BRIKWARS 2010: Chapter 11: Armies

Chapter 11: Armies

11.1 Military Budgets

Construction Points

Unit Inches

CAPITALISM

11.2 Minifig Specialists

Civilians

Infantry

Operators

Support

Covert Units

Elites

Command

11.3 Squads

The Squad Plate

Squad Movement and Action

Taking Damage

Squad Close Combat

Chapter Eleven: Armies

Controlling thousands of worlds across the Tharcan Galaxy, the M-Throne Empire is committed to using all means necessary to establish the Greater Good for all life-forms. No one has been able to define the Emperor's "Greater Good" precisely, but his "all means necessary" is the largest assembled military force in the known galaxy.

Photo: Kaplan
from "M-Throne Imperial Army Overwatch"
Elements shown: LEGO

"If one keeps his state founded on mercenary arms, one will never be secure; for they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, unfaithful; bold among friends, among enemies cowardly; no fear of God, no faith with men; ruin is postponed only as long as attack is postponed; in peace you are despoiled by them, in war by the enemy. The cause of this is that they have no love nor cause to keep them in the field other than a small stipend, which is not sufficient to make them want to die for you."

- Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince"

Every great civilization has learned through bitter experience to maintain a standing army of trained military professionals. These dedicated soldiers are the men, women, animals, droids, and miscellaneous extras who risk their lives (and the lives of as many innocent bystanders as possible) in an unending quest to destroy as many opponents and as much enemy property as they can, all in the name of their arbitrarily-assigned faction.

In a typical BrikWars game, each faction is represented by a single color (or group of colors, if a player doesn’t have enough minifigs of a single color). In the best-outfitted armies, a faction’s professional soldiers are required to wear suits of these colors, and their vehicles and buildings feature these colors prominently in their paint jobs. ‘Camouflage’ means nothing to hardened minifig veterans; true warriors do not learn French-sounding words, due to the suspicion that familiarity with the language inspires their leaders to surrender right when the good part's about to start.

11.1: Military Budgets

The money is hidden under the mattress. It's also the mattress

How does Mobfather Scratch sleep at night? On a bed made of money.

Money has little purpose in the BrikVerse, apart from the purpose of all things in the BrikVerse: giving minifigs something to murder each other over.

Photo: Scratch
from "Sins of the Mobfather"
Elements shown: LEGO

Just like the rest of BrikWars, how players handle team balance and budgeting is a matter of personal taste rather than any one system set in stone. Depending on a group's desired play style, there are three main options for accounting (along with a very popular fourth option of not bothering with budgets or balance at all and jumping straight to blowing everything up).

Construction Points, presented in the Core Rules, are a fine-grained accounting system that tracks production costs down to the scale of minifigs' individual pieces of equipment.

For larger battles where those small-scale differences are no longer relevant, Unit Inches measure a force's effectiveness rather than the cost to produce it, with one Unit Inch being roughly equivalent to a single minifig.

Finally, if players want balanced forces without having to budget them at all, they can convert to CAPITALISM and institute a Military Draft to divide piles of minifigs and equipment fairly between themselves.

Chapter Eleven Bankruptcy

Except for battles where players are modeling manufacturing supply chains and price manipulation between militarized retail franchises, Construction Points are a complete waste of time and the only reason this currency was included so that it could all be taken away in Chapter Eleven.

In order to complete this rulebook correctly, take a permanent marker and black out every mention of Construction Points in the book, including this sidebar. Pretend they never existed, and treat anyone who claims otherwise as some kind of delusional accountant lunatic.

Construction Points
Where BrikWars' Core Rules acknowledge budgeting at all, they rely on a system of Construction Points (CP) that roughly reflect the resource cost to minifigs for training, raising, building, or buying their units and equipment.

Once players have graduated to larger, less minifig-centric forces in the MOC Combat rules, CP-based budgeting starts to become overburdening. But knowing the in-universe costs of items and personnel can still add RPG-style flavor to scenarios in which minifigs can purchase equipment with collected loot, or to strategic campaigns where factions are concerned with resource generation and unit manufacture between battles.

The greatest treasures attract the fiercest guardians.

Photo: Vami IV
from "BrikCaptions"
Elements shown: LEGO, curiosity, cat

Not all treasure comes in the form of money. Rare loot from boss battles can be more valuable than cash - but some treasures are better left alone.

Photo: Zahru II
from "Perwar Chronicles, Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden"
Elements shown: LEGO, regret

In-Game Construction Point Use
Game Style	Gathering CP	Spending CP
Casual RPG	Defeated enemies drop half their value in CP for heroes to collect, even (or especially) if it makes no sense for them to be carrying anything.	Heroes use their collected CP to buy unit upgrades and new equipment at any time.
Scenario RPG	Enemies defend resource and treasure caches equal to half their CP value for heroes to capture by force or steal through guile.	Heroes spend CP with whatever shops, merchants, and training sites they find within the scenario.
Real-Time Strategy	A minifig working at a resource-gathering point for a turn collects a Skill roll's worth of CP in resources, which must then be delivered to their faction.	Mechanix and Spawners spend collected CP to create new units and equipment on-site.
Strategic Campaign	Factions battle over collectible CP resource caches and Workers, and compete for bonus CP-granting objectives. After each battle, each able-bodied Worker produces their Skill roll's worth of CP for the faction controlling them.	Surviving forces carry over between battles in the campaign. Players use collected CP to buy new units, repairs, and upgrades between battles.

Unit Inches

The GrimDark-Worst-Schlock Ultramaroon™, economically priced at 1 Ű each

The fighting minifigs of UltraMaroon™ Colour Guard™ protect the trademarks and copyrights of GrimDark Worst-Schlock, in between advertising their sevices as collectible mercenaries. Their proud logo is emblazoned on every available surface - the Unit Inch, which also serves as their price tag.

For the most part, while the Construction Point style of bean-counting is appealing to calcified miniatures-wargaming traditionalists, for any normal Human they have no real benefit. Construction Points measure items' resource cost to minifigs, not their practical utility to Humans. A group of forty-three minifigs each armed with one Heavy chain flail has the same CP cost as a single minifig carrying ninety-nine chain flails by himself, but for Human players, the first group is an effective army of forty-three ready soldiers while the second is a pile of ninety-nine problems on a bechained one.

The true power of an army is measured by its capacity to deliver force, measured in comparison to a regular minifig. An armed minifig delivers two dice of effect at five inches of Movement range in a Close Combat attack, or one die of effect at ten inches of range with a Ranged Attack. This is the standard amount of effectiveness per one inch of Size for all appropriately-armed units, and so Humans quantify an army's power in the measurement most important to Humans: Unit Inches, or Ű.

Budgeting with Unit Inches is much faster and easier than with Construction Points. With only a few modifiers, the cost of an army is simply the combined Sizes of all of its minifigs, Creatures, and Vehicles. Weapons, devices, and ammunition are free, naturally limited by the Power and Actions and carrying capacity of the units needed to operate them.

Unit Inches
Unit or Item	Ű Cost	Notes
Free Stuff
Non-aligned minifigs, Creatures, Vehicles, and Field Hazards	Free	controlled in the Civilian Round or by Mob Rule
Non-aligned Buildings and scenery		Structure Level: 1 Power: 0
Weapons and Devices		Can be made Autonomous for 1Ű per Action
Field Hazards		Can be made Autonomous for 1Ű per Action
Minifigs
Minifigs	1Ű	-
Minifig Specialists	1Ű (Heroes and Great Leaders: 2Ű)	(see 11.2: Minifig Specialists)
Creatures
Horses	2Ű	one free Rider
Vermin	Swarm Size Ű	(see 10.3: Monsters)
Creatures	Creature Size Ű	Structure Level: ½ Move: 5" for two-legged Move: 10" for four-legged
Vehicles
Vehicles	Vehicle Size Ű	one free Pilot Structure Level: one half of Size", up to SL:3 Move: 5" for Size 1" or smaller Move: 10" for Size 2" or larger
Buildings
Buildings	1Ű per 5" Size	Structure Level: one fifth of Size", up to SL:3
Unique Abilities
SuperNatural Dice	1Ű per 2d4, d6, or d8	(see D.2: SuperNatural Dice)
SuperNatural Dice	2Ű per d10 or d12	(see D.2: SuperNatural Dice)
Heroic Ego	1Ű per Feat	-

Creation Mods
Budgeting with Unit Inches is much less fine-grained than Construction Points, and Creations of the same Size and type will have the same Ű cost regardless of weapon and device loadouts.

Creation Mods
Type	Positive Mod	Negative Mod	Notes
Skill	Skilled: +1 Skill die size	Unskilled: -1 Skill die size	Creations with Minds only
Skill	Skilled: +1 Skill die size	Half-Minded	Creations with Minds only
Movement	Fast: +50% Move inches	Slow: Half Speed	Creations with Propulsion only
Armor	Heavy: +1 SL (max Size")	Light: -1 SL (min SL:0)	-
Cost	Bargain: -½Ű (min cost 1Ű)	Premium: +1Ű	-

For changes to a Creation's basic stats and abilities, players apply matched pairs of Creation Mods. Like with Weapon Mods (8.7: Custom Weapons), each negative Mod pays for one positive Mod. A siege tank might be Heavy (+1 Structure Level) but Slow (permanent Half Speed); fresh infantry recruits might come at a Bargain (-½Ű each) but be woefully Incompetent (Half-Minded); a racing steamroller can be made extra Fast (+50% Move inches) but must be bought at a Premium ( +1Ű to cost).

Specialty Equipment
Because Unit Inches are based on unit capability rather than material costs, many Specialties are balanced by requiring a minifig to carry a Specialty-specific tool. A minifig's ability to deliver force is determined by what he's carrying, so taking up one of his hands cuts his general effectiveness in half and acts as a tradeoff for the extra abilities of a Specialty.

Game Balance and Victory
Because Unit Inches are much faster to calculate, it's much easier for players using Ű to compare their relative strength turn by turn. With only a few exceptions, an army's Ű value is equal to the total Effective Size of its remaining forces (7.2: Taking Damage).

At the beginning of the game, if players want to have balanced teams without having to change the composition of their individual forces, any player or team whose armies are worth fewer Ű than their most powerful opponent or opponents can take one Almighty Benny per Ű to make up the difference (1.4 The Spirit of the Game).

As the battle progresses, any player or team whose remaining forces are worth less than half the Ű of their most powerful opponent or opponents must trigger an Endgame of their choice (MOC Combat: Endgames) if they haven't already.

CAPITALISM

CAPITALISM

In the earliest incarnations of the BrikVerse, minifigs were divided into strict castes determined by headwear. The first three hats were handed down from the ProtoFig forebears of BR 1,977: flat-topped POLICE hats, ten-gallon COWBOY hats, and GIRL pigtails, corresponding to the three ProtoFig genders of sir, dude, and ma'am.

Three more were invented by the first minifigs of BR 1,978: the CASTLE helm, the CITY hard hat, and finally the helmet of the Deadly SPACE Man. This hat-based system, known as CAPITALISM, gave order and stability to all minifigs' lives, along with immediate justification to murder each other for their haberdashery.

Over time, CAPITALISM fell out of favor, thanks to the continually-expanding explosion of new CAPS and job roles in subsequent BrikVerses. It retains pockets of support among konservative and fundamentalist factions who hold to an originalist reading of minifig identities, particularly in the United Systems Alliance, thanks in part to their state hero, CAPITAL A.

By replacing his removable CAP with an unremovable CAPITAL A tattooed onto his own face, CAPITAL A has remade himself into CAPITALISM's apotheosis and avatar. It was CAPITAL A who shared his dream with the people of the United Systems Alliance that they could one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the type of their hat, but also by their car and their consumer electronics and the contents of their weapon holsters.

(BrikWiki entry: United Systems Alliance)

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society."

- Mark Twain

Under CAPITALISM, minifigs aren't defined by anything so esoteric as their thoughts or souls or what's in their hearts. Just like Humans, minifigs in a CAPITALIST system have no identity or value apart from their material possessions, and they're both willing and eager to sacrifice the lives of friends and family for sweet, sweet meaningless items.

Career Assignment Pieces

"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life."

- from The Creed of the United States Marine

CAPITALIST minifigs are sorted into jobs based on their uniform and equipment. A scientist isn't a scientist because he wasted time going to school or studying hard in some laboratory; he's a scientist because he has a lab coat. A Hero is a Hero because he has a cape, a Heavy is a Heavy because he has a weapon that's Too Big, and the the divine of a galaxy-spanning space civilization's God-Emperor is granted as a side effect of having the fanciest hat.

The piece of clothing or equipment that determines a minifig's role in life is his Career Assignment Piece, or CAP. Once a minifig receives his CAP, he's stuck with the job it assigns, even if he scavenges different equipment later or loses his own CAP through misadventure or criminal sentencing (under CAPITALISM, deCAPitation is the harshest form of CAPITAL punishment).

A CAP can be any item, from a pair of binoculars (making its owner a Scout) to a jet fighter (making its owner a Pilot). Most minifig Specialist jobs (described in the next section) have their own default CAPs, but players should feel free to make up their own CAPs according to their available brick collections and desired military theme.

