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Melee Phase

In this phase, any units that are Engaged and not Dazed or Stunned, will make Melee Attacks, targeting their opponents. Even though Dazed or Stunned units cannot attack, they still participate in Melee Combats as potential (and very vulnerable) targets.

Unlike other phases, your opponents may act in this phase, making Melee Attacks themselves.

In the Melee Phase, the current player chooses any of their Engaged units and resolves the Melee Combat that unit is a part of. This continues until all of the player's Engaged units' combats have been resolved. Unlike in other phases, resolving Combats is not optional. If multiple of the player's units are involved in a single Melee Combat, this combat is only resolved once in this phase. The Phase is over when all Melee Combats have been resolved.

What Counts as a Melee Combat​

A single melee combat is any connected group of Engaged units. If unit A1 is Engaged with unit B1, who is then engaged with unit A2, who is engaged with unit B2; all four units are Engaged in a single Melee Combat.

Resolving Melee Combats​

A Melee Combat is resolved by first determining the attack order of the combat. After that, the attack order is resolved. This is done by going through and resolving each unit's attacks in order. To do that, player's first declare the targets of their unit's Melee Attacks, then resolve those attacks.

This continues until there are no units left that have not attacked (that aren't Dazed or Stunned). At this point, the Melee Combat is resolved and the next combat can be resolved (if any are left).

Determine Attack Order​

The first step of resolving a Melee Combat is determining the attack order of all units Engaged in the combat. Dazed or Stunned units are not a part of the attack order. The attack order is as follows:

  • Any units that Engaged this turn go first
  • Any other units go next

If multiple units Engaged in the same turn, they are sorted as follows:

  • If multiple units Engaged this turn, the unit with the highest Agility goes first
  • If multiple units have the same Agility, roll a d20 to determine who goes first, rerolling on a tie

After that, any other units are also sorted by the above rules.

For simplicity, if the same player has multiple units in a row in the attack order, they can swap the order in which they attack, but each unit must resolve all of their attacks before the next unit does.

Resolve Attack Order​

After determining the attack order, the unit going first resolves its attacks. After resolving its attacks, the next unit in attack order does so. This continues until all units have resolved their attacks, at which point the Melee Combat is over.

Units earlier in the attack order may Daze, Stun, or even Incapacitate a unit later in the attack order. If this happens, that unit is removed from the attack order (but may still potentially be the target of other attacks this Melee Combat). Therefore it is advantageous to go earlier in Melee Combat.

Declare Melee Attacks​

Once it is a unit's turn to resolve its attacks (assuming they are not Dazed or Stunned), you must first declare how you are going to split your Melee Attacks amongst valid targets. This may be simple if you only have a single attack, but can be more complicated if you have multiple attacks and/or multiple Melee Weapons. It is done as follows:

  1. Count up your Melee Attacks
    1. This is the total of your Attack stat, plus one extra if you are Dual Wielding, plus any other rules that may modify your total Attacks
  2. Determine valid targets
    1. A valid target is any enemy unit that your unit's base is touching
    2. If your unit's base is touching multiple enemy units and at least one of those enemies is not Dazed or Stunned, you may not target any Dazed or Stunned enemies
  3. Declare how you will split your Melee Attacks amongst valid targets
    1. If you have two different Melee Weapons, declare which one you will use for each attack
    2. Each Melee Weapon must be used for at least one Melee Attack

Resolve Melee Attacks​

Now that the targets of the Melee Attacks have been declared, you can resolve the Melee Attacks. Select one of the targets of your Melee Attacks and follow the steps below to resolve it. Once it's resolved, select another target repeat until there are no unresolved attacks left.

  1. Perform a number of Melee Checks, at the same time, equal to the number of Melee Attacks you declared against the target (remember the values!)
    1. If some of these Melee Checks use different Melee Weapons, keep track of which checks correspond to which weapons
    2. Apply any modifiers to your Melee Checks (such as from weapons)
    3. If you roll a natural 20, you score a Critical Hit. Treat the attack as if you had rolled two 20s instead (ie. the opponent needs to roll two Defence checks and resolve them individually)
  2. For each Melee Check you pass, your opponent performs a Defence Check
    1. The unit's Melee Weapon may modify this check
  3. For each Defence Check they fail, reduce their Wounds by 1
  4. If this lowers their Wounds to 0, determine how Injured the opponent is
    1. Start with the pool of all successful Melee Attacks
      1. For every Wound above 1 that the enemy had, randomly select which successful Melee Attack caused the wound
      2. Determine randomly (ie. by rolling a d20), then remove that attack from the pool
  5. From the remaining pool of Melee Attacks, Injure them based on the highest roll, after modifiers (see the Injuries section for how this is handled)
    1. If they are Incapacitated, draw from the Improvement Deck

If you are targeting an enemy that is Dazed or Stunned, it is resolved differently.

Attacking Dazed Enemies​
  1. Perform a number of Melee Checks with Advantage, at the same time, equal to the number of Melee Attacks you declared against the target
    1. If some of these Melee Checks use different Melee Weapons, keep track of which checks correspond to which weapons
    2. Apply any modifiers to your Melee Checks (such as from weapons)
    3. If you roll a natural 20, you score a Critical Hit. Treat the attack as if you had rolled two 20s instead (ie. the opponent needs to roll two Defence checks and resolve them individually)
  2. For each Melee Check you pass, your opponent performs a Defence Check
    1. The unit's Melee Weapon may also modify this check
  3. If they fail any Defence Check, they are Incapacitated
    1. If this happens, draw from the Improvement Deck
Attacking Stunned Enemies​

For Stunned enemies, the unit must expend one of its Attacks, but immediately Incapacitates the enemy without any check required. Draw from the Improvement Deck. For this reason, there is no value in declaring more than a single Melee Attack against a Stunned enemy.