Thursday, September 28, 2017

Dark Angels get nasty shock at Paradorn

On 2409.017M42 Titus Luthor's campaign to secure the Foramen Interdictum for the Imperium began. Vital to crossing the Cicatrix, Luthor knew that whoever controlled the end points of the Foramen controlled access through the warpscar, and he was determined to ensure the Imperium held this strategically important pathway. With this in mind Luthor planned to construct two mighty bases, one at Tarlius, the other at Paradorn, but first the Dark Angels sent a probing force to the uninhabited system of Paradorn to establish whether there would be any threat to imperial interests.

There was. Detecting massive psychic emanations from the third rocky planet, the Dark Angels 4th company deployed immediately, only to find - to their horror - a psychic ritual being undertaken by the Thousand sons. Filled with hate the Dark Angels assaulted the traitor legion, disrupting the ritual. It was then that the traitor astarted counter attacked in force, accompanied by none other than the traitor Primarch Magnus the Red and a cabal of Tzeentch daemon princes.


Outnumbered and significantly outgunned, the Dark Angels suffered heavy casualties were are forced to evacuate the few survivors from the expedition. The Dark Angels fleet exited the Interdictum to report what they had discovered to the Inquisition. What was Magnus up to? Why was he in the Aleph Sector?


A new war on Corticant

The coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum had seen an uneasy truce develop between the Crusade and Loyalist imperials. Inquisitor Vorushko, instigator of the crusade, had returned to the Vastrid subsector through the Foramen Interdictum, in order to meet up with Sector Commander Titus Luthor and organise the new crusades. Inquisitor Hathek, chief loyalist supporter, left Corticant and moved to Bastien to help General Veers organise the defence of the Imperium's holdings in the Perseus Deeps. Libria had been lost, but the opening of the Foramen meant there was hope for the rest of the Emperor's domains in the Imperium Nihilus. Hathek of course took full credit for this act, although the coming of the Foramen was actually down to the combined efforts of Inquisitor's Vorushko and Huron.

Corticant remained a warzone. The switching on of the Necron "device" had awoken an army of Necrons, who had immediately sworn fealty to the Charnovokh dynasty, as the ensuing eldar invasion left them very little choice. Corticant was now divided between the two warring Xenos, with the Imperium holding out in their northern settlements.


The Imperium recieved some much needed reinforcements in the shape of the Imperial Fists and Howling Griffons, who immediately deployed to Corticant, which the three Inquisitors agreed could not afford to fall into alien hands. The Howling Griffons first expedition against the Necrons along the Iron Road was however less than successful, and the astartes were forced to withdraw. In the west the Imperial Fists had more success, retaking Blackhollow from the Disciples of Ynead, but the Space Wolves found themselves caught off guard by an Alaitoc Eldar attack, which saw them lose the approaches to Lochford. It was clear now that the Eldar were multifactional, well supported and intent on claiming the world. This was no raid.


The necrons meanwhile continued to skirmish with the eldar in running battles near the archeotech site, the entrance in fact to the necron tomb complex. This the eldar managed to hold despite several necron probing attacks, but for now the necrons had not made a significant effort to retake the tomb. It was bound to happen however, as the tomb complex contained many more sleeping necron warriors. How many remained unknown.


Hylas: No end in Sight

On Hylas the coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum was barely noticed. For years now the long lonely war against the greenskins by General Van Dorn and his imperial guard forces had been a forgotten campaign. It was however his imperial duty to continue the fight, and initially the warpscar played into Van Dorn's hands. Unknown to the Imperium, the warp had claimed several ork worlds in the Vork Ork expanse, plunging the ork infestation into a bloody war against daemons. Such was the attraction of this "scrap" that Ork commanders Kogh and Na'Porkleon soon lost interest in the war on Hylas, returning to the Vork Ork expanse in order to take part in the "bestest bust up" in centuries.

Von Bismork remained on Hylas, now intent on finishing the Imperium and carving out his own empire in the Mabb Nebula. However, with his forces dwindling, Van Dorn launched his new offensive, led by the Novogorod Guard, spearheading across the west coast plains and easily taking North Eton. The Novogorod then dug in and prepared for Von Bismork's counter attack.


As expected the greenskins rushed the imperial lines, but the Novgorod defense in depth worked to plan. Thousands of conscripts were hacked to death as they advanced to meet the orks, but once they had been dealt with, the ork charge had been blunted, and the greenskins now found themselves out in the open, pummeled by artillery and gunfire. Then the Novgorod unleashed their cavalry into the flanks of Von Bismork's forces, annihilating them and securing the West Coast for the Imperium

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Welcome to the Aleph Sector!

