New ways to play - a change is as good as a rest.

[Denzark]

Hey chaps,

I am always looking for a little difference to inject spice into the game. I don't mean an obvious, such as Planetstrike, City fight or Apocalypse, but small variations that don't take much thought. Now, I would have recommended the Battle missions book for some variant scenarios, but for 6th, you would probably need to ensure theobjectives give sufficient VPs, especially if you are going to use the BRB secondary objs. Also, there is the new race-specific e-books with missions - they are quite good fun.

One I tried yesterday, which was awesome, was 3k, 2 detachments - and nothing with an AV could be taken. All inf and bikes, my CSM and Daemons lost 11-12 to a Salamander-Necron combo.

What ideas do you guys have for changing up the game for a little variety?

[Wolfshade]

I think it is in the 5th edition rule book (could be 4th) there are a number of different scearios each with their own special rules and vicotry conditions. A number of these can be imported straight to 6th others require some fine tuning. They were quite different from the usual missions and a bit of fun.

Actually, I may embark on this as a little side project to bring them in-line for 6th rules put them altogether as a pdf if people are interested.

[Mr Mystery]

Also, look into Fantasy. There is (or at least was) a 7 Samurai type scenario, where it was an even points match, where one side comprised entirely of character models.

Can easily be adapted to 40k for some fun and hijinks! Though I'd recommend letting the 'Samurai' player sort out his force, and have the opponent then points match that..... Just makes things a wee bit easier!

Other favourite from not that long ago was a battle mission put up on the website (no idea if it's still there). Intended for smaller scale play (500 points was recommended), you needed a densely terrained board as well. The twist? Your opponent moved. Then you got your shooting phase. Then they got their assault phase.

Tiny little tweak, brought a lot of new options to the table!

[Deathscythe91]

I always like playing kill teams. 250 points no HQs or heavys. Every model is treated as its own unit. Toss in some specialists (models with an extra USR) and your good to go. Games last until someone gets wiped out or 30 minuets. Best part? At 250 you only need a single box to play most armies. Use the Zone Mortalis rules for extra kicks.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

I wholeheartedly approve of this.

I really recommend making your own scenarios and introducing narratives to things. The above-mentioned Seven Heroes scenario in the Fantasy rulebook is a great example - why not go the whole hog and do a proper Seven Samurai scenario? A central village has to be defended by one side with a militia of rough and ready troops (Imperial Guard Conscripts, Chaos Cultists) against an army of elite troops as the bandits. The militia is supported by seven characters - writing the rules and converting the models for this would be cool.

Old White Dwarfs (and a few newer ones) are awesome sources of inspiration as well. The first White Dwarf I ever bought was the one with the Rourke's Drift Scenario - Praetorian Imperial Guard versus Grand Warlord Wood's Ork army - and it was what got me hooked on the hobby.

There's so much more you can do with the game than just play the same old Battle Missions over and over.

[eldargal]

There are some obvious ones like all infantry or all vehicle armies. Something we do on occasion is 'single FOC slot battles' as the name suggests you pick a FOC slot and select your army solely from that. You can have each player select from the same slot or different slots depending on what they want to do.

[Mr Mystery]

Man, this could be an entire sub forum to itself! The Sandpit. Where we get our toys out and froth about different ways to play :p

[magickbk]

I once compiled all the missions from 2nd-5th, built a massive table to pick from them using a D66 roll, and then started to modify all the missions to bring them in line with each other, but then gave up when 6th was released and I didn't have much playing time.

[Tyrendian]

would you happen to still have that lying around somewhere and be willing to share?

[magickbk]

would you happen to still have that lying around somewhere and be willing to share?

I know I have pieces of it. I'll dig around. If there was interest, I could continue work on it.

One of the main things I had in mind was objectives. Throughout the different editions, objectives and what can capture them has changed. My goal was to merge all that together so that army composition and objectives for all those old missions was brought in line with the current edition (then 5th).

Wolfshade, if you have a mind to do some work on making some sort of mission pack, I wouldn't mind collaborating.

