Part 2 of my Chapter Approved review will take a look at the new Eternal War missions. The book features 6 new missions to use in your games of 40k. 

Sudden Death no longer applies in the new Eternal war missions. What this means is that tabling your opponent does not automatically win you the game. 

You can check out my thoughts on this for the maelstrom of war mission in yesterday's post. I think this rule would have a much greater effect in Maelstrom of War missions than in most Eternal War missions, if we were using the standard ones. You could simply table your opponent, then hopefully use the remaining turns to grab the objectives and win the game.

However, the new Eternal War missions feature a lot of progressive scoring (scoring as the game goes on, rather than at the end game), so it could be possible to gain a good lead as the game goes on to prevent your opponent from snatching victory on the final turn.

I prefer progressive scoring in most games. End of game scoring can tend to turn into a bloodbath, with the objectives being a consideration for the final turn, pouncing on them in the end game, rather than a focus from the start of the game.



The Missions
Vital Intelligence
This mission uses five objectives; one in the centre of the battlefield and one in the centre of each table quarter, then number them 1 to 5. These objectives are to be placed before terrain, so must be placed on the ground and not on any terrain piece (I think this should be standard in all missions, to be honest).

At the start of each battle round, the player who went first rolls a D6. On a roll of a 6, all objectives are active, on any other number, only that objective is active. At the end of the battle round, players score one point for each objective they hold and score 2 victory points for holding an active objective. You control an objective by having more models within 3" of the objective.

I like this mission. Progressive scoring is a good thing in my opinion, forcing you to go after the objectives from the very start. The random nature of the active objective each turn is also a nice bonus, forcing you to try and cover all the objectives during the game.

There is also some advantage in going second in this game. The player that goes first gets to roll for the active objective(s) (though this can't be re-rolled), but the player that goes second has the opportunity to control the objectives or steal them from their opponent.

I think this will be a fun mission to play and will reward a fast and mobile force with the bodies to back it up.

Narrow the Search
This mission uses one objective marker in the centre of the battlefield. The objective has a 12" null field, that does not allow invulnerable saves to be taken for units within this bubble.

Players score 1VP for holding the objective at the end of the objective at the end of the battle round. A player controls the objective if they have more models within the specified distance. In turn 1, this distance is 18", but it shrinks by 3" at the end of each battle round to a minimum of 3".

Wow, this mission has the potential to turn into a killing field! The lack of invulnerable saves within 12" of the centre of the battlefield is going to be a massive blow to many armies and will severely hurt the durability of most forces.

This will be a really blood mission, as armies fight to gain control of the central objective. This will obviously favour armies that can put a lot of bodies on the objective, and can soak up casualties with the lack of invulnerable saves. This is going to hurt Imperial Knights and Daemons, I'm happy about the Imperial Knights though!

Cut Off The Head
This mission uses one objective marker in the centre of the battlefield. Players then allocate 3 Intel Points as evenly as possible between Characters in the army.

At the end of the third battle round and each round thereafter, players score one point for each Intel Point that is currently on the board (or in a transport). In addition, from the second battle round onwards, players score one point for controlling the objective marker. A player controls an objective marker if they have more Characters with Intel Points within 3" of the marker than their opponent.

This mission favours durable characters that can hang out in the middle of the battlefield for several turns to score bonus points. It also helps to keep characters alive for longer, so the ability to hide out in transports is also going to be a bonus in this mission, as you can still score points from inside a vehicle.

A focus of this mission will be killing enemy characters while keeping your own alive. If you can remove their ability to score points, then you should have a good shot of winning the game. This could be a hard mission to play at random, if you don't have enough characters in your army to evenly spread out the Intel Points, as you have more to lose if one of your two characters is slain. On the other hand, Imperial Knight characters are going to do well in this mission.

The Four Pillars
This mission uses four objectives, placed 15" from the centre of the battlefield towards each corner of the battlefield (on an imaginary straight line).
In this mission, only Troops can hold an objective. You score one point at the end of each battle round if you control more objectives than your opponent, scoring three points if you control all the objectives.

In addition, at the end of each battle round, you score one point if more units from the enemy army were destroyed than units from your army which were destroyed.

I like the concept of this mission. It emphasises having a lot of mobile Troops units to grab different sections of the battlefield, as well as rewarding you for killing more of the enemy army (though not through kill points, which I like). I can see this playing as a rapidly changing game, as armies vie for board supremacy, while also trying to stop their units from being picked off to avoid giving up victory points.

