The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

An Alpha is a veteran Muharis who leads a unit of Sentinels or a Strongpoint. Upgraded by Alchemis Shapers, their weapon symbiotes are considerably deadlier than standard Sentinel gear, amplifying the damage their unit can inflict. Though all Muharis are bred and trained to be natural leaders, Alphas have enhanced pheromone glands making them exceptionally charismatic, causing thralls to rally around them and look to them for guidance in the heat of battle.




This STL model release includes a Muharis Alpha model with three different weapon options and a base. Available now through the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here.

A fascinating and little understood species, Skoti are slow moving herbivores who evolved an innate defensive ability to teleport, which they call a “stream” in their tongue. Similar in function to an Angel’s ability to rift, Skoti are only able to trigger their stream involuntarily to escape danger. This is made possible through a unique, massive brain structure composed of multiple nodes stretched along their prehensile necks, dedicated to the subconscious spatial calculations required to fold space. These natural abilies are further boosted by complex equipment developed by Broken Weaponsmiths, allowing a Skoti to teleport nearby friendly units or to use their rifts offensively.




A physical model for the Skoti Streamweaver is in the development queue for release when we can, but in the meantime you can grab the 3D printable STL file from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

Amongst the various changes introduced in Maelstrom's Edge V2, several Broken units received new gear options that weren't available on the original models. We're hoping to release updated version of these models later on, but in the meantime we have added those new options to the 3D printable STL files for the Gnolti, Pa'ku and Sig Jammer!




This update adds EMP Gauntlet arms to the existing Gnolti STL file, a Voltcaster to the Pa'ku and a Network Spike to the Sig Jammer, all available now through the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here. If you have previously purchased the STL files for these models, you can access the additional parts through the downloads section of your user account page on the Maelstrom's Edge website.

Also in this week's updates, we have added a free STL file to the downloads section with 3D printable tokens for Maelstrom's Edge V2. These feature the same designs as the paper versions in the rulebook, and are perfect for those who would like a more solid option than paper cutouts.




The file includes both single and double sided versions of the tokens, and supported versions of the double sided tokens - the single sided tokens can be printed flat on your build plate. Find them now in the downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here!

- by Iain Wilson

As promised, I've finished dusting off my Imperial Marine homebrew rules and added in some new bells and whistles so you can bring your forces of power-armored supersoldiers to the battlefields of Maelstrom's Edge V2!




I did release an initial V2 draft of these rules back during the rulebook's early Beta phase. With the changes to the rules from the Beta to the final print rulebook, that first draft needed some revision to be work properly, so I've tweaked some statlines and rules a bit, and also taken the opportunity to add in some more units and options, so that you can add a bit more variety to your forces. There are now more character options, three different types of Battle Frame to represent the evolution of certain walking battle machine models over the years. I have also given them a transport vehicle, and the Gamma Upgrade has been replaced with Genesis Conversion, giving you the option to field Alpha, Beta or Gamma Generation marines.

The rules pages are a little different to the other factions. Due to the sheer number of options available to most Imperial Marine units, including all of the weapons stats and ability entries isn't feasible, so I have included base gear and abilities where possible, with a summary at the end of the document giving a full list of weapons and abilities.

These are still marked as Beta rules, as I haven't had as much time as I would like to test them. I'd love to see some players kick the tyres on them, though - and if you do, feel free to post some feedback in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

Grab the new V2 Imperial Marine rules from the Maelstrom's Edge website here and get gaming!



For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

- by Iain Wilson

One of my side-projects lately has been slowly working through updating our old online assembly instructions to a more functional PDF format with proper step-by-step illustrations, and adding instruction documents for those that didn't previously have them, which included the plastic PDG Gaming Gun Carriage - you can find that document on the Assembly Guides page of the website here. Working on those instructions reminded me that I had always intended to add a rules page for the gun carriage to be looted by Broken forces, and so this week I took some time to throw something together, and add in a few other 'missing' models at the same time!




So, on the V2 Rules Downloads page of the Maelstrom's Edge website, you can find a section down the bottom with the current versions of my various homebrew rules docs for each faction. These rules cover various conversions or kitbashes I have assembled over the years using miniatures from the Maelstrom's Edge and/or other miniature ranges, and are intended as a fun way of getting these onto the table, rather than being an 'official' part of the game. If you want to build your own versions of these models to use in your games, by all means do so, but make sure your opponent is ok with you using them!

