<strong>Mass Combat</strong><br/><br/>Mass combat is used to resolve campaigns involving massive numbers of soldiers.  The rules of mass combat tend to be unwieldy if less than 100 combatants are involved, and usually resolve combat involving thousands of soldiers.<br/><br/><em>Mass Combat Stats:</em><br/><strong>Strength:</strong>The relative combat readiness of a unit.<br/><strong>Morale:</strong>The esprit de corps and organization of the unit.<br/><strong> Power:</strong>The relative power of the unit's equipment.<br/><strong>Attack:</strong>The damage a unit deals when it engages.<br/><strong>Armor:</strong>The amount reduced from the damage a unit takes when attacked.<br/><strong>Characteristic Rating:</strong>A measure of the unit's competency. The characteristic rating of a mass combat unit is equal to the average highest characteristic of characters in the unit.  (or 20 for conscript units)<br/><strong>Speed:</strong>How far in kilometers a unit can move in a strategic round.<br/><br/><em>Initiative:</em>To determine initiative in mass combat, units roll 1d10 and add their characteristic bonus.  (the tens digit of its characteristic rating)<br/><br/><em>Rounds:</em>A round in mass combat lasts 4 hours.    When a unit attacks another, it is considered to be<strong>engaged</strong>with the unit it attacked, and vice versa.  A unit which is engaged may not take movement orders without first taking a successful disengage order, and must dedicate an attack order to each unit it is engaged with, if possible.  The unit commander selects which engaged units the unit attacks first.<br/><br/><em>Orders:</em>During a round, a unit may take a number of orders equal to its characteristic bonus.  A unit may only take one movement order per round, and may only take orders which are legal for its unit type.  Each attack order given to a unit must affect a different unit.<br/><strong>Advance:</strong>The unit moves a number of kilometers equal to its movement rating.  Any attack orders the unit makes in the same round roll 1 fewer dice.  Movement Order   Unit Types: All except for air, Medium and Heavy Artillery<br/><strong>Airstrike:</strong>The unit moves a number of kilometers equal to its movement rating.  Movement Order  Unit Types: Air Units<br/><strong>Cautious Advance:</strong>The unit moves a number of kilometers equal to up to half its movement rating.  Movement Order  Unit Types: All except for air, Medium and Heavy Artillery<br/><strong>Forced March:</strong>Make a challenging (+0) toughness check.  On a success, the unit moves double its speed value.  A unit which makes a forced march rolls 3 fewer dice for damage and suffers a -10 penalty on all actions until it rests for 1 full strategic turn.  (8 turns in a planetstrike)  Movement Order  Unit Types: Infantry, Calvary<br/><strong>Full Throttle:</strong>Make a challenging (+0) tech-use check.  On a success, the unit moves one and a half times its speed value.  A unit which moves by full throttle may not attack in the same strategic turn.  Movement Order  Unit Types: Mechanized, Armor, Air<br/><strong>Limber Artillery:</strong>The unit moves a number of kilometers equal to its movement rating.  It may not attack on its next turn.  Unit Types: Medium and Heavy Artillery<br/><br/><strong>Attack:</strong>The unit attacks another unit within its attack range, dealing its damage.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Artillery Barrage:</strong>Target a unit within attack range and make a Challenging (+0) Navigation (Surface) check.  On a success, destroy 1d10 points of cover or deal 3d10 morale damage to an enemy unit.  Unit Types: Medium and Heavy Artillery<br/><strong>Combat Air Patrol:</strong>The unit flies about, searching for targets.  Any enemy unit which passes within 50 kilometers of the unit may be engaged and attacked.  Unit Types: Air<br/><strong>Charge:</strong>The unit delivers an extremely aggressive assault against an engaged unit.  Make a Challenging (+0) Intimidate check, if successful, the engaged unit suffers 1d10 morale damage and rolls 1 fewer dice in its next attack.  Unit Types: Light Infantry, Calvalry<br/><strong>Dig In:</strong>The unit digs trenches and builds field fortifications to protect itself from attacks.  Make a Challenging (+0) Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) check.  On a success, the entrenching unit gains 10 points of cover.  On a failure, the entrenching unit only gains 5 points of cover.  A dug in unit loses its cover when it moves.  Unit Types: Infantry, Light Mechanized, Light Calvary, Artillery<br/><strong>Disengage:</strong>Make a difficult (-10) command test.  On a success, the unit disengages with all engaged units.  