Heroic Foray Aftermath

I have found myself unable to be certain of what happens after a heroic foray is resolved.

Parts I understand: A hero stakes 1 BR and the Judge gives him 1 BR worth of creatures to fight. He proceeds to fight them and then either wins or loses.

If both sides have a heroic foray declared, each side gets their heroes + the amount of BR the opponent stakes. (If Aragorn stakes 1 BR and Sauron stakes 3, Aragorn gets 3 BR worth of creatures on his team and Sauron gets 1 BR.) Again, it gets fought until someone wins or loses.

Campaigns says that if the heroes win the foray, the opposing side loses units with BR equal to the BR staked in the foray.

The part I am unsure of: Is the loss of units a reminder to the Judge to take units off the board to reflect the slaughter that just happened? Or is it an additional penalty?

That is, if I stake 1 BR, and slaughter 120 light infantry (some of which were likely routed instead of actually dying, but for the purposes of the epic poem the party bard is writing, they all died), does the enemy army lose 1 unit of light infantry (the 120 guys I heroically slew)? Or do they lose 2 units of light infantry (the 120 killed, plus 1 BR of units for losing the heroic foray)?

In the case of an opposed foray, basically the same question; do you just take the units killed off the board, or take the units killed off and then remove an additional BR equal to the BR lost?

The loss of units is a rule/reminder to the Judge to take units off the board to reflect the slaughter that just happened.

It’s like a currency conversion - you convert from BR to character-level threats, then back to BR.

The one thing I question about this rule is that it appears to be written as being all-or-nothing. If the heroes stake 2 BR and wipe out half the enemy force, but are then forced to leave the field (ultimately losing the foray), then shouldn’t the opposing army be reduced by 1 BR even though they didn’t win?

(I assume that’s what’s intended to happen, given that, under “Heroes vs. Heroes”, “Each side loses units with a combined battle rating equal to the total BR their side lost in the foray.”, but the rules for basic forays only say to remove enemy forces if the heroes win.)

The rule is all-or-nothing, yes.

It increases the stakes of the bidding, which is fun.

More importantly, it prevents the PCs from bidding high on BR in order to force the Judge to include some low-level beasties to “make his numbers”, then quickly target those and leaving. E.g. bid 10 BR, blow a fireball to kick some goblins, exit the fight. Whereas if they had only bid 1 BR, the Judge might have confronted them 1 BR worth of elite ogres.

Awesome. Thanks Alex!