Space Crusade Open battles – Against Blips!!

Some points on these as we have played them and some house rules we have amended.

First and foremost it is to be FUN! We wanted to play against the game rather than against an all seeing Chaos player. So the blips move randomly up to 5” until seen by the Marines etc. Then we took that most would shoot and move out if sight - except Androids and Dreadnoughts. The Androids would actively move to melee the enemy. This hopefully gives a story unfolding as things happen you just do not expect.

So starting points;

2 to 3 players – min 4 Space Crusade boards or 4’x4’ for open battles.

4 to 5 players – min 6 Space Crusade boards or 6’x4’ for open battles.

If equal to or more than 6 suggest break into 2 battles.

Marines start with 40 points: 1 Command, must have 1 Marine & 1 Heavy, and 2 as Marine and or Heavy. Any other force Must start with same points and similar distribution of basic warriors/Heavy .

Blip tokens for the basic game of up to 3 players:

In the basic game the Chaos player only gets 32 out of the possible 36 blip tokens available. The marks of chaos gives the extra blip tokens up to 36 (these are 4 of the Androids as extra blips)! With each extra player the Chaos gets 64 points with reinforcements to use – trying to keep the same ratio balance of gretchin/orcs/androids/ etc. (Its actually 56 points per player based on starting 32 blips but this would get too complicated as the marks of chaos increase.)

Decide on a mission – choose Primary and possible Secondary mission form Mission books. Set up terrain accordingly. You will need lots of doors. Weapons range is LOS from centre to centre of fig.

Optional addition to blip tokens are Equipment and Dummy tokens. Number of Equipment blips = number of players – 1, number of Dummy blips = number of players + 1. these are randomised and spread evenly across the sectors – see next paragraph.

Once the blips sorted into Gretchin / orcs / androids etc for the game we evenly split them across the sectors. So for 2 to 3 players into 4 piles, for 4 to 5 players 6 piles. The Chaos Marines / Heavy / Commander / Dreadnought are randomised and added evenly across the piles of blips for the sectors – note the 2 to 3 players into 4 piles means two of the blip token stacks will each get 2 blips form the 6 available form this set. {Note when we ran out of the basic Dreadnought 25pt we randomly selected a Dreadnought from the Dreadnought expansion which could also be reinforced.}  Place a pile of Blips in the centre of each sector this can be done randomly with D8 or D6 or ask someone not playing.

When playing an open terrain there must be lost of rooms with doors and objects that block line of sight.

During the Game:

When the Marines etc enter a sector / board area the blips are placed across the sector with the same rules as Space Crusade – cannot be in LOS of Marine after move completed. Without a Chaos player we then worked out a numbering system for the rooms to randomly role a dice to select an area then a D4 for number of blips for the area. Once a room used cannot take any more blips, last room gets remaining blips.

Rules then the same as Space Crusade. As each Chaos monster killed place a reinforcement blip next to Chaos cards.

On Alien Chaos turn:

1^st Turn over card (Roll D6 if ranked Alien) and action it (plus Eldar event card if Eldar playing),

2^nd any Chaos figures in LOS of Enemy shoot / move / melee as normal (no Gretchin melee!!),

3^rd Random blip movement roll a D10 for number of blips to move for each sector and start with blips nearest the Enemy, roll a scatter dice for direction. If the direction does not move the blip out of the room you can just ignore it. If due to the Chaos event cards you have loads of active blips roll the direction dice for a room of blips – again if towards Enemy move them otherwise leave as they are.

4^th Any reinforcement blips place last turn move into sector – again this can be random scatter dice and D10 for number of blips that move once in the sector.

5^th Place this turns reinforcement blips in zones not in LOS of Enemy as basic rules.

During the game should a Marine get an equipment card they can use it straight away as either a medikit or upgrade a basic marine to a heavy weapon of their choice. If they do not use it they can add an extra honour badge on their next game only. Also if the trooper does not move they can go into overwatch – LOS arc applies. Optional: Any heavy weapon will only shoot if enemy moves more than 1”.

