Playing 1000 Point Mini 40k Campaigns

Last week me and my gaming buddy decided we would try something different in our usual weekly game, a mini campaign! Three story-driven 1000 point games played on three different boards. Amazingly we managed to play it after work, taking about 3 and a half hours in total (including lots of chat with on-lookers).

We played on a Tuesday at Warhammer World and it was pretty empty so we got to use two of the 'special' boards as well as the Zone Mortalis table in the last game. Really sorry there's no photos but I just wanted to share the rules for our little campaign, and hope to inspire some other players to create there own!

The campaign story follows the Storm Hawks (the codex I wrote a long time ago can be found here, although I didn't use it) last stand on Vardia and their eventual fall to chaos (see here for background on my Storm Reavers). There is a lot of background taken from the Vardia campaign book my friend is writing, so it may seem a little off-cuff to some readers.

The rules below are built specifically for our mini campaign (Space Marines vs Chaos), but it may give you ideas about how to write up your own. I kept the mission objectives simple as I knew we would be playing after work, but you can spice them up if you have a day to play.

GENERAL CAMPAIGN RULES

• Three different 1000pts armies. The third army may not have any Vehicles except for Walkers (and no Defilers!)
• The Storm Hawks must take Chapter Master Falco in every army: A Chapter Master with Terminator Armour and Twin Lightning Claws. In addition he gains the Fearless special rule.
• If Falco is killed during battle, at the end of the game roll a D6. On a 1 the model's Wound value is permanently reduced by 1. On a 6 the model permanently gains the Hatred special rule. If you roll a 6 again after future games, the model also gains Rage.
• If any of the Chaos HQ units are the same (both type and build) they may keep all of their rolls on the Chaos Boon table for all games.

GAME 1: RAPID ASSAULT

The Storm Hawks have arrived at Vardia, only to find it already lost to Chaos. Heedless of the Blood Angel requests to hold, the Storm Hawks race towards the planet in a daring attempt to break the enemy's back before it can reform to meet the incoming reinforcements.

In this game the Storm Hawks use a lot of fast moving transports such as Stormravens, Drop Pods and Land Speeder Storms, supported by Stormtalons and regular Land Speeders. The Chaos forces have lots of troops on the ground but not many 'linebreaker' units such as Obliterators or tanks.

Objective
The Storm Hawks must rush in and destroy the Chaos forces.

Deployment
The Chaos army deploys first, anywhere in the table that is more than 12" from a table edge. In addition, Chaos units must be placed more than 6" away from each other. The Storm Hawks will enter play on their first turn from any one table edge (in exactly the same way as arriving from reserve). In this mission, all units fall back to their nearest table edge. No Chaos unit may be placed in reserve. Any Storm Hawks units that do not arrive first turn are assumed to be in reserve. Storm Hawks always get first turn.

Special Rules

• Orbital Assault: Any Storm Hawks unit that can Deep Strike may arrive automatically on the first turn.
• Already Dug-in: All Chaos forces receive the Move Through Cover and Stubborn special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 2: THE ENDLESS TIDE

The warp portal has been unleashed upon Vardia and caught the Storm Hawks unawares The Storm Hawks have been pushed back by the chaos tide against the entrance to the ancient Vardian catacombs. Luckily, the marine forces have come across an abandoned PDF strong point and plan to use it to try and whittle down the enemy before they retreat further in.

In this game the Storm Hawks forces have no fast support units, but have managed to deploy artillery tanks such as Whirlwinds and Vindicators in order to support their defence. Most of the Chaos forces are transported in Rhinos or are equipped with Jump Packs.

Objective
The Chaos side must cause as much damage to the dwindling Storm Hawks as they can!

Deployment
The Storm Hawks deploy first, up to 12" from the edge of the table. They also get an Aegis Defence Line to set up for free (note: we actually used a Fortress of Redemption instead). The Chaos forces deploy anyway up to 24" from the Storm Hawks forces. Chaos automatically gets the first turn.

Special Rules

• Endless Tide: When a non-Vehicle Chaos unit is completely destroyed it automatically re-enters reserves. This counts as a new unit in all respects.
• Last Stand: All Storm Hawks units gain the Stubborn and Preferred Enemy special rules.

Victory Conditions
Kill Points and Secondary Objectives.

GAME 3: FALL BACK!

Chaos have overrun the Storm Hawks and Chapter Master Falco has ordered their retreat into the warp portal, through the underground catacombs. The trouble is some of the Storm Hawks are too stubborn to run! What the Storm Hawks do not know however, is that their Chapter Master has already succumbed to the will of chaos and is in the progress of being possessed!

Objective
The Storms Hawks must get as many units through the warp portal as possible before they are destroyed!

Army Restrictions
No vehicles may be used in this game except for Walkers.

