Core Rules

Setup & Core Concepts

The game is played on a hex-grid board. Playtesting was completed on a 17/18 x 30 hex-grid board.

The Playing Zone

Zone Classification: The playing area is divided into two distinct regions: the Skirmish Zone and the Drop Zones.

Drop Zone Lines: These lines delineate the boundary between the Drop Zones and the Skirmish Zone. Drop Zone Lines block visibility.

Deployment Restrictions: Once a unit has exited a Drop Zone, it is prohibited from re-entering the Drop Zone.

Hex Inclusion: A hex is considered part of the Drop Zone only if it is fully contained within the Drop Zone boundaries.

Units, Models, and Races

A “unit” refers to a model that represents a member of your chosen faction. Any model can be used to represent a unit as long as 1) It’s clear to your opponent which unit the model is representing, and 2) the model’s active hex is clear to both players. “Race” refers to the species of the unit. (e.g. goblin, myconid, etc.)

Measurement, Movement, & REACH

All ranges and movement values are measured in hexes. Being within REACH of something means being in an adjacent hex to that something. Being within REACH allows you to use melee weapons or interact.

Active Hex and Determining Visibility

A unit’s active hex is the hex that model is currently in. If you’re using a model that covers more than one hex, you need to determine which hex is your active hex. The active hex will be used for primary gameplay for the unit. (e.g. when determining hex path for movement, shooting hex, target hex, etc.)

If you can draw a line between two hexes (from any point) and not touch a hex that contains heavy terrain, then those hexes are visible to each other.

Unit Stats & Injury

Each unit and weapon have stats that are attributed to them. Stats are shared amongst a certain race. A unit’s base stats might be changed based on the generic unit type it is (e.g. heavy gunner units have -1 to their move stat).

Stats

Move: This stat represents how many hexes your unit can move when performing a normal move. This stat can never be modified 4.
Health Points (HP): This stat represents the health of your model.
Accuracy (ACC): This stat represents what result is the minimum needed on a d6 to count as a successful hit.
Action Limit (AL): This stat represents how many actions a model can perform during its activation. This stat can never be greater than +1/-1 from its base value.

Injury

Whenever a unit is below half their base HP, they are considered injured. When a unit is injured, it’s Move Stat will be drop by 2, and ACC stats on its weapons will be worse by 1 (e.g. 3+ goes to 4+)

Activation & Movement

Whenever you activate a unit, it generates a number of Action Limit Points (ALP) equal to its current Action Limit stat.

Movement Actions

Action	Cost (ALP)	Effect
Normal Move	1 ALP	Move up to MOVE hexes. Cannot travel within REACH of enemy units.
Dash	1 ALP	Move up to 3 hexes. Can be performed in the same activation as a Normal Move or Disengage. Cannot travel within REACH of enemy units.
Disengage	2 ALP	Move up to MOVE hexes. Must start within REACH of an enemy unit. Cannot travel within REACH of enemy units after leaving the starting hex.
Charge	1 ALP	Move up to MOVE + 2 hexes. Must end within REACH of an enemy unit. Once a charging unit enters REACH of an enemy, it cannot leave REACH of that unit unless another friendly unit is within REACH of that enemy unit.
Roll	Free	(Sniper’s Only) Move 1 hex for free after shooting a Stationary weapon.

Terrain Types

There are two types of terrain: Light and Heavy.

You can use any terrain for shade as long as the hexes that contain that terrain are clear to you and your opponent. Any terrain that is over 2.5 inches is Heavy, otherwise it is Light. A unit cannot climb over heavy terrain, but they can fly over it. A unit can move over light terrain but must minus 2 to their actual move or charge after moving off of light terrain. Units can climb across multiple light terrain hexes in a row and only pay the 2 movement tax. If a unit doesn’t have enough movement to end in a position after being placed (e.g. trying to dash over light terrain) it cannot make that move.

Any hex that contains a terrain piece in it, adopts that terrain piece’s categorization. If a heavy and light piece of terrain share a hex, that hex is considered heavy.

Battle Tactics

Tactics are special abilities that cost Ley Points (LP) to use. Tactics add strategic depth and can turn the tide of battle.

Using Tactics

Cost: All tactics cost Ley Points (LP) to use.

Frequency: Each specific tactic can only be played once per round per player.

Tactic Types

Round Tactics: These last for the duration of the entire round. They are declared at the beginning of the round during the Round Steps.

Activation Tactics: These have an immediate effect ('instant'). They are typically used during a unit's activation or in reaction to a specific event on the battlefield.

Shooting & Fighting

Weapon Stats

Weapons will have 4 stats and possible special rules that apply to that weapon. (Special Rules can be found in the Glossary).

Attack (ATK): How many dice you will roll when shooting or fighting someone.

Range (RNG): How close to the target you need to be to use that weapon. A range of “Melee” means that you need to be within reach of the target unit.

Accuracy (ACC): represents what result is the minimum needed on a d6 to count as a successful hit. (Primarily, this will be the same as your unit’s base stats, but some weapons might have their own ACC value).

Power (PWR): This stat represents the amount of damage you’ll do for a normal and crit (shown as Normal Damage/ Crit Damage).

Special Rules (SR): Any special rules that weapon has.

Shoot Action (1 ALP)

In order a unit to shoot an enemy unit, the following must be true:

• The shooting unit must not be within REACH of an enemy unit.

