Ash Storm

Plumes of dense and toxic ash inundate the battlefield. By default, an ash storm impose the following penalties on affected fighters:

Within the Area

• When activated, a fighter suffers a -D3'' penalty to their Movement characteristic. Ash Waste Nomads, Ratskins, and fighters with a Respirator or that are using Filter Plugs are not affected by this penalty.

Into, Within, or Across the Area

• All ranged attacks suffer a -2 penalty to hit.

Bad Air

The air in the area of the battlefield has become nearly unbreathable, particularly for the weak and injured. Ash Waste Nomads and Ratskins are immune to this condition, and various abilities and gear (such as a Hazard Suit) help fighters resist this condition. A fighter with a modified Toughness of 3 or less that starts their activation within the area suffers a Flesh Wound.

Hive Tremors

Tremors shake the hive, causing unstable footing. But it's not all bad news; often such seismic activity reveals long lost treasures. When hive tremors occur several things happen, in order:

NOTE: If Hive Tremors are caused by a player (such as by playing a Tactics Card, or by a Ratskins player exercising their option to trigger Hive Tremors), that player is considered to have priority while the Hive Tremors are resolved.

For the remainder of the battle, each Round at the beginning of the Priority Phase (before priority is determined), the player who currently has priority must roll a D6 to determine if the Hive Tremors continue to have an impact on the battle. If a 1 is rolled, an aftershock shakes the battlefield further and every Active fighter on the battlefield must make an Initiative check or become Pinned; Ratskin fighters may gain a +2 bonus to their Initiative checks to avoid becoming Pinned.

Home Turf

Some scenarios take place within the territory of one of the gangs. By default, a gang with home turf advantage gains the following benefits:

• The gang's fighters add 1 to all Leadership, Cool, and Will tests they make during the battle.
• Whenever a Bottle Test is made for the gang the controlling player rolls one more D6 and discards any one of the dice rolled before determining the result.
• If the gang has Hangers-on, some types of them may participate in the battle as described by individual Hangers-on descriptions.

Low-Light Condition

Dark tunnels and domes, power outages, freak dust storms...lighting in the underhive is unreliable at best. Various abilities and gear (such as photo-goggles) allow a fighter to be unaffected by this condition, but an area of low-light imposes the following penalties on affected fighters:

Within the Area

• Initiative checks suffer a -1 penalty.
• Every 2'' of distance moved costs 3'' of movement.

Into, Within, or Across the Area

• Detect checks suffer a -2 penalty, unless the target has a Blaze marker.
• Ranged attacks suffer -1 penalty to hit, unless the target has a Blaze marker.

Reinforcements

By default, the fighters in a gang's Crew are deployed onto the battlefield before the battle starts. But some scenarios hold back some or all of a gang's fighters as Reinforcements that might join the battle in later rounds.

Scenarios that use this special rule will detail how Reinforcements are determined, how Reinforcements affect a gang's Crew Rating, the circumstances that allow them to join the battle, and how they are deployed if they do. Some of the more common deployment options for Reinforcements are described below, but some scenarios describe scenario-specific instructions.

Relics

Sometimes a gang relic is present during a scenario. A gang relic can take many forms, but each represents something of great symbolic importance or sentimental value to a gang. A gang relic always belongs to one gang or the other; if the scenario has an attacker and a defender the relic belongs to the defender. In other cases more than one or all participating gangs have a relic present. Otherwise roll off before the battle begins to determine which gang owns the relic.

A relic counts as a piece of scatter terrain that provides cover, but cannot be targeted or moved.

A relic starts undefiled but a fighter in base contact with an enemy gang's relic can defile it by making the Defile Relic action.

When members of a gang that have a relic on the battlefield must make a Leadership, Cool, or Willpower check, they gain a +2 bonus if their relic is undefiled, or a -2 penalty if their relic is defiled.

Stealth

Some scenarios include aspects of sneakiness, allowing assassins to lurk, saboteurs to intrude, thieves to creep, and so forth. Each scenario that does so includes specific instructions as to how Stealth is handled for itself. This usually incorporates some combination of Infiltration, the Hidden status, Sentries, and other special rules.

As always, specific instructions in a scenario override general instructions. For instance, the Infiltrate skill usually works a certain way, but scenarios commonly override that behavior and define how Infiltrate works for that scenario. Hidden opponents are usually detected using the Detect (Basic) skill, but some scenarios define alternate instructions. Fighters usually get Ready markers at the start of each round, and when activated take actions based on their status (Active, Pinned, etc), but in a Stealth mission some fighters might not get Ready markers, or might be restricted in what actions are available to them when activated. And so on.

Stealth adds a lot of fun and tension to scenarios, but it is a complicating factor with multiple moving parts. To avoid confusion or unintended outcomes, it is important that players not jump to conclusions based upon how things usually work. Instead, each player should make sure they understand the specific instructions of the scenario they are about to play, and follow them as presented.

Threats

As if enemy gangs and the hostile environment of the underhive itself weren't dangerous enough, sometimes other threats are also present on a battlefield. Many-tentacled sewer beasts, giant spiders, treacherous mutated Scaavies, and other exotic dangers abound.

Underdog

Some scenarios attempt to even the playing field for gangs with a Crew Rating substantially below the opposing gang's Crew Rating, as determined in the Comparative Crew Rating step of the Pre-Battle Sequence.

Mercy Rule

If a scenario indicates that a gang would lose Reputation for bottling out, an Underdog gang that managed to survive to the end of the third round of that battle before bottling out does not lose Reputation for bottling out.

Multiplayer Underdog

In games with three or more players, Underdog status is determined by comparing a gang's Crew Rating against the Crew Rating of all the enemy gangs averaged together. The difference in Crew Rating compared to this average opposing Crew Rating is what is used to determine any Underdog bonuses a gang may receive.

Underdog Benefit Options

There are a variety of Underdog options available, and it is even possible for a scenario to use more than one option or give the player a choice.

Automatic Priority

With this option, the Underdog gang automatically wins priority for the first round and for one more round for every 100 points of Rating Difference (rounded up). However, the Seize the Initiative Tactics Card and similar abilities trump this benefit when relevant.