End game:

Same as the Space Crusade – compare totals each including the Chaos total – the highest goes up a rank!

The Marines etc must use the points gained to get Honour badges up to the 51 points, after paying for lost troops – just as normal. But the remaining points won are then halved and can be used to buy extra troops etc for the squad – see Imperium battles for lists. But must be used before the next battle – you do not carry the points onwards. The maximum number of troopers that can be carried by the assault vessel is 12. If you take a tarantula this looses 3 of your allocated 12 places. A Dreadnought equivalent would loose 4 of your allocated 12 places. With these extra troops if you loose them at the end of a scenario you have a choice when doing your totals:- pay for them again and get to use them in the next scenario, don’t pay for them then you loose them but you get a higher total score at the end!!

ELDAR Option for advancement: looking at the Eldar scenario book they shoot up the levels far too quickly and the rule book did not take into account other players of other races. Alternatively make them like the Marines. For their 5 man squad if they win they go up one Rank, otherwise they go up 1 Level of recognition with 31-50 points, 2 Levels of Recognition for over 51 points. For a 10 man squad if they win they go up one Rank, otherwise they go up 1 Level of recognition with 41-60 points, 2 Levels of Recognition for over 61 points.  They require 4 Levels of Recognition to move up a Rank (just like Marines and their Honour badges). To balance this off the Eldar player will get access to additional Equipment – the easiest was to take them from the Imperial Fist cards. They get points to spend above the 51 (or 61) just like Marines for new stuff.

The Chaos totals are the same but with the Eldar player event cards we decided to do the following:

* Normally assumed at Lord of Chaos the Alien player has won!!

Without a Chaos player we rolled a D6 and on a 6 we played the randomly selected Alien event card instead of the top one from the deck.

Space Crusade – Open Battles without blips One V One

Setup

Roll for initiative 1D6, winner gets to set up first or second.

Each player sets out 1 unit (start with armour then on to troopers).

Choose order cards and place beside Leaders.  There is only one overall commander CinC who has the orders and typically 1 officer who may have certain piece of equipment for your units of up to 10 troopers.

Start battle

Roll for initiative – winner chooses to go 1^st or 2^nd.

All infantry get +1 armour value at the start before they have moved – but only for the 1^st turn. Considered dug in ready for the order to go.

Each player takes a turn to activate one unit (or armour) move/shoot etc.

It costs 4” to move up levels in buildings. All cover bonuses are +1 for woods, buildings, light cover, walls etc.  Only fortified buildings and enclosed bunkers give +2 armour save.

Buildings and woods block line of sight – you can see in 6” but not all the way through and out the other side – even if the terrain is less than 6”.

If you and enemy occupy same terrain feature then ignore armour bonuses.

You can put your troops in “overwatch” provided they did not fire this turn. Allows them to fire during enemies movement if in your line of sight, then remove overwatch.

Firing at enemies R = red dice 1,2,3 counts as seen 4 to 6 as zero, W = white dice 1,2 counts as seen 3 to 6 as zero. Damage is treated as against the unit for small arms so a roll that would kill a trooper remove a trooper.

Only Heavy weapons can damage vehicles. When vehicle is damaged roll a D6 and see table below.

When already lost all medium weapons the damage move upwards to loose a Heavy weapon. Vehicles do not benefit from armour bonuses from cover.

Infantry reduced to 50% casualties must take morale 1D6 1-3 fail must route, 4-6 passed. Unless specified as a droid or fearless, stormtroopers only take morale when not under command (either no officer within 6” or overall commander CinC within 12”).

Commanders issue orders or have equipment for their troop. The orders are either; Move It!!  Do a double move then shoot, Fire!!  Fire twice and move, Charge!! Fire move then assault.

Troops with ambush, hide are only seen when they fire and are not legal targets until then. When in cover and move without shooting they can recover the hide ability.

Snipers can pick off specific troopers or commanders.