target square and the target’s shield (Unit attributes, Combat). Ranged attacks do not wear down defence the way melee attacks do (Combat). The squad orders Fire, Hold and Fire, Fire and Keep Distance and Guard Commander each have a different effect on missile squads, and an order that needs a target can name archers, cavalry, fliers, large monsters, the closest or the rearmost (Army management).

Cavalry and fast troops

A unit’s map move is a separate number from its battle speed. The manual’s starting figures are 8 for heavy infantry, 14 for light infantry and 20 for light cavalry, and an army moves at the speed of its slowest member (Unit attributes, Map movement). On the field, a unit that moves next to an enemy is held by that enemy’s zone of control, except when it is fleeing (Combat). A routing unit takes a penalty to defence while it runs, so quick units catch fleeing ones (Morale and rout). A rider using a two-handed weapon takes -3 to attack (Damage types). If a mount breaks, its rider is thrown and fights on foot (Morale and rout).

Mages in the army

A mage is a commander who can cast, and casting costs fatigue and sometimes gems (Combat magic, Fatigue). A caster hit while preparing a spell can be interrupted, with a chance equal to the damage as a share of its hit points plus 25 percent (Combat magic). The commander order Stay Behind Troops keeps a caster in the rear, Advance and Cast Spells moves it toward the front, and a script of up to five specific orders can be copied between commanders (Combat magic, Army management). A squad on Guard Commander stays with its commander and may fight beside him if there is an assassination attempt (Army management). A unit whose fatigue reaches the limit falls unconscious (Fatigue).

How the mechanics pages bear on composition

• Combat: attack against defence, then damage against protection. It tells you what makes a soldier hard to hit and hard to hurt.
• Protection and Damage types: what armour does against each kind of weapon, and why weapon choice matters.
• Fatigue: the cost of attacking and casting, and why encumbrance counts.
• Morale and rout: why leadership, formation and mixed squads matter, and what breaks an army.
• Army management: the screens, orders and limits you build within, and the cost of keeping an army.
• Unit attributes: the numbers on a unit card.
• Combat magic: how mages cast in battle.

What this page does not cover

• It does not rate particular units or nations. For those, see the troops, commanders and mages lists.
• It gives no figures from our own testing, because none have been approved for this page.
• It does not cover blesses, thugs or stacking effects; those will have their own pages.