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.

[DISCLAIMER: if you are a "sworn" Eternal War general, who likes to tailor list to exact mission and enjoy creating deathstars this is most likely not a thread for you. If you seek ideal single-game balance and predictability this is definately not a thread for you. If you complain about each pre-game preparation roll/draw and do not want to spend any additional time before the game, then this is probably not for you either. I do not think that any of the following is "the only true and righteous" way of playing 40K. It is just a custom Maelstrom scenario, which I and my group have playtested and are happy with and think it might be usefull to some of you out there as it has a lot more balance and replayability than original Maelstrom from BRB]

IMPORTANT: this is a scenario which balances itself over multiple games. If you play only occasionally (a couple of times a year) then it probably still has too much randomness in it. But if you play often and seek some easy system for non-repetetive games without going "fully assymetric, carefully designed, narrative scenarios" then it might be interesting for you.

If you are still reading this, then a word of backstory firs: after playing a couple of times with both standard and supremacy tactical objectives and generally enjoying the idea of non-repetetive scenarios, but recognizing all of the imbalance problems we gradually came up with the following scenario (at this time we have playtested it in about a dozen multimatches (with 2-4 games each of 1000-2000pt each).

This scenario uses custom tactical objective "deck" (we use reusable printed out tables and markers for active and fulfilled objectives), with following entries (presented in d66 roll format, with X representing typical repetition for each objective marker number). All objectives are scored at the end of player turn if at least one objective condition has been fulfilled (so you cannot shoose cumulate some efects over a couple of turns). Each number can be only generated/achieved once by each player (reroll duplicates):

11-16 & 21-26 - Score 1VP for securing objective X. Score additional 1VP for securing this objective if there was an enemy unit holding that objective at the begining of your turn but was destroyed, driven off the objective during your turn or is locked in CC at the end of your turn. [basicaly this means that ObSec grabbing generates only a single VP, you have to deal with enemy to score 2 points]

31-36 - Score D3+1VP for holding objective X for two consecutive turns with a single unit. (this one is usually hard to fulfill as sucesfully locking in CC resets this scoring and requires bubble wrapping or board domination)

41 - Score a single VP if there is one of your units within 12" from enemy table edge. Score D3 VPs if there are at least 3 of your units within 12" from enemy table edge.

42&43 - Roll two D6 (reroll doubles) - Score 1VP if you controll the objective marker with any of rolled numbers, D3 VPs if you controll both of them.

44 - Score D3+1 VP if you controll at least 3 objective markers.

45 - Score D3+2 VP if you controll at least 4 objective markers.

46 - Score D3+1 VP if you controll all objective markers.

51 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy unit was completely destroyed during your shooting phase. Score D3 VP if at least 3 units were destroyed.

52 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy unit was completely destroyed during an assault phase while this tactical objective was active. Score D3 VP if at least 3 units were destroyed. (so basically enemy assault phase still counts towards this score if you don't fulfill this within a single turn from drawing this result)

53 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy unit was completely destroyed during shooting or assault phase while this tactical objective was active. Score D3 VP if there was at least one unit destroyed in both of those phases. Score D3+3 if you have destroyed at least 3 units in both of those phases (so at least 6 destroyed units).

54 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy unit was completely destroyed since this objective became active. Score D3 VP if there were between 3 and 5 units destroyed. Score D3+3 if there were at least 6 units destroyed.

55&56 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy psyker unit was completely destroyed since this objective became active. Score D3 VP if there were at least 3 psyker units destroyed. (this objective changes to the one below if your enemy has no psykers in his army list)

61&62 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy character was killed since this objective became active. Score D3 VP if there were at least 3 characters killed.

63&64 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy vechicle or monstrous creature was killed/destroyed since this objective became active. Score D3 if there were at least 3 killed/destroyed. (this objective changes to the one above if your enemy has no vechicles and monstrous creatures in his army list)

65 - Score 1VP if at least one enemy flyer or flying monstrous creature was killed/destroyed since this objective became active. Score D3 if there were at least 3 killed/destroyed. (this objective changes to the one above if your enemy has no flyers and flying monstrous creatures in his army list)

66 - Score D3 VPs if enemy warlord has been killed in any of previous or during a current turn.

Game preparation:
1. After setting up the terrain (preferably a lot of it if you play different style armies (e.g. shooty vs melee)) place 6 objective markers following the normal placement rules. Decide on deployment layout at this point.
2. If there are any flyers on either list randomly designate two of those objective markers as havng a skyfire "mysterious" objective rule. Roll for other mysterious objectives normally during the game if you like, preferrably rerolling other skyfire results, so the table is not overly "flyer hostile".
3. Each player then draws two tactical objectives.
4. Roll-off: the winner then chooses if he goes first OR chooses his deployment zone. If he chooses his deployment zone the opposing player goes first (this gives you the option to easily score some of the initial objectives but gives the enemy the benefit of causing first turn casaulties). If playing multimatch alternate first player without roll-off.
5. Deploy using standard rules.
6. Roll Seize The Initiative if you like.
7. Move any scouting units and begin.

GENERATING OBJECTIVES: At the begining of each player turn, generate a single objective for each objective marker you controll. Each player can only generate a single tactical objective from each objective marker during an entire game. Additionaly, at the beginning of each turn, active player can either choose a single active (not yet fulfilled) enemy objective and add it to his active objectives OR can generate a single random one.

This scenario uses Slay the Warlord, Linebraker and First blood secondary objectives. There are no kill points and no winnig by tabling - if one player tables another then he scores 3VPs for additional "secondary Purge objective" at the end of the game, but scenario assumes (from narrative standpoint), that both sides battle to achieve some strategic goals and not simply hate-purge some aliens...

Multimatches are supposed to be played with at least two in a row on the same terrain with same objective and skyfire placement but with opposing deployment sides.

Ok, so to summarise: each player can generate and score a maximum of 13 different tactical objectives during a standard 5 turn game and 4 secondary objectives. This particular deck of objectives is designed so it promotes universal armies - it punishes all typical mono-style armies - deathstars, MSUs with disposable units, shooting lines etc. It balances drawing luck by the "objective stealing" mechanism while promoting fullfiling the most precious ones fast (you can "steal" only those, which were not fullfilled yet). It usually yield balanced scores (usually between 10-20 VPs per side) but is not entirely bulletproof. It is balanced enough though to clearly reveal army builds imbalances over the course of a multimatch. It usually generates some interesting "peak moments" in the game and rarely creates total domination of one player.

Have fun!

I have to ask why you use D3 victory points so often? Why wouldn't you just make it 2, and therefore neither player ends up winning or losing based on their ability to flip some 5s or 6s.

Good question - mostly because I like uncertainty of the result. At the beginning this deck was just a mix of standard and supremacy objective cards. With so many D3 they largely cancel each other and there is a split between "certainty" of lower scoring objectives and degree of risk with investing heavily in those with random outcome. And D3+X mechanics is good enough to assure "minimum fair reward".

You can of course change all D3 to 2's and get more controll. I personally like the feel of "not entirely controllable army" and treat many aspects of 40K as approximations of real battle aspects (like e.g Look Out Sir for focussed witchfire being a representation of attacker misjudging who is important in a unit and not some magical intervention of a random trooper…).