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My club is thinking of using a system to add potential random generation of strategic assets for more varied games and forces people to work with what they have at hand (nice fog of war effect). This shakes things up and prevents people taking the same nasty/trusted stratagems every time.

We are thinking of doing this for our next club Apoc. game. When each player goes to pick his asset It would work something like this:


STEP 1:

Roll 1d6:

1= opposing team picks your asset category (any from below or army specific or universal category)

2= tactical asset

3= battlefield asset

4= front line asset

5= support asset

6= you choose asset category (any of above or army specific or universal category)

So say i end up getting a battlefield asset:

I again roll 1d6:

1= opponent picks my battlefield asset

2= tunnels

3= bunkers

4= minefields

5= obstacles

6= I pick my asset (may pick any battlefield asset)

Sort of an "adapt to the battlefield conditions or suffer" mentality.

We are looking forward to seeing what fate hands our armies...

We would have similar charts for all the categories, etc.


Anyone done this or similar?

Thoughts?

I like it.

I like it a lot.

I dont like it. A lot of the fun of apoc is develpoing your army to make best use of a certain asset. Randomising them could give you something that is completely useless to you, while the other guy gets something that is perfect.

Regwon wrote:I dont like it. A lot of the fun of apoc is develpoing your army to make best use of a certain asset. Randomising them could give you something that is completely useless to you, while the other guy gets something that is perfect.

Yeah that's the idea behind the whole "fog of war" thing...

^^^Flank Marcher spotted.

Cool! I rolled Obstacles for my Blood Angels and you rolled... Flank March. For your Tyranids. feth!

I see bad things coming from this.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Cool! I rolled Obstacles for my Blood Angels and you rolled... Flank March. For your Tyranids. feth!

I see bad things coming from this.

It will be the stuff of legend...

Besides: beer is the great equalizer...

Look, I guess my biggest problem with the idea is actually the way I play Apoc games. To me the idea of just bringing whatever huge models you've got, as many tanks as you can find and then just playing till one side runs out of units is really boring. I much prefer Apoc games to be themed around a specific idea, and every Apoc game I've played since the it came out (except the first one) has been based around some elaborate fluff premise, be it an Imperial force attempting to stop a cabal of Chaos Sorcerers from freeing a Daemon Prince from a webway prison, or a small force of light infantry trying to hold off an incoming wave of renegade Terminators, or a massive tank battle in a ruined city as the Imperium and their Eldar allies mount at counter-attack aimed at stalling the Chaos advance.

For that very reason, randomising Assets doesn't 'click' with me. Why would my Tyranids want bunkers? I don't need Flank March for my Guard. Jammers or Tunnels for my Daemons? I'd rather my assets fit with what the mission is about. If I'm making a huge assault against an enemy titan, I think that a Vortex Grenade would be more appropriate than a Supreme Headquarters. If I'm on the defensive some Obstacles and Tank Traps might serve me better than Careful Planning or Orbital Bombardment.

Plus with the way an army can get a crap asset that doesn't fit with their army whereas the other side might roll the perfect asset, or, worse, one of the really unbalanced/broken assets (like Flank March), it can lead to a situation where one side has a massive advantage because of a single dice roll.

the way i see it, you would randomize the assets before drawing your list, that way after you find out what asset you have, you then can capitalize on it. the TO would have to make note of who has what before lists are made, and the players should keep them secret.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Look, I guess my biggest problem with the idea is actually the way I play Apoc games. To me the idea of just bringing whatever huge models you've got, as many tanks as you can find and then just playing till one side runs out of units is really boring. I much prefer Apoc games to be themed around a specific idea

As do I.

I'd much rather play a scenario game then a vanilla slugfest any day of the week as well.

That being said assets are sort of icing on the cake for a battle though imho. Yes the mission might be to destroy the nearly constructed Ork Gargant before it can be mobilized by the warbosse's forces, but what assets you get (either picked as usual or randomized) simply need to be worked into that narrative. IF I get tunnels as an Ig player it just represents Leaders from on high contacting your troops and ordering them to use the tunnels to advance on the enemy. Your commander might react by saying "you want us to F#$king do what!?!", but such a thing has added ot the cinematic and narrative not diminished it as I see it...

As i stated this is just something we wanna try for fun, I'm not suggesting a permenant change to Apoc. or anything...





Automatically Appended Next Post:

Demogerg wrote:the way i see it, you would randomize the assets before drawing your list, that way after you find out what asset you have, you then can capitalize on it.

Exactly.

My club just uses the pdf from GW, printed onto stiff card and cut out to make up cards.

The cards are shuffled, and cut (as many times as required), alternating between players.

Makes you adapt to what you have, not take what you want and build around it.

CT GAMER wrote:As i stated this is just something we wanna try for fun, I'm not suggesting a permenant change to Apoc. or anything...

Hmm... thinking about it more I think it could work. I mean, the Strategy Cards in 2nd Ed were random as well, so you could get Strafing Run, which wasn't all that hot, but you might get Reinforcements, and get one of your units back again for free!

I guess my concern with this idea isn't really to do with this idea, more the assets themselves, and really only Flank March. Flank March is like Virus Outbreak from 2nd Ed - it either does nothing, or does everything. Nothing with that amount of potential power should be free - it just shouldn't exist. Remove Flank March and this will work.