Transcribed from White Dwarf's "Escalating Conflict" series (issues 522, 524, 525 and 526) — a four-stage format for building, painting and playing an army from 500 up to 2,000 points alongside a group, with a bonus mission at every milestone. Pick a stage below.
For those who haven't heard of escalation leagues, they're a way to build, paint and play with your army alongside a group of hobbyists who are at the same place as you with their armies. Over a period of time, you'll build and paint to a target number of points, and then play games against others in your league with your newly reinforced army. For example, your league might set a target to grow your army by 250 points each fortnight or each month, and to play a certain number of games in the same timeframe.
Bite-sized projects. Splitting up the goal of collecting an army into smaller chunks makes it easier to gauge your progress, and one or two units waiting to be assembled and painted is — for many people — less intimidating than a full 1,000 point army. Hitting your target in each stage of the league gives you a real sense of progress and achievement, as everyone celebrates the developing armies in the league.
Play more often. As a league progresses, you'll get the chance to play battles with your growing army. Your opponents should all be at the same stage as you, so you'll be able to play battles that use all of your units without either player having to compromise. This means battles of 750, 1,250, 1,500 and 1,750 points (which aren't the most regularly played sizes) are commonplace at different stages of an escalation league.
Learn as you go, and let your army evolve. As your army grows, so does your knowledge of it and how it works on the battlefield — and you'll get to test each unit and clearly see the difference adding it has made. You may find your opponents have units your current army struggles to deal with, and a unit you hadn't planned on adding becomes your priority. Playing battles as your army grows means you can try out every Detachment that appeals to you and find which one works best for you.
White Dwarf 522, p.57 — "First Strike". This series takes an army from a Combat Patrol up to a 2,000 point Strike Force, with a bonus mission at each stage. It assumes you're starting with 500 points or a Combat Patrol and sets milestones at 750, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 — vary this and the timetable however suits your gaming group.
| Stage | Points Target | Source | Bonus Mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 500 / Combat Patrol | — | — |
| Stage 1 | 750 | White Dwarf 522 — An Army-Building Incursion | Speculative Strike |
| Stage 2 | 1,000 | White Dwarf 524 — Incursion Underway | Hammer Blow |
| Stage 3 | 1,500 | White Dwarf 525 — Building a Strike Force | Relief Force |
| Stage 4 | 2,000 | White Dwarf 526 — Gathering of Might | Gathering of Might |
Growing out of a Combat Patrol, plus the Speculative Strike bonus mission.
Adding your first heavy hitters, building rivalries between games, plus the asymmetric Hammer Blow bonus mission.
Picking the right army roles under a tight points limit, plus the Relief Force bonus mission.
Closing out the league, what to do with a finished army, plus the multiplayer Gathering of Might capstone mission.
Escalation Mission · Vespator Front · plays like a Warhammer 40,000 Bunker mission · for armies growing from 500 points/Combat Patrol towards a full Incursion force
This is merely the first engagement in what will undoubtedly become a much larger war. The combatants test each other's strength, launching probing attacks to find weaknesses that can be exploited later.
Aggression (Progressive Objective) — In the second and third battle rounds, at the end of each player's turn: if one or more units from their army are within their opponent's deployment zone, they score 5VP.
Fortitude (Progressive Objective) — From the second battle round onwards, at the end of each player's Command phase: for each objective marker they control that is not within their deployment zone, they score 5VP. In the fifth battle round, the player with the first turn scores VP as above; the player with the second turn scores it at the end of their turn instead.
Precision (Progressive Objective) — At the end of each player's turn: if one or more enemy MONSTER or VEHICLE units (excluding CHARACTERS) were destroyed that turn, they score 5VP; if one or more enemy CHARACTER units were destroyed that turn, they score 5VP. At the end of the battle, each player scores 5VP if there are no enemy MONSTER, VEHICLE or CHARACTER units left on the battlefield.
This mission rewards you for taking a force that is balanced, that is mobile and that can contest objectives throughout the game.
If a unit (or several units) are able to breach enemy lines early in the battle, you can secure an early lead, but the bulk of your Victory points are likely to come from ensuring control of the objectives. For this, you'll want units with high Objective Control characteristics to ensure you can't simply be bullied off objectives, and you'll also want units that can take out or tie up enemy units that are staging their own positions or threatening yours.
Meanwhile, the Precision objective means that if you take too many MONSTERS, VEHICLES or CHARACTERS, you risk giving away too many Victory points. If you only include the minimum of one CHARACTER (your WARLORD), your opponent may get an easy 10 Victory points by eliminating them. Equally, you need to make sure your army includes a way to deal with these threats.
