The Hit
Eliminate High Value Targets (2-4 Gangs)
Battlefield
A vicious battle between two or more gangs, with each gang trying to take out a secretly determined fighter on each of the opposing gang Crews. Note that while this scenario typically takes four to six rounds, it can take up to nine rounds to finish; thus if players are under time contraints this scenario should not be attempted.
This scenario may be played on either Zone Mortalis or Sector Mechanicus battlefields. Players can also agree to use a hybrid battlefield combining aspects of both, which relies on cooperation between them to set up. If players cannot agree on type of battlefield a D6 should be rolled; if the result is even the battle shall take place on a Zone Mortalis battlefield, otherwise it will be a Sector Mechanicus battlefield.
Determine Priority
Regardless of the type of battlefield being fought over, priority is determined now prior to setting up the battlefield. A new priority will be determined when the battle starts and only then will players select their deployment zones.
As players do not know which side of the battlefield they will deploy from while setting up the battlefield, they are incentivized to be even handed when placing terrain. A player who makes one side of the battlefield more advantageous than the others while setting up terrain runs the risk of an opponent getting to pick that side of the battlefield for their deployment edge.
Zone Mortalis
In priority order, each player places a Zone Mortalis tile onto the battlefield until each player has placed a number of tiles equal to the total number of players. For instance, in a two player battle each player will place two tiles while in a four player battle each player will place four tiles. Each tile after the first must be placed so that at least one of its edges is touching an existing tile. The final shape of the battlefield should be squared off (2 x 2 or 3 x 3 or 4 x 4); a tile cannot be placed if it would make this impossible.
If the players have access to walls to sit upon the marked out spaces on the Zone Mortalis tiles, each player also places the necessary wall elements on the tiles they place. A player who places a tile may also place one or more doors on that tile if appropriate and can also choose to place a door terminal on either side or both sides of that door if they wish (turning the door into a locked door). If a special tile is selected that requires doors or obstacles or other board elements to be placed (such as the Secure Vault), the player who placed that tile also places the other required board elements.
Next, in priority order each player may place D3 pieces of scatter terrain, or a section of pipes, or a barricade, or a ductway. This process is then repeated for a second pass, during which players may choose to place new items or instead remove a piece of scatter terrain or a section of pipe or a barricade or a ductway from the battlefield.
Sector Mechanicus
The size of the battlefield is determined by the number of players. For a two player battle, the battlefield will be 24'' x 24''. For a three player battle, the battlefield will be 36'' x 36''. For a four player battle, the battlefield will be 48'' x 48''. It can be useful to measure this out and place indicators for the corners and / or edges. Alternately a battlemat of the appropriate size can be used.
In priority order each player selects a 12'' x 12'' section of the battlefield and then each player simultaneously sets up the section of the battlefield they are responsible for using whatever terrain is available. If a dispute arises between multiple players wanting to place the same piece of terrain, the disputing players should roll off to determine who gets to place the piece of terrain.
Each section must have a minimum of one large piece of terrain or three medium pieces of terrain, and no section should have so much terrain or be arranged in such a way as to be unplayable. After all players have set up the section of the battlefield that they are responsible for, in priority order each player may either reposition a piece of terrain anywhere on the battlefield or place a walkway, gantry, or similar piece of terrain to connect structures located in different sections. Terrain should be relatively stable and resistant to falling over if the table is bumped; anything too likely to fall over during the course of play can be vetoed by the other players.
Attackers
In this scenario, all of the gangs are considered to be attackers and none of the gangs are considered to be defenders.
Objectives
Each player will secretly select a single other fighter on each other gangs' Crews (detailed below). At the end of the battle, each player gains 1 Victory Point for each Wound inflicted on their target(s) and an additional Victory Point if that fighter was also taken Out of Action by an injury (but not by other means). Note that players get Victory Points even for Wounds they did not inflict and for fighters they did not take Out of Action, thus in battles of three or more gangs players may want to be selective who they attack to avoid unintentionally giving Victory Points to their opponents.
Underdog
The Underdog in this scenario gains a small advantage during the Tactics Cards step, and may gain an additional reward after the battle ends.
