The old threads are pretty useless as they lead to dead links :(

[The Steve]

So, a few questions:

Mercenaries.
There was a post about how if we take so many mercenaries we will lose our faction benifits? is that true? if so, where do I find the limits and who can go in what force? Going to a shop with plentiful reaper next wed and want to have a shopping list in hand for what I can use in my necropolis and crusader forces.

SO, we can have:
0/1 warlord
1/3 captains(assuming no duplicates with UNQ?)
?/? sgts?

So after that, elites as many as fill the slots, soldiers, I am assuming we can mix and match as we darn well please?

I'll have more questions, right now I am painting up a storm, just did 8 battle nuns, 4 characters last night. so today I start basing my other solidiers and elites.

[rgtriplec]

Do you have a rulebook? All the unit composition stuff is in there. I think you can still get a Warlord 2nd Edition book or the Savage North version in the Reaper store.

[wildger]

The general rule is that you must have at least one captain or warlord in an army with 3 or more leaders. The only exception is Icingstead. The Mercenary faction does not affect the army composition. Your army must be composed of models from a single faction of your choice. Only the Mercenary faction has an exception due to its Bounty Doctrine. Each leader will has its own troop capacity which you can find in the online army builder. If you are fielding Necropolis or Crusaders, you need to get the 2nd edition, not the Salvage North. 

Before you create your army, it is better to draw up a list and post in the corresponding section so that people can point out whether this is any error. 

[The Steve]

@rgtriplec
I have the 2nd ed book but I cannot find where it details how mercs work in this game system.

@wildgerI just got my savage north book today. Been doing support beams on terrain for the past 3 hours tonight.

I do have the second edition book, I was intially confused by all the named characters with troops but realized that they are just generic captains with specific reaper#. Outside of unqs/solitaires all the entries in the end are generics?
 I love the flexibility of the squads(troops) in the army construction system.

On "your army must be composed of a single faction" So a crusaders army can ONLY have crusaders, no mercs?

[wildger]

Page 22 - Your Army must be composed of models from a single fraction of your choice.

 

Mercenaries, despite the name, belong to a single fraction of their own.

 

Yes, Crusaders can only field only figures belong to their faction.

Edited January 18, 2021 by wildger

[CecilofRil]

On 1/15/2021 at 10:47 PM, The Steve said:

@rgtriplec
I have the 2nd ed book but I cannot find where it details how mercs work in this game system.

@wildgerI just got my savage north book today. Been doing support beams on terrain for the past 3 hours tonight.

I do have the second edition book, I was intially confused by all the named characters with troops but realized that they are just generic captains with specific reaper#. Outside of unqs/solitaires all the entries in the end are generics?
 I love the flexibility of the squads(troops) in the army construction system.

On "your army must be composed of a single faction" So a crusaders army can ONLY have crusaders, no mercs?

 

Most of the 2nd Edition rules deal with ONLY named Warlord figures.  If you want generic data cards, you need to get a 1st Edition Warlord Rulebook.  The back of that has generic data cards, and you can "tweak" those to fit the 2nd Edition ruleset.  

 

As for the "generics," most of the "Grunt" and "Adept" troops will be non-unique models with a specific number and identical look.  They might have different positions for swords, spears, etc, but the overall look will be the same (see: Templar Ironspines or Unforgiven).  As for the Sergeants and Captains, most will be "named" in some capacity, but not necessarily "unique."  Ergo, you could use two of the same "named" figure in different squads if they are not listed as "unique" in the data card.  And then, you could make up a "name" for said figure if you wanted.  So, if you had a data card for a generic non-unique captain, you could substitute a figure from Bones or DHL in the slot as well.  It doesn't have to be "exact," since there aren't really any "set" tournament rules any more (outside of a couple of websites where people still post some generic content).  Reaper hasn't updated the rules or even acknowledged the existence of the game since 2011 or so.  It is sad, because that is about the time I discovered the game!

 

As for Mercenaries, there are two different ways to use them:

1) they can be considered their own faction (as they have Warlords, Captains and Sergeants).  You could field a whole army of them if you wished.

 

2) as a secondary unit in your regular faction.  According to the 1st Edition rules (page 52), you CAN put 1 unit of "freelancers" in your army, as long as the BULK of your army is made up of the faction you intend to play.  For Example:  You are playing Necropolis.  You have Judas Bloodspire (warlord), Azarphan (Captain), and two solos (say Kaena and a Gargoyle, for instance).  You want to field another unit, and decide to make them Mercenaries.  You could throw in Grundor Hoardtaker, who could field 4-10 units.  You can fill that unit with people from both Mercenaries and Necropolis units.  That is how they can work. 

 

Another way to look at the factions is this: They are broken down into three sides.  Good, Neutral and Evil.  You cannot field a freelance company of Evil units in a Good army.  Neither could you field a company of Good units in an Evil army.  But, Neutral units can be in ANY army.  Ergo, you could use Mercenaries for this purpose. (again, this is from the 1st Edition ruleset on page 52.)  

