Tuesday 18 April 2017

New Mission: Forward Air Base


A week has gone by, allowing you lots of time to observe, bite into and digest our first new mission, Civilian Extraction. How did it taste? Like a juicy, medium-rare steak? Or perhaps more like a sweet piece of mama's pumpkin pie? Or maybe you didn't like it, and it tasted more like a glass of hot bin juice.

How ever you liked last week's mission, I have a new, fresh and steamy serving for your palate to experience today; Forward Air Base!

Forward Air Base mixes the long serving focal points, which traditionally score at the end of a game to Vehicles and Infantry, with the missions Ground Control and Domination, in which Aircraft can score as well as Vehicles and Infantry. Although I enjoy these two missions, they tend to pull a mixed reaction when fielded at a tournament, and I know exactly why; all the bloody number crunching. Allowing every model fielded to score on every inch of board space can create analysis paralysis for some gamers, especially in Domination where you score on turns three and six, and adding to that Infantry counting as double in buildings - cue calculators and nose bleeds. I'm hoping that Flight Zones go some way to easing this strain whilst still allowing for an underused unit type to contribute - the Aircraft.

I'm a fan of the idea of aircraft scoring, and we simply don't see enough of it. By tweaking focal points to score on the third and sixth turns and to score only for Vehicles and Aircraft, it should help add a new dimension to game play. For a start it gives your dropships something important to do once they drop their cargo! Deployment of your AA will also be key to unlocking the door to all the VPs possible.

Importantly Infantry cannot contribute and score in a Flight Zone. Infantry are and should be an important part of the game, but I have removed them from scoring in order to emphasise the aircraft angle. This will also allow all the boys, girls, cyborgs and hedgehogs to concentrate on the objectives on the table.

Now, I'm fully aware that I've not reinvented the wheel, just rather added some spokey-dokeys to it to make it colourful and exciting. It's actually a little surprising that Hawk haven't made something similar yet, but there you go.

Lastly I will point out the slightly alternative board set up, with players deploying from readiness from the corners, rather than the long board edges as you would normally see in this kind of mission. This should make the 'opponents' Flight Zone a little more available and less dangerous to enter, as their force will be split diagonally across the table, rather than all coming on from behind the zone.

Let me know what you think, your feedback is golden and always welcome!



15 comments:

  1. Looks interesting. Do you find that players just "camp" on their FZ's, harvesting VPs on 3 & 6? What's their incentive to venture into the other guy's area and try to control his FZ, since they can't contest, rather than just sitting back and defending their FZ's? Hopefully you get my point...

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    1. Also, this looks like it would be good for 1,500 points as-is, as well as 1,000 points. Yes?

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    2. Yah, it should scale up nicely. This is untested atm, so that could very well be a problem. Given how​ easy it is to contest though, especially with Aircraft, I thought it'd be worth trying this way.

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    3. Definitely worth trying. But an idea might be to add an element of Surging Strike, and award 1 more VP if you control the FZ that's closer to your opponent's corner. Mebbe, just thinking out loud here... Just something to get folks to press forward and engage with their opponent's forces. I like the scoring on T3 & T6, tho, that's always good, I think.

      Have you tried my Battlefront mission yet? It might be too similar to this one to include in your upcoming event, but maybe not...

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    4. I'm hoping the corner deployment will help mitigate the home\opponent FZ issue, but it's a good idea which I'll stick into notes.

      I haven't played Battlefront, haven't played any DzC for months tbh. Linky? We already have the missions for Critty E sorted, but it's nice to have varied missions for club play.

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    5. Subject: JDW's Custom Scenario #2: Battlefront
      http://www.hawkforum.co.uk/hawkforum/viewtopic.php?p=51429#p51429

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    6. Let me know how your guys like it...

      And let me know if you need something a little more precise than the "dot diagrams" I've got in the forum OP. I need to get around to doing that eventually, anyway, so lemme know if you need it...

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    7. I'll take a butchers and report feedback! It is super binary atm, an actual diagram would be good.

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    8. Dan, this one is my version of JDs Battlefront. It has a diagram but is laid out a bit differently. Fun mission!

      http://www.greenstuffindustries.com/uploads/2/6/0/3/26037626/mission_2_-_battlefront_oct.pdf

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    9. It's laid out quite differently, Rich, and frankly doesn't play the same... But, thank you.

      I'll get a diagram going in a while, too much Real Life at the moment...

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  2. Not strictly true that it is untested, Kanan and Steve played it last friday. They said the only thing they'd change is that the FZ's were diagonally opposite each other, both in neutral areas. As then there would be some proper fighting over the Flight Zones
    I am inclined to agree - especially with corner deployment

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    1. Didn't hear that feedback, that's good to know. I wanted to change it up from just being 'Secure The Flanks: Aircraft Edition' but if it makes the mission better then fo sho.

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    2. That makes sense, and would eliminate my observation/question...

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  3. I like it. Perhaps some improvement on having the focal points in the center of the neutral areas? Then the buildings as the classical secure the flanks. Should work as good as secure the flanks. Even better as you score on turn 3 and 6. But then you could go with the contesting part as well (at least for 1500points - i e 2 points for holding and 1 for contesting).

    Very much worth a try as I see it.

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