Each player controls a warband consisting of a group of fighters, and in battle, player’s warbands are pitched against each other.
A fighter considers all other fighters in their warband to be friendly fighters, and all fighters in other warbands to be enemy fighters. If a rule refers to ‘friendly fighters’, it means fighters from that fighter’s warband, excluding itself.
Each fighter has a profile which details their characteristics (their Move, Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Defense, Wounds and Bravery) and any talents and keywords they may have. As fighters participate in battle, their characteristics will change as they gain experience and suffer injuries. Below you can see an example of a fighter profile
Move (M) How far a fighter can move in inches
Weapon Skill (WS) How likely a fighter is at hitting their target in melee combat
Ballistic Skill (BS) How likely a fighter is at hitting their target in ranged combat
Defense (DF) How much armor a fighter is wearing and how likely it is to protect them from damage
Wounds (W) How much damage a fighter can suffer before being taken out of action
Bravery (BR) How likely a fighter is to panic when fighting fear-causing enemies
Traits Unique skills (or injuries) that offer a passive bonus or penalty
Keywords
Keywords help determining if a fighter is affected by a certain rule (e.g. Witch Hunters hates all fighters with the Wizard keyword).
Battles are fought upon a 3’ x 3’ battlefield populated by several pieces of terrain features. If a rule refers to the battlefield floor, it refers to the flat surface that the battle is played upon, not on top of terrain features. If a rule refers simply to the battlefield, this includes both the battlefield floor and the terrain features.