Matched Scenario: Crashed Cores

A quick to set-up, matched scenario for 75-100 points.

Fragments of the AI core from a ship have plummeted to the ground. Due to the IMTel’s foresight in ensuring the distributed components are in heavily-protected shells, the fragments managed to survive the fall. Now, though, the fragmented cores are immobile and defenceless, using their weak manipulator suspensor fields to camouflage and seal themselves into the ground.

Command has tracked the approximate impact site of one of these cores and you have been sent to capture it and hang on until a relief and extraction force arrives. It would be useful to locate and retrieve any other core, but the general location and specific details on one is all that you have!

Set Up

Set up terrain as described in the Playing the Game guide in Rules Central. Then each player takes three different-numbered objectives markers delineating the location of the core their force is to retrieve. Two of these markers are dummy objectives, one is real. Each player makes a secret note of the number of the real objective – the data core they have to protect – and puts in to one side in clear view of both players. These are not revealed until the end of the game.

Roll D10. Starting with the highest, each player takes it in turns to place one of their objective markers 10” into the opponent’s half (or any other agreed distance – 10″ works just fine, but beware about putting them too far into your opponent’s half as it means slower forces will struggle). Objective markers must not be placed within 15” of any other objective marker and must be at least 5” from either short table edge.

Deployment

Each force has only just arrived. Half each forces arrives from their own, long table edge on turn one. The other half arrives on turn 2, testing to arrive as normal.

Objective

The objective is to control your own crashed core you placed in your opponent’s half of the table so that recovery teams can dig in and retrieve it.  A secondary objective is to figure out which objective in your own table half is real and deny it to your opponent!

Each player is only sure of where their own data core is – and that is in their opponent’s half of the table – but may be able to guess the location of the data core their opponent is set on retrieving.

Game Duration

The game is played until six turns have elapsed. Break points are ignored for this game.

Victory

Break points are ignored for this game: all that matters is whether or not the crashed core is controlled.

At the end of the game, both players reveal the objective number they secretly stated at the start of the game. A player receives 7VPs for controlling their own data core (that is, the one in their opponent’s half that they secretly laid at set-up) and 3 VP if, by luck or guesswork, they control their opponent’s data core.

The winner is the player with the most VPs.

Special Scenario Rules

Controlling the Cores

Controlling units are any apart from sharded, probe and beast units. Control can be established by a unit having one or more of its models, or the body of its model, within 3” of a crashed core. Units that are Down are still counted as being able to establish control as a tactical decision to do so may well help their survivability but at the cost of capability. To claim control, no other, enemy controlling units must be able to claim control of the objective.

Objective markers can be downloaded from the image below.