Battle Missions: An Early Assessment

[Possessed Marine]

I was on the fence about it, but with the review, it's shifted to a definite buy, thanks Warp Angel

[Warp Angel]

Are there any generic missions, or missions that you could adapt from other races and still make it playable? If all the missions are entirely race specific then it's not quite as fantastic as I'd thought.

 

All of the missions are playable by any race in any role, though they are broken out by army for "theme".

 

As I said earlier, there's a d66 chart in the book that exists so that you can randomly play any mission.

 

And in response to Thade:

 

The three generic missions are "fun" ones.

 

Kill Team

3 Baneblades vs. 1500 points of the enemy

And a hero oriented one where each army has one named hero or monstrous creature as part of their force that can only be killed (last wound taken) by the other hero/monstrous creature.

[Gornall]

One thing that should be noted on the "Last Stand" or scenario is that you don't roll to see who goes first until after deployment. So if your opponent crowds the lines to bumrush you and you win the roll, then it stinks to be him...

[I AM THE AWESOME]

It's good news, all of it. But the one thing I'm sure more people than just me are thinking is: Kill Team!

 

So what of it? Does it bear similarity to 4th Ed.? Simpler?

[chapter master 454]

Hero oriented one would be a hell of a time with lysander! Another note is the 3 baneblades vs. lysander isn't fair, maybe we need lysander to drop his storm shield and hammer and even then he bench presses the things! (another note is those baneblades can try, but I will just show them who has the best armour with 3 land raiders! Who needs structure points!).

 

Little disheartened by the whole 'mech' heavy shift we're seeing, it's starting to really wear my nerves thin. half the points of land raiders then I might not mind!

[DevianID]

In terms of tourney play, I think the only issue, even with 'last stand' types, is to have the missions announced beforehand. As long as that is done, I think there will be no major fairness issues other than the odd player complaining just to complain.

 

IE, if you know that a tourney will have a last stand mission, and you know that your regular list is gonna be GARBAGE if you get put in the 'marine' position, and you choose not to change your list, then you SHOULD have a hard time.

 

Basicly, the game NEEDS to have missions that HOSE armies. If you dont have really bad army matchups normally thanks to a very well designed list, but with the addition of these missions you are given some bad matches, that is a really, really good thing. Remember that tournies are multiple round affairs--the missions chosen should allow for armies that might suffer in one area to shine in another. Also, as multiround affairs, the more rounds the better. Thus, a 5 round event with 1-2 missions that may hose an army means there are 3 missions for the army to shine, meaning it can still win.

 

As for the special missions, I would LOVE a seeding round played with the special missions preceding an otherwise 3 round tourney, as normally 3 round events have a hard time producing a compelling winner. Whatever the tournies points limit is, provided its at least 1500 points, you would have to break your army into a legal 1500 point game for linebreaker. Everyone would play as the attacker, with the 3 baneblades following a script--so technically everyone is playing against the same AI. This of course would require some time before the event, so its best for clubs campaign tournies, who would have a week or two to allow particpants a chance to play the seeding game.

 

Alternately, a seeding or preliminary round of Kill Team could be played the day of the tourney, with the 200 points for kill team pulled from your tourney list. This would be easier to run, as you wouldnt need tons of baneblades. As kill team plays out fairly quickly, this seeding round might be given a time limit of 45 minutes. If you have a bad Kill Team as part of your tourney army, your overall performance in the 3 round tourney might be better but you will have lost some points. Likewise, if you have an AWESOME kill team for your otherwise lackluster tourney army, you can get some nice bonus points.

 

Tourney bonus points for the best kill team appearance, or a paint score based only on the kill team, would allow newer players a chance to win the best painted/appearance in a category even though the majority of the army was just bought recently and still unpainted.

[Captain Idaho]

In terms of tourney play, I think the only issue, even with 'last stand' types, is to have the missions announced beforehand. As long as that is done, I think there will be no major fairness issues other than the odd player complaining just to complain.

 

IE, if you know that a tourney will have a last stand mission, and you know that your regular list is gonna be GARBAGE if you get put in the 'marine' position, and you choose not to change your list, then you SHOULD have a hard time.

 

Basicly, the game NEEDS to have missions that HOSE armies. If you dont have really bad army matchups normally thanks to a very well designed list, but with the addition of these missions you are given some bad matches, that is a really, really good thing. Remember that tournies are multiple round affairs--the missions chosen should allow for armies that might suffer in one area to shine in another. Also, as multiround affairs, the more rounds the better. Thus, a 5 round event with 1-2 missions that may hose an army means there are 3 missions for the army to shine, meaning it can still win.

 

Very well said, really think you have a point. Only problem is which missions they pick as thre are so many to choose from!

 

I reckon they should do the best of both, take the balance and standard all round missions and cross them with missions that are more unusual to create missions that are balanced and accepted as a standard, but are off the wall enough to ensure players have to have lists that don't conform to a a pattern deemed on the net.