Kings of War: Vanguard v1.5 · Manual

1. Starting a campaign

The campaign follows the revised Kings of War: Vanguard 1.5 rulebook (“Campaign Play”, pp. 83–110). Campaigns → Start a new one → Kings of War: Vanguard → official rules → “Let’s begin”. The wizard asks for a name, description, artwork, the number of players and the campaign settings: points per company (250 by default), how many matches each player will play – that is, how many rounds (the book suggests 4–8; the site allows 2–10), how big the matches are (usually 200 pts) and how the campaign is won.

The campaign runs in rounds – as many as the matches each player is to play (one more with a final between the top two). Every round has phases: Events (the organiser writes the chronicle and may set a scenario or warband size for the whole round) → Preparing the games (you pick your own opponents) → Battles → Resolution (the post-game sequence) → Round end. With an odd number of players one person gets a bye: at random, among those with the fewest byes so far, and in Resolution they get the average campaign points and gold of the round's matches. The organiser may play or just run the campaign. You can join during Events – a new company starts at rank 0 and the balance of war evens things out.

The site runs the campaign, it does not play for you. It rolls the dice, counts gold, experience and ranks, keeps the steps in order and writes the history down. What happens on the table is yours to settle.

2. The company and its roster

Each player picks a faction and builds a 250 pt company (or whatever the organiser set): models from their faction catalogue with the options from their cards, plus starting equipment for the supplies caravan – both paid for in points.
The roster is checked by the same validator as the list builder, in campaign mode: more than one COMMAND model is allowed, and the minimum is 1 COMMAND and 5 WARRIOR/GRUNT.
Starting equipment: up to 6 Common items and one of each Rare item. No Unique items at the start – those come from exploration or later purchases.
One model must become the leader (the leader role is always free), and the first extra retinue role is free as well. Further roles are earned during the campaign, in the Retinue Assessment.
Once you confirm the roster, only the post-game steps and the organiser change it. The organiser fixes a mistake from a post-game sequence with “Correct” on the model card (XP, rank, injuries, upgrades, rules, spells), and every such change is listed under “Organiser's corrections” on the company page. Company rosters are open to everyone in the campaign.

3. A match: arranging, warbands, result

Arranging – the Matches tab, Preparing the games phase. Everyone picks their own opponent (one-on-one, one match per round); players you haven't faced yet are at the top of the list – a good place to start. The scenario can be named right away or left to a d8 + d8 roll (unless the organiser set a round scenario). The opponent accepts or declines the proposal. Only after acceptance does the site roll the scenario and – if it has an attacker and a defender – roll off for the roles. Warbands come afterwards, because in Light the Beacon the defender fields fewer points (175 instead of 200; the same ratio at other sizes). Anyone without an opponent by the end of Preparing the games is paired by the organiser – first with someone they haven't played.
Mustering – everyone fields models from their company and hands them equipment from the caravan. Warbands stay secret until all are in. You may hire one mercenary: their points come out of the warband limit and the fee is 1 CG for every 5 points started. If wounds and losses thin your company so much that you can't field a full warband (too few Warrior/Grunt models or no Command), build it as best you can – the warband is accepted with gaps if you field everyone available from the missing class – and refill the roster in recruitment.
Reveal and the Balance of War – the site shows the warbands, adds up total Rank and gives the weaker side Underdog dice (an extra red Power die per full 2 Rank of difference, every Round of the game) plus points for a bonus model (a GRUNT, WARRIOR or SUPPORT from its own list, for this match only).
The result – one side enters everyone’s results and the others confirm. The organiser settles any disagreement. A confirmed match goes into the chronicle. A side may concede (Retreat & Regroup) at the start of its own turn once at least 25% of its warband’s models (rounding up) have been removed as casualties – it loses, but still earns gold for taking part and goes through the post-game sequence as normal.

Results are entered in the Battles phase; the organiser moves there once everyone has a match with revealed warbands or a bye. Resolution comes once every result of the round is confirmed.

Can't play? On the Matches tab sit the round out (“I'm not playing this round”) – in Events or Preparing the games, as long as the warbands of your match are not revealed; the organiser can do it for you. A round sat out gives no points or gold and has no post-game sequence, and an arranged match is cancelled – your opponent finds someone else or gets a bye. You can change your mind until the end of Preparing the games (“I'm playing after all”).

Leaving the campaign (Players tab): a match whose warbands are not yet revealed is cancelled; after the reveal the leaver gives it up by walkover, and if the opponent has already entered the result, that result stands. The company, played matches and the chronicle stay, but the leaver no longer has a place in the standings.