Instruments of CAPITALISM

Specialist	CAP		Examples
Civilians
Civilian		Bare Hands or food	pizza, carrot, wine goblet
Professional		Professional tool or uniform	mop, frying pan, money
Infantry
Minifig		Any weapon	sword, baseball bat, rocket chainsaw launcher
Worker		Worker's tool or uniform	pickaxe, galley oar, ball and chain
Cannon Fodder		Mook Gun: Use:3 Range:5" Dmg:1 Mook Hand Weapon: Use:3 Range:CC Dmg:1
Skirmisher		One-handed weapon	knife, revolver, small spear
Scout		Optics	binoculars, telescope
Marksman		Minifig Long-Ranged Weapon	rifle, longbow, energy staff
Phalanx		Large Shield	riot shield, Viking round shield, Roman scutum
Sniper		Scoped Short- or Long-Ranged Weapon	sniper rifle, sniper longbow, sniper energy staff
Heavy	any Too Big weapon		minigun, anime sword, cartoon hammer
Operators
Rider		Horse	horse, hoverbike, hang glider
Pilot		Vehicle	steam shovel, blimp, aircraft carrier
Gunner		Mounted Weapon	catapult, battleship deck gun, machine gun emplacement

Specialist	CAP		Examples
Support
Tek		Another Support Unit	Medik, Mechanik, Engineer, Cybernetik
Medik		Medikal tool	syringe, scalpel, first aid kit, whiskey
Mechanik		Mechanik's tool	wrench, hammer, drill
Engineer		Engineering tool	laptop computer, sextant, sonic slide rule, coffee mug
Cybernetik		Mad science utensil	circular saw, ice cream scoop, magic chemicals, remote control
Covert Units
Thief		Bandana	head bandana, do rag, backwards CAP, pretty floral bonnet
Infiltrator		Disguise	face bandana, fake mustache, tiki mask
Saboteur		Two-Handed tool	monkey wrench, shovel, crowbar,sledgehammer
Assassin		Hood	ninja hood, cloak hood, hoodie
Elite Units
Commando		Backpack	pack, basket
Hero		Cape	cape, cloak, trenchcoat
Command Units
Officer		Shoulder decoration	epaulets, pauldrons, spiked shoulder armor
Leader		Motivational tool	pom-poms, megaphone, electric guitar, inspirational cat poster
Commander		Communications device	radio, trumpet, signal flag
Great Leader		Unusually fancy hat	plumed enviro-helmet, golen crown, striped stovepipe hat

Laissez-Faire CAPITALISM

Under standard CAPITALISM, a minifig's first CAP-assigned job is permanent. In the most libertarian form of CAPITALISM, minifigs can change careers at will, simply by picking up different equipment. A lowly janitor can grant himself an instant promotion to Medik Hero Assassin by picking up a syringe, a cape, and a hood, skipping years of Medikal study, hours of Heroic posturing, and minutes of spawn camping. Just as easily, a Medik, Hero, and Assassin can find themselves demoted to rank civilians by allowing themselves to be bamboozled by a janitor.

Laissez Faire CAPITALISM results in even greater anarchy than usual BrikWars, and gives players the option to skip boring pre-battle loadout selection in favor of hordes of unarmed minifigs making a mad dash for equipment caches once the battle begins. It's particularly appropriate for FPS deathmatch arenas and scenarios based around Black Friday mall-looting shopping sprees.

The Military Draft
In a purely CAPITALIST battle, players don't have to bother with budgeting at all. Instead, they put all factions' combined forces and equipment in a pile between them and take turns choosing assets for their teams in a Military Draft. (If the teams have unequal numbers of allied players, use the system for taking turns in Mob Rule to keep forces balanced between alliances (MOC Combat: Endgames).)

Players can divide up the Draft options however they like. It can be as granular as picking out individual minifigs, weapons, and vehicle parts one at a time, or as chunky as choosing between pre-equipped minifig squads and fully-loaded vehicles and pre-built military bunkers. There's no need to worry about whether all the options are equal or balanced, since all players are choosing from the same supply; but in order to maintain the appearance of fairness, the player who divides up the pile for everyone to pick from should then take the last spot in the Draft rotation.

Once everyone has picked out their military resources, players can assign all of their equipment and assets to their individual minifigs as CAPs, determining their Specialties immediately and allowing them to jump straight into battle.

Expanded Draft Picks

Military Drafting doesn't have to just be about weapons and personnel. To add variety, players might also include:

Turn Order. In a tight battle where initiative is a decisive factor, players can draft for who goes first.
Battlefield starting locations. The last player to pick a starting location gets stuck with whatever's the last one remaining.
Random stacks of Almighty Bennies, making a faction smaller but more unpredictable.
Victory Objectives. Players with these objectives gain one more option for victory than the default of trying to be the last faction standing.
Bonus Objectives. Players who achieve these objectives receive a special in-game bonus - reinforcements, Bennies, or special events.

11.2: Minifig Specialists

Minifig Specialists
Job Title	Skill	Move	Armor	Specialty	CP	Ű
Civilians
The Civilian		5"	4	Civilized	free
The Professional		5"	4	Civilized Job Training	free
The Animal	(varies)
Infantry
The Minifig		5"	4		4CP	1Ű
The Worker			4	Job Training	3CP	½Ű
The Cannon Fodder			0	Irrelevant	2CP	¼Ű
The Skirmisher		7"	3	Harassment	5CP	1Ű
The Scout		5"	4	Pathfinding Tracking	6CP	1Ű*
The Marksman				Marksmanship	5CP
The Phalanx				Shield Wall March
The Heavy		4"	5	Compensating
The Sniper		5"	4	Sniping
Operators
The Rider		5"	4	Horsemanship	5CP	included with Horse
The Pilot				Stunt Driving		included with Vehicle
The Gunner				Gunnery		1Ű*
Support
The Tek		5"	4	Assistance	5CP	1Ű; must be assigned to another Specialist
The Mechanik				Mechanikal Aptitude		1Ű*
The Engineer				Rationalism
The Medik				Ker-Triage	6CP
The Cybernetik				Mad Science	6CP
Covert
The Thief		5"	4	Stealth Parkour! Theft	7CP	1Ű
The Infiltrator				Impersonation	5CP	1Ű
The Saboteur				Stealth Sabotage	6CP	1Ű*
The Assassin				Stealth Ambush	6CP	1Ű*
Elite
The Commando		5"	4	Field Training	6CP	1Ű*
The Hero		7"	2d6	Heroic Ego	12CP	2Ű
Command
The Officer		5"	4	Coordination	4CP	1Ű
The Leader				Inspiration	5CP	1Ű*
The Commander				Strategic Intervention	6CP	1Ű*
The Great Leader				Megalomania	6CP	2Ű

* - units with Ű costs marked with an asterisk have a starting equipment requirement

There are many types of soldiers, from generic troopers to highly trained Specialists like Medix and Mechanix. Every type of soldier has its part to play during the course of a battle.

Specialty Dice
Many Specialist minifigs have a Specialty marked with a , , or . These are Specialty Dice, which are rolled to determine the effectiveness of the Specialty when it's used.

There are two units (described in their own sections, further below) with the ability to modify or borrow Specialty Dice. The Tek gives Assistance to boost an ally's Specialty Die by one die size, and the Commando can copy Specialty Die abilities that were possessed by any allied unit at the start of the battle, but with the die size reduced by one. Teks and Commandos can only work with Specialties marked with Specialty Dice; other Specialties have no effect.

Civilians

"I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago."

- from the diary of Anne Frank

Sadly, not every minifig in the BrikWars universe is cut out for military service. Whether due to physical, psychological, or philosophical weakness, many unfortunate individuals are denied the opportunity to take part in their factions' campaigns of mass destruction. Even so, this unhappy majority still has its purpose to serve. Without the teeming Civilian hordes, who would build the war machines? Who, like rutting vermin, would breed the next generation of soldiers? How would the military finance its operations, without a large audience for their recreational wars on pay-per-view?

For minifigs, the blood, gore, and agony they inflict on their opponents is only half the fun. Piles of steaming enemy corpses are only appetizers in anticipation of the main course of terror, disfigurement, and lifelong psychological trauma that they can bring about by staging battles in the midst of innocent and unsuspecting Civilian populations.

Civilians will almost never have any serious effect on the outcome of a battle (unless one of the Heroes refuses to fight until he gets some doughnuts, in which case his faction had better hope one of the local Professionals is a PastryChef). Civilians exist only to add casual casualties and a light-hearted body count, so there's no need to stress out over how their initial placement and control are handled. Players can just go with whatever their playing style suggests.

The Civilian Round
If there isn't an extra player who wants the unenviable task of controlling the Civilian population, the simplest way to handle them is to place all Civilians, Civilian vehicles, and Civilian buildings as free scenery during battlefield setup. At the end of each round, after all players have moved their own units during their respective turns, there is a Civilian Round during which all players (regardless of whose "side" the Civilians are on) take turns picking an unused Civilian and directing them through their everyday mundane tasks. The Civilian Round can serve as a useful break to relax, step out to hit the refrigerator or bathroom, or explore the complex emotional melodrama of the soap-opera lives of common Civilian minifigs in between rounds of more focused violence.

Civilians may occasionally form small armies of armed rabble, if the military units get them riled up enough. It can sometimes be fun to play out battles in which one or more armies has a large Civilian component, just to watch the Civilians get blasted in a futile attempt to have any effect against vastly superior forces. Civilians may sometimes receive unexpected assistance from unaffiliated Troopers with whom they have shared pizza or nachos.

The Civilian

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	0	0
Specialty Civilized

The Civilian

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

- Thomas Jefferson

Most Civilians don't have sense enough to get the hell out of a war zone, and end up stumbling across streets filled with gyro fire and exploding vehicles on their way to work at the post offices, gas stations, and fast-food franchises that compose the majority of Civilian cities. Occasionally, Civilians will band together in riots and uprisings against government oppression or in support of their local sports team. Other times, they'll grow tired of the local warlords' continued raids for supplies and entertainment, and take it upon themselves to try and fend off the brigands. Regardless of the situation, a Civilian heading out onto the battlefield hasn't got much to look forward to besides getting splattered.

Civilians don't have the training to use military-only equipment like surface-to-air missiles and assault helicopters. They can figure out how to use standard minifig weapons, but don't expect them to be very effective with them.

Specialty: Civilized
Civilized Specialty (+0CP): civil units are controlled by all players in sequence in a Civilian Round
A minifig suffering from the Civilized disability has very little ability to act in its own self-interest or follow through with consistent plans. Players take turns controlling as many Civilized units as they can stand to during a special Civilian Round.

The Professional

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	0	0
Specialties Civilized Job Training

Janitors and secretaries are the most dangerous employees in any organization.

Photo: Kommander Ken
from "Revel Rousers - Turn Three"
Elements shown: LEGO

The Professional

"You can't help respecting anybody who can spell 'Tuesday,' even if he doesn't spell it right. But spelling isn't everything; there are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count."

- Rabbit (A.A. Milne)

Even without any enemies to kill, Civilians still have jobs to do. A Civilian doing a job is treated as a Professional. Very few Professional jobs involve killing, and so all Professionals hate their jobs. The mark of a true Professional is that he'll drop his job at a moment's notice if there's a chance for any real action.

Specialty: Job Training

Job Training Specialty (+0CP): grants Skill

for specific job-related tasks
Job Training makes a Professional slightly less incompetent, using his Specialty

instead of his Skill for any job-related tasks. A Barista Professional, for instance, has a Civilian's regular d4 Skill for non-coffee-related tasks, but a

for operating an espresso machine, overcharging customers, and dodging awkward pick-up lines from hipster coffeeshop deadbeats.

The Professional is still subject to a Civilian's characteristic Civilized handicap; players take turns controlling Professionals in the Civilian Round along with all the other Civilians.

Few have the guts to go one-on-one with a polar bear

These conscripts are unable to explain to Admiral Gradenko why they decided to summon a polar bear onto the Soviet flagship. Luckily, the bear is able to bring the discussion to a close with several convincing points.

Photo: Duerer
from "The Wolf and the Bear: Part II"
Elements shown: LEGO

The Animal

"I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves."

- August Strindberg

Animals
Animal	Cost	Skill	Move	Armor	Notes	Example Animals
Vermin (Size 0") (10.3: Monsters)
Vermin	2CP		4" (Spidering)	0	Bite (Use:1 Dmg:1)	mice, giant ants, cats, crabs
Venomous Vermin	3CP		4" (Spidering)		Poison Bite (Use:1 Dmg:1d4 Poison)	snakes, scorpions, spiders
Flying Vermin	3CP		4" Flying		Bite (Use:1 Dmg:1)	birds, bats
Small Animals (Size 1")
Small Animal	4CP / 1Ü		8"	1d6	Bite/Kick (Use:2 Dmg:1d6)	dogs, pigs, goats, octopi
Clever Animal	4CP / 1Ü		8"	1d6	Can use minifig weapons and equipment	monkeys
Medium Animals (Size 2") (Chapter H: The Horse)
Horse	7CP / 2Ü		10"	1d6	Bite/Kick (Use:2 Dmg:1d6)	horses, ostriches, cows
Flying Horse	12CP / 2Ü		10"		Bite/Kick (Use:2 Dmg:1d6)	winged horses
Medium Predator	7CP / 2Ü	( CC)	8"		Bite/Claw (Use:2 Dmg:1d8)	bears, alligators, sharks, giant wolves
Large Animals (Size 3")
Elephants	7CP / 3Ü		10"	1d6	Tusks/Horns (Use:4 Dmg:2d6)	elephants, triceratopses, rhinos

Birds and beasts come in as wide a variety as minifigs, and players are free to cook up all kinds of custom creatures using the Creatures rules (Chapter 10: Creatures). For basic animals straight from the box, it's easier to stick to generic Animal stats with minor fudging as the situation calls for.

All basic Animals have one or more varieties of Half Mindedness. Animals who aren't controlled by a specific player are made part of the Civilian Round (for peaceful animals) or controlled by Mob Rule (for predators) (MOC Combat: Endgames).

Infantry
Infantry is the heart and soul of all BrikWars armies. An army's infantry units are responsible for operating the weapons and machinery of war, keeping score with their own accumulating corpses, and enjoying the spoils of victory in the rare instance that any of them survive.

It's possible, although inadvisable, to field infantry-free armies made up of automated machinery and strange creatures. But without the hopes and dreams of fighting minifigs to terminate violently and splatter all over the landscape, the exercise inevitably falls flat. Conveniently, the hopes and dreams of fighting minifigs are almost entirely concerned with splattering each other all over landscapes, and so any ensuing splattery tends to be a satisfying experience for both splatterers and splatterees.

