PYRRIAH CAMPAIGN PRIMER – FALL 2017 1 Version 1.2 FALL SEASON – 2017 Presented by
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FALL SEASON – 2017
Presented by
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I. OVERVIEW From October through December, you will tell the story of the planet of Pyrriah. Your actions and the roll of the dice will shape its destiny. Through individual heroics and massed battles, little by little the tapestry will be woven. Each participant in the campaign will declare for a faction (Chaos, Imperium, or Xenos) and select a Warlord to be used for faction throughout the campaign. A Game Master will match up opponents and assign missions for each month’s battles, with each participant playing two games a month. Missions will be diverse and varying in size. The measure of success is not wins or losses, but the developing of the story. II. THE STORY SO FAR The campaign starts with the story already unfolding. The original actors have taken the stage and the opening salvoes in the battle for the planet have been fired. Each of the major factions is discussed below.
A. CHAOS The current story begins with a deceit. A commander of the Astra Militarum aboard the Imperial supply vessel, The Emperor Provides, succumbs to the will of chaos while in transfer between planets in the Cadia system. His troops follow him into mutiny and seize control of the vessel, slaughtering all loyalist crew and passengers. The commander, Lieutenant Nathaniel Garvus, redirects the vessel towards the Pyrriah system, declaring a dark crusade, which he desires to lead under his new name, Garvus the Unbeliever. Before the vessel can leave the system, the raw psychic energy of the slaughter aboard The Emperor Provides attracts the attention of a bloody Khornate warband called The Wrath. The leader of The Wrath, Lord Khartax, hears the same voices as those that drove Garvus mad, and the voices convince Khartax that Khorne is calling him to the Pyrriah system to collect skulls and blood for his master. Lord Khartax and his warband storm The Emperor Provides, and Lord Khartax strikes down Garvus and seizes control of the vessel. What is left of Garvus’s chaos renegades is either butchered or absorbed as cultists into The Wrath. Lord Khartax sets out for Pyrriah to earn the favor of the Blood God. But it is a trick. The voice echoing in the heads of Garvus and Khartax belongs not to Khorne, but to a daemon prince of Tzeentch. The daemon has its own purposes in mind: to use Khartax to weaken the defenders of Pyrriah so that the servants of Tzeentch – most particularly Ahriman and the Thousand Sons – can seize the Fortress Monastery of the Black Templars on Pyrriah and gain access to the webway portal long concealed in its nethermost chambers. Once Khartax has weakened Pyrriah’s defenders, he and his warband will be expendable and the forces of Tzeentch will decend upon Pyrriah to claim their prize. It is unlikely that Khorne and Tzeentch will vie for Pyrriah without attracting the interest of the remaining dark gods, Nurgle and Slaanesh. Each will send minions to Pyrriah to assist the daemonic assault when convenient, or to oppose it when it seems a rival will seize the upper hand.
