So this is going to be an experiment on a major scale.
Before I even begin I have to give a large shout out to Mr Wargamer at The Joy of Wargaming YouTube channel who has provided the inspiration for me to start this. Check out his channel and his humour, they’re great!
The plan is to run a campaign between myself and my brother but with the possibility of others joining in due time…now me and my bro we live in different countries and so this is the first challenge. The second is that as with all people, we have lives outside of this (sadly) and historically making time to come together and actually play is difficult.
For that reason this going to have to be a hybrid of solo play, head to head or cooperative play when we can and online/remote management.
I want each person to be able to continue their side of the campaign when they like and then when they come together have that fit seamlessly in each persons campaign arc.
The plan is to use loads of different rules sets…so some of the ones I have planned are Necromunda, 40k, Gorkamorka, Aeronautica and Im sure I’ll add more as we go along (I’d love to try some Indy rulesets such as This is not a Test and Space Combat so we’ll see how it goes.)
The actual campaign rules are evolving and what I want to do with this is go on a journey in to campaign play and how and if it’s possible to run a campaign like this, so the actual rules may shift fairly seriously over the course of the campaign.
The basic idea is to have a grand strategic campaign map, probably played on hexes but I have a few other ideas for that. All of a players assets are on the campaign map. When 2 units meet depending on the type of unit and the size of the force we break down in to the tactical map, which is where we’ll be playing Necromunda, 40k etc…often solo, but with the ability to play PvP if the option is available.
The idea is the strategic campaign has a huge effect on what happens on the tabletop, deciding terrain, attacker and defender, fog of war effects, flanking, defensive installations, preparedness and the forces present, rather than scenarios simply being played in a bubble.
I would also like to have it work the other way around as well (encouraging more of an RPG stye play) where our plucky band of heroes can undertake missions at the tactical scale which then have an effect on the strategic campaign map.
So they might make a commando raid on an enemy supply depot, wipe out a command post or blow up an aircraft hanger, all of which have an effect on the campaign game at the strategic level as those assets are no longer in play.
The other goal is to keep this as simple as possible but not any simpler.
I will not be using balancing mechanisms, so it’s entirely possible for our poor band of plucky heroes to be ambushed by an entire Ork Waaagh…such is life and war. If someone is getting wiped out, as Kirk said..”let them die.”
I mainly want to do this to eventually encourage alliances to be formed and re enact that great and time honoured tradition of ganging up on someone…a mechanic which with our modern day “everyones a winner” mentality seems to have been forgotten…but can often be a lot of fun.
I have to stress at the moment this is all just ideas and a few random scribblings so expect to see this all evolve over time but this is the eventual goal.
I’m sure it’ll be messy, I’m sure we’ll have setbacks and have to get creative and most of the videos I release on this will not be too polished (my brother is the brains of the operation and his videos are likely to be much more beautiful!) but if you fancy coming along for the ride, I’ll be documenting it all here on the blog and on our YouTube Channel
The campaign itself is going to be set on a world called Midgard in a forgotten and long ignored part of the 40k universe .
So that’s the goal, if you want to join me for the ride the best way to keep up to date is to head over to our YouTube channel and subscribe if you click the bell you’ll receive notifications whenever we release a new video on this as well.
To say it had been a strange day would be an understatement…
He’d been at The Scrum talking to a seller about procuring some off world goods when she’d just walked right over and started chatting up the fethwit he was talking to. He’d been pissed, I mean she was acting like he didn’t exist, it wasn’t as if he really cared….she wasn’t even really his type.
Dressed as though she was a ganger from some bad holo pict movie…all ripped t shirt, blue hair and arms full of tats.
He’d been about to walk away when she’d turned her attention on him…and he was lost.
She was funny, quick and charming and surprisingly (as he found that most women who looked the way she did were bat shit crazy) really easy to talk to.
Looking back on it now he realised he’d been played…no one is that nice down here, but he had enjoyed the way she played him and she was damn good at it. By the end of it he’d almost been convinced and he knew most men would be falling over themselves to say Yes to her, like love struck 15 year olds…
God you could be her dad old man.
Those same idiots would be doubly likely to say Yes when they heard the job she was offering…
Plant a device at the Headquarters of the Iron Collective in Aire, make sure no one tampers with it for a few minutes once it’s in position, extract and collect 300 Credits. Sounded easy.
Fortunately he was no fool, born yesterday. He knew 300 was way over the top for what she was asking in the first place, so why then, on top of the 300 Credits, had whoever was actually hiring for the job sent someone as…persuasive as her…why not just the usual hard nosed thug?
The only answer was, whoever was asking, wanted whoever took the job, to have a bit more skin in the game.
What she was asking was obviously a lot harder and a lot more dangerous than it seemed.
Thank God he was no fool, he’d seen this deal for what it was from the moment the words spilled out of her pretty mouth. Yup he wasn’t born yesterday…
He looked down at the small package in his hand.
300 credits was 300 credits and he had mouths to feed and ammo to buy and besides it would be good to see the smile on her face when he told her the job was done.
Time to find out why whoever wants this job done would send such a classy agent to broker the deal.
The player gang must choose a model from their crew to be carrying the package. That model must move to a location in the centre of the board but 12” away from the enemies deployment zone and spend Double action to place the package. The Gang must then prevent any Enemy models from reaching the package for 3 turns.
As soon as the package is placed The Enemy AI switches to Aggressive using The Package as their target.
