r/HG_AdventureSeries

Having recently shown one of the mdf buildings I am painting up for modern games, I’ve been adding rules for playing in and on buildings.

Indoor Locales

If you have any suitable terrain for fighting “indoor” battles, like in a giant warehouse, inside a shopping mall, running around on a single floor of an office or apartment block, etc., feel free to use that instead of the Locales listed, when it seems appropriate to the scenario. I’d suggest using a 2’ x 2’ table for these games though and pack it with appropriate scatter. 

Otherwise, when it’s a smaller building with a removal roof, just use it as part of the normal locale.

A figure or Marker placed in the corner of a room is clearly trying to hide there, but again if part of them can actually be targeted, then the targeting figure knows they are there and can try a shot, or to spot the Marker.

It is important to decide at the start which doors are open, which are shut but not locked, and which are shut and locked. To unlock a door you need to already be right in front of it at the start of the action and unlike a normal Act, it takes the whole action to unlock it. To open an unlocked door needs a normal Act action and so can be done while moving, but takes 1” off the move. 

Once a door is open, if you can trace a straight line between a figure and any part of their target they can take a shot or spot the Marker. Peering or shooting around an open door counts as being in cover.

Shooting from buildings

In addition, if you have smaller buildings that allow you to play within them then the above rules apply but we need to cover what happens when one character is inside and another character is outside.

Buildings can be entered and exited by windows as well as doors, and a closed door or window slows the movement down by 1”.

When someone inside a building shoots at someone outside, they must be positioned by an open door or window, and that of course makes them visible for being shot at themselves, but they do count as being in cover.

Falling from heights

If you include flat-roof buildings, balconies, fire-escapes, etc. in your games, you need to account for falling.

Any character damaged by a ranged attack or defeated (pushed backwards) in hand-to-hand combat, on (within 2” of) the edge of a roof, on a balcony/ledge/fire escape, or firing out of an upper floor window, must roll to see if they fall.

Game 11 of the Enemies at the Borders campaign.

[It’s the final battle against the Undead, a Special battle against an Adversary roll of 5 that gave 3 Veteran Fighters, 3 Regular Shooters, 1 Special/War Machine/Monster, 1 Magic User, and a Leader, but as the battle is Cut off the head, one of the shooter units is replaced by another Veteran unit with a leader that needs to be killed.]

An enemy leader is headquartered in a disused farm, so a force has been sent to “kill” it. Here’s the target unit and there are others in sight around the farmhouse, though clearly more a lurking nearby.

Setup - Any unit selected for this battle will not be available for the final battle, so I can’t just load it up with the best troops, but I also know this is likely to be the harder of the two battles. I decided to trust that consolidated missile attacks would hold them off and hopefully the Heavy Fighters would take care of the wraiths and the target leader, though Lord Baldwin was there to back them up with his trusty arrows.

Round 1 - Sir Botwood and the crossbow unit open proceedings with a 15 dice volley [and I hope it’s not an omen for how the battle is going to go that there are no 6s and four 1s in the mix!] dropping just two skeleton archers and leaving half the unit unable to fire anymore! The first to react are the skeleton cavalry on the far side of the building, who head for the action, so now the archers can try to do better than their crossbow cousins, which they do indeed, taking out 5 more skeletons, but there’s still one left and it has no fear! It shoots back at the crossbows and it’s bow breaks!

The Horse archers fire off at the undead chariot, but they stay true to form, do a mere single casualty and lose three bows. The wraiths now swing towards the battle too, so Lord Baldwin takes aim at them. Despite their incorporeal nature halving his chances he takes out two (not enough to kill the leader]. Finally the chariot swings into action, killing two archers but not breaking their nerve.

While the rest of the human force holds still, more of the undead start to appear.

Round 2 - The remaining archers deal with chariot, and as the newly arrived undead units start heading towards the fray, the crossbows switch to shooting at wraiths, killing one but losing two more weapons in the process! [much more of this and they’ll be a melee unit!]. Lord Baldwin then takes out another wraith, but they keep coming on, only to be met by charging Heavies! When the dust settles, there are two human bodies on the ground and the rest are retreating, but the wraiths are gone, and the enemy leader has been smashed to oblivion. The battle is not over but victory has been assured!

Meanwhile the skeleton cavalry are starting to look like a threat, so Sir Botwood sends out their giant, which the hapless skeleton no-longer- archer charges, and that’s the end of that unit too.
The horse archers take out one of the skeleton spears that are now the vanguard of the enemy units approaching on their left, but now only two can still shoot. At the end of the round, Lord Baldwin spies the enemy necromancer skulking off in a corner.

Round 3 - The giant wades into the skeleton cavalry but fails to take any out while the skeletons score 3 wounds on it. The skeletons immediately fight back and do enough to finish taking down the giant who collapses into them taking out two of them, leaving them easy targets for every remaining human that can shoot [though due to an appalling set of rolls so far that’s not many]. The archers take down two more and the crossbows take out the last two. The skeleton javelins take out a couple of human cavalry and that’s them off the table again, they’ll never live this down. Meanwhile the necromancer has skedaddled!

Round 4 - The four archers who can still fire take a shot at the advancing skeletons only to break every last remaining bowstring and only take out one of them. The skeletons then charge them and another one goes down, but the archers lose four and the remaining too retreat. This leaves the way clear for the Grosmorne Spears to now charge though and they kill five for only two loses. The remaining functioning crossbows are fired at the last skeleton but it survives, so then Lord Baldwin has to take it out. Meanwhile the last two undead units keep coming.

Round 5 - Lord Baldwin now lets fly at the Revenant unit and takes out two of them before the remaining six charge into the six remaining spears. Both sides lose half their number but the spears also lose their nerve. The Heavies have now made it over from the other flank though and pile into the Revenants, killing the last of them while only taking one casualty. This leaves them in the open though and a hail of javelins is sent their way, killing two more of them and sending them too into retreat.

Round 6 - Lord Baldwin steps forward to both do some damage, taking out two, and make himself their target, soaking up three wounds. The two remaining archers fire and take out another, the two crossbows fire but don’t achieve anything.

Round 7 - With the battle drawing to a close and already a victory, the humans stay back. Lord Baldwin fails to drop any at all and takes five wounds for his trouble, while the archers take out one more and the crossbows fail again. Then with the light failing, Sir Botwood gives the order and the 20 remaining humans head home, less than half the number that was with him when they arrived!

Aftermath - The victory was hard won but word of it, and the casualties, would not arrive at the capital until after the final force of loyal sons and daughters of Grosmorne had set off for the final battle with the Orcs in the North.