Following on from my blog post about Using Warhost with The Barons’ War: Second Edition, someone kindly pointed out that the additional abilities also needed revisiting.
If you’ve spent any time flicking through the Warhost book, you’ll know that the additional abilities live quite happily on page 89. They were initially written with the first edition of The Barons’ War (1E) in mind, so anyone using version one of the rules has been good to go right from the start.
But now that Second Edition of The Barons’ War (2E) is out in the wild, I wanted to make sure players who are using the latest rules aren’t left scratching their heads. To that end, I’ve put together an updated table of additional abilities that match up with the tweaks in 2E. This way, whether you’re running a fantasy warband in Warhost or sticking to the gritty baronial scraps of history, everything lines up neatly.
| ABILITY | EFFECT | COST |
|---|---|---|
| AGILE | May only be chosen by a Group with no Armour. May use a Run Action without becoming Weary. The Group may still only Run once per turn. | 1 |
| ATTACK BACK | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| BLESSED | Once per game, the Group may re-roll all of the Defence dice it has rolled (both successes and failures). The result of the re-roll stands. This takes place before any Shield Roll. | 1 |
| BORN FOR WAR | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| BRAVE | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| BULWARK | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 1 |
| CHOSEN | When attacked during a Combat Action, the Group may choose to re-roll all of their Defence dice (not just failures). You must accept the result of the re-roll. | 3 |
| CRUELTY | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 1 |
| DWARVEN (DAMASCUS) STEEL | May only be chosen by a group equipped with melee weapons. Opponents do not receive Shield Rolls. | 2 |
| DRILLED | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| EXPERIENCED TACTICIAN | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 3 |
| FAITHFUL | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| FEAR | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 1 |
| FEARLESS | Not affected by Fear or Horror. | 1 |
| FINISHING BLOW | All 0s scored during an Attack Roll cannot be defended. | 3 |
| FOLLOW ME | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| FORMIDABLE | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 3 |
| GLORY SEEKERS | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| GUTTER THUG | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| HEROIC | Commander only. Every time this Commander wins a Melee Combat, all friendly Groups within 6” of the Commander reduce their Morale Penalties by 1. Including their Command Group. | 3 |
| IMMOVABLE | When Forced Back in combat, the Group can choose to reduce the distance it is required to move by half. | 1 |
| INSPIRED LEADER | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| LOYAL RETAINER | Command Group only. If the Commander fails both Defence and Shield rolls and would be removed as a casualty, the player may immediately remove a warrior from his Command Group as the casualty instead. | 2 |
| MEASURED SHOT | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| OLD SOLDIERS | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| OPEN UP! | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 1 |
| POWERFUL CHARGE | The Group gains the Strength of the Charge bonus on a 5 and 6 when Charging into Melee Combat. | 1 |
| RAGE | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 3 |
| RELENTLESS | After winning a Melee Combat and completing combat resolution, this Group may immediately declare a second Charge against the same enemy Group. This is a free action within the same activation and does not count towards the Group's maximum actions per round. However, the attacking Group becomes Weary as soon as this second Charge is declared. This can only be done once per Melee Combat action. | 2 |
| ROBUST | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| SKIRMISHER | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 2 |
| SPITE | Whenever the Group Charges an enemy Group which inflicted a casualty on it, treat the target Group as always having one more Morale Penalty than the attacking Group when calculating the Morale Melee Modifier. | 1 |
| SUPERIOR SHOT | Re-roll any 1s scored when shooting. Results of the re-roll count, regardless of their score. | 2 |
| SUREFOOTED | SEE BARON'S WAR SECOND EDITION RULE BOOK | 1 |
| WAR CRY | Commander only. Once per game, the Commander may use a Special Action to shout their War Cry. All friendly Groups within 12” of the Commander reduce Morale Penalties by 1. | 3 |
| WAR WISE | Once per game, the Group may choose to ignore a single casualty. | 2 |
Of course, as with any rules update, a few little quirks sneak in. You may spot the occasional oddity, like a reference to “Morale Dice” in 1E that has become “Morale Penalties” in 2E, or the change in combat modifiers where 1E applied +1 to the dice roll, but 2E instead adds -1 to the Warrior’s stat. Don’t panic—none of this breaks the system. The core rules haven’t changed, and with a dash of common sense, you’ll find everything plays just as smoothly as before.
So, if you’re diving into Warhost with the second edition of Barons’ War on your shelf, grab the updated additional abilities and keep your games running seamlessly.
👉 Download the updated table as a handy PDF here (perfect for printing and keeping with your rulebook).
