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Hi Guys,

Apologizes up front as this may be a long post......

Wondering if anyone would have some ideas for the title of the thread?

What I am aiming for is the following:

A mate of mine is getting into the hobby and doesn't get out much. So I thought a cool incentive to get him painting and into the gaming side more would be to run a map based campaign with his growing Space Wolf army.

What I envisage is the map (going to be using a combined Mighty Empires and Planetary Empires hex map) with a few pre-populated territories where he will choose to Drop his army somewhere on the map. He won't know what armies are represented by the colored flags that will already exist (is that the potentially friendly Imperial Guard army or is the the rampaging Ork horde). So he will need to encounter the flags to find out who is in that territory.

I imagine the various forces can interact with each other and I may do a Dungeon Master style behind the scenes roll off to see the result so the map will have a fluid nature of growing and shrinking empires out of my Mate's ultimate control.

If throughout the campaign he perhaps receives requests for aid or missions from loyal forces, maybe forcing him to make hard choices about which way to go so the campaign takes on a choose your own adventure style as well. This would lead to special missions such as old school rescue or break out missions right down to some wolf scouts in the underhive (may even see a guest appearance by one of my Necromunda Gangs.

Don't anticipate we will kick it off until around Christmas, but I would like to try and have the idea nutted out and send him a fluffy directive from Logan Grimnar of the requirement his Great Company make ready for war in the Campaign. He has a thing for the fluff of the game and I feel he will get a kick out of that sort of thing. Maybe even use email to send him the different "missions" that may arise.

Therefore, it will have elements of a standard conquest campaign as well as small side missions for benefits or penalties depending on his success.

SO, what I am hoping for is some ideas on the mechanics of the campaign. I haven't made any solid decisions on how I want to do this as yet. But want to try and figure out a way to represent how a Space Wolf Great Company would attempt to return a planet to the loyal forces. I will have Eldar, Iron Hands (Space Marines), Orks, Astra Militarum and depending on the speed of my army painting maybe a Chaos Space Marine force as well. I figure the Astra Militraum could represent both loyal and traitor units without too much difficulty. Especially if I proxy in my Necromunda gangs to bulk out numbers.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully there are some good ideas out there I can rip off.

Thanks for reading.

I think it's a very fun sounding concept, but I'm not sure if I have any useful suggestions. This is the sort of thing that got me interested in the game in the first place, though.

So I have been thinking of a little background and thoughts on where I would start the campaign. Let me know your thoughts or questions.

Background:
The Astropathic Choir of the Fang have received requests for aid from the Astrolocus System.

It is an unusual system with only one habitable planet; Astrolocus Primaris. Although the planet and surrounding asteroid fields contain enormous mineral wealth and combined with the agricultural exports the Administratum considers it an Alpha+ tithe grade and therefore any disruption to its industry is unacceptable.

On occasion they have even supplied the Rout with necessary war materials and therefore the Great Wolf has determined that the Space Wolves are to investigate and if necessary provide aid to the local forces and if absolutely no recourse is left engage in full scale actions to return the Astrolocus System to the Imperial fold.

To fulfil the Great Wolf's request your Great Company is to make haste to the Astrolocus System and determine the reason for the distress messages and if required unleash the Rout on any who would befoul a world of the Emperor.

Recommendations: Avoid approaching the Planetary Governor or entourage initially until you can complete your independent investigations as the source of the initial communications came from the local Adeptus Arbites Chief Judge and that may be an indication of corruption within the Government.

Phase 1: The Infiltration
Augurs have identified several locations suitable for inserting small strike teams undetected by any forces on the surface. From these locations you should be able to conduct reconnaissance of the immediate area so as to best determine your Great Companies strategy.

Mission Objectives: Identify disposition of forces currently garrisoned on the Planet. Be they loyal, traitor or Xenos. Their strengths, motivations and locations must be known.

Contact with loyal forces is encouraged as they will have valuable information on what has occurred.

Specifics: There are 4 suitable concealed deployment locations. Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta; however, time will be of the essence once we land and your scouting party will only have time and resources to investigate one location. However, if you deem it fit it would be possible to split our forces to cover more ground. This obviously will have the potential that our Wolves are outnumbered. But increases the chances of uncovering more information. The choice is yours Wolf Lord.


So what I am thinking is we will have the map set up with a few flags and installations already existing. But my mate will be unaware of what the flags represent. Therefore, as we play missions and the like he will learn more and the story will unfold. So with the first task in front of him I will get him to write a list and he has the choice to investigate a single location (and probably outnumber the forces present) or divide this force to cover all 4 locations. It will make his chances a lot tougher, but he will garner more information. I will write each location in more detail in the next week. But the basics are below:

Have drop site Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma. Time is of the essence initially and you will only have time for one action. Or you can split your scouting forces as you see fit to cover more ground.
Alpha - Ork scavenging party, will reveal orks are active and their penchant for walkers, colour on the map and open objective to slay the warboss (at a later opportunity).
Beta - Nothing. Not even a deployment. Not sure I like this one. Any suggestions?
Delta - final stand of a group of loyal guardsmen. Being attacked by traitors (ably played by my Necromunda Gangers). If saved (even one) will reveal loyal colours and a way to communicate and work with them. Plus colours of the traitors.
Gamma - straight up fight with recon traitor guard. Chimera and squad. Will reveal traitor map colours and force disposition.

So any thoughts on what will be the main bulk of phase 1 of the campaign would be most appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

I really like that you are taking the choices to him. Like a commander would approach him for the solution. I think this will definitely give him incentive and make him love the 40k universe that much more. That being said I would try and twist the games as much as you feel necessary. Such as having a scout mission where the enemies are "blip" markers and he must fire at them to reveal what they are. Or something similar to this. Just to give the missions more depth and bring it closer to the story

I would suggest that the beginning enemy be the Orks, and there are two Imperial Guard factions, one is true to the Imperium and the other is pretending. The player must chose which one to support and which to crush or at minimum to get overrun by the enemy. Then late game the true enemy reveled themselves.

Beyond that you have MANY excellent ideas and I look forward to hearing how this will work out for you.