The Minifig

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	4	1

The Minifig (Chapter 2: The Mighty Minifig)
The minifig is the basic unit of BrikWars, and the foundation from which other specialist minifigs are created. Although lacking the Specialties of more advanced units, minifigs can perform any basic function of combat to a competent degree - operating weapons, riding animals, piloting vehicles, and committing battlefield atrocities with a standard d6 of Skill.

The Worker

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	3	½
Specialty Job Training

The Worker
A Worker is a special kind of Professional who works directly on behalf of his faction, rather than bumbling around Stupidly with the other Civilians. All Workers are Half-Minded - either Programmed, Submissive, or Subjugated (10.1: Minds) - and can be automatically converted and put to work by any new faction that captures them (possibly changing their Half Mind in the process - a group of Submissive construction workers might become Subjugated when captured by a hated enemy).

Specialty: Job Training
Job Training Specialty (+0CP): grants Skill

for specific job-related tasks
As for Professionals, Job Training lets Workers roll their Specialty

rather than Skill for any job-related tasks. Unlike Professionals, this enhanced Skill is used for the benefit of the Worker's faction rather than for screwing around uselessly in the background. Workers are especially important in CP-based strategic campaigns, where each able-bodied Worker produces his Specialty

worth of Construction Points at a time.

The Cannon Fodder

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	0	2	¼
Specialty Irrelevant Mook weapons: Use:3 Range:CC or 5" Damage:1

The Cannon Fodder
Cannon Fodder are forgettable extras who exist only to absorb enemy ammunition. If players want the feeling of a giant battle without all the overhead of fielding minifigs who actually matter to anyone, Cannon Fodder make great filler. Cannon Fodder are often paired with Spawners (10.3: Monsters) set up to respawn them endlessly, because sometimes it takes multiple incarnations to really hammer home their disposability.

Specialty: Irrelevant
Irrelevant Specialty (+0CP): attacks do 1 point of Damage; unit has Effective Size 0" for many purposes
Cannon Fodder are each equipped with one ranged or melee Mook Weapon. Attacks made with a Mook Weapon (along with any other weapon carried or operated by a Cannon Fodder unit) are Irrelevant, doing only one point of Damage - enough to kill other Cannon Fodder and Vermin, but largely ineffective against real targets unless used in Combined Fire with minifigs operating real weaponry. Cannon Fodder (along with Vehicles or devices operated solely by Cannon Fodder) have zero Momentum Dice, zero Physical Opposition, zero throwing ability, and can Shove for a grand total of zero inches.

The Skirmisher

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	7"	3	5	1
Specialty Harassment

The Skirmisher
A Skirmisher is a quick and lightly-armored minifig specializing in harassment, evasion, and avoiding responsibility or consequences. Skirmishers are useful for pinning down clumsier foes with open attacks followed by flimsy evasions like "it was just a joke," "it's not my fault you're too sensitive," and the classic "I'm just going out for some cigarettes." The stupider the excuse, the better for keeping targets confused and off-balance while the Skirmishers escape repercussions while their heavier allies maneuver in for the kill.

Specialty: Harassment
Harassment Specialty (+1CP): unit can exit Close Combat freely without drawing Counterattacks

"That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, it's not a big deal. And if it is, it's not my fault. And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it."

- The Narcissist's Prayer, author unknown

A Skirmisher has special Harassment training, allowing him to exit Close Combat freely without drawing the usual Counterattacks from his opponents, as long as he moves to a distance outside of their Close Combat weapons' reach (including any Angry Inches).

Skirmishers only use one-handed weapons and equipment. A Skirmisher who equips larger items, or whose movement is reduced to Half Speed for any reason, is unable to use his Harassment ability and must suffer Counterattacks as normal when Withdrawing.

The Scout

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	1
Specialties Pathfinding Tracking

The Scout (8.5: Field Hazards)
The Scout is an ultra-paranoid minifig with a sixth sense for navigating Field Hazards, detecting hidden enemies, and Marking targets for allied attacks.

Specialty: Pathfinding

Pathfinding Specialty (+1CP): allows bypass of Concealed Hazards for self and others at Half Speed; allows manipulation of locks and Triggers;

Skill vs. Field Hazards
Scouts have the Pathfinding Specialty, which allows them to safely navigate Field Hazards (8.5: Field Hazards). Traveling at Half Speed, Scouts can find safe routes through Concealed Hazards, and they can use an Action to safely bring a Squad safely along with them.

Scouts automatically detect hidden traps and triggers within their field of view, and using a full-round Action, Scouts can operate or disable locks, traps, and mechanisms belonging to any team. Scouts roll their Specialty Die rather than Skill for any roll related to a Field Hazard or Mechanism.

Specialty: Tracking
Tracking Specialty (+1CP): automatically Detects Stealth; allows Marking of targets for visibility and +1 Attack Bonus
In addition, the Scout has the Tracking Specialty, allowing him to cancel all enemy Stealth effects and see all Hidden units within their field of view (see Covert Units, further below). Any unit or target visible to a Scout is also visible to all allied units, even if they don't have line of sight to the target.

Tracking also allows Scouts to spend an Action to Mark a single target within 8" that they can see. Until the beginning of the Scout's next turn, the target is considered visible to all allies, and all allies recieve a +1 Attack Bonus when making Ranged Attacks against it.

The Marksman

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1
Specialty Marksmanship

The Marksman
The Marksman is a minifig who specializes in combat with minifig Ranged Weapons. Medieval longbowmen, digital disc-throwers, and halfling slingers are all examples of Marksmen.

Specialty: Marksmanship
Marksmanship Specialty (+1CP): grants a special

in Ranged Attacks which can add to Range, replace Skill, or replace one die of Damage
Marksmen have the Marksmanship Specialty, granting them a Specialty

they can use to increase the effectiveness of their Ranged Attacks. Once per turn, when making a non-Arc-Fire Ranged Attack with a minifig Ranged Weapon, the Marksman can either replace one of his weapon's Damage dice with his Specialty

, to roll his Specialty

instead of Skill, or to add his Specialty

to the Range of his weapon in inches.

The Phalanx

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1
Specialties Shield Wall March

The Phalanx

"When someone asked King Demaratus why the Spartans visited disgrace upon those among them who lost their shields, but did not do the same to those who lost their helmets or breastplates, he said, "Because the armor they put on to protect themselves, but with the shield they defend the whole line.'"

- Plutarch

Phalanx units specialize in coordinated use of Heavy Shields in Squad formations (11.3: Squads). Greek hoplites, Viking raiders, and modern militarized riot police are all Phalanx units.

Specialty: Shield Wall
Shield Wall Specialty (+1CP): units can cooperate to form a Shield Wall, automatically Parrying all Damage from one direction
If a Phalanx unit is in a Squad with one or more other Phalanx units, all with Heavy Shields pointed in the same direction, then they have formed a Shield Wall. While protected by a Shield Wall, all Damage from the other side of the Shield Wall is automatically Parried, without spending any of the units' Actions or Counters. Heavy Infantry can't use their Shields to Parry damage from any other direction without breaking the Shield Wall.

A Phalanx Squad cannot be forced to engage in Squad Melee through a Shield Wall. If they are forced to engage in Melee from an attack on one of their un-Sheild-Walled sides, or if they choose to drop the Shield Wall and engage in a Melee voluntarily, the Shield Wall is disrupted and any Shield Wall benefits are cancelled for as long as they are in Melee.

A Phalanx can open and close a Shield Wall very quickly in order to let allied units pass through unhindered without losing their Shield Wall advantages. A group of Skirmishers coordinating with a Phalanx can be great for popping through a Shield Wall to harry enemies on the other side before escaping again.

Specialty: March
March Specialty (+1CP): units Marching in formation ignore Movement penalties from Body Armor or Heavy Armor while walking
If a Marching unit is in a Squad with at least one other Marching unit, they can March in formation, walking at normal speed and ignoring Movement penalties from Body Armor or Heavy Armor. Marching is walking only - units cannot jump, Sprint, or climb in the same turn as Marching, although they can still Bail if necessary. Marching does not cost an Action.

The Heavy

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	4"	5	5	1

Specialty Compensating

The Heavy (8.1: Weapon Size)
The Heavy is a physically powerful minifig who can perform inadvisable feats of strength as long as he doesn't have to move anywhere at the same time.

Specialty: Compensating
Compensating Specialty (+1CP): when standing still, can use Weapons 1" larger than normally allowed
Whether due to superior strength, coordination, or the superhuman determination that rises from crippling insecurity, Heavies are able to wield larger weapons than other minifigs thanks to their Compensating ability. As long as a Heavy is standing still, he can act as though he had a Size of 2" rather than 1" for purposes of lifting, operating, and throwing objects, and for delivering or resisting Grabs, Shoves, and Collisions.

Most often, Heavies use Compensating to carry and fire a 2" Ranged Weapon, but it also allows the use of larger Close Combat Weapons. A Compensating Heavy can wield Heavy Weapons as if they were Hand Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons as if they were Heavy Weapons, and Size 3" or 4" Melee Weapons as if they were Two-Handed Weapons.

The Sniper

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1
Specialties Sniping

The Sniper
When minifigs are diagnosed with farsightedness, they're sent away to special camps under the supervision of carefully-trained Mediks who screw up their eyeglass prescriptions to cause even-farthersightedness. This makes the patients unbearably clumsy for close-up work, but preternaturally precise at a distance. As a side effect, they also gain a tolerance for lots and lots of camping - perfect candidates to become Snipers.

Specialty: Sniping
Sniping Specialty (+1CP): can Snipe with a scoped Long-Ranged Weapon as a Full-Round Action, Automatically Hitting targets at least 5" away
As a Full-Round Action, a Sniper can Snipe with a scoped Long-Range Weapon. The weapon must have a physical scope built onto it, even if the Sniper has to steal a Scout's Optics Tool and a Marksman's Long-Ranged Weapon and combine the two himself.

When Sniping at a target five inches away or more, the Sniper doesn't have to make an Attack Roll - every shot is an Automatic Hit, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely. The Damage can still be affected by Out of Range penalties, and RedShirts can still intercept the shot, but the Sniper's aim is always perfect.

Like an Aiming Marksman, the Sniper can't use any Move inches during the turn, and his Sniping abilities are canceled if he's interrupted. Because his field of view is so constrained, he's treated as an inanimate object while Sniping, and he can't Parry enemy attacks or make Response Actions of any kind.

Operators
Minifig-level units running around generously gifting each other with horrible injuries and death are the easiest for Human players to empathize with, but they're far from the most powerful. Siege-level Vehicles, Weapons, and steeds bring the heavy piles of dice, and all of these larger Creations benefit from the skills of specialized minifig Operators.

The Rider

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	*
* Included with Horse
Specialty Horsemanship

The Rider (H.2: Riding a Horse)
While any minifig can ride a Horse, the Rider is an experienced horseman who fights as one with his steed. Riders are most often found on the back of some variety of Horse, but their skills apply to any vehicle or mount, from dragons to riding lawn mowers to assault helicopters.

Specialty: Horsemanship
Horsemanship Specialty (+1CP): can control a Horse and make attacks from horseback as part of a single Action
Where lesser minifigs have to choose between either controlling their steed's Movement and weapons or fighting with their own minifig weapons in hand, a Rider has the Horsemanship to do both at once, as naturally as if they were a single unit. In Close Combat, Riders and their mounts can Counter and take attacks for each other at will.

When a Skill Roll is called for, the mount always uses the Rider's Skill, regardless of whose is higher.

The Pilot

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	*
* Included with Vehicle
Specialty Stunt Driving

The Pilot (9.4: Piloting)
All minifigs can operate vehicles, but only a Pilot can show how they were meant to be driven. Whether anyone else agrees that forklifts and hot air balloons were meant to be driven that way is immaterial.

Specialty: Stunt Driving

Stunt Driving Specialty (+1CP): once a turn, defy Movement rules for a controlled Vehicle for up to

Stunt Inches
Even compared to other minifigs, Pilots lack any sense of self-preservation. Once per turn, a Pilot can harness this advantage to violate the laws of both physix and courteous driving to pull off a Stunt Driving maneuver.

The Pilot declares the Stunt he's about to pull, measures how many inches this will push the vehicle beyond its sane performance limits, and rolls his Specialty

. If the number rolled is equal to or higher than the number of Stunt inches needed, then the Stunt is successful.

If not, then the number rolled is the numer of inches for which the Stunt succeeds, and the remaining inches are given to an Enemy to use as Thrust against the vehicle while he or she explains how the Stunt failed disastrously.

The Gunner

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1*
* Must be assigned to a mounted weapon
Specialty Gunnery

The Gunner (8.6: Manning Guns)
All minifigs love firing mounted weapons, regardless of which direction they're pointed or what gets destroyed in the process. In the occasional instance where accuracy is required, a team of trained Gunners can make the difference between hitting picked targets and blowing oneself up at random.

Specialty: Gunnery

Gunnery Specialty (+1CP):

Skill with mounted weapons; allows Gunnery Support Action
For any Skill Roll related to the use of a Weapon mounted on a Creation, Gunnery allows the Gunner to roll his Specialty

rather than his Skill.

Gunners can spend their Actions to provide Gunnery Support to another unit operating a large Weapon, granting cumulative +1 Attack Bonuses to fire. The number of minifigs in the firing team (the firing minifig, plus the minifigs providing Gunnery Support or Assistance) is limited to the number of inches in the Size of the Weapon, and each minifig must be able to access the Weapon or a working set of Controls for it.

As long as the Weapon keeps firing at the exact same point, and neither the Weapon or the target move, the Attack Bonuses from Gunnery Support continue until the Weapon moves or aims somewhere else. Each turn that the firing team fires the Weapon at the same target, they can Home In, adding additional Gunnery Support to the continuing Attack Bonus from the previous turn. Any Critical Failure cancels the Homing In bonus and requires the Gunners to start over.

