Legions Imperialis "CLASHING PATROLS" Scenario

[Crablezworth]

New Scenario/mission "Clashing Patrols"

 

It's a bit wordier than I would have liked but I basically had to cover all bases in terms having to make a reserve rule from scratch as the core rules don't really have a reserve mechanic.

 

The basic idea is instead of both sides deploying normally, players alternate moving detachments on to the board from their board edge turn 1. You take the total detachments of the army with the fewest activations/detachments and halve that number rounding down and that's how many detachments both sides can bring in turn 1. Everything else starts in reserve and you roll for them from turn 2 onward.

 

The idea is an escalating conflict and the goal is to try and deal with activation disparity, but also shift the cadence of the battle so its no longer so weighted to the first few turns and hopefully end up with a bit more of a nail-biter that sees the game end on turn 5 instead of 2 or 3.

 

It won't really work for all titan or knight armies, it's designed with legion/solar auxilia/mechanicum/dark mechanicum in mind as primary forces. I can't really control that mechanicum have titans in their formations but I'd encourage players to avoid big ticket items/units unless playing larger point games. Ideally both sides will have a largely mechanized combined arms force with maybe a dash of flyers but mostly ground forces.

 

I've attached a sample board and a couple sample 1500pts armies

[Crablezworth]

So small update, we've had a chance to test this out and it's honestly very enjoyable. It's easier to pick up and play if a lot of time has lapsed between ones last game of li. I'm always a bit rusty as there's usually like 2-3 weeks between games. 

 

The last 2 games we rolled hammer and anvil and I think it helped really stress test things. What feels right about it is, you end up with a dynamic whereby one can't necessarily play as aggressively as they might ideally like to without perhaps waiting an extra turn for a bit more support to come in or another detachment to link up for support. Transports become far far more useful and downright necessary with this much real estate in terms of no man's land (in the context of he last few games). 

 

Another thing I really like is it's helped with incentive to take fewer activations in so much as it will mean fewer initial detachments, on account of taking the lower of the two between the two armies and halving it to figure out the cap for turn 1 detachments. That also isn't to say there's less benefit to taking more activations/detachments, it just helps with initial disparity, gives some breathing room. 

 

As the scenario gives vp's for killing hq/tank commanders, one change I have contemplated is allowing a reserve re-roll per hq base/tank commander in one's army, or perhaps just a +1 to the roll, either way. 

 

Other considerations, I may just lock the scenario down to just the 3(4) main factions and say no entirely to knights or titans. The concern with making it too restrictive is no one trying it, and I'm mainly trying to evangelize the changes in deployment/reserve and end game scoring. Part of the inclination to ban titans and knights is mostly just being honest that they don't make sense for the scenario.