Wednesday 22 December 2010

Space Hulk 3d board, for space hulk and boarding missions.

One of the coolest things  about the campaign is the special missions ands the inclusion of spacehuk and boarding action games. What is even cooler is that we can play these games on David's awesome 3D space hulk which gives an amazing feeling to the game.  Amazing stuff, some more pictures and comments from David him self comming soon. Aren't we very lucky?



Tuesday 21 December 2010

Show us you chapter.

Forces are gathering and chapters prepare for war. The manifactoriums are working at full power.
The progress of our army's are all in many diffrent stages:
  • Some people are still thinking if they want to take part or not,
  • deciding which chapter to select,
  • creating 400,1000,1500 army lists.
  • trying to nail the colour sceme,
  • assembling their models
  • and others painting.
Display your chapter on the blog

The blog need some photos of your work. Get your chapter on the blog for the world to admire!
Be it  assembly or painting or army list we want to see it. You can send pictures of your progress along with some comments about it: why did you chose your chapter? What are you putting in it? How are you going to paint and base it? What parts did you use to make, etc.
My email is dkiourtsoglou@hotmail.com.
I will also try and bring my camera on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; starting from tomorrow.


Display your chapter in the store

Andy liked the idea of each of us painting one marine of our chapter and display them in the store cabinet. I think he will be more than happy to have a part of a shelf for the chapters in the campaign on display.
Its also good advertising for the campaign.

Thursday 16 December 2010

Loyal to the story Bonus / Painted Forces


Loyal to the story Bonus

After releasing the campaign to all the space marine factions I have been thinking of a way to reward players that are using a marine chapter loyal to the story*. I am thinking to give a percentage of points to the players when playing against a non loyal to the story chapter. I am considering a 10% point bonus.
Here is an example. A Marine errants army faces a space wolf army in a 1000 point game.
The marine Errant chapter is loyal to the story while the space wolfs are not. The Marine Errants gets a 10% bonus points of there force which in 1000p is 100 points, about 6 marines or 2 terminators.
The bonus is only applied when playing a loyal to the story army against a non loyal army.
With the allowance of chapters that did not take part in the Badab war and the Loyal to the story Bonus; players are free to use and build on their coexisting armies and those to decide to do or have a chapter loyal to the story get a small bonus for their effort.

    *Loyal to the story= Space marine chapters that took part in the Badab war listed in the Imperial armor book. Ultramarines, Space wolfs , Black Templars and Dark angels are not loyal to the story, IG are on both sides.



Painted Forces
To award players with painted armies, at the end of each phase you will be awarded with campaign point if you have painted the following.

Phase 1: you gain 1 campaign point if you have 1000p painted
Phase 2 :you gain 1 campaign point if you have 1500p painted
Phase 4: you gain 1 campaign point if you have 2000p painted.

Also I will try to take photos of all armies during games when present. I can post photos we take on the blog. Photos of battles with fully painted armies I will send to “Whats new today” and see if we can get mentioned.

Nothing of the above is finalized, tell me if you think its fair, unfair or the percentage is too much, on facebook, the blog or in store.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Ultramarines, Black Templars, Dark angels, Space wolfs added to the campaign.

Even though Ultramarines are fighting Tyrranids durring the war, I think I should include them to make it easier for new players and people with an already Ultramarine army to play, You could play them as nova marines or errant marines too. For the same reason I have added Black Templars and Dark angels.
Black templars did participate just before everything went wrong in the Badab sector.
Dark angels a bit confiused and also to bulk up the enemy numbers.
Space wolfs also added because I know about 5 -6 space wolf players and its harsh asking them to make another Marine force. They might have a force in the badab sector and not so happy when Fire hawks bomb their homeworld. Better have painted armies of non participating chapters than unpainted marine forces that are supposed to be some chapter in the Badab war.
I hope there are no objections.

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.

So now there are 5 major chapters included (Ultramarines, Black Templars, Darkangels , Salamanders, Space Wolfs)
I believe that now covers all the marine codex's.
I would still like if players played with chapters in the story, lets not turn it into a ultra -Space wolf war.

If there are any objections let me know.
 I am trying to make it open and easier for everyone to take part.
If you want to change you army now with the new additions let me know, either here or facebook.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Chapter Review: Lamenters

The Lamenters are one of the 4 Secessionist Chapters.  
The Lamenters are belived to come from the blood angel chapter even though they have not shown signs of the red thurst.

More info about them can be found here:

Building an army of Lamenters
First of all this is the only marine chapter in the campaign that uses the blood angel codex so already they are quite unique.
The special character Chaplain Athaloc and the cursed knights veteran squad seem very nice.
Some other advantages the blood angels have against normal marines is that they do more accurate deep strikes (with jet packs), their troops have 1/6 chance to gane red fury, their vehicles are fast , they have priests (FNP) and baal predators.
There is also Malakim Phoros to consider.

