Well, we could go to Star Wars for inspiration. There was something called the Galaxy Gun that the former Empire remnants created. It fires a torpedo weapon that can destroy worlds. It has I think either cloaking or it electronic countermeasures to not be seen. It had such shielding that it couldn't be destroyed in time. Oh and it had hyperspace drives. Once fired, this torpedo took to hyperspace and dropped out right by it's target and so destroyed the world before they could react.

For 40k...a large world destroying torpedo with chaos zealots. A navigator and someone to do drive. Speedy warp drive and plasma drive.

Or...if we are still stealing from Star Wars...fight Tyranids. Fight them with all strength that is possible. Show the Imperium that the best way to not become food is to embrace the True Gods. Of course, drive the Tyranids to key worlds with powerful psykers so that they can be defeated by a force of Chaos. Eventually, those of the Imperium will want the "new heroes" to lead.

Neither are small budgets are they...suck.

Aaahhh start small. "Chaos won and Abbadon is the new Emperor. Pass it on!" Yeah Black Library has some audio book where this happens during the Horus Heresy on a world.

What about Chaos on a LARGE scale? Capture several Hive worlds and imprison the trillions of people there. On a special ritual, at a special time. Sacrifice all of them to bring a manifestation of Khorne himself in a starship of brass and skulls and blood to lead the mightiest crusade known. Every single element of Chaos in the galaxy and beyond would come to join an actual Chaos God in the material world. Of course, they would need lots of blood to keep him from weakening and going back and it's probable that fully half of the gathered force would be slain by Khorne himself.

vastrix said:

But how maginificent wouldn't it be? Blood for the blood god! Skulls for the skull throne! Let the galaxy burn!

Anyway, what do people think about using Chaos missionaries to spread the faith of Chaos among the Xenos? It seems to me that there could be several races under threat from the Imperium that would relish the chance for some extra power for survival, and pay some back. The Farsight Enclaves could be a test to see if the Tau, away from the Etherals, could be corrupted - perhaps to Tzeentch since they are all so found of changing things. The Kroots may also like Khorne or the Master of Fate due to their cultures. What needs to be done is to somehow either strike down the Etherals, or more likly infiltrait the Tau society and spread the corruption within - or position oneself for a massive attack to wipe out the Etherals, leave some tainted artefacts behind and leg it. The Imperium will have alot of fun with the greyskins after that.

Dude why bring down the Imperium at all? If manage to pull it off your out of a JOB! Who ya gonna pick on next? The Tau? the Nids? ORKS? Nope best bet is to find a little piece of the empire and maybe a Inquistor and simple drive them nuts.

Because the Long War must be won at all costs! The False Emperor must be made to pay for betraying fully half of the Legions made up of his beloved sons and for slaying his most beloved son of all when all he was doing was try to save humanity from the Emperor from using his newly birthed Imperium to make himself into a God and leave his Faithful behind to die. For turning the Imperium over to pencil pushers who wouldn't know how to clean a bolter if their lives depended on it, much less bring the whole of Humanity to the Imperial Truth. For blinding his Loyal Sons to the dangers of the Warp and the beings who lived there. For a great many reasons that the Master of Mankind and his precious Imperium must be torn down and rebuilt anew showing proper faith to the True Gods for who else can help save humanity against the threat of the xenos in the galaxy?

Once the galaxy is freed of the Imperium and the foul xenos races that live there? Once this mighty work to cleanse the galaxy is finished? There are other galaxies...the True Gods by no stretch of the imagination can help us get there to spread the word of the new Imperial Truth.

I salute you brother Vastrix! You are right in all ways that the Imperium must be torn down and rebuilt in the glorious image of the Dark Gods! Only then will humanity be strong to face the Xenos and inherit its birthright.

What some should keep in mind is that to the greatest degree the spread of the faith of Chaos will be our key. The more of the Imperium infrastructure that is captured, the stronger humanity will be when the False Emperor has been thrown down, and we shall take the fight to the xenos. Hence while over violence and destruction has its place, we shall not forget the subtle path.

Yeah..... I am just going to try and avoid getting a Grey Knight dropped on my head thank you very much.

I'll take care of the Grey Knight if you wack the Inquisitor.

"Signed by your friendly next door possessed berserker"

So here’s an idea I was thinking up for my eventual black crusade campaign it seems to fit for a “budget” method (note: all of the following relies on my very limited knowledge of the 40k universe)

Go for the agri-worlds: everyone in the 40k universe seems to try destroying the forge or hive worlds which is all well and good but except the imperium knows this so that’s where the armies are deployed

From the sound of things a small group of cultists (aka the PCs) could sneak in and corrupt an agri-world on their own. maybe introduce a nurgle-virus that gives corruption points to all who eat the food grown there, or try converting large parts of the population to chaos or heck if the characters are equipped well enough just start killing everything on sight until the job gets done.

