NO ONE

ESCAPES WAR
Ava. A planet lost in the midst of many others, and yet the cradle of
a bold and aggressive species: Mankind. When the Therians tried to
invade this planet, they were met with fierce resistance and humanity
even managed to push back into space those they scornfully call the
“morphos”. However, Ava suffered greatly from these battles: the climate
and the orbit itself were deeply affected. These events became known
as the Trauma, the starting point of a new calendar.
Forty three years after the Trauma, the combined forces of humanity
are launching a counter-attack, dragging in their wake the mysterious
Karmans.
7
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO AT-43 .................. 10 KARMANS ...................................................... 40

AT-43 ........................................................................ 12 Libra ......................................................................... 42

A universe .................................................................. 12 Nova ......................................................................... 42
A game ...................................................................... 13 Flux .......................................................................... 42
The creed of universal order .................................. 43
ESSENTIAL RULES .................................. 14

Gaming materiel ...................................................... 15

The accessories ........................................................ 15
The tape measure ................................................... 15
The dice ................................................................. 15
The template .......................................................... 15 II. THE RULES .................................... 44
Table of contents

The battlefield ......................................................... 15

GENERAL RULES ..................................... 46
The miniatures ......................................................... 16
How to use this book? ............................................ 17 Measuring a distance ............................................. 46
Units ......................................................................... 47
Infantry ....................................................................... 47
Armored fighting vehicles ............................................ 48
Special fighters .......................................................... 48
Moving miniatures .................................................. 48
I. UNIVERSE ......................................... 18 Line of sight and field of view ................................ 48
Cards ....................................................................... 50
RECENT HISTORY ...................................... 20
8 Universal table of resolution .................................. 51
Ava, a divided world ............................................... 20 Damage ................................................................... 51
Opening

Revolutsya! ................................................................ 20 Damage inflicted on infantry ........................................ 51

The revolutionary war ................................................. 21 Damages inflicted on armored fighting vehicles ........... 51
Peace and war ........................................................ 22 0 SP : Destruction ...................................................... 53
Short reunion ............................................................. 22 Immobilized armored fighting vehicles ......................... 53
The Antarctica onslaught ............................................ 22 Playing a game ........................................................ 53
Prelude to Damocles .................................................. 22
TACTICAL PHASE ..................................... 54
No one evades war! ................................................... 22
1/ Calculating leadership points ............................ 54
U.N.A. .................................................................. 28
2/ Ordering the activation sequence ..................... 55
Central Command (CentCom) ............................... 30 3/ authority test ....................................................... 55
Military-Industrial Complex (M.Ind) ....................... 30
ACTIVATION PHASE ................................ 56
Union (Syndicate) ................................................... 30
What are the White Stars fighting for? .................. 31 Status of the units ................................................... 56
Activating units ....................................................... 57
THERIANS ....................................................... 32
Possible actions ...................................................... 58
Cyphers ................................................................... 34 Movements ................................................................ 58
Warriors ................................................................... 34 Shooting .................................................................... 58
Web Striders ........................................................... 34 Close combat ............................................................ 58
The Therian consensus .......................................... 35 Combat drills ........................................................... 59
Technological anarchy ........................................... 35 Knee to the ground! ................................................... 59
Overwatch! ................................................................ 59
RED BLOK ....................................................... 36
Take cover! ................................................................ 59
Supra ....................................................................... 38 Split fire! ..................................................................... 59
The army of the Revolutionary Collectives (ARC) 38
SHOOTING ....................................................... 60
The Local Collective of Ava (Frontline) .................. 38
Collectivism ............................................................. 38 Resolving shot ........................................................ 61
Being collectivist ..................................................... 38 1/ Picking a target ................................................... 61
2/ Determining the zone of fire .............................. 63 The Missions ........................................................... 85
3/ Shooting test ...................................................... 64 Forces available ......................................................... 85
Who can shoot? ........................................................ 64 Tactical positions ........................................................ 86
Action value and difficulty ........................................... 64 Access zones ......................................................... 86
Direct fire: who is hit? ................................................. 64 Deployment zones .................................................. 86
Indirect fire: who is hit? ............................................... 65 Drop points ............................................................. 86
Cover ......................................................................... 66 Objectives .................................................................. 87
4/ Damage and removing the losses ..................... 67 Primary objectives ................................................... 87
Next salvo! ............................................................... 68 Secondary objectives .............................................. 87
« 1 » Seek and destroy ............................................ 88
COMBAT ............................................................ 70
« 2 » Bridgehead ..................................................... 89
Splitting the combats ............................................. 70 « 3 » Hold the positions .......................................... 90
Resolving the combats ........................................... 71 « 4 » Skirmish .......................................................... 91
« 5 » Landing ........................................................... 92
CONTROL PHASE ..................................... 72
« 6 » Extraction ........................................................ 94
Objectives and tactical positions .......................... 73
USING THE TERRAIN .............................. 96
Calculating VP and RP ........................................... 73
Time out ................................................................... 73 Going through a terrain element ............................ 96
Shooting from heights ............................................ 97
MORALE ........................................................... 74
Opening and moving terrain elements .................. 97
Resolving moral tests ............................................. 74 Fighting terrain ........................................................ 97
When is a morale test needed ? ................................. 74
Morale test upon unit activation ................................ 74
Morale test outside of the unit’s activation ................. 75
Action value and difficulty ........................................... 75
Consequences .......................................................... 75
Morale status .......................................................... 75 III. APPENDIXES ............................... 99
Valiant unit .................................................................. 75
BAT TLE REPORT ....................................... 100
Disorganized unit ........................................................ 75 9
Routing unit ................................................................ 75
GLOSSARY ..................................................... 110
HEROES ............................................................ 76
GAMING AIDS ............................................... 118
Constitution of a unit .............................................. 76
Heroes ranks and function in a unit ....................... 77 Company building ................................................... 118
Distributing damage ............................................... 77 Company sheet ...................................................... 119
RECRUITING AND TRAINING ............ 78 WHITE STARS OF THE U.N.A. ............ 120

Company value ....................................................... 79 Officers .................................................................... 120

Platoons ................................................................... 79 Infantry .................................................................... 121
Units ......................................................................... 80 Armored fighting vehicles ...................................... 121
Numbers ................................................................... 80 Equipment ............................................................... 122
Composition .............................................................. 80 Specialists ............................................................... 123
Equipment .............................................................. 80
THERIAN .......................................................... 124
Special weapon bearers .......................................... 80
Specialists .............................................................. 80 Overseers ................................................................ 124
Officers ................................................................... 81 Infantry .................................................................... 125
Assault and reinforcement ..................................... 81 Armored fighting vehicles ...................................... 125
Troops review .......................................................... 81 Equipment ............................................................... 126
Overseer routines ................................................... 126
LET’S PLAY! ................................................... 82

1/ Choosing the mission ......................................... 83

2/ Building a company ............................................ 83
Assault units and reinforcement .................................. 83
Reserve units ............................................................. 83
Officers in reinforcement ............................................. 84
3/ Setting the game up ........................................... 84
4/ Playing! ................................................................ 84
 GENERAL RULES
General rules

46
The rules

--- Beginning of message --- This chapter presents the rules essential for any game of
/sender: troop.type/cc2.196–H AT-43: the resolution of the various tests, the management of
/addressee: Overseer alpha Urash damage and the playing of a game.
/subject: instructions request
MEASURING A DISTANCE
Unit.196: Annihilated.
Survivor: Storm golem H.
Primary objective: Control of the nanoresource genera- “Anti-tank shell, distance seventy meters, fire!”
tor (sector 55)/Inapplicable. (...)
Secondary objective: None. “Hum... Nice try, a bit short though. If you ever live through
Request: Further instructions. this, your little friends out there will want to thank you for send-
--- End of message --- ing that one up their rear end.”
– Two steel troopers during Operation Damocles.
--- Beginning of the message ---
/sender: Overseer alpha Urash Distances (in cm and in ranges) are measured with a ruler.
/addressee: troop.type/cc2.196–H Any ruler will do the trick, but the RACKHAM tape measure
/subject: Further instructions has been designed for miniatures games and makes measur-
ing range easy.
Primary objective: Protection of the nanoresource gen- Distances must be measured from the edge of an element
erator (sector 55). to the edge of another. It can be the edge of a miniature’s base
Secondary objective: Extermination of the humans (Pri- or the edge of a terrain element.
ority: Special weapon bearer). For a unit consisting of several miniatures, measurements
Combat drill: Take cover. are taken from the edge of the leader’s base. Unit to unit
Privileged combat mode: Close combat. measurements are done from leader to leader.
--- End of message ---
 leader
leader

These two units are within range 3 of each other.

Important! It is not allowed to measure a distance before A unit must always stay grouped together. It is said to main-
declaring an action. The action should be announced first, and tain its cohesion. To make this possible, two conditions must
only afterwards should the distance be measured. be respected after the unit has been played:
• All the members of the unit must remain within 10 cm
NOTION OF CONTACT (range 1) of the leader;
• Each member of the unit must stand no more than 2.5 cm
Two fighters are considered in contact when there is away from another.
less than 2.5 cm between their bases.
• Infantry includes all the fighters capable of moving by
their own means. They are split into two categories: soldiers
and support units.
UNITS
• Armored fighting vehicles are piloted machines. They
“Contaaact!” are split into two categories: combat striders and vehicles.
– Heard on the Therian factory world
Furthermore, some fighters are given specific roles (heroes,
All the fighters in AT-43 are part of units. A unit is a group officers, medics, special weapon bearers, etc.). They are 47
of one or more fighters sharing the same designation. Once called special fighters, as opposed to standard fighters.
battle is engaged, it is impossible to separate fighters of the
same unit.
A unit of several fighters includes a leader. This fighter has
the same characteristics as the other members of the unit but
the miniature is different. He is used as a reference point when
measuring distances.
2.5 cm 2.5 cm 2.5 cm
or less or less or less

The cohesion of this unit is respected. All the fighters are

within 10 cm of the leader and each one of them is standing
no more than 2.5 cm from another member of the unit.

