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  I have fought in a dozen or so mega battles before. Usually about 20,000 points per side. While this was nice for everyone in the gaming group to get together, it was VERY long. It also raised too many rules arguments.

  Anyway, I am planning on doing a scaled-down battle, with about 6,000 to 8,000 points per side, about 6 people in total. I do need some adice on what has been the most entertaining aspects of larger-sized games for everyone. What mission special rules do you like (deepstrike, infiltrate, ect.). Do you prefer to play till the last man standing, or a pre-determined time, or number of turns? What size of table? How do you handle deployment?

  I was thinking of having certain objectives that give each side points. For example, 5 points for occupying a vital bridge, 8 for holding a factory, 7 for holding a crossroads, 10 for holding a spaceport, ect. The team with the most points within 6 turns is the winner.

  I was also thinking of giving each side a titan (isn't that what big battles are for) that will also give bonus points.

  Well, what do you guys think? Any suggestions?

First of all,  I'm not that far away from you in West Des Moines, What did you have in mind for all this?  Can I come too?

Anyway.  I've always found that the everyone bring 500-1000pt battles at the GW or wherever attract fifty twelve year olds and are no fun.  You've got the right idea for sure.  I've done that sort of thing a few times and it has always been a blast. Here are a few suggestions.

1.  Be very careful setting up the terrain.  It is good to have a variety of terrain types that create smaller mini-battles where one side can decisively win, while being slaughtered in a different zone.

2.  Objectives should go hand in hand with controlling the areas.  If the board is too open, it will be a big firefight and whoever gets the first turn will likely dominate.  The game should force players to really fight hard for each objective and by doing so gain an advantage when they capture one (extra artillery or just good lines of fire).

3.  I'd set it up as an all day affair that ends after six turns or at a specific time in the evening.  Get started early and have everything ready the night before.  It will save you a ton of time.

4.  Titans, definitely.

Seriously, PM me with the details.  I'd love to participate in something like this if it isnt too much of an imposition.

The best thing is that you can just use so much more armour than usual. But yeah as samwise said Titan etc. all the stuff you would not normally use.

I agree with everything Samwise said, and here's a things I've learned:

1) larger sized armies. 3 2500 pt armies per said is way better than 5 1500 pt armies. Larger Army size will force everybody to use some lesser used units and expensive toys. This size allows and encourages special characters.

2) Most gamers fall into two camps: guys with 5000 pts of their favorite army, from which they can create a themed 2500 pts list, and guys who will need to buy every upgrade to get to 2500pts. Allow and encourage both to come! One of the best part of any big game is watching a bloated unit actually accomplish something cool. the other part is getting to see somebody field Marneus calgar, with honor guard; Tiggy with command squad, and some landraiders.

3) Consider adding a wildcard to the FOC. Basically, every army can add one unit to their list regardless of FOC limitations (IG can take a fourth heavy, marines can take a 3rd HQ, etc.) This wildcard can also be used to take a superheavy, titan, bio-titan, etc.

4) Establish a narrative. It can be as simple or complicated, it can seek to tie the armies on either side together or can present everybody as allies of immediate convenience.

5) Don't limit victory conditions to objectives. If you're playing 8000pts a side, then there should be 8000pts in objectives. Depending on what you want to emphasize, you could use quadrants (like quarters, only every 2X3 section, not just four of them), centers of the board, etc.
Assuming 3 players a side, for 7500pts, on a 12x4 table, here's one way to assigne value:

5 objectives down the center line of the board, every 2 feet: 1000pts each.
4 3x4 foot sections: 500pts each if you completely control
preventing any scoring units in your Deployment zone: 500pts

6) Include infiltrate and deep strike. Infiltrate probobly won't accomplish much, but deep strike gets very interesting on a crowded table. never include escalation or other reserves rules.

7) resist the urge to include minefields, razor wire, or anything that limits mobility in anything but small amounts. Do include bunkers, trenches, and interesting defensive terrain.

8) In a big game, the first turn is both a bigger deal (an army usually has a lot of fire power that can do damage) and a smaller deal (an army can absorb a lot more damage and can use terrain intellgently to sheild more valuable units. Stil, I'd recommend giving however goes second a minor advantage to balance the ability of the first army to effectively get a free move. My recommendation is to allow units on the second side to make an assault move on turn six to contact an objective.

