US Command Squad

Jenkins, prepare to signal! B! ... A! ... S! ... T! ... A! ... R! ... D! ... S!

All the power in the world is useless unless you can direct it. In the US Army the Officer Corps provides this direction, wielding the men and vehicles of the American war machine with supreme skill to hold back the Invaders. The Junior officers are the closest to the fighting, commanding there platoons and companies often from front lines, extolling their men to keep fighting despite the terror the tripods inflict with their presence and weaponry.

In All Quiet on the Martian Front

The Command Squad is the only unit which you are required to have as a US player, and represents you (yes, you) on the tabletop commanding your units against the Martians.

For the basic stuff, the command squad has a standard move of 6 inches, defense of 5 and an armor of 4, exactly like an infantry squad. You also get rifles for a 15 inch range, single attack with no additional power, so you will basically be useless when it comes to directly fighting Tripods. You don't even get grenades to make assault attacks.

What you are actually buying a Command Squad for (beside the fact that you have to) is the special rules to make your force more effective.

The first and most important one is the Rally Rule. If a unit fails a morale roll within 6 inches of your commander, then the rally rule lets them re roll that check. This is incredibly useful as since you only need need to lose one element to force a command check, the majority of a unit can be intact but can still be lost due to them legging it away from the fight. However this does kind of force you to be right up in the thick of the fight so be aware that if the majority of your force is wiped out, you will most likely be sharing their fate.

The other rule is the Field Commander Rule. This rule only applies when your commander is the overall commander of your force so if you bring more than one command squad they both cannot be Field Commanders. You receive a "Order Token" for every 200 points in your force and these Order Tokens can be expended by your field commander to units within line of sight to boost their effectiveness. You may issue as many orders as you have tokens and are not restricted to one order per phase. The first order is to automatically rally one of you routing units, which costs a token. The second is to double the movement speed in the initial movement step which is also a token. The third, and US army specific, special rule is Industrial Might. Basically you may revived destroyed units and have them return to the board as reinforcements. For every 200 points that unit cost you at the start of the battle you must spend one token. So a Mk IV Steam Tank at 190 points would cost you one token, while a Tesla Lightning gun at 350 will cost 2 and so on.

The Command Squad will cost you 30 points to add to your US Force