Battle 5: Ambush

An army on the march is caught in an ambush by an unexpected enemy force. The ambushers must use the advantage of surprise to keep the enemy forces off balance and separated while they bring in reserves to finish them off. The defenders desperately try to amass their strength before they are wiped out.

The following special rules are used in this scenario: Reserves, Hidden set-up, Army morale.

Forces

Each player picks an army to a pre-agreed points total.

Set-up

1. Determine who will be the ambusher and who will be the defender. If one player sets up the terrain, then his opponent is allowed to choose which table edge he wishes to deploy on. If both players helped set up the terrain, or it was set up randomly, then roll a dice to see who gets the choice of table edge.
2. The ambusher must roll a D6 for each detachment in his army apart from war engines and the supreme commander. On a roll of 1–3 the detachment starts in reserve. On a roll of 4–6 the detachment is deployed on the table or is available on the first turn in the case of flyers. At least one defending detachment will be deployed at the start of the game. If the defender fails to roll 4 or more for any of his detachments he must pick one of his detachments to deploy at the start of the game. Ambushing war engines always start in reserve, the supreme commander is always deployed at the start of the game (who did you think was the brains behind the ambush?).
3. The defender sets up first, within the deployment area shown on the map. All units must be facing in the direction of march shown on the map. The defender must set up his detachments one at a time. The first detachment must set up with at least one unit touching the table edge where the column entered. The next detachment must be placed further along the column of march, with all of its units ahead of the first detachment — the third detachment must be set up ahead of the second, and so on. Once all of the detachments have been set up they should be in a single long line running along the direction of march. Defending flyer detachments are in reserve at the start of the battle.
4. The ambusher then sets up at least 15cm away from the defender's deployment zone. Ambushing infantry and vehicle detachments deploy using the Hidden Set-up rules. All remaining ambushing detachments are in reserve at the start of the battle (see Reserves and Hidden set-up).

Game length and victory conditions

The player that reduces the opposing army's morale to 0 or less first wins the battle. If this hasn't happened by the end of the 4^th turn, or if both players' army morale falls to 0 or less on the same turn, then the player with the higher army morale level wins.