Specialized Troops

While standard battalions are tried and trusted for their versatility, sometimes what they have to offer is not enough. Differences in terrain, scale, and enemy can necessitate new strategies for outfitting soldiers. Throughout history, a myriad of interesting gear and training choices have revealed themselves as effective in specific situations.

Troop-scale combat: The following characters are ‘troop scale.’ That means a single stat block does not represent one person. Instead, a single stat block represents an entire group of soldiers. Battlefields for these soldiers would have zones as large, army sized swaths of land. See Sundry Sunday (#44) for an example of a potential battlefield, or an example of standard troops.

Company of Wardrummers

Aspects

Company of 20 drummers • Vulnerable to attack • Carrying large mounted drums • Lightly armed

Skills

• +3 Command patterns (Rapport)
• +2 Fear patterns (Provoke)
• +1 Training regiments (Physique and Athletics)

Health

Troops stress

[1

Morale stress

[1] • [2]

Stunts

Drums of war

Wardrummers inform allies of battle plans through the patterns they play. When the company of wardrummers successfully creates an advantage using Command patterns (Rapport), they get two additional free invokes of the resulting aspect.

Company of Light Infantry

Aspects

Company of 100 foot soldiers • Vulnerable to cavalry charges • Lightly armed and armored • Mobile • Equipped for forest travel

Skills

• +2 Mobility training (Athletics)
• +2 Iron morale (Will)
• +1 Close quarters combat (Fight)
• +1 Shortbows (Shoot)

Health

Troop stress

[1] • [2]

Morale stress

[1] • [2]

Stunts

Press the advantage

Aspects due to terrain that are negatively affecting enemies can be invoked by the company of light infantry for free.

Company of Spearmen

Aspects

Company of 100 spearmen • Low mobility • Wielding long pikes • Anti-charge infantry

Skills

• +2 Phalanx (Fight)
• +2 Iron morale (Will)

Health

Troop stress

[1] • [2]

Morale stress

[1] • [2]

Stunts

Wall of pikes

It is difficult to mount an attack against an army protected by rows of long polearms without careful maneuvering. Any allied troops in the same zone as the spearmen, including the spearmen themselves, get the following ability; When defending against Fight attacks, deal stress back to the attacker equal to the shifts of a successful defense, provided the attacker moved into this troop’s zone earlier on this turn. If there are multiple allied spearmen in this zone, the effect does not stack