The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

Last week, I shared a Revolutionary Captain conversion that I had painted up to lead a new SARA force for my army collection. This week, I completed work on the rest of his detachment!




The leader for the detachment is obviously the aforementioned Revolutionary Captain, equipped with his signature pistol and an added trophy melee weapon. To accompany him into battle, I filled out a Vanguard slot with a pair of Sig Jammers, on using the regular resin model, and another converted up using a bunch of assorted parts, including the beret head that I didn't use on the Captain. Sig Jammers provide support to Broken forces by interfering with enemy Fields and forcing additional Suppression Points onto enemy units with their Tech Disruptors.



Rabble units make up the core of any Broken force. For my SARA, I wanted to give them a more military look than my Forsaken force, so I mostly stayed away from long coats and robes, and borrowed some extra armour parts from Epirian and Karist kits, and also a few bits and pieces from some Stargrave plastic models for a little extra variet. I also gave all of the models a shoulder pad on their left shoulder, as something to help unify the various assorted models... although in true Broken fashion, these pads are also sourced from a range of different places.



The second Rabble unit is accompanied by a Marsayan Hypnotist, to provide some tentacle-faced disruption to enemy shooting. Units accampanied by a Marsayan are difficult to hit, always counting as a Fleeting target and gaining a dodge against close range attacks.



For a bit of long range coverage, I added a Rabble Fire Support unit with beam longrifles to fill one of my Anvil slots.



To round things out, I took a Pa'ku for the other Anvil slot, because how can you go past a giant toad with a cannon. The model I've used here is one I converted up for the spotlight article some time ago to count as a 'heavy EMP mortar' instead of the usual quad mortar... but could still be used as just a variant version of the usual gun if I want to keep things official. The Pa'ku's EMP mortar is great for dropping large blasts on enemy formations, although it works best in concert with other Pa'ku due to their Coordinated Barrage rule. So I'll probably look at painting up a second Pa'ku with the second detachment, potentially retrofitting it back into this detachment with the Multi-Unit Selection rule allowing both of them to count as a single Anvil choice.



All up, this detachment currently comes in at 67 points, so is just under half of a 'standard' 150 point force. I'll be working on the second detachment as I have time, putting in another Revolutionary Captain, some snipers, and an assault unit featuring a couple of Hakoyu for some up-close-and-personal, pointy doom. In the meantime, I can always use these as a detachment alongside my Forsaken force.

More to come - stay tuned!







To build your own army of revolutionary doom, you can pick up the Broken along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the 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.

The Karist Enclave are a secretive organisation that operates on doomed worlds close to the Maelstrom’s Edge. The motivations of the Heirarchs who lead them are only guessed at by outsiders, but their missionaries can be found in cities all across the Edge, extolling the core belief of the Karist faith: that the Maelstrom isn’t the end of life, but the beginning of a new one.



Karist society is focused around service to the Enclave, and all Karists are expected to give their time to the Enclave’s needs, whether that be a tour as a soldier or missionary, or the giving of time to perform communal tasks. In return for their services citizens are given an allocation on the Enclave’s nanoforges and are also allowed to partake in commune rituals, where Kaddar Priests touch their followers with small quantities of na-cybel energy, inspiring flashes of euphoria and visions that are said to be hints of what happens during ascension.

In battle, the Enclave’s forces are clad in distinctive scalloped armour, and armed with weaponry that fires pulses of cybel energy. Frequently, they are also accompanied by Angels, ethereal alien creatures that live off cybel energy, kept enslaved by their Keepers to inflict huge damage on the Enclave’s enemies. Shadow Walkers, acting as the hands of the Heirarchs, use their skills in stealth and deception to infiltrate the governments and armies of their foes.



Ascension drives all of the Enclave’s actions, from the missionaries who travel to doomed worlds to the soldiers who ‘liberate’ those planets viewed as essential by the Heirarchs. Whether that strategy is defined by the number of Karist believers on the planet who need to be saved or the resources that can be appropriated is a matter of some debate amongst critics of the Enclave’s operations. Whatever their motivations, the Karist Enclave is a growing force across many of the worlds threatened by the Maelstrom’s Edge.



