Pursuit - A 40K mini-game

For my first post, I'll present you with a mini-game which I designed for my group's Ichar IV campaign, we replayed the events of the Kraken Invasion, culminating with the defence of Hive-city Perseus (which was France in the GW official worldwide campaign). We used most of the games available to us in this campaign. We started with a few games of BFG and Space Hulk to reproduce the arrival of the Hive-fleet and the breaching of the Imperial blockade, then Epic to reproduce the advance of the 'Nids force towards the Hive-city, then we used 40K for the cityfighting, which would decide the ultimate fate of the Hive-city, and Necromunda to play the civilian's escape in face of the xenos invading the Hive.

To decide who would get the "initiative" in the first 40K game, I designed this mini-game called "Pursuit" in which a squad of Space Marine Scouts stumble upon the vanguard of the Tyranid advance and must escape to inform their command. If the SM player wins, the Imperials will be warned and gain a few advantages in the next game, if the 'Nids player wipes out the Scouts, then the xenos will fall upon unprepared lines.

Just one last thing before proceeding with the rules themselves, this mini-game was written with 4th edition, and, while 5th removed the notions of "sizes" for buildings (etc...), I've decided to keep them in this mini-game for ease of play. As you'll see the sizes are quite useful for the pursuit and movement phases, you'll just have to ignore them in the shooting phase and use TLoS to update the mini-game to 5th ed. ;)

EDIT: If you'd rather download a .pdf version than read it on the blog, or to print it and have it handy to try the mini-game, then you can download it here (right click and "save as").

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The Story:

A Scout Squad on bikes has located the Tyranids advancing through a ruined part of the city. But they couldn't withdraw unnoticed and find themselves chased in the ruined streets by Gargoyles. If that was not enough, they ended up within a spore-minefield... They must escape to make their report or the Tyranids will fall upon unprepared Imperial lines!

Lists:

Space Marines: 5 Scout bikes (without frag grenades/melta bombs)

Tyranids: 12 Gargoyles and 4 Spore Mines clusters (3 frag mines each)

If the Scout Sergeant is upgraded to Veteran Sergeant and takes additional equipment from the Arsenal, then the Tyranid player gets 3 additional Gargoyles.

Table:

This game takes place on the length of a table at least 60" long. One of the table's small edges will be the "Arrival". Place as much City terrain as possible on the table, leaving a sinuous "street" along the middle. Try to keep the terrain type balanced, putting the same number of each different terrain types (size 1, 2 and 3).For this game all ruined terrain pieces of size 1 and 2 are considered Difficult while ruined size 3 and intact buildings are Impassable. The Gargoyles however are simply flying over size 1 terrain and thus don't consider it Difficult.

Deployment:

The squads don't have to keep unit coherency for this game.The Scouts are deployed anywhere but at least at 48" of the "Arrival".The Gargoyles are deployed according to the same conditions, but must also be at least at 12" of any Scout.The Spore Mine clusters enter the game as described further.

Objectives:

The Space Marines win if at least one of their figs leaves the table through the "Arrival" edge or if all the Gargoyles are killed.The Tyranids win if all the Scouts are killed.

Game Sequence:

1-Pursuit Phase
2-Movement Phase
3-Shooting Phase

+++ Pursuit Phase +++

This mini-game doesn't use the normal movement rules. The illusion of a high speed chase is recreated during the Pursuit Phase which determines all the events that may occur during such a chase. To achieve that, you must move everything on the table in the opposed direction from the arrival. The terrain pieces must always move back, but the figs may decide to maintain their speed, hence staying put on the table, or to slow down and move back too.Figs and terrain are moved in a precise order, starting by the furthest from the arrival edge and then the next until the closest from the arrival edge was moved. If there is a doubt on which object should be moved next, throw a dice.

When a terrain piece must be moved, move it of 12" away from the arrival. If the piece reaches the table edge opposed to the arrival, it is "recycled" and placed in contact with the arrival edge. The players take turns placing the recycled pieces, starting with the Tyranid player. The recycled pieces must be put at least at 2" of any fig or other terrain piece --if it can't then it is kept aside for the turn to be the first to be recycled on the next Pursuit Phase.

Each turn, one Spore Mine cluster can enter the game by being put in base contact with a recycled element. Spore Mines do not move during the Movement Phase, but are moved back along with the terrain piece they are "attached" to during the Pursuit Phase.

When a fig must be moved, the player who controls it decides whether it keeps its pace or slows down. Since everything on the table moves 12" back, a fig which maintains its pace doesn't move (since it is supposed to have moved of 12" the other way). If the player wants his fig to slow down he must decide how much he wants it to slow down: a fig may slow down by 1d6", 2d6" or 3d6". If a fig's orientation differs from the table's of more than 45°, it can't keep its pace and thus must be moved back of 12" (note that it can't slow down and will always be moved back of 12").
If a fig moves back of 3d6" and gets a result which would make it enter a terrain piece which was already moved this turn, stop its movement as soon as it enters in base contact with the piece. There is no damage to be taken.