Infantry
Soldiers and support units make up the infantry. Therefore
all the rules concerning infantry apply to them.

• Soldiers constitute the majority of the troops fighting

Leader storm golem Leader steel trooper on the battlefield. Battlesuits are also part of this cat-
egory. Their Type (see further) indicates the soldiers’ role in the
army: regular (★), elite (★★) or battlesuit (★★★).
When a leader is eliminated he must be replaced by another
fighter in his unit. Pick the closest standard fighter to the pre- • Support units are mostly composed of two kinds of
vious leader. and replace its miniature with the leader’s. miniatures: gunners and the support weapons they use
(machine gun, mortar, etc.).
 Armored fighting vehicles
MOVING MINIATURES
Combat striders and vehicles make up the armored
fighting vehicles. Therefore all the rules concerning armored
fighting vehicles apply to them. “My word, that’s Sergeant Borz! Listen and learn, boy, listen
and learn!”
• Combat striders are piloted machines that move by – Private J. Vaughn
“walking”.
The maximum distance that can be covered depends on the
• Vehicles include all the armored fighting vehicles that fighters and the movement chosen (see Activation phase).
are not combat striders. A movement can be performed in any direction.
Fighters and terrain elements constitute obstacles that need
Special fighters to be walked around. Even a combat strider cannot walk
The term “special fighter” designates... through concrete walls. Throughout a fighter’s movement, his
base must be able to pass between all obstacles.
• Support weapons and gunners: Support weapons are Soldiers do not hinder the movement of other fighters on
powerful but very cumbersome. These are miniatures of their their side, as opposed to enemy infantry who cannot “move
own with their own base. Gunners are the fighters who oper- through” them.
ate support weapons. In game terms, support weapons and Getting around obstacles is very easy: let the tape measure wind
gunners are considered to be separate fighters. around the obstacles as you measure your fighter’s movements.
It is possible to end a movement on obstacles (see Using
General rules

• Officers: Officers are fighters who are experts at lead- the terrain).
ing and motivating troops. They have the same characteristics
as the troops in their unit, but they have additional leadership
LINE OF SIGHT
characteristics.
AND FIELD OF VIEW
When a unit includes an officer, he also becomes its leader.
When he is eliminated, a standard fighter replaces him as
leader, but not as officer. “This, you see, is an in-built radar. The line going round in
The officers of each army are detailed in the Army Books. circles is the machine’s sensors scanning the area.”
48 “And those little dots moving in on us, there?”
• Heroes: Every army has its legendary figures, famous “Those, hum...Those mean we’ve got a problem. Fasten
The rules

characters that inspire courage in their troops and sow fear in your seat belt; this ride is about to get rough.”
the heart of the enemy. They are usually strategic geniuses or – Sergeant A. Borz and a cadet.
exceptional fighters, sometimes both!
A hero is identified by a proper name on his reference card The soldiers, support units and combat striders of
(see further). When he is a pilot, he comes with two profiles: AT-43 can see in all directions, no matter the orientation of the
on foot and aboard his armored fighting vehicle. miniatures representing them.
The heroes of each army are detailed in the Army Books. Vehicles are often equipped with several weapons manned
by independent crew who do not all have the same field of
• Special weapon bearers: special weapon bearers are view. The field of view of a vehicle’s weapon is defined in the
equipped with a special weapon (flame thrower, machine machine’s description.
gun, etc.). They have access to colossal fire power for sol-
diers and are generally the opponent’s favorite target. The Obstacles can prevent a unit from seeing certain opponents.
special weapon bearers of each army are detailed in the Army A fighter has a line of sight on an element when he can see it.
Books. When two dimensional
terrain is used (a gaming
• Specialists: As you would have guessed from their name, poster for instance), line of
specialists are fighters with a certain expert knowledge. In sight is determined by tracing
game, they generate specific effects (medics save lives, imaginary lines connecting the
mechanics repair armored fighting vehicles, etc.). The special- edges of the fighter’s base to
ists of each army are detailed in the Army Books. those of the targeted element.

Important! All soldiers who are not special fighters are con- • If at least one line can be
sidered to be standard fighters. traced without encountering any
obstacle, the target is visible.
• If all the lines encounter an
obstacle, the target is not vis-
ible and cannot be targeted.
 When a three dimensional ter-
rain is used (a container, a low Unit 3
wall, etc.), adopt the point of view of
Unit 1
the acting fighter by placing yourself
at the miniature’s level to determine if
he can or cannot see his target. If he
can see it, even partially, he has line
of sight; the action is resolved as if
the target was visible.
Unit 2
Important! Soldiers are an excep-
tion to this rule: they never block line
of sight.
Unit 1 has a line of sight on unit 3. Unit 2 is between them; it is composed of soldiers
If the case is debatable, refer to the and therefore does not block the line of sight.
Size indicated on the reference card.
A miniature whose Size is less than or
equal to the obstacle’s is completely
hidden behind it; if its Size is higher 4
by at least one point, it is visible.

2
3
Since the container is higher than
the soldiers on either side, storm
golem number 2 cannot see either
of the two steel troopers. However 1
storm golem number 1 can see
steel trooper number 3 but not 49
number 4.
 The cards provided with AT-43 miniatures indicate the fight-
CARDS
ers’ characteristics and the information required to resolve their
actions. Called reference profiles, they are also used to identify
“We’re not leaving you behind, comrade!” fighters and their weapons.
“Aaaargh! Hand me a few mags and a grenade, and go. I’ll
hold them back as long as I can!” IMPORTANT! The cards sometimes show the character-
“OK, good idea.” istics of several weapons. Special weapons are mentioned
– Example of Red Blok comradeship under the dotted line. A fighter isn’t always equipped with all
the weapons mentioned on his card. Refer to the army’s dedi-
cated publications to find out the equipment options for the
fighters of each army.
Numbers bonus
Number of fighters that
can be added to the unit
beyond its maximum normal Rank
number of fighters. The presence of this symbol
means that the fighter (or the
Affiliation pilot, if it is an armored fighting
Fighter’s faction. vehicle) is an officer. The number of
chevrons indicates the rank level.
Movement
Base value used to calculate Designation
General rules

the distance (in cm) that The army corps the fighter belongs
the fighter can cover. to. The Rank (sgt., alpha, etc.)
is not part of the designation.

Morale
The higher the value, the lower the Type
chances are of ending up in rout. Indicates the fighter’s role in his
army. This value ranging from 1 to 3,
is used when building a company.
Protection
50 The higher the value, the harder
it is to wound this fighter.
Category
The rules

Soldiers,
Combat
The higher the value, support unit,
the harder it is to hit the
fighter in close combat. combat strider,

Leadership points (LP): or vehicle.

Tactical talent of an officer.
The higher the value, the more
orders can be given to units. Size
Size of fighters and
terrain elements.
Authority
An officer’s ability to maintain Structure points (SP)
discipline among his troops. Each part of an armored fighting
vehicle (frame, propulsion and
Weapons weapons) is given a certain
The various range and mêlée number of Structure points. A part
weapons the fighter can is destroyed when its Structure
use are mentioned here. points are reduced to 0.

Accuracy Attack rate/Re-rolls Area of effect Penetration/Damage

The higher the value, the Number of strikes dealt or Surface inside which a Ability of a weapon to pierce
higher the chances are projectiles fired by a weapon weapon with an area of through a target’s Protec-
of hitting an opponent. at each test (shooting, effect inflicts Damage. tion/number of Damage
combat)/Number of times all points inflicted on the
the misses can be re-rolled. target when the projectile
penetrates its Protection.
UNIVERSAL TABLE DAMAGE
OF RESOLUTION
Aboard his Wraith golgoth, Urash was climbing the hill
“What are you doing? You really think you can hit that bane quickly when he met a U.NA. Fire Toad.
goliath from here with your BB gun?” “Protocol A22: Close quarter combat.
“Yeah. Easy.” Medium nucleus cannon: Not recommended.
“Two Munchy-choc bars if you pull it off.” Reason: Low attack rate.
“You’re on.” Medium sonic cannon: Highly recommended.”
– Two steel troopers Urash issued the order mentally. He immediately felt the
requested ammo being loaded. With a single thought, he
The universal table of resolution is used to determine the suc- unleashed a sonic hurricane that hit the U.N.A. strider full
cess or failure of actions carried out by the fighters of AT-43. blast.
To resolve an action you need to determine its action value
(generally a characteristic) and its difficulty. The descriptions Hitting a fighter is not enough to stop him. You also need to
of the various actions show the numbers to use. get through his protection.
You then do the calculation “action value – difficulty”. The Players perform a damage test each time a fighter is hit by
result determines the column to read in the universal resolu- a close combat attack, a projectile or by any other effect that
tion table. This column indicates the minimum result required could possibly wound him. To do this you will need to use the
on a die for the action to succeed. universal table of resolution:
• The action value is equal to the Penetration of the
The action is a failure. No need to roll the die. weapon used.
• The difficulty is equal to the Protection of the target.
For each result greater than or equal to the result needed,
The action is a success. No need to roll the die. Damage points are inflicted to a target. The number of Dam-
age points inflicted is equal to the Damage value of the weapon
Universal table of resolution used.

