Deathstorm: The Missions

Welcome!

So in the new campaign supplement we get three missions. I will quickly go through them and let you know what I think about them.

Mission 1 - Hunters in the Dark

• In this mission you are limited to use only Captain Karlaen and the five terminators versus eight genestealers and you play the game on a very weird table, 72"x24" and you start on the short edges. As you can imagine, your mission is to get the Captain from one edge to another.

• There are three special rules stating that the farthest you can shoot is 18", if you start your turn 6" away from the Exit table edge you can leave and win and the last, the most important is the one about genestealers going into Ongoing Reserves when they die. What's more, they will enter from the Blood Angels table edge on a roll of 1-2, 3-4 from the Exit table edge and 5-6 by Deep Strike. The game ends when the captain either leaves the table or dies.

I think that this mission is a breath of fresh air and it can (and probably will) be used to introduce new players to the game. Make the table shorter (48"), deployment narrower (12") and you can use it in your shop as an intro game or on any tournament for all the onlookers to "have a go".
When it comes to the seasoned players, it can be used as a short beer and pretzels break from big and tiresome games.

Mission 2 - Storm of Blood

• This mission allows more models than the previous one. After escaping the dark, Captain Karlaen is joined by a squad of the Death Company and the Dreadnaught (plus the terminators from the previous one). They face a huge force of Tyranids consisting of a carnifex, three tyranid warriors and eight genestealers. You play on a 48"x48" table with Blood Angels deploying 6" from the center and Captain Karlaen being an objective marker.

• There are certain arrangements on what can start the game and in what kind of deployment, ie. carnifex and the dread start in reserves (but will be able to arrive from any table edge), Death Company in Deep Strike. During first turn terminators are pinned in the center. The game is played according to Variable Game Length.

This is clearly a sruvival kind of mission. Blood Angels have to retrieve their captain and bring him back to their deployment zone. There's not much of a twist in this mission and I would score it the lowest of all three.

Mission 3 - Shadow of the Beast

• In this mission players are allowed to use all models contained in the boxset. You play on a normal 6'x4' table and again, Blood Angels deploy 6" from the center and Tyranids 3" from all edges. Genestealers have Infiltrate. Nothing can go into reserves. The game is played according to Variable Game Length.
• Special rules on play are that all Tyranids except for the Broodlord go into Ongoing Reserves when they die and that captian has Rage.

The aim of this mission is to score as many VP as possible. Players get 3 VPs for captain Karlaen (dead or alive - depending on the side) and 1VP for each Space Marine (dead or alive - depending on the side). This looks like a normal 40k mission but it still can't be played competetively. More like Space Hulk - you go as Blood Angels, then I go as them.

In the next installment I will go through the formations conatined in the campaign supplement.

Follow the links below to read more:

Deathstorm: A Closer Look

Deathstorm: Units and Formations