oN All events portrayed in this game have (ge Ie aR AR Haar aca SUR e cee cl ere ce Te ec te et Pee Rao e ter er fucking up ourselves and our planet.a APOKALYPSE CREDITS Bei ae ae Cauca as Sse uhyotinr a s Ror en Doe) PRODUCTION pa ard Carl Johan Hakansson, Malin Rydén and Ola Holmdah! Perret a) Retard Dee eR Cae Ne cena as still exists) Perera raat Tear Se) ORCL Me te un Coe NL Re (The Pro from Dover), Sven and Majken Rydén, Hakan "PC Guru Cree et ne ert oe ze aye eg pees Flammans Spel ("Where Gamers Go”), Peter Bank, Peter Nordgren, Jeremy Fitz, Anders Quest, Benny, Rufus and Beelzebub Nods to era era Case Petar a arts pc Me etme Pee See traced All lyrics quoted should not be seen as copyright infringement. The lyrics are the property of their respective owners. They are solel used by Hardcore Media for purposes of creating atmosphere. eae eon eee ee anu td Penance atkins care ere ater tee ein Sears Cerne Nts RC eer Ce ee een ae ea ene kor aeRn CRUE ete eee seo Carl Johan Hakansson is 25 years old. He's a Sociologist with a clear interest Peet ee UCT CPO See LeU elec Ce Ue etalWelcome to the World of Shit. The lands of Everywhere eee ont ee ce BUR ema rey eR RC mankind. The world is going straight to hell, mankind eeu neck ase add Pea eines cace Re eur es Emer eS can come up with. We're being killed. Not by aliens. Not by some sinister eee Cee euch ee cece Sete SINC rtom arta a Man has one hundred twenty days to live. After that, the End. The Final fucking End. No more friends or Pre oe ea Mc Coe eae Paes ma Uke ln Aaa ee tect set pet ae Pramas aa power and prestige won't make a difference anymore. er aoe irra et eet Oa ce Teme BCI ee Ege RL BLL Ec eee Ce DL Ree eminent ec er eli atd hundred twenty days. You take the role of a eee Cae Tel Ae od Pe en cree cu rer Wren Manco mae Cae cr ne cag ear pa ea Ace orc aa Pest MOR de ee ee Rd Promree Ce MEL haus Siete Pre eee ea al cle COM Le rua Rech Mat tC ee ane PEE ser nee Onur eras Sar a aime CURR ee aad Dae Ct Cae ac mr ler conquer even death, right? Your ignorance knows no LT You're destined to rule. To rule the funeral pyre.| Tsay sued oe peasy rnc eee aad Re aed TR ecaes ceeds Se era aad eens eer ee Cr Cn cad Sa ead Cans Sed ed Rema Peta cu c 9 9 10 tt i 1 4 cg ic 4 1S 16 16 4 2 2a a or vay Py ros rr Pr ya Pa ray 29 a Rd coy er Ey eS) aie 4 cd cad ord er vA or re cl So mat ane) DR one aad Ldn ee eed een Rs Lean eed Lawomates & Rosors wH 1 H Comeat eta Cause & Errect reg od Oa ee od aS a kd eed Destowwe THe BATTLEFELD Me rm Aa Pema Rone id RR a read Pred ee co Lge a cae Tre Geeennouse Dene Ac te) Beer Firtarms ers eS Seem ey TET e anes TCC ced DO eed re aad Dee nace Dee eadea ce ry ocd ul Lr 13 a 119 7a as 25 19 179 aA ici}ASICS Just in case that questions arise for new Gamers we havederided.to include a few basics before theirules begin. fan pay lee ES a ea wn i he Nee Oe at PEs des Ames aml “it — Eten RE HE AME TURN On the real world battlefields, Syeverything happens much at the same time. One hia sats of troops may advance, while other troops re at the enemy and a third squad panics and attins'for cover, all at the same time. But hey, as as we would like to create a realistic simu- in of firefights we also want to make an inter- .,esffhg and fur to play game, hence the need for a Game Turn sequence. In a simple and abstract fam¢ like chess, there is no need for an elaborate me Turn sequence to determine in which or- ‘er,the Gamers’ actions take place. One side simply moves one of his pieces befpre it’s the other Gamers turn. A more com: “ein plek game, like Apokalypse, requires a more elabo- raeTurn Sequence because it's possible to do so _*"nany different things with different units. In real v { In Apokalypsamane tfooper is ong tr@oper, no more and no less. Distances se Is meas- ured in “game meters”, or meters for short. One meter is equal to 1,5 cms. We recommend that you make your own ruler that is marked in me- ters. This scale is adopted to be used together with 25mm miniatures. If you wish to use mini- atures in other scales this is fine with us, but you will have to make a new ruler that can be used together with that scale. As all distances in the game are given in game meters it is very easy to Use 15mm, or even smaller miniatures as the only thing that need to be changed is the ruler. Measurinc Distances Yes, we do know that you aren't stupid and know how to use a ruler but there is one thing that need to be clarified. Always measure the distance between the target's and the attacker’s heads, that from base center to base center. This way the size of your model’s base won't matter. Miniatures: Despite what both you and we might wish, there are no special Apokalypse miniatures yet. Until they have been released you will have to make do with existing models. Do not look at it as a draw. back, now is the time to grab all your old unused miniatures belonging to all those games that you don’t play anymore and make good use of them. There are more Sci-Fi miniatures out there than you might think, use your imagination and im provise. Not all SF miniatures have gigantic shoulderpads and look like they are suffering from indigestion. We have play-tested Apokalypse for approximately five years now, and if we have been able to find suitable miniatures to play with, you ought to be too. ‘life, as you may know, there are no Game Turns “and there is no "sequence” which determine who does what first. The Game Turn is a way to make sense of what happens on a battlefield and to give a sense of order to what in reality is chaos ‘A Game Turn, or simply Turn, is a complete sequence of combat that encompass both move- ment, firing and morale checks for both sides. A Turn consists of several Game phases. In a Game Turn it's important to determine which side that has got the initiative, as it can be vital to know who acts first in certain cases. In reality, initia- tive is based on aggressiveness, strategic ability, and the commanders’ ability to think fast and exploit opportunities. Here we settle for a d20 roll, but in the forthcoming Apokalypse Kompanion a more realistic optional system will be introduced.Pvanninc Puase, PPH (First Game TuRW ONLY) This phase only takes place at the start of a firefight and is more of a set up preparation than an actual Game phase. In the PPh the Gamers se cretly write down their squads’ deployment and orders for the battle, that is, what they will do during the firefight. Iwrriative Puase, IPH The Gamers each roll 1420, re-rolling ties. The amer with the highest score gets the initiative jor the Game Turn, He fires first in the OwFPh and gets to choose if his or his opponent's troops will move first in the MPh. Orver Puase, OPH Now the Gamers have the opportunity to give new orders to their troops, changing the orders that were written down in the PPh “4 Movement Prase, MPH The gamer who won the initiative decides wheth he oF his opponent moves first. Move all squads that are able to move, then the opposing gamer moves his. It is possible to fire Overwatch fire in this phase. Duckback tests are made, as well as ISP tests for wounded troops. OveRWATCH Fire PHASE, OwFPH Squads which have Overwatch orders may fire now if they did not fire during the MPh. The gamer who won the initiative may begin to fire with one squad. Players then alternate firing their squads, one at a time, until all squads with Overwatch orders have fired. Duckback tests are made, well as ISP tests for wounded troops. Fire Puase, FPH All firing are carried out in no specific order. Fir: ing is simultaneous in the Fph, so no troops are removed before they have been able to fire back ISP tests are made for wounded troops. After fir- ing, hand to hand combat is resolved. Morate PHase, MoPH All Morale tests are made. Panic tests are made by squads that are forced to do so. Remove all Duckback and Headless Chicken markers.During the PPh the Gamer gives every squad or team a plan. The plan is a pre-set pattern of movement and combat that the Gamer wants the squad to follow. It symbolizes the fact that every Warlord has a plan before a firefight and usually sticks to it during battle. Plans are used in Apokalypse to force the Gamers to behave like actual battlefield commanders, not like the omniscient Gamer that can see every inch of the battlefield. Plans make the game a contest of wits, not of die-rolls. Since plans are pre-determined by the Gamers, it’s very important to come up with a good plan, or you will probably see your forces massacred because of that one small, fatal mis- take. However, it is possible to alter the battleplan during the firefight as you, the war- lord, try to cope with unexpected situations or simply wants to correct your previous tactical mistakes. New orders can be given in the Or- der Phase. This does not mean that your troops only are automatons that follows the orders you programmed them with before the battle Troops do have a certain degree of free-will in the game, and they may take initiatives of their own when things start looking bleak. The whole point of giving orders to your troops is to show that you have to have a plan prior to combat and then stick to it. Far too many games give the Gamers the possibility to react to each others movements every Turn. It is quite hard to really fool or surprise your opponent and the game soon degenerates to a contest of maneuvering, where winning the ini: tiative and having fast troops that can re-de- ploy quickly are the only things that count. To make the order system as flexible as possible we deliberately try to make as few rules as pos: sible and the drawback is obvious: ruthless Gamers abuse the system Apokalypse requires a great deal of hon esty and if you feel that your opponent can’t resist to cheat then we strongly recommend you to play with someone else. The point of gaming is that you should be having fun, and our idea of fun is not having to spend an hour arguing every time we want to play the game. THE BATTLEPLAN The battleplan is your overall plan for the en- tire battle. This includes two major parts; the deployment of your troops before the battle begins and their orders once the battle has started. The battleplan is made on piece of pa- per. You need space for writing down your squads, thelr orders and to draw a simple’ map of the battlefield. DePLoyMENT After the terrain have been placed, your troops will have to be deployed. Usually the troops will start from one of the table-edges, but in some scenarios that might not be the case. Ambushes, raids and other situations might have one side start in the mid- dle of the battlefield. Deployment areas are de- cided when making the scenario. The squads’ de- ployment must be clearly marked on your plan- ning sheet. Orvers A plan is composed of three types of orders; Movement Orders, Target Selection Orders and Other Orders. A plan must include Movement: and Target Selection Orders and may include Other Orders. The Planning Sheet gives space for writ- ing down your grders and to draw a simple map of the battlefield. On the map you draw 2 symbol for every squad together with arrows and notes to show how the squad will move to avoid confu- sion later on. The map can be as simple or as, complex as you like, the important thing is that it will help you to remember exactly where your squads are supposed to go. Remember that or- ders are given to whole squads or teams and not to individual troops except on very special occa- sions described later. move during the Firefight. A simple map depict: ing the battlefield is drawn on your planning sheet and the positions of all your squads are clearly marked. On the map an arrow is drawn to show where the squad will move and what route it will take there. The squad will then move in the di- rection indicated using whatever type of move- ment you think is suitable at the time. If you for- get to give a squad a movement order, je. draw an arrow on the map, the squad will idly sit by and have no idea that the party is about to start. But when the shit hits the fan, seeing a friendly squad move out they decide that they better get going and do something. Execution for cowardice isn’t an option. The squad tries to join the near- est friendly squad, move within formation dis tance of the friendly squad with at least one trooper, and follow the same order (arrow) as that squad. If a gamer forgets to draw the squad on his planning sheet altogether it may not be used in this game at all. This simulates misunder- standings between the squadleader and the war- lord regarding time and place, misguiding maps causing the squad to get lost, ‘or simple sensible desertion.TYPES oF Movenent K squad can use several types of movement to get where they are going. They might wish to be Careful, dashing from cover to cover and keeping an eye open for enemy troops all the time. Or {they might feel speed is more important than caution and rush forward as fast as their legs can carry them. This is not decided before the battle by the Warlord, but is left to the common sense and experience of the squadleader. There are three different types of movement for the squad to use; Cautious Advance, Advance and Charge. These types of movement, as well as how to move the squad are described in the Formations & Movement section. Rogot types oF MoveMENT Robots have different types of movement. Robots use and fights in different modes. There are two modes, DeployMode and AttackMode. Using DeployMode the robot concentrates completely on getting where the slaughter is the fiercest. The robot may not attack in h-t-h combat or fire its weapons. In AttackMode the Robot slows down and concentrates fully on its mission of extermi- ration. THE OVERWATCH ORDER Unlike the other types of movement the Overwatch order is not determined by the squadleader in the heat of the battle, but pre- determined in the battleplan. A squad on Overwatch may not move, it's lying down or crouching, using available cover and bracing to their advantage. They spend the whole Turn fi ing at their targets, thus improving both their accuracy and the number of shots that may be fired. They are not doing anything else than fir- ing their weapons, so no time is wasted by run ning around and shouting to each other. They have proper time to aim and are not forced to fire snapshots like other squads. A squad on Overwatch is shown by drawing a small circle around the squads position and writing the let- ters OW next to it Se aan Oe ae eg i ac ge es caterer eae eae et a7 ee BU er eee eel and ‘vest didn’t help. The bullet tore out his ae au er eee ee stad His face, it looks like.. Pee Bee ae cae a aoa ra are EXAMPLE: You want Squad 13 to move to the rocks, take cover and wait for a Turn and then ‘move as fast as possible towards building X. In game terms this would be expressed as: Squad 13 move towards the rocks, stay on Overwatch for one Turn and then run towards building X. When the map is drawn it would probably Took something like this.= A eobots or troops equipped with Power A Target 1s a squad, team, Robot or Landmate. Troops that are equipped with weapons that are tunable to penetrate the armor of Landmates, (pe Re Aik we ws SSX 4“ Ammters do not need to fire at these targets, “a ee = i 3 feats LICL . and will instead chose to fire at the closest ee Lm Papo Br a . eee Target Selection Orders isthow youlwant Four squads to attack the enemy. You may give each trooper with a support weapon a different Tar- get Selection order than the rest of the squad or team. This is done to simulate the fact that troops equipped with support weapons often have a dif- ferent role in combat than the rest of their squad. They might, for example, be equipped to take out Landmates or robots rather than infantry and may subsequently be given order only to fire at such targets instead of wasting their valuable am: munition at targets other troops can kill just as effectively. Overkill seldom pays of, at least not in the long run. There are seven kinds of Target Selection Orders; Kill ‘em alll, Get the.... Conserve Your ‘Ammo, Suppressive Fire, Hold Your Fire, Assault! and Assault the... They are all described below. If a gamer forget to give a squad a Target Selec- tion Order, then the squad is considered to have Kill “em alll orders and will attempt to blast away at anything in, or out of sight in a desperate at- tempt to not get killed themselves. The squad will fire at the end of the FPh after having re- moved its casualties. This is to represent the squad’s confusion at not being told exactly what to do. They may return fire if attacked, but will stop as soon as the enemy is eradicated or re: frains from attacking them. The squad may fire and fight normally if it's within ten meters of an enemy target, even if it doesn't attack them. They simply react ‘to the enemy's movement and try to stay alive by killing every motherfucker that moves. It is not a good idea to forget to give your Troops orders as those that do survive the battle seldom are too happy with an incompetent War- lord S-mendivary squad. Power Armors, Landmates avid Robots are easy to distinguish from other squads, even at a distance, making it possible for badly equipped troops to chose Cams Att eam pn Bg ssugftargets more fitting to their armament SS oP aie: teas Sa 1H AhPeoe a : BRVictiyt ” Example: If squad 13 was equipped with Ur- Ban Eliminator SMGs, they would not at- tempt to attack a Landmate as their weap ons would be unable to do anything more than scratch the massive armor. On the / other hand they would fire their weapons at a Wardog squad equipped with Trooper Body ‘Armor, even though they would have no chance of harming their enemy. It is very hard to spot the exact type of armor worn by the enemy at a distance in the midst of a battle. A target may also be a Character or other single trooper that isn’t within formation distance of a squad or team. If a Character is within a squads formation distance he will count as being a mem- ber of the squad for targeting purposes, and wil be hit the same way as any of the other troops would be Important: Troops will generally fire at the clos- est possible target of the type indicated in their orders, but there are one exception to this rule. If the target is engaged in H-t-H combat with friendly troops, the attacking squad will chose another target for their fire. If their LoS to the target is blocked by friendly troops they will pick a new one if they have no access to weapons ca: pable of Indirect Fire. Troops with Kill ’em All orders will fire anyway as described under Los, in the Fire Combat sectionTHE TARGET SELECTION ORDERS Kit ‘em Au! A squad with Kill ‘em all! orders are in such a state of frenzy that they attack the closest en- emy target in sight with whatever they've got. If there are two enemy targets at an equal dis- tance away, the squad picks the one that is the most dangerous threat to their survival. "Most dangerous threat” is up to you to decide, within reason. If there is no target in sight they must fire their weapons anyway, blasting away at any terrain in their Firing Arc that looks likely to hide an enemy. The squad must use all attack dice available. After all, the closest enemy is always the most dangerous one. The result of this excessive use of ammunition at innocent scenery will be described in the Hiding Section. Conserve Your Ammo! A squad with Conserve Your Ammo! orders is instructed not to waste their valuable ammu- nition at what they “suspect” is a hidden tar- get by blasting away at whatever bushes, trees and buildings that look suspicious. The squad attack the closest enemy target in sight. If there are two enemy targets at an equal dis- tance away, the squad picks the one that is the most dangerous threat to their survival. The squad may not attack a hidden target or a po- sition they suspect hides a target. Troops also avoid to use their weapons on full auto so they may only fire half of their initial RoF, before modifications (round up), each Turn, Since they are more careful with spending their ammuni- tion, Conserve Your Ammo! also gives a -5 die roll modification when checking to see if the trooper’s weapon has run out of ammunition The Ammo Roll will be explained in the Fire Combat Section. GET THE. A squad with Get the...! (fill in a specific type of target), must attack the closest enemy tar- get that corresponds to the type you have spect hed, and that sin sight. The target must be very easy to identify at a distance, like Landmates and Robots. This order is perfect for the Warlord that wishes to take out heav- ily armored targets with his teams or troops carrying support weapons. If no such target is available the squad may not fire at another enemy target. They may not fire at hidden tar- gets or terrain pieces that they suspect con- Ceals enemy targets. They don't need to use all attack dice when firing their weapons, but can chose to fire their weapons as if they had Conserve Your Ammo! orders. EXAMPLE: Team 5 has the order “Conserve Your Ammo!". Being lucky enough to be equipped with a Constrictor HMG with AP ammo, Trooper #52 has the order Get the Landmates! She will fire her weapon at the closest Landmate, trusting that her teammate will handle any threatening enemy troops. Remembering that they are low on ammo she also chooses to fire only half her available attack dice, getting the same -5 Mod on the Ammo Roll as her teammates. Some vicious Gamers may see the opportunity to give squads a Get the Warlord order. A War- lord may only be targeted if he isn’t within a squad's formation distance. If he is, it’s virtu ally impossible to single him out unless the at- tacker is within 10m of him. It is not allowed to give orders like Get the Enemy!, Get the Man in the Blue Hat!, Get Everything That Moves! and similar. The Get the...! order need to be used with care and thought and both you and jour opponent should refrain from trying to Bend the rules, A battle is much more fun to win if the victory is based on your skills as a Warlord instead of on superior rules knowledge or cheating. Suppressive Fire! This order is useful if you want to fire at a piece of terrain that you think contains, or will contain, enemy targets. Also, use it against those places that needs to be clinically free from enemy troops before your vital plans can continue. Suppressive Fire may only be used by troops carrying certain support wespons os lescribed in the Suppressive Fire section. Read that section carefully before giving this order to be sure that you have the correct weapons available. A squad that have Suppressive Fire! orders must always have Overwatch orders as well. A piece of terrain must be the designated target of a Suppressive Fire attack. It must be clearly marked on the battle plan. Look up the Suppressive Fire section in the Rules of War- fare chapter for further information. EXAMPLE: Before squad 13 will charge the ru- ined factory building, trooper #52 has orders to fire Suppressive Fire against the building for two Turns with her newly acquired Rocket launcher to soften the enemy resistance. Hoto Your Fire! A squad with Hold Your Fire! orders may not fire at all. This order is given to avoid embar- rassing situations like when you have carefully hidden your squad and suddenly an overzealous trooper stands up shouting "Die, Motherfuckers!” and starts blasting away at some target, conse- quently revealing your squad's location.Assautt! The Assault! order is a special kind of Target Se- lection Order that only can be given to squads in- dicated as H-+t-H Specialists in the Cannonfodder chapter. These squads are mainly equipped with H-tH combat weapons and their primary use is to engage the enemy in H-t-H combat instead of fir- ing at a distance. The squad moves toward the near- est enemy target that is within the squadleader’s Los and which is possible to reach and engage this Turn in H+t-H combat, instead of moving and shoot- Ing as normal When you give the squad Movement Orders, you draw an arrow on the battle map just as usual, but don’t be surprised when the squad suddenly deviates from your plotted course and attacks in a direction that isn’t exactly according to your plan. When there are no more enemy tar- gets within LoS and reach, the squad will return fowards their original goal. Common sense will be needed as the squad sometimes can move far away from the target. If an enemy squad is within LoS but not within Charge distance, the assaulting squad may instead chose to fire their weapons as normal, using Kill em All! orders. This is one of the two possible orders that can be given to squads that has taken Rage at the beginning of the Battle as described in the Cannonfodder chapter. Berserks must always charge a possible target, and may only fire their weapors at's target that & out of thelr reach. That is, not possible to engage in H-t-H com- bat this Turn. Assautt THE... This order may also only be given to H+t-H Special- Iss, When squad has been given Assault the-1 orders they will move as if they had Assault or- ders, but will only attack the kind of enemy target(s) you have specified as in the Get the... order above. The squad will try to move around all other enemy targets and stay out of any op- posing Kill Zones (see the Formations & Movement section for an explanation of Kill Zones). If they hhave LoS to a designated target, they will change their direction of movement and will start moving as fast as possible towards it. When there are no more enemy targets within LoS, the squad will re- turn towards their original goal. This sone of the two possible orders that can be given to squads that has taken Rage at the beginning of the battle as described in the Cannonfodder chapter. Berserks must always charge a possible target, and may only fire their weapons at'a target that is out of their reach. That is, not possible to engage in H-t-H com bat this Turn RESTRICTIONS: Krrestriction is something the | troops will not shoot at, at any cost. A restriction can be almost anything, for example a squad can be ordered not to shoot at women, the hostages, Landmates or whatever comes to the Gamers mind. If a fire restriction is in effect for an individual that is within the for- mation distance of a squad, she can only be sin- gled out if within 10 m of the attacker. That is, Unless she is wearing something that clearly dis- tinguish her from the squad, like a Hellraiser in a squad of Cultists for example. It is not enough to wear a red scarf or being unarmed, nobody has time to notice something like that before it’s too late. However, to avoid confusion a single squad may only have one fire restriction at a single time. Itis not easy remembering to many facts at once, especially not in the middle of a firefight. A squad wail stil shoot at a target they have orders net to shoot at if it’s hidden as they are unable to see the enemy and thus identify and single out a par ticular target. Important: Note that you cannot give a squad a target selection order and then restrict the or- der in such a manner as to remove the drawbacks and keep only the advantages. For example, if you give a squad Kill em all! orders and then a re- striction that says "don’t shoot at what you sus- pect to,be hidden targets”. If you do that, you ‘ave effectively given them a Conserve Your ‘Ammo! order without the drawbacks of Kill em alll or Conserve your ammo!. EXAMPLE: Squad A has Assault! orders, and