Strategy Cards

You may play this card on one of your squads during deployment. They have crawled forward during the night to set up an ambush. You may deploy the squad up to 24" onto the table—and you may place them in hiding if they are in or behind cover. Additionally, the squad begins the game in Overwatch.

An orbiting starship or distant artillery battery provides fire support for your troops. You may play this card during any one of your shooting phases. Place a 3" Blast Marker anywhere on the table, roll a scatter die and move the marker 2D6" in the direction indicated. Any model under the marker is hit on a D6 roll of 4+. Hits are resolved at strength 5, inflicting D10 damage with a -3 saving throw modifier. The Armour Penetration value of the barrage is D6+D10+5.

Your scouts have booby-trapped part of the battlefield. You may play this card at any time to activate the traps. Take a marker and place it anywhere on the table. Any models within 3" of the marked location trigger a booby trap on a D6 roll of 5+. Center a 2" Blast Marker over the model that triggered the trap. That model and anyone else covered by the blast marker take a strength 4 hit, inflicting 1 damage with a -1 save modifier. Models partially under the marker are hit on a D6 roll of 4+. The trap remains in play and will immediately trigger for any other models that move within 3".

Your commander has a cunning plan that gives you an opportunity to steal the initiative from your foe. Play this card before deployment takes place—adding D6 to your force's Strategy Rating for the rest of the game.

You may play this card during your Shooting Phase when a model hits an enemy vehicle but before the Armour Penetration roll is made. The marksman locates a weak point in the vehicle's armour—its Armour Value is halved (rounding up) for that shot only. This card does not work for weapons that use a blast marker.

When fighting Tyranids, instead halve target's Toughness value, rounding up.

You can play this card at any time on one enemy squad that is Broken. The Broken squad completely scatters as its cohesion disappearsi—individual members run off to hide in the deepest, darkest holes they can find. Though the troopers are not dead, they can no longer be allied, and will play no further part in the battle. Remove all remaining models in the squad as casualties. This card may instead be played on shaken Space Marines to cause them to break.

You may play this card before your opponent sets up. A single enemy squad or vehicle of your choosing is delayed by infiltrators fighting behind the lines. It does not deploy with the rest of the enemy force—instead, it arrives during the opposing player's first Movement Phase. It must move on from the edge of the table, starting at a point inside the enemy's Deployment Zone.

You may play this card at the start of the game. Your commander inspires the troops with a rousing speech before the battle. All of your troops add +1 to their Leadership characteristic for the entire game.

You may play this card during any of your own Movement Phase from turn two onwards. Flank March allows you to move a squad or vehicle that you did not deploy at the start of the game onto one of the "neutral" edges of the table—usually the left or right edge. A Leadership test is required for the force to enter on the desired turn. If the test fails, the force is lost and may not move until it passes the test at the start of a subsequent Movement Phase.

By pushing your army through the night you arrive early enough to scout the battlefield and deploy before your foe. You may play this card at the beginning of the battle, before deployment. It allows you to deploy any of your units up to 18" into the board, rather than the normal 12". However, any squads or vehicles you wish to deploy between 12" and 18" must be placed before any enemy forces, regardless of relative Strategy Rating.

You may play this card instead of rolling dice when you attempt to rally a Broken squad—rallying them automatically. Furthermore, the troops leap back into action without pause. The squad may immediately take their normal turn. After this initial burst of activity the squad acts as normal and may be broken again later.

You may play this card when any of your characters is killed, provided there is another of your models within 3 ". The nearby trooper heroically leaps forward and pushes the character out of the way, taking the hit themselves. The character model survives, and the heroic trooper is killed instead.

You may play this card when an enemy model fires a Heavy Weapon. The weapon suffers a catastrophic malfunction and explodes! If the model is infantry, this inflicts a strength 4 hit, dealing 1 damage with a -1 save modifier. If the weapon is mounted on a vehicle, roll on the weapon damage chart to determine the effect of the explosion.

Fresh reinforcements arrive from a different sector of the front. You may play this card at the start of any of your movement phases. It allows you to pick one of your squads or vehicles that has been destroyed during the game and return it to play. The reinforcements must move on from your own table edge during that Movement Phase, but they may not enter within 24 " of any enemy models. The enemy scores Victory Points normally for damaging or destroying the reinforcing model(s) a second time.

