Apocalypse missions have their own set of mission special rules that introduce all sorts of flavour to the game, including allowing the players access to powerful Strategic Assets, presenting the unique challenge of fighting amongst a variety of Unnatural Disasters including a Zombie Apocalypse, and allowing heroes their Finest Hour. The rules for all of this and more are contained in this section.

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Faith is one of the most powerful weapons used by the Imperium of Man. Belief has power; a raw and undeniable force that can be manifested by a collection of the faithful or even channelled by devout individuals. It is the bedrock upon which the Imperial creed has been founded, and the driving force behind Mankind's continued conquest of the galaxy.

Though the zealot priests of the Imperial Creed are loath to admit it, there are also those deities worshipped by the alien and the heretic. The foul names by which they are known are recorded in the ebon-bound grimoires of the Black Library - Khaine, the Bloody-Handed God of the Eldar; Nurgle, the Father of Plagues; Gork and Mork, the thuggish gods of the Orks. The worshippers of these entities also have a potent faith, and they too number in their billions. Though only a traitor to the Imperial creed would admit it, the old gods existed long before Mankind conquered the stars, and the Emperor is amongst the ranks of youngest divinities.In the most spectacular and bloody of battles, the gods themselves have been known to intervene. To represent this, in a game of Apocalypse, you can attempt to invoke divine intervention. The various godly powers of the 41st Millennium are attracted by different deeds and acts of heroism, so the circumstances under which you can invoke divine intervention vary from army to army. They have one thing in common, though - their effects are truly epic!At the start of each of your turns after the first turn, each player checks the conditions under the relevant Codex & Criteria columns. If those criteria are met, that player's Warlord can invoke Divine Intervention. The Warlord selected must belong to the army listed in the Codex & Criteria column. The effect listed in the Miraculous Effect column then immediately takes place. Only one Warlord may invoke Divine Intervention each turn.

Once a Warlord has successfully invoked Divine Intervention, they cannot attempt to call upon Divine Intervention again that game. However, other Warlords on the same side can try to make their own attempts, providing they invoke a different god. An alliance of three Space Marine players cannot call upon the God-Emperor three times - he's got better things to do than bail the players out over and over again!

The Miraculous Effect from the table applies only to units from the appropriate codexes listed in the Codex & Criteria column, and they only affect units on the same side as the Warlord who invoked Divine Intervention. Any effect granted lasts until the start of that side's next turn.

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In times of extreme adversity, true leaders are born. Exemplary warriors rise like phoenixes from the fires of war, their heroism inspiring the men around them to great acts . By such deeds are legends made - the fate of the galaxy is at stake, and Imperial commanders, Chaos worshippers and alien warlords alike fight with every iota of their souls to secure victory against impossible odds. Should such a desperate act end in lasting glory, the hero's story can spread throughout the galaxy, and monuments will be raised in his name.

All this boundless heroism is of course the meat and drink of a game of Apocalypse. That moment when your general darts forward and takes out the enemy Stompa with a well-placed vortex grenade, the duel where the Imperial Guard Colonel somehow takes down the rampaging Hive Tyrant, the last-ditch charge that turns the course of the battle at the eleventh hour - they are the images that stick in our minds when thinking back to the highlights of the game, and the cherished moments of glory we will remember for years to come. Moments like this are so synonymous with Apocalypse that we decided to provide a system to encourage as much heroic derring-do as possible.A player may choose to take his Warlord’s Finest Hour once per game, at the start of any of their turns. Simply state that the Warlord will do so at the appropriate time. The Finest Hour lasts until the start of their next turn.

