by Ian McDowall
These rules are intended to provide a set of inter-connected battles without the book-keeping overheads of map campaigns.
The mini-campaign takes place over a set of linked battlefields. Theses are in a diamond layout with one battlefield as each players 'home' location, two battlefields in the next rows in, then three and so on as illustrated in this diagram:
Each of the battlefields should be mapped out in advance with a range of terrain types.
Each player should select a total force up to an agreed total (typically three times the normal level with three battlefields in the central row). The total force must be legal in terms of support and special cards and limits on numbers of troop types.
Each player must record which battlefield each unit is on. Troops may be deployed on the central row of battlefields or on the battlefields back towards each sides 'home'. On the first turn only those forces on the central row of battlefields will take part in action - the rest are effectively reserves.
The troops on each battlefield may be of any strength from no units or only one up to the whole force. The force on each battlefield may break normal rules for the combination of forces (some balance has been enforced by the selection of the overall force) as any force which is unbalanced in one direction will have a counter-balancing force elsewhere.
In each campaign turn the following actions take place in this order:
- Units that won a battle and did not move - recover ½ of losses rounding down and repair all damaged systems on larger models.
- Units that won a battle and moved from the battlefield - recover 1/3 of losses rounding down and roll for each damaged system on a larger model, repairing them on a roll of 4+ on D6.
- Units which lost a battle - recover ¼ of losses rounding down and roll for each damaged system on a larger model, repairing them on a roll of 6+ on D6
- When considering individual models (such as characters, daemons and large vehicles) - these are only recovered on a roll of 6+ if part of a force that won a battle and did not move. If a winning force moved part of the force then they are eligible to roll and will appear in the battlefield if they succeed. If none of the force is left in the battlefield then they are not eligible to roll.
There may be some battles that are extremely uneven when a small force encounters a much larger one. In these cases, the smaller force can concede the game immediately. The winner receives the appropriate VP (based on the average force size) but no casualties are inflicted. The losing forces will have to retreat as a compulsory move.
In this way, small forces can be used to 'pin' larger forces but VPs will be lost in the process.
At the end of each round of battles, total the VP that each player has. The campaign is over when one player has reached a pre-set target (for example equal to the VP for a battle that would involve the total initial forces). If both players exceed the total in the same turn (after all battles have been played) then the player with the higher total wins.