Support

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance."

- Kurt Vonnegut

Fighting battles is hard work, and all elements of a military force can use some Support. Whether stapling misplaced limbs back onto soldiers, bolting misplaced thrusters back onto rocket ships, or mixing things up and duct taping the rockets onto the soldiers to make rocket soldiers, Support units are on the job to restore units' capacity for aggression in order to keep violence flowing freely.

The Specialties of most Support Units depend on a successful Construction Action (7.3: Field Construction). To initiate a Construction Action, a minifig spends an Action and immediately goes On Break, doing nothing else for the rest of his own turn. From the end of that turn to the beginning of his next turn, the minifig can do their Specialty work during the time when any opponent is taking their turn. Mechaniks build new creations, Engineers modify existing ones, Mediks perform improvised surgeries, and Cybernetiks commit crimes against gods and nature. At the beginning of the Specialist's following turn, or whenever they're interrupted by Damage, Disruption, or death, their Construction Action ends immediately and they're stuck with the results of their labor.

The Tek

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1*
* Must be assigned to another Specialist unit
Specialty Assistance

The Tek
Support units work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep their armies running. Behind those units are the Support units' Support units, who work tirelessly to keep the Support units running. Teks are the nurses, secretaries, grad students, unpaid interns, and other assistants who do all the actual work so that their superiors have something to steal the credit for.

Specialty: Assistance
Assistance Specialty (+1CP): use Action to boost another Specialty unit's Specialty die
A Tek's job is to give Assistance to other Specialists, increasing their Specialty Die by one die size. With a Tek's Assistance, a Medik's Ker-Triage! Roll or a Mechanik's Construction Action, for instance, can be made with a

rather than a

.

Assisting other units costs the Tek's Action, and the Tek must be within arm's reach of either the Specialist unit they're Assisting or the target of their Specialty Die roll. Only one Tek can assist with any Specialty Die roll. Teks cannot give an Assistance bonus to Commandos.

Doctors are from Mars, Nurses are from Venus

In most military and professional organizations, Tek jobs are reserved for all the minifigs whose skills are needed but who don't fit that faction's cultural ideal - usually yellow, male, and non-alien.

When a faction needs to extract value from the work of Peaches, alternate species, and Girls (10.3: Monsters), but can't afford the political inconvenience of admitting their lives matter, Tek jobs are the perfect way for bigots to extract and co-opt the benefits of their second-class citizens' contributions, while continuing to sweep them safely under the rug.

The Mechanik

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1*
* Must carry a Mechanik's Tool
Specialty Mechanikal Aptitude

The Mechanik (7.3: Field Construction)
Throwing construction bricks together into inadvisable creations crammed full of violent potential is almost as fun as using them to destroy each other afterwards. Luckily for the Mechanik, the Mechanix' Union reserves all the best constructions for its dues-paying members, or else everyone would be building them.

Specialty: Mechanikal Aptitude

Mechanikal Aptitude Specialty (+1CP): allows a Construction Action to build or repair Creations on enemy turns within a radius of

inches
Using Mechanikal Aptitude, a Mechanik with an appropriate Mechanik's Tool in hand can use his Action to declare a Construction Action. At the end of his turn, while opposing players are taking their turns, the Mechanik gets to work. The Mechanik can use any loose bricks and parts around him to build, repair, and modify creations, within a radius in inches equal to a roll on his Specialty

.

Newly-built creations or parts of creations are Field Constructions, with a Size equal to their physical size in inches, a Structure Level of ½ and Armor 1d6, and a Move of 2" per usable Propulsion Element. Stats for Weapons and other devices are based on their apparent type and Weapon Size, but may be subject to negotiation among the players.

Mechaniks can also use Construction Actions to build continuous Patches of bricks on an object to perform Patch Repairs, reducing a damaged object's Size Damage or reinforcing its Armor. To reduce Size Damage by one inch, the Size of the Patch must be one inch larger than the object's Effective Size. To increase Armor by one Structure Level (up to SL:3), the Size of the Patch must be at least as large in inches as both the object's current Effective Size and the updated Structure Level. Any successful Component Damage to a Patch cancels its benefits.

The third use of a Construction Action is to Dissassemble Creations, allied or otherwise. Rather than collecting new bricks, the Mechanik stands next to the object to be taken apart, and gets to work. At the beginning of his next turn, if he was able to work on the object continuously without interruption, the Mechanik rolls his Specialty

. If the roll is higher than the object's Structure Level, then the Mechanik can detach that many construction bricks up to 1" in Size from the object immediately, or a single construction brick up to that many inches in Size. Otherwise, the object was too difficult to take apart right away. The Mechanik can continue to attempt Disassembly on subsequent turns.

The Engineer

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1*
* Must carry an Engineering Tool
Specialty Rationalism

The Engineer

"The Enterprise computer system is controlled by three primary main processing cores cross linked with a redundant melacortz ramistat and fourteen kiloquad interface modules. The core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into twenty-five bilateral kelilactirals, with twenty of those units being slaved to the central heisenfram terminal. You do know what a bilateral kelilactiral is, don't you?"

- Commander William T. Riker

"Of course I do, human! I am not stupid!"

- Morta

There is a species of minifig for whom no matter how good something is, they know how they could make it better - usually by making all the other parts worse. Tunnel-visionaries with the ability to hold themselves oblivious to the big picture for the sake of optimizing single features have what it takes to become a successful Engineer.

Specialty: Rationalism

Rationalism Specialty (+1CP): allows a Construction Action to Rationalize

modifications to existing objects and devices

"You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!"

- Bureaucrat Number 1.0

No matter how misguided, counterproductive, or insane the Engineer's ideas may be, his Technical School training ensures that they will always at least be Technically Correct. Reductivism, myopic problematization, and punctilious obfuscatory jargonizing allow him "solve" any problem with the power of Technobabble. Engineers and internet debaters alike call this technique Rationalism, and will happily list a hundred reasons with links and citations explaining why everyone else is wrong to think there's nothing rational about it.

Using a Construction Action, an Engineering Tool (usually coffee), and the power of Rationalism, an Engineer can Rationalize performance tradeoffs that make no logical sense, rerouting a Specialty

from the samoflange distributors to add to the subspace induction processor core in complete contravention of both the warranty and the laws of Physix, and without regard to whether the object has samoflanges or subspace induction to begin with.

Rationalism Mods
Type	Positive Mod	Negative Mod	Notes
Vehicles and Structures
Power	Supercharged: + to Power	Fuel Efficient: - to Power	Creations with 4 or more Power
Movement	Turbocharged: +" to Move or Thrust	Comfort Ride: -" to Move or Thrust	Creations with 4" or more Move or Thrust
Armor	Reinforced: + to Armor	Easy Access: - to Armor	Creations with SL:1 or more
Weapons and Devices
Use	High Precision: one Skill reroll per use	Sawed Off: + to Use	Devices with Use ratings
Range	Long Range: +" to Range	Close Quarters: -" to Range	Devices with 4" Range or more
Effect	High Powered: + to Damage or Effect	Surgical: - to Damage or Effect	Devices with a Damage or Effect measured in dice or numbers
Capacity	High Caliber: + to Max Payload Size"/Xsize or Max Ammunition XSize	Low Impact: - to Max Payload Size"/Xsize or Max Ammunition XSize	Devices with a Max Payload or Max Ammuntion of Size:4" or XSize:4 or more

In order to properly Rationalize a performance shift, an Engineer must have an Engineering Tool and access to the working parts of the device he's Rationalizing. He declares his Technobabble justification, selecting one positive Mod and one negative Mod, and takes a Construction Action.

At the beginning of his following turn, if his Construction Action wasn't interrupted, the Rationalization is successful, and the positive and negative Mods are both applied. He removes one or more pieces from the Rationalized object and attaches them to a different part of the object, to show that it's been modified. (If the object doesn't have removable pieces, he can add a new element at random.) Neither the Technobabble nor the modification are required to make any sense whatsoever.

If the Construction Action is interrupted, then the Rationalization is incomplete. The Engineer removes one or more pieces from the object and does not reattach them. The object now has the negative Mod applied, but not the positive Mod.

Existing Mods can be completed (if incomplete) or reversed by Engineers with another Construction Action. They can also be destroyed by Component Damage to the moved pieces, canceling the positive Mod but leaving the negative Mod in effect.

The Medik

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	1*
* Must carry a Medikal Tool
Specialty Ker-Triage!

The Medik (10.2: The Medik)
A minifig's greatest value is his capacity for suffering horribly for Humans' entertainment, but there are hard limits to how much abuse he can take before falling over dead. The Medik is the minifigs' attempt to address this shortcoming.

Specialty: Ker-Triage!

Ker-Triage! Specialty (+2CP): allows a Construction Action to roll

on the Ker-Triage! Table to revive fallen minifigs and Creatures
In the heat of battle, there's no time to mend wounds or heal injuries. Thankfully, literal weeks of Medikal training allow a Medik to perform Ker-Triage!, instantly assessing the number of limbs they need to amputate to get a fallen minifig or Creature back into combat and fighting again.

Ker-Triage!
Roll	Amputations
Crit Success	No Amputations; instant revival
5+	No Amputations
4	1 Amputation
3	2 Amputations
2	3 Amputations
Crit Fail	Head Amputated

When operating on a fallen minifig or other Creature, the Medik takes a Construction Action and begins operating.

At the beginning of the Medik's next turn, if his Construction Action wasn't interrupted, he rolls a

(if he's using a proper Medikal Tool) or a (if he's improvising with a bladed weapon or other cutting tool) and amputates the number of arms, legs, and/or heads indicated by the Ker-Triage! Table (see sidebar). If the patient loses its last remaining head, then it's permanently dead and no further Ker-Triage! can save it. Otherwise, the Creature can jump up with whatever limbs it has remaining and take its Movement and Action as usual on its following turn (or immediately, if the Medik rolled a Critical Success). Minifigs and minifig-sized Creatures are brought back up to full strength, minus whatever limbs they lost in the process. Larger Creatures are brought back up to an Effective Size of 1".

If the Medik's Construction Action is interrupted, he still makes the Ker-Triage! Roll and removes the number of limbs indicated, but the patient is not revived. As long as the patient still has at least one head, the Medik may continue attempting Ker-Triage! on subsequent turns.

The Cybernetik

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	1*
* Must carry a Science Utensil
Specialty Mad Science

The Cybernetik
Haphazard repairs to machines and minifigs may be enough to satisfy Mechaniks and Mediks, but such petty tinkering holds no interest for the Cybernetik. His desire isn't to play god himself, but to outrage the widest variety of existing gods at once, and as frequently and thoroughly as possible. Rather than fixing damaged mechanical and biological assets, he uses the opportunity to graft them together in the most unnatural and offensive ways he can devise.

Specialty: Mad Science
Ker-Triage! Specialty (+2CP): allows a Construction Action to combine mechanical and biological creations within

inches
Using Mad Science and a proper Science Utensil, a Cybernetik can declare a Construction Action to begin combining mechanical and biological parts in direct contravention of minifig decency. His Construction Action is similar to a Mechanik's, except that he can only attach biological parts to mechanical ones, and vice versa. He will never attach machine parts to machines, or biological parts to biology - not because he lacks the skills, but to do so would go against his code of violating ethics (and against the strict trade agreements imposed by the Mechaniks' Union and Mediks' Association).

During a Mad Science Construction Action, a Cybernetik can utilize and combine all loose mechanical and biological parts within

inches. He could, for instance, add an antenna to a decapitated soldier to control the body by remote, and attach the soldier's head to a hot dog cart to give it a Mind of its own. He could graft the hot dog cart's wheels to the torso of the hot dog vendor to replace his amputated legs, and graft the hot dogs onto the soldier's assault rifle for no reason whatsoever. The resulting monstrosities receive the same stats as a Mechanik's Field Constructions (7.3: Field Construction), with any newly reanimated Minds treated as Incompetent (

) and suffering from Stupidity (10.1: Minds).

Retroactive Kontinuity

Stealth can be tricky to keep track of when not only the positions of units but the physical structure of the battlefield can change from turn to turn.

When major targets move around or major navigation routes are altered, it can be a good idea to check the distance to any Hidden units' Last Known Locations and determine whether they could have reached them before the change. Even if he has no plans to cross a bridge that just got destroyed, hop a train that's departing, or steal a vital cookie in the train's cookie car, a Hidden unit may want to check the distance and announce "Remember that I could have made it there if I needed to," in order to keep his options open later.

Covert Units
Minifig violence, when properly applied, tends to be loud and obvious to everyone who's not killed instantly. Minifigs with a taste for Covert action are rare, since time spent hiding and sneaking around is time that could have been better spent blowing stuff up spectacularly. But there are always a select few for whom the look on the face of a hornswoggled enemy or a hoodwinked superior officer can make all the missed explosions worthwhile.

Scouts and Hidden Units

Scouts (and and other units with the Tracking Specialty) automatically detect any Hidden units within their field of view. A Scout's player may have to ask a Hidden unit's player whether or not the Hidden unit is within the area of his or her Scout's field of view, since it won't always be obvious.

If the opponent decides the Hidden unit is within the visible area, then the unit is revealed immediately.

If the unit isn't in the area, but its Hidden movement path crossed through the area, then the Tracking Scout detects the unit's trail. The Hidden unit's player must move the Last Known Location Marker along the unit's hidden movement path to wherever it exited the area, spending Hidden Movement counters as necessary to do so.

If the Hidden unit is not in the area, then its player must say so, and may not later choose a path that would have taken it through that area before that turn.