If the model carrying the package is taken OOA or SI or if you want to swap who is carrying the package you can move another model into B2B contact with the model carrying the package and perform a Basic action to transfer the package to the new model.
XP
For every enemy model taken OOA +1
To the model who plants the Package +1 XP
To the Leader of the winning gang if the Victory conditions are met +1 XP
Inquisitor Corvus, initial report on Planet XI254C28 – Classification: Midgard.
Having been here now for over a standard Lunar cycle I feel able to commit some of what I have observed into words. This is a preliminary report and much of what follows has not been corroborated and so consists entirely of my personal opinions and what I have picked up in my various interactions with the planet and its people.
Lying on the outskirts of the Eastern Fringe well away from the oft plied trade routes and shipping lanes of Imperial traffic lies the system of Midgard.
An oddity in many ways the system was lost to the Imperium in M33 when a localised warp storm effectively isolated it from the Astronomican rendering travel to and from the system impossible. In time due to poor record keeping the system was simply forgotten.
Upon dissipating, some 500 years ago, it seems the storm left a strange, residual effect.
The entire system is surrounded by what I can only describe as a Null Zone. Through which neither the light of the Astronomican or indeed any psychic emanations may penetrate.
Travel is however, possible, if a shipmaster is brave enough to simply fling himself into the void without the slightest in-cling of who or what is out there, or if someone with knowledge of the systems location is willing to make the long journey out at sub warp speeds.
This Null Zone has caused the system to remain off the Adminitratums records and effectively isolated from the rest of the Imperium in spite of having been, theoretically at least, navigable since this time.
Despite this there are some in the Imperium who know of Midgards existence.
The planet Midgard itself, the 4th planet in the system, is a world of contrasts. The surface itself is stunningly beautiful, a match for any garden world of the Imperium.
One of Midgards Hive City Complexes
Co existing with this natural beauty there are several, what can only be described as, hive like structures, which manage to exist without stripping the planet of resources, quite how this is possible is still not fully understood.
The flora and fauna of this world are where the comparisons to a garden world end, and indeed life on the surface is more akin to a death world.
As a result, outside of the Hives, there are few major centres of population or infrastructure. With most of the inhabitants living in ramshackle villages often nomadic in nature and any overland travel generally undertaken in huge land boats or smaller speeder type craft.
The major centres of population are concentrated in the hives though there are several sprawling tent and sandstone towns on the surface. Quite how these manage to survive given the seemingly brutal nature of the planet is a matter for further investigation.
None of this is particularly rare in an Imperial world, there are however, several factors which make Midgard unique.
Authority on Midgard rests with the Union.
A body of individuals comprising all the major interest groups on the planet. To settle disputes they can call upon the Council of 12 and the PDF, which interestingly enough still employs many vehicles and flyers which resemble (at least to the casual observer) Imperial pattern craft, despite their long isolation.
The Council of 12 hold a strange position in the government of Midgard. As far as I can ascertain they seem to be chief advisors to, liaison and often diplomatic solution for the Union.
Made up of a group of so called, Errant Knights. These Errants wield quite clear psychic powers and claim to draw their power from a source which flows through all life. Their religion is shrouded in mysticism but will be a topic of further study to me, both to ascertain their power and the potential for warp based incursions inside of the Null Zone.
Due to its location at something of a Galactic cross roads and the privacy the Null Zone has afforded it there are many sub species (many potentially actual Xenos races) on Midgard. These on the whole are not only tolerated but integrated into society at all levels.
There are of course those Xenos who will never be integrated and there is a growing Ork population in the Mountainous and Desert area known as the Worldspine. But on the whole their numbers are kept under control by the deadly species which share the deserts with them. They also seem incapable of drawing others of their species to the planet due to the effect of the Null Zone.
An aspect of their society I find highly worrying is the peoples use of droids possessing of a rudimentary AI, rather than the servitors employed by the Imperium for good reason.
Although the AI employed is always highly specific to the task the droid is intended for (a harvest droid, a translator droid being some of the variants I have witnessed) and whilst potentially self aware, all the models I have encountered are not capable of the intellectual leaps of true AI as there is no net on which to share information and thus no individual droid can never outgrow their own architecture, and none are programmed with the ability, or seemingly the desire, to do so.
Or so I have had it explained to me by one of their tech magos’…
In any case something which is apparent is the general population of Midgard seem to have a higher understanding of the tech they use than most other cultures I’ve encountered.
It must also be stated that the Midgardians do share a harmonious relationship with the highly advanced tech they employ, and while the use of these seeming AI machines is still a great cause for concern they seem to be aware of the inherent risks and have taken many steps to avoid them which, for the moment at least, appear to function.
I have to admit, the more I see of this society, the more I am reminded of the tale of the Interex I was forced to learn in the Schola, and admit to having thought to myself (much like it is said the Warmaster turned traitor is said to have) of studying the society for use as a model as a future possibility, an alternative to the creed of Imperial Law we have adhered to for so many Millenia, a grain of hope in a bleak universe.
After all it seems these people have conquered many of the challenges faced by the modern day Imperium.
Alas I fear I do not have much time to study this possibility. As a dutiful servant to the Emperor I have dispatched couriers to the nearest worlds on the other side of the Null Zone and imagine that even now a compliance force is inbound to bring the world into the embrace of His Imperial Light once again.
I only hope who ever arrives will be equally enlightened as to the possibilities presented by this fascinating planet.
