Rogue Planet's scenario rules are very versatile and provide for a host of elements and variance making for some great gameplay. Another game with which I'm familiar is Rogue Trooper. Not only does it have a great name and harks from my childhood, but it also sports a number of innovative rules (especially considering when it was designed) including "Engagements".From the rulebook:
The process of (1) setting the game's point value, (2) each side selecting their respective tactics which then (3) yields each players' mission including objectives, followed (4) deployment determination is quite clever. That four-step process is further complemented by various Tactical Advantages and Reserves. It appears a novel and practical manner in which players can tweak their game providing an opportunity to create an even more memorable experience. Something that I intend to try in due course. In the meantime, let me describe how it might work playing in my R40K mashup of Rogue Planet and Warhammer 40,000...
"The Planet Libuscha is singular within our sphere of influence," began Governer K'zark's weekly address, "and today I am able to reveal why humanity continues to invested billions of Credits and countless lives into this... I think the term 'Hell Hole' is quite apt. Yes?"
A murmur rose from the attending journalists, their interest instantly piqued. K'zark was nothing if not the showman, and in a world that seemed to draw malevolent forces, opportunities to be entertained were gratefully appreciated by one and all. Numerous eyes rapidly blinked as patrons were contacted and feeds established.
K'zark continued.
"Legend has it that after a 16-year n-space voyage, Captain Chojnowska-Liskiewicz shifted back into realspace and instantly fell in love with "Libuscha", as she named our rogue planet. Yes, Love Sweet Love."
"PAC-Corp, the Captain sponsor, also fell in love with the planet. Indeed, within 4 cycles both Morlou Station and the Elendil Mines were amongst the corporation's most profitable ventures anywhere! To all those enjoying PAC-Corp's success, it appeared that Libuscha had welcomed Ettyn Smonsell's miners with open arms; however, the reality of the situation would only become apparent with the Ishtargg Incident."
"Of course it was Network 21 who broke the news. "700 Million". The enormity of it still staggers me. Granted that the majority of the lives were merely indentured slaves and whatnot, but for a Complex of Ishtargg's size to be wiped out by a primitive indigenous species in a matter of days... well, it was amazing that Ettyn was able to keep the matter quiet for as long she did. Following my appointment, I got to know the woman prior to her suicide and can assure you that her secrecy wasn't due to any sense of shame."
"Once the outrage had settled, I was able to delve into the mystery's heart. No, not how had primitive reptiles able, without energy weapons nor vehicles, to butcher Ishtargg's inhabitants, but rather 'Why'' and "What"? Why did Ettyn hope to gain secret the occurrence for as long as she did? What was it that she hope to achieve?"
K'zark had the assembly entranced. Journalists from across the Sector were waiting for what promised to be the biggest news item in a cycle.
"Well, it has taken the combined efforts of my entire Cronoinquistor staff to uncover the truth and now, on the anniversary of the Ishtargg Incident, I feel it is my duty to share our findings with you all. Yes, I will reveal, the reason for PAC-Corp's success, Ettyn's secrecy and the butchery perpetrated by the foul Lizards. You see, things..."
K'zark's next words were drowned out by a sudden wave of pressure pitching the room like a sudden swell of the ocean. He barely managed to exclaim"What in the Thrones name?" when the room was pitched, knocking the assembly to their knees.
"MY LORD!!" shouted K'zark's aid, with blood pouring from his ears and nose, "THE LIZARDS - THEY'RE HERE NOW!!"
Situation: The Lizardmen have emerged throughout the city of Libruska Prime by way of numerous warp gates and subterranean passages, catching the local Garission largely unprepared.
The two forces (Lizardmen and Imperial Guard) are playing a 200 Credit patrol-style game with no heroes employed (see Page 5 of Thibault Bloch's published Rogue Planet House Rules).
The initial forces are as follows:
Rogue Trooper describes the following three types of Tactics, of which each player must choose one.
Keeping with the scenario, the Lizardmen will choose Probe whilst the Guard Defend. With that established, each faction consults the following table to establish their respective Mission.
The Lizardmen's Probe Tactic ("Your Tactics") against the Guard's Defend Tactic ("Opponent's Tactics") yields an Overrun Mission for the Lizardmen.
The Guard's Defend Tactic against the Lizardmen's Probe Tactic yields a Delay Mission for the Guard.
So far that's making sense: the Lizardman forces have, without warning, suddenly appeared in the middle of a major metropolis. In an attempt to mobilise their resources, the Guard would be attempting to delay the Lizardmen. Conversely, whilst the element of surprise is on their side, the Lizardmen would be trying to capitalise on the same and overrun the ill-prepared Guard.