Covert Units rely on Stealth and Shenanigans to frustrate their enemies and sabotage their efforts. Unfortunately, covert action has the potential to frustrate Humans as well, especially ones who are younger or new to wargaming. Hidden movement can require a heavier than usual amount of fudging and hand-waving when the effects of a covert action are discovered long after the fact, as players struggle to remember four or five turns later whether that guard was standing in the right place to get assassinated, or whether that Scout was looking the other way, or whether that helicopter was on the landing pad at the right time to be sabotaged. Covert play isn't a fit for all games or all players, and Human players should discuss whether they're interested in this style of gameplay as a group before they agree to incorporate it into a battle.

Rather than relying on fallible Human memory, players who rely on covert action can benefit from keeping a smartphone handy to take photos of the battlefield when they announce a Shenanigan, or even every turn if the battle is particularly complicated and they've been particularly drinking.

Specialty: Stealth
Stealth Specialty (+1CP): adds 1/3 cover; allows Hidden movement
Through camouflage, misdirection, social anxiety, and the obsessive-compulsive drive to minimize his own presence in any situation, a covert unit's Stealth gives him one less section of minifig visibility than logic would suggest. In a completely exposed position, a Stealth unit is treated as having only two minifig sections visible, inflicting a -1 Action Penalty for anyone targeting him. With two minifig sections visible, Stealth reduces it to one (-2 to the Action Roll), and with only one section visible the Stealth unit is effectively invisible (-5 to enemy attacks, if they even know he's there at all) (5.1: Making Attacks).

If a Stealth minifig or unit is invisible to all enemies at the beginning of his turn (that is, he has at least 2/3 cover from any enemy unit on the field capable of spotting him), he can use his Action to make his Stealth complete and become Hidden. The Hidden unit is removed from the field, and a Last Known Location Marker (often a flag or red brick "X") is added in its place.

The unit's player places a single counter (a 1x1 brick, normally) next to the Last Known Location. This pip is the first in a pile of Hidden Movement counters, used to keep track of how many turns a Stealth unit has remained Hidden. At the beginning of each of the Hidden unit's subsequent turns, if it remains Hidden, the player adds an additional Hidden Movement counter to the stack.

While Hidden, a unit is immediately revealed if he takes any Action (other than unique Shenanigans described in their respective Specialties). Otherwise, there's little to prevent him from secretly moving around wherever he wants. The player controlling the unit may try to keep mental track of where it's moving as the battle progresses, but it's more fun to wait until the moment the Hidden unit is revealed to discover that it's Koincidentally taken exactly the most convenient path to exactly the most convenient spot.

When a Hidden unit is revealed, its player gets to decide where it spent all that time moving to, and what path it took to get there. For every two Hidden Movement counters next to the unit's Last Known Location, the unit is considered to have spent one full turn of Movement while Hidden. (Stealth requires a lot of holding still and moving slowly, so the Movement for the other half of the turns is wasted.) The Hidden unit can attempt to move to any position he could have reached within that many turns of normal Movement.

Once the destination and pathway are selected, an enemy player can select one of their units along the pathway to attempt to Detect the unit's Hidden movement. (If multiple players have units along the pathway, they may have to make a What I Say Goes roll to decide who gets to make the Detection attempt.) The Detecting unit rolls its Action die to determine the number of inches in its Detection Distance. If any section of the pathway is within that range of the Detecting unit, then it can choose to Detect the Hidden unit at any point along that section of the path, "discovering" it before it had the chance to travel any further. If not, then the Hidden unit reaches its destination safely, and can take its Movement and Action as usual.

Units don't have to be able to see an area in order to Detect a Hidden unit there. Even with their vaunted Stealth, Hidden units have been known to clumsily betray their location with the noise of a snapping twig or the scent of an unplanned fart, just like the rest of us.

Measuring Without Measuring
When pulling Shenanigans, it can be difficult to measure exact distances without giving away the location of Hidden units and their underhanded pranks. Players should try to be forgiving towards covert estimates in this regard. Where extra precision is called for, they can agree to politely look away while the covert player measures any necessary distances.

Incognito Shenanigans

Shenanigans are usually pulled by units who are Hidden, but in an intrigue-focused battle, they can also be pulled by undercover units who are visible but who haven't been identified yet.

In a situation with a number of wandering Civilian or other neutrally-controlled units, players can agree that they've infiltrated some of their Covert units into the neutral population who can pull Shenanigans while still incognito as if they were Hidden.

This may require taking careful photos of Civilian positions each turn, so that once players pick a Civilian to reveal as an undercover unit, they can review the unit's movement after the fact to see where it was when Shenanigans took place.

Shenanigans
Under normal conditions, a Hidden minifig is immediately revealed if he takes any Action. Some covert Specialties grant exceptions to this rule, allowing Hidden minifigs to pull specific Shenanigans without blowing their cover. Depending on the Specialty, Shenanigans may allow minifigs to sabotage devices, pick pockets, set traps, or stab victims in the back.

When a Hidden minifig attempts a Shenanigan, the player declares that Shenanigans are being pulled, but doesn't declare what kind, or where. The player adds a different-colored Shenanigan Counter to the unit's stack of Hidden Movement counters to indicate the point in the Hidden Movement when a Shenanigan took place. (Sometimes the player takes a smartphone photo of the battlefield as well, in case they want the option to change their mind later about exactly what kind of Shenanigan they were pulling that turn.)

The player then asks an opponent to make a Detection Roll. However, the opponent (and sometimes even the player) won't know exactly which unit is attempting Detection or the location of the Shenanigan. The opponent rolls a d6 and adds one for each Shenanigan Counter in the Hidden minifig's stack of Hidden Movement counters (incuding the one just added).

This Detection Roll is for a generic enemy with a standard Action

. When the Shenanigan is revealed, if the nearest unit turns out to have had a different Action die, inches are added to or subtracted from the Detection Distance to compensate: -1" for an Action

, +1" for

, +2" for

, and +3" for

If the Hidden minifig pulls a Shenanigan within this Detection Distance of any enemy unit, whether belonging to that opponent or anyone else, he'll be Detected immediately. Luckily, the player gets to see the Detection Roll before they decide the location of the Shenanigan, and they can choose the target accordingly. Ideally, the Hidden minifig can pick a spot outside the Detection Distance of any enemy units (or anywhere, if the Detection Roll was a Critical Failure) and get away with whatever Shenanigans he wants to, no matter how obvious or ridiculous.

If the Hidden minifig decides it's worth it to pull a Shenanigan within the Detection Distance, he reveals himself. The minifig is no longer Hidden, and the player reveals the path of his Hidden Movement and the locations (but not the details, necessarily) of all the Shenanigans along the way. Although the minifig was Detected, the Shenanigan might not be; the effects of a Shenanigan on Detection depend on the particular Shenanigan.

If the player sees the Detection Roll and decides they can't safely pull a Shenanigan that turn, or if their priorities change later on in the course of Hidden Movement and they decide it would be better not to have pulled a Shenanigan there at all, then they can cancel the Shenanigan with no one the wiser. They still add the Shenanigan Counter to the stack of Hidden Movement counters, and they don't have to tell anyone what happened either way until the minifig or his Shenanigans are revealed later.

Tracking Covert Activity
As any Easter egg hunter can tell you, whenever stuff is Hidden, there's a danger that it never becomes un-Hidden, and the game drags on forever. Luckily, Hidden Movement and Shenanigans can be Tracked.

The easiest way to Track covert activity is with a Scout's Tracking Specialty. Tracking allows a Scout to see all Hidden and invisible units and objects, including the invisible evidence left by Hidden Movement and Shenanigans. The Scout's player asks the Hidden unit's player whether any Hidden Movement or Shenanigans took place within the Scout's current field of view. If the answer is no, then whenever Hidden Movement or Shenanigans are revealed later, they can't be "discovered" to have taken place in that area prior to the Scout's arrival.

If the Hidden unit's player admits that yes, covert action took place in the area, then they must reveal the path the Hidden unit took through the area, and the nature of the Shenanigans that took place there. The Hidden unit spends its Hidden Movement counters (two counters per one turn worth of Movement) and Shenanigan Counters to advance its Last Known Location Marker to wherever it exited the area - or if the unit is still in the area, it's revealed immediately.

Units trying to Track down a Hidden unit without the Tracking Specialty must take a more methodical approach, starting at the Last Known Location and Tracking the trail from there. A unit at the Last Known Location can spend an Action to make a Detection Roll to see which way the path of Hidden Movement went. The Hidden unit must then spend Hidden Movement counters to move the Last Known Location Marker to wherever the path of Hidden Movement left the area covered by the Detection Distance. If any Shenanigans took place within the Detection Distance, or if the Hidden unit is still within it, they are immediately revealed.

The Thief

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	7	1
Specialties Stealth Parkour! Burglary

The Thief
It's universally agreed that the best way to gain access to valuable enemy assets is by blowing up all the obstacles in between, including (and especially) any enemies who may be in temporary possession of those assets. But explosions draw a lot of attention, and they sometimes destroy the assets in the process. When a sneakier hand is called for, minifigs turn to the Thief.

A Thief doesn't care about the normal kinds of violence that other minifigs are into. Thieves are interested in violating more abstract targets, like the concept of boundaries or security or property rights. If there are places minifigs aren't allowed to go, or objects they aren't allowed to take, then that's exactly where the Thief wants to be, and he uses a combination of Parkour! and Burglary to get there.

Specialty: Parkour!
Parkour! Specialty (+1CP): allows acrobatics of dubious credibility during regular or Hidden Movement

"The goal is to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible. So, technically, they are doing parkour, as long as point A is delusion and point B is the hospital."

- Jim Halpert

Parkour! is a magic word that grants the combined powers of acrobatics, recklessness, poor decision-making skills, and skateboard culture, giving Thieves the ability to ignore both physical obstacles and any instinct for self-preservation. Among Thieves, Parkour! can be incorporated into both normal and Hidden Movement, and doesn't cost an Action.

By ancient tradition, practitioners of Parkour! call "Parkour!" whenever they survive a maneuver, but Thieves make this call very quietly. Anyone spotted or heard using Parkour! is revealed as a Thief, and young Thieves' inability to restrain themselves from doing acrobatic Parkour! pirouettes off of every available handle leads them to either develop their Stealth abilities rapidly or spend a lot of time getting roughed up by local authorities.

Using Parkour!, a Thief can cartwheel along tightropes, climb sheer walls, jump out of one speeding car into another, and somersault through deadly laser tripwire mazes as easily as normal running. As long as there are solid objects within his Move range for him to grab hold of or launch off from, he can move at full speed in many situations that would slow other minifigs to Half Speed or block them entirely.

Parkour! also protects from Damage and Disruption from falls, letting Thieves safely roll to their feet out of the impact from jumping off roofs, falling out of airplanes, being launched out of Launchers, or being dropped from orbit.

Specialty: Burglary
Burglary Specialty (+1CP): allows Breaking and Entering and Theft Shenanigans while Hidden
Burglary grants a Thief two special Actions. Breaking and Entering lets him bypass or disable security systems, and Theft lets him steal items without being noticed. Both can be used as Shenanigans while Hidden or as regular Actions while visible.

Breaking and Entering lets a Thief automatically detect any security system within his field of view or which is about to potentially affect him. If he can gain access to a security system, he can spend an Action to gain instant mastery over it as if he were the rightful Operator. Traps, Triggers, door locks, security cameras, and computer passwords are open books to a Thief using Breaking and Entering; he can activate, deactivate, or retarget them at will.

While Hidden, a Thief can use Breaking and Entering as a Shenanigan to take control of a security system. This Shenanigan is always successful, even if it's Detected.

Theft lets a Thief spend an Action to try to pilfer objects without anyone noticing. The Thief must have enough free hands and sufficient carrying capacity for the objects being stolen. Theft is always treated as a Shenanigan, whether the Thief is Hidden or not - even a visible Thief might want to pilfer something along the course of his Movement without letting opponents know exactly what was taken. He can also attempt reverse Thefts. Secretly planting evidence for a frame-up or hiding a live Explosive inside an enemy's pants are classic Thief Shenanigans.

When a Thief steals an object, and the Shenanigan is within an opponent's Detection Distance, then the Thief is Detected as he grabs the object. Otherwise, the Theft goes undetected; to the Human players, the object looks like it's still right where it's supposed to be. If another unit later tries to interact with the object directly, the Thief's player notifies everyone that the object is missing. If the object was stolen while the Thief was Hidden, the Thief's Hidden Movement and Shenanigans up to that point are revealed, and the Thief spends his Hidden Movement counters to advance his Last Known Location to the site of the Theft. If the Thief is later Detected or revealed before the Theft is discovered, the Thief's player reveals where the Theft Shenanigan occurred, but not necessarily which object was stolen.

A Thief can attempt to steal objects directly from opposing units, whether they're holding the objects in back pockets or bare hands, but this is very difficult. Because the objects are zero inches away from the Detecting units, the Detection Distance roll can only fail on a Critical Failure. If a Thief is Detected while trying to steal directly from an enemy unit, it's treated as an unsuccessful Grab. The two units are entered into Close Combat, and the Detecting unit can immediately Counterattack.

The Infiltrator

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1
Specialties Impersonation

The Infiltrator

"Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it."

- Mark Twain

Not all Covert units rely on Stealth to evade detection. For some, the best place to hide is in plain sight, as an inside man in an enemy's (or ally's!) forces. Sometimes it's a turncoat enemy unit who sold his allegiance for bribes or blackmail, sometimes a cunning spy who developed a false persona and weaseled his way in. Sometimes it's a useful idiot who's fallen victim to anti-Human propaganda and thinks that opposing his Human is the highest form of loyalty. The Infiltrator is always the last minifig you expect.

Specialty: Impersonation
Impersonation Specialty (+1CP): once per battle, allows the unit to replace any non-unique unit
An Infiltrator isn't placed on the field at the beginning of battle like other minifigs. Like a Hidden unit, he's held off to the side, but not due to Stealth. He's using Impersonation, working undercover as another minifig on the field. Which unit he's disguised as, or even which player's team he's pretending to be on, are a mystery even to his own player until it's time to make his dramatic reveal.

