The Future Of War: The Multi Tier Mission

After running the Test of Khaine and playing in the GT at Adepticon I had a realization. It was actually prompted by a conversation with Old School terminator about missions. I was designing the missions for The Test of Khaine and went with a multi tiered style mission. This is the same kind of mission most big tournaments run. So what is a multi tier mission you ask? Great question lets answer it.

A multi tier mission has many different objectives. Not objectives as in a piece of terrain to hold and protect, but rather several different ways to win. Most have 3 different objectives. Fulfilling one objective gives you a point. You win the mission by having more completed objectives and having more mission points than your opponent.

A mission objective could be to get more kill points than your opponent, control more table corners than your opponent, hold more objective markers than your opponent and even ending the game with more scoring units in the enemies deployment zone then he has in yours. My first mission in the GT had Annihilation as the primary objective with controlling table corners and an objective marker in the center of the table that scored me a point if I had an HQ within 6 inches of it at the end of the game. Both my opponent and I could have scored this last one there was no way to contest other than killing the opposing HQ.

Sportsmanship and a soft score for paint was also included at Adepticon for overall score, but it was not the bulk of the score. Soft score like this also can be totally excluded, but for most big tournaments they are a factor.

The multi tier mission is the present and the future. This is a very good thing. Why is this? You may ask. Think about the basic missions in the book and some of the more esoteric ones in White Dwarf and the battle missions book. They typically have one maybe two objectives. You wither have to outscore in kill points or take objectives. Typically there is only one way to win. This is a severe handicap for armies not geared to do such a thing. Guard armies excel at taking multiple objectives, while armies like Eldar and Grey Knights have an advantage in kill point missions because of their small army size and limited Kill Points. The multi tiered mission allows armies to be able to concentrate on objectives they are good at or are able to complete. It basically removes any handicap an army may have. It evens the playing field literally.

Even an army that may be viewed as weak has a chance to really win consistently if it is played halfway decently and a multi tier mission is being used. So what are your thoughts on the subject. You have read how I feel. I love the multi tier mission. I plan on playing nothing but multi tier missions form now on. I want to be in the mindset and it does take a different mindset. You have to be thinking about multiple plans of attack and how to integrate all the different plans to achieve the most objectives. It forces you to up your game. You plateau quickly as a player if you play the same old mission and the same old game. You have to vary your game and the missions you play. You must move beyond a linear mono objective mindset. War is multi faceted so you have to think that way. So do yourself a favor and increase your ability as a general and start playing some multi tier missions.

Ok so there is my two cents. Next time I am going to start the long road to list development for a Dark Eldar army for Adepticon 2012. There was a lot of hating going on due to their lackluster showing. So time to try and silence the naysayers. It may be out of spite, but spite is one the 14^th foundations of Vengeance.

I also wanted to mention Deff Race 2011, a spearhead style tournament run by Dark Future Games, that will take place on May 14th at our FLGS Evolution Games.  Check out CVinton's post here detailing the tournament.  I hope to see some of you there.  I will be bringing the Craftworlders.

Also I would like to congratulate Madtrucker for winning the Battleforce give away.  Out of the 142 drinks bought for the crew he was the winner.  Sorry for the delay OST stealth posted while I was recovering from the weekend.

So until next time................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!