Ground Battles

**Land Battles** involve army divisions fighting over maps set on planets, planetoids, and space stations. These battles take place on a map with a hex grid and terrain. Turns occur simultaneously. Every division in each army has one movement and one action per turn. Under normal circumstances, only one division belonging to one side may occupy a tile at one time. However, divisions may contest tiles held by opposing forces.

## Actions

Actions available to divisions during battles are as follows:

* **Attack:** When occupying the same tile as another division, you may use this action to attack that division. Roll your division's terrain-appropriate attack stat. If you manage to beat their armor, you inflict 1 damage on that division.
* **Scale obstacle:** If your division is predominantly composed of infantry or engineers, use an action to scale an obstacle such as a wall or cliff.
* **Retreat:** When a division defending a position is engaged, and it has the same or greater speed than the attacking division, it may use this action to avoid battle and retreat to an adjacent tile, giving up the position to the attacking force. If the division's speed is less than that of its opponent, and the opponent choses to pursue, the defender must receive the attack, but does not lose his action.
* **Flank:** When on a tile adjacent to an enemy division engaged with an allied division, use an action to make an attack against that enemy division on that division's tile.
* **Weight of numbers:** When on a tile behind a friendly unit which is engaged with another, your division can make an attack against that unit.
* **Attack in the rear:** When on a tile behind an enemy division engaged with an allied division, use an action to make an attack against that enemy division with advantage. A unit which is pinned from the front, flanked on both sides, and attacked in the rear is considered encircled. If the unit reaches -1 HP while encircled, it is destroyed permanently.
* **Build structure:** Build points permitting, use the required number of turns to build a structure in the middle of battle. Being attacked interrupts this action.
* **Dismantle building:** Build points permitting, dismantle a building. Being attacked interrupts this action.

## Bombardment

Batteries can be added to a division by adding artillery brigades, which come in two kinds: light and heavy. Both types grant a division the ability to carry out bombardment attacks. Bombardment attacks may be made at any time, separate from a unit's action or movement.

A light bombardment attack has a range of 6. A heavy bombardment attack has a range of 12. If the division is on a low-gravity planetoid, bombardment attacks can target starships passing overhead.

Like a normal attack, a bombardment attack is made with a certain number of dice (4+division experience for light artillery, 8+division experience for heavy artillery) and the result of the roll must overcome the defending division's armor.

A successful bombardment can damage a starship or a structure (by 1 for light artillery, and by 3 for heavy artillery). However, bombardment attacks may not damage a division's health. Instead, a successful bombardment against a division temporarily removes 1 armor from the division, representing the "softening up" effect that artillery has on units. The effect lasts for the rest of the turn. Artillery cannot soften up a division below 1 point of armor.

If a division's artillery or anti-air has fired during the turn, bombardment can also be used to target these assets. Successful bombardment attack against such a division may take out they ability to make 1 bombardment attack or 2 points of anti-air each instead of degrading a unit's armor.

Using the bombardment action on an open terrain tile four times turns it into difficult terrain.

## Gaining Experience

Units gain experience when they accomplish the following objectives:

If multiple units participate in the routing of a unit or the downing of a ship, the player may choose how to distribute the 1 experience gained. It may be given to any of the units which participated in the action, including the artillery who suppressed the unit, or the engineers who built the walls which stopped them, or the cavalry which cut off their escape.

After a war ends, the experience gained by divisions in battle resets, to represent the brain drain that happens when an army demobilizes.

## When an engaged division loses a roll

A defending unit which has a suffered a successful attack against it takes 1 damage to its health and keeps fighting.

## When a division reaches 0 health

When a division reaches 0 health, it is rendered combat ineffective and must be retreated to the rear areas and reorganized and reinforced. This is just a temporary condition, as what remains of routed units can be reassembled and reorganized after a battle, though this takes time and might be difficult to do if the enemy has sufficient high-mobility forces to exploit their victory. If an army is surrounded and all of its divisions are rendered combat ineffective with no avenue of escape, the army is captured by the enemy.

Combat ineffective divisions disappear from the battle map and cannot be given commands. They lose 1 level of experience and will rejoin the army after the battle, provided that they had an escape route available to them. If they were surrounded at the time of the rout, the division is lost.

## Terrain

Hexes have different terrain types:

* **Open terrain:** Open terrain, such as plains, is easy to move through. Open terrain requires only 1 movement to move through. While standing on open terrain, divisions fight with their open attack.
* **Difficult terrain:** Difficult terrain, such as forests, hills, rocky patches, bombed out hellscapes, etc, which provide greater cover to certain units and more possibilities for ambush. While standing on difficult terrain, divisions fight with their difficult attack.
* **Impassible terrain:** Impassible terrain, such as enemy-held walls and mountains, are very difficult to move through. Only units dominated by infantry, engineers, and speeders (dominated means 2/3) can move freely through impassible terrain. Doing so requires 3 movement. All other divisions require their full movement an an action to move through impassible terrain. Mountainous terrain grants +1 armor to defending units.

