SKIRMISH & IRON LINE

What This Book Is

This is the tabletop companion to Operator Tactics. Two games in one volume, same rules DNA, two different scales.

Skirmish is the small game. Two players, three to six operators each, a table the size of a dinner tray. A match runs sixty to ninety minutes and needs no GM. It is the entry point: learn the attributes, the dice, the wound track, the Edge economy, and you have learned the core of the whole line.

Iron Line is the big game. Two armies of autonomous combat platforms — drones, walkers, gun platforms, siege rigs — grinding at each other across a 3′ × 3′ board. Same D6, same natural 6 / natural 1, but the abstraction jumps up a level. Units instead of individuals. Strain instead of wounds. Signal instead of Heat. The fight that happens before the operators go in.

Both games share a setting, a vocabulary, and a dice core. What this book deliberately leaves out: the campaign RPG, faction deep-lore, the full gene-forged splice rules, the post-Upheaval history. All of that lives in the Operator Tactics Core Book. This volume is for the table.

Conventions Used

• The die is a six-sided die (D6). When two are required, this book says 2D6; when a D66 roll is called for, see Iron Line Core Concepts.
• Meet or beat. A roll succeeds when it equals or exceeds the target. A natural 6 always succeeds. A natural 1 always fails. No modifier overrides these.
• Measurements are in inches, from nearest point of a base to nearest point of a target.
• “Operator” means an individual figure in Skirmish. “Unit” means a formation on a movement tray in Iron Line. The words are not interchangeable.
• Core Book references point to Operator Tactics — Core Book. Anything the full RPG handles (augment packages, campaign Heat, faction politics) is cited there, not duplicated here.

1 · What Skirmish Is

Two splices. One objective. No referee.

Skirmish is head-to-head tactical combat for one or two players, 60 to 90 minutes, on a table the size of a kitchen counter. Each player fields three to six operators. You alternate activations, you measure in inches, you roll a single D6 for almost everything. When the rules don’t cover a thing, the dice do. There is no GM.

What You Need

• Two players (or one, for solo mode)
• Three to six miniatures or tokens per side
• A handful of D6, a tape measure in inches, a small pile of wound and objective tokens
• A 24″ × 24″ play area with terrain

Setup at a Glance

1. Scenario. Roll D6 or agree. Both players see it before building splices.
2. Build splices. 400 points. Minimum three operators, maximum six. No more than two of any class. Both players build simultaneously.
3. Terrain. Roll Terrain Profile. Alternate placing pieces. The player who places last does not choose the deployment zone.
4. Deploy. Zone chooser deploys first. Infiltrators deploy last, in Stealth, outside 12″ of any enemy.
5. Fight. Roll Priority. Alternate activations. Complete the scenario. Count VP.

2 · Core Rules

Roll 1D6. Add modifiers. Meet or beat your threshold. A natural 6 always succeeds. A natural 1 always fails. No modifier overrides these.

The Round

1. Priority. Both players roll D6. The winner chooses to activate first or second. The loser’s first activated operator gets one action this round instead of two.
2. Activation. Alternate, one operator at a time. Each operator gets two actions.
3. End Phase. Smoke dissipates. Objective control is checked. Expired conditions are removed.

Actions

Two actions per activation. Action Floor: no combination of penalties reduces an operator below one action.

Movement Details

• Difficult terrain. 2″ spent per 1″ traveled.
• Climbing. 2″ per 1″ vertical. Ladders and stairs are 1:1. No handhold: TACT 4+ or no progress.
• Falling. One FW per 3″. At 6″ or more: MW instead.
• Through friendlies. Allowed, but you cannot end on them. You cannot move through enemies.

Shooting

The threshold for a Shoot attack is SHOOT proficiency + target’s AR. Good = 2+. Ordinary = 4+. Bad = 5+. Class abilities that modify Shoot stack to a maximum of +2 per attack.

Shooting Results

• Hit. Flesh Wound.
• Natural 6. Mortal Wound.
• Natural 6 vs. Heavy Plate (threshold 7+). 2 Flesh Wounds (shrapnel, overpressure, spalling). The plate holds; the operator inside does not hold as well.
• Natural 1 — Dry Fire. The weapon jams. One action to clear. If the jamming shot is the first of a multi-shot action (Rapid Fire, Desperation Fire), the weapon jams at once and the remaining shot(s) of that action are lost.

Melee

1. Contact. Move until your model touches the enemy (base-to-base, or within 1″ if either model uses a separate base). One action.
2. Both roll D6. +1 if armed with a melee weapon. High wins. Attacker wins ties.
3. Armor check. Roll D6. Greater than the loser’s AR = wound. Equal or less = absorbed. Natural 6 always penetrates.
4. Wound. FW on any win. Natural 6 from the winner: MW. Against Heavy Plate, a natural 6 on the armor check inflicts MW (a close-quarters blade finds the seams the bullet cannot).
5. Locked. Loser stays in contact. TACT 4+ next activation to break free. Success: 3″ clear. Fail: 1 FW, still locked.

Multiple attackers. +1 per friendly already in contact with the defender. Maximum +2.

Anti-Armor Melee (Breach tag). The Breacher’s combat kit (breaching hammer, demo-charge pick, cutting torch) counts as an Anti-Armor melee weapon. Against Heavy Plate, an Anti-Armor weapon ignores the Heavy Plate cap — treat AR as 2 for melee armor checks. Other classes may purchase Anti-Armor through Extended Loadouts.

Armor

When AR pushes the threshold above 6, only a natural 6 wounds. Against Heavy Plate specifically, a natural 6 inflicts 2 Flesh Wounds; against any other armor pushed past threshold 6 (stacked modifiers, cover combinations), a natural 6 inflicts 1 Flesh Wound.

Wounds

Wound Clarity. Taking an MW clears all FW. MW penalties replace FW penalties.

On the Mortal Wound track. Once a model holds one or more MW, every further confirmed wound — a normal hit (Flesh Wound) or a Mortal Wound, whatever the source — advances it one MW box: 1 MW → 2 MW → Out of Action. Flesh Wounds are no longer tracked separately once the MW track is open.

Out of Action. Removed from play.

Status Effects

• Prone. Incoming Shoot −1. Crawl at half MOBI. Can Shoot. Cannot Fight or Sprint. Standing up costs one action.
• Pinned. Next Move costs both actions. Shoot −1. AR −1. Expires at the end of the next activation.

Reactions

Triggered when an operator is targeted by a Shoot within 12″ and LoS. Declare before the attacker rolls. Costs one action on the operator’s next activation. One reaction per round.

• Return Fire. Shoot first.
• Take Cover. Move 2″ into cover, apply the cover modifier.
• Duck Down. Go prone. Incoming attack at −2.
• Body Shield. Take the hit for an adjacent ally.

Grenades

One action. TACT 4+. 3″ blast. Ignores cover.

• Success. Lands on target. Everything in the blast takes a Flesh Wound.
• Failure. Scatter D6 inches.
• Natural 6. Dead-center strike: Mortal Wound to the named target only. Everything else in the blast takes a Flesh Wound.
• Natural 1. Scatter toward the thrower.

Stealth

• Enter. Hide action. TACT 4+. Requires cover, outside enemy LoS.
• While Stealthed. Cannot be targeted by Shoot. Enemies ignore the operator.
• Objectives. A Stealthed operator still controls and contests objectives by presence — its body denies the zone exactly as a visible model does. While it stays undetected, though, its presence alone does not trip a Pressure Clock contest (“opposing operators simultaneously within 3″ of the same objective”): that trigger needs a detectable enemy model. The instant the operator is spotted or breaks Stealth, normal contest resumes.
• Breaks when the operator shoots and hits, fights, fails a TACT roll in enemy LoS, moves through open ground within 6″ of an enemy, or interacts with a scenario objective.
• Passive detection. At end of round, enemies within 6″ with LoS roll 5+ to spot.
• Active detection. An enemy spends 1 action. The stealthed operator rolls TACT 4+ or Stealth ends.
• Surprise attack. +2 to the first attack from Stealth. Breaks Stealth regardless of result.

Edge Tokens

Each splice starts with two Edge tokens. Earn one by succeeding at Call the Target or completing a class Performance trigger. Maximum pool of four. Does not carry between games.

Spend one token to reroll any D6, or to add +1 to any roll (declared after rolling). Spend one token to remove all Breach Tokens on a friendly operator (see below).

Breach Tokens

Every Flesh Wound opens a window. When an operator takes a Flesh Wound, the opposing player places one Breach Token on that operator. The opposing player holds these tokens — not the wounded operator’s controller.

