On page 245, Wilderness Encounters: Men, Inhabited/6 = "Veteran".
It feels like it ought to be in there with "Merchant" and "Buccaneer" and "Berserker", but it's not.
So, what's a "Veteran"?
“The Player's Companion extends the core rules by adding a series of new classes, the dwarven machinist and spelunker, the elven ranger, and some human classes - mystic (monk), shaman (druid), and priestess. I'll come out and say it though, the thing that got me fired up with the book-love was the extensive list of templates. (I think they claim there are 144 of them). An ACKS template is basically some pre-selected options that speeds up character generation and gives the character a bit of early flavor. ACKS supports the old school roll-and-go - it's got basic 3d6 in order for abilities and simple classes, like classic D&D. The templates take it the rest of the way, by adding a preconfigured set of starting equipment, starting money, and suggested proficiency selections.”
I ran into a similar problem on the men entries when 1 is Bandit, 2 is Brigand, but there's only Brigand under the men entry (and I searched the whole PDF for bandit, having no luck)
The difference between bandits and brigands is only alignment (bandits are chaotic, brigands neutral). I thought this had been addressed in one of the final proofs, but maybe it was left out. I'd check the errata thread.
I'm sure the "veteran" tag is inherited from games in which it's the title for a 1st level Fighter-type. The intent is probably to use the rules for Brigands, but make them lawful (with Bandits rounding out the alignments).
I suppose my PDF may be out of date, I'll go hunt down the errata and review it.
Bandits are chaotic and brigands are neutral? Well, that's a bizarre distinction.
IIRC, "Brigand" originally meant soldier. Generally professional enough to be decently equipped (hence "Brigandine" armour), but out of work soldiers tended to be a little rough on the local populations and it shifted towards being synonymous with Bandits.
I suspect that ACKS is using the term to differentiate between someone who's just trying to keep himself fed between legit work (Neutral) and a Bandit who actively enjoys earning off the misery of others (Chaotic). In RP terms a brigand is probably trying to rob you: a bandit is trying to kill you so that he can rob your corpse.
I like that analogy!
I assumed a veteran was a 1st level fighter, but it turns out I pulled that from Domains at War:
On the wandering monster tables I put together for my campaign, I replaced "veteran" with "lone 1st level warrior" and "acolyte" with "lone 2nd level clergy"; basically a recruiting opportunity, or an opportunity for some low-level healing.
Veteran used to be the level title for a 1st level fighter. I didn't realize it had changed in ACKS!
"Veterans" were an encounter type in BX, possibly Mentzer, a mixed group of fighters levels 1-3. I just thought that was legacy code that didn't get commented out.
The inclusion of Bandit and Veteran was definitely legacy code.
The intent of the encounter is that your party runs into a group of low-level thieves (Bandits) and low-level fighters (Veterans), but you'd have no way of knowing this unless you owned a copy of the Moldvay Basic set, which lists Bandits and Veterans as monster types.
For ACKS purposes:
Bandits - Roll an NPC encounter; average level 1; all NPCs are Thieves
Veterans - Roll an NPC encounter; average level 1; all NPCs are Fighters