Mission Fabricator Cogitator – MFC.v0.4.2
Planet Urgaz-IV: FORGE WORLD
MAP: Search and Destroy
Mission: Black Mass
A strange black tar covers the landscape, ripples of movement suggest it's an organic life form
Players should set up the objective markers as shown on the map. The players then roll off; starting with the winner, each player alternates placing node markers until six have been set up. The node markers represent the Black Mass life form covering the ground and as such should be distinct from objective markers. Each node marker must be placed outside of players deployment zones, more than 12" away from the edge of the battlefield, more than 6" away from the centre of the battlefield and more than 6" away from other node markers.
The Black Mass
An imaginary line should be drawn connecting one node marker another, this process should be repeated until each node marker is connected to two other node markers. Players should use their best judgement when choosing the connecting paths to create the largest possible area. The area inside the connecting node markers represents the Black Mass and is treated by both players a terrain feature with the following terrain traits: DENSE, DIFFICULT GROUND.
Objectives within the Black Mass area cannot be controlled by either player.
Each node marker is treated as an enemy building with the following profile.
| NAME | M | WS | BS | S | T | W | A | Ld | Sv |
| Black Mass | 3" | - | - | 6 | 6 | 6 | - | 10 | - |
At the beginning of each battle round, each node marker moves 3" towards the closest enemy unit or the closest objective marker not already within the Black Mass, whichever is closest. Any units within the Black Mass area or within engagement range of a node marker suffers 2D3 mortal wounds.
Players may attack a node marker with ranged or combat weapons. The node markers are counted as being within the Black Mass terrain area, i.e -1 to hit due to dense terrain. Weapons with the word Las in the weapon name (i.e lasgun, lascannon) inflict +1 damage to the node marker. Once a node marker is reduced to zero wounds it moves 3" directly away from the attacking unit, and is returned to full wounds. Players should keep a tally of the number of times this is achieved.
When a node marker is moved, it should always be moved its minimum distance, it can always Fall Back, move over enemy models and can end its movement within engagement range of an enemy model. If it cannot be placed due to being over a model, then keep moving it in a straight line until it can be placed. If at any time a node maker is moved within 6" of another node marker, the other node marker must then be moved directly away from the first node marker so that it is over 6" away.
Designers Note: The Black Mass is treated as a terrain feature, it can be moved through and shot through. Each node is treated as an enemy unit and may be shot at or attacked in close combat, the Black Mass itself does not attack back in close combat. Players will need to attack the node markers to move the Black Mass off from an objective in order to hold it. Dice would be suitable to act as node markers as they can also track the node markers wounds.
Progressive Objective
At the end of each player's turn, the player whose turn is scores 1 victory points for each objective marker they control, this objective cannot be scored during the first battle round.
End of Game Objective
The player who has the highest tally for reducing the node markers to zero wounds scores 2 additional victory points.
Environmental Hazard: Fog of War
A dense fog over the battlefield obscures the enemy from view.
During the Mustering armies step, players aren't allowed to show each other their army roster. Each player may only share which <FACTION> they are using. Players may spend 2 CP before deployment to gain the vital intelligence needed to see their opponents army list.
COMBAT READINESS (OPTIONAL)
Should both players decide, you can use these optional rules to add more interesting narrative elements to your game. Each player will be given an army bonus or hindrance, this is to represent how well trained, equipped and supplied each army is before the battle. These provide very asymmetrical gameplay and are not intended to produce a balanced game. Both players may read through the generated rules before the Determine Attacker and Defender step of the game, giving the person who decides to be Attacker or Defender an extra decision to make. Alternatively, players are welcome to switch Combat Readiness abilities should it be more fitting for the narrative of their game.
ATTACKER
Combat Readiness: Forlorn Hope
A brave vanguard is sent on a suicide assault.
After deployment but before the game begins, select 3 INFANTRY units within your deployment zone, they may immediately make a Normal Move but must stay outside of 9" from the enemy deployment zone or any enemy units.
DEFENDER
Combat Readiness: Last Stand
Fighting to the last man, your army is resolute in the face of death.
Increase all your units Leadership by 1.
How to use
The MFC expands upon the Open War/Crusade gameplay for Warhammer 40k. Allowing you to randomly generate a mission for you to play. Each time the page loads or refreshes you’ll get a new planet, deployment zone, mission, environmental hazard and a set of combat readiness abilities for both the Attacker and Defender.
