INTRODUCTION Wargame. Set piece battles. Simulates battles between the six main warrior races of Mars during the Era of Discontent. During this turbulent period, factions of all races fought with and against each other. Welcome to Mars. MAP Use a hex map. Before the battle determine the terrain type in all of the hexes. HEX TERRAIN TYPE D10 TYPE NOTES 1-3 Barren 4-6 Impassable Units cannot move into or through these spaces 7-9 Beneficial Roll on Beneficial terrain type table 10 Settlement Roll on Settlement type table BENEFICIAL TERRAIN TYPE TABLE D10 TYPE NOTES 1 Flats Units in this terrain get +1 Speed 2 Forest Units in this terrain get +1 Small Arms 3 Swamp Units in this terrain get +1 Surprise 4 Hills Units in this terrain get +1 Hand to Hand 5 Caves Units in this terrain get +1 Armor 6 Mountains Units in this terrain get +1 Artillery 7 Jungles Units in this terrain get +1 Numbers 8 Psiwell Units in this terrain get +1 Psionics 9 Desert Units in this terrain get +1 Morale 10 Settlement Roll on Settlement type table SETTLEMENT TYPE TABLE D10 TYPE NOTES 1 Fortifications Units in this hex get +5 Armor, +2 Artillery 2 Dojo All of your units get +1 Hand to Hand 3 Vehicle Factory All of your units get +1 Speed & Armor 4 Weapons Factory All of your units get +1 Small arms & Artillery 5 Training Grounds All of your units get +1 Surprise & Morale 6-7 Farms All of your units get +1 Numbers 8 Temple All of your units get +1 Psionics 9 City Recruit units during Initiative Phase 10 Ruins Units in this hex get +1 to a random attribute Notes: Use the Race Determination Table to figure out the race of a city. Some settlements give an attribute bonus to all of your warbands in play. These settlements must be occupied to get the bonus. Otherwise they become neutral. UNITS & CHITS There are two basic unit types: Warbands & Leaders. Units are represented by cardboard counters called chits. The color of the chit corresponds to the race of the unit. Leader units are marked with an "L". GREEN MARTIAN WARBANDS The Green martians are tall, 4-armed, fierce, desert nomads. Their 4 arms & great strength make them powerful swordsmen. They are few in number due to dueling & interclan warfare. They are expert marksmen. They are masters of tactics and surprise. Their technology is poor. They use animal mounts and have little use for artillery. They do not fear death. RED MARTIAN WARBANDS The red martians are technologically advanced. They rely on great hovering battleships. Their vessels are heavily armored & bristling with artillery. Individually they are not impressive fighters without their ships. WHITE MARTIAN WARBANDS The white martians are a spartan, honor-bound race of warrior-monks. Many of the females are also warriors & do not bear children. Their technology is very poor. Their small arms consist of bows & thrown weapons. They are disciples of the sword. Armor & artillery are not honorable. It is very honorable to die in battle. Their meditation & training have awakened psychic powers in some. BLUE MARTIAN WARBANDS The blue martians are born psychics & telepaths. They are tall with large, translucent brain cases. They mature slowly & can have few children due to difficult labors. Their technology is extremely poor. Their attacks & defenses are psychic. They use their powers to gain surprise with illusions & invisibility. They travel by levitation & teleportation. YELLOW MARTIAN WARBANDS The barbaric yellow martians are primitive but industrious tribes. They breed in great numbers. They are eager to fight but will flee at the first sign of trouble. Some gifted shamans have psychic powers. Their hordes are well armed with spears & axes. Their small arms consist of bows & thrown weapons. Their artillery consists of giant catapults. They have some knowledge of gunpowder, steam power, & rocketry. They get around on a variety of animal mounts & war machines. BLACK MARTIAN WARBANDS The black martians are clawed, egg-laying, subterranean dwellers. Their bodies are covered with a hard exoskeleton. Their technology is relatively high. They have special vehicles that can tunnel through the earth. They use this ability to surprise their opponents. Prisoners are slowly eaten alive. ATTRIBUTES Warbands have 9 attributes: Speed, Small Arms, Surprise, Hand to Hand, Armor, Artillery, Numbers, Psionics, and Morale. All