The earliest documented pitched battle. Ramesses II marched four divisions into a Hittite ambush; his personal cavalry charge and the last-minute arrival of the Naa'urn elite force turned near-disaster into a negotiated draw. chariotCharge: chariot units that move 3 or more hexes before attacking gain +3 ATK. Speed is now a tactical choice, not just positioning.

10,000 Athenians defeated 25,000 Persians by thinning their center and strengthening the wings — then running at the Persian line before the archers could find range. The outnumbered side has substantially higher unit quality; the scenario tests whether quality holds before numbers overwhelm.

Three hundred Spartans and 7,000 allies held a coastal pass for three days before betrayal opened the mountain path. reinforcementWaves: Persian units spawn from the eastern map edge on a fixed schedule regardless of losses — the tide that cannot be stopped, only slowed. The Spartan player wins by surviving, not destroying.

Epaminondas destroyed the myth of Spartan invincibility by massing fifty ranks deep on one flank while refusing his center — an oblique that hit the Spartan right before their line could stabilize.deepFormation: eligible units attacking a hex where a friendly unit is also adjacent (not necessarily attacking) gain +2 ATK. Presence reinforces without requiring a second attack declaration.

Alexander's Companion Cavalry shattered Darius's line, then wheeled inward before Persian infantry could respond. exploitationMove: eligible cavalry units that eliminate an enemy may immediately move up to half their MV toward enemy lines, ignoring ZOC. If the follow-up move achieves a flanking position, the next attack inherits flankingBonus.

Hannibal's masterstroke: deliberately weakening his center to draw the Roman mass inward, while Numidian cavalry swept both flanks and closed the trap. 70,000 Romans died in an afternoon. The scenario is built around the danger of a strong Roman center advance walking into a closing pocket.

Scipio used Hannibal's own tactics against him — Numidian defectors, opened lanes for the elephants, cavalry encirclement. elephantCorridor: three hexes in the Roman line are pre-designated corridor gaps. Elephant units entering a corridor pass through without attacking — harmlessly channeled. If the Roman player fills those hexes, the elephant attacks normally but takes 1 damage from the confusion. Roman decision: hold the gap (weaker line) or plug it (risk chaos).

Caesar built two concentric walls — one facing inward to contain Vercingetorix, one facing outward to hold a Gallic relief army — and held both simultaneously. Roman units on rampart hexes gain substantial defensive bonuses; Gallic units must breach the outer wall before reaching the inner.

Alexander's first pitched battle on Persian soil — a cavalry charge across a fast-flowing river into waiting Persian horsemen on the opposite bank. Parmenion counseled delay; Alexander attacked immediately. riverCrossing: defenders on river terrain suffer −1 DEF, representing the difficulty of striking downward at attackers struggling through the current. The river is not a safe position — it is a vulnerable one for the side that holds it.

Roman legions build an enormous siege ramp up a desert plateau. Each turn a Roman unit occupies the ramp site advances construction; when complete, the impassable walls become breachable.siegeRamp: occupy ramp hexes each turn to build progress; at the threshold, impassable walls become passable — the defenders watch the ramp rise and know there is no stopping it.

Edward III's outnumbered English army stood on a ridge and unleashed the English longbow against charging French knights — the battle that ended the military supremacy of heavy cavalry. Genoese crossbowmen, hired at great expense, fled after their strings were ruined by rain.weatherSchedule: a pre-set turn-by-turn weather sequence degrades the ATK of ranged units on rain turns — but longbow units are immune, their wax-sealed strings unaffected. The Genoese crossbow advantage evaporates before the English ever fire a shot.

Harold took the ridge; William's cavalry could not break the shield wall through frontal assault. The feigned Norman retreat — drawing the fyrd off the hill — decided the battle. Units on elevation receive a defensive bonus against uphill attack; the narrow ridge means Harold's mistake of advancing down it is unrecoverable.

5,000 exhausted English archers behind sharpened stakes defeated 20,000 armored French knights. The mud slowed the French advance to a crawl; the longbow volley did the rest. English archers fire from prepared positions at range 2; French men-at-arms crossing mud hexes lose movement points and arrive in disorder.

