The War
Battle Royale; to the victor goes the spoils! (2-4 Gangs)
Objectives
A vicious battle between two or more gangs, with no objective other than inflicting maximum mayhem.
This is all out war and the goal is to crush your enemies and bask in their lamentations. The last gang standing on the battlefield (if any) is the victor. And to them goes the spoils!
Note that this scenario is a full on head to head battle royale that can take a little longer to play if gangs are evenly matched and players are determined to fight to the bitter end.
Attackers
In this scenario, all of the gangs are considered to be attackers.
Type of Battlefield
The players should agree whether they will fight this battle using the Zone Mortalis or Sector Mechanicus rules or optionally fight on a hybrid battlefield.
If the players cannot come to an agreement, roll a D6. If the result is a 4+ it will be a Sector Mechanicus battle, otherwise it is a Zone Mortalis battle.
For two players, the battlefield should be a square that is either 24'' x 24'' or 2x2 tiles.
For three players, the battlefield should be 36'' x 36'' or 3x3 tiles.
For four players, the battlefield should be 48'' x 48'' or 4x4 tiles.
Set up Battlefield
Players should determine a priority before setting up the battlefield.
Zone Mortalis
In Zone Mortalis, the player with priority must choose a tile and place it.
In priority order, the next player may either choose another tile and place it so
that it is touching a tile that is already in place edge to edge and corner to corner,
or swap any two tiles that are already placed, or rotate a tile that is already placed,
or flip a tile that is already placed over to its other side.
This continues from player to player until the required number of tiles (determined by the number of players)
have been placed. After the last tile has been completed, still in priority order,
each player may place a door or ductway or a handful of scatter terrain anywhere on
the battlefield.
Sector Mechanicus
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. 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.
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.
This is repeated as necessary until all 12'' x 12'' sections of the battlefield have been set up.
Choose Crews
In this scenario all gangs use the
All Eligible Fighters
method to choose their gang's Crew.
Crews and Waves
Each gang's Crew will be divided into four separate Waves.
First each player sorts fighter cards from their Crew into three face down Wave Decks. Each deck must have at least 1 fighter card unless a gang has insufficient fighters to comply with this restriction. Each of these decks may have no more than one Leader or Champion fighter card and no more than 2 other fighter cards.
Next each player organizes the Wave Decks they have formed thus far into Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 by placing a dice with a 1, 2, or 3 face up on top of each respective deck. A gang that has fewer than three decks can leave gaps where they see fit.
Finally, each player gathers any remaining fighter cards from their Crew face down into a Wave 4 Deck and places a dice with 4 face up on top of it.
Players cannot look at the Wave decks of other players as they are being formed or after they have been assigned a number. What fighters are in which Wave is a secret. Players can look at their own fighter cards while they are forming Waves, but after they have placed a deck face down and assigned a Wave number to it, the deck must remain face down until it is time to deploy its assigned Wave onto the battlefield.
Determine Crew Rating & Underdog Status
This step can be skipped. Crew Rating is irrelevant in this scenario, and there is no consideration for Underdog status.
War is a brutal and unsympathetic undertaking.
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 each player shuffles their remaining Tactics Cards to form their Tactics Cards deck for this battle.
Finally, each player may draw three cards from their Tactics Cards deck to form their starting hand.
As the battle progresses, when a new Wave enters the battlefield but a gang has no fighters in that Wave, the controlling player of that gang may draw one card from their Tactics Cards deck and add it to their hand.
If a player would draw a Tactics Card but their Tactics Cards deck is out of cards, they must shuffle their Tactics Cards discard pile (if any) to reform their Tactics Cards deck and then draw (if able).
Deployment
First determine priority. Then, in the case of a two player battle, the player with priority selects one of the battlefield edges as their deployment edge (from corner to corner) and the opposite battlefield edge becomes their opponent's deployment edge. In the case of more than two players, in priority order each player chooses an unselected battlefield edge as their deployment edge.
During this scenario fighters are not set up onto the battlefield in the normal way. Instead, four consecutive Waves of fighters become eligible to enter the battlefield over multiple rounds. Each Wave may contain both infiltrating and non-infiltrating fighters.
