Purge the Foe vs Priority Assets — Destroyer’s Wrath / Vital Link

The matchup in a nutshell

Destroyer's Wrath prints 17 VP a turn. Vital Link prints 11. Left alone, both players score exactly 45 and the difference between the 2 cards is a rounding error.

That is what a cap does. Primary stops at 45, and both of these engines clear it comfortably — the Purge the Foe player in the fourth round, the Priority Assets player in the fifth. The printed rate does not buy points. It buys slack: how much of your plan can fail before you stop reaching the ceiling anyway.

• Purge the Foe
• Priority Assets

So the question is not who scores more. It is what each player can do to the other, and those 2 answers are nothing alike.

The Priority Assets player switches off the biggest clause on Destroyer's Wrath — 6 VP a turn for holding more objectives than the opponent — by holding exactly as many as they already hold. It costs no movement and no risk. And it does not cost the Purge player a single point: they still reach 45. What it takes is their margin, from 18 VP down to 2. They now have to hit every clause, every round, for 4 rounds.

Going the other way removes points for real. Vital Link runs on the 2 central objectives, and stopping it means standing on both. On these 3 boards they sit between 8 and 9 inches apart, further than any 1 model can cover, and 1 of them is on the wrong side of the table. Pay that price and the Priority player finishes on 26 — 19 short of a cap they would otherwise reach without leaving home.

One player can take the other's margin for free. The other can take real points, but has to walk for them. That is the matchup.

Playing Purge the Foe

Your card: Destroyer's Wrath. It pays at 2 different moments, and on the last turn it changes its mind.

How you score

4 VP at the end of your Command phase for holding anything that is not your home objective. 6 more — the big one — at the same moment, for holding more objectives than your opponent. 3 at the end of your turn if anything of theirs died. 4 more at the end of your turn if you killed more this turn than you lost last turn.

That is 17 a turn, and you will never bank all of it. You reach 45 in the fourth round and everything after is decoration. What the 17 is really for is the 18 VP of margin it leaves you.

Two things about when it pays, because most of this article hangs off them.

Half your card pays instantly. The 3 and the 4 for killing settle at the end of your own turn. Nothing to survive, nothing to hold. Only the 4 and the 6 for holding ground wait through the opponent's turn.

On the last turn, the rest of it pays instantly too. The holding clauses check at the end of your Command phase — except in the fifth round, where they check at the end of your turn. Round 5 is not the same game as rounds 2 to 4. Ground you take on the last turn cannot be taken back before it scores.

What it costs you

Look at that 6 again. More objectives. Every board in this pairing splits the middle, so the count starts 3-all: your home, your expansion, your half of the middle, and the same 3 for them. To get to 4 you have to take something of theirs, and they have to fail to replace it.

An opponent who has read their own card simply matches your count and never moves. You still cap — but on the last round, with nothing to spare.

And now the part that argues against me. The obvious read is that a passive opponent starves your kill clauses — no targets, no 7 VP. That read is wrong, and it is worth being precise about why, because it is the strongest thing your card has.

The trade clause compares enemy units destroyed this turn against friendly units destroyed last turn. An opponent who stands still and shoots nothing kills nothing of yours. Your previous-turn losses are 0. A single kill — any kill, anywhere on the table — clears the bar and pays 4, on top of the 3 for killing at all.

And they have to give you a target. Their engine cannot run without parking a unit within range of a central objective and leaving it there until the end of their turn. That unit is cheap, it is visible, and it comes back every single turn. Your kill clauses are not starved by a passive opponent. They are fed by one.

How you break them

Their card is 2 clauses in a trench coat: 2 VP for controlling a central objective, and 4 more for the fact that 1 of the objectives you hold is central. Everything else — the marker that compounds, the whole reason it looks frightening — is bolted onto those.

So there are 2 denials available, and only 1 of them is worth anything.

Stalling 1 marker does nothing. Deny the objective they performed the action on and the marker does not land that turn. They still reach 45 in the fifth round. You have cost them margin, not points.

Denying both central objectives is the game. They only need to control 1 central for the 2 and the 4 to pay. Hold or tie both and the card collapses to the 4 VP available from any objective at all: 26 over the game, 19 short of the cap, and that is with their end-of-battle raid still landing.

Three things about control, because each of them loses games.

It is not a headcount. Add up the Objective Control of every model you have within range and compare it to their total. The higher total holds it. 1 model with OC 2 outholds 2 models with OC 1 apiece.

