Troops who fight over a protracted campaign, and survive to tell the tale, will build up their skills and fighting ability. Raw recruits, new to the horrors of warfare in the 41st millennium, are less resolute in the face of enemy fire, whereas units who have many battles and victories under their belts will become hardened fighters with many specialist skills. The following system allows your army to build up experience by fighting and winning battles, destroying enemy troops and generally learning how to fight.
- Unit Roster Cards
Filling out a roster card for each unit lets you build a persistent, evolving army across a campaign instead of picking fresh troops from the army list each battle.
- Unit Roster Card Template
The physical layout of a unit roster card: header, troop and vehicle stat blocks, a weapons table, and space on the back for experience and history.
- Earning Experience Points
Overview of how units gain and lose experience points, covering the special cases for transport vehicles and independent characters and the specific point awards.
- Transport Vehicles
A transport chosen as part of a squad cannot earn its own Battle Honours, but one chosen as a self-contained unit earns experience and rolls on the Vehicles table like any other vehicle.
- Independent Characters
Characters who don't have to join a particular squad earn experience the same way other units do, sharing in a squad's earnings while attached but rolling for Battle Honours separately.
- Earning Experience
The specific point awards and penalties a unit earns for fighting, winning, achieving objectives, breaking the enemy, taking casualties, or being wiped out.
- Experience in Different Scenarios
Extra experience awards, on top of the standard modifiers, for performing well in specific scenarios such as Cleanse, Rescue, Take and Hold, Meat Grinder, Sabotage, and Breakout.
- Effects of Experience Points
For every 1,000 experience points a unit earns it gains a Battle Honour, rolled for on the appropriate table; losing experience can cause a Battle Honour to be lost again.
- Points Cost
A unit's points value rises by 10% (rounding up) for every whole 1,000 experience points it earns, reflecting its growing expertise.
- Becoming Elite
Troops, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support units with 3,000 or more experience points count as Elite troops for army selection and deployment in subsequent battles.
- Experience Lost for Changes
Table of experience penalties applied when a unit's numbers, wargear, transport, or leader are changed and its Leadership test is failed.
- Changing a Unit
Adding recruits, new wargear, or a new leader risks a unit's cohesion; a passed Leadership test avoids any experience loss, a failed one costs points as set out in the Experience Lost for Changes table.
- Vehicle Leadership Values
Reference table of the Leadership value each army's vehicles use for the Leadership tests taken when changing a unit.
- Infantry Battle Honours
D6 table of the six Battle Honour skills an infantry unit can roll for: Street Fighters, Hardened Fighters, Steadfast, Guerrillas, Tank Hunters, and Counter-attack.
- Bike/Cavalry Battle Honours
D6 table of the six Battle Honour skills a bike or cavalry unit can roll for: Skilled Riders, Rapid Deployment, Hardened Fighters, Resolute, Counter-attack, and Lightning Charge.
- Vehicle Battle Honours
D6 table of the six Battle Honour skills a vehicle can roll for: Terrifying, Fast, Reinforced Armour, Tank Hunters, Hardened Crew, and Skilled Gunnery.