On a failure, the disengage order may not be selected next strategic round, and the difficulty increases by 1 step.  Unit Types: All Except Air<br/><strong>Electronic Warfare:</strong>Make a Hard (-20) Tech-Use test.  If successful, enemy units take a -10 penalty on all actions for one full strategic turn and may not use vox communications during this time.  Unit Types: All with a technology level of industrial or higher.  Does not work against feudal or primitive troops.<br/><strong>Emergency Repairs:</strong>Make a Hard (-20) Medicae test.  On a success, restore up to 1d5 points of strength damage the unit has suffered.  On a failure, the unit suffers 1d5 points of morale damage.  Unit Types: Armor, Air, Artillery<br/><strong>Feint:</strong>Make a difficult (-10) Deceive test if the unit is engaged.  On a success, the unit deals +5 damage on its attacks against a single enemy unit for a number of strategic rounds equal to the degrees of success on the deceive check.  On a failure, the unit takes 10 additional damage from the enemy unit it feinted against for 1 strategic round.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Flank:</strong>Make an Ordinary (+10) Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) check, a Challenging (+0) Common Lore (War) check, or a Difficult (-10) Logic check.  On a success, the unit deals +10 damage on its attacks against a single enemy unit for a number of strategic rounds equal to the degrees of success on the check.  A unit suffers a -20 penalty to attempt to flank a faster unit.  A unit that moves faster than another unit gains a +10 bonus to attempt to flank a slower unit.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Fly Away:</strong>The unit disengages from all engaged units.  Unit Types: Air<br/><strong>Push Through:</strong>Make a Hard (-20) command or intimidate test.  On a success, the unit moves through an engaged unit and takes 1d10 damage.  It is no longer considered engaged.  On a failure, the unit takes 2d10 damage.  Unit Types: Infantry, Light Mechanized, Calvary<br/><strong>Rally:</strong>Make a Difficult (-10) Blather, Command, Deceive, or Intimidate test.  On a success, restore 2d10 morale and grant +5 bonus on all test for the rest of the strategic round.  With four or more degrees of success, restore 3d10 morale and grant a +10 bonus on all tests for the rest of the strategic round.  On a failure, the unit takes 1d10 morale damage.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Reconnaissance:</strong>Make a Challenging (+0) silent move, concealment, and awareness test against an adjacent unit.  On a success, all friendly units in vox contact attacking the unit roll 1 additional die of damage against it, and gain +10 to combat tests while engaged with the scouted unit.  Unit Types: Light Infantry, Light Calvary, Light Mechanized<br/><strong>Sabotage:</strong>Make a Challenging (+0) silent move, concealment, and demolitions test against an adjacent unit.  On a success, the enemy unit loses 2d10 strength, 4d10 morale, and loses 1 point of power.  On a failure, the unit suffers an attack from the unit it attempted to sabotage.  Unit Types: Light Infantry, Light Calvary, Light Mechanized<br/><strong>Split Unit:</strong>The unit splits into smaller units to fight more effectively.  A single split unit order enables a unit to create one satellite unit per digit of the unit's strength.  (so a unit with 8 strength can create 1 unit, a unit with 50 strength can create 2 units, and a unit with 666 strength could create 3 units)  Each unit created may contain up to 50% of the unit's strength, and each point of strength placed into the created units is subtracted from the parent unit.  Aside from strength, the created units are identical, and split units may split into smaller units.  In a planetstrike, a unit may split only once every 8 strategic rounds.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Strategic Withdrawal:</strong>Make a Hard (-20) command test.  On a success, the unit disengages and may move up to half its speed, as long as it moves away from the nearest enemy, and suffers +5 damage from each successful attack for 1 round.  On a failure, the unit suffers a -10 penalty to all tests for two full strategic rounds.  Unit Types: All<br/><strong>Tank Shock:</strong>The unit overruns the position of an engaged unit.  Make a  Challenging (+0) Intimidate check.  If successful, the attacking unit moves through the engaged unit and is no longer engaged.  The defending unit suffers 1d10+5 morale damage.  Unit Types: Armor, Medium and Heavy Mechanized Infantry<br/><strong>Triage:</strong>Make a Hard (-20) Medicae test.  On a success, reduce all strength losses by half for 1 full strategic turn, and all morale losses by one quarter for the same duration.  