Wherever the Necrons are to be found there’s usually a tomb or two to purge, and the new Dread Incursions book that comes in the 500 Worlds: Titus set updates the awesome Boarding Actions rules to represent close quarters brawls in these neon-green labyrinths. So what exactly can you expect to see when you delve into this dark and deadly arena?
Firstly, if you haven’t seen a Boarding Actions game before, imagine all the furious action of a full-fat Warhammer 40,000 battle crammed into the claustrophobic confines of a void ship or tunnel network, where even your own soldiers can get in the way of their comrades’ attacks and death lurks behind every closed hatch. It’s ludicrous amounts of fun and can be over in a jiffy, since you only take 500 points of select warriors with you using special Boarding Patrol army lists that restrict most of the big, deadly stuff that would get stuck in a doorway.
If you want to see how a hand-picked team of your top guys handles close quarters combat, with some wacky mission rules thrown into the mix, this is the place. Freed from the looming danger of tanks and giant monsters, infantry have their chance to shine, and they get into some seriously cinematic fights.
We weren’t kidding about the mission rules being quite out there compared to your usual Warhammer 40,000 games, and Dread Incursions continues a grand tradition of weird and wonderful scenarios that throw almighty spanners into your game plan by locking doors, sabotaging teleporters, and setting entire deck sections on fire.
One of our personal favourites is the new Divide and Slaughter that traps one of your units in a room the size of a broom closet with one of your opponent’s units, only letting them out (and other units in) when one of them falls in battle. Sure, a raging firefight is going on outside, but it’s the rumble in the middle that we really care about.
BOARDING ACTIONS TERRAIN SET MISSION:
DIVIDE AND SLAUGHTER
MISSION RULES
Trapped: At the start of the Deploy Armies step, each player secretly selects one unit from their army to be their Trapped unit that is stuck in the Killing Ground.
Each player’s Trapped unit must be set up using that player’s Killing Ground Entry Zone in the Deploy Armies step and no other units can be set up using that Entry Zone.
The Trapped units cannot be removed from the battlefield at any point, unless destroyed.
The Trapped units cannot make use of any rule that would allow them to move through Walls or terrain features.
Hatchways along the edge of the Killing Ground Zones cannot be operated and units not within the Killing Ground cannot end a move or be set up within the Killing Ground Zones until one or more of the Trapped units is destroyed.
If you followed all the buzz around the Kill Team: Tomb World release, you’ll remember that a certain disquieting sarcophagus lay in the shadows practically humming with malicious vibes. Being a bunch of gung-ho warriors rather than elite operatives, your Boarding Patrols naturally want nothing more than to bust such tombs open and loot whatever’s inside – as seen in the evocatively named Take the Artefact mission.
Don’t worry, there’s a cerebral angle too, as the Defender has to pick where they’ll be setting up and then choose one of the two sarcophagi to hide the objective in – too many troops on one side, and it’ll be clear which one they picked. It’s like a galactic shell game, except instead of complaining when they don’t find anything, the Attacker just fights their way to the next one and hopes for the best. Mind games!
BOARDING ACTIONS TOMB WORLD TERRAIN SET MISSION:
TAKE THE ARTEFACT
MISSION RULES
Ancient Secrets: At the start of the Deploy Armies step, the Defender selects four of their Entry Zones to use, the ones they do not select will not be used this battle. The Defender then secretly selects one of the Sarcophagus objective markers to contain the artefact. Both Sarcophagus objective markers start the battle unopened.
There are a total of 12 new missions in the Dread Incursions book, split between six that make particular use of the Tomb World terrain set and six that can be used with the regular Boarding Actions terrain. They’re a great time run separately, and can be folded into one of the new Dread Incursions campaigns to tell linked stories about Aggressor and Defender forces battling through tomb complexes, darkened caverns, or duelling void ships.
The Dread Incursions campaign pack contains four sets of rules for running quick campaigns with a variety of terrain types and mission structures, and you can further link them together into a sprawling narrative if the mood takes you.
On top of the new gameplay rules that everyone can use, the book also gives the Ultramarines and Necrons a new Boarding Patrol list each, since they’re the headliners of this narrative kerfuffle. Macragge’s finest get a diverse force that limits you to only one of each unit – with plenty of payoffs for your diversity – while the sinister Crypteks strike out on their own to show those arrogant Overlords just who the brains of their operations are.
The 500 Worlds: Titus set is going up for pre-order this weekend, so you’ll be getting stuck into these missions very soon. There’s also a new large-scale campaign for your regular games of Warhammer 40,000 to come, so check back with us tomorrow to find out how things are going on the Vespator Front.
