While Bloodgrave largely follows the First Blood ruleset published by Para-Bellum Games, there are a few small additions that I’ve made to help create a more thematic experience

Treasure

Treasure is a key part of Bloodgrave. It’s why your warband is in Capitas, and it’s how your group of adventurers can afford new and better equipment and take on tougher challenges.

Here’s an overview of how treasure works for quick reference:

• Treasure can be unclaimed or claimed
• Unclaimed treasure acts as an objective, models count as per First Blood rules for determining who is seizing or contesting the treasure
• An infantry regiment belonging to the warband currently seizing the objective may claim the treasure as a single action. The regiment’s leader must be within engagement range of the treasure to claim.
• Claimed treasure does not act as an objective, it does not block line of sight, movement.
• Claimed treasure travels with the leader for as long as the leader is alive and the regiment is unbroken.
• The leader’s death or the regiment becoming broken causes the treasure to become unclaimed.

In a game of Bloodgrave, an unclaimed treasure token is an objective; it generates a 3 inch bubble around itself and models count as per the First Blood rules for deciding whether the treasure objective is seized or contested. Seizing or contesting an objective occurs after every action.

It helps to note the treasure as a single 28mm base, or counter. The treasure does not block movement or line of sight, but a model may not end an activation on top of the treasure while it is unclaimed.

Treasure can be claimed by any infantry regiment belonging to the warband with sufficient models to seize the objective. Claiming the treasure is a single action. The regiment’s leader must be within engagement range of the treasure. Once claimed, the treasure ceases to behave as an objective and is now attached to that regiment’s leader. It moves with the leader, but does not otherwise block line of sight or prevent engagement.

As long as the claiming regiment’s leader is alive and the regiment is not broken, the treasure remains with the regiment. If the regiment’s leader dies, or the regiment becomes broken, the treasure is immediately dropped at any unoccupied point within engagement range of the leader and becomes unclaimed. NB: the act of disengaging a regiment causes the treasure to be dropped at the beginning of the action, not the end.

Antagonists

Warbands aren’t just fighting eachother in Capitas- the Necropolis is full of ancient and terrible evils that seek to destroy the interlopers! These evils can be represented by other Conquest models, and are collectively referred to as Antagonists.

Most of the Antagonist models in this campaign are drawn from the Old Dominion, but you’re welcome to include models from other factions if you want. Did the players stumble upon a corrupted titan? W’adrhŭn bandits? A renegade Spires experiment? Anything is possible!

Each scenario will have a recommended list of Antagonist models. These are suggestions, and were chosen because they seemed cool and thematic. Antagonist models should be controlled by either player, or by a third party.

A significant difference between Bloodgrave and First Blood is how each ruleset handles characters.

In First Blood, characters are their own regiments. They move independently of the rest of the warband and can purchase additional models, called a Retinue, that accompanies them during the battle. These Retinues are quite powerful, and there is a great diversity of abilities they confer depending on how large these retinues are.

In Bloodgrave, any characters that can take a retinue instead attaches to an MSU, which acts as their escort. A character replaces the leader of the escort unit, and they take on the movement value of the regiment to which they are attached.

Characters still activate independently of their regiment, but the set of actions they can perform is limited. They can issue command abilities, or a challenge action. A player may also choose to activate the next card in their command stack immediately following the activation of their character, provided that card is the escort unit.

If you have ever played Last Argument of Kings, this is similar to how characters behave in that game.

If you enjoyed the retinue bonuses- fear not! These perks are instead integrated into the progression system, and form the basis for allowing your character to become more powerful!