The aliens known as the Angels of the Maelstrom are many-limbed, amorphous creatures of deepest black. The creatures have long been the subject of legend around lonely spaceship mess decks, but until the Maelstrom had driven them from their deep space habitats they had rarely been seen. Angels can change form, with some resembling giant bipedal squid and others smaller, winged beasts. Although when they had been encountered in deep space the Angels are shy of human contact and relatively benign, the Maelstrom seems to drive them to insanity. Fleeing the Edge like savage beasts before a fire, the Angels are drawn to sources of cybel energy, and will descend upon ships, stations or worlds in their path with catastrophic fury. The Karist Enclave has come to use this hunger for cybel energy to enslave the alien creatures for their own ends. For hundreds of years, the Keepers of the Karist Enclave have enslaved Angels, keeping them docile using regimented doses of cybel energy. Keepers experiment on their captives, using different forms of cybel energy and electromagnetically charged cages to shape the Angels, encouraging them to grow new limbs or shapes to match the Enclave's requirements.





You can find out more about the Enclave by downloading a free PDF version of the Maelstrom's Edge rulebook here. If a physical book is more to your taste, grab the Battle for Zycanthus starter set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions on the Maelstrom's Edge background or gameplay, pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

- by Iain Wilson

With the release of the Revolutionary Captain and Sniper models for the Broken, I couldn't resist the lure of that new army smell, and so I've been working away to put together a SARA force to sit alongside my existing Forsaken collection. The model I chose to lead the force was one that I showed back in the Conversion Spotlight article when the Revolutionary Captain was released, but this week I finally got some paint on him!




For those who haven't checked out the article linked above, this model was a conversion of the plastic SARA Captain model. The head was taken from an Epirian Contractor, with a hat added using 'green stuff' putty. I also gave him a sword built from a couple of chopped up weapons from the Broken Rabble sprue and a slightly reshaped Karist sword blade taken from the Faction Expansion sprue.



For this force, I chose to go with a colour scheme fairly similar to the Maelstrom's Edge studio model, using a lot of Army Green with white 'techy' bits. To make the Captain stand out a little more from the horde, though, I swapped out the studio model's green coat for a dark brown leather one. This was painted with Scalecolor Bosh Chestnut and several layers of Army Painter Dark Tone, before highlighting with Army Painter Leather Brown with a little Skeleton Bone mixed in.



The rest of his uniform is Army Painter Army Green for the pants and hat, and Army Green mixed with Coat D'Arms Putrid Green for the shirt. These were washed with Army Painter Military Shader, and then the hat given two coats of Green Tone, before it was all highlighted with some more Putrid Green and Army Green mix. The metal was painted with Army Painter Plate Mail Metal and washed with Dark Tone and Strong Tone, with a Shining Silver highlight, while the white parts were given a coat of Army Painter Uniform Grey and then a heavy drybrush of white. It's a little rough up close, but quick and easy and looks suitably beaten up on the table!



The next job is to finish up the painting on the rest of his detachment, and then start on a second detachment so that I can work in a sniper or two!





To build your own army of revolutionary doom, you can pick up the Revolutionary Captain along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the 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.

To play a game of Maelstrom's Edge, each player needs to select a force from one of the game's factions. The size of 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.



Each unit available to a force has a Unit card, which includes the unit's composition, equipment and special rules. These cards also contain all the information you need to select your force for a game, like the unit's points cost and unit type.



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! 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:

120 Points: This is a good limit if playing a game just using the contents of a single Battle for Zycanthus box set. This size game will typically last around 90 minutes to 2 hours once both players are familiar with the rules.

150 Points: This is the suggested points limit for Maelstrom’s Edge games 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 once both players are familiar with the rules.

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.



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 150 point Karist Force



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

Get your force together by grabbing the Battle for Zycanthus starter set, or any of the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

If you have any questions on force selection, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

- by Iain Wilson

There are a few different options out there for filling in open windows on terrain. In the past, I've used clear plastic or aluminium mesh cut to shape and glued in. I recently picked up some Ultraviolet Resin intended for creating water effects, and it occurred to me that this might be a fun alternate way of adding panes to some windows.




