Wargamers Anonymous

My dad is into model trains. One day, when I was in my mid-teens, I went with him to the local hobby store. On the way through the store to the train section, I happened to find a display of unpainted metal fantasy miniatures. The sculpts were amazing... every little detail was articulated, every fang, every link of the chainmail, every scale... I was instantly smitten.

Thus began my love of miniatures. I bought a few and started painting right away (Grenadier models, soon followed by Ral Partha). Eventually, my curiosity about these critters led me to Dungeons and Dragons - I got the Basic (red box) set as a holiday present, and ran with it from there. I roped my brother and his friends into playing, and for most of my high school years, we had a decent-sized group going.

I didn't keep it up much after high school, and ended up selling most of my minis. I would get back into the minis hobby a bit here and there, until the Mage Knight game came out. This game used pre-painted plastic minis with a set of rules for battling them against each other. Right up my alley! So I played MK for a while... and then Hasbro came out with the D&D Minis game. Here were prepainted minis of classic monsters from my high school days, plus DDM was just a better skirmish game. When Mage Knight switched to a 'new' (worse) format, I switched to DDM (and got my brother into it as well).

I played DDM on a tournament level for a few years, and eventually had a complete collection (don't ask how much money I spent). Then the unthinkable happened - DDM also switched to a 'new' (worse) format, and I dropped the game like a hot potater. I sold off my vast collection, except for a few of the cheaper models, and focused on painting and terrain-building.

Now, I'm working on creating a minis game that fuses the best aspects of DDM, Mage Knight Dungeons, Basic D&D, and mechanics of my own design, and mixes it all into a fun, playable game. It's... a work in progress.

But at least I have minis for it!

GETTING STARTED:
There are two things each player must do before beginning a game: build an army, and set up the battlefield.

Building Your Army: Before starting, all players should agree on the build total for each army. The build total is the total number of points a player can spend to put warriors in his army. Build totals should be in multiples of 50 points, and the standard game is 300 points.

Step 1: Choose a faction. There are eight factions: Elemental League, Necropolis Sect, Knights Immortal, Orc Raiders, Draconum, Solonavi, Shyft and Bone Brigade.

Step 2: Choose your warriors. Your warriors’ point values should add up to, but not exceed, the build total. Keep in mind that you will be acquiring reinforcements throughout the game, so you might be able to add warriors later in the game that you aren’t able to include at the beginning.

Setting Up the Battlefield: When using a blank map as the battlefield, players will take turns placing terrain features. First, each player chooses three terrain features from the available terrain pool. Then, each player rolls two six-sided dice. The high roller places first. All battlefield areas are clear terrain except where terrain features are placed. Clear terrain has no effect on game play. Each player selects one of their chosen terrain features and places it on the battlefield. It cannot be placed within two squares of any map edge or any other terrain feature.

When using prepared maps instead of a blank map, each player rolls two six-sided dice, and the high roller gets to choose which map to use. The second player then chooses which side he will enter from.

When using terrain tiles, the center tile is placed first in the middle of the table. Then players roll to see who will place tiles first. Each player takes alternating turns placing a tile in one of the eight areas adjacent to the center tile.

Once the battlefield is ready, each player chooses a side to enter from and sets out his army along that side. In a two-player game, players must start at opposite sides. At this time, any warriors with the Scout special ability may be placed on the map; all other warriors start off the map.

Tips: Choose a map or terrain features that interact with your warriors’ special abilities such as Stealth or Aquatic. Place these features so that the warriors who need them can reach them quickly and still be able to contribute to the battle. Terrain can also be placed so that it slows down your opponent, but be aware of your opponent’s special abilities as well. Don’t place a wall in front of an enemy warrior who can use Flight to simply move over it.

HOW TO PLAY:

Order of Play: Each player rolls two six-sided dice to determine order of play. The player with the highest roll is Player 1, and so on.

