Lets try something different for a change.

[Little Brother]

I need to apologise for going off topic in the "What's in the rhino?" thread.

Tsini's comment reminded me of what I used to love about 40k but experience so rarely now. He said:

Originally Posted by TSINI
this is where the fun begins, delve deeper into this train of thought and you can do so much with this game.if you have a friend or 3 that play regularly, feel free to add to the rules for realism sake.

my gaming group always used to use pistol strengths in combat.

we pretty much used true LOS way before 5th edition. apocalypse games were pretty much our regular playing style even in 3rd edition- no Force Organisation Chart, games over 6,000pts a side, no limit to what you can take (we all used to stick to a single army type but you get the idea) we used to regularly go off on a random tangent with weird and wacky rules.

playing on a planet with no atmosphere, playing on a heavy gravity planet, jungle, city, lava pitted volcano (with a dice roll each turn to see if it errupts), trying to de-activate a nuclear bomb, and one of my personal favourites - A-Bomb football!!

seriously bending the rules for games really isnt an issue between regular friends. also try "secret army lists" you don't get to look at each others army list till after the game. its on a similar note to the transports, how do you know what they might have in reserve? etc

I wish there were more people around with this approach to the game. So many people are obsessed with following what is written in the rule books. I liked what they put in the back of 5th ed about playing different games, with rules for different gravity and fighting in a vacuum, but unfortunately hardly anyone gives them more than a cursory glance. I think that the 2 major reasons for just playing standard missions time after time, are laziness and shyness, especially when playing a stranger at the lgs. I am guilty of both of these most of the time.

Thats why I like playing against the kids at my local store. Most of them don't have a complete army yet, so the force organisation chart and missions goes right out the window to start with. They don't seem all that focussed on winning, they just want to play a game, let their imagination run riot and have fun. So spicing things up with earthquakes, wandering monsters, carnivorous plants, dooms day devices and explosive atmospheres is just what they want.

I think I need to dig out my Rogue Trader and look at the suggested scenarios in there. Anyone remember Abdul Goldberg? Most of those scenarios would be ideal as very small skirmish games. There were jail breaks, hijackings, espionage missions, monster hunts( The monster had eaten the squad member carrying the teleport beacon, which must be recovered so you can escape before the planet is virus bombed.), colony war style campaign ideas,

What I would love to see is people, now and again playing a scenario of their own devising. I am going to post one here and hopefully others will as well, and we can inspire one another.

My local store has about 8 valkyries hanging from the ceiling looking pretty, and a large nid army on display. I am going to ask the manager if I can borrow them for a game in store.

Escape. The planet is being over run by a Tyranid horde. all other forces on the planet are attempting to escape.

Number of players 5+.

Set up. 8x6 table with 6 valkyries set up in the center. Nid player has all his models in reserve and they arrive randomly from table edges. All other players are assigned small deployment zones for their 300pt forces on the board edges. Turn order is run in the same manner as a carnage scenario.

Objectives. Nid player. Prevent the other players from leaving the board and cause as much mayhem and destruction as possible.

Players. Escape in a valkyrie by flying off a table edge.

Victory conditions. Player who escapes with the most pts worth of models wins. Nid player has no victory conditions, he is just there to provide entertainment.

additional rules.
Russian roulette. A lictor and genestealer brood have reached the airfield first and hidden inside two of the valkyries. Nid player secretly notes which aircraft are occupied and reveals them when a player attempts to board an aircraft.

Don't leave me behind! If a player cannot fit all of his surviving models into a valkyrie then excess models must be left behind. These models immediately take a morale check and if they fail they will take out their frustration at being abondoned and have one round of shooting at their comrades aircraft. In subsequent turns these models may be moved as normal and can still attempt to escape in a different aircraft.

Try it out. Post your own ideas on here as well. Big games, small games, I don't care. I will try them all. Lets see if we can get more of the fun imaginative element back into our games.