When Ready fighters who are off the battlefield are activated, their controlling player must first set up that fighter so that the back of the fighter's base is touching their gang's deployment edge anywhere along its width. After this is done the fighter's activation begins and proceeds normally.
Fighters may not Group Activate when they start the round off the battlefield.
In this way each Wave trickles onto the battlefield over the course of a round.
The hidden information of which enemy fighters are in each Wave and where along their wide deployment edges each new enemy fighter will enter the battlefield introduces a lot of strategic and tactical considerations.
Infiltrators
Wave decks may contain one or more fighters that can be infiltrated onto the battlefield.
At the start of each Wave, players who have one or more infiltrating fighters in that Wave each take turns in priority order setting up one fighter onto the battlefield at a time until either no more infiltrating fighters remain or there are no more valid places for an infiltrating fighter to be set up onto the battlefield.
Infiltrating fighters can be set up anywhere on the battlefield that meets all three of the following conditions:
If any of these conditions cannot be met for a given infiltrating fighter, that fighter does not infiltrate and deploys onto the battlefield in the same way as non-infiltrating fighters.
Hidden Status
Fighters that successfully infiltrate have the Hidden status.
A marker should be placed next to the fighter or on their fighter card to indicate this.
In this scenario, Hidden fighters are placed on the battlefield and act normally, but cannot be targeted or Engaged until they are exposed.
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.
Exposed
In this scenario, fighters lose their Hidden status individually when exposed.
There are several ways that this might occur.
Detect Hidden Fighter
Fighters can attempt to expose Hidden fighters by succeeding on a Detect action, which is subject to bonuses and penalties based upon a number of factors.
Detect [Hidden] (Basic): When using the Detect action to Detect a Hidden fighter, select a Hidden fighter within 12'', and then make an Intelligence check with the following modifiers applied. If this check is successful, the selected Hidden fighter is exposed.
Plain Sight
Whenever a Hidden fighter enters the vision arc and line of sight of an enemy fighter that is not blinded or affected by low-light conditions or smoke,
the current action is interrupted and the enemy fighter must make an Initiative check, modified by all relevant Detect modifiers.
On success, the Hidden fighter's activation ends (if relevant) and they are exposed, losing their Hidden status.
Hidden Attack Noise Discipline
If a Hidden fighter makes an attack that has the Silent trait and misses, no one becomes Alerted.
If a Hidden fighter makes an attack that has the Noisy trait, that fighter is no longer Hidden and all sentries become Alerted.
If a Hidden fighter makes an attack against a target that is 3'' or more away from other opposing fighters, and that target is Seriously Injured or taken Out of Action, enemy sentries do not become Alerted.
Otherwise, when a Hidden fighter makes an attack refer to the following Noise Discipline Chart from top to bottom,
stopping at the first row that applies to the attack (if any) to determine the outcome. If there are no relevant entries, the Hidden fighter is not exposed.
Noise Discipline Chart
| Trait? |
Who |
Distance |
Outcome |
| Silent [Hit] |
Target |
Point |
Exposed |
| Area or Blast |
Enemies |
within 6'' of the Blast marker |
Exposed |
| Template |
Enemies |
within 6'' of the Template marker |
Exposed |
| Blaze |
Enemies |
within 6'' of each Blaze marker |
Exposed |
| Blinding, Demolition |
Enemies |
within 6'' of the Target |
Exposed |
| Drag, Knockback |
Enemies |
within 3'' of the Target's path |
Exposed |
| Unarmed |
Enemies |
within 1'' of the Target |
Exposed |
| No Relevant Trait |
Enemies |
within 3'' of the Target |
Exposed |
Starting the Battle
First Wave
Resolve infiltrating fighters in all players' First Wave decks (if any) now.
Then all First Wave fighters gain their Ready markers (whether they are on the battlefield yet or not), and the first round of battle starts.
In priority order, each player takes turns selecting a fighter in their First Wave with a Ready marker, setting them up onto the battlefield, activating that fighter and taking that fighter's action(s). Then the player with the next higher priority does the same, and so on until all First Wave fighters have been set up onto the battlefield and activated. In this manner, by the end of the first round of battle every First Wave fighter will have been deployed onto the battlefield.