 

Now, if someone is going to play the Mercenaries faction as a full army, then you might want to re-consider your troop in the example above.  Or, just let them slaughter each other.  The Necropolis wouldn't care anyhow, as they don't value life.  People like the Mercenaries are a means to an end, that end being cannon fodder so their units can get close enough to do damage.  

 

The Crusaders faction is unique, and I think that for 2nd edition Reaper changed the Crusaders around to not include Mercenaries, as since the attack on Denelspire, they are REALLY untrusting of outsiders.  Ergo, they might have done it.  I don't have a 2nd Edition rulebook, so I wouldn't know.  You can field a freelance company in the 1st edition rules, and the 2nd edition playtest rules that I saw online don't say anything about "freelance" companies (from June of 2009).  Which, if it isn't in the rules that you have for 2nd Edition, then they took those out.  Which means that unless it says in the Army Card section that they can take some sort of "freelance company" or "mercenary company," then you cannot have them in their army per 2nd edition rules.  And if the rules SAY that you can only play "one faction," then you cannot HAVE any "freelance companies" in ANY army you play.  Which, they may have done to streamline the rules for tournaments.

[The Steve]

Right now, my idea is a solo campaign, player starts with a captain as their character who either hires mercs or lower level soldiers(troops only) until a certain point. Idea is to craft something to allow people to slowly build up a warlord army starting with generic fantasy stuff(mercs) and eventually getting more prestige(faction of choice) allowing them to try on different models as they go to slowly build an army and find thier play style.

was thinking of allowing 1 of 3 troop selections being similarly "aligned" people neutral being massively limited(IE good/evil taking neutral with NO acess to elites)  and the extreme, evil/good not being able to take one another. so say sisters of the blade or dwarfs working with your fledgling crusader on a earlier missions. In time leaving your company and you as a player can "leave with them," abandoning your character for say dwarfs of sisters if you want to explore that.

 

rigtht no I am crusader focused, so...

you'd be a random sgt of a troop of ivy crowns then cpt and so on until you get to serve a troop under gerard.

I like the idea of a limited selection of mercs in a list. Apparently cav has a similar building setup. just got my rule book and will be exploring that.

I cannot find the old 1st ed warlord rule book, is it named something other than warlord first edition?

Edited February 12, 2021 by The Steve

[wildger]

On 2/11/2021 at 12:48 PM, CecilofRil said:

According to the 1st Edition rules (page 52), you CAN put 1 unit of "freelancers" in your army, as long as the BULK of your army is made up of the faction you intend to play.  

I don’t think so. No such words on page 52. There is no restriction on a Freelance company except that you cannot mix good and evil affiliations. One exception is  when you field mercenaries as a faction using “A change of Heart” army special ability. This is for non-official play only.

[The Steve]

have my copy of 1st ed book can read the rules now 🙂

 

On 2/13/2021 at 4:24 AM, wildger said:

I don’t think so. No such words on page 52. There is no restriction on a Freelance company except that you cannot mix good and evil affiliations. One exception is  when you field mercenaries as a faction using “A change of Heart” army special ability. This is for non-official play only.

so on page 52, they list freelance companies showing that dwarfs and crusaders can work together. the restriction is they cannot use their army specific ability(Which imo is no great loss).

kinda lame that crusaders, dwarves and elves were unable to employ mercenaries. sometimes you need pipe hitters to shore up ranks for specific tasks. IE killing zombies or other evil things that just need killing.

[EvilJames]

Hmmm. I thought in the first edition  everyone could employ mercs.  Good guys can have good and neutral mercs and bad guys can have neutral and evil, while neutral sides can have any, so long as they don't have good and evil at the same time. (Which usually just meant you hired evil as most of the neutral guys had a lot of evil members) I don't have the book handy at the moment,  so I can't be certain of anything though.

One of the things I like about the 1st book that the 2nd ed book lacked was the world building,  with a little aside for each faction that gave that faction's general opinion of the others. If I recall, the mercs considered the crusaders well paying but stuffy and strict bosses.

[The Steve]

On 12/3/2021 at 11:45 AM, EvilJames said:

Hmmm. I thought in the first edition  everyone could employ mercs.  Good guys can have good and neutral mercs and bad guys can have neutral and evil, while neutral sides can have any, so long as they don't have good and evil at the same time. (Which usually just meant you hired evil as most of the neutral guys had a lot of evil members) I don't have the book handy at the moment,  so I can't be certain of anything though.

One of the things I like about the 1st book that the 2nd ed book lacked was the world building,  with a little aside for each faction that gave that faction's general opinion of the others. If I recall, the mercs considered the crusaders well paying but stuffy and strict bosses.

yeah there is something like that in 1st but you loose faction benifits. Mercs can take a unit from another faction IIRC. but say gerard commanding a bunch of sisters of the blade, nope.