Amphibious Assault


To play an amphibious landing scenario, a defending and attacking army must be chosen.

Terrain



About 20" of the battlefield would be water, starting from any edge, then a beach of 10". Plus a town or other objective at the opposite end of the battlefield.

Deployment



The defender must deploy 85% or more of its troops in its deployment zone, which must be in the objective, with the remainder deployed on the beach inside fortifications.

The attacker does not deploy normally, but separates its force into up to 2 waves. The first wave must move in off the edge of the table with the sea on the first turn, the second wave must come in on the second turn.

Landing Craft



The attacker must move on the beach from the water in landing crafts. There are 2 types of landing craft, assault boats and transports. Assault boats may carry up to 5 models and 1 character (a support weapon counts as 2 models plus crew). If an entire squad does not fit into the boat, it must be divided between as many boats as necessary. Any divided squads must remain withtin vehicle squad coherency with the rest of squad.

Transports are used to carry vehicles, or monstrous creatures such as Avatars, Carnifexes or Tyranid Warriors. Each transport may carry up to 1 dreadnought/tank, 2 bikes, or 1 monstrous creature, plus 1 normal foot trooper. Skimmers do not require landing crafts, but move on with the rest of the army.

When in the landing crafts, all basic weapons, pistols and turret mounted tank weapons may fire, however, other weapons may not, and Space Marines may not Rapid Fire their weapons.

All landing craft may be given any generic vehicle cards.

Assault boats move at 10" and transports move at 8" (this is considered combat speed). The landing crafts can use the rest of its to move on the beach, when they reach it. All troops then get half a normal turn of movement.

Combat on the Beach



If a defending squad breaks while on the beach they must retreat off the beach, even if they are in cover, and they cannot return. Attacking squads cannot break while in landing crafts, and, if they break on the beach, they must be next to a craft, but not necessarily in cover to rally.

Any defending troops that did not deploy on the beach, may never move on the beach, although they may shoot targets at the beach.

Supporting Fire



At the beginning of the game the attacker gets 4 automatic shots that can be aimed anywhere on the beach or in the water. The shots have a radius D3". The targets are planned before the attacker deploys, and fired immediately before the game begins. The attacker gets the choice of using smoke shots or normal shots. Smoke shots have the same effect as Smoke Grenades, and normal ammo counts as a S5 hit with a -2 save modifier. Armour penetration on normal ammo is D6+5. To determine if a hit is made roll the scatter and artillery dice. On a roll of a 'HIT', the shot hits the desired target, otherwise it scatters the shown amount of inches. On a 'MISFIRE' the shot is a dud.

Landing Craft Damage Tables



When firing at a landing craft roll a D6 to see if the passengers or the craft is hit. On a roll of 1-2 the passengers are hit as normal. If the craft is hit roll for armour penetration. Assault boats have an AV of 12, and transports have an AV 20. If the armour is penetrated, roll a D6, on a 1-3 the boat begins to leak, its speed is reduced by 2 inches and, any further damage rolls get a +2. On a roll of 4-6, the craft sinks. Roll a D6 for each non-character passenger. On a roll of 3+ they survive, and must wade through the water to shore at half their movement, and may not shoot, until they reach land. Characters and terminators automatically survive, but must wade to shore like the other troops.

Any tanks that sink must roll once on the Track Damage Table, with a -2 to the result. If the tanks survive then they must drive to shore at a quarter speed, and only their turret-mounted weapons may fire.

If a bike/buggy sinks roll a D6. On a roll of 1-2 the driver is able to hold on to the bike, and may drive to shore at a quarter movement, and may not fire any weapons. On a roll of 3+ the bike is lost, and counted as destroyed, and the driver must wade to shore.

Sunken Dreadnought must wade to shore at half speed, without shooting, as must all monstrous creatures.

Once any model reaches land, they fight as normal.

Imperial Guards



Imperial Guards do not get their preliminary barrages for having vehicles in the force, but barrages may still be called down by Command squads with a comm-link, while the squad is in a landing craft.

Troops in reserve do not have to move in with the first or second waves, but may come in whenever desired.

Strategy Cards/Infiltrators



The attacker must discard any Flank March or Ambush card, and draw a replacement. A Forced March card would allow the attacker to deploy its first wave up to six inches closer to the beach instead of them moving on from the edge.

Even with the Ambush, Forced March or Flank March, or with infiltrators, the defender may not deploy more than 15% of its forces on the beach.

Attacking Infiltrators may be deployed on land, but not on the beach.



Cavalry models count as bikes for the purposes of the amphibious landing rules.


Jonathan Wolfman 1997



BACK