…/-6 -5/-4 -3/-2 -1/0/+1 +2/+3 +4/+5 +6/… Example: The storm golem unit .096 inflicts six impacts 51
with their reaper blades ( 7) to the steel trooper unit Sierra
+ + + + Bravo ( 5). The Penetration – Protection difference is 2
(7 – 5 =2), so the result needed on the damage test is or
more. The damage test is done by rolling one die per impact.
Example: An action test involves an action value of 4 against The results obtained are , , , , and , mean-
a difficulty of 6. The difference is 4 - 6 = -2 so the result needed ing four successes.
on the die is or more. The reaper blades have a Damage value of 1. So, four steel
troopers suffer one damage point each.

Damage inflicted on
infantry
A soldier, gunner or support weapon is
eliminated when he or it suffers one Dam-
age point. The miniature is removed and
counted as a loss.

Damage inflicted on
armored fighting vehicles
An armored fighting vehicle is composed
of several distinct parts;
• The frame: The general structure of the
machine;
• The propulsion system: Anything that
allows the armored fighting vehicle to move;
• The weapons: The number of weapons
varies from one armored fighting vehicle to
the next. Each weapon is considered to be
an independent part.
 Each part is given a certain number of Structure points
(SP) to represent its durability. When a damage test against
an armored fighting vehicle is successful, the part that is hit
must be determined. A die is rolled and its result is read on the
Location table below.

Location table

Result Damaged part

Propulsion

Frame

A weapon (*)

* : chosen by the active player.

( )

The indicated part loses a number of SP equal to the Dam-

age value of the weapon used.
General rules

Example: Urash’s Wraith golgoth fires its medium sonic

cannon at Sergeant Borz’s Fire Toad. He gets four impacts When the location indicates a part of the machine that has
and succeeds with two Damage tests. Two dice are then rolled already been destroyed the damage is then transferred to the
to determine where the damage is located. The first shows frame.
and the second . The medium sonic cannon has a Dam- When the damage inflicted is higher than the number of SP of
age value of 1 so the strider loses 1 SP in the frame and 1 SP the part hit the excess Damage points go to the frame.
in the propulsion.
52
The rules
0 SP: Destruction
When a part of a machine falls to 0 SP it is
destroyed. The consequences vary depending on
the part’s function.
• Weapon: The weapon destroyed cannot be
used until the end of the game
• Propulsion: The armored fighting vehicle is immo-
bilized (See Immobilized armored fighting vehicles).
• Frame: The armored fighting vehicle is destroyed
and counted as a loss. The miniature is removed;

Example: Sergeant Borz’s Fire Toad suffers two

Location tests. The first indicates a weapon (one of
the two light laser cannons), the second indicates
the propulsion. The weapon used, a medium sonic
cannon, has a Damage value of 1.
The light laser cannon has 1 SP: it is destroyed. To determine who begins, each player rolls a die and adds
The propulsion has 2 SP and has already lost 1 SP due to the Authority value of his company’s Commander to the
earlier enemy fire. The propulsion falls to 0 SP and the Fire result. This die roll is called the Authority test. It must be done
Toad comes to a halt right in the middle of the battlefield. at the beginning of each game round.
The player who gets the highest result chooses who activates
Immobilized armored the first unit. If it is a tie, re-roll until one of the two players wins.
fighting vehicles The players then make their units act in turn, one by one.
An armored fighting vehicle whose propulsion has been The players are said to activate their units. When all the units
destroyed cannot move anymore. If it was part of a unit, the player have been activated a new round begins.
has the following choice upon each of the unit’s activation:
• He maintains the unit’s cohesion and keeps the other Example: When two players play against each other, the
members in contact (2.5cm) with the immobilized armored first designates one of his units. He resolves all its actions
fighting vehicle. (movement, shooting, combat, etc.). His opponent then does 53
• The pilot ejects himself from his armored fighting vehicle the same, and then it‘s the first player’s turn to choose another
and leaves the battlefield. The armored fighting vehicle is con- unit. Turns are taken until all the units have been activated.
sidered destroyed and its miniature is removed. If the pilot is
a hero his miniature is placed on the game table where the In some missions no Authority test is required for the first
armored fighting vehicle stood. round. The description of the mission then indicates which
side automatically wins the test.
PLAYING A GAME
A game lasts a certain number of game rounds. This num-
ber can be defined by the mission or by the players them-
Urash browsed the data supplied by his holographic lens. selves. A game round is divided into three phases. Each phase
The medium sonic cannon burst had not been enough to is detailed in separate chapters hereafter.
destroy the enemy armored fighting vehi-
cle. A flow of emotion flooded from his ACTIVE PLAYER, 1 – Tactical phase (see pp. 54)
memory circuits: frustration, anger, excite- The players determine in which order
PASSIVE PLAYER
ment. What a sweet elixir! they will play their units and decide which
Despite the protocol A22 recommenda- Players take turns during player will play first.
tions, he ordered his medium nucleus cannon a game of AT-43. The play-
to generate ammunition. To hell with proto- er whose turn it is to play 2 – Activation phase (see pp. 56)
cols, he thought with satisfaction. The rules of is called the active player. The players activate their units in turn.
war were meant to be broken anyway! The other players are the The fighters move on the battlefield, shoot
passive players. Once the at their enemies and engage them in close
A game of AT-43 always begins with the active player has finished combat.
choice of a mission (see Let’s play!). Once this acting, he hands the lead
is done, the players are given a certain num- to the next player who be- 3 – Control phase (see pp. 72)
ber of army points (A.P.) to build a company comes the active player The players check the objectives that are
(see Recruitment and training) that they will as he becomes a passive to be achieved. Holding strategic points
send into battle. player. allows the player to call in reinforcements!
 TACTICAL PHASE
Tactical phase

“We have established visual contact with a Red Blok com- During the tactical phase, the players plan their actions for the
54 pany! I repeat: the Red Blok is here!” coming round. This phase is split into three steps:
“What is their position, Sierra Charlie?”
The rules

“Sector Echo, they are attacking the Karmans. Two of their in- 1/ Calculating Leadership points;
fantry units have deployed in between the drop zone and us!” 2/ Ordering the activation sequence;
“Unit Sierra Charlie, barrage fire on the Karmans. Unit Si- 3/ Authority test.
erra Delta, overwatch on the reds. Unit Foxtrot Bravo, full
throttle till you reach Echo. Cut those party poopers’ retreat 1/ CALCULATING
corridor. I want the whole lot crushed between the hammer LEADERSHIP POINTS
and the anvil!”

“Victory is half inside the Commander’s head.

The rest is a subtle mix of maneuvering, morale
and fire power. A lot of fire power.”
– A White Stars Commander

Leadership points (LP) represent the officers’

tactical talent and their spirit of initiative. They
are used during the whole round to acquire tac-
tical advantages and to issue combat drills to
units (see p. 59).
The players calculate their LP pool at the be-
ginning of each round. This pool is the sum of
the Commander’s LP and the number of
friendly units on the battlefield or in reserve. Dis-
organized units (see p. 57) are not counted in
this total.
LP are kept until the end of the round, even
if the Commander is eliminated. The points that
are not used are lost at the end of the round.
 The players represent their LP pool with a heap of
OFFICERS AND THE COMMANDER
markers or by using dice.
“Drop points Alpha, Charlie and Golf are under morphos domi-
Example: During the tactical phase of the sec- nation. We control Doctor and... hum, I am just being informed
ond round, Jon’s army has six units and the LP that we have also secured Echo. Bravo and Foxtrot are being con-
value of his Commander is 8. Jon’s LP pool is then tested. Gentlemen, we have no time to lose if we want to win this
14 (6 + 8). battle.”
“I have a plan!”
– War staff meeting during the Antarctica campaign
2/ ORDERING THE
ACTIVATION SEQUENCE • Officers have a crucial role to play in their company’s and their
army’s tactics. Without them, the lack of guidance would lead the
men on the road to certain destruction. Their names may change
The activation sequence represents the order depending on the race (officers for the White Stars, overseers for
in which units will be played during the round. To the Therians, etc.) but the rules will always refer to them as “of-
order his activation sequence, each player picks up ficers”.
the cards corresponding to each of the units of his A unit can only have one officer in its ranks. An officer is always
company either on the battlefield or in reserve. He the leader of his unit. When he is eliminated, another fighter re-
arranges them in front of him face down, from left to places him as leader of the unit but not as officer.
right, in the order he intends to play them.
• The highest ranking officer included in the activation sequence
Once the activation sequence has been arranged, is the company’s Commander. It is his Authority and his Lead-
it is not permitted to change the order of it anymore ership that are used for the Authority test and to calculate the
(unless you spend LP, under certain conditions). LP pool.
When several officers share the highest rank the player desig-
nates which one is the Commander.
When the Commander is eliminated the highest ranking officer
BATTLES FOR MORE still in the game becomes the Commander. In the absence of any
THAN TWO PLAYERS replacement officer the company remains without a Commander.
The Authority and the LP values used are then equal to 0. 55
Some battles involve more than two sides.
In this case, the winner of the Authority test
chooses who plays first (he may designate 3/ AUTHORITY TEST
himself). The playing order is then defined in
clockwise order from the first player.
Each player performs an Authority test. To do so they roll
one die each and add the Authority of their Commander to
the result of the die.