Again, this makes army selection important, as not having many troops units in your army will make your force suffer when trying to hold objectives.

I look forward to trying this one out.

Supplies From Above
This mission uses four objective markers, placed in the standard alternating fashion by players. At the start of each battle round, players alternate picking objective markers and each rolls a D6 for each marker. The player that scores highest moves the objective marker up to 3" in any direction.

From the second round onwards, players score one point for each objective marker they hold (by having more models within 3" than their opponent). However, units with the Fly keyword (excluding Flyers) can control the objective marker over other units.

This sounds like another fun mission, making the objectives more mobile over the course of the game. If you roll badly for the objectives, you could quickly end up having to chase after them to your opponent's side of the field.

It can also help you out if you can move the objective out of range of a static firing unit, forcing them to move after the objective to claim it, maybe reducing the accuracy of return fire to your army.

This sounds like another fun one that favours armies with lots of fast, Fly units, so Aeldari armies could be really strong in this one. Might also be a reason to dig out some Landspeeders or Assault Marines.

Beachhead
This mission uses one objective marker in the middle of the battlefield, plus one objective placed by each player in their deployment zone.

At the end of the second battle round, players score victory points for each objective marker they hold. The marker in your own deployment zone is worth 1VP, the marker in the middle of the board is worth 2VP and the maker in your opponent's deployment zone is worth 3VP.

This mission certainly favours armies ready to push far up the board (hence the name of the mission). This will be great for armies like Orks, Tyranids, etc, that have the bodies and combat prowess to go after the enemy army.

Overall
I'm generally not a big fan of Eternal War missions, but this new batch are pretty intriguing. The progressive scoring aspect in all of them is a big boost for me, forcing you to think about the mission from the very start, rather than just focusing on killing the enemy army.

Most of the scoring starts from round 2 onwards, which gives you time to get into position. The set placement of many of the objectives is also a nice touch, giving less opportunity to be "gamey" with objective placement and leading to a more even battlefield.

I look forward to trying some of these out in the future. The progressive scoring has elements of the maelstrom missions, without the random element that many players dislike. 

Part 2 of my Chapter Approved review will take a look at the new Eternal War missions. The book features 6 new missions to use in your games of 40k. 

Sudden Death no longer applies in the new Eternal war missions. What this means is that tabling your opponent does not automatically win you the game. 

You can check out my thoughts on this for the maelstrom of war mission in yesterday's post. I think this rule would have a much greater effect in Maelstrom of War missions than in most Eternal War missions, if we were using the standard ones. You could simply table your opponent, then hopefully use the remaining turns to grab the objectives and win the game.

However, the new Eternal War missions feature a lot of progressive scoring (scoring as the game goes on, rather than at the end game), so it could be possible to gain a good lead as the game goes on to prevent your opponent from snatching victory on the final turn.

I prefer progressive scoring in most games. End of game scoring can tend to turn into a bloodbath, with the objectives being a consideration for the final turn, pouncing on them in the end game, rather than a focus from the start of the game.



The Missions
Vital Intelligence
This mission uses five objectives; one in the centre of the battlefield and one in the centre of each table quarter, then number them 1 to 5. These objectives are to be placed before terrain, so must be placed on the ground and not on any terrain piece (I think this should be standard in all missions, to be honest).

At the start of each battle round, the player who went first rolls a D6. On a roll of a 6, all objectives are active, on any other number, only that objective is active. At the end of the battle round, players score one point for each objective they hold and score 2 victory points for holding an active objective. You control an objective by having more models within 3" of the objective.

I like this mission. Progressive scoring is a good thing in my opinion, forcing you to go after the objectives from the very start. The random nature of the active objective each turn is also a nice bonus, forcing you to try and cover all the objectives during the game.

There is also some advantage in going second in this game. The player that goes first gets to roll for the active objective(s) (though this can't be re-rolled), but the player that goes second has the opportunity to control the objectives or steal them from their opponent.

I think this will be a fun mission to play and will reward a fast and mobile force with the bodies to back it up.

Narrow the Search
This mission uses one objective marker in the centre of the battlefield. The objective has a 12" null field, that does not allow invulnerable saves to be taken for units within this bubble.