In battles this size, each unit may have to fulfil a number of roles, so consider how flexible each of the units you're including is. Can it reach your opponent's deployment zone early in the game? Can it hold an objective? Can it block your opponent's manoeuvres? Can it eliminate enemy units, and if so, what sort of units? Consider also your choice of Detachment — ones that emphasise mobility, that let you maintain control of objective markers without having to leave a unit within range, and that give your units a way to punch above their weight into MONSTER and VEHICLE units will all be useful.
As your army makes the jump from 750 to 1,000 points, you'll find you have more flexibility with the sorts of units you can include. Armies at 500 and 750 points are necessarily quite lean, but as you reach four digits, you can afford to include some of the bigger and heavier hitters in your force — this is the point at which it becomes far more reasonable to field your heaviest infantry (Terminators and the like), a Dreadnought, or perhaps a tank or monster you've had your eye on. You'll find your opponents doing the same, so it's best to be prepared.
These units are not only great for the impact they have on the battlefield but also for the presentation of your army — armies with varied model heights can be very pleasing to the eye. As you start adding larger models, you'll see that these bigger pieces help make your army look complete.
This is also likely to be the first point in the league where you might make a "course correction" — rethinking one or more of the units you'd planned to include, because of the experience you've gained so far. You may now have a better idea of which parts of the army you like most, whether that's because of how fun they are to build and paint, how they look, or how they work on the battlefield. You might also have identified a weakness in your force and adapted your plan to shore it up.
If you've got a few games under your belt at this point, you may find your army has started to develop stories of its own. In the smaller battles you've played so far, every unit gets a chance to shine, and it's likely you've already seen inspiring heroism, heartbreaking defeat and downright villainy from both your army and those of your opponents.
A league is the perfect place for these stories to develop, as you're likely to find yourself going head-to-head several times with the same players. You may enjoy rivalries not only between players but between units as well — after several clashes, your Warlord may find they have a nemesis in an opponent's army that always somehow defeats or eludes them, or you've got a unit that triumphed against the odds, plucky underdogs that even your opponents end up rooting for.
If you and your opponents are enjoying these narratives, it's easy to add a few rules to represent these grudges and heroics in your games, if all players agree. Check the conditions below at the end of a battle, and make a note on your army roster of any abilities your models have gained — these abilities are only used in battles against the same opponent, and each lasts until the end of your next battle against them.
Artefact Of Power. Back and forth has the fighting raged to claim this potent relic. For now, it is yours, and the mere act of wielding it on the field of battle asserts your triumph and inspires your warriors. Condition: you won the battle, and your WARLORD was not destroyed. At the end of your Command phase, if your WARLORD is on the battlefield and not battle-shocked, gain 1CP.
Hated Nemesis. For too long has this foe thwarted your ambitions, and in so doing has earned the personal ire of one amongst your army's champions. From this day forth, they have devoted themselves to the destruction of your nemesis. Condition: the opposing player has won two consecutive battles against you. Select a CHARACTER model from your army — that model's weapons have [PRECISION].
Fires Of Loathing. In the heat of battle, one of your champions was struck down by one of your foes. Your warrior has nursed their hatred through their painful recuperation and now looks to settle their grudge with the one who almost slew them. Condition: an enemy CHARACTER unit destroyed a CHARACTER model from your army. Re-roll hit rolls of 1 and wound rolls of 1 for that CHARACTER model's attacks that target that enemy unit.
Unlikely Exemplars. Against the odds, these rank-and-file have triumphed where everyone believed they would fail. The mere sight of them continuing to battle on with defiance and determination is an inspiration to the rest of your army. Condition: your BATTLELINE unit destroyed an enemy MONSTER, VEHICLE, or WARLORD unit. After that unit has shot in your Shooting phase or fought in the Fight phase, select one battle-shocked unit in your army visible to that unit — that unit is no longer battle-shocked.
Dogged Survivors. Though they refuse to speak of it, these heroes survived one of the bloodiest battles of this campaign, and their tenacity is becoming legendary. Condition: your Infantry unit was your only unit on the battlefield at the end of the battle. Models in that unit have Feel No Pain [6+].
Loyal Companions. Through the worst this galaxy has to offer, through storms of bolts and blades, these simple creatures have remained loyal, steadfast and courageous. Condition: one or more BEAST units or MOUNTED units from your army were destroyed. Select one of those units — improve the Leadership characteristic of models in that unit by 1.