[Denzark]

Magic, Wolfy - maybe you could be on the verge of a return to the grand old days of BoLS play aids if you made a PDF jobby?

I like the sound of 7 Samurai, I may give that a go.

[Wolfshade]

It sounds like a plan, though I must cdonfess I probably do not have the free time in the immediate future to actually do this...

[magickbk]

It sounds like a plan, though I must cdonfess I probably do not have the free time in the immediate future to actually do this...

Define 'immediate future'. My time is a little iffy at the moment also, my wife and I are expecting our second: this week. However, I'm thinking we could start off slow, by taking individual missions, tweaking them, and having a playtest group run through them to see how they play. Once all the missions have been put through their paces, we release the pack and the generator to pick the mission. My experience is that gaming is always a little slow in the fall with the start of school for students and teachers, maybe the finished pack could be a holidays gift to the BoLS community.

[Wolfshade]

Sounds a possibility, I shall tonight flick through old rule books to find missions after the pub :)

I shall collate a list, source and brief overview.

We can either keep it all in this thread or spawn a dedicated one to re-vamped old missions.

I think we should also very much include some of the ideas in this thread such as the one slot army and the 7 ninja sounds good. Perhaps also the old BoLS movie marines rules as well.

Once we start we'll need people willing to play test and feedback and suggest tweaks etc.

[Tyrendian]

I don't really play that regularly sadly (hard to find a common time slot for a gaming group when one guy goes to school, two work in different companies and two study...) but when we get the chance I'd be more than happy to try out a few of your creations with my friends!

[Cactus]

Necromunda/Mordheim had some great scenarios that largely required positioning terrain; things like rescue the prisoner, or a wild west style street fight.

Plus, Necromunda had some great environmental conditions, like foggy, acid rain, hive quake...

[Charistoph]

Once or twice a quarter, my LGS runs a 1000 point tournament with varying FOC requirements. One is requiring all 3 of either Elite, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support filled, nothing else is required. Another is Doubles. Each team member takes 1000 points and is only required HQ and 1 Troop, you both share an FoC, otherwise.

But the best is the Zombiepocalypse on Halloween. The rules change a little every year for what you face, but what you bring is 1 non-Unique HQ model who is built up according to your codex. Your job is to assassinate the Nurgle Lord who started the zombie plague, making it past his elite Plague Marine guard and the hordes of Plague Zombies. Last year, if you got hit, you took a Toughness test every turn, losing a Wound if you failed.

A couple years back, they even had it where your character turned in to a zombie with all his gear and joined the horde. The big downside: there were a lot of Crisis Suits on the board, and one huge Forgeworld Bloodthirster...

[HsojVvad]

New way to play? I am thinking of using the LorR rules. So, I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot then we do CC. Yes a lot of "tweaking" will happen, but don't we already have that going on now in 40K?

I find this more interactive with your opponent, where he is not doing nothing for 10-20 minutes while you are moving your units. Nothing worse than your opponent not into you, talking to someone else or on his cell phone.

[Wolfshade]

Too tired to look through tonight.

As for LotR style, when my mates and I play 3+ that is how we normally do it, tokens numbered 1 to n then everyone draws one from a cup and that is the order of movement, replace them all and re-pick that is the order for shooting and so on and so forth. It does help keep the game moving and having everyone involved. It also adds a lot more random, which is good and bad, when you managed to get two or three 1s on the trot it is great, when you have finally lined up your assault then get lower numbers and instead of assaulting you are assaulted it isn bad. Or frustrating.

[HsojVvad]

Add in Heroic Intervention Wolfshade. This way, the commander or what not passes his Ld (which should be easy) He or his group can move/shoot out of turn. It will even make it more meaningful to have a Special Character in your group.

This would also make it more cinematic and that is what GW is going for in this edition.

[Wolfshade]

Your idea got me thinking HsojVvad perhaps a number of "command points" ala Space Hulk so you can do a number of items out of sequence.

Though would need to consider how many per game and how they would be activiated automatic vs. Ld check hmm.