Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: The Mission Deck Rules Need Some Help
Goatboy here, and I think GW needs to update the 40K Mission Deck rules to help the game.
We have had a few months and events of the new Warhammer 40K. I swear this won’t be an article complaining about Eldar or GSC or other issues – instead I want to talk about how the random nature of scoring has brought some bad feelings during a game. It isn’t all bad as I think GW tried as best as they could with the limitations of creating missions, gameplay, and scoring options that are still balanced but random. Still – I think we can do better.
40K Mission Deck Shortcomings
First of all the reason I want to talk about this is the many games where you pull your two cards, look at the playing field, and then understand there is no way to score those points. It is frustrating and one of the more annoying things when playing a ton of Matched Play games. It’s just the nature of the beast of a random Mission Deck of cards and a few of the secondaries being things that are either hard to score at that time or just not always available in the game you are playing.
On the other side of this is the whole watching your opponent pull two cards that can quickly score them 10 or more points and watch helplessly as the game pulls away from you on the last turn without any “chance” to interact. This can be just as frustrating as you controlled the game and just lost due to some final cards you can’t control or interact with.
The random nature of drawing from the Mission Deck is ok but it can be a hard pill to swallow when we are already fighting the battle of dice, imbalanced armies. Then, if you can’t pull the right cards you feel like you can’t even score. It just gets hard to feel like you have options to even try to win. We all know we can’t always win every game – but when the game outside the game beats you it can just add more piles of wood the fire of annoyance that can be in a Matched Play game of 40K.
What’s the Mission Deck Fix?
So how can we fix this? I got a few ideas that are a little different from the locked-in mission aspects the game still has. I don’t think we need to go back to the old pick 3 missions from the recent past. That option created some stagnant army builds and “gaming” the scoring system that was frustrating. I still want the aspects of the evolving 10th Edition game, just with a bit more control.
Option 1 – Draw Pool – 5-Turn Mission Path
The first option I thought about is instead of having a deck you randomly draw from, try this instead: Pick 10 cards out of the list, and then you choose which missions you play each battle turn – all at once right then at the start of the game. This could be a good way to help make your army follow a path to win instead of hoping they are in the right place at the right time. Each turn, you don’t score the mission you picked – the choice is burned, and you move to the next one until the end of the game. It still gives you some skill options, but it also lets you “control” the game a bit more and remove some of those first turn – how can I control your home objective draws.
Option 2 – Draw Pool – Turn by Turn Mission Path
The next option I’ve been tinkering with, is instead of just picking all 10 cards and choosing what you do each of the 5 turns at once (option 1 above) you instead have to pick out all missions at the start of each game turn from the initial pool. This would mean your opponent can see your plan and try to interact with you on those turns you chose. This would be like the old gameplay styles that had you pick each of your army’s abilities per turn and move from each choice. Now you have to list each choice right away and try to play to that as you continue thru.
Heck, even TO’s could choose routes all players have to take during each gameplay too. This would let you create little narratives during the mission that could be pretty neat. That idea of pulling a narrative into a mission is a neat idea that would let matched play live inside a story instead of letting both sides live in different worlds.
Option 3 – Turn by Turn, Pick 2-Out-of-3
The final thought would be locking each turn into a batch of 3 missions where you can only score two. This could be cool, too as you could “repeat” missions if you wanted during each of the game turns and allow for a little chance to “go” back and score something you might have missed. It again gives tremendous value in crafting a much more interesting set of turns for the player and lets you have a chance for more interaction as you know the 3 options available to a player and how you can block them.
Where I’m Going With This
I feel the game is really missing some of the interaction aspects regarding the Mission Deck. I would love missions to be something more than simply doing something to your opponent to score points. If you’re forced to do things like control X objective in this zone, and both players are going for it – it becomes more than just a fight to remove the unit holding it and forces you to try and win it back to score those points.
What do you think? Would some kind of refresh to the MIssion Deck rules with a better thought process of the turn-to-turn availability of missions be the way to balance things a bit more? Would we see a removal of just smashing into the middle and hoping for the best with some of the tougher armies? Could we make the game a dance of control and damage aspects that currently feels like the game is missing?
Let me know what you think of my ideas?
