Mission Command Sea Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Assembly
• Contents
• Setup
• Placement
  • 1. Carriers
  • 2. Destroyers
  • 3. Shallows and Islands
• Your Fleet
  • Carrier
  • Destroyers
  • Fighters
  • Sidewinder Missiles
  • Harpoon Missiles
• Gameplay
  • 1. Move All of Your Harpoon Missiles
  • 2. Scramble Fighters
  • Returning to the Carrier
  • 3. Move OR Fire Destroyers
    • Move Destroyers
    • Fire Destroyers
  • 4. OPPONENT Fires Destroyers
  • 5. Dogfight Adjacent Planes
    • Rules for Dogfighting
  • 6. Launch Harpoon Missiles
• Winning
• Storage

Assembly

• If you haven't done so already, remove all of the pieces from the display package.
• Carefully remove all cardboard pieces from the parts sheet.
• Now make sure you have everything by checking the contents below. Then discard the empty display package and the cardboard waste.

Contents

• Gameboard
• 2 Carriers
• 4 Destroyers
• 16 Fighters with Stands (8 blue, 8 gray)
• 4 Plastic Islands
• 4 Shallows
• 2 Admiral Cards (2 sided)
• 14 Sidewinder Missiles (7 gray + 7 blue)
• 14 Harpoon Missiles (7 gray + 7 blue)
• 4 White Dice
• 4 Black Dice

Setup

• Each player chooses a carrier, 2 destroyers, 8 fighter planes (either all blue or all gray) with stands, an Admiral Card, and 4 matching colored dice.
• Set your Admiral Card in front of you with the damaged ship facedown.
• Separate the cardboard missiles into Sidewinders and Harpoons by color. Take the missiles that match the color of your fighter planes.
• Place your missiles facedown on the Missile Depot area of your Admiral Card.
• Insert a pawn stand into the bottom of each of the fighter planes and place them on the Carrier area of your Admiral Card. We recommend you lift your planes by the stands so they stay attached.
• Place the gameboard between players so that the players are sitting at the short end of the board.
• Players will now place their pieces. To determine who will begin, each player rolls a die. The lower roll starts. Players alternate turns placing each piece until all pieces are placed.

Placement

The following numbers refer to Figure 1.

1. Carriers

Your carrier, which takes up 4 spaces, can be placed anywhere on your side of the gameboard as long as it is completely surrounded by unoccupied water.

NOTE: Your fighters will be scrambled from the front of your carrier (the end with the number on it). Keep this in mind when placing your carrier.

2. Destroyers

Destroyers take up 2 spaces. Each of your destroyers must be placed so that one end is exactly two spaces from the carrier. Destroyers must start completely surrounded by unoccupied water.

3. Shallows and Islands

Each player places 2 shallows with islands. Your two shallows may be placed anywhere on your side of the gameboard. Rest the islands on top of the shallows by placing the pegs into the holes. See the illustration (Island Placement: plastic island rests on a shallows, which sits on the gameboard). Islands divert missiles and fighter planes (making them take a longer route) and block destroyer fire.

Figure 1: Example of gameboard setup (each shallow and island is marked "No Fly Zones"; the example shows carriers, destroyers and shallows placed on each side of the board).

Your Fleet

Your Fleet is made up of a carrier, 2 destroyers, a squadron of fighter planes and an unlimited supply of Sidewinder and Harpoon missiles. Here is a summary of each.

Carrier

Your carrier is your "command center." Your fighters take off from and land here and this is where you store your missiles. Your carrier does not move or fire so place it wisely at the beginning of the game. Protect your carrier at all cost; if you lose it, you lose the game.

Destroyers

You have two destroyers that you will move in order to protect your fleet and engage your enemy.

Fighters

You have a squadron of 8 fighters on your carrier. Throughout the game you will scramble these in order to engage enemy fighters in dogfights or to launch Harpoon missiles in an attempt to sink enemy ships.

Fighters are the fastest pieces on the board. Under the wing of each fighter is a number (2, 3, or 4). This number represents the plane's strength in dogfighting. The higher the number... the stronger the plane.

Sidewinder Missiles

You have an unlimited supply of Sidewinder missiles. These are loaded onto your fighters. During a dogfight, you can use the Sidewinder missile to increase your fighter's strength.

Harpoon Missiles

You have an unlimited supply of Harpoon missiles. These load onto your fighters. You can launch Harpoon missiles into the water and move them to strike and sink your enemy's ships.

Gameplay

The player who placed the first piece goes first.

Your turn consists of six steps, done in order. Early in the game, you may have to skip some of these steps.

