Fantasy Wargame Mass Battle Rules

This game is designed as a two-player game using dozens of miniatures and at least 3 six-sided dice for each player.

Getting Started:The first step is to choose a faction. Most games are Good vs Evil, though other scenarios can be used; for example, a Civil War can pit Good vs Good. Next, each player agrees on the number of Standard, Elite and Champion units that each side will use, then chooses the units for his army. One player is chosen as the attacker; that player sets up first, and acts first in each round.

Standard units: These are the ‘grunts’ of your army. They always act in groups of four called squads.
Elite units: These are mid-level leaders, captains, and specialized units. They act individually.
Champion units: Your toughest and best units, including warlords, wizards and heroes. Champions act individually and can use special abilities called Feats a certain number of times each battle.

Winning
Each game is played to a predetermined point total. The first player to reach this total is the winner. Points are scored by defeating enemy units as follows: Standard units are worth 1 point; Elite units, 2 points; and Champions are worth 3 points. In addition, a Unique unit that has used any of its Fate Points is worth 1 extra point for each Fate Point used, and a Champion that has used any of its Heroic Feats is worth 1 extra point for each Feat used. Extra points may also be scored on maps that have Victory Areas or by completing certain goals in Scenario games.

Setting Up
Before the game starts, both players should agree on a victory point total, a faction, and how many units of each rank will be fielded. The total number of activations should be equal on each side.

There are two battlefield types: pregenerated maps and constructable battlefields. Pregenerated maps should be agreed on when sides are chosen. If the players are using a constructable battlefield, each picks 3 pieces of terrain as part of building their armies. A blank map is used; each player uses the back two rows of his side as his start area. The players then take turns placing terrain on the battlefield. A player can only place terrain on the half of the battlefield that is closest to his start area, and cannot place terrain closer than 2 squares to the edge of the map or the edge of another terrain piece.

Once the battlefield is ready, the attacker sets up his army, then the defender sets up his. When setting up a squad, each unit must be adjacent to another unit in that squad, though they can split up during the game.

Rounds, Turns and Phases
The game is played in a series of rounds, with each round consisting of an equal number of alternating turns per player. To start the game, the attacking player activates one of his units or squads and moves it out of his start area; this is that unit or squad’s turn. Then the defending player activates and moves one of his units or squads. Play alternates in this way, one turn at a time, until each player has taken all available turns; this completes one round. Each unit or squad can only activate once in each round.

When a player has fewer units or squads to activate than he has turns, he may pass turns during the round to make up the difference.

A unit’s turn has two phases, a movement phase and an attack phase. These phases may be taken in any order. During the movement phase, a unit can move up to its movement rate, or it can Double-time. During its attack phase, it can attack one enemy unit. A unit may also activate and simply do nothing that round.

Rank, Type and Class
Each unit belongs to one of three ranks: Standard, Elite, or Champion; one of two types: Infantry or Cavalry; and one of six classes: Archer, Pike, or Warrior (if Infantry) or Mounted Archer, Lancer, or Knight (if Cavalry).

Squads: All Standard units belong to a squad of 4 Infantry or 2 Cavalry, identified by the color of the unit’s base. These units activate during the same turn; activate each unit separately, one at a time.
Reforming Squads: At the end of each round, a player may change which squad a unit belongs to by switching out the model for one with a different base color.

Movement
An Infantry unit can move up to 6 squares during its movement phase, or up to 12 squares if it Double-times. A Cavalry unit can move up to 8 squares, or up to 16 squares if it Double-times. Diagonal movement counts the same as linear movement. Units cannot move through other units, through walls/blocking terrain or across pits. A unit that moves out of a square adjacent to an enemy pays double the normal movement cost.

Double-time: A unit can move twice its normal movement rate if it skips its attack phase for the round.

Combat
When one unit attacks another, both the attacker and defender roll a die or dice depending on its rank. A Standard unit rolls a single die; an Elite unit rolls 2 dice and takes the better result; a Champion rolls 3 dice and takes the best result. Each player adds any applicable bonuses or penalties, and compares it to the other player’s result. If the attacker’s result is higher than the defender’s result, the attack is successful. If the attacker’s result is equal to or less than the defender’s result, the attack fails.

Any successful attack on a Standard or Elite Infantry unit defeats that unit; it is immediately removed from the battlefield. The first successful attack on a Champion Infantry unit causes that Champion to be Wounded. A successful attack on a Wounded Champion defeats that Champion.

Defeated Units: A unit that has been defeated is immediately removed from the battlefield. This could represent a number of things: the unit has been killed, rendered unconscious, captured, wounded too badly to fight, demoralized, routed, or any other condition that keeps it from fighting.

Reinforcements (optional): When a unit is defeated, place it off the map in a reinforcement pool. At the end of each round, each player may take units from his reinforcement pool and place them on the battlefield in his starting area. A player may take 4 Standard, 1 Elite and 1 Champion unit as reinforcements each round. Unique units cannot be respawned this way; once they are defeated, they are removed from the game.

Infantry Units
There are three classes of Infantry unit: Warriors, Pikes and Archers. Warriors and Pikes may only attack adjacent enemies; Archers may only attack non-adjacent enemies. Each class has special abilities that affect your tactics.

