This months scenario was a king of the hill battel using the RenVar Citadel map.
The Scenario: 2 teams starting on each side of the map with 22 units and 1 hero each. A point is earning for each kill and 1 point for having the most troops in the cathedral at the end of your turn or 2 point if only your unites occupy that space.
Goal: First player to 25 points
Map: RenVar Citadel based off of the map of similar name from Star Wars Battlefront 1. The map has several profile brick wall which can be climbed to give the players more routs. I will have more on the map at the end.
Experiment: I am using my armor nurf rule. The map has several elevation and climbable landscape I want to see how this effects gameplay. I am trying a new mix of armed troops (more on this at the end).
The Empire of the Ever Burning Star(EBS)
Skotia
Turn 1-3
Because of the size of the map and with their only being 2 players it took 3 turns before our troops engaged.
Turn 4
EBS troops take a potshot as Skotia file in.
Skotia troops return fire getting first blood.
Turn 5
EBS tries to fire a rocket failing.
Skotia returns rocket fire sending ESB troops bailing out of the blast.
Turn 6
The meatgrinder starts as both sides fully engage in combat and casualties are taken.
Turns 7-9
The fight intensify as both sides pour troops in to the cathedral for its control.
EBS troops attempted 5 charge attacks but the dice are against them as all charges fail (event with a success statistic 70%).
Turn 10-11
EBS declarer a losing battel after they lose control of the cathedral with the intent of killing Skotias hero well saving their own.
EBS manage to kill Skotia hero but lose their own.
Skotia hits 25 point securing their control of the citadel, winning the day.
End Result
Empire of the Ever Burning Star(EBS) Losses: 19 Points: 14
Skotia Losses: 16 Points: 25
Experiment Results
Definitely keeping my armor nurf.
Use of different arms.
This is one of the biggest and best changes from BW 2010 and the current rule system is that in the past though their war many options for armaments' in the end it was just as effective to equip the majority of your troops long guns and go.
Now with the current rules having an army with a large verity of different equipment is advantages.
I tried a verity of different arms and armor finding that having a large verity of gear was far more effective.
soldiers armed with swords and large shields could provide cover, well ones armed with pikes can take a second devastating melee attack from behind. Those armed with spears can both brake armor and charge in to enemy lines.
Skirmishers armed with shorts word and pistol made a decent versatile infantry.
And finally keeping some troops armed with long guns as sharpshooters' to take out specific enemy unites and hero's.
Which is a point that I have observed from many of the previous battles. Riflemen hit squads are very effective agents hero's. This has not been enough of a problem to require rule changes but it is something players need to take in to account.
The Map
RenVar Citadel
The map I used in based of the Rhen Var: Citadel map from Star Wars Battlefront 1.
This is not the first time I have used a map from an FPS for a miniatures battel, and not even the first time I created this specific map before. In fact it is the third time I have made the RenVar map.
What I like about using maps from FPS is that they are mostly balanced, they are designed with multiple routs, they have strong point with flanking positions, they brake up line of sight, and they have zones specifically where the majority of fighting can take place.
Now its not that you can't do this yourself but someone has already done the leg work and studying and the testing out someone else map can give you a better understanding of how to make your own better maps.
Creating the map.
Above I show the original from SWB1 and below my recreation.
As you can see their are some differences between the 2. What I have found is that using a FPS map dose not require you to map a one to one recreation but more to capture the intention of the original map.
Why not a one to one recreation, simply the map would be massive and you would be left with having to put time in to vestigial areas that no game action would take place in. Too make Rhen Var to scale would be 7 32X32 baseplate square well my RenVar is 3 by 4 32X32 baseplates.
Routs and Start locations.
Something that I particularly like about this map is that it has multiple start locations and routs.
Its elevation provides a lot of blind spots making it hard for one faction or another to gain fire control.
The addition of climbable terrain opens up a large amount of alternative routs that though are shorter take longer to climb then if they were stairs and take significantly longer to travers the by armored figs.
The triangles show starting locations well the lines show the rout that each location would take to reach the center.
The map can have up to 5 factions with Red and Brown being the start point for a 2 faction game.
Red, Green, and Yellow for 3 faction.
Red, Green, Blue, and Purple for 4 Faction.
Red Green, Blue, Purple, and Yellow for 5.
That was this Novembers Game played on the RenVar map.
I plan on keeping this map around for some time still as it was a fair amount of work to make and I hope to bring it out to BrickCan and Terminal City Table to Convention this year (2025) if you can make it out you can see and even play it.
let me know what you think about using maps from FPS game for BrikWars!