B. IMPERIUM Pyrriah has been an Imperial world since the middle days of the Great Crusade of the 30th Millenium. Located in the Ultima Segmentum, it has long been held by the Black Templars as a recruiting world. The central
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stronghold of the Templars on Pyrriah is Chapter Keep Promethia in the high mountains of the central zone. From it, the Black Templars maintained a firm, but remote, oversight of the planet, while day-‐to-‐day control was left in the hands of the planetary governor and Astra Militarum forces. Just before Garvus began hearing voices, the calm of Pyrriah was ruptured. A raiding party of the Drukhari decided in that moment to burst from a webway portal in the crypts of Chapter Keep Promethia, concealed since the days of the Chapter Keep’s founding. The Templars long recognized a power emanating from a chasm in the crypt of Promethia, but rather than investigating, they sealed the chasm and erected powerful containments around it. Thus, the secret of the webway portal in the chasm remains a secret to the outside world, and only a few within the Black Templar ranks are cognizant of its existence. Thus, the guardians of the portal were caught by surprise when the Drukhari forces emerged from the portal and seized or killed the acolytes and neophytes stationed in the vicinity. Taking a score of prisoners, the Drukhari returned into the portal, leaving the disappearance of the Templar guardians a mystery. For few of the battle brothers were in the Keep at the time of the raid, and attempts at communications with the Keep from forces outside are met with eerie silence. The Templars, however, are not ones to let things lie. A mighty crusade, the Promethium Crusade, has been launched to retake the Chapter Keep and eradicate whatever caused the disappearance of their brethren. The Templars do not fight on Pyrriah alone. They are joined first and foremost by the Dark Angels, who began pursuit of The Wrath since Lord Khartax removed The Emperor Provides from the Cadia system. Through the Warp, the Dark Angels pursued their quarry, until both The Emperor Provides and the Dark Angel battlecruiser, The Lion’s Fury, parked in orbit above Pyrriah. The Dark Angels sent a boarding expedition to seize back the stolen vessel, but it was a trap. Once the boarding party was aboard, Lord Khartax sent The Emperor Provides plummeting into the Pyrrian atmosphere, crashing the vessel into the surface of the planet between the Chapter Keep and the major hive city of Caesara. Although most of the forces of The Wrath and the Dark Angels survived the crash, the battle in the skies has now become a battle on the ground between the forces of the Lion and the followers of Khorne. Besides the Templars and Dark Angels, the planetary forces of the Astra Militarum defend Pyrriah. In addition, the Mechanicus have taken interest in recovering ancient archeotect that is believed to be hidden in the equatorial jungles of Pyrriah and in the frigid depths of the Neversun manufacturing facility in the far north. The Space Wolves have come with the Mechanicus forces to provide their singular skills in eliminating any resistance to the recovery efforts. And like the Dark Angels, the Ultramarines have been lead to Pyrriah whilst in pursuit of their enemy. But it is not the forces of chaos that the Sons of Guilliman pursue, but the Xenos threat of a Tyranid hive fleet, which has mysteriously turned towards Pyrriah…
C. XENOS Long before it felt a human footstep, Pyrriah was an Eldar exodite world called Pyrios. It flourished for many millennia before its inhabitants suddenly disappeared. When the Imperial crusade reached Pyrios, only a few thousand exodites remained, and they were quickly annihilated by the Imperial forces. Since that time, the Eldar have not tried to retake Pyrios, although they have never forgotten their claim to their former world.
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Thus, the Eldar – particularly, but not exclusively, the Saim Hann Craftworld – maintain a distant watch on the planet, and the dreams of a Saim Hann Farseer became disturbed by the convergence of the Drukhari raid and the madness of Garvus. The Farseer correctly divined the hand of Tzeentch at play and foresaw the true objective of the daemon prince – to lay claim to the webway portal for Ahriman of the Thousand Sons. Although few in number, the Eldar have joined the battle on Pyrriah to aid the humans when necessary to thwart the ambitions of the Chaos Lords, and to fight the humans if it appears that they will gain the upper hand and seek to reclaim the Chapter Keep and