The resin I'm working with is sold by Green Stuff World. It's a super-clear gel that you squeeze from the bottle and then set with a UV light, or by leaving it out in the sun. They also sell a UV torch, which I couldn't resist picking up.



To create a window pane, I took a painted door from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue and laid it down on some aluminium foil, with a small piece of thin plasticard in behind to push the foil snug against the back of the window frame.

(I used a painted door as it was going to be impossible to paint the inside of the window frame once the resin was in place.)



I then added a drop of resin into the middle of the window, leaving it a minute or so to settle out to the edges of the frame. There were very few airbubbles in the resin, but I used a pin to gently poke the few that were there to make them go away.



To set the resin, I sat the UV torch on top of the doorframe pointing directly at the window, and left it for a couple of minutes to let it do its thing. From further experimentation later, the resin starts to cure within a few seconds, but I wanted to leave it long enough to make sure.



From there, the door was ready to be glued into a piece of terrain and detailed.

For coloured window glass, transparent paint gives a nice tint. This porthole was filled with resin in the centre, and then once set I painted the back of the resin with two coats of Tamiya Clear Orange.





To make your own windows of transparent doom, you can pick up the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the 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.

In Maelstrom's Edge games, a model’s base represents the space that they occupy on the table, and is used for measuring distances for movement and weapon ranges when shooting. Maelstrom’s Edge bases also include arc markers which define the model’s front and rear arc, which is relevant for various in-game interactions. With the release of our new, expanded range of bases, the original rules for using different or customised bases on Maelstrom’s Edge forces need a little bit of an update.



The Maelstrom’s Edge rulebook includes various guidelines for customising your models without inadvertently breaking the rules by changing how that model functions on the tabletop, and a part of that covers appropriate basing. Originally, these rules only had to deal with four different bases (including the hex-shaped flying bases), but with that number expanded out to nine, we wanted to allow players some freedom for creative modelling without forcing anyone to rebase existing models. As such, the text from the ‘Custom Basing’ section on page 132 of the Maelstrom’s Edge rulebook should be replaced with the following:

CUSTOM BASING

Models are normally mounted on the base specified for them as part of their model kit.

Conversions will sometimes result in a model not fitting on the correct base. Some players also like to use larger, impressively-detailed bases to make their character models and other significant units stand out on the table. While using a different sized base has an impact on how the model functions on the table, particularly for things like movement and unit coherency, so long as the change is not too extreme this has minimal practical effect on the game. As such models may be mounted on a base one size smaller or larger than specified in their instructions. In units of more than one model, all models with the same original base size must be mounted on the same alternate size.

You can use custom bases, or bases from another manufacturer, but these must have appropriate arc markings modeled or painted on, and fit within the same size range as above. For example, if a model would normally have a 32mm base, then any alternate base would need to be within 28-36mm in diameter. If the alternate base has modeled elements on it that significantly raise the height of the model compared to a standard base, then this qualifies as the model being converted as detailed above.

As we update the build instructions for our kits, these will include the relevant base size for each model. In some cases the default base size for a model may change – for example, the Remnant Nimbus is being updated to use a new 40mm base instead of the original 46mm, although the kit will come with both for the moment – and in these cases both the original and the updated base size can be considered valid. We don’t want anyone to feel like they need to pull apart their carefully finished models to update them!

While you're playing with bases, check out the Hobby Basics and the Tips & Techniques pages in the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website for some tips and tutorials covering different basing methods. Find them here!





Get your game on by ordering the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

If you have any questions on bases, model building, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

Back when the Maelstrom's Edge game was first launched, the budget only allowed for a small range of bases, so we started out with three different base sizes that were specifically designed with the launch model range in mind - a 25mm base for human sized models, and two considerably larger bases for the bigger models. As we started expanding our range, it became apparent that this wasn't going to be suitable for long, as there were too many models planned that would be too large for the 25mm base, but too small for the larger bases. With the completion of a new base tool, we're now able to rectify this with the addition of another 5 base sizes to the range, including 28mm, 32mm, 36mm and 40mm bases, and a much larger 65mm base to keep us covered when we start in models larger than the Hunter or the Mature Angel.