Players score 1VP for holding the objective at the end of the objective at the end of the battle round. A player controls the objective if they have more models within the specified distance. In turn 1, this distance is 18", but it shrinks by 3" at the end of each battle round to a minimum of 3".

Wow, this mission has the potential to turn into a killing field! The lack of invulnerable saves within 12" of the centre of the battlefield is going to be a massive blow to many armies and will severely hurt the durability of most forces.

This will be a really blood mission, as armies fight to gain control of the central objective. This will obviously favour armies that can put a lot of bodies on the objective, and can soak up casualties with the lack of invulnerable saves. This is going to hurt Imperial Knights and Daemons, I'm happy about the Imperial Knights though!

Cut Off The Head
This mission uses one objective marker in the centre of the battlefield. Players then allocate 3 Intel Points as evenly as possible between Characters in the army.

At the end of the third battle round and each round thereafter, players score one point for each Intel Point that is currently on the board (or in a transport). In addition, from the second battle round onwards, players score one point for controlling the objective marker. A player controls an objective marker if they have more Characters with Intel Points within 3" of the marker than their opponent.

This mission favours durable characters that can hang out in the middle of the battlefield for several turns to score bonus points. It also helps to keep characters alive for longer, so the ability to hide out in transports is also going to be a bonus in this mission, as you can still score points from inside a vehicle.

A focus of this mission will be killing enemy characters while keeping your own alive. If you can remove their ability to score points, then you should have a good shot of winning the game. This could be a hard mission to play at random, if you don't have enough characters in your army to evenly spread out the Intel Points, as you have more to lose if one of your two characters is slain. On the other hand, Imperial Knight characters are going to do well in this mission.

The Four Pillars
This mission uses four objectives, placed 15" from the centre of the battlefield towards each corner of the battlefield (on an imaginary straight line).
In this mission, only Troops can hold an objective. You score one point at the end of each battle round if you control more objectives than your opponent, scoring three points if you control all the objectives.

In addition, at the end of each battle round, you score one point if more units from the enemy army were destroyed than units from your army which were destroyed.

I like the concept of this mission. It emphasises having a lot of mobile Troops units to grab different sections of the battlefield, as well as rewarding you for killing more of the enemy army (though not through kill points, which I like). I can see this playing as a rapidly changing game, as armies vie for board supremacy, while also trying to stop their units from being picked off to avoid giving up victory points.

Again, this makes army selection important, as not having many troops units in your army will make your force suffer when trying to hold objectives.

I look forward to trying this one out.

Supplies From Above
This mission uses four objective markers, placed in the standard alternating fashion by players. At the start of each battle round, players alternate picking objective markers and each rolls a D6 for each marker. The player that scores highest moves the objective marker up to 3" in any direction.

From the second round onwards, players score one point for each objective marker they hold (by having more models within 3" than their opponent). However, units with the Fly keyword (excluding Flyers) can control the objective marker over other units.

This sounds like another fun mission, making the objectives more mobile over the course of the game. If you roll badly for the objectives, you could quickly end up having to chase after them to your opponent's side of the field.

It can also help you out if you can move the objective out of range of a static firing unit, forcing them to move after the objective to claim it, maybe reducing the accuracy of return fire to your army.

This sounds like another fun one that favours armies with lots of fast, Fly units, so Aeldari armies could be really strong in this one. Might also be a reason to dig out some Landspeeders or Assault Marines.

Beachhead
This mission uses one objective marker in the middle of the battlefield, plus one objective placed by each player in their deployment zone.

At the end of the second battle round, players score victory points for each objective marker they hold. The marker in your own deployment zone is worth 1VP, the marker in the middle of the board is worth 2VP and the maker in your opponent's deployment zone is worth 3VP.

This mission certainly favours armies ready to push far up the board (hence the name of the mission). This will be great for armies like Orks, Tyranids, etc, that have the bodies and combat prowess to go after the enemy army.

Overall
I'm generally not a big fan of Eternal War missions, but this new batch are pretty intriguing. The progressive scoring aspect in all of them is a big boost for me, forcing you to think about the mission from the very start, rather than just focusing on killing the enemy army.

Most of the scoring starts from round 2 onwards, which gives you time to get into position. The set placement of many of the objectives is also a nice touch, giving less opportunity to be "gamey" with objective placement and leading to a more even battlefield.

I look forward to trying some of these out in the future. The progressive scoring has elements of the maelstrom missions, without the random element that many players dislike.