Tired of getting a mission your Warhammer 40,000 army has no business attempting? That’s all changing for 11th edition and here’s how!
Yesterday we learned that how you build your army is changing a bit. And with the 70 new detachments being added plus the fact that your existing codexes will still be valid, there’s going be a lot of reason to try new and old builds out. But if you still need another reason to try out new builds the way missions work in the new edition might just might be the reason you need.
When you build your army, your Detachments each unlock a different Force Disposition, one of which you will choose to represent your army’s Force Disposition for each battle. This establishes the broad mission your army would likely be assigned to accomplish. Like any good general, however, you’ll determine the manner in which you achieve that mission based upon real battlefield conditions on the ground. By comparing your chosen Force Disposition to your opponent’s at the start of the battle, you find out the specific details of the mission you’ll be playing.
New Force Dispositions In Warhammer: 40,000
The short version is that these new Force Dispositions will be geared toward what the army is designed to do. For example, if your army is looking to Purge the Foe, those objectives are generally geared towards wiping out enemy units. Disruption forces will have to perform actions in enemy territory as another example.
This is all in an effort to push games to be more of a blend between Matched Play and Narrative Play. That said, just because these missions are aiming for more thematically and army appropriate objectives, that doesn’t mean that GW isn’t aiming for balance. Oh and yes, every army is still going to need to hold objectives. But Force Dispositions might have a different spilt in the mix compared to others.
From what we can gather here, that means there’s going to be a sort of matrix to determine your mission objectives depending on your opponent. This should mean that, while the missions are more asymmetrical, the objectives can still be balanced around those styles. I’m very curious to see how this actually plays out on the tabletop. Unless you both have the same Force Disposition in which case you’ll end up with the same objectives!
Force Disposition & Tournament Play
One of the big questions I had about this new system was how it would impact Tournament Play. While Tournaments might not be the primary way that people play Warhammer 40,000, they do set trends and are the most visible display of the meta. At the end of day the decision is really up to the Tournament Organizer but GW did drop this line:
In a tournament setting, you’ll usually lock your Force Disposition for the event when you submit your list. Since each Force Disposition has 5 distinct missions (one for each other Force Disposition), you can therefore control the level of complexity in terms of what mission rules and combinations you need to learn.
Honestly, this does sound nice. Especially for new players or maybe veteran players who might not frequent tournaments. It’s (hopefully) going to lower that bar to entry as you can just focus on the missions and objectives your army leans into more. While I DO like having lot of options, rules complexity can often be a barrier to entry for folks. And this should help make that barrier somewhat smaller.
Deployment & Scoring In 11th Edition
As for the rest of the pre-game stuff, most of that is staying is staying roughly the same. Which makes sense because 11th edition is still using a lot of the same core rules as 10th.
Deployment cards will be familiar to existing players, featuring classic set-ups such as Dawn of War, Hammer and Anvil, and Tipping Point. Each mission pairing also has three recommended terrain layouts using specific deployments designed to give both players a balanced battlefield to fight through, though you’re always free to come up with your own too, to match your own terrain collection.
As far as the Secondary Objectives those will also be returning. You’ll still be able to choose Fixed or Tactical objectives so you can just play your favorites or go with the heart of the card and draw from a deck.
However, this is one big change to the Tactical objectives. Now, instead of only having two at a time, you’ll draw two objective cards every turn. Additionally, and this is the big part, you’ll keep hold of the ones you haven’t scored yet. That’s kind of HUGE for the Tactical objectives. This might just make them the better option to be honest. But it’s also worth noting you can score a max of 45VPs from the Primary missions and the both the Primary and Secondary missions have a cap of 15VP per turn.
Also returning are the Twists as an optional mechanic. These are additional mechanics that can modify core rules or introduce a new and unexpected challenge to your games. These can also vary greatly. You might even have to swap Primary Objectives with your opponent!
What a Twist!
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Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.
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