8th Army Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Abbreviations
• A. Setup
• B. Game Turn Sequence
  • I. Provide your stacks with Maintenance Supply
  • II. Bring on Replacements
  • III. Move your units
  • IV. Attack your opponent's units
  • V. Resupply
• C. End and Victory Conditions

Abbreviations

• AL – Allies
• AX – Axis
• FF – fortification (it is not a unit)
• UFF – unfortified opponent's unit
• RP – replacement points
• MA – movement allowance
• AS – advancing stack
• SB – supply base
• SP – supply points
• SR – supply route
• AP – assembly point
• SU – supplied unit (stack)
• UU – unsupplied unit (stack)
• CP – combat points (= CS)
• CS – combat strength (= CP)
• CL – combat loss

A. Setup

1. AL: 3x Armour (1) + 2x Infantry (2) + SB token on Alexandria.
2. AX - IT:
   • Infantry (2) on J2, Infantry (2) + SB token on Tobruk.
   • Infantry (1) + FF (1) on M8, Infantry (2) + FF (1) on M12, Armour (1) on F9.
   • Tobruk FF marker on 3 (Rules don't mention this although they mention lowering Tobruk's FF).
3. AX SP token on the 6 of SP track, AL SP token on 15 of SP track, game turn token on 1 of the game turn track.

B. Game Turn Sequence

GAME TURN (AL player starts, then players alternate in taking turns.)

I. Provide Maintenance Supply II. Bring on Replacements III. Move IV. Attack V. Replenish your Supply Points

I. Provide your stacks with Maintenance Supply

To do this, you have to trace a Supply Route (SR) and spend a certain amount of Supply Points (SP).

Stack: One or more unit (and possibly fortification) tokens in a hex are called a stack.

Supply Route: SR is a path of hexes between SB and a particular stack, counting the destination hex, not counting the SB hex.

• It cannot be longer than 18 hexes.
• It cannot pass through a hex that is adjacent to a UFF hex, unless the hex is occupied by your units.
• It cannot pass impassable hexes.
• AL SB is in Alexandria, AX SB is in Tobruk.

Supply Points: Both players start the game with a certain amount of SP, and they also gain them at the end of every turn. Basically, if you are lacking SP you cannot move far from your SB, and your attacks are restricted or impossible.

Maintenance Supply comprises 2 segments that make you spend your SP - Transportation and Provision.

1. Transportation (resources required for transport of war material to your units)

Trace a SR between your SB and your furthest stack, count the length of it, and subtract SP according to the Maintenance Supply chart / Transportation. Move the marker on your SP track. In case you cannot trace SP to the furthest stack, trace it to the furthest stack whose position allows it.

2. Provision (resources expended to keep your stacks in the field)

Trace a SR between your SB and every single hex that contains your stack, count the length of it, and subtract SP according to the Maintenance Supply chart / Provision. Move the marker on your SP track. In case you don't have enough SP to provide the Maintenance Supply, or you cannot trace the SR to a particular stack, put an "unsupplied" marker on the stack.

Unsupplied Unit/Stack (UU):

• UU has its MA cut in half (see below in "Move your units").
• UU can move towards SB only.
• UU has no effect on opponent's SR traced in hexes adjacent to it.

If a player cannot provide Maintenance Supply to UU again on his next turn, the stack is removed from the board and placed on the turn track as a reminder (AL UU is placed on the box 2 turns forward, AX UU are placed 3 turns forward). Make sure you don't flip them over. They may be turned into RP later on the marked turn (or any time later if you wish – see gaining RP below).

II. Bring on Replacements

Replacement points (RP): RP are gained throughout the game and marked on the RP track that both sides share. On the right side of the RP track is a "RP due" column. It shows how many RP can be spent depending on the total sum of RP in the players' possession. The black number shows the amount of RP spendable, and the red framed number shows the part of it that can be spent on Armour units.

1. Gaining Replacement Points:

a) Any time a unit is destroyed, it is placed on your Replacement Box. Advance your RP marker on the RP Available track for as many boxes as the CP of the unit destroyed. FF is not classified as a unit.

b) Any time a unit loses its CP in combat (it is flipped), advance your RP marker for that many boxes on the RP Available track.

c) When the "unsupplied" units shall be returned from the turn track, do it in this segment. Put them on the Replacement box (they will be treated as destroyed units) and gain as many RP as the CS of the "unsupplied" units.

2. Spending Replacement Points:

a) Building up (upgrading supplied units on the map): You can upgrade an existing supplied unit so it gets +1 CS for every SP spent. AL player can do so within 3 hexes of Alexandria, AX player can do so anywhere on the map. Pay 1 RP for each upgraded unit, and advance the RP track. There are no units that can be built up above 2 in the Basic game.

b) Reforming destroyed units (sending renewed units back in): You can bring a unit of CS 1 back from the Replacement box to the map. It is placed in the Assembly Point (AP). AL AP is Alexandria, AX AP is El Agheila. For each unit you reform pay 1 RP and mark it on the track. AL player only may use one extra RP to build it up to CS 2.