Spend a Breach Token at any point before a roll involving that operator:

• Force a reroll. The targeted operator must reroll any one die they just rolled. Take the worse result.
• Escalate the wound. Convert the next hit against that operator from a Flesh Wound to a Mortal Wound. Declared after the hit is confirmed, before the wound is recorded.

Breach Tokens are cleared when the operator goes Out of Action. A friendly operator’s controller may spend one Edge Token to remove all Breach Tokens on them.

Maximum three Breach Tokens per operator at any time. Tokens beyond three are discarded.

Contact Ceiling

Gene-forged professionals don’t break. They recalculate. When your splice reaches half its operators Out of Action — round down — each surviving operator makes a Contact Ceiling check at the start of their next activation.

Roll GUTS. Pass: activate normally. Fail: this activation is defensive only. You may Shoot from cover, Move toward your deployment edge, or Duck Down. You cannot Fight, Sprint, or Interact with objectives.

Spend one Edge Token to auto-pass. The Contact Ceiling triggers once per game, when the threshold is first crossed.

Link-Up

Once per round, instead of a normal activation, declare a Link-Up. Activate two friendly operators simultaneously. Each gets one action — not two. Actions may be taken in any order, interleaving freely between the two operators. The second operator still counts as your next activation in the sequence.

You cannot declare a Link-Up if either operator is currently Pinned, Locked in melee, or Out of Action.

Desperation Fire

Both actions. Two Shoot attacks. The second attack is at −2. A natural 1 on the first shot ends this activation immediately — the weapon jams and the second shot does not occur. A natural 1 on the second shot jams the weapon. Clear a jam: one action.

Call the Target

One action. Target in LoS. TACT or OPINT 4+. Success: the next friendly Shoot against that target gains +1. Earn one Edge.

3 · Operator Profiles

Six roles. Six ways to break the mission open.

Attributes: SHOOT, FIGHT, TACT, OPINT, GUTS, MOBI. Five are rated Good (2+), Ordinary (4+), or Bad (5+). MOBI is measured in inches of movement per activation.

4 · Squad Creation & The Splice

We’re not yours. We’re not anyone’s. We showed up for the contract, and we’ll leave when it’s done.

The Splice Is the Unit

In Operator Tactics, the player unit is a splice. Not a squad. Not a team. Not a crew. A splice: three to six freelance operators assembled under a single contract, mixed in composition and answerable to no flag. The word describes independence from state doctrine. It does not describe headcount, and it does not describe lineage.

“Splice” started as contempt. State militaries used it for mixed-lineage units whose gene-forged heritage didn’t match, whose genomic loyalty couldn’t be verified, whose flag was whoever was paying this week. A Kavast pack commander calling a freelance unit a splice meant: you took operators who were purpose-bred for cohesion and stitched in foreign material. Freelance operators took the word back. It took about fifteen years. By the time a contractor says “my splice,” the contempt has been replaced by something closer to professional identity.

The word still lands hard in some mouths. Most operators wear it clean.

Splice vs. State Doctrine

Nation-state forces are mono-type by design. Kavast fields wolf-lineage cohorts in pack formations. The Protectorate fields raven-lineage flights, a networked sensory array with weapons. The Eastern Compact fields bear-lineage formations built to absorb damage and keep advancing. When the splice fights a state force, the table tells the story before anyone speaks: a wolf, a raven, and two baselines on one contract against an enemy that shares a single augmented baseline.

This contrast is load-bearing. Enemy splices do not exist by default. When the players face a state force, that force is mono-type. When an NPC unit breaks the pattern — an embedded raven-lineage operator inside a Kavast pack, for example — it means something.

Building a Splice for Skirmish

1. Budget. 400 points (Standard). Other formats: 300 pts Small, 500 pts Large.
2. Operators. Minimum three, maximum six.
3. Class limit. No more than two of any single class.
4. Loadouts. Fixed per class at Skirmish scale. Swaps are handled by the optional Extended Loadouts module (see below).
5. Simultaneous build. Both players see the scenario first, then build at the same time without showing their lists.
6. Name the splice. Callsigns, unit tag, a patch, a paint scheme. The splice is a character, not an accessory.

Advanced Modules (Optional)

Both players agree before squad building. Modules combine.

• Specializations. +10 points per operator. Choose one specialization from the class list (see Core Book).
• Extended Loadouts. Budget 420 points. Minimum four operators. Swap weapons, armor, or gear for class-legal items; pay the point difference.
• Battlefield Evolution (League only). An operator who survives a trigger event earns one permanent ability. Maximum one per operator.
• Hostile Environment. Start of each round, both players roll on the Hazard table. Weather shifts, terrain collapses, fires spread.

Kitbash Notes

Skirmish does not require a specific miniature line. A splice can be painted state-military surplus, bootleg 3D prints, resprayed plastic army men, metal heroics minis from a different game entirely, or tokens. What matters is that your operators are distinguishable from your opponent’s at a glance, and that each operator has a recognizable silhouette. A splice looks like a splice: no two operators painted identically, no matching helmets, no shared faction heraldry. The unit is a statement of independence. Paint it like one.

That physical remix is part of the fiction now. The same way the source material had to be constrained from fragments into a playable model, a splice is assembled from partial signals until it becomes something you can test under pressure.

The Dead Shelf Path

There are two ways into Operator Tactics as a physical game. The parts-bin path starts with raw material — sprues, clippers, 40k piles of shame, military model kits, Dollar Tree dinosaurs — and builds up. The Dead Shelf path starts with a complete figure that already exists: pulled from a blind box, found at a thrift store, salvaged from your own shelf when the initial excitement wore off. You don’t build the figure. You re-context it. You give it a card. You give it a name. You put it in a splice.

Designer vinyl figures — Pop Mart blind boxes, Quiccs TEQ63s, Kidrobot customs, 52Toys Beast-Mechs, the full range of chibi and near-future collectibles — are Commercial Stock in both senses of the phrase. In the OT world, Commercial Stock gene-forged were built for entertainment and luxury markets and ended up on the battlefield when the Upheaval reorganized everything. In yours, the figure was built for a collector shelf and is now on the table. The in-world explanation was written before the game existed. No conversion required.

A Pop Mart Skullpanda on your roster is a commercial stock operative with a stealth profile and a history nobody asked about. A Labubu is a commercial stock berserker who was delighted before the first shot and will be delighted after the last. A Quiccs TEQ63 is a heavy operative with a load-bearing silhouette and a deniable origin. Assign the card. Name the operator. Field them.

The figures already in the world are the correct figures. Two decades of blind-box collector culture means the supply chain is the existing waste stream of consumer culture — and that stream stocks thrift store bins in every mid-sized city. You don’t have to wait for a kit. The material is already there. This is not a concession. It’s what the game is about. If the archive is a simplified interface for a larger pattern, the table is where that interface becomes physical.

For vinyl-scale board dimensions, see the Vinyl Scale callout in the Terrain & Setup chapter.

5 · Scenarios

Roll D6 or choose. Eight rounds unless a scenario states otherwise. Scenario VP overrides universal VP where they differ.

Climax Table (D6)

When a scenario’s Climax Variable fires, roll 1D6 on this table unless the scenario names its own result. The event lands at once and runs for the stated duration. The trailing side is whoever holds fewer VP; ties go to whoever has more operators Out of Action. If a rolled result cannot apply to the current scenario in any form, reroll it.

1. Crossfire

Setup. Three objectives on the centerline, evenly spaced. Opposing edges, 6″ deep.

Objective. Control objectives (operator within 3″, opponent does not). Check on Rounds 4, 6, and 8.

VP. +1 per objective per check (max 9). +1 per enemy OoA.

Climax Variable. When any operator controls an objective at the Round 4 check, roll on the Climax Table.

2. Smash & Grab

Setup. One objective at the board center. Opposing edges, 6″ deep.

Objective. Interact (TACT 4+). Carry it. Extract to your deployment zone. The carrier takes −2 MOBI and cannot Sprint.

VP. +5 for extraction. +1 per enemy OoA. No extraction by Round 8: the carrier’s player wins.

Climax Variable. When any operator interacts with the objective, roll on the Climax Table.

3. Black Site

Format. Asymmetric. Play twice, swap roles, compare scores.

Setup. Defender within 12″ of center. Attacker from any edge.

Attacker. Reach center. Two Interact checks (OPINT 4+). Extract off any edge.

Defender. Prevent extraction. Stall until Round 8.

VP. Attacker: +1 per Interact, +3 extraction, +1 per enemy OoA. Defender: +3 if extraction prevented, +1 per attacker OoA.

Climax Variable. When the attacker completes the first Interact, roll on the Climax Table.

4. High Value Target

Setup. One HVT at the board center. Opposing edges, 6″ deep.

