Some thoughts on picking a warband.

[Harry]

I was asked for some thoughts on picking a warband on another forum by a guy itching to start painting who had not got his hands on the rules yet.

having played my first game last night ..... HUGE fun.
Here are some thoughts  ... i thought I would post them here in case they were of interest to anyone else in the same spot.

The difference in some of the soldier choices  are tiny but can be important .....

Thieves , treasure hunters, Trackers and Rangers a tiny bit quicker than everyone else .... but that makes a difference in the race for a treasure token.
The trained infantry man or man at arms is a little bit better than your average thug, archer or crossbowman in a fight .... but not as good as your Treasure hunter, Knight, Templar or Barbarian ... everyone is better than a thief.
Archers, Crossbowmen, Trackers and rangers can all shoot well .... no one else is especially good at it and shooting can be deadly. No one is as good as a marksman .... get him up high in the middle of the board and your in the realms of the "American sniper" deadly.
Everyone comes with their starting kit and you can't really buy them very much .... so  the Knight, Templar, man at arms ... and the marksman are an investment but they have a better chance of survival because they come with more armour ...they can take a hit ...or two.
'Will' is a factor in defence against some spells and your ranger and treasure hunter are better than average and the Barbarian is best.
All the specialist have better health thus a bit more chance os surviving than the average grunt and again the barbarian is best.
But here is the thing .... a lucky roll here and a very expensive specialist is as easy to kill as the cheapest thug or thief you dragged out of the local tavern the night before .... and you can hire 5 of them for the cost of one specialist. :eek: ....and one specialist is NOT going to take out 5 thugs before they get the best of him .....except maybe the marksman!

The biggest difference between the soldiers IS the cost. You can not afford everything you want starting out. You will have to make up your warband with thugs,and thieves and common soldiers (archers, crossbowmen and infantrymen) when you start out ..... and don't be giving them names or getting to know their girlfriends ... some of these boys are not coming back. :cries:

Oh, and you are going to want to take the apprentice every time ... he takes a big juicy bite out of your starting cash but the extra magic, the fact that he can advance and as time goes on carry more stuff is going to make a difference.

If that is any help at all .... I am delighted to have been of help. I really look forward to seeing some warbands on the webz ... I have to say this is the really fun part of the whole thing and my mind is spinning with ideas for all archer elf warbands and dwarf treasure hunter warbands and orc shamans with a band of goblin thieves and chaos warbands with warhounds and beastmen thugs and Barbarian chaos warriors ..... So easy to fit any races into the generic descriptions of the different soldier types.

[wulfgar22]

Very handy. Ta!

[Sir_Theo]

This is very useful thanks. I've been merrily painting warbands only to realise they are almost all specialists! I'll be getting some thugs and normal infantry men now for the starting warbands to use...

[Harry]

This is very useful thanks. I've been merrily painting warbands only to realise they are almost all specialists! I'll be getting some thugs and normal infantry men now for the starting warbands to use...

Yes ... you can maybe afford just one specialist starting out ..... unless you decide not to go without an apprentice  in which case you can take a couple more.

The box of plastics is really very nice for the basic soldiers/thugs and thieves.

[Kane]

This is very useful thanks. I've been merrily painting warbands only to realise they are almost all specialists! I'll be getting some thugs and normal infantry men now for the starting warbands to use...

Know the feeling. Bought me a bunch of great miniatures, but rather specialists than mainstreamers. Luckily I had some Bretonnian man-at-arms lying around. Never thought they'd ever come in handy again.

[Drachenklinge]

I am getting curious about frostgrave, too. Is it basically a rule-set for campaigns? Since everyone is talking about upgrades during the games, and making thugs and thieves better of some sorts.

thanks in advance
DK

[Westfalia Chris]

I am getting curious about frostgrave, too. Is it basically a rule-set for campaigns? Since everyone is talking about upgrades during the games, and making thugs and thieves better of some sorts.

thanks in advance
DK

Having had a good look at it, I suspect that it really shines in a campaign environment, although one-off games are feasible, too. Following a game, the wizard (and his apprentice) gain experience in a rather straightforward, albeit RPG-inspired way - for the henchmen, the campaign effects are effectively limited to getting nice shiny magic items to use, and die in horrible ways to be replaced by new guys.

Overall, it reminds me very fondly of the first Diablo PC game, and the only thing that "irks" me is that you only have "humans" (although I'll probably just use my dwarf figures with the normal rules as an adventuring party; I'll need to find a proper dwarven apprentice first, though).

