Companies, Soldiers, and Command¶

Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists — v0.3 Draft¶

This document covers the Retainers a Character leads, the roles they fill, and the command layer that governs how many a character can hold and how bonds form. It assumes the d6 combat engine in the core-rules document.

Part One: Basic Retainer Roles¶

Four roles form the baseline roster, usable by any class's company. Each answers a different tactical question: who acts at range, who stops a charge, who plugs a gap, who holds a line. All stats below assume a map-and-squares play style with turn-based movement.

Unit	Hits on	At Bond 2+	Hit Points	Speed	Range
Archer	6	5–6	2	4	8
Blade	5–6	4–6	2	6	1 (melee)
Halberdier	5–6	4–6	2	4	2
Shieldbearer	6 (bankable as Guard)	5–6	2	4	1 (melee)

Hit Range widens one step, once, on reaching Bond 2. It is automatic and never widens again. See Part Three.

The Hit Points column assumes the default Light armor every Retainer is issued (1 base Hit Point plus 1). A Retainer turned out with no armor sits at the 1-Hit-Point floor. See Hit Point Baseline below.

Role Notes¶

Archer. Fights at range without needing adjacency, and at Range 8 reaches most of a battle map from where it stands. Matches the Bow and Arrow Kit. Loses effectiveness entirely if disarmed; Range is irrelevant with no weapon. The reach is the whole role, and it is paid for in the worst hit chance on the roster.
Blade. High mobility, used to plug gaps or flank. Fragile, with only 2 Hit Points. Its identity is speed, not durability.
Halberdier. Threatens 2 squares out. Its reach lets it strike an approaching enemy before that enemy arrives. This reach applies whether or not another Halberdier stands adjacent.
Shieldbearer. Weakest raw hit chance, but carries Guard. A Hit rolled by this unit may be banked as a Guard token instead of dealt as damage. One Guard token negates one incoming Hit on that Retainer's next turn as defender. Unused Guard expires at the start of that next turn.

The One-Die Rule¶

A Retainer contributes exactly 1 die to the Pool. Always exactly one, never two, regardless of how many narrative sources of combat capability they hold. A mount does not add a die. A spirit companion does not add a die. A second weapon does not add a die.

This is absolute and applies to every class equally. Every Command Capacity number in the game was set assuming a strict one-die-per-Retainer ratio, because Command Capacity and Pool size are treated as interchangeable everywhere else in the system. A single exception would silently invalidate every other class's calibrated numbers.

The math is not theoretical. A Knight with 3 personal dice, Command Capacity 6, and each Retainer contributing 2 dice would roll a Pool of 15. At that size, Set (the Knight's Charge trigger) appears on 93.3% of rolls and Straight on 98.7%. Both stop being triggers and become the default outcome of every action. The Knight's entire signature collapses.

Design guidance for mounted, elite, or otherwise doubled Retainers. The fantasy is real and worth serving; it is served on axes that do not touch Pool size or combo math. Three approaches, usable alone or together:

Toughness instead of a second die. A mounted, armored elite receives more Hit Points, harder to bring down.
Rend instead of doubling. A charging or otherwise weighty single hit carries a Rend value greater than 1, dealing more damage per hit without adding a die. This reuses the existing monster-attack keyword rather than inventing a mechanic.
Reach and movement instead of raw output. A mount's real advantage is positional: closing distance, crossing terrain, threatening a wider area.

Six armored cavaliers still read as a small, terrifying cavalry charge under these rules. They simply do it with high Hit Points, Rend 2 lances, and Speed, not with twelve dice.

Role-Specific Growth¶

Beyond the general growth menu in Part Three, each basic role unlocks one option available only to Retainers of that role.

Archer — Keener Eye. +1 Range. Repeatable. An Archer already reaches 8, so each pick is a smaller proportional gain than the melee equivalent; the role grows its reach slowly from an already long baseline.
Blade. Eight options, listed below.
Halberdier — Extra Range. +1 Range to a melee weapon. Repeatable once.

Written to the weapon rather than to a fixed number, so it holds whatever the Halberdier is actually carrying. An ordinary polearm goes from 2 squares to 3. A long pike goes from 3 to 4, still unable to strike anything adjacent. A Halberdier handed some other melee weapon entirely, which is odd but permitted, goes from 1 to 2. The option grants a step of reach; it does not assert what the reach was to begin with.