Tactics Cards
First each player may select up to half of the Tactics Cards in their Tactics Cards deck and set them aside; these cards will not be used in this battle.
Next the Underdog may select a remaining Tactics Card of their choice from their deck to begin their hand.
Finally, each player shuffles their remaining Tactics Cards to form their Tactics Cards deck for this battle and then may draw up to three cards from their Tactics Card deck to form their hand. Thus, the Underdog will have up to four total cards and each other player will have up to three total cards.
Players will not draw any further Tactics Cards during this battle.
Crews
In this scenario all of each gang's eligible fighters form their Crew and all Crews will be deployed onto the battlefield before the battle begins.
Deployment
Each player has a wide deployment zone comprised of an entire side of the battlefield, from corner to corner, which is 2'' deep. In Zone Mortalis battles it is usually convenient to simply treat the first row of tiles along the deployment edge as a gang's deployment zone rather than strictly measuring 2''.
Note, in three or four player battles it is possible for two deployment zones to overlap at the corners. This is intended but the 1'' rule does apply; i.e. fighters from opposing gangs must be at least 1'' apart when set up onto the battlefield as part of deployment.
First determine priority. Then, in the case of a two player battle, the player with priority selects one of the board edges as their deployment edge and the opposite board edge becomes their opponent's deployment edge. In the case of more than two players, in priority order each player choses an unselected board edge as their deployment edge.
Infiltrators
In priority order, players take turns setting up any infiltrating fighters in their Crew.
Hidden
A player may choose to place a Hidden marker on the board to represent an infiltrating fighter if they want that fighter to enter play Hidden. For this scenario each Hidden marker corresponds to a specific fighter which must be declared when the Hidden marker is set up onto the battlefield; if a player has two or more Hidden markers on the battlefield they cannot wait until one of them is exposed to decide which infiltrating fighter to put into play for that marker.
Hidden: While Hidden, this fighter cannot be the target of enemy fighters (however they might still be hit by weapons with the Blast or Template traits). Additionally, a Hidden fighter's close combat weapons gain the Backstab Trait; weapons that already have the Backstab Trait gain +2 to hit when the Backstab trait applies.
For the purposes of this scenario, if a Hidden fighter makes an attack with a weapon that has the Noisy or Template traits they are exposed. If a Hidden fighter makes a close combat attack against an opponent and the opponent is still Standing at the end of the exchange, the attacking fighter is exposed.
Detect
Active and Pinned fighters can take the Detect (Basic) action in an attempt to expose a Hidden enemy fighter. Additionally, if a Hidden fighter makes an attack with a weapon that does not have the Silent trait the opposing player may select one of their gang's fighters within 12'' of the Hidden fighter to immediately take the Detect action for free.
Detect (Basic): Select a Hidden enemy fighter within 12'', and then make an Intelligence check with the following modifiers applied. If this check is successful, the selected enemy fighter is exposed.
Exposed
When a Hidden fighter is exposed, the controlling player must set up the fighter onto the battlefield where the exposed Hidden marker is currently located and remove the Hidden marker from play.
Everyone Else
Next, and still in priority order, each player takes turns setting up a remaining fighter from their Crew onto the battlefield such that the fighter's base is entirely within their gang's deployment zone.
Target Selection
Now that all fighters in all Crews have been set up on to the battlefield, each player may observe each opposing fighter, and may ask to see the fighter card of any or all of the opposing fighters on the battlefield, or ask general questions such as what a fighter's name is, and how many Wounds or what Skills or protective gear they have. This process should have a time limit imposed of no more than 15 minutes.
Each player now secretly writes down on a slip of paper the name of a single fighter on each of the opposing gangs Crews. Then each player folds their slips of papers over so that the fighter name(s) written on each are hidden, writes their gang's name on the outside of the folded over paper slip, and then drops their paper slip into a communual receptacle such as a cup or bowl. Players cannot access these slips of paper until the end of the battle. Players should not take more than five minutes collectively to complete this step.
