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Nearly finished with my first fantasy army, but I'm having issues with how the bsb is supposed to look. When a unit gets upgraded to bsb, do they lose the ability to get other upgrades and only get standard equipment?

Example is I'm making a block of ogre bulls. All of them are equipped with ironfists, and converted to have one in each hand. So if I add a bsb, would he get an ironfist? Or rather can he? Or does he only get the default equipment of an ogre club.

A BSB is just a character that can join a unit. His options and the unit's are completely seperate.

Yea, look under the characters sections. Probably a hero. It should have the option to upgrade him to a BSB. Basically you can just model the guy with a big totem or banner. He then can join the unit of ogres once you deploy. There are usually other restrictions on what the bsb character can take so you should look into that to. It should all be defined clearly in the heroes section of your army book.

I must be missing something then. It just says under bulls...

Any unit may upgrade one bull to a standard bearer at such and such pts.

I can give him a look out gnoblar upgrade, but that's all it says

Ah, there's the confusion. There is a difference between a unit standard bearer (the upgrade you mention) and a Battle Standard Bearer, which is usually one of your hero choices.

A unit's standard bearer does not lose any of his equipment by becoming a standard bearer, even if his hands are otherwise occupied with weapons and/or a shield. He receives the normal upgrades purchased for the squad, despite not necessarily having them modeled.

Ah I see. So does a bsb and normal standard bearer give the same benefit? I've yet to get a BRB so I'm trying to figure some things out with just the army book for now. If there's no difference, why give a hero unit a banner instead of better equipment when a standard bearer could do it for cheaper?

Magical banners?

Yep, Magic Banners.

Necroshea wrote:Ah I see. So does a bsb and normal standard bearer give the same benefit? I've yet to get a BRB so I'm trying to figure some things out with just the army book for now. If there's no difference, why give a hero unit a banner instead of better equipment when a standard bearer could do it for cheaper?

Magical banners?

Yep, as Ph34r says, and usually a magic banner with no point limit. Some armies' regular units can take magic banners, but usually are limited to 25 or 50 pts.

Also, taking a magic banner will usually prohibit the hero from taking any other magic equipment though.

Taking a BSB can be really important for some armies - especially those with low/moderate leadership scores (Empire!) - because of "stand your ground."

Ogres in particular need a BSB and also benifit from Inspiring Presense due to their low Ld. with the general and BSB around they get a rerollable Ld9 normally.



normal banner bearers have the same equipment as everyone else. the same applies for musicians and usually champions. some unit champions in some books can purchase magic items, including weapons and armor.

Cool. Thanks for clearing it all up guys.

Erm, I take it back guys. I'm still having issues. I'm looking into a copy of the BRB about the use of Battle Standards, and I'm not seeing anything that has to do with leadership, only combat resolution. Could someone drop me a page number?

Edit - Nevermind guys, I found it. It took me a while to find out a standard and a battle standard are two different things.