have been told to move towards the distant woods. They end their first Turn of movement halfway there, In the second Turn, squad A is within 20 meters from enemy squad 1 and chooses to charge them instead of continuing. In the third Turn they can continue their charge towards the woods ifsquad 1 is annihilated.Other Orders is a term for whatever else you want the squad to do. Dig a hole, wait until someone shoots at you, split into teams, clear mines, re~ treat when you have lost more than two men, climb up in a tree to get a better view or do whatever weird thing you wish them to do to improve your chances of winning the battle. Here your imagina- tion really can run riot! Remember to use your common sense when writing other orders. We trust that you will not abuse the system or bend the rules We trust you to discuss the orders with your opponent after the game if any questions arise, and also to make your own rules if your actions not are covered by the ones we have provided. After all it's up to you how much detail you want when giving your orders, we only give you a few guide: ines to help you on the way. An order can be just as complicated or simple as you want it to be: OrHer Sturr You NEED To Know TIMING Itis very important to write down exactly when a squad will perform a particular action. Most of the time this is readily apparent as the squad performs their actions in the order written down on the Planning Sheet. A squad with the orders "Go to the ruins and then stay there on Overwatch” will of course first move to the ruins before entering Overwatch, regardless of how many Turns it actually takes them to get there. Another possibility is to write down how many Turns the squad will perform the particular or: der before continuing. You may, for example, or- der 2 squad to spend three Turns on Overwatch in order to be sure to clear a building of enemy troops before they charge. TRIGGERS In order to coordinate attacks between different squads, specific actions can be used as “triggers”. A trigger is an event which, when it occurs, causes the squad to perform a specific action. For exam ple, a squad can be given the order “Stay on Overwatch until squad B has charged the build ing, then move to point x”. Almost anything can be used as triggers, the only rule is that the squad must be able to see (or hear) the trigger clearly in order to act upon it. If the squad in the last example was prevented from seeing squad B, for example if smoke grenades had been used against them they would be unable to move until the smoke had cleared and they would see that squad B already were in the house. It can be a good idea to include a trigger that activates a Backup Plan if something unforeseen happens. For example: "Run to the woods, then Hold Your Fire! and hide. If you are attacked or discovered, switch to Kill em All”, In this case, the part that says "If you are attacked or discovered” is the trigger and the part that says "switch to Kill 'em allt” is the Backup Plan (backup plans will be described below). TEAMS Teams are given orders and plans just like ordi- inary squads. The only thing that separates 2 team from a squad is the number of troops. A team consists of two troops, of which one, or both, is armed with a support weapon. The two members of the team can be given different Target Selec- tion orders. The trooper with the support weapon might be given Get the Landmates! orders, while his partner might have Conserve Your Ammol. LaNoMATES Landmates do not take orders the way ordinary troops do, their behavior is far to irrational to follow any battleplan apart from the one in their own twisted imagination. A Warlord has to be very careful when dealing with these killing machines as even the suggestion that they should follow the orders of 2 meat-thing could have serious consequences to the Warlords health. It is com- mon practice to simply position the Landmate on the part of the battlefield where they will do the most damage to the enemy, and then letting them loose to chose their own way of slaughtering the enemy. It is the Landmate pilot's personality that determines which orders that is possible to give to him The personalities and all their special rules are thoroughly described in the Cannonfodder chapter. Rogots Robots used to be programmed to obey the com- manders slightest whim, before and during the battle. This was of course before the Extermina- tion Wars, when they could be re-indoctrinated between each battle. Nowadays, many Robots suf- fer from severe psychosis that sometimes have warped their programming so much that they can only be used with greatest caution. Robot Psy- chosis will be described in the forthcoming Apokalypse Kompanion, for now the Robots wil follow orders just like normal squads do. One ex- ception, Robots don’t move as squads. They use different modes instead. You decide modes for the Robot just as you would decide what kind of movernent a squad will use for a Turn. THE WARLORD The Warlord is not given orders like ordinary troops. In fact, he is not given orders at all. You move and fire with the Warlord as you wish as long as the normal rules are followed. You may not move and fire in the OwFPh at the same time, and all normal modifications still apply.No Warlord’can-foresee all the-possible situations that will occur on-the battlefield” This is where the backup Plas important. Every squad or team is allowed one BaekupiPlan-This is a new set of orders that takes precedence over the old ones if a specific situation occurs. An example of a Backup Plan with a trigger might be something like "If you spot any Landmates, trooper #131 will switch to Get the Landmates! orders while #132 will switch to Kill ‘em Alli”. CHANGING THE BATTLEPLAN During a Turn, in the OPh, a War- lord may give a squad, or other unit excluding Landmates, a new set of orders. To do this he or she must be within conversation dis- tance of the squadleader, 5 me ters, and remain with the squadleader a whole turn doing nothing else but discussing the new plan. If the squadleader is dead or, in the case of a team, not present, a new squadleader will be nominated for the purpose of tak ing orders. The new squadleader will remain the same for the rest of the battle, unless he also is killed. This means that you can not nominate the trooper closest to your Warlord as the new squadleader every time you wish to give them new orders. During that time the squad can either continue to follow the original battleplan while the War- lord moves with the squad giving new orders to the squadleader, oF the squad can remain still on Overwatch. The exception to this rule are very simple orders that consists of a few short words like; Overwatch, now! or Chaaarge! accompanied by pointing in the de. sired direction. Such simple orders will be followed immediately in the same Turn as they were given. If the squad is forced to roll for Morale and fails while you're changing their orders, you are in deep shit. A Morale result always take precedence over an order or plan, until the squad is rallied._ SPPPOOPeooeeeqoaragesagegagagaqaacaaaaeessyO 0 PyThe most usual disagreement between Gamers is what a trooper will do if faced with a situation that has several different solutions, and if there is no question about the fact that the trooper would do something about it. Will he fire into hand-to-hand combat and risk his brother in arm’s, life to save himself from the rampaging berserk? Will he instead throw a grenade, despite that he hasn't received any orders to do so, or will he wait until the hand-to-hand combat is over be fore firing? In Apokalypse, this is easily resolved with a single d20 die roll. if you roll equal to, or below, the trooper’s Inl’ he'll do what you think is the wisest move. This rule is meant to make the game more realistic and to represent the fact that your troops have some degree of independ: ent thought. Some troops of course have less of that as you will see when you reach the Cannonfodder chapter. THE AcTrion CHir Inl should not be a fail-safe way to adjust your trooper’s actions when your plans have gone wrong. It shall only be used in situations when a trooper has to choose between two, or more, dif- ferent actions that seem logical. Logc isthe key word here, there must be a logical explanation for an action. This might include a trooper’s in- stinct of self-preservation or that he would throw a grenade if faced with multiple opponents for example. To avoid abuse, an "Action Chit” is in: cluded in your copy of the game and can be found amongst the rest of the markers at the back of the book. The Action Chit The Action Chit is a marker that indicates that ‘the gamer who owns it can roll for InI. When the gamer has rolled the marker changes hands whether the roll succeeded or not, and the other gamer now has the opportunity to roll. It is not Possible to roll for Inl if it isn’t you who own the Action Chit at the moment, you'll have to wait until your opponent has used it and returned it to you. This ensures that one gamer abuse will not be possible. It is wise to save the chit for as long as possible and only use it in situations that really are important As the game begins, neither you nor your opponent has the Chit, instead both hhas the opportunity to use it for the first time. After the first gamer has used Inl, the chit passes to his opponent as normal. Important: Abuse of this rule should be avoided. If you, or your opponent, uses In! in: stead of plans you have missed the point of plans, orders and Inl completely. This is also the case if ‘you, once you have received the Chit, refrain from rolling just to keep the chit out of your oppo- nents Kands. The Action Chit is an optional rule and if you feel that it restricts your play too much and ifneither you nor your opponent abuse the Inl rule, you may skip it completely. Coe eR oe od fe 3 Se All troops, with a few notable exceptions, move in formations called squads. A squad consists of 5 ‘or more troops, the norm being about 8. all troops in the squad must be within a certain distance of each other in order to be able to function effi- ciently. This is called the squads Formation Dis- tance and varies according to the training and the experience of the troops involved. If a trooper by accident strays to far from the group he must immediately move towards the rest of the squad, trying to rejoin them as fast as possible. A special formation is called a Team. A team consists only of two troops, one usually armed with a support ly PP ur weapon while the other functions as backup and security. If a team is reduced to a single survivor, she will try to join the closest friendly formation and follow them for the rest of the battle. Char- acters, Robots and Landmates move as individu: als, Wounded troops that are left behind may try to rejoin their squad if they are able to do so. ‘A wounded trooper whose squad is out of his Los will have to take a Morale check. If he fails the Morale check, he will not roll on the "Failed mo- rale test table” but will automatically retreat and attempt to leave the battlefield as soon as possi ble. In case he succeed with the Morale Check, he will try to comply with his orders to the best of his ability ‘A Landmate or Robot will always move as a Character and will never be a part of a forma tion, even if several Landmates or Robots are used on one side. It was a long time since they fought ‘together with their battle-brothers and they are now too disturbed to be able to function as a group. Characters move independently from other troops and do no not move as squads. Formation DISTANCE Untratmed/Green Commandos All others 3 meters distance Move as Characters 5 meters distancePerio tenatinn F Reeetrnet azeet eg Plane When giving orders to a squad before the battle, the direction in which it should move is marked on the battleplan as described in the Orders and Planning section. It is then up to the squadleader to decide at what pace to proceed. All troops in a single squad must have the same type of move- ment, but it can be changed freely between Turns. There are three different types of movement that ‘the squad can use; Cautious Advance, Advance and Charge. The gamer decides what type of move- ment the squad should use before he moves them and places the correct Movement Marker besides them afterwards to remind him what modifica: tions to use in the Fire Phase. A trooper can chose to move any amount of meters, up to the maximum distance allowed. The distance moved can be modified by Harsh terrain as mentioned below, as well as by certain wounds as described in the Damage Tables. Re- member, millimeter accuracy is not necessary when measuring movement distance as this will slow down the pace of the game to a crawl. After all, a battle was never won by those who ran the furthest. &F Cautious Advance fh Advance Ae Charge $- Overwatch (laced on gaming surface as reminder only) Movement ORDERS These are the different types of movement that the squadleader can order the squad to use, Overwatch is included despite the fact that it can only be given during the PPh. This is so that all the different Modifications can be seen at the same time and more easily compared to each other. The terms AttMod and DefMod will be ex plained in detail in the Fire Combat section, but a short explanation is given here. AttMod is a modi- fication depending on the attacker's movement that is added to his CS when shooting with his weapon. DefMod is a modification that also is added to the attacker’s CS, but which depends on the target’s movement and not on his own. Cautious ADVANCE A squad moving on Cautious Advance moves care- fully forward and makes maximum use of cover to minimize the risk of hostile fire. The squad is moving slowly, dashing from cover to cover and where there is none, they throw themselves flat to the ground to crawl the rest of the way. The troops also takes the time to get into proper fir- ing positions, ralsing their accuracy when firing at the enemy. A trooper moving on Cautious vance wil also have a greater chance of being behind full cover than faster moving troops. AttMod: +0, DefMod: -2, Move: 8m AovaNcE When Advancing, the squad sacrifices the protec- tion of cover for greater speed. This is the way squads move when they are in no immediate dan- ger of drawing enemy fire and they can still re- turn fire with some degree of accuracy in the case of an ambush AttMod -4, DefMod 0, Move: 14m CHarce A squad on Charge orders are running full speed ahead, guns blazing from the hip. The chance of hitting the enemy is greatly reduced as the troops haven't got the time for aimed shots. The squad is especially effective if it’s charging when enter- ing Hand-to-hand combat. Note that a squad can enter Hand-to-hand combat without charging, the squad is just more effective when doing so. AttMod -8, DefMod 0, Move 20m Fl) Ls AttackMode DeployModeOVERWATCH For completeness sake the Overwatch order is repeated here even if it’s not up to the squadleader to decide if, and when, to use it. It is described in the Orders & Planning section. AttMod +4, DefMod -2, Move Om DepLoyMooE The Robot locks his weapons in transport mode, calls up the map from hls CPU and is on hs way. The Robot moves a distance according to its Move listed under DeployMode. The Robot may not attack in any manner. The Robot is considered a Fast Target due to its dashing speed. ATTackMovE. The Robot moves in short dashes, screaming and screeching agonizing sounds. The Robot has a C5 and A Move according to its specs found in the ‘Fodder Chapter. DEATH OF THE SQUADLEADER: If the squadleader is killed, the troops will be bereft of his leadership and will not function as effectively as before. They can only move on Advance for the rest of the battle as they are unnerved and lack the experience to decide the best course to follow. No one wants the respon- sibility of giving new orders. ae ” arse ee ee er ec Aira Ne Pe hee ee nia Ifa trooper in a squad comes within three me- ters of an enemy trooper she must immediately stop moving and prepare for fighting, either fir- ing her weapon or engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The threat of an enemy at such close range is so great that their normal orders are suspended until the enemy has been eradicated, or at least driven away. This three meter zone is called the trooper’s Kill Zone. If a squad comes within three meters of a single trooper, only the trooper affected by the Kill Zone has to stay and fight while the others have the opportu nity of continuing with their movement. The trooper must try to rejoin the squad as fast as possible thereafter. If more than 1/3 of the squad is affected by enemy Kill Zones, the whole squad must stop and prepare for combat. The fight is resolved in the proper phase and the squad can resume movement in the next Turn if possible. Kill Zone Landmates and Robots have Kill Zones just like ordinary troops. However, one big exception is made for Landmates. They are only affected by the Kill Zones of other Landmates or Robots, not those of ordinary troops which are regarded as lesser creatures not worthy of their atten- tion. Robots are affected by Kill Zones as nor- mal troops.Harsh terrain is terrain difficult to move through or even hazardous to the trooper’s health. It hin: ders the squad, Robot or Landmate's movement because it takes much more effort to move through. Harsh terrain costs twice as much to move through as ordinary terrain. That is, for every meter actually moved on the battlefield, deduct two meters from the trooper’s remaining movement allowance as the difficult terrain slows him down, Harsh terrain can be any kind of movement hindrance that slows down the trooper you in- tend to move. The exact type of harsh terrain depend on what kind of environment you are fighting in. There are different types of harsh ter- rain for each of the battlezones as the fetid marshlands in the Plagueground offer very dif- ferent dangers compared to the burned out rub- ble of the Free War Zones. Some general types of harsh terrain are described below, but it’s up to ‘you if you wish to include new ones. Landmates encounter different hazards on the battlefield than infantry. They will crash through bushes, shrubs and hedges with ridicu- lous ease and step over walls and rubble that would have caused considerable trouble to ordi nary troops. On the other hand, their very size tend to be cumbersome inside buildings and dense woods. Some Landmates have been known to crash right through the floor inside buildings of weaker construction. The fall might not harm the Landmate but itis very embarrassing for the pi lot to get stuck in the rubble as well as putting him in'a possibly lethal situation if the enemy are well prepared and equipped with "Driller Kill- ers”. Landmates are unable to enter any build- ings smaller than large warehouses or other con- structions with at least 5m headroom. They also have trouble with confined places where their bulk is a great hindrance to them. In general they will avoid such areas, but if they enter anyway it is up to you to determine any effects on their perform- ance. Harsh TERRAW For INFANTRY & Rogots Rubble, burned out ruined buildings and rusty car wrecks. Steep elevations, slippery roof tops, stairs and ladders. Rough ground, craters, deep mud and waist- high water. Woods with dense undergrowth , shrubbery, thorn bushes and tangle vines. Hedges, walls and streams. EXAMPLE: Trooper #52 is going to move through an old mud filled crater that is 4 meters wide. It will cost her 8 meters of movement to get through, and if she is Advancing, she'll have four meters left to run after climbing out of the stink- ing mud. HarsH TERRAIN FOR LANOMATES Buildings, factories and mostly intact ruins Steep elevations and very rocky ground. Heavy woods. Cinewe To climb up a tree or to the top of a ruin or a rooftop a trooper needs to use Cautious Advance and the climbing will take all his time during the turn. He will not be able to do anything else dur. ing the turn, not even shooting back if he is fired upon. When ‘he has finished climbing for the turn he wil have gained one floor of height, A tree is usually two floors high, but might be higher or lower depending on the terrain of the battlefield, Put the model on the top of the roof next to its edge or at the bottom of the tree and write down the height he’s at on a separate piece of paper. Gaining height at a battlefield is useful for spot- ting purposes, as well as creating a potentially ‘deadly sniper if he is equipped with the right weapon. Note that even a support weapon can be ed from a rooftop as long as there is sufficient space, about 2x2 m, for the trooper to brace itnself. A support weapon can not be fired from -afree, not even when syro-mounted, and no sane oper would attempt to do so. Landmates are unable to climb even if they “*wbuld find some structure that could bear their UWylght, they were simply not designed with such excursions in mind. Likewise, none of the Robot types described in the Cannonfodder chapter have been equipped with climbing utilitiesMovine Wwsice Houses Some Notes Agout Movets Houses can represent a problem when used on the battlefield. Depending on the kind of model buildings you use there are two different ways to determine where a trooper is when inside a house. One, you have been industrious enough to build realistic houses with roofs that can be taken off to place the models inside. Two, you have made a fimtple blueprint of each of the diferent floors of the building that are placed beside the battlefield and upon which the models are moved. It doesn’t matter how you solve this problem as long as it’s to your and your opponents satisfaction. Just make sure that it’s easy to determine where eve- Ipbody is standing. The model houses and loorplans need to be made in the same scale as, the miniatures used so that the effect of certain weapons remains the same. If you wish, you can even rule that all the houses on your battlefield are boarded up and that movement inside them isn’t allowed Movinc BeTween Floors In general, troops that move on Cautious Advance can gain ° floor per Turn and will be stuck inside the Staircase when the MPh ends. Troops that Advance will be able to climb a whole floor, while troops that Charge can climb two. It is up to you to decide if troops inside a staircase can see and shoot at each other, after all itis great difference between different kinds of stairs. We have no spe- cial rules for fighting inside buildings yet, so you will have to adapt the existing ones when diffi- cult situations arise. It should not be too hard to do so, after all if you have the guts to be a Powermonger you should have enough guts to make some tough rules decisions. Hows If a squad wishes to, it may attempt to hide from the enemy. This is possible only if the whole squad is in dense enough terrain to hide all the troops involved. It is impossible to list all the different terrain’s where it’s possible to hide people, but as long as there is enough terrain to give room for the whole squad without having to resort to stacking troops on top of each other it should work out. Tall grass, bushes and undergrowth in woods, rocks and rubble as well as buildings, walls and wrecks are all suitable to hide behind. Note that it's up to you and your opponent if the grass on the playing area is high enough to hide a crawl- ing trooper, or if the woods are filled with under- rowth or clean as a ballroom floor. It is impossi le to make terrain as dense as it is in real life as there would not be enough room to place the mini- atures. Decide together with your opponent well before the battle if a particular piece of terrain will be suitable to hide troops in. The squad automatically stays hidden as long as it doesn't do something that draws the enemy's attention to them. How to fire at hid: den squads is described in the Suppressive Fire section. Robots are free to hide exactly as other troops. The ability to hide was valued when de- signing the Robots, especially the sniper variants. Hiding is also made easier as the Robot can stay thoroughly immobile for indefinite amounts of time. Important: In general, Landmates are un- able to hide as they are large, bulky and have large weapons pointing in all the wrong directions, but a Landmate can be hidden behind a solid struc: ture that completely hides the Landmate from enemy LoS. It may also be moved while hidden if it uses Cautious Advance orders. Hiows THE Squad It is easy to hide a squad that no enemy troops have line of sight to. Simply declare that the squad hhas hidden and place a "Hidden” marker next to it. In order to hide a squad that already is in the LOS of the enemy, the squad must first move out of sight from all enemy troops. Next Turn , if the squad is in suitable terrain, it can hide if it’s still ‘out of sight from the enemy at that time. When playing with hidden troops, honesty and fair play is necessary to avoid exploiting the fact that you, as 2 gamer, can see the troops on the table-top while your Warlord can not. Rules for "double- blind” scenarios where hidden troops are removed from the table will be covered in the forthcom- ing Apokalypse Kompanion. The “Hidden” counter Movinc wHIte Hiooen Ifa squad wishes to move in the LoS of an enemy but still remain hidden, it's possible for them to do so if they move on Cautious Advance at half speed. Of course this type of movement {s very slow as the squad carefully crawls forward, using extreme stealth, to avoid being detected by the enemy at all costs. Even then there is a possibil- ity that a sharp-eyed enemy trooper will spot them as described below. It is possible to move while hidden in all terrain types that offer a modicum of things to hide behind.As long as the members of the squad neither move or fire they are impossible to detect by normal means. However, if they move on Cautious Ad: vance, or fire their personal weapons or sidearms, there is 2 risk that they will be detected by the enemy. Roll a die for each enemy trooper that has LoS to the squad. If he rolls under his Com- bat Skill he has spotted the squad and alerts his comrades. When a squad has been spotted, the Hidden marker is removed and the squad can be fired upon normally. If the squad moves on Charge or Advance orders, or fire their support weapons they are spotted automatically. ‘A special case is squads with Kill ‘em All! orders. They can automatically detect one hid- den squad within 20 m, measured from the ‘squadleader’s position, at the end of the FPh if it hasn’t been detected before that. The hidden squad must be within the AoF of at least half of the squad's members and the squad can not have fired upon anything else during that Turn. The squad is detected because the squad on Kill ’em All orders spray every suspicious looking bush, wood and ruin in their path. No thoughts on the ammunition waste involved. They make hidden troops quickly attempt to scramble further into cover to avoid the hail of bullets that suddenly fy their way, forgetting all thoughts of stealth as they are certain that they already have been spot- ted, The accuracy of the bullets are not suffi- cient to cause any casualties as the troops don’t have the slightest idea where to concentrate their fire, but every trooper in the hidden squad will have to check for Stray