The Infiltrator can reveal himself at will and at any time, during his own or any other player's turn. The Infiltrator's player picks any non-unique minifig on the field to reveal as having been Impersonated all along. The Impersonated minifig must not be its player's only remaining Specialist of that type (i.e., if a player has three Officers, then any one of them can be Impersonated; if the player is down to his last remaining Officer, then that Officer is under too much scrutiny to secretly be an Infiltrator). Similarly, if the Impersonated minifig is operating a Vehicle, Creature, or a mounted Weapon, it also can't be unique (if a player has two Pilots driving identical or similar tanks, one of the Pilots can be Impersonated, but if the player only has one Pilot driving a tank, he can't secretly be an Infiltrator, even if the player has other surviving Pilots on the field). Finally, the minifig can't be a named character, unless the player has named all of his or her minifigs in a cheap ploy to prevent Impersonation.

If there are no non-unique minifigs left on the field for the Infiltrator to Impersonate, it means he was killed before anyone realized who he was. The Infiltrator's player is free to select any non-unique corpse to have retroactively been the dead Infiltrator, or to declare that the Infiltrator called in sick that day.

When the Infiltrator is revealed, the player immediately replaces the opposing player's Impersonated minfig with the Infiltrator minifig (or for a more realistic reveal, the player replaces the minifig's head and leaves the outfit the same). The revealed Infiltrator keeps the Impersonated minifig's equipment, but uses his own stats, losing whatever stats and Specialties belonged to the minifig he was Impersonating. If it's not already his own player's turn, the Infiltrator interrupts the current player's turn to take a solo turn immediately. From that point forward, he takes his turn during his own player's turn as normal.

For the player whose minifig was being Impersonated, the betrayal causes righteous outrage among his forces, in the form of Outrage Bennies equal to the Action Die of the replaced unit. The betrayed opponent receives one Instant Outrage Benny when the Infiltrator first appears, plus a number of Almighty Outrage Bennies equal to the Size of any Creature, Vehicle, or Structure the replaced unit was Operating at the moment of his replacement. Unless the two players are allies, the betrayed opponent receives another Instant Outrage Benny at the beginning of each of their own turns for as long as the Infiltrator is alive and on the field. Outrage Bennies can only be used against the team that caused the Outrage.

Once his mission is complete, an Infiltrator may try to kill himself to stop the betrayed team from collecting any more Outrage Bennies. Treat this as a self-targeted attack that Automatically Hits. To keep the Bennies flowing, it's often in the betrayed team's best interest to capture the Infiltrator and keep him alive but incapacitated.

The Saboteur

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	7	1*
* must carry a Two-Handed Tool
Specialties Stealth Sabotage

The Saboteur
Minifigs are rarely fans of delayed gratification, but there are a perverse few who believe that explosions are a dish best served cold. The Saboteur delights in creating special surprises for opponents to discover later, disrupting the workaday routines of enemies and friends alike.

Specialty: Sabotage
Sabotage Specialty (+1CP): allows a Construction Action or Shenanigan to place a Sabotage marker on an object
The Saboteur is an incorrigible jackanape whose hilarious pranksterism ranges from eye-roll annoyances to scorched earth and planetary genocide. If a system exists, the noble Saboteur stands ready to throw wrenches into it and then proudly sneak off before anyone notices.

Sabotage Effects
Type	Negative Mod
Vehicles, Structures, and Creatures
Power	Fuel Efficient: - to Power
Movement	Comfort Ride: -" to Move or Thrust
Armor	Easy Access: - to Armor
Weapons and Devices
Use	Sawed Off: + to Use
Range	Close Quarters: -" to Range
Effect	Surgical: - to Damage or Effect
Capacity	Low Impact: - to Max Payload Size"/Xsize or Max Ammunition XSize
Booby Traps
Damage	Added Security: One Attack from a supplied minifig weapon

A Saboteur with a tool can place a Sabotage

on any object he has uninterrupted access to, whether it's the treads of a tank, the supports of a river dam, the horses pulling a chariot, or the shoelaces of his ruling monarch. The Saboteur's player can then activate it at any time, even if the Saboteur himself is dead or on vacation. The Sabotage die can activate with the same effect as one of the Engineer's negative Rationalism Mods, without any need for Rationalizing or minimum stat requirements, or the Saboteur can secretly leave behind a carried minifig weapon as a Booby Trap that Automatically Hits either whoever touches the Sabotage or the Sabotaged object itself, whenever the Saboteur's player decides to trigger it.

The Saboteur can commit Sabotage as a Shenanigan if Hidden, or as a Construction Action otherwise. As long as the Shenanigan or Construction Action isn't interrupted, he can place one Sabotage on any object or system that doesn't already have a Sabotage (he can place separate Sabotages on multiple systems on a single large object, however).

If a Sabotage is visible (because its Shenanigan was revealed, or it was openly placed as a Construction Action) then the Saboteur places a Sabotage Marker on the affected object (any out-of-place brick will do). Any unit who gets close enough to touch a Sabotage Marker can tell what kind of Sabotage has taken place (this may set it off if it's a Booby Trap). Mechaniks, Mediks, and Thieves are experts on mechanikal, biologikal, and Booby Trap Sabotages respectively. They can automatically detect and identify these Sabotages on sight, and repair or disable them with an Action.

The Saboteur doesn't have to decide the effect of his Sabotage until it's identified by an enemy unit or activated by his player. Negative Mods are permanent until repaired by an appropriate Specialist. Booby Traps activate once and then return to being a regular minifig weapon (except for Explosives, on account of having exploded).

The Assassin

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	7	1
Specialties Stealth Vendetta

The Assassin

“Stalin: Stop sending people to kill me! We’ve already captured five of them, one with a bomb and another with a rifle. If you don’t stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow and I certainly won't have to send a second.”

- Josip Broz Tito

Minifigs love delivering violence to their enemies, and most aren't especially picky about which ones are on the receiving end. An enemy sports mascot bleeds just as hard as an enemy general when hit with a knocked-over apartment complex.

A minifig's healthy violent impulses can be damaged by toxic brushes with Peace, however. Minifigs afflicted with Post-Tranquility Stability Disorder can become hyperfocused and obsessive, gaining an un-minifiglike ability to pay basic attention to who they're attacking. These selective killers become Assassins, able to ignore all distractions and meat shields on their way to a chosen target.

Specialty: Vendetta
Vendetta Specialty (+1CP): can Single Out any target, ignoring Squad mates, RedShirts, and other distractions
Important minifigs can be difficult to attack directly, thanks to interfering bodyguards, RedShirts, and Squad mates jumping in the way of every axe chop and death ray. A Stealthy Assassin can ignore all of these. For the first turn after an Assassin is revealed from being Hidden, whether by choice or by Detection, his Vendetta against his target gives him unnatural focus. His Skill die for making attacks with minifig weapons is treated as a

, and his attacks can't be intercepted by minifigs other than the target.

This d10 is treated as a form of Skill Bonus rather than a Specialty die. Teks can't assist a Vendetta ability, and Commandos can't copy it.

The disadvantage of this extreme focus is that the Assassin can't focus on anyone or anything else for that turn. He can't Parry attacks from other enemies, and he can't make Response Actions. Until the beginning of his next turn, he's aware of only his singular target and no one else.

Elite Units

"I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest."

- Muhammad Ali

The minifigs whom all the other minifigs wish they were aren't the minifigs making the strategic decisions. They're the minifigs who ignore those minifigs' decisions and spend the battle doing (and wearing) whatever they want. Elite units are answerable only to themselves, despite what their so-called superiors may think.

The Commando

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	1
Specialties Field Training

The Commando
Not all minifigs play well with others. The only reason any of them can claim to is because a minifig's idea of "playing well" includes open combat. Even against that standard, there are antisocial loners who fall short. When a minifig is so tired of dealing with his peers that he can't even join them in cooperative homicide, he inevitably takes off his underpants and goes Commando.

Specialty: Field Training
Field Training Specialty (+2CP): can copy any Specialty marked with a Specialty die, using a Specialty die one size smaller, as long as at least one allied unit possessed it at the beginning of the battle
A minifig going Commando is much less restricted than other Specialists. Thanks to his independent nature and extensive solo Field Training, the Commando has enough field knowledge of his allies' major Specialties to strike out on his own and not have to put up with any of them. He has a basic familiarity with any of their Specialties marked with a Specialty die, but not a mastery of any of them - when he copies a Specialty, he uses a Specialty die one size smaller.

The Commando can only copy Specialties that were possessed by at least one of his allies at the beginning of the battle - otherwise, his teammates don't know the techniques, so he never had a chance to learn them. An army that sends a Cybernetik into battle has proven that they're familiar with Mad Science

, and that they think it's an important battlefield capability; it makes sense when their Commando tries his half-assed Mad Science

on his own. By contrast, in an army without a single Engineers and his Rationalism

, a Commando can't suddenly reveal a skill in Rationalism

.

Tek minifigs can't use Assistance to improve a Commando's copied Specialties. If Commandos wanted to accept help from a teammate, they wouldn't have become Commandos in the first place.

The Hero

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	7"	2d6	12	2
Specialties Heroic Ego

The Hero
(Chapter 6: Minifig Heroes)

"We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."

- Will Rogers

The Hero transcends the limitations of lesser minifigs by strength of personality and the power of a fashionable wardrobe, so long as an ego blown out of all proportion counts as a personality and a complete absence of restraint counts as a fashion.

Specialty: Heroic Ego
Heroic Ego Specialty (+3CP / +1Ü): can take one Heroic Feat per turn appropriate to his Cliché. can inspire nearby friendly units (within Action Roll inches) to RedShirt and take Damage meant for the Hero. Becomes Cranky in the presence of other Heroic units or items.
Rules, restraints, and logik are beneath the Hero and his massive Ego. Once per turn, he can ignore them completely in a Heroic Feat appropriate to his Heroic Cliché, and more often than not, they'll ignore him right back. The Hero's player declares the Feat and its results and rolls 1d6. One opponent offers their competing idea about what the results of such an attempted Feat would be, usually much less favorable to the Hero, and also rolls a 1d6. If the Hero's player rolls higher, or if the rolls are tied, then the Feat succeeds. If the opponent rolls higher, than the Feat fails, with whatever consequences logically result.

Taking Damage is also beneath a Hero, who has neither the time nor the inclination to bleed. When a Hero is about to be struck by incoming Damage, the Hero rolls his Action

. If there's an allied unit within that many inches, they become a plot-convenient RedShirt and jump in the way instead, knocking the Hero out of the blast radius if necessary.

Of all the things that are beneath a Hero, sharing a battlefield with Heroic teammates is the beneathest of all. Enemy Heroes are good for killing, and Heroes on allied teams are good for dramatically stabbing in the back when the teams inevitably betray each other, but another Hero on his own team is an insult that no Hero can overlook. There can only be one star of the show, and he doesn't like getting upstaged. If a single player fields multiple Heroes, then their clashing Egos make each of them Cranky, and the more Heroes there are, the Crankier they get.

For every other conscious unit on his team with a Heroic Ego or a Heroic Weapon, the hero recieves a -1 Cranky Penalty to each die he rolls, whether for Skill, Armor, Damage dealt, Heroic Feats, or RedShirt distance.

Command Units
While not Heroes in their own right, there are certain minifigs that are possessed of a pigheaded mindset that leads them to push their comrades harder than most would find sensible or even conscionable. When confronted with their own lack of accomplishment or ability, they only increase the pressure on everyone around them in response. The fine art of keeping the focus on whether other minifigs are doing their jobs, and as far away as possible from their own performance, is what separates a minifig cut out for Command from his productive peers.

The Officer

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	4	1
* subject to Stupidity if not in a Squad
Specialties Coordination

The Officer
An Officer lives to tell other minifigs how to do their jobs properly. No matter how much skill, talent, and experience a group of minifigs has, and how much nothing whatsoever the Officer has in comparison, the Officer is compelled to micromanage and critique them relentlessly in order to justify his slightly fancier uniform. Army sergeants, pirate first mates, corporate middle managers, and art directors are all examples of Officers.

The Officer is lost without other minifigs to boss around, and his entire existence revolves around his Squad (11.3: Squads). When he's part of a Squad, his dumb ideas are mitigated by the smarter underlings carrying them out. Whenever an Officer isn't part of a Squad at the beginning of his turn, he's subject to Stupidity like other Incompetent units (10.1: Minds).

Specialty: Coordination

Coordination Specialty (+1CP): can spend an Action to increase the Action dice of his Squad mates by one die size, up to

The Officer's one advantage is his natural ability to foster Coordination among the members of his Squad, pushing them to all-new slightly-improved levels of performance. Once per turn, the Officer can spend an Action to give detailed directions and managerial feedback to the Squad, creating a momentary spirit of solidarity and unity among the Squad members as a direct effect of their shared irritation at his terrible ideas.

Coordination increases the effectiveness of combined Squad Actions. As long as at least two Squad members are participating in an Action together, their Skill dice are increased by one size for that Action, up to the Officer's Specialty die size of

. This is especially useful when an Officer leads a Squad into Close Combat, where their amplified Skill dice increase their chances to hit, the Damage they inflict, and their ability to Counter their opponent's responses.

Coordination is not cumulative. No matter how many Officers are annoying the Squad, their Skill dice aren't increased more than one size. If a Tek is Assisting the Officer, the increase isn't any larger, but the maximum die size is raised to a

The Leader

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	5	1*
* must carry a Motivational Tool
Specialty Inspiration

The Leader
While other minifigs are toiling away to achieve objectives and destroy enemies, the Leader is a visionary who sees the bigger picture: combat is meaningless without an audience, and the audience deserves to be entertained, and as long as someone's going to be entertained then it might as well be him. Using music, dancing, gymnastics, motivational speeches, slapstick self-injury, or whatever it takes, a Leader Inspires the forces around him to ever more spectacular feats of chaos and destruction for the sake of his own front-row-seat experience.

