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I have recently been taking part in a campaign to take over the galaxy. Warpshadow is running a Tyranid campaign with each of our Hivefleets being assigned to a set of systems for conquest. Cranerat is running the campaign itself, and quite a few of us are participating. I thought that I'd pass along the information and the campaign. Partly for your entertainment, and partly in case someone else wants to do a similar campaign. While I can answer questions about the campaign, all the flowers for this work go to Cranerat. First off, the campaign map. Here's the 40k galaxy in a convenient size. For a less convenient size, but more visibility, please click the thumbnail. 
Next up, the system assignments. I'm down near the bottom as Elttaes/Hive Fleet Scylla. Kimmeria System Information Initial Setup For Kimmeria Hive Fleet Scylla (me!) entered the system and placed all 20000pts onto the first planet it approached. (Janice assigned numbers to the various destinations and had me pick a number between 1 and 9. I picked a number and the planet turned out to be Kimmeria. My entire Hive Fleet landed (With a hearty "thump," I imagine. Why do anything halfway?) and discovered 5000pts of defenders. In response to the sudden Tyranid invasion, Janice (the first defender) chose to move 5000pts from each of Solandria and Xandria to reinforce Kimmeria. Unfortunately, poor rolls for their transports mean they won't arrive until after games 5 and 6, respectively. We then agreed on a point value for her forces, with mine receiving a 4:1 advantage (20000 vs 5000 you see) So she had 592pts and I had 2300pts. Obviously, I won rather handily, though her Dark Eldar did take a heavy toll on my Gaunts and Genestealers. After the battle, since I had won, I was able to eat all the casualties, regaining 50% of the total losses for my force. (Percentage based off of Win category for game.) Game 2 I played against Nick and his Imperial Guard. He elected not to make reinforcing moves for the system, deciding each planet would sit tight and see the outcome of Kimmeria. I still had a 4:1 advantage over the defenders, so he played with 1000pts and I played with almost 4000pts. Unfortunately, this resulted in my Genestealers essentially tripping over each other in their rush to eat his poor Guardsmen. I wiped him out handily, but he managed to kill his points worth of my Genestealers. Again, since I won the battle, I was able to eat all the casualties, leaving my forces only slightly depleted. I had so much difficulty with my huge numbers that I decided to not use my 4:1 advantage any more. Game 3 I played against an Eldar player whose name escapes me at the moment. He also elected to leave the defenders in their current locations. We played 1000pts each and he was wiped out fairly quickly. Again, I was able to eat the casualties and recovered a fair amount. This leaves 2408pts of defenders on Kimmeria, to my 20071pts of Tyranids. (Recovering Casualties is a good thing!) for 2 more games before reinforcements start arriving. I expect that I will win Kimmeria, though I'm not sure that I'll be able to do so before the defenders arrive, which could drag things out a bit. Once I finish Kimmeria, and assault another planet, I will receive the 20000pt bonus for wiping out Kimmeria as well, so my Hive Fleet will roughly double in size! I have a new strategy for taking on the rest of the system, however. My previous strategy was to lump all my points in one place, pretty much assuring me of winning that planet. Then my plan was to lump all my points into the next planet, and so on, making a series of massive invasions one at a time until the system was mine. Unfortunately, this means it might take a very long time to finish the system. (I don't get to choose which planet to go to until I've explored it, so I randomly pick a new one each time. That means it could take me 9 invasions, since I'd have to explore every planet until I'd found the Gas Giant and the 4 useable planets. In the meantime, I'd have to worry about reinforcements and random movements of troops from outside the system. For example, I'm not far from Triplex Phall, an Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World or Graia, an Imperial Factory world, each with 70000pts of defenders! The longer my invasion takes, the greater chance that they will come to Kimmeria's aid, or at least happen to be passing through. Hence my new system. My new strategy involves sending out scouting forces. There will be 8 of them (one for every body in the system) at 400-500pts each and they will simultaneously land and investigate the remaining planets and the Gas Giant and the Sun. The 4 that hit the lifeless rocks or the sun will then come back to me after the next game. The 1 that hits the Gas Giant will, presumably, consume it and then return to me. The 3 that hit the useable planets will certainly die. But, if I work out the proper forces, they should do more damage than their points, slightly hampering the enemy and giving me the information I need about which planet to strike next. Once I have that information, I will also have the additional 20000pts from consuming Kimmeria, and I will probably invade 2 or even all 3 of the remaining planets in the system. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |