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Battle for Pentegrad

Once more Valaria the Pirate Queen of the Skaith Expanse has descended upon the unhappy city of Pentegrad, intent upon pillaging the treasures of a sector capital. At her back is a motly band of heretics, deserters, Orks, eldar, chaos warbands and worse. This time her force has occupied the southern section of the city after a terrifying bombardment. As the imperial forces struggle to form a coherent defense the raiders move out into the city, fighting block by block.

Campaign Structure.

This map based campaign is designed to be played by a group of players in one day. In order to keep the campaign moving the games will be small to represent the small bands of warriors who will decide the conflict.

Teams.

The players are divided into two teams, as fluffly as possible. One will be the imperial defenders, one the pirate forces (unless something even more fluffy can be found).

Army Lists.

The standard battle is fought between forces of 750 points. In the event that 2 players take on a single player the battle will be between 2 – 500 point lists and 1 -1000 point list, so players will want to bring at least a 500 point, 750 point, and 1000 point list. No HQ choice is required, however all other standard rules apply. Players may be bring as many lists as desired from any legal codex. Limitations:

Characters (of any type) may not cost more than 150 points.
No more than 3 units costing more than 199 points may be included in your army lists. Cost of Transports does not count against against a squad's cost, however the transport must obey the 199 point limit. These units are referred to as “Rare” units. You MAY purchase a superheavy vehicle as a “Rare” unit, however you must have all applicable rules for it available.

The Map.
The map will consist of various locations in the city. These will be occupied by the two sides during the game. Each location is worth victory points at the end of the campaign, and some will also confer other benefits.

The location of player's forces is abstract – players may play a battle anywhere their team needs them to and not worry about where exactly their army is on the board.





Map Key

Imperial Palace – this is the Imperial home base, cannot be conquered, is worth no Vps.
Pirate Base Camp – Same for the Pirates.

Hill Districts. (5 Vps)
Terrain: The buildings in the hill district are old fashioned, with a fair amount of open space and even some trees.

The Hill Districts are wealthy homes of imperial nobility. When fighting a battle in these districts the imperial player may add D6 imperial nobles to his force, if s/he has suitable models.
WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 2 I 3, Ld 7 5+ Armor Save, count as an elite choice.
Half (rounded up) of the nobles are equipped with power weapons. All have either laspistols or las rifles, and combat weapons. One noble may be equipped with a sniper rifle, one may have a plasma pistol.
A single noble is an independent character, 2 or more nobles form a unit.

Hab Blocks (3 VPs)
Terrain: Typical ruined buildings, with an emphasis on high rises and the like.

The Hab blocks are excellent recruiting ground for both Pirates (who will rouse up malcontents, cultists, and such) and the imperium, who can call upon fraternis militia or press gang ordinary workers.
For every Hab Block you control, you may add a single unit of Militia to your forces. This battle may be taking place anywhere on the board. Only one battle at a time may use the unit. So if the pirate player controlled 4 Hab Blocks and was currently engaged in two battles, one might include 3 militia units and the other might include 1.
Militia Squad
10 Models
WS 2, BS 2, S 3, T 3, W 1, A 1, I 3, Ld 6 no armor save. Armed with Lasguns.
Count as a troops choice but cost no points and do not take up a slot.
Have Infiltrate and move through cover when fighting in a Hab Block.


Arbites Precinct House (6 VPs)
Terrain: The defender controls up to 3 Bastions (see Planetstrike) with automated weaponry (heavy bolters, optional Icaris Lascannon. If the bastions are destroyed in one battle they still available in future battles.

City Gates (2 Vps)

Terrain: Walls and up to 2 Bastions (see above).

Sewer Pumping Station (2 Vps)

Terrain: Lots of Pipes.

The side that controls this location may use the “Sewer Rat” strategem in any battle.

Air Defense Station

Terrain – Comms equipment, missile silos, etc.

The side that controls this location can attempt to shoot down enemy skimmers when they fly high. Any time an enemy skimmer moves flat out, or moves over a building instead of around it, the players controlling this location may fire a single S9, AP 1, BS 4 shot at it that hits the side armor.

Landing Pad
Terrain – a Landing Pad, uses normal planet Strike rules.

The side that controls the Landing Pad adds +1 to all reserve rolls during all battles. In addition they may always replace one squad in a force at full strength between battles as reserves are flown in.

St. Antioch – 10 Vps.
Terrain: A cathedral.
Imperial forces are fearless while fighting at this location.

Space Port – 7 Vps.
Terrain: Mostly wide open, however several fuel towers are placed on the board. Fuel towers are Armor 12 Buildings that may not be entered. If they take a “Building Destroyed” result, they explode! Roll D6 + 3 for the radius of the explosion. They cause a Str 5, AP 3 hit that rolls 2D6 for armor penetration to all within the radius of the blast.


Avenue of the Heroic Dead and The Way of Shins (2 VP)
Terrain: A row of buildings on each side, open in the center.
These locations are mostly important strategically, due to allowing easy movement around the map.

Slums (1 VP)
Not much to see here. However, there has been an outbreak of plague recently! Anyone ATTACKING this district may add 3D6 plague zombies to their force as a single unit.

Plague Zombie
WS 1 BS 1 S2 T3 W1 A1 I 1 Ld 10
Fearless, Infiltrate, Feel No Pain, Nurgles Rot (all models within 6” of a zombie in the zombie's shooting phase suffer a Str 2, AP - hit), Mindless (cannot claim or contest objectives), Rage, slow and purposeful.

Manufactorium (7 Vps)
Terrain: Massive factory buildings.