Welcome to the Sheffield University Wargames Society's Aleph Sector Campaign. This campaign has been running for many years and is primarily a narrative campaign that anyone can get involved in. It is almost certainly the longest running and largest (by word count) campaign in the 40k universe. The full history of the campaign is in this blog, and in the Campaign Files on the right.

The Campaign is a "turn up and play" campaign, although from time to time there are Campaign Days and Apocalypse games as part of the fun, the next one being on Saturday 18th November. When you win, you get to advance your faction. A brief overview of the state of the Aleph Sector following the arrival of the Great Rift is below.

Any questions - find me (Duncan) at Wargames on Saturdays in the union!



Tuesday, September 19, 2017

War zones of the Aleph Sector

The Foramen Inderdictum
The Foramen represents the nexus of two passageways between the Perseus Deeps in the Dark Imperium, and the Perseus Void and Zadoc subsector on the side of the Astronomican. All factions are keen to control this strategically vital location, and mighty forces are being readied for the upcoming campaign to control the only known navigable path through the Cicatrix Maledictum
Factions: Tau-federal Alliance, Aeldari, Chaos, Necron, Tyranid, Imperium, Ork
Rules & Format: Narrative territory points based campaign


Hylas & the Mabb Nebula
The war between the orks and Imperium on Hylas has been going on for years and shows no indications of being resolved. General Van Dorn is now completely isolated from the rest of the Imperium, with the fall of Libria and the coming of the Great Rift. The orks have been devastated too, with the nearby Vork Ork Expanse ravaged by chaos energies. To make matters worse all the worlds of the Mabb Nebula - Ork Held Kallack, Tau held Tyranteous and Va'Doran, and Coronus (New Cerberex) of the Imperium, are now coming under daily attack from the forces of chaos as they seek to widen the warpscar all the way to Zadoc.
Factions: Tau-federal Alliance, Aeldari, Chaos, Necron, Tyranid, Imperium, Ork
Rules & Format: Narrative campaign


The Hadron Expanse
The Hadron expanse lies to the galactic east on the eastern rim of the galaxy. Some postulate that the Cicatrix has an end, and that finding this end will allow safe passage around the warpscar. Others believe there are hidden passages or "fords" across the raging maw, but there are many parsecs of space to cover, much of it barren wilderness. Nevertheless every faction is exploring, probing into the expanse, finding resources and long lost treasure, and also long forgotten dangers.
Factions: Tau-federal Alliance, Aeldari, Chaos, Necron, Tyranid, Imperium, Ork
Rules and Format: matched play league (points, although the points will "build bases" etc in campaign terms). Random planet and map generation.



The Foramen Inderdictum

The Foramen Interdictum is a gateway, a stable passage, between the Dark Imperium and the rest of the galaxy. It lies in the Aleph subsector and bisects the Cicatrix Maledictum at the junction of the Minoris arc, just to the galactic south west of the planet Corticant, currently controlled by the Imperium.

The Foramen has two passageways, Foramen Maximus, the longer of the two stable tunnels, projects outward from Corticant, across the warpscar, and into the Perseus Void near the Necron planet of Zog. The other passageway is narrower, more dangerous and prone to collapse, but flickers on and off across the Cicatrix Minoris, via the Foramen Minoris, connecting a line towards Parthenope and the Vastrid subsector.


the opening of the Foramen occurred at sector time 2109.017M42, when the necron "device" on Corticant was activated by agents of the Inquisition. Vorushko had realised just in time the significance of what she thought initially were heretical chaotic devices which needed eliminating. Working with Inquisitor Huron, ordo Xenos, the Inquisitors realised the effect the necron device would have, connecting the Dark and Light sides of the galaxy.


Initially Vorushko considered simply letting the Dark Imperium wither and die, while concentrating on rebuilding the stronger half of Mankind, but with Roboute Guilliman on crusade, she decided against it. Besides, after weeks of being adrift she eventually found out she was on the wrong side.


Vorushko's team were successful in activating the necron device against Inquisitor Hathek's express wishes, and the newly active device immediately began creating the Foramen, pushing back the warp and allowing stable warp transit of the Cicatrix Maledictum.


It quickly became clear however that the strategic significance of the Foramen was simply incredible. Moreover, the Foramen Maximus ran close to the chaos daemonforges of Mordecai and Kendrenec, while also in easy reach of the Federacy and fleets from Farpoint and Bastien in the Imperium. Protogonus, the Tau outpust, also stood in easy reach, and the passage itself directly connected the Harakhty and Charnovokh dynasties. In addition, without control of a passage, there was no possibility that Hive Fleet Nemesis would be able to cross over into the heavily populated Vastrid subsector. Whoever controlled space and planets around the Foramen, controlled the Aleph Sector...