Most of these were rules previously available, but I have made the following changes:

The Broken

• Gnolti Longhorn - added the Forsaken designator so that he fits into the subfaction command structure.
• Broken Thunderbolt Team added - a unit added to use the PDC Gun Carriage. While the Epirian version is a self-piloting drone, the Broken strip out the drone core and use it as a manned artillery unit with different weapon options!

The Epirian Foundation

• Hornet Drone added - heavy add-on for Firefly units.
• Contractor Pathfinders added - a unit of stealthy Contractor scouts.
• Aurochs Automated Transport added - drone-controlled transport vehicle built from the Mantic Mule.

The Karist Enclave

• Kaddar Noctis added - a new priest unit, fusing Karist tech with Angel DNA.
• New Shadow Walker variants added - the Shadow Stalker, Shadow Dancer and Shadow Weaver.

The Kaigus Pact

A new addition to my unofficial rules collection, that I couldn't resist because the models are so fun to build! I previously shared a Muharis Sentinel conversion, equipped with shields taken from the Orakan Shield Thrall kit and an Alpha staff made from a Proctat Genostaff and Orakan legs, that looked like this:


Muharis Sentinel Bulwark (Previously known as a Sentinel Spearhead)

Obviously, this left me with a few Orakan models with missing shells, and so I threw together some oversized combat thralls using Muharis Ripper Claws and Proctat Genostaff heads!


Dromakin Combat Thralls

Rules for both of these units are now available in the new Kaigus Pact document, which can be found along with all of the other rules PDFs in the V2 Rules Downloads section here!.

Coming up next: Updated Imperial Marine rules! And more updated instruction sheets coming soon...

Grab yourself some conversion fodder or the new V2 rules from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

What are you working on? We would love to see your models and terrain in the Comm Guild Facebook group!

For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

This week, Iain shares some pics of the second of his 50 point starter forces used in the recent 'First Encounter' battle report - a Guardians of Alsa patrol from the Karist Enclave. You can check them out now on the Maelstrom's Edge website here!

This week, Iain shares some pics of his 50 point Kaigus Pact force used in the recent 'First Encounter' battle report. You can check them out now on the Maelstrom's Edge website here!

The Kaigus Pact stormed onto the battlefields of the Edge with the release of their Starter Force box last month. We're happy to announce that you can now pick up the models from the starter force separately, along with an additional release!



You can find five new plastic kits now available in the Maelstrom's Edge store, including:


Biologis Curator- 1 Commander model.


Biologis Attendants - 3 models along with the Proctat upgrade sprue.


Kaigus Pact Troops - 6 models that can be built as either Muharis or Attendants.


Kaigus Pact Thrall Swarm - building four Tamakin, and two each of Krii Vapor Thralls and Krii Shatter Thralls.

And the new arrival, as featured in the 'Enter, The Pact' battle report (which you can read here!):

Orakan Shield Thralls - 2 thrall models.

These sets are all available now from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!

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Get the rules now!

The new V2 rulebook is available in the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now. You can also check out the V2 Rules Downloads section for PDF rules downloads, and the V2 Rules Articles section for some insights into the Maelstrom's Edge rules.

Stay Tuned for more!

A small hydroponics facility sits on the western edge of Daviston Outpost, bracketed by the failed Mackie Ranch Bullroach grazing area and the reclamation and research facilities on the edge of the acidic Three Minute Lake. While seemingly of little tactical significance, the troops of the Daviston Militia find themselves called to action to defend against the planetfall of a Kaigus Pact incursion.



A new Maelstrom's Edge V2 battle report, featuring 120 points of Epirian Foundation militia taking on a Kaigus Pact assault in a Strike & Hold mission! Check it out here!

With the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook heading out into the world, we want to make sure that the new rules are accessible to everyone who wants to try the game out. With that in mind, we have added free PDF downloads for all of the V2 rules onto the Maelstrom's Edge website! A PDF is obviously not as pretty as a shiny hardcover tome, but it does provide a handy reference, and the downloads also give you access to some extras to make your gaming easier.



