Race for Promethium: So it Begins! [ROUND 1]

Shield Generator Complex – A towering, gothic fortress housing a massive energy shield generator. The structure hums with power, emitting a faint glow that protects the surrounding facilities from orbital strikes and enemy incursions.

BEGINNING NARRATIVE: With the impending planetary Assault, the Custodes have been tasked with making planetfall as tricky as possible.  A small detachment of Custodes is surprised when they find a Tyranid infestation already entrenched in the area!  

The Shield Generator is key.  Whoever controls the Shield Generator Complex can switch it OFF or ON.  When it is ON, the DEEP STRIKE ability can not be used.  However, whatever army controls the Shield Generator Complex CAN use the DEEP STRIKE for their forces.

750 Points Custodes (Warren: Attacker) vs 1,000 Points of Tyranid (Sam:vDefender)

Hab Unit – A cluster of gothic hive spires and ruined dwellings where workers, soldiers, and serfs struggle to survive. The atmosphere is grim, with banners of the Imperium hanging from the buildings and trenches dug for last-stand defenses.

BEGINNING NARRATIVE: A set of volunteer workers arrived as the advanced team for the operation.  It was the perfect cover for the Genestealer Cult to expand its influence.  The base of their recruitment and operation is the Hab Unit.  Whoever controls the Hab Unit  can add 200 pts to their Order of Battle for every 2 turns they control the location.  However, these points cannot be used to recruit Vehicles, Monster or Character units.   

750 Points Raven Guard (James: Attacker) vs 1,250 Points of Genestealer Cults (Liam:vDefender)

Landing Pad – A distant, heavily fortified platform designed for incoming warships and supply drops. Armored gunships and cargo haulers dock here, unloading reinforcements and war materials under the watchful eyes of defense turrets.

BEGINNING NARRATIVE: The Landing Pad is vital to continue to move machinery and personnel planetside.  The force of Blood Angels has been charged with holding this area at all costs.  They have fortified this area and stand ready to repel any enemy force. Prepared for any Chaos incursions, the Blood Angels are taken aback when set upon by a large Tyranid force.  Tyranids will not be denied!

NOTE: If any NON-IMPERIAL force holds this area, IMPERIAL FORCES cannot replace/heal any units.  Additionally, any ONE-SHOT weapons cannot be rearmed between battles.

1,250 Points (Jake: Attacker) vs 1,250 Points of Blood Angels (Lorenzo: Defender)

Ancient Ruins – A crumbling xenos temple, partially buried in the landscape. Strange symbols glow faintly on the monolithic structures, hinting at a forgotten and forbidden history. The area is shrouded in mystery, drawing Inquisitors and archaeotech seekers alike.

BEGINNING NARRATIVE: A small scouting force of Space Marines is assigned to escort a Mechanicum TechnoArcheologist to determine whether there are any threats to the operations coming from this area.

750 Points (Wyatt: Attacker, with an accompanying Adpetus Mechanicus Technoarcheologist) vs UNKNOWN

Race for Promethium: Damaged Units [IMPORTANT]

 If a Unit is damaged during the game, the following occurs:

If the Unit was completely Destroyed:

• It cannot be used during any additional battles in the current round.  
• In addition, it cannot be used in any battles in the next round.  
• Before it returns to service it must make an Out Of Action roll on a D3. 
• 2-3 it returns back to the fight
• 1 it rolls on the Battle Scar Table before returning to service

If the Unit was below half-strength:

• It cannot be used during any additional battles in the current round
• In addition, it cannot be used in any battles in the next round, unless it makes an Out of Action Roll on a D3
• 2-3 it returns back to the fight
• 1 it rolls on the Battle Scar Table before returning to service

If the Unit is an Epic Hero:

• If it is Destroyed - RIP
• If it is below half-strength, Make an Out of Action Roll on a D3
• 2-3 it returns back to the fight
• 1 it rolls on the Battle Scar Table before returning to service

Race for Promethium: REQUISTION POINTS

 REQUISITION POINTS

 Requisition points (RP) can be used to purchase Requisitions; these can upgrade individual units or your entire Crusade Force. Each time you spend RP to purchase Requisition, reduce your Requisition points total by the cost of the Requisition purchased. Any Requisition points you do not spend are saved and can be used later.

As you play more battles, you can gain additional Requisition points, but a Crusade force can never have more than 10 (any additional Requisition points acquired beyond this are lost). Each time you play a battle, you will gain 1 RP after that battle has been completed, regardless of the result of the battle itself. Keep track of how many Requisition points you have on your Order of Battle.

= = = = = =

INCREASE SUPPLY LIMIT [1 RP]

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Increase your Crusade force’s supply limit by 200 points.

