Raid and Ruin — Campaign Rules

What It Is

A multi-battle Warhammer 40k campaign set in the Maelstrom warp-rift (Chaos Space Marine, Aeldari corsair, Ork Freebooter and Leagues of Votann raiders/pirates). 2+ players agree on a number of battles each (4+ recommended, doesn't have to be a fixed bracket/tournament). Each battle uses one of 12 Incursion-scale missions.

How a Battle Is Picked

Each player secretly picks one of four schemes — Rapid Raid, Planned Strike, Ambush, or Hold Prize — then reveals it. The combination of both players' schemes looks up a specific mission (and which player is the Attacker) on the "Maelstrom Mission Matrix."

The matrix missions: Loot the Dead, To the Victor, Risk and Reward, Trapped, Hold at All Costs, Dawn Raid, Reavers at Bay, Extraction, High Stakes, Heist, Chance Engagement. Two extra Mayhem missions — A Knife for Every Back (3 players) and Mayhem in the Maelstrom (4 players) — can be played standalone or as part of the campaign, using separate multiplayer sequencing rules.

Standard structure for a battle: create the 44"x60" battlefield → declare battle formations (Leaders/Bodyguards, Transports, Reserves — max half the army in Reserves) → deploy armies per the mission → redeploy/place objectives → determine first turn → resolve pre-battle rules → fight up to 5 battle rounds → determine the victor (usually most objective markers controlled).

Notoriety Points (NP)

• 1 NP per battle won.
• Challenge titles: 10 challenge types (e.g. your Warlord's unit destroys enemy units in the Fight phase; you kill the enemy Warlord; you win a mission you've already won before; you leave the enemy at or below half strength; you end the battle in the enemy deployment zone; you control more objectives than your opponent; your Warlord's unit escapes with plunder). Each challenge has 3 escalating titles worth increasing NP (e.g. Scourge → Executioner → Reaper for the Fight-phase challenge); only the highest title per challenge counts toward your NP, and titles aren't cumulative — completing a challenge again just upgrades the title.
• Spoils of War bonuses: several spoils items also grant bonus NP under specific conditions (see below).

Campaign winner = highest total NP (victory-count NP + title NP). Ties broken by: most victories, then most titles, then a shared win.

Spoils of War

After each battle, a player rolls a D66 (two D6, tens then units) once per objective marker they controlled at the end of that battle (minimum one roll if they controlled none), then picks one of their own rolled results to hold as an item until their next battle. There are 36 possible results across 6 categories:

• Cursed (11–16) — drawback items (lost re-rolls, restricted scheme choices, etc.) that also grant +1 NP if you still win the battle.
• Essential (21–26) — pick one unit at the start of the battle to get a specific re-roll (Hit, melee Hit, Battle-shock, Advance, or Charge) or a minor stat bump, for the whole battle.
• Cartomantic (31–36) — manipulate scheme choice or Reserves/Scout arrival during mission setup (e.g. treat a Reserves unit as arriving a round early, deny your opponent a specific scheme, see both your scheme options before committing).
• Martial (41–46) — equip one Character model (not an Epic Hero) with a bonus melee or ranged weapon for the battle (e.g. a 2+ AP-2 D2 sabre, a one-shot blast pistol, an anti-infantry dagger with extra attacks).
• Plundered (51–56) — conditional bonus NP: Warlord survives in your own/the enemy's deployment zone, enemy Warlord is off the battlefield at battle's end, you win a first-turn roll-off, your Warlord is near the centre of the battlefield, your Warlord is destroyed (yes, that one rewards NP too), etc.
• Exotic (61–66) — stronger unit-wide abilities for your Warlord's unit: +2 Objective Control while not Battle-shocked, once-per-battle damage negation, the Stealth ability, Ignores Cover, or a melee weapon whose Strength scales with your current NP total.

Additional Mission Rules

Apply to all 12+2 missions:

• Ransack and Ravage (Grab the Plunder / Secured the Plunder / Dropping the Plunder) — the shared mechanics for picking up an objective marker as "plunder," carrying it, escaping off a battlefield edge with it (only at the end of a turn, within 3" of the edge, not engaged), and dropping it if Battle-shocked or destroyed.
• Lurking — Infantry, Beast and Swarm units, plus any unit that hasn't had a turn yet this battle, gain the Lurking keyword if they stay stationary and don't shoot/charge/fight in their turn (lost again once they act). Lurking units can't be shot at beyond 18" and don't count as having the Fly keyword for this purpose.

Stratagems Unique to the Campaign

Core (usable in any Raid and Ruin battle): Warp Revenants (bring back a destroyed Battleline unit into Strategic Reserves), Larceny (steal an adjacent enemy unit's objective marker in your Command phase), Fortune Favours the Bold (move a stationary unit through enemy models, with a Desperate Escape test), Hasty Retreat (+D6" move for a unit that just Fell Back).

Mayhem-only (3–4 player multiplayer): Parley (offer CP or a reciprocal deal to another player), Rapid Ingress, Opportunistic Volley and Reactive Fusillade (replace Fire Overwatch with a riskier reactive-shooting mechanic, hits only on an unmodified 6), Duplicitous Intervention (replaces Heroic Intervention, lets a non-active player declare a charge reactively), Treacherous Offensive (replaces Counter-offensive, lets a unit jump the fight order).

Source: 36 scanned pages of the physical Raid and Ruin Warhammer 40k campaign book (Maelstrom setting).