Escalation Mission · scaled for 1,000 point battles · plays like a Warhammer 40,000 Bunker mission, but asymmetrical — the Attacker and Defender have different objectives and a different experience of the game. If you have time, switch roles with your opponent and play it again.
The defender has had time to fortify their position. This will not stop the attacker from pressing their assault, but it does leave them in a position where they cannot afford to over-extend, lest their onslaught falter and they are left with nowhere to fall back to.
Tenuous Claim. With one force doggedly holding its defensive posture and the other wary of stretching itself too thin, neither commander is likely to commit warriors to reclaiming vital strategic points until they know they are in a strong position to do so. At the end of a player's Command phase, for each objective marker they control, that objective marker remains under their control until their opponent's Level of Control over that objective marker is greater than theirs at the end of a phase.
Resolute Defence (Progressive Objective, Defender) — From the second battle round onwards, at the end of the Defender's Command phase: if they control each objective marker within their deployment zone, they score 5VP; if they also control one or more objective markers within No Man's Land, they score a further 5VP for each; if they also control the objective marker in the Attacker's deployment zone, they score a further 10VP. In the fifth battle round, if the Defender had the second turn, they score as above at the end of their turn instead of their Command phase.
Fall Like The Hammer (Progressive Objective, Attacker) — From the second battle round onwards, at the end of the Attacker's Command phase: if they control the objective marker within their deployment zone, they score 5VP; if they also control one or more objective markers within No Man's Land, they score a further 5VP for each; if they also control one or more objective markers in the Defender's deployment zone, they score a further 10VP for each. In the fifth battle round, if the Attacker had the second turn, they score as above at the end of their turn instead of their Command phase.
Getting to 1,500 points puts you within striking distance of a full Strike-Force-sized army. 1,500 points is, in many ways, a sweet spot for Warhammer 40,000 — your army is big enough to play Strike Force missions as written, with even the largest models not out of place, so nothing is off limits. However, as your army is still 500 points short of the value those missions are designed for, your skills as a strategist and tactician will be tested in which units you include and how you use them on the battlefield. You'll need to get the most out of every unit you field, and you'll feel every loss.
Having access to your army's whole range but picking units to a relatively low points limit makes a superb challenge for any hobbyist. The good news is, if you've been following along with the league, you're likely to have already built up considerable experience and expertise with the units in your army, so you're ready for this.
Army roles to consider at 1,000–1,500 points
At this point, embarking on the path from 1,000 points towards 2,000, it's worth considering once more what you need your army to do. In most missions, you'll need it to: take objectives, hold objectives, cover ground quickly, perform Actions, and destroy units (including monsters and vehicles).
Take Objectives. To excel in this role, a unit needs a combination of combat prowess and a decent amount of Objective Control, either from a high characteristic or a high number of models. Your units need to clear enemy units off any objectives they hold before they can take them — either by charging them on objectives, or using abilities to shoot and then move onto an objective after clearing its defenders. Some great examples are Assault Intercessor Squads, Bloodcrushers and Dire Avengers.
Hold Objectives. To hold an objective, a unit needs high Objective Control, a large footprint, or the ability to respond to enemy movements onto an objective. A good Leadership characteristic and high resilience are also very helpful here. Some good examples are Death Korps of Krieg, Plague Marines and Boyz.
Cover Ground Quickly. It's often said that Warhammer 40,000 is won or lost in the Movement phase. Units with high Move characteristics, the ability to set up in a way that's hard to counter, or the ability to move through or over enemy units are all very valuable — useful to block enemy movement, get an early foothold, or get into position to score Primary and Secondary objectives. Units that excel here include Inceptor Squads, Seekers of Slaanesh and Warp Spiders.
Perform Actions. Actions are used in a number of missions as a way to score Primary and Secondary objectives. A unit cannot normally do anything else while performing an Action, and will often need to put itself in harm's way to achieve the objective. The best units for this are cheap, and if they're hard to destroy, can be set up in advantageous positions, or have movement tricks, so much the better. Some of the best units in this role are Scout Squads, Goremongers and Lictors.
Destroy Units. At 1,500 points it's a far more viable strategy to field units dedicated to the elimination of a particular foe. These specialised units will only prove their worth if you can employ them well, pointing them at their intended targets. When you do, however, you can gain a game-winning advantage. Some perfect examples are the Gladiator Reaper (for infantry) and Fire Dragons (for monsters and vehicles). You can also look at more expensive units that are devastating to every target, given the extra space you've got in your army list — the Bloodthirster is a perfect example of a unit that might not have seen play in your escalation league to this point but is now absolutely appropriate and very effective.
