Alright! I finally finished sifting through these, as well as enjoying some 40K matches. Somehow I missed Typhus but was able to find his sheet elsewhere. But now, things are really hectic!
GW lied! The first datasheet file dropped today! And it's my 'Nids!
So I'm going to do a short one today and hopefully finish getting caught up over the weekend. My guess is we'll see Marines tomorrow.
We got to see two Mission Primaries over the course of the event, with two special rules and two deployment maps.
DEPLOY SERVO-SKULLS
This is the mission we got for the more competitive game between Nick Nanavati and Andrew Gonyo. This was a fun match to watch and I think I really like the mechanic, though it also brought one of my worries into play. I'll get into that in it's own section.
Deploy Servo-Skulls looks like a fun mission. Like in all missions, you'll deploy objectives throughout the map. Two of these will likely be in deployment zones; the rest will be in No Man's Land. The objectives in each players deployment zone has no effect save for scoring Secondaries or executing Mission Rules. Only the No Man's Land objectives can be used to score Primaries.
But there's a twist! At the end of each turn whoever controls the objective can move it 6". Then the objectives will score VP automatically for each player based on their position (you do not have to control them). The amount of VP you get is based on how close they are to your opponent's deployment zone.
This was a really exciting mechanic throughout the exhibition match and each player had different strategies for how to score with it. I really like the look of this mission!
THE RITUAL
In the exhibition match between Thomas Reidy and Rob Jones we got a strange mission where you get to spawn your own objectives to score.
During your turn you can have a unit, that is both not Battle-shocked and still eligible to Shoot, give up its shooting and charging to place an objective marker at the end of your turn. The rule for placing the marker are pretty exacting, and I'm not sure the players followed them correctly. Once again, you only score objective markers in No Man's Land while using the other objectives for secondaries.
I think this is an interesting mission, but it raised a point that I didn't notice before.
Actions are gone.
Instead, various rules will have their own set of rules for how you do them. I'm not sure I like this. I think this adds in a lot of potential for fiddly or complicated rules that will have to be clarified when they could have had a single, centralized mechanic. We'll have to see how this pans out over the course of the edition.
SECONDARY MISSIONS
We got to see plenty of Secondary play over the two games. In the first game Thomas played Fixed Missions and Rob played Tactical Missions. But the Mission Rule, Targets of Opportunity, provided random objectives for both players. In the second game, both Nick and Andrew selected Tactical Missions, drawing many different Secondaries over the course of the game.
On the whole, I found the Tactical mission play very enjoyable. I'm a fan of the Maelstrom/Tempest of War style mechanics, providing they've been well balanced. And these seem pretty good so far.
A Tempting Target
A nice simple objective where your opponent presents you with a challenge and you get 5 VP if you can achieve it. This is one where it might be a "win more" kind of objective, but in tight games could bring some interesting potential for strategy and counter-play.
Assassination
A classic that can be scored as either a Fixed Mission or Tactical Mission. This can be a tricky mission to try and score if drawn randomly, or it can result in 5VP for free if drawn near the end of a brutal slugfest.
Area Denial
Try to hold the center of the board. If you can successfully keep your opponent outside of 6", you score 5VP. If they get within 6" but not 3" you score 3VP. This is one that might require a change of game plan depending on your overall strategy when you draw it.
Bring it Down
Another classic with varying use depending on your opponent. You can score a lot of VP on this one, whether you're using it as a Tactical Objective or Fixed Objective. But you'll want to skip it or cycle it if your opponent doesn't have the Monsters/Vehicles for it.
Cleanse
Another reason to have units for taking and holding objectives, this mission lets your units controlling objectives give up combat to score VP for you. Kinda reminds me of Banners or RND.
Defend the Stronghold
Probably the most boring one we saw. Can you control your home objective? Have 3VP! Unless you're getting your butt kicked or playing a risky strategy, this will usually be free VP.
Deploy Teleport Homer
A more flexible mission that you can try and score big on if you want to risk it or if you're already winning. Gain 2-3 VP for performing an action on the center of the board, or 4-5 VP if you do it in your opponent's deployment zone. If you've got a solidly fast moving army, you can take this as a Fixed Mission.
Engage On All Fronts
They made some nice changes on this one. The first is that while you still have to get units in table quarters, those units have to be at least 3" away from any other table quarter. No splitting a unit between one or more quarter, but you also don't have to push as far from the center. Additionally, if you're playing Tactical and you don't have enough units that aren't Battle-shocked, you can swap it immediately.
No Prisoners
Another classic! Get VP for killing your opponent. Simple, but effective!
Overwhelming Force
Another objective that can potentially call for you to change your plans. Were you planning on ceding that objective near your opponent's deployment zone? Well now it's worth 3VP if you kill the unit on it.
Secure No Man's Land
This an interesting one. It's worth 2 VP as long as you hold an objective in No Man's Land. But that's all it's worth if you don't hold a second one after you draw it. Really feels like it pushes you to grab that second objective so you're not giving up the 3VP.
GAMBITS
GW! You're so close! Orbital Strike Coordinates is the only one I have a problem with!
The first two in the screenshot are fine! In the first case you need to get tied up with as many units as you can and try to get 4s on the roll for the mission. If you can't get stuck in with at least 4 enemy units, you'll fail the Gambit, and if you can't get 8 you've got greater than even odds to fail. This not only feels pretty fair for a gambit, but it feels super thematic! You know the battle is lost, now all that's left is to sue for as much time as you can.
The second one requires you to try and hold the center with as many units as you can. Again, if you have 4 or fewer units, you're going to fail the Gambit, and you want to aim for at least 8. Then once again you're looking for 4s.
Both of these feel so much more challenging and thematic than Orbital Strike Coordinates. In the second exhibition match, the scenario I've talked about previously on my blog happened. Andrew was down on Primary in a close game, and decided to go for the Gambit. The deployment map, along with his Stratagems, gave him easy access to one corner, and then he also had his own deployment zone corner. He needed to roll an 11 or more to beat Nick and keep up his friendly winning streak with the Art of War coach.
He rolled a 10.
I just don't like this scenario. The game had been a close and brutal slugfest with both players making interesting tactical decisions. To have all of that come down to a die roll felt bad to me. I don't like Orbital Strike Coordinates and hope it gets changed or replaced.
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