Unit Types: Infantry, Calvary, Mechanized<br/><br/><em>Mass Combat Damage:</em>When a unit attacks another in mass combat, it rolls damage with no needed die rolls.  Reduce the unit's armor and cover from the damage, then apply the remainder to the unit's strength.  Each time a unit loses 10 strength in combat, it loses 1d10 morale.  For each 20 morale damage a unit suffers, it suffers a -5 penalty to all tests.  When a unit is reduced to half morale, it must make a morale test (against its base morale) or retreat.  At one quarter its base morale, the unit must make another morale test.  When reduced to 0 morale, the unit automatically breaks.<br/><br/><em>Attacking Air Units:</em>Air Units may be targeted by ground units, but if they don't have the anti air special rule, they only deal half damage against the air unit.<br/><br/><em>Flashpoints:</em>During each day of mass combat, the GM will create encounters for the PCs to engage in.  Success in these encounters provides advantages to the PC's side, beyond normal orders.<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Planetsrike:</strong><br/><br/>The planetstrike rules are used to resolve a mass combat which features both starships and mass combat units.  A planetstrike strategic round is only 30 minutes.<br/><br/><em>Initiative:</em>Starships and large units roll initiative as normal, using their detection or characteristic bonus.<br/><br/><em>Planetstrike differences:</em>Units in a planetstrike carry out orders as normal, but adjust their abilities in the following ways:<br/><strong>Damage:</strong>A unit in a planetstrike deals 1d5 damage in combat, instead of 4d10 damage as normal.  During the fist round a unit is engaged, it deals its normal damage bonus, but not in subsequent rounds until 8 full rounds have passed.  In a planetstrike, armor is ablative, and does not refresh its protection until 8 full rounds have passed.  The protection of armor is counted separately against each opponent.  (so a unit with 12 points of armor that took 11 points of damage in one round would be reduced to armor 1 until 8 rounds had passed, but if it was engaged by another unit, it would have 12 points of armor against that unit)<br/><strong>Movement:</strong>Units in a planetstrike have their movement rating divided by 8.<br/><strong>Orders:</strong>In a planetstrike battle, divide the effects of orders by 5, rounding up.  So if an order does 1d10+5 damage, it deals 1d2+1 damage instead.  Bonuses to combat tests are not affected by this rule.<br/><br/><em>Planetary Bombardment:</em>A planetary bombardment requires a starship to commit both its movement action and its shooting action to bombarding a planetary target.  The movement action requires an Arduous (-40) Pilot + Maneuver test to get in position.  If this test is failed, the ship is out of position, and may abort the bombardment test.  The shooting action is taken at a -40 penalty.  A failure on either test causes the bombardment to land off target, using the scatter diagram on page 248 of the Rogue Trader core rulebook and landing 2d10 kilometers off target plus the total degrees of failure between both tests.  Planetary bombardment deals the following amounts of damage; units struck by a planetary bombardment automatically break unless the unit commander succeeds at an Arduous (-40) command test to retain control.  Force fields don't affect damage from orbital bombardment, but if the user of the force field burns a fate point, the force point may be overloaded to negate the attack.<br/><strong>Macrocannons:</strong>Macrocannon bombardments affect 3 square kilometers per point of strength of the macrocannons used.  Units caught within the macrocannon bombardment take 5d10+40 damage, while major characters in the bombardment take 4d10+5 explosive damage, pen 4<br/><strong>Lances:</strong>Lance attacks affect 1 square kilometer per point of strength used.  Units caught within a lance strike take 5d10+75 damage, while major characters in the blast wave take 5d10+10 energy damage pen 6<br/><strong>Torpedoes:</strong>Torpedo strikes affect 1 square kilometer.  Each torpedo may be targeted at an independent point, and makes its own ballistic skill test, using its guidance as normal.  A  unit struck by a plasma torpedo takes 2d10+10 damage per torpedo which hits, while major characters take 2d10 explosive damage pen 4.  A unit struck by a melta torpedo takes 1d10+15 damage per torpedo which hits, while major characters take 3d10+10 explosive damage pen 6.  A unit struck by a virus torpedo is affected as a ship, suffering strength instead of crew population damage.  Units engaged with a unit struck by a virus torpedo are also affected; major characters are affected as if they were hit by a virus grenade.  