The Vadinax Campaign is Goonhammer’s Global Crusade Campaign for Warhammer 40,000. Each week we’ll explore the major events taking place in the sector and talk about how players are shaping the ongoing story in the sector.
It’s week 5 of the Vadinax Campaign and phase 2 is in full swing. Games have cooled a little but players are still advancing narratives and working to decide the fate of the system’s planets. Games are larger now, and some players have now had a taste for our new Fated Hours mechanic.
If you missed last week’s update, you can find it here.
Let’s take a look at the numbers this week:
- Campaign players played 115 games across the global and local campaigns, fighting tooth and nail over the planets in the Vadinax system. While the global campaign continues to see Imperial dominance, the loyalists are not so fortunate in some of the smaller local campaigns – particularly in the battle for Tern’s Endeavor.
- Likewise, this week marked a turning point, as Chaos armies began to win more of their games. This could be grave tidings for the forces of the Imperium, as they’ve also been fighting off Votann, Aeldari, and Necrons.
- Skaadthi saw the most action this week, with forces both fighting to capture and kill ice krakens and also forces fighting on nearby space hulks. Neither has yet borne final fruit, but major chunks of the planet have changed hands.
Fated Hour injects extra danger into some missions
- Each time a unit controlled by a player is destroyed, that player gains one Threat.
- At the end of the battle, if a player had any CHARACTER units which were destroyed, they must take Out of Action tests for those units before taking tests for non-CHARACTER units.
- Each time a player takes an Out of Action Test, they subtract 1 from the result for each Threat they have. A roll of 6 always passes, irrespective of the number of Threats a player has.
- Each time a player fails an Out of Action Test for a CHARACTER unit, that unit is considered Dead and that player removes 5 Threats.
- Once a player has finished taking Out of Action Tests for their units, they lose any remaining Threats.
Dead Units
Dead units are removed from your Order of Battle – they’re gone permanently! They do however, leave behind a legacy:
- You may take up to one Relic or Crusade Relic that unit had and give it to another unit (one which is eligible to have that relic) without spending RP
- Every other unit which took part in the battle gains an additional 1 XP.
- You can immediately put them into a dreadnought, helbrute, wraith construct, or whatever using the appropriate Requisition from your army.
Tzeentch Remains on Top of the Great Game
The forces of Tzeentch, most notably led by Thousand Sons armies, have continued to stay one step ahead of their World Eaters and Khornate competition, keeping the great game firmly in the hands of the Changer of Ways for now. The most successful of these Thousand Sons forces are the Apostate Cabal, led by Dustspinner, a mighty daemon prince whose recent rituals granted him apotheosis.
For their part, the forces dedicated to Nurgle have begun to close ground, led primarily by Khazog and his warband of Iron Corsairs Chaos Space Marines.
++STATUS REPORT: PARASBINE SECUNDUS+++
+++0157023M03++
It has been relatively quiet in the past few days in the Parasbine system, as the battle lines shift based on the various factions’ early successes.
With Kephistrone secured, the Imperial forces there are now pushing out into the suburb of Spall Hill in an attempt to liberate and/or terminate Malioch Soulbinder’s indentured workforce of terrified citizens.
The Departmento Laborum and their Votann allies of convenience have abandoned Espern’s Drift to the Sun’chur Dynasty and have negotiated safe harbor at Kephistrone. The Trans-Hyperion Alliance need to process their rare minerals before they can be used to maintain their Ancestor Core, and are attacking the Chaos-held refining complex of Algol VII to both gain access to the equipment and stay in the good graces of the Imperial authorities at Kephistrone.
Strike Force Gladius’ lightning attack on Miltner’s Docks failed to establish a safe landing area for further deployments, so the Astartes are now in the process of setting up a forward operating base in the Parasbine Secundus wastes some 50 kilometers further south, preparing for a protracted campaign to liberate the Miltner’s Docks area.
+++STATUS REPORT: NOX VERITAS+++
+++0157023M03+++
The pernicious Eldar are finally being put in their place, the Imperium holds strong, and Chaos makes attempts at control the Agrifields and the Manufactorum.
The taint of Chaos has been swiftly driven out of the Tomb of Saint Nilam, and the Votann scourge seems to have quieted down. Can the Imperium hold back the tide of invaders yet again? Rumors start to swirl of Chaos Rituals being performed, and contracts being fulfilled.
The Crimson guard have been on a tear drilling through the forces of chaos, driving them out of the Agrifields.
+++STATUS REPORT: TERN’S ENDEAVOR+++
+++0157023M03++
Klaxon alarms wail and sirens blare, cutting through the rattling boom of battle and the furious tumult of retro-thrusters and grav-impulsor ignition. The distant crash of waves on war-ravaged outworks blends with the sound of ferrocrete barriers giving way before the invading onslaught, and all of that above the faint drone of cries and screams and feral war-born ululations. Such is the symphony of a fortress falling.
