We are extremely happy to announce that the first set of official Pendraken rules will be available very soon – 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-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 its 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.
The rules are currently at the printers, and we're hoping to have the finished rulebooks with us very soon. As well as the printed copies (available through the Pendraken website, priced at £16.00 GBP), there will also be PDF versions available through Wargame Vault (price to be confirmed).
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, twelve assorted cavalry, or three guns with crews, each priced at £4.50 GBP 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.
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!
FAQ's (So far!)
- What bases can I use?
- Warband uses large bases that are 100x50mm. This is designed to show off Pendraken's excellent miniatures to their best effect and to allow you to show off your skills modelling a great-looking 'warband' vignette on each base.
However, you can use any base size you like, although it's probably best to have both armies based the same! This means you can leap right into the rules from the start, using whatever armies you already have. We will also be producing a range of movement trays, so that people can use their existing armies. - What size table/battlefield?
- If you're using the intended basing sizes (100x50mm), a 6x4' table will give you a good game. You can probably play on a 4x4' table, but you'll lose some room for flanking moves!
If you're using other base sizes, the general rule is that your playing area should be roughly 18 'base widths' across, and 12 'base widths' deep. - How many units in an army?
- It depends. The army lists have been designed so that you can field large numbers of low quality troops, small numbers of elite units, or more typically, a mix of both. Most armies are likely to be between eight to twelve units in size.
- Are the army lists fixed to a set background, or are they flexible enough to allow you to create your own fantasy forces?
- The army lists are set, although not to any specific background. They are a mix of 'traditional' factions and some unique lists based around Pendraken's fantasy army ranges. There are twelve armies available, all of which are listed in the rules. Within each army, there are many units and troops to choose from, and these can be further modified with 'optional upgrades'. These have been designed so that they will allow you to tailor your army to your specific fighting style, rather than to generate an 'optimal build'.
More discussion can be found on our forum here, and we'll keep updating the FAQ section as well.
