The Sector Empyrean had enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity, as the incessant warring that always plagues the 41st millenium had abated to mere rumblings in the background. The Space Marines and Imperial Guard had managed to push the Orks back into the mountains and feral regions, and the more exotic threats of the other xenos enemies of the Imperium seemed to simply have no interest in the sector. Indeed, even the cults and traitors who would turn to the worship of the dark ones seemed not to be the sort of problem so many other sectors faced.
It seemed that the Empyrean Sector was destined for a second Golden Age, a time of great prosperity and growth...but the winds of fate had other plans for the quiet sector...for in the grim darkness of the future...
There is only war.
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Campaign Rules
This campaign will be using a 'persistent forces' rule set. What this means is that at the start of the campaign, you will have a specific army selected. You will draw units from that army for all games in the campaign. When a unit dies, it is dead, and cannot be used in further campaigns.
You may play any published, current army list.
You do not have to have 5000 points of army in order to be able to participate in this campaign. The games in the campaign will range in size from 500 points all the way to 2500 points, depending on the scenario for that round. In addition, players are never required to commit the maximum number of points for a scenario, it is perfectly acceptable to deploy the minimum force organization choices in order to conserve troops.
Each round players will play a specific scenario supplied at the start of the round. Each scenario will have a time limit. I will attempt to provide a 'warning' when it's getting close to time for all scenarios, so that a final turn may be finished. Extending time limits is entirely at organizer discretion.
Units that participate in a scenario will have a chance to earn veteran status and skills, as per the rules in the main Warhammer 40k rulebook.
In addition, a new rule will be added to ALL scenario's unless otherwise noted by a specific scenario - 'It's Hopeless!' - At the start of a players turn, he may choose to forfeit the game, and make immediate fall back moves for all units not currently engaged in close combat. During subsequent turns, units are treated as falling back and may not rally (unless assaulted, then follow the normal rules for assaulted while falling back). Vehicles must move at cruising speed or better towards their own table border. Transports must move towards either their table border, or towards a friendly unit that could embark into the transport. Any unit that falls back off of the table after the player has forfeited, or that is falling back with no enemy model within 12" at the end of the battle, will be treated as having survived the battle with the number of models in the unit at the time it leaves the table. A forfeit always counts as a massacre victory for the opponent.
Finally, as regards minimum requirements for troops and HQ for missions, it is entirely possible that through the course of the campaign a player could lose all of their compulsory units and be unable to fulfill compulsory choices. They must make every effort to satisfy compulsory choices, but if their army has lost all eligible units for compulsory selections, they simply build their army without that particular unit type.
List Creation
This is perhaps the most unique and potentially confusing portion of this campaign, how to make your 5000 point army list. First of all, it will use the following composition chart:
HQ : 3 - 5
Elites : 0 - 6
Troops : Minimum 6
Fast Attack : 0 - 6
Heavy Support : 0 - 6
In addition, each player will select an additional HQ choice to be their 'Army Commander' representing themselves. This HQ will play a more significant role in the campaign storyline (and I'd appreciate getting a heads up on who your commander will be as soon as possible).
Now, you do NOT have to have 5000 points of army in order to play this campaign. Multiple units on your Army List may be represented by the same model in your actual collection, for example if I own 1 Necron Monolith and 3 Necron Heavy Destroyers, for my 0-6 heavy support choices for my army list I could choose to take 2 Monoliths and 3 units of 3 heavy destroyers. HOWEVER, you may never deploy units that you do not own. So if you are playing a 2000 point game, you couldn't decide to play 2 Monoliths in the game, unless you had purchased an additional monolith and had it assembled and ready to go. No substitutions will be allowed for this sort of situation, period. You need to have 2000 points of unique army for this campaign.
A War of Attrition
This scenario is very much a war of attrition, in that the units, vehicles and characters that you lose in the campaign don't come back. This is very simple for independent characters - they live or they die. If they are not counted as a casualty at the end of the game, then they live to fight another day. For units, it gets a bit more complicated but not very much so. If a unit is reduced to 50%, it is permanently reduced to 50% (this has no effect on the units options that had a minimum model count for purchasing), if the unit is deployed in subsequent games is is deployed with half the models it originally had on the main sheet. If a unit is completely wiped out, it is permanently destroyed. Some of the newer codexes allow for units to be split into multiple units when deployed, or joined into larger units. For the purposes of determining SURVIVORS (not kill points or other mission related scoring) units that were split rejoin with the rest of their unit, then compare the rejoined unit to the original unit. For units that joined to form a larger unit, resplit the units into their consituent units, completely building the first unit before putting models into the second unit, ignoring the specific surviving weapon options. Then determine which units survive at half or full strength, and which are destroyed.
Vehicles will work in much the same way, with one minor difference. A destroyed vehicle is simply destroyed and removed from the list. However, if the vehicle is only immobilised at the end of the battle, it is recovered if either of these conditions is true: A) You won the battle or B) You lost the battle, but the vehicle is within your deployment zone and you did not forfeit the game and retreat.
A final note - there are certain units in the game that have the ability to 'come back' when they die through various means. I will look at these on a case by case basis, but the general rule of thumb is this: if the SAME unit or character reappears, it can survive the battle. If an identical unit or character REPLACES the unit, the unit has died on the main army list.
Campaign Rounds / Scoring / How to Win
The campaign will take place in rounds, there will generally be 2 campaign rounds per weekend, though there may be as many as 4 on a given weekend. Each round, players will roll to determine who has 'initiative' for the round (d100 - your previous turns initiative, with the highest score going first for that round). Players may choose to deploy their forces against any other army in the sector in order to achieve their ultimate goals.
Each round will have a certain number of points that are possible to be achieved during it, as well as potential other benefits (for example, being able to 'rescue' a previously lost headquarters unit). The scenario sheets for each round will give pertinent information about the scoring options for that scenario.
The winner will be the player who, through the course of the campaign, achieves the most overall objective points during the campaign.
Registration
To register your army for the campaign, simply PM Kaeros with what army you are going to be playing, your commanders name, and the book entry you will be using for the commander.
Please note, I would prefer that your commander's name be original, rather than using a specific character from the 40k lore. Abbaddon and Marneus Calgar are not in the sector, you can use their rules but name them something else :)