Before an Authority test, each player can wager LP to in-

crease his chances of winning the test. All the players gamble
their LP at the same time and in secret (using a die hidden be-
hind their hand for instance). The wagers are revealed simulta-
neously. Each player will then add the number of LP gambled
to the result of his Authority test.
The player can wager a number of LP between 0 and the
rank of his Commander +1 (see insert).

Example: A company commanded by a Sergeant (a rank 1

officer). As long as he is in the game, the player can wager 0 to
2 LP in order to boost his Authority tests. If his Commander had
been a Captain (rank 4), he could have wagered up to 5 LP.

The player who gets the highest final result chooses the first
active player. The active player is the one who activates a
unit and resolves its actions. The other players are the pas-
sive players. The players will become the active player in turn
throughout the activation phase (see p. 57).
 ACTIVATION PHASE
Activation phase

Sergeant Borz had a look at his men. Their stern faces During the activation phase, the players resolve the actions
showed the fear and the excitement which preceded any of their units.
battle. They were finally going into action after all those
hours spent in the shuttle, and then again in the armored STATUS OF THE UNITS
personnel carrier. The expectation and the waiting usually
made the men soft.
56 Yet curiously, as the gloomy silhouettes of the morphos “I don’t expect all of you to be present for the evening report.
finally appeared in the artificial twilight of the factory world, Those lucky enough to be there will be either heroes or cow-
The rules

when all the available options were open to the White ards and traitors.”
Stars, fear and doubt had been swept away from the pri- – Captain Nikonov, before the Antarctica battle.
vates’ hearts. Sergeant Borz held back from yelling at his
men: exceptionally, they didn’t seem to need it. What a unit can accomplish depends first and foremost on
He took the opportunity to think out his tactics. Covered its status at the time of its activation. There are four possible
advance? Should they rush in using the striders’ suppres- statuses for a unit.
sion fire? Should he keep the infantry covered behind the
armored fighting vehicles, or the other way around? They Free unit: The unit can do whatever it wants. The unit is only
could also wait to be closer to wipe a couple more mor- free if all of its members are; a fighter is free as long as he is not
phos? In those moments, the sergeant envied the blissful in contact with an opponent.
ignorance and the blind trust of his men.
Finally, after having carefully weighed the pros and cons,
he chose his favorite approach, the one his men expected
of him: assault and cover fire.
“Advance behind cover and open fire once at the first
wall! Let’s go you bunch of wusses! Hold your fire until
we’ve reached the wall! The first one to mess it up is get-
ting his butt kicked by my Fire Toad. I’m warning you, the
medic’s note is only waiting to be signed!”
The cockpit of the Fire Toad closed with a hiss and its
generator hummed a little louder as the engine revved up.
Just to relax, Borz pulled the triggers on his weapons;
wisps of smoke marked the trajectory of the lasers. Two
of the closest storm golems fizzled and collapsed with a
gapping hole to the upper chest.
The good thing about being an officer is that you don’t
have to respect your own orders!
 Engaged unit: The members of the unit have
grabbed their close combat weapons and are about
to defend their lives fiercely. A unit is engaged when at
least one of its members is; a fighter is engaged when
he is in contact with at least one opponent. Armored
fighting vehicles are never considered engaged.
An engaged unit cannot benefit from or be given
any combat drills.

Grounded unit: Some game effects, such as explo-

sions, can force the fighters to the ground. The minia-
ture is then shown lying down.
When a grounded unit is activated, the following
rules apply:
• When half or fewer than half of the fighters in a unit
are grounded, their companions give them a hand to
get back up. The grounded miniatures are put back
up and the unit may act as usual;
• When more than half of the fighters in the unit are
grounded, the whole unit is considered grounded. The
miniatures are put back up, but the unit cannot per-
form any action or be given any combat drill.

Important: Activating a grounded unit without an

officer still requires 1 LP. Getting back up is consid-
ered to be the fighters action.
If the player cannot or doesn’t want to spend this
point, the grounded miniatures stay down!
57
Grounded miniatures are not taken into account when
in zones of fire, as if they benefited from the “Knee to the
ground!” drill.

Disorganized unit: A disorganized unit has failed

a morale test and might end up in rout (see the
“Morale” chapter).

ACTIVATING UNITS
A player can use one and only one of the following possibili-
ties just before activating a unit. He immediately spends the
“Visual contact in three, two, one... Wow!” number of LP indicated.
“They’re really big for little dots. Aren’t they?”
“Sergeant Borz to base, we need reinforcement, • Relocate the first card (1 LP): The player places the first
I repeat...” card wherever he wishes in the activation sequence. The fol-
– Sergeant A. Borz and a cadet. lowing card is revealed and played immediately.
• Delay activation (2 LP): The player passes. A player can-
When a player becomes the active player, he reveals the not choose to miss his turn twice in a row.
first card of his activation sequence. The corresponding unit is • Extra activation (2 LP): This can be used in the turn fol-
activated: the player declares the actions it will try to perform lowing a Delay Activation. The player reveals the two first cards
and resolves them. of his activation sequence and activates the corresponding
units, in any order he wishes.
Activating a unit without an officer costs 1 LP. The player
may choose not to spend it, either because he has no LP Example: During his first turn, Kenton spends 2 LP to delay
left, or because he does not wish to. In this case the unit activation. He doesn’t play his next card. When it is his turn to
is activated but doesn’t perform any action. If the unit has play again, he uses another 2 LP and activates the two left-
not joined the battle yet, it is considered a reserve unit (see most units in his activation sequence. One of them doesn’t
Reserve units p. 83). have an officer, so Kenton has to spend 1 extra LP.
 POSSIBLE
ACTIONS

“No battle plan will ever survive

the first six seconds of combat.”
– Space Marshal Sanchez

In battle, soldiers move to reach

favorable positions. Shots come
flying in from everywhere. Some
fighters are so determined, they
do not hesitate to risk their lives to
trounce the enemy with their own
hands.
The action chosen for a unit is
applied to all the fighters in it.
Activation phase

Example: The leader orders his

men to perform a rush movement.
The entire Sierra Bravo unit starts
to run and none of the steel troop-
ers in the unit will be able to shoot,
even if they didn’t travel the twenty
centimeters they were allowed.

Movements
Each unit can move once during its activation. The type of Rush movement: Only free units can perform rush move-
58 fighter and the type of movement define the maximum dis- ments. The fighters lower their weapons and start running. It
tance that can be covered. For each unit, it is possible to allows them to move further, but they cannot shoot. They can
The rules

choose between two types of movement: rush movement or move over a maximum distance of:
combat movement. • + 6 cm for infantry
This choice is made and announced out loud before mea- • + 10 cm for armored fighting vehicles.
suring distances!
Combat movement: The fighters keep their weapons lev-
A fighter can move in any direction, no matter his orienta- eled and therefore can shoot. They can travel over a maxi-
tion. After his movement, the miniature can be reoriented in mum distance of (in cm) when their unit is free. If the unit is
any direction. engaged, this distance is halved.
The fighters are not out on a stroll; they move from one
point to the next as directly as possible, going round obsta- Shooting
cles when needed. During his activation, a fighter can shoot once with each of
A miniatures base represents the space occupied by a his ranged weapons.
fighter. If the base cannot pass between two obstacles (ter- Shooting: Only free units can shoot. A shot can take place
rain elements, miniatures, etc.), the fighter must find a way before or after a combat movement. Fighters equipped with
around them. several ranged weapons, such as combat striders or battle-
However, some types of fighters are subject to special suits (the White Stars TacArms, for instance), can shoot with
rules: some of their weapons before a combat movement and fire
the rest of them after.
A unit can pass “through” units of soldiers on its side. How-
ever, fighters cannot end their movement with their bases Close combat
overlapping one another! During his activation, a fighter can attack once with each
of his close combat weapons. A fighter cannot act anymore
A unit of armored fighting vehicles can pass through units of once he has attacked in close combat.
soldiers, no matter their side. However, members of the units A fighter can attack any opponent in contact, no matter the
the machine moves through can get run over. movement chosen. For instance, this allows a fighter to shoot,
perform a combat movement and then attack in close combat
(see the “Close combat” chapter).
 COMBAT DRILLS
RUNNING OVER INFANTRY
A combat strider or a vehicle may run over infantry. Armored fight-
ing vehicles, like any other fighters, always seek the most direct During its activation, it is possible to order a unit
route. It is out of question to zigzag among enemy fighters to run to perform one or more combat drills. Each com-
them over, when you can blast them, burn them, mince them or do bat drill offers a tactical advantage for 1 LP. A unit
anything else along that line! can be given several combat drills at once.
When an armored fighting vehicle performs a combat movement, The combat drills issued to a unit remain in
infantry has more than enough time to move out of the way. However, effect until its card is revealed again.
when an armored fighting vehicle performs a rush movement, it is of
course possible to crush soldiers who are not paying attention. Roll
An infantry unit engaged or grounded (see
a die for every infantry miniature whose base is, even partially, on the
above) loses its combat drills and cannot be given
trajectory of the armored fighting vehicle’s base.
• If the fighter is free, he is eliminated on a result of or more. new ones as long as it is engaged or grounded.
• If the fighter is engaged, he is eliminated on a result of or
more. Knee to the ground!
• If the fighter is a support weapon, it is automatically destroyed. With a knee to the ground, a unit will not get
If the armored fighting vehicle finishes its movement on soldiers or hit if it is caught in the zone of fire of a shot (see
gunners, the survivors are moved to the sides and 2.5 cm away from p. 63). This combat drill is reserved to infantry
any opponent by the player controlling them. If a fighter cannot be units. This combat drill is called at the end of the
repositioned in this way the fighter is eliminated.
unit’s activation. Leave a “Knee to the ground!”
marker near the unit or, if you don’t have any,
leave a die on the leader’s base to symbolize this
combat drill.
OVERWATCH AND SPLIT FIRE
Special weapon bearers in a unit that has been given “Overwatch!” Overwatch!
and “Split fire!” combat drills can shoot at a different moment than A unit that has not fired during its activation
the rest of their unit. may be given the combat drill “Overwatch!”. A
In this case, the “Overwatch” marker is not removed after the first unit in overwatch may shoot during the activation
shot. It is left beside the type of fighters who have not fired yet. It is of an enemy unit at the completion of its move- 59
removed once these fighters have fired or when the unit is activated. ment and only if it has moved. Place an “Over-
watch!” marker near the unit or, if you don’t
Example: The unit KS-8 was issued orders for overwatch and to split have any, leave a die in the middle of it to symbol-
fire. Suddenly, the Therian unit .256 ends its movement in the krasny
ize this combat drill.
soldati’s field of view. The leader gives the order to open fire but holds
the grenade launchers back in order to use them on a more appropri- Take cover!
ate target. Once the assault rifles have fired, the “Overwatch” marker is
A unit that has taken cover increases the effec-
left beside the fighters equipped with the grenade launchers, since they
haven’t shot yet. A little later in the round, unit .260 carries out a rush tiveness of cover (see the “Shooting” chapter).
movement bringing several of its members in contact with the KS-8 This combat drill is reserved to infantry units. It is
krasny soldati. The grenade launchers could have fired if the Red Blok called at the end of the unit’s activation. Leave
had not been engaged in close combat. As that is the case now, the a “Take cover!” marker near the unit or, if you
marker is removed without any further effect. don’t have any, leave a die in front of it to symbol-
ize this combat drill.

