Halflings.
Halflings are a race roughly half a man’s size that has always
seemed to be wherever Mankind has gone. The Dwarfs record
that a tribe of “beardless Manlings we first thought to be
children” travelled with the human tribes as they passed
through the Worlds Edge Mountains. On the other hand,
some Imperial scholars think the Halflings are a race of men
experimented on by Verena to find a way to resist Chaos,
while a few others argue Ranald created them as a bizarre
joke. Regardless of what others say, the Halflings simply say
they are as they have always been, and they "like it quite a
bit, thank you very much".
Being a rural folk, even in their towns, the Halflings are
earthy types who enjoy good food, strong drink, a good
smoke, and conversation that would turn a Marienburg
marine’s ears blue. Expressive to a fault, Halflings think
nothing of discussing their aunt’s nightly business with perfect
strangers in complete detail. “Just to pass the time, y’know.”
They love a good chat and strangers are welcomed by farmers
along the roads as long as they bring gossip, coin, or lunch.
Or preferably all three.
Halflings outside the Moot are usually seen by the small-
minded as nothing more than cooks or thieves — or cooks
and thieves — though this is rather unfair, because it creates
stereotypes out of two Halfling traits. The first is their
indisputable ability to make a fine meal out of almost any
ingredients. The second is their differing views on property,
ownership, and theft. Most Halflings have grown up in what
is effectively a large extended family of siblings, aunts, uncles,
“cousins by way of marriage” and the like. The practice of
taking what is needful, be it a pie, a few crowns or even a
piece of jewellery, is deeply imbedded in the Halfling
character. After all, if everyone is family, why should you ask
permission? Of course they’ll let you “borrow” it. These two
traits have led to a perception outside the Mootland of
Halflings as little more than domestic help you have to keep
an eye on.
Halflings in the Moot and elsewhere have never been known
as a martial people, and the idea of Halfling warriors is the
butt of several jokes amongst humans. The truth, however, is
somewhat different. In defence of their homeland — or
quarters within a human town during a riot — the normally
placid Halflings can be aggressive and brave. As part of the
war effort, Elder Hisme sent a large contingent of Halflings
to act as scouts and skirmishers for the Imperial army.
Several were mentioned in despatches by their commanders
for bravery and resourcefulness, though these were often
accompanied by complaints from the quartermasters.
As such, many Halfling communities contain veterans from
wars where they have fought alongside humans, Wood Elves
or Dwarf armies. Although small in both numbers and
stature, a Halfling contingent usually contains both veteran
swordsmen and elite scouts which bolster their ranks in time
of need.
The bulk of their armies however are usually made up of
militia and poachers. As they are often seen as an easy people
to conquer, in-between meals on their four-day weekends, both
male and female Halflings drill with farming implements,
cooking knives, shortbows, spears, javelins and slings in order
to deter would-be invaders of their farmland and stealers of
their produce. Although not devastating in hand-to-hand
combat, Halfling militias always have short-range missile
troops interspersed in their ranks, adding short-range missile
attacks. Alongside the bowmanship of their poacher units a
Halfling force protecting their home (or more importantly
their dinner and pipeweed stash) can be formidable indeed.
Although the kind of horses humans ride are far too large for
Halflings to ride effectively, a breed of pony first brought
over from northern Albion has been bred by Halflings for
many hundreds of years to pull small carts and to provide
surprisingly hardy mounts in time of crisis. Halfling cavalry is
by no means a shock force, but their ability from the saddle
with the shortbow or javelin makes them ideal light cavalry.
Due to their affinity with nature, closeness to the forests and
the number of fat, juicy rabbits living there, some Halflings
have been befriended by Treemen who will fight alongside a
Halfling army with their trusty friends riding on their
shoulders. As well as these “Treemen” and their smaller
cousins the “Treekin” Halfling armies often find it easy to
recruit Ogres due to their fondness of Halfling cooking. The
Treekin and Ogres often bolster Halfling forces with some
much needed muscle.
Finally - it is a well-known saying that when the Halflings are
in trouble, along come the Lords of the Air - The Great
Eagles.
