Multiplayer Missions
So, you’re playing 40k on a regular basis and life is good. What happens when only 3 people show up for a game, though? One person could sit out, or two could team up against the third (who would presumably have a larger army to make up for it) or you could play a multiplayer game.
Multiplayer games are those designed for (obviously) more than two people. I have found that if these games do not have a set objective (no, last man standing is not an objective) that they deteriorate into either a series of one on one battles, or two people gang up on another person, which usually ruins that person’s fun. In my experience, the best sort of objective is one that requires all the players to move toward one location. Random turn length is also useful here, to convince the more static armies that they need to start moving before turn 4 or 5. Even with such objectives, Multiplayer games still have some disadvantages, both in terms of games and in terms of specific armies.
Multiplayer games tend to take much longer than two player games. Not only is there (at least) one extra player turn per game turn, meaning you have to wait for two people to set up and move and shoot and assault with their armies, but any discussions tend to take longer, since you’ve got more than just two points of view going on about any rule that has shades of gray. In addition, it brings up more weird rule problems (in a two player game, there is no question about what toward the enemy means, and there is no chance of having 3 or more sides involved in a close combat.) This means that, generally, a 3 player game will take at least half again, if not twice as, long as a regular game. One possible exception to this is the Massive Multiplayer Game, where everyone commands a (usually small) force and generally just lines up and smash into the person directly across from them. Many GW exhibition games are run this way. This allows the people on the same side to all do their turns simultaneously, and it generally turns the battle into a series of small one on one games.
Multiplayer games also tend to penalize certain armies. Armies designed to survive through the use of horde tactics (such as Tyranids, Orks, etc.) will be at a disadvantage here, since they not only have to take casualties on the way to the first target, then take casualties in the ensuing melees, but, if victorious, they must then charge over to the next target, taking more casualties, and so on. On the other hand, those with high Toughness or Armor saves (Iyanden Eldar, Space Marines, Plague Marines) will still have their armor warding off most attacks from the first target, then will have their armor warding off most attacks from the second target. I'm not saying the marines will always win, but they have a serious advantage in terms of staying power. Assault armies will be at a disadvantage here as well, since they must get to grips with several enemies to defeat them, for the same reasons as mentioned for the horde tactics above. Entirely static armies, unless you use some sort of objective that will require them to move, will have a massive advantage in this sort of game. Armies designed to stand and shoot that are allowed to do so, will be able to decimate other armies one at a time, with little degrading of their combat power from one enemy to the next.
All that being said, sometimes you’ve just gotta play a multiplayer game. If so, I would recommend using something like the scenario below. When designing your own scenarios, remember to include an objective so that the static armies have to move, or they will dominate the entire game. With that, I bring you:
Carpe Ranam (Capture the Frog)
The Mad Prophet thinks he is a frog. (That’s why he’s called the Mad Prophet.) He has valuable information or technology or magic or something such that each race has a serious interest in capturing him. (The Dark Angels want to question him about the Fallen, the Eldar want to understand his secrets for harnessing magic, the Tyranids want to consume him and integrate his warp powers into the next generation of Genestealers, etc.) The Mad Prophet is invulnerable, so weapons cannot hurt him (though an interesting variant would be to get rid of this, making players be more careful around him.) However, he is easily spooked. During each player’s turn, if a weapon is fired or targeted within six inches of the Mad Prophet, or there is movement or close combat within that range, the Mad Prophet is spooked. At the end of that player’s turn, the player rolls a scatter die and 2d6 to see if the Prophet hops (teleports?) somewhere. The Mad Prophet will not get lost in the warp or go off the board edge. If he would go off the board edge, let him “bounce” back from the edge of the board. If he would land on top of a model, place him as close as possible on the opposite side of the model from where he hopped. Models may not attack the Mad Prophet in close combat and they cannot simply pick him up. The winner is determined by which side has the closest model to the Mad Prophet at the end of the game (with random game length.) If there is more than one model touching the Mad Prophet at the end of the game, then the side with the most models at the nearest one inch increment to the Mad Prophet will be the winner. (For example: each side has 1 model touching, one side has 3 models within an inch, but the other side has 4 models within an inch, the second side is the winner.)
Although we typically do not play with special rules in this game, such as Deepstrike or Infiltrators, they could be interesting additions to the game, so feel free to try them out. Some notes about this scenario. The name derives from the original game. We were trying to play a multiplayer game with three people, and were looking for something to be an objective. One of the players had a frog miniature from somewhere. In 40k scale, this frog would be about waist high on a Space Marine (about 3.5 feet, so this would be a rather large frog) at that point we started calling it Capture the Frog or Carpe Ranam. We played it on several occasions and had fun with it. Somewhat later, the player with the frog moved on, but we still wanted to play the game. The store owner had a painted miniature mixed in with some terrain bitz, and the figure was some sort of robed fantasy wizard or priest. We used the robed figure, but still used the hopping rules, so we decided he actually thought that he was a frog, and so the Mad Prophet was born! Anyway, I hope that if you do play multiplayer games, you use a somewhat balanced mission like this, as it really helps make the game better for all concerned. If you use this scenario and have fun, please write me and let me know about it. Also let me know if you come up with any variants, or if you’ve got favorite multiplayer missions of your own.
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