Rules from the Man-cave: Strategy and Mission Cards

Sometimes you need to spice things up on game night. Here at GiF HQ we loved the random Missions and Strategy cards from 2nd ed 40k. Here is how we modified them to fit our purposes.

Strategy cards were very similar to the strategic assets in the various 5th ed supplements.

Strategy Cards

Each player draws one Strategy Card at random for each 1,000 points or part thereof that his army consists of. I have only used the 18 cards from the Dark Millennium box.

Unfortunately I have not worked up full cards for these, so you must possess the original 18 from 2nd ed to use these. If there is enough demand I may work up a PDF of new cards.

Changes:

• Delayed - Change the effect to: Instead the delayed unit does not arrive until turn 3.
• Ambush - I changed this card completely to allow a squad to infiltrate, and get a free round of shooting.
• Forced March: Replace the rules with the following: D3+1 units in you army gain a scout move.
• Reinforcements - remove the not within 24 inches of an enemy unit stipulation.
  
• Insane Courage - Changed to; the rallying unit gets a free round of shooting counting as stationary; this is the only activity this unit has in the turn they are rallied.
• Booby Traps – Nominate one piece of terrain to be booby trapped, any enemy model that moves through or within 3 inches will trigger the traps on a 5+. It has the following profile: Strength 4, AP 5, Large Blast. The Booby Traps remain in play attacking all enemy models that move within 3 inches.
  
• Traitor - Ignore the strategy rating part of the card and replace it with the following: You may play this card at the beginning of the game to force you opponent to re-roll his dice to determine who goes first.
• Barrage: Has the same effect as an Orbital Bombardment from the Codex Space Marines.
  
• Malfunction: Nominate any enemy vehicle to suffer a weapons malfunction. The vehicle takes an automatic penetrating hit, roll for damage.
  
• Flank March: Play this card during your movement phase. Nominate a single unit that is still in reserves. The unit may choose to enter the board from any table edge, with no reserve roll required.
• Brilliant Strategy: Change text to: Play this card at the beginning of the game; The owner of the card may choose to deploy first or second; no die roll needed. Additionally he may steal the initiative from his opponent on a die roll of 5+.
  
• Virus Outbreak!: Play this card at any time. Choose an enemy unit all models that are part of the unit take a Strength 4, AP 4 hit with no cover or invulnerable saves allowed.
  
• Special Issue: Pick an Independent Character in your army. You may equip that model with any one piece of Wargear from his own or opponents Codex.

Disclaimer: most games played in the GiF Man-cave use 3 or more objectives. Each objective controlled counts as 5 Kill points towards determining a winner. If one player controls more objectives than his opponent he gains a +5 kill point bonus.

The Mission cards will be used in conjunction with the normal 5th ed missions; they will be secondary goals and objectives. So any Kill points listed below are in addition to any standard mission rules for 5th ed.

Mission Cards

If both players agree, each player draws a Mission Card before setting up. The Mission Card will detail a secondary objective for the player to accomplish—and describes how doing so will accord the player extra Victory Points. The different Mission Cards are described below:

Engage and Destroy

• For each enemy squad wiped out: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy vehicle destroyed: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy character slain: +1 Kill Point

Take and Hold

• Your objective is a point 24” into the table and 36” from the left hand edge (which should be in the middle of a standard table). If you have at least one model within 3” of this spot at the end of the game, and the closest model to this spot is yours: in an objective mission it counts as two objectives.

Dawn Raid

• Having at least one squad with less than 50% casualties or at least one undamaged vehicle in opponent’s Deployment Zone at the end of the game: +5 Kill Points

Guerrilla War

• For every 3 enemy models slain in hand-to-hand combat: +1 Kill Point
• For every enemy vehicle destroyed or disabled within 24” of your table edge: +1 Kill Point

Witch Hunt

• If the most powerful enemy psyker is wounded at end of game: +1 Kill Point
• If the most powerful enemy psyker is slain: +5 Kill Points
• Each enemy character worth 90 points or more slain: +1 Kill Point

The Assassins

• Enemy Commander wounded: +1 Kill Point
• Enemy Commander slain: +5 Kill Points

I love Blogging, because there are so many great minds out there. Warhammer 39,999 did a great revival of the strategy cards for Apocalypse on his blog yesterday.

Comments and feedback welcome as always. If you try these rules out for yourself please let me know how it went.



Link suggested by WH3999, quoted text from his post.

It turns out that the guys over at Under the Couch, have already done strategy cards for us! You can download those cards from their site using this link. The only problem with using the cards as is from UTC is that I didn’t have card stock to print them out on.