And here they are: the updated ITC Champion’s Missions. Thanks so much to everyone that gave such awesome feedback on them and helped to shape them into what they are.
See the mission pack, here.
These will not be changing between now and LVO unless we need to correct a grammar error or clarify something that is unclear. If we find some truly big error that we missed that severely impacts the mission’s function we may make a change but do not anticipate this occuring. In short: you can practice these for LVO prep! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
What changed?
- We changed the order of the missions to what we felt was a more fun, varied and balanced order, saving our favorite mission for the final round.
- We changed the wording of Cut to the Heart (the 3 objective mission) to trigger the bonus point when you control both the middle objective and your opponent’s objective as it was previously too easy to get.
- We changed the wording of the “destroy an enemy unit” style objectives to trigger when the unit is destroyed, regardless of how, to avoid weird situations where a model loses its last wound to perils, a friendly vehicle exploding nearby, etc.
- We clarified some of the language in the Pre-game, Deployment & Setup section to avoid any ambiguities.
- We swapped out the scoring sheets for some that we feel make it easier to track the missions.
- Kingslayer was modified to not stack with Titanslayer, and was modified as such:
- You earn 1 points for every 4 wounds if the Character chosen is a Vehicle or Monster. This will help make units like Command Tanks and Hive Tyrants more appealing in the format as they will shed less points.
- You earn a point if the unit destroyed was also the other player’s Warlord. This helps make the mission more appealing to choose for lower wound models and can earn you full points if a powerful unit like a Hive Tyrant is also a Warlord.
- Behind Enemy Lines was modified to be a progressive mission, giving a point for each player turn in which you have 2 or more of your units within 12″ of your opponent’s rearmost and longest deployment edge (think old-school Linebreaker).
- Death by a Thousand Cuts was modified to trigger for every 3 enemy units destroyed in a Battle Round, resetting the counter every battle round.
- If you destroy 5 units in a Battle Round, you get 1 point. 7, you get 2, etc.
- We added the Old School mission which works as such. You gain 1 pt for each of the following:
- First Strike: an enemy unit is destroyed in the first Battle Round.
- Slay the Warlord: the enemy Warlord is destroyed at game’s end.
- Linebreaker: Have one of your models within your opponent’s deployment zone at the end of the game.
- Last Strike: an enemy unit is destroyed in the last Battle Round played.
- We added the Gang Busters mission which works as such: Pick an enemy unit of multi-wound models. Earn 1 point for the following:
- Each enemy model in the chosen unit with 5 or more wounds destroyed.
- Every two enemy models in the chosen unit with 2-4 wounds destroyed.
Thanks for your feedback and participation!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Pretty much everything that I had heard people talk/complain about was addressed. Still some incredibly secondary resilient armies like certain eldar builds, however, most of them rely on some sort of MSU and the change to Death by a Thousand Cuts means that they’ll give up a lot more points in whatever the “bloody” 2 turns of the game are where things can die very quickly.
Especially as an assault army, you tend to do all the killing and dying up front so it’s nice to know that you can go hard and not have repercussions.
Holy Run on sentence. Let’s try one more time.
Pretty much everything that I had heard people talk/complain about was addressed. There are still some incredibly secondary resilient armies like certain eldar build. They rely on some sort of MMU(?) about a dozen 5-9 man units plus a few characters. The change to Death by a Thousand Cuts means that they’ll give up a lot more points in whatever the “bloody” turn or 2 of the game happens.
Yeah, that was a change that needed to happen to make the mission more appealing.
Glad you like them! We had a lot of excellent feedback.
So headhunter and kingslayer do stack?
Yes, but the way Kingslayer scores is different now to compensate.
One quick question regarding the old school secondary missions. If you table your opponent before the final turn do you still score that point? Say I kill my opponent last unit turn?
Read it literally, so whatever the last battle round ends up being you would count it then. If you table your opponent, then yeah, you got it.
Big fan of all these changes. Great to see that a lot of feedback was addressed, I am very excited for my first LVO!
Happy to hear it and we will see you there!
Are there any plans to address players taking units of 9 or 19 units to avoid qualifying for the reaper? Such as introducing ranges such as 6-10 and 15-20?
After a lot of deliberation and testing we decided it really wasn’t a big deal and decided to leave it be.