Mehmed II brought the largest bombard ever cast — the Basilica Cannon — to end the 1,000-year-old Roman Empire in 53 days of siege. Constantine XI's garrison of 7,000 held miles of ancient walls against 80,000 Ottoman troops until a single unlocked gate and a breach in the Blachernae wall decided everything. wallBreach: artillery units accumulate hits on wall terrain hexes each turn they fire at them; at the threshold, the wall hex converts to rubble, opening a breach that Ottoman infantry can advance through at normal cost. The Byzantine player must decide whether to concentrate the thin garrison at known battery targets or spread thin to guard every gate.

Babur's matchlock firearms panicked the Lodi war elephants; the panicked elephants trampled their own infantry. panicChain: when a war elephant takes ranged damage, a seeded probability check (resolved at session creation for determinism) may trigger panicked status — the elephant moves uncontrolled toward the nearest friendly unit, and adjacent friendlies suffer −2 ATK for that turn. Both players see the same pre-rolled sequence.

Francisco Pizarro's 168 conquistadors ambushed an Inca army of 80,000 in a mountain plaza — seizing Emperor Atahualpa in minutes and triggering the collapse of the largest empire in the Americas. commanderDeath: eliminating the enemy commander unit inflicts a permanent −2 ATK penalty on every unit belonging to that side for the rest of the game. The Spanish player must prioritize Atahualpa; the Inca player must protect him at all costs.

The battle turned on Kobayakawa Hideaki's defection from the Western Army — a betrayal negotiated in advance whose timing was never certain. defection: Kobayakawa's corps begins as a neutral unit controlled by neither player. A phaseEvent fires on a variable turn (decided at session creation by variantFormations) and transfers the corps to the Eastern Army. The Western player knows this is coming. The question is whether they can win before it does.

The Holy League and Ottoman fleet clash in history's last great galley battle. Galleys that charged (moved this phase) gain +2 ATK when ramming — reward aggressive, forward movement.galleyRam: galleys that moved this phase gain +2 ATK when attacking, representing the devastating momentum of a full-speed ramming charge. Speed is now a tactical choice, not just repositioning.

Gustavus Adolphus's Swedish brigades combined disciplined volley fire with rapid movement — making static Imperial tercio formations obsolete. fireAndMove: eligible Swedish units chooseattackThenMove (ranged attack at range 2, then move) or moveAndAttack (move first, then attack at range 1). Standard artillery fires or moves, never both.

Napoleon feigned weakness on his right to draw the Allied center south, then smashed through the weakened Pratzen Heights with his reserve. variantFormations: at session start, a weighted random roll selects from three historical Allied deployment variants. Each changes unit positions and activates different phaseEvent reinforcements. The French player faces a genuinely different board each game.

Napoleon's last battle: Ney's cavalry spent itself against unbroken British squares; the Prussians arrived on the right flank just as the Old Guard failed its final assault. A three-faction scenario — the Prussian relief force spawns on the eastern map edge on turn 6. The French player must resolve the British before that clock fires.

Spanish conquistadors besiege the Aztec island capital. The Aztecs can win by evacuating units through causeway corridors. Control the causeways to seal the city. siegeBreakout: the besieged side wins by evacuating units through designated corridor hexes before the perimeter collapses — the Spanish player must block every exit while fighting on all fronts.

Swedish Caroleans must cross the Vorskla river to assault Russian redoubts. Bridge hexes cost less MP for the controlling side — seize them early to speed your advance. bridgeControl: bridge hexes cost less MP for the controlling side; enemy crossing costs more. A race to hold the river crossing points before the Russian lines consolidate.

Saladin cuts the Crusaders off from water in the July heat. Units that go two turns without adjacency to a water hex accumulate thirst and suffer a permanent ATK penalty until they reach water. thirstAttrition: units without adjacent water hex accumulate thirst; after the threshold turns, suffer a permanent ATK penalty until they reach water.