For instance, in a four player battle the first player would write down the name of one fighter from the second player's Crew, the name of one fighter from the third player's Crew, and the name of one fighter from the fourth player's Crew. They would then fold the paper over such that none of the names are visible, write the name of their gang on the outside of this folded over slip of paper, and then drop their slip of paper into the common receptacle.
Run Away
During the fifth and succeeding rounds fighters can leave the battlefield by moving off of an opposing gang's deployment edge (voluntarily or involuntarily). A fighter removed from play in this way is considered to be Out of Action but the fighter is unharmed and will be available for their gang's next battle.
Bottle Tests
Bottle tests are not made during the first three rounds of the battle. Starting at the end of the fourth round Bottle tests are made normally by all gangs, as necessary.
Ending the Battle
There are several ways for the battle to end.
Get Wiped Out
If at any time no fighters remain on the battlefield or all fighters remaining on the battlefield are Broken or Seriously Injured, the battle will continue to the end of the current round and then be over.
Final Stand
If at any point during the battle only one gang still has Active and / or Pinned fighters remaining on the battlefield, the battle will continue to the end of the current round and then be over.
Out of Time
After the fourth and succeeding rounds, at the very end of the round the player who currently has priority rolls a D6 and adds the number of rounds that have been fought thus far in the battle. On a 9+ the battle will continue for one more round and then ends.
For instance, at the end of the fourth round a D6 roll of 5+ will cause the battle to be over at the end of the fifth round because 4 (the # of rounds already fought) + 5 (the die result) equals 9. At the end of the sixth round, a D6 roll of 3+ will cause the battle to be over at the end of the seventh round. At the end of the eight round, a D6 roll of 1+ will cause the battle to be over at the end of the ninth round; thus the battle cannot possibly last longer than nine rounds.
Victory
When the battle is over, the slips of paper upon which players wrote down their targets are collectively opened and read by all of the players.
Each player gains 1 Victory Point for each Wound inflicted on their target(s) and an additional Victory Point if that fighter was also taken Out of Action by an injury (but not by other means). A player gets these Victory Points even if their fighters did not inflict the Wounds on their target(s) or take those target(s) Out of Action.
For instance, a fighter with 2 Wounds who remains on the battlefield and has suffered 1 Wound would be worth 1 Victory Point while a fighter with 2 Wounds who was reduced to 0 Wounds and was taken Out of Action by an attack would be worth 3 total Victory Points. A fighter who lost a Wound during the battle but regained that Wound via equipment, skill, Tactics Card, or some other ability and ended the battle still in action is not worth any Victory Points.
It is also possible for more than one player to have selected the same target(s); all of the players get the Victory Points for their shared target(s).
For instance, in a three player battle if the first and second players both selected the same fighter from the third player's Crew as their target and that fighter yielded 3 Victory Points at the end of the battle, the first and second players both recieve those 3 Victory Points regardless of who took the third player's fighter Out of Action or inflicted Wounds upon them.
The gang with the most Victory Points is the winner. If two gangs are tied for most Victory Points, the battle ends in a draw. If all of the gangs have exactly 0 Victory Points, all of the gangs are considered to have lost the battle.
Rewards (Campaign Only)
Experience
Participation
Each fighter who participated in the battle gains 1 XP.
Standard XP
Fighters gain the standard XP awards for taking opposing fighters Out of Action.
First Blood
The first fighter in the battle to take any enemy fighter Out of Action gets 1 additional XP.
MVF
Each player may select a single particpating fighter from their own gang as their Most Valuable Fighter; that fighter receives 1 additional XP.
Winners
If a gang Wins the battle, if that gang's Leader participated in the battle they receive 1 additional XP (even if they are no longer on the battlefield at the end of the battle). If the Underdog gang Wins the battle, all participating fighters on the gang receive 1 additional XP.
Reputation
Each gang gains 1 Reputation per opposing gang.
If there is a winning gang, that gang gains 1 Reputation.
Each gang gains 1 Reputation for every 2 Victory Points they earned.
Losing gangs lose 1 Reputation.
Post-Battle Sequence
Proceed to the Post-Battle Sequence.