Games Workshop has revealed a new set of Warhammer 40k mission cards, Chapter Approved: Pariah Nexus, which will replace the current Leviathan deck for “the next year of matched play”. New mission rules promise to boost the performance of Battleline units, while Secret Missions will act as a new catch up mechanic for players who’ve fallen behind.
Just like the outgoing Leviathan deck, the Pariah Nexus deck will generate random Warhammer 40k missions using separate card decks with information for mission Deployment, additional Mission Rules, Primary Missions for both players to score, and separate decks of Secondary Missions for each player. Secret Missions will replace the Leviathan deck’s Gambit cards.
Mission Rules
According to GW’s WarCom article revealing the new deck, half of the new Mission Rules benefit Battleline units “in some way”. It gives two examples: Raise Banners, and Rapid Escalation.
Raise the Banners allows your Battleline units to plant flags on objectives you control, once per objective per battle, earning 1VP each time. Rapid Escalation allows up to 10% of your army points value in Battleline units to enter the battlefield from Strategic Reserves within 6” of any table edge during the first turn of the game.
Making Battleline units viable in all armies has proven difficult for the GW design team. Many Battleline units have such sub-par offensive output and survivability that their special objective-claiming abilities are simply irrelevant – you can’t claim an objective when you’re dead.
However, buffing Battleline units via the mission pack will affect every Warhammer 40k faction equally, whether or not they’ve got limp Battleline. Every Chaos Knight is a Battleline unit, and they’re not exactly struggling.
For some suggestions of solid Battleline units to make use of this new mission pack, you can watch YouTuber Auspex Tactic’s guide to the best Battleline units below (though this years Warhammer 40k Codex releases for Dark Angels, Orks, and Adeptus Custodes has shaken those factions up a little).
Primary Missions
The WarCom article reveals that “six returning favorite” Primary Missions will be joined by three new ones which “test your army’s speed and endurance”. One new Primary Mission reintroduces the action system from ninth edition 40k, in which units could forego some or all of their combat effectiveness for a turn for a special effect.
In the case of the new Terraform Primary Mission, units can take an action to terraform an objective that you control and they’re in range of. Once the action is completed – at the end of your opponent’s next turn – you’ll then receive 2VP at the end of each of your subsequent Command phase for each objective marker you have terraformed, whether or not you still control it.
Secondary Missions
GW promises an “updated design to better communicate when and how points are scored” for Secondary Missions, “especially for those whose rewards differ between Fixed and Tactical Missions”. There are some new missions in the mix, including Marked for Death, which lets your opponent pick three of their units – kill one, and you’ll earn 5VP.
Secret Missions
Secret Missions replace the Gambit cards from the Leviathan deck. At the end of the third Battle Round, starting with player two, a player who has scored less than or as many VP as their opponent from the Primary Missions can pick one of four Secret Missions to undertake. As their name suggests, these cards are kept hidden.
If you can complete a Secret Mission you’ll earn 20 VP at the end of the game, but as soon as you choose one, you’re capped at a maximum of 20 VP for your Primary Mission (rather than the normal 50). These are the four Secret Missions:
| Secret Missions | How to score |
| Command Insertion | Have your Warlord in range of an objective you control in the enemy deployment zone |
| War of attrition | Get a Battleline unit into the enemy deployment zone, and either eliminate the enemy Battleline or confine all their Battleline to their deployment zone. |
| Unbroken wall | Control three or more objective markers outside your deployment zone |
| Shatter Cohesion | Wipe the enemy out, or ensure every enemy unit is battle-shocked, below half strength, or is more than 3” away from all objective markers |
GW says that the new deck will be available in “just a few months”, so there’ll be a while before this takes effect. Time will tell if this shakes up the meta as much as the April points update. To keep up to date with the latest Warhammer 40k news, make sure to follow Wargamer on Google News.