9) Keep the game six turns, it's plenty of time.

10) Keep a game clock running. No side can take, say, 20 minutes to move and shoot. Assaults take as long as they take.

11) Consider having a third party umpire for rules disputes, otherwise appoint two captains, and only they can argue rules. Depending on how well the teams know each other, rules disputes can be handled in a couple of different ways. 1) attempt to agree on a common ruleset (Adepticon FAQ, dakka's YMDC, or a set of house rules. 2) identify and resolve disputes beforehand (psycannon vs. turboboosters, drop pods landing on friendly troops, etc.) 3) limit all rules discussion to 2 minutes, after that, roll a d6 and move on. 4) Big games are about fun, and the default rule, IMO, should be that any time a unit tries soemthing great, it should be allowed to at least attempt it. In other words, neither RAW nor interpretation shoudl stop a unit from doing it's job.

12) Take a break at the half: get pizza, have a soda and a smoke, etc.

13) Have fun. Big games are absolute crapshoots, but can create some great moments. En joy it for what it's worth!

A couple of quick thoughts, from someone who's done a couple of WHFB mega-fights:

1) In mega-battles, first turn can really become, first slaughter. When we've done mega-fights, we assign each unit a card, from a deck of cards. Shuffle the cards, and the order they deal, is the order units go. Once the deck is played, shuffle it again, and you're ready to go. It'll really add a bit to the chaos, but it doesn't make the first turn that bad. And, it adds a lot to the strategy. You really do start to play more like chess when you have no idea when your next turn is going to pop up.

If you want to speed things up, play 2 or 3 cards each time instead of just 1 at a time.

2) Carefully plan your terrain. Too little, and it becomes a long-range shoot-out. Too much, and it becomes a one-sided hand-to-hand-sweep fest. I'd suggest 1/2 the field be terrain (hills / woods / buildings / rivers / swamps / etc.)

You might also want to consider "power ups" from terrain features. A goodly number of our first set of mega fights became mexican stand-offs, as we'd just wait it out. If you add a "power up" to a terrain feature, it encourages movement. Don't overpower the bonus, but make it enough to risk being bold.

3) Decide on "foggy" rules before you even start. That'll limit rules problems that may occur. Or, have a non-playing judge... preferrably one both sides can agree too. If the judge says something, it stands from that point on during the game. Each time a rules problem comes up, write it down. That way, after your mega battle, you'll be able to hash out the rules for the next one.

4) Limit time on turns to ~15 per turn... probably shorter. If you limit the number of turns, you'll get some players who'll take for ever, in order to give his/her side 1 additional turn. If you limit the time each player can take for their turn, it keeps the game moving, albiet hectically, and actually limits rules discussions as their isn't time to look things up. I'd say, if you combine time limits to the deck of cards initiative, your turns should be no more than 10 minutes.

5) Take breaks, but warn the players of an upcoming break. Give the break times enough for a couple of smokes... a drink of coke... a visit to the john... to wait in line at the McDonalds... etc. 45 mins to an hour actually works well. Thus, if you start promptly at 0900, take a break from 1230 - 1330, and then another break at about 1700 -1800

6) DON'T LET FOOD / CHEW / DRINKS on the table. Seriously. Nothing troubles people more than having chip debrie fall on their mini's. And nothing stops play like a tipped over can of soda. Don't give any quarter on this.

7) Leave pleanty of space to move around the big, game board. If you have too little space, you'll often have players bump into the table, trying to move around it. Also, I'd suggest making your die rolls off the table too. Also, have something that will let you gently reach into the middle of the tables, so you can move figs and vehicles.

Often, mega games are played in an open box, where one team is on the inside of the box, and the other team on the outside.

8) Avoid "meat grinder scenarios", as they tend to make the entire game drag downwards rapidly.

9) Be ready for a lot of down time. Big games tend to take a lot of time to get moving. Especially until units start to get removed. Warn your players that they might have upwards of 30 minutes between when they do something.

10) Have a "graveyard". As your figs die, you'll need some place to put them, so have at least 1 extra table where destroyed vehicles, dead figures, and removed terrain can sit, so it won't clutter up the non-used sections of the board. And... it gives you an odd sort of quick-tally point count as well.

Anyway, just some quick thoughts. Hope they help.