The downloads include a PDf version of the rulebook, which has the core rules, the background bits from the Universe section, and the additional rules from the Appendix. There is an Errata & Changelog document, which lists any changes we need to make to the rules. This currently includes a couple of small corrections to errors we've spotted in the print book, which have been incorporated into the PDF version of the rules. This document also has a list of the version numbers of all of the current unit entries. The unit rules entry pages have been split out into separate documents for each faction, so you can grab and print the ones you need for your force. This also gives us the ability to update individual units if that becomes necessary, and also means we can add in new units by including them in these downloads.



You can also find a 'Cards & Tokens' document, which includes printable versions of all missions and objectives, and also the page of tokens from the back of the rulebook - later on, we'll also be releasing some 3D printable versions of the tokens, and we're looking at a print-on-demand option for the cards.

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You can find all of these documents in the Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. While you're there, grab your copy of the rulebook from the webstore!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!

Terrain plays a huge part in a miniatures game, both visually, and from a rules standpoint - impacting where models can go and what they can see on the battlefield. For Maelstrom's Edge V2, we wanted terrain rules that allowed terrain to be important while being easy to follow and not getting in the way of playing the game. We did this by grouping terrain into a few different types, and applying some simple rules to make these different types of terrain affect the battle in their own ways.



There are three main types of terrain:

• Obstacle: An obstacle is typically a single, solid terrain feature from which a standard-sized model could gain some measure of protection when crouching behind it. Examples: rocks, hills, walls, gun emplacements, fences, crates, barrels, etc.
• Area Terrain: Area terrain is a single base that typically contains multiple terrain elements mounted onto it, representing a much denser, cover-filled area than it appears. Examples: woods, ruins, clusters of rocks or bunches of crates/barrels mounted together on the same base.
• Building: a building is a special obstacle that has additional rules which allow a unit to enter and leave it.

You may also choose to give terrain features additional terrain effects where you feel it is appropriate.

• Impassable ground: terrain a model cannot move into, through or over. Usually these are large solid objects, like a building or a tall wall, but can also include area terrain features like deep water, lava fields and bottomless pits. Specific portions of a terrain feature can also be designated as impassable, like a pool of toxic chemicals within a woods, or the cliff on one side of a hill.
• Dangerous ground: terrain that causes minor damage to units moving through it. Instead of deciding that a river of lava, minefield, cliff, etc., is impassable, you may opt to instead make it dangerous ground, raising a unit's suppression level when they move through it. (For more on suppression, see the article here!
• Open ground: parts of the battlefield that don’t contain any terrain features, or any portion of a terrain feature you feel shouldn’t protect a unit that takes cover there, like the flat top of a platform.

Moving through terrain generally doesn't affect how far a unit can move, although vertical movement over 2" (moving up a multi-level ruin, for example) is counted towards the distance travelled. Beyond that, we didn't want terrain to complicate movement any more than it needs to, as troops moving on a battlefield are already moving with care - a few trees shouldn't force them to slow down that much!

Terrain does affect line of sight, however! Obstacles block line of sight exactly as they appear on the table: if you are able to spot an enemy model through or over an obstacle, then your unit has line of sight to them. Area terrain, however, represents a much denser grouping of terrain than is actually seen on the tabletop. Therefore, line of sight can be drawn to models in the area terrain, but can't be drawn from outside an area terrain feature and pass entirely through it to see models on the other side.

Models are assumed to be making use of available cover as they move around the battlefield. As such, the normal shooting rules don't confer any bonus protection to a unit that is partially obscured by default. Instead, shooting units receive a bonus to their shooting if the target is completely in the open. Conversely, a unit that is touching an obstacle or in area terrain can receive a bonus defense from terrain through the 'Take Cover' status action. For more on unit activation, check out the article here!

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You can find the full terrain rules in the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook. Grab your copy from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now! And while you're there, you can pick up the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues - packed full of plastic details to add to your scratchbuilt terrain!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!

Maelstrom's Edge V2 is here, and you’re probably wondering: what’s changed? Is it a totally new game or just a sprucing up of the V1 rules? The answer is: a little bit of both.

If you’re a big fan of the V1 rules, then you’ll be pleased to know that the core pillars that comprise Maelstrom’s Edge are not only still there, but have been strengthened. It’s still an alternating activation, squad-based “skirmish” game (aka focused on small squads of 1-6 models) that features 6-sided dice (D6), multi-tiered mission objectives, a suppression mechanic, the ability to bring back destroyed units as reinforcements and a regenerating command point system that can be used for a variety of tactical functions.

