There is no "auto-tie" mission


Sit tight guys, those jetbikes aren't coming over here.

In the past week, I've heard more people refer to the Capture and Control mission as the "auto-tie" mission than ever before. How in the world did we get to this?

Can someone please tell me how we get to the point that we believe/think/feel that the Capture and Control mission should be more appropriately named the "Auto-tie mission."

What?!?

That's like showing up to play and telling your opponent that you're going to make no effort to win the game, you're just going to sit here contently on your side of the board with your own little troops and hope that he does the same thing so you can both walk away feeling like you've done your best.

Is the mission really that hard that you can't figure out a way to try to win? Even with a legal list (and my non-legal one as well), I have two troops choices and I can still win this one most of the time. Maybe its me, maybe I'm missing something.

You know what I think it is?

I think it's the internet and the lists out there that people use in hopes of being able to pull off some killer combo or get first turn or whatever it is for the week. I think people have all but stopped playing the missions and instead look at their own army and think... "If I do this and then this and then that, I will crush my opponent."
But they do all this planning in a bubble.

They don't account for the dice, they don't account for the terrain on the board, they don't account for first turn, they don't account for their opponent's deployment and most of all, they don't account for the fact that their opponent is trying to stop them from doing it all together!

All the time, I hear people say how this unit or that unit is cable of dealing this much damage or moving this far and how nobody can stop it.
But what about the mission I ask? And I get funny looks.
But what about your opponent I ask? More funny looks.

When did we start building army lists without taking into consideration everything else? I'll give the themed army players some leeway here, they're building a list based on a particular theme, time period, fluff, bit of background and they make their unit choices accordingly. But even they try to win sometimes.

I just can't believe that GW would make a mission that nobody will even try to win at and the general consensus is that the best you can do is tie. Is this mission left out of tournament play because nobody can win at it?

I have an idea, make this one the final mission played between the top two players at every tournament. The player who can win this one must certainly be the best.

Sons of Taurus covered this topic a few months ago and also believes you can win this one. Give his post a read to see how he thinks it can be done.

Note: If you want to play some really tough missions, try these out:
Rules of Engagement (pdf)

Not only do you have to accomplish your own objective, you have to stop your opponent from accomplishing his... and most times, the two of you have completely different objectives.



Ron, From the WarpIf you've got any questions about something in this post, shoot me a comment and I'll be glad to answer. Make sure to share your hobby tips and thoughts in the comments below!