of these attributes have a numerical value between 0-6+ Notice each type of warband has 24 points worth of Attributes. MARTIAN WARBAND ATTRIBUTE TABLE ATTRIBUTE Green Red White Blue Yelow Black Speed 3 4 3 5 3 1 Small Arms 5 3 2 1 2 3 Surprise 4 1 3 6 3 4 Hand to Hand 5 2 6 1 4 3 Armor 0 4 0 2 2 5 Artillery 0 5 0 0 2 3 Numbers 2 3 2 1 5 3 Psionics 0 0 2 5 1 0 Morale 5 2 6 3 2 2 RANDOM MARTIAN RACE DETERMINATION TABLE D6 RACE 1 GREEN 2 RED 3 WHITE 4 BLUE 5 YELLOW 6 BLACK RANDOM ATTRIBUTE DETERMINATION TABLE D10 ATTRIBUTE 1 Speed 2 Small Arms 3 Surprise 4 Hand to Hand 5 Armor 6 Artillery 7 Numbers 8 Psionics 9 Morale 10 Reroll TURN SEQUENCE Initiative Phase High Initiative Move Phase High Initiative Battle Phase Low Initiative Move Phase Low Initiative Battle Phase INITIATIVE PHASE Each player rolls 1D10 & adds the number of leaders they control. Reroll ties. The highest total takes his Move & Battle phases first. The next highest takes his phases second & so on. Each player rolls 1D10 for every City they occupy. A roll of 1 recruits a fresh warband of the same race as the city. MOVEMENT PHASE Roll 1D10 per 10 Units you control rounding up. Add to this the number of leaders you control. The total is your Command Points. Spend one command point to move one of your warbands one space. Any command points left are wasted. They cannot be saved. You may stack 2 or more of your warbands together in the same space. Only one stack per hex. Your warbands cannot enter or pass through spaces occupied by enemy units. Your units cannot enter or pass through impassable terrain spaces. A single warband can move a maximum of 3 spaces in one turn. Leader units can piggyback with one warband unit per turn. Leaders must be attached to a warband. A warband may have more than one leader attached. They can attach to any Warband in a stack. Leaders cannot move on their own. BATTLE PHASE A Warband may attack an enemy warband in an adjacent hex. Only the warbands on the top of a stack can attack or be attacked. The order in the stack may be rearranged by its owner. Roll D10 on the Random Attribute Determination Table. This attribute is the key factor that determines who wins the battle. The Warband that has the higher score in that attribute wins. The other warband is destroyed. If both have equal scores than both are destroyed. A warband can only attack once per turn. If a attacking warband is destroyed, the next warband in the stack may attack. SAMPLE COMBAT A Blue warband attacks An adjacent White warband The Attribute roll indicates Hand to Hand. Blue has 1, White has 6. Blue is slain. There is a Yellow warband stacked beneath the Blue. Yellow attacks White. The key attribute is Artillery. Yellow has 2 and White 0. White is destroyed. LEADERS Each leader has a special ability. Determine the special ability at the beginning of the game. Roll once on the Random Attribute Determination Table. All Warbands stacked with that leader get +5 in that attribute. If two or more leaders are in the same hex, only one may contribute his bonus to the stack that battle phase. The choice of which leader is in charge is made before the key attribute is randomly determined. If all the warbands in a stack are destroyed then all the leaders are too. SCENARIO SETUP In a 2 Player Game each player gets: 5 Leaders & 10 Warbands from 3 different races. In a 3 Player Game each player gets: 4 Leaders & 10 Warbands from 2 different races. In a 4 Player Game each player gets: 2 Leaders & 8 Warbands from 2 different races. Players setup up on opposite sides or corners within 3 hexes of the edge of the map. VICTORY Either occupy several key locations such as settlements or destroy the enemy completely. VARIANT WARBANDS The Attribute stats listed for the different races describe the basic warband. From 1 to 6 points may be shifted to create variant warbands. For example: Red Commandos: Armor -4, Artillery -2, Surprise +2, Small arms +2, Hand to Hand +2 Yellow Wasp Riders: Speed +2, Numbers -2 Blue Mob: Numbers +2, Surprise -2 Black Warlocks: Psionics +3, Morale +2, Armor -2, Artillery -3 Green Beetle Tanks: Armor +2, Artillery +3, Speed +1, Hand to Hand -4, Small arms -2 The variant type of Warband must be indicated on the chit. Other martian races exist on other continents. When designing scenarios, all units are worth one Recruit Point each.