New Mission Pack – 2026

Battlefront dropped a new mission pack on 9 Apr 26 which is the first update in several years. This time a lot has changed which will fundamentally affect the meta and the way you play, especially if you pick defend. I am going to explain the big changes, and point out a few aspects to prevent any gotcha moments.

Back Story

Before we go into the mission pack it might be useful to explain some context for the new pack. The new mission pack has been in testing for several years. In fact if you are a regular UK player at events you have likely played it and helped feed back changes. The mission pack has been used at UK Nationals for 3 years, as well as Scottish and Welsh. I also know that events in Europe, Australia and the US also indulged. These live tests helped what was know as the ‘experimental’ mission pack evolve and assess win and loss rates. Its far to say it went through a few changes before it released.

Fundamentally the idea of the new pack is to make the stances more unique and also stop some specific a-historic behaviour. For instance Defend is meant to represent a prepared defence ie a static dug in line. In those cases infantry and guns form these lines with mobile elements kept back to plug gaps. Therefore having players defend with a armoured car company didn’t make sense. With the changes below you are hugely discouraged from doing this (although you can try if you want). Equally the Attack vs Attack mission are much more aggressive with no reserves and a need to take the fight to the enemy while protecting your own objectives. Meanwhile the missions you get if you choose Manoeuvrer reward recce and armies with speed.

Defend

The biggest changes in the mission pack or for those players who pick defend. Lets look at the key points.

• You will start on your objectives i.e. You have a prepared defence.
• Many missions have Deep Reserves. This now means you can only have 3 Tank units on table (1 of which can be a Battle Tank or aircraft).
• Recce is pretty useless if your opponent picks attack.
• If your opponent also picks Defend then you will play a new mission at night.
• In missions where all you have to do is defend your own objectives to win, you now only have to keep the enemy 4 inches (10cm) away rather than 8 inches (20cm).

In short things have got easier for the Defender. The change to winning from turn 6 if no enemy is within 4″ rather than 8″ is massive. A clever player will deploy forward, keeping the attacker away. It means the attacker must really push for the objective and not just sit ‘nearby’ in cover while they soften you up for a large number of turns.

I like the new Deep Reserve rule, it will stop the ‘name’ only defend forces pretending to have a prepared defence. Eg US Armoured Rifles. Sure, you can leave the halftracks out but if you do they cant be bought forward later. In reality Mech Inf were too valuable to be placed in planned and prepared defence they were there to react and plug gaps in the line or exploit breakthroughs. I am sure someone will come up with some example of when it happened but you cant build a game on the atypical. If you just have 3 or less Tank units you want to deploy and only 1 of these is a Battle Tank then your life wont change much (i.e. Infantry companies).

Starting on your objectives is also a big boon for the defender. This can be countered somewhat by your opponent picking Manoeuvre. It will allow them to have a set up that often allows them to flank you with recce, creating harder deployment options where you have to cover multiple directions, or result in the defender reserves not coming on near the objectives (like in Escape).

Defend vs Defend is a massive change. Every mission is new and all are fought at night (sun never comes up!). Additionally you have a Deep Static Reserve rule meaning you get all the Deep reserve rules, but also Tank Units start bailed out and have to deploy within 12 inches of a corner in your deployment zone. Yup this is to hammer home the point that only infantry forces should be choosing defend.
The night missions being at night allow infantry more freedom to move without being MG’d to death. From my games I have found you get rewarded for having more than 2 infantry platoons and have to be prepared for lots of assaults. Counter attack rating is key here!

Attack

The big change here is Attack vs Attack. Instead of the old missions like Free For All, Dustup, Encounter, Counter attack and Breakthrough you get 6 new missions where you start without reserves, close to the enemy and have to aggressively ‘get stuck in’. What this means is that if you pick Attack you only have reserves in 3/18 of the missions (3 of the A v M). This is interesting as it makes some lists like the Vanilla T34 horde more viable.

The new missions also have minefields which helps prevent nasty alpha strikes from the player that gets first turn (as well as being a meeting engagement). As you can win from turn 1 its a careful balance between pushing forward while defending your own objectives. In the events that have played these missions we found a lot less mutual loses (ie draws).

Manoeuvre

Not to be outdone, Manoeuvre also gets a load of new missions. M vs M missions are almost all new (apart from Scouts Out). As a theme, expect reserves and the need to move to an objective the centre or in/near the enemy deployment. Spearhead becomes really useful. These missions play well to faster forces which can use space to engulf an enemy but also reinforce from reserve quickly. Think US armour or British Cavalry Tanks.

If your opponent picks attack then you will get a set of older missions but ones which sit quite thematically to the stance such as defending in Valley of Death, Bypass, or Counter Attack. Again missions where speed and ability to flank will be useful.

Top tip, if you go Manoeuvrer you need recce!

Effect on the game

This mission pack will profoundly change the game.

My predictions:

• ‘Proper’ Infantry forces with 3+ platoons of infantry and armour in reserve will become common.
• Counter attack rating – With the defender able to win in defensive missions by just sitting on their objective rather than clearing a large space around it, counter attack will become really valuable.
• Japanese will be insanely good at defending.
• Berlin Battle Group becomes even more broken in defence – Something needs to be done about that particular formation!
• You wont find armoured forces picking Defend just to mess with infantry forces.
• There will be less draws thanks to the new 4″ win condition and the A vs A missions without reserves.
• Artillery and Flame Throwers will be key meta tools given that we will see more infantry companies.
• Not having many reserves when you go A will really help Tank forces especially the smaller ‘full fat’ Heer formations where you don’t get as many hulls.

I am a bit concerned that the win rate for the Defender may be too high in LW. I say that specifically because of the double faust issue (i.e. too cheap). MW and EW don’t have this so armour can get stuck in. However, face Soviet Berlin inf or Germans with double fausts and it can be really hard for medium armour.

Conclusion

Wargamers only hate one thing more than change and that’s lack of change. The new mission pack will really mix up the meta and I think will breath life into some aspects of the game which were starting to feel a bit stale. I also think that the boon to the defender is going to be sorely needed for EW where forces lack integrated AT to deal with armour and a lot of nations will struggle vs Soviet heavies. Now you can actually win by counter attacking and holding those beasts back.

Mark