Hey Reader!
I've been working on some siege maps recently, and toward that end I've been giving thought to what the best scenarios are for siege missions. The trick to most scenarios is that you don't want it to be one-sided: you want there to be a fighting chance for victory for both sides, without the terrain to give an unfair advantage to one side over the other.
So today we're looking at the best scenarios for use on a siege map, as they don't give a unique advantage to the attacker or defender, and actually bring the uniqueness of a siege map into play to guide deployment and strategy. It's worth noting that in War in Rohan you have both scenarios and special rules for sieges; we will be looking at the standard 18 scenarios from the matched play guide as those are both more familiar to gamers generally due to their presence in tournament play, and also arguably more balanced.
I. Considerations for Good Scenarios
There are four things we look for in a scenario that qualifies it as "good" for siege scenarios. First, we want a scenario where location matters, but doesn't skew the chances of success. So for example, we don't recommend Reconnoiter because walls and gates would dramatically lopside how well one side (whoever the attacker is) can get to the other board edge. So we don't recommend that scenario.
Second, the scenarios shouldn't break the theme of siege warfare. I'm a big fan of Domination, but what would likely happen is you'd have, say, 5 objectives, and 2 would be in the castle, 2 would be outside the castle, and 1 would be in the center (which, ideally, would be near the gate, but it could be lopsided toward one side depending on the layout of the board). This would force the defender to leave the castle, and while sallies were definitely a thing, it begs the question of why we're playing a siege game if part of the aim is to not be in the castle. So we're not recommending that.
Third, we want scenarios that allow for scoring without breaching the walls. Since some armies will struggle with winning fights while on ladders, siege towers, and gateways, we don't want one side to feel like they have no chance of scoring from the get-go. So Breakthrough and Destroy the Supplies are out.
And finally, we want to be careful of scenarios where the only way to score is breaking the enemy. So as much as I love To the Death, for example, this dramatically favors the side that has In the Ways against archery and barriers to defend, which makes you far less likely to cough up points to your opponent if you are the defender.
So with that, let's look at four scenarios that are good options for siege games.
II. The Best Scenarios for Siege Maps
While there are several that can be worked into a siege scenario, here's my top four list of scenarios I would choose.
#4: Lords of Battle
This one is pretty good, mostly because it emboldens heroes toward dramatic acts of valor. They are incentivized to kill, kill, kill, and that means you've got to hold the wall, or you've got to storm the defenses. The "sitting back and shooting at each other" option is still possible (as you are counting kills generally, not specifically melee kills), but obviously it is harder to do with walls and such in the way.
I also recommend giving the attacker mantlets and other siege equipment to give them some In the Ways against archery as well. I also recommend that the walls be setup more or less on the center line, with siege ladders/towers already in place.
The other nice thing about Lords of Battle is that deployment allows the attacker to start halfway up the field, so the attacker feels far less disadvantaged as he/she doesn't need to march up nearly as far to get to the defenses.
The issue, of course, with Lords of Battle, is that the defender could still wrack up a lot more kills just by virtue of having defenses, so this is something you'll need to plan for. This is also why it's last on this list. But if you're looking for a way to do one of the "kill stuff" scenarios, I think this one is the most even-handed.
#3: Hold Ground
This one is bad if the castle is in the center and one army starts inside, as they can keep the other person from ever getting to the central objective. What makes it thematic and cool is if the map is setup so that the wall runs down the center of the board, and forces deploy on either side of the wall, with the gate being the central objective. The defender has no particular reason to go past the wall, allowing both teams to get into scoring range, while the attacker has every reason to push the defender off the wall.
And if you really want to change things up (though this may not feel quite right, so keep that in mind), have the wall run the length of the board, but have the teams deploy from the perpendicular board edges. This allows you to have fighting going on in the streets, on the walls, etc., but with both sides being in the castle (and beyond it). And all the fighting climaxes near the gate.
Not a great scenario, but pretty good.
#2: Assassination
This one is surprisingly good! The advantage here is that your assassin and your target could end up on opposite sides of the castle, and then you have to surreptitiously come up with a good reason for your hero to go all the way to the other side without signaling who the target is and who the assassin is.
Similarly it might happen that everything lines up perfectly, or that literally any movement of any non-leader hero has meaning read into it that is (or is not) there. And that's fantastic: it makes the thrill of the chase that much more interesting.
Add onto this crannies to hide away and options for cover from Legolas-style assassins thanks to fighting in a castle, and it's not a bad choice overall. Just be very careful how many approaches there are past the walls, and you're set.
#1: Retrieval
This one took me by surprise, because I wasn't expecting it to go so well. But this one really works, only because you can have both armies start within and outside the fortress if you position the walls correctly. I recommend making some broken wall sections so that it will look like the defenders have been pushed from part of the wall, and yet they have also sallied out from another section to flank the enemy. In effect, we're storytelling through deployment: we're being dropped into the middle of a battle, and this is where the armies are when we join them.
The presence of walls also slightly complicates your ability to get your objective back to your deployment zone, so it makes the process of getting optimal points more challenging (but not impossible). So make sure there are multiple pathways to cross the walls, but don't give them too many. This provides tactical decision-making in the Move Phase, and we want that.
Conclusion
The truth is, most tournaments are not a good place for siege battles, mostly because it can disadvantage one team from the outset (though we're kicking around ideas for one at TMAT - keep watching for more details!). But as someone who has played attacker-defender scenarios in Bolt Action and gleaned some insights from how they handle it, I think there are ways to take our scenarios and use them in thoughtful ways to make a siege battle both fun and competitive without making up new scenarios that everyone has to learn.
If you have thoughts on a scenario that you think could work well, drop it in the comments below!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Will they follow me?" ~ High King Peter
"To the death." ~ Oreius
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