For the last year or so, we've been conducting an experiment: to what extent is it useful to have an ongoing warzone that enables an easy narrative context for games without having to come up with a whole new situation every time?
We've had a persistent region of space for years, with all our campaigns becoming part of the region's history. That's nothing new, and it's still something that we keep track of on our campaign wiki. A specific warzone, however, is a long-running war between specific factions, enabling more focussed storytelling. You can read about the initial concept in this post from July last year. As such I'm not going to re-explain the concept, but instead talk about how it's going, both in terms of enjoyment and the emergent narrative.
How well is the system working?
The initial battles went very well for the Imperium, which gave us some concern that one side might run away with it, making the whole thing feel a bit futile. However, the rubber band mechanics we have in the campaign rules, combined with some key victories for Chaos, have helped turn things around. For example, in our campaign rules, the Chaos faction has the ability to weaken the veil separating the warp and realspace. If they do this enough times, they can actually remove a number of Imperial victories from the map, whereas the Imperium can only try and prevent the Chaos forces doing this.
That's not to say the system has worked perfectly. One of the main challenges is any of us actually remembering to look at or use those rules. This could be a failure of presentation on my part, a failure to make the mechanics interesting enough, or a failure of paying attention. More likely, a mixture of all of the above. We don't generally play 40K with secondary objectives like you'd have in matched play, and tend to keep things simple. We used to play with Agendas in Crusade, but having ditched Crusade, I think perhaps we're out of the habit of thinking of such things.
Another issue might have been that there was a limit to how much of a difference the campaign agendas could make. When writing the campaign rules, I was nervous of the bad feels people might have if their victories were wiped off the map. After the initial spurt of battles, though, I concluded that the agendas needed to be more consequential if people were going to attempt them. Hopefully they'll be particularly tempting for a player locked out of a primary victory but who'd still like to help their side. Originally, winning on agendas meant being able to move the needle up or down by a block. Now, only Chaos can move the needle, and they can potentially move both the citizen morale and veil sanctity trackers by multiple points after each battle, increasing the chances of cult uprisings and daemonic incursions, which if nothing else, is fun ammo for scenario concepts.
So in short, I'm not convinced the campaign system is perfect, but fundamentally the simple framework has helped inform the battles we've played whenever we've fancied a Chaos vs Imperium game over the past year, and the campaign hasn't fizzled out. Indeed, we've got several more campaign weekends in the diary as I write this. So on the most basic level, it's working.
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| The campaign map as of late October 2025 |
Narrative developments
In the narrative, the Graven Star Chapter of the Word Bearers and their hordes of mortal followers form the majority of the Chaos forces, whilst the Imperial Guard and the Cobalt Scions Chapter are the most numerous Imperial defenders. However, as the war has gone on, other Chaos warbands and Imperial factions have flocked to the system.
Opening moves
While the Word Bearers succeed in landing forces on Lachesis Prime, the Imperial Navy manage to prevent them gaining complete orbital supremacy. Thanks largely to a reinforcement flotilla from Battlefleet Achernar, the void war goes relatively well for the Imperium initially, and the Word Bearers fleet is forced to scatter, enabling the Achernar fleet to engage them piecemeal. However, at the moment the flotilla finally converge on the Word Bearers carrier Mortis Lux, simultaneous mutinies occur aboard the Imperial cruiser Pride of Machadon and its frigates. The mutinous guns cripple the Lunar class cruiser Triumph and, with alarming precision, destroy the bridge of the Intemperance, killing Commodore Drennik and leaving the Imperial fleet in disarray. Prior to cutting all communications with the Navy vessels, the Pride sends a single transmission on all vox frequencies: "Hydra Dominatus."
The Mortis Lux escapes with only minor damage, and the remnants of Battlefleet Achernar's flotilla withdraw in disgrace. The engagement puts the Word Bearers in a dominant position for the first time in the naval war, ultimately enabling them to land appalling numbers of ground forces on Lachesis Prime.
Shortly afterwards, the cruiser Khairon's Eye moves into geostationary orbit above Lachesis Prime's second city of Thadaka. The Imperium's initial successes in defending the city are reversed as the veil thins, and Khorneate daemons pour forth, forcing a hurried withdrawal by the Cobalt Scions and Raven Guard. Blood soon runs through the streets as the Imperial forces fail to re-establish a coherent defensive line, kept on the defensive by constant daemonic incursions. With the city surrounded, evacuation becomes impossible by any route other than by sea, and conditions deteriorate.
The first year
As the fighting on Lachesis Prime rumbles on, the Night Lords take the opportunity to invade the system's agri world, Sudhata. The Cobalt Scions, concerned that they won't be able to sustain a war on this new front, temporarily redeploy to the planet and overwhelm the Night Lords' raid, trusting the Imperial Guard and smaller Astartes forces to whether the war for a few costly months.
The fighting on the agri world is ultimately concluded when the Scions foil the Night Lords' attempt to poison Sungrutan Reservoir. The Night Lords vent their frustration by butchering one of the Third Company's longest serving officers, Sergeant Lytanus Cato, further deepening the enmity between the Scions and the Thirteenth Talon.
With the Night Lords forced off Sudhata, the Scions redirect multiple incoming regiments of Imperial Guard to reinforce the planet, dig in, and ensure any further attacks will be met with overwhelming firepower. Satisfied the planet and its vital food exports are secure, the Scions redeploy to Lachesis Prime, chasing the Night Lords into Miduma Province and continuing the fight. Stretched once again by having to reengage with the Word Bearers, however, the Scions find themselves drawn into a bloody stalemate with the Night Lords in the Miduman manufactoria. Eventually, the Night Lords escape again, bloodied but ultimately free to go where they please under the cover of the resurgent Word Bearers' fleet.
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| The Night Lords break out of the Imperial cordon in Miduma Province, despite heroic sacrifices made by the Ankran 103rd Mechanised Infantry. Sadly, life in the mobile infantry made them the spam they are today. |
While the forces of Chaos are prevented from storming the capital city of Nova Hevanos, the fighting in the second city of Thadaka becomes so prolongued, and so bloody, that much of the city is reduced to rubble. Worse, the slaughter attracts further attacks by the neverborn. The Word Bearers direct a warband of Iron Warriors to take advantage of the situation. An armoured spearhead thrusts through the ragged Imperial lines, and when the Cobalt Scions and Salamanders send troops to intercept the spearhead, they are confronted with an appallingly large greater daemon of Khorne. With the Imperial Astartes distracted by this monstrosity, they make easy sport for the Iron Warriors' tanks, and while the monster is banished to the warp, the Scions and Salamanders retreat in disarray, enabling the Iron Warriors to drive deeper into the city, shifting the lines in Chaos' favour.
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| Dan's immodestly large Khorne boy puts the wind up Charlie and Drew's Marines, while Tom's Iron Warriors activate Operation Supporting Fire. |
Elsewhere in the system, a Blood Angels strike force arrive, only to be immediately redirected to the mining colony of Inama on the advice of the Cobalt Scions' Librarians, whose prognostications suggest a psychic disturbance there despite having received no distress calls. Once there, the Blood Angels discover a coterie of Thousand Sons Sorcerers, but why they are there is a mystery given the colony's relative lack of strategic importance.
Current status
Currently, of the seven territories, the Imperium has won one (Sudhata) and has made some early gains in three more, while Chaos are winning in Thadaka, within one game of winning Miduma, and drawing in Port Magellus, the large trade depot in orbit over Sudhata.
Masochistically I'd like to see some more Chaos victories. We'll see what developments December and January bring!
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