My local group tends to run 1-2 loosely themed campaigns a year. The first one of 3.0 is themed around the Siege of Mezoa. The campaign centers around control of 3 rings of loyalist fortifications (Mezoa Primus, Outlying Defenses, Orbital Defense Grid). Each fortification gives a different bonus to the loyalists. The traitor's objective is to gain control of all three. The loyalists can end the siege if they are able to maintain control of all three defensive rings and complete a special apex mission after sufficiently depleting the traitor forces. 

There is a 7-stage logistics tracker that measures how the siege is progressing. As the traitors win, they gain tactical superiority and get special benefits. When they gain a certain level of superiority, they can launch a special apex mission to gain control of a fortification. Conversely, as the loyalists win it swings the other way. The traitors get penalties reflecting the cost of attrition and supply depletion as the loyalists gain momentum.

The campaign does have a time limit (months) as there is a chance the victory conditions won't be triggered, and people will want to move on. If we end up playing a lot of games in short order it could be over very quickly instead! If the time limit is reached without a decisive victor, then the 'winning' side will be determined based on total games won. In reality we'll all win since the point is to have fun and play games. But someone has to have bragging rights!

Note: None of the ideas or custom rules are mine. There are a few people in the group who put these together year after year. I just play games and make sarcastic statements. If there is interest, I will detail out the custom rules. However, they may be changed as things get tweaked for balance.

Campaign Kick Off

The Traitor fleets have arrived above the Forge World of Mezoa, and bring death with them. Falling back to classic maneuvers, the Traitor forces employ a lightning assault against both the Orbital Defense Grid and the planet’s surface, hoping to overwhelm Loyalist defenders and establish a beachhead. Such a move is risky, for while the Loyalists still control the space around the planet, ground forces will not be safe from the massive guns bristling the orbital platforms.

The opening event occured this weekend and consisted of two linked apex missions. Two of the ten players couldn't make it, so we ended up with going with 1v1 and 3v3 for the match ups. The Night Lords and Militia/Imperial Fists players were the two absent.

The first was a Zone Mortalis mission representing the attack on a defense grid control station. This was a 5-turn mission intended to accommodate 1v1, 1v2, or 2v2 (1250 points a side if 1v1, 2000 points a side if 2v2). The loyalists start with control of three control station rooms which are being used to launch bombardments on the beachhead assault board. As long as the loyalists control the majority of control rooms, their side can use orbital bombardments during the other game. If the traitors gain complete control of grid they can turn the bombardment on the loyalist defenders instead.

World Eaters and Salamanders deployment

We ended up with World Eaters versus Salamanders for the Zone Mortalis game. The Salamanders managed to keep the World Eaters from taking control of the defense grid. The World Eaters were so lost to the nails that they struggled to open the blast doors quickly, which left not enough time to capture all the control rooms.         

World Eaters arguing on whether to pull or push the door to open it.

The second mission represented the traitor's attempt to establish the beachhead. This was a 4-turn mission intended as a 2v2 or 3v3 match with 2500 points per player. There were several special rules: 
(1) No super heavies allowed.
(2) All traitor forces start in reserve. Deep strikes are allowed starting on the first turn and each traitor can attempt two deep strikes per turn. 
(3) During each loyalist shooting phase, while the loyalists hold the majority of defense control rooms, they can fire orbital bombardments on the traitors. If the traitors can gain control, they may fire bombardments on the loyalists during their next shooting phase. After which the defense grid is offline. 
(4) The loyalists place a random number of graviton mine markers during deployment. Half are mines, half are decoys. Ending a move within 9" of a mine triggers it, pulling the triggering unit 2d6" towards the mine. If the unit makes contact with the mine token it explodes and hits all models within 6". 
(5) Scoring if modified. Traitors get 5VP if they have more units than the loyalists in the loyalist deployment zone at the end of the game (Line units count as two units), 1VP every time a vanguard unit removes the last model in a loyalist unit during melee or shooting (unless expendable), and 2VP for slay the warlord. Loyalists get 5VP for keeping more than 50% of their units alive, 1VP for every traitor walker and vehicle (with 7+ HP) destroyed (unless expendable), and 2VP for slay the warlord. No other conditions award VP.

The planetary assault was Sons of Horus (Luna Wolves) + questoris knight, Dark Mechanicum, and Thousand Sons facing off against Solar Auxilia, Raven Guard, and Shattered Legions (mostly Iron Hands). None of the traitors used deep strike although in hindsight I wish I had built my list around it.

Midway through the first traitor turn. Notice is given of the Luna Wolves rhino and tactical squad charging forth to clear mines. While the rhino is commended for surviving the entire battle and making it to the loyalist deployment zone, the tactical marines will not be mourned for failing to reach the loyalist lines.

There were a few memorable events that stick out for the planetary assault. In no particular order:

• I had an Arcus and tactical squad fail reserve rolls for the first two turns, managing to roll four 1s. They almost didn't come in on turn 3 either!
• For reasons, my spartan (with laser destroyers) was nominated to force the middle of the board which meant it was drawing fire from a sicaran venator, laser rapier squads, and a few other high strength guns. It gave a good accounting for itself but was rapidly turned into a wreck on the first loyalist shooting phase. I did decide to gamble on a return fire reaction rather than smoke screen the phase it died. It let me take out the venator, but 2 saves would have kept it alive another turn. Conversely, my Land Raider, which also took a large volume of fire, came through the game unscratched until a dreadnought tickled it on the last turn. That's the luck of the dice.
• When the spartan was lost it dumped a large unit of cataphractii in the middle of the board. The soaked a crazy amount of fire for two turns but were finally wiped out by dark furies who themselves were wiped out by the Arcus on the last turn.
• The traitor terminators did great...WHEN they weren't under a status effect. I think there were 4 units that spent at least half the game either suppressed or pinned. This contributed to one flank being held up until the very end and likely kept the traitors from earning at least 1 more VP.
• The MVP by far was the knight. One side of the board was effectively cleared of loyalists between it and the Mechanicum shooting and it accounted for the majority of the traitor VP. I guess this means I need to put him in queue to finally be painted after many years of sitting in a box!

Thousand Sons rumbling with Solar Auxilia and Raven Guard. Just off screen are the Justaerin moving in to assist the Saturnine to get them past the combat with the Veletaris. Unfortunately, both would end up getting delayed by multiple failed status checks afterwards.

Final score of the game was a tie with both sides having earned 8 VP. It came down to the very last loyalist thunder hammer attack on a dreadnought. If that had failed the traitors would have pulled off the win. The traitors won all their VP from vanguard kills. The loyalists achieved their 5VP objective of conserving forces and earned 3 more from destroying a spartan, land raider, and dreadnought.  
 

It was a fun launch of the campaign.  I do wish I was farther along in painting, and that I didn't need to spend as much time looking up rules as I ended up doing. But both of those are fixable for the rest of the campaign.