Battle 6: Planetary Assault

Landing forces from orbit in order to gain a foothold on a planet has led to some of the bloodiest battles of the 41^st millennium. A defending force must fight tenaciously to stem the attacker's advance while the assaulting forces try to expand and protect their landing zone.

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

Forces

Each player picks an army to a pre-agreed points total. It is recommended that players specifically select forces which can undertake or fend off a planetary assault for this scenario, rather than playing this as a random scenario with pre-chosen armies.

Set-up

1. Determine who will be the attacker and who will be the defender.
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 must randomly select one of his detachments to deploy at the start of the game.
4. The defender sets up first, anywhere on the table that is at least 15cm away from a table edge. Defending infantry and vehicle detachments deploy using the Hidden Setup rules and the defender may set up in fortifications if he wishes (see Hidden set-up and Fortifications).
5. After the defender has set up, the attacker picks a single table edge as the entry point for his reserves, representing his primary off-table landing zone. Defending reserves may enter along any other table edge.

6. The attacker splits his army into two parts, representing two assault waves. The first wave must contain all the army's flyers and may contain any other detachments from the army. The second wave contains the rest of the army. The part of the army including the flyers is available from the first turn, but troops in this part may only be brought into play if transported by flyers or if they enter in drop pods (see Drop pods).

   The second part of the army starts in reserve and enters play using the normal Reserves rules, it being assumed that they have been landed near the battlefield in light orbital transports that couldn't be risked on a 'hot' landing zone.

7. Any hidden defending detachments that are revealed on the first turn must roll a D6 to see whether they are surprised or not. On a roll of 1–3 the detachment was surprised and is marked with a 'broken detachment' marker (it may rally using the standard rules). On a roll of 4–6 the detachment was not surprised and may act normally.

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 choose to either pick his objectives randomly, or choose them from amongst those available.

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 6^th 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 a bonus point for any other objectives he's managed to achieve, while the defender scores a bonus point for each other objective the attacker has failed to achieve. The player with the most victory points is the winner.