Expansions‎ > ‎

Planetary Onslaught

Planetary Onslaught includes rules for playing three different campaigns. If you and your opponents are ready for a truly epic crusade, you can play all three sequentially to fight a legendary series of battles to decide the fate of an entire world. In such a contest, the Planetstrike campaign is simply the first phase of the war, where the invader lands their forces on the planet while the defender tries to repel them. The second phase of the Planetary Onslaught campaign comprises the Siege War missions, where the attacker must attempt to break past the defender’s fortifications to gain access to their cities. The subsequent phase is represented by the third and final stage of the war, Cities of Death, where the ultimate fate of the planet will be decided.

Playing a Planetary Onslaught Campaign

To play a Planetary Onslaught campaign, one player takes the role of Attacker for every mission, and their opponent is the Defender. Don’t swap roles between the three phases of the campaign. Then play each phase of the campaign as three mini-campaigns, in order, using the additional rules presented below. The individual phases of the Planetary Onslaught campaign are as follows:
Phase 1: Planetstrike
Phase 2: Siege War
Phase 3: Cities of Death

Supreme Warlord

When playing through a Planetary Onslaught campaign, select one character model from your collection to be your Supreme Warlord, and generate a Warlord Trait for them. Ideally, this should be from that Warlord’s own Faction.

Your Supreme Warlord has been chosen for their skill at global conquest or defence. As a result, at the beginning of the Planetstrike phase, generate one additional Warlord Trait for your Supreme Warlord. This must be from the appropriate Planetstrike Attacker or Planetstrike Defender tables. Note that in later phases of the campaign some of these Warlord Traits, such as Burner of Worlds and Strategic Attacker/Strategic Defender, will not have any effect.

As your Supreme Warlord battles through the different phases of the campaign, they will gain more experience. At the beginning of both the Siege War and Cities of Death phases, generate one more Warlord Trait for your Supreme Warlord. The first must be from the Personal Traits table when starting the Siege War phase, and the second from the Tactical Traits table when starting the Cities of Death phase. In each case, if you won the previous phase of the campaign, you do not need to generate your trait randomly – you can simply choose the trait you want your Supreme Warlord to gain.

If your Supreme Warlord is removed as a casualty during any of your games, roll a dice after the battle. On a 2 or more, that Supreme Warlord is assumed to have made a full recovery and will be ready for battle in time for the next mission in the campaign. On a 1, however, their wounds are serious and will take more time to heal – your Supreme Warlord cannot be used in the next mission in the campaign and you will need to use a different model as your Warlord (roll for a Warlord Trait for the replacement Warlord as normal).

Winning the Campaign

During each phase of the campaign, the victor of each mission will receive a bonus in the next mission as normal, as detailed in appropriate phase Campaign Chart. Again, if a game is a draw, neither player receives a bonus in the next mission.

Winning Phase 1 (Planetstrike)

Whoever wins the final Planetstrike mission (Planetquake) receives 1 Campaign Point and the appropriate bonus listed below. If this game ends in a draw, we suggest that whoever won the most victories during the Planetstrike phase of the campaign gains the Campaign Point and the bonus. If there is no clear winner, both players get 1 Campaign Point and their respective bonus.

The bonus always has an effect during the next mission of the campaign, but can possibly have an effect during later battles of phase 2 as well.

Attacker Bonus: In Breakthrough, you can make 3 Firestorm Attacks, even though it is not a Planetstrike Mission. Make these attacks after your army has deployed. If your Supreme Warlord is on the battlefield and they have the Burner of Worlds or Strategic Attacker traits, make 1 additional Firestorm attack.

In all subsequent Siege War missions, roll a dice before the game begins: on the roll of 4 or more you can use this bonus in that mission as well.

Defender Bonus: In Breakthrough, you can select a single building. That building’s Armour Value is increased by 1 on each facing (to a maximum of 15) for the remainder of the battle. If your Supreme Warlord is on the battlefield and they have the Strategic Defender trait, this building also has a 6+ invulnerable save.

In all subsequent Siege War missions, roll a dice before the game begins: on the roll of 4 or more you can use this bonus in that mission as well.

Winning Phase 2 (Siege War)

Whoever wins the final Siege War mission (Last Stand) receives 1 Campaign Point and the appropriate bonus listed below. If this game ends in a draw, we suggest that whoever won the most victories during the Siege War phase of the campaign gains the Campaign Point and the bonus. If there is no clear winner, both players get 1 Campaign Point and their respective bonus.

The bonus always has an effect during the next mission of the campaign, but can possibly have an effect during later battles of phase 3 as well.

Attacker and Defender Bonus: In Firesweep, the player with this bonus generates an additional D3 Objectives at the start of their first turn.

In all subsequent Cities of Death missions, roll a dice before the game begins: on the roll of 4 or more you can use this bonus in that mission as well.

Winning Phase 3 (Cities of Death)

Whoever wins the final Cities of Death mission (Isolated Resistance) will receive 2 Campaign Points. If this game ends in a draw, we suggest that whoever won the most victories during the Cities of Death phase of the campaign gains the Campaign Points. Otherwise, both players get 2 Campaign Points.

Winning the Planetary Onslaught Campaign

At the end of phase 3, the players should compare their Campaign Point (CP) total and consult the table below to determine who is crowned the victor, and what kind of victory they have won:
Campaign PointsResult
Attacker has 2 more CPs than DefenderPlanet Killer: The Attacker has won a major victory. They have crushed all that dared stand before them and now an entire world lies dead and burning by their hand. The planets in the surrounding star systems tremble at your approach, fearing they will be next.
Attacker has 1 more CPs than DefenderWorld Butcher: The Attacker has won a minor victory. They have shattered a world’s defences and slaughtered its armies, but only at a bloody cost.
Attacker and Defender have same number of CPsBloody Stalemate: The campaign is a draw. Despite all efforts, neither side has managed to defeat the other to claim outright victory.
Defender has 1 more CP than AttackerWorld Sentinel: The Defender has won a minor victory. Though your world bears terrible scars and your armies have all but been shattered, you have successfully defended the planet from annihilation.
Defender has 2 more CPs than AttackerCustodian Supreme: The Defender has won a major victory. The invaders were blasted from the skies, smashed against your fortress walls and slaughtered in your streets. It will be a lifetime before anyone else is foolish enough to even think about invading your planet again.