Apocalypse Personal Objectives

Over the past weekend Apoc-Eclipse (a super-set of DFIR) ran its semi-annual unlimited-point Apocalypse game. You can check out the basic army lists and other scenario information here.

As one of the organizers I design a set of individual victory conditions or personal objectives. This gives every player or sub-faction something else to strive towards besides just trying to win the scenario itself. Sometimes these big games are so huge that it can feel like an individual with a small army won't be able to affect the outcome. If you can achieve your own personal objectives, then you can feel that you did well.

My theory when making these up is that I take a lot of effort to look at what the player is bringing. We don't restrict anything, so when you have all the options in the world the units that show up must be important to you. I like to make the minor victory conditions something that you should be able to achieve if you put some effort to it. The major victory conditions are much more difficult and should only be achieved if you do very well.

Of course, "the best laid plans" and all that. I ended up spending all day Saturday in the hospital with my first kidney stone (courtesy of a doctor's brilliant idea that calcium supplements would help my bad back). I missed the game and the personal victory conditions were skipped to avoid unnecessary complications.

I've decided to post the victory conditions that I came up with here along with some notes. I hope that they may inspire you when you start to make up a new scenario for your group to play.

Individual Victory Conditions
Imperial: Ultramarines
Calgar has assumed control over this failing campaign, much to the chagrin of the other commanders. Show the rest of the Imperial forces why the Ultramarines are the Emperor's Finest.
Minor Individual Victory: Claim more objectives than any other individual Imperial force.
Major Individual Victory: Claim enough objectives for the Ultramarines to win the game without needing the assistance of the other Imperial forces.

MattP: We had two very large mechanized Ultramarine armies attending. I figured it would be nice to give the strong infantry units something to do.

Imperial: White Swords
This planet has caught the attention of some of the most infamous devils in the Imperium's glorious history. Rid the universe of this filth. Let the light of the White Sword guide you.
Minor Individual Victory: Kill at least four named Chaos characters.
Major Individual Victory: Kill at least three named Chaos characters in close combat.

MattP: The White Swords are a custom chapter created by Curt, one of Apoc-Eclipse's organizers. Their background has lots of anti-daemon aspects down to a custom Apocalypse-only item. The army doesn't have many Apocalypse units, but it is important that everyone feel the grandeur of the battles!

Imperial: Silver Skulls
An ancient device that raised the interest of the Silver Skull's master tech marines has been uncovered on the battlefield. Claim it quickly!
Before the start of the first turn, pick one objective in the Chaos deployment zone and announce it to the group. This is your major objective.
Minor Individual Victory: Ensure that no Chaos unit claims this objective.
Major Individual Victory: Silver Skulls units claim the objective.

MattP: The Silver Skulls are also a custom chapter created by a local player. I am not as familiar with their background, but I do know that they are very mechanized and have a Thunderhawk Gunship. I felt that this would be a good match for an army that specializes in strike tactics.

Imperial: Squat Guard/Daemonhunters (Any)
The reports are true. The foul daemon-god Nurgle has sent his generals to fight on this battlefield. Purge the unclean!
Minor Individual Victory: Kill four Nurgle special characters (Typhus, Mortarion, Epidemius, Mabras, Mamon, Necrosius).
Major Individual Victory: Claim the Trophy Kill of the Death Guard Primarch Mortarion?s corpse.

MattP: I usually try to make a few of the objectives about directly engaging the enemy. I knew we had a strong Nurgle group coming with a lot of special characters and the Daemonhunters would certainly be targeting the Primarch Mortarion anyway!

Imperial: Eldar
The threads of fate have wrapped around the ancient enemy's neck. Weave them into a noose and throttle the life out of the despicable creatures.
Minor Individual Victory: Destroy two of the Slaaneshi titans.
Major Individual Victory: Destroy Slaanesh's Lash, the Pleasurelord Titan.

MattP: The Eldar player was borrowing three of my Eldar titans (Phantom, Warlock, Revenant). I know these are very powerful units, so I thought it would be best if he was directed to attack my own forces with it. I'm used to getting shot with my own models anyway...

Chaos: Nurgle
Papa Nurgle demands a sacrifice, preferably one on a planetary scale.
Continue to keep Epidemius' tally, even if he is banished to the warp. When dead or off of the table, Epidemius? bonuses are conferred at totals 10x of those used when he is alive.
Minor Individual Victory: Take the tally to 100.
Major Individual Victory: Take the tally to 200.

MattP: What do you do if more than half of your Chaos players are playing Nurgle? What does Nurgle want on the planet anyway? The best answer I could come up with was "death." With a Plaguereaper, a Daemon Primarch, and just about every special character I felt that 100 was an easily manageable total. Epidemius has the biggest bulls eye painted on his slimy back, so there's got to be another reason to keep the tally going.