This is the natural hard counter to a fully grown mounted Blade, and is meant to be: the two roles deepen against each other as both grow rather than flattening out at high investment. - Shieldbearer — Deeper Guard. A banked Guard token negates up to 2 hits instead of 1.

The Blade menu. Blade received substantially more design attention than the other three roles and carries a full menu rather than a single unlock. This asymmetry is deliberate for now, not final; the other roles may warrant the same expansion later.

Every option below obeys one standard. Because this system resolves an entire Pool at once and assigns hits to targets only after the roll, a Blade ability must act either on the assignment step (a positional fact checkable the instant hits are assigned) or on this Blade's own individually-tracked die. It may never act on a vague "after a successful attack" moment, because no such moment exists here: no die is aimed at a target before it is rolled.

Double-Hit. If this Blade's own die shows a natural 6, that hit deals 2 damage instead of 1. Functionally Rend 2.
Elusive. Once per Combat, when a hit is assigned to this Blade specifically, it is negated outright.
Flanking Bonus. When two or more Blades with this trait are both adjacent to the same target, hits assigned to that target from this Company deal 1 additional damage, once per round.
Marked Prey. If this Blade's own die hits a target, that target is Marked: the next hit anyone in the Company lands on it this round deals +1 damage. Flagged: this closely mirrors the Chancellor's Mark command effect. Whether that is an acceptable thematic echo or a naming collision worth avoiding is unresolved; see open-questions.
Opportunist. If this Blade is the only Company member adjacent to a given target, their own die hitting deals +1 damage. Rewards scattering wide rather than clustering.
Quick Displacement. If this Blade's own die scores a hit, they may move one square immediately afterward.
Shadow Step. Once per Combat, this Blade may decline to roll their own die for the round. Until their next turn, no enemy may assign a hit to them. A deliberate, opt-in vanish paid for with their own offense.
Vault Strike. If this Blade's own die hits, they may move up to 2 squares afterward, and that movement may pass through enemy-occupied squares.

Example. Two Blades with Flanking Bonus close on an orc from opposite sides. The Company's Pool rolls four hits. The player assigns two of them to the orc. Because both Blades are adjacent to it, the first of those hits deals 2 damage instead of 1. The orc, at 2 Hit Points, Falls to a single assigned hit.

Hit Point Baseline¶

A Retainer has 1 base Hit Point and is issued Light armor as standard kit (+1 Hit Point), for 2 Hit Points in the field. The first Hit Wounds them, with the defender choosing arm or leg per the core rules; the second Hit kills them. A standard Retainer is two Hits and down. This is deliberately harsh. These are levies and militia, not knights.

A Retainer stripped of armor, or a raw levy issued none, sits at the 1-Hit-Point floor, where a single Hit Falls them. Light armor is the default because it costs a Retainer nothing in Speed (weapons.md, Armor), so the ordinary soldier always carries it; the bare 1-Hit-Point levy is the exception, a militia turned out in a hurry. Veterancy and the Bond menu's Harder to Kill (Part Three) add Hit Points from here. Retainer armor is otherwise fixed at this Light default and is not a per-Retainer choice the way a Character's is; whether a Retainer can be issued heavier armor is logged in open-questions.

Considered but Not Yet Built¶

A Heavy or Shock role (anti-formation, ignores Guard, pairs with charge-style combos), a Standard-bearer (structural morale unit), a Scout (non-combat, pre-fight information), and a Mounted modifier (stacks onto other roles, fast, vulnerable to Halberdiers) were all discussed. They are earmarked for the full core book, not V1.

Part Two: Command Capacity¶

Each Class has a Command Capacity: the maximum number of Retainers it can lead at once. This caps individual Pool size, which keeps combos calibrated to their intended range regardless of party size, and it creates a real resource in the Retainers themselves.

Why it matters: a Knight leading twelve dice would trigger Straights on nearly every roll, flattening the excitement of the pattern. Capping capacity keeps every Character's Pool in the range where their combos were designed to trigger, without needing pool-size-scaling rules for every combo.

