[Epic] four side scenario (a bit long)

From: Eugene E.W. <eug_at_...>
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2097 14:11:58 -0400

Okay, here's the rules we used for four sides at once.

We used a 5' square playing surface. We set up terrain, and then rolled
randomly for corners. Each player could set up as far as 25 cm away from
his corner of the table, and any troops not set up on the board could enter
from the table edges within 25 cm of that corner.

Bear in mind that any units set up on the board may be strafed by flyers
before they have an opportunity to move. If you wish, you might rule that
flyers enter as reserves (like in meeting engagement), to prevent this; it
can be very devastating. It actually happened to me in the game we played;
my tightly packed marine detachment was strafed by firelords while they
were still in their rhinos (the intercepting thunderbolts were mostly taken
out by doomwings); I lost an incredible 7 rhinos, a vindicator, my captain,
5 tactical marines, and 3 assault marines in the one pass. (That was a kind
of worst case scenario: he was very lucky with the dice, and I was not).

Initiative we did as follows; we took a deck of cards and each player was
assigned a suit. The two players with the two highest strategy ratings took
three cards of their suit, the two players with the lowest strategy ratings
took two cards, and then we removed the rest of the pack. The ten cards
(3+3+2+2) make up the initiative deck. During each of the four initiative
phases, two cards are taken from the initiative deck; the players whose
cards are drawn are the 'winners' of that phase and the other two are the
'losers'. If both cards belong to the same person, reshuffle one into the
deck and draw another, until you have two different winners. The winners
than each roll a die; high roller is the 'big winner'. The losers roll off;
low roller is the 'big loser'. We added each race's strategy ratings to the
die rolls, but I don't recommend you do that; it's too advantageous to the
high strategy ratings.
These rankings are fairly straightforwardly used during the firing phases;
it goes Big Winner, Winner, Loser, and Big Loser. In the movement and
assault phases, however, you still have to determine movement order. This
works as follows:
The Big Loser sits there and whines about his luck.
The Loser decides whether he moves before or after the Big Loser.
The Winner decides whether he moves before, after, or in between the
losers.
The Big Winner decides where he fits in (first, second, third, or fourth to
move).

We did victory conditions as follows:
We put a counter in the middle. It represented the last Cheese Puff (tm) in
the universe. It should be placed in a building. It may be picked up by any
plavers vehicles or infantry. If a pleyer exits it off the board, closer to
his corner than anyone elses, he wins immediately (this need not halt
play).
Anyone who breaks, loses.
If six turns pass without the Cheese Puff (tm) exiting the board, the
Cheese Puff (tm) goes stale. The possesor of the cheese puff scores a
Dubious Tactical Victory. If the Cheese Puff is subsequently exited from
the board, that player achieves a Somewhat Dubious Tactical Victory. Any
army unbroken at the end of turn six achieves a Pyrhic Moral Victory. Other
awards may be distrbuted as desired (Least Useful War Engine, Coolest
Infantry Stand, etc.)

You will probably also want to place some regular objectives; I recommend
you use only Take and Hold and Capture, 1 per 500 points, and each player
gets his own (of course). These must be set up at least 115 cm away from
the appropriate
corner. Capture objectives can only increase your army's morale, not lower
other peoples.

Don't play with TOO many points; we did 2000 points a side (I still fielded
3 titans) and it took us about seven hours. Of course, half of the players
didn't know the rules, which slowed us down a bit.

If the same detachment is involved in firefights with two (or three)
different enemy sides, the player whose turn it is decides which order the
firefights will be resolved in.

It should be noted that winning this scenario will require some fast moving
forces; and drop pods are very useful for stopping the enemy from escaping
with the Cheese Puff (tm). Also, bear in mind that the guy with the cheese
puff tends to get hammered by everyone else, so be careful. I think the
Puff changed hands seven times during our game.

Incidentally, the winner of the Coolest Infantry Stand award was one of the
pitiful survivors of the Marine detachment destroyed on the first turn by
the Firelords. He picked up the cheese puff from a fallen comrade in the
ruins. He and two comrades drove off an assault by aspect warriors, and
then, after his comrades fell, he survived the fire of 5 falcons, a prism
cannon, and a Warlock Titan, and won a firefight against some Ork Warbikes,
before being swarmed by falcons in close combat and killed. He was cool.

I might post a battle report later, of this fight or of the three player
game.

I found this scenario to be an absolute blast.

It's probably easily adaptable to SM/TL as well, although victory points
might be tricky.

Regards, Eugene
Received on Wed Jul 31 2097 - 18:11:58 UTC