Echelons of Fury: Campaign Rules

By Brett Harrison and Peter Breeze

February, 1996

THE CAMPAIGN The Campaign simulates a series of small-scale Battles. With each victory , you push your opponent further back. First, you destroy his Forward HQ, then his Rear HQ, and , finally, the destruction of his Campaign HQ gives you victory!

-- RULES --

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the Campaign is to secure victory by either: 1) Destroying the enemy Campaign HQ; or 2) Winning (B+2) Battles, where B = the number of Battlefields in the Campaign.

DECKS

The size of the Decks is a fixed number dependent on the number of Battle grounds in the Campaign. Thie number of Battlefields must be equal to 3 or more, and al ways an odd number. Five (5) Battlegrounds would be typical, 3 would be the minimum, and 9 would be for Drang Nach Osten fans! The number of cards in a Campaign Deck may be calculated thus:

Number of Cards = (Number of Battlegrounds x 20) + 20

Therefore, a 7 Battleground Campaign would have 7x20 + 20 = 160 cards per Deck.
A typical, 5 Battleground Campaign would have 5x20 + 20 = 120 cards per Deck.
A smaller, 3 Battleground Campaign would have 80 cards per Deck.
A monstrous 9 Battleground Campaign would have 9x20 + 20 = 200 cards per Deck!

HQ

Forward HQ have 20 points, Rear HQ 30 points, and Campaign HQ 40 points. New Forward or Rear HQ are set up for each Battle, with full points, regardless of previous destruction.

BATTLEGROUNDS

There are 5 Battlegrounds in a typical campaign. Each consists of 3 Terrain cards laid out facedown. The nature of the terrain is concealed until the first battle is fought over it.

The Battleground nearest to a commander represents his Rear Lines, the next furthest, his Front Lines. The Battleground exactly in the middle is Neutral Territory at the beginning of the Campaign. 

eg:
-----------------------
   	Commander A
-----------------------

Campaign HQ (A)
T	T	T	Commander A's Rear Lines: 3 terrain cards picked by commander A

Rear HQ (A)
T	T	T	Commander A's Front Lines: 2 cards picked by commander A, 1 by B

Forward HQ (A)
T	T	T	<<< Neutral Territory (START)1 card by A, 1 card by B, 1 Random

Forward HQ (B)
T	T	T	Commander B's Front Lines: 1 card picked by commander A, 2 by B

Rear HQ (B)
T	T	T	Commander B's Rear Lines: 3 terrain cards picked by Commander B

Campaign HQ (B)
------------------------
    Commander B
------------------------
Cards are picked by the commanders as appropriate, and laid out, face-down, in any agreed order.

It is suggested that the Terrain cards not in use be kept off to the side , still in their correct arrangement, until needed.

TERRAIN RESTRICTIONS

A commander may not lay down more than one of each type of terrain card per Battlefield.

Example 1: Commander A is choosing his Rear Lines. He chooses 1 River, 1 Bridge, 1 City. He is not allowed to choose 3 Rivers, or 2 Rivers and a Bridge, and thus make it impossible for a non-bridging, non-flying, non-amphibious opponent to attack his Campaign HQ.

Example 2: Commander B is choosing his Front Lines. He is allowed to choose 2 of the 3 Terrain cards. He chooses 1 River, 1 Woods. By a coincidence, his opponent chooses 1 River. This is now a tough proposition - 2 Rivers to cross! There is such a thing as bad luck, and some battles are harder to fight than others.

BATTLE

A Battle is one game of Echelons. The first Battle is played in Neutral Territory. The Terrain cards are flipped over, and the game played as normal.

FALLBACK/ADVANCE

The location of subsequent Battles depends on who the victor was. Specifically, the action advances towards the losing commander.

Example: Commander B loses the first Battle. The second Battle will take place on his front lines, using his Rear HQ and his aggressive opponent's Forward HQ, which is presumed to have been moved up.

Bridges and terrain cards destroyed in previous Battles remain in this state if revisited in a later Battle.

REPLACEMENTS

After a Battle, a commander's deck does not regain all of the cards that were deployed, destroyed, etc. Nor may a commander adjust his deck with cards from his collection.

Instead, the following occurs:

1. All Combatants, Non-Combatants and Support cards that were still in play at the end of the last Battle return to the deck. All other cards go to the Discard Pile.
2. A maximum of HALF the cards in the Discard Pile (commander's choice, round down) return to the commander's deck. These are considered REPLACEMENTS, and are kept secret from the opposing commander. It is suggested that REPLACEMENTS be counted out face-down, so that the opposing commander may see that no more than half are returning.
3. Each commander may then openly discard any SUPPLY cards which may now be excess to requirements. No other type of card may be discarded at this time.
4. Cards left in the discard pile after this process are removed from the Campaign, and may not be re-introduced.
5. Decks should be thoroughly re-shuffled before the next Battle, of course.

OPTIONAL RULE: RESERVES

Each commander may have a RESERVES pool of 10 cards exactly. He may draw cards from the RESERVES during phase 2 (REPLACEMENTS - see above). This enables a shrewd commander to augment his forces once he has some idea of the enemy strengths and weaknesses. They won't catch us like THAT again!

RUNNING OUT OF CARDS

If a commander runs out of cards, he may keep playing. He just won't be able to draw any cards. Tough luck - he's run out of resources! He may, of course, resign the Battle at any time.

VICTORY!

Victory occurs when one commander's Campaign HQ is destroyed, or (B+2) Battles have been fought, where B = Number of Battlefields (Thus, 7 Battles for a typical 5 Battlefield campaign), whichever is sooner. If playing to the maximum number of Battles, the commander who won the most Battles is considered the winner of the Campaign.

DESIGNERS' NOTES:

This arrangement for a campaign has several advantages.

Firstly, you get the sense of advancing into enemy territory. As you get closer to the enemy Campaign HQ, you increasingly fight on Terrain that he has (presumably chosen to be) favourable to him, making the final struggle harder, and victory sweeter.

Secondly, the limited replacements idea stops commanders from throwing away their big guns if they only have a few of them, making play more balanced. It also engenders a feeling of running out of resources as you near the end, and forces commanders to make intelligent choices about what would be useful in the next Battle (and who knows what the terrain's like?)

Thirdly, you must pick everything very carefully, with a view to the long -term goal: victory!