Special Mission Hold The Line!

First a shout out to battleboards UK, after seeing them on twitter I checked them out, some really cool terrain pieces that you can get for decent prices, check them out at the link I put up on the right.

Secondly a brief interlude from the designing a planet series, this mission I created as a sample article for the Shell Case staffing up competition, and I'm waiting to hear back from him on whether or not I can post what I create for this or not, so if he doesn't want me to I'll just create another one.  Thought I would share this narrative based mission with the rest of you, hope you enjoy!

Neither side had wanted the war to come to this, both wanted a quick and easy fight, in and out with their own side in victory.  That hope is now in tatters as the soldiers are forced to dig in and prepare for a long and brutal campaign.  The recruiters never talk about this part of warfare, the waiting and the awful conditions.  Yet it always seems to devolve into trench warfare.  The men are tired, morale is low, trenchfoot is amok, ammunition is running low (when is it not?), and no end is in sight.  All that is left to us is to keep your head low and hope the other guy makes a mistake before the commander sends you on a suicide charge.  But with the odds of the guard… we're all dead.


Pre-game: Design lists specifically with this mission in mind, otherwise an assaulting army will not have any fun and the narrative that resulted would only involve the complete slaughter of the assault-type army.  Considering this is supposed to be during a grueling campaign both sides would know what they were in for and have troops designed for this kind of battle.


Set up: Place two long trenches of about 3 feet wide in each deployment zone 12" from the long board edge.  At each far side of the trench place a pill box (a bunker) of capacity 15 whose entrance is in the trench.  These buildings count as Front armor 13, side armor 12, rear armor 10 with the front armor facing the area between deployment zones.  Intersperse large quantities of barbed wire and crumbling walls between the two deployment zones.  Place two large building ruins somewhere between the two zones as well, any other terrain is rubble.  All terrain beyond the deployment zones count as difficult and dangerous to represent unexploded munitions rounds and mines as well as the barbed wire everywhere.  Even though the area between the objectives is difficult and dangerous except for that given by true lines of sight (LoS) (in other words that space is not area terrain)


Mission:  3 Objectives, 1 in each deployment zone and 1 in between them (dubbed no-man's land from here-on).  The objective in the opponent's deployment zone is worth 3 objectives, the middle is worth 2, your own is worth 1.


Special Rules: 
1. Call in the Artillery!
   Every player turn the player whose turn it is places one large blast template of Strength 8 AP2 anywhere on the board (potentially even over their own models!).  This blast scatters 3d6 in the direction indicated by the scatter die, if a hit is rolled then roll 3d6 if you did not already with the scatter die.  The blast scatters whatever the highest result was of the 3d6 rolled in the direction of the arrow on the to hit result on the scatter die.  Cover comes from the direction of the center of the blast marker (as if ordnance barrage).  This large blast template is to represent the constant artillery fire that soldiers dread so much in trench warfare, and in the confusion of the battlefield it is hardly ever accurate, oftentimes claiming the lives of the gunners' own comrades!
2. The men are tired and morale is low.  We need reinforcements.  You can't just keep them out there fighting for weeks on end.
   Every troops choice that was deployed on the table at the start of the game (dawn of war troops coming on rolls a d6 at the beginning of the controlling player's turn 4.  On a 5+ that unit reduces its WS, BS, and Ld by 1 due to exhaustion.  Continue rolling every turn after this if the unit did not roll a 5+, though the roll does not change in value.  Note that this change in statistic does not change the stat line of any attached characters that are not troops choices.  For instance a Tyranid Warrior squad will still use the values given by the attached Alpha Prime, Space Marine Tactical Marines will still use the Leadership value of their captain if he is attached when necessary.  Ork boyz still use the Mob special rule and so count as fearless if still over 11 models are in the squad.
3. If you ever have the chance to go out into the no-man's land don't take it.  That place is a killing ground, the most brutal place on this whole bloody battlefield.  Men just seem to die faster there…
   Any models that are in the no-man's land count as 1 toughness lower for the purposes of wounding (not for instant death though) and feel no pain rolls replace the 4+ for a 5+ for any wounds caused to a unit with models in the no-man's land, vehicles fail dangerous terrain rolls with a roll of 1 more than normal (on a 1 or 2 if normal, a 1,2, or 3 if special case such as in Necron Codex).  Cover saves made in the no-man's land are base 5+ (instead of the normal 4+) even from normal LoS blocking items due to everything being weakened by the constant shots from either side.
4. Will this war ever end?
   The game goes to round 7 automatically, no turn length rolls necessary.