Crusade of Fire: Campaign Progress

The Crusade of Fire Campaign at Drawbridge Games has begun. This page will track the campaign progress.

Current Planetary Situation

Phase four of the campaign had the first clashes for the Doomsday Device components, the appearance of the first Chaos forces, and the Eldar taking control of a portion of space using the Shipboard Raids special mission. Expansions continued for the Crusade of Fire and the Prophets of War, with both factions gaining a number of victories. Ultramarines fighting for the Crusade of Fire managed to destroy some Necrons and discover a hidden Doomsday device component on Corvus Majoris, while a coalition of Adeptus Mechanicus agents managed to secure a piece of their own from vaults on Alfrost. Meanwhile, a variety of Chaos cultists staged uprisings on Corvus Majoris to sync with the orbit of nearby planet Junkatta around the star at the center of the system. Their blood sacrifices brought additional Chaos forces to power on the far planet, linking the invasion of the two through the inscrutable connection of the warp. Finally, the Eldar turned their sights toward raiding enemy ships with boarding parties to secure the space lanes. They managed to do so successfully, albeit with many losses of their own--still, it was enough to gain them a staging area in space of their own.

Astropaths, Farseers, Tau Air Caste navigators, Heretical cult leaders, and even Necrons buried beneath their tombs consulting ancient star charts all came to realize that the next phase of withdrawal of the warp storms was imminent. The forces had to decide between battling over the precious space on the worlds they held, or returning their forces to landing craft and space fleets to prepare for the next phase of the invasion.

Faction and Campaign Points

The Campaign tracks points earned by Factions as well as each Player's armies in the charts below:

Faction	Faction Points (and # of Doomsday Components)
Crusade of Fire	4 (1)
Defenders of the Sun	3 (1)
Servants of Ruin	0
Prophets of War	9
Oblivion	0

Player	Army	Total Campaign Points (-# spent)
Jared	Craftworld Eldar	16 (-7)
Jeff	Ultramarines	8
Jason	Dark Angels w/ Imperial Knights	7
Sean	Ultramarines	6
Kevin	Adeptus Mechanicus	6
Enrico	Adeptus Mechanicus	5
Cemllyn	Grey Knights	4
Jason	Tau	4
Kevin	Adeptus Mechanicus	6
Chris	Orks	1
Jono	Inquisition	1
Andrew	Necrons	1
Space	Chaos	1

As a reminder, Campaign Points can be spent before games for certain bonuses: see the chart at the bottom of the campaign rules post.

Prior Phases (record)

I don't want to just lose the prior phases as they progress, so this spot will serve as the archive for the spread of forces across the sub-sector.

 Phase One: Initial landings were made, and then the Prophets of War got off to a quick start: winning three of their battles, and tying the fourth. This let them expand both on Corvus Majoris, as well as take a sizable share of Alfrost. The control of Veth by the Crusade of Fire remains a powerful strategic location. And the Defenders of the Sun are VERY close to unearthing the first of the Doomsday Device Golden Flags.

Phase Two: Two separate strike carriers emerged in the system bearing the inverted omega of the Ultramarines. One Ultramarines force had a clash with Eldar from the Iyanden Craftworld, solidly defeating them in the name of the Crusade. The other force was a preliminary scouting expedition, and had a brief skirmish against some Adeptus Mechanicum forces when trying to decide who would get control of critical central high ground on Corvus Majoris. Meanwhile, other Eldar forces managed to defeat the Dark Angels and stave off further expansion of the Crusade of Fire. While the Defenders of the Sun have yet to find the Doomsday Device Golden Flag which they are near, the relentless rune forecasting of the Eldar seems to have brought them particularly close to a flag as well.