Agree with Reece, there will always be a limit. If the range becomes 6-10 and 15-20, people will just take max number of 5 man and 14 man units. Anytime theres a limit like that people will always build lists to their advantage. But, thats not really a bad thing when before these missions people were just spamming 30, 40, 50 man units.
Exactly.
Looks good Reece!
Thank you, sir!
I think these are solid positive changes. Bravo! The biggest concern I have left is the ability of large “ob sec.” squads to take and hold more than one objective at a time.
Yeah, that is a valid concern but it is 8th ed standard, so to speak, so we’re rolling with it. In practice it hasn’t been too crazy as it is typically so easy to kill big units, but YMMV.
Sorry one last bit, why are the score sheets so printer unfriendly? does frontline have stock in ink?
That is my bad. This was my first stab at a score sheet rework using a high contrast template I like the look of and kinkos charges the same regardless. Posted it on FB and they liked the look of it and ran with it.
However I have a printer friendly version I will forward to FLG in case they wanna use it instead. I’d link it here but its sitting in my hard drive at home rather than google drive.
It is a fantastic score sheet I really like the smooth lay out, just all the grey adds up lol
Fair play, I will see if we can adjust it a bit.
Nice changes Reece! The rewording on Gang Busters is a good balance and simple to understand.
So if my opponent’s unit dies during his turn to perils or something, that still counts as me killing it for purposes of the secondaries and to see who killed more units in a battle round? But it wouldn’t count as me having killed a unit during my turn for that primary point? It’s good you cleared that up, it always came up as a question.
Thanks! Looking forward to trying these missions at the next tourney I got to.
Glad you like them!
And yeah, the kill counts when it happens so it is possible to get the more kills bonus but not actually kill anything in your player turn if you went first.
I like the changes. Looking forward to LVO.
BTW I think a big gap you guys should consider is giving points for unpayed turns.
It’s especially a problem when people concede or if you run into a show player or an unlikable list.
I know it’s an odd suggestion but I think it actually makes the ITC scene a lot competitive
There is already a mechanism in place for concessions listed in the tournament packet, so that part isn’t a problem.
Slow play potentially can be, though. With these missions, it’s definitely a lot more important to play quickly- though honestly, very rarely in 8E have I had a game go to time.
As AP said, if you read the packet it already has instructions for how to handle that.
Absolutely love the changes! It addresses everything that was brought up and even brought back the value if warlord! Love it!
However my one remaining gripe is stacking secondaries. Some unit are still shedding way too many points in this mission set.
Things like tank commanders, gmdks, hive tyrants, demon primarchs, etc still count towards 3 different secondaries (kingslayer, headhunter and big game hunter). Titanslayer and kingslayer stacking is a rare issue, it could affect fw greater demons but in most games it wont matter. These other 3 secondaries stacking is the last big issue in this mission set.
Otherwise great job!
Well, they have to pick all 3 of those missions for it to matter, right? If you army doesn’t have other, eligible Big Game Hunter or Head Hunter targets, then it isn’t super relevant, you know? It comes up most for the Tank Commander though, yeah, as AM usually have lots of Characters and Vehicles. We’ll see how it pans out, though.
But glad you like them!
That’s true, the opponent does have to pick all three, but headhunter is a common one with 2-3 detachment leading to at least 4 character hqs anyway. Big game hunter might not come up as often based on the army (though IG will get hit like you pointed out).
I guess my concern was it discourages these units too much that are often centerpieces, but we can wait and see.
I know I’m strongly considering shelving Magnus because of him giving up full kingslayer plus a headhunter (sometimes Big Game hunter too) that is picked against me far too often. Especially with all the alpha strike against LoWs in the game now these days.
Well, to be fair, with all the Dark Reapers and 36″ range Jinx out there, Magnus is in for a rough few months anyway, I think. That is regardless of mission.
But, yeah, he can give up a lot of points under the circumstances you describe. However, if he’s your only 10+ wound model, probably not. Headhunter though, you said it, is almost always a good choice.
I have no prior experience to ITC missions but these look pretty good, my FLGS is talking of doing tournaments again so hopefully I’ll get to play them!
Glad to hear it!
Very good overall. Just a question on how Kingslayer is supposed to interact with the AL warlord trait. I think from reading it you get the +1 point regardless of if the warlord status is passed off or not?
