Warband Rules!

[Leon]

We gave a little hint towards this news last year, saying we had a 'first for Pendraken' coming soon, and here it is!

We are extremely happy to announce that the first set of official Pendraken rules are now available, Warband, written by Steve Hardy!



Warband provides all the rules you need to bring great battles between fantasy armies to your tabletop.

Using miniature figures and terrain, you can fight battles from the glorious sword and sorcery epics you've read about.  
You can play games against your friends or competitive battles against worthy opponents.

Warband is designed to be simple to learn and difficult to master, and so it uses a single consistent task resolution method throughout the rules.  Whether you’re trying to get a unit of warriors to move, seeing how effective it’s shooting or fighting is, or how well it has defended itself, you’ll be using the same dice pool mechanism.  You determine the number of dice to roll and each result of 4+ is a success.  The more successes you roll, the better your units will do, and the more likely you are to win.  Simple!

Of course fighting a good tactical battle, getting your units into advantageous situations, and making effective command decisions will mean you’ll be far more likely to win.  Coming up with effective tactics for your chosen army to defeat your opponents is what will take you time to master.

So with Warband’s intuitive rules you’ll be fighting the battle not the rulebook, and hopefully having a lot of fun into the bargain!

You'll be able to decide which of the fantastic races you'd like to command and then construct your force from the lists provided.  
Warband includes complete army lists for twelve armies, with abilities, options, spell lists, and descriptions including;
Barbarian men, Dark elves, Dragon men, Eldritch vampires, Goblins, High elves, Hill dwarves, Lizardmen, Samurai apes, Taurians, Undead, and Wood elves.

Army composition and optional upgrades are highly flexible, allowing you to build the force that best fits your style of play.  If you'd like to command a horde of bison riding barbarians, rampaging minotaurs, skirmishing ghouls, or serried ranks of deadly elven archers then you'll find something to suit you in the Warband rules.


As well as the printed copies (available through the Pendraken website, priced at £16), there will also be pdf versions available through Wargame Vault (priced at £10).

To go with these new rules, we are giving our Fantasy ranges a complete overhaul to provide as much variety as possible.  The new ranges will feature larger packs of 25 assorted infantry, 12 assorted cavalry or 3 guns with crews, each priced at £4.50 per pack.  All of these packs contain maximum variety, with no two figures being the same!  Phil Lewis has spent a huge amount of time sculpting these, changing weapons, adding shields, cloaks or pouches, to make every figure different to the last.  As far as we know this level of variety has not been seen before in this scale, so we're really looking forward to getting these released and out there to complement the new rules!

The first two revamped ranges to be released will be the Hill Dwarves and the Goblins, each coming with a handy new army pack built around the Warband rules.

We're really excited about this and can't wait to get Warband released, along with the new ranges.  

Finally, we'd like to thank the author, Steve Hardy, as well for the time and effort he's put into these, and hopefully you'll all enjoy playing with them!

 

[GordonY]

Ok Leon, I'll bite, one BIG question, whats the basing for the figures?

It matters as lots of us have stuff based already for Warhamster.

[Dave Fielder]

... ie Can we.use existing 10mm Fantasy Armies based on 40x20mm bases for these rules? If yes then good that's a real winner.

[mad lemmey]

Sounds perfect and fun.
Bases shouldn't matter if it's in house and you agree on a base size. All my bases are 60x30 anyway when I was running the kids club last year!
And it looks like Phil's top secret project is out the bag (Ihad my money on Warsaw Pact infantry too)  . I've got a lot of the ranges named anyway!

[Aquahog]

If your group is picky just run 120x60 or 80x40 or any other 40x20 multiple you prefer. I doubt it will matter much in the long run as long as both sides use the same frontages. I for one think the movement trays idea sounds like the perfect remedy. But enough on the rules, there's always options if they aren't good (which I hope and think they'll be), please tell me more about these new ranges. When can we expect to see them?

[Aquahog]

I just noticed the archers in the Hill Dwarf army list preview! I'll have to redo my Battle of the Five Armies, ahem, army with these.

[fsn]

What Shula and Eddie Grundy and Clarrie and naughty Brian Aldridge? 

Takes wargaming into a new dimension!

[brothercrow]

The unit of measurement is the base width, so although 10x5 is the recommended size (cos it looks good), we have played games with 40x20 quite happily.....!  4 such bases per unit works particularly well.......!

[Bunny]

I own a very large collection of 15mm fantasy, yes I do use 10mm in the armies as well, and they are majority based on 80mm frontage with 30 or 40mm depth, and I would have no problem with using theses with the rules.   If they play well.....I'll await some reviews.

[Chieftain]

Basing:

You may already have armies based for other game systems.  In this case you can certainly use whatever you have, although a basing convention that has each base twice as wide as it is deep will give you a better game with these rules.  As long as both armies are based similarly your games will be fine.  Its even possible, although not desirable, to field armies with mismatched basing but you’ll need to agree a standard ‘base width’ measurement with your opponent.

However, it is highly recommended that you base your armies in the manner suggested as the visual appeal and the practical interactions between unit sizes will enhance your game. - p6

The basing is set at 100x50mm in order to really show off the strength of Pendraken's figures.  

However, we all have collections based for other game systems and Warband will easily accommodate those.  Much of the early playtesting used 40x20mm bases to sort out the basic concepts and rules structure; before we progressed to using saboted 80x40 and 100x50mm to try out what looked best and worked pleasingly.

I would suggest you try the intended 100x50mm though, it gives you a chance to create great little vignettes and, frankly, looks very good!  The sheer visual impact of the lovely Pendraken 10mm figures ranked up on mass, or modelled as an unruly mob, or a cabal of wizards summoning some sort of monster is something to be considered.  

If not, or you don't want to rebase or use your existing smaller bases as they are, Pendraken's 'movement trays' will help out.  4x 40x20mm bases will fit onto a 100x50mm with a pleasing 'lip' around the edge, and i'm sure the 3-base standard for Warmaster units would look fine arrayed up as a 'boar's head' formation.

Of course, there's always the option of diving in with a new army!

[CPTHilts]

How many bases will we need exactly to have an allowed Warband or army to play according to the rulebook?

[Chieftain]

Depends on the army and units you choose,  but 8-12 units/bases is about average.

[CPTHilts]

Thanks very much, on which table size will it be played? It sounds very interesting!

I am relatively new to Pendraken and to the forum, but I like your miniatures very much (saw you on the Crisis 2013 and 2014).

I bought some miniatures from your AWI range, they are extremely good.

Started painting them by now.

Thanks again,

Steffen

[Plasticoutsider]

Well this sounds ace!  Very much looking forward to this.
Put me down for 2 copies.  (If I gift one to a friend, he'll haveto play!)

[Techno]

Thanks very much, on which table size will it be played? It sounds very interesting!
I am relatively new to Pendraken and to the forum, but I like your miniatures very much (saw you on the Crisis 2013 and 2014).
I bought some miniatures from your AWI range, they are extremely good.
Started painting them by now.Thanks again,Steffen

Welcome to the forum, Steffen !
Cheers - Phil