40K Map Campaign + Strategy Cards

[Hunger]

Here's the rules for the ongoing 40K campaign my club is currently embroiled in. I love linking 40K games together into thematic storylines and having a sense of progression to my games, but reconciling this concept with the practical considerations of mechanics that enable the campaign to run without continuous input from an arbitrator, and also allows for players to play different numbers of games, join late or leave etc is hard.

The following campaign rules have been tried and tested by my group, and we have found them to be very successful in facilitating a free-running campaign that provides the basis for a storyline without being dependent on it, and also means there is no pressure on anyone in the group - you just play your games and update the map.

I'm rather pleased with the results, and I hope the format brings you as much enjoyment as it has to my club members and myself. Feel free to make it your own and change whatever you like to fit with your own gaming group's wishes.

Enjoy!

[Hunger]

Campaign Style

A minimum-input campaign that requires almost zero book-keeping and yet still allows for a thematic plot and sense of progression. The campaign incorporates elements of tactical decision-making on the campaign map, granting small advantages as reward for clever strategic thinking, but these elements will not dominate the campaign over the actual games.

The mechanics allow for some players to be absent from some gaming sessions, and they also allow players to join late or leave without drastically affecting the other players.


Introduction

The campaign is set in an outlying sub-sector of Imperial star systems. The various factions are fighting over this region of the galaxy for their own agendas, which players can contribute to the storyline of the campaign if they choose.

The overall objective is to capture enough of the major systems in the area to establish a solid enough foothold to capture the rest. There are two types of system in the region.

Primary Systems are developed systems, and capturing them is vital in order to gain a dominant position in the sub-sector. They are well fortified, and grant the defender an in-game advantage. There are four types of primary system:

o Hab Systems (green) are overcrowded population centres.

o Production Centres (red) are industrial systems.

o Mining Systems (yellow) raw material producers.

o Fortress Worlds (purple) are military strongholds.

In addition there are many other systems in the region of strategic value to the overall objective. These are known as Outposts. Capturing these will provide staging areas from which to launch assaults on the primary systems, negating the defender¡'s advantages.

Each faction begins the campaign with a single outpost. Roll off to decide who chooses theirs first. Late entrants must win a battle to claim their first outpost. If a player leaves the campaign or is inactive for more than four weeks his systems become unclaimed.


The Objective

The overall goal for each faction is to capture one of each type of primary system. When one faction has one of each system they will be in a position to conquer the rest of the sub-sector.

In storyline terms, each type of primary system will provide the occupying forces with a different resource. A Hab System is required to boost the faction's manpower, a Production Centre is required to produce arms and munitions, a Mining System is necessary to provide raw materials to the production centre and control of a Fortress World will mean the faction has a solid base of operations.


Capturing Systems

To capture a system you must simply win a game of 40K. Before playing the game both players must roll off to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender in the forthcoming battle. The attacker then declares what system he is attacking, selecting any system he likes.

If the attacker moves to claim an unnoccupied system, the defender's advance forces have arrived at the same time and the winner takes control of the world. Alternatively he can attack a system already held by the defender.

The campaign will be displayed visually on a map, using coloured pins to represent each faction. Conquered systems will be shown with a coloured pin to indicate the occupying faction, and the map will be updated after each battle.

If you lose every system you control, your fleet still remains present in the sub-sector, but you always fight as the attacker until you regain a system.


Defensive Advantages

Primary systems are fortified against attack, providing the defender with a tactical advantage. It is up to players to imagine what sort of defences their forces might bestow on the planets and surrounding space.

When you claim a primary system you may choose one defensive advantage from the following list to use in games in which you defend that system. Note that defensive advantages are not available to defenders who are defending an unclaimed primary system.

o +1 to infantry cover saves, 6+ cover save for infantry units in the open
o +1 to your reserve rolls
o -1 to enemy reserve rolls
o You may re-roll dice to determine deployment type
o Your deep strike units do not scatter
o Enemy deep strikers suffer D6 S3 AP- hits the moment they arrive
o You may re-roll the dice to determine who places the first objective marker

You must choose which type of defensive advantage you will gain from the system when you conquer it. You may not change the defensive advantage once you have chosen it, however if you lose the world and then recapture it you may select a new defensive advantage.