Objective. Make contact (adjacent, TACT 4+). The HVT follows at half MOBI. Extract off your edge.

HVT Panic. When an escort takes an MW, SITREP. 4–6 stays. 3 freezes. 1–2 bolts D6″ in a random direction.

VP. +5 extraction. +2 for controlling the HVT at end. +1 per enemy OoA.

Climax Variable. When any operator contacts the HVT, roll on the Climax Table.

5. Dead Drop

Setup. Corner deployment, 8″. Each player secretly notes an objective location in the opponent’s half, 6″+ from any edge.

Objective. Reach your drop. Interact (OPINT 4+). Extract off any edge.

Intel. Call the Target on a 6″ area reveals a hidden objective. SITREP, even odds. Costs both actions.

VP. +5 for drop + extraction. +2 for discovering the enemy objective. +1 per enemy OoA.

Climax Variable. When any operator completes their drop, roll on the Climax Table.

6. Total War

Setup. No objectives. Opposing edges, 6″ deep.

Objective. Destroy the opposing splice.

VP. +2 per enemy OoA. Full elimination ends the game immediately. Otherwise, highest VP at Round 8.

Climax Variable. When the first operator on either side goes OoA, roll on the Climax Table.

Twists (Optional)

Roll D6 after scenario selection. Both players must agree to use Twists before the roll. A Twist overlays the chosen scenario — it changes conditions but not victory math.

Victory & Scoring

Scenario VP overrides universal VP. Tiebreakers, in order:

1. Most surviving operators.
2. Fewest total MW on survivors.
3. Most Priority wins during the game.
4. Each player rolls D6. High wins.

League Play

Run a 4–6 match series. Persistent splices. Cumulative VP wins the league. Between matches, the splice evolves — operators advance, wounds leave marks, and the post-match economy determines who fields an edge next game.

Between-Match Sequence

Resolve in this order after each match.

1 · Wound Recovery. All FW clear automatically. Each MW: roll D6. 4+ to clear (3+ if a Medic is on the roster). Cleared MWs leave no trace. Failed MWs persist into the next match.

Contract Scar. When an operator fails a MW recovery roll, roll D6 on the Contract Scar table and apply the result. A second failed MW recovery on the same operator removes them from the league entirely.

2 · Milestone Points. Each surviving operator earns 1 MP. +1 MP if their splice won the match.

Advance. Spend 3 MP to upgrade one attribute one step. Maximum two advances per operator per league. No attribute may exceed Good.

3 · Field Pull. After each match, each surviving operator rolls D6. On a 5–6, the splice earns 1 Pull Token. The winning splice earns +1 Pull Token regardless of individual rolls. Spend Pull Tokens between matches or at the start of a match before deployment.

4 · Earning the Callsign. Unnamed operators are Blanks. Track Performance for each: first blood, putting an opponent Out of Action, surviving a Mortal Wound hit, or contesting an objective solo for a full round. Each of these counts as one Performance event. One Performance per Blank per match maximum.

After 2 Performance events across 2 different matches, the Blank earns a Callsign. Name them. They are now a named operator. On earning the Callsign, roll D6 on the Callsign Trait table immediately.

5 · Replace & Catch-Up. An operator with 2 MW who fails recovery: roll D6. 1–2: KIA. Remove them from the roster and recruit a Blank replacement at base cost. 3–6: recovers. Starts the next match with 1 MW and any applicable Contract Scar.

Catch-Up. A splice that lost 2 or more operators in a single match recruits one Blank for free before the next match. Roll D3: 1 = that Blank starts with 1 MP already earned; 2 = that Blank carries one consumable; 3 = that Blank counts as having one Performance event toward their Callsign.

6 · Requisition. After each match, the winning splice rolls D6 on the Requisition table.

6 · Terrain & Setup

Shape the board together. Fight over what you’ve built.

Board Size

• Standard / Small. 24″ × 24″.
• Large. 36″ × 36″.

Setup Procedure

1. Roll the Terrain Profile. Agree on the piece count.
2. Alternate placing pieces. No piece within 4″ of a deployment edge. Minimum 3″ between pieces. At least one LoS-blocking piece on the centerline.
3. The last placer does not choose the deployment zone.
4. Place objectives per the scenario. Then deploy operators.

Terrain Types

Line of Sight

Measured center of base to center of base. For base-less figures, measure from the center of the model’s footprint. If solid terrain breaks the line, no LoS. When the call is disputed, run a SITREP at even odds. Move on.

Deployment Zones

• Standard. 6″ from your board edge.
• Corners (Dead Drop). 8″ from the corner in both directions.
• Infiltrator Exception. Anywhere on the board, in cover, outside 12″ of any enemy. Deploys last.

6b · Scenario Maps

Use these as printed setup templates for standard 24″ × 24″ Skirmish boards. They are not fixed locations. They are pressure diagrams: objective geometry, deployment, cover rhythm, and the lanes each scenario needs to work.

7 · Solo Mode

Your splice against the protocol.

Same scenarios. Same rules. The opposing force runs on Enemy AI.

Enemy Force

Build to match your splice’s points. For a harder game, scale the opposing force to 110–120% of your own.

Alert States

• Unaware. Normal patrol. The enemy does not engage.
• Suspicious. SITREP at the start of each round. 5–6 = escalate to Alert. 4 = Alert, no reinforcements. 3 = remain Suspicious; reinforcements arrive in two rounds. 1–2 = remain Suspicious.
• Alert. Active combat. Use Target Priority and Action Priority below.

Triggers (Unaware → Suspicious). Gunfire within 12″. A failed Hide. A body is found. An enemy within 6″ rolls 5+.

Target Priority (Alert)

1. The operator who most recently attacked this enemy.
2. Closest operator in LoS.
3. Most wounded operator in LoS.
4. Operator nearest to the scenario objective.
5. Tie: D6. Odd = left, even = right.

Action Priority (Alert)

1. React if targeted by Shoot.
2. Fight if in contact (base-to-base or within 1″).
3. Shoot if a target is in LoS.
4. Advance toward the last known position.
5. Hold if assigned to a fixed post.

8 · Quick Reference

9 · What Iron Line Is

Kitbash your army. Burn their signal. Hold the line.

Iron Line is a wargame of massed autonomous combat set in the Operator Tactics world. Two players build armies of drones, combat platforms, and walkers, and crash them across a scarred 3′ × 3′ battlefield. Games run fast and bloody, finishing in under ninety minutes. Same D6 as Skirmish, same natural 6 / natural 1 rules. The abstraction is one step up: units instead of individuals, Strain instead of wounds, Signal instead of campaign Heat.

Where gene-forged operators are scalpels, autonomous platforms are hammers. Every major power fields autonomous combat systems at scale. When two factions contest a water treatment plant, a Lumicite installation, or a stretch of arable coastline, the machines go first. Iron Line is the machine war — the opening salvo that decides whether the operators get to do their work at all.

Scale and Table

• Standard scale. 1″ on the table ≈ 3 m of ground. Any miniature, action figure, toy, vinyl collectible, or 3D print fits. Iron Line’s footprint system governs physical placement; exact figure scale is flexible.
• Standard table. 3′ × 3′ (36″ × 36″). A kitchen table, a card table, a sheet of plywood on sawhorses.
• Large games. 4′ × 4′ for 4,000+ points or three players.
• Quick games. 2′ × 2′ for <1,500 points.

What You Need

10 · Kitbash Doctrine

The machine doesn’t care what it looks like. Neither does the bullet.

Iron Line is built to be played with whatever you have. There is no official miniature line. There are no required components beyond dice, a tape measure, and something to represent your units on the table. The rest is up to you.

What Counts as a Unit

Anything with a rectangular footprint that fits the size constraints in the Unit Footprint table. A unit might be a movement tray of ten 15mm sci-fi infantry, a single repainted mecha model kit on a 60mm base, three die-cast toy cars glued to cardboard with a pen-cap turret, a 3D print from a free STL site, or a stack of poker chips labeled “DRONE INFANTRY” on masking tape. All valid. The rules do not care about the model. They care about the footprint and the keywords.

Building Units from Scratch

• Drone Infantry / Skirmishers. Cheap plastic army men, toy soldiers from a bag of 100, wooden tokens. Anything that says “there are a lot of us and we are expendable.”
• Assault Walkers. Bipedal mecha model kits, dollar-store robot toys with glued joints, a clothespin with toothpick arms and a bead head.
• Siege Walkers. The big stuff — a thrift-store convertible robot toy, a jar lid on dowel legs, a kids’-meal toy with a gun turret glued on top. If it’s the biggest thing on the table, it’s a Siege Walker.
• Scout Swarms. Beads on wire flight stands, paper drones, micro-scale helicopter toys. A cloud, not a single model.
• Strike Vehicles. Die-cast toy cars, dollar-store motorcycles, brick-built toy vehicles, toy tanks with guns glued on.
• Gun Platforms / Artillery Rigs. Stationary firepower. Cardboard box with a straw barrel. A brick-built turret. Bottle cap with a toothpick cannon.
• Beast-Mechs. Toy dinosaurs with guns glued on, plastic spiders, animal figurines with foil cybernetics. They should look wrong. That’s the point.

Building Terrain

The OT world is wrecked. Every battlefield is a place where something already went wrong. Cardboard for buildings and barriers. Yogurt cups for cooling towers. Bottle caps for fuel drums. Rocks for boulders. Sand glued to card for wasteland floor. Printed papercraft PDFs for anything else. Fifteen minutes of work produces better terrain than most commercial sets.

Commercial Stock

The thrift store bin is a legitimate army source. Designer vinyl figures — Pop Mart series, Quiccs platforms, 52Toys Beast-Mechs, Finding Unicorn editions — read directly as Iron Line unit types. The physical objects already have the right shapes. A large Siege Walker needs to look like the biggest thing on the table. A Mega Pop Mart figure is the biggest thing on the table. That’s not a workaround. That’s casting.

In the OT world, these figures are Commercial Stock: gene-forged platforms built for entertainment, luxury, and spectacle markets that ended up in warzones when the Upheaval reorganized everything. Whatever they were designed to do before, they’re doing this now. The physical object you salvaged from a clearance shelf has the same in-world history. The dual meaning is not a coincidence. It’s the framing.

This is also not miniature-agnosticism. Miniature-agnostic is a rulebook accommodation — it means "we’re not going to gatekeep your models." This is different. The Dead Shelf path is a first-class design principle. The TC setting is a world where consumer culture’s plastic debris outlasted the civilization that produced it. A player reaching into a thrift store bin for their next unit is not doing something the game allows — they’re doing something the game is about.

For faction marking, vinyl modification techniques, scale guidance, and the full collector crossover framework, see the Commercial Stock document.

11 · Core Concepts

Rules Conventions

Dice may be re-rolled multiple times. On any attack, a natural 6 is always a hit and a natural 1 is always a miss. You may measure distances and check line of sight at any time. Units are always in range and line of sight of themselves. If a specific rule conflicts with a general rule, the specific rule takes precedence.

The Rule of Scrap

If a rules interaction is unclear, pick whichever option results in the most destruction for all concerned. If the choice is between doing something or doing nothing, choose the option that changes the game state.

First Player

The First Player holds the First Player token. The other player is the Second Player. Most phases resolve First Player first, then Second Player.

Signal

The machines run on signal. Cut the signal and they’re scrap with legs.

Your army’s Signal is the strength of its command-and-control network. Spend it to broadcast Electronic Warfare, boost performance, and call in tactical support. At the start of each Signal Phase: gain 1 Signal per full 1,000 points in your starting list, plus 1 Signal per in-play unit with the Relay keyword. Store unspent Signal round to round up to a maximum of 10. Excess is lost.

Breakpoint and Integrity

Each army has a Breakpoint. Every unit starts the game with Integrity (x) equal to the army’s breakpoint. Default breakpoint is 10 — meaning all units start with Integrity (10). Some missions and twists adjust this.

Keywords

Units carry Keywords describing capabilities, equipment, and firmware packages. Each keyword has a Type: Strength, Weakness, Chassis, or Categorical. Types don’t do anything inherently, but other rules reference them.

Incrementing keywords. Some keywords have a value: Armored (2), Armored (+1). If a unit is affected by an incrementing keyword with a plus sign, increment the existing value or assign that keyword at that value. With a minus sign, decrement. At zero or below, the unit loses the keyword.

Strain

Strain is what happens to a machine when everything that can break does. As units take fire, absorb impacts, and push their systems past tolerance, they accumulate Strain Tokens. Strain represents structural damage, overheated systems, corrupted targeting, degraded firmware. Units begin with no Strain. They may have any number.

Broken

A unit with Strain equal to or greater than its Integrity gains the Broken weakness for the rest of the game. A Broken unit causes cascade failure and is removed during the Scrap Phase. Cascade resolves once per phase: units that become Broken from cascade do not trigger further cascade until the next Scrap Phase. If a Broken unit ever has fewer Strain than its Integrity, it immediately loses the Broken keyword. A unit that is not Broken is operational.

D66

When the rules call for a “D66,” roll two D6. The first is the tens, the second is the units. A 3 and a 6 reads as 36. A 1 and a 1 reads as 11.

Measuring & Engagement

All distances in inches. Within = closest point of a unit’s base to the closest point of a target base or feature. A unit is within its own range of itself. Measuring and line of sight may be checked at any time, including during the opponent’s turns.

Engaged. If any part of a unit’s base (or physical footprint, for base-less models) touches or is within 1″ of an enemy unit’s base or footprint, both units are Engaged. Engaged units may not make shooting attacks and may not be targeted by shooting attacks (unless the attacker has Shoot Into Combat). A unit may be engaged with multiple enemies simultaneously.

12 · Units

Armies are composed of Units. A unit might be a squadron of twelve drones on a movement tray, a pair of gun platforms on a shared base, or a single siege walker on a scenic base. Every unit has a rectangular or square footprint that fits the constraints below.

Unit Statistics

• Speed (x). Movement points gained at the start of a Movement Activation.
• Order. How the unit moves and fights: Close, Loose, or Free.
• Attacks. Weapon power: Weak, Strong, or Monstrous.
• Defence. Resistance to incoming fire: Weak or Strong.
• Strikes (x). Attack dice rolled in combat. All units start with Strikes (10).
• Integrity (x). Strain needed to break the unit.
• Footprint. Physical width and depth on the table.
• Keywords. Additional rules affecting the unit.
• Keyword Cost Multiplier (KCM). Multiplier applied to keyword costs.
• Points. Cost when building the army.

Unit Footprints

Order

• Close Order. Dense formations. Armored convoys, interlocked shield-wall drones. Target numbers: 3+ vs. Loose, 4+ vs. Close, 5+ vs. Free. Close Order units are Implacable.
• Loose Order. Dispersed units. Scouts, skirmishers, fast-attack swarms. Target numbers: 5+ vs. Close, 4+ vs. Loose, 3+ vs. Free. No penalty in Rough terrain.
• Free Order. Single platforms. Walkers, siege engines, autonomous behemoths. Target numbers: 3+ vs. Close, 5+ vs. Loose, 4+ vs. Free. Free Order units are Implacable.

Unit Roster

Unit Flavor

Drone Infantry. Cheap, numerous, expendable. The backbone of every autonomous army.

Drone Skirmishers. Fast glass. Shoot and scatter. Light ranged platforms — quad-rotor gunships, wheeled fire support, insectoid suppression swarms.

Armored Infantry. Heavier platforms. Shielded assault drones, riot-suppression units in composite plate, Ural-pattern heavy drones. Slower to break, expensive to replace.

Heavy Platform. When the ground shakes, it’s usually one of these. Quad-legged weapons platforms, armored centipede-drones, PRC cybernetic war-constructs.

Scout Swarm. You hear the buzz before you see them. Then you don’t see anything. Aerial drone swarms, spider-bot packs, adaptive micro-drone clusters.

Assault Walker. Legs are slower than wheels. Legs go places wheels can’t. Shock assault. Close fast, hit with everything, break the line or get torn apart trying.

Strike Vehicle. Glass cannon on wheels. Armed hovercraft, rocket-sled drones, weaponized transports. Punch above their weight on the charge.

Gun Platform. It doesn’t move much. It doesn’t need to. Walking turrets, hover-mounted railguns, converted construction rigs with bolted-on ordnance.

Siege Walker. The ground gives before the walker does. Colossal armored walkers, mobile siege rigs, bio-mechanical titans grown in the Metroplex roots.

Beast-Mech. It used to be something alive. Now it’s something fast. Bio-mechanical constructs, cybernetic animal forms, black-market predator chassis.

Artillery Rig. Somewhere behind the line, something is lobbing shells at you. Rocket batteries, electromagnetic launchers, directed-energy platforms. Artillery may only purchase the following weaknesses: Self-Destructive, Short-Ranged, Degraded, Clumsy (+2).

13 · Army Building

Nobody cares what the machine looks like. They care whether it’s still shooting.

Agree on a points limit. Build your army from units and keywords. You also receive one Commander and one Relay Beacon. Standard games run 3,000–5,000 points. There are no caps on any unit type.

