Fate cards

Wars can take the form of anything from a minor skirmish to huge campaigns sprawling across continents, planets and even whole star systems. Although the battles you fight in Epic Warhammer 40,000 are massive conflicts, with hundreds of troops and vehicles on each side, there are some circumstances that still remain beyond the scope of a single battlefield. War is never totally predictable — hardened veterans have been known to break at the first sign of an enemy war machine, while raw recruits have held their ground and defeated their foes against all odds.

The unpredictable tides of battle are represented in Epic Warhammer 40,000 by a deck of Fate cards. Each card represents an unusual event or circumstance which might crop up to help your army or hinder the enemy during a battle. Using Fate cards is optional and is not restricted to particular scenarios (which is why they are not in the Scenario Special rules). However, we highly recommend them as a way of adding extra spice to a game, and flattening out some of the wilder rolls that can occur in firefights and close combats. If psykers are being used by either side Fate cards should definitely be used as the psykers' powerful attacks are represented by playing Fate cards.

Dealing Fate cards

At the start of the battle the Fate card deck is shuffled and four Fate cards are dealt out to each player. The cards are kept secret from your opponent until they are played (there's no point in spoiling the surprise!). Compare the points totals of both armies — the army with the lower total points value is dealt an additional card (so there is a good reason to end up a few points under the total points allowed for the game!). The cards themselves detail their effects and when they can be played during the battle. After they have been played, Fate cards are discarded; each one may only be used once in every battle.

Note: Counter-attack and Psychic Blast are both represented by one card. You can play the card either as a Counter-attack or a Psychic Blast, but not both.

Variable Fate cards

The method above can provide too many cards for a small battle and too few for a big battle. An alternative method for dealing Fate cards is to deal 1 card to each player per 500 points in their army total (rounding up), plus one to the army worth the lowest total. For example, 1,000 point armies would mean two cards each. If you wanted to get really random about it you could roll dice for the number of cards each player gets (D3 or D6-1 for example). Another approach would be to tie in the number of cards to the scenario and/or the race of the army.