40K Campaigns

[Rogue]

Coming from Fantasy originally, campaigns were a popular way to play WFB. My experience is through three campaigns, and I always wanted to do more if I had the chance. I particularly liked Map campaigns as they had a bit more strategy behind them than just moving from one game to the next, and the games seemed to matter more.

While I have been involved in 40K since the 5th edition, I have not seen much of anything about campaigns, and perhaps one guy who talked about playing a campaign. Since there was no real world wide campaign like we had with the "Eye of Terror,"(I think that it was a 40K campaign, feel free to correct me) I was not expecting anything big like that, but I am rather surprised that in 10 years I have not even heard of someone trying to organize one. Maybe it is just bad luck on my part, but personally I can envision a campaign in 40K. However, I wanted to ask about the experience that people had with playing a campaign in 40K. Mainly my questions boil down to the line of:

How was the campaign organized?(map, tree, latter, multiplayer, one on one, etc.)

What happened in the campaign?

What did you think of it?

Anything that would make it better?

Honestly any general thoughts on 40k and campaigns is what I am looking for. It may be that 40K is not as conducive to a campaign as WFB was, though I would hope not.

[Captain Brown]

Rogue,

Well the Forge World books ran through campaigns that you could run with other players. Like the Taros Campaign of Book 3 which had scenarios between Space Marines and Tau followed by a planetary invasion of Imperial Guard and even some Titans against the Tau. Further books had similar campaigns pitting one or two imperial armies against a Xenos opponent.

7th Edition had several books with campaigns in them.

GW got out of running world wide campaigns because of the cost and manpower required. They only did one for WFB to end the game and replace it with AoS.

Sincerely,

CB

[Rogue]

Personally I was never fond of world wide campaigns. It does not mean that I did not like the new army lists, or magic items, but it seemed to me too disorganized spread out over the world. I am more fond of localized campaigns, where you can get more involved with people and actually have your own agenda within the campaign.

As far as the source material goes, good to know about. I will look up some of what you are talking about and see what you mean. I do know about an old RT campaign pitted between the Crimson Fists and Orks on Rynn's World. That to me seems to me more like a latter campaign, which is a type of campaign that kind of lends itself more to 40k more than a map campaign, or am I wrong?

[Commissar von Toussaint]

How was the campaign organized?(map, tree, latter, multiplayer, one on one, etc.)

What happened in the campaign?

What did you think of it?

Anything that would make it better?

Honestly any general thoughts on 40k and campaigns is what I am looking for. It may be that 40K is not as conducive to a campaign as WFB was, though I would hope not.

We use a tree style campaign and discuss the stakes for each battle, force composition restrictions and where it fits in the overall scenario.

I should note we use 2nd ed. rules and objectives, so a little different from what you are doing.

Our current campaign started with the Orks fighting for control. So we did and Ork vs Ork battle over the Power Claw of Rulership. I lost, so my friend gets to play the Orks.

I'm playing the Tyranids. Our first battle was a meeting engagement - no heavy support for either side, both seeking to enter the other's deployment zone. (Dawn Raid objective).

The result was a total rout of the Orks. So the next scenario will be the Orks trying to put together a defensive line. They will use Engage and Destroy (enhanced VPs for kills) while I will use Terrorize (bonus VPs for breaking units' morale).

We have a general idea of what should come next, but the battle can change how we proceed. The death of a major leader, loss of key equipment - all that has downstream effects in real life, so we try to make them part of the campaign.

Sometimes that means that one side will quit before they were totally wiped out, which is more realistic than just trying to score points.

Hope that helps.

[ManofErebor]

Our narrative campaign has lasted 5 years so far and is going strong. The campaign is divided into many parts: on one world, the winner of one battle keeps the initiative and can pick the next territory to invade. Take enough territories and you win the planet.

