Neverending Campaign Project

[reptilelover1995]

Hello, everyone! I wanted to share my current (and ONLY) project I am working on, in the hopes that I may be able to get some assistance on certain things, and perhaps inspire others to do something similar.

 

Here's a basic summary of the project, from the Introduction section of the campaign book I'm trying to write:

 

"This is meant to be the start of a long-term series that continually develops the story of a series of subfactions that I created, though not without the help and guidance of others.

 

I wanted to create a unique experience, different from any other campaign or narrative out there. In every other campaign book I’ve seen, the battles are treated as separate entities, where despite supposedly telling a larger story the outcome of the battle does not influence the gameplay in the subsequent scenarios. That is one area where this series will differ.

 

The outcome of each mission will give the players some advantage or disadvantage in the mission afterwards, making every battle important to securing victory. Each won battle gives that player an edge, making it easier to win subsequent battles, so don’t let yourself slip up or you may find yourself in deep trouble real quick!

 

The narrative itself is written based on the results of each mission as was played through—the first few campaigns have outcomes that were predetermined, as they are simply meant to grow the Tyranid faction to a size at which it presents a significant threat to the Imperium. However, after that, the mission scenarios are only written once the result of the previous scenario has been decided—the narrative is truly dynamic and is dictated by the game itself.

 

Another thing that I feel will set this campaign series apart is that it brings the “sci” back into the “sci-fi” setting of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Using my knowledge of planetary science, astronomy, physics, and the like, I have made sure that the environment in which the battles take place affect gameplay in an interesting and realistic way. Even the terrain will be created based on what those environments would be like, albeit with some artistic license and educated guessing. For example, the environment of the moon Jana is heavily based on that of Saturn’s moon Titan, but with far more liquid methane, ethane, and other hydrocarbons flowing on the surface. The idea of methanogenic life existing on such a world as actually been hypothesized, though it certainly has not been proven to exist. Still, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility!

 

I hope that this, along with the dynamic and fun narrative that these campaigns so unique, will encourage players to try out these interesting scenarios and perhaps act as inspiration for them to come up with their own!"

 

Another of my big goals is to create campaign books in the style of Imperial Armour, with art, narrative segments, and all of that stuff. Unfortunately I do not have the drawing skills and whatnot to do those myself, so if anyone would be potentially interested in helping out in that area feel free to let me know!

 

However, the main reason I'm posting this thread is to get help creating the Imperium forces that will be included in these campaigns - I am exclusively a Tyranid player, so I do not really have enough knowledge of the Imperium's organization and whatnot to make the best decisions in that regard (though I have read as much fluff as I can).

 

Right now, the main thing I need to figure out is exactly what forces the Imperium should have on the second and third worlds in the series. I've included a pdf version of the campaign book so far, the planetary surveys for these two worlds are on page 16 and 17, respectively. Thanks in advance, I'm already really loving this forum! Sorry for this miniature novel of a post, I hope it isn't too annoying to read through! :P

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iiqum78l3p5zujr/The%20Laelaps%20Incursion.pdf?dl=0

[Canadian_F_H]

Looking forward to watching this project

[reptilelover1995]

I'm glad to see that my thread has already gotten a response! I've posted on at least 3 other 40k forums and never got any assistance with the project, so I'm really hoping I don't have the same experience here. So far my DIY Space Marine Chapter thread and the massive amount of assistance I had on that gives me hope.

 

My thought honestly for the Imperial forces on these two worlds would be sorta ordinary Guardsmen, but model-wise they would be represented by something like Tempestus Scions simply because they would be unable to survive out on the surface without a lot of protective gear - I know Guardsmen are treated as disposable in some sense, but from a logical point of view it would be a waste to send guardsmen out where they would die before they could even fire a shot at the enemy (thus providing easy biomass). Still, I'm not sure if that's a good choice, I still need help on that.

[Canadian_F_H]

Well, forge world does hazardous environment upgrades for Cadians... But fw is expensive...