Some of these have already snuck out into the wild, with the recently released Broken Sniper coming with the new 32mm base. Others will be appearing in coming months on other models waiting in the queue.



You can also pick up all of these bases separately from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!

As we discussed in the previous 'Missions and Objectives' primer article, the Maelstrom's Edge rules allow for two different types of mission - Competitive missions, where both players have the same objectives, and Narrative missions, where each player has a specific objective of their own to achieve while trying to prevent their opponent from achieving theirs. This time around, we're looking at how those Narrative missions work.



To create more of a level playing field, competitive missions require players to pick their forces without knowing what their mission will be and whether their force will end up being the attacker or defender. In truth, however, a force is almost always hand-picked and deployed to complete a specific mission. Narrative missions represent the perfect opportunity to recreate this dynamic more accurately, and in keeping with this idea, players select their forces [i]after[/i] choosing the mission, rather than before. This can be done to allow each player to select their own ideal force, or can be a co-operative exercise with players agreeing on the sort of forces that would be appropriate for the mission. The mission itself would usually be chosen by the players, although there's always the option to make it a random selection if you are not too attached to playing any specific type of battle.

The Narrative mission cards are mostly the same as for Competitive missions, except that there are two cards for each mission - an Attacker card and a Defender card. The mission objectives listed on each card apply only to the player with that card. So one player's Primary Objective may be to assassinate the enemy commander, while the other player has to capture objectives around the board. There may or may not be Secondary missions in play, and the player's Faction objective will also always apply as a Tertiary objective.



Because Narrative missions often use non-standard deployment, the cards also include a diagram showing the shape and position of the deployment zone for each player. As with Competitive missions, the players roll off to see who chooses deployment zones with the winner choosing an appropriate zone and their opponent taking the corresponding zone from their card to suit. For example, if the deployment zone is 'Long Edge' for both players, the winner of the roll would choose either of the long board edges and their opponent would take the other.



As with Competitive Missions, there may be mission special rules that apply. These may restrict Reserves or Reinforcements, or impose other restrictions or bonuses on the force. In Narrative missions, however, these only apply to the player if they appear on their card. So one player may have the 'No Reserves' rule preventing them from keeping units off the table at the start of the game, while the other player may be free to reserve units if they wish.

Narrative missions excel for use in campaigns: where the result of one game has some bearing on which mission is used for the following game. There are a near infinite number of ways to implement a campaign system, though, and so while we intend to produce various campaigns for you to use in the future, players should feel free to let their imagination run wild coming up with custom campaign missions and different ways to link their games together.



To get started with your Narrative journey, we've created three Narrative missions - "Hold the L.Z.", "Go For The Head" and "Resource Grab" - which you can download now from the 'Rules' section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. Just download the PDF, print and cut out the cards, and you're good to go. We will release new narrative cards periodically, to give you something new to wage war over.

Note that you will also need the Objective and Faction Objective cards, which can also be downloaded in PDF form. The Objective cards are also included in the Battle for Zycanthus starter set.

Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

If you have any questions on Narrative Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

With the twin billing of Covid and Brexit affecting so many business all over the place, this year started out a little slower than we had planned, but things are slowly getting back up to steam and our release schedule is finally getting back on track. Here's a look back at what we've been up to for the last 6-ish months!




Iain continued to smoosh things together in the workshop, working through a range of the usual sorts of modeling articles - kitbashes of kits, buildings made from bits and pieces and just generally getting paint all over everything in sight. You can find all of these modeling articles in the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.



On the new release front, we've given Epirian Contractor units some support with a new resin drone, and launched the Spiral Arm Revolutionary Army as a subfaction for the Broken, with the addition of plastic kits for a Revolutionary Captain and a cam-cloaked sniper. We also picked up the PDC Gaming heavy weapons carriage - a plastic kit that lets you build a range of different mobile weapons platforms, for those gamers looking for some heavier firepower. You can find all of these in the Maelstrom's Edge webstore.