Any fig which would leave the table during the Pursuit Phase is considered to have given up the pursuit, it counts as killed.

+++ Movement Phase +++

During the Movement Phase, the figs may move and turn. Note that this takes place differently than what is written in the WH40k Rulebook. It is important to determine the orientation of the bikes and Gargoyles for this game. We'll consider that the fig faces the direction in which it moves. The movements are done in a precise order, starting with the fig which is the closest to the Arrival (throw a dice in case of doubt).

Each fig can move 6". For each 2" moved, it can turn of 45°. A fig must move of 2" before being allowed to turn -- you cannot move it 4" and then turn 90°, or first turn 45°, then move 6" and turn 45° again.

A fig may also accelerate and can be then moved 12", but in that case will only be allowed to turn 45° for each 4" moved. (See above rules for movement limitations.) Note that you are not forced to move a fig if you don't want to.

If a fig enters into base contact with a friendly fig during any of the phases, its movement is immediately stopped.

If a fig enters into base contact with an enemy fig, it must immediately stop its movement and the enemy cannot move during that phase. A combat must be resolved immediately using the usual CC rules from the WH40k Rulebook. The fig which moved to enter in contact with the other counts as charging for that round of CC, unless it did so while slowing during a Pursuit Phase. If the combatants are still in base contact after the combat (i.e. if one of the sides isn't killed by the other) then all the involved figs will be left in place during the next Pursuit Phase and another round of CC must be made, they are considered to be fighting while moving alongside each other at normal speed --resolve any contact with Difficult or Impassable terrain normally. If they are both still alive by the end of the Pursuit Phase, they will be allowed to break contact (without any penalty) during the next Movement Phase, a dice roll decides who gets to move his fig first. If they nevertheless remain in contact then another round of CC must be made, etc...Note that this means there can be 2 rounds of CC per game turn.

Difficult and Impassable Terrain

If, during a Movement Phase, a fig enters a Difficult terrain, continue to move it normally, for each 2" (complete or not) moved within the terrain, the fig must succeed a dangerous terrain test or suffer a Strength 5 hit without Save. Note that Gargoyles fly over size 1 terrain without problem. If the fig fails the test but survives it will be considered "stopped" on the next turn and will be moved along with the terrain piece during the Pursuit Phase. It will also have to succeed another dangerous terrain test to be allowed to move during the Movement Phase (a failure doesn't imply a hit though). Three such test can be taken during a single Movement Phase, but for each test failed the movement is reduced by 2" (i.e. first test succeeds=>move 6", 1 failed test=> move 4", 2 failed tests=>move 2", 3 failed test=> stay put and wait for the next movement phase...)

If a fig collides with Impassable terrain or with one of the table's long edges it suffers a Strength 5 hit without Save. If the fig survives, it stays in contact with the piece/edge and can be oriented in any manner by its player. If such an incident happens during the Pursuit Phase, continue to move the piece of terrain normally, the fig moving back with it.

If any fig (even the Gargoyles) enters in contact with, or shoots within 2" of a Spore Mines cluster, it explodes -- see the Spore Mines rules in Codex Tyranids. Note that there cannot be more than 4 clusters on the table at any time but that clusters may be "recycled" after having exploded.

Note that the Fleet of Foot and Turbo-Booster rules are not effective during that mini-game...

+++ Shooting Phase +++

During that phase any fig which did not accelerate (i.e. moved 12") during the Movement Phase can shoot at any enemy within range and within a 90° arc in front of it. If the Scout Sergeant is equipped with an additional shooting weapon, and if he did not accelerate during that Movement Phase, he can shoot with that weapon at any fig within range, even if it is out of the front 90° arc, but, in that case, his CT is reduced to 3 (to account for the fact that he's trying to shoot "over his shoulder").

The shooting is done in a precise order, starting with the fig which is the closest to the Arrival, in case of doubt the fig with the highest Initiative gets to shoot first.

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This mini-game was great fun to play during the campaign, so much in fact that we've replayed it as a "stand alone" quite a few times since then.

It is also easily adaptable to almost any army you may want to play it with. In most cases, you simply have to pick a likely Fast Attack choice in each of the armies and start playing! For example, if you play with Imperial Guard and Tau then pick a squadron of Rough Riders and Gun Drones, the spore-mines become "simple mines"...
Of course several configurations may require a bit more of thought and modifications, but it remains relatively easy.

If you see a way to get rid of the "sizes" to really upgrade this mini-game to 5th ed and yet keep the gestion of the different terrain pieces quick and easy (to keep a fast pace in the game resolution, which helps with the "high-speed chase" feel), I'm all ears!