4. The post-game sequence

Each player goes through it on their own, for their side of the match. The site walks through the steps from the book:

What happened – you mark who was killed, who killed an enemy, whether the retinue roles did their job and who gets the leader’s commendation. The site does not know how the game went, so this is the one place you type it in.
Casualties – for every model removed as a casualty (apart from a GRUNT, who simply dies) the site rolls d88 on the Casualty Table. Each Healer who played and survived gives one re-roll. A captured model can be ransomed (3 CG + 5 CG per Rank) or left to fate. Effects that last only for the model's next game – Broken Bones with a successful roll (Wn −1) and Concussion (the site picks which rule is lost) – show next to the model on the company card and when mustering, and disappear once the model has played. For Old Wounds the site rolls a d8 when warbands are revealed; the result is shown next to the model on the match screen and in the PDF.
Equipment – everything returns to the caravan. You tick the Single Use items you spent, and the gear of the fallen is lost with them.
Experience – the site counts XP: for surviving (not being removed as a casualty), for killing an enemy, for playing a higher-Rank warband, for the leader’s commendation and for the retinue roles’ deeds.
Advances – a model with enough XP takes a Rank and one reward: a stat upgrade, a new special rule from its class table, an extra Power Die (COMMAND), a new spell or its role’s own advance. One advance per match – the surplus waits for the next one. A spell from the basic book or your faction is chosen for free; from an advanced book you roll on its table or choose for an extra 2 XP. The Leader sees the ability-table roll and may re-roll it once, and the “Marksman OR Vicious” result lets you pick. Rules from scars and roles do not count towards the limit of 3 experience rules.
Gold – 16 CG for a win, 12 for a draw, 10 for a loss.

5. Loot and exploration

You roll always, even after a conceded match. The site rolls the two dice one after the other:

Forage and Loot – the first d8 is gold. A Quartermaster who played and was not removed as a casualty adds +2 CG, and a model with Pathfinder lets you re-roll that die – before the second one is rolled.
Exploration – the second d8 joins the first into a d88 result on the table (5 and 6 → 56). A model with Scout lets you re-roll that second die.

Re-rolls and role bonuses only work if the model played, was not removed as a casualty and took no permanent injury in that match.

The site applies the results itself: it adds gold, puts items in the caravan and remembers the “next match” effects. It only asks when the decision is yours – whether to enter the dragon’s lair, how much to wager at the jousting lists, who steps into the fighting pits, which models roll on the Casualty Table after an ambush and which spell the Arcanist learns in the wizard’s tower. A casualty roll forced by exploration can be re-rolled by a Healer too.

6. The retinue

The retinue is 1 to 7 models: the Leader, Quartermaster, Grizzled Veteran, Arcanist, Hunter, Master Scout and up to two Healers. Each role gives a bonus in the game, earns its own XP and has its own advance at the right Rank.

In the Retinue step the company makes one promotion (3 CG) and one demotion (1 CG), or hands over the leader role (5 CG) to another COMMAND model – and then nothing else changes this phase. Filling a vacant leader seat is free and does not use up the promotion.

A demotion also costs XP: the leader and the demoted model each lose 1 XP per Rank of the demoted model (the Ranks stay). The Hunter loses Marksman with the role. A new recruit only takes a role after playing their first match – models from the starting company can take one straight away.

What the site handles for roles: the Hunter gains Marksman with the role (and loses it with the role, unless it was rolled on a table), and at Rank 4 a second Ra boost (to 3+ at best). The Leader’s Very Inspiring applies only while the model is the Leader. The Grizzled Veteran gets Ne one better on promotion, 1 XP for every permanent injury in the role, may give 1 XP from the game to another model in the advances step, and from Rank 3 may retire, giving 1 XP to up to 5 models of a lower Rank. A Rank 3 Healer gives the warband free Bandages for every game it plays. Whoever kills the enemy Master Scout Bannerman gains +1 XP. The Quartermaster may re-draw each randomly found item once.

7. Recruitment and resupply

Who shall lead us? – a company with no living COMMAND model must buy a leader. Without the gold it gets one for whatever it has, and that model becomes the leader at once; this purchase does not count against the recruit limit.
Resupply – Common items without limit, one Rare or Unique per phase, and a company may own at most one of each Unique item. Selling gives half the price.
Drafting replacements – every killed GRUNT comes back for free, like for like, with the paid options from its card. The site adds them automatically when recruitment starts (they are the backbone of the warband, there is no reason to skip them) – the screen just shows that reinforcements have joined. A replacement has a clean card: a GRUNT never gains XP or Rank anyway.
New recruits – one new model per phase, for its card cost in CG (1 pt = 1 CG), from your own faction, at Rank 0 and 0 XP.
Firing or retiring – any number of models may leave the roster at no cost. The leader is not fired – hand the role over first.

The sequence opens in the Resolution phase. A player with a bye starts straight at the retinue assessment and recruitment – the average points and gold are already on their sheet. “Finish the sequence” closes the post-game; the round ends once everyone has closed theirs.

8. Standings and the end of the campaign

The table on the campaign screen scores whichever way the organiser chose:

Campaign points – 3 for a win, 1 for a draw or a loss (the default);
Total CG – the company that earned the most gold across the campaign wins;
A final between the top two – after the league rounds there is one more round in which only the first two play; the winner of the final wins the campaign.

The site shows how many matches each player has left and who they haven't faced yet. A bye doesn't count as a match but gives the average points. After the last round the organiser ends the campaign and writes the epilogue. The company of a player who left stays in the history but takes no place in the standings.