The basic playing piece in 40K Battalion is a ‘platoon’, which represents 500 points of units in a conventional 40K game. When armies fight, these platoons are used to draw up army lists that are used in a tabletop game. Platoons are a different sort of unit compared to the squads in 40K. A platoon may be defeated in combat, and the 40K game may have resulted in losses, but the individual soldiers are not that important in the grand scheme of things. New recruits are constantly coming forward to take the place of casualties, but if a platoon takes sufficiently heavy losses it may reduce its battle readiness. A platoon can there for be in one of three states; Normal, Damaged, and FUBAR. One concept that may be new to WH40K players is the ‘chain-of-supply’. An army that is in the field needs to be supplied with all the things that enable it to carry on fighting (food, water, munitions, toilet paper, swizzle sticks, what-have-you). There is a constant flow of materials and fresh troops that goes towards the front lines, and the chain-of-supply is how this is represented. A platoon that is out of supply range, or that has had its supply lines cut off by the enemy will be seriously impaired, and unable to get reinforcements or receive orders from command (that would be you) and so their behavior becomes unpredictable. A chain-of-supply is made up of Supply Platoons in a string leading back to Mission HQ. A Supply platoon has a supply range of 3 hexes. All other platoons have a supply range of 1 hex. When a supply platoon becomes damaged its supply range is reduced; Damaged Supply Platoons have a supply range of 2, and FUBAR Supply Platoons have a supply range of 1. Another vital element of 40K Battalion is the map. This should be marked off in hexes and clearly show important stuff such as cities & towns, roads, industrial complexes, bodies of water, bridges, forests, mountains and other features significant to game play. These should all fall roughly within the bounds of the hexes to avoid confusion. It should be 15 to 20 hexes across. The term ‘platoon’ refers to the individual units on the map, and the term ‘army’ refers to all of one player’s platoons within a given hex. Each battalion needs to have a mission HQ. This is the battalion’s point-of-entry to the map. It is the point that connects the campaign to the larger world beyond the edges of the map. It is the point from which flow all the supplies and orders that allow your battalion to achieve its mission. It can be a spaceport, a dimensional gate, a portal into the warp, or just the end of a chain-of-supply that extends to another region that is already held by friendly forces. This will be the hex that all the platoons start in when they come into play. Think of the Mission HQ as a really big command platoon that cannot move. The Mission HQ points will be different for each map so refer to the instructions that come with the map. The map will also have instructions on what the players are supposed to achieve; victory conditions and other details about the campaign. This information is called the ‘mission’ and as it is attached to the map. In the first turn, there are generally no platoons on the map, so skip to the Supply Phase. Roll 1d3. This is the number of supply points you get for the turn. Supply points are explained more fully later, but for now all you need to know is that each supply point allows you to bring one platoon onto the map. Choose a number of platoons from your battalion and place them on the map at the Mission HQ. Supply points are not carried over into next turn; unspent points are gone forever, never to be seen again. Too bad. So sad. Now that the first deployment is complete, gameplay starts. Follow the normal turn sequence until one or both players achieve their objectives, or call it quits. Taking Command Platoons must have orders to do anything meaningful. This is done through the Mission HQ and the Command Platoons. When a unit is first delpoyed it comes onto the map ‘under command’ of the Mission HQ, and there it stays until a Command Platoon takes command of it, adding it to its army, or it can be given marching orders to proceed to a location where a friendly army is, or a friendly garrison. by Dylan - October 29, 2001