Specialty: Inspiration

Inspiration Specialty (+1CP): can spend an Action and use a Motivational Tool to grant a

Action re-roll or to add

to a stat for a target unit or Squad
A Leader's job is to get his allies pumped up for combat. An extra surge of motivation at the right moment can get them to push past normal limits and succeed where they might have failed, or succeed excessively and ridiculously where they might have only had a boring regular success.

A Leader's ability to create Inspiration is based in his dedicated Motivational Tool. For political rabble-rousers it's the MegaPhone, for war drummers it's the WarDrums, for cheerleaders it's the Pom-Poms, for sports mascots it's the Furry Costume, and for heavy metal lead guitarists it's the Electric Guitar.

Using his Motivational Tool, a Leader can spend an Action to target any unit or Squad in his field of view within ten inches for a

of Inspiration. He can roll this die and give them the result an Inspiration bonus to one stat for the turn: adding inches to Move, points to Armor, or weapon inches to Power.

If he wants to boost his targets' Skill instead, he can give them the

as a backup Skill die for the turn. Whenever they make a Skill Roll, they roll their own Skill die and the Inspiration

and keep the higher of the two rolls.

The Commander

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	1*
* must carry a Communications Device
Specialty Strategic Intervention

The Commander

"Kill a man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god."

- Jean Rostand

After all the other minifigs have picked their careers and started their training, any undecided minifig left behind is bagged up and hauled away by benevolent handlers to a forced logistiks boot camp. His indecision and inability to commit to a course of action within a reasonable timeframe indicates a bright future as a Commander.

Specialty: Strategic Intervention
Strategic Intervention Specialty (+1CP): after First Blood, can add one brick to a Strategy Pile per turn, which can then be spent on a Strategic Intervention
Minifigs in the field look to the Commander to offer strategic direction and coordination. He doesn't have any to offer; his presence is only intended to create the illusion that a strategy exists. The Commander's job is to stall for as long as he can, keeping his options open until the last possible minute before calling in a Strategic Intervention.

Once First Blood has been awarded, the Commander begins using his Communications Device to relay information to a distant headquarters each turn to build up Strategy.

At the beginning of each turn following First Blood, the Commander's player adds one brick to his Strategy Pile, held off to the side of the battlefield. This pile shows how much Strategy the Commander has saved up in reserve. Once the Commander is ready to call in one or more Strategic Interventions, he can spend these bricks on Reinforcements and Strategic Bombardment, but he can no longer collect new bricks.

If the Commander is incapacitated or killed, the Strategy Pile is lost. If he recovers or is revived by a Medik, he has to start over from scratch.

Players can agree to give their Commanders access to other sources of Strategic income and deployment options, depending on the players' tolerance for house rules and desired style of play. Extra Unit Inches or Construction Points can be looted from battlefield treasure caches, carried over between games, or harvested by Workers, and then be made available to Commanders as a backup supply for their Strategy budget. Production facilities staffed by the appropriate Support units can construct new Reinforcement units, and teleportation chambers and magic portals can beam them in directly rather than having to summon them from the edges of the battlefield.

Reinforcements
When a Commander calls in Reinforcements, he can spend bricks from his Strategy Pile to buy new units and equipment. Depending which budgeting system the players are using, each brick is worth either one Unit Inch or 1d6 Construction Points. If players are using a Military Draft or no budget at all, then each Strategy Brick is worth one regular minifig, Specialist, or Horse, properly equipped, or one half of an Elite or Command Specialist (in these cases it's often best to spend two Strategy Bricks in order to buy two halves put together). These Reinforcements can enter from any edge of the battlefield under the Commander's allies' control - that is, any part of the battlefield edge that's closer to an allied unit than it is to any enemy units. New Reinforcements always arrive at the end of the turn they're called in on, and take their Movement and Action on the following turn.

Depending on how much of a hurry the players are in, and how many loose bricks they have immediately at hand, players with Commanders may want to build some or all of their potential Reinforcement units in advance, or construct them during their opponents' turns.

Strategic Bombardment

Strategic Bombardment
Weapon	Strategy Pile Cost	Use	Damage or Effect	Notes
Explosive Size is measured in construction bricks rather than inches.
Strategic Bombardment	(Size ×1) bricks	(Size ×4)	(Size) × Exp	arrives one turn after firing

When a Commander calls in a Strategic Bombardment, he can drop one or more Explosives onto any target Marked by an allied Scout, launched from Strategic weapons located somewhere off the map. Depending on the battle, these might be offshore deck artillery, flyby jet airstrikes, orbital death satellites, or powerful wizards launched overhead by magikal trebuchets.

Like long-distance Payloads fired from a high-powered Launcher, the Explosives take a full turn to arrive (8.4: Heavy Explosives). The attacking player places a marker at the intended impact point and waits. At the beginning of the following turn, a distant Gunner makes a

Attack Roll against the Use rating of the Strategic Bombardment (or several Attack Rolls, if the Bombardment is broken into multiple smaller Explosives instead of a single large one) to see if the Explosive struck its target, or how many inches it missed by.

The Great Leader

Skill	Move	Armor	CP	Ü
	5"	4	6	2
Specialties Megalomania

The Great Leader

"So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable."

- Aldous Huxley

Not every army is blessed with the presence of a Great Leader, but when one appears, he's a wonder to behold. Charismatic, dynamic, and always sporting the fanciest hat his civilization has to offer, the Great Leader can do no wrong. The reason the Great Leader can do no wrong is because if anything does go wrong, it's always someone else's fault, and the Great Leader is on the spot to grandly and magnanimously inform everyone of exactly which minifig is responsible - a minifig who's definitely not him.

The Great Leader is beloved by his minifigs because he always lets them know who to hate and why. He catalogues every enemy insult and transgression, and assigns blame for every allied shortcoming, even if he has to make them up whole cloth.

An army can only have one Great Leader.

Specialty: Megalomania
Megalomania Specialty (+2CP / +1Ü): can ScapeGoat subordinate units and convert casualties into Outrage Bennies
Any run-of-the-mill Leader can view their subordinates as expendable assets. It takes true Megalomania to see their deaths as the valuable political capital they are - the more casualties, the better. By throwing subordinates under the bus and sensationalizing military losses, the Great Leader can stoke Outrage among his followers that drives them into ever-greater heights of frenzy and adoration.

ScapeGoats
Once a turn, a Great Leader can ScapeGoat any subordinate unit that hasn't taken its turn yet, blaming them for failures real or imagined and inspiring the troops with his decisive leadership. The Great Leader declares the ScapeGoated unit guilty of treason, sentences it to immediate execution on sight, and hands control of it to an enemy player of his choice.

Because the ScapeGoat unit hasn't taken its turn yet, it immediately does so, interrupting the Great Leader's turn until it's used its full Movement and Action in an attempt to either escape or take revenge. From that point forward, if it survives, it takes its turn with the team of the enemy player now controlling it.

The unit's involuntary betrayal doesn't go unnoticed. The Great Leader's team receives one Instant Outrage Benny against that enemy for each inch in the ScapeGoat's Effective Size (including the Effective Size of any Creature or Vehicle the unit was operating when it was ScapeGoated), and each Instant Outrage Benny is worth a die size equal to the unit's Action die.

The Grand Speech
Whenever the Great Leader's forces take casualties, he adds one brick to his faction's Outrage Pile for each minifig killed. Once per battle, he can use this accumulated Outrage to deliver a Grand Speech to the fighting minifigs in the field, sensationalizing the atrocity of their deaths and naming the enemy who deserves to pay the price for them. Each brick in the Outrage Pile is immediately converted into an Instant Outrage Benny against the named enemy.

If the Great Leader wants to increase the level of Outrage before his Grand Speech, he is perfectly within his rights and his character to arrange massacres of his own troops.

11.3: Squads

Running this many soldiers as individual units could take hours. Organized into Squads, there's a much greater chance of players reaching the second turn.

Elements shown: LEGO, Mega Bloks, Little Armory

"None of us is as dumb as all of us."

- Despair, Inc.

BrikWars is well set up to send pairs, handfuls, or full half-dozens of individual minifigs and vehicles into tactical skirmishes. For more epic toy campaigns, with units numbering in the dozens or hundreds, handling combatants individually can slow a battle to a crawl. Instead, it's best to group units together into Squads. A Squad moves together, takes its Action together, and attacks and defends together as a single coordinated unit.

Besides improving command efficiency, Squads enjoy a number of other advantages. Attacking and defending as a single unit, a Squad can pool and combine Damage, Momentum, and Counters in a way that its individual units can't, and it can coordinate Skill-based movement like Sprints in order to stay in formation. A Squad also enjoys Safety in Numbers, allowing it to distribute incoming attacks away from its most critical or vulnerable members and soak them up with more durable or expendable ones. And because a Squad is treated as a single unit, many types of bonuses that are normally limited to an individual can be expanded to apply to a whole Squad.

But the most important advantage of organizing units into a Squad is not that it allows them to be directed to horrible deaths with greater machine-like efficiency. It’s that, as they are inevitably slaughtered, they can know that they died as meaningless entries in an org chart rather than as people.

While groups of foot soldiers are the most common, any types of units can be grouped into Squads - Squads of horsemen or assault helicopters operate by the same rules. A Squad is much simpler to handle if it's composed of identical or similar units (a group of knights all on horseback, or a squadron of starfighers), but heterogeneous Squads are just as common (a catapult and its defending crew, or a necromancer and his summoned undead).

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

The Squad Plate

"All for one, and one for all!"

- Alexandre Dumas

The constructible nature of brick warriors makes them easy to group into quick formations – just take all the Squad members and stick them to a shared baseplate.

The Squad Plate, in effect, combines a number of lesser units into a single super-unit. Instead of having to move Squad members around individually, players can now pick up the Squad Plate and move them all at once. Instead of handling the Squaddies' attacks individually, players roll Attacks for the Squad Plate all together. Players measure Ranges to or from whichever part of the Squad or Squad Plate is most convenient, and instead of having to touch individual Squad members to objects they want to act on, they touch the object with the Squad Plate and all the Squaddies gain access to it implicitly.

In the best-case scenario, a Squad Plate should be an appropriate size for its Squad. As a very general rule of thumb, there should be a 2x4-stud area for each minifig on foot, for example, or 4x8 for each rider on horseback. These numbers can be fudged quite a bit, however, depending on the sizes of available plates in the players’ collections, and whether the troops need to be arranged in some specific formation.

If players don't have appropriate plates available for their Squads, they'll have to decide who is or isn't in a Squad by mutual agreement rather than by putting them on Squad Plates. In cases like these, Range can be measured to or from any convenient Squad member rather than to the plate.

Units can create, join, leave, or change the formation of a Squad Plate at any time during their own turn. On other players' turns, units aren't able to create or join Squads, but they may be able to leave the Squad Plate as part of a Response Action (for example, if they're forced to Bail out of the path of an incoming attack) or as a consequence of opposing players' actions (usually because they're Knocked Back by an Explosion or Collision).

Squad Movement and Action
A Squad moves as quickly as its slowest member, and is as maneuverable as its least manueverable member. A standard Squad of minifigs has Unlimited Maneuvering, while a Squad of Vehicles or riders on Horseback measures its movement with Forward or Stationary Maneuvering (9.2: Standard Maneuvering).

Combined Movement
If a Squad Plate moves through an impediment that inflicts a Movement Penalty or slows it to Half Speed, then the entire Squad suffers the effects until it clears the obstacle, not just the Squad members directly affected.

A Squad can move through spaces that don't have room for it, if there's enough room for the Squad's individual members to pass through (for instance, moving through an archway wide enough for each of a Squad's minifigs, but too narrow for the entire Squad Plate itself), but a Squad can't end its turn in a position where it doesn't fit. If a Squad is going to be stuck in a position too small for it, the Squad can either disband into individual members, change the shape of its Squad Plate to fit the smaller space, or wait until a later turn when it may be able to clear the obstacle all at once.

Combined Action
A Squad is most effective when several or all of its members take the same Action together for a single Combined Action, although members of a Squad are still allowed to take individual Actions with no penalty. This allows a Squad to treat its members' successful Combined Actions as a cumulative effect, combining (for instance) their Damage from successful Attacks, their Momentum in a Collision, or their Size for the purpose of handling large objects. Importantly, any bonuses from Bennies, SuperNatural Effects, or unit Specialties that affect a Squad as a whole can only be applied to a single Combined Action or movement, not to any separate Actions or movement that Squad members may take individually or in separate combinations.

If a Squad uses its Action to Sprint, it makes a single Sprint Roll with the lowest-Skilled Squad member, and the result is used as the Sprint Roll for every member of the Squad, allowing the Squad to stay in formation. (If a Squad uses its Action to Bail, on the other hand, then all Squad members roll individually.)

For other types of Actions, each participating Squad member makes a separate Skill Roll. Often, these rolls can be combined - if a Squad of ten minifigs of identical Skill d6 fires at a target with ten identical rifles, they can simply roll 10d6 and count the number of successful hits. All that matters is how many hits occur, not which specific minifigs were the ones responsible.

The ambassador from Reptilia keeps his personal medik close at hand, and puts as many armored bodies as possible between himself and possible danger.

Elements shown: LEGO, Little Armory

Taking Damage
One of the biggest advantages of forming a Squad is that it makes it much harder for enemies to focus Damage on any single unit. The drawback is that targeting a Squad as a whole is much easier than targenting individuals - as long as an attacker can target any unit or object within the Squad, or even the Squad Plate itself, it can make an attack on the Squad. Furthermore, since Squad Plates are generally larger than minifigs, opponents making Ranged Attacks on the Squad will often get an Attack Bonus for Target Size (5.1: Making Attacks). (Close Combat Attacks are still based on the Size of the individual units within the Squad, however.)

