Warhammer 40K: Good, Bad, and the Ugly – Pariah Nexus Mission Deck
Goatboy here, with what you need to know about the new Warhammer 40K 10th Edition Codex: Pariah Nexus Mission Deck.
Goatboy here with another Good, Bad, and Ugly for a new 40k release coming out. This time around it is all about GW updating the missions and creating a new batch of complex interactions in which to battle over in the 40k Grimdark universe. Overall the Mission cards feel like a nice shift in how they want the game to play with new missions, updated secondaries, and a push to get Battleline units on the tabletop. If you are a competitive player, I expect you to grab this deck right away. Thankfully the cards are the same size as before so any sleeves you might have bought should work again.
Pariah Nexus Mission Deck – The Big Picture
If you are playing Competitive 40k then you know what the old deck was. It is a list of tasks you can use to build your mission. It gives you options for your Deployment maps, primary missions, secondary missions, and even the dreaded chance to do secret missions. The big change is the removal of the Gambits and the burial of Chilling Rain as a primary mission option. I don’t think I ever played a game where the Gambit was utilized, so that isn’t really missed while the Chilling Rain option – aka no other rules for the mission – showed up in every event I played in.
As usual we’ll talk about the Good, the Bad, and Ugly from this new Pariah Nexus Mission Deck. I won’t lie – this is how I play 40k right now most of the time so this is a very important piece of the gameplay puzzle. I am excited to see new missions, updated options, and just a shift in how we interact with the game. It is nice to have a refresh and to see how the armies I play can be more successful in the game. With that let’s dive in.
Pariah Nexus Mission Deck – The Good
Overall having a new set of missions is a good thing. Just a refresh helps break the stagnant nature of some of the events we have played and it lets players figure new puzzles out. There is a whole lot of options in this deck and I am genuinely excited for the new Secret missions and how we can utilize them as competitive players. I have been a big proponent for Tactical missions and I am glad they seem to be a pillar on how GW wants you to interact with their rule set and armies.
I think the distinct discussion of Actions and how they work is a great thing in this book. The last Mission pack didn’t have actions. It was a weird area of the game and allowed for some funky things. Now they have removed a lot of that in here with actions only able to be performed by units not battle shocked, not OC 0, did not advance, or are in combat. As a competitive player you know how annoying it was to see Nurglings cleanse objectives. They also threw a bone to Titanic Characters as they can at least shoot and action. They can’t charge and fight, but it does mean their damage output for a big ole Knight name Steve is still decent.
They have also removed Chilling Rain from the pack which is probably a good thing. They want missions to do some weird stuff and force some fun interactions and this is one way to do it. They at least give us an old – Cloud of War style mission that gives everyone cover Turn 1 which seems pretty fun. I don’t know how much it is needed now with so many tournaments having solid terrain to hide and plan your movement.
Redeployment & Secret Missions
Oh and an interesting set of rules – there is now an official redeployment step. This happens before you find out the first turn and I think it is an interesting way to lock in when we do stuff. I am happy about this, and I expect a lot of the armies that have codexes and redeploy abilities will get a stealth update when this all comes out.
Secret missions replace the Gambit, and instead of a random selection you now get to choose. There are some borders around it in that you need to have the same or less VP at the end of Round 3. The max score you can get now with Secret plus left over Primary points is 40; so you are leaving 10 points on the table. So far the Secret Missions do seem doable, and while I don’t know if we’ll see armies built to abuse it. Overall, they feel a lot better than the gambits we had before.
I am happy to see the Secret Missions are no longer a random pick like the Old Gambits. This allows you to really plan to try and do it. It also means your opponent can try to stop you. All of them seem much more doable, with the Command Insertion one looking funny. For this one, you need your Warlord to be within range of your opponent’s deployment zone Objective Marker and you control it. There is another one that basically says you table your opponent or every unit they have left is Battle-shocked, below half strength, or more than 3″ away from an objective marker. Heck, the easiest one you could do is the Unbroken Wall, which just has you control 3 objective markers not within your Deployment zone. All of these seem at least doable, and depending on how the game is going you could go for and try to get a sweet 20 extra VP for your time.
New Deployment Maps
The Pariah Nexus Mission Deck gives us some new deployment maps where some of the diagonal options have gone and we start to have weird stagger deployment. It does mean using some math we have some abilities for turn one charges if someone places units on both “corners” of the boxes. Simplifying the overall deployment zones is a better system, and these are super easy to set up. There aren’t any “competitive” default missions yet – but I am sure I will get it all in a nice little packet when this all rolls out.
Battleline Units Rising – Maybe?
The main missions are where some of the “Battleline” matter is. We’ll see if events use these, as that will determine if Battleline units are needed. I think the real takeaway from this, is that a few Battleline units might need to show up in your lists – but more MSU is needed than anything else. All of these things are filled with Actions and having options to do the actions is important. Just having options all over the board seems to be a powerful way to play this game. Also being able to get to places, do something with a unit, not needing the unit to kill something, and then profit will be the key to playing 40k for the next year or so.
Secondary Missions
The Secondary Missions do see some changes for the better. They removed Capture Enemy Outpost which is a good thing. They updated Bring it Down to now say Vehicle units, not just a Vehicle dying. This helps those Killa Kan armies and Tau Battlesuit units. They updated Deploy Teleport Homers to make it now Establish Locus with some of the same sorts of rules to gain 2 or 4 VP. Area Denial now makes sure one of your units is in within 3′ of the center so it is no longer a free score turn 1 a lot of the time. We do have some new ones in Sabotage that is all about doing an Action to Sabotage a terrain feature. Containment is all about being outside your deployment zone but within 9′ of a battlefield edge and your unit performing an action (A dance or a jig maybe?). Recover Assets is all about two or more of your units, in different areas, and doing an action to with the VP depending on how many units do said action. Overall most of the things are just cleaned up, actions are defined, and some of the no fun first turn draws are dead.
Pariah Nexus Mission Deck – The Bad
There is still a little pamphlet that has all the competitive rules in it. Things like the Redeploy, what Actions are, Tactical vs Fixed missions, New Order Stratagem, and other small things. I hope this is all added to the App but we’ll have to see. I know we all asked about it so it is definitely known by GW and I have high hopes they get it in there. The App has been killer for quickly getting access to my rules and army building.
Pariah Nexus Mission Deck – The Ugly
Why is this all about the Necron stuff? Why can’t it be a whole Chaos invasion thing with Vashtorr? Or why isn’t it set up like a Tarot deck with spooky pictures and other fun things? Also, why aren’t there more Goat-based Missions?
Overall, if you are planning on playing Competitive 40k, you will be grabbing one of these decks, using this in the TableTop Battles App, and attacking your opponent on the neoprene battlefields of the 40k universe. I know I will be ordering one, adding it to my car sleeves, and getting ready to throw some dice at a competitive 40k event.
Happy Gaming!