Creating a Unit

1. Choose a unit type. This sets the base cost and initial keywords.
2. Purchase additional keywords. Any number of strengths. No more than two weaknesses per unit.
3. Weakness keywords have a negative cost.
4. If the unit has a Keyword Cost Multiplier of x2, double every keyword cost.

Keyword Costs

*The Commander and Relay Beacon are required keywords assigned once in each army, at no cost.

14 · The Turn

Setup

1. Roll for Chaos of War (optional).
2. Set up the battlefield. Agree on terrain keywords.
3. Reveal army lists.
4. Determine victory conditions (see ch. 17).
5. First Player. The last player to paint a miniature calls “even” or “odd.” Roll D6.
6. Deployment. Divide the table in half. First Player chooses a table half. Deployment zones begin 8″ from the centerline. Alternate deploying one unit at a time.
7. Draw Interrupt Cards if using (four cards each).

Round Structure

Each round has six phases:

1. Initiative Phase. If using Interrupts, draw one card each (five on round 1). From round 2 onward, the player without the First Player token rolls D6; exceeding the current round number lets them seize the token. (On round 1, the First Player token is fixed from setup — no seize roll.)
2. Signal Phase. Each player gains Signal (1 per full 1,000 army points, plus 1 per in-play Relay unit). Cap 10, excess lost. First Player may broadcast EW, then Second Player.
3. Shooting Phase. First Player activates each unengaged Ranged unit once in any order. Each may gain Distracted to make a shooting attack. Then Second Player does the same.
4. Movement Phase. First Player activates each unit once in any order. Then Second Player.
5. Combat Phase. First Player resolves combat with each engaged unit. Then Second Player.
6. Scrap Phase. See below.

The Scrap Phase

1. Cascade Failure. Each still-in-play Broken unit causes cascade: all friendly units within 8″ gain 1 Strain. If this causes another unit to become Broken, mark it but it does not cascade further this phase.
2. Remove Broken Units. Remove all Broken units simultaneously. Note which were removed this phase.
3. Salvage. For each unit removed this phase, the opposing player gains either 2 Signal or (if using Interrupts) one card from the shared deck. Your opponent strips your wreckage for parts, not you.
4. Reboot. Any unit that was engaged and is now unengaged may make a free reform.
5. Clear Distracted. Remove Distracted from all units.

Game End

A game of Iron Line ends after 5 rounds, or when one player surrenders.

15 · Movement, Shooting, Combat, Terrain

Movement

When a unit activates in the Movement Phase, it gains Movement Points equal to its Speed. Unspent points are lost. All friendly and enemy units are impassable.

Engagement, Disengagement, Outmanoeuvring

Engagement. A unit that moves into contact with an enemy (base-to-base, or within 1″ if either model is base-less) is now Engaged. Engaged units remain engaged until one is destroyed or disengages.

Disengagement and Punishment. If an engaged unit ends its Movement Activation no longer in contact with enemies it started engaged with, it has Disengaged. Each unbroken, unengaged enemy it was in contact with at the start of the activation may immediately make a free combat attack. Punishment rolls dice equal to half the punisher’s Strikes, using normal target numbers. Resolved immediately.

Outmanoeuvred. A unit engaged with an enemy’s flank or rear gives that enemy the Outmanoeuvred weakness: Integrity (−1) per flanking/rearing unit. A unit may not assign more than 5 attack dice to an enemy’s flank, or more than 3 to a rear.

Shooting

A unit with the Ranged keyword activated in the Shooting Phase may gain Distracted to make a shooting attack. It rolls Attack Dice equal to half its Strikes (rounding down). All dice must be assigned to a single target in range and line of sight.

Line of Sight. If a line can be drawn from the center of the attacker’s front edge to any point on the target without passing through another unit or Blocking terrain, LoS exists.

Range. Measured from the center of the attacker’s front edge to the closest point on the target.

Implacable. When hit by a shooting attack, ignore any hit that would push this unit above 5 Strain from that single attacking unit’s activation. Strain from a different attacker, from Surges/Hacks, from Devastating Charge, or from Scrap Phase cascade still applies normally. Close Order and Free Order units are Implacable by default.

Combat

In the Combat Phase, each engaged unit may attack. Resolve: assign dice, roll, place Strain.

• A unit rolls Attack Dice equal to its full Strikes stat.
• Dice must be assigned to engaged enemies. A unit must assign at least 3 dice to each engaged enemy. If short on dice, divide as evenly as possible (round up for first enemy, down for the rest).
• Flank cap: no more than 5 dice to a unit in its flank. Rear cap: no more than 3.
• Remaining dice may be freely distributed after minimums are met.

Target Numbers

Modifiers. Weak Attacks +1 to TN (max 6). Strong Attacks −1 (min 2). Monstrous −2 (min 2). Weak Defence −1 to TN (min 2). Strong Defence +1 (max 6). Natural 6 always hits. Natural 1 always misses. Min TN 2+, max 6+.

Placing Strain

One Strain Token per hit. Apply Implacable (see above). A unit whose Strain equals or exceeds its Integrity becomes Broken.

Terrain

Agree with your opponent on each piece’s terrain keywords before the game begins.

• Blocking. Line of sight cannot be drawn through it. Collapsed overpasses, reactor housings, hab-block ruins.
• Impassable. Units may never move onto it. Toxic lakes, craters, minefields.
• Rough. Doubled movement cost. Loose Order ignores the penalty. Close and Free Order gain Distracted.
• Perilous. For each movement point spent moving through it, the unit takes a single attack as if struck by a Gun Platform (TN 4+, resolved immediately). Rad-zones, chemical spills, unstable ground.
• Grim. In the Scrap Phase, each piece of Grim terrain counts as a friendly Broken unit for cascade. Wreckage fields, signal-dead zones, drone graveyards.
• Obscuring. Units wholly or partly behind it gain the Cover keyword. Smoke, dust, active ECM fields.
• Large. Units touching Large terrain also gain Large. Elevated platforms, rooftops, ridge lines.

16 · Electronic Warfare

The signal is the battlefield nobody sees. Lose it there and nothing on the ground matters.

Autonomous units run on command-and-control signal. Electronic Warfare (EW) is how you boost friendlies, jam enemies, and exploit the invisible spectrum.

Relay Units

To broadcast EW, you must have at least one Relay unit in play. The Relay is the broadcasting platform — used for line of sight and range of EW abilities.

EW Suites

Each Relay selects a single EW Suite during army list construction. Multiple relays may take the same or different suites.

Broadcasting

In the Signal Phase, spend Signal to broadcast an ability with one of your Relays. Name the ability and spend the required Signal. Pulses and Hacks require line of sight. Surges affect every unit in range regardless of LoS.

No Relay on the board. If an army has no unbroken Relay units in play, Pulses may still be broadcast at +1 Signal cost from any unbroken friendly unit (LoS still required). Hacks and Surges cannot be broadcast without a Relay. Losing your last Relay no longer nullifies your entire Signal pool — it downgrades you to Pulse-only at a premium.

• Pulse — 2 Signal.
• Hack — 4 Signal.
• Surge — 6 Signal.

EW Suites

17 · Victory & Chaos of War

The machines don’t care who wins. You do.

Victory Conditions

During setup, choose or randomly determine (2D6) the victory conditions.

Chaos of War (Optional)

Roll D66 on each of the Battlefield, Deployment, and Twists tables. Stack the effects.

Battlefield (D66)

Deployment (D66)

Twists (D66)

17a · Iron Line Battle Maps

Use these templates for 3′ × 3′ Iron Line battles. They are built for units, trays, facing, relay coverage, and terrain keywords. They do not use Skirmish objective control or operator-scale interaction rules.

17b · Iron Line Campaign Play

Two armies. Multiple engagements. The same units keep fighting. What survives gets stronger. What doesn’t is gone.

Campaign Structure

Run a series of 3–5 Iron Line engagements between the same two armies. Armies are fixed at creation — no new units between battles. What changes is the state of what you have.

Track two resources between engagements: Field Upgrades and the Signal Reserve.

Field Upgrades

After each battle, each player may apply one Field Upgrade to any unit that was not Cascade-Broken at the end of the game. The upgrade is permanent. Write it on the army roster.

Choose one keyword from the list below. A unit may hold a maximum of two Field Upgrades total across the campaign.

Cascade Loss. A unit that ends a battle Cascade-Broken earns no Field Upgrade that round. If a unit is Cascade-Broken in two consecutive battles, it loses one Field Upgrade of the owning player’s choice (if it has any).

Signal Reserve

At the end of each battle, each player carries forward half of any unspent Signal — round down, maximum 4 carried. This reserve is added to the Signal generated in the first Signal Phase of the next battle.

Reserve cap. No player may begin a battle with more than 4 carried Signal. Excess is lost.

