One of the great challenges GMs face when building a narrative-heavy Crusade campaign is integrating the planet assimilation rules. The primary challenge is how to incorporate these events into the story. What if there were a way to combine these rules into a coherent way that could improve the overall narrative and involve other planets? I think I have devised such a method.
Three armies (assuming the Genestealer Cults (GSC) will have copy-paste rules) can assimilate/devour a planet Tyranids, GSC, and Tyranids. Let’s compare them:
| Faction | Min games needed to consume | Max number of planets generated | Types of Planets |
| Tau | 1 | 8 | 9 |
| Gensestealers | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Tyranids | 2+D3 | 3 | 3 |
Right off the bat, we see one issue, it is much faster for the Tau to assimilate planets. While this may be through military means (risking a 50% chance that the planet is rendered useless), we must factor it in. Thus, a big part of this plan will be trying to balance player rules as much as possible, while also acknowledging that players play at different speeds and a Tyranid who plays 2 games a week will rapidly outstrip a Tau gamer who plays once a month.
Let’s put that issue aside for right now and try to harmonize the various planet types
| Faction | Planet 1 | Planet 2 | Planet 3 | Planet 4 | Planet 5 | Planet 6 | Planet 7 | Planet 8 | Planet 9 |
| Tau | Fleet Installation | Agri World | Shrine World | Civilian World | Mining World | Political Centre | Military Base | Traders’ Hub | Research World |
| Gensestealers | Fortress World | Agri or Mining World | Cardinal World | Hive World | Agri or Mining World | Hive World | Fortress World | Frontier or Feudal World | Forge World |
| Tyranids | Industrial World | Rural World | Hive World | Hive World | Rural World | Hive World | Industrial World | Industrial World | Rural World |
Okay no too bad, it gets a bit wonky with the GSC as there are some repeats but nothing too unbalanced. Using this framework, we can create a template for each planet as shown below:
| Planet name | Sample |
| Type(s) | Fleet Installation/Fortress World/ Industrial World |
| Attributes | Warlike |
| Military/Diplo Points | 4/7 |
| Institutions infiltrated | 0 |
| Invasion stages | 3/4/5 |
You may notice there are a lot of rows on this, that is because I have designed this so all the players are competing for the planets. Thus, with one exception, any of these 3 player types may start taking over a planet, and may even compete with another player over the same planet. Obviously, this will take some balancing, especially due to Tau. So I have proposed this system:
| Infestation Stage | Effect |
| 1 Institution Infiltrated/Invasion Stage Complete | Required Diplo/Military points doubled |
| 2 Institution Infiltrated/Predation Stage Complete | Required Diplo/Military points Tripled Tau Player must have the required amount of BOTH Diplo and Military points to annex |
Furthermore, players cannot attempt to annex a planet with other players present unless all other planets have been at least partially devoured. There are some alternatives, you could manage the planet’s attributes to make it more difficult to take them over quickly, insist on being the one who rolls to see if a Military Annexation results in the planet’s loss etc. However, this system as designed may balance out slower players being able to achieve their goals, while also preventing them from squatting on a planet. Another option is preventing a player from having more than +2 planets than any other player, but I hate disincentivizing people from playing.
To include the rules for a core world from the Tau Empire, one world would be designated as a core world, and it would be ineligible for devouring/annexation until all planets are at least partially infested.
When implementing this approach, I would build one 8 planet system for every 3 armies with these rules. Players can hop between systems as needed. Each time a system is fully consumed it is removed and a new one generated. I think shorter crusades are a good approach so you could limit it to 2 systems max and let the chips fall where they may. I am also going to have other players without these rules pick a planet for their games. This has no impact on the game but could be used to modify the narrative. Perhaps one Aeldari player is active on just one world and could be evacuating civilians, looking for relics etc. There may be ways to factor in Space Marine Oathsworn campaigns as well.
Anyway, I would love feedback from you all. Any obvious issues I am missing?
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