Shiny and new! The ITC mission set has been updated for the mid point of the 2018 season based on all of your feedback!
So here we are, the new ITC missions fine tuned and refined based off of player feedback, play testing and loads of T.O. input! First of all, I must give a massive thank you to everyone that took time out of their busy schedules to answer my endless and incessant questions, lol. “Is this right? Would you word it like this? Do you think X or Y is better?” I’ve been a bit of a broken record, lately. Stopping co-workers in the middle of tasks to get their opinions and bugging the hell out of other organizers from all corners of the globe! But, I do so because the ITC has become more than we ever imagined and it impacts the play experience of many thousands of gamers all around the world, so we take it very seriously when we change anything.
What we’ve got is in my opinion a big improvement. We listened to what everyone said worked and kept it, what didn’t work and either dropped it or altered it. After trying it all out, I feel we’ve got the best mission pack we’ve ever written. And again, it wouldn’t be what it is without all of your feedback and participation. Let us know what you all think!
Updated ITC Champion’s Mission Pack
What’s Changed?
We heard what you all were saying and made the following changes as a result:
Formatting:
We’re adding in new score sheets that are more printer friendly based on feedback. These will be added to the mission pack soon.
We’re adding the 8th ed 40k deployment types into the pack for player convenience. Here’s our first draft to give you an idea of what to expect!
Primary Mission:
Mission 4 (the 2 objective mission) was VERY unpopular, lol. So, we ditched it. In it’s place we added in a mission that has 5 objectives and again, based on popular feedback, included 4 out of 5 player placed objectives. Why only 4 out of 5? Well, if you have an uneven number of objectives you invariably get a lopsided distribution which results in a disadvantage to one player which in a competitive setting is not fun. So, 1 objective goes dead center in the middle of the table. The other two give you the options to place 1 objective wheresoever you please, and the other in your opponent’s deployment zone. Why? Because what happens almost every time when you allow both objectives to be placed anywhere by both players is two objectives get placed as close to one another as possible in that player’s deployment zone. It just makes sense to do so in most cases as you can most easily control them both with minimal effort and maximum mutual unit support in this scenario. However, while efficient, that gets dull as in most cases the perception of variety or “player skill” in wise objective placement is actually just an illusion as you get the same pattern repeated table after table. So, we opted to make the bonus point for this mission kick in when you hold both objectives you placed!
What we found in practice is that this creates very interesting tactical choices. Do you place the objective close to the objective your opponent placed? If you have a balls-to-the-wall assault army, maybe you do as you’re going into the heart of your opponent’s army anyway! Do you have a board control army that wants to isolate objectives so you can scoop them up with a minimal investment of your own? Well, you can! Place your objective in their deployment zone as far from their objective as possible to make it difficult for your opponent to defend and perhaps that lone Scout squad that jumped on it will go unmolested. So far, we’ve loved this new mission and find it to be flexible, fun and–if you have a handle on it–for the bonus point to be relatively easy to pick up when compared to some of our other missions where the bonus point can be very challenging to get. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!
We also swapped missions 5 and 6 to avoid having two 5 objective missions in a row and because mission 6 was the most popular, to make it the final mission in events that only play 5 rounds (which is most GT level events).
Secondary Missions:
We received the most constructive criticism on our secondary missions. While the primary earned a massive 89% approval rating, the secondaries were a bit all over the board. Some were loved, some hated. The common thread expressed throughout all of the feedback we got was, “we don’t like how the missions influence list building so much.” Well, fair enough. So, we made a concerted effort to re-sculpt the secondaries to cover almost all potential situations encountered on the tabletop to take away the incentive to craft your list in a way you would otherwise not have in order to try and game the system. To this end, we made the following modifications to simultaneously (we hope!) dissincentivize you from tailoring your list to avoid perceived penalties and allow you to take the units you like. Text in red is designer commentary to help explain some of the choices.
Secondary Missions:
Each player may score up to 4pts for each of the following Secondary Missions, for a total of 12 between the three they’ve chosen. These points can be scored at any time unless otherwise specified in the description.
*Secondaries marked with an asterisk may not earn more than one point for destroying any one unit. If such a unit would award points for multiple secondaries, you must decide which it scores at the time it is destroyed. For example, if you chose Marked for Death and Big Game Hunter, and Marked an enemy Rhino, you must decide which Secondary Mission you earn a single point for when you destroy it.
