Cities of Death Closeups #2: The Promethium Refinery

 The Promethium Refinery was one of the first ruins I constructed for the city. The inspiration was quite simple - I'd picked up a chemical plant kit from the platformer range, and I was looking for an opportunity to use some of the bits. They mix very well with the GW building kits - particularly the AdMech building, as you can see below.

Again, this ruin could be used to represent a standard Cities of Death Strategem (fuel dump would be the obvious choice) but there are many more interesting ways to use it in spicing up a game.

For a start, fuel is pretty explosive as we all know, and anyone who was anywhere near the Buncefield fuel depot in North London when it blew up in 2005 will remember the magnitude of the explosion. Perhaps centering a massive explosion on the ruin when it gets turned to rubble by siege shells and the like might provide some fun? Particularly if one were to combine such a dangerous possibility with making the ruin a key objective, or perhaps placing a retrievable objective inside it (think capture the flag). For a suitable sized explosion, the apocalypse rules might provide something, or failing that the deathstrike missile explosion rules could be used.

One could also make the ruin particulary volatile, giving any weapons fire of any magnitude that traces its LOS through the ruin the possibility of touching off a big bang (any to hit roll of 1 on a shot that passes through the ruin causes a bang might be one way).

Indeed, an entire scenario can be built around the Promethium refinery which can provide for some interesting gaming opportunities. For example:

Battle for the Refinery

Agree points value and choose forces as normal - this could be a Cities of Death battle (using terrain similar to the above) or the refinery could be in a rural or other remote area. Regardless, set up the terrain as you see fit with the refinery in the middle.

Roll off. The winner places a single objective marker somewhere within the building footprint of the refinery. This could be a simple 40k green plastic flag, or a specially modelled objective marker (an injured soldier would work well), or whatever you commonly use to mark objectives.

Choose deployment type and deploy accordingly.
This is an objective mission with a twist. The winner is the player holding the objective at the end of the game, but the objective can be moved by any unit that is able to claim it (ie a scoring unit in range with no enemy units contesting). In order to pick up the objective, the player declares that he is doing so, and places the objective on a model in the claiming unit (assuming they meet the conditions to claim it). From that point on the unit is considered to be carrying the objective and it will travel with the model that is carrying it until the controlling player declares he is putting it down. A unit carrying a objective can behave normally in every way except one - they are unable to initiate assaults (although they can fight as normal if assaulted). All models in the unit behave as normal except the model carrying the objective who is unable to shoot and in close combat will only fight with one attack at the strength on his profile. If the model carrying the objective is killed he drops it where he fell, although if the unit is not locked in combat or falling back another model may immediately pick up the objective (just transfer it to that model). The unit will also drop the objective if they break and fall back at any time.

The game lasts 5 turns. Whoever controls the objective at the end of the game is the winner. If it is contested at the end of the fifth turn, another turn must be fought. If it is still contested at the end of the 6th turn, another turn must be fought. This continues until the turn ends with the objective uncontested, or one player's forces are completely eliminated.

In addition, any shot that traces its LOS through any part of the promethium refinery risks triggering an explosion. If any shot tracing it's LOS throug any part of the refinery rolls a 1 to hit, the refinery explodes. Resolve the explosion as though a Deathstrike missile had landed on the centre of the refinery. This can only happen once. After the refinery has exploded, replace it with suitably modelled rubble. If the objective was caught in the explosion, it scatters 2D6 inches in a random direction (use the scatter dice - in the event of a hit, use the direction of the tiny black arrow on the hit symbol).