Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I'm going to be organizing a mega-battle for my local GW. I'd like some help reviewing the mission packet.
A couple things first: this game is under time-limit, but we will have many people involved. That is why pt limit is so small. I expect about 12 people to play this game.
We want this to be like a miniature Apocalypse game.

I know it might seem like a lot to read. I'm hoping there is a way I can shorten it.
Please read through. If something doesn't make sense, please let me know so I can edit. If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

So here it is:



40k Mega-battle
This will be a team battle; each team will have a Commander nominated by the team, who will make team decisions. Each General will still have control over his own army.

Building your Army:
750 pts per player, no FOC. The only requirement is that you cannot take duplicate unique characters, and you can only have one HQ choice. Any Infantry model can hold objectives. So if you really want, you can take 3 Devastator squads (but don’t come crying to me when they all die in assault because you didn’t have any cc support). Fliers and 40k approved units from Imperial Armor are allowed (only if you bring the rules for the units you want to play). No allied detachments.
Every army must have a minimum 3 color painted standard. Bonus Veteran skills and +1 player point for fully painted/based army.

The Mission:
There will be two tables. Each table will represent a different battlefield on the same world. Each team will be split up to attack one table and defend another. So the Imperial attackers would battle the Xenos defenders on one table, while the Xenos attackers would battle the Imperial defenders on the other table. On each table there will be 3 objectives. The big main objective will be a communications tower worth 5 points. The other two objectives will be a long-range artillery cannon and a large shield generator, both of these will be worth 2 pts for holding or destroying. Each player will also be assigned a secret mission. You are not allowed to discuss this with anyone until the end of the game. If you do, you will not receive points for it. A completed secret mission will give 1 victory point to your side.
MVP: Not only is your team trying to beat the other team, but you as a general will try to show off, and be the best general. We will keep individual scores. 3 pts for secret mission, 2 pts for holding any objective, and 1 pt for each unit killed. (this point will only go to whoever kills the last model in a unit).

Special Objective rules:
The Shield generator and the Long Range Artillery Cannon will be Armor 14, 2 structure point buildings that cannot be entered It will follow apoc rules for hullpoints/structure points. This means once destroyed it has a possibility to explode. Damage results: 1,2,3 ignored; 4,5 weapon stunned; a roll of 6 will cause a structure point loss and grant another roll on the damage chart with no modifiers.

The Long-Range Artillery Cannon: In order to operate the gun, one infantry model must be in base contact with the building. The model controlling the cannon cannot shoot his own weapon, but the rest of his squad can still operate normal and can target a separate unit. The Artillery cannon fires a S10, AP1 Large Blast, ordinance, ignores cover. It can only target the other table and It will always scatter a full 2d6 (even if a direct hit is rolled), unless your teammates on the other table have control of the Communication tower. In this case it will scatter as normal with a BS of 3.

Shield Generator: If a member of your team on your table controls this, than you get a 4+ cover save from the Artillery Cannon. (this overrules the cannon’s ignore cover. This is the only type of cover save from the Artillery Cannon allowed )

Communication tower: If in control of this objective, Everyone on your team and your table can re-roll reserves. This Communication tower also helps to guide the artillery cannon from the other table. If you control the Communication tower and your teammates from the other table control their Artillery Cannon, then it will scatter as normal with a BS of 3.

Setup:
Objectives and terrain will be set up beforehand by the game manager.
Teams will meet in secret and decide who will attack who will defend. Any number can attack or defend. So a team of 6 can put 4 on attack and 2 on defense if they want. (minimum 1 team per side). Write down who will attack/defend on paper and the Commander will turn in to Game Manager.
Once you are assigned a table, you can only deploy on that table. The only way around this is reserves as detailed below:
If a unit enters through reserves, it can chose which table to enter on. Fliers from on-going reserves can also do this (this allows them to fight on both tables). You must state which table they want to enter before reserve rolls. If your teammates control the Communication tower on that table you will receive that re-roll benefit.