Robert the Bruce uses prepared ground and schiltron formations to shatter Edward II's cavalry at Stirling. Cavalry entering pit trap hexes immediately take damage and lose all remaining movement. pitTrap: cavalry entering pit trap hexes take immediate damage and lose all remaining movement — prepared ground negates the advantage of mounted force entirely.

Spanish arquebusiers annihilate French knights and prove gunpowder's dominance over medieval armor. When arquebusiers attack and the result would be Exchange, it becomes Defender Eliminated instead — no counter-attack. arquebusFire: arquebusier EX results become DE — the volley prevents effective counter-attack.

Batu Khan lures Hungarian knights into a deadly trap using feigned retreat. Mongol cavalry units can move through enemy ZOC hexes without stopping — the classic Mongol feint. feintRetreat: designated cavalry can move through enemy ZOC without stopping, baiting pursuit into a killing ground.

The Lombard League rallies around the sacred Carrocio battle standard to defy Barbarossa. Keep a friendly unit adjacent to the banner hex — if the enemy captures it, the defensive bonus is gone forever. rallyBanner: adjacent friendly unit to banner hex grants army-wide DEF bonus; lost forever if captured.

The Duke of Enghien shatters Spain's legendary Tercios. Any unit reduced to 1 HP gains +1 ATK and +1 DEF — the desperate courage of soldiers with nothing left to lose. lastStand: any unit at 1 HP gains +ATK and +DEF — desperate courage.

Tōgō crosses the T against the exhausted Russian Baltic Fleet. When your warships are in line-of-battle formation (same row as an ally AND the target), they gain a firepower bonus — the decisive broadside. broadsideAdvantage: ships in line-of-battle formation (same row) gain ATK bonus.

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Colonial militia threw up overnight earthworks on Breed's Hill and repulsed two British frontal assaults before ammunition ran out on the third. The British took the hill but lost over 1,000 men — 40% of their assault force — and never again underestimated colonial resolve. hastyDefense: units that end their movement phase without having moved that turn gain +1 DEF until they next move, representing fieldworks, breastworks, and prepared firing positions. Holding ground is actively rewarded.

Napoleon assaults Kutuzov's earthwork fortifications in history's bloodiest single day. Attacking a unit on a redoubt hex first requires a dice storm check — a failed roll repulses the assault entirely. redoubtStorm: attacking a redoubt hex requires a dice storm check first; failure = automatic NE result regardless of odds.

Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in a blizzard and struck the Hessian garrison before dawn — the surprise attack that saved the Revolution. nightTurn: turns 1 and 2 are designated night turns; all units halve their MV and ranged fire is disabled entirely. The Continental player trades firepower and speed for the one thing the Hessians cannot counter: surprise. From turn 3 onward, daylight rules apply and the Hessians may attempt to rally and counterattack.

Washington and Rochambeau conduct a textbook siege of Cornwallis's position. Each combat phase, claim one unoccupied hex as a siege line — units attacking adjacent to it gain a permanent ATK bonus. siegeLines: claim hexes as siege positions; friendly attackers adjacent to siege lines gain ATK bonus for the remainder of the game.

Three days of fighting across Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, and Cemetery Hill. Pickett's Charge — 12,500 men across open ground into massed Union artillery — is one of history's most consequential tactical mistakes. The scenario spans all three days; unit fatigue accumulates across phases and reinforcements arrive on historical schedules.

20,000 Zulu warriors encircled and annihilated a British column of 1,800 in under two hours — the worst defeat ever inflicted on the Victorian army. The most asymmetric scenario in Avalon: Zulu units have high ATK and speed but no ranged attack; British units are few but have artillery and long-range rifle fire. Zulu flanking horns arrive via reinforcementWaves on turns 2 and 3. The British player's only path is a tight defensive perimeter.

Menelik II's Ethiopian forces defeated an Italian colonial army — the only decisive African victory over a European power in the Scramble for Africa era. guerrillaTerrain: Highlander and shotel warrior units pay reduced movement cost on ridge terrain (2 MP instead of 4). The terrain does not become easy for Italian units — it is simply less of an obstacle for those who know it.