In each case, for the purpose of the storyline you should declare to the campaign arbitrator why your forces are gaining the advantage - perhaps you have installed earthworks, or opened a warp-portal, or have anti-air emplacements off-table?


Attacking From Outposts

If your forces occupy an outpost adjacent to the primary system that you are attacking, your forces can use the outpost as a staging area for the assault, stockpiling ammunition and preparing for the invasion.

The in-game effect of attacking from an outpost is that you negate the defender's defensive advantage - ignore the effects of their advantage for this battle.


Strategy Cards

Controlling many outposts will also give your forces a strong strategic position in the sub-sector, meaning you can move your forces around quickly and keep your supply lines open, even when on the back foot.

To represent this, each time you conquer an outpost you may draw a random strategy card from the deck. Unless specified on the card itself, a strategy card may be played at any time during any game, in your turn.

Strategy cards can be held onto indefinitely, throughout the entire campaign if desired, and any number of them may be played during any game. You may hold a maximum of 8 strategy cards - if you have 9 in your hand at any one time you must immediately discard one card of your choice, shuffling it back into the deck.


Mission Selection Chart

After the attacker has picked the system he is going to attack, he rolls a D6 to determine what mission is to be played.

Mounting a surprise raid on an isolated moon base is quite different to assaulting a dug-in army defending a fortified star system. To represent this there are two sides to the mission selection chart depending on whether you are attacking an outpost or a primary system.

D6 Roll (Outpost)
4 - 6 .... Attacker chooses mission
3 ......... Randomly roll for mission
1 - 2 .... Defender chooses mission

D6 Roll (Primary)
5 - 6 .... Attacker chooses mission
4 ......... Randomly roll for mission
1 - 3 .... Defender chooses mission

If you have the choice of mission you may elect to play any mission from the 5th Edition Rulebook, Planetstrike, Battle Missions or Spearhead. If you are to roll for it randomly you must roll up a standard mission from the 5th Edition Rulebook.

In all cases deployment type is rolled for randomly, unless a particular deployment is specified in the mission briefing.


Commanders

At the start of the campaign you must name three characters for your army. These are your generals - mighty commanders whose experience and leadership may sway the forthcoming battles in your favour. Be sure to give them suitably grand and imposing names. You must also declare what HQ unit type they are, for example, a Space Marine Captain, Necron Lord, Hive Tyrant or whatever, and specify their wargear and upgrades.

You may use a maximum of one named commander in each game, as either defender or attacker. Before starting the game, after the attacker has picked the system he is attacking, both players decide whether they are going to use a commander in the forthcoming battle.

To keep this fair, both players reveal their choice by placing a dice in either their right hand or left hand, out of sight of their opponent (under the table or behind your back is fine). Both players then reveal their hands at the same time.

o Placing the dice in your right hand indicates your commander will be taking part in this battle.

o Placing it in your left hand it indicates your commander will not be taking part.

Commanders confer no in-game effect, however if you elect to use a commander then you automatically get to select the mission and deployment type for the upcoming game.

If both sides elect to use a commander then they cancel each other out, and the attacker simply rolls on the mission selection chart as normal.

Obviously the commander or commanders must then be used in the game. If a commander is killed he is stricken from the campaign and may not be used again. All commanders have the Eternal Warrior special rule if they didn't have it before.


Winning A Battle

To keep the campaign active and exciting, and make sure new developments occur frequently, battles are either won or lost - there can be no draws. To determine who has won at the end of the battle, consult the normal victory conditions for that mission. Note that you should not voluntarily lose or concede battles to gain a tactical advantage.

