Hi All,
So April sees the return of myself and Trevdog to the original campaign we played called CODE40K. This later became the name of our group and indeed the blog name. So what is CODE40K? Essentially its a story driven campaign where the result of each battle affects the choice of next game and any other special rules we see fit to add in.
You may ask why play 40K this way. Well the short answer is it breaks up the turn up put down and play games. Its adds a little bit more as to why the battle is taking place. This Friday we will play the first game in what we proposed to be a 5 battle linked campaign. As yet we haven't defined beyond game 1 and what the outcomes of the game might mean.
The first thing we did was write up some background to start us off:
Background
The sector is somewhere around the Ultima Segmentum and
Eastern Fringe. The sector consists of 9 systems. One of which is the Arden System which comprises of:
Arden Prime, Arden II, Arden
III (The Code campaign), Arden IV, Arden V.
The campaign will start on Arden III in the capital city of Pavonis.
In recent times the
planet of Arden III hasn't been keeping up with its payment of imperial tithes
and has been subject to small insertion attacks by the mysterious Eldar from
the Ulthwe Craftworld. The reasons for
these attacks remains unknown to the Planetary Governor Shonai West. The world itself is mainly controlled by
faction leaders each owning a large production centre. These faction leaders vote one of themselves
to be the planetary governor. In reality
bribes and alliances go on to get a faction leader into power and then the same
to get them out of power!
Payment of the tithes has been dropping for the last two
governors mainly caused by a drop in production from the last war and the greed
of the faction leaders. This injustice
has also spread to the population of Arden III with poverty and deprivation
wide spread. This in turn has lead to
the rise of "The Church of the Emperor's God" as people have sought
solace in religion. The reality is this
is against the law as religion is forbidden and the leaders of the church are
simply seeking to take advantage of the disadvantaged. This group has organised many public rallies
against the leading factions and is believed to be behind a number of small
terrorist attacks, although proof of this has not been forthcoming. One such attack was foiled by the members of
the Adeptus Soritas "Sisters of Battle" who have a shrine on the
planet just outside the city walls. It
is believed they took prisoners but as yet are refusing to hand these over to
the faction leaders?
In addition Eldar raids have been taking place across the
system but the reason behind the attacks is unknown. The most recent of which was on a farming
community 540 miles south of the city where none were left alive. On investigation of the site a large metal
structure of unknown origin was found to be just below the surface. This is still being analysed by scientists
but appears to be a large structure which dates back for thousands of years.
Next we thought about what the first game would look like and who the characters involved would be:
Game 1 Ambush on Plaza Drive
The Plot:
The Imperium
fed up with the performance of the planet has dispatched an Administrator to
get the tithes back on track. A company of the emperors finest space marines
have been dispatched to accompany the administrator and to halt the Eldar
attacks. This game will be set in the
inner city as the administrator is travelling to the governor's palace across
the city. After being dropped at the
edge of the city the administrator is being transported by rhino apc when they
are ambushed by the church.
The Forces
The Escort Party Dramatis Personae
Space Marine Captain Kearosen
Diritz,
Emperor’s Children, Captain
of the 4th Company. Honoured at the scouring of Galifrax.
Boltgun, Power Axe, Bolt Pistol,
Iron Halo, Frag and Krak Grenades
Brother Kol Larz
Emperor’s Children battle brother 4th Company. 14
affirmed kills at the scouring of Galifrax.
Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Chainsword,
Frag and Krak Grenades
Brother Berenito
Emperor’s Children battle brother 4th Company. Sole survivor from the frigate Hammer of
Justice before it fell to the burning sun at Jea IX.
Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Chainsword,
Frag and Krak Grenades
Admin Aid - Sympath I, Laspistol
Admin Aid - Dedidex, Laspistol
Liaison to Governor Shonai - Grandis Brinn, Laspistol
(uses the profile of conscripts)
Imperial Administrator - Prefect Patrinor (unwilling to fight in any
circumstances) If engaged in close combat use imperial guard colonel stats,
armed with a power knife same as sword but AP4 and a refractor field. Free
Grandis Brinn
Liaison to Governor Shonai.
A little unorthodox for some of the other aids but Governor Shonai chose
him because of this.
Sympath I
Admin Aid to Prefect Patrinor. Augments not visual to the casual
observer. Very good at her job.
Dedidex
Admin Aid to Prefect Patrinor. Heavily augmented.
Prefect Patrinor
Imperial Administrator.
Looks down on others below his station.
PDF - (use imperial guard vets
rules)
Gavier, Grenade Launcher
Pavonis 10th Barator Elite Guard. Keeps to himself. Good dependable elite guardsman.
Travis, Shotgun
Nikaulus, Shotgun
Pavonis 10th Barator Elite Guard. Friends before
joining the Guard and have both served together for 8 years.
Flex, Shotgun
Pavonis 10th Barator Elite Guard. Known for his black and white view of
things. Called Flex because of his inflexible
views by his friends. Also good to have
in a fight.