fire. The squad with Kill ’em All! orders are considered to have fired and consequently roll for ammunition expenditure. The hidden squad is considered to be detected at the end of the FPh and may not be fired upon by any other squad until next Turn, as all firing is simultaneous and the FPh has already passe flan eg yen ea ae ae firefight if they heard it, Automatic weap- ‘ons hammering, ranging from heavy, grind- an erg OT Mee nC R eee mer mes Re ee ere ‘shotguns and handguns kick in, trying to pin Cae ane ema start firing again. Men, crouching low, sprint- ing from cover to cover, the look of broken Ce ee eae treetrunks ground to shrapnel and splinters Pre arr aa ees ome ae es through with horrible ease. The marked men ee ear Aa aad ac see tar eters starts, it never stops. Poor bastards not luck Pe mae Reg ae hold their guts from spilling all over the razorwire, but missing fingers to do it with. Christ, they never stop screaming, Pak eae ear ea cers oe coe bom e sea Pa nad Re arg Mac read 2 EXAMPLE: The squad in ruin x is detected as it’s within 20 m from Squad 13’s hysteric fire© Lane Tlie SOS PO ny Poe ll Laat aA eaptie,, Fala sbezsrte year Leahey Ret orp te fase J 2d ce Meany So SGS EER Ma cla This section toafains the framework for resolv- ing fire combats int Apokalypse. There are some exceptions and special Tules for certain weapons, armor, troops and equipment. It will be vital for you to know about these special rules if you want to stay alive in the wartorn ruins. The saying goes *know your enemy” and that goes doubly for your ‘own troops, weapons and equipment, Check out The Tools of Warfare and The Cannonfodder chap- ters, they'll contain all the special rules you'll need to know. To fire a weapon at a target, you need a clear Line of Sight (LoS). In Apokalypse it’s easy to check if you have a clear LoS to your target. In the Pre- paring for Battle section there are instructions on how to make a small periscope. This periscope is used to simulate the trooper's LoS on the bat- tlefield. Simply align the periscope with the troop- er’s head and aim the periscope in a direction that is inside his Field of Vision (FOV), measured from the front of the miniature. If you can see the target, then you have a clear LoS. Sometimes you will only see parts of the target and then it %ill be counted as being behind cover. Ifyou only can see a small part of a target, like a hand or the top of the head, then it isn’t considered to be inside your LoS and you may not fire at it. @ 180 degrees FoV The periscope is normally held at the approximate height of the models eyes. The firer can only see the top of the target's head and con- sequently hasn't a valid LoS. 4-ty | | ner wus as maar ie “le ver. Sometimes the trooper is lying down on the ground when firing, especially when firing Overwatch or having Cautiously Advanced over open ground, and therefore you may not hold the periscope at the troopers head level. The periscope is aligned with the miniature’s base in- stead. If the trooper have moved Cautious Ad- vance and ended up being behind cover, he is peek- ing up from behind it and the periscope is held at the cover’s height instead. Exception: If the trooper is of lesser height than the cover he may not see in that direction at all as he is simply too short to peek over it. If the trooper is standing beside one of the cover’s endpoints, like the corner of a building, he may peek around it and the periscope is used normally. Los is blocked.LoS is blocked. scan. If the target is on Overwatch or has used Cau tious Advance he will be more or less covered, either by lying down flat to the ground to create the smallest possible target, or by using what. ever obstacle he is close to as cover. If the target is lying down, either on Overwatch or in the open after Cautious Advance, you must have a clear LoS to the miniature’s base as this is where the trooper actually is. Some Notes Agout TERRAIN It is seldom possible to make terrain pieces as filled with bushes, rubble and other assorted de- bris and undergrowth as in the real world, after all it must be possible to place a based miniature within without having it falling over all the time. The re- sult is that it will be possible to spot a trooper from unrealistically far away, especially if your terrain is very tidy. In a ruined urban landscape, this is no big deaf as walls, bushes and ruins will block Los quite realistically. In a wood however, it will be pos- sible to spot a trooper on the other side of the wood easily, something that would be Impossible in real life. This can be solved in two different ways. Either decide thatthe woods are of the very open kind, like a park, and simply scatter some lichen where you want to have bushes and similar under growth. Or you can assume that the woods are very fangled, filled with bushes, boulders and smaller trees, and decide that no LoS can be tracked more than ‘4m into or out of a wood. In the end it's up to ‘you to decide if a terrain piece will block the line of sight, when in reality it does not, as long as your opponent agrees with your decision. Try to sort out all stich question marks before the battle so that both of you can enjoy playing without having to argue about if a trooper can be spotted or not. This way you can avoid "I can see your trooper in the woods...\No you can't, there are bushes he can hide behind ” situations more easily.Troops as LoS Ogstactes It is not good when your own troops happen to get in the way of your own fire, but sometimes it appens. They might get hit by some stray bul lets, this situation will be dealt with later, or they might be accidentally shot in the back by some overzealous trooper. Generally, no trooper may fire his weapon if there is a friendly trooper within 2 meters of his line of fire. To check if there is, take a ruler, or a piece of string, and place it be- tween the trooper and the target. If the ruler i within 2 meters of a friendly trooper, the trooper may not fire. This don’t apply to troops standing beside the attacker, only to troops standing be- ‘tween the attacker and his target. a LUNE o¢ FIRE (LeF) en uss 7 Neoars bes oe Te PAT NOT FIRE } enon iess @~paesnot OK Los a Some troops don’t give a damn if they happen to hit one of their own. Troops that are Fanatic or Berserk will fire anyway, but there is a 1-10 chance (on 1d20) that the friendly trooper gets it in- stead. Troops that have the order Kill ’em all! are so caught up in the business of annihilation that they sometimes get carried away. High strung and a little nervous it’s not surprising that they hap- pen to pull the trigger a little too fast when a friend happens to walk into their AoF. They fol low the same rules as Fanatics and Berserks in this case LoS ano Buowes Well, obviously it’s a bit difficult to use the peri- scope inside a building. So guess what? You'll have to use some of that precious common sense again. Use a ruler or a stick if you have a building whose roof can be taken off. Or simply use some imagi- nation. If the blueprint is drawn correctly it shouldn't be too hard figuring out if people can see each other or not. When checking for LoS out through a window, door or hole in the wall, one thing is important to remember: As no trooper is stupid enough to stick his head out a window to gain his full LoS of 180, the only Los the trooper gets is the same as his AoF. No more! ee apn Ub athens ln he oper soem Bap as Ng primed Bae = Algerei/ deme frimed Tate Arc oF Fire 4 ‘An Arc of Fire (AOF) is a sym aX bolization of the trooper’s re flexes and his area of atten- tion. Within this AoF he can react and fire at a target without difficulty. Every trooper has an AoF consisting of a 60° cone with the point at the front of the miniature's base, The trooper can: not fire his weapon outside this cone unless he is firing a weapon that is so small and lightweight that it gives him a greater speed to match his reflexes. A trooper with a sidearm or a SMG has an AoF of 120° because these weapons are easier to handle and don’t weigh as much as other weap- ons. This means that a trooper equipped with one of them may react faster than a trooper with a heavy, large or cumbersome weapon. A trooper on Overwatch orders can elect to fire outside his AoF if he wishes to. The reason for this is that the trooper has ample time to prepare himself and to pay attention to his whole field of vision rather than just straight down his gun barrel. This is further described in the Overwatch rules. igo" “TROOPER, WITH SOEARY or SG For ease of play the AoF may be painted on the base of the model. This also removes any ques- tions regarding in which direction the models front lies. This is often difficult to determine on many models as they might point the weapon in ‘one direction and look in another.AoF Our oF Buowes Depending on the position of the trooper, the door or win- dow he fires his weapon through may restrict his AoF. If he stands close to the opening his AoF will remain unaffected, but if he is standing further away his AoF will be more narrow as the walls restrict his vision. This is clearly shown in the Pictures below. ‘Support weapons fired through doors or windows will also be unable to fire outside their AoF as they are too long and clumsy to be maneuvered easily in such cramped quarters. A maximum of two troops may comfortably fire out of a normal sized window or door. If the window is large, more troops may stand there, but a useful rule is that there must be enough room for the models bases as well. Remember that the LoS may change dra- matically if the trooper in question stands in one of the upper floors of the building Dean Zones A Dead Zone is that small area surrounding the window not covered by the AoF of the trooper inside. This is the one area that is safe from the weapons inside the house. After all, if the trooper inside would be stupid enough to stick out his head through the window to try to check if some- body were standing in the Dead Zone, he would be inviting a bullet through his brain. Of course, if he had any brains he wouldn’t had stuck his head out in the first place. This means that it is not permitted for a trooper to shoot outside his AoF in the OwPh in order to hit enemies in his Dead Zone. He doesn’t even know that they are there!PREPARATIONS ORDER OF FIRE In the Overwatch Phase and the Movement Phase it’s important to determine which squad fires first. The Gamer who won the initiative may choose one of his squad to fire with. When all firing has been resolved with that squad, it’s his opponent's turn to choose one of his squads on Overwatch and fire with it. Gamers then alternate firin squads, All casualties are immediately remove from the gaming table and replaced with casu- alty markers or casualty models (whichever you may prefer). In the Fire Phase all fire actions are simultaneous. All casualties have a chance of fir- ing back before being removed. TARGET SELECTION Squads select their targets according to the Tar- get Selection Order that you gave them in the Planning or Order Phases. They will fire at the closest visible target of the appropriate type. EXAMPLE: Squad 13 has "Kill em All!” orders and fire their weapons at a squad of Militia, because it’s closer to them than the quickly approaching squad of Wardog Berserks. Trooper #52, stick- ing with squad 13 as she believes in security in numbers, is equipped with her Constrictor HMG with AP ammo and has orders to "Get the Landmates!”. She will fire at the distant Landmate even though both of the other two squads are closer. Most squads will end up shooting at the closest enemy target according to their orders. This is not always as clear as it may sound and there are ‘two major exemptions. Exception 1: When two enemy squads move so close together that they are within Formation distance of each other. They are considered to be ‘one squad for Target selection purposes. EXAMPLE: Squad 13 may fire at both squad A and B as they are within For. ‘mation distance of each other EXAMPLE: In the PPh, Knecht Support team Iwas given Kill ‘em alll orders. In addition, the trooper carrying the Minigun was given Get the Support Teams! orders. He will fire at the enemy support team besides the wood while his teammate will fire at enemy squad B as it is closer to him than the Support team. Exception 2: When not all the members of a squad have LoS to the same target. In such a situation, the troops may shoot at different targets as long as they follow all the usual rules for Target selec- tion Rogors Robots may fire at several different targets. They may fire at one target per ranged Weaponsystem. Allocation of Ad’s and everything else works just like when a squad fires at a target.Example: It is not allowed for a squad to spl their fire between many different targets if they are not within Formation dis- tance of each other, even if it would be threoretically possible, especially with a 120° Aof. Fiews Proceoure Resolve the fire of each individual member of a squad by rolling all his eligible attack dice at the same time. Each trooper in the firing squad fires at a separate trooper in the target unit if at all possible. If the target is a single trooper, Landmate or robot or if there are more attackers than there are troops in the target squad, this rule is waived. It is possible for a trooper to fire at more than one trooper in the target squad if he has Overwatch orders (see Overwatch for more de- tals), or has 2 nasty support weapon. When the first trooper in the squad has fired, continue to fire each of the other squad members in what. ever order you wish. The troops must always fire towards the closest troops in the enemy squad. If a squad contains five troops and the enemy squad EXAMPLE: Even though en- emy squad 8 consists of six troops, only five of them can be targeted as the LoS of one of the members of the attacking squad is blocked. The enemy trooper at the rear of his squad is not at: tacked and the attacking trooper with blocked Los does not fire and need not make an Ammo roll. -&8. Ge NOT WITWIN FORMATION. DISTANCE contains 10, only the five enemy troops closest to your troops may be targeted. Use common sense. If the target squad is wiped out before all attacking troops have got a chance to fire, so be it. The remaining troops are still considered to have fired at the target squad and may not fire ata different one. Troops are very prone to over- kill and may continue to fire at a target even though it’s already dead. Most weapons fire huge quantities of ammo by the pull of the trigger and sometimes the target doesn’t even have the time to fall down before he has been hit by more bul- lets than necessary. Also, many troops seem to think that it’s a good idea to fire again, just to be sure. Troops that have blocked LoS to their tar- get or are otherwise unable to fire their weapons pon the enemy don’t need to check for ammuni- tionere 3 : — ——— = Overhead, the sky was slowly turning crimson. The flat lead-gray clouds that shined as dully as an old bullet started to crack up in the east, revealing the crimson sky undemeath. The wind started to pick up and a low moaning could be heard as the dead trees started to move again. Tham, the leader of the small band of Dustdevils put down his scanner with a sigh of relief and turned to his men. "No more rain”, he ae net a a ee ce of the small force that had camped on the tiny hill to await better weather. "The city boys will have to move on now, before the Rabids pick up our scent”. eRe ae na eae em ee Ae dain for the city soldiers that moved as slowly and noisily as crippled children. Dis- Cen aie eae ea ae rece pay in ammunition and weapons in exchange for two squads of Dustdevil warriors ee Ls ae mR ag er iced Plague! Ce ae ea ae a ran Bee eee ea ees ra eget a rank-scars, everything seemed to become infected in this brown-green sump, they Rem r o a Rae Da ae en te ta ree Ree ecm er Ca ea ead Pere eae ee ea Neate ee aa It took the city soldiers the better part of a hour to get themselves ready to ‘march. On orders from the Warlord two teams of Pitvipers moved ahead as a scout- ing unit, ostensibly because of their great skills as Sa eR a Se eee em eR eee eee ee Pear i Reta ne gie a cee ea ee ee era ee SOR Reno gan eM a a hing to think that it was a bad idea to accept this contract. Achbar the Warlord seemed to have no idea at all where he was going and Tham doubted his ability to eae ake eM Re Manti, his metal-brother, moved up to his side, his metal limbs gleamed dully in the eirie red light that filtered down under the trees. Tham lias eet asim they must be more than a kilometer ahead of the main force anyway. "How are you holding up brother?”, he asked with a slight smile, "no rust yet?”. Manti turned his Cm eR eee ee te ee ee ee el voice had a metallic tang to it despite the improved voice-box that they had scay- enged for him. “Self-cleaning systems active. Oil in water helps. No rust flesh-brother”. a een ee eit eee Oe eek at eda ee erie a Lies Wisin etn meget cee engi. [nh ae Fa See Gen eee era ene ete nasa are injector needles, poison dribbling from them in small claret Cee aa ee ie pay that their Warlord has promised us”, Tham replied. "it would help our peo- ple to survive a little longer.” Manti bowed down and picked up one of the great fat eee a ee eae ee eer ee ee al Pee een nea et cee argc aaa looking at Tham, Manti closed his hand slicing the worm inside to still twisting ribbons of gummy flesh. "No use pay if all dead”, he said dropping the worm to the Peter fate seein peer ere ea er Peek oe ea ee aa men a a Oe aera a ea esate eee ae ee eRe The city boys would be easy enough to take once thelr support weapons was si ern hie Pa een ee Ae a a Ie ee era eo ee ees nee ee cere oe aa) ee ee eee ere ee so eae Take the women alive if they aren't too ugly, kill the rest.” His words were almost superfluous, every Dustdevil knew what to do. No one wanted it any other way.Conserve Your Ammo Squads that have the target selection order Conserve your Ammo, is an exception to this waste of ammunition. Troops need not to check for ammunition expenditure if they didn’t fire. This doesn't mean that only some of ther fired in the FPh while the rest of them trusted that their comrades would bring the enemy down, but rather that they all fired but were a bit more careful not to waste unnecessary amounts of am- munition. Firinc PROCEDURE When one of your troops fire at an enemy target, this procedure is followed. Determine the number of attack dice Roll to hit with appropriate modifications. Check for penetration. Apply damage. Roll for Ammo as well as ISP, DB and Mo rale if necessary. ATTACK Dice Sot wa eS fice ee Every wéapon hasaafixed furibé of attack dice, called the weapor's Rgh thatteflects-its ability to fire automatic fire. A'Weapon that only has @ single attack dice has no automatic fire capabil: ity and the trigger has to be pressed every time @ shot is to be fired. An automatic fire weapon is a weapon with a RoF of 2 or more where each at- tack die is equivalent to a single attack against the target, not necessarily a specific amount of bullets BAMBAMEAM Beet “Oy poly ; toes hae BAMBAMBAM Ne i Stef The number of bullets actually fired each time an attack die is rolled varies, not only be- tween different weapons but on different occa- sions as well. A weapon with a RoF of 1 usually fires one to three bullets, or sometimes more, per every attack dice rolled. A weapon with a RoF of 2 fires maybe five to ten rounds while the Spandau Slaughterhouse minigun fires several hundreds of rounds. All depends on the situation. Maybe the trooper only sees a glimpse of the en- emy and only fires a single shot or she maybe feels scared enough to pulll the trigger until the weapon is empty. Weapons with a RoF of two or less are normally only able to attack a single tar- get AuTOMATic Fire Some weapons have the ability to fire automatic fire and have a large Rof, like the Constrictor heavy machine-gun or the Spandau Slaughter- house minigun. These weapons are mainly used in a support role for laying down massive hails of bullets to cover advancing troops. Some personal weapons and sidearms also have autofire capabil ity. These were mostly designed to give the trooper behind the weapon a morale boost by ~~. _giving him supposedly superior firepower. ‘A man is more apt to risk his neck if you —fool him to believe that he is a god among mortals behind his Warmaster combat rifle. The superior firepower only resulted in massive overkill’s as the ability to fire more bullets per second only feant that the target got hit by more bullets, “often more bullets than necessary. It also resulted “in gn increase of ammunition spent during a bat- tle, as troops with "boosted morale” got trigger . However, when fighting indoors and in fer confined spaces, autofiring personal weap- ve the infantryman the same ability as he have if he'd been equipped with a machine- Weapons with an original rate of fire of three or more may attack several targets at the same time and use a an Automatic fire template that is in: cluded in the back of the book. -ons The Automatic Fire Template 4s $f BAMEBAM SNe stay ih dh oe BAMBAMI Z i BAM BAM BAM BAMBAMBAMBAM BAMBAM BAMBAMThe template must be placed so that it’s within the LoS and AoF of the trooper. The template must be placed so that it attacks the closest tar- get according to the Target Selection Order that you gave the squad or the trooper. Any trooper that is at least half covered by the template can be attacked. Distribute the weapons attack dice among the troops in any way you wish, but troops closer to the attacker must have as many, or more, attack dice allocated to them than troops stand: ing further away If the trooper has a Get the... order he may chose to concentrate all his attack dice on the specified target, even if the template covers other targets as well. For example, a trooper with a Get the Robots order may chose to fire all his attack dice at the closest robot, even if it’s surrounded by troops that are also covered by the template. Aurorire Wwro Buiowcs When firing a weapon that use the Automatic Fire template through a window or a door the tem- plate will be positioned in a specific way. The short end of the template will automatically be placed so that it covers the door or window, while the rest of the template is almed straight into the room. If the window is very large, or if the trooper is standing at a narrow angle towards the win- dow, it might be positioned in other ways. Re- member that the attacker must be able to see the troops hit by the template, bullets are not heat seeking. EXAMPLE: When the Minigun equipped trooper from Knecht Support team #1 is firing through the window, the Automatic Fire template will be positioned as shown below. 2 a 2 BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMEAM EXAMPLE: Trooper #52 fires her Constrictor HMG at a squad of enemy troops. She places her tem- plate and allocates her attack dice. She may aim two dice at A because it’s the closest trooper to her. C and D gets 1 attack die, while B gets none. If she had wished to, she could have allocated ‘one die each to A,B,C and D, or even fired all attack dice at trooper A.To hit a target, the die roll result must be equal to, or lower, than the attacker's Combat Skill Certain situations make it harder or easier to hit a target. For every such situation there is a modi fier, positive or negative, to the attacker's CS. An unmodified roll of 1 always hit the target, even if modifications have lowered the attacker's CS be- low 1. There are two groups of modifiers: Attack- er’s Modifier (AttMod) and Defender’s Modifier (DefMod). AttMods depend on the firer’s actions during the Turn and DefMods on the target's. Rogots A Robot is using a wide array of various targeting systems and consequently a Robot’s CS is never modified by normal modifiers. A Robot’s CS is only modified if the Robot has sustained some sort of damage specified in the damage tables. Artacker’s Mooiriers ‘Overwatch The attacker is on Overwatch this Turn. Cautious Advance The attacker have C. Adv. this Turn ‘Advance The attacker have Advanced this Turn Charge The attacker have Charged this Turn The attacker is shooting outside his AoF with a sidearm 4 swith a personal weapon 6 swith a support weapon 8 Range modifiers Varies Spmeorerner we a 4 om Derenper’s Mooriers Half Cover The target is behind Half cover Full Cover The target is behind Full Cover Cautious Advance The target has used C. Adv. Overwatch The target is on Overwatch Large Target The target is so big that it’s easier to hit it. Large targets are Landmates, Ramrods, buildings and other terrain pieces. Small Target 4 The target is so small that it’s difficult to hit. To qualify, the target needs to be as small as @ human sized head, or smaller. Fast Target 2 The target is moving so fast that it's difficult to draw a bead on it. Targets wearing Hellraiser speed armor are entitled to this modifier. It is not used if the Hellraisers are on OW or CA. EXAMPLE: Trooper #134, after having moved us- ing Cautious Advance (+2), fires his weapon at a target that is behind half cover (-2) and gets a +/-0 modifier.Rance Since the firefights portrayed in Apokalypse takes place at such close quarters and the weapons that are used are capable of firing accurately at up to Several hundreds of meters, the range to the tar get is seldom a hindrance. At this short range, visibility proves to be the greatest limiting fac- tor. Some weapons however, like the Assassin machine pistol, are not intended for long range firefights and are therefore limited by an effec- tive range. Even though the shot may continue for maybe ten or twenty times this range, the aiming systems of these weapons are rather lim: ited. They are more of the "point in that direc- tion and fire until he drops” variety. Sub-machineguns, sidearm, flame-throw: ers, thrown grenades and shotguns are limited by their range. Flame-throwers and Thrown gre: nades have a fixed range and suffer no negative AttMod, but they may not be used on targets that are beyond this range. Sub-machineguns and sidearms have a negative AttMod that makes it harder to hit a target the farther away it is To measure range, take the distance ruler that is used for determining movement and place the O range end at the center of the base of the model that is firing. The distance measured be- tween the attacker and the target is within one of the ranges noted on the Distance AttMod Mod table, PB, CLOSE, MEDIUM and LONG. For each of these ranges the trooper gets a positive or nega- tive AttMod. Note that shotguns have a different modifier than sub-machineguns and sidearms at the same type of range. Tre HaNocun Ranges PB: CLOSE LONG: 0-3 meters 4-6 meters 7-25 meters Attack Modifiers PB: CLOSE: LON The handgun is especially effective at PB range, and for every attack die that hits the target you may roll 1d3 damage rolls. This represent the frantic pull of the trigger at a range where the trooper feels that she is involved in a "do or die” situation, Actually, it’s quite hard not to fire more than one shot. At this range a blind man could hit the target if he’s only pointed in the general direction, Note that the trooper can only fire his sidearm at this range if she chooses not to en: gage the target with a Hand-to-hand weapon and if she herself isn’t attacked in