III. Move your units

Every unit in the game has its Movement Allowance (MA), which means the number of hexes it can move each turn.

• Units cannot enter impassable hexes, and hexes occupied by enemy stacks.
• By entering a normal terrain hex, the unit spends 1 point of MA.
• A rough terrain hex takes 2 points of MA.
• A road hex takes just 0.5 points of MA.
• A unit must stop as soon as it has used up its entire MA, or as soon as it enters a hex adjacent to UFF.
• A unit may move away from the UFF if it was adjacent to it at the start of its movement.
• Fortified unit (FU) means that its stack contains a friendly FF; otherwise it is treated as UFF.
• Tobruk is considered a fortification as long as its strength stated on the Tobruk Fortification Track is >0.
• FF cannot move, it is not a unit.
• Entering an opponent's abandoned FF destroys it immediately.
• At the end of this movement segment, you can have max 2 units in one hex.

IV. Attack your opponent's units

1. Provide the attacking stacks with Combat Supply

Before executing attacks, all attacking stacks must be provided with Combat Supply, otherwise they cannot attack this turn. It is identical to the Maintenance Supply (Transportation & Provision) - you just use the Combat Supply chart to resolve the right amount of SP you have to spend to be able to attack.

2. Resolve the attacks

• Any/all of your supplied stacks can attack an opponent's stack in an adjacent hex.
• If there are more attacks, they are completely resolved one by one.
• Only one stack can attack a particular hex.

Every single attack is resolved in the following order:

a) Announce the attack on a particular hex.

b) Count your Final Score (FS):

• Subtract the enemy stack's CS from your stack's CS, getting your Attack Superiority (AS).
• If you are attacking across a ridge side, subtract 1 from your AS.
• If you are attacking into a rough hex, subtract 2 from your AS.
• Consult the Combined Arms Table and add the result to your AS.
• Add a D6 roll to your AS to get your Final Score (FS).

c) Consult your FS with the Attack Results Table for Combat Losses (CL) and further instructions (advance/retreat).

d) Resolve the CL first, and then all the other instructions (advance/retreat).

Resolving Combat Losses, advancing and retreating your units:

a) Resolve the CP losses: Flip a token(s) in the stack to their weaker side, or destroy it so that their total fortified CP equals the CL. FF must be chosen first, then Armour, then the rest. Tobruk FF cannot be flipped, but it has its own FF track that is used to absorb 1 loss. FF may not absorb the attackers' losses. Gain SP for flipped/destroyed units.

b) Retreat:

• Retreating stacks (RS) can move together or they can split up.
• Defenders are moved 2 hexes away, or just one hex if they can rejoin with a friendly unit there (illustrated just in the last example in the rules for the Basic game, not mentioned in the rules).
• Attacker's RS are moved 1-2 hexes back.
• You cannot retreat into impassable hexes, or hexes occupied by the opponent's units or FF, or violate the "max. 2 units in a stack" rule.
• Any time your RS retreat to a hex adjacent to UFF, you lose one additional CP.
• RS that cannot carry out the above rules are destroyed.

Now, put a "retreat" marker on all retreated stacks even if they rejoined with other friendly units.

• RS that is attacked on the same turn is immediately destroyed.

c) Advance:

• Move the Advancing Stack (AS) up to 3 hexes if it includes Armour (even before it splits), or just 2 hexes otherwise.
• The first hex entered by AS must be the hex which was under attack.
• AS that enters a hex adjacent to UFF that is not marked as "retreated" must stop.
• You cannot advance into impassable hexes, hexes occupied by the opponent's units, or violate the "max. 2 units in a stack" rule.
• You can advance to hexes with the opponent's abandoned FF, and immediately destroy it by doing so.

Second attack option: If you obtained FS = 6+, you can now attack again with the same stack (once per turn). If the AS split up, both parts may attack. No Combat Supply in this case.

Now, proceed to attacking with your other supplied units. After that your first offensive is over.

Second offensive option: You can start a second offensive with stacks that haven't attacked this turn. Carry out the Provision segment of Combat Supply for all attacking units, and then execute the Attack sequence in the same manner as in your first offensive. The Transportation part is executed only if any SR to any stack is longer than the one in the first offensive.

Third, fourth … offensive option: You can carry out other offensives in the same manner, as far as you still have units that haven't attacked on this turn and SP to supply them.

Remove all the "retreat" markers, and leave the "unsupplied" markers on.

V. Resupply

On turns 2-5 roll a D6. A result of 1-3 gives you 1 SP, 4-5 gives you 2 SP and 6 gives you 3 SP.

C. End and Victory Conditions

The AL player must capture Tobruk by the end of turn 5 by moving one of his Army units onto its hex. Otherwise AX wins.