Kearosen’s Spear,
Rhino, Extra Armour
Brother Torrinium (Reserve, Bike)
Emperor’s Children battle brother 4th Company,
Fulion bike squad. Fought at Soron plains at Jea IX against the Necrons.
Brother Bransk (Reserve, Bike)
Emperor’s Children battle brother 4th Company, Fulion bike
squad. Fought at Soron plains at Jea IX against the Necrons.
TOTAL 287
Rebels
Enforcer Irongate, Power Fist,
Laspistol, Refractor Field, Causes Fear
Rocket Launcher Team " Aces
High "
Rocket Launcher Team " The
Missile Brothers "
(Fragin Heck and Krakin Joke make
up the Missile Brothers)
Renegade Squad "The
Rabellions"
Veteran Gravesend " That's Mr Gravesend to You"
Meltagun, Stubber Team known as
"The Stub Toes"
3 Hounds: Lucy, Cameron and Cheryl
8 Mutants " The
Undesirables"
TOTAL 284
The Mission
Kill Team Rules in Effect
Length 8 Turns, Or Administrator Escapes to Plaza Square or
Administrator Dies
Game Begins Just Before Dawn
First two turns are under night
fighting conditions
Rebels set up and take the first
turn.
Rhino is presumed to be stunned
in space marines first turn regardless if damage was taken or not.
Space Marine Bikes Turn up in
turn 3 automatically
Outcomes:
If Prefect Patrinor escapes it
makes the removal of the church the no 1 priority over and above the
investigation of the eldar attacks. If
Enforcer Irongate is killed in a challenge with Captain Diritz he is presumed
captured. We could play an attack game
on the rebel stronghold. Maybe the
sisters carry this out as they already have info?
Escapes by turn 6 = 3 rebel units
delayed in attack scenario
Escapes by turn 7 = 2 rebel units
delayed in attack scenario
Escapes by turn 8 = 1 rebel unit
delayed in attack scenario
(units randomly determined)
If Irongate is captured it gives Captain Diritz the causing
Fear rule as the rebels are in awe of someone who took down Irongate!
If Prefect Patrinor doesn't escape the rebels grow in
confidence and push forward to attack the governor's palace.
Two options if by some miracle
Diritz is brought low by Irongate then we could have a rescue mission for the
captain! or The attack on the Palace or
both as a combination??
As you can see we havent fully mapped out what will happen post battle. That will allow us to let our imaginations take us where we go next. The ideas above just get the ball rolling. We will post up some pictures and a run down of what happened in game 1. Then discuss where the CODE40K campaign goes next?
Trevdog also wrote this short story to accompany game 1:
A low moaning noise ending with a metallic screech pierced
the pre-dawn stillness above the street.
A cool breeze had picked up just as the morning sun was about to rise at
the far end of Plaza Drive to the east.
Across the gantry spanning the road was an aerial walkway circling a
short curved tower that housed the local sewerage machinery for the pumps
below. As the low moaning started up
again a silhouette appeared against the dark grey metal walls of the
tower. The figure took a cigar from its
mouth and wedged it into the heat extraction flaps to stop them vibrating.
“Thank throne for that Mr Gravesend”, said Krakin in a
hushed voice. “It was starting’ to give
me the creeps”. The tip of Gravesend’s
boot poked firmly into the soft flank of the prone man as he lay looking down
the sight of his hand held rocket launcher.
Krakin recoiled with a grunt.
Gravesend hissed through his sneer, “Krakin, just keep your
eyes fixed on that street. They’ll be
here any minute, then you’ll have something to worry about”. Gravesend’s voice faded as he moved away, “We’re
relying on you to stop those Imps dead in their tracks”.
All was quiet again.
To his right Krakin could just make out the features of his loader and
close friend, Fragin, crouched next to him.
Fragin’s angular jaw looked all the more prominent in the shadowy
dawn. He peered across to the ruined
building opposite to see if he could see the forms of the twins they called Ace’s
High, manning the other rocket launcher from their lofty position, but he
couldn’t.
The other members of The Church itching to take the fight to
the heart of Governor Shonai’s seat of power would be in their positions now
having primed the explosives for the ambush.
They all looked to their leader Enforcer Irongate for the next stage of the
plan to unseat Governor Shonai. Irongate
had inside information about an Imperial Administrator coming to meet with the
Governor to take her to task over the shrinking tithes collected from Arden
Prime. If the Imperial Administrator
didn’t make it to the palace for the meeting, or was even killed, then the
Imperium would come down hard on Shonai and could even remove her from
office. If not it would certainly weaken
her position and favour amongst the other government members.
A rumbling noise from down the street broke the silence and
Krakin’s thoughts. He shifted his weight
to adjust his aim. Coming quickly into
view was an APC. The growling engines
shaking the metal gantry even from that distance. Krakin sucked in through dry
lips and felt a trickle of sweat run down his face. This was it.
Until next time
DOC and Trevdog
