What are Strategic Combat Battles
Strategic Combat Maps are abstractions designed to represent combat over huge distances. Whereas a typical battle might take place in a single city, these battles might take place over several cities, including the rivers and mountains between and around them. Naturally, this requires some abstraction.
On the Strategic Combat Map, every square is considered to be a cubic kilometre (1km long, 1km wide and 1km high). Whether the actual space represents a true kilometre by the map scale is irrelevant- regardless, the distances are considered to be huge.
Movement on the Strategic Combat Map
E-Scale Units move differently on the Strategic Combat Map. A Half Move only moves them AB/2, a Full moves them AB and a Charge AB*1.5. A Run (or A-Type Jump or Float) lets them move AB*2km. Similarly, actions such as Maneuver shift an enemy 1km.
If your unit has a special movement value trait such as Flyer or Hoverer, use that when appropriate, calculating your movement in the same way as above.
| STRATEGIC COMBAT MAP MOVEMENT (E-SCALE) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Half Move | Full Move | Charge | Run |
| AB/2 | AB | AB*1.5 | AB*2 |
In this system, multiple E-Scale units may occupy the same space. Hordes may not, however, occupy the same space as another Horde.
Combat on the Strategic Combat Map
Melee Combat
Melee Combat takes place as usual, but with one exception: melee range is treated as 0km. That is to say, to attack someone in melee combat, you must be on the same square as them. Furthermore, you are not considered to be in melee combat with another target unless you've tried to attack with a melee attack or vice versa. The only exception is when attacking Hordes- since Hordes take up an entire square, you may be adjacent to the Horde square to attack it instead.
Ranged Combat
Ranged Combat's major change is the change in weapon range. Working off pure scaling-up, most weapons have terrible range Strategically- even the long-ranged Long Las would only be able to cover 3km. Because of this, the range of weapons is abstracted. Round a weapon's range up to the next highest 10. Then, divide the entire range by 10. This is the weapon's range in Strategic Combat.
Example: The Long Mas Mk2 has a Range of 250dm. 250dm divided by 10 is 25- so the Long Mas has a Strategic Range of 25km.
Regarding Range bonuses: Point Blank is considered to be 0-1km range, so either same square or adjacent square. Short Range is considered to be half the weapon's range, or 10km, whichever is shorter. Long Range is considered to be either 1.5* the weapon's range or +5km, whichever is shorter. Extreme Range is considered to be either 2* the weapon's range or +10km, whichever is shorter.
AoE Attacks
Because of the extreme sizes involved, AoE attacks operate differently. They no longer affect multiple squares. Instead, when hitting a square, you hit a number of targets equal to the Blast size (or, if using a cone attack, 1 hit per 10dm of normal range). If your blast amount hits someone in melee combat, it affects their opponent(s) as well. AT Field AoE Attacks that don't use Blast or Cone (eg. Angel Cross) are treated as hitting targets equal to half the ATS amount required to use the power. (Not counting Augments.) Line attacks, however, do progress over multiple squares.
Difficult Terrain
Strategic maps are often littered with difficult terrain, such as thick forests, craggy mountains or thick running rivers.
On these maps, Difficult Terrain is noted as having a Difficult Terrain Value. This is recorded as a number (1, 2, 3). E-Scale units such as Evas or Superheavies take a -5 Difficult Terrain penalty to Agility, Parry and WS Attack tests per point of Difficult Terrain Value. Hordes, however, must expend a number of Movement Points equal to the Difficult Terrain Value to move onto that square. If they do not have enough Movement Points, they may not move onto that square.
Natural Cover
Certain parts of strategic map count as 'Natural Cover'. Natural Cover consists of sometimes vast regions of landscape which is particularly tough or dense. Natural Cover works like normal Cover, but is special in the following ways:
| Natural Cover |
|---|
| Natural Cover doesn't deplete. No matter how much damage Natural Cover takes, its AP value remains constant. |
| Natural Cover counts as difficult terrain and has a Difficult Terrain Value. |
| Natural Cover AP is not ignored by AoE attacks. Instead, its AP counts as half against AoE attacks. |
| Natural Cover AP is ignored by melee attacks. |
| Natural Cover AP is not a separate pool like normal AP. Instead, you add Natural Cover AP to your own personal AP value. If you have AP 6, and are in an Urban area (AP 2), you will be treated as having AP 8.) |
| Natural Cover is valid terrain for use of the Stealth skill. |
There are several types of Natural Cover. Below will be listed their AP, their Difficult Terrain Value, and other special effects.
| Terrain Type | AP | Difficult Terrain Value | Special |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | 2 AP | 2 | Forests are notoriously flammable. Energy attacks that land in forests have a 20% chance of causing a fire. The fire will originate on the hit square and spread out at a rate of 1 square per turn. |
| Mountain | 3 AP | 4 | Mountains can be treacherous. Units failing a Difficult Terrain test when moving through a Mountain take 1d5 damage which ignores AP/TB. |
| River/Water | 0 AP | 4 | Units in or next to a water square may put out any fires that they suffer from. Some sufficiently deep bodies may have 'negative altitude'. Units such as Evas or Superheavies will sink if they enter these squares unless they successfully pass an Athletics (or Pilot test for Superheavies) test, or are flying/hovering at the time. These units in deep water are treated as normal for underwater combat. |
| Storm | 0 AP | 2 | This Natural Cover affects all units, including fliers. Units in a Storm square take a +30 to tests to resist fires and may put out any fires that they suffer from. BS attacks against or from units in a storm, or travel through a storm, take a -30 penalty, which can be negated by possessing an anti-darkness/fog upgrade. Storms can range from one square wide to multiple squares wide. At the start of every turn, roll a scatter die, then roll a 1d5. Every storm on the map moves in the scatter die's direction a number of squares equal to the 1d5. If a Storm is over other difficult terrain, then increase that difficult terrain Value by +1. |
| Urban | 2 AP | - | Urban centres do not count as Difficult Terrain. |