Equal totals mean nobody holds it. That is why denying is cheaper than taking — you match their number rather than beat it. Their action-doer is a lone character with OC 1? Any OC 1 model of yours, in range, ties it, and their action fails: it only completes if their unit still controls the objective when their turn ends.

Unless they have secured it. A secured objective stays theirs until your control is greater than theirs — matching does nothing. If anything in their army secures ground, budget to beat their number, not to equal it.

Now the geometry, which decides whether any of this is available to you.

• Deployment zone A
• Deployment zone B
• Wall — blocks line of sight
• Terrain area — cover, and range is measured to it

Traced from the official measurement sheet; the dashed line is the divide between the two halves, derived from the deployment zones.

You need presence on 2 objectives that no 1 unit can hold, and 1 of them sits on their side of the line.

Here is the part worth carrying to the table: that trip is not a tax on your plan, it is your plan. Standing on both central objectives is what denies their engine — and it is also, on a 3-all board, exactly what puts you at 4 objectives to their 3 and turns your 6 VP clause back on. The same models do both jobs.

Which is why "is the 4th objective worth it?" is not a judgement call. It is worth your margin, and it is worth 19 of their points.

Screen your home from turn 4 anyway. Their 10 VP at the end of the battle for holding your home objective is the largest single number on their card. It will not decide whether they cap — but it is the difference between them capping comfortably and capping on the last clause of the last round.

What your list needs

• 2 units that can hold a central objective on their own, 1 of them fast. Not 1 unit that splits. The gap between the centrals is over 8 inches on all 3 boards, so the far one needs its own body, and it needs to arrive by turn 2 to be worth anything.
• Enough Objective Control to match, not beat. A tie denies. Budget against a lone OC 1 character on the cheap boards and against a squad total on the rest — unless they secure it, in which case you need 1 more than they have.
• A reliable kill every turn that you can afford to lose. Your previous-turn losses set the bar for the trade clause, so a list that bleeds is a list that raises its own bar.
• A home screen from turn 4.
• Nothing else. Once the count is 4 to 3, a 5th objective pays you 0.

Playing Priority Assets

Your card: Vital Link. It pays at 3 different moments, and the last one is insurance rather than income.

How you score

Walk a cheap model onto a central objective. Perform the action in your Shooting phase. If you still control that objective when your turn ends, leave a marker.

2 VP for controlling a central objective, plus 1 for every marker sitting on it. So 3 on the first turn, then 4, then 5, then 6, then 7. From the second round on, add 4 VP for holding any objective that is not your home and 4 more because 1 of them is central — that pair checks at your Command phase, and on the last turn at the end of your turn instead.

Then 10 VP at the end of the battle if you hold their home objective.

You reach 45 without it. The walk alone caps you in the fifth round. The raid is worth 10 VP of margin, not 10 VP of score — which makes it a decision about robustness, and a very different decision from the one the card's biggest number invites.

What it costs you

1 unit, permanently employed, doing something that is not fighting — and permanently visible.

Read the completion condition again, because it is not the one people expect. The action completes if your unit controls that objective at the end of your turn. Not if it survives. Your doer does not have to win a fight. It has to win an addition — and your opponent gets a full turn to work out exactly how much Objective Control they need to bring, because you have shown them where it is standing.

And be honest about the second cost: that unit is also the kill your opponent's card is asking for. Destroyer's Wrath pays 3 for any kill and 4 more for killing more than they lost last turn. If they lost nothing, your doer alone clears both. You are not just running an engine. You are feeding theirs, once a turn, on schedule.

How you break them

Do not race them on breadth. You lose that race, and trying is how you hand them their 6 VP.

Match instead. Their parity clause needs strictly more objectives than you. Equal counts pay them nothing, it costs you only what you were already holding, and you do not have to move a model.

Be clear about what that buys, because it is not points. They still reach 45. What you have taken is their margin — from 18 VP down to 2. From that moment they need a kill every turn, the trade every turn, and an objective they do not own every turn, for 4 straight rounds. Miss any of it once and they finish short. Your job for the rest of the game is to make them miss.

Then accept what you cannot fix. You cannot starve their kill clauses. The trade clause measures itself against your previous-turn losses, so playing carefully lowers their bar rather than raising it, and your engine has to leave a unit on a central objective every turn regardless. The move is not to hide the doer — it is to make it cheap, make it replaceable, and make sure losing it does not stop the engine.

