KoW Vanguard

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NAME – if they’re a named character, this will be their name, e.g. Grekle Cacklemaster, or if they’re a standard miniature it’ll be the name of the unit.
RACE/TYPE – first up you can see what Race the model is. The model’s Race is also a keyword that may interact with other rules, e.g. a unit could receive a bonus when attacking a Race they particularly despise. Next, models will be one (or more) of the following Types: Grunt, Warrior, Support, Command, Spellcaster, and Large. Type is important when building a Warband and, once again, the Type is a keyword that may interact with other rules.
POINTS – this is how many points it costs to add the model to your warband.
STATS – this is where you can find all the stats for the model.
Speed (SP)

This value shows the distance the model can move in inches.

Ranged (Ra)

This is the target number the model needs to roll to hit a target when using a Ranged attack, typically as part of a Shoot or Cast action.

Melee (Me)

This is the target number the model needs to roll to hit an opponent when making a Melee attack.

Armour (Ar)

This is the target number a model needs to roll to avoid taking damage and suffering wounds.

Nerve (Ne)

This is the target number for any Nerve tests the model needs to take. This will come into play if the Warband is broken or if something unnerving happens.

Wounds (Wn)

This shows the number of wounds the model can suffer before it is removed from play as a casualty. The larger the number, the more resilient (or stupid!) the model is.

Height (H)

The height of a model affects how it interacts with other models and terrain for line of sight and visibility of targets.

5. SPECIAL RULES – here you can see any special rules the model has. Some of these will be similar to those seen in Kings of War, while others will be completely new.

6. POWER DICE – this indicates how many Power Dice the model generates. The Power Dice work a little like the Command Dice in Deadzone and we’ll have a closer look at Power Dice in a future blog.

7. RANGED & MELEE – this shows how many D8s the model rolls during combat. That’s right, we’ll be using D8s for Vanguard, rather than standard D6s. Even better we’ve got exploding D8s during combat to help create some crazy cinematic moments.

8. EQUIPMENT – equipment will play a large part in Vanguard, as warbands uncover and buy new items during a campaign. Some models will come equipped with weapons/items as standard and they’ll be listed here.

9. SPELLS – spellcasters will have their spells listed here. We’ll be expanding the number of spells available, compared to Kings of War. Also, you may notice it says (short) after the spell name. Just like Deadzone, models will be able to perform two short actions or one long action. Some spells will be long actions, while others will be short. What’s more you’ll be able to boost spells to make them more powerful. As spellcasters gain experience in a campaign, they will also get the chance to learn new spells from an advanced spellbook or faction-specific magic.

10. SPECIAL ABILITIES and RULES – if the model has any special abilities they’ll be listed here. Special Abilities use the Power Dice mentioned earlier, so we’ll go into specifics in a future blog.

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Just in case you’ve never played Deadzone before, Command Dice are six-sided dice you roll before each round. Each face has a symbol on, which represents a special move you can pull off during the game, e.g. moving an extra character, adding an extra dice to combat rolls, etc. The reason we like the Command Dice is that they represent the chaos of battle. Sometimes orders simply don’t get through properly so no one is clear what they should be doing but then the next minute your commander can be rallying the troops with their inspirational leadership.

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During one of our playtest sessions we started to use the Walking Dead dice and they were much better than the original Deadzone dice. But why?

Leaders/support characters actually generate the power dice during the course of the game, so having three different colours gives us more options for having powerful characters that generate one blue dice, compared to weaker characters that only generate one red dice, for example
Different abilities can now cost more than one power to use, as you’ll potentially be rolling a lot more successes
During a campaign characters can level up their dice from red to white and then blue or gain more dice to roll
You’ll always be able to use your power and should never have a ‘wasted’ result that you can’t spend during your turn

So, now that you understand how we came up with the concept of Power Dice, how will you spend them during the game?

Extra model activation – Vanguard has alternating activations but you can spend power to activate an extra model
Extra dice – you can add an extra dice to Shoot, Cast, Armour Save or Melee rolls
Forcing/clearing Fatigue – this is something we’ll be covering in the blog tomorrow…
Group actions – oooh, another tease for a mechanic that we’ll be covering in a future blog
Use special abilities – power is required to use a model’s special ability or the wider Warband special ability. The amount of power required is shown in brackets after the ability, e.g. Cackle! (1)

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From the start of development on Vanguard we liked the idea of having some kind of ‘fatigue’ mechanic. In other words, we wanted to create a rule where characters could push themselves a little more in order to perform one last action before they collapse in a heap due to exhaustion.

Initially we had a concept for each model to be given command points and each unit would have a limit to the amount of command points they could be given. If you went over this amount, then the character would become fatigued and you could only give them one command in the next turn. However, it quickly became clear that command points were a little fiddly and didn’t bring much to the game.

After dropping the command points, we looked at the Deadzone mechanic of short and long actions. Each model can be given two short actions or one long action. This was a much simpler way to handle activations and ensures you don’t require lots of tokens to indicate the number of command points a unit has been given. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

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Participating in a Group Action replaces a model’s normal activation for the Turn. You cannot activate a single model, move it to join a group and then attempt a Group Action involving the model, for example. The common Group Actions available include:

GROUP DEFENCE – the members of the group each make a Walk and then a Brace action. Just in case you’re wondering what a Brace action is, it increases the model’s armour value by one and is normally a long action.

GROUP SHOOT – the group members all either Walk then Shoot, or Shoot then Walk. If Shooting is a long action for any model in the group, that model may not Walk as part of the Group Action. All members of the group must have a ranged weapon or spell to use.

GROUP CHARGE – spend the Power to nominate a group and activate them together. Models in the group may already be engaged (in which case they will not move, nor get any charge bonuses). Only the group leader needs to have LOS to the initial charge target. Models charging after the first has made contact, must charge either the same model another member of the group already has (or is already engaged with), or a target within 3” of a model a group member has engaged. Declare the targets and then move all the attacking models first, before resolving their Melee attacks in the order you wish.

So, there you have the basics behind Group Actions. Tactically they’re very useful during the game for giving you bonuses in combat (something we’ll cover in a future blog) but also for mixing up the order of activations. Just like Deadzone, the player who finished activating first in a round, gets to activate first in the following round. By using Group Actions you can actually have more models than your opponent but still finish your activations first. This can give you the tactical advantage of going first in the following round.

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1) Return Equipment to the Supplies Caravan
2) Resolve Casualties
3) Retinue Assessment
4) Resolve Experience
5) Calculate Campaign Gold
6) Forage & Explore
7) Recruitment and Resupply
8) Check roster is fully updated

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