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Winterbourne Industries

Required uplifting personnel enhancing regimental training

or RUPERT

This training aid enables two officers to understand and develop tactics for use on the field of battle
upon the red planet. One officer takes the guise of the 'blue' player and controls the forces of the
MEF, the other becomes the 'red' player and I'm afraid, must control the inferior forces of the red
menace. It is only fair that officers should change sides so that both get to develop their skills as a
MEF CO.

The natural outcome of each 'game' is that the forces of the MEF are valiant and crush the red
menace. If this is not the case, YOU ARE PLAYING IT WRONG, please start again.

Required Units for the basic game:

MEF: 1 Brigadier (B), 1 Nurse (N), 2 Grenadiers (G), 3 Infantry (I) and 1 Artillery (A)

Martians: 1 Fighting Machine (F), 2 Handling Machines (H), 2 Infantry (I) and 3 Slaves (S)

Officers may of course change the mix of units once they’re familiar with the game but there should
only ever be one Brigadier (a singular fellow dontchaknow)

Setting up the training aid.

Orientate the 'game board' between the two 'players' lengthways.

The 'red' player takes the 3 hill markers and places them anywhere on the board adjacent to each
other.

The 'red' player takes the 3 Red Weed markers and places them anywhere on the board NOT
adjacent to each other.

The 'red' player then takes all of the red units and deploys them within 3 hexes of his board edge.

The 'blue' player takes the 4 Cavorite C.A.K.E. spheres and places them anywhere within 3 hexes of
his board edge.

The men and women of C.A.K.E. train diligently in the operation of their craft but one patch of Mars
looks much like any other and so they’re not always accurate with their landings.

Select any adjacent hex to the C.A.K.E sphere, this is number 1, roll a D6 and count the result around
clockwise to each adjacent hex to the sphere, this is in fact where the sphere landed, relocate the
sphere to this hex.

If two C.A.K.E spheres should land in the same hex then that’s dashed bad luck, remove both spheres
from play and four M.E.F. units.

Each C.A.K.E. sphere carries two units, however, even though the C.A.K.E. pilots show great
enthusiasm they can be a bit over enthusiastic when it comes to landings which may injure the units
they’re transporting.
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The ‘blue’ player should now place two units next to each of the C.A.K.E. spheres in any adjacent
hex. Each unit must now resolve a hit as if they’d be hit in combat. See the section ‘Resolving Hits’

Units are placed in a hex with their top edge aligned to the direction they’re
facing.

The 'game' turn

The MEF player goes first, because.

Each game turn comprises of the following phases:

Movement phase

Combat phase

Moral Fibre phase

Each turn the current player completes each of the phases.

Movement Phase
Each unit in a players force may move once up to their Movement value.

A unit may only move to the hex to which their top edge is aligned.

A unit may traverse one hex per point of their Movement value.

When entering a new hex a unit must align their top edge to one of the three
forward hex sides, forward-left, forward, forward right.

A unit may change its facing to any of its hexes sides but this is all it may do for this
Movement Phase.

Hills on Mars are not like hills in England they're bloody huge, units may not move over hills, you
have to go around.

Red Weed is a bugger to move through, if a MEF unit tries to move through any hex containing Red
Weed it will immediately stop moving, unable to continue moving until next turn.

Red Weed has no effect on Red Units.

Units may move through their own units but may not end their movement on the same hex as
another unit.

Units may not move through a hex containing an enemy unit.

Combat Phase
Ranged Combat:

Units with the None Combatant special rule do not directly engage the enemy in Ranged combat.

Each unit with a Range value of 2 or more may engage an enemy target within that many hexes.

Range is measured from the hex directly in front of the firing unit to the hex containing the target
unit.

Direct ranged combat

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The target unit must be within Line of Sight (LOS).

LOS is drawn from the hex directly in front of the

firing unit, forward and to the left and right along
the front-left and front-right hex lines. This is called
the Fire Arc.

Line of Sight is blocked by Hills and all units.

The attacking units player rolls a D6.

Dice rolls are modified as follows:

-1 if the unit moved

-1 if the target is in Red Weed

On a roll of 5 or 6 the unit has successfully inflicted a hit on the target unit.

On any other roll the target is missed.

Indirect ranged combat

Artillery can fire indirectly over troops, red weed and hills.