Signal Reserve rewards careful resource management across multiple engagements. A player who burns everything every battle enters the next at a disadvantage.

Campaign Victory

Track Victory Points across all engagements as normal. The player with the highest cumulative VP at the end of the final battle wins the campaign. Ties go to the player with more units surviving the final engagement.

18 · Commanders & Sample Doctrines

The Commander

Every army must designate exactly one unit with the Commander keyword. This is the AI core, the remote operator link, or the senior combat intelligence directing the battle. Place a token or marker on this unit. The Commander gains Command (+1) and Hero (+2).

Command [x]. Strength, Reserved. All friendly units within 8″ of this unit (including itself) gain Integrity (+x).

The Relay Beacon

Every army must designate exactly one unit with the Relay Beacon keyword — the army’s primary signal amplifier. The same unit may carry both Commander and Relay Beacon. The Relay Beacon gains Command (+1) and Hero (+1).

Commander Upgrades

A Commander may take one upgrade (cost-free). Choose at army creation.

Sample Doctrine Lists (3,000 pts)

Starting points, not gospels. Kitbash to taste.

19 · Interrupt Cards (Optional)

In war, the plan survives until the enemy’s EW suite gets a lock on your relay. Then the plan changes.

Interrupt Cards are an optional module. The core game works without them. Skip this section on a first game; add them once the base rules are familiar. Interrupts add one-shot firmware patches, emergency overrides, and field hacks.

Using a Standard Deck

Interrupts use a standard 52-card deck plus two jokers. No custom cards to print. Shuffle and place the deck face-down between both players. Draw at the start of each round. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discard and start again.

• Ace through 6 in each suit are named effects. Look up the card on the table below.
• 7 through King in any suit are field re-rolls. Discard to re-roll a single die, at any time.
• Jokers are the two strongest effects: Emergency Override and Signal Hijack. On draw, choose which and announce it.

Suits and Timing

Named Effects (Ace through 6)

20 · Keyword Glossary

The firmware package is the unit. Everything else is chassis.

21 · Same War, Different Scales

The machines go first. The operators go in when the machines are done. Sometimes the machines aren’t done.

Iron Line and Skirmish sit at different magnifications of the same war. Skirmish puts you in the boots of a gene-forged splice running infiltration, assassination, extraction. Iron Line puts you behind the command node of the autonomous platforms preparing the ground before those operators arrive. The two games share a world, a timeline, and a logic. This chapter is how to play them together.

The Machine War Sets the Table

Play an Iron Line battle and use the outcome to frame the Skirmish mission that follows. The state of the battlefield after the machine war becomes the scenario for the operator splice.

• If the attacker won the Iron Line battle. The approach corridor is clear. The Skirmish mission starts with Alert State Unaware. The operators inherited a prepared battlefield.
• If the defender won. The approach corridor is contested. The Skirmish mission starts with Alert State Suspicious. Enemies in the first zone begin with +1 to cover or an extra combatant. The machines failed to clear the ground.
• If the game was close (within 2 VP or decided on tiebreaker). The battlefield is unstable. Start the Skirmish mission with one additional roll on a hazard table of the facilitator’s choosing. The wreckage from the machine battle is the terrain.

Terrain Carries Over

If you played Iron Line on a physical table, leave the terrain where it is. Wreckage markers from destroyed units become Difficult Terrain for the Skirmish mission. Any Grim terrain from Iron Line becomes a zone where GUTS checks are required to enter. Perilous terrain carries over directly. The battlefield the machines fought on is the battlefield the operators inherit.

Signal and Heat

• If the winning Iron Line player had 4+ unspent Signal at game end, the Skirmish mission starts with Heat −1 (command network intact, providing overwatch).
• If the losing player’s Commander was destroyed during the Iron Line game, the Skirmish mission starts with Heat +1 (command structure compromised, enemy intelligence active).

Operator Squads on the Iron Line Battlefield

For players who want to run both scales at once, a splice from Skirmish can appear as a single unit on the Iron Line table.

Mission Seeds from Iron Line Outcomes

Each Iron Line victory condition generates a natural Skirmish mission.

• Signal Dominance → Intelligence Extraction. The relay network is intact. The splice must reach a data core before the losing faction sends a kill squad to destroy it.
• Deep Extraction → Rescue. The objective markers the attacker captured are downed relay nodes. Each contains a stranded combat intelligence that can be extracted for faction intel.
• Scorched Perimeter → Sabotage. Either the operators destroy remaining defensive infrastructure, or they rebuild it before the next wave arrives.
• Kill Ratio → Salvage. The battlefield is littered with high-value wreckage. Recover specific components before the opposing faction’s salvage teams arrive.
• Decapitation Strike → Assassination. The enemy commander survived or escaped. Find and eliminate the command node before it rebuilds the autonomous network.
• Burn the Relay → Demolition. The relay network must be permanently destroyed, or the operators must defend it against a kill squad sent to finish the job.

22 · The Convention Module

Earth 2060. A two-hour insertion. Cameras off. Clock running.

A ready-to-run two-hour Skirmish scenario for organized play, store demos, and first-night games. Designed for no-GM Skirmish with one player taking the facilitator role — not a game master, just someone who runs the clocks, reads the scripted beats, and operates the opposition using the Solo Mode AI from chapter 7.

The Facilitator’s Job

A facilitator is not a GM. They do not improvise NPC voices, adjudicate intent, or invent new rules on the fly. Their job is four things:

1. Read the scripted beats aloud at the triggers noted below.
2. Run the Mission Clock and Threat Clock (turn counters).
3. Operate the opposition using the Solo Mode AI (ch. 7). Alert State escalations are scripted.
4. When a ruling is unclear, run SITREP and move on.

The facilitator may also play an operator if the table is short-handed.

Dramatic Engine

A freelance splice intercepts a silent alarm from a corporate research facility buried beneath a casino district. What was supposed to be a five-minute extraction becomes a timed race through a collapsing chain of command. Every turn burns option space. What the splice carries out shapes everything that follows.

Core Verb

Extract. The splice pulls someone or something out of a dying situation. Every choice about how shapes what they carry out.

What You Need

• Two to four players plus a facilitator (the facilitator may also play an operator).
• One or more of the three pre-gen operators below (HAMMER, WREN, CATALYST). Add a fourth of the players’ choice if the table has four.
• Skirmish rules (this book, Part I).
• D6 — two per player, two for the facilitator.
• Tokens: 5–7 Intel Markers. One Burned Asset Marker per player. One Threat Tracker. One Mission Clock tracker.
• A 24″ × 24″ play surface with terrain. 6–8 enemy standees. The pre-gens as operator standees. One civilian marker (the asset).
• 120 minutes.

Setup (5 minutes)

Facilitator reads aloud.

Hand out the pre-gens. Place operator tokens in the utility corridor at one table edge. Place two guard tokens at Checkpoint A-1, 12″ down the corridor. The first roll should happen within 90 seconds.

Pre-Generated Operators

Act 1 · Insertion and Orientation (25–30 min)

Facilitator reads aloud.

The checkpoint has three scripted resolutions. The first roll sets the Alert State for Sector 1.

• Stealth approach (TACT 4+). Success: team reaches Checkpoint A-1 undetected. Failure: one guard notices movement; the team chooses — engage or fade. Sector 1 starts Unaware on success, Suspicious on failure.
• Direct negotiation (GUTS 4+). Success: the guards stand down and let the team pass. Failure: suspicion rises; both guards get one reaction. Sector 1 starts Suspicious either way.
• Eliminate from range (SHOOT). WREN or another Good shooter takes the shot. Hit: one guard down, second goes Alert and radios the facility. Sector 1 starts Alert.
• Anything else. Shoot out the lights (TACT 4+ to hit the panel; corridor goes dark, enemies cannot see over 6″). Talk their way around. SITREP when unsure.

Sector 1 · The Maintenance Deck

Past A-1 opens into HVAC systems, power conduits, water treatment feeds. Place Intel Marker 1 partially buried near a flooded console. Two enemy operators patrolling. Alert State inherits from the checkpoint resolution.

An operator in contact with the marker spends one action retrieving it, then one action rolling on the Intel Table (D6).

Act 2 · The Operation (60–65 min)

Start both clocks.

• Mission Clock: 7 turns remaining. When it hits zero, reinforcements lock down the facility. Doors seal. Extraction closes.
• Threat Clock: 5 turns to reinforcement arrival. Starts counting the first time an alarm is raised (operator seen, weapon fired, equipment destroyed). When it hits zero, a Falcon-class drone and a Coalition ground team arrive. All locked doors shift to Hardened. Extraction becomes a firefight.

Sector 2 · The Administrative Level

Stairwell. Cold concrete. Locked doors every landing. Office space meets research containment. Two turns from Sector 3.