Here’s where it gets fun eventually the inquisition will kill the world rather than let the corruption continue so the PCs will have to have an escape plan then go to the next agri-world and repeat until the inquisition catches on but then resources will have to be spent on those agri-worlds the imperium never really had to worry about before so fewer resources will be spent on worlds like Cadia or Armageddon this allow other threats to the imperium to finish the job being started with on agri-worlds.

Provided that some Legions would be appropriately covered in the core rulebook here's some ( rather creative and not strictly "fluffy" ) thinking :

You could play the new recruits in a Legion ( be creative about it folks ) .

You could roleplay the induction in the Legion as a prelude , then jump to some centuries later and move on from there .

What then ?

Depending on the Legion there are numerous paths to take :

You may prepare an invasion for an Iron Warriors fleet scouting ahead the ground defences of an Imperial Planet . Or go archaeotech-hunting with them to gain a significant strategical advantage over said target .

You may lead a mission for a vision inspired desecration of a particular shrine world , as the Word Bearers ( which to me they seem the best Legion to play in this RPG , given the fact that they may have other , mysterious , chaotic motives compared to , say , the Iron Warriors ) and "wait for new instructions" from the Gods .

Etc .

But to actually take on the Imperium I would say that the goal would be one and only , no matter what Legion you'd like to play :

To actually organize a Black Crusade , or participate in the events leading to one .

A whole campaign set around convincing ( or "convincing" ) other Chaotic Fellas to set aside inter- ( and intra- ) Legion strife and - through diplomacy or force - join under a single banner .

Now that would be a glorious campaign .

No need to trouble yourselves with corrupting Imperial citizens ( unless of course you play a "heretic cult campaign" - but I doubt that such a cult would bring down the Imperium , this is the unfinished business of the Legions ) , that's a given ! For who does not secretly wishes freedom ? Don't you see how much effort and Imperial resources are spent to keep each and every one of the misguided , enslaved victims in darkness ?

Even if they fail ( and unless they come up with a supremely ingenious plan , they should , unless you want to kick off " the End Times" ) , it would still be a rather satisfying experience . Just imagine describing a second "Attack on Terra" to your players .

You should however be fair , such an attack would be nigh on impossible to achieve . There are some pretty good reasons that until now that feat was never repeated . The Legions have actually much less bolter rounds available than the number of Imperial Guardsmen .

Roleplaying Chaos Legionnaires *edit* in my opinion *edit* can be actually a far better roleplaying experience ( than the Imperial one ) , since an inch under the surface there is no strict hierarchy , no lightly given loyalty , only domination and obedience inspired and enforced by actual physical and mental supremacy . Exclude the surviving Primarchs from the previous statement , who remain - more or less - as demigods to their children .

Add in the whims of the Gods and you have some pretty good adventure/ campaign potential right there .

*I'm a pretty big supporter of the whole Chaos Legion thing , can't say that I'd be interested in any "renegade adventures" that much . I really , really hope that they'll get some love in the Black Crusade RPG . If not in the core rulebook , in a future release .

As far as Chaos infiltrating the Inquisition, there is at least one character in the Black Library novels who is an Inquisitor and appears to not so much be a "fallen" Inquisitor as a proper infiltrator who had been serving Chaos since before he was inducted.

It's not stated outright, but of the three possibilities, that one seems the most likely, and intriguing. The other two are, of course, the somewhat cliche "Radical who went too far and was corrupted" fallen Inquisitor, or that he was a highly skilled Chaos agent who murdered and took the place of an Inquisitor.

Aha! Pose a grave threat, one of the greatest since the Gothic War! Roll out a new Planet Killer with a small fleet of escorts. Though it's is only a disguised Universe-class Transport. This Universe-class would have the technology to project a much large fleet into space around it with good enough holograms/illusions to fool the Auger arrays of other ships to make it seem that it contains everything of Chaos has on the table. Make sure the galaxy knows where this fleet is so that the Imperium can gather everything they have to face it. Once the encounter is almost ready to begin, the "greatest battle in history", the sorcerers on the Universe-class call forth their powers and engulf both fleets in a large, vastly destructive warp storm. Thus taking out a large chunk of the Imperium's defenses. Then use the real forces to sweep into the Calixis Sector and through a disorganized Calixian Battlefleet (as much of the available was swallowed fighting your diversion)

Keep sending messages to the Eye of Terror and smash the fleet above Cadia, meeting up with a new Black Crusade from the Eye of Terror. Meet Abaddon the Despoiler in single combat and slay him to take control of the entire force and then march on Terra.

