Fighting Battles

Fighting Battles

Players are free to fight each other as they wish, representing skirmishes along their common borders, intrusions into their rivals' territory and outright invasions.  The number of territories held by each player indicates the size and power of his realm.  The more territories a player has the bigger and better his power base.  When battle is joined both players must stake one of their territories.  Spies cannot be staked in this way.  Each player nominates the territory to be staked before the game begins.  After the game is over an additional territory is generated from the territory chart.

Steps to Setting Up Your Campaign Game

Battlefield

The territory staked can be used as the basis for working out the battlefield if players wish.  For example if one player stakes a Wizards Tower and his enemy stakes a forest, the the table might include a tower and could certainly be fairly heavily wooded.  

If using the terrain generator charts to setup the table, allow each player to setup on item that represents their territory rather than rolling randomly.  Imagine how the battle is a clash along the player's common border, through territories controlled by the players.

Normally each player uses his entire army, even though their points values may be different.  If playing one of the battle scenarios which is not evenly matched to being with (such as the Ambush) it is suggested that each player's army be reduced in proportion of the points values normally allowed.  For example, in a Last Stand proportions are 2:1, so the attacker uses all his army and the defender uses half his army.  In the Ambush the proportions are 3:2, so the defender uses all his army and the attacker 2/3 of his army.

Winning Territory

The player who wins the game retains his original territory and selects either of the two remaining territories to add to his/her own.  This will be his rival's territory or the new one.  The loser take the territory that is left.  If the winner takes his rivals territory the loser is assumed to have been forced back into the newly generated territory.  If the winner takes the new territory then the battle has determined which side will possess the new land.

In the event of a draw both sides retain their territories and the player with the least territory gains a new one.  If both players have the same amount of territory roll a dice to decide who gets the new territory.

Underdogs

If a player has at least twice as much territory as their opponent then their enemy is an 'Underdog'.  The following rules help to protest underdogs and also encourage players to fight opponents more-or-less on their own level.  

If a player is an underdog he can raid his enemy's land.  A raid is ought exactly like any other game, except that both armies are limited to the same maximum points value set by the underdog.  The points value must be at least 800 points and it can be as high as the underdog's entire army.  In the case of an Ambush, Last Stand or other battle scenario where the points are not evenly balanced to begin with, then the forces are kept in proportion.  

Because the underdog player is making a surprise raid into enemy territory, taking advantage of his small size to penetrate deeply into his enemy's lands, they may pick which territory his enemy must stake.  Obviously, an underdog will choose the best targets to raid!

Furthermore, both armies are limited in choice as if the staked territories are the only territories either player had.  This represents the fact that only local troops are available to fend off the raid, while the raiders are a nimble and mobile force.

Allies

Armies are not permitted to include allied contingents as the army lists normally allow.  Instead, a player can ask another player to ally with him for a battle so long as he could normally recruit allies of that race.  For example, High Elves can have Empire allies but not Vampire Counts.

The ally brings along 300 points chosen freely from his army list (as is normal for allies) but restricted by his own territory.  These allied troops are directly under the command of the ally player who brings along and fights with his own models during the game.  A player who includes an ally can therefore field an extra 300 points of troops, and this forms a considerable incentive to use allies.  A player can solicit the aid of several allies if he wishes, but the total combined points value of all allied forces cannot exceed 300 points.  

An ally does not have to put up any territory at all in order to fight.  On the other hand he cannot win any new territory either.  The idea behind allies is partly to allow players with small armies to participate, and partly to encourage players to conspire and politic against each other!  A player who sweeps all before him will find it hard to recruit allies, whist other players will be happy to ally against them.

Multi-player Battles

Many players enjoy the company of other gamers and prefer to fight games with two or more players on the same side.  If players wish to do this they can still use the campaign rules described above, with the following extra rules for multi-player games.

Two players can join forces to fight two other players, three can get together to take on three others, and so on.  Each player brings and controls his own troops during the battle.  One player from each side must be nominated as the overall commander (the Commander-in-Chief) and only that player's General model is considered to be the General during the game.  Other players' Generals are reduced to the rank of subordinate commanders and treated as characters.  Each player may include an army standard in his force, but the re-roll bonus applies only to that player's forces - not to those of his confederates.

Combined armies must consist of armies that can normally ally as indicated in the Warhammer Armies book for that army.  So, a confederation of High Elves and Empire armies is allowed, High Elves and Vampire Counts is not.

When fighting battles with more than one player on a side each player must stake one territory.  However if any player has twice the territory of the enemy player with the most territory then they must stake two territories.

After the game generate a further territory for each pair of players.  So, for a two-a-side game generate two more territories, for a three-a-side game generate three, and so on.

The winning side retains its own territories and captures the remaining territories except one territory for each of the losers.  The victorious side divides the territories it has won between the players as evenly as possible.  The losers retain their original territories if these have not been captures by the enemy, but otherwise must divide the remaining territories between themselves.

If players cannot agree exactly how to divide up their territories then the Commander-in-Chief of each side may allocate the territories.  If there is an odd number of territories to be divided the C-in-C must allocate them as evenly as possible, but can decide which players will receive the extra territories.