Scenarios

All warfare is meaningless without a purpose, be it noble or nefarious. Whilst every great campaign has overall goals, specific actions on the ground will have smaller but no less significant aims. Sometimes, the apparently small accomplishments of a few troops in the right place at the right time can tip the outcome of an entire campaign.

The scenarios detailed in this part of the book lend purpose to your games, and are designed to represent the type of actions that are typically suited to highly mobile forces.

These scenarios will give you some inspiration, focus and consistency, but feel free to modify them or to invent your own. You could also string multiple scenarios together to cover a wider battle, or even an over-arching campaign.

The scenarios in this book have been designed to be fair, balanced, and to treat all players equally. But that doesn't mean that all are equally easy to play for all players! Some factions or army builds will favour certain styles of play. If you feel you had a hard time completing a scenario, make sure to discuss how to improve, and next time even try swapping sides to see how you do. Feel free to edit scenarios or create new ones as you see fit - you may find a new and interesting way to play!

Simply choose and follow the rules of one of the scenarios listed either in this book or in another supplement.

Scenarios have several different elements to them, instructing the players how to play and win. In this section we ll go through these elements, guiding you in a game from start to finish.

Special Rules

Some scenarios will have some extra rules. Simply follow these for the game. Others will have optional suggestions, such as more specific scenery uses or simple ways to change the scenarios. Follow these at your leisure!

Army

After choosing a scenario, you ll find out how many players can play, and what points level the scenario plays at. Usually the points limits are simply guidelines, but some scenarios have asymmetrical points, with attackers and defenders choosing armies differently. Either decide among the players who will play which role, or roll a dice to determine.

Setup

Each scenario is accompanied by a map showing how to set up the gaming board and how each army deploys. Some scenarios will have several mandatory scenery elements, but each scenario will have plenty of space for your own interpretation. When setting up scenery, some scenarios will specify that one player sets it up. If not specified, it's good to place scenery pieces alternately until the board is full.

Games of Dropzone Commander should take place in scenery-rich environments. Dropzones are often key points on planets, be they valuable cities, important tactical chokeholds, or military strongholds to name a few. Not only this, but games are more fun with more scenery! Different gaming boards breathe fresh air into a game, forcing players to reassess their tactics in every encounter.

A simple guideline to follow would be that half of your Dropzone Commander gaming boards should have some kind of scenery element on, whether that's buildings, forests, roads, or even just hills. Scenery elements don't have to be placed equidistant from each other - some of the most fun battles are fought in tightly packed streets, with infantry running between linked buildings to get back to their transport who is hiding out of range of enemy fire!

Dropzone Commander is broadly designed to be played on a 4 foot by 4 foot board, although smaller boards work fine for smaller games, and larger boards are needed for the biggest battles.