Warhammer 40k Forum and Wargaming Forums banner

Fighting the little fights of Istvaan III

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Oldenhaller 
#1 ·
So we were down at the pub last night and my mate Connor decided he was going to pick up and run with an idea I had a while back which was of a warbands style heresy era game. We sat, we bantered and in the end decided that what we wanted to do was to encourage small games of heresy era battles over a weekend which were story based and didn't require players to construct huge new armys. We wanted scope for character, for conversions and on top of all of that...for gaming pottential.

Now we wanted a site where there were multiple legions invoved so that there was enough vatiation between the different forces available and also so that each could be as cohesive or disparate as the player wanted. This realy gave us three options (at the moment) of Istvaan III, Istvaan V or Terra. Planning on playing in small squad based games - slightly bigger than kill team up to 500 points or so we plummed to start at the start...when the heresy realy kicked off.

So where does this leave us? Well the plan is to write a cut down army list which allows for choosing both loyalist and traitor lists from it, which then has the option for stylising them by both legion and loyalty. It'll have special characters of sergeant/WGBL level but none of the big names from the battles - they're off story novel things. We're looking at writing a story based campaign for the weekend who's win conditions are by margin of wins involved and how this then shapes the greater destiny without changing things. Yes the loyalists don't 'win', however it then becomes how thier pyric victory is seen.

We'll be making boards, miniatures and scenery, and depending upon numbers booking somewhere to run the different scenarios. It'll be a matter of how many people are keen and getting them to stay the distance. I hope that with a small enough force it'll not be enough to put them off and also can run alongside other projects.

I'll be posting up some of the further ideas we've had in a bit. We're looking to have the book for the campaign book out prior to christmas so people can start writing and building, suggestions always welcome though.

~O
 
See less See more
#2 ·
~How to plan a Campaign~

I want to include eight to twelve games in the campaign of varying sizes to be played across the weekend with various win conditions for each scenario. The scenarios themselves will be dictated by the background of the story and broken down intto four sections;

- initial assaults
- protracted engaguement
- hunkering down
- final push

Each of the engaguements will be of a specific size which requires the player to select units from the army they've chosen for the weekend. Depending upon the missions each army will be either randomly assigned an opponent or the generals will get to confer and pick the force they think best suited to the task.

The force organisations available will also reflect the different troops available to each army. There will be more troops and support available to the heretics representing thier superior numbers, but more elite forces available to the loyalists representing the greater proportion of troops who have come from earth through the great crusade.

Something akin to the following
Loyalists
HQ - 1
Troops - 2-4
Elites - 0-4
FA - 0-1
HS - 0-1

Heretics
HQ - 1
Troops - 2-5
Elites - 0-1
FA - 0-2
HS - 0-2

~O
 
#5 · (Edited)
~Mission 1 Specifics~

I feel that the first mission really is going to set the tone for the weekend and how we'd like things to be played and thus ought be of a suitibly chaotic nature to reflect the confusion, loss, desparation, fear and anger of the survivors of the firestorm. I envisage small groups crammed into bunkers, waiting for the cyclonic winds to die down so they might find if any others have survived. For the heretics it's the assault led by the anger of Angron to expunge the last remenants of those who would upset thier former leige's plans.

I see this as a being a rush to escape and locate others verses a need to quickly trap and contain. I'd like it to quick and snappy and with the worry that at any moment you might easily loose your force and thus loose the game before your mission is complete.

~O
 
#6 ·
Loyalist:Mission one - Regroup said:
The firestorm is over and the world is dead save those who have kept their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor. The bunker seals creak as those inside force their way out into the ash clouds which have been thrown into the atmosphere from the bodies of the twelve million who have died here. Through this darkness come long tails of fire, throwing their cargoes to crack down into the damaged earth to disgorge the traitorous warriors who have railed to the Warmaster’s heretical call to arms.

Forces
100 points of individual infantry models chosen from any Troops, Elites, Fast Attack or Heavy Support Squads you have in your army. A sergeant may only be chosen from a squad you have taken at least two other models from.

Setup
This game will be played on a 4’x4’ board with the bunker which the loyalists begin the game in is placed in the centre. Each player, starting with the Loyalist takes it in turn to place one of D3+2 way markers on the board. These may not be placed within 9” of another marker, the bunker or a board edge.
The Loyalist player takes the first turn

Special Rules
All models operate as individual units and sergeants gain the ‘Independent Character’ Rule.
Due to the dust clouds the game is fought using the Night Fight rules and move as if in difficult terrain on the first turn.
Any Loyalist model may set a way marker to attempt to find friendly troops by spending a friendly shooting phase in base to base contact with a way marker.
The game lasts 5 turns before going into random game length.

Victory Conditions
The Loyalist player achieves their victory conditions if they set three way markers.
If both or neither of the players achieve their victory conditions the game is a draw.
If the Loyalist player fails to achieve their victory conditions and the Heretics achieve thiers then the Heretics win.
Will do the Heretic one in a bit...

~O
 
#7 ·
This seems like a great idea! Quite novel & will allow for several fast games. I'd just recommend modifying the "activation" rules. To allow the loyalists to move towards their objective and activate it in only (2) portions of their turn doesn't allow the heretical player much time to react. I would suggest that a beacon is activated by moving a loyalist model into b2b contact with it, they must then remain in b2b until the beginning of their next turn and may take no actions.

This means that a heretic can then interupt the activation sequence in their turn by either shooting & killing (or forcing to go to ground) the loyalist, or by engaging them in an assault.

I can just see (5) assault marines jumping & activating their beacons within 2 turns otherwise.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top