An Apocalypse War Zone may feature characters with specific restrictions upon their finest hours: Commissar Yarrick, for instance, only has the opportunity to use his Finest Hour rules as long as his nemesis Ghazghkull Thraka is alive, and vice versa. These characters may also have special rules that can be used in addition to their Finest Hour. These extra rules modify the Finest Hours detailed here, and all the relevant details are contained in the rules section for the War Zone.Until the start of his next turn, that Warlord has a 3+ invulnerable save and the Eternal Warrior special rule to represent the touch of destiny upon him, and is allowed to order an All-out Attack in the same manner as a High Command Apocalypse Formation. If the Warlord is already part of a High Command formation, this is in addition to his usual one. Furthermore, at the beginning of the first turn in which a Warlord’s Finest Hour is in effect, choose one of the Exemplar tables below and roll a D6 to find the special rules that govern that Warlord's Finest Hour. The effects generated will last until the start of that Warlord's next turn. If a Warlord is killed whilst his Finest Hour is in progress, its effects cease immediately and the enemy scores 1 Strategic Victory Point.

Important Note: Instead of rolling here, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines characters can opt to consult the Sons of the Primarch chart instead.

Once the Warlord's Finest Hour is over, he returns to his usual incarnation - his moment of glory has passed (though don't let that stop you from trying any subsequent heroics).

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The Primarchs of the Adeptus Astartes were the pinnacle of the Emperor's arcane art. Each was a demigod of battle with his own particular style of warfare, whose deeds are sung across the length and breadth of the galaxy. Their legacy lives on through the miracle of gene-seed - each and every Space Marine has the essence of their Primarch in his blood. When a Space Marine falls in battle, his progenoid glands are recovered by an Apothecary, returned to the Fortress Monastery and ultimately transferred to a new recruit so that the gene-seed can bond with a new subject and hence keep the Chapter whole.

All Space Marine Chapters are engineered from the original First Founding Legions, and can hence trace their genetic inheritance back to one of the Primarchs. If you play a Second Founding or other such Chapter, or a Chaos warband, you might need to look into your Chapter's background to find out which Primarch's powers you can call upon.

The Traitor Legions had Primarchs too, arch-heretics and rebel warlords who long ago sided with the Dark Gods during the Horus Heresy. Their diabolic majesty is still present in the genetic make-up of the Chaos Space Marines wreaking havoc across the galaxy. Just occasionally, this Chaos-tainted geneseed will confer a measure of the fell power within the Daemon Primarchs to one chosen by the Ruinous Powers.Instead of using the normal rules for their Finest Hour, a Space Marine or Chaos Space Marine player can opt to have his Warlord channel his Primarch instead.

This system works exactly like the rules for a Warlord’s Finest Hour. However, instead of generating the effects that will take place during your Warlord's Finest Hour, your Warlord instead uses the specific effect that represents the unique battle skills of his Primarch (see Sons of the Primarch chart below). The Chapter or Legion that your Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines army belongs to will determine which effect your hero will be able to call upon during the battle. For instance, a White Scars player consults the chart, finding that he must use the Son of the Khan special rule to represent the Primarch Jaghatai Khan’s heritage.

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The commander of an Apocalypse army has access to a wide range of resources that are too valuable to use in a smaller battle. They can call down a barrage from an orbiting spacecraft, authorise the use of highly dangerous weaponry, or order a flank march. Careful use of these assets can often make all the difference between victory and defeat.

Each side taking part in the battle will require its own set of Strategic Asset cards.

A set of Strategic Asset cards can be found here. Additional Strategic Asset cards are included in War Zone: Armageddon; these can be added to the standard deck of Strategic Assets when you are fighting a battle set in that War Zone.

Note that many Strategic Asset cards will refer you to new rules and weapon types included in this book.The number of Strategic Assets each side starts with is equal to the number of players in the largest side; so, if one side had two players and the other three, then both sides would get three Strategic Assets. Note that the number of cards is per side, not per player! In addition, the game organiser can choose to give one side or the other additional Strategic Asset cards. This is usually done to balance up games where the forces on one side are outnumbered by their opponents.

When selecting Strategic Assets, each player selects one Strategic Asset. The player who controls a side’s Warmaster then selects any additional Strategic Assets (in the above example, the Warmaster of the side with two players would select the third Strategic Asset). During play, the game organiser can elect to give a side extra cards for achieving certain objectives within the game (see Organising the Apocalypse).

