Savage: Horus Heresy Campaign 2015 Players Pack

Welcome to the players pack for the Savage: Horus Heresy campaign series, this pack will be updated each event with any relevant changes from the previous event highlighted in Red. This event will be a narrative driven scenario based format heavily influence by the Campaign rules and guidelines in Horus Heresy Book IV. All games will be played between two factions; Loyalists and Traitors.

Date:

Saturday April 18th, 2015

Cost:

The event cost is $25 payable on the day to Brad.

Lists:

Each player is to bring a 2,500 pt list using lists taken from Books I-V, with the exception of the Knights Household list (however this can be used as an Allied force). All Force Organisation Charts except for the Leviathan FoC. While there will be no composition score or restrictions, please keep in mind that this is a narrative based events series and there is no podium finishes, highly optimised lists or ones which utilise rules loop holes will be frowned upon.  

Campaign Rules

The Savage Horus Heresy Campaign uses the campaign rules found in Book IV as an inspiration and guide with some modification to allow the campaign to continue across multiple events with different players involved. Each Stage of the campaign will be made up of three Campaign Turns with the results carrying over to the next Stage, including Territories controlled, Strategic Points accumulated and Campaign Character progression. The campaign map will represent the Savage Warzone and its various Strategic Objectives, the online version of the map will also contain pop ups and links detailing the benefits of the Strategic Objectives, who currently holds them and the history of the location.

Campaign Characters-

All non Unique Centurions and Praetors are considered Campaign Characters, and follow the rules outlined in the optional rules section of Book IV with the following modifications:

• The character does not cost an additional 20 points nor gain a free progression.
• Using that same Campaign Character in future Stages however will involve additional costs; 20pts for second stage which he is used in and an additional 10pts for every after.

In the event of a Fatality, the character is presumed dead and a replacement character is promoted having the same initial war gear, ready to begin his military command career, and is considered a Campaign Character. The Faction which killed the Character gains a bonus 1 Strategic Victory Point.

In the event of a Captured result the Capturing factions Warmaster must decide, in the Strategic Phase, which player will be escorting the prisoner and this player cannot be assigned to an Invading role but must be an Opposing role. In addition to the scenario he is playing he will also receive a free Bastion (with no upgrades) in which the prisoner is being held and can be rescued from in the same manner as per the rules outlined in Book IV. While a Character is Captured the owning player uses a replacement character similar to a Fatality result until the original character is rescued. If the Character is not rescued by the end of the Stage he is considered to have been executed and the Faction who captured him gains 1 Strategic Victory Point, unless the character was the Factions Warmaster in which case they are worth 2 SVP.

Unique Characters-

While unable to progress, Unique Characters are still vulnerable to the Casualties of war results! Any unique Characters killed during a phase must roll on the Casualties of War table and apply the results but with a -2 to the dice roll to represent that character being exceptionally resilient and experienced. Fatality results are instead considered such grievous wounds that the character has withdrawn from the warzone in order to heal while failing to rescue a Unique Character is considered to have resulted in a higher authority actioning a rescue, in both cases bonus Strategic Victory Points are awarded in the same manner of Campaign Characters, unless they are a Primarch in which case they are worth an additional 2 Strategic Victory Points.

In order to have a replacement character ready, all players which field a unique character must have a replacement Centurion or Praetor (which ever rank the Unique Character was) equipped and pointed for the same or less points value of the unique Character. In the case of a Primarch, an alternative Lord of War of equal or lesser value must be available or a single unit if no other Lords of War are available. Any changes to FOC enabled by the presence of a Primarch will be allowed to continue in their absence, but any buffs or other advantages are not.

Stage Setup-

At the beginning of each event the teams will need to nominate a single Warmaster from amongst the players; that players most senior HQ (or Primarch if present) is then considered the Warmaster for that faction. The player controlling the Warmaster is also in control of the teams Strategic moves and nominating which players will face their opponents. These decisions can be done in any manner they wish, through consultations or sheer dictatorship (however keep in mind that we are here to have fun.). If the Warmaster is killed or captured, control is passed onto the next most senior.

The Campaign map will also be setup based on any previous Stages along with the current points and any associated special effects from Strategic Objectives being held. There will be summary sheets outlining each Strategic Objective, the current Warzone Traits (if any) and any other relevant information.

Strategic Phase-

At the beginning of each Strategic Phase the Warmaster from each faction roll a D6 to determine initiative plus any modifiers, unless any special effects give automatic Initiative to one faction or another (through Strategic Objective effects or others bonuses). The winner then selects a Strategic Objective location to invade and a player (only one) from their team to invade it, the opposing Warmaster then selects a player to oppose the invasion. If more than one player per faction is required at the location the opposing Warmaster selects the second player before the invading Warmaster selects their second. This process is then reversed, with the Warmaster who lost the Initiative roll now selecting a territory and player, repeating the above process until all of the players have been assigned to battles. Before the games begin, any Captured Characters must be assigned to Opposing players as per the rules on the previous page.

Battle Phase-

Each game will be over a particular Strategic Objective, some of these locations will have localised Traits which impact both players in addition to any War Zone Traits which are active across the theatre. These instances will be clearly noted on the scenario lists and players will be made aware of them, thought not necessarily before they were appointed to that location!

If a battle is taking place at a location which was already controlled by a faction, that faction will be considered the Defenders and gain all of the benefits or penalties of such from the Strategic Objective type, likewise the opponent will be considered the Attacker and will gain any bonuses or penalties. However if the battle is taking place at a location in which neither Faction was in control of, then neither Faction are considered the Defender.  

Consolidation Phase-

Once players complete their games the Campaign Map can be updated with the results. If the Strategic Objective was neutral before the game, the winning player gets to place a silver control token on the location which they fought over. If the location was already in the control of the faction which won, there is no change, however if the location was controlled by the losing faction, then faction token is removed and replaced by a Silver control token from the winning faction.

Once all of the games are completed and the locations have been updated, each faction may select a single Strategic Objective/Location to become their HQ, this can be done even if their HQ was already on the board, it simply represents the Faction relocating its command post. Every Silver Control token which is in direct or indirect contact with the HQ marker can be converted to a Gold Control token and likewise any Gold Control marker which is no longer in direct or indirect contact with the HQ marker becomes a Silver Control marker.

Each Faction gains Strategic Victory Points equal to the values of each of the Locations marked with a Gold Control token. In addition if there were any other sources of SVP’s like killed Characters these are added up;

• Campaign/Unique Character killed +1
• Character was a Warmaster +1
• Character was a Primarch +2

For Strategic Objectives which are marked with a Silver Control token, place an additional gem token for each Strategic Victory Point which would have been accumulated, this represents a Faction controlling the location but not being able to send its resources through to the HQ. If a location marked with a Silver Control token which has accumulated gem tokens changes factions then those gems remain and are taken over by the new faction. In either case if the location is converted to a Gold Control (secured) location then each gem token is worth a Strategic Victory Point after which all of the gems are removed.

Lastly, before the Phase is completed, each player who has Campaign Characters must follow the rules in Book IV in regards to Casualties of War. If they survived and were not captured, they may gain one or more promotions;

• Character survived (did not roll Fatality or Captured) +1
• Character did not get ‘killed’ during the game +1
• Characters force won the game +1

Future Games-

Campaign Characters used in subsequent stages of the Campaign carry over their abilities and promotions (along with their increased points cost), in addition they can be equipped differently from the previous stage. For example a character that was originally run in Power Armour can be fielded in Terminator armour or on a Jetbike etc. In addition a Centurion with no consul upgrade can be promoted ONCE to have a consul upgrade, which cannot be changed or removed in future Stages.