In lieu of an actual manual or anything, this guide should hopefully answer most questions people might have when play(-testing) War of the Roses.
Boring spreadsheety data is available here.
Units and Characters
Your army consists of a number of Units. These represent large bodies of troops, such as Swordsmen or Archers. Each kind of unit has its own strengths and weaknesses. Up to two characters can be attached to each unit. Characters lead a unit, giving them special bonuses. Whether you spread your characters out, or create a few powerful units with two leaders each, is up to you.
If this is reminding you of Suikoden at this point, have a gold bunny.
Statistics
Each unit has four basic stats: Attack, Defence, Range and Move. I’m guessing I don’t really need to explain these. (Incidentally although most non-ranged units have Range 1, some — Pikemen for example — do have a longer range. This allows them to attack without fear of reprisal!)
Characters attached to a unit will generally boost one or more of these statistics.
Morale is health — units start with 100, and are incapacitated if it reaches zero. Some Characters boost maximum morale above 100. Some characters can restore morale, and some can even bring back units that have reached zero morale!
Unit Types
There are three types of unit — Infantry, Cavalry and Ranged.
Infantry are cheap and versatile. They can both move and attack (in that order) each round.
Cavalry are fast and powerful, but expensive. They can move, attack and move again in a round. Both moves use the same pool (so a Light Cavalry with Move 7 could not move 4, attack, then move another 4).
Ranged units can attack from afar, keeping them out of the way of the enemy. Because they need time to aim, they can only either move or attack in a round — not both.
Characters are of one of these types too, showing which Unit types they can be attached to. There are also Command type characters, which do not fight on the battlefield but boost the army’s abilities in other ways.
Army and Character Special Bonuses
Certain characters impart a special bonus to their unit. This can take many forms — sometimes they are passive, sometimes they take effect on an attack, etc. Some combinations of two characters make very powerful units when their specials work together!
In addition, each House has a bonus that affects its entire army.
Lastly, each army has a “Command” slot, which can be filled by one character. That character’s special ability also affects their entire army, just like the House bonus.
Attacking and Defending
A unit can attack any enemy within its range. The amount of damage dealt is largely based on the attacker’s Attack and the defender’s Defense, but there are a number of other factors, such as height advantage.
A unit’s reported Defence statistic is affected by what it is doing. A unit that only moves and does not attack receives a +25% defence bonus. A unit that neither moves nor attacks receives a +50% bonus. A unit that has already been attacked once has its Defence halved, so be sure to team up and surround enemies to cause the most damage!
Terrain
Certain terrain — walls and water, for example — is impassable.
Movement through trees carries a penalty — one square of movement takes 2 move points.
Surviving (or not)
You win a battle when a certain condition is met, usually incapacitating all enemy units.
Units that survive a battle are promoted (Normal -> Experienced -> Veteran -> Elite). Each level adds 1 to their Attack and Defence. (A unit’s rank is denoted by stars underneath them.)
Units that do not survive can be regrouped — this costs money, but not as much as buying an equivalent unit outright. Their Rank is preserved.
Characters cannot die. If a dead unit is not regrouped, any characters that were attached to the unit can be freely moved to other units.
