Welcome all! I've been talking about this post over on my Instagram and the last Monthly Vox, and I can finally say it's here. Strap in for my "review" of Warhammer 40K's narrative play mode, 'Crusade.
Note: Going forward, I will be assuming that you are following the Crusade ruleset to the letter. Ultimately, it's your game and if you (and your opponent) are cool with it, you're free to pick and choose. One of Crusade's strengths is it's modularity. I will also be focusing almost-exclusively on the Core Rules Crusade content, and not on any of the Warzones or Campaign books.
What is Narrative Play?
Similarly to Open Play, Narrative Play normally operates with a different mindset (and often ruleset) to the min-maxed and streamlined playstyles you might see in Matched and Competitive Play. Narrative Play is generally favoured by players that want to tell stories and re-enact their favourite battles from the books and lore.
Narrative players will frequently have illegal weapon loadouts modelled and statted onto their HQs out of sheer desire for 'Rule of Cool'. While, I generally favour the more structured and... "balanced" systems of Matched Play, it's no difference to me what two consenting adults get up. I don't judge.
What is Crusade?
Thus is the beauty of 9th Edition's newly(?) introduced Crusade mode, and why I have honestly fallen in love with it. It combines the storytelling and narrative that we associate Warhammer with so strongly, and combines it with (mostly) easy-to-use rules to provide progression and structure for your army.
In Crusade, two (or more, if you're into that) players get to square off with all manner of narratively-themed missions to help create stories, feuds, vendettas, and cinematic moments. Perhaps your Company Commander gets critically injured in a 1v1 against your friend's Broodlord. The grimdark future offers little time for respite and there's a good chance he'll carry that festering, larvae-filled, wound into his next skirmish. Alternatively, perhaps your Space Marine Lieutenant has earned enough 'Chuck E. Cheese' tokens pimp-slapping Daemon Princes and wants to cash them in for a sweet upgrade to his Wargear. The Crusade ruleset makes this happen.
Forming a Crusade Roster
So you want to jump in? Whoah there, cowboy! First you gotta write up a Roster, known in the Core Rules as your 'Order of Battle'. Most rosters will begin with up to 50 Power Level's worth of units. These units, for the most part, still follow the standard rules described on their datasheets. Be careful however, as even crusade armies are still required to be battle-forged.
In short, as long as you can build a coherent detachment (almost-always Patrol) from your roster when the time comes, you're free to take whatever units you wish. The main exception to the standard formula here is that you do not assign any Warlord Traits, Relics, or Command Upgrades at this stage of your Crusade. Named Characters and Summons are perfectly allowed, just note that they are unable of using most of the Crusade-specific mechanics found within the ruleset, just something to keep in mind.
As far as the resources available to you, the Core Rulebook contains scannable templates for the sheets used to keep track of your Crusade and it's units. Games Worshop also sell a Crusade "Journal" for the low low price of... £20... Honestly, I highly encourage you get to grips with the Digital Roster set up by that clever fella, Charlie, over at The Beard Bunker. Digital is almost always better and, combined with fitting perfectly on a phone screen, the smart use of spreadsheet formulae means that it automates most of the thinking for you. I can provide a tutorial on how to use this fantastic spreadsheet if it is requested. In the meantime, here's a link to my current crusade roster.
Something to note, all the units you choose must be from one faction. As far as I know, there is no written rules for taking multiple factions in a Crusade roster outside of auxiliary units such as 'Agents of the Imperium'.
Crusade Cards
When a unit is added to your roster, it is assigned a 'Crusade Card'. Crusade Cards are used to keep track of any bookkeeping needed for the unit (upgrades, battles fought, enemies killed, etc) as well as any feats, trivia, and information about it, similarly how it's datasheet might.
Requisition Points
Requisition Points, or 'RP', are points you accrue over your crusade for meeting various criteria. You gain 1 RP each time you complete a game and extra RP can sometimes be gained as bonus rewards for emerging victorious in certain missions.
RP's primary purpose is to serve as a currency to spend on 'Requisitions', effectively Strategems that are activated between games. Requisitions are used to heal and repair units that sustain heavy damage, upgrade them how you would Veteran Intercessors or a Tank Commander, or increase the maximum Power Level of your Order of Battle to allow for more unit options.
You start with 5 RP when you first create your Order of Battle.
Playing the Game
Crusade games follow a similar structure and formula to any other mode of play. Players choose a mission, either by rolling or manually to fit a narrative they had in mind, followed by Agendas that serve as the secondary objectives within the mission type, and then finally deciding their armies by selecting units from their roster to fit the game size.
Mission Selection
Crusade's missions are probably the most unique thing about the standard gameplay loop, featuring all manner of interesting scenarios ranging from small skirmishes between opposing scouting forces, all the way up to large-scale sieges with odds stacked against one side. Each of these missions has their own actions, modifiers, and twists that make them a blast to play.
Agendas
Another deviation from the standard formula of Matched Play is that there are no Secondary Objectives, opting to use Agendas instead.Agendas are functionally very similar to Secondaries, often requiring specific conditions or the completion of a specific action to be fulfilled. Perhaps you have your eye on the head of the enemy warlord, or maybe the battlefield is littered with valuable relics ripe for the taking. The narrative can bend to fit you.