60,000 British casualties on the first day. The walking-pace advance order — issued because high command believed the artillery had destroyed all resistance — became a massacre.barrage phaseEvents fire on designated hexes before each British movement phase on turns 1–3. Simultaneously, British units begin with MV:2 — the literal "walk, don't run" order that prohibited rushing German positions.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff encircle Samsonov's Russian army in the East Prussian forests. Surrounded units (5+ neighbors blocked) suffer -2 DEF, and Retreat results become Eliminations — there is no escape. encirclement: units with 5 or more adjacent hexes blocked by enemies or impassable terrain suffer −2 DEF and cannot retreat — Retreat CRT results are treated as Eliminations. The Russian player must keep corridors open; the German player must close them.

Germany tries to bleed France white at the Verdun fortress complex. No-man's land hexes deal 1 automatic HP damage to any unit that ends its movement there — the battlefield itself is the enemy. attritionZone: designated no-man's land hexes deal 1 automatic HP damage to any unit ending its movement there. Both sides bleed for every hex of ground gained or held — the defining horror of industrial attrition warfare.

The first mass deployment of tanks: 476 British tanks crossed the German wire and trenches in hours — terrain that had stopped infantry for three years. terrainOverride: tank-class units ignore the movement penalty for barbedWire terrain entirely; infantry still pays the full cost. One unit type experiences a fundamentally different map than the other.

150 British soldiers defend a mission station against 4,000 Zulu warriors. Units inside the perimeter gain +1 DEF per adjacent friendly defender, up to +2. fortifiedPerimeter: defenders inside the perimeter gain +DEF per adjacent friendly unit (capped at +2). Tight defensive clustering is mechanically rewarded — scatter the line and the perimeter collapses.

France rushes reserves by taxi to stop the German advance on Paris. Units starting their movement on road hexes sprint at double speed, modelling the first use of motorized logistics.roadSprint: units starting movement on road hexes move at 2× speed — the Taxis of the Marne deliver reserves faster than the Germans can advance.

Two Soviet divisions — 45,000 men — were destroyed by 11,000 Finnish defenders in the forests of Karelia. Colonel Siilasvuo's motti tactics cut Soviet columns into isolated pockets that starved and froze. supplyLine: units more than 4 hexes from their designated depot hex lose 1 MP per turn. Soviet columns advancing deep into Finnish territory gradually lose mobility; Finnish ski troops harassing the supply chain can win without engaging the main force.

338,000 Allied troops evacuated from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk in nine days while a thin rearguard held the perimeter — Hitler's famous halt order giving the Allies the margin they needed. withdrawalVictory: the Allied player wins by moving units off designated exit hexes on the northern map edge, representing embarkation. The German player wins by eliminating or trapping enough units to fall below the evacuation threshold. Every Allied unit lost is one fewer soldier available for the eventual return to the continent.

The baseline scenario and the best introduction to the core system. German Panzergrenadiers pushing through tractor and ordnance factories against Soviet rifle squads holding room by room. No special mechanics — just stacking, ZOC, CRT, objectives. Start here.

Montgomery's Operation Lightfoot required engineers to clear lanes through Axis minefields before armor could advance. Rommel was absent on medical leave for the opening attack; his replacement died of a heart attack in the first hours. mineField: hexes deal 1 HP damage to any unit crossing them. Engineer Sapper units can spend their full movement turn adjacent to a mineField hex to clear it — the hex permanently becomes plain terrain. Leader absence phaseEvents reflect the command vacuum.

The largest tank battle in history. The Soviet high command knew the German attack was coming and built seven defensive belts to bleed it. Tiger I and Panther units fill 2 of 2 stack slots alone, forcing the German player to coordinate separate armored columns rather than massing on a single axis.

The most lethal of the D-Day beaches. German defensive positions on the bluffs enfiladed the landing craft before the ramps dropped. All movement on sand hexes costs double; bluff hexes give defenders +3 DEF; landing units spend their first turn stationary in the surf. The American player must accept the attrition and find a gap.

