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Wasn't sure whether to throw this in Proposed Rules or here, but I figured that this wasn't really a new change to the game, just an idea for a mission. Anyways.

I'm currently in a league at my FLGS, and the way we're doing things this time is that everyone gets to decide the rules for one week of the league - mission, points, restrictions on lists, all that jazz. I thought I would try to do something fun, so I wrote up my own mission, mainly inspired by a mission from Dawn of War II: Retribution. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could give me some feedback on it. I'm mostly looking for whether people think it's balanced, too skewed towards one side or the other, or too easy to cheese. Also, I tried my best to emulate the writing style of the rules in the Battle Missions book, but if anything is unclear, I'd like to know how I could make it more clear.

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Exterminatus Run
“In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying lord) and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world, and consign a million souls to oblivion.”

The Imperium of Man has many tools at its disposal, but none is more terrible and more terrifying than the Exterminatus. This final resort is carried out only in the gravest of circumstances, for the only goal is the total destruction of an entire world to prevent it from becoming a threat to mankind…

On occasion, the Imperium will falter in its ability to hold a world against its foes, and be forced to leave that planet behind. Such a retreat is often only temporary, a delaying tactic before the Imperium’s military forces can reclaim it, but there are times when reclamation is too costly, or the threat is too great to risk a long campaign. In times such as this, the Imperium calls upon its final weapon: Exterminatus.

The declaration of Exterminatus is not one to be taken lightly, as it involves the destruction of an entire world to prevent it from falling into the hands of mankind’s enemies. Though the methods vary depending on the circumstances, the most common means of carrying out Exterminatus is through orbital bombardments fired over the entire surface of the doomed planet, turning it to rubble.

For one reason or another, your forces have been caught on the ground as the world is being destroyed. Perhaps you are the intended target of the Imperial bombardment, or maybe you have simply been caught in the crossfire. Regardless, you and your army are now trapped on a planet crumbling to dust before your very eyes. The only way out is through an ancient warp gate located at the far end of a ruined city, but countless enemies lie between it and you, and they have no intention of allowing you to escape.

Deployment
Split the table into halves along the width of the board, then roll off to determine who is the defender and who is the attacker. Then, divide the board into six equal sections and place a marker in the center of each one. Number them from 1 to 6 using a die or a scrap of paper; these will be used for The Sky is Falling (detailed below). Finally, the defender chooses a table half and deploys his forces first, up to the center line. The attacker then deploys his army in his deployment zone, 18” away from the defender’s.

Objectives
Place a marker (or a suitable piece of terrain) in the center of the defender’s deployment zone, representing a warp gate.

Reserves
Neither player may place any units in reserve; there is simply too much chaos to rely on reinforcements showing up at a critical moment.

First Turn
The attacker has the first turn.

Victory Conditions
The attacker may move his units through the warp gate during the movement phase; in order to do so, the entire unit must be within 2” of the marker or piece of terrain, as if they were embarking onto a vehicle. Note that a unit may enter the gate even if it disembarked from a vehicle on the same turn, and there is no restriction on what units may enter—even units that normally cannot embark on vehicles are allowed to pass through. Any models that enter the gate in this way are removed from the table and placed aside. At the end of the game, the attacker receives 1 point for every 50 points in the cost of each unit that moved into the warp gate (rounded up). Divide the cost of each unit by 2 if it entered the gate with fewer than half of its initial number of models, or half of its initial hull points.

Example: A Space Marine Tactical Squad consisting of four models manages to exit through the warp gate. The attacker totals the squad’s original cost of 175 points, then divides it by 2 because the unit is below half strength for a total of 87.5. He rounds up to the nearest hundred and thus receives 2 points towards victory.

The defender scores points in the same manner for each enemy unit that has been completely eliminated from the board; at the end of the game, he scores 1 point for every 50 points, rounded up, that each destroyed unit is worth. Note that the defender cannot score partial points—it’s all or nothing for him!

Special Rules
The Sky is Falling: At the end of each game turn, one player rolls a die and places the Apocalyptic Mega-Blast template over the corresponding marker. The blast scatters 3d6” and must scatter, even if a hit is rolled (in which case use the small arrow on the scatter die). The blast is then resolved with a Strength of 10/7/5 and an AP of 1/4/6.

No-Fly Zone: Due to the turbulent, roiling atmosphere, players may not use zooming flyers nor flying monstrous creatures in swooping mode.

