Scenario: Hold the Center

The three scenarios that I posted last week all shared the same victory condition of destroying your opponent’s force. This week’s set of scenarios will showcase different victory conditions.

The first of these is Hold the Center. This is a take on objective holding that is designed to encourage aggressive tactics. Rather than trying to be in control of the objective at the end of the battle, this scenario is won by holding the objective for three turns in a row. That victory condition requires players to commit forces to reaching the center right from the beginning of the game. In order to push players even more to get in close, the scenario also makes use of weather to make shooting less accurate.

The three-in-a-row victory condition coupled with the small objective area will also reward players who know how to use push and charge attacks to manipulate the position of their opponent’s units.

Scenario 4: Hold the Center

In Hold the Center, the players are each attempting to secure an area at the center of the battlefield. Rain during the battle makes it harder to fight at range and pulls the forces closer to each other. In order to contest the small objective zone, charges and pushes can be an important tactical option in this scenario.

Setup

Choose two 17 × 15 mapsheets and lay them out so that they meet on their long sides forming a 17 × 31 battlefield. Alternatively, a single 17 × 31 mapsheet or BattleMat can be used.

Mark the central four hexes of the battlefield as an objective. On two joined mapsheets, the objective will occupy hex 1509 on the left mapsheet, hex 0109 on the right mapsheet, and the two unnumbered edge hexes that sit between them. On a double mapsheet or BattleMat, this will be hexes 1509, 1608, 1609, and 1709.

Deployment

The two players roll off and the player with the highest roll is the Attacker. The other player is the Defender. The Attacker chooses a short edge of the battlefield to be their home edge. The opposite edge is the Defender’s home edge.

The players deploy their forces before the first battle round. Each unit must be placed within 3 hexes of the controlling player’s home edge. The Attacker deploys the first unit and then the players alternate until all units have been deployed (following the rules for unequal numbers of units).

Scenario Rules

At the end of each turn’s End Phase, check for control of the objective in the center of the table. If only one player has at least one unit that is not crippled in the objective hexes, then that player controls the objective. If both players have at least on unit that is not crippled in the objective hexes, or neither player does, then the objective is uncontrolled.

During the entire battle, the rules for Moderate Rainfall (BMM p.62, TO:AR p.57) are in effect. This adds +1 to the target number for all weapon attacks and causes any depth 0 water hex on the battlefield to be mud. Mud hexes add a +1 MP cost to moving through the hex that can be avoided using reckless movement and require a Piloting Skill Roll when entering the hex with a +1 target number modifier.

Victory Conditions

A player wins the scenario if they control the objective for three consecutive turns. If at the end of a turn all units on both sides have been destroyed or crippled, then the game is a draw.