hand-to-hand com: bat. THE MACHINEPISTOL, HANOCANNON & Sus_MACHINEGUN Ranges PB: CLOSE: LONG: 0-6 meters 7-10 meters 11 meters or more Attack Modifiers PB: +4 CLOSE: +0 LONG! 3 EXAMPLE: Trooper # 134 is firing his Urban Elimi- nator sub-machinegun at an enemy trooper be- longing to a local Rape-Kill gang and his To Hit rolls calculated. He has moved at Cautious Ad- vance (+2 mod), the gang member is Charging towards him (+0) and has no cover (+0). The gang member is 14 meters away (Long range 3). Trooper #134’s To Hit roll will be modified by a total of -1 Svotcuns Bucksor Ranges PB: 0-6 meters CLOSE: 7-12 meters MEDIUM: 13-30 meters LONG: 31 meters or more Attack Modifiers PB: +4 CLOSE: 42 MEDIUM: +3 LONG: + A shotgun fires not a single bullet but a cloud of small pellets in a cone shaped blast. This cone spreads the further away it moves from the barrel and actu: ally increases the odds of hitting the target. The tar- doesn't get hit by as many pellets as he would fave if he had been closer and damage therefore decreases with increased range, When a target is hit by a buckshot at PB or CLOSE range he or she suf- fers damage from the Shotgun Closed Choke dam- age table to represent that the swarm of bullets is still fairly concentrated and/or hasn't lost too much velocity. ‘At MEDIUM or LONG range, the fortunate vic- tim only suffers the effects of the Shotgun Open Choke damage table. A well aimed shotgun blast may sometimes hit several victims at the same time. If the targets are within 3 meters of each other and at CLOSE range or more, both gets hit by the same shot. If the shotgun fire slugs, they follow the same range modifiers as for an ordinary combat rifle. Pr eee ee ek Bee er eae ae a aca it? Fuck up and I'll blow you away, that will only cost us two bullets”. Squadleader #130 went si- eee esa Re RL tion. Trooper #132 looked at #135. “If they are aa Ret aleThe voices rise and fall around me. The spicy smell of incense mingles with the heavy, wet ‘smell of fresh blood. The young woman on the altar repeatedly stabs the knife up into her womb. "= » Her hands glow red in the torchlight. She rides the knife as if it was her lover. Behind her, the = Cee ce aR eee Lc ce Lee em etd reins Ce iid The chant to the Goddess is alive inside my body. It makes me move and tremble. The blood in my veins throb as if it also worshipped Her. As if it wished to flow down my thighs to Her honor. I think about Judy who took me here for the first time. “It doesn’t need to be that way you know", she said. “Giving birth in pain, losing them long before they are grown up, being told that they are dead. bade Sara ceed ate Bee Reo Le eR a a ee children. They hate Her. Hunting down those that worship Her. They want to be the sole Lords of Blood and Life. Restrain it and sterilize it in the service of society. Yet we still exist: = re aaa irae Sone Raa ea) —_, omer yg ema oan Came ree eae ‘She has fallen now, lies limp on the altar. Her hands still claw at her crotch but they have lost ig tal eee ig err mek ome eae ey a eM ig Meet Mes tacts ci eT ste Nothing to stop a child from being conceived. Nothing except the Goddess. Bulging stomach and breasts swelled with milks the current epitome of womanhood. Proclalmed by society itself in F's fight for survival. And yet Her blood runs down our thighs. “We give birth to Soldiersons destined to die and Motherdaughters destined to give birth to new Soldiersons and Motherdaughters that in turn will squeeze out children between their spread legs. If the merciful Goddess does not take sean ea eee eRe ‘Oh judy. judy that saw despair behind the mask of pride of my three soldiersons that had died Paula te NN Acerca Mad eae eee eh eee See aan rete a ee rea ere ce tr Bee Ca ee re aya ee ee Ree Rae a ae taco Deere Aap ie tee art ily er Birth Centers, Mother Collectives and battlefields. : S : er Fa Re ce ae ae Sa lad ah een . era ea Ie’ Wine Ruan = Dee ee ee There are ways, you know. Ways of making the blood flow back to the Goddess. Ways that the ~ are Ml a Cem eA Tra era a ee nea ‘may the Goddess help us. Jady tried a sharpened stick, but they found out. She is in the Birth Center now. With her will burned out of her like a fucking vegetable. No, not a vegetable. A queen bee in the sickest hive on earth. They fill her with as much sperm and hormones they can without harming her reproductive qualities. And she gives birth, and birth, and birth. They want us all lying there, like machines, producing child after child. Sanitary and perfect. But they do not have resources to do that. Yet. Fucking, bloody, stupid mothers that have fallen for the crap about Duty and Honor rr Rie eid tele ORCA teen Ta ia EL Retr retreat meee Fic eer he Pees cat pee OM eee a gu ea a cee ee ER Cee to honor the power that runs in the blood as it flows down out thighs. I will teach them.”At OTHER WEAPONS (Exception: Thrown Grenade, Cremator, Urban Turmoil and Hydra IV) Ranges PB: CLOSE: 0-10 meters 11 meters or more Attack Modifiers : +4 A trooper will have the benefit of cover if he is behind some sort of terrain that is blocking the enemy's LoS to him. It might be nothing more than some flimsy bushes, or he could be lucky enough to be behind a thick stone wall. No mat. ter what, your troops will certainly live longer if they are kept behind cover rather than In front of it Fut Cover The trooper is lucky enough to be behind full cover if more than 50% of the trooper is hidden behind a terrain piece that the attacker’s weapon is unable to penetrate, or have a d20 chance of penetrating. The reason that the trooper counts as be: ing in full cover even though the attacker theo- retically can penetrate it, is that the attacker is not omniscient. A trooper doesn’t think "Perhaps I can penetrate that wall if it's made of bricks”, as a trooper who stops to think too often will be dead before he fired his first shot. Instead, ”Aargh! A head sticking up behind that wall! Shoot itl!” is 2 much more common way of thinking. The ef- fects of this, are that the target will be very hard to hit, but when hit the attacker will re-roll on the Damage Table until he hits a body part that isn’t protected by the cover. After all, the attacker is firing at the most exposed parts of the target, as he can’t get the coward by blasting through his cover. FULL COVER, vey TRiCK VERY THICK Wal A coward is a man behind cover. A moron is a man standing in the open without cover. Alas, all my men are either cowards or morons. “Captain Howard Figg of the Whirling Death Pe eee acre a ace a berserk and threw a Shredder grenade into a Pe de car cae ac Hatr Cover The trooper is counted as being behind Half Cover in two different situations: If 25-50% of the trooper is behind terrain that the attacker's weapons can't penetrate, or have a 20 chance of penetrating. If the trooper is hit, the attacker will re-roll on the Damage Table just as for Full Cover above If more than 50% of the trooper is hidden be- hind terrain that the attacker's weapons can pen- etrate without having a d20 chance of doing so (12 Beta for example). The roll on the Damage Table is made normally as the bullets just pierce the flimsy protection and thus can hit every part of the trooper. The attacker knows that his weapon can penetrate the cover easily and sim ply blasts right through it. The reason that this still counts as cover, even though it doesn’t pro- tect the trooper from the bullets, is that the at- tacker can only see part of the target. Every type of Cover has an Armor grade which determines which weapons will be able.to pen- etrate it. This is described in the Penetration and Cover part of the Penetration section.Cover w Butowes Cover for troops inside buildings will have to be determined with a lot of common sense as such things as furniture and rubble seldom are drawn on the floorplans. You will have to decide if the rooms are full with rubble making cover freely available or if they are plundered of everything including the carpet. Cover for troops standing in windows is more easy to determine. All troops, without exception, always count as being behind full cover when firing out of windows and doors. No trooper is so full of machismo that he stands fully visible in the middle of the window, blasting away at the enemy. Rather, troops take as much advantage as possible of the cover offered by the walls, and offer little more than the barrel and a hint of a head as target for enemy fire Sen) oer rege Cacao Search and Purge mission. Usually boring. Except for Purge. Ruins. Kell takes point. Me second, 15 m behind. Others from a SAd Pattern. Burnt out build- en Meee ee Bo aaa a ere eR Foe pees aa cle a rae Gunshots! Kell’s hit. Doesn't go down. Returns. eee ee ee ere Rage is hitting me. I'm God, Gunshots. Lo-hi cal MC Rear cir ee a There. Fodder in sight. My Assassin talks. Convinces ae pee Mee rae ee an Pe Cea Battleblade. Charge! Roaring. Rush, Rush. Finally. Slashes a guy with a pumpgun. He's screaming, Can't stop giggling. His arm with the ‘gun in my MSR ae eat ee ey blood. Hits ground. Shudders. Rush! Rush! I'm alive. Can't stop giggling. Feel a hit in my back. Stupid reper et ee aca oe ee WM cee ne oy ee ren nar eee ara fodder dead. No cas. Goddamn I need to fuck. Camp. Food. Eat. Campwhore. Rest five. Need food. Got to be strong. Only the strong decides. Good Ree ee eM motherfucker. Eat. Cig. Campwhore. She doesn't SMa a ea a ae aa me of knife in my back. Almost forgot. Re te Ca ee ee Mee ta Mee ea a ae ee mes eae Some targets wear armor and thus it’s essential to check for armor penetration to see if the tar- get is affected by the shot. When a target with- ut armor is hit, skip this step and go directly to the damage roll to check what will happen to the unfortunate soul. Every suit of armor consists of several pieces of armourplating of different hard ness and thickness. The breastplate is generally thicker and harder than the soft pieces that cover the elbows for example. All suits of armor have a weak spot, other- wise, an armored suit would probably look like a huge block of Plasteel with certain natural disad- vantages when it comes to movement and agili There are always joints that will have to be made of materials that are flexible so that the wearer can move and fire effectively, and those materi- als don't offer the same protection as the hard nor-flexible pieces do. Armor GRADES To determine which part of the armor the shot , roll 1420 and compare the result with the table that corresponds to the suit that the target is wearing. The table gives you an Armor Grade (AG) that tells you how thick, hard or sloped that part of the suit that was hit is, that is how good it is at stopping damage from reaching its wearer. The different Armourgrades are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Sigma and Omega. Omega offers the most protection and Alpha the least, apart from wearing no armor at all of course Every kind of weapon has a penetration capabil- ity that tells which Armor Grade, that is the high- est AG it may penetrate. If a weapon will pen- etrate Beta for example, it will also penetrate Al pha Sometimes it’s not absolutely certain that the weapon may penetrate the AG and a number is given. Roll 1420 and if the result is lower or equal to the number the shot has penetrated Certain types of ammunition may increase or decrease a weapor's penetration capabilities. The rules for special ammunition are given in the Tools of Warfare chapter. EXAMPLE: The Trooper Body Armor consists of Beta and Alpha AG's: Alpha covers the whole body and Beta the torso and the head. If you roll 1- 10, a part which consists of material that has an Armor Grade of Alpha has been hit and if you roll 11-20, Beta has been hit. EXAMPLE: A shot fired from trooper #131’s Warmaster combat rifle hits a Wardog wearing Hellraiser speed armor. A roll of 11 decides that the shot hits a part of the target that is of the Beta AG, probably the head or the torso, but it could have hit any other part of the target as well, as there are several smaller parts of the Hellraiser that are made of Beta Grade plates. However the Warmaster only has a 12 in 20 chance of penetrating Beta, so a 12 or less must be rolled on 1420 to penetrate.PENETRATION AND COVER Which weapons may penetrate the cover is deter. mined exactly the same way as for armor. Every type of cover has its own AG that is uniform for the whole cover. That means that there is no roll to determine the specific AG like there is for armor. If the target is hidden behind cover that the attacker's weapon can penetrate, it’s impor: tant to see if the shot has been slowed down some what before hitting her armor. For every layer of cover which has an AG of Alpha or better, the weapon's penetration capa- bility is reduced one step. A weapon that could penetrate Gamma is only able to penetrate Beta after passing through a cover with AG Alpha and so on, If the weapon has a chance to penetrate the AG, for example 12 Beta, it will have the same chance of penetrating the lower AG Cover protection NONE: Bushes, foliage, thin wooden fences and other junk are only a barrier to sight, not bullets. Wooden walls, human bodies wearing light armor and tree trunks. Concrete or brick walls, bodies wearin, Power Armors and broken machinery il cars. Solid stone and metal walls, big stone boul ders. : Bunker walls If the element of human suf fering is removed from the concept of combat all that will remain is a glorification of something that doesn’t deserve to be glorified. War is not fun, it is not heroic, it is not glorious and it is not safe. If you get sickened by the damage tables, fine, that is @ normal human reaction. Unfortunately it also a normal human reaction to blame us for sickening you, instead of blaming the people that commit real acts of violence. The damage tables have not been written by us to sicken you. They have been written by humanity before we were born. We present them here because we have made it @ point not to shy away from what we see. If you don’t want to be reminded of the inherent brutality of violence, ignore the dam- age tables and simply remove the model when it’s hit. As long as you close your eyes and pre- tend that something doesn’t exist it cannot af- fect you, right? You fucking hypocrite! Why don’t you play a safe little game about steroid-pumped fascists with enormous shoulder pads, killing dis- sidents for "the good of humanity” instead? There are plenty of those around, THe DaMace TABLES When a trooper, robot or Landmate is hit and the armor is penetrated, roll 14100 on the proper damage table. The results are pretty self explana: tory and should describe the fate of the trooper quite vividly. The results on the damage tables are a representation of several different situa- tions that may arise when a trooper is hit. It is impessible to include every different type of dam. age that might occur so we've picked some that wwe feel are representative. Damage is mainly based on the bodypart hit with a rising degree of mor- tality and mutilation when using more powerful weapons. A powerful weapon is no certain guar- antee for a dead victim, but usually results in at least violent mutilation. On the other hand, if the shot hits the brain or heart the victim is dead meat no matter what ammo or weapon used. As ‘those two organs are absolutely necessary for the body to keep on living this is hardly surprising. Damace For LanomaTes & Rogots A Landmate suit works just like any other armor when deciding if the shot will penetrate and cause damage, However, damage is handled a bit differ- ent. When the armor is penetrated it is not usu- ally the pilot that is hurt, but the Landmate suit itself that takes the brunt of the damage. There are three different damage tables to use for the Landmate, which one depends on the damage of the weapon that penetrated the armor. The three damage tables to use are: Damaged, Knocked Out and Destroyed. Robots can also be Damaged, Knocked Out and Destroyed, but use their own three damage tables instead of the Landmate's. Which table to use is indicated in the description of the weapon in the Tools of Warfare chapter.AMMUNITION Certain types of ammunition may increase or decrease a weapon's damage. If you're firing a combat rifle with HE Manstoppers, the High Explosive Bullets damage table would be used instead of the one for High Velocity Bullets. Do not worry about which table to use, it's all noted in the weapon and ammunition descriptions in the Tools of Warfare chapter, 2 Rocka A hae an de - _ BH J ou art tetas Inet Cie oe that coer | d Bob ~~ e Ti. # Automatic Fire When a trooper is hit by more than one attack die from the same autofire weapon you must re- solve as many hits as possible on the Automatic Fire damage table. This represents the trooper being hit by a concentrated devastating burst of shots. For every two attack dice that hits the trooper, rol once on the Automatic Fire damage table. Remaining odd hits are resolved using the normal damage table. Some weapons may apply the same procedure a bit different, like the ‘treetcleaner Splattergun for example. This ig described in the Tools of Warfare chapter. “CASUALTY MARKERS When a trooper is dead or too heavily © Awounded to continue fighting, you may re ~~ place the model on the battlefield with some ‘isve “Rind of casualty marker. We use small flat- tened blobs of milliput, painted to look like jools of blood. If you wish you might even ave the model lying face down in the grow. Ying pool of blood. You can add more realism ‘by using converted models that represent dead and wounded troops.Despite what you may believe, guns do run out of ammunition. The weapons of choice for most troops usually have a great RoF and hence need a lot of reloads. The problem is that it’s hard to carry al the ammo you need into a firefight. An ordinary trooper with 2 personal weapon might not use up all his ammo in a single bat- tle, but it can be hard to supply a squad be- tween firefights. This is especially true for sup- port weapons, which demand a lot of ammuni- tion and where the weight of the reloads are quite heavy. However, a trooper that has been around a while is much more efficient in his ammuni- tion expenditure and can be expected not to run ‘out of ammo in the first firefight. Remember to give your troops a lot of ammo because a trooper without ammo is an unnecessary trooper, and most likely a dead one too. A trooper may carry a maximum of 8 Mags for her main weapon, 4 grenades and 8 Mags for her sidearm at the same time. THe Ammo Rott Every time a trooper fires a weapon it may run out of ammunition. Each weapon has a Ammu- nition Capacity number. When making the ‘Ammo roll 1420 is used. If the number rolled is equal to or below the AmmoCap number the weapon has run out of ammunition and a re- load must be checked off on the squad sheet. When all reloads are checked off, the trooper may not fire his weapon as he has no more am- munition to waste. Weapons with high a RoF run out of ammo faster than weapons with a low RoF as they use a lot more bullets. Support weapons that use fully automatic fire to get the job done usually waste a reload every time it's fired. Do not check for ammunition expenditure every time you roll an attack dice! A trooper checks for ammuni- tion only once per Turn. If a trooper fires on Overwatch a reload is automatically ticked off. This because the trooper uses up a lot more ammo by firing con- centrated bursts of fire instead of occasional snap shots. Troops with "Conserve Your Ammo!” Orders gain a -5 modifier to the die roll. Our oF AMMo When more than half of the squad is completely out of ammunition for all their weapons, it’s probably a good idea to implement the backup plan. Otherwise the troops will have serious problems fulfiling thelr objectives. 1 all ‘personal and support weapons in the squad or ‘team are out of ammo, the squad are seriously shaken and must check for morale to continue the battle. If they fail, they retreat exactly as described in the Morale section Lootwe Ammuntrion It is possible to loot ammunition from dead bod- ies on the battlefield. This can be done if some- body order the squad to do so, or the trooper can take the initiative himself if he makes an Inf roll. Note that the trooper can not break the for- mation rules, so it’s only possible to loot if he can still keep up with the squad. He would not like to be left behind, no matter how little ammu- nition he has left as it’s dangerous to be left alone on the battlefield. It takes a full Turn to com- pletely loot a body. When the Turn has ended the trooper will have taken all the ammunition pos- sessed by the body. He may not carry more than his full capacity of 8 magazines and four grenades. Lies on my back in the trench and fantasizes ra Meer ee esr aaa ea ae liked my fantasies, but I've been running out deere eed ea Petes shout to make myself heard above the din. “Tit-gas should be the fucking final solution”, Tyell. “It ain’t nothing wrong with their hol ee aie eae eee oa eee ora ee ea ars thing with real growing pains. We'll fill it in eae ear es em od ee eae er cna and start one hell of a party! Would do won- Pee ae ae re ao enya nest eee ee ee eee ao ae ace er party without having to make the assault first“. 1 fill my lungs with air and prepares to ee ie ae ce a a eee ree Ieee eae Temas Oe eer ake ground in a fetal position, clutching his stom- ee eed eee ee aa tried to get out of here. He didn’t make it all Pa ia ea re look at his sunken cheeks, Another week, per- Peer keene ae eee a a ea ee asLife isn’t perfect. Most of t time it isn’t even good. Like- wise, whatever military experts may want us 0 believe, combat is mostly a drag. Weapons run out of ammo, people are being slaughtered for no sane reason and weapons jam. They never dd_ at the movies but they do in'real life, all too of- ten. The only good thing about combat is that sometimes you manage to survive. ‘A weapon may jam because of many differ- ent reasons. Bad maintenance, harsh weather or ‘too much autofire may cause the feeding mecha- nism to get too hot and the ammo to get stuck or even the barrel to melt. The reason for jamming does not matter but the result is bad business for the trooper. The weapon may not fire and the trooper must clear his weapon. In real com- bat, a trooper must often dismantle the whole weapon to clear the jam or the weapon may even be destroyed or blow up. We are not that cruel to you, dear gamer. To add that kind of detail to the ‘game would slow it down to a crawl. ‘Anyway, whenever you happen to roll an attack die that is equal to or greater than the weapon's Jam number, the weapon has jammed. All Fring for that trooper is ended. She may not fire any more in that turn and must instead clear the jam. She may defend herself in Hand to hand conibat, but not with a jammed sidearm. When rolling several attack dice at once and one or more of them indicate a jam it’s important to know how many attack dice that were actually fired before the weapon jammed. Read the dice from left to right, from the perspective of the gamer who rolled ‘them. The first die that indi- Cates a jam also jams the rest that are lying to the right of that die. all dice that are to the left are resolved normally. This mean that you don’t need to roll all the attack dice one at a time just to see when (and if) the weapon jams. Your table-edge EXAMPLE: If die #3 is a jam, die #1 and #2 is resolved as normal while die #4, #5 & #6 never is fired. S When firing it’s always possible thatthe-bullet that was meant for the enemy hits your friend instead. It is dangerous and risky to fire too close to your own troops, but that is not always appar- ent in the heat of battle when the adrenaline is flowing Stray fire is handled very easily. Draw a line from the attacker, through the target and beyond. Every model behind the target, within 3 meter from this line has a chance to be hit by stray shots if the trooper firing has a LoS to them. Roll 1420 for each model, a result of 1-2 results ina hit. There may not be more troops hit by stray fire than the weapon has Attack dice that missed its initial target. Always start checking for stray fire on the troops closest to the target. Each hit is resolved exactly as normal. Important: This rule isn’t necessary to use every time you resolve a firing action. It is more of a way to discourage Gamers from firing at targets that are dangerously close to friendly troops. Use it only if you or your opponent are pushing your luck too often, See ee eae ere a eee nes Ug Maa ee Be i ne ese Cee edRetake mares ee ee eae mre a ee a eae ae A sharp cracking noise followed by the sound of rupturing meat. While the bang echoes forwards and beclwards between the houses I heat the almost soft sound of wet hitting Fovar en Mee taal ee ie tn ae Cae at beard, Henry the father and husband, straight in the chest. His legs folds and he fall backwards towards the ground, invisible strings of gravity pulling at his heavy backpack. We all hit the ground. Some of us are silent, searching for a glimpse of the sniper, the thief of Henry. The others scream and shout. No surprise, in a situation like this you got to let it out. Your head spins of fear and adrenaline, your stomach burns, wanting to Pe baie Meer ace ener et eee aac Ee rae Nace a aa a a rh rnot like Henry. Pr a eel Load SR Meee ame ee emer ee era cae PO rime ary meee eae eee eee ee Ease eae Mate rade Meare a a ear ae Re aa cad al “Shut up! You're acting like you've never been shot at before”. I'm taking charge. Gotta pull ‘em together now. Give them security. Gotta let them act, ere ha ae aa are ar ee Support, going to get support. Goddammit, I hate snipers. They're everywhere. Can’t Pr Ma er ea ey A second shot. Jesus Christ! Andrew screams. Blood, blood on me. My face, get it off. NO Rr a ae eRe ir Wear ene oa ae ee back of his helmet. His whole face is gone. Damn! I liked Andrews. rec Ru ae eee er era ee a eee ee Rc ec ar ae shrapnel and dust. The single shot noise is replaced by a tornado of deafening cracks. eee ea ae eee ne ee ea ‘them to take their fucking lunchboxes and shove them up their fat arses. I'm screaming Peete al at eae ce a er Pe Ae eee aaa Tn ect The only thing for sale is death. We're locked in the marketplace. We can’t move. It's like we're trapped in hell. The concepts of time and place are without meaning. There's only death. We're locked, locked, locked, locked...As you can see, the grenade may go where you may not want it to go, so it's advisable to avoid having any friendly troops close by. Grenades don’t care if they blow up in your face or in your enemy's, The grenade may not scatter more than half the distance that it was thrown. If the gre. * ~~, nade deviates into a solid object, it will hit it and TS pounce away in the opposite direction The distance it will bounce is equal to the “i et THROWING GRENADES Grenades may only be thrown if the ‘trooper is on Overwatch or have used CA. Ifthe trooper is running around, keeping one eye on the grenade and ‘one on the ground, the chance is that he may drop the grenade while pull- ing out the pin. That is not a very good idea, and few troops are sui- Cidal enough to want to be blown up by their own grenades. Place the gre- nade wherever you want it to ex- plode, within the trooper’s LoS and up to 20 meters away. The target need not be a specific trooper or ter- rain piece, but can be anything, in- cluding a simple spot on the ground The AOF for a thrown grenade is 1202, There is no normal to-hit roll when throw- ing grenades, but the grenade may deviate instead, After the grenade template has been placed, roll for scatter. ScaTTER On the grenade template there are numbers writ: ten, from 1-20. These indicate the direction in which the grenade scatters. 