Split fire!
Calling for split fire allows
the special weapon bearers
to shoot at a different moment
than the rest of their unit.
This combat drill is reserved
to infantry units. This combat
drill is called at the beginning
of the unit’s activation. Leave
a “Split fire!” marker near
the type of fighters who have
not fired yet, if you don’t have
any, leave a die instead.
 SHOOTING
Shooting

60
The rules

“Damn, what are those morphos creeps doing here?” • Indirect fire: This mode is reserved to certain weapons,
The leader was stupefied as he watched the four units of such as hand grenades, mortars and grenade launchers. This
golems and the Wraith golgoth advance on his position. His shooting mode is less accurate but allows shooting in an arc,
eight man unit didn’t stand a chance. Even if KS-2 came to over obstacles.
their rescue, they would still be fighting one against two, not Indirect fire ammo explodes when it hits the ground and can
counting the Therian combat strider. wound several victims. In game terms, these explosions are
A decision had to be made. There was no shortage of represented using the template.
targets. The morphos infantry was certainly not going to be Indirect fire weapons are all the weapons with an Area of
wiped out by the assault rifle bursts alone, but it could still effect value.
slow them down.
Pick the primary targets. Eliminate as
many of them as possible. Call in unit
KS-2 and its grenade launchers for re-
inforcement. Yes, the grenade launchers
would do a good job on such a concen-
tration of troops. A couple of well placed
grenades would blow away a whole lot a
those darn morphos.
The leader switched to the broad
channel and started barking his orders.

There are two shooting modes:

• Direct fire: This is the shooting
mode of most weapons. You point the
gun towards the enemy and shoot.
 Fighters equipped with several times the same
ARTILLERY STRIKES ranged weapon can resolve their shots in as many
separate salvos during their activation.
Certain missions authorize the use of artillery strikes, meaning long
distance shots from orbital weapons or artillery pieces located so far
Example: A unit of three Iron Rains, each
from the battlefield that nothing can threaten them. Artillery strikes can
equipped with two light MG, opens fire. The player
be called just before activating any unit, once per game round.
decides that all three of them will shoot with one
They can target any fighter in the line of sight of an officer or a leader.
Activating an artillery strike costs 3 LP. of their MG. He will resolve another salvo with their
Artillery strikes use the rules for indirect fire weapons, although the second MG after having moved.
Accuracy value is fixed just like locked shot weapons. The result need-
ed is indicated instead of the Accuracy value of the weapon. Different targets can be chosen for different
salvos.

Example: A Wraith golgoth can shoot its medium sonic

RESOLVING A SHOT
cannon at an infantry unit and its medium nucleus cannon at
a Fire Toad unit.
“I want those toasters dead!”
– Heard during the Antarctica campaign
1/ PICKING A TARGET
The player chooses the type of weapon used to resolve
the shot. All the fighters in the unit equipped with the chosen The way the target is chosen is different if the weapon uses
weapon resolve their shots simultaneously according to the direct or indirect fire.
following steps:
1/ Picking a target; • When using direct fire, the designated target is a unit.
2/ Determining the zone of fire; If the targeted unit is engaged (see the Activation phase
3/ Shooting test; chapter p.57), the whole mêlée is targeted: for matters of sim-
4/ Damage and removing the losses. plicity, consider all the units engaged as a same “unit”. How-
ever, the range of the shot is determined from the leader of the
Once this salvo of shots resolved, the player chooses anoth- unit actually targeted. 61
er type of ranged weapon in the unit and proceeds in the same Armored fighting vehicles are particularly large targets.
way until all the weapons in the unit have been fired. The player When a unit shoots at a unit of armored fighting vehicles, it is
may choose not to shoot with a certain type of weapon. possible to target a single armored fighting vehicle instead of
the whole unit.
Example: A unit decides not to shoot with its grenade • When using indirect fire, the designated target is a single
launcher because the area of effect might hit friendly fighters (friendly or enemy) fighter. At least one of the fighters in the
near the target. shooting unit must have a line of sight on the target.
 The player controlling the unit of steel troopers
Sierra Able finally chooses to shoot at the unit
of storm golems .264. The fighters of unit .256
located even partially inside the zone of fire are
most likely to get hit!

Sierra .264
Able
.256
Shooting

62
Change of plans! The Sierra Able leader orders his
The rules

men to open fire on the storm golems to the left of

his position, unit.272. The outmost steel trooper (1)
of unit Sierra Able doesn’t have a line of sight on
the outmost storm golem (2) of unit .272 because
.272
there is an obstacle in the way, however the zone
of fire is still defined using these two fighters.

#2

Sierra
Able

#1
 The leader orders the two laser guns of unit Sierra
Able to shoot at the Wraith golgoth. The zone of fire
is determined by taking into account all the fighters in
the unit. Even though the fighters equipped with laser
rifles do not take part in this shooting, one of them
is the outmost fighter considering the target. So his
position is used to determine the zone of fire (in green).

Sierra
Able

63
Any fighter whose base is located even partially, inside this
2/ DETERMINING
area is caught in the zone of fire. Fighters belonging to the
THE ZONE OF FIRE
shooting unit or to the targeted unit do not count. A unit can-
not shoot its own members!
It sometimes happens that fighters find themselves standing When the target is an engaged unit, the zone of fire is deter-
between a unit and its target. These fighters get caught in the mined from the extremities of all the units engaged in the mêlée.
zone of fire. They suffer some of the shots instead of the tar- When only one of the armored fighting vehicles of the
get no matter if they are friendly or enemy fighters. Indirect fire unit is the designated target, the zone of fire is determined
is an exception: these weapons generate no zone of fire. from this armored fighting vehicle alone.
To determine the zone of fire, the player traces two imagi- Once the zone of fire has been defined, the shooting is re-
nary lines connecting the extremities of the shooting unit to solved. The definition of the zone of fire is important, because
those of the unit it is targeting. The area between the two lines if there are any fighters inside it, impacts will be attributed to
and between the two units is the zone of fire. The zone of fire them first (see further).
includes the fighters separated from their unit by obstacles
and the fighters not taking part in the shooting.

TARGETING INSTRUMENT
One side of the AT-43 tape measure directly marks out
the range and therefore the difficulty of shooting tests.
However, it is easy to calculate this difficulty with any
tape measure: each range band is 10 cm long.

• Less than 10 cm: Range 0

• 10 to 19 cm: Range 1
• 20 to 29 cm: Range 2
Etc.
 If the distance between the shooting unit and the target is so
3/ SHOOTING TEST
long that the shot is impossible , the shot is fired into the blue
and doesn’t hit anything.
Who can shoot? Example: Unit .256, composed of seven storm golems with
For direct fire, fighters nanoblasters and two storm golems with sonic guns, opens
who don’t have line of sight fire on the White Stars unit.
(see p. 48) on a fighter be- The seven nanoblasters shoot first.
longing to the targeted unit • They have an Attack rate of 1, so seven dice are rolled.
or caught in the zone of fire • The action value of the storm golems is 3 and the range
cannot shoot. of the shot is 5, which means a difference of -2. According to
the universal table of resolution, the result needed is or
For indirect fire, all the more.
fighters with the appropriate The dice give , , , , , and . Only one
weapon can shoot: lines of impact! However, the nanoblasters have a Re-roll value of 1:
sight are not taken into ac- the six dice that gave or less are re-rolled once. This new
count. roll gives , , , , , .
No or more, unlucky!
Action value and difficulty Unfortunately for the White Stars, the sonic guns have not
The action value used is equal to the Accuracy of the been fired yet...
weapon used.
The difficulty of the test is equal to the range measured Direct fire: who is hit?
from the leader of the shooting unit to the leader of the tar- When the unit uses direct fire, each successful shot gives
Shooting

geted unit. an impact.

