The 40k Campaign I'm running is now at its half way point, and the first part is concluded. This part of the campaign was focused on the Orbital Array that is a lynch pin of the Forge World where the campaign is set. 

My Marines haven't done great to be honest - winning only one out of seven games  - but there's been some exciting narrative developments along the way, such as Necrons opening a wormhole to siphon Tyranids from the Octarius Sector directly on to the Array! 

I've tried to run the narrative campaign in such a way that everyone gets something out of it - but getting beaten repeatedly does make it hard to feel like I'm getting something from it at times. That's where the Crusade system helps - you still pick up XP for each game played, and can nominate a unit as 'Marked for Glory' for a bit of an XP boost. 

I'd say the star of my army - at least until the latest month - has been Captain Ouranos. In the three games I played last month, he took out a massive Tau Battlesuit, a Votann commander, and held a Tyrannofex over 3 turns of Combat (only losing a wound!). 

(He doesn't seem to fare so well against regular infantry, he was punched out by these Einhyr after this picture was taken! ) 

He was humbled in my most recent Crusade game, however - more by my dice* than anything  In the battle, which wasn't going well for me anyway (I forgot the way Actions work, needing to start them in my shooting phase, which cost me a bunch of points ), one of two things** I hoped would happen did take place - Captain Ouranos had a showdown against my opponent's commander, Vishikar. A Skorpekh Lord and a key character in the Campaign!

Although Vishikar's Skorpekhs had Charged Ouranos' unit, I used Tactical Doctrine to fall back and charge again (taking out a Skorpekh with a Plasma Pistol shot on the way in, for good measure ). I activated his 'Finest Hour' ability, hit with all 9 dice - I needed 4's to wound, hoping I'd get a Devestating wound or two... 

...and didn't roll anything higher than a 3 

Ouranos was promptly dispatched by Vishikar, capping off what was a pretty disastrous game for me  I was already smarting when it came to roll for Out of Action and Battle Scars- and would you know it, Ouranos failed his test  The subsequent Battle Scar roll I got Mark of Shame - so he can't be attached to a unit, be affected by Aura abilities, or Marked for Greatness. 

Things weren't all looking bad however - the XP gained for the battle actually pushed him up a Rank, and I decided to boost his Sword (seeing as it has been struggling with taking out slightly tougher foes); the two rolls were favourable - Master-Worked (+1 Damage and Armour Piercing (-1 AP). Nice! 

So I've made it a point in the narrative for the campaign - shamed for his failures in the battle for the Array, Captain Ouranos is on a Quest of Penitence to redeem his honour. And as a mark of his Quest, he has been granted access to one of the Chapter's Relic swords, to aid in fulfilling it. 

Anyway, if you want to follow the narrative of the campaign, here's the links to the briefing for each month so far:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zbTrgrv1vuhJPLFiMzfMc6orC-LAca5y/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10GlyH-qRCFIZMwjKhdHnTGMj8cuPqBHN/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/179mUHsjzeqlGClsniDcG8xXjmq1VBu5O/view?usp=drivesdk

* the dice are going to be donated to the Youth orientated gaming group I help run - I certainly won't be using them anymore 

** the only other thing I wanted from the game was to fulfil a bonus Agenda to get at least one more Honour Point to 'promote' one of my Assault Intercessor squads to Bladeguard Veterans - alas, I failed that also