[reptilelover1995]

Yeah, unfortunately I highly doubt I could afford enough FW kits to equip the necessary amount of Cadian troops... If I really wanted to I could probably find them from a third party supplier but I would like to avoid that if at all possible for many reasons. 

[Teetengee]

Interesting.....

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

having played this sort of campaign with a friend, there are two things that come to mind:

 

1-narrative endings matter to players(even if they say they don't) so discuss those with them before revealing the full finished product

 

2-in 40K gameplay, digging yourself into a hole can happen real quick, so I would plan for "restart games." games in which the constant loser has a chance to even the odds and the constant winner has nothing to gain from winning aside for keeping his advantages. This should allow for some balancing in case someone gets beat over and over and over...

[reptilelover1995]

Yes, that is the plan, although right now I do not actually have any other players in my area. So all of the factions involved at the moment are actually mine, though I hope to find other people that I can convince to start collecting.

 

There will certainly be chances for every player to "reset" or get the field even if they suffer a string of losses. Since the battle scenarios will only be written after the previous one has been played, all players involved would work together to create the next mission that they both agree is fair. Additionally, some of my plans for scenarios involve having a battle be slightly in favor of one player at default, such that if the other player has won several previous battles, they may still get the benefits from all their victories, but various factors will exist that still make it an even battle. For example, one idea I have for a scenario for the last pre-written campaign (the Consumption of Rivicto) is the Tyranids attacking the Fortress-Monastery of the Emerald Serpents. Due to the position, in a vacuum the Tyranids would have an incredibly difficult time taking it. Thus, even if several previous victories give them large benefits, the default difficulty of the mission would still make it a hard-won victory for them. Certainly there would need to be a way to ensure that a string of Emerald Serpents victories didn't lead to an unwinnable battle for the 'nids, perhaps having them play a second version of the mission afterwards with the same objectives but the Tyranids get an advantage representing them adapting to the situation, to make it more interesting.

 

As a work in progress there will always be adjustments to make, and I will attempt to play through each mission to make sure they feel fair for both sides.

[reptilelover1995]

So right now I especially need help on figuring out the forces involved (ie creating army lists) and coming up with specific battle scenarios for the next two worlds in the series - Niae and Jana. I'd like to minimize the amount of guardsmen or really any infantry units that don't come with full-coverings of armour/gear I need to have, as I would need hostile environment conversion kits for all of them (or would need to use Tempestus Scions instead, and then that would have the issue of justifying why such valuable gear was given to ordinary guardsmen) and that would quickly add up to an unholy buttload of money that I don't have.

 

Another thing I need to think about is how the Tyranids will invade the system - will they invade Jana first, then move on to Niae (Jana being farther from the star than Niae and thus the Tyranids would reach it first), or would they split up to attack both at the same time to prevent giving Niae time to fortify and prepare defenses?

 

Thoughts and input are appreciated! Also, I still need artists who would be willing to help me by creating sketches and whatnot akin to those found in the Imperial Armour books - if you're interested in doing that just let me know! :)

[reptilelover1995]

Well a whole bunch of my figures arrived, and I've started assembling them. I tried magnetizing but unfortunately I just couldn't get it right (I only got 1/8" and 1/16" magnets). I'll have to get larger magnets for the Tyranid warriors, and I'll have to see what else I want/need to magnetize.

 

I've also decided that if I am indeed going to include the very hostile planets for the second and third battles, I will have to find some way to justify giving the guardsmen tempestus armor (I do not have the funds to buy forge world conversion sets for a whole set of guardsmen, on top of the cost of the guardsmen squads alone). I need help figuring out justification for this fluffwise, so help is appreciated. Thanks!

[reptilelover1995]

Anybody got any ideas? I'm sorta blanking here. Could I perhaps say that the incredibly harsh nature of the environments they're in necessitate having a force of the most hardy/well-disciplined troops available, or something? Could seriously use some direction right now, as I'm having trouble moving on from my current position.

 

Let me know! 

