Custom Campaign Rules

Dear Archons,

as I like to play narrative missions I want to organize a campaign using also narrative and not only matched play missions. But many of those missions are a mess when it comes to balancing. I don't want to change all the missions, but I came up with a way of picking missions which allows players to discard the missions they dislike most. These are my self written campaign rules, what do you think?

WH40k Campaign
1. Define the Campaign
 • Choose a point increase and time for each campaign round.
   o E.g. 200 points and a 1 month period.
 • Choose the duration of the campaign (e.g. 4 rounds)
 • Write a list of all players

2. Start the Campaign Round
 • Pair players (randomly or use a scheme you all agreed to)
 • Every player prepares his army
   o Army points = # Current Round * points per campaign round
   o Only models which have been painted in the course of this campaign.
   o Models which were half painted / primed at the beginning of the campaign can also be used.
   o Only “old” already painted HQs and troops might be used to fill up detachments (max. 25% of the whole army points)

3. Choose Mission
 • Pick a Vigilus book: Book = # Available Books *  # Current Round / # Campaign Rounds
 • Pick a random warzone from the Vigilus Book (D6)
 • Each player may discard one of the proposed missions / battlezones (roll-off, winner picks first)
 • Determine which of the remaining missions / battle zones will be played (dice roll)
   o If a battlezone was chosen, determine 3 missions from the core rule book / chapter approved / any other book you have at hand. Again every player discards one of the missions, now starting with the player who picked second the last time. The remaining mission will be played.
 • Determine which scenery table to use (D6) from the warzone table. If the needed terrain is not available choose whatever terrain that has approximately the same size.
   o Optional warzone rules must be played and at least 1/3 of the table needs to be an area where it is applied.
 • Start playing the mission as described in the mission rules.
   o Each play gets 3 CPs which can only be used for mission specific stratagems (MCPs). In addition each player with a non-battle forged army gets 2 CPs and access to stratagems.

4. Claim Your Reward
 • Warlords level up: Each player may choose an ability from the “custom characters ability table” on page 15 of CA18, and add it to the existing abilities of his warlord. This warlord will keep these abilities until the end of the campaign. They cannot be transferred to a different unit.
 • The winner gets 3 campaign points.
 • The looser gets 1 additional MCP and 1 additional CP per campaign round for the rest of the campaign (even for non-battle forged armies).
   o This stacks if multiple games are lost.
 • In case of a draw each player gets 1 campaign point.

5. Start the Next Campaign Round
 • If this was the last round of the campaign, the campaign ends otherwise go back to  “Start the Campaign Round”.

6. End of Campaign
 • Armies on parade / painting contest:
   o At the end of the campaign every participant must vote in the painting contest.
   o A participant cannot vote for himself.
   o A participant needs to choose his top 3 painted armies.
        1st = 3 points
        2nd = 2 points
        3rd = 1 point
   o At the end a ranking of all armies is calculated summing all points.
   o Each player gets points calculated by this formula:
        Points = (# Players – Painting Rank + 1) / # Players * # Campaign Rounds * Painting Factor
        Painting factor of 3 means the first place of the painting contest is worth as much as having won every battle. Recommendation is painting factor = 1.5
 • Sum all points and calculate a final ranking.
   o In case of equal points the player with the better painting contest ranking is higher in the final ranking.


Additional Rules
Sustained Assault: Should a mission use the sustained assault rule, use the rule with the following changes. Reinforcements called by the rule must be deployed within 16” – M of the dedicated battlefield edge, with a minimum of 6”. M is the unit’s movement characteristic. In addition the defender gets 4 additional MCPs.
This change is used because the sustained assault rule is very imbalanced. Fast armies (e.g. Drukhari) can get into battle quickly and benefit a lot from this rule while slow armies (e.g. Death Guard) won’t be able to make use of this rule as much. Also the attacker is favoured by missions using this rule, even if the defender has an advantage due to terrain. Therefore, the defender get additional MCPs to keep the balance.