1420 is rolled, and the grenade lands 1d6-1m away from the intended spot in the direction indicated by the roll. Select A distance that it had left to deviate when it hit the object. This can sometimes lead to situations Y where the grenade can bounce around corners to hit an unfortunate squad that thought they were safe, but don’t depend on it. Grenades scatter very unpredictably as they will suffer both from the thrower’s faulty aim as well as bounce around on the uneven ground like a hot potato. EXAMPLE: Trooper #139 decides to throw a gre- nade at squad A instead of firing with her Warmaster. Rolling 5 on a d20 for direction and a 6 for distance, the grenade bounces 5 meters (6-1=5m) and hits team B instead. GRENADE LAUNCHERS The weapons counted as being Grenade Launch- ers are the 40mm Hydra IV Grenade Launcher and the God of Thunder Automatic Grenade Launcher. A grenade fired from a Grenade Launcher works exactly as if firing a normal weapon, except for the fact that it may be fired indirectly (see Indirect Fire). Any target, includ- ing the ground, can be targeted, exactly as when throwing a grenade. The grenade gains further accuracy and range by being fired from a launcher than it would have had if it had been thrown. If the target is hit, the grenade will detonate exactly where the shooter intended and no roll for scatter is made. If the shot is missed however, the grenade will scatter 246-2 m. The grenade may not scatter more than half the distance it was fired.Rocket LAUNCHERS These are the rules for the Bach 46c Urban Tur. moil Rocket Launcher. Firing a Rocket Launcher is just like firing a normal weapon. A Rocket Launcher may never fire indirectly. Unlike when firing a grenade, you must pick a specific target like a Landmate, Robot or a trooper in a squad. If firing upon a squad, one trooper must be the des- ignated target. He must be among the troops clos- est to the attacker, it is not possible to pick the trooper closest to the center of the squad in or: der to cause greater damage. If fring HEAT, no soft targets like troops without Power Armor may be targeted as the rocket will not detonate EXAMPLE: Trooper #1 is not allowed to fire her rocket launcher at the trooper in the middle of the squad. Roll 1420 to see if you hit the target just as when firing a normal weapon. If the weapon jams, the missile is a dud and doesn’t explode or harm anyone. If you miss the target, the rocket will continue its flight, blowing up some- thing harmless instead. A HE rocket is packed with explosives and shrapnel, at the very least enough to take care of infantry. A HE rocket works just like an ordinary grenade but does not scatter if the target is hit. Consider the trooper designated as target to be at contact distance. A HEAT does not have a template unless fired against build ings as described later. Frews ro Buiowcs THrown GRENADES Many times a trooper wishes to throw a grenade through a window to eradicate some especially stubborn defenders. If the trooper wishing to throw the grenade stands within one meter of the window, it’s impossible to miss. At this dis: tance the window need not be within the troop: er’s AoF as he would probably have his back to the wall anyway. This applies to windows that have large enough openings to throw a grenade through, if they are too tightly boarded up it might be im: possible. This i up to you to decide efore the ttle and should be plainly visible on the model buildings that are used. As the thrower is pro tected by the thick walls and is smart enough to take cover when he has thrown the grenade, he is automatically unhurt by the blast. Grenades thrown from further away will hit the window on a deviation roll of O (a dé roll of 1). Otherwise it will scatter as normal If the grenade hits the window it has landed in the room inside, wreaking death and havoc around it, The grenade template s placed in the room inside the window, at a spot determined by the thrower. A roll for scatter of 1d6-1 m is then made and the grenade lands on the indicated spot. The grenade can not scatter outside the room, if it does it simply explodes against the wall instead. This roll for scatter is made to indicate the amount of chance inherent in throwing a grenade through a window at a unseen target, hoping that it will hit anything. GRENADE LAUNCHERS: If a trooper wishes to shoot a grenade through a window or other small opening, it will count as a small target with a -4 Mod to her CS. If the to-hit roll is a miss, the grenade scatter exactly as a thrown grenade that misses a window. However, this grenade will not simply bounce away but deto- nates on the outside of the wall instead, causing damage as normal to any exposed troops on the outside of the house. If the grenade has hit the window, it follows the same rules as for Thrown Grenades above, when placing the template.Rocket LAUNCHERS When firing a HE rocket, the procedure is not much differ- ent from firing a grenade launcher. You still have to hit the window in or- der to do any damage, otherwise it simply explodes on the outside of the wall, scattering as the gre- nade described above. If the rocket hits, the tem- plate will be placed against one of the room's walls. Exactly where is determined by drawing a straight line from the attacker, through the window and to the wall. The rocket does not scatter but ex- plodes on the spot. Boom. When firing a HEAT rocket, you need not worry about such fragile things as walls. The rocket is simply aimed at the building and flies straight thorough the wall before it explodes in- side. Use the same template as a HE rocket. As a building is quite large, it is next to impossible to miss. Any trooper nearsighted enough to miss such a large target should never have been given a Rocket Launcher in the first place. You still need to make a to-hit roll, as there is a chance that the rocket might be a dud. As the trooper firing the weapon doesn’t have your birds-eye view of the exact position of the troops targeted, the tem plate is placed and will scatter exactly as a gre- nade thrown through a window does.Indirect fire is possible when throwing grenades or using Grenade Launchers. The grenade is faunched towards a distant target on the battle- field using only the coordinates given by the War- lord before the battle. Thus the grenade can be fired outside the trooper’s LoS, but the target still needs to be within his AoF. Since the act of firing a indirect grenade need to be a well planned one with detailed in structions available to help the trooper to launch the grenade as near his unseen target as possi- ble, indirect fire can only be used on Suppressive Fire orders. Since the grenade is fired in a curved path, flying over woods and other intervening terrain, the target for indirect fire may never be a roofed building. THROWN GRENADES Unlike other template weapons, a grenade may be thrown indirectly, even if the thrower doesn’t have Suppressive Fire orders. He must however have either OW or CA orders. This is because the grenade is much of a “spur of the moment” weapon rather than a well planned part of an at- tack. An indirectly thrown grenade may be placed on a spot that the trooper has no LoS to, but ‘then the accuracy will suffer accordingl ‘The target must still be within the troop- er’s AoF of 120° ,and no longer than 20 m from ‘the thrower. Of course the trooper must be able to throw the grenade to the spot where he wishes it to land. That means that it’s not allowed to throw grenades into houses where there are no windows, or around a corner 5 meters away. If the grenade is thrown at a target out of LoS it will scatter 246-2 m, instead of 1d6-1m. The gre- nade may not scatter more than half the distance that it was thrown I'm going to have fun, fun, fun ‘til sergeant OM er aie Se see Pe ae Bc GRENADE LAUNCHERS: ‘A Grenade Launcher can only be fired indirectly if the steaoper firing it has Suppres- sive Fire orders. Place the Grenade template(s) within the area designated on your planning sheet a: the target area’ The target area can be any iecé of terrain on the battlefield, including the are ground. As a rule of thumb a target area should be about twenty meters across. Use com mon sense, you can not designate the entire bat: tlefield as'a target area, just to be able to fire one grenade each at several targets during one ‘Turn of Suppressive Fire. ‘A to-hit roll determines how well placed the “grenade is. As it’s more difficult to hit the target ‘when firing indirectly the grenade will scatter even if the roll succeeds. If the trooper succeeds with his to-hit roll, the grenade will scatter 2d6-2 my, if he doesn’t it will scatter 346-3 m. The grenade may not scatter more than half the distance that it was fired. AMAGE GRENADES When a grenade explodes, check how far away the targets are from the detonation center where the yrenade landed after scatter. Then compare the Sistance with their armor on the proper grenade table. The figure printed is how severe the dam- age caused to the trooper is. There are four dif- ferent results; Severity 1, - 2,- 3 and Dead On (D0). The severity indicates which Shrapnel Dam- age table to use. 14100 is rolled on the indicated table and the effects applied to the victim. Some grenades have special effects, other than blowing people to pieces, and those are described in the Tools of warfare chapter. EXAMPLE: Both members of a Wardog support team are 3 meters away from a detonatin Shredder grenade and are wearing Trooper Body ‘Armor. The result is Severity 3. Finding section 3 on the Shrapnel damage table we roll 14100 for each trooper, getting a 39 and a 92. Disgusting. Rockets ‘AHE rocket fired from the Urban Turmoil Rocket Launcher cause damage like an ordinary grenade, with the same Severity. A HEAT is an armor pierc: ing rocket that use intense heat to penetrate, fill ing the space inside with shrapnel from both the rocket and the armor itself. A HEAT warhead has a damage value against Landmate and Robot tar. gets and a Penetration value to be used at all targets, including troops with Power Armor. Dam age done to all other targets than a Landmate or Robot is resolved on the DO damage table. It func: tions as a normal weapon in this respect. If used against buildings the rules for damage are slight! different as described in the Firing Against Build- ings section above.Exptosives ano Cover A trooper without armor may still be lucky enough to cape unscathed from an ex plosion. This happens when the trooper is fully rotected by hard cover such as solid walls and , that is, AG Beta and above. Fully pro: tected means that there should be no LoS to the model from the detonation center. The explosion is considered to take place at ground level, for LoS purposes. The explosion will have little effect on the trooper as he is protected from both blast and shrapnel. If the trooper is not completely hid- den behind such cover, but more than 50% of hi body is, he will probably take some damage. Take the armor of the trooper and raise it one AG. No Armor becomes Light Armor, Light Armor be- comes Power Armor etc. This is a situation where a flak vest and helmet really are worth their money as they protect the parts of the body that are exposed when standing behind cover EXAMPLE: The team from the previous example is still 3 meters away from a detonating Shred- der grenade and wearing the same Trooper body armior. This time however, one of them is fortu- nate enough to be standing behind an old and rusty, but still solid, car wreck. She is not com- pletely hidden, but as more than 50% of her are, she will be able to take advantage of her cover. When rolling for damage she will raise her Light Armor class to the Power Armor class! The result is Severity 1 instead of 3 and she breathes a sigh of relief. Finding the Severity 1 Fragmenta- tion damage table we roll 1d100 getting a 79. Terry’s nose looks bad, all blue and PCa ara eer arin ee ee mr ie cee ear? CER eae aa en ao were all sleeping. Hansen helped me pin him down while I pistolwhipped him. Just one quick stroke. I don't like to ‘that, you know. I'm not a sadist. It's Seria aT a ee Clee ee a aaa ie eked Fe Rea Moe ee ce together, sharing cigarettes and talk- ing. 1 don't know what they're talking about, but their attitude is all wrong so I just know that they're up to some- ae ata Ungrateful bastards. I’m their squadleader I have got them out of a eee ae Ras nee aars area ae Cao eme ea eat gt eee ree oe nc eee are au er el es een tao were discussing patrolduties. Yeah, Geta s eee ace and I'm the toughest there is. If 1 sur- eee ere ea ote aa re eee ge self to be one, but they must fear me ren aaa eee fear the enemy. If they don't, I'll have Ce area ca tate Cras ree ee responsibility, I'm the leader of this rae eee eee Lee Pomcnar eres DRS ir Me ae meee with brass up his ass, is going to be Cet ere re lao Wee ae aL fucking job. lotr acreOVERWATCH Overwatch is a term that is used to represent a trooper that is ready and waiting for his enemy ‘to show his face. Lying comfortably behind cover, looking down the barrel of his gun, he has the time to wait for the perfect shot before pulling the trigger. He can make each of his bullets count and usually uses a lot of them as he fires. USING OVERWATCH FIRE Shooting in the MPh A squad on Overwatch may hata moving enemy squad, or other target, dur- ing its movement and fire at it before it can con tinue running. The whole squad is moved to the point where the trooper elects to attack them. They do not run as solitary troops. After the fire is resolved and casualties lies bleeding on the ground, the enemy squad or target is allowed to resume its movement as they run for cover. Of course they may not fire back until the FPh. A trooper may not shoot outside his AoF in the Mph. Important: If the trooper can see the running enemy squad for less than five meters of their movement, he may not fire in the MPh but must instead fire in the OwFPh. That is, if the enemy squad is still visible by then. This enables squads to do short dashes from one cover to another without risking certain death and annihilation. If they are stupid enough to still be visible after their move is finished, the opposing forces can feel free to start the massacre. EXAMPLE: Trooper #135 lies on Overwatch or- ders and aims his Warmaster combat rifle at building B. Squad A use Advance movement to get behind building A. The gap between build- jing A and B is four meters across and trooper #135 may not fire upon them in the MPh. Hellraiser team B Charges forward outside his AoF so they may not be fired upon either. Stootwe w THE OwFPH ‘A squad on Overwatch may fire their weapons in the OwFPh, if they haven't already fired in the MPh. Fire in the OwFPh is not simultaneous, but resoived in the order of initiative. Also, squads shot at in the MPh or the OwFPh must immedi: ately remove any casualties and may not fire with ‘them during the FPh. OveRWATCH AND Arc OF Fire A trooper that is on Overwatch may fire his weapon outside his AoF if he wishes to. The trooper is ready for whatever comes in his way and can react faster than a trooper that isn’t on OW and has to pay some attention to where he's putting his feet down. The shot will not be as ac- curate as a normal one, as the trooper has to turn around before he can aim his weapon anew. He will get a -4 AttMod if he's using a Sidearm, a -6 AttMod if, he’s using a Personal Weapon and a -B AttMod if he's using a Support Weapon. This modifier is in addition to the +4 AttMod that he gets for being on Overwatch orders in the first place. Remember that the trooper still only can fire at targets within his field of vision of 1800. After the shot has been fired, change the troop- er’s facing so that he's turned in the new direc- tion. A trooper may not change facing more than ‘once during a Turn, but may change facing freely if he is not firing during the turn. GER ara!EXAMPLE: Trooper #135 from the previous example takes the chance and fires his Warmaster. Luckily enough it is loaded with AP ammo and he fires, outside his Los in the OwFPh, at the charging Hellraisers (with a -2 mod) killing them both! He is able to shoot them both as he is on Overwatch (see the rules be- low) A Landmate has an Arc of Fire of 60 degrees, just like an ordinary trooper. They are just as fast and agile as other troops, but since their weap- ons are very large and bulky, they will be subject to the same modifications for firing outside their AoF as troops equipped with support weapons The AOF of a Robot is a full 360" and they will never need to fire outside it. OverwaTcH Ano RoF When a squad is on Overwatch, its members may fire more than their normal Rate of Fire. A trooper equipped with a weapon with a RoF of 2 or less may multiply his RoF with a number determined by his Experience Rating. A trooper with a single action weapon or an automatic weapon with a low RoF may fire more times simply because he has the time to do so during Overwatch. The better he is, the more shots he may fire without losing accuracy as he is compensat ing for the weapon's recoil and places his bursts or shots more decisively. He does not pull the trig- ger, faster, but he does fire more effective and etter aimed shots at the target than a beginner has the time and skill to do. A trooper on OW, with a sidearm or a personal weapon, may also fire at two different enemy troops instead of one. The OW RoF modifications do not entitle the firer to use the autofire template. It’s not like the trooper suddenly is able to lay down a massive hail of bullets like a minigun, but is instead firing several concentrated bursts at more than just one target. Overwatch Experience Rof modifiers Untrained x1 Regular and Elite x2 Commando x3 A trooper equipped with a weapon with an origi- nal RoF greater than 2 doubles his RoF on Overwatch, except if he is Untrained. A weapon that is fully automatic cannot fire more than twice its RoF because the trooper can’t make the weapon fire faster just because he wants it to. A Constric- tor II Heavy machine-gun, for example, has a RoF of 4 whenever somebody pulls the trigger and keeps it in, and no matter how desperate or expe- rienced the trooper is he can’t make the MG's hammer move faster by pulling at the trigger. It doesn't work that way. The resson that the ROF is doubled is because the trooper can spend the whole turn shooting instead of spending time running as well AMMUNITION The negative side of being able to fire more on Overwatch orders is that the squad uses up a lot more ammunition. Do not bother to roll for am: munition expenditure, just remove a magazine for every trooper that fired in the turnACK ) When standing in a hail of bullets, most soldiers will try to get behind cover as quickly as possible to avoid being transformed into a fountain of spurting blood and small chunks of meat. This natural reaction is called Duckback. Being a sol dier means that you have to expect some bullets to come your way sooner or later, and Duckback only comes into play when the trooper is the tar- get of concentrated fire. That is, when a trooper is shot at by someone on Overwatch orders. All troops will have to roll for DB, even if the weapon used normally would be unable to penetrate their armor. A trooper exposed to the concentrated fire of troops on Overwatch does not stop to think about what weapons the attackers are using, he simply reacts to being a target and rolls for DB. After all, a trooper inside a Ramrod armor does not know if the squad shooting at him with their sidearms only does so to buy time until one of ‘them has loaded her Rocket Launcher. Tue DB Row A trooper will have to roll for Duckback on two occasions. One, when he is being shot at by an enemy with Overwatch orders. Two, when he is standing within 3m from a trooper that is bein; attacked by an enemy on Overwatch as describe: above. If he rolls equal to or below his DB value he is affected by Duckback. Roll for DB after all shots have been fired against the squad by one ‘enemy unit, but don’t apply the effects until all Overwatch fire against the target squad have been Ifa trooper is affected by DB, roll on the Duckback table below. Lanomates & Rogots A Landmate pilot need only roll for Duckback then she is shot upon by Landmate weapons on Overwatch, Smaller weapons are ignored com pletely as their damage usually is neglectible. Even {certain Support weapons may pose a danger to the Landmate she never needs to roll for DB when attacked by them. A Landmate pilot would never acknowledge the threat of ordinary meat. She do not need to roll for Duckback if within 3m from an ordinary trooper subject to Overwatch fire as her Landmate naturally is far superior to the soft meat around her. However, if it’s not an ordinary trooper, but another Landmate, the rules are followed exactly as described earlier. Troops do suffer from Duckback when a Landmate is fired upon by troops on Overwatch within 3m of them They would be stupid otherwise. A Landmate with the Metalheart personality ignores the Duckback rules completely. A Landmate can never get the “Headless Chicken” result on the DB table as they are far to experienced and well trained to panic under fire, Robots need never roll for DB. They have been thoroughly cured of their fear of death and have no fear for their own safety, Duckback table 1420 Result 01-14 Duckback 15-20 Headless Cl Effect Duckback: The trooper throws himself to the ground and desperately tiesto avoid the bullets uzzing about his head, He may not shoot or move until the next turn. As he tries to take as much cover as possible, he counts as being on Overwatch for all defensive modifiers. This means that he can use the -2 Overwatch DefMod if he is lying in the open. If he is attacked in H-t-H combat, he may defend himself normally, If the trooper is already engaged in H-t-H Combat the result has no effect. Place a DB marker next to the affected troops. Headless Chicken: The trooper panics and runs 1d6 m in a random direction. He will not have any defensive modifiers at all and is a tempting target for any enemy trooper with a weapon ready. If there are any enemy troops which can fire upon the panicked trooper, or engage him in H-tH combat, they will take the chance before choosing any other target. Only one trooper need to fire or attack, the rest of the squad may fire normally if they wish. It is of some amusement for battle hardened veterans to shoot a trooper that runs around like a headless chicken. Place a Headless Chicken (HC) marker next to the troops affected. If the trooper runs into the Kill Zone of an enemy trooper he is not allowed to attack in H-tH combat, even if the enemy attacks him. If the trooper already is engaged in H-t-H Combat the result has no effect. Headless Chicken Duckback 1: A squad on Overwatch also receives a modifier on the Initiative table in hand-to-hand combat. They are already prepared and have weapons ready to kill. It is dangerous to charge a squad on Overwatch orders. First you'll get ground into hamburger by their personal weapons and then you'll probably lose the initiative as well. Not good.SUPPRESSIWE FRE Suppressive fire is designed to clear out terrain that might contain hostile forces. You may only fire suppressive fire at terrain that you have des- ignated as a target in the squad's Target Selec- tion Orders. A trooper firing suppressive fire al- ways need to have Overwatch orders, and a re- load is automatically ticked off after the order has been performed. Suppressive fire may only be carried out by troops equipped with autofire weapons (RoF 3+), grenades, Grenade Launchers or Rocket Launchers. There are three possible situ ations that may arise when the squad with Sup- pressive Fire orders fires at their target. No Enemes If there are no enemy troops present at the tar- get site, things are real easy. Simply tick off a reload and continue firing with your other squads. Visiete ENEMIES If there are visible enemies on the target site, the squad will fire at them instead, The attack will be performed exactly as normal, using the relevant rules for the weapons used. Remember that the troops firing will have an OW bonus of +4 and will fire in the OwePh, Hoven Enemies If there are hidden enemies at the target site, the terrain piece itself will be attacked. The rules used will depend upon the weapon used and the kind of terrain targeted. How to attack hidden targets is described below. ATTACKING Hoven Troors When attacking hidden troops you, as a gamer, will have an unfair advantage ivhen placing the template as you will be able to see the target troops on the table-top. You can automatically place the template where it will hit the maximum number of troops. In reality, this is not so. A trooper has no idea of the exact location of hid- den troops so he'll fire his weapon into the gen- eral area and hope to hit something. Dependin; on the weapon used there are several ways of simulating this situation. AutorirE WEAPONS: If @ weapon with an Automatic Fire Template is used for suppressive fire, the result will be mas- sive Duckback. The troops targeted have enough cover to avoid being hit by the bursts, but they will not even think of moving or putting their heads up. The bullets pulverize the terrain around them, showering them with shards, splinters and debris. Every trooper hidden in that piece of ter- rain is automatically affected by Duckback. They will all immediately have to roll on the Duckback table. If any trooper rolls the "Headless Chicken” result, his nerve has broken and he will fly to his feet, only seeking a way out of the conflagration. Even if he miraculously survives the hail of bul lets (roll for stray fire), he still betrays the squad's position and the Hidden marker is removed. The squad is considered spotted at the end of the OwFPh, and can be attacked as normal in the FPh should’ anybody wish to do so. GRENADES & GRENADE LAUNCHERS When firing a grenade launcher, or throwing a grenade, at any kind of terrain piece except a roofed building the following rules apply. Place the template wherever you want, and roll for in- direct scatter. The grenade always scatters 2d6- 2m even if the To-Hit roll succeeded. The dice still need to be rolled as the weapon might jam. ‘The grenade may not scatter outside the targeted terrainpiece, if it does, place the template at the edge of the terrain feature instead. Exception: If the grenade is fired using Indirect Fire as well as Suppressive Fire, the rules for Indirect Fire are used instead. Resolve the effects of the grenade as usual If there are casualties, including wounded troops, tthe target is considered to be detected and the Hidden marker is removed at the end of the OwFPh. When firing a grenade launcher, or throw ing a grenade, towards the window of a building, the same rules applies that were written in the Explosive Weapons section. The only exception is that the window closest to the trooper firing the weapon must be targeted. If several windows are at the same distance from her, it