Whoever controls the Manufactorium gains the Ammo Store strategem in any battle they fight. They also repair vehicles on a 3+ rather than a 4+

Battery Hill (2 VP)
Terrain: Fairly open with a few scattered ruins.

The side which controls this location may, if no battle is taking place there, choose to use this as an artillery park. At the start of a battle, declare that any units with Guess range weapons (firing at least 36”) desired will be using battery hill. These units will not be placed on the board, but will instead fire “off board”. In your shooting phase they may fire normally, measuring range from any point on your table edge. However, a unit of yours that did not move must have line of sight to where the template is placed.


Beginning the Campaign.

Each team rolls a die. The winner choose one location adjacent to one they control and takes it over, marking it with a pin. The Imperials begin controlling the palace, while the Pirates control their base camp. Teams take turns choosing locations until all locations are chosen. If, somehow, no adjacent locations remain, you may choose non adjacent locations.

Determining the Battles

Once the map is divided, roll again. One player on the team that won the die roll then declares an attack on an enemy location adjacent to one controlled by their team. They are the “Attacker”. One player on the opposing team must accept their challenge, becoming the defender. The other team may then declare an attack. Continue until all players have a battle, pairing two players against one if needed.

Fighting the Battles

The battle for Pentegrad is a battle for control of every house and every block, every pile of rubble is likely to be hotly contested. Victory is based on 4 objectives – one placed in a building in each table quarter in the usual manner. In addition, roll a D6. On a 5+ a “Treasure” objective is present. Players roll to see who gets to place it – it may not be placed within 9” inches of a a table edge. The Treasure objective has no effect on who wins the battle, but is worth 1 Campaign Victory Point.

Roll randomly to determine deployment as per the rulebook.

The attacker may choose to go first or second, no die roll is used.

Random game length and all scenario special rules are used, including seize the initiative.

After the Battle.

If the attacker won the battle, their team claims that location. If the battle was a tie or the defender won, they retain the objective.

Each player must now decide if they will call for Reinforcements or soldier on. If they call for Reinforcements they must concede a victory point to the enemy team, however they will play their next battle with their normal army, the same one or a new one.

If they decide to Soldier On they patch up their forces but must play their next battle battered and blasted.

All multi wound models regain one lost wound.
All multi model units (except vehicles) regain HALF (rounded up) the models they lost. You may choose which models are returned to the unit.

All vehicles repair immobilized and weapon destroyed results on a 4+. If the vehicle fails to repair an immobilized result it can still move, but its movement is halved in future games. Thus a vehicle which normally had a cruising speed of 6” would move only 3” instead.

Destroyed vehicles are not replaced.

Dead independent characters return on a 4+ with a single wound remaining.

Players whose list contains a Rare Unit (those costing more than 199 points) must either Soldier On or play a new list not containing that particular Rare Unit. Rare Units cannot be replaced by Reinforcements.

Super heavy vehicles may not make any repairs except to attempt to repair immobilization.

Units which fell back off the board return to the game with lost models regained as above.


After the battle is resolved the Winner may declare a new attack on the Campaign Map. If mutually desired players who finish their battle early may wait for other players to finish in order to better mix and match opponents, however they are not required to do so. A new battle may always start when two opposing players are available, there are no “rounds” per se. You may even declare an attack on a board where a battle is already going on.

Location benefits are lost at the end of a game if the location falls during the game.

Cut off. If a location cannot trace a “line of communication” through controlled territories to your teams home base, it is considered to be “cut off”. Cut off locations cannot be defended by a player who took reinforcements at the end of their last battle. If no player is eligible to defend a location, it falls automatically without a battle.

Night and day. The battle for Pentegrad rages for several days. The first two HOURS of play time are daylight. The third hour is Night – if a first player turn begins during that time then both players turn use night fighting. The next two hours are daylight, and so on.

Ending the Campaign. The Campaign ends when time is called. Victory Points for treasure, reinforcements, and control of city locations are then tallied.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3879639.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3879639.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3879665.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3879665.page GMT VP, in game affects, and as a way the army's get around. Reminds me of settelers of Catan.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3908949.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3908949.page GMT

perhaps the person who holds the space port counts as having all territories in contact with the home base, or some-such? like in dawn of war

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3911807.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3911807.page GMT
Some sort of reinforcement bonus for the spaceport sounds reasonable.

Maybe the characters shouldn't be limited except under the "Rare unit" rule? That would allow vulcan and other restricted character lists, but also making killing a key character a big part of the game?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3927338.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3927338.page GMT
No doubt it will take much patience to organize and play, but the result will be epic.

I really like your system for maintaining casualties after battles and 'soldiering on.' It will definitely affect the play style of everybody.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3929454.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3929454.page GMT
Have been working on some terrain and shot some pics of some of my Tau Pirates while playing a "game" with my son:



Statuary



The Tau Commander (gone bad, alas), a few 'counts as' firewarriors (plenty of chaos influence)
and some painted at last Mechanicum terrain (the Gateway to the Manufactorium center)



Some Kroot and Hounds.



"counts as" tetra. Its amazing what five years in a cabinet will do for your weathering.



Xenos Bug and his sidekick Space Aligator ("Counts as" Crisis Suit and gun drone)



Stealth Team in Position.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3994802.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3994802.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3995625.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/3995625.page GMT IG infantry platoons.
A bare bones inf platoon is 130pts. This leaves little or no room for heavy/special weapon teams or conscripts. Because of the nature of an inf platoon, could a rare platoon soldier on without the squads that pushed it passed 199 points rather than loosing the whole platoon?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/4017322.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/4017322.page GMT IG platoons count each squad towards the 200 point unit (and for any other "Unit" purposes in the campaign), rather than the entire platoon.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/4017806.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/428053/4017806.page GMT