11th Edition 40k will launch with an innovative new card-deck campaign system – Dominatus.
One-off games are all well and good, but there is nothing I love more in war gaming than a campaign, and I am really excited about the Dominatus format.
This deck of cards is a self-contained, quick-and-dirty campaign meant to be played over the course of 3 days and 5 battles between two or more players. It’s included in the upcoming Armageddon box set and will be available for sale as an independent product soon after that release.
Card-Driven Campaigning
Dominatus is themed around the war on Armageddon, but only lightly so. It promises to be a semi-generic campaign system that could be used with any set of armies on any terrain in your collection. Campaign players are split into two or three alliances. Liberators, Oppressors, and Raiders will vie for supremacy over the course of the campaign. Each player will have an Agenda of their own, and achieving these goals collectively will impact the campaign’s narrative.
Location, Location, Location
With your alliances set, you’ll roll a die to determine which of the phase’s three locations will be in play. The location of your battle will grant a bonus to whoever controls it at the end of the phase, along with a set of environmental rules that will apply to every battle in that phase. With the stage set, each alliance will receive a Briefing card, which determines which Agenda each player will receive.
First Mission
Standard Dominatus missions will see players using 2,000-point Strike Force army lists, and missions are drawn from the Chapter Approved Mission deck. However, players aren’t limited to the standard Primary Missions and can instead choose to follow a campaign Agenda. These are thematic goals specific to their alliance within the campaign. Achieving an Agenda will grant a reward card to that player, and alliances tally these up at the end of each phase.
The Spoils of War
Win or lose, all players receive a benefit of one kind or another at the end of a battle. Winners receive a Battle Honour Card while the defeated receive a Battle Skill. Each type of card grants a bonus in future games played, but critically, it seems that the alliance with the most Battle Honors earned will take control of that phase’s location. It’s also key to note that this system will prevent defeated players from falling too far behind the victors.
With these steps completed, all players will repeat the process to play a second game in the first phase. At that point, the phase ends, Battle Honor cards are tallied, and the winning alliance of the phase is determined.
That alliance takes control of the location and gains its bonus for the remainder of the campaign. Finally, whichever alliance holds the most Agenda Achieved cards is in ascendancy and is granted a powerful Relic card. No examples have been given of a Relic yet, so we’ll have to wait and see. It’s also interesting that the alliance in ascendancy is not necessarily the same as the winner of the location.
Finally, you’ll turn over the Briefing card, which will inform you of how your games shaped the narrative so far. It seems that there are three levels of success on each Briefing card, with points granted for controlling the phase’s location or being in ascendancy. Thus ends the phase and begins the next.
Rinse and Repeat
It seems that Phase 2 is much the same as Phase 1, with cards drawn for Location, Agendas, etc. This all culminates in Phase 3 with a “single, epic battle”. Just what this final game will look like is anyone’s guess so far, but it’s sure to be exciting with all players having a number of Battle Honors, Battle Skills, and Location bonuses in play.
I’m not gonna lie, this is so far the most exciting part of the 11th edition previews for me. I love the idea of a pick-up-and-play narrative campaign, and the fact that the bookkeeping is all handled by cards instead of hastily drawn notes is awesome. I can see this format really shining for convention and weekend play, and I’m already thinking about running this with my gaming club over the summer.
What’s your favorite army for campaign play?
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
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