The Command Phase

After both players have completed all their actions, ending the Action Phase, play proceeds to the Command Phase. This phase represents the strategic events surrounding the scenario, as well as the lobbying for priority and prestige (which we jointly call “command”) that this battlefield is receiving from the field headquarters in the context of the wider war. These are the steps of the Command Phase, always taken in this order:

1. Determine Control over Objectives
2. Receive Command and Victory Points
3. Spend Command
4. Determine Initiative

1. Determine Control over Objectives

First, players should look at every hex that is significant for control purposes. Such hexes are the ones containing a command objective marker, a victory objective marker, or any other hex whose control is deemed significant by the scenario (we will call all such hexes “objectives”). If control over an objective hex has changed, the new owner must now place his control marker on that hex.

A player is said to “control” an objective if he has previously placed one of his control markers on that hex, or if he is now capturing the hex by having at least one friendly unit in it. A player that  captures an objective should place one of his control makers on that hex, removing any enemy control marker that may be present.

A player retains control of a hex as long as his control marker remains on the hex. It is not necessary for the capturing units to remain in the hex in order to retain control of the objective.

Command Objectives

Command objectives are either nation-specific or neutral.
Although a player can control any command objective, a player may only gain command (see below) from controlling friendly or neutral command objective hexes.

Objective Control at the Start of the Game

Unless specified otherwise by the scenario, objectives are controlled by neither player at the beginning of a game. Even nation-specific command objectives do not start controlled by their nation.

For example: In the “Crossroads” scenario, there are three American command objectives on the board. These do not start under American control, so the American player must move units to take control of them before he can collect any command from them.

Note that if a command objective is located in a nation’s deployment zone, that nation can take control of the command objective during setup by simply placing one or more starting units in that hex.

2. Receive Command and Victory Points

During this step of the Command Phase, each player collects command for controlling command objectives, and victory points for controlling victory point objectives.

Receive Command Points

For each friendly or neutral command objective a player controls, he receives the indicated amount of command from the command pile, placing the command tokens prominently in his play area
(along with any unused command from prior rounds).
The amount of command in a player’s play area is called his “available command.” Players are always entitled to see how much command is available to an opponent at any time.
Note that while a player can control enemy command objectives, he does not receive command for controlling them. The controlling player must simply take satisfaction that he is denying his enemy from potentially collecting that command.

Example: During the prior Action Phase, the American player fought to push several of his squads into a building containing a “3” German command objective. The American player also controls a “2” American command objective and a “2” neutral command objective. During the “Receive Command and Victory Points” step of the Command Phase, he receives 4 command from the command pile for the “2” American objective plus the “2” neutral objective. The American player does not receive command for the “3” German command objective, even though he controls it.

Available command can be used to activate Strategy cards, towards gaining initiative, and/or for any special purposes specified by the scenario.

Receive Victory Points

Now players must collect victory points as dictated by the scenario (some scenarios may not depend on victory points, in which case you simply skip this step). To keep track of the number of accumulated victory points, players should use their victory point markers on the round track, When a player reaches 11 victory points, he should record this by flipping his victory point marker to its “+10” side and moving it back to the “1” space of the round track.

3. Spend Command

In order of initiative, each player may now spend command points. Once the player with initiative has fully completed his spending, his opponent may then spend command points.
A player may spend command on the following two effects (some scenarios may allow players to spend command for other effects):

• Activate Strategy Cards
• Increase Initiative Pool

Important: A player is not required to spend all or any of his available command on either Strategy cards or initiative. A player may “save up” command in his play area to spend during a later round.

Activate Strategy Cards

Many Strategy cards have the words “Command Phase” in bold at the top of their text box, indicating that they can be activated during this step of the Command Phase. As when activating a Strategy card during the Action Phase, a player must first pay the command cost of the Strategy card to the command pile.
Once the command cost has been paid, the player immediately resolves the effect of the card. Most Strategy cards are removed from the game once activated (place them back in the game box), but some have lasting effects and indicate that they should be placed in a player’s play area.
A player may activate as many of his available Strategy cards (the faceup Strategy cards in his HQ area) as he can afford. If a player has no additional faceup Strategy cards remaining in his HQ area, he will not be able to activate any additional cards.

Increase Initiative Pool

In addition to spending command by activating Strategy cards, a player may place some or all of his available command onto his Initiative card. To spend command on initiative, a player simply places the desired amount of available command from his play area onto his Initiative card. Command that has been placed on a player’s Initiative card is considered spent and cannot be retrieved later.
In this way, command can accumulate on a player’s Initiative card round after round. During the next step, the player with the highest total command on his Initiative card will claim the initiative for the next game round.

4. Determine Initiative

The player with the highest amount of accumulated command on his Initiative card now claims the initiative token, indicating that he has the initiative for the coming round. Also, If there is ever a conflict about timing (such as two abilities that both take effect at the same time), the player with initiative decides the order in which to resolve the effects (see “Timing Conflicts” on page 35).

If the cumulative amount of command assigned to initiative is tied between the players, the initiative token goes to the player who currently does not have initiative.