Hidden Objectives?

[sparty]

So ... I've been playing Bloody April from GMT Games and one of the cool mechanics in the game is that there are multiple objectives that each flight is trying to accomplish. Perhaps a flight is tasked to do trench recon, perhaps another is tasked with balloon busting, etc.

The beauty of the thing is that it gives the RFC player a specific series of tasks to accomplish while really keeping the DLS player guessing as they perform defensive scrambles or try to counter punch with a trench recon of their own or balloon busting.

Does anyone have a system that provides a side with some random objectives and then the other has to be reactive to those objectives? Scale is obviously a concern here. I'm just curious to hear how others have approached this.

[diceslinger]

One take that I have seen other games do is numbered counters. You place say 6 counter, and for each counter there is a certain chance that it will be a given objective. So a counter place by a trench may have a 70% chance of being a trench objective,a 20% chance of being a dummy, and a 10% chance of being a downed pilot you have to land and pick up. I like the slightly random chance that this gives you.

Another take on this for a solo type game is to place the tokens where it looks might make sense, artillery on a hill, by a cloud, etc. Then you have a table for a few things that location could be. So on a D6 roll of 1-2 it is a two seater plane coming out of the cloud, 3-5 it is a gun emplacement on the ground, and 6 it is a dummy counter.

So I would have the counters revealed and rolled for when a plane was within a ruler or two.

[Albert Ross]

I have made 3d objective markers; these are on a base cut to the exact dimensions as the official game target cards. I place them around the board, and the real objective(s) have a game card placed under them that is only revealed when the mission ends. Leads to some interesting results!

[Archidamus]

Our group has the side tasked with a mission place 4 or 6 objective markers down on / behind enemy lines, and then secretly record which 1 or 2 they must photograph / bomb. It manages to produce at least a bit of uncertainty in the defenders as to when the mission has been completed.

[gully_raker]

Yes we have used that idea as well with the enemy unaware of what the Target actually is either to photograph, bomb or strafe. Works well!

[Flying Officer Kyte]

I did something similar for my "Over the Trenches" recon element.
There were a certain number of objective cards to photograph, but the real target would only be revealed when the photos were returned and processed. If any failed to get back, or taken, that objective remained a mystery unless it were bombed in the next mission. This could lead to several prospective targets having to be bombed, or if the correct photo got back to HQ, an all out blitz on just the one target.
Rob.

[sparty]

Great ideas. I like the idea of placing random chits or cards under a variety of locations that only get revealed at the end of the game. That's a pretty cool way to keep it VERY random. It's all about keeping people honest in what they're trying to accomplish. It's one of the reason balloon missions work well because it's a capture the flag kind of situation where you need to protect your own balloon while still moving in enough force to knock out the enemy's balloon.