You may feel like your army is already doing all of these things effectively, and if so, well done! However, you need to account for the extra units your army will be arrayed against — as battles get larger, the amount of force that can be focused on a single point increases, and you'll find it's harder to keep your units on the battlefield. This means that you'll want to have more units that can perform in each of the roles described above so that the destruction of one (or two) doesn't prevent you from enacting your battle plan.
There are many different approaches you could take here, as the extra 500 points you're adding offers a lot of flexibility. You could focus on gaps in your collection, adding units that are yet to be featured in your army — this will increase the versatility and variety of the forces available to you and make it less likely that your opponents field something that your army isn't well-equipped to deal with. Alternatively, if you've already included a broad range of units, it might be time to consider whether it's worth doubling up on some of those units that seem to punch above their weight — this provides your army with redundancy, even if one of them is destroyed. None of this is to overlook one of the most important aspects of your army: how it looks! You might decide to focus on additions that enhance or balance it visually (this writer loves three tanks or similar to balance out an infantry-heavy list).
Escalation Mission · 500 points is a sizeable chunk of an army, effectively another Combat Patrol — this mission leans into that, with your main army backed up by a relief force that arrives just when all seems lost. Plays like a Warhammer 40,000 Bunker mission.
Two armies entrenched in a war zone strike bitter blows against each other, determined to fight to the end. Little do they know, relief forces are en route, and their arrival is likely to tip the scales of victory.
Split Forces. Each army consists of the embattled survivors of a drawn-out conflict and their badly needed relief force. In the Declare Battle Formations step, each player must place units in Strategic Reserves with a combined points value from 400 to 600 points — each of those units is a RELIEF FORCE unit. RELIEF FORCE units can only arrive on the battlefield as described below, and do not count as destroyed from the end of the third battle round if they're still in Strategic Reserves (so they can still arrive in battle rounds 4 and 5). At the start of a player's Reinforcements step from the second battle round onwards, that player can select one RELIEF FORCE unit to arrive.
Entrenched Battlefield (Progressive Objective) — From the second battle round onwards, at the end of each player's Command phase: for each objective marker they control that is not within their deployment zone, they score 5VP. In the fifth battle round, the player with the first turn scores VP as above; the player with the second turn scores it at the end of their turn instead.
A Claim Hard Won (End Game Objective) — At the end of the battle, each player scores 10VP if they control the objective marker in their opponent's deployment zone.
Flawless Strategy (End Game Objective) — At the end of the battle, each player scores 2VP for each of their RELIEF FORCE units on the battlefield.
This mission rewards you for going into the battle with a plan for how you'll use all of your resources, but with the flexibility to adapt that plan to the shifting priorities of the battle. Key to this is the choice of which units you place in Strategic Reserves and how you deploy them as the battle goes on. The mission rules limit you to one RELIEF FORCE unit per battle round, so if you place more than four units in Strategic Reserves, the excess won't take part in the battle; if you place fewer than four, you deny yourself some of the VP available from Flawless Strategy. You'll need to consider which units you can afford to hold until the last minute, which might still have an impact when they arrive later, and which you can risk early on. At the same time, don't get too caught up protecting your RELIEF FORCE units — your army's task, after all, is to conquer the battlefield.
With 500 points to go, you might be wondering how to go about this final push. This close to the goal of the league, there are few better motivators than arranging an event to celebrate everyone's achievements — something to look forward to and a deadline to meet, both of which can help you reach the finish line. There are many ways to do this, but broadly they fall under "parade" and "gaming".
The Parade. The participants present the forces they've collected over the course of the league, whether all together (e.g. in the space where you've been playing your battles) or in an online gallery. Seeing everyone's armies together, in all their glory, is a fitting capstone to your creative efforts over the past months. You could decide as a group to present awards for stand-out efforts — for example if someone has completed their first fully-painted army, has improved greatly, or simply has a wonderfully composed and painted army.
The Game. A gaming event can take many forms. If your league has had a strong narrative focus, you might organise a day of grudge matches, a grand large-scale battle with teams organised along faction lines, or even a chaotic multiplayer free-for-all. The mission below provides one example of a capstone battle to close out a league in style. If your league has had a competitive streak, you might instead agree on a round-robin tournament using your full 2,000 point armies, or a traditional bracket system to crown one victor at the end of a day or two of gaming.
At the close of your league, you should have your full 2,000 point army. If this is your first Strike Force army, this opens up some significant options.