The clause worth guarding is the last one. On the final turn their holding clauses pay at the end of their turn, not at their Command phase, so anything they take on turn 5 cannot be taken back before it scores. Whatever screen you were planning for turn 5 needed to be in place at the end of turn 4.

What your list needs

• 2 or 3 units that can perform the action, in rotation. A kill that stops the engine for a turn costs you the compounding for every turn after it. Buy the spare.
• Enough Objective Control on the doer to hold the objective alone. The action fails on an addition, not on a casualty. This is the most common way this card is thrown away.
• 1 durable holder for the flat 4 VP, which is the most valuable model in your list that never throws a punch.
• A unit that can hold a central objective against a serious attempt to take it. This is where the matchup is decided, not at their home objective.
• A home raid only if it is cheap. It is 10 VP of insurance on a plan that already caps. Spending a quarter of your list on it to reach a total you were reaching anyway is the trap this card sets.

The three layouts

This pairing is played on 1 of 3 boards, and they are not the same game. All 3 are transcribed and measured below.

The measurement is per side, never averaged between them — this matchup turns entirely on which player has to walk, so a number that blends both describes a player who does not exist. The pack does not fix which disposition deploys in which zone, so the 2 zones are named A and B; read the pair, not 1 number.

• Seen from deployment zone A
• Seen from deployment zone B

Layout 1 is the only board where the raid and the denial cost about the same, and it is also the one where the far central is dearest for side A at 29.1%. If you were ever going to spend a unit on an enemy home objective, it is here.

Layout 2 is the one to know. The 2 central objectives sit closest together, and 1 of them is under an inch from the dividing line — close enough that both players can contest it without committing. It is also the most even board in the pairing: the 2 sides' figures differ by 6 points or less everywhere. Nobody gets a free half.

• Deployment zone A
• Deployment zone B
• Wall — blocks line of sight
• Terrain area — cover, and range is measured to it

Traced from the official measurement sheet; the dashed line is the divide between the two halves, derived from the deployment zones.

Layout 3 settles the argument. An enemy home objective means being seen by 70 to 79% of their deployment zone, the worst figures in the pairing, while the far central objective stays cheap at 25.6% and 0%. Both players should be looking at the middle and nowhere else.

Every figure is the best legal spot within control range of that objective, not the middle of the marker — the way a player actually looks for somewhere to stand.

Decision points

• Turn 1, Priority Assets — walk on and perform the action even under guns. The line compounds, so the first marker is the most expensive one to skip.
• Turn 2, Purge the Foe — the far central objective is either reachable now or it is never worth taking. Commit a body to it or write the plan off; the 1 thing that does not work is arriving on turn 4.
• Turn 3, Priority Assets — count objectives before you move anything. Matching their number is worth more than any grab you were considering, and it is free.
• Turn 4, both — Purge screens home. Priority decides whether the raid is still cheap, and puts the screen for turn 5 in place now.
• Turn 5, both — the holding clauses pay at the end of the turn on both cards. Whatever you can reach, take: there is no enemy turn left to take it back.

If you want the numbers

Primary scoring stops at 45, and every curve above is drawn against that ceiling. Both engines clear it if they run cleanly, which is why this article is about margin rather than totals.

The curves come from modelling each card clause by clause — where it obliges you to stand, whether it needs a kill, when it checks, and the earliest round its own printed section allows. The first round is thinner than the printed rate on both cards, because the 8 VP that hang on holding ground do not open until the second.

The denial figures are the same model with the denied clauses switched off. Matching the objective count leaves Destroyer's Wrath capping in the fifth round with 2 VP of margin instead of 18. Stalling 1 marker leaves Vital Link capping on schedule. Holding both central objectives leaves it on 26.

The terrain figures come from the transcribed measurement sheets. For every objective, every legal holding spot within control range is tested against both deployment zones, and the best one is reported per side.

Three limits worth stating. The pack does not say which disposition deploys in which zone, so terrain figures are given as a pair and never merged. Whether a single round has its own scoring ceiling is not something this corpus can confirm; it would change how much margin the higher-printing card has, not which round either player reaches the cap in. And this is a primary-mission analysis on a scoreboard where secondaries are worth just as much — when both players cap the primary, the game is decided by what their primary plan cost them everywhere else, and the plan that permanently employs a unit performing actions is paying that bill twice.