Warrior
Flanking: When an attacking Warrior has an allied unit on the opposite side of its target, it gets a +1 bonus to its attack. The Warrior and ally must be adjacent to the target and positioned so that a line drawn from the center of the Warrior’s space to the center of the ally’s space passes through the center of the target’s space. The ally does not need to be able to attack in order to provide flanking.

Pike
Facing: A Pike unit has a facing, as indicated on the miniature’s base. The square directly in front of the facing indicator, and the squares on either side of that square, make up the Pike unit’s front arc. A Pike unit can only attack enemies in its front arc, and suffers a -1 to defense rolls when attacked from any adjacent square other than its front arc. A Pike unit may only change its facing during its movement phase. An enemy unit who moves into to a Pike unit’s front arc must immediately stop its movement.
Charging: A Pike unit may charge at an enemy to get a +1 bonus to its attack. When charging, this unit uses its movement phase first, then its attack phase. It must move at least 2 squares, and it must move in a straight (linear or diagonal) path over clear terrain.

Archer
Ranged attack: An Archer can attack any enemy that is not adjacent to an ally and to which it has a line of fire. Line of Fire is determined by drawing an imaginary line from the corner of the Archer’s space that is nearest to the target, to the nearest corner of the target’s space; if the line touches blocking terrain, even at a single point, then the line of fire is blocked. An Archer suffers a -1 penalty to its attack when its line of fire touches other units or hindering terrain. An Archer cannot attack adjacent enemies, and it suffers a -1 penalty to defense rolls.
Range modifier: Apply the following modifiers to a ranged attack by counting distance from the Archer to the target:
2-6 squares: no modifier
7-12 squares: -1
13-18 squares: -2
19-24 squares: -3
25-30 squares: -4
31-36 squares: -5

Cavalry Units
As with Infantry, there are three classes of Cavalry: Knights, Lancers and Mounted Archers. A Cavalry unit gets a +1 bonus to attack rolls when attacking an Infantry unit. It isn’t impeded by moving out of a square adjacent to an enemy.

When an attack on a Standard Cavalry unit is successful, that unit is defeated. When an attack on an Elite Cavalry unit is successful, that unit’s player rolls a die. On a result of 1-3, the unit is defeated. On a result of 4-6, the unit is dismounted; place an Infantry version of the unit in any of the four squares it formerly occupied. When an attack on a Champion Cavalry unit is successful; the unit is dismounted.

Knight – Flanking, as Warrior above.
Lancer – Charging, as Pike above. Lancers do not have a Facing.
Mounted Archer – Ranged Attack, as Archer above.

Special Abilities
All Elite and Champion units have one or more optional special abilities. These abilities are always in effect unless a player declares otherwise. When an ability affects other units in a player’s army, it will use keywords to define which units are affected. When a unit is affected by two or more special abilities that each grant a bonus to attack or defense rolls, that unit only receives the benefit of the highest bonus.

Fate Points
All Unique units have one or more Fate Points. These non-renewable points are spent during combat. When a unit with Fate Points makes an attack or is attacked, it may spend a Fate Point to reroll one die, or to force his opponent to reroll one die. The rerolled result replaces the original result, even if it is lower. A unit may use any number of its Fate Points during a single attack, and can use Fate Points to reroll a result caused by an opponent’s use of Fate Points.

Heroic Feats
All Champion units have 1, 2 or 3 Heroic Feats available to use in each game. Feats are instant-use special abilities. Each Feat specifies when it is used; only one Feat may be used in a single turn.

1 – Burst of Speed: The Champion can move 2 extra squares when moving, or 4 extra squares if it Double-times.
2 – Frenzy: If the Champion defeats an enemy unit, it may immediately make a second attack against another enemy.
3 – Mobility: The Champion may use its attack phase during its movement phase; it may move, then attack, and then continue moving up to its movement limit.
4 – Protect: When an attack against an ally adjacent to the Champion is successful, use this Feat to make the attack unsuccessful instead.
5 – Throw: The Champion may attack an enemy up to 4 squares away if there are no intervening warriors.
6 – Vault: The Champion may move through one square of deep water or pit terrain or one occupied square while moving.

Terrain
Various types of terrain will have different effects on movement and sometimes on combat. Some terrain types are as follows:

Blocking – A building, wall, dense forest, etc. A unit cannot move or make a ranged attack through blocking terrain.
Hindering – Rubble, brush, etc. When moving through hindering terrain, each square counts as two squares. For Large-based units, each space counts as two spaces if any square of that space is hindering terrain.
Elevated – Hill, wall top, roof. All elevated terrain is treated as being the same height above the battlefield. A unit on elevated terrain is not adjacent to any unit on ground-level terrain.

Some terrain types incorporate only certain elements of the above, or combine different types:

Slope – The sides of a hill can be either abrupt (cliff) or sloped. Slope terrain is hindering. A unit cannot end its movement on slope terrain. Any unit that is forced onto slope terrain is placed in the nearest legal space at the foot of the slope.
Concealing – Reeds, bushes, low walls. Treat as clear terrain for movement, but hindering terrain for line of fire purposes.
Shallow Water/Mud – A stream, pond, or marsh. Shallow water terrain is hindering terrain for movement purposes only.
Deep Water/Pit – A river, lake, or ocean, or chasm. Deep water or pit terrain is blocking terrain for movement purposes only; it doesn’t block line of fire.