The three armies
The Hearthguard, the Rustcoats and the Mustard Company. Who they are, how they fight, and which of them you face from where Old Marta stands.
Three armies fight over the Lowmarch. You serve the Hearthguard. Across the wire are the Rustcoats in the north and, on some stretches of front, the Mustard Company in the east. You never command any of them. You are one gun far behind your own lines, and your shells tip the war wherever you choose to fire them.
Who is who
| Army | Colour | Home | How they fight | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hearthguard (your side) | Cornflower blue | South-west | Holds, digs, advances when supplied | Asks you for covering fire |
| Rustcoats | Brick red | North | Aggressive, many charges | Fast infantry waves, grenade raids |
| Mustard Company | Mustard yellow | East | Opportunist, attacks whoever is weakest | Their own artillery, and counter-battery fire on you |
The Hearthguard
Your side. The Hearthguard hold their trenches, dig forward when it is safe, and advance when their supply allows it. They cannot do it alone. Their officers ask you for covering fire for digs and charges, and those requests are much of your work on the front. See Operations and requests and Digging a new line.
The Rustcoats
The Rustcoats come from the north, and they are aggressive. Expect many charges, fast waves of infantry across no-man's-land, and grenade raids on your trenches. Shrapnel in no-man's-land is how you stop a wave before it arrives. See The living battlefield and Shells.
The Mustard Company
The Mustard Company holds the east. They are opportunists: they attack whoever is weakest at the moment, and that is not always you. Their signature threat is their own artillery, which turns counter-battery fire on Old Marta. In the campaign they enter the war in spring. See Exposure and moving the gun, Finding enemy guns and The campaign: four seasons.
Which army you face
That depends on where you are on the rails. In the west you face the Rustcoats; in the east, the Mustard Company as well. Drive Old Marta along the rail network and a different enemy may come into reach. See The rail network and One continuous war.
Where the front has three sides, the Rustcoats and the Mustard Company also fight each other. A clever gunner can let them wear each other down before choosing a target.
Homes that never fall
Each army has a home territory behind a fixed last line of forts, with a fortified city behind it. Homes are never captured, so nobody can win the war by overrunning one. All the moving happens in the contested belt between the three homes. A war ends when one army holds a set share of the belt's key points for long enough. See The Lowmarch.
Telling them apart
An army is never shown by colour alone. On the map each one also has a shape with its initial: a square for the Hearthguard, a circle for the Rustcoats and a diamond for the Mustard Company. The three colours are chosen to differ in brightness, not only in hue, so they separate even in greyscale. For colour-blind players there are faction patterns too: stripes, dots and chevrons on helmets and flags. See Accessibility.