The armies have arrived on a battlefield littered with Bane Stones; misfortune made physical. Being in possession of one can be extremely dangerous, so you must sneak as many as possible into the enemy encampment.
Starting with the player who did not choose this mission, alternate placing 5 objective tokens each, representing bane stones. Each must be placed more than Range 3 of their own deployment zone, and more than Range 1 of table edges or terrain.
If a unit moves over one of these objectives, they must pick it up, place it on the unit. For each objective a unit carries beyond the first, enemies attacking it gain lethal 1. After attacking a unit in combat (not shooting), the attacking unit may spend the bane stone(s) to inflict 1 wound per bane stone. The unit that had the bane stone then scores 1 objective per objective token spent.
After completing a move ending at least partially in your opponents deployment zone, you may spend bane stones on your own unit. For each stone spent, your unit suffers 1 wound and you score TWO objective tokens.
If a unit is destroyed while still in possession of a bane stone, your opponent places the tokens anywhere under the last tray that was destroyed.
For each object scored, gain 10 victory points.
In short, you're going to get hurt touching these things, but you're also likely to score 10 points; or 20 points if you can get it to your opponents DZ.
Test game went all. By the end of the game, 7 of the 10 stones were off the table for a 60 point to 40 spread (my opponent turned in 2 bane stones in my DZ, and I spent 3 of his, I turned in 1 in his DZ and he spent 2 of mine).
It was interesting to have the layer of complexity of leaving the stones on the enemy unit to milk the lethal, but still being worried about them making it though for double points; vs just giving up the points right away for the wounds.
-Matt