Attacker's Overview. The offensive is pushing the enemy back all along the front, and your advance is in full flood. You have been ordered to spearhead the attack in this sector, sweeping aside any pockets of resistance as quickly as possible.
Defender's Overview. Your army has been driven back by the enemy offensive, and you need time to regroup. Your force has been selected as the rearguard of your retreating army. You must stall the enemy advance as long as possible with whatever forces are available and give the rest of your army a chance to form a new defensive line.
Scenario Special Rules
Rearguard missions use the Deep Strike, Hidden Set-up, Infiltrators, Obstacles, Random Game Length and Reserves scenario special rules.
Set-Up
- Both players roll a dice. The player that rolls highest chooses which long board edge to deploy from.
- The defender must split his army into two groups, each must contain at least one unit, but is not restricted in any other way. Before deploying, the defender flips a coin or rolls a dice to see which group he will use. The units in the other force are not used in this battle.
- The defender's deployment zone is up to half way across the table. The defender deploys the part of his force that is available in his deployment zone using the Hidden Set-up rules. He also places obstacles in his deployment zone. If he chooses he may leave any Deep Strike units he has in reserve.
- The attacker splits his army into two waves. Each wave must contain at least a third of the total points value of the army. Note down which units are in which wave, squads cannot be split between waves.
- The attacker takes the first turn. He may hold Deep Strike units from the first wave in reserve, but all the rest of the wave moves on from his board edge in his first turn. Once the first wave is on the board the defender reveals his Hidden Set-up markers.
- All the forces in the attacker's second wave arrive at the beginning of turn 4, and move on from the attacker's board edge.
Diagram: Rearguard Mission Set-Up. A rectangular table with the Attacker's board edge along the top long edge and the Defender's board edge along the bottom long edge. The Defender's Deployment Zone occupies half the table's width, measured from the defender's board edge up to the centre of the table.
Mission Objectives
The attacker must eliminate the rearguard forces quickly and keep the momentum of his advance going. The defender must stall the attack for as long as he can.
If the defender has any units over half strength, or vehicles still able to fire a weapon, within range of any enemy at the end of the game then he wins. If he does not then the attacker has won.
Reserves
See the scenario special rules section for how to place Deep Strike units.
Game Length
The game lasts for a random number of turns (see the scenario special rules).
Line of Retreat
Any unit which is forced to fall back will move towards its own long board edge by the shortest possible route, using the normal Fall Back rules.