Welcome back to another edition of Mastering the Chapter Approved 2025-26 Missions. You can check out the first article in the series where I discuss Mission A: Take and Hold on Tipping Point here.
Competitive missions, terrain, and scoring can feel overwhelming when you’re first stepping into tournaments. If you want a clear starting point, I’ve put together a full guide on getting started in competitive Warhammer 40K that explains which resources actually matter and how to use them.
In today’s article I’m going to be breaking down Mission B: Supply Drop on Tipping Point deployment from the Chapter Approved 2025-26 Tournament Companion Mission pack (found here). I’m going to go over the approved GW terrain layouts and how to approach the mission for each. The goal with this article is to give you the fundamental understanding of how to breakdown the mission, how to approach it tactically and how to prepare a gameplan for success. Let’s get into it!
Mission B: Supply Drop Primary, Tipping Point Deployment
Supply Drop is less commonly seen in competitive events than missions such as Take and Hold, Scorched Earth or Purge the Foe. That said, it is still used often enough to warrant understanding how it functions in order to build a gameplan around it. Let’s look over the mission and how it scores.
“Start of the Battle: Players randomly select two different objective markers within No Man’s Land that are not in the center of the battlefield. The first selected is the Alpha objective, the second selected is the Omega Objective.
Start of the Fourth Battle Round: The Alpha Objective is removed from the battlefield
Start of the Fifth Battle Round: The Omega Objective is removed from the battlefield.
Second Battle Round Onwards. When: End of the Command Phase (or the end of your turn if it is the fifth battle round and you are going second). The player whose turn it is scores the following VP for each objective marker in No Man’s Land that they control, depending on the current battle round:
* 5 VP in the second and third battle rounds.
* 8 VP in the fourth battle round.
* 15 VP in the fifth battle round.”
Key Takeaways:
- There are 5 Objective Markers on the battlefield
- Your Home Objective AND your opponent’s Home Objective do NOT count towards Primary Scoring; only the 3 objectives in No Man’s Land.
- Objectives disappear starting from the 4th battle round.
- At the start of battle round 5, only the center objective will remain in No Man’s Land.
- The player going second has a massive advantage with the knowledge that they simply need to control the center objective at the bottom of Turn 5 to score 15 VP for Primary at the end of the game. This can lead to a wide scoring swing at the end of the battle.
Mission B: General Strategy
Supply Drop has 5 objectives and only awards Primary Victory Points for holding the 3 of them in No Man’s Land. This is further complicated by the fact that, starting in Battle Round 4, these objectives start disappearing. Much like the Take and Hold mission I wrote about in my previous article, your ability to control these will be largely influenced by the layout you’re playing on. In some of these the No Man’s Land objectives are protected by ruin walls, while in others they are largely exposed, making holding them over the course of a full battle round more challenging.
It should also be noted, that holding your home objective doesn’t contribute to your Primary score nor does holding your opponent’s home objective. While you’re still going to want to be able to hold your own objective for the Defend Stronghold and Extend Battle Lines secondaries, holding this objective is less important overall in the mission and units being able to “sticky” objectives and move off of them become much more valuable in Supply Drop.
The fact that the objectives in No Man’s Land begin disappearing in Battle Round 4 makes this a complex mission to game plan for. This is further complicated based on which objective is the Alpha objective (the first to disappear). If the Alpha objective is your natural expansion then your plan may have to adjust to put more pressure on the mid-board and the opponent’s natural expansion sooner in the game. Ultimately the mid-board is where the bulk of the action will take place as it is the final remaining objective. Meaning, if you’re going first, you need to gameplan around taking the mid-board objective on your turn 4 with the plan to be able to hold it on the top of turn 5 so you can score 15 VP on Primary. The player going second has a major advantage in the end game. They can focus the entire attention of their army on prioritizing taking the mid-field objective to score 15 VP for Primary at the end of the game. This makes it very difficult to stop a full max Primary score for the opponent on turn 5.
Your general strategy may change depending on your army’s playstyle, build and your turn order. Since only the No Man’s Land objectives count towards your Primary score, the total score for your Primary is likely to be low. If your own natural expansion objective is the Alpha objective you should plan to hold this objective in the first three turns, while making a big push to the mid-board on turns 4 and 5. If your natural expansion is the Omega objective you can plan to hold it through the first 4 Battle Rounds while pushing hard for the mid-board. Assuming you can hold your natural expansion for 2 full turns, the Omega objective or mid-board on turn 4 and the mid-field objective on turn 5, your Primary score would be 33 Victory Points. That’s pretty high for this mission despite Primary Victory Point scoring being capped at 50.
