Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Big Game 2015

D-Company held it's annual Big Game this past weekend. We rent a large hall and have a gaming weekend. Every year members volunteer to run it. This year was my turn along with Mark http://excursionsbeyondthecall.blogspot.com/  Friday involves setting up the board and then playing some small games of 40k, 1500-2000 point games. My Night Lords were beat badly by AJ's Necrons, wiped from the table in turn 5. Ouch. The Orks played a game Friday against each other  to determine their warboss.

A view from the fortress side.

Saturdays game involved 20,000 points of Orks by 4 players. The Imperials featured 8 players and 44,000 points. Chaos and friends tallied 8 players and 48,000 points being Chaos, Eldar, Necrons, and Tyranids. 20 players and 112,000 points.



I divided the game into 3 theaters of battle. In the fortress 3 Chaos players fought 1 Imperial, while the Orks tunneled up from below. The Orks would turn on the  Chaos players when an animosity level was reached. The second involved 2 Imperials and 3 Chaos (though one chaos player fought in both the fortress and the road outside) this took place around the Shield Generator and the Ammo depot. Finally the third featured 5 Imperials vs. 3 Chaos down at the beginning of the road.

Iron Warriors smash down the walls.

One of the things I was very happy with was that the 3 theaters all stayed close to each other in the phases of each turn. I think it is wise to divide the overall battle in a game this big. Certain areas bog down, that's the way games of this size go. D-Company has hosted some 11 of these now. I think we have learned quite a bit in that time. I chose to manage my conflicts by assigning the players missions whose goals directly conflicted with enemy players. We also tried to spin a good storyline for the players. They each received information packets tailored to them.

A look from the city end of the board.


The Orks come up from giant holes in the ground!

Er we go dat way!

Chaos surrounded by.... friends?

Apparently Necrons can even move terrain...

The Orks are everywhere in the fortress.

Necrons approve of the way the battle goes in the city.

Imperials struggle to break the blockade.

Eric and Theo plan their next move.

The Imperials hold strong in the Shield Generator complex.

More Orks.

The front lines of the city fight.

Word Bearers move the Tyranid pheromone.

In the end it looked as though people had a good time. I was happy with how it went. You can't plan for everything, just hope you've set up an entertaining game. I wonder if the two structures restricting deepstrike were too powerful, I wish Chaos would have been deeper into the fortress when the Orks turned on them. But, for the most part, people embraced their missions and had plenty of action. I'm pleased with how it turned out.