Basic Rules

The following section covers basic rules and mechanics, helping you understand what each component is before learning how to play through a game.

Dice

Most actions with a variable chance of success make use of six-sided dice, written as D6, to determine the outcome. Usually you roll a d6, which may have modifiers applied to it, and aim to achieve a target number or higher. A dice roll can be negatively modified so that it fails automatically, however a roll of 1 always counts as a failure regardless of any positive modifiers.

You are often required to make multiple rolls at the same time, each one aiming to hit their target and individually counting as a success or failure. Other rules may require you to roll multiple dice together and add them together to get your result. To help clarify this difference we refer to a roll by it's name for multiple individual rolls (such as making 5 Skill Rolls) and the notation nD6 for combined rolls (such as rolling 2D6 and adding the result). If you must make multiple combined rolls these must be done one at a time to avoid mixing up which dice belong to which combination.

Another common dice roll is the roll-off between multiple players, each player rolls 2D6 - the winner is the player with the highest combined result. In a tie, players roll-off again.

Dice rolls should always be done in full view of all players, and, when a rule permits you to re-roll a dice you may only ever re-roll a dice once and you must accept the result of the re-rolled dice even if it is worse.

Distance and Measuring

Measuring movement and range is done using inches, you'll need an inch-marked ruler to play and for some games a longer tape measure is required. Always measure the distance to or from a model from the closest point on its base. You may measure any distance at any time, as long as it doesn't interfere with your opponent's actions or unnecessarily slow down the game.

Remember that a model or object is considered "within" a certain distance if any part of it's base is closer than the specified distance. The distance between units is the distance between the two closest models.

Player's Armies

Each player has a selection of miniatures that represent their army (or other appropriate term). This can vary depending on the module you choose but will usually include a range of units, such as infantry, vehicles, or monsters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Every model in a player's army is considered friendly, all the models in your opponent's army are considered an enemy.

Units and Models

Throughout these rules, a model is a specific term referring to a miniature or group of miniatures mounted on a single base or otherwise connected, the base of a model is considered a part of the model. If a model does not have a base, it must have a clear footprint to count as a base.

Units are groups of 1 or more models within the game and all models must belong to exactly one unit.

Army Lists and Profiles

To play a game, you need to know which models and units you can use and what they can do on the battlefield. A game made in Cadence will usually include army lists that provide this information and may include a variety of factions and units to choose from. Each unit in a game will typically have a profile that lists the models in the unit, their attributes, weapons, equipment, special abilities, and any unique rules they may have.

Model Attributes

Each model has a set of attributes that tell you how well it can perform various actions, these are:

Command (Cmd): The number of actions this model can perform each round.
Movement (Mov): The number of inches this model can travel during a move or advance action.
Skill (Skl): The model's ability with it's weapons.
Defence (Def): The model's armour or ability to evade attacks.
Toughness (Tgh): The model's ability to counter or absorb damage and keep fighting.
Hit Points (HP): How much damage the model can take before being destroyed.

Special Rules

Special rules modify how the model operates within the game. Some special rules are universal and are included in this book, these are typically given simply by name in a unit profile. Others are unique to a module, army, or model, and will be provided in the game module.

Abilities

Abilities are like actions that are unique to a unit. These work like normal actions and the details of how they work, the number of command points they require to perform, along with any requirements or restrictions, will be given in a unit's profile.

Unit Formation

Units consisting of more than one model must stay within close proximity of each other during a battle, known as being in formation.

A unit is in formation when you can connect all models in the unit with a distance between each no greater than 2 inches. This means the unit can be spread in a line so long as the gaps between the models along the line are never more than 2 inches. Every unit must finish each action they perform in formation.

If your unit becomes out of formation during another unit's activation, the next time the unit activates it must make a move action as it's first action to restore being in formation. If it cannot resume being in formation after this move action the unit is destroyed and removed from the game.

Weapons

The weapons that your models fight with also have their own set of attributes which are usually provided in your module or army list. These are:

Range (Rng): The distance the weapon can make an attack up to.
Attacks (Att): The volume or intensity of the attacks from the weapon.
Piercing (Prc): The weapons ability to negate armour.
Damage (Dmg): How destructive a hit from this weapon is.
Special Rules: Any specific modifiers that apply to the weapon.

Missions

A mission is a set of rules that dictates how to set up your battlefield and what objectives players must achieve to win. Victory Points are usually awarded to players throughout the game based on the mission objectives with the player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game is declared the winner.

Objective Markers

Objective Markers represent key points on the battlefield, such as resources to be collected, intel to be gathered, or zones to be controlled. An objective marker is typically a 40mm token or an appropriate miniature of around that size. Objectives come in 3 basic types, each of which can first be secured, or controlled by a unit, and then scored when they award points according to a mission. Additional types may be specified by a game module.

To secure an objective marker, a unit must use the "Secure" action when it is within 1 inch of the marker and no enemy units are within 3 inches of it or the securing unit. The unit must make a successful Secure Roll, rolling a d6 and scoring 3 or higher to secure an objective.

Objectives can be one of the following 3 types:

Control: Once a control objective is secured, it remains secured so long as at least 1 unit from the securing army stays within 3 inches of the objective.
Access: Once this objective is secured the unit that secured it must stay within 1 inch until the end of the current round, after which it is removed from the game and scored. Access objectives cannot be secured on the first round.
Recover: Once this objective is secured the unit that secured it must survive until the end of the battle to score it. If the unit that secured the objective is destroyed the objective is destroyed.

Entry Points

At the start of the game, all of your units begin off the table and are considered in reserve. To deploy your units onto the table, you set up a number of Entry Points markers according to your mission. During the first round your models will activate from reserve and make their way onto the battlefield from these Entry Points, typically located along a table edge.