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A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I started talking about 40k fluff (a typical conversation amongst us 40k nerds) and we got to talking about a Tyranid Invasion. We started talking about the stages, what it would be like to be present for one, etc.

Then, I came up with a cool idea. What if we figured out a way to play through all the stages of an invasion using the 40k rules? Wouldn't it be cool to be infiltrated by Genestealers and Lictors, then fight off endless waves of Gaunts/Gargoyles, and then defend against Carnifexes, Trygons, etc, in a thought-out and pre-planned set of missions?

Well, I went home just obsessed with the idea, and I came up with a scenario pack that lets you do just that! I guess I'd like to say that it's a "final copy" and it's "ready for play", but I know I'm not perfect and there's probably some minor issues here and there. I have attached the document as a PDF to this post, and I hope you enjoy and leave some interesting feedback!

Heck, I'd love to see pictures of games in-progress!

Click here to download the PDF.

Enjoy!

This looks to be promising, now to find poeple to try it....

Just one reply? Come on people! What do ya think?

To pull off a fluffy version of a tyranid invasion you'll have to break the FOC for things like tons of lictors and HS creatures. Make sure everybody involved in this experiment has a hand in creating the rules so nobody gets upset when 20 carnifexes and a handful of trygons is coming at them in the last phase of the invasion.

Obrek wrote:To pull off a fluffy version of a tyranid invasion you'll have to break the FOC for things like tons of lictors and HS creatures. Make sure everybody involved in this experiment has a hand in creating the rules so nobody gets upset when 20 carnifexes and a handful of trygons is coming at them in the last phase of the invasion.

Well, with your super-quick reply (after I had just shamelessly bumped the thread), I am curious if you read the scenarios. I think I covered that stuff...

Also, why would "everyone involved" need to create the rules? The point was to create a "fun" scenario pack that represents the stages of invasion by the galaxy's biggest threat. I created the scenarios, no more creation would be needed.....

Everyone involved must think that the senarios are fun, which is why if everyone involved has a hand in their creation no one will feel slighted.

In general 40k does a bad job at narrative play, so your attempt at a narative campaign is cool.

That said, a tyranid invasion is a planetary event, while any game played in 40k or even apoc is a local event. So in my mind, the senarios should not ever be balanced, because such a conflict is in no way balanced, and barring some pretty big hand waving no action taken on the ground by a defending force will stop or really even slow a tyranid invasion. Tyranids are defeated in space IMHO, and only in space. Ground forces in general I imagine simply try and hold out and survive until the space battle is decided, and if the Tyranids win in space then its time to evac that planet and call down exterminatus.

In refrence to your senarios, hosting the PDF means I cant access it at work, so I will have to wait to see the rules.

DevianID wrote:Everyone involved must think that the senarios are fun, which is why if everyone involved has a hand in their creation no one will feel slighted.

In general 40k does a bad job at narrative play, so your attempt at a narative campaign is cool.

That said, a tyranid invasion is a planetary event, while any game played in 40k or even apoc is a local event. So in my mind, the senarios should not ever be balanced, because such a conflict is in no way balanced, and barring some pretty big hand waving no action taken on the ground by a defending force will stop or really even slow a tyranid invasion. Tyranids are defeated in space IMHO, and only in space. Ground forces in general I imagine simply try and hold out and survive until the space battle is decided, and if the Tyranids win in space then its time to evac that planet and call down exterminatus.

In refrence to your senarios, hosting the PDF means I cant access it at work, so I will have to wait to see the rules.

This +1
I've done narrative campaigns before and everyone having a part in making it is a must(even if its younger siblings )
i wasn't able to look at the pdf due to bad internatz, sorry

I think it's a great idea.

That said, a tyranid invasion is a planetary event, while any game played in 40k or even apoc is a local event. So in my mind, the senarios should not ever be balanced, because such a conflict is in no way balanced, and barring some pretty big hand waving no action taken on the ground by a defending force will stop or really even slow a tyranid invasion. Tyranids are defeated in space IMHO, and only in space. Ground forces in general I imagine simply try and hold out and survive until the space battle is decided, and if the Tyranids win in space then its time to evac that planet and call down exterminatus.

But who says the fighting has to be balanced?

There was a scenario run in WD some years ago, a large Nid force had to completely wipe out the IG force on the table. Anything else was considered an IG victory, as the forces withdrew from the battle to make a defence line elsewhere. There was a similar scenario in Space Hulk, where the marines are on a suicide mission, they will die, but how long it takes determines whether or not it is a victory. You could easily turn this on its head - at the end of a campaign, following an Imperial victory, the last Nids must try and escape from the battlefield. If they can do so, they will be able to hide/nest and call additional Nid forces to the area (giving the campaign a draw result perhaps?)

Unbalanced games are fine, and I think can create some truly epic tabletop moments (and also something which will be fun to play), the important bit is getting the victory conditions for each side balanced.

The sequence of a Nid invasion is well documented, and I certainly think you've made a promising start. I would try and add a bit more variety to the missions though (perhaps go into more specifics). Also some way of building in continuation, you need some kind of tree structure of how the campaign will progress depending on the results of the previous game. That way, the players will feel they are actively contributing to how the campaign is progressing, rather than just taking part in a pre-ordained story. You could make up some special scenarios - the escape of a genestealer 'specimen' from a lab, the evacuation of the planetary governer or some scientist trying to create an anti-nid virus. The nid attack on a system of power generators that control the planets defenses. There is definitely potential for a lot of depth with it.

Just my thoughts anyway, and kudos for attempting something like this

Thanks, Pacific!

Alright people, chillax! This is just for fun, but it should be a LOT of fun, or at least I thought so.

Has anyone gotten to play or read this yet? Some people (probably including myself) are going to run this at our club soon, but I was hoping to see what you guys thought? Let me know what you guys think of the scenarios (and not just the concept of the scenarios lol)!

Obrek wrote:To pull off a fluffy version of a tyranid invasion you'll have to break the FOC for things like tons of lictors and HS creatures. Make sure everybody involved in this experiment has a hand in creating the rules so nobody gets upset when 20 carnifexes and a handful of trygons is coming at them in the last phase of the invasion.

Apocalypse. Tyranid invasions are represented awesomely by Apocalypse. 120 strong wave of gaunts with a special rules that makes defenders run out of ammo when they roll 6's to hit and them coming back on the board when destroyed. Carnifexes and Heirodules hitting the ground in mycetic spores and slamming into lines of tanks. Hive Tyrants and a score of Zoanthropes making a big synaptic base for the army. Hierophants striding amongst all the chaos. This is all done with standard GW data sheets for Tyranids and possible in a moderate sized game.