Scoring:
Team:
5 pts for Communication Tower
2 pts for LR A-Cannon or Shield generator controlled or destroyed
1 pt for each army secret mission completed

Personal:
3 pts for army secret mission
2 pts for LR A-Cannon or Shield generator controlled or destroyed
1 pt for each enemy unit destroyed (whoever gets the last kill gets the point)
1 pt for fully based/painted army

Two things to keep in mind:

1) You may have a low point limit, but a major factor in Apocalypse games being slow is the number of players. After all, it doesn't matter if you have only 750 points when the thing slowing you down is that the player who controls the models you want to shoot at is at the other end of the table dealing with one of their other units. In fact, you might be better off with a higher point limit and a smaller number of players.

2) Don't allow people to play on both tables. Since the turns are likely going to take different amounts of time on each table they're going to get out of alignment (unless you force the faster table to wait while the slow table catches up) and then you're going to have people trying to keep track of events in two different places simultaneously. At best it's going to slow the game down and add extra waiting while a relevant player is busy on the other table, at worst you're going to start adding miscommunication and things will go wrong.

1) well at 750 I figured most people would only have 3 or 4 units, not to much to keep track of. I'll also have a timer, which I will make sure we keep a strict eye on. If you don't finish your shooting or your movement, too bad, we are moving on.
Should I time by phase (move, shoot, assault) or should I time by team turn? and how much time is enough?
The whole game needs to start/end in under 4 hrs. (I know that might not sound plausible, but I'm hopeful)

2) I'd like to keep the two tables tied together, and I like the idea of asking your teammates for reinforcements. Hopefully the timed turns will be enough to keep the tables together.
An idea I had to deal with this was that if you sent a unit to the other table, one of your teammates had to assume control of it. But then I wanted to keep track of personal points. Do you think there is anyway to still do this?

Mega battle or Apoc?

Themed battles are fun. Especially if you have built up to that battle with other battles like a kill team event or regular games.

1) I would find out how many people are interested. A mega battle with four people can be fun but might not be what you are looking for.

2) Points - some please like bringing lots of toys. Your 750 point limit may be so low to let in new players, limit the awesome power of titans, etc, but you will not see many cool toys. Personally I like toys so 1 may affect 2. If only four are playing... maybe up the point total?

3) Refs are AWESOME for megas or APOC. The ref must be respected and introduced before the game begins. The number you will need depends on the number of players. If you have more than four players per table you may want to have a ref per table. Make sure the ref knows the rules VERY well and can explain to new players what the point of contention is and where to find it.

4) Timed turns are needed. In our 20k per side battle we get 20 minutes for moving, 20 minutes for shooting, and 20 minutes for assault. After your time is up, dice down. we often finish 5 or six turns in APOC. That makes you need to plan your moves more. Make sure other players are not wandering off to talk to friends, reading other books etc. Having to find someone delays the fun of everyone else in the game.

5) Have fun and help the newer players. We always need to grow the hobby!

Thanks for the help so far.

1) this will not be an Apoc game. (just a big multiplayer game with borrowed elements from apoc)

2) this is going to be for the grand opening celebration at my GW, most people who play there are relatively new/ or just got back into 40k. As such, I am pretty much the only one with 'big toys'. Based off of how many showed up for the soft opening, I'm planning on 10-12 people playing. so there will be anywhere from 5-6 people per table. and we have a time limit, so = small points.

3) I'm organizing the game, acting as ref, and if needed to even out teams I have an army for either side. The gw manager at the store will be the other ref. Between us two we have the rulebooks pretty much memorized.

4) is 10 minutes a phase too short? 750 pts * 5 or 6 players per team = 3750 or 4500 points per team, split between two tables.
Sometimes movement is quick and the assault takes forever. Should I allow 'rollover time'?

5) This is definately to help new players and also introduce them to larger game formats. Right now our store is in the middle of an escalation league which has seen a lot of people start, or old guys return, for me it has gotten me to start fantasy for the first time ever.