RENOWNED HEROES [1-3 RP]

When you first start a Crusade force, you can purchase this Requisition the first time you add a character unit to your Order of Battle. After that point, you can buy this Requisition each time a unit from your Order of Battle gains a rank.  In either case, you cannot select an EPIC HERO unit, a unit that already has an Enhancement, or a unit that has either the Disgraced or Mark of Shame Battle Scars.

You can select one Enhancement that the unit has access to (if using this Requisition when that unit gains a rank, this is in addition to it gaining a Battle Honour). When doing so, that unit has access to any Enhancements described within any Detachment rules that it could use, even though you have not yet started to muster your army and so have not selected any Detachment rules yet.

If the selected Enhancement replaces a weapon that is a Crusade Relic or a weapon upgraded by Weapon Modification, that Crusade Relic or Weapon Modifications are lost. Recalculate the unit’s points value as a result of gaining this Enhancement and update its Crusade card. You cannot make any changes that would cause you to exceed your Supply Limit.

This Requisition costs 1RP plus 1 additional RP for each other Enhancement that your Order of Battle contains (to a maximum of 3RP).

Example: If this Requisition is used to give a unit an Enhancement and another unit in your Order of Battle already has an Enhancement, it would cost 2RP.

LEGENDARY VETERANS [3 RP]

Purchase this Requisition when a unit from your Order of Battle (excluding CHARACTER units) reaches 30XP. That unit’s Experience points total is no longer limited to a maximum of 30, and it can now be promoted above the Battle-hardened. In addition, the maximum number of Battle Honours that unit can have is increased to 6.

REARM AND RESUPPLY [1 RP]

Purchase this Requisition before a battle. Select one unit from your Order of Battle. You can change any wargear options models in that unit are equipped with as described on that unit’s datasheet. If you replace a weapon that is a Crusade Relic or a weapon upgraded by Weapon Modifications, that Crusade Relic or any Weapon Modifications are lost. Recalculate the unit’s points value as a result of any of these changes and update its Crusade card. You cannot make any changes that would cause you to exceed your Supply Limit.

REPAIR AND RECUPERATE [1-5 RP]

Purchase this Requisition after a battle. Select one unit from your Order of Battle that has one or more Battle Scars. Select one of that unit’s Battle Scars and remove it from its Crusade Card (for each Battle Scar removed, that unit’s Crusade points total will increase by 1).

This Requisition costs 1RP plus 1 additional RP for each Battle Honour that unit has (to a maximum of 5RP).

Example: If this Requisition was used to remove a Battle Scar from a unit with three Battle Honours, it would cost 4RP.

FRESH RECRUITS [1-4 RP]

Purchase this Requisition at any time. Select one unit from your Order of Battle. You can add additional models to that unit, up to the maximum listed on its datasheet. Recalculate the unit’s points value as a result of any of these changes and update itsCrusade card. You cannot make any changes that would cause you to exceed your Supply Limit.

This Requisition costs 1RP plus 1 additional RP for every 2 Battle Honours the unit has, rounding up (to a maximum of 4RP).

Example: If this Requisition was used to add additional models to a unit with three Battle Honours, it would cost 3RP.

ALIEN ARTIFACT [5 RP]

Purchase this Requisition at the beginning of the campaign OR when you win a Battle at the Ancient Ruins.  You are granted one Alien Artifact that can be used anytime during the campaign.  The Crusade Manager decides what the Alien Artifact is and how it works.  The Artifact must be assigned to a character.

MECHANICUS ADVISOR [3 RP]

You can add a Mechnicus model to your battle force.  This model is treated as a Character with the Lone Operative (when it is not with a bodyguard unit) and Stealth ability (which it conveys to the unit it joins.  Battlefield-specific abilities (unique to each location and assigned by the Crusade Manager).  If this Model is Killed, the Bodyguard unit it was assigned to gets a Battle Scar.

SHIELD FREQUENCY CALIBRATION (2 RP PER USE)

When you purchase this Requisition, you can assign it to a Unit that has the DEEP STRIKE ability.  That unit can use the DEEP STRIKE ability regardless of the SHIELD GENERATOR status.

 

 

 UPDATED ZETA-9 PLANETARY MAP

Race for Promethium: Order of Battle

 ORDER OF BATTLE

Each Player:

·         Build a 1,500-point Crusade List

·         Starts with 5 Requisition Points

During Play, Players will be split into either ATTACKER or DEFENDER forces.  Defenders start as Defenders in any area they control.  Control over an area may be lost at the end of a Battle. 

Attacking Players will be assigned a location and mission.  They will then select between 750 and 1,000 pts of their list to play the game.  The Defending Players will defend the Location they are controlling.  The Gamemaster will award consequences/Rewards for winning or losing an area (that’s me!) after each battle and before the next Battle.