You may play this card at any time on any model—excluding vehicles—that has just been eliminated for any reason. Miraculously, the model is saved from its fate—they duck at the last second, are blown clear of an explosion, are hurled out of a crashing vehicle, etc. If the model is within the area of effect of a blast marker that remains in play, move it outside the edge of the marker.

You may play this card on one of your character models at the start of the game. Choose one Wargear Card at random that is not already in play. The character may keep the Wargear Card even if it is normally limited to a certain race or the character already has a full complement of Wargear Cards. If the first card is unusable (e.g., a non-psyker drawing a force weapon), the character may redraw.

A turncoat in the enemy's ranks has revealed their plans to you. You may play this card at the beginning of the game to increase your force's Strategy Rating by D3. Alternatively, you can hold onto this card and use it to cancel any one of the following strategy cards: Barrage, Reinforcements, Flank March (the enemy force counts as Delayed instead), Booby Traps, Brilliant Strategy, Forced March, Delayed, or Ambush!.

You may play this card at any time. A dormant virus becomes active—place a marker anywhere on the table. Any models within 2" of the marker are affected as if a Virus Grenade had detonated at that spot. Resolve the effect immediately and leave the marker in place for the rest of the game. Any model that later moves within 2" of the marker will be attacked by the virus again.

With a deafening roar, a bomber drops from the clouds, delivering its payload of incendiaries on the enemy before disappearing up into the sky. This attack uses the Thudd Gun Template. Choose a direction of attack and place Template 1 so that the arrow points in the desired attack direction. The entire blast marker then travels D6 " in the direction of the arrow as the bombs are carried forward before they impact. Resolve the placement of the other three markers as with a Thudd Gun. Any model wholly under a template is hit automatically—models partially covered are hit on a D6 roll of 4+. Hits are resolved as if by a Heavy Flamer.

You may play this card on one of your squads during deployment. This squad has been ordered to cover the rest of the army as it moves into position. The squad may either start the battle in Overwatch or have +1 to hit for shooting in the first turn.

Though mortally wounded, one of your warriors refuses to go down without a fight. Play this card when a model in your army—including characters—is reduced to zero wounds. Just before they die, they manage to unleash one final burst of fire from a Pistol or Basic Weapon, or to throw a Grenade. Resolve this as normal shooting outside the usual turn sequence and then remove the model. If the model is in Hand-to-Hand Combat, the shot must be directed at a model in base contact—even if they use a Grenade!

Play this card at the start of the battle, before deployment. Part of the battlefield has been littered with deadly mines. Select an area no larger than 40"², within your half of the battlefield, to be the mine field. Any model moving into—or starting its movement inside—the minefield will set off a mine on a D6 roll of 1 or 2. Troops that move over the minefield—including those with jump packs and similar equipment—may set off the mines.

Mines inflict a single strength 6 hit that does D6 damage with a -2 saving throw modifier. Vehicles are hit on the location in contact with the minefield (tracks, wheels, legs) with a penetration of 6+2D6+D12. When skimmers set off a mine, a randomly determined location will be hit. Models in the minefield that do not move have no chance of triggering a mine.

Friendly troops have infiltrated the enemy army, cutting off supply and communication lines. Ammunition dumps have been captured or destroyed. Play this card on an enemy squad immediately after it shoots for the first time, the squad is now dangerously low on ammo. From now on roll a D6 for each affected model at the start of each shooting phase; on a 5+ the model cannot fire that turn while it desperately searches for more ammunition.

Engines scream as an aircraft performs a strafing run across the battlefield before igniting its afterburners and roaring up into the clouds. Nominate one enemy squad, vehicle, vehicle squadron, or weapons battery. Single characters are too small to be targeted separately. The unit is hit by a burst of fire from a Twin-Linked Autocannon, resolved using its standard profile. A model cannot be hit more than once by the Sustained Fire until all models in the squad have taken one hit each.

You attack so swiftly that the enemy is caught off guard. Play this card at the start of the battle, after deployment. Your opponents are so surprised that they cannot set Overwatch and may not make any Run or Charge moves in their first turn, and vehicles cannot Accelerate. After the first turn they may then act normally.

If any enemy units are allowed to start the battle in overwatch—such as with the Ambush Strategy Card—the squads must pass a Leadership test to do so.

You may play this card when the enemy throws a grenade at one of your squads. A heroic member of the unit dives onto the Grenade, sacrificing themself but shielding the rest of the squad. Nominate one model in the squad and resolve the Grenade's effects against that model only—even if it normally uses a blast marker. If the Grenade leaves a blast marker in place, move any other models to the outer edge of the template.