Finally, High Command Formations and some special rules included in this book allow players to take 'bonus' Strategic Assets.Each side must pick the Strategic Assets they can take from their own deck of Strategic Asset cards. No Strategic Asset may be taken more than once by each side. In addition, certain Strategic Assets can only be chosen if certain armies are included on the side that takes the asset. For example, you can only choose Space Marine Strategic Asset cards if there are Space Marines units on your side.

Once selected, Strategic Assets can either be given to individual players in the side, or they can all be held by the player who controls the army’s Warmaster. In either case, the player holding the card decides when and how to use the asset. It is up to the players on the team to decide which of them gets to take each asset; if you can't decide amicably, roll off for each card.Each Strategic Asset card says when it can be used, and what effect it has when it is played. Each asset may be used once per battle and must then be discarded.

The player that used the card decides how its effects are applied. So, for example, they would choose where an attack is made, which units are replaced or where a marker is placed, and so on. This aside, Strategic Assets can affect any units of the appropriate type, not just those belonging to the player that used the card. When a card refers to 'friendly units' it means all units on the side of the player that used the card; similarly 'enemy' units are all of those on the other side.The Strategic Assets on the following pages that are labelled as 'Space Marines' can be taken by armies that include units from the following codexes:

• Codex: Space Marines
• Codex: Black Templars
• Codex: Blood Angels
• Codex: Dark Angels
• Codex: Space Wolves
• Codex: Grey Knights

In addition, when played, they affect all eligible units from these codexes.Some Strategic Assets are marked as a Strategic Resource:

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Spending one Strategic Victory Point allows you to bring back into play a single model that has been completely destroyed - this cannot be a model with more than 15 Hull Points. The model is added to your side’s Strategic Reserves, at full strength (with the same number of Wounds or Hull Points it began the game with), and may enter play after any break. Note that Unique models (or models from Unique units) cannot be brought back in this way.

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A wise military commander will ensure that not all of the troops under his command are placed in the front line. Some will be held back as a Strategic Reserve, waiting to be committed at the pivotal moment to turn the course of the battle. Strategic Reserves can be used to bolster a faltering attack, or reinforce a defensive line so that it holds up against the enemy’s assault.

Units that are not set up on the table form a player’s 'Strategic Reserve'. These work rather differently to the Reserves used in Eternal War missions. In an Eternal War mission, the player represents the commander on the battlefield, who has little control over when or even if any Reserves will be committed to him. In Apocalypse, players represent higher-level generals, with complete control over all of the forces under their command. The following rule for Strategic Reserves reflects this important difference.

Some Apocalypse missions say that units must be placed in Strategic Reserve. The first turn when units in Strategic Reserve can enter play is determined by their type, as shown below. These units enter play in the same manner as Reserves, but the player chooses the turn on which they arrive.Unless a unit is a Flyer, Super-heavy Flyer, Flying Monstrous Creature, Flying Gargantuan Creature, is arriving by Deep Strike, or is a Fast vehicle, it can only arrive from Strategic Reserve after a break has taken place.

These units enter play in the game turn immediately after each break, entering play in the same manner as normal Reserves but without the need for a dice roll to see if they arrive. It is up to the players to decide how many units they bring into play after each break; there is no limit, and you may decide to bring some, none or all of the Strategic Reserve units onto the board. Any units that are left in Strategic Reserve after the first break can be brought into play after any other break.

Note that the normal rules for determining when Reserves arrive must not be used in missions that use Strategic Reserves. In other words, Strategic Reserves may only enter play on or after the turn determined by the Strategic Reserves table. However, any special rules that apply to a unit arriving from Reserves other than those associated with its turn of arrival still apply. If a unit is required to enter Ongoing Reserve (such as a Flyer moving off the table), it will still enter play on the controlling player’s next turn.


* Unless they are Flyers or arrive by Deep Strike.

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There are some weapons and Strategic Assets that have the Strategic Resource special rule. You must spend one Strategic Victory Point in order to use such a weapon or Strategic Asset.

