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Question in the title really. It seems that in the run-up to this book everyone got rather excited about havng loads of different missions to play, especially as they were 'themed' for a particular army. However, since its release, I've rarely, if ever, seen anyone play a game out of this book; the vast majority of people are more than happy to stick with the default ones n the 40k rulebook.

My personal belief is that Battle Missions didn't really bring anything new to the game to make it a viable investment. Pretty much all the missions are an expansion on the original 3, with no overtly new or novel ideas included to make it worth the time or effort.

What do you guys think? Do any of you regularly use the Battle Missions book? If so what mission do you like the most/find is the most popular?

Regards,

L. Wrex

I've gotten to use it a couple of times, and hope to do so more. I've seen a few others use it who also enjoyed it.

When I bring it up as an option, about half the local folks prefer the standard missions, the other half jump at trying something different.

I have a couple reports up, as well as a review.

War of Attrition mission report
http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2010/05/plug-gap-war-of-attrition-mission.html

Kill team reports
http://bootae.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11388

Review:
http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2010/03/battle-missions-review-part-1-general.html
http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2010/03/battle-missions-review-part-2-mission.html
http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2010/03/battle-missions-review-part-3-special.html

It's pretty popular in this manor, but I can't say I care for it.

I was excited about Clash of Heroes until I learned what it actually is, now it seems rather pointless.

Killteams takes as long to play as a normal game, Only with much less creativity, or tactics.

Yeah - Battlemissions was a sound idea, but the actual, y'know, battle missions leave me cold.


EDIT - and would it have killed them to include all the rules necesary for each mission - q.v. any of the dozens of posts on this and other forums asking for help on Killteams.

The problem with it is there a very few 'new' missions, lots of them are the same, or slight variations, proper 'new' missions would have been amazing

I have played many kill team missions and like the way they play. I prefer it for a quick game. My son and I jumped into our LGS, set up, played, and packed up in about 45 minutes to an hour.

The only other Battle Mission I have played is the Surprise Attack mission for the SM. My orks had the middle set up on the board and held out pretty well but succumbed in the end because I couldn't take out his land Raider.

The problem is that the missions are horribly imbalanced in many cases and can be broken further by building specific armies to capitalize upon mission objectives. Soooo.... what's the point? We may use them in a campaign of some kind, and the off Kill Team marathon, but other than that, it really was lacking.

My friends and I have used several of the missions. Most of them aren't very inspired, but a few of them (like "first contact") have very interesting mechanics.

I also took some of the mission mechanics and combined them with some original mechanics to make my own mission for a narrative campaign:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/296653.page

I use it alot, especially the kill team mission at the back of the book.

We use it often, But army lists are made before the random missions are determined.

I'm not sure what it is, though the title gives a bit of a clue.

I've never looked at Apocalypse either, or Planet Strike.

Cities of Death is nice.

I love them.

The Kill Teams mission is a real hit in our store. We have held one kill teams tournament, and will be holding another one next month.

I use the BM book all the time for my Planetary Empires campaign. We use the random mission table at start of book.

Azezel wrote:Killteams takes as long to play as a normal game, Only with much less creativity, or tactics.

You take just as long to play kill tams as you would a normal game? What point levels are your normal games?

I've had some really good games using the battle missions book, both playing the correctly themed for our armies games and just rolling for any mission out of the book. It's been really interesting to have a bit of a change and to have to work out some different tactics.

The problem I always have is that I keep forgetting about the missions/objectives etc and just go for wiping my opponent out and then end up scrabbling for an objective in the last turn of the game. I think that comes from starting playing 40k before there were missions. The battle missions often make you have to think about what you need to achieve early on and help focus the mind on actually achieving the objectives.

Cheers,

Steve

I like them.

I think they're best played by building your army firts and then picking/rolling a mission. It forces you to think about your units in new ways and try new tactics.

Some aren't especially balanced but most of them are fun and it's good to try something new once in a while.

We've played a couple of games using it and it was great fun.
The missions are a very easy way to make a narrative campaign.

My wife and I use the battle missions book almost every time we play. We look for different types of missions to keep things fresh, I'd recommend it.

I don't like the Eldar mission that gives up double kill points

Kill Teams is pretty good though. I usually use an Inquisitor and 5 Battle Sisters (Dominions), then go around with flamers and stuff. Plasma Pistols are fun too if you're versing Necrons.

I think it adds an interesting dynamic. It's good for some challenges and we use it to randomly determine missions.

Agree it could have had more thought though... some are so similar to the main rulebook it's scary...