Back to Burrows and Badgers: selecting a warband for second edition

I’m looking forward to getting the creatures and critters back on the table. Since I last played a small campaign we’ve had the new edition land. I was really happy to see it arrive given the number of new rules that had been added through Journals, if only to get more of them in one place.

An initial read through found me feeling comfortable that the game hadn’t strayed from anything I enjoyed about the first edition. The main differences, that I can see so far, are some refinements to non-combat activity, changes to the way the all-important fate points work and a rationalisation of the additional warbands that were added.

I’m certain there will be more things I discover as I get through my first couple of games, and I’m intrigued to see just how the fate point changes work in real life, but for now my focus is on the toys I want to take.

Some of the new warbands look really interesting. I’m particularly intrigued by the Arcane Conclave, but after all this time there is only one set of miniatures I want to get back on the table, my Witch Hunters. This has to be my favourite collection from the range, and my only complaint is that they don’t have a mole, another source of change as tunnelling is now a bit different. At the end of the first edition, I was messing around with a mole warband and will probably want to give them a try again in the not too distant future, but for now I thought it would be easiest to get to grips with something a little more traditional.

Looking through the new faction guide my first reaction was that things hadn’t seemed to have changed too much. Previously, if I remember correctly, I think the faction had access to a few more skills for warband members from the outset and more restricted access to magic. I did ask the facebook group for advice and got a response from Mr. Lovejoy himself, as some of the new warbands are meant to be harder to get to grips with. His thoughts were largely related to magic, take some dispel scrolls and take advantage of Divine magic because casters don’t suffer the weak and delicate penalties. They do still suffer penalties for armour, so consider the Paladin skill.

The Paladin skill allows casters to wear armour without a penalty for magic use. I’d been considering it, although I was also considering Critter Boss since I really wanted some attack grubs. At this point I started to remember how I used to approach playing the Witch Hunters. In the previous edition I would use the grubs to pin down opponents and Divine magic to empower my larger individuals to smash face. It wasn’t subtle, but it seemed pretty characterful, and I saw no reason not to take the same approach (time may, of course, prove me wrong on this).

To that end I went all in with three grubs, the fox and the otter. In previous incarnations the otter had always been the boss, but I had also been able to take the Critter Boss skill to keep the grubs in order on a completely different model. That’s not possible in the same way as it was, so as a result I decided I needed a warband leader who wouldn’t also be my primary combat character, I also wanted them to have a bit of magic, suddenly the fox just seemed to have the better aesthetic for that, which relegated the otter to the number two spot. Despite that I decided he needed to have a Malleus Maleficarum.

With the first five characters in place, all that remained was to spend the rest of the loot. Those coins bought me the weasel, a super fun sculpt, the hedgehog and the mouse. My list ended up as:

Fox Leader with a double handed weapon, dispel scroll, light armour, Paladin, Healing Hands and Blessing

Otter Second with Malleus Maleficarum, buckler and Killing Blow

3 Attack Grubs

Hedgehog with a hand weapon and torch

Weasel with a double handed weapon and Holy Zeal

Mouse with a spear

I have yet to get the beaver bishop on the table, one day I’m going to have to make a point of writing a list around him. That being said though this list means I get to play my favourite models and mess around with magic. Not a bad starting place.

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