• The shooter’s active hex (Shooting Hex) must have visibility to the target unit’s hex (target hex)

• The selected weapon must have the range to reach the target unit (e.g. target is 1- hexes away from the shooter, they need a weapon with at least 10 range)

When a unit shoots, follow these steps:

1. Select a weapon (at this stage is where you verify that you can shoot the target unit)

2. Determine if the target is being blocked by terrain. Being Blocked is when drawing a line from the center of the shooting hex to the center of the target hex crosses any hex (more than 2 away from the shooting hex) that contains terrain.

3. Roll the number of D6’s equal to the Attack Stat of the weapon. After initially rolling dice, use any rules that may allow you to re-roll or change the result of a d6. *please note: you can only re-roll a d6 once.

4. For each d6 that has a result of 6, it counts as a critical hit. For any other d6 that is equal to or greater than your weapon’s accuracy stat, they count as normals.

5. Add up the dice results to get your total power for that attack (e.g. if you have a 3/4 weapon, and roll 2 hits and a crit, that is 10 total power)

6. Subtract the target’s defense from the total power to get damage done. If the attack is shooting and the target is blocked, then the target’s defense is 9 (no other defense bonuses can add to this. Blocked will always be a 9).

7. If the damage done is above 0, subtract it from the target’s health points.

Fight Action (1 ALP)

In order a unit to fight an enemy unit, the following must be true:

• The shooting unit must be within REACH of the enemy unit it’s fighting.

When a unit fights, follow these steps:

1. Select a weapon (at this stage is where you verify that you can shoot the target unit)

2. Roll the number of D6’s equal to the Attack Stat of the weapon. After initially rolling dice, use any rules that may allow you to re-roll or change the result of a d6. *please note: you can only re-roll a d6 once.

3. For each d6 that has a result of 6, it counts as a critical hit. For any other d6 that is equal to or greater than your weapon’s accuracy stat, they count as normals. For Melee, for each additional friendly unit that is within REACH of that enemy unit, improve the accuracy to a max of 2+. Remember, 1's always fail to hit.

4. Add up the dice results to get your total power for that attack (e.g. if you have a 3/4 weapon, and roll 2 hits and a crit, that is 10 total power)

5. Subtract the target’s defense from the total power to get damage done. If the attack is shooting and the target is blocked, then the target’s defense is 9 (no other defense bonuses can add to this. Blocked will always be a 9).

6. If the damage done is above 0, subtract it from the target’s health points.

Match Play Rules

Pre-Game Procedures

Before the first battle round begins, players must complete the following steps in order: The Bid, Side Selection, and Deployment.

1. The Bid

Both players secretly select between 0 and 3 dice to hold in their hand. Once both players are ready, they reveal their bids simultaneously.

The number of dice revealed represents the amount of Ley Points (LP) a player is willing to grant their opponent in exchange for choosing their role.

The player with the higher bid chooses to be either the Attacker or the Defender. The opponent begins the game with LP equal to the winning bid. The winner of the bid begins with 0 LP.

If both players reveal the same number of dice, a Roll-Off is required. Both players begin with 0 LP. The winner of the Roll-Off chooses their role. The loser of the Roll-Off receives the Underdog Bonus: they gain a cumulative +2 modifier to their next Roll-Off result (this bonus increases by +2 for every consecutive Roll-Off loss) and will win any future tied Roll-Offs until they eventually win a Roll-Off.

If no Roll-Off was required during The Bid, the player designated as the Attacker breaks all ties for the remainder of the first round.

2. Side Selection

Once roles are assigned, the Defender selects the battlefield edge or deployment zone they wish to occupy. The Attacker takes the opposite side.

3. Deployment

Deployment begins with the Defender. The Defender must deploy half of their total units (rounding up).

The Attacker then deploys half of their total units (rounding up).

Players alternate deploying their remaining units, one by one, until all models are fully deployed on the battlefield.

Main Gameplay

A game will be played for 4 rounds. The maximum score you can have is 16 victory points: 8 from the Primary Mission (max 2 per turn) and Faction Missions (Max 4 per game).

In Round 1, Objective Markers 1, 3, and 5 will be active. You can still perform mission actions on inactive primary objective markers, but you will not score for them during a round when they're inactive. At the end of each round, the objective markers will swap to the other status (e.g. round 2, markers 2, 4, and 6 will be active)

Round Steps

Roll Off: Both players roll off to decide who has initiative. For each subsequent time you lose a roll off, your result will get 1 added to it. Whoever didn't have initiative the turn before wins tie-breakers when both players have the same dice result.
Starting with the player with initiative, declare a Round Tactic you will be using this round. Go back and forth until both players pass (choose not to declare any other round tactics).
Starting with the player with initiative, take turns activating units. A unit cannot be activated more than once per round. When activating a model, generate the Action Limit Points (ALP) equal to its current action limit stat (AL). If one player still has units to activate, and the other player has activated all their models. The player without activations left can choose to CONTRAVENE (but only if the other player has units still to activate). An operative CONTRAVENING does not count as an activation. They can do a 1 APL action for free. If that action is a movement, they cannot move more than 2 hexes.
Once all units have activated, add up the primary mission points and any points from your faction missions you scored. For each point a player scored from the Primary Mission, they get a Ley point (Max 2 per Round).
The Primary Mission Objective Markers swap their active and inactive statuses and then you restart the Round steps until you've played 4 rounds.

Ending The Game

Once you have played 4 Rounds, the game is over and whoever has the most victory points wins the game. If you both have the same number of victory points, whoever had more points from their faction missions wins the game. If the total victory points from faction missions are also a tie, then both players tie the game.