Turns and Rounds: Player 1 begins the game by activating one of his warriors and moving it onto the map. The warrior’s first square of movement is when it enters the map; count out its movement normally thereafter. This is called a turn (either the player’s turn or the warrior’s turn). Once Player 1’s turn is finished, Player 2 activates one of his warriors and moves it onto the map. Play alternates in this way until each player has taken ten turns; this completes a full round of play.

Activations and Phases: When a warrior activates, its turn consists of two phases: the movement phase, and the action phase. These phases may be taken in any order. During the movement phase, a warrior may move up to 4 squares (6 squares if Mounted) in any direction, or use the Double-Time ability. During the action phase, a warrior may: make a melee attack; make a ranged attack; cast a spell (if it is a Sorcerer); or use a special ability that requires an action.

A warrior may only activate once in each round. Through the use of certain special abilities, it’s possible to activate more than ten warriors during your ten turns. If a player has fewer than ten warriors to activate, he may skip one or more of his turns during the round. Use colored tokens to keep track of your turns, and use the card-turning (‘tapping’) system to keep track of warrior activations.

Ending a Round: After each round, players calculate Victory Points, receive Reinforcement Points and deploy reinforcements. If any player’s Victory Point total is greater than the game’s build total, the game ends and the player with the highest score wins.

Victory Points: When an enemy warrior is defeated, the player who defeated it receives victory points equal to the enemy’s point cost. A player can also receive victory points by having a warrior in a victory area at the end of a round. The amount of points earned is 5% of the game’s build total, or 15 points in a 300 point game.

Reinforcement Points: At the end of each round, each player gains 5 Reinforcement Points. These points are cumulative and carry over each round. A player can spend Reinforcement Points immediately to add new warriors to his army. These new warriors may enter the battlefield during the next round from the player’s starting side. Spending these points takes place in the same order that players followed during the round. New Unique warriors may be brought in as reinforcements, but Unique warriors that have already been defeated cannot be brought back this way.

MOVEMENT:

When moving a warrior, count out its movement beforehand, and then move the figure to its destination square. Once a player has taken his hand off the moving figure, its movement phase is over unless the player has made an illegal move. When moving diagonally, the first diagonal move of the turn counts as one square, and each subsequent diagonal move during the turn counts as 2 squares. Terrain affects movement as indicated under the Terrain rules; certain special abilities may be used to affect movement as well.

A warrior cannot move through a square occupied by another warrior, whether ally or enemy. When moving out of a square adjacent to an enemy, movement cost is doubled.

Using the Double-Time Ability: Any warrior may use the Double-Time ability during its movement phase, unless another special ability or game factor prevents it. Move the warrior up to 8 squares in any direction (12 if Mounted). A warrior who uses Double-Time must skip its action phase.

Mounted Warriors: A Mounted warrior occupies two squares, a front and a back square as indicated by the miniature’s facing. When moving a Mounted warrior, count out the movement from its front square. When placing it in its new position, you may place its back square in any legal position relative to its front square.

COMBAT:

During its action phase, a warrior can make either a melee attack or a ranged attack. The warrior making the attack is the attacker. The warrior against which the attack is made is the target.

When a warrior makes an attack, it first declares its target and any special abilities to be used during the attack. The target’s player then appplies damage and any other effects as indicated on the attacker’s stat card.

Melee Attacks: A warrior may only make a melee attack against an enemy who is adjacent. Two warriors are adjacent to each other if they are on the same elevation, the squares that they occupy are touching, and a line can be drawn from the center of one square to the center of the other without touching blocking terrain.When multiple enemies are adjacent, the attacker must choose one as his target.

Flanking: When two allied warriors are adjacent to the same opposing warrior and directly opposite each other, so that a line drawn between the centers of their squares passes through the center of the opposing warrior’s square, they are flanking that opposing warrior. They each get a +1 bonus to their damage when making melee attacks against it.

