Quarters Goal – Improvement Possibilities

Discussing permutations and changes to the NOVA Quarters Goal has been a hot topic lately.

I think there are a lot of overreactions going on based on limited data (we're working on that); most of the top table armies were NOT large foot-based armies, and most of the top players were also top players in 5th Edition (i.e., the mission didn't cause lists to trump player skill).

That said, there are some significant / meaningful arguments for tweaking things so that you can't just camp centerfield with massive hard to kill units, and shuffle a little bit to whatever quarter is required late.

Thoughts / feedback on each welcome ... do think hard about the impact of any suggested changes; would MOST like thoughts on the changes below; note these are not all the ideas being tossed about or considered ... just 3 that strike me as having merit right now:

1) My BEST thought right now for this, and most subtle, is to require units to be FULLY within a Quarter to count for it. So, if you've got 50 guardsmen in midfield, you have to get every single one of them into the Quarter that counts for them to be worth anything to it. This means that camping midfield carries substantial risks, as if you do not fully get into a quarter, or are pinned in combat, you end up worth 0. More importantly, it adds value to transported units (and so compensates for the ded trans nerf) in that they can more readily move their transportees fully into quarters of merit late in the game.

2) Another thought is the one bandied about by some people where you create a deadzone in midfield - a certain radius from the center objective is a "dead" quarter, and doesn't count.

3) Only dedicated transports and flyers don't count. You could allow non-dedicated flyers to count, but would have to do something about Stormravens and Vendettas (Vendettas most especially). The easiest permutation for Vendettas here is to simply make it so that Flyers must have hovered the game turn PRIOR to the final game turn, or revised in some capacity to properly address that.

Just boiling the thoughts out there ... input welcome.

One thing that I think needs to be accepted is that 6th Edition is not the vehicle heavy edition 5th was, if you even play rulebook missions straight-up. They still have value, but in terms of supporting your army, not being the core investment and focus of it. There's still a lot of 5th-edition-itis out there, and it'll be interesting seeing how things develop as more and more tournaments show Flyers aren't king, durable and versatile armies are, and the game is kind of miraculously and I think not quite intentionally balanced better than it has in quite some time.