Friday 16 October 2015

Variants on a Theme


Its blue moon time people!

Thats right, Edchopp is writing a blog post, like the occasional unwelcome fart in a space suit it is time for me to contribute what I can to this blog.


Just a quick one from me, I would like to introduce you to some scenario ideas I had while recording the last podcast. Realistically these are just variations on Take and Extract but my main thought was to take away the idea of 'home' objectives. Which hopefully would force players to come out of their deployment zones in order to fight over the delicious sweet objective meat sat in the centre of the field.

Bare with me on the diagrams, they aren't massively accurate so you'll need to apply a bit of logic to your set up and work around my idiocy.

So without further ado, I present to you two variants of my scenario idea.

Rolling Strike:



Number of Players: 2
Army Roster: Standard
Deployment: All Battle groups begin the game in readiness. Fast Mover Squads start in Reserve.
Duration: 6 turns
Victory Conditions: The player with the highest number of Victory points at the end of the game is the winner. The player with the highest Kill points is the winner in the event of a Tie.

Special Rules: All buildings are hardened.

Set Up:
  •  Three large buildings spaced evenly along the centre line each with an objective inside.
  • Any number of small to medium buildings elsewhere.
  • A Focal point 12" on from each players deployment edge and 24"away from either flank (Green circles) and outside buildings.
The idea of this  scenario is for the players to fight over the central objectives rather than giving up on their opponents 'home' objective and just demoing it. The focal points adds that end game tension I really like when your trying to work out just how your gonna win! Plus if your unlucky on the objective rolls then you still have a shot at clawing back some points.

Also all the buildings in this scenario are hardened to ensure that unintentional demo units don't spoil the fun and to push players to dedicate proper firepower in order to bring down buildings. Although feel free to play without hardened buildings.

Rolling Strike Variant:


Number of Players: 2
Army Roster: Standard
Deployment: Direct Deployment up to 6" onto the table no further than 12" away from the players corner. Units in Aerial Transports begin the game in readiness. Fast Mover Squads start in Reserve.
Duration: 6 turns
Victory Conditions: The player with the highest number of Victory points at the end of the game is the winner. The player with the highest Kill points is the winner in the event of a Tie.

Special Rules: All buildings are hardened.

Set Up:
  •  Three large buildings one at the central point and another two in the centre of the empty quarters, each with an objective inside.(Orange Circles)
  • Any number of small to medium buildings elsewhere.
  • A Focal point in the centre of each players quarter and outside buildings. (Green Circles)

I added Direct deployment to this scenario to help out those units which are a bit slower than most so that they would at least have the option of maybe going for the opposing players focal point.  The diagonal direction of this scenario will lend an interesting dynamic to the deployment and hopefully you'll still fight over those central objectives.


Anyway I've really enjoyed fiddling about with these scenario maps and I shall probably come up with a few more in the near future. Please let me know in the comments if you play either of these scenarios and if you have any feedback about them. Also if you have any other ideas for generic scenarios go ahead and let us know. I'm always looking to spice up my games.

Happy Hunting peeps.

11 comments:

  1. Nice missions! Need to try them out sometime!
    I think Jens have one variant there the objectives are like a cross and the focal point in the middle...

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  2. Great ideas, Ed. We've been discussing doing something similar. (However, your ideas are variations on Secure the Flanks, not Take & Extract; snolb's suggestion of pivoting Take & Extract 90 degrees is also something we have discussed using in a tournament, but haven't had the chance to do so yet... Hmmmm, maybe for the 14 November one we'll do one of these three ideas...)

    One thing I would suggest on both of your Rolling Strike ideas, Ed, is that you score the focal points like you do in Surging Strike, which I suspect might have been your idea for them, given the name: If you contest either focal point you score 1 VP for each you contest, and if you control either focal point you score 2 VPs as normal for each you control, but if you control the focal point on your opponent's half/quarter of the table you score an additional 1 VP, so the other guy's focal point is worth 3 VPs to you if you control it, just as in Surging Strike.