Enemy setup. One Enforcer (Commando stat line) at Checkpoint A-2. Two standard operators patrolling between offices. One NPC Officer — Captain Reeves — inside the administrative suite, downloading files. The Officer is not a combatant until engaged. Place Intel Marker 2 on an unsecured laptop in the office.

How combat starts depends on Alert State inherited from Sector 1:

• Unaware. Surprise round — the splice acts first.
• Suspicious. Enforcer rolls GUTS 4+. Pass: engages. Fail: calls it in (Alert State escalates next round).
• Alert. Combat on sight.

Act 3 · Climax and Extraction (20–25 min)

The splice reaches Sector 3. The door is sealed. Mission Clock reads 2. Extraction window is closing. Behind the door is a containment ward. Dr. Chen’s body is in a sealed medical pod.

Before opening the door, roll D6 for the Climax Variable.

The Extraction Choice

Before leaving Sector 3, the splice chooses what they carry out. This choice becomes the Burned Asset Token.

• A. Save the Body. Extract Dr. Chen (living or dead). She is evidence and, if alive, a permanent NPC contact.
• B. Save the Files. Extract the research documentation. Files are evidence of Project Epsilon. They can be leaked, weaponized, or sold.
• C. Destroy Everything. Burn Sector 3. Kill the power. Destroy the research. Walk out clean. No evidence, no asset, no proof.
• D. Take the Survivor. Only if Climax Variable 2 triggered. A completely new person. Unknown capabilities. Unknown loyalties.

The Extraction Point

One turn to reach the rooftop. If the team is clean (Threat Clock did not expire), the extraction helicopter arrives on schedule. If hot, hold position against Coalition forces for 2–3 rounds. If pinned (extraction cut off), find an alternate route: maintenance tunnels, the adjacent building. Adds 10 minutes of play.

The Burned Asset Token

At the end of extraction, each player receives a physical Burned Asset Token (a coin, a laminate card, anything). Write on it:

Take it home. The token carries forward if the player picks up the full campaign (see Operator Tactics Core Book). The asset saved, the evidence carried, the person left behind — all of it shapes what comes next.

Pacing & Variations

• 30 min mark. Team should have cleared Act 1 and be inside Sector 1 or at the A-2 checkpoint.
• 75 min mark. Team should be in Sector 2, making Enforcer / Officer / Intel decisions.
• 105 min mark. Team should have chosen what to extract and be running.
• 120 min mark. Operation complete or in final extraction.
• Running under 100 min. Cut Sector 2 to a single encounter (Enforcer only). Combine Intel 1 and 2. Reduce Climax Variables to 1D4.
• Running over 120 min. Add Sector 4 (containment breach, rogue test subject). Expand Sector 2 with an engineering room. Add a downtime scene between Act 2 and Act 3.
• Single-operator variant. One player, one pre-gen. Use Skirmish Solo Mode rules (ch. 7) for all opposition. Facilitator optional — one person can run the whole thing solo.

23 · The Crackerjack — Tournament Play

Every faction fields its best. Every syndicate sends its killers. Every year, the world watches.

The Crackerjack is the premier televised military combat tournament in the Operator Tactics world — held annually at the Global Special Operations Training Center (GSOTC) in the Saharan Desert. Teams from every faction, PMC, and black-market syndicate compete for prestige, contracts, and leverage. The arena is calibrated for spectacle. The cameras are always rolling.

This chapter gives you the rules to run the Crackerjack at your table, your local store, or your convention. Tournament format, competition-specific modifiers, scenario variants, pre-built teams, organizer guide. Uses the Skirmish rules from Part I with the modifications below.

The GSOTC & The Siege of 2091

The GSOTC sprawls across 10,000 acres of adaptive terrain. It can simulate any combat environment on Earth — flooded urbs, irradiated ruins, jungle canopy, desert canyon, industrial sprawl. It is administered by a joint commission. Rules of engagement are enforced by automated arbitration and biometric med-evac. No faction owns it. No faction controls the broadcast.

In 2091, the Heralds of the Storm infiltrated the GSOTC during the competition, seizing critical systems and taking delegates hostage. The siege ended when Major Liam “Maverick” Gallagher and Captain Anya “Ironheart” Sokolova cornered the rogue operative known as The Viper in the central atrium. The Crackerjack Siege became the most-watched single engagement in the tournament’s history. The network has not shut the feed down since.

Competition Rules

Squad Format

• 500 points. Large Game budget.
• Five operators exactly. No more, no fewer.
• Class limits. No more than two of any class.
• Any gene-forged origin stream. Commercial Stock, Bespoke Commission, Black-Market Deviation, Paleo-Stock, or Aberrant. The silhouette is the story.

Broadcast Rules

Crowd Momentum (CM). A separate pool from Edge. Each team starts with 1 CM (max 3). At the end of each round, earn 1 CM (max 1 per round regardless of trigger count) if any of the following occurred: an operator removed an enemy from play, an operator completed a Performance Trigger, an operator successfully Showboated, or the team controlled an objective uncontested at round end.

Showboating. Once per game, an operator may declare a Showboat before making a Shoot, Fight, or Ability roll. On success: earn 1 CM immediately (ignoring the per-round cap). On failure: lose all CM.

Medical Extraction. When an operator goes OoA, automated medical drones extract them within 1 round. For tournament purposes, OoA operators are injured, not dead. See Triage below.

Competition Combat Modifiers

• Modifier Cap. Total negative modifiers on any Shoot roll cannot exceed −2. The arena is built for fights, not standoffs.
• Objective Cover. Operators on or within 1″ of an objective marker count as being in light cover. The GSOTC builds defensive positions into every objective.
• Advance Under Fire. A Breacher may spend both actions to move up to double their MOBI. After the move, the nearest enemy with LoS and range may take one free Snap Shot.
• Call the Target (Competition). Any operator may spend 1 action: TACT or OPINT 3+ (not 4+). On success: earn 1 Edge and all friendlies gain +1 Shoot against the target this round.

Deployment

• Standard operators. Deploy within 6″ of the table edge.
• Infiltrators. Deploy after everyone else, anywhere in the middle third of the board (more than 12″ from either edge).

Edge & Momentum

Edge works as normal (start 2, max 4). Crowd Momentum is a separate pool (start 1, max 3). Both refresh at the start of each match.

Terrain Protocol

Before each match, roll D6 for the arena. The GSOTC generates the terrain.

Tournament Format

The Crackerjack uses a Swiss-style bracket for 4–8 teams, or single-elimination for 4 or 6. Pick the format that fits your event.

Swiss (Recommended for Conventions)

• Round 1. Random pairings. Roll scenario and terrain per table.
• Round 2. Winners play winners, losers play losers. No rematches.
• Round 3. Top two teams by VP play for the championship. The rest play for placement.
• Tiebreaker. Total VP across all rounds. If tied: total enemy operators removed from play. If still tied: coin flip. The crowd loves chaos.

Single Elimination (4 or 6 teams)

Four teams: two semifinals, then a final. Six teams: two first-round matches determine who joins two seeded teams in the semifinals. Seeding from a pre-tournament qualifier roll.

Scoring

VP across matches is the secondary tiebreaker. Crowd Momentum does not carry between matches.

Between Matches: Triage

The med-drones do the field work. Your Medic decides who gets priority.

1. Automatic Recovery. All FW clear. Edge resets to 2. CM resets to 1. Grenades and charges restock.
2. Triage Actions. Each surviving Medic (not OoA at the end of the previous match) grants one Triage Action. Each action may: remove 1 MW from any operator; or restore an OoA operator (returns next match with 1 MW).
3. Unresolved Wounds. MWs not removed by Triage carry into the next match. An OoA operator not restored by a Triage Action is sidelined for the next match. Protect your Medic.

Awards

Competition Scenarios

Before each match, roll D6 for the scenario. Standard Climax Variables from Part I still apply.

Broadcast Hazard (All Scenarios, Round 4)

At the start of Round 4, roll D6. The GSOTC introduces a mid-match complication to keep the audience engaged.

Scenario Bonuses

• Competition Crossfire. Controlling all 3 objectives simultaneously at any check earns +3 VP and 2 CM (the “Triple Crown”).
• Competition Smash & Grab. The carrier may attempt a Sprint (both actions) at −3 MOBI total. Successful extract while Sprinting: +2 VP (“Hot Extract”).
• Competition Black Site. Played once. Coin flip for attacker. Attacker extracts with 3+ rounds remaining: +2 VP (“Clean Entry”).
• Competition High Value Target. HVT extracted without ever entering Panic: +3 VP (“VIP Treatment”).
• Competition Dead Drop. Both squads complete drops: VP tiebreaker with +1 VP per surviving operator (“Clean Sweep”).
• Competition Total War. Escalation Clock: round 4, all cover reduced one category. Round 6, +1 to all Shoot rolls. Wound Scoring: if no OoA by round 8, score +1 VP per FW currently on enemies, +2 VP per MW. Blitz Kill: full elimination before round 6 earns +3 VP.

Sample Competition Teams

Two of the tournament’s six named squads. All competition teams are built to the 500-point, five-operator format.

The full roster — Dune Specters, Void Walkers, Null Collective, Heralds of the Storm — is published in the Crackerjack supplement.

Organizer Guide

What You Need

• Tables. One per active match. Standard 24″ × 24″ or 36″ × 36″.
• Terrain. Enough to fill each table with meaningful cover. Terrain Protocol table guides setup.
• Dice. D6 per player, plus extras for scatter and terrain.
• Tokens. Edge (poker chips work well). Crowd Momentum in a different color.
• Rosters. Print the pre-gen team sheets. One per player.
• Score sheets. Track TP and VP per match per team.
• Timer. 45–60 minutes per match for convention play.

Demo Game Setup

For store demos or convention walk-ups, use Total War or Crossfire with two pre-gen teams. Rules explanation cap: five minutes. Teach just the core mechanic, two actions per activation, wound track, Edge. The rest of the rules emerge through play.

Scaling for Large Events

More than eight teams: run multiple Swiss brackets in parallel and feed the top finishers from each into a single-elimination playoff round. Keeps early rounds moving. Gives more tables a shot at the finals.

Custom Teams

Players may build custom 500-point rosters using the Large Game squad-building rules from Part I (ch. 4). Submit to the organizer before the event starts. Organizer verifies legality.

Back Matter

Designer Notes

Skirmish and Iron Line tell the same story at two magnifications. Skirmish is the splice — three to six operators, one contract, a kitchen-table board. Iron Line is the machine war that happens around them — autonomous platforms grinding across a contested zone before the splice inserts. Both games share a D6, a natural 6 / natural 1 rule, and a resource that runs out at the wrong moment (Edge in Skirmish, Signal in Iron Line). What differs is abstraction. Wounds track a body; Strain tracks a machine. Actions measure a person’s decisions; Movement Points measure a unit’s inertia.

The design priority everywhere is the same: every rule should create a decision. Edge is a resource you can spend to change the story or save to bank against disaster. Reactions cost you your next action. Breach costs you your Heavy Plate-slow operator’s entire turn. In Iron Line, Signal is the axis: spend it on EW and your enemy’s formation crumbles, or hoard it for the round the relay beacon goes down. The rules are mostly there to make the decisions interesting.

The splice concept is load-bearing. Nation-state forces are mono-type by design — Kavast wolf packs, Protectorate raven flights, Compact bear formations. The splice is the opposite: mixed lineage, no shared flag, assembled under a single contract. This contrast is what makes the setting legible at the table without a lore dump. Your splice looks like a splice. Their enemy looks like an institution.

Iron Line’s mechanical DNA — the keyword system, the Order matchups, and the explicit permission to play with whatever’s in your parts bin — comes out of the broader tradition of accessible, kitbash-friendly wargaming. The OT-specific layer — Signal, the EW Suites, the Commander / Relay split — is where the setting speaks.

Changelog

v1.1 — Iron Line Patch Notes (post-playtest). A 3,000-point Signal Dominance playtest (NAF Adaptive Strike Force vs. EO Armored Advance) surfaced eight balance concerns. The patches below address all eight. Core Order/Signal/Integrity architecture is unchanged.

• Initiative Seize. Seize now requires exceeding the round number (not meeting-or-beating), and cannot be attempted on round 1. Previously, round 1 seize was an auto-win on a 1+ and distorted every deployment.
• Killzone Designation (Overwatch Surge, 6 Signal). Target must roll over Strain + 2 on 2D6 (previously straight over Strain). Fresh units at Strain 0 still need to beat 2; stressed units are no longer auto-Strained. Closes the “feed Signal, auto-pass tax” loop.
• Jamming Pulse (Iron Curtain Pulse). Cost raised 2 → 3. Fragile from this Pulse is now prospective only — it does not retroactively break pre-damaged units. Previously a 2-Signal coinflip could delete a 500-point unit at Strain 4.
• EW without a Relay. New Broadcasting clause: Pulses may still be broadcast at +1 Signal from any friendly unit if no Relay is in play. Hacks and Surges still require a Relay. Losing your last Relay is now a degradation, not a hard shutdown.
• Processing Overload (Architect Algorithm). Penalty now scales with timing: 4 Signal / 5 Interrupts if the Commander breaks rounds 1–3, 2 / 3 if later. A round-5 commander kill no longer hands the opponent a moot pile of Signal.
• Artillery Rig. Cost raised 350 → 400. Allowed weakness list expanded: Self-Destructive, Short-Ranged, Degraded, Clumsy (+2). The rig could not be priced down below 325; it now has real options for counterplay.
• Deadly Shots. Clarified that the second Strain on a nat-6 bypasses Implacable (but not Hardened). Prevents the upgrade from being a near-dead 100-point tax against capped targets.
• Implacable cap. Now explicitly per-attacker-per-activation, not per-round. Multiple attackers can still chain-Strain a Close Order unit; Surges, cascade, and movement Strain ignore the cap entirely. Close Order + Hardened is still tough — it is no longer unkillable.
• Example army lists. Updated to reflect new Artillery Rig costs.

What’s unchanged: Order keyword framework, Signal pool math (1 / 1,000 + 1 / Relay, cap 10), Integrity values, Strike allocation, Scrap Phase cascade, Commander upgrade slate (except Processing Overload timing), all Suite names and Pulse/Hack/Surge structure.

v1.1 — Skirmish Patch Notes (post-playtest). Three internal playtest games surfaced four corner-case exploits and one dead-end interaction. The patches below address all five without touching the core D6 loop or any point cost.

• Ghost / Interact. Interacting with a scenario objective now breaks Ghost. Previously, a Ghost-Infiltrator could pick up a Smash & Grab objective and extract through Stealth without counterplay — Game 2 ended Round 3 because of it.
• Heavy Plate, ranged. A natural 6 against Heavy Plate now inflicts 2 Flesh Wounds (previously 1). The plate still holds against MW on ranged attacks, but it no longer makes its wearer effectively immortal against small-arms fire — Game 1’s Breacher ate three Marksman nat-6s and two melee hits for a total of 2 FW.
• Heavy Plate, melee. A natural 6 on the melee armor check against Heavy Plate now inflicts MW, and the Breacher’s kit counts as Anti-Armor (treats Heavy Plate as AR 2 for melee armor checks). Close-in melee against heavy armor was a dead loop — three-plus rounds of locked combat with no realistic kill path.
• Grenade, natural 6. Dead-center strike now inflicts MW to the named target only and FW to others in the blast (previously MW to all). A single TACT 4+ no longer threatens to remove an entire huddle of operators on a 1-in-6 coinflip. The named-target MW keeps the drama; the FW-to-others keeps the splash damage relevant without being catastrophic.
• Stealth break list clarification. The general Stealth rules now also list “interact with a scenario objective” as a break trigger, matching the Ghost patch for non-Infiltrator sources of Stealth.

What’s unchanged: point costs, attribute thresholds, Edge economy, Reactions, wound track, action count, scenario VP math, Infiltrator base cost. All five patches are rules clarifications sitting on top of the existing system — no retraining required.

Credits

• Operator Tactics, Terra Conflictus 2066. Jesse Alexander.
• Iron Line, keyword / Order / KCM architecture. Drawn from the wider tradition of kitbash-friendly mass-battle wargaming.
• Splice canon. Defined in OT Splice Canon (project reference).
• Playtest squads & encounter tables. OT Skirmish Playtest Packet v3, Iron Line Playtest v0.1.
• Art direction & visual system. Operator Tactics Core Book design vocabulary.

How to Use This Book With the Core Book

• Augments & gene-forged lineages. Full rules in the Core Book. Skirmish treats them as flavor plus one class-compatible modifier.
• Campaign Heat. Core Book. Skirmish and Iron Line feed into Heat through the Crossover chapter.
• Faction politics & setting history. Core Book. This volume assumes the reader has (or will) read it.
• Hex-crawl campaign layer. Separate companion volume (OT Skirmish Hex Crawl).
• Full solo RPG rules. Separate companion volume (OT Solo Rules). This book contains only the tiny Skirmish Solo Mode (ch. 7).

Quick Cross-Reference

v0.1 DRAFT · This book is a playtest document. Rules will change. The splice will remain.