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As I said, I'm mostly looking to make sure that it's about as balanced as it could get - I don't want it to just be an auto-win for either side. That said, I'd appreciate any advice that you fine Dakka folks could give me. Thanks!

Edit: Updated.

Deployment should be better said. If the table is lengthwise, the 'defender' could force the attacker to deploy 2000pts of army in six inches. The board is only 48" wide and if you can freely deploy defenders at the exact half line, and disallow reserves, that's rough on high model count armies. Reduce that line to 12", giving the standard deployment for the 'attackers' and unrestricted on their table half to the defenders.

The gate is another punishment to high model count armies. 2" away doesn't work for my 30 Gaunts, or even 15 Hormagaunts because of how they're set up. Can be fixed-ish using certain pieces of terrain, flat topped and 4"~ round and then a further 2" from that, that's realistic.

So one point for every 50pts rounding up? That would mean that a 51pt unit, three naked Eldar Jetbikes, is two VPs. Throw in a Warlock, that squad with Jink and Shrouded (Conceal) is now worth 3 VPs at 101pts. Not sure about the rounding thing, but the match is going to be high on VPs. But, you do say the 'defender scores points for completely eliminating units' which says nothing for units killed by the Sky is Falling. That would be a good chunk of points that just can't be scored. Easy to exploit. 'Two guys left on my attacking unit, I'll place the blast here and kill my own guys, stealing the X amount of points.'

Sky is Falling is at the end of each PLAYER turn?? So twelve times in a normal match?? A bit excessive if you ask me, even for the fluff.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
Deployment should be better said. If the table is lengthwise, the 'defender' could force the attacker to deploy 2000pts of army in six inches. The board is only 48" wide and if you can freely deploy defenders at the exact half line, and disallow reserves, that's rough on high model count armies. Reduce that line to 12", giving the standard deployment for the 'attackers' and unrestricted on their table half to the defenders.

Ah, that part was poor wording on my part. I'm hoping to include an image like the ones in the Battle Missions book to change that, but it's meant to be like the Hammer and Anvil deployment, going the long way. With the 18" deployment that would leave the attacker with an 18" x 48" deployment zone (as opposed to 6" x 72"). I guess I'm not quite sure how to word that without providing an image.

The gate is another punishment to high model count armies. 2" away doesn't work for my 30 Gaunts, or even 15 Hormagaunts because of how they're set up. Can be fixed-ish using certain pieces of terrain, flat topped and 4"~ round and then a further 2" from that, that's realistic.

What would you think about giving the gate a 4" radius? The thought I had was that it would be a physical piece of terrain (my FLGS has a great one that looks like an old, ruined stargate), so bigger units would be able to get onto the terrain itself, since the bubble would be 2" around the base. I'm not really sure how to solve the problem of consistency, though, because 2" is fine for a nice, big gate, but it's too small if you're using, say, a poker chip to mark where it is.

So one point for every 50pts rounding up? That would mean that a 51pt unit, three naked Eldar Jetbikes, is two VPs. Throw in a Warlock, that squad with Jink and Shrouded (Conceal) is now worth 3 VPs at 101pts. Not sure about the rounding thing, but the match is going to be high on VPs. But, you do say the 'defender scores points for completely eliminating units' which says nothing for units killed by the Sky is Falling. That would be a good chunk of points that just can't be scored. Easy to exploit. 'Two guys left on my attacking unit, I'll place the blast here and kill my own guys, stealing the X amount of points.'

Well, I went with an old scoring system that my previous FLGS used for a tournament as a solution to get around the kill point issue (1 unit = 1 point, so MSU armies get screwed and armies with a few big units are nearly invincible). The scores are going to be high no matter what, really. As for the defender's scores, I think I would just move the scoring to the end, rather than during - the defender gets points for each unit that the attacker lost, the attacker gets points for each unit pulled off the board through the gate.

Sky is Falling is at the end of each PLAYER turn?? So twelve times in a normal match?? A bit excessive if you ask me, even for the fluff.

Yeah, in retrospect (as in, not at 4 AM when I wrote this ), that is a bit excessive. I'd like it to be at the end of each game turn, but I'm not sure how to word it that the controller switches off each turn. I might just make it neutral - split the board into sections, put a marker in the center of each, and at the end of each game turn, roll to see where the bombardment hits, scattering as normal. That would give both players that bit of uncertainty, but still a little bit of control in avoiding the strikes.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll get editing right away.