If you can remember a few weeks ago I had a minor tantrum concerning the new Mission book. Well I am glad to report that after reading the book and playing a few missions boy was I wrong. It is SO MUCH fun. Not only can all the missions be played by any army, they are all different enough that it should be hard for you to get bored with them. You also don’t feel like one player is going to have more fun than the other from the get go. The missions shouldn’t be used in tournament play unless you are up for some rewriting, but for pick up games and campaigns they are a godsend.

Here is my two experiences playing the new mission book

My first new mission was Infestation Tyranid mission. My friend played his Nids and I chose Space Marines. In this mission the Nid or attacking player gets Stealth and the Defender gets Prefered Enemy.  All area terrain is dangerous as well as difficult, which we both thought was quite silly as Nids out of synapse were running to places that might kill them. The best part of the new mission book are the creative deployments. In this particular one; deployment has the defender forced into a box as the attacker should surround him. I felt trapped and that effected my tactics and model placement as well as creating a more cinematic feel. It was a standard kill point mission and I ended up losing by one KP…damn Zoies!

My second game had me playing Orks and facing Sisters of Battle. We chose the Cut & Run Ork mission. This mission was a little more dynamic than Infestation. It was a modified Kill Point mission. With Troops and Transports being worth one KP, HQs worth 3, and everything else 2 kill points. I thought my chances  of winning were poor as I had two Weirdboyz as HQs. In the end it proved closer than I first thought. In addition to the modified KPs. All Orks were given Hit & Run and the defender Stubborn. With Orks low initiative it made for little chance of getting out of assaults. In a throw back to previous editions my opponent also had a 50/50 chance of stealing 1st turn from me.

The deployment was also interesting, forced to deploy from the 12-24 inch part of the table. In fitting with the fluff the Ork player is allowed to leave the board at anytime after the 3rd turn– not to return or count towards victory conditions. This allowed me to deny my opponent some kill points that he would have normally gotten easily (Gretchin & Weaponless Wartrakk). It could have also created a situation where if you the Ork player is ahead in KPs he could spend the rest of the game running to a table edge to avoid losing. That might sound cheap, but in the context of the mission it made total sense. Sadly do to time constrains I was not able to finish the game. So it was called at the end of turn 4 with my opponent winning by 3 KPs.

The beauty of the book is when you look at the missions in the context of telling a story or narrative. It makes the Mission Book above all else the best Campaign source GW has put out in a very long time. Throw in that you can use any of them for a pick up game makes for a much-needed addition to the 40k universe.

Maybe it was that I assumed the worst or it was that time of the month, but I glad to be wrong. Of course this all can still change as I play through more missions and the high of doing something different fades, but for now 40k has gotten a lot more fun.

Questions for Comment:

  1. What experiences have you had with the new missions?
  2. What changes would you make to the new missions?
  3. Has anyone tried the last three missions? Like Kill Team?