The War

Battle Royale; to the victor goes the spoils! (2-4 Gangs)

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

This is all out war and the goal is to survive. The last gang standing on the battlefield (if any) is the winner.

Underdog

There is no consideration for Underdog status in this scenario. 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 Card 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 Card deck and add it to their hand.

If a player would draw a Tactics Card but their Tactics Card deck is out of cards, they must shuffle their Tactics Card discard pile (if any) to reform their Tactics Cards deck and then draw (if able).

A player may choose to hold on to any Tactics Cards they have drawn that normally must be played upon a fighter when they are set up onto the battlefield and may instead play them upon any of their valid fighters when that fighter is activated at any point during the battle.

Crews and Waves

In this scenario all of each gang's eligible fighters form their Crew. However each gangs' Crew will be divided into four separate Waves.

First each player must chose a Leader or Champion (if any are participating in the battle) fighter card plus up to D3 + 1 other fighter cards from their Crew to form a First Wave deck.

Next each player may chose a remaining Leader or Champion fighter card, and / or up to D3 + 1 other remaining fighter cards from their Crew to form a Second Wave deck.

Then each player may chose a remaining Leader or Champion fighter card, and / or up to D3 + 1 other remaining fighter cards from their Crew to form a Third Wave deck.

Finally each player forms a Fourth Wave deck with all of the remaining fighter cards from their Crew (if any).

Note that for a given player, their Second Wave, Third Wave, and / or Fourth Wave decks might be empty.

Each Wave deck should be placed on the table face down with which Wave it is clearly marked; placing a dice on top of the deck with the appropriate number face up ('1' for First Wave, '2' for Second Wave, etc) is a convenient way to keep this straight. Each player may look at their own Wave decks as the battle progresses, but may not switch out the fighters in each group. Players may not look at other players' face down Wave decks.

Deployment

Each player has a wide deployment edge comprised of an entire side of the battlefield, from corner to corner.

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.

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; if there are any infiltrating fighters in a given Wave all players who have one or more of them take turns in priority order setting their infiltrating fighters up, after which all non-Broken fighters currently on the battlefield and all remaining fighters in the current Wave who are not yet deployed onto the battlefield gain Ready markers.

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 their activation 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 the opposing players' wide deployment edges each new enemy fighter will enter the battlefield introduces a lot of strategic and tactical considerations.

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.

Concede

Gangs cannot concede in the first or second rounds, but can concede at the end of the third and succeeding rounds. All of the Active, Pinned, Engaged, and Broken fighters of the conceding player's gang are removed from play immediately. Free attacks are not made against Engaged fighters being removed in this way. Next, for each of the gang's Seriously Injured fighters (if any) the conceding player 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.

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 or has Conceded, the battle is considered to be a Win for the remaining gang. If a Truce was reached, the battle is considered a Tie 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 particpate 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.

If a gang Conceded, that gang loses 1 Reputation.

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 below list to their gang's Stash immediately.

Post-Battle Sequence

Proceed to the Post-Battle Sequence.

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