Elsewhere, we have story going on and a battle simply adds to the story. On other worlds, what's happening is a purely fictional story. We're ending up with an encyclopedia of history, characters, and fiction of an entire sector of the galaxy. Check it out at www.thecorvuscluster.com.
--TheGM

[Rogue]

Our narrative campaign has lasted 5 years so far and is going strong. The campaign is divided into many parts: on one world, the winner of one battle keeps the initiative and can pick the next territory to invade. Take enough territories and you win the planet.

Elsewhere, we have story going on and a battle simply adds to the story. On other worlds, what's happening is a purely fictional story. We're ending up with an encyclopedia of history, characters, and fiction of an entire sector of the galaxy. Check it out at www.thecorvuscluster.com.
--TheGM
Five Year Narrative Campaign? Now that is dedication right there! Albeit it sounds like you keep things new by declaring that this world is now "Taken" and move on to a new part of the campaign. Or is this really a group of campaigns that have an overarching narrative campaign that fits them all together? Either way keep at it.

I am also going through the link that you posted. That is a great idea as to how you put this all together. Keep at it.

[Rogue]

We use a tree style campaign and discuss the stakes for each battle, force composition restrictions and where it fits in the overall scenario.

I should note we use 2nd ed. rules and objectives, so a little different from what you are doing.

Our current campaign started with the Orks fighting for control. So we did and Ork vs Ork battle over the Power Claw of Rulership. I lost, so my friend gets to play the Orks.

I'm playing the Tyranids. Our first battle was a meeting engagement - no heavy support for either side, both seeking to enter the other's deployment zone. (Dawn Raid objective).

The result was a total rout of the Orks. So the next scenario will be the Orks trying to put together a defensive line. They will use Engage and Destroy (enhanced VPs for kills) while I will use Terrorize (bonus VPs for breaking units' morale).

We have a general idea of what should come next, but the battle can change how we proceed. The death of a major leader, loss of key equipment - all that has downstream effects in real life, so we try to make them part of the campaign.

Sometimes that means that one side will quit before they were totally wiped out, which is more realistic than just trying to score points.

Hope that helps.

That seems to me what I would expect in a tree campaign.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

That seems to me what I would expect in a tree campaign.

I think the key difference between what we do and a traditional tree campaign is we don't really make up the tree beforehand. Often we just go and see what happens.

We have tried to plot them out, but this is more flexible and relaxed - especially if something interesting happens to a major character or the result is really lop-sided.

[Rogue]

I think the key difference between what we do and a traditional tree campaign is we don't really make up the tree beforehand. Often we just go and see what happens.

We have tried to plot them out, but this is more flexible and relaxed - especially if something interesting happens to a major character or the result is really lop-sided.

So it is a tree campaign with no set branches? Another interesting option.

I had a buddy of mine a while back where we did a rolling campaign, where we would roll the terrain of our particular WFB game. Kind of like what you see with Gettysburg form Day One to Day Two.(This is better explained in the 4ed Book of 40K) It was a fun idea and I liked doing it.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

So it is a tree campaign with no set branches? Another interesting option.

I had a buddy of mine a while back where we did a rolling campaign, where we would roll the terrain of our particular WFB game. Kind of like what you see with Gettysburg form Day One to Day Two.(This is better explained in the 4ed Book of 40K) It was a fun idea and I liked doing it.

Interesting.

I've done campaigns where we included a "pursuit" scenario fought on the short edge, so the battlefield is narrow but deep. The retreating player had to get his troops back to a designated defensive line all the while being chased vigorously. Fun game.

Maybe I should do a thread on narrow boards.

[Rogue]

I would like to read that thread. I think that they had a setup similar to that for a 40K game back when the 5th came out. No game per sae, but it looked like a column of Space Marines were being ambushed. As there was no specific bat rep that went along with the game, I have no idea what the rules were. Likewise I remember the first White Dwarf that I read, had an army of High Elves that were ambushed by Night Goblins, and the 4th edition Dwarf book had a scenario where the Dwarves were ambushed but had a relief force coming to their rescue. Short Edge games have their precedence.