perhaps develop an interest in the hidden webway portal. Knowing their number is too few against both the forces of Chaos and the Imperium, the Farseer was forced to take a drastic action: re-‐directing a tendril of a Tyranid hive fleet to Pyrriah. By letting lose the consuming flame of the Great Devourer, the Farseer hopes to bleed white both Chaos and Imperium armies. But the Eldar must be careful to contain the fire that they have unleashed – the Great Devourer cannot be allowed to consume Pyrriah itself. So the Eldar tread a delicate line of aiding and opposing all the forces that clash on Pyrriah. Eldar, Drukhari, and Tyranids are not the only Xenos threat to Pyrriah. A savage ork warband called Da Hellrazors followed The Wrath to Pyrriah. Da Hellrazors have spent a long time in and out of the Warp, jumping from planet to planet wherever the fighting takes them. From their time in the Warp they have come to follow along with many of the Chaos Warbands near Cadia and the Eye of Terror, since the followers of Chaos almost always can be counted on for finding, or starting, a good scrap to join. So when Lord Khartax piloted The Emperor Provides out of the Cadia system to Pyrriah, Badrakk da Blakk -‐ the leader of Da’ Hellrazors – fired up the engines of his Rokk to follow. Since his arrival on Pyrriah, Badrakk has caught the attention of many other ork warbands in the Ultima Segmentum, who flock to Pyrriah to get a piece of the action. D. THE INITIAL CONFLICT As soon The Emperor Provides crashed into the steppes outside of Caesara, hell erupted on Pyrriah. The butchers of The Wrath burst forth from the wreckage and began the slaughter of the inhabitants of Pyrriah. As the blood flowed, the emotional outpouring of the butchery drew forth daemons from the Warp into the realspace of Pyrriah. In a matter of days, a major demonic incursion by the followers of Khorne had spread from Caesara towards Kantara in the northwest and towards Cilicia to the far south. In their midst, the orks of da Hellrazors got stuck in, fighting with gleeful abandon in the carnage of Pyrriah. They found a worthy foe, as the Black Templars and Dark Angels fought ferociously against the invaders. The strength of their bulwark made it impossible for the forces of Chaos and the Orks to seize the mountain passes north of Caesara that lead to the Chapter Keep Promethia, despite an onslaught of gargants and chaos knights in a massed battle at a place known as The Vale of Tears.
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Figure 1: Map of Pyrriah
To the North, forces of Tzeentch began to appear in the windswept icefields outside Naxos. Their target is the former mechanicum forge facility known as Neversun. There they seek an unknown objective while they wait for the forces of Khorne and the Imperium to exterminate each other on the plains of Caesara. But the Mechanicum and their Space Wolves attendants also seek to claim the secrets of Neversun, and the race is on to see which of the two will achieve the depths of Neversun first. To the South, the main Tyranid Hivefleet descended into the sea that separates the hive cities of Cilicia and Ascalon. Soon the sea began to boil with myriad Tyranid creatures that swam their way toward the populated landmasses. Other assaults landed in the steppes between Chapter Keep Promethia and Naxos, and the jungles of the equator. Soon the planetary defense forces were overwhelmed by the assailants from all sides. As the sun set on the second day after the arrival of the Hivefleet, the planetary defenses ceased to operate as a unified force. Mass withdrawals were ordered, and only the bravery of the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes allowed forward positions to be evacuated without a complete loss of life, most notably at a forward base called Guard Station Alpha. As the waves of Tyranids swarmed over Pyrriah, long dormant Genestealer cults appeared to welcome the arriving gods. A particularly savage arising occurred when mining workers -‐ sent to help excavate ruins of the jungles for alien archeotech -‐ rose up to massacre the other workers and planetary guard forces sent with them. This led to a brutal fight with a Mechanicus force sent to scour the area together with a Space Wolves detachment. Meanwhile, the Eldar appeared wherever they believed that they could influence the fighting to weaken all opponents. An initial attempt at parlay with the Black Templars was repulsed by the humans, so any alliance between humans and Eldar is situational at best. As the fighting intensifies, the Eldar have had need to commit more and more of their limited resources to the fray.
