Has anyone ever played in a Commorragh campaign?

[ThePenitentOne]

The DE is an army I've always wanted to explore, but other than buying dexes, I never really did.

 

With this edition, and the way they've expanded the backgrounds of the various Kabals, Cults and Covens and used obsessions, unique strategems, relics and warlord traits to further differentiate, PLUS the advent of Kill Team, I feel like the Commorragh campaign is very feasible.

 

Has anyone ever played in a Commorragh campain? I missed the whole Gangs of Commorragh thing (kicking my butt for not buying it when I had the chance- honestly thought it would last longer), but something along those lines.

 

I threw together a few pages of campaign rules, and I'm considering developing it in a bit more detail. I'd need to build a wych cult arena. I'm a slow build/ escalation narrative guy, so my idea is that wych cults fight each other in the arena. If they perform well, they recruit extra wyches, and kabals are more likely to pay for their accompaniment on realspace raids. Wyches can also make deals with haemonculi, surrendering their dead as raw material for wracks, until the covens are large enough to be recruited for raids.

 

Anyone ever hear of anything similar?

[Brother Tyler]

Have you considered making this a way to play a quasi-Necromunda campaign using the Drukhari?

[Grimoire]

Depending on how serious you are :) The contents of a Gangs of Commorragh box would be easy to find, and not very expensive since I think quite a number of folks picked these up just for the miniatures.  And I've been considering building a gameboard based upon one of the Arena's. Please share if you elect to do this !

[ThePenitentOne]

Necromunda is my model for everything. I like that territories are so well defined (though I haven't picked up new Necromunda yet, so I don't know if they handled territories the same way as they did in earlier editions). I found the campaign system in Kill Team to be too simple, so I've augmented it with Urban Conquest. Even that wasn't as detailed as I wanted, but it did give me some pretty fantastic tools and inspiration. 

 

What I've generated for the DE so far is just the mechanics for the growth of cults, kabals and covens- I haven't designed any territories or resources for them yet, and I'm contemplating a currency system. It's a really weird abstraction because it has to work for 40k and Kill Team, but fluff wise, Commorrite currency is souls and suffering. 

 

Here's what I'm thinking:

 

Kabals and Cults start as 5 member, basic Kill Teams. Covens start with a single Haemonculus. The immediate goal of every player is to grow to Patrol Detachment size, assuming a minimum requirement of 10 troop models- whether a player chooses 2 squads of 5 or 1 squad of 10 is up to the player.

 

Kabals gain members by gaining territory, which generates income to equip recruits, buy upgrades and even vehicles. Cults gain members by increasing their reputation in arena fights. Haemonculi make deals with cults and kabals to obtain their casualties, which are used to create wracks.

 

When a Kabal or Cult Kill Team reaches 10 models, its sybarite or hekatrix becomes an archon or a succubus. Its most experienced non-specialist member is promoted to sybarite or hekatrix, and a new member is automatically added to fill the vacant spot. The player then has the option to declare the next most experienced non-specialist as a second sybarite or hekatrix. At this point, the Kill Team also functions as a patrol detachment in 40k, meanining it's ready for realspace raids as soon as there are two other patrol detachments willing and able to ally.

 

Wrack squads gain an acothyst promotion for their leader at 5 models, at which point they will already be capable of participating in realspace raids because they started with an hq choice. 

 

Obviously a lot of details need to be hammered out, but that's the basic idea.

 

Regarding the arena, my current playing surface is 4x4, so I want a 30" hex with 1" hex tiles in the center of the board with a track around the outside for reavers and hellions. Both the track and the fighting pit will have obstacles and traps; elevated platforms in the pit and vertical banking on the track. That means magnetized bases to be able to pose hellions and reavers on horizontal or even inverted planes.

 

I want a webway gate on a board edge to indicate that the entire arena is in a sub-realm. An extra webway gate that opens to realspace would provide the capacity to interact with other factions. I can build the fighting pit first, because the wych cults will have to play a fair number of games before they have the fame and resources to attract reavers and hellions.

[ThePenitentOne]

So I think I'll have Wyches ready to field sometime in early October, so anything I put together should be ready to go by then. 

 

When I've organized territories in the past, I've used 5 x 5 arrays, much like the Streets of Death card sleeve from Urban Conquest. For the DE, I figure the territories are stacked in a spire. My thought is 4 territories per level, with five levels, the gives me 20 territories per spire.  Three spires should suffice. Every spire has 2 subterrainian levels for Haemonculi and 3 above ground. Listed below are some of my ideas, but I have a harder time coming up with DE territories than Imperial. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

1. Audience Chamber: One per spire, top tier only. Includes a shielded dias and spire controls that allow an archon to lock out and isolate specific territories within the spire. Effectively, occupation of this territory signifies control of the above ground layers of the spire. As such, this territory would generate significant reputation and income.

 

2. Docking Facilities: Second or third tier above ground or second tier below only. Provides access to Void Ravens and Razor Wings. Good reputation and income bonuses to represent trade capacity.

 

3. Barracks: Living space for 40 Kabalites or Wyches if located above ground or 40 Wracks if located below. Every player would start with control of a single barracks; it would generate no reputation or income. As a leader recruits additional troops, they will need to conquer, build or otherwise claim additional barracks territories to support their fighting force. Barracks beyond the first would confer moderate reputation, but still no income- housing additional soldiers is its own reward. 

 

4. Grotto: Ground level only; combines well with arena. This territory is occupied by beasts. They are independent of player control, meaning that they will require a random behaviour table. If defeated by a beast master, they are captured rather than slain. Capturing the territory allows a player to use beast packs without first defeating them. Also, an Ambull can be encountered at each grotto, but it must always be defeated before it can be used, even if a player controls the territory. This territory provides a moderate reputation bonus, but only to Wych players.

