Objectives & Mission Results

Activation, elimination objectives, target attacks and Escape missions.

Activate the Objective

A standard Objective begins with the Inactive counter. Soldiers cannot move or attack into it until activated. During the Soldier turn, any Soldier in the adjacent Location may activate it. Normally this activity is free; pay any printed Activate cost as required by the Objective.

Remove the Inactive counter and immediately draw its Hostiles using the team’s current Resource row. Resolve its special text. Mark each Hostile drawn toward this initial Objective Hostile value with an Objective Hostile counter, even if a placement keyword puts it elsewhere.

Eliminate Hostiles

For an Objective with Eliminate Hostiles, eliminate every marked Objective Hostile wherever it has been placed or moved. In addition, no Hostile can remain in the Objective Location at the end of the Soldier turn. A later reinforcement or a Hostile that moves into the Objective is not automatically marked, but still prevents an empty-Objective success check while present.

Attacking Objective targets

Destroy/Kill objectives specify the permitted attacks, target Cover, required Hits and any prerequisite suppression or elimination of defenders. Follow those values, not a generic assumed “grenade kills a structure” rule.

An Objective with one target can accept multiple qualifying Explosion Hits from one attack. When it names several separate targets, excess Hits on one target do not spill to the next: each must be targeted with a separate attack. Suppress results do not count as damage unless the specific target rules say otherwise.

The Universal’s updated Objective-target rule allows applicable Action cards to attack the Objective’s target as well as Hostile cards. Match attack requirements and any specific card exception before applying an effect. For this purpose treat the targets as a Hostile card with one reticle per target (four Huts = four reticles).

Success and failure

Meet every requirement and the timing on the chosen Objective. The game immediately succeeds once its success condition is complete; an end-of-Soldier-turn check must wait for that checkpoint. Your whole team need not occupy the Objective, or be together, unless the card requires it.

The mission fails when the timer passes below 1 or the last Soldier is Downed. Follow additional printed scenario failure conditions. If the final Soldier is Downed in the same Action that completes the Objective, the result is success.

Escape missions

Escape reverses the route: Soldiers begin on the Objective and travel toward the Mission. The Objective starts active. Draw its initial Hostiles after the Advance Mission Timer step of the first mission turn, as the Universal Escape rules prescribe, rather than applying standard inactive-Objective activation.

All Soldiers must reach the Mission to complete an Escape. Soldiers cannot be voluntarily Removed; Downed Soldiers are KIA. Do not add Hostiles to the Mission card through effects that add Hostiles to Locations. Reverse Front-most, Rear-most, Beyond and Behind interpretations so that the Objective functions as the route’s start and Mission as its destination.

No victory-point race

A standard standalone Modern mission produces a team success or failure, not a final VP total. XP fuels tactical abilities and belongs to the Soldier awarded it; it is not a scoring tie-break. Campaign/scenario systems can track rewards and persistent Soldier outcomes separately—apply their specific instructions rather than inventing a universal campaign score.

Sources

Universal Rulebook, pp. 10, 49–51; Modern New Recruit Manual, pp. 10, 14, 20.