[Teetengee]

In your system summary Aycrade seems to be missing from the inner/outer planets list.
Seems odd that Morn would know much about the Tyrannids when they attacked.
In Calling All Forces what does "achieving" the primary objective of The Swarm Descends mean?

I like the bonuses though, although I am always leery of allowing new units to show up, I think you are probably on the right track balance wise. (Mind you, I rarely play either Nids or Guard)

There seems to be a typo in the Niae temperature thing
Jana is cool. I really like watercanoes.

The Astartes seem pretty ok, although I have to ask, do their special rules replace Chapter Tactics(Ultramarines) (I feel that they probably should)

Overall:
I would suggest classifying the planets by the imperial classification system in addition to their current schema.
The set army lists are interesting, but I am concerned it limits the extendability of these missions a bit.

I'll continue to look and make observations as I can.

de

[reptilelover1995]

 

In your system summary Aycrade seems to be missing from the inner/outer planets list.

Seems odd that Morn would know much about the Tyrannids when they attacked.

In Calling All Forces what does "achieving" the primary objective of The Swarm Descends mean?

 

I like the bonuses though, although I am always leery of allowing new units to show up, I think you are probably on the right track balance wise. (Mind you, I rarely play either Nids or Guard)

 

There seems to be a typo in the Niae temperature thing

Jana is cool. I really like watercanoes.

 

The Astartes seem pretty ok, although I have to ask, do their special rules replace Chapter Tactics(Ultramarines) (I feel that they probably should)

 

Overall:

I would suggest classifying the planets by the imperial classification system in addition to their current schema.

The set army lists are interesting, but I am concerned it limits the extendability of these missions a bit.

 

I'll continue to look and make observations as I can.

 

Thanks for pointing those issues out, I just fixed them (though I still have to resync the Dropbox version of the file). The presence of cryovolcanism on Jana was actually put in since it is based on Titan, and there have been cryovolcanoes observed there.

 

To clarify on the Primary Objective of "The Swarm Descends", it means that they earned more Victory Points in that mission (by keeping Tyranid units outside of their deployment zone, though I may also give both sides victory points for destroying enemy units, not sure though) than the Tyranid player. It's meant to represent them holding off the first wave, and they basically holed themselves up in the Command Center until help arrives.

 

As for the Army Lists, I did that partially because the format is based mostly on the Anphelion Project (1st ed) Imperial Armour book, since as I've said I hope to make a book akin to that with pictures, art, etc., and even unit rules since I'm using a homebrew Tyranid codex. In the 1st ed Anphelion project the battle scenarios include specific army lists for the factions involved. Plus, a big benefit is that it lets me see exactly what models I need to buy for the missions, which is good :P

 

Regarding adding the Imperial classification, I actually did plan on doing that, but I was not sure what these specific planets would be considered in that system (and wasn't sure under what section in the surveys to put that information). If anyone could help me with that I'd definitely like to add that in there.

 

Lastly, a little update on further missions:

I've been brainstorming about how to approach the next two campaigns, and I've come up with a rough idea. While both planets are being attacked at roughly the same time (to avoid letting one of them entrench themselves while they attack the other), I'm going to do Jana first. My idea is that the Imperium is using the hydrocarbon liquid bodies on the surface to make Promethium, and they have build large dams to create "resovoirs" and systems that are almost akin to hydroelectric plants in modern times, but instead of generating power the liquid is simply taken and refined to the correct composition for promethium. I'm thinking that a major plot/narrative point could be a particularly large dam, that, if destroyed, could lead to a catastrophic flooding of key positions, and given the lethally cold temperatures of iquid hydrocarbons it would be far worse than any sort of earthly flood (basically dam destroyed = game over man). However I still need to come up with more specific scenarios, and help with that would be really great! Also, gameplay wise I'm thinking that both sides will have a decent number of flying/jetpack units, ie gargoyles, shrikes, etc. for the 'nids, and flying vehicles or whatever else travels through the air for the Astra Militarum. This is because the low gravity and thick atmosphere would make flight incredibly efficient. Additionally, any sort of flame-based or explosive weapon would not be used, as the anoxic environment and extremely low temperatures would prevent the ignition/combustion. I may also reduce the strength of any 'nid weapons that work via chemical reactions (as opposed to living ammunition that causes direct damage), as the low temperatures would slow down the rate of such reactions and thus they would take longer to have any seriously nasty effects.

