Playing The Game:

To play High Crusade, you will need a selection of miniature figures (see Organisation below to see how many you will need), two ten sided dice (called D10's and available from any good games shop) and ideally a four sided dice, though a six sided one will do. Then all you need is a clear area to play a game on and some items of scenery.

Scale:

Alternative Armies Ltd produce figures for their universe in both 15mm and 25mm scales (scale meaning the height of the model representing an average human). 15mm is the cheaper option and one rapidly gaining in popularity not only because of cost, but also because you don't need as large a playing area as 25mm. However 25mm is very popular because of the large ranges and detail on the figures. The choice is up to you, but one benefit of 15mm worth remembering is that you can afford to buy both sides for a game at about half the cost of one 25mm force.

Throughout the rules you will find references to various distances required for movement and weapons ranges stated in centimetres. This distances are for 15mm scale games. Should you wish to play High Crusade using 25mm miniatures, just change the distances from centimetres to inches (so a move of 10cm in a 15mm game, becomes 10" in a 25mm one).

Organisation:

For the purposes of our game you should organise your figures into military units. The smallest of these is known as a Fireteam and its composition depends on the unit involved. You should organise your Fireteams as follows:

For the purposes of our game Fireteams can operate independently, but it should be noted that they would form part of a larger military structure organised as follows:

Two Fireteams = One Squad

Three Squads = One Platoon

Three Platoons = One Company

The only exceptions to this are Snipers who operate as individual figures (see Sniper rules in Part Six).

Unit Integrity:

In war, individual soldiers do not wander around the battlefield, but stick with their units. To simulate this in High Crusade, Fireteams must maintain what is known as Unit Integrity .

For a Fireteam to maintain Unit Integrity each figure within the unit must be within 3cm of at least one other.

Unit Integrity is important as should it be broken, the effectiveness of the soldiers in the Fireteam is effected.

Should Unit Integrity be broken (say one figure is killed, and a gap over 3cm appears between the remaining figures), then all movement and firing is subject to a minus 25% modifier.

However, once a Fireteam regains its Unit Integrity ie. all figures move so the gap is closed and they are all within 3cm of another, then they are no longer regarded as broken and the modifier no longer applies.

The Unit Integrity rules does not apply to designated sniper figures, who operate as one man units.

© Wessex Games 1994, 2000