1. Move All of Your Harpoon Missiles
2. Scramble Fighters
3. Move OR Fire Destroyers
4. OPPONENT Fires Destroyers
5. Dogfight Adjacent Planes
6. Launch Harpoon Missiles

1. Move All of Your Harpoon Missiles

NOTE: Until you launch a Harpoon missile (see Step 6) you will skip this step.

Move all of the Harpoon missiles you launched on your previous turn. These are already on the board. See Launch Harpoon Missiles on page 6.

Choose one of these launched Harpoon missiles and roll a die. Move the Harpoon missile that many spaces. Harpoon missiles may move in any direction up to the full distance of the roll. Harpoon missiles do not have to move in straight lines. You do not have to choose a target before rolling.

Harpoons have no effect on fighters and other Harpoons. If either of these is in your Harpoon's path, your missile passes under it.

• If a Harpoon doesn't hit a ship, it has reached the limit of its range and does not detonate. See Figure 2. Remove it from the board and return it to your Missile Depot.
• If a Harpoon hits a destroyer, the destroyer is sunk. Remove the destroyer from the board and return the Harpoon marker to your Missile Depot.
• If a Harpoon hits an undamaged carrier, roll 1 die and remove that many planes from the deck of the struck carrier. These are the planes that are not currently scrambled and are still on the Admiral Card. (If you roll higher than the number of planes on deck, remove them all.) Turn the Admiral Card over to the damaged side to show that the carrier has been hit and return the Harpoon marker to your Missile Depot. NOTE: The player controlling the carrier decides which fighters are removed.
• If a Harpoon hits a damaged carrier, the carrier sinks and the game is over.

Repeat this for all of the Harpoons you have in the water.

Figure 2: Fire Harpoon missile. Miss with a die roll of 2 (the Harpoon from last turn moves 2 spaces and stops short of the shallows and islands).

Figure 3: Fire Harpoon missile. Hit with a die roll of 5 or more (the Harpoon travels around the shallows and islands to reach the target).

2. Scramble Fighters

You can scramble up to 4 fighters on each turn. These fighters may be on the deck of your carrier or already in flight.

To scramble fighters, roll your four dice; choose which fighters you want to move; and move them up to the numbers rolled.

For example, if you roll a 5, 4, 4, and 2, you may move one fighter up to five spaces, another fighter up to four spaces, a third fighter up to four spaces, and a fourth fighter up to two spaces. See Figure 4.

You do not have to say which fighters you are moving before you roll the dice. NOTE: If you have fewer than 4 fighters, you still roll four dice and pick the one(s) you want to use.

If you are scrambling a fighter from your carrier, first load a missile from your Missile Depot facedown into the opening in the fighter's stand (insert facedown). Choose a Harpoon to attack enemy ships or a Sidewinder for added strength in a dogfight. Your fighters can only carry one missile at a time. Don't show your opponent. Now pick up your fighter (using the stand) and move it from your Admiral Card onto the 1st space in front of your carrier (the end with the number on it). This first space counts as 1. Fly the fighter in any direction to finish its movement. See Figure 4.

Figure 4: Scramble fighters (fighters flying from the front of the carrier; the numbers 1 to 5 show spaces counted).

A Fighter may fly over any space containing another piece. However, no fly zones have been established over all of the shallows and islands.

A fighter must end its move in an empty space. If you moved any of your fighters adjacent to enemy fighters, you must stop. You will dogfight later in this turn.

Fighters cannot fire directly at ships but can attack them using Harpoon missiles.

Returning to the Carrier

You may choose to return a fighter from any space on the board to your carrier. You may do this to reload a missile or to arm it with a new missile. To do this, roll fewer dice during your scramble roll - 1 fewer die for every fighter you are returning. For example, if you want to move 1 fighter back to your carrier, return that fighter to your Admiral Card at the start of your turn and only roll 3 dice to scramble fighters. If you want to move 2 fighters back, then you would only roll 2 dice, etc. See Figure 5.

Fighters returning to the carrier cannot be sent back out on the same turn. On your next turn you may load a new missile and scramble the fighter again.

Figure 5: Return to carrier. Move 1 fighter back to your carrier, return that fighter to your Admiral Card and only roll 3 dice to scramble 3 fighters.

3. Move OR Fire Destroyers

You may choose to move one or both of your destroyers or fire from one or both of them. You can move or fire one destroyer before deciding what to do with the other one.

Move Destroyers

Destroyers may move up to 2 spaces. To move a destroyer, move the front of the ship to a new space and the back of the ship moves to the space where the front was. Destroyers cannot move backwards.

Figure 6: Move destroyers (start, 1st space, 2nd space).

Here are some rules for moving destroyers:

• You must leave at least one space of open water between your destroyer and all other ships.
• You can end your turn on a space next to but not sharing a space with a fighter.
• Destroyers cannot move onto shallows.
• You cannot self-destruct by "charging" a Harpoon missile (moving onto the same space as the Harpoon).

