WTFokolypse - Scenario Ideas

Ok. Looking at the Armies presently on the role call and toying with ideas for the Scenario.

We have a large force of Eldar so I was thinking maybe something centered around them and one of their vacant worlds (as per the Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim).

In short (and we can build on this if it flys) but some Eldar Warlocks/Farseers could potentially be toying with some artifacts from the Black Library to further cultivate and enhance the world in readyness for one of the Eldar craft worlds to settle.

However something goes wrong (some sort of corruption in the artifact maybe) and kills the warlocks working with it. When this event occurs a vertiable Phsycic tidal wave is sent out over the galaxy. Now the Eldar even in their wisdom cannot avoid a conflict as they might sometimes do. There is to much at stake as this "artifact" could possibly be a way for other races to learn more about the workings of the webway and even the Black Library.

Now comes the other races, the Imperium, Dark Eldar, Chaos who would all undoubtably fight hard and bloody for the power this might unlock.

How does this equate to several battles? Well lets assume the forces rallied has travelled with the most haste possible and dont have large battle ships etc. So instead of pitched naval battled we could have some skirmishes on out lying planets in the the system. This could culminate in some bigger pitched battles later.

Also maybe the "artifact" has been split/fragmented when the warlocks were killed creating several objectives and thus points available in battles.

Anyway food for thought.

Not bad. The fact that we have Eldar, Slaanesh and Dark Eldar is very suited to backstory fluff as (for those who hadn't heard) Slaanesh was born of Eldar excess, leading to the fall and the death of countless billions of Eldar, subsequently opening the way for mankind to inherit the stars. As such, Slaanesh is the most hated foe of the Eldar, and it shouldn't be too tough to play on this animosity...

The Dark Eldar are (I believe...) the remnants of the society gone mad before the fall of the Eldar, dedicated to fulfillment of their most visceral fantasies. Here, I can see how they might appreciate the ways of the Dark God Slaanesh, and may allow for an alliance. Correct me if I'm wrong, though, as I haven't read the DE codex or fluff.

Since we're not fielding any Eldar Exodites we have flexibility in where the campaign will be set: it could indeed be one of the Maiden Worlds seeded by the Eldar before the Fall; or perhaps one of the planets lost during the fall, containing an important ancient artifact; or it could be a raid into the Eye of Terror by an alliance of Space Marines and Grey Knights, and supported by Eldar, encountering Chaos, Dark Eldar and Fallen Angels (this would be the easiest way to work in those final two...).

How we doing so far...?

Lads

i think comitting this sort of thing to writing is asking for trouble.

It's a shame you've both already gotten married because i would have insisted on reading out extracts to the assembled masses at the reception for a laugh :p

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Piss-taking aside, I think a background story linking the preliminary & final battles is a good thing but is not necessarily essential.

If a highly detailed back story is going to be there (but not complicate the games) - that's great. I'll probably skip to the summary of "marines need to take that eldar objective in this battle because it's important".

Not that my way is the best or only way. We all get something different out of the hobby whether that is converting/paining/collecting/gaming/narrative.

-Julian

Lol go back to playing with your hitty cheesemeister jumping ant Blood Angels... It's true that this is non-essential stuff - usual practice is to roll for mission and setup type, but I like RPGs so background stuff is entertaining for me, and if it is well thought out then the game progression will be much more meaningful (particularly the final showdown). As for game interuption, is should function more to guide the games than interfere. Again this relies on proper planning. Think along the lines of the story arc created for your 3rd years in cadets Jules... It won't win any awards but can make things slightly more interesting.

Rednuts_rock wrote:

Lol go back to playing with your hitty cheesemeister jumping ant Blood Angels... It's true that this is non-essential stuff - usual practice is to roll for mission and setup type, but I like RPGs so background stuff is entertaining for me, and if it is well thought out then the game progression will be much more meaningful (particularly the final showdown). As for game interuption, is should function more to guide the games than interfere. Again this relies on proper planning. Think along the lines of the story arc created for your 3rd years in cadets Jules... It won't win any awards but can make things slightly more interesting.

Yeah I see eye to eye with Slater here in the sense that im a fantasy/sci fi geek through and through. Its not merely the game of 4ok that appeals to me, but the various back stories etc.

In saying that, I also see the merit of not over complicating things, especially for the first trial of this idea. I do concede to Julians point that an objective that is simply "very important" will at the end of the day be as entertaining to take if Im doing so with mates and a beer in hand, which is in my eyes, equally important.

Angus

to add another 2c and clarify:-

We should resist the urge to add too many back-story elements into individual games.

Eg1

"Marines must take this eldar objective by the end of turn 4 to win. Eldar must keep the objective until at least turn 3 for full marks, but otherwise keep Character X alive for half marks"

That would be fine and dovetail into a more complicated back story.

Eg2

"Marines must get their Captain to this spot by turn 2, collect the majic sword, defeat this demon in hand-to-hand combat by turn 4. meanwhile the Eldar must switch on all 4 generators in specific order..." etc

That would be a pain in the backside.


We can all assume that a lot of backstory happens before, after and during (albiet in another place) our simple-objective game rounds. After all, we are just representing small skirmishes in a larger story.

Ha ok fair enough I wasn't even going to be THAT specific, simply planning to say:

This is X mission with Y setup because of fluff fluff fluff
If A wins the next mission will be T with Setup U, otherwise mission R with setup S etc.

Once each game begins it would be standard 40k, was just planning to use story to predict mission instead of random. If it's written ahead of time it will take no longer than rolling for missions.

Agreed that detailed intramission subgoals would be far too complex and not in the spirit of tabletop 40k, which is (and should be) more along the lines of "KILL IT!!!"

Perhaps i've been playing th 40k video game for too long. They have that kind of BS to get through on some maps.

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I suppose a key thing would be whether winning/losing a preliminary battle effects subsequent battles?

I reckon that it would be quite difficult to achieve in a balanced way.

There would be nothing wrong with just running the set battles with no contingent results for following ones. After all, history has shown us that many battles can be won or lost without specifically effecting the outcome of a campaign.

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Finally, in the event of flow-on effects to subsequent battles, everyone should get their squads/units back at full strength. it would be pretty dismal indeed if only the non-reinforced "survivors" of squads get to play at the end of the day.

love the idea of a slaneesh dark eldar alliance
if i cant "play" with it. throw it to the daemon

OK so we might need to revise the scenario...

Or not

Ill tell you what I am also loving the Necromunda concepts at the moment considering you can have a full "army" of uneder 10 mini's!

Very cost effective!

No wonder GW ditched it!

Angus