Since the dawn of the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000, the Leviathan Mission Deck has been making it easy to enjoy varied and exciting matched play missions – whether casually at home with your friends or at tournament tables. Now, a new season beckons, and the Necrons’ sinister machinations take centre stage for the next year of matched play mission-making in the Chapter Approved: Pariah Nexus Mission Deck.
Like the previous Chapter Approved deck, this new set of cards generates a randomised set of mission parameters for each game – using refined Deployment cards, fresh Mission Rule cards, and updated or brand new Primary and Secondary Mission cards. It’s a great way to create exciting, balanced challenges for both newcomers and seasoned veterans. This time around you’ll also need to contend with new Secret Missions which replace the previous Gambits, giving players who’ve fallen behind on the Primary Mission a chance to change tactics and aim to achieve victory through other means.
The new Mission Rules give BATTLELINE units their time to shine, as fully half benefit your core rank-and-file warriors in some way. The potential to Raise Banners and bolster your Secondary Mission score with critical extra Victory points (VP) or swoop in on your enemy’s flank at the start of the game with Rapid Escalation makes a solid BATTLELINE roster a valuable asset, as your stalwart troops earn their keep doing much more than sitting on backfield objectives.
Three new Primary Missions* test your army’s speed and endurance in engaging new ways. Terraform in particular can push ponderous or defensive forces out of their comfort zone, awarding a stream of VP to whoever performs a special Action** on each objective first – whether they continue maintaining control or not. You’ll have to decide whether you race for points first and secure a steady income, or take advantage of a similarly hasty opponent to slowly control the battlefield and scoop a larger tally for occupying objectives throughout the game.
Secondary Missions have an updated design to better communicate when and how points are scored, especially for those whose rewards differ between Fixed and Tactical Missions. New missions task you with booby trapping terrain features, securing board edges, and – a particular favourite – trying to destroy select enemy units your opponent themselves has Marked for Death. This decision is a double-edged sword – they can give you a tough challenge by picking durable, elite units, but that also paints a huge target on their valuable heads.
Unlike the Gambits they replace, Secret Missions are kept hidden from your opponent until the end of the game – and with four Secret Missions to choose from, it’ll take some on-the-spot deductive skills for them to figure out exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, and thwart your cunning agenda. At the end of the third Battle Round – starting with the player who went second – you can choose to undertake a Secret Mission if your VP from the Primary Mission are less than or equal to your opponent’s. There’s no random draw – just pick one card from the Secret Mission deck, and hide it. At the end of the game, if you’ve completed its special condition, you’ll earn a juicy 20VP. There is some risk to go with the reward, though – if you pick a Secret Mission, you cannot score more than 20VP from your Primary Mission. You can normally score up to 50VP from the Primary Mission, so opting for a Secret Mission will limit you to 40VP total from both, even if you succeed – you’ll need to decide if the Primary Mission is a lost cause before making that last-ditch tactics-switch for points.
The Secret Missions themselves are each distinct enough that a canny opponent can guess what you’re trying to do, so you’ll need to obfuscate your movements to slip it past their notice. Command Insertion rewards a sudden dash to seize the enemy deployment zone with your WARLORD – especially good for fast-moving characters or units that can redeploy mid-battle – while War of Attrition instead wants you to eliminate or push back their BATTLELINE units, while smothering their territory with your own.
If your opponent thinks you’re trying to achieve Command Insertion, and retreats a BATTLELINE unit to contest that backline objective, it could very well let you win the War of Attrition instead. Alpharius would be proud!
The other two Secret Missions are particularly helpful for armies that get their second wind late in the game and can exploit an enemy army that’s rapidly crumbling. Shatter Cohesion tasks you with throwing caution to the wind and recklessly withering or outright destroying every single unit in your opponent’s army, while keeping any survivors away from objectives. If you’d rather just control as much as possible when the game comes to a close, Unbroken Wall gives you points for seizing at least three objectives outside of your deployment zone.
Each Pariah Nexus Mission Deck contains 69 cards, including both Attacker and Defender decks of Secondary Missions and Secret Missions, so just one pack will cater to both players in a game. You’ll also get six pop-out objective tokens, so all you need to bring along is your army, some terrain, measuring sticks, and dice.
The Chapter Approved: Pariah Nexus Mission Deck is due to land in just a few months, and we’ll let you know when it goes up for pre-order here at Warhammer Community.
* Which join six returning favourites from the Leviathan Mission Deck.
** Actions are a mechanic that players may be familiar with from previous editions, occupying units mid-battle as they perform some vital task. They return in Pariah Nexus, updated to fit the modern rules.