[Sir_Theo]

Having had a good look at it, I suspect that it really shines in a campaign environment, although one-off games are feasible, too. Following a game, the wizard (and his apprentice) gain experience in a rather straightforward, albeit RPG-inspired way - for the henchmen, the campaign effects are effectively limited to getting nice shiny magic items to use, and die in horrible ways to be replaced by new guys.

Overall, it reminds me very fondly of the first Diablo PC game, and the only thing that "irks" me is that you only have "humans" (although I'll probably just use my dwarf figures with the normal rules as an adventuring party; I'll need to find a proper dwarven apprentice first, though).

I've thought about this. One of the Warbands I'm building are all.Dwarves, but will use the normal rules at first.

At some point I might try tinkering with stats for demi humans. Or at least wait until someone better at that sort of thing does it! I'd love that to be part if a future expansion
 Maybe just looking at the old AD&D races, Dwarves, Elves, Halfling,  Half Orcs etc....

[fred]

It does seem the campaign adds a degree of depth. Though the basic games seems pretty interesting too.

The Wizard and his apprentice are the key characters and you will want to keep them alive - the henchmen (thieves, thugs, warriors etc) are pretty expendable, the specialists are a bit more expensive to you will want to protect them a bit more.

There are a lot of spell options to choose for a Wizard so it will take a little while to put together a new warband - and then you have quite a choice of specialists too. So I think you will feel quite invested in your warband at the start of a game.

[Drachenklinge]

Thanks a lot!

[…] (although I'll probably just use my dwarf figures with the normal rules as an adventuring party; I'll need to find a proper dwarven apprentice first, though).

I thought about that, too. And at least for some test-games I sure will use some of my confrontational Tir-Na-Bor. They even have wizards ...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FXvlEduRL._SX300_.jpg

... and other cool minis. ^^

[Harry]

I am getting curious about frostgrave, too. Is it basically a rule-set for campaigns? Since everyone is talking about upgrades during the games, and making thugs and thieves better of some sorts.

thanks in advance
DK

It is essentially a gang game like legends of the old west, legends of the High seas, Mordheim or Necroumunda ...except this time it is based around wizards and set in a frozen city. The only characters that really advance are the Wizards but your soldiers can get better as you dish out any magic items you discover.

The soldier descriptions are so generic you can literally use any minis with this game .... or any races. Nothing stopping you fit a selection of Dwarves you already own into the different soldier descriptions.

If you have a collection of mins already ... You can honestly go pick up the rule book and dive straight in ... and for less that £10 ... why wouldn't you?

[mellis1644]

It is essentially a gang game like legends of the old west, legends of the High seas, Mordheim or Necroumunda ...except this time it is based around wizards and set in a frozen city. The only characters that really advance are the Wizards but your soldiers can get better as you dish out any magic items you discover.

The soldier descriptions are so generic you can literally use any minis with this game .... or any races. Nothing stopping you fit a selection of Dwarves you already own into the different soldier descriptions.

If you have a collection of mins already ... You can honestly go pick up the rule book and dive straight in ... and for less that £10 ... why wouldn't you?

Yeah I was thinking for example of an Orc band, snotlings could easily be covered as war hounds (they are too small to carry treasures), Goblins with the thug line, and Orcs man-at-arms or other higher price 'soldiers' can be the 'ard Orcs. The wizards are obvious. Skaven from Mordhiem could mapped as well in a similar manner, and likely will be very easy to fit in.

Obviously, more specialist/weird figs like netters may need special/custom rules but to get a typical forces would be simple. I would like to see more solider profiles over time - things such as an assassin etc but we'll see how things progress as I suspect those will not be too hard to create for alternate settings.

[TWD]

My thoughts on picking a warband, based on the limited experience of being beaten by my children in a couple of games is that the missile armed troops offer better value for GC than the fighty types. The ability to shoot someone from 24" away outweight the slight advantage in armour that the equivalent soldier gets.

[Harry]

My thoughts on picking a warband, based on the limited experience of being beaten by my children in a couple of games is that the missile armed troops offer better value for GC than the fighty types. The ability to shoot someone from 24" away outweight the slight advantage in armour that the equivalent soldier gets.

I agree with that 100% ... you can easily play a straight up game and not get into hand to hand combat at all. Easy for your fighter types to get shot to bits without ever swinging their sword.

[Stepman3]

Is there any rules for horse mounted troops?