is randomly de- termined through which one she fires. Rocket LAUNCHERS When a HE rocket is fired at hidden troops in any terrain piece other than a building, it will follow the normal rules written in the Explosive Weap- ons section with a few exceptions. One, a trooper with Suppressive Fire orders may fire at a piece of terrain like a ruin or a wood, but may not tar- get the ground itself as when firing a grenade. There must be some part of the terrain targeted that rise above the surrounding ground for the rocket to hit. For example it is not possible to fire a rocket at a lake or a road. When firing upon a terrain piece the rocket will hit automatically unless if it’s very small. Two, itis difficult to determine exactly where the rocket will explode when firing upon a large piece of ter rain where no enemy can bee seen by the trooper firing the weapon. To simulate the fact that while you can see the enemy the trooper can not, the ‘grenade template will be placed where you wish and the rocket will scatter 246-2m away from that spot. It does not bounce around on the groundafter it has hit the target, it is simply a reflection of the inherent uncertainty of firing at an un- seen enemy. The rocket may not scatter outside the targeted terrainpiece, if it does, place the tem- plate at the edge of the terrain feature instead. HE rockets can be fired at any kind of target as described above, including through windows. HEAT rockets can target any terain containing objects hard enough to explode against. Among other g things, this includes woods, rocks, ruins, wrecks and buildings. When Firing 2 HE or HEAT rocket at hidden troops in a building, the rules in the Explosive Weapons section are used normally with fone exception. If a HE rocket is fired through a window, the window closest to the trooper firing. the weapon must be the target as described for grenades above. RK a ee Kites tok den on UP yA 2S 2g A Boot thi ral nor Hand-to-hand combat is fightin; the old fashioned way, usif PS whatever you have at hand to bring your opponent down, fist, riflebutts, pistols or weapons spe- cially designed for hand-to-hand fighting. Every dirty trick is al-[ lowed and no means are too sav-[ age, it’s the old, traditional struggle for survival. Even though a multitude of blows are exchanged, ducked and parried, only a single d20 is rolled dur- ing Hand-to-hand fighting. The combatants are circling each other shouting insults, or roll- ing around in the mud biting and tearing at each other trying to find the opportunity for the fi- nal blow that will mean instant death or incapacitation for the looser, and continuing torment in the world of the apocalypse for the survivor. Whichever is worse. mei 00 SE ca denen chals alldhy 1 at 7 hack Gy ay pete, De pipet me Megat ts me a. Teaving the ones closer to them unengaged. Nei- wthier would the enemy troops be stupid enough to NEMY NGAGING Kur Zones A trooper’s, Robot’s or Landmate's Kill Zone is a circle around him with a 3m radius as described in the Formations & Movement section. Check out that section for more information if you've already forgotten what it says. When a trooper is within the Kill Zone of an enemy, she may attack him in hand-to-hand combat. It’s not necessary to have moved on Charge orders to do this, any kind of movement can be used! Moving into the Kill Zone of an enemy is not necessarily grounds for hand- to-hand combat. If the attacker chooses to, a nor- mal fire combat at PB range may take place in- stead. In subsequent Turns any of the combatants may chose to engage in H-tH instead of shoot. ing. A trooper may not attack in h-t-h and fire a ranged weapon in the same Turn. Moving into H-t-H Troops in an attacking squad always attack the closest unengaged enemy troops first. If all enemy troops are engaged, the rest of the attacking troops may outnum- ther their closest opponents. It is not realistic £6 have a squad running in a wide circle around their opponents, just so they can attack a spe- tific trooper in the back of the formation while stand still and let their opponents do such a thing.EXAMPLE: Squad A charges squad B. Trooper X is allowed to charge trooper Z because all troops closer to him already are engaged. EXAMPLE: Squad A is moving in accordance to their movement orders when encountering squad B. Troops 3,4 and 5 will be forced to stop their movement and fight as they have entered en- emy Kill Zones. Troops 3 and 4 must engage enemy A, while trooper 5 must engage enemy B. Since more than 1/3 of the squad is halted, troops 1 and 2 must also stop. The Gamer chooses to initiate H-t-H combat. Trooper 2 attacks enemy C, whom is unengaged, and trooper 1 attacks enemy 8. Note that none of the troops must fight in H-tH combat, they may fire their weapons at a distance instead.OUTNUMBERING It s possible for up to three combatants to attack a single trooper in H-t-H combat. The Gamer with the most troops involved in that particular com- bat decides which of his troops that will attack first. Roll for Initiative as described below, and resolve the H-t-H combat as normal. After both combatants have performed their attacks, the re- maining troops may attack in whatever order you wish, with a +4 modifier to their Cs. EXAMPLE: Trooper #135, #136 and #139 attacks 4 Wardog Hellraiser trooper in H-t-H combat. Trooper #135 attacks first and amazingly enough wins the initiative! The order of attack will be like this: Trooper #135, the Hellraiser, Trooper #136 and at Test Trooper #139. PREPARING FOR SLAUGHTER CHanciwc Weapons If a Defender wants to use a different weapon in H-tH combat than the one she has previously used, she may do so if she wins the initiative. Oth- erwise she hasn't time to react sensibly and draw a proper weapon, but instead uses the weapon she’s holding at the moment. An attacker that has charged into H-+t-H combat simply switches weapons while moving and may use whatever weapon that is included in his arsenal. Troops armed with personal and support weapons that have no time to draw a more suitable weapon, must improvise by using rifle butts (improvised), kicks (unarmed) or bayonets (if the weapon is fitted with one), Ronnie Away Itis not recommended to run away from combat. H-tH combat is fast and deadly and if you turn your back to an enemy, he'll probably put a knife in it. If the trooper tries it anyway, the opponent get a free attack with a specal 4 modifier to the lie roll. Ouch, but what do you expect when you give the opponent a free chance to strike? Frewe wro H T H Comeat Any trooper firing into H-t-H combat has an equal chance of hitting each person involved in it, This is not surprising as the combatants run around, lies wrestling on the ground and generally makes it dificult for any orlookers on to hit their cho- sen target. If the trooper has a reason for firing into close combat, for example if their comrade is being massacred by a War Scythe equipped ber- serk that will tear out their throats the next Turn if he’s still standing, roll for Individual Initiative to see if they keep standing there, transfixed by the bloody slaughter, or if they try to blast all the combatants to small, bloody pieces of meat. ae Hand-to-hand combat is so lethal that only 1420 is rolled as both to-hit roll and for damage caused. A hit usually means death for the victim, or she can be “lucky” and just get maimed for the rest of her life. No roll is made for penetration, but instead a modifier is included for the weapons and armor used in the combat. This modifier is based on how lethal the weapon is and how effi- cient it is against different suits of armor. You will probably notice that armor is less effective in H-t-H combat, this is because it’s easier to hit vulnerable parts like an armpit or the neck, or force a sharp weapon in between armor plates. H- tH combat that includes Robots and Landmates is discussed in that section. H_1 _H Comsat Proceoure 1. Roll 1420 on the Initiative table to deter mine who strikes first. 2, The attack is carried out. Roll 1d20 and compare it with the trooper’s CS plus H-t-H combat modifiers, the result is read on the Attack Table below. If the opponent survived, carry out her at tack in the same way. If the result on the Initiative table was Simultaneous, the o ponent may carry out her attack even i she didn't survive. Yes it is possible to kill each other at the same time. It wouldn't be tthe first time it happened. We're talking Mu tually Assured Destruction. If there are any survivors, the combat con tinues the next Turn, but then initiative modifiers for OW and CA are not used. The Initiative Table is not used, each gamer sim iY rolls 120, with the highest sttackin rst as there are no pure attacker and de fender any more. If a tie is rolled, it’s a simultaneous attack.Iwrative Hand-to-hand combat is not automatically simultaneous but 1420 is rolled to determine who strikes first The trooper that moved into the opponent's Kill Zone is considered the Attacker and the enemy trooper is the Defender. Initiative Table Olle Attacker strikes first 17-18 Simultaneous attacks 19+ Defender strikes first Initiative die roll modifiers: Defender is on Overwatch a Defender is on Cautious Advance 428 Defender is Berserk +4 Defender is Fanatic +2 Defender has higher ground +5 Attacker is Berserk 4 Attacker is Fanatic 2 Attacker is wearing Hellraiser armor 2 Defender is wearing Hellraiser armor +4 Attacker is a Robot 2 Defender is 2 Robot 4 CS die roll modifiers 7 Attacker is Fanatic 42 Attacker is outnumbering the Defender +4 Defender is Berserk 4 Attacker/Defender with Ramrod armor x% * Not used if the Attacker attacks from outside the Defender’s AoF, or after the first Turn of H-t- H combat has passed, eo Reta a aes Resolution 1420 is rolled and compared with the trooper’s CS. Modifiers are added to the troop- er’s CS, depending on the weapon used and the armor worn by the target. These Mods are writ- ten in the Tools of Warfare chapter. The result is read on the Attack Table below. ATTACK TABLE If the die roll is. Damage Saunier, oF equal tee the trooper’s CS (inc. mod) Dead ..between 1/2 and 3/4 of the trooper’s CS (inc. mod.) _Incap. saver, or equal to, 3/4 of ‘the trooper’s CS (ine. mod.) No effect Resuts Dead: The trooper is dogmeat. Incapacitated: The trooper is hurt so bad that he is out of the combat for good. Probably miss- ing some bodyparts as well. Living, but left for dead. No Effect: The trooper receives some superficial cuts and bruises but is too pissed off to notice. It is just a flesh wound. OVERWHELMING Normally it's only possible for up to three com- batants to attack a single trooper in H-t-H com- bat. But some troops have the capability to Over- whelm their targets. They attack by mindlessly hurling themselves into H+t-H combat without any regard for personal safety. They tear, rip, bite, stomp and generally stampede over their victims. This is the favorite attack of Hollow Men. An Over- whelming attack must include more than three attackers. If there are more than three attackers a d20 roli is made on the Overwhelming table, if not, the attack is resolved as normal. Overwhelm: ing is only possible if the overwhelming mob has won the initiative for the Turn being. Amob of Hollowmen attack the remains of squad Aand win the initiative. Three of squad A’s mem- bers will be subject to Overwhelming attacks while the fourth will be Outnumbered as he only is attacked by three Hollowmen, ® -g08 ®® @®Q ~ OGG cy 8 « g < x. gs $ @) BS It is not possible to Overwhelm a Robot or Landmate. Despite how many enemies they are facing, no more than four opponents may attack it ina single Turn. These opponents will also only get the Outnumbering bonus instead of Over- whelming.Overwhelming Table 1420 Result 04.05 The defender desperately defends himself and Kills three of his assallants. On a d20 roll of 1-10, he is knocked out and left for dead. The defender miraculously manages to kill two of his attackers before succumb ing to the weight of human bodies. Both his legs are broken and he lies scream ing and pleading on the battlefield, un til one of the remaining attackers slits his throat. One attacker slams into the ground, dead with a cracked skull and with her brains pouring out of the wound. The defender pays severely for his Pyrrhic victory as the enraged mob breaks his left arm, twisting it in a disgusting way so muscle, tendons and skin split open from protruding pieces of bone. The mobs pushes him to the ground and kicks him while one particularly frenetic attacker jumps up and down on the de fender’s head. The defender’s head is quickly transformed to a unrecognizable pulp and after a while the limp body stops his futile attempts to escape. He's been kicked to death. The defender is torn and ripped to pieces by the mob in an outbreak of vio lent fury. He is able to scream a last desperate cry for help before his mouth is too mutilated to being able to pro duce anything other than bloody spit and broken teeth Modifiers Defender wearing Ramrod Power Armor 5 Defender wearing Hellraiser Power Armor -2 Defender using Warscythe or Razorwhip -5 Defender is berserk 2 More than 5 attackers +5 LANDMATES & Rosots w H-1T-H Comeat Lawomates VS Rogots Landmates fight as normal troops in H-t-H com- bat, using only their C5 with no bonuses for fight- ing with or without a weapon. There are no spe- cial Landmate HH combat weapons included in the Tools of Warfare chapter as they seldom are equipped with such. They receive no penalty for fighting unarmed and roll for Initiative as nor: mal. The only Robot that is equipped to dam- age a Landmate in H-t-H combat is the Violator. A Violator attacking a Landmate need to have at least one of its Ball and Chain weapon systems intact. The Violator will receive a +4 Mod on its CS when attacking a Landmate If the die roll is. Damage wwuinder, or equal to 1/2 of ‘the Landmate’s or Robot’s CS including modifiers) Knocked Out between 1/2 and 3/4 of the Landmate's or Robot’s CS (including modifiers) Damaged over, or equal to, 3/4 of ‘the Landmate’s or Robot’s CS including modifiers) No effect Knocked Out: The Landmate or Robot will have to roll on the "knocked Out” damage table. Damaged: The Landmate or Robot will have to roll on the "Damaged” damage table. No Effect: The Landmate or Robot is just scratched and carries on fighting as normal. LanomaTes VS Ovary TRooPS When a Landmate enters the Kill Zones of ordi- nary troops, their only option is to scramble out of the way before they are smashed, stomped or crushed by the amazingly agile Landmate, All troops that are within the Landmate’s FoV of 180° are killed unless they roll under a “save that depends on their speed and agility. 1420 Ramrod Heavy Armor 1-3 Hellraiser Speed Armor 1-10 Panteras 110 Other troops 15THe Mivicorie, The Mng 66 Industrial Miningdrill is one of the few weapons that can hope to penetrate the thick Landmate armor when fighting in H-t-H combat. Originally a tool, it has certain drawbacks such as poor maneuverability and is very difficult to use Correctly. A trooper attacking a Landmate with a Miningdrill better be good at what he's doing, or this is a sure way of getting killed. In normal H-t H combat the facing of the troops involved does not matter very much as the combat involves a lot of circling around each other and trying to move into an advantageous position before at tacking. This is not the case with the Miningdrill The trooper that wields the weapon only tries to rush forward, skewer the Landmate, release the drilling steel and run for her life The Miningdrill is preferably used against siielaradmagtes Paes wie Ge troupe are ale tively safe from harm. This will also make it more difficult for the Landmate to simply grab the drill- ing steel and pull it out from the wound. To at- tack a Landmate from the rear the trooper’s whole move must be made outside the Landmate’s FovV. If a Landmate is attacked from the rear, it’s not allowed to attack the trooper but must wait until the next Turn before it can react. The attacking trooper are allowed to make one attack with the Miningdrill and then make a special move before the Fph is over. This special move is the amount of meters that remained of his Charge movement after she had entered the Landmate’s Kill Zone. Ifa trooper is desperate enough to attack the Landmate from the front he may do so, but will have to make his “save" first to avoid being killed before he has a chance to attack. If he survives he may carry out his attack as normal. EXAMPLE: Adri, an ex-mil armed with a Miningdrill have sighted her target, a Landmate standing on OW a few meters in front of her hid- ing place among the ruins. She quickly runs for- ward, using Charge movement, and attacks the Landmate in the back. Since she spent only 8 meters of her movement to enter the Landmate’s Kill Zone, she can spend 12 meters to run anay afterwards, giving her enough time to get back to her cover. When making the attack, the trooper will first have to roll 1d20. If the result is 5 or below the® drill has managed to penetrate the armor instead of just sliding impotently against the surface. If the armor is penetrated the trooper will have t6. roll for damage on the table below. Result 1420 1-3. The drilling steel has broken halfway through the armor and the Landmate is unharmed. 410 The Landmate will have to make a roll on the "Damaged" Damage table. 11-20 The Landmate will have to make a roll on the “Knocked Out Damage Table EXAMPLE: Adri, from the previous example, rolls a3 on the d20 when making the attack and man: ages to penetrate the armor with her drilling steel. She rolls 1d20 for damage and only gets a 6. When rolling on the “Damaged damage ta- bie however, she manages to roll a 92 on the 4100! The Landmate’s leg has been impaled by the drilling steel and she can hear the pilot's agonized screams as she scrambles back for cover. WarscyTHEes Troops equipped with Hellraiser Speed Armors and Warscythes are one of the few really grave dan- gers to a Landmate in H+t-H combat, besides the Violator Robot. To attack a Landmate from the rear the Hellraiser’s whole move must be made outside the Landmates FoV. If a Landmate is at- tacked from the rear, he is not allowed to attack the trooper but must wait until next Turn before he can react. A Hellraiser may attack the Landmate from the front, but will have to make his “save“ first to avoid being killed before he has a chance to attack. If he survives he may carry out his at- tack as normal. When making the attack, the Hellraiser will first have to roll 1420. If the result is 10 or be low the Warscythe has managed to cut through the armor instead of just sliding against the sloped surface. When the armor is penetrated, roll for damage on the table below. Result 1d20:5 oe See 13. The Warscythe’s blade has broken against the armor and the Landmate is unharmed. The Warscythe is rendered useless. 4-10 The Landmate will have to make a roll on the “Damaged” Damage table 11-20 The Landmate will have to make a roll on the “Knocked Out" Damage TableRogots VS Orpwary Troops All Robots except the Dictator Support Robot are equipped with Ht weapon systems. When the Annihilator Tactical Assault Robot attacks ordi nary troops it will have one attack per fungtion- _ ing H+t-H weapon system. y= Ttean use these to attacky\ Ge * several troops, or con- centrate them all on one victim as it sees fit. The Dictator has \o WWF one attack only and will / s we the Imprevisea tree" SR H weapon Mods when at S. 7— tacking. The Violator -.( »wse= Shock Assault Robot may =~ attack all targets within its Kill Zone of 4m as long.as all its H-t-H weapon systems-are intact When one or more of them haé been destroyed, the Violator will have one attack per H-t-Hyeapon Numans dpatsually very self confident in groups fe. system, exactly as the Annihilator. When a Robot but-in reality very egocentric deep down ini rio longer has a functioning H-t-H weapon system, it will only have one attack and will use the Im- provised H-t-H weapon Mods. Robots roll for Ini tiative and use CS Mods just as normal troops and carry out their attacks on the normal h-t-h table above, just as normal troops. When troops attack a Robot they also will use the normal rules written above. But as Ro- bots are much more sturdily built than humans the Attack Table below will be used instead of the normal one. If the die roll is. Damage under, or equal to 1/2 of the trooper’s CS (inc.. mod.) Damaged between 1/2 and 3/4 of the trooper’s CS (inc. mods) No effect cover, or equal to, 3/4 of the trooper’s CS (inc. mod) No effect Damaged: The Robot will have to roll on the Damaged” damage table. No Effect: The Robot is just scratched and car- ries on fighting normally. pene S When a group of people feel that they have con- trol over their situation all is fine and well, but as soon they feel that the situation have run out of control, anything can happen. Troops are used to fight for whatever in- sane reasons they are given by their superiors. Some are good at coping with the hell that is war and some are not, but none of them have any choice left, as fighting has become a necessity of survival. Troops that get a kick out of killing, have a strong personal motivation or are well indoc- trinated by training, religious or political believes, are more motivated to fight than a trooper drafted against his will. Some would call it cour- age, some would call it duty and some would call it'stupidity, but whatever the name, it’s what keeps the trooper on the battlefield fighting in the face of defeat or against impossible odds. This is what we call Morale. ‘A Warlord, Landmate or Robot never test for Morale are, there is only so much a man can take before he breaks and ignores his orders and training. A squad usu: ally stops. fighting long before every member is dead or wounded as the survivors realize how lost their cause is. Many different situations can de- mand that the troops test for morale, but despite of how many situations that arise during a Turn, only one test is made. This test is made during the End Phase. A Morale test is made by the whole squad and not by individual troops. A trooper will usually do what the rest of his com: rades do, and if a single trooper breaks and starts running the others will seldom be far behind Whatever his reasons for fightin‘A morale test is made in the following way. Take the Morale value of the af- fected squad and roll 1d20. If the roll is equal to or below the modified morale value, the Morale Test is a success. Otherwise the squad will have to roll on the Failed Morale Test table ‘SITUATIONS THAT WLL LEAD To A MoraLe TEST Combat losses: When the squad has taken more casualties than 40% of its original number of members, they must take a Morale test. For every additional casualty, a new Morale test must be made. is dead, or so wounded that he cannot continue fighting, the squad must test for Morale. The Squadleader gets it; When the squadieader The squad looses a H-t-H combat: The squad that takes the most casualties in a single Turn of H-t- H combat must test for Morale. Charged by Berserks: If the cud is charged and attacked by Berserks in h-t-h it must test for Morale. Berserks are a frightening sight. It doesn’t matter what you do to them, they just ignore it and continues the fight. Charged by superior numbers: If the squad is charged and attacked by enemies that outnum- ber the squad by more than, or equal to, 2 to 1 a Morale Test is needed. Other: This is entirely up to you to decide. Maybe one of your scenarios demand additional Morale Tests to be made. Fae THE Rout Ifa squad fails its Morale test you must roll 1420 on the Failed Morale test table to see how it re- acts to the situation, Sometimes a failed morale result may put your troops in a situation where a new morale test must be made. If that morale test is failed too, a new result must be determined. Failed Morale test table Pinned Leader Creation Retreat Flight Surrender Fanatic Pinned: The squad may no longer move, but hits the ground and searches for nearest cover. Until it Rallies it's considered as being on Overwatch orders and may fire normally except that they will not have the +4 AttMod for firing on OW. if the squad is within the Kill Zone of an enemy the combat is resolved normally but the squad may not move out of the Kill Zone until it rallies. If the squad kills its opponents they will be Pinned as described as above. If the squad isn’t attacked for a whole Turn they are considered to be Ral- lied even if the squadleader is dead. Leader Creation: The squad has decided that eve- rything is the squadleader’s fault and the real leader, the informal leader that the squad really trusts, takes over. The old squadleader is shot b) the squad end a new immediately nominated. It a cruel world. The squad may take a new morale test immediately. If the reason for the Morale Test was that the squadleader was killed, the squad gets a new squadleader. Retreat: The squad has decided that this is not a Zood spot to be in and tries to vacate the battle- Feld as fast as possible. It will move towards the friendly table edge using Advance movement. The friendly table edge is the edge which the ownin Gamer occupies, or the one from which the squa entered the battlefield. This continues until they have left the battlefield or managed to rally. If they start their move in a Kill Zone, their oppo- nents get one free attack, exactly as described in the H-EH section. They do not move faster than any wounded troops can move, if any troops are immobilized or only able to crawl they will be dragged or carried by one of their comrades, re- ducing the squads movement to a maximum of 8m Flight: Instead of retreating in good order, the squad panics and runs like bunch of headless chick- ens towards the friendly table edge. They use Charge movement and may not attack anything on their way. They may not move into a enemy Kill Zone, and if they are charged by someone while running they will still try to get away. Yes, there will be a free attack as described above if they enter, or has to run away from, H-T-H com: bat. They will not take any more Morale Tests and will leave slower moving or immobilized troops behind as they run. Surrender: The squad surrenders, lay down their weapons and trust the mercy of the victor. The squad may not take any more actions in the bat- tle. Surrender will be further detailed in the forth- coming Apokalypse Kampaign Rules. For now they may be considered neutralized and out of the battle. Fanatic: The squad turns Fanatic and will follow the rules for such troops for the rest of the bat- tle,# a ies Toke meFt(Goe- Aa pat waa’ I> deadly in H-t-H combat as they have no regard for their own safety but only crave the bloody demise of their en- ‘emy. Berserks are almost immune to shock and pain, and the only thing that will make them stop \ before slaughtering their enemies is ‘damage so great that whole bodyparts ~ or organs are blown away. They use special results when rolling for dam: age, to simulate this exceptional resi cienée. The rules can be found in the "Damage Tables chapter. 