 TROOP TYPE ATTACK HITS ARMOUR COMMAND UNIT SIZE POINTS MIN/MAX SPECIAL
Militia Infantry 2/1 3 6+ - 3 35 2/- *1
Veteran Swords Infantry 3 3 5+ - 3 60 -/1 -
Poachers Infantry 2/1 3 0 - 3 40 1/- -
Veteran Scouts Infantry 3/2 3 As unit - +1 30 -/- *2
Pony Riders Cavalry 2/1 3 6+ - 3 60 -/- *3
Ogres Infantry 4 4 5+ - 3 105 -/2 *4
Treekin Infantry 4 4 5+ - 3 105 -/2 *5
Treeman Monster 6 4 4+ - 1 130 -/1 *6
Giant Eagles Monster 2 3 6+ - 3 70 -/1 *7
Hot-Pot Artillery 1 / 2D6-D6 2 6+ - 1 50 -/1 *8
General General +2 - - 9 1 125 1 -
Head Chef Hero +1 - - 8 1 90 -/1 *9
Hero Hero +1 - - 8 1 80 -/1 -
Human Wizard Wizard +0 - - 7 1 45 -/1 *10
Tree-Herder Hero +4 - - 8 1 140 -/1 *11
Field Kitchen Chariot Mount +1 - - - 1 +20 -/1 *12

*1 – Halfling Militia. Although predominantly farmers, bar-
keepers, cooks and brewers armed with “the tools of their trade”,
militia units contain slingers, javelins and shortbows. As such, all
militia units can fire as a missile unit but with a maximum range
of 15cm.
*2 – Veteran Scouts. These are elite veteran units with decades
of experience fighting alongside other friendly races such as
humans from the Empire. These skirmisher stands never fight as
independent units. Instead, you may add one stand of Veteran
Scouts to any of your (Halfling) infantry units. This brings the
size of the unit to 4 stands - i.e. 3 ordinary stands plus the
scouts. Scouts always have the same Armour value as the rest of
their unit, 5+; 6+ or 0. They fight as part of their unit and can
be removed as a unit casualty if the player wishes. Scout
casualties never count as casualties for purposes of issuing orders,
which means there is no -1 Command penalty as there normally
would be for units that have lost a stand of scouts.
Scout stands never count as part of the unit's formation when
determining whether they move at full or half pace, so no
movement penalty is incurred if they are arranged out of the
unit's regular formation. As a result scouts are both more
adaptable and more expendable than other troops. Due to their
superior marksmanship these scouts have x2 missile attacks. This
applies only to the scout stand and not to every stand in the
unit.
To reiterate: Scouts can only be attached to Halfling infantry
units. Not Ogres, Treekin or pony riders etc.
3* - Pony Riders. Light cavalry armed with spears, javelins, slings
or shortbows. The Pony Rider's range is restricted to 15cm.
Pony Riders can shoot behind or to the side as well as to the
front. Just measure the range from any stand edge, front, side or
rear. They can therefore shoot at enemy charging them from any
direction.
4* - Ogres. Ogres are drawn to Halflings for one reason, food.
And without the promise of Halfling cooking, ogres are
unreliable and unpredictable.
If an Ogre unit can use its initiative to charge an enemy unit of
humans at the start of the Command phase then it must do so
if it is not within 20cm of a head chef. This happens
automatically and their commander can do nothing about it.
'Humans' encompasses all 'men' including Chaos Warriors and
Marauders, but not Dwarfs, Elves etc.
In a Halfling army, if a unit of ogres is given an order from any
commander other than a Halfling head chef then there is always
a -1 command penalty cumulative with any other command
penalties.
5* - Treekin. Smaller than the giant Treemen but no less
formidable, these units of 25-foot high Treekin and Earth
Elementals are immune to terror. There is a -1 cumulative
command penalty for any command that doesn’t come from a
Tree-Herder.
*6 – Treeman. Very big, massively strong and hard to damage.
Treemen cause terror.
They can be pragmatic to the point of inaction and suffer a -1
command penalty if not ordered by a Tree-Herder. If attacked by
a fire weapon (dwarf flame cannon, fireball magic, lightning bolt
magic etc.) then they receive no saving throw. However they
cannot be damaged by non-gunpowder infantry weapons (i.e.
crossbows, slings, javelins and bows have no effect), non-fire
based artillery damages Treemen as usual. It is at the GM’s
discretion (or it should be agreed between players before the
game) which weapons are classed as “fire weapons”.
In order to distinguish a combat Treeman from a Tree-Herder,
please mount a Tree-Herder on a round base and a combat
Treeman on a normal 40mm x 20mm stand with the treeman
facing the short (20mm) edge.
*7 – Giant Eagles. As one might expect, eagles can fly. They
follow the usual rules for combat flyers.