[Commissar von Toussaint]

I would like to read that thread. I think that they had a setup similar to that for a 40K game back when the 5th came out. No game per sae, but it looked like a column of Space Marines were being ambushed. As there was no specific bat rep that went along with the game, I have no idea what the rules were. Likewise I remember the first White Dwarf that I read, had an army of High Elves that were ambushed by Night Goblins, and the 4th edition Dwarf book had a scenario where the Dwarves were ambushed but had a relief force coming to their rescue. Short Edge games have their precedence.

Here's the thread:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?424102-Playing-on-the-Short-Edge-of-the-Tabletop

[Rogue]

Here's the thread:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?424102-Playing-on-the-Short-Edge-of-the-Tabletop

Thank you.

[MadHatter]

Back in the day (4th edition) my friends and the gaming store we played at use the old mighty empire system to as a base to work from.

Each player started off with 7 hex empire with the center the capital. and you rolled for randomly to see what else you got in the empire. City, fortress, town and farming village or wilderness.

Each player started with 5000 point to build army list. ranging from 500pts to 2500pts. you could have as many banner armies as you could afford but you had to have all the models per banner armies if there were more then 1 in a tile.

Each of these gave so many points per turn. (think Axis and Allies) if one of your army banners was depleted you could restore them. or raise a new one at a fortress or capital.

if all units had transports or were fast attacks they could move two hexs or could explore one. everyone else moved one and they explored it as they moved through it. there were several random roll charts for the hex. see if settlements were there. anything of value, etc.

the map was set up with 2 hex's between each empires starting seven.

you paid a banner upkeep each turn. the more points the higher the cost.

you won when you eliminated the other player origional warlords and took thier capitals. a warlord could retake the fallen capital and a new warlord would step up if the original died. but if the capital fell that player was eliminated. Once a player was eliminated he could play as mercenaries for other armies. so they could still play.

between the ten players, one quit several weeks in. and the rest of us played till its conclusion about six month later. it was not fair. the battles were not even points. and there was alot of little details i no longer remember. but it was fun and i would love to do it again.

[Thingol of Iyaden]

Also to help add background/stay true to fluff, Chessex produced 2ft x 3ft hex maps both numbered and not (I taped 4 together and numbered them by hand to create a super large Star fleet Battles play mat for games with planets and orbital bases). The early traveler game books had tables for star/planet system generation. Use the 40k fluff for getting your bearings (eye of terror or rift are in these hex #s), and tables to fill in, sprinkle with eldar warp gates, a few sleeping necron worlds, orc and fleets coming from these directions, etc. That way the hex number can be the sector's, and your batrep sounds like GW/FW/Black Library story line one.

[Rogue]

Map campaign using ME hexes. Other than the pieces needs to be sci-fi related, I can see how that could work. I did a map campaign similar to that in WFB at the tail end of the 6th. One of the best campaigns that I was ever in.

[Thingol of Iyaden]

also think about climate/terrain features like dune seas, open water, lava fields, arctic frozen glacier fields, and low/high oxygen atmospheres. Can give a whole new meaning to "Dangerous Terrain" rolls!

[Rogue]

also think about climate/terrain features like dune seas, open water, lava fields, arctic frozen glacier fields, and low/high oxygen atmospheres. Can give a whole new meaning to "Dangerous Terrain" rolls!

In a different campaign we had weather factors that affected the game play. Depending on how it is deployed, it can be interesting wrinkles to the game. How is a Dune sea different from a desert, however?

[Thingol of Iyaden]

A dune sea is unpacked sand sculpted by wind into enormous shapes. Satellite imagery of the Sahara dune sea discovered an ancient large dry lake. The distance from the lake bed to the dune top was estimated at 110 feet, and a 3 mile wide base. A land rover using sand tracks can make it up and down them. As can people carrying a light load (think IG conscript), but a space marine (do to pounds per square inch) can quickly be hip deep. A battle cannon firing could (on a six) cause a liquefaction event, burying it. A FW four barrel super fusion cannons wouldn't just sink, but encase most of it in a fresh coat of glass! In a game it's lost, but in a campaign it can be dug up, hauled back to base, and refurbished. If you retain the area!