7 Prep oF Depths If the Morale check was failed, the squad is af lowed to try to Rally themselves if the squadleader still is alive, or if the Warlord is within 5 meters ‘of the squad. If it is the Warlord that rallies the squad, he will give it a -2 Mod on the die roll. However, when the going gets tough the leaders are offen blamed for the shit thet has happened to the squad and this can be a very dangerous affair. There is a chance that the un official spokesman of the group will take the chance to take over from the klutz that have put them in this position. If the leader fails to rall the squad, there is a chance of mutiny. On a roll of 1-7 on 1d20 in the case of a squad leader, or 1- 2 in the case of a Warlord, the leader is shot while trying to instill some fighting spirit into the squad. If the leader is shot the squad will try to Retreat from the battlefield and can’t attempt to rally again. FANATICS AND BERrSERKS Fanatics When a trooper has realized that he is going to be dead meat soon if he does not fight for his life, he becomes a Fanatic. Fanatics ignores all results on the failed morale table. A trooper may still go Berserk as a result of an ISP roll. A Fa- atic fights better in H-tH combat as he is des- perate and ready to do anything to survive. Only squads may become Fanatic while only individu- als can go Berserk BERSERKS A Berserk is a trooper that has been wounded in battle or has the habit of using Rage. A trooper that has gone berserk as a result onthe ISP table doesn't follow the orders that he have been given any more. He will have Assault! Target Selection Orders and will use charge movement. Squads that have taken Rage still function as squads as de- scribed in the Cannonfodder chapter, and must be given Assault! or Assault the...! orders at the beginning of the battle. Berserks are extremely ~ -INSTWCT OF SEIFL” PRESERVATION (ISP) IsP is an individual morale roll for the trooper. Every trooper has the same ISP, this is something that no training, however thorough, can wipe out. When a trooper gets wounded, chances are that he will see the battle as over for him and lie down to wait for either his friends or for the enemy. OF course there are some things that will modify the roll, for example being Fanatic or on drugs. Berserks completely ignores the fact that they are wounded and never rolls for ISP again. Warlords roll for ISP as normal. Robots never roll for ISP. Tue ISP Row 1420 01-12Stops 13-18Continues 19-20Berserk Trooper status Pinned Retreating Fanatic Modification 3 +2 45 Stops: The trooper lies down on the ground, pre- tending to be dead to wait for help. He will have no effect on the rest of the battle. Continues: The trooper pulls himself together and continues the fight the best he can. He will be affected by any modifications to his fighting abil- ity as described in result rolled on the damage table. Berserk: The adrenaline makes the trooper see red and he goes berserk as described above.Lawomate ISP. Most Landmate pilots suffer from the delusion that they are nearly invincible as well as being the best fighters that this war-torn world can muster. This makes them virtually immune to all sort of bad morale as they simply can’t com- prehend overwhelming odds and couldn't care less about friendly troops being torn to pieces. How: ever, there is one situation that can make them see the harsh reality and that is damage to their precious Landmate suits. If the pilot need to take an ISP roll, indicated by the result rolled on the damage table, it will be taken on the Landmate ISP results table and not on the one used for or- dinary troops Landmate ISP Table 1420 15 Retreats 6-18 Continues Fighting 19-20 _ Berserk Retreat: The Landmate pilot has decided that this fight is not going as planned and simply tres to vacate the battlefield. He uses Advance movement and moves towards the friendly table edge, the edge which the owning Gamer occupies, or the one from which the Landmate started his move- ment. This will continue until he has left the bat tlefield, or have to roll another ISP roll. He may still shoot and act normally in every other way. Continues: The Landmate continues fighting as normal, When the pilot realizes that her damaged and might even risk death, she goes berserk. This is not a pretty sight, there are few. things more terrifying than a Berserk Landmate pilot stomping her way over the bat- tlefield blasting everything and everyone in sight. anew ese Some troops that are very green and unused to fighting are subject to panic. They will suddenly realize that they can die here and will act accord- ingly. The first time that they are shot at by en- emy troops on the battlefield they will have to roll 120 on the Panic table to check how they react to the sudden threat of gunfire. They will only need to roll on this table the first time they are under fire, they will not act any different than other troops once the first shock has worn off. If a squad is subject to panic, this will be mentioned in their description in the Cannonfodder chap- ter. Pawic TABLE 1d20 01-10 The squad can take the pressure and continues according to their orders. 11-15 The squad is pinned. This functions exactly as the result on the Failed Morale test table. The squad panics. Troops run around screaming at the top of their lungs shooting at anything that moves. They will continue to be panicked until the Warlord succeeds to rally them. The troops have their CS halved and will fire upon the closest visible target, friend or foe. They will cease to fire at a friendly unit after one Turn, as they suddenly realize that the surviving troops scream Ing at them are sy pose! to be on there side, The squad will move 1420m in a random direction each Turn that it is panicked. They will count as having Charged for purposes of firingREPARING FOR BATTLE DESIGNING SCENARIOS Even though most table-top games involve two balanced forces deploying on opposite ends of a battlefield of varying size, this is not necessarily the way it has to be, A scenario can be anything you imagine would be fun to play. The Gamers involved don’t need to have forces of equal strength, the objective can involve other things than simply annihilating the opponent's troops and the terrain can impose challenges of its own. In the forthcoming Apokalypse Kompanion, some pre-made scenarios will be introduced, but for now you will have to make do on your own. The sce- nario checklist below gives you some hints about how to design your own scenarios. ‘Scenario CHECKLIST Plot: What is the story behind the scenario. Are there any special rules? Victory Conditions: How is the winner of the sce- nario determined? Is there a time limit? Is there a specific objective that need to be fulfilled? When do you quit? Terrain: In which terrain will the battle be fought? ‘Are any special terrain pieces needed? Troops: Are the forces pre-determined or are the Gamers free to buy their own? Deployment: Where do the forces deploy? Piotr Read the World at War chapter to get some inspi- ration and kick-start your imagination. A scenario might involve freeing prisoners or hostages from hostile forces, perhaps even troops that surren- dered in the previous battle. It might be a treas- ure hunt in the Plaguegrounds where opposing forces must fight each other, find the object they both are looking for as well as. trying to survive in a hostile environment of quicksand, mutated monstrosities and lethal diseases. Or it might be a simple attack and defense scenario where the defending troops are hopelessly outnumbered by the attackers. Example: Janice, after reading the World at War chapter, decides that she would like her scenario to take place in the Dustlands as she likes the idea of making that kind of terrain. After fur- ther considerations she settles on a fairly straightforward plot: After a particularly violent duststorm the long buried remains of a convoy have been revealed, ripe for the picking. She decides that since both of the Gamers that she designs her scenario for has hired Dustdevils, they will both be informed of the newly revealed treasure. They will be led there in exchange for a generous payment in food and ammunition to the Dustdevil’s Tribe. In effect both Gamers get $100.00 each to spend on canonfodder. They are forced to spend at least half their money on Dustdevils. She decides that the usual robots are unavailable, and that so are Landmates. Victory Conotrions It can be hard to determine exactly when one side can be considered to have won the battle. Example: Janice decides that the victory condi- tions for her battle will be possession of the three vehicles. She decides that the one who possesses two ofthe three vehicles after two hours of play will be considered the victor. In order to claim possession of a vehicle, you must be the only one having troops within 5m of it TERRAIN Is any special terrain needed in the scenario? Is it possible to enter buildings on the battlefield or are they all boarded up? Are there any special rules that the Gamers should know about? Example: The terrain in Janice’s scenario will be fairly straight forward. It will take place at the bottom of a dry river where the convoy vainly had tried to take shelter from a ragin duststorm. The bottom of the river will be al- most free from dust and strewn with rocks that can provide cover for the advancing forces. She decides that a small area roughly in the middle of the riverbed will be much deeper than the rest and filled to the rim with dust. If any troops should enter this area during the battle, they will quickly sink into the soft dust and choke to death, ‘She also decides not to tell her Gamers and rules that any Dustdevils present won't be af- fected and will move around the area instead. The Convoy will be represented by three ruined vehicles, one of them a truck with a large tanker trailer. The trailer may not be shot at as it may explode thus ending the scenario (those who aren't killed by the explosion will choke to death). She could have made more detailed rules, but decides that it is not worth the trouble. If any arguments ensue with her fellow Gamers she will just politely ask them to go take a flying leap.Croosivc Troops How to chose troops is de- scribed in the Cannonfodder chapter. Either you can de- ide to pick the troops according to the scenario or, if you are lazy, simply decide on a budget and buy whatever you want. Remember that scenarios where the two opposing sides not are equal can be very challenging to play. In the end all depends on your imagination when inventing interesting scenarios. Example: As we mentioned before, Janice set the resources at $100.000 and made some restrictions when it came to troop availability. DEPLoYMENT Before the battle you need to determine where the troops are allowed to deploy, the so called deployment areas. The deployment areas are nor- mally situated at two opposing table edges, but can be anywhere on the battlefield. For example, if your scenario is an ambush or a raid, one of the forces might have its deployment area in the middle of the battlefield, while the other enters from one of the edges. Example: janes dacides that the deployment ge- eas will be at the opposing table edges. In order to get a larger battlefield, she also decides that the squads will enter the battlefield on Turn 1 instead of being deployed there at the begin- ning of the battle. The areas where the difter- ent squads will enter the battlefield will be ‘marked on the planning sheets. CSc. THe BaTTLere.r> Apokalypse is mainly a close combat game. It is no simulation of long range firefights where the opposing forces lie in cover, taking pot shots at the enemy whenever possible. The size of the bat- Uefield depends slot on how much space you have available for playing the game and how you pre- fer your battles. You might like small sized firefights with few troops and lots of terrain for your troops to hide in, or you might want to fight large scale battles with as many troops as both sides can muster. We recommend an area of approximately 150x150 em as this gves you enough space to maneuver comfortably with around $100.000 worth of troops. You will have to adjust the size of the battlefield according to the actual number of models , though. Buy expensive troops, and you won't need as much space as there will be fewer miniatures. If you keep buying cheap rab- ble, you will have to use a larger battlefield in order to avoid being swamped. Keep the size of tthe battlefield in mind when you decide on the size of your force, it makes for a better, more enjoyable game. PLaciNG TERRAIN The point of having terrain on the battlefield is to produce a good-looking and interesting battle- field Try to vary open areas with woods, build- ings or ruins in an attempt to create both a “re- alistic" and playable battlefield. If there is too little terrain the battle will turn into 2 shooting match from table-edge to table-edge, and if there is too much most of the time will Be spent having ‘your troops vainly trying to make contact wit the enemy. Try to get a "feel" for the battlefield. Is it supposed to be a Free-War Zone with ruins interspersed by geometrically arranged roads and intact buildings? Is it a part of the Dustlands where terrain might be scarce but must be more carefully placed to produce an interesting bat- tle? Is it the hot jungles of the Greenhouse where the thick woods need to be varied by introducing streams, clearings and small camps to give the troops some much needed Line of Sight? If your scenario dictates the look of the battlefield that is fine, but if it can be played in any kind of surroundings we suggest that you set it up in one of the following ways. Either have a neutral third party place the terrain, and roll a dice to decide which table-edge you get, or you or your opponent places the terrain and thé other ne chooses table-edge first. alternate placing terrain pieces between you, until both of you are satisfied with the amount on the battlefield, then roll for table-edge. Terrain can be improvised with books, green cloth and other easy to find objects like prefab model trees and buildings, bought from your lo- cal supplier of this game or built by yoursef and your friends. It is not a hard as it might seem to build your own terrain and it is often well worth the trouble. The forthcoming Apokalypse Kompanion will include a section on building ter- rain and painting miniatures. carosowo —~ |) sma sinses (| (MaKe UPMIRROR, Nt WHATEVER) XU]. o™ ER SIZE THAT FITS You THE HING IMPORTANT TD BEAR IN MIND 1S TO KEEP THE ANGLES AT 4S" SARPWuat THE Het. WENT In retrospéctive, theeWd.of the world Wasn't unexpected at all. People stacked” upon ‘each other in rows‘andsrows.of towers tnade from gray concrete and shirfing metal, Millions and millions of them, constantly rubbing against tach other, stepping on eacit other's toes and private lives. Isolating and alienating them: selves from everyone else in a desperate at- tempt to gain at least a modicum of personal space. Filling their empty lives with pre-di poed entertainment, TV-screen friends and jollow dreams of a better life. Humanity zombiefied and preparing their own slaugh- ter. Many people blame the governments Powerhunger grown out of control, leaders seeking only a way to stay in power for a few more years. Controlling their citizens in one of a million ways. Oppression, repression, ter- ror, passivity, propaganda or even the illu- sion of democracy and choice. Playing on the fears of the masses like they were strings on a lute. Goading different groups against each other in a never ending fight to stay on top. Preaching nationalism, traditional values, obedience and every other kind of bigotry that kept people in line. Some people blame terrorists, religious fanatics and other armed, violent and oppositional groups that tried to bring the established governments down, Armed to the teeth and beyond with weapons obtained from sympathetic governments or by theft. Not afraid to use them in their private war against everyone that didn’t think like them, and that included the greater part of humanity. Sac ficing everyone and everything to accomplish F their goals of becoming just the kind of force that they despise. Seeking a new order by destroying the old. Not understanding that despite how much that change, everything still remain the same. Some blame the military-industrial com- plex. gigantic hybrid of research and mar eting, seeking new threats and conflicts to validate their existence. Selling the by-prod- ucts of weapon research to generate new money for even more destructive weapons. Assembling and equipping armies to fight in new lucrative wars for things quickly forgotten Bribing or overthrowing governments that had the wrong attitude as a mat- ter of course. And most important of all, pay- ing their allegiance to the God of Greater Profit, Others pin the blame on humanity's misuse of the world’s resources. Test-tube toxins raining from polluted skies, killing both people and environment. Seas, lakes and riv- ers used as recipients for the filth of human- ity. The earth torn asunder in the desperate hunt for new raw materials, minerals and fuel to satisfy humanity's voracious need for new toys. Cities growing like cancer, spreading “their influence to the furthest reaches of the = Mobs Extinction exterminated by putting en langered species inside guarded parks and labs, Wilderness and pristine nature turned to dim legends of the past or funny movies on the TV-screen. Yet others are inclined to blame the rowing amount of religious, mystical or ideo- fogical groups. Blindly following a single dogma, be it the liberation of all animals held in captivity, the dominance of the white race or the quest for one’s inner salvation. Some groups sought to isolate themselves from the world, living after their own rules only, while others actively tried to recruit new believers. Suffering from acute tunnel-vision, they be- lieved that their cause was the only salvation for themselves, or sometimes even the salva tion for the whole of humanity. Some people even blame humanity's faith in it’s own supremacy. The firm belief that humans were the highest rung on either God’s or Evolution’s ladder. Seeking to stay ahead of the consequences of past actions by inventing new technologies to handle the breakdown of the old ones. Exterminating dis- eases with remedies born in research labora tories. Inventing new vaccines and antibiot: ics as quickly as viruses and germs grow im- mune to the Nobel Prices of yesterday. A cure for Smallpox. A cure for Tuberculosis. A cure for Cancer. A cure for AIDS. A cure for 18-x2. A cure for the Red Fever. Nothing ever lasts. Mother Nature’s research laboratory works more efficiently decade by decade, and not even a near unlimited budget could enable humanity to keep up forever. In the end it does not matter how des perately people try to find a single scapegoat responsible for the worst Wars in the bloody history of humanity, the truth still remains the same. We did it. No terrible aliens from outer space. No single insane and evil man or woman to pin all the blame on. No nation or race of people corrupt and twisted enough to deliberately plan the end of the world. This, time humanity had finally gone too far.‘The Extermination Wars. The End of the World. The Apoca- lypse. The Real World War. The Final War To End All Wars. A dear child has many names and a war that killed off over 90% of the world’s population is a bit dificult to name def nitely. There are too few people with philosophical inclinations left to debate the issue, and everyone else is too busy surviving. No one even remembers how it started anymore, Not that anyone cares. Maybe it started with a simple push of a button. Maybe it was a ter rorist attack or a local border squabble gone hay- wire. In any case it soon escalated beyond anyone's control or even intent. Nations fell upon each other, trying to tear out the throat of their hereditary enemies before moving on to new conquests. Civil wars escalated to regional ones and regional con- flicts turned global. Alliances fell apart as soon as the documents had been signed, each party tryin to backstab the other one first, hoping to avoid being betrayed themselves, The Global Arms Race had seen to that anybody with a wish to kill was more than equipped for the job, and those who were not had ample opportunity to correct that in the early chaotic days of the 'Wars. Conventional armies of young men and women, prepared or forced to die for their cause, were assembled. Supported by legions of Landmates, Gunships, tanks and Robots they killed and were Killed in tun, turning cities into battlefields and Civilians into slaughtered corpses. It was as if total madness had finally gripped the world. The Wars turned to be the spark that lightened the fuse of everybody's frustrations. Friends became mortal enemies, divided over the issue of race or political sympathies. Families divided, fighting on different sides in a war that soon involved everybody. Those few that tried to preach for peace, reason and ne- gotiations were drowned by the hate and fears of the majority. Racial, ethical or political background could suddenly be the greatest of crimes. Concen- tration camps, purges and pogroms took care of the internal threats to security posed by "people that were not like us”. Everybody became involved in the slaughter, teror and torture that followed. Obeying orders, fighting for their beliefs, having fun, extracting revenge or doing their duty were just different excuses to embark on the ultimate power trip. Escalation was inevitable. Chemical weapons were deployed fist, quickly followed by genetically tailored viruses, bacteria and other biological ar- maments. Plagues and diseases ran out of control. Antibiotics and vaccines that had already started to grow weak and unreliable before the ‘Wars sud- denly failed altogether. The deaths caused by plagues and epidemics quickly exceeded those caused directly by the war. Nuclear weapons, once the obso- lete victims of disarmament treaties,became the weapons of choice for many smaller countries and organizations. Retaliation raised the stakes. Al- most all major cities were totally annihilated, ei- ther by the primitive nuclear warheads or by more “clean” and modern missiles. As the War progressed, the weather patterns began to change. Black rains spreading nuclear con- tamination. Violent thunderstorms that could rage for months. Tidal waves striking far inland without apparent cause. Earthquakes shattering geologically stable ground. Volcanoes erupting in places that had never experienced volcanic activity before. Snowstorms raging over deserts and tropical islands. Sudden hailstorms with force enough to kill refu gees and ruin buildings within minutes. Strange rain- storms containing frogs, worms, fish or blood. Skies colored not only red, but green and purple as well. The laws of nature that had seemed so immutable before the war suddenly showed themselves not to be eternal truths but a simple construction of be- liefs and explanations that were as easy to tear apart as they were hard to build, No longer could it be taken for granted that the apple is attracted to the ground. Our common sense could no longer be trusted. People started to abandon the clear rea- son of science and turned to those who seemed to have a better understanding of the degenerating world. Death is stalking everybody. Many have felt the cold breath against their necks, but these days something is wrong. Moaning bod- ies can be found, consisting of lit tle but skin, bones and suffering. Radiation causes endless suffering and deformed bodies that moves with an unholy life. Rumors of zombies, spirits and even daemons abound. Some say that death has left his kingdom and have come to earth to play. Others claim that he has been here all along, hidden from us behind barriers of rational thought and rigid culture. People do not know what to believe in anymore. Science has been cor- rupted, magic is not to be trusted and no one really knows what the truth is these days. Not that too many care.