The player rolls a number of dice equal to the Attack rate
of the weapon used multiplied by the number of fighters who If there are fighters caught in the zone of fire, the impacts are
shoot. Misses can be re-rolled as many times as the Re-roll distributed one per fighter in the zone of fire, beginning with the
value of the weapon. fighter closest to the leader of the shooting unit. However...

64
The Sierra Able leader orders his men to shoot
The rules

their laser rifles at the unit of storm golems

.272. The container between the Therians and
the White Stars prevents some of his men from
shooting. In fact, only three of his men have
a line of sight on unit .272. So only the three .272
White Stars with the blue bases can fire.

Sierra
Alpha
 The leader orders the laser rifles to shoot at the
Therian unit .264. Six steel troopers, including
the leader, open fire. They get three impacts.
Since unit .256 is caught in the zone of fire, it takes
the first impacts. It receives all three impacts,
so there aren’t any left to give to unit .264.

Sierra .264
Alpha
.256

65
• Fighters who are smaller than the members of the shooting Indirect fire: who is hit?
unit or the members of the targeted unit are ignored (When Successful indirect fire increases the Area of effect of the
it can be argued, refer to the Size indicated on the reference weapon. Misses cause the shot to deviate.
card);
• Grounded fighters or fighters who have been issued the To find out who is hit by a unit’s indirect fire, the player places
combat drill “Knee to the ground!” (see p. 59) - are ignored. the template on the targeted fighter. If at least one shot miss-
• Locked shot weapons only hit the designated target. es, the shot deviates. A die is then rolled; the result gives the
direction of the deviation (there are six directions numbered
All remaining impacts (if there are any) are attributed to the on the template). The template is moved one centimeter in
unit initially targeted. this direction (one graduation) per shooting test failed. If all the
shooting tests are successful the template stays in place.

After placing the template, the zone affected by the

shot must be determined. This zone, read from the tem-
plate, is a circle. All the fighters whose bases are located
even partially inside the affected area suffer an impact.
The radius of this zone is determined as follows:
• If the result “Accuracy of the weapon minus the
range” corresponds in the table to an “automatic failure”
, the shot is lost in the blue and therefore doesn’t hit
anything.
• If all the tests are misses, the radius is equal to the
Area of effect of the weapon used;
• If there is at least one successful shot, the radius of
the Area of effect is multiplied by the number of success-
ful shots. If this result is greater than 10 cm, the radius
is equal to 10 cm and all the fighters affected suffer two
impacts instead of one.
 An infantry fighter who
suffers an impact caused
by indirect fire is ground-
ed (see p. 57) if he is not
eliminated. His miniature
is laid down.

Example 1: Two gre-

nade launchers fire to-
gether. If both of them
manage to hit, they will
generate an area of effect
of 3 (default Area of effect
of a grenade launcher ) x
2 (two successes on the
shooting test) = 6. If none
of them hits, the area of
effect is 3, the value indi-
cated on the card.

Example 2: Unit KS-8

fires with its two grenade
Shooting

launchers. With an Accu-

racy of 2 and a target at
range 7, this is a difficult
shot. It will require a
to hit. However, since the
universal table of resolution doesn’t indicate an automatic fail- Cover
66 ure , , the shot is possible. Dave has doubts about his shot Cover refers to terrain elements behind which fighters can
but still hopes he will hit a few fighters despite the deviation. find shelter, but which are not large enough to hide them com-
The rules

KS-8 Leader issues the order to fire. The dice eventually give pletely.
a and a : missed! Cover can save fighters by blocking impacts.
Since at least one die was a miss, the shot deviates.
Dave places the template over its initial target and rolls a die Cover does not provide shelter against impacts caused
to determine the direction. The he gets, sends the shot by indirect fire. When caught in the area of effect of an explo-
behind the target. Since both dice were misses, the template sion, a unit has nowhere to hide.
moves two bands towards direction four: part of the unit tar-
geted is still hit. “Indirect fire is awesome!” shouts Dave. To determine if an obstacle is high enough to protect a fighter,
all you need to do is bend down and adopt the point of view of
Example 3: Unit KS-8 fires its two grenade launchers the shooter and judge if it is possible to hide behind the terrain
( 3 cm); since none of the dice gave a successful result, element. If the case is debatable, the obstacle provides cover
the Area of effect is not multiplied. “Too bad”, mutters Dave, if the targeted unit was given the order to “Take cover!”
realizing that with a double six, the result needed to hit, this (see insert).
Area of effect would have been multiplied by the number of When an obstacle does provide cover, the zone of cover is
successes. And with two successes, he would have had an defined by extending the two lines linking the extremities of
Area of effect of 6! the shooting unit to the extremities of the obstacle. The zone
Later on, a unit of three Lancelots fires its six light grenade beyond the obstacle and between these lines is considered
launchers and gets four successes, the Area of effect of the the zone of cover.
shot is 12 (Area of effect of 3 multiplied by 4 successes, which A fighter whose base is even partially inside the zone of
gives a final area of effect of 12). The radius of the zone af- cover is considered behind cover.
fected is reduced to 10 cm since no area of effect can be
greater than 10. However, all the fighters located even partially If at least half of the members of a unit are hidden or
under the template suffer two impacts: one bloody slaughter behind cover, the whole unit is under cover and benefits from
coming up! And no matter what, all those who will survive the cover tests. In any other case, none of the fighters get Cover
impacts will be grounded. tests, even those inside the zone of cover; they don’t have
enough time to duck.
 3#3
3#4

3#1 3#2

The storm golems open fire. Four out of six Steel troopers are behind cover or completely hidden ( troopers 1, 2, 3 and 4).
Since more than half of the unit is behind cover or hidden the unit will benefit from cover tests.

• If the target is a unit of armored fighting vehicles, the

TAKE COVER!
player splits the impacts as equally as possible among the
The combat drill “Take cover!” (see p. 59) allows affected targets, beginning with the armored fighting vehicle
the player to succeed at his cover tests by rolling closest to the shooting unit. The damage tests are then re-
, , or . solved individually for each armored fighting vehicle.

• The combat drill “Take cover!” is lost immediately 67

Example: Unit Foxtrot Toxic, composed of three Fire Toads,
once a member of the unit is engaged; the “Take cover!”
marker is removed. is hit by five impacts. The three striders suffer an impact each.
• The effect of this combat drill is only applied at the The two remaining impacts are attributed to the two armored
end of the unit’s activation. This improved cover test fighting vehicles closest to the shooting unit. So in the end the
never applies to a unit targeted by overwatch fire. third Fire Toad only endures one impact. Lucky fellow!

The player rolls cover tests each time a unit under cover OVERWATCH FIRE
suffers impacts from direct fire. He rolls one dice per impact:
A unit that was issued an “Overwatch!” combat
each or cancels an impact.
Cover is ignored when the leader of the shooting unit is with- drill (see p. 59) may shoot during the activation
in 10 cm of edge of the cover closest to the targeted unit. of an enemy unit. The shot is resolved according to the
following conditions:
• The shooting takes places after the activated unit’s
4/ DAMAGE AND
REMOVING THE LOSSES movement;
• A unit that doesn’t perform any movement cannot
be targeted;
Each impact causes a Damage test (see p. 51). • Only the activated unit can be targeted;
Damage tests should be resolved separately. The losses are
• Losses are removed immediately.
removed immediately.
The management of the impacts is different for infantry units
and units of armored fighting vehicles. Once the overwatch fire has been resolved, the unit
Damage tests are resolved individually. is not considered to be in overwatch anymore. Over-
watch doesn’t affect the unit’s activation. If the unit in
• If the target is an infantry unit, the player resolves the overwatch does not shoot it remains in overwatch until
damage test by rolling one die per impact. He then removes the beginning of its next activation. However, a unit is no
the fighters eliminated starting with those closest to the leader longer in overwatch once it is engaged.
of the shooting unit. If two targets are within equal distance, the
player who resolved the shots chooses his victim.
 The leader has designated the storm golem unit .256:
NEXT
“I want those morphos dead!”
SALVO!
The first step requires determining the zone of fire (green
zone).
Now this is what I call a All the steel troopers in unit Sierra Able have a line of sight
real gun! on at least one target: so they can all shoot. With the eye to the
– Private J. Wagner laser rifle’s sights, the steel troopers have an action value of 5
( of the laser rifles: 5) for the shooting test.
Once the shots of one The White Stars leader designates the Therian leader. The
type of weapon have been range is measured from leader to leader: so the difficulty is 4.
resolved, the other weap- The difference between the action value and the difficulty is
ons may shoot in turn. The 1 (5 - 4). The universal table of resolution indicates that with a
active player chooses an- difference of 1, the player needs or more to hit.
other type of weapon from There are six steel troopers equipped with laser rifles
the unit and resolves the ( 1/0). The player rolls six dice and gets six results higher or
shots. This new salvo can equal to .
target a unit different than There is no one in the zone of fire. The Therians in the tar-
the previous salvo. Fighters equipped with two weapons (even geted unit suffer all the impacts.
identical) can take a shot with each one, targeting different The White Stars player proceeds to the damage tests. The
units. (see p.61) action value is 5 ( of the laser rifle: 5). The difficulty is 6
( of the storm golems: 6). The difference between the ac-
Example: Unit Sierra Able is composed of steel troopers tion value and the difficulty is -1 (5 - 6), so the result needed is
Shooting

keenly clutching their laser rifles in their expert hands. Laser or more. The player rolls six dice (the number of impacts)
rifles have the following characteristics: and gets four successes. Four shots rip through the storm
• Accuracy: 5 golems, ravaging their delicate internal circuits: with one point
• Attack rate/Re-rolls: 1/0 being enough to eliminate a soldier, unit .256 loses the four
• Penetration/Damage: 5/1 fighters closest to the White Stars leader.