Fire Destroyers

To fire a destroyer: choose your target (an enemy fighter, ship or Harpoon missile) and count the number of spaces from the destroyer to the closest space the target occupies. For example, the fighter in Figure 7 is 4 spaces away. Now roll 1 die. If the number you roll is greater than (not equal to or less than) the distance to the target, then you hit it. In Figure 7, the destroyer must roll a 5 or 6 to hit the enemy fighter, since the fighter is 4 spaces away. Each destroyer may only fire once although both may choose to fire at the same target.

Figure 7: A destroyer firing at a fighter 4 spaces away.

• If a destroyer hits a Harpoon, an enemy fighter, or a destroyer, the hit piece is destroyed. Remove the destroyed piece from the board.
• If the destroyer hits an undamaged carrier, then roll a die and remove that many planes from the deck of the struck carrier. These are the planes that are not currently scrambled and are on the Admiral Card. (If you roll higher than the number of planes on deck, remove them all.) Turn the Admiral Card over to show that the carrier is hit. NOTE: The player controlling the carrier decides which fighters are removed.
• If the destroyer hits a damaged carrier, then the carrier sinks and the game ends.

4. OPPONENT Fires Destroyers

The enemy now gets a chance to provide defensive fire. Each of the enemy's destroyers may pick one target within range and fire. Follow the same instructions as Fire Destroyers (to the left). Remember: The destroyer must roll greater than the distance to the target.

Figure 8: Opponent fires destroyer. Miss with die roll of 3.

5. Dogfight Adjacent Planes

Figure 9: Dogfight position (two fighters on adjacent spaces).

All fighters that are adjacent to an enemy fighter must now dogfight. If no enemy fighters are next to each other, skip this step.

Rules for Dogfighting

1. The defender lifts his/her defending plane (using the stand) and reveals the strength number under his/her wing. If the defender has more than one fighter next to an attacking fighter, the defender chooses the one that will dogfight first and reveals its strength.
2. The attacker then reveals the strength of his/her attacking fighter. If the attacker has more than one fighter next to a defending fighter, the attacker chooses the one that will attack first and reveals its strength.
3. At this point, neither the defender nor the attacker has to reveal what kind of missile (if any) the fighters are carrying.
4. The defender goes first. Roll the same number of dice as the number on your defending fighter (2, 3, or 4 dice). Keep the highest roll.
5. The defender can now choose to launch the Sidewinder from his/her defending fighter, if one is loaded. If you do so, you can either re-roll one of your dice or increase your highest roll by 1 (for example: making a 6 roll become a 7).
6. Now it is the attacker's turn. Roll the same number of dice as the number on your attacking fighter (2, 3, or 4 dice). Keep the highest roll. If you need to (and have one loaded), you may launch your Sidewinder to re-roll one of your dice or increase your highest roll by 1.

Example: the gray fighter (strength 3) rolls 3 dice; the highest die is 5, total 5. The blue fighter (strength 4) rolls 4 dice; the highest die is 5, and it launches a Sidewinder for +1, total 6. The blue fighter is the WINNER.

7. After both players have rolled and launched any Sidewinders, the higher die wins. Return any used Sidewinders to their Missile Depots. The defeated fighter is removed from the game. If it is a tie, both fighters are removed.

Continue dogfighting until no opposing fighters are left next to each other. If you've already used your Sidewinder, you will continue dogfighting without a missile.

6. Launch Harpoon Missiles

Now you may launch your Harpoon missiles. Turn over the Harpoon marker on the fighter stand and roll 1 die. Move the Harpoon up to that many spaces. It may move in any direction and does not have to move in a straight line.

Harpoons pass under fighters and other Harpoons and must travel around shallows.

• If your Harpoon hits a target, see Move All of Your Harpoon Missiles on page 3 for the results.
• If your Harpoon didn't reach its target from its launch, you'll have one more chance to move it at the start of your next turn. See Move All of Your Harpoon Missiles on page 3. NOTE: Harpoons that do not reach their targets must end their move in an empty space.

Repeat this for any other Harpoons you want to launch from your fighters.

Figure 10: Launch and move Harpoon missiles. You launch a Harpoon with a roll of 4. At the beginning of your next turn you roll a 2. It's a hit!

Winning

The first player to sink the enemy's carrier wins.

If you destroy all of your enemy's fighters and destroyers and he/she has no Harpoon missiles left in the water, the game ends and you are declared the winner!

If both players' destroyers and fighters are destroyed, the player with no damage on the carrier wins. If both carriers are damaged (or both are undamaged) players tie.

Storage

Remove the fighter planes from their stands and return all of the contents to the box for easy storage.