Mission B: Layout 1
Layout 1 on Tipping Point can be tricky with Supply Drop mostly because the north and south No Man’s Land objectives are mostly exposed from the opponent’s deployment zone. While the center objective is protected by two L-shaped ruins there is also a wide center firing lane from both player’s deployment zones. The L ruins offer great staging points especially for melee armies as they provide pockets of protection, but the edge objectives are mostly exposed making it harder to hold these objectives early in the game before everything begins collapsing to the mid-field.
How you approach this game on Layout 1 (and really on all of the layouts) will depend largely on whether the Alpha objective is your own natural expansion or your opponent’s. If the Alpha objective is your opponent’s natural expansion, this allows you the ability to setup and defend your natural expansion for turns 2-4 to cap off 18 VP before making that final push to the center. You can be less aggressive in attacking your opponent’s natural expansion as it will just disappear at the start of Battle Round 4 anyway and, unless they have firmly taken the mid-field objective here, or your own natural expansion, they could be facing a 0 for Primary on their turn 4.
The No Man’s Land objectives here on the north and south of the map are particularly difficult to hold without being exposed to enemy shooting lanes from the opponent’s deployment zone, units that can “sticky” or have Lone Op are particularly valuable as early assets to hold those points on the board, allowing you to pull the action away from those objectives to push harder for the mid-board and the opponent’s natural expansion. The L-shaped ruins offer protection for your forces to commit to the mid-field in Turns 4 and 5 as this will be the only No Man’s Land objective left for Primary scoring on Battle Round 5.
Mission B: Layout 2
As I noted in my previous article on Mission A, layout 2 has some wide open shooting lanes across the diagonal of the middle of the board. This makes it hard to hold what would normally be your natural expansion No Man’s Land objectives (the objective closest to your deployment zone). The No Man’s Land objectives on the north and south areas of the map do have an area to hide behind a ruin wall, however those are inverse to your normal “natural” expansion objectives.
The mid-board objective is wide open with no cover from the majority of the board, however offers a large center ruin wall area on either side to stage from to attack the center. This can be vital when preparing to make a late-game push for the mid-board to hold it for Primary on turn 5 once the Alpha and Omega objectives are gone. Otherwise in the early turns you’re mostly trading back and forth in the center to score positional secondaries like Area Denial, Secure No Man’s Land and Establish Locus. Holding the mid-board over the course of multiple turns becomes very difficult due to being exposed nearly entirely to enemy firepower.
Making a push to hold the Omega objective as soon as possible up to turn 4 then swinging up to push for the mid-field objective on turn 5 once the Omega objective is gone is the right move here.
Mission B: Layout 4
Layout 4 is similar to layout 2 in that the mid-field objective is wide open. The natural expansion objectives in No Man’s Land are somewhat shielded by the corner ruin walls in the north and south ends which gives some line of sight protection. This allows you to stage and hide smaller infantry behind those positions to hold the No Man’s Land objective and be mostly protected except along the long board edge flank.
The mid-field objective doesn’t offer any protection, however and is wide open making it very difficult to occupy over multiple turns. Much like layout 2, you’ll be trading skirmish units back and forth here early and ideally you’ll want to establish your game plan to take this with your hammer units in the later parts of the game in turns 4 and 5 as the other objectives will start to disappear.
Pushing up to defend your own natural expansion while neutralizing threats that can skirt along the long board edge is key here. Being able to “sticky” here can also be a nice trick so you can start to push those resources out later in the game to threaten the mid-field objective and still maintain Primary scoring as resources begin to dwindle.
Mission B: Layout 6
Layout 6 is similar to 4 however the smaller ruin footprints in the mid-board area offer more hiding spots and provide line of sight blocking to the expansion objectives in No Man’s Land. Again, like layout 4, you have a corner ruin to protect your units and hide to hold your natural expansion while needing to defend that long board edge from threats.
The smaller ruins in the middle provide some measure of protection for smaller skirmish units to stage to threaten the mid-field objective which can give you a lot more flexibility to fight over this area. Moving units into the mid-field objective also means your opponent has to move in certain positions to gain firing lanes to them which can expose them in return.
Your biggest threats will be those units skirting along the long board edges to use terrain to protect while applying pressure to your natural expansion. This also allows you to do the same as well, while being able to use the ruins in the center area to provide cover and protection from downrange threats. Ultimately, like layout 2, you’ll want to “sticky” your natural expansion if possible, and pull resources out to threaten the mid-field objective later in the turns.
