Monday was a packed day for Warhammer 40,000 fans. Not only did Games Workshop reveal the rules for 11th edition, but it announced the return of a fan favorite format – the global participation campaign. The Battle for Death Mire campaign will allow players from around the world to submit the results of their games and determine the in-universe fate of a beleaguered hive city on the war-torn surface of Armageddon – and forty lucky players who submit results will win a full 1,000 point army of brand new miniatures from whichever faction emerges victorious.
The campaign will run from June 22 to July 13, during which you can submit the results of games played using the Warhammer 40k 11th edition rules. Each week, the outcome of player games will determine the fate of one of three key locations within Hive Death Mire, while a fourth location will be fought over in games that take place in Warhammer stores.
According to its announcement on Warhammer Community, GW will reveal new models for whichever 40k faction wins each week, either Space Marines or Orks, and promises to reveal new 40k rules for the faction that places first overall at the end of the campaign. To participate you’ll need to sign up for free a MyWarhammer account, and you should check out the Terms and Conditions to avoid disappointment; you must be 18 or older to participate, and residents of certain territories around the world cannot take part.
I received an early copy of the Armageddon box set – check out my review here – and the Operation Imperator campaign book has some juicy information about Hive Death Mire. Commissar Yarrick has taken command of Death Mire’s defenses, and the city still holds, but it’s beset on multiple fronts – Wazdakka’s Speedwaaagh! is active to the east, feral Ork tribes have emerged from the equatorial jungle to the south, and in the port of Mire Anchorage to the north the united forces of the Snakebite Warboss Skullkrumpa and his mech-minded ally Buzzlug Kogcrasha are fighting to gain access to maglev tunnels that would take them directly into the city.
Relatively few Space Marine chapters deployed during Operation Imperator are active around Death Mire. Both the White Scars and Black Guard have joined up with Yarrick’s forces in the defense of the city – and to hunt down Wazdakka’s Speedwaaagh! – while a detachment of Emperor’s Spears that successfully made the crossing from Imperium Nihilus are holding Mire Anchorage. Meanwhile, a strike force of Iron Hands have joined the defense of the Eyes of the Emperor Observatory, determined to protect its irreplaceable archaeotech from the Ork invaders.
The Operation Imperator campaign book really only covers the beachhead stage of the Imperial counter-attack, a rapid strike by Space Marines to temporarily stabilize Armageddon to give slower Imperial forces enough time to muster. The battle for Death Mire has only just begun.
The battle for Death Mire isn’t quite as ambitious as the original Armageddon participation campaign from the summer of 2000, which assigned results from players in different parts of the world to different warzones around Armageddon and even in the wider Armageddon system – but I’m delighted to see this classic format return. Less than a month ago I wrote a breathless article praising the sci-fi skirmish game Infinity for bringing back the participation campaign format, because it’s been so long since GW ran one.
I’m planning to join in the fun on this one – are you? If you get involved, let us know how your games go in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
