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Introduction Introduction "O for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!" - Shakespeare's Henry V Writing & Graphics: Painted Miniatures: Additional Editing: Photography: Special Thanks: 1 Big Art Big Art Table of Contents 4 Getting Started PLAY MATERIALS LINE OF SIGHT You’ll need a few bits and pieces to get started with Broken The game rules often refer to what a Fighter can see, or line Lance. of sight. To establish this, lean down and take a look from » A handful of individually based figures to represent each behind the model - this will give you a good idea of what is player’s warband. visible. » A handful of six-sided dice per player, in at least two different colours (We’ve used red and white) While viewing the battlefield through your Fighter’s eyes, you » Copies of this book, quick reference sheet and a warband can ignore any friends or foes. An individual Fighter is not roster for each player. sufficient to block line of sight. » Rulers or measuring sticks marked in inches. Terrain pieces, however, do block line of sight. If more THE RULES than 50% of a model is obscured by a piece of terrain, it is assumed to be out of sight. Every effort has been made to make these rules as simple and easy to understand as possible. Examples and diagrams have been included where necessary MODELS AND BASES The rules assume that models are mounted on 25mm round to illustrate any complicated concepts. bases, although providing Fighters are individually based, the size does not necessarily matter. “Greetings, my liege. I am Sir Edward Fighters mounted on horses will by necessity mounted on of Beeston. I will do my best to guide larger bases. you through the game, offering advice as and when appropriate.” ONE-INCH GAP To prevent any confusion, unless a Fighter has engaged another Fighter in close combat, a 1” gap must be maintained between all Fighters. A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY In Broken Lance, a model on the tabletop is referred to as a A Fighter must finish its movement more than 1” away from Fighter. another Fighter. Fighters can be upgraded into Champions, who have access to more powerful skills and abilities. TABLE BOUNDARIES Games of Broken Lance are played in a limited area - usually Each player’s force of fighters is referred to as a Warband. 3x3’ or 4x4’. During play, Fighters may not move outside this area, unless the controlling player declares that they are leaving the DICE battlefield, or they are compelled to by the game rules. Broken Lance uses two kinds of dice; a six-sided dice, and a ten-sided dice. These are referred to in the rules as a d6 or a d10 respectively. You may be called upon to roll multiple dice at the same time - this is expressed as 2d6, with the first number being the Clipped number of dice rolled, and the second being the type of dice. Minis 5 The Turn Sequence Games of Broken Lance are played in turns, where each Play continues in this fashion until all Fighters have been player gets the opportunity to activate Fighters in his activated. Warband. “Pistol won the initiative, so he gets INITIATIVE to activate a Fighter first. He spots a The turn begins with each player rolling 1d6, and adding the weakness in Bardolph’s flank and activates highest initiative value in their warband to the result. one of his Fighters with an Advance The player with the highest total activates one of their action. After resolving the Advance, play Fighters first. passes to Bardolph, who activates one of his Fighters.” “In the following examples, we’ll follow Once all fighters have been activated, the turn ends and both the exploits of two hapless players - players must roll for initiative again. Bardolph and Pistol. Pistol’s warband of English archers is led CHARGE by a Champion with an Initiative of 4. The Fighter moves up to double their listed movement All of the other archers are Initiative 3, so allowance. Using this action, they may move into base contact Pistol adds the champion’s initiative to his with an enemy Fighter and initiate a close combat. See the dice roll. rules for Close Combat listed on page 10. He rolls a 5, giving him a grand total of ADVANCE 9, which is higher than the 7 rolled by his The Fighter moves up to their listed movement allowance. opponent.” At the end of this move, they may resolve a shooting attack. Reduce the number of Bleed Dice rolled on this attack by 1 (to a minimum of 1.) See the rules for shooting on page 9. ACTIVATING A FIGHTER An activated Fighter may take one of the following actions: HOLD The Fighter takes