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Due to adulting and what have you, my gaming time has been dramatically reduced in recent years. Where I used to get in one or more games a week, I'm now lucky to get in a game or two in a given season. As a result, I've really lost the pulse of the game, and I'm finding that my game experience when I *do* play is diminished by the amount of bookkeeping involved in modern missions. Generally, I end up playing a random mission from whatever the latest tournament packet is as that's what a default pickup game looks like around here. But trying to remember all the actions I'm supposed to be doing, when they start/resolve, which objectives/units are "sticky", etc... It's all a bit much for me when I'm still trying to get a handle on how my army plays with the latest codex.

Any tips for minimizing the brain power involved when it comes to missions? Maybe some recommendations for secondaries that are easy to keep track of or some popular-but-simple mission formats that I might have success talking people into for pickup games?

Tempest of War deck and 1k armies instead of 2k?

Should help.

The Open War cards make for easy, but changing games.

As far as simple secondaries?
Check out World Eaters.
You get VP pts for doing exactly what you'll already be doing: killing stuff.
Killing stuff, killing stuff on objectives, & then spending the blood tithe pts that generates on more VP.
Tactics are also pretty simple: Charge!

PenitentJake wrote:Tempest of War deck and 1k armies instead of 2k?

Should help.

I tried playing a single game with the Tempest of War deck. The cards were cool and seemed like something I *should* like, but all the "keep track of exactly how many wounds you inflicted" stuff made my opponent and I abandon them halfway through the game and just focus on controlling objectives.

Smaller games are a good call. Unforutnately, everyone seems to prefer 2k around here. :\

Blndmage wrote:The Open War cards make for easy, but changing games.

I really enjoyed the 8th edition Open War deck! If I can figure out where I put mine, I could carry it around and try to talk people into giving it a whirl. I know the missions are far from balanced, but I genuinely found that the OW deck did a better job of creating a fun, casual game and narrative than the various 9th edition missions.

ccs wrote:As far as simple secondaries?
Check out World Eaters.
You get VP pts for doing exactly what you'll already be doing: killing stuff.
Killing stuff, killing stuff on objectives, & then spending the blood tithe pts that generates on more VP.
Tactics are also pretty simple: Charge!

Well, I'm not really looking to start a new army, but I suppose I could focus on simple secondaries that don't call for special actions or mid-game bookkeeping.

I would say ignore secondaries entirely, perhaps stratagems too, but that's not really feasible in a pickup game environment. A shame too as I found the game more enjoyable that way.

 Blndmage wrote:
The Open War cards make for easy, but changing games.

I whole-heartedly agree, Open War. A bunch of random elements, almost exclusively easy objectives; zero of the BS secondaries & their bookkeeping.

 Lord Clinto wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
The Open War cards make for easy, but changing games.

I whole-heartedly agree, Open War. A bunch of random elements, almost exclusively easy objectives; zero of the BS secondaries & their bookkeeping.

that or tempest of war

Wayniac wrote:
I would say ignore secondaries entirely, perhaps stratagems too, but that's not really feasible in a pickup game environment. A shame too as I found the game more enjoyable that way.

You can always ask.

I’ve had opponents request it, normally new/returning players who slowly want to ramp up the complexity, but need to start slow. Games are still fun.

See if people are interested in crusade. No 2ndry objectives, and agendas are easier to track.

 Lord Clinto wrote:

 Blndmage wrote:
The Open War cards make for easy, but changing games.

I whole-heartedly agree, Open War. A bunch of random elements, almost exclusively easy objectives; zero of the BS secondaries & their bookkeeping.

I'll be the 3rd to get behind the Open War cards. These are the most effective way to have a straightforward, no bookkeeping, no GT mission pack bs game. They're my absolute favorite way to play.

The Tempest of War cards are amazingly fun, but because they change your objectives turn to turn and some do require some bookkeeping, they could actually increase the mental load.

I was taking a break from playing more than 500 pts, I just had my second AoO game today. Really nice to play against meq without AoC.

My recommendation would be Purge the Enemy, you can count up both Assassinate and Bring it Down at the end of the game, Abhor the Witch from Warpcraft is the same. No Mercy isn't terrible, unless you play against someone that can resurrect models, then it is a pain to count No Prisoners, otherwise just do it at the end of the game. Grind Them Down will often be a little unclear on what battleround you killed what, but if the game goes really well or really poorly it gets easier.

Let's say you just pick Assassinate and Grind Them Down every game, then you set up a system for remembering Grind Them Down like keeping a tally on your phone for the current battle round. Lastly you pick Engage on All Fronts because that'll help give you more engaging and tactical battles and make you seem like less of a "Blood for the Blood God!" brainlet to your opponent, that's just something you need to do at the end of your turns, if you're going second you can do Grind Them Down and Engage on All Fronts at the same time.

Just remember that the mission format is probably saving you from one of your two games that year from being against someone running a dumb skew list because that mostly isn't viable with the secondaries. It's also a good feeling knowing that you could have played better by picking better secondaries instead of being left rubbing your head and thinking "why did I lose this game" in ther sea of information about choices and randomness a bad secondary that earned you 2 points will shine like a bright star that tells you "this is a mistake I didn't need to make".