Our biggest reveal for this year so far was, of course, the launch of the kickstarter for StackaRack - a plastic, customisable paint storage system! Our Kickstarter funded successfully, and we're currently hard at work finalising the design work so that we can get it sent off to our plastics production people. If you missed the Kickstarter, you can find out more information and follow our progress on the StackaRack Facebook page here.



So... what's next?



In the coming months, we have new plastic model releases for the Karists and Remnant, a couple of resin upgrades for the Remnant Militus kit, and a whole new range of bases to add to the webstore. There's also a new faction - our fifth! - to crawl forth from the destruction of the Edge. On top of that, we're still beavering away behind the scenes on version 2 of the Maelstrom's Edge rules. Our original target had to be pushed back significantly thanks to the pandemic, but we're aiming to have the Beta version of the rules out before the end of this year. If you want to get in early, you can find a very early draft of the new rules in the development thread on the DakkaDakka forums here.

So much great stuff still to come - Stay tuned!



For the full range of Maelstrom's Edge products, including the Battle for Zycanthus starter set, the plastic and resin model range, the ever-useful Maelstrom's Edge Terrain Sprues, novels and audiobooks, check out the webstore here.

For building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, have a look at the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.

When the Maelstrom erupted from humanity’s Capital Worlds a millennium ago, it destroyed hundreds of parsecs of space in the blink of an eye. A colossal energy storm spanning light years, the Maelstrom expanded ever onward, traversing dozens of light years in mere hours. It ripped apart the centre of humanity, destroying worlds in an instant, leaving no time for escape. After this initial frenzy, the expansion of the Maelstrom slowed to a fraction of its initial speed as it left the matter dense Capital World systems, its coruscating purple-red blight on the sky becoming a harbinger of utter destruction to all.



The Maelstrom was strongly attracted to large masses, consuming them swiftly and spreading along the large and stable cybel tunnel networks that linked them. The Maelstrom travels slowly as it expands through empty space, lacking anything to react with, but moves more rapidly as it reaches a star system and begins to react with the mass contained within. This gives the Edge a chaotic, churning appearance at large scales, reaching ahead in some places like a solar flare, and curving around empty areas far more slowly. Some worlds considered safe from the Maelstrom for centuries suddenly come under threat within decades, while other worlds left to fend for themselves in the wake of imminent destruction are given last minute reprieves as the Maelstrom curls around them towards a richer target, buying them a few more years, but cut off from any possibility of escape.



What remains of mankind is trapped between the Maelstrom’s Edge and the rim-ward tip of the Spiral Arm. With the gulf between galactic arms untraversable, the only direction to go is rim-wards, away from certain death into an uncertain future. There is some hope. Many worlds still hundreds of light years from the Edge are unaffected by the disaster. Further towards the rim of the galaxy, entire civilisations of alien and human cultures still trade, invent new technologies, terraform worlds, and live their lives as it used to be, but as stellargees fleeing the Maelstrom begin to arrive, the inhabitants of these worlds too begin to look over their shoulders at what’s to come.



You can find out more by downloading a free PDF version of the Maelstrom's Edge rulebook here. If a physical book is more to your taste, grab the Battle for Zycanthus starter set or any of our novels or audiobooks from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions on the Maelstrom's Edge background or gameplay, pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

- by Iain Wilson

Time to hack something up, just because we can! I've had my eye on the Hornet dropship from Mantic's Warpath game for some time, as its general shape feels similar to the Epirian Firefly drone, just scaled up. So, I decided to take one and turn it into a heavy cargo drone to support Epirian forces behind the lines! Read on to see how it was built.




With its design already including wing-mounted turbines, the main alteration required was to make the front of the Hornet look like a standard Epirian drone. I used a small pipe fitting from the first Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue for a sensor lens housing. For the lens itself, I rolled out some 'Green Stuff' putty into a thin sheet and used the pipe fitting as a stamp to cut out a circle. I also took a couple of pieces of aluminium rod and bent them to fit across the front section on the Hornet, to form the rectangular grill that Firefly and Spider drones have under their sensor lens.



