Generals, Wizards & Heroes

In some armies, Generals, Wizards and Heroes have different names such as Liche priests in the Undead army and Shamans in the Orc army. Names apart, they amount to the same thing and each is either a General, Wizard or Hero as indicated in the Army Lists section of the rulebook.

Unlike troop stands Character stands don’t have a value for Hits or Armour. Instead they have a Command value. They have no Hits value at all. They have an Attack value which is expressed as a bonus, for example +1, +2, +3, etc. The picture below shows an Empire Hero stand with its game values. Full game values for all characters can be found in the Army List section.

Characters are different from other pieces in the game. Most stands of infantry or other warriors represent a substantial body of troops defined by the stand’s area. Characters represent a comparatively tiny number of actual individuals, some of whom may be scattered across the battlefield in the role of messengers, scouts and observers.

The character stand’s prime function is to provide a fixed point from which orders are issued. In addition a character stand can bolster a unit’s combat ability by joining it. In the case of Wizards they can also cast spells, some of which are directly offensive in nature.

Because of their unique place in the game, character stands are treated differently to units of troops. A character stand is used much more in the manner of a token or marker. The stand itself is ignored on the battlefield by units from both sides.

Units from their own side can move through characters without penalty and they, in turn, can move through units from their own side. If friendly units are moved in such a way that they displace a character then the player must immediately move the character by the minimum distance required to allow the unit to take up its position. This may result in a character moving several times during the Command phase to get out of the way of troop movement.

If moved through by enemies, characters are repositioned as described below.

Characters can also be seen through and, where appropriate, shot through by troops from both sides. Their presence is not considered to block a unit’s line of sight.

It follows that characters cannot be specifically shot at, targeted with spells or attacked in combat. Characters don’t suffer hits from shooting or combat, although they can be slain if a unit they are with is destroyed, as described later. A character stand on its own cannot charge or fight an enemy unit.

It is worth bearing in mind that character stands are always ignored when considering which enemy target is the closest and when measuring between units. Similarly, an enemy unit cannot act on its initiative with regard to a character and the presence of an enemy character within 20cm does not impose a −1 Command penalty.

Unless riding monsters or chariots, character stands ignore terrain in the same way as infantry. Only terrain which is impossible for infantry to cross is impossible for characters (i.e, a character cannot move across the open ocean, into a volcanic lake and so forth). If riding monsters or chariots, characters are restricted by terrain in the same way as these troops. See Character mounts.

We have already described how characters give orders in the Command phase.

Any character can issue an order to any unit or brigade within his command range. The General’s command range extends over the whole battlefield but a Hero can only issue orders to units within 60cm of the character stand and a Wizard can only issue an order to a unit within 20cm of the character stand.

A player can issue orders from his characters in any sequence he wishes but must finish issuing orders from each character before moving to the next. For example, you can’t issue orders from the General then from a Hero and then from the General again.

Once a Hero or Wizard has failed to issue an order, that character can issue no more orders in that Command phase. However, other characters can continue issuing orders until they too fail to issue an order. Once the General has failed to give an order, no further orders can be issued in that Command phase by any characters even if they have issued no orders previously. This makes it preferable for Heroes and Wizards to issue orders first and the General last, although this is not mandatory. A player may occasionally prefer to await the outcome of his General’s attempts to issue orders before committing a Wizard or Hero.

Wizards and Heroes are not always reliable. We presume that the General has briefed them concerning his battle plan, carefully instructed them in their duties and taken pains to make everything as clear as possible. In a perfect world this should be sufficient but, alas, this is rarely so. Some underlings are plain dim and so misunderstand their orders. Others get carried away and charge off in pursuit of a new and exciting goal. A few are quick to ignore their General’s orders in favour of their own plan.

This wayward inclination is taken into account whenever a Wizard or Hero fails to issue an order as a result of rolling a 12. If the player rolls a 12 then not only is the order not issued but something has gone wrong. Someone has blundered. The Wizard or Hero has got carried away or ignored the instructions he has been given or taken a wrong turning or mistaken a wandering group of locals for the enemy. The player rolls a dice and consults the Blunder table. The result applies to the unit which has failed to receive its order and to all units in the case of a brigade, except where noted otherwise. If it is the first order to the unit/brigade then the half pace move is not allowed. Follow the result of the Blunder table instead.

General doesn’t blunder. However, if the General rolls a 12 the unit/brigade cannot move even if it was its first order and therefore it was eligible for a half pace move.

We have already covered the essentials of character movement in the Movement section. To summarise:

A character may join a unit by moving into touch with it at the end of the Command phase. The player declares that the character is now with the unit. A character can join a unit which is in combat if you wish. Players should be careful not to place characters touching units if they are not intended to be joined and should always leave a discernible gap where this makes the position clear.

A character must also join a unit if he is obliged to move as a result of enemy troop movement. In this case, he must move into touch with a friendly unit within a 30cm move as described opposite.

If a character is joined with a unit which is confused, this does not prevent the character from moving at the end of the Command phase. Nor does it prevent him issuing orders to other units during the Command phase itself.

