# BSB & army basics



## Gomai

Morning all!

So as a new WHFB player (yep, trying to learn fantasy and 40K at the same time) I'm curious: How do you determine if your army needs a battle standard bearer or not? Seems like an auto-inclusion for low leadership armies, but using something like WoC or Lizardmen just how useful is he? 

Regarding casting, I see plenty of armies with a scroll caddy or so thrown in. Is there an average number of dice you should aim to roll to consider your army capable in the magic phase? 

Final question: Setting aside fluff, how should I go about determining where to stick my general? Badass mount + inclusion in hard hitting unit of elites? Simple but effective wargear and stuck in the middle of solid infantry? Flying around on some weird mount doing his thing?

Thanks for any help! :victory:


----------



## Vaz

Best way to find out is to play. There's no right or wrong way. Find out how you like playing, then base it around that. Test out combinations, then try and modify for better results.

There's no hard and fast rule, and the combinations would have me writing till next week.


----------



## squeek

As a general rule, the lower your armies base leadership the more important your general and BSB are in terms of rolls and re-rolls. With OnG I wouldn't dream of taking to the field without a general and a BSB somewhere in the thick of it. For Wood Elves I am not so bothered about the BSB (unless I take one for the treeman).

They have their place but depending on the army and your play style their relative importance can vary. The downside of having a general flying about on a scary monster is his/her leadership is no use to your troops on the far side of the battlefield, not a problem with some armies but bad news for others.

Dice-wise it definitely varies. Most people take a minimum of 1 scroll and 3-4DD (depending on set-up) at 2k. That is a defensive magic set-up, i.e. a level 1 with a scroll, you aren't going to be casting much with your 3PD. A mid range army might bring 6-8PD and a magic heavy army might bring 10-12+PD, some lists have bucketloads. 

*HOWEVER*

As Vaz says, there is no good or bad number of dice. If you bring lots you will probably have a strong magic phase, if you spend all your points on other stuff and don't bring any casters then you will suffer a few spells. It is up to personal choice really.


----------



## Darktheos

Vaz and Squeek are both right. There is no hard fast rule, it depends on you play style, army, ect. Just test a bunch of lists and find the one you like for the moment. I preparing for Ard Boyz and an RTT so what I did to test lists was buy a pack of GW Modular Movement Tray and cut them up to proxy and find what I want so I can test lists and then buy the on I like (only works if you have friends willing to play against gray squares).


----------



## neilbatte

You've had some good advise so far the only thing I can add is that for magical defense I always look at the base value of my troops, If I have a small elite force then magic defense becomes a priority as you can't really afford to lose to many troops before they get into the fight (Brettonians, chaos warriors, elves and some of the lizardman builds fall into this category)
With my Empire I use plenty of infantry and find a few warrior priests give enough protection but ith O&G and Skaven its really dependant on how much offensive magic I want to bring as I couldn't care less how many rats or gobbo's get zapped there's more where they came from.
Warhammer is all about finding the balance that suits your play style and thats something that develops as you play.


----------