However, Agendas operate entirely independently of the mission rules, offering no actual Victory Points and instead rewarding units with sweet sweet XP and progress towards their next upgrade. Like Secondaries, Agendas are split into categories with one Agenda being allowed from each, up to an amount determined by the mission size.
Crusade Points
Crusade Points are another thing to keep track of. Serving as an army-wide "litmus test" of general Crusade strength. As units improve and upgrade they will be worth more and more Crusade Points. Alternatively, as a unit gets scarred and weakened, they will lose them. This can go into the negative if maths dictates.
At the start of a game, players compared the sum Crusade Points of their chosen units. If one player's chosen units are valued higher than their opponent, their opponent gains bonus Command Points equal to the difference between them halved and rounded up. This serves as a handicap for the player who's crusade might be younger (or unluckier) and, as such, contains less upgraded units.
Post-battle Bookkeeping
Crusade requires a lot of bookkeeping (again, why automating/digitising the process is a key). After each battle, there's a fair few hoops you need to jump through before you pack up and leave.
After resolving the mission Victor (and any possible Victor bonuses provided by the mission), give yourself 1 Requisition Point then increase the Combat Tally and Experience points by 1, making sure to also note down any enemies killed or Agendas achieved, as these can also provide Experience points. Finally, choose a unit that you think performed well and grant them one 'Mark of Glory' worth 3 Experience Points. Once you've done this, you're ready for the juicy bit!
Out of Action
If, at the end of the game, any of your units were totally destroyed, roll a D6 for each one. This is called an 'Out of Action' test. If any of your units roll a 1, they are subject to one of the following afflictions:
- Devastating Blow: The unit is unable to gain any Experience Points from the battle. Additionally, they lose D6 Experience Points.
- Battle Scar: Roll on the appropriate 'Battle Scar' table or select a Scar that makes sense for the narrative. Battle Scars are negatives that the unit carries with them until they are removed from the unit at the expense of 1 RP, or the unit is removed from the Order of Battle.
Battle-honours
The cooler big brother of Battle Scars, 'Battle-honours' are upgrades that can be applied to units as they reach certain Experience Point milestones. If any of your units have reached one of these milestones, provide them with one of the following flavours based on table rolls or narrative sense:
- Battle Trait: Normally stat bonuses such as increases to movement speed, extra wounds or attacks, or bonuses to saving throws. These are always nice to have and can put some units in a very good place. WS 2+ Bladeguard anyone?
- Crusade Relic: Powerful artefacts that can be granted Characters. Crusade Relics function independently of standard codex Relics. Any character unit can have any number of different Crusade Relics, but only one of each is allowed per Order of Battle.
- Weapon Enhancement: Similarly to Battle Traits, Weapon Enhancements provide minor stat buffs to a unit, specifically a weapon. Note that Weapon Enhancements are not applied to entire units, only the unit's "Champion". This obviously doesn't really apply to single model units or characters.
- Psychic Fortitude: While generally quite limited, with this table only sporting 3 possible options, Psychic Fortitudes amplify the potential of psykers, allowing them to 1 one to known powers, casts, or psychic tests.
Where Next?
After the battle is fought and the honours/scars have been assigned, you are free to assign your RP however you wish. Perhaps you want to remove a scar that one of your units suffered or change their Wargear to better streamline their killing potential. Maybe you want to swap their psychic powers or add extra models to the unit. This is when to do it.
Once I've chosen what I'm doing with my crusade and it's units, I tend to write a small narrative summary of the battle's events, normally taking any scars or honours into account to give it a narrative twist. For example, in one of my earlier games, the Marshal of my Black Templars Crusade was obliterated by melta fire and, at the end of the game, suffered a Battle Scar and lost his leg. I gave it the simple narrative spin that his leg was obliterated by the meltas. Simple stuff but it's fun enough.
Obviously you can write entire campaigns if you wish but I tend to do more of a 'turn up and play' style Crusade, then piece together the narrative afterwards. Again, Crusade's main strength is it's versatility and modularity to be whatever you wish.
My Thoughts
Now, while I do enjoy crusade, it is not without issue. For example, the rules were definitely not written with balancing in mind. While obviously this is less of a priority in a narrative context, it means that it becomes very easy to "snowball". Having a few particularly good games in a row will beef up several of your units to god like capacity. I was able to get Marshal Reinhardt to an insane statline (T6, 9W, 0+, 4++, 6+++ (4+++ against MWs) which, in a competitive context is absurd. However in Crusade it is par for the course, while still being utterly batshit.
Another issue with Crusade, at least the Core Rules, is it's longevity. Without using external source books or making up your own missions from scratch, the missions will begin to grow stale quickly. This is especially true if you do a lot of 25PL-50PL games as you will quickly exhaust your patience with the same 6 missions. However, a bit of creativity and google searching will solve this issue so I suppose this is a nonpoint.
All in all, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Crusade system so far and it has been an excellent writing aid in coming up with cool situations and narrative ideas for my homebrew Black Templar crusade, while having plenty of fun and getting to roll dice in the process. If you have a few friends and don't mind getting creative with the mission types, you will thoroughly enjoy yourself too!
Conclusion
So this has been a look into the Warhammer 40,000 Core Rules' Crusade system, alongside some of my thoughts and a roughly outline of how it works. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading and let me know if you want me to talk about anything mentioned with a bit more depth. My crusade roster is available to view here if you're interested.
Cheers and cya!
Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment