This weekend the Stockholm/Linköping meta had a small narrative tournament featuring three missions designed in ITS-style by one of our members. Here's a recap of the missions and the rough plotline. Sigma Epsilon -19 is small moon whose mining rights have been exploited through third-hand contracts for some time when communication with the mining crews go silent. Company policy dictates that a security force is sent to investigate, but for unknown reasons the investigation team fails its mission and only two TAGs return, badly damaged with pilots declared clinically insane and incapable of debriefing. The TAG pilots are institutionalized and the TAGs are confiscated and sealed away pending forensic investigation, but information regarding what the pilots have to say in their incoherent rants start filtering out, reaching black ops departments across the sphere. Mission 1: Jailbreak You are commanding a black ops team and have been tasked with entering the high-security jail where the TAG-pilots are kept. Primary mission is to secure one of the TAG pilots, secondary mission is to gather some of the evidence which is also held in the prison as well as get the pilot to the highly trained datatracker for immediate debriefing. Unfortunately, a rivalling outfit has the same idea and you'll have to act fast. The mission takes place in an Armoury-like board setup with each player's HVT inside the Armoury. In the middle of the armoury is a panoply while in two of the corners are two Mulebots with Total Reaction and a Combi Rifle who will ARO against any model that is not an HVT. One classified objective (HVT-targeting objectives are re-rolled). Mission 2: Grab your TAG The TAG pilot snaps into focus, but refuses to leave without their C63-TAG. The TAG is located in an adjoining facility and without the full cooperation of the pilot extracting useful information and assets will be difficult. The mission takes place on a standard board setup. Each player will be placing an S7 TAG model on the table 8" from the middle along the middle line at the beginning of their respective deployment. The HVT is placed in each respective deployment zone. Primary mission is to synch the HVT and get them to the TAG. Secondary mission is to prevent any undue damage to the TAG, gaining a point for each remaining STR on the piloted TAG. Two classified objectives (HVT-targeting objectives are possible, but difficult!) The C63-TAG is activated and the HVT is removed at the end of an order in which the pilot is in base-to-base contact. The TAG's main weapon system is rolled on a chart (ranging from Heavy Grenade Launcher to HRMC), the supporting system as well (featuring Climb+, Super-Jump, CrazyKoalas and more), and exactly one result may be re-rolled. Mission 3: Control and investigate With the TAG pilot now firmly in control of the TAG, they direct you to the location where everything went wrong. The landscape is eerie and still and there's an uncanny feeling that something terrible took place here. Unfortunately you do not have time to investigate as your rival seems to have caught up with you. The mission takes place on a standard board setup. If the Armoury building is still on the table, it is no longer of infinite height, but now a roof-less ruin with all doors blown out. Along the middle line are 3 evenly spaced out consoles. There is an exclusion zone in the middle, extending 8" in both directions. Troopers may not deploy in this zone, but AD troopers still may land here. Primary mission is to control the exclusion zone scoring 1 point each turn you have more points in the zone with a 1 point bonus if the C63-TAG is in the zone, though the C-63 TAG can not control the zone on its own. Secondary objective is to activate the consoles for 1 point per console. Bonus point if the enemy C-63 TAG is destroyed. The C-63 TAG is the same as was rolled in the earlier mission, but fully repaired. The pilot has destroyed the ejection systems and is refusing to leave the TAG, effectively the TAG now has Ghost: Remote Presence. The exclusion zone causes Extreme Paranoia, forcing anyone in the zone to roll a BTS save against DAM 15 or suffer Isolation, Veterans are not immune though are afforded a re-roll. The C-63 TAG does not become Isolated, but instead Extremely Impetuous. Post tournament analysis Particularly the third mission was very, very, interesting. The fact that the winning player had to play with an increasingly tiny order pool meant that the game didn't snowball as much as it could otherwise. At the same time, the first mission with its TR Remotes meant that you couldn't simply shoot the door open with a Missile Launcher and complete the mission in one turn if you went first and most tables ended up not being able to extract the HVT to their DZ as a result. This is probably the first tournament we've had where the winner won with two minor victories and where the player in last place ended up scoring tournament points as well as retaining a fairly high VP. I especially recommend that you try the last mission, adapted as you like (maybe each side has a Tikbalang?) as the isolation mechanic is as close to a genius invention as I have so far played in an ITS-style mission so far. The second mission was fun to play, if a bit clunky. Nagas were a particular worry due to Monofilament mines, but nobody brought those. All in all, we'll probably do a few more custom tournaments.
