Warmaster_rules_v1.43.rtf

Warmaster
By Jervis Johnson

The Warmaster is a board game for two players portraying the assault of the Emperor against the spaceship of Horus at the end of the Battle for Earth during the Horus Heresy. At the beginning of the game, the player will not know where exactly Horus is inside the ship, and the Emperor has good reason to find to him as rapidly as possible and to kill him. The Imperial attackers will face the many hidden dangers inside the spaceship; the troops of the Emperor will have to pass through traps and ambushes in their search of the Warmaster. The emperor does not have any time to lose; the more turns that pass, the greater will be the number of traitor units and the fewer the units of loyal troops. In a desperate race against the time, the Emperor will have to find and to defeat to his arch-enemy or die in the attempt!

The rules of the game

Before beginning, he is highly recommended to read the rules completely in order to have a general concept of how the game works. The rules are not complicated; to read them will not take too much time. You should also read carefully the special rules - They are very important!

Preparation of the board and units

You will need to print the board and to carefully cut out the counters so that they have two sides, one face down and one face up.

The game board shows a superior view of the battlecruiser of the Warmaster, the ship of Horus who is in orbit above the Earth. The board is divided in squares or areas of different sizes that are used to regulate the movement and the position of the units. Each counter has a name and a symbol that distinguish which unit is represented by the card, as well as two numbers. These numbers represent the factors of attack and defense of the unit. The more elevated these numbers are, the more deadly the unit is in combat!

Setup

Place the board of game on any flat surface. One of the players will control the Imperial forces and his opponent controls the Traitor slaves of Chaos.

The traitor player sets up and places his units on the game board first. The Imperial player will have to leave the room or turn around so as not to see the Traitor player setting up his units, and gainging an unfair advantage. The units that compose the traitor army at the beginning of the game have the back side of black color and the white eye of Horus in their center. The Traitor player takes these units and places them on the map, 1 unit per area.

The units are placed in the map face down; in this way, the Imperial player does not know that unit is placed in each area, and the unit flips only when the Imperial player moves a unit to that area to discover which unit is there )hoping to find teh warmaster Horus of course).  The rest of traitor units, (that have the back side of gray with a white skull) must be placed in a cup or similar opaque container. One is reinforcements that will be extracted randomly of the cup as the game passes.

Once the traitor player has set up all units, the Imperial player will have to prepare his forces. The three units of the Imperial Guard will have to be left aside for the moment. The 12 remaining units will have to be placed in four groups of three units each. It is the decision of the Imperial player which units will be located in each group. These groups of units are the main Imperial assault forces that will be teleporting into the battleship during the first turn of game.

Counting Victory

The traitor player wins if he kills the Emperor; the Imperial player wins if he kills Horus. The game finishes immediately at the moment at which the Emperor or the Horuses are dead. If both die at the same time, the game finishes with a tie.

Sequence of Game

The game of the Warmaster passes in game turns, each one of the which are made up of six phases. In each phase it is possible to carry out certain actions; each action must be carried out in the phase indicated for it, and a new phase will not be able to begin until the previous one has finalized. The actions that can be carried out in each phase are indicated in the following;

Imperial reinforcements phase: The Imperial player can teleport onto the spaceship the four groups of innitial units.
Imperial movement phase: The Imperial player can move any or all of the Imperial units that are in the spaceship.
Imperial battle phase: Any combat is resolved that has been brought about by the movement of the Imperial troops into enemy held areas.
Traitor reinforcements phase: The traitor player rolls a dice to see how many reinforcement units are obtained during that turn, extracts such number of units from the cup and afterwards teleports them onto the ship.
Traitor movement phase: The traitor player can move any one of the units that are in the spaceship which are face up.
Phase battle traitor: Any combat is solved that has been brought about by the movement of the traitor player.

Reinforcements

During the Reinforcements phase, units can be teleported to the ship . The number of units that you can teleport on board the spaceship varies if you are the Imperial player or the Traitor, and it is indicated in the list of reinforcements. In order to teleport units to the spaceship, you must carry out a special dice roll of 1D66 for each one of the groups or each unit that teleports then consultting the Teleportation table. To carry out this dice roll is not as complicated as it seems, since you only need two normal six sided dice. Simply roll the dice one after the other, and count the first result like the tens and the second like the 1-6. It combines results both and you will obtain the final score. For example, if your first roll is a 5, and your second is 3, the result will be 53; if the first dice is a 1 and second 6, the result will be 16.

