Evacuation: Mars

Many thanks for indulging my battle rules. I was keen to get on and play and not debate beforehand otherwise nothing would have changed. Many of your suggestions would make other great alternatives and I urge you to write them into a system that we can play sometime. Using what we encountered last time, I have developed my system. It is supposed to be a side-step from 40k and for those of you wanting fluff to explain rule changes, I have tried to address that as well. Once again, we will address issues that arise (there will be some) after the game.

Evacuation: Mars

The atmosphere is a dense acrid fug that crackles with electric blue haywire and billows huge luminous green clouds of corrosive acid rain. Only the Skitarii can remain unharmed in the toxic landscape for any period of time and only the cracked and leaking hulks of the remaining buildings offer any kind of protection to the warring armies of 40k. Vehicles and machinery of all kinds have long since lost their power and can be seen as decaying shells littered around the planet, though the Skitarii are able to make their biomachinery function.

The Skitarii are on their way to remove the last few warring factions from their city and the remaining units battle over the last operative teleportation pod that has a single charge left. Whoever controls this pod at the end of the battle will be able to evacuate the city to the waiting crafts in orbit around the Red Planet and escape the indigenous warriors whose arrival is all too imminent.

Points: 300 per army

Terrain: city-scape, many buildings and walls - each giving line of sight, 5+ cover save.

Armies: all five players, infantry only (no vehicles, fortifications, flyers, drop pods, bikes, chariots, cavalry etc)

Deployment: roll-off, highest chooses, deploys first and goes first. No steal the initiative. Each army chooses a building to be its base where its objective marker (the teleportation pod) is placed on the ground floor of the building. The objective marker is Armour 8, HP 1, impassable terrain, giving 5+ cover, if applicable. Extra armour can be purchased at 10 for the first point, another 20 for the second, an extra 40 for the third and 80 for a fourth for the maximum of a 4th extra point (armour 12) at 150 points in total. Extra hull points can also be purchased at the same rate (up to a maximum of 4 extra, 5 in total). Only one hull point per phase may be removed from each objective marker. The objective marker never suffers any effect from the Building Damage Table, glancing and penetrating hits are both considered to be a loss of a single hull point.

Victory: Any army with their objective marker still intact (or partially intact) at the end of the battle is the winner. In the case of more than one objective marker still being at least partially intact the following commendations are brought into action (in order, each condition being worked through until there is a winner). 

1. The number of remaining hull points remaining on the objective (the more the better) 

2. How many hull points have been lost (the least the better) 

3. The number of remaining units on the board (the most the better). 

4 The number of whole units lost (the least the better) 

5. (All totalled up) WYSIWYG, Highlander, Battle Forged. 

6. Still a tie? It's a draw, shake hands!

If a player's objective marker has been destroyed they are removed from the game at the end of the phase in which it was destroyed. All models and the objective marker are removed and the player has lost. If at the end of any phase, only one player has an intact objective marker, they are considered the winner. A player is not removed from the game if it loses all its models, but still retains its objective marker. If all remaining objective markers are destroyed in the same phase, the Victory Conditions (above) come into play. Objective markers can be claimed by an opposing force if they are within 3” of the marker and the defending side has no model within 3”. Other armies may subsequently capture captured objectives as long as the 3” rule applies. A single unit may not take hull points off an objective if it is in melee combat with another unit.

Length of game: Round 8: 2/6 chance of ending, Round 9: 3/6 chance of ending, Round 10: game ends.

Special: A side must start with at least one unit on the board at the beginning of the game. Armies may get extra units on the board with Infiltrate, in which case it can start on any floor in the base or Scout which means it may start in the bottom floor of any adjacent building to the player's base. Units may arrive in any turn, including the first with no reserve roll required, by either deep striking or through the bottom floor of its base (if the bottom floor is occupied by any force, units in reserve may not enter in this manner). Deep strike mishaps will only occur when scattering off the board or onto infantry units. There is no outflank entry to the board. No player may enter play through or into another player’s base.

Any model on a floor (not a ground floor) of a building cannot be shot at, though it may be assaulted and overwatch may be taken.

Buildings cannot be shot at or assaulted and can only be entered on the bottom floor through the open side or a door (not a window, though shooting through windows is allowed). A unit can only move one floor per phase, no matter what their movement is. Jump and Jet-Pack infantry may enter any level of a building through the open side, but once on a level, may only move one level per phase as other infantry units. Different units may occupy different levels within the same building, but may only occupy the same level if they are engaged in melee combat. (The charge range between floors is always 3" +/- special rules, with overwatch treated in the usual manner.) 

Any model functioning outside the confines of a building suffers rad poisoning (-1 toughnesss) and Neurostatic Aura (-1 to WS, BS, Initiative and Leadership). These penalties are removed without any lasting effects once the model is safely within a building again and are non-cumulative.

If any part of a model is visible (stand, cloak, weapon, tail, antennae, wing, hat etc) it is able to be shot at. Measuring distances and movement must be exact and markers placed to assist in accuracy. Those not involved should act as advisers and helping hands. Second or even third opinions may be sought to officiate contentious measuring and line of sight blocking.