What kind of missions/objectives/'modes' are common in wargames? I'm more used to vidya in general...

What kind of missions/objectives/'modes' are common in wargames? I'm more used to vidya in general, so I think of stuff like CtF, Payload modes, deathmatches, tower defenses, or MOBAs.
Is there much roleplay in wargames, or does that not really come up?
I asked one of my friends who's into D&D about something similar a while ago but he said it wouldn't work out very well, and I'm hoping to maybe get a second opinion.

The most common game modes for wargames are "Kill everything until they're literally all dead", "kill enough of everything that they're functionally worthless", "kill more of them than they kill of you within the turn limit", king of the hill, "reach the far edge" (Opposed by "prevent them from reaching the far edge"), "kill the VIP", or scenarios that combine multiple objectives in succession.
Roleplaying isn't usually a Thing. Games like Battletech that support campaigns complete with in-universe downtime for maintenance, reinforcements, and travel time between strategic objectives can support role playing, but it's not part of the core gamespace.

KoW has 6 scenarii (modes) in its base book
1- Kill, where you get points for killing enemy units and that's it
2- Invasion, when you score points for every of your units on your opponents side
3- King of the hill, where you score points by having your units within 12" of the middle of the table by the end of he game
4- Pillage, where you have to hold 5-7 objectives at the end of the game by being 3" of them at most and not being contested
5- CTF with 3 flags (loot objectives)
6- a mix of 1 and 4

There are more scenarii in other books but those are the ones played in tournaments.

Oh, and the reason why roleplaying isn't usually a thing is that you need a third party to arbitrate it if you want it to really have any meaningful impact on the game.
You can banter all over your opponent, but you can't exactly influence NPCs or implement strange plans that the rules might not explicitly cover without someone to run those NPCs or work out how you could go about doing it.

What is KoW?

Kings of War

Yeah, Mantic does some odd stuff with its objectives.

Deadzone has 4 types of objective, IIRC. Each objective you complete scores you a certain number of points and once you hit 10 points, you win.

1: Assassinate (either kill models with points values above specific amounts, or kill specific "classes" of model)
2: Pillage (grab items from the battlefield, leave the battlefield from your deployment zone with the items)
3: Infiltrate (leave the battlefield from your opponent's deployment zone)
4: Control (hold one of the objective markers)

There's also "kill everything".

Why is this the default MOBA map?

This probably covers most of what you'll find in most wargames.

Though other common ones include capturing and scoring objectives during the game, assassination which is about killing 1 or only a few specific units (typically some sort of commander or such)

I play a lot of Infinity, and it works best with scenarios. Stuff like hacking consoles, capturing table quarters, aquiring items is common, as are secret objectives like scanning their guys and the like.

Because it's the one the first one used.

Great War At Sea: Plan Red has a fishing dispute mission, where you try to board/prevent the boarding of illegal fishing ships, and there's a VP penalty for being the first to fire on the enemy since you started the war

Because it was the one that the original DotA used. Modern MOBAs have a bit more variety in map design now, but this one is still a classic.

3 lanes is also well suited for the typical 5v5 game you see in MOBAs

OP here, thanks for the answers and replies.

Are there any wargames that do leveling up, either in-game or at the end of games? I think it'd be cool to have a normal soldier get stronger and join the elite guard or something.

*Or something like XCOM

Some of the old skirmish games workshop games have that for all models, both exp gain and lasting injury effects. For example necromunda and mordheim. It's not very popular any more, sadly, though Infinity does have a campaign system where one "spec ops" figure gains exp throughout the course of the campaign.

Mordheim and Frostgrave do that, as far as fantasy skirmish games go.

There was also a level up system for regiments in WHFB 6th ed's Lustria book.

Deadzone does it, if you're looking for sci-fi. As someone else suggested, Mordheim also does it, if you want fantasy. Necromunda appears to be roughly analogous to Mordheim, in the same way that WH40k used to be roughly analogous to WH Fantasy Battle.

Plus theres gorkamorka if you feel like madmax orks.

BFG also has a fairly comprehensive campaign system with persistant HP, crew experience and ship refits.

40k has for a long time had campaign rules which allow you to have units gain veterancy bonuses over time, so long as you don't let them get real fucked up in combat.

It allows you to develop encounters with a bit more character over a long term series of battles in a campaign against the same foe.

This is like seven years ago already, but when I was doing it I went into pretty deep detail about my units and their commanding officers. Pic Related. Yeah, I was a pretty big loser.