Once the Green Stuff was fully cured, I trimmed away the excess, and glued everything into place on the front of the Hornet. The Hornet's protruded above the lens housing, so I covered over it with a thin piece of plasticard. I had originally intended to cut off the cockpit bulge and seal over it with plasticard, but decided it would be easier to use some putty to fill in the windscreen recesses.



As this drone was intended as a scenery piece rather than for gaming, I decided to keep the cargo container as a separate piece. There is a doorway on one end with no door, as this normally sits up against the door on the back of the Hornet cockpit section. I took a door from the terrain sprue and trimmed it down to fit into the opening, adding a piece of plasticard to fill in the window. I also wanted to add some detail to the top of the container. Taking a fan from terrain sprue #2, I trimmed it down to fit inside the large pipe fitting from terrain sprue #1.



I glued the fan assembly onto the top of the container to line up with the circular vent on the underside of the Hornet's fuselage, and added some plasticard shaped to match the fuselage's trapezoid hatch.



With everything else just assembled as normal, the new drone was ready for paint!



And the finished Pegasus Heavy Cargo Drone, ready to haul some heavy cargo:







To turn your own Hornet into a heavy drone of logistical doom, you can pick up the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the 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.

Game Primer articles will be an ongoing series looking at different aspects of the Maelstrom's Edge rules. Kicking things off, let's have a look at the inner workings of the missions and objectives that affect your games.



The Maelstrom's Edge rules allow for two different mission types - 'Narrative' missions, where each player has their own objectives that support the narrative of the game, and 'Competive' missions which aim to provide a balanced competition through both players having the same objectives. The mission cards that come with the Battle for Zycanthus set (also available for download on the website here) are the latter type.

Each Maelstrom’s Edge mission features several objective types, giving players multiple paths towards victory. Victory Points (VPs) are tabulated at the end of each turn, and if you can manage to reach the total needed to complete the mission while also outpacing your opponent by a wide enough margin, then the game immediately ends with you as the victor! This makes accomplishing mission objectives as efficiently as possible of paramount importance to the game.

Missions are chosen at the start of the game, before deployment, by shuffling together the mission cards and drawing one at random. Each mission card contains a number of pieces of important information, including a list of any mission special rules that apply, and the objectives that players need to achieve in order to gain Victory Points. For easy reference, the objectives are all each printed on reference cards, although these can also be found in the Maelstrom's Edge Rulebook.



Objectives may call for players to destroy or control objective markers scattered around the board, eliminate specific enemy models, capture territory, and so on, with each objective granting Victory Points each turn, at the end of the game, and/or when specific conditions are met. For example, when playing the 'Purple Gold' mission, players gain 2 VPs in turns 1-3 for each refinery objective marker under their control, increasing to 4VPs each from turn 4 onwards. Then at the end of the game, an additional 5 VPs are awarded to the player who controls at least half of the refinery markers.

Purple Gold also has Decimation as a secondary objective, which grants VPs based on how much of the enemy force you have managed to destroy. Players should always be mindful of both Primary and Secondary objectives, as reaching the mission's VP cap with a sufficient 'margin of victory' immediately ends the game! For Purple Gold, this means scoring a total of at least 15 VPs, while also having scored at least 3 more VPs than your opponent. If neither player reaches the required VP goal earlier, standard games of Maelstrom's Edge last for 5 turns. At the end of Turn 5, VPs from any objectives with 'end of game' conditions are applied, and the player with the highest final VP total is the winner - so long as they have a sufficient margin of victory. If neither player manages this, then the game is considered a hard fought draw!



To add a little individuality to the missions, each of the game's different factions also has one or more 'Faction Objectives' which provide a tertiary path to collect VPs. These faction objectives provide themed VPs tailored to that specific force, with some being available to any force made up of that faction, and others being specific to forces that contain certain sub-faction units. For example, any Karist Enclave force can utilise the Secret Cache objective, while a force that includes an Angel Keeper may choose to use the First Contact objective card instead.