The 101st Airborne, surrounded and outnumbered, held Bastogne through nine days of blizzard.supplyDrain phaseEvents degrade American HP on turns 2–5; on turn 7, a relief column spawns on the southern map edge. The scenario lives or dies on whether the perimeter holds until the relief clock fires.

35,000 paratroopers dropped behind German lines to seize eight bridges; the 1st Airborne at Arnhem held their bridge for nine days without relief. paradrop: Allied airborne units spawn from inland hexes — not the map edge — in waves on turns 1, 2, and 3. Units cannot attack on the turn they land. XXX Corps armor must advance up a single road before the Arnhem perimeter collapses.

US Marines assault a volcanic island while Japanese defenders appear and disappear through an underground tunnel network. Japanese tunnel units can teleport between any two tunnel hexes by expending movement points. tunnelMovement: designated units teleport between tunnel hexes by expending a fixed MP cost — the island's surface belies a hidden battlefield below.

The first carrier battle — opposing fleets never sighted each other. Each carrier can launch one long-range air strike per combat phase, dealing direct damage to any enemy vessel within strike range. carrierStrike: carrier units launch one long-range air strike per combat phase, bypassing normal adjacency requirements — range decides the battle, not the line of battle.

The largest Allied offensive of the war destroyed Army Group Centre in three weeks — 300,000 Germans killed or captured. Zhukov coordinated four fronts in simultaneous attack, preventing the Germans from shifting reserves. coordinatedAssault: when 2 or more friendly units attack the same target hex in the same phase, each additional attacker beyond the first adds +1 ATK on top of the normal pooled total. German fortress garrisons require 3+ coordinated attackers to achieve favorable odds.

US Marines hold Henderson Field against relentless Japanese night attacks. On night turns, each player may designate one unit as ambushing — enemy units moving adjacent trigger automatic damage.nightAmbush: on night turns, designate one unit as ambushing; enemies moving adjacent take auto-damage.

Rommel's Afrika Korps outmanoeuvres the Gazala Line in a desert blitzkrieg. Capturing supply depot hexes permanently increases your entire army's movement — fuel and ammunition win the desert war.supplyDepotCapture: capturing depot hexes permanently boosts the capturing side's MP for the remainder of the game.

Zhukov's first major command: a three-axis encirclement of Japanese forces on the Mongolian steppe that became the template for Soviet Deep Battle doctrine. Japan never attacked north again. flankingBonus: units attacking from flank or rear hexes relative to the defender's facing gain +2 ATK. A unit's "front" is the direction it last moved; if stationary, it faces the nearest enemy. Stacks with exploitationMove.

MacArthur's amphibious end-run bypassed the Pusan perimeter entirely — landing at a port the North Koreans believed was tactically impossible. amphibiousLanding: units spawn from hexes adjacent to impassable sea terrain. Spawned units carry the landedThisTurn flag — they can move but cannot attack on their arrival turn.

30,000 UN troops surrounded by 120,000 Chinese PVA forces in −35°C. The Marines fought their way out in fourteen days — the longest fighting retreat in American history.moraleThreshold: at 50% losses, remaining units suffer −1 ATK and −1 DEF. At 70% losses, the army breaks and the scenario ends immediately. Cold-weather phaseEvents degrade all unit MV by 1 on odd turns.

General Giap surrounded a French paratrooper fortress with 50,000 troops and 200 artillery pieces, then systematically eliminated each outpost until the airstrip became unusable. French units receive an airdrop spawnUnits phaseEvent on turns 3 and 6 — but only if the Viet Minh have not yet controlled both airfield hexes. Control the airfield, and the French starve.

Coalition forces blitz through the Iraqi desert with overwhelming air power. The Coalition gets 2 airstrike tokens per combat phase — spend them to deal direct HP damage to any enemy unit on the map. airSupport: the active Coalition player holds 2 airstrike tokens per combat phase; each token may be spent to deal 1 direct HP damage to any enemy unit regardless of range or adjacency. The Iraqi player has no equivalent — asymmetric technological dominance rendered the ground war a 100-hour rout.