Combat is derived from a simplified version of WH40K tabletop rules. If you understand those, then a lot of this will sound familiar, just a bit jumbled to make it fit a forum game format better. If you’ve never encountered those rules, then don’t worry - the handfuls of dice required are handled in the background and your side of things is kept as simple as possible, and the progression of events is rigid and straightforward:
Command Resolution
Shooting Phase
Melee
Movement
Morale Checks
The structure is designed so that the map on a given turn will almost always reflect the true positions of units during both the shooting and melee phases, without risk of trying to shoot a unit that has retreated out of range or being shot by a unit that moved into vision without warning. This structure means that, in general, a player action in combat needs to consist of any Command Abilities they intend to use, and then directions to each squad on whether or not to shoot or melee (and if so, who) and then where to move to. Combat ends when the map's objectives have been met, whether this means reaching an area, surviving for a time, killing a specific unit, capturing a structure, or any combination of the above or other sundry that occur to me. There may be bonus objectives, if there are then players can choose to end combat early- though doing so will require disengage moves for any units in melee. You can also tap out without completing, or having failed, objectives, again this requires disengaging from any melee and may have additional costs.
Command ResolutionEvery player character has a pool of Command Points, (CP) that they can use to spend on special abilities intrinsic to their class or that they gain over time. A player can use any number of abilities in a round as long as they can afford the total cost, and so long as the ability itself does not specify otherwise. However, a single squad cannot be targeted by the same ability more than once in a round.
Some abilities may have triggers in other phases (such as shooting, movement, or morale). And if so will wait to take effect until the triggering condition within the relevant phase is met. Some abilities may specify ‘immediately’, and this will cause the relevant phase to evaluate
for that unit or squad alone outside the normal order, and they will not take part in that phase when it comes up for other units.
Shooting PhaseEvery unit in a squad (hopefully) has at least one weapon, and during the shooting phase each unit can select one of their weapons to attack any other squad within the range of that weapon
so long as that unit is not within engagement range* of an enemy unit. If a unit from a squad is within engagement range it must skip its shooting phase, though other units within the squad can fire normally. If a non-engaged unit from an engaged squad fires during the shooting phase, it cannot participate during the ranged portion of the melee phase. For infantry, unless a weapon has the [Extra Attacks] special property, only one weapon can be selected
per unit per shooting phase. For example, the standard infantry has both a bolt-action rifle and a sidearm - but they can’t fire both in the same shooting phase. Likewise, a heavy weapon team on an infantry squad will have service rifles in addition to their crewed weapon, but can’t operate the weapon and fire rifles at the same time. However, the two soldiers in a heavy weapon team can operate their weapon AND the standard infantry can fire their rifles at the same time, since each unit is still only using one weapon. Weapons have a stat breakdown that looks like this,
| RNG | ATK | ACC | STR | AP | DMG | SPC |
| Bolt-Action Rifle | 24 | 1 | 4+ | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
*Engagement range is 1 at base and is a zone around a unit that includes all adjacent tiles including diagonals. Units with higher engagement range engage their adjacent tiles (including diagonals) and any unit with any combination of cardinal direction moves equal to their Engagement range. If unit A has unit B in their engagement range, but unit B does not have unit A in their engagement range, then A can fire normally during the shooting phase if desired, while B must wait until the ranged phase of melee combat.
RNG (Range) is the number of tiles a weapon can fire out to. For the purposes of determining range, only cardinal movement by shortest path is allowed. No combination of benefits can raise range more than 50% of its base. ATK (Attacks) is the number of attacks a weapon makes. ACC (Accuracy) is the number that needs to be met or beaten to land a hit. No combination of benefits or penalties can sum to more than a +2 or a -2 to ACC. STR (Strength) is the stopping power of the weapon and influences how likely a weapon is to inflict a wound. AP (Armor Penetration) is how well a weapon can penetrate armor, and determines how difficult it is for the target to mitigate damage. SPC (Special) can include none or many tags that influence the properties of a weapon, from the ability to fire rapidly at close range to explosive weapons that gain additional attacks against massed units.
In the shooting phase, in order to simplify things,
the players always have the initiative. This means that all player attacks will be resolved before any enemy attacks, so that if two squads of infantry both engage in ranged combat, the player will have the opportunity to reduce the enemy numbers first. However, with that advantage comes the fact that you cannot target squads conditionally. Meaning you can’t say ‘Squad A engages enemy Squad B, UNLESS Squad B is already destroyed, then engage enemy Squad C instead’. Thus if you allocate three squads of riflemen to fire on a single enemy squad, you’ll waste the actions of two squads if the first squad completely destroys the opposing squad*. Enemy squads
are not bound by this rule and will target units efficiently at the squad level, though if a squad overkills another squad in an attack, they don’t get to efficiently retarget at the unit level. So, to restate, player controlled squads will always resolve their ranged attacks before the enemy gets to fire, but enemy squads will never be in the position where they waste squad actions targeting already killed squads.
