Permanent Demotion

A Star Wars Miniatures Scenario

By Sterling Hershey

Fallout continues from the incident at Czerka 431 the previous scenario. After the Republic attack, both the Czerka Corporation and the Sith Empire held the facility's chief administrator responsible for 431's discovery by the Republic. The accusation was strongly supported by the administrator's willing departure with the escaping Republic forces. Republic command soon had the administrator helping them access secure data files at the ruins of Czerka Lab AB-343, which had been overrun by Republic forces early in the war.

Knowing that this could expose the depth of Czerka's agreement with the Sith Empire, neither the corporation nor the Sith could stand for this development. They determined that a Sith assassin had the best chance to infiltrate the facility and eliminate the administrator. Coincidentally, the ultrasecret and independent Genoharadan came to the same conclusion. They determined that it would best serve their political goals if the agreement between Czerka and the Sith Empire remained unknown to the Republic. They, too, sent an assassin to eliminate the administrator.

Meanwhile, at AB-343, the former administrator and a few Republic guards work to access the damaged lab's computer system. They have just realized that they are not alone.

This scenario features miniatures from the Knights of the Old Republic set. It uses the Ravaged Base map from the Attack on Endor Scenario Pack. Other maps may be used with adaptations to the starting areas.

Republic Setup

The Republic squad has a total cost of 42 points. The Republic player may create his own 45-point squad instead, but only non-Force-using Republic and Fringe faction characters may be used. One character must be selected as the administrator.

The Republic player sets up in areas A (squad 1) and B (squad 2).

Republic Victory Conditions

The Republic faction wins if it defeats all Sith, Fringe, and decoy droid units, and if the administrator survives.

Assassin Setup

The assassin squad has a total cost of 42 points. The assassin player may create her own 45-point squad instead, but only Sith and Fringe faction characters may be used. No Force-using characters are allowed.

The assassin player sets up in area C. See Hidden Setup, below, for more details.

Sith Victory Conditions

The assassins win by defeating the administrator character.

Special Scenario Rules

Hidden Setup and Movement: The assassins begin play hidden from view. Select two damage counters (numbers 10 and 50) and two Force counters (numbers 1 and 5). Place one counter facedown in each of the four starting areas. Counters beginning with the number 5 represent the actual unit, while each counter beginning with the number 1 represent a decoy droid (see below). If you have more than two units in your squad, provide additional decoys equal to the number of units in the squad. Moving a counter counts as an activation. Whenever an enemy unit has line of sight to a counter, flip it over to reveal what it is. (If desired, you can use unused droid minis to represent these decoys.)

Decoy Droid: These simple droids have the following stats and abilities:
HP: 10
Defense: 12
Attack: +0
Damage: —
Special Abilities: Door Gimmick (At the end of its turn, this character can designate 1 door that it can see as open; the door remains open until the end of this character's next turn, or until it is defeated); Self-Activated Self-Destruct 10 (When this character is defeated, each adjacent character takes 10 damage. This ability may be activated on the character's turn, automatically defeating the unit)

Gimmicky: The administrator and all assassin squad characters (including the decoy droids) gain the Door Gimmick ability (see the description in the decoy droid's special abilities).

Infiltration: The assassin squad automatically wins initiative in the first round and must activate units first.

All Right, We'll Check It Out: The administrator may not move from the command center until one of the members of the Republic squad has one of the assassins (not including the decoys) in line of sight.

Special Modifications

Three-Player Version: This scenario may be played with three players. One player runs the Republic squad, while each of the other players use one of the assassins and its associated decoy droid. Each player rolls initiative separately. In the first round, only the assassin players roll initiative; the Republic player still goes last in this round. In addition to the assassin victory conditions, the opposing assassin and decoy droid must also be defeated.

Feel free to post your thoughts or questions about this scenario in this message board thread.

About the Author

Sterling Hershey is an architect and freelance game designer. He regularly creates Star Wars Miniatures and Starship Battles scenarios and previews for the Wizards of the Coast web site. He is one of the authors of the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide and The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, plus other products and online articles for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition. You can read more about gaming in a galaxy far, far away in his starwars.com blog, Delusions of Grandeur. Sterling lives in the Midwest with his wife, Mary.