LoT Draft Players Pack and Missions (and some Musings)

Sup all, Vinsanity here.

So I've been checking Wargamer Au regarding LoT lately and came across the Draft Player Pack. Link Mind you this is a draft and not the final version so there may be a few changes but nothing that should be too major...

Its fairly interesting, theres some riveting stuff in there :D. There are grudge matches which are available for the first round (maybe me and Kirbs should face off?) and the Army Composition Scores part is interesting. 0 is a Shocking Army - an army which can crush your army and crush your spirits too! lol. I'm betting if Kirbs can table a few armies in his warm up games then he could reasonably expect to get at best a 1, if not the 0 :(

Whats most important and interesting is the missions part. 5 missions with primary and secondary objectives plus bonus points. 14 points for win, 8 for draw and 2 for loss. Secondary mission is worth 3 points and it is possible only for one player to get it (however it is possible that both don't get it).

Bonus points are: +1 point for friendly unit in enemy DZ at end of game; +1 for no enemy units in your DZ at end of game; +1 for killing 75% of opponents models (this one looks tough to get, especially if you are versing Mech Eldar or Mech anything really, and maybe even tough if you are versing Guard or a huge Horde list without mass flamers.) There are also negative points: -1 for not killing at least 1 enemy unit or 10 models and -1 if you fail to have any units out of your DZ at end of game (this reads both ways but I think we know which way was intended - eg - if you have 1 of your units out of your DZ at the end of game, you don't suffer -1 point.)

Also, objectives are considered impassible terrain (a bit different to the way be and Kirbs usually play it). Hence you cannot park your LRC on the objective and deny the enemy the ability to contest it (a good additional change imo)

So those missions: 1 - Breakthrough - (Deployment is pitched battle)

There are 3 objectives, 1 in middle and 2 12" from middle towards the closest point of the long table edge (pretty much just a middle objective and two objectives 24" from the middle point of the sides).

But this is not the primary objective - to get into your opponents DZ is primary. Each scoring unit that is in the opponents DZ at end is worth 3 points; each non-scoring unit 1 point. To win mission you must have 3 more points than opponent. The secondary mission is control more objectives than opponent to win secondary mission (for 3 points).

Mission 2 - Annihilation - (Deployment is Pitched Battle)

Primary Objective - Kill Points (uggh :()

Secondary - "Dominate the battlefield" - You dominate a table quarter if you have more kill points of units in that quarter than your opponent. The player with more dominated TQs wins the secondary mission.

I can see the 'more kill points of units in TQ' being a bit of a problem, good its just a secondary mission. For instance, a IG list or any spammy list with a billion kill points can comfortably win this mission even if they suffer a fair few casualties. Deathwing (around 6 kill points?) will have trouble winning the secondary mission. However, they can win the main mission by having killed 6 kill points worth but only conceding 5 kill points themselves (aka most of their army). They can have 1 terminator left and still win comfortably. This little gripe is with Kill Points in general, not really with the mission but since it utilises kill points, there may be a few issues where such lunacy arises...

Mission 3 - Capture and Control - (Dawn of War deployment) AKA the Default Draw mission...

Primary - 1 large (60mm objective) in each deployment, whoever has more objectives wins.

Secondary - Table quarters - have a scoring unit in aTQ and no enemies in it. Whoever has more TQs wins secondary mission.

So this mission is designed to be really hard to win or lose and really easy to draw. I probably dislike this one more than KP missions, just because the KP discrepancy per army doesn't come up that often and this damn mission comes up 1/3 of the time...

Mission 4 - Secret Orders (now we are getting serious :D) - (Deployment Pitched Battle)

(Begin copy/paste :P): Deploy 3 objectives spread evenly across the centreline, one at centre, and one half way/18" along each flank's centreline. Roll off for deployment but before deploying, each places their final objective anywhere in their deployment zone, then deploy. After deployment, players identify all characters including the most expensive IC/HQ in their list as well as their starting Kill Point count After both players have deployed, but before rolling for “Seize the Initiative”, you must choose your missions. These are "secret" missions: you each choose a Primary and a Secondary, keeping it secret from opponent.

Choose any two:

1 Capture and Hold- Control enemy home objective

2 Annihilate- Kill Points

3 Protect the Precious- Control your home objective and ensure no enemy units are within 6" of centre of your home objective at the end of the game.

4 Seize Ground- Control more of the 5 objectives than opponent

5 Decapitate (Primary only)- Kill enemy commander, plus squad leader upgrades (inc all Sergeants), lone characters (NOT SW lone wolves - use their special KP rule instead, if they survive they will count), ICs, TMCs and any named figures like Sgt Harker, Chronus, etc. Must have killed most expensive enemy character to achieve, as well as killing more of them than enemy killed of yours. Enemy does *not* have to kill your most expensive character to compete, he counts all kills from above list.

PROTIP: - DO NOT reveal your choices to opponent until the end of the game. You must write them down secretly and place face down, somewhere hidden in plain sight. At the end of the game you reveal your opponent's missions while he reveals yours.
To win the primary mission (14 battle points), you must be successful in your primary mission and prevent the opponent from achieving their primary mission. To win the secondary mission (+3 battle points) you must be successful in your secondary mission and prevent the enemy from achieving theirs. (/Copy/Paste)

So this one is quite interesting, especially the Decapitate one. Since my BT list only has 1 commander (the EC), and no Squad leaders (they're all just initiates) I can foresee that the opponent will choose Decapitate as his primary against me... Similarly, it might be foolish for me to not choose Decapitate against anyone here since if he kills my EC, then I can nab the Decapitate mission by killing 2 of those above... I'm not too sure how this one will play out, maybe players won't choose Decapitate against me thinking that I might choose it against them and thus, get 2 kills and win the mission...

Mission 5 - Seize Ground - Deployment is Spearhead (TQs)

5 objectives, Primary is to control more than opponent to win, secondary is kill points. After the 4th mission, the 5th one looks quite plain in comparison :D.

So there they are folks (after a very long post), the draft missions in the pack. I'm quite sure that they won't change much before the final Players Pack comes out on June 19th. So have at it ladies and gentlemen... What do you think of the missions and anything in the Players Pack regarding comp, missions etc... Vinsanity out!