CoD - March '20 Game Day - Epic Convoy Scenario

March 2020 was (another) Epic Scenario Day at CoD.

The scenario we played was called 'Convoy' - a summary would be that the defender had to get a 'convoy' model across the table in 4 turns or less, and attacker had to destroy the convoy before it could escape.

We had three tables set up; six players for the first game and dropping to four for the second game. I was hoping to get four tables of players, but three tables is hardly a failure.

A last minute cancellation meant i was able to play rather than just linger.

I think that overall the scenario worked. I have since tweaked the definition and rules for the convoy model slightly, to clarify questions and issues that arose on the day... but generally people just got it.

Titans (attacking) vs Kreig Guard (defending)...

Kreig Guard (attacking) vs Templars (defending)...

Necron (attacking) vs Eldar (defending)...

The road on the right side of the table was the path that the convoy had to remain on.

Games underway...

Some notes from my own first game...

The Assault Terminators did an air engagement against a heavy tank within the Kreig deployment zone. They were subsequently counter-engaged by a Rough Rider formation which resulted in the Rough Riders being destroyed and the Terminators not losing a model. They were particularly vicious and went on to destroy a nearby tank as well before eventually being destroyed themselves. Three formations of casualties was a fairly zesty performance, and far exceeded expectations.

Rather than drop pods, my Crusader formations were all deployed in rhinos and padded out with Neophytes. Felt weird and vulnerable deploying stuff at the start of the game for people to shoot at (especially artillery toting guardsmen)!

My defender list was packed with as many bodies as possible to create a literal meat-shield for the convoy.

By the end of turn 3 the convoy model had lost its shields and was down 2 dc (of 8). There was however not a lot of attacking models in a position to continue the attack, and it was able to move off the board without further damage.

As a summary...   My opponent could/should probably have rushed the convoy target more and earlier in the game. It felt very much like overwhelming the convoy (especially with engagements) was the easiest (and potentially best) option for victory on this scenario.
The Krieg did have some artillery, mobile heavy guns and Titan Killer guns available but these weren't really brought to bear in the quantity required to really shoot the target to death. They were perhaps distracted by the quantity of marines on the board... (??)

This wasn't a situation where you needed to have forces sticking around to the end of the game holding objectives, more a bum-rush forward at the target.

In this case some of the attacker's strongest tanks had been targeted by the terminators to remove some of that incoming threat, and the best engaging units were still too far back across the board to hit the convoy in a decisive way..

All in all a learning experience and i'm sure next time a rematch would be more tightly contested based on lessons learned here.


Next door was the Kreig vs Titans game...

The Kreig convoy made it a couple of turns across the table, also looking to shield incoming assaults.

But a close-combat Reaver titan in the its path eventually smashed the convoy to bits.

The Third game...
The Necron vs Eldar game ended quickly due in part to a misinterpretation of the rules. Though i believe the Necrons were solidly engaging the convoy which seemed a solid strategy. Additionally the defender was largely unfamiliar with their own army (something of a head-scratcher).

The draw wasn't perfect but with limited players and hoping to avoid i.e. kreig vs krieg and titan vs titan it was what it was.



In my second game i was attacking vs the Titan army...

My ground forces were largely held back during the preliminaries stages of turn one, potentially waiting to jump forward during turn two to provide support fire, and generally trying to avoid unnecessary casualties to the Titan's guns before that could happen.

A series of air assaults on the Titan convoy played out at the end of round 1. First regular Terminators flew in bringing the convoy (i believe, though the dice show differently) down to 3 DC.

And then the Assault Terminators flew in and finished it off in the last activation of the turn.

Doing close combat attacks ignored the Convoy's Void Shields which were hardly dented at this stage.

Which made me felt like a big jerk of course, but the plan kind of... well... went to plan.

As retrospect the Titans may have been better deployed as a protective clump around the convoy, potentially denying direct access to the convoy for the terminators. With few activations it was admittedly a large ask for the Titans.

Based on the content of my list the Templars had almost nothing that could effectively shoot up the convoy as it passed - so i had no choice but to assault.

Again, i'm sure lessons were learned.... and there was now time for a beverage and to watch the other game play out.


The Necron vs Krieg game continued on to turn 3...

The Kreig certainly held their own against the Necrons and managed to launch engagement actions against the Necron convoy, weakening it (down to 1 DC) but not destroying it outright (turn 2).

In turn 3 the Necrons tried hard to whittle down the nearby threats to avoid further assaults.

But as one of the final activations of the turn an accurate shot from a volcano cannon inflicted TK(3) damage to the fleeing convoy, destroying it before it could scurry away! 

A far more suspenseful conclusion than my own game and well worth watching it play out.


Conclusion
This was, as far as i'm concerned, an introduction. An opportunity for all of us to experience another alternative scenario. None of us had tried anything like it before and imo it generally worked as advertised.

I'm sure that if/when we try it again people will be more attuned to what they could/should bring list-wise and how they should approach the roles and risks of defender and attacker.

In discussions re the standard Tournament scenario it's commonly said that the various armies would probably be more suited to this or that scenarios (rather than tournament).
I think this kind of actually went towards proving that to be true.

We've previously tried the 'domination' scenario, which was almost entirely about holding objectives continuously from turn 1 to earn victory points.
We've now tried the 'convoy' scenario, which was almost exclusively focused on "destroying the BTS".
And of course we all know the ubiquitous GT (grand tournament) objectives.

It's nice to have these scenarios actually tried (as opposed to just theoretically) and i hope that in future sessions we can endeavour to play any of the above (and other scenarios yet to be revealed!!), and not just fall back on 'cruiser clash'.

I was relatively happy with the composition of my lists.  I expect my opponents next time would be more diligently in contemplating role focused lists too.

I freely admit that "focus on the mission" was foremost in my mind, and having contemplated the scenario for the whole month would definitely have helped me.

Overall i feel it was a successful event and hopefully everyone got something worthwhile from it.


Also - Alternate Lists
Something that we tried that i think worked quite well was the optional utilisation of multiple/alternate lists; so you could have a 'defender' list and also an 'attacker' list with different load outs/formations on each list. Both had to be built from the same faction/army list though.

I've been considering for a while that this might make GT tournaments a bit more flexible/better for the players there too.
Not everyone had alternate lists but for those of us who did i think it kind of proved the effectiveness of having a list (somewhat) appropriately tailored to the situation, as opposed to attempting to field a 'generalist' list - which is not how Epic works.

For GT tournaments this might translate to something like taking two lists with i.e. one for 'infantry hordes' and one for 'war-engines' or something like that. You can't possible cover all possible scenarios or opponent types with two lists, but it might be nice to have something even slightly more suitable available.

It's not how things are (historically) done, but given we're the meta and the game's dead, don't we make our own rules now??

Anyway it didn't add a lot of extra overhead to how things ran, and i banged out my two lists in 20 minutes the night before. It's hardly an imposition (except if the TO needs to diligently check 2 lists instead of 1... i get it... but worth it, imo!!) 

Until next time...