Surprise Roll and Monsters Placement, Sentinels
Heroes Phase, GM Phase, Final Phase and Escape
Moving in Fight, Control Zones
Hand to Hand Combat, Hand to Hand Hit Rolls Table, Hand to Hand Weapons
Ranged Combat, Ranged Hit Rolls Table, Ranged Weapons
Push, Death and Knockout, Fate Points

When in the Dungeon the Heroes encounter monsters ad enemies, Combat Turns start and they last until all the enemies are defeated or if any faction is able to flee from the Fight. When the monsters have their line of view on the Heroes they always attack. The Monsters retire from the Fight only if the GM plays the proper Dungeon Card or if there is an objective advantage for them in retiring.

SURPRISE ROLL AND MONSTERS PLACEMENT

Before the starting of the Fight, an Heroes representant rolls a dice and so the GM does for the monsters: this first dice is called Surprise Roll. Some Heroes are granted with modifications on this roll thanks to their quick reactions or to magic bonus. If the Heroes roll is greater than the GM one, the Heroes surprised the monsters: the Heroes start the Fight with their turn. The GM places the monsters on the base of the encounter: a Wandering Monsters encounter places the first monster always on the most distant square from the line of sight of one of the Heroes, with the other monster adjacent one by one, while Dens monsters placement is choosen entirely by the GM. Note: there must be always at least 2 empty squares between the Hero nearest to the monsters and the monsters themselves.

If the GM wins the Surprise Rolls then the monsters surprised the Heroes: in this case the GM places the monsters and then starts the Fight with the monsters turn. Note that the monsters have to place always in the section of the Dungeon in which the encounter happens.

SENTINELS

A specific type of monster, the Sentinel, applies special rules. The Sentinels allow the monsters to add +1 to their Surprise Roll (not cumulative with more than one Sentinel). The Dungeon section in which the Sentinel is always contains at least 1 door, even if it has not been generated: in the case the door was not generated the GM can place it where he wants. The only exception is given by pre-determined quests maps. The GM can make the Sentinel open a door during the Fight, and the Sentinel is the only monster allowed to do it during a Fight. If the door leads to an unexplored part of the Dungeon, the GM generates it as for the Exploration phase during the Sentinel turn, then the Fight continues. If new monsters are generated they join the actual fight, acting just after the Sentinel turn.

HEROES PHASE

Each Hero has many options available during his Combat turn: the players decide the order of the action between the different Heroes and followers. Each of them can:

- move and attack, or attack and move. If an Hero has Followers and Henchmen they are moved by the Hero how he prefers. Each character moves of a number of squares half his Speed Skill, rounded by defect (but the 0.5 can be often useful if there are obstacles as corpses on the squares).

- run, instead of acting: when a character wants to run he can move of a number of squares doubledm no other action can be done when running.

- a character near a door can open it instead of attacking: this can be done before and after his movement. If the the door leads to a new section of the Dungeon it is generated immediately then the others character make their turn if they didnt; if new monsters are generated they join the fight at the beginning of the monsters turn. An Hero cant open a door and pass through it in the same turn. Once a fight started, a door cant be closed, neither from Heroes neither by monsters sentinels: it can be closed only during Exploration Turns.

- a character can move and drink a potion or apply a bandage, but only if there are no enemies in his Control Zone (see later). He can drink a potion first and move or attack then, but he cant apply a bandage first and move or attack then. A character with spells can move and cast the spell, but cant cast and move.

A character can attack if his movement ends in a square adjacent to an enemy: for example a Warrior has SP6, he's 3 squares away from an enemy: he uses all his movement to reach the enemy and then he can attack.

GM PHASE

- The GM for first has to decide if the monsters will attack and move, or move and then attack: all the monsters will proceed with the same cycle of movements/attacks. Each monster does his move following the order that the GM decides.

- a monsters can run, instead of attacking: when a monster wants to run it can moves at the double of the squares allowed by its speed.

- the Sentinels can open door instead of attacking: they can do it before or after its movement, opening door will always end their turn. They follow the rules for the Sentinels in rooms generation during the Fight.

FINAL PHASE AND ESCAPE

This phase happens when there are no more monsters in the Fight, or when the Heroes or monsters flee from the combat. If, at the end of GM phase, the Heroes are no more in the monsters Line of View, then they have been able to flee from the Fight. The escape is successfull only when it's the GM to have the last turn: in the case that Heroes have lost their Surprise Roll or Initiative Roll and are fleeing during their turn, then the GM has to right to play the next turn as first, without Initiative Roll, to be able to reach them: if at the end of this extra turn the Heroes are still not in the Line of View of the monsters, then they successfully escaped the figth and the remaining monsters stand in the place in which they were encountered.

If the Heroes escape the fight before they killed all the monster, they cant take any loot, even returning in the place later. If the Heroes kill all the monsters they for first roll the dices of the treasure generated by the encounter and decide who will carry the gold Crowns and how much, then they roll on Recovering the Arrows shot during the fight: for each arrow the Hero roll a dice, with a 7+ result the arrow has been recovered.