Tactics
As I have said before, I think one of the best units in this campaign will be  sternguard vets. But if charged in combat they have no great defensive abilities.
It seems the Lamenters have a good way around this. Their Sternguard  (the cursed Knights) force you the attacker to take  a ld test at -2, if failed they don’t assault, that’s about 50% chance to fail. Even if your enemies do manage to pass the test Athaloc has equipped everyone with defensive grenades.
Priest are another great addition to the army, feel no pain will help you against the opponents vengeance bullets and win you the attrition war.
Every thing is nice in the army, in some cases a bit more expensive than vanilla marines but quite worth it.

Why do Lamenters?

  • They are the only chapter that uses the blood angel codex
  • You get to help the Tyrant!
  • Rewrite the history and repel the savage Minotaurs!

The only true drawback I could find was there chapter symbol and colour scheme but that could also be considered as a challenge.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Campaign Phases and game phase one "Shadows of war".

Campaign Phases

Now that the forces are starting to build it time to make some plans.

As menntioned before the campaign will  be divided in 5 phases, read "About the campaign" post and IA9 for more info.

Talking with  "Wookie"  we though to make phase one last 1 month. 1st of March is a Tuesday so the whole month of March will give us 10 gaming nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) in GW.

We thought the next 3 campaigns to last 2 months since more points are involved.
And hopefully if everyone wants we do the last phase of the campaing (a mega apocalypse battle) in GW HQ.

Phase 1 'Shadows of War'

"Storms clouds gather in the maelstrom Zone as the hubris of  Lugft Huron and the greed of the Karthan Administration light the kindling war. Soon Imperial shipping is attacked and Space marines turn their hands against Space mariens and a bloody legend is writ across the stars..." (IA 9)

Here is a guidling to games/game sizes/ campaing points given for Shadows of  War.


Boarding action/ +1000/3CP Taken from IA9
Battle fleet gothic/500p/2CP
The Massacre at Bellerophon's Fall/2000p/4CP (can be played as doubles with 2x1000p) taken from IA9
Boarder patrols(40kin 40m)/400p/1CP
Space hulk/350p/1CP  - taken from BOLS

* Some Clarification
You dont need to play all the types of games, you dont need to play for the campaign every week.
You dont need to play in the store, it could be at a home or another gaming club. You just need to arrange it with a player from the opposite side, the facebook group (Badab War in Cambridge)
 will be helpful to arrange games.
eg. March has five Tuesdays-Wednesdays say you can only attend 3 Tuesdays and get 2 games per night (400 or 1000p games) thats 6 games, a respectable number of games. We are not going to be " twisting" any ones arm to play toy soldiers!
It would be ideal if players had 1000p of their force made/painted up.

The other missions in BOLS will be used in phase 2.

Please feel free to comment here of on the facebook group about the duration of the campain, the games and more ideas.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Chapter Review Mantis Warriors

The Mantis Warriors were one of the three chapters that fought on the astral claws side. More info can be found here:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mantis_Legion


 

Tactics
The special unit replaces the vanguard vets with a better one.
They have an aditional type of ammo, infiltrate and with MasterMantodea  Scout too. It could create a nice themed sniper army.

Why do Mantis warriors?
This chapter does not come with many selling points, though one player with scout marines and infiltrating scout veterans could be a usefull tool in the war.

  • No one has them in Cambridge or at least I have not that I have seen.
  • Create a themed scout -sniper army.
  • Nice choice if you dont want many vehicles.
  • They will probably benefit from IA10 release.




Friday 3 December 2010

Chapter Review: Minotaurs


Their chapter's name symbolizes the way they fight: up close and personal.
They were created during the cursed 21st founding, and are rumored to
be unpredictable and unreliable, just like a bull.
They excel in close combat.

 

Notable CampaignsEdit  href=

Rynn's WorldEdit  href=

This chapter saw action on Rynn's World during the attempt to reclaim the Crimpson's fist home world from the Orks

Badab Uprising

The most famous of the Minotaurs actions though, was an assault against the Lamenters fleet during the Badab war.

Building an army of Minotaurs
The only special character is Captain Minos (from the Bell of lost souls PDF). But he seems more than enough.
He wears power armour and a halo helping him stay alive. He has a normal stat line for a Captain. He also comes with counter attack and hit and run. He is a bit of an attacking monster with a relic blade and berserk giving him 5 attacks on the charge. He will slice through marines and terminators before they can attack back.
He turns tactical squads into something similar to space wolf blood claws (2 c.c weapons and counter charge) with hit and run. Marines with two close combat weapons anyone?

There is also the option of Taurus Guard which replaces assault terminators.
Basically you pay 2pt per model for counterattack not bad, not bad at all.

Tactics
Clearly the Captain Minos and the Taurus guard and the altered tactical squads will benefit in close combat which is what the army is supposed to do in the story. Again Terminators in land raiders come to mind, but you might want to try deep striking with storm shields since you probably get the bonus attack if charged.
 Sternguard vets are always going to be a valuable unit in any space marine army in this war.
A minotaur army played well will excel in boarding missions.

If we do end up with a minautaur player and a Lamenters player there are two scenarios they can play to represent the historical boarding of the minautaurs upon the Lacrumas Vex and the Banshees Cry.
The first is is a space hulk style game (boarding mission with 25-30 models each, and the second is fought upon the ship bridge 1500pt of lamenters HQ vs 1500pt of Minotaurs (full rules in bell of lost souls pdf).

