Standard missions are the most common way Warhammer 40,000 battles are played. They are relatively simple, and do not require an army that is designed specifically towards a single style of play. There are a total of five standard missions to choose from. All ot these missions use the standard Force Organisation chart. You can either agree with your opponent which mission to play, or roll D6 and consult the table below:

Each mission can be played at three levels: Alpha, Gamma and Omega. Each successive level adds more special rules, which change the way the mission can be played (this is detailed in each specific mission). Each version is just as tactically challenging as any other, and you can either agree which level of a mission to play or roll a D6. On the roll of 1 or 2 play an Alpha level battle, on a 3 or 4 play a Gamma level battle, or play an Omega level battle on a 5 or 6. See the mission specific rules Io see what effect this will have on the game.

This concept is central to all the missions presented here - at Alpha level, standard missions are won or lost entirely by getting more units onto the objective than the enemy. However, not all units count for this purpose (for example, a unit that is falling back cannot claim to be holding the objective) but those that do count for such objectives are called Scoring Units. At other levels, achieving these objectives will score you Victory Points. See the Victory Points table to see what counts as scoring units.

Some armies have elaborate command and control systems that allow them to react quickly to changing battlefield conditions. Others rely on applying pressure everywhere at once and lack the means to set the agenda on a given part of the battlefield. In Warhammer 40,000 these differences are reflected in the army's Strategy Rating. When a Strategy roll is called for, players roll a number of D6 equal to their Strategy Rating and then pick the highest result. The player with the highest result gets to choose the mission.

Strategy Ratings of the different armies in Warhammer 40,000 are as follows: