A Tyranid raiding force is blocked by Imperial forces on the road and they have support arriving from each flank. To win the game the Tyranids must have three units exit the road on the opposite side.
The forces were selected as per previous campaign battles (see post here).
As imperial forces arrive on the flanks deep-striking Raveners and Genestealers, lurking in the woods, seek to delay the Space Marines from moving towards the road.
On the opposite flank a Warrior unit attempts to hold up the Imperial forces on the hill. While at the roadblock Gargoyles harry imperial defenders as the bulk of Tyranid units move down the road.
Space Marine Tactical and Terminator squads having dispatched a group of Raveners now take to the Genestealers, allowing the Dreadnought to slip away and advance towards the road.
Weakened Imperial roadblock forces are desperately hanging on in the face of attacking Tyranids. While support from the flank battles its way towards the roadblock.
Is Escape is at hand? Can three Tyranid units exit successfully? Having killed off the Imperial forces holding the roadblock, one unit has successfully exited and the remaining units are closely pursued by Imperial forces.
Imperial forces win a series of activations and were able to eliminate the fleeing units before they could exit via the road. This was a very close game. Two Tyranid units did successfully exit the road and one more activation win would have allowed a third to exit, but it was not to be.
This Tyranid loss was their sixth defeat and as a consequence (with no remains bio-mass) this brings to an end the campaign.
Unit of the Game
For this last game the honour goes to the Terminator squad for their final assault delayed the fleeing Tyranids enabling their destruction. |
| Terminator Squad Unit of the Game |
I really enjoyed reading your campaign narrative, and will probably shamelessly steal the setup for a series of games at a later date.
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that the rules woudl work equally well for Epic 40K stuff with little or no adjustments, and smaller squares. I shall have a look at that, although my Epic 40K stuff is all based up for Hordes of the Things (which, oddly enough, means that they are on convenient bases with a fixed frontage).
One question about your grid rules, however - is movement/firing allowed across a diagonal? Diagonals always seem to me to be the great bugbear of square-grid games.
Many thanks for such an entertaining bog (which I am now following, of course).
Hi Kaptain Kobold,
DeleteI do allow movement and shooting to occur diagonally. There are a couple of exceptions (as always). Firstly, if I have a lava river between squares and a gap for crossing, then units cannot traverse the crossing diagonally. This approach assists the defenders. The second exception is when I place an impassable terrain feature on the corner of four squares, then shooting cannot be diagonal (unless flyers) and creates a terrain suitable for ambushes (great for Tyranids - one of my favourite armies). I hope this makes sense.
Thank you for your kind comments.
Peter
I got a chance to play through the rules last night, using my Epic 40K stuff and a One Hour Wargames scenario. The game is documented on my blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/one-hour-wargames-scenario-19-blow-from.html
A couple of bits I wasn't clear about:
(i) If a unit is deployed via Deep Strike or Stealth is that deployment its activation for the turn, or can it then perform an action (move or fire)?
(ii) The rules talk of Ordinance being able to 'see' a target. Does that mean the target must be in an adjacent square and not in blocking terrain, as this is the only definition of 'seeing' listed? If so, then, typically, how many units with the Observation ability would you allow in a game?
(iii) Characters are treated a Non-Troop units. Do they count as Troop units for the purposes of movement and terrain, however? It seems odd that they can't otherwise enter woods and buildings. I assume that units firing on them use their Non-Troop factor, although that does give the strange situation where a tank is more effective against a character and retinue than a squad of infantry.
(iv) The rules on leaving a square allow a unit to do so if 'all enemy units are pinned'. How is an enemy unit 'pinned'? I assumed that this meant that you had to have one friendly unit in the square for each enemy unit, and only excess units could leave the square. Also, is it correct that a tank or buggy (Non-Troop) can enter a square full of enemy units on one turn, then leave it on the next? It makes holding a defensive line a little tricky.
Anyway, many thanks for a set of rules which gave me an entertaining and thought-provoking evening's gaming.
Hi Kaptain Kobold,
Delete(i) Deep striking should be considered as a move. So fast units (e.g. a space marine assault squad and land speeders) can deep strike and fire. Units like Terminators deep striking in would not be able to fire.
(ii) Ordinance can either fire like normal units at units in adjacent squares, or at units who are in adjacent squares to a unit with the observation ability. I use this rule with Imperial Guard squads who observe for their Basilisk which provides indirect fire for them. Now I only have one Basilisk while with an Epic force you may well field a lot more. Off the top of my head I suggest one guard squad can only observe for one basilisk indirect fire per turn.
(iii) I treat characters mostly as troops (e.g. space marine commander, chaplin, etc). There are treated like non-troops only for combat. A Hive Tyrant would move like a non-troop. I think characters and non-troop units are pretty even depending on character points are assigned to a character.
(iv) Your assumption is correct. A unit can leave a square with enemy units providing a friendly unit is in the square (providing a rear guard). I need to reword the rule.
Really pleased the rules provided some enjoyment and thank you of the questions. Its always difficult reading rules for clarity after you have written them (often with multiple tweaks).
Oh, and I'd be interested in seeing the game stats for the various units you used in your campaign, if that wasn't too much of an imposition. It would help get a feel for how unit classifications worked (although with Epic there is a scale of vehicles and units above that of a WH40K game I suspect). Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaptain - I will pop them up in a post as soon as I can. They may help explain how the characters are set up. My rules lack examples. Regards, Peter
DeleteThank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
DeleteWith indirect fire I plan on giving each weapon an observation marker which it can assign to a friendly unit at the start of the turn (before the first control is rolled). That unit can observe for the ordinance when the ordinance is activated, but obviously if it's destroyed then the marker is lost for that turn. Basically you can decide where your artillery gets to support each turn, but you have to do it at the start of the turn. Obviously it's a little more flexible tan your method of one unit to one Basilisk, but it offers a nice decision for the player.
Looking forward to the troop classifications. I've inferred a fair bit from reading your posts, but it's always helpful to see how people run things under their own rules. And having someone else read and play them is really useful.
Just posted them.
DeleteThank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
DeleteWith indirect fire I plan on giving each weapon an observation marker which it can assign to a friendly unit at the start of the turn (before the first control is rolled). That unit can observe for the ordinance when the ordinance is activated, but obviously if it's destroyed then the marker is lost for that turn. Basically you can decide where your artillery gets to support each turn, but you have to do it at the start of the turn. Obviously it's a little more flexible tan your method of one unit to one Basilisk, but it offers a nice decision for the player.
Looking forward to the troop classifications. I've inferred a fair bit from reading your posts, but it's always helpful to see how people run things under their own rules. And having someone else read and play them is really useful.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
DeleteWith indirect fire I plan on giving each weapon an observation marker which it can assign to a friendly unit at the start of the turn (before the first control is rolled). That unit can observe for the ordinance when the ordinance is activated, but obviously if it's destroyed then the marker is lost for that turn. Basically you can decide where your artillery gets to support each turn, but you have to do it at the start of the turn. Obviously it's a little more flexible tan your method of one unit to one Basilisk, but it offers a nice decision for the player.
Looking forward to the troop classifications. I've inferred a fair bit from reading your posts, but it's always helpful to see how people run things under their own rules. And having someone else read and play them is really useful.
I will be interested to see how you go with your ordinance variation. A re-visit of the rules may be on the cards.
Delete