Chaos: Vraks/Undivided
Your madness knows no bounds. If you can't have the planet, then you'll ensure that no one else will!
Your Troop units have the Corrupt and Despoil strategic asset. (From Apocalypse Reloaded: If they are in base contact with an objective during the assault phase and not in combat, they may remove the objective from the game.) If any friendly or enemy unit is within 6" of the objective, they can prevent you from destroying it, so ask nicely.
Minor Individual Victory: Destroy at least five objectives.
Major Individual Victory: The number of objectives destroyed is enough to win the game.

MattP: We were expecting several Chaos players who weren't deeply devoted to one of the major cults but were, instead, closer to the Codex description of warbands. I could easily see them acting on a mission within a mission just laying waste to the battlefield itself.

Chaos: Titan Legions
Finally, opponents worthy of your wrath!
Minor Individual Victory: Damage every enemy super heavy walker.
Major Individual Victory: Ensure that the enemy possesses no more than 20 structure points worth of vehicles.

MattP: I was bringing a lot of super heavies, and if I turned the guns on the enemy infantry it would not have been pleasant for either side. I wanted a victory condition that required me to target the opposing super heavies.

Chaos: Tau
It is difficult to understand the stubbornness of the humans. They resist a simple trade agreement simply because it crosses borders through their empire, and tighten their grip on the systems in question like a snake. As is known, the way to kill a snake is to cut off its head.
Minor Individual Victory: Kill at least four Space Marine Commanders or Captains.
Major Individual Victory: Destroy the Ultramarines Masters of the Chapter with your own units.

MattP: This is the Chaos version of the anti-Nurgle one from earlier. It is a good idea to get the Tau motivated to hunt down enemy units since it is otherwise so easy for them to castle-up and hold a defensive posture.

Let me know what you think!

REVIEW: 40k Battle Missions Supplement

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking at this point, "Sheesh! Not ANOTHER blogger reviewing the new Battle Missions book..."

Yup, that's what you're getting here.

Its funny, for YEARS, I've been saying that Games Workshop needed to do just this - publish a book of missions. Finally, my dream comes true. Since numerous places out there on the interwebs can give you detailed information about the 33 new missions in the book, I'll take a slightly different approach in this review.

THE GOOD

Hands down, I'm happy with this product.

The missions do spice things up a good bit, but none of them really go "way out there" and mess with the basic 40k v5 mechanic; well, maybe with the exception of the Space Marine mission that features a Thunderhawk... Most are based on objectives or some variant of the Kill Point system (with even one or two using a modified v4-ish Victory Points deal).

Many of the missions include one-to-a-handful of "special rules" that add a new dimension to the mission. Yet none of these seems awfully broken or lopsided.
The book contains a small bit of fluff for almost all of the armies out there (the =][= forces being the exception), which provides a nice little break from "reading rules".

And to go beyond the book itself, I believe that this supplement can help one devise their own missions (something we here at DFIR LOVE to do), and can also be used as a springboard to formulate either a campaign or even a good game of Apocalypse.

THE BAD

All is not a rose garden, though.

Did Games Workshop miss a boat here by not supporting the Battle Missions book with more miniatures releases? The past expansions - Cities of Death, Apocalypse, and Apocalypse Reload - all featured quite a number of new model releases and/or splash bundle packages. So why did the new Battle Missions book only come with a handful of new kits for only 3 armies? Got me...

Are there to many new missions in the book? I doubt I'll ever play all of them at least once. Seriously, 30 missions (the other 3 are "special" missions) is A LOT of games to be played. 60 if you consider playing them all from both sides of the fence. Hmmm... quick head math here, at roughly 3 games per month (my average gaming schedule), it'd take me almost 2 years to play all 30 missions from both sides of the equation (ie., once as attacker and once as defender).

Are having the missions arranged by Army types going to make some people shy away from playing many of the missions? I look forward to playing some of my armies using the Daemons missions (for example), but that might not be what everyone is thinking... I think a better way to "organize" the book would have been to do so like some of the older rulebooks, by "mission type". Have raids, breakthroughs/breakouts, assaults/sieges, and etc. This would have also allowed for a more robust "special missions" section including such things as a Kill Team-esque mission, a Combat Patrol mission, a high/low gravity mission, a new Cityfight mission (or two), and even a new Apocalypse style mission (or two).

Finally, I think my last gripe is that maybe the missions are somewhat repetitive in certain elements. Deployment schemes, for example. Why not include some missions with that old "diver down" style deployment where opponents have a triangular-shaped deployment zone? Another example is that all of the missions have the standard variable game length (one includes an 8th turn, and one is "fight til one person is completely annihilated). It would have been nice to see some have a set length, a different take on variable length, or maybe even a set event that would end the game.


SUMMARY

Like I said earlier, "Hands down, I'm happy with this product." My minor gripes above do not detract from my appreciation for the Battle Missions book. If anything, the book will help me (and my fellow DFIR cohorts) springboard into more home-made missions and general "fun times". The product is worth it for the variety it adds to the game, even if you won't play every single mission in it.

In other words, I highly recommend the new Battle Missions book.