Command Capacity now grows on the Level ladder. Since the 2026-07-31 Advancement restructure (see character-creation, Advancement), Command Capacity is a starting value that rises at fixed Levels rather than a single flat number per class. It is never purchased; it arrives automatically at the Level its class table names. The Retainer that fills a newly gained slot joins during the Character's next period of downtime, not mid-adventure. Choosing starting Retainers, retraining a Retainer into a different role during downtime, and the arrival of a new Retainer on a Command Capacity increase are all covered in character-creation, Your Retinue.

Settled. All eight class ladders are now finalized and committed in their class files. Knight and Skirmisher share one ladder (start 3, to 4 at Level 5, to 5 at Level 9); the Warden its own (start 1, to 2 at Level 5, to 3 at Level 9); the Errant and Squire fixed at Command Capacity 0 with full ladders built around their own systems; the Chancellor's fielded force fixed at 6 with growth moved to a Reserve and Split Cap; the Witch start 2, to 3 at Level 9, with an optional purchased 4th; and the Ranger start 2, to 4 (Levels 5 and 9). The starting figures in the table below are the confirmed Level 1 values.

Working reconstruction, provisional throughout:

Class	Starting	Maximum	Notes
Chancellor	6	6	Finalized. Fielded force fixed at 6 (protects the Grand Muster); the army grows as a Reserve, and Split Cap rises to 3 at Level 5 and 4 at Level 9. See classes/chancellor.md.
Knight	3	5	Finalized. Two increases, at Levels 5 and 9. See classes/knight.md, Level Table.
Skirmisher	3	5	Finalized; shares the Knight's ladder. See classes/skirmisher.md, Level Table.
Ranger	2	4	Finalized; grows to 3 at Level 5 and 4 at Level 9. See classes/ranger.md.
Warden	1	3	Finalized; grows to 2 at Level 5 and 3 at Level 9. Smallest maximum in the game. See classes/warden.md.
Witch	2	3	Finalized; grows to 3 at Level 9, plus an optional 4th via the Fourth Apprentice Specialty (the one purchasable Command Capacity in the game). See classes/witch.md.
Errant	0	0	Fixed, never grows. Full ladder finalized; see classes/errant.md.
Squire	0	0	Fixed, never grows. Full ladder finalized; see classes/squire.md.

The Errant and Squire have no Company at all. Those two numbers are the only ones on this table that are genuinely settled.

What is derived rather than decided. The Knight's split between a starting 3 and a maximum 5 comes from the Level 1 Pool math (Pool 4 equals 1 personal die plus 3 Retainers), not from a stated decision; the earlier flat 5 is preserved as the maximum for want of a better anchor. The Skirmisher's 3 is unchanged as a starting value but now grows, which its own class document never contemplated. Logged in open-questions.

Transfer¶

When one Character's company drops below their Command Capacity, an ally with Retainers to spare may transfer some to them, typically as a command action during a turn. Transferred Retainers keep their current wound state. This is a between-fights or command-action mechanic, not a mid-fight, every-round option.

Unaware: an Exception to Company-Soaks-First¶

By default, damage against a Character's group lands on the company first (core-rules, Part Ten). Unaware is the one exception. If a Character is Unaware of an attack, an ambush or backstab they had no reasonable chance to detect, the attack bypasses the Company entirely and lands directly on the Character's own Card. A Retainer who doesn't know a fight has started cannot interpose themselves. See core-rules, Part Eleven, for the full rule, including when Unaware ends.

Part Three: Bond and Retainer Growth¶

Individual Retainers accumulate Bond with the Character they serve, based on how the Character treats them: keeping promises, taking Hits for them, letting them speak in council. Bond runs from 0 to 4.

Bond replaces the v0.1 Named Veteran mechanic. A Retainer's individual mechanical weight is earned through play, not assigned at company creation.

Raising Bond¶

Raising a Retainer's Bond by one level costs Advancement Points equal to the new level being reached.

From	To	Cost
Bond 0	Bond 1	1
Bond 1	Bond 2	2
Bond 2	Bond 3	3
Bond 3	Bond 4	4

Carrying one Retainer from Bond 0 to Bond 4 costs 10 points in total. That is a campaign-level investment, larger than a Named Weapon, a Guild entry, and a Skill combined. This is deliberate. Dedicating real resources to one specific soldier should be a weighty, considered choice, not a routine purchase.