If, on the other hand, you’re someone that liked the overall concept of the original Maelstrom’s Edge rules, but you thought that the rules were a little too fiddly, then we also have great news for you! The v2 rules have been totally re-written and highly streamlined: they are a good 30% shorter than the V1 rules as a result. While the V2 rules are undeniably simpler, they’ve also gotten more complex where it counts: giving you tons of new tactical decisions to make with your units during the game. On top of that, the dice rolling “engine” now feels really fresh: each round of shooting keeps both players involved rolling dice and utilizes a “dice flip” mechanic that adds an element of bad luck protection right into the core of the game.

Below, we'll run through some highlights of the major v2 changes. (If you're a player of the V2 Beta rules, and just want to know what's changed in the final rulebook version, skip to the end of the article. Or, you know, read it anyway - we worked hard on it!)





SIMPLIFIED UNIT ACTIONS

The largest change in V2 is how unit actions work. The activation test is gone and a unit can now perform up to 3 actions, selected from: movement actions (Move, Dash, Charge), status actions (Aim, On the Move, Take Cover) and shooting actions (Fire, Suppressive Fire, CQ Fighting). While there are some additional caveats to this system (a unit can perform a maximum of only 1 movement and 1 shooting action per activation, for example), we’ve found during playtesting that by splitting the action rules into these smaller “bite-sized” chunks, it makes the whole system much easier to remember. In addition, decoupling movement, shooting and status rules from each other now gives players several new combinations of what to do with their units when they activate them. You can find out more on how this all works in our Unit Activation article here.

SUPPRESSION THAT MATTERS

In V2, suppression is both much simplified and also a whole heck of a lot more deadly. Instead of utilizing tons of suppression tokens, each unit only has 6 suppression levels (which can be conveniently tracked with a D6 next to the unit). Not only does suppression still degrade a unit’s shooting and their ability to benefit from cover, but each time a unit already at max suppression is called upon to raise their suppression level again, one model in the unit instead suffers an injury (which is fatal for most standard infantry in the game). This means it is now entirely possible to ”suppress” an enemy unit to death, representing them fleeing from the battlefield due to the hail of firepower coming their way. This makes the new Suppressive Fire action (which trades-in a shooting unit’s ability to cause damage for a boosted ability to cause suppression) a deadly tool in certain situations. Find out more int he Suppression article here.





A NEW DICE ENGINE

The new dice rolling engine in v2 is quite unique, but still based exclusively on 6-sided dice that most players prefer. It is both simple enough to quickly understand, yet nuanced enough to offer: built-in bad luck protection, having both players involved with each round of shooting and tactical player choice within the dice rolling process. Most importantly, when units shoot at each other, the amount of damage they cause now just feels right.

So how does the new system work? As a firing player, all you have to do is look to equal or beat the target’s Evasion characteristic (EVS) with your D6 rolls. For example, if the target has an EVS 4 (the standard EVS of most infantry units), you’d need results of 4-6 to successfully hit them. In addition, as the firing player you get to influence these results by making a number of “dice flips” (changing the result of rolls in your favor) up to the Skill characteristic (SKL) of your firing unit. For example, if your firing unit was SKL 3, you could add +3 to a single roll, +1 to 3 different rolls, or anywhere else in between. Where things really get interesting is that results of ‘1’ and ‘6’ are “critical” results. A “critical hit” (a hit roll result of ‘6’) provides that shot with extra lethality. But it also takes 2 dice flips to change a non-critical result into a critical result (a ‘5’ result into a ‘6’). This means sometimes you have to decide whether using 2 dice flips to change a single ‘5’ result into a critical hit will be more beneficial than just using those same dice flips to score two more standard hits.

And of course, once the firing player has determined how many hits they’ve scored on the target, the defending player gets to make an armor roll against each hit, looking to equal or exceed the Penetration characteristic (PEN) of the firing weapon. Similarly, the defending player gets to influence the results of these rolls with a number of dice flips equal to the Armor characteristic (AV) of their models. Find out more in our Shooting Modes article here

FEWER SPECIAL RULES

With V2, we’ve realized that adding back a few more characteristics to the model/weapon profile means a big reduction in the amount of special abilities in the game. Plus, the abilities we have kept have been greatly simplified, all with the end goal of making each unit’s full rules (including all the text for their unit and weapon abilities) fit onto just a single page.