·         CHAOS PLAYER – Must Start Attacking the Landing Pad

·         GENESTEALER – Hab Unit

·         SHIELD GENERATOR – TBD

·         REFINERY – TBD

·         LANDING PAD – Imperial (Any)

·         ANCIENT RUIN - None

Race for Promethium: A Warhammer 40K Crusade Campaign

• LOCATION: Night Ravens Gaming Group at the Philadelphia Free Library Main Branch [Heim Center for Cultural and Civic Engagement]
• ADDRESS: 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA  19103
• CAMPAIGN START: Tuesday 4/4/2025, 
• GAME DATE/TIME: Every Tuesday at 6:30pm (arrive around 6pm)
• COORDINATOR: Lovell T Harmon, Sr. (lovell.harmon@gmail.com)

=========================THE NARRATIVE===========

The Fall of Outpost Zeta-9

Outpost Zeta-9 was once a beacon of industry and Imperial might, its shield generator complex humming with power as the refinery processed endless streams of raw ore into precious materials for the war effort. The hab units teemed with laborers, servitors, and soldiers, all working in brutal efficiency to maintain the Imperium’s grip on this desolate world. The landing pad saw a constant flow of supply drops and reinforcements, ensuring the outpost remained a vital strategic hub.

For years, the operation thrived—until the excavation of the Ancient Ruins.

What began as routine archeo-surveying quickly spiraled into something far more ominous. Strange energy fluctuations rippled through the shield generator. Workers at the refinery reported hearing whispers echoing through the machinery, voices speaking in dead languages. Soldiers stationed near the ruins vanished without a trace, their vox-feeds cutting out mid-transmission.

Then, overnight, the outpost fell silent.

When reinforcements arrived, they found the hab units abandoned, machinery left running but unattended. Ships still sat docked on the landing pad, yet there were no signs of conflict, no bodies—only the wind howling through empty streets. The only clue was the ruins, now glowing with an eerie, pulsating light, their cryptic symbols shifting as if in silent mockery of those who had dared to uncover their secrets.

No one knows what happened to the people of Outpost Zeta-9, but the system has since been marked as a quarantine zone. The ruins remain, untouched and waiting—perhaps for the next fools to disturb them.

 

Return to Outpost Zeta-9

Fifty years have passed since Outpost Zeta-9 fell silent. The name itself had become a cautionary tale, a whispered legend among void-born traders and Imperial scholars. Entire warfronts had been supplied by its once-thriving refinery, its shield generator had stood as an unbreakable bastion against the void, and its landing pad had received an unending stream of vessels—until the ruins were uncovered. Then, without warning, everything stopped.

For half a century, no one dared return. The Administratum declared the moon a quarantine zone, its records sealed under cryptic classifications. Some whispered of warp disturbances, others of an ancient intelligence lurking beneath the ruins. Those who attempted to investigate never returned. And so Zeta-9 remained abandoned, a graveyard of steel and dust, where the wind carried secrets no one wished to hear.

Until now.

War raged across the Nachmund Gauntlet, and the demand for raw materials had reached a breaking point. The war effort cried out for fuel. The Astra Militarum needed weapons, armor, and rations. The desperate clawing hunger of the Imperium’s war machine could no longer be ignored. And so, against all warnings, a decree was signed: Zeta-9 would be reactivated.

A new expedition was assembled—hard men and women from the Penal Legions, tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and forces drawn from within the Nachmund Gauntlet. They arrived under the watchful eye of Inquisitorial observers, their mission clear: restart the refinery, secure the hab-units, bring the shield generator back online, and, above all, stay away from the ruins.

 

Zeta-9 Key Strategic Sites

Here are brief descriptions for each site on the map:

1. Shield Generator Complex – A towering, gothic fortress housing a massive energy shield generator. The structure hums with power, emitting a faint glow that protects the surrounding facilities from orbital strikes and enemy incursions.
2. Refinery – A heavily industrialized manufactorum with smokestacks belching thick fumes into the sky. Massive conveyor belts and processing units extract and refine valuable resources from nearby ore deposits, fueling the war effort.
3. Landing Pad – A distant, heavily fortified platform designed for incoming warships and supply drops. Armored gunships and cargo haulers dock here, unloading reinforcements and war materials under the watchful eyes of defense turrets.
4. Hab Unit – A cluster of gothic hive spires and ruined dwellings where workers, soldiers, and serfs struggle to survive. The atmosphere is grim, with banners of the Imperium hanging from the buildings and trenches dug for last-stand defenses.
5. Ancient Ruins – A crumbling xenos temple, partially buried in the landscape. Strange symbols glow faintly on the monolithic structures, hinting at a forgotten and forbidden history. The area is shrouded in mystery, drawing inquisitors and archaeotech seekers alike.