No Man's Land

## The Failed Siege of the Lake

**Battle Condition:** Synchronous

**Description:** In this battle, two armies have fortified positions on either side of a no man's land, but valuable artifacts lie on the battlefield. Each force dispatches a secondary force to retrieve them.

**Deployment Zone:** The deployment area for each player is anywhere within 12 inches of their table edge.

**Night Battle:** This Battle uses the Night Time Rules.

**Artifact Terrain Placement:** - Depending on table size, you will need to place some small pieces of Terrain in specific places. These pieces of terrain should be no larger than a 6 inch by 6 inch square. On a small table (4 x 4), place one piece of Terrain with the center 24 inches from each Player's table edge and 6 inches away from each non-Player table edge. Then, place two more pieces such that their centers are 18 inches from Player table edges and 24 inches from both non-Player table edges. For a large table size, there will be 6 pieces of Terrain. 2 pieces will be 24 inches from each Player's tablee dge and 6 inches away from each non-Player table edge. The other 4 will be placed such that they are 18 inches from Player table edges and 30 inches from each small table edge.

**Game Turns:** 6

**Battle Type:** Tactical Maneuver

## Victory Conditions

The goal is to score more points than your opponent or to win in Sudden Death.

## Points

For each artifact you are Scoring, you have 3 points. To Score an artifact, it must be on the ground inside your Scoring Zone or belong to any Model (friendly or enemy) inside your Scoring Zone.

**Scoring Zone** - The scoring zone for each player is an area of the board gup to 6 inches away from their table edge and 6 inches in length from the center of their table edge, both directions. Thus it forms a 12 inch by 6 inch rectangle that is approximately in the center of their table edges.

## Artifact Terrain

Artifacts are hidden within the Artifact Terrain on the battlefield. To retrieve them, you must uncover them. Each piece of Artifact Terrain hides a single Artifact. Use the following rules:

**Search Terrain Rule** - You can search Terrain during the Special Phase by having a Model in Base to Base Contact use a Special Action. The first time the Terrain is searched in a game, roll a d10. On a 7+, you uncover the Artifact in that Terrain. Place a suitable marker on the Model who searched. For each subsequent time the Terrain is searched by either player, the value needed on a D10 goes down by 1. (e.g. an 6+ the second time the Terrain is searched, 5+ the third time, and so on.)

**One Artifact Per Artifact Terrain** - Once an Artifact is discovered on a piece of Artifact Terrain, no further Artifacts can be discovered on that piece of Terrain.

**Single Turn Search Rule** - A piece of Terrain can only be searched once per Game Turn.

## Artifacts

Once you have uncovered an Artifact, you must escort it back towards your lines. The following rules govern how Artifacts are transported.

**Artifacts Belong to Models Rule** - An Artifact must be transported by a Model. Any Model.

**Picking up an Artifact Rule** - To Pick up an Artifact that is on the ground, use a Special Action while in Base to Base Contact with it. You cannot pick up an Artifact if an Enemy Model is also in Base to Base Contact with it. You can however, use a Tactical Contest to pick it up with the Artifact being a Tactical Objective. If you do so, give the Artifact to any Model in the DUF of your choice if you win the contest.

**Dropping an Artifact Rule** - A Model may voluntarily drop an Artifact during the Movement: Action Phase and requires no Action. Furthermore, if the Model carrying an Artifact is removed from the Table-top, place a marker where the Model was. The Artifact is now on the ground.

**Taking the Artifact Rule** - You can potentially kill the carrier of an Artifact and pick up the Artifact in the same combat. To do so, you must win a Tactical Contest and ensure that the Model carrying the Artifact is killed.

## Scoring an Artifact

The Artifact is considered scoring if you can bring it back to your scoring zone, which is an area of the Table-top near your table edge. So long as an Artifact is inside your Scoring Zone, regardless of if any Model, Friend or Foe, is carrying it or it is on the ground, you are currently scoring it. When your army shows up to retrieve it from the battlefield, it won't matter if an Enemy is holding it because he won't be for long!

**Scoring Zone** - The scoring zone for each player is an area of the board up to 6 inches away from their table edge and 6 inches down the length of their table edge, both directions, starting from the center of their table edge. Thus it forms a 12 inch by 6 inch rectangle that is approximately in the center of their table edges.

## Sudden Death

Sudden Death can occur, ending the game immediately at the end of any Resolve: End Phase if any of the following scenarios occur:

* If a player ever has 6 ore more points than their opponent.

If Sudden Death occurs, the Game ends, and the Winner is the player who has the most points.

## Reinforcements

Because this battle is being fought between two encamped armies, reinforcements may be sent in throughout the battle representing them arriving from the encampment. During the Upkeep Phase, both players may select up to 5 of their Models from the following list that have been removed from play previously, and place them in Reserves using a Standard Reserve Entry Strategy. The Models will come on the board during that turn's Movement Phase.

* **Kingdom of Arkland** - Warrior of the Realm, Longbowman
* **Ramal Nations** - Desert Raider, Rogue, Shadow Mercenary
* **Great Forest Tribes** - Tribe Warrior, Tribe Wildguard

## The Failed Siege of the Lake

It was not so that peace between the Great Forest Tribes and the Republic was absolute. For the vast majority of its history, the Republic had very few run-ins with the Tribes, as the Great Chieftains would tend to stay far away from the Highway and ultimately ignore the movement of foreigners along the roads. However, every couple of centuries, a Great Chieftain, bent on conquest would rise up, believing that she could control the Highway or perhaps even conquer the City on the Lake. In 752 AF, one such Great Chieftain, arose to power.

Chieftain Finnola Breen was a conqueror of her age and had united a mass of Tribes in the region closest to the City on the Lake. Seeing potential power not in trying to conquer her own people but rather in taking land back from the foreigners, she amassed an army of the Tribes to lay siege to the City on the Lake. Aiding her in this endeavor was the Bear Shaman, Tomag Paorach. Believing that foreign powers of the Republic represented a potential threat to the Spirit Wells of the Great Forest, Tomag enlisted the aid of several other Bear Shamans, and together, they devised a plan with Finnola Breen to attack the City on the Lake. Fortified by huge walls and of course easily defended bridges, attacking the city would be nearly impossible. Thus, a siege seemed to be the best strategy, whereupon they could simply starve the city out over months of waiting. To protect themselves from reinforcing soldiers of the Republic, they enlisted the aid of highly unstable magical artifacts, crafted through Wild Magic, which would be deployed along the Highway leading to the city. These artifacts would enhance the powers of The Wild, causing any enemy armies advancing to the area to be inundated with the unpredictable and mutating effects of magic.

Yet, not educated in the ways of the Republic, and especially not of their famed magic suppression devices developed by Grand Artificer Martus, when the reinforcing armies of the Republic finally did show to break the siege, both Finnola and Tomag were caught by surprise as elite detachments of Republic forces began to track down their hidden artifacts in the Forest to neutralize them. Realizing their plan had a fatal flaw, it became the new strategy of Finnola to retrieve the artifacts from the Forest and disperse her army into the Great Forest in retreat. However, retrieving the artifacts would be no easy task as the forces of the Republic were also searching for them. What ensued over several days was a deadly game of cat and mouse as both the forces of the Republic and the Tribes sent small strike teams into the Forest to retrieve the artifacts.

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