8: Squads 8.1: The Squad Plate Squad Plates The Standard The Units 8.2: Forming Up Changing Formation The Officer 8.3: Squad Movement Obstacles Infantry and Cavalry Squads 8.4: Squad Action All For One and One For All 8.5: Squad Combat Ranged Attacks Hand to Hand Attacks Charge Attacks 8.6: Taking Damage Targeting a Squad Distributing Damage

Just like a BrikWars player, an Officer's job is to send as many of his minifigs as possible to a horrifying yet entertaining death. At the same time, he's always aware that he won't get any medals for getting killed himself!

“None of us is as dumb as all of us." - Despair Incorporated, "Meetings"

Squad Appreciation A turn spent trying to run this many units individually could literally take hours. Broken into Squads, the battle will still take awhile, but there's a much greater chance of players reaching the second turn. Elements shown: LEGO, Mega Bloks, Little Armory Using Squads offers a number of advantages over handling units individually. Efficiency Efficiency is the number one reason to form a Squad. BrikWars games take long enough as it is; there's no need to slow things down further by handling troops separately when you can run big groups of them at once. Combined Firepower There's only so much damage an individual trooper can do, and many targets have the kind of Armor that's beyond his ability to penetrate. By combining forces with a bunch of his buddies, he can increase his firepower significantly. Giant Attack Rolls If you have a pile of identical troops making identical attacks with identical weapons, you can roll all their Attack and Damage Rolls together in giant handfuls of dice. The intimidation factor alone is extremely satisfying. Safety in Numbers It's a lot easier to kill one guy than to kill a whole bunch of guys watching each other's backs. Because incoming attacks are spread among the Squad members, individual kills are less likely, and low-ranking soldiers make great meat shields for more important units. Hand-to-Hand Scariness If you hit a guy and he hits you back, you're in a fair fight. If you hit a guy and a dozen guys hit you back, it might be time to re-think your tactics. Strength in numbers makes a big difference in Close Combat. Flexibility Squads can divide and re-form to adapt to any condition - two medium Squads giving each other cover can suddenly combine into one big Squad to take down a heavy target or break into a dozen indivudal troops to confuse pursuit.

Tired of flintlock muskets, this squad of redcoats can't wait to give the rebel colonists a taste of their new submachineguns. Elements shown: LEGO, Best Lock

Holy icons make good standards for especially religious Squads, as shown by these dung-worshipping Dungan Jaw-Jaws and their sacred Poo-On-A-Stik. Elements shown: LEGO

The ambassador from Reptilia keeps his personal medik close at hand, and puts as many armored bodies as possible between himself and potential danger. Elements shown: LEGO, Little Armory

“The ultimate in disposing one's troops is to be without ascertainable shape. Then the most penetrating spies cannot pry in nor can the wise lay plans against you.” - Sun Tzu

Example: Joining Forces Example: Throwing on blue livery and running around with swords and shields doesn't appeal to just anyone, so when these swordfighting enthusiasts encounter like-minded individuals, they're eager to join together and adopt a silly group name. In this case, a blue-shirted swordsman encounters two similarly dressed Squads of two swordsmen apiece. The Squad Plate of the closer group is rather optimistically sized, large enough to support all five swordsmen, so they elect to all pile on board and name themselves Shadowhawks. The lone swordsman and the two swordsmen from the smaller Squad Plate spend their Actions to join the larger plate. For the two swordsmen already on the Squad Plate, there's no cost to remain there as the other three join. If the newly-reformed Squad takes an Action this turn, only those two swordsmen will be able to participate; the three that joined during the turn have already spent their Actions.

An individual and two small Squads of swordsmen join together to form a larger Squad. Elements shown: LEGO

Example: Splitting Up Example: A squad of Coke-loving Shadowhawks is horrified to discover that two of their brothers-in-arms are secretly Pepsi drinkers. Unable to resolve their differences, they are forced to go their separate ways. Two of the swordsmen split off from the original Squad of seven in disgrace. Forming their new smaller Squad of two costs them their action for the turn. The five swordsmen remaining in the orginal Squad continue using the original, suddenly-roomier Squad Plate, so they retain their Actions and may use them to sneak-attack the departing group from behind.

A Squad of seven swordsmen splits into Squads of two and five. Elements shown: LEGO

Example: Changing Formation Example: After losing a few members to meddling girlfriends, these four remaining swordsmen no longer need such a large Squad Plate. They tighten up their Formation to present a smaller target against further girl interference. Changing Formation doesn't carry any cost on its own if the Squad Plate remains the same, but in this case, because of the switch from one Squad Plate to another, the Squad must Form Up again and spend its Action to change to the new, smaller plate.

