Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Scenario: Robot Building Factory

This scenario is a suggestion inspired by the original Rogue Trader rules. In Rogue Trader, there are a number of plot-driven suggestions for scenarios. One category of these scenarios is that of the "Oddball". And contained therein is the Robot Building Factory. I think you can probably guess what is going on here. The factory has run amok and the robots are going to take over if you don't quickly put a stop to the production and destroy the rogue robots immediately.

Here's my take on the scenario for a two player game.

Set-up: Both players should deploy according to a standard (random) 40k game, with an agreed points value.

Special scenery: A modest to large sized piece of scenery should be placed in the centre of the board. This is the "robot factory". Something like a manufactorum would be good for this purpose.

Victory conditions: Three objectives are placed on the board: one in each of the player's deployment zones (one placed by each player), and one inside the "robot factory" in the centre of the board. The winner is the one with the most objectives at the end of the game. If this is tied, then the winner is the player who destroyed the most robots.

Special Rules:
This scenario features a unique turn structure:
(1) Player 1 moves and shoots any robots already on the board according to the rules below.
(2) As long as the robot's objective is not contested by either player, Player 1 places more robots on to the board according to the rules below.
(3) Player 1 then executes his normal turn.

Player 2 then follows the same sequence of events at which point the turn will end.

For the first step in the sequence, the robots are essentially "mindless" automatons. They will head toward the nearest enemy models every turn and shoot at it as they go. It is recommended that the robots have the "slow and purposeful" rule applied to them.
Further, the robots can contest any objective that they are within 3 inches of. If they start their movement within 3 inches of an objective, the controlling player may elect to keep them stationary rather than move them. This is the only exception to the otherwise mindless behaviour.

For the second step in the sequence, the number of robots that are placed should be in proportion to the points value of the army each side has. Explicitly, no more than 1/10th of the points value of each player can be placed on to the board during step 2 of each player's turn sequence. Each robot can be represented by any model that the players can agree on. We find it best to use necron warriors for obvious reasons. Note that a player cannot place any further robots if the central objective is contested or seized by either player -- this represents a player being in control of the robot building off-switch!

As an example, if each player has an army of 1500 points, then no more than 8 necrons could be placed during each step 2. Players may like to experiment with this 1/10th points value as 8 necrons can rapidly build up! e.g. at the terminal end of turn 2, there would be 32 necrons on the board (=576 points!) assuming none of them have been killed.

The player that is placing the necrons can place them anywhere within 3 inches of the boundary of the robot factory. Hence, they can be placed right next to the objective in the centre of the building, or at a forward position from the walls of the manufactorum. Each and every single robot (or necron) is considered to be a unit and can therefore be moved differently and shoot different targets.

And that is all there is to it. Sixteen necrons per turn showing up from nowhere, they're slow and purposeful and utterly mindless, but can stay stationary next to any objective they're contesting! They move toward and shoot the nearest non-necron model every turn. Enjoy!

7 comments:

John Lambshead said...

good to see a wargaming scenario using 40K.
J

jabberjabber said...

Thanks John!

jabberjabber said...

Addendum: Each "robot" is being treated as a single unit for movement and shooting purposes during the robot's movement phase .... this need not be symmetric: the actual players could simply target "the robots" as one big unit. In fact, in large points value games, this would make more sense.

Big Jim said...

Very interesting scenario Jabber, it's nice to see so much old school RT love around lately!

jabberjabber said...

Thanks Jim! -- it is but a modest attempt to re-interpret some of the old rules and scenarios from back in the day...

Big Jim said...

No problem, it's thoroughly enjoyable!

Did you see the Gotthammer is re-visiting the Legio Cybernetica on his blog.

http://collegiatitanica.blogspot.com/

Jim

jabberjabber said...

I missed that page -- cheers for the pointer!

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