Deployment
Played on a 4x4 board. A lot of terrain must be placed as the game is played within the Vardian catacombs (preferably on a Zone Mortalis board!). Both sides deploy within 12" of their board edge. Randomly determine who sets up and goes first. You may seize the Initiative. Only units which are described as being able to teleport or materialise from the Warp may use the Deep Strike special rules.

Special Rules

• Filled with Doubt: At the start of the Storm Hawks movement phase, any unit not within 24" of the Chapter Master must take a leadership test. If it fails, the unit may not move at all this turn (except to charge).
• Falling Back: The Storm Hawks are proper legging it! They may run 2d6 and choose the highest.
• Chosen of Chaos: Chapter Master Falco gains the Champion of Chaos special rule.

Victory Conditions
For every Storm Hawks unit that leaves the board via the Chaos board edge, they gain 1 VP. For every Storm Hawks unit that is completely killed, the Chaos player gains 1 VP.

A Declaration of Intent Plus Some Gaming Progress

Right... first off, apologies for lack of posts last month. Hobby dried up for a few months due to post Christmas lul and a small game called Skyrim. A few of you may have heard of it... I hear-by declare to post on a more frequent bases, and not let a video game eat up my hobby time. Until Mass Effect 3.

Warhammer Fantasy:
Now that's out the way, onto the hobby. I played the first game of my new Warhammer Fantasy campaign last week. We're using rules from Blood in the Badlands, tweaked a little to match our Campaign Fluff. Speaking of which, we use a Facebook group to organise games and post fluff documents and stuff - if you want a copy of our background and rules let me know.

Now the game... Lizardmen vs Skaven. I know it's not an excuse but I was pretty tired and ratty during the game, so that might have helped my opponent CRUSH me. Even after the first turn I could see the game sliding away from me, even after the Skaven were forced to deploy counter-productively due to the scenario. Maybe Skaven just like eating Lizardmen for breakfast!

I did learn a few things from that game and changed my next list up a little bit. Unfortunately we had to build our 3 characters (to lead 3 armies) at the start of the campaign, and have specific army build requirements so pretty limited by my choices. This is what I came up with:

Warhost of Zlatlan - 2000 points

• Lord Kame-hameha, Slann Mage Priest - Level 4, Lore of Light, The Focussed Rumination, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
• Saurus Scar-veteran - BSB, GW, LA, Luckstone
• Saurus Warriors (35) - Full Command, Spears
• Saurus Warriors (20) - Full Command
• Skinks (10)
• Skinks (10)
• Temple Guard (20) - Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame
• Stegadon
• Salamander x2

I basically swapped out my chameleon skinks and block of skink/krox for another saurus unit, another sally, and some cheap skink redirectors. I'll report back on how it fares next Wednesday (maybe take photos). Spent a few hours of last weekend painting some Temple Guard so should have some photos of them too soon.

Warhammer 40,000:
Preparing for the 40k Doubles tournament and 40kUKGT. I'm basically taking Mon-Wed off next week to get some painting done ready for these two tournaments, so will definately have photos for you next week. Lists wise, I'm partnering up with Tom Rogers at the doubles with the following list:

Blood Angels - 875 points

• Librarian - Termy Armour w/ Storm Shield, Unleash Rage, Fear of the Darkness
• Terminator Assault Squad (5) - Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields
• Assault Squad (5) - Razorback w/ TL Lascannon
• Baal Predator - Flamestorm Cannon, Heavy Flamers, Dozer Blade
• Stormraven - TL Lascannon, TL Multi-melta

Imperial Guard - 875 points

• Command Squad - Meltabomb, 2x Meltagun, Autocannon, Chimera
• Veteran Squad - 3x Meltagun, Lascannon, Chimera
• Veteran Squad - 3x Meltagun, Autocannon, Chimera
• Vendetta
• Leman Russ Battle Tank - Plasma Cannons
• Hydra

We came a lowly 99th last year, so hoping this brutal list will allow us to crawl a bit higher in the rankings!

If you've read this far, I congratulate you! I promise there will be more photos in the next post. And hopefully a new poster as well! Until next time folks,

Darth Meer

Quick and Dirty Kill Team Rules Part 2

Here's an additional Kill Team gameplay rule we came up with, based on the rule from my Mutagenesis game:

Losing Nerve: Any model must take a Leadership test if any other model is killed within 3 inches. If failed, the model is immediately subject to the "going to ground” rule.

And here's a very simple mission to play with the Kill Team rules, as I was saying before I wanted to keep these rules very simple - able to fit on a single page if possible:

Recon Mission

Setup

This mission is played on a 4’x 4’ board, with a heavy concentration of terrain, the more terrain the better the game!

Deployment

Both players roll a D6 – the highest scorer chooses a table corner and sets up his/her models within 18” of it. The lowest scorer then does the same in the opposite board corner. The player who deployed first goes first, unless his opponent can steal the initiative on a roll of a 6!

Built-up area

Due to the restrictive terrain you are playing on, no models may be left in reserve or Deep Strike.