68
The rules

.256

3Leader
69
 COMBAT
Combat

70
The rules

The sound of steel being unsheathed rang like the final Only the engaged fighters equipped with a close combat
whimper of the condemned. The steel troopers were not weapon can attack in close combat. The fighters that carry
going to die easily. Unfortunately, their combat knives out the attacks are the attackers. The victims of their attacks
seemed pretty pathetic against the dreadful Therian reaper are the defenders. The whole is considered a mêlée.
blades.
Two men had already fallen to the ground, their protective SPLITTING THE COMBATS
armor useless against the storm golems’ oversized scal-
pels. The White Stars fought without a word, conscious
of being outclassed in both numbers and armament. A Each mêlée is divided into several combats. Each combat
combat knife eventually found a flaw in the Therian armor. opposes one type of fighter against another.
Another barely scratched a metal torso. In fact, the attackers’ unit can engage several units of de-
The reaper blades hummed in the dark, sweeping away fenders. It is therefore important to determine which unit of
the last hopes of the leader. defenders suffers losses.

In the heat of battle, a good blade is sometimes more effi- Here are the situations, which require combats to be split:
cient than a laser rifle and certain fighters rely on the good old • One of the protagonists has different characteristics or a
ways to eliminate an opponent: close combat! different close combat weapon (heroes, etc.) than the others
in his unit;
A Close combat is resolved when at least one miniature of • The defenders belong to different units;
a unit is engaged (see the “Activation phase” chapter) after its • There are gunners and support weapons among the de-
movement, even if the unit hasn’t moved. fenders.
 On the other hand, for close combat resolu-
tion, leaders, officers and specialists hardly matter
much, as long as they have the same close com-
bat weapons. Special weapon bearers can be at- #1
tacked but they cannot attack others. 6

Missile
The golems from unit .256 (red bases) #2 launcher
and .250 (orange bases) have arrived in 6 6
contact with the steel troopers (blue bases).
Sergeant Borz’s Fire Toad has been destroyed.
The sergeant has ejected and has joined Sgt. Borz
his men. Encouraged by his presence, the #3 6
leader decides to remain in close combat. 6
The mêlée is split into two combats:
• Steel trooper 3 and the leader against
3Leader
the three storm golems of unit .260. The
missile launcher bearer cannot fight,
because he is a special weapon bearer. He
doesn’t have any close combat weapon;
• Steel troopers 1 and 2 against the
three storm golems of unit .256.
Sergeant Borz should participate in
a third fight since he has different
characteristics. However, he doesn’t
have any close combat weapon.
The steel troopers will have to
manage without him...

RESOLVING COMBATS
The difficulty is equal to the Defender’s Combat value.
Each successful roll generates an impact. Each impact 71
The player controlling the attackers splits the mêlée into leads to a damage test (see Damage p. 51).
separate combats and chooses the order in which they will
be resolved. There are as many combats as there are different Example: Unit Sierra Able attacks. Dave, who controls it,
types of fighters. chooses to resolve the combat of steel troopers 1 and 2 first.
After having picked a combat, the player rolls as many dice as Both have a combat knife with an Attack rate/Re-roll of 1/0.
he has fighters of the chosen type involved in the combat. The So Dave rolls two dice (one per steel trooper). The Accuracy
number of dice is multiplied by the Attack rate of the close of the combat knife is 4 and the storm golems have a Combat
combat weapon used. The failures can be re-rolled as many value of 5. In this case, “action value – difficulty” gives -1. Ac-
times as indicated by the Re-roll value of the weapon. cording to the universal table of resolution, Dave will need to
Special weapon bearers are not equipped with close com- get 4 or more to hit. Dave rolls 2 dice and gets and so
bat weapons so they cannot attack. he inflicts one impact.

The action value of the attackers is the Accuracy of the Impacts are distributed among the defenders.
weapon used. Impacts against infantry: The player proceeds to the
damage test, and then picks the defenders
to be eliminated from those in contact with
the fighters who have just attacked.
Impacts against armored fighting ve-
hicles: The player distributes, as he wishes,
the impacts to the armored fighting vehicles
in contact with the fighters who have just at-
tacked. He then proceeds to the damage
tests and their location.

Losses are removed after resolving the

damage tests. They are chosen by the at-
tacker among the enemy miniatures taking
part in this fight.
 CONTROL PHASE
Control phase

72
The rules

The four krasny soldati were watching the tunnel. Hud- “Now what?”
dled behind some debris, they were aiming their assault Suddenly, dozens of red glowing eyes dotted the far end
rifles at the darkness. They could hear the commotion of of the tunnel.
battle but there was no target in sight. From time to time, “Damn, morphos!”
one of them would have a look over his shoulder towards All four krasny soldati leveled their weapons at once.
the “secured” end of the tunnel, just to make sure they “Shoot ‘em when you can see the red in their eyes!”
were not being outflanked. Explosions could be heard in The storm golems were closing in fast. The assault rifles’
the distance. fire covered the noise of the running golems. The nanomi-
“How long are we supposed to stay here?” nitions and bullets were flying everywhere. The heavy fire of
“Until we are issued the order to move, comrade.” the revolutionary soldiers kept the Therians at a distance.
“And are we sure the radio works?” For a second.
The leader turned the volume of the radio up. The old “At least we know why we are holding the position
apparatus crackled some worrying messages. now!”
“They are getting their heads kicked in out there! We “Reloading!”
have to go and help them, leader!” The Therians advanced inexorably, pointing their weap-
“No! Our orders are to hold the access route, and we are ons in front of them. One of the soldati collapsed, seriously
going to hold it!” wounded. The three soldiers left gave each other a wor-
“But there is nobody here, no one to capture this bloody ried look. Suddenly, a grenade flew over their heads and
tunnel!” exploded amid the Therian tide, scattering the assailants.
The soldier was pointing out the end of the tunnel with The soldati swung around and shouted a warm welcome
his assault rifle, beyond it battle was raging. The leader’s to the six kolossus spetsnatz.
gaze remained fixed in that direction: a bleak light shined “Now that’s an access route!”
in the dark.
 These conditions only apply during the control phase. An
objective (or a tactical position) remains under control until the
next control phase, even if the control conditions are not ful-
filled anymore.

CALCULATING VP AND RP

“What’s the fate of infantry?”

“To die, sir!”
“Louder, you sissies, I can’t hear you!”
– Heard during one of Master
sergeant W. Lancet’s training sessions

Each player counts his VP and his RP. The RP (that have not
been spent) and VP are kept from one round to the next.
If a player has fulfilled all his objectives the game ends.
Otherwise, the players can spend their RP to acquire re-
serve units for the next round.

TIME OUT

“Reloading!”
– Heard on the battlefield.

This last phase simply marks the end of the round and the
transition to the next round.
73

During the control phase, each player evaluates the situa-

tion of his company on the battlefield. He determines which
objectives and tactical positions he controls and he has the
possibility of calling in reinforcements.
The control phase is split into three successive steps:
1/ Controlling objectives and tactical positions;
2/ Calculating VP and RP, the acquisition of the reserves;
3/ Time out. The round is over, a new round begins.

OBJECTIVES AND TACTICAL

POSITIONS

The only zone you ever really control is the ground you are
standing on.
– Law of War

Controlling the terrain is crucial. During a game of AT-43,

each company can control tactical positions or objectives.
• Tactical positions allow the players to deploy their fighters;
• Objectives allow the players to accumulate victory points
(VP) and reinforcement points (RP) (see Missions p. 92-99).

