Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Vehicle-Only Apocalypse Games

Here's a concept that I took part in the other month: a vehicle-only apocalypse game.

The idea is simple: if it's got an armour value, it can come on to the board.

Other than that, it is a standard apocalypse game with the proviso that any tank can control (as well as contest) any objective. (An optional extra rule is to remove any immobile vehicle given they're too hard to keep a full track of).

Other variants are to keep a tally of "kills" instead of contesting objectives. Typically it might be something along the lines of 1 point for a front armour AV=10 tank and a point extra per AV pip above 10. Double for a super-heavy.

Evaluation:
The biggest positive in this style of apocalypse is the time factor. Usually, it takes absolutely ages just to get through one turn of apocalypse. Not so with this concept. The movement is especially quick without all those troops to be fiddling about with.

Secondly, it is really fun! All those tanks (etc.) on the table are wonderful to see and watch.

I feel the Tyranid players lose out though. Perhaps if they were allowed carnifexes and the like, it'd be cool.

The game doesn't get overly dominated by the super-heavy tanks either. A humble dreadnought with a multi-melta can prove to be highly effective if ignored. Even rhinos can be great if they're strategically positioned to screen lines of sight.

It's certainly something I'd get involved with again.

5 comments:

Ed Mlynar said...

I call it TankHammer! My first ruleset can be found here:
http://berkswarhammer40k.blogspot.com/2009/04/tankhammer.html

I liked these rules because there was an advantage to bringing tank-busting troops who would get run over real quick.

However, through play-testing I found that the "kill-point" idea didn't work out so well, so I converted it to a straight points-killed systems. The results can be found in our campaign book under the "Game Types" section:
http://berkswarhammer40k.blogspot.com/2009/04/click-to-download-on-southern-edge-of.html

suneokun said...

Really good idea, I fielded 180 guardsmen in the last (and first) apoc game played. It would have been much more fun to simply let the AV panel it out.

That said, I'd include Monstrous and Gargantuan Creatures in the list - that way Carnifexes, Flying Deamon Princes and Wraithlord are included... among others.

I have to agree with Aki's post on the killpoints - it'll be fairer to do it by pts cost... although the adding up afterwards would be monstrous.

Recommend putting up a flipchart with a segment for each player - that way 'if you don't record your kill it doesn't count!'

Akenseth said...

Don't forget that Vehicles will let you field large points games rather quickly. A couple of Super Heavy vehicles will push you up in points incredibly fast, not to mention just normal tanks as well. Great for wanting to use as many big things as possible, and really, who doesn't. ;)

jabberjabber said...

Hi Folks - thanks for the feedback! I like the tankhammer rules, Aki! Nice job.

DimmyK said...

I've played this sort of thing before, and it really is quicker, deployment becomes very interesting too

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