Each Mission has designated mission objectives that provide bonus Victory Points upon completion. Let's see how they compare:
Rogue Trooper games are run to six turns, hence there's a definite 'end'. Rogue Planet hasn't got the same mechanism and indeed, given Rogue Planet's rather novel Turn/Activation mechanism, setting an arbitrary Turn limit seems particularly challenging... I'll have to dwell upon that.
But that said, and to put it simply, if the Guard have a Unit standing they get a bonus 25% Victory Points and the Lizardmen are incentivised to move into the Guard's deployment zone - rushing into and past the defenders if you will. Yep, that makes sense in this particular scenario's context.
Also, there are penalties to consider. For each bonus the Lizardmen get for being in the Guard's deployment zone, the Guard deduct the same amount from their Victory Points. The Lizards are penalised for camping i.e. keeping units in the backline, hoping to avoid the fray. Again, that makes sense. The Imperial Guard need to slow the Lizards down, keeping them at bay whilst they marshal their reserves. The Lizardmen need to capitalise on their surprise and carry that momentum forward - keeping their troops in reserve isn't an option.
Next, the Battle Advantage is awarded and the Deployment Zone is selected.
So Defend beats Probe, therefore, the Guard get to choose the type of Deployment Zone used and on which side of the table to deploy.
"The Planet Libuscha is singular within our sphere of influence," began Governer K'zark's weekly address, "and today I am able to reveal why humanity continues to invested billions of Credits and countless lives into this... I think the term 'Hell Hole' is quite apt. Yes?"
A murmur rose from the attending journalists, their interest instantly piqued. K'zark was nothing if not the showman, and in a world that seemed to draw malevolent forces, opportunities to be entertained were gratefully appreciated by one and all. Numerous eyes rapidly blinked as patrons were contacted and feeds established.
K'zark continued.
"Legend has it that after a 16-year n-space voyage, Captain Chojnowska-Liskiewicz shifted back into realspace and instantly fell in love with "Libuscha", as she named our rogue planet. Yes, Love Sweet Love."
"PAC-Corp, the Captain sponsor, also fell in love with the planet. Indeed, within 4 cycles both Morlou Station and the Elendil Mines were amongst the corporation's most profitable ventures anywhere! To all those enjoying PAC-Corp's success, it appeared that Libuscha had welcomed Ettyn Smonsell's miners with open arms; however, the reality of the situation would only become apparent with the Ishtargg Incident."
"Of course it was Network 21 who broke the news. "700 Million". The enormity of it still staggers me. Granted that the majority of the lives were merely indentured slaves and whatnot, but for a Complex of Ishtargg's size to be wiped out by a primitive indigenous species in a matter of days... well, it was amazing that Ettyn was able to keep the matter quiet for as long she did. Following my appointment, I got to know the woman prior to her suicide and can assure you that her secrecy wasn't due to any sense of shame."
"Once the outrage had settled, I was able to delve into the mystery's heart. No, not how had primitive reptiles able, without energy weapons nor vehicles, to butcher Ishtargg's inhabitants, but rather 'Why'' and "What"? Why did Ettyn hope to gain secret the occurrence for as long as she did? What was it that she hope to achieve?"
K'zark had the assembly entranced. Journalists from across the Sector were waiting for what promised to be the biggest news item in a cycle.
"Well, it has taken the combined efforts of my entire Cronoinquistor staff to uncover the truth and now, on the anniversary of the Ishtargg Incident, I feel it is my duty to share our findings with you all. Yes, I will reveal, the reason for PAC-Corp's success, Ettyn's secrecy and the butchery perpetrated by the foul Lizards. You see, things..."
K'zark's next words were drowned out by a sudden wave of pressure pitching the room like a sudden swell of the ocean. He barely managed to exclaim"What in the Thrones name?" when the room was pitched, knocking the assembly to their knees.
"MY LORD!!" shouted K'zark's aid, with blood pouring from his ears and nose, "THE LIZARDS - THEY'RE HERE NOW!!"
++Enagement One: The Assault on Krystyna's Rest++
Situation: The Lizardmen have emerged throughout the city of Libruska Prime by way of numerous warp gates and subterranean passages, catching the local Garission largely unprepared.
The two forces (Lizardmen and Imperial Guard) are playing a 200 Credit patrol-style game with no heroes employed (see Page 5 of Thibault Bloch's published Rogue Planet House Rules).
The initial forces are as follows:
4 Lizardmen Units: a Saurus Temple Guard (71 Credits), a Cold One Rider (54 Credits), a Saurus Spear Warrior (34 Credits) and a Squad of Saurus with Swords (42 Credits). Total 201 Credits.