 

5. Aelindrach Portal: This territory allows players to deal with mandrakes. Battles here use hidden objective markers; one of these markers will be a mandrake; any player to reach this objective can hire mandrakes- the price is per squad, but a ten model squad will be slightly less expensive than two squads of five- this reflects the fact that the unit of ten has less tactical flexibility despite an equivalent model count. Controlling this territory allows a player to use up to 3 squads of mandrakes fore free, and moderate reputation bonus.

 

6. Eyrie: Third tier above only. This allows access to Scourges or Hellions in the same way as the Aelinrach portal allows the access of Mandrakes. Controlling the territory allows the units to be used without expending resources and provides a moderate reputation bonus. Note: Haven't figured out if there are some Eyries under Hellion control and others under Scourge control, or whether there is a marker for both mercenary groups on the battlefield.

 

7. Makinatorium: (Not 100% on name) This facility can be configured to manufacture Raiders and Ravagers or Jetbikes and Venoms. Each strategy phase, it will create 1 ravager, raider or venom or 3 jetbikes. It takes an entire strategy phase to reconfigure the facility. Control of the territory provides a reputation bonus; it does not provide income, but anything manufactured here can be sold or traded.

 

8. Armoury: This facility can create 5 weapon upgrades per strategy phase. Control provides reputation, but like the Makinatorium, income is through trade or sale only.

 

9. Stockade: This facility holds prisoners, which are important for healing, trade, arena combat, and wrack construction. 

 

10. Labratory: Subterrainian only. Here a Haemonculus (and only a Haemonculus) can create wracks or combat drugs. These combat drugs can only be used by Wyches, so they must be traded in order to provide value to the coven. Up to five wracks or enough combat drugs to supply an entire cult for a single battle; each wrack requires one captive or cadaver to create, and a batch of combat drugs can be created with three. Provides a reputation bonus to covens.

 

11. Operation theatre: Subterrainian only. Here, a haemonculus (and only a haemonculus) can create 3 grotesques, 1 talos or 1 cronos per strategy phase. It takes 2 bodies or prisoners of normal size for a single grotesque and 5 for a talos or cronos. One larger captive- an Ogryn, Abberant etc- will create a grotesque; two will create a talos or cronos. Provides a significant reputation bonus for a coven.

 

12. Realspace Portal: One above ground and one below per spire. Controlling a realspace portal provides a large reputation bonus. Each portal should connect to a different realspace battlefield.

 

So altogether, that accounts for quite a few of the available 60 territories:

 

3 audience chambers

15 barracks

3 Makinatoria

6 docks

3 arenas

6 realspace portals

3 grottos 

3 laboratories

3 operation theatres

3 stockades

3 armouries

3 aelindrach portals

 

That's 54 out of 60. Doubling up on some territories will help spires have unique identities- a spire with two extra docks and an extra armoury is very different in character from a spire with two extra grottos and an extra Makinatorium. So I have enough to get to 60; the question is am I missing anything? 

[Master Antaeus]

The third Heralds of Ruin cooperative campaign (kinda like kill team, but more options) has the warbands fighting their way out of a run down area of the dark city.

[Master Antaeus]

The third Heralds of Ruin cooperative campaign (kinda like kill team, but more options) has the warbands fighting their way out of a run down area of the dark city.

[Captain_Krash]

I've always wanted to create a sort of "Mordheim" Commorragh/web way campaign with various factions within the Dark Eldar and those associated.

 

You'd have the following gangs/factions to choose from.

 

Kabal

Wyches

Haemonculi Coven

Beastmasters 

Gladiator/slaves 

Space marines

Eldar

Ynnari

 

Would be really cool.

 

Krash

[ThePenitentOne]

It's really too bad that Gangs of Commorragh didn't get any support, and that they haven't use KT as a release strategy as they could have. That means I's up to us to do it ourselves. 

 

I had hoped to be up and running by October, but it's been and gone and I'm no closer- unexpected financial issues have left me with just enough to cover my Sisters of Battle expenses. DE are going to have to be put on hold.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Gangs of Commorragh was always just its own thing, like Speed Freakz was.

 

As for the Dark Eldar currency, my interpretation is that they're feudal. What few bits of trading we have actually seen have involved barter, not currency (the fluff for the Tantalus had the merchant asking for "a demijohn of Mistress Strake's bottled agony, or perhaps a strife of Medusae" in exchange for one). Archons aren't exactly likely to accept each others currency, and having a soul as the base unit makes no sense, as it's not exactly dividable. Souls would definitely be a highly-traded substance, but they don't work as a "coin of the realm". I mean, what's one soul worth? What about an older or younger soul, or that of an Ork or Kroot? Vect isn't exactly the type to set up the Commorrite Bank of Vect, which monitors the value of the Soul Coin, and set up exchange rates, etc.

 

What makes more sense is, as above, a feudal model, where the basic craftseldar etc that belong to a Kabal owe their controlling Archon a certain percentage of their produce, and in exchange are given both protection by the Kabal, as well as some currency that is unique to that Kabal, able to be traded between other serf-institutions, but not really able to be used for other Kabals. Kabalite warriors get their "pay" by having sworn their service to the Archon. At other times, they might simply barter. Inter-Kabal trading would be done either through pacts (in exchange for our service in the future raiding season, we request a quarter-share of the output of your factories in the Slashed Eye district), or through more barter.

 

For how this would work in-game, I'd just have it that there is no currency, things just have a value. How this value is paid can be filled in by the player in question. Maybe they helped scare some street thugs off that had been threatening the trader, maybe they bartered, maybe they did hand over some form of coinage.