    Whaddya think? 8^D

    By the way, I would love it if you tried out our Custom Scenario #2: Battlefront some time and give your feedback on it. You can find the rules for it on the forum in General Discussion in the topic entitled "JDW's Custom Scenario #2: Battlefront". It's currently on Page 2 of General Discussion.

    (And if you've got the time, try our Custom Scenario #3: Recovery & Denial, too (currently on Page 5 of General Discussion)).

    If you do either/both, please feel free to comment on those topics on the forum, or, if you feel so inclined, write a blog post about how they went here! (Cheeky of me, I know!). I just ask that if you choose either one to do that with, that you play more than one game of it, and try out different army vs army combinations; we will do the same with your Rolling Strike and Rolling Strike Variant when we can. (I bring my missus home from the hospital tomorrow; she had a portion of her right kidney removed on Thursday to remove a tumor and enough "margin" to ensure that she didn't have to also do chemotherapy and radiation. The operation was a success, and the Dr saved about 80%-85% of her kidney. They also took out her gall bladder while they were at it, and did a biopsy of her liver, which is what started us on this adventure, and which the other surgeon said looked "odd, definitely not right, but not obviously cancer", which is both encouraging and a bit disturbing at the same time. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that I got laid off so I can take care of her while she recovers (huge incision running from her sternum down her right side) and not have to worry about missing work. Funny how these things work out... Now I just need to land a new job, and soon!)

    Point being, it's going to be a while before I can get in another game of DzC, much less several, so it'll take me a while to test out one of your scenarios, but I will make it a point to do so when I do get the chance to get some games in next. I'm thinking Rolling Strike Variant...

    (Although I told Chris Loomis that I'd also playtest his scenario with the 8" horizontal bands that score like focal points, but with some additional scoring. However, there's a few things he needs to work out about that custom scenario, such as whether or not aircraft can score as in Ground Control, and whether to just score at the end of Turn 6, or also at the end of Turn 4 (& possibly 5)... OK, gonna wait on Chris' scenario till he figures that out more, will tackle Rolling Strike Variant next...)

    Later!

    8^D

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    Replies
    1. One thing I forgot to mention about our custom scenarios: Please read through the entire topic, as the rules have morphed over time, and you should play the final version, which I believe are in later posts in both threads...

      Thanks!

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    2. Hey JD, sorry to hear about your RL worries. Hope everything goes well and there is a fully recovery.
      I'll have a look over the missions, hopefully we can give them a go soon, but for some strange reason I have signed up for an X-Wing tournament so need some practice!

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    3. Thanks, Mike. We will know if the kidney mass was malignant or not, and probably hear the results of the liver biopsy, on Thursday. But for now the Dr got enough of her kidney that she won't need chemo or radiation, so that's a big plus. She's just a hurtin' puppy right now, still at 7 or 8 on the pain scale.

      Looking forward to hearing what you think of our missions.

      And X-Wing is easy! You're just pushing little toy spaceships around and going "pew-pew". :-P It's more Poker than Chess, whereas DzC is definitely more like Chess. If you know what your opponent's dials are going to be before he flips each one over, then that's most of the battle, and if you can control your own dice results thru clever pilot selection and equipment/crew upgrades, then the rest is just dice, and you know how that goes!

      Best of luck!

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    4. (And I don't mean to imply that you don't know how to play X-Wing! It's just a very different set of skills from DzC, which is why it's what I play when I want to take a break from Dropzone... Plus I have a very good friend who won a Regional Qualifier over here (his 3rd Regionals), placed 3rd in the US National tournament, and 2nd at the Canadian Nationals. He plays A LOT of X-Wing, and I've listened to him A LOT about how he approaches the game. He hates relying on dice, so he does everything he can to mitigate dice results and be able to flip misses and eyeballs into the results he wants. It's been an education!)

      8^D

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    5. I wouldn't wait on me. Everything you mentioned is just options. I haven't tested any of it since Sept.

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  3. I like these missions. Good design to make an interesting game.

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  4. Really amazing version! I like them all a lot. I think this goes with the many current variations of the missions you could use. For instance one building could be a bunker. Placing the focal points inside buildings would also change it up a lot.

    Thanks for a good read.
    /Egge

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