I really like the idea of combat areas, the way you have managed the objectives and the idea of checking victory conditions from turn #2 onwards, but am not so sure about some of the other conditions.

Giantslayer assumes a particular style of play and army list. I rarely if ever take titans (they tend to be bullet magnets and absorb activations), and I think that there are some lists that do not provide titans. However I take your point about the spectacle. Perhaps this could be made an either / or objective with 'decapitation' of all the enemy supreme commanders.

Equally the two 'critical targets' conditions are too similar to the Giantslayer one, this will make the titans even more of a bullet magnet than before; destroy the titan and damage one other formation and you are well on the way to winning the game without having to consider the rest of the opposing army! I would suggest removing these or at least severely modifying them.

Thanks for the specific feedback, Ginger – it's much appreciated. I've got a playtest game lined up with the current objectives, so I'll have a chat with the other players and see what they think.

Yes, forcing people to take certain units isn't my intention. It's a struggle to keep abreast of all the different variant lists, but all of the 'classic' lists have something appropriate, I think – though I'd be happy to be told otherwise!

The current phrasing allows Engine of Vaul and Superheavy Tank Companies as valid options because it's based on the number of DC in the formation, so there's no stricture that a force would have to take a Titan (though I think most people would take the opportunity to have a bigger Titan/more Titans than they would at smaller game sizes.)


That's a neat idea – how would you suggest that be phrased? The reason I had separated the condition was that it's unusual for Supreme Commanders and War Engines to be in the same formations (Orks are a notable exception – and their War Engines are so exceptionally durable that I don't think it unbalances the scenario), so one condition would favour attacking the Engines, the other the Infantry/Armour. The aim was to 'take the heat' away from the Titans a little, without making it sensible to just ignore them.


In concert with the Giantslayer condition, this does cause some issues. We have one condition that favours killing War Engines (Giantslayer), one condition that favours killing Supreme Commanders (Decapitation), one condition that is area control (Seize Ground), one condition that is objective control (Strike and Control), and two that encourage concentration on the enemy's most powerful formations (the two Critical Target objectives).

Currently, I think that's encouraging multiple small formations alongside some big War Engines and one or two giant infantry/armour formations in order to protect the Supreme Commanders and deny Giant Killer. Hmm. Perhaps the best idea would be to have a condition that encourages widescale damage (in order to further encourage people to spread out across the whole board), rather than targetting a particular type?

How do these revised suggestions look? The current (v1.1) conditions are at the bottom for easy reference. The new Demoralise replaces the old version, and I've differentiated the names for ease-of-use.



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Version 1.1 objectives [current]

Quote:

L5.2:
• Strike and Control: Score one objective point for each objective the team controls at the end of each turn. If you control the objective on the opposing team’s table edge you score two objective points. The team with the most objective points at the end of a turn achieves one victory condition. If you have double the opposing team’s objective points or more you achieve two victory conditions.
• Critical targets – demoralise: Identify the opposing team’s three most expensive formations. You achieve one victory condition if any one of these formations is destroyed or any two are below half strength.
• Critical targets – devastate: Identify the opposing team's three most expensive formations. You achieve one victory condition if any two of these formations are destroyed or all three are reduced to less than half strength.
• Seize Ground: You achieve one victory condition if you control more Combat Areas than the opposing team at the end of a turn. You control a Combat Area if it contains an unbroken friendly formation and no unbroken enemy formations. Formations which cross more than one Combat Area count as being in the Combat Area where most of their units are. If this is not clear, the owning team may choose which Combat Area the formation counts as being in (maximum one).
• Giantslayer – You achieve one victory condition if the opposing team has no unbroken formations with a combined starting Damage Capactity of 6 or more remaining on the board.
• Decapitation – You achieve one victory condition if the opposing team has no Supreme Commanders remaining on the board.

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Industrious, red-robe wearing member of the PCRC

I like the change.

I want to try out this scenario now, it looks fun!

Let us know how you get on with the playtest.

A couple of things that occured to me.

It might be very difficult to achieve "Critical Targets" in a game with fewer turns than normal (particularly if only two turns) - the previous version of the victory conditions (though I prefer the new version) got round this by awarding 2 goals for this extreme level of damage, but one goal for a lesser but still impressive amount of damage. Something to keep in mind in playtest anyway.

Regarding the new "Demoralise", from memory I can't think how common it is to destroy/break more than half of your enemy's army - it certainly usually feels like both armies are pretty battered by the end of a normal game, so it may be quite common.

It could detract a bit from the excitement of the scenario if this victory condition (and "Critical Targets" in fact) ends up being something that almost no-one ever achieves by turn 2, but both armies often achieve by Turn 3 or 4. Could make things predictable, or more prone to the dreaded draw!

I'm not sure this would necessarily be the case - just something to watch out for in playtesting.

Where possible, I think objectives should be exclusive of each other; gaining one objective should not directly contribute towards achieving a second. As such I still have concerns over the 'Critical targets', 'Giantslayer' and 'Demoralise' objectives. Titans and big WE formations that form the 'Giantslayer' objectives will also be among the 'critical targets', and these larger formations could also form part of the 'Demoralise' objective. As such, I would suggest that you drop 'Giantslayer', not least because of the constraints it places on list construction.

OTOH, I really like the other objectives listed. From 'strike and control' and 'seize ground', you start off with a balanced number of objectives each that can swing rapidly to either side; where one side gains a point for an objective, the other side loses a point. So in order to make the game exciting, you only need to provide some additional objectives that can shift the balance back the other way.

These are 'Decapitation', though it could be relatively easy to acheive; 'Demoralise', which is much harder; and 'Critical targets', which might just be worth 2 points because it is likely to be the hardest to achieve.