<. a Snot Life in thé-ruigs is almost ampestibté, Only“the wealthy and the strong.have the luxury of life. The rest have to make do with existence. Just like be- fore the war. The only difference is that some roles have been changed. The oppressed have become the dictators and the opprescors have become the beggars. Somehow the world remains the same, Hu: man culture never denies itself. No communications are possible anymore as the atmospheric distur: bances have disrupted radio- and microwave equip- ment for good. People have to do without the cath- ‘ode rays from their TV worlds. The world of igno: rance and the life of experiences channeled through world wide media are gone. Now experiences must be felt first hand. A fact that kills as sure as any ‘weapon. Almost all powerplants have failed and elec- tricity is a rare luxury dependant on small port- able generators. Food production has ceased com- pletely and starvation has turned many people to cannibalism. Armies no longer serve anybody but themselves, looking more like rag-tag bands of ban- dits for each day. Finally abandoning hypocrisy and showing their true faces. Without culture they are unable to hide behind lies of necessity. New reli gions and cults have grown like mushrooms, filing ople’s need for something to believe in. A crutch for the weak of will and thought. An easy way out. Pledging obedience to the religion that provides the most comfortable lies. The state is still there, but with less splendor. The same shitty lies are still in the air and people still believe them. Trading in- dependent thought for safety in numbers and the belief of control over their sur- roundings. Powermongers designing their own little states, creating life to match their own ideas of how the world should have been from the beginning. Thinking that this time it'll work. Nothing new under the sun. The majority of the people that remains live a wretched life as refugees, constantly on the hunt for food, water and shelter. Many of them die a violent and bloody death, caught in the crossfire be- tween the numerous armed forces that continue the never ending war. Others are more lucky and have a simple shack over their head in one of the many shantytowns that have been built among the ruins. The wretched populace suffer from an impres sive variety of repulsive diseases and in- fections, each day a continuation of the suffering from the day before. Most of them don’t even know why they continue to survive and simply go through the motions of life, like automatons. Childbirth is a very uncom: mon event these days. Many women rather abort their babies than giving the World of Shit @ continuing future. Others, too far gone to even care about discontinuation of their pregnancy, simply give birth to the baby and walk away leaving the child to a slow death. As expected, few people have realized the hopelessness in humanity's situation. Some have chosen to ignore the writings on the wall and carry on as normal. Rallying people around them with promises of a better future, they try to rebuild a new and better world from the ashes of the old one. The remedies are often drastic and unortho- dox, but people follow them still. Too used to mil- Tennia of dependent thought, Religious leaders, political ideologists or simple pragmatists, it doesn’t matter if they pay allegiance to gods, politics or money, they still repeat the same mistakes that led to the apocalypse. Repeating them over and over again while slowly gliding down the spiral, Humanity seems unable to learn anything from the past. Old mistakes, constantly referred to as "what seemed right at the time”. Old mistakes, reinvented as the foundation of new possibilities for new futures. Culture, respawning and growin strong from tradition and "common sense”. Cul- ture, never criticized for what it is or what it means. Culture, the only safety from a world where we are as mortal and insignificant as any other animal. Culture, a necessity to all human life. The foun- dation of thought, believes and ideas. The cage of *all is how it should be”. Culture shoved down your throat. It's still here, under different names and with many faces. But the culture is weakening. For every new death a tiny rift opens in the net of liesabout our nature. Death is exploring and exploiting every hole and shred, show: ing us the true faces’ of na- ture. Mortality. Meaningless- ness. Unimportance Those rare people that are able to see the greater picture are the most skilled at manipulat- ing and enthuse. Powermongers. They don’t feel satisfied with the control of a single loyal group of people, but seek domination over larger parts of the world, They are the would-be Napoleons, Hitlers, ‘Trumps, Popes and Presidents. Using and manipu lating people who are neutral, or even opposed to, their cause. They are the masters of manipulation who care nathing about the people they exploit They will utilize anything and anyone to further their cause of personal power and gratification. Refugees and rabble, easily motivated with vague promises of food or threats of violence. Wardogs A seeking payment, equipment and a strong leader to tell them what to do and think. Cultists, Tribal Guerrillas, Dustdevils, Rabids or any of the other myriad of troops can be bought, fooled or cajoled into serving their purpose. Anything will do. Powermongers aren't the cause of our demise. They are the symptoms of our disease, They are asi jortant to the people of the ruins as the air they reathe. They are the founders of culture. The prophets of meaning. The providers of cause, life and security. The comfort of knowing what to do and whom to obey draws new followers and pup- pets to the Powermongers every day. Powermongers. It is these man and women that will determine the fate of the world. They do not want the world to end, but if it does they want to be at the top of the funeral pyre. Dreaming dreams of security, wealth and control inside their fortified bases they use and abuse people to fur- ther their own ends. It is these men and women that makes it impossible to claim that the Extermi- nation Wars will actually end. The 'Wars will con: tinue to the end. Warring, we'll fall over the brink of extinction. Joining lesser races we've already sent. there for the almighty good of progress. Mankind is going down fighting. Itself. It is impossible to describe in detail all the broken parts of the world that still remain after the Exter mination Wars. No maps from the time before the "Wars are accurate any longer, and no new ones are being made. Cities have become radioactive craters filled with sludge and ruined dreams. Rivers have Changed their course or simply disappeared into the ground. New plains have been created by mas- sive bombardment, strewn with the rubble of war, and the sea have reclaimed large areas that once were dry land. This chapter is an attempt to describe the different types of terrain created by the war. These zones can be as large as a country or as small as a City, all depending on the force that created them, They form an uneven mosaic, flowing in and out of each other, sometimes making it difficult to deter- mine where one zone ends and another one begins. It is within these desolate ruins that people live, fight and try to stay alive for just one more day. This world fb the only one left DustLanps It’s never easy to determine just what the Dustland areas were before the Extermination Wars. Some people remember proud cites, th- ers vast suburbias or polluted industrial ‘com- plexes. It doesn’t really matter anymore since they all got leveled to the ground in the ‘Wars. No need to bother with memories anyway, this is here and now and you will not survive for long if you take too many trips down memory lane, The only thing that was left after the 'Wars were huge flat ru- ined areas covered with a thick layer of fine dirt and dust. This dust was the legacy of bombard- ments so massive that entire cities were turned into pulverized concrete. The fine dust was thrown up into the atmosphere by the blasts to rain back down upon the devastated plains giving them their name, the Dustlands ‘The Dustlands are vast. Mile upon mile of flat, dust covered surface, only broken by an occasional wreck or ruin. Sometimes the dust has a dirty gray color, at other times a dull reddish brown or evendead black, all depending upon the source of the dust. It's constantly moving and changing, some- times being only a few decimeters thick, at other times deep enough to cover large ruins or fill dried-out rivers to the rim only to reveal them again after the next dust storm. The moving dust is extremely dangerous a itis next to impossible to guess its depth or what might lie underneath it. The dust can be tightly packed and compressed enough to walk upon, only to suddenly open up into a dusthole severai meters deep, easily as dan- gerous as quicksand. The dust storms are a com- mon scourge, sweeping over the dunes like a thick mist filled with dirt, sand and dust. Breathing is next to impossible in these storms if not prop- erly equipped with breathers or other mouth and nose protection, The dust also makes the use of explosives a very risky business. Any explosion, be it grenade or rocket, will cause the dust to rise up and form a gigantic dustcloud that easly will cover the battle field. This makes the warring forces next to invisible to one another as well as choking them and ruining their weapons. For this reason, any sane commander fighting in the Dustlands (and most of the insane ones as well) will refrain from bringing grenades or rockets tothe battle as this would cause as much damage to his own forces as they would to the enemy. In case you are won: dering, this applies to you as well. No grenades or rockets in the Dustlands, and that is a binding rule. And no, it’s not a good idea to use grenades to cover a hasty retreat. It will only result in your own troops getting lost, separated or choked to death ‘The sky overhead dominates the landscape beneath it, hanging cover the soft hills like a heavy blanket. Shifting from dull metallic gray to deep crimson to an almost pure blue and back to gray again, the sky signals the weather to come and serve to warn the Dustlands inhabitants of com- ing dust storms or the rare torrential rains. The rains are one of the stranger phenomena that haunts the Dustlands. Sometimes they slowly creep over the horizon, giving ample warning to get ready for their onslaught. At other times they Sweep over the sky, turning it pitch black within seconds illuminated only by the lightning that ac- companies the flashflood. When the rains come, everything floods. Rivers of dust turns to rivers of frothing brown water, the dust is swept away from the underlying ground at more exposed aces while deep vaileys are turned to muddy fakes. After the flashflood, when the sky has cleared and the thunder stopped, everything is waterlogged. The sandy, dust covered, ground soaks up water like a sponge and after only a few days the dust has dried again. Areas covered by fine pulverized dirt sometimes form a hard crust upon the dust as the water dries off. It might even be strong enough to build primitive camps upon, even though the hope that they will sur- vive the next rainfall is scant. Wrecks, ruins and even complete buildings might have been washed free by the torrential rains, making the time af- ter the rains have dried off a good time to go scavenging. It is around these newly uncovered ar eas of possible plunder that most of the close quarter fighting in the Dustlands take place. Ruins, wrecks and cliff formations gives the combatants something to fight over as well as providing vital cover, something that is not normally available in the Dustlands. Fight- ing that takes place upon the desolate dustplains is mostly limited to sniping and extremely long range firefights. A certain kind of people are drawn to the splendid desolation of the Dustlands and have made themselves a home in the hostile environ- ment. They call themselves Dustdevils, both as a reflection of their adopted home and as a re: minder for the rest of humanity that they are not to be taken lightly. Raiders and mercenar- ies, they are self appointed sociopaths that tol- erates no humans that do not share their view of life. A strange custom of the Dustdevils is that they adopt wayward Robots that have broken free from their programming into their tribes. They are treated exactly as any other tribemember and may sometimes even go so far that they start to wear human clothing. The Dustdevils are one of the hidden dan fers in the Dustlands and many a traveler has Been slaughtered by Dustdevils springing an am bush from well camouflaged pits beneath his feet. The only exemption the Dustdevils make to their “annihilate all? view of life is for those who pay them well, making them good, if somewhat un: trustworthy, mercenaries.bythe sun Von et fs Aes Not all cities were totally devastated in the Ex- termination Wars. Many were lucky (or unlucky) enough to simply experience the ravages of con- ventional warfare. As time went by they began to look less and less like cities and more like slaughtergrounds. Limbs and broken bodies adorning the walls of the battered buildings. Nowadays they are the sites of most of the large scale combats in the ruined world. Some areas are more “civilized”, like camps and settlements. These are fiercely controlled by armed forces in a desperate attempt to retain a modicum of law and order inside. Everywhere else total chaos is the com- mon state of affairs. Everybody is fighting eve- rybody and thus the beleaguered settlements and the no-mans land between different forces have been renamed Free-War Zones. The Free- War Zones are filled with more or less intact buildings. Some of them are ruins blown to pieces by artillery and rocket fire, others are still boarded up against some enemy long for. gotten. The streets are blocked with wrecked cars, barbed wire and home-made barricades. The remains of older battles litter the streets. Crashed gunships burnt to slag, shellholes that have broken the pavement like pockmarks, anti- personnel mines shaped like children's toys and lots of empty casings. Former parks have grown wild or burned to the ground. Scrubs and other tough plants have already begun to recolonise the city. Everything still standing is covered with graffiti, posters and other propaganda, lefto- Vers from before the Wars or from the last Settlements are scattered through the "Zone, some only being small religious colonies protected by fanatical cultists while others could be likened to small towns. These are gen- erally well protected by militia and police hid- den behind primitive fortifications made from trucks, buses and concrete blocks. The area sur- rounding more settled areas are filled with .. grisly trophies designed to scare and deter at- tackers. Crude pyramids of bleached skulls and sbroken skeletons tower as high as a man. Bod- S impaled from anus to throat seem to slowly move when putrid gases are released from their rotting carcasses. Heaps of mutilated corpses and severed bodyparts attract clouds of green ” glistening flies that fills the air with their dron- ing buzz. Human skins flayed from the bodies of their owners flap in the wind like a sick parody of flags. The war have given free reign to humanity's imagination and the "zones are indeed a gallery for every kind of brutality and atrocity ever practiced by man. Inside the plundered remains of build- ings, cellars and sewers outside the relative security of the settlements people still exist. The insane, the sick and those without hope are the only residents that are left in once pros- perous suburbs and cities. Without motivation to fight, fuck or fend for themselves they wan- der the ruins aimlessly, feeding on small scraps of food that they find, mostly bodies left from earlier figths. group to occupy the area. Refugees are a com- f mon sight, slowly traveling back and forth in search of a safe place to stay. Many of them are butchered and abused by armed forces, either for fun or for simply being in the way. This doesn’t diminish their numbers as new ones take to the road every time one of the small settle- ments are destroyed.Sate Heat hs View Coke “a Sg ncsee Aen Viral, Batterial and Geneti¢ (BG) weapons might not have along lasting effects as nuclear ones, but when combined with the right raw material tthe results can be spectacular. VBG weapons were widely used in the Extermination Wars, especialh when little structural damage was preferre: Densely populated cities turned to fly-infested mass graves as the bodies started to rot in mil- lions in the concrete skyscrapers leaving the cit- ies ripe for the picking when the plague had run its course. Military research laboratories and in: stallations have always had a tradition of being located in the more deserted parts of the planet, far away from the snooping eyes of press and public. It was only a matter of time before VBG missiles, now proven to be exceptionally cost ef- fective, were used against these wilderness areas resulting in something that none of the scientists had foreseen - the mutating, diseaseridden areas called Plaguegrounds. In the Plaguegrounds nothing is ever con- stant. Thanks to the volatile genetic material and viruses used in the bombardment the area is in constant biological upheaval. The ground is soft and swampy, sometimes covered with shallow wa- ter, at other times rising up to form a small dry island, secured by a few tortured trees. The air is fetid and filled with the smell of still water and decaying meat. Yellowish mists swirl on the wa- ter, sometimes obscuring sight to only a few feet ahead only to part again at the next moment. Most of the time these mists are safe to breathe, but the waterlogged ground can suddenly release clouds of foul smelling gas that can incapacitate or even kill those without proper equipment. It is unsafe ground to walk on, muddy, sometimes cov- ered with water and interspersed with tree roots that seem to leap out and grab the unwary. Quick- sand is not uncommon and most people tend to stick to dry ground if at all possible. Most of the time that is not the case. Even on dry ground it is impossible to move very fast. The ground, trees and rocks are cov: ered with large sheets of slippery moss and li- chen. These are sometimes colored a sickly pale yellow or green, at other times they might be as brilliant as the rainbow of old. Fungus are grow- ing in large clusters everywhere, most of them never seen by man before the Extermination wars. Some of them have grown to rival the stunted trees around them while other fall apart at a touch to re- lease clouds of irritating spores in the air. Worms, snails, reptiles and in- sects abound, most of them disease carrying or mutated in one way or another. Horror stories are told about leeches that not only suck the blood of men but gnaws themselves inside their bodies fs well and of gigantic mutated snakes that le lurk: ing in the trees, waiting for prey to pass by below. However, the true horror of the Plaguegrounds is not caused by insects or quicksand, it is caused by the various lab-generated nightmares that were released and further mutated by the attacks. Gi ant lumbering monstrosities hide within the mists. Sometimes they can be seen for a few seconds when the mist suddenly drift apart, sometimes all that is heard is a deafening roar at a distance that makes all the other animals fall silent for a second or two. The weather inside the Plaguegrounds is even more erratic than in the rest of the devas: tated landscape. The distortion of reality that began in the Extermination wars seem to have ined a foothold here, growing like all the other iseases, feeding on the mix of death, decay and unhealthy growth. The torrid rains that often falls are thoroughly unnatural and are filled with things like worms, cockroaches, snakes, mud or even blood Even inside these dangerous areas, small settlements are scattered. They are without ex: ception very well protected from the hostile en: vironment with their thick palisades made from tough wood, or sometimes from the bodies of gi- ant mushrooms. Diseases are kept at bay with home-made remedies from local ingredients that work surprisingly well. At least they do as long as, no new plagues develop. These settlements fight viciously among themselves for control of vital water and food supplies, often hiring mercenar- ies to do their dirty work. They are also very tempting targets to raid for anyone in need of women, food and shelter. Things that everybody traveling the Plagueground usually are in need of. It is this cauldron of boiling growth and unnatural decay that is the birthplace of the Rabids. No one knows if they are a genetic experi- ment gone awry or if they are another manifes- tation of the decay of reality. Rabids are plaguestricken humaris that somehow have man aged to survive the various diseases that eat away at their bodies and their minds. They seem to have a close alliance with one of the more fright- ening creations of the Extermination Wars; Wormearriers. Some scientists have speculated that Wormcarriers are a manifestation of the Plagueground itself, riddled by disease and with their bodies filled by voracious worms..Others claim that the human hosts are nothing but shells for the worms that somehow has fused into a sin: gle driven entity whose only goal is that of new jost bodies. In’any case, the worms are hungry for fresh flesh to gnaw into, and if opportunipresent itself they can pen- etrate a man to the spine in 30 seconds. As long as but a single worm has entered the victims body, he is sentenced to a painful death. From all over the surrounding area worms are drawn to join in the feast, enter- ing the victim’s body through mouth, nose, anus, ears or open wounds. The victim will soon be filled with writhing and burrowing worms that moves beneath his skin, and will be transformed into a new Wormearrier within hours. Inside the genetic nightmare that is the Dlagueground, the original targets for the VBG strikes stil ie supposedly untouched by the forces that launched the attack. It is these legendary sites that continue to draw plunderers, military men and even warlords like a magnet. Nobody knows just what lies inside the creeping hell of the Plagueground as this was top secret even be fore the war, but people like to make up their own stories anyway. After all, if so many others have been prepared to die a slow and rotting death to possess whatever is inside, it must be some: thing worth taking. Th osthremiaitt of raxemoutEties Deserted strééts filled with rubble and shattered glass. Dead trees reaching towards the sky. Closer to ground Zero everything is turned to wreckage with the occasional building or tree still stand- ing upright like an accusing finger pointin the sky. Everything that could burn have done so, leaving only blackened husks behind. This is dangerous country, radiation can’t be seen nor heard but is present everywhere. Equipped with primitive Geiger counters plunderers and gangs ‘ave tried to scour the ruins for useful things, leaving behind them ramshackle camps and the bodies of those that succumbed to the radiation sickness However, radiation is but one of the threats that abound in these embalmed remains of the days of old. Stalking the ruins, forever locked in their programmed pattern of death and destruc- tion, are the remaining population of the city: robots. It doesn’t matter anymore if they are the remains of an invasion force that was sup- posed to handle the radiation, if they are the surviving remains of the city’s own army or if they simply were airdropped to eradicate what little life the nuclear blast left behind. It doesn’t matter anymore because whatever their origin were they are now united in one grand cause. Death For these pieces of perverted technology, there are no “friends” for their IFF function to find. Everything that moves, on two legs or four, are eligible targets for immediate termination Not only the cities themselves were dam- aged by the massive strikes. Already weakened in the Extermination Wars, the social construc- tion of reality has collapsed entirely. Humanity divided can no longer uphold a single definition of the nature of reality. Buildings that once were tall and straight have been warped into strange arcs, roads no longer run straight but are rip- pled’ as if from small waves beneath the ground and bridges sometimes end in thin air because the other side are no longer there at all. A mi: raculously unharmed part of a building might hang suspended in mid-air with both the upper and lower floors turned to rubble. Strange noises, screams and visions haunt the eerie silence. Sometimes weird winds start to blow without cause or direction, carrying with them ashes and debris from the pulverized bodies of the people that once lived here. It is said that the winds are caused by the ghosts of the victims of the blast. Roaming the ruins, moaning and whispering, they seek revenge on all those that still are able to see, feel, hear and smell. Jealousy, a human trait not easily forgotten. Some claim that Life is leav- ing humanity and that the Realm of Death is filled to the brim. More scientific minded people attribute the bleeding boils and choking sensa- tions caused by the wind to the incredible amount of radiation present in the ashes they carry. But science is not to be trusted these days and the wise do well to stay away from the wind, no mat- ter how well protected against radiation they might be. Even the boundaries of death have become vyarped and twisted during the Wars. suffering from acute radiation poisoning, with their bod- ies bloated, warped and bleeding, with their mind destroyed by horror and pain some people still continue to exist. These unfortunates, dubbed Fleshrotters by those lucky enough to survive their encounter with them, still cling to a sem- blance of life despite the fact that their bodies continuously decay and mutate. Trapped in the no-man’s-land between pain and death they roam the radioactive ruins, sometimes traveling out- side to infest other areas, sometimes simply ly- ing and waiting for something to come their way. Despite these dangers people continue to come, settle down and plunder. After all there are few areas left of the world that are not dan- gerous, and there are finds to be made in the more intact parts of the 'Zones. Some people, to tired to go on living, simply wander into the "Zones to find a relatively intact building to die in. Perhaps even a bed or a chair.THe GREENHOUSE Before the Extermination Wars, the Greenhouse projects sometimes were called the greatest achievements ever made by man. A series of self- sustaining ecosystems enclosed beneath trans: parent domes that each could cover a small city. These domes were filled with whatever could be saved from humankind’s ravages of the worlds jungles and wild places. Funded by eccentrics, fa- rnatics and PR minded companies. Built by ‘the best engineers and ecologists outside the mili tary with an almost unlimited budget. The last of them completed just in time to experience the worst war in the history of humanity. By fluke and design some of them survived more or less intact, being of no military importance to speak of. Today the few surviving modules of the Greenhouse continue to grow and prosper, partly fed by the still intact computer systems, partly by an accelerating cycle of growth and decay where new generations of fast growing plants prosper on the rotting remains of the old ones. The hybrid ecosystem that combined elements from tropical forests all over the planet with ge- netically engineered plants and animals are a greater success than expected and the geneti cally engineered species have been completely integrated with their natural counterparts. In many places the dome has cracked and left huge gaps that allows the vegetation to spread out and begin to extend its influences in the sur: rounding areas. Inside, the Greenhouse is filled with plants, trees, bushes and every other kind of vegeta: tion imaginable from the uneven ground to the transparent roof a full 50 m away. The solid con- crete pathways for visitors are cracked by roots and overgrown by weeds mak- ing them almost as impassable as the jungle proper. Small streams and ponds intersperse the jungle, both those that were planned and those that has been naturally created. Rain- fall is very common and as the climate is both hot and steamy everything is soon soaked with humidity. The jun- gle is slow going as the ground is cov- ered with waist-high plants that cov- ers slick roots and wet leafs, The air itself can be almost intoxicating as it is brimming with oxygen and the strong smell of wet ground and crushed plants can be overpowering at times. In this fertile jungle animals breed. Most of them are very shy and are seldom spotted by visitors while others are more bold and do not shrink from examining or even attack- ing human targets. Tigers and jaguars are among the top predators in the jungle and has made themselves at jome, breeding and hunting like they had returned to some long lost Eden. Monkeys and birds fill the air with con- stant chatter while frogs and insects form a back- ground chorus. Nowadays, in the sterile times after the apocalypse, the Greenhouse might be seen both as a fertile paradise and as a green hell filed with dangers tong forgotten by man. Many people shy away from the thick green wall, filled with strange noises and sounds, urged by & primal fear of the predators and animals in the thick forests. Camps have sprung up around the edge of the domes, providing hunters with bridgeheads to return to after dangerous expedi- tions inside Predators and superstition are not the only dangers inside the Greenhouse. Living in the jun- gles are many of the former employees, ecologists, Caretakers and their families that found life inside more pleasing than to return to the chaos and ru- ins of the real world. Calling themselves Tribal Guer- rillas they fight a bloody war against all that enter their haven, still dedicated to maintain the deli cate ecological balance created in the dome, they have returned to the simple life of hunter/gather- ers. Stripping of their impractical clothing and adopting a frightening range of bizarre body deco ration they look like modern day savages armed to the teeth with rifles, bows and knifes. Joined by peo- ple that want to return to a simpler cleaner life- style, they form small tribes that slowly travels through the jungle. Setting up their camps where it pleases them and maintaining the complex con- trol systems. The parts of the jungle closest to the rim are guarded by deadly traps and filled with grue- some warnings like impaled heads and genitalia nailed to trees, to deter invaders.