*Grenadiers and Martian Fighting Machines can fire indirectly over troops and red weed.

LOS is not required for Indirect ranged combat; however the target must still be within the shooting
units Fire Arc.

Otherwise follow the normal rules above for determining a hit.

Close Combat

Units with the None Combatant special may engage the enemy in Close Combat.

If a target unit is in the hex to the front of your unit you may attack it in Close Combat.

Both the attacking and target units roll 1D6

Dice rolls are modified as follows:

+1 if you initiated the attack

+1 if your attacking from any of the three rear hexes adjacent to a target

+1 if you’re British (‘cause they don’t like it up ‘em and they dont like being sneezed upon)

+1 if you’re Nurses (they’re fearsome when pressed)

-1 if your unit has a wound marker

Compare the final dice results, the player with the highest result has hit the enemy.

In the case of a draw nothings happens.

Resolving Hits

Any unit suffering a hit rolls a D6 and modifies the result as follows:
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+1 if you’re British (stiff upper lip eh, ‘tis but a scratch)

+1 if the Nurses are within 2 hexes (they’ll do their damnedest to keep a man at peek
physical illness)

-1 of you were hit by the Heat Ray from a Fighting Machine

-1 if the unit has a wound marker

On a roll of 1,2,3 or 4 the unit suffers a Wound, place a wound marker on the unit.

On a roll of 5 or 6 the unit must retreat one hex (any direction that takes them away from enemy
units) or, if unable to retreat, they suffer a Wound as above.

If a unit has a number of wound markers on them exceeding their Wound rating they are removed
from the game.

Moral Fibre Phase

At some point in any conflict a forces moral fibre is called into question.

If at the beginning of your turn your side has lost half or more of their starting force roll a D6 and
modify the result as follows:

+1 if you’re British (we’re British goddamnit, hold!)

+1 if the Brigadier is on the field of battle (well, he’s the bloody Brigadier isn’t he;what,
inspiring chap)

On a roll of 5 or 6 your forces moral fibre holds.

On a roll of 1,2,3 or 4 its just too much for your force and they retreat from battle and the game it
over.

Optional Rules

If you would like to make your training a little harder you may include these optional rules with the
agreement of your opponent.

P&M Warfare

To better represent the effects of the Winterbourne Industries MkII ‘Bromwich’ Steam Powered
Grenade Launcher use the following rules when firing with Grenadiers.

Grenadiers can use Indirect Fire as normal but their MkI Steam Propelled Fibril Enhanced Frangible
Globule Grenades explode showering the area with their P & M** ooze enhanced with a fibril
membrane***.

To represent this, if you score a hit take two P&M markers, placing one on the target hex and
another on any adjacent hex.

Any Red unit entering a hex (or currently existing) with a P&M markers must roll a D6, if they roll a
5+ they must immediately take one hit.

P&M tokens stay for the whole game.

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Black Smoke

Most Martian Fighting Machines are equipped with two weapons, the Heat Ray, represented by the
base rules and the Black Smoke launcher, each combat phase the Fighting machines may use either
weapon but not both.

To fire the Black Smoke launcher the Fighting Machine may still fire using Indirect Fire as normal but
if a hit is scored place a Smoke marker in the targeted hex.

Any Blue unit entering a hex (or currently existing) with a Smoke marker immediately takes a hit.

Black Smoke tokens stay for the whole game.

* Grenadiers are trained to use their MkII ‘Bromwich’ Steam Powered Grenade Launcher to shoot
over obstacles and Martian Fighting Machines or Tripods are bloody big.

** Phlegm & Mucus

*** A handkerchief

M.E.F UNITS

Unit name Movement Range Wound Special Rules

Infantry 2 2 1 None
Grenadiers 2 3 1 Indirect Fire
P&M Warfare
Nurses 2 0 1 None Combatant
Aid:
When adjacent
to a wounded
unit a Nurse may
remove one
wound during
the combat
phase on a D6
roll of 5+
Brigadier 2 0 1 None Combatant
Artillery 1 10 1 Indirect Fire

MARTIAN UNITS

Unit name Movement Range Wound Special Rules

Fighting Machine 3 10 2 Indirect Fire
/ Tripod Black Smoke
Handling 3 1 2
Machine
Infantry 2 2 1
Slaves / Food 2 1 0