Privateer Press's Steamroller 2024 is out, and some of the new scenarios are outright bananas. After taking a close look at each of the new scenarios, I thought it would be worth spending a little time to give each a quick analysis and review.
Wolves at Our Heels is one of the craziest scenarios in Steamroller 2024, and introduces a number of surprising new aspects.
The scenario elements in this scenario are 50mm, 40mm, and caches. The objectives are symmetrical, but like Recon MK4, the caches are not the same distance for each player - player two again has a slight advantage.
There are two different things about Wolves At Our Heels which give the scenario extra kick. The first is the The Wolves Advance rule, which is what gives the scenario its name. The killbox advances each turn, and casters must move further and further forward. The killbox on each side begins at the standard twelve inches, but moves up to fourteen inches at the top of turn three, sixteen inches on turn four, eighteen inches on turn five, twenty inches on turn six, and if the game actually goes into turn seven, the killbox will end at an insane twenty-two inches, leaving casters just a four inch area in the center of the table. The killbox moves at the start of player one's turn, and killbox is checked for each player at the end of their own turn, so you'll at least have the time to get out of the killbox as it advances.
The second special rule on Wolves at Our Heels is the one which I find to be a far bigger deal. In this scenario, the 40mm objectives move, and they move only when scored. Then, one time, at the bottom of turn four, you measure the distances of each 40mm objective from the table edge it's moving toward, and the player who pushed the objective furthest scores 3VP, which is a huge sum in Steamroller 2024. It nearly guarantees victory. Thus, pushing that objective can be thought of as the scenario's primary goal. Furthermore, since that objective is moving towards rather than directly towards the opponent's table edge, you might be tempted to move it on a diagonal, but that's going to work against you when scoring happens at the bottom of turn four.
This also means that impassible terrain which might block the progress of a 40mm objective being pushed across the table can be a huge deal. If one side of the table has a building that a player would need to push the objective around, then choosing table sides suddenly has a lot more value, as nobody is going to want that side.
Stay tuned for our analysis of the remaining Warmachine scenarios in Privateer Press's Steamroller 2024 packet!
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