Reading 6th Edition - Missions

Nick speaking,

Right, let's get onto actually fighting a 40k battle, and the first thing is secrecy, which is interesting to me as my buddies and I will very often play without knowing what is in each others army, before we deploy. The only thing that you have to declare, are which units are embarked in transport, assuming people are still going to be using transports! There is nothing about looking at each others army list before a game, but You HAVE to let your opponent see your army list after a game, and only during a game if both players agree.

There are six new missions and three new deployment maps. The order in which a game is set up is a bit different than it was before. First you have to roll for one of the six missions, I will have a look at the missions later in the post. Next you roll for the type of deployment, in all three deployments the table is divided into two halves, either long ways (Dawn of War), short ways (Hammer and Anvil) or diagonal (Vanguard Strike), and all three have you deploying at least 24" away from each other. It is at this stage that players choose which of the halves they will be deploying in. Next you set up any Fortifications that have been purchased in your own half and then it's time to set up the terrain.

There are two ways of setting up the terrain from then on, either in a narrative fashion that both players agree to, or as Alternating terrain. To place Alternating terrain, roll a D3 for each 2'x2' section (usually six) and make a note of how many pieces can be placed in that square. Then starting with the player that chose table halves, place one piece of terrain each, alternating until all the table sectionshave their allocated, or until you have no terrain left Both players can choose to stop placing terrain whenever they want, but the other player can continue if they so wish. Shuffling the terrain after it's all down is permitted if you want the terrain to look aesthetically pleasing.

Unless stated otherwise, the player who chose the table halves will also place the first objective, which is the next stage. Objectives have the same limitations that they always have, except they can go within 6" of the table edges. The last thing to do before you start deploying your army is determine what 'Traits' your Warlords have. Which we covered in this previous post.

Deploying armies is done with the usual roll off to see who is going first or second, with Infiltrators and Scouts deploying at the end. As before, the player who deployed first takes the first turn, unless the initiative is seized on a roll of a six. All six standard missions, known as 'Eternal Warrior' missions, use random game turns exactly the same as in 5th Edition.

Victory Conditions

The player with the most Victory Points will win any one of the new six mission. There are various ways to earn Victory Points in the different missions, and these victory conditions are split down into 'Primary' and 'Secondary' objectives. Primary objectives in some missions are the same as the old Kill Points were, but most of them are about capturing objective markers which have different values in different missions.

Secondary objectives are a way to gain extra points for doing certain things during the game. One VP for killing the first unit, One for killing your enemies Warlord and one for having a valid unit in you opponents deployment zone. these are known as 'Slay the Warlord', 'First Blood' and 'Linebreaker'.

Controlling Objectives

Controlling objectives are done the same as in the previous edition, either capturing it with a 'Scoring' unit within 3", or contesting it with a 'Denial' unit the same as before. The big difference here, is that a unit is only able to control one objective at a time! There also have been some changes to what constitutes a scoring and denial unit.

Scoring unit:
Unless stated in the mission, Troops are the only Scoring units in an army, although there are some exceptions when units of Troops are not Scoring. A vehicle, a unit currently embarked on a transport vehicle, a unit occupying a building, a unit with the Swarms special rule or a special rule that says it cannot score and a unit that is currently falling back, are all unable to Score any objective.

Denial units:
All units including troops can Deny an objective if they are within 3" of with the following exceptions. A vehicle, a unit currently embarked on a transport vehicle, a unit occupying a building, a unit with the Swarms special rule or a special rule that says it cannot deny and a unit that is currently falling back, are all unable to Deny an objective. 

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting

It's all change for Night Fighting and not only that, Night Fighting is in all the missions, well, as long as you remember to roll for it! You will be fighting your battles in the dark on turn one if a 4+ is rolled before deployment. If Night Fight does not happen on turn one, you have to start rolling for it again on turn five onwards to see if it gets dark, on a 4+ it becomes activated for the rest of the game.

When the Night Fight rules are in play, any unit over 36" from the targeting unit cannot be picked out. Units between 24"-36" away are treated as having the 'Shrouded' Special Rule and units 12"-24" away are treated as having the 'Stealth' Special Rule. Targets less than 12" are shot as normal. The only exception is with Scatter shots, who are able to hit units over 36" away if they happen to scatter on them, but of course, they will still be 'Shrouded'.

Reserves

You can now only reserve up to half you army, rounded up. The only exception to this, are units that have to reserve do not count toward the half. A unit and it's dedicated transport count as one, when working out the reserved quantities, but an Independent Characters joined to a unit will count as two, even though you only roll one die to see when the unit comes from reserve.

Reserve rolls are also different now, coming in on a 3+ turn two, a 3+ turn three and automatically on turn four. Your still able to have any reserve bonuses, but a one is always a fail to come out roll. Then we come to the BIG change, unless stated otherwise, a unit that comes from reserve is unable to charge the turn it arrives! As usual it cannot use any abilities that are done at the beginning of the movement phase either.

It's worth noting here, if your army has no units on the table at the end of any game turn, you will automatically lose, regardless if you still have reserves!

Ongoing Reserves

If a unit (Flyer) enters reserve part way through a game, it will always enter play the following turn at the same speed that it left the table. If the game ends when it is in reserve, it is classed as destroyed for any Victory Points purposes.

Mystery Objectives

Some missions use Mystery objectives, theses objectives never disappear of move, but have a selection of different mysteries. Once a model is within 3" of an objective you roll to see what affect it has, although any unit activates the objective, only one scoring unit that is closest to it can benefit from it, if it has any advantages. The mysteries are...

1 - Sabotaged!
At the end of every turn, centre a large blast marker over the objective, and resolve any hits at S4 AP-

2 - Nothing of Note!
Rolling a two does nothing

3 - Skyfire Nexus!
As the name suggests, the controlling unit has the Skyfire Special Rule each time they shoot.

4 - Targeting Relay!
The controlling unit can re-roll any failed to hit rolls of a one when shooting.

5 - Scatterfield!
The controlling models gain a +1 to any cover saves, accumulative with any Stealth and Shrouding.

6 - Grav Wave Generator!
Any unit attempting to charge the controlling unit halves their charge distance.

The missions

1 - CRUSADE
Primary - D3+2 Objectives
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives and Reserves

2 -PURGE THE ALIEN
Primary - Victory Points (Kill Points)
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight and Reserves

3 - BIG GUNS NEVER DIE
Primary - D3+2 Objectives plus one Victory Point for each Heavy Support destroyed
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives, Reserves and Heavy Metal

'Heavy Metal'
Your Heavy Support units are Scoring as well as your Troop choices, even if they are Vehicles, as long as they are not Immobilised.

4 - THE SCOURING
Primary - 6 Objectives, with random Victory Point values, plus one Victory Point for each Fast Attack destroyed
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives, Reserves and Fast Recon

Fast Recon:
Your Fast attack units are Scoring as well as your Troop choices, even if they are Vehicles, as long as they are not Immobilised.

5 - THE EMPEROR'S WILL
Primary - 2 Objectives (Capture and Control)
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives and Reserves

6 - THE RELIC
Primary - 1 Objectives that your models can pick up
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Reserves and The Relic (extensive rules for moving The Relic)

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types
Reading 6th Edition - Terrain
Reading 6th Edition - Your army & Allies

That's it, 131 pages of rules done! Next is to skip to page 418 to have a look at psychic disciplines...