A Squad of four swordsmen tightens formation. Elements shown: LEGO

Example: Breaking Formation Example: The brotherhood of this Squad is too strong to be disrupted by women or cola selection, but the narrow passages of this rocky terrain will require them to break formation if they hope to continue forward. Because their Squad Plate is too wide to fit through the narrow archway, the soliders must break up and move through individually before spending their Actions to re-Form on the other side. The player doesn't have to actually separate the minifigs to act out their individual trips in most cases, unless for some reason the soldiers are interrupted in mid-transit. He can usually just pick up the Squad Plate from one side of the obstruction and deposit it on the other, spending the Action and leaving the breaking and reforming implied.

A large Squad must squeeze to fit through a tight arch. Elements shown: LEGO

“A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say.” - Michael Winner

In most regards, an Officer is nothing more than a slightly-improved Minifig with a couple extra decorations. He has a Skill of 1d8 (or 1d6+1 for players without d8s), a Move of 6”, and Armor of 1d10. His one unique advantage is his Leadership training, which allows him to organize new Squads or reorganize existing ones and put them into immediate Action. Any time an Officer is involved with creating, reorganizing, joining, or splitting a Squad, the usual Action cost for Forming Up is cancelled. Units may Form Up and immediately join in with the Squad’s Action for the turn. Even units who've already spent their Action may still Form Up for free.

Squads that expect to reorganize frequently in response to enemy tactics should always start with at least one Officer. Squads lacking Officers will want to avoid reorganizing as much as possible, to avoid the Action cost involved.

Example: Splitting Up Example: As a parting gift, the benefits of an Officer's Leadership even extend to groups of units breaking off from his Squad to form new ones. In the example shown, a large Squad of an Officer and seven swordsmen break into three smaller Squads. All three of the new Squads have switched to smaller baseplates, but thanks to the residual effects of the Officer's Leadership, none of the three have to spend their Actions to do so.

An Officer directs his Squad to split up and search for clues. Elements shown: LEGO, Mega Bloks, Little Armory

Example: Rough Terrain Example: Squads can deal with rough terrain like this in two ways: they can remain in formation and sacrifice a few Movement inches to climb over the rubble, or they can break formation to thread through individually and spend an Action to form back up afterwards. When there's an Officer in the group, the choice is a lot easier - breaking and reforming is free.

An Officer leads his Squad out of a cursed temple. Elements shown: LEGO, Mega Bloks, Little Armory

Cavalry Squads can't zig-zag left and right the way an Infantry Squad can. They have to wheel around their Squad Plate's front corners in order to turn. Elements shown: LEGO, Red Bean Studios

““There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry.” - General George Armstrong Custer

Squads are divided into two types, depending on their composition. A Squad composed entirely of minifigs, or of units that can move like minifigs (animals, some robots, humanoid aliens), is called an Infantry Squad. An Infantry Squad is treated in much the same way as a regular minifig – it can instantly face in any direction, or run, jump, climb, and swim in a minifig’s standard fashion.

Any Squad that contains vehicles (chariots, pirate ships, starfighters), ridden animals (horses, dragons, giant spiders), or any other unit or device that is directed or operated by another unit (catapults, undead slaves, artillery pieces), is a Cavalry Squad. A Cavalry Squad’s abilities are determined by those of its Squad members as usual, but with two further restrictions:

Cavalry units can’t turn as quickly as Infantry can. When turning, a Cavalry Squad Pivots around one of its Squad Plate's front corners. The smaller the Squad Plate, the more tightly the Squad can turn.

Cavalry units in Formation can’t sidestep or pull other such lateral maneuvers. A Cavalry Squad can only move or turn in the direction it is facing, or backwards at half speed. A Squad of Cavalry butted up against a wall may have to break Formation in order to get itself turned around.