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The stars are in alignment, the skies darken by the day, and terrible portents abound. One tumultuous night, the doom that has crept towards a planet manifests in sudden and spectacular fashion. The apocalypse has come to this world, and it has scant hours left to live - hours during which its desperate inhabitants are locked in bitter and futile battle. Fire and brimstone rage all around, hurricane winds shriek with the voices of the damned, and the planet is wrenched and buffeted by forces so mighty the ground itself shakes apart. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

All these things are represented by the following rules for Unnatural Disasters. Be warned, though, such epic craziness is not for the faint-hearted ...

Because of this, before each battle, the game organiser must decide whether the rules for Unnatural Disasters will be used or not. As already noted, they can have a profound effect on a game, so a wise organiser should make sure to consult with his players first before deciding to include them in a game.

If you do decide to use the rules for Unnatural Disasters, then the game organiser must decide which Unnatural Disaster table will be used. We've included six sets of Unnatural Disaster tables in this section, and you can either select an appropriate one to use, or instead leave it to fate and roll on the table below, letting the dice decide. The result determines which Unnatural Disaster table you will use for the battle.At the beginning of each game turn, randomly select a player. For that game turn, the player is referred to as the Master of Disaster as he temporarily takes control of the apocalyptic disaster ravaging the planet. That player must roll a D3 and add the turn number, consulting the relevant Unnatural Disaster table to see what happens. These results take place immediately. The Unnatural Disaster results are not cumulative.

Some results on the Unnatural Disasters tables call for the Master of Disaster to make one or more attacks. If the attack uses a marker, then Wounds are allocated to models as if the attack originated from the centre of the marker, in the same manner as Wounds inflicted by a Barrage. If the attack instead hits a unit a number of times equal to the number of models in the unit, use the rules for Random Allocation instead.

Reality blurs, shudders, and splits apart as the Warp storm above the world waxes strong. A massive lesion rips open across the battlefield, revealing a horrific landscape of screaming faces and gore-streaked skies.

Once More Unto the Breach: Roll-off before deployment. The winner of the roll-off must place a marker anywhere on the board, and scatter it 2D6". A player from the other side then places a second marker exactly 24" away from the first, and scatters it 2D6". The straight line between these two markers forms the Warp Storm Breach. It is impassable terrain and blocks line of sight.

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Fire rains from the skies as lakes of molten lava are hurled high into the atmosphere by the eruption of a chain of super-volcanoes. The world simmers as magma flows everywhere, the boiling earthblood transforming the battlefield into a living hell so fierce that eventually the air itself catches aflame.

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Perhaps a planetary cycle is complete, perhaps a Warp storm has passed over the sun, or perhaps the stars are just right - whatever the reason, celestial bodies have slowly slid into place in the heavens. They form an astral conjunction that massively magnifies the abilities of all Psykers under its sickly light, and even bestows minor abilities upon those otherwise psychically inert.

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The planet's surface cracks apart, each new fissure pitching hundreds to their deaths. Grand basilicas collapse in on themselves and hab-blocks crumble apart to crush those soldiers huddled inside. Across the planet's surface, tectonic plates crack open and splinter apart, the red-hot lava of the underworld spilling forth like blood from a scab.

Designer’s Note: Seismic Explosion can only be used if you are playing your game on a modular board, such as the Citadel Realm of Battle Board. If this isn't the case, select a different Unnatural Disaster for the battle.

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Corpses jerk back to life and the dead claw their way from the earth as Warptainted ghosts howl through the air. Perhaps the Zombie Plague has come, or the influence of the Warp is making time flow strangely - whatever the cause, it's bad news for the living!

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The most dire and terrible weapon in the arsenal of the Imperium of Man, Exterminatus has the power to obliterate an entire world's population and even destroy the planet itself in the process. It has been used to combat planet-wide heresy, uncontrollable mutation or rampant disease; to prevent the opening or widening of Warp rifts; or when xenos are so entrenched that the resources (the planet's population included) are beyond salvation.

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