I find that wargaming works best when you have realistic objectives, albeit rendered in game terms.

For example, take these locations or buildings on the table from the enemy, destroy objective XYZ, assasinate model Y, delay enemy from reaching Z point for X turns, capture item and move it to extraction, etc.

So you asked for common, and I apologize for listing a bunch of outliers and special cases.

Dropzone Commander was built for mission objective driven gameplay and has ~20 scenarios. Most involve sending infantry into buildings to search for and retrieve objectives, bringing them off the field. In some missions the objectives are hidden in the 20+ buildings on the map by flipped over tokens and you just have to go building to building checking. Overall I guess my point is there's a lot of neat ideas driving objectives, but the game had to be built from the ground up to support this sort of thing.
On the opposite side of this is Warhammer 40k, which while being a very traditional wargame, the latest addition has a fairly interesting set of dynamic objectives. Each player has a deck of cards with the game's objectives. Some factions have faction specific replacements for a set of the cards in the objective deck. Then, depending on the game type, you draw and discard different amounts of objectives at the start of each round. It has an impressive layer of strategy and forced adaptibility, and the racial objectives add a neat potential for roleplaying. Disclaimer: I haven't played much 40k, just a few games with friends, but honestly I found the bombastic setting to be fun to roleplay in -- you just have to put in the effort to say something characterful when you activate your commander really, or maybe a fun death-line when an important unit dies. Crazy Hammy Ork things when your warboss goes, Smug taunts from a dark eldar incubus, Evil insanity(tm) with Evil Laughter(tm) from the Chaos Sorcerer etc etc. It has the pleasant effect of making you think at least as much about your next one-liner as where you are moving dudesman #103429. This could honestly be done in any game, but the rediculous caricatures, inspired by the old but glorious Dawn of War games, helps inspire this sort of over-the-top hammy roleplaying thats a lot of fun.

Most wargames usually have a very simple main objective, but most that I've seen also involve several side objectives that other people have mentioned -- kill the enemy leader, put guys in the enemy starting area, be the first to kill an enemy unit etc.

Star Wars Armada has an integrated objective system that ties into list building. Without the nitty gritty, they are objectives that are worth extra points on top of shooting each other -- King of the Hill around a space station, keep control of areas of the map (determined by who could shoot the thing the most) have scanning ships zip around and race to who can scan the majority first for some bonus points, or have the map filled with space mines and give up points for partially wounded ships, etc.

Infinity has been mentioned, but its worth mentioning again as it really does force you to get an already small amount of points and put in things like doctors, engineers, and hackers instead of more homing missile launchers, slutty fox murder ladies, and dual-wielding giant robot ninjas.

The upcoming Dropfleet Commander has separate objectives for orbital combat and controlling things on the ground with the troops you drop, which makes for some interesting scenarios.

I agree 100% with you OP, and to add other examples to what people have already said -- Xwing has a fan made mode (with excellent quality) Called Heroes of the Aturi Cluster, it is basically an RPG conversion for the dogfighting game complete with card driven "AI" opponents, leveling up, and a coop campaign based mission structure.

>card driven "AI" opponents
Tell me more

Varies a lot from game to game. Wargames can be quite different.
A skirmish game will have different scenarios from a proper wargame.
Examples are annihilation (kill until you reach a score limit), king of the hill, ctf, assassinate a certain model, take and escape with certain objects, and sometimes escort missions.

Roleplaying also varies. It's not very common. I do some "light" roleplay when I play skirmish games, because I think that's fun, but not anywhere near

There is also "kill enemies, score of each team is points not used + points used but not lost"

>Are there any wargames that do leveling up, either in-game or at the end of games?
The non boardgames from leading edge games, can fully work as wargames and allow leveling up

Any skirmish game with a real campaign system. Mordheim is of course the qunitessential one, though I am loving Malifaux's currently. It is hilarious to give my already fast melee henchmen rocket boots and run around the table uninhibited.

basically each kind of ship has a card that lays out semi random manouvers depending on the distance, direction and facing of the target ( usually closest ship but could be the main objective if the players have an escort mission) as well as a flow chart for actions with steps like barrel roll out of enemy fire arc if possible, if not evade.

>Commander William Adama
>Colonel Saul Tigh
>Chief Galen
>SGT Gaeta
>SGT Sharon Valerii
>SGT Kara Thrace

My dark-skinned brother

Where are the rules for that, because planetary empires sucks my puckered taint.

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