Skirmish Wars - Rules V1.0a
Skirmish Wars - Rules V1.0a
Skirmish Wars - Rules V1.0a
0a
Introduction
Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics is a light - medium weight wargame based on the
wildly popular turn-based strategy game - Advance Wars released by Nintendo. It will be
a print and play game with a modular game board system for endless variety. The main
objective will be to capture your enemies HQ or eliminate all enemy threats. Players will
start many scenarios without units and just a handful of money. By building units and
capturing cites, players can raise new capital in order to build bigger armies.
Play testing
Thank you for your participation in the play testing of Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics.
These rules are a very loose rule set to get you started. Feel free to come up with any
improvements or ideas to these rules. That is what play testing is for!
Please post your play test session reports and suggestions in the appropriate place on the
game forum. Your feedback is very much appreciated and will help to make SWAT the
best game it can be.
Helpful hints. I use plastic discs to determine what units have moved on each turn. Deep
into a game a player might have 10+ units on the board at once and it is hard to remember
which ones have moved. Coins or wooden cubes would work as well for this. I will
provide "moved" markers in the final production for players to use.
Once you get a few combat situations under your belt it will become very easy to
determine combat results. After my first game I ha practically memorized all of the
results from particular units. The Terrain Defense Modifier chart may seem confusing at
first but I think you will find that it works very well and adds just enough chance to the
game without interfering with the outcome of the game.
Thanks – SWAT Design Team
COMPONENTS
Set-Up
3.1 Collecting Income – For every friendly controlled city, the player receives $5 at the
beginning of their turn. Friendly factories do not count towards this total. The player’s
HQ does count towards this total.
3.1a Repairing Units – Each unit that is on a friendly HQ, Factory, or City gains 2 HP.
You cannot go over the max of 8. A building in the middle of being captured is not
"friendly".
3.2 Capturing Property – Neutral and enemy properties can only be captured by foot
units (infantry or mechs). To capture a property a foot unit must move onto that property
and declare a capture. All properties except HQ’s have 4 Capture Points (HQ’s have 8).
A full strength unit may capture at 2 points per turn. A reduced unit can only capture at 1
point per turn.
• For example: A full strength unit moves onto a neutral city and declares a
capture, immediately 2 points are reduced from the city. I recommend placing
some kind of counter on the city and unit to indicate that there is only 2 capture
points left. I use wooden cubes, but any kind of coin or counter will work. On the
next turn the remaining 2 counters are removed and the city or factory is replaced
with one of the players color. The unit capturing will not be able to move this turn
as once a unit begins a capture it cannot move, thereby ending its activation for
this turn.
• Example 2: A reduced unit moves onto a city and declares a capture. 3 markers
are placed on the city denoting that only 1 hit point has been removed thus far by
the reduced unit. It will take another 3 turns for this particular unit to capture this
city.
If a unit in the process of capturing a property leaves the property for any reason before
the capture is completed, all progress towards the capture of that property is lost. So, if
another unit tries to capture that property it will have to start the process over.
3.3 Movement – Each unit that is not capturing a property can move on the player’s
turn. Each unit must complete it' s activation before you move on to the next unit. (You
cannot move a unit out the way, move another unit, then move the first unit back) A unit
may move then fire if the unit is a direct fire unit (meaning it has a range of one). If a unit
is an indirect combat unit (has a firing range of over 1) it may either move OR fire on its
turn but it may not do both. Once a unit fires its activation is done for the remaining turn,
meaning an direct fire unit may not move after firing, even if it did not move before it
fired.
Units may move up to their movement point total (MP). MP is stated on the unit and on
the unit card. Each unit may only move orthogonally, it may never move diagonally.
Units may not move through other units. Therefore if a unit blocks the path of another
unit it may not move any further or must find another way around. Each square of
movement costs 1 MP unless noted by the units terrain movement modifiers. Factories,
HQs and Cites all count as roads for Movement purposes. You can change direction
while moving.
• Example: A tread unit moves through the grass terrain at 1 MP per square but if it
moves through a forest it costs 2 MP per square of forest terrain. A tread unit may
not move over water or hill spaces.
3.4 Combat – If the target is within the units range (indicated on the unit piece and unit
card – range is counted orthogonally just like movement) the unit may fire upon its target.
The player declares what unit is firing and its target. The process for resolving each battle
is as follows
• Determine the units firepower against its particular target. To determine the
firepower the player needs to look at what type of unit it is firing upon. In this
version of the playtesting there are only three options. Foot, Wheel and Tread
units. On the unit card is the firepower for the unit against these types of targets.
Whatever the number is the firepower rating of the unit.
• The player takes that number and from it subtracts the targets defense rating to get
an initial damage total.
