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PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
Hey all, came up with a couple of ideas with friends and wanted to share them on my favorite forum :)

The first idea is a sort of comp, in that it restricts lists a little. Each player would pick three or so units or items from their opponent's army book to ban. There would be restrictions of course, such as:
1. You only get up to 3 bans
2. You cannot ban two units from the same category i.e. only 1 special, 1 rare, 1 lord, 1 hero, 1 magic item
3. Banning core units is not allowed, as paying the core tax is already difficult enough for some armies

You could still maintain closed lists and would obviously have to do this before lists are made, so it might be a bit time consuming. However, the idea is to not only remove annoyances, it also encourages your opponent to try new strategies.

The second idea is blind deployment. You would make your lists, whether closed or open doesn't matter. You then roll for scenarios, place terrain, and generate spells as normal. Then, the fun part. Get some sort of cardboard or plastic sheet or a curtain and stick it on the middle of the board so you can't see your opponents deployment zone. You could put it on some type of legs or something and have a friend hold it in place. That friend is also there to make sure neither side cheats on deployment. You then roll for turns, and remove the sheet.

You could probably justify adding a turn or two to the game length, simply because turn 1 and possibly 2 would be adjusting your placements and finding advantages. I feel that this would add a cool dynamic to the all important positioning of units. After all, even the best generals can be caught off guard! And if you are like me and need some sort of fluffy justification for what's happening in your battles, there are plenty of causes. Whether it's fog, darkness, illusion magic, or a giant moving wall in a Tzeentchian labyrinth, it's sure to be a game changer.

So, let's hear your feedback! Do you like it? What changes would you make? Do you have any ideas of your own?
 

TMS

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Nov 26, 2008
4,662
Sweden
I like the idea. Extending the game will be necessary addition with blind deployment but I'm with you on the fun it could introduce. :)
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
I'm not totally keen on the idea. VC at best have maybe 5 genuine hammer units and thats being liberal... Most would say Blender Lord, Terrorgheist and Vargheists. Ban those three things and any VC force is neutered quite heavily. Black Knights are more of a delivery system than a genuine hammer in themselves, and I guess there's of course the Grave Guard, but that has highly limited meneuverability since they're just on foot.

VC lists without those things are certainly possible though. I can think of other things that would make minicampaigns more exciting. For example story themed objectives such as in the Sigmar's Blood campaign. If you fulfill certain criteria in your first battle, then certain units can get stat boosts or special rules in the next battle. E.g. If your Cairn Wraith kills a champion, he gets Killing Blow in the next game. If he manages to kill a Lord/Hero then he gets Heroic Killing Blow etc. If a banshee kills 95pts worth of models, then she gets +1 to her scream damage in the following games etc. If a unit of dire wolves survives through to turn 4 then they get +1 toughness! Woot woot go pups!
 

PureSphinx

Ghoul
Jul 16, 2014
178
@Banat Thats a pretty cool idea too. I haven't looked into campaigns like that yet, but I will. I also agree with you on your point about the bans. It's kinda hard to judge how hard an army will be nerfed with a few key things missing. However, the new list I just came up with includes none of those three things, and should work decently enough. It just depends on your play style I suppose, but I care more about banning certain things my friends auto include; Sisters of Averlorn, Bolt Throwers, Great Cannons, Warrior Priests, Fanatics, etc. Another thing about neutering armies is that both armies should be equally handicapped. Just an idea though.
 

Mr. Cthulhu

Zombie
Aug 6, 2013
36
New York
The second idea is blind deployment.

Ahh, the General's Compendium. That brings me back. I've never tried the Hidden Deployment setup, but it always looked like a lot of fun. Some people used cardboard boxes, or a sheet with clamps on the table and a line running between the clamps, and sometimes even numbered pieces of paper that refer to various units.

As far as the unit deletion, I really like that idea! A friend of mine has an issue with running the same units over and over and a little variety should do him some good...

Something else to consider with changing list building is to limit magic item usage. I ran a tournament and limited hero level characters to one magic item and lords to two. There were more specific rules, such as vamp heros can have one item and one vamp power, Ogres can have an item and a big name, etc.
 

crafty0ne

Ghoul
Nov 3, 2011
117
Front Range, Colorado
I played some hidden deployment scenarios back in 5th edition , My Friend and I would use the tops of the various warhammer boxed sets down the middle of the table.....It definitely adds a new element to that phase of the game. It can be somewhat annoying though. In one game I remember fairly vividly, I had all my units bunched up one one side of the table, while my friends were all bunched up on the opposite. On a standard 4 foot by 6 foot table, that's quite a distance to cover with 8 inch march infantry, so we spent the majority of the game trying to slog across the table. By the time we were actually able to maneuver our units into combat, there was only two turns left in the game.
 

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