Here’s a quick rundown of the “new” model & weapon characteristics in V2:

• The model profile has lost its Mass characteristic (MAS), but has gained the Close Quarters Attacks characteristic (CQA) instead, rectifying the biggest point of negative feedback we got about the V1 rules: the much maligned ‘formula’ that was necessary to determine how many melee shots a model was able to make.
• The weapon profile has gained a Suppression characteristic (SUP), which is utilized when the unit makes a Suppressive Fire action.
• The weapon profile has gained a Weapon Type characteristic (TYPE), which helps set apart the archetypal weapon rules (like “AoE”, “Heavy” or “Short Ranged”) from true weapon special abilities.

MORE LETHALITY

One goal of the V2 rules has been to improve the level of lethality in the game. Allowing massive amounts of suppression to inflict damage to a unit was a good first step, but the real key to this change has been the removal of the Mass characteristic (MAS) from the model profile. Now, each point of damage a model suffers just reduces their Fortitude (FOR) characteristic by 1 (and when a model reaches 0 FOR, it is a casualty). The vast majority of standard infantry models only have FOR 1, which means that any hit which gets through their armor will cause a casualty. While this doesn’t suddenly mean that models are now dying in droves in V2, we can safely say that you will notice and appreciate the increase in lethality in the game. You’ll definitely want to start using the reinforcement rules more often to bring back your destroyed units!

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

The V2 rules are chock full of little improvements that make the game feel way better overall. Here’s a taste of them:

• Command points no longer need to be allocated to command models. They just stay in your command point pool until you decide to use them.
• More command models have powerful abilities that cost command points to use, giving you further options for what to use your command points on (besides the mainstays of bringing back reinforcements and lowering suppression on your units). But don’t worry, we haven’t gone overboard and given every unit a Command Point based ability, these are still quite special.
• When moving your units, you now only have to bother measuring and moving the unit’s squad leader. The rest of the models are just placed in coherency (within 3" of the squad leader) after their squad leader has finished being moved. This dramatically speeds up the process of moving units.
• The V1 rules deliberately syphoned almost every non-damage effect down to just generating additional suppression, which made special abilities feel, well, not so special. With V2, we’ve expanded the range of what special abilities can do. You can now set units on fire, slow them down, freeze them and confuse them, just to name a few options.
• To promote unit movement, defensive fire in V2 has been reduced to just protecting a unit from being charged or shot by a hit and run attack. This means units equipped with Short Ranged weaponry can finally shine, being able to run up to enemy units and blast them at point blank range without fear of being decimated first.
• The way mission objectives generate victory points (VPs) has been simplified, making it much easier to calculate how many VPs you’ve earned at the end of each turn. In addition, the margin you need to be ahead of your opponent to end the game immediately has been widened for all missions, now requiring a +5 VP margin. This gives a little more breathing room for close games to go the distance while still allowing for blowouts to end without one player having to bite the bullet and concede.
• There are now 18 types of mission objectives (up from 12) and 6 different deployment maps (up from 2). There are also now 12 competitive missions and 6 narrative missions included with the core rulebook (up from 6 & 0 respectively). All this means there is now a whole lot more mission variety in V2! (More information here!)
• There is a fun new objective marker placement rule forcing you to place objective markers in the opposing half of the table (and your opponent is bound by the same rule). This helps create tense, interesting games where both sides are fighting over objective markers clustered near the centerline of the table, as opposed to one player getting lucky and having one random objective marker near their deployment zone granting them an easy victory.

As you can see, the new rules for Maelstrom’s Edge are chock full of improvements...and none of what we’ve presented above even covers the massive rules re-work we’ve done for every single unit in the game. Their rules are both far more streamlined but also laser-focused on allowing them to perform exactly how they’re supposed to. It’s been an extremely long time coming, but we can’t wait for you to try out the new rules and let us know what you think!