The precise position of the character stand relative to a unit he has joined is not critical. Once he has joined a unit, the character himself is assumed to be within the unit’s formation. Once a character has joined a unit, his stand may be moved to any point around the unit as required, for example so that another unit can charge into position or move alongside. The character stand must remain in touch with the unit at some point if possible. If this is impossible, if the unit is in combat and completely surrounded for example, the player can temporarily balance the character stand in the middle of the unit or say that he is doing so whilst placing the stand safely aside. A character joined with a unit that is locked in unresolved combat can still issue orders in the Command phase. Nominate a stand in the unit and work out the measuring of the distance to the commanded unit from that stand.

If a lone character gets in the way of enemy units as they move then the character stand must be moved up to 30cm to join a friendly unit. Flying units fly over the battlefield as they move and so only displace characters if their move ends on top of them. Character stands cannot be moved so that they displace enemy characters. Note that a displaced character does not have to join the closest unit, the player can decide which unit to join.

If a character cannot move to a friendly unit, he is considered to have been slain and is removed from the battle. If the General is slain, the battle is over as described in the End of The Battle.

This is an important rule because it obliges characters to remain fairly close to their own troops, especially Wizards who might otherwise exploit their invulnerability to launch unsupported magical attacks deep behind enemy lines.

If a character is with a unit when it makes contact with a moving enemy then the character can be repositioned out of the way as convenient, so long as he stays in touch with the unit he is with. If this is impossible (if the unit is surrounded, for example) then the character can be precariously balanced on top of the unit or removed but assumed to be included within the unit’s formation.

Characters cannot be shot at but may have joined a unit which is shot at and either been driven back or destroyed as a result. If a character is with a unit that has been driven back by shooting, he automatically moves with it.

If a character has joined a unit that is subsequently destroyed by shooting or which is routed and destroyed as a result of a drive back then the character is slain.

Monster mounted characters or other characters that have a shooting attack when joined to units are assumed to be within the unit’s formation regardless of the actual position of the character stand. When shooting in the Shooting phase, or during the Command phase if shooting at chargers, the player chooses one of the unit’s stands and works out the character’s shooting from that stand. All shots taken at the same enemy unit have to be worked out from the same stand, but otherwise the character can ‘move’ from stand to stand during the turn as required (this can happen during the opposing player’s Command phase if the unit is charged by more than one enemy for example). The same principle applies to characters casting spells.

When one or more characters join a unit in combat, the character with the highest Attack value can add this as a bonus to the Attack value of any one stand in the unit. A unit may be joined by any number of characters but only one character can ever add his Attack value bonus to a unit per round of combat.

Character stands which have joined a unit in combat must remain with it whilst the combat lasts and must fall back, stand their ground, retreat, pursue or advance with the unit.

A General, Wizard or Hero is slain if the unit he is with is destroyed. This is of particular importance as it makes combat an extremely risky business for characters and certainly not something to be indulged in lightly.

If you read the Army Lists section you’ll see that Generals, Wizards and Heroes are often allowed to ride on some sort of monster or in a chariot. In the case of monsters these are referred to as Monstrous Mounts and chariots are Chariot Mounts. Sometimes characters are allowed to ride on some Special Mounts that have their own special description in appropriate army lists. In all other cases where characters are modelled riding on common mounts (or simply mounts) like horses, wolves and similar creatures, they do so for free.

If a character rides either a Monstrous or Chariot Mount this does not affect the rules described above. The stand is still a General, Wizard or Hero stand for our purposes. However, the mount will usually increase the character’s Attack value bonus in combat. Chariot and Monster Mount bonuses are added to the character’s normal Combat bonus. In addition, there may be special rules that apply. For example, a General riding a Monstrous Mount may cause terror. These rules are noted in the Army Lists.

It is quite common for characters to ride some sort of flying creature such as a Griffon or a Dragon. This increases the rider’s maximum movement to 100cm.

A flying character is not affected by normally impassable terrain because it can fly right over it in the same way as other flying stands.

A character riding a chariot or a monster cannot move into terrain that his mount could not enter. He cannot enter a wood for example. He cannot join a unit if all of its stands are in a wood. If a unit he is with retreats, falls back, pursues, is driven back, advances or is otherwise obliged to move into a wood he must move up to 30cm to another unit in the same way as a lone character contacted by the enemy. If he cannot do so, he is slain. However, so long as at least one stand in a unit is positioned in unrestricted terrain, the character can join the unit.

Note that common mounts such as horses, wolves, boars and similar creatures are not accorded any special rules, and characters riding these are simply treated the same way as characters on foot.

Characters are mounted on standard sized bases in the same way as troop stands – however many players prefer to mount their characters on round bases as this makes them easier to spot. In addition, some of the special character models, such as the Grand Theogonist, are too large to fit onto the standard sized base.

Character stands can be mounted onto round bases up to 25mm in diameter using the normal rules. Simply measure distances to the stand’s edge as you would for a rectangular base. This confers no significant advantage over a standard base.

Character stands can be mounted onto larger bases, whether rectangular, round or whatever, but in these cases all distances must be measured either to the centre of the base or to a specific point on the base such as a particular model. Players must point out where they will measure from before the game. Oversized bases are slightly inconvenient in play, but allow for some very nice decorative models or more complex scenes and do look very attractive.