In addition to a number of games of 11th edition 40k that I’ve played lately, I’ve also got a group of friends that have been having a lot of fun with the random, crunchy, nostalgic joy of 2nd edition 40k that many of us grew up with. We just finished a campaign of Eldar vs Blood Angels and Dark Angels Space Marines that was a lot of fun, and now we’re fired up for a set of games that will have us all playing a different Chaos force. Thus it’s Tale of Four Gamers time: chaos edition!

This post will have the background for the campaign, the first mission, as well as some of the established rules conventions we’ll be using for the game.

Background

A number of different warbands have fought together for the past thirty years, united under the leadership of a rising Chaos Warmaster: Perelom Gol, The Bloodhand. His fury and combat skill united forces of all types while the taking was good, and his campaign conquered many of the Sentinel Worlds at the edge of the Eye of Terror–gifting those conquests to different Chaos Lords and Demagogues who followed him. Most recently The Bloodhand’s forces discovered an as-yet undocumented Blackstone Fortress moored in a dense asteroid belt.

Four of the most successful leaders amidst The Bloodhand’s forces had their fleets hurriedly summoned to the newly-captured Blackstone Fortress. They received a call from Heretek Madresh, The Bloodhand’s primary tech priest. Each of the flagships and their fleets docked near the fortress, amidst the assembled flotilla of Dark Mechanicum ships aned those of The Bloodhand’s own warband.

They were each invited to bring a small retinue of bodyguards and assemble in the secondary control chamber of the fortress. Upon arrival, they found Heretek Madresh floating near a projection table and a number of large mechanical boxes with opaque containment fields shimmering atop them. The projection table showed the map of the system, and the planets each of them had conquered.

Heretek Madresh spoke, his words grating from an electronic grill set in his face:

“Greetings esteemed leaders of the four most capable warbands our great Bloodhand’s host. I regret to inform you: Perelom Gol, The Bloodhand, has died.”

With that an unseen switch was flipped and the containment field on the largest central box disappeared, revealing the smoking corpse of a giant space marine whose armor was undoubtedly that of The Bloodhand. The Heretek continued:

“Lord Perelom Gol was judged… unworthy… by the systems of the Blackstone Fortress, and upon his attempt to activate it was immolated by an unforeseen defense system. Once word gets out, the fleet will fragment. One of you needs to step up, prove your worth, and take control of the fortress and all of the fleets. Some will run, others will fight. It’s most logical for one of you to take control. So decide, and fast.”

The Chaos Lords and Demagogues looked at each other. Each had fought hard under The Bloodhand. Each had conquered worlds in the system that were even now producing matériel and new soldiers bolstering their forces. Each of them knew THEY deserved to rule this group–the others being charlatans, pretenders, sycophants, or dullards. They would not bend the knee any of these others. They would strike first and seize power. They would take what was rightfully theirs. They would become The Lord of the Blackstone.

Mission One: Flashpoint

Briefing: Each army general strikes at the same time, hoping their forces can eliminate opposing generals in this very first moment. Unfortunately, all had prepared for violence–both telling their retinues to be ready, and carrying personal defensive equipment that allows them to escape. They battle over the command room and potentially useful contents within it, before reaching somewhat of a stalemate each rushes back to their fleet to recover and attack each other with more technology.

Special Rules:

Skirmish Style: Forces can be a total of around 550 points. However each model acts independently as if their own unit. Units can be purchased for this in amounts fewer than their minimum for the unit (tho minimum numbers are needed if you’re going to take upgrades like special or heavy weapons), and normal restrictions on allies or units are limited. These are meant to be the weird and wild retinues of different Chaos war leaders, so have fun.

Fortress-Chosen: Each army general, without knowing it, has a share of the Blackstone Fortress’ internal protection grid applied to them–as the ancient machinery is watching to see which of them is most deserving (which spoilers, won’t be answered in this battle but in the campaign). When a general would lose their last remaining wound they automatically succeed in a bonus saving throw. It’s similar to a displacer field’s effects on a successful save, except that the teleporting movement is back toward the board corner they came from. Once their entire retinue is destroyed, the movement of the teleport becomes the full distance to their exit corner as the Fortress itself gets them to safety for now. This does not move a crate with them (see below).

The Relics of the Bloodhand: There are a number of crates in the room. Any model can carry a crate by touching it in their movement–it moves along with them. However you cannot run or charge with a crate. Any model that gets back to their side’s starting corner with a crate exits back to their armada. Roll on the crate chart below to see what effect it has for the campaign at the end of the battle for every crate you successfully escape with.

Campaign Guidelines

We’re here to have fun, so these guidelines help us be in agreement on how things work.

Daemon Summoning: We’ll all bring our daemon models to help people summon as needed. Lost and the Damned Models (chaos cults and daemon world units) cannot normally have marks of chaos, so we’ll allow any with a Daemon Gift (pg. 137) to also count as a model on the table with the correct mark.

Chaos Spawn: We tend to play 2v2 games, and that allows for the fun of shifting alliances as we do this campaign, as different people are betrayed at different times. That means we almost always have more than two psykers on the table in any given battle, so the rule of any warp flux of 12+ causing a chaos spawn would be pretty punishing. We’re going to change that to be any three matching numbers triggers a Chaos Spawn.