*8 – Hot-pot. The artillery pieces fielded by Halfling armies
vary greatly in design, from basic giant slingshots, to more
sophisticated torsion catapults to steam powered mortars – but
the general principle is the same. The idea is to propel a large
vessel of boiling, sticky and often corrosive stew directly into the
enemy ranks.
The hotpot has a maximum range of 30cm and generates a
random amount of hits. At range of 0-20cm it has 2D6 attacks
and at 21-30cm it has 1D6 attacks. Due to the added stress of
firing at the shorter range (including when firing at chargers –
which the hotpot is permitted to do), there is a chance of
something going wrong. If a double is rolled consult the table
below:
Double 1 – Whatever mechanism the hot-pot crew is using
catastrophically fails. The vessel flies directly upwards and
empties its contents over the hapless crew. No attacks are caused
and the hot-pot is removed from play.
Double 2 – The crew have excitedly added an ingredient to the
stew which makes in dangerously unstable and corrosive. The
vessel partially melts before it is fired splashing stew over the
crew and renders the firing mechanism inoperative. This turn the
hot-pot causes 4+2D6 attacks but the hot-pot is also destroyed.
Double 3 – Drawn by the smell of the stew, a sneaky Ogre has
deserted his regiment and before he can be stopped, he drinks a
significant amount of the stew from the supporting chuck-wagon.
Six attacks are caused this turn, but because of the shortage of
“ammunition” all future shooting causes half the damage – i.e.
1D6 at short range, 1D3 at long range. Please note that this
means that the hot-pot cannot misfire again after this result.
Double 4 – The Halfling whose job it is to keep the fire alight
under the main cauldron has taken a break for second breakfast.
The fire needs to be restarted and the stew brought back up to
temperature. The hot-pot cannot fire this turn but is otherwise
unaffected.
Double 5 – The trixy Halflings have brought up a small
detachment of beekeepers in support of the artillery. After a
sustained bombardment of sweet and sticky boiling stew, the
beekeepers use slings to hurl wasp and hornets’ nests at the
target. Attracted by the stew the wasps and hornets go into a
stinging frenzy. Ten attacks are inflicted this turn – otherwise the
hot-pot and its crew are unaffected.
Double 6 – In a panic that the enemy is actually going to get
their hands on the crew’s cheese stash, the Halflings load the
main vat of stew onto the mechanism and fire the whole lot at
once at the target. 12+D6 hits are inflicted on the target unit
this turn. The hot-pot unit is not destroyed, but because they
need to make a new batch of stew (and find a new cauldron to
cook it in) the hot-pot unit may not fire for the next two turns.
*9 – Head Chef. A head chef is essentially a Halfling hero and
follows the same rules. The differences are that a head chef does
not suffer the minus 1 penalty for ordering Ogre units and that if
he / she is within 20cm of an Ogre unit then that unit is not
compelled to use its initiative to charge enemy humans.
A head chef is the only hero that can be mounted on the field
kitchen (see *11)
*10 – Human Wizard. Human spellcasters (usually dressed in
grey) can often be found visiting Halfling communities sampling
ale, cheese, salted-pork and pipeweed. In times of need they
instinctively rally to their friends’ aid. Human wizards use the
Empire spells.
*11 – Tree-Herder. The Tree-herder is an ancient Treeman,
obeyed and revered by all forest folk. Only one Treeman in any
forest can be the Tree-herder and as such only one can be
included in a Halfling army no matter how large in points the
army is. The Tree-herder receives a -2 cumulative command
penalty when ordering Ogres (he has no food to offer).
Any unit joined by the Tree-herder causes terror. In addition the
Tree-herder can cast the “Tree Singing” spell as below:
4+ to cast - Range 30cm: This spell can be cast on any wooded
terrain and move it up to 2D6 in any direction (the caster does
not need to move the trees the full distance if they don’t want
to). Friendly, non-Ogre units of which all stands are at least
partially in the wood can be moved along with the trees but
cannot be moved into contact with the enemy. Enemy units in
the wood remain where they are while the wood moves. Any
piece of wooded terrain may only be affected by this spell once
per phase. The wood cannot be moved over enemy units or
terrain features other than a road or a hill.
*12 – Field Kitchen. Only a head chef can be mounted on a
field kitchen. The field kitchen adds an additional +1 attacks to
any unit it joins.
Once per game, a head chef can increase his command value to
9 while ordering troops within his 60cm command radius as he
steers his chuck wagon laden with delicious ham and cider stew
through the ranks, encouraging the troops to redouble their
efforts. The Halfling player must declare he is using this bonus
at the start of the command phase before any orders are issued
and before any units are moved by initiative.