Mission Preparation

Choose a battlefield, read the Objective, and build a legal team.

Rules authority and editions

This guide follows the Modern fourth-edition teaching structure and the publisher’s Universal reference. Printed card text takes precedence over general rules. The New Recruit Manual supplements the Universal Rulebook and expressly defers to it. Older Modern editions use different cards; later upgrade packs replace selected cards. Check the edition and replacements in your collection before borrowing an example’s numbers.

The DVG FAQ distinguishes the Modern Upgrade Kit for editions 1–3 from the later 2023 Upgrade Kit. A card’s corrected values matter more than its familiar title.

Choose the battlefield

Select your Soldiers’ nation, the mission region, and a Hostile deck appropriate to that region and difficulty. The Modern core provides Jungle and Middle East material, with separate Insurgent and Military Middle East Hostiles. Do not indiscriminately combine region-specific Missions, Objectives, Locations and Hostiles. Obey any scenario or card exception explicitly allowing a combination.

Shuffle the Action deck, the chosen region’s Location deck and the chosen Hostile deck. Modern Events are included in the Hostile deck, rather than in the separate Event deck used by some other Warfighter settings. Use only one Hostile type in a mission. When a deck runs out, shuffle its discards into a new deck; if no Hostile card is left anywhere, a Hostile that should arrive is simply not placed.

The mission path

1. Deck areas — Hostile deck and Action deck; the Location deck sits beside them.
2. Starting Mission — path space 1, where every Soldier starts.
3. Mission Timer Track — the counter shows the turns left.
4. Location path — numbered spaces 2–12 toward the Objective.
5. Hostile area — Hostile cards sit above the Location they are in.
6. Turn reminders — the printed turn and attack sequences.

Place the Mission card at the start of the path. Place the Objective in the numbered slot specified by the Mission. Set the to the Mission’s Time and put the Inactive counter on a standard Objective. Mission and Objective count as Locations.

An Escape mission uses a different starting position and active Objective; see Escape missions.

Buy Soldiers

Purchase at least one Player Soldier. Each named Soldier card can be taken only once per mission, even if you own two copies. Divide the team’s Resource budget however the players agree. The number of human players does not multiply the Mission budget or prescribe a fixed Soldier count.

Give each Soldier the Gear, Skills, XP and other benefits listed on its card. Included Gear can be free in Resources while still using Loadout. Flagged Gear/Skills can only be used by a Soldier of a matching nation; unflagged cards are generally available to any nation. Printed exceptions still apply.

Resources and Loadout

Track two different totals: the team’s actual Resource value and each Player Soldier’s Loadout. Resources pay for the team. Loadout limits what each Player Soldier carries after the Mission modifier.

Gear normally uses its Resource cost as Loadout cost unless a separate Loadout value is printed. Skills cost Resources but no Loadout; a Soldier can have only one Skill of each title, and Skills cannot be passed. A Skill marked Pre-Req needs its prerequisite first; a Team Pre-Req needs any Soldier on the team to have it. You may buy multiple copies of a Weapon, Equipment or Skill even if the box contains one reference card: track each owner’s ammunition and effects separately.

Use actual purchased team Resources for Location/Objective Hostile charts. A maximum budget of 114 does not force you to spend 114 or draw according to that maximum when you bought a cheaper team.

Ammo and Equipment

Give a Weapon its printed Ammo allotment, with a loaded counter ready. An extra firearm-ammo purchase gives another printed allotment for 1 Resource Point and 1 Loadout point. Expended Weapons are purchased by individual use instead; read their card.

Give Equipment its printed consumables, such as the four Bandages of a First Aid Kit.

Body Armor is Equipment. A Soldier card that names an Armor must wear it (its cost is included); otherwise a Player Soldier may buy Armor, wearing at most one per coverage type. Track separate weapon systems on the same card separately when required. A grenade launcher and its rifle do not share one ammunition track merely because they appear on one card.

The current Keyword Reference distinguishes resupply during the mission: one Resource Point of Ammo received mid-mission gives six counters to distribute legally, rather than the Weapon’s pre-mission starting allotment. Read the granting card and respect compatible ammunition and Loadout.

Identify the team

Assign each Soldier a numbered pair of identification counters: one on the card, one on its starting Location. Put the four Hostile Targeting counters with each included Soldier’s number into an opaque cup. Give each Soldier its printed Action counters and starting benefits.

Each Player Soldier draws Action cards equal to current Health. Whenever a Location Marker is drawn, discard it immediately and draw a Location into that Soldier’s hand instead. Keep hands separate. Begin the first Soldier turn.

Sources

Universal Rulebook, pp. 8–10, 16–20, 27–31, 34–36; Modern New Recruit Manual, pp. 3–14.