The Heathen Stars - a Skirmish BFG Campaign

The Heathen Stars - a Skirmish BFG Campaign

The Heathen Stars is a Battlefleet Gothic Campaign pitting Zedkiel D’Lyander against the Dread Pirate Yan Marcuson.  Unlike traditional Battlefleet Gothic campaigns that pit a sector’s worth of ships of the line against each other, this one will focus on small engagements of escort class ships.  The game will follow traditional BFG campaigns with the following exceptions.

The Imperial Fleet consists

Winged Jubilation – Kar Dunash Pattern Fast Clipper (20 Pts)

 

Valedictor Imperialis – Voss Pattern Cobra Destroyer (30 pts)

 Escort/1, Speed 30cm, Turns 90, Shields 2, Armour 5+, Turrets 1, Leadership 8.
Weapons Battery   R 30cm, St 2, LFR
Prow Torpedoes   R30cm, St2, F 

Special Rules:  Voss Pattern Torpedo Launchers – Voss Pattern torpedo tubes can actually carry two torpedoes allowing for a higher rate of fire than other patterns at the expense of ease of loading.  Any turn, the Valedictor Imperialis my fire a full salvo at Str4.  However it tests for reload ordnance at -2 leadership in the subsequent turn.

The pirates start with an undisclosed number of escort ships.

The Rules

Missions:

Missions are rolled using the Human Wolfpacks scenario list.

 

Escort Damage:

In traditional BFG, escorts disappear in the puff of blast marker with a single shot.  While this makes large scale fleet battles manageable, it doesn’t make for an interesting skirmish game. Instead of hitpoints, every time a hit is scored on an escort, roll 1D6+1 on the critical damage table and apply that damage to the ship.  Extra damage adds +1 (or D3 in the case of a hull breach) to subsequent rolls made to the table.  If you roll a result that the ship has already received repaired or not, treat it as +1 extra damage.  Any roll on the table of 12 or more is a Bulkhead Collapse and effectively destroys the ship.  Roll on the catastrophic damage table.

 

Special Orders:

Called Shots – Speed Half to Full, Turns None, Weapons Full Effect + any damage scored on the enemy ship will affect a declared component in the critical hits table (2-10.)  The targeted area must be called before shooting.  No extra damage is inflicted unless 2 or more hits are scored on the targeted area. 
 

Shields:

Are not automatically restored and must be repaired like damage.

 

Boarding Actions:

Are resolved via a 500 pt game of Zone Mortalis

 

Repairs:

As per the normal BFG Campaign rules except that repairs go towards reducing the extra damage count a ship may have against it.

 

Adding to the roster:

Passage Watch 27-Est is stretched thin and long ranged patrols are not going to receive any reinforcements from Battlefleet Calixis. Warships, even escorts are a rare commodity. Any ships added to the Imperial Navy roster must be captured from the pirates.  However, captured ships start with a leadership of 6 to represent a press-ganged crew with minimal officer/NCO oversight.  You may cross-level crews across ships sacrificing 1 point of leadership on one ship in the roster for a point somewhere else.

 Appeals:

Passage Watch 27-Est Appeals table:

+3 New Crew – You may roll up leadership for a new ship crew to use on a captured vessel.

+4 Minor Refits – Roll on the ship refit table

+5 Overhaul – A captured transport ship may be overhauled to represent a new class of ship.  Any captured transport can be converted to a Q-Ship, Escort Carrier, Armed Freighter, Fire Ship.

 

The Heathen Stars "Sub-Sector" Map

The Heathen Stars aren't a sub-sector any more than the Koronus Expanse is a true sector.  However, Imperial Navy star charts classify this region of space as such.

 

 

Only portions of this chart are from sanctioned Imperial Navy Sources.  Many of the routes and systems themselves come from merchants and Rogue Traders operating in the region: notably the Lord Captain Olivares.  Details of the systems are sketchy at best.  No Administratum records exist on any of these systems or their planets within.  The best records have been compiled by a scribe working for Lord Captain Olivares though the quality ranges from old voidsmen's tales to detailed statistics. 

 

It is imperative that detailed charts of the systems and their orbital mechanics be developed as soon as possible. 

 

Naduesh will be the starting system for the Imperial Navy.  The best records of Passage Watch 27-Est regarding this system are as follows:

 

An artificial or near-artifical planet built in humanity’s distant past. No Rogue Trader has fully explored or settled the world; most are content to pick up a few relics, some native livestock, or just resupply from the clear freshwater lakes. Decaying fortress-hives and barracks dot the surface of Naduesh. The abandoned hives are just the tip of the iceberg; the underhives stretch down to the planet’s artificial core.

Addendum from the captain at Footfall: There is a large human settlement in the outskirts of one of the largest hive cities built up around the site of an Adpetus Mechanicus Explorator mission.  It has a fully functioning spaceport to bring archeotech up to an ever growing orbital dock and supplies down to the surface of the planet.