SETTING UP A BATTLE

This section has the rules of setting up a standard two player battle.

The steps for setting up the battle are:

1. Muster Warbands
2. Priority Roll
3. Battlegroups
4. Battle Plan

There are also additional rules for specific game types:

• battles with more than two players: refer to Core Book P52-61.
• Convergence Battles: CONVERGENCES
  

THE BATTLEFIELD

Warcry battles are fought upon a battlefield. This can be any flat surface approximately 22" in width and 30" in length.

The term battlefield refers to both the battlefield floor and any terrain features placed upon it.

The term battlefield floor refers to only the flat surface the battle is played upon and not any of the terrain features.

THE WARBANDS

Each player in a Warcry battle controls a warband of fighters. When first setting up the battle, the players each muster a warband by selecting fighters with the following restrictions:

1. The warband must include at least 3 and no more than 15 fighters.
2. The combined points value of all the fighters in a player’s warband cannot exceed 1000.
3. All fighters (except Allies) must share the same faction runemark.
4. The warband must include 1 fighter with the LEADER x runemark as the warband's leader.
5. Only the warbands leader, heroes & allies can have the LEADER x runemark.
6. You may include 1 fighter with the LEADER x runemark as a Hero.
7. You may include 1 fighter with LEADER x runemark as an Ally. An ally does can be from any faction within your Grand Alliance

When playing a Narrative campaign: refer to Playing Campaign Battles for changes to the above restrictions.

Once both players have mustered their warbands, they reveal their warbands to each other.

THE PRIORITY ROLL

The players now roll off to determine the order of certain tasks in setting up the battle. The player who wins the roll-off is called the priority player

BATTLE GROUPS

Starting with the priority player, each player splits their warband into three battle groups & reveals the groups to their opponent.

The three battle groups are name:

• Dagger
• Shield
• Hammer

Each battle group must:

• have at least 1 fighter
• cannot have more than half the total fighters in the warband

Shield must also have at least a third of the fighters in the warband (rounding up).

Battle groups are used for deployment and some victory conditions.

THE BATTLEPLAN

Shuffle and draw one card from each of the four battleplan decks, Terrain, Deployment, Victory, and Twist.

Place the drawn cards face-up so all players can see them. The upwards arrow on the terrain cards corresponds to the upwards arrow on the deployment cards.

Pack the remaining cards away as they have no further effect upon the battle.

Now resolve the cards in the following order:

1. Terrain
2. Deployment
3. Victory
4. Twist

1. TERRAIN CARD

Every terrain card has a unique layout of terrain features. Set up the terrain features shown on the terrain card in the locations shown for them.

The terrain cards are designed for the terrain features in the core set. However, with player agreement, you can substitute one or more of the terrain features with different terrain features from your own collection of terrain.

2. DEPLOYMENT CARD

Each deployment card represents the battlefield. There are six deployment points marked to indicate where each warband's battle groups should be placed.

Each deployment point has an icon corresponding to a battle group and is coloured either red or blue.

The priority player chooses which player uses the red deployment points and which will use the blue.

Starting with the priority player, alternate placing your fighters onto the battlefield one battle group at a time, starting with Dagger, then Shield, then Hammer.

When a battle group is set up, all of fighters in that battle group must be wholly within 3" horizontally of its deployment point on the battlefield floor or a platform. They can be may be , but any distance vertically,

Reserve Battle Groups

If a deployment point for a battle group is labelled RND2 or RND3, this means that the battle group is not setup at the beginning and will instead arrive mid-battle.

Set those battle groups aside for now.

3. VICTORY CARD

The card drawn from the victory deck determines how the winner of the battle is chosen, and how long the battle will last.

If the victory card instructs the players to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender, to place any objective markers or treasure tokens, or to do anything else before the battle begins, this is done in this step.

Objectives and Treasure

Sometimes the victory deck will require the place objectives or treasure on the battlefield. To do so, place an objective marker or treasure token at the indicated location.

When measuring distances to objectives and treasure, always measure to and from the centre of the marker or token.

TIED GAMES

When the battle ends, if neither player has achieved the victory conditions on the victory card, the battle continues for another battle round before ending.

Check the victory conditions once more to see if one of the players is declared the winner.

If neither player has achieved the victory conditions, keep playing further battle rounds until all the fighters left on the battlefield are from one player’s warband – that player is declared the winner.

4. TWIST CARD

The card drawn from the twist deck has a special rule that applies to that battle.

THE BATTLE BEGINS

With the battlefield and warbands set up, and the battleplan decided, the players are now ready to begin the battle.