Battle

In contrast to the party-level combat in D&D, fielding large armies on a battlefield is a cumbersome process. When two or more enemy armies occupy the same hex, a battle occurs. Battles in C&C are organized into rounds (representing roughly 1 minute). Each round, units separately take turns maneuvering, fighting, breaking, and rallying across a map grid consisting of 50-feet squares created by the DM. Rounds generally continue until one side’s units are all broken or destroyed, or have retreated. Your DM may provide additional victory conditions, depending on the conflict’s narrative context. These conditions can include rule adjustments that supersede what’s found in this chapter.

Setup

Setup The DM designates areas where players can deploy units. Before they begin placement, players involved in the battle roll a contested Culture check, and the winner chooses who will deploy first.

An army can never deploy more than 25 weight. If features, abilities, combined allied forces, or garrisons would push the army beyond this limit, the commander chooses which units do not participate.

Optional Rule: Weather

Your DM may decide that weather plays a role in the outcome of a battle. In these cases, the DM may roll for or choose a condition on the Weather table below.

Table: Weather
d20	Weather	Effect
1-13	Clear	No Effect
14-15	Fog	The range of ranged attacks is cut in half
16-17	Heat	Melee attack rolls have a −1 penalty
18-19	Rain	Ranged attack rolls have a −2 penalty
20	Extreme	Determined by battle location’s climate: Hurricane. No flying, ranged attack rolls are −2, all movement −100 feet Sandstorm. No flying, melee attack rolls are −1 Blizzard. All terrain is difficult, melee attack rolls are −1

Initiative

Initiative determines the order of turns during a battle. Each unit has a predetermined value, which the DM ranks from highest to lowest. On a tie, the DM compares unit Morale modifiers, followed by Culture modifiers, or simply a die roll. For more than one unit of the same type, the player chooses which acts first. One unit must end its turn before another unit’s turn begins.

Your Turn

On its turn, a unit can move a distance up to its speed and take one action . Unlike 5th Edition, a unit cannot break up its movement; it must move and then act, or act and then move. Units may take a bonus action and events may trigger a reaction . These conditions are explained in the unit’s description.

Movement

Troops in a unit face a particular direction, represented by a band along the top of their size symbol in their stat block. This is the unit’s front . Some units, like the hydra, have four front sides to show that it’s much easier for a single creature to turn around in one minute than it is to coordinate 200 archers wheeling in formation.

Units can move forward, horizontally, or diagonallyforward one square (50 feet) at a time up to their movement speed.

Units cannot move backward.

Movement into a square of difficult terrain (forest, rocks, hills, swamp, buildings, water, or any other obstacle determined by the DM) takes 100 feet of movement.

Units can move through friendly units as difficult terrain, but they cannot end a turn inside another unit.

NOTE:

Unlike D&D, there is no Dash action for units.

Rotation

Once per turn, a unit can make a 90-degree rotation as part of its movement using any square of the unit as its axis of rotation. Rotating costs 100 feet of movement, or 200 feet if the rotation passes through difficult terrain.

Units can turn around by spending 100 feet of movement; doing so flips the unit in place without needing to rotate through terrain or other obstacles.

Movement after encountering an Enemy Unit

A figure or stand of figures must immediately stop its movement when it comes into base-to-base contact with an enemy stand. Other stands in the moving unit can continue forward if they are not in contact with the enemy, so long as the moving unit remains in formation. However, no figures in the moving unit can change facing after any one figure in the unit contacts an enemy figure.

NOTE: If a unit moves into contact with an enemy unit during the First Movement Step, the figures in that enemy unit cannot move normally, nor can they change facing or frontage, during the Second Movement Step.

Exceptions: A unit that begins its movement in contact with one or more enemy figures can perform only one of these three types of movement: fighting withdrawal, flight, or wraparound.