Before we go we need to mention the V2 Beta rules, which were available for download on the website while we were working on the print rulebook. If you played the Beta, you probably want to know what has changed in the final version, so you don't have to spend a bunch of time searching for differences in the book. There were two different version of the Beta released. Beta 2.0 was very nearly the finished rulebook. There were a few minor formatting and wording tweaks that don't affect gameplay, and the Epirian Contractor Suppression team had some weapon options added in that were left out by mistake.

There are some more significant differences from the Beta 1.0, so if you only played that version of the Beta, you might want to spend some time going back over the rulebook. There were quite a lot of sections reworded for better clarity. Artarian Remnant units received a bunch of point drops, increased SHO stats on some weapons and some revisions on various abilities and Faction Objectives. Some units for upcoming models in the production queue were added for most factions - The Brutus for the Remnant, Epirian Master Handlers, and Broken Bikers and Skoti Streamweavers. A few Broken units also received some additional gear options (also in the production queue!). Overall gameplay remains the same, but a lot of little details changed to make things clearer or work better based on early player feedback.

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The Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook is now available! Grab your copy from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!

The Maelstrom, a massive energy wave of unknown origin that obliterates all matter it encounters, erupted from humanity’s capital worlds a millennium ago. Chaos now engulfs civilized space as star systems are inexorably consumed by the slowly expanding storm. While common citizens desperately look for ways to escape it, powerful factions throughout the Spiral Arm turn their attention to the systems along the conflagration’s edge. These worlds are filled with precious resources soon to be lost forever, and opportunists take advantage of the turmoil to claim these riches. Deadly conflict escalates as all sides vie for ultimate supremacy of the Spiral Arm.

Do you have what it takes not just to endure, but to thrive in the turbulent universe of the Maelstrom’s Edge?

Battles On The Edge

Maelstrom’s Edge is a squad-based 28mm tabletop wargame for two opposing sides that brings to life the frantic skirmishes and tense battles of the Edge.

Manageable Forces

Easy to collect, paint and play: most forces are around 30 to 40 models for standard sized games, with units composed of 1 to 6 models.

Alternating Activation

Each turn, you alternate activating units with your opponent. This reduces downtime and ensures you remain part of the action at all times.

Innovative Dice Mechanics

Never get bored rolling dice again! A unique ‘dice flip’ mechanic helps mitigate bad luck and adds an extra layer of control to your tactical decisions.

Suppression

Wounding the enemy isn’t your only avenue to success. Suppression can also be used to make enemy units less effective and eventually destroy them.

Command Abilities

Command Points generated each turn allow you to lower suppression, trigger special abilities and even bring back destroyed units as fresh reinforcements.

Positioning Matters

If you outflank an enemy unit, they’re in trouble as their protection from armor and cover is reduced.

Real-Time Scoring

At the end of each turn you accumulate victory points for achieving mission objectives. Outpace your foe by a wide enough margin and you can end the game immediately!

Choose Your Allegiance

Along with fiction detailing the state of the galaxy on the Maelstrom’s Edge, this book contains full rules for the five factions in our ever expanding miniatures range:

• Epirian Foundation: Corporate security forces equipped with a wide array of powerful robotic drones and warmechs.
• Karist Enclave: Secretive zealots who worship the Maelstrom and have enslaved a race of mysterious alien Angels to do their bidding.
• Artarian Remnant: Elite exosuit-clad gladiators launching raids from their vast world ships.
• The Broken: Refugees, revolutionaries, mercenaries and aliens displaced by the Maelstrom and fighting for their survival.
• Kaigus Pact: An all-new faction for V2! Post-human masters of bioengineering overwhelming foes with hordes of scuttling creatures.

Get the rules now!

The new V2 rulebook is available in the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now. You can also check out the V2 Rules Downloads section for PDF rules downloads (a PDF version of the rulebook will be coming soon!), and the V2 Rules Articles section for some insights into the Maelstrom's Edge rules. The website also includes a handy Force Builder which allows you to easily build and save your force lists!

Stay Tuned for more!

It's important, when designing a tabletop wargame, to ensure that the game is fair and enjoyable for players regardless of which army they bring to the table. All too often, though, due to the differences in army play styles, games can leave players trying to accomplish an objective with a force that is wildly unsuited to the task at hand. While that can be a fun challenge occasionally, it can get tiresome when it's a regular result of an inflexible mission structure. So when we were creating the Maelstrom's Edge V2 rules, we set out to create a mission system that avoids this hurdle, by giving players multiple potential paths to victory.