If there is no clear winner (for example, you both claimed an equal number of objectives), the winner is decided by a victory points system. Add up the number of points you have left on the table at the end of the battle, according to the following criteria:


Worth full points value
Squads ............................................. 50% strength or above
Multiple Wound Unit Squads .................. 50% strength or above
Independent Characters / Lone MCs ....... Full complement of wounds left
Lone Vehicles ..................................... Undamaged, suffered only crew shaken or stunned during game
Vehicle Squadrons ............................... 50% or more of vehicles still operational with at least one functioning weapon

Worth half points value
Squads ............................................. Less than 50% strength
Multiple Wound Unit Squads .................. Less than 50% strength
Independent Characters / Lone MCs ....... Less than 50% of starting wounds left
Vehicles ............................................ Immobilised and/or at least one functioning weapon
Vehicle Squadrons ............................... Less than 50% of vehicles still operational with at least one functioning weapon

Worth zero points
Squads ............................................. Destroyed, broken and below 50% strength
Multiple Wound Unit Squads .................. Destroyed
Independent Characters / Lone MCs........ Destroyed
Vehicles ............................................ Immobilised with no functioning weapons, wrecked or exploded
Vehicle Squadrons ............................... No functioning weapons in the squad

Troops units worth their full points value count double.

All fractions are rounded up when calculating VPs, so a squad of 9 models counts as being at half strength if it has 5 models or more remaining. If the VP total produces a fraction round that up too.

Some examples:

A brood of 2 Carnifexes with no upgrades (320pts, heavy support choice) that suffered 2 wounds, during the battle, and therefore no casualties, is worth the full 320 VPs.

A unit of 6 Eldar Jetbikes with no upgrades (132pts, fast attack choice) that suffers 5 casualties during the battle is worth 66 VPs (half of 132).

A squad of 20 Ork Boys with shootas (120pts) that suffered 8 casualties during the battle is worth 240 VPs (less than 50% casualties, but x2 because they are troops)

A squadron of 3 Hellhounds with hull-mounted heavy bolters (390pts), of which two are still mobile, however one of those two has no weapons remaining is worth 195 VPs (half of 390). Even though two are still mobile, there is only one tank with functioning weapons. If both those weapons were to be destroyed, or if the tank with the working weapons were to immobilised (and therefore destroyed) the squadron would be worth zero VPs.


Pre-Battle Sequence

1. Agree to play an opponent
2. Roll off to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender
3. Attacker selects system to attack
4. Decide whether to use commander or not, and reveal dice in hand to declare
5. Roll on mission selection chart, or select mission if there is only one commander

[Hunger]

Strategy Cards

Some of the older players may remember the fantastic Strategy Cards which appeared in a White Dwarf to be used in 2nd edition 40K. They added another dynamic to the games - troopers running out of ammunition, aerial support units strafing targets, and the legendarily broken 'Virus Outbreak' card that decimated armies!

I wanted to use the element of strategic advantage in the campaign, but without writing loads of special rules, so I decided to resurrect the Strategy Cards, updating the concept for the current edition and adding in a few of my own ideas.

Here is a nicely formatted jpeg of the strategy cards that you can just print out and trim, together with a jpeg of the map myt club is using - better to design your own custom one though, its not hard. I just found a couple of pictures of planets on google images, transplanted them into a Word.doc file and then took it to a print shop and asked them to blow up the image and print it out on A2 paper for me. I then mounted the map on a cork pinboard. The Strategy Cards I simply printed out on thin card and trimmed with a guillotine. As you can tell, I'm not the most tech savvy person - someone with some Photoshop skill could do a much better job.

Anyway, here they are, and in case you can't (or don't wish to) use my jpegs I have listed the effects of my Strategy Cards below. In my set there are 3x 'Low On Ammo' cards, 3x 'Ammo Cache' cards, 3 'Intelligence' cards and one of every other one, but you could make a different mix if you wish.

Page 1


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Sinkhole
Play this card when an enemy vehicle moves. A sinkhole opens up under the vehicle, causing a glancing hit. Count ‘weapon destroyed’ as ‘immobilised’.

Lance Strike
Play this card as a shooting attack. Place a large blast anywhere on the table and scatter it 2D6”. Models under it suffer a S10 AP1 hit. Place a crater if possible.