5 Imperial Guard Units: two Squads of Tactical Troopers (47 Credits each), two Support Specialists with Flamers (35 Credits each) and a Tactical Specialist with Carbine and Scope (41 Credits). Total 205 Credits.
Selection of Tactics and Missions
Rogue Trooper describes the following three types of Tactics, of which each player must choose one.
 |
| Maybe there are some other 'Tactics' that could/should be included? |
Keeping with the scenario, the Lizardmen will choose Probe whilst the Guard Defend. With that established, each faction consults the following table to establish their respective Mission.
 |
| I suspect that there could be some more Mission variations included, maybe even adopting/substituting some of the Missions etc in the Rogue Planet and Rogue Planet House rulesets? |
The Lizardmen's Probe Tactic ("Your Tactics") against the Guard's Defend Tactic ("Opponent's Tactics") yields an Overrun Mission for the Lizardmen.
The Guard's Defend Tactic against the Lizardmen's Probe Tactic yields a Delay Mission for the Guard.
So far that's making sense: the Lizardman forces have, without warning, suddenly appeared in the middle of a major metropolis. In an attempt to mobilise their resources, the Guard would be attempting to delay the Lizardmen. Conversely, whilst the element of surprise is on their side, the Lizardmen would be trying to capitalise on the same and overrun the ill-prepared Guard.
Each Mission has designated mission objectives that provide bonus Victory Points upon completion. Let's see how they compare:
 |
| Given the manner in which Rogue Planet treats movement, the Penalty would have to be carefully managed. |
 |
| That Penalty is a lot more dramatic than you'd think in a Rogue Planet game - quite often Units are forgotten as there's never enough Actions Points per Turn to do everything, including Moving units into the fray. |
Rogue Trooper games are run to six turns, hence there's a definite 'end'. Rogue Planet hasn't got the same mechanism and indeed, given Rogue Planet's rather novel Turn/Activation mechanism, setting an arbitrary Turn limit seems particularly challenging... I'll have to dwell upon that.
But that said, and to put it simply, if the Guard have a Unit standing they get a bonus 25% Victory Points and the Lizardmen are incentivised to move into the Guard's deployment zone - rushing into and past the defenders if you will. Yep, that makes sense in this particular scenario's context.
Also, there are penalties to consider. For each bonus the Lizardmen get for being in the Guard's deployment zone, the Guard deduct the same amount from their Victory Points. The Lizards are penalised for camping i.e. keeping units in the backline, hoping to avoid the fray. Again, that makes sense. The Imperial Guard need to slow the Lizards down, keeping them at bay whilst they marshal their reserves. The Lizardmen need to capitalise on their surprise and carry that momentum forward - keeping their troops in reserve isn't an option.
Deployment Determination
Next, the Battle Advantage is awarded and the Deployment Zone is selected.
So Defend beats Probe, therefore, the Guard get to choose the type of Deployment Zone used and on which side of the table to deploy.
There's nothing unusual about the zones BattleLine, Deep Defence and Encounter, being Long-edge, Short-edge or Corner setups respectively.
Let's imagine that the Guard choose Deep Defence: their rationale being that the further the Lizards have to travel, the more opportunities to disrupt their plans.
This next feature is similar to Rogue Planet's Turn sequence 'Initiative' mechanism:
So given the Guard had the Battle Advantage, the Lizardmen are able to decide whether they'll deploy their units and claim the Turn One's Initiative (to apply the Rogue Planet sequencing) else force the Guard to go first. Mmm... tough choice, but wait there's more! Let's look at the Tactical Advantages:
Let's imagine that the Guard choose Deep Defence: their rationale being that the further the Lizards have to travel, the more opportunities to disrupt their plans.
Unit Deployment and Turn One
This next feature is similar to Rogue Planet's Turn sequence 'Initiative' mechanism:
So given the Guard had the Battle Advantage, the Lizardmen are able to decide whether they'll deploy their units and claim the Turn One's Initiative (to apply the Rogue Planet sequencing) else force the Guard to go first. Mmm... tough choice, but wait there's more! Let's look at the Tactical Advantages:
 |
| I've never used Reserves before in a Rogue Planet game, maybe now's time... |
So what might the Lizardmen do? Here are two possibilities:
And so the game begins in earnest. From here a branching campaign/scenario system might be adopted, the likes of which are a common enough feature in many a wargaming tome. By way of example should the Lizard's secure a major victory, the next round of Missions could be (Lizards Attack + Guard Defend = ) Overrun for the Lizards (again) and Last Stand for the Guard.