Missions in Maelstrom's Edge V2 have a tiered objective system. Each mission has both a Primary and Secondary objective, both of which award victory points for different battlefield achievements. A 'standard' game draws from a pool of Competitive missions, which assign both players the same objectives and victory point score to win that game. Narrative missions are used to create battles following a set story, with each player having their own objectives and win score. Otherwise, though, the missions all use the same easy to follow structure.



The different Objectives award victory points at different times - the end of each turn, the end of the final turn, and/or upon achieving a specific trigger like wounding an enemy commander. There are a number of different types of objectives: Kill objectives require you to damage specific enemy units, Zone objectives are areas of the battlefield that you need to hold, Control objectives reward you for holding and protecting specific points around the battlefield, and Target objectives are valuable assets that need to be captured or destroyed.

Each army in Maelstrom's Edge also has their own faction-specific objective. Players have the choice, therefore, to focus on all of these objectives at once, or to aim for those that are easier to achieve while holding off the enemy from theirs. Going all-in on your objectives can help you to score a quick victory, or can leave your forces over-extended and vulnerable to a more cautiously deployed enemy. But finding yourself with an objective that doesn't suit your army doesn't have to be game-ending, as you can choose to focus on the objectives that have a better chance of success.

In order to reduce repetition, the V2 rulebook includes 12 Competitive missions, enough to avoid constantly finding yourself playing out the same game.



Also included in the book are 3 Narrative missions. We'll be releasing campaign packs with sets of missions for playing out battles following an ongoing storyline. You can also use these cards as inspiration for creating your own narrative missions and campaigns.

All of the current mission cards are included in the back of the rulebook to cut out or print. We also have a PDF download on the Maelstrom's Edge website (here) that includes the mission cards and a set of objective cards for easy reference as well, so you don't have to refer back to the book mid-game to check your mission parameters. These will also be available through a Print-on-Demand service in the near future.

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The Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook is now available! Grab your copy from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!

To play a game of Maelstrom's Edge, each player needs to select a force from one of the game's factions. The number of models in the force depends on the points limit selected for the game, and can vary between factions. A Remnant fire team, for example, might contain as few as five or six specialised battlesuits, facing off against a Broken horde of between 40 and 60 models. Let's take a brief look at what is involved in setting up a force.



In the V2 rulebook*, each unit available to a force has a Unit Page, which includes the unit's composition, equipment and special rules. This page also contain all the information you need to select your force for a game, like the unit's points cost and unit type.

*The unit pages from the rulebook are also available in a free PDF download on the Maelstrom's Edge website, which will also include any future units as they are released.



Games are typically played using a points limit that is agreed upon between both sides before forces are selected. You are always free to field a force whose point total is less than or equal to the agreed upon limit, but never one that exceeds it, not even by a single point! Any units included in a force must be noted on a force roster, detailing the point total of each unit chosen and including any options selected for that unit.

If you’re unsure about what points limit to use for your games, the following guidelines can help you decide. However, you should also feel free to experiment playing games with both higher or lower points limits than those suggested:

90 Points: This is a small, quick game that will typically last around 90 minutes to 2 hours once both players are familiar with the rules.

120 Points: This is the suggested points limit to provide players with ample decisions when selecting their forces, while not taking too long to complete. This size game will typically last around 2-3 hours.

(For those coming from the first edition of the Maelstrom's Edge rules, these suggested limits are lower than they were for V1, as many unit costs have been decreased in the new rules. The size of the forces for a 120 point V2 game will in most cases be fairly close to what it was for the 150 point standard in V1.)



Your force is selected as one or more detachments, led by a Command model. Some units types are optional while others are mandatory, with a minimum number of those units you must select. For example, most commanders require you to take at least one Core unit selection in your force, while also allowing you the choice of a number of Vanguard, Hammer or Anvil units. Once you have satisfied any mandatory unit requirements, you can select other units up to the maximum allowed by that commander (or to the points limit for the game) or take another commander for a new detachment, following the same selection process.


A 120 point Epirian Force

To get you started, we've created some sample rosters for different forces, which can be found here!

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The Maelstrom's Edge V2 rulebook is now available! Grab your copy from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!



If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!