Just as an army has its battle-hardened elite regiments its characters can also gain renown in the eyes of their troops and develop heroic qualities. They become veteran characters, with bonuses as described below.
A character automatically gains a bonus each time he accomplishes a heroic feat. A heroic feat is one of the following.
The character is with a regiment of troops when it captures an enemy standard.
The character kills the enemy battle standard bearer in hand-to-hand combat.
The character slays an enemy character of at least equal status in a challenge (ie, Champion/Hero/Lord etc).
You must name your veteran character if he isn't named already, and you might like to give him a suitably heroic title to commemorate his feat of arms, "Slayer of Guthruk', 'Thrond the Hacker', and such like.
A character who goes on to achieve further feats of arms may add to his bonus as described below.
Number of Feats | Bonus Gained |
1 | ELITE. The character becomes a fearsome fighter and can re-roll all of his hand-to-hand combat or shooting 'to hit' dice once per game in the same way as a unit of elite troops. For each extra feat the character can repeat this bonus once more per battle up to 3 times in the same way as elite troops. |
2 | LEADER. The character can add +1 to his Leadership for purposes of one test made during the game. The player must declare he is using this ability before rolling the dice. |
3 | ATTACK. The character can add +1 to his Attacks characteristic once during the game. The player must declare he is using this bonus before rolling the dice. |
4 | STRENGTH. The character can add +1 to his Strength characteristic once during the game. The player must declare he is using the bonus before rolling any dice. |
5 | TOUGHNESS. The character can add +1 to his Toughness characteristic once during the game. The player must declare he is using the bonus before the enemy rolls dice to establish wounds. |
For example, a character who has accomplished 5 heroic feats can re-roll his hits 3 times per battle, he can add +1 to his Leadership once, he can add +1 to his Attacks once, +1 to his Strength once, and +1 to his Toughness once per battle.
Champions
Regimental Champions don't receive two lots of elite bonuses if their unit captures a standard, just one bonus is earned. Champions receive other veteran bonuses where appropriate.
Losing Veteran Characters
If a character is killed in a battle then he is not necessarily dead, but he is assumed to be too badly wounded to fight any more. The character must be retired from your army, buried with all due honour, or, if you prefer, heaped with riches by a grateful ruler and left to live out his remaining days in peace.
If a champion is slain we assume that another member of the regiment takes his place. For this reason champions of units retain the elite status of their regiment, but lose other veteran abilities.