Campaign Update: Phase 3 Outline and House Rules

Phase 3 will be a set of four missions to setup the final battle and culmination of the phase: a Death Guard assault on the walls of a fortified Kozar city. The four missions are not necessarily linear and represent various skirmishes, raids and maneuvers ahead of the main attack, where each mission will have a significant impact on the final game. The winner of the final game will be the winner of the phase.

1. The first mission of Phase 3 will be a variation of the Conclave of the Lost scenario from Horus Heresy Book VI. This will represent the World Eaters joining the campaign with a secret conclave between their forward strike force and Praetor Wolfgang. If the traitors win, they have successfully coordinated their assault in the final battle and one World Eater unit (and any transport) gets to deploy via Outflank, including inside the city walls.

2.  Zone Mortalis mission representing an assault on a ship in orbit. If the Traitors win, they control geosynchronous orbit above the city and can launch bombardments (as per the Damocles Command Rhino) at the start of any traitor shooting phase on a 4+.

3. Night Raiders (from the Taros Campaign). If the Traitors win, they can elect to re-roll the roll for an additional turn at the end of the game.

4.Shatter Strike as both forces try to breakthrough in a battle along the main road to Berat.


5. The final battle will be a Death Guard assault on the city gate.

The defender selects an army of 3000 points and splits his forces into two parts: Sentries and Reserves. The Sentries portion consists of 1 HQ, 1+ Troops choices, and 0 - 2 Heavy Support choices. Only units with the Infantry or Artillery type may be selected. This portion of the army can cost up to half the army total points cost and may be deployed anywhere up to 6" in front of the city walls. The HQ unit must be deployed inside a piece of ruins designated as the Defenders Headquarters. The Defender Reserves force starts in Reserve as normal and enters using the normal rules. The Warlord may be part of either force.

The Attacker can select an army of 3000 points. The Attacker may deploy any units with Infiltrate as per the normal rules. The Attacker automatically goes first (no chance to seize the initiative) and may move as much of his army onto the table from his board edge as desired. Any unit chosen to enter the table on Turn 1 with the Deep Strike rule may deploy using Deep Strike on Turn 1. Any unit that does not enter the table on Turn 1 starts in Reserves as normal. The Attacker's army can include a Lord of War.

There will be three primary objectives: the gate, the loyalist headquarters and the defensive artillery platform. Holding an objective at the end of the game is worth 3 VPs. Or the attacker can earn 2 VPs for destroying the gate or the artillery platform (the headquarters must be held). Secondary objectives: Slay the Warlord (1 VP) and Annihilation (whichever side destroys more points worth of enemy units gets 1 VP). Additionally, the Attacker can earn Line Breaker (1 VP).

Gate: AP 14, 5 Hull Points, fortification damage table. If you control the Gate Controls at the start of your turn, you may choose to open or close the gate.

Artillery Platform: AP 14, 5 Hull Points, fortification damage table. Any artillery units on the platform can re-roll scatter.

Defender Headquarters: Any unit in this ruin may re-roll failed morale and leadership tests.

City Wall: This counts as a terrain piece and not a fortification. Units on the wall receive a 3+ cover save from the front a 6+ cover save from behind. Multiple units from opposing sides may simultaneously be on the walls.

The battle lasts for a minimum of six turns. At the end of the sixth turn, there is a seventh turn on a roll of a 4+.

The Defender starts with good positioning, but the attacker gets more options to earn VPs and the chance to earn bonuses in the preceding missions.

I really want to try this mission in reverse as well!

Other Campaign Rules:

Terrain:
We have finally documented our campaign terrain rules to make them more consistent from game to game.

Warlords:
Our Warlords can choose a Warlord Trait instead of rolling for one as long as it is suitable based on the way they have played so far. That trait should not change from game to game unless both players agree there was a significant change in the way the Warlord or his army played and then the new trait should be representative of that.


Blast Marker Weapon House Rule:
For direct fire: Roll to hit as normal. If hit, place the template on the closest visible model in the target unit, as per normal rules for casualty removal. If miss, no effect (no scatter).
OR: Can use the standard rules (place the blast anywhere in the unit and automatically roll for scatter subtracting BS.
Indirect fire (barrage) stays the same as current if there is no line of sight. If there is line of sight, you can choose to fire directly, as above.


Go To Ground House Rule:
Going to Ground is never used in our games because the benefit is too small for the cost so we should improve it. If a unit elects to go to ground, it gains a +2 to its cover save instead of +1.


Sniper Rifles House Rule:
The special rules are replaced with: "Heavy 1, Sniper, Head Shot, Pinning" and the points cost is increased from +5 to +10 points.
Head Shot: An unmodified roll of 6 to hit results in the hit being S6 AP2.


Elysian Drop Troops:
To bring them in line with Horus Heresy, the cost of all infantry and light vehicles (up to AV 11) - basically everything except flyers - are reduced by 15%.