Phase Three: Two new belligerents joined the battle at this point. Not only did Orks make their appearance to spread havoc in the name of Oblivion, but the Tau emerged to contribute to the advances of the Prophets of War. The Orks made initial landings for Oblivion on Corvus Majoris and Junkatta, clashing against the Eldar forces on the latter planet. The Eldar struck their initial supply chain and encircled the Ork landing just as it was beginning. Elsewhere, the Crusade of Fire-led by the Ultramarines--managed to uncover the first of the Golden Flag spaces on Corvus Majoris. The Defenders of the Sun also managed to uncover such a space, on Junkatta--despite the minor clash between Inquisition and Mechanicum forces over the site, it was squarely in control by the Defenders of the Sun. As servants of these two factions begin to plumb the depths of ancient archaeotech ruins, hoping to find the components to make a weapon to win them absolute control of the region, other factions scheme to prevent it from falling into either of their hands.

Doomsday Devices and Shipboard Raids

This post does double-duty, as the recent phase of the Crusade of Fire featured players doing two different special missions. One was struggling to find the Doomsday Devices that were revealed the last phase, and the other was one of the campaign participants pursuing the Shipboard Raid special mission.

I'll start with the efforts to find the Doomsday Components first. Here's the mission:

Most of the photos are from my match (against Jeff's epic old-school Ultramarines force). We played 1,500 points per side, with the Ultramarines as the "discovering faction."

The Ultramarines arrived in force, with tactical and devastator squads spreading evenly across the battlefield, supported by a Land Raider Crusader, a Whirlwind, a Landspeeder, and a Dreadnought. 

The forces of the Necrons array behind their defensive walls. In addition to the C'Tan in their midst, a Monolith loomed in reserve to teleport into the midst of the enemy formation. 

The scarabs advanced under cover of the ruins. 

The Heavy Destroyers took pot shots at the Land Raider, but didn't land a scratch on it. 

It was the Scarabs, however, that finished the mighty metal behemoth. 

The scarabs formed the bane of all the Ultramarines armor--their tiny deconstruction lasers annihilating with a thousand cuts. 

The wounded C'Tan faced off against the Dreadnought, but was ultimately destroyed, leaving the Ultramarines in possession of the critical objective in the center of the board. 

Even with the Monolith joining the fray, and the Necron Lord slicing Ultramarines with his Warscythe, it was too little too late for the Necron forces to triumph. 

I got some pictures of the other games as well:

Inquistiorial-allied Imperial Guard advanced through the rubble. 

The Eldar war-host they faced off against. 

The beautiful Sisters of Battle and their tanks--what an amazing Exorcist tank in the background!

At another battle site, Dark Angels Ravenwing squared off... with a massive defense cannon turret fortification on their side. 

The resilient Skitarii faced their nominal allies in a clash over which faction would control the Doomsday artifact. 

Meanwhile, in space above the planetary systems, another clash was happening. The Eldar finally made a push to wipe out some of the opposing spacecraft--they set their sights on a Necron Scythe Harvest Ship that was landing Necron forces on the planets. To allow this, the Eldar player spent some of his campaign points on the special mission--enabling him to make the attack. If successful, he would establish a special spot for the Eldar space superiority on the campaign map.

Dire Avengers stalked the halls of the Necron ship, where heavily-armed Immortals waited. 

The Necrons posed a significant threat--especially the Lychguard that defended their territory in the face of overwhelming firepower. 

The Dire Avenger Exarchs were crucial in breaking the stalemate of combat, as the sturdy Necron foes were tough to displace. 

Warp Spiders, who traversed the exterior of the ship with their warp jump technology, managed to strike the final blow to the Necron defenders. 

The Eldar managed to triumph, and thus they gained a special position on the campaign map--represented by the Eldar ship in the lower right. As other races seek to establish their control of land and sky, it will be fun to see where the campaign spreads (and what will happen when the remainders of the solar storms retreat)!

Battles (40k):
Total 2015: 7 (Win/Loss/Tie: 1/6/0)

Necrons:
1 Win (Grey Knights 1)
6 Losses (Ultramarines 1, Eldar 1, Imperial Guard 1, Nurgle Chaos 1, Grey Knights 1, Chaos and Ultramarines team 1)
0 Ties