## Orbital Bombardment

If one side has starships in orbit of the planet, requiring orbital supremacy to have been established beforehand, that side may bring each ship to bear. This is done by having the starships pass over the site of the battle on a low orbit. This allows them to bring their guns to bear against divisions on the ground, but also allows these divisions to use their artillery and anti-ship missiles against the ships, and for ground-based strike craft to arm with anti-ship missiles and attempt an interception.

The side which intends to do this must announce two turns in advance that they are going to do a flyby of the battlezone, and to name the ships specifically involved. On the turn the flyby happens, both the ships and the units on the ground shoot simultaneously. A ship's casemate guns, turreted artillery batteries, medium batteries, and SMAS(H) can target divisions and buildings, following the same mechanics as a bombardment. Similarly, the artillery, anti-ship missile batteries, and strike craft attack the ship just like in the warships system.

When the turn ends, the flyby ends.

Ships which reach 0 HP during a flyby suffer critical damage and are lost.

## Building with engineers

All divisions in the ground battles system have 1 build point. Engineering brigades and hero traits increase this number. Build points represent how much work a single brigade can do on a tile per turn. Buildings cost build points. A unit with 1 build point, for example, will be able to build an entrenchment, which costs 2 build points, in 2 turns. Divisions can only work on one tile at a time.

Contributing build points to a tile takes an action and requires the unit to finish the turn either on the tile or adjacent to it. If the unit is attacked at any point during the turn, the build action cancels and is refunded, and the build points do not get added to the building.

### Fortifications

#### Entrenchment

 Entrenchments are difficult terrain and are currently represented by a greyed hex. Troops inside are invulnerable to bombardment attacks.

#### Emplacement

 Emplacements are difficult terrain and are represented by a greyed hex with a black symbol inside. Emplacements provide troops garrisoned in them +1 armor. Troops inside are invulnerable to bombardment attacks.

#### Hypersteel Walls

 Hypersteel walls are impassable terrain to the enemy, but not to the faction that holds them. They are represented by a black hex. While on the wall, the defending side can spread itself along the wall over three wall hexes and receive +2 armor. Troops on the wall are immune to bombardment.

### Terrain Manipulation

#### Clear difficult terrain

 Clear a difficult terrain hex, turning it into open terrain.

#### Create difficult terrain

 Obstruct an open terrain hex, turning it into difficult terrain.

#### Build a pathway through impassible terrain

 Build a pathway through impassible terrain, turning it into difficult terrain for your side.

#### Pontoon bridge

 Build a pathway over a canyon/river, making it passable for your side. All units regardless of composition require 3 movement to cross this bridge.

#### Industrial bridge

 Build a pathway over a canyon/river, making it passable for your side. Takes only 14 build points to destroy. All units regardless of composition require 2 movement to cross this bridge.

#### Cities

 All units regardless of composition require 3 movement to pass through a city tile. While on a city tile, all units regardless of faction ownership receive a +2 bonus to armor and are sheltered from bombardment until the city tile is leveled. A city which reaches 0 HP is leveled and becomes difficult terrain.

## Heroes

Division heroes are Cogent characters who, for one reason or another, enhance the functioning of their unit. Whether they are frontline soldiers or support specialists, their mere presence in the fight will influence its outcome. These characters may be any character on Aoshtai who is physically present at the location where the battle is taking place and has a good IC motivation to get involved. They may bring all of their existing gear and equipment.

Every army on a battlefield may have a maximum of 3 such characters, and each must be embedded in a division. One of these characters may be designated as the general of the entire army.

### Hero ranks

All characters begin at Division Hero rank 0. They gain ranks when the following happens:

* They rout an enemy hero, up to once per battle.

Additionally, every time a division hero gains a rank, they also gain a pip in Leadership. Upon hitting rank 3, they gain 3 pips in Leadership, bringing them up to a maximum of 5 pips out of 5.

### Hero traits

At Rank 1, division heroes unlock their first trait which affects the division they are embedded in. They may choose from the following traits:

At Rank 2, they unlock a second trait. Traits may be selected twice.