Ranged Attacks and Targeting: A warrior may only make a ranged attack against a nonadjacent enemy, and only if there are no adjacent enemies. An attacker determines which enemy it can target by using the following rules:
1. An attacker must have line of sight to a potential target. Determine line of sight by drawing an imaginary line from any part of the attacker’s space to any part of the target’s space; if that line doesn’t touch or cross blocking terrain, the attacker has line of sight to the target.
2. Any enemy who does not have cover and is within range of the attack is a legal target; any enemy that does have cover is only a legal target if it is the nearest enemy to the attacker and within range of the attack. Determine cover by choosing one corner of the attacker’s space, then drawing imaginary lines to all four corners of the target’s space. If any of those lines touch or cross another warrior’s space or terrain that provides cover (other than the square the attacker occupies), then the target has cover.
3. Once all potential targets have been determined, choose one as the target and make the attack.

Mounted Warriors: A mounted warrior can only make attacks from its front square. However, it can be attacked in either its front or back square.

Defeating Warriors: As soon as a warrior has no more Life Points, it is defeated and is immediately taken off of the battlefield. The player who defeated it scores points for it at the end of the round. Non-Unique defeated warriors are returned to the player’s reinforcement pool and may be returned to play when the player spends his Reinforcement Points.

SPECIAL ABILITIES:

Free Actions: Some special abilities grant the warrior a free action; use of a free action doesn’t prevent the warrior from taking its normal turn and doesn’t use up either its movement phase or its action phase.

SPELLS:

Spell Points: A warrior with the Sorcerer special ability is able to cast spells. Each faction has a list of spells that its Sorcerers can cast, each with a Spell Point cost. Any Sorcerer can cast any spell from its faction’s spell list, as long as it has the required number of Spell Points. Certain Sorcerers also have access to out-of-faction spells as listed on the Sorcerer’s stat card. Casting a spell takes up a warrior’s action phase, and Spell Points are spent in casting.

TERRAIN TYPES:

Hindering terrain: This terrain represents rubble, forest, brush and such. Moving into a square of hindering terrain counts as moving through 2 squares; moving diagonally into hindering terrain counts as moving through 4 squares. Hindering terrain provides cover from ranged attacks.

Blocking terrain: This terrain represents a building, impassable forest, cliff side and so on. Blocking terrain prevents movement and lines of sight. It provides cover from ranged attacks.

Water terrain: Water terrain may be shallow or deep. Shallow water terrain is hindering terrain for movement purposes but clear terrain for line of fire purposes. Deep water terrain is blocking terrain for movement purposes but clear terrain for line of fire purposes.

Elevated terrain: This terrain represents a hill, low plateau, or rooftop. Other terrain features, such as hindering or water terrain, may be placed on elevated terrain as long as they aren’t in any edge squares. An elevated terrain feature blocks line of fire if neither the attacker nor the target are on elevated terrain. A warrior on the edge of elevated terrain may draw a line of fire to a warrior not on elevated terrain; otherwise, a warrior on elevated terrain may only draw a line of fire to another warrior on the same elevated terrain feature. A warrior not on elevated terrain may only draw a line of fire to a warrior on elevated terrain if the target is on the edge of the terrain.

Elevation and area effects: Abilities and effects that affect a certain area rather than targeting specific warriors (Shockwave, for example) can only affect warriors on the same elevation as the acting warrior.

STACKING:Stacking refers to using multiple instances of a spell or special ability. As a general rule, spells and special abilities that have an ongoing effect cannot be used by the same warrior more than once at a time. For example, the spell Tiamat’s Favor grants the target a +1 bonus to damage. That warrior cannot benefit from multiple castings of the spell; it will only have the +1 bonus granted. Once the spell effect ends, that warrior can benefit from another casting of the spell; it can also benefit from different spells or abilities that increase damage, such as Charge plus Tiamat’s Favor plus flanking the target of its attack.