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E. The Present After the Fall of Cadia and the opening of the great Warp rift across the galaxy, Pyrriah finds itself completely isolated. Worse yet, the eruption of the Warp rift has caused the barrier between realspace the Warp to thin for planets in close proximity to the rift. As a result, forces of Nurgle and Slaanesh have begun to appear in greater numbers throughout Pyrriah. Astra Militarum forces cut off behind the rift have struggled to maintain order and now act independently for long periods of time until communications can be established with the Astonomicon or through contact with Astartes chapters in the area. The struggle between Chaos and the Imperium on Pyrriah is a microcosm of the grand battle being waged throughout the galaxy. The fate of Pyrriah will play its part in determining the outcome of that larger theater. III. FACTION & WARLORD SELECTION Before October 1, each participant must declare which major faction(s) he or she will support, and select a leader for each force. First, each participant must declare which major faction(s) he or she supports for the campaign: Chaos, Imperium, or Xenos. Each participant should also declare any sub-‐faction that will be used, such as Space Wolves, Craftworld Eldar, Death Guard, or Genestealer Cults. Up to two factions – each with its own faction Warlord – can be declared by each participant in the campaign, even if the factions declared are diametrically opposed, such as Chaos and Imperium. Each participant will be assigned two missions each month under Part IV (Mission Selection) below, so taking two factions may result in a participant playing one, two, or no missions for any particular faction each month, depending on how participants are matched up by the Game Master (more on that later in Part IV below). If a participant takes a single faction, however, he or she is assured of playing two missions with that faction every month. Next, each participant must select a character to be the faction Warlord and give the character a name. (A short bio would be good too!) The faction Warlord can be selected from any datasheet with the character keyword from the declared faction, and any equipment or weapon choices available to the character must be selected at this time. There is no point or power limit on what unit can be taken as the Warlord, but the Warlord CANNOT be a unique unit with a power of level of 10 or greater. This is to prevent powerful characters like Primarchs from giving an unfair advantage in earning Campaign Honors and to encourage participants to create their own characters.
Example: Roboute Guilliman, Magnus, Mortarion, or Ghazghkull Thrakka or the Swarmlord cannot be selected as the faction Warlord since all are unique characters with a power level of 10 or more. The Swarmlord would be permissible, however, because there can be more than one Swarmlord in the Warhammer 40000 universe.
Once selected, each participant must submit his or her faction and Warlord (an email chain will be set up for this), which will last for the duration of the fall campaign. A participant can select another unit to be the warlord in a particular mission, but only the selected faction Warlord is eligible for Campaign Honors as
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described below in Part V (Results). This is to prevent powerful characters like Primarchs from giving an unfair advantage in earning Campaign Honors and to encourage participants to create their own characters.Any other unit selected as the warlord for a particular mission must not be a unique unit with a power level of 10 or greater.
Example: A participant declares Xenos as a faction and selects an Ork Warboss in Mega Armor as the faction Warlord. Weapons and other equipment is chosen, and a name is given: Thrakka Bonecrusher. In any mission, Thrakka can be replaced as the warlord by another character – say, a warboss on a bike, or a Big Mek even Ghazhkull Thrakka – but no Campaign Honors can be scored by the replacement warlord.
It is not necessary to create an army list prior to the start of the campaign, nor stick to a single list per faction for the entire campaign. Lists will be created for each individual mission, as described below in Section IV (Mission & List Section). Up to two factions – each with its own faction Warlord – can be declared by each participant in the campaign, even if the factions declared are diametrically opposed, such as Chaos and Imperium. Each participant will be assigned two missions each month under Part IV (Mission Selection) below, so taking two factions may result in a participant playing one, two, or no missions for any particular faction each month, depending on how participants are matched up by the Game Master (more on that later in Part IV below). If a participant takes a single faction, however, he or she is assured of playing two missions with that faction every month. IV. MISSION & LIST SELECTION The fall campaign will use a Game Master. The Game Master (Steve Duall) does not declare a particular faction. Rather the Game Master plays all three factions and is a “ringer” to make sure pairings are even each month. The Game Master also matches up opponents and assigns missions. Before the first of each month, the Game Master will assign to each participant two missions and an opponent for each mission. The participants then have the whole month to play the two missions at the time and place of their choosing – at the regular Saturday night 40k night at Victory Comics, at one of the Victory Gamer club events on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, or whenever and wherever is agreeable to both participants. It is up to the individual participants to find a time and place to play the missions assigned for each month. If a mission is not played, it will be returned uncompleted and may be assigned out later again by the Game Master. Missions will be selected from the matched play section of the rulebook, as well as from the Narrative and Open Play sections. Some may use advanced rules like Cities of Death or Death from the Skies. Some may be custom-‐made missions. Some may even include Kill Team: Armageddon missions! Anything goes in the campaign. Be prepared! Point levels will be provided for each mission, and each participant can assemble a list for the missions using the 8th edition Matched Play rules. The same list does not need to be used for both missions each month, and participants can tailor lists to the particular missions (unless instructed otherwise by a mission or the Game Master). Missions can range in size from skirmish-‐sized battles (rare) to full 2000 point battles (common) to
