For those of use that have never done the Mega Battle can some please give me the low down on what is the deal. Im interesated and can definitly field the points but I have never done a Mega Battle before and dont know when or what to expect.
Let's start with some pictures of last year's table set up.
http://polyticks.com/Mega/table2.htm. Nine tables. More players per table than there were tables. Each player gets a good size chunk of a table to set up in. Last year, order defended along the inside edge. Chaos came in from the outside. Apocalypse rules.
With 4000 points a player (and every year numbers might be a little different), a lot of people come in with expensive units. Even with lots of tables, it can be crowded with all the models. You might see one player coming in with mostly terminators, another with four titans. You do see lots of superheavies and titans. They aren't required, but they are common.
We had several superheavies blow up big time last year, taking half a table's worth of stuff with them. That creates room for maneuver, though you might not have stuff left to maneuver with.
Last year, every table had an objective, though quite a few of them got destroyed in play. Once a game turn, you got a battle point for possessing an objective. Chaos grabbed first turn, blew away a lot of stuff, and sent forth quite a few overwhelming assaults. In many areas, Order felt on the defensive, but scoring took place after their turn, so they had an advantage in claiming the battle points. Order pulled off some hairy stuff at the end of the game to collect more battle points, but lots of blood was collected for the blood god.
If you look at the deployment zones, the tables at the corners of last year's set up had a lot more room for one side than the other. The result was local advantages of something like 3 to 1 in deployment area which translated (given the crowded tables) into one side or the other being heavily outnumbered. This gave one the chance to play either the valiantly outnumbered hero, or the outnumbering hoard... assuming one could see in advance what was likely to happen. Over all it balanced out, and the outnumbered forces were frequently reinforced, but the uneven deployment scheme resulted in a interesting imbalances, with one force having the advantage here, the other there.
There were some spectacular charges. At the city corners, we had a necron hoard army on one side playing hammer, while a tyranid hoard played the other hammer. Very scenic.
You get memories. I deployed facing off against four orc stompas, which tends to make one nervous, but fortunately got lots of help from my flanks. One of the stompas went supernova in the middle of my lines, wiping out everything save a farseer, avatar and my superheavy. I had a squadron of three flyers up. In the last two turns they flew to objectives and helped clear the enemy from getting key victory points. My more or less normal models didn't do a heck of a lot, but I did get a shining spear charge hitting home against a worthy warboss and escort opposition. My superheavy got targeted by a strength 8 missile with absurdly long range, fired from 4 tables away. I think it took four sixes in a row, but the thing got a one shot kill. With so many dice being rolled, stuff happens.
It's not for everybody. There is not a little hurry up and wait. Coordinating that many players is a job. Still, you have to try it at least once.