An objective or a tactical position is controlled by the player

who has the most infantry fighters (with a minimum of one)
within 10 cm of it. If it is a tie, none of the sides controls the
objective (or the tactical position).
 MORALE
Morale

74
The rules

“We’re fighting one to ten! We’re all gonna die!” Morale tests indicate how and when a unit’s status
The leader was about to answer when he felt a tremor changes.
in the ground. To his far side, the monstrously massive sil-
houette of a Therian golgoth had materialized. He suddenly RESOLVING MORALE TESTS
realized, just before charging back into close combat, that
the overseer had come to watch the coup de grâce and
had absolutely no intention of killing the steel troopers him- “Everybody’s gone serving. Serving the U.N.A.... Eh! Eh!”
self. – Private M. Hicks
Infinite despair overcame the leader’s soul; Sergeant
Borz’s swearing wasn’t enough to get the thought out of his When is a Morale test needed?
head. Even if the steel troopers were to miraculously elimi- Morale tests are triggered by events, which could poten-
nate the storm golems, they would then have to face the tially cause panic among the troops. Some of these tests are
overwhelming fire power of the Wraith. Private... What’s his resolved when the triggering event happens.
name again? ...might be an ace with a missile launcher, but A unit may be forced to go through several Morale tests per
these morphos combat striders were bloody tough to cr... round.
The bleak beacon of hope was instantly drowned in
gushing blood: with a single slash of his reaper blades, Morale test upon the unit’s activation
one of the storm golems had just sliced through both the
missile launcher and the soldier. A unit is subject to a Morale test upon its activation, in the
following situations:
The performance of equipment is not enough to secure vic- • A Type 1 or Type 2 infantry unit has fallen to 3 members
tory. The fighters’ morale and their ability to keep their cool in or fewer;
the most desperate situations is also an essential element. • A Type 3 infantry unit has fallen to 1 member;
The morale of a unit is defined by three statuses: by default, • A unit of armored fighting vehicles is entirely immobilized.
fighters are valiant; when things go bad, they tend to become
disorganized; when the situation has definitely gone pear The test is resolved before the unit’s activation, before any
shaped, they are in rout and run for their lives. spending of LP.
Morale test outside of the unit’s activation

Outside of its activation, a unit of armored fight-

ing vehicles is subjected to a Morale test when one
of its members is destroyed or abandoned.

Action value and difficulty

A unit’s Morale is equal to the highest Morale
in its ranks. If there is an officer leading the unit, his
Morale value is the one used.

The action value of Morale tests is the unit’s

Morale characteristic The fixed difficulty is 8.

Consequences
• If the Morale test is a success, the unit’s Mo-
rale status remains the same;
• If the Morale test is a failure, the unit’s morale
status worsens: if the unit was valiant, it is now
disorganized. If it was disorganized, it is now in rout.
MORALE STATUS

NERVES OF STEEL “Has anybody ever thought about organizing peace talks
This ability is indicated by “-” in Morale. with the Therians?”
Fighters with this ability, like many of the Therians, “I do not negotiate with domestic appliances!”
never need to roll any Morale tests. – Sergeant A. Borz to a soldier

Valiant unit
Units are valiant at the beginning of the game. They are 75
activated as normal and walk into battle showing great deter-
mination.

Disorganized unit
A disorganized unit is starting to panic and doesn’t obey
orders anymore. It cannot perform any action or be given any
combat drills when it is activated. The fighters remain where
they are, wondering if they should flee or not.
However, a Commander can regain control of disorganized
fighters with promises of promotion, reinforcements or courts-
martial. The player can spend 2 LP to rally a disorganized unit
he is about to activate back to valiant status. The unit is then
activated as usual.

Example: The number of troopers in unit Sierra Able is

dangerously low. When its card is revealed, his unit is sub-
mitted to a Morale test and fails. It was valiant and becomes
disorganized. Dave has no LP to spend on it. Sierra Able is
activated but cannot act and misses its turn immediately. High
command is not answering his instruction requests, Sergeant
Borz has no advice or anything else to bark at him...The leader
is starting to wonder if this could be his last battle, and his men
are not even in a state to ask that question themselves.

Routing unit
A Routing unit is eliminated and lost. Terror has overcome its
members. They are running away in every direction. The unit
has no further influence on the battle.
 THE HEROES
The heroes

Captain Newton angrily switched her microphone on Captain Newton’s predatory grin was wiped off her
when her two wingmen tightened their formation around face as she saw the combat strider melt to the ground
Number One, her personal Fire Toad. rather than explode. Her sensors barely had the time to
“Number One to Foxtrot Alpha 2 and 3 get out of my pick up the silhouette of a storm golem emerging from
way now! You’re blocking my...” the collapsing strider. A Therian infantry unit was imme-
76 Before the captain could finish her sentence, the unit of diately on the overseer, sheltering him from his enemies’
Fire Toads was caught in the wailing storm fired by two eyes. This morphos commander wasn’t just your com-
The rules

medium sonic guns. Her strider staggered for a second, as mon morphos leader. Destroying him was not going to
it was perforated by two medium nucleus cannon shots. If be easy.
the members of her unit had not stepped in, Number One
would have taken quite a knock. In fact, Foxtrot Alpha 2 CONSTITUTION OF A UNIT
and 3 were showing some critical damage.
Two looming Wraiths were advancing upon the Fire
toads. “Borz to be wiiiiild…”
– Famous chant among the White Stars recruits
Urash spared a thought for the second golgoth whose
reactions he found a bit slow. Since he was unable to In war, each side has its heroes, whose feats inspire the
manage the movement routines of the two heavy ma- troops. The heroes are emblematic fighters and their actions
chines alone, the overseer had had no other choice but often have great consequences on the universe of AT-43.
to connect the other golgoth to the tactical network. A hero can be the officer of any unit of his army of the same
They both constituted two separate units, which tried category and same type has him. He is not counted in the
to act in unison. It was a shame, as the creatures had unit’s numbers except to control objectives. His value is added
just demonstrated: a unit could act to protect its most to his unit’s value.
precious elements. As if they were trying to confirm this
rule, his golgoth was hit by the heavy fire of the enemy Examples:
armored fighting vehicles. An expert system whispered • Captain H. Newton, in her soldier version (★), can join any
to Urash that the destruction probability of his golgoth at type 1 soldier unit. So she can lead a unit of star troopers (★)
this range was inferior to one percent. but not a unit of battlesuits (★★★).
Urash was amused as he realized that probabilities • Sergeant A. Borz, in his soldier version (★★), can join any
were only, well probabilities: the statistics had been prov- soldier unit with whom he shares the same type: the steel
en wrong and his golgoth was hit six times. The lasers troopers, the wing troopers or even the shock troopers. But
ravaged its internal mechanisms. The Wraith was about to when he is aboard Bad Dog, his Fire Toad, he can only join a
disintegrate. Urash immediately initiated his transforma- unit of Fire Toads.
tion procedure to prevent the machine from exploding.
HEROES RANKS AND
FUNCTION IN A UNIT

“Odin: From conviction ensues obedience.

Manon: However, blindness leads to slavery.
Odin: And cowardice is suicidal.”
– Extract from Short Moral Plays by Manon and
Odin Gotinov, AT 37, Frontline internal publication

Heroes are officers. They cannot join a unit

which already has an officer (or another hero).
If they are deployed alone during the game,
for instance when their armored fighting vehicle
is destroyed, they can lead any unit without an
officer as long as they share the same category
and same type. The transfer of leadership is done
during the control phase, as long has the hero
fulfills the cohesion rules of the unit he has joined:
none of the unit’s miniatures should be more than
a range (10 cm) away from him and he must be in
contact (2.5 cm) with another unit member. Any
combat drill given to the unit is immediately ap-
plied to the hero.
DISTRIBUTING DAMAGE
Example: Sergeant Borz joins a unit of steel troopers who
have been issued “Take cover!” and “Overwatch!” combat
drills. He has already shot before moving, so he should not be “Heroes never die!”
allowed to use “Overwatch!”. But he is still given this combat – Revolutionary saying (AgitProp) 77
drill as well as “Take cover!”.
Heroes are role models and sources of inspiration for the sol-
The hero becomes the officer of the unit he joins and his diers they lead. The latter are ready to sacrifice their lives without
Morale is used for all the unit’s Morale tests. The hero’s card is a second’s hesitation to save the hero accompanying them.
removed from the activation sequence; he is now activated at So a hero never suffers any impacts or damage tests as
the same time as his unit, when its card is revealed. long as there are other fighters in his unit. Even if these fighters
are completely hidden, they receive the im-
pacts and suffer the damage tests instead
of the hero. So the hero can only be elimi-
nated if he is the sole survivor of his unit.
However, if the hero is specifically target-
ed (using the “Sniper” ability for instance),
he is subjected to the normal rules and can
be eliminated normally.

Examples:
• Sergeant A. Borz is aboard Bad Dog.
Since he is in an armored fighting vehicle,
he can be specifically targeted. When it is
the case, he suffers the impacts normally.
• Atis-Astarte is leading a unit of grim
golems. If a sniper deliberately chooses to
target her, none of the golems will step in
to take the impacts in her stead. Once in
contact, Atis-Astarte has a different pro-
file from her golems. Her combat will be
resolved separately. So, she can be elimi-
nated normally.
 building
Company building
Company A.P.
Army A.P./Assault
Faction A.P./Reinforcement

A.P.
Platoon #
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 Slot 4 Slot 5
Designation
A.P. A.P. A.P. A.P. A.P.
Troops (number)
Special weapon — — — — —
Extra fighter
Officer
Specialist
Specialist
Equipment
Equipment Platoon value
Unit value
Unit value: assault
Unit value: reinforcement

Platoon #
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 Slot 4 Slot 5
Designation
A.P. A.P. A.P. A.P. A.P.
Troops (number)
Special weapon — — — — —
Extra fighter
Officer
Specialist
Specialist
Equipment
Equipment Platoon value
Unit value
Unit value: assault
Unit value: reinforcement

Important: Circle your Commander!

 Company sheet
Company A.P.
Army A.P./Assault
Faction A.P./Reinforcement

Platoon #
Type SIZE Weapons RANK Equipment and specialists
Unit 1:

Unit 2:

Unit 3:

Unit 4:

Unit 5:

Platoon #
Type SIZE Weapons RANK Equipment and specialists
Unit 1:

Unit 2:

Unit 3:

Unit 4:

Unit 5: