In a Meeting Engagement rival armies meet while they are still in a column of march. The armies begin to deploy into battle lines and fight immediately. Troops already weary from their long march must attempt to deploy into the best positions as rapidly as possible. This game combines the need to make a good battleplan with placing units one at a time.

Scenery

In a Meeting Engagement the players set up the scenery in any mutually agreeable manner.

Armies

Armies are chosen from the Warhammer Armies army lists to an equal points value agreed before the game.

Deployment

Before the game begins both players make a list of all the units in their army. Each player's list represents his marching order, with the units at the top of the list at the front of the column and units at the bottom of the list at the back. Champions are included as part of their units. Character models other than Champions are always listed together as one entry and must be placed last in the column of march (ie, at the bottom of the list). All war machines including chariots are listed together as one entry, and all large monsters are also listed together as one entry. Neither war machines and chariots, nor large monsters can be placed first in the column of march (ie, at the top of the list).

Once players have completed their marching order the player with the most entries places the first unit from his list, then his opponent places the first unit from his list. The players continue to alternate placing units from their list until they reach the last entry which will always be the characters. Units can be placed on the player's own half of the table no closer than 6" to the centre line and no closer than 12" to either side edge. In addition, a unit cannot be placed within 18" of an enemy unit that has already been placed. This is important because it enables the player to grab areas of the tabletop which he can use to his advantage in the battle.

When it comes to placing characters, large monsters and war machines, all the models from each category are placed at once. Note that this doesn't mean you have to put all the characters in the same place! Models can still be positioned in different locations either as individual units or units of several models grouped together as described in the rules.

Special Deployment Rules

In a Meeting Engagement troops which would normally deploy in a special manner, such as Wood Elf Scouts, cannot do so as they have no time before the battle to scout out the battlefield. Because the armies are deploying as quickly as they can from a column of march all units are placed as described above. Also, units capable of skirmishing cannot be deployed in a skirmishing formation as this would enable small units to grab disproportionately large areas of tabletop. Such units are deployed into standard formations and can break into skirmish formation when they move.

Turns

The players elect to play for an agreed fixed number of turns or, alternatively, roll a D6 to decide how many turns to play. A score of 1-2 = 4 turns, 3-4 = 5 turns, 5-6 = 6 turns. The game continues until each side has taken the number of turns indicated, or until one player concedes.

Who Goes First

The player who completes his deployment first takes the first turn.

Victory

Unless one player concedes beforehand the winner is the player who has accumulated the most victory points at the end of the game. The standard victory points schedule explains how these are worked out.