One of the first things that any player wants to do when they start a new system or period is learn how to make a warband, army, battlegroup, etcetera. Gamers want to know how to plan their purchases and what they might absolutely need right now and what they can save for later. They also want to know how they can make a force different from others – a reason to play Austria, for instance, instead of maybe Spain.
In this article we’re going to build some warbands for each of the factions available in the main rulebook. We’ll provide some theme where we can, showing off what special units a certain faction has if they have them. TSB is not like 40k, where your force will be radically different from another player’s; we’re still all humans here, and the equipment and tactics were relatively the same through the period.
Where possible, we’re going to base these warbands on the excellent pewter minis available from North Star Military Figures. Fret not; if you’re using plastic Perry or Victrix or Warlord you can still build and customize your figures how you like to create something unique.
Create a Silver Bayonet unit as normal from the Rules starting on page 14 – this can be a unit from any nation represented in the Rules, Canada, or The Carpathians. That includes:
The Rules:
o Austria
o Britain
o France
o Prussia
o Russia
o Spain
At a later date, Canada:
o Upper Canada
o Lower Canada
o The United States
o Trading Companies
Next, create an officer and choose:
• Increase Melee or Accuracy by +1
• Increase Speed or Health by 1
• Increase Courage by +1 or Recruitment by (5)
After this, select the soldiers up to the cost of your officer’s Recruitment (number). Be sure to include a Special Armour item for each soldier as detailed on page 27 (some get more due to skills). It’s a good idea to have at least seven and more likely eight soldiers. Try to spread out the items that do damage to certain types of creatures (like salt, silver bullets, etc). Any soldier available in the Rules, Canada, or The Carpathians can be taken in your force as long as you follow the Recruitment Lists for each faction.
Where you have to make a choice – like equipment – I’ve included that in the list. Items will just be listed even if there is no choice, just to make sure you get an idea of what the warband can do. There is something to be said for trying to spread out your weapons between Power Die or Skill Die, if you can (so you can use your fate pool to try to spike damage). Sometimes it’s not possible – Power Die are more common. All of these will come in under 105 points (if the Officer added extra recruitment) or 100 points.
French
We’re starting with France because I am playing them at AdeptiCon if we have an odd number of players in our event. We’re using an Officer with +5 recruitment so we can hit that magic number of eight guys. France is very much a standard force of the time – there is a Grenadier in the minis, but we’re using him as an Infantryman to save some points. We’ve also downgraded the Heavy Cavalryman to a regular Light Cavalryman to save some points. While the Occultist might seem heavy in points, she can actually cast spells that are pretty powerful.
- Officer: (105) Melee +1, Health +1, Recruitment +5. Hard to Put Down, Inspiring. Pistol, Hand Weapon. Silver Weapon, Cold Iron Shot. [Our French officer is here to close with the enemy and dispatch them in melee combat while others provide covering fire]
- Sapper: (12) Heavy Weapon, Musket, Cartridge Box. Oil and Torches
- Light Cavalryman: (18) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon
- Vivandière: (10) Hand Weapon. Cold Iron Weapon, Holy Symbol
- Occultist: (20) Hand Weapon. Silver Weapon, Oil and Torches.
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge box. Silver Shot
- Doctor: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon [He’s got +1 Melee and not Accuracy, so we give him a better melee weapon]
- Supernatural Investigator: (22) Fencing Weapon, Pistol, Pistol. Cold Iron Shot, Holy Symbol.
British
The British have two special units that will differentiate them, so we’ve included both here. We changed the Veteran Hunter in the box to a Sailor; he’s got two hand weapons and a big cloak so he looks like maybe he’s on shore leave looking for a fight. Instead of +5 recruitment here we’ve given our Officer +1 Courage.
- Officer: (100) Melee +1, Health +1, Courage +1. Great Faith, Strong. Pistol, Hand Weapon. Silver Weapon, Cold Iron Shot. [Our Officer is built to be a melee master – his weapon always counts as Blessed so he can do better damage to allergic monsters]
- Sailor: (12) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Oil and Torches.
- Rifleman: (18) Rifle, Cartridge Box. Silver Shot.
- Supernatural Investigator: (22) Fencing Weapon, Pistol, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon, Holy Symbol. [Fencing weapons use Skill Die. It’s good to include a few to use those in your Fate Pool. If you’d rather, this guy can take a heavy weapon (+1 damage) and a pistol]
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Cold Iron Shot
- Artillerist: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Silver Shot
- Doctor: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon
- Highlander: (18) Heavy Weapon, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon [we’re giving the Highlander a heavy weapon so he can leverage his +2 Melee vs his +1 Accuracy]
Spanish
Spain has the Irregular, the standard Spanish guerilla that you see in the Sharpe movies and read about in history. They also have a Champion of Faith – a priest, basically, that can do some cool prayers to boost up your guys. We’ve replaced the Swordsman as a Sailor; he just doesn’t fit in, even though he’s sweet at Defense 14 and +2 Melee – you could move down to seven guys and fit him in if you wanted. The Veteran Hunter takes a bunch of points, so you could change him up too. Until our Officer advances enough, our Irregular will just be an Infantryman; we can recruit an Irregular and remove the Infantryman later.