MOVING IN FIGHT

The GM decides the order in which the monsters act while the Heroes decide together each turn the sequence of their turns. All the characters move horizontally and vertically a number of square equal to the half of their Speed skill, rounded by defect. The movement on squares in which there are corpses needs 0.5 movement more for each corpse present in the square up to a -1.5 penalization: so the movement on a square with a single corpse costs 1.5 moves, on a square with two corpses costs 2 moves, three or more 2.5 moves. Miniatures can pass through other allied miniatures only if their movement ends on an empty square. If a miniature moves in an enemy Control Zone (check later) it has to stop. Miniatures can attack hand-to-hand only horizontallty and vertically, except with weapons that allow diagonal attacks. A miniature can be freely rotated on its square as there are no back and flank attacks in AHQ3.0.

CONTROL ZONES

Each miniature has a control over the squares it's able to attack with its weapon called Control Zone, so the the 4 squares in the 4 directions around its own square, or all the 8 squares around if it has a Great weapon. When another miniature passes on one of these squares and the miniature of the Control Zone still has not attacked yet, then it has to stop and cant pass. Each miniature that has already attacked exerts its Control Zone only on the square it attacked against, if not it exerts the Control Zone on the first miniature passing in its Control Zone: a miniature cant exerts its Control Zone against two miniatures at the same time.

In the moment in which the first enemy enters a Control Zone, the other squares are no more controlled and can be passed freely. This, anyway, doesnt imply that the miniature has to attack the first enemy entering in its Control Zone: if other enemies are present in the squares it can reaches on its turn, then it chooses the target of its attack exerting then the Control Zone over it. A miniature in the Control Zone of an enemy cant open or close doors and chests, cant cast spells unless it's differently indicated in the Spell Card, and cant fire range weapons. A miniature can leave a Control Zone during its turn, but it has to perform a Speed Check: if it's successful it can move outside the Control Zone, if not its turn ends and it cant move and attack or do any other action.

HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT

A miniature can perform an hand-to-hand attack against an adjacent miniature: this is the only possible attack when an opponent is on an adjacent square. Only specific weapons can attack in diagonal squares. If a miniature is adjacent to more than one enemy, it can choose which opponent to attack. Attacking a miniature through a door is allowed only horizontally and vertically, not in diagonal squares, even with a Great weapon.

Hit Roll: When a miniature performs an hand-to-hand attack he has to check the Hit Rolls table crossing its own WS (Weapon Skill) with the opponent WS: it's indicated the number required to hit the opponent with a dice. This mechanism is automated in the Vassal module, selecting the WS vs WS proper combination button.

Critical Hits: When the roll to hit on the dice is a 12 the hit has been Critical: this grants the attacker and extra attack after this one; if the opponent against whom the critical has been done is alive, then the attacker has to keep attacking it, if not he can choose a different target to deliver his extra attack. Some weapons perform a critical hit on a result of 11 too.

Critical Failures: when the roll to hit on the dice is a 1 the failure has been Critical: the opponent is granted with an immediate free attack against the attacker, to be not calculated in its overall attacks. Some weapons do critical failures on a result of 2 too. Note that when the free attacks derived from Critical Hits and Critical Failures are critical too, they keep applying the same effect. So for example if the Hero makes a 1 against opponent, and this makes an 1 with its free attack, the Hero is granted with another attack, and so on.

Damage Dices: if the attack is successfull, the attacker roll the number of Damage Dices indicated in his weapon features: Damage Dices has a Skull and a Shield face: each Skull delivers a single wound and the defender rolls a number of Defence Dices (that are the same of Damage Dices) equal to the half of his Thoughness, rounded down: each Shield face resulting protects from a Skull resulting from the attack, the Skulls not protected by a Shield delivers a Wound. When the monsters reach 0 Wounds they die and their corpse occupies the square in which they are slain.

HAND TO HAND HIT ROLLS TABLE

WEAPONS

There are many weapons in the AHQ3.0, the following are the default ones present in the Vassal engine, but further weapons can be added with dedicated expansion packs; each card indicates the cost in gold Crowns of the weapons.

Monsters can have different weapons with features and stats that differ from the standard one, in this case these modifications are indicated on the Monster sheet.

RANGED COMBAT

Ranged attacks are fired against enemies outside of adjacent squares. To be able to fire a ranged attack a miniature must to respect these conditions:

- it has to own a ranged weapon with relative ammo, it cant be in a square adjacent to its target.

- it cant be in the Control Zone of an enemy, the target has to be within the ranged weapon maximum range: the squares has to be counted horizontally and vertically, not diagonally and not with a straight line from the shooter to its target.

- it has to see the target, so it has to be in its Line of View.

Only some ranged weapons allow to move first and then shoot, while it's never allowed to shoot and move then. The majority of the ranged weapons allow only to shoot during the turn denying any movement.