• The player then takes this number and references it against the "Terrain Defense
Modifiers" chart. Cross referencing this number against the type of terrain the
target is currently on gives a final hit total plus a die result. The number given is
the hit total and then the player must roll a single D6. If the die result is equal to
or less than the number indicated on the die on the chart, then 1 additional hit is
occurred against the target.
• The HP of the target is reduced by this number. This is done by rotating the unit
to show the current HP facing the controlling player. Meaning if a unit currently
has 6 HP then the side with the 6 on it will actually be on the far side from the
controlling player, but the 6 will be right side up. (I will have an illustrated
example of much of this in the final rules, hopefully this makes sense for now.)
• If a units HP total goes below 5, the unit chit is flipped over and the unit is
considered reduced. Reduced units have a lower firepower rating (indicated on the
unit cards) and can only capture properties at 1 capture point per turn.
• After the hit points have been determined and the targets HP(health) has been
adjusted accordingly, the target may fire back at the attacking unit if it is in range.
The process for the counter attack is the same as for the attacking unit.
Example Battle:
Using the image below the blue tank (the attacking unit) is firing upon the red AA unit
(the defending unit). Both units are at full strength; however the red AA unit is inside a
city.
• The first thing that is done by the blue player is to determine the base damage it
would do to the AA unit.
• First the blue player consults his unit card for the tank and looks to the Firepower
rating against the AA unit. The AA unit is a tread unit so the tank uses the black
(star) rating of 10. This is the base FP rating that it is firing at. Next the blue or
red player (it doesn’t matter which) consults the base defense rating of the AA
unit, which is a 4.
• So, the blue player takes his base FP rating of 10 and subtracts 4 from it to come
up with an initial damage number of 6.
• The next step the blue player makes is to consult the Terrain Defense Chart.
3.5 Once the player has completed his movements for the turn he may purchase new
units provided the player has any friendly controlled factories and those factories
currently do not have a unit on top of them.
• To purchase a unit, the player pays the cost of the unit and then places the unit on
top of an empty factory space. This unit will be eligible for movement next turn
and is also vulnerable to attack on his opponents turn.
3.6 All movement markers are picked up and play moves to the opposing player.
(Assuming you are using movement markers.)
3.7 APC units have a special purpose. An APC unit may carry up to 2 foot units at a
time. While inside the APC the units are protected, however if the APC is destroyed the
foot units inside are also destroyed. At the end of the APC’s movement it may unload one
or both of the foot units. Once unloaded the foot units may not move, fire or capture until
the next turn. Units may be loaded into the APC before or after its movement but not
during.
3.7a Infantry and Mechs load onto the APC by moving onto the APC's square (paying
the MP cost of the terrain) and they must automatically load in. Put the unit under the
APC. If the APC hasn' t activated yet, then when it does, it can move, taking the unit/s
with it. At the end of it's move, it can unload. Move the unloaded unit to any of the 4
spaces orthogonally adjacent to the APC that are normally available to that unit. If no
spaces are legal, you cannot unload the unit. Do this for each of the units in the APC, one
at a time. You may unload one or both, in any order.
• Conquest – A player gains victory by either eliminating all enemy units on the
board or capturing the enemies HQ.
• Victory Medals – Much like the victory medals in the C&C system games players
may determine a number of victory medals a player needs to earn in order to
claim victory. For each enemy unit eliminated on the battlefield the player
receives that unit as a victory medal. This particular unit is lost to the other player
for the remainder of the game.
• City Conquest – Players can determine a number of cities that need to be captured
in order to claim victory.
Optional Rules:
CO Powers
CO cards are chosen randomly at the beginning of the game or each player may choose
the CO that they would like to use. If both players want the same CO, players should roll
to see who takes that CO. Some CO' s have a special power that is in effect for the entire
game. If so, it will be stated on the card. There are two levels for each CO power which
are represented by the boxed stars on the right side of their card. The smaller stars
represent the first level of their special power and the larger ones the second level.
To begin the game place a wooden cube or counter at the top of the card not on the stars.
For every enemy unit eliminated move the counter one star down the track. Once the
counter reaches the last of the smaller stars, the player has the option to use that CO'
s
Power any time they see fit. Once the player used the power the counter is removed from
the track and the process starts over.
If the player wishes, they may choose not to use the Power of the CO and keep working
towards the CO' s Super Power. The Super Power is available once the counter reaches
the last star on the track. Any further unit eliminations do not count towards the CO
powers until the Super Power is used. Once the Super Power is used the counter is
returned to the starting position and the process starts over.
Credits:
Game Design by:
Brandon Pennington
Andrew Tullsen
Matthew Koth
Playtesters:
Thomas Dunagan
Jonathan Tullsen
Ron Pennington
Joe Kundlak
Translations:
Joe Kundlak