Are you all thinking about playing to the battle scenario when building lists? After a month or so of practice and learning games using just the open battle format, we switched to rolling for scenarios. The scenarios are really fun and your army design can have a big impact on your success in the mission. Just to summarize the army "needs" for the scenario:
1. Open Battle: No special rules
2. Break Point: You lose when your army falls below 25% of its starting unit strength. Better have a lot of bodies, and a lot of resilience!
3. Flank attack: 1/3 of your army is split off into a flanking force that starts within 18" of one of the side edges in your deployment zone. The rest of your army deploys in a zone that is narrowed by 18" on either side. The "flanking zone" is written down secretly and revealed simultaneously so you don't know where your opponent will be. Your flanking force should be fast, and your main force should be resilient.
4. Meeting engagement. Each unit rolls a d6. On the roll of a 1 it is placed in reserves. Deployment zones are 12" apart at the start. The rest of your army enters as reinforcements on any turn after the 1st. This scenario could benefit from units that can strike hard and fast accross the narrow no-man's land, and also units that can fight independently and don't rely on support to be effective. Speed will also be helpful to get those reserve units into the battle fast. Because the deployment zone is a diagonal, there is an opportunity to deploy cannons and artillery deeply. But there is also a good opportunity for scouts to get behind each other's lines.
5. Mountain Pass: Battle the long width of the table. This scenario favors cannons and deploying in depth. It also creates opportunities for scouts. Ambushers may struggle against an opponent that does not deploy in depth because the long table edges are impassible. It is also much harder to get flanking attacks due to the narrow board and forces armies into a restricted area that is likely to be even further restricted by terrain.
6. The Lonely Tower. The tower offers up 300 victory points which is easily enough to turn a defeat into a victory. That makes it worthwhile to figure out how to include a unit of 10 or fewer infantry to occupy the tower. It also means you'll want tough infantry and flying units to attack anyone holding the tower. Targets in the tower have full cover, so most BS based shooting will be a bust, but templates, cannons, and magic missiles can also help dislodge the tenants.
These scenarios are subtle, but introduce enough issues that it is worth planning for them.
Any other ideas or tips on how to build an army for these scenarios?