Why do Minotaurs?
  • No one has them in Cambridge or at least I have not that I have seen.
  • Have the upper hand in C.C. with counter charge, hit and run and an additional weapon.
  • Play marines a bit like Orks but instead of trucks you have land raiders.
  • Kick some Lamenter ass.
  • Make bull noises during the game.




Thursday 2 December 2010

Choosing Army and Side

Choosing an army for the Badab war.

Let me just remind you these rules might
 change or we might do an exception.

This is a war withing the imperium so only Space Marine and IG army's please.
I would like it if we could remain faithfull to the story. So I would prefer
chapters in the list. Notice I used the word prefer and not must.
Its a nice chance and a good motivation  to do a new army,which is away
from the standard chapters. Each day I will be going through 1-2 Armies
explaining why you should pick them.
On the right side of this blog are listed the Astartes chapters that took place in the war, the numbers
in the brakets are the number of players planing to use that chapter.

For the two first phases of the campaign a 1000p army will be enough to play with, the second phase goes up to 2000p, but you could play doubles 1000p, meaning is you read this the day posted you have 3 months to paint 1000p of space marines. 2 units of 10 space marines with transports will come up to about 500p. Throw in a couple of tanks and a fast and your there. Or a land raider and 5 terminators.

The third phase goes up to 3000p planets strike, again you could double up with another player contributing 1500p or play smaller games. Still if you have 1000p you would have 4 months to increase by 1000p or 2000p depending on your budget and time. No one is forced to have a 3000p army, but 1500 would be expected, in 7 months from today. Again thats about 215p per months  A land raider or 5 terminators or 10 marines and a vehicle a month.

The last phase is a mega Apocalypse battle! We could arrange it to be held in Warhammer world if we want to.

Codexes
All marines should use the Space Marine Codex.
Astral claws can instead choose the army list provided in the IA9 which is a mixture of Marines and Imperial guard.
Lamenters must use the blood angel codes (and why would you not?)
You can use special squads from the bell of souls pdf but only for the chapter they belong too.

Special Characters
You can find special characters in the IA9 and the Bell of souls PDF.
You have to use your the special character of your chapter for your chapter.
You can only use one special character in your army at any one time.
Chapters who have only 1 Special character, will be allowed to create their own.

Character casualties
If a Special character dies in a battle roll a dice, add +1 if you won.
Result:  1 Casualty.You can not use this character for the rest of this phase.
            2 Wounded. The next time you use this character he has -1 wound.
            3 Shaken.The next time you use this character he has -1 ld.
            4-5 Survived. Nothing happens.

Imperial armor 10 Badab War Part 2.
When and if the IA10 is released before and during the campaign all entries from it are allowed.

About the campaign

I realy want this campaign to work, I want this to be fun and mind blowing for us players and something other gaming clubs would talk about and follow.

I am hopping to run and organise the Camapaign with my friend "Wookie" and one additional player.
Everything is just at the start so many things might change after a convertation with the participating players. So time and numbers are subject to change.

The Campaing will be taking its material from:
                                                               
a) The Forgeworld - Imperial Armor 9 Badab War (Book
b) The Bell of Souls -The Badab War/ the fall of the Astral Claws.( PDF*)
c) Player sujestions and ideas

Structure
The campaign will be fought between the Loyalists and the Secessionists. More about Army selection further down. The Campaign itself will be split into 5 sections. Shadow of War, Tide of destruction, the bloody stars, the fall of the tyrant and the palace of Thorns.

 Each section of the campaign will last about 2 months,
that gives us 8 weeks which would be about 16 vets nights in GW Cambridge. The FW book sujests about 1000p games for the first phase. 2000p for the second phase and after that apocalypse games.
Also we can include boarding mission games (like space hulk), 40k in 40 minutes  games, aeronautica and battlefleet gothic,doubles,triples and some cool special missions given for each phase from the two books.
The Winner(s) of each game will gain Campain points for there side. The campain points will be set from the 3 organizers depending on the type of game and point size.
 At the end of the phase the side with the most campaing points will gain a bonus for the rest of the campaign and the final battle.   Example:  if the Loyalists win the can reroll there reserve rolls in phases 2,3,4. If the Secessionists win they get to reroll there scater rolls for deepstriking in phases 2,3,4.
The campaign points are reset at the begining of each phase.




 *The Bell of Souls -The Badab War/ the fall of the Astral Claws. PDF can be found here:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/08/play-aid-badab-war.html

Welcome To Badab War in Cambridge.

Hello this is my first blog and my first blog post.

What is it all about?
This Blog will be for informing Warhammer 40k players about the upcoming badab campaing taking place in GW Cambridge store staring 1st of March 2011. It will also have pictures of the armies participating, reviews of the paricipating chaptors for the players to chose from , battle reports, score boards and the progress of the war.

The campaign is about the war between Space Marine Chapters in the Badab sector.

Info about the the war itself and the participating chapters: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Badab_War

More info to come as I learn how to set up the blog.