THRACKYour second game
of Thrackdown
YOU KNOW THE BASICS.NOW ADD THE FULL RULES.
Game 2 expands your warband to around 150 Thracks and brings in the full fighter profiles, faction rules, Momentum Surges and every weapon Trait.
Then put those extra rules into practice in Mission 2: Hostage Grab.
TONIGHT: Quickstart Guide, Full Faction Rules (includes the full fighter profiles), Mission 2: Hostage Grab
Optional: the Warband Builder, if you want to build your own 150-Thrack force.
Expand your warband
There are two ways to expand your warband for Game 2. Whichever route you choose, use the full fighter profiles, full faction rules and all weapon Traits from this point onwards.
Grow your Quickstart Warband
Take the four fighters you already know, switch them to the full fighter profiles in your faction's rules, and add another fighter or two. You don’t need to rebuild the whole warband or reach exactly 150 Thracks.
Get the Faction RulesOpen the Warband Builder
Pick your faction and build a warband of around 150 Thracks using whichever revealed units you like. Most warbands will have roughly 5 to 6 fighters, although this varies by faction and unit choice. A mix of ranged and melee fighters will give you more options in Hostage Grab.
Open the Warband BuilderLeader required. Someone has to give the orders and steady the nerves.
Core before Specialists. You cannot field more Specialists than Core fighters.
Juggernauts are left out of Game 2. At around 150 Thracks, they take up too much of the warband for this introductory battle.
No gear or upgrades. Fighters carry their starting weapons only. Equipment slots arrive in Game 3.
Your Quickstart fighters already gave you a taste of how each faction plays. From Game 2 onwards, use the full faction rules, including each faction’s signature mechanic and Momentum Surge.
- Iron Pact use Field Orders to coordinate the warband and support one another.
- Ashen Covenant swear an Article of Flame before battle and use Nerve and sacrifice to push their attacks further.
- The Splice make a Flesh Flux Mutation Roll at the start of every activation.
- Null Protocol use Adaptive Subroutines and careful activation order to make their fighters work together.
- Crimson Veil perform Red Rites, with Thralls providing another way to trigger them when needed.
- Scavver Clades roll on the Scavver’s Stash before each battle and field whatever useful junk they dragged home.
Get the Faction Rules for Game 2
Game 2 uses the full fighter profiles, faction rules, Momentum Surges and every weapon Trait. Pop your email in and we will send the six-faction PDF straight to your inbox.
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While you wait:Next: Your Third GameNew? Start with Your First Game
Every Trait is live
Those red Traits you ignored in Game 1 now apply. From Game 2 onwards, use every weapon Trait shown on the fighter profiles.
Read them before deploying, because weapons that behaved perfectly well in your first game may now jam, break or affect more models than you expected.
The joys of Crude
Enjoyed that suspiciously reliable equipment in Game 1? That was temporary. Plenty of weapons on Nova Eden have the Crude Trait. Roll a natural 1 while using one and the weapon breaks.
That Pipe Gun is, after all, mostly a pipe with dreams. If it breaks, you will need another weapon or a new plan.
Not all Traits bite you
- Sidearm: May Shoot while engaged, but receives no Exposed bonus, no Cover benefit and no Aim benefit.
- Burst Fire: Split your attacks between eligible targets within 2" of each other.
- Branching: On a 6, nearby models can also gain Nerve.
- Scoped: Stay still and Aim to gain +1 ACC.
- Spray: Roll an additional attack against any models, friend or foe, within 2" of the target.
- Blast: After resolving the initial attack, roll an additional attack against each other model within X" of the target.
Hostage Grab
A local fixer has been taken by a rival warband. Both sides want control of the hostage, and neither is planning to give them up quietly.
Setup: Use a 30" x 24" battlefield with dense terrain and plenty of blocked sightlines. Place the Hostage, represented by a spare miniature or token, in the centre of the table.
Roll off for table edges. The winner chooses an edge and their opponent takes the opposite one. Players then alternate deploying fighters within 3" of their own edge, starting with the winner of the roll-off.
The game lasts 6 rounds. The Hostage cannot be attacked, but either warband can move them, lose control of them and take them back during the battle.
Suggested table setup. Use plenty of dense cover and blocked sightlines, especially around the centre.
Drag the Hostage
A fighter in base contact may spend both actions to drag the hostage up to their full movement, but only if no enemy is within 1". Rescues are slow, loud, and very interruptible.
The Hostage Panics
If no fighter is within 2" of the hostage at the end of a round (Downed fighters don't count), they bolt D6+3" in a random direction. Terrified fixers make poor teammates.
Momentum for Custody
Carrying the hostage at the start of a round grants +1 Momentum. Possession pays, right up until someone takes it from you.
Control the Hostage at the end of the game: one of your fighters (not Downed) is in base contact with it and no enemy fighter is.
Drag them all the way into your deployment zone.
Score 1 VP for each enemy fighter that is Out Cold at the end of the game.
Two rules this mission teaches
Snap Fire
Position fighters where they can watch the routes to the hostage. Once per round, an unactivated fighter may interrupt an enemy Move action in its line of sight: Shoot at −1 ACC from any point of that move. Uses its Shoot and 1 of its 2 actions.
Before moving into the open, check which enemy fighters are covering the route.
Stabilise
Fighters are likely to go Downed around the hostage. Stabilise gives a nearby ally a chance to keep an important fighter in the battle instead of leaving them where they fell.
Deciding when to stop and help someone can matter just as much as pushing towards the objective.
Advice from the ruins
Played Game 2?
Tell us which factions you used, what worked, what felt unclear and whether anything seemed too strong or too weak.
Game 2 is especially useful for feedback because the full faction and weapon rules are now in play.
Ask rules questions, compare warbands, talk through your game and see how other players are getting on with the Open Alpha.
Join the Thrackdown DiscordReady for full Thrackdown?
You know the core rules and have now played with your faction’s full abilities. Game 3 takes you to 200 Thracks and adds equipment, upgrades, Juggernauts and the complete warband-building rules.
From there, you can take the same warband into campaign play, where fighters gain experience, suffer injuries and change from one battle to the next.