- Officer: (105) Accuracy +1, Speed +1, Recruitment +5. Great Faith, Quick Load. Hand Weapon, Pistol, Pistol, Cold Iron Shot, Silver Shot [This guy is a desperado, ready to blow monsters away with quick pistol shots. He’s moving around faster than everyone else as well, so hopefully he can get himself into good position to make a bunch of shots]
- Sailor: (12) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Oil and Torches
- Sapper: (12) Heavy Weapon, Musket, Cartridge Box. Silver Weapon
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Cold Iron Shot
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Salt Bag
- Veteran Hunter: (30) Hard to Put Down. Blunderbuss, Pistol, Fencing Weapon, Breastplate. Holy Symbol, Silver Shot [Very much a second officer, this guy is much tougher and better in combat. Keep him safe, use him to bludgeon]
- Artillerist: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Oil and Torches
- Champion of Faith: (20) Hand Weapon. Cold Iron Weapon, Holy Symbol. [This guy is buffing your other minis by casting prayers on them]
Russian
This unit out of the box costs a ton of points – we’re going to sub the Light Cavalryman as a Sailor until we can afford him, and the Supernatural Investigator (a sweet Russian witch lady) is a Doctor until we can afford her later. Last, our Veteran Hunter is a Sapper (again until we have points) and the Rifleman mini is an Infantryman. The Werebear and Champion of Faith are 50 points together so that takes up a bunch of space. You’ll need a Bear mini to represent your dude when he shifts.
- Officer: (105) Melee +1, Health +1, Recruitment +5. Hard to Put Down, Inspiring. Heavy Weapon, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon, Salt Bag.
- Werebear: (30) Heavy Weapon. Holy Symbol
- Champion of Faith: (20) Hand Weapon. Holy Symbol, Silver Weapon
- Sailor: (12) Hand Weapon. Cold Iron Weapon
- Doctor: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon
- Sapper: (12) Heavy Weapon, Musket, Cartridge Box. Oil and Torches
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Silver Shot
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Cold Iron Shot
Austrian
Less front-loaded than the Russian box, the Austrian unit differentiates itself by having a Dhampir – a hybrid human/vampire that is the baby of a woman who was pregnant with child when bitten. They also have a Tactician, a soldier only available to Austria and Prussia. The Tactician is nice – he adds an extra Skill die to your Fate Pool at the start of the game. There are not a ton of ways to get that in the game.
We’re turning the Veteran Hunter here into a Tactician to take advantage of Austria’s ability to take one; we’re also making the Occultist a Doctor to save some points. Last, the Supernatural Investigator is just an Infantryman until we want to pick him up later. One thing to note in this unit – we have four models (half the unit) that have Defense 14, a pretty high skewing unit.
- Officer: (105) Melee +1, Health +1, Recruitment +5. Heavy Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon, Salt Bag [This dude and the Dhampir are built to go in as a melee team and chop stuff up]
- Dhampir: (30) Heavy Weapon, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon [I resisted the urge to give him anything Silver or a Holy Symbol – he’s a vampire! I’m temped to give him a breastplate for a further -1 damage on melee attacks but then he’d lose his speed]
- Grenadier: (15) Musket, Cartridge Box. Silver Shot
- Tactician: (20) Fencing Weapon, Pistol, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon
- Doctor: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Oil and Torches
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Silver Shot
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Cold Iron Shot
- Artillerist: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Oil and Torches
Prussian
We can almost get this unit out of the box without substitutions – almost. The points are more spread out, as opposed to investing in two models. We definitely want the Tactician, as it’s what separates us from the likes of the British, so we’ll drop the Light Cavalryman down to an Artillerist until we get more recruitment points later. The Rifleman also becomes an Infantryman until we can get enough points to buy him up.
- Officer: (105) Melee +1, Health +1, Recruitment +5. Hard to Put Down, Indefatigable. Breastplate, Heavy Weapon, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon, Silver Shot. [This dude is gonna be a melee master, tough in combat with the Breastplate + Hard to Put Down. He’ll be a little slow, but he’ll be our second line of attack]
- Swordsman: (22) Fencing Weapon, Pistol. Silver Weapon
- Artillerist: (10) Hand Weapon, Pistol. Cold Iron Weapon
- Doctor: (10) Hand Weapon. Oil and Torches
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Cold Iron Shot
- Infantryman: (10) Musket, Cartridge Box. Silver Shot
- Occultist: (20) Hand Weapon. Holy Symbol
- Tactician: (20) Fencing Weapon, Pistol, Pistol. Salt Bag
That’s it for the six factions from the main rulebook, using the first six box sets released from North Star Military Figures for The Silver Bayonet. Next time we’ll check out the forces in Canada and also some of the extra soldiers available to everyone – until then, make sure to keep that cold iron shot handy!
Questions? Comments? Send it to contact@goonhammer.com. Thanks for reading!