Reinforcements
Second Wave
At the start of the second round, immediately after priority has been determined, players who have no fighters in their Second Wave deck draw a Tactics Card from their Tactics Cards Deck.
Resolve infiltrating fighters in all players' Second Wave decks (if any) now.
Then all remaining non-Broken First Wave fighters and all Second Wave fighters gain their Ready markers (whether they are on the battlefield yet or not), and the second round of battle starts. By the end of the second round, every Second Wave fighter will have been deployed onto the battlefield.
Third Wave
At the start of the third round, immediately after priority has been determined, players who have no fighters in their Third Wave deck draw a Tactics Card from their Tactics Cards Deck.
Resolve infiltrating fighters in all players' Third Wave decks (if any) now.
Then all remaining non-Broken First Wave and Second Wave fighters and all Third Wave fighters gain their Ready markers (whether they are on the battlefield yet or not), and the third round of battle starts. By the end of the third round, every Third Wave fighter will have been deployed onto the battlefield.
Fourth Wave
At the start of the fourth round, immediately after priority has been determined, players who have no fighters in their Fourth Wave deck draw a Tactics Card from their Tactics Cards Deck.
Resolve infiltrating fighters in all players' Fourth Wave decks (if any) now.
Then all remaining non-Broken First Wave, Second Wave, and Third Wave fighters and all Fourth Wave fighters gain their Ready markers (whether they are on the battlefield yet or not), and the fourth round of battle starts. By the end of the fourth round, every Fourth Wave fighter will have been deployed onto the battlefield.
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
Gangs do not make Bottle Tests during this battle.
Ending the Battle
The battle continues until there is one or zero gangs remaining on the battlefield, or until a Truce is reached by the controlling players of all gangs remaining on the battlefield.
The ways in which a gang may leave the battlefield are detailed below.
Get Wiped Out
If at the end of a round all of a gang's fighters are Out of Action or Broken, all of the gang's remaining Broken fighters are removed from the battlefield and the gang is Wiped Out.
Note that Reinforcements are not Out of Action or Broken, and thus a gang that still has Reinforcement fighters cannot be Wiped Out.
Truce
After the fifth or succeeding rounds the controlling players of all the gangs remaining on the battlefield can agree to a Truce, in which case all of the Active, Pinned, Engaged, and Broken fighters remaining on the battlefield are removed from play immediately. Next for each Seriously Injured fighter remaining on the battlefield (if any) the controlling player of that fighter rolls a D6; on a 3+ remove the fighter from the battlefield unharmed (they will be available for their gang's next battle) but on a 1 or 2 a Lasting Injury roll must be made for that fighter and then they are removed from the battlefield.
Victory
If at the end of a round all but one gang has been Wiped Out, the battle ends in a Win for the remaining gang and a Loss for the other gangs.
If a Truce was reached the battle is considered a Draw for the gangs who made a Truce, and a Loss for any gangs that were eliminated from the battle before the Truce was reached.
Rewards (Campaign Only)
Experience
Participation
Each fighter who participated in the battle gains 1 XP. Reinforcements who never made it onto the battlefield did not actually participate in the battle and do not gain this 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.
Winners
If a gang Wins the battle, any of that gang's fighters who remain on the battlefield at the end of the battle each gain an additional 1 XP. And if that gang's Leader participated in the battle they gain 1 additional XP (even if they are no longer on the battlefield at the end of the battle).
Reputation
Each gang gains 1 Reputation per opposing gang.
Each gang that survived until the beginning of the fifth round gains 1 Reputation.
If a gang failed to take at least one enemy Out of Action, that gang loses 1 Reputation.
Diversity Incentive
For each of the opposing gangs that a gang has never fought before this battle, a gang
can gain either D3 Reputation or a pool of D3+1 XP to distribute amongst the gang's participating fighters.
Spoils
If there is a winning gang, that gang may either gain +1 Reputation or add up to 50 credits
worth of items from the
Spoils
list to their gang's Stash immediately.
Post-Battle Sequence
Proceed to the Post-Battle Sequence.