Imperial forces are pushed back to the final bastions of Valern Citadel, their only saving grace that the hordes of the Ork and the Heretic have little ability to interfere with the aerial supply lines. And those lines are taxed sorely, commandeered civilian shuttles from Tearfall and Mellar’s rift ferrying critical comms equipment and support staff to safety, countless smaller settlements cut off from the outside world as their only access craft are re-routed to the war effort.
There are minor Imperial gains elsewhere – forces unable to rally the transportation back to Valern Citadel re-group and strike once more at Grand Kriosa, and the absence of Orkish forces at their customary haunt sees Imperial forces strike to retrieve valuable materiel from certain wrecks within the Graves. But as a sleek black shuttle touches down at the central tower of Valern Citadel and a grim-faced woman with an Inquisitorial Rosette strides out onto the landing platform, there’s little question that a critical moment is at hand.
The Siege of Valern Citadel
Despite the best efforts of Imperial forces to defend Valern Citadel, they were unable to win any ground against their attackers, only the brave men of the Cadian 305th able to hold their opposition to even a stalemate. Of course, true to form, the gains of Archenemy forces were not left uncontested by other powers – seeing the way the fight was turning, Orkish marauders turned against their fellow besiegers, choosing to wage war against those who seemed most likely to give ‘em a good scrap. A small mercy for the beleaguered Imperials, as the ravaged outer reaches of the island citadel’s territory are now as choked with battles between the heretic and the alien as they are with the bodies of martyred Imperial dead.
The Currents Churn
Though less notable than the fierce fighting at Valern Citadel, fighting still rages across many other theaters of war on stormy Tern’s Endeavor. In the Graves, survey operations seem to have borne fruit, as several successful breach operations break into long-sealed parts of a millenia-old Ark Mechanicus. The Aeolian Choir now openly operates to further Xenos interests on the planet, an Aeldari warhost stopping by for resupply from their unlikely tech-priest allies and seeing off an incursion of Sororitas of dubious loyalties. And forces trade blows once more in Mellar’s Rift, a sign that the Ruinous Powers might have set their sites further afield as Valern Citadel’s fall seems imminent.
Painting Highlight
A group shot this week – Yakaru Dezaki’s been hard at work at their Alpha Legion, here infiltrating Tern’s Endeavor under the guise of loyalist marines from the “Vulpis Virtus” chapter. All these marines here – and the terrain! – have been painted up since the campaign’s start, too – quick work for this bunch of Alpharii!
The Emissary
Far from the battle for Valern Citadel, in the haunted, warp-twisted center of Grand Kriosa, light and space skew with a sudden melodic hum. An otherworldly lilac light catches the tumbling snowflakes, something too elegant to be called a bruise emerging in the air over the remnants of a public square. A resonant chime, a silver slice in the air… and suddenly a figure steps forward, ceramite boots crunching against sullied snow and broken stone beneath.
The Marquis of Lilies sniffs at the tainted air, sighs a breath of silver resonance and weeping snowfall. One violet eye sweeps across the squabbling cultists and beastfolk lurking in their place, all petty rivalry forgotten at his sudden approach. He shakes his head, something achingly sorrowful in his disappointment, before he begins to walk.
“Grand? No longer, clearly. Ah, well. When there’s no majesty to be found, it falls upon us to make our own…”
The footprints left by the glossy black and burnished gold of his tread are shallow, unnatural for the bulk and weight of an Astartes. But each swathe of compacted snow is embossed with screaming faces, all the same.
+++STATUS REPORT: AGRIPPA IV+++
+++0157023M03++
The fronts were quiet this week as forces largely fell back to regroup and lick their wounds, with only sparse fighting breaking out over the Space Port ‘Last Stop.’ While the generals of Agrippa plot their next move, we bring you an army showcase for The Septet of Sewage, the army of Jason “CatoireLore” Catoire.
A festering group of Death Guard raiders who have bonded over their love of the Grandfather’s gifts and, perhaps even more alarmingly, poetry. While they have been primarily focused on assembling their forces, they will soon be striving to make a large splash amongst the forces of Agrippa IV. For whether they win or lose, they always send a song or verse inspired by the day’s battle.
The Septet are particularly notable for the heretical screeds and poems they broadcast over all Vox frequencies during their battles:
“O Me! O Loss!”
by Walt Wiltman (not to be confused with Whitman who actually wrote the poem this is a parody of)
Oh me! Oh loss! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the khornate, of hallways fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more luckless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the plague, of the objectives missed, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the sprinting and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless rolls of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O loss?
Next Week: Death in the Dark
That wraps up our look at the Vadinax Campaign results this week but tune in next week when the fighting over the mysterious Ark of Omen begins in earnest and the forces of the Imperium work to defend the system. Until then, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
And if you want to join the campaign, it’s not too late! Support us on Patreon at the $5 level or higher to get access to the campaign and the Goonhammer Discord!
