The Battle for Sector 219
The Battle for Sector 219 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
General Description
Battle for Sector 219 is a positional strategy game in which two players represent alien commanders struggling for control of a futuristic mega city as part of a larger military struggle.
Sector 219 is played on an imaginary grid, with each card occupying a space on that grid as it is played. Don't worry about drawing the grid; it will develop naturally as you play.
Each player has a deck of army units, such as Marines, Shock Troops, and Artillery, with which he will defend his base on one side of the city while attempting to occupy his opponent's base. Each player also has access to two Air Strikes he can call down on enemy forces.
You must manage supply lines in order to advance on the enemy base and position your units so they can support each other's attacks. Plan and outmaneuver your opponent to win the day!
Editor's note: the printed text reads "Out plan"; it is transcribed here as "Plan" (typographical error in the source).
Contents of Game
Everything you need to play Sector 219 is included in the deck box. In addition to this rule book, you should have a city card plus two army decks, each with the following cards:
- 5 Infantry
- 3 Marines
- 4 Shock Troops
- 5 Artillery
- 4 Skirmishers
- 3 Drop Squad
- 2 Air Strike
Setup
Place the city card in the middle of the play area. The spaces adjacent to the short sides of the city are the respective bases of the two players. Place each player's Air Strikes face up but to the side of play. (See figure 1)
Determine randomly which player will take the first turn. Each player then draws five cards from his deck, looks at them, and chooses two to place on the bottom of his deck, leaving a three card starting hand.
If it's your first game, just draw three cards and don't worry about choosing which ones to put on the bottom.
Figure 1: Initial setup.
Object of the Game
You can win Battle for Sector 219 in one of two ways:
- If a player occupies her opponent's base, she wins immediately.
- If both players have no cards remaining in their deck and their hand and have used both their Air Strikes, the player with the most units remaining in play wins.
Unit Card Diagrams
Each unit card has the following three diagrams that define how it plays:
- Supply diagram: Most of your units can only deploy to your base or to a space from which you can trace a supply line back to your base.
- Attack diagram: Shows the spaces a unit can attack and whether it can destroy an enemy on its own or whether its attack needs support.
- Support diagram: Shows the spaces on which the unit can lay down support fire.
The Supply Diagram shows the spaces from which a unit can draw supplies from other supplied units. The central square represents the unit, and the squares with arrows represent spaces from which it can draw supplies.
A star (★) indicates an ability to deploy outside supply lines. See page 15 for details. N.B. A unit can never occupy the enemy base without supply.
A unit with the supply diagram shown can draw supply from any horizontally or vertically adjacent unit and has a special deployment rule.
Two units (Shock Troops & Drop Squad) are able to deploy outside of your supply line.
When you deploy a unit it will attack one enemy unit (if able).
The Attack Diagram shows the spaces a unit can attack and whether it can destroy an enemy on its own or whether its attack needs support. The central space represents the unit and the crosshair symbol (⊕) or the burst symbol represent the spaces it can attack. A crosshair (⊕) attack needs support fire to destroy its target; a burst attack can destroy its target without support fire.
A unit with the attack diagram shown can attack any horizontally or vertically adjacent enemy unit, but needs support in order to destroy it.
Units already in play can support attacks made by friendly units. Any supported attack will destroy its target.
The Support Diagram shows the spaces on which the unit can lay down support fire.
A unit with the support diagram shown can support attacks made against enemy units that are horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent to it.
Turn Sequence
The player taking the first turn of the game draws one card from his deck and then plays one card; on all other turns the active player draws and plays two cards. Playing a card means either deploying a unit from your hand or using an Air Strike.
Note: When you have drawn all your units, continue playing until both players have no units remaining in their hands and have used both of their Air Strikes.
As we explain how units deploy, attack and support attacks, we will use Infantry (Sector 219's basic unit) as our example and then explain which units in your army behave differently than Infantry.
Deployment and Supply
Players deploy units by playing them from their hand to an unoccupied space on the grid. Any unit other than Drop Squad can be played on its base; to deploy units elsewhere you must be able to trace a chain of supplied units (called a supply line) that extends to the base. For this reason, if your base is unoccupied at the start of your turn, your only legal plays are to deploy a unit onto your base, to deploy a Drop Squad or to use an Air Strike.
Note: Units may not deploy on the City card. Units deploy with their card name closest to the opposing player.
An Infantry unit can be supplied by any horizontally or vertically adjacent supplied unit. (See figure 2)
Three units deploy differently than Infantry:
- Marines can also draw supply from diagonally-adjacent supplied units.
- Drop Squad draws supply like Infantry but can only be deployed without supply. (This means they can never occupy either player's base.)
- Shock Troops can also be deployed without supply to any space that is diagonally adjacent to a supplied unit.
Figure 2: Deployment and Supply. Player 1 may play Infantry to spaces 1, 2, or 3. He cannot deploy to space 4 because it cannot draw supply diagonally.
Once a unit has deployed, it remains in play until it is destroyed. It is not affected by having its supply line interrupted by the destruction of other units. Until the supply line is re-established, however, that unit is not considered supplied and new units cannot be deployed using it as part of their supply line.
Attacking
When a unit deploys it will attack one enemy unit if able. If the unit being deployed could attack more than one unit, that player must choose which one unit to attack. A unit only attacks when it deploys; after that it will only support attacks made by other units.
An Infantry unit can attack any enemy unit that is horizontally or vertically adjacent to it. If its attack is supported by at least one friendly unit, the target is destroyed. Support is explained in depth in the next section. (See figure 3)
Figure 3: Attack and Support. Note: Player 1 has just deployed a unit of Infantry. It attacks Player 2's Shock Troops. Since the attack has support from Player 1's Marines, the Shock Troops are destroyed.
Three units attack differently than Infantry:
- Shock Troops can attack in any direction.
- Skirmishers do not attack.
- Artillery attack an enemy unit that is one or two spaces in front of them. Artillery can fire over the City or other units and their attacks do not need support. (See figure 4)
Note: It doesn't matter what unit is being attacked. If the attack has support or the attacking unit is an Artillery, the target is destroyed.
Figure 4: Artillery Attack. Player 1's Artillery can attack Player 2's Infantry or Marines, but not Player 2's Artillery. Whichever target it chooses will be destroyed.
Support
As noted above, most units cannot destroy an enemy unit without support fire, which is provided by friendly units already in play.
An Infantry unit can support attacks against an enemy unit in any horizontally or vertically adjacent space. (See figure 3)
Only one unit supports differently than Infantry:
- Skirmishers can provide support to attacks made against enemy units in any adjacent space (horizontally, vertically or diagonally).
Note: A unit supports an attack, not the attacking unit, i.e. the supporting unit must be adjacent to the target. It doesn't matter whether or not it is adjacent to the attacker.
Air Strikes
Instead of playing a unit from your hand you may use one of your Air Strikes. Simply flip the Air Strike face down to show it has been used and destroy any enemy unit in play. Once an Air Strike has been flipped, it cannot be used again.
Note: Players may review which units have been destroyed at any time.