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My question is just that, can a bsb take a Great weapon and/ or a shield?

I believe someone told me once that a bsb can't take a mundane GW or Shield but am having trouble finding where it says this in the rules?

Was that maybe just for his army or is it in the BRB somewhere?

Help appreciated!

Depends on the army. Generally rule of thumb is no, but IRRC warriors of chaos can.

Some BSBs can, some can´t (unless it has been FaQd for those armies).

As a rule of thumb you can say that armies with a book released after the current O&G book can take mundane equipment (afaik).

That means that newer armies like Lizardmen, High/Dark Elves, WoC and so on can, but older armies like Ogres or Wood Elves can´t.

It usually is stated in the army book in the BSB entry if there are any restrictions. If there aren´t any the BSB can take any mundane equipment he could take if he weren´t BSB.

Ok so it's an armybook entry?

It depends on the armybook, most older books disallows Battlestandard bearers to take other weapons and shields. But I have yet to see a newer army that can't fully customize their BSB in the same way as any other hero. Unless your armybook states that certain equipment aint allowed, like for example the Wood Elves book "The Battle Standard Bearer loses his longbow, cannot choose any extra non-magical weapons, nor may he use a shield.". If no such entry can be found together with the Battle Standard Bearer Option, theirs no restrictions, well except the usual, have to choose between a magic banner or magic items.

YEp, it's a 6th ed / early 7th ed hangover, where for some reason BSBs were not allowed to have achance at surviving being sneezed at.

Dwarves, Brettonnians, O&G etc all suffer from thsi problem. Newer books have realised that the BSB can put the flag into the ground when fighting and therefore use 2 hands again....

Or you know ballance it on... something

Or be a member of the superior faction and hold the banner in his tail

There was also a time when BSB's could use magic lances on foot, as they didn't specifiy being lances, and thus deferred to all magic weapons being "hand weapons" unless specified otherwise. Pretty sure that is dead and gone though.

And yes, my HE bsb has a great weapon. Why wouldn't he?

aerethan wrote:And yes, my HE bsb has a great weapon. Why wouldn't he?

I think the OP's concern about the question was whether or not it made sense for the BSB to have a BSB AND a Great Weapon (which is two-handed). Thus, the concern about how a BSB carrier can hold a BSB and a Great Weapon and/or Shield.

That being said, I've only been playing HE for a little while, but can validate that the HE Noble can carry any and all 3 items mentioned in any combination (BSB, GW, and Shield). The only stipulation with this is that a Shield can't be used for it's 6+ Ward Save while wielding a GW, thus the only benefit you can claim from it is a +1 bonus to your Armor Save (which could be helpful, depending on the rest of your wargear).

I can't speak for any other codex, but from what I'm seeing and reading, I'd say you'd have to check each codex on an army to army basis.

You also only get the +1 save against ranged attacks as the shield can't be used with the GW in combat, and special weapons MUST be used if equipped unless they have a rule saying they can choose a la Armed to da teef or any other such rule.

And making sense has absolutely nothing to do with rules legality.

Old armies (7th edition Empire for example) still have the mundane equipment rule where BSB's can't take anything besides armor and in some cases can't take a shield either. While they haven't been errata'd I'd be sure that 8th edition revisions of those books will see a balance of options for BSB's across most every army.

Indeed - O&G were the chonologically "last" book to suffer from a sneeze could kill them BSBs. With the added importance of BSBs in 8th ed, and the precedence set by every book since then, any revision SHOULD make them a bit more resilient.

The fact they can now take magic shields and armour* certainly helps, but only if you dont want to take any magic banners

*magical interference, which restricts your access to magical armour (of all types, shields / helms etc), ONLY applies to mages now.

The logistics of the old codexes were well-founded in this respect, but they forgot that, since their game isn't a perfect simulation of medieval warfare, trying to adhere to this specific sort of thing wouldn't really help.
I'd just glue a big spear head onto the standard. That's a pretty great weapon, I'd have to say.
Of course, the backpack-toting Skaven from the Island of Blood set made things easier too.
What's funny about that old rule is that the standard was more a method of identification in battle (as in "don't shoot us, we're on your side") than an awesome-sauce morale-booster. It was the drummer/trumpeter, who communicated orders over the din of battle, who was the primary target.