Contest of Champions – February 2014 – The Missions

As you probably haven’t noticed, this post came out a little later than my normal 8 am (Pacific) post time.  While I doubt it would happen, I wanted to make sure the CoC had started before posting the missions.  Don’t want to give anyone too much of an unfair advantage.

Every mission will have the same victory conditions.  Due to the event only being 3 rounds a 20-0 system had been adopted.  I don’t see any probably with it and so I haven’t looked to change it.  I did play around with it a little though.  I don’t recall the system we used to use, but this one is probably different.  This applies only to the 2000 event, I have a different scale for both 2500 and 2999.  My system starts out with 100 points for a win, and then 175 points per step until a 14-6 occurs.  To change the score after that takes 200 points per until 18-2 when the final two steps take a little extra.  My objective here is to encourage those who are losing to play the game through, as every point saved becomes more valuable.  I also made the higher levels require such a huge difference that there will likely be a wider spread between mid-wins and huge wins.  We’ll see how that works out.

Victory Conditions:

Difference	W	L
1826+	20	0
1601-1825	19	1
1401-1600	18	2
1201-1400	17	3
1001-1200	16	4
801-1000	15	5
626-800	14	6
451-625	13	7
276-450	12	8
101-275	11	9
0-100	10	10

Conceding: If you concede the game, your opponent will receive their Battle Points, including from Bonus Victory Points they have earned up to this point.  You will receive 0 battle points.

Tabling: If one player has all models destroyed, the game ends.  Determine Battle Points based upon the victory point difference; include bonus victory points earned as if the game ended for any other reason.

The conceding and tabling rules I’ve defined are probably different than what had been used.  The previous years of the event have been much less formal in terms of packets, so I’m not 100% certain.  I have decided that conceding should not be an automatic maximum win, but at the same time I didn’t want to encourage someone who was losing to just concede to try to save points.  There is no benefit for conceding, and also no benefit to encourage your opponent to concede.  If a situation comes up where someone drops to punish their opponent for doing well, I have a few ideas of how to deal with that (starting with possible asking the individual conceding not to return – depending on the situation).  For tabling, I never liked the idea of a player having 1 model left and still getting a full win and all bonus objectives.  The game should be called as close even if one is undisputed, and so I’ve reflected that here.

The tabling and conceding rules will be the same moving forward unless I’m convinced they don’t work.

Round 1: All the Colors of the Wind

Deployment: Battle Line

In addition, any forests are Blood Forests

Special Rules: Colors of the Wind

During the game some lores receive an additional D3 bonus to all casting attempts.  Includes bound spells.  Bound spells that do not utilize a spell from a lore count as a lore contained in an army book.

Lore	Turns
Fire, Beasts, Shadow & Death	1-2
Lores contained in Army Book	3-4
Metal, Light, Heavens & Life	5-6

An army that contains no wizards or bound spells may choose to receive an additional +1 to dispel for the game.  Doing so will prevent the player from receiving any Bonus Victory Points.

Bonus Victory Points:

100 Points – For each wizard killed during a game turn where their lore is affected by Colors of the Wind.

50 points – For each model with a bound spell killed during a game turn where their lore is affected by Colors of the Wind.

Models with multiple lores only provide victory points once, but may be scored during any relevant game turn.  Models with both a lore and a bound spell may be scored during any relevant game turn and will provide the higher 100 or 50 victory points and depending on the game turn killed

This mission was liberally borrowed from Adepticon, though I did modify it a good amount (such as adding non-main book lores).  This mission defiantly gives some advantage to armies with magic, but for the most part only for 2 turns.  I tried to balance to those without wizards/bound spells by offering them a +1 dispel.  Its option, but if they take it they lose they opportunity to earn bonus victory points (I figure they can’t give up any, and their advantage is for every turn so it’s only fair).  The Adepticon had the lores in this order (but for 3 turns) and I left I the same, simply inserting the book lores in the middle and reducing the advantage to 2 turns.

Since we were working with limited power, I thought that limited bonus points also sounded like fun.  So for two turns a wizard will be a shining beacon of power, and his lose would therefore effect the outcome of the battle more.

Round 2: Fortune Favors the Bold

Deployment: Blood and Glory

Special Rules: The Bold

After both players have deployed their armies, including scouts, each player nominates any one core unit that contributes to the army’s Fortitude (including any unit joined by the General and/or Battle Standard Bearer).  This unit, and any characters in the unit, may Vanguard following all normal rules for Vanguard.

Bonus Victory Points:

300 Points – Your opponent has reached their breaking point and you have not.

100 points – Your opponent has reached their breaking point before you did.

100 points – You have captured/killed at least 1 Fortitude that was contained in your opponent’s The Bold nominated unit at the beginning of the game.

This mission was also liberally borrowed from 2013 Adepticon.  This mission, compared to the last, gives a much smaller advantage.  Giving one unit Vanguard is a 2 edged sword since it doesn’t also give the movement advantage most common with Vanguard, Fast Cavalry).  It must only be a core unit maybe even with the general or BSB, but it puts that unit ahead of the army, potentially.  This could mean that the unit gets charged early, or chaffed.  Also, if you go first you still can’t charge with the unit.  This could present some interesting problems in some games, but deployment can be adjusted to counter it.

Round 3: Hold That Wall!

Deployment: Meeting Engagement

A wall must be centered in the no-man’s land, facing the deployment zones.

Special Rules:

Game ends per Watchtower (starting turn 4, roll D6 and add turn, ends on a 10)

When the first unit defends the wall, the controlling player rolls a die to determine the rules of the wall.  Any rules only affect units in base contact with the wall.  The wall provides soft cover.

Roll	Type
1	Alter of Khaine (page 124)
2-3	Bane Stone (page 124)
4-5	Magic Circle (page 125)
6	Sinister Statue (page 125)

Bonus Victory Points:

500 Points – You have a core unit defending the wall at the end of the game and your opponent does not.

Unlike the last 2 missions, this one is mine.  I like the idea of using banners and the watch tower to help modify the lists that are strong.  For example, an all chariot Warriors of Chaos might suffer during this mission as the requirement to hold one position limits their effectiveness.  I decided I didn’t just want a unit to be willing to hold the objective starting turn 1, so I added a little randomness ala mysterious terrain.  I’ve limited all the effects to just those in BASE contact.

Alter of Khain – Units subject to frenzy

Bane Stone – Hits receive +1 to wound

Magic Circle – MR 2

Sinister Statue – Start of each player turn, roll a die for each unit, 1-3 cause D6 S4 hits.

I tried to pick items that benefited or hurt most armies equally.  That is why I ended up not actually using any of the magical obstacle rules.  I think the Alter of Khain is my favorite.  It just adds that extra level of randomness as your core unit charges or pursues away from the objective.

So those are the three missions for session 1.  I’ll follow up with how things went.  I also included sections for comments for each mission so that I could get feedback and learn how to build missions.  They won’t be anonymous just because I included the comments on the bottoms of the score reporting sheets, but hopefully I will still get some good feedback.

If anyone still reads my chatter, feel free to let me know what you think of these missions and what you think makes a good mission.  If I’m offered to continue running the CoC (last year’s February person wasn’t), I’m thinking that the April and June missions will be plays off of the SAWS and QCR missions to give those people going a chance to get a little more familiar.  I’ll put it to a vote during announcements, I think.  Then I’ll have 3 more events to plan missions for.