I dont think you get the warlord bonus for Alpha Legion if there is a character left to pass it on to.
That would defeat the whole purpose of the trait.
The WL would have to be dead at the end of the game, per normal. The AL trick would kick in.
However, it is doubtful their opponent would pick that option all that often, so it may not truly be relevant.
Sorry, for some reason I read it as you getting the point of the model killed is the warlord at that time. But your explanation makes more sense!
Happy to help!
Hey I think some further clarifications are needed.
1. Do you automaticly win if you table your opponent? It says “their opponent earns points in the same fashion as outlined above” But doesnt state if it automaticly counts as a win.
2. If your opponent concedes or gets wiped it says you get 4 points per battleround, shouldnt it be 5 including the bonus point available?
3. This is just my opinion but I think the secondarys should be maxxed out if you wipe/your opponent concedes regardless if you would be able to complete them or not. Just as a bonus for outplaying your opponent.
Right now you could theoreticly lose even if you table your opponent.
Read the packet, sir. All of that information is in the pack already =)
@Gman that is the intent. Tabling shouldnt mean autowin. Playing to the mission should be the most important part. It’s all working as intended.
Exactly, tabeling someone in this edition is really easy to do, it isn’t even an indication of how well the game was played, anymore.
1. No you don’t, but it is fairly likely. This is a mechanic common in other games like infinity. Think of it as lose the battle but win the war.
2. That is as intended. And its generous. Once you play these more you will see what I mean, but often mid and late game killing one and killing more becomes more scattered, as the bulk of armies have dwindled and not only the capability but opportunity to get those two kill points is less. So if you table them you get them when you otherwise wouldn’t.
3. Disagree. Its a valid strategy to build lists and/or play to deny secondary points. That is where the depth is in these missions, in the denial. So gifting max points for tabling just cheapens things immensely. In fact that would be the primary strategy to winning an event, because it’s otherwise basically impossible to get max points on these missions.That would just exacerbate the issue with tabling that this edition has currently.
Well said, and spot on.
So remember everyone do not concede, just tell your opponent you are going to do nothing ever and roll no dice ever (and if needed then they can roll for you) and then walk away and go the bathroom……or get a beer, while they play the rest of their game. Seems silly should just be like a tabling.
Firstly, this is will never happen. Secondaly, that’s what judges are for.
The reason it isn’t is to avoid collusion and because it isn’t fair to the rest of the field. We’ve had times where two buddies play each other and one guy goes, hey, I will just give you a full points win and let’s grab a beer, etc. It’s not OK in any situation, really, but in this format you really have to be strict to avoid that hapenning and as such, we put this in. If you want to concede, you get no points. That way the incentive is in place to get real game results which keeps everything fair for everyone as much as possible.
These are all awesome changes. Will make tournaments way better. I would have made gang Buster’s stack across different units but at least this gives points for super units.
Glad you like it!
Love the missions, hate the scoresheet. Would it be possible to get one that was black text white background instead of the current enormous black box.
We are working on a replacement for the score sheet.
Glad you enjoy the missions =)
Titan Slayers: For every 8 wounds lost by units with the Titanic keyword in total throughout the course of the game, earn 1 point.
I’m reading this as all titanic units, not just your opponents. The ones that depends on ownership seems to specifically state opponents or your. Do you have a clarification on this?
Enemy titanic models only.
Really Good updates. Thanks.
Good job on Kingslayer. Adding the bonus if the char is your warlord is a really elegant way to offset the change to 4 wounds per point.
Thank you, sir! That idea came out of the community, can’t claim it =) But I agree, it was a good change.
Kingslayer currently says that a point is only scored for each 4 wounds from a character. Is this an oversight??
How does Gang Busters works towards a vehicle squadron? Lets says a squadron of 3 leman russ deployed. Once they on the battlefield they were considered a separate unit.If the unit is chosen, how do we calculate the points earned?
Also on The Reaper. How do we calculate points if the unit of 10 was separated into 2 unit through combat squad ability, or 2 units merged into a unit of 20 models (IG Consolidate Squad stratagems. Thanks!
Do you still have the flexibility to pick and chose your Relics/WL Traits at the start of each game?
We play per the book regarding those topics.