Firstly, apologies that this has taken so long to get done! Here is the second version of the campaign rules (with some slight differences to V1) and the fluff explanation of what’s going on:

Swindon & District 2017 Warhammer 40k Campaign:

Version 2.

This year’s campaign is a weird combination of narrative campaign and standard league – regular games can be played using whichever edition the two players prefer (as long as both are using the same edition, obviously), and there are no campaign rules in effect which will affect the regular games. Player’s wins/draws/losses will be recorded separately from how their faction is faring. Players will also earn experience points, which can only be spent in the multiplayer games (which will almost certainly use the 8th edition rules) to purchase various bonuses for that multiplayer game.

In addition, each individual victory will move their faction one step closer to a final multiplayer game to determine the campaign’s victor.

Players are separated into three Factions:

  • Imperial Crusaders (any army defined as “Armies of the Imperium” on the ally chart)

  • Chaos Occupiers (Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Renegade Imperial Guard)

  • Xenos Miscreants (Eldar of all stripes, Orks, Tau, Tyranids)

To make things slightly more confusing however, the main track of the campaign combines the “Occupiers” with the “Miscreants”. As such, any win by the Imperials adds a flag to their target, whilst any Imperial loss adds a flag to the Chaos campaign track. This is one of the measures to address the number of Imperial players.

Chaos versus Xenos games add flags to their own minor tracks, and this is shorter to account for the smaller number of such games that will occur.

No track will gain more than two flags per week.

When games of Imperial vs. Imperial occur, one (or both) of the players can decide to play as renegades or traitors (their forces actually being Alpha Legion in disguise!). For the duration of that game that player counts as being of the Chaos Occupiers faction, and their victory or loss will be treated as such. No other changes occur (don’t have to use a different Codex or anything). This is another measure to address an overabundance of Imperial players.

If both players decide to do this, each player should secretly roll a D20 (use an independent adjudicator to observe the rolls) at the beginning of the game and only compare the result after the game, with the player with the highest score being Alpha Legion, and the lower score Imperial (this is to prevent intentional towel-throwing by pro-Imperial players).

Where Chaos fight Chaos, or Xenos fight Xenos, no campaign track is moved forward, although such infighting is very in-character. The results are still counted towards the player’s individual scores, and they still earn experience.

The amount of experience earned depends on the size of the game being played:

1-1000 Points per side = 50 experience to each player.

1001-1500 = 75 experience experience to each player.

1501-2500 = 100 experience experience to each player.

2501+ (Apocalypse games) = 200 experience to each player.

Note that this means doubles games (or games with even more players in Apocalypse) are particularly lucrative – this is intentional, as the campaign is often a method for meeting new people. But if this becomes abused this method may change.

Multiplayer games are played once certain boxes on the tracks are reached (marked by stars), although they won’t always be played the next week as other ongoing campaigns or the D&D group will need to be avoided.

The Story

In the waning years of the 41st Millennium, the citizens of the Suindune system became increasingly resistant to the rule of the distant Imperium, whom they saw as distant, unelected, unaccountable arbiters of the fate of their worlds. Protests rose around charismatic figureheads, including prominent political figures in the planetary governments, ruled by the Imperium-chosen governor of the largest and most populous planet, Suindune III. Eventually, the planetary governor fled the system, and the system declared it’s independence from the Imperium.

Before the Imperium could respond, the 41st millennium ended, and the system was abruptly lost in as the warp storm known as the Great Rift tore the galaxy in two. Due to the warp energies flowing around the system, contorting the passage of time, within the system a hundred years passed.

As the political turmoil receded, it became clear to the citizens that they had been lied to. The leaders of the rebellion, who had espoused the wonders of democracy and self-determination, quickly abandoned those principles, setting themselves up as tyrants of cruelty and vanity greater than even the Imperial rulers. Such are the deceptions of Chaos, as the revolution was orchestrated by the Alpha Legion and the daemons of Tzeench.

As the Indomitus Crusade began to reclaim worlds lost at the turn of the millennium, a spearhead of Imperial forces has entered the Suindune system, led by the Living Saint Josephine, an Adepta Sororitas of the order of the Sacred Rose and embodiment of the Emperor’s will.

The crusade began be assaulting Suindune I, home of the Mechanicus Institute. Supported by loyal Mechanicum forces, the world became the beachhead from which the rest of the system would be conquered.

On Suindune III and it’s moon, Bloonsdune, the Chaos forces had fractured into warbands, each plundering their territories. To repel the Imperial crusade, the champions must assert their rights to command by quashing the forces of the other warbands, and prove themselves worthy of their gods.

Once united, Chaos will have to strike at the Mechanicus Institute on Suindune I to secure the system.

Suindune II was lightly populated during the Imperial rule, being mostly forest-covered and inhabited by dangerous flora and fauna. Small foraging and hunting communities supplied food to the more hospitable Suindune III. The ancient ruins have attracted various Xenos forces to the world, who must remove the Chaos occupiers before they can investigate properly.