Alternative Maelstor of war missions

Hi guys, here is what i will propose to my group about the tactical objectives missions. I've found the system funny but wildly unpredictable, and that is just plain bad, in my opinion. Whit this following simple amendments i hope to make it a little more "balanced"

First of all, if playing with TOs then

-NO SECONDARY OBJECTIVES

This is to avoid duoble tapping certain objectives such as "behind enemy lines" whit linebreaker, "kingslayer" whit slay the warlord and so on.

-CAN DISCARD AN OBJECTIVE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TURN AND IMMEDIATELY DRAW/ROLL AGAIN A NEW OBJECTIVE

opposed to the "at the end of the turn". That, imo, could really help Bad Luck Steve. (me)

-ALL INSTANCES IN TACTICAL OBJECTIVES REFERRING TO "D3" VICTORY POINTS ARE REPLACED WITH "2" VICTORY POINTS AND "D3+3" VICTORY POINTS ARE REPLACED WITH "5" VICTORY POINTS

And that should mitigate bad/good luck a little.

What is your thought on this stuff?
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Then I was trying to come out whit a "mixed" ruleset for Maeltorm of war and Eternal war, called "Galaxy at War"
Another set of six missions where TO and Objective grabbing merge togheter.

Shared rules for all the missions would be:
-NO SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
-ALL WILL HAVE "Reserves", "Varieable game lenght", "Mysterious objectives", "Night fighting"
-REMOVE FROM THE OBJECTIVE DECK ALL THE "Conquer Objective x" CARDS
(11 to 16, 21 to 26, 31 to 36)

About the missions:

1 "The Slaughterhouse"
Sometimes battles are just an excuse to temporarily quench rage and hatred in a sea of blood.
-Put on the board D3+2 objectives. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 2 VPs
-Objectives number: 51, 52, 62, 63, 64, 66 are worth 1 VP more than usual
-Each player draw 1 objective per turn, up to a maximum of 4 Active Objectives. He/she draws an extra objective if an enemy unit has been destroyed (but not routed off the board) in his previous Psickic, shooting OR assault phase (One more for each phase. Only in his own previous turn, not during, say, opponent assault phase)

2 "Field Battle"
A classic battle where victory is a matter of both tactic and strategy
-Put on the board D3+2 objectives. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 2 VPs
-Each player draw 2 objectives per turn, up to a maximum of 4 Active Objectives

3 "Secret Mission"
Both commanders have some hidden reasons to fight this battle. Ground control is just a facade...
-Put on the board D3+2 objectives. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 1 VPs
-Each player generates 5 Tactical Objectives on his first turn, keeping them hidden from opponent's sight. He can then discard up two and immediately draw the same number of Tactical Objectives.
No other TO is generated. Completed tactical objectives are only revealed at the end of the game.

4 "Conquer and Control"
This land is yours! Don't let the enemy take it!
-Put on the board D3+2 objectives. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 2 VPs
-Objectives number: 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 are worth 1 VP more than usual
-Each player draw 2 objectives per turn, up to a maximum of 4 Active Objectives

5 "Sacred Ground"
This ancient territory is sacred and vital to both contenders. They will take no prisoners nor suffer any enemy construction to remain intact; they will try and break the enemy morale while hunting for glory in a zealous display of hate!
-Put on the board 4 objectives, each in the middle of a table quarter. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 2 VPs
-Objectives number: 53, 54, 55, 65 are worth 1 VP more than usual
-Each player draw 1 objective at the beginning of each of their turns, up to a maximum of 5 Active Objectives. He/she then draw another objective card for each objective on the board he is controlling in that moment.

6 "Sabotage"
Every second the enemy has his dirty hands on the objective, is a precious asset lost forever in your race to victory.
-Put on the board D3+2 objectives. At the end of the game any objective held is worth 1 VPs
-Each player generates 7 Tactical Objectives in his first turn. On subsequent turns he draws one Tactical objective, up to a maximum of 8 Active Objectives
-At the end of his turn, each player can force the opponent to randomly discard one objective card for each objective he or she controls, reducing the opponent hand to a minimum of 1 Active Objective.