Organic in-play Bond growth (keeping a promise, taking a Hit for them) raises the same number and can substitute for or combine with the spend, at the GM's call.

Bond 2: Distinguished and Sharper Edge¶

Bond 2 is the threshold that matters most, and it grants two things at once, one narrative and one mechanical. Both arrive automatically. Neither is chosen, and neither can be declined.

Distinguished. The Retainer is known and recognized throughout the land. Rumors precede them. A lord recognizes the name on sight. This is a hook for the GM to draw on, not a combat stat.

Sharper Edge. The Retainer's Hit Range widens one step, once, permanently. This happens exactly once in a Retainer's life, at Bond 2, and never again by any path.

Role	Bond 0 to 1	Bond 2 and beyond
Archer	6	5-6
Blade	5-6	4-6
Halberdier	5-6	4-6
Shieldbearer	6	5-6

That table is the whole of it. A Retainer has exactly two possible Hit Ranges across an entire campaign, set by role and by whether they have crossed Bond 2.

Naming is free and available at Bond 0, separately and at any time, with no cost and no gate.

Why this is automatic rather than chosen. Hit Range is the single most powerful axis a Retainer has, because this engine keys almost everything off how many dice hit rather than how hard each hit lands. Simulation put one step of widening at +115% damage for a Rabble-tier role and +64% for a Trained one, against +36% for the strongest damage-only option available. Left on the growth menu it was not a choice, it was the correct answer, and every other pick became a sacrifice made to take it.

This is the same fix applied to personal dice one layer up (see character-creation, Advancement). Power that dominates a menu is removed from the menu rather than priced around. The picks below are then free to be genuine choices.

Why only one step, and why the ranged and shield roles never catch up. An Archer or Shieldbearer ends at Trained; a Halberdier or Blade ends at Veteran. This is deliberate. The Archer buys reach and the Shieldbearer buys Guard, and both pay for it in offense permanently. They close ground at Bond 2, moving from roughly 28% of a melee Company's output to roughly 61%, but they never draw level. A Company built for reach or for holding is not supposed to out-damage one built to kill.

Veteran (4-6) remains the absolute ceiling for any Retainer. Retainers never reach Elite, which stays a marker of Character-tier status.

Each time a Retainer's Bond increases, the player chooses one benefit from the menu below and applies it to that Retainer. Four increases across the full ladder means four total picks. Benefits may be taken more than once unless noted.

Hit Range is not on this menu. It is settled by role and by Bond 2, above. Everything here is a real choice between real alternatives.

Harder to Kill. +1 Hit Point, up to twice, so a Bonded Retainer tops out at 4 Hit Points (2 from its default armor plus 2). Retainers are meant to stay fragile; this is a modest hedge for a valued lieutenant, not a route to a wall.
Fleet or Mounted. +1 Speed, or become mounted. Repeatable.
A small trait. Chosen once each from a deliberately short and modest list:
Steady Presence. Once per Combat, apply Weakened to one adjacent enemy at the start of the fight.
A Steady Hand. Once per Combat, grant one adjacent ally a single banked negation, functioning exactly as Guard.
A role-specific option. From the Retainer's own role menu in Part One (Keener Eye, Extra Range, Deeper Guard, or any of the eight Blade options).

More small traits may be added later. The list should stay short and low-impact by design.

Worked Examples¶

The same starting Blade, taken to Bond 4 three different ways. All three hit on 4-6, since Sharper Edge arrived automatically at Bond 2 and is not a choice any of them made. Everything that distinguishes them was chosen.

The Shieldwall. Harder to Kill twice, its cap, then two Fleet picks. Ends at 4 Hit Points and Speed 8. As tough as a Retainer gets, four hits and down, and still just one ordinary die, not a wall.
The Full Cavalier. Fleet or Mounted four times. Ends mounted at Speed 10, still at the base 2 Hit Points. Crosses the field in a turn and dies to two hits. Reaches anything, survives nothing.
The Balanced Lieutenant. One Harder to Kill, one Fleet or Mounted, one small trait, one role-specific option (say Vault Strike). Three Hit Points, Speed 7, a useful trick, and a positional threat. Good at everything and best at nothing.