Barrage
Play this card as a shooting attack. Place D3 large blast templates anywhere on the battlefield and scatter each 2D6”. Models hit suffer a S5 AP5 hit.

Booby Traps
Place a marker anywhere on the battlefield. Models that pass withn 3” will trigger a trap on a 5+. Traps are S4 AP5, small blast. The marker remains in play.

New Orders
Move an objective marker up to 12”. If you play this card on turn 5, 6 or 7 roll a D6. On a 4+ your opponent gets to move the marker instead.

Delayed Reserves
Choose any unit of enemy reserves that became available this turn. They do not arrive this turn, and instead go back into reserve.

Lucky Shot
Play this card after you have hit a vehicle with a ranged weapon but before rolling to penetrate armour. Gain +2 to your armour penetration roll.

Cowardice
Play this after an enemy squad fails a morale test. The squad scatters completely and is destroyed. Does not affect Fearless models or those with ATSKNF.

Flank March
You may re-roll the dice to determine which board edge your infiltrators or scouts arrive on when performing an outflanking move.

Malfunction
Play this card when an enemy vehicle moves. A thrown track or engine malfunction prevents it moving this turn. It may move normally in future.

Reinforce
Play this card at the start of your movement phase. Pick any unit of Troops that was destroyed in a previous turn and bring on another identical squad.

Close Shave
Play this card at any time one of your non-vehicle models is killed by enemy shooting. The model is unharmed, and suffers no damage from the attack.

Misfire
Play this card anytime an enemy non-vehicle model fires a heavy weapon. The round explodes in the breech, causing a S4 AP- hit on the model.

Minefield
Reveal a 10” x 4” minefield anywhere on the battlefield. The area counts as dangerous terrain for the rest of the battle. Vehicles are unaffected.

Razorwire
Play this card when an enemy squad runs. Every member of the squad must take a dangerous terrain test.

Strafing Run
One enemy unit is strafed by autocannon fire. The unit suffers D6 S7 AP4 hits.

Teleporter Booby Trap
Play this card when an enemy unit teleports onto the table. Every member of the squad must make a dangerous terrain test.

Signal Scrambler
Play this card when an enemy unit deep strikes onto the table, before scatter. The unit scatters 4D6”. Drop pod inertial guidance fails.

Brilliant Strategy
Play this card just before the battle starts to either steal the initiative automatically or to redeploy up to 2 of your units. They may be reserved.

Sabotage
Your agents have rigged parts of the battlefield with explosives. Place a S5 AP3 large blast template anywhere on a terrain piece of your choice.

Vortex Grenade
One model may throw this rare weapon 6” as a shooting attack. It uses a small blast, S10 AP1, and will instant-kill despite Eternal Warrior.

Low On Ammo
Play this card when an enemy unit shoots. The unit must re-roll all hits this turn.

Ammo Cache
Play this card just before one of your units shoots. The unit may re-roll all misses this turn.

Intelligence
Play this card to cancel out a Barrage, Lance Strike, Booby Traps, Reinforce, Delayed Reserves, Teleporter Booby Trap, Flank March or Minefield card.


Campaign Map

Finally, here's the campaign map I am using. The little blue planets are Outposts, and can only affect the primary planets they are linked to. In our campaign we decided that players could attack any planet regardless of which planets they controlled - their forces can strike anywhere in the system. That said, you could easily make it a rule that players can only attack planets that they have a direct link to if you wish.



Have fun!

[Talonis]

This is absolutely excellent stuff! Thank you so much for sharing it. I have been wracking my brain for idea's to run a new campaign for my local club ( my last one was pretty good, but I wanted to expand... having the same problems of people in and out).

I really like what you have done with the asset cards. What I also like is the Named Character idea, I may slightly modifications but as a general rule would work very nicely.

Again, thank you for this I am sure it will create some epic stories

[Bot]

Thanks hunger! This looks really greate! I have been working on something very similar, but because I wanted to have a story line working too I couldn't really get it working. Have been working on a campaign system the last couple of months and I am not yet satisfied with the result.

However my friends and I really need a campaign up on its legs very soon and I think this will do just perfect.

