Once for a narrative campaign I looked into my 4th edition book and it's wealth of scenarios to see how well they would assimilate into 5th edition. Listening to a lot of podcast talk about tournaments and a few other things prompted me to look in there again but this time just use them as inspiration and to throw my own look into a few objective scenarios. All of the missions use the normal deployment zone/first player selection, objective rules, random game length etc. I'm merely looking to spice up the objectives. Here are a few of my ideas, feel free to critique:
Hard Point Attack
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Objectives: Side A - Place two objectives 12 inches up from the long board edge, each in contact with a different short table edge.
Side B - Place two objectives, both on the center line of the long board edge, one in contact with the long edge of side B and the other 12" forward from side B.
Idea: This scenario would create an attacker and defender situation with concentrated objectives on one side that will be hard for the attacker to take and hard for the defender to hold with the objectives in the attackers deployment zone being easy to hold but easy to take for outflankers, representing the attackers leaving themselves open on the flanks. An improvement I can see for this scenario is to allow the the "defender" to move each of his objectives up to 6" to the left or right. This way the objectives have more distance between them and they can take advantage of terrain better which is the point of the concept.
Recon
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Objectives: First player places an objective in the very corner of either the left or right of his deployment zone. The second player places his objective in far opposite corner.
Idea: I hate scenarios that involve moving units off of the board so I don't like most traditional recon scenarios. I figure this creates a massive distance between objectives and the attack lines on the objectives don't meet which would hopefully create more of a probing battle. Try to take the enemy objective without leaving yours open. Granted this set up could happen in any Pitched Battle/Capture and Control but it's very rare since people will more often attempt to use a piece of terrain near the center of the deployment zone and the second player will always close up the attack lines if they have a strong aggressive army.
Rescue
Deployment: Spearhead
Objectives: The objective appears using reserves and arrives using deepstrike with the center of the board as it's target point. The objective scatters 6 D6 inches and always scatters. Roll for the objective reserve and place the objective before the first player rolls for his reserves. If the objective reaches a table edge it stops.
Idea: Players need to canvas the board and secure as much area as they can, otherwise they need a rapid response. Hopefully this fulfills the idea of a rescue mission. Something or someone important seems to be falling out of the sky. Other ideas are to have this mission in night fight since only the most pressing missions are held at night, battles rarely would and maybe using Dawn of War deployment. I like Spearhead here though because reserves can help canvas the area when using the long board edge for reserves. Another thing could be to have the objective come in later on a set turn but I like the random effect to keep people on their toes.
Patrol
Deployment: Spearhead
Objectives: One objective is placed at the center of each short board edge, touching the board edge.
Idea: Simple, huh. Once again it could easily be accomplished with a Spearhead/Capture and Control but the extreme objective placement creates more of a feel to the battle. This feel being two opposing patrols meeting in an engagement.
Test the Lines
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Objectives: Each side gets three objectives placed 12 inches forward from their long board edge. One objective touching each short board edge and the third objective is in the center of the long board edge.
Idea: Six objectives on the table, one more than we've ever played with but that one can be very important. The first player to place an objective in normal Sieze Ground scenarios can place three advantageous objectives while the second player may only place 2. This way each player has 3 advantageous objectives but that isn't enough to win, you have to find that weak link in your opponents line while holding your own.
Gain a Foothold
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Objectives: At the end of the battle measure the distance between your long board edge and the lead figure of each of your units. Add the inches of ground gained by each unit and the player with the most inches gained wins.
Idea: This is my first step outside of normal objective rules which are far easier to balance. This scenario benefits MSU armies far too much and I think I'd have to write some rules to balance it. I think that maybe Dedicated Transports would not count and units must be disembarked to count for the objective. This would stop armies from gunning flat out in their transports and not putting their units at risk in any way during the mission. It is called a foot hold after all, probably have to put your feet on the ground and dig in. I'm interested in people's thoughts on this one.
Scorched Earth
Deployment: Random
Objective: Count the amount of units of each unit type in your opponent's army, Independent Characters and Dedicated Transports, etc. included. Your objective is to garner kill points from your opponents highest count category, you may choose in the case of an equal amount. The player with the most kill points of the determined unit type wins with a player winning automatically at the end of the game if they eliminate all units of that type. If both players eliminate all units of the type or if the kill points are equal then it is a draw.
Idea: Resource denial is the idea. In a campaign you can shorten the length of the war if you can cripple an opponents strength, much easier than slowly breaking down his weaknesses. I'm much more confident in this scenario and I think it will create some fun games. I'm even now imagining a Space Wolf player whose highest count unit type is his character choices.
Well that was a fun couple of hours of brain storming. I wish I could put the pictures I have in my booklet up easily.