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mega multiplayer battles (less common). Point levels may be asymmetrical, where a dug-‐in defender has less points than an assaulting opponent, or even where one side is doomed to lose, but a victory can be secured by how many of the enemy can be taken down with them. Again, be prepared for anything! V. RESULTS The outcome of one mission may influence the selection of the missions for the following month. For example, a mission in month one may involve a small force trying to blow up a bridge to prevent the enemy from crossing a strategic ravine. If successful in blowing the bridge, the mission in the following month may involve the enemy trying to rebuild the bridge while under fire from the opposite faction. If a participant is unsuccessful in blowing up the bridge in the first mission, the participant’s mission in the following month may involve a much superior-‐sized force from all the enemy reinforcements that crossed the strategic ravine. It is up for the Game Master to select the missions and the consequences of the outcome of each mission. In order to develop the story, participants in the campaign are requested to do the following:
• Record who won and lost each game and report it to the Game Master by the end of the month. Although winning and losing aren’t important, the Game Master will be keeping track of wins and losses to determine the overall outcome of the campaign, both on a per player and per faction (and subfaction) basis.
• Submit a short blurb summarizing the battle, together with some pictures. This helps flesh out the narrative of Pyrriah and provides material for a campaign supplement at the end of the fall campaign recounting the story.
• Once per month each participant must submit an “epic moment of the campaign” describing the most memorable fight or other moment of the battles they fought in that month.
• Once per month, two players who are paired by the game master are asked to track/note their game in a little more detail and take more extensive pictures. This will be our "battle report of the month.”
Once per month, the Narrative Master (Trevor Aleo) will select a battle report and write a vignette or short story detailing the events of the battle. Battles will be chosen based on their relevance to the overarching narrative, as well as the quality and detail of summary and pictures provided. These will be monthly short stories will be compiled alongside the battle report and will be added to the “End of Campaign Supplement,” which will be made available both as a hardcopy and digital copy at campaign end. Although the purpose of the game is to develop a story, there will be some individual scoring objectives.
• Each warlord will have the opportunity to earn Campaign Honors for specific achievements in each game. A scorecard is attached to this primer as Appendix A. Please record your results after each game and submit together with your game result. The Warlord with the most Campaign Honors will be declared the Warmaster of the fall campaign.
• There will be a painting competition. Participants can submit a model for judging in the competition, which will start in November and go through the end of the year. More details will be provided, but the model must have been painted since September 1, 2017. Models will be displayed in a case by the register of Victory Comics. Store patrons will be able to vote for a “People’s Choice” favorite. We will also request Bob Likins to be a judge of the “Best Painted” using the NOVA Open Capital Palette judging matrix.
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• There will be additional quests and boons awarded throughout the campaign at the discretion of the Game Master, to keep things interesting and to provide incentive for particular courses of action.
The fall campaign will run until December 31, 2017. That will not be the end of the Pyrriah Campaign, however! The story will likely continue in a spring campaign in 2018…
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APPENDIX A: Warlord Campaign Honors
DATE: YOUR NAME: YOUR FACTION: YOUR WARLORD: At the end of each game, check off a box on the table below for each condition that you met. The individual player who secures the greatest number of warlord achievements across all games will be crown the Warmaster of the Fall Campaign. ACHIEVEMENT Your Warlord has not been eliminated Your Warlord has as many wounds remaining as it started with* Your Warlord directly eliminated an enemy model other than a Warlord ** Your Warlord directly inflicted a wound or mortal wound on an enemy Warlord** Your Warlord directly eliminated an enemy Warlord** Your Warlord directly eliminate both enemy Warlords (in a doubles game)** Your Warlord scored an objective marker at any point this game*** Your Warlord ends the game wholly outside your deployment zone and not embarked Your Warlord ends the game wholly within the enemy half of the battlefield and not embarked Your Warlord ends the game wholly within the enemy deployment zone and not embarked * Warlords may be healed back to full health after losing wounds to gain this achievement ** A model that made an attack or other action that stripped an opposing model of its final wound or otherwise removed it from play has “directly eliminated” the latter *** Your Warlord is considered to have “scored an objective marker” if it is among the models controlling it (i.e., are within 3” of the center of the marker) when you gain at least one victory point for doing so; the Warlord does not have to score it alone.