Teleportation Table

List of reinforcements

Imperial player, Turn One: The Imperial player must teleport in this turn the four groups of units prepared before the beginning of the game. The first group that you must teleportar is the one that includes the Emperor. The units are teleported as a group; all the units of the same group are teleported to the same area. You do not roll for teleportation by each one of the units.

Imperial player, Turn Two: During the second game turn, the Imperial player must teleport the three units of the Imperial Guard to the ship. Each one of the units of the Imperial Guard teleports separately (they are not teleported in group).

Traitor player, each Turn: The traitor player must throw 1D6 at the beginning of each traitor Phase of Reinforcement to determine the number of units that receives like reinforcement: 1-2 = a unit, 3-4 = two units, 5-6 = three units. The Traitor player takes the units at random from the cup where they have been placed at the beginning of the game. Each traitor unit teleports to the ship separately, not in group.

Movement

During the Movement phase, each player will be able to move all or some of his units. The player will be able to move so many units as he wants: all, some or none. The total number of areas that can move a unit depends on which player is in control of the Bridge of the ship. This represents the ability of the side that controls the Bridge to open or close blastdoors and bulkheads in order to facilitate the movement of the own troops and to obstruct the movement of the enemy troops. At the beginning of the game, the traitor player controls the Bridge. From then, the player who has a unit on the bridge square when the turn begins will be in control of it.  Whichever player is in control of teh bridge places the "control" maker on teh bridge (there is one for each player, labled Imperial or traitor control).  If the Bridge is destroyed, no side will be able to control it and both players will be limited a movement of area in turn.

When a player controls the Bridge, that player's units will be able to move up to three areas in turn. The units of the opponent player who does not only control the bridge will be able to move at the rate of an area in turn. A unit can move in any direction or combination of directions, but cannot move through a Destroyed Area. If a unit moves into an area occupied by a enemy unit of any type (including units that are face down), the unit will have to finalize its movement and to fight against the unit or enemy units in the following Phase battle. The units move one to one and will have to conclude the movement of a unit before initiating the movement of the following one. Once one has begun to move a unit, no longer will the player be able on the other to change to the conducted movement previous unit no matter how much it is wanted!

The units teleport onto the ship during the Reinforcements phase will be able to move normally, although they have been teleportadas to an area with enemy units. In spite of it, its movement will have to finalize as soon as they penetrate in a new area that contains enemy units.

Piling up

The maximum number of units that a player can have simultaneously in an area is of 3 units. This demonstrates the "piling up limit" rule which is the maximum number of units that can occupy a certain area. The piling up limit is only applied at the end of the Phase of Movement, so while units to the spaceship are being teleported or while the unit moves, this rule can be ignored. In other words, it is possible to move a unit through an area in that or there are other three units without violating the piling up limit, and also would be allowed to move a unit to an area in which or there were other three and next, to move one of the units outside the area. Nevertheless, if a Movement phase concludes and has more than three units in an area, so many units of the area at issue will have to be eliminated from the game as it is necessary to maintain the area within the limit of legal piling up (controlling player gets to choose which units are destroyed). The piling up limit is applied independently for each side, so it is possible that both players have altogether up to three units per side in the same area legally.

Phases battle

During the battle phase, the units of the player whose turn is in process will have to attack all the enemy units that are in a same area that they. All the present units in each area will have to attack the enemy units that also are in the same area, there are if them. The player with the initiative during that turn can decide the order in that he wants to carry out the attacks, but must separately decide outcome of completely each battle before happening to the following one.

The attacks are solved using the Battle Results table that is in refrerence guide. In order to solve each attack the following five steps will have to be carried out:

1. The attacking player adds the values of attack of its units.
2. The defending player adds the values of defense of its units.
3. Both values are compared to obtain a battle ratio, dividing the value of the attacker by the value of the defender, rounded downwards. This proportion determines the column that is used in the Table of Results battle. For example, if the value of the attacker is 10 and the one of defender 5, the relation is from 2 to 1 (10 divided by 5 = 2). If the attacker has a 9 total of and defender 5, the relation battle will be obtained dividing 9 by 5. The result of this division is of 1 and 8/10, that is rounded downwards to obtain a final relation battle from 1 to 1.
4. The attacking player rolls 1D6 and concults the result located in the column corresponding to the battle ratio to determine the outcome of battle.
5. It locates the result obtained in the battle results table and follow the instructions indicated.

