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Has anyone tried this?

So, there's a campaign- a set series of battles telling a story.

In said story, named characters from codexes are allowed.

If they are removed from play in a battle, they are removed from the campaign. Completely.

Anyone?

i havnt but mini wargamer's campaigns have rules that can end in character death tho they use custom characters for said campaigns

It does add an element of suspense to find out when/if a character is fatally wounded

if its a bit of fun with friends i can see it going well, where as in a competative (FLGS tornys) you will see the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker haha

but between friends deffiantly!!

 DarkNecro wrote:
i havnt but mini wargamer's campaigns have rules that can end in character death tho they use custom characters for said campaigns

It does add an element of suspense to find out when/if a character is fatally wounded

True. However, an important difference here is that death on the board does not automatically mean the character dying in-story. The major advantage of doing it that way is because it's much harder to forge a narrative if you constantly have to introduce new characters because the previous batch keep dying every few missions.

I would allow named Characters, but ONLY on the idea that they are in the correct context. Say, yes, you can use Lysander, but you have to use Imperial Fists painted in that way. Yes, you can use Eldrad, but those Ulthwe better be black!

On the same note, to avoid introducing new Characters everytime, i would say that you HQ is only knocked out of the Campaign if he is killed by an Instant Death weapon OR his force was tabled. In any other circumstance, they can return. To me this represents either a blow to powerful it would be 2++ plot armour to survive and the other shows a complete annihilation.

mr. peasant wrote:

 DarkNecro wrote:
i havnt but mini wargamer's campaigns have rules that can end in character death tho they use custom characters for said campaigns

It does add an element of suspense to find out when/if a character is fatally wounded

True. However, an important difference here is that death on the board does not automatically mean the character dying in-story. The major advantage of doing it that way is because it's much harder to forge a narrative if you constantly have to introduce new characters because the previous batch keep dying every few missions.

For sure thats why you have a table plus modifiers so that it takes quite a bit to kill a major character ( eg already wounded from previous match , instant death hit, failure of really important mission etc )

Yeah, Miniwargaming's system works very well, imo.

iirc it's something like. if a character is killed during the course of a game, roll a D6 at the end:

6: They're perma-dead, 4-5: they're majorly wounded (penalty to one randomly rolled characteristic), 2-3: they're minor wounded (no penalty), 1: they're unharmed.

With death via ID adding a +2 modifier, being majorly wounded in the prior mission adding a +1 modifier and being minor wounded adding a +1 modifier.

I like this a ton it would force people to use their named characters as the seargents and generals they are and keep them in positions of command rather than risking them in an unlucky charge.

I would rather play it if the character dies that at the end of the game the D-6 roll is

6 Dead 4-5 Major Wounds Not playable for atleast one game in the campaign) 2-3 Minor Wounds Starts the next deployment in reserves or -1W and a 1 is nothing.

But won't it force smashfether vs smathfether games?

It's a bad idea because 40k is a game where every battle is a war of attrition where neither side will ever retreat and both sides take 95% casualties, with the winner decided by whose token survivors manage to claim the last objective. IOW, characters are virtually guaranteed to die every game unless they're death stars (in which case they die every other game) and instead of using your awesome heroes you hide them in the back, or don't even put them in your army at all because you're saving them for some future game. It's much more fun if you just assume that characters always have plot armor and manage to find a way to survive.

I also think Mini Wargaming has it where if your character survives the battle and wins, they also get to be given a bonus of some kind. Like they can increase a stat by 1 point, or be given a USR. One campaign they had Orks vs Chaos, where the Ork player's Big Mek was his 'special character', and after winning a campaign, he got to give him FNP 5+ for free, etc.

I've thought about this-also considered beginning with a 'core army' which is topped up along the way (ie achieving a certain objective gets you 300 pts to spend before the next battle), with the core army units likewise being potentially subject to not returning if it dies (possibly roll a D3 after it dies to decide condition for next battle)

skolirvarden wrote:
with the core army units likewise being potentially subject to not returning if it dies (possibly roll a D3 after it dies to decide condition for next battle)

Again, this doesn't work in 40k. When both sides lose most of their units in an average game your entire army quickly becomes either crippled or unavailable and it isn't fun anymore.

Ah, but only one side would be subject to this rule (the 'defenders'), with the 'invaders' limited by other rules such as having to deepstrike most of their units, limited unit types or some such thing.

There would also be a standard addition to the 'defender' force, so you always get topped up a bit before each battle, but achieving a specific objective lets you accumulate points to be spent on units in addition to the top-up.

Admittedly it would need careful structuring, as you are correct-attrition would take it's toll, but this is partly why I wouldn't permanently remove every unit that dies, there would just be a probability of a unit not coming back.

It's a fun idea, but it doesn't really work for every army. The Swarmlord and Old One-eye canonically respawn like Counterstrike characters, Celestine and the Sanguinor are literal Angels-from-on-high, Dark Eldar are immortal-via-cloning, and even when Necrons fail their Everliving Protocols, they still get resurrected when they get back to the workshop.

So basically, this only affects what, Eldar (if they don't get Wraithed), Imperial Guard, (Chaos) Space Marines and Orks?

You forgot Tau


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And Sisters.

I forgot Tau. The Sisters only have two named characters, one of which is a semi-divine autoressurecting spirits, who I mentioned... and Jacobus just never dies.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
It's a fun idea, but it doesn't really work for every army. The Swarmlord and Old One-eye canonically respawn like Counterstrike characters, Celestine and the Sanguinor are literal Angels-from-on-high, Dark Eldar are immortal-via-cloning, and even when Necrons fail their Everliving Protocols, they still get resurrected when they get back to the workshop.

So basically, this only affects what, Eldar (if they don't get Wraithed), Imperial Guard, (Chaos) Space Marines and Orks?

Again, the idea isn't so much that your character is 'immortal', so much as if they 'die' in a game, they are essentially just retreating and have been wounded. After the game, your character then has to do a roll to see what happens to them (Such as sitting the next battle out, or possibly being removed from the campaign if you're highly unlucky). It's forging the narrative!

Also, Orks are pretty resilient! According to fluff, if they have their head chopped off, a Painboy can stitch it back on within a certain timeframe and the Ork will be just fine. Not to mention their cybork skills are bar none. Look at how messed up Ghaz was before being thrown into a massive suit of Mega Armor! A significant portion of his head was gone :p But that didn't stop Grotsnik from fixing him up. And look at Ghaz now!

I really like the idea of this, and I'm hoping I can get something like it going in my area. Orks vs da universe!