Things to note
- I would class this as still in beta, and would love feedback to help improve the MFC.
- Designed for Strike Force sized missions, though could be tweaked for different scales.
- Not designed to work in conjunction with GT Mission Pack style secondaries for scoring, though some missions will certainly be compatible.
- Some mission have random objective placments, you might not always get a favourable combination of deployment zone and objective placement.
- You can use the Print function from your browser to phyically print off a mission or Save as PDF. This is currently the only way you can save a generated mission.
- This project is created by myself and is unofficial fan work.
Future Plans
In addition to adding more missions. I’d like to add three extra randomly generated elements:
- Warzones, which give you a suggested terrain / theme for the table.
- Battle Readiness, which are bonus rules for each army, these might be specific to Attacker/Defender for more asymmetrical missions. DONE
- Secondaries, like the classic first blood and slay the warlord.
Currently the planets are all bespoke, there’s around 12 so far. I might look at how to randomly generate the planet images too for infinite combinations.
Other ideas include faction specific missions, First Strike/Onslaught missions, ways to customise/save settings, and campaign features.
Feedback
I would love to know what you think, whether it’s feedback on the missions and special rules, or what direction you’d like to see going forwards, i.e more planet stats/narrative background or more mission and gameplay elements.
Please leave all feedback in the comments below.
Changelog
- Created a print friendly version, just click print via your browser and you should be able to print it out (portrait mode is best) or save it as a PDF. Mostly it goes over two pages but I’ve tried my best to optimise the layout. Let me know your thoughts!
v0.4.1 27/11/2022
- Fixed a typo.
v0.4 15/08/2022
- Updated CSS to fix layout issues caused by WordPress Updates.
- 3 new Environmental Hazards: Null Zone, Radioactive Objectives and Fog of War.
- Added Combat Rediness as a new mechnanic including 23 options for both the Attacker and Defender.
v0.3 13/01/2022
- Adjusted victory points to Clandestine Operations mission.
- 3 new deployment zone layouts: Front-line Assault, Divided Lines, and Forward Rush.
- 2 new objective layouts.
- 1 new mission: Black Mass.
v0.2 21/12/2021
- Updated all planet graphics to new style
v0.1 24/11/2021
- Launch
This is amazing, would love to be able to download it as a PDF beyond printing it!
Hey there,
Thanks for the feedback, I’ve spent a bit of time last night optimising the print styles. So you can click Print, then Save as PDF, and the layout of the mission is now a lot better. I’ll look into a plugin which will allow you to do this directly on the page via a button.
Great update! Might I suggest a randomized Victor Bonus as well?
This is really cool my friend. I spotted a small typo in the text for the Combat Readiness : Champion. “On the dawn >a< battle a hero has emerged to save the day.". Keep up the great work!
Thanks for spotting that, I’ve now fixed it. Glad you’re enjoying the missions.
Wow, this looks fun! I am kind of just getting back to 40k, and this is definitely the kind of thing that I like. Adding environmental hazards or terrain themes would be very cool.
Thanks for the feedback, I hope you enjoy your games using this!
Small typo for reversal of fortune:
“At the end of each player’s Command Phase, the player whose turn [it] is scores 5 victory points for each of the following conditions they satisfy (for a maximum of 15 victory points):”
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve now fixed that. 🙂
Also I don’t know how you have this thing coded but have you considered using url parameters for the random parts? That way you can save your place and share the link to others of your results. Thanks!
That’s something i’ve thought about doing and really want to implement. It’s a little tricky to code based on how the elements are randomly generated but it’s something I’ll look into adding soon.
Love what you are doing! In the text you call it “MFG” but the title is MFC. Keep up the good work!
Glad you’re enjoying it. Good spot on the typo, I’ll get that fixed right away, thanks!
Brilliant stuff, shall test some of these out at our shop with the customers, try and steer them away from all of that competititive nonsense
This looks amazing! I’ve bookmarked this and will be using it in our next campaign season. Looks ace!
Loving the system so far!! Think we chatted about it breifly in the past but did you ever look at some of the old campaign books/ HH game conditions for inspiration on the environmental hazards??
Glad you’re liking it! I’ve been through some of the more recent books such as Vigilus for ideas. I’ve yet to go through my FW collection but I’m sure I will at some point.