Ack I'm tired just typing it. It will take a lot of resources and more luck than brains to get everything acomplished.

Or...sieze the Warp Gate that leads from the Koronous Passage to the Jericho Reach. Without supplies, the forces in the Jericho Reach will eventually perish. Send forces at their backside to capture Imperium ships as they run low on foods and convert them into the service of Chaos.

Gunning for the agri worlds is a master stroke, with the food supply in shambles the masses would be more ready to rise up against the False Emperor. Definatly something that I would make sure to try out.

Drawing a fleet into the warp seems like a good idea, but I'm a bit sceptical that the rouse may be discovered by enemy psychics or that the Imperium will simply unload a hell of a lot of fire power to blow the ship to pieces before the sorcerers are in position to do their stuff.

Or you could let other's do your work for you.

(All the while build up your own fleets and forces.)

1-Find when the next Hive Fleet, Red Harvest, or both are going to hit the Imperium. Maybe help them help them along somehow.

2-Build up sleeper cults on various key worlds.

2-Make some contacts in the Maelstrom, get Huron to build up their fleets.

3-Contact the Dark Eldar, promise them all the slaves they can handle.

4-Find Thrakka, get him to build another Armageddon sized Waghaa. Look for other "big" orks.

5-Before the force from step one hits full force, release some nurgle plagues onto agri and hive worlds opposite of the Segmentum they will arrive, along with some no where near that area. Maybe just Life Eater a couple worlds.

6-Once the Imperium's might is directed toward that threat, tell Huron to let his hordes loose.

7-Release Thrakka and DE.

8-Then, while the Imperium is fighting the tyranids/necrons, Huron, Thrakka and his buddies, and DE, activate cults to open warp rifts.

9-While all this is going on at once, bring forth your Black Crusade against an Imperium fighting 5/6 big things at once

Though this might need one of Tzeentch's kind to fully pull off.

Looks like a splendid plan! Although I would personally not involve the Necrons or the Tyranids because those seem to me at least, to be among the forces that are a threat to us followers of Chaos as well due to their agenda of consuming/killing all life in the galaxy. Therefor they should never be supported or aided in any way. The Orks and Dark Eldar are of course fair game to me!

Good point. Kindly note that Tyranids, Chaos, and Necrons have completely incompatible victory conditions.

Chaos wants to topple the Imperium, replace it with glorious worship of the Dark Gods, and batter down the wall between the materium and immaterium so every world is a daemon world. Right? Right!

Tyranids want to devour every living thing in the galaxy and then move on to the next. People can't worship the Ruinous Powers if they're a pile of Tyranid guano. A Tyranid win means no mortals to possess, and no mortal souls going to the warp. In fact, the "shadow in the warp" they project cuts off daemonic access to the materium and inhibits psyker powers whenever a hive fleet is around. So, tyranid presence interferes with cult activity.

Necrons want to completely cut off the materium from the warp, so their C'Tan masters can feast upon the life force of humans and other sentient creatures. This also eliminates worship of the Ruinous powers, and means daemons will have no access to mortals as there will be no way to bridge the gap between realspace and the warp.

As for Necrons vs. Tyranids, the hive mind is obviously psychic in nature. So, a Necron win breaks the hive mind's connection to the individual Tyranid organisms. And a Tyranid win eliminates the C'Tan's food source...

Given that, there can be no long term alliance between any of those three. However, that's not to say they can't be a useful tool in the short term... If Necrons or Tyranids can be manipulated into fighting the Imperium, great. Just be aware that you'll have to kill the winner after they get done fighting.

Cheers,

- V.

The purpose of the nids and necrons is to weaken any possible Imperial forces, if it would make you feel better you could always wait till the Imperium eventually defeats them, then activate steps 6 and up. My plan is all about timing.

Yes, moving in when the Necrons or the Nids have been stopped by the Imperials is no doubt a better plan than the alternative of potentially giving either of them any kind of aid. I myself would however use eight times the number of Orks instead - but each to their own.

Step1: Get the Deathbringer to eat the sun, getting a Supernova and watch the Imperium fail to move the Golden throne to a new planet.

Step2: ???

Step3: Laugh maniacally.

You're assuming that a C'tan eating a sun would cause it to go nova - and that it could get passed the entire Battlefleet Solar.

MILLANDSON said:

Who said anything about it going alone, don't forget necron ships are easily more then a match for Imperial ships of equal and larger sizes. Don't forget, 5 raiders did make it to mars and land.

They didn't exactly fight the whole Battlefleet Solar if I remember well. Which is a bad idea, even for Necrons.

Stormast said:

They just ran passed them... and then got obliterated a short time after landing by mass fire from orbitting ships.