Note what changed when Sharper Edge left the menu: these three are now genuinely different soldiers. Under the old menu all three would have taken Sharper Edge first and differed only in what they did with the leftovers.

Falling Back to a Retainer¶

If a Character Falls, the player takes control of a Bond 2 or higher Retainer until the Mists return them (see core-rules, Part Twelve). This is unchanged and is not a menu pick; it follows from Distinguished status.

Open: the old ladder's Bond 4 entry also let a Retainer read a combo of their own. That is not on the menu above and has not been explicitly retired. See open-questions.

Not core: an earlier draft let a Bond 3+ Retainer survive a killing blow once by dropping a Bond level. That does not work cleanly now that Bond is a paid investment, and it is retained only as an optional GM Variant. See 06-gm-guidance/gm-variants.

Part Four: Detachments and Split Cap¶

A Company may split into physically separate clusters called Detachments. Only a number of Detachments up to the Company's Split Cap may take a combat action (roll their Pool) on a given turn. The rest may still move, defend, and take non-combat actions. Split Cap is 2 for every Class by default, and some Classes raise it with advancement (the Chancellor to 3).

Only the Detachment holding the Character's personal die is Blitz-eligible, unless a Squire is standing with another Detachment, which makes that one Blitz-eligible too. Two Classes are exceptions worth noting. The Skirmisher's Company is never treated as split, always rolling as one Blitz-eligible Pool no matter how scattered. The Errant and Squire have no Company, and so no Detachments at all.

Communication Range. [PLAYTEST] A Retainer must stay within 10 squares of the Character or of another Retainer already within range, forming an unbroken chain, to act as part of that Character's single Pool. A Retainer or cluster beyond that range is automatically a separate Detachment, subject to Split Cap above, whether or not the player intended the split. This is the concrete form of the question previously logged as Cohesion Distance; a provisional number, not yet played.

The Bard Guild's Performer Specialty (05-setting/guilds) doubles this to 20 squares for the Bard's own Company while they play, letting a Company spread out and still act as one Pool. See 05-setting/guilds.

Part Five: Guild Retainers¶

Joining a Guild (see character-creation's Advancement) unlocks the right to recruit a Retainer of that Guild's type into the Company. This is the starter perk every Guild grants on entry; no separate perk needs inventing per Guild.

A Guild Retainer still draws from the Character's existing Command Capacity. Joining a Guild does not add extra Company slots; it adds an option for what can fill one. A Squire or Errant, with no Company at all, gains nothing here in Company terms even after joining a Guild; their standing is purely personal and social.

Each Guild Retainer uses one of the four basic stat lines from Part One and adds a single small non-combat or utility perk true to that Guild. This keeps the combat math untouched (no new stat lines to balance) while giving each Guild a distinct reason to want one at your side. All six are provisional and untested.

Guild	Base Stat Line	Perk
Alchemist	Halberdier	Between fights, may attempt a Check to brew a single-use consumable granting the Company one extra die (+1d6) on its next Check or combat roll.
Assassin	Blade	Before a fight begins, may attempt a Check to identify a target's guards, its routine, or the moment it is most exposed.
Bard	Archer	Between fights, may attempt a Check to secure a favor, rumor, or minor boon for the Company.
Guardians	Shieldbearer	Trained, not levied: 3 Hit Points instead of 2.
Mage	Archer	Called an Apprentice. May attempt a Check to sense or identify a magical effect or danger before it resolves. Also stands in a Mage Guild Character's Ritual casting circle as one of the minimum 3 casters; see character-creation/rituals.
Priest	Shieldbearer	Once per fight, in place of its own attack, may restore 1 Hit Point to an adjacent wounded ally. A lesser version of The Priest's Hand: no revival, no reach beyond adjacency.
Thief	Blade	Before a fight begins, may attempt a Check to scout the enemy's numbers or find an alternate approach.

Design note: the Priest Retainer's wound-reverse is deliberately smaller than The Priest's Hand (no revival, no ranged reach) so that recruiting a Priest Retainer is a meaningful earlier step on the way to a Character earning The Priest's Hand as their own Specialty, not a replacement for it.