Initiative

On several occasions the Iniative must be determined to assign the first strike to one of the opposing sides.

General

The Initiative roll is an Opposed Roll of Perception between two characters of the opposing sides.

In the event of a tie, the winner is the character with the highest Intelligence . If there is a new tie, a new roll must be made.

If two characters are at the same distance from enemies, the character with the highest Perception will roll for Initiative (if they have the same, choose one randomly).

When fighting against characters of an ADP , the Initiative roll is always between the closest hero (or ally) to the next enemy and the enemy with the highest Perception , meaningless how far away that enemy is away from the heroes group.

Situations

Each time the Dark Player places a new character or creature in a section which has just been revealed, or as a result of playing a card or an event, the corresponding Initiative roll must be made between the enemy characters closest to each other.

During Exploration

As soon as a character discovers an unexplored section for his side and visualizes enemies in it, there must be made an Initiative roll against the closest enemy in the section immediately.

If the heroes win the Initiative roll, a new turn for them will immediately begin (without the Dark Player being able to draw cards or add Achievements).

If the heroes lose the Initiative roll, the turn ends for them and the turn of the opposing side begins.

Borgron opens the door and visualizes the new section (A) where the Dark Player spawns 2 orcs.The dwarf wins the Initiative roll against the nearest orc (1), so the Dark Player loses his turn. Therefore, he will not draw any card from his decks nor activate the orcs. A new turn begins for the heroes, who decide not to move. Borgron misses a shot with his crossbow and Shara takes a heroic potion. She decides to use her action to perform a second quick action and give Borgron a melee weapon.

During Combat

Initiative rolls may also be made due to the spawning or placement of new enemies when the heroes' side is already in combat. In this case, if the new enemies (the Perception of the one closest to the group of heroes is considered) lose the Initiative die against the nearest hero (or mercenary or pet), they will not activate in the turn in which they are placed, and must wait for their next turn. If these new enemies win the Initiative roll, they may activate immediately as soon as they are placed.

If new enemies are spawned during combat, a new Initiative roll must be made. Then they will activate immediately if they win the Initiative, but will not activate this turn if they lose it.

When the Dark Player's turn comes, he decides to activate a Reinforcements card and places the new orcs (2) in the corridor section (B), as indicated by the card. A new opposed Initiative roll must be made, this time against Shara, the hero closest to the newly spawned orcs. If the orcs fail, they lose their activation and will not activate until their next turn. However, the Dark Player doesn’t lose his turn, and the orcs in the room (A) may activate normally.

Caught by Surprise!

As soon as an Initiative roll is made (after both sides have met when a new section is revealed), enemies 6 or less squares away from the character or creature that won the Perception test will be affected by the "Caught by surprise!" rule if both dice rolled by the winning side equal or exceed the Intelligence of the enemy who rolled Initiative against them.

Example: If an orc with Intelligence 3 loses the Initiative roll against an elf that got a 3 and a 5 on its roll, the orc will be considered affected by the "Caught by surprise!" rule, because the two individual results of the dice rolled by the elf equal or exceed the orc's Intelligence. The characters affected by this rule in the losing side can be moved by the winner (choosing their facing too) to an adjacent square free of obstacles or characters.

Characters and creatures will never be affected by this rule if they new section was revealed after breaking down the access door.

If one of the sides gets a critical failure (double 1) on their Initiative roll, all the characters in that side within the 6 square radius mentioned above will be automatically affected by "Caught by surprise!"

This rule cannot be applied to a side which is already in a combat turn.

Returning to the example on the previous page, if Borgron wins the Initiative roll and the orcs are affected by the "Caught by surprise!" rule, the player controlling the hero will be able to move each orc to an adjacent free square, with a facing of his choice (the logical thing to do is to place them facing backwards so they lose their Line of Sight and he gets the bonus for attacking from behind).