Dread Fleet 243x14

First Blood THE GRAND ALLIANCE

SETTING THE SCENE

THE DREADFLEET

Heldenhammer Description: Sigmarite Temple-ship Captain: Jaego Roth

Bloody Reaver Description: Vampiric Castle-ship Captain: Count Noctilus

Flaming Scimitar Description: Sorcerer’s War Barge Captain: The Golden Magus

Black Kraken Description: Chaos Dwarf Submersible Captain: Tordrek Hackheart

Swordfysh Description: Pirate Galleon Captain: Aranessa Saltspite

Shadewraith Description: Ghostly Galleon Captain: Vangheist

Set the scenery up as shown on the deployment map below.

DEPLOYMENT The Grand Alliance player deploys all three of his warships outside the ring of islands, making sure they are in the marked area at the top left quadrant of the seascape. The Dreadfleet player then deploys all three of his warships in the bottom right quadrant of the seascape. Top tip – try to get close to the enemy so you can make your shots count, and keep at least 2" between each of your warships if you can.

GAME LENGTH

Grand Alliance

The game lasts until a pre-agreed time limit has elapsed. We recommend 15 minutes, but if you fancy a longer game, feel free to extend this period.

VICTORY The players are attempting to cripple and destroy the enemy fleet. After the agreed time limit has elapsed, each player counts the number of Damage cards next to his opponent’s Warship cards. The player who has inflicted the most Damage cards upon his opponent’s fleet is the winner. If both players’ fleets have taken the same number of Damage cards, the game is a draw. Sunken warships: Note that if a warship sinks, the Damage cards that were next to its Warship card at the time of sinking still count towards the owning player’s total (keep such cards to one side if a warship is removed from play).

Dreadfleet

The Game Turn 1) INITIATIVE PHASE: Roll-off to find out which player gets the initiative. The player with initiative chooses who will be the first player. The first player’s opponent is the second player.

2) STATUS PHASE: Resolve ongoing effects and any Status cards with a red background (at the beginning of the game, there will be no Status effects).

3) FATE PHASE: The first player draws a Fate card and resolves its effects. The second player then does the same. Ignore the wind symbols for now (the numbered parts).

4) ACTION PHASE: The first player chooses a warship that has not been activated yet this turn and resolves its actions by resolving the following sub-phases: a) Orders • You may attempt to issue an Order card by ing a Command check. b) Movement • Move around the seascape using the warship’s Speed and Handling characteristics. Warships may make one turn of up to 45 degrees each time they move at least their Handling distance in inches. c) Broadside • Choose a target within 18" and line of sight. • Check that it is in your warship’s side arc.

Fighting a Duel (p.40): Each player rolls a number of dice equal to his captain’s Swashbuckling value. Each roll of a 5 or 6 is one victory. If you have several captains involved in the same duel, add their victories together. Each player totals the number of victories they have. The player with the most is the winner of the duel. The captain(s) on the losing side takes a Wound card and places it under their Warship card so it shows the ‘Flesh Wound’ result. If a captain already has a Wound card, move the Wound card up one degree of severity. If the result is a draw, a wound is taken by all captains involved in the duel. Fighting a Boarding Action (p.34): Each player now adds together the current Crew characteristics of all their warships involved in the boarding action and rolls that many dice. Each roll of a 5 or 6 is a victory. Each player totals the number of victories they have, and the player with the most is the winner of the boarding action. Subtract the losing side’s total from the winning side’s total to obtain the boarding action result. For instance, if the Grand Alliance player had scored 3 and the Dreadfleet player 1, the boarding action result would be 2. The player that scored the fewest victories draws a number of Damage cards equal to the boarding action result for each of his warships on the losing side. If the players have scored the same number of victories, every warship involved in the boarding action draws one Damage card.

• Measure the range between the two warships:

5) NOW IT’S YOUR OPPONENT’S TURN...

RANGING CHART Range

D6 result needed to hit

Short (0-6") Medium (6-12") Long (12-18")

4+ 5+ 6+

• Apply any applicable modifiers: – First broadside: Each warship’s first broadside of the game has a +1 modifier (for example, instead of needing a 6+ you would need a 5+). – Raking fire: If the majority of your warship’s base is in front of or behind the target, then you get a +1 modifier to hit, as described above. • Determine if the target is obscured or not. If it is, halve the number of broadside dice that you can roll, rounding up. • Roll your broadside dice. Each dice result that equals or beats your required to hit value scores one hit. • Your opponent can make one armour save for each hit inflicted. • The owner of the target warship draws one Damage card for each hit that is not saved and resolves it against the target of the broadside. d) Boarding Actions (p.22): In this sub-phase, you must fight a boarding action against any enemies in base . First off, the captains must fight a duel!

The second player then chooses a warship that has not been activated yet this turn and resolves its actions in the same order as the first player. The players alternate activating warships until all warships have acted.

6) END PHASE:

Assess the victory conditions. If a player has won, the game ends. Otherwise start a new turn!