As requested, we made many of the secondaries non-stacking to avoid some units bleeding too many points and making them unappealing to play.
*Headhunter: 1pt for each enemy Character that is destroyed.
No change, you all told us you really liked this mission.
*Kingslayer: Choose an enemy model that is a Character.
- Earn 1 point for every 2 wounds of damage it loses, cumulatively.
- In the instance where a Character may regenerate wounds or resurrect during the course of the game, total wounds it loses over the course of the game are counted towards this mission.
- If the model selected has the Character and Vehicle or Monster keywords, you earn 1 point for every 4 wounds it loses instead of 1 for every 2.
- If the Character is also your opponent’s Warlord, earn 1 additional point if it is destroyed.
Again, no change. This was voted the 4th most popular secondary mission.
*Marked for Death: Choose 4 of your opponent’s units with a Power Level of 7+. Earn 1 pt for each of these units destroyed.
We added this one in to create a catch-all to cover gaps created by the other missions. Did you only take 3 characters, 3 vehicles, etc. to avoid giving up all 4 points on any given secondary? Well, clever girl, as the saying goes, but you probably didn’t avoid 4 units with Power Level 7+! Gotcha! This allows players to still have the option to go for those points even if you’ve done your best to min/max your list and conversely to not feel like you can only take 3 of something when you really want to take 4+. This one remains slightly fluid, if it turns out that PL 7+ isn’t the sweet spot, we will adjust. Let us know if we missed anything!
*Big Game Hunter: 1 point for every enemy model with the Monster or Vehicle keyword and 7+ wounds destroyed.
We downshifted from 10+ wounds to 7+ based on player feedback to include things like Carnifexes, Talos, Dreadnoughts, etc. that previously slipped between the cracks and created weird edge armies that could dip, duck, dive and dodge their way between secondaries.
*Titan Slayers: For every 8 wounds lost by enemy units with the Titanic keyword in total throughout the course of the game, earn 1 point.
Example: One enemy Titanic model loses 4 wounds turn 1, and a different enemy Titanic unit loses 12 wounds turn 2 for a total of 16 wounds lost in total to enemy Titanic models. You earn 2pts towards this objective.
No changes as this was a popular secondary mission.
The Reaper: For every 20 enemy models destroyed, earn 1 point.
One of the least popular secondary missions, lol! This simple change has been massively popular so far.
Recon: Have a unit at least partially in each table quarter at the end of your player turn. A unit may only count as being in one table quarter at a time for the purposes of this rule. 1pt per turn.
Again, no change as this was the 2nd most popular secondary mission.
Behind Enemy Lines: If at least one of your units is wholly in the enemy Deployment Zone at the start of your turn, earn 1 Point. A unit is wholly in if every model in the unit is at least partially in the enemy Deployment Zone.
We altered this one to be simultaneously easier to accomplish and easier to counter. We felt it was a subtle but important change to make.
The Butcher’s Bill: Destroy 2+ enemy units during a player turn to earn 1 Point.
The secondary mission formerly known as Death by a Thousand Cuts–which was not a popular secondary at all and had sort of a silly name–was altered to be both easier to accomplish while maintaining the same general idea of countering MSU armies and have a much cooler name at the insistence of the LVO judging staff!
Ground Control: Earn 1 point for each objective held at the end of the last Battle Round played.
By popular demand, we’ve included an end of game objective secondary option. So far, this has been MASSIVELY well received. Thanks for the idea!
Old School: Earn 1 point for 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.
The most popular secondary. As my pappy always said: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Nuff said.
Gang Busters:….
Almost no one liked it so we dropped it like a hot rock, lol.
So there we are! We feel these are some really solid improvements. Big thanks again to everyone that helped and if you notice similarities to the NOVA missions and theirs to ours that is 100% intentional! We work closely together and we’ve both taken a lot from one another’s mission packs as they have a lot in common already and we respect the ingenuity and thought they’ve put into theirs. The closer we all come to a common community mission pack, the better!
And before the comments section blows up with comments about how to counter Knight armies…you can still get max secondary points against Knights! So don’t fret on that account.
We can’t wait to see how this impacts the meta in (hopefully!) positive ways, keeps things fresh and gives you all the list building freedom and play experience you are looking for. Let us know what you think!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
