Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all,

Recently a friend of mine dropped a Planetary Empires box in my lap, still in box and on the sprue too! So I got to thinking about maybe having a campaign with some friends, however I am not really sure what the best way to go about it is.

So in the plus side I have the following.

-Planetary Empires
- IA books 4 through to 11 (for ideas and inspiration), as well as Crusade of Fire
-Lots of terrain and space to leave things set up if need be
-A good group who would be open to the idea

Now some of the challenges.

I am married. So while my wife is very supportive of me playing War Dollies with my friends, there are limits to how often.
I also go to sea for a living; working a month on and a month off... so... I can't spend too much time into 40k.

So what suggestions can anyone make? I just like the idea of a "short" and fun campaign to create a bit of a narrative backdrop for our games. Your idea's and experience are welcome.

The best experiences that I've had are running narrative custom scenarios at a set points level. I've tried doing massive map based campaigns and huge, point scaling, custom hero matches and though they start out extremely fun they peter out fairly quickly and more often than not one or two armies completely crush the rest. I am in the same situation of being married and I work nights so my schedule rarely lines up with my friends. But picking say, 4 missions that are 1000, 1350, 1700, 2000 points and having cool missions that each base off the next have been rewarding, doable, and great fun. That's my 2 cents and if you need some mission suggestions just let me know.

Dude, there's nothing like the FW Horus Heresy (book 4) Conquest Campaign. Nothing else by gw or fw even comes close. It works for 40k or 30k, not tied to specific armies and really fun.

I did some write ups about it, as I'm obviously a huge fan:

Oops forgot link, here is part 3 http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/2016/05/conquest-campaign-for-dummies-part-3.html?m=1

http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/2016/04/conquest-campaign-for-dummies-part-2.html?m=1

http://atticwars40k.blogspot.com/2016/04/conquest-campaign-for-dummies-part-1.html?m=1

The best campaign I was a part of used the Badab War rules (IA:9). Very open ended, awards for winning rounds, but no side was ever in an insurmountable hole.

You don't have to play the armies in the book to use the rules, either. I believe that the FW HH Conquest rules that Gunzhard mentioned above is similar.

 kronk wrote:
The best campaign I was a part of used the Badab War rules (IA:9). Very open ended, awards for winning rounds, but no side was ever in an insurmountable hole.

You don't have to play the armies in the book to use the rules, either. I believe that the FW HH Conquest rules that Gunzhard mentioned above is similar.

They are similar, the Conquest system is the evolution of that already cool campaign. It's totally modular now and very flexible

Thanks for the replies all. Gunzhard, your suggestion is actually pretty much what I was looking for. I was a bit worried that a campaign could drop off after the inital hype, especially since I being one of the players would be away often. This system of reserve points looks like it has promise with respect to keeping games going but not letting any one player get way out ahead simply due to life schedules. I'll look at that cloer.