Objective

The game lasts 8 turns. You gain 1 Kill Point for killing an enemy model or forcing it to flee the board (if it is fleeing at the end of the game, it counts as dead). The Player who scores the most kill points wins the game! Regardless of Kill Points, if one side completely wipes out the opponent, they win automatically.

Quick and Dirty Kill Team Rules

Created some quick and dirty Kill Team rules for us to use in our Vardian 40k campaign. The campaign was going to just use the awesome Kill Zone rules (found on the Galaxy in Flames blog), but ended up toning the rules down so they fit on a single page, with a few tweaks of my own. The rules will fit nicely with the XP system I'm creating too. Will create a special Kill Team Mission as well (detailing size of board, terrain, deployment, etc.), but for now here's the basic rules:

Kill Team Gameplay Rules

A Kill Team game uses the standard Warhammer 40,000 rules, with the following changes and additions.

A Team of Heroes:
All models in a Kill Team game act completely independently, and are classed as single model units in all respects..

Suppressing Fire:
If a weapon has more than one shot with a weapon (such as a heavy bolter), the owning player may decide to use Suppressing Fire. Choose a primary target within range; any models within 4" of this target are eligible as secondary targets. Roll to hit as normal - if any hits are scored at least one must hit the primary target; any remaining hits may be worked out against any secondary targets. You must allocate at least one hit to every eligible model before putting more than one hit on a model.

Pile In!:
After all assault moves are completed, any friendly models within 4" of an assaulting enemy model may take a Leadership test in order to Pile In! If they pass, the model may choose to assault too. Move the model into contact with an assaulting any model within 4". A model that uses Pile In! does not gain any bonuses for assaulting unless they have the Counter Attack USR. In the event that a model is in range of more than one assault, they can choose to Pile In! to any one they wish.

Grenades:
Any model armed with either defensive or assault grenades may throw one as a shooting attack with a range in inches that is double its Strength value. Use the following profiles:

Name	Rg	Str	AP	Type
Defensive	*	3	-	Assault, Blast
Assault	*	3	-	Assault, Blast, Pinning

Building Your Team

Team Structure:

Each team must not cost more than 250 points, and can contain anywhere between 5 to 25 models. No single model may cost more than 80 points. To build your team, purchase individual models from the Elite, Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support unit selections in your codex. Unit leaders (such as sergeants), may not be taken.

If a model can be bought separately as a squad option (for example, Tactical Marines can be bought at "+16 pts per model") use that cost for the model. If the model can only be bought as a set squad size, simply divide the total squad cost by the number of models to get an individual price.

Unit Selection Restrictions:

• No models listed as Unique.
• No more than 2 models with the Jump Infantry type.
• No more than 2 models with the either the Bike, Jetbike, or Cavalry/Beasts types.
• No models with a 2+ armour save except for the Team Leader (see below).
• No models with a 3+ invulnerable save except for the Team Leader (see below).
• No model may have more than 2 wounds except for the Team Leader (see below).
• No vehicles with the exception of a single Walker per team, and only if it has a total armour value of 33 or less on all sides.
• No model may have a base Toughness greater than 5.

Wargear Selection Restrictions:
A team may contain no more than 5 non-basic weapons upgrades; and only 2 may be a Heavy ‘type’ weapons upgrade. 'Non-basic' weapon upgrades are those that are not initially equipped on the model. A weapon upgrade does not count towards this limit if all models in a unit may take it for free (e.g. Scouts and sniper rifles).

Team Leader:
Pick one model from your team to be the Team Leader. This model is automatically upgraded to the ‘unit leader’ version for free if it has one (i.e. a Sergeant, Nob, etc.), and may take wargear options accordingly. The Team Leader may equip some restricted equipment as stated in the above wargear restrictions, and any equipment he takes does not count towards the non-basic upgrade weapon limit. Basically, he gets the pick of the loot! The Team Leader also gains +1 Wound (to a maximum of 3) and the following 'Inspiring Presence' special rule:

Inspiring Presence: Any friendly model within 6" of the Team leader may use his Leadership for all Leadership tests.

Themes:
A few of the proceeding restrictions can be lifted by purchasing the appropriate ‘theme’ upgrade listed below. Only one theme may be used per Kill Team, and at least 75% of the Kill Team's points must be used on models that use that theme (e.g. an Armoured Might Kill Team must have 75% worth of models with a 2+ saves).

Armoured Might: Any model may have a 2+ save. Any model with a 2+ save increases by 10 points.
Death from Above: You may have any number of models with the Jump Infantry type. Any Jump Infantry model increases by 5 points.
Behemoths: You may take any number of models that have up to 3 wounds. Any model with 3 wounds increases by 10 points.
Outriders: You may have any number of models with the Bikes, Jetbikes, or Cavalry/Beasts type. A model with any of these unit types increases by 5 points. Furthermore, any Bike or Jetbike model may add the Skilled Rider USR for an additional 5 points per model.