At Rank 3, heroes unlock a general ability, which they may only use if they are the general of the army. These are abilities which may be used once during the battle. They may choose from the following abilities:

### Hero template

You may post the following template to your character's Cogent sheet to keep track of their traits.

```
== Military Traits ==
{{ Division Hero Traits
 }}
```

### Hero duels

When two divisions in which division heroes are embedded meet, one of the heroes may challenge the other to a duel using the Cogent system. The two characters meet in a 1v1 scenario and fight. Roll in order to determine the layout of the map:

1. Trenches
2. Tight corridor
3. Open ground
4. Open ground
5. Occluded open ground (such as a dust storm)
6. Open ground with cover
7. Small room
8. Rugged terrain

Both sides can withdraw out of the duel at any time, and the duel instantly ends. Both players must work together to imagine an in-story explanation for the interruption of the duel, such an unexpected explosion causing one of the characters to lose their footing, giving the other time to escape. The character who withdrew may no longer give the bonuses from their traits to their division until the next battle.

The side that is declared on may avoid the duel, though the game treats this as if they bailed from the duel. The victor of the duel gets to rank up if they have not already and the character who avoided the duel may not apply their traits to their division for the rest of the battle.

Causing another hero to rout grants the victor 1 rank-up, up to once per battle, and 100 army requisition points which can be spent at the Army Requisitions Shop.

#### Lethality

At the beginning of a hero duel, both players must agree on whether instant death hits on their character are on the table. There is no mechanical benefit or drawback to enabling or disabling the possibility of character death. If death is disabled, characters who receive above 5 wins on an attack roll against their character receive a fatal injury and the duel ends. Offscreen, they are rescued and taken to the rear line where their injuries are tended to.

#### Protector

In some cases, heroes may be support or non-combat characters such as military officers, doctors, civilians. In these cases, heroes may designate a protector who will take duels for them in cases where they are challenged. Duels proceed as normal with the protector taking the duel, and if the protector loses, both they and the character they were protecting must leave the field.

#### Bodyguards (optional)

If the two dueling parties agree, both sides can bring an equal number of NPC bodyguards to the duel. They must follow the bodyguard rules outlined on the NPC page. The recommended number of bodyguards at the moment is 3.

## Battles involving space stations

Sometimes, battles will take place aboard space stations, where an attacking force composed of a mixture of warships and armies will attempt to storm a space station, which may itself be defended by a mixture of warship and army assets. The following rules allow for armies and warships to fight on the same map.

### Transports

Armies can appear in space battles alongside warships through the use of transports. These vessels function like ships in almost every respect. Each division is transported by a single unarmed vessel of roughly 200 m in size. The vessel inherits the division's speed and armor.

Use the following template to keep track of a division's transport if necessary in a space battle:

```
{{ Army Transport
}}
```

### Stations

Battles can take place in and around stations which are either in etherspace or in realspace. Station battles involve a hex tile map which is entirely black to represent space. Stations consist of station tiles. Starships will be present on this map along with armies and their transports. While on this map, all warship range 2 weapons have 12 range, and all range 6 weapons have infinite range.

Starships and armies aboard their transports can travel on space tiles. Armies can disembark onto tiles adjacent to station tiles and can move through station tiles, but not space tiles. Divisions with a majority (at least 2/3) of speeder brigades can move through space tiles under their own power. Space tiles count as open terrain.

#### Station Tile

 All units regardless of composition require 3 movement to pass through a station tile. While on a station tile, all units regardless of faction ownership receive a +2 bonus to armor and are sheltered from bombardment. It is impossible to fire artillery within a station, but it is possible to fire artillery into space if there are no other station tiles in the way. When a station tile reaches zero 0, it turns into a shattered station tile. A station tile is difficult terrain.Units attacking into a station tile from open space must first breach into the station. If there is an enemy division occupying the tile, the division attempting to breach into this station tile must succeed one attack against the unit's armor. Until it does so, the division attempting to breach cannot enter the station and is considered to still be in open space.Once the division successfully breaches into the station tile, it can benefit from its defensive bonuses.

#### Bastion

 A bastion tile is a reinforced station tile mounted with weaponry or other military facilities. A bastion tile works the same as a station tile, except it can also mount 10 primary slots and 5 secondary slots worth of warship mounts. Once destroyed, the bastion becomes a shattered station tile.

#### Shattered Station Tile

 All units regardless of composition require 3 movement to pass through a shattered station tile. While on a shattered station tile, all units regardless of faction ownership receive a +2 bonus to armor. It is impossible to fire artillery within a station, but it is possible to fire artillery into space if there are no other station tiles in the way. A shattered station tile is difficult terrain.Shattered station tiles do not need to be breached into and instead can be simply moved into. Divisions which are on shattered station tiles are vulnerable to artillery bombardment if there are no other station tiles in the way and there are no friendly divisions on the tile.

#### Time in station battles

Every turn in the battle will be one day. Warships and transports can take up to six turns in one day. Divisions can go only once during the day.