Destroyed units

In several parts of this regulation, but mainly in the battle results table, it is indicated that one or more units have been destroyed. The destroyed units removed permanently from the game board. In the occasions in which the player can choose himself that units are destroyed, the Imperial player will decide that Imperial units are destroyed and the traitor player will decide what traitor units are destroyed.

Retreat

Some of the results of the battle results table indicate that the units of one of the players will have to retreat. The units that retreat will have to move immediately to another area of choice by the opposing player (in other words, the Imperial player will retreat the units of the traitor player and the traitor player of the Imperial units). The units in retreat will be unable to move through a destroyed area, an area in which the limit exceeds piling up, or an area held by the enemy (that contains one or the more enemy units, including enemy units that are face down). If some units cannot retreat to any adjacent area because of the previous conditions, they will be destroyed.

It is possible that after a combat a unit retreats to an area that later is attacked in the same  battle Phase. If this happens, the unit that already has retired will have a defense factor equal to zero; if a retreated unit(s) is forced to retreat again they are instantly destroyed.

Units face down

Face down units will turn face up if there is a enemy unit in the same area at the beginning of any battle Phase. The units will turning face up will have to occur before initiating any combat, and before resolving the effects of any Trap, Horror or Ambush as soon as they are revealed. Excluding Horus, this is the only form to discover to the units that are face down. The traitor player cannot before reveal them during the game.

Re-rolling of dice results

Emperor, Horus, Sanguinius, Rogal Dorn, Angron and Magnus the Red have the ability that allows the player to carry out a re-rolling of dice results whenever they participate in a battle.  If the player whom controls one of these personages is not satisfied by the result obtained in the first roll he may roll again, but will have to accept the new result, without the possibility of using the first result if the second is worse. If both opponents have the ability to re-roll the dice in the same combat, both abilities are annulled to each other and no side will be able to use them.

Exception: The Horuses and the Emperor only lose this ability if they fight among against each other.

Notes of the designer

The game is inspired by the illustrations of Adrian Smith and the short history of Bill King published originally in Kingdom of the Chaos: Lost and the Condemned. What made an impression to me more as was reading the history of Bill they were the sensations of tension and horror of the Imperial troops as these were entered in the ship having tried to locate to Horus, and that is what I have tried to reflect in the game.

The duration of the game of the Warmaster can oscillate half an hour between twenty minutes and, including the time of preparation. The result of the game can be quite unpredictable: teleporte initial of the Imperial troops to the ship of Horus is crucial!

In any case, since the game is fast to play, it is easy to return to begin again if the things go terribly badly of entrance for the Imperial troops, and throughout a series of games, the strokes of bad luck will end up disappearing and the best player will be discovered.

Most recommendable he is to play a series of 2 4 side games, changing after each game, to get to discover the best strategy to win. Part of the satisfaction to play a game as the Warmaster is in developing your own “masterful plan”, but for ayudarte in the first games, goes a series of useful advice here who can serte. In any case, they also ten in account that the Warmaster is a game of stratagems and deceits; if your opponent is able to guess your plan, most probable she is than you are defeated. Diviértete!

Traitor player

In order to be able to win, Horus must remain hidden as long as possible. Avoid the temptation to locate him in the Bridge, the defensive Screens or any other special zone, since it is very probable that the Imperial player attacks these areas quickly. Also it is a good idea to locate some units in 2 or 3 adjacent areas to the one of Horus so that he can retreat to them when units are short, to use them to improve the battle results and to have fodder for the losses if he is defeated. He remembers that Horus probably will be defeated if is you attack while it is only. When the Imperial forces discover Horus, retíralo towards areas in which are cards of Traps and Horrors face down, so that you have an opportunity to eliminate the Imperial troops whom they persecute to him and have more time to bring reinforcements on board. You do not surrender; it remembers that at the most the game lasts, majors are your possibilities of victory!

Imperial player

At the beginning of the game, accounts with an overwhelming numerical superiority, reason why if you are able to discover to Horus in the first turns, probably you will win. It tries not to lose the time being occupied areas like the Bridge or the Defensive Screens when you would really have to be exploring the ship. Once you have located to Horus, déjalo everything and sends to all troops to the combat to eliminate to him. If you do not manage to do this quickly, soon you will discover that your troops are falling quickly, whereas the traitor forces increase in number, and at some time you will realize of which you cannot aspire to defeat Horus in normal action. In any case, there is a series of options that you can try even if the things are going completely in your con, as for example the capture of the Defensive Screens so that your laser guns of defense can destroy the ship, or to destroy the room of reactors of the ship. You do not surrender; it remembers that always there is a victory opportunity!