Setup#

Modern CQB begins before the first operator touches the table. The defenders get to shape the site. The assault team gets to decide how to violate that shape. Good setup creates the first three turns of the mission before anyone rolls anything.

The basic idea is simple: the hostile side prepares a place to survive the opening breach, then the response side chooses where to put pressure first. One side begins with position and information. The other begins with tempo.

Setup Sequence#

Resolve setup in this order:

1. Choose the mission and site layout. Decide what kind of place this is and why violence is happening there.
2. Select the response faction and squad. Pick the team that will conduct the assault.
3. Select the hostile faction and site package. Decide how the defenders behave and what kind of pressure the site presents.
4. Place objectives, civilians, and evidence. Put the stakes on the board before you place the people who want to protect or destroy them.
5. Run hostile setup. The defender claims rooms, places concealment, and seeds traps.
6. Choose response entry points. The assault team decides how it will arrive from off-map.
7. Apply doctrine options. Each side takes its pre-mission advantage.
8. Begin Round 1 with the response move phase.

Hostile Setup Phase#

The hostile player should feel like they are preparing an ambush, not filling a deployment zone. The point is not simply to place bodies. The point is to decide what the first reveal will cost.

Step 1: Claim Rooms#

Each important hostile room begins with one posture. A room can gain more than one tactical feature over the course of setup, but choose the room's main job first.

A strong setup usually has one anchor, one or two watch rooms, and at least one fallback position that matters after the first breach.

Step 2: Place Concealment#

Most hostile figures should not begin openly visible. Use Concealment markers to represent uncertainty inside closed rooms.

• One concealment marker may hide one strong model, two weak models, one civilian, or nothing at all.
• Do not stack concealment markers in the same space.
• Visible barricades, open sentries, exposed cameras, and obvious heavy cover are placed openly as terrain.

The point of concealment is not trickery for its own sake. It is to make the response player commit to rooms without perfect information.

Step 3: Place Traps#

Traps should reinforce the site's logic, not feel random. A gang house might use improvised alarms and a panicked evidence burn. A corporate archive might use cameras, magnetic locks, and staged fallback doors. A martyr cell will wire thresholds people are most tempted to rush.

Common traps include:

• wire alarms on doors or windows
• shotgun strings or blast rigs
• smoke dumps to break a lane
• relic flash charges or panic rites
• dead switches tied to evidence or hostages
• rapid-burn bins for files, samples, or drives

Unless the mission says otherwise, place 1 trap per 3 hostile figures, rounding up.

Response Entry#

The response player chooses entry after the hostile setup phase. This matters because the team is reacting to the type of site, not to the exact hidden placement.

Possible entries include:

• front or rear exterior door
• roof insertion
• breached wall or window
• garage or service lane
• loading dock, clinic side access, or marina walkway

All response figures begin off-map. They only enter play during the first move phase, from the chosen entry point or points. This is important. The assault team is not waiting in the foyer. It is still outside the problem until the mission starts.

Doctrine Picks#

Before the first round, each side chooses one pre-mission edge to reflect planning, equipment, and institutional habits. These options should be small but meaningful. They are there to tilt the opening exchange, not to decide the whole mission.

Response Examples#

• NIS: reveal one concealment marker before Round 1.
• NFP: gain one extra Restraint Kit and +1 score for the first live arrest.
• SIB: designate one room as a priority intelligence room; the first successful Secure action there gains a bonus.
• TRG: one locked entry begins pre-weakened.
• Null Halo Cadre: one operator may begin the mission at a prepared wall breach instead of a normal door.
• Blue Mercy Contract: once per campaign mission, one Downed ally ignores the first failed bleed-out roll.

Hostile Examples#

• Marrow Wake: place one extra dead switch or martyr trap.
• Latchwork: add one extra barricade and one marked fallback route.
• Followers: the first breach into the anchor room forces a Nerve test.
• Charter Wardens: add one extra camera lane and one sealed keycard door.

Open Information and Hidden Information#

The site should feel discoverable, not arbitrary. Players should know enough to make plans, but not enough to make the room safe before they touch it.

Open at Setup#

• the known site footprint
• visible exits and major windows
• exterior lights, cameras, and obvious security features
• mission objectives
• any civilians the scenario declares openly visible

Hidden at Setup#

• exact hostile positions
• trap locations
• which rooms are held, empty, or decoyed
• whether the evidence is genuine, copied, or already being destroyed

Ready Check#

Before Round 1, confirm the table can be read without conversation slowing it down:

• every figure has a profile
• every door has a state
• every room has a status
• both sides know the mission win and loss conditions
• both players know what counts as off-map, interior, and extraction space

Once that is true, start the response move phase. The raid begins the moment the first operator crosses the threshold.