 

Also, if anyone would really like to help and has some free time, I would be more than happy to give an email or some other contact info in order to exchange feedback and ideas more quickly, and/or if anyone would like to make some art for the book please do let me know! :D

[Teetengee]

Well, here are my thoughts on the planets:
Catune-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Desert
Exsteron-Research Station (Rho), Jungle, Fortress(?) (I can't see a good reason why the Imperium hasn't colonized it though. If that occurs it would likely be a Death/Feral/or Feudal world)
Drierus-Dead World (Delta), Ice
Aycrade-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Gas Giant

Niae-Research Station (Rho), Mining, Desert
Stasc-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Gas Giant
Jana(Bubont) (Bubont is much the same class as Stasc)-Research Station (Rho), Mining

 

Iberi-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Desert
Rivicto-Feral World (Phi Lambda), Astartes Homeworld
Ariov-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Gas Giant
Erissilli-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Ice
Manust-Dead/Death World (Delta/Delta Tau), Ice

The Splits in Dead/Death world come down to whether life is sustainable on those planets or not. Sterile airless planets are dead worlds.

Also, you may consider having the imperials blow Jana if they can't drive off the nids by pumping oxygen into it and lighting a match when the hive fleet gets close and if they cannot drive it off.

[reptilelover1995]

Thanks for that. The idea behind Exsteron being very small in terms of amount of settlement there is simply because it's meant to be as covert as possible, and if there were tons of people and settlements the area would be far more likely to draw attention. Plus I'm trying to make the first three planets relatively easy victims for the hive fleet, as they are meant to tell the story of it's growth to a big enough threat to actually consume an Astartes Homeworld.

 

I did consider the idea of having the AM burn Jana but the thing is there are several issues that would make it problematic. First off, there's the sheer amount of oxygen that would be needed to have a planetwide concentration high enough to actually allow things to burn for more than a few seconds (even if they could get that kind of oxygen, there is nowhere in the system itself to get it from so it would take too long for any 'shipments' to arrive). Also, the amount of time it would take for the oxygen to mix through the atmosphere enough for it to actually "burn" the world itself would be longer than it takes for the 'nids to consume it. Another thing I'd predict is that at the incredibly low temperatures, the burning would be extremely slow since burning is essentially an oxidation reaction and any chemical reaction is slowed at lower temperatures.

 

I do love the idea, it definitely feels like the classic type of Pyrrhic victory we see when the Imperium fights nids, but I'm not sure it would work in this scenario. I think I will store the idea in the "think thank" so I can use it in a later scenario!

 

What they COULD do though is perhaps have a "contingency" plan if they're fighting inside a building (or if the Tyranids are trying to break inside a sealed building), since the atmosphere inside is going to be at human-toleratble temperatures and oxygen concentrations. So basically if they know all is lost they could simply break the seal in the cycling system to allow the external atmosphere to react explosively with the oxygen, pretty much killing anything inside there and for at least ten meters or so around the building on any side. Also, if the Tyranids actually break into such a building from the outside, the same thing could occur.

[Teetengee]

That is a good reason for Exsteron having the small population.
Also, just as a note: I believe that the imperium considers guard stations and research stations as part of the population on imperial planets (though I may be wrong) and thus those planets would count as inhabited.

[reptilelover1995]

Thanks, I have updated the file accordingly.

The next thing will be to lay out a plan for all the scenarios in the next campaign (s). Still haven't come up with anything solid enough to start writing stuff down.

[reptilelover1995]

UPDATE:

I played the first scenario again with a friend, and we agreed that some changes to the deployment rules and comms array needed to be made for balance purposes.