So at the end of each Encounter, Victory Points are calculated. In Rogue Planet, when playing a series of related games called Extended Ops (see the ebook pg22), there's an incremental escalation each game e.g., Mission Level 3 is followed by a Mission Level 4 and both forces can be increased by 33% with the ability to include an additional Pawn and/or recruit Lieutenants.
I am wondering how to implement a mechanism that on one hand rewards the victorious player and/or disadvantages their opponent but not to the extent that their opponent is so crippled that the subsequent game(s) is all but predestined... the Rogue Planet rules include the following:
Maybe there's room for some simple maths? Compare each force's Victory Points at the battle's conclusion and the losing player has a portion of the next encounter's Credit allowance relative to the Point differential? For example:
At the end of the first Encounter, the Lizardmen managed to overrun the Garrison defenders and claim Victory with the Victory Points calculated as follows:
So if the next Encounter followed 'standard' Rogue Planet escalation protocols, it could be classed a Standard Patrol at 225 Credits. The Lizardmen, as victors, would have the full 225 Credit allowance but would be required to include all of their remaining force in the same i.e the surviving Temple Guard. The Guard's Victory Points were 45% of the Lizardmen's, so they only get 45% of the increased Credits i.e. instead of 200 + 25 Credits, they receive 200 + 45% of 25 = 212 Credits. The Imperial Guard are somewhat compensated because unlike the Lizardmen, they are not required to retain any surviving Units (but it may be beneficial or more efficient to do so, as Rogue Planet provides for a degree of unit advancement/progression) and might be better able to 'tune' their force. Knowing there's at least one Temple Guard in the next battle could be crucial both in terms of force selection and tactics.
You know what? I think the above has sold me. I am going to see if I can pull the above into a series of engagement and give it a whirl. Sounds like fun!
- The Lizardmen force the Initiative onto the Guard, requiring them to deploy first. Why would they do this? Well, it would mean the Guard's entrenched positions would be established up-front and allowing the Lizardmen an opportunity to deploy such that they could flank(?) or otherwise deploy and take advantage of the situation.
- The Lizardmen claim the Initiative, deploy half their Units then await the Guard to deploy their force. The cunning Lizards then deploy their remaining Units in an altogether different position such that they orchestrate a flanking maneuver in the opening move of the game!
Ha HaHiss Hiss, my cunning plan worked!
And so the game begins in earnest. From here a branching campaign/scenario system might be adopted, the likes of which are a common enough feature in many a wargaming tome. By way of example should the Lizard's secure a major victory, the next round of Missions could be (Lizards Attack + Guard Defend = ) Overrun for the Lizards (again) and Last Stand for the Guard.
So at the end of each Encounter, Victory Points are calculated. In Rogue Planet, when playing a series of related games called Extended Ops (see the ebook pg22), there's an incremental escalation each game e.g., Mission Level 3 is followed by a Mission Level 4 and both forces can be increased by 33% with the ability to include an additional Pawn and/or recruit Lieutenants.
I am wondering how to implement a mechanism that on one hand rewards the victorious player and/or disadvantages their opponent but not to the extent that their opponent is so crippled that the subsequent game(s) is all but predestined... the Rogue Planet rules include the following:
At the end of the first Encounter, the Lizardmen managed to overrun the Garrison defenders and claim Victory with the Victory Points calculated as follows:
Lizardmen: lost all but the Temple Guard who managed to remain in the Garrison's deployment zone (bonus 71 points) and destroyed both Tactical Squads and one of the Support Flamers (129 points) = 200 Victory Points.
Imperial Guard: killed the Cold One Rider, Spear Warrior and Squad of Saurus (130 Victory Points) and had at least one Unit alive at the end of the Engagement (bonus 32.5 Points) but failed to keep the Temple Guard out of the deployment zone (penalty -71 points) giving a grand total of 91.5 Victory Points.
So if the next Encounter followed 'standard' Rogue Planet escalation protocols, it could be classed a Standard Patrol at 225 Credits. The Lizardmen, as victors, would have the full 225 Credit allowance but would be required to include all of their remaining force in the same i.e the surviving Temple Guard. The Guard's Victory Points were 45% of the Lizardmen's, so they only get 45% of the increased Credits i.e. instead of 200 + 25 Credits, they receive 200 + 45% of 25 = 212 Credits. The Imperial Guard are somewhat compensated because unlike the Lizardmen, they are not required to retain any surviving Units (but it may be beneficial or more efficient to do so, as Rogue Planet provides for a degree of unit advancement/progression) and might be better able to 'tune' their force. Knowing there's at least one Temple Guard in the next battle could be crucial both in terms of force selection and tactics.
You know what? I think the above has sold me. I am going to see if I can pull the above into a series of engagement and give it a whirl. Sounds like fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment