Scenarios

todd is nearly a year old, and while i'll be continuing on my masters degree in the spring, i'll be able to make more time for playing soon.

thing is, i haven't gotten to play a single game of 7th. but i've had plenty of time to read up online, and many people have offered opinions plus and minus about the Maelstrom missions.
what i've been wondering is about missions. ideally, i'd love to join a campaign, but i haven't seen a 40k campaign that ran regularly ever when i've been around to play in it. still, my homebound brain has come up with some serious oddities and impulses regarding gameplay.


firstoff, i've been struck with an odd desire to play Cities of Death and Planetstrike -- or at least games along those lines.


second, i'd like to come up with a list of balanced scenarios in order to have a wider range of types of games to play -- ones with different goals, much like the MoW missions.


third, i'd like to compile all these into a well-structured notebook (i'm even willing to do it) to be placed in-store for people to use when they want an interesting sort of game.


fourth, given that the majority of objectives are "take x objective" i'd like to compile a list of alternates that can be chosen


examples of types of entries:


1. focused Maelstrom mission

players choose three objective cards. once both have drawn, they get to keep one face-down, they get to place one face-up, and the third goes into the center of the table. cards are then put away and no new ones are drawn.

the face-down one is worth normal points each time it is achieved, and is revealed at the end of the game. the face-up one is worth double points each time it is achieved. the cards in the middle of the table are worth normal points to either player when they are achieved.


this is to mimic how, in real situations, the goal is often not to neutralize the opponent but to achieve a goal that is easier if the opponent is neutralized -- something has to be  communicated via the comms array, something needs to ship out before the airstrip is destroyed, someone needs to be neutralized and they are currently exposed.

2. as above, only all are worth normal, and when achieved they are replaced.  this would be like a watered-down version of above, and more like a standard MoW.


3. take and hold / king of the hill

defender must choose a certain portion (like, half) of their army to leave in permanent reserve. 

defender then sets up in the center area of the board, in terrain, where the objectives are clustered. attacker sets up on the short board edge. defender gets points for holding the objectives. attackers causes them to lose points by claiming/contesting the center objective, getting first blood, killing their warlord, or achieving a randomly-chosen event (such as kill 30 infantry in one round, win a challenge with the warlord, etc). reserves never come in. eventually, they are massacred. points are also earned for how long they last. if the defenders wipe the table clean of the attackers they auto-win.


then, switch. same scenario is played. winner earns the most points as defender.


this would be to give equal sides opportunity on assault and defense, making sure that both players have to have a certain amount of balance within their armies in order to be able to achieve the proper goals.  what's more, both players can customize how their defensive play will pan out -- it's essentially a no-win situation that gains points for how well you lose.

4. space hulk hangar

one long edge, for 8", is outside the ship. there is a hole (either a hangar door or an actual hole) in the hull. it leads to a large central area with smaller areas feeding off from it.  the main corridor extends to the short board edges, and is the deployment zone for both players (20" from said edge).


objectives are hidden in the smaller areas. tank traps, low ceilings, narrow corridors, debris, and the like separate these areas off from the main area.


flyers must start outside, and may only enter via the hole. superheavies, big walkers (anything taller than a landraider -- so riptides, Gk baby-carriers, Eldar WK, Contemptors, monstrous creatures, etc) cannot fit in the narrow corridors. scoring occurs as normal... except that objectives can only be scored on twice. after that they are used up, and the units would have to move through the central killing area to get to a new one, risking slaughter by all those larger units just waiting to have something to shoot at...



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this is just a start, and all are open to feedback. these are also the kinds of things i'd love to see in a narrative campaign... which, admittedly, i'm more a fan of than tournaments anyway.