A unit hit by a vortex torpedo is automatically destroyed, it it falls within the blast radius.<br/><strong>Nova Cannons:</strong>A Nova Cannon strike which detonates in the atmosphere of an inhabitable planet will ignite the atmosphere and kill all life on the planet.  A shot which detonates too soon explodes outside the atmosphere of the planet, and does no damage, except to starships and stations in orbit of the planet.  A shot which detonates too late crashes into the planet, and "merely" affects everything within 1,000 kilometers of the impact point.  Units caught within the blast radius take 20d10+300 damage, while major characters in the blastwave take 20d10+50 energy damage pen 20<br/><br/>Unit Examples:<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Infantry Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Medium Infantry  Acquisition Modifier: +10 (medium infantry -10, volunteer +0, shoddy +10, industrial +10, company +0)<br/>Strength: 30   Morale: 55  Characteristic Rating: 30<br/>Power: 5  Armor: 10  Attack: 4d10+5   Movement: 20km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Conscript Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Light Infantry  Acquisition Modifier: +20 (light infantry +0, conscript +10, shoddy +10, industrial +10, regiment -10)<br/>Strength: 60  Morale: 45  Characteristic Rating: 20<br/>Power: 3  Armor: 6  Attack: 4d10+3  Movement: 20km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Heavy Infantry  Acquisition Modifier: -10 (heavy infantry -20, volunteer +0, common +0, industrial +10, company +0)<br/>Strength: 20 Morale: 60  Characteristic Rating: 30<br/>Power: 7  Armor: 14  Attack: 4d10+7  Movement: 20km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Mechanized Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Medium Mechanized Infantry  Acquisition Modifier: -10 (Medium Mechanized -20, volunteer +0, common +0, industrial +10, company +0)<br/>Strength: 30 (30 chimerae)  Morale: 60  Characteristic Rating: 30<br/>Power: 6   Armor: 12  Attack: 4d10+6  Movement: 280km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Leman Russ Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Medium Armor   Acquisition Modifier:  -50 (Medium Armor -20, professional -10, common +0, modern -20, company +0)<br/>Strength: 40 (100 tanks)  Morale: 80  Characteristic Rating: 40<br/>Power: 10   Armor: 20  Attack: 4d10+10  Movement: 140km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Baneblade Squadron<br/>Unit Type: Heavy Armor  Acquisition Modifier: -80 (Heavy Armor -30, veteran -20, good -10, modern -20, company +0)<br/>Strength: 50 (10 tanks)  Morale: 100  Characteristic Rating: 50<br/>Power: 12  Armor: 20  Attack: 4d10+12  Movement: 140km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Basilisk Battalion<br/>Unit Type: Light Artillery  Acquisition Modifier: -40 (Light Artillery -10, Professional -10, common +0, modern -20, company +0)<br/>Strength: 30 (15 guns)  Morale: 80   Characteristic Rating: 40<br/>Power: 7  Armor: 14  Attack: 4d10+7  Movement: 100km  Attack Range: 5km<br/><br/>Imperial Guard Earthshaker Battery<br/>Unit Type: Medium Artillery  Acquisition Modifier -50 (Medium Artillery -20, Professional -10, common +0, modern -20, company +0)<br/>Strength: 25 (25 guns)  Morale: 80   Characteristic Rating: 40<br/>Power: 9  Armor: 18  Attack: 4d10+9  Movement: 100km  Attack Range: 20km<br/><br/>Adeptus Soriatas Company<br/>Unit Type: Medium Mechanized Infantry  Acquisition Modifier -70 (Medium Mechanized -20, Elite -30, common +0, modern -20, company +0)<br/>Strength: 50  Morale: 100  Characteristic Rating: 60<br/>Power: 8  Armor: 16  Attack: 4d10+8  Movement: 280km<br/><br/>Adeptus Astartes Company (2nd through 9th companies)<br/>Unit Type: Medium Mechanized Infantry  Acquisition Modifier: -80* (Unique -70, Medium -10, company +0)<br/>Strength: 500  Morale: 100  Characteristic Rating: 60<br/>Power: 20  Armor: 40  Attack: 4d10+20  Movement: 280km<br/>*Acquiring a company of astartes means they join for only a single conflict<br/><br/>Adeptus Astartes Veteran Company<br/>Unit Type: Heavy Mechanized Infantry Acquisition Modifier -120* (Unique -70, Heavy -20, Elite -30)<br/>Strength: 500  Morale: 125  Characteristic Rating: 70<br/>Power: 30  Armor: 60  Attack: 4d10+30  Movement: 280km<br/>*Acquiring a company of astartes means they join for only a single conflict<br/><br/>Adeptus Astartes Scout Company<br/>Unit Type: Light Mechanized Infantry  Acquisition Modifier -90* (Unique -70, Light +10, Elite -30)<br/>Strength: 500  Morale: 110  Characteristic Rating: 65<br/>Power: 18  Armor: 36  Attack: 4d10+18  Movement: 350km<br/>*Acquiring a company of astartes means they join for only a single conflict