Example: A Mixed Attack Example: A whole platoon of Death Marines has combined into a single Squad for efficient management on a mission to secure provisions. The mega-Squad contains two dozen grunts armed with Pistols (Short-Ranged Weapons, Use:3 Dmg:1d6), a dozen snipers with Rifles (Long-Ranged Weapons, Use:3 Dmg 1d6+1), and three mobile Artillery units (Use:4, Dmg: 1d10). Since the hastily-assembled Squad has no Standard, the player estimates the center of the Squad Plate as best as he can and measures the Attack Range from that point - the target is four inches away. This places him within the Weapon Range of everyone in the Squad, so they'll all get to attack. Although their weapons have the same Use ratings, the player makes separate Attack Rolls for the grunts and snipers, since their attacks do different amounts of damage. Rolling twenty-four Skill dice for the grunts, eighteen meet the weapons' Use requirement of 3 or better; out of twelve dice for the snipers, five are hits. Only one of the Artillery pieces hits on its Use rating of 4. The resulting damage is eighteen hits of 1d6 from the grunts, five of 1d6+1 from the snipers, and one hit of 1d10 from the Artillery, for a total of twenty-three d6es and one d10 plus five. The player loads the appropriate amount of dice into a bucket (there are too many to fit in his hand), shakes them up, and rolls them into an empty tray. Adding the dice together, the total Damage comes to ninety-eight points (the player elects to forego the option of rolling additional Critical Success dice or tracking any Missed Shots). This is more than enough to overcome the Armor rating of the Squad's target. The fast-food cashier who refused to serve them any lunch-menu items before eleven is reduced to a cloud of reddish particulate matter. The players may now refer to the Overkill rules (7.5: Taking Damage) to determine if any of the kitchen equipment behind him survives.

Hand to Hand Attacks
(5.2: Close Combat)
As with minifigs, a Squad’s melee attack may be as simple as jumping an Angry Inch and doing a dice-pile’s worth of standard Ganging-Up Damage to an unresponsive target (5.1: Making Attacks: Combined Attacks). But if the target fights back, then the Squad is entered into Squad Close Combat, and subject to the standard rules of Close Combat Maneuvers.

Squad Close Combat
Close Combat for Squads works the same way as for regular units, except that a Squad’s Attack is the combined Attacks of all its members, and the Counter of a defending Squad is the combined Counters of its members. If the Squad makes a second Attack, it’s the combination of all its Squaddies' second Attacks, and the defender's second Counter is the combination of its Squaddies' second Counters, according to how many units in each group have a second hand weapon and are still alive to use it.

In Squad Close Combat, each Attack and Counter involves a full pile of dice, as all of each Squad's members roll in unison for each step and remove casualties afterwards. Squad members must act uniformly – if one Squaddie attacks with two weapons, all his mates able to do so must follow suit. The defending squad, similarly, can’t have some members Parry while others Counterattack – it chooses one Counter for all its members and sticks to it for that step. Parried damage is distributed among the parrying defenders in exactly the same way as regular damage (8.6: Taking Damage).

Engagement
In order to use the full strength of all Squad members in Close Combat, a Squad must fully Engage with its enemies by bringing its Squad Plate into contact with the target. Once Engaged, all members of the Squad may make Close Combat Attacks (and Counters) against that opponent, regardless of where in the Formation they’re standing.

Although in real life the units remain neatly arranged on their Squad Plates, in game terms a Squad that Engages a target in Close Combat is considered to be all mixed up with that enemy. If either the Squad or the enemy is hit by Ranged Attacks or other non-Close Combat Damage, then the Damage is distributed equally between both of them. The first hit goes to the intended target, and further consecutive hits alternate between the sides afterwards. The alternation may be interrupted if necessary to ensure that no unit among the group of potential targets takes a second hit before all of the targets have taken their first.

Multiple Squads and units can Engage with the same target, and multiple targets can Engage back, sometimes creating a long chain of Engagements called an Engagement Ring. The chain of Engagements can only connect through direct Close Combat – a Squad can’t connect to the Ring by trying to Engage with another friendly Squad, or by brushing up against an enemy Squad but not attacking them.

All Squads and units in an Engagement Ring are treated as one giant Close Combat, regardless of how far one end of the Ring is from the other. That is, all attackers across the Ring attack as one group, and all defenders across the ring Counter as one group, rather than fighting in a number of separate engagements.

Example: An Engagement Ring Example: Tybalt and Mercutio, each armed with rapiers, are fighting in Close Combat. Seeing this, Romeo leaps in to help his friend, attacking Tybalt with a rapier of his own. Two against one seems mighty unfair to a Capulet Squad of swordsmen, who attack Romeo at once. A passing Squad of Montague swordsmen immediately intercede, Engaging with the Capulet Squad in response. The result of all this aggression is a single large Engagement Ring, with Tybalt and the Capulets on one side, and Romeo, Mercutio, and the Montagues on the other. Once the dust has settled and all the Montagues lie dead, Tybalt wipes the blood off his rapier and sets off to find his cousin Juliet to boast about his amazing swordsmanship.