3. PREPARATION and TURNS
a. The human team have to decide which side they will be playing (Allies or Axis) and each player has to allocate themselves a faction and a primary (and alternate) doctrine within that faction that they will use for the duration of the campaign, then place themselves in one of the home sectors.
b. Primary and Alternate Doctrines: The Primary doctrine is the main one the player will use in any battles. There are certain circumstances where they can choose to swap to their alternate doctrine. These are:
- In any follow-on battle within the same turn, the player can elect to use their alternate doctrine.
- In a battle where all players have the same doctrine, one of the players can elect to use their alternate doctrine.
- After fighting ten battles with that doctrine, the player can elect to swap their primary and alternate doctrines around.
c. Turns are played every week, with movement discussion and orders being done on Mondays and Tuesdays, then players involved in battles arranging amongst themselves to play these on the Wednesday to Saturday.
d. Turn Order:
Phase 1 - MOVEMENT (discussion and posting of movement orders.)
Phase 2 - BATTLES (play any initial battles.)
Phase 3 - BATTLE RESULTS - (post results, perform any mandatory movement or sector changes caused by the battle.)
Phase 5 - FOLLOW-ON BATTLES - (play any second round of battles if there are any.)
Phase 6 - FOLLOW-ON RESULTS - (post results, perform any mandatory movement or sector changes caused by the battle.)
Phase 7 - SECTOR CHANGES - (make sector changes in response to adjacent sectors as at the end of the previous phase.)

4. MOVEMENT
a. Each turn, each player can move one sector into enemy or contested territory, or two sectors through friendly territory. The only exception to this is if Raiding doctrines (Airborne, Luftwaffe, Blitzkrieg and Commando) are performing a Raid move.
b. Any player can retreat from a contested sector only if a supply route to the home sectors exists, but this may cause the sector to be recaptured by the enemy (see rule 5.a)
c. If an advance into a contested or enemy sector fails, the player is pushed back to the sector they moved into it from.
There can be no more than five players (or three in the case of a "raid") in the same sector at the same time.
d. Movement is done based upon the starting sector number, from lowest to highest.
All player moves should be declared and posted in the "Operation Aubergine: Player Orders" thread by the end of the first day of the new turn. Any players not doing so will be assumed to be holding position.
If a single player moves into a contested or enemy sector, unless they are subsequently joined by at least one more player, they will be forced to retreat to the sector they moved into it from after all player moves are completed as they have insufficient forces to mount an attack.
If more than four players move into a contested or enemy sector only four can attack (although it could be a different four if there is a follow-on within the same turn).
Once all players in a sector have moved, movement passes to the next sector. Once all movement has completed, the battle phase starts (with the first players to move).

5. SECTOR OWNERSHIP
a. Any unoccupied contested sector that is bordered by two more enemy sectors than friendly sectors, will become enemy at the end of that turn.
b. Any unoccupied friendly sector that is bordered by two more enemy sectors than friendly sectors, will become contested at the end of that turn.
c. Any enemy sector that borders a sector that becomes friendly, will immediately become contested. However, at the end of that turn, rule 5.a will still apply so it may then change back to being enemy.
d. Any contested sector that has no adjacent enemy or contested sectors but at least two adjacent friendly sectors is assumed to be "cut off" and will therefore become friendly at the end of the turn. This is the only case where a sector will become friendly without a fight.
EXCEPTION: City sectors (even if cut off) never surrender and must be fought over. In this case however all CPU players are NORMAL difficulty.

6. RAIDS
a. Raiding doctrines can perform a special "raid" move. In this case they can move directly from any friendly territory up to two sectors instead of performing a normal move. This means they can "hop" over a contested sector to attack an enemy sector beyond it. Raids can be combined with normal attacks (in the same sector) with all the raiding rules applying only to the raiding doctrine (the only differences are that non-raid starting positions and follow-on rules apply instead of those stated below).
b. If they win the ensuing battle, they can immediately [i]follow-on[/i] to attempt to capture the sector, irrespective of whether they doubled the AI score or not.
If the raiding battle is unsuccessful, the raiders are captured and replacement troops arrive in either of the home sectors at the end of the following turn.
c. After performing a raid, the raiding force cannot move again until it is resupplied or until a turn has passed (whichever is the longer). To be resupplied, the sector it is in needs to be bordered by a friendly sector that is connected back to the home sectors via other friendly sectors.
d. Another raid cannot be performed in the two turns following the turn in which the raid is performed.

7. BATTLES
a. If the players are in a contested or enemy sector after moving, they have to fight the AI. The number of players must be a minimum of two and a maximum of four, even if more players are in the sector.
b. Only one battle can be fought in any one sector in the same turn, irrespective of the number of players moving there. The only exception to this is a follow-on
c. Base rushing etiquette - attacking the enemy base should only be done as a team or if agreed by the team to temporarily relieve pressure from one opponent (if the players are struggling), as the AI do not defend themselves as a human would and base rushing them will generally prematurely end the game.
d. If one of the participating players is unavailable, a "substitute" commander can fight on their behalf using the same doctrine they would have used. The substitute does not have to be currently playing in the campaign. Only one substitution is allowed per battle.
e. The result of the battle determines what happens to that sector:
Player victory in a contested sector: Sector becomes friendly.
Player victory in an enemy sector: Sector becomes contested.
Player loss in a contested sector: Sector becomes enemy and one adjacent friendly territory with the fewest players in becomes contested.

8. "FOLLOW-ON" BATTLES
If the battle for an enemy sector is won by double the AI score or more, the players involved can opt to "follow-on" and immediately have a second battle in the same turn, using the same map.

9. BATTLE MAPS
a. If the sector contains a town, the map used is an urban one (see below). If not, it is a rural one.
The idea is that each sector type has one primary and one secondary (where available) map of the appropriate size. The secondary map is shown in brackets.
b. Even-numbered sectors use the primary map, odd-numbered sectors use the secondary map.
c. If the sector being contested is a multiple of ten, the game type is VICTORY POINT, otherwise it is ANNIHILATION.
d. For normal battles, the starting position should be based on the direction the players attacked from and should be set.
For raids, the starting position is always random.

Rural Maps
2 vs 2: McGechean's War, (Duclair)
3 vs 3: Hill 331, (Redball Express)
4 vs 4: Hochwald Gap*, (King of the hill)

Urban Maps
2 vs 2: St. Hilaire, (Lorraine)
3 vs 3: Montherme, (Villers-Bocage)
4 vs 4: Route N13, (Montargis Region)

* Can be replaced if a better map is found

10. THE OPPONENTS: THE AI TEAM
Standard AI difficulty is as shown on the table below, but with the following modifiers:
- If attacking an enemy or contested sector that is out of supply, one hard enemy is replaced by a normal one.