*For the purposes of cover and all other rules those wasted squads
will count as having shot that round.
For the actual shooting, every unit of a squad rolls a d6 for each attack their weapon allows them to make, applying relevant bonuses/penalties to accuracy on each one. For each die that lands a natural 6 or rolls at or above the accuracy rating of their weapon, they get a hit.
Special Circumstance, Firing into Melee: Units not in engagement range of the enemy can fire at enemy units that
are engaged in melee. However, when doing so all missed attacks against the enemy will be rolled again as though they were targeting friendly units. If the friendly units outnumber the enemy, and/or they are larger, the accuracy is treated as being 1 better for this new roll, and 1 worse if the same is true for the enemy. (So the max bonus/penalty is +2/-2 depending on situation)
For each hit a new d6 is rolled, with the new threshold being a comparison of the attacker’s strength vs the defender’s toughness. Once again, a natural 6 will always generate a potential wound, and otherwise the table below shows the necessary values to inflict a wound.
| Strength Is | Roll needed |
| <= Half Toughness | 6+ |
|
| < Toughness | 5+ |
| = Toughness | 4+ |
| > Toughness | 3+ |
| >= Twice Toughness | 2+ |
For each wound, the defending unit makes an armor save, subtracting the AP value of the weapon from their roll. If the resulting save roll is greater than or equal to their SAV value, they can ignore the wound. Otherwise they take the damage listed by the weapon. If a unit’s HP is reduced to 0, they are considered downed/disabled. If a unit is reduced to negative HP equal to their max health, they are considered to be instantly killed.
Melee PhaseAfter the shooting phase is resolved, melee begins. First, any squads that are engaged and have units that did not engage in the shooting phase and have ranged weapons with the [CloseQuarters] tag fire on one another, resolving using the sequence of rolls outlined above.
After all [CloseQuarters] ranged weapons have been exhausted, then both sides press in to fight in melee, with all units moving in to get within engagement range of an enemy unit. After pressing in, the units will attack using melee weapons- again using the same sequence of steps and rolls as during the shooting phase. If not all units in a squad can press in to melee, only those units that have the enemy in engagement range, or are in the engagement range, can participate in melee combat.
Importantly while the ‘shooting’ part of the melee phase happens before the true melee, both friendly and enemy attacks are resolved simultaneously during both parts of the melee phase. This means that neither side gets to weaken the other first, and that it’s entirely possible for a melee to end with both squads involved finishing with no combat capable members.
After both parts of the Melee Phase complete, any survivors will press back in so that as many units as reasonable are back within engagement range.
Movement PhaseIf a squad is not currently within engagement range of an enemy squad and has no downed units, then it’s allowed to move up to the MOV score of its slowest member - with distance being calculated along cardinal movements only. Importantly, since squads move as a group, this movement is not perfectly exact and individual members may move slightly more or less as they navigate terrain and take cover/concealment at the destination.
If a squad has downed units then their movement speed is reduced by 1 for each downed unit to a minimum of half of base - rounded up. Squads can choose to abandon downed units at any time, but if they need to make a morale check at the end of the round they have a -1 for each downed unit they abandoned this turn. Abandoned units are more likely to die at the end of battle, as described in combat resolution at the bottom of this spoiler.
Additionally, if a squad did not engage in the shooting phase, its base MOV score is treated as being half-again higher (rounded down) and can do one of the following if desired.
Disengage: This allows a squad to move even if some units are within engagement range of the enemy. To start, each unit within engagement range rolls a d6, on a 1-3, that unit is considered downed. After that, the remaining members of the squad can move normally away from the aggressors. Additionally, this squad can oppose a charge roll made by another squad, causing the charge to fail if the disengaging squad rolls equal to or higher than the charging squad.
Charge: In a charge move, the charging squad selects another enemy squad. After completing their normal move, they roll 2d6. If the roll is equal to or greater than the distance between engagement range of the enemy, they can immediately move and pile-in towards the enemy squad. If the roll falls short, there is no additional movement.
Moral CheckAt the very end of the combat round, all squads operating at less than half strength have to make a morale check. To do this they roll 2d6, and if they roll equal to or greater than their leadership score (or that of their embedded hero) then they pass and there is no effect. If they roll below, then they suffer a morale break. Morale broken units do not contribute to holding objectives, their base movement is considered halved (round up), and have -2 acc with all weapons.
Once Moral checks are complete, any squads that are not morale broken contribute their control (CON) value to any objectives they're near. Potentially contesting or capturing them for the start of the next turn.
End of CombatAt the very end of combat the losses are tallied and the results given before the game shifts back to a non-combat segment. All downed units that were kept with their squads will be alive after the battle as wounded, to be cared for and (hopefully) patched back up during the downtime. However, any downed units from annihilated squads, or who were abandoned in the field, have a one in three chance to be killed permanently.
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Topic: Entrenched | 4/4ish | Sealed Orders (Read 2702 times)