Monday 27 December 2010

The Ark of Dust - Mission II - Surgical Destruction

Mission II - Surgical Destruction



Deployment and Forces
Space Marines:
The Space Marine player has one squad consisting of three terminators. One Blood Angel sergeant armed with a power sword and storm bolter, one Blood Angel armed with a storm bolter and power fist and one Space Wolf armed with a storm bolter and power fist. The Space Marine player deploys on the squad on the starting squares shown on the map.
Genestealers:
The Genestealer player begins the mission with two blips, and receives two reinforcement blips per turn. Blips may enter play at any entry area.

Special Rules
Beta Strain Genestealers: This mission marks the first time the Space Marine forces on board the Ark of Dust encounter one of the evolved Genestealer strains. Beta Strain Genestealers have a thicker carapace than the normal "Alpha" Strain Genestealers. As such, even under sustained fire, a Beta Strain Genestealer can only ever be killed by shooting on a roll of a 6. Close combat is unaffected. The Genestealer player has 4 of these special Genestealers to use in the game that can be placed like normal Genestealers whenever a blip is revealed.
Bombs: In order to achieve their mission goals, the Space Marines must place and arm bombs in the rooms marked A, B and C. In order to place and arm a bomb, a Space Marine must be standing in the room and expend a full four action and/or command points.
Demoralised: The Blood Angels Sergeant in this mission is having one tough day. This coupled with having a Space Wolf in his severely reduced squad means he is not at his commanding best. As such, he loses his ability to redraw his command point counter.

Victory
Space Marines:
In order to win the mission, the Space Marine player must place bombs in all 3 rooms and have at least one marine leave the board via the marked exit point. If all 3 bombs are placed and armed but no Marines escape the board, the mission can be considered a draw.
Genestealers:
The Genestealer player garners an outright win if he can kill all three Space Marines before they have placed and armed all three bombs. If the Genestealer player can prevent the Marine player from getting a Marine off the board after he has armed all three bombs, he may still attain a drawn result.

6 comments:

  1. Quick note. This mission is very hard. Very. Hard. First, you have no heavy weapons. I took them away. Second, those armoured Genestealers will catch you out at some point. Third, there are only three of you. This mission only came off twice in about ten attempts. It's still being playtested so look for changes. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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  2. I just tried this mission 6 times in a row, and the SM lost everytime.
    As you said the mission is very, very difficult, I don't think the genestealers player even need the beta strain genestealers.
    For the third time till the sixth, I played with no blip at all at the beginning of the mission, and no beta genestealers.

    I think that even under those "better" conditions, the SM player still need a lot of luck in drawing his CPs to place the bombs as fast as possible and secure the exit way for at least one space marine.

    The mission is very challenging, I tried different methods : 2 SM going for the north-west room, or 2 SM going for the south-east room. IN the second case I manage to place the bombs in the 3 rooms, before being overrun by genestealers.

    The only thing that you need in this mission as a SM player is luck, sheer luck ! ^^

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  3. We got it to about 60-40 success rate by going in sequence A-C-B and using the sergeant to cover the rear. The real struggle comes when sealing off room B but if you can keep 2 marines at least alive, use one to drop the bomb in room B and the other to force lurking and the southernmost entrypoint, you can sprint that guy off to safety once the last bomb is dropped.

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  4. Do you mean you bomb A, then send all SM to room C, with the sergeant as rearguard (via the 2 north-east corridors) and then off to room C via the central corridor ?

    I'll try to do it this way next time.
    Meanwhile, I played the mission twice more this morning (with no initial blip, and no beta genestealer) and the marines got obliterated each time.

    Thus so far, my count is (loss/draw/win) : 7/1/0

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  5. Oof, this mission seems to be the bane of you. Maybe try adding a fourth terminator and keep all the other aspects.

    The way you've described above is the way we've played this mission each time we have won. The missions I have written here are tense but not impossible. I've had a couple of online playtesters tell me the mission was in fact too easy compared to my normal fare.

    That said, I'd trust a guy saying it was too hard before someone saying it was too easy. Going A,B,C guarantees failure every time.

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  6. Ok, so it's Christophe again (see 2 posts above), this time I'm called azhagmorglum.

    Anyway, after 1 year and a half, I decided to give a go at this mission again. Two games, 1 loss and a draw.

    loss : well, a good start with great CP, I went straight to room A, bombed it and then I lost my momentum and I was unabled to cover the marines correctly. It lasted 4 turns only.

    draw : this time I used my first turn CPs to get closer to room C first with the sergeant and a marine. The last marine strode quietly towards room A and 2 turns later bombed it.
    Turn 2 room C was bombed. I then ran to room B via the two ways available while the sergeant went for the escape corridor and guarded it. One of the marine managed to bomb room C in the subsequent turn, while I made the mistake leading to the draw : I rushed the sergeant onwards and he got swarmed and killed eventually.
    I replayed those 2 last turns just to see what would happen if the Sergeant would take his time (overwatch with 2 squares of free shots). He survived then using full AP and CP he overtook the last junction and turn around again to guard the corrido one last time. Hekilled 4 genestealers, and then last turn he ran to the exit!

    So my conclusion after 11 games : 0/8/2 (win/loss/draw)

    I still consider this mission quite difficult, there are no many options or ways to finish it (order is A,C,B definitely). For sure you need good CP draws, and a bit of luck when firing (which I got in the last game)

    Ok now I can move to the next missions.

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