I’m going to focus on the mechanics that the books describe because this sourcebook also has lots of fluff about living as a soldier, knightly orders, the kingdom of Tilea and the cult of Myrmidia.
In terms of careers it adds.
- Military careers (Archer, halberdier, artillerist etc)
- Knighlt order careers (Knight panther, White wolf etc)
- Speciality priest of Myrmidia.
It includes a human variant for Tilean characters.
Miracles for Myrmidian priests
If you’re bleeding at 0 wounds you have to make a challenging endurance test or fall unconscious. (This used to be automatic)
If you hit an opponent with 0 wounds they automatically take a critical hit and you add 10% to the chart.
You now roll again for hit ocation on a critical hit (previously you couldn’t get a crit on the head as it’s range was 0-9% and you get a hit on a double)
New Crit tables that make some critical hits trivial that don’t do major wounds and just add status like effects. Also extend beyond 100 so you can’t die from a normal critical hit (only ones taken at zero wounds)
New equipment related to soldiers.
New rules for qualities. Slash weapons automatically cause a bleed on a crit and you can spend advantage to do more bleeds. Spread weapons affect more people you are the further away you stand. Trip weapons can be used to knock opponents prone by spending advantage
Shields now apply their AC bonus any time you have one and defend (used to only be if you defending with a shield, which sucked it you were really good with a different weapon)
New weapons tables taking into account the new item qualities. A re-balancing overall.
Added the Pavise shield as Armour 4
New rules for Mounted Combat. Both act on the same initiative. Riders can spend their move to direct their mount’s move. They can use an action to make their mount make an action. +20 to hit a smaller target than the mount you’re riding. -10 to hit the rider if the mount is larger than you. When charging you can use the size of the mount and it’s strength instead of yours to calculate damage.
New creature traits for mounts and new hit locations for quadrupeds.
Rules for demigryph mounts.
Rules for hirelings (mercenaries, scouts, and other careers)
Rules for siege artillery and defensive structures
Rules for running pursuits
Lastly and most importantly rules for group advantage. This was one of the toughest elements to track in the original version as every creature kept its own and it could be easily gained and lost. The new rules have a player pool and a DM pool with players contributing the way they would previously have gained it… by winning an opposed test, by dealing direct damage to the enemy, by a major accomplishment (like killing a leader) or by passing a relevant test (Animal handling to spot a mounts injury for instance).
Players and the DM can spend their pool to activate a perk in battle for one round.
- 1 point to batter your opponent prone
- 1 point to perform a trick to add a relevant condition (cut their trouser belt to entangle them etc)
- 2 points to gain a +10% bonus on a test with an extra 10% for every extra point beyond 2 spent. (This used to gained automatically every round based on your current advantage)
- 2 points to flee from harm without provoking AOO
- 4 points to get an extra action in combat. (I see this used the most as players save the advantage and use it to get extra attacks or a free reload)
You can also gain or lose advantage through some talents but also if one side is more dominant than the other (having higher ground, vastly outnumbering etc. you can then take one point from the weaker sides pool and give it to the dominant ones.
You can seed the advantage pools with starting points if one side has an advantage (like a particularly clever ambush)
The instability creature trait has been changed to take this into consideration.
The assess action has been added that allows you to gain 2 or 3 advantage for your sides pool.
You no longer get advantage for charging, instead getting +10% to the first melee test you make in the combat.
Talents Beat Blade, Distract, Drilled, Flee!, Gunner, and Rapid Reload, Shieldsman, Relentless, and Reversal are re-written to account for the new advantage rules.
Roughrider talent improves mounted combat
Strike to injure let’s you roll twice on the crit table and pick the best.
Finally there are downtime endeavors you can practice to develop a weapon technique you can use once in the next adventure. For instance the Leitdorf Defense that lets you make a weapon attack at -10 but the opponent can’t you any skill advances or talents when defending. But you also take 1d10 damage - TB. A risky but powerful move against a skilled opponent to baffle them with your unexpected attack. I love Warhammer!
So that is the first book to update you with. Lots of new stuff and some good changes to existing stuff… simpler shields, head critical, group advantage and more balanced weapons. I’ll come onto Magic shortly as this one took longer than I expected.
(a while ago, I read some of the Gotrek and Felix books again). After reading the WFRP 4e core rules, though, I felt that it is overcomplicating things compared to 2e (for which I still have the books). I appreciate that Cubicle 7 are also putting out a number of shorter adventures, though, so maybe at some point I will need to give it another look and check out the books you discussed.