Line of View: to attack a target it has to be in the miniature Line of View. In the case that there are other miniatures between the attacked and its target, both allied and opponent, the target is "partially covered" and the attacker drops one range section calculated for the shoot (so, -1 penalization on to hit roll is applied).

Hit Roll: when a miniatures performs a ranged attack he has to check the Ranged Hit Rolls table crossing its RS skill with the range (distance) of the target: the number indicated is the roll required with a dice to hit the target. This mechanis is automated in the Vassal engine, selecting the proper RS vs Range button.

Critical Hit: when a ranged Hit Roll is a 12 the attack hits a vulnerable part of the target, in this case the Thoughness of the target is halved when the Damage Dices of that attack are rolled.

Critical Failure: when a ranged Hit Roll is a 1 the attacker hits an ally instead of the target. A random ally miniature within 2 squares from the target is hit (use a dice to randomly select it). If there are no ally miniatures within 2 squares of the target, the attack simply misses.

Damage Dices:if the attack is successfull, the attacker roll the number of Damage Dices indicated in his weapon features: Damage Dices has a Skull and a Shield face: each Skull delivers a single wound and the defender rolls a number of Defence Dices (that are the same of Damage Dices) equal to the half of his Thoughness, rounded down: each Shield face resulting protects from a Skull resulting from the attack, the Skulls not protected by a Shield delivers a Wound. When the monsters reach 0 Wounds they die and their corpse occupies the square in which they are slain.

RANGED HIT ROLLS TABLE

* : Critical Hits are not applied: the 12 roll is simply a successfull attack.

RANGED WEAPONS

There are many ranged weapons in the AHQ3.0, the following are the default ones present in the Vassal engine, but further weapons can be added with dedicated expansion packs; each card indicates the cost in gold Crowns of the weapons.

PUSH MOVE

Each creature, both Heroes and monsters, can spend their Combat turn Pushing an adjacent opponent or an adjacent ally: this happens often to avoid door-stucking dynamics. When a miniature want to push another miniature it has to roll a d12 and add its ST stat, the pushed miniature too rolls a d12 and adds its ST: if the result of the pusher is greater than the pushed result than the pushed miniature is moved of 1 square in the direction of the push while the pusher move together with the pushed and lose ist turn. If there are miniatures behind the pushed one, these are pushed too by 1 square: so basically an entire line of miniatures is moved by 1 square. If behind the pushed miniatures there is no space to move (for example a line finishing on a wall), then the last miniature is moved in the first adjacent free square.

If the roll result of the pusher is minor than the pushed one than the Push move failed and the pushed miniature is granted a free attack against the pusher. If a miniature tries to push an ally and it fails the roll, the movement is simply aborted. Note: a miniature cant move and push in the same turn. Just a single Push move is allowed for side each turn.

DEATH AND KNOCKOUT

A monster, a follower or an henchman that reach 0 Wounds is dead, his corpse stands in the square where he has been slain: each corpse adds 0.5 movement more to pass through that square. When an Hero reaches 0 Wounds he's Knocked Down and the miniature stands in the square, working as a corpse. In this condition the Hero cant do anything and cant be attacked. Another Hero can move the Hero knocked out, if he's in an adjacent square, of a number of squares equal to the bearer movement in fight, renouncing to any other action during his turn.

The Knocked Down Hero can receive an Healing Potion from any Hero in an adjacent square, but both of them (the one giving the potion and the Hero knocked) need to be not in an opponent Control Zone. A knocked Hero can be cured with a spell too. During Exploration Turns, a knocked Hero can be carried by another Hero, whose movement is reduced to 6 applying a -3SP modification in the case of needed check. If an Hero that is carrying a knocked Hero encounters monsters starting a Fight, then he has to left the corpse in a square adjacent to him at the start of the Fight. Knocked Heroes cant be "parked" in some part of the Dungeon and thus recovered, if the other Heroes left a knocked one behind, he's considered as dead and eliminated, as this means that the monsters of the Dungeon found a special lunch. If a Knocked Down Hero is carried out of the Dungeon together with the other Heroes, an Healer can bring him back to life following the rules indicated in the Campaign section. Note that no paid mercenary and henchman can carry an Hero corpse, while special Followers can carry just the corpse of their master.

FATE POINTS

Fate Points change events during the Fights and in general during the Expedition: for example if a miniature has been hit he can spend a Fate Point once he received his wounds to completely negate the effect of the attack received. The Fate Points cant be used to negate the effect of something happened in the turns before, but only for the Dice Rolls just rolled. The Fate Points cant change the results of the Damage Dices.

Each Hero starts his career with a certain number of Fate Points, an Hero can spend as many Fate Points as he wants during a Combat Turn. Fate Points can be used to negate the effect of any roll and can be used to transform a missed roll in a successfull roll; they cant be used to change the result of a Dice into a 1 or a 12. The way the Fate Points are gained by the Heroes is explained in the Campaign section.