 

I've also been working on creating a few more planets for the campaigns, after Rivicto. Specifically, an F-type star system with three planets slightly larger than Earth in the habitable zone. I've also made a system almost identical to the Kepler-47 system, a binary system with one star slightly larger than our sun and one star roughly 33% the mass of our sun. I'm thinking of having a habitable moon orbiting a jupiter-like world in a circumbinary orbit.

 

I also still need suggestions on battle scenarios for Niae and Jana, so help is appreciated!

[reptilelover1995]

A friend helped me come up with an idea for the first mission on Jana, it's essentially meant to be a bit like Aliens, and gameplay will be a bit like Space Hulk. I do need help coming up with some more specifics of the mission, however. What I've got so far is that one of the Promethium Refineries (Refinery Beta) has gone silent, and a contingent of Astra Militarum have gone to investigate. However, they do not know that the Tyranids have prepared an ambush there.

 

I need to decide exactly what the Astra Militarum player's objective is for this mission, as I'd like to avoid making it another "send off a warning" because I think that using that scenario too much could make things boring. My idea for Tyranid deployment is to have them play as blips like in Space Hulk, with each blip representing one of their units (have yet to come up with the list, will probably be a bit similar to the list of the first Exsteron mssion) - each blip must have the unit it represents written on it (ie a blip representing a unit of lictors must have "lictors" written on it, or something similar). The blips can move 6" and ignore difficult terrain, but like in Space Hulk they cannot move into enemy LOS, and cannot assault until the player chooses to reveal them (or they are revealed by the AM player). If the AM player reveals a Tyranid unit, I'm thinking that perhaps they re-roll failed To-Hit rolls against them for that shooting phase, and perhaps if a Tyranid unit successfully assaults an AM unit in the same turn it was revealed by the 'nid player, there could be some sort of penalty to overwatch.

Help is appreciated!

[Teetengee]

I wouldn't necessarily bother with a penalty to overwatch, but I would give the nids hammer of wrath/ furious charge/ rage/ or shred on the turn they reveal. Alternatively, you could just make them immune to overwatch on the turn they reveal, but that will depend heavily on unit construction and game size.

[reptilelover1995]

I wouldn't necessarily bother with a penalty to overwatch, but I would give the nids hammer of wrath/ furious charge/ rage/ or shred on the turn they reveal. Alternatively, you could just make them immune to overwatch on the turn they reveal, but that will depend heavily on unit construction and game size.

Thanks for the suggestion! The idea is for the scenario to play out a bit like Aliens, so I think it would probably be multiple smaller units rather than a bunch of large ones. Considering that the units I'd be using (genestealers, possibly some hormagaunts) are pretty much glass cannons and get ripped apart by shooting really easily, I definitely think that overwatch immunity would be a good idea.

 

Now I just need to decide exactly what the main objective is... I feel like setting the refinery to blow up would not be doable in the amount of time that this mission covers (in a fluff view), and as I said I don't want another copy of the first Exsteron mission.

[reptilelover1995]

UPDATE: I have written everything in for the first mission on Jana, except for the objective, as I have not been able to decide that yet and need help.

 

I came up with lists for both forces, due to low amounts of money I tried to maxmimize the number of models I could use from previous lists so I could minimize the number of new models I'd have to buy. I gave the Genestealers acid blood to further add to the Aliens feel of the mission. Also, note the name of the second Mission special rule ;)

[Teetengee]

I can't find the rules...can you check your link?

[reptilelover1995]

Sure, here is the link again:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iiqum78l3p5zujr/The%20Laelaps%20Incursion.pdf?dl=0

[Teetengee]

rules look fun.
2 things.
1. You may want to allow the nid player to have a certain number of false blips to use.
2. The What do you mean... rule should probably be reworded to say that "outside of 12" from the enemy, blips may only be forced to be revealed on a 4+" because right now the 4+ rule only applies when the nids move, which is precisely when it wouldn't be useful.