Faction objectives usually provide a limited number of VPs, and also grant a special bonus to the force until those limited VPs have been tapped out. The Karist Secret Cache, for example, allows a Karist player with a unit close enough to the cache objective marker to utilise the 'Cache Resupply' rule to re-roll any failed rolls to hit, or to gain an additional VP at the end of the turn. Once they have received 3 VPs from the cache, the objective marker is removed and Cache Resupply can no longer be used.



While all of that can seem a little complicated at first, in practice it creates a layered game experience where achieving a solid victory relies on making best use of the forces at hand, rather than just how quickly you can eliminate enemy units.

It's worth noting in closing that the above all relates specifically to 'Competitive' mission types. We'll explore the differences that Narrative play can bring to the game in a future article.

Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

If you have any questions on Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.

With the release of the Revolutionary Captain heralding the arrival of SARA forces onto the table, The Broken have some new strategies to bring to the tabletop. To help this along, we've added a new Faction Objective for SARA forces: Moral High Ground.



Along with their military might, SARA forces are deft at using propaganda to demoralise and destabilise enemy forces. This is represented through the Propaganda rule allowing a SARA player to force their opponent to sacrifice a model each turn.

Propaganda
Immediately after your opponent finishes their ‘Destroy Units’ portion of the end phase, nominate one enemy organic model on the table with FOR 1. Your opponent must immediately remove any one of their organic, FOR 1 models from the table as a casualty, however if they choose not to remove the model you nominated, gain 1 VP. If your opponent has no organic FOR 1 models on the table for you to nominate, you automatically gain 1 VP and may place +D3 psych STs on any one enemy unit on the table.

The Moral High Ground card has been added to both the Mission & Objective card pack and Faction Objective card pack, which can be found in the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here!



The unit cards for the Revolutionary Captain and the Broken Sniper also both introduced some new special rules and equipment. These have now been added to the Broken Summary, which you can find in the Faction Summary Sheets section here.



If you still need the unit cards for these two models, they can also be found in the Card Downloads section, in the Broken Unit Cards PDF.



Build your army of revolutionary doom by picking up these fantastic new models from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.

Following stealthily on the heels of the Revolutionary Captain comes another new model release for the Broken - The Sniper!



Broken Snipers originate either as marksmen from a planetary military that is displaced by the Maelstrom or pulled from within the ranks of the SARA and trained when it is noticed that they display a high level of accuracy with their rifle. Unfortunately, the Broken simply do not have the types of training facilities that other factions have access to, nor the manufacturing and technology in place to produce state of the art high-powered sniper rifles. All of which means that, one-on-one, Broken Snipers will never be a direct match with their foes. Therefore, the role of a Sniper focuses more on being a jack of all trades thorn in the enemy’s side.



A Sniper amongst the Broken is an immensely valuable battlefield tool and therefore Broken commanders commission their weaponsmiths to produce custom, high-end weapons and tech for their Snipers, so as to give them a fighting chance on the battlefield. Though each Sniper has a slight variation in their kit, their basics usually entail a cloak with powered optical and anti-radar camouflage, along with a drum-fed sniper rifle, which is able to switch on the fly between several different custom-made specialty ammunition types.

As with all Broken, Snipers are the master of stealth, and their ability to pick the right ammunition type to most punish their target before disappearing into the mists before the enemy can return fire in earnest makes them one of the most loathed foes in the spiral arm.



The Broken Sniper is a plastic kit on a single sprue, and is supplied with a 32mm plastic base.



Grab your Sniper from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now!

Due to steadily increasing costs in production, shipping and just generally doing business over the last year or two, we have unfortunately had to make some price adjustments in the webstore. Most plastic kits, and some resins, have had a small increase in price as a result. To compensate for this, we have added some new bulk packs for each Faction's core troops, allowing you to pick up four units worth of troops for the price of three!



We have also added a similar pack for the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprues, including 4 sprues each of terrain sprue #1 and #2. This should give you plenty of bits and pieces to bulk up your sci fi terrain collection.





Pop in to the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here now! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.