Hi, not a problem, I'm glad you had fun :) A hero without a shield is unable to call a shield wall as only infantry with shields are able to take part. Yes you can use a ranged weapon in the Activation phase and then use a melee weapon in the Combat phase. If A gets pushed back and has a clear path, the supporting spearman doesn't need to move. However if the supporting spearman is blocking their path, it will need to move to make way. In your example, the Red player can choose which one C engages with when one of those combats is declared. I have added this clarification in future printed books and in the errata on the rules page. Hope these clear a few things up and I am enjoying reading your full reports! Many Thanks Matt

Yes the winner is whoever successfully hit their opponent and rolls to wound.

Hi Thank you for the Questions! You are correct, any model can move or run into base contact with another and not receive a charge bonus. If a model has been engaged by an enemy it cannot then activate. This is in the errata on the rules page and I am updating the books over Christmas break so this will be clarified in there for books purchased in 2025. When no wounds are inflicted, the losing model withdraws back 1" away from the winning model. If it cannot move back due to terrain or other models then please see the "desperate" rule. Yes after the charge has been declared, all combats are treated as individual fights so models will be pushed back across both sides depending on which individual model is the winner. For swords, the modifier is relevant for whichever unit type it specifies gets it. I have re-written this for the Christmas update. Yes the armour differences for the most part are variations of inexperienced (Defence 2) Experienced (Defence 3) Combat Hero (Defence 4) for both the basic army builder in the rulebook and factions in the army books although the army books do have more variations among units. For example, the Irish faction in the Dark Age book has the 'Wolf Warrior', a lightly armored fighter but still has Defence of 3 to represent that he is a tougher warrior although cannot equip a shield. If you wanted to have more accurate representation of your warriors, you can use the custom faction builder in the Armies Of The Dark Age book and include another unit's stats that you feel works for your army. I did originally design the game to represent different specific armours such as leather, gambesons, mail etc. however it became difficult to represent all of their armour values and have them be beaten using a D6. And it also became confusing when playing against someone else where they have models that look identical (both in mail for example) but are two different unit types. So it became clear that I had to just have two main troop types with further faction specific units to avoid confusion between players and keep the game fast paced. I hope these answers have cleared up a few things and if you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask! Many Thanks Matt

Hi Ian, yes, the wait holds an action so if you've moved and waited, you will have 1 action point to redeem. If you've waited without using an action you can redeem both action points

Hi Ian, Yes units can just move into contact, they just obviously won't receive a charge bonus. All three options are perfectly valid tactics. It's risky regardless of what option you choose. At that distance, if your opponent chooses not to move and castle up, the other option you have is to give a run order and potentially flank the formation if you have the distance available from the die roll and if they are a front facing formation with an exposed rear.

Hi Ian, thank you for your support!! I am currently designing rules for a territory capture campaign system which may work with what you are thinking of doing, I will be uploading the demo version of these rules to the website when it's ready for testing. Any questions you have please ask and I will update the errata if necessary! :)

Hi John, I've added a Printer Friendly version to the Rules Page. Hope you have fun playing!

I've just remembered they aren't in the QUICK start rules but something to look forward to in the main book

Hi John, most of the time a unit refers to a single model. The times this is different are for teams such as War Dog teams which consist of up to 4 models. Many thanks Matt

Hi John, thanks for your interest in the game! That's absolutely not a problem, I'll work on it over the weekend and I'll reply to this post when it's up on the website :)

Yeah definitely great suggestions. It's something I'll be looking at in the future but is a little way off at the moment. Although on the point of the hero leveling system - I have one in Brethren for when playing a campaign, you can also use it in standard games by paying for the extra levels in points. It's generally things like stat increases but with extra abilities options as they level up. As for the starter set, I approached the following companies who all said I could use their models in my book - Warlord Games, Wargames Atlantic, Victrix Miniatures, Gripping Beast and Conquest Games. I would be open to collaborations from any of these companies but would like to gauge reception of the book before approaching this as I would be relying on profits from the book to fund the investment needed to create a starter set.