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APPENDIX B: FAQS Q: It says that I can chose up to two factions for the campaign. What if I really want to run an army for each of the three main factions? Can I do this? A: Yes, inform the Game Master that you want to run three factions. Two is the norm, but if you really want to run three, that’s fine. Remember that you may be assigned battles up to 2000 points, so make sure you have models for every faction you select for the campaign. Q: What if I want to add a faction mid-‐campaign? A: That’s fine. Just let the Game Master know as soon as possible. This is somewhat discouraged, however, because of the difficulty in integrating new factions into the middle of an ongoing campaign. Q: Do models have to be painted to play in the campaign? A: No, but it is highly encouraged! Q: Can I use proxy models? A: Yes, with restraint. Make sure your opponent is aware and okay with any proxies before a game begins. Q: What if I don’t want to play in the campaign? Will I be out of luck the rest of the year? A: There is no requirement to play in the campaign, and there will be plenty of opportunities to play non-‐campaign games while the campaign is ongoing. Q: What if I need to drop out of the campaign unexpectedly for a month or more? A: Life happens. Just let the Game Master know as soon as possible when you will be out and for how long. Q: Is Forgeworld allowed in the campaign? A: Yes. But don't be a dick. This is supposed to be a narrative event, which means armies aren't supposed to be tournament efficient or bring the most ass kicking units. Some of the Forgeworld models are fun and fluffy and totally fit in to the campaign vibe. Others aren’t and don’t. You probably know which ones, but you have questions, ask the Game Master for an opinion before bringing it out. Q: Is there any restriction on army composition for the campaign? A: Absent specific instructions otherwise from the Game Master, all armies must be composed according to the Matched Play rules contained in the 8th Edition BRB. There is no restriction on the number of detachments that can be used. Q: Will GW FAQs be used? A: Yes. Q: What if time runs out before a game is played to its conclusion? Does it count? A: Use your judgment as to whether an outcome can be determined from the state of play when time ran out. If both players agree on the probably outcome, record that result. If they don’t, try to reschedule for another day to resume play or start over. If that is not possible, report the game as a non-‐game to the Game Master.
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Q: Can Primarchs be taken as part of an army list? A: Yes, but not as your Warlord for purposes of earning campaign honors.No. After much discussion it was decided that Primarchs do not fit the vibe for this campaign, at least not as part of regular campaign play. There may be missions selected by the Game Master in the future that will specifically allow for Primarchs to participate. Q: What if my opponent’s army has a codex and mine doesn’t? Can my opponent use his codex stratagems and artefacts when I don’t have access to the same? A: Yes, it’s just a fact that GW is going to need time to release all 8th edition codexes. It’s not fun to make people not use their codex while this process is finished. Of course a player may voluntarily chose to forego use of codex special abilities out of a sense of parity – but this is not required! Q: What if I really want or need to use a unique unit with a power level of 10 or greater? A: It may be possible to waive this rule in a particular circumstance. The Game and Narrative Masters can make exceptions if requested to do so. The purpose of the rule is to prevent very strong characters (like the Primarchs) from dominating the story of the Pyrriah campaign, both because of their powers and because of their already highly developed backstories. We want room in this campaign for new heroes to get their story told. That said, the Swarmlord or an ork warboss with the stat line and abilities of Ghazghkull Thrakka (but not called Ghazghkull Thrakka) could achieve this purpose, even though they would not normally qualify under the rules. It will be a case-‐by-‐case decision.