Anyway thanks for sharing hunger.
If you like, I can give you feedback as the campaign is progressing

yet thanks for sharing! This is really what my friends and I have been needing for a while now.

[kenji10000]

This looks super fun! We were literally just discussing a new campaign in my gaming group. I'm definitely gonna use some of your ideas^_^

[Talonis]

Just had a thought too in which would help players "drop in and out".

Instead of having each army as a separate force... you could have each force as a race. So anyone who is a tyrannic player for example can win battles for that team, who is a chaos player will play for the chaos team and ect...

The only problem you may run into is there are too many space marine players haha!
Although, you could have imperial vs Xenos. That could also work for larger group of players, who may not always want to be active.

[Hunger]

Thanks for your comments everyone. As I say, the system works very well, and I'm rather proud of it myself. It would work well as an Order versus Disorder thing too, with both sides fighting to capture, say, two of each world.

The storyline element, although not necessary, certainly helps people stay interested in it - the main problem with running campaigns in my experience is that loads of people sign up at the start but then nobody actually bothers recording their results after a few weeks, and the campaign becomes stale or dominated by a couple of players.

You could also introduce random happenings at monthly intervals - an ancient artifact is uncovered on a random occupied world that causes its destruction, perhaps each faction can use spies or saboteurs to affect the balance of points available in armies. You could even give everyone a set number of points for the entire campaign - say 10,000 or 15,000 - that make up their whole fighting force in the sector. Late entrants must subtract 1,000 pts from the total for each week that has passed prior to their entrance, and players may commit no more than, say, 3,000 pts to any one battle. The use of Kill Teams or special small games could open up more possibilities for you.

Whatever you decide, make sure to discuss your ideas and the format of the campaign with the other players first - what you would like may not be what the majority of the group would like, and that will affect their enjoyment of the campaign and therefore their enthusiasm for participating in it.

[Devil's Advocate]

Ok, so there's one problem - the images you posted are ONLY 800x565 pixels. If I were to print this at a standard print size of 300dpi, that would be an image 2.667 inches x 1.883 inches.
Reducing the resolution to a somewhat tolerable 150 dpi, the image is 5.33 inches x 3.767 inches...

Can you email me the original hi-res version of the card files?
If I can get a sufficiently high enough resolution, I can convert it to a pdf version for you, which will help keep the file size down, put both images in a single document and give a better version of the cards....

let me know

[Geneva]

This is very impressive. Similar to a campaign my group held a couple months back but probably a lot more balanced than ours.

[Hunger]

Thank you Genevaman.

DA, I will email you PDFs of the files - I don't need them in higher resolution myself, and I have a PDF writer. If anyone else would like them in higher resolution, please send me a private message with your email address and I'll email you a PDF.

EDIT: DA (and anyone else who wants a copy) - check your spam folder for my email - my communications have a habit of being confused with adverts for diet pills and member enlargement.

[Talonis]

Well last night I started a new campaign at my local club with much success!

Everyone loved the rule set, especially the idea with the commanders. I did however tweak the commander rules to include Named/unique characters. Basically to use any named characters in campaign games, they must have been included as 1 of your 3 commander choices.

I also created a new map for it in photoshop, which I can upload to here soon.

Having my 1st game last night, my Tyranid forces infiltrated their way into a Renagade imperial guard system and successfully infiltrated the planet and have secured their first victory. Good game with my opponent using the new FW rules from the Siege of Verax I think... not and army list.

*edit*
Here is the Map I created. Feel free to use this for your own campaigns if you like

[Major Chrispy]

Awww talonis no Aegis? I'm hurt

Great idea's though hunger. Currently running my first campagn but this is sweet

[Talonis]

Sorry Blood Genesis, I can always modify it for you if you like
Campaigns are great fun, this is my second one I've run, but I have played in a fair few. I highly rate them.

[Devil's Advocate]

*facepalm*

Photobucket's max image size is 800 px wide - so my nice, high-res, revised rules card images will end up at the same resolution as the OP's.

Guess I'll just have to find another place to put it...