Single Attacks
Whenever a Squad is hit by a single attack or other source of Damage, the Squad's player may assign the Damage to any unit within the Squad he wishes.

There are exceptions to this rule: an attacker can Single Out a specific unit or units within a Squad if striking the target would be an Automatic Hit (for instance, if the target is Disrupted, involved in a Grab, or otherwise immobilized) or if the target units are at least twice the attacking unit's Size. Moving targets any smaller than that are too difficult to distinguish in the chaos of battle. A Rat (Size 0") could Single Out a Peasant (Size 1") in a Peasant Squad; the Peasant could Single Out a mounted Knight (Size 2"); and the Knight could Single Out an individual Giant of Size 4". Otherwise, Damage done to a Squad is distributed among its members according to the defending player's preference.

Multiple Attacks
There are many instances in which a Squad might be hit by multiple attacks at once - the collected attacks from an enemy Squad, a group of enemy units attacking in cooperation, the concentrated firepower of a multi-payload weapons platform, or any combination of the above. When this happens, the attacking player makes all their Attack Rolls first, and the defending player distributes the successful hits among his or her Squad members. The distribution should proceed as evenly as possible - no Squad member can take a second hit until every legal target has had its first - but otherwise, defenders can favor whichever units they want when choosing who takes which hits.

Remember that minifigs can't be hit by more than three Close Combat Attackers in the same turn. If a Squad is hit by enough Close Combat Attacks to exceed this limit, the minifigs will have to be passed over after the third attacker when distributing successful hits. Those hits must either be distributed to larger targets, or lost without effect.

If there are targets the attacking player would like to Single Out with specific attacks, then those targets are handled first. First, the attacking player delivers the attacks on Singled Out targets that are Automatic Hits, since these require no Attack Roll. Next, the remaining attackers make all of their Attack Rolls and count the successful hits, assigning as many of the hits as they like to the targets that can be Singled Out. If there are any hits left over, or if the attacker declined to Single Out any targets, the defending player then distributes the remaining successful hits among the defenders. The defender's distribution of attacks must still be even, taking the Singled Out attacks into account - if the attacker loaded two attacks onto one of the Singled Out units, the defender can't distribute a third attack to that unit until every legal target has at least had its second.

Regardless of who is handling the distribution, Damage is rolled as hits are assigned. All Damage from multiple simultaneous attacks is cumulative. When a unit is destroyed or killed, it is no longer a legal target, and further hit distribution can skip over them.

If there are a number of victims with different Damage levels to keep track of, it's good to have a pile of extra dice lying around to use as temporary Damage counters for each of them until the turn is over.

Location-Specific Damage
Some sources of Damage are location-specific, or have additional location-based effects after the initial Damage has been distributed. A nearby Explosion might go off, causing Damage and KnockBack to everything within its Explosion Radius. A massive laser blast might have enough Overkill to take out a series of Squad members along its line of fire, or a rocket-boosted bulldozer might be Plowing Through an audience of monster truck fans. In cases like these, the specific locations of the Squad members is very important.

The defending player is not able to simply claim that all the Squad members were hanging out on an unaffected area of the Squad Plate at the time - that would break the laws of Koincidence, which can only ever increase destruction, not avoid it. But Squad members are well-known for making crazy leaps in order to take bullets for each other, and it's hard to keep track of individual soldiers in the heat of battle. The defending player can grab sturdier or more expendable units from any part of the Squad Plate and Swap them with the targets of the Damage, claiming either that they jumped to the rescue just in the nick of time or that the attackers just weren't paying enough attention to who was standing where.

Any pair of Swapped units must be of equal Size. Even the most inattentive enemies will notice the difference between a minifig and a battleship. They must also be mobile - units that are Disrupted, Grabbed, or otherwise immobilized stay right where they are and take their lumps.

Squad Close Combat
Ranged combat between Squads is relatively simple - players measure the Range between Squad Plates, make their Combined Attack Rolls, and distribute Damage from the successful hits accordingly. But much like Close Combat between individual minifigures, Squad Close Combat is a more involved process.

Levels of Engagement
In Close Combat, a Squad has two possible Levels of Engagement, depending on whether it has brought its Squad Plate into contact with the opponent when it first engages.

If a Squad is close enough for some or all of its members to strike an opponent, but has not brought the Squad Plate into contact, then the Squad can make a Skirmish attack. Only the Squad members and opponents who are close enough to strike or be struck with melee weapons are involved in a Skirmish, although the Squad still takes its Angry Inch all together. This is especially useful for Squads with longer Two-Handed Weapons that want to keep opponents at arms' length, or Squads with mixed melee and ranged units who want to keep their ranged units out of direct contact with the enemy.

A Squad can Swap its members around at the beginning of a Skirmish (whether attacking or defending) to best position themselves, and at the beginning of each turn that the Skirmish continues. Oherwise, the Squad members are stuck in their positions until the Skirmish ends.

If a Squad brings its Squad Plate into contact with the opponent, on the other hand, then it has entered into Full Engagement. The Squad and its opponents are considered to be all mixed up together in a grand melee, and all members of the Squad can participate in the Close Combat, regardless of their relative position to the opponents. Because they are all mixed up together, any Ranged Attacks fired into a Squad that is Fully Engaged will also hit whatever opponents they are Fully Engaged with. The various involved players take turns distributing successful hits to their own involved units as if they were all part of one giant Squad, skipping players when necessary to maintain an even distribution (no player's unit can take a second hit until all players' units have taken their first hit, and so forth).

Any unit or Squad that's involved in a Full Engagement cannot use Actions to target or focus on anything outside of the Full Engagement, unless it first successfully Withdraws. It can still defend itself normally if it's targeted by Skirmishing attacks from outside the Full Engagement.

The Communal Angry Inch
Unlike minifigs, a Squad in Close Combat only takes its Angry Inch once, at the beginning of its first Maneuver (or Counterattack, for defending Squads). (Squads that elect to Ignore their opponents do not get to use their Angry Inch.) Rather than moving units around individually on the Squad Plate, the entire Squad Plate takes its Angry Inch in formation. If there's a unit in the Squad that isn't capable of taking an Angry Inch, whether because it's using its Action for something other than Close Combat or because it's a type of unit that can't take Angry Inches, then the Squad may not take an Angry Inch.

While a Squad and its opponents can easily use Angry Inches to move from Skirmishing range into a Full Engagement, the reverse is more difficult. Squads and other units can only use an Angry inch to to disengage from a Full Engagement as part of an attempt to Withdraw. Otherwise, some part of the Squad Plate must remain in contact with the opponent or opponents.

Squad Maneuvers
Squad Close Combat follows a sequence similar to minifig Close Combat (5.2: Close Combat).

Order of Attack for Squad Close Combat

The Close Combat sequence for Squads is similar to that for individual minifigs. Take each type of Maneuver one at a time, don't use any hand or weapon more than once in the same turn, and whenever one side or the other dies, stop.

0. Active Squad Takes an Angry Inch
- Unless the active Squad is Ignoring its opponents this turn, it may now take its Angry Inch. Unlike minifigs, a Squad only take a single Angry Inch at the beginning of the turn, not before each Maneuver. This step is not repeated if the Squad chooses to Press the Attack.
1. Active Squad Performs a Close Combat Maneuver
- The active player declares its Close Combat Maneuver (Attack, Grab, Shove, or Withdraw), and which of the Squad members will be participating.
- The defending player declares which of his defending units, if any, are going to try to Counter the Maneuver, either by Parrying it or Bailing out of the way.
- The players resolve the effects of the Maneuver and the Counters.
2. Opposing Units Launch Counterattacks
- Any opposing units who are still able to make Counterattacks on the active Squad may do so, even if they weren't directly targeted by the Squad's Close Combat Maneuver.
- Units in the active Squad may attempt to Parry incoming Counterattacks or Bail out of the way. Remember that if the Squad is trying to Withdraw or Ignore the combat, attempts to Parry or Bail will use up the units' Actions.
- The players resolve the effects of the Counterattacks and the active Squad's attempts to Counter, if any. If the active Squad dies or is Disrupted, its Close Combat is finished for the turn.
3. Active Squad Ignores or Withdraws
If the active Squad was attempting to Ignore or Withraw and has at least one member still standing, it has succeeded in its attempt. Except for Squad members that used up their Actions to Parry or Bail in response to Counterattacks, the Squad may now move and take Action freely - possibly to engage in Close Combat elsewhere.
4. Active Squad Presses the Attack
If the active Squad is still in Skirmish range or Fully Engaged with the target and at least one Squad member still has free hands or weapons it hasn't used yet during the turn, the Squad can return to step one and delare a new Close Combat Maneuver against the same target. Otherwise, its Close Combat is finished for the turn.

Like minifigs, a Squad making a Charge Attack can never Press the Attack. It's limited to a single exchange of Attacks and Counterattacks with its target.

While most minifigs carry two weapons at most, so they rarely get to Press the Attack more than once per turn, a Squad can sometimes loop through these steps several more times if its individual members are attempting multiple types of Maneuvers that have to be handled in succession.

Rather than handle Squad members' maneuvers one at a time, Attack Rolls and Parrying Rolls are combined as much as possible for efficiency's sake. As long as a group of units has the same Skill die and weapon type, it doesn't matter which specific units hit or miss; only the number of successes matters. They can make their rolls all together in a big pile of Skill dice.

Skill Rolls for Bailing are handled individually. In Squad Close Combat, unlike in minifig Close Combat, Bailing happens before the active units attempt their Close Combat Maneuver. Because attackers aren't targeting specific units in Squad Close Combat, a defending unit's Bail Roll does not have to beat an attacking unit's Attack Roll in order to be successful. Instead, units attempting to Bail out of a Full Engagement are successful as long as they manage to land completely outside all of the Squad Plates involved. Otherwise, they are Disrupted, helpless, and still a fair target for the effects of Close Combat Maneuvers.

Resolving Counters in Squad Combat

In Squad Close Combat, Close Combat Maneuvers, Counters, and Counterattacks are executed in groups rather than individually. Resolving these in proper sequence makes them much easier to handle.

Any Bailing defenders make their Bail rolls, removing successful escapees from Close Combat before the effects of any Combat Maneuver or Counterattacks are distributed.
Any Attacking or Counterattacking units make their Attack rolls, counting the number of successes for each weapon type.
Any Parrying defenders make their Parry rolls, counting the number of successes for each weapon type.
The defending player distributes the successful Close Combat Maneuvers and Parries among the surviving defenders. If necessary, the attacking player declares what order successful Attacks are delivered in, and makes Damage rolls as necessary.

When members of a Squad make an Attack or Counterattack, they all make their Attack Rolls, and the defending player distributes the successful hits among the legal targets (all of the targets within the attackers' weapon ranges for a Skirmishing attack, or all of the units involved in a Full Engagement). Damage and other effects are rolled as the hits are distributed, removing targets from the legal distribution pool as they are destroyed or killed. All Damage from the Close Combat is cumulative until the end of the turn.

When members of a Squad make a Grab or a Shove, the defending player distributes them among the legal targets. The effects of the Grabs and Shoves, as well as any attempted Counters, are only resolved once all of them have been assigned, because the cumulative Size of units participating in Grabs and Shoves affects the final rolls. Successfully Grabbed units, along with the units Grabbing them, are moved to the nearest edge of the Squad Plate between them. Successfully Shoved units are Knocked Back from wherever they're standing.

When Skirmishing, but not when Fully Engaged, it's also possible to attempt a Combined Shove to push back an entire Squad rather than its individual members. In this case, the Shoving unit or units total the sum of their Effective Sizes, and the target Squad does the same, and the Shove is handled as though between two units of those respective total Sizes (8.2: Basic Weapons). Remember that a smaller unit can't Shove a larger one, and a larger unit gets +2 to a Shove for ever inch of Size advantage. If the Shove is successful, the target Squad is pushed back the appropriate distance. Otherwise, all the involved units are now Fully Engaged.

"People called Romanes they go the house?"

Imperial Rome has no tolerance for hippies.

Elements shown: LEGO

Combined Rolls Example: Smiting Hippies

Example: Squads of five pikemen (Skirmishing) and ten swordsmen (Fully Engaged) are attacking the three remaining members of a Squad of sign-waving hippies.

Making their Attack Roll, the Roman Squads roll one pile of five dice for the pikes, and a second pile of ten dice for the swords, counting the number of successful hits from each weapon type but with no other concern for which hits came from which specific Squad members. The Squads roll two hits with the pikes and six with the swords.

Once the hits are counted from each set of attacks, the hippies roll a pile of three dice for their attempt to Parry with their signs, with no concern for which successful Parry was achieved by which hippie. They take a -1 Skill Penalty for being Outnumbered, and only one Parry is successful.

The attacking player chooses to deliver the pike hits first, doing two dice of Damage apiece, and the sword hits second, each doing one die of Damage.

The defending player gives hippie #1 the sole successful Parry and the first pike hit. The attacker rolls 3 Damage (thanks to the Parry); hippie #1 survives. The defending player leaves a die with the three facing upwards next to the hippie, to keep track of the unit's total Damage until Close Combat is resolved for the turn.

Hippie #2 takes the remaining pike hit. The attacker rolls 8 Damage for an immediate kill.

Hippie #3 takes the first sword hit. The attacker rolls a 1, Critically Failing and causing no Damage.

With two hippies remaining, the defending player gives the second sword hit to hippie #1. The attacker rolls 2 Damage. Combined with the earlier hit from the pike, this is enough for a second kill.

Only hippie #3 remains, and the defender gives her the next two sword hits. The attacker rolls a 2 and another 2 for a total of 4. It's enough to match the hippie's Armor but not exceed it; the hippie gets one hand chopped off, but survives the attacks.

Although the attacker still has successful sword attacks to deliver, hippie #3 has reached the limit of three Close Combat attacks on a single minifig. The remaining sword attacks go to waste, and the hippie survives to protest for another turn.