Battle 3: Dawn Assault

A powerful enemy force launches an attack on a smaller defending force in a carefully prepared defensive position. The attackers need to boldly overrun the defenders in their concealed positions, avoiding mine-fields and booby-traps as they go. The defenders must desperately hold their ground and pray that their reinforcements arrive in time to save the day!

The following special rules are used in this scenario: Reserves, Objectives, Army morale, Hidden set-up, Fortifications.

Forces

Both players pick armies to an agreed number of points.

Set-up

1. Determine who will be the attacker and who will be the defender. If one player sets up the terrain, then his opponent is allowed to choose which table edge he wishes to deploy on. If both players helped set up the terrain, or it was set up randomly, then roll a dice to see who gets the choice of table edge.
2. Place objectives, as described. The attacker places the first objective and then the players alternate until all the objectives have been placed.
3. The defender must roll a D6 for each detachment in his army. On a roll of 1–3 the detachment starts in reserve. On a roll of 4–6 the detachment is deployed on the table or is available on the first turn in the case of flyers. At least one defending detachment will be deployed at the start of the game. If the defender fails to roll 4 or more for any of his detachments he may pick one detachment to deploy at the start of the game.
4. The defender sets up first, up to halfway across the table from his edge. The attacker then sets up on the opposite edge, up to 20cm onto the table. Defending infantry and vehicle detachments deploy using the Hidden Set-up rules and the defender may set up in fortifications if he wishes (see Hidden set-up and Fortifications).
5. All remaining defending detachments are in reserve at the start of the battle (see Reserves). Reserves may enter battle from the defender's table edge or up to half way along the two other edges of the table.

Objectives

The attacking player must place one objective per 500 points in his army (round fractions up). The defender places one objective per 1,000 points in his army, (rounding fractions down). For example, in a 1,500 point game, the attacker would place three objectives and the defender one.

The attacker can use any objectives apart from Rescue and Cleanse. The defender can only choose Cleanse objectives. The attacker can either pick his objectives randomly, or choose them from amongst those available. See Objectives for information on how the objectives are placed on the table.

Important: All objectives must be placed in the defender's half of the table, in addition to any other restrictions that apply to them.

Game length and victory conditions

The player that reduces the opposing army's morale to 0 or less first wins the battle. If this hasn't happened by the end of the 6th turn, or if both players' army morale falls to 0 or less on the same turn, then each player scores 2 victory points for each Take & Hold or Cleanse objective they hold. The attacker scores 1 victory point for any other objectives he's managed to achieve, while the defender scores 1 victory point for each other objective the attacker has failed to achieve. The player with the most victory points is the winner.