Suggestions and ideas??
Cheers!

Mostly I have to disagree.
I think Tactical Objecties/Maelstrom of War missions are the best thing thats happened to the game in a very long time. THe missions before were simply to straight and narrow, and too easy to plan for. Throwing a bit more chance into the mix was an excellent decision in my opinion, and the only thing I would want to change would be the set in stone deployments. Let them be random again and they'll be close to perfect in my eyes.

I disagree with removing Secondary Objectives. I think these are still perfectly valid and useful objectives to hunt for in a game.
Also with removing objectives cards 11 through 36, thus rendering the objective points useless. I think being able to hold the points for a time and getting V Ps from them is part of what makes these missions so interesting. It means people actually have to move and plan their actions instead of throwing themselves wildly forward or just sitting back like a boring Tau firing squad.

In your missions, I have to say I think Maelstrom missions, are BETTER with the six objectives and the chance to hold them for a limited time. Your missions are mainly just the Eternal War missions with added objectives from the cards. I think this works, but one of the reasons I prefer how Maelstrom works is that Eternal can be very one sided. An army that can sit on a few key objectives, or launch themselves in the dying moments of the game onto one or two objectives, can break everything very quickly. Too many times I've been winning an Eternal game and suddenly Monoliths have ported onto objectives and ruined everything.

I will say I like the idea of drawing new objectives each time you destroy and enemy unit. That works quite well, and is similar to one of the Haemonculus Coven Alters of War missions (Objective markers placed when enemy units killed).



In my opinion.

I'd have to agree with the OP about the randomness of the objectives taking something away from the game. I got absolutely hammered once when I played this because my opponent kept drawing the objectives he had in his deployment zone and rolled high every time he got a D3. It didn't reward him for being tactically flexible, and in fact it made the movement of the two armies inexplicable for any visible reason other than the random draw of the cards.

If I were to write 'tactical' missions I'd have simply written up a string of 'mysterious' objectives. For example, your army is pushing through enemy lines, you gain 1 vp for each unit in your opponent's deployment zone. Or 'genocide' you gain a vp for each unit destroyed, or in purge missions, gain 1 per 3 destroyed.

These missions are drawn randomly at the start of the game, but are not revealed to your opponent, so that at no time can either of you tally up the accurate vp score of the game and know that you can just cling on to that objective or contest that one to win, both players must be out for the maximum score at all times.

Thanks for the inputs guys!

Don't misunderstand me, though: i ALWAYS play with the new missions and cards, cause i really like the unpredictable way the game can turn, and also because it evens the difference between experienced and causal/newbye players.

Still, its kinda mindboggling, to me, when my opponent picks up twice the card that says to control his "home objective" or when he gets Kingslayer the turn he kills my warlord. The game is just over, if by turn 3 you are down 4-7 points, just for a single lucky draw of your friend. Shouldn't that be limited someway?

About removing objectives card and "static objectives" in my mission set: if you make your calculations it will be easy to see how, if you play by the objectives cards, you will score 50% from static grabbing and 50% from cards, while in 2 missions, static objectives are just a mere 25% of the possible points! I really can't see this to be similar to the old "last turn grabbing"
I did this to objectives to avoid the continual "lucky draw" that happens so easily. But i can see it giving the game a "statical old feeling", at least in regards of the board objectives...any suggestion?

Secondary objectives: i agree, it's not easy to remove them. But when you double up them with the cards, as i said before, it's just annoying. I'd keep First blood and add Last Laugh (the last one to kill a unit gets a VP), but for K.t.Warlord and Linebreaker...the double up with 2 objective cards each! Not good, imo.

How do you feel about the static VP values instead of rolling for random VP in case of D3?

About "only mysterious objectives" that would be cool, but every game myserious? that would be like a blind catch game all over. some of the fun is also to twart your opponent's plan, imo!
I think 1 in 6 missions to be "blind" is good enough, maybe 2 in 6.