That's not a problem at all :) I get rules wrong on occasion and I wrote the game! With the unit = model classification, it is something I have been wrestling with for a while so I may well end up taking it out. I do plan on creating a number of expansions, one of which will definitely be a full unit game, although I'm torn between loose unit groups as you are referencing or proper rank and file, The other thing I'm torn with is having the hero be an indipendent model or have a hero per unit mechanic but that's all things to think about later on after I've got this version out the way and following this will be the fantasy expansion. Thank you very much, I am planning on a physical book along with more PDF resources in the form of the Quick Start Guide growing with a page on terrain and a couple of special units to try out, along with more types of tokens and a downloadable reference sheet. And who knows? Maybe a starter set if the book gets a good reception.

Thank you for your questions, I am more than happy to answer them. To make it easier to clarifiy I will number each bullet point question with numbers 1-4. Before that however I've noticed that you may have missed the section in the Quick Start Guide in the "Things to know" section. A unit refers to a single model. There are exceptions to this however in the main book with things like artillery pieces and larger mounted units such as war elephants and chariots which depending on how they are modelled may be multiple models. 1. I feel I way need to amend that, It should actually say, if the unit is beaten in combat and not killed they must withdraw 1" as some units such as cavalry and heroes have multiple health points. Apart from a few special weapons in the main book such as throwing heads I have kept Morale to the Morale phase, as a poor performance in that phase can decimate an army. 2. In the sample army builder, an equippable item to any unit is the horse which modifies that unit's unit profile with the following statistics: +1 Health, +1 Attack and +6" to their Movement. "It looks like I need to amend that too as instead of +1 Health it states +1 wound*. 3. Yes the support hero saves individual models from dying. 4. I have expanded the Shield Formation rules in the main rulebook wich goes into declaring front facing to establish possible weak points. Also some factions have special rules such as the Viking Boar Snout that can remove all benefits of a shield formation. I will try and include a quick version of the vulnerabilities when I make the other amendments to the quick start guide. In brief, the way it would work is: "Any unit that is attacked from behind, either by ranged weapon or engaged in close combat loses the benefit of the shield formation and suffers -1 to their Defence value." Thank you for your questions and I will make sure to amend the quick start guide as soon as I can.

Thank you for joining! The community is still very much in it's infancy, if you know anyone else who is interested please send them this way 🙂. I started designing Brethren during covid just as a project while I was ill and not able to go to work. It's since become a huge project that is growing more and more and I'm always adding bits to either the main rulebook or making amendments to the quick start guide. I had the same issue with games not quite hitting the right scratch and for me personally, Brethren hits every box that I want out of a skirmish game. It's changed a bit from when I first began designing it but it hasn't strayed from my original vision; A fast paced skirmish game where even the weakest unit can make a difference. I've been concious of playtesting as much as possible to make sure it's as solid as it can be.

A) if a unit is in a shield wall, they wouldn’t also be able to prepare as they don’t have enough action points. A hero however could prepare with the extra action point. A II)The hero would have a Defence value of 6, however a roll of a roll of a 6 would still successfully wound in this scenario. C) any units with 2 handed weapons would not be able to enter the shield wall. A hero with a 2 handed weapon would not be able to order a shield wall. B/D) Only units with a shield would be able to enter the shield wall and receive the shield wall bonus. Other units can move to the second rank and support after the shield wall has formed so the way you played it was correct. E) No, A unit that has already activated could not then join the shield formation. F) A unit can receive supports from as many units that can get into base contact with them provided they are not in combat themselves or supporting another combat. This will increase when I introduce Pikes into the game which can support from 2 ranks behind.

This is still in testing as I am testing it with various weapons. The method that seems to have the best results so far is: The highest possible roll is a 6, so if the opposing player rolls a 6, they have successfully blocked your attack. I will be sure to add this into the next version of the Quick Start Guide If it continues to show success in testing.

Yes they could. As long as they aren’t in combat they can use ranged weapons.

A) Yes you can target a model that is behind another. When doing so, you will need to make an In The Way test to see if you hit the model in front instead. B)Yes you need to make an In The Way test whenever you are shooting into combat regardless of the angle.