Monday, May 26, 2014
A tremendous amount of action takes place in a battle:
squads are constantly manoeuvring and shooting, tanks rumble into action and
artillery fire roars overhead in a torrential downpour of destruction.
A game of
Halo Tactics represents the flow of
battle but, in order to turn the chaos into a manageable game, players
alternate taking turns moving and fighting with their characters.
Initiative Roll
A
skirmish begins with an initiative roll to determine who goes first.
Each player rolls 2d6. The player with the higher initiative roll chooses who
goes first. (Reroll ties.) Sometimes you’ll want to go first; other times
you’ll want to see what your opponent is up to before committing your forces.
Rounds, Phases, and Turns
A
skirmish is played in rounds.
One round is divided in several Phases. In each phase, players activate
characters in their squads to take actions, each activating two characters at
time. You can only activate a character once in a round (see pushing below),
and you must active 2 characters in phase. If you do not have any characters to
activate your phase is over.
When both
players have activated all their characters, the round is over.
When you
activate a character you can give him one free action and one action (see
actions below)
First
Player: Activates
two characters, one at a time. Activating two characters this way is called a phase.
Second
Player: Activates
two characters, one at a time.
First
Player: Activates
two more characters. These are characters that have not been activated yet this
round.
Second
Player: Activates
two more characters. These are characters that have not been activated yet this
round.
Repeat
until all the characters have activated. Sometimes a player has more characters
than his or her opponent and activates many characters at the end of the round.
Each
character can be activated only once in a round. When a character activates,
that is the character’s turn. To indicate that a character has been
activated in a round, put an action token or turn its stat card.
A round
ends when all players have activated all their characters once. Then a new
round begins with a new initiative roll.
The
turn sequence
As we see before both
players alternate phases in a turn. The order that a Turn must be played is
this:
1. Roll for initiative
2. Phase A: Player A
activate 2 characters.
3. Phase B: Player B
activate 2 characters.
4. Repeat Phase A and B
until all Characters are activated or has an Action token (see action Tokens
later).
5. Repeat Step 1.
GIVING ACTIONS TO
CHARACTERS
During
your phase, you must activate two characters, when you activate a character you
can give him any number of free actions and one action. When a character is
given an action, that action can be used for only one power or ability that requires
that type of action to activate.
You must
completely resolve the activation of one character before you activate the next
character, also you must completely resolve one action before you begin the
next action.
Resolving
an action includes resolving any free actions or game effects that action
allows followed by applying action tokens and then pushing damage to each
character that received a second action token during that action. A character
can never be given more than one non-free action per turn.
ACTIONS
Each phase you must activate two characters per turn, until
all your characters have being activated. You can give a unit only one action
per turn. Some actions involve moving your unit, attacking with your unit, or
both.
All aspects of these actions are described in this section.
Choose from the following options when assigning actions to your units:
Each phase you get two actions to give to your units. You
can give a unit only one action per turn. Some actions involve moving your
unit, attacking with your unit, or both.
All aspects of these actions are described in this section.
Choose from the following options when assigning actions to your units:
1. MOVE: Move the Character. The character
can move up to his speed value in MU or squares.
2. RUN/ FULL SPEED: The character speed increase in
+6", but he cannot make any attack during this phase.
3. ATTACK: The unit can shoot at (see
“Shooting”), throw a grenade at (see “Grenades”), or use a special ability against
(see “Attacking”) an enemy unit (a unit controlled by an opponent).
4. MOVE AND ATTACK: Move the unit and then attack
(shoot, throw a grenade, or use a special ability). If your unit moves up to 4 MU
(or squares) and attacks, it does not suffer any attack penalties. If your unit
moves more than 4 MU (or squares), it can still attack, but you must subtract -3
from its attack value.
5. ATTACK AND COVER: The unit can attack and then move up
to 4 MU (or squares).
6. Move and OPEN A
DOOR: The character
can move up to his speed value, if at the end of his movement is next to a door
(in base contact) he can open the door. The door will remain open until the
character move away or is KO.
7. OPEN A DOOR and
MOVE: If the
character is next to a door (in base contact) he can open the door and then
move up to 4 MU (or squares). The door will close after this if is no character
in base contact with the door.
8. OPEN A DOOR and ATTACK: If the character is next to a door
(in base contact) he can open the door and then attack, but you must subtract -3
from its attack value.
9. Do a Power/ Special
Action: You can use
one of your powers or special actions.
10. Don't do anything: You can choose to don't make an
action when activate the character.
“Replaces Attacks”: Sometimes the text of a special ability or power says that
it “replaces attacks.” In this case, a character can use that special ability
or power instead of making its usual attack. A character can use this power if
he is able to make an attack and has the same penalties if he moved more than 4
spaces, also if he makes the special ability or power before moving he can only
move up to 4 spaces.
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ACTION TOKENS
When you give a character any action (other than a free
action – see below), give the character an action token as the action resolves
and put it near the character’s base on the map. You can use any small object,
such as a coin or bead, as an action token. A token reminds all players that a
character has been given an action.
An action token can be as simple as a dice, coin or
complex as a proper marker that you modelled for this specific event. IN the
end of this rulebook and in the Halo Tactics web site you can find several
tokens that you can print and use for your games.
No game effect can result in more than 2 action tokens on a
character. If part of a game effect would cause this to happen, that part of
the game effect is ignored. Whoever, a character can be activated several times
in a turn, giving him more than one action token, also some powers can confer
an action token in a character. If a player get a second Action token, that
character suffer Pushing damage (see Pushing, below)
CLEARING ACTION TOKENS
At
the end of your turn, after you and your opponent have finished taking and
resolving all of your actions (including free actions that occur “at the end of
your turn”) and declared your turn to be over, remove all action tokens from
each of the characters the battlefield. This is called “clearing” your action
tokens.
PUSHING
You can activate a character more than one time in a round,
this is called PUSHING a character. To PUSH a character you must select a
character that is at no more than 12" from the character you want to
"push" and activate that character that has no action tokens (is not
yet activated in the turn), this character is "given up" his
activation for his teammate.
One character can Push a teammate that is not more than
12" of distance. Doing this put another action token on the target
teammate and allow him to activate immediately for a second (or even more)
time.
When a character is activated a second (or more) time, receives
one pushing damage after his action is resolve. Game effects that evade,
reduce, ignore, or transfer damage do not affect pushing damage unless the
effect specifically says it does.