Mission B: Layout 7
Layout 7 is much different from the others for Mission B in that it provides central ruins to stage from with limited or more focused firing lanes, making it a natural fit for pressure melee armies like Orks, World Eaters or Blood Angels. The mid-field objective is open here however with pretty wide firing lanes along the diagonals in the map. As I mentioned in my article on Mission A, this map provides limited movement lanes for Vehicles and non-fly Monster units making their deployment and movement paths somewhat predictable. This can work to your advantage with staging, screening and move blocking.
Because of the way the board is laid out, it makes holding your natural expansion objective a bit easier with the large ruin footprints however you’ll need fast units or units that can infiltrate or scout move up to prevent firing arcs. The large ruins in the center also provide some measure of cover as you begin to stage to make your late game push to the mid-field.
Mission B: Layout 8
Layout 8 is similar to layout 7, however we see the large ruins near the mid-field objective are replaced with smaller ruins that offer no walls to stage behind. You can push behind the footprints to stage, but once units enter the ruins and beyond they become mostly entirely exposed.
You’ll note that the large ruin footprints on each expansion objecting in No Man’s Land are pushed up to the board edge making it a bit easier to defend from Vehicles and Monster units so the battle is mostly drawn to the center of the battlefield here.
Although there aren’t large ruin walls in the mid-field area, the footprints themselves are a bit closer to the mid-field objective making it easier to stage behind the footprints to launch units into the mid-field objective as needed. Again, similar to layout 7 Monsters and Vehicles will tend to have predictable movement patterns here as well.
Deployment for Mission B
It is important to have a solid deployment plan for each map for Supply Drop since only the No Man’s Land objectives count towards Primary scoring. You’ll still want to be able to hold your own objective in your deployment zone as well, however for Secondary scoring like Defend Stronghold and Extend Battle Lines (both of which require you to control your home objective to score). Deployment can be somewhat tricky for this mission as you don’t know which objectives will be the Alpha and Omega objectives until just before the battle begins after all forces have been deployed. This means you can’t afford to crowd your closest natural expansion objective.
You’ll need to of course assess your opponent’s units and threats and how they plan to attack you. Identify what units they want to be standing in the mid-field when the dust settles to hold that objective in turns 4 and 5 for the big Primary swing when the other two No Man’s Land objectives have been removed. Identify your natural expansion objective for each mission and have a plan in place in deployment to control it especially in the early turns, as well as identifying what units you can press to attack your opponent’s natural expansion. All the while planning a couple of turns ahead on how you will hold the mid-field objective in turn 4 or the bottom of turn 5 if you’re going second.
Pitfalls to Avoid in Mission B
It is very easy to be tempted to overextend in Supply Drop because only the No Man’s Land objectives count towards Primary scoring. Do not feel the need to press your entire army out early in the game to try to hold all 3 points in No Man’s Land. Overextending here too early can cost you the game in later turns even if you manage to score 10 points in turn 2 or 3. Once the objectives start disappearing it is easy to fall behind on Primary scoring.
You also want to avoid sending your hammer unit up to the mid-field too soon. This is the unit you’ve identified you need to hold the mid-field objective in the later stages of the game. Being too aggressive with them too soon can mean they won’t be there in the late game. If you’re going at the top of turn, you need to plan to have your hammer unit on this objective at the end of your turn 4 so they can possibly hold it for the top of turn 5. This may force you to make a more aggressive play to hold the middle of the board early in the game by staging threats and move blocking. Timing these movements can be critical and costly if they are not timed properly.
Final Thoughts
Supply Drop can be a difficult mission to plan for since only No Man’s Land objectives count towards the Primary scoring coupled with the fact that they begin disappearing in turns 4 and 5. By the start of turn 5 only the mid-field objective is left so you need to establish a game plan to be able to control this objective on turn 5 depending on if you’re going first or second in the game. There is, of course, a distinct advantage going second here as you can just hold your main objective grabber off until later in the game and move them on to steal the center objective in the final turn when the opponent cannot retaliate and score 15 VPs towards Primary.
Although holding your home objective and your opponent’s objectives don’t score points, you’ll still want to control your home objective so you can score Defend Stronghold and Extend Battle Lines Secondaries when they pop up. Supply Drop can be one of the most engaging missions in the Chapter Approved 2025-26 Mission Pack because it forces engagement in the mid-field as that is the last remaining objective to score later in the game. Having a plan for attack and deployment is crucial to identifying your opponent’s biggest threats as well as the units you want standing there when the dust settles in the end.
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