What follows is the Fluff and the first mission for a 4 player campaign I've written for my regular gaming group, the idea is to start small and then get bigger but with a lot of room for different things to happen. I have a nearly painted Zone Mortallis Board to use and write in to a few missions near the end, but what I have written so far follows, let me know what you think!

The Campaign for Kariphal

Skies darken as they approach, a shadow is cast on the world, war had long engulfed Kariphal VI but this was to be something else.

For decades, the forces of the Imperium of Man, lead by the noble Khan Ro’shan of the White Scars, had warred against the archenemy, denying them this planet and its forges and keeping the citizens of Kariphal from the slave pits of the forces of The Dread King, a fallen Astartes in armour of midnight blue, hung with freshly flensed faces. While protecting the people, backed up by regiment after regiment of the Astra Millitarum that were fed to the war, the White Scars were unable to pin down the Night Lords, hiding and striking only when they could cause the most damage and then vanishing into the night, the battle below was matched by a similar one in the void above. It was this long and bloody war that first attracted the glaring red eyes of the cunning Warboss Dagslakk who made his way in system, seeing a chance to test his mettle against two worthy foes. Before the end, the world would tremble, the skies would be black and the seas would run red with blood.

The Vraksian 23rd

As their war raged, the Vraksian 23rd Regiment of the Astra Militarum were tired and worn down by years of fighting, after the Battle of Kraan Valley, they were cut off deep behind enemy lines. With no contact with Strategic Command, they fought their way back, night after night. Slogging through the burned out chem-poisoned forests, trying to ignore the tempting voices in their minds, telling them to give up to the old ways of their distant ancestors on Vraks, they fought off raids of traitors and madmen that had joined up with the cults to the Dark Gods, survived Traitor Astartes who would attack silently in the night and drag off whole squads until whispering voices and the screams of their tortured comrades began to chip away at their sanity. Wearily, fighting for survival for weeks without sleep or relief, they stumbled on a fane to the Gods, covered in the skulls and IDent tags of their fellow soldiers. As one, what remained of the regiment fell to their knees, their spirits collectively broken, and swore butter oaths to the echoing voices in their heads, praising the Dark Gods in a chorus that was heard for miles around.

Waaaagh! Dagslakk

The tides of the warp are fickle and capricious, who knows what base rituals or malicious intelligence can influence that unspace, but as surely as the Emperor can project his might through the Astronomicon, dark forces will seemingly conspire to use the warp to hinder the bravest actions of man. So when the Space Hulk designated Herald of Woe erupted into the system it seemed unerringly drawn to Kariphal. As it closed on the planet, hundreds of crude Ork ships detached from the massive conglomeration, forcing the White Scars Battle Barge Conviction to flee out of the system before it was over ran, only making it as the death throes of the Hunter the Night Lords cruiser Spiteful Punishment was not so quick off the mark, while it took apart the Battle Krooza Smashblasta in a daring charge, slicing through the Ork ship with precise and clean lance shots that separated its head as easily as the Sons of Curze would flense a skull, the Night Lords were soon overwhelmed, hordes of screaming orks burst out of the assault boats that slammed into the flanks, the entire ship was taken, its crew butchered and the Orks looting and prying useful looking parts before their screams had even died down.

Escape off world was now impossible, even if either side had any intention of giving up the hard fought but now useless prize. The cruisers and battleships in orbit had been smashed apart in the orgy of destruction that heralded the arrival of Dagslakk and his horde and the Ork’s own ships had been used to land on the surface, as much ordinance as organised muster.

Thousands of Orks spilled from the landing craft, crude smoke belching warmachines and transports hauled across the equatorial deserts of Spyll, the Orks quickly errected crude fortifications from the wreckage of their ships and started out immedietly for the nearest enemies, Dagslakk at their head, bellowing curses and challenges to the puny humans, declaring himself the toughest and strongest thing on the planet.

Thus a three way war began, the embittered Imperial defenders fighting against the insidious forces of Chaos while both had to fend off the constant encroachment of the rampaging horde, neither side could hope to gain much from this war, what strategic or material value the world held had long since vanished, all that was left was toiling war on this destroyed world.

The Astropath

Months of running war carried on, now cut off supplies were deminishing and all hope of winning this war were fading. Increasingly however, intelligence gathered spoke of a bastion of hope for the entrenched Imperials, one last functioning Astrotelepathy Shrine, long thought lost, was said to have survived deep in the Precinct of the Adeptus Arbites, with a sole surviving Astropath protected by his guardians, gaining control of this assest was vital, for a request for resupply and reinforcement could be sent from whoever reached it first.

Thus began a daring raid by the White Scars, screaming at full speed towards Precinct 34, however, the insidious forces of Chaos had met this raid head on, deploying the freshly traitorous Vraksian 23rd alongside the murderous Night Lords. Fighting was joined immediately and, like a moth to a flame, the Orks were drawn in to the battle.



Echoes of War

Assault on Precinct 34

Gunning the engines of his bike, Tuushen laughed long and loud, this was no longer a simple recon mission, past the vast and imposing Precinct he could see the blackening storm clouds that heralded the arrival of the Night Lords and from the sounds of the din from the North, the Orks were also marching to join this fight.
“Ride hard and strike fast, warriors of Chogoris,” shouted Khan Ro’Shen, “let us show these fools how the Scars do battle! For the Khan and Emperor!”
“For the Khan and the Emperor!” echoed Tuushen.


This begins as a 3 way battle, on a 6 foot by 4 foot table, with the centre a square 24” wide of Zone Mortalis. In the middle of the Zone Mortalis is the Astropath inside a Stasis Chamber Pod.

The first force are the White Scars who deploy within 12” of one short table edge. The White Scars must take a Captain to represent Khan Ro'shen

The Night Lords are deployed within 12” of the opposite table edge.

The Ork player must select half of his units as his initial force, these will come in from one board edge on the first turn and the rest are placed in reserve and must be rolled for as normal. If a unit must start the game in Reserve, such as a Zooming Flyer, then they cannot be part of the initial force. The Orks must use a Warboss to represent Dagslakk.

Special Rules


The Astropath

For the White Scars, the Astropath is a Relic objective that is worth 5 Victory Points, once awoken from the Stasis Chamber Pod by a White Scars model moving into base contact with it, it is controlled by a model exactly like a Relic from that mission.

For the Ork and Night Lords Players, the Astropath must be killed, to them, he is a T4 model with 2 Wounds and a 5+ Save, due to the protections of his Stasis Chamber Pod. If, by the End of the game, the Astropath is killed, then the Army that killed it gains 3 Victory points.

Once awoken by the White Scars and under their control, the Astropath can only be killed by destroying the Unit that controls it.

Night Fighting, Variable Game Length, Slay the Warlord, First Blood