no further action this turn. Any shooting » Charge: The Fighter moves at double speed. attacks made against them roll 1 Bleed Dice less, to a » Advance: The Fighter moves, and may make a ranged minimum of 1. attack. » Hold: The Fighter takes cover and takes no further action. OPEN FIRE The Fighter resolves a shooting attack. Some cumbersome » Open Fire: The Fighter makes a ranged attack without weapons may only be fired on an Open Fire action. See the moving. rules for shooting on page 8. » Overwatch: The Fighter lies in wait for an opportune target to present itself. » Recover: The Fighter takes no further action, but may OVERWATCH remove 1d6+1 shock tokens. The Fighter takes up position to engage another target. See the rules for shooting on page 8 and the rules for close combat on page 10. Once the Fighter has taken its action, the opposing player activates one of their Fighters. If a player’s total number of Fighters ever exceeds their opponent by 2:1 or more, they must activate 2 (or more) Fighters before their opponent RECOVER The Fighter takes no further action this turn, but may remove activates. 1d6+1 shock tokens. » 6 Shock Each time a 6 is rolled on a Panic Dice, the target accrues a Fighters that have accrued Shock Tokens roll 1 Bleed Dice Shock Token. Place an appropriate marker on or next to the less on all shooting attacks, to a minimum of 1. Fighter’s base. Shock represents the psychological effect of coming under FATAL CATASTROPHES If a Fighter makes a Shock Test and rolls a double, they suffer enemy fire or taking a blow at close quarters. a Fatal Catastrophe and must immediately roll 1d6 on the table below: THE SHOCK TEST Upon being activated, Fighters that have accrued Shock Tokens must make a test before taking any action except Roll: Result: Recover, or Hold. Blind Panic: If the Fighter has a ranged weapon, the opposing player selects a friendly target within 12” of the testing Fighter The test is made by rolling 2d6 and comparing it against and executes a shooting attack against that target. 1-2 the Fighter’s Leadership value, reduced by the number of If the testing Fighter does not have a ranged weapon, or there currently accrued Shock Tokens. are no targets in range, the Fighter Holds instead. The testing Fighter must roll under their modified Leadership Flee: The Fighter immediately executes a Charge action and value to successfully take an action. If they fail, they moves directly away from any visible enemy Fighters. immediately take a Hold action. 3-6 This Charge action may not initiate Close Combat. Fighters that successfully pass the Shock Test automatically If no enemy Fighters are visible, or if the testing Fighter cannot discard one Shock Token. move for some reason, it Holds instead. “Bardolph’s yeoman has been pinned “Pistol’s serjeant is attempting to retaliate down by crossbow fire while trying to cross against Bardolph’s man-at-arms. As he an open field. already has a Shock Marker on his base, he must pass a Shock Test to do so. He has accrued 2 Shock Tokens from near misses. To act, and get himself out of Pistol rolls a double 4 on the Shock Test, danger, he must pass the Shock Test. causing a Fatal Catastrophe. Pistol has to roll 1d6 on the Fatal Catastrophe table.. The yeoman’s base Leadership is 8, which is reduced to 6 by the accrued Shock Having rolled a 5, the serjeant immediately Tokens. turns and runs from his attacker.” Bardolph rolls 2d6, scoring a 1 and a 4 for a total of 5. The yeoman has passed the test and removes one Shock Token. He may now take an action.” When the king of England and his men had crossed the ford at Blanchetaque and had put their enemies to flight, they marched together in orderly In addition to the above penalty to actions, Fighters that have fashion, gathered up their baggage and rode as they accrued Shock Markers must pass a Shock Test before being able to retaliate in Close Combat. See the rules for Close had done before into the land of Beauvaisis. Combat on page 10. - Froissart, Chronicles 7 Movement Medieval skirmishes are rarely static affairs, often devolving CLIMBING, LEAPING AND SQUEEZING into a swirling melee of combatants jockeying for position Fighters taking an Advance action may use their movement over one another. allowance to climb an obstacle, leap over a gap, or squeeze through a tight space. Archers dart from cover to cover, snapping off the odd arrow, while heavily armoured knights plough across the open The Fighter must have sufficient movement allowance ground, charging headlong into the enemy line.
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