Pick-up games — games arranged impromptu between new faces or acquaintances at your local wargaming venue — are most often 2,000 point battles. Whether you're looking for the Chapter Approved mission deck, the latest bunker mission, or something else entirely, a full Strike Force means you're very likely to find opponents who've prepared an army to face yours.
Tournaments, whether narrative events like Throne of Skulls or the regular tournaments making up the matched play season (using the Chapter Approved mission deck), are also most often designed for 2,000 point battles. If this is your first 2,000 point army, you've just opened the door to uncountable opportunities to play Warhammer 40,000.
Join a regular league. Now that your 2,000 point army is ready, you could join the Warhammer 40,000 league at your local gaming venue for regular games, new opponents and the promise of glory as you ascend the league. If there isn't one convenient for you, you could always establish one — you have a ready-made group of opponents, after all.
Develop your army. Reaching 2,000 points was the final goal of this series, but in some ways an army is never finished — you can consider which units you'd like to swap in and out, whether there was an Epic Hero you couldn't find room for, or a unit you enjoyed so much you'd like two or three of them.
Do it again. There are few ways to start a new army that are as fun and effective as doing it alongside a group of like-minded hobbyists. You might decide as a group to run the league again and all start a new army — it doesn't need to be with the same group, either; it's a great opportunity to meet and battle with new hobbyists looking for their way into Strike Force battles.
Escalation Mission · capstone multiplayer battle · plays like a Warhammer 40,000 Bunker mission · needs roughly an extra 44″ x 30″ of table per additional player beyond two
Generals forge alliances of convenience as the final conflict looms, cleaving to the old principle that the enemy of their enemies is their friend, and determined not to be the first to fall.
Grand Battle. This is no normal conflict, but a cataclysmic convergence of warring armies that no single commander could hope to triumph in alone. The minimum battlefield size should be 44″ x 30″ per player — repeat the deployment pattern as many times as required for the number of players.
After the Create the Battlefield step, split the players into two teams. Count the players whose armies have the IMPERIUM keyword, the players with the CHAOS keyword, and the players with neither. The largest group is one team, the second largest is the other, and the smallest group are wild cards — split these between the other two teams to make them as even as possible. (If these categories don't fit your league — e.g. no CHAOS players — use any similar way of splitting into three groups. For example, with 2 IMPERIUM, 4 CHAOS and 3 other players: the 4 CHAOS players form a team, the 3 non-CHAOS/IMPERIUM players form a team, and the IMPERIUM players each join a different team, or both join the non-CHAOS team.)
When a rule refers to friendly models or units, it only applies to a player's own army — other units in the same team are neither enemy nor friendly. Each player controls their army as normal, except all players on a team take their turn simultaneously, completing phases together before moving to the next, and when a rule calls for opponents to act together (e.g. the roll-off for Attacker/Defender), one player from each team acts on that team's behalf.
Inevitable Betrayal. Diplomacy rarely survives contact with the enemy, and once the bullets start flying, all bets are off. At the end of battle rounds 2, 3 and 4, if one team has a lead of 10+ VP over the other, each wild card player on the leading team secretly chooses which team they'll be part of from the start of the next battle round. These choices are then revealed, and from the start of the next round those players are part of the team they chose.
Final Battlefield (Progressive Objective) — From the second battle round onwards, at the end of each team's Command phase: for each objective marker they control that is not within their deployment zone, they score VP equal to the battle round number (e.g. 2VP in round two). In the fifth battle round, the team with the first turn scores VP as above; the team with the second turn scores it at the end of their turn instead.
In a battle this size, flexibility helps — if players work together for the smooth running of the game, everyone's experience is better. For example, it helps if players deploy their own forces close to each other to speed things up, and the progression from phase to phase might happen at different speeds across the battlefield depending on where the action is. As long as players on both sides know what's going on, it's better to keep the action flowing than to hold players up.
Transcribed from scanned pages of White Dwarf's "Escalating Conflict" series: issue 522 ("An Army-Building Incursion", pp.56–59), issue 524 ("Incursion Underway", pp.50–55), issue 525 ("Building a Strike Force", pp.84–89) and issue 526 ("Gathering of Might", pp.42–47). The series itself started in issue 519, but that instalment is just a pre-series look at taking a Combat Patrol up to 1,000 points on its own, and isn't needed to run this league. Deployment maps are redrawn as diagrams above rather than reproduced as images — switch to the Source Scans tab to see the original scanned artwork (two pages, White Dwarf 524 p.55 and White Dwarf 525 p.89, were photographed upside-down and have been rotated the right way up here).