How to plan a 30k Horus Heresy campaign - the Cadox conflagration-

So there hasn't been a lot of activity at the blog for a while, from which one might infer that not a lot has been happening in regards to 30k as of lately. One might, but one would be inferring incorrectly. It's just that as usual, when posed with the choice of playing 30k, painting and building 30k or blogging about 30k, they tend to go pretty much in that order. 

But still, so what have i been doing as of lately? Well, quite a bit. 

• i have committed to the Age of darkness podcast's yearly challenge, my commitment is to do a mechanicum detachment for my alpha legion, approximately 1500 pts 
• I've signed up for my first two tournaments. One doubles team tournament, and for scandus prime. I am ridiculously tagged for both of these. And it feels good to have a tangible goal to go towards with my hobby. 
• I've joined a Game club (SLG gaming in Stockholm-sweden) where i get in some good games of 30k Horus heresy with some good people 
• and on that note, i have started a slow-grow narrative campaign for horus heresy 

So i figured that i would dedicate this post as to how to set up a simple Narrative campaign 

”And so it was that the warmaster's perfidy reached the distant system of Cadox, a far-flung system in the galactic reaches claimed by a garrison force of the Iron warriors. While the allegiance of the Iron warriors stationed in the Cadox system remains unclear, what is clear is that approach of the Twentieth legion came unexpected, and unwanted.

The hails of the Deep space orbitals went largely unanswered, but for the curt, immediate response codes necessary for further entry into Cadox proper. Remaining records of what has later been called the “cadox conflagration” seems to contain largely inconsistent records of the strength of the force deployed, while it seems probably that the subterfuge of the Alpha legion might account for this inconsistency, there is still no known explanation for the relatively dense amount of heavy vehicles deployed, no for the seemingly deviant troops of mechanicum fighting side by side of the Twentieth legion.

The Cadox system was an early conquest of the IV’th legion, and was now an important staging world for the iron fourth. However, the lack of general hails from the main body of grand crusade meant that at the moment of the Cadox conflagration, a large amount of troops, materials and tactically vital equipment remained at the ready. While by no means an easy conquest, as it was jealously guarded by the diligent attentions that the IV’th were known to bring to their given tasks, it’s relatively isolated location might go some way to explain why the Alpha legion chose Cadox as their main target.

The first blow of treachery came to the World of Cadox V, an important forge world and an arming ground for the “97” army of the IV’th and it was at the Catal spaceport that the first blow was struck for the battle of the Cadox system.

Provided that you are not keen on writing EVERYTHING from the ground up,i would heartily recommend that you use the Conquest system from Book 4 (conquest) of the horus heresy campaign, it has the basic structure needed for generating warzones, missions, character progression and what is needed to advance the games. It even has a breakdown on how many players are the maximum amount for the set number of missions. 

Now for this campaign there is a very simple narrative Alpha legion (my legion) is attacking a staging ground of the chief opponent (the iron warriors), while other legions are dragged into the cacophany of war in accordance to their own needs. 

For example we have one player who is an Emperors children player who has a Cults and militia detachment for slaanesh. Which i translated that the nobility of the Cadox system had a long suppressed pleasure cult issue. 

We also have a space wolf player that has expressed interest in joining, which will be folded into the narrative by having the rout being attracted to the emergency signals of the loyal Iron warriors, and arriving in force, suspiscious of all participants. 

Now, as the game master (sort of) i'd reccommend that you do the following 

- generate a simple hex-map with all warzones 

- put clear lines of what armies should scale and how, for example 

"instance 1/week 1/1500 pts"

"instance 2/week 4/1700 pts"

"instance 3/week 8 / 2000 pts"

- generate a simple narrative to accommodate most (if not all players) 

And also ask that your participants do the following 

- Generate three named characters, ask for a few lines of backstory, make them feel invested in these characters

- give feedback for each session and keep their themed armies suitable 

- bring clearly printed lists and keep a check on what their own character progressions do. 

Now, beyond having the conquest system in our games, i have chosen to have three "Core" areas

The residential area (centered around capturing the planetary governor, and attempting to legitimize/ keep the supremacy of the planet) 

The military district (military bases, armories and caches of supplies) 

now, for this part of the campaign i generated a simple D20 list, and when you hold an appropriate objective you get to roll on the D20. And carry that item over to the rest of the campaign 